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 Feedback Interview

I interviewed 4 people who had seen our thriller opening and asked them what they thought about it.

Q.1) What do you think of the our thriller opening film ?
A)    I really enjoyed it. It kept me suspense from the beginning to the end which is why i love movies like that. The story was very believable, it is a type of movie you would see in the real movies. Very dramatic and keeping the audience awake waiting for something happening. I liked the black and white effects in the beginning which you only saw the colour red which was only when the lift was coming down and it said the 'ground floor' and the 'blood' on the shirt which was very dramatic. Also i liked the ending when the 3 people walked into the room and the man was there waiting with objects and it ended there. I wanted to see what would happen next which kept me excited.

Q.2) Any negative stuff about the opening film ?
A)    It wasn't so clear when the 3 people walked into the building separately. The camera was shaking and you couldn't really be able to see the actors and actress face expression.

Q.3) What kind of target audience is the movie aimed at for ?
A)    Mostly the people who watch thriller and action movies. Very suitable for teenagers above 15 and for young adults. The certificate says 15 anyways. But i'm guessing teenagers under 15 would love to watch this as well.

Q.4) Any favourite parts of the thriller opening ?
A)    My favourite part was the end when the scary guy just kept having objects in his hand and pouring liquid onto the floor which made me think what is he doing and who is he. Then when the 3 people were following the signs which they the actors and actress didnt know where it would lead them and made the audience think the same, we had no clue. We just waiting for something dramatic to happen. Then when they walked in to the room. You could see the scary guy looking at all 3 which they were all scared. I really wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Evaluation Q.3 The Audience For My Product

Jonathan Peters is a 19 year old who studies business marketing and law. He has enjoyed to watch thriller and action movies ever since he first saw the movie 'Hitman' He likes films which excite him with a lot of action which keeps him awake and be anxiety to what is going to happen next. He lives in a central area in London. He travels to university on the weekdays which is in Bedford and stays from monday to friday. On the weekends he has free time to go out with his mates, play football in the local park and go to bars or clubbing.
What he wears is what a typical teenager would. The latest brand clothes from Franklin and Marshall, Superdry or Ralph Lauren. He would normally wear a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt, Chinos from Franklin and Marshall and Converses or Vans. He likes to describe himself as a fashionable boy.
I would say Jonathan fits in perfect as a target audience of my film 'Nameless' The movie is authorised for viewers above the age 15 and he enjoys films such as action thriller. 

 

Evaluation, Question 8; What have you learned in the progression from your preliminary task?

Before the creating our thriller, ‘Nameless’ we were given a preliminary task. The prelim task was basically a practice run, to enable us to learn about different camera angles, how to use a camera and what not to do when using a camera. We made many mistakes whilst creating our prelim but these mistakes helped us to improve and develop and if you were compare our prelim to our final product you will see how we developed.

Narrative; before creating our prelim we had no narrative, we did not plan or brainstorm any ideas we just did everything spontaneously and improvised with what we had. This is very different to our final product being that we spent a long duration of time planning ideas, brainstorming ideas, sourcing different props and different locations. What makes ‘Nameless’ so authentic is the fact that the opening is purely driven by its suspenseful narrative, this is something that our prelim task definitely did not have.

No Genre; because of the absence of narrative, there were no narrative conventions that were represented in our prelim and because of this you are not able to figure what genre it fits in. This is very different to ‘Nameless’ because, the film score, the characters, the instant arousal, the quick edits and the narrative all represent the thriller genre.

Title Sequence; Our prelim, lacked visual qualities because of its simplistic title sequence, in ‘Nameless’ we used a stylized font to fit with the entire theme and representation of the story line. However in our prelim, we rushed and picked any font within the category in ‘LiveType’, instead of sourcing other fonts.

You can definitely see the difference in the stylised element of the two fonts, 'Nameless', represents more of a brand.

