Reason for late post

Please bear in mind that all my work got deleted on Saturday night because i tried to post just 1 link up and it wiped out all of my work, I have redone this all in a short amount of time, and my hands hurt. :(

Mulki Mohamed Evaluation

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

With the name of our film is “Till Death Do Us Part.” We attempted to use conventions of0 thrillers, as this was the genre we were working in. Several thriller movie titles suggest what could possibly happen within the actual narrative. Some examples of that is the thriller “The Secret Window" starring Johnny Depp, ‘The Uninvited’ starring Emily Browning and “The Descent” starring Shauna MacDonald. In our opening sequence I suggested we go for a symbolic and ambiguous opening. Here we developed our film by incorporating different techniques such as fades, black and white effects, and manipula

ting the camera angles to create a reminiscent effect. We followed many of the thriller conventions for our film, some examples of the ones we used efficiently is a point of view shot, we used the thriller ‘Rear Window’ by Alfred Hitchcock for inspiration, and we had applied that technique to our own thriller opening. I thought we were successful in that part in addition of the melancholic piano soundtrack in which we developed because we mixed two different pieces together.

The conventions of a thriller we used were non diagetic sounds which was the eerie of the piano creating a spine-chilling effect. We got that idea from certain thriller openings such as “The Secret Window” where the beginning creates an uncanny sound, which was a mixture of dialogue and diagetic sound. We have changed that convention and decided to have Music running throughout the opening sequence. We wanted to make the audience uncomfortable, also on the edge.

2.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our thriller opening the social groups are clearly portrayed as we are seeing two characters that are both adults. Our characters have jobs, from the scenes where (Karen Smith) is in an office, this would convey the Adult social group. Our thriller opening represents a particular social group because the aren’t any other social groups in our opening.

3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I have chosen Lionsgate to distribute my media product my reasons for this is as this company has distributed countless thriller movies, this shows that the audience will be able to recognise my film as a thriller immediately. A Few of the films Lionsgate have distributed include ‘Cabin Fever’ (2003), ‘Saw’ (2004) ‘Hostel’ (2005) these movies represents Lionsgate’s successful thrillers. This is why I believe it would be fantastic for Lionsgate to Distribute my films. Lionsgate is an i

ndependent filmed entertainment studio, the company distributes films that are independent but also movies that are mainstream like the worldwide

movie “Crash” that won a few Oscars, and this conveys the company having a good reputation and success, predicting the success of our movie ‘Till Death Do Us Part’.

4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be roughly around twenty to thirty something year olds, but at the youngest 18+. We as a group conducted an audience research to decided what age our film will be targeted at. From our research we have given our questionnaires to sixteen to eighteen year olds, so that was the age that we targeted our movie at. This is because the movie would contain violence and perhaps some inappropriate language that isn’t for a younger

audience. We wanted to target the audience through our characters sartorial code which was professional, as Michael Graham wore a suit.

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5.) How did you attract/address your audience?

We were aiming to attract audience of different sub-genres within a thriller, meaning that w e had not only thriller as our main genre but we also had a romantic narrative. We mixed simplistic ideas like vanishes and fades. We did not want to portray unrealistic camera movement s in our film, for an example an unbearable bright white light (which when used would look surreal and dreamlike ). I wanted to make the narrative as authentic as possible because un realistic narratives do not usually appeal to thriller audiences. The audience want to feel the fear, for in stance in “Momento” the concept of losing ones memory can very well happen in real life, the idea here is to surface the audiences primal fears. We address the audience through images rat her than actual dialogue this I believe made our film more unique, it was almost like one of Alfred Hitchcock’s sile nt movieslike ‘The Lodger’(1927),

this makes the audience try to figure what is happening in the narrative rather than having the whole story handed to them through dialogue.

