Our Final Main Task 'DELUSION'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JsRsSmRSv8

Final preliminary task

This is our final attempt at the preliminary task, i am really pleased with this and I'm glad we redid our previous two to finally produce a piece of work that we think looks more professional and smooth. We decided to add more of a storyline to our piece as it would make it more exciting , we were more organised as we planned the plot and all the camera angles so when it came to filming we knew exactly what to do. The opening was kept the same with the three nervous movements, i think the non-digetic sound of the heartbeat makes this more effective and intense. We were more aware this time of the positioning of the camera when filming the shot reverse shot, you don't even notice the chair in the middle as your concentration is on the conversation. I think the dialogue was much better, even though it didn't change that much from the previous time it sounds more natural. We thought carefully about the camera angles as we wanted them all to have purpose, we decided we didn't want Kates face to be seen until the end as this would make her look intimidating and scary. We used used a low angle of her walking which makes her seem very dominant and powerful, she makes an authoritative entrance as she pushes open both doors and is still filmed from a low angles when she comes through the other side. When she waits for me to get up you just see Kates head at the side of the frame, i really like this angle i think it makes her seem in control and by the this point the audience are curious as too what she looks like. An error with the next shot is that we do actually see Kates face as she opens the door,  this defeats the point and we should have filmed from different angles to prevent this, i think she could have lost her scariness at this point but i feel the non-digetic music and the point of view shot which follows re implies this. I edited the lighting to be greyer as from when i walk down the corridor, this makes it seem more daunting and i think makes me seem venerable as I'm so unaware of what is going on. The next shot of Kate is when the audience get to see her whole face, as she gives full eye contact to the camera it becomes clear what character she is playing and gives a good effect in what genre this would be if it was continued, the backing music also goes really well with this part which was by coincidence. The close up shot of the keys makes emphasis on the storyline it is a main part in the plot therefore using a close up shot lets the audience know this, the loud and harsh sound of the keys also makes the ending exciting as to what's going to happen next. The ending where we have two people strapped to a chair seemed like a good idea at the time, as it seems like an official ending to the piece. However, watching it back and getting feedback off others I've realised it would have been more effective to have ended it at the door getting locked as there would have been more suspense.

Preliminary task- 2nd attempt

This is our second attempt at the preliminary task as we weren't entirely happy with our first video that i posted. I think this video has a better plot as we are sat having a conversation before going in for an interview, our other video didn't have much point in it. Although we planned on making this a better video, I'm still not happy with the final result. The biggest problem with this is the different angles used when filming the 'shot revere shot', its not symmetrical and this would leave the audience being confused and their attention would be on that rather than the action. When Tayler is talking you cant see the chair that is in between us making us look like we're closer together, but when I'm talking it looks like there is two chairs between us making us look really far away from each other. This was due to the camera being positioned in different places when filming the shot reverse shot, it is a really obvious mistake which i think ruins the whole video, i don't think we thought about it enough and we didn't plan what we were going to do we just thought by using a different idea it would improve our standard of the task, we have been proved wrong. I again think the conversation seems really awkward and short, this could make the audience feel bored, the video doesn't lead up to anything exciting which would keep the audience entertained and eager to keep watching. Another error is when Kate calls my name she walks out of shot, i feel this makes the video looks messy and as though we haven't put mush effort into it and Kate doesn't know what to do. The 3 actions i do at the start have a good impact and it makes my character more believable showing that I'm nervous, i think the different use of camera angles really worked in this part, the close up angles really get the audience to understand the plot and how i am feeling anxious about something. Overall, this was much better than our first attempt at the prelim and i like the storyline i just feel if we plan it more we could produce an even better video that my group and I would be really proud of. We are going to film again, using the same idea but with more imagination and awareness of the previous mistakes.

Preliminary task video

For the preliminary task we had to include-  someone opening a door and shot reverse shot with dialogue. I think the location we used wasn't very good as straight away the the smudge on the door looks like a smear on the camera. It was difficult to film with the lighting being so bright, in each shot there is a different brightness, in some shots the lighting makes the scene look really nice but when we are acting with our backs towards the window it automatically makes the room darker. i also think the dialogue and acting is slightly awkward as we didn't plan the script, when Tayler walks through the door due to the timing it seems that she takes a really long time to scare me. However, i think the continuity of Tayler walking through the door is very accurate and i liked the effect of the headphone music being quiet   when you couldn't see me and then louder when you could. I think the video isn't the best it could be and i think we will film again with a completely different idea.