The order of the title sequence in our prelim is also something that we learned about, we learned that the sequence that we used was the wrong order. The correct order for a sequence is; the production company 'CandiStudios', the actors/actresses, the music editor,the film editor, the writer and finally the director. As you can see here, we did not use this order for our prelim.

Mise en Scene; For our thriller we used props such as, a Blackberry,artificial blood, coins, white paint, a table,a chair an upmarket flat and our college's basement. The props used for our thriller made our narrative, without it our thriller would not make any sense. The locations used helped to represent the social group of city proffessionals, this is very different to our prelim being that the location that we used did not represent a social group. The only props that we used in prelim was the props that were provided by our media teachers, for instance, the table and chairs in glass. The lighting in our prelim was extremely bright, it effected some of our shots being that we were unable to see the leading character.

 Here is some examples of props used in our thriller opening.

                                Here is an example of the classroom that we used in our thriller.

Camera Shots; In the prelim we did not edit shots correctly, many of the shots skip and some are too long, a good example of this is when the leading character is walking down the hall way, this scene  is too long, it had nothing to do with the narrative and personally i thought that after watching it i became bored. Originally the idea was to do this so that the audience question where she is going but it did not need to be as long as it was. For 'Nameless' there is a similar scene when the characters meet in the basement, what makes this scene different from our prelim is the fact that we used a quick edit, the edit allowed the audience to see the 'Nameless' caller doing various actions, what made this more effective than the prelim was how the suspense was built and how we kept the audience entertained by making transitions from shots.

Soundtrack; Another difference between our prelim and our final thriller opening is the soundtrack. The sound that we used for our prelim did not relate to the narrative and we only used it in the beginning. In our final product we created a variety of non digetic sounds, for instance; the coin sound, the door slamming, the texured , atmospheric, suspensful, droning sound use in the backingground and the quick violins.In our prelim we did not use any sound to emphasize every day actions , like closing a door.

In my conclusion i would like to say that we learned and progressed from our prelim and this is shown through our different props, locations, characters, locations and sound.

                                         

Evaluation, Question 7: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When creating our thriller we used a variety of, different types, of technology. The technology we used ranged from internet websites , such as 'Google', 'Youtube' and 'Blogger'. We also used Apple software, such as, 'Final Cut Pro', 'Soundtrack Pro', 'HandBrake' and 'LiveType'.

Before creating our thriller we used the internet to do research on other successful, thriller, movies to get some inspiration. 'Google', was the search engine we mainly used, it allowed us to access several websites, for example. 'IMBD', 'The Art Of The Title Sequence', '101FREEFonts.net' and 'Blogger'. 'IMBD' allowed us to view other films within the thriller genre; we were able to learn about the different narrative conventions of thrillers.

One of the first things we did before planing and filming was a preliminary task. We learnt how to use a 'JVC' camera. After creating our prelim we uploaded it onto a programme called 'HandBrake'. From 'Final Cut Pro', we changed our rendered movie as a Quicktime file (MP4), then on the main desktop we typed 'Handbrake' into the search bar, we then converted our file as an ipod touch file (this makes the file size smaller). We then uploaded the video onto 'Blogger', to upload the file onto 'Blogger' we clicked on the video icon and pressed 'choose file', then we were done. This experience enabled us to learn about how to use 'Blogger'.

After doing our prelim task we continued to do research, we created a pitch onto Microsoft powerpoint, to present to the class. We then created an animatic storyboard. To improve the visual aspect of both the presentation and the animatic, we used a website called 'Prezzi' and copied the embeded link into the HTML section in 'Blogger'.

When we were done filming we used a programme called 'Final Cut Pro'. Final cut pro is the programme we used to edit our thriller opening sequence. We also used a programme called 'SoundtrackPro', we used this programme to create non digetic sounds. After making our sound we rendered it into a submiz and then imported it into 'Final cut Pro'. (this is an example of how we used two technologies together). 'LiveType', is a programme that we used to create the title sequence for our thriller. After creating our sequence we imported it  into 'Final Cut Pro'. 

