Group storyboard-Miss Miller

Group storyboard

The purpose of the group story board is to combine my groups ideas from there individual story boards to create one final narrative. The purpose of using the story board in the filming and production of our film is so we can refer back to it making sure we follow the story and include all the different edits, camera angles, mise-en-scene, lighting and sound.

We took the whole groups ideas and adapted them into what we thought would create the best narrative. This idea is conventional in a variety of ways, we made sure to include low-key lighting, slow edits and jump cuts. The low-key lighting used is made by the natural lighting of the forest where we set or thriller, we also filmed at twilight and used a dark edit in production to produce this conventional low-key lighting effect. This effect was essential to our thriller and is used throughout to create a sense of enigma. Another effect used was slow edits, this was used in the stalking scene of one of the characters and in the discovery of his body. We used this because it builds tension within the audience dragging out the scene to give it a better final effect. We also used jump cut edits to give reaction shot of the girl discovering the body and the killer who then comes from behind her.

In conclusion this helped our group structure our ideas better, remember any iconography or places and what order to put the film during the editing stage.


By Alexander Flanagan

Research into editing styles

Research into editing styles 

The clip that I am doing is from the film "Strangers" where mysterious people are knocking on the door of the victim. My first point on how different editing styles are shown in this clip is the use of slow paced editing to show the characters fear and builds tension within the scene. An example of this is where the main character hears a knock on the door and slowly walks towards the door and waits at it to hear another noise. This drags the time out and builds tension within the audience as this style leaves the audience on edge and wanting the scene to climax and reveal the scare. This will create and keep the audience in suspense making them empties with the characters fear of what may be on the other side of the door.

My next point is the use of linking shots together to show the main characters reactions before and after the knocking on the door is heard. An example of this style is where the character hears the first knock on the door and the camera goes from her to the door then back to her which is then followed by a second knock where the camera stays on the door. This effect allows the audience to instantly know where the noise coming from and what the characters reaction is to it. This style is useful as a knock on the door is a normal thing, the door only becomes a danger once the audience sees the characters reaction to it and know that what is behind the door should be feared. This will help the audience relate to the character as most people will know the feeling of not wanting to open to something or someone.

My final point is the use of straight cuts within this scene that tells the audience that she is being watched from outside. and example of this is where the character locks the doors and runs upstairs to talk to someone on the phone and the camera suddenly jumps to someone watching the house from outside. This edit creates tells the audience that someone is outside and they are watching the woman inside the house, this creates a sense of enigma as the audience do not know who or what is outside. This can help the audience relate to the character by showing the audience what she knows it makes the audience cautious of what is outside of the house and can understand why she has locked the door. It can also be that the audience have seen a danger to the character that they do not know which makes them empathise with the character and makes them feel sorry for the danger that awaits the character. This effect can build suspense as the audience will want to know what is outside the house and they will be waiting for what happens to the character.

By Alexander Flanagan

This is the clip of "Strangers" I analysed:

AS 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?

The purpose of the preliminary task was to learn how to use the camera and show our basic skills and what we already knew about how to work a camera. This prepared us for filming our thriller as I learned that using a tripod is vital to getting good steady footage. I also learned that the camera must be fully focused on what it is that you film, I was better able to use the camera after this task. In my preliminary task I did not use a tripod effectively and the footage was shaky and not as clear so in my thriller I made sure to correct this. I also made sure to look over my footage after each change to make sure that the change had the intended affect and included all of my footage.

AS Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My group wanted to use minimal characters so we use Noah as the male victim, Lucy as the female victim and Michael as the killer. I showed Noah’s character as a brave and masculine male which is stereotypical to the thriller genre. I chose to include this so that the audience would feel as if no one is safe from the killer. The second male character that I used was the killer himself he needed to come across to the audience as a powerful, mysterious and terrifying. I used a male actor for the role of the killer, as in thrillers it is conventional for the killer to be a man. The final character was Lucy as the female victim; I included her because in nearly all thrillers a female victim is stereotypically used. In our thriller we chose not to represent gender in a stereotypical way, we did this as the main victim throughout the thriller was male. I think that my characters will appeal to my target audience because they are of a similar age, this means that my audience will be able to relate to the characters which will make the danger to the characters more real.

AS Evaluation question 1

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

My media product uses a range of generic conventions; some of the conventions that I used in my thriller was the use of enigma. An example of another film that uses this convention would be “The woman in black” certainly in the opening scene, where three girls are forced to kill themselves by a mysterious figure. I used this and did not fully reveal the killer until the very end of the thriller, another generic convention that I used was the use of a female victim. My female victim was used at the very end of the sequence being scared then killed. An example of a female victim in another thriller would also be the opening sequence of “The woman in black” where the three girls where forced to jump out of the window. By using these conventions I created suspense through the enigma used, this would be best shown in the point of view shot so the killers identity has still not been revealed. A example of this mysterious first person knife view would be "physco", this creates suspense and tension as well as an enigma as to who the killer is. A very prominent convention that I used throughout the whole of my thriller would be the use of low-key lighting, this gives a dark and mysterious feeling to the whole sequence.As well as following the generic conventions of a thriller, I also tried to challenge or develop them slightly by not only using a female victim at the end of the scene but, I also used a male victim this makes the audience feel as if no one is safe from the killer. 

AS Evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

The primary research was essential as it helped me and my group decides what would be best for our thriller. One question that I asked was “what is your favourite age certificate” this helped me decide what age range to base my film on. Another example would be “what interests you in a thriller?” which helped me in what to include in my thriller. Both my primary and secondary research helped me in creating my thriller as I then knew exactly what I needed to include and what to base my narrative on.

This is the link to my video of this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_SLUmLhadM

AS Evaluation question 6

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

This is the link to my prezi presentation: http://prezi.com/hzk9lcguzhxi/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy