Evaluation- Holly King

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

What conventions make a good thriller:

• Enigma
• Mystery
• Suspense
• Antagonist
• Protagonist
• Victim
• A threat
• Narrative

How we can create/emphasise these conventions:

• Camera Work (Shots and Movement)
• Sound (diagetic and non diagetic)
• Editing
• Mise en Scene

All of the above were things we had to consider whilest planning and producing our final thriller opening in order to ensure it was the required thriller genre.

Antagonist:

• We had an antagonist in our opening sequence (the male character), the antagonists character developes throughtout the opening sequence. We can tell he is the antagonist because of his emotionless, almost robotic behaviour (often the behaviour of antagonists in thrillers), the character I feel can be compared to the male antagonists in the opening of the film The Disappearance of Alice Creed.
• The costume of the antagonist in our thriller opening does challange the stereotypes, often white clothing is used to represent the protagonist or victim because we associate white with purity, innocence and good; however we have dressed the antagonist in white to confuse the viewer.
• We also used Camera Work to give the impression the male character was the antagonist, by using Restricted Narration and cutting his face out of the frame to conceal his identity, he becomes more mysterious and poses a threat (Our fear of the unknown) and this gives the impression he is perhaps the antagonist.

Victim/Protagonist:

• In our opening sequence we also had a victim, we used different elements of Mise en Scene to represent the Victim. Body Language and Facial expressions clearly show the female character in distress, this allows us to empathise with the girl becuase we believe she is the victim (because of her emotion).
• We also used camera work to help represent her as the victim, for example the high angle looking down on her, giving the impression of weakness and vunerability.

Editing:

• We have used editing to create suspense in our thriller editing. We used cross editing in our thriller opening, to begin with the cuts betweern the two characters was less regular and as we near towards the end of the sequence the pace quickens and the cuts between the male and female characters becomes more regular giving the impression the characters are going to cross paths at some point. The suspense is that you don't know when and if they will but this type of editing gives the impression that the two characters are linked. A great example of sucessful cross cutting is in an opening sequence of ther series Luther, where the who characters are being filmed running seperately (the antagonist and protagonist) and the pace quickens gradually (as the distance between the characters decreases) to the point in which the two characters cross paths.

 9 Frame Sequence:

FRAME 1

Frame 1:

• Frame 1 is of the girl lying down in a darkened environment. This frame is the first in the thriller opening and creates enigma becuase it already has the audience asking questions, why is the character there? what is she doing? etcetera.
• This is a good example of restricted narration because we do not know what has happened before this for her to be in that situation.
• The low key lighting is also significt as it helps to create a dark, mysterious mood. It also adds to the restricted narration becuase the environment is dark so we dont know where the character is. Her identity is also concealed from us in this frame creating suspense.
• This frame uses Mise en Scene to show the character as being week, defenseless and vunerable, her body language- being curled up of the floor-hands close to her face (in a vunerable childlike position) gives us the instant impression that she is the Victim in the film.
• Another element of Mise en Scene is the composition/framing; It shows the female alone in the frame and isolated-this creates enigma around the character.
• Over this shot we used both diagetic and non diagetic music. The non diagetic sound was a mysterious, dark, eery music track that plays throughout the thriller opening. This instantly creates a dark, mysterious mood and we know something is wrong. Over this shot there is also diagetic faint sound of ticking (which I will elaberate on when looking at frame 3)

Frame 2: 





FRAME 2:
Screen Grab of text from our opening
title sequence





Screen Grab of text from Se7en's
opening title sequence



• The type of text and effects on the text in the opening credits was also significant in creating a mysterious, dark mood (to set the mood of the thriller to target the audience).
• Our main influence was that of the title sequence in Se7en. The text looks hand drawn, is scratchty and flickers on the screen in a dark, distorted way-giving a sense of uneasiness. Throughout our thriller opening between shots different text will flash up on screen similar to the title sequence in Se7en. Similar to that in the Se7en title sequence we also used white text on a black background to stand out.
• Over this frame the same non diagetic music track is playing and the diagetic ticking noise also continues to play. There is also another non diagetic sound effect we added to every shot where the text appears. The sound is scratchy, buzzing and loud and stands out to the eery backing track. We added this sound effect because it keeps the viewer on edge.

