Delirium - Final AS Media Product

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

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

EVALUATION 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

EVALUATION 3: What kinda of media insitution might distribute your media product and why?

EVALUATION 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

MALES

Michael Ridgewell in our thriller opening is a protagonist; an every day, normal character who reinforces the male stereotype of the heroic male. Most stories and thrillers in society have shown males to be the hero; from when we were younger in fairy tales such as Snow White to more current films such as I Am Legend starring Will Smith, who plays Robert Neville, the hero, the man who risks his own life to save a lady and a child. This is the stereotypical male leader, showing that he's the stronger sex. Like in most typical thriller/horror films the man is usually the protector.

I compare Michael to the character Robert because even though the story lines of these thrillers are completely different these characters are alike in the sense that they both dress very casual, like every day, normal people. They are both protecting something; in Delirium Michael is protecting Sarah which is why he goes off to find out what the strange noise is whereas Robert is protecting a life saving formula in blood and saving a female and her child. The storylines are completely different but the characters in itself are similar.

FEMALES

 

AGE

In most thrillers the hero tends to be an older male although in ours that is not the case; this is because we didn't have older people available to film for it. Our thriller is made up of actors that are teenagers. Rather than represent the stereotypes of teenages we decided to oppose it. The media represents teenagers to be rough and they are not usually represented as heros however our male lead went out to protect his girlfriend. Our thriller aim to show the vaunrability of teenagers and shows them to be more caring of each other. One of the stereotypes we decided to use was that teenagers are rather careless. Our characters went to investigate an abandoned building which is outside of the public eye. Doing this meant that they were risking their safty by going somewhere where they could not be protected. They age of our killer is unknown. We decided to keep this as it helps to build mystery in our thriller however he is also from the teenage age group even though the audience don't know this.

EVALUATION 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?

After long discussion and research we finally created an idea for our project which led to our final thriller opening. We came up with different ideas and genres for example, a psychological thriller, an action thriller and a horror. We chose a psychological thriller, the final outcome is called Delirium.

Title of our thriller: After looking through the codes and conventions of thriller titles we found that short, mysterious titles were the most effective and this is how we got the idea of 'Delirium'. It works with the conventions of the thriller because its in an odd font although we were limited of choice of font. It is also red which signifies blood and the black is darkness which is creepy. It is challenging to find the right font that looks professional and dangerous at the same time because we had a limited selection. When editing a lot of fonts were experimented with but this one seemed to look the most effective. Defined, Delirium means "a temporary state of mental confusion" which fits our idea perfectly.

Settling and location: Our location is an abandoned bomb site in the fields in Shenfield. We filmed in a house that had previously been bombed and abandoned. We made a few questionnaires and sent them around to see what locations would be best suited. Thanks to the questionnaires and looking at the codes and conventions we managed to find a suitable location which we completed a risk assessment on to make sure it was safe to film there. We wanted the location to be different/remote; somewhere quiet that we won't be disturbed. The idea of the thriller is that its a couple going on a walk, they don't expect to see anyone else which adds to the terror when the antagonist appears.

Costume and props: For costumes and props we decided to keep natural/casual clothing however we used a variety of props to make our thriller look better. To fit the conventions of our thriller we had to create the illusion that this could be possible, the more relatable to life and the target audience better. People seem to be more afraid of what could be perceived in reality/in their own lives; as these are our protagonists they are just everyday, normal people. Mentioned in one of our first blog posts of codes and conventions of a thriller that the protagonists have to be just like everyday normal people; most likely middle class people.

Props: We went to a fancy dress shop called Props and Frocks in South Woodham and bought some fake blood and latex. We also found face paints in The Factory Shop; Basildon and black paint from Asda; Basildon. These fit the conventions of a thriller as our antagonist is a villain and has to look mysterious and unusual; this is portrayed through the strange black areas on his face and the ripped skin (shown by the latex). It makes the audience ask the questions, "what is it?" and "why is it there?" and "where is the blood from?" making the situation more mysterious. The blood on Sarah's face adds to the terror of the situation; we then ask the question; "what happened?" and makes the audience feel sympathy for this innocent victim.

