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7) Looking back to preliminary tasks, what do you feel you have learned from the progression form it to the full product

Our First preliminary task was to create a short a thriller movie using a deck of cards. In this task we began to adapt and develop the reverse style editing of the movie Memento. We were heavily influenced by this movie. We didn't have much choice of where to set the card game as space and time was limited and we had to film in college so we didn't really pay attention to mise en scene. We attempted to make the room dark so that the mood would be thrilling. We used over close ups to show facial expressions and emotion and we used over the shoulder shots to demonstrate atmosphere and to get the characters point of view. As this was our first task there were somethings that went wrong. While editing we found that the room was too dark that it was very difficult to see anything also, there are a couple of continuity errors; when the cards are being dealt from the over the shoulder shot you can see one player has cards and the other doesn't where as in other shots she does have cards. Also, there is a continuity error with lighting. We then took this in consideration for our next task.

For our next preliminary task we were to create a match cut sequence, this was very basic as we had limited time and space, the story was very basic for this exact reason and we wanted to concentrate on the match cuts more than the story. We took in consideration the faults we had made and though we didn't have much of a choice of where to go to film as other groups were doing the same activity at the same time we did first of all try some where but then it was too dark so we moved and made the best of what we had. This task gave us a chance to practise our editing skills. After these two tasks we took away the mistakes we had made so we could improve on them. We also learnt that we have had lack of mise en scene but for our film we would add things as we didn't have time to think about the mise en scene before.

The reverse editing was a very important factor in our sequence as it emphasises and adds to the story of our character. The match cut task allowed us to perfect our editing skills and learn how to do create a match cut right.

In our finished sequence we used the time well and we created mise en scene that add to the protagonists character, which tells us about her and what she's been doing. In the mise en scene we added things such as books to hint at what is going on before Alice speaks. The use of the mirror was very important as in the mirror is a true reflection so with this in mind we based the whole thing around the mirror. We have learnt that every aspect of the filming is important that no stone should be left unturned to make sure everything is how it should turn out. In this case, we didn't have extensive time to film and then edit and then film again or however many times we needed to. Though this was our final product there are somethings which even now I feel could be improved on if we had the chance. For example, a few of the camera pans stick which might not be a very big deal but it doesn't exactly flow very well as the movement is a bit like a robot. Also after going to edit we would see that some of the shots that we have could be filmed again like the pressing of the ipod and the final pan down.

5) Who would be your audience for your media product?

This is Leah she's 18 and has lived in London her whole life. Leah loves photography, music, fashion and books. She enjoys cult films and thrillers such as Fight Club, Donnie Darko, Requiem for a Dream and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Leah loves watching psychological films as she finds them very interesting.

In Leah's bag is

3 & 4) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and Why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Our film would be distributed by a well known British distributor Film Four. Film Four distributes independent movies, which is what our movie would be. The Film Four website allows viewers to see movies that Film Four distribute and this is where we would imagine our movie would be alongside all these others. As well as being on the film four website we would have a a few billboards advertising film such as the one's below

As these billboards would create attention people would become interested in the movie once the trailer is released I have created a twitter page so that fans can stay up dated with information about the movie and can get the latest information on what the stars of the film are up to.

as our film is only a small budgeted film it wouldn't be expected that we get that much attention, but many independent films gain a lot of attention as people like the concept as they've never been done before.
Independent films aren't generally played at chain cinemas like the Vue or Odeon but shown in indepent cinemas like the sceen on the green

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

Our protagonist represents both sides of stereotypical girl. Alice's real self is a stereotype of a bad girl, being into hard drugs, drink and prostitution while her alter ego is a stereotype of a typical girl next door essentially being a generic perfect girl the opposite of her real self.

The idea partly comes from The film I Know Who Killed Me. I Know Who Killed Me stars Lindsay Lohan, in the movie Lohan's character has a twin who fake were separated at birth, the two girls are complete opposite of each other. This is similar our character Alice, even though Alice has no twin and it is all in her head.

