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

1. Preparation and Planning

In terms of planning our preliminary task and our main task there was a big contrast in the amount of work we had to put in to each one.
One preliminary task was the first piece of shooting most of us had ever done so we were all given guide lines to follow. We were given a script for our actors to read, told how to set up our filming equipment and not given a choice where to film. This made it easy for every group to do this task because we had been given instructions to follow.
As for time the preliminary task was far quicker to produce. Instead of planning our shoot day (when, where, what angles, what props) we were given one media lesson to go off in our groups, find two actors around school and use them to be in our preliminary task. This meant that we had to think up different shots on the day, decide how to arrange the scenery and work out how to interpret the storyboard in our own way.
Moving onto our main task it is easy to see that a lot has changed in terms of preparation and planning. It took a couple of weeks at first to just come up with an idea, which was refined down to another idea, and another, until we all agreed on our final pitch. Once we had our final idea we could then move onto the planning of producing our thriller. We had to take into consideration the location, the actors, the shoot days, the time limit, the script- all of which needed far more work than the preliminary task. If we had planned our main task in the same time period as the preliminary task we would have ended up producing another amateur piece of work.
Preparation also took longer than the preliminary task because our main task is part of our exam so we had to make sure everything we needed was there. Seeing as for one of our shoot days we shot off campus it was crucial that we had all the equipment and props we needed with us. Luckily all went to according to plan due to good preparation. Our second shoot day was shot on campus so it wouldn’t have been as much of a disaster if we had forgotten anything, but again we luckily had we needed with us and everything went according to plan.

2. Development of your film-making skills

In the preliminary task we were all given a storyboard to follow with a basic story line already set out for us. This gave room for some interpretation but with everyone focusing mainly on the technical side of the task it left little time to develop a good story to be told visually rather than with dialogue.
Seeing as in between the gap from filming our preliminary task to our main task we had learnt a lot more about film-making during lessons we had gained more knowledge of what to include in our main task as apposed to our preliminary task. I think that the fact we had a lot more time to concentrate on our story board for our main task meant that we had a much higher chance to produce a more sophisticated sequence with a visual narrative.

3. Use of camera

Looking back at our preliminary task and comparing it with our main task it was easy to see that we had become more familiar with the camera and were able to include a lot more shots in our task. In our preliminary task we were all fairly new to the camera and with the short time limit we were only able to produce four of five shots maximum. It was also easy to tell that with more experience we could have made those shots better if we were to re-do our preliminary task now.
Our main task is a good example to show how we have improved in terms of camera work. At the beginning of the year we weren’t aware of the different shots and the rules behind them. However now that we have learnt about such things as the 180 degree rule, framing for eye line matches and use of close ups we were able to incorporate a lot more in our main task which as a result would make it look more visually appealing and interesting to watch.
The shots we used in the preliminary task were basic and made the sequence altogether rather slow and jumpy to watch. Over time we have learnt how to decide what shot would be best to use in each part of our main task which would make the sequence flow better and look more professional.

4. How you use of sound has developed

In terms of sound our preliminary task was very basic, consisting of just dialogue and the ambient noise in the room. This was because when it came to editing our preliminary task it again was new to most of us. This meant we didn’t have the experience or knowledge yet to include sound effects or edit the existing sound from our footage.
However when it came to using sound in our main task we had a longer period of time to develop our knowledge of using sound. This meant we were able to incorporate different sound effects which might have been a non-diegetic sound track to create an element of fear or suspense. We also had the option of adding in sound effects that we perhaps weren’t able to achieve on our shoot day such as rain fall or passing traffic. This meant that we could save ourselves a lot of time when it came to editing, instead of using a microphone to record these sounds we had them at hand on the computer to use instead.

5. Demonstrating your ability to master new technology

When it came to editing our main task we were re-introduced to Final Cut Pro and also introduced to Sound Track Pro. We had originally first used Film Cut Pro when we were editing our preliminary task. However at that point in time not everyone got to spend very long using the programme and coming to grips with how to use it.
Personally I found editing our main task to be what I enjoyed most out of the whole production of our thriller. We were allowed to go up to the edit suite and use Final Cut Pro on our own. Sound Track Pro was fairly similar to understand just as Final Cut Pro had been. Again, it just took time and practice to learning how to use this new piece of technology but over time it became easier to use. Being given the time and permission to go up to the edit suite whenever we wanted meant I had time to learn how to use the programs through trial and error, learning how to use different tools etc.
There was a massive difference in terms of editing from our preliminary task to our main task because we weren’t as experienced when it came to editing our preliminary task. However with our main task we had far more footage and time to edit our sequence together. That meant we spent longer going over our sequence again and again to make sure everything was edited properly together and as a result produced a higher quality sequence.

