Audience Feedback

We asked some people who watched our thriller what they thought and this is what we got:
- "Everytime I watch it, it makes me throw up in my mouth." - James Burke
- "I enjoyed the fast cuts that built up the tension throughout the thriller sequence." - Francesca Dowle
- "It was truely rancid!" - Olivia Cox
- "It was...interesting, and kinda disgusting!" - Lara Wadsworth
- "I'm not going to eat meat again!" - Ruby Kammer
- "The soundtrack really helped with the tension." - Pip Milner
- "The close ups of the meat and blood were very rough and gruesome!" - Ellie Bland

We found that overall 74% of our audience from 16-25 thought it was really groesume and that it worked well but we did find that roughly 16% of our audience felt sick from the blood and gore and did not enjoy it as much as the others but the 16% were above the target audience age so we did not expect them to enjoy it as much

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

Our preliminary task was very basic and we did not have much input in it. We were given a storyboard and were given instructions to follow it and we had to find two actors and then we took turns filming it. We got a set given to us which was in the studio and we had one chair and a light hanging above, it looked very mysterious. We had a camera on a tripod which we filmed the shots the storyboard told us to. This was basicially getting us used to the equipment.
This is much different from our thriller as we had much more involvement for example pre-production planning like finding a location and actors and we made up our own storyboard which was made by a person from our group. Finding the location took a lot of careful planning as we had to spent time researching butchers which are near and easy to get to and we also had to see if they would let us film there which some of them didn't. We had to organise our shooting day very carefully as well to make sure we got everything right and we had everything we needed. We knew exactly what shots to do when we arrived at the location and we knew how we were going to film them for example what angle the camera would be at and where we would put the camera. It was the same when we got to the studio to film the rest. The reason for the studio was that we made it to look like when we walked into the "fridge" in the butcher it lead to the set in the studio. We had a lot of planning to set up the studio set. We had a worktop with one light so that it looked mysterious and sinester giving a scary effect to the thriller. The shots we did were more complicated than the preliminary task so we were learning more on how to do different shots.
Another thing we did in our thriller was editing as this we did briefly before but doing our thriller we learnt in dept how to edit so we learnt a new skill. Editing was very time consuming i found but it was fun learning how to use special effects and adding sound and how to alter the speed of cuts for example we made quick cuts of meat being ripped apart to add to the effect and atmosphere of sinester and to make it scary. We had to watch over the thriller again and again to make sure we got it perfect which is why it took so long to do. We used a lot of close ups to disgust the audience as most as we could so it could attract our target audience. Continuity was difficult to manage when editing as we had to make it perfect and make sure it made sense when moving onto the next shot.
We had no dialogue for our thriller as it made it more scary. We had to mute what was recorded at the time such as us telling eachother what to do and we had our photographer we had to mute. We had diegetic sound such as picking up a knife and choppping up meat with a loud bang to scare the audience and make them shocked. This made it more realistic as it would be loud if you really chopped it up. We also had a general soundtrack which was just air conditioning which also added to the sinester/fear effect to the audience. This is also realistic as he would have air conditioning in the room anyway. We also added a city effect at the beginning when he was walking into the butcher to add realism, such as cars passing and birds. We used pro-track and itunes to find these sounds.
The last thing we had to do was titles/credits. This was much easier than anything else and took far less time. We put titles such as actors and production names and our group's roles for example i was production designer. Our titles we made more interesting by alternating the size of the text and we also added a fade in and out effect. Our title for the name of our thriller "Rancid" we put in large text and on a black screen to make it look scary and mysterious. We did a small amount of credits as we did not need much and our thriller was not very long so we did not want to fill it with credits as the audience would not concentrate on the picture.
Looking back at the preliminary task we have progressed a lot in media as we have learnt much more useful skills and we have got taught how to use different programmes to do with editing the media. We have also learnt how to be more organised and we have learnt we need to work as a team to get the work done, and we have met new people.

Task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

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

How To Attract Audience Jh

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Task 4 - Who would be the target audeince for your media product?

The target audience for our thriller would be mainly around 17/18 and have left school early without qualifications and have gone straight to earning a small wage at a job such as a plumber/builder/butcher. This would be our target audience because it would be something these people can relate to whereas if it wasn't so grosume and had higher class actors then the audience could not relate to it. The target audience would also be men as the thriler is a masculine genre. Also parents and older people would be interested in the genre and about the fact of the welbeing of our meat and of the scare of diseased food.

