Task 7

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

Compared to our Prelim Taks which was shot in one hour our opportunities were much better and we were well prepared. At the Prelim Task we were introduced to the cameras and how they work but we just had one hour time to get used to them. This time we had more time and I can say know that I now a lot more about them which enables me to shoot with a brighter range of ability. I was able to play around with the technology. This is the best what I could have done “Learning By Doing”. Because of the fact I was used to Final Cut before helped me to edit our project. I made new experience when I was introduced to After Effects which is there to create special effects, colour corrections and loads of other things. After Effects can do everything. You can create so many things with it. In our case we blur out the background to highlight our titles which we incorporated into our sequence.

The Prelim task was much simpler in terms of Mise en Scene we did not do much planing.
In our Thriller we had to plan everything in detail. We incooperated the titles in our props which we had to create before the shooting day. Then we had to decide which title would fit to the prop we chose for example we chose to incooperate our "Original Score by Charlie Clouser" on an iPod which is representing Music and is an item that a lot of young people connetct with so we would establish a connection with in second with the audience. Another reason why Mise En Scene was so important was because of the change of locations. We shot one part in the Studio and another in the Studio so we had to create a similar atmospher an environment. Also Light had to be quite similar.

We adjust the lighting in the studio after we had looked at the lighting in the library. Compared to our prelim task where we had 2 light sources one in the frame and one set light which created a big shados on the wall. Because the lighting in the library was perfect and suited the atmosphere we tried to achieve. So we shot a couple of shots in the library so we could then adjust the lighting so we would not destroy our aim of continuity editing. We had 3 main lights and 2 filling lights to light up the shadows.

Also our Main task differs from our Prelim Task because we used so many different kinds of shots. In our Prelim we used 4 kinds of shots a Wide Shot to a Medium Shot to an Over The Shoulder Shot and then finally to a Close-Up. These are very basic shots. In our Main Task we used approximately 16 or 17 different types of shots (for example a 180 degree tracking shoot) where we used focused pulls to reveal a little peace of information each time. We also used After Effects to create an effect which has a similar effect as focus pulls.

After Effects is also a new area we could experience. We chose to highlight our titles and drag the audience’s attention to it. We did not use After Effects in our Prelim Task. In this picture we did not use afeter effets to put the attention on the line of cocain. If this shot would have been in our sequence we we would have plured the rest out and made it darker and so the audience could directly and easily see where to look at.












the Main task we created the effect in the shown picture.




In terms of Sound we just a used Diagetic sound sources in our Main Task. In the rest of the time we choose to put a soundtrack under it. First we wanted to uses Charlie Clousers-Dead Silence but because of the fact there was Copyright on it we had to rewrite it. Therefore we used Final Cut Soundtrack Pro. We changed the bass range to create a darker atmosphere. We used footsteps and a "Book-Slam" as Diagetic sounds.

In this picture our actor hits on the table which created a loud sudden noise. We did not added any foley work to increase it.


This picture show her walking which creates a nice calm, diagetic sound.


We uploaded our Thriller on Youtube so people could watch it and gives us a feedback. At the moment we have 301 views and 4 people rated our sequence 5 stars out of 5. These are a few comments

SERINA BRAVE: "wow realy good"
butterflyheaven03: "i like this! Nice one guys :)"
mchltarr: "Very nice... keep it up"
stephaniemareen: "great idea, the titles work VERY well"
"Also the music is a very gopod choice!"
hurtwoodhousemedia: "i like how you have embedded the titles into text. works really well."
"GREAT!!!!"

We were really pleased to see that people liked it.

Task 6

Task 5

View more presentations from hurtwoodhousemedia.

Task 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?



Our Audience would be really wide but the Target Audience would be teenage girls from 14 up to 19. The would be interessted in reading Novels. They would belong to the Middle or Upper class and educated. Because we want to establish an relation ship between the character and the audience there will be a lot of things they can identify with. Those girls would be interested in reading and typical things at that age e.g. the would eat at Starbucks Cafes watch Skins, and going out at the weekends.

Task 3

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

I think “Fox Searchlight Pictures” would be an appropriate distribution company. Because of the fact it is a good quality Horror-Film I could imagine that “Fox” would be interested. The did for example Alexandre Aja’s Remake of “The Hills Have Eyes”. “Fox” is a Film division of “20th Century Fox” it is specialised on Indi, British, and Horror Films. The director Alexandre Aja is a really good example for the differences between “20th Century Fox” and “Fox Searchlight Pictures”. His film the “Hills Have Eyes” distributed by “Searchlight” had a great success after that “20th Century Fox” offered him a High Concept product (“Mirrors”) it included a minor Star “Keifer Sutherland“ and big advertisement. “Searchlight” distributes Films with relatively low budged such as “Slumdog Millionaire”, 28 Days Later.

Task 2

How does your product represent particular social groups?


Because of the fact that we just have one character in our sequence we had to make this character as interesting as possible. The character covers 3 social groups. One is Teenagers (because of the fact she is 17- 19) the other one is for the more grown up audience and because our character is not a typical teenager. Teenagers are normally presented in movies as fun seeking party animals but through our sequence we gave the character more depth. Basically her actions are not equivalent to her age because she behaves growin up (Investigating Crime). She is represents a strong female character (middle- upper class). Through this we combined the three social groups in one character. She represents a strong femal audience. She can be compaired to the girls in "3 Angels For Charlie" she is doing it herself and shows her strength during the film.

Task 1

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



This is a picture of our Prelim Task where we used basic shots.






