Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

We profiled our target audience as 15-24 year olds as our film would most likely be rated and certified as a 15 age certificate by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) complex psychological aspects, scenes of violence and expletive language.

We would also aim our film at this age group because this has been reported as the largest consumer of this film genre, also predominantly males. The evidence we received from our questionnaire supports this statement as we questioned people in this demographic and we based our film on aspects they said they would like to see.

Evaluation question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

We chose the teenagers to be our target audience. The advantage is that we already knew from our own experiences and personal taste what to use in the project. We also conducted a research on existing products for that specific target audience and learned what not to do and what to do more successfully. Another significant way of gaining the ideas was a questionnaire with general questions about the thriller/horror genre and it's aspects and elements.
Results we got were very useful while we could not decide whether to create a traditional thriller or gory horror. Most people claimed that they rather like to watch the traditional thriller than the bloody, brutal and violent and senseless gory film. Many people stated that they like the element of mystery that builds up their tension therefore as in thrillers' nature we included the scenes that are not clear straight away like for example the preparation of man that later appears to be a killer when he puts the knife into the bag.

Sometimes people incorrectly think that teenagers only prefer to see ruthless murders and dead bodies, many of them have different needs than are generally considered.

We wanted to satisfy the wider amount of audience therefore we used the elements that were mostly preferred in the questionnaire e.g. house setting that is more likely to be fearful, engaging plot requiring the concentration and some of the camera shots that are

particularly liked by the teenagers and can be usually found in the movies like Tormented, these are: jerky camera movement that creates the impression of disorder and instability or instant and rapid zoom out from the killer's eyes.

Such shoots add a bit of effective disruption to our production however perpetuating it's traditional style. In addition, all of our casts are teenagers which makes easier for audience to familiarise and sympathize with.
We have also included the death scene but unrevealing the actual action of killing, however girl is shown dead after the attack surrounded with blood and is being dragged away leaving the blood mark effectively linking to the title. Many younger audience may appreciate that also as this is something fresh and makes the murder scene still effective and touching even if it was not shown fully and detailed.

Evaluation question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

As our project was a opening sequence of a movie. First thing in terms of technology, that comes to mind are cameras, however we were already experienced with using the cameras from previous years and private actions.
Therefore we did not encounter any difficulties and problems with them, the only significant change was shift from the tape camcorders to the modern ones supporting the SD storage that is more convenient and friendly. Biggest change to other years was using the apple computers and it's software like iMovie or 'The Garage Band' that required us to get familiar with, as they are fundamentally different than the traditional Windows-based computers and many of us did not have contact with such computers or software before. Furthermore, the inexperience with iMovie sometimes aroused problems like e.g. importing the footage from the camera that required the knowledge about the software and the different camera modes. However with help and advices of teachers and trial and error methods we finally got to know most aspects of available editing software. Moreover our skills and knowledge started developing with time. Therefore now when our project is in the final stage we are fully aware of most aspects of apple Mac computers and it's software like 'The garage band' or 'iMovie' that we used to work with our movie. The transfer to new technologies certainly was positive as current computers have better performance than previous, which is crucial while working on video editing, they also provide us with big space available to store the longer footage with better quality. Some software available on on the Apple Macs, such as iMovie sometimes seemed very simple, however, for most things we realized that we did not fully understand how to use and find, or engineer some techniques that we wanted to use. However, compared to the software we used at GCSE, Ulead Video Studio 8, as it was much faster to process and import footage.

We successfully learnt how to apply filters into video clips and adjust the speed, contrast and brightness of the clips to specifically enhance or portray a particular emotion or atmosphere. For example, i added the filter 'Dream' to all of my flashbacks to emphasize a passing in time.

Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have leant in the progression from it to the full product?

When we filmed our preliminary task we practiced a number of techniques to help us develop ideas. This task also really helped us gain knowledge on how to use the equipment and we also gained a little more expertise in the execution of our camera work. It gave us an insight into what shots are useful in what situation i.e. shot-reverse-shot is used for conversation but also the 180° rule should be used unless you are trying to create a reverse shot.

As mentioned before the 180° rule is a very important editing technique if dialogue is used between two characters. We did not carry this technique into our final edit as no dialogue appears in the opening of our thriller.