6. )What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt many new techniques in cameras and the accessories that come with it. I have learned a lot about continuity editing, like continuing the scene where both characters are linked through the same sequence.
I have gotten better at that from practice and learning from my group. It was difficult for me to use a Mac as it was my first time using it, but soon have come to grip with its programmes like IMovie. IMovie was complicated at first but gotten easier to use for my film, which helped me to edit and uploaded the footage we have filmed as a group onto IMovie.

Another aspect of the technological process we were meant to use was our blogger on the webpage which at first I found hard to keep updating and continue uploading but gotten used to the idea of conveying to our teachers what I was up to and my where about in our project. Overall all of the things I had to learn and practice on allowed me and my group to produce our media quality to the best of our ability.

7. )Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

We have learnt many things from our preliminary task such as, the importance of meeting deadlines. We also learnt using different cameras and the accessories that came with it, like the tripods and the also using tracking shots. Since we were experiencing our first time filming it was a fantastic experience for us to experiment with different ideas and develop for our actual media product. I had also learnt that certain things wouldn’t work to the standards me and my group wanted, I mean that like some of the tripods on wheels where very stiff making the sequence a messy and full of faults that could have been avoided with better equipments. However I have learnt how to manage the time we were given better, which came in very useful as it enables me and my group to hand our work in finished.

Jermaine's Evaluation

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

Our ttile sequence 'Til Death do us part' features elements of what mainstream editing would consist of. For instance, our use of continuous fade ins/outs, text over black,subtitles and running order show the resemblance in our movie opening and the one for premonition (Opening on link)

 

We used a title which would explain the meaning of the movie to the audience, we did not want to puzzle them so the actions our actors used were clear and amplified through editing on Imovie. Our movie spotlights the main characters as a couple not individual roles, they are shown in the shots with equal timed filming which represents a strong bond between them. (Example: The Notebook, Opening included on link 2) 

The cast names were shown small and subtitled as we did not want to overtake the screen and draw away attention from the camera shots. E.g. Using a cornered subtitle similar to the one in Link 2, The Notebook.  

We chose to develop media forms and conventions by altering a common structure of openings for mainstream movies, for example below is a running order of where credits and titles are listed, and how we customized ours.  

Common Cast - Title - Credits - Beginning of movie 

Ours  

Cast - Credits - Credits - Title - Beginning of movie 

Here I have shown a common opening sequence, and below it how we have altered it. Please view a link to see an example of this. 

We chose to show the title at a later point to leave viewers bewildered at what the title reveals after what they have seen. Doing so would have our audience understand the scenes at a final stage, instantly snapping the idea into their minds. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Our opening represents couples in work related relationships as insecure, troubled and distant partners. Although our characters did not have any dialogue, Megan (Ms Smith) had expressed how lonely she felt using gestures only, she had also shown a sense of regret towards Pete (Mr Graham). Also we decided to remove dialogue as this would emphasize her silence, showing her as entrapped emotionally. We chose to represent women in this way because our target audience are teenagers to working class adults, and our research showed that this particular audience enjoy watching movies which involve emotional conflict or relationship issues. (Example Ms Smith shouting at Mr Graham shows tension is featured) 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 

I believe an institution such as TriStar pictures would distribute our movie due to their recent films being of similar genre. Audiences from not only UK would find themselves interested in what we have to offer as our movie is of mainstream potential. I chose TriStar because they are a film subsidary of Colombia, which could see our movie being produced with higher budgets and more funds to cater to a mainstream audience. TriStar in specific ideally because SONY own them, so our movie production would have resources pooled by the subsidary to split any growing costs whilst our movie is being made. Our genre is romance, tragedy and psychological thriller, which TriStar specialize in distributing due to the time periods of global marketing.

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

Teenagers to working class adults would be the audience for our opening as our research concluded that movies of this type would interest them more. (Below) 

How did you attract/address your audience?

We chose to attract our audience by subverting an ordinary thriller or romance film and combining these two elements. Techniques listed below.

