Evaluation

Overall, I feel that our thriller went very well and fits the conventions of the thriller films we researched. In many of the thrillers we watched, we noticed that the opening credits can last between 2 and 10 minutes long. As we only had a time limit of 2 minutes 30, we had to condense all of the opening credits in that time. The opening credits fits the conventions of other thrillers such as the Sixth Sense and Memento because nothing is explained fully in the first 2 minutes of the films. This means that the audience are left questioning what has happened in the first 2 minutes and makes them want to carry on watching. As Poppy and I found out from our audience survey, a lot of the people we questioned said that they found our opening sequence quite confusing. This was what we aimed to achieve because The Sixth Sense did exactly this. (the audience see the main charcter get shot and then he is up and walking again in the next scene). Our opening sequence also fits the conventions of psychological thrillers because there is not much talking in the opening sequence of The Secret Window. We decided not to use too much talking because if the audience have to concentrate on what the characters are saying straight away, the audience may feel that they have been left in the deep end. So just some music and change of tempo and pitch helps introduce the characters to the audience gradually. This is so that the audience can have a general idea about what the charcter is like and their main role in the film. Our opening sequence also fits the conventions of a thriller because the name of the film does not come up at the start of the film, it comes after the opening credits. This happens in a lot of films, not just thrillers. An example of this is The Secret Window because the first thing the audience see is the main character sitting in a car in the rain. Our opening sequence challenges the conventions of thrillers because quite a lot happens in a short space of time in our thriller, where as in other thrillers such as What Lies Beneath and Seven, not much happens in the first 2 minutes. I think this is because the directors do not want to confused the audience too early on in the film. We, however needed to have a lot happen in our film because we needed it to all flow on from each shot to try and bring forward what our film is actually going to be about.

Our media product represents particular social groups by having young actors/acrtesses in our opening sequence. By doing this, it should interest a younger target audience which we were aiming to do in the first place. We used a young girl as the main character because young children are generally seen as innocent characters, however this is not the case in our thriller. This is a reverse stereotype. To try and make the innocent stereotype stronger, we made sure the girl was wearing natural make-up and a dress. We also made sure she had her hair in bunches and that her iconic item which would represent her throughout the film would be a balloon. The other character represents the stereotypical teenager who bullies their younger siblings. This character was wearing all black and a leather jacket. Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. We shose this colour because the audience will assume that this character is the villian, however this is not the case.

The media institution which might distribute our media product would be Universal Studios. This is because they are very successful and also seem to do a lot of thrillers which are similar to ours. Some well known thrillers which Universal Studios have produced include The Birds, The Bone Collector, The Thing, Dead Silence, Psycho, The Skeleton Key and The Strangers.

Looking back at our final product, I think that the target audience should be for people aged over 18 years old. This is because it is quite a confusing opening sequence and all the people who did not understand it were aged under 18 years old. I still think that the target audience should be for a younger audience because there is younger characters in the film. This means that the audience will be able to relate to the characters easier.

To attract/address our audience, the first shot was of a man writing some instructions. This made the audience immediatly concentrate because they need to understand what is being written. We also used low key lighting and did not show the face of the man who was writing the instructions. This attracted our audience because they will want to find out who it is and why he is writing it. There was also red lighing using in that shot to signify blood, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Slow, low-pitched music was used as well as a voice-over of what is being said. This is to build up the tension and make the audience want to find out what will happen next.

To keep our audience interested throughout the opening sequence, we changed the voume, pitch and tempo of the music through to make it more exciting for them to watch. We also used a variety of camera shots and angles to make it more appealing on screen.

Overall, I have learnt how to film with the shot being smooth. This is especially important for the tracking shots we have used. There are a few ways to over come this. We attemped to place the camera on a office chair with wheels and using some string to pull it along, however this technique did not work for us. Therefore, we had to make sure we used a steady hand. If a shot was jumpy and not very smooth, I learnt how to edit the shot so that it would flow smoothy onto the next shot.

I was very surprised about the length of time it took us to edit every shot because we filmed each shot about 3-4 times each and at different angles to see which one would look the best. This meant that it took us a very long time to edit our film. We came across a very implications on the way. One problem which occured was that the character who was running seemed to be running in different directions each time she was on screen. This meant that the shots did not flow smoothly into eachother. Therefore we had to rearrange the shots to make sure the character was running in the same direction throughout the film. Another issue was that the character who was running was sat down half way through the film. This meant that we had to try and move that shot into another part of the film. This meant that the soundtrack was not in the right place and we had to place the soundtrack correctly.

Looking back at out priliminary task, I can see a huge improvement. The preliminary task prepared us for our main task and the problems we might encounter. We used the same type of effect with the flashback and the use of the eye because we found out that it worked very well in our preliminary task. We also learn, during our prelimary task, that voices could not be heard if it was filmed outside due to background noise such as the wind and cars. To overcome this, we learnt how to use voiceovers.

