Samarge's feedback to nameless

Q.6- Audience Feedback Continued After the Showcase At the Screen on the Green.


Below shows videos showing audiences feedback about what they thought about Our thriller film 'Nameless'. The people I interviewed gave their honest feedback about what they thought and suggested possible ways in-which we could improve and make it better for the future. Enjoy :)

Q.7- What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


Below shows an animatic movie illustrating the technology that we encountered along the process of creating both pur Prelim short film and Our thriller opening sequence.  Within the animatic movie you will hear a voice-over where we describe how we conquered using different forms of technology. Enjoy :)

   

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

When it came to creating 'Nameless', my group was inspired by a variety of films.

After watching a documentary in class called : 'Watching BBC Beginnings', we discovered the idea of 'instant arousal', this is when an audience is entertained from the very beginning because of a dramatic opening. The 'Naked Kiss', is a film that does exactly that, the opening, is of a woman brutally attacking a man with a knife, throughout this scene various titles are shown and when the victim dies, the title of the movie appears. This is very similar to 'Nameless' being that the opening begins with our leading character staggering out of a lift with blood pouring from his shirt, after this occurs, he falls to the ground and the title 'Nameless' appears.

The order of our title sequence is similar to The 'Naked Kiss'. The first title is of the production company 'Allied Artists', then the drama begins, after this, the actors/actresses are introduced ' starring CONSTANCE TOWERS as Kelly', then music editor, the film editor, the writer and lastly the director.

Even though we were inspired by this opening, we still made our opening unique and different but we still employed similar conventional elements from other thriller movies within our opening. In the documentary we watched we learnt about the downsides of having a opening that instantly aroused the audience, because it gives too much away. Even though our opening is similar to The 'Naked Kiss', it is different because the audience does not know who attacked our leading character, we did this so that the audience could question the situation but also because we did not want to give too much information way in the beginning of the movie, to ensure that the entire film would be effective.

EVALUATION Q.1 extended

Our title credits are similar to 'The Last Kiss' in terms of structure. The production companies appear first, then main actors, next come the music creators, then the story creator and finally the Director. The only difference is the film name appears last whereas in our opening the film names comes after the main actors name.



Q8. What do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Before creating our opening thriller sequence 'Nameless', we were given a preliminary task where we had to create a short film showing a conversation between two people. The skills obtained when filming our prelim short film, were used to help us film our thriller opening sequence. The prelim task was very different in comparison to our thriller film for various reasons. One reason is that , when we created our prelim short film we were only given a day to film which means that we had less time to prepare. In comparison, for our thriller opening sequence we were given a month to film and enables us if necessary to re-film some scenes. As we were more prepared , we were given much more time to plan and organise features such as Mise-en-Scene, costumes. Another main comparison is that our prelim short film was not based on a genre (thriller), meaning that we did not have to stick to one particular theme.Only filming  a conversation between two people made it much more easier to come up with an idea and film.

Below shows both the thriller opening sequence + the prelim short film.

 Thriller Opening Sequence

 Prelim Short Film

The location of our prelim film was shot in college. This was due to the fact that we had less time to explore other possible locations. As we  were given only 1 lesson to film our short film, we had no choice but use the college building. In comparison,when filming our thriller opening sequence we used a range of 3 locations ( Angel, Hoxton and the Basement in College). We decided to use three locations in order to show the contrast of the actions of the characters in all three settings. 

For both our thriller opening sequence and for our prelim short film, we used a variety of camera shots and angles. For our prelim short film, we focused more on using the 180 degree rule when shooting the two characters having a conversation with one another. In comparison, for our thriller film, we used a wide range of shots, such as Close-ups, mid shots, tracking, birds eye view etc... This suggests that we wanted to show a variety of shots the second time round when filming to show our ability of filming the action taken place within the film in different ways.