Task 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think it is possible that "Lionsgate" institution could distribute our film as it is gore and horror which is similar to other films Lionsgate have distributed such as Saw which has been very succesful as there are many sequels now and it is very well known. Saw is a 2004 horror film directed by James Wan. The film's story revolves around two men who are kidnapped and chained in a dilapidated industrial bathroom. They are given instructions on how to escape by following the "rules" of their "game". Lionsgate is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America. It is a canadian entertainment company. It's history of films they have distributed include "The Grudge" which is again a classic horror film with a girl who goes around killing everyone in her house in 2003 and also "Hostel" which is a 2005 horror film written, produced and directed by Eli Roth, the plot is some guys who check into a hostel and end up being tortured and killed. All these films have gore in which makes it similar to ours which is why it would make sense for Lionsgate to distribute our film as it falls under the same category of film to others which have been successful.

Task 2 - How does your product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller helps represent the different class by our actor. As the butcher represents the working class; as a butcher this could show that our actor has no qualifications and was a rebel in college so did not work and wanted to be a butcher maybe because he liked blood and chopping up lungs and hearts which makes him sound like a murderer. Portraying this type of character could attract other lower class/working class audience as it could be similar for them not going to university and carrying on studying but working to earn a living so this character could be realistic and accesible for the audience; therefore they can relate to our actor. As our actor is represented as a working class citezen it helps portray his evil personality as working class citezens are looked down upon by other higher class citezins in films and are often played as the bad characters.
Our logo could also represent some higher class citezens as they could consume fresh organic meat as they can afford it and so it could attract middle class audience as it is a film about the meat they like to purchase

Evaluation Question Tasks - Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This is our first title introducing our distributor (“Lionsgate”) We put “Lionsgate” in a bigger font so that is stands out more as it is more important than presents hence “presents” is underneath and smaller. We also did fade in/fade out effects for it to make it more interesting for the audience. Before we had a black screen with titles on it coming in and stopping the thriller now and then which didn't work as it lost the feeling of tension for the audience as it kept stopping for a few seconds.

The first frame is our main title and it builds impact as in the thriller the music stops and there is a sudden bang and the title comes on a black screen which makes it scary as it is a dark colour and it makes the audience jump with the bang. The bang also made it more dramatic and also the font of the title was big to give an abrupt, powerful ending to it.

The shot of the production designer is a good shot in my opinion as there is a lot of blood and the audience get a chance to see what is going to happen as there is a jar of poision with a bloody hand holding a syringe in it. The bloody hand is good as it will hopefully be gorey enough for the target audience to like it and this also says something about his character with his dirty bloody hands. Another thing i like about this shot is the credits as they are not too noticeable but they are still there at the side which is good so the audience can concentrate on the shot more than the credits. We also did the fade in/fade out effect on the credits so it is more interesting and also we made "production designer" smaller than the name as it is less important and also it makes it look more interesting and shows the audience what to look at when looking at the credits so they would look at the name first as it is more noticeable.

Editng our thriller made relatively fast to build tension and so we could get as much gorey meat cutting as we could in it as it is the main reason our target audience would be watching it. We made shots of our actor's face so that the quick edit reflects his character which is angry and the whole thriller portrays his character as a disturbed man who wants to kill people by poisoning meat.

Account of Editing process

We got our shots by going through the rush tape and picking out parts which we wanted to use and we would get these shots and drag them into a log bin, we made a studio bin where we dragged all the shots we needed which we took in the studio and also a location bin where we dragged the shots we needed at the butchers so that it was more organized. We chose these shots as they were from the storyboard which we needed to follow. We put the shots we needed from the location bin first and cut them to how much of the shot we needed and then we did the studio bin footage. We had to make sure that there was good continuity within the shots which made it flow better, this is where we had some difficulties. The main problem we found with the shots was the length, such as one part when we wanted to show some gruesome shots in quick cuts but it made it look like we were rushing so we had to alter the speed in the shots to make it work.
After we did the shots we started on sound and the problems we encountered was that there was people talking in the background and also there was our photographer in the background so you could hear her taking pictures which we needed to cover up by music and object sounds (diegetic sounds) such as the bang of the meat cleaver chopping up the meat or picking up a knife, which we found using soundtrack pro. We had a problem finding the sound for picking up the knife as there was no sound for it in either programmes apart from one which sounded more like a sword. The reason for adding the diegetic sounds was to build tension and to shock the audience. Using diegetic sounds also adds impact to the thriller. We found some good eerie music to put in the background and we emphasized it more when he was putting the poison in to show that it was bad. At the end of our thriller when we put our title of our thriller ("Rancid") we added a bang sound to end it so it would shock the audience and add the impact of the title as it was in a big font to emphasise the fear/sinester mood of our thriller.
We had lessons assigned just for editing which was a great help as the whole group would be there so we could decide everything together. We also came up to the edit suite in any free time we could to speed the editing process up.
The last thing we needed to do with editing our thriller was the titles/credits. We decided to do the basics and we decided where to put them and when. We found out how to make the titles bigger/smaller such as the first title is "lionsgate film represents..." but because Lionsgate is more important than represents it is bigger then represents is smaller underneath it. This also makes it more interesting than just having the titles the same. We did this with all our titles to emphasise the more important part of the title by making it bigger, such as our names so the audience will see them more as they stand out. For our actors we just wrote their names in a big font so that they were noticed and there was no need for a smaller font underneath as they are already well known actors so the audience should already know their role in our thriller. We also added some special effects for our titles to again make it more interesting which was fading it in and out. This was easy to do and it looked good. The last title we did was our name of the thriller ("Rancid"). "Rancid" did not need to be faded as it was big enough to attract attension and we did this title at the end of the thriller with a black background and white writing to emphasise the mood of our thriller.

