3.What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

The Butterfly Effect and Se7en, the films that we researched for our film opening have to some extent the same themes as our media product. Love, jealous and murder.

The Butterfly Effect was produced by Benderspink, and released by New Line Cinema and Icon Films. Se7en was produced and distributed by New Line Cinema.

New Line Cinema is an American independent distribution company owned by Warner Bros.Entertainment. Being a part of Warner Bros, it is able to distribute big budget films, such as Inkheart (2008) and Hairspray (2007). New Line Cinema is part of big company and may not be interested in distributing our media product.

However, we did some research on smaller distributing companies that would be interested in distributing our media product. Optimum Releasing is a British distribution company which specialises in distributing many foreign films, such as Tokyo! (2008) and Amores Perros (2000). It has also been involved in the distribution of bigger Hollywood films, The Tourist (2010) and Source Code (2011).

Another option could be Icon films. It has distributed several low budget films, such as The Collector (2009), Buried (2010) and Precious (2009). All of this low budget films have done well at the box office despite this low budgets and lack of big Hollywood stars that are considered as ‘stars vechiles’ in films.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Before our production on Infactuation Complex, we did some reserach on our main target audience would be for our product. Therefore we researched into the typical age range of psychological horrors and the common age certificate is 15 and 18.

Using this evidence we asked people questions based on the age they first started watching horror films and what they assume the correct age range is. Based on a pole of 10 people, 100% stated that they watched their first horror film at the age of 15 or under and the average age range who mainly watch horrors was 16-24 years of age. We carried out some viral research and we found that on average people age 15 or under watch their first horror film, and the average age range who mainly watch horror films are people in their early teenage years, especially males.
With these statistics, we set out aiming our psychological horror film to be filmed within the age range of 16-24. During having a scene in which someone is brutually murdered, we had to bear in mind that we couldn't show violence on screen. Having completed filming and editing, we asked people to view our film opening and give feedback. The following questions were asked:

Question 1. Does this film opening appeal to you?

100% answered yes.

Question 2. What age rating would you likely give this film opening?

90% answered 15 certificate
10% answered 18 certificate.

3. What age range of people will watch our film?

40% answered 15-25
20% answered 15+
20% answered 16+
10% answered 17+
10% answered 18-24


After analysing the feedback from our audience, we decided that our media product would appeal to a young audience within the age range of 15-24, who had an interest in murder mystery genres.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The target audience for our media product are young males and thriller fans, so we had to create a dark atmosphere that would appeal to these fans. One of the ways we did this was by using a filter to darken the image and make it seem gritty. Doing this allowed us to have a creepy atmosphere despite having filmed in broad daylight. The theme of the film was also an important factor, due to it being about murder which would appeal to young people.

We wanted to have themes of mystery surrounding the characters, which is a common feature of thriller films. We achieved this in a number of ways such as when Lucie’s character is first introduced, we didn't film her face, we just used a variety of camera angles showing only her feet and back as she walks through the corridor, and into the interview room. When she enters the interview room, the audience learns she is powerful and very blunt. Lucie's character knows what she wants and will make sure she gets what she wants. Lewis’ character is very reversed which makes him mysterious by his looks, his actions and even the way he talks. Alcione's character hasn't got a story to tell, but the audience learns that she is similar to Lucie, but likes to 'play by the rules'. She is controlled and knows how to succeed at her job role. The victim is presented as a young, vulnerable woman. She was clearly in shock when she was attacked, which would explain why she didn't run away. This could say something about who she is as person and that she is a bit naive about bad things in the world.

During the attack scene we used a POV shot to show what it would be like to be the victim and shook the camera to give the effect of her being strangled by the attacker. The attacker's face wasn't shown clearly during this scene. This added to the suspense of what was to come.
When the victim is thrown into the ditch, we used a filter to darken and blur the screen to give the effect that she is dead. The victim is seen as someone who is calm and naive. She takes her time walking through this deserted place, despite being alone and looking quite vulnerable. Different shots are used as she walks along which really emphaise that she is taking her own time.

