Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Although our film would have had a closed narrative, our opening would have not worked with a closed narrative. We decided to use an open narrative in order to use the cliffhanger technique, a technique used across many films of the thriller genre.
Although our film would have had a closed narrative, our opening would have not worked with a closed narrative. We decided to use an open narrative in order to use the cliffhanger technique, a technique used across many films of the thriller genre.
As a result of doing our titling research, we began to notice that the majority of thriller films feature their titles over a black or white screen, often combined with a snippet of non-diegetic sound. We incorporated this into our titling.
As you can see, our title was relatively simple. Although we did experiment with more complex, stylish fonts, we thought that they didn't fit the product, and looked a bit too stylish. We decided to stick with this font, as it was simple, and easy to read.
When creating our product, we made sure that the audio complemented the video. A common convention of thriller films is that there is almost always non-diegetic sound in the background. We chose to use non-diegetic sound consistently throughout our product, and we believe the use of sound-bridging made our product transition smoothly from one sequence to another.
In between the two of these shots, we chose to use a fade out/in to black as a transition. We decided on this transition as we concluding that it was the best way to introduce the next scene. Whilst the fade out/in is happening, the sound of Zinoviev's motorbike is consistent. I believe the use of the sound-bridge linked the two shots together, and made the product consistent.
In this part of the product, Zinoviev turns off his motorcycle, and the non-diegetic sound of the motorcycle taken from GarageBand cuts out at the same time. Although this sound cuts out, we kept the audio consistent by adding in eerie sound effects, another convention used widely in thrillers.
Another convention we noticed in our initial research was the use of close-ups, and the use of framing. We used these two techniques where possible, and we believe it worked well.
We first decided to implement framing into out piece when characters Artnal and Dufrais began the exchange of the briefcase, the main prop used in the product. We believed framing the two characters would draw attention to to the briefcase, and suggest its importance in the product.
We then chose to combine a close-up with the framing technique, and were very happy with the result. We chose to frame the briefcase through Artnal's shoelace, as the small, almost voyeuristic area drew even more attention to the briefcase. We believed now that it was extremely obvious that the briefcase was of importance.
We did not originally plan for Artnal to wear Vans shoes, and it was a mistake. We believe it wouldn't have been obvious unless we did this shot, and this was one of the only mistakes we made throughout the piece.
When studying other thrillers, we picked up on the simplicity of the editing. We discovered that apart from a few parts of thriller films, the transition from one shot to another was generally just a straight cut. There was also the occasional fade in/out, but it was almost always a straight cut. Aside from transitions there are elements of time. Unless it was for extending a current emotion seen in the film, we observed that it was in real-time.
For this part of the product, we decided to decrease the playback speed. Whilst it did look good in real-time, we all agreed that it looked better with a hint of slow-motion. This was the only clip of the whole project that we used any playback speed manipulation on, as we believed it was a technique better used sparsely.
Whilst we did use straight cuts throughout the majority of the product, we did once decide for a bit of variation.
Towards the end of our piece, we chose to implement a wipe transition. Seen in the two pictures here, we used the passing vehicle to transition from one side of the road to the other. Whilst with the screenshots shown it looks choppy, when viewed as a video it is near seamless.
We chose to use a wipe effect as we believe as blur transition would like lazy, and would not fit the thriller genre as well as a wipe would have. If we were to film the product again, I would have liked to add more wipe transitions, as I believe the speediness of the transition is what makes it work so well within the thriller genre.
In our piece, we decided to keep our use of mise-en-scene relatively simple. We didn't not use any artificial lighting, as we filmed it all during the day.
Characters Dufrais and Zinoviev are both dressed up in their different ways: whereas Artnal is dressed up in average clothing, Zinoviev is clothed like a biker. Zinoviev's facial composition reveals that he may be a 'closed' character, and doesn't speak unless spoken to. The lighting featured in this part of the product was natural, but worked well.
I believe the opening sequence of our film challenges the convention of having a protagonist and an antagonist This is because in the opening sequence of our film, there is not a single 'good guy'. In the opening sequence, the briefcase gets through all the individual characters, and they all fight each other for it. If we were to conform to the convention, I believe we would introduce a character that attempts to take the briefcase for the greater good, and eliminate all the bad guys.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our product, we were able to represent our characters in our chosen ways through the use of props, camerawork, editing and lighting techniques. Although we didn't involve a female in our project, we tried to make each of the males involved different to each other in their own, separate ways.
Aside from their various cultural differences, our characters all fall into the same social category. All our characters our male teenagers, aged 16-17. I believe we did conform to stereotypes for our representations, as we wanted our characters to be easily understood. A typical clothing stereotype of men is that they wear jeans. Other than characters Antoine and Carlos, all of the characters featured in our film wear jeans. As jeans are stereotypically associated with standard men, it should be clear who we are trying to represent in our film.
All of the characters in our film have the same-ish haircut, medium-long and to one side. We know that this extremely stereotypical of people in our group, from 15-18. Obviously, we didn't plan hair in our film, as none of characters would have been prepared to shave their hair, and we also wouldn't have had enough time for any of our characters to grow their hair considerably longer than it already was.
