Bloopers

'Pyro' - Final Product (Group 7)

Evaluation - Q7 (Anna McConnell)

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

As a reminder here is our preliminary task, in order to successfully evaluate the progression from this to our final product and what I, personally have taken from this experience

Here is a podcast of my full evaluation:

Evaluation - Q6 (Anna McConnell)

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

Question 6 Final from AnnaMcConnell22

Evaluation - Q5 (Anna McConnell) (GROUP)

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Here is a group director's cut of our film opening whereby we collectively discuss how we attracted/addressed our audience.

(Due to technical difficulties the sound quality may be a bit quiet so full volume is advised)

Evaluation - Q4 (Anna McConnell)

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Here is a podcast whereby I interviewed Liam Gavin, the typical audience member of our thriller, for his thoughts on our opening.

Considering that Liam is 17 years old, the 15 rating for our film is ideal. Due to the themes of abuse and alcoholism, this rating is ideal as the sensitive topics expressed may be difficult for a younger audience to comprehend and may, in fact, be too distressing.

The film we took influence from, Orphan (Collet-Serra, 2009) has also been given the rating 15 due to intense scenes, profanity and violence. This helped us in our research into our target audience as our thriller would run upon similar themes and, considering most of our group had seen or heard about this particular film, we recognized that it was ideal to lower the rating from an 18 to make it accessible for a person of our age group.

We interviewed our peers and showed them the opening of 'The Bourne Ultimatum' and 'Se7en' in order for us to gain insight into what thriller conventions people recognise most from the opening of a thriller. This information could be carried over to our own opinion. 

We then showed the first cut of our opening to 3 of our other peers in order to get their criticisms.

Referring back to our Survey Monkey we were enabled to work out the rating we should place our thriller as. A 15 was the most suitable choice

Evaluation - Q3 (Anna McConnell) (GROUP)

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In terms of our marketing campaign here is our film poster presented on the side of a bus and on an ad-shell. This use of digital and static marketing is vital in capturing the attention of our target audience due to ideas that those of the 15-25 demographic are more likely to use public transport thus more likely to be exposed to this sort of advertising. 

Evaluation - Q2 (Anna McConnell)

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation - Q1 (Anna McConnell)

Question 1 In what ways does your thriller opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real thriller openings?

9 Frame Analysis of our Thriller Opening

1. The protagonist striking a match in a dark room. This illuminates only the top half of her face and the use of shadows and lighting create an atmosphere of suspense and foreshadows her obsession with fire thus highlighting the relevance of titles within the first few seconds.

2. A panning shot of the hallway showing an empty alcohol bottle and a pair of both male and female shoes. This establishes the setting of the opening; it will be filmed in a house and will feature adult male and female antagonists.

3. A high-angle shot of the protagonist looking through a gap in a door at her parents arguing. Highlights her vulnerability. The banisters appear like prison bars which highlight her imprisonment in this unhealthy atmosphere and, using the rule of thirds insinuate that her mother and herself are central to the plot of the thriller.

4. A wide-angle shot that shows the male antagonist appearing to be distressed with a bottle of alcohol. The use of the alcohol bottle prop conforms with the stereotype that adult males are usually the ones to be alcoholics; we can infer this due to the idea that the bottle has mostly been consumed.

5. The protagonist looking through the gap in the door. A continuation of frame 3.

6. A close-up shot of alcohol being poured into a whiskey glass. This is a further indication of the male character's alcoholism.

7. A close-up shot of the protagonist burning a photograph which appears to be herself held by her parents when she was a small child. This frame is significant as the symbolism behind the burning photograph prop represents her rejection of past memories.

8. The title of the thriller: PYRO. The black background heavily juxtaposes the fiery

orange font thus representing how the dark aspects of the protagonist's life will be affected by a fire of some sort and that it will be significant. We decided on a fairly neutral font as the animated flames behind the text and the crackling fire sound effects that accompany it will take main focus in this frame.

9. The postwoman arriving at the house. Shows a continuation of regular life outside of the internal drama.

PROPS

The prop of a match follows the conventions of a thriller due to its dangerous nature and the use of lighting and shadows create an atmosphere of suspense and mystery

The prop of the alcohol being poured into the glass reflect themes of alcoholism, whilst further indicating the contamination of their family life as the class goes from clear to a murky brown.

