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.
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| Restricted narration of antagonist in Kill Bill, and desaturation of setting |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Protagonist in Inception |
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.
Well done Maisie, for completing this on time!
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