Planning

The making of Seclusion

We made a short video using extra footage to show how we made Seclusion and also to show how much fun we had making it. 

This shows the experimental process we had during the filming and post production of our film trailer.


Initial ideas can be seen here as well as unused footage. The video also contains both our potential actresses.

Welcome

Welcome to our A2 Media Coursework Blog

Seclusion is a psychological thriller about the dangers and power of the internet. Seclusion follows a police woman as she investigates the suspected suicide/murders of young girls who all have one link. 

We were inspired by the growing number of issues regarding internet safety particularly in regards to social networking.

Our narrative looks at the extreme consequences that could possibly occur if internet privacy is invaded.

By Abby Simcox , Harriet Finch & Abigail Dare

Evaluation Questions

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2
Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 4

Tasks

Poster Design

Webpage

Teaser Trailer

Evalutation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4:
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the making, research, planning and evaluation stages of our teaser trailer, film poster and film webpage we used many different media technologies to complete each task.

CREATION:

• Photoshop - we used Adobe Photoshop to manoeuvre our images to create our poster deigns.Using audience feedback we were able to finalise our final poster design.
  
• iMovie  montage sequence at the end of our trailer where we show the images of the killers victims, which we later changed by merging it with other clips to build tension for our final trailer.
  
  
  
  
• Wix - We used Wix, a free website creation site, to make our teaser films website homepage. It allowed us to create hyperlinks between pages and show part of our trailer before being sent to the main homepage.
  
  
  
• Cameras - With our teaser trailer being one which evolves around online technology we decided to use two different types of cameras to show the different perspectives. We found this to be a common factor in 'Megan is missing' a film we researched into for camera angles. After researching into this specific film we decided to use similar shots to show the males point of view. However, to show the killers perspective we used a hand held camera throughout the running scenes so that the clip was jolted.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
• Garageband - When creating the suitable music for our teaser trailer we collected various clips of music and sound effects and used Garageband to layer the clips together and edit them to fit the trailer. To ensure that the music fitted perfectly we uploaded the edited trailer on to Garageband so that we could add the music straight to the trailer itself. We were able to use more advance effects on Garageband through trial and error, which allowed us to test defferent styles and effects our to see which worked best.
  
  
  

RESEARCH:

During the research stages of our A2 project we watched a wide range of youtube video's to gain inspiration for our trailer. To fully understand the uses of sound, editing, mise en scne and lighting we deconstructed a variety of trailers such as megan is missing, disturbia and hard candy.

To find real news stories which related to our narrative we were fortunate enough to watch a documentary on Channel 4 called My social network stalker.Along with this we found numberous news articles and a warning leaflet appealing to teenagers, making them aware of the dangers of the internet and who you are talking to.

When deconstructing film websites which have a similar narrative as our own film, we realised that there is very little in the picture so that the focus is clear. When comparing the two website homepages they both use dark colours showing that the film is eery which imediately draws the target audience in. On our homepage we use little text and bold lettering so that it is easy to use.

PLANNING:

When planning the order of our film trailer we created a variety of storyboards, changing them as we developed our ideas. Originally we had filled our mantage with images of the killers victims, but through development we added moving clips such as the running scene and the eye shot to make the scene jumpy, building the tension.

EVALUATION:

Once our teaser trailer was completed we uploaded it onto youtube and put the link onto facebook so that we could recieve audience feedback.

SECLUSION YOUTUBE 

Research

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Audience response has been helpful in the creation of our trailer due to the contemporary issue our film trailer addresses. We were keen to gain audience response from the beginning of our research first allowing our audience to choose the title of our film. During the process of the creation of our trailer and blog we have gained high levels of audience interest reaching well over 1000 views. As well as a high number of views we have also gained a high audience range as our audience location ranges from not just the UK alone.

Audience feedback played a crucial role in the inital research as we asked audience opinions on various issues in the aid of our challenging and using codes and conventions of genre for example the use of a blonde victim. Audience feedback has been an essential tool in the production of our tasks as for both the poster and website tasks we produced more than one option and then allowed our audience to make the final decision. We created a Questionnaire to help in research of our audience's interests. With the results of this questionnaire previously posted.

Questionnaire Results

 Audience has been most effectively found through the use of social media , specifically "Facebook" as we gained a variety of comments praising our work as well as being critical. Shown below is a Pie Chart displaying the ratio of positive commentary to negative/critical commentary, by this it appears that our trailer has been successful with our target audience.It appears the most effective part of our trailer according to audience feedback is our hanging shot at the end of the sequence in silence , shocking our audience, showing that it has proved effective.

Audience commentary has also emphasised the point of our narrative of how popular the use of social media is with our audience, as we gained our responses through social networking, the most popular form of feedback appeared on Facebook.