The soundtrack we used has a dark, mysterious and effective to portray the thriller genre well keeping the audience interested. To achieve this, we chose music with a minor key and low sounding instruments. We also used long sustained notes when the cuts were slow and during action scenes much faster paced music. We used different sounds to highlight key events such as deep rumbles and 'windy' noises increasing the impact of what happens on film.

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

During our project we have learnt a lot about editing films and creating a soundtrack for it.

Two people in our group, had used Final Cut Pro before but we soon we all learned a lot about the process of filming and editing a film. One of the main features we used when editing was the filter, this allowed us to create a dark atmosphere even when we filmed in daylight and allowed us to create a security camera effect.

We did not have that much experience with using a camera but out teacher taught us all the basics we needed. For the preliminary task, we learned about how to use different shots effectively such as using a low angle shot to make a person look bigger therefore more powerful. We used a shot like this during the attack scene with the killer standing over the victim.

The sound of the video camera isn't high in quality and did not pick up dialogue well.
To compensate for this, we used microphones in the recording studio to record the dialogue and then added the dialogue to the video afterwards. This worked well but we didn't have to do this for Lucie's character. The recorded dialogue was perfectly clean with no ambient noise, but it made it unbalanced and un-natural.
So we decided to record some ambient sound behind the recorded dialogue so it seemed much more natural. A method such as this has taught us ways to overcome problems that we encountered during filming and editing.

Logic Pro 9 was used to create the soundtrack and sound effects. David was given the responsibilty to do this, because he has expierence in using this software. He was able to create a score thet fitted well with the genre of our product, despite being near the end of our project deadline. David achieved a great soundtrack that really brought the whole project together, setting the mood perfectly. He also used certain sound effects that highlight key moments in the film.

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

From creating our preliminary task, this allowed us to learn that we needed to plan out our film opening in order for it to flow in the way we wanted to with no missing parts and bits that didnt link in or make sense to the story as it was improvised.
We decided on the genre of film that we were going to create and this allowed us to discuss ideas of locations, props and mis en scene.
Deciding on the genre first meant that we were able to find suitable locations for our opening. The research we did into films of similar genres showed that we would need to find locations with an eerie atmosphere. We chose Castlefield in Manchester as the location for the attack scene. Because of the location that we were using, we had to film during the day and therefore, the effects of darkness and the haziness to show memory had to be done during editing.
The location that we chose was quite a distance from our college and meant that we would not be able to complete the filming in lesson times as there was not enough time for travelling and then getting the work done. This meant that we had to organise a time that was suitable for the group to meet at the location so that filming could take place. This required a lot of communication between the four members.
Our preliminary task and main task has aspects of similarity and dfference. Both had the mood of anger involved. The preliminary task, from all three characters and the main task, from the character conducting the investigation.
Both tasks used a non-diagetic backing track underneath the dialogue. These sound tracks were created by using software called Logic Pro 9. This allowed up to make and mix different sounds together to match the mood and atmosphere of our film.

Filming mistakes

Throughout the editing process of our coursework, we realised that we made quite a few continuity errors during our filming. These errors were noticeable and so to make our film opening look realistic had to be changed. To do this we had to do some reshoots of footage to correct our mistakes. In some cases we were able to alter the mistakes in editing. Others we chose to use part of the footage up to the mistake and then cut to another shot.

The main continuity mistake we realised we had made was during the interrogation scene. In one shot there is no water bottle on the table, just the lamp and the sound recording box. In the next shot, a water bottle appears in front of Alcione. Our first idea was to do a reshoot of this section of the film, we then found that there was an easier way to correct our mistake without having to get more footage. We decided that we would leave the bottle in the shot. We found that in Final Cut Pro 7 we could drag our footage around the viewing screen so that only the bits that we wanted to be seen were shown. To correct the mistake, we dragged the footage to make the shot focus more on Lucy. This meant that even if the bottle was on the table that it would not be able to be seen because of how the shot had been zoomed.



