Solemn

Here is the final edit for our opening 2 minutes of a thriller.

Evaluation 7

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

Here is a video of us explaining how we have developed and improved from our preliminary task:

Evaluation 6

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

Throughout the making of our thriller, we have learnt that many types of technology are needed to make it. We also learnt of the importance of the internet when marketing and how new technologies such as smart phones can help you in many different ways. Here is a video explaining the technologies we used:

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Name: Claire Martins

Age: 18

Studying English Literature and Philosophy at Cambridge University.

Has a part time job as a sales assistant at Debenhams. Enjoys going out with her friends for meals and movie nights. Her favourite foods are spaghetti, fruit and donuts and enjoys going to Nando’s at the weekend.

Her favourite film is Mean Girls but also enjoys thrillers such as The Perfect Getaway. Her favourite TV Shows are 90210 and Friends and she enjoys listening to her favourite artists, Jessie J and The Script. She enjoys dancing and performs in ballet recitals on a regular basis.

Name: Lewis Harley

Age: 19

Works full time at HMV

Lives at home with his mum and younger brother, Greg.  Enjoys watching films and listening to loud music. His favourite bands are Metallica, Nirvana and Arctic Monkeys. His favourite TV show is Family Guy and his favourite films are the Final Destination series.

Enters skateboarding competitions often, has come 2^nd place in the Southend Over 18’s Skateboarding competition.

Enjoys eating junk food such as pepperoni pizza, hotdogs and is always seen hanging out at Burger King.

These are the type of people we are aiming our thriller at because they're middle class, sociable people but also people who enjoy films. We are aiming at groups of friends and film lovers to come and view our thriller at the cinema as these are the type of people who we think will enjoy it the most.

Evaluation 3

What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why?

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When coming up with the ideas for our thriller and the characters that are in it, we decided as a group very quickly that we would like to focus on a child and have the thriller from the child's perspective. We decided this as the young character represents purity and innocence that we wanted to enhance this in any way we could. We research different films that had the child as the main character and realised that the one to focus on would be 'Orphan'.

The similar ideas that influenced our character's appearance was the hair in side bunches. We used this to show the young age of the character and showing that would increase the effectiveness of the thriller. Other similarities include the dark make up around the eyes- on the 'Orphan' image the eyes are dark and the eyes darkened but not as heavily as ours. In our image the eyes were darkened and bruised to show the physical effect of the car crash.

A difference that we wanted to show was the eyes, at first in our thriller, the eyes are normal, however the eyes in the picture of 'Orphan' are very dark- almost black. The black could represent the evil, mystery or even death being a very negative colour. We first considered using black contacts on the character, but then decided that the red would stand out more if at the end of the 2 minutes, and would therefore raise more questions that could be answered if the thriller carried on.

The pale skin on the 'Orphan' character is similar to ours, giving them a purer look and increasing their innocence and child- like image.

By using white clothes (as explained in the costume post) we went against the 'Orphan' image of using the dark red/black colours. We done this as we thought it took away from the pure look creating a harsher and darker character. We didn't do this as we wanted to keep the light look to out character so that when she changed evil there would be more shock from the audience.   

Audience Feedback

Once we were finished filming and the final touches were made to the thriller we put it straight on our YouTube account. We could then access it easily to show people and ask what they thought. As the public are the people who will go and see the film it is their opinion that will matter the most to us. 

Reviews: 

We recorded some responses, but as a few of these were feedback from links that we sent out or asked people to watch we were unable to record everyone, so the main quotes are used in the presentation, with recorded responses of some people on our YouTube account. 

                                         Peers/Friends:

As the age certificate is a 15 we wanted to ask people aged between 16-18 about what was good and what could be improved in our thriller. Here are the main quotes from what people said along with their age.

“ The eyes at the end are scary after the slow singing built up the moment, but the car crash scene could be more realistic.” (16)

“I enjoyed the bit when the teddy rolls off face down, like she left the child life behind, but there could be more voices at the beginning” (17)

                                               Family:

 Although they are not our main target audience, we wanted to show our parents/family the thriller and get their feedback on it.  

“The music with the sudden sounds makes it very jumpy and builds the suspense, but there could have been more blood in the car crash scene” (40)

“I liked how the songs were in slow motion and the voices over-lapping, but the car crash could have been slower” (51) 

                                          Teachers/Staff: 

As we were around school a lot we asked our teachers to watch the thriller and give us some feedback, we made sure we asked different genders.

“I thought the plot was good and left me with questions” (26)

“I love the bit where she disappears from the photo, that’s really creepy, the technical bits are really good! What could be better is having more close shots of the girls face to show the make up” (34)

                                            Feedback:

Overall, the feedback that we got was good and we completely agree with the points raised. If we were to do it again we would take these points in to consideration and adapt our thriller to make it better and scarier.    


Here are some video responses to our thriller:

Twitter Page

We have created a Twitter page for 'Solemn Thriller'. As social networking is becoming increaingly popular and more and more people are turning to them, we thought that this was another good way to advertise. Many films are advertised on Twitter, and with the world wide reach that it had it enables us to get as big an audience as possible.

