Evaluation Question 7

Question 7 asks the question "Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the main task?"
 The dialogue involves:
One thing that we found that was different from our preliminary task to our main thriller was the planning. During the planning stage of our preliminary task, limited time was spent on research, and trying to find out what kind of things would be best for our task. Examples include storyboarding. As you can see, little time and effort went in to this stage of planning due to the fact that as amateurs, we thought that it was not important and we will improvise when we start to film. As you can see, continuity errors occurred and may damage the outcome and grade of the film.  From these errors, we learnt to take more care in our main thriller production and to thoroughly plan our production including the storyboard, audience etc. 
Also, we have learnt how critical research is in affecting the outcome of your production. Again limited research was done on existing preliminary tasks and what would help us be successful and what we need to avoid. This would lead us to go down a route which would not benefit us in reaching out to a wide audience as things like drugs and a drug deal do not appeal to a wide audience. Therefore, during our main production we tried to get as much research as possible on conventions of a thriller, previous work, the difference between and good production and a great production and overall how to be generally successful.
In addition, another thing we found that was different from our preliminary task to our main thriller was the post production. During this stage on our preliminary task, we had little experience on the editing software PremierPro and this lead to us take less care when coming to things like titling and effects. Because of this, we were not able to have a successful finish to our task and it looked less professional. From this, we learnt that post production was vital in turning your production from something average to a professional piece of work. We took time in titling to make them look proficient, we took time and care in effects to give the flashbacks in the production an edgy and eerie feel and we just wanted to make what was happening as believable as possible.
Finally we found out how many times we needed to shoot different types of shots, from our preliminary task we can see that certain shots are shaky, not in focus so, when going to the main production, we took more shots until we were happy that the shots we were doing were correct and worthy of being in our production.

Evaluation Question 6

Question 6 asked "What have you learnt from technologies from the process of constructing this product?" I have used a program called 'Gliffy' and have embedded it to this post.

Evaluation Question 5

Question 5 asked "How did you attract/address your audience?" Despite this being similar to question 4 I still decided to do them both separately as I could reach further into detail. I answered this question using Prezi.

Evaluation Question 4

Here is my response for the question asking "Who would be the audience for your media product?" made using Spicynodes. I wanted to embed the question into this post but for some reason it wouldn't show. I have attached the link to it instead below, enjoy:
http://www.spicynodes.org/a/3a1af52d2f0321c1ec4634eb6c46005f

Evaluation Question 3

Question 3 asked "What kind of institutions may distribute your media product and why?" I answered the following on a site called Padlet - a pinboard style website making it easy to present all my ideas and options.

Created with Padlet

Evaluation Question 2

We decided to answer question 2 with a YouTube video. Here me and Lewis talk about how our media product represents particular social groups.

Evaluation Question 1

Question 1 asked "In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?" The following has been answered in a PowerPoint presentation and shared through slideshare.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? from BenLocking07

Final Production | Duct Tape

The thriller opening 'Duct Tape' has been finished and has been uploaded to YouTube. I am pleased with the outcome and feel that me and Lewis have done a good job of making an effective opening. I feel that the titling and shots that are associated with it have been done well. Enjoy!

Screenplay of 'Duct Tape'

We have finished the filming for our thriller opening titled 'Duct Tape' and have recently finished the editing. For the first time, there is now our screenplay that is going to be released to the public. We have closely followed this to attempt to get the most accurate result as planned. Enjoy!

Duct Tape screenplay

Scene one – The train journey

There is a black screen at the start with a slowly building piece of music made by an accordion. As the screen fades in there is a selection of establishing shots of the journey of the train (from the inside). We then have shots of both Myra and Ian, only showing parts of the body and the bottom of their face. We’re then approached with a shot of the couple holding hands to symbolise the relationship between them. Once the train arrives the two disembark with the camera following behind.

Scene two – Train station

The shot of the camera following the couple continues until they reach the exit of the station. This is where we have a mid-shot going into a long shot of the couple leaving. A bright light then occurs and there is a flashback.

Scene three – The garage - Outside

A still, mid shot is taken of the couple approaching a garage tucked down next to a house. The overgrown trees aside and dirty floor showing that it isn’t often looked after and has a ‘make do’ approach. As they open the garage we see, between the couple, a victim, sat broken and bruised, tied up to a chair with duct tape around his mouth. The garage door then shuts, leaving the shot from outside continuing for a few seconds. A bright light then occurs again and it cuts back to real time.

Scene four – Sheffield - Museum

The couple have now arrived in Sheffield, where we see them both enjoying a normal day out, getting food, visiting the museum etc. Firstly is the museum with a pan shot to show them entering then a still, close up of the two talking with each other to encourage the emotion and comfort they have for one another. The camera then moves up to what seems to be historic tools or weapons from the past to where another bright light occurs and a flashback again happens.

Scene five – The garage – Inside #1

Introduced by a bright light, the audience is met with a shot of ‘torture-like’ tools through the technique of action match, giving the idea that the scene is back into the garage. The camera then zooms out and tilts down to show the victim in a closer angle to understand more about their condition and past experience with the couple. The scene exits again with a bright light.