Lohan's good girl character (below) shows similar characteristics as our good girl simple make up and she is writing what looks like the beginning of a story, this shows that she is intelligent. With our character on her table there are books, and throughout the sequence there are books on the dresser where she plays her music from in the edge of the scene.

Lohan's bad girl character (below) also has similar characteristics of our bad girl. Here the bad girl is shown in a mirror and the mirror is cracked this shows that the girl is vain. She is surrounded by money and bright lights and she is also wearing heavy make up which could suggest she was paid for some kind of sexual services. Our bad girl is also shown in a mirror and is also wearing heavy make up. Though she isn't surrounded by money, while walking to her makeup table there are condoms and used condoms everywhere and a book called "the new joy of sex" this insinuates that sex has taken place.

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

Displayed below is a gif. file of part of our opening sequence

We decided to use these shots as they are in reverse, the initial idea comes from the movie Memento, In first watching the opening sequence of Memento we as a group didn't really understand until the last few moments of the opening where what has just been played in reverse comes to an end and everything is then put together.
Below is a gif of Memento.

Our opening sequence challenges forms and conventions as parts of the sequence are in reverse. We were inspired by Memento's opening sequence, there aren't many films in which parts of the opening are played in reverse. Like in Memento the movie title is on black background near the end of the opening. This makes the title of the film stand out as it's rather significant as is the title of Memento. Memento meaning, "a reminder of past events". When one has watched this film, the context of the title becomes a lot clearer.

"Alice", the title of our film, for many people their first thoughts when hearing something called Alice makes people think of the film "Alice in Wonderland". We chose this name on purpose to relate to this as when in context with the opening sequence where Alice says "to follow the white rabbit" is a direct reference to the Alice In Wonderland.

We stuck to a traditional way of introducing the institutional production in the beginning of the movie. Our opening sequence doesn't exactly, make people jump out of their seats, however, it does make the viewer feel somewhat on edge and the music sets the mood with an eerie modern soundtrack and the ending dream scene.

Memento and our title sequence are a like in some respects but Memento begins with disorientating the viewer as the polaroid picture is being shaken though we aren't aware it's in reverse till a while after which then leaves us confused until the sequence is finished. With our reverse sequence the viewer isn't as confused as the Memento viewer as the voice over explains what is going on without being very straight forward. We didn't have a particular opening credit sequence, we simply used the conventional opening credit with names and title over our movie.

5) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Kelly is 19 year old undergraduate student in university. She likes to shop in Top Shop and New Look. She enjoy's watching physcological thrillers and comedies. Going out with her friends is what she normally does in her spare time. Her and her friends enjoy staying in on a friday night for a weekly movie night.

In Kelly's handbag:

EVALUATION 7) Looking back to preliminary tasks, what do you feel you have learned from the progression form it to the full product

The first task I encountered consist of my group to create a short thriller movie inspired by a deck of cards. We were inspired by the movie Memento and the style of editing in reverse, which were also seen in our final movie and also in this task. In this movie we played with the lighting to reinforce and set the mood of a thriller. We used a lot of close ups to show facial expression, over the shoulder shots to demonstrate the atmosphere. These shots are also used in our final movie which were practiced earlier using this movie.

Then we made another short film, which was a basic task however it consisted a lot of editing therefore allowing us to create influential scenes such as the match cuts in our final movie. This match cut exercise test us on our editing skills before creating our movie, and therefore we were ready to use our skills by the time we create the final film.

The match cuts and reverse editing were an important factor in our final movie, as it emphasizes the story of our protagonist, and also from the match cuts that we practiced during the prelimanary task we were able to conduct a perfect match cut series. However there are some parts in our final movie that I was not happy about, for example the part when our protagonist is walking towards the dressing table, and there were no cuts in between when i could have used lots of match cuts in between

Here is a clip of our final movie, I think that the match cuts here are perfect, and it matches perfectly with the split screen. The close ups in this split screen shows how much we've learned, we were able to do two different characters doing almost exactly the same action with completely different mise en scene, this shows the details of our movie and how much we've learned from our preliminary tasks. The music in our final movie also improved greatly from our card game preliminary task, we were able to create a much more complex piece of soundtrack that includes, diagetic sound and non diagetic. Most of the sound in our final movie is non diagetic to set the mood of the movie, it is repetative similar to our Card Game task, but we also added the non diagetic sound in the dream scene, where you can hear the sound of leaves rustling, and the environment, this adds to the tension of the movie.