Editing/

Fade ins/Outs and use of B&W: We used black and white color tones only when flashbacks occur, as usually memories are not colorful and vibrant, they are slow and feint. We added fade ins/outs to signal the entry of a flashback, but also to add more emphasis to the scene before the flashback. For example, the argument scene fades out leaving Mr Graham to look stunned or ashamed.

Music: Very mellow, soft and warm hearted but also deep and angered. I composed this type of piano melody to cover up dialogue in a powerful way so that their actions on screen would match the music playing. (Example in link 3, View from 1:00 to see how the chorded piano relates to how there are two people walking, representing a couple from this, as chords are two notes being played together)

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

I have learnt the proper use of a tripod, and how much shots can be filmed using it without shakes or wobbles of the camera. 

The use of iMovie, I had fairly known how to use this before, but there were featrues such as 'Split clip at playhead' which i was unaware of and now I can use at home.

The use of a digital camera does not playback audio, only on Mac VCR.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have learnt how to manage my time better

My editing skills have improved

My music production skills for multiple genres of movies have developed

I have learnt how to analyse a camera shot observing it first hand and explaining its relevance to my project.

Music

I chose to provide music for our piece because I felt that the type of music I can create would cater to what message we was trying to put across to viewers. We went back and fourth debating on wether premade music would be a wiser choice, but concluded on the fact that our movie would seem far more original if our own was used. The benifits of using devised audio mostly fall under matters of time and editing, for example if there was a scene which required a certain amount of volume or instruments, it was re-editable, there and then. However using music which you cannot change would be frustrating because we would not get the most out of our scenes (Violins expressing anger or love etc.) I believe my role was very important in the process of constructing this opening sequence because I was determined and persistent, I was often trying to input my opinion and express what I feel an opening should be about. Considering the fairness and equality my group shared, I am glad that the small suggestions I have said were relevant and effective towards each person. 

Evaluation: Georgia Perkin

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

We named our film ‘Til Death Do Us Part’. We chose this title as we thought it was a hint of the plot, and it creates a mysterious yet threatening atmosphere which is what we had planned. A member of our group (Jermaine) designed and made the music for our media. We were very happy with this because this music added to the suspense and mystery that the title suggests. The slow, gloomy sounding piano creates this mystery. We were trying to create the effect of a flashback as this showed a change of thought and time. We also used black and white in the flashbacks to differentiate between the past and the present. When watching Memento, which also used this effect, we noticed that they subverted the conventional use of black and white, which had an effect on the way the audience viewed the film. When preparing to begin this project we watched ‘The Birds’ – Alfred Hitchcock. In this thriller he took an every-day, ordinary setting and subverted this by the strange, extra-ordinary events that then started happening. This idea influenced us greatly when we thought about the mise-en-scene, as the image of an ordinary domestic setting was destroyed as soon as the male character was introduced, as we introduced him to be untrustworthy and creepy; see screen-shot below for an example (Even though later on in the narrative he turns out to be the victim. This is not evident in the opening!). We established this by the mise-en-scene; nothing in the background seemed abnormal in any way, they were just every day objects creating an ordinary home.



We kept the lighting in all scenes to the natural light when filming to emphasise that wanted sense of normality in our protagonist’s life. We were aiming to subvert the conventional dangerous man vs. innocent/victimised woman in the narrative (for example; image below), though this wasn’t made entirely evident in the opening as it would have defeated the point of the non-linear narrative. 

We used a non-linear narrative as we wanted our story-line to be unsettling and to create a sense of being bewildered for the audience. This use of a non-linear narrative is typical to the psychological thriller genre, as it confuses the audience emphasising the psychological impact the narrative has. Memento was very influential when we were thinking about how to structure our film, as when watching Memento the audience feels completely helpless to what is going on in the narrative. The Usual Suspects was helpful in helping us create false impressions of characters, as when we get to the end of the film, we find out the victim is in fact the villain.