Combining the opinions of other media students - we arranged a small focus group to gain audience feedback from people outside of the classroom but aware of the detail that was required in our piece. A small questionnaire was given to them. All students appeared to identify the genre of our piece correctly as a psychological thriller as well as our target audience. Their identification with our audience was significant as it was their age group that was our demographic. 

It also appeared that the most effective part of our trailer was the hanging shot at the end- therefore proving that our trailer had been successful in delivering the message of warning through a cliffhanger ending of our trailer.

Evaluation Question 2

How effective are the combination of your ancillary tasks

We wanted our tasks to have some form of relation to each other, therefore we used a recurring motifs from each task with the other. For the poster we made numerous options to choose from leaving it to our audience to make the final decision. The final choice involved a screen shot from our teaser trailer of a blended image of an eye and an online conversation. We also took a lot of influence from the poster of "Chatroom" with the merging of computer screens in the background to create an image, but rather than created an image we tinted the entire background red to associate with the death involved in the film's narrative.

The inspiration for this as a poster also came from an advertisment warning online users of the dangers of the user of webcams online, therefore we though this would be a well recognised image.

 We also created two variations of our poster design depending on audience. We created a poster suitable to be shown in bus stop advertisments as well as on billboard designs.

We designed a mind map to experiment with different typography and font designs to use on all of our ancillary tasks , almost like a recurring logo. Eventually choosing a typewriter styled font , again relating to the technology based narrative, but also similar to the style of police reports

Although we wanted to use our audience's most popular design choice , when printing our designs on paper , due to the use of computer screen images as our background , they became very pixelated in later development. To solve this issue we decided to use the second most popular design of the hanging legs on a laptop screen. We also found this linked better in terms of combination also as the hanging scene appears to be the most effective and shocking part of our teaser trailer, therefore would be the most memorable. The image of a laptop screen would also still give the implication that the narrative of the film is related to technology.

In our further development of this design we were able to improve the quality of the poster giving a more professional appearance. We also used the credits from the end of our teaser trailer in the lower section of the trailer. 

In this design we also changed the positioning of the tag line to the top of the trailer as the majority of the information of the film is located towards the lower part of the poster, therefore to reduce a cluttered appearance we changed this positioning. This allows a more simplistic appearance for audiences to focus on.

Another recurring motif used in our designs was the image background of our blog. We used this image again due to the audience interest gained from the research and production of the film to then lead audiences to the website , therefore the image would be well recognisable. The idea of an "Unknown Killer" is also explored as the identity of the male character is shielded by the camera , linking with narrative of our killer hiding behind a webcam

In further developments of our webpage design we wanted to show further relation between our tasks and therefore placed our teaser trailer in the centre of the homepage. To design the homepage, after looking at other film website, we were able to design it according to the codes and conventions of the home pages in terms of content including a synopsis, gallery and downloads tabs. We also added quotations of possible reviews from popular UK newspapers, showing that our film is specifically for a British audience. 

As our homepage appeared quite simplistic we decided to create an introductory page consisting of moving footage , recognizable from our teaser trailer in the lead up to the memorable hanging image. With the use of the image all of our tasks were linked by the memorable and shocking image of the hanging legs.


Initially we created a website with the background image from our blog of a hidden photographer, linking with the use of webcams in our narrative and trailer, however using this did prove an effective link.


To create an effective combination , we included the image of an open laptop as the background to our homepage , creating a new level of interactivity as we then placed our teaser trailer onto this screen. This interactivity is similar to previous film websites we had researched such as "When a Stranger Calls" and "Disturbia". 

If given the opportunity however we would have used a different website construction to create our homepage as we were limited in terms of interactivity.

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question


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


We researched many trailers in the style of our genre, psychological thriller, or trailers with similar themes. One of the trailers we deconstructed was the 'Trust' trailer which is about a girl who is targeted by an online predator. This shares similar themes to our trailer and both use modern technology as a key feature.


We researched the codes and conventions of trailers and also compared the difference between theatrical trailers and teaser trailers. We found that theatrical trailers showed longer footage and told more of the story whereas teaser trailers used short, flashing clips which used hooks to draw in the audience. 

This trailer of Atonement is a theatrical version and lasts 2:31. It introduces the main characters and tells a lot of the story through long clips and direct speech from the film.

This is another trailer of the same film but is a teaser trailer and a much shorter version at 1:50. This uses very little direct speech from the film, shorter clips and has a more dramatic tone to it through the music which engages the audience more quickly.

