We chose to do a thriller rather than a horror for many reasons: the most predominant being that there was more of a market for a thriller opening as the majority of the AS year, to begin with, chose horrors over thrillers. This may be because they enjoy them more personally, they thought the target audience would be more diverse, or because they thought that overall the storyline and the filming would be easier for them due to the sub-genres of horror films e.g. the ‘slasher’ genre such as ‘Halloween’.
For our logo we used the convention of having a similar layout to many established logos such as Paramount, DreamWorks etc to ensure our logo looked professional. The image was imported from Google and we wrote our writing upon the eye to signify what the audience cannot see within the plot and to represent the hidden messages through the productions we would continue to make. Our centred bold text is common within logos therefore keeping to the conventions of established logos.
Behind our logo we had a theme tune to match our logo as all established companies have music playing behind their logo so that even without seeing the logo, the audience is associated with the institution from its recognisable tune such as with Disney.In our production we use music which builds tension as the pitch and pace increases with the tense atmosphere within the scene such as within the appearance of Daniel, a mysterious figure, who appears to be watching Addison (Charlotte). The sharp ping begins the incidental, atmospheric music throughout the following scene. This is very common for thriller/horror films as the music heightens with the action making the outcome more shocking and effective such as within 'Dark Knight' where the atmospheric clock ticking and barely audible banging, by Christopher Nolan, during the opening brings an automatic mystery to the narrative. This atmospheric music is conventional and can be found in a variety of films within all thrillers; likewise in horrors.
Our title 'The Book of Leviticus' was inspired by 'The Book of Eli' as both of the narratives are centred around a religious book; although the two are not connected in any way or even in genre, we just thought the name would bring suspense and relate the book to the religious aspect of the movie even though it is not mentioned in the opening. The religion within our movie is a way where we challenged thriller conventions as religious figures are commonly found within horrors, rather than thrillers, but we thought the twist would challenge the conventions of thriller products. 'The Da Vinci Code' is a mystery thriller, based upon a book with the same title, which is centred around religion yet it is one of the only renown religious thrillers. For our title we used Fireworks to make the background translucent for an image of a cross, found from Google, to use as the T within 'Leviticus' to bring more depth to the Bell MT font which we used in bold and also to make the audience aware from first impressions that our movie would somehow incorporate religious references as seen above. Since the murderer is not found until the latter part of the movie, the close up of the book does not allow the audience to make judgement and automatically know who commits the crimes, therefore making the title thought provoking for the audience.We decided for our titles that we would enlarge and magnify quotes and key words from verses within the book and place the title over the top - the quotes we would enlarge and magnify would be specifically based around punishment and sins to communicate with the audience that sinning is the reason for the punishment, not only within Leviticus, but also within our plot. However, we decided against this as the writing didn't look very effective so instead we gave ourselves an open bible on an angle where we placed our titles over the top before having The Book of Leviticus title.The writing for our titles superimposed the image and our cast over the POV flash-forward, showing Addison's demise. To do this we had to change the opacity of the title screens so that only the writing was shown rather than the background which came with it. The brightness upon the flash-forward was dulled and we also added a tint to make it a dusty colour rather than it being colour. After seeing the flash-forward we used a common horror convention of having a 'One Day Earlier' title which is witnessed through 'The Shining' which helps the narrative flow through the vast gaps of time between shots. We used a white or grey font over a black background, or over the images, as from our research, audiences associate films from a thriller genre to have black, grey and white writing due to the lack of connotations and the antithesis of the colours can reflect the darkness and mystery of the plot but then the officer’s attempts to find the truth.; therefore using a common convention of thriller products. Likewise these colours do not give the audience too much insight into the movie as the colours are very bland and neutral which helps keep the mystery rather than give it away from the beginning of the production.
