Hamlin - Thriller Opening Sequence

Evaluation - Matthew Buckston


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

Our opening sequence follows the conventional format of a thriller by having an antagonist; however there is no real protagonist in our thriller which is where our thriller deviates from the usual thriller format. Our opening sequence follows the conventional presentational style of a thriller with flashbacks inserted into it and because of this it follows a non-linear structure. We used typical characters, for example, we have a stereotypical 'nuclear family' with a mum, a dad and two children, we also have a stereotypical very smiley and overly happy estate agent. We used these typical characters in our opening sequence so they would fit in with the story and the locations. Our opening sequence follows the conventional use of sound by thrillers because, we have a heart beat playing alongside the music which is cut to have the heart beat bridging across the cuts.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our opening sequence portrays the middle class family as being slightly dysfunctional, yet still managing to get along with each other. In our opening sequence, the male characters are represented stereotypically being more dominant, for example, we have a ring leader of the cult being a male. Another example of this is having the dad driving, making decisions and having control of the children. However, the female characters are represented stereotypically as being slightly passive, and example of this is in the car when the dad takes the map from the mum. The younger people like the children are represented as being inquisitive and not knowing what is acceptable to say. An example of this is when Nathan asks the estate agent "why do you walk funny?" However, the older people like the parents are represented as being mature, looking after the children and not paying too much attention to what the children are saying, in a stereotypical family outing.

The main villain in our opening has a limp; the main reason for this is to help the audience connect that the estate agent is the leader of the cult, who killed the girl at the beginning.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our thriller would be made for TV viewing and possibly DVD, it would be probably be produced and shown by channel 4 because of its national content. It might be released to tour independent British cinemas, and possibly released on DVD through an independent distributor if the reviews of the film were good enough. It would probably be funded by channel 4 because it would be made for them to show on their channel.Another film that was distributed this way was Billy Elliot, which was released to selected cinemas and then because word got round of how good the film was it got released into more cinemas and then it got released in America.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The chosen target audience for our thriller is 15-35; we didn't really try to target a particular gender for our audience we tried to make something to suit both sexes. We did this by combining the main elements that both sexes enjoy such as the violence, mystery ans drama. We decided to target an audience between the ages of 15-35 because our research showed us that the majority of people that watch thrillers are in that age range. Our research also showed that the majority of people preferred psychological thrillers, and either wanted a male leader or didn't have a particular preference about a male or female lead. it also told us that people usually associate violins and wind instruments with thrillers. We are hoping to get a BBFC classification of 15; I think it would achieve this rating because there is some violence but it doesn't dwell on the infliction of pain. There is a strong threat and menace in the film but it's not sexualised or overly sadistic.

5) How did you attract/address your particular audience?

Our representation of the middle class would appeal to our audience because the will like the way normal middle class people have been represented as being dysfunctional but can work together when they need to because they will like the positive element of the characters working together when they found themselves in this situation. the audience is placed in the position of the parents of the children who get kidnapped, this is so that they sympathise with the parents and get an idea of what it's like to have people taken away from them. Our audience liked the black and white flashbacks because they could easily tell that the black and white clips were flashbacks, we can see this in our feedback because only 5% of the people didn't realise that the black and white clips were flashbacks. They said that our camera movements were smooth and that everything was in focus however, 10% said that some of the things on the screen weren't level. The majority of our audience said that they could hear the dialogue clearly; they also thought that the music gave it an appropriate atmosphere for the events in the sequence.

All of our audience agreed that the costumes used were appropriate for each character and that the props used were helpful in creating the right atmosphere for the scenes.

6) What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product?

The college camera, a Cannon XM2, helped enhance our ideas because of it being light and easy to hold, it enabled us to hand hold the chase scenes in our thriller. The tripod held us back during the second day of filming because we were given a tripod without a spirit level which meant we couldn't be sure that the camera was level. I think we mastered the controls for the camera very well because it was easy to get to grips with so it made it easier to film the shots we wanted such as the handheld chase scene in the woods. We encountered a problem on the second day of filming when the light changed so it meant the shots we filmed afterwards were brighter than the other shots, from this we learnt that we should have re-shot the scenes that we shot before the light changed so the light would be the same in all the scenes.

The college's editing suite helped us with our ideas because we had access to lots of different music and sound effects to choose from so we could find the right music to go with our thriller. I think we mastered the main editing techniques such as cutting and rolling, so we could edit our thriller professionally though I think we need to master the post production effects to enhance our final product. The desaturation effect helped us to show which shots were in the present and which were flashbacks. We also managed to find the sound of a heart beat and with the editing software we were able to cut it so the heart beat played over the cuts between the clips.

7) Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

With the preliminary task, we didn't have a proper script and only a rough storyboard to use which meant we had less to work with so we didn't really know what we could add to it and how we should shoot each shot. However, with the thriller sequence we had a proper script that we went over until we were happy with it and a full and very detailed storyboard of the shots we needed to shoot, this meant we could see what the shots would look like before we shot them so that we would know what else we could add and any other ways we could shoot the scenes. We also learnt a few different ways to make our filming better like filming every scene from different angles so we had more to play with when it came to editing, another way we learnt to make our filming better is using the rule of thirds which means the side where the person is looking has more space than the other.

We also learned how to use the blimp microphone better and to get ambient sound so the background sound didn't disappear mid scene. We also learnt how to make our cuts smoother than they were during the preliminary task and how to balance the music with the picture properly.

We learnt from the filming and editing techniques that we missed in the preliminary task such as filters for the audio and picture and it gave us a chance to try and experiment more and to incorporate them in the thriller sequence, it also gave us the confidence to make the full product better than the preliminary task. I think we worked well as a team and this meant we were able to have a laugh while doing it instead of just getting annoyed with each other. I think our end product meets our brief and I think it stacks up quite well against professional products, though I think our end product is more natural compared to professional products because of the lack of reliance on special effects in our end product.

Evaluation - Samantha Hayden

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

Conventionally, our media product uses typical characters with the antagonist (the estate agent) being male and the protagonists being ordinary citizens, drawn into danger by accident. There is fast-paced, frequent action involving the young girl being chased and eventually murdered. This introduces suspense and captures the audience's attention. However, it is not set in a typical location such as an exotic foreign city; it is set in a quiet English village that is hiding a secret. The fact that the village has a secret also ties in with typical conventions of a thriller as they often involve mystery, with the protagonist foiling the antagonist's plans. Our antagonist is a serial killer, a common criminal activity of antagonists. I would compare our product to Se7en (Kyle Cooper) as it involves a similar serial killer and also uses non-linear editing to intertwine the actions of the antagonist and protagonist.

A diverse range of camerawork is used in thrillers to see the action from different angles and also to ensure plots are not boring. We used a variety of angles and shots including close-ups, long shots, pull focus and panning. The theme music is only featured whilst the first scene develops with the planning and killing of the young girl. By using it only in this scene it adds to the tension and creepiness of the sequence. With regards to mise-en-scene, the protagonists are dressed in casual clothes, symbolising their status as ordinary citizens, whilst the antagonist is wearing a suit and tie, signifying he is the dominant 'bad guy' and demonstrating his position of authority in the village.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The protagonists are middle-class, white characters living in a small English village. We used an Oriental-Asian antagonist as his ethnicity, as well as his disability, gives him "stand-out" qualities. It makes him 'the other' and therefore a suspicious character. Typically 'bad guys' are shown as disabled because, despite efforts, disability is not seen as the norm, therefore he would be seen as strange and creepy. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise), although not a thriller, is an example of a film using a disabled main character whom everyone fears. Although he is middle-class, his occupation is one associated with power and dominance, typical qualities of, not only a male character, but also of an antagonist. However, the occupations of the family go against stereotype as the husband is a stay-at-home writer and the wife a senior nurse. Although nursing is a feminine occupation, with the husband at home writing, she is the breadwinner. During the sequence, she tells off one of the children whilst the husband stays quiet, showing she is also the main carer for the children. This character would be described as post-feminist, a modern woman, a working mum.

The young girl at the beginning of the sequence is shown as innocent and vulnerable. She is a white, middle-class ten-year-old as this age is just young enough to be scared by things in the dark. Any older and it wouldn't have had such an effect on the audience of urging her to run faster and get away.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product, and why?

Our thriller would be an independent film for UK theatrical release as well as TV, DVD or the Internet because it can then gather a wide audience of not only the general public but also potential distributors. It would be funded through money from the UK Film Council or the British Film Institute (BFI). It would be distributed by TV companies that are involved in film such as Channel 4 or the BBC as Hollywood distributors, such as 20th Century Fox, would not be interested due to the lack of 'Hollywood stars' and input of big production companies.

The main selling point of this product is the twists that come later on in the film. Also, the fact that the audience knows very little about what's really going on would attract distributors' attention. Merchandise related to the film such as T-shirts, collectibles etc would be sold pre-release to build up a 'hype' amongst our target audience.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our product is aimed at young (15-35 years), British males and females. We found people outside this age bracket had little interest in thriller films as well as realising the subject matter typically contained in thrillers may be too mature for younger audiences.

