baska's thriller evaluation

Our thriller idea was very simple, it’d be 2 people having a conversation and between them would be table hence the ransom idea came to thought. I decided to be a body guard as this would be more conventional as Maria was a female boss. Dainai played the role of the person would needed to pay the ransom, she was a good actor and seemed like the fish out of water character. The theme was ‘triad’. very oriental and serious. It worked out as 2 of the members of the group was oriental. Taminah was the camera woman however we also tried experimenting with her in Dainai’s role; this didn’t work out so we stuck to the original lay out. Our practise film showed that Dainai was a better actress also her ethnicity didn’t really match the thriller genre. Dainai wasn’t experienced with a camera as well so these were very important factors. Maria dressed womanly and I in a black suit, conventional dress of triads. Dainai wore what ever she liked as she would be playing a civilian.


(rush hour 3) this is a similar scene to ours; dark , hidden, triads in suits, sat on a table
The subtitles in the video is Spanish because the movie was the Spanish version.

Next on the agenda was to find a setting, before we had found a empty classroom however we needed somewhere more dark and mysterious to provide a more tense mood. My friend owned a Chinese restaurant in Hackney so I found that we could use the basement which was perfect for many reasons. Firstly it was dark ( we took out a few of the light bulbs); the convention suited the genre; the props in the background was all boxes with Chinese writings on them. Lastly it was more private so we had all the time in the world to do our thriller. We set out the table and 2 chairs, then rearranged a few of the props in the background and there we had our setting, characters and plotline. (the layout of the chairs and table made it easier for us to keep to the 180 degree rule). It seemed simple enough till we found a few factors which we hadn’t thought of.

This misce on scene shows the basic layout however the sign on the right hand side is completely out of film, its not meant to be there as its for the classroom, amateur mistake however we took this into consideration next time we shot the film. Props in the background were moved or removed to fit the scene.

There wasn’t a lot to say in the script but the giggles came in every time Maria spoke in another language. Taminah had incorrectly angled the shots, there was too many shots in which we had experimented with and none that actually worked. For example there was a over the shoulder shot in which Dainai was portrayed from a high angle to make her look vunerable however there was too much space on the left side which showed the stairs compared to the right side which was nearly over-lapping Dainai, this was jus one of the mistakes. In the end we had a whole load of shots that didn’t look so great. After the not so great shooting we decided to go china town to make a few establishing shots to make it seem as if we were in the area even thought we was far from it; things like the people, decoration (luckily it was Chinese new year during the time we was shooting). In the end we had so many great shots for china town that most of the thriller was to build up the atmosphere and tension. We had so many great ideas and shots for the establishing shot which eventually took up most of the film and that we concentrated on very few but important shots for the basement scenes. This way we wouldn’t be wasting time shooting again and again in the restaurant.

The target audience of our film would be the same target audience of Jackie Chan films and gangster films as it fits those genres. 17- 23 year old males who are working class most likely blue collar. The violence and mystery would appeal more to them. This isn’t to say that Maria our leading actress wouldn’t attract females who are interested in gang business or basically being a leader, boss or powerful woman.

Triads mean Chinese mafia. They’re a group of people mainly Chinese men who have been around for centuries and they work in the underworld, rules to them don’t apply for normal people so its completely natural for ransoms to happen. Its business but at a more darker level. My character is the stereotypical view of a triad, tough oriental in a black suit. Triads sometimes have women in their gangs but those women are cold and strong what they lack in physical strength shows in their personality. Dainai is the non- oriental who gets into trouble with the triads and those are the representations which occur in our film.

The soundtrack was the next important objective. The beat needed to be Chinese or Japanese. We found a few beats and Dainai did an excellent job of mixing up the beats together to make something more unique, something that suited the actions and shots in the thriller.
We did the thriller twice, for many reasons. Firstly we realized that there wasn’t enough shots to edit with. Secondly the shots weren’t as good as we thought and lastly we knew that we could do so much better thus we went out and did it all over again. I wore a suit instead of a jacket, and Dainai changed jackets to look more womanly than commando. We smoothened out all the shots and made sure the angles were right; the acting was realistic and that we didn’t have any random camera shakes or blurs. Second time we did the thriller did it quicker and a lot more successfully.

