The Birds - Research

Alfred Hitchcock - The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock born on the 13th August 1899 at Leytonstone, Essex, England. Became one of the most well-known film producer and director in his time especially around the 1950-60s agenda. Within this time period Hitchcock brought out a few of his most successful films from his whole career, for instance 'Psycho' (made in 1960) and 'North by northwest' (made in 1959).

In Alfred Hitchcock's time of being a successful director he produced approximately 60 of his own films. Here are some examples of some of Hitchcock's highest grossing films and popular audience choices in the box office, for instance:

• Psycho (1960)
• North by northwest (1959)
• Rebecca (1940)
• Spellbound (1945)
• Notorious (1946)
• Rear Window (1954)
• The Birds (1963)

As a successful director Alfred Hitchcock presented many different methods throughout his filming career. A majority of his films included many sources of violence, crime and death/injury. He included methods in his film such as: Red herrings, MacGuffin, Enigmas and Cliff hangers. He used these methods to create tension and suspense which helps attract the audiences attention to his films and leaving them to want to watch more.

Psycho Research

Alfred Hitchcock - Psycho

The film Psycho was released during the 1960's, this film is an American Thriller/Horror film which is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was firstly distributed by "Paramount Pictures" then in later releases it was distributed by "Universal Pictures".  This film was quite a success as the budget of the film was $800,000, and in the box office it made a massive $60,000,000.

Here is the trailer.

The shocking film Psycho is now classed as one of Alfred Hitchcock's most successful films. The film is based on a secretive relationship between Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and Sam Loomis (John Gavin). They begin with the discussion on how they cannot afford to get married. Marion Crane as returns back to her work place, where a client then hands over $40,000 to purchase a house for his daughter. Instead of Marion carrying out the transaction she takes the money for herself then escapes to a motel "Bates Motel" owned by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). 


The film "Psycho" is known for the famous "Shower Scene". This scene is where Marion Crane's death occurs. This scene on its own was shot for six days, from 17th December-23rd December 1959 the scene is approximately 3-4 minutes long. The shot includes 77 different camera angles. Hitchcock created this scene intelligently as it was a black and white film, he used chocolate syrup for the blood to give off the illusion of a deep red color.  The sounds of the stabbing was created by using a melon and plunging a knife into it.

Visions - The full opening (finished)

Visions - Full opening.

After all the filming and editing, this is our final and finished thriller piece. 'Visions' (zoned out productions)

Preliminary task

The Preliminary Task




 In this preliminary task me, Saana and Rebecca had to present a various amount if shots such as: Match on action, Eye-line match, shot-reverse-shot, graphic match and 180 degree. The film we have created involves a secret package that has to be transferred from Rebecca to me, although we was being very secretive in this film. We presented most of the Shots to meet the criteria of the preliminary task apart from one which was graphic match.

This is our match on action shot of me walking through a door, in the first image we have conveyed me walking in the door recording the shot from behind, then in the second image, we have presented walking into the room recording the shot from the front.

The next shot we presented was the 'Shot-reverse-shot', this is a shot that films one person to another for example through a converstation. In the first image, it presents our conversation starting off with Rebecca, then the conversation reverses back to me in the second image.

The next shot we presented was the 'Eyeline Match', this is a shot that links someones eyeline, with another person's eyeline matching or an object, in this case we used an object. In the first image, it shows me looking towards the object, in the second image it is the object. Which portrays that I am looking at the object.

Evaluation Question 7 -

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the product?

Comparing my thriller to my preliminary task

Looking back to my preliminary task comparing it to my finished thriller product. I feel as if there is a major difference and a major improvement as a whole. Back when I started the preliminary task I felt as if i was more of a beginner/amateur when using camera's, for instance during preliminary task I was still gaining more knowledge on how to use everything and how certain shots make effects on the film.

Quality of shot -

My quality of shots in my thriller were so much better compared to my preliminary task. During my preliminary task I found that as a group we had to crop out loads of little mistakes we made by jogging the camera and having problems with the zoom. Whereas, in our thriller the camera was very steady most of the time and we did not come across many problems with jogging the camera. Also the shots in our thriller flowed very well together when we put them together, yet the preliminary task we had much more fiddling about to do to make sure we cropped it at the correct time so it flowed together.

