Evaluation 1:What we have learnt in the progression from a the preliminary to a film opening

Evaluation 2: Who would distribute our media product and why we chose them.

Evaluation 3: How we attract our audience

Evaluation 4: What we have learned about new technologies.

Evaluation 5: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our opening sequence presents two character roles, each having different links to social groups. The main social group shown in our film opening called 'Alter EGO' is the vulnerable teenage girl who is being followed by psycho stalker. All of the pictures of the girl in everyday life situations make her look vulnerable and the fact that all of them have been taken from stalker's point of view makes it all look more dangerous and serious. The shots of obsessed man ringing her from unknown number, him observing her every day and finally braking into her house are suggesting and showing how vulnerable this girl is. She's only teenage girl who most probably couldn't defend herself in case of the confrontation with strong man and Her not knowing that she is being followed by obsessed guy gives it all more drama. Also, her being on her own in the house while stalker gets inside and then finally into her room clearly makes her look much more defenceless as she is not expecting anything bad happening.

The villain who is obsessed with a girl who is his alter ego is shown as dangerous, strange and - as we can't see his face at any point- very mysterious man who will do anything it takes to own the girl. Man obsessed with vulnerable girl is quite  typical and effective of many thriller genre and horror films and we have decided to continue this popular stereotype.

Propps's Character's Theory was applied to our product but only for two characters the villain and the victim. But the victim  represents more than one character. The victim would resembles the  princess and at the same time the hero. The princess because she is typically the character that is the main victim. The hero because she is the main protagonist and the whole story would be about her.

Age Ratings

The age ratings of movies, DVDs and any fideo games are rated and classified by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). They classify the films, video games and DVDs considering issues such as violence, language, sex, driscimination and drug abuse.

 

Possible categories of Age ratings in United Kingdom:

'U' means the film is very universal and might be watched by audience aged four years and over.  'U' films should be set within a positive moral framedwork and should not have scary sequences, drugs can be mentioned only if there is a clear educational purpose or anti-drug message suitable for young children. Sex contents are not allowed if film is labeled as 'U'.

 

'PG' basically means Parental Guidance. A 'PG' film should not disturb or scare children aged  around eight or older.  General viewing, however some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. Any references to illegal substances must be innocuous or carry a suitable anti-drug message, sex or nudity, violence,discrimination and any kind of unappropriate or dangerous behaviour can not be shown. However, it is strongly reccomended for parents to consider whether the content of the film may upset their younger or more sensitive children.

'12A'/'12' 


films suitable for 12 years and over, exactly the same criteria are used to classify works at ‘12A’ and ‘12’. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable. Films, DVDs or video games labeled as '12'  may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them. The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12. The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work. Unappropriate behaviour, aggressive discriminatory language, dangerous behaviour such as hanging is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned.Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed however should not go  beyond what is suitable for young teenagers.

'15'  No one younger than 15 can see '15' film in a cinema, rent or buy a '15' rated work. The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language, aggressive or repeated use of the strong language, can't promote any drugs and dangerous behaviour.  Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised. Strong language may be frequent but the strongest terms may be only acceptable if justified by the context.  There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is not acceptable.

'18' films are suitable only for adults, no one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video. Sex works are works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation. Sex works containing only material which may be simulated are generally passed ‘18’. Sex works containing clear images of real sex or other very strong sexual images will be confined to the ‘R18’ category. Material which is unacceptable in a sex work at ‘R18’ is also unacceptable in a sex work at ‘18’.

'R18' films to be shown only in specially licensed cinemas or supplied only in licensed sex shops and to adults of not less than 18 years old. The ‘R18’ category is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults.  ‘R18’ video works may not be supplied by mail order. These Guidelines will be applied to the same standard regardless of their sexual orientation.

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Our film would probably be rated as a 15 age certificate. It means that nobody under the age of 15 could buy or rent our thriller film. Our film won't promote any kind of drugs, there won't be discriminatory language or aggressive and repeated use of the strong language. Because of the villain who believes that he has found his Alter EGO and his strange behaviour, we think that out thriller would not be suitable for younger kids who may not understand the content of our film.

Shot List

Shot 1

The first shot we had in our film was a close up of a lamp. We also ended with this shot this is a little trick we learned from our director inspiration which is Christoper Nolan. Christopher Nolan is known for ending the film where the narrative starts he usually do this by using a flashback or a scene from the end of the movie. The light opening the first time suggest that the narrative is starting in a new setting.