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 Question 7 EXTENDED

During the pre and post production process of creating our thriller we used a range of technology. For example when planning our thriller we used YouTube to view other thriller openings that could influence our work.                                                                                                                                     The camera was an important part of technology as we used it to film the footage, without it we wouldn’t have anything to show the audience. We edited the footage using Final Cut Pro. Then we used Livetype to create the title credits. We imported the credits onto Final Cut and placed them within the timeline. We followed the same process after we created our soundtrack on Soundtrack Pro. These programmes were all used in creating the final movie. Handbrake was important in allowing us to make the movie the right format so it could be placed on Blogger. Blogger is accessible to everyone and is a way our film will reach our target audience. Moreover Vimeo will also be used to screen our movie on the internet. The internet will allow it to reach a higher number of our target audience as many people can access the internet. Lastly Facebook was used to broadcast our movie to the audience, as we create a page where people could view the film and leave comments that will benefit us if we make a thriller opening again.

EVALUATION Feedback Interview

      I conducted 5 interviews to get audience feedback of my thriller opening. Below is an example of one of the interviews I done.

1)      What are your first thoughts on our thriller opening and why?

I think it’s really good. It’s directed and edited very well. I think the storylines believable and the actors play their roles professionally. The scenes moved from one to the next quickly, the font makes the film look more stylish. I like the end part the most because of the quick cuts showing the characters following the signs and the man doing crazy action with objects.

2)      What was your favourite part and why?

I like the beginning when the man falls out the lift. It’s shown in black and white but the blood remains red this is creative and the music makes the scene dramatic as you know his dying.  The ending is my favourite though. The music is really fast paced and builds suspense and the climaxing point is when you see the man’s face. But your are anxious to see his face because the pervious camera shot show the other characters seeing him and they look scared and shocked.

3)      What do you think about the music and fonts?

The font was stylish but maybe could have been clearer as some names were difficult to read. The music suited the opening really well, maybe the music in the middle scene could have been different as it didn’t really seem like thriller music.

4)      Who do you think is the films target audience?

I think the target audience is people above 15 because the certificate says 15+. Also the film seems aimed at people who like action thrillers because the font is similar to the action thriller Casino Royale. I think despite having two female actors in the opening the film seems more aimed stereotypically and the male gender because of the action scenes involved.   

5)       What could we change in the film?

The film is really good, but maybe the fonts could be clearer, the ending when the man dies could also be clearer in showing from that point it’s a flashback as it doesn’t really show the audience what’s happening in the next scene.

6)      Would you watch it? Or buy the DVD?

Yeah I would as I want to see how the storyline unfolds. It’s a good opening so hopefully the rest of the film would be good.

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.

Q: 4 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The media institutions that we used to distribute our thriller film was ‘CandiStudios' and 'Candiproductions', two, small, independent production companies. Independent, produced, movies, are different to mainstream films being that they  have a specific style. The reason why we chose this route, is because we had a relatively low budget and we did not have any connections with any major production studio, to help with the financing of the film. By choosing to distribute our thriller independently, our vision was not changed, however we had to compromise our marketing strategy. 

EVALUATION Q.8

Before the creation of 'Nameless' we conducted a preliminary task where we first developed our skills in creating a short clip. The prelim task was very different to our opening thriller sequence for various reasons, one mainly being that we had less time to prepare it and it wasn't a thriller opening but a clip showing a conversation. Nevertheless the prelim task was vital in helping our film making skills develop and be tested. Mistakes were made during this task therefore its important to show the ways we have progressed and improved our skills in our opening thriller sequence. 

A main difference in our prelim project and our opening thriller sequence is the genre of the clip. The Prelim task had no genre and this therefore resulted in the clip having no target audience and no theme. The audience would be unclear on what the clips about because there is no genre. So in our thriller opening we made sure the genre was put across very quickly.

A key way in showing the genre of the opening was our use of font. In the prelim the font was very basic and standard. However in our opening we made the font relate to the genre. We used a font that conveyed to the audience that the Film was an Action thriller. 

