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

Here we have explained the process used to create our opening sequence for our thriller

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

A Powerpoint Presentation on How we attracted our audience

The magician 2

View more presentations from hurtwoodhousemedia.

Task 4: Who would be the audience for your media product

I think that the audience that would be most attracted to our film would be the age range of 18 - 30 year olds, as it would have an interesting plot with bankable stars, targeting the younger audience. However from the time period of the piece it would attract a much older audience, we would also use a soundtrack that would be associated with that time period so that everything in the film would correspond with each other as this would make it more relatable for an older audience as they would be able to adhere to the time period more so than the younger ones. We had this age range in mind as this is these are the ages that are most likely to visit the cinema.
        

For our Thriller Opening sequence we have created a continuous tracking shot, showing a magician perform a magic trick and pulling a "random" pretty girl out of the audience, she is then taken from the audience and shown into a black box (which is supposed to show the audience that it is a magicians magic box) The magicians assistant then shuts the box walking around the back to present to the audience, as an audience member we then see from behind the stage that blood is then pooring out of the box. We did this because we wanted to see the audience's reactions when the blood comes out.

Our Thriller is a period piece, it is set in the time of the 1950's and 60's, where a man dressed as a magician goes around to bars and clubs to perform shows to the public. Our opening sequence shows the first killing, which the magician then flees from the scene of the crime, the police get involved trying to understand the concept behind the murder's killings, in the first intial move the police try to hunt him down, but then become more invoved in watching his shows to understand his escape and to understand if maybe there is more than one killer and if so it may not be him. In the end they catch the killer, exposing him to the public.

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

The product that we have produced "The Magicain" is a movie a long the lines of a murder mystery, a plot which has to find the killer before its too late.

A media institution who I think would produce the movie we have made would be Fox Searchlight as looking at the recent films they have made:

• Slumdog Millionaire
• Wrestler
• Crazy Heart
• Never Let Me Go
• Conviction
• 127 Hours
• Black Swan
• Tree Of Life

just to name a few. The reason I have chosen Fox Searchlight is because looking at the movies they have made a few of them are period pieces, set in the 1950's just like ours, which have also been very successful, two examples would be:

• Never Let Me Go
• Tree Of Life

            
these two films have been very successful, with a non- high concept product like ours, but both films using bankable stars (Brad Pitt, Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly, Sean Penn) this is why I believe that Fox SearchLight would be a great producer for our thriller "The Magician, as our thriller has the same key ingredients such as, narrative over action, bankable stars, a possible love interest in the story, making the audience believe that this is why the person killing my be after girls

Another reason that Fox Searchlight would produce our film would be because if we look at the:

• Black Swan
• Wrestler
• 127 Hours

                  

These films are thrillers but have an aspect of horror due to the fact of the level of gore it has in it, as "The Wrestler has a lot of bloody wounds and broken limbs, in the "Black Swan" we see a more physicalogical side to it, but there is still gore as she stabs another girl as blood goes everywhere, aswell as the scene where she pulls back the skin to her finger. "127 hours" has a large element of gore as we see him rip his arm off to get out of the rock; like ours will have as well due to the killings that will take place. These films are also based around a career, i.e. The Black Swan, The Wrestler etc. and the sacrifices and secrets of the industry, just like we will learn in our movie "The Magicain", as during this film you find out the secrets of the contraption he has created and all of his tricks that he performs. This is also where the movies correspond as "The Magicain" is a performer offering a service to the public just like "The Black Swan" and "The Wrestler".

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

In this shot we see two young women on the stage performing the magic trick, the girl on the right is an audience member and on the left is the magician’s assistant. The young woman from the audience is intended to represent the innocence of young females. We dressed her in a white vintage dress to fit the time period and to uphold the stereotype of innocence and purity, and to conform to what the horror/thriller genre dictates a victim to be. The magician’s assistant is intended to be “the glamorous assistant”, her character was designed to be eye catching, wearing a gold and sparkly dress, this was useful in the opening sequence as it attracts the attention of our male target audience as she is the stereotypical “eye-candy” status.

Another Social group that is represented in our thriller would be that of fictional plot lines, (shown above in our shot of a traditional magician) people who like storys such as Merlin and Dr Who where it challenges real life with the mystical. They would enjoy our film "The Magician" as it has elements from the mystical side of magic and how it is unusual, attracting the social group to watch the film.

    

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

Here is a powerpoint presentation on how our opening sequence.
The Magician

View more presentations from hurtwoodhousemedia

Our Shoot Day

On the morning of the 31st of January, I arrived with my group to the studio to set up our set, the friday before our shoot we had to pre-prepare by painting our box black so that it would be dry on the day, this was made out of chip-wood which can be easily supplied through gardening stores. Our set also required a stage as our plot was centred around a magician who performs tricks.
Our setting for our story was to be set in an old burlesque type looking bar, we created this by having black curtains drawn around the outside, with black walls and black flooring, our props included:

• A black box
• table and chairs
• wine bottles
• wine glasses
• table cloths
• a top hat
• fake blood
• smoke machine

we had to gather these props and display them around to create the effect that it was a crowded and busy bar, we did this by arranging the tables, close together so that when the camera tracked through it would have mid shots (shoulder upwards) in the shot, creating the illusion that there was many people there (sound later will be added to create this effect).

For our actors and actresses we had them dressed up in:

Males:

• suits
• bow tie
• shirt
• (smart looking)

Women:

• Cocktail dresses
• Smart jackets

Magician:

• Bow tie
• Top Hat
• Suit
• Frilly shirt

Alice:

• A vintage style dress in the colour white, to show her innocence
• black tights
• pumps

Magicians Assistant:

• Gold Sparkly Dress
• New Yorkers

we didn't call our actors untill after 11.30 as we did not need them yet because we still had to set up the shot and make sure that it would all run smoothly. In our set we also had a smoke machine as this added to the effect of a burlesque bar, this is because in those days you would be allowed to smoke in bars and clubs. We also set up 3 tables with white table cloths on top of them, we had the 3 tables staggered so that the camera could track through them easily. On the tables were wine bottles and wine glasses filled with apple juice to look like white wine and cranberry juice to make it look like red wine. Once we got the actors in it was pretty simple, there job was to sit there and react to the action around them whilst the magician asked his assistant to pick a person from the audience.

A problem we had on the shoot day was figuring out how to make it seem like blood was pouring out of the box, we tried an idea by me coming out later on in the shot and crawling onto the stage out of shot of the camera and pouring the mixed blood of cranberry juice and fake blood onto the stage. However we realised that this wouldn't work, so instead we drilled a hole into the corner of the box got a funnel with a tube which was placed into the box, so small you could barely see it. So, once Alice, the girl in the box was positioned in the box, her cue to pour the blood from inside was the number 2, on this the blood would pour out and from the camera angle which was situated from behind the box we would be able to see the audiences reaction to the blood in a long shot.

We shot this 2 times and within that we got our shot. The shoot day was very successful as we got everything we wanted done on time and quickly, this was due to proper planning and good collecting of props to use in the piece. I found the shot day to be very fun and relaxed and this has given me a taste for shooting more often. I am now looking forward to the editing process as this is my favourite part. As it was one long tracking shot we will not have to piece any material together but it will be a very time consuming process to put all the sound in as we will have to create layers of it to create the right atmosphere of the piece.