Shot 2

The second shot was a high angle shot of a montage of pictures of the victim. This shows that the victim is vulnerable by showing her photos on high angle. This creates that the villain is more dominant because this shows an image that the villain is looking down on the victim. This also highlights the idea that the villain is capable of doing this suggest that he is more dominant.The girl unaware of the situation would highlight that she is inferior because the villain could strike at any moment. This idea is seen in our opening as the victim is arrogantly unaware who is calling her and who just entered her house.

Shot 3

Our next shot was a medium shot showing the villain looking through the window, trying to figure out if the girl is at home. As we can't see his face it builds up tension and creates a better narrative for a longer film as this would be one of the key to keep the the audience interested in the plot.

Shot 4

Shot of the villain trying to get into the house is a medium shot. We used medium shot instead of a long-shot or a close up because we wnted to focus on the villain's action.

Shot 5

High angle shot of a montage of pictures of the victim. This shows us -again- that the victim is vulnerable by showing all of the  photos on high angle.

Shot 6

Second part of shot number 4, the villain is finally getting into  the house and it's medium shot. This is when the tension really builds up.

Shot 7

High angle shot of pictures of the girl, filmed from stalkers point of view.

Shot 8

Over the shoulder shot -this shot is framed from behind the villain who is writing stuff over the pictures. This shot helps to establish the position of the villain and get the feeling of looking at one person from the other's point of view. The villain would just e seen to be drawing some ritual. The use of a tint red in the background helps the audience establish that the character is the villain.

Shot 9

Long shot of stalker, showing his entire body with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. He was filmed from the back to make him look more mysterious and dangerous.

Shot 10

Close up of mobile telephone ringing the girl. This shot shows very little background in order to make audience focus on the main  object - telephone. This shows the importance of him ringing her and shows how obsessed and mad he is.

Shot 11

Close up of the girl's mobile phone, we can clearly see that someone is ringing her from unknown number. We have used this shot to create dramatic atmosphere.

Shot 12

Our next shot is a shoulder shot framed from a behind a girl in everyday life situation - using her laptop and the answering the phone call from unknown number. We can't see her face and she doesn't expect anything bad happening and in fact it build s up more tension. 

Shot 13

Extreme close up shot of stalker walking up the stairs to the girls room. We have decided to film it this way in order to create a dramatic effect.

Shot 14
This shows a man walking up the stairs from below, giving audience the impression of him being much more powerful and dominant. It also shows how vulnerable and defenseless the girl is.

Shot 15
Medium shot of the girl in her bedroom, this shot shows some more detail of the action and shows very clearly girls reaction to stalker coming into her room. She looks very shocked, surprised (as she wasn't expecting anything bad happening) and scared. Dropping the phone on the floor tells us that she doesn't have a clue what to do and what is going to happen to her.

Shot 16
An over the shoulder shot of the villain stabbing the knife into the pictures of the girl. Last scene of our opening sequence shows us how crazy and dangerous the stalker is, it suggests that he might want to kill the girl. It leaves the audience unsure and makes them wonder what is going to happen to the girl. This keeps the narrative more interesting.

Shot 17
Our thriller logo closes our opening sequence. As the screen turned black; this suggest that this part of the film is over and as the light turned on again to show our title highlights that the main story is just about to start.

Final Cut - Alter EGO

Changes in our Film

Following the advice for changes suggested by our audience. We have followed most of them such as changing some of the close ups of the montage pictures because some of the people in the audience felt that it was repetitive. Some of the people suggested that it would be better if the villain stabs a picture than just a close up of the victim's picture. 

We have also included a scene that happened in the past that is part of the narrative this could be distinguished by our used of the filter being the scenes that occurred in the past and the clips with the original filter represents the present. This technique was used by one of our director that influenced our film. Christopher Nolan used the exact same technique in one of his films memento where he used a black and white filter to highlight what happened in the past and no filter to what is happening in the present and he used this technique through out the whole film. 

We also extended our film opening by an extra 30 seconds this was a vital comment from our audience and was also a concern for both of us since we also noticed that the rough cut was too short. This was achieved by increasing our narrative by showing ways how people normally stalk other people. We have scenes that shows the villain calling the victim phone and this was highlighted by the name 'Call HER' in the villain's phone and the name 'Unknown' that came up in the victim's phone. We had some rejected shot of one of the scene when the villain came up to the front door of the victim. We also decided that this was the best way to increase our narrative. Because this shows a more of the narrative than the montage of pictures and would allow our audience to feel more connected and not confuse them to what is happening in the narrative.


We also toned down some of our non-diegetic sound. This was suggested by our teacher because she felt that it seems un-naturalistic.

