Props

There are a couple of props that are going to be used in this film. Firstly there is the various junk scattered about the desk and around the room. The papers and various other stuff add a disorganized side to the character and suggests a poor mental state. It also includes a bit of chaos to the situation.

Next there was the shovel (which was actually a stick). This was necessary for the digging. This added some mystery and depth to the story that is being slowly unveiled. I didn't have a shovel that wasn't colourful or a kids shovel that you use on the beach, so I decided to use a straight stick and I blurred the image.
   

Costume and actor

My first costume is a grey 3 piece suit with a black bow-tie and a white shirt. I am also wearing wellies and waterproof trousers. Not only is the suit in a snowy environment, but it's been mixed with some very outmatching clothes. The trousers and wellies though, match the setting they  are in and t adds to the  costume and gives mystery to the character. It gets the audience thinking about what his motives are. I shall be acting in this as I can preset a mental state and I thought it would be easier to do it myself as I wouldn't have to rely on other people as they were not always available for enough time to do it all in one day. As it was outside for the most part and it snowed, I was only able to do the shooting in that one day.

This is my costume for the indoor scene. It use some of the other costume but arranged to look more scruffy. This makes it more believable as he had just been sleeping in the shirt and bow-tie. It links the two locations together and puts them in a definite chronological order. It also suggests he got home late the night before and didn't bother taking all clothes off. This presents a sense of disorganization in the character.

Questions 2 and 4

http://www.slideshare.net/ppanda275/social-side-of-things

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Firstly there’s how the music is in time to the titles to keep the whole thing synced but also, this is a development on the music itself to give it more flow. I have used the element of mystery to keep the character interesting. When this man presents different emotions to the camera, it leaves the audience to interpretation on what the characters mental state is or what the situation is. Of course because this is a thriller, it’s not impossible to come up with viable ideas, but never the less the audience is hooked. People like puzzles. Speaking of characters, this one fits the conventions of a thriller – he seems unstable, he has weird clothes on that are justified by the situation due to their practicality. This is whilst mixing them with rather unconventional clothes (like a suit for example) to show a bit of backstory of any events beforehand. The music fits conventions of thrillers – it’s creepy, suspenseful and mysterious. It does develop on the convention of tension as it builds and releases it several times. The opening is meant to be thrilling but not like a horror movie where all the tension is released at once because it’s hard to build that back up again. There are three tension breaks, the title at the start, the eyeball and the title at the end. The biggest break is the eyeball and it’s a very risky one as well as it can scare the daylights out anyone sheepish enough which would contradict my objective. The tension thankfully stays high throughout so the audience aren’t tired out by the first 3 minutes.   

Evaluation: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The film opening firstly represent the British as a social group, people who live an urban, graffiti covered environment. The camera angles and types of shots show that this character is a mental but suppressed man who distances himself from others (hence the various long shots) but the shots get  closer to make the audience more involved with the character. We could gather that the man has a deep secret that is kept from the secret. We see this in the shot showing him digging. This suggests that murder could be associated with the mentally deranged. The mental instability is shown from when he has a laughing fit after waking up in the morning and we see the sudden change of emotion from him when he looked at the paper and there was the shot of the fist clenching. It could show how easy it is to escape the police as he wakes the next morning unharmed, when just the day before we could faintly hear sirens in the background. This opening already shows that the British police could be quite easy to outsmart.

Evaluation: How did you attract/address your audience?

At the very start the music is low in pitch and tone and with an overlapping much higher sound joining it after about two seconds. We can see the production companies. This gives off a sense of mystery to the piece. We then see shots of the outdoor area and different angles and movements at a slow pace to create tension. Finally we see a man walking wearing a suit with waterproof trousers and wellies. This adds more mystery to the character and grips in the audience. The change in pace of music when the character is shown to crate more tension. To make it more visually appealing I made the titles appear in time to the music. Doing this also maintains the tension.

Evaluation: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 I have learnt about how lighting works and how to create different settings and show different times of the day e.g. showing night time settings by shooting in the day and darkening it afterwards. In editing, I have improved my editing skills by using double exposure and perfecting sound cues to fit the video like putting the titles in time to the music. I have used basic edits to the main titles like the production companies and the name of the film with Photoshop. I have used the camera at only one setting but I have used the macro setting and have changed the focus on the lens to get different effects and moods and representations. I have taken the background music and changed the structure around to fit the video.