2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In Western culture, women are often viewed as emotional and irrational as opposed to men who are seen as reasonable, hence their right to operate in the public world, where women are confined to the private, domestic sphere. It could then be argued that we have adopted this Western view, by having our villain a woman. We chose to adopt this view as we wanted to challenge the often used stereotypical male villain, female victim. Our target audience would want to watch something that's a little different to a lot of thrillers in the box office, so would therefore be more attracted to our movie as there's a female villain. During the opening, the characters are seen very differently to how they would have been later on in the film.

 As the female in our opening doesn’t seem mysterious or guilty of any offence (see photo above, she seems quite the opposite) there is more of a bad reputation placed on men, as he’s the one that seems dodgy in the opening. We created this dodgy atmosphere by never completely introducing him in the opening. This point can be proven by our audience feedback - I uploaded our opening to the social networking website Facebook, where I asked friends and family to comment on how effective they thought the opening would be, and how they thought the narrative would be later on in the film. One comment read; "It's a good opening as it doesn't tell too much about the story. I'm guessing the man is the villain - possible relationship turned bad?" The audience sees him walking behind closing blinds - this automatically seems like a strange thing to do so he's placed in the role as the villain. Stereotypically, criminals are considered to be people from lower social backgrounds. We aimed to subvert this notion in our opening by showing the Smith’s to be middle-class, yet still committing crimes (though it is not evident any crimes have been committed this early in the story line). We aimed to show this through our use of costume (male wearing smart suit and tie throughout-see photo below, female wearing simple everyday yet smart looking clothes), and our use of set (well kept, large garden, tidy and spacious study).

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

After research, I came to the conclusion that Pathé Distribution would be likely to distribute our film. I originally decided an independent, English company would most likely distribute ‘Til Death Do Us Part’, yet Pathé caught my eye as they have recently distributed one of our main influential films – ‘Memento’, giving me the impression that they may be interested in the type of film that we have started. They have also distributed films like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ – a film that has had great success through Pathé.
They distribute for about 20 titles per year, "ranging from quality and specialised films to crowd-pleasing mainstream movies and genre titles" (Pathé website). This would give our film a wide audience which would give the film a larger chance to be introduced to our target audience.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

During the first stages of the project, we decided to design surveys to ask different people to fill in. Personally, most of the people that answered my survey were from years 11, 12 and 13 so we could get our target audience's opinion, yet there are still some surveys filled out by people older than this to see their views also. After carefully looking at our audience research and feedback, we chose to target our film at 15-25 year olds. We didn’t think the film would be appropriate for those younger than fifteen as some parts of the narrative may be disturbing/upsetting for them, and we'd therefore have to change our original story line. ‘Til Death Do Us Part’ is being targeted at both males and females, as psychological thrillers may apply to both. From the survey below, we gathered to make a good opening (opinions of those that took survey) - our opening had to have a complicated, yet interesting story line (question 2 of survey below), yet an opening that doesn't reveal too much about the story line - this needs to be saved for later on in film!

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our audience feedback told us that we needed to create a sense of mystery to draw in the audience as soon as the opening started. We created this sense of mystery immediately by showing the female looking at a photograph, yet half of the photograph is hidden. Later on in the film, the audience would see the rest of this photo but to entice the audience; it’s hidden in the opening, forcing them to carry on watching to see who photo is of. 

We also used music to entice the audience and make them carry on watching. The music reflects her misery at first, when it’s slow and gloomy sounding. When the tension picks up, the music quickens subconsciously increasing the audience’s interest in the film.
Our use of editing; particularly our use of black-and-white emphasises the mystery in our opening. This use of black-and-white was to show the difference between the normal events and the flashbacks the character is experiencing. This use of editing addresses the audience and makes them want to watch more of the film as they will be more inclined to want to know why the characters having flashbacks and what these flashbacks are actually of (we cut the flashback into two separate sections, disorientating the audience). 

