Ctrl, Alt Delete (Final Cut)

Evaluation 7- Looking back at our preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what we learnt from the progression from it to the full product

Evaluation 6 - What have we learnt about technologies from the process of constructing our product?

Evaluation 5- how did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation activity 4. who would be the audience for our media product?

A teenage "tom boy" girl                      

                                     




Her interests  include:                                           

• Social networking                                                     
• Going to the cinema                                        
•  Playing sport                                                             
• Video games to an extent                                                                                    
• Going out shopping with friends 
• Going to "indie" concerts with friends 

She would enjoy programmes such as Primeval due to the fact that it is a new idea and makes the audience think.   it is also an idea that seems plausible to the  people watching like our film because technology  has come along way over the past few years. She would shop at places such as Topshop if she went out but she mainly shops online due to the practicality  and the better variety you can get. Her purchases would include things such as band t-shirts. Her music tastes would be bands such as Hadouken  as they are not a mainstream group but have a large following and are what people would call an indie band

 An older middle aged stereotypical "nerd"

His interests would include:

• Conventions such as comic con
• Playing pc games like World Of Warcraft
• Collecting figurines
• He would like films such as Star Wars and the matrix                     

 His favourite type of programme would  be something like "lost" because it really engages the viewer on an intelectual   scale as he would be an intelectual person. He would shop at places like Game, he   would buy clothes from places such as  Next. He would mainly buy things from    online stores however because it is the  easiest place to get hold of the things he likes, especially action figures. His  music interests would be things such   as the soundtracks from famous films like star wars and the batman

They would have as many common interests as they do different interests. Some of the ones I have mentioned along with others such as preferring things such as staying in and watching a film rather than going out. Alot of people like films that they can relate to and if people are into a film about computers an hacking. The chances are they would be into computing themselves, maybe not being fraudulent but they would know their fair share about the cyber world. My two examples of our target audience are no different. They relate to the film and therefore enjoy it.

Evaluation 3- What kind of media institution might distribute our media product and why?

Evaluation 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Hacker/V for Vendetta

The mask- This was used to hide the hacker’s appearance and show his desire to hide his face showing that the reason behind this desire must be one of malicious intent. This made the antagonist a terrifying enigma to the audience and also showed how he does not conform to normal social groups putting him in the social group of outcasts and misfits. The reason behind v’s mask is also to show how he too lives outside the normal accepted terms of society, the mask similarly reflects v’s malicious ideals in regards to the state by covering his identity. The character V in V for Vendetta does in fact murder people as does our antagonist. Finally the mask does convey a sophisticated intelligence for the character, in V’s instance this is backed up by his moral compass and extensive vocabulary clear signs reinforces of his characters intelligence where as our antagonists fits into this social group through manipulation. He uses the tools of the modern world fir his own personal gain. The cunning and devious trickery of both characters is shown through the masks sharp features and the slight smirk permanently plastered on it.

The hoodie/dark clothing- the black hoodie is a contemporary piece of clothing, it is commonly worn in today's society showing how this threat is rooted in reality. The dark colour is similar to 'V's' choice since it is appropriate to reflect the murderous manipulative actions both characters take due to the wide known connotations of black and evil. A difference here however is despite the colour and the clothing V wears he is in fact the hero of the production, where as our character has stuck to the more typical stereotype of creating a sinister horrific character.

 

 

 

 

Our Protagonist/Truman from The Truman Show

though the attire of these 2 characters aren't similar in terms of exact article choice they both portray the same link to reality that the audience requires to understand the film. It's through these characters eyes that the audience will see concieve the events that take place. This is shown through the style of clothing since the characters wear non distinguishable clothes, ones that fit within the realms of accepted fashion and adhere to the types of attire that are socially acceptable. Some differences between the characters is that truman is obviously older with his choice of shirts and tie where as our protagonist clad in a crew neck jumper. One similarity thats obvious in these images is that they are both carrying bags, the reason behind this choice of prop is  to symbolise how they're are unknown factors about these characters and since the bag is never shown to be open it shows how even the character themselves is unaware of these secrets. The secret in both cases is that they're being watched, however in the truman show there is a less malicious and murderous intent from the spectators then there is with our Hacker thriller.

