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

Since the creation of the preliminary task, I have committed myself to the technical aspects of the project. By doing this, I have had the chance to research and create many of the technical features such as the soundtrack, logos and titles. I've learned much about conventions of logos and music conventional to the Thriller genre in the medium of cinema through this. Whilst I've previously possessed experience in some of the software packages I've used, since the preliminary task I've demonstrated that I can quickly learn basic operation of some of the more professional packages, as well as honing my skills in the areas, such as the soundtrack, which I have been involved in.

To continue, I've also learnt more about one of my weaknesses during the production of this project, which is acting. Whilst I fortunately did not have to read any lines during the production of the project, I had instead been tasked with some very basic stunt work, such as appearing to be punched on screen, as well as falling onto hard ground in view of the camera. I have learnt that this is also not one of my strong points, resulting in the action in our sequence looking remarkably fake. However, I am very satisfied with the amount of knowledge that I have gained through the process of creating this product.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In the title sequence of "The Unbeliever", the audience is attracted through use of action and suspense. I have received positive feedback from all of the people who I have shown this project, who have claimed that the single shot at the end of the sequence featuring the kidnapped victim struggling was exciting and tense, encouraging them to keep watching to discover what occurs to him and if he'll escape from the scenario. Because of this, I believe that the use of suspense in the title sequence was a very good decision, and that an important purpose of the introductory sequence, to excite the viewer and encourage them not to stop watching, was successfully achieved.

Another way in which we attempted to attract our audience was to create characters which were easy to emphasise with and hate, which are placed in a similar age group to the audience. This is most likely why we received feedback and interest from our age group, and more specifically, our student year group.

However, I also believe that a larger audience could be attracted by using a much greater number of action sequences, stunts, and special effects. However, this would have been much harder to create on a very small budget, and would have also been very time consuming. Because of this, I'm satisfied with how well the finished product has successfully attracted members of our audience

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

Final Project Evaluation on Prezi

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Due to the use of action sequences and the tense and suspenseful nature of our product, as well a the young age of the characters themselves, I would believe that a younger audience of around 16-30 would show the greatest interest in the product. However, due to the lack of very high paced action, such as gunfights and chase scenes in the project so far, the target audience would be somewhat thinner. To counter this, audiences can be attracted through advertising and promotion throughout the independent film community, as the product would be produced on a fairly low budget, and would be likely to be published under an independent publisher.

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

Due to the nature of our product not possessing a large amount of special effects, and a feature length version of our film would probably be produced with a small budget, it would probably not belong in the mainstream. therefore, a smaller institution, independent would be more likely to distribute our product. For example, a production company such as Orion Pictures, which has distrubuted products such as "The Silence of the Lambs", which shares some similarities with our project. However, our product posesses similarities to other films which have been distrusted by larger organisations, such as "Se7en", which was distributed by New Line Cinema.

Another means of distribution could be found by studying local independent movies. For example, the Devon film "Zomblies" was distributed through local venues via the creators themselves, and later distrubuted over the Internet.

To conclude, it is more likely that our product would be distributed by a smaller institution, or even be self published. However, several mainstream movies also exist which share similar themes, so it would be important not to rule out a larger institution publishing the product for a larger audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

There are two distinct groups present in this project, a religious fanatic and a victim. The religious fanatic is presented as enraged, incensed and dark, and is hiding under his hood until the end of the fight scene. To contrast, the victim is wearing more revealing clothes which show his hair and face. This is because we wanted to two characters not only to be easy to differentiate during action, but wanted to juxtapose the two social groups whom they belong to.

In this project, the religious fanatic has clearly been represented as the antagonist, which is a negative representation of his social group, and is hard for the viewer to emphasize with. This representation is achieved through his actions on screen (attacking an innocent victim and shouting and raising his voice to the camera), and the use of costume. His remarkably scruffy and unkempt appearance was created using an old coat and trousers that had been used for painting. This character is dominant and male, and is therefore a fairly conventional antagonist in this genre. His actions are almost all very masculine; he is violent and aggressive, and uses a raised voice throughout his monologue. However, near the end of the sequence he is seen gently stroking the victim's face. This unconventional aspect which the antagonist possesses, is used to provoke an eerie emotion from the viewer.

The victim's character is designed to be easy to emphasise with. His attire is smart casual, perhaps similar attire to that of the viewers themselves, and is portrayed as nonviolent and is clearly the weaker character. By reperesenting this character as being much weaker, the viewer quickly sympathises and emphasises with him.

To conclude, in our project, the two social groups that have been represented (the religious fanatic antagonist and the weaker innocent victim) are very clearly contrasted, with the antagonist sustaining dominance throughout, as with many movies of the thriller genre

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

In this project, we have aimed created an exciting, foreboding and immerse introduction. We have achieved this through following thriller conventions such as hand held camerawork and deep, suspenseful music, however have also used less established styling such as the projected titles which are used to immerse typography within the scene itself.

Also, by using the effect to create the illusion that a display monitor has been filmed, we were able to unconventionally appear to break the fourth wall. We were happy with this effect as it allows the audience to feel intimidated by the antagonist and immersed into the product.

We have not really challenged other existing conventions of the Thriller genre, and in my opinion I believe that the remainder of the opening sequence to "The Unbeliever" is fairly generic and fits comfortably within the thriller genre.

3D Titles - Work in Progress

Here are some work in progress screenshots of my work on the title sequence

Creation of final title shot - step by step guide

1. Raw footage.

   

2. Placing a tracking mark which will allow us to synchronise the title's placement against the footage throughout the clip. A tracking point should ideally be placed on an area of high contrast.

   

3. Software has tracked the clip, the blue line is comprised of the points which the software thinks the tracking point is located against the footage for each frame in the clip.

   

4. Creation and formatting of text.

   

5. 3D positioning and placement.

   

6. Applying camera shake movement to text.

   

7. A static oval shaped subtract mask was used to make the title text appear behind the satellite dish.

   

I then adjusted the text's individual keyframes to fix a slight wobble that arose since the tracking point was not perfect.

Update 30th March

Since my list post I have spent lesson time working exclusively on the music, and have been learning how to use AfterEffects on the side. I've expanded on the initial ideas for the music and I am confident that the soundtrack fits the atmosphere and mood of the project.

Here's a work in progress snapshot of the music so far.

Update 23rd March

Recently I have been working on the musical soundtrack to our project, and in my spare time I have also been learning how to use special effects software.

For the music, I have experimented with the fairly conventional throbs and deep tones to the thriller genre in Garageband, next I plan to create a faster section for use in the fight sequence.

Titles Style Concept Sheet

Last week I worked on a concept sheet for the style of the titles in the title sequence, bringing together a few of our group's ideas.

Thriller Narrative idea Development

In today's lesson we looked into developing the basic narrative of various thrillers by adding elements such as modern technology. For example, we took the basic plot of Taken, however replacing the main character's daughter with his Facebook account. Instead of going to Paris and shooting the bad guys, he could be an expert hacker who travels to the darker places of the web and listening to the private conversations and hacking into the various cyber criminals who have interacted with his account, uncovering a large conspiracy. Whilst a little extreme, there is potential for this idea to be refined into a more believable narrative.

A similar narrative combines more traditional thriller elements, a hacker discovers a plot to assassinate a powerful figure and attempt to stop it.