Rejected Shots

We had to re-film some of our shots because it is not easy to keep a straight face while filming. It would normally take us two or three shots to be confident to upload it into iMovie and edit it. We would normally have two good shot to edit and choose from which is good since we are both new to filming and could show our confidence in a new field.

Some clips we could not use in our film because it exceeded the maximum time we are allowed. We had to consolidate which scenes we should use. We have chosen to leave this one through a number of reasons: The camera work was a bit shaky this could be mistaken from a villain's point of view. This is also the scene that is hardest to split and insert transitions because it is the longest clip in our selection.

Soundtrack

We choose to use of GarageBand which is an exclusive softaware for the Apple MAC that we also used to edit our footage. We use a calm music for the start of our film but has an eerie effect on it. This calm music was used as a base music for our film. The calm music was quickly followed by a non-diegetic sound to create an effect. This would link to Todorov's Narrative Theory where a disruption has occured to disrupt the equilibrium in a story and really relates to the narrative of the film as the villain enters the victims house.

We also decided not to mute some of our clips because it creates a more natural theme to our film. We have also decided to increase the sound volume on some of our clips to create a stronger effect i.e door creaking and others.

 The software was simple and very easy to use but we were limited sounds availabe. We sometimes cut bits out on some track and combine it with others to create a better sound to supplement our clips and to build up tensions in some scenes. We used the same soundtrack that we made and repeat it with some time interval between to create more tension for the audience.

Complications in Filming

    The first time we filmed, the camera we borrowed has ran out of battery. Then we decided to use a digital camera and upload all the footage we had in the Apple MAC. Then it turns out that we could not upload the footage to iMovie and could not edit it. We then needed to wait for another week to borrow another camera because there are a limited numbers of cameras to go around the whole media class. The second time we filmed was easier than the first time because; we just redo the same scenes we did the first time we filmed.This also allowed us to improve some of the shots we filmed. To be able to finish our media product we both have to film for 3 different dates. The first day was the day we experienced most problems. The second day is when we filmed the main part of the narrative and used the shots that we had to make our rough cut. The third and last time we filmed was to allow us to increase our narrative due to concerns of our opening being shorter than what the course requires.

Audience Feedback

     We asked some of our friends, classmates and teacher to evaluate our rough cut by letting them watch the whole clip that we edited together. Some people highlighted some of a major problem we had which is that our film is only a minute. They've suggested that we slow down particular scenes to create an effect and would also help us lengthen our film. Some people also suggested that we add some more clips into it which would also explain more of the story and could also help us lengthen our film in a much more interesting approach by engaging the audience. Another person suggested that we filter the scene to black and white which would help our film follow a convention of thriller. Overall we had a positive feedback from our audience no major changes was requested. 

Rough Cut

Our Production Company

New Line Cinema was founded in 1967, it's an American studio which was established by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne.  This studio was rensponsible to genre, distribute and produce or co-produce films such as Se7en, Alone in the dark, Dark City, Final Destination series or Nightmare on Elm Strees series. New Line Cinema is  currently a label of Warner Bros Pictures.

We have decided New Line Cinema to be our production company because they have produced brilliant and cult thrillers in the past. Their brand is well known and trusted around the world and they have proved that they know how to produce succesfull thriller. We want our thriller to be associated with their hight quality and fantastic films they have made in the past.

Credits

New Line Cinema

Directed by:Estefano De Padua

Written by: Monika Czarnecka & Estefano De Padua

Starring: Monika Czarnecka

          Matt Leask

          Robert Sterling

            

Editing by: Robert Francis Bruce

Music by: Danny Elfman

We wanted our film opening to be simple so did not want to include more names in as part of the credits. We felt that including more names might attract the viewers attention to the names rather than the actual narrative of the opening.

Symbolism in our Title

The title of our film ‘Alter Ego’ is shown in the end of the opening it is shown in different font colours ‘Alter’ being black adds to secrecy of the villain’s identity being alternate. ‘Ego’ as white just to make a contrast with the other colour. The title also splits into two to show that the film is more in the villain’s perspective than any of the other characters. Having two words as a title is fairly common in thriller films this form was used by other successful film in the same genre such as Inside Man, Pulp Fiction only to name a couple. The style that we used to show our credit such as the director, writers and characters was a fade out which relates to the villain and his way of ritual courting a girl and overpowering them. The way he would just quickly and suddenly move in to one’s life and take their life away is the exact same way the style of the credits was shown.

