Evaluation Q4

Question 4

Distribution strategy

I think that our film would fall into the category of apocalyptic thriller which is similar to the walking dead which is trending now. The strategy that we might use is by posting a couple of episodes onto the internet as most of our target audience spend most of their time on the internet and can have interest in watching our series. This is where distributors can be found as they might have interest in it. An example of a distributor that would be suitable for our tv series is the CBS television distribution company. This has been chosen because our apocalyptic thriller are similar to the other series on CBS, for example CSI Miami which is a mystery thriller genre. CSI Miami have similar target audiences at ages around 25 to 39 years old.

Blockbusters?

It is not going to be a mainstream blockbuster as it will only be episodes and series on television or streamed online such as Netflix. We decided that it would be better to release our series on the internet as it will pick up many of our audience who, as from our research spend lots of time on the internet. A way to promote our tv series would be by advertising on tv or on the internet as a trailer for the series to attract more of our audience.

Release date

Our release date for our first episode of our tv series would have to be on October 31st. This is on Halloween because it suits the festival and many people will be be attracted to these kinds of genre which are usually apocalyptic and horror thrillers. It was the release date of the first walking dead episode on its first series.

Evaluation Q2

Created with Padlet

Evaluation Q6

How we used technology to help us with creating our opening

What was used

Hardware - Laptop, Camera, Tripod, stabilizer

Software - After effects, premier 

Online - Blogger, YouTube, free license soundtrack website and tutorials

Research

We did some research to help us improve our opening. First of all, we looked similarities in apocalyptic thrillers such as walking dead which has a very dull and kind of abandoned location which has been used in our opening. We researched for a soundtrack which had a slow build up which sounded like danger was coming closer.

Planning

Planning was first done on paper where we took a few shots of the location and looked for the best spots to add to the opening. We constructed a mood board to gather up ideas which links to our film and also made a storyboard of a rough idea of which shots will be in which order. These ideas were researched on the internet as we find images which are related to apocalypse. We took several test shots of buildings to see if it was suitable for our opening. This was then posted digitally on the blog which helped us guide our way to construct an apocalyptic thriller. We took a video of ideas of what equipment we will be using in our film opening, the theme of the opening which is an apocalypse and influences that we follow which one of them is the walking dead.

Filming

Filming was taken place with the use of 2 hard wares which are the camera and the tripod. These two hard wares gave us record of what we have filmed which later was used in the opening as we selected the shots that fitted into opening the best. Props were crucial for our film opening as it gives the audience some representation of both characters in the opening. These hard wares converged perfectly which helps benefit the opening. This made it feel like it was more of a beginning of the apocalypse as both characters are still in their casual clothes and look unprepared to what they might have to face next.    

Post production

Lots of after effects has been used in our film opening such as the change in the colour of the sky to make it darker than usual. 

Evaluation Q1

Question 1

How does your product use or challenge conventions?

In our film opening, we used conventions of thrillers by using

4 of the main media concepts

Camerawork

In our film opening we mostly took our shots from a low angle and also took pan shots, for example where me and Sean was looking at the zombie lying on the floor which was a low angle shot shown in image 2. This shows the audience that the character is looking down to some creature with confused expressions on their face to if the zombie is dead or not.

Editing

We added a fade to the shot where Sean was going to hit the zombie with the baseball bat to shots of the location which are from image 2 to image 3. We made the shots of the location darker so that it looks like an apocalypse.

Mise-en-scene

In the location that we took shots from, are showing the rural part of the city which looks abandoned and has walls around the village shown in image 3 and image 5. The shot that we took where me and Sean were taking a look at the zombie, we were wearing casual clothes which means that we were not prepared at the start if there was going to be an apocalypse and were not using special equipment as we only had a baseball bat.

Sound

Diegetic sounds are made from the sound of the zombie as it lies on the floor and also the birds humming in the shots.

Characters

Me an Sean were introduced into the opening as we see the zombie lying down. We were dressed up as casual clothes and looked unprepared as my sleeves were untidy.

Font and title

In our film opening, we used creepy and horrific type of font make it look like a apocalyptic thriller and also made the font seem a bit rusty. Our title for the film is 'dead alive' which are the opposite of each other. This relates to the zombie as we are not sure if they alive or not.