We found the colour black was conventionally associated with thriller films, but respondents were interested in films set in an unconventional location such as a workplace, as it would be more realistic and easier to identify with. Respondents to our research did not produce a unanimous answer on whose point of view they would like the film to be centred around i.e. antagonist or protagonist. Most respondents agreed on a male villain and as our sample was representative of gender we concluded this would appeal to everyone.

The sequence is likely to attract a British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rating of '15', making the film viewable by all of our intended audience as well as giving us some lee-way to include scenes of a more violent nature. However, as the techniques used may be imitable and the rest of the film is likely to include scenes of graphic torture, it may be classified as an '18'.

The target audience for Se7en is older than as ours as it carried a BBFC classification of '18' and is mainly aimed at males. Although our film is similar, we felt through findings of our research that our audience would be mixed gender by around the same age as Se7en's audience.

5) How did you attract/address your particular audience?

Our main characters are in their late 20s/early 30s and are white British. Using this profile our audience would be able to identify with the protagonists even if they are a bit younger as the family represents a common/nuclear structure which everyone can relate to. The sequence does not fully explain the family dynamics, but shows a postmodern diversity in the couple's occupations and roles within the family. They are shown as 'good guys' straight away through actions such as holding the children's hands and standing together like a tight-knit group showing their love for each other, qualities that everyone can relate to. Through the dialogue they are seen to have pride about themselves, as shows when the mother tells the boy off for commenting on the estate agent's disability. Suspense is essential in a thriller and we achieved this through realisation of who the estate agent is by showing flashbacks of his crime the night before intertwined with the arrival of the family to meet him.

Finally, we found through an audience feedback survey that our thriller was received well by our target audience of men and women aged 15-35 years. It attracted most interest from this age group but more interest from women than men.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

When using the equipment, I learnt that to capture clear dialogue, without road-traffic noise, we needed to hold the Senhauser gun microphone closer to the actors. Also, the tripod we used had no spirit level so some of the shots we got were at non-intended canted angles. However, we did not use these clips as they looked unprofessional. I learnt that when using a camera with manual exposure, such as the Canon XM2 that we used, the exposure need to be reset a lot to reduce glares from shiny things such as one actor's leather jacket. As the camera had manual focus as well as automatic, we used this to our advantage and learnt how to do a pull-focus. With regards to lighting, we learnt about positioning and how to make shadows the right height and in the right place.

When using the editing software 'Final Cut Pro', we found it was useful for creating superimpositions as we could create them in another program and then just place them over the top of a video clip. It was hard to learn every technique that we needed to edit our film properly, but after many tried we worked out how to make the software work for us. For example, we had a problem with the sounds recording on some of the clips, but a cross-fade transition on the audio helped us to make it sound more professional. As our sequence involves flashbacks as the family is arriving, we made the flashback clips black & white by using a desaturation effect to distinguish them from the clips happening in the present.

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

Through the preliminary task we faced many problems such as finding a suitable location, working out where the 180-degree line was, not researching the characters and not using specialist equipment such as a gun microphone. However, we did draft a script and storyboard to guide us and found we could not have filmed without these things. Also, with none of us having filmed before, we had a big problem with composition and filming enough rushes to edit.

There were fewer problems with producing the final thriller sequence as we had learnt to plan in detail, therefore everyone knew what they were meant to be doing. With regards to camerawork, we over-filmed, ending up with around 40 minutes of film, which gave us plenty of rushes to edit. We also had a better idea of where we could film from and where we couldn't. This made things a lot easier and made us realise that we should film each shot from different angles.

We did have a problem with the sound as we didn't use a gun microphone in the preliminary task so we had no experience of how to use it correctly. However, when we got to editing we were able to use the theme music to cover up our mistakes involving dialogue. Also in editing, we had learnt from the preliminary task that dialogue did not have to be over the video clip is was linked with. We therefore used voice overs to make the final scene flow smoother and quicker. We also found that over-use of transitions such as 'cross-fade' did not give the sequence the 'thrill factor' so we did not use them except at the beginning and end.

As we used professional actors in the final product it was much easier to film as they had experience in front of the camera. The props used were thoroughly planned, so when we came to filming we had no panicking about what was meant to be where. As for costumes and make-up, as the characters we just ordinary people, they wore their own clothes with guidance from us.

After having two experiences with producing a sequence I feel more confident using the equipment and editing software to my advantage. By learning how to use blogging sites I now feel I could create a professionally looking blog, incorporating a house style to ensure consistency. I think we worked well as a team, everything was completed by the date specified on the project schedule and every contributed to ensure a successful outcome. When comparing the final product to professional products there is an obvious difference, but had we focused on the problems earlier I think it would have looked more professional. An indicator of our success is that it attracted the interest of our target audience and most viewers understood what we were trying to put across.