Title of Our Thriller

It took as long time to decide what the name of out thriller will be. We have came up with a few name ideas for our film and we have concidered:

• Stalked

• Shadows

• Incision

• Guilty

• Alter EGO

• Deranged

• Demented

Overall we have decided to call our film Alter EGO. Alter EGO means another side of oneself (second self), an intimate friend or a constant companion. A person with an alter ego is said to lead a double life and that's exactly what is happening in our film. One man is obssed with a girl who is his alter ego. He is fascinated about her, he follows her every day and takes several numbers of pictures, what more - he believes that she belongs to him.  He is obssesed as he thinks that she's his second self. Unfortunately for the girl, she doesn't have a clue that she is being followed and observed by a psycho stalker and he will do absolutely everything it takes to own her. The villain has the desire to overpower women and the absolute way to overpower someone is taking their life away.

The title of the film does not really suggest that the villain have a dual personality. But to show a difference between two characters and relate them more together as the story progresses. The idea of both characters having major differences such as: gender, their personality, difference in motives, and more.

Animatic Storyboard

The first shot shown is a montage of pictures this would allow the viewers to understand the villain's motive more. There are two settings in my film one is the victim's house and the other is the villain's room this shows a connection between the two characters and locations.  Two of the setting in the opening credits would be happening in different times. 

One setting shows the preparation of the killer which would highlight his obsession about the girl and the other setting would be set on the victim's house and would show the killer breaking in which would show the connection between the two settings. 

Victim's Costume

The victim can be seen wearing a casula clothing. Since the setting is in the victim's house she does need a elaborate costume and the simpicity of what she is wearing compliments our budget very well. She would be seen in a light blue shirt which shows the innocence of the colour and bodes well with the innocence of the character. The idea that light blue was used shows that it is a weaker colour than black and creates an image of in the clip that black ( which is wore by the villain) is much superior than light blue (which is worn by the victim).

Villain's Costume

We have a very small budget which is one the reason why there are only two characters present in our film. So we decided to use a black coat with a hood. It may be seen as a casual clothing but it would create the same effect as a villain costume. The black colour which would reflect to the villain's identity, desire and act. The hood would help us conceal the villains identity.

Representation of Characters

In our media product we used some thriller codes and conventions to indicate that our film is part of this genre. We used a filter for both characters to symbolise their motives and attitudes in the film. This is commonly used in thriller genre in a form of black and white filter. We used an imposing contrast for the villain with a tint of red. Red connotes blood and relates to violence and aggression which is the villain’s motive. This filter compliments the villain costume which is pure black from his coat to his trousers. The colour black denotes evil which reflects on the villain’s personality.

A black and white filter was used for the victim with a tint of light blue. The black and white symbolizes simplicity. Simplicity is one of the trait that the victim posses that attracted the villain. The used of the tint blue is to make a contrast between her and the villain. The light blue represent being innocence which highlights her innocence on what is happening. Her gender which is a stereotypical classification of a victim in this genre. The use of light blue also refers to her vulnerability through the use of a lighter colour to be easily over powered by other colours. This was achieved not just the use of filter but also with her light blue top as costume which she wore near the end of the opening.

How this challenged Thriller Conventions

We challenged the normal setting for a thriller film. Most thriller film especially a thriller which includes a psychopath. Would have an unfamiliar setting for the victim but in our film the was set in the victim’s house. A home which symbolizes safety and warm has turned out to be the opposite in our film. In our blog there are pictures of the victim’s house. We felt that it is better to use this kind of picture than a screenshot of a map. This creates a more interactive feel for the viewers of our blog. The photos only included the outside of the victim’s house lets the viewers see in the villain’s point of view. The rest of the house including the inside is only revealed through the film which is the same time the villain entered the house this allows the audience to relate themselves to the characters and helps us add suspense and surprise in the film.

Discarded Ideas about location

The first setting we thought about was the school because it would be more convenient for both of us to film in school than go to a house. But the school idea was discarded because the school does not create a sense of personal theme into it and is too environmentally friendly to stage an attack on a character. We also thought we would use a wall in one of the school's classroom to create the villain's lair where a montage of the photos of the victim would be placed. But we found out that it would be more convenient to use a table in a house because this would give us an easier access to the props the villain would conventionally possess such as weapons like a knife. We cannot possibly bring a knife to the school or any type of weapon to be used by the villain. And the idea of filling a whole wall of a montage of photos seemed overwhelming so we changed our idea to small montage of pictures in a little corner of a table. Our ideas on the location of our setting changed as our thriller film ideas develops.

