Killing Jennifer - Main task

Peer Assessment - Killing Jennifer Draft 1

Ben Wakley 
               Stuart Bean

Angel Sali

WWW:

• Looking over your blog, I am pleased that you have made a really good start on all Evaluation questions Nicole
• There are some really good attempts to make posts visual in some way, and your written comments show a very good grasp of what each question requires of you

EBI:

• To improve, and move that standard of your work towards a B-A grade, you should come back to your posts and continue to develop them Nicole.
• I checked Q. 2 and 5 carefully, as these were the 2 that we agreed on in last Monday's lesson. There are some developments that I'd like you to do to improve each...
• Q. 2 is currently Very Good. Your comments to camera are carefully considered and show a good understanding of issues around representation. I think it could be moved to 'Excellent' through the inclusion of screen grabs from your own film sequence to support the points you say about how your character challenges typical gender stereotypes, and issues surrounding ideas of the 'damsel in distress'. As you speak to camera about this, you could edit your mini movie to show shots of typical historical images of the 'damsel' from film... and contrast these to you in role in your opneing sequence. Think about SHOW rather than tell...
• Q. 5 - I am impressed with your use of Prezi for this post Nicole - but again, why not try supporting what you have written about capturing the interest of your viewers through including a selection of screen grabs from your opening sequence to demonstrate your thinking.

Overall effort for Q. 2 and 5: VG

Assessment - 'Killing Jennifer' First Draft

Peer & Self assessment on Evaluation

Peer Assessment:from the feedback that has been given i feel it proves that i have improved a fair amount from my Preliminary task to my main task. I feel that the progress I have made in my personal skills are very important and knowing that my peer feels the same as i do, makes me feel more confident within my filming. 

 Self Assessment: The critique that i have given myself matches with the critique of  my peer, which allows me to improve in a positive direction. From my preliminary task and the main task i feel i have definitely improved within every aspect of making a video. 

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

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

5) How did you attract/ address your target audience?

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

I used the power of social networking to collect some extra data to get a richer understanding of the audience for my Psychological thriller, 'Killing Jennifer'. 
How did the audience knew what the opening sequence was like? I posted a video link to the youtube page, which the opening was allocated and from there I asked if they would watch and give feedback. From the information I received from different range of people via Facebook, the feedback suggests that 'Killing Jennifer' May appeal more to the teenage generation (16 - 23). However certain aspects of the opening does appeal to the Older generation, but depending on their own taste of films that may determine how they respond to this 'kidnap' psychological thriller. 

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

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

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

Paragraph 1)
The mood created within our opening sequence is a standard convention as it set the tone for our genre and then allows the audience to quickly connect to what is happening on screen. With our genre being a psychological thriller, the mood it sets is very daunting and can be confusing for the audience as they are unaware as to what to except, due to the first couple of shots being a light switching on. Comparing this to the opening sequence of the psychological thriller film 'Inception' they seem to almost create the same mood due to 'Inceptions' use of chilling and high intensive music and the only first few shots you see are crashing waves. Both openings give a chilling and on-edge mood for the audience.


Paragraph 2)
With establishing shots, this will then allow the audience to notice everything that surrounds a main or supporting character. This establishing shot can determine how the audience feels about the opening as it could intrigue them or make them no longer interested in the film. The establishing shot we have included in our opening is of the garage door, from this it tells the audience that Jennifer, who has been captured, is all alone and that no one is around to help. This contrasts well with the establishing shot in the film 'Brick' as you notice that he is all alone and whoever left him this note is no longer around. Again both establishing shots are used conventions and 

Assessment 23/1/12 LFE

WWW

• Nicole you have attempted all of the posts we have asked you to complete so far so this is a good start.
• Your post on how you represented social groups is very visual post howver I think you can develop your ideas on this further.