Evaluation - Rhea Clemente

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

Hamlin is a psychological thriller following the main codes and conventions of the genre. It is quite similar to the production Seven (1995) only the violent killings and kidnappings are occurring in the small English village of Hamlin. The audience is immediately introduced to the situation, with a scared young girl running through the woods being chased by the antagonist, a hooded figure creating fast paced action identical to The Matrix (1999). Eventually she is at the mercy of the antagonist and is taken into a basement where she is ritually sacrificed. A main convention which we have adopted in our thriller is not showing everything to the audience. This leaves them guessing as they are immediately hooked by the intrigue furthermore it is an enigma code. Additionally with the use of parallel editing, having two scenes run parallel to one another. Firstly a family moving into an English village and the other a young girl is being chased in the woods. It confuses the audience even more as they are of different periods in time. However they are connected through the estate agent who is also the hooded figure. Adding such a twist into the narrative is a very typical convention of a thriller.

Our thriller uses a typical antagonists and protagonists, showing a binary opposition between the characters. The antagonists mind set is typically wrong as he kidnaps children and sacrifices them. Although the estate agent is able to kidnap the children, showing his strength he does have a disability being an atypical characteristic. Although the estate agent is perceived as jubilant he hides his sinister characteristics. There is a bird’s eye point of view shot of him looking down upon the family portraying how superior he is. Our protagonist is made the victim and as they/she is taken by the antagonist. The protagonist is furthermore typically shown as inferior to the antagonist.

When editing, we intertwined quick shots with one another of two different scenes to create tension and helped it build. When the little girl is running we decided to create tension by using the camera hand-held as it created a sense of urgency and action to the opening. Also when shooting the young girl victim. We used extreme close ups, so her fear expressed was emphasized for the audience to see. The music created a tense atmosphere as well as creating energetic action as the constant heart beat portrayed a pounding fear. Our locations were not typical of thrillers as opposed to exciting locations as we chose everyday locations. This helped us show that this kidnapping could happen in average quiet locations. Seven (1995) has influenced our work in the style that we have chosen to adapt within our sequence. Similarly we used quick cuts and very atmospheric music keeping the audience on edge. Furthermore our storylines contain a twisted killer similar to Seven (1995).

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller represents the males and females to be very stereotypical. Firstly we have the young girl being chased through the woods. She is portrayed as being vulnerable and weak through the sound of her heavy breathing. She is tied up in the basement and unable to free herself suggesting that she is powerless emphasizing her age. Through her pink night dress and her hair being in plaits it provided her with typical feminine characteristics. By using a young female it makes the audience feel sympathetic towards her. She is shown to be careless and naive as she is captured by the hooded figure.

The family is represented as a typical middle class nuclear family of White British origin. The father, Chris in the family is seen as the dominant sex between the couple as he is shown driving the family car. He is revealed to be a very typical man as he shows his aggression towards his children, also portraying his short temper resulting in him getting out of the car. He is also portrayed as the head of the family by introducing himself and his family to Mr Griffiths the estate agent. Sarah on the other hand is portrayed as the caring wife who is able to calm her husband down showing that they have a very close loving relationship. This is many showed through the use of two-shots.

However the representation of the estate agent is not stereotypical however he does appear normal to a certain extent. Through the estate agent being Oriental Asian it helped portray the binary opposites between the protagonists and the antagonist, the estate agent. He wears dark colours such as greys and black representing death, and him as a villain. Furthermore his disability emphasized his evil character. Usually characters with disabilities are seen as frightening as they are not seen as the “norm” in society often. This is similarly seen in the 300 (2006) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Moreover the estate agent had moustache which helped portray him as a sinister man.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product, and why?

Hamlin would unlikely be funded by a major Hollywood film studio like Warner Brothers or Paramount because it is an English independent film. These are quite unpopular in the film industry today. A popular organisation that could help fund our production would be the UK Film council. They partially fund low budget films (around 50%). Others include the Prince’s Trust, National Lottery and the BFI. Hamlin would attract these institutions as it contains an interesting storyline using predominantly British actors and settings. Universal have worked in relation with Working Title and have co-produced many successful films such as Bridget Jones (2001) and Billy Elliot (2000). These are some examples of successful British films that ours could imitate. This could be done by getting funding for Hamlin through the UK film council because Hamlin has an interesting storyline with an issue of kidnappings common in our society.

