Evaluation task 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

These are all screen grabs from our media product, I choose these nine because I thought that these where the ones that shows how the tension in our product is best shown. Our finished piece is concentrating on the existing idea of building tension before the thriller is beginning, giving away some parts of the plot.
The font of the text is manly contributing to the idea of getting the audience to expect blood, tension and adhering to audience expectations. The type of font is therefore red, representing blood, aggression, passion, heat, fire and most important of all danger the font also has cracks giving more tension and unsettled feelings. The things represented by the color red are therefore also in our sequence, seeing some of the elements in the screen grabs such as fire, blood and danger.
So the creation of the title sequence has been much about adhering to feeling that the audience is suppose to expect but give a more challenging view of how this is shown and also making the level of the tension different depending on the shot. Manly the expectations of the audience in the term of characters are also adhering in the expectations of the female character not being in control of her emotions while the male character is, portraying him as calm and relaxed (this can be noticed in some of the screen grabs, seeing the contrast between the characters).
One thing that is different with our product compared to real media products are that we made the cuts was “uncomfortable”. The way our products were cut could in another context be seen as unprofessional but since we intended to make the cuts unsettling and creating a different kind of tension we see it as an achievement. But since we knew what we were doing it is not as noticeable as it might be in another title sequence since the creation was fully thought through.

Account of shoot day

The day began with thirty minutes of going through the work and plan ahead. The filming than began according to how our storyboarding looked like and how we had planed everything over all. The storyboarding that we had med for the day was used to the biggest extent it could be used but we also had an incident of which forced us to change two shots in the storyboarding. This sudden outcome was not taken into account and was therefore unexpected which made us worried but after when looking at the shots it might even made the sequence even better. Otherwise we did not have any specific or major problems with changing or unexpected events which was a good thing in many since we were well organized. Since we knew the plan and structure of the day it made it easier for us to concentrate on small details that would be important for the sequence and to give a better impression of a thriller.

One major thing that was important to our film and its outcome was the shot choices. We manly used close-ups and reactions shots since emotions and motions is an important factor to the film and how is also the best way of convincing the audience to certain emotions or reactions. Therefore there was not much to be changed since the shot choices had a big importance it was also well planned.

  Something that could have been done differently was the preparation of the actors that we used which was not as familiar to the product as we was which also consumed some time of explaining and so on. Since it important for actors to know there part and what they’re doing it also gives the audience a more true impression which is a very important thing when doing a thriller since there have to be some many different emotions involved.

The lighting and the sound the later became a big part of how we were planning the mise en scene and the overall shot. Most of the sounds on the shot was not planned to be used later on since we wanted the sound in some cases to take over the tension of the story and therefore was not a major part of our planning and thoughts during the day. The lighting was on the other hand a major fact to what was changed and mixture with during the day since it had not been planned to well.  We had a key light which was representing the real and normal lighting in the room and prevented shadows and so on. The lighting also helps us to give the effect of daylight but it also gives a more pure shine to it when using the big key light. During the shot done in the location of the boy’s room the lighting was much darker to give the impression of more tension since it is a thriller. The lighting could have been planned and thought about better but I was happy with the overall result.

Our locations were first supposed to be in the studio but since we wanted the shot in an environment similar to a boy’s and a girl’s room we decided to use this instead. By using “real” locations with a recognizable environment it would also be easier for the audience to identify themselves to some extend in the movie. The mise en scene of the location would also be more comfortable and believable since it is taken from real life.

The props that we used (which were written in a post below) had some major importance to the mise en scene and outcome of the story in some cases. The girl character was for example wearing a red sweater and is therefore representing blood, love and much more by just wearing the color red which was important for her character. There is a lot of different movies that as using the techniques of color which also contributed us to use the technique to give her a costume that also made her stand out in the shot.

When we did our casting choice the main importance was to find two good actors which one was a girl and the other one was a boy. Later we then choose between the range of people that we thought was good enough for the part and we then later found the people that we thought also had the right look for the part. We specifically wanted a chilled guy how was seen as not caring to much about things in life while we were looking for a sweet innocent girl which would contribute the audience to not expect the things she was doing.

(these where our two actors used in the sequence)

When planning all of the things described above and also involved in making a movie the good teamwork had a big importance and since we was four people the tasks was divided between us and therefore the planning was done in good time. We used about six hours of lesson and our free time planning and discussing the mise en scene, props, cast and everything which had a major importance. It was importance since the plot, tension and how to create the best possible way of successfully target the right audience for our movie. My role in this was to plan some part of our folder, pictures of character, props list and so on which were nicely done with a good structure so anyone that is not being involved in the project could understand either way. I also kept the record of the shots during the shot day of which one that may not be useable and which ones that is, which will save time later when the editing is done. This is also important so that the structure of shots will be easier to order and use without too much time that will be consumed.

After all of the work done by me and my group I am pleased and happy with the result that was achieved during all that time that this project so far has taken. The shot day was also a real success and we all had a real good time doing something that we spent so much time on the past couple of months. There might have been some things that we now after having all of our shots we would have made different such as planning the lighting better but also done more retakes even though we had a couple of good ones which would make the editing part much more convenient and easy and would also speed up the finishing of the product.

Planning of props, costume and make-up

When we still were in the development faze a big amount of time was devoted to finding and developing the right mise en scene, props and costume. We ended up with a big list of different props which would be important for our sequence and also have a purpose.
- Necklace  : a proof of the love and the bound between the two characters.
-Teddy bear : another proof of their love
-Birthday cards : would show the bound and love of the characters
- Photos and photo frames : these props would have a significant importance to our sequence since these object would be tarred and smashed showing the anger towards the person in the photo and so on.
-Lighter : The lighter will have an importance to the end of the sequence showing the match cut of burning photo which would cut to him burning himself.

The costume of the two characters wouldn’t have a major difference to the story but we decided for the female character to have red sweater both to have the breaking point of the color red but also for the representation that the color also stands for such as blood, love and hate. The female character was also the only one having make-up which was smeared in her face from crying and being upset but not for any other specific purpose.

The development of props, costume and make-up will be discussed in the post which will describe the account of the shoot day.