We chose to represent Antoine Draynor as someone who is sophisticated with what they do. This becomes clear as he wears a suit throughout the whole opening sequence. In the first picture featured, he has a cigarette and a glass of whiskey on the table in front of him. We chose to use subtle props such as these as they would all contribute to Antoine's image.
Seen here, Antoine is framed between the two trees, and is beating up Carlos. We chose to frame Antoine between the trees as it suggested his importance as a character. The fact that he is beating Carlos up when he's already down shows that he doesn't waste time, and the way he is standing over his exaggerates his status as a character; he is not to be messed with. I believe the use of Antoine's suit mildly deters him from the rest of the characters' social group, and makes him seem more individualistic. The use of a suit also makes Antoine appear older than he is, as suits and polished shoes are items of clothing heavily associated with those of an older age group. We chose to gave Antoine a suit, as he is the last main character seen in the opening of the film, and we also believed the suit added mystery to the piece: why would he be wearing a suit when everybody else is dressed casually?
We wanted to represent Artnal Benzies in a way that made it obvious that he is a shady character. We believe the gilet and hat that he wears reinforces this and his black shoes suggest that he is a very upfront character. In addition to this, Artnal is wearing gloves. The only visible part of his body is his face, which further adds to the mystery of the character.
The piece opens with Artnal walking with the main prop, the briefcase, down a countryside footpath. We chose to use the briefcase straight at the start in order to get the audience questioning what may happen later on. The opening shot uses the pull focus technique, and is combined alongside a fade in effect. We believed that this would 'ease in' to the piece, and nothing would seem too sudden.
The camera then focuses on the briefcase with a close-up. We did this as the briefcase would then make it clear that Artnal is of importance in a negatively represented way. Whilst this is happening, rising sound effects are playing in the background, which further suggests the mysteriousness of the character Artnal. The use of Artnal's gilet conforms to the stereotype of the common man; it's rare that you see a woman in a gilet. As Artnal is dressed fully, it seems that he is older than intended, as teenagers often refuse to "dress up warm", and go out with minimal clothing. Another feature of keeping him covered fully suggests that he may be part of a social group that worries about being seen: he is acting like a paranoid teenager. I believe the audience could relate to Artnal, as 16-17-year-old teenagers are often stereotyped for getting themselves into trouble, being paranoid about things and over-thinking.
We chose to represent Carlos as 'your average teenager'. We did this simply by giving him tracksuit bottoms, trainers and a coat. We left Carlos as normal, because as much as we wanted varied characters, it wouldn't have made a lot of sense to not have an English-like character in the UK. Another reason we kept Carlos normal is so the audience could relate to character.
We also decided that Carlos stood between the two trees, although we made him face the other way around. Whilst simple, we believe that this conveyed a sense of mysteriousness in his character. We chose to not reveal too much about any of the characters in the opening sequence of our film as we believed this would make viewers more inclined to continue watching the film. With Carlos' clothing, it became clear that he was the one the majority of viewers could relate to in their social groups. We dressed him casually, and gave him a coat stereotypically worn by males, and females, of the teenage social group. Viewers could literally point out "I have a coat like that." By using stereotypical clothing of this age group, we believe the age of Carlos was easily shown. Carlos also wears leather gloves, which we believed were a known representation of traditional masculinity.
We chose to dress Dufrais with inspiration from characters Artnal and Carlos. This is because the clothes are casual, but they are also covering every part of the body other than the face. This, again, adds a sense of secrecy and mystery to the character, sparking questions in the viewer's minds.
In this part of the piece, we chose to use an almost voyeuristic technique to show Dufrais looking back at Zinoviev through the mirror on his motorcycle. Combined with the eerie sounds effects and suspense sounds in the background, we were extremely proud of this part. We did this to give in an insight into the mind of Dufrais, as it is almost what he is seeing. Like Artnal, Dufrais is fully clothed with average clothing. Whilst we did want to make the characters varied, we did also want to have them all just about fit into the same social groups. Again, the coat conforms to this social group's stereotypes, and the gloves enhance it further. An addition to Dufrais' costume is the implementation of a Route One rucksack. These are worn widely by people of the 15-18 age group, and have been for a very long time. Due to these items of clothing, we believe that Dufrais does fit in in the teenage social group.
