Survey Results:

Shown above are our group's survey results. These results determined our mind-set on particular ideas, whether we were to include or exclude people's point of view.

1) 10 people stated that they like thrillers, which was a huge boost to our confidence and gave us that incentive to move up a step.

2) Only 1 person stated that they watch thrillers weekly, however 30% said monthly and 60% said when only there is a new release in the cinema.

3) 1 person rated thriller movies at 6/10, 3 people rated them as 7/10, 4 rated 8/10, whereas there was a split between 9/10 and 10/10 with just one vote each.

4) 'mysterious places', 'woods', 'government building', 'dark/deserted places' and 'old run-down buildings' where separate answers from individual people after being asked where their favourite thriller location is held.

5) When asked 'what is your favourite type of thriller' a massive 50% of people answered a 'psychological thriller', however 3 people answered a 'crime thriller', 1 chose 'techno thriller' and 1 answered 'disaster thriller'.

6) When asked 'which do you prefer' out of 'thrillers which conclude' and 'thrillers which leave the ending unknown' there was a 50% split between the two.

Screenplay:

Here is our groups completed screenplay. Evidently, you can see that we professionally plotted our plans and successfully produced what we had intended.

Animatic:

Our group needed to examine our storyboard. We took photos of the individual clips on the storyboard in the order of which we desired. Once we completed that, we needed to upload them onto the Apple iMac and create an animatic, as seen above.

Soundtracks:

Our group and I wanted to make sure that we chose soundtracks that matched the mood we were trying to express within our two minute sequence. We needed to take into account that hold elements of the thriller genre, as well as trying to emulate a sense of mystery throughout.

We used a website called 'Incompetech' and chose two soundtracks that we thought fit perfectly. Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod for providing.

Text Tutorial:

We needed to make sure that we included text within our opening two minute sequence. The group and I used 'Text Tutorials' to help us with this creating our desired effect, as well as matching our genre. For this to be completed correctly, we used a program called 'After Effects' and then chose the effect called Light Sweep.

I believe the positives from this was they the group as a whole managed to choose the right font which matched the sense of mystery that we were looking for; we wanted to make it unique, as well as having a fair-ground feel to it.

The only negative I believe we came across was that the Light Sweep effect made the text disappear off the screen too quickly, meaning the audience were unable to read what was there. However we managed to fix this.

Costume and Prop Ideas:

Because our film was loosely based on Se7en, we wanted to imitate the mysteriousness and secretive physiognomy their opening two minutes possessed. Therefore, we wanted our protagonist to be very concealed. Our protagonist would be wearing a lab-coat, which we thought would be suitable because science professors are stereotypically shadowy and peculiar. We also decided for our character to wear a hat, similar to the one Jack the Ripper was rumoured to wear, because I thought that our character would express that distinctive mysteriousness.

We determined that props would be a significant part to our opening two minute sequence. We would use unconventional props and items to give our film that unique twist. Items such as a: clamp, knife, sander, drill we all that we considered would suite our sequence wholly.

Locations for our Film:

Our group made a joint decision that we needed a location that would correctly fit the mood and genre of our film. Because our sequences would have similar clips from the film Se7en, we determined that we needed a dark and enclosed area to successfully achieve this aim.

The four of us thought of ideas, however eventually, we decided to use the resistant materials lab. The labs where absolutely what we were looking for: dark, enclosed, dusty and included work-units, which were ideal.

On the other hand, we also decided to film parts of the sequence outside. We decided this because we agreed on including flashbacks to the protagonist's past life.

Filming:

For our group's filming we decided the most efficient environment to film was in a dark place. We also needed worktops and surfaces to make the zone appear more eerie and dank - of course to fit into the Thriller aspect. Also, we believe that work surfaces would assimilate perfectly to match our desire to duplicate the film, Se7en.

Film Indent:

Above is our group's creation for our film's indent. For this to be completed, we used a programme called 'after affects' which allows us to enhance and improve clips and images, or, create them. We wanted to create an indent that was unique and superior to others, so that it would protrude - as well as keeping it as original as possible. For this to be accomplished, we recorded each other's faces tilting upwards and placed them with the correct letters of their/our names.