To improve our final product, I would slow down the pace a little bit so that it gives the audience time to adjust and think about what is going on. I would also try and make the plot a little clearer by possibly having a scene which shows the connection between the two characters a bit clearer rather than going straight to a flashback. Finally, I would also try and make the voice-overs not as long and more clearer so that the audience have a better understanding of what is going on.

Laura Knapp

Evaluation

We have now completed our Thriller opening, and I am very pleased in how it has turned out, not only the practical production, but also the written evaluations. I feel that Laura and I have put in a lot of effort over the past few months, despite the problems that we encountered throughout the duration of the task.
Our first main problem that we had was when we lost a group member due to her having an illness, and we were a bit dubious about whether we would be able to keep up with the workload, but with a lot of hard work and effort, we managed to accomplish this. I think that this made us even more determined to produce the best we could manage, as if trying to prove to ourselves and our teachers that we could do this on our own.
The next problem that we encountered was when we were location scouting, and the place where we wanted to film had issues with it and we would've had to go through a major process of getting a trip organized, if we were to film during school hours. However we got around this by filming outside of school hours, and all went swiftly, and we got the footage that we wanted.
These two, were the only major problems that we had, and I feel that if we had come across any others that it would have set back our completion of the film.
We did however have a few minor difficulties, with the soundtrack being too loud, and the voice overs not being clear enough. We wanted the voice overs to sound a bit like they were being spoken from a distance, so we used an echoing effect on them. However we did not realise that it would make them quieter, and so more difficult to understand. This is nothing major, however there is a significant difference between the two types of sound, with the soundtrack being ever so slightly louder than the voice overs. It should not make a difference to how the film is viewed, although it could be irritating to some people, and could distract their attention from the main focus of the production.

Poppy Smyth

Evaluation of feedback

Good eyeline match - this shows that the shots were framed perfectly, and that the camera was placed at the right level so that the audience feel connected to the characters.
Louder voiceovers needed - this shows that the music was too loud and that we might have to lower it a bit more, when the voiceovers were being played. We know this, but it was really difficult to record voiceovers as we had to, literally, try over and over agian, because they kept going wrong.
Make storyline understandable - we believe that the storyline was understandable, but then this is rather biased as we think our production is rather good, and so cannot give an unbiased opinion.
Make soundtrack louder when there is no speech - making the soundtrack louder would enable the audience feel more involved in the film, rather than them straining to hear it, the sound would engulf and draw them into it.
Be more articulate during speech - we disagree with this point. We feel that the words that were spoken suited the thriller opening, and that any other sort of speech could ruin it.
Soundtrack slightly disjointed - this is a valid point, the soundtrack did not completely go together, some parts of it were a bit disjointed in that the mood within the music, changed very quickly. And sounds that were mellow and quiet, suddenly went to being quite loud and angry.
More variety in visual effects to create interest - this is a fair point, however, we feel that if we were to put any more visual effects in, it would somewhat ruin the production. Visuals are used in it to make it interesting, but if we used any more then it would just be over the top.

Feedback and improvements from questionnaire

• Good eyeline match
• Louder voiceovers needed
• Make storyline understandable
• Make soundtrack louder when there is no speech
• Be more articulate during speech
• Soundtrack slightly disjointed
• More variety in visual effects to create interest

Questionnaire results

As you can see from the graph, the majority of people we asked were between the ages of 15 and 19. We asked ten people altogether, and although this is not a large sample size, it will give us feedback on what we could have done to improve our production. To improve this further, I would have asked more people, with a sample size of around 100, yet we do not have the time to process the results and viewings of the production would be difficult.
In the time that we had between making the questionnaire and finding people to do fill it in, it was hard to find people that weren't in the 15 to 19 category. This could sway our results slightly, and will have to be taken into account when analyzing whether we have chosen the correct target audience.
























The people we chose for the questionnaire were predominantly females as they were more willing to do it, whereas males couldn't be bothered. If we were going to do this fairly then we would generate a random sample of people, giving a number to each individual and then randomly drawing out 100 numbers. By doing it this way we may have an uneven number of males and females, but everyone has a fair chance of getting picked.




















The results show that the 8 out of the 10 people who viewed the production, thought that the actresses we chose to play the characters in the thriller opening, were suitably selected. This could be because we were rather limited with the people willing to perform. The people who said no, were aged between 15 to 19, and they were both female. An interpretation of this result could be that they found it hard to relate the female actresses to themselves.



















There was only one female, aged 15 to 19 who said that they thought the film was not suitable for the target audience. Additional comments were that it was hard to understand. However we believe that the audience would rather be confused than bored.
