(There is a contrast in font. The Thriller film 'Nameless' has a font that relates to the genre in the sense it’s an Action Font and more likely to be in a film, whereas the prelim font is basic and not really indicating the clips genre.) 

]In the prelim we chose an opening that started with titles over blank screen. The reason behind this was that we wanted the titles to quickly appear and then get straight into the main part of the prelim. However in our thriller opening the title credits appear through a narrative opening. The reason behind this is that many thriller films chose this opening structure because the names of the film have higher importance. There was also more people involved in the process of creating the thriller opening compared to the prelim consequently meaning a narrative opening would be less time consuming as the title credits appear throughout the opening rather then just before the opening. The last reason for the change in structure was that in the prelim all the titles appeared together and we believe this may lose the interest of the audience from the beginning. Therefore in the thriller opening we made the production company appear on a blank screen then moved directly into the main opening which was directed with the idea of grabbing the audiences attention from the start. 

(As you can see the prelim has a blank screen title credit structure whereas in the thriller opening has a narrative opening and flows from beginning to end) 

In the prelim I think some shots were too long and would lose audience interest. For example when the characters walking down the hall the scenes too long, the audience doesn't know where she's going but this suspense is soon lost because of the speed she gets there. Therefore in our thriller we have a similar scene where three people are following signs to a room. But instead of prolonging the speed in which they get there we made the audience suspenseful of where their going through quick match cuts of a man doing threatening actions. These actions make the audience anticipate what will happen up until the in which the people reach the room. 

(The process of watching the characters walk to the room is far more thrilling because of the match cuts compared to the much longer less interesting walk in the prelim)

                                                                                                           
There is a difference in the production companies in our prelim and thriller opening. The prelim has a basic font and appears really quickly. However in the thriller opening we made the production and distribution companies appear longer outlining their importance. Also the way in which the titles appear is significantly different. The production company of the thriller appears stylish and more formal, giving an positive impression to the audience that the film is of a high quality. Lastly the thriller opening has a formal age certificate and this makes the film appear less like a students work and more like a real film production company. 

(The way in which the production and distribution companies appear in the thriller are far more advanced and stylish compared to the prelim)

 

The location of the prelim is in college. This isn't thrilling or representing the actors in a way that avoids there normal lives. What I mean by this is that because it based in college the audience can assume that the characters are college students. However in our thriller opening this wasn't possible as we needed the characters to be represented in a older way, therefore the environment (location) needed to match the way they were represented. 

 

(The location for the prelim was basic as we had less time to explore locations and wouldn't work for the thriller as the characters are represented differently)

(The locations used in the thriller opening relate more to character representation and the genre of teh film. For example the Basement scenes appear 'spooky' and relate to the genre of thriller. Moreover the apartment lift represents the character as professional)

The mise en scene in the thriller opening more detailed and realistic as we had more time to prepare  for the thriller. For example the fake blood is used on the shirt to show the mans been shot and is in danger. Furthermore the Blackberry phone shows the character is a professional and this is the way we wanted them to be represented. 

Additionally a character is seen holding various threatening weapons and these are important in showing danger and building suspense within the viewer.

Lastly in the prelim there was no costume design and the characters wore ordinary clothing. In the thriller opening we made sure we changed this as we dressed the characters in role with the way they were to be represented. For example all characters are dressed in business clothes, as this makes them appear older.

 

Lighting was used significantly different in our thriller opening and our prelim. In the prelim the lighting was natural and didn't affect the mood or tone of the scenes. However we addressed this in our thriller opening as we created shadows with the lights and this made the scene more eerie and the audience more suspicious of who's shadow it is. 







The last difference between the prelim and the thriller opening is the use of sound. In the prelim we only created sound for the title credits at the beginning and used a pre created soundtrack. And the soundtrack didn't support what was happening in the scene, however in the thriller opening the sound is made with Livetype and supports whats happening within the scene. For example at the ending the sound speeds up as the scene speeds up.