Foundation Portfolio

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

Looking into my research into thriller genre conventions I found it easier to base
my film on similar films. Using things like low key lighting, no dialogue and no
identity to the villain adds mystery to my media product. I saved nine frames from
my opening sequence and chose the main aspects that develop forms and
conventions of real media products. We used the film seven as the main product
that we would create a similarity to, as it does not use the identity of the killer but
mostly close ups of an evil plan that will be revealed towards the end of the film.
The main aspects that contribute are:
The Title of the film
For the title of our film we used a black background with
white writing to stand out to the audience. ‘Dear Diary..’
connotes a secret book in which the murderer can talk about
all of his victims to. The book is a treasure to the antagonist
as it hides all of the evil plans and evil things that they have
done where nobody can find out.

Setting/Location
The setting that we chose for our film was at night time in the
a dark room with one light concentrating on the diary, the
lighting elsewhere is dark and miserable which is similar in
most thriller films as they use low key lighting.
 Costumes and props
The costume that we used for the
murderer was a long black coat as
black is the colour of evil and
darkness; we dressed the victim in
casual clothes as if they were a normal
person living a normal life hiding no
secrets. In this picture there are
scissors on the table which could be a
sign of danger like in most thriller films would use either a gun or something that
can do harm to another person. We also used pictures and posted notes in order
to make the audience feel like them murderer is planning something evil to do
with other people.

Camerawork and editing

Most of the camera work that we
used was pans and zooms to
concentrate on one subject of the
film. In this picture we overlapped
two clips to give an exaggeration of
the people that the murderer is
planning to murder throughout the
film. We used continuity editing like
most thriller films use. We use many
fades to make it seem like time was
passing by but it had taken the murderer a long time to create a horrifying death
for the victims just like the film seven.
Title font and style
For the opening credits we used the
picture of someone’s wrists with
credit that look like they had been
scratched on. These create a genre
of a thriller film because it is creepy.
The main title that we used was big
bold writing in white on a black
background to again show that the
diary is a big part of the murderer’s life.
 Story and how the opening sets it up
The opening creates a sense of mystery to the audience
as the identity is not shown and the murderers back is
the only thing that is facing the audience. The opening
also shows a book at the beginning which is a major
part in the film, it is a story itself to the murderer and
the audience has already been shown it. The opening
already creates a thriller genre as we are shown a
murder within the first 2 minutes of the film which
leave the audience wanting to watch the rest of the
film.

Genre and how the opening suggests

it
We first only see the murderer’s feet
and back which creates a mystery to
the audience. We see the feet of a
person walking into a very dark room
with no lights but a light shining on
one object, the diary. Not seeing the
identity of the murderer creates a
sense of enigma as this could mean that the murderer is hiding something very
big that the audience is most likely to learn during the rest of the film.
How characters are introduced
The murderer is introduced as we
are shown there back using scissors
to cut up peoples names and cross
out their faces. This could mean to
the audience that they are violent
and have a bad attitude to life. The
first victim is introduced in casual
clothes to seem like a normal young
teenage boy, until he gets killed by the murderer.

Graphics/special effects/colour
correction etc.
 We have used black and white as colour correction in our media product as it
gives a sense of no emotion and a dark and gloomy atmosphere; this is common
in most thriller films. Special effects that we have used includes slow motion
when the victim is being killed to show how much the murderer is enjoying the
action and that it is going to be a good memory of theirs.

Question 2:
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I am comparing the character from my media product to the character called Esther in the
psychological film ‘Orphan’ about an orphan that plans to kill the family that have adopted her
and have an evil mind. Both villains are wearing long black winter coats in order to fade into the
background rather than stand out to other people. The antagonist in my film has shown her
just about to murder an innocent victim, whereas, in the film orphan, Esther is shown to have
set something alight and is planning her next move on how to get away with it.