As thrillers usually occur within households and within forest type areas, we incorporated and used this convention in our opening by starting with a family home before contrasting with the darkness of a forest - this is mainstream for thriller/horrors such as 'The Last House on the Left' where the death and violence takes place within both a home and a forest. 'The Village' uses both these two locations - the action occurs within a village but the residents are too frightened to go into the forest due to the murderous 'creatures'. These two movies both reflect happenings within our 2 minute clip due to Addison being murdered within the opening of the forest where corpses are stereotypically hidden. For the establishing shot of the home, we darkened the edges of the shot and had a spotlight on the window where the shot zooms into. We chose the window as people can be seen and heard through windows and so it brought the impression of somebody watching the home and listening in which is common within horrors such as 'Halloween'.Hiding the murderer occurs frequently within thrillers such as 'The Lovely Bones' where everybody accused for the daughter’s murder but ironically not the man whom committed it until the latter of the film. As the narrative comes to a close, they piece together events and discover the truth, just as our officer would thus using another thriller convention.
To bring us from our establishing shot of the home, we used a voice over of children from within the kitchen where our scene switches to, whilst people enjoy their dinner, just as Hannibal does within 'Red Dragon' to his guests. Children's presence is common within thrillers such as 'Hush Little Baby' and even 'Bless the Child' which from the title suggests the religion based within, such as within our film even though the children are not prominent within ours unlike 'Case 39' which also contains horror attributes. Our children are not subject to any brutality, not used in any perilous way within our narrative, or under any obvious harm, which is not usually the case within thrillers therefore we are developing conventions of children's presence within thrillers.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?In our opening we do not represent many social groups as most of our characters are middle-class Caucasian Christians with light hair to match the light skin tone. We do have a jogger from Asian heritage which makes our production appealing to more than one ethnicity. In most thrillers, but not all, there is a majority of Caucasian actors within the cast, although there usually is a few of a different heritage which we have so far included and would continue through the progression of the narrative.The mix of classes also brings other religions into the narrative rather than just Christianity even though other religions do not believe in the Christian God, they still have some form of religious figure which they worship and believe in. The other religions and ethnicities have less relevance within our opening due to the narrative being based upon a member of Caucasian family committing the crime 'the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself to harlotry, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire' (21:9) from Leviticus.
Addison does not appear to have a specific teenage clique yet she does share teenage rebellion such as within 'I Know Who Killed Me' where Lindsay Lohan's character is shown in a suburban home as an innocent girl and then as an exotic dancer at night, albeit it is not the same person but it does show teenager's stereotypical rebellion and their opposing sides when away from their family. However, we did include a teenage boy from the stereotype of 'emo/goth' due to his dyed black, long hair covering his face, dark clothing and very tight skinny jeans. This does bring some form of teenage stereotypes within our thriller yet it is common to usually have a few within film productions such as within the teen-horror 'Jennifer's Body' where 'jocks', 'goths/emos', 'nerds' etc are present. We did try to keep these to a minimum to stop stereotyping people, yet we did need the slight diversity so that we did not seem discriminative, which is why only one person is seen within a specific stereotype even though there is very few, if any, stereotypes such as this within real thriller products.
Addison does not appear to have a specific teenage clique yet she does share teenage rebellion such as within 'I Know Who Killed Me' where Lindsay Lohan's character is shown in a suburban home as an innocent girl and then as an exotic dancer at night, albeit it is not the same person but it does show teenager's stereotypical rebellion and their opposing sides when away from their family. However, we did include a teenage boy from the stereotype of 'emo/goth' due to his dyed black, long hair covering his face, dark clothing and very tight skinny jeans. This does bring some form of teenage stereotypes within our thriller yet it is common to usually have a few within film productions such as within the teen-horror 'Jennifer's Body' where 'jocks', 'goths/emos', 'nerds' etc are present. We did try to keep these to a minimum to stop stereotyping people, yet we did need the slight diversity so that we did not seem discriminative, which is why only one person is seen within a specific stereotype even though there is very few, if any, stereotypes such as this within real thriller products. 