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

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

The Title                                      

The title uses forms and conventions of real media products, with the colour grading of the bright white word art being harshly highlighted against the darker tones in the background. ‘Se7en’, ‘The Prestige’, ‘Inception’, ‘Quarantine’ and many more are examples of 'mainstream products' that use this technique as it helps the audience quickly distinguish what genre the film is and subsequently appeals to fans of the thriller genre. 'Ctrl, Alt Delete' was one of the titles I initially came up with and was influenced by the sinister 'Cybernetic ' narrative by using the 'keys' of a computer; Ctrl(control), Alt (alter), Delete. Our group came to the conclusion this would be the best title as it fits nicely with not only the narrative but with the thriller genre as well because of the negative connotations associated with the notion of unwillingly being 'controlled', your environment being 'altered' and you being 'deleted' from memory. The blue electrical pulses challenge the conventions of a typical two-tone black and white thriller title as our film also has subtle tones of science fiction, also the electrical pulses further reference the narrative as the hacker's lethal weapon is technological and fuelled of course by electricity. 

Genre and how the opening suggests it

The thriller genre has concrete conventions that are difficult to negate for example, a stereotypical ‘chase sequence’ which consists of an antagonist ‘physically stalking’ and killing their victim. This is respectively used in almost every thriller. However we adapted our own unique take on this repetitive aspect of the genre by having a ‘digital chase’ of which our antagonist (The Hacker) virtually stalks and kills his victims therefore developing on a rather outdated convention.

 Moreover the conventional narrative structure of a thriller classically goes against Todorov’s theory of a ‘well established’ narrative pattern  with, equilibrium then disequilibrium and finally a new-equilibrium, however thrillers usually begin and end in disequilibrium. An example of this is in Inception at the end the main protagonist 'Cobb' spins the totem the camera shows it wobbling making it inconclusive whether he’s still alive or in a dream.  Ctrl, Alt delete’s opening uses this disjointed but conventional narrative approach by starting the opening sequence in ‘disequilibrium’ and suggesting that the conclusion will allude from a ‘new -equilibrium’ meaning there’s no resolution for the audience. This is illustrated as ‘The Hacker’ places his latest conquest onto the ‘victims wall’ and then places Charlie’s photo onto the logistics map making him the new prey. Lastly the non-diegetic soundtrack used every time  it jump cuts to the Hackers den is sinister in tone and the tempo increases as more of the plot is revealed making the audience feel unnerved this also follows suit of the more generic Thriller film.

Setting & Location

We as a group decided on having three very different locations so we could demonstrate numerous camera shots ,unique lighting and also by having more of a variation it makes more interesting viewing for the audience. Firstly by having the antagonist in an unknown, claustrophobic and dark setting with the only lighting coming from an ‘artificial’ source (the computer monitor) this visually impairs the audience. Also the secluded nature of the den suggest that the hacker understands the horrific nature of his sadistic actions and in -turn wants to hide in the darkness this makes the audience further question our antagonist persona and geographical location. 

The other location is contrapuntal to this as our protagonist’s setting brings the audience back to reality and into a ‘false sense of security’ through the use of soft ‘naturalistic lighting' and a typical suburban household, helping create a bridge in the narrative from the ‘nocturnal world’ of the hacker to the ‘diurnal world’ of Charlie which is equally as disturbing for the viewers as it brings a sense of reality to the fictitious enigma that is ‘The Hacker’.

The third and final location was a busy shopping centre, although there were lots of people walking around whilst filming and this made us worry that they may look directly at the camera making the take unusable but that wasn't the case and it actually made it look like we had a bigger budget, with lots of ‘extras’ ‘pretending’ to shop. We achieved a sense of the protagonist being all alone even with all these people around through the use of numerous ‘CCTV’ aerial shots tracking Charlie as he shopped. 

 

Costume and Iconography

Costume:

Casual attire for the protagonist including; a white shirt and pyjama bottoms and secondly a blue jumper with grey chinos. This helps convey to the audience he’s just an ordinary teenager and therefore making it easier for them to empathises with his situation and the fact he’s being watched the creepiness is heightened. Mirroring the main protagonist in ‘The Truman Show’ Truman Burbank played by Jim Carey who wears similarly casual attire and is also unknowingly being monitored.

