Alice - Final product.

Above is our final thriller - Alice.

Audience Feedback On 'Alice'

Below is some audience feedback we got from a range of gender and age, leaving comment of their thoughts of our opening 2 minutes.

 

Evaluation Task 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Task 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of construction this product?

Evaluation Task 5

Evaluation Task 4

                                     Who would be the audience for your media product?

We feel the above two people we character profiled would be interested in watching our thriller from judging the psycho-graphics and demographics and their likes, as they both seem to have interested around the genre of film and also having a wide variety of knowledge around different subjects. Especially Lily who has actually taken part in 'Slut Walk' a parade marched by young women who protest against women being trafficked and women being raped against their will.

Evaluation Task 3

Evaluation Task 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The image above is our lead character called Alice, played by Daisy Webster. Both girls have blonde hair and blue eyes which show a stereotypical innocence and make both characters appear vulnerable and naive, almost childlike. As you can see from the image Daisy looks trapped in a confined, claustrophobic space, she looks beaten and bruised and it is clear from her appearance that she is malnourished and suffering. Similarly the image of Alicja Bachleda Curus displays the same features as the image of Daisy. In both images the girls appear vulnerable and defenseless within the underworld of sex trafficking. Both images show females as they are the main victims of sex trafficking operations, regardless of age, which is why we decided to use a female as the main character in our thriller and also have another female victim accompany her. Both girls are pictured in the conditions they are forced to live and 'work' in, both places look dirty and rundown, something we paid close attention to when deciding upon a location.

 The image above is of the brief interaction the audience get with one of the traffickers. We decided to blur this character out in this frame and not reveal anything about who he is because most of the men than traffic women want to keep their identity hidden, this way they have less chance of getting caught. This character is similar to Marco from the film taken. He is the ring leader of this specific trafficking group and he calls the shots and this is shown through his violence, rough pushes towards one of the victims in the thriller and his powerful dominance over her as he chases after her down the corridor. In both of these images the traffickers/kidnappers are male this is because in most cases of trafficking it is men who traffic women and not women who traffic women. However, in some cases women work alongside the male traffickers to lure in the women but the ring leaders of sex trafficking are predominantly males. From Matt's stance and walk in the frame captured it shows the dominance of his character over the vulnerable women, which resembles that he is superior and they are inferior.

Evaluation Task 1

Final Poster

We decided to use the bar code as it fits in with the font style we have used throughout the film and also fits with the topic we chose, trafficking and the bar code fits the labelling of women as 'products' to sell. However  we contrasted the colours so it was clear for the audience to see the main features. We chose this picture, out of the others as we believed it portrayed the character of Alice as vulnerable, innocent and now trapped. It was also taken from a shot from our film.
Having the bar code in front of Alice in this poster also represents that she is trapped and labelled now and she has no way or being set free.
We also gave our thriller a final BBFC rating of 15 because our thriller fits the BBFC ratings given for a 15 and does not fit the lower ratings of a 12 because of certain elements that are not appropriate. Our audience targeted were also from 15 and above which is another reason why our final rating was 15.

Bloopers

Above is short video of bloopers from our thriller and from whilst shooting the thriller, we made this video for fun after finishing our actual thriller and this video can also be used for some shots like 'Hello Tripod' to be noticed and made clear why we did not use them, other shots also looked amateur and we did not want this for our thriller. Other clips in this video are purely for entertainment.

Editing Diary

Below is a video of Myself (Ruby) and Jade talking through what went wrong and what went well during the editing process. Sadie and Daisy also shared the same views and ideas that we talk about throughout this video but unfortunately were unable to film this video with us due to being absent.

                                 

Choosing the right music

Deciding on the right kind of music for our thriller has been the hardest part of the editing process. We felt to fit our thriller we needed a tune/song the keep the claustrophobic and intense mood that our thriller provides. Also our thriller is not very fast paced and we needed slow music to fit the pace of our thriller and also we needed our tune/song to be subtle to also hold the intense and claustrophobic atmosphere.

Below is a video of a song we considered. After listening to this song over our footage we decided it did not fit what we wanted it to, it also did not fit our chosen subject as the following song would fit a thriller more to do with children characters. For example a thriller similar to 'Orphan'.

Another tune we came across is featured below. The ringtone tune from a film called 'One Missed Call'. We unfortunately cannot use this tune as it is not copyright free. We also decided it still did not fit the criteria we were looking for to give the atmosphere we wanted from the music in our thriller.

We then fortunately came across this copyright free song. It has the elegant chimes to show the characters innocence in this blurred, distorted world she has been forced into. It also has a reasonable pace which also fitted the pace of our thriller and it also kept the atmosphere we want and worked perfectly when played alongside our footage. This song also gave our thriller a dream like vibe and where our thriller begins in the characters point of view, the song can be represented as her mind and can show that she is oblivious to what is going on around her and where she is. Even though just listening to the clip below you cannot imagine it being music featured in a thriller, we liked the idea that it did subvert the genre, as the audiences thinking pattern throughout will hopefully be as distorted as the characters and for the first 2 minute opening we will want them to want to know more and we feel this music will encourage this. Also we feel that this music alongside what is seen in the thriller represents the delicacy of these women (shown through the two women in the clip) and their innocence as they are not being trafficked by choice, this song also sounds desperate as it goes on, representing their hope and cry for freedom.

