Evaluation - Luke Winterburn

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

In our thriller opening we used techniques such as extreme close up, low key lighting, and silhouettes to create restricted narration and enigma in our opening. This was achieved by creating shadow on important parts of the shot and light on the parts we want the spectator to see

Some of the films we researched that use the same techniques are Drive which uses low key lighting for the same reason as us.

 

The protagonist in our film was inspired by Kill Bill due to the fact the protagonist is a female, we also used a feamle to go against normal horror films, both our characters are examples of binary oppositions as they are male and female and antagonist and protagonist.

The appearance and editing of our film is iconographic of the thriller genre this is because we have changed the colour to make it destaurated and dull, this technique has also been used in Face Off which I researched.

Our setting, locations and props are also iconographic of thriller genres such as a dark empty room with only one prison style chair, we used these locations to try and form thriller style and mysterious locations.

Our film creates enigma through use of interesting camera work creating blocking and restricted narration, some examples of these shots include extreme close ups and blurring of some shots.

 

The sound we used is also iconographic of thriller genre, we have used techniques such as sound bridges, parallel music and non-diegetic sound that gives and eerie and mysterious sense. We have sound bridged the voice of our protagonist onto a black screen this is done during a revealing part of the dialogue that is important to the film and sound bridging it gives it more of an effect.

The parallel music is non diegetic which adds sound and camera work together adding to the thriller effect.

We also created foleys of some diegetic sound such as the scraping of the chair on the floor, this allowed us to create as much realism as possible and helped us achieve the sound we wanted.

Another editing technique we used was cross cutting, which allows us to show the two characters moving towards each other at the same time, this helps the spectator follow the narrative and makes the film more interesting.

 

 

The 180 degree rule is another editing technique that is crucial to films in general, in our film it was used in a short conversation which creates continuity and helps the spectator follow the scene. Other continuity techniques we used include match on action which also speeds up the pace due to the quickness of our editing.

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

Our protagonist is a non-stereotypical female who is shown is a positive view, this is because she is the ‘number one’ cop and the main characters I our film, this is different and unique to most thrillers due to the fact most protagonist and male such as in Face Off and Drive.

 

 

Our female character is shown to go against stereotypes due to her costume and hair, which is basic and not done for looks or to make her look attractive. She isn’t seen to where excessive make up instead she has little make up. Our protagonist is a modern representation  of femininity because she is shown as independent and strong through her being alone and her role as a detective.

However towards the end of our film the female protagonist seems helpless and powerless, this is done through camera work. For example we use a high angle long shot which makes the spectator look down on her giving her less power. The reason we have done this is to tell the spectator she isn’t in control which is an iconographic feature of thrillers, such as Seven in which the protagonists aren’t in control at all throughout most of the film.

Our antagonist is stereotypically a male whose identity is hidden through lighting and camera work giving restricted narration and enigma.

 

The reason we chose a male is that the audience realise he is the antagonist due to him being the binary opposite of the antagonist and in thrillers the antagonist if usually male. We have made our antagonist look powerful through the use of low angle camera shots, this puts the spectator lower than the antagonist making them feel weaker and him appear stronger.

Kill Bill uses a similar protagonist to us because of the fact she is female and not shown as a sexual element and someone who defies conventions and stereotypes similar to what we have done in our film.

Our target audience is young adults of age 15-24 this meant we had to use actors of the same age making it relatable.

3)      What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Due to the fact we are making a small independent film on a small budget, our film would have to be distributed and exhibited via methods that we would be able to afford. These include the internet such as Youtube or social networking this is because it is basically free.

 

Another way our film would be distributed would be through film festivals such as Sundance which is specifically for independent films.

Both of these methods are perfect for us because they are cheap and would get our film recognized and appreciated and not compared to big budget blockbusters.

