Audience Research

Our Audience research was conducted quite late in the process since we didn't believe we needed to since we believed that this would fit our target audience perfectly. However, our audience had some positives and some negatives ...

Group Discussion 2

After the footage I went to my team and discussed my criticisms we all had criticisms Shanae mentioned the Heart beat was too time consuming and that some of the shots could have been shortened to make more time for more relevant things which we all came to an agreement sat down together and   went through all the parts we thought were unnecessary, one of them being Johns phone conversation with Jack which we shortened to not let it drag on for too long.

The group also really liked my idea on how to end it and we are working now on inputting that into the end. 

Regional Identity

At the beginning when we were planning we didn’t really picture our characters being cockney lads from east London but when the actors started they did that and we thought it would work quite well since they seemed to suit our roles a lot more than we thought it was. I think the accents were so Key to the piece since it created a sort of ‘hard geezer’ atmosphere which surprised the audience and making our film much stronger as a whole by breaking he conventions of a normal thriller and making our film different and more down to earth a specified than in normal/everyday thrillers.

Obsession 3

After discussing it as a group we decided that we definitely needed new footage for the piece filmed at my house. My house was unavailable so we used our actor Artan’s house to film our opening scene again Shanae and I re-recorded the whole footage over again and staged it. We changed it quite a bit compared to the first one.

Shanae came up with the idea of filming the extreme close up of Artan at the beginning of the piece I came up with the idea of the low angle shot and to pan up towards the papers. Also the Heartbeat of the blackness at the beginning was my idea. Our Obsession title remained the same. Shanae and I had come up with the idea of Artan walking to the camera and using match on action then doing a Track behind him into the bathroom to create a subtle but mysterious effect  as we have a few seconds of darkness. Filming Artan at Mid shot while infront of the mirror was tricky since we didn’t want Shanae to be seen with the camera and the match on action used when he washing his face. We used jump cuts as he heard the door to create a tensional feel for the audience of suddenly something is happening and builds the tension also the music is heard for the first time here which adds an extreme amount of tension on the piece. The track from behind Artan towards the room was very effective since we tend to follow him into the mystery of what has happened in his room.

 Some criticism’s I saw was the fact that when Artan gets on the phone it was dragged out for too long. Also, in the other footage Artan says ‘ I need some alone time’ which is very low and you can hardly hear it which we are planning to fix by re-recording his voice and putting it on top of the video. Also at the end in my opinion, we could change it and make it more ambiguous by perhaps having a black screen with just Artans/ ‘Johns’ saying it all gone… This I believe would be way more effective than what we have now. We are going to have a group discussion where we will discuss these and come to some agreement.

Music and effects on Thrillers

The clip starts with the strings playing slightly in the background in minor keys making it seem quite sad and upsetting which is suited to the scene since the character of son and father are being split. As the aliens appear the music tends to get louder and it builds the texture as the children are taken away from the father it gets quitter as the son and father say their last goodbyes. The further the ship goes the higher the volume and texture of music increases the strings create quite a tense and mysterious feel to the piece and as they leave earth’s orbit and are finally gone all the strings are in unison very loudly to signify the pain and suffering that the father feels until the children are fully gone and the light is not visible anymore where the music just stops.

Until he enters his car and puts on the calm classical music in the midst of all the catastrophe and pain of people trying to survive. It is contrasted and highlights that there is no hope and that he chooses his last moments to be reflective and reflect on his past.

Then as the radiation of the sun is shown over the earth the music is atmospheric effect which emphasises the true end. Then at the end as the kids are shown in a new world the strings are in major and very loud which shows hope for a new beginning.

Obsession - Response from the Team

After Reginald and I had filmed the footage at my house we gave it to Shanae and she noticed quite a few bits that went wrong about the footage and things we needed to change.

Our first problem was the fact that our opening sequence didn’t include our names and credits to others because we tried to find a place where it would fit nicely but we couldn’t out it anywhere where it would look nice and presentable to the audience.

Also, Shanae pointed out that lighting was a clear problem with the footage from my house since on the first part the lighting is significantly darker than in the second and the lighting was just way to dim also the quality of the filming was not as good since towards the end the piece looked poor in quality. Also in the first part Artan (the main character) he wore a red blanket but what Shanae pointed out is that there is footage of him without the blanket but no footage of him taking it off.

She also pointed out that the papers were not as convincing which was my fault since from close up they looked quite professional and something he would be obsessed with but from far away I agree did not give the same effect and that means the Mise en scene was not particularly convincing for the piece.

We had also watched the clip back and had seen that what Artan was wearing was a shirt and trousers which in Shanae’s opinion was not very good for the storyline, I disagree since a conventional detective even if after being fired doesn’t really seems to care what he wears and I think the fact that he is obsessed with his career makes him obsessed to continue wearing the same clothing so he can convince himself he can still do his job even though he has been fired. But as a group we collectively agreed that it would be better for him to not be wearing that and wearing something different to portray his character. 

Obsession 2