The Hit Evaluation

The Hit

Past tense, flashbacks and reconstructing were the first few words to come up in our minds; Myself, Kaher and Kashmir, whilst choosing a theme or an idea to create our thriller upon. The thriller named ‘The Hit’ is based around a flashback or a reconstruction of something from the past. The storyline was of a hitman who is in sought of an item from the main character. Our film was based around the idea that we would give the audience the feel that they are watching something of the past and re-capping something unseen. This helped as something unknown or not heard have can create its own type of tension and build up of atmosphere. Our end product is seen as a short story in itself throughout a series of short clips including, point of view shots, several camera movements and the overall body language of the two characters.

Our film both challenges and develops real media conventions in a number of different ways throughout the film. At the start of the film we immediately see how the use of a quite location with a minimal number of people was effective in order to create atmosphere and set the scene for the storyline. Following on the 4^th and 5^th scenes show how the character is being followed by the hitman without knowing, however the hitman is yet not apparent to the viewers as it leaves them questioning the film with, who is following the boy? And why? This is appropriate as it enhances the film using techniques that are not visual to the viewers as they are automatically made to question themselves about what they see on screen. The location was key to the success of the films overall theme, the appearance of many bushes and the concrete layout of the park makes us understand that the setting is not modern or newly built and has its own history behind it.

(Above, The Film Hitman, Directed by Xavier Gens. An inspiration to my group throughout the production process. Some aspects of the film itself helped us to put together our own view and story.)

Also we have also applied the use of effects by using several software available on the Mac systems; with the editing by adjusting the colors and the lighting in the ending scenes as the hitman preys upon his target. By changing the lighting and set color from day to night as the film is slowed down and movements begin to look motion less it allows the build up of tension to create suspense just as the hit takes place on the target. This is an element of surprise for the audience, as they seem uneasy, tense and panicky just before the hitman takes his target down. This develops the use of these editing techniques as not only does it visually enhance the film or shot type but mentally creates a strange and curious feeling for the audience as they are un aware of what is to follow and who the hitman is as he is only spotted in the last scene.

Next our film represents two types of character or personality. The first being a student who is going about his everyday life, slightly stressed and going for a walk for some air. Secondly we have the hidden hitman who is not totally hidden as he can be seen on the film however his identity is protected being covered in black clothing and masked from top to bottom. This makes the audience feel mysterious or nervous by not knowing who or what this character is. The movements of both characters are very natural however the hitman is slightly stealth to fit his job role. The student however shows no signs of knowledge that he knows he is being followed. Together this makes the reader more suspicious and eerie of what the following few seconds will hold for them.

Furthermore the choice of characters alongside the location and body language helps to represent the key idea behind the story of a flashback moment or a reconstruction of the past. The signs of uneasiness startle the audience leaving them literally hanging onto their seats waiting for a few more seconds to go past. Costumes of the characters were very appropriate and respectful to their roles as the hitman comes across as a suspicious character that is influencing on telling the story of the film throughout and the student who was carrying a bag, the key objective for the hitman in our film. The student is on a journey, a walk, taking time out as he is on his own. It is not typical to see a student walking alone for no apparent reason and to go and sit in the park.

I think that a smaller film studio would distribute and work with our film as they have a less competitive market and a better chance of promoting and marketing the product well in comparison to larger and much finally stronger distributors who would have less time to spend on the film and making sure that they maximize the potential of each film they are given to work with. For distribution I think our film would be best to be distributed independently as it then focuses on the reader or customer who is being targeted by the team to leave attention drawn to the handouts or the adviser you talk to.

The target audience of our film is a young generation from 13 onwards and up to the age of 26. This covers the market chunk that holds a great number of different ages that may have experienced any crime or violence themselves and/or watch programmes such as ‘crime watch’ and ‘the bill’ where camera shots are so critical that one mistake can change a whole story. The film is appropriate for both male and females however it would be more appealing towards the male population as the film involves some minor violence scenes which is a favorable icon by men.

Without using dialogue or any form of language within our film except titles and credits our film leaves a questioning mind upon the viewers throughout the film which was key to the outcome of our film as it is a open storyline until the hitman makes his ‘hit. Our title of the film came from the idea of putting together an object, the bag the hitman is after and the word that describes the act of which a hitman performs. These words were ‘The’ which describes and specifies effect followed by the word ‘Hit’ to represent the act, which we see the hitman carry out in the film. Next by limiting the amount of footage in the film we left enough room to add effect and address the views of the audience through the soundtrack, location and storyline.

