Evaluation Task 4.

In this evaluation task I had to use pictures of each program and website we used during the making, researching and evaluating of our Media A2 coursework.

Ancillary task: Final poster design

Above is the group’s final group poster. As you can see there are some major changes to that of some of the first drafts. We felt that other were more like an advert as it had the release date and coming soon across the bottom. We realised this once we looked over similar film posters and realised none of them did the same. Instead this final poster has just mentioned the awards that it has one which help its recognition and secondly I have added the slogan that has been used in Pauls initial poster. This is to again give a sense to buyer of the poster as to what the film is about and give it that extra touch.

Apart from the bottom of the poster everything has remained the same and has the same purpose and meaning as I mentioned earlier in the initial poster designs post. Every colour, text, picture and font has a meaning to it all to psychologically interest the viewer.

As a group we decided on this poster out of the two as we felt that it best gave indications of what our short film was about, and suited the Psychological Thriller genre better. We mixed the best of both posters’ to create one that we felt was best. By designing two posters we were able to illuminate mistakes and share ideas to create a pleasing end product.

Ancillary Task: Poster Designs

On my poster design an initial thought was the importance of the recognition of the cast. The reason being Is that many film fans associate certain genres with certain actors. A film fan would recognise the name of the actors, associate them with Thrillers. Furthermore the font used is nothing over dramatic which infers to the audience the genre, Thrillers aim around a story that could seemingly happen in real life which is the reasoning behind the simple font. I have also used black as the font colour as the connotations include danger, death and suspicion. Psychologically we want the audience to think that they are in for thrills and suspense, where as if the writing was pink they would be expecting some sort of romance due to the connotations.

The up most important factor of the poster was the inclusion of our short name. As the most important factor it has to stand out. As changing the font would make the poster less aesthetically pleasing and would also confuse the audience I have just decided on using a larger font size. As said before I have used black due to its connotations.

I chose the image of the girl behind the glass as I thought it showed a correlation between the name of the film, which means to take or steal. It clearly shows what our short is about. You can indicate from the picture that the main protagonist is female due to the hair and shape of the body, the audience now it is about a girl. Secondly she is in a white background, which infers that she is the innocent victim or she is slightly insane. The picture successfully indicates the genre of our short, the idea of not being able to see the girls face and her hands pressed up against the glass all show her in danger.

This is a vital part of the poster. It shows all the important information that is relevant to the audience. It advertises by the mentioning awards which show that is has been recognised by film makers and viewers for excellence. This will help increase our global reach. The release date is important in letting the audience aware of when they can view it. Lastly, its important that the details of companies, actors and crew are mentioned to again advertise the film and show its professionalism. This all keeps to the same colours and fonts.

　

　
　

Programs and Websites we used.

Through the production process we used quite a lot of programs and websites to help us along the way, here is the list of programs and websites, also included are the uses we had of them.

Youtube: We viewed other short films for inspiration and ideas.
Wikipedia: At times we needed information on other films, this gave us all the research we needed.
Pinnacle Editing Software: We used this to edit our production and create the final product to show the audience.
Blogger: We could use old blogs of previous years to see how tasks were approached and tell whether or not it was successful, then decide how we would approach the same tasks.
Paint (Windows Software): We needed to use this software to edit and enhance any picture we needed to upload.
Google (Search Engine): From this we could view anything on the web from blogs to questionnaires for inspiration if we got stuck for what to do next.
Google Images: From this we viewed pictures which would be used for such things as our poster and DVD case and sometimes the pictures gave us ideas of camera shots we could incorporate into our final production.
Windows Movie Maker: At times we had to complete some minor editing outside of school, so we had to use other editing software.

Naming our production.

Although it may sound easy, naming our production was most probably the hardest task we faced when tackling our production. Many names were thrown out after we felt it did not tell enough, or told too much, of the story our film would hold.
Here are just some of our initial name ideas:
Deception
Taken
Memories
Acquisition
The Lost
The Missing
Missing
Trapped
Entrapment
Psycho
Forsaken
Unforgotten
The Hunted
Alone
Watching

That is just the list of names that we considered, many more names were read out which were immediately discarded for a variety of reasons.

In the end we opted for the title name 'Acquisition' since we felt it gave away a slight hint of what the film would hold, but not too much since there are a great many ways the title could be considered.

DVD Case

For our production Ancillary task we had to take it upon ourselves to design a poster for our production, to advertise and raise awareness of our film, but, to take it the extra step we decided to design a DVD case which our film would be displayed and sold in to our audience. The poster and DVD case are highly important since it is the first thing the audience will see before viewing our film, and initial thoughts are everything. From the audiences initial thoughts they will decide whether the film looks good and is it their type of film, which then decides whether or not they will view the film at all.

Poster:

DVD:

Costumes We Used.