For our thriller opening sequence we created a Soundtrack using the program Soundtrack Pro,we chose and explored a wide variety of sounds and mixed the sounds we wanted into a Submix in order to overlay on top of our thriller film.In comparison, For our prelim film, we downloaded an instrumental from the internet (Youtube), that we felt both suited our film. The similarities between the two soundtracks were that they both had suspenseful music. The effect of this was to create suspense and keep the audience's at the edge of their seats. As we felt a suspenseful  soundtrack worked well within our prelim, we wanted to stick to what we knew worked place and use the same type of soundtrack.

The digital technology , equipment used in our thriller opening sequence was more complex and technical then the digital technical techniques used in our prelim short film.We used more equipment for our thriller opening sequence such as Lighting kit as we wanting to produce shadows of items and show peoples body actions threw the shadows in-order to create suspense for our film. As previously used in our Prelim short film, we used the tripod, JVC Video Camera and Batteries. As we were familiar with using these equipment, we knew how to set up the equipment and the functions needed to operate the equipment.


For our thriller opening sequence we used a wide range of effects and techniques  in comparison to our prelim short film where it looked quite basic. This suggests that we began to explore the techniques more for our thriller opening sequence then our Prelim short film. This was because we became more comfortable and familiar with the program Final Cut Pro , as we learnt new methods and techniques and new ways of making our film look more effective. The effects we used in our Thriller opening sequence include the following:

- Cross fades
-Black outs
-Quick cuts of scenes
- Pleasantville  Effect ( keeping only one colour that we wanted to pop in contrast to the desaturated background shown in the beginning of the thriller opening sequence)
- Split screen of images ( Having 3 images being shown in one scene to see the reaction and action of three characters all at once)
- Colour Correction (desaturation effect)


In our prelim short film we did not require any form of props as we mainly concentrated on showing a conversation between the two characters. In comparison, for our thriller opening sequence we used a wide range of props such as: a Mobile phone,a newspaper,fake blood, Pound coin, Bottle of liquid ,A pole,Paper Notes ,Desk, Wooden Plank,Table and Chair. The use of these props helped make our thriller more successful in comparison to our prelim.

The final comparison between our Thriller opening sequence and our Prelim short film is the credits and titles seen within the beginning of the film. In our thriller opening sequence we included much more credits and titles and followed t6he order in which both the credits and titles should appear,  in comparison to our prelim film were we only added selected credits and titles.

 This is an example of the credits used in our Prelim film

The Screen shots above show examples of the Credits and Titles used in our Thriller Opening sequence.

Q3. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Steve Harris is a 25 year old junior executive for a corporate bank firm located in the heart of the city. He leads a very busy and stressful lifestyle as he doesn’t have a lot of free time. His constant heavy load of work and busy lifestyle keeps him on the go. On the weekend he enjoys going to the local bar with his mates and enjoys vodka and coke. With his free time he attends music festivals with both his mates and girlfriend and hosts dinner parties for his mates. He dress code cosists of smart, silk suits , shirt and tie for the weekdays and for the weekends designer jeans and known brand tops from stores such as Selfidges. On his days off he reads the odd detective novel and watches  crime programs such as CSI New York and The Wire. He has a real interest for watching Action thriller movies especially James Bond Films. His DVD collection contains a lot of films from this genre. Films such as Gold finger Casino Royale and Die hard are his favourite films. He likes action thriller films to have a sense of suspense leaving the audience on the edge of their seats, waiting and wanting to find out what’s going to happen next and what is the reason for people’s actions. He also likes action thrillers to contain exciting, fast pace action which keeps him entertained.

Steve keeps posted of the latest films out in the cinemas via both Flixster and IMDB Apps which are on his Iphone 4. Also through Ping Chat with his friends he keeps updated with the realease of new films. 

Both Steve's interest and knowledge for Action thriller films will make him a great fit for our target audience for our film 'Namless', as he fits within the age demographic for the film which is between the ages of 18-25. Also, as Steve has a interest for Action thriller films and suspense , I feel that he would enjoy our action thriller as it includes all the elements that Steve looks for within a film.

