Evaluation 5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Evaluation 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Evaluation 3: What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

Evaluation 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups

Evaluation 1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

To gain inspiration for our thriller video, "Silent Waters", we had to research the forms and conventions of real media production thoroughly before deciding on locations, characters and the plot. We decided to develop the typical thriller ideas of the title, costumes etc. However, we also decided to adapt the traditional view and challenge the forms and conventions with our unique location choices.

 

1) The title of the film

             The title of the film was a crucial issue. At times, the group were of two minds as to which title we should go for. Our initial thought was to name it, “You’re Next”. We decided that this would be an effective title for the thriller because it is the subject in the text that Chloe receives in the first scene on the beach. However, members of the group felt that this title seemed too simple and cliché. Furthermore, it was not inventive and gave too much of the story away to the audience. After re-checking the codes and conventions of a thriller, we discovered that short, secretive titles gained the most effective response from the audience – making them feel curious and attracted to the film. Our title, “Silent Waters”, develops the forms and conventions of a real media product because of this.

2) Setting/Location

               The main location for our thriller video was a beach. We also filmed in a forest, train station and car park. The reason we chose these locations were because we felt that they went against the original forms and conventions of real media products because not many thrillers are set at these locations. For example, the beach, which we decided to use after watching the horror film ‘Jaws’. We knew that we would face challenges choosing all four of these locations and to keep the videos looking like a thriller  all the time but we felt that if we kept with the story line that once it came to editing and putting music to the video then these locations would give a ‘goose bump’ effect for the audience.

 

3) Costumes and Props

 

                     We decided that specifically for Ginny’s costume she would wear a normal running kit but with a white top showing her purity however with dark leggings and jumper showing the darkness of when she gets possessed. We got this idea from Cape Fear when the girl in the beginning is wearing white showing her innocence. Due to this, we felt an immediate emotional connection with the girl and worried what would happen to her as the film progressed. Therefore, this shows the development of the forms and conventions of the thriller by going with the stereotype that the colour white is pure and innocent and black is evil and dangerous.

 

4) Camerawork and Editing

 

 

                     In terms of camera work, we decided to use two point of view shots in the forest and car park scene. We chose to do this because we thought it gave an effect to the video to show the audience what the person is seeing. We felt this camera shot broke up all the other shots and gave a closer connection to the audience as if that was the audience who was seeing these things. In the scenes that are meant to be Chloe’s flashbacks we edited them to black and white because we wanted there to be a contrast between what is happening now in present from what has happened in the past. This develops in the forms and conventions of the thriller because it shows that we have experimented with different effects and camera shots to try and make the film as interesting as possible.

5) Title Font and Style

                      We left the title to come right at the end of the video. We did this because it was hard for us to choose a name that we all liked and thought that we should make the film first and decide on the name last minute so we could get inspiration from watching the film. We decided to use a large font so that the title would stand out from the background and is clear to the audience that this is the name of the film. We used a font that had an eerie shadow to it to fit in with our thriller video. However, when it came to choosing a style to put our title in, it became an issue. This was because what we were editing on only had limited choices for us to choose and have in our video. What we decided to go with went well into the video and we kept the title in a white colour so that it did not take too much attention away from the video as it was starting so the audience got an affect from it straight away. This develops the forms and conventions of a thriller because, after watching a popular horror film called ‘Cape Fear’, we liked the idea of the white font of the title because It stood out to the audience watching.

6) Story and how the opening sets it up

 

               As stated above, we decided to use a text message on a phone to start the story. We decided to have the text as follows, “You’re Next”, this was supposedly meant to trigger our main character into becoming possessed. Furthermore, the audience will understand that these events have happened before, so they immediately feel a sense of dread and fear for our initial protagonist. The viewers will also believe that whatever will happen, will continuously last, almost like an unstoppable force. As a result, the audience’s interest is instantly taken to the film, and they will be willing to watch on to see what will happen to this girl, and what has happened before. By doing this, we are using the traditional forms and conventions of a thriller video and grasping our viewers’ attention from the start. They are left questioning which is what our desired response would be. 

7) Genre and how the opening suggests it   

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                We researched into a number of horror genres before making our decision as to what genre we would base our video on. We discussed fantasy such as zombies or ghosts but eventually decided on a psychological thriller. In these types of films, fear is the main emotion that they want their audience to feel, and we decided that this would be a challenge but if we did it well, we would gain very effective results. However, we realised that when the main tension and suspense is built is generally at the end of psychological thriller films such as, ‘Psycho’. So we had to find a way to make the audience ask questions to themselves in our opening. A main aspect of our video where fear and tension is built is in the train scene. Where Amber is seen at the edge of the platform, then the train passes and the last shot of the scene is of the blank platform. We believe that this develops the forms and conventions of a thriller film because the audience are left asking themselves vital questions. They will wonder where she has gone and form their own opinion of the plot, which is the desired reaction for us because we want them to gain as much interest as possible from watching our video.  

