Isaac Hodgkin ---- Evaluation

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

I feel that in many ways, our thriller can be compared to and has similar conventions to thriller films of professional a standard. 

We used a range of specific and effective camera techniques, such as close-ups of our main character. These shots allow the audience to understand and relate to the emotions being shown by the character’s expression; furthermore it allows the audience to empathise with her. In the screen grabs bellow, you can see an example of this from both my final product and the film ‘Case 39’.

Another technique commonly used in real thriller films, is the joint use of long shots and lighting, creating a silhouette effect. This creates enigma, while also revealing the surroundings and setting. An example of this is shown in the below screen shot from Case 39 and our opening.

Lighting is a common convention used in thriller films. We used lighting in a number of ways, to create a strong eerie feeling. We used low key lighting on young male character, making his skin a pale, ghostly colour. This technique makes the scene thrilling and scary, as it seems unnatural. The use of low key lighting can also be seen in ‘The Orphan’.

Key props are extremely important in thriller sequences, as they can reveal a number of things. We 

took inspiration from the film ‘The Disappearing’, and incorporated a newspaper prop into our opening, to reveal something about the plot. By doing this, it made the narrative a lot clearer and easy to follow. 

The below screen grabs show both our newspaper, and the one used in ‘The Disappearing’.

http://foundationportfolio1271.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/newspaper-scene-insperation-for-our.html

Costume is very important because if the costume is more correct to the character, their lifestyle and career, then the thriller becomes easier to relate to and thus more thrilling and interesting. Often, in thriller films the female characters are presented as a ‘damsel in distress’, and are dressed in very ‘girly’ clothing (e.g. pink, dresses, skirts) or are very sexualized and dressed in tight, revealing outfits. However in our opening, we challenged this convention, and dressed our female character in smart work clothing, without creating gender stereotypes. The screen grabs below show a shot of our character, and also a shot of a female character from ‘Psycho’ dressed in very feminine clothes.

Thriller films often use a certain style of font for their main feature title, to create a certain mood, or relate to the theme of the film. An example of this is ‘The Insider’, the font is slightly distorted,creating a tense atmosphere. For our title and credits, we used a scratchy, distressed font to create an unsafe feeling.

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

We have used very stereotypical techniques to represent social groups such as gender, as our main character is a female teacher at a primary school. This is stereotypical as most primary school teachers are women. Furthermore, she is the victim in our thriller, creating the Damsel in Distress theme. We decided to do this as women are typically more vulnerable and also as it makes it easier to sympathise with her as we learnt from our research. Plus her age is very easy to relate to as she is a middle aged mother again backed up by our research that her age is easier to relate to and more realistic.

However, using features such as mise en scene, we broke the stereotype slightly. Our character is a modern representation of women, as she is professionally dressed in work clothes rather than being dressed in a skirt or dress, which would communicate a much more stereotypical female image. In addition, she is the main character in the film, and is not shown as a sex object, as many female characters are in modern films.

These elements communicate that the character is serious about her job and is strong and independent. The audience is instantly aware that she is a primary school teacher due to the setting of the opening. Therefore, this reveals that the character is middle class, allowing the audience to relate to her character, making the narrative seem more realistic. We learnt through research that this is often used in thrillers, where the setting and character are made to be very realistic, so that the audience can relate and understand, making the film more believable.

Camera techniques are used like close ups, eye line matches and point of view to help the audience understand what she sees, her emotions and sympathise. 

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

Our film would be distributed by a company such as; United International Pictures as they are one of the leading distribution companies in the industry and have worked with many major films and are known to create a considerable amount of profit, therefore they would be a good company to work with. 

Our film would be distributed across the world, and we would use many advertising techniques to promote our film. For example T.V adverts, film posters and magazine/newspaper adverts. Our film would be shown in a number of cinemas across the world, and would then be sold on Blu-ray and DVD, and also available on services such as 'love film' and 'netflix'.

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

We decided that our thriller film is targeted at an audience aged between 18 to 35 years old. We have targeted both males and females, however we did consider that a female audience may find it easier to relate and empathise with the main character, as she is also female. We decided not to aim our audience any older, as the characters used are fairly young. Also, an older audience may not be able to relate to the main character, or enjoy the thrilling theme of the film. Furthermore, we didn’t aim any younger as the film is not suitable due to violence, disturbing nature and adult themes.