We try to keep posting as regularly as we can, using our mobile phones as well to keep up to date. 

We wanted to keep posting to keep the audience and followers up to date. We posted links off YouTube and Facebook on the twitter page to get people to view out other types of media pages.

   

Facebook Page

We created a Facebook page for 'Solemn Thriller'. With over 250 million people connected on Facebook worldwide, it creates a huge market base, where many other businesses can promote, and offer deals, products, and services.
It is good for promoting out thriller as we can reach lots of people, but also target the audience that we have previously assembled. Facebook attracted people of a very wide age range, so to get the most out of promoting our thriller on Facebook, we could make sure the colours, quotes and reviews are aimed at the target audience and easy to see. We wouldn't want to advertise among other competitors or sectors that have nothing to do with our genre or age range, so therefore we would be segmented in with the same groups and competitors as ours.

We started our Facebook page with the original logo.

We are keeping the Facebook page up to date, with pictures. 

We are also adding statuses that will keep the audience updated on what we are doing, for the timeline. If it was a real film being released in cinema, the Facebook page would be good promotion as they can keep posting when the film will be in cinema's, so people will remember. To have a less formal approach, the film pages often put backstage pictures and videos on them as they will make the audience more anticipated to see the film, as they are getting hints of it through the build up. Promotion for a film is one of the most important stages that requires a lot of effort to keep up and keep the public aware of the film.  

Public Choosing Best Slogan

As a group we were undecided on which slogan to go with, so we decided the simplest way to choose one was ask people. the choices for them to choose were:

1) "little girls are sweet, so is revenge"

2) "innocence is masked by sweet revenge"

3) "innocence is captured, revenge is released"

4) "innocence leaves and evil takes over"

These are the results we got:

1) 12

2) 3

3) 8

4) 2

These results are quite reliable, as we asked a variety of age groups and genders. Some comments people made included:

"Number 3 is quite sinister and evil, and has a more serious tone"

"Number 1 is good as it mentions the character in the plot."

Overall, the chosen slogan (1) will be featured on out poster, and promotion visuals. 

Slogan Ideas

For our poster, we've decided to use a slogan as we think this would be a good way of advertising. We want to create a slogan that will stick in people's mind, raise quesions and make them want to see the film. Here are a couple of ideas we had:

We thought of 'Life isn't as pretty as it seems' as it relates to the little girl not being so cute and pretty anymore however we felt this had a slight comedic side to it and didn't suit the film genre well. This also applied to another idea of ours 'Life isn't always a ring a roses' which we came up with as the nursery rhyme 'Ring A Roses' will be in the background of our thriller.

We liked using the word 'life' in the slogan as we thought it related to the film well because the little girl loses her life during the car crash.

We also liked using the word 'innocence' because the girl loses her innocence when she becomes possessed. For example 'Little girls aren't as innocent as they seem' was one of our ideas however we felt that this wasn't very original and had probably been used before.

Other ideas that we had that arnt shown on the image were "little girls are sweet, so is revenge" and also "innocence lost". Both of these were good, the first one mentions that the character is a young girl, which reperesents innocence itself, where as the second one says the word, however wer thing it is too short and wouldnt mean much to the audience.

we also thaught of "innocence is captured, revenge is released"- this was good as it had rhythem to it, and could be easily remember by the audience, ewhich is what a slogen should do.   

There was also "innocence leaves and evil takes over", we didnt like this one as much as we thaught it was too blunt and didnt leave as many questions as previous ideas.  

We will ask the public which one they like best, so it isnt just our opinion and we can get different veiws on it.

Zone D Logo

Here is the logo we have created for our production company 'Zone D Productions'. It will feature at the beginning of all of the films we make including the opening 2 minutes of our thriller.

Voiceovers

Here is a video of us recording some of the voiceovers we are planning to use in our thriller. We used a microphone to talk into and also slowly sang 'Ring A Roses' as we felt that this song would go well with our thriller as it is an innocent song but we made it sound creepy by singing it slower.

For the actual voices heard in the thriller, we said things like 'We're going to the zoo today' 'Where's your teddy' and 'Happy Birthday Holly' which were meant to be memories of the little girls past life. We overlapped them all to make them sound creepier and as if she's getting surrounded and trapped in her past.

Costume

 Costume is very important in film as it sets the mood and time period. Certain colours are associated with thrillers such as red- that could represent blood, danger, strength and power. We knew that we would be filming in a red room ,therefore the white would stand out and the different meanings would group together.

For the thriller we had a young girl- itself representing innocence and purity, to emphasise this innocence and purity we decided to put her in a white dress. We found the dress in a store called 'select' (in the sale!) for £9. This dress worked well on the main character as she was younger and it had a young look to it, and wasn't too revealing. The colour white is know to show "light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity" which is all the aspects we wanted the audience to think about the character on screen.