8) How the characters are introduced

 

                                 Each character is introduced in a different way, however, every character is shown dropping something. Whether it be a bag, bottle or phone they all drop something and this, along with make up, signifies their possession. Each of the girls is our video appear to be average, teenage girls who are carrying out every day tasks. This aspect was important for us because we want our audience to feel as if they can relate to the action and feel a sense of fear that this may happen to them. As our target audience are teenagers, we decided that this could be a possible reaction from them. Some popular thriller films appear to want their audience to relate to the characters, such as Nina in "Black Swan", where she is just a typical ballet dancer but then lets her mental disorder take over her. Due to characters like this, audiences can relate to them and they personally feel the tension created by the action, but some well-known thrillers opposed this idea, such as, "Alien" where audiences know that the plot is fiction and are unlikely to relate to the characters. It could be said that this idea is challenged and developed through forms and conventions of real products, because each film uses different techniques to introduce their characters, but we have decided to introduce ours as average teenagers to gain an effective response from our viewers.

Evaluation 7 Blooper

  

Here is our first attempt at filming Evaluation 7. As you can see, we encountered some issues. This includes, Rosie looking straight at the camera, Chloe unsure as to when to stop the film and the sound of a hoover in the background.

Bloopers Video

Bloopers Analysis

Changes And Problems Analysis

Changes And Problems

Audience Feedback Three

Audience Feedback Two

Audience Feedback One

Audience feedback from rosieellieamberchloe

Editing Diary

Filming Diary - Day Four

Filming Diary - Day Three

Third Scene Diary by amberandellie

Filming Diary - Day Two

Filming diary day two from rosieellieamberchloe

Filming Diary - Day One

Statistics

 

This is a stats page from our blog will back up what will be said in Evaulation 6. We thought this was very interesting to know about because we can see how gobal our blog actually is. As you can see we dont just have viewers from around Europe in countries such as Germany and Russia but we also have viewers from the United States of America. By gaining these viewers, the group realised that this was another way that we can market our film. The audience get to see everything we have been doing over the process of our filming and editing our film.

Costume For Scene Four

This photo shows character four's costume. You can see that she has wearing casual clothing. The fact that she is wearing dark clothing suggests that she could have a big impact in the film but on the other hand, she is wearing a white shirt and light colour shoes suggesting a sense of purity. This makes the audience ask more questions, whether she has something in common with the possessor or she is just another helpless victim.

Costumes For Scene Three

For character three, we chose to use a very casual type of clothing. This picture shows her wearing leggings and a grey jumper. This, to the audience, means that she is a teenager that has been out for the night at a party or a gathering and has ended up staying overnight at the location. Another aspect about this costume that shows that she has been out is the fact that it is a little bit roughed up. The off the shoulder jumper and the make-up stained white top shows she has been wearing it a while.

Costume For Scene Two

Costume Two - Student

This is what we decided to have Amber wear in the train station. It is very different from what the first character is wearing. We wanted her to dress like a student so the target audience can relate and show that she is younger and more venerable. As we were filming this scene during the evening we thought that we should dress her in darker clothing. We hoped that were the train station didn't have much light and she was wearing dark clothing then when we put the make up on her the white paint would stand out more and make her face stand out more effective. The dark clothes go well when she has become possessed to show the evil in her.

Costume For Scene One

Costume One - Runner

This is what we designed for Ginny’s scene in the forest. We thought that for her to were a white top it would show purity in her and her innocence. However we wanted her to have a contrast in her costume and have darker elements in with what she is wearing as she is the first victim we see in the flashbacks so wanted to show the darker side of her when she gets possessed. We felt adding the black in to her costume would show evil, danger and mystery with what is about to happen. We needed the character to carry a water bottle with her so once she had become possessed she would drop the bottle and this would symbolise that something has happened and taken over her.

Evidence For Filming

This is a photo from the car park scene; in this photo you can see Rosie and Chloe filming from the ground floor trying to get shots of Emily's face standing at the edge of the roof.
In this photo, we are discussing whether to zoom in on Emily's face as she comes close to the edge. This would give the audience the distinct impression of the fear upon her face and, in turn, they would feel the suspense and terror of what is to come.
However, we did not use this shot in the end as our film was too long but it gave us more options when it came to making the final cut of our thriller. We decided to use the shot of her stepping up onto the railing because this gave the audience more questions to consider. For example, instead of actually seeing Emily vanish from the roof, the audience are left contemplating her fate and forming their own conclusions as to how and why she has appeared to commit suicide.