Editing and Camerawork: For this area of the thriller it needed to be edited to show the distance passing, if we had filmed the whole thing and not edited it, it would be a waste of time and wouldn't have shown any editing skills; the fades were added to make the change in distance clearer and not jumpy. The fades used within the thriller were effective because it made it more mysterious and added to the creepy tension we were trying to create. The font here is very clear here because in the credits we want people to be able to read it; its a plain font making it look more professional. We first introduce two characters, a male and female; a couple; all we know is they're having a walk, that's all we know so far, no personal information is revealed throughout the beginning except for a name. We had an over the shoulder shot of Sarah looking around the wall because it was a key moment, the first appearance of our antagonist adding to the tension we tried to create in this moment. I think you create the question "what is round the corner?" because the last time we saw out there (when Michael jumped off the side wall) was nothing so its almost as if to say, what is over her shoulder and round the corner? Why make this such a key shot?.

How the rest of the film is set up: This is a picture of the first sighting of the villain, where he is introduced to us, no one knows who he is or why he's there. The story is set up by the thriller because in the opening the audience is meant to ask the questions as to what's going on in the scene and who are the characters, why are they there, etc. In the opening all we know is what we see; there is a couple going for a walk, they go through the woods into an old bombed, abandoned building where they hear a strange noise and the male heroically goes off to find out what it is reinforcing the stereotype as men being the protector, the stronger gender; while the female waits scared for his return. As he doesn't come back she searches for him, see's the peculiar, unusual man in the woods and gets scared and ends up screaming with fright as he attacks her. This emphasises that within the thriller the female is the weaker, more vulnerable sex which fits the our thriller.

 

If we were to carry on making the rest of the film we would see that the opening would be a flashback moment and the twist would be revealed that actually Sarah wasn't thinking straight and it was a dreadful nightmare that she was having. After this scene where she wakes up and searches for Michael; when she can't find him she would run through the fields to escape and get to the main road yelling for help. It would then be shown that she is having a nightmare and she'd wake up. The rest of the film would be explaining to her that it never happened when she knows herself it did and she, trying to prove herself goes to the scene of the incident looking for evidence. One day she would see him again and she'd again try to prove this; a psychotherapist would give reasons for this until one day its all shown to be real and the villain was playing mind games.

Editing

Sound

Due to copyright we had to find alternative music. We browsed the web and looked through youtube and it proved hard to find decent music that wasn't copyright protected. In the end we got our music from the sites below:

freeplaymusic.com - rest of the music and soundtrack. - A level student James Hodges recommended using this website as he'd used it when he was doing this AS video last year.

Sounddogs.com - for the sound effect of Alex slashing Sarah with the knife.

Poster Analysis

Weather Problems!

We were set to film on the 26th March but due to the fact it is snowing we had to cancel. It would seem that weather is not on our side. We can't film because of continuity; if our surroundings are completely different as in it starts plain but then its snowing the audience would be confused. So we have to wait for a date to reschedule a day to film once the snow has melted.

Shooting schedule

Day 1

2 o'clock arrived at the location
walk through muddy films
2.30 arrived at the filming location
had a quick look around and made the area more accessible. Also did another risks assesment and made each other aware of the potential helth hazards.
2.45 Kieron and Michael arrived and we started filming our opening shots
-filmed a long shot of the two main characters walking up to the house
-filmed the walk into the house/bushes
-experimented with differnt camera angle
-match on action shot
-hand-held video footage

Day 2

9 o'clock arrive at location
start filming for second half/scene
-paint location and use special effects
-film

Twitter exclusive!

Ok guys so our filming starts tomorrow! For exclusive behind the scenes clips and a video diary follow us on twitter! @themediakids

A plot

The Official Location

Potential Props

DOG - The dog senses danger and starts barking.

FAKE BLOOD - It will be on her hands and splattered on her face showing that she's become barbaric and possessed.

PAINT & STENCILS - On the walls for the satanic, devil symbols.

PICNIC - Couple have a romantic meal.

CANDLES - Laid out on the floor and around the walls for romantic effect.

FLOWER PETALS - For romantic ambiance.

FOG MACHINES - To create a mysterious and creepy atmosphere.

FACE PAINT - For the silhoutte.

UMBRELLAS - In case of rain to protect equipment.

TRIPOD - For a better filming quality, no shake.

CAMERAS - Take pictures while we're filming (camera phone). To film the actual production.

These are combined for two plots so some of these may not be necessary on the day of filming,

Make-up

After the girl (Louise) is on the floor, she will wake up with satanic symbols on her face and arms.

 

This idea was created from an episode of doctor who where there is a beast with strange symbols on his face acting like the devil.

Tweet Tweet!

We're now part of the twitter hype so feel free to follow us to get more updates on our thriller production!

