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

I feel our Ruby, our final thrill, is a huge improvement from our prelim. There are several ways this is seen:

Camerawork!

I am very proud of the camerawork in the Ruby! I feel the framing, focus, angles and shot types where filmed good, and where appropriate for the slick, clean feel we where hoping for in our film. Compared to the badly framed shot of our prelim.

Mise en scene!

The location where we filmed our prelim, our college! was completely inappropriate for the scene. You can clearly see school chairs, notices and posters in the background, which didn't really add to the serious storyline! Ruby however was much more appropriate, we decided to use my room, as it could seem quite grown up. The glass on my cabinets added to the glossy feel we wanted and we took down my posters to make it seem less teenage. It really work well, and could convincingly be Ruby's room.
The costume was also giving more consideration in Ruby. we went from casual everyday clothes in our prelim that didn't fit in with the genera, to a smart sophisticated look in Ruby that completely fits in. Our audience feedback commented positively on the customs of the characters in Ruby so i was really pleased to hear that















Editing!

Yet again this has also improved. It is clear we have thought more about how the clips are gonna fit together, so they can edit together more nicely. The editing is much more fluent, and the continuity is good. Below is an example of where we have improved, as you can see, the prelim shots look like there put together ruffly, where as the Ruby shots are fluent:

Organisation and communication skills!

Over the whole project we developed our communication skills, regularly calling each other, meeting up outside of college and during workshops to work on our thriller. This made the project much easier and fun as we weren't stressing about where people where, or whats happening, like when we did our prelim where we didn't even have each others phone number. We have also become much more oragnised, like i said comunicating with each other, setting dates for filming, planing for the filming. Such as booking the equipment and making sure we bring the right props by using equipment list etc.

Audience feedback

After our film was screened in a local cinema , Screen On The Green, i decided to capture the reaction of the audience to our film, here what our peers feedback:

This feedback is very interesting and we seem to have got a really good response. As it is our peers who are ages 16 - 18, they are not really our target audience, however they are all media student who are educated in different camera/ editing skills so it was interesting to hear what they said :)

I also asked some of my teachers. And screened it to my family. They are more of the target audience we where aiming for. Here's some feedback we got:

"Amazing, something I'd defiantly watch at cinema!"

"The camerawork is really effective, really nicely framed and edited, the music works but could be improved, as it is quite repetitive"

"I love all idea of the film, a hot female assain, would love to see the rest of the film, however the music is quite stereotypical and could benefit from being more edgy"

"Really memorable, the music, titles, camera shots are all great, the only criticism is that is seem quite long, maybe some shots could have been cut out"

Question 7

This is a animation of the technologies used four thriller opening. We have learned alot though out this prject and this is a short showcase of what we have done. Enjoy :)

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Above is another media students work. I found their work on YouTube, where they hand received over 20,000 views, since they uploaded it in 2009. This shows how even low budget student films can be seen by thousands due to moden technology, such as YouTube and social networks.

We have taken full advantage of this and also used loads of different places for our thriller. Including:

Blogger:

YouTube:

Vimeo:

Facebook:

Our thriller is a low budget, independent film that was relised on sites i mentioned. It will get a cinematic screening and shared screening amongst our peers, and family. It will also get a DVD release of 200 copies.

Who would be the audience for your media product

Geoffrey, 29, aspirers to work in marketing, currently works at Apple, loves going to the cinema, shops at Abercombie & Fitch.

How does your media product represent particular social groups

We very much based the look of 'Ruby' to Uma Thruman in Pulp fiction. Short black hair with fringe. Red lipstick. White shirt. Black pencil skirt.










'Women 2' the other character who's not in it for long was based on the look of the main character of The Girlfriend experience. Black dress. Black shades. Hair up. And the red lipstick again.

In What Ways does your media Product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our title sequence is pretty conventional. We based the time placement of titles on the opening of The shinning, with the production company, the director, title, followed by the actors names, and all the other people such a costume & music. Each of our title is on the screen for 3-4 seconds as for part of research in to openings, I found that most titles are on screen for 3-4 seconds, for example in Reservoir Dogs and Lock Stock, this is the case.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

 

This is Sifan evaluating the strengths of our thriller and the weaknesses.

 

This is Karen evaluating the strengths and weaknessess of our thriller sequence

This is Alisha evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of our thriller sequence

Final

This is our final piece. I feel absolutely proud of our work. i felt that we gave our all and the final result is more than what i expected. i am please to say this is our final result of our thriller film "RUBY"

Finished :D

Final Titles

Here is what our final titles look like:

We chose this font as it had the simplicity we where after. Using a serif font, it looks professional and sophisticated, and also I feel it looks more feminine.. all three are aspects that represent the character of 'Ruby'. All the titles are in white, as they stand out on the many black backgrounds on the scenes. Apart from the films name, we felt that Ruby had to be written in red! it just made sense. No dramatic or eye-catching effects where used, instead we opted for each titles to simply fade in and out. This was very common in the openings I looked at. These were opening, where there was more of a focus on the shots and action rather then the titles. We also wanted the the same focus and feel these titles do that, they stand out and are clear enough to read.. but do not take away the main focus on the action.

