Our task was to create the opening two minutes of a film. At the beginning of this long process, we decided to stick to the ‘Suspense Thriller’ type of film. This decision was made reasonably quickly, as we all decided that it was one of the best genres to use, Comedy would be very difficult, as would action because of the high demand for them both. Once the genre was decided, we moved straight to Youtube and started to research ‘Thriller’ films of all sorts, including the ‘Saw’ films.
Some of the trailers we watched for research, were a little more graphic than we were thinking of. Like this picture, from Saw 2. At this point, we decided to make our film more ‘Suspense’ than ‘Thriller’, so avoid these disturbing images!Although we wanted to avoid the distressing images or murder and death, we liked the idea of someone being the cause of it, the powerful person behind the sorrow and distress. The group chose to incorporate this into our film, a person that is not seen properly, the mysterious character, an intruder? At this point, a person in our group remembered a film they had seen previously, named, ‘When a Stranger Calls.’ In the film, baby-sitter Jill Johnson receieves increasingly threatening phonecalls from a brutal serial killer, who she first assumes is a juvenile prankster. We viewed the trailer, and decided to use this type of suspense as a base to our film.
Here is an image of the babysitter in the film; her worried expression gives a sense suspense and tension, and a sense of not knowing from the audience’s perspective, which is what we aimed to achieve through the portrayal and representation in our film.Here is the trailer to ‘When A Stranger Calls.’
During these stages of planning for our film, I also remembered about a Desperate Housewives episode I had watched, where the camera looks like it dissolves through the door. I thought this would fit in well with our film, as it would give the sense of someone entering the house with an eerie effect, without anyone knowing.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
It is very hard to try to represent different social groups in a 2 minute film. However, I believe it to be quite easy to pick up a particular social group in our movie, coming from the size and style of the house we used, and the clothes the babysitter is wearing. The house is located in a remote setting, surrounded by trees and a large amount of land, showing that the family is middle class. The house is decorated to a high standard, again, portraying a middle class family home. The girls t-shirt reads, 'Fitch,' which again shows the middle class name of the clothing brand, 'Abercrombie and Fitch,' her look is casual, yet she is well-presented. This is all held in the mise-en-scene of the film. The mise-en-scene is very important to the representation of the character being shown.The accent of the girl again shows that she is quite middle class, she holds a classic British accent, with no slang or accent attatched.
The body language of the baby-sitter shows that she is a typical school girl, possibly privately educated, slightly tiliting on one leg when she stands, also shown in the shot above. In terms of props, there is only the mobile phone she holds, which is a main part to the film, as it is how she is being threatened. Again, the phone is of nice quality, showing that she is able to afford these luxuries.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media
produc
t and why?
t and why?I feel that Working Title Films would be the best media insitution to distribute and produce my film, because of the wide variety of films that Working Title works with. Some of these films being; Wild Child, Notting Hill, Wimbledon, Four Weddings and a Funeral, About a Boy, Hot Fuzz, Nanny McPhee, Billy Elliot, so it is obvious that Working Title deal with a wide variety of genres in films, from Romantic Comedy to films for a younger audience, for example, Nanny Mcphee. This would mean that our 'Suspense' film would fit in well to this theme, and Working Title would distribute it well to cinemas, arthouse and multiplex, TV stations and and to DVD outlets. Working Title films, such as Bridget Jones' Diary and About a Boy are often showed on TV, usually through ITV or Channel4. This would give our film the best chance of being recognized and seen by different audiences of all types, young and old.
Working Title, which covers the UK, is also paired with Universal Pictures, which covers the US films. With these two companies being linked, our film would also be distributed over to America, again, giving it the best chance of being seen and acknowledged. With Working Title being such a successful and well-known Production and Distribution company, there is a good chance that our film would be seen quickly, as audiences are already attracted by Working Title and the successful films they have already dealt with. So for these reasons, I think that Working Title would be the best media institution to distribute our film.
Who would be the audience of your media product? And how did you attract/address your audience?
From the content of our film, I think our film would have a 15 certificate. Children under the age of 15 may simply be uninterested in the film itself, they may be more into Romantic Comedies or Action, rather than this 'Suspense' film. There are no extreme scenes of violence, however, there are scenes of a 'spooky' nature, for example, the being watched by the 'Intruder.' As these scenes are not suitable for children, or they may find them slightly disturbing or distressing, I would suggest that our film would have a 15 certificate. So for the content, these are the reasons why it would be a 15 certificate. This is the part in our film where it shows the baby-sitter being watched from outside the house.
From the content of our film, I think our film would have a 15 certificate. Children under the age of 15 may simply be uninterested in the film itself, they may be more into Romantic Comedies or Action, rather than this 'Suspense' film. There are no extreme scenes of violence, however, there are scenes of a 'spooky' nature, for example, the being watched by the 'Intruder.' As these scenes are not suitable for children, or they may find them slightly disturbing or distressing, I would suggest that our film would have a 15 certificate. So for the content, these are the reasons why it would be a 15 certificate. This is the part in our film where it shows the baby-sitter being watched from outside the house.