Another very useful technique that we practised in our preliminary task was match on action and continuity editing. This is important as it makes a scene look more realistic. For example we filmed sombody opening a door and using a second camera filmed the person coming into the room from the front view. This is more realistic than showing somebody enter the room from behind as this doesn't show the audience what somebody would see if they were in the room when the person entered. We also used continuity editing in our opening to smooth transitions between shots where most of the aspects remain still but some parts of the shot move. For example in our thriller we used match on action editing to cut from an over the should shot of the girl getting something out of the fridge to a 2 shot of her seeing the killer apper from behind the fridge door. To do this we made sure to match the position of the fridge door to match to the ssme position from both camera angles. Otherwise the fridge door would have jumped from being wide open to almost shut.

The preliminary task also helped us familiarize ourselves with the editting software, specifically we larnt how to cut and split clips, only keeping the clips we wanted ans how to crop a video clip like when we noticed that the vey bottom of the second camera tripod was visible in the shot.

Another factor that helped us was using wo cameras, it meant we had to plan our shots more carefully so neither of the cameras were visible in the other cameras shot, however it was also far more convenient than refilming the whole scene from a second angle as this is impossible to get exaactly the same and creates continuity errors.

Overall, I think our final piece has beenm edited to a much higher standard due to the practise and expertise that we gained by undertaking a preliminary task.

Age Rating

The age ratings of films are rated and classified by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) they classify the films while considering issues such as language, violence, sex and drug abuse and discrimination in films, DVDs and video games.

I think our film would probably be rated as a 15 age certificate meaning you have to be 15 or older to watch the film in a cinema and nobody under the age of 15 can buy or rent a film rated with this certificate.

We think this would be the most fitting age rating as complex psychological plot-lines can sometimes be disturbing to younger audiences and "There may be frequent use of strong language" and it is possible that this could feature later on in our film. Similarly "Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable." This will also fit with our film as during the main scenes of violence the violent act will not be shown directly but using inconspicuous camera shots and angles, such as when we showed the victim's blood dripping on the floor indicates she is being stabbed but does not show the actual violent act of the knife entering the victim's body as trying to make this look realistic would be very difficult and also spoil the tension of the thriller. It would also probably have to be an 18 rating if violence was to be shown in this way.

Final cut

Filming Process Evaluation

As we processed to the filming of the rough cut version we have taken the pictures showing our filming behind the set and evaluate our decisions in order.

Dead girl shown

Very first scene of our movie was showing a dead girl on the floor surrounded with blood. A beginning of this kind already establishes the genre, and provides excitement right from the beginning. It also effectively prepares the viewer for further content. This shot will be long as the scene goes from the extreme close up on the girl's face to the long shot by slowly zooming out. This scene will be interwoven with the flashbacks of the actual killing scene.

Killing scene shown by flashbacks

This scene starts with the view through the window as a girl comes into the room, however, it is not the killer's point of view because he is already inside, as you will find out later in the scene. This view is effective when we want to show how defenceless the victim is and that she is in danger as looking in through the window from the outside give the impression of her being trapped.

The next part of the killing scene was the victim taking a plate from one side of the kitchen to another, this is shown effectively by a panning shot. When she reaches the fridge and opens the door, the killer is already behind it to scare his victim and kill her when she shuts the fridge and sees him.

Victim is stabbed to

death

As the killer appears behind the fridge door it fills the victim with a paralyzing fear. The music will be synchronized with this action . She cannot react in any way as the shock is too huge, she

can

only look at the killer frozen with fright. This short moment is shown by two shot.

Then in order to show the killing process and keep it mysterious and thriller-like we filmed a high angle shot of the floor which effectively shows the contrast of girl's bare feet and the killer wearing smart black shoes. Then we can hear a scream and the girl drops things she held as she sees her killer, namely a glass and some food. We intentionally used glass as it smashes effectively reflecting the girl's situation. View comes back to the floor and then we see drops of blood falling down.

The next shot is the girl laying on the floor surrounded with blood and broken glass. The camera is aiming on her head and shoulders by medium shot and high angle. Then girl is being pulled out of frame by the killer leaving the blood mark behind.

Killer wakes up

We don't know that this is the killer yet as the actions he does seem very ordinary and normal, except the time he wakes up. Later we find out he is the killer as we see his notice board with photographs and newspaper extracts. They say that his girlfriend was killed and abused and he swears revenge against the people responsible for her death.