The soundtrack, which was created on soundtrack, was produced to keep a constant flow of adrenaline and tension throughout the film. This allowed the film to respond with the drama and storyline in order to complete the idea behind the view of the film. It overall creates a flashback like imagery, which grabs attention throughout the film with the mixture of on screen effects, sounds and movement. Our genre was simple but effective as it was a short thrill without any intense acting but a deep story that relates to real life situations and emphasizes on the truth behind a story that can be found over and over again in people’s lives.

After using camera equipment throughout the filming process I have found that there are many problems to filming such as weather, lighting conditions and external location problems. This has given me a better insight into the position of a camera operator who has many tasks to control under pressure and timed conditions. Next by learning to use the Mac software’s such as Final Cut Pro, Live type and Soundtrack I have found and achieved a new skill that I would have never thought id encounter. The media package is new to me and very interesting, all the terminology, industries and sectors to Media are fascinating as it all relates to our lives. After learning to use the software’s and applying them to our practice film and our film ‘The Hit’ I understand the several processes of film production, why a production schedule is used and how, and what skills are required to create and edit a film.

Since starting this film project I have gained a clearer view of how a film is made from the minute you think of a storyline or a genre to base the film on to editing the footage till you see the film on screen. From keeping to a timed schedule and progressing slowly with some defects such as weather conditions I now understand what else could be added in the future for other projects. The planning was crucial to be able to know what to look for whilst preparing the film, the key camera shots or the repetition of costume, characters and settings throughout the film without having any changes. This has been an educative experience for myself as it has been a challenge and an achievement at the same time. I have learnt that a project like this is an achievement and s thing to be proud of, as are I and my fellow partners of our film ‘The Hit’.

Evaluation

We were asked in groups of three to four to film and create a short opening of a thriller within a given time. We were shown the opening scene of the thriller “the shining,” then it was discussed between the class of all the different ways in which this thriller was made effective. After this we were put into groups my group consisted of me, Kaher and Imran once the groups were formed we were asked to film a first practice so we could get the feel of using all the equipment.
We tried to use, develop and challenge conventions of real media products. We did this in many ways including costume, in our thriller we used dark clothing this was to hide the killers identity and make the victim look more easily recognizable to the audience. Our location was an old church, which was surrounded by grass, and trees, which gave it that, added spooky look that you see in most well known thrillers. By the bonus of added bushes and trees in our location it gave somewhere for the killer to hide during his stalking of his victim, this technique is used in many successful thrillers including Scream and Halloween. I feel that it gives the audience the chance to explore the location more and allows their imagination to think of all the possibilities of what’s going to happen here. The body language that was shown by the victim was mainly curious actions as if he had a sense of déjà vu but didn’t really know what was going on , the killer body language showed determination and confidence of what he wanted he was going to get. We used many shot types including medium close ups when we were filming shots such as victim smoking his cigarette this shot is common in most genres because it allows you to see everything you need to see in a particular shot, we also used long shots. Low angle and panning to create all effects necessary to make it as interesting as possible to watch. Most of our shots were in full colour because this allowed the audience to see details of the church and it surroundings however we still used a black and white contrast of when the killer was in the process of approaching the victim and murdering him, this highlighted the importance of the scene to the audience and gave the murder an extra thrilling effect. We also slowed down and speed up various shots so that it made the scenes more tense and suspenseful. The software we used to edit was final cut pro this was a professional software which logs and captures video onto a hard drive, where it can be edited and processed, I found that the software was easy to use once you were shown how to use the basic tools. Our film was the thriller genre we tried to keep it as simple as a thrilling genre can be by creating the typical victim and killer, this avoids any mistake which may occur when you take risk.
Our thriller represented the younger teenage social group this was shown in many ways including, choice of actors, our actors were teenagers between the age of sixteen and seventeen years of age this helped the young audience to relate to them and feel there fear. Also body language was very calm and relaxed as most teenagers are although the victims body language did get tense when he felt he was being followed, the costumes worn were mainly black fashionable clothing this gave an indication that the characters were fairly young.
If our thriller were to be launched on a professional level it would probably be distributed to either a major film studio or a smaller studio this is because it a difficult genre to master and not many British thrillers are released so film studios are always on the lookout for new material which they feel may be a success and I think that our thriller does this because it is rare product that would want to be seen.
Our audience will be young people aged between 15-24 male and female of any cultural background who are probably middle class and just enjoy watching the thriller genre as a whole.
We will attract our audience by using people of a similar age group so they can easily relate to them, the location will be a old looking church which will attract our audience because this is what our audience will like to see because if you see a big old church in the opening of a thriller you will automatically want to see what’s going to happen in this location. The storyline will be the typical murder, I feel that keeping the storyline more simple makes it more effective because it avoids the mistakes that taking risk contain and people may not always emit to it but I feel that most people like the film to keep it simple. Our thriller does not contain any dialogue because we were told not to add any voice instead we used a fast upbeat tune which went along with the action as it happened. Our title ‘The Hit’ was chosen between all three of our group members, we chose it because we thought that it was a short but “in your face” kind of title that is also easy to remember.
In the making of our thriller we used many different forms of technologies including cameras, apple Macs, software etc. I’ve learnt that once you have been guided on how to use these different new forms of technologies that is very useful to know and could be useful in your future career so I am glad that I have learnt this. The apple Mac computers differ from the traditional windows they are more made for any media based work so they came in handy when we were uploading and editing, the cameras were good in quality but also quite easy to use we also used a tripod to support it so we got a steady shot.
From our preliminary task we learnt that we needed to plan more in advance because on the days of our practices we rushed the filming because we did not really plan what we was going to do which made us do many retakes, we also needed to research more into the thriller genre because we didn’t really understand the concept of it at first until we watched real thrillers, once we were shown how to edit from the preliminary task we found it quite easy to use the software the task helped us to learn how to use a camera in a more professional way we learnt the five second gap before and after shots. We used the same groups for the practice as we did for the real thing I feel that this was an advantage because we knew each others strengths and weaknesses for example some were better at filming and others were better at editing.

