Audience Feedback

As part of our media coursework we were to create the opening two minutes of a film from the thriller genre. To be successful we had to gather back feedback from our target audience.

As a group we decided to receive constructive feedback at two different points, whilst we were still editing and after we had completed the final product. Receiving feedback from media students while we were still editing helped us realise where we had to change to improve our work. Parts that as a group we thought linked and worked well, to others did not make sense or thought of them as confusing the storyline. The media students then advised us to re-film the phone booth scene as they could notice cars in the background and the camera in the reflection of the phone booth window.

After we had completed our thriller we showed it again to our target audience, overall we were pleased with our final production and they seemed to be too from the positive response we received. They all thought that the idea of the thriller being located in a ‘deserted city’ was a good idea and all responded positively to how well we had filmed it and made it look deserted. Some even stated it was ‘excellent’. Sarah Panzetta adds ' I thought it was very clever how you manadged to make it look like london was empty, although people and veichles were really there'

However, they did also pick apart our thriller well and gave us some constructive feedback. One of the two parts they picked out as ‘bad’ was the establishing shot of the Gherkin building; they felt the tilt was not as steady as it should have been and a little shaky. They second point they made was that there wasn’t any dialogue within our thriller, however once they watched it again and we explained to them that we didn’t want to give away any possible twists or enigmas; they agreed that this was a good idea. We also explained that the establishing shot was shaky because of the faulty tripod we were using.

By Joseph Mulhare and Kerry Sheehan

Evaluation Activity 3

Evaluation Activity 5

By Kerry Sheehan

Evaluation Activity 7

Evaluation Activity 1

1. The title of the film is Pandemic which we feel fits under the Thriller category as you are not going to have a Ron-Com called Pandemic. It also makes the audience wonder what is going to happen in this film.
2. The location of the film was filmed up in London when it was deserted so that we can capitalise on the Mise en scene of our thriller and having London deserted.
3. The costume that we used for the thriller was just ordinary everyday clothing for a male of my age to make it seem real that this could happen to anyone. Also in the flashback we used different clothing so that it was made clearer that it was a flashback.
4. For the camera work we used a lot of long and mid shots to show isolation. This also emphasised the fact that something was not right at the start.
5. We used Lucida sans font as it fits into the thriller conventions by being blunt and clear.
6. We started with the quote “I’m running, I don't know why I'm running, maybe to something or to somewhere, all I know is that I'm running". This was to create an enigma at the start and to fit into the conventions of a thriller and make it clear from the start that this is a thriller.
7. The character is introduced by a tilt down gherkin into an empty car park drive way where the main protagonist appears from. with the establishing shot being the Gherkin it shows to the audience that we are in London then when the tilt comes down there is no cars no people and only the protagonist with a long shot showing that they are far away and isolated.
   
   
   
   By Jack Partridge
   
   
   
   
   

Evaluation Acivity 2

By Joseph Mulhare

Directors Commentary

As we had completed all the tasks assigned to us we decided to create a 'directors commentary' explaining why we chose certain camera shots, our choice of music, the reason for enigmas, why we used flashbacks and the reason behind the point of view shot.



By Kerry Sheehan, Joe Mulhare Helen Daniel and Jack Partridge

Evaluation Activity 6

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



By Joe Mulhare, Kerry Sheehan, Helen Daniel and Jack Partridge

Filming in London - diary of the day

Shooting Schedule -
Sunday 28^th March
Location – Central London (St Mary AXE, Lime Street and Leadenhall Market)
Filming Times – 8am till 1pm
Cast – Jack
Filming – Helen, Kerry and Joe
Scenes to be filmed – Establishing shot of buildings, jack entering, walking around the area and ending up at the telephone box

Equipment Needed –

Kerry – posters, charger, spare tape, sellotape

Helen – digital camera, storyboards, blue tac

Jack – costume

Joe – video camera, main tape, tripod

By Kerry Sheehan

Evaluation Activity 4

Music

The music that we chose we feel ads to the isolation that we were aiming to achieve in the clip. The way that this piece of music achieves this isolation is the slow fairly high pitched piano beat that is accompanied by soft percussion. We found the music off a copyright free website page that allows people to have copyright free music for no cost (http://www.freeplaymusic.com/). When the protagonist is walking around the streets of London the background music is playing over in a non digetic maner which adds tension, the beat accompanies the lone protagonist through the streets of London as he try’s to find out what is happening and why there is no one to be seen. The music plays right through till the end of the scene to show that this is the beginning clip of the film. There was a few other pieces of music that we found but did not feel that they accompanied the clip as well as what the piece that we chose did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhPExz99r4I&feature=related this is the music that we used and uploaded on to youtube.