The car which is present for a short while is also a clean, average priced car rather than a run-down, aged car or an extremely expensive one which keeps the middle-class social group within our production throughout the opening.
What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?
An institutions main role is to distribute films and market it. They get a basic script of a film, adapt it to their standards, they see how they can get it onto screen through screenplays before doing casting calls for actors. Then technical attributes are added after scripts are decided upon.
Paramount Pictures could produce a movie such as ours as they have produced other thrillers such as the recent psychological thriller 'Black Swan'; they have also marketed big production films with murder plots. Marv Films, a UK based institution, are renown for experimenting with their produced genres, ranging from fantasy to thrillers. One of their British thrillers is ‘Layer Cake’ yet our religious references would challenge the institution further giving them more depth to experiment. Our film would have to be low budget due and independent due to the lack of resources and money available to us meaning we could not have famous actors/actress’, or a massive amount of CGI or Pyrotechnics; hence a company such as Marv Films would prove more useful and beneficial to ask for support, rather than institutions which produce prominently big Hollywood production products such as 20th Century Fox’s ‘Avatar’.
In contrast, Hammer films are famous for their dominance over the Gothic and horror films; however, they also produce some British/American thrillers and also thriller/horrors which have attributes of both within. One of Hammer's recent thriller movies is 'The Resident' (2011) which was released directly to DVD days after being released in British cinemas; I would not want our product to be distributed by a company such as Hammer as their thrillers rarely receive recognition due to expectations of Hammer's quality due to their famous horror dominance - their thrillers are rated low in comparison.
Once our movie would be produced we would ask a company, such as Film4, to distribute our production due to the mass views they receive from our demographic range.
An institutions main role is to distribute films and market it. They get a basic script of a film, adapt it to their standards, they see how they can get it onto screen through screenplays before doing casting calls for actors. Then technical attributes are added after scripts are decided upon.
Paramount Pictures could produce a movie such as ours as they have produced other thrillers such as the recent psychological thriller 'Black Swan'; they have also marketed big production films with murder plots. Marv Films, a UK based institution, are renown for experimenting with their produced genres, ranging from fantasy to thrillers. One of their British thrillers is ‘Layer Cake’ yet our religious references would challenge the institution further giving them more depth to experiment. Our film would have to be low budget due and independent due to the lack of resources and money available to us meaning we could not have famous actors/actress’, or a massive amount of CGI or Pyrotechnics; hence a company such as Marv Films would prove more useful and beneficial to ask for support, rather than institutions which produce prominently big Hollywood production products such as 20th Century Fox’s ‘Avatar’.
In contrast, Hammer films are famous for their dominance over the Gothic and horror films; however, they also produce some British/American thrillers and also thriller/horrors which have attributes of both within. One of Hammer's recent thriller movies is 'The Resident' (2011) which was released directly to DVD days after being released in British cinemas; I would not want our product to be distributed by a company such as Hammer as their thrillers rarely receive recognition due to expectations of Hammer's quality due to their famous horror dominance - their thrillers are rated low in comparison.
Once our movie would be produced we would ask a company, such as Film4, to distribute our production due to the mass views they receive from our demographic range.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
From our BBFC rating of 15, our primary audience would be that of teenagers around this age and upwards; however, our secondary demographic appeal would be to adults whom enjoy thrillers/horrors and also films which embody religious references. Due to the sexual references, violence and possible expletives used within our film the BBFC states it cannot be rated any less than a 15 such as films like 'The Matrix' and 'Changeling'. From the opening of the product, there is a female dominance and a range of ages viewed from adults, young adults, teenagers and young children - this range would also appeal to wider demographics as our movie does not focus specifically one just one age group and gender.
As a group we decided against discrimination of Christians or other religions as we believe that doing so would be blasphemy. Every other age group, ethnicity and gender may enjoy our film without being affected by the religious references.
