G321 Foundation Production – Evaluation

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

For our thriller opening, we wanted to take the idea of a chase, which would hook the audience, and twist it to fit it into our sub genre of psychological thriller. We took the idea of a chase from films such as ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ which we watched as part of our thriller research. The chase is a classic thriller signifier, especially at the opening of the film as it immediately creates mystery and intrigue and always makes the audience wonder what will happen next. It also creates a fast pace to the film. To create the setting for our chase, we based our thriller in a vast open space instead of a city to create the mystery of what the character could be running away from. To challenge the genre conventions, we also used a female to play the main role, as they do in films such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Jackie Brown’. However, we did stick to certain thriller conventions such as the weather being stormy and rainy. This interlocks with the idea that the weather represents how our character feels inside; the rain and stormy weather shows that she is upset, confused and frustrated.
With our thriller film, we wanted to move away from the idea of classic ‘gangster’ thrillers and move more towards the idea of a psychological twist. To achieve this effect, we knew we would have to come up with a story line which featured fewer issues about the stereotypical thriller ideas such as drugs and violence and instead, include more about how the mind works, and the way that people interact with each other such as in the ‘The Machinist’. We wanted to give the audience something to think about instead of letting them watch simple actions occurring on the screen which is a technique often used in the mainstream thriller films. If a film makes you think, you are more likely to remember it, which is often what makes a successful film. We were aware that the thriller opening had to be thrilling and intriguing so we created a scene which would puzzle the viewers in a way which would let them form their own ideas about what was actually taking place, and they would therefore want to continue watching, to see if their assumptions were correct.
We used a long shot of a plane flying past to show that 'Grace' was being searched for, we managed to do this because the location we filmed in had planes frequently flying past. During audience feedback, some audience members commeted on the fact that they did not quite understand this shot and thought it was irrelevant to the plot. However, we felt it was revelant to show that it was important for 'Grace' to be found so we decided not to take this section of footage out.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film focused on the feelings of a young girl who had escaped from a mental institution. This is hard to relate to a social group as people of her mentality are often hidden from society. We decided not to make it perfectly clear that the girl had escaped from a mental home, but instead gave subtle hints, such as her costume of white clothes to show what she had been wearing at the time of escaping and showing a short clip of a plane passing through the sky, searching for her to suggest that it is of vast importance that she is found. We hoped to show to the audience that they could relate to the character in the way that she is a person and has feelings just as everybody else does, even if she does not think in the same way as them. We wanted to get across to the audience that the mental institution would not have recognised her as a person, but as just another patient. The white clothing was a visual element which we used to show how Grace stands apart from society and would not simply fit into a normal community because she is not accepted.
We created the character ‘Grace’ in the hope that the audience would see her as a strong enough character to be the main protagonist of the film. We ignored the thriller idea of the classic ‘Femme Fatale’ and instead gave her the slightly run down image, so she would not, at first glance, appear desirable. We did this so we could focus on her strong characteristics instead of the way she looks, as women are often only recognised for the way they look in thrillers.

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

Our thriller would probably be distributed as an ‘arthouse film’. This is due to the fact that it has a very specific target audience, appealing mainly to woman aged from 15 – 30 due to the gender and young age of the main protagonist and would probably not be thought of as a film which would appeal so much to mainstream cinema goers. It would be shown in cinemas such as ‘Cinema City’ and may be shown several time in mainstream cinemas such as ‘Vue’ and ‘The Odeon’. A distributor who was looking for arty, slightly unusual films would want to distribute out thriller.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As mentioned in my audience profile (part of method 2), the age demographic for our thriller would be 15 – 30. This is because the character is 17 years old and the younger audience members would be able to relate to her more than the older audience members. Female audience members would definitely be drawn to the film as, even in contemporary thrillers; it is quite rare to see a female main protagonist. Due to the age demographic, audience members are likely to be at sixth form, college, university or aspiring to go to university, as was revealed in a questionnaire we took. Audience members who take an interest in music and/or photography may be interested in our thriller as it contains many well thought out shots in which the Mise en scene was focused on until perfected.

