Final Evaluation

Our Evaluation

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

We included specific psychological thriller conventions into our media product after watching real media products such as films, for example The Black Swan. A common convention we included in our product was the characters negative mental state of mind. Like most psychological thrillers our sequence began with a realistic situation which turned into surreal circumstances. Our thriller opens with the character Marianne sleeping in her bed, she then proceeds to have nightmares until she is woken by a mysterious loud noise. The surrealism continues as Marianne suspects an unwanted presence within her empty home. However, unlike most psychological thrillers we decided to make the genre obvious within the opening sequence. This is different to many psychological thrillers that do not make their genre clear until much further on in the film. We believe that this would cause the audience to become gripped to the narrative and intrigued to know more.  A convention within our opening sequence that indicates it is a psychological thriller is the non-existent presence of the intruder in the house. This causes the audience to assume that the intruder is not real and the trauma is all due to the characters ill mental state. Another general convention of psychological thrillers we included in our product was the use of quick changes in camera angle within the nightmare scene. We used this as it increases the tension and fear within the audience while showing a significant scene in the narrative. We were influenced to film our opening sequence inside a house after watching ‘The Sixth Sense’. We noticed that the entrapment of the location creates a sense of claustrophobia within the audience. Another example of a film similar to our production is Shutter Island, although the setting is not the same the concept of isolation is present in both sequences.

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

Our opening sequence only consists of one character therefore we can only analyse the social group a female teenager. This represents the social group of gender. The stereotypical traits of a female character are usually vulnerable and classified as weak characters. Additionally, they can be seen as a victim who needs saving and requires a hero character. Relating these traits to the main female character in our production shows that we have created a stereotypical female character. This is due to her panicking behaviour and inability to control her fear and understand her situation. The clothes we see our character in throughout the opening sequence are pyjamas, these are stereotypical clothes for a teenager, who are often linked to laziness and sleeping. The fact that our character immediately checks her phone after waking is also extremely stereotypical for a teenager as they are linked to being obsessive towards electronic devices and social media. However, as she does not cry or ring for help suggests that she is attempting to face her fears alone, a counter typical trait of a female teenager. We chose to have our only character as a teenage female as we feel that our target audience will be teenagers, therefore they will find it easy to relate to the character and film.

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

Due to the recent rise in popularity for the psychological thriller genre we believe that our film would be distributed by a top Hollywood media institution such as Fox Searchlight Pictures or Paramount pictures. However, we may not be distributed by one of these companies as they have already distributed very similar films with the same genre such as ‘The Black Swan’ and ‘Shutter Island’. ‘The Black Swan’ follows a ballet dancer who wins the lead in "Swan Lake”, the delicate White Swan. However, she slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan. Comparing this film to our product, it also contains many quick camera angle changes set in small, tight locations that also represent entrapment. If our media product was to be distributed by a top Hollywood media institution then it would most likely be played in cinemas throughout the world. However, if it was distributed by a smaller independent institution then it may only be shown in a few cinemas or private screenings at film festivals. If successful, our film could also become available to download online onto electronic devices from stores such as the Apple App Store. If this too were successful there would be further opportunities such as a sequel to the first media product. However, I believe merchandise for our film would not be successful as there are not many products available relating to the thriller genre.

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

We are targeting our product for females ages 18-30. We carried out primary research in the form of a questionnaire; we found that our sub genre of psychological thriller was most watched by this category. It is proven that girls are more interested in female main characters as they can relate. We found that all of our target audience have social hobbies and enjoy spending time with their friends and family, we also found a wide range of genres of film, ranging from horrors to comedy, however the genre that came out on top was thrillers such as Taken, Phonebooth, Shutter Island Se7en and Panic Room. The relevance of this information, gave us an idea the type of marketing structure we could achieve to target our audience. From the information regarding their hobbies, we can see that they are sociable and so the advertisements would benefit if they were not restricted to the TV, they need to be as sociable and interactive as the consumer we are targeting. By looking at our sub-genre and location, our sequence mirrors other large mainstream psychological thrillers such as The Sixth Sense and The Black Swan. The similarities lie within the foundations of the film as they have the same narrative structure.  We believe the target audience for The Black Swan would more likely be females aged 16-40. The main character is a young female with a loved desire for ballet. This would appeal to women more than men because of the narrative it entails.  

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The narrative and character are what attracted our target audience to the opening sequence. Teenagers who are often left home alone can relate to the fear of a possible intruder in the house. We kept our storyline realistic in order for our target audience to believe it and be kept in fear of the intense narrative. We made this storyline realistic by including the motion of checking her phone as most teenagers would do when first awakening. We also had our character wear realistic pyjamas througout the sequence. By using various shot types including canted and extreme close ups, the audience’s attention is kept while the narrative deepens. We included a pan around the character to signify her paranoia and dizziness created by her fear. The audience is asked to put themselves in the position of our character as they witness her running through the house and see a point of view shot as she picks up a knife. This impacts the audience to feel as though they are in her situation and ultimately causes them to also feel the fear she portrays. The point of view shot is a generic convention of any thriller as it puts the audience in the scenario the character is in, creating suspense and tension. We felt as though this suspense would attract our target audience in particular as teenagers are stereotypically linked to thrill-seeking.

