Rancid Story Bord

audience feedback

Here are some comments that people gave our thriller after watching it:

"I'm not going to eat meat again!" - Ruby Kammer

"I enjoyed the fast cuts that built up the tension throughout the thriller sequence." - Francesca Dowle

"The close ups of the meat and blood were very rough and gruesome!" - Ellie Bland

"It was...interesting, and kinda disgusting!" - Lara Wadsworth

"The soundtrack really helped with the tension." - Pip Milner

"Everytime I watch it, it makes me throw up in my mouth." - James Burke

"It was truely rancid!" - Olivia Cox

Over 74% of people who watched the film thought the gore coincided really well with the environment it was set in, and they truly enjoyed it, these people were in the ages of 16-25. However, the remaining 16% felt it was too much blood and gore, therefore did not enjoy it as much, however, these people were above the ages of our target audience, so we can understand their negative reaction.

Task 7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

The planning and preparation for our preliminary task was substantual for the stask that was set to us, be the help we got from the teachers. We were given a morning to film our short sequence which was shown through a step by step storyboard. We did not need to plan our setting, or the camera and lights.

In our thriller we had to organise everything ourselfs as we were getting maked on our preporation as well as the main product, where much of the term was occupied by finding locations, and preparing sets. We knew that we wanted a butcher for the establishing shots, therefore we researched on the internet places which were near by, after many rejections, we finally found a place in Godalming.

Once this was done, we decided what our studio would look like, which we based on the story board that we had previously drawn to help with the planning. Our shooting day was planned out in much depth, the story bording really helpped us with the shots we knew what we were doing at all parts and times of the day. This shows how the planning of the preliminary task was so basic and simple.

All the responsibility was put on us for our main task, therefore we took control and prepared it fully to gain the best outcome.




We were only shown easy shots, such as close up, wide shots etc in our preliminary task, but in the main task we could choose what shots best represented our genre, and I feel that our shots achieved this. In the preliminary task we settled with dialogue to tell the story, because our knowledge of shots were little. However, we had no dialogue in our main task, therefore the story telling was done through the sophisticated shots, such as:

task 6 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

task 5 How did you attract/address your audience?

I would advertise my thriller in places where the audience would be for example CD stores, fast food restaurants. Also advertising on Tv would be late evening such as 9pm onwards for the type of genre it is, and it would also be on the four channels as if they are lower class then they would not have more channels such as sky. Posters would also be grosume and it would show the worst parts in the thriller such as ripping the meat up and close ups of the meat and blood to emphasise the type of thriller it is and to attract the teenagers to go see it.

Task 4 Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our thriller would be mainly around 17/18 and have left school early without qualifications and have gone straight to earning a small wage at a job such as a plumber/builder/butcher. This would be our target audience because it would be something these people can relate to whereas if it wasn't so grosume and had higher class actors then the audience could not relate to it. The target audience would also be men as the thriler is a masculine genre. Also parents and older people would be interested in the genre and about the fact of the welbeing of our meat and of the scare of diseased food.

Task 3 What kind of media organization might distribute your media product and why?

Lionsgate has a home video library of more than 8000 films many of the result of output deals with other studios but mine would only construct of a Lionsgate production



I think it is possible that "Lionsgate" institution could distribute our film as it is gore and horror which is similar to other films Lionsgate have distributed such as Saw which has been very succesful as there are many sequels now and it is very well known. Saw is a 2004 horror film directed by James Wan. The film's story revolves around two men who are kidnapped and chained in a dilapidated industrial bathroom. They are given instructions on how to escape by following the "rules" of their "game". Lionsgate is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America. It is a canadian entertainment company. It's history of films they have distributed include "The Grudge" which is again a classic horror film with a girl who goes around killing everyone in her house in 2003 and also "Hostel" which is a 2005 horror film written, produced and directed by Eli Roth, the plot is some guys who check into a hostel and end up being tortured and killed. All these films have gore in which makes it similar to ours which is why it would make sense for Lionsgate to distribute our film as it falls under the same category of film to others which have been successful

Task 2 How does your product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller helps symbolize the different class by our actor. As the butcher represents the working class; as a butcher this could show that our actor has no qualifications and was a out cast in college so did not work and wanted to be a butcher maybe because he liked blood and chopping up lungs and hearts which makes him sound like a murderer. Portraying this type of character could create a centre of attention to other lower class/working class audience as it could be similar for them not going to university and carrying on studying but working to earn a living so this character could be realistic and accesible for the audience; therefore they can relate to our actor. As our actor is represented as a working class citezen it helps portray his evil personality as working class citezens are looked down upon by other higher class citezins in films and are often played as the bad characters. Our logo could also represent some higher class citezens as they could consume fresh organic meat as they can afford it and so it could attract middle class audience as it is a film about the meat they like to purchase

There are a number of theories as to why people like to watch scary movies. First off, some people don’t care for them, and the largest audience for frightening film fare tends to be older teens and people in their early twenties. There are still more mature audience members that love the thrills and chills of a scary movie, and it’s led many researchers to question why.