In Steve's Manbag you will find the following items:

- I phone 4+ Blackberry

- Apple Laptop (Macbook)

- Account Sheets ( work papers)

- Protein Bar

- Pack of Cigarettes 

- A bottle of Powerade

- Pack of Mints

Q4+Q5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience.

My Thriller film ' Nameless' is an independent, low budget student film by the production company Candi studios (Candi productions). Candi studios is a small independent production company that specialises in sponsoring low-budget student films. It allows students to produce films without requiring any budget and gives students the technical equipment required in-order to produce the film. Through distribution , the film has reached the audience through being showcased in both College (being shown to our peers within our class) and also in the local independent cinema ' The Screen on the Green' in Angel. It will also 200 copies will be released on DVD so it enables both our peers and family the opportunity to watch my film. The target audience of the film will alos get a copy as everyone who created a thriller this year will receive a copy and they fit into the target audience of 'Nameless'. 
 Also my film has been released on the internet via Facebook where I have received audience feedback. Also the film has been uploaded through the internet via websites such as; Blogger and Vimeo. 

Vimeo is a video sharing website that is different to Youtube. Through our film being uploaded on Vimeo, we hope that we will collect feedback from different audiences then in-comparison to the audience on Facebook.

Below is a an example of a students psychological thriller named 'Drip' which has been uploaded on the internet through the website youtube. 
As youtube is a tremendously popular website used worldwide, it reaches a wide number of viewers. Youtube is a popular website regularly used to promote all sorts of videos produced by both mainstream and independent producers. It is a successful website used by many people to get their videos  noticed by a large amount of people. Our film is shown on Facebook because a large amount of are target audience is on the social network site therefore they will have the opportunity to view the film because of the quick access they have. They can also leave comments which could benefit us if we create another thriller. 

Drip

The students psychological thriller film 'Drip' received  a far number of views(998)by people viewing the film on Youtube.  

Having recently checking the thriller film ' Drip' , I have found that it has increased in the number of views , giving a total number of views as (1003)

Below shows the audience feedback received for the film Drip. 

Evaluation, Question 2; Social Groups

Q2.How does your media product represent particular social groups.

When creating 'Nameless' we wanted our characters to represent people aged between 20 to 30 years old. The reason why we decided to do this is because the characters are meant to be young, city professionals. What makes our thriller suspenseful is the fact that the audience would not expect the characters to be involved in something negative, it makes them question the situation.

To represent particular social groups we used different types of Mise en Scene and camera shots. Our opening is similar to a movie called : 'Collateral' , there are a lot of similarities with 'Collateral' and 'Nameless' because it was a film that we was inspired by.

Here are some examples of how we used props, costumes, and locations to represent a particular social group;

Costumes

Each character was dressed in a business wear conveying their social group (professional business workers) and their age. We would expect business people to be dressed in a suit and generally we would expect adults to be dressed in suits for the obvious reasons like work. The use of clothing in our opening contributed to the actors roles being more realistic. This is very similar to 'Collateral' being that most of the characters are in suits to convey their social group.

Props ; Mobile phone

We used  mobiles, to represent a social group.Although blackberries are now associated with a large majority of all age groups and social classes, they were originally targeted at business people. By business people I mean professions who work in city jobs like banking. We therefore made our characters all use blackberries connotes that the characters using them are professional business workers and this is how we wanted to represent the characters.This is very similar to 'Collateral' being that there is a scene where one of the characters are on their mobile phone, to connote their, profession and social group.

Taxi

We originally had a scene where one character arrives at a location in a taxi. However the taxi was a black taxi and these are not only traditional British vehicles but represent a form of transport for the higher social classes. Usually you wouldn’t see school children get a taxi to school but business professional and inner city workers regularly take this form of transport to work and around. Black Taxis are fairly expensive. Consequently by using this form of transport we wanted the characters to be represented as middle class professionals and we wanted them to appear like they were wealthy. Once again, this is  similar to 'Collateral' being that a taxi is used, it forms the basis of the entire  plot.

