Evaluation Question 7
 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From doing the preliminary task to creating my final product i have gained a lot of knowledge and have become able to use many programs to help create and edit productions. I have become a much more confident media student as i now know the key parts in editing and putting together media products. When filming my final product i felt alot more comfortable and confident as i had already had experience in using a camera and felt that i was able to use it to a good standard which helped to bring back excellent footage. I also felt more confident when it came to editing my final product as I had had a short insight into what i would have to do and how to use certain software's to enable me to put clips together and add effects to my production. 

When I had to take part in the preliminary task i had no idea what anything was or how i was suppose to use it but this was because i had never done anything like media before. When the preliminary task begun i began to pick up more and more skills as i went along and began to feel alot more confident when placed behind a camera.
When comparing my preliminary task to my final piece you can see many differences between the two however some people may well notice similarities between them both aswell. The main difference is most certainly the quality of the footage. This was due to me and the rest of my group being new to using a camera so therefore spending most of filming time learning the basics needed to work a camera. So when i filmed my footage for the preliminary task i was unsure on how to use a camera properly but obviously when i filmed my footage for my thriller opening i had alot more experience behind a camera and new how to use certain effects and edits on the camera to manipulate my footage and make it look more professional. The fact that i got the chance to do the preliminary task before my final edit was a massive bonus as it meant when it came to making my final production I had alot more experience in all areas of the creation of a film. Another noticeable difference is that my preliminary task is in colour and my thriller opening is in black and white. This may be due to the fact that i actually only learnt how to change the colour of a piece of footage when i was editing my final piece therefore was not able to do it for my preliminary task however this could have been something to make my preliminary task better. The sounds used in my preliminary task were not thought about very well which meant they weren't as effective as they could be however when i added sound to my final production i put alot of thought into it and listened to a number of different sounds to help find the best one so that the sounds were more effective through out also helping to create more tension for my audience. Even though both my preliminary task and final piece are within the thriller genre my final piece has a lot more aspects of a thriller and alot more of the main conventions are used to make sure it fits in to the genre.  One of the main conventions that is used more in my final piece is angled shots. This is used more in my final piece rather than my preliminary as i was still unsure of the main conventions of a thriller when i made my preliminary. My Final edit also contained opening credit's and title's whereas my preliminary film didn't. This straight away makes my final edit look much more professional as all films contain these things. It tells the viewer the name of the actors, the title of the film, the production company and so on therefore this is important because if my film was to ever get published these are things i would want the audience to know and remember. My titles for my thriller opening looked professional and effective as I was able to use good pieces of software to create them. Myself and Amy also put a lot of thought into them as we wanted them to stand out to the viewer and also fit in with hew thriller genre. We decided that we wanted the titles to be mysterious and dark but also bold so that they were obvious when the viewer was watching. Once we had created our titles we added an effect to them on Adobe Premiere Pro. The effect meant that the titles were on a black background and the piece of footage which had played before was behind the words, we thought this made a massive difference to the titles as it made them more interesting for the viewer. We also chose to add a colour to one letter on each title to make it even more effective. We also thought this was a good idea as the whole of our opening is in black and white so it would add contrast. When we was adding the colour we both came up with a interesting idea to have the letters in read spell out a word. We spent along time deciding how we was going to do this then realised if we put the titles in a certain order we could spell ' KILLER EX' which fit in perfectly with our storyline. When this idea came together in our film we was so happy with how it looked but were worried that our viewers may not notice it as its not something they will be looking for. If the reader isn't paying full attention to the opening titles then they wouldn't notice therefore this added context may not work and be effective.   
The actors in my final piece acted alot more professional as they new it was important however when doing the preliminary task the actors within my film didn't take it very seriously as it was our first time filming and we all saw it as a learning curve. We saw it as a practice for our final piece and therefore spent more time learning how to use the camera and certain pieces of equipment so when it came to filming for our final production we all new what we was doing. Myself and Amy also put alot of thought in to the actors or actresses we were going to use as we wanted the characters to fit in to a certain stereotype to fit the storyline better. We also wanted the characters to have certain characteristics as when planning our storyline we thought certain things would look more effective than others for example we wanted the male character to have blue eyes.
Overall I have learnt more than I expected in progression from the preliminary task to my final product as I now feel a confident media student which I thought would be something to never come. When I first started media I knew nothing as I had never done anything to do with it before however I have made massive progression and feel comfortable now when talking about the subject. 

Evaulation Question 5
How did you attract/address your audience?

From the questionnaire which i did for my primary research that I did before creating my final edit I found which age group watched movies within the thriller genre the most and also what colours would be most effective to use for the titles and credits. From this questionnaire it helped myself and Amy when filming and editing our thriller as we listened to the feed back to hopefully make our film look more effective to the audience. After using this feedback to help create and edit my film I then wanted to see if I had achieved what I hoped and had attracted the target audience my thriller was mainly targeted at. I went on to create a second questionnaire and also show people my production and interview them on what they thought of it. I asked media students as well as people that had never studied the subject before so therefore didn't think about certain contexts of the film and look at certain things the way a media student would. 