Editing finale sound

We had a rough sound, we created a few days ago, but like I mentioned then we felt like it still weren't write. As the deadline was so soon, and we still had so much to do! We decided to spilt up, I was adding the title, while Caroline edited the sound. I thick what she came up with works really well :)

Hear are some screen shots she tock while editing:

 We kept the Orchestral String Section 07 as it had the unnerving beat that we liked. However we added Designer Synth 07 and Orchestral String Section 28. The Synth kept the claim steady pace through out the sequence. While the added Strings was there to add another unnerving sound along with the String 07.

 We then imported the sound to Finale Cut, where we where more able to adjust the volume of each sound so that it fitted in with the right scenes. 

Outcome Of Re-filmed Scene

Here's a pic of the new walking scene:

Old:                                                      New:

I think it was really worth re-filming. The mise-en-scene matches up a lot more. And the new angel just makes it look much better :)

Re-filming Scene

Text: Final Cut Pro

After trying Livetype, we were advised by our teacher Donna to use Final Cut Pro to do our titles. She agreed that putting extravagant effects on our title, would not add to the films and said that we would be better just using Finale Cut. Here is a clip we recorded when creating the titles:

I think these plain title look perfect for our film. As my research show most of the thrillers we were inspired by had quite plain fonts.

Text: Livetype

Although we had a lesson on Livetype at the beginning of our project, I, and the rest of my group was still not confident in using it. Below is a recording we done while trying different effects on our text. However we could not find one we felt would suit our Thriller. I feel our title should be quite plain with little effects, although this sounds quite boring, I just feel it will fit in with the sharp, static shots in our Thriller.

Editing Sound

I found, finding the sound to our Thriller the most difficult part of the whole experience so far! There are so many clips on soundtrack we just didn't know where to start. We didn't really want to use the typical jumpy violin sound that has been used so many times.. not that there's anything wrong it. We just felt it would not fit in with our film. Instead our film is very slow paced. So we had to create a sound that fitted in with the slow pace, but still with an edgy sound, to show that not everything 'normal' and that the film it is a thriller!

We choose 'Orchestral String Section 73' as it is a slow clam sound that we made quieter so its more of a background repetitive sound that keeps the slow pace through out the film. We then added in 'Acoustic Double Bass Groove 12' as its more strong and dramatic, so adds the 'thriller' part to the music, establishing that not everything is 'normal'. We also added a third sound which comes in later then the rest. We matched it up with the film to the part when she puts on the wig. This will make a statement, when you can hear a change in the music, and will hopefully have a attention grabbing effect to the audience.

This is what our finished sound looks like. However I still feel it is unfinished. As it was our first attempted I feel we could come up with a better suited sound. Or maybe improve this one.

Inspirational Songs

I am such a massive fan of Quentin Tarantion! Watching his films over and over again.. I have found he always picks amazing songs, that fit his films perfectly! From the fast, edgy, 'misirlou' in Pulp Fiction, to the soulful sound of Bobby Womack in Jackie Brown, the songs he chosses really capture our emotions creating the mood for the rest of the film. Here is one of many example of why i love Tarantion : (the song starts at 07:35)



The 'cool' yet sinister sound, completely fits in with the bunch of suited and dangerous men walking confidently on the road, with the added effect of slow motion. Its a real memorable opening.. in fact the first thing I think about with Reservoir Dogs, is this song!


When Thinking of our thriller, I can imagine a slow paced sinister sound. To fit in with the slow pace of editing and the unnerving false identity plot. I found this song by The XX that i thick would be great for our thriller! :



Although were not allowed to use already made songs, I thick if we could create a sound similar to this, it would really add to the thriller. However as me, and my group, are not confident on using Soundtrack Pro, we shall see if this is at all possible!

Name Change

You might have noticed that we changed the name of our Thriller to Ruby :)

We originally used the name 'Alisha' but that was just a working title. To be honest we couldn't think for one, so used a name very similar to the name of one of the girls in my group.... so imaginative!

But after watching back the ruff cut, and with help from our teacher Mary, we decide on 'Ruby'. I feel it is a perfect name. Its fits in with all the red connotations featured in our films e.g. the red lip stick, red nails, red wine, red passports etc. And also I thick it sound like a 'false' name, like one the character could have given herself.

So yeah Ruby it is!

Evaluation Of Ruff Cut