Quality of image -

I felt as if the quality of image was improved in my thriller compared to the preliminary task. I focused a lot on the positioning of the camera to make sure it was in the correct light, so we had an outcome of a stronger image. Whereas in the preliminary task I feel as if we were focusing more on the use of camera shots and using the microphone because we were still getting used to it.

Quality of sound -

I feel as if there were a slight improvement in the sound area in my thriller compared to my preliminary task. Because during the preliminary task I found it more of a struggle to find a sound to embed into my film and I also struggled to put it in the correct place. Whereas, in my final thriller as a group we already new what type of sounds we was going to use and where exactly we was going to put them, so it was an easier process.

Continuity -

There was a major improvement in the continuity sector from my preliminary task to my thriller the main thing being costumes. In my preliminary task we did not really have any set costumes, so if we was recording on a different day wearing something different we had to try harder to hide the fact that we was wearing different outfits. Whereas in our thriller the main character (Jordan) made sure he brought his costume every lesson, because Jordan was in the majority of the shots. In all our shots we made sure we was wearing the same or very similar costumes.

Conclusion -

As a whole, there was a major improvement between my preliminary task to my final thriller. I think this because I was still gaining a lot of knowledge during my preliminary task, on the other hand during my thriller I pretty much knew everything, and used everything that I learnt previously before the thriller. Which gave me a stronger and better outcome.

Evaluation Question 6 -

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Internet Sites

In the process of constructing this product I was introduced to many sites that I have not used before, or not used correctly before such as: Blogger, YouTube, Slide-share etc...

YouTube - Before I created this product I only used YouTube to watch videos so i did not have much knowledge on the site as a whole.  I have now learnt how to post videos, and also how to embed videos from this site to share them to other sources.

Blogger - Before creating this product I had never used blogger before so I have been supplied with a large amount of extra knowledge about this site. For example, I now know how to create and set out a blog. I know how to create labels (which helps me split the areas of my blog up to make it more easier to find), I also know how to embed or add pictures/videos/screenshots onto the site.

Slide-share - Slide-share is a very useful website to use, especially linking with blogger. Instead of using written word documents on blogger all the time, this site allows you to create a PowerPoint presentation and embed it onto blogger. Which makes it easier to present my work.

Hardware

In the process of constructing this product I was also introduced to electronics and hardware that I have never used or had knowledge on before. For example: Digital Camcorder, Microphone and Tripods.

Digital Camcorder - Before creating this film product, I did not have much experience or knowledge on how to use a digital camcorder. I now know how to film, how to cut at the correct time and how to playback my footage. I also know how to plug and upload footage onto the computer.

Microphone - I now have more knowledge on how to use microphones, and the reason why microphones are used. The use of microphones helps to enhance the sound, rather than the video camera struggling to pick up sound.

Tripods - Before creating this product I never used a tripod before and had no clue how to use it. Now I know how to attach the camcorder to the tripod and also know how to freely move the camera around whilst on the tripod. And also know how to shorten or extend the legs on the tripod.

Software

In the process of constructing my product I was introduced to a software that I had never used before which was 'Final Cut Express'.

Final cut express is a software that helps you make up your film. For example: uploading the film, putting them in the correct areas, linking the clips together, cropping down unnecessary parts, putting in filters or effects and adding text and titles to parts of the film. 

Evaluation Question 5 -

Evaluation question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

How does my thriller hold the audiences attention? - 

My thriller holds the audiences attention, by the use of suspense in my thriller opening. Suspense is built in my thriller from the vision, these visions include mini flashbacks which draws the audience to want to find out what is going on because it is mystery, and a mystery person is in the flashbacks which builds more suspense, making everyone want to find out what the outcome is. It is clear to the audience that there is a difference between the visions and normal footage because the visions are in a black and white filter.

Why would the audience want to watch our film?

