Task 7 - Looking Back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the frogression from it to full product?

After completing our preliminary task I feel that I am more aware of the camera and what shots should be used. It has also made me more aware of not breaking the 180 degree rule and to always think of everything. We had a few continuity errors in the preliminary task which we were able to work out and it ended up looking really good, this made me more conscious that I didn't want to have the same problem whilst filming.

I feel that the preliminary task has also helped me with the editing because I feel that I am now more confident with using iMovie as it gave me more experience! I was able to over come the problems that occured during the making and editing of my final opening sequence due to completeing my Preliminary task. Things like using iMovie in more depth were developed during the editing of my final opening sequence, however I wouldnt be able to continue using iMovie as well as we all did if we had not been introduced to using the programme at the begining with our preliminary task.

We were able to use Match On Action very well as we had Sophie opening a door and the next shot of her opening the door. This gave me confidence to be able to use it in my official opening sequence.

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Task 2- How does your film represent particular social groups?



Bitter Youth



One Hour Picture











How does your film represent particular social groups?

The main character in our film is a mentally deranged man who is obsessed with a specific girl. He lives with a basement that is attached to the bottom of his house. The basement is full of pictures and videos of the girl, Sammy, who he is obsessed with. The main character lives alone and this add more depth into his eeriness. It is indicated in the opening sequence that he is sleep deprived and has twitches because of his lack of sleep.

When looking for comparasons of our main characted we found a film called, One Hour Photo, 2002. In this film, Robin Williams plays the characted Seymour Parrish who is obsessed over a family, the Yourkins. Like the main character in our film Seymour comes across as a normal man who looks for comfort by other people by obsessing over other people that he wished he could be with.

Just like in our opening sequence of Bitter Youth, Seymour Parrish has a board full of photos of people he has stalked, these photos include ones that he has taken himself or collected from the family he wants to be in.

The difference between the stalker from Bitter Youth amd Seymour Parrish from One Hour Picture is the board in our film doesn't have any method to the madness. They are disorganised pictures and they overlap and jump from different times and different places. In One Hour Picture, Seymours collage is very organised and this suggests that he may have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). This builds on the image that he is in his own little world and that everything has to go as planned. This also indicates that his obsessions could have started at a young age as he may have had OCD from a young age.

Task 6 - What have you learnt about techologies from the process of constructing this product?

To shoot our film we used a cannon camera. This proved to be one of the best decisions we made due to it having high definition when we were recording which made the images to be very crisp and clear.

To edit and put our film together we used iMovie, this proved to be a task as iMovie is very minimal and some of the things we wanted to do to our film involving the credits proved most difficult however we were able to go onto YouTube and look up how to use iMovie more efficiently! YouTube made the process easier for us because we were able to look up everything that we found difficult.

To create the sound we were able to download various different clips off of YouTube. We placed them into GarageBand and we were able to change the tones and make it fit more into the opening sequence more. For instance, we wanted the sound we were going to have over the top of one of the church scenes to get progressively louder once the door was open and we were able to do this successfully on GarageBand.

Task 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our opening sequence 'Bitter Youth' is aimed at teenagers upwards. Mainly focusing on the younger years. This is because our film include a young girl who is in her teens and I feel that the audience of teenagers will be able to relate or feel more involved in the film. I feel that teenagers are more likely to watch films that will thrill them because they like to have the adrenaline rush of not knowing what is going to happen next.

This is a teenage boy who I feel will enjoy our film. He enjoys playing sports along with watching films in his spare time. He enjoys watching films that not many people have seen before because he doesn't like the 'mainstream' feel that he feels films today have. Him and his friends often spend a lot of time watching films on a Friday night that will leave them discussing for days!

This is a teenage girl around 18-19 who enjoys spending a lot of time with her friends. She likes to spend her weekends searching for small independent films to watch. She studies Media at school and really loves looking at the conventions of different types of films. Like the teenage boy, she loves spending time watching thriller films on weekends with her friends. She likes watching psychological thriller films because she never knows what is going to happen next and she likes that!