 The hacker is shown to be wearing an 'anonymous mask' , all black jeans and a hoodie. The mask was inspired by the film V for Vendetta which was used in a similar way ,to hide his identity and making him into an enigma adding lots of unanswered question for the viewers to pounder upon and the colour black has negative connotations such as dark, evil, witchcraft which thus plays on the conventions of a more modern thriller.

Iconography:

in the Hackers den; previous victims pictures are displayed on the wall and crossed out in a red marker, Newspaper letters spelling out kill, death, evil ect. Cut-out and stuck to the wall similar to a hostage letter adding more horrible subconscious imagery into the viewer's minds also hiding the hackers personal handwriting makes him impossible to identify, a map showing the logistics of the city with various pins stuck onto it showing where the person being stalked travels to and from illustrates an evil but clever strategist, the Computer plays on the fear of technology becoming too powerful for example, remote controlled drones being able to drop bombs on Afghanistan from anywhere in the world, the computer monitor which acts as the only light source for the den, the anonymous mask which is lighten up by the monitor hides the hackers identity and the mobile phone which is symbolic of the phone hacking scandals widely publicised on British News channels and the rational fear for the British public they felt shortly after was exaggerated in Ctrl, Alt Delete with the phone being hacked and killing the victim.

Cinematography and Editing

Editing:

-continuity editing was used when walking through doors as a simple way of making the production look slick and professional and not comical which would lesser the tension and snap the audience out of suspension of disbelief. We learnt how to use this technique from our preliminary task.

-elliptical editing was also used an example of this is when Charlie was getting ready in the first scene we cropped the time of each take down in order to maintain a captive audience and still convey he’s getting ready, setting up the narrative with the required information but at the same time cutting out the boring parts.

-The precarious Jump Cuts back and forth between The Hacker’s den helped to maintain the link from the two separate ‘worlds’ the ‘nocturnal world’ and ‘diurnal world’ and also conjoining the two characters by conveying to the audience no matter where Charlie goes the hacker would always be watching and scheming.

-The black and white filter we used on the ‘CCTV shots’ was added in post-production along with the date and time in the corner of the frame this was simply used to add realism and differentiate between  the hidden webcams in the suburban household (in the first scene) and the public CCTV shots (later on).

-The Computer monitor had video imagery of Charlie waking up and getting ready superimposed onto it in the editing room to portray The Hacker had secret webcams hidden around Charlie’s house which were streaming a live feed back to his den. This would make the audience feel unnerved as we used a typical surrounding and technology that already exists.  

Cinematography:

First shot was a high angle from the left corner of the bedroom with Charlie asleep as the camera slowly zooms into a close up of his face. The use continuous use of high angles of Charlie was important to the narrative because it suggests that he is in a position of vulnerability. 

The second shot was a high angle shot from the right corner of the bedroom, panning across mapping Charlie’s movements and for the fist time suggesting the camera’s being operated electronically and that he’s being watched. We then had a tracking shot of Charlie making his way to the bathroom this made it look like he was being stalked making the protagonist defenceless as he isn't aware. 
Cuts to a Dutch tilt shot behind the mirror, this angle is disjointed signifying something's not quite right. After this we have an over-the-shoulder shot of the hacker monitoring Charlie the camera then begins to pan from his right shoulder to left giving the audience two different perspective of the keyboard and computer monitor. 
We then employed the first CCTV shots one of which was a clever high angle shot in an under path tunnel, we achieved this by screwing the camera onto a tripod and hooking it onto a low hanging sign making it look like a real CCTV camera and with the lack of natural light the shot had a dark and eerie atmosphere. 

The two shot of Charlie and the ‘victim’ was to add a twist to the narrative as the audience were expecting Charlie to get harmed. As the ‘Victim’ answers his phone call the camera pans across following him as he enters the lift as he begins to collapse it jump cuts into the lift and transitions into an extreme close up of the phone displaying that the caller id is ‘unknown’ suggesting that the anonymous hacker was behind the death. Finally we have a close up of The Hacker exchanging the victims picture for Charlie’s hinting that the hacker will move onto his new prey Charlie eluding from any resolution and leaving the audience feeling unsatisfied.