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

In our thriller, we used a fade in fade out use of title sequence. Rather than stopping the sequence to add a credit, we decided to do it inside of the sequence, therefore people can keep watching the action, because that is what they are most interested, however, they can also appreciate the makers of it whilst doing so. Throughout the opening sequence, the credits of the film were placed at the edge of the screen. We placed it there so that no focus was taken from the action happening in the film:

Pre Production Group Roles

Group Roles are a list of all the tasks that each team member did and how they contributed to the task that we had. This was helpfull as it made us as a group more organzied and understand what role each of us had, it also made the production process alot quicker. For instance my jobb was to ensure that the continuity in each shot was not broken, as well as producing, drawing and coming up with the full story bord.

the location.

the location was first in a butchers, this is were we astablished the first shots for the opening sequence, as well as enabeling us to give the audiance a true feeling for the surroundings and try and put them rite in the action. after we finished taking the firts three shots we then went back to the shooting studio at college. This is where we then shot the remaning footidge of or thriller, the whole prosses took at lest two to three houres to film, after we had all of the establishing shots we were abele to go back and then take any extra shots of different angels, as well as the high and low angels.

An evaluation of 4 existing Horror & Thriller movies.

As part of our research process, we examined a number of existing horror and thriller film promotional posters in order to better understand the specific, iconography and imagery that helps to anchor the conventions of the genre. These included;

Outbreak (1995) is a suspense film starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey. The film was directed by Wolfgang Petersen. In addition, Outbreak features Cuba Gooding, Jr., Donald Sutherland, and Patrick Dempsey.The film focuses on an outbreak of a fictional Ebola-like virus called Motaba. Its primary settings are government disease control centers USAMRIID and the CDC, and the fictional town of Cedar Creek, California. Outbreak shows how far the military and civilian agencies might go to contain the spread.The film was released on March 10, 1995 and proved a solid box office success. The film was nominated for various awards but failed to garner any major award nominations. It also raised various "what-if" scenarios: media outlets began to question what the government would really do in a similar situation and if the CDC has plans in case an outbreak ever does occur. A real-life outbreak of the Ebola virus occurred in Zaire only a few months after the film was released.

if you replace the idea of the water getting infected, with the idea of meat then it becomes i bit more realistic. As England has had to deal with similar cases in the past, such as;

In February 2001, the USGAO reported that the FDA, which is responsible for regulating feed, had not adequately policed the various bans. Compliance with the regulations was shown to be extremely poor before the discovery of the Washington cow, but industry representatives report that compliance is now 100%. Even so, critics call the partial prohibitions insufficient. Indeed, US meat producer Creekstone Farms alleges that the USDA is preventing BSE testing from being conducted.

movies similar to our own but aproched differently

Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period (as in a simple country vacation cottage during a long rain or snow). Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, irrational frustration with kitchen appliances, forgetfulness, laughter, and excessive sleeping, distrust of anyone they are with, and an urge to go outside even in the (less miserable) rain, snow or dark. Cabin fever can also be known as a term for a lack of sexual intercourse. The phrase is also used humorously to indicate simple boredom from being home alone. The term was first recorded in 1918. Other references have the term in use at least to 1906. An 1820 reference is to an actual fever, common in Ireland, resulting from eating watery potatoes during wet years.

Effectiveness of the pre-production planning

The pre-production preparation was very successful and useful because it enabled the actual shooting day to flow smoothly because it was well organized. The story board and shot list was most useful because we knew exactly what we wanted to do when shooting, and didn't miss anything out because we had a list. The props and costume list was useful because the props person was able to get everything without forgetting anything because it was written down. The whole process taught me allot about film making, that the shooting day and the person holding the camera are not the most important thing, that everyone in the crew matters and planning exactly before hand is vital. Otherwise every thing will fall apart, every

Account of props and costumes

• Meat
• Syringes
• Rusty knifes- Kitchen knife- Pocket knife
• Cardboard Box
• Fake blood
• Cleaver
• Apron covered in blood stains
• Pair of big black boots
• Dirty work top- wooden
• White van

What a Morror Movie is.

Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain.
Early horror movies are largely based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre, such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. More recent horror films continue to exploit the monsters of literature, and also draw inspiration from the insecurities of modern life.
Horror films have been dismissed as violent, low budget B movies and exploitation films. Nonetheless, all the major studios and many respected directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola, have made forays into the genre. Serious critics have analyzed horror films through the prisms of genre theory and the auteur theory. Some horror films incorporate elements of other genres such as science fiction, fantasy, mockumentary, black comedy, and thrillers.

Making my thriller come to life.

Throughout out my interesting experience of making my thriller I learnt a lot more about the production practice that goes into making this kind of genre; the lighting, location, casting, costumes. I was eager to find out what was it that made a good exiting tension building film or in our case a thriller. I have benefited from making this in the way that I know now how much effort goes into production like this. My aim by the end of the was to broaden my understanding of the production practices and the technical areas, so I will be able to generate a generically authentic piece of film and to show the progression of the preliminary task as we shot this piece earlier in our year of starting the course, I feel as if I have defiantly expanded my knowledge on all of the technical areas, through out the day as I use the camera once or twice, this was fine for me seeing as I was the member of the group that concentrates on the continuality of each shot, but during the day I was abele to pick up and develop my understanding of the technical aspects of operation of the camera but also all of the considerations over the exposure, white balance and gain. I now have the capability of how I can set up a tripod as well. (For instance you must make sure the spirit bubble was in the smaller circle, I was also able to make independent decisions about the framing and the composition. Further accompanying thaws other responsibilities I was also able to check the continuity with regards to the lighting and the 180 degree rule, as well as monitoring the sound levels on the camera screen, although throughout our shooting day we did have background noise but it was inappropriate as it was ambient noise, so we caught the actual sound of the meat being cut up. I think I had a certain amount of difficulty with this area because I really enjoyed the creative side of the composition side, as well as the framing and the different angles, also the practical operation of the camera movement even though most of our shots were without zooms or tilts, for instance the planning as well as tilting and panning, which unfortunately caused me to ignore some of the necessary technical considerations of sound levels for example, where it is necessary to ensure that the levels for each camera(the camera mic on channel one and the directional mic on channel two) don’t peak in order to maintain good sound quality. The sound that is being generated is being maintained fairly consistent volume, unless the sound is being used as an effect, and without the distortion. In terms of producing a generically authentic sequence, I know that this area of production was the group’s responsibility instead of one particular member of my group,

Shot list / The story board

Pan/Tracking shot of the interior of the butchers.

Medium close up of meat hanging (in post production put on titles)

Medium shot canted angle of hands picking up box

Wide shot of door and man entering the frame with the box in his hands

Extreme close up of bloody hand opening the door. The handle is left bloody.

Medium close up on hands holding box of meat whilst walking

Wide shot of meat being tipped onto dirty work top.

Wide shot of other worktop with rusty knives on.

Close up of hand picking up rusty knife
Medium close up from high angle of rusty knife and dirty hand cutting meat on work top.

Blood is dripping off the worktop, medium/wide of floor with blood spilling out a title.

Close up of dirty boot walking across and messing up the title, follow feet, and pan up the body to the hands injecting the meat.

Side shot close up of meat being injected by dirty syringe and hand
Wide shot of hand throwing the syringe backwards.

Wide Shot of the syringe landing on a worktop with lots of other syringes, blood, knives.

Cut to medium close up of the man packaging the meat (on the bottom right hand side of the box is a labelled saying “Farm Fresh” “Best Quality Organic Meat”).

Close up of the cardboard box being closed, and another title is seen on the box
Medium shot of him picking up the box.

Side wide shot of the van, man is seen walking into frame and chucking the meat into the back of the van.

Wide shot of the back of the van, he closes the door, and another title is seen on the door.

Extremely wide shot of the van driving off into the distance for a long time.