@themediakids

We decided to create a Twitter account as an extra blog medium to connect with followers who are interested in our blog and our thriller production. As an exclusive we will be 'tweeting' behind the scenes videos from location hunting and filming and we are also hoping to include a trailer to our thriller and even a bloopers video as well as posting news and the latest information on our progress. Our aim is to connect with people on a more personal level and to hopefully create a "buzz" about our up coming thriller!

The Process of Production

Pre-Production

 

Upon being given the preliminary task, we formed our group and began brainstorming for ideas. Initially we didn’t digress from the typical idea of simply walking in to a room, spewing a few lines of conversation and leaving it at that. We then had the idea of having a conversation through a wall, but that was disregarded when one member jokingly mentioned doing an “Inception-esque” approach of having a “prelim within a prelim”. We then build upon that; fleshed it out somewhat through discussion and producing a script shortly thereafter. An issue arose when we wrote the script, because some of the ideas we had had previously were lost as they weren’t noted immediately after. This made our end-result somewhat less exciting as we’d hoped.

 

There were also a lot of changes and omissions following the drafting of the script, and as such it became somewhat confusing. This wasn’t a major concern however. 

 

Before filming, we produced a storyboard, and whilst it was vague it did give us a rough idea of what we wanted to achieve. Our storyboard and final product do differ, however, as we found that sticking to the storyboard to strictly was unwise, and more creativity was found within the production of the prelim than was found in pre-production.

 

We also watched some example videos from previous years; some good, some bad. From these we learned that even if your ‘story’ idea is awful, you don’t lose marks, something that can be applied to the main thriller task. We noted that editing is the most important thing. Keeping continuity and varying shots mad even the most awful prelims bearable, and in doing so also achieves more marks. There were multiple instances of students who hadn’t got the editing right when opening a door and entering a room, which really does throw the viewer off.  We’ll use this information in the main task, and focus more on getting the right shots and editing it correctly than we will story writing. 

 

We also spoke to year 13 media students that had completed the task the previous year and obtained advice from them. They told us things like “be inventive” and to be prepared to “take criticism”. They made it clear that the prelim would likely not be very good, but also that it would benefit us as it would highlight areas that we need to work and improve on for the thriller. They also gave the advice of not following storyboards too quickly, something that we took in to account and used during our preliminary task. Their biggest piece of advice, however, was to use common sense. Things like framing and composition were necessary and often at the front of our minds, but things such as battery life and memory space weren’t. They made it clear that we’d need to pay attention to little things such as these as if overlooked they could ruin an entire days shooting. We kept all of this in mind when it came to shooting our prelim, however none if it became an issue and filming went relatively smoothly in the end. However, their advice won’t be lost once it comes to planning, filming and editing our main task.

Sean Cleary

Production

As we did not have much time to create the prelim we did not put much time into working out what problems we would encounter, because of this we did have to overcome a few problems that we ran into when filming. Of course none of us are amazing actors and we don’t have much of a background in creating ‘short films’ therefore none of us were prepared. Some of the issues we ran into we just small things like people moving out of the frame. Also the fact that we were using a camera phone really affected the outcome of our video but really it was all just a matter of controlling our immaturity!

Because none of us really took the filming seriously we were all joking around and laughing. This meant that rather than taking 3 to 4 scene takes, we ending up having to take millions! Even still we did not take enough decent footage to create an impressive prelim video. However the issues we faced during the filming and editing eventually will only help to make our thriller opening a strong production. We will concentrate more on making sure we are not looking into the camera and that we remain in the centre of the shot and will remain focused. We will also be more aware of our surroundings to make the clip as authentic as possible. This will involve cutting out any background noise that is non-digetic and checking around to make sure our surrounding corresponds with our thriller. For example if we decide to film something based in the 1800’s we will have to make sure we don’t leave anything that would we out of era. When we moved the filming into the common room we also had the problem of background noise. Although background noise can help create the atmosphere and we will definitely look into using such a technique in our thriller, the noise we encountered actually drowned out the dialogue in our prelim. Even though our prelim was not the most fantastic video, we now have a good idea of the direction we will take towards creating our thriller. If we had to re make our prelim and do the whole thing again we would definitely take certain problems we encountered on board to make sure we give our prelim a more professional look. We would also give ourselves more time to plan which would then allow us to come up with a more interesting storyline and also a better production all together we would also get hold of a better camera. During the editing we would allow more time to sort out any mistakes which in turn could allow us to re film any scenes that we were not happy with. After watching other people's prelims we decided that adding music helped create a better atmosphere in the clip and if we had to do ours again we would most definitely add some music.

Our prelim was rushed however as a group we are all happy with the outcome we managed to produce however our prelim won't be able to hold a candle to our thriller clip when it is made.