Barclays Bike

There is also a scene in the film where a character gets off a Barclays Bicycle. Our film was filmed in London; people within our target audience are likely to be from London, because they can relate to the movie. Therefore we can assume they know these bikes are aimed at people heading into inner city work, this connotes that the character works in the city and it represents the fact that the character as older then the actual actor is.

Location (Apartment):


Lastly we used a high market apartment to film the phone scene where the main character comes out of a lift. The location makes the audience associate the character with wealth and style because the surroundings are up market and in association with wealthy people. This is very similar to 'Collateral' being that various wealthy locations are used to represent a particular social group. 

                                                                               

Q6. Audience Feedback and Comments



Today in class we show-cased our thriller openings to the rest of the class to gain audience feedback and comments on the film. The age group of the audience were between the ages of 16-17.This was vital that we got feedback between this age group as they fit in between our target audience age group. Getting Audience feedback is crucial as it would determine whether or not our thiller opening achieved our Target audience or if it didn't.The target film aged for our Thriller film is 15+. We felt this was a good age group to set our film, as most thriller films follow the same age group. Overall we got positive feeback from the audience. Below shows a mash-up of all the comments from the audience by using the programme wordle.net, I was able to make this collage of the audiences feedback.

 

 

 I also recorded audience feedback of what they thought of our thriller opening sequence when showcased at the Screen on the Green Cinema, In Angel. Below shows videos of what the audience thought of the film.

Recording Of Creating Credits and Titles and the Film Certificate
Using Quicktime Player, We recorded the process of us Creating both Credits and Titles on Final Cut Pro and creating the Film Certificate using the program PowerPoint.

Planning and the original idea

At first we had too many ideas for possible opening sequences. At first we were going to do a drug scene, within the scene a boy would have been caught up in a position where he has seen the drug scene take place, however he recorded the clip and the drug dealers find out this, this then led to them tracking down this boy for the video. 

We instead agreed against this idea and wanted to create a opening sequence where nothing obvious therefore leading to the the audience asking questions and building anxiety to find out what happens later on during the film. 

The idea we came up with finally was: a man staggers out of a lift, then its a flash back of earlier events. 3 people get a phone call, they all are called to a building, at arrival they are all surprised to see each other there, they then follow signs on the wall that lead them to a room where a man awaits them, at this point the opening ends. 

The effect of the idea is that the audiences raises several questions. This builds both suspense and anxiety. We also haven't shown them enough for them to lose interest as they don't know the out come of the situation. We created are opening with a the idea that we want the audience to maintain an interest in the film beyond the opening. 

Behind The Scenes- Part 4
Below shows a blog with us behind the scenes at our first location which is in Hoxton, East London. As you can see, We are getting prepared before we shoot our scene for our opening sequence. I am applying fake blog onto John Shirt and you can see us in our characters. 
Enjoy  :)

Behind The Scenes Part 3
Below shows a video Blog with us before filming the basement scene for our Thriller Opening Sequence. Within the video blog, we introduced the remaining cast that you will see within our film, the costume designer and the audience is able to see the cast behind the scenes on set of our film. Both the director and the cast talks about their input within the film and what the audience should be expecting when watching o0ur opening sequence.
Enjoy:)

Final Cut For 'NAMELESS'
Below shows the Final Cut of our opening sequence for our Action Thriller film 'NAMELESS'. Finally finished and polished after how many weeks editing and filming. We are proud with the outcome of the film and are proud to release the final cut to the audience including all the soundtrack, credits and title and full effects. 
Hope you enjoy :)- From the members of Group 5

Interview on the film Black Swan

The Experience
Below is a Blog where I recorded myself talkin about my experience of working within a group and producing a Thriller Opening Sequence and the difficulties I faced along the way.
Enjoy :) 

The Creation of Characters
For our Thriller opening sequence we had to create names for our characters. This was to ensure that when creating credits and titles for our opening sequence our names did not appear twice. Below is an account of the characters story before the film and an insight into how their role and position with the film.