We didn’t have much time to edit, however with the stress and anxiety we worked harder and more together than we had before. Like everybody else in media the last day on Friday was the only chance to finish it off. We knew we’d get it finished it was just the matter whether or not it’ll be good enough. In the end after all the work it looks brilliant, and came out better than we could’ve planned, because we did so many pilot thrillers there isn’t any room for improvement as we already discovered our flaws. We could’ve probably finished the whole thriller a lot more quickly but we decided to just take our time and make sure we didn’t do anything silly.
CHINESE RANSOM - http://www.thriller08group41.blogspot.com/

as Thriller Evaluation

Firstly ,I gained inspiration from watching thriller openings and found that many were based on stalking (eg ; man following unsuspecting victim) in an eerie-looking woodland/ dark night setting . Such as ‘What lies beneath’ and ‘Panic room’. So after some planning we decided that we should base our thriller on something that was in total contrast to what is expected. Our triad styled opening challenged forms of conventions in many ways. The storyline was as follows ; A young black girl gets caught up in a triad circle and subsequently owes money to the young female triad leader. She is brought to the hustle and bustle of China town and confronted in the basement of a dodgy Chinese restaurant .The young black girl (my character) is dressed in a navy blue Mac , casual attire, that allows the viewer to acknowledge that she is of lower status than the triad leader, who is dressed in a classy, chic , black Mac , fish net tights and heels (she has a somewhat a seductive hint to her look).Her body guard has a stern ,hard expression, and body posture/language and is also dressed in black . This is reflecting a scene in ‘rush hour’ when Chris tucker and Jackie Chan are confronted by the triads in a Chinese restaurant.

The location was chosen to be in China town. This was to create a different form of thriller. We homed in on bright red colours and had incorporated some shots of everyday people going about everyday errands. This was to create the sense of not knowing what to expect. The fast-paced editing combined with zoom shots, shot-reverse-shots ,low angel shots , panning and tracking shots ,created the tension that was needed . As Our media product was a triad storyline, we used an Asian dominated environment (China town) a Chinese restaurant and two Asian characters . The choice of location and establishing shot ,allows the viewer to see how Chinese people operate in their natural everyday environment.
In the basement scene, the portrayal of the two Asian characters is very much of crime and danger . Many components contribute to this ; Location , lighting and body language . The triads never sit down which show they are of high status.

If our opening was developed into a full-length film, I think that it has the potential to be a major film with correct casting and resources. But as it is , maybe smaller studios would take on this sort of film. This is due to the team that is behind our thriller and the experience needed to create a successful media product.

Our thriller attracts (or would attract) the viewer that enjoys a fast-paced thriller , probably around 16-25 year old males ,although it would appeal to women due to the main characters being female .Asian viewers may be the majority .But this media should appeal to everyone and when we had a preview of the media ,I found that people of all ages ,race ,religion ,race and creeds enjoyed watching it . And in fact, wanted it to continue .This is a strong point of our film and would definitely help in any effort to developing the film.

One thing that I observed when previewing this is that oriental viewers felt allegiance to the film ,which would also contributed to getting viewers to watch the media .Also unique points such as subtitles are very affective.

I have an overall positive view on the technologies involved in making this media product .I learnt how to create affective media , through quality editing. The apple Macs allow you to watch your editing .As you edit ,which is highly useful as you can watch your media product back. Also the fact that you can connect the cameras directly into the computer is good and help with logging and capturing . In contrast with the cameras ,I found it annoying to pre-focus the camera before auto-focusing as this could lead to out-focused shots if not done properly by the camera operant .I like very much that you could manipulate the sound from final cut pro (Mute etc…) which saves time , and the soundtrack software was excellent as it had categorised different sounds and make adding a soundtrack extremely easy.
Most importantly , I have learnt that when deciding to do a media product your team and planning are absolutely paramount . If the planning is not organised correctly you will not have a successful media product . Every one must follow their role within the project.