As a group we decided that this was the song we wanted to use for our thriller.

Why is a title sequence so important?

A title sequence is placed at the beginning of the film, containing vital and important information about the following movie.

Titles in thriller are important as they can help enhance to set the scene as well as provide the actor’s names, director’s names, producer’s names etc before they film has begun.

The titles can set the scene by the different fonts used e.g. if the film is a Sci-Fi thriller, a more rigid, futuristic film would be used and would be shown on screen at a hard hitting pace with maybe a fizzling transition. The first piece of text that comes up is more often than not the company who produced the film e.g. Universal Studios. The text is sometimes assisted by a sting- a sound which accompanies a quick movement or burst of action or in this case; the text.

The titles are important for many reasons. Advertisement would be a key reason as to why the titles are important because the big film companies usually spend millions of pounds/dollars on the making of a film; therefore, if the audience like it, they are more likely to then watch another one of their films.

Hostage

The opening titles for Hostage are a very good example of a use of stings, transitions and fonts to build suspense and make the film more alluring. By the opening titles, we can tell that there will be a crime scene involved by the police cars present, and also by the name of the film ‘Hostage’. We can also tell that it is set in a city as there are built up areas and tall buildings which set the scene for the audience immediately. The titles are not wordy and only ever contain a few words: ‘director: name, producer: name’. Usually with successful actors such as Bruce Willis in this film, their name will appear in bold font and central as they are recognised worldwide.

Other opening titles we found interesting and inspiring were the following:

Cape Fear

Shaun of The Dead

The Dark Knight Rises



Brief feedback from year 13's

Above is a video of some year 13's giving us feedback on what they thought was good about our thriller so far and what they thought could be improved in terms of editing and music.

Poster Ideas

During our second day of filming, we were more experienced with the camera and working with costumes, make-up and working as actors/directors. Daisy brought in her NIKON SLR camera to help us capture images of the day, to assist the diary of a day shooting etc.

We decided that day 2 of shooting would be the perfect opportunity to take some pictures that we could use for the poster advertising our thriller films. The costumes we used on the day (black fishnets, black dress, high heels) and the effective make-up allowed us to give the audience a real insight to the film- a sneak peek- as the poster should do to abide by the codes and conventions of a thriller poster.

Here are the 4 ideas that after editing and experimenting with different effects, we thought looked the most effective:

re-shoot? maybe not!

Here's our latest vlog where we discuss our first day filming and take a look back on the experience. The main reason for this vlog is to conclude that we will not be re-shooting the first half of our thriller - featured below is a full explanation including examples of footage detailing our reasons for this decision. 

Footage: First day filming Vs Second day filming.

Here are a few examples of our first day shooting. As you can see from the three examples of footage, the tripod makes a number of unscheduled appearances as well as a bumpy ride along the pavement mid pan. A  'vlog' regarding our 'first day filming' features above this post, please take a moment to watch it and then continue reading otherwise the following information will be unclear to you.
After this vlog was posted we began editing and realized that on our second day filming we actually managed to collect a substantial amount of high quality footage. We proceeded from this by deciding not to re-shoot the first half of our thriller. Our reasons for this are;
- As a group we feel that our second half was much stronger in terms of lighting, location, variation of cinematography and mise en scene.
- It was evident that a strong claustrophobic atmosphere had been established and was maintained throughout the second half of our thriller, something that the first half lacked.
- The first half of our thriller seemed disjointed when we placed it alongside the second half, they seemed too diverse and was not complimenting each other the way that they should have been.
- The first half of our thriller seemed very similar to that of many previous a-level media students. There was your typical long shots of walking, surroundings of trees, a scary man taking a vulnerable girl in a suburban street etc whereas the second half of our thriller bought something different, something that veered down a different route towards a more disturbing and uncomfortable content rather than a scary, jumpy or gruesome content.
- As soon as it starts we want the audience to start asking those mental questions 'Who is she?' 'What happened to her?' 'Why is she here?' 'What will happen to her?' 'Who's responsible for this?' not be going 'Oh she's in a field alone ... Now there's a man ... Oh he's going to take her ... Oh he's taken her'. The first half of our thriller would have been as predictable as this, whereas our second half  poses so many questions for the audience, making it more successful in engaging and 'hooking' our audience, which is predominantly our main objective.

Marketing our progress

Below are two print screens of us using our Twitter and Facebook pages to promote the progress of our thriller, As you can see we have uploaded our photographs and links of our videos that can be found on our Youtube channel to our Facebook page for people to look at. Also because we have linked our Twitter and Facebook pages together, everything posted onto our Facebook is also posted automatically to our Twitter page, as you can see, so our followers on twitter and the people that like us on Facebook can now easily view our photo's and video's. 

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment Form

Assessing: Location for shooting – Backstage, wings and passageway of school hall

Date of risk assessment: 17/04/12                             Conducted by: Twisted Nature                     

1	Trips, slips and falls
2	Nails and chipped woodwork (splinters)
3	Lifting and carrying equipment
4	Considering actors safety when filming

Diary of a day shooting - Day 2.

Here are some pictures from our second day of shooting our thriller, These again are pictures of location, props, costume and pictures of us filming the thriller. Unlike the first half, our second half has come out professional and we feel we do not have to re-shoot the second half and the editing we are carrying
 out is coming along nicely.