Location

The location of this place is a rural area and has seemed to be abandoned as the area is very dirty and leaves are not cutted up which is in image 5. There are walls around the village which shows that it is being protected from the zombies which is a good place to be in for a good defensive base. These shots of abandoned car parks and protection of walls shows that the opening of this film is a thriller genre.

Sub genre

The sub genres for our film are horror, apocalyptic and maybe mystery as they have to find a way to survive.

Techniques used

We picked a soundtrack of the opening which has a build up to the end of the opening where the title is shown. This gives an intensive and excite feeling towards the opening which allows it to become a thriller. Lots of panning shots were used to show the audience the abandoned area of the location. We used a low angle shot shown in image 2 which was used because both characters were standing next to the zombie. This makes the characters more powerful as it makes the characters look larger.

Evaluation Q5

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

At the beginning of my AS media studies course, i had no information of  the subject but since the first day of the course i have been improving my skills ever since and now have been significant in each criteria of skills.

Codes and Conventions

I was very confused to what media studies would teach me about film making. Going through film opening in class with the teachers explanation of the representation which creates meaning for the film which would show which genre the film is. I feel that I can refer all the micro-elements which could affect the meaning of the opening. I feel confident with my skills of using codes and convention which has been used in my Film opening.

Beginning of the course 3/10
Now 6/10

Planning and organisation

I have always been weak at organizing for a huge tasks like this task. This has happened during the production of my 1 minute film challenge which was a good start for my first film but could have been better if I had planned more efficiently. After I finished the Dead alive film opening, I felt that I helped my group and organization have been very important which led us to be able to gather many ideas to produce such an opening.

Beginning of the course 2/10
Now 5/10

Camerawork

Before beginning this course I had difficulties in taking shots of scenes and the different types of them. During the production of dead alive, I had a little time using the camera which I learnt in class about different shot types. Now I am able to use different types of shot which had been taken In dead alive.

Beginning of the course 2/10
Now 4/10

Visual effects

Visual effects was brand new to me and It was very difficult for me to understand. I had my hands on some use of visual effects and applied it to our film opening. I still do not feel confident with it but felt that I made an improvement.

Beginning of the course 1/10
Now 3/10

Editing

For the 1 minute film challenge, I had to do some editing which went well for my first ever attempt. Since then I have improved slightly in this skill as I have edited couple of scenes in the dead alive film opening and it went very well.

Beginning of the course 2/10
Now 5/10

Creative confidence

My confidence in bringing up ideas was very poor during the planning of the 1 minute film challenge as I was not sure if it would mix into the genre or not. Although during the planning, I came up with many ideas as I became for confident as I gain knowledge of codes and convention which helped me understand the concept of film making which gave me notice of what I could add to the film opening to make it better.

Beginning of the course 3/10
Now 7/10

Evaluation Q3

3.









Target audience - Age around 25 to 39 years old male and watches lots of apocalyptic movies such as Zombie land and dawn of the dead which has lots of violence in them. Plays lots of video games and uses the internet around 36-40 hours per week. Favorite hobbies are video games and going to the cinema and also watching TV at home. The video games being played by our audience are playing many post-apocalyptic video games such the resident evil series and left 4 dead.He is usually depressed and think of the world in a pessimistic way which matches apocalyptic films as they would want to see the world in a different way if something goes wrong. He is also into science and technology which has been used in apocalyptic films when something goes wrong in a lab which causes some kind of virus that spreads to turn people into zombies. He is more of a socialist who sees the world where people are working together to help each other with their issues. This links to our film opening as two of the characters show a friendship between each other which help them go through the chaos going on in their world. He also listen to aggressive music such as Metallica and the Prodigy.

Location Survey

Location Survey

Costume design

Our thoughts and ideas for clothing for Dead Alive. 

The movie will be based in the rural areas and that's how the clothing will be based as well. Since the characters are young men, they'll be wearing casual clothing such as shorts, shirts , caps, sunglasses etc. No extra and special protection as they don't have access to it.

Final Video

Final Video

Online diary 29/1/15

29/1/15

What we want to achieve this lesson

We will be continuing on editing our film opening with new shots that we took yesterday and previous ones that still has to be edited. We will be looking for a text font for our credits in our opening which matches the apocalypse.

What we achieved this lesson

We found the perfect font for the credits which we will be adding into the opening. We have edited the shot that we took of the condo from a low angle and edited the sky. 