FINAL EVALUATION OF AS MEDIA THRILLER

AS MEDIA EVALUATION

Our media product used many stereotypical aspects of a thriller. For instance, the stalker wore a black leather jacket, with black shoes and trouser, and then he covered parts of his face with a long black and white scarf. The use of black in his dress code symbolised and created a dark, mysterious, and unnatural atmosphere. Then the college student wore a simple jacket, with bluish/black jeans and plimsolls. I do not think our thriller challenged any conventional aspects of a real media product; if anything, we were influenced by real media products. The location of the thriller was in a churchyard; we used the churchyard to symbolise a negative mood, to create a sense of death. The body language of the stalker; was slight movements, eye balling and constant silence. Premonition grew as the thriller kept going.

As you can see from this screenshot, the stalker is posed at the background with very little body movements; his nod of the head and hands in his coat suggests that he had something bad in store for the student.




We used certain shots to create an unnatural mood. For this, we took shots in different angles; this made it seem that something is not right.
From this screenshot, you can see that the mise-en-scène does not show the full picture of the church, or the student’s body. We deliberately did this to cut off everything from the outside of the setting. If see look at the bottom right hand corner; the bag is an important prop so takes up half of the page and then obviously the church and actor is at the other half. This made things feel uneven and as if we are looking from beneath the ground almost.






The use of colour of the stalker resembled the idea of a sense of premonition. So, then we mixed the colour of black to the black & white shot toward the end of the thriller. In addition, the church itself has been worn out over the years; therefore it blended perfectly with the thriller because it gave it that spook effect. This coordinated nicely with the effects because, the shot of the moment where the stalker breaks the student’s neck; the shot was black and white and the black colour on the stalker stood out. Also, we used fade-ins, & transition shots to move from frame to frame. The main genre for our product is a thriller, and possibly the sub-contextual genre is a mystery Sci-Fi movie.

We used a variety of shots to get the audience thinking and interested. The long shots up to the medium close ups, gave a range of different perspective for the audience.

In terms of social representation; we characterised the student to present a young, active and venerable young person. We done this by the type of clothes he was wearing to the way he was walking down the road. His posture and body alignment both when he was walking and sitting; showed a relaxed and laid back character. In terms of location, it was a place where young people can go and wait for other people, so we felt that it worked perfectly with the theme.

I think our film was not like a large advertised movie but more of an online distribution. This is because I think that our thriller would attract more viewers online rather than in the cinemas or television. It’s a short, thrilling, quick video for thriller fans on the internet. Our video wouldn’t become a successful mass production movie because of its simplicity. The type of audience I think this thriller would attract; the young thrillers, from any background because it could apply to anyone. Although it does stereotype college students as being trendy and social; this may be the opposite lifestyle for another person. So it does challenge the audience type.