 

All teaser trailers contain an ident, release date, title, a moment of disequilibrium and a hook. Our genre always contains a stereotypical female teenage victim who is usually blonde. This was confirmed after we sent out a questionnaire result to our target audience and the result showed that a blonde victim was most popular.


We also used real media texts as inspiration for our piece. Modern technology is constantly evolving and has been rapidly increasing in the last 10 years. As technology evolves, people's fears also grow as hackers become more sophisticated and online predators become more frequent. We read many news articles which involve online pedophiles and children on social networking sites and decided to use this idea as a basis behind our plot.


As well as being a thriller, we wanted our piece to act as a warning and make people more aware about online safety and the dangers of anonymity online.


This is a leaflet I found at a doctor's surgery which is a warning about Peeping Tom's. It caught my eye amongst other leaflets because of the eye which stand out on the front. It shows that it is a series issue and one which is becoming more common as more children are using the internet freely and unsupervised.

We found that all of our questionnaire responses from our earlier post answered yes to the question 'have you ever used a webcam' and many also said they did not always know the recipient. We decided to develop the idea of unknown identity and the risk of online predators by having an unknown killer who isn't revealed until the end of the film. We wanted to show how easy it is to have a hidden identity and hide behind the safety of the internet. To do this we only showed shots from the back of the killer and by having stereotypical usernames such as sexybabe101. We also developed the idea of webcams by filming a lot of our scenes on an Apple Mac webcam which gave a realistic and authentic look.


The use of webcams also developed our shots as we were able to use match on action using 2 cameras and 2 angles.

Match on action shot 2

Match on action shot 1

Match on action shot 3

As the mise en scene of the girls bedroom was a crucial part of our film in order to create the desired ambiance and representation of the girl we decided to design our own bedroom. We took an empty room which was still being built and developed and brought in our own furniture and items to create the exact look we wanted. We developed the bedroom from stereotypical to a promiscuous girls bedroom using a few items such as a book, dressing gown and magazine. This is a representation of a teenage girl in her late teens who is sexual and comfortable in her self and with the person on webcam. This is similar to the film Megan is Missing where her bedroom can be seen.


The end of our trailer challenges the traditional codes and conventions of our genre as it is unexpected and shocking and continues to use the idea of unknown identities. We chose to show the hanging legs at the end to keep the audience in suspense and use the traditional convention of a hook but play on the idea by keeping the identity of the victim hidden. We decided to show one victim the whole way through but used the flashing scene followed by the legs to suggest there is other victims. 

As well as our trailer we also had two ancillary tasks which would be used to compliment and advertise our trailer which were a poster and a webpage. 

We deconstructed many webpages and found that all contained the trailer to the film they were advertising and therefore we decided to put our trailer onto our homepage. As well as this we found they were visual and interactive so we added our initial flashing scene to our webpage as the opening screen which would immediately interest our audience. This was inspired by both the "When a stranger calls" and Disturbia websites which uses the interactive websites to engage their audience. The key features of official movie websites were;

• The teaser trailer
• The release date
• Homepage
• And a merchandise section 

We started by using the same background on our website as our blog to continue the theme in both and to provide a link for our audience but we found a greater link by having an open computer on both the poster and website. We used the same courier font as we have throughout our trailer, blog and poster and used simple colours and layout.

We started our poster by drawing some initial designs using ideas from our initial storyboard. We looked at several posters from our most influential films and liked the simplicity from "When a Stranger Calls" and their use of the black background and phone as the central image. We experimented with our poster designs and came up with one which was inspired by the "Chatroom" poster which used a pixelated mosaic as a background. We thought this poster worked well but we needed to add a few key conventions of a poster, the release date, website and credits. We also designed two different versions to suit different locations and audiences. However when we printed our poster and enlarged it we found that it was pixelated and over complicated so we decided to develop one of our earlier designs which was based on the "When a stranger calls" poster.

We believe this poster is more creative and effective as it is simple and focuses more on the killings as well as the technological themes by placing the hanging legs inside a computer. 

    

Planning

Planning


Final Poster Design


Although we had already chosen our final poster through audience feedback,we found that it became pixelated when printed on A3. We therefore decided to develop the second most popular choice.

We found that this poster was more effective when printed because of the simple black background, clear pictures and font. 

Research - British Film Showings

Contemporary Films Broadcasting

From the beginning of our research we deconstructed a number of films concerning the use of social networking within the horror genre , especially psychological thrillers. These films included

 Hard Candy, Tormented, Trust, Megan is Missing and Chatroom.

It has come to our attention in recent weeks that the films we have deconstructed have been broadcast on numerous British Television Channels. We thought this was significant as it showed the popularity and significance of the topic of social networking, and the dangers that may a rise from it.


This further proves that our choice of film narrative is suitable and would be popular with our demographic.