Evaluation Question 2 | Final Task

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Unlike ordinary thriller films in 'Anonymous' we had more than just one main character for the audience to keep their eyes on. Throughout the sequence, the audience would be introduced to a new character who would act as a courier to the bag. This would therefore create a connection between them all and be seen as a group. To develop this idea, we wanted to have a wide spread of demographics in this group, so that everyone who carried the bag would be in separate walks of life.

For example, during the ellipsis sequence one shot would show a girl carrying the bag, which then cut to a old man carrying the same bag. This shows that even though they are both different ages and genders, they still have the same purpose for travelling with the bag. This further suggests that everyone regardless of age, gender or ethnicity are capable and do commit atrocities in everyday life, and should not made into a conventional image. 

Moreover, the significance of these characters is that they were all unknown general public and volunteered to be in our film. This meant that it made the film seem more genuine as the opening didn't consists just of our group! 

Below I have a produced a Prezi Presentation to go into further depth into specific characters in Anonymous.

Evaluation Question 1 | Final Task

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

In this evaluation task, we discussed how the opening to Anonymous follows and challenges forms and conventions of a typical thriller film. The main point that we made was that the 'look' of the opening didn't instantly appear to be a thriller film. This meant we challenged this as we had most of the opening being in black&white and the bag being in red. We thought this was one of the most significant aspect of our opening as it created a focus point for the audience. A typical thriller film will be low lit to emphasis the suspension and eeriness to the film. Therefore challenged this as we created an innocent and ordinary setting. This is similar to the opening of Dexter, where the scenario is an ordinary situation but at the same time the shots are metaphorically gore like. Moreover we didn't focus on one character. Thriller films will show a clear picture to who the hero and villain is. We thought this was a good convention to challenge as we wanted to create more questions to the audience by introducing a wider spread of demographics throughout. This would therefore entice the audience into the film from the opening shots.

Anonymous Poster | Final Task

We have created a Anonymous Cover Poster. We intend to use when promoting the film. The saturation of the bag has been bought out vastly to create a bold statement about the significance of it in the film. Posters are a very effective traditional marketing tool because you can build and attract your audience, and by having this for Anonymous, we can hope to draw our audience in. 

DVD Covers Research | Final Task

Below shows a sample of the many DVD covers that have been released for thriller films. By comparing all three, you can dictate similarities between them and therefore tell what a typical thriller DVD cover should look like.

One main similarity between these DVD covers are that they all have red font appearing on the front. This is a common colour to be placed onto thriller DVD covers and also in the film as the colour red typically represents blood.

Moreover the colour of the background on all of these DVD covers are against a dark background, which enhances the boldness of the text.

Anonymous Opening Sequence | Final Task

Here is our final piece for our coursework. Many adjustments and updates have been made since the rough cut and the feedback that was given. Some examples include, colour correcting, grading, timing issues, sound adjustments. This part of the process is arguably what makes the sequence. Ensuring that the opening has a flow of action which therefore minimises the chances for the audience noticing the editing is crucial. So here it is. 

Enjoy!

Creating the Ellipsis Sequence | Final Task

I have created a video to show how we created the ellipsis sequence, when producing  the rough cut for 'Anonymous'. This part of the  opening needed to be as accurate as possible, as we had to make sure that the characters walking towards the camera were as central as possible. To  ensure this was the case we used two methods, one in the editing process and one in the production stage. I explain further in the video below.  

Rough Cut Audience Feedback | Final Task

After producing the rough cut for Anonymous, we went around Shiplake College to gain feedback from both Students and Teachers. Receiving feedback about our rough cut was very useful as we could use this to tweak parts of the sequence. For example, one main point that was raised numerously was the clip where the bus goes past the courier and the courier then disappears. Many people pointed out that the speed of this clip didn't suit the rest of the film, which therefore made the video lack in continuity. The clip broke the flow of action as all of the other clips in the sequence  had  the speed of movement. This useful feedback has made us go back to rough cut and change the speed of the clip, so that it looks more realistic and natural to the audience. These audience feedback responses is very useful for us as a group as it highlights mistakes in the sequence that we may not notice and what needs to be improved. This therefore means that if the audience pick up on mistakes in our sequence then we have not produced material that is consistent of continuity throughout.