Final Evaluation!

As part of the AS thriller practical we was put in to groups to produce a thriller opening. In this practical we had to work together and also sort out how film will open - where, how and when. As the deadline was set we had a couple weeks to pull everything, including filming, editing and making soundtrack. The film is called “Mortal Remains”, as a group we thought the title suits best with the film.


The scene starts of with the main star, "Lauren" walking from round the corner. (Long Shot)








Match cut from a different angle. (Extreme Long Shot)










After a short while our first title sequence appears and transition in a cross fade.









Later on in the opening, there was a clip which is one of the most effective scene the "red flush".





The media product that we produced shows some convention of a media product such as the use of camera works, editing (smooth transitions) and the soundtrack added. Watching, the Documentary from the previous lesson had many directors and critics having their own unique views about how to start the film opening in the best way. In the film “Seven” the title sequence is very effective and shows a lot of tension which makes the audience craves for more. Although starting off strong is tempting there are also some bad points such as; starting off strong would mean you will have to top that and build up the standard of the film. We started off quietly at the beginning and gradually building up suspense to audience, this way is consider being one of the best openings according to Jean Jacques. We tried to put smooth transitions in our opening like in the film “Seven”. We used crossed dissolve which was the most suitable in the scene.

Looking back at the preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt loads and progressed a lot from back then, to making the full product now. Our preliminary film was about creating a simple dialogue short clip which should show “match cuts” from different angles and basically making the film have some meaning and excitement. From the “match cut” exercise that we had to do, I learnt how to smoothly match a scene together in different angles. Planning and story-boarding is very important because this starts you off and helps you builds your film with out planning the film wouldn’t have much meaning and would be all over the place. Editing is the main bit because this brings the whole film together, makes everything flow smoothly, and gives it meaning and helps the audience to understand.

As a group we discussed that the film should be age 18+ because this gives us a better range on how far we could go on adding extra touches and I think that the age group works well with our media product. We went for the old stereotypical woman as the “weak” character but still dominant.

There are many media institution; the most suitable one for my media product is having it distributed as an independent UK release therefore it would be shown in some UK cinemas’ only such as private cinemas that shows limited amount of films. After the distributing the film it will then be released as a DVD after a couple months when movie is out. The DVD will include behind the scene and casting, this will hopefully attract viewers to buy the DVD.

The perfect person for my media product would be some one such as; Mylinh, 18 works in Gap, enjoy going out shopping, and love watching movies. She shops in “River Island” and “Top Shop”. She is currently studying English Literature and Language. Mylinh would enjoy our film because she’s into British films and she love thriller films.

The film will attract the audience by having a “star” leading main role, which shown, at the beginning of the film, which might attract the audience. The star of the film is “Lauren Rayns”, she has previously had some minor roles in “Adulthood” and is now the star of the film. People that enjoy watching thriller films would consider coming to watch the great movie.

After evaluating my media product, I have completely enjoyed every moment of working with my group members, filming and editing plus inserting soundtrack in our opening. From the very first time, I used “Final Cut Pro” I was clueless and I had a small amount of knowledge about the program but now I believe that I can now used the program in a well efficient manor. On “Final Cut Pro” you could do things like logging and capturing from the camera, and editing the film such as putting in transitions to make the next scene flow smoothly. Filming some parts of the film was quite hard especially the last scene we did, which was basically about “Lauren” looking into the toilet system and screaming when she discovers something. At that moment we had to use handheld but as a group, we helped each other and performed a great outcome.

The internet is a worldwide communication system that people use through computers and to be able to “blog” on the internet makes it so much easier to record and edit again as much times as you want. Blogging was simple because all you have to do is to record each media lesson and talk through it as if it is a mini diary updated every media class. Our film opening was uploaded on to “Vimeo” and published on our “blog” which worked well because we can review all the comments on the film opening and come to a conclusion if the film worked with the category “thriller”.