TASK 7 WHAT HAVE I LEARNT FROM PRELIM TO MAIN TASK

In terms of our progress we learnt a lot about camera, editing, sound and miss-en-scene in our thriller but less in our prelim.

Mise -en-scene
In our prelim we filmed in the editing suite and we had no set other than what was already in the room and the only props we had were the two peoples phones. They had a brief conversation we filmed and very little thought went in to the construction of this.
In our thriller we spent a long time trying to work out how to recreate a presidential bunker. We made sure we had the American flag to make it look more authentic as well as maps over the wall and a projector projecting what looks like missiles on to the wall. This helps create a realistic look for our film as well as the underground bunker that we recreated through painting the walls a grey metallic colour. We also made sure that our characters were wearing the right clothes that looked believable as opposed to our prelim where the characters wore what they wanted. In order to create the right effect for our main antagonists death we put toothpaste in his mouth that he slowly spat out. This was meant to look like a cyanide tablet that he had just eaten as he had committed suicide.

Sound
In our prelim we only used the sound of the actors conversation and very little thought went into creating meaning from those sounds. We also increased the sound of the actors speaking as they talked too quietly. This was because our prelim was dramatic and the prelim was based around the conversation. In contrast in our thriller had conversation but also gun shots. Our thriller was mostly involved action. This was the first time we got to add non-diegetic sound using editing.

Camera
In our prelim we mostly used wide shots and 180 degree rule. We also did tracking shots of the actors feet walking. We did these type of shots because it was a dramatic thriller and these shots would increase this effect. However our thriller was better shot because we improved on using the camera. In our thriller we mostly used extreme close ups, close ups and wide shots. Extreme close ups would make moments more tense and wide shots are good for action scenes.

Editing
For the editing for our prelim and thriller we used continuity editing. This is a common editing technique used in a lot of Hollywood films to create a believable world. Continuity editing is crucial for thrillers to enable the audience to believe in the characters and events and to be gripped to the film. This form of editing can also be called invisible editing, because it should be invisible, at no point in the film should the focus be drawn to the editing. This type of editing isn't very expressive, for example jump cuts are not commonly used as this breaks the flow of the believable world. For our editing for our prelim we did shot reverse shot to show the characters and conversation are linked with each other. Our editing also created perspective for each of the characters to the audience. The president had most screen time in our thriller which showed that he had the lead role and that the audience could see from his perspective.

Task 6: How has digital technology been used in our thriller

This is our final thriller video uploaded from Youtube

Task 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Task 4: Who is our target audience

 The audience for our thriller is targeted older teenagers and young adult audience. The audience will be quite academic as it is a political thriller. This could suggest that they are interested future work in law, politics or government. Our thriller involves some violence which attract the younger audience. It will also attract an early adult age range as it involves government policies.

This is picture is an example of our target audience Facebook page. His profile says that he likes spy films so he will enjoy our thriller. Their clothing is quite smart but casual - as they take care in what they wear more than some people. He is apart of the Rahs tribe. They are over achievers more than most people. This is because they are most likely to be in the middle class category. This profile says he likes the 'BBC', 'Times'  magazine and 'History Weekly'. This shows that he likes to know the News and also is interested in British History and culture.

Our film will also have a secondary audience of fans of political films and in particular thriller films. Our film could have a similar fan base to Lives of Others, The Ides of March and Syriana. These films target a more mature audience than just 16-25. The ides of march is a Pollitcal drama film about a Presidential election.. The lives of others is a german thriller about the secret police monitoring the East of Berlin. Syriana is a geopolitical thriller film it is about the influence of a global oil industry.

            

Task 3

Warp Productions would help make our thriller as they have helped made first time directors films. Also our thriller would be their first political thriller. Warp productions have also made low budget films such as 'Four Lions', 'This is England' and 'Submarine' these films were relatively successful by British standards and demonstrate that they know how to make films for a niche audience. They have proved that making low budget films aimed at a British audience needn't affect the subject matter in a way that it would if they were made by Hollywood or US production companies. They would recognise that our film would fit the ethos of their company as it is a niche film aimed at a small audience and not aiming for a blanket release but a platform release in smaller cinemas and independent cinema houses.  They would help our thriller make money through doing deals with companies such as BBC or Film 4 and also by selling distribution rights. Optimum Release would distribute our film as they help distribute many independent films. Our thriller would be exhibited in independent cinemas as mainstream cinemas would not exhibit our film. We would however make money out of DVD and TV sales. Warp have a tradition of taking risks with first time directors and due to their distribution deals with Film 4 if the film is good enough it gets premiered on their channel this enable film 4 to recoup costs through advertising and Warp to share costs through offsetting this with their Film 4 partnership. If our film proves to be a success both critically and commercially then hopefully in much the same vein as Warps submarine it will be picked up and distributed in the US by the Weinstein Company who specialise in picking up relatively low budget Brit flicks internationally and selling them at profit.

How have I chosen to represent social group in my thriller?

For our thriller we are using mostly white males to portray the USA government as a stereotype to show how men are seen as higher up than women and also that ethnicity, especially Middle Eastern, who is still seen as untrusted.  Although the USA have a black male president historically it is white middle aged males who assume positions of power throughout the world for example Putin, Cameron and Hollande. We thought we would represent this bias within our film by having a white middle aged president.

Some films show stereotyping of Middle Eastern characters as terrorists, including James Bond films where the bad guy is always from somewhere in the Middle East or Russia. Another film that includes this is 'Munich', which is about the Israeli government and the attacks on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Programmes such as Spooks adopt the position of showing Muslims as the 'other' and demonising ethnic minorities by always showing them as the bad guys. We thought we would reflect this stereotype within our film.

Some TV shows are similar to our thriller as they involve issues with the Middle East; these include '24' and 'Spooks'. 24 uses well known enemies of the USA, which include Russia and the Middle East.  '24' presents a very negative image of Muslims. Most films and TV shows paint Arabs as the baddies. Again the idea of the Arab character as the enemy is often upheld in the media where the focus is often on Abdul Hamza's metal hand and eye as an symbol of his aggression with the aim of demonising him further.

The president also mentions that the crisis is within the Middle East. We are using the issues of the Middle East and terrorism in our thriller while being aware that the idea that people from the Middle Easterners are terrorists is a common stereotype. It is well noted that historically there is a lot of tension in the media east and we thought we could reflect that tension within our film.

The assassin is meant to be thought of as from somewhere from Middle East. The thriller brings up various issues in the Middle East so this could include some things such as 9/11 and Al Quaida. These issues already exist so we amplified this within our representation as we felt our prospective audience would buy into this for the narrative of our film.

Task 1:how does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products

Assassination of Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon was the 37th President of the USA. There were attempted assassinations of Nixon. It was involved of an hijacking a commercial jet and flying it into the White House. Samuel Byck (the assassin) shot a police officer forcing his way to an Atlanta airways plane he then shot the pilots when they would not let the plane leave; he had then told a passenger to fly the plane. Police then surrounded the plane. Byck was then wounded, before the police could gain entry Byck committed suicide. However secret service agents were aware of this threat but thought it was harmless. This event had inspired the Niels Mueller film 'The assassination of Richard Nixon'. 

Original props