Audience Feedback

Here are comments that people gave after watching our film:

"Everytime I watch it, it makes me throw up in my mouth." - James Burke

"I enjoyed the fast cuts that built up the tension throughout the thriller sequence." - Francesca Dowle

"It was truely rancid!" - Olivia Cox

"It was...interesting, and kinda disgusting!" - Lara Wadsworth

"I'm not going to eat meat again!" - Ruby Kammer

"The soundtrack really helped with the tension." - Pip Milner

"The close ups of the meat and blood were very rough and gruesome!" - Ellie Bland

Over 74% of people who watched the film thought the gore worked really well, and they truely enjoyed, these people were in the ages of 16-25. However, the remaining 16% felt it was too much blood and gore, therefore did not enjoy it as much, however, these people were above the ages of our target audience, so we can understand their negative reaction.

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

I feel that the progression from the preliminary task to our thriller film is vast, not only our techniques and skill used, but also the confidence in ourselves in which we needed to complete the film.

Firstly, the planning and preparation for our preliminary task was little. We were given a morning to film a short sequence which was shown to us through a storyboard. We did not need to plan our setting, or the camera and lights. This is a huge contrast to our thriller, where much of the term was occupied by finding locations, and preparing sets. We knew that we wanted a butcher for the establishing shots, therefore we researched on the internet places which were near by, after many rejections, we finally found a place in Godalming. Once this was done, we decided what our studio would look like, which we based on the story board that we had previously drawn to help with the planning. Our shooting day was planned out in much depth, we knew what we were doing at all parts of the day. This shows how the planning of the preliminary task was so basic and simple, but much more responsibility was put on us for our main task, therefore we took control and prepared it fully to gain the best outcome.

We were only shown easy shots, such as close up, wide shots etc in our preliminary task, but in the main task we could choose what shots best represented our genre, and I feel that our shots achieved this. In the preliminary task we settled with dialogue to tell the story, because our knowledge of shots were little. However, we had no dialogue in our main task, therefore the story telling was done through the sophisticated shots, such as:

This low angle shot represent his power and controlling manner. We also decided to use a close up low angle shot to really show his evil expression on his face, which again is an aim of the film, to show the actors bad side. The rest of the screen being dark shows how evil the film is meant to be, this is a contrast with our prelim task:

A shot of a gun should be scary and mysterious, however because of our lack of knowledge, it does not have this effect as the rest of the screen in bright, therefore to an audience is it not scary. This is a contrast with the shot on the right, from our main task, where we purposely only used a hanging light so the rest of the screen would be dark, to create a tense, scary atmosphere. We used lots of different shots, which were all picked out and chosen to show something, for example, lots of close up shots of the meat, to show the gore and blood which will hopefully disgust the audience:

The use of sound has developed greatly. We used no sound when editing the preliminary task, everything heard was filmed. However, in our main task, we kept the sounds heard when filming, however we enhanced these sounds by finding more on "Sound Track Pro." For example, when cutting the meat, sounds of "velcro" was heard quietly to repulse the audience further. Not only this, but also a soundtrack was added to create suspense. For example, when the meat was being cut the sound of a "heart beat" played quietly, as well as dark, mysterious music, to create an eerie, evil atmosphere.

Only a small amount of editing was done on the preliminary task. We were taught how to create bins and put the most important shots from the rush into the bin. However, the skill used was very little, they were not smooth:

This improved greatly towards doing the main task. This is shown through the smooth cuts we were able to get in our thriller, for example, from long shots to close ups, or when the character is taking off his jacket. Our knowledge of "Final cut pro" improved also, because we were able to edit with little help from our teachers, and put our own edge of the editing, depending on what kind of atmosphere we wanted to create.