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

Although we changed our plans for our film a few times we always kept around the same genre as its what interests us most. However, we were unsure about what genre our film would fit into (thriller or psychological thriller) After doing research into both of these genres I've realised our film incorporates elements from both and doesn't fit perfectly into just one of them, making our film different from typical thrillers or psychological thrillers.

We researched many conventions for thriller films ( see YouTube video and comments below) and wanted to incorporate as many as possible into our opening. We wanted to initially film our piece outside possibly in a filed or in a woods as this a very common location used for our type of genre. However, due to unpredictable weather conditions we decided to film in a bathroom, i think this worked just as well if not better.

The bathroom was small are quiet closed in which gave it a cold feeling, we removed all pictures and decorations to make the room look empty, the wooden floorboards and white walls gave contributed to the look we were hoping for. In order of the audience to understand what genre the film is in a short amount of time we used a very typical convention of using blood and setting the scene as if a murder had just taken place, straight away the audience will know that 'delusion' is either a horror or thriller. I think first impression of the film due to the amount of blood and dark colours it could be seen as a horror, but because we decided not to show a body and used blurry effects we've created a sense of mystery and suspense implying theirs a story behind the murder which reveals it is a thriller. Our film opening is almost very like 'black and white', we edited the colouring tremendously as we filmed in broad daylight, this would have ruined the effect completely if we hadn't of edited this, it now looks as if its night time which is a most common time a murder would happen making it look more professional.  Another convention we used is the background music, we played around with a lot of different music and we thought that we found one which fitted perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0LwGL8QMCA this music has a very mysterious feeling to it and the jolty harsh beat i felt reflected on our character, however at the very last minute we decided to change it as we considered using narrative so using a song with lyrics wouldn't work, and also the lyrics aren't suited to our piece as it talks about love. Another reason we looked for a different type of music is that we noticed our film looked more like a music video, it made it even harder for it to be categorised into a genre. For this reasoning we searched for instrumentals and found a piece of music which actually fits better than the original and due to the positive effect it has on our piece we decided that we wouldn't need narrative as it could possibly ruin our film. We used the music all the way through but used the natural sound of the girl coughing and being sick, this creates realism and bring the character to life rather than her actions being muted out. We decided to use a young adult play the main character as we felt it would be more disturbing to witness a young woman go through unpleasant events which lead to the final scene (the opening scene) our target audience would also be able to relate and sympathise with her.

We used  many typical conventions and this made it easier to film and plan. The fact we use a woman as the main character and playing the 'murderer' i feel we have challenged typical media conventions in this genre. This could go either way, that more people are interested to watch something different and more originally or it could have a negative impact in that it doesn't fit in to a typical thriller film and doesn't sell. Most of the elements we used in our piece are typical conventions of thrillers as we conformed to the media which should overall get a positive response, making it easy to watch and sell.

Evaluation Question 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups

The only character show in the opening of our film is a woman therefore i will look at how women are represented in our film 'delusion'.

In the opening she could be seen as a murderer, alcoholic and maybe a bit of a psychopath, this straight away goes against the stereotypical character of an aggressive male playing the murderer in a thriller film. She could been seen as being represented as a strong character as she has just committed a murder but she is actually more of a venerable and soft character as she shows clear emotion whilst cleaning up the blood.  In this way i think we have conformed to the media in making her character a  stereotypical woman as she shows weakness and remorse  to something that takes courage and power to do. She isn't happy with her actions, and this is shown when she has her head down on the bath and when she is crying in the mirror. The shot of her hands on the sink show her hands covered in blood, however, she is trying to scratch the blood off showing she is ashamed and guilty, she also throws up in the bath after she drinks the vodka implying she cant handle her drink or the situation she is in is so unbearable and sickening that it makes her vomit. We also used a close up shot on her face, her eyes are covered in smudged makeup showing her emotions and clearly showing she has been crying. She keeps looking at the blood in the bath showing regret for her actions.The use of the plastic in front of the camera which gives a blurry effect shows she isn't thinking straight, the audience could question this as it could be implying that she is a deluded alcoholic or she is drinking the vodka to calm her from the crime she has just committed, the use of vodka represents her as remorseful and possibly scared as she wants to try and forget what she has done, whereas usually a male would murder someone and show no emotion or regret. At the very end we film her from a very high angle making her look small and powerless, the camera then spins up to the ceiling to create a 'dizzy like' effect.