Directing

This is photo evidence taken by me that shows Ellie directing the third scene. She helped me make suggestions when it came to filming and told our actors what they had to do so that it went with the storyline of the video. She made practical decisions, especially in this scene when it came to Chloe walking into the water that would allow me to get the shot but not put Chloe at risk. She also led the rest of the team throughout the process of filming and lesson discussions, and organised blogs that we must do. However, if some members didn't complete the blogs needed she would try to divide them equally but this proved difficult. Me and Ellie had to work closely together to get the right shots that would go well with the video and that would stick to the storyline. This is something that I believe me and her did successfully because we got the shots we wanted.

Southend Beach Filming

This is the main location to our thriller video. As we discussed using Southend beach as our main location, a number of problems arose. We didn't want Chloe to completely enter the water up to her waist, therefore, we were lucky that we found this spot on the beach. It was a pathway that led to the water and we decided to shoot under the pillars because it gave us more cover. After Amber and I did the necessary risk assessments on the path we decided, due to the shoes that Chloe was initially wearing, it would be safer if she walked on it with her shoes off, as this would give her more grip on the slippery surface. Although it was cold on her feet, Chloe did not have to enter the water completely and we still got the crucial shots we needed.  

Filming

This is a photo taken by me that shows Rosie filming the first scene. This evidence applies to our whole video, which Rosie also filmed. Whilst I directed the scenes, Rosie offered practical suggestions that would enable her to get the best shot for the Thriller. For instance, in this picture, Rosie is taking the shot from a high angle to suggest that our character is vulnerable and is likely to be in danger. This shot, along with others that Rosie suggested fitted with the codes and conventions of a typical thriller video. Therefore, the initial ideas of direction that I suggested had to be adapted to work alongside the vital camera angles.  

Schedule For Filming

Why We Chose Not To Use Dialogue

As a group, we all agreed that we didn't want to use dialogue. We had a discussion and decided that using dialogue would ruin the feel of the whole film and that it would kill the tension and the suspence. The use of dialogue would ruin the pace of the video and the audeicen would be distracted by what the characters are saying instead of following the storyline. You have to be able to have the facial expressions and the body language to match as well, otherwise it wouldnt sound right. We did think about using dialogue but soon after we all agreed that it would ruin our video. In the end, we all made the decision that it was best to present our storyline through imagery rather than dialouge.

Props We Chose To Use In Each Scene

Marking Other Students Work Two

Marking Other Students Work One

Logo Analysis

Our Film Poster Analysis

When it came to making a poster for our thriller video, I used the initial title idea of, "You're Next", and created a poster based around that name. When we went to our main location, we thought it would be effective to write the title in the sand. It would remind the audience of our thriller's unique location and  call attention to the original title. However, when it came to creating the poster I used the photo, but I had to be careful not to stretch it. If I did, the audience would not have been able to read the text and it would have looked fundamental. Furthermore, I had to write the reviews that our thriller supposedly got and add the credits at the bottom. The colour of the sand disabled me to do this because I couldn't find the right font and colour that made the text visible to see clearly.

After this, I discussed other possible titles for our thriller and proposed that we call it "Silent Waters". The rest of the group were sceptical at first because the original is linked significantly to our thriller opening. However, after researching the codes and conventions again we concluded that a short, mysterious name was popular with awaiting audiences. For the poster, I decided to use a dark image of water as the background, and then use a simple, white font for the text. Initially, I wanted to use a red colour font for the text but it did not accompany the image and did not give me the effect I desired.

For me, the main inspiration for this poster was the poster for the 1991 thriller film, 'Cape Fear'.

 

I liked the distinct background image of water because it gave the connotations of being mysterious and unknown. I also liked that the title was designed to be in the middle of the poster with a simple, white font. Due to this, I was drawn directly to the title and then looked at the images alongside it. I noticed that the director was put first, followed by the well-known actors. This was the inspiration for my poster because it was effective at letting me form my own opinions of the film, and I could clearly tell that the antagonist was the one almost absorbed in the water, staring directly at the viewer.

"Silent Waters" Final Poster

Silent Waters Final Poster

"You're Next" Original Poster

You're Next Original Poster

Marketing - Twitter

Marketing - Instagram

Marketing - Facebook

First Session In Editing Room

This is a photo taken by Ellie. This was our first session in the editing room, this shows me and Rosie exploring different editing techniques with Pinnacle. As none of us have ever used this program and did not know how to use it. It took us a while to figure out how to put the videos onto actual program to make the film. When we did this tough we when went through all the different types of edits we could have used in the film and as a group decided what thought looked better for the video.