Rough draft

Rough Draft of our film opening

Online diary 27/1/15

27/1/15

What we want to achieve this lesson

We will still be editing in this lesson 

What we achieved this lesson

We finished editing parts of the end where the title appears

Shot List and Storyboard

Shot List - Sean, Alex, Chanon from Histmedia

Storyboard from Histmedia

Script for Zombie Apocalypse

Script

Location

Abandoned Village, Sunset



Shots of an abandoned building

Low angle shot showing the characters

SFX of zombie added

Sean : (looks down to the ground and finds some sort of creature)

Alex : (looks at whats on the ground)

Sean : (turns around to look at Alex to give the signal to kill the creature or not)

Alex : (nods his head to tell Sean to hit the zombie)

Sean : (picks up his baseball bat  the zombie with baseball bat while the creature creates terrifying noises)

Pan shot of the car park in the location area

Panoramic shots of what it seems to an abandoned building

Extreme close ups on lost objects such as the shoe

Low angles of towers and mansion

someone trying to enter a locked door

Analysis for film opening

                                               Apocalypse

Analysis

Mise-en-scene

In the scene we will show the location of the house which is very calm and a quiet area.  

Editing 

We will be looking at editing the brightness of the each shot to make it dimmer so it feels more of an apocalypse as it is darker. 

Camerawork

In this film opening of an apocalypse we will be using mostly extreme close up on objects that we are going to use. For getting an image of the location we will be taking a high angle shot of the house and then zooming into the house. 

Sound

For the type of sound we are expected to use are mostly non diegetic, but will be adding some diegetic sound from the objects we are using. The reason for using more of non diegetic is that we are only setting up/ getting ready which will suit the type of the camerawork that we are using which is mostly extreme close up to the objects.

Script

Sean: (Smiling as he set up his traps)

Alex: We're ready ( a can of Campbell's soup in his hand)

Sean: All the traps of set, those things are scrambling about all over the place

Alex: It's getting dark, have you had dinner.
We can't run we an empty stomach (continue to finish his soup)

Sean: I already finish dinner
Those taste like shit

Alex: That all we have, this could be our last meal of our life time. ( Looking into the can then around it) ( Then he toss it in the bin)

Both Sean and Alex pick up his gun and turn back

Camera pan through out the house
Close up on traps
Zoom effect such a a blurred from on object to another

Pan until reach the back door (where the kitchen is) Zoom in the knifes and a kettle boiling on the stove

Stream back to the front door and un the stairs and into the balcony seeing the two of them reload there guns

P.O.V. shot of them viewing through the front gate.

New idea

New Idea

Zombie Apocalypse

We thought of a new idea of a zombie apocalypse which is similar to a home invasion but includes zombies. We chose apocalypse because we thought of an idea as we found an abandoned building which makes the atmosphere feel like post-apocalyptic as the building is torn apart. We are thinking of doing and opening which is similar to the walking dead which includes of dark tone and mood of the atmosphere.

Story Board

Online diary 21/1/15

21/1/15

What we want to achieve this lesson

We will be editing new shots that we took of our location that we filmed during the weekend. We will also be analyzing our rough cut to see what we could improve.

What we achieved this lesson 

We finished editing parts of the opening by replacing the sky and colour correction of the opening. We analyzed our rough cut and found out that we had to make some changes and will be taking some new shots.

Location Report

Online diary 19/1/15

19/1/15

What we want to achieve this lesson

We will be continuing on editing the film opening that we filmed during the weekend. 

What we achieved this lesson

We took out background sound which was no needed from the opening.

Online diary 17-18/1/15

17-18/1/15

What we want to achieve this weekend

We are aiming to finish filming our rough cut of the apocalypse and start to edit.

What we achieved this weekend 

We took a shot of the other side of the village which is an open space area and we also took a low angle shot of a tower during the evening.

Online diary 16/1/15

16/1/15

What we want to achieve in this lesson

We will try to edit our test shot of the house.

What we achieved 

We edited the test shot of the house.

Online diary 15/1/15

15/1/15

What we want to achieve in this lesson 

We are going to edit the time lapse video which we took of the house while it passes from afternoon to evening. We will also be adding more detail to the master plan. 