Although we conformed in many ways the amount of blood in the bath suggests it was a brutal murder, this drives away from the petty classy stereotypical use of poison and drugs used in films by woman to kill with, i think this shocking and unusual start to a film will keep the audience questioning her actions and continue watching. As the film continues the audience will obviously gain more knowledge and understanding of her character, in the film we have decided we would have represented her as normal middle classed working woman, but through a series of event it leads her personality to change which leads to the final result of murder. We don't want her to be presented as a cold blooded murder in the film we want the audience to see her actions and reasoning from her perspective and possible sympathise with her. Something horrific and significant must take place in her life that results in her murdering someone, even though we present her as unstable, its obvious is must have taken courage and strength to commit such a inhuman murder.

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

Our choice in making our film a psychological thriller i think gives it an automatic mainstream audience. This popular choice in genre could possibly give our film a positive response however, due to its popularity it would have a lot of competition which could result in our film having a negative response.

I would expect to see our film being played at an 'odeon cinema', rather than an more independent cinema due to its story-line and as mentioned before its genre, if it was more original and unique in terms of the genre it would most likely be shown in the Phoenix Picturehouse.

Lionsgate Entertainment Corporation is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America. Lionsgate distribute a wide range of horrors/thrillers and have in the past produced films such as, The Eye, American Psycho all of the Saw films. This would definitely be a potential company that would be interested in distributing our film as it fits into their genre, 'The Eye' is a psychological thriller as is ours.



Columbia Pictures Industries is An American film production and distribution company founded in 1919. Being one of the biggest media distributors Columbia distributes films from a wide range of genres from comedy family film- 'Daddy Day Care', to the horror series 'The Grudge' and Science fiction films. 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' a hugely successful thriller film is also distributed by Columbia. I think they would be a great distributor for our film in terms of making it a success and widely heard of.

Overall, if i had to choose between the two companies i would pick Lionsgate. I think they would be best in distributing our film as they already have a lot of experience in distributing psychological thrillers, they would know the best way in how to market our film. I would trust them best in order to make our film successful as they are hugely experienced in selling our film genre, whereas Columbia distribute many genres Lionsgate specify more on thrillers and horrors.

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

Looking at the 5 candidates I interviewed i can see what type of audience would be interested in watching our film. It is clear that our film wouldn't be appealing to candidate E, she was the youngest candidate we interviewed and i think  a lot of young teenagers would agree with her. Thrillers often have many twists and different plots in the one story to create mystery and as candidate C said 'they are harder to watch', meaning you have to concentrate more than you would with another genre because, usually each scene in a thriller is important and you have to watch it to be able to understand the storyline. Candidate A and D are our target audience, although candidate D wasn't very enthusiastic about our film title she did also say, 'you cant judge a book by its cover', i think she would actually enjoy our film. Both these candidates are women so they would be able to relate with the main character which is what we intended. We initially thought our film would only appeal to teens our age (16-19) but i think a lot of older people would also be interested, such as candidate D ( 20-30) giving it a wider audience.

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

We would attract our audience by using a film poster, these are still used all the time when advertising a new film, its a really clever way to get more people interested as they don't give any of the story away but give an overall view of the film, looking at this poster you would be able to tell what genre it is and possible things that may occur in it. This is our poster advertising our film 'delusion', this was my first time exploring photoshop and i found it a really useful programme and was perfect for making this poster. We got great inspiration from this poster

We really liked the idea of having an image from the film in the text of the title, although we didn't use one picture to cover the whole title we used different screenshots which i think looks equally as effective, the rings picture however is more shocking and clear whereas ours looks more mysterious and creates unanswered questions for our audience, as does the opening to our film. The poster helps represent our gene, the dark colours, blood and a typical forest as the background makes it clear to the audience that 'delusion' is going to be a horror/thriller. We also added the typical format of an advertising poster by adding a quote, star ratings, the cast and crew at the bottom and lastly the release date. 

We decided to add a short quote after looking at this poster, a quote gives the audience something else to think about without giving anymore of the storyline away. 'When two paths meet' this quote is clearly hinting at something bad, it could be suggesting two characters with a possible murder due to the blood in the title. We added 5 stars as this would get more people interested and wanting to watch the film. The only thing i would change about the poster is the font and size of the quote, i think to make it look more mysterious and daunting it shouldn't be as bold and big, looking at 'the grudge' poster you can see the obvious difference. 