Frame 3:


FRAME 3

This is a shot of the clock ticking (the ticking sound now becomes an on screen diagetic sound) We exaggurated this sound (by increasing the volume) to build suspense and tension, giving the impression something is going to happen-building tension and keeping the viewer on edge.

In this frame the ticking is an on screen diagetic sound, we then used a sound bridge to continue this sound (making the source off screen) to continue the impression something is going to happen. This sound bridge is also significant because it gives the impression this is happening at the same time and perhaps there is a link between the girl and the man (possibly in same location ), this creates enigma.

Frame 4:

FRAME 4

• Frame 4 is an establishing, extreme long shot revealing to us a location (whether or not this is the location of the girl or not we do not know).
• By looking at the probs and decor we assume this male in shot is a normal middle class civilian, however this creates enigma as we begin to question why he is being filmed-the normality of this situation contrasts dramatically from that of thr girls situation.
• Over this continuing ticking sound and non diagetic sound track, there is also another diagetic sound of a news report about a missing girl. The fact the male is in shots gives us the impression he is watching or listening to this news report and suggests that perhaps there is a link between these characters.
• From this shot, the behaviour and costume of the man does not suggest he is the antagonist, however enigma is created as we begin to question why the characters maybe linked.
• In this shot we have used a shallow depth of field (of the dog ornament in focus and the background out of focus), this technique and the fact there is a light close to the mans face (concealing his identity) means that there is restricted narration-we do'nt know who this man is and this creates enigma and gives the impression that he may be a threat.

Frame 5:

FRAME 5

• This is a frame from a sequence of shots showing the male character cutting a bagel. This shot is an extreme close up.
• In this shot we increased the volume so the sound of the bagel being cut is over exaggurated-This is a technique used frequently in The Disappearance of Alice Creed thriller opening and is where we got the idea from. This technique emphasised the importance of the tasks being done and by increasing the volume it keeps the viewer on edge.
• The large bread knief is very significant also as it is a suggestive prop. The knief its self is large and dangerous and the way in which the character saws through the bagel creates an impression of violence (perhaps this is a metaphore) and creates the feeling of threat about the situation and the character.

Frame 6:

FRAME 6

• This shot is a big close up of the girls face and a tear running down her cheek. The lighing and camera size allows up to clearly see the tear running down her cheek, this is important as it allows us to see her emotion and fear and also allows the audience empathise with the character-representing the character as the victim. Camera shot is a high angle looking down on girl to remind viewer of her vunerability.
• The lighting in this shot is very dark and low key lighing; the fact she is surrounded by darkness helps to represent the mood and also her isolation. It also creates restricted narration-we still do not know where she is. The darkness also draws the views focus into the face and the tear running down her face (as this is all we can really see). 

Frame 7:

FRAME 7

• This shot is an extreme close up of the males feet as he walks up the stairs leading into what we think is the attic.
• The light source is coming from behind the foot from this angle and so we only see the silhuette of he feet as he climbs the stairs. This silhuette is significant as it reflects his dark, evil side.
• The sound of the creeking of the staircase is very loud and exaggurated in this shot to emphasise that he is walking up to somewhere-this creates enigma becuase the viewer does not know where he is going, we get the impression from the cross cutting editing, that he is walking up to the girl, however tension builds as he walks up becuase the viewer does not know.

Frame 8:

FRAME 8:



• This shot is a high angle medium to long shot of the male character walking up the stairs into a dark environment which we assume is an attic. We see the character walking up towards the darkness, suggesting this is a secret, hidden place. The darkness adds an element of mystery.
• The audience may then realise that he may be walking up to the girl (we get the impression he kidnapped the girl and is taking the food to her)-we get this impression in this shot because of the similar lighting to that we have seen in clips of the girl and also because of the surroundings, empty, wooden and dark.
• Restricted Narration is still used here as his identity is still not revealed to us, as his face remains out of the frame, sustaining the enigma around the character.