The audience would strive to watch our film because its has an interesting mystery story line behind it. It also meets the aspects of being a thriller, for example red herring. The 'good guy' in our film turns out to be the cause of the problem which makes him the 'bad guy'.

Why would they carry on watching after the initial two minute film opening?

They would want to carry on watching the film because the end of the opening end on a cliffhanger, which makes the audience suspicious of what is going to happen next.

Evaluation Question 4 -

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

For our audience feedback we interviewed two males at the ages of 16-17

The audience for my media product would be aimed at the age gap of 15-18, as the age of the actors of our film are between 16-17. So I feel that people around are age gap would relate to our film better.

I think the gender that my media product would attract to would be both genders, although it would be more likely males to watch my product, because for a thriller it is very action packed. Although, because we interviewed males for our feedback. We are unsure on the film from a females point of view.

Evaluation Question 3 -

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

The most likely source of media to distribute our media product would be the web, for instance social networking sites like facebook, twitter and youtube. networking sites are useful, like twitter for example people with similar interests can follow you and you can share interests. This is why it would be a good idea to promote it on twitter. Because people with interests of thrillers will share it and recommended and you could also end up getting referred  to someone who works in that industry and it could lead up to getting it on a show or even into a film if you were that successful.

Also, our target audience for our film is people around our age or just above, like 15-18 (as the film includes people of the age gap of 16-17 so they will be able to link to the film easier). This is another reason why posting the video on a social networking site is a good idea, because it's more likely for me to have followers that are similar age ad similar interest.

Although, if our film was good enough I would say that it could be distributed by the television for example, film 4. Film 4 is a channel that promotes micro budget films, for example shifty.

Evaluation Question 2 -

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

Social groups that feature in my film - 

• Male
• Female
• Young/Teenagers
• Different Races/ Ethnicity

How the different social groups have been perceived -

In my film a majority of the time males have been presented as the dominant group in society.

Firstly, Hassan as (Dr Khan) the Psychologist. Stereo-typically the society have been made to believe that men are more likely to work and have more successful jobs than a woman. In our film Hassan is presented as the boss, and he manages me (the secretary). This shows that men are presented to be more dominant than women in this film. 

Secondly, another man in my film is Parveer (The jogger). One again, this fits into the stereotype of men being more fit and sporty than women.

Women have been perceived as the subordinate group in my film, as I (the only female in the film) was playing the character of a secretary. A female playing the character of a secretary is quite stereotypical. Also having the manager as a man shows that the man is more dominating and the woman is subordinate.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Conventions of the thriller genre used in my film -

In my film many conventions of the thriller genre have been presented in my film. Firstly, a build up of suspense this is a key part of a thriller... as a thriller it has be thrilling and the build up of suspense makes people excited to see what happens next. We presented a build up of suspense in our film as we kept showing a source of the visions of the weak character getting intimidated, this made the audience feel weary of what is going to happen to that character. 

Furthermore, another key convention of the thriller genre is violence. Violence makes a film more thrilling and exciting to watch. In our film we presented violence during the visions in the intimidating scene where we had two of the characters Parveer (the jogger in the park) and Hassan (Dr.Khan) intimidating Jordan (the patient). 

Most films in the thriller genre also include a "hard man/villain" type character. Our film presented Parveer and Hassan as the "hard" characters during the vision scenes, the screen shot below presents that Parveer as the hard character is intimidating the weak character.

Here is a screen shot of my film presenting violence, building suspense and showing a "hard man/villain" character.

How my film compares to other thrillers - 

My film compares to

Sound (terms)

Diegetic Sound - The term 'diegetic' means the actual sound that is created when recording a scene, a sound that is presented by the actor/actresses voices (dialogue) a sound created by an object/prop in the film and music that is being played in the background by an instrument.

Non-Diegetic Sound- The term 'non-diegetic is the opposite to diegetic it is classed as commentary sound, it is a sound that is placed when editing the film, and is a source of sound that is unseen in the recording. A few sources of sound that come under the term non-diegetic would be: A commentator/narrator and sound effects that have been edited into the film,


On-Screen Sound - 

Off-Screen Sound -

Parallel Sound -

Contrapuntal Sound -

Sound Bridge -

Thriller Recipe

Sound Exercise Video

Sound exercise (Video)

We created a video to present our knowledge of sound techniques.