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OSOWd9UWcY&context=C4f9233eADvjVQa1PpcFOQseKF3o9ER8h-i_HH4uWzm1LE-37t-8I=

Here i have made a tutorial on the mac using the programme 'imovie' which is what we used to edited and put together our final piece.
I demonstrate how to:
-Edit the colour
-How to clip trim a selected scene

Evaluation Question 7- Looking back at your prelim what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In this short essay i will explain how my knowledge and understanding in media has greatly progressed from the start to the end of this years media course, looking back at the techniques and skills used in my preliminary tasks to my finished final product.

Looking back at the many attempts it took us to complete our prelim task I feel my knowledge and understanding in the skills and techniques has progressed throughout the course, enabling my group and I to feel confident in making our final product.

When watching our first prelim tasks we can point out obvious areas of improvement such as the 180 degree rule and the location of our films. However, although making these mistakes we were able to point them out and attempted the preliminary task a various of times until we were happy with the final product. Whilst putting together each preliminary task I have definitely progressed in accuracy and speed in my ability to editing the clips together on imovie and I now find it an enjoyable and fun progress rather than a struggle. At the start of the course I was unsure about how I would cope with learning about a new software that I had never used before, but after doing mini projects, practising and using the different areas and resources on imovie I now feel confident with editing the pieces of work we create. Also, when filming our preliminary tasks we never once planned the dialogue, the camera angles or the plot, we just assumed each time the idea would come to us, along the process i have realised how important planning is and how much your plans and intentions can change. In our first preliminary task we used muffled sound effects and music, this was my first approach to using a different part of imovie rather than just trimming and cutting scenes, it was useful to see how all the different tools work and gave us ideas for what other effects we could possibly use. Whilst editing clips on the macs i feel i have definitely progressed in using imovie, as it is a very complex programme there are still areas on it that i haven't used but i think we have used it wisely and used the correct areas for making our final product as good as it possibly can be. I have learnt through using imovie that you can never film too much and it is always better to film  more than you think you need, this is because you can cut parts that you don't like and add something else that you filmed. When filming our preliminary tasks this is another mistake we made we didn't always have enough to work with eg- if their was bad continuity between two clips and we hadn't filmed enough to use a different clip we would have to film the whole scene from the start. When filming our final piece we filmed lots of the same thing and different clips of the blood in the bath, this made it easier for us as if we spotted an error after putting it together on imovie we could easily replace the clip with one similar.

Due to the research at the start of the course on camera movements and camera angles we were able to use them confidently in our preliminary tasks, looking back at the premlims the techniques we used look very basic and a little unnatural especially when using shot reverse shot as the conversation is a bit hesitant. In one of the prelim tasks we had to film again as we made a major error in being very close to breaking the 180 degree rule, this made it really confusing for our audience and looked really unprofessional, this is something i feel confident in using when filming now without having to think about whether or not I'm breaking it as it comes across naturally. At the start i didn't like to film without using a tripod i think we all felt nervous about the accuracy of the clip without using it, however, gaining more experience with the camera and filming i understand that it isn't essential to use and a clip can come out just as good without it, we didn't use a tripod when filming our final piece, i think i have grown in confidence when being in charge of filming or coming up with ideas that we could use in a shot. We looked at typical conventions for thrillers so we could add them into our own: close up shots, isolated location?, dark colours and suspense music. One mistake we made when filming is that we didn't film during the day when a lot of light when shining through, we were scared this would ruin the effect completely as we planned on it being at night, however, we used our editing skills on the tools that imovie provides us, to edit the colour on all the clips to a greyish blueish colour, i am really happy with the way it came out as the colour change is really effective and gives the impression we filmed at night. This also relates to my understanding of the genre 'thriller', i researched the typical conventions that are used in thriller films and wanted to apply as many of them as possible to our film, we used dark colours, close up shots, smears of blood, music and we used a piece of plastic which gave a blury effect (this definitely helps build up a character and relates to the film title)  which all make it obvious to the audience what type of film 'delusion' is.

We are still not 100% sure we have finished our final product as we are debating whether or not to add a narrative 'voiceover', this is something i haven't used on macs but will be interesting to find out how it works. Looking back at our preliminary tasks and how simple and quick it was to film them and making obvious and careless errors, to looking at the techniques and time spent on planning our final piece i think i have progressed greatly in my understanding and use of the camera, camera equipment and using imovie.