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

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

Seeing as our thriller is aimed at the age range of roughly 15-30 we thought that choosing our victim to be around the same age range would address our audience because they would be able to relate to her charactor. Also, from a male point of view choosing a female charactor of 18 years of age would offer an element of attraction towards them deciding whether to watch our thriller or not.
In terms of mis-en-scene we thought that by dressing our actors in appropriate clothing would attract our audience. For our 18 year old actress we decided to dress her mainly in black to make her look mature and attractive to our audience, as for our actor we made him present himself in a way that would make him appear dangerous and creepy so that he would have that effect on the audience.
Seeing as our thriller is based around the idea of unlicensed taxis it was one of our top priorities to have a real taxi and a fake one in our title sequence. This was done so that the audience could easily tell that our victim was about to get into an unlicensed taxi and something bad is bound to happen. This will attract our audience because they will be able to relate themselves with the fear of getting into an unlicensed taxi.

Task 4: Who would be the Target Audience for our film?

The target audience for our film would most likely be between the age range of 15-30 because our thriller is crime orientated. Crime films often entail detectives, action and a slightly obscure plot that people perhaps below the age of 15 would not appeal to. Generally the older generation prefer to watch well known good-quality films so they perhaps would look over the choice of watching our movie because it is a low-budget film.
I would say that our target audience would be attracted to our film because of the genre that it is. Thrillers always tend to have an interesting plot whether they be high or low budget. Also the actors chosen to be in the film might attract people of a certain age, for example casting a good looking 18 year old girl would attract a lot of teenage boys to watch the film and vice versa.
The age group of our target audience might have other interests that allow them to have time to watch our film. 15-24 year olds would generally have studying/work to do at home where they can put on a DVD at their own leisure. This age group would also spend a lot of time going out into their towns for shopping etc where they can purchase our DVD at such stores as HMV who supply a range of all budget films.
Our film would probably attract our secondary audience of 25/34 year olds because that’s only 4 years over our primary audience. People that age would most likely still be interested in thrillers. The action would be one aspect that would appeal to the male audience whereas a good looking cast member would also appeal to both genders. I would say that our film is probably aimed more towards the male audience because crime and action would appeal to them more. However the plot would appeal to both genders if there was an underlying romance entailed within the story line for the females.

Task 3: What kind of media Institution might distribute your media product and why?

Miramax Films is an art-house/independent film production company that both produced and distributed films. Disney owns Miramax and this allows them access to better production and distribution facilities that would enable my film to have a better chance of success.
Miramax produces many thrillers such as ‘Gone baby gone’ and ‘Hollywoodland’ which have similar concepts to our film so perhaps Miramax would wish to make our film. Miramax also produced a film called ‘Happy-go-Lucky’ which is classed as a comedy-drama but there was a hint of thriller in part of the film when she gets stalked by her driving instructor which we took into consideration when choosing this company.
Our film in summary is about unlicensed taxi drivers picking up venerable woman who are taken to be sold on in the sex slavery trade. Our film focuses less on the actual gruesome nature of the abuse and more on the mystery being solved by detectives. This is perfectly encapsulated by ‘Gone Baby gone’ and ‘Hollywoodland’. We think that Miramax would be a good company to create this film because they produce similar films with plot stories such as kidnapping, murder and crime.
Our film would fit in with the ethos of this institution because they produce some low budget films also by first time directors, such as ‘Gone baby Gone’ which was directed by a first time producer-Ben Affleck and was a relatively low budget film.
Seeing as low budget films don’t have a reputation of receiving a lot of marketing to promote a film which isn’t very popular Miramax would probably market and make money out of our film by DVD sales.
Miramax don’t necessarily specialize in a particular genre of film seeing as they range from films such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Hostage’ which are both considered as thrillers.
Seeing as Miramax produce a range of genre of films they would target particular audiences according to the genre. If they were to produce our film I would say they would choose a target audience of around 15-30 year olds.