Lighting Exercise

Lighting Exercise

In this lesson, our class was looking into lighting techniques that are effective in films, and then we presented all of the lighting techniques in this video.

Key light - This camera technique is used with the brightest light to create shadows. This technique can be effective in a film as it can create suspense or it is a good technique to use when highlighting an object.




Back light - This camera technique is used to outline the object or person, by having the main source of light behind the object or person. This technique could also be used to build tension.

Filler light - This camera technique is a supplementary light used to soften shadows and ignites areas that are not concealed by the key light.

Under lighting - This camera technique illuminates the person or object by having the main source of light is placed below the object/person.





Top lighting -  This camera technique is used to enhance features and can be used to create an alluring look. The main source of light is placed above the person/object.

Low key lighting - This camera technique creates broader and darker shadows, they do this by having sharper contrast between light and dark. This technique is created by using only the key light and back light.

High key lighting - This camera technique is used to erase all shadows, this technique is created by using the filler lights.

Audience Feedback (Focus Group)

Audience Feedback

This is the audience, who are a couple of the students in my media class who offered to give us feedback on the finished film, we made a video where we was asking them questions about the opening, and getting there answers and seeing what they thought about the film and what parts they liked and didn't like.

Overall, the majority of feedback on our film opening was positive.

Audience Research (Visions Rough Cut)

Audience Research

To assist us to make improvements on our film, we asked some of the other students in our class to take a look at our rough cut and to give us feedback  and advise us o what we need to improve on.

Some of the feedback from the film:

• The length of the opening was too long.
• Scene of the characters walking was stretched out too much.
• Unclear speech.
• The weather (noisy).
• The audience fount it hard to understand the main plot/storyline.

How we are going to improve on our feedback:

Length of the opening

The length of our opening was too long for an opening it was between 4-5 minutes, when realistically our opening had to be 3 minutes long maximum. So for our final piece we have to find a way to shorten down our film by cropping down some of the pointless areas of the film, and perhaps re-record some scenes and shorten them down. I agree with this part of feedback because, as the maximum is 3 minutes and we exceeded that limit.

Scenes that were to stretched out

The audience found in our film that we had a lot of clips of the characters just walking and it was very stretched out, referring back to the length of our opening. The scenes of the characters walking took up a big part of the film. To improve on this we can easily cut down the amount of the walking scenes by cropping the bits that were really stretched out. I agree with this part of the feedback, after hearing this feedback I looked over the film and realised that  lot of the film was taken over by walking.

Unclear speech

The audience found in our film that the speech was very unclear, to improve on this we are going to redo a few of the scenes and reassure that it is clear enough for people to understand.

The weather (noise)

The audience noticed in our film, that in the park scene (where a vision and the walking scenes occur) that the weather created a lot of disruption whilst watching the film, as the wind was very strong that day. To improve on this, we could lower the tone of our sound to make the wind less disruptive or we could redo the scenes when the weather is calmer.

The audience fount it hard to understand the main plot

When the audience was giving us feedback, they mentioned that they fount it hard to understand what was going on and that they didn't really understand the storyline. To improve on this we can redo some scenes that drop more hints of what is going on, and make the speech and actions more clear. We could also add little clips of mini visions which presents that the character is suffering with a lot of visions.

Visions Film Opening (Rough Cut)

Rough Cut





This is the rough cut to our film, as you can see still we need to crop this down to at least 3 minutes maximum. We also need to change some scenes and improve them to make the opening make more sense and we also want to vary our camera shots more to create more effect. We also need to put more sound effects, video filters and video effects to finalize our thriller opening.