Furthermore our thriller could be suitable for a one-off television drama that could be shown late at night. We believe that Hamlin’s BBFC rating would be rated a 15, because of the violence and therefore it wouldn’t be shown before 9pm. Hamlin is an independent film created with a limited budget and therefore would likely be made only for TV or DVD release. The advantage of this would be that it can reach audiences around Britain in the comfort of their own home. If an independent UK distribution company were to be interested in it, it would have to compete with other films with higher statuses. Additionally it is very difficult for many UK films to be released and unfortunately a lot of them never make it. However ours has a unique selling point as it has a different interpretation of the well known story of the Pied Piper.

Our production would definitely attract the attention of audiences between the ages of 15-35+ according to our research. Hamlin could help show that kidnappings are an important rising issue in our society, for example Madeline McCann. It can give awareness to the issue as it is a sensitive subject. There are some opportunities that could arise such as sequels or using the film and turning it into a late night TV series. This has happened similarly with the film 10 Things I Hate About You, and has now become a popular sitcom on ABC Family in the USA. Also there could also be spin off products such as t-shirts bringing awareness to the issue shown within Hamlin.

4) Who would be the target audience of your media product?

Our target audience for Hamlin would be from the ages 15-35+. From our audience research we came to the conclusion that mainly people tended to see thrillers BBFC rated at 15. Therefore we decided to make our thriller targeted towards mid teens and onwards. Our target audience revealed to us that they preferred thrillers that were psychological thrillers. Also they preferred to see fast pace action. Very popular preferences were that they liked the feeling of confusion as well as the building up of tension. We have portrayed this as we have an unknown character immediately seen running through the woods dressed for bed. To help build tension we focused on using really atmospheric and eerie music. We relied on the use of short takes intertwined within one another to help build tension. A common dislike which we discovered was that our audience didn’t think exotic locations would be the right setting for a thriller as a typical setting for the genre. Taking into consideration our target audience views we carefully selected locations commonly found in everyday life. By having this it hints that these sinister events could even happen in the most common places without your knowledge. It helps tell the narrative in the way that these killings are happening in this small, quiet English village.

The BBFC classification we are hoping to achieve is a 15. We believe it would be rated as such because it has elements of violence however the injury is not dwelled on. For example the killing is not shown but simply seen as a shadow on the wall. Furthermore blood isn’t a main component in any of the scenes showing any gory images. Also there is no nudity within the thriller and only reasonable use of strong language. Our thriller is most like Seven (1995) as we have adapted a style similar. It shows quick shots of an unknown event and character, confusing the audience. We have achieved this affect by having sinister people kidnapping a child in black hooded cloaks. Additionally anyone interested in the Harry Potter films may be interest in Hamlin as we incorporated a mysterious cult similar to the “Death Eaters” found in the Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (2005).

5) How did you attract/ address your particular audience?

From our research evidence it showed that mainly our audience preferred thrillers that were from the point of view of the protagonist. Also they preferred thrillers set in normal locations such as a typical English village. Additionally the most preferred type of thriller was psychological thrillers, which is what Hamlin is. We have also attempted to attract our audience through actors. Firstly by using a young girl in the opening sequence the audience is able to feel sympathetic to the girl as she is being chased relentlessly. With the family we tried to represent them as a typical family with the male being the dominant sex hopefully relating to a wide range of audiences. This is emphasized through their clothes as the young girl dresses in pink, and also has her hair in plaits. With the estate agent we wanted to achieve an intimidating look even though his jubilant manner contradicted his look. He has bold framed glasses as well as a moustache, while wearing colours such as black and grey which helped connote an evil man. As there is the use of violence within the thriller it will mainly attract older audiences.

The audience is asked to sympathize with the young girl, as we positioned them from the view point of the killer for example during the big close up before she is taken. It was used to show her fear and how helpless she was. Also some bird’s eye view shots were used to show that she was in a very vulnerable position. Additionally using many hand held shots while running through the woods to create a sense of urgency. The woods scene is shot mainly from the antagonist’s point of view as the audience is then able to identify that this person is the killer. Throughout the audience is kept in the shadow as to who the main hooded figure is. This creates suspense and confusion as the audience then starts questioning who the person is similarly to Phone Booth (2002) and The Bourne Identity (2002). The audience only sees very short quick shots of the little girl as we cross cut with a couple driving to a village, using quick cuts adding to the suspense and sinister and building tension. Additionally the constant heartbeat and sinister music was an important element in creating suspense as it is in every thriller, it mimics the girls fear and emphasizes it, with hand held shots drawing the audience into the action.