In our production we based a  lot of our efforts on deciding which costumes would best suit our protagonist and our antagonist and give the strongest effect on how our audience views our characters. The costume worn by any actor defines them to the audience, if a man is wearing a long dark coat and a hat to hide his face he will be seen as mysterious and therefore potentially dangerous. If a woman is wearing torn clothing which hangs loosley, the audience may feel pity towards her.

Here is our Antagonist in his costume:

Here is our Protagonist in his costume:

Editing Diary

Upon finishing our filming, we had the task of tackling the editing needed to slot our shots together and add effects to give the best possible effect to our audience.
Through many hours contemplating what shots should be in which order we decided what we wanted and how we wanted our production to go.

Once the film had been pieced together we also had to add particular effects to make sure the film was displayed in a way where every shot made perfect sense.
At points we had to be very creative since the shots on their own often looked very amature, but with the editing combined they became far more advanced. An example of this would be the point of view shot where our protagonist is feeling the effects of the drugs the antagonist placed in her pill pot and her sight becomes blurred.

We also played around with the idea of increasing and decreasing the speed of certain shots because we were not sure they looked realistic enough or dramatic enough at their original pace. Shots we considered slowing down were the shots where our protagonist passes out, for a more dramatic effect. Another shot we were thinking about slowing down was the final shot where the bag is placed over the protagonist's head, again for a more dramatised effect.
Shots we considered speeding up were when our protagonist falls from the effects of the drugs, this is because we were unsure if the original speed of the shot was truely enough for someone falling over.

In the end we discarded the ideas for any of our shots being changed in terms of speed because we decided the original speeds added realism, which in the end is one of the main features of a thriller because the more real it seems the more scared the audience can be.

Another idea we had was to use a rewinded shot in the credits. We thought about using a screwed up photo in the credits but as the credits appear the paper would be unfolded to its original condition. This would be done by filming the paper being screwed up and then using a rewind effect during the editing. But, after further consideration we were afraid the shot would look highly amature if it was not done perfectly and was too much of a risk.

Once we had laid out all of our editing ideas the actual editing of the production went very smoothly, we encountered no issues with our choice of effects and our shots seemed to slot together perfectly once the editing was in place.

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Upon further inspection one problem we came across when editing was that one of the shots showed a reflection of the cameraman in the mirror, we managed to find a way to crop the image so that he couldn’t be seen, but not so much that the shot looked pixelated or the characters looked larger than normal.

Most of the editing was done on two occasions as we had all the footage we needed, other final touches such as music, credits and fades were added once all the shots were in order and had been trimmed down so continuity was kept intact. One shot has been made blurry so the concept of the protagonist being drugged is shown, the camera vaguely shows the dog walking over to her and then her kidnappers feet walking towards her.

Weather issues

During our filming process we had to keep to a tight schedule, since a small yet vital proportion of our film was shot outside and the weather at the time had been, at best, unreliable. On the day of our filming we were blessed with a darkly clouded sky with the sun just shining though, which made for a good setting since we could film our protagonist walking in the sunlight, which would increase the sense of innocence about her. And in other shot we could film our Point of View shots from the shade, which helps to show the mysterious and dark thoughts which would be running through our antagonists mind.

Since we managed to complete the outdoor filming in one day it made it easier to maintain the shots and continuity. But, towards the end of editing we felt that certain parts could be improved and/or expanded which worried us since the weather had since changed and frost was starting to set in, shortly followed by snow.

Luckily we managed to use the shots in a slightly different manner which made them work better than we had initially planned, which also meant we did not have to risk ruining the continuity of our production by filming more outdoor shots in different conditions which we would have to try and hide. This would also have put the quality of shots at risk since they may have to be filmed differently and may not be as effective.

Risk Assessment

Below is a table assessing the potential risks we could encounter whilst filming our production, and how to combat these risks to minimise the potential of any of them happening.

Setting and Location

For our Media film we spent a lot of time discussing and deciding upon locations to film our final production, after many hours of deliberation we decided on these 4 locations:

Tom Vales house

Tom Vale lives in a private road, the houses are all nicely made and look like the place where you would expect the wealthier people of the nation to reside. This is the location we have chosen to be our Victims home. We feel this location gives our victim the look of someone doing well in life, and has very few worries, thus making it all the more shocking when she is kidnapped.

Hutton ‘Forest’

In our production there is a scene where our victim walks her dog whilst back at her home (Tom Vales House) the antagonist is breaking in and replacing the protagonist’s medication. We chose this location due to its footpaths which are commonly used by dog walkers and joggers so it gives the sense of a normal day in a normal life. The ‘Forest’, for lack of a better word, is less than 5 minutes away from our protagonist’s house which therefore gives us the opportunity to film the walk there as well, without changing locations and breaking the flow of events.

Tom’s Road

On the private road where Tom Vale lives we intend to shoot our protagonist walking out of her house onto the road where she will then begin to walk down the street. In these shots many other houses down the road will be visible, this will show our viewers more of the lifestyle our protagonist must have. We feel this is necessary because we really want the audience to see our character as a well-off, innocent girl.