Visions animatic

Location visit sheet

Production Schedule Location Visit Sheet Programme Title: Visions Client: Writer: Producer: Parveer Mahal Director: Jordan Walters Date:

Rough Sketch/Explanation of location and key points to note Access to location via: Goodmayes park Parveer Mahal house Common room (Lower School) Name and number of location contact: Parveer Mahal mobile phone number:07963181309 Winifred road Dagenham Essex

Health and Safety Issues to note: ●      N/A

Potential Filming Problems : ●      Camera can move about if the cameraman isn’t holding the camera properly. ●      As we are a medium sized group we may have different ideas which can result in us arguing so we have to put the ideas we have in the same film.

Additional Notes:  (map of area/weather forecast etc) Weather can be bad as we expect snow as we at the end of the year.

Story Board

Shot List

Shot List
Scene	Shot Number	Description
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18	4-5 4-6 3 2 2 4 1 3 1 2 1 1 1-2 1 1 1 1 1	The main character (Lance Filmore gets up out of bed, goes down stairs and has breakfast) The main character gets dressed and goes out side for a walk in the park. Lance walks to the park bench and sits down. Whilst sitting down he sees a jogger who jogs in front of the bench, stops and catches his breath, then carries on jogging. After the jogger leaves, the Lance has a bad headache and holds his head and sees his first vision. In his vision, Lance is being chased by a mysterious man and cannot make out his face. The vision ends and Lance is holding his head. He then takes a visit his local psychiatrist. He approaches the clinic and stares at the sign. He gets escorted by the assistant and gets asked to have a seat. The psychiatrist and the main character have a conversation about the recent visions Lance has had. The psychiatrist finds this interesting; he adjusts his glasses and leaves his seat to search for more paper. Lance notices that the doctor had touched his glasses, which triggered his second vision. In this scene the main character sees someone talking to him and asking for some sort of device, in a sort of interrogation. He makes out the face of the people in the room, one of them looked similar to his psychiatrist and the other similar to the jogger he saw earlier that day in the park. He awakes from his vision with another headache and realises his doctor had left the room. In the last scene he awakes from his sleep in his home, in his bed. He realised it was all a dream. He heard a noise from outside his room, suddenly his door opened slowly and a man in black came in.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Day	Scene	Location	Equipment	Costumes	Props	Cast +Crew
1 2  3 4 5	Lance Filmore walking up the stairs to the doctors.  Psychiatrist Scene. Park scene. Lance Filmore having a vision when jogger passes by. Waking up scene Walking into the park scene Interrogation/ Confrontation	Stairs next to the study room (Robert Clack Lower School) Study room (Robert Clack Lower School). Central Park (Dagenham) 23 Gerald road (Dagenham, Essex) Central Park (Dagenham) Classroom (Robert Clack Lower)	Camera and Tripod. Camera, Tripod. Camera and Tripod Camera and Tripod  Camera and Tripod Camera and Tripod	Lance Filmore- Blue Jacket, Blue jeans, Casual trainers, and Woolly hat. Lance Filmore- Blue Jacket, Blue jeans, Casual trainers, and Woolly hat. Dr.Khan- Red tie, maroon shirt, blue trousers, black cardigan. Glasses. Assistant- Black leather jacket, Grey skirt, Black tights and a blouse.   Lance Filmore- Blue Jacket, Blue jeans, Casual trainers, and Woolly hat. Jogger- Red Fila Jacket, Blue adidas tracksuit bottoms and adidas trainers Lance Filmore- Purple pyjamas and Navy slippers.  Interrogator - White Shirt, Black tie, Black trousers and Black shoes. Lance Filmore- Blue Jacket, Blue jeans, Casual trainers, and Woolly hat. Black shoes, Cream shirt. Black tie, Black trousers	Ear phones and a watch Ear phones and a watch Notepad and a pen. Earphones and a watch. Bed, Phone, Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Bowl, Cereal, Milk, Spoon.   Earphones and a watch. N/A	Jordan Walters Parveer Mahal Hassan Kawshar Parveer Mahal Jordan Walters Sophie Hawkins Parveer Mahal Hassan Kawshar Jordan Walters Jordan Walters Parveer Mahal Hassan Kawshar Parveer Mahal Hassan Kawshar Jordan Walters Parveer Mahal Hassan Kawshar Jordan Walters