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.