FRAME 9



Frame 9:

• This clip is a gentle fade in and slow zoom out from the Center letter 'O'. Within this 'O' you briefly see the female characters face look up (perhaps she is looking up towards the man)-her face then fades out into darkness as the title 'Forgotten' comes into frame.
• The non diagetic sound track then stops and a loud bell sound plays and then fades out.
• The eroded font in combination with the faded shot of the girl and faded out sound gives the impression the girl is being forgotten becuase she has been kidnapped.
• This endind i feel is succesful as it is unclear what has happened because we have used restricted narration ans so it makes the viewer want to keep watching so they can find out what has happened. 

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

In our thriller opening we show only two charcters; The male who is keeping the woman captive and the young woman who is being imprisoned by the man.

• We decided to use a young, woman as the character because stereotypically (traditionally) women (Especially younger women) are viewed as being weak, vunerable, innocent, nurturing, caring, inferior and overpowered by men. By using a weak and innocent woman it also allows the viewer the empathise with the character more. We represented the woman in the tradition way so it was obvious she was the antagonist.

• We decided to use an older man as the antagonist in our thriller opening. We also used a traditional representation of the man; being overpowing, strong, superior and other traditional characteristics of a male. The man comes across as almost robotic, we see little if any signs of emotion; this makes the character come across as more strong and a lot more mysterious.

To represent the characters in a certain way we had to use different techniques including:

1. Camera work
2. Mise en Scene
3. Sound
4. Editing

We looked at different thriller openings (in particular Cellular which is of a similar theme) and used tequniques from these thriller openings that help represent characters)

1. Camera Work:

We had to consider different ways in which we could represent the characters using camera techniques such as movement, angles and shot sizes.

• To allow the audience to empathise with the girl we used facial Closeups, so we can see her emotion(similar to shots used in cellular).

  

  Screen Grab from Thriller opening showing
  Close up of girl

• To represent the girl we used different angles: a high angle-looking down on the girl to show she is inferior/weak (stereotypical representation of females). We also used eyelevel shots to allow the audience to connect more with the girl and empathise with her. When filming the male character, we kept his face out of the frame to conseal his identity (This was an idea we had from watching the thriller opening The Usual Suspects). This restricted narratoion creates enigma and makes the character come across as potentially more dangerous-giving the impression he is the antagonist. 

Screen Grabs from our thriller opening
showing restricted narration

• The use of medium shots/medium long shots also helps to represent the characters; especially with the female Character because we are able to see her facial expression and her body language, allowing the viewing to empathise with the character more, also because the body language of the girl can be used to make her appear more weak and vunerable. 

  

  Screen grab from our thriller opening-
  example of Medium to Long shot of girl

2. Mise en Scene:

When looking at how we could represent the characters using different techniques we had to consider all 11 areas of Mise en Scene; Colour, Lighting, Hair, Make-up, Costume, Body Language, Facial Expression, Setting, Composition, Props and Decor.

• The Hair, Make-up and Costume of the girl were all significant in creating her appearance, the main effect was the make up, we made her make-up run as if she was crying, adding to her weak, vunerable appearance allowing us to empathise with her.

• Body Language and Facial Expression were also important when creating the appearance of the girl. We had to ensure her facial expression and body language showed her distress, sadness, weakness and vunrebility. We ensured the girl was in specific positions for example cradelling herself to show her fear and vunerability. 

  

  Screen Grab from our opening
   showing girls body language

  
• The setting, props and decor also add to the mood and representation of the man. We can see that his house if a very normal house and he is wearing normal clothes (a white shirt and jeans), gives the impression he is a steroetypical middleclass man, however becuase of the editing (cross cutting) between the man and the young woman, enigma is created around him and we begin to think he is the antagonist, even though it comes across that he lives a normal life.



Screen Grabs from thriller opening showing how costume, props and decor
has been used to create a sense of normality

3. Sound:

• We looked at different thriller openings when planning our project and we decided that like in the film The disappearance of Alice Creed (most of the influence from our thriller opening came from this), we would not use dialogue so we could only represent the characters through other diegetic and non diegetic sound. Throughout the opening there is a non diegetic track of sinister, mysterious music, this music works well with shots of the man becuase it emphasises that he is the antagonist.