Location Shot

Our film was set in the victim's house. This is the location where most of the action would occur in the opening scene. This is when the victim would be first attacked. It is a typical English house which would allow the audience to relate to the setting. The idea that the villain would attack the victim in her own home would create a tension of intruding to the other character's personal life and the fact that it is a home disrupts the equilibrium of peace and safety in ones' house.

 The villain would be seen next to the window of the house facing the house backdoor. The villain would try and sucessfully break in to the house and then most of the part of the house is included in the film up to the victim's room. The other setting would be the villain's lair which is seen as a confined space and only a table next to the wall would be visible to the clip. In reality the villains lair took place in a  kitchen/dinning room and a table was in fact a dinning table.

Props

We used minimal props in our film because of our limited budget. Some of the props used were made by us such as the preparing for the pictures and taking pictures of Monika and doing some location shots. Preparing the props actually took us longer than actually filming the whole movie opening. The costumes we used are just some casual clothes that we picked from our wardrobes that we think would represent and symbolize  more meaning for our film. For the villain's weapon we just used a typical kitchen knife which could be seen being used by the villain to stab the victim's photo. There was a general idea that the knife would be shown while the villain walk up the stairs but for health and safety reasons we decided not to include it.

Filming Schedule

We had to organise our meetings well. Considering the fact that all out editing had to be done on iMovie in school we have decided to do most of the blogging at home. In order to edit our opening sequence together we had consider each other's lesson times and find time which we could share.

We have divided our work on blog and we have tried to share work equally so each of us had similar amount of blogging to do. Most of our blogging took place at home, in case of any questions we have contacted each other through texting or we simply rang each other.

 At first we have thought that we would be able to do all of our filming on one go, however we have quickly realised that it won't be possible. To do filiming part of our coursework we have met up quite a few times. We have struggled with battery which have died half way through our filming or rainy weatcher (so we could't film outdoor). In final stage of editing we had to extend our rough cut opening sequence and re-film some footage once again. Our meeting were well organised and thanks to that we were getting on smoothly with our editing and blogging.

Film Plot

In our two minute start of the film. The starting plot would be brief there are only two settings present, two characters shown one of which is the villain and the  other one is one of the victims. There is also a minimal use of dialogue and diegetic sounds and the sound would be dominated by non-diegetic music which would create the tense atmosphere which would compliment the the short footage.

The villain's identity would not be revealed in the two minute opening. The main film plot would be about a psychotic villain who follows and takes picture of the girls that he fancies and end up killing them. The villain enjoys being in control and would try to overpower everyone around him. The way he would overpower his victims are by taking away thier lives which is the ultimate form of overpowering someone.


There are no clear plot for the opening because we would just try to keep the audience at the start of the film. We both felt that adding a sophisticated narrative would require some dialogue and this would not create the best tension atmosphere there is so  we both agreed to minimized dialogue and try to maximise the tension in our film.


Our opening links to Todorov,s Narrative theory. Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages: A state of equilibrium at the outset. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action. A recognition that there has been a disruption. However the theory only applies to our media product up to the third stage of the narrative theory because we decided to end with a black screen to act as a cliffhanger. 

Moodboard

Director Inspiration - Christoper Nolan

Born in London in 1970, Christopher Nolan began making films at the age of seven. Chris studied English Literature at University College London while starting to make 16mm films at the college film society. His short film 'larceny' was shown at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996, and his other 16mm shorts include a three- minute surreal film called 'doodlebug'.

He is famous for his works in the Batman remakes such as 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight' both of which have been give good reviews by critics and rallied many loyal fans who awaits the release of 'The Dark Knight Rises' this summer. He is also famous for the award winning science fiction, action, heist film written by Christoper Nolan personally for eight years. Because of his recent sucess in 'The Dark Knight' he managed to secure $100 million in advertising expenditure alone. He also directed the psychological thriller Memento that is well known for its disruption of time flow and and slowly extendind the story for each flashbacks of the main character most viewers found it as a masterpiece and a genius work and use of time in the thriller genre.

He is known for ending the film where the narrative starts he usually do this by using a flashback or a scene from the end of the movie. The way he constructs his film narrative by using a unique story telling technique is mostly used in his films; he often flips around the three acts of a movie to tell the story in an interesting fashion and engages the audience. And he often ends his film with a sometimes startling jump cut to black screen he did this in Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, and most significantly in Inception when he created a controversial cliffhanger on whether or not the main character is still dreaming.

He has influenced our storyline by his use of non linear technique which is used in our film by having  2 different settings in the opening credits and the way we ended our opening credits with a black screen to let a different setting and narrative into the story and actually starts the main body of the film.