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

Task 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

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Task 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

•The target audience is a lower-middle class citizen.
•Male or female, however more likely males to see it for the vast use of gratuitous violence and blood.
•Some parents will be interested to watch because it is about a topic which is relevant to their lives today: the wellbeing of our food.
•Teenagers would be engrossed because of the gore, but also the characters involved are teenagers therefore they would be able to relate to it. (Although these character are not shown in the opening sequence, they are the main characters later on in the plot)

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

The media institution that I think would be suitable to distribute my media product would most likely be 'Lionsgate.' It is the most commercially successful independant film and television company in North America, which distributes well known franchises such as: Saw and Hostel. These films are both popular horror genres, which shock the audience through the gruesome torture porn, deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. Due to the gratuitous plot, and vast use of blood, the genre of these films are similar to my media product, especially Saw. Many of the shots in the opening sequence are close ups of the meat and blood, therefore focusing on the most important bit of the film:

The opening sequence of the thriller, is more about the blood and close up shots of meat, than the plot itself, therefore I feel that 'Lionsgate' would be appropriate because the same centre of attention is put on the gruesomeness of the torture that the characters go through. That is why I think 'Lionsgate' would distribute it because it is similar to what they have done previously, and it would be a franchise good to invest in. Also audiences would expect this thriller to be distributed from 'Lionsgate,' therefore more people are likely to watch it because it look at 'Lionsgate' for that kind of genre.

Task 2 - How does your product represent particular social groups?

My product represents particular social groups because different classes are represented through the character, and who the character is trying to sell it to you. Firstly, the butcher represents working class. Because the background of the character would suggest that he didn't go to university, but went into working the trade and through that got his job. Therefore this shows how he is working class, which is relevant to many of the audience members because they would be attracted to watch it because the character is realistic and accessible, not a hero who they cannot relate to. Working Class citizens are generally represented in the media as criminals or troubled people, this is similar to my thriller because the working class person, is the evil person in the film. Also, another social group would be the middle class, who are the consumers of the meat. They are represented through the logo "Quality Organic Farm Fresh"

This implies the type of people who prefer to buy organic and feel 'safe' in the false hope that they are eating well because it is 'organic,' this slightly mocks these middle class people. Mainly the lower-middle class is represented in the our media product, however, I hope that many more social groups will be eager to watch it, because of other reasons.

Evaluation Question Tasks- Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our thriller, we used a fade in fade out use of title sequence. Rather than stopping the sequence to add a credit, we decided to do it inside of the sequence, therefore people can keep watching the action, because that is what they are most interested, however, they can also appreciate the makers of it whilst doing so. Throughout the opening sequence, the credits of the film were placed at the edge of the screen. We placed it there so that no focus was taken from the action happening in the film:


The photo on the right shows the vast use of blood, and the heart with the poison. This would hopefully disgust the audience, however, following through with the order of the credits, we still put one in this shot, however, we cleverly put it to the side therefore all the focus could still be on the gore.
This is very similar to other films of this genre. Because what is going on, on the screen is the most important, therefore we keep most of hte focus on the action by placing the credits at the side of the screen, therefore it is still seen but not overwhelming. We decided to use two seperate layers, therefore the name of the person could be a bigger font, and the job title would be smaller, this is similar to "Halloween," which is a similar genre. Therefore it upholds conventions of the film genre:

The editing of the film is very fast pace, this is too built tension and make it more dramatic. However, we decided to make the credits fade in and fade out, therefore it is much smoother and slower. This is challenging audiences expectations because normally if the film is fast paced, the credits will reflect, but we decided to not do this, for a good reason.This contrast was purposely done to juxtapose real life with the action going on in the film. The actor is clearly a disturbed man who seeks to hurt other by poisoning the meat, therefore the quick edit reflects his character: short and angry. This juxtaposed with the slow, smooth credits shows the normality of the world, and how he is troubled. We decided to show the title at the end of the sequence, this creates a good start to the rest of the film. At the end of the sequence, the man walks out of the shot, then there is a black out, while the music stops. This creates tension for the audience because they will be wanting to know what happens next. Then suddenly the title appears in the centre of the screen, in a big font. This immediately dramatises this because the font size is much bigger than the other credits, showing its importance.

When it appears, there is a sound effect of a boom at the same time, this shocks the audience, and makes them eager and excited to see the rest of the film because of the dramatic ending of the opening sequence. This is a great aim that we had for our opening sequence, that it would appear to lead onto a good exhilirating film.