Narrative and how the opening suggests it

The opening suggests it’s a thriller with the protagonist being stalked by a masked antagonistic figure however, it both uses and develops on the regular forms and conventions of real media products by having a ‘digital chase’ rather than the overly repetitive ‘physical chase’ used in almost every Thriller film and thus creating a unique selling point for Ctrl, Alt Delete. Furthermore with the inclusion of the death of a disposable character at the beginning is also a common convention in that we used it to let the audience know immediately that the film’s a Thriller and acts as a cliff-hanger engaging the viewer making them want to continue watching without impacting the narrative’s direction because both main characters remain. Also with the protagonist awakening in the first scene  was inspired loosely by ‘28 Days Later’ with ‘Jim’ waking up in a post apocalyptic world that’s been destroyed by a devastating viral infection. Similarly in Ctrl, Alt Delete Charlie wakes up and he’s being spied upon unknowingly by a masked villain straight away showing that there’s a disruption to normality and in effect beginning in disequilibrium.  

Title font and Style

The fonts style is ‘Cooper Black’ which is similar to the keys on a desktop computer but we edited it so that the word art’s slightly blurred suggesting a malfunction/technical problem with it, which is a direct reference to the theme of the film and the argument  being there’s a problem with the rapid advancement in technology.

How characters are introduced

The introduction of the main protagonist is in the very first frame with a high angle shot of him sleeping, this immediately puts him in a defenceless position. Then it jump cuts to the antagonist whose subsequently watching the protagonist sleep, ambiguously establishing his intentions are to stalk him. The main protagonist is shown in a two-shot to introduce the first victim of The Hacker and by the protagonist bumping shoulders with him it draws the viewers attention to the victim just before his phone is hacked and he is murdered. 

Ctrl, alt delete -Voice Thread- Cinematography

Ctrl, Alt Delete (first cut)

music (potential choices)

Because I have edited before using music to enhance the experience of the film. I used a website called incompetech.com. This site gives royalty free music as long as you credit the man who created the site and all the music provided. His name is Kevin Mcleud.

He provides every type of music you could possibly want to use that is free. You can also buy his music that he has created but for copyright purposes we are using the link called "royalty free music". The site gives you quick and easy access to the type of music that is essential to you. There is a check list at the site of the screen which provides the user with all kinds of options. Ticking the check list and pressing search will allow you to find music that has those categories in it's description, the song may have other categories tagged to it but the more specific you make it the less variables you will get.

Because we are creating a horror thriller I used categories such as dark, unnerving and mysterious to give the audience a sense of feeling. You can use combinations such as bouncy, bright and epic to give you a much happier feeling. It all depends on what music is right for your film.

We have many candidates for our film such as penumbra, hush and evening of chaos. They all create the creepy feeling that we are striving for. There are also sound stings that are available to use but they aren't what we are looking for for our film and so they won't be used in our production.

Diary of Filming Day 1

Pitch

finished teaser poster analysis

Finished Teaser Poster analysis

Draft of; the Mise en scene, sound, editing and cinematography with camera movements

The Narrative

Our plot begins in a quiet suburban family home, where the protagonist 'Charlie' is asleep, however he's unknowingly being watched by a sadistic hacker who has cameras hidden all around the house which are feeding a live stream back to his monitor in a secret locale. The cyber terrorist decides to wake Charlie up by  hacking his audio system and whispering to him, Charlie then proceeds to go to the bathroom the hacker follows his movements with the cameras by transitioning between them. As Charlie begins to brush his teeth a camera within the mirror films him, then it jump cuts to the hacker who has Charlie brushing his teeth on his monitor.
After this Charlie is shown leaving the heavily monitored house, it then cuts to scene 2 set in London's, Stratford Westfield Charlie get off the train and goes through the ticket gates, it cuts to a hand held camera being held by an insurgent who's filming Charlie so the Hacker never loses sight of his 'target'. As he is just about to enter the shopping centre it cut to the hacker typing a number combination on the keyboard then quickly cutting back to Charlie his phone begins to ring, he answers however the caller doesn't answers back just breathes heavily down the microphone so Charlie hangs up thinking it's a prank call and nothing more.