TITLE FONT AND STYLE

In terms of the logo of our thriller opening, here is the final product we decided on. 

Pros of our title font and style:

• The use of colloquial language; the shortening of 'pyromaniac' to 'pyro' helps our target audience associate the title 
• The cutout of the fire in the background helps to portray the themes of our thriller, as well as adding animation to the 2D text.
• The font is easy to read yet effective in putting across our psychological thriller genre.
• The colour scheme is simple; black and orange.
• There is a suspenseful transition between the knocking on the door whilst the photograph in burning to the black screen with the title which leaves the audience wondering what will happen next.

As you can see from a contemporary example of a real thriller, the title font and style is similar in it's monochromatic nature and short simple title.


SOUND

Evaluation - Q7 (Megan Marsh)

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

This is our preliminary task

This is our Full Product

Hand Held Camera

Match On Action

Camera  Shots

What I have learnt

Evaluation - Q6 (Megan Marsh)

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

Evaluation - Q5 (Megan Marsh) (GROUP)

The video below show cases us as a group reflecting on our opening 2 minuets and discussing ways in which we addressed our target audience.

(Due to technical difficulties the sound quality may be a bit quiet so full volume is advised)

Evaluation - Q4 (Megan Marsh)

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I used my parents as an initial target audience because they were over the age of the 'average' thriller film age category; I thought I would therefore follow through and carry out an investigation to get there feed back on the 2minuet opening that I have made. There responses can be viewed below.

Interview with John Marsh 

I believe one film that is similar to ours is orphan due to the fact that at one part of the film she burns a piece of equipment with the intention to scare and harm others, showcasing her unstable mental state.

Our film Pyro although not illustrated on the poster above has the same ages rating (BBFCRating) as the film above due to the graphic content and the psychological abuse throughout.

I believe that as a team we have managed to meet our initial target audience by reaching forms and conventions such as;

• Editing
• Mise-en-scene
• Camera angles
• Shots and movements
• Titles
• Audio line
  
  
  
  
  Overall i believe we were successful due to the fact that we received all positive feedback after showing it to members of the public, all our feedback allowed us to understand that we had met the brief of a thriller film by causing suspense and tension.  
  
  
  
  
  This interview was also used to ensure that we were able to meet all the thriller conventions in order to gain our target audience's attention. In the vedio below we discussed all the different conventions used to enhance our thriller opening by comparing it to 'Seven'.

Referring back to survey monkey we initially organised that our thriller would be age rating 15 due to the responses that we received. overall 80% of people who took the test stated that they were between 15 and 18. 

Evaluation - Q3 (Megan Marsh) (GROUP)

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In terms of our marketing campaign here is our film poster presented on the side of a bus and on an ad-shell. This use of digital and static marketing is vital in capturing the attention of our target audience due to ideas that those of the 15-25 demographic are more likely to use public transport thus more likely to be exposed to this sort of advertising. 

Evaluation - Q2 (Megan Marsh)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation of a 'child'

Costumes  

As you can see the costume worn here is a more modern and contemporary look than other possible clothing choices such as the images from the actress playing the orphan below. Unlike her costume, the actress in Pyro showcases a common look for teens in 2016/17, this costume has been used in order to allow the audience to think it was realistic.

Comparing the costume of the actor in PYRO to the actress in ORPHAN you can see significant differences this is due to the fact that the character in orphan has come from Russia and therefore has been brought up differently this has been showcased thought the costume as well as certain mannerism. I also believe the costumes that the orphan wears creates suspense for the audience due to the fact that she looks like a Russian doll which the audience is then lead to believe is creepy.

Similarities

• Both characters in my oppion have the same psychotic characteristics due to the fact that they are both arsonists this can be demonstraighted in the snips below as both characters are playing with fire with the intention to be destructive and harm others.

Gender

• A second similarity that I believe both characters possess is that there gender is not represented in a stereotypical way. I believe this is the case due to the fact that the women are more dominant than the men, this is showcased through there aggressions and anger shown towards others.

                                            Representation of a male 

                                                       Target Audience

I believe that the media product we have produced does attract our target audience due to the fact that it is gripping and thought provoking as the opening 2 minutes allow the audience to get an idea as to what is going on in the life of the main character. This is one of the key reasons for rating our film a 15 due to;