From our audience feedback, the reception from our thriller was good. In terms of camera work the shots were level and smooth. Additionally the audience thought that the sound was clear, that was down to editing. A main positive was that the majority of the audience realised that the black and white scenes were in the past with the minority of 5% who didn’t. Additionally 95% of the audience understood that the estate agent was also the killer which was a vital link that we needed communicated. It concludes that we were able to get our ideas across to the audience in a clear way and not over complicating things. In terms of mise en scene we did very well. 100% of the respondents said that our costumes, locations and actors were appropriate in creating a realistic atmosphere; this shows we were successful in this area. Overall 70% of people rated Hamlin four stars out of five. This shows that it was successful with our target audience.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

We mastered the camera equipment well but a problem we encountered was the use of the Canon XM2 lenses. Trying to achieve a pull focus was difficult as it was a matter of turning the lenses to a specific spot and not beyond. Although it’s not an obvious pull focus it is in our sequence during the basement scene. However for a good effect a very smooth action and sharp focus would have been used but within the rest of the sequence our shots are all in focus. During the car scene glares were picked up from the light shining onto the actor’s jacket. During editing we were unable to remove this and decided not to use the shot. Another problem was the tripod given to us, as it didn’t have a spirit level. This disadvantaged us as we had to continually estimate whether the shots were level. However we did achieve shots that were usable. Our location was next to a pub which caused many problems as it was very noisy. Also many cars used the small road we were filming on preventing us filming for a period of time. However the noise did lessen making us able to film without any people shouting to each other in the background.

In terms of location filming we found that there were many complications, however we overcame them with the use of the college equipment. For our interior basement scene, a lot of the shots were grainy. This was because we were filming in a dark room with a lot of black clothing and minimal lighting. We were able to fix this by using the lilliput lights to enhance the lighting without it looking too bright. We also used scrim over the lights to create softer lighting.

When using Final Cut Pro it allowed us to achieve a wide range of effects for our final sequence. Firstly we changed shots into black and white to connote the past. Additionally we were able to use the shots from two scenes and intercut them in an affective parallel editing sequence helping to build mystery. A problem we had with some of our shots was that the gun microphone picked up mainly the background noises and not the dialogue. We were able to overcome this by making the dialogue louder, and adding an affects track of traffic across the shots. In future we could get closer to the actors when saying their lines. We use multiple tracks of music which helped create an atmospheric track. We used a heartbeat with a classical style piece of music complimenting the picture, creating a sinister mood. Furthermore we used many transitions within the opening titles such as a fade up from back starting the sequence and a fade to black ending it. The use of slugs in between the opening titles allowed us some time to fade each shot in and out smoothly. Also we were able to use inserts as well as animating them with Adobe After Effects. It allowed us to create affects on our inserts as well as different text fonts and colours that would be appropriate to our thriller.

With blogging we learned how to create new posts which contained information in relation to our thriller. We created a house style so that our blog looked professionally. Additionally we were able to add stills from our thriller helping us to make reference in certain places. We were able to create a link which would enable people to see our final product.

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

While planning for our preliminary exercise we had some problems communicating our ideas to each other. Eventually we were able to compromise. Filming our exercise was harder than we perceived. Firstly we had difficulties remembering how to set the camera and tripod up. The main problem we had was matching our shots together so it would allow is to achieve continuity editing. We overcame this by using the roll tool which helped us to a certain extent. Also seeing as we lacked in actors we had to act within the sequence. This disadvantaged us and as a result of this we moved at a very slow pace. Another problem we realised only until editing was that our compositions were incorrect. I believe this was because we were inexperienced with the equipment. When editing we had a few problems matching the actions as we had continuity problems while filming. However the editing process was quite straight forward.

During our actual thriller production we had fewer problems as a result of learning from our earlier mistakes. We were more organised as each person on our team knew what they needed to do when filming. Our group produced a very good project schedule, research documents and script development. By creating in depth work we were able to gain a deeper understanding of the equipment as well as knowing what we were going to do on the day of filming. We were able to overcome any problems before they could occur as we had thought everything through. We had the right locations, good actors, props and costumes to produce a professional thriller opening. Furthermore we were able to achieve better compositions while filming as well as covering each sequence from different angles, giving us a lot to work with during editing. It allowed us to match the actions easily compared to the preliminary exercise. During our post production stage we had less difficulty and improved increasingly compared to our first time editing. We were able to find good music which created the right atmospheric mood for a thriller sequence, for example the constant heart beat.

Overall I believe our group worked very well as a team and our strength was that we were organised in pre-production which benefited us in many ways working similarly to professionals. Overall we felt a lot more confident in using the production equipment as well as our new blogging skills, which we are still developing. We also believe that our product was quite successful meeting the particular brief and also it contains a degree of professional work within our final product, allowing us to gain the skills needed for any further work within filming.