What we achieved

We added a number to each spot on our master plan to get a rough idea of the order of which part of the location will start first and end in our opening. We are also starting to get some ideas  such as when the character reaches the balcony and looks out and sees an apocalyptic fire and also  new non-diegetic sounds for example police sirens or sounds of cars which are used in most of apocalypse openings or movies where we researched.

Time lapse experiment

Time lapse experiment

Online diary 13/1/15

13/1/15

What we want to achieve in this lesson

Finish off our script in this lesson and look for sound effects for the apocalypse. Come up with a title for the film opening is under discussion and we added colour to our storyboard. Print out photos of the location and stick it on master plan.

What we achieved

We finished our script and founded some sound effect such as object noises of a kettle and footsteps of the character. We also printed out picture of the location and decided that the zombies would try to get in from the front door but then changes to the back door for an easier way to get in.

Location Contact Sheet

Sean, Alex, Chanon - location contact sheet from Histmedia

Online diary 12/1/15

12/1/15

What we want to achieve in this lesson

We decided to change our idea from home invasion to an apocalypse which has changed our plans slightly as it is kind of similar.  From this change in decision, we would have to find a new soundtrack for the apocalypse and also find a way to change or decrease the number of traps as it is not related to home invasion. We will be writing down an analysis on our film opening including micro elements that we will be using for the apocalypse.

What we achieved

We are almost done writing up the analysis but completed our storyboard on the apocalypse. We have decided to decrease the amount of traps for the apocalypse. 

Online Diary 9/1/15

9/1/15

What we want to achieve in this lesson

We will be looking for a soundtrack which will suit our film opening of a home invasion.
To understand the layout of the location and get a rough plan on where the traps should be placed.
Watch examples of home invasion thriller openings and what we can use from them to use in our opening.

What we achieved 

We understand that in home invasion openings, the camerawork is usually extra close up on object that the people are setting up. In most of the openings we watched, the type of non-diegetic sound being used are kind of creepy and difficult to see the character. 

Online diary 8/1/15

8/1/15

What we want to achieve

Organise of what everyone is going to do and finish/deadline. Discuss about the film opening about what to add in so it looks like it leads to home invasion. We will also be continuing writing up the storyboard and the script.

What we achieved 

We decided to choose the time of the day to be at night and take a time lapsed video of the house from afternoon to night. We will be adding non-diegetic sound of the clock when it reaches a time which the buglar gets to the house.

Hans Zimmer

Music Analysis

Hans Zimmer

What was Hans Zimmer's intention when making this soundtrack?

He wanted to create a sound for the joker which would be able to let the audience recognize that the joker is going to enter the scene which draws the audiences attention. 

What qualities did Hans Zimmer want the music to have?

The qualities that Hans Zimmer wanted was sounds which people would find terrifying like 'a string that is being stretched but doesn't break' as he said in the documentary. He also wanted the entrance of the joker to be filthy or untidy to show that the villain is entering and will cause some problems.

I think that the final score worked well as it linked in perfectly with the character personality of joker as he is very frightening. This is matched by the cello sound created as its sound creates tension for the audience as they know the joker will arrive. Without soundtrack for thriller, there is no sense of tension as there is no clue to what will happen next and doesn't excite the audience.

Planning - Group ideas discussion

Plan

Ideas

Home Invasion (Home Alone, Panic Room)

The films we selected are Home alone and Panic room where they slightly both have thriller as their genre. Panic room is more of a thriller than Home alone as in home alone it is more of a comedy as in panic room, the mood and tone is usually very dark and dull. These films have different ways of surviving/getting away from the burglars as in home alone the kid sets up funny traps but in panic room the characters which is a mother and her daughter hiding themselves inside a safe room, but later on have to get outside to get medicine for her daughter who has diabetes. Then they set up traps to get the burglars.

Mood Board & Costume Design

Created with Padlet

Target Audience and sub-genres

Target Audience and sub-genres

Target audience

This is where a product is aimed at a group of individuals
 Why is it important?
Target audience has to be found to be able to find the appropriate place for advertisement
To be able to give the appropriate content to the age group or gender of the audience. another importance is the money from media product.

Segmentation
This is where the marketplace is divided in to parts of definable and accessible.

Demography
This is the study of the population by a usage of statistics.

For example
 - Age
 - Ethicity
 - Nation
 - Occupation

 

Thriller sub genre audience from Histmedia