By Jack Partridge

Rating Our Film

By BBFC standard we believe that our thriller does not exemplify criteria that will be justified as an 18 certificated film. Pandemic does not portray any of the usual film ideologies that the majority of 18 rated films have; these are items such as use of sex and drugs. Due to it being classified as a psychological thriller it does however contain modest amounts of violence and swearing, yet these are not used to a degree in which minors from ages of 15-17 are vulnerable towards, fitting in well with the age rating of 15 in comparison to 18. Other films that support this statement are those such as, Shutter Island (2010) and I Am Legend (2007), as both of these films were given the rating certificate of 15. Yet they contained the correct combination of mystery and use of enigmas in creating the same thrill without the use of excessive violence, sex, drugs and swearing.
Due to us having to base our age rating on the opening 2minutes of Pandemic there is a possibility that later in the film it could encounter some aspects of borderline 18 certificated films. Yet since we had classified it as a sub-genre, psychological thriller, it is unlikely our thriller would cross over into an 18.

By Helen Daniel

Final Production

This is the video of our final production. We as a group are very happy with the video and hope that you enjoy watching it.





By Joseph Mulhare, Kerry Sheehan, Helen Daniel and Jack Partridge

Character choices

This is our protagonist. We have decided to choose jack as our protagonist because he is an “average”, “everyday” person, who has an “everyman” persona who represents the majority of people in the country. We feel that these characteristics are ideal for our protagonist as we wanted the audiences to relate to him and feel as if they could be the protagonist rather than just watching the film. One other reason why we chose jack was because our thriller is about isolation and putting an everyday person in a situation that would make them vulnerable. The combination of the character and the location, we feel, gives a situation that would attract our target audience.

By Joseph Mulhare

Our Poster

After much deliberation we finally decided on “Pandemic” as the name of our thriller. We decided that a poster to promote our thriller would be appropriate as it could allow the target market to acknowledge the thriller. The font of Pandemic along with it being in white emphasises the clinical feel to the film. This combined with the biological hazard sign that has been partially blurred out in the back ground that suggests to the audience the nature of this film has a connection with some form of scientific disaster. The tone of yellow used connotates alarm, and warning within the film. Collaborated with the deep red of the tagline and ‘BEWARE’ again stimulates the audience in to associating the colour red with danger, fear and death. Having the release date of the film portrayed to the audience as a warning again reemphasis’s the danger within the film. The words ‘BEWARE’ also scare the audience of the release date. The emptiness of the black background suggests there is something out there that will be later reviled.

By Helen Daniel

Brief

Our task, as year 12 media studies students, was to make the opening two minutes of a thriller. We had to research other thrillers, annotate them and write them as a blog. We then had film our thriller and edit it, writing blogs about our experiences and techniques we used. Our final part of the task was to write an evaluation of the whole project. Throughout we have had to use as many different types of media as possible. This meant we had to think carefully about how to express our work. Because we had to do this we thought of many different ways to show our work, for example instead of making a questionnaire we filmed a focus group.

By Joseph Mulhare

Editing Diary

After we got our raw footage we then had to edit the footage to make sure it made sense and would appeal to our target audience. To edit the footage we use a programme called pinnacle studio, this software is a basic package but was ideal for the task we had been set. The software is industry standard and was made for editing home videos, which is basically what we were using.

So that we could edit to a high standard we were showed how to use pinnacle by year 13’s who had used the software the previous year and had good experience using the software, meaning we could then edit ourselves and to practise we had to produce a preliminary task which included:
• Over the shoulder shot
• Match on action
• Shot reverse shot
• Not to break the 180o rule
The time spent editing here was when we made mistakes as it was our first time using the software. Also our preliminary didn’t look as professional as our finished production as we were told to get all the “silly urges” out of our system and ready for our final production. Because we had this small task to do it gave us enough experience to produce a thriller to a high standard.