How did you attract/address your audience?

As with films such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Jackie Brown’, our main character is female. We decided to apply this slightly unusual aspect to our thriller because we felt that the audience would be able to get a better understanding of the character’s feeling, thoughts and reasons for actions if the character was female, as this gender (mostly) is able to display their feelings more than males do.
So as not to discourage male audience members viewing our film, we used an attractive girl to play the character of Grace, but she was not portrayed in a way which would seem fake or too ‘made-up’. This was done to keep the interest of the male audience in a way which would still let them focus on the storyline instead of focusing on the way the character looks.

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

I have learnt how much work and concentration goes into making a thriller opening despite whether it ends up successful or not. I now know that it takes a huge amount of planning and dedication to continue working on the film until you have finally got it exactly how you want it and how you think the audience will want it. We needed to plan the exact dates and times of shooting, dates of meeting schedules, and each and every prop that needed to be taken to each shooting date. We were able to make use of our basic filming skills and to develop them into more advanced skills that managed to portray how we wanted our film to look. I have learnt how to use ‘Adobe premier Elements 1.0’ to edit our thriller successfully in a way that is satisfactory. My knowledge of how to use this editing software grew as we went on making the thriller opening. I now know how to upload our footage onto the programme, how to cut up each section and rearrange it to achieve the desired effect, how to slow down and speed up sections of footage which really helped with the section where ‘Grace’ fell. We had to slow down this section to make it obvious to the audience that she had fallen and injured herself. We learnt how to apply effects to the transactions of different clips. In particular, we applied the fade in effect when the camera circled Grace as she looked around for a place to run to show her confusion. Each time we showed a different clip with this fade in effect, we also slightly darkened the clip to show that time had passed and that the sky was getting darker.
We were not confident in using this programme at the start of the year as it would have been too difficult for teachers to show us how to use each and every effect. We had to experiment with certain effects which worked well, and we would have had to do this even if we had known how to use the programme, to check what looked good.

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

During the preliminary task, my group worked on grasping the simple techniques that we knew we would need when making our thriller opening. We used the tripod to hold the camera still whilst filming long shots and to keep the camera still when we needed a steady shot. Before we were given the time in the preliminary task to practise these skills, we were unsure of how to even attach the camera to the tripod. We learnt continuity skills which was extremely helpful as none of the thriller openings would have made sense if the actions of the characters did not match up. We had to work hard in editing the thriller to make sure that everything ran smoothly. In some instances, this was not necessary as we would cut to a completely different clip and it was obvious to the audience that time had passed between the two clips, and that the character had travelled to a different place.

MORE SHOTS

We used several shots in this scene to create a sense that time had passed between each shot. We made the shots fade into each other, and the lighting became darker in each one showing that the character had been standing, looking around for a long period of time. We think this idea worked well as it gives the clear impression of her time running out and the audience become aware that as soon as it gets very dark, Grace will be in an even worse situation.
We felt that the location of our thriller worked well with the issues we were trying to portray. The large outdoor spaces created a feeling of loneliness and managed to represent how the character felt in her mind. The trees looked eerie and spiderlike as they had no leaves on and let the audience understand the characters fear of her surroundings. The surrounding contrasted greatly with the character, Grace, as she wore white clothes and seemed very innocent compared to the cruel looking background.
The colour theme of our thriller was blue, to show the coldness of the issues that we were putting forward. This colour best represented how there was absolutely no warmth or happiness in the situation that took place in the thriller opening. The colour also represented what life inside the institution would have been like; dull, cold and colourless.