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

We researched the Pearl and Dean website and discovered that the most common target audience for thriller films is:

Age: 15-24 yrs
Social Class (P and D website): C1 upper middle class
Gender %: 50-50

Therefore we decided to make this out target audience because it will give us the largest and most popular audience.

 

Two of the thriller films we researched that lead us to our decision were Inception and Now You See Me, both of which are thriller films.

5)      How did you attract/address your audience?

We targeted our audience through the use of narrative and film content. Our film attracts our audience because of the fact our target audience is younger than 18 which meant we couldn’t use too graphic violence or offensive scenes. On the other hand our audience is mid teens meaning we can use advanced narrative and mise en scene. The fact our target audience meant we could use more modern themes and representation or characters, for example our protagonist is a modern non-stereotypical representation of females making the character attractive especially to young woman.

 

The characters in our film would attract our target audience due to the they are in the same age group and appear in modern and stylise clothing. Our female protagonist is a professional and top quality detective which is a role normally taken by males especially in thriller, this makes our film defy thriller conventions making our film modern and unique.

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

During the film making process I have learned many new techniques and made my current knowledge on the equipment more advanced.

Using the camera I learned how to use techniques such as the focus pull and how this has an effect on our film, during filming I also learned how important lighting and shadow is and where to position the light in order to get the shot we are looking for.

In the postproduction process I have advanced my skills using the editing the software such as Final Cut Pro and Garageband. Within these software I learned how to add sound and visual effects such as the draining or contrast and colour, I feel that this gave our film a really good visual style and gives the sense of dullness and the situation and narrative or film.

Our teacher also taught us about titling and how they can make a film more professional whilst showing meaning.

 

During editing I learned about the use of transitions such as fades and dissolves and how these can change the pace or show a change on time and location.

Some troubles we had included finding the right sound and music we were looking for, in some cases we had to foley our own sound which solved the problem and helped us create a realistic soundtrack for our film. I think that our foleys were really successful and sounded real which means we were successful.

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

I think that from our preliminary to our current film we have improved our film and the techniques in our film. For example the lighting in our preliminary wasn’t very good due to the fact we didn’t light the darkness which lead to our characters and shot being hard to see, however on our full product we have been very professional and successful in the lighting of our film.

Our final product has better framing and character position in the frame than our prelim, this makes our film more professional and fills all the empty space in the shot.

 

We used a very successful and well edited match on action which is an improvement on our prelim match on actions, our final film match on action was more successful due to the fact the pace is faster, the editing is smoother and there are more shots that are more interesting.

The locations we used in our final product were more professional and realistic of a thriller film, this added to the realism and professional look of our film.

3 Thriller film opening title and credits sequences research - Jack Bumstead

The Killing

Instead of a common black screen, the titling and credits in this film appear over an image. The image is really unclear and so creates an enigma. This will recur in the spectators mind every time they see it. The credit text appears by scrolling in letter by letter very fast from the left, this creates pace and music also appears alongside this.

The Silence

The effects that have been used in this sequence are flickering, shining and distortion. These are used to emphasise the distortion of the female protagonists disability. The explanation for the positioning and placement the titles and credits are placed in relation to the moving image is that they are in dead space. They are also super-imposed on the moving image, ensuring not to distract from the main plot.

 

Wallander

This sequence is a mini narrative in itself because it is self standing, separate to the episode. Its function is to communicate certain information to the audience. The reasoning behind the colours used of yellow and blue are because they are the colours of the Swedish flag. The use of the yellow block graphic here is interesting because it is considered a happy colour. But, with the positioning and placement of the credits dominating the entire screen in ECU, this feeling is almost forced upon us as spectators. With the non-diegetic soundtrack also being used, this communicates a melancholic atmosphere and feeling, perhaps to juxtapose with the 'happy' yellow block graphic.

 

Evaluation - Maisie Woodley

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

We wanted to make our thriller as iconographic of the genre as we possibly could, which meant using low-key lighting, parallel music (slow and eerie) and restricted narration. These features appear in other thriller openings we have researched, such as Kill Bill and Inception.