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

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

Film festivals tend to be very important places for small independent films. This is because they can be seen by big executives who may wish to buy the rights to the film and distribute it. There are two very big film festivals, one being Sundance in Utah and Cannes in France. It is important that small independent films are linked with film festivals because the picture may be picked up which allows more money to be given to film makers and producers and this will enable more people to see the film and a wider distribution circle.


There is a chance that no film companies want to buy the films which leads it to be released straight to DVD where the income would come from people buying them of DVD rental companies distributing them like Netflix and LoveFilm which are online DVD rental companies where you can either stream the DVDs through the internet to your computer, TV, or game console.
The DVDs can even be sent to the consumers house. 

Other than film festivals and DVD rental companies, film makers can also try and sell their film to TV companies such as BBC, Channel 4 and Sky. Selling to a TV company means that the film will be shown on television as a TV movie. Although selling to a TV company will allow the film to be seen more by a wider audience, a film will be likely to get more views selling to a larger company such as Sky or Virgin because they have channels dedicated to films. 


Around the time that we started planning our film and started filming it was in October when the typical scary films come out because of the Halloween season. This would be a great time to release our film 'Bitter Youth' because it's a psychological thriller which will excite and thrill the young film goers of today.

I believe that our film will do very well if it participated in a film festival because younger people go to the cinema to be thrilled and they are looking for something to give them the WOW factor. I believe that our film will be suited very well to be distributed to local cinemas and even mainstream cinemas.

At the time of making our film it is getting close to Christmas where there are a lot of family films out. And currently in the local Odeon Cinema they have films such as Arthur Christmas (U), Nativity 2 (U) and Rise of the Guardians (U).

Task 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Before we started planning our whole opening sequence we looked at what our audience would want to see from a Psychological Thriller film. We did this by each of our group members handing out questionnaires to different people in different age brackets. We got some really useful feedback such as what they were to expect and we were able to feed off what we had received back off of the questionnaires. It was really important that we did this before we went ahead and started planning so that we didn't have to change much. We have attracted our audiences through having a main naive character in which something happens tho. In our case we had someone who had been stalked for a majority of their life.
 Other feedback other than having someone vulnerable was having the film be in someones point of view in which we incorporated in a majority of our opening sequence and we feel this has really attracted our audience as it can be unusual.

We also posted our final opening sequence on the social networking website Facebook where many of our friends and family were able to view the film and give us feedback. The feedback was really positive and many people said it would be something they wished to continue watching as it left them unknowing what was going to go next which is what they wanted from a film and not wanting to be able to guess what was going to happen in the first 10 minutes.

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

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

1. In our opening sequence we have used many conventions of the Psychological Thriller Genre. The title Bitter Youth has a lot of different meanings. It was chosen because it creates a lot of mystery towards the audience as the opening sequence doesn't reveal much as to what the movie is about in relation to the title. This may confuse the viewer.

In our original sequence, we wanted to have the stalker to be having flashbacks whilst he was in the church taking pictures of him and her as a child. This would have given some indication as to why the film was called Bitter Youth. Amongst the obstacles that we came across, we decided to take this out not only because it was made extremely difficult to incorporate this into the opening sequence but we thought the more we left for the viewer to decide for themselves and the more they were wondering about what was going to happen the more interested they may be in continuing on watching after the opening sequence.

2. In our opening sequence we had two different settings. It was set in a church and a cellar/basement, these two settings can be seen as conventions of the Psychological Thriller genre, this could be seen as a convention because of it supplies an unsettling feeling for the audience. During the beginning of our opening sequence the young girl 'Sammie' walks down the path just outside the church. This signifies that she is pure and untouched. 'Sammie' is also alone which could show that she is defenseless and vulnerable. This can also be found in the film 'The Lovely Bones' where the young girl is walking by herself and it shows her purity and how beautiful she is. In this film 'The Lovely Bones' it also shares the religious aspect that 'Bitter Youth' has because in 'The Lovely Bones' 'Susie Salmon' and her family are religious and the film is about her staying in her personal heaven meeting with some of the other young children 'Mr. Harvey' (a serial killer of young girls) has killed.