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

The two social groups that we have chosen to represent in our media product are; teenagers and our driver who is suppossed to symbolise the underclass immigrant community. We have focused on using the idealogy that in society you do come across the unreliable taxi drivers who sterotypically do seem to be from a foriegn community. Then you also do have the sterotypical naive teenagers who will get into any taxi without thinking twice.
In terms of choosing our actors we have tried to portray these two sterotypical social groups through their appearance and their actions within the title sequence.

This is an example of how we were trying to portray our actor 'The Driver' as a suspicious looking charactor which in reality are easy to find within the taxi driver community.

In the case of our victim we tried to portray her as being naive as most sterotypical teenage girls are.














Police charge Vincent Tabak with Jo Yeates murder  

Jo Yeates's body was found on Christmas Day A man has been charged with murdering landscape architect Jo Yeates.

Avon and Somerset Police said Dutch national Vincent Tabak, 32, who was arrested on Thursday, will appear at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Miss Yeates, 25, was found dead on Christmas Day, eight days after going missing from her home in the Clifton area of Bristol.

Her body was found next to a country road in Failand, three miles from where she lived.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had been strangled.

Miss Yeates, who was originally from Ampfield in Hampshire, was reported missing by her 27-year-old boyfriend Greg Reardon on 19 December when he returned to their home after a weekend away visiting family in Sheffield.

She disappeared on 17 December after going for Christmas drinks with colleagues at her architectural firm.

Mr Tabak, an engineer, lived next door to Miss Yeates on Canynge Road.

Earlier this week a reconstruction for the BBC's Crimewatch programme was filmed, tracing Miss Yeates's last steps.

There have also been a number of public appeals from her family.

When we were coming up for ideas for our thriller we thought that searching news reports would be a good idea. This is because we thought basing our thriller on an event that has happened in reality would incorporate a larger sense of fear to the audience, knowing that what we are showing them could easily happen to anyone.

Task 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media produtcs?

In this shot the driver is showing the victim her driver's license as a form of ID that he has stolen. This conforms to the conventions of a film sequence because even before he had shown her the audience were already catching onto the idea that this driver wasn't normal. However when he shows the stolen ID the audience now definately know he is not normal and infact very dangerous.

This image shows the worried expression in our victims face. This also upholds the conventions of a film sequence because it shows fear, fear that something bad is about to happen.

This image is taken from our first shot of the sequence. It is suppossed to establish the fact that our victim is on her own after leaving a club. This also upholds the conventions of a film sequence because the fact she is on her own makes it more believeable for her to be abducted by the driver.

This image is suppossed to show that our victim was first of all in a busy town with little chance to be hurt because she was around the public. You could argue that this image subverts the conventions of a thriller film sequence because she is safe, however this changes when she enters the taxi.

We wanted to show the contrast between the legitimate taxi and the unlicensed taxi. By having the real taxi drive off and eliminate the safety factor of our victim conforms to the conventions of our sequence because it is no longer definate that she is getting into a real taxi.

This shot is to show the struggle and dispair of our victim when she has realised she is in danger from the driver in the unlicensed taxi. This conforms to the conventions of our thriller sequence because the viewer now knows for definate that something is wrong and she is in danger.

This image shows the driver in the foreground and the victim in the background-stating the different levels of power between the two. This image conforms to the conventions of a thriller film sequence because the audience can tell that the driver has power over the victim by the menicing look in his face.

This image definately conformed to the conventions of a thriller film sequence. I think this is a typical shot to use in a thriller because the villan is staring on at the victim which creates a sense of fear for the victim due to the muderous stare. This makes the audience fear for the victim.

This final image is from the drivers point of view, again looking into the mirror. Except this time we have altered the mirror to be reflecting the victim in the back seat asleep. This creates suspension from the previous shot because now the victim is asleep and can easily be harmed by the villan, again conforming to the conventions of a thriller film sequence.

Account of shoot days

Our media shoot took place on two separate days. This is because our thriller idea was based on unlicensed taxis picking up girls and we thought that filming in night time would be more realistic. The first shoot took place In Guildford at around 4 o clock in the afternoon. Luckily were still in the time of the year when it gets dark early so we were able to get the shots we needed. Using Guildford as our first location was really to establish where the victim was when she got into the taxi. Even though we only filmed around three or four angles that extra bit of footage will play a big part in our opening sequence and make it a higher quality piece of footage.