SHOTS

This is the opening shot of our thriller films. We faded this shot in from a black screen to make it almost seem as if the character has just opened her eyes and somehow found herself in the position she’s in, in the middle of a strange and unfamiliar field. Her hair is wet and her face is red and dirty, suggesting that she has been running for a long time and that it was raining. We decided to shoot this scene when it was raining, as heavy rain is a classic thriller signifier and it added to the desperation of the character’s escape. We were pleased with this shot as it turned out exactly how we had first pictured it, it creates mystery and intrigue. The Mise en scene turned out just right; the shot always included the leafless trees with tangled branches behind the character which connotes that a lot of confusion is going on within the character’s mind. The sky was white/blue which worked in the same way as the character’s outfit does and also shows the coldness of her journey.

This shot showed the character running away into a vanishing point to show that she does not know where she’s going, or where she’ll end up. We decided to make the font of the credits In ‘Courier New’ as it created a clinical look, as if it was the font they use to print onto the sheets which display patient’s illnesses. We chose for the titles to be white so they stood out from the surrounding and fitted in with what the character is wearing to show that she belongs where the writing belongs; in the mental hospital.

Method 4 (marked)

Method 2 (marked)

Final Thriller

Continuity Task

We decided to film our continuity task in the girl's toilets at school. We thought of a simple storyline in order to make the clip more interesting to watch.
For the first shot, we used a close up of high heeled shoes, using a tri-pod to keep the shot steady and tilting the camera down so we could get the shoes in the shot whilst the character was walking down the hallway. We then filmed a shot of the long corridor, which ends in a vanishing point, with the actor right at the end. She begins to walk towards the camera, we then cut to the same girl but she is now halfway down the corridor. She walks for a couple of seconds then we cut again to the girl even closer to the camera. We do this to show that time has passed and we do not show the actor walking all the way down the corridor in real time, because it would get boring to watch. The camera follows the girl as she turns the corner; we then filmed a shot to show her pushing open the door. This worked well because we managed to get a fluent, realistic shot change.
The next shot was filmed into the mirror. We did this because we could see the girl coming in through the door, which was actually hidden around a corner. We could also see the second girl in what was almost an over the shoulder shot. We then show a shot as if the camera is the mirror. We propped the camera up in the sink. This gave a really interesting shot, especially as the colour of the overall shot seemed blue, and this added to the idea of the camera being a glassy mirror. When the two girls leave the girl’s toilets, the screen is left with a shot of three cubicles. I think this shot is very effective. It is split into the three sections of the separate cubicles and seems oddly empty without the dialogue or action.

Audience Profile (Method 2)

AGE

The age group for the target audience for my thriller film will range from 15 to 30 years olds. People from an older age group may want to view the film but the reason for this age demographic is that the actress in our film is 17 years old and therefore the younger audience will be able to relate to her character more than the older audience. The film would be rated as a 15 and would therefore be played after the 9 o’clock watershed to prevent viewers of a younger age watching the film.

GENDER

Unusually, our thriller will appeal more to a female audience than a male audience. The only character to appear in the opening sequence of our thriller is female. The 2 minute opening scene features only her and this firmly establishes her as the main role. This would possibly put off some male members of the audience as thrillers are often (but not always) dominated by male roles. Another reason for the majority of the audience to be women is that the thriller we have constructed is a psychological thriller and does not/would not contain the same sort of scenes as, for example, a thriller about gangsters would and would therefore not attract as many male audience members.

OCCUPATION

The majority of audience members will be students at sixth forms, colleges and universities. Again, this is due to the age of the girl playing the lead role. The thriller is aimed to be more of an art house thriller film than main stream and this should therefore appeal to an audience which will appreciate the composition of the mise on scene and the overall effect of the film such as photographers and artists.

ETHNICITY

The ethnicity of the audience for our thriller films will hopefully be completely mixed. The main character is white, Caucasian but hopefully the race of the main actor would not determine the audience’s decisions on whether or not to view the film. Later on in the film, in scenes with many people, actors who are different races would feature to give a realistic interpretation of contemporary Britain.