Post Production Main Task

Our prelim task was very basic, and our crew had little input into what we were going to do. We were given a story board, with dialogue, which we had to follow. Our set was the school studio; it was very simple, merely a back wall with the room light on. We had the camera on a tripod, which we filmed the shots that the story board directed us to do. However, our thriller we had to do much more planning and preparation for it, because it was almost entirely up to us. Therefore we had pre production planning, like finding a location to film our opening shots when the character walks into the butcher. This took a lot of careful planning, and asking and organising the owners if we could film there. When we were back at the studio, we decided exactly what to do with it. Because the character was walking into the ‘fridge,’ we put a set up of a four wall space, with a table in the centre. The lighting was very specific to our idea, we wanted to portray the man doing it all in secret, therefore we made it very dark, by just having a hanging light above the table, therefore making the rest of the room look very dark and mysterious, giving an scary affect to the film. The choice of shots was entirely up to us, therefore we had to do our own story boards and dialogue. We followed the story boards, therefore doing many more shots than we did in our prelim tasks. The shots was also harder to achieve, doing different ones, like close ups, panning, establishing shots, therefore it took longer to set up the camera and get it in focus; this was much harder than our prelim task. The main skill we applied to our thriller and what we learnt from our prelim was the ability to work on our own, and it is our responsibility for everything.

Our editing skills vastly improved from our prelim task, because we only did a small amount of editing, therefore we didn’t learn how to do it in much depth, we also didn’t learn how to add sound or special effects. When editing our thriller, we had to make it relevant to the mood of the rest of the film. Therefore, we made the thriller relatively fast cut, to create a quick pace, scary mood for the audience. And a slight disorientation because it happens quickly, so the audience knows that what the man is doing is extremely wrong. We didn’t want to have the shots going on for too long, therefore we watched over each shot over and over again, finding the minimal amount needed, therefore we could quickly move onto the next shot. We tried to use a lot of close ups of the meat, because our main aim was to disgust the audience, with lots of blood and guts. The order of the shots to relative to the story, of the man cutting up the meat and putting it into the box. We had to be careful which shots we used, depending on when the character wiped his blood covered hands onto his apron, so obviously after that was done we could only use those shots when he had blood on the apron.

We did not have any dialogue in our thriller, therefore we muted what we had on the camera, and just added sounds when editing. Our diegetic sound was mainly the sound of the meat being cut, or oozing blood. This created the style of the piece, rather than it being a horror and meant to scare people, we have gone another direction and decided to disgust the audience with the shots of meat, enhanced by the sound of meat being cut. In times when the he was cutting the meat, we found sound effects that sounded like it and added it to the shots, so therefore it sounded more full and enhanced realism. As it would be much louder than what it would be on camera, it would shock the audience, this is what we were aiming for. We added a general soundtrack to the entire film, of the sound of air conditioning, this is diegetic because he would have the air conditioning in the room, therefore making it more realistic, and giving the effect that the man was inside the big fridge in the butcher, which he walked into, even though actually he is in our studio. Also when he is walking into the butchers the sound of birds and street traffic is played very quietly, almost quieter than the creepy music played over the top, this is to show that although we are in a normal place, the situation is very different.
However, our non diegetic sound was a sound we found on pro track. When the character is walking into the butcher we used dark, mysterious sounds to create the initial mood of the film. It makes the day time walking into the butcher, suddenly frightening because it makes the audience realise that what he is about to do is evil. At the times when the character cut the meat, the diegetic sound of the enhanced meat was done, but also a boom dramatic sound was used to make it scarier, the aim of this was to make the cut much more dramatic, to shock the audience. A general soundtrack was added to the film, in places where he was not cutting the meat, instead dark, mysterious music was played. We got this music off Sound Track Pro. It sounded very distorted and scary, very low notes were played. We took time looking through Sound Track Pro to make the sound that would best match what was going on in the film.

The titles and graphics of the film were specifically chosen to suit the genre of the film. The film is quite fast cut, however we fade in each title which we played at the bottom left or right hand side of the screen. We made the title of work a bigger font than the name to show the important of what they did, for example “a lionsgate film.” We chose to do a small amount of credits, because we did not think that it needed much, therefore more focus would be on what was actually happening on screen rather than the titles. However, at the end of the opening sequence, when the character walks out of the room, there is a black out. After this blackout, “RANCID” pops up in huge letters centre screen. This gives a good ending to the opening sequence, and a powerful beginning to the rest of the film.