From a practical and planning side of the film, we also used many factors to try and attract our target audience. To ensure that the message of Voyeurism, (being watched without knowing) was put across, we decided to shoot the film from the Intruder's perspective. Our group carefully planned our storyboards, placing the right shots in the right place, to make sure that the audience is reminded little and often of the fact that the baby-sitter is being watched. The first shot is of the intruder approaching the house, it is quite obvious that the person is walking and looking up and around the house. Another shot is the one shown above, the intruder is looking through the window at the baby-sitter, showing that she is being watched. One of the most important camera angles we used was near the end, when myself and another member of the group sat on the window ledge, hanging outside of the house, to get the right shot, and to furthermore show the situation from the intruder's point of view. Over 15's may appreciate this point slightly more than under 15's, and my find it exciting that the audience is put in the eyes of the protagonist(main character).
Another practical side of the filming process in thought of the target audience is the sound; music, dialogue and background sounds. There is little dialoguein the 2 minute film, apart from the baby-sitter talking to the family of the child she is babysitting for, and the intruder itself. The TV is switched on throughout the film, giving a background noise of the tv, giving the sense of verisimilitude, a sense of real life situations. Over the top of this TV noise, the baby-sitter speaks casually to the family over the phone, a lot of the people watching the film will be able to relate to this as a lot of the children/teenagers watching it will have babysat other children, again creating a real life situation the audience can relate with. Later on in the clip, the baby-sitter again speaks on the phone, but to a different respondent, the Intruder, we used a microphone and other intruments to create the voiceover, and also used tools on the Apple Mac to create the sound of someone talking on the phone. The spooky voice on the other end of the phone is almost the climax of the 2 minutes, again, the audience would be able to relate to the baby-sitter, empathising with her.
The last practical point is Music. We used a simple yet effective tune throughout the clip, it was strings mostly, giving the film a sense of spookiness, which over 15's would appreciate and be able to understand, they would link the music with the clip, and understand that it won't suddenly turn into a comedy. At the climax of the clip, we added drums to the already existing tune, building the tension and suspense. I think that 15 year old teenagers would be old enough to pick up on the fact that when this happens, they know someone bad will happen, and appreciate the music is a big part of the clip.
To conclude, I think the age limit for our film would probably be a 15.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The main technological equipment I had to get to grips with was the Apple Macs, not having one at home made this quite difficult! The set up being very difficult and the shortcuts are quite difficult to remember. However, this turned out to be a minor glitch, as the more I used all the programmes, the quicker I picked up on it. Plus, despite the 'having to get used to' factor of the macs, I realised that they are actually very practical and easy to use, that is, once you have got used to it.
One of the programmes we used was LiveType. This is the programme we used to create our credits at the beginning and the end of our film. Once you understand the concept of the programme, it is very efficient and straightforward to use. However, I had a few problems with a few of the credits, the size of the writing would automatically change, and so would the style, so overall, I found it frustrating, but consequently very useful and easy. This is what our final credits looked like, we decided to go for a font that moved, this one slightly moves, shivers, to give the eerie and spooky feel of the film. The colour of the blue we felt showed the coldness and again scary feel. 
This is our final credits that we decided. The font jumps from two points on the screen to create the moving effect.
Another major programme we used to create our film was Final Cut Express. This was used to edit our film and to insert and edit the audio aspects of the film. Also, once we had finished our work on LiveType and GarageBand, it was inserted onto Final Cut Express. This programme held all our work together as one film. I found this programme, (Final Cut Express) very easy to use, and I enjoyed the set-out, which made it very easy and straightforward to use. I faced no real problems with the programme, other than the rendering of each section.
We used a programme called GarageBand to create the music for our film. We found this programme more useful than other groups, we only wanted a simple tune of strings, however, it took us a while to find the right one that fitted our film well. We were able to just repeat the same tune throughout the whole clip using the tools on garageband. Then at the climax of the clip we were able to edit the original tune by adding drums to add to the suspense of the clip. It looks complicated when using it, but actually, it is very simple. The only problem I would suggest is the time it takes to find the right tune you are looking for, but once it is found, the programme is very simple.
The equipment we used to shoot our film itself was the straightforward camcorder, I am not new to this, and have used one many times before, however, it is always good to keep familiar with the things you know. In the preliminary task, I met the tripod, which is a very useful piece of equipment, enabling and ensuring that the shots are taken straight and in the same place. However, in my group, we had slight trouble with the movement of the tripod, as our film required it to move, on a wooden floor, but we soon worked out how to overcome this problem.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Throughout this filming process, I feel I have learnt a lot in all different aspects of media. The importance of the camera angles, sound, mise en scene and editing, and how crucial they can be in the making of a film. I have learnt a lot about how each of these topics represent characters in films and how important they are.
I have also learnt about different programmes and how to use them on Apple Macs, which I now feel I will be able to use efficiently over the next year and in the near future.
I have realised, over the past few months, that the planning of a project or product, is the most important and that organisation and presentation is key. The planning is the original ideas for the film and how they are put together, from the beginning I realised that we had to be very organised when planning our film, and make sure that we included all four sections, (mise en scene, cinematography, sound and editing), to a high extent and to a high standard. I feel that within our group, we achieved this, and achieved organisation when planning.
When filming our product, we realised the patience and technical ability needed for the production of a film/media product. We were able to overcome, as a group, the challenges that were put in front of us in terms of camera work, editing, and finding music for our final product.
I have enjoyed this task very much, it tested all our abilities to the max and it was definitely challenging. However, I am very pleased with the finished product and I have learnt a lot from it.
