Garageband
To create the background music for our opening sequence, we used the software Garageband. Garageband gives a variety of different sounds to choose from, which we used to experiment with to create our very own piece. Along with Garageband’s own sounds, we also used sound clips from our own film shots, such as screaming and dialogue. Our whole group were not sure how to used Garageband, so this was a challenge for us all to try to create our sound clips. Eventually we progressed into making a sound track which was a mixture of clips we filmed ourselves and also clips from garageband. Filming During filming, there were a lot of things our group had to learn. For example, we learnt how to use a Nikon camera, and the features that would be best for the scenes we were shooting. This helped us produce high quality shots. We also learnt how to adjust the tripod to ensure that the shots were level, this helped the camera stay steady. We coordinated our shot times around the lighting of the a day, we filmed dark shots in the evening and lighter shots during the day. Therefore we did not need to worry about using extra equipment for lighting Final Cut Express We learnt how to use Final Cut Express in out preliminary task. Our group were new to it but with some understanding we managed to develop new skills and create our preliminary. We all now know how to edit and create projects to a high level. We learnt how to use effects such as fade in and out, and using tools such as the pen and razorblade. Photoshop To create our production logo, credits and title of the film, we used Photoshop. We had not used Photoshop previously before, so lacked the skills needed to create everything, but with some practice we managed to develop the skills to. ¡While using Photoshop to create our pieces, we used fade in and fade out from Final Cut Express to made our finished piece look professional What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The distributor is solely responsible for the distribution of films across the market, ensuring it reaches the target audiences as appropriate. If we were to distribute our film, Illuminate productions would be both the institution and the distributor, however in this case where we chose an institution to distribute our film, it would be Summit films. Our film falls under the genre of action thriller and has a target audience of both male and female young adults. We would like our film to be first released in cinema and then distributed on DVD by high street media retailers such as HMV. Supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda also distribute many forms of media, which may also distribute our film. High street stores attract many young people, which complement our target audience. However, this may not be possible as we would have a very low budget and it would be our first film. This is why we would use the knowledge and the power of already established institutions to produce our film at first before establishing Illuminate productions. Summit entertainment is owned by Lionsgate, which has many different sub divisions of film distributors. It is most well known for producing the twilight saga, which is a romantic thriller film. It also produces films in the genres of comedy, family and thriller films. We decided to choose Summit entertainment to distribute our media as they are a small company, and by using them we will promote the institution as well as create a successful film. By being a small institution, they wouldn’t have very high budgets such as Universal would have, which also benefits us. Lionsgate are also very well known within the film industry, particularly for horrors, dramas and thrillers. Well known productions by Lionsgate include Saw, The Last Exorcism, and The Eye. However, we didn’t choose Lionsgate to distribute our media as their horrors have not always been successful, and horrors and thrillers share common elements which may have been their downfall. Universal Pictures is also a mainstream company who often distribute many films worldwide. They have produced popular films such as insidious, sinister, mama, and devil. Although the company is often successful in producing their films, we would not choose them as they are very mainstream. They have a focus in horrors as well which may not be particularly helpful to us as we are producing an action thriller film. Hammer films is an independent institution that are different as they produce films for a British audience. We would also choose this institution as we both have a British audience target market. They have produced films such as Woman in Black, and Let Me In, which are films that we all recognise with a British audience. The only problem is, that they also specialise in horrors which we are not doing. However, we have British actors with a British target audience so they would know ways in which society are attracted to films specific to our society. Lastly, we would also use the power of social media to promote our film at first as our target audience would all most likely use social media. By the growth of mobile phone and social media use, it would make it a very acceptable place to first start mentioning our film as we target our audience directly. From the power of sharing, reposting and retweeting on various forms of social media we hope that we start building an audience of those interested in watching our media product. We used non-busy areas during filming to limit unwanted sounds but also to develop the narrative by increasing the danger/threat of the antagonist. It is far more intense when the audience feels that there is no way out for the girl in the trunk of car or the girl who hears her. For a thriller to be successful the viewer must feel on edge, which we believe we succeeded on by making the location fairly secluded. The locations were: car park at Imperial park and the car park at the Windsor local community centre. This again, challenges typical action thrillers because they are mainly based in a metropolitan city. For example the trilogy of Batman movies all take place in made up city of Gotham. This is due to the danger usually being aimed at the government or a collective group of characters rather just one protagonist and this furthers displays how our media piece challenges usual conventions.
On a whole we challenged the typical sounds found in action thrillers. We did not use fast paced music in our piece to differentiate our media piece from others. The opening sequence is being used more as a build to later event in the narrative. We used a contrapuntal piece of music by Gnarls Barkley called ‘Crazy.’ It overlaid disturbing images of a girl trapped inside of a car boot. This disorientates the viewer, which is our aim. This challenges typical action thrillers because they are generally use more parallel sounds/songs. Generally, the sound is fast paced. We wanted to have a slowly build up of adrenaline in our opening sequence. Also, we used eerie white noise sound effects to create a moody atmosphere and this challenges a typical action thriller. Our narrative develops the form and conventions of real media products. We wanted to take a typical action thriller but manipulate its typical forms and conventions by playing around with the camera angles, sounds etc. Our piece is most similar to films such as: Silence of the Lambs, Taken and Eden. All of which involve abduction in the narrative with essences of violence. We used typical low-key lighting to form a moody atmosphere. This is similar to the abduction scene at the beginning of the movie Salt and the majority of the lighting during Silence of The Lambs. All characters wear simple and modern clothing. This is to allow viewers to relate to characters. The antagonist wore dark colours to resemble his danger and also wore a beanie hat. This helped strip his identity, as you could not fully see the antagonist until the very end of the opening sequence. Both girls wore everyday, middle class clothing. The girl inside of the car boot wore a white top this is shown towards the end of the sequence and this is done intentionally to resemble her as pure and young. Body language in our opening sequence develops typical conventions in action thrillers and thriller on a whole. The girl character in the car boot is scared and attempts to escape which is a normal reaction to the situation. The other female character showed clear concern and confusion when she hears the screaming. This is displayed by the scrunching of her eyebrows in her close up. Lastly, the fact the antagonist is not revealed immediately creates mystery and danger. Therefore the costumes and body language develop typical form as and conventions of action thriller movies. Due to them displaying the expected aesthetics/reactions. Here we have practised on Garageband as we will have to create our soundtrack for our opening sequence using this software. We have played around with layering and varying sounds in order to create suspense.
This is our rough cut which we have created to give us a general direction of where our 2 minute sequence should be heading. We chose a group to specifically show our rough cut so that they can give us successes and criticisms.
The group said that when watching, the story line makes sense and we have a wide variety of shots. However, we needed to swap the first two shots so that the phone torch makes more sense as it is turned on in the first scene, not in the second. Our audience also said that the boyfriend of kelly didnt seem very bothered by her phonecall, however this is expained in the rest of the narrative as the boyfriend actually exchanges her, which is why he is not that shocked that she has been taken. We still have alot of the story board to follow which creates the question of whether we will fit it all in within the 2 minutes. Furthermore, we also got feedback on our actors saying the main characters reaction to being locked in the boot was very realistic. We will use these points to now direct the rest of our opening sequence and make sure that the narrative makes sense in the first two minutes. |
Paige, Anna, Fiona, Natalie
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