I feel that what I have explained above, and that choices that I and the other members of the crew have decided about the thriller, was all done to appeal to our audience. The genre of the film was thriller/horror; this immediately appeals to a mass teenage audience. However, what we have done with the film has made the audience much more specific but also widened the range hugely. The use of violence, blood and gore, attracts teenagers, however what makes them come to the cinema to watch it, is different to why they would enjoy it. The film is tastefully done to make the audience disgusted at what they are watching. The use of music either enhances what they are doing, for example the squelching when the meat was being cut. Also the use of ‘boom’ when the knife slams down on the table shocks the audience. Teenagers enjoy being shocked, disgusted and memorised. And I feel that our thriller has achieved this because people will remember it because it was so different yet still what they love to see.

Account of the Editing Process and Difficulties Encountered

The editing process started off quite difficult because we had so much footage which all looked the same: the cutting up of the meat. Therefore this made it hard to know what shots to use where. So when we were putting the shots into bins, it took a long time to figure out which shots went where. after finishing the bins with the shots in, we then began putting it in order and editing it. Problems that we encountered was that it didn't flow, and some of our cuts were too long, this is something we had to work on alot to mak the entire film look better. When cutting from a long shot to a close up, or visa versa, this was difficult getting it in exactly the right place, basically making it look smooth, therefore alot of time was spent on this. However, our group picked up on how to edit relatively well, therefore we got the rough lay out of the film done well, however to make it better, by making it smoother and flowing, this took most of the time.

Account of Shoot Day

We began the day in our classroom going over everything make sure it was all in order and ready. We had previously set up our studio, getting the table in place, with the light and the walls.

We then went to the butchers on location, in godalming. We then evaluated the butchers, which had a backdoor which was perfect for our character to walk through to get into the back room. We filmed him walking through, and into the backroom. We also did some shots of the interior of the butchers to establish the location and show interesting shots of the knives and hanging meat. This part of the day was very similar to the story board, the only fabrications was the added shots of the interior. This location was chosen because it had a back fridge which was perfect for the character to walk into for it to be his secret room. The reset of the interior of the butchers also worked well because it was quite large, and was slightly spereate to the shot room where the meat was actually placed or customers to buy. This meant we could do lots of establishing shots of the interior showing the size and what was there.

However, when we came back to the studio, which was set up ready, we did alter some of the shots that we had previously written down. We did lots of close up of the meat, to show the inside and how disgusting it was. We cut these in with wide and medium shots of the character cutting the meat, and putting it in the box etc. The close up shots of the meat worked really well because it looked really gruesome. Also other close ups worked well, like the shot of the logo on the box, showing that it was 'organic,' this reinforced the shock that this kind of meat was being contaminated. Wide shots of the character in the studio worked well, because the room was dark apart from the light above the desk, this made it look scary and creepy, reinforcing the entire mood of the film.

The props for the shoot worked well, the huge meat cleaver which was slightly rusty, suggested the long use of it, implying the character had experience. The syringe used to inject the drug into the meat was good, although it would have looked better if there were much more laying around on the desk, but that was difficult to get. The white apron that he wore worked really well because it contrasted largely with the blood smered onto it.

The character was meant to be a grown man, who had a creepy, angry edge to him. Oour media teacher Guy fitted this perfectly because he had experience in butchering, and his hands were mostly filmed, and they were big, this worked better than using a school boy.

We used natural light, a light hanging in the centre of the set, over the worktop. This made it look realistic, and also made the rest of the set look dark, and eery. The light used on location was just the natural light in the butchers.

The whole day went, the whole crew took turns in holding the camera, continuity checks, and directing the actor. However the crew decided on what jobs they would do, for exmaple, I was the directed, and someone else was the producer. Alot of work was put into our jobs because it was how the film was going to happen, and would not have worked without us. I was relatively pleased with the outcome, although I wanted to get a shot of the meat being put onto a truck, but we werent able to get a truck, and the weather was too bad to film outside.