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

My preliminary tasks involved me and my group-creating thriller using a deck of cards and it was with this short clip that we started developing the method seen in memento, which was going in reverse. S0 we decided to apply this technique, because not only will it get the attention from the audience but also it blends well with our protagonist and also in that task we decided to play with the lighting this was one technique we considered however we stayed with natural light because it would emphasize that Alice our protagonist was a normal young lady. This task we also done over the shoulder shots and lots of close ups of facial expressions and the clip below demonstrates all the techniques used in our first preliminary task.

This was followed by a match cut task which we decided it would involve a very simple task which was a young male walking up a stair case and going to a young women to have a very simple conversation yet we used several match cuts, a good example was a close up of the young males shoes going up the stairs and also when he opened the door we also notice a close up of his hand then we notice a full shot of him so therefore many match cuts have occurred especially when the conversation goes on between the two characters back and forth conversation between the two..

So overall if you view a certain part of our finished section you will realise the importance both these task were to me and my group this is because, the match cuts we produced were very efficient and also the timing we achieved was also very effective and therefore that was a skill we learnt from the match cut task yet it was more efficient in the final movie rather than the preliminary task, moreover the mise en scene came from our first task because we decided to go for a very trashy look therefore we decided this look in our final cut to enforce the idea behind our protagonist and therefore this skill was learnt from our preliminary task not only mise-en scene but also the lighting was a technique we learnt in this task which was either natural or using equipment and if you realise in our final film we went for natural lighting as this would go better with our whole film, therefore these tasks have not only taught as new skills but also o perfect previous skills learnt.

EVALUATION 6) What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing

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

During class we watched a variety of thriller openings. We were then set a task to create a clip of our own using a deck of cards as inspiration. The criterea of the task was to include a variety of shots and edits, such as match cuts. Out of the thriller clips we watched, our group was inspired by Memento. We admired the style and effects it had.

We were really taken by the reverse effect that Memento used that we decided to try it out in our preliminary task. We found it quite difficult as it required more advanced editing skills.

We were quite impressed with our own reverse sequence that we decided that its something for our final product. Also we saw that the lighting in our preliminary task was inadequate as we didn't pay much attention to it. However with our final product we used our previous faults to ensure that our final product was better.

As ou can see in our final product we decided to use the reverse edit idea and it was very unique as when we went to watch everyone else's we were the only group with that idea. Our lighting an the overall quality of our final product was so much better due to the practice preliminary task.

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

These two shots from these two films clearly outlines the idea behind the shot using the reflection of the mirror, this is because even though this is a bad girl having huge sums of money in her desk and a cracked mirror, we done the completely a very neat and clean mirror, this is because our bad girl had been shown before so therefore we decided to demonstrate a different side to our protagonist and therefore this is one similar shot these two films have in common.

This other shot is also similar to the one above this is because we decided to use the similar technique used in the make-up sort of the trashy look, so therefore reinforcing the inequality this character has and also the bad side to her.

Our short film represent the representation society has with young people, which is being involved in drugs and other sources of harm towards the body, but not only this rebellious attitude is one huge factor that most youth are portrayed in society and therefore this short film is demonstrating that specific social group and many problems encountered by many young people.

3 & 4) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audiencce?

Our film is supposed to be distributed by a well known British distributer known as Film Four. Film Four distributes independent movies, whichh is what our movie would be. Its website allows viewers to see these movies and this is where we would imagine our movie would be alongside all these others.