Restricted narration of antagonist in Kill Bill, and
desaturation of setting



Restricted narration of elderly man in Inception

The restricted narration would create an enigma for our audience, which is used a lot in the openings we studied. We did, however, aim to try and be slightly different and challenge some of the stereotypes in the majority of today's films. We created a main character that was female and didn't fall into the traditional gender stereotype. This would also be seen as a positive stereotype because we're not objectifying her.

We also didn't use any weapons, such as guns or knives, because it didn't fit the pace and we felt it wasn't necessary.

We tried to be as experimental with the camerawork as possible. From our research on thriller openings, we could use a variety of shots that would give us the intended effect we wanted, such as blocking and pans.

Pan used in Inception

Using Todorov's theory, we can identify the three main stages, even when it's only an opening. The first stage is the equilibrium, where the protagonist is in a calm and steady situation.

The second stage is the disruption, after where she finds the right information and goes looking for the antagonist that leads to her being kidnapped.

The third stage isn't quite shown, but later on she tries to repair the damage and figure out how to get away from the antagonist.
 The protagonist's clothing again goes against the stereotype, and her hair is tied up which signals that she doesn't want to impress anyone and is ready for action. Her facial expressions are very limited because she's a very down-to-earth character, and the only other emotions she shows is shock and surprise and fear.
 

Protagonist in Inception

Her location is confined and bleak, which links to the thriller genre. The post-production editing allowed us to make the shots more dull to add to the effect.

For the antagonist, he would mainly be shrouded in darkness to avoid the audience from seeing his face, which consequently leads to an enigma. In one shot, he drags his hand across the back of a chair, signalling to the spectators that he could be some kind of sinister maniac.

The cross-cutting shows a connection between the two characters, adding to the enigma as to why they know each other. His lack of dialogue contributes to his sinister atmosphere and when he finally speaks at the end of the opening, he seems very calm as if he's done it before.

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

As our thriller is directed at an audience of young adults aged 15-24, we had to use younger actors.

Our characters are from similar social groups and ethnicity. The protagonist comes from a middle-class background that's worked her way up to upper-class, as she works for the police and is a number one detective. The antagonist is similar, but has stayed at lower middle-class due to him going into hiding and living off what he finds.

The antagonist is male, which fits the character's profile (this doesn't mean a woman can't do the same). The protagonist is female and we decided on this together so we could go against the stereotype. We also decided this to show that women can be the main characters, too, not just men, as men are used much more for main characters in films than women.

Their sexual orientation is not key to the story and is not focused on in the opening. It's not important, but we feel they would both be heterosexual. This is not represented openly in the thriller, but again, we didn't feel it was necessary to show any form of sexuality.

The status and power changes over time, though at the beginning there is no real power. The protagonist seems to have the most power before the antagonist is introduced, because she appears to be in control of the situation.

When the cross-cutting begins, the power slowly starts to change, as she hurries around getting ready to go and find the antagonist, whilst he remains calm. This shows that he is now more in control of his situation, as the protagonist is a lot more rushed now.

When the two finally meet, all status has gone to the antagonist. This is shown through:

• MES - the protagonist tied to the chair
• Restricted narration - she can see him but the audience cannot
• Lighting - one spotlight on her, showing her isolation
• Facial expression - her fear and confusion
• Camera angles/shots - high angle shows low status, close-up adds to isolation

We wanted to represent these characters like this so we could go against the stereotype, but also to get a reaction out of the audience. We see the protagonist working to try and find the antagonist, whilst we see the antagonist prowling around waiting for her. The dramatic irony makes the audience feel scared for the protagonist because we know she's in danger and she doesn't.

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

After studying the different types of distribution methods, we decided that the most possible media institutions would be Google and film festivals.

We think it would be these ones because our thriller is independently made, which means none of the big Hollywood institutions would distribute it. Also, it costs around £2 million on average to get a film into the cinema.