Evaluation - Shannen Ashcroft

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

Our thriller Hamlin is a horror thriller with psychological attributes as we gained influence from our research on the film Seven (1995), where the audience gets caught into a twist. Our narrative was based around murder and present ordinary things into extreme conditions, similar to the narrative of Final Destination (2000), where going grocery shopping could lead to your death. In this case, a family moving house became the danger.

However, thriller’s can be associated with blood and gore like in Saw (2004) but we found that not all audiences can handle that specific theme so chose to only hint at death by showing shadows and using lighting to our advantage to enhance the drama of the scene.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We used six actors and actresses in total for Hamlin, most of which are of a British origin as the setting of the film is more suburban and it is British people that are atypically associated with that particular area. Only the antagonist of the film is of a Southeast Asian ethnicity which can lead to thoughts of discrimination, yet could be a link to the rest of the story. A similar idea is shown in the film Rush Hour 2 (2001), where the actor Chris Tucker tells Jackie Chan to “follow the rich white man,” and it turns out his theory is correct. Our antagonist is also male because he is the main character and our researched showed us that males were the more favourable leading roles. Stereotypical gender representations are used with females being damsels and males being the antagonists due to their stronger, more brutal attributes and the antagonist being intelligent and witty, putting on an act for the protagonist to believe. Yet he also has a typical disability as he has a bad leg and limps vigorously, just like Kevin Spacey’s character in The Usual Suspects (1995). However, we included a male protagonist to show the stereotypical hero of a male in a storyline.

We tried to use various P.O.V shots from high angles when shooting the chase seen to show the dominance within the antagonist and the inferiority of the female victim, giving her the stereotypical helpless, also seen in Sherlock Holmes (2009).

The family used seems like a relatively normal family - Father, mother and two children - that are quite young to try and show that they may be more naïve, shown by their casual working class clothing.

The estate agent looks very young as that is the key factor to our storyline with the sacrifices of children giving the villagers a younger appearance, so long as they continue to kidnap them and has more of an upper class status, shown by his appealing suit and clean cut features. His dialogue is formal and polite, echoing his welcoming demeanour and smile which we use to try and throw the protagonists off suspicion, yet again reflecting Kevin Spacey’s
character in The Usual Suspects (1995).

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product, and why?

I imagine an independent film company distributing our media, with only selected cinema’s screening it as it is quite low budget and the thriller genre seems to be limited to ideas as obscure ones could be completely unsuccessful, just like House of The Dead (2003), voted 2nd place in a list of the bottom 200 movie rankings on a popular global website www.everyonesacritic.net. As our film’s ratings accompanied by a positive audience feedback are what we wish to achieve, creating an adaptation movie, using ideas similar to any in the bottom 20, using forms and conventions opposing our production research or using completely immoral/explicit scenarios would be unwise. A quick DVD release would be suitable with funding from the UK Film Council and a private investment as it is only a small movie and primarily British. After thorough research a BBFC rating of 15 would be most appropriate as violence, nudity or bad language isn’t shown to any great degree. This fits well with our target audience mostly consisting of those 15 and above as our research led us to believe that it is young people that mostly see films in the cinema and get attracted to the thriller genre, so using an advertising media that is popular to them, such as internet advertisements would more likely attract them.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

This production is aimed largely at 15 to 35 year olds as our cast is of a wide age range and our primary research showed us that people within those age groups enjoyed both going to the cinema and watching thriller movies. It also showed us that people enjoy fast paced, suspense building action, gaining inspiration from the adrenaline filled sequences within The Matrix (1999). We used a constantly inter-cutting scene between the flashback of a chase and the current conversing of our main characters; together, with a suspense building soundtrack we hoped to achieve the attention and satisfaction of our chosen audience. Our emphasized characters take the attention away from the smaller roles in the movie allowing an opportunity for the smaller role to rise up unexpectedly; an example being Fight Club (1999), would hopefully attract those who enjoy a good twist.

5. How did you attract/address your particular audience?

We based most of our movie content from our primary research as that’s where we were most connected to the public, asking them questions and finding out what they enjoyed the most. Through this we tried to create an obvious link between the pursuer in the flashback and the estate agent in the current time by giving him a limp, that, through our audience feedback questionnaires, was clear to viewers. This key factor could be used to try and throw the audience off another character whom could later be revealed further into the story, surprising them. A classic example of a shock would be in the film The Sixth Sense (1999), which turned out to be the most popular film within our primary questionnaire when the audience was asked to name their favourite thriller. In one of our interviews we were told that too many twists could make a film confusing and lose the interest of the audience with the example of Vanilla Sky (2001) being used yet one or two cliffhangers are valued, although that usually introduces the assumption of a sequel which this movie isn’t exactly intended for. The strength of our female protagonist, the mother, opposes the stereotype although this is becoming more and more popular with movie making as it allows some viewers to be attracted to her and become encouraged by her will power whereas the strength of our male protagonist, the father, shows his authority and dominance, possibly sticking to the stereotypical hero.