Justine’s Room

In Justine Carron’s house there is a room we intend to use to film certain shots of our thriller. The room is the location where our antagonist keeps his kidnapped victims. The room displays certain qualities which could be interpreted as the room of a mentally ill person. The room looks ‘cold’ and feels secluded, the walls are a creamy white colour but due to the fact it is just painted bricks it looks like it is almost decaying, yet it is also strangely clean, thus giving the effect that the room is owned by a strange person who kept it clean for a special reason. The white could be seen as a connotation of the insanity of the antagonist, and also could display the innocence of our victims.
The shots we intend to film in this room are:
• Our protagonist bound and waking up in her new surroundings,
• A second victim is seen in the room,
• Our opening credits,
• Our antagonist frantically tearing and writing on pictures of our protagonist.

Mood Board

In this mood board is an assortment of images I feel our short film can relate to. All of the images convey a feeling of fear, entrapment and loneliness.
The genre of our short film is a psychological thriller, this means our audience will hopefully feel fear but not from intimidation, but from their deepest fears, which could play on their minds and cause them to feel true fear.

In our mood board I have included 2 particular images which may seem out of place, but when you consider our main character is a young girl who looks normal on the outside, but behind closed doors has hidden problems, the images do indeed relate to our production. I am reffering to the image of a young woman walking her dog and the image of a pot of pills spilling over.

The mood board also contains two images of our main protagonists influences. The Joker, from the Batman movies, is one of our character influences because of his mental instability yet his ability to predict, plan, assess and act like a highly intelligent person. Our other influence is an image of a hooded man, this I feel gives our character a stronger sense of danger since you don't know who or what you are dealing with.

The Pitch

Target Audience

For my A2 Advanced Media Production I, as me, have decided on focusing on a mature audience. I expect both men and women, between the ages of 18 and beyond, to be most interested in my production. My production will contain kidnapping, scenes of a violent nature and a strong emphasis on the thriller genre; therefore I find it most suiting to target those who will both understand and therefore find the events in my production most frightening. Those who are aged 16+ have more knowledge with the way the world works and what goes on, they know the world is not as wonderful as it seems when you are younger. This, I feel, gives my audience a strong sense of vulnerability, and will make the events of my production seem all the more real and frightening.



According to the BBFC official ratings chart our production falls into the category of a rated 15 production. I feel this in turn further enforces our choice to target the ages of 16 and above, the BBFC rating of 18+ can only be issued to productions which contain graphical images of violence or scenes of a particularly sexual nature.



Target Audience pt. 2 - Where our film would be shown.

When deciding on who our film would target, we also have to consider how we will reach this audience and where it could be possible. For us the answer came clearly, the 8th London Short Film Festival would be perfect for our needs. The 8th London Short Film Festival will take place from the 7th to the 16th of January 2011, and with over 200 short films, the festival is a wonderful event where upcoming film makers can show their work. For ten days the films will be shown in Shortwave Cinema in London, one of our capitals most presigious cinemas.

The 2010 statistics for the London Short Film Festival were as follows:

2010 Facts & Figures

• Over 6000 tickets sold
• 42 events across 10 days and 10 venues
• 75% of events sold to capacity
• 8 major media partners and 16 creative programme partners
• Over 200 films screened
(Statistics as seen on http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/about-the-festival/)

As you can see, it is very obvious the London Short Film Festival has a large number of films shown, and also a large number of viewers, many would be film enthusiasts between the age of 18 - 26 which is our target audience, making this festival the perfect place for our film to be shown.

Codes and Conventions of a Psychological Thriller

‘Psychological Thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.’
(Wikipedia)

Conventions of a Psychological Thriller

Low level lighting, shadows, rapid editing, sudden changes in camera angle, high tension music, flashbacks, use of photographs/images/articles and black and white colouring.
Shadows are closely related with low level lighting and are used as a convention of a thriller film; they are used to represent the fear and horror within beings, and can also add to the tension that is created.
Rapid editing is used frequently in thriller films to increase the feeling of fear and shock; it is often used during important or particularly ‘thrilling’ scenes.
Flashbacks contribute to a sense of time disorientation in a thriller and this confuses the audience; it is also a convention of a thriller film because it can display what has happened in the past to give the audience an insight into why the characters are the way they are. It could also display the sense of the character being confused and psychologically unstable.
Black and white colouring is another convention of a thriller, because it increases the effectiveness of shadows, and can often appear quite scary because you can’t see what’s hiding in the shadows.
The main aspect which changes the genre from a Thriller to a Psychological Thriller is the lack of brute force and the particular emphisis on phobias or something most people fear even though it may not be particularly harmful. (EG: Tight spaces + Darkness = Clostrophobia)
In thrillers, the credits are often specially designed for the genre. The text will normally have an effect which heightens fear and makes the viewer’s feel like something bad is imminent.