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