If we distributed it through Google, it would get attention because Google is globally used and it's free. Through Google we could also use YouTube due to similar reasons. Similarly, we could use film festivals such as Sundance, who can our independent film to a wider audience.

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

Our target audience is 15 to 24-year-old's, gender neutral. According to Pearl & Dean, this particular group prefers thriller films. Examples from the website include:

American Hustle

Out of the Furnace

Other examples include Inception, which was very popular when it was released in 2010. Here is a screenshot from the critic website Rotten Tomatoes and their rating on Inception:

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Most young people enjoy a thrill and suspense, and we wanted to create that in our opening. We did this by using specific shots and lighting techniques to convey the suspense to them. I shared our opening on Facebook and got some critical feedback, along with some strong points:

If we were to do this course again, we would address these issues. It was mainly the sound effects and dialogue that were the main problems, such as the pencil and keys. The people that watched it and commented were impressed by the level of suspense created, which links to the Pearl & Dean statistics.

We used young actors so their youth could appeal to our target audience, because they think and feel the same way, which is much easier than using adult actors. However, even though our actors are young, we wanted to portray them as mature, because people wouldn't see teenagers going around solving crimes. We wanted to appeal to them with a similar age group, but in a more mature way.

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

In the pre-production stages, we had to write the entire story. I took responsibility for this and got it done as quick as possible. From my research on thriller openings, I had one particular thriller in mind, which was Misery that we had studied not long before and I based my ideas around that.

When using the camera, we had to make sure we were getting the shot we wanted, which meant checking the storyboard and practising with the camera before we started shooting. We filmed the same shots several times before we got what we wanted. This gave us more of a chance of getting the shot exactly right.

Whilst filming, we had to make sure we avoided any continuity errors that may have occurred in our location. This meant checking we had everything in the right place after every shot. At one point, we realised we'd filmed some shots a certain way, which meant that we had to make sure we didn't film the whole location as to avoid any confusion and continuity errors.

Unfortunately, when we finished filming, only then did we realise we forgot to set the white balance. At first we thought this would be a problem, but during post-production, we found that it didn't make much of a difference, and it actually helped get the effect we wanted when we edited the shot.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
 I feel that our main task has progressed a lot from our preliminary in a lot of ways. In our preliminary, we had a few issues with the lighting being too dark in some shots because we needed low-key lighting. We focused a lot on this during filming of our main task and apart from a few lighting difficulties, we managed to avoid any major issues, which did include deleting one shot that was too dark.

                                         Main task                                    Preliminary

Our camerawork has remained at a constant level of accuracy throughout the coursework. We had a variety of shots in out preliminary, including a crab shot and a canted shot. We then decided we would use a lot of the same shots in our main task to give it the same effect.

                                         Main task                                    Preliminary

This outcome is similar to the visual and sound editing. The non-diegetic sound for our preliminary was mainly parallel music and sound effects to give some aspects of it more emphasis. Our main task is very similar, as we want our audience to focus on some parts more than others, so our sound editing has got to fit it.

The continuity editing again will be very similar to our preliminary. There are a few shots when the main actress is opening a door, which links back to our match-on-action practice in the preliminary. We use a lot of match-on-action to give the piece more fluidity, and also to give it pace as it builds up to a climax.
  The main transition we have used is the dissolve because we wanted to give an effect of time passing, and also cross-cutting to establish the characters and their apparent connection.

Main task cross-cutting

Preliminary cross-cutting

Also, to add to the enigma we were gradually building up, we used restricted narration of the character's face again, because we felt it was very effective and relevant to the genre.

In the preliminary, we didn't need to focus on character as much. When we were in the planning stages of our main task, we had to come up with almost completely new characters; a young and incredibly clever female detective, and a psycho killer. As I wrote the synopsis and script, I had to think about what their actions would be and what sort of things they would say based on their character description.