ASPIRATIONS

A high percentage of the audience members which attend sixth form will be aspiring to go to university as it showed from the questionnaire that was taken. The film is non fiction but the themes are based around people with mental disabilities and therefore, audience members who aspire to be doctors or helpers for mental patients may find the film interesting to watch as it relates to their abilities.

INTERESTS

A song which is performed on acoustic guitar is played all throughout our thriller opening and therefore, audience members with an interest in music would be intrigued by this aspect of the film, especially as the calm music contrasts with the panicked motions of the main character. The thriller includes some interesting shots, for example, a worm’s eye view of the sky through a lot of tangles tree branches. This creates the feeling of confusion and frustration as it as the intertwining branches resemble a vast spider’s web. This type of shot could attract audience members who are interested in photography.

SIMILAR FILMS

In preparation for the making of the thriller films, one of the thrillers we watched was ‘The Butterfly Effect’ because it had a psychological theme running through it. ‘Identity’ was another which had the same theme but seemed to involve a lot more violence than we wanted to incorporate into ours. Audience members who enjoy the psychological thrillers more than the conventional thrillers would want to view our particular thriller film.

Method 2 (improved)

The Butterfly Effect

As part of our thriller research, my group watched 'The Butterfly Effect' because it is a psychological thriller and we wanted to see how these types of thriller openings differed from those of classic thrillers. The first shot shows the figure of a man walking behind open blinds. He walks slowly and carefully and it seems obvious that he is attempting to move quietly without being noticed. Once he gets to the door of the office, he kicks it open and hurriedly pushes a small, leather sofa in front of the door to prevent anyone from getting in. He then grabs a box, paper and pen and hides under the office desk. He writes a note, speaking the words out loud as he writes; ‘If anyone finds this, it means my plan didn't work and I'm already dead. But if I can somehow go back to the beginning of all of this, I might be able to save her.’ This immediately creates mystery for the audience as the note contains a lot of interesting things. First of all, it includes the idea that the main character, Ashton Kutcher, may die.

Feedback

Our Thriller film was shown to the media class. 14 people watched the films and filled out evaluation forms so my group were able to see what we could improve on. I added all of the scores for each question together, and divided them by the number of answered evaluation sheets to find the average. These were the results:

1. Holding a shot steady: 8.6

2. Framing shot and choosing what to
include in the shot and choosing what to leave out: 8.75

3. Using a variety of shot distances: 9

4. Shooting material that is appropriate
to the opening of a thriller film
(was there evidence of thriller signifiers): 7.6

5. Selecting Mise en scene to create particular effects: 8.5

6. Editing so that meaning is clear to the viewer
(was there a readable narrative: 7.5

7. Using varied shot transitions and other
effects appropriately: 8

8. Using sound with images and editing
sound effectively: 8.4

Films Exhibited in Norwich

8th - 9th November
66% USA
19.9% USA/UK (co Productions)
14.3% UK
0% Other Countries

Problems With The Thriller

There was a delay in the the beginning of the filming of our thriller film, consequently we began to look for music on http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/ which let us download free, uncopyrighted music. We then found a song that we felt would add a lot more meaning to our piece. The music is fairly slow, played by acoustic guitar. Although we were pleased with this music, we were aware that we would have to think about our storyboard more in order to add more depth to it. This led to more problems as we had to think up new events for the opening of the film. Previously, we had decided to show clips of a girl panicking whilst running through fields, we would would later show clips of her, having been beaten up, tied up and left in a white room. This was supposed to be the girl's flashback. However, having found our music, we realised that the second section would not fit in so well.