5. How did you address/ attract your audience?

Our main goal was to involve the audience by making our thriller realistic and easy to relate to. We wanted the spectator to think that this could happen to anyone at any time, making our film truly thrilling. We used aspects of mise en scene to create a sense of familiarity. The costume used for the female character is very ‘everyday’ and correct to the characters profession; she is represented as a normal woman, who many of our audience can relate to.

We also attempted to attract the audience by using a familiar setting of a primary school, as everyone has experienced a similar location at some point in their life, for example from being a parent or even a teacher. We also attempted to create a narrative that was very engaging and attractive to the audience, therefore having a theme about the death of a student, not only engages the audience, but interests them and encourages them to discuss the possible views of this subject. Not only does this attract our audience, but creates more media attention for our film as people discuss our themes and storyline.

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

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

Since the preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt a lot about how to our thriller of a higher quality, and seem more professional.

For example, I have learnt a lot about camera techniques such as framing. In our preliminary, there was a lot of empty space and bad framing, however I think that this improved in our thriller, as shown in the below images. There was a lot less wasted space above the characters head as there was in the preliminary. However we did use wasted space to place our credits.

Another camera technique that we have improved on is creating an interesting variety of different shots. By adding in more shots from different angles, it breaks up longer scenes and keeps the audience engaged. In the preliminary, we used minimal shot variety and the scenes dragged out, however in our thriller we broke it up by filming for a second time to ensure there was good shot variety.

Also I have learnt how to effectively use a focus pull, which we didn’t in our preliminary task, creating interesting shots whilst keeping the audience intrigued. Furthermore, it can create an almost eerie and weird atmosphere, as it makes the shot more unusual.

Using different features and techniques of Mise En Scene, we have made our thriller stronger by improving such things as costume. I have learnt that if the costume is more correct to the character, their lifestyle and career, then the thriller becomes easier to relate to and thus more thrilling and interesting.

Another aspect of Mise En Scene that I have learnt about is location. Again I have learnt that if the setting is an everyday, realistic place that matches what the audience knows about the characters life, then once again this will be easier to understand.

In addition, we added the use of important props to help the audience understand and receive key information. For example the newspaper that we created explains to the audience that a boy died in her lesson, this aids the narrative and helps it flow. In our preliminary we used very little props, and the ones we did use were neither important nor interesting.

Furthermore, another key prop that was used was the clock, telling the time inside of school hours. Once more, this is correct to the location and characters job. Again, helping the audience to relate and be scared at the fact this could happen in real life.

The sound featured in our preliminary was only a simple diegetic conversation. This wasn’t very interesting and had no variety to it. Therefore, I learnt we needed to use more variety of sound. Therefore we used a range of diegetic speech and non-diegetic speech, diegetic sound effects, a non-diegetic soundtrack, and heightened non-diegetic eerie sound effects to create tension among the thrilling, jumpy parts. For example, when the female character is paranoid and is disorientated in the car park of the school, we have non-diegetic speech of a news report.

The preliminary task featured no titling or font. I have learnt that titling can be very useful for setting and can affect the atmosphere and theme of the film quickly. By using a strong, distorted font, we created a peculiar and tense mood. 

Evaluation - Francesca Anscombe-Munn

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

It is a typical convention in thriller films to have a big close up of the characters face. In the screen grabs below, you can see to examples of this, one from our thriller opening, and one from Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’. Shots like this allow the audience to understand the emotions being shown through the characters expression, creating a feeling of empathy and creating a connection between spectator and character. This technique is commonly used so that the audience get a better understand of how the character is feeling.

Lighting is used all the time in thriller films, to create different effects and different atmospheres. In our product, we used a number of different lighting styles, one of which was low key lighting. We used this to illuminate the child characters (the antagonist’s) face, to make him appear scarier (as shown in the screen grab below). This technique was also used in ‘Case 39’, to light up parts of the young girls face, making her seem menacing.