3&4) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Film four is our movie industry and we choose them because they offer a great route for those starting as film directors and offer great reliability for any project and mostly students because this connotes they have a bright future if the film is a hit which, we would have if given the opportunity by film four, and the route we would take this is because film four is a low budget industry which invests in many student films and also it has a channel of its own, meaning we would receive allot of exposure from our film because when i viewed film four, many of the films repeated every fortnight, this may seem a negative yet it isn't because for these constructing the film it would mean that more people would view your film, therefore leading to a follow up film or other films, hence meaning the company would become a great success in the long term. Also the marketing for our film could be done by using the Internet by making social networks regarding the film this is because 1 in 2 people have internet access and also using public spaces for our advantage meaning we could stick notices of our release date or the date the film is going to be shown on film four, also if the financial department have enough funds to use billboards to stick posters and other sources of marketing would be using the radio to reach other audiences. However all this marketing clearly depends on the budget film four give and also the amount needed to produce the film itself yet, the best mean of promotion is word of mouth therefore meaning no cost is needed and it is the most efficient method and this could also lead to great exposure in the long term.

1) In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and convetions of real media products?

Gif creator

EVALUATION 3 & 4) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Our movie is supposedly going to be distributed by a well known British film association Film 4. Since the plan we think that our movie fits with the Film 4 look. Our movie fits into the category of low budget cult films which is something that film 4 distributes a lot, for example FIlm 4 releases short films made by independent film makers which are available to watch on their website.


Click here to watch FIlm 4 short movies

On the website Film 4 provides the independent film makers such as us to publish our movie in high quality. There's also a comment section where the audience can leave feedbacks, which is important for a film maker to receive feedbacks from the public. Also in our modern world, social networking sites such as twitter and facebook is important for people to communicate, esspecially those who are our target audience. From theFilm 4 website they can re-tweet our movie or post it on their facebook to share it with their friends.



Film 4 also shows plenty of their short movies to film festivals such as Bang! Short Film Events, or the BFI film festival.
There is also The International Short Film Festival (ISFF) Hamburg, Germany. FIlm 4 allows us to reach to an audience of industry people and also the wider public as they advertise their website regularly on their Channel on TV.

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

This represents a stereotype of a young girl that involves herself in drugs, sex and the manic lifestyle.

An inspiration for the look of this girl came from the character of a prostitute in the film Pretty Woman. For our mise-en-scene we made sure our character also looked quite like a prostitute. We put her in provocative clothing and very heavy make up. People may think that this is a typical stereotype of a young adult/teenager. Our character unlike the one in Pretty Woman is represented to be more 'off the rails' by making her wake up from a night of mayhem.

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

Our protagonist represents both side of stereotypical girl. Alice's real self is a stereotype of a bad girl character while her alter ego is a stereotype of your typical girl next door.

The idea came from a movie called I Know Who Killed Me starring Lindsay Lohan, in the movie Lohan's character has a secret twin who were seperated from birth, the two girls are complete opposite of each other, which is similar to our character Alice, even though Alice has no twin and it is all in her head.

Lohan's good girl character



Lohan's bad girl character

skills audit live type

The above image is a screen grab of our credits we decided to use a combination we used a black background to show our title but apart from this we used title on the film because this would help the audience to identify the work behind each shot, a good example we put MUSIC BY next to the Ipod so this not only allows the audience to relate the product to the main character but also to those working behind the scenes.

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

Memento title sequence:

Memento title sequence starts with credits and then goes into the actual title of the film. Then an extreme close up shot of a hand holding a photograph is seen. Memento uses what is known as the slow seduction technique. This is when title sequence slowly draw you in and then later on in the film you get the action. As you can see in the shots I have chosen, gradually the development of the photograph is going in reverse as the whole scene is in reverse. The credits are put onto the shots unlike in the very beginning of the title sequence where they are on a black background.

Our title sequenc:

As for our title sequence we also incorporated a part in which the scene is moving in reverse. However, to

challenge memento's slow seduction, instead while the scene was going in reverse it was going quite quckly

as it seemed more suited for our title sequence. It was an inspired idea that gave our title a good edge. The

credits to our sequence are placed on the shots like Memento. Unlike Memento the title to our film was not

shown until the very end of our title sequence.