Fade out to a close up shot of the packaged meat on a shelf
Zoom out to see there is loads of meat like it. (seeing the logo)

Casting decisions

When our group began to decide what kind of casting would be involved for our thriller there was not a big problem with this. We discussed what kind of character would be appropriate for this role. The character that would play the roll of the creepy butcher that injects the bad meat taking out some of the feces then injecting that into the good meat, we needed someone who really had the rite look to them, this was difficult as we were looking for some one who stuck out of the crowd, but as we approach someone we didn’t want to hurt there feeling but saying “would you like to be in our thriller we need a creepy looking physco and we think your perfect” but we did find the perfect guy for the par his name is Guy Stanley as well as our actor in our thriller he also plays a big part as my media so he was thrilled to be in our thriller. And he had the rite elements that we need to ensure we create the rite illusion. This would help to ensure believability as our sequence is very tense and voyeuristic.
After confirming his availability we sent this actor (Guy Stanley) full storyboards and a narrative treatment. We then continued to liaise with him up until the shoot day to finalize costume and individual details of specific scenes and shots.

who our target audience is

It really depends on the kind of thriller film. Like all genres, there are sub-genres and to really give an accurate answer to your question you would have to specify what kind of thriller film. Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men are considered the two best thrillers in recent memory, and they're rated R. Their target audience was probably for the young male adults. Meanwhile, there are those thrillers that are borderline horror films, such as M. Night Shyamalan films The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village. Since they're close to horror (and horror films target teenagers, but I feel as if the majority of this group is lightly to be teenage girl), the demographic would be slightly different, probably younger and more female based. And then there are legal thrillers (Fracture, Runaway Jury) and crime thrillers (Memento, Se7en) that target a more mature audience, and classic thrillers (any Alfred Hitchcock film) that are rated PG, but are intended for adults. But if you just need a target audience for a generic thriller film.

I'd have to say the young adult demographic from 18-25, would like my thriller simply because I feel as this type of sub-genre has not been approached enough, the one other film that I can relate to it is cabin fever, about a group of college graduates who rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a flesh-eating virus. This is similar to mine in the way that the there is an element of a meat infecting virus being transfused between people, the only difference is that mine is more world wide and not just targeting a small group of teenagers trying to escape high school for the summer. But now I begin to take this idea away from the hills of America were the problem can be isolated but now putting it into your kitchen then onto your laps.

Different research sources that I considered, and what they taught me

I did look on the Internet of some interesting stories and newspaper articles and I had seen some movies in the past that had reminded me of our opening sequence to our thriller the film is called,

Cabin Fever is a typical American horror film about a group of college graduates rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a flesh-eating virus. The film was the directing debut of filmmaker Eli Roth, The inspiration for the film's story came from a real life experience during a trip to Iceland when Roth developed a skin virus. When I watched this film it some what inspired me and my group has the idea to come up with the idea to do our thriller about meat

Account of first production group meeting to finalize the opening sequence

We had a group meeting to finalize our narrative thriller idea and the elements that are involved in this and any of he key elements or themes that we are going to have to require to produce and finalize our title sequence.

Account of giving presentations for possible thriller ideas

The first stage of choosing specific ideas for development/pre-production involved us individually conceiving a treatment and narrative outline for an opening sequence of a Thriller movie (as instructed by the brief)
In the lesion we presented our thriller ideas to the class using Power Point slides to illustrate our concept and to provide visual anchorage. My presentation consisted of the following information/material:

The type of Distribution Company that I would like to work through is Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, this is because it is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company since 1995, they have made 185 successful films as well as there up coming movie, Fooffight!

The type of genre that they specialize in is horror, this is why I would like to present mine to the company, because I challenge the day to day fears of teenagers who go out clubbing with their mates, and have to be conscious of what they have to drink at these breathtaking vibes and memorizing lights.

Account of shooting and editing the preliminary task

Our preliminary task consisted of us filming the two way conversation. The key task of the lesson was to learn how familiarize ourselves with the camera, and learn about the technical techniques and setting accurately, for instance, the framing, focus, the composition of shots and the continuity. The objectives were also to practice and understand the concept of constructing a narrative sequence using the method of continuity editing. We also learnt how to produce footage, known as (rushes), which could be digitalized allowing us to cut and log our timeline, using non-linear editing. During the process of shooting, our preliminary task, there were 4 main technical areas that we had to pay close attention to.



These areas were camera angles, story boarding, sound and the 180 degree Rule. Even though there are many more techniques that are also important to consider during filming like mise-en-scene and lighting, we concentrated on these specific aspects because we were only filming a basic task and we didn’t have to worry about the lighting or how to construct mice-en-scene. We were constantly adjusting and changing the settings on the camera. To try and maintain the set up of constant filming is an important objective. We had to check and make sure that the camera was set on a tripod and leveled properly; this was succeeded by making sure the spirit bubble was inside the small circle. Using the tripod meant that we were abele to film tilts and pans fluently and aspires to higher production values. One key technical area that we had to take into consideration was the composition and framing of each shot. When we set the camera up for every individual shot, we had to set up the focus, to peruse this; we had to make sure manual focus was on through out the filming.