Eventually he get's into the shopping centre where he's met by a friend and they go shopping, all the while being monitored through the CCTV cameras by the hacker. It then cuts to shortly after Charlie and his friend have finished shopping at which point the friend get's a phone call with the same unknown caller ID as earlier however this time it cuts to the den and the hacker presses 'Ctrl, Alt Delete' which sends a devastating high pitched frequency through the microphone, rupturing Charlie's friends ear drum and subsequently fatally maiming him. Charlie quickly goes to the aid of his friend and reacts rapidly by attempting to call emergency services however is unable to get through.
In the last scene it cuts to the hackers den, slowly panning in a 360 degree circle around the room, showing the pictures of previous victims crossed out in red to show they're deceased, the writing on the in red ink exclaiming 'kill' over and over, the board with the map on it and pins dotted in it strategically depicting the hacker has meticulously planned out the logistics of the murders and finally the close up on the picture of Charlie which has been repeatedly circled in red marker showing he's the focus of the hackers attention.

Ideas for Mise en scene 
- Costume; Casual attire for protagonist including; a white shirt and jeans.
 And hacker wearing an 'anonymous mask' and all black jeans and a hoodie.
- Iconography;  Hackers den previous victims pics on the wall crossed out in a red marker,
Writing on the wall 'kill' in red, a map showing the city with various pins stuck onto it,
the computer, mobile phones.
-Make-up fake blood when friend collapses.
-Setting; 'Charlie's house', Hackers Den, Westfield Stratford.
-Lighting; naturalistic sunlight in 'Charlie's room', only light source form hackers den is the monitor, Westfield high key lighting.

Sound 
-Diegetic voice-over that awakes Charlie.
-Camera zooming.
-Switching between cameras accompanied by clicking.
-high pitched sound sting when victims killed.
-Diegetic sound of zooming on the camera.
-Diegetic sound of clicking when cutting between cameras.
-Non-diegetic soundtrack in Hackers Den.

  Editing 
-elliptical editing.
-continuity editing when walking through doors.
-Jump Cuts back and forth between hackers den.
-eye-line match.

Cinematography and camera movement 
-first shot high angle from left corner of Charlie sleeping and zooms into his face.
-cuts to right corner (with clicking) shot of Charlie walking to the bath room (camera slowly follows his movements).
-Cuts to shot from left corner of the bathroom (with clicking noise).
-Cuts behind mirror (mid-shot).
-Jump cuts to hackers den and the footage is being streamed to his monitor (over the shoulder shot).
-Charlie then exists the house.
-Cuts to hacker typing (extreme close up as he presses a keys and enter).
-In Stratford Charlie is followed by a handheld camera to Westfield entrance.
-Just before he proceeds to enter cuts back to hacker typing a number combo in (extreme close up of keys).
-Charlie's phone begins to ring (extreme close up of phone displaying 'unknown number) he answers hearing the hacker breathing heavily and proceeds to hang up.
-Enters shopping centre (point of view shot greeting friend).
-Then switches between 3 Ariel shots (CCTV footage B&W filter)  following Charlie and friend as they shop.
-Casual dialogue on purchases interrupted by friends phone ringing (extreme close up of phone displaying 'unknown number) as friend raises his arm (slow motion).
-Jump cuts to hacker pressing Ctrl, Alt delete.
-Back to friend (high pitched sound sting) friend collapses.
-Ariel shot of Charlie going to his aid (CCTV footage B&W filter).
-Cuts to camera on his level as Charlie attempts to ring 999 but can't get through (extreme close up of phone screen displaying 'no signal, accompanied by voice over saying 'the numbers currently unavailable').
-Cuts to den and slowly pans around the room showing the pictures, the writing on the wall, the stegic board with pins in and finally (Extreme close up) Charlie picture circled in red marker.

Inspiration for my Teaser Poster adaptation

Inspiration for teaser poster 2

Andy Warhol;

'The Marilyn Diptych' is a rather unusual silkscreen painting by world renowned American pop artist Andy Warhol, currently kept at the Tate Modern gallery in London. It was completed just weeks after the untimely death of the quintessential American sex symbol Marilyn Monroe, the brightly coloured left-side is representative of her bold and outlandish celebrity lifestyle however, the faded grey-scale on the right- side is symbolic of her final years, tarnished by illness, personal problems and her overdose on prescription drugs. In a survey conducted during December 2, 2004 by 500 artist, critics and others the painting was named 'the third most influential piece of modern art'. 