A lot can be suggested from a costume like the characters personalities, what they might be like in the film, and their class status. A costume couldn't be too over the top or elaborate as it may take the focus away and be unbelievable to the audience. it will have to be expected to if not, there must be a reason why it is not the normal look.

This is the final look of our main character in the white dress:

Creating Our Blocks

We have decided to create the building blocks that we will show the title with. We asked Mr Jagger to cut us out some 6x6x6cm blocks out of wood. The blocks wil spell out or title 'Solemn'.

We asked Mr Jagger to cut us out 7 6x6x6cm wooden cubes to spell out our title'Solemn' with one practise block.

We then went into the Art Department and painted all of the blocks with white paint.

We then used the stencils that we had previously made to paint the letters spelling out 'Solemn'.

Here are the finsihed blocks. We will use this in the title sequence in the opening of our thriller.

Here we are in the Art Department painting the blocks for our thriller.

Props Mood Board

This is our props mood board that highlights all the props that we will be using throughout the thriller. These include:

Red contacts, photo frame, letter blocks, seat belt, car, teddy bear, and fake blood.

Props are used to enhance the thriller and could add different meanings to different plots. Some props could be the centre of a story line with the characters all involved with the prop, then the storyline developing from the prop. They could also be given significance and meaning while also representing something important to the story.

The props could hold symbolism in the thriller. The teddy bear that the main character holds will represent innocence and childhood. This is then tainted when the young girl turns evil and she is still holding the teddy bear, then it is seen in a negative light.

The red contacts are used to enhance and clearly show the audience that the girl is now haunted/evil. They will be shown at the end when the suspense has been built up, but then the introduction will end, this will then go on to raise questions, which will then be answered throughout the rest of the thriller.  

Poster Ideas

We began thinking of ideas for our poster so we knew what photos we needed to take for it. We wanted a poster that advertised what the film was about but didn't want to give too much away. We wanted to make the audience interested and raise questions so they would have to see the film to find out the answers.

In our first design we put bricks as the background as we thought this could create mystery however we felt that the brick background didn't relate to the story and was misleading. We also liked the idea of having the girl in the poster however we decided that if we were to have her in the poster then we would want the whole of her body and not just her face. We like the idea of using the blocks for the title as this relates to the opening of the thriller as they are used in the same way to spell out the title. We also liked the idea of putting a slogan at the top of the page as slogans are a good way of advertising.

Design #1

In our second design we thought about showing the family photo used in the opening of the thriller as this would raise questions. However we weren't sure if it related to the story enoguh as it's only in the thriller for one scene. We also weren't sure about the cracked glass in the photo frame as again, this doesn't happen in the thriller. We also liked the idea of having blood stains and fingerprints and would want to use this in the final psoter as it also creates mystery. We have also decided that we want to put small credits at the bottom to make sure it looks like a real, professional film poster.

Design #2

In our third design, we made sure the little girls whole body was in it as we wanted her to look isolated. We liked this idea as it relates to the film because she is alone and has been taken away from her family. However we felt that she should be even further away to show how isolated she really is. She is holding a teddy to show her innocence but it still raisies questions as to why she is alone. We liked the idea of using a dark background aswell as it will inform the audience that it is a thriller.

(Design #3

In our fourth design we used a red background as this represents danger. We liked this idea because it would also remind the audience of blood which we will be using in our thriller. We also liked the idea of using a teddy bear in the poster as it informs the audience that there is a young child in the film yet we don't know who or why. Although this creates mystery, we were unsure whether it told the audience enough and whether it raised enough questions for them to want to come and see the film.

Design #4

Here is our final design. We took elements from each poster but mainly focused on design #3 and the blocks from design #1. We intend to include some blood stains aswell to create some more mystery and inform the audience that it is a thriller. We will have a slogan at the top of the poster though we do not know what it will be yet. We plan on using a dark background with the little girl very far away to show that she is alone and vulnerable. The teddy and the building blocks will remind the audience that she is still a young girl. We also plan on having the girl wearing red contacts to show that she is possessed which will raise questions. This way the audience know what to expect from the film but do not know too much and will still have many questions.



Our Thriller Moodboard

This is a moodboard, made with pictures of ideas for our thriller. There is a picture of a girl with red eyes, this is for our main character- who turns evil. There is also a picture of an average family, where we had the ideas of the main character dissapearing from the photo. The pictures show the story and inspiration that we use for our thriller.

   

Title Of Our Thriller

Our final title for our thriller is: Solemn. We created a brainstorm which led to this idea. We decided that it couldn't be too long because we wanted it to be spelt using children's building blocks which related to our thriller. Therefore we decided it should be one word. After coming up with a few ideas we realised that most of our ideas for the title began with 'S' so we decided to stick with the 'S' sound for our thriller title.

Eventually we came up with the title 'Solemn'. This was chosen because Maisie used this word while recording our Storyboard and it wasn't what we rehearsed so we were slightly taken aback by the choice of words she used. We used a Dictionary and Thesaurus to check that the name was appropriate and that it meant what we thought it meant - 'serious, gloomy, sacred and grevely impressive'.

Thriller Storyboard