Almost half of the people we asked, thought that the it was a psychological thriller, this is enlightens us, because our thriller was aimed to be of this choice. The people who put crime, disaster and sci-fi, may not totally understand what defines the different sub genres. This could be due to us not explaining the genres, and if we had done, our results would be much clearer.



















Only one person said they would not want to watch the rest of the film, they were female, aged 15 to 19. She said, "It pulls me in, but not really enough to want to watch it". This shows that we made it interesting enough to make the majority of the people want to see the rest.



















The majority of people were very satisfied. There being 7 very satisfied, 1 satisfied, and 2 unsure. From this we can see that overall, people have not said that they weren't satisfied with it, which shows us that our target audience enjoyed our film.




















This graph shows that the soundtrack was a success, we are very pleased with it, especially the ending, because the editing goes in time with the soundtrack. This makes the film easier to follow.
























This shows that our target audience were either very satisfied or satisfied with the image on the screen, this gives us confidence that we used n appropriate range of shots.





















Being that we didnt use that many visual effects, the audience were satisfied with the ones that we did use. The main reason for not using a vast amount is that sometimes 'a little goes a long way'.






















One female aged 15 to 19 said that it was inappropriate to have this storyline, this is the same person who said it was hard to understand, in previous answers. Therefore she may not like the style of our production.





















The self same person who said that the storyline was inappropriate to use the storyline that we used, and who said that the production was hard to understand, said that the target audience is inappropriate. We disagree with this, as do 8 other people who said that it was appropriate. And ne person who said that it was very appropriate.




















All of the people that completed the questionnaire, agreed that the soundtrack suited the moving image. This makes us confident about the whole production as we were worried that it would not quite fit with the film. The sound is really important as it creates the mood and helps differentiate between the shots.

Questionnaire

These are the questions that we have put in our questionnaire.

1. What age category do you fit into?
2. What is your sex?
3. Did the selected actors/actresses suit the roles of the characters played?
4. Do you, the audience believe that the production is suitably aimed at 15 to 30 year olds?
5. Into which sub-genre would you class this film?
6. Would you be interested in viewing the rest of this film?
7. How satisfied were you with the: film, sound, image, visual effects?
8. How realistic was the: storyline, acting?
9. Did the soundtrack suit the moving image?

There is also space for additional comments.
From this questionnaire, we hope to be able to understand how the audience see's the film, and what is hard to understand, because the way in which Laura and I see the film, will be different to how it is viewed by others.

20/4/09

Today, Poppy and I finally completed our film. We adjusted the voiceovers slightly to make the voices more clear. We also had to use a still image rather than a clip of the writing on the balloon because we found that the clip was very quick and the writing on the balloon was difficult to read. Therefore, we froze the clip and made it into a still image to make it easier to read.

We also made a questionnaire for our target audience when we show our production to about 10 people and get feedback. By doing this questionnaire we hope to find out where we went wrong and how we could have improved. We are hoping to show our production to 10 people tomorrow and analyse the feedback. We will then be able to do an overall evaluation of our production.

Laura Knapp

As Laura has said, we have now completed our film. The deadline for the whole production is the 24th, which is this Friday. We will hand out our questionnaires once the selected people have viewed the film. We will try choose people within our selected target audience, and try to make the selection as unbiased as possible to ensure that we get a good range of views of the film. We will take the comments that are made into account and evaluate them to see how we could make our Thriller opening better.

Poppy Smyth

30/3/09

I am very happy that we have got the main bulk of the work out of the way now. There a few finishing touches that need to be done such as the credits. I also think we need to adjust the voiceover slighly because I don't think it sounds natural and it needs to sound like the character is thinking it. However, overall I think it is a job well done!

Laura Knapp

30/03/09

We are now in the final stages of production.
Today we completed our soundtrack and have put it together with our film. It looks really good! There are a few parts that need to fixed, in some places the soundtrack overrides the voiceover and it is difficult to hear, but overall I am very happy with our production.

By Poppy Smyth

28/03/09

Poppy and I are still on schedule. We just need to finish off the last of our soundtrack and also add the opening credits. As we are on an Easter break during the period of 3rd April-20th April, we will not be able to do any editing, so we plan to carry on writing to our blog and thinking of any other perfections we could add to our final piece. We plan to watch thrillers such as the Shawshank Redemption, Sixth Sense and Don't Look Now. This is so that we can compare our thriller to the thrillers that inspired us. We will need to closely watch the Shawshank Redmption because it contains a lot of flashbacks, as does our thriller. By watching The Shawshank Redmption, we will find ways to perfect our flashbacks and learn how to make them even more realistic. By watching the Sixth Sense, we will check that the acting and the costumes of the actors and similar because our thriller has a similar plot to the Sixth Sense. We would also check how the Sixth Sense expresses the colour red as it is also shown a lot in our thriller. Finally, by watching Don't Look Now as it is about the death of a child who comes back to haunt people.

Laura Knapp