EVALUATION BY FREYA

1. In what ways does  your thriller use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a thriller?

Conventions of a thriller:

• Suspense
• a threat
• enigma
• victim
• protagonist
• antagonist

• In our media thriller production we definitely used a lot of these identifiable codes and conventions of a thriller to establish our film within this genre.  Since our production was an opening we wanted to specify our audience straight away, and hook them by using enigma and suspense, as well as a victim for them to sympathize with.
• In our film the threat is not clear straight away, but as the cross cutting continues it becomes apparent that Alex is the threat, and Holly is the victim.  The relation between the two is similar to that of  Ethan and Jessica in 'Cellular.'

 THE VICTIM       VS             THE THREAT

Our production created Alex as a threat by using specific camera work and mise en scene to convey an antagonist.

Format

• This is a birds eye view long shot of Holly.  It creates enigma for the audience because it's one of the first shots and raises immediate questions; where is she, why is she there, why is she huddled on the ground?  This shot is an example of restricted narration, because, like the character, the audience is unaware of where she is and why.  This shot shows Holly as a vulnerable character, she looks small and weak from this angle, like a child-alone and exposed in this frame, which lets the audience feel sympathy for her and see her as a victim.  Her costume is dirty, telling the audience that maybe she's been there for days, and her white top connotes innocence. Her hair is long and curly which connotes feminine freedom, but it's messiness reflects her hopeless situation.  Her body position is child like; her hands near her face which creates a defenselessness.   Her setting is dark and wooden, making her seem lighter and more frail in the middle of the darkness.  The props around her are simple and eerie, a gold edged mirror, cardboard boxes and some old flowers; all which create enigma for the audience as we are mystified by these objects.  This shot has both non diegetic and diegetic sound to it.  The non diegetic sound is the music; low and eery which helps create a sense of foreboding.  The diegetic sound is the ticking of a clock, but coming from far away.

• This shot is part of our title sequence, telling the audience that this product is 'a CSS film.'  The white writing stands out on the black background, similarly to how Holly stands out of her setting in the previous shot.  The font is creepy, scratched and blotted.  The way the writing flickers and shakes along with an electric buzzing sound connotes a light bulb going out, which is also shown through the color of the white writing against the pitch black background.  The writing is very small and is in the corner of the frame, which suggests it's importance is not obvious and it is weak, which is again similar to Holly in the last frame.

• This is a close up with a shallow depth of field, so that the background is visible but blurred.  The prop within the frame is of a silver, expensive looking dog statue.  This prop suggests riches, but it's purpose is for the audience to notice Alex in the background after concentrating on the dog in the foreground, and then to make a link between the two.  It suggests that maybe the man is vicious, protective of things that belong to him and has animalistic urges.  Alex is not only blurred, but a bright light near his head also hides any facial features from the audience.  This continues to create a sense of enigma and danger around him, because his face is continually hidden from the audience.  The faded red background has a creepy, aged look to it, like the house has been gathering dust, and also connotes aggression because of the color.    The non diegetic music continues, making everything seem more sinister, as the diegetic sounds continues too.  The clock ticking continues but is suddenly very loud which suggests that Alex is near to Holly, which is a sudden threat and makes the audience worry for Holly.

• This shot is a mid shot of the back of Alex's legs as we follow him into the kitchen.  Diegetic footsteps are heard as he walks, along with the diegetic sound of the clock which becomes slightly muffled while the eerie non diegetic music continues.  This shot shows that everything Alex does is very purposeful, his stride is determined and the use of a low angle shot makes him seem more powerful, which help create his character as a threat.  Along with the non diegetic music this walk becomes sinister, making the audience wonder what he's about to do.  The lighting is very different in this shot, brighter within the kitchen.  The setting seems quite normal which is frightening because of the subtlety of the antagonist.  The narration is definitely still restricted, the story unraveling without us having any inner knowledge, creating enigma.

• This is an extreme close up of Alex cutting the bagel.  In this we heightened the sound of the bagel being cut to emphasize everything Alex does, a method shown in 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed.' By doing this suspense was built because the audience feels the importance of every act, and wants to know why.  The knife used here is a very suggestive prop, it's big and threatening, making an almost saw like sound which connotes violence; continuing to build up this feeling of a threat.

• This shot is an extreme close up of Alex's foot as he begins to climb the stairs to the attic.  The back lighting makes his foot an ominous silhouette, which reflects him as evil: a creeping shadow. The diegetic sound; creaking footsteps, build suspense as the audience realize he's getting closer and closer to Holly, and like the last shot the sound is emphasized so the audience really feels that the footsteps are leading up to something.  This shot creates enigma because of the restricted narration, we still don't know who Alex is as we can't see his face.

• This last high angle mid shot of Alex shows him climbing up towards the darkness, suggesting that he's entering a secret, hidden, piece of his life.  The props in his hands make more sense ass the audience suddenly understand that he's bringing food to his hostage  The loud footsteps continue, and the music eerily drowns out.

• This last shot gently zooms out, Holly's face disappearing within the second 'O'.  The soundtrack becomes a twanging bell like sound that echos out, leaving the word title in its place.  All these effects connote this idea of being 'forgotten:'  Holly's face disappearing, the word zooming away from the camera as if being left behind, the eerie bell that fades out and the text itself which font suggest an old blotted word that's aged on forgotten paper.

2. How does your thriller represent particular social groups?

• In our thriller we show only two characters, but none the less they represent certain social groups, such as class, age, sexual orientation and gender.  In our thriller we are presenting Alex and Holly:  

Alex: A middle aged, upper middle class, straight white male.