What we did was we combined a high quality thriller with a teeny slasher movie. This is shown through our sequence. It does not start with special effects blood, sex or other common actions that are shown in Horror-Movies. We choose to use a young actress between 17 and 19 which is associated with “Teen-Horror” also the first thing we see are her High-Heels walking to the library which is also more for the younger audience. But because of the fact that she is researching and there is not a strong visual action shown it is different compared to films like “Micheal Bay’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or “Scream”. This is something that is new for the audience.



We incooperated the titles in our film and highligted them thorugh through the use of After Effects. This is also not usual uand could chalange the audience expectations.

High Concept Cinema

High Concept Cinema: "Pirates Of The Caribbean"
In todays society everything is about making money. One big example for this is Hollywood. It became more and more a business that is still expanding. When everything begun Hollywood movies were more there to present different views, to entertain, and to "teach" but today movies are just there to get money. Hollywood films are working like this: the simpler and visual it gets the more people are watching it through that they can get more money and the product is easier to sell. They do not care if the film has the same concept like thousands of films before as long they can get the appropriate amount of money out of it. Those Blockbusters which pull huge amounts of people into the cinema are High Concept Movies. High Concept Movies are for example "Star Wars", "True Lies", "Terminator", "Jurassic Park", "Die Hard" and probably one of the best example is James Cameron's "Avatar" which has a cross revenue of 2.5 billion dollars at the moment. In this essay I am going to talk about a franchise everybody knows (This is also one characteristic of High Concept Films, everybody knows them. Through what? Mainly through there advertisement or Star Vehicles) I am talking about "Pirates Of The Caribbean".

"POTC" is one of "Walt Disney Pictures" most successful franchise and it has a cross revenue of 2.7 billion dollars. Because "WDP" distributed and promoted it, the film was marketed and promoted really clever and well. 1952 "POTC" started at a wax museum in Disneyland. Disneyland is the biggest area for children adventure and a really good opportunity to promote movies. Also Disney has a huge platform for promotion. They produce Toys, Comics (Marvel Entertainment), they have their own channel (DisneyChannel), Video Games basically everything that is appropriate for children and teenagers. Disney attracts especially young children they start at 3 up to 16 but the range between 3 and 12 is their major business. Why? Because children who are under this age or in this range often go with their parents into the cinema even if they don not want to watch the film. This also the case for "POTC" it is a movie for children and older people because it does not contain strong violent picture or language. In the UK all of the 3 films got 12 as a rating which is the best rating to get as much people in the cinema as possible. The fact that there are 3 movies and there are going to be 4 is also a proof that it is a high concept film. After the big success of the first "Film Pirates of the Caribbean - The Course Of The Black Pearl", approximately 660 million dollar, Disney directly produced a sequel. They are going to produce a huge amount of sequels as long as it brings the amount of money they expect it to bring.

Another big aspect is the quality of the cast. Big names as Johnny Depp (know for excellent acting skills), Orlando Bloom (selected for especially the young female audience) and Keira Knightley (selected for the male audience) are probably also responsible for the big success. Many people just watch a film because their favourite actor is in it or because the main actor or actress convince through other qualities. This is called a "Star Vehicle" which is definitely present in "POTC".


The genres "POTC" belongs to (Action/Fantasy/Comedy) are the biggest genres existing. Basically there is a bit for everything, this is what High Concept Cinema is about it is a product for the mass, with a good story that is created to suite the relatively "low" demands of the majority. Action and Fantasy have usually big special effects this is also the case in "POTC". The visual effects and the look of the film are more important in this product. High Concept Cinema is putting the focused of an audience more on the visual effects then on dialogue. Of course dialogue is also important and is used to keep the audiences' attention. For example Captain Jack Sparrow who has always something funny to say (like Samuel L. Jackson who is famous trough his swearing).

The Director of "POTC" (Gore Verbinski) is not a big name as "Spielberg" or "Cameron" but he had big success with older products like "The Ring" and "The Mexican". In general the Crew just consist out of experienced professionals who have a name in the film business for example the producer "Jerry Bruckheimer" who produced films like "Top Gun", "Bad Boys" and "Armageddon" or Darisz Wolski who is taking the part as a Cinematographers worked with Gore Verbinski together in "The Maxican" and did "The Crow" by Alex Proyas. Also a big name is the composer Klaus Badelt, who recorded the world famous soundtrack. He also recorded the music for films like "Miami Vice" or "16 Blocks" with Bruce Willis. "Academy Award" - Winner Hans Zimmer who is famous for composing the soundtrack of "The Lion King" or " The Dark Knight" and many more productions is also involved in the soundtrack. The rest of the crew are in productions like "Avatar" or "G-Force". This list of the high quality members is also typical for a High Concept Cinema and also one reason why the over all budged of those films is that high. Disney has a very good marketing strategy in terms of horizontal marketing they cover every aspect of it this is called saturation campaign this happens when a film cannot have more advertising because it covers already everything. There are "POTC" action figures, toys, computer-games, assessors there is basically everything. This franchise was and is heavily market (Front Loading). Also the fact that there are several different DvD edition for the film shows that Disney does not forget on single marketing opportunity. There are 6 editions if not more for each movie (Single Edition, Special/Collectors Edition, Extended Edition, Blue-Ray (Blue-Ray Special Edition), and 2 different Box-set. This increases the sale of the DvD and might seduce "Film-Geeks" to buy the movie twice just to have an edition that contains, for example, a tiny bit more special features.

The franchise could be compared to "Die Hard" in terms of its' development. "Die Hard" starts with a building, than goes over to an airport, city and finally involves the whole east coast. "POTC" starts as the name says at "The Course Of The Black Pearl" and ends (temporary) "At The End Of The World. Theoretically you could refer every High Concept Film to another High Concept Film because they all show those characteristics that are mentioned in this essay.