The Border

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The black and white represents isolation,

hoplessness, barren and death. The red is a symbol

of hope and freedom, its also symbolises danger

and it makes the character seem targeted.

The branches not only shows that they are battling

through nature and tough terrain but also it looks

shattered showing their world is falling apart.

Conventions

Conventions: dark lighting, dark theme, stereotypes of characters and setting

Camera Angles/Movements:

- Low angle, point of view, extreme

close up shots, panning

movements.

Lighting:

- Low key and under lighting.

Sound:

- Ambient, dark, slow and low

sounds or music.

Editing:

- Sharp cuts.

These help to create emotion and suspense while creating a frightening and an eerie atmosphere.

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Our main task combined the same fragments

associated with thriller genres. These include what

camera angles and movements, lighting, sound and

editing you use. These are all very important

because with the right camera angles and

movements, lighting, sound and editing you can

shape a movie into a good thriller.

Connotations

In our main task we also took in color connotations into consideration.

For Example…

- At the beginning of our piece Yas is wearing a red jacket. Red symbolizes strength as well as danger, it also symbolizes strong emotions.

- She shows strength by saying that they need to get to the border as she promised that she would keep her friend Sofia safe.

- She shows strong emotions by getting upset but still not giving up. They’re in danger because someone is after them and they’re all alone.

- Sofia is wearing a black jacket. Black symbolizes fear and sadness.

- She shows fear and sadness because she’s also frightened. Sadness because they’re lost and still have a long time to get to the border.

Research

- After considering different storylines and genres we decided to create a horror/thriller opening

sequence.

- We had a lot of different ideas for the project; we looked at different film companies and their titles.

- Our group looked into ‘Rogue Pictures’ they produce ‘high-quality suspense, action, thrillers and

urban features with mainstream appeal and franchise potential’.

- We looked at 4 different trailers from the many titles of Rogue Pictures; these include, The Return, The

Unborn, The road The Strangers and Cry Wolf.

- Each of these trailers had a lot of common, but the sound used in each trailer had the most

similarities. It’s very dark, mysterious and sharp. It also contains a lot of non-diegetic sound, for

example, screams and quick breaths. There are also times in the trailers where it goes quiet and

suddenly there’s a loud noise or a scream etc.

- We created a questionnaire to gather information of what genres people mostly enjoy watching,

how many times they watch movies and what they expected from horror/thriller movies.

Planning

- We gathered all the different information from our research, this includes questionnaires and watching different trailers.

We thought of a storyline and then we decided where it would take place, how many people were going to be in the film, what props and costumes, what camera angles

and movements would be suitable etc.

- Originally we were all going to act in our project, however it was then decided that two people would be enough (Yas and Sofia.)

- Two young females making their way to the border.

- They would be wearing rough jeans and big jackets and boots as it is cold and as it was set in a barn. Make-up would include messy hair and messy eye make-up.

- Not many props were used except from a block of wood to start off our opening sequence as we wanted to focus on the two young females all alone desperate to get

to the border and see their families again.

Thriller conventions and challenging stereotypes

Sub genres of thrillers and Voiceover

The isolated location

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real life media?

How does your media product represent a particular social group?

Teenagers, in our type of genre that we have chosen, thrillers, especially females, are usually seen as being the ones who are naive, oblivious, and insecure of what's happening around them. Our product represents the social group of girls. Stereotypically they are portrayed

as vulnerable, and their inability to defend or be able to look after themselves. These stereotypes increase the fear of the audience as it keeps them on guard thinking the girls will live up to their stereotype.

In our opening, we decided to challenge this stereotype. Instead of using two male characters, we decided to open our film with two female characters. The beginning alone where one of the girls is

talking to the camera about their journey, demonstrates and introduces you to the the fact these girls have been surviving for

weeks, therefore challenging the stereotype that girls are weaker, and unable to protect themselves, as our characters have been doing just

so.

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- The genre of our film opening is thriller.This genre already shows a certain type of social group and also attacks one.

- We chose to have two young children as our antagonist.This is because young/teenage children are typically more naive and insecure.

- They both happen to be girls.Socially girls are seen to be more venerable this in a way makes the thrilling part as the thriller as it keeps the audience on the edge of there seat.

- Ethnicity of the characters.We only could tell that the main characters were white teenage females, one with a German accent. this showed they come from different background this made use come up with the idea of using a voice over to introduce the characters. but not filling the gaps so the audience will wonder. How do they know each other?

- There are also other questions to be answered about social groups?Who are they running away from? What gender is the mysterious person? What Ethnicity? As the exercise was to only make a film opening this leaves space for the audience to create what could happen next for themselves.

What kind of media institution might distribute

your media product and why?

Realistically, our media product is most probably not likely to be a major movie blockbuster. We are really happy with our outcome however it does not compare

to professional productions, as we don't have a big budget, Hollywood a list actors, a short time scale, or the highest quality cameras.

The most realistic way of distributing this movie would be an Internet release. Nowadays, people our age, our target audience, mostly watch films online

anyways, whether it's on YouTube, Netflix, or even illegal sites. We would look into uploading it onto sharing sites such a YouTube or vimeo. Doing this would make it world wide accessible, and people can share it, but without promotion from a big

institution company, it is unlikely to receive many views.