AS Thriller Evaluation

For our AS thriller, we chose to base our storyline around the concept of triad action thrillers. We have implied conventions of real media products such as existing films for example ‘Rush Hour’ and Too fast too furious’ to make our thriller believable, paying close attention to mise-en-scene, costumes, camera movement and body language. In the end, we decided to include all of the features into our opening to make it more convincing.
A variety of social groups is found in our product, giving that it is an Asian triad thriller; we decided to use oriental actors (Myself and Baska) alongside another actress of a different race. This adds variety to target audiences because the thriller intends to be distributed in the United Kingdom, which is a multicultural country with many different races, therefore when they watch it, they feel included. We show that I have more status over Baska since he is the bodyguard and he follows me, also because of the body language and actions, for example I hand him my gloves, suggesting that I have control over him. Dainii was also conveying lower status because she was sitting down on the table, plus she obeyed when I silenced her. The location, Chinatown also represents the oriental social group, since it was where many oriental people go, plus the setting was in the basement of a Chinese restaurant. Since the idea revolves around triads, we opted for an all black costume for me and Baska to represent that we are from a different social group.
It is difficult to decide for certain which media institution we will distribute our product because it can fit into all fields, including major film studio, smaller studios, independent or online distributions. However, if we had to concentrate on one in particular, it would be most successful to distribute our product into the smaller independent studios since it doesn’t take a large budget to produce the film. Consequently, since it would be distributed from an independent studio, the result may not be as successful, this is because the smaller budget equals less publicity and distribution, meaning less people would know about the film and go to see it.
The target audience for this product varies from teenagers and above (15+) since it is an action thriller it contains content which a younger audience may not understand. It will be mainly focused on males however a minority of females may also enjoy. There is no particular target economic background this film is aimed at however the cultural background is targeted at oriental/black people. This is because stereotypically, oriental people are referred to as triads, hence black people associated with gangs and crime, therefore the public can related to these stereotypes.
To attract this target audience, we would use some modern day ‘slang’ language to familiarise the younger audiences however keep certain standard English for the triad gang leaders to show status. We also implied speaking in Vietnamese to show culture, therefore those who can understand the language can relate to the character and feel more involved. It also gives the film a bit more originality and flavour, therefore making it more interesting to watch. The storyline also attracts the audience since it involves a lot of gangs, drugs cars and money which many males would be interested in watching, these elements are associated with them because they are stereotypically more interested in crime and ‘hardcore’ material. It also gives them a release from reality and get them involved in the movie.
Throughout the process of filming and editing the media product, I have learnt many things such as different camera shots, setting up the camera equipment as well as editing video clips on the computer, using programs like Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack on the Apple Mac. From the beginning, I have progressed in my editing and filming skills, I have now learnt to successfully edit and put together video clips, as well as how to film and edit match shots.

AS THRILLER EVALUATION

SOME SHOTS FROM OUR FINAL THRILLER!!


This is an establishing shot of the setting we used for the location of the restuarant in the film

this was an establishing shot of a restaurant(the one which the basement was made to look like it was in)

A long shot of maria walking down the stairs with a silouhette type of look.

A behind the back shot, to show what the current location is like. also the colour here gives it a good effect.

A match shot where the victim has a blindfold over her but we put the blindfold on the camera to show it was from her point of view. then match shotting it to when the blindfold was taken off.

AN over the shoulder shot so the other person face can be seen.

A medium close up, to show some close features of the persons face.