What difficulties/ problems did we encounter?
Before we filmed our thriller opening, we looked on several websites to see what kind of music we wanted to use. After listening to several upbeat songs which would have fitted with a scene that included a high speed chase (the affect we thought we wanted), we then listened to a slow, calm piece of music written by Sylvan Young and played on acoustic guitar. We realised that this gave more depth to our opening as it represented how the character was not running away because she had done something wrong, but because she was scared and alone and knew she had to find a safe place. The music lets the audience relate to the character as they are able to get closer to her. Realising that we had found the right music for our thriller, we also understood that we would need to change the storyline slightly. This is because the previous storyline, including flashbacks and bright flashes of light, seemed trivial and we no longer wanted to display a simple message to the audience. Once realising al of this, we then had to change the storyline so that it would complement the music and continue to create mystery for the audience.
For our opening, we wanted specific weather conditions; these included heavy rain and a dark, cloudy sky. The first time we shot on location, the weather conditions were perfect for the scene but proved very difficult to work in. We had to hold an umbrella over the camera at all times to prevent it from getting damaged, the actress playing Grace had to run around in character wearing only the costume that she was given and she became cold and tired very quickly and the tripod slipped about on the muddy ground, making it hard to get a steady shot. After filming several shots, we had to give up and knew that we would have to continue filming on another date. This also proved difficult as the location of the film is in the countryside and we didn’t want to have to travel there to find that the weather conditions were not right. Finally, we found another day where the weather conditions were similar to that of the first day we had shot, and we continued to capture the rest of our thriller opening. The lighting was slightly different to that of the previous shots, but we successfully managed to make it look like the same brightness when editing with the film software afterwards.
Initially, we knew that we did not want to keep any diagetic sounds to our opening, to once again, add to the feeling of desolation and loneliness. After capturing all of our footage, and beginning to edit, we realised that without diagetic sound our thriller began to stray away from the thriller signifiers.

Content Analysis of Film Distribution in Norwich

On the 22nd and 23rd of November (Saturday and Sunday) 29 films were being exhibited between 4 cinemas; The Odeon, Vue, Cinema City and Hollywood Cinema. Here is a list of those films.

Quantum of Solace - UK
Max Payne - Canadian
High School Musical 3: Senior Year - US
Zach And Miri Make A Porno - US
Ghost Town - US
Body Of Lies - US
Burn After Reading - US
Choke - US
Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian - UK
Easy Virtue - UK
Igor – US
Mamma Mia! - US
My Best Friend’s Girl - US
Pride And Glory - US
Quarantine - US
Saw V - US
Scar 3-D - US
Make It Happen - US
Ghosts of East Anglia - UK
Heidi - US
W. - US
Waltz With Bashir – Foreign Language Film
The Baader – Meinhof Complex – Foreign Language Film
Young @ Heart - US
A Taste Of Honey - UK
Met. Opera: La Damnation De Faust – Foreign Language Film
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - UK
Brideshead Revisited - UK
Space Chimps - US

Over this particular weekend, 17 of these films were being shown at the Odeon, 11 were shown at Vue, 9 at Cinema City and 8 at Hollywood Cinema. 63% of the

It has been accurately stated that Hollywood films are becoming more and more like advanced computer games. The two mediums, action films and computer games feed off each others violent themes. Violence is becoming a more increasingly popular way of dealing with conflicts and American films definitely have something to do with this. The action films are filled with stereotyped, strong men who often manage to solve their problems with fights and violent behaviour. These films are sometimes then made into video games. By producing merchandise, including video games, it promotes the idea that the violence within the film is not a bad thing, but a realistic feature of life. It becomes apparent to the audiences (mostly teenage boys) that it is alright to be violent towards people.
24% of the exhibited films were British films. It would seem to make sense that in a British cinema, the vast majority of films shown would be British, but this is obviously not the case.
If the Hollywood Film industry continues to grow, there may be a time in the future when British film makers won’t have any business left. This would have a huge affect on certain people in Britain; directors, actors, producers, make-up artists, technicians and costume designers would lose their jobs in the film industry. Audiences would only ever be able to view films with other cultures’ beliefs and values.