A viral marketing technique we used were our Facebook and Twitter pages which promote our film to mass audiences as the majority of people within the targeted age group have these forms of social networking making it the perfect medium to promote our film. Upon here we would keep updates on how filming is going, we would distribute teaser trailers, trailers, teaser promotional images, featurettes, interviews with the cast and after production we would sell and advertise merchandise which would help build our portfolio and build up a fan base. Youtube videos and trailers would be posted, similar to Marv's viral-marketing campaign for one of their recent movie's:'Kick-Ass'. A website dedicated towards our thriller would also help with our viral marketing as if audiences noticed one of our trailers, posters, etc, they could find out more information through our dedicated website. Viral marketing campaigns are effective, proved by audience members rating the best methods and most memorable - 'The Blair Witch Product' has been voted as having one of the most memorable, even beating 'Cloverfield' which the public voted 4th, meaning that we would have to be original within our viral marketing technique, rather than just following the conventions so that our campaign would memorable thus resulting in viewers of our production. (http://blog.moviefone.com)
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From our BBFC rating of 15, our primary audience would be that of teenagers around this age and upwards; however, our secondary demographic appeal would be to adults whom enjoy thrillers/horrors and also films which embody religious references. Due to the sexual references, violence and possible expletives used within our film the BBFC states it cannot be rated any less than a 15 such as films like 'The Matrix' and 'Changeling'. From the opening of the product, there is a female dominance and a range of ages viewed from adults, young adults, teenagers and young children - this range would also appeal to wider demographics as our movie does not focus specifically one just one age group and gender.
As a group we decided against discrimination of Christians or other religions as we believe that doing so would be blasphemy. Every other age group, ethnicity and gender may enjoy our film without being affected by the religious references.
How did you attract/address your audience?
We used a traditional marketing strategy by making a poster of Addison and a dark figure which reflects a shot within the opening of our thriller just before her demise. This event would be a regular occurrence within our narrative due to the vast quantity of murders which occur hence the executioner would have to follow their prey to commit the deed, making our chosen shot for the poster to be a very significant one such as this. Billboards and posters would be distributed of this image and we would advertise the DVD cover with a similar image, not only promoting The Book of Leviticus but also Blind Side. Our traditional marketing techniques would also show our premiere image and, if released in cinemas, our image would be advertised within cinemas.
A viral marketing technique we used were our Facebook and Twitter pages which promote our film to mass audiences as the majority of people within the targeted age group have these forms of social networking making it the perfect medium to promote our film. Upon here we would keep updates on how filming is going, we would distribute teaser trailers, trailers, teaser promotional images, featurettes, interviews with the cast and after production we would sell and advertise merchandise which would help build our portfolio and build up a fan base. Youtube videos and trailers would be posted, similar to Marv's viral-marketing campaign for one of their recent movie's:'Kick-Ass'. A website dedicated towards our thriller would also help with our viral marketing as if audiences noticed one of our trailers, posters, etc, they could find out more information through our dedicated website. Viral marketing campaigns are effective, proved by audience members rating the best methods and most memorable - 'The Blair Witch Product' has been voted as having one of the most memorable, even beating 'Cloverfield' which the public voted 4th, meaning that we would have to be original within our viral marketing technique, rather than just following the conventions so that our campaign would memorable thus resulting in viewers of our production. (http://blog.moviefone.com)
Our soundtrack would also be distributed through iTunes after our production would begin to be shown through cinemas or once released directly to DVD which most low budget, independent films are.
We filmed with Sony Touch-Screen HD cameras which were specifically chosen due to their good quality shots - we also had a tri-pod to use, if we pleased, to help produce steady, even shots. The tri-pod proved useful as it gave us height and stability for extreme long shots such as the zoom into the house from the outside, and also the walking out shot of Addison across the path. The tripod also helped with pans which were used throughout the walking out of the house shot, and also from the dissolve into the night-time walking shot. The cameras were easy to use as we had experienced them before during previous tasks and knowing the functions and how to work the buttons was already established before filming.