We originally wanted the filming to take place at the Cathedral in Guildford, however after our first attempt of filming we discovered that there were far too many technical difficulties to continue so at last minute we changed the location to one that was near by. This was a really good decision to make because the church we ended up using was a lot better. It was a lot brighter and a lot more enclosed, we also had it all to our self and this meant that we wouldn't have any continuity errors with different people moving around and being in different shots. The second location of the cellar/basement is also a convention of Psychological Thrillers because of it's dark eeriness. It indicates that it is a hidden room that is away from society and humanity in which the stalker can be himself with his disabilities. 

3. We only used a few props in our opening sequence. The main one we used was a board which we called 'the stalker board'. This is a board with a lot of images of 'Sammie' on it. The idea is that the stalker has collected these images over a period of time and put them on the board. However to show that he is careless, the images aren't in a specific order. The stalker is presented in dark baggy clothes, this also indicates that he doesn't have a care in the world except for 'Sammie'. The stalker wears trainers, a plain black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, although the stalker can come across as a messy person, his clothing also shows a sense of simplicity.

When we first see 'Sammie' she is wearing a natural pink jumper with plain black leggings, a plain black coat and black dolly shoes. These clothes show that 'Sammie' is some what a simple but a girly girl personality. 'Sammie's' hair is up in a ponytail which defines her face, where she isn't wearing much make up which provides the idea that she is simple and vulnerable. 

4.  Majority of the opening sequence was filmed in the stalkers point of view which you can see through the hand held camera feel. On top we decided to add blinks so that it can seem more natural to the audience. This was also put in because it add more suspense and adds the feeling of ongoing of time. We feel that the use of the blinking can also provide the audience with the feeling of them being in the scene. The sense of blinking and feeling like you are in the scene was taken from the film 'Enter the Void' where they also use blinking. Various different shot types are used in the scene where we are in the church, this can been seen as though the stalker is testing his fate when he gets closer and closer to her. There is one scene where 'Sammie' moves her head slightly from hearing an eery noise and the camera jumps from looking at her and observing her to looking at a portrait on the wall. During the editing process we used a lot of different techniques, some included slow motion, putting some of the scenes in black and white and putting some clips in reverse. Adding these elements of editing allows for a supernatural feel. 

5. Our fonts and titles were all black or white. We felt that if they were any other colour that the whole opening sequence could have turned quite amateur and perhaps look slightly tacky. We went for a black and white which is simplistic and pure which can be juxtaposed against the stalkers carelessness and his lack of organisation. For the main title of 'Directed by' we used stop motion to have the letters coming in and out, this is quite different and can symbolise the quirkiness of some of the characters that are part of our film. 

6. Our film 'Bitter Youth' is a film that is all about a man who had been obsessed with this girl 'Sammie'. They have been friends since they were really young and since they have grown up, and grown apart he has developed an obsession with her in which he has created a board of pictures from over the years.'Sammie' is seen as the popular girl who everyone loves however 'the stalker' decides to kill off all of her close friends and families and attends all the funerals in order to redefine a relationship/friendship with 'Sammie'. Towards the end of the film the stalker gains more confidence and asks her our for a coffee in which she feels obliged to go to in order to pick her up when she is down, little does she know that he is the cause of all the pain she has been going through. The film would end on a cliff hanger of the car going off in the distance. 

In our opening sequence I would say that we have established what we wanted to in our opening sequence as you can tell that there is a stalker and 'Sammie' is being stalked by him. 

7. Our genre is displayed  through our storyline which can provide evidence that there are psychological elements in our opening sequence. Our opening sequence provides the audience with an eery experience as being stalked is something that could quite easily happen to anyone. There are other elements of our opening sequence such as the disturbing events which can be linked to the psychological thriller genre and the conventions of this genre.

Things such as the stalker board and the dark stalker room add a more eery tone to the opening sequence.  The opening sequence also suggests the genre through the settings such as the cellar/basement.

8.The stalker is the first character that is introduced and this is through a constant blurring of a close up of his eye. This can add confusion to the audience because they haven't seen his whole face and therefore this adds an element of suspense. The second character that is introduced is 'Sammie', she is introduced in a simple way of her just walking but in the stalkers eyes. She is wearing simple clothes with simple make up which can indicate that she is vulnerable. You don't know that 'Sammie' is going to be stalked or that the stalker is the guy who we saw a close up of his eye at the beginning. 