Main Characters (Appearing in opening sequence) : 
Denzel (On screen actor) - Grenado
Escoba (On screen actor) - Carlos Gomez


Featuring Cast (Appearing in opening sequence) :
Danielle Charles (On screen actor|) - Nicola Johnson
Anita Baker (On screen) - Latoya Jones 


Grenado - A man of clever thinking. He drags people into uncompromising positions. He represents danger and is a respected man across the city by peers of the business and underworld. 


Carlos Gomez: Represents a highly successful businessman who is dragged into a position that his persuasive techniques cannot get him out of. His life is put under serious threat and he has to find the other side of him before his successful career as a businessman, to relive him of the forever complicated life changing situation ahead of him. 


Nicola Johnson: A family women who provides for her two children through her city based banking job. She would never have imagined the danger she has entered. 


Latoya Jones: A property owner with mega deals and large financial backing. She is vital to her companies success but will she be successful getting out of the daunting situation ahead of her.?

The Arts of Title Sequences

For Our Thriller opening sequence, We had two choices in how to illustrate the title sequence onto our actually sequence. Firstly, we could either render a background onto both our credits and titles which would be the background shown in our sequence which would be separate from the film itself and interrupt the clips being shown to the audience in order to show the title of the film, characters names, directors name etc... or we could overlay the credits and titles onto the clips within our opening sequence which would allow the audience to view what's happening during the opening sequence. We thought that it was more effective to overlay the credits and titles onto the clips within the film as it wouldn't take the audiences attention away from what is happening during the opening sequence, but enable them to find the the title of the film, the characters involved within the film and the directors name etc... By using effects on Final-Cut Pro , we was able to apply cross-dissolves onto both our credits and titles so that there was a smooth cut as the titles and credits changed from one to another to correspond the changing of clips within the opening sequence.

Above shows an example of the Arts of Title sequence as it enables the audience to view what is happening during the opening sequence through the variation of different shot types and actions happening within the clips.

Examples of Action Thrillers
I looked at a number of Action Thriller films in order to get ideas on what we could include in our action thriller opening sequence. Also , I looked at ways in which we could improve our sequence by looking at techniques and elements used in other action thrillers.By looking at a variety of different Action thrillers made through-out different years, shows me a comparison of how Action thrillers have changed over the years and whether they share any similarities or if they differ in any way.
Below shows some examples of action thriller films made within different years
- I chose all these films at random. By re-searching the best action thrillers, these are the films that came up. By looking at all the films below, I found that they all shared some similarities as they all contain a lot of violents and they all contain a large amount of weapons such as guns and explosive and large elaborate set pieces for the action to take place. Also, the film contains a series of fast pace actions which keeps the audience engage wanting to continue watching to find out what happens and what the characters find out along the way. 


1. Kill Bill Volume.1 (2003)
Director:Quentin Tarantino
Storyline:The Bride wakes up after a long coma. The baby that she carried before entering the coma is gone. The only thing on her mind is to have revenge on the assassination team that betrayed her - a team she was once part of.

2. Die Hard (1988) 

Director:John Mctieran

Storyline: New York cop John McClane gives terrorists a dose of their own medicine as they hold hostages in an LA office building.

3. The Professional (1994)
Director: Luc Besson
Storyline:Professional assassin Leon reluctantly takes care of 12-year-old Matilda, a neighbor whose parents are killed, and teaches her his trade.

4. The Fugitive (1993)

Director:Andrew Davis

Storyline: Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of killing his wife, must find the real one-armed killer while avoiding Marshal Sam Gerard.

5.Casino Royale (2006)
Director: Martin Campbell 
Storyline: In his first mission, James Bond must stop Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorist organizations, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.