Evaluation 7. // What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from the Preliminary task to the full product?

In the period from the preliminary task and the main production, I feel that I have learnt a large amount about the film-making process. Although I had already the basic skills such as camera operation and editing, I also acknowledge that I have made progression in these areas and even learnt some new things entirely.

I did develop my basic skills to a marginal degree, as practise in any task would. Camera usage is smoother and I used for the first time the Panasonic Lumix G2 which meant I know more about DSLR's than before. I already knew how to use a camera and older technology such as a tripod but this extra experience was helpful nonetheless. Likewise, discoveries in terms of editing were limited, but I did learn of a few more effects and fades such as constant power on soundtracks.

However, I did learn a huge about the importance of good organisation and team work. As my group and I needed to film outside of school hours as well as early in the morning to get the right lighting and allow actors to attend, the creation of a Facebook group was one of the most useful things that could have been done. Another thing I learnt was the value of sticking to arrangements and remaining reliable, as some issues were caused by failure to do this. Without this kind of organisation, it would have been incredibly difficult to communicate and work out when the whole team were available, which would have slowed down the production process hugely. Again, in this aspect of the production, I learnt the value of set roles and tasks within members of the group. This allowed each person to focus on fulfilling their task to the best of their ability as well as preventing possible conflicts.

I also learnt how useful research could be in developing and informing my creative process. With the brief of producing a thriller film, I was required to find out about the genre and research was in-disposable for this purpose. Research included reading up on films, film techniques such as montage explored in 'Battleship Potemkin' and watching them. I watched many films I hadn't seen before such as 'The Third Man' and Jackie Brown as well as revisiting films I had already seen in a new light, such as 'No Country For Old Men' and 'Battle Royale'. I learnt this was useful in developing my understanding of genre conventions, as well as inspiring my own ideas.

This research leads onto another thing I have learnt, which is some of the many rules and guidelines in film. Although these rules are not completely vital in producing a film they are, for the most part, very good guidance in producing one of any quality and of any cohesion. Rules such as the 180 Degree rule and shot/reverse shot were introduced in the preliminary task but developed and used to their full potential in the final product. Moreover, I learnt the value and difficulty of maintaining continuity over the course of a longer shoot and what contributes to this, namely costume, location, props and lighting. I feel this made the opening itself of a higher quality but also improved my skills as a film-maker.

The cliff hanger is an oft-overlooked device in film, but is commonly used in TV, literature and as I learnt, Thriller openings. I learnt how cliffhangers work and how effective they can be when used correctly. This led to me changing my ending slightly so that the tension is built slowly using increasingly claustrophobic angles, mystery and cues in the editing. I felt that by including a cliff hanger I made the opening that bit more engaging. 

Conjointly, It was important that the soundtrack for the opening met a series of tight guidelines, which put a large burden and restriction on possible choices. To combat this I needed to research royalty free sources as well as the sort of soundtrack that would compliment my opening. This led me to learn a little about how copyright works and where to go in order to circumvent tight guidelines. For example, I learnt that there were sites such as Incompetech.com that offered music for use in all sorts of productions free of copyright and free of charge, but also that there were some recordings that fell under different forms of copyright such as creative commons.

Furthermore, I learnt how the use of genre conventions can affect greatly the final outcome of a film. I learnt about the definition of  genre itself and the power its conventions can have upon an audiences reaction to a text. If a film uses too many generic conventions it can become bland and formulaic, but conventions can also be vital in informing the audience as well as satirising and referencing tired ideas. I also learnt of the negative connotations of some conventions and based some of my decisions around them such as writing two female characters into the opening and giving one a position of power over the man, subverting the patriarchal stereotype in thriller films.

Much of this learning curve was informed by feedback and advice from my peers, my tutors and my audience. They had the benefit of the outside eye and therefore were well positioned to give me their honest opinion so I could address issues and improve my final piece. They were useful throughout the planning, researching and into the production stage of the filming process and really helped with seeing to the improvement between Preliminary and final tasks.

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

Any film needs to be attractive and enjoyable to its audience in order to succeed and my opening is no different. To attract the audience of 15-21 year old white British people, my film would need to appeal directly to the interests and personalities of this audience. In any film, mise-en-scene, narrative and references to genre or other films can all be linked to attracting audiences, encouraging them to consume and enjoy the text.

My opening attracts and appeals to its audience in a number of ways. The audience is engaged by the mysterious, strange, cold and removed mise-en-scene, connoted by the frost that covers and obscures the landscape and the grey colouration of much of the shots in the opening. many aspects of the mise en scene links to the art-house audience as this tone removes the film from typically highly-saturated  Hollywood films and also links to the avant garde Dogme 95 film-making movement. The characters are all within the 15-21 age range, so that would be an appealing and engaging element of the film to this audience, which could also link to the technological prop of the camera, an interest many of the young and arty members of the audience may share. The characters are all dressed realistically and appropriately for their age group, which makes the film appear more believable as well as helping the audience to relate to the characters.

The use of flashback, cross cutting and unconventional narrative makes the film more interesting to somebody who is a regular and in depth consumer of films such as my creative and educated audience. This prevents the audience from being able to predict the course of the story too easily, which would make the film boring and un-engaging. The genre of thriller is also a good way of attracting the audience as the action of the murder is an interesting focal point, but the realist and surrealist tone counter acts it and stops it from becoming blander and more formulaic.