When we arrived at Guildford we spent no time hanging around and got straight down to it. We chose ‘The Drink’ nightclub as the location for our actress to walk out from. So we set up our camera across the street in order to pan down the entire building till we reached the victim stepping out and putting on her jacket. Looking back on our footage I found out that it was a very long shot of about 10 seconds but I think when we edit it all together it will look good.
Before we continued with the rest of the more challenging shots one of us had to go to the nearby taxi rank in order to pay a black cab to position himself outside the club and drive away when our victim walked out onto the street. Luckily there was one black cab there who agreed to do what we asked, even though on the first take he didn’t pull away but asked our victim to get in. However on the second take he drove away in order for our unlicensed taxi to pull up on the kerb.
When we were filming from this angle we had to place our camera and tripod on the side walk where a lot of pedestrians were walking by. This made it hard to get a good natural shot without the public knowing what was going on. However amongst all the Guildford footage we got we should be able to cut together a good introduction sequence before we move onto the interior footage.

Looking back at our original storyboards our shoot days didn’t actually go too different to what we planned which surprised me. We had planned to go to the nightclub in Guildford for our opening shot, however we made our lives a lot easier by just filming her get into the taxi instead of adding in the whole act of her dropping her bag, the taxi driver picking up her ID etc. Instead we changed the script later on in the interior footage.
From day one we were always aiming for a thriller effect for our shoot days. Even before we have edited our footage and added the music, text etc I’m certain that we have achieved the effect of the thriller. I think this was due to two things, the fact it was filmed at night in quite a dodgy looking location of a girl on her own, and the script we used in the end.

When it came to filming our group took it in turns to film each shot. In Guildford we did a shot each of our victim getting in the car. We did these shots in order to make our victim to look venerable and alone in the dark with only streets lamps which created a feeling of isolation. However when it came to shooting on our second day outside the studio at school there were a lot more tasks needed to be done in order to set up. Again it was dark because this is when we wanted to use stage lights to create the false impression that cars were passing by. We had two lights to use, one on each side of the car, one white and the other red. I had to set up the red light inside the shed so it was out of the rain but able to show up on our actors effectively.
On the second shoot day we had to set up outside the studio because all of our footage had to be inside our unlicensed taxi. Using the inside of the car and creating all the artificial lights and movements you would experience when driving in a car at night and in the rain all helped towards creating the mis-en-scene that would relate to the genre of film that we are making. I chose to do particular shots such as the taxi drivers eyes looking at the girl in the rear view mirror and a close up of her having no signal on her phone to call for help in order to create a sense of fear and create suspense. I think that the interior shots of the taxi worked really well with the lighting and rain effects we used. It made the footage look really realistic and give it a thriller edge to it.

For costume we decided to dress our girl in all black. This is a contrast to the stereotypical all white innocent look but we wanted her to appear streetwise so that she would be able to work out what’s happening to her and how to try and escape throughout the film. For our taxi driver we decided to make him dress in casual clothes-a black leather jacket as well. In his case we dressed him that way to make him appear like the villain and also make him appear like less of an official taxi driver. For props we needed to use a student ID so that it made the plot more realistic-that our taxi driver had been stalking her at her university and stole her identification as a memento. We were also planning on using a hose to create the false effect of rain but luckily it was actually raining on the day of our shoot so we just had to use a small spray bottle to use on the windscreen to make the rain look a bit heavier. We decided to use rain because it is a convention of a thriller/horror film which creates the fear factor for the audience.
When it came to casting we chose to cast our victim because she had a very innocent look to her yet mature. She would also appeal to our target audience for the males because she is a good looking actress. We chose to cast our taxi driver because we needed someone older to make it more realistic. If we had casted a 17 or 18 year old guy it wouldn’t be very believable.
In terms of lighting we chose to film outside when it was dark with the use of artificial lighting. This is because the darkness is a typical convention of a thriller/horror film. We didn’t use lighting on our first shoot day because we were out in Guildford and couldn’t set up lights in the street. However on the second shoot day we used two stage lights, one white, one red, on each side of the car and moved them back and forth every couple of seconds to make it look like cars driving past. When we looked back over the footage the lighting inside the car had worked really well, however some of the shots showed that it was in fact a stage light being moved back and forth, which eliminated the realistic effect of cars passing by. Hopefully when it comes to editing we will be able to fix this problem.
In terms of sound before editing we only had a couple of instances. One would be the car door slamming, which was a lot louder than the dialogue and creates suspense. It was a good use of sound to use for cutting to another shot also. We also had the sound of the rain hitting the car which created an atmosphere which was lingered with tension and suspense.
When it came to filming we alternated roles. I took part in filming, setting up the scene, the lights, deciding shot choices and creating the script used for our thriller. It was important that we all worked together and discussed options so that we got different opinions and as a group decided what would be best for our thriller.
Overall I was very happy with the outcome of our thriller. The shot day arose above my expectations and we achieved the thriller that I had imagined in my head. If we were to do it again I would do nothing differently.