I personally believed this was a fantastic idea to improve our sequence and brand a more proficient approach.

Preliminary Project:

Above is our group's Preliminary Project. The purpose of this scheme was to express our skills and expertise as a whole. Within this project we had to include: the 180 degree rule, shot-reverse-shot and match-on-action. We experienced match-on-action as the simplest of the three too shoot, however it was a complex outline to accomplish. Furthermore, together as a group, we believe that we completed a very professional and smooth project - despite it being an unprecedented group.

We hope that we can keep this steady, yet  successful progress in the future for the benefit of our Media Studies.

Researching Professional Example Sequence:

Above is an example of the opening two-minute sequence from the film, Se7en. The purpose of observing this clip was to gain ideas for our own opening two-minute sequence. Also to enhance our own knowledge.

We took note of distinct aspects from this sequence that we thought would 'fit the bill' for our sequence. In addition, the group as a whole agreed for this two-minute sequence to be our aspirational succession. 

Completed Survey:

This time around the group and I had to produce a questionnaire/survey regarding our opening two-minute scene. The purpose of this was to gain important feedback from individuals and their views on the thriller genre (our group's chosen genre). In addition, we believe this will give us, as a whole, a lot more guidance towards producing the two-minute entry - as we can observe what elements the audience prefers/likes about thriller films.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7PGRGVV - here is the link to our group's completed survey.

Editing Footage and Beginning Survey:

This lesson, two of our group members, including me, began to edit the filming that we produced throughout last week on the Apple Mac - whereas the other two group members started to produce the questionnaire for our principal opening two-minute film entry.

However, me and another group member were briefly given an overview of how to edit our footage via the Apple Mac - once the explanation had finished, we began to get the hang of it and accomplished a pretty decent job editing the material. On the other hand, we wanted to include some CGI within our footage, just to make it that little bit special - and we started to experiment with certain aspects and features that the Apple Mac provided... It was harder then we thought!

Finally, our other two members of our group made steady progress on producing the questionnaire - as they had to create 10 distinctive questions which were significant for our two-minute entry.

Gratifications Theory, Reception Analysis, Open and Closed Meaning:

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Gratifications Theory:
On the left, you can see a diagram of Gratifications Theory. This is an approach to understanding why people actively seek out specific media outlets and content for fulfilment purposes. The theory will not only meets a given necessity, but increase intelligence, social physics and diversion. Moreover, the physiological division is the most important; the things of which the us as humans need the most - then safety comes second, love/belonging third, esteem fourth and then actualization last.

Stuart Hall.

Reception Analysis - Dominant, Hegemonic:
On the left hand side is Stuart Hall. Stuart Hall detailed that  texts have preferred meanings, however the decoder will not always fully understand or read them as the intended idea by the producer - and this is because everybody has different social and cultural backgrounds. On the other hand, texts that are meant to correspond hegemony will be encoded so that they are simply deciphered and understood by a figure audience. 

Umberto Eco.

Open and Closed Meaning - Encoder, Decoder:
On the left hand side is Umberto Eco. Umberto Eco said that texts aimed at a big audience will be encoded so that the majority of the audience can only decode a preferred of significant meaning - this is known as a closed text. On the other hand, open texts are something of many meanings, or is purposely ambiguous, which can only be understood in different ways by a numerous of different audience significances.

Old Theories:

This lesson was more theoretical rather than practical. The class as a whole had to comprehend the aspects of Understanding the Audience.

Within this, we were informed about what was called 'Old Theories'. In addition to this, there are three theories of which make this up, and these are:

• Syringe Theory - the media text injects ideas directly into it's audience, of whom then soak the ideas without complaint.
• Desensitisation Theory - The more the audience see of a certain thing, the more the audience think that it is 'normal'. Also, if the audience were to watch a lot of violence, they are more likely to be violent.
• Sensitisation Theory - If the audience were to see the effects of a bad action, for example: masses of blood from a shooting, the audience are more likely to think of the consequences of actually doing it themselves.