EBI

• You need to add in more detail for all of your posts, so as you go along and gain more information from the lessons you will need to edit these posts.
• Your post on tagret audience needs more depth. You could build a profile of your specified audience and describe not only their age and gender but discuss further the sorts of things they may like doing in their spare time, what sort of films, music etc may they watch or listen to?
• Your media technologies post requires more than just a few bullet points on editing techniques you may have used. Think about doing a Jing presentations showing how you use media technologies such as Scribd, or you uploading to your blog and how using this has improved or aided your work.
• Your posts need to be more visual so bear this in mind.

Grade: IN (these are drafts at the moment but they have the potential to be good)

assessment - Planning SJA 18/12/11

Peer Assessment - planning

Shooting Schedule

Casting

Who we chose for casting, and why we chose them:

For our victim, we chose to use a female character.  This is because stereotypically women are presented as being weaker and more vulnerable then men, therefore she has a low status.  Also, our female character is small and has a light hair colour which suggests that she is innocent.  The innocence of this character is effective because it makes the audience sympathize for her, and want her to overcome what she is going through or about to go through. We have decided to me and the victim as i fit the typical small, blonde female , and also i was willing to be the victim

Our murderer is a male character, with dark hair and tall.  This is because men are stereotypically stronger, and more powerful then women so have a higher status over them and control them.  As this character is more powerful and aggressive the audience feel less sympathy towards this character, and concentrate on what they think the character is doing, who they are, and why they are doing it. We have chosen Matt to be the Killer as he again fits the typical 'Killer' image.

Post created by Becka

The Titles

The fonts we have chosen link to our handwriting font idea as this could then show the audience that the Killer may have written the titles, telling us these characters may be quite personal to him. We are unsure of if we will stick to the name 'A Childs Nightmare' so for now it is just a temporary title.


over an image titles:

The Wire (All Due Respect, 26/09/04, US)

This is how we want our titles to look. We think that having the text over the shots looks better than having it over black. It allows the audience to ask more questions and want to know more, rather then the 'fake world' they are seeing to be interrupted. This example from The Wire is perfect as the font they use is very similar to the font we want to use and the positioning of the titles too.

over the black titles:

The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999, US)

Even if we did want to do titles over black it would be hard as our opening sequence has to be under two minutes and the titles may take 3-4 seconds each, narrowing down the time allowed for the opening sequence. Although this works for The Sixth Sense, I don't think it would work with our opening sequence.


Post created by Matt

Props, Costume & Location

Killer Costume

* Dark Clothes
* Lack of Colour --> Cold Character?
* Not much of his body is revealed (Mysterious)

Victim Costume

* Girl ( Age, 20)

* Bright Clothes with Colour (Gives some emotion, suggests a bright personality? The character likes to express themselves)

Props

These are images of all the different props that we will be using in our piece.

Chair *Where the victim is tied down

Rope*To hold victim down and To be used by killer to connect images.

Pin Board*For our Killer's 'Hit List'

Pins*For killer to place into board.

Location

The dark room which the killer will hold his victim in the opening of our film. It is a cold room that looks cramped so it is definitely going to be an uncomfortable environment for viewers to see.


Post created by Nathan

Animatic of our Opening Sequence

Post created by Matt

Character Descriptions

bubble created by me

Video created by the group

Storyboard

 

The storyboard shows that opening sequence will be shot in a small confided room, where the main character is tied to a chair in the centre of the room, random clips of the main character of a child and other children will appear on a screen, showing the audience this kidnapper knew this person when she/he was younger. The use of extreme close ups and regular close ups is to entice the audience and creates mystery which is typical of a psychological Thriller. Our final decision when creating our storyboard was that we will only show the silhouette of the kidnapper at the very end of the title sequence, which will then lead nicely into the main film.

Videos of my group working on our storyboards, showing our team work and dedication to the opening sequence

Sound

All the Sounds and sound effects we input into our opening sequence will all be copyright free, or made by ourselves. This is a link to the Horror Drones sound that I found on Freesound.org: http://www.freesound.org/people/DJ%20Chronos/sounds/52134/

Peer Assessment - Research

Shot List

A Child's Nightmare - Synopsis

Initial Ideas