To promote a thriller, the best way is to advertise on TV, billboards, and internet. So I think that if we attract the audience from popular sites, it would be the best way because advertising on TVs and billboards involves a lot of money and with the type of thriller we have it wouldn’t be possible. The storyline in my opinion; is the best part of a movie. Therefore by creating outstanding storylines alongside positive comments from expert film critics this would enhance the popularity of our media production. Also, the inclusion of genre and title may have an affect on what the audience may think of the thriller.

From producing this thriller, I have learnt many things like for instance; how taking shots in different angles can make the audience see only certain things and by doing this the director can manipulate to make the audience think differently. Also the technology involved in making a thriller, it takes a lot of hard work a good thriller. I believe I have learnt a lot of new things about apple Mac and how to use final cut pro. In this software, I learnt how to compose a video, this involved editing and cutting a lot of clips to make it work.

From the preliminary task, I feel I have learnt a huge amount of skills in media, like how to use final cut pro. Also, the key to success in producing a thriller is organisation and time management. The background work, like researching may also help in terms of gaining more ideas and influences from professional products. However, I do feel that our group; Kaher, Imran and Kashmir had a slight disadvantage because we had less people and at some points found it difficult to improve our media product. Nevertheless, our planning, and editing proved to help us out during the end. Also our experience from the previous practice films meant that we had a better understanding on how to approach this task.

I feel in the future we can improve on a few things to make it more thrilling. For example; Think of a different storyline, and setting. Also include close ups of the actors to give the audience a better chance to see their facial expressions.

Evaluation (DRAFT) Abu Kaher

AS MEDIA EVALUATION

Our media product used many stereotypical aspects of a thriller. For instance, the stalker wore a black leather jacket, with black shoes and trouser, and then he covered parts of his face with a long black and white scarf. The use of black in his dress code symbolised and created a dark, mysterious, and unnatural atmosphere. Then the college student wore a simple jacket, with bluish/black jeans and plimsolls. I do not think our thriller challenged any conventional aspects of a real media product; if anything, we were influenced by real media products. The location of the thriller was in a churchyard; we used the churchyard to symbolise a negative mood, to create a sense of death. The body language of the stalker; was slight movements, eye balling and constant silence. Premonition grew as the thriller kept going.


As you can see from this screenshot, the stalker is posed at the background with very little body movements; his nod of the head and hands in his coat suggests that he had something bad in store for the student.






We used certain shots to create an unnatural mood. For this, we took shots in different angles; this made it seem that something is not right.
From this screenshot, you can see that the mise-en-scène does not show the full picture of the church, or the student’s body. We deliberately did this to cut off everything from the outside of the setting. If see look at the bottom right hand corner; the bag is an important prop so takes up half of the page and then obviously the church and actor is at the other half. This made things feel uneven and as if we are looking from beneath the ground almost.

The use of colour of the stalker resembled the idea of a sense of premonition. So, then we mixed the colour of black to the black & white shot toward the end of the thriller. In addition, the church itself has been worn out over the years; therefore it blended perfectly with the thriller because it gave it that spook effect. This coordinated nicely with the effects because, the shot of the moment where the stalker breaks the student’s neck; the shot was black and white and the black colour on the stalker stood out. Also, we used fade-ins, & transition shots to move from frame to frame. The main genre for our product is a thriller, and possibly the sub-contextual genre is a mystery Sci-Fi movie.


In terms of social representation; we characterised the student to present a young, active and venerable young person. We done this by the type of clothes he was wearing to the way he was walking down the road. His posture and body alignment both when he was walking and sitting; showed a relaxed and laid back character. In terms of location, it was a place where young people can go and wait for other people, so we felt that it worked perfectly with the theme.

I think our film was not like a large advertised movie but more of an online distribution. This is because I think that our thriller would attract more viewers online rather than in the cinemas or television. It’s a short, thrilling, quick video for thriller fans on the internet. Our video wouldn’t become a successful mass production movie because of its simplicity. The type of audience I think this thriller would attract; the young thrillers, from any background because it could apply to anyone. Although it does stereotype college students as being trendy and social; this may be the opposite lifestyle for another person. So it does challenge the audience type.