We decided to implement Sam's motorcycle and motorcycle clothing as major props for Zinoviev. Although this was a spur of the moment, it worked extremely well. Zinoviev's clothing consists of a motorcycle helmet and jacket, jeans and trainers. These are the stereotypical clothes of a biker, and contributed to Zinoviev's image. He is represented in a negative way, and we believe these features help to present that. Zinoviev's motorcycle jacket greatly represents the social group that he is targeted towards. Aged 15-18, people will begin to ride motorcycles, especially peds. In combination with the motorcycle jacket and blue jeans, it becomes clear that Zinoviev fits into the target social group as planned.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I beleive our film would be distributed by an almost 'indie' distributor, as our film is low-budget, and the actors are just friends. I believe our film would be shown at small cinemas in local places near where the film was made. I think small Cinemas such as the Orion Cinema in Burgess Hill would be a suitable candidate for screening, as everybody involved in the creation of the film lives less than an hour away from there, and our film is not exactly an A-list film.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
I believe our main audience would be males, aged 15-18. This is because there are often moments of action throughout the film, and 15-18-year-olds would find the action enjoyable and immersive. The reason I believe that males would fit the target audience better than female is simply due to the fact that the film opening sequence of our product does not involve and female characters. Without female characters, female viewers will not be as 'in touch' with the characters as they could have been, and may not feel as much sympathy towards them.
Another reason our film is suited for these audiences is because all the characters featured in our film are males, aged 16-17. As this age group is included in the age group of our target audience, we believe that the viewers can relate to the characters in the film. Being suited for this target audience, we can distribute our product with a BBFC classification of a 15. We believe that the film would be too violent for a 12A, and not suited for an 18. 15 is a middle-ground and can attract a lot of people.
2007 film 'Disturbia' also features a teenager as the lead character. We believe Disturbia's opening is rather like ours, as it eases in with a fade, and has mellow music to start with. This then changes, as the characters are involved in a sudden car crash, and the suspense rises. The opening scene then ends with the lead character realisng that his father has died, and the opening scene fades to black, with simple, white text as the title. Just like ours.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our chosen audience by using techniques and implementing ideas that we know, from previous studies, that males, aged 15-18 would enjoy.
We decided to implement a chase scene into our piece as we believed that 15-18-year-old males would feel highly involved when watching the chase. Combined with the upbeat music in the background, and the high frequency editing of close-up shots, this small chase scene is one that is immersive and enjoyable to watch.
We did not choose to involve any dialogue in our product, so we chose to replace the lacking dialogue with obvious facial expressions. Before the chase scene, Artnal and Dufrais make eye contact. Artnal is filmed using the vertigo shot technique - as much as there are no words spoken, it is clear that something is about to happen.By giving our characters clothes worn by our target audience, we believe it became clearer who our piece was targeted towards. The use of a Route One rucksack appealed to the younger audiences as these rucksacks are worn a lot by people in the 15-18-year-old age group.In one scene of the film, character Antoine is smoking a cigarette. We decided to implement this as people 16-18 often smoke, and we thought that this would demonstrate the conformity to the teenage social group. Whilst we do believe that this degrades the representation of Antoine, it fits in with the group.The use of a ped improved the link to the social group. From research and general knowledge we knew that peds are ridden by youths over the age of 16. As the target audience would be able to relate to the motorcycle and the jacket, we believe it cements the intergration of Zinoviev in the social group.Another clothing feature we implemented was the coat, worn by many teenagers. To further extended the focus on this, we simply framed character Carlos between two trees. This drew attention to Carlos, which drew attention to his clothing. Clothing, again, which people in our target audience could relate to.6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
This is my SoundCloud, and I decided to upload the answer to Question 6 as a sound clip. This is a Private link.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
We learnt that dialogue was hard to pull off without proper equipment, and didn't translate very well in combination with the non-diegetic sound edited into the film. For our final film, we decided not to implement dialogue, and this worked well, as our mixdown of artificial sounds sounded crisp. We also learnt that stationary shots do work well, and are easier to perform. Whilst we did have a good moving shot in our preliminary task, we believe that it felt disjointed from the rest of the piece, as the rest of the shots in the film were stationary.
In terms of clothing, we learnt that it strongly represents the social groups and attributes of the character. Whilst there was next to no planning of clothing for our preliminary task, and we filmed it with whatever our actors came to college in, for our final piece we decided to carefully plan what our characters would wear: for example, character Antoine wore a suit, which told the viewers a lot about the character.
Our preliminary task was filmed exclusively inside, whereas our final film was shot outside apart from one of the shots. We learnt that artificial lighting took a long while to do, and this wasn't to make it look good, it was to make it look natural. By shooting our final film outside, no artificial lighting was needed. This may have seemed lazy, but we agreed that we would have rather have a naturally lit film that looked as opposed to one where we intentionally tried to use artificial lighting that looked bad.
If I recall correctly, we didn't actually use any titles in our preliminary task. In our final film, we spent a fair bit of time creating and editing the titles so they were seamless with the film. At first we key-framed our titles, but we decided that the effect was hard to use with making it look 'cheesy', so we decided to leave it out and just stick with the standard, white titles.
In our preliminary task, we didn't use any editing techniques other than a straight cut. In our final film, we decided to implement a wipe effect, as when used sparsely, we believe it worked well. We also decided to use fade ins/outs in certain parts of the film. We thought these were useful as it took the edge off the transitions from one sequence to another, and nicely set up the following scene.
We also had a far better use of framing in our final task. As our preliminary task was shot inside, it was hard to implement framing without making it look too intentional. In our final task, we were able to frame the characters, in-between places such as fences and trees, seen in Questions 1 and 2.