First 2 minutes from clip above was the main influence for the sound in our thriller opening

• We also wanted to change the track to be a more innocent track when the shots of the girl appeared, however due to time constraints we were unable to add this.

• We also included some foley sounds, for example the clock ticking. We exaggurated this sound to build suspense and tension, giving the impression something is going to happen. Foley sounds are often used in thriller openings to exaggurate something, the sound of a ticking clock specifically is something often used to build suspense and keep the viewer on edge. In our thriller opening the ticking is an on screen diagetic sound, we then used a sound bridge to continue this sound (making the source off screen) to continue the impression something is going to happen. This sound bridge is also significant because it gives the impression there is a link between the girl and the man (possibly in same location), this creates enigma.

Screen grab from our thriller opening showing clock ticking

• There is also a off screen diagetic news report in the background. The news report is about a young girl who has gone missing and gives detail on her disappearance. This is important as it gives the impression these characters maybe linked (the missing girl could be the one we have previously seen in the sequence).

Audience:

• The audience of our thriller opening is young, British, American and European, Middleclass, Males and Females.

• The character of the girl i think helps to target this audience because men stereotypically/traditionally think that women are weaker and so they may feel this is a more realistic story line (sterotypically the 'damsel in distress'). Also stereotypically women are a sex object to be looked at by men and by using an attractive female in our thriller opening, we could attract male viewers.

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

Distribution:

• Our Media thriller is not a 'blockbuster' film, it is a low budget movie and so we would not use a large film distributor to distribute our product (for example Paramount)-We feel our film would be better with an independant release.
• If we were to distribute our film with a company, we would consider a distribution company with a similar demographic to ours (for example a company like sony as this company is well known, also linked with the Play station 3, which has young males and the main target audience).
• It would be good if our film could be shown in cinemas-our target audience is young people aged 15-25. This is the age that most people will go to the cinema because going to a cinema is often something young adults will do with a group of friends, and so this is a way in which we are likely to make more of a profit.

Marketing:

With our target audience in mind, we had to consider different ways in which we could promote our film in a way in which that would attract the target audience. Different types of promotional material we feel would be most effective would be things such as:


Slumdog Millionaire DVD case



Slumdog Millionaire bus poster



• Bus posters/bus stop posters. Often you will see movie posters at bus stops or on the sides of buses to promote a film. Often the text and graphics on the promotional material will be similar if not the same to that on DVDs for example-this is because the auidence will reconise the artwork and font and will be more familiar.

• Film Trailer. Most (if not every film) will have a film trailer to promote the film-often the producers of the film would pay for a company who specialises in film trailers, to create a trailer for the film. A film trailer will contain the most thrilling, exhillirtating, interesting parts of the film-giving an insight to the story line but using restricted narration and keeping the viewer guessing as to what could happen-making them want to see the film. Film trailers can be shown in a number of different ways such as:

1. On the internet -this is good as it is often free. Also many people use the internet on a day to day basis-if you advertise the film on sites which is popular with our target audience (for example social networking sites). On http://www.facebook.com/ for example (a popular social networking sites mostly used by teenagers/young adults) you can post an advertisement which will appear on the side bar on the website.
2. On the television-If we were to show our film trailer on the television we would have to consider when it would be shown. For example we would want to show our trailer in the evening/late afternoon-as this is often the time teenagers and young adults are watching television. We would have to also consider the channel and the type of programs that would be on around this time-try and get a slot for the trailer to be shown in the adverts between a program or film of a similar target audience. A problem with this however is the cost.

• Magazine and Newspaper articles and Reviews. We could also apply for a magazine to write a review of/article or include an advertisement of our film. Magazines such as Total Film Magazine would be a good magazine to promote our film as it targets young adults. Also it is a well recognised and highly trusted magazine.
  

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

• The target auidence of our thriller opening is young persons of any ethnicity, however the film is targeted more at people from the United Kingdom, America and Europe. This is because people from these areas may be able to connect more with the storyline (more realistic storyline for people of these areas)

• We have targeted mostly young males however we feel are film may also appeal to young women. Often it is young men who watch action thriller films and so we decided to target our film at this audience, also becuase the film may include violence and strong language so would not be suibtable for viewers under the age of 15 and viewers above 30 may not find it as appealing. By appealing to a younger audience, they are more likely to go out to a cinema (with a group of friends for example) and are more aware of how to purchase films (for example renting, downloading or purchasing them onlin) and so by targeting people with this knowledge we are more likely to make a profit.