Through out our time editing we didn’t have many problems as we had used the software before to edit our preliminary task. Therefore we knew how to use the programme and edit successfully. However we did have some problems, mainly when uploading our footage, these problems occurred because some of the equipment we had was old, had been misused and wasn’t in good condition, mainly the camera docks and cables used to upload footage. After finding new and correct equipment we had no further problems with uploading.

Once we had edited our footage and included a title sequence we then had to burn the film to a DVD CD. This was simple because of the way the software was set out and didn’t take much time at all compared to the rest of the task.

By Joseph Mulhare

Focus Groups

A focus group is a form of qualitive research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea or packaging.

Hendeson, Naomi R (2009)

Focus Group - Target Audience

We have decided to conduct a focus group as it is a form of qualitative research that will allow us to gain their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards our thriller ensuring that we captivate the audience. If our thriller was to be advertised we would also have the knowledge of the best way to market and promote it, for example the television channels the trailer would be viewed on.
The Advantages
Since the people who will participate in the focus group will all be within the target audience age group, their input and views are up to date and relevant to us. Having them express their opinions amongst one another allows a variety of ideologies to be considered. This in turn will be more beneficial to us as we are able to customize our thriller around what they want.
The Disadvantages
However there are several drawbacks in undertaking a focus group. Within a small number of people, one or two individual’s ideologies may dominate, and as a consequence of this the whole objective of a focus group will become irrelevant. A similar effect can occur if friends are asked to participate in the focus group as they are more prone to give the response that you wish to hear, meanwhile others may give you the opposite which can also have a negative outcome.

By Helen Daniel

Permission - 2

It was originally thought that next to no permission was needed when filming however when we got to our location on the first day of filming we incurred several problems as permission was needed from one of the building owners. This resulted in us being unable to shoot the minority of our thriller. We had to resolve this by emailing, Lloyds to ask for permission to shoot on their premises. As shown below:

Helen Daniel

Focus Group

As our target audience has a large age range; we decided as a group to undertake several focus groups as it will enable us to have a better understanding of the requirements needed to captivate the audience.
Our first group consisted of students of a similar age range. They were asked a series of open questions that would allow us to have better understanding of what they expect a thriller to consist of. It was then revealed whether they preferred or disliked these conventions; this in turn determined whether or not we would break away from the original thriller conventions.
The second group consisted of adults of a mixed age range. They were also asked the same set of questions, as they are also included in our target audience. However some of the responses we received from this half of our focus group did not correspond with the first group. This resulted in the group having to make some crucial decisions on factors such as location and leading roles.

Questions that were asked
1. Name five thrillers
2. What role would you expect a female to play? Why?
3. What role would you expect a male to play? Why?
4. Would you prefer a male or female protagonist? Why?
5. As the target audience would you prefer the thriller to stick to the typical thriller conventions? – referring to hero, villain, location, story line.
6. Would putting the protagonist’s life or safety at risk have a large effect on the audience to having a happy ending?
7. Could the female play anything other then heroine/ victim.

Our first question was for them to name 5 thrillers; we opened with this to make sure they had a good understanding of what a thriller actually is. Both groups had a firm understanding as they all answered without hesitation.
One of our biggest issues when regarding character lead was whether it was going to be played by a male or a female, yet the response from the focused groups were split. The first group were all behind having a male lead, as they all stereotypically pictured the female as the victim role. Meanwhile the second group suggested having either a female lead/villain as it would be unexpected. This left the final decision to be made by us collectively as a group.
The location was also split as the first group liked the usual conventions of a girl being in a house alone late at night, meanwhile the second group wanted to break away and have a location that was opposed to the traditional one. As a group we had to then discuss which one was the right decision.
Overall the focus group benefited us as we were able to make final decisions as we had gained a better understanding of what our target audience want.