To promote a thriller, the best way is to advertise on TV, billboards, and internet. So I think that if we attract the audience from popular sites, it would be the best way because advertising on TVs and billboards involves a lot of money and with the type of thriller we have it wouldn’t be possible. The storyline in my opinion; is the best part of a movie. Therefore by creating outstanding storylines alongside positive comments from expert film critics this would enhance the popularity of our media production. Also, the inclusion of genre and title may have an affect on what the audience may think of the thriller.

From producing this thriller, I have learnt many things like for instance; how taking shots in different angles can make the audience see only certain things and by doing this the director can manipulate to make the audience think differently. Also the technology involved in making a thriller, it takes a lot of hard work and thinking to produce a good thriller. The camera

Evaluation (Draft) Abu Kaher

AS MEDIA EVALUATION

Our media product used many stereotypical aspects of a thriller. For instance, the stalker wore a black leather jacket, with black shoes and trouser, and then he covered parts of his face with a long black and white scarf. The use of black in his dress code symbolised and created a dark, mysterious, and unnatural atmosphere. Then the college student wore a simple jacket, with bluish/black jeans and plimsolls. I do not think our thriller challenged any conventional aspects of a real media product; if anything, we were influenced by real media products. The location of the thriller was in a churchyard; we used the churchyard to symbolise a negative mood, to create a sense of death. The body language of the stalker; was slight movements, eye balling and constant silence. Premonition grew as the thriller kept going.

As you can see from this screenshot, the stalker is posed at the background with very little body movements; his nod of the head and hands in his coat suggests that he had something bad in store for the student.






We used certain shots to create an unnatural mood. For this, we took shots in different angles; this made it seem that something is not right.
From this screenshot, you can see that the mise-en-scène does not show the full picture of the church, or the student’s body. We deliberately did this to cut off everything from the outside of the setting. If see look at the bottom right hand corner; the bag is an important prop so takes up half of the page and then obviously the church and actor is at the other half. This made things feel uneven and as if we are looking from beneath the ground almost.












The use of colour of the stalker resembled the idea of a sense of premonition. So, then we mixed the colour of black to the black & white shot toward the end of the thriller. In addition, the church itself has been worn out over the years; therefore it blended perfectly with the thriller because it gave it that spook effect. This coordinated nicely with the effects because, the shot of the moment where the stalker breaks the student’s neck; the shot was black and white and the black colour on the stalker stood out. Also, we used fade-ins, & transition shots to move from frame to frame. The main genre for our product is a thriller, and possibly the sub-contextual genre is a mystery Sci-Fi movie.


In terms of social representation; we characterised the student to present a young, active and venerable young person. We done this by the type of clothes he was wearing to the way he was walking down the road. His posture and body alignment both when he was walking and sitting; showed a relaxed and laid back character. In terms of location, it was a place where young people can go and wait for other people, so we felt that it worked perfectly with the theme.

I think our film was not like a large advertised movie but more of an online distribution. This is because I think that our thriller would attract more viewers online rather than in the cinemas or television. It’s a short, thrilling, quick video for thriller fans on the internet. Our video wouldn’t become a successful mass production movie because of its simplicity. The type of audience I think this thriller would attract; the young thrillers, from any background because it could apply to anyone. Although it does stereotype college students as being trendy and social; this may be the opposite lifestyle for another person. So it does challenge the audience type.

To promote a thriller, the best way is to advertise on TV, billboards, and internet. So I think that if we attract the audience from popular sites, it would be the best way because advertising on TVs and billboards involves a lot of money and with the type of thriller we have it wouldn’t be possible. The storyline in my opinion; is the best part of a movie. Therefore by creating outstanding storylines alongside positive comments from expert film critics this would enhance the popularity of our media production. Also, the inclusion of genre and title may have an affect on what the audience may think of the thriller.

From producing this thriller, I have learnt many things like for instance; how taking shots in different angles can make the audience see only certain things and by doing this the director can manipulate to make the audience think differently. Also the technology involved in making a thriller, it takes a lot of hard work and thinking to produce a good thriller. The camera

The Hit

The Hit from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Completion

On friday 27th of feburary we completed our pratical thriller, we completed our last shots and edited it using final cut pro we put in extra transititions such as slowing down some shots and speeding others up to create the mood we also put in a CCTV shot to show the killer walking off after he has killed, we did this because as our thriller is a reconstruction it helps give the effect. We also put in our own music beat for our thriller which I feel was very effective because it went along with the shots we filmed.