In addition to this, these theories treat the audience as the mass, that will all react in a exact similar way. However, this is clearly not true of today's audience, and was arguably not true at the time as well. On the other hand, more modern theories try to observe the relationship with the audience on a more individual foundation.

Finalising Filming - Looking Ahead:

During lesson three the group was determined to finalise the finishing touches to our opening scene. Time was imperative for this group, however we were not going to let it interfere with the group's filming  and acting qualities. Our group were determined to make our footage superior to others in our class - we wanted it to be at a high-quality. Ultimately, we managed to finish filming and acting the loose-ends that needed to be touched up.

Subsequently, in the near future our group hope to situate the footage on the Apple Mac computer. In addition, the whole purpose of placing the filming that our group accomplished onto the Apple Mac is to edit the footage and to remove unwanted oddments. 

Furthermore, after our group finalised our filming, we began to plot our ideas and thoughts to what we believe will be the most effective for our focal opening two-minute film entry. Additionally, the group and I had to decide what genre would be the most effectual and successful on our filming and acting techniques. After a positive discussion, we decided to concur with the genre, thriller - however we agreed that there could be elements of horror included.

Afterwards, the group observed different passages of the opening two-minutes from different films, all of which were the genre of thriller. However, the whole purpose and idea of this was to gain an awareness of the importance of how our own opening scene should be acted and filmed.

Beginning to Film:

Finished Storyboard

Me and Dan on the camera.

During this lesson our group finished planning our overall storyboard for the opening two-minute extract. (As you can see above, on the right hand side, is our group's finished article). In addition to this, within the finalised storyboard, there are a variety of different camera angles because we all agreed to be experimental and put our filming and acting abilities to the test.  

Furthermore, we eventually started to film for our opening two-minute extract. Our group consists of four students; two of which were on the camera and two of which were the actors (I was the main camera-man - as you can see above, on the left hand side, there is a picture of me and another group member). I thought we made steady, effective progress at the beginning, despite having a short duration of time to film and act. We didn't manage to conclude what we aimed to do, therefore we will be eager to finalise our work in the next lesson.

Choosing Groups and Storyboards:

This is the one of the first lessons of this project. Within this, we had to decide and choose our groups for the future as we will be working closely with each other to produce various pieces of work toward our A-Level. However, individually, we had to complete a storyboard by observing a music video. We had to grasp the importance of each and every shot that is included to create a positive effect on viewers of whom will witness it. This was a very difficult to observe because each shot changes almost instantly before you have time to recognise it's specific definition. Subsequently, as a group we began our strategy of planning out our own storyboard which included a variety of camera-angles and shots, to make ours as unique as possible.Moreover, I found that the duration of time that we were given was not enough to finish planning our storyboard, which was frustrating. Also, I found that heated debates within the group wasn't healthy for confidence and good collaboration - this was caused because as we couldn't agree on what shots to include - however in the end we found out that this was slightly effective because we threw different ideas into the outline, giving us a different awareness and views. We all agreed that other people's knowledge is beneficial.

The Three Rules of Continuity:

Match on Action - this is where there is one smooth movement through more than one shot, portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This creates the impression of a sense of continuity. Also, the action carrying through draws the viewer's attention away from slight cutting.

Shot-Reverse Shot - this shot is usually used in a dialogue between two characters of whom are looking at each other or an object. For example, a shot that shows what the certain character is supposedly looking at (either a point of view or over the shoulder shot) and then is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves look at the object, or looking back at the other character.

The 180' Rule -  this is where filming only takes place at an 180' angle. For example, there is a medium shot of a dialogue between two people, and character number one is on the left, however, character number two is on the right. The camera work is allowed to change, but character one must remain on the the left, and character two must remain on the right. If the camera 'crosses the line' and films character one on the on the right and character two on the left, the rule is broken.