  
Julian Opie;

Julian Opie was born in London and raised in Oxford, he's a bold conceptual artist using new technologies to create unique, minimalistic portraits and animated walking figures. When describing his distinctive approach to art he said, "I often feel that trying to make something realistic is the one criteria I can feel fairly sure of. Another one I sometimes use is, would I like to have it in my room?
And I occasionally use the idea, if God allowed you to show Him one [portrait] to judge you by, would this really be it?". It's visually evident Julian has been heavily influenced by Warhol's 'The Marilyn Diptch', with the use of similar colours and the also the layout of the portraits in a grid.



My Idea;

The Inspiration for my adaptation of Chas's teaser poster, came when I was looking at the 'Best of Blur' album cover, Julian used varies bold pastel colours in the background behind each band member, I thought this looked abstract and contemporary which I liked. What's notable when looking at my piece is it has the same amount of quadruple copying and a square grid layout. However it differs in the use of colour, as in Opie's and Warhol's portraits they used bright and cheerful tones, I opted to use strange edits and harsh contrasts more similar to the left-side of 'The Marilyn Diptych' achieving my final design and better fitting the thriller genre.

Teaser Poster adaptation
Andy Warhol/ Julian Opie Concept;

Demographic, Psychographics and our target audience

Demographic, Psychographic and our target audience

Definition:

Demographics are how a film company can ‘segment’ an audience by using personal profiling, this method of research defines the adult populace largerly by the work that they do. Breaking each proffesion into 6 different catagories, labelling these groupings with a letter coding to describe the income status of members of each group.
For example in figure 1:

A	Higher management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals.
B	Middle management, teachers, creative and media people e.g. graphic designers, editors and producers.
C1	Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff- White collar.
C2	Skilled manual workers, plumbers, builders- Blue collar.
D	Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers.
E	Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers.

.

Psychographics is a way to describe an audience by looking at their behaviour patterns and their personality traits. Psychographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits, the information gained from this type of profiling is important to thriller films and this is because by studying what ‘traits’ the audience has the director can get a greater understanding of what would appeal to their tastes and incite different emotions making the viewing experience more enjoyable. An example of this is ‘The Grudge’, by working with a professional psychologist the film gets into the psyche of the prospective audience, adding realism and making them paranoid for weeks after watching it.
Examples of psychographic persona's in figure 2:

Mainstreamers	Seeks security. Tend to be domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental flavour value for money family brands. Nearly always the largest group.
Aspirers	Seeks status. Materialistic, acquisitive, orientated towards image and appearance, persona and fashion. Attractive packaging more important than content. Typically younger people, clerical and sales jobs.
Succeeders	Seeks control. Strong goals, confidence, work ethic and organisation. Supports stability. Brand choice based on self-reward, and quality. Typically higher management and professionals
Resigned	Seeks survival. Rigid and authoritarian values. Interested in the past and tradition, brand choice stresses safety, familiarity and economy. Typically older people.
Explorers	Seeks discovery. Energy, individualism and experience. Values difference and adventure. Brand choice highlights instant satisfaction. They’re the first to try new brands. Younger demographic students.
Strugglers	Seeks escape.  Alienated and disorganised. Few resources beyond physical skills. Brand choice involves impact and sensation. Buys alcohol, junk food, lottery tickets, D and E demographic
Reformers	Seeks enlightenment. Freedom of restrictions and personal growth. Social awareness and independent judgement. Anti-materialist but aware of good taste. Gas attended higher education and selects products for quality.

Our target audience:

Our intended target audience is teenagers this is because our film has a sci-fi undertone as well as thriller the overall thriller theme; believing that the use of technology would make it it more appealing to a contemporary audience. We’ve decided to aim for15 certificate because we will still have a large target market and more freedom to show violence and drug abuse, making it very flexible when writing the script and filming although not quite to the same degree as an 18 certificate which usually endorses this behaviour.
Although having said that BBFC must be compatible with that audience , and the most desirable certificate is a 12A because it means parents can take their children therefore making the film accessible to anyone.