Introduction

Hi Followers,
We are AS Media Studies students, Georgia, Beth and Hollie. We have created this blot to share our progress throughout the year as media students which will includes the planning, constructing, filming, and editing of our film. We hope you enjoy reading our future posts.

Note to Moderator

Dear Moderator,

Thank you for marking our AS Media blog. Our brief was to create the opening of a film in the Thriller genre.
We have chosen to create ours in the sub-genre of Thriller-Crime.
Our target audience is teenagers.

We have used labels to make it easily and navigable in order to find what you are looking for.

Yours sincerely,

Beth Stembridge-Webb
 Georgia Royle
 Hollie Mugridge

Final Opening Sequence - MISSING

Media Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, developor challenge forms and conventions of real media products (i.e. of film opening) by Georgia Royle

Title:

We chose the word missing as our title as it fits in to the theme of the film we are trying to show to our audience, that someone goes missing. The word “missing” is a one-word title which makes it stand out and get to the point of our film. It also is similar to other thriller genre films such as inception and collateral also one–word title films. The title is memorable and simple and bold which gets the audiences attention. We left the title to the very end because we felt like it would be more dramatic and the audience would have a short time to get their own ideas on what the film could be about from the small opening that we gave. This also means that the audience pays attention and as we put it in the end of the opening sequence the audience would have to watch to the end and it dramatizes the titles so the audience would want to know what happens next.

Location & setting

In the opening sequence we have 3 different locations but 2 main locations which show more in our opening sequence. The first is the young girls bedroom and house, this connotes privacy and safety and shows the audience the normality of this young girls life. The bedroom is typical of a young girl of her age, pink and girlie. This represents a private space for the young girl. As the opening sequence goes on, the audience can see the stairs of the house and her leaving the house. The second main locations is her walking to school on her own on a path by her school. We used this location as the surrounding housing represents the type of class we wanted to show the audience the girl was and also that it is quite public. Also the fact that she is walking alone is typical of the thriller genre it show vulnerability. These two locations contrast to one another with one being safe and private and the other being public and vulnerable. These locations aren’t typical of the thriller crime genre but will hopefully get the audience thinking about what happens next. The 3^rd location is two short clips of the young girl alone in the dark, scared. We used a basement for that this hopefully again gets the audience thinking about what happens next, how did she get there e.c.t

Costume and props

We used many props throughout out opening sequence including some typical of the crime thriller genre and other not so. For example make up and the school bag are not typical of that genre but they give the audience an idea of the age of the girl, so does the school uniform and also that she could be trying to impress someone with the makeup. At the beginning of the sequence the missing poster shows that someone is missing and has some relevance to the genre. The school uniform shows vulnerability, much like the second location; this again fits with the thriller genre.  

camerawork

 in our opening sequence we tried to use a number of different shots and angles. We used close ups of the missing poster to show the audience the importance of the poster and give an idea of what the film is about. We also did close ups of other things such as the school bag and her putting her shoes on. We did this to show the normality of the life this young girl has and this is important in the film as it contrasts with the rest of the opening sequence as we later do a close up of her face in the basement, alone. We also did long shots of her walking to school on her own. The camera was at eye level, this could mean that someone was watching her, if so who and why. It makes the audience think about the rest of the film and make them want to watch more.

 

Editing

The editing that we did for the film was important because we had to get the right clips to fit with the voice over that we had along side the music in the film. We also did flash backs and flash forwards to show the now and then and this builds tension and gives a plot twist to the audience. We used final cut express to edit our opening sequence.

Title font, colour and style

We made the titles simple and black and white although this makes them stand out, they don’t take away from the film and this makes the audience focus on what is happening in the opening sequence. The style is also made to be similar to text messages showing that she is on her phone a lot and typical of a girl of that age

 

Story and how the opening is set up

in the opening sequence we gave subtle hints as to what the narrative of the film could be. The missing poster is a big clue to the audience that someone goes missing. The second clue was the fact that she was on the phone and putting on makeup. This to the audience could mean that she likes the person who she is texting and it trying to impress them with makeup. This follows the man ripping the poster. this confuses the audience and makes them ask who that man is.

How the characters are introduced.

The main character poppy is introduced in two ways. The first is the missing poster and the second is when she gets out of bed in the morning and starts getting ready for school. She is a young girl at the age of 15 she cares about her appearance by ding hair and makeup and takes care of her belongings showing that she cares a lot. She comes across to the audience as innocent and sweet.  The second character is the man who rips the poster from the sign. The face of the character is never shown and this creates a sense of mystery and suspense and it makes the audience think about whether he is involved in the abduction of the missing girl. This makes the audience what to find out what his role in the film is and keep on watching.

Special effects

we didn’t use many special effects besides fades in and out to create a flow to the opening sequence and we did this by using final cut software.

Question 2:how does your media product represent particular social groups?

Poppy is our main character in our thriller opening sequence.











this girl is from the film Red Riding Hood in 2011. She is much like Poppy the main girl on our thriller opening sequence.

Both girls in the film have similarities. they are both blonde, slim and pretty which makes them attractive to the viewer watching the film. They are both come across to the audience as sweet. They both come across in the opening sequence as normal children. throughout they are shown in both dark and light lighting. both characters are being pursued by an evil being and are trapped and cannot escape. similar shots are used in the opening sequence such as close ups and long shots to make scenes more dramatic and also points of view shots. As both were kidnaped during the film at one stage feelings among both could be the same. also both are independent and dont communicate with outside people.

As well and similarities our characters both have differences. these are things such as the films are set in a different time period and red riding hood is a fictional story whereas our opening sequence is set in the modern day and could be based on a real story. also the location. red riding hood is set in the woods whereas ours is set in a suburban setting. costumes and props are also different because of the time period the film is set in.

Question 3 What kind of institution might distribute your media product? by Georgia Royle

Evaluation question 4 Georgia Royle

Evaluation question 4

Our target audience is 16-30 year olds. as the picture shows above. These age ranges suit the a thriller genre as it has been proven that the genre is popular in that age range. This age range is more likely to branch out and watch more types of films. this genre is popular with people that are 16-30 this has been proven by them enjoying films such as shutter island and inception also films like Taken 1,2 and 3. Tv programmes are also popular with Broadchurch and Criminal minds being favoured by this age range. as well as film and TV books of the thriller genre are also popular.
questions we asked our target audience are as follows:
before watching the opening sequence...

1) what do you expect the location, props and costumes to be like in a thriller crime film?
2) what conventions do you expect to see in a thriller crime film?
3) what type of characters do you expect to see?
4) what type of music do you expect to hear? ( slow, fast, upbeat?)
5) what sort of storyline do you expect for a crime thriller?


link below:
 http://youtu.be/21YWTrqBPXE