Footage was uploaded onto the iMacs and then transferred into Adobe Premiere Pro so that we could merge, edit and manipulate our shots to complete the opening. Using this software was unbelievably easy to understand once I had grasped the basics which did not take long as the software is easy to understand and work with meaning effects could be added quickly and easily. It differed dramatically from iMovie which we had previously used making the first few experiences with Adobe Premiere Pro slightly confusing due to the differing layout.
Footage was uploaded onto the iMacs and then transferred into Adobe Premiere Pro so that we could merge, edit and manipulate our shots to complete the opening. Using this software was unbelievably easy to understand once I had grasped the basics which did not take long as the software is easy to understand and work with meaning effects could be added quickly and easily. It differed dramatically from iMovie which we had previously used making the first few experiences with Adobe Premiere Pro slightly confusing due to the differing layout.
One of the most lingering being our effect over the ending titles as shown to the left where we changed the opacity of the image and imported in titles which, if preferred, could have came in through a crawl, a roll or a still. We used colour tab and colour corrector to help lighten the required shot so the pages were not discoloured. A dip-to-white was incorporated at the beginning of these titles as the whiteness blends into the white background of the bible. Bell Mt was continuously used within our titles to introduce names but we incorporated Garamond into the ending titles to introduce what the names were responsible for such as 'Directed by' or 'Music/Soundtrack by'. We kept small capitals throughout all of our titles as it was more professional to have a specific theme of text rather than mix varying fonts - we wanted our own specific house style for the movie and believed the fonts used worked well with our thriller theme.
The preliminary task taught us basic knowledge and shots such as the 180 degree rule, an eye-line, a shot reverse shot and a match on action. We used some of these within our full product yet re-shooting them within the final product brought more confidence therefore producing better shots.
New shots were also learnt such as pans, tilts, horizontal tracks, high angle and many others which we never included within our preliminary task due to us being beginners behind a camera, whereas now we have a better understanding and gained skills from our previous task. We have learnt how to work with shots to make them appear seamless and continuous rather than having sharp cuts everywhere which Adobe Premiere helped with due to its simplicity. However, I do believe Adobe Premiere Pro helped with the majority of editing techniques used between the shots as we did have better programming for the latter of our productions rather than having to work with iMovie.
Manipulating sound to stop hearing the wind and blurs, is another thing which I found very important and valuable as it helps with the shots believability when compared to that of a rustling shot which looks and sounds extremely unprofessional such as our shots within our preliminary task. Adobe Premiere Pro was easy to do manipulate this even though the layout was hard to begin with. After finding the locations of everything the technology became easier to use and therefore dragging effects to quieten background noise and fading it out was easy to complete. We also downloaded our own music and effects from trusted websites rather than having only a small amount of sounds from iMovie meaning that productions within the AS year would be more diverse and original than previously.
Our title screens are also more diverse now as we can superimpose them over our shots/images which previously we would not do due to the lack of resources iMovie has compared to Adobe Premiere Pro. We could also elongate the titles to last on screen as long as we wanted which previously was not as easy to do even though possible. We could have our own background image which makes our work yet again more diverse and original.
Deadlines for filming were not as much of an issue here unlike before. We had a very short amount of time to find acceptable shots within our preliminary task whereas for our latest production we had a vast amount of time to organise, prepare and shoot our shots. Although due to re-shoots and team members being unavailable to film frequently or on decided days, filming took longer than anticipated. As we had the slight misfortune of a very imperative actor dropping out, we had to also re-shoot many new shots to flow with our new storyline which meant re-casting became a time consumer as we could not shoot new shots if we did not have actors/actress'. Alongside this I have learnt that it's best to re-shoot every shot, during the same date and filming period, a minimum of 3 times, to ensure there is an acceptable shot at the end as filming just one per shot is very unreliable in terms of finding a shot we believe to be acceptable and accurate. Within the preliminary task we had only our group as actors and only two hours to get our shots - for this two minute task we found our own actors and also had to find acceptable locations which we never had to do previously.