For our AS thriller, we choose to base the theme around the concept of an oriental triad film. We used real media convections, films which inspired us to think of an idea like this were like “rush hour” and “ the too fast too furious” films like this gave us a better insight of what we could include in our own mini thriller. Whilst having a close eye on mise-en-scene, camera work, props, shot types and the genre. To make the thriller look more convincing we used costume to give it a feeling that hierarchy was involved. For instance Maria was dressed in a sophisticated long black coat tights and heels. She also wore a pair of sunglasses to give her a sheik touch n elegance. Baska was her body guard in the thriller so he was dressed in a full black suit. Whilst Dainii was dressed casually but not to informal to show that the other class of status involved was not so lower class. As the thriller was based on money. We also payed very close attention to mise-en-scene everything which was in the shot of the camera. We even used props such as boxes with Chinese writing over them to give people watching the certainty that it was definitely a triad based film. I was in charge of the camera work so it was crucial that the movement of the camera was held steady at all times whilst on and off the tri-pod. If the camera moved just a little then on a big screen it would be very obvious so the camera movement was done very steadily at a slow n not so rushed pace.
There was a mix of social groups used in our final product. As we were making a triad film, we chose to use oriental actors such as Baska and Maria as the lead gang so it would be much more believable to the viewers. Alongside that we also used an actress of a different race, (Dainii). Through this we are also able to show the different statuses involved. For instance in the film we see that Maria is in control of practically everything she shows that she is of more status than Baska as he is always following her around and taking her orders as he is shown as her body guard. Dainii sitting down and Maria standing up was also a sign of status to show that Maria was higher than her in society, also when Dainii wants to speak Maria tends to silence her and stops her from saying her part. The location also plays a part in social groups since it was set in the basement of a Chinese restaurant where many oriental people go. Also to portray the oriental triad style we filmed the opening shots in china town to give that extra oriental feel to the film.
It is difficult to decide what kind of media institution we may distribute our film to because it can fit into all categories, including major film studio, smaller studios, independent or online distribution. However if we had to choose I think we’d most likely distribute our film to the smaller independent studios as it doesn’t take a large budget to distribute the film.
The target audience for our media product varies from a range of teenager from the age of (15+) because the film is an action thriller it may have contents which a younger audience may not understand. This film may attract mainly to males rather than females however some females may also be interested as it shows that the female in this film has a lot of authority than the others. The film is not specifically targeted at any economic background however it could be said that it is targeted more at the ethnic/cultural backgrounds e.g chinese/black people. The reason why this film may appeal more to the orietal viewers may be because the choice of language used/spoken by the lead actress(maria) was chinese we chose to do this so it gives the film an edgey touch plus to create more suspense and tension. However we also thought about the other range of people who may not be chinese watchin so we added subtitles which gave the film a more professional look aswell.
To attract the more modernized younger generation we used “slang” in our video however we chose to stay in between certain boundaries and not go to over the top. Standard english was also used by the triad members to show the difference in status. The storyline also attracts the audience since it involves a lot of gangs, drugs cars and money which many males would be interested in watching and would make good sales in the filming industry and something that may get many hits like the recently mentioned films “rush hour” and “the too fast too furious” which also involve these kinds of action. The title we chose to use for the film was “Chinese ransom” this basically outlines a little and gives the audience a taste of what the films contents involve. Using a title like this can catch the buyers/audience’s eyes, and it is quite catchy and appealing and makes them wonder what or who has exactly been held at ransom. Using the word “Chinese” will definitely catch the people from oriental cultures sight straight away and this may want them to watch the film as soon as the title has been heard or seen.
Throughout this process I have learnt how to use a camera properly and all of its functions, also how to handle the camera in great care and how to set the equipment up. From using the camera I learnt a lot of different camera shot types and angles. Also the way in which we used the apple Mac computers for editing clips and shots for our film. I learnt how to add subtitles into our clips where they were needed and also how to add and remove sounds we wanted and didn’t want. The main editing throughout the process was done on final cut pro this is where the final film was edited and made. To gather the sounds we wanted to use we used the software on the Mac which already had all the different types of sounds suitable for any genre. From this software we chose to go to the Chinese/oriental section where we selected many different sound types which were suitable for our film in the end we decided the main ones which were definitely going to be used.
Since the start of the year I have progressed on my skills on editing and filming, how to use the camera, edit and film shots from different views and angles. I have now successfully learnt how to edit and put together video clips as well as filming and editing match shots.

Final Thriller: Process and Evaluation

February 4th 2009

In class today, we basically planned out the storyline and the different types of camera shots that will occur at different times. We also planned the costumes, me as the gangleader all dressed in black with black heels and sunglasses to portray the sexy look, aswell as Baska in a smart black suit and tie to convey the idea of a bodyguard. Dainii volunteered to be the victim, therefore she would be dressed in ordinary clothes. We discussed various locations for our thriller, the locations suggested were Southbank, City and Islington College and a restaurant basement which Baska knew the owner. Since the restaurant had certain oriental vibe to it, we decided to set up our shots based on the setting, working from the photographs Baska had taken of the place. We then decided to start filming in the next 3 hour media lesson which was on February 6th.