This image shows how we made the mistake of leaving the water bottle on the table whilst filming



This image shows how we realised the mistake we made when this shot had no water bottle on the table



This is what our shot looks like now we have corrected the image


As we were filming the corridor scene of our film opening, we struggled to get the footage we needed without getting the posters in the shot. As we filmed this in college, there are posters all over the walls with people work on them, these can not be taken down so we had to try and work our filming around them. We found that there was no way of editing these posters out on Final Cut Pro 7 so we had to do a reshoot of this scene. We decided that the only way that we would be able to keep the posters out of the shot was if we were to only show Lucy’s feet in the shot. We also decided that this would make our film opening better as it would add to the suspense of not seeing Lucy, which is what we intended on in the first place. During our reshoot we decided that we would extend the footage that we already had and instead of just having the scene in the corridor, we started the scene from the stairs. Lucy walks up the stairs and along the corridor where she then opens the door and steps into the original corridor where we only see her feet walking towards the interview room.




This image shows Lucy walking down the corridor with the posters clearly seen on the walls




This image shows how we changed this footage and extended it to Lucy walking up the stairs



This image shows Lucy walking along the corridor with a close up of her hand on the rail



This image shows how we corrected the mistake of our footage by now only showing Lucy’s feet, posters can still slightly be seen but as we did with the footage with the bottle, we are going to drag so the poster cant be seen.


Whilst filming our footage we found that we were getting our lines wrong quite a bit, this caused us to laugh half way through the filming and therefore these shots could not be used.




Lucy saying the wrong lines



Lewis laughing



Lucy laughing

When looking through our footage during editing, we found that some of the shots we had filmed well were actually rather blurred in places. This meant that we had to cut to different shots to avoid this blur from ruining the film. We found that the worst case of this blurring in the footage was when we were doing the scene from behind the glass. We found that we were getting blurred shots and also a slight shadow because of the dark rooms.



This is the interrogation scene that we decided was to blurred to use in our film.

Shot list

Corridor Scene
Shot One: Close up of Lucy's feet walking along the corridor

Shot Two: Camera moves from Lucy's feet up to her back in a medium shot

Shot Three: Shot of Lucy's back walking down the corridor, her face is not visible to viewer

Shot Four: Extreme close up on Lucy's hand on the door handle as she opens the door

Shot Five: Point of veiw shot of suspect on the other side of the door, watching Lucy walk in

Shot Six: Close up of Lucy's legs as she is walking through the door. Face is still not revealed

Interrogation

Shot Seven: Low angle shot from "security camera"

Shot Eight: Tracking shot of Lucy going to sit at the interview table

Shot Nine: Establishing shot of the three people at the interview table

Shot Ten: Shot reveals Lucy's face slowly in close up

Shot Eleven: Shot reverse shot as conversation begins

Shot Twelve: Establishing shot from the other side of the "one-way glass" showing the backs of people watching the interview

Shot Thirteen: Back to shot from the security camera

Shot Fourteen: Close up of Lewis's face smirking


Castle field

Shot Fifteen: Downwards tilt revealing the castlefield area from high to low

Shot Sixteen: Panning movement of the camera in establishing shot of the lower area of castlefield that we are using

Shot Seventeen: Close up of victimes phone showing a message saying "hurry up"

Shot Eighteen: High angle shot of victim walking up stairs

Shot Nineteen: Long shot revealing Lewis hiding in the trees

Shot Twenty: Point of view shot from Lewis as the victim walks into his sight, hiding ready to attack her

Shot Twenty-one: Medium shot of victim walking along the path

Shot Twenty-two: Point of view shot from Lewis showing the victims back as he follows her

Shot Twenty-three: Point of view shot Lewis as the victims turns round and sees him

Shot Twenty-four: Camera changes to point of view shot as victim is being strangled and camera shakes

Shot Twenty-five: shot of the victim being thrown down a hill

Shot Twenty-six: of Lewis speaking in the interrogation room

Shot Twenty-seven: back to castlefield revealing the victims dead body lay on the flood