We also used artificial lights to create a slight silhouette effect as our character walked down the corridor. A very similar effect is created in ‘Case 39’ and the female runs through the street. I feel that this shot creates a sense of loneliness, and vulnerability; it creates suspense as we are waiting for something bad to happen.

 

The use of key props is an important convention used in the making of thriller films. Props can reveal a lot about a character, and we developed this, creating a prop that would reveal something about our narrative. The newspaper prop that we created explains to the audience what our plot is about (the death of a child). We got inspiration for this prop from the film ‘The Disappearing’, as shown in the screengrab below. http://foundationportfolio1271.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/newspaper-scene-insperation-for-our.html

 

It is an often used technique in thriller films, to have the credits and titling in a certain font, to create an atmosphere/mood. A well-known example of this is ‘Seven’, the credits are written in a scratchy style font, and the main feature title incorporates the number 7 into it (se7en). We took some inspiration from this, and created our own titling and credits in a similar, distorted font. The below screen grabs show part of the credit sequence from both ‘Seven’ and our thriller.

 

It is common in thriller films, for the female character to dress in very ‘girly’ clothing, e.g. a skirt or dress, and to be a typical ‘damsel in distress’ character. However in our product, we attempted to challenge this convention, and create a female character could be the protagonist without following the stereotype.  We dressed our female in non-feminine clothes, making her look smart and professional and not stereotypical. The screen shots below show an example of a typically dressed female character in ‘Psycho’, and our characters costume.

Question 2-- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Certain social groups such as gender are shown through the use of traditional stereotypes in our film, as we chose to represent our victim as a female, conforming to the typical ‘damsel in distress’ theme. The main character in our film is a female primary school teacher. We chose to use a female actress, as typically women are seen as more vulnerable. Also, through research we understood that female victims are often used as they are easier to empathise with, and they are easier to trust. Further stereotypes are shown, as typically primary school teachers are female. Close up’s of the female allow the audience to understand her emotional state and empathise with her. 

However our female character is not portrayed completely in the stereotypical way. Through the use of mise en scene features such as costume, she is portrayed as a modern, working woman, as she is dressed for work in smart black trousers, and a purple shirt. She is not dressed in a skirt or a dress, nor is she wearing pink. 

The audience are aware of the characters profession, therefore allowing some understanding of how much she earns, and her social class. This allows a representation of social class. The female is shown to be middle class, due to her job and clothes, we decided to create her character like this, so that the audience can relate, and make the film seem more realistic. This technique is often used in thrillers, where realistic settings and characters are used, so that the audience can understand, and the idea that the plot could really happen to anyone. Moreover, the characters age is late 30’s, once again this an age that some of the audience will be able to relate to; we decided through research that a middle aged woman would be a more realistic victim than a child or elderly person.

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

If our thriller film was actually released, and of a higher budget, it would be distributed by a company like ‘Twentieth Century Fox’, as they are one of the major distribution companies in the UK industry. They have distributed many famous films across the world, and drawn in a lot of profit, therefore suggesting that we would gain a good amount of profit as well. 

The film would be distributed internationally, with advertising techniques such a film posters, billboards and T.V adverts to promote our film, and a number of cinematic companies showing our film. Our thriller would then go to DVD and Blu-ray, and also become available on online services such as ‘Love Film’ as they are becoming increasingly popular and attracting a new audience. 

Question 4-- Who would be the audience for your media product?

For our thriller opening, we decided that the target audience would be both males and females, from the age of 18 to 35 years. We made this decision based on research of the target audience of other thriller films similar to ours.  Furthermore, we wanted our audience to be able to connect with the main character, and the audience’s age makes this possible. However we did decide that the film would not be suitable for younger viewers due to possible themes of violence and adult language in the later narrative, this also applies for an elder audience.

Question 5-- How did you address/ attract your audience?

Our main technique to attract our audience was creating a familiar and realistic setting and character, allowing a connection to be created between the audience and the main character, and causing a feeling of ‘this could happen to anyone’. The primary school setting in our opening created a very normal feeling, as most of our audience have experienced a similar place, through being a student, a teacher or a parent for example. In addition, our main character, the female teacher, is presented as a very normal, middle class woman. This all creates a very realistic theme, and therefore drawing in our audience.  This is also shown through the use of common yet key props that our audience would see every day; for example the newspaper. 