• We chose to target Middle Class cirvilians of this agegroup as they are able to connect with the characters (As they are of equal class) and also Middle class cirvilians of this age are more finantically independant are more likely to have the money to buy the DVD or go to the cinema to watch the film which will benefit us finantially.

• Taken (2008) is a film also about a kidnapping and revenge and by looking at reviews on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/ and other blogs on the internet, I have found that the people who enjoyed the film the most were those of similar age to our films.

• Another thriller i feel is similar to ours is The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009), by looking at reviews on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1379177/ , I have found that this genre of film appealed to young adults also.

5. How did you attract/address the audience?

• The characters of my film are also average, middle class, civilians. I have done this to create a sense of realism and verisimilitude so that my audience can relate to and empathise with the characters more and they may endulge themselves more in the film because they can connect more with the characters and it makes the film appear more realistic.

• We adressed the audience by using a young, femenine female actress that we thought would appeal to the male audience. Often in thrillers there is an attractive girl to draw in male viewers because stereotypially women are seen as sex objects by men and are something to look at, and so they can get all the thrills and adrenaline of it being an action thriller and also the pleasure of looking at an attractive young girl (of similar age, making it more appealing).

6.  What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product:

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

1. Using 'Final Cut Pro': 

• This is something i have found challenging throughout this project. To begin with in this project i had very little knowledge on how to use the editing software final cut pro. I knew the basics such as inserting a video file and how to move them around, however during the duration of this project I have learnt how to use this editing sotware through experiementation and help from the media technitians.
• I now am aware of how to add different filters and affects to both the video footage and text. For the majority of our text we used the 'earthquake' effect to create a creepy effect. This affect is similar to that used in the film Se7en (as mentioned in question 1).

2. Character Representation:  I have learnt different ways in which characters can be represented using a number of different things:

• Lighting-Low key lighting and shadows can make a character appear more dangerous-it also gives the impression of the character being mysterious and having a dark side. Shadows can also be used to conceal a characters identity making them appear more mysterious and potentially dangerous. (Using a light source behind the camera, to create a silhuette is something often used to create mystery and restrict narration-an example of when this has been used is in the opening of The Usual Suspects.
• High key lighting can be used to make a character appear innocent and come across as the protagonist.
• Camera angle can also be used to make a character appear more or less powerful. Using a high angle-looking down on a character gives the impression of innocence, weakness, vunerability, being inferior-often used on the victim. A low angle can be used to look up at a character to make them appear more powerful, superior, strong and bold. This can be used on both protagonists and antagonist dependant on how you want the characters to be represented.

3. Continuous Editing:

There are a number of different things that must be kept in mind when using continuous editing:

• Match on action
• 180 degree rule
• White balance
• Eyeline match

4. Camera Movement:

We have experimented with the cameras throughout this project and looked at different decices we could use to track and dolly in our thriller opening. 

5. Garage band:  

This is sound editing software I have learnt to use throughout the project also on the Macs. I have learnt how I can change the volumes of tracks and foley sounds to match the screen. For example in the thriller opening the ticking noise fades and gets louder dependant on what is being shown on screen (if it is close to the source or not). 

6.Lighting:

We have experimented with different lighting effects in this experiment-by texting different lighting effects we have been able to see the different affects it can creat-It can change the mood, representation of character and narration. Although other lighting affects were good at creating some effects, we only used natural ambient lighting and umbrella lighting as these were the effects that worked best with our film however becuase we have experiemented with different lighting, we know for the future which lights are best for creating certain effect.

7. White balance:

I have leant the importance of setting white balance before every different shot in this project becuase it can affect continuity.

8. Camera shots from different angles & 9. Shooting Excess footage:

I have also learnt that it is important to record the shame shots a number of time (sometimes from different angles and positions). This is so you have a choice of which type of the shot is best and will be used-this way you have choice and if a shot doesn't turn out the way you thought it would-you can always use different footage.