February 6th 2009

The first day of filming. We made our way from City and Islington College after lunch at 1.15, towards Bethnal Green were the restaurant was at. Once we got to the location, we set up the camera, starting with the shots of me and Baska walking down the stairs. In addition to the shots we have planned beforehand, we also experimented with different angles just in case they turned out more sucessful than the ones we have on the storyboard. We managed to finish filming the full scene where i address Dainii, however at certain times we needed to be more focused and stop laughing. In that scene, we also played around with the roles when I found it difficult to concentrate, therefore Dainii switched roles with Tahmina (who was working the camera).

February 10th 2009

In this lesson we focused on looking through the footage we filmed last week to see if there were any improvements we can make the next time we filmed. By looking through the footage, we noticed cetain shots were badly lit, shaky and out of focus. However many shots were useable therefore we decided to log and capture them. We managed to finish logging and capturing before the lesson ended so we decided to go to Chinatown, West End to film extra footage to set the portray the mise-en-scene. Whilst in Chinatown we filmed a variety of different scnese such as the market stalls and lanterns.


February 13th 2009

The second day of filming however since it was on a inset day we all had to meet up at 11 outside College. Me and Dainii were late which emeant less filming time aswell as Tahmina having to leave early. In this filming session we decided to film the whole scene over again however this time more focused than last time. It was sucessful and we finished on time apart from the fact that we never had the chance to film the close ups in the beginning of me stepping out off the car and entering the restaurant, nonetheless we can use the footage from Chinatown.

February 16th 2009

During half term, the college let us come in on one day to edit our thrillers, since Tahmina and Baska couldn't come, me and Dainii had to edit the film. However we only mand to log and capture the footage, this was because the equiptment had a few difficulties in recognising the iMac.

Febuary 24th 2009

In this lesson, we focused mainly on editing the clips into the opening. Keeping in mind the ideaof continuity and match shots, we sucessfully edited the first half of the thriller in the 1 1/2 hour lesson, however the next lesson was the deadline. Because we have limited time, we couldn't film the extra footage of me stepping out of the car, as a result had to edit the footage from Chinatown and footage from the restaurant to make it look like they were happening in the same place. Since we didnt have enough time, myself and Dainii had to sacrafice our own free time after college to finish editing the opening.

February 27th 2009

Thriller Deadline. We had a 3 hour lesson in which we managed to get alot done. Firstly we edited the video clip, then searched for suitable music to edit into our soundtrack.

2nd practice before main thriller

For our second practicee(12/12/08).....we were given the task of shooting a small two minute trailor to gain ideas of how to use the camera and to learn a whole variety of shots. the theme we chose to use for our film was a triad theme using oriental characters.

For this practice we were given a rule which was to stay in focus of a 180 degrees area. If we stepped out of this rule then we would lose marks. unfortunately my group,me,maria,dainii and baska, actually did break the 180 degrees rule. However we did had a lot of very good shots,which ranged from medium close ups,close ups,medium long shots,traking and also panning. we also zoomed so we could see the actresses(maria and dainii)expressions which would create more tension and used a cctv affect awsell. we wer told before doing this task that when zooming in we should use the manual focus button.

This trailor was where we got our original idea for our main thriller. We seemed very confident with what we had produced the first time but for the main thing we decided that we would add some extra shots and chose to film in a more themed place which would suit our story line.In this thriller we filmed it inside the college downstairs so we were not disturbed whilst filming.

We managed to film this mini thriller in about 2.00 hours max, even then we were very happy with the end out come. after filming the following tuesday (16/12/08) we began to edit our shots and began to put them together bit by bit to make the final piece. This task was given to us a taste of what we should do and not do for our final thriller. through this 2nd practice we made a few minor mistakes but this was good as we learn from them.

When we were editing we also learnt alot of different techniques which we'd not used before, this was when using the Mac computers, we learnt how to edit,cut and merge scence together also we learnt how to add scenes such as cctv clips, to give the film a more suspenseful feeling.
The film did not get edited to the extent we may have wanted it to,however how we left it was fine.

the new thriller

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