The theme of our thriller, the death of a student, is a subject that holds many different opinions and views. This engages the audience and encourages discussion and conversation, creating more attention for our film and attracting even more people to come and see it. 

Question 6-- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

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

Framing-

I think that one noticeable thing that I have improved on is the framing of the shots. In the screen grabs, you can see that in the preliminary shot, there is a lot of wasted and unused space above Emma’s head, this is an example of bad framing. However in the thriller shot, the framing is a lot better, with minimal empty space, and the small amount of empty space that is there, is filled with the credits. This shows how not only our framing has improved, but how we made good use of empty space.

 

Variety of shots- 

The number and variety of shots has definitely progressed since the preliminary task. In our thriller opening, we have used a number of shots from all different angles, and we even went back to film for a second time, to make sure there was enough variety to keep the film interesting. However, in our preliminary task, we only used very basic shots with no variety at all. The shot film consisted of only shot reverse shots, over the shoulder and basic two shots. These two screen grabs are examples of how the variety has improved.

More Detailed Costume-

For our thriller opening, we need a lot of planning when deciding what our main character would wear. We decided that we didn’t want her to be a stereotypical looking woman, so decided on a simple, smart work outfit. This has definitely improved since our preliminary, as in that task we didn’t really plan the outfits, and simply wore whatever we had on the day of filming. I think it was important to plan the outfit for the thriller as it can communicate a lot about the character.

Better Location-

For our preliminary task, we had a restricted choice of location as we were only aloud to film on the college campus, during college hours; this meant that it was difficult to find an empty room that was suitable to film in. We decided to film in a small office room that slightly fitted our story line. However, I have definitely learnt that having a better location makes a big difference. For the thriller opening, there were no restrictions as to where we could film, as long as we had permission. Being able to film in a primary school made our narrative a lot easier to follow, and more realistic as it is an everyday location. Overall I think having a suitable setting made a huge difference to our final project.

Better Props-

I have also learnt the importance of key props, and what they can reveal about a character or location. In the preliminary task, we didn’t give much thought to what props we would use in our sequence, only using a computer and some books in the background to make the room look more like an office. However in our thriller, props took up a lot of planning and thought, as we decided how we could explain our narrative through them. The main prop used in our thriller, was a newspaper we created. This featured a big, bold headline revealing a key part of our narrative. This prop made the whole opening a lot clearer, and was a vital part of our sequence.

Titling-

Our preliminary task featured no titling or credit sequence; however as a group we decided that it was important to have a strong, effective title for our thriller. By creating this title, I have learnt how to add text over moving image, and how to create an effect for the text. I think that the title created an eerie feeling in our opening; therefore I thought I was very effective. In the screen grab below, you can see the first shot of a prelim, now looking back at the film, I think that would be a good place for a title to go. 

 

Focus Pull-

In our thriller, I learnt how to film a focus pull. This added to the variety of shots, and ensured the sequence was interesting to watch. We didn’t use anything like this in our preliminary task. The shots below show the focus pull taking place.

 

Sound-

Another key thing that I have learnt about whilst constructing the thriller, is diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The only sound used in our preliminary task, was diegetic dialogue, a very simple conversation between two characters (shown in the screen grab below). However, in during the production of our thriller opening, I learnt how to create sound effects, adding a number of diegetic sounds to our opening. We also created a non-diegetic sound track that ran throughout the whole sequence. In the below screen grab from our thriller, you can see a close up of the characters face, the soundtrack heard over this matches the characters distressed expression.

Lighting-

I have learnt that lighting makes a big difference to a scene, and can create a strong atmosphere. In our preliminary, we used minimal lighting, only to make shots clear but not to create different moods. In the below screen grab you can see an example of this. However in the thriller, we used a lot of lighting to create different effects. For example in the screen grab below, we used low key lighting to illuminate the boy’s face. More detail about lighting can be seen here in a previous blog post- http://foundationportfolio1271.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/lighting-homework-2.html