9.We used a lot of special effects in our opening sequence such as black and white, slowing down some of our clips and flipping them round. These add a sense of confusion and discomfort because they aren't natural.

For our media task we are going to produce an opening sequence for a film in the Psycho-Thriller genre. We decided this because we thought it would be the most interesting to create. We have a lot of ideas that we can incorperate into one opening sequence. This genre jumped out to us because we enjoy watching either psychological films or thriller films and as a group we thought we could incorperate them both together.

There are 2 other members in my group other than myself and I feel we will work well together. We are an all girl group consisiting of Sophie, Stephanie and myself:

Sophie is a very energentic person, she does Media, Sociology, Drama at college and wishes to become a primary school teacher when she is older.(www.sophieebenson96.blogspot.com)

Stephanie is a lover for pyscho thriller films and studies Media, English Language and Drama at college. . (http://stephanieocampo.blogspot.co.uk/)

Evaluation of preliminary task.

We could have improved on our dialogue issues such as choosing a better place to film so that we could hear the dialogue more and so the background noise wasn't as loud. Another issue we needed to focus more on was making sure our continuity was equal in all shots.

1) Explain what you were meant to do and how you prepared for the task:
We were asked as a group to film a preliminary task which included match on action and 180 degree rule, we were then asked to edit this in a certain sequence.
As a group we prepared for this by creating a storyboard which explains what we will be shooting, in what sequence and using who. The storyboard also indicated what type of camera angle and shots that we would be using.
 

2) Explain how you filmed each part of the task:
During the duration of filming our task I was mainly in charge of the camera work, with the help of the rest of the group. To create match on action, we placed the camera to the left of the area of shooting, this is so we could capture character a walking a Ross the scene and to start to open a door, we used panning shot to show character a on the move, the next shot was character a closing the door and walking away from it, this shot was used to tighten the sequence but still being able to show what character a is doing. Shot reverse shot was used to show conversation, this is because we wanted to show the characters emotion and response to the things being said. We did this by placing the camera over the same shoulder of each character.
Character a in the first scene was placed on the side of the screen but is also the only one in shot. This is to show that character a is the main character and shows high importance. Throughout the film character a is always in shot to show that yet again she has more power.

3) Were you happy with the final result:
In the end I was happy with the result, this is because I thought it flowed very well. However there were a few continuity errors that we found whilst editing. There was a shot where a phone was and the next shot the phone wasn't in the same place. We managed to overcome this problem by reversing a shot to make it look like the phone was being put back in her pocket. We were then able to proceed with the rest of the film, it did how ever make it look like it didn't flow as well. 
I believe we worked really well as a group, we managed to film without any massive disagreements and we equaled out all the editing so that we all had something to do and all have an input.
I am very confident about using iMovie as I have used it before previously however I feel there are better editing programmes that we could use. I am also confident about using the cameras but feel it would benefit us all as the group if we used different cameras!

Psycho Stills.

 This is a still from the film Psycho and the famous shower scene where a lady has been stabbed by someone. This is a screen shot of the plug hole of the shower where the woman has been killed, it shows the blood slowly being washed away down the hole. This connotates the loss of life and the blood can connotate the the lack of meaning to her life as the blood is being washed away with water making it less red and show less meaning. This image also connotates her soul flying away or being washed away.

This is another still taken from the shower scene, the woman who has been stabbed has collapsed on the floor and the camera zooms into an extreme close up. The extreme close up is to show emotion, and this image shows that there is still life left in her eyes even though she has just collapsed.

Being in the shower is seen to be an everyday activity so the fact that she was killed in the shower can be seen as really unusual. The noise of the water poring out of the shower head can be used to drown out any noise that may be made during the stabbing. The shot that is used can also be seen as her point of view with her on the bottom of the bath tub after shes been killed and thats what she is staring at. Her last view is dull of water pouring on her.

Interview

Interview by charlotteboosey on GoAnimate

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A New Start,

Here we are again! Starting year 12 again, time to redo everything I did before. A new year a new post.