Final Ideas Pitch

The driver powerpoint

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Storyboard: Main task

The Life of a Film presentation

The life of a film

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Analysis of the title sequence of 'Seven'

In order to gain some more ideas before starting to produce our own title sequence of a thriller we were told to do some research by looking at other well known thriller title sequences. I chose to look at the movie 'Seven' which is a film about a seriel killer. Unlike the title sequence to such thrillers as 'Panic Room' the movie 'Seven' gives away a lot of detail to tell you what the film is about.
The title sequence of 'Seven' consists of a series of shots of what seems to be someone producing a considerable amount of work and research of particular victims. There are also a couple of shots where it shows the subject removing the skin from his fingertips which suggests that s/he is trying to keep their identity hidden, which suggests that they are perhaps trying to remain unsuspected from a crime they are going to commit.
Furthermore the music and text used in this sequence all link into the sterotypical image of a thriller. The text used in this opening sequence to introduce the actors, producers, directors etc is written in what is suppossed to look like the cereal killers handwriting. It is also given an effect to flicker on screen, along with the use of slow eary music which gives off a strong impression that this film is a thriller.
All the detail used in this opening sequence is a contrast to the thriller 'Panic Room' which is a series of shots of skyscrapers in New York City. The only information given away in that sequence is the location whereas more of the plot is revealed in the title sequence of'Seven'.

Collateral Trailor

Taxi Driver Trailor

Shooting Script

• Abby is really upset having just broken up with her boyfriend, she is standing in the rain waiting for a cab
• Tomasz: you alright love, want a cab?
• Abby : Thanks , How much will it be to get to 54 Cavendish road
• Tomasz: Oh I think about £20 will cover it
• Abby: Ok
• Abby: struggles to pick up her suitcase
• Tomasz: Want a hand?
• Abby: Yeah, thanks
• Tomasz goes to put Abby’s suitcase in the boot. Whilst doing so Abby is looking for her phone in her handbag and accidentally drops her bag on the floor-the contents falling out.
• Abby: Shit
• Tomasz: don’t worry ill get that get in the car (Picking up the contents of her bag from the road he hands the bag to her).
• Abby: Okay let me see how much I have got… (Pause)… Oh no I’ve lost my purse fuck sake today is not my day.
• Tomasz: How much you got?
• Abby: I have a tenner in my pocket (She shows him the £10 note)
• Tomasz: (looking through her purse at her ID cards) Don’t worry, you go to Warwick don’t you? You can pay me back there ill give you my card.
• Abby: Oh I didn’t know you went to Warwick? Thanks that’s great
• Tomasz: yeah on my third year now.
• Abby: oh what are you studying?
• Tomasz: Psychology.
• Abby: oh really? I’ve never seen you around.
• (all goes silent. After a few seconds another voice is heard through the taxi radio)
• Other Man(Russian): Mate after the job your on I’ve got another one for you
• Tomasz (Russian): I don’t think this one will be going home, she’s a looker.
• Abby: Excuse me, sorry, my flats that way. (points right)
• Tomasz: nahhhh I know a better route.
• (she falls asleep on the back seat)
• Tomasz (Russian): I’m Almost here get ready.
• Other Man (Russian): Ok great see you soon.
• (BLACK OUT)
• (Sounds of doors Slamming and a loud scream from the men who are shouting in Russian. )

Why Did We Use These Props?

Car- To use as an unlicensed taxi

Hose Pipe- To create the effect of rain and make the false impression of a moving taxi more realistic.

Bag- To carry her belongings and for her to drop it on the floor in order for the taxi driver to help pick up the contents and steal her purse.

Student ID- To show that she is at university which will suggest her age and also allow the taxi driver pretend that he goes to the same university.

Taxi Radio- So that the interior of the car looks more like a taxi and also for the taxi driver to communicate with the guy he's working with.