Holly: A young, middle class white female.

• SOCIAL CLASS Our thriller shows Alex as upper middle class; quite rich.  This is shown through his costume, setting and props.  His setting; the house, is big and has many menial objects and collectors items.  This social class is reflected as creepy; a man who's rich but has nothing to do with his money.  The house around him makes him seem small and isolated instead of wealthy and powerful, which we convey through our camera work using long shots of him within his house.  Holly's social class is unclear, all though we assume she's lower than Alex because of her vulnerable situation.

• GENDER Both representations of gender in our thriller hold negative connotations.  Alex is the threatening male, keeping a young girl locked in his attic.  His gender is shown through his costume and his body language.  His costume reflects this stereotypical middle aged man; simply a white collared shirt and jeans.  The way he walks from room to room has a very intended way about it; he knows what he's doing, everything is deliberate which can be associated with manliness.  He is in charge, dominant, aggressive and independent.
• Holly's gender is also shown through the areas of mise en scene; costume, facial expression, hair, makeup and body language.  Her costume consists of dark jeans and a white, tight top which emphasizes her curves and reflects her femininity.  She is very stereotypically feminine, she's a victim and weak, emotional, vulnerable, dependent and beautiful.  Her facial expressions and body language show this vulnerably and weakness; the way she slouches, shakes and cries as well as the look of fear on her face.  Her hair and makeup reflects this beauty, her long dark curly hair is associates with beauty.

• AGE Alex is meant to be a middle aged man.  Our thriller has very negative connotations for him as a middle aged man.  His age is shown as sinister having an obsession with a young girl, he's represented as a sexual predator.  He is represented as threatening, sinister and creepy.
• Holly is supposed to be younger, and her age is represented by being in a vulnerable situation.  She's naive, pretty and innocent, and the way she reacts in her captive situation (crying and rocking) suggests she's unable to cope when out of her depth: she has no aggression.  

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your thriller and why?

• I thought Sony might be a good media institution to distribute our film, because they're a huge company and probably have a lot to do with our demographic because of PlayStation games that are aimed at young males such as '007 racing', 'FIFA' and 'Die Hard.'  They are a huge industry that are popular and well known.  

4. Who would be the audience of your media product?

• Our audience would be young males in their late teens, because this kind of thriller would definitely address this demographic.  We found this out by researching popular film genres amongst different age groups by publishing a survey on FaceBook, and asking our family and friends then putting our results together:   

This graph show that only 4 woman aged 10 to 50 have interest in action thrillers.

This graph shows that out of the people we asked action thrillers were the second most popular genre with 10 to 20 year olds.

This shows the comparison between age and gender with action thrillers.

• Other action thrillers this demographic would be interested in: 

1. Cellular This has the same weaker female in a vulnerable position but with a strong protagonist and antagonist, the hero fighting for the females life.
2. The Disappearance of Alice Creed A  beautiful woman is kidnapped by two men, but circumstances change.  Unlike the other two the female has a stronger, more assertive role.
3. Taxi Driver  With a lead antihero this film again goes into a theme with an independent, aggressive man and a victimized woman who's then saved.
4. Taken:

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

• Since our demographic are young men we felt that a victimized, beautiful young woman would create a sympathy and attraction from them.  Young males like the idea of being a hero in such a situation which helps the thriller be of interest to them.  The shots we used increased her vulnerability to create this sympathy and attraction.  
• Even though the beginning of our product is quite measured and slow the suspense makes up for this, and this high tension is liked amongst our audience.  the fast pace of our kitchen scene is also interesting for a younger demographic; fast moving with enigma.
• I showed our thriller opening around and got a few remarks from our target audience about what they specifically liked:

"The kitchen scene seemed like a real film, it flowed."

 "The news report worked because it took me straight into the storyline, I knew what was going on."

"The sound was good, creepy and the clock thing was clever."

"Hiding the guys face worked, I really wanted to know who he was..."

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your thriller? 

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

• Since our preliminary task I have progressed in my development of technology skills, the use of camera, sound and vision editing, my understanding of construction of character and my ability in continuity editing:
  

  

  • Editing:  In the editing I have progressed fully, not only in visuals but in sound editing as well.  I now know how to use 'Final Cut' and 'Garage Band' with minimal help.  During are preliminary I had very little visual editing skills and we didn't add any sound to our project so I didn't know how to use that either.  I was much more involved in this task which helped me to understand.

  
  

  
  • Construction of character:  I now understand how to create a character by using aspects of mise en scene, sound, editing and specific camera work to show them in a particular way to my audience.  I was unable to do this in our preliminary because our characters were simple and didn't need to be manipulated in any way because our audience didn't need to see them in a certain light.  So our thriller opening was good in this way because I felt I progressed during the making, understanding that using certain techniques such as low angles can change a characters appearance to the audience, for example a high angle can show them as vulnerable.

  
  

  • Continuity Editing:  We used this both in our preliminary and thriller opening, and both were very useful.  In our preliminary I learned the basics of shot reverse shot and using the 180' line rule, which became second nature in our thriller opening.  With our thriller opening the pacing became more important and match on action was much more of a problem.  I improved by being more alert to mistakes, like a prop slightly moved. 
  
  

  

  • Camera: We used the camera a lot more suggestively in our thriller, as we were trying to convey our characters in a certain way, and we had more of a variety of shots because of this.  Since I was an actor in our preliminary I was unable to film, but in our thriller opening I filmed which help me understand how to work the camera, and personally create shots I liked.