We used a basement type hall painted black with limited lighting when shooting the “ritual like scene” to enhance the mystery and evil behind the sequence and the characters within it. Candles were used to create an atmosphere with a pull focus shot used to create dynamics and show perspective which worked as, after reading the audience feedback, we found out that the audience believed all of the props used were appropriate for each scene.

The actors’ dark clothes showed how sinister their characters were yet the casual Converse shoes on our main antagonist shows how normal they can be at the same time and our audience believed that the characters' clothing showed their personalities (shown in audience feedback). We tried not to show their faces as much as possible to allow the mystery behind their characters, only allowing one of them to later become identified as the estate agent. A classic point of view chase scene from the chasers view was used to try and gain sympathy from the audience for the young female being chased as well as fear from the dominance of the camera as it approaches the girl after she has fallen; yet another stereotype with a typical damsel. Initially, she wore a pink dress to suit the stereotype of a young girl, but the dress alone along with the pig tails clearly show her age and innocence. We used the non-diagetic sound of a heartbeat along with the ambience of a suspense building soundtrack to try and create tension between the intertwining scenes. After an eerie scream both heartbeat and soundtrack stop for the conversation scene between the family and estate agent to fade up with the diagetic sound of cars in the background. Because the previous soundtrack has built everything up to this moment, where the family meet the murderer, to then stop as he seems to lure them into a house, leaves a slight cliffhanger so the audience stay curious, just like the ending of The Descent (2005).

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

During our preliminary task, I discovered that filming wasn’t so easy as I had to do different takes of the same scene multiple times in consideration of the editor. This gives them a wider variety of continuity shots to experiment with and make effective. As we filmed the basement scene, the picture was coming out slightly grainy due to the dim light we tried to use so we spent valuable time fixing the lighting of the props rather than increasing the intensity of the floodlight as we feared it would be too bright against the actors in comparison to the darkness of the surroundings. When filming outside the sun would obviously travel across the sky, due to the change of time, which made the shadows and lighting slightly change on our subjects, effecting the white balance. In retrospect, the balance should have been readjusted to meet our needs as we were at a disadvantage, camera that wasn't exactly at Hollywood quality, when it would’ve been better to use a high quality camera like the one used to film The Collateral (2004), especially when filming in dark spaces.

When editing, we realised that transitions were complicated and continuity editing has to be precise. Titles and credits had to be precise and even, using the correct font to emphasize the genre of our film and match the mise-en-scene, just like the title font for the film Gothika (2003). The red symbolizes the blood that would’ve been made from the stabbing of the girl, but we wanted to restrict actual blood as it disturbs some viewers.

7. Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When planning the preliminary task, I found working as a group rather helpful as different ideas could be discussed and creativity shared, however, deciding on which roles to undertake was rather difficult but quickly resolved as we compromised and delegated each others’ strengths and weaknesses, sharing the work fairly between the four of us. Due to the inexperience within the group we found it difficult to make sequences that flowed fluently and enhanced the atmosphere we were trying to create. Thinking about the mise-en-scene was challenging as we hadn’t done any primary research linking to audience preference. Editing took us longer than we initially thought as we didn’t realise how much thought had to go into it yet we learnt how to extend the timeline to edit in milliseconds and make everything more precise and accurate.When the real filming came around, we were a little more advanced in our knowledge and understanding but were given a different tripod which was a little less unstable, so handling the equipment took up slightly more of our time. We kept the roles from the preliminary but tried to extend our creative limit, gaining influence from different films with the same genre. The weather was unpredictable so we just had to rely on luck when choosing the day of filming and to our luck there was no rain, although it may have added on to the miserable atmosphere that reflected the genre of the film. We all contributed slightly to each role but made sure we played the main part of our own chosen one.The theory work of our thriller was most successful as our group could all do research at a high standard and hand in everything within deadline date, yet the practical work seemed slightly challenging as we had to re-edit our work three times which knocked the groups confidence slightly. But after hard teamwork, which I am sure many other professional film company’s have to undergo, we pulled through and created our final piece to which we were able to show our gradual improvement and development, understanding our roles and tasks to detailed extents and undergoing the task we were given. This resulted in a successful video as our audience never rated our movie lower than a rating of four out of five with 70% giving it a four and 30% giving it a five.