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

EVALUATION 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

EVALUATION 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

EVALUATION 3; What kind of institution might distribute your media product?

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

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

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

Title

The title of our thriller is “Extinct”. We were torn between this or “Astray”. We chose “Extinct” because we thought it had more chilling connotations than “Astray”. The word “Extinct” conveys a lone victim, which fits the conventions; usually there is just 1 victim at a time. One connotation of “Extinct” is death, and the end of everything. No-one would have experience of an apocalypse, and so this creates a negative psychological effect on the audience. It implies danger and mystery, which fits the conventions of a thriller, due to thriller films being full of dangerous situations for the character.

Setting and Location

We used a high street as the main location for our thriller. We chose this as our location because of the juxtaposition of busyness it would create. The conventions of a thriller state that most unexpected events happen in a normal urban environment – this is changed, however, due to the emptiness we created. Another reason for choosing a high street is because it’s a recognisable place to everyone, but there is contrast.

This creates an enigma, and is unpredictable. The lighting in this shot is light, which would be the same every day. This creates a sense of realism for the audience; fear is created because the same thing could happen to any person at any time. From watching other films like I Am Legend starring Will Smith, we can see the use of normally busy places, and so we took influence from this to use the location that we did.

Costumes

As a costume for our character, we chose a khaki top, tracksuit bottoms, a dog tag and a rucksack. We chose these because green is stereotypically associated with the military; this allows the audience to find out more about the character's background. The lighter colours of the costume create a contrast to the situation the main character is in, and also juxtaposes conventions, as the protagonist would usually be seen to be wearing darker clothes to represent death and danger.

The props we used were a gun, posters and papers. The gun is a vital part of iconography in thriller films, and relates to his military background.  It gives a sense of his paranoia and anxiety, as well as showing a dangerous side to the protagonist. Guns have negative connotations, and so this relates to the codes of a thriller. The posters and papers we used were used to create an eerie situation, and we wanted to make the shots with them in seem different to daily life.  “Evacuation” was used on the posters because we wanted to create an enigma for the audience, as they wouldn't know what had caused the evacuation. It gives the sense that the main character has been left behind, and so the audience will feel sympathy for him.

Camerawork and Editing

We used a variety of shots throughout our thriller to convey different emotions and to allow the audience to be introduced to our character.  We started with an extreme close up; by doing this we can straight away give the audience a sense of realism as the character is in bed and thinks he is doing his daily routine. Close-ups are used in thrillers to immediately create a sense of fear, and we see this in the protagonist’s eyes.

We also included long walking shots. These can be used to create tension before the action unfolds, as well as set the scene of the thriller. We also used point of view shots. This kind of shot allows the audience to be the character and see the dangerous situation through their eyes, and also sense their fear.

We used low shots to give the sense that the character is strong and overpowering – this could relate to later on in the film, as he survives the apocalypse. It is unusual for the victim to be viewed through low shots as they are usually seen as innocent and less powerful, and so we have juxtaposed the conventions of a thriller opening. We have made sure to think about composition when filming; the main character is used in the middle of most of the long shots. This is used to make the character look important to the audience.

The Story

The thriller as a whole would be a psychological thriller and the story is about 1 man left alone, post apocalypse. One of the biggest influences we used was the film ‘I Am Legend’, which features Will Smith in the same situation as our main character. It is psychological as the whole concept is a metal struggle to survive; the audience have no experience of what it would be like to deal with something like this. The film as a whole would be the story of his journey and how he has managed to survive.

The ending of our thriller sets up the rest of the film. The phone ringing creates an enigma for the audience, and when they see it dangling they would feel fear for the character, and would want to watch on to know what has happened to him. This fits the codes and conventions as it has created a dangerous situation and mystery. Many openings are ambiguous, and we have followed this when filming.

Genre

The opening includes an ambiguous evacuation, which shows that the genre we are filming for is psychological. Most psychological thrillers focus on the characters state of mind throughout, and this is what we have tried to achieve when thinking of our film.

Extinct Trailer

Final Poster

Further Edit Including Sound Effects and Soundtrack

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We believed that sound effects such as the pleonastic sound of the phone ringing and the added post production sound of the helicopter helped the thriller not only fit the codes and conventions usually expected from one but also helped to build tension and heighten the audiences experiences and empathy that they can feel towards the protagonist. We also believe that the sound of the helicopter created the illusion that the protagonist, Theo, was being watched and followed, this is important as it creates a sense of intreague for the audience and they want to continue watching the thriller.

Further Edit With Some Title Sequences But No Sound

I have edited the clips further by adding the title sequences. However the music is still to be put on.

We decided that we wanted discrete titles in the final thriller as it would prevent the audience’s focus being moved from the content to the titles. We also found looking at other thrillers that this was the most commonly used type of title as it helps to build tension and create the illusion of the stereotypes of a thriller. Finally, the titles were placed in particular moments when the scenes had large empty spaces or could effectively have a filter over the top.

Bloopers

Basic Editing With Sound, Speed and Filters

In this edit, I have cut down the chosen shots, taken out some of the sound ready for the music to be put over the top, and changed the pace of the clips and to make it flow better.
When deciding what shot length would fit our piece of music we had to make some drastic changes, theses included changing factors such as the timing and length of shots as well as any diegetic dialogue that would be heard. For example, in this edit some of the sound of cars was left in some of the shots in our second location. We had to change this as we wanted the area to seem desolated and lifeless and therefore we decided in the final cut not to include any natural sound created when first filming.
In the penultimate scene we believed that the idea of the phone ringing was not obvious for the audience so we decided to add this pleonastic sound in post production

Chosen Full Cuts (No Editing)

Out of the footage we have, these are the shots that we are going to use for our final cut. 

We decided that a number of these shots where to long, for example the opening shot of the protagonist opening his eyes. To make the shots fit the stereotypes of a thriller better we edited them rapidly together to make sure that they fit the codes and conventions of a physiological film and built tension for the audience quickly.
One shot in this sequence is a moving close up of our evacuation poster which would be visible for the character within the thriller. In the final cut we decided to make this shot slow motion as it would help to build tensions but also emphasise the situation and foreshadow the characters future.
finally, you will notice that the order of the shots in our final cut is different as we wanted them to appear more continuous and natural in the final thriller.

Interview with directors *Sophie Perry and Lydia McCarthy*

Mood Board; Initial ideas

Interview with actor *James Ginn*

Diary of Our Shooting Day

Filming video log end

Filming video log midway