  On receiving feedback from my media
 class after all viewing my thriller opening
 I received positive feedback and also
 constructive criticism to help me make                                   
 my film more professional or help me in
 the future if I was to create another production.
The positive feedback included comments such as 

• Good use of effective sound
• Bold and eye catching Titles 
• Good ambience sound  
• Really interesting storyline 
• variety of angles make it more interesting
• Flashing of photos throughout are good

The constructive criticism Amy and I received included these comments 

• Some of the films may have looked better in colour
• Some of the flashing photos weren't on long enough so if wasn't paying full attention wouldn't have seen 
• could have been longer, added more detail in the opening sequence

The feedback i received from none media students was mainly positive but i do believe that this is because they wouldn't have looked into my production as much as a professional or someone with lots of knowledge about certain aspects of it. They don't pick out as many faults as a media student would as they aren't really looking for them and are just enjoying the film that is in front of them. Some of the feedback i recieved was that my film was very effective and made them want to carry on watching. Some viewers also said that the titles were effective and stood out.  

As well as receiving feedback I also used certain conventions and effects to help attract my audience. I wanted my thriller to stand out and make the audience feel on edge. Too attract my audience i used the main conventions used within a thriller such as changes in the angles of shots.I used different angles of shots to make my thriller more interesting for the viewer so that they would want to carry on watching. I also wanted to attract my audience by the use of sound as sound can add so much to something. For example in my thriller opening a gate is opened and myself and Amy added a creaky gate noise to make it fit with the genre and come across more creepy to the audience. I also spent time choosing the sounds which play the whole way through as i wanted these to help build more and more tension throughout. I used deep base sounds to make the title sequence come across as more dark and mysterious and I also used high pitch tones.
To help make my thriller as best it could be I watched famous thriller films that are very popular and have a wide audience. This was so I could see what people enjoy watching and add similar conventions to my thriller in hope that they would attract more viewers. 

                  



     

Evaluation Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 

Evaluation Question 1

 In what ways does your media produce use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product? 

For part of my production i researched what a thriller was and found out  A Thriller is a genre of film and televison which has numerous subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods elict, giving viewers heighter feelings of suspense, excitement, anxiety and tension. Thrillers are created to keep the audience on the edge of their seats and this is the effect myself and Amy were hoping to create. After spending sometime researching i found which conventions were mostly used in thrillers and which were the most common. I found that these are:

• low key lighting 
• quick cuts
• shadows
• tension music 
• changes in the angle of shots 
• Diegetic sounds of breathing
• black and white shots 

I then researched what were the main conventions used within an opening sequence and found that these are:

• Opening titles 
• Title of film
• company that the film is produced by 
• soundtrack
• Introduction of main characters 
• Location 

     In thrillers there are usually alot of close ups and extreme close ups used whether its of a character to show their emotion or of props to show its importance and to aid the narrative.         

  As a group we decided to use certain conventions to fit our genre and style of thriller. We thought about which conventions and effects would suit our opening the best and make it look most effective to the audience. The editing and camera work are musts when creating any sort of video. On filming we decided to shoot a number of close ups to make certain things more obvious and to stand out more, for example the clip of the phone is a close up and this is so the viewer
can see the text being sent and this helps the

viewer to feel more apart of the thriller and 
have an insight to what is happening to the 
main character Abi. When it came to editing my         thriller i wanted to creat an uncomfortable atmosphere
 for the viewer to make them feel on edge throughout 
wondering whats going to happen next. My thriller 
opening could also be seen as fast paced as it never
stops. The person behind the camera ( The ex boyfriend) 
is constantly moving and following the female characters every move. 
 My Thriller also contains a jump cut right at the beginning after the gate is opened by the character behind the camera. This is to make it look like the character is walking quickly behind the female as it jump cuts to further forward.
   Sound and music is a key part of a thriller as It helps to add suspence and tension and also helps the audience to understand the mood of certain parts and to make certain parts become more significant than others. I added sounds into my thriller to help make it seem more mysterious. I also wanted to add authentic ambience sound so that the audience believes what is happening is real. This is a sound such as the loud gasping noise at the end my video. 
My whole thriller opening is also in black and white which fits in with the main conventions of a thriller. I decided to put all of the video in black and white due to filming having to be during daytime as I wanted the setting to be dark to make my opening seem scarier and more mysterious. I also thought that my opening sequence looked more professional when put into black and white as the lighting in each clip was different and not very clear. 

 

I also used changes of angles in different shots throughout my production. This is shown at the beginning of my thriller when the main character is walking up to her house. It shows the person behind the camera filming the girl from different angles and locations around the front of the house which suggests the idea to the viewer that the girl is being watched from all around, from everywhere. 

                                                      

                                          
In my thriller the main conventions of an opening sequence are also used throughout. The title of my film, the company that it has been produced by and the opening titles are shown throughout my film. This is so that straight away the viewer knows who the film was produced by but most importantly the name of my thriller as i want the title to be remembered. The title is shown in big letters so that the audience can see it clearly. The introduction of my main character is also shown within my opening sequence this helps to tell the storyline to my viewer so that they get a breif idea of what is going to happen throughout and what will happen later on in the film. I also introduced the main location in the opening as the girls house is going to be the location whuch is on screen the most.