Louise Cormack

Post production

The biggest issue I had for editing involved technology; as we recorded the clips off of a phone it was hard to transfer them on to another device. Originally, we were going to send them to Sean but problems came up and we couldn’t send them, we it but it didn’t work until the night before the deadline. It took a good hour for most of the clips to download on to my laptop. Once they had finished downloading and then put on to Windows Live Movie Maker I found that they were an unsupported format therefore couldn’t play. I then transferred the clips on to my brother’s laptop which was an updated version of the Windows software; everything ran smoothly once I’d figured out how to actually use Movie Maker. This is very important as we don’t want another technological disaster when we need to edit our thriller opening; we should make sure we know exactly how to use our technology, that the formats are all the same and that we know how to transfer all footage in the first place so that we spend less time fixing and more time editing.

Problems during the editing were clarity of videos and movement with the camera because they were filmed on a phone and we didn’t use equipment such as a tripod. Another problem with using a phone is that the sound quality was not great, we filmed in class rooms during lesson time to ensure that we wouldn’t have background noise but our last scene was filmed in our school common room and there was a lot of loud background noise from people talking and you can’t keep continuity on that because you can’t get everyone to repeat what they say for every take. I think this is valuable information to carry to the thriller because you need to be aware of your surroundings and all the potential noise in the background because it has the potential to spoil the clip. For example, if you’re filming near a road or near houses you don’t want people talking in the background or a car beeping and realising too late and having to go back and film another day. This is a hassle because you would have to have all the conditions the same (e.g. the weather, setting of props, costume, layout, etc.) for continuity.

There was a problem with continuity with dialogue and movement, for example, in one shot Sean brushes his hair back and speaks and then we film another angle and he does the same thing although his dialogue and movement weren’t the same. It was really difficult to match these, I spent minutes clicking seconds to cut forwards and then backwards in the clip in order for it too match up. This is important because we can’t break continuity, if one moment you’re walking forward in a clip with your left leg from another angle it can’t be your right leg; it will make the thriller seem amateur and not like a serious production.

It is very important to get a lot of footage when filming, there’s no such thing as enough, the more choice you have the better because you will have a variety to choose from, for example the lighting could be of a better quality in one clip than another or you could try different angles and shots for scenes to make sure you get the most out of your location. This is all good for editing because you will be able to choose the clips that look the most professional.

Overall I think that the prelim was useful as it gave me a chance to learn how to use the technology and software that will be required for our main thriller meaning it will take us less time and I will be able to do a better job having practised before. We got some feedback from the year 13 students who did this all last year; they thought we had continuity and they saw the correct techniques; 180 degree rule, match cut and shot reverse shot, they thought it flowed; they could see small errors with the actual footage itself such as the clarity and sound quality but overall they said it was good. One thing they did say is not to use silly transitions after they saw we used a speed change at the end of the prelim as when used inappropriately it can look amateur and silly.

As a group we wrote down many ideas for how we wanted our prelim to go, we wanted to create ‘Prelimception’; ‘a prelim within a prelim’ was the initial idea and we got that as our ending result. We created a storyboard of how we wanted it to be set out and we followed it exactly. Although, when the Year 13’s came into our lesson to give us some advice and tips they said you don’t have to follow a strict structure, test out what you want while you’re there filming because it may be better than your original idea.

Danielle Ranaghan

Severalls Mental Hospital

 After looking at different thrillers and watching different films we decided we really liked the film ‘Sucker Punch’ and the whole psychopathic/psychological genre. We decided to scout around to look for locations on which we could film and we stumbled across a place called Severalls mental hospital. It is a mental hospital near Colchester in Essex that closed in 1990’s and is now abandoned and since then has started on a slow spiral into decay. The fact that this hospital hasn’t been in use in over a decade gives it a very eerie look and atmosphere, the corridors especially have a very creepy feel and look like the stuff from nightmares.

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Severalls was built in 1913, housing around 2000 patients at its height. During the first half of its life Severalls bore witness to its share of Questionable practices.  Doctors were free to "experiment" with new treatments on patients seemingly at will, These practices reached their climax during the 1950's. A change in management during the 1960's saw reforms introduced including the creation of art and music therapy programs and the widespread use of drugs and medication.

Since 1997 this 300 acre site has been left to run wild Vandalism and decay and is seemingly the perfect location for our thriller.

One thing we really liked about Severalls is that it has its very own Ballroom much like the one from Sucker Punch and this helped us develop a new idea for our thriller.

We recently however found out that the site is under construction and we will not be able to film there.