Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

  In our 2 minute opening we used many conventions of the genre we were aiming to achieve this genre was thriller. We used many different props our setting different editing techniques and sounds we used to be able to achieve the look we wanted to with our two minute opening. 

     The first thing we thought about was the mise en scene so when we filmed we has everything how we wanted it; the setting was a key feature of this as it sets the scene was it what happens to the main character. Our first setting was reculver towers this was for the flashback parts of our film these part where the main parts to create a thriller as these supported the thriller idea. The day in which we filmed was dark and gloomy this helped with adding atmosphere to our film as it looked more dangerous and looked like somewhere which a young girl should not be in by herself as it looked dangerous and mysterious. The natural lighting was also darker which helped to add to the atmosphere as it darker lighter is a great sign of danger which is a key convention to a thriller. Another convention which we adhered when filming at reculver towers was the costume which our main character was wearing this was ripped up grey t-shirt with mud and blood all over it this helps to reinforce the idea of danger and also helps to show that the character is hurt and something awful has happened to her; the costume is a key part of creating the idea that the character is not normal and something has happened to her which would later be discovered during the rest of the film this also helps to tie the audience in to want to watch the rest of the film. The makeup we used is also a key idea as to what has happened to the character this helps to create the idea that it is a thriller as shows danger again. The office space filming also helps to show the genre as thriller as it adheres to some conventions such as the main character has a prop of a blanket which shows her vulnerability and helps to shows how she needed to be cared for. Something however which challenges the conventions of a thriller in the office space is the idea that there is a female interviewing here however police officer jobs are normally taken by males whereas most people would expect the position to be taken by a male not a female.

 

  Another feature which helps to adhere to conventions to thrillers is the sound we used we used background music which followed through the whole of the film this showed continuation flowing throughout the film ; also as the music has peaks we had added the peaks in the tense moments so that it adds to the tension of the film. We also added in some whispers into the build-up of the main character freaking out getting the loudest it can when the character is at her most venerable state this adds to the atmosphere of the film as it makes the audience feel more tense and uptight these feelings are very key conventions to thrillers. We also added some sharp booms in towards the end of the two minutes this was to add tension when the figure is about to appear so that the audience is scared and expect something bad to happen.  

   
 

    Our editing also helped to adhere to the conventions of thrillers as we focused on making the flashbacks being very clear as to what they are; we done this through the effects we added and the order which we put the different scenes in. We decided to start with the flashbacks to get the audience caught in to the film and wanting to watch on, we the added the dream effect so that it was clear these scenes were flashbacks and not actually happening on the current day we went with this effect as we felt that it was the most effecting in making the scenes see like flashbacks. I feel one of the key pieces of editing which helps to adhere to the conversion to a thriller is the scene where we have used point of view shot of the character running and then shot of her running towards the camera going between these shots which creates match n action this is effective as it shows a sense of rush from the character which makes the audience fear where and why she is running; these things all add tension. We also did match on action in the office space to show her  opening the door we done this so the process of her opening the door was slowed down which adds tension as to what is behind the door as it taking her a while to open the door. Another feature which while editing was slow motion we used this during the flashbacks to give the effect that the character is not mentally stable and this is affecting her vision and view of the world.We decided on the idea of having flashbacks from the film ‘I am a legend’  this films uses flashbacks to show different elements to the main character life we have tried to do this with our film adding in flashbacks from when the character is unstable.

The last thing we used to develop the conventions of a thriller was camera angles and shots; we decided to use many different camera angles and shots so the audience a range of features which we had included. One shot however we used quite frequently was a close up we used this a lot to that audience saw the pain and fear which the main character is feeling, also to show the physical pain which the character has experience/ been through to bring her to where she is. Another shot which we was very keen on including during our 2 minute opening was a point of view shot this was to give the feeling that the main character is telling her story through the flashbacks and makes the opening more personal to the character so the audience will feel more tense when something happens to her as they have formed some sort of attachment to the character. 

  

Behind the scenes- editing

I feel that the editing processes has been very success and I feel that I have learnt a lot about the software4 program i movie this was a program which I hadn't very used before started a level media. The editing process has taken us a long time and I have found it very tedious as there is a lot of back and forth between ideas and trying to fit in everyone ideas and thoughts; also learning the editing process while editing our film made the process order however once we knew the basics we found it a lot easier as we knew what we needed to do and how to do it.

  We found a few issues with our footage which meant that we had delays to editing as we had to re film a couple of the first scenes as the focus was not right and there was also a few problems with the script which we needed to change however once we had re filmed the scenes we needed to we was able to get started with our editing. We started off putting the different scenes in order in which we wanted them to go with in our opening after we had completed this we cut and cropped the scenes so it flowed better and we also added transitions in between the flashbacks and current day scenes so there was a difference between the different scenes and gives the effect of the young person viewing the flashbacks in her brain. After we had added in transitions and had all of the scenes in order we had to make sure that the different scenes didn't jump and ran smoothly through the different scenes we did this by added different effects and cutting the different scenes to make them flow. We also added some different effects to our film to make the flashbacks look more obvious which added to the film as it shows the storyline in a more clear and obvious way. 

    Adding the sound into the opening was something which we struggled with as we were not sure what type of music would make the opening flow more; so we spent some time listening to different music and finding the different sound which could use to make the scenes flow through we decided on some copyright music from YouTube called; (……………..) we used this music the whole way through the opening to allow continuation. We then found that there was a sound glitch which was very noticeable so we added in the sound of a bird we also felt that this added to the atmosphere. The last piece of sound which we added in was wind we felt this added to the atmosphere and also it helps to add more dynamic to the film as there is more audio for the audience to pick up on during the scenes without diegetic sound in.  

Equipment;

During the filming of our 2 minute opening clip we used 2 main pierces of equipment these were a camera and tripod; in this blog post I will be discussing how well they worked and the difficulties we faced while using them.  The camera we used was called cannon  we found this was a very easy camera to get used to quickly and know how to use it very easily without having to spend all of time learning how to use it; this was very useful as we didn't have any spare time during out filming schedule to learn how the camera works.  We also used a tripod which was very easy to set up and use it also was a good size which meant that it was easy to get around our different filming areas and to be able to use it in the different areas effectively.  
In these photos we can see the different equipment which i have spoken about and used in the process of filming. 

Behind the scenes- filiming day 2;

The second day of filming was much more complicated having to film in a short period of time and having a small area to film and set the camera up in also made it more complicated. We needed to film the current time pieces which we planned to film in an office space to make it look like an interview our original plan was to film in a little classroom which was at our school this however was frequently unavailable this then became a problems so we found meeting room in our school which gave the atmosphere which we wanted from our overall film opening; we wanted a simple and plain office space so that it would help give off the impression that it is in a police office space. Once we had found the space which we wanted to use us then went to complete the same makeup onto Tia we had picture of the previous days makeup of that we could get the makeup exactly the same as it was on the other filming day; this was to correct continuation throughout the whole 2 minute clip. We then went on to film we ran into some complications the first thing was the camera dying however we was able to go and get another battery which was fully charged we the found that the tripod was broken so had to go and  find a tripod part which would allow us to use it, once we had solved all of our first issues we went on to film the first 4 scenes of our film new ran out of time so we then secluded some more time on the 31.2.16 so we can then complete all of our filming on that date; this will also allow us to complete our editing by our deadline and we aim to get all of our footage filmed and uploaded onto our mac by the 01.03.16 this will give us a month to be able to edit and finish off all of our film by the deadline date.