Helen Daniel

Focus Group

Location and Editing

With our location being London and it being remote as we are filming on a Sunday it will ask the enigma of why is London empty which is what we ask of our film due to it being a thriller. It will also create an atmosphere with the audience as we look to gain a hostile environment with the protagonist and the location they are walking around in. we will flash in some quotes during the 2 minutes or so of filming to add in with the atmosphere that we are creating which we hope will lead into an enigma of what is going to happen to this character in the rest of the film. The hardest thing we are having with this thriller is trying to get to location and having it so that it is sparsely populated so we can give the abandoned feel of the protagonist. We are not looking to put any dialogue in the beginning scene as we don’t have the right equipment to give the right sound that we would need to make it professional as the school’s cameras don’t pick sound to well. If we were to put dialogue in then it would not come out clear and would make it look unprofessional. So we feel that if we don’t put no sound in on it then it would also create some remoteness. What is very important for us is that we avoid any clichés in this film as our idea is similar to a film that has been done before, but we have a completely different story line it just so happens that the film “28 days later” has the same start. What we have done though is watch this and take note of what happens and what we can and cant do to make our beginning scene the best it can be.

By Jack Partridge

Preliminary

Advertisers Social Grades

A) Upper Middle 4% of population
Higher Managerial, Proffesional and
Administrative

B) Middle 21.9% of population
Intermediate Managerial, Professional
and Administrative

C1) Lower Middle 29% of population
Supervisory, Clerical, Junior Managerial,
Professional Administrative

C2) Skilled Working Class 20.7% of population
Lower Management

D) Working Class excl Skilled 16.2% of population
excl skilled. Semi and Unskilled


E) Lowest Level of Subistance 8.1% of population
State Pensioner, Widows without another person to support them. Casual or owest grade worker

(Figures correct as off 2006)

By Kerry Sheehan

Psychographics

VALS (values, attitudes ad lifestyles) was developed in the USA in the early 1970’s. The original categorisations were:

1. Belongers – traditionalist, cautious and conforming conservatives; “nest builders”; stay-at-homers. Susceptible to advertising of pension plans, house insurance, DIY etc.

2. Emulators – smaller, more impressionable group, often young. Identity seekers. Lacking in self-confidence, confused and vulnerable. Advertisers prey on their insecurities offering them role models, heroes and the reassurance of group acceptance and friendship.

3. Emulator-Achievers – materialists (the yuppies of the 80s), acquisitive consumer; favour designer labels; consumer goods as evidence of accomplishment, success and good taste.

4. societially-conscious achievers: “greying hippies”; children of the 60’s; concerned more with personal rather than professional or financial fulfilment; against conspicuous consumption; the “green” market. Sceptical of advertising.

5. Need-directed – minimum-wage earners or those receiving welfare benefits. Mainly concerned to survive rather than ‘consume’ in the advertisers’ sense. As far as advertisers are concerned, they scarcely exist.

By Joseph Mulhare

Painting Props

On the 15th March we all decided to paint the posters we had created before we could tea stain them. We decided to use red paint to create a blood like effect and also create the sense of fear and danger. Using hand prints and the splattered paint effect we hope to show that there was once a lot of panic and the film is taking place in the deserted after math.

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By Kerry Sheehan

Props and Iconography

Whilst discussing ideas for props and iconography to be featured in our film we decided on the use of subliminal messages through billboard posters and leaflets. Although using billboard posters would be difficult we compromised by instead opting for A3 size posters. The leaflets will be visual throughout the opening sequence as they will be stuck on trees, buildings, bins etc and dropped on the floor in the background, basically anywhere that can be seen in the camera shot. However if a back on view is seen of the protagonist no posters will be seen therefore meaning more of the story is unveiled to the viewer and later to the protagonist. Hopefully this will be successful without the use of dialogue. The posters will include the headline ‘PANDEMIC’ and pullout quotes like ‘Everyone Flees’, ‘Millions Flee’ and ‘Experts Warn “Don’t Take Risks” to create a tense enigma as well as using the image of the biohazard symbol creates a sense of pain.

Using a telephone box is a key part of our thriller as the realisation that there may not be anyone around becomes true when the phone rings in the exact location of the protagonist. Using a loud telephone ring will hopefully shock the audience and create an enigma. As well as this our chosen location being a city centre is also a key part as the area chosen as it is a well known business district which can be identified by the ‘gherkin’ building seen in most shots. Normally this area is busy with people and congested with vehicles, where as filming on a Sunday we hope there will be less or even none of this around.

By Kerry Sheehan

Gattaca Story Bord

The story bording of Gattaca allowed us to practise before creating story bords for our thriller and prelim.

By Helen Daniel