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When we were first introduced to the project most of my group hadn’t used a Macintosh before, so were struggling with the differences that Macs and PCs have. I was lucky that I have had experience on Macs before, so the change in computers didn’t faze me at all. This project has made me feel a lot more at ease with technology like iMovie for example, though. Previous to A-Level media, I had never used iMovie, I had only used programs such as Windows Movie Maker. As I had only used the Windows movie program and hadn’t used the Mac version, I was slightly sceptical about learning how to use the whole new program. I was introduced to it and shown how to cut and edit things, how to use the timeline and clips pane, and slowly I started to get used to iMovie. Once I’d got used to the sudden chance in software, I decided iMovie was much easier to work with and much more effective than Windows Movie Maker, which I find always crashes! I would have liked iMovie a lot more if it enabled us to layer video, alongside audio. It was helpful that they allow the overlapping of audio, yet we chose not to use this in our film. We did want to overlap video though, where Michael Graham walks past the window whilst the blinds are being shut. We originally wanted Michael to disappear, showing clearly that he’s a ghost, but after trying to create this effect for a while, we decided it didn’t give us the effect we wanted, and it may give too much away in the narrative. 

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When we made our preliminary task, we were not nearly as organised as we were when making our final product. We didn’t plan time well at all; filming successfully took a lot longer than we had thought it would! None of us had a lot of experience with editing, so we were just getting to grips with iMovie at that time, yet when we were making our final opening iMovie wasn’t new to us so we were able to experiment and feel comfortable with the software. Personally, I’d never done much filming before, and I’d never filmed using a tripod. When filming the preliminary task, I found it hard to keep the camera steady on the tripod, and for the camera to be straight and well balanced. By the time the final film was being made, I was very confident in my use of the camera and was able to focus more on zooms and the composition of the shot as I wasn’t worrying about whether I had put the camera on the tripod properly! In our preliminary task, we had a big problem as one of our actors came to film with a different outfit on. None of us had previously thought about this, and as imagined it was a big problem. As it wasn’t possible for the actress to look the same as she had on the first day of filming, we had to start our preliminary task from scratch, leaving us not much time to film it at all. This was a big lesson for us, as it made us incredibly fussy about if something were to change through days of filming!

Kris-Ann's Evaluation

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

• Title- Our title was ‘Til Death Do Us Part.’ I thought that this used media conventions, as it was able to suggest the plot of the story without giving too much away. We used this title, as it is a wedding vow so it helped to imply the relationship between our two characters. In contrast I thought our title challenged the media convention of having ambiguous titles, as it had a symbolic hidden meaning rather than being just a title, for example ‘The Uninvited’ shows only a suggestion of an unwanted guest, yet that is the only interpretation we may accumulate, yet our title suggests, perhaps a death, a commitment of some sort, companionship and a relationship.
  
  
  


• Representation- Like horror films we used black and white to represent either a flash back or previous events. for example when the couple argued. We thought that this would also help to explain the history between the two characters. unlike Momento our flash backs were clear of wat time period was being portrayed. due to this factor we were able to to cross dissolve one charter walking in the present to the other walking in the past.

• Music- our music was actually produced by one of the members of our group. We chose his piece of music as we felt it was able to set the mood and atmosphere of our opening.
  

.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

our thriller opening does not really have any social groups as our two main characters are both isolated, although this could be interpreted as them being on some sort of journey as neither of them seem to cross pathes with each other, through their sartorial codes we are able to imply that they may be of working class as Robert (Mr. Graham) is seen wearing a suit through the opening. Megan on the other hand is dressed more casually which could imply that her job may not be as important as his. Our opoenieng could represent women rather than social groups as it seems to show that women are more expressive and may react to serious incidents more than men. Our main Character Meagan (Miss. Smith) seems to be a emotional wreck as she seems to loose focus on her job and is left reminising on the past, making her confuse both that and present. she seems to think she is seeing her dead husband but doesn't realise that it is her imagination getting thew better of her. we thought this would act on the stereotype that women are over dramatic, yet we tried to show that, certain situations unless you are in fact a woman.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

i chose Optimum releasing as they are a successful British indepent film distributer. i chose them because they specify in the genre of our given task, with the success of their 2008 movie Eden Lake, they would be able to bring high demand to our film. due to contreversay that circulates around there films we thought that our film would get the same recogniton as like Optimum Releasing, you do not know what to expect from our movie. other releases from this company are

Kisses

Who would be the audience for your media product?

