Audience and Institutions

Institutions
We also discussed in class what type of institution might have constructed our production and we decided that it would have been a Hollywood Studio such as Miramax Films, A Band Apart and Jersey Films who made Pulp Fiction. Quentin Tarantino or Frank Miller would have been an ideal director and we tried to copy their style for our product.

Target Audience
The form and content of our thriller sequence attempted to match an 18 audience but, however, as it is an educational situation, we could not have the type of explicit content that this type of sequence would demand in Hollywood. The population our sequence would be aimed at would be mostly middle to lower class males between 18-40, who enjoyed mystery, guns and attractive Burlesque style women. Also towards middle class businessmen who want to enjoy an escape fro ether everyday lives. The piece obviously had to be acceptable so the imagery could not be explicit and no nudity could be used so we placed our female character in stylized lingerie and heels. To also have a hint of sexiness, we created alluring shadows of dancers on the walls using lighting. Other media texts the target audience would enjoy would be Sin City, Planet Terror, Sexy Beast and Pulp Fiction.

Photoshop

During class we experimented with Photoshop and at first I found it really difficult as I’d never used it before. We altered already existing film posters to create our own, using Photoshop to change the patterns, colour and add captions. We then were asked to create our own film posters for the thriller/horror genre from our own resources. This is my poster for my fictional film, “Lights Out”.

Thriller Research - The Brief

The Brief

undertake secondary research into real texts.

Undertake primary research into real text.

Undertake Primary/ Secondary research of audience for real texts

Undertake Primary/ Secondary Research into real institutions

Produce a production schedule

Plan production

Script idea

Draw/ Plan storyboard

Source sounds

Secure Cast

Secure locations

Produce running order

Produce shot list for shoot day

Film production

Edit production

Preliminary Task

Before we started our preliminary task we were given a workshop on using a moving image camera. We then were sent off in small groups to record a moving sequence of someone walking, and then of them coming out of a door and down some stairs. I volunteered to be the walker so I had to make sure I hit my cues and walked to the same place every time. When positioning the camera, we had to take into consideration the reflection from windows and the glare from the sun and to “bobble” the camera so it was level and not at an angle. The following day we ventured on creating our preliminary task. We were given a storyboard that consisted of a conversation between two actors. We decided to have a person coming out from behind a screen and hitting a mark so we put white tape on the floor for both the actors. The shots consisted of over the shoulder shots, reaction shots, close-ups, mid shots and wide shots so it really tested our knowledge of what we had learnt about camera. We also included a shot that was not on the storyboard and did a close-up of the phone being passed between actor “A” and actor “B”.
When it came to editing, we found it quite a slow and difficult process as we had to be so quick about the editing between shots as the actors were speaking very fast without much pause between lines. Also, we were new to the software and it took some time to get to grasps with it.

Camera Skills

Today we learnt how to use a digital camera and were sent off in groups of four to take pictures. We learnt about the ON button, shutter speeds, zoom and how to use natural lighting to our advantage. Here are a few images we snapped. The intention was to take action shots that could turn into a film poster.

First Post

Welcome to my media blog! I hope it interests you to find out what I learn about media at Hurtwood from using a digital camera to evaluating a 3 minute thriller sequence made by us! Media at Hurtwood presents so many opportunities and is so interesting to learn new skills and ways in which the media represents things. Hope you enjoy my blog 