If our film was to be distributed, our chosen institution would be 'Rogue Pictures'. As mentioned in our initial research on all of our blogs, Rogue pictures, has around 25 titles under its name with films, there disperse, "high-quality suspense, action, thriller and urban features with mainstream appeal and franchise potential". We thought this was the perfect one for us as they only release genres as already mentioned.

They have movies such as Hot Fuzz, The Strangers etc.. Under their name.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We feel like our main target audience is aged 15- 35.

Film Classification.-

As a group we classified our film as a 15. this was well thought out from the beginning.

We knew our film wouldn’t be child friendly as (in the opening AND the rest of the film) there would be scenes of violence, moderate language and crime. So to find out what would be a suitable classification we went to the British Board of Film Classification website this was really interesting as we found out lots more about other ratings too.

12A or 15?

We weren’t sure whether it would come under a 12A or 15. However we were looking at the differences between 12′s and 15′s and it was clear that although a 12 allows some allowance for puns on strong language, aggressive uses of strong language may result in a film or DVD to be placed at the 15 category. Another point we found is, in a 12 there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but in our storyline for our film there will be bloody scenes and violence.

How did we attract/address out audience.

Thriller- We chose thriller because when our pre production questionnaires came back the majority out our target audience said they enjoyed thriller the

most.

By using actors our audience age- This helped the audience feel more a part of the film, also giving the apprehensive feel that is could happen to them.

By using a hand help camera- Many people our audience age own their own camera. By using one it fits in with our audiences hobbies and activities.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES

FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS

PRODUCT?

•Using the camera and editing

•Lighting

•Filming

•Music and Sound effects

Progression from the preliminary.

What was our preliminary task?

The preliminary task was the first time in experiencing in depth filming.

For some of us it was our first time writing editing as well.

Since the Preliminary we have improved our script work and editing and it has come through on our end product of our film opening.

As a group we feel we have mainly improved with filming.

We thought more about mise en scene.

Over all we feel we have progressed a lot since the preliminary task.

speech What was our preliminary task?

- The preliminary was a continuity task involving filming and editing. - This had to involve a character opening, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom she or he exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. With in this it must demonstrate shot like:- Match on Action, shot/reverse shot, 180 degree rule and many others.

The preliminary task was the first time in experiencing in depth filming.- Obviously we have all used a camera before but not at a professional level. While filming our preliminary the one thing we didn't have/use for most of the process was a tri-pod. You could see this as some of the camera movement wasn't smooth.

For some of us it was our first time writing editing as well.- It was interesting to edit the preliminary task as for some of us it was fun to me on the Macs and he editing software. - It also didn't take as long as expected to edit it together. this meant it didn't become tedious. Half of the group already knew how to edit footage this meant all the group worked well as team teaching each other new things.

Since the Preliminary we have improved our script work and editing and it has come through on our end product of our film opening.- One of the main reasoning's that the script work has improved is that for the preliminary we didn't worry too much about it. This was because we were focusing on the brief of the task. - Another reasoning that shows we have improved with script writing is that our film opening is much more enjoyable. It watch as it leaves with a cliff hanger. We also used monologues and Voice overs.- Our editing was decent before but I still think we have improved by practise.

As a group we feel we have mainly improved with filming.- One small reason is because we used an tripod but mainly because we thought about different shots and angles to portray different emotions and feelings, for example We used a high angle shot to show they were venerable and in danger. - In our preliminary the filming was a bit fuzzy this was not our fault but the fault of the camera quality.

We thought more about mise en scene.- In the preliminary because we basically went straight into filming we didn't have much time to plan out costumes and location. this led to the problem of not have the same space free for the second time we filmed. - To learn from our minor mistakes we planned costumes, props and even wrote a letter to the person necessary to ask for permission to use there farm.

Over all we feel we have progressed a lot since the preliminary task.

Camera Shots

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Camera Shots (4 Pictures)

Picture One: The first shot we see is a close up of Yas’s character portraying a distressed expression, we used a close up to try and make the audience feel sorry for her as a close up tends to concentrates on the characters emotion . Picture Two: The shot then turns into a mid shot, with zero camera movement. The character is talking directly to the camera, in many ways you could say she is reporting directly to the audience breaking the fourth wall. It's an emotional perspective of telling the story, the audience feel the connection. The character is seen to be wearing a bright red coat. This connotes danger, and that she is a target.Picture Three: This is a High Angle shot, we decided to use this as it makes the characters look venerable and less significant also creates a feeling that someone is watching them.Picture Four: This is an establishing shot, showing the audience the mise en scene of the particular scene.

Editing Techniques

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Editing Techniques (4 pictures)

The close ups of trees and barbered wire connotes a sense of

mystery and isolation connecting with the characters mind sets.

The use of silhouettes shows that nothing is clear yet to the

audience. They don’t show where they are, or where they are

going to. Hence the silhouettes make the titles have a

mysterious feel to it. Not only do the shots do so, but also the

non diegetic music help create suspense.

The title border not only shows a physical border that they

need to get to, but also a psychological border that they need

to cross

Match On Action – Shot Reverse Shot

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Match On Action Shot (4 pictures)

In these particular shots there is use of match on action. The first two images show Sofia from the outside to the inside and the last two images shows Yas and Sofia opening the barn door and walking outside. Match on Action means when something happens in a scene then when there is a cut the same piece of action must be going on. This is an example of continuity editing. It helps the audience understand what’s going on

Storyboard and Mindmap