By doing questionnaires, we decided that our audience would be aged 15+, we chose this a ge as they were more likely to go to the cinema, therefore, they would be more able to give fresh opinions on what they do/don't like to see in movie. we thought that this wou
ld be a suitable age because our openinig is simplistic but able to keep the audience interested. we also chose this age as some of the content may not be suitable for anyone under that age, due to scenes of violence.

How did you attract/address your auience

when we first made our film we thought of only ideas that would make it a normal conventional thriller opening, but then we got our research which showed us that the audience were bored of typical thriller movies as they already knew what to expect from them. so we decided to make it a romantic thriller with a twist. we thought this would be unexpected as they would probably just be expecting an action packed thriller. we thought this way we would be able to expand our audiences by expanding our selected genre. we decided to contrast the images in our movie, that way the audience could decide what they thought was happening. like Alfred Hithcock, we used the music to sugdest the plot, rather than dialouge as we wanted to address the active audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

by constructing our film, i have learnt more about the practical approach to editing, i learnt about what scenes would be best fit with others. as i was in charge of editing, i was able to learn more about continuity editing and the problems that may be faced. for example, wen adding the
credits to our film. i first tried fading as i thought this would be effective, but then i realised that by doing this, the credits would be carried to the following sequence which was not helpful, so i decided that it would be best to cross dissolve between the two sections as this way it would get rid of those credits. i also learned how to use imovie on a Mac, this included, 'splitting videos at playhead,' editing, adding effects like black and white to scenes, adding credits to our movie, and the hardest of all, adding the music to our sequence.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

We have have a long way from our prelimanry task as we learnt more about time, by this i meant thot making a movie is not as easy as it looked. due to this we were able to make a timetable of who would be doing different jobs at different times. we also learnt how to use diffeent settings on the camera, for example, when we did our prelimenary task we did not know that there was a light filter on the camera. we learnt more about team work and how easy it was to get things complited if everyone shared jobs. we learnt more about editing and found it a lot easier to bring continutiy to our film.

Our Treatment 

Megan Carter a successful sophisticated teacher who's loved by her colleagues, adored b her students and has a supporting affectionate husband, seems she has everything she could have dreamt of, life seemed perfect until she discovered her husbands infidelity and betrayal. Driven by her rage she commits something she still can 't believe till this day, sadly no-one suspects her because of her perfected image and the grieving way she spoke of her dead husband. This ultimately led the police force to become blinded to even consider Megan as a suspect. Going on with her mediocre lifestyle, her paranoia of being fund out gets the better of her as her state of mind becomes abnormal because she becomes obsessed with other peoples attitudes towards her. 

Megan begins experiencing some flashbacks of the times she had with her husband Robert Carter, missing that intimacy she shared as now she is left cold and lonely. Megan believes her husband has risen from the dead and is haunting her. Unfortunately Megan fails to realise  that it is simply her guilty consience punishing her. Her colleagues begin to see another side to Megan they have never seen before, this only makes Megan more agitated and desperate to keep herself together. Her hallucinations escalate when her husband is able to form threatening words to her. Megan's mental state is getting worse as she allows her dead husband to overpower her mind and body from living her admirable lifestyle.

As more and more of Robert's death is revealed to the audience through every flashback, we begin to realise that Megan may not be the admirable lady we originally thought she was.