Account of Shooting day

The group all met up in the morning in the edit suite. We got the equipment needed for our filming and printed out our shot list and our storyboards to bring with us. Once we all arrived we set off to Godalming to the butcher. Once we were there we started our shots which we planned to shoot in the butcher such as our actor walking into the butcher and then filming some of the meat in the back. We chose this butcher as a location as it had a fridge at the back which we thought could lead to the room set up in the studio. This was relatively easy as the people in the butchers did not get in the way and just acted normal doing their job so they did not care that there was filming happening around them. Once we had done all the shots we needed we went back to Hurtwood in the school van. We then had a short break and went straight into more shooting in the studio. We had to set up before we started filming which took some time such as getting the meat ready on the worktop for our actor to chop up and also making the poison (fake blood) which we made with ketchup, Worchester sauce and some water to make it less thick so it can go into the syringe and be injected into the meat. We had to film the shots numerous times to get it right which was useful for editing so we could choose which one was best to use. We followed the storyboard to film the rest of the shots needed in our thriller. It took us most of the day to film the shots in the end which is longer than it was intended to take us. We got all the shots done though so it was worth the time taken so we could edit it all properly. The shots worked out well especially the close ups of the meat as it looked very grosume as our actor was chopping them up and blood was coming out and going everywhere which helped build up the atmosphere and also the close up shots of the logo on the box which says "Farm Fresh Organic meat" which would be a shock for the audience to see the meat is being contaminated. The lighting worked really well in the studio as we made it dark with one light hanging which made the room look mysterious and creepy which therefore created the whole mood of the thriller.

Effectiveness of pre-production planning

The pre-production planning was very useful for us. It helped us to run the shooting day as it was planned so we just needed to follow the storyboards if we got stuck on what shot to do next. The storyboards was the most useful i think as it helped us to sort out our props in place to match the storyboard and the person in the group who was assigned to storyboarding wrote the shot down as well as drew the picture so we knew exactly what was happening. Also the shot list was equally important as if the picture did not make sense we had the list we could follow. Lastly the props list was important as we did not forget anything as we just looked at the list to check we had everything.
I learnt a lot about film making while doing this as i realised how much you have to plan to make everything run smoothly and i learnt how to film the shots and what position you need the camera in to make the shots and what you need to say so the actors know when to start and also so that everyone else knows we are rolling the camera. I also learnt that everyone in the group has a certain assignment to follow so everyone is important and no one should not be doing anything as everyone can help eachother.

Shooting schedule

I researched some butchers on the internet which is near from hurtwood which could be easy to get to, in which we could film in. Other people in the group called up these butchers to see if they would have us however most were not interested in having us film however there was this one butcher in Godalming called C.H Wakeling family butchers which were willing to let us film the interior.
We planned to meet in the edit suite in which we would get our camera and tripod and gather other materials we needed such as the storyboards to see if we were doing the shots right. Once everyone would have arrived we would go to the butchers in one of the school vans and would start shooting there. After we got the shots needed we would go back to hurtwood and shoot in the studio for the rest of the afternoon where the props we require would be waiting in the studio ready for us to use.
This document is very important as if we did not plan our shooting day then people would not know what they were doing and we would waste time trying to explain to everyone what is happening. It is also important that we keep on time as the butchers expected us at a certain time to arrive and we would not want to be late as that would set a bad example.

Account of props and costumes required

For our thriller we set everyone in the group a certain assignment and the props person was a day student which meant she could gather props easily from her house or the supermarket.
We needed a few props to represent the mysterious man such as:
- a pair of big black boots which we managed to get off our media teacher
- an apron covered in blood which we managed to get from theatre
Apart from the costume for our actor we also needed other props to set up our thriller such as:
- meat - from the supermarket
- syringes - from the health centre
- rusty knifes - from our prop's person's house
- cardboard box - from one of the student's house
- fake blood - which we made out of ketchup, wotchester sauce and some water to make it less thick - we got this from the kitchen at hurtwood
- meat cleaver - from our media teacher
- dirty worktop - which we got from the theatre department
- a transparent jar to put the poision in (fake blood) - we got from the biology department