Similarly, their roles in the films are evil characters planning and plotting to get away with all
kinds of different murders in order to get what they want. Like one another they both have
little dialogue to show a sense of mystery about them to the audience, not knowing what they
are going to do next. Both of the characters are similar in ways that they have has bad
experiences in the past. Maybe Esther’s real family abused her and possibly the villain in our
opening sequence could have been bullied or tormented and are out to get the people that
hurt them. The make-up that Esther is wearing is pale and unwell looking which makes her look
like she has something wrong with her , or even no emotion, on the other hand our villain is not
shown in the opening sequence as her identity would be kept secret until the end of the film.

A prop that the murderer is holding is a long wire in order to strangle the victim with. Esther is
not holding as prop but as we can see in the background, a house/tree house has been set
alight which is obvious that the orphan has been involved by the small grin on her face, we can
also see a child climbing down from the tree house as if she tried to burn them alive, which in
some aspect is similar to our film at the end when the diary tells the audience that the
murderer had burnt the victim.

This identifies my character with a social group of being an ‘Emo’ which stands for emotional.
They are not the typical stereotype of a teenager or child, they are not attention seeking, but
they hate life and are not very religious. The society thinks about them as failures; they are not
strong enough to hide their emotions, they're sensitive, shy, introverted, and often quiet.
Usually, Emo kids like to express depression, confusion, and anger; all because the world fails to
understand them.
Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
Film Distributors promote and publicize media products to its potential audiences in order to persuade
an audience to see their film or be drawn to the suspense of it in collaboration with film production that
creates the film.

A similar film to our two minute opening sequence would be ‘se7en’ as it is a psychological thriller and
the beginning has plenty of close-ups and does not once show the antagonists face throughout the
whole opening sequence. I have found the UK theatrical distributor for this film and also saved movie
poster of different films that they have distributed, this company is called ‘The Entertainment Film
Distributors’, who have also distributed thriller movies such as Scream and The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre who both do not include the antagonists identity.
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0103790/

For my film I would use the Entertainment Film distributors as they are UK based which is where my film
is going to be based. They distribute theatrical releases, and DVD releases. They have been successful in
the past when releasing films into the United States. They have released a wide range of thriller movies
which means that they know how to attract an audience. With the advertising of scream and Texas chain
saw massacre they both have a similar product, with writing in bold down the bottom and a picture of a
masked antagonist which has obviously attracted audiences to these films in the past and this would be
essential to my film. Releasing popular films in the past such as Lord of the rings has led them to have a
very high financial credibility, which could lead to a vast amount of advertising.

Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my media product is represented by Jamie, a teenage male belonging to a socio-economic
group of C2,D and E. Our film is aimed for both male and female as it does not include action, however I have just
used a male as an example. We have targeted our media product around the ages of 15-25.

Jamie represents the target audience for my production. He is an 18 year old male, comes from a South London town
and loves technology. He loves watching new films at the cinemas, mostly thriller and action films on his free weekends.
He plays Xbox, and likes to spend his time at home on face book socialising with his friends. His favourite game on the
Xbox is Call of duty as there is a lot of action involved. Jamie does an apprenticeship in a live events organisation as a
promoter, therefore the socio-economic group that he would belong to would be c1 or D which is the target audience
that my production group has aimed for. He spends the wages that he gets from his apprenticeships on new Xbox games
and DVDs.

His favorite film is

law abiding citizen
as it is full of
mystery and
suspense. It
includes action,
violence and
revenge.

His favorite TV
show is 24 which is
mostly about
plotting revenge on
other characters
He likes to use his computers for face book and online games; and each episode
he can also use his Xbox to play call of duty online with other keeps Jamie
people that play it around the world. He owns speakers and engaged and
headphones to interact on online games with other players. wanting to watch
the next episode.
 Jamie owns an iPad to watch and
download films on for free, he also
uses his iPad to listen to music on,
his favorite music is garage music
and drum and bass.

Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract the audience I used elements in my film which created similar effects to those created
in other thriller films. I used the 15-25 year old target audience, men and female throughout my film. I
also used genre conventions to attract the audience and to create suspense and leave them wanting to
watch the whole film.
These pictures relate to
the younger target
audience as this is a
typical picture of a
younger girl
surrounded by her
friends most likely to
be at a party or a club.
I have not shown the
identity of the
antagonist to generate
enigma, this is common
in most thriller films as
the killer is mysterious
and unknown.

InInthis
thisscene,
cut, wewehave
see
the murderer
used a similarand
parta of
teenage
the film’boy with with
Se7en’
casual
the sameclothes on
target
which is canincluding
audience be easily
recognized
scissors and by creative
the
young target as if an evil
equipment
audience. It is set in a
plan is being
college who the
developed.
target audience are
familiar with in
everyday life.

In this part I have used At the end of the

a theme of death to opening sequence ive
contribute to the genre shown a close up of the
conventions, and diary in order to
attract the audience as address the film ‘Dear
the camera has shown Diary’ and to create a
the killer murdering the plot twist of a crime
victim. that the antagonist has
now committed and
has to live with .

Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
During the creation of my media project I have learnt many new skills in different technologies, including
the use of technical equipment, computer software and internet websites.

Production Equipment:

In our film my other group member mainly used the camera and I directed, however, to get a grip of
how to use a camera I filmed the point of view shots and handheld I used the camera for myself and set
it up, I also used a tungsten light in order to achieve a dark gloomy atmosphere around the book but
shined the light onto the book to create an atmosphere of it being a treasure to the murderer. We also
used a tripod in order to keep the camera still and record without shakiness to the moving image.

This is the tripod that we

This is my group member Final Cut Pro:
used to help to stabilize
positioning the camera to the
A very important computer software program called Final Cut Pro, an editing program the camera. I learnt
designed by how
right height and focus. I learnt
Apple allowed me to edit my opening sequence. I learned many different skillsto in position
using finalthe
cuttripod
pro and
howit to
hasuse the zoom
definitely and me for my work in the future.
benefitted bubble level in order to
focus at the front of the
make sure that the angles
camera.
Log andWeCapture
did not– use an
I connected my tape from the camera using a tape deck which was connected into
of the camera were not
the back
external of an appleas
microphone Mac,
weand opened final cut pro, in the file tab i pressed log and capure and clicked
capture now button which immediately began to capture my video clip,canted it took aangles. If thebut
did on
notthe
include any dialogue littloe while
i could start capturing my video where i wanted it to start from. bubble does not float to
in our opening sequence. The
the center top of the
problems
Timeline-that Thewe hadline
time were
window runs across the bottom of the screen and it is where all the clips are
level, the surface is
badedited.
lightingI learnt
so wehow to cut unwanted playbacks out of the sequence and how to also add clips together.
changed
uneven.
theUsing
whitethe spacebar
balance I could
every play and pause my video where I wanted it to be, I could
time also use the left and
right arrows to plays my video in nano seconds which was essential in cutting at the right part to match
thatit the lighting
up with wascut.
another different
on each take.
Colour correction- Our video was all in black and white which was easy for us to use the color correction
tool. By clicking on the effects tab and then the video filters folder. I then clicked on image control and
desaturated each clip in order to make it black and white. This took a little while as we had to go
through each clip and do the same for each one.

Key frames- In creating our film we experimented with key frames which then I became able to rotate a
moving This
imageisand
thealso
tungsten light which
when creating turned
our titles wevery hot when
was able being
to make them become bigger or smaller
and alsoused
movefor
them around
a little within
while. the range shots
In between of the we
image.
had to turn it off
so the heat did not effect our filming. We also had to be
Exporting- We needed to export our film in order to post it onto the web and place it onto our blog.
careful when putting it back in case it was too hot.
First we rendered our sequence to make it easier and quicker to export and then we clicked on file and
export and export QuickTime movie. This was a long process and we made a mistake by exporting the
unwanted scenes at the end of our film which then ended in us having to do the whole process over
again.
 Internet websites

I used 3 different websites in order to help with my film and coursework. These 3
websites were blogger, scribd and YouTube. I also used Google to work on my
research for my blog.