Scene six – Sheffield – Eating

We then have another mid to long shot of the couple wandering through the city centre, hand in hand, enjoying each other’s company and heading out to eat. The next shot is again a mid-shot that shows them both sat down on a bench with a drink, casually talking and joking around.

Scene seven – The garage – Inside #2

Introduced by a bright light again, we have a shot of the victim on his knees, facing a bucket of water. This is tied in with the liquid in the drink being the trigger for the drowning. The audience can also see the bottom half of the couple and can understand that their height over the victim shows significant dominance over him. Ian then proceeds to take the victim and hold his head underwater for what seems to be an excruciating period of time before allowing him back up to gasp for oxygen. The shot then freezes and the entire film goes in rewind with the screeching sound of a quickly reversing old fashioned film tape before cutting to black. A close up shot then occurs of the camera approaching a now more damaged and injured victim sat on a chair. In sync with the music the title ‘Duct Tape’ appears and the shot fades out to end.

Finished editing of 'Duct Tape'

The past few days have been gruelling to say the least but have been beyond satisfying! With consecutive days of 4/5 hour editing sessions we've finally packed all we can into 2 minutes and 30 seconds of gritty horror and joy. A big thanks goes out to Lewis Martin, my media partner, and Megan Greaves, the third actor in the thriller, for helping to get this done. It is a project that I am proud to have been a part of. Here's some screenshots to keep you excited:

 

Finished filming

Yesterday we managed finally complete the filming for our thriller opening 'Duct Tape'. So far it is looking promising and I can't wait for you all to see the final result. Stay posted to see the intriguing lives of a psychopath killer couple!

Started filming

Last Saturday we took a day out to Sheffield to begin our filming. Here we did the main footage that acted as the backbone of our film, showing the simplistic and enjoyable life that the couple live. The footage consists of different scenes and locations such as on a train, in the station, in the city centre, even a museum! Next we will be filming the garage scene where the couple have a victim to torture!

Story synopsis

Our synopsis consists of a serial-killer-couple who balance their love between a normal social life, and torture the innocent for a therapeutic experience. As the story of their crimes unfolds to the public, a bounty is placed for the two as they must escape and finally come to the end in a Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque shoot off.

Uses and gratifications theory

Uses and gratifications from BenLocking07

The garage

We have begun to look at where we will be shooting our scenes and how we will approach our different angles. We have not been able to manage to get into Sheffield to take pictures of our potential shots but have managed to collect pictures of the other scene - the garage.

 

This is where the flashbacks of the torture will occur (obviously without the car or tumble dryer in the scene), creating an eerie and 'make-do' feeling for the audience with a grungy affect of a dirty room and tools hanging from the ceiling. I feel this is a great scene to give a sinister feel of the two murderers.

Storyboard - Progress

I have recently began drawing up an idea for our movie, 'Duct tape'. We have so far introduced the general idea and the way that the opening will work - with flashbacks of the horrors at bay with the psychopathic couple and plenty of establishing shots to allow us to input our titling. Here is our work so far, enjoy:

Romancing Kilt!

We have developed a company and a logo to put before our thriller opening. The name is 'Romancing Kilt' - an anagram for 'Martin' and 'Locking' (our surnames). We plan on introducing it as our first clip with a fade in and fade out. Enjoy!

One page pitch video



We have finished our one page pitch and filmed the interview with a potential investor of our short film. It is embedded below where you can see us talking about our idea using our notes from my previous post. I have edited this together using cuts and overlapping one sound clip with the other two recorded films.

One page pitch

For our thriller opening task we had developed a one page pitch to present to a potential investor in our film. In this we included: Working title, film genre, length, target audience, tag line, a 'what if' premise, the story synopsis, statement of intent, visual realisation, and audience appeal. These all came together to create the meaning for our short film based around the life of a psychopath killer couple, satisfying themselves with the torture of innocent civilians whilst living a normal life outside of their unforeseen garage of torture.

­­­Working title:  Duct tape – has conations of capture.

Film genre: Horror thriller in order to captivate the audience and keep them on the edge of their seats.

Length: 120 minutes allows us to show a lot of detail so they audience can engage with the characters and understand their backgrounds. It also allows time for the story to unfold.

Target audience: The film will be a 15 rated because it although it does not include some features like frequent strong language and drug taking, it contains strong violence which may not be suitable for children under the age of 15.

Tag line: Taken and never returned.

A ‘what if’ premise: If Ian and Myra continue to torture the innocent lives of the public, who will they get next?

The story synopsis: A story of a serial-killer-couple who balance their love between a normal, social life, and torture the innocent for a therapeutic experience. As the story of their crimes unfold to the public a bounty is placed for the two as they must escape and finally come to the end in a ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ esque shoot off.

Statement of intent: This story can help symbolise a message of how people’s first perceptions of others may not turn out to be what they have first thought. The film may also have a popular audience for this genre as a large percentage of people today are attracted to the horror genre of films as well as reminiscing historical events which have been recreated for modern interpretation.

Visual realisation: Dull/low saturation. Grungy effect to the room.

Audience appeal: Horror enthusiasts above the age of 15. Rated by the bbfc.