Zooming in to the furthest in, allowing the camera to focus, then zooming back out meant that everything between the camera and the point we zoomed into was in focus. During the process of positioning the shots we had to take into account whether we were giving the subject sufficient head space, also talking, walking, and looking space. When it comes to finding the rite angles we had to consider the effect that they might make, such as high low angles which affect the status of the subject as perceived be the audience. Before we were abele to start filming we had to make sure all of the settings on the camera were all correct. These settings included, making sure that that the white balance is set to the rite kind of light (inside-artificial, outside-natural) the exposure is set to the rite level letting the rite degree of light through the lens for that particular shot. Almost making sure that you let the tape run for approximately 30 seconds before you start filming onto it, this is so that when a tape has been played a lot, and the beginning can stretch and deteriorate and glitch, destroying or making initial shots unusable. The sound that we recorded was produced using a mic that was mounted on the top of the camera, we used was a directional microphone, but because it was constantly pointing the some way as the camera there was no need to redirection the mic. We also had to make sure that the sound on the camera set to the correct setting so that the sound on the camera didn’t sound appears peaking or sound distorted.


This story boarding techniques provides a technical account of shot, action, editing transitions, sound, angel, movement, lighting and timing. We were given some examples of story boards which we followed as guidelines; this was to ensure that we didn’t break the continuity link between shots. These were all part of the main aspects that we had to make sure we followed in account during our preliminary task. During our shoot I found out how to combine most of the camera techniques along with other camera angles, personally I think the most affective shot was of extreme close up or (X.C.U.) of Frankie with a tear dripping down her face. This shows the emotion that she is tying to put across to the audience.

In our next task we will be given the challenge in having to deal with lighting sound etc, all of the key point that consist of mise-en-scene. After filming all of this we then had to transport all of these shots onto a computer, we logged all of the basic shots / takes and relocate them onto a program called Final cut pro, and placed all of the good shots onto a time line, we rejected any shots that included actors mistakes, any shots that were out of focus, poorly constructed / composed or broke the 180 degree rule and thus compromised continuity.

An introduction to using digital editing

Our lesson focused on an introduction to the editing package Final Cut Pro, which we ran on G5 Macs. This software allows us to construct visual sequences using a time line. Footage can be digitized and the best shots logged which are then dragged down on to a timeline which can then be trimmed and manipulated. The same can then be done with sound and this allows us to construct a continues narrative. Digital editing allows film makers to manipulate and construct complex narrative sequences and to be creative in employing all the key technical elements of audio-visual material. Once a sequence is complete it is also possible to further enhance the visuals using Adobe after Effects which enable the film maker to create more enhanced and professional (high production values) finishes to their work. This is what is generally expected by audiences who have grown up with this style of production.

An introduction to and tips for operating video cameras

Initially I conducted some research into the use of cameras and discovered the following essential guidance (see below)stand close to the tripod between two of the legs. Most operators use the technique pictured, that is, the left hand controls the focus, exposure and zoom while the right hand controls camera movement with the tripod handle. There are many variations, for example some operators prefer not to use the handle and instead place their right hand on the camera. Before you begin a move such as a pan or tilt, plan it first. Figure out the best standing position which allows you to complete the whole move comfortably. It is usually much better to finish the shot in a comfortable position than to start comfortably and finish awkwardly. Frame up the end of the shot first and get yourself comfortable, then stretch yourself to get the starting point of the move. The drag setting (AKA resistance or tension) determines how much force you need to excerpt to pan and tilt. The setting you choose depends on several things including the camera weight, the type of shot you are attempting and your personal preferences. Use a lighter setting for close or fast-moving subjects. Use more drag for slow moves, longer zooms, or if you're having difficulty keeping the shot steady. Don't just set the drag and forget about it, think about how different settings might help different shots.To set the brightness and contrast:Switch the camera to color bars.Adjust the viewfinder brightness and contrast until you see a smooth grayscale from peak white to black. You should be able to see a dividing line between each bar.Switch the camera to picture.Check your exposure on a reliable monitor, either by connecting a cable from the camera output or by doing a test record.To set the focus/sharpness (diopter adjustment):The "diopter" is the EVF's eyepiece lens. Adjust this to make the viewfinder image as sharp as possible. This adjustment is usually made either with a ring on the EVF or a sliding button.Choose a subject with plenty of contrast - this makes focus easier.Zoom out wide and focus the camera lens normally.Adjust the diaper until you see the clearest image. If necessary, secure the diaper.