The website ‘Blogger’ was essential in creating my

website , to store research, videos and pictures. It helped me to create a portfolio
of my work. When I first created my blog I used my own blog which then created a
link to the group blog. I created new posts on blogger and used html links to post
videos onto the site.

The website scribd is a site that allows you to upload

documents which are then converted into a format that blogger can process. All I
had to do was to upload a file and wait for it to be converted, I then embedded the
link and posted it onto a new post in html form on blogger.

I used You Tube in work in order to upload videos that I had

created including my preliminary and opening sequence. Once they were uploaded I
simply embedded the code, copied it and pasted it onto the compose tab in blogger. I
also used YouTube to help me with my research into opening sequences. I repeated
the process in embedding it, copying and pasting onto blogger.
Question 7
Throughout my project I have created a preliminary task and an opening sequence and
developed many different new skills. I have learnt how to use a camera and use Final cut pro to
edit. I have also developed skills in how to perfect my work in many different ways by directing.
I now know how to create a match on action shot and make it flow, and make sure that no
extra objects were in the shot unlike my preliminary. I am going to show how my camera work
has improved and also how my editing skills have developed by showing screenshots from my
preliminary and my opening sequence.

Preliminary Task Opening Sequence

For our first shot However, in our

we used a still opening
establishing shot sequence
with no camera beginning we
movements. used a handheld
in slow motion
with a black and
white colour
effect.
The match on The match on action
action that we that we used in our
included was a opening sequence
simple one of included the killer
Elizabeth walking lifting up the weapon
through the door to strangle the victim
and coming and the match on
through on the action shot going to a
other side of the close up of the
room. weapon being used
on the victim Most of
our shot were over
the shoulder to create
a mystery of the
killer’s identity.

We used one over the

shoulder shot For our close up we
throughout our used a medium close
preliminary which up of the book which
didn’t show the other then was a handheld
persons shoulder just zoom into a close up.
their head.
The way my skills have developed throughout editing
has been a huge change, in the preliminary task we did
not use any camera movements apart from one small
pan, however we was constantly using camera
movements in my opening sequence. Editing for the
preliminary took an hour and a half, however fro the We also used a
opening sequence it took just over 4 days to complete point of view
as it was more technical and detailed. shot, which
We did not use any special effects like colour correction focuses on the
or fade in we just used the simple razor tool to join all murderers shoes;
of our cuts together.
The camera work that we made sure we used was only
a match on action, 180 degree rule and a over the
shoulder shot. There was no soundtrack involved we
just kept it at the noise that was in the background
whilst filming it and the few lines that were said in it.
this was also in black and white and slow motion.
For our camera movements we used pans tilts and
zooms to create an atmosphere of a thriller film when
showing a close up. We used a pan when we showed
the book of all the victims, a tilt when the murderer
strangled the victim and zooms all of the way through
the sequence.
I gained many new skills when editing my opening
sequence, these include being able to use slow motion
and speed up time. We also learnt how to create the
film in different colour and tones. We used fade ins and
fade outs to create less jumpy cuts, we also learnt how
to use key frames in order to make the titles rotate and
move into a position that we wanted them to be. We
used a montage to create two different views from the
audience, one showing the murderer cutting paper with
scissors and another that views the book with all of the
victims. I learnt how to create moving titles with the
use of key frames. We also added sound to our clip in
order to give a creepy atmosphere of the killer. In
creating the sound I learnt how to cut it to where I
wanted the sound to be and to match it up to where we
wanted the sound to go to match with the action in the
film.