Furthermore, there is the appeal of the openings ending, a cliff hanger, which goes a ways towards gaining the permanent attention of the audience.  The audience are left without a definitive conclusion of the fate of the character of Grace and this builds tension and fear for the fate of the protagonist. Without this, it is arguable the audience would not be encouraged to keep watching the film and that the narrative would lack a hook. 

I interviewed a small selection of people who would fit into my target audience, aged from 16-18 and interested in art-house independent films. From this audience feedback, I learnt that the cinematography and tone of the film are appealing to the target demographic along with the mysterious and enigmatic narrative progression and characters, although for some the pace of the start of the film is a little slow.

Overall, the opening has many elements I believe the audience would find to be attractive. 

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

From the beginning of this year to the completion of this evaluation, I have been introduced to, and learnt extensively about many different technologies. The construction of both the thriller opening and the preliminary task allowed me to explore blogging,  internet research, communication, use of cameras and finally editing. 

What did I learn about blogging?
At the start of the year, I had very little experience with blogs, particularly in relation to academic work. I was more used to using folders and amassing massive amounts of paperwork, which although adequate enough for purpose, would have been highly impractical, especially with the heavy amount of material I have produced as part of this production. The choice to instead use blogs to log the production process was both a highly convenient and informative one, allowing easier use and the extra educational element of technology. Although I was reasonably technologically literate before, this blog has allowed me to learn more about the use of technology. I now know how to use a variety of presentation methods, such as essays, power-points shared on the website Scribd.com and Prezi's from Prezi.com. pieces of paper were scanned through and placed conveniently on the blog, for all to see. I can embed many different types of media into the blog, such as images, YouTube videos, links to other blog pieces and sites. This blog also allowed me to easily edit my essays and presentations without extra paper, share my work with fellow students and teachers and receive feedback in the form of comments.

What did I learn about internet research?
As part of my research, I completed many case studies concerning thriller films in order to gain a better understanding about the genre, build my analytical skills and provide inspiration for my own thriller production. Along with watching the films themselves, assistance from my teacher  and my own knowledge, the internet was my primary resource in researching the films I was referencing and exploring in my studies. sites such as IMDB.com and Metacritic allowed me to gain and in-depth view of the films and their critical receptions, which increased my depth of analysis. I could use YouTube to find and watch either films or clips from films, in order to analyse them, and failing that, I used the internet to source and order films, either through other digital distribution means such as Netflix or MUBI or online stores such as Amazon, learning how using such sources can save both money and time. I learnt how useful the internet could be in gaining a better understanding of genre and developing my responses to a greater length. I also learnt how to ensure that my level of knowledge on any given film was at its highest level.

What did I learn about communication?
I used an array of communication methods whilst producing the text both for communication with other students and young people who were collaborating with me or aiding our production, as well as my teacher using the comments on my blog and emails. My primary communication methods were my mobile phone and a Facebook group for everyone in my group and the actors appearing in the opening. The Facebook group allowed us to easily organise shoots which was necessary as we were shooting outside of our school time, and needed to negotiate with six busy people. The use of mobile phones also helped to increase the efficiency of film production, for example when one of our members had difficulty finding our shoot location. Use of this technology was incredibly useful and allowed information to be posted to anyone who needed it quickly and easily.

What did I learn about using cameras?
Previous to this production, I had some experience with cameras and did not take the primary responsibility of using the camera during the shoot, but I still learnt a few things regarding use of cameras. Primarily I learnt about how the formatting of a camera can affect its quality as well as its transferability to the edit. For example, you could change quality of footage through the camera directly, although we chose to stay with the standard 1080p HD resolution. We could review rushes on set, using the on camera screen, which was very useful and allowed us to improve our footage on set and ensure we got the best footage we could. I integrated cameras into the planning stage of production as well, venturing out to practise shots and get pictures of locations, before uploading them onto my blog where I evaluated and commented on them.

What did I learn about editing and post-
production?
Once we had wrapped up filming, my partner and I reached the edit stage of our production, where technology was the most prominent. Along with the standard straight cuts, I used many different methods throughout my introduction. These ranged from Fades to black, slow motion, extended periods of darkness and constant power on the soundtrack. I did this to bring variety to the opening, build tension and connote the passing of time. Adobe Premier was a very good program to use to edit as it was simple enough to understand but complex enough to make an opening of high quality. When I came upon issues, such as the mis-compatibility of footage ratio with the ratio of the edit, I could easily fix them using the program and the advice of my teacher. I used this program to transfer soundtrack and edit the film side by side, having downloaded numerous soundtracks in MP3 format. Fonts were transferred easily into this program, they were downloaded from DaFont.com, installed into the computer and appeared in the program, this was important as the font used for titles was not a stock font.

Preliminary Task // Final Cut

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

Thriller Planning // Rough Cut

This is the original Cut that was made of our film, half way through the editing process. Several strengths and weaknesses of the opening arise from. Strengths include: shot composition, lighting and mise en scene. but weaknesses, mainly comprising the edit, include: confusing narrative, short length (below 1 minute minimum time frame), rushed shots, lack of soundtrack and titles and unnecessary action. These issues would fairly easy to resolve if time consuming as I feel it would need an entirely new edit in order to play on its strengths without further accentuating it's weaknesses.In addition, a list of possible, copy-write free soundtracks would need to be compiled and title font would need to be explored.

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

Evaluation 2