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

As a group we worked well together when using the camera. As we were new to using the camera, we had to familiarise ourselves. We believe that this was the most important skill that we gained. Some shots such as the pan and canted shot were the most difficult to master, but by doing various practice shots before, it allowed us to speed up the process of filming. The time in which our opening sequence was set in the morning, so our filming time was limited to during the day, to make the sequence seem realistic. We were very conscious of doing this in order to keep the continuity within our product. We found that the tripod was very useful when filming as it allowed us to create a selection of steady shots ranging from establishing shots to pans. Although the tri pod worked well, we felt that a dolly would improve our pan as it would be smoother and more professional. During our filming process we did not get all the shots needed to create skilled continuity. Therefore, we had to take pictures of certain parts of the mise-en-scene on the first day of filming in order to recreate the same effect on the second day.After producing all the shots needed, we then had to edit them on the editing software Final Cut Express. By editing our Preliminary Task previously on this software we were already quite familiar with this editing tool. However, we did not have the knowledge to edit a whole opening sequence so we learnt more about the software as a group by experimenting and from our teacher. We learnt many different editing skills ranging from overlapping shots, increasing volume and including credits. We found the skill of overlapping shots particularly useful as it gave our nightmare scene a surreal, thrilling effect.

To create our end product there were many technologies we had to be familiar with.  To create our soundtrack within the sequence we used the sound editing software Garageband. We used garageband for our preliminary so like Final Cut we had some small knowledge on how to use it. We familiarised ourselves with this by experimenting and creating a practice soundtrack. This taught us all the different ways to conduct a music piece, layer up different rhythms and beats, introduce the sounds in a settled way by fading them in and out, dismiss sounds and alter the volume at certain points. We found Garageband extremely useful for creating a suspenseful soundtrack which combined with our shots created an overall tense and exhilarating product. After establishing how to use this software, we moved on to our final soundtrack. This took a lot more skills as we had to put this alongside our footage, making sure specific sounds we wanted to add in would emphasise the action in the sequence. After practising and completing this challenge several times it began to come naturally to us.

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

After finishing our preliminary task, we had to plan our thriller opening sequence.  We began by researching into what sub genre we wanted our sequence to be and did this by analysing various popular opening sequences. By finalising our ideas into what sub genre we wanted to create, we gave out questionnaires to our target audience to see what thrillers they enjoyed watching. This heavily influenced us in our choice of sub genre and as a group; we concluded that a psychological thriller would suit our ideas best. To help structure our sequence, various steps needed to be put in to place. We created a storyboard, an animatic, preliminary, soundtrack, practise shots, shooting schedule, a risk assessment sheet and analysis timelines. This detailed planning helped us to refine our ideas which also made the rest of the process smoother.

After filming the shots for our thriller opening sequence, it was clear how most of our shots were improved, compared to filming the preliminary task. For example, we learnt from our preliminary that when filming our match on action shot, the camera was not as focused as we would have liked. To fix this problem in our filming we used a tripod to ensure stability. When using Final Cut Express to edit our opening sequence, we learnt from our preliminary that for good continuity, our piece had to flow with no errors or gaps. This allows the audience to know what was happening throughout and why. The main aspect that made this work in our final sequence was the good use of transitions. The main transition that we used was a cross dissolve, which created a natural change to the next scene. By the end of the process, we all familiarised ourselves well using the equipment and software packages.

Following our plan well, we were able to produce a high quality, realistic thriller opening sequence.

 

Final Thriller Sequence - The Curse

Feedback on Rough Cut

Rough Cut Questions:

1) How well have the technical areas been produced? (camera work, editing, sound and mise-en-scene)

2) How well has the genre characteristics been used? can you identify the sub-genre?

3) What do you like about the rough cut?

4) How can they improve the rough cut? and what criticism can you give the group?

Group 1 feedback:

1) Camera work flows well at the start as you see an establishing shot of the old house, then goes straight to someones point of view walking up the stairs showing the inside of the house. The editing of speeding up the shot into the bedroom then being able to see the girl in the bed, makes it look jumpy and edgy which adds to the creepy look. Mise-en-scene is very good, as it is filmed in a old house which would look better than a modern house. The natural sound of the outside is good. Also the sound of the footsteps as the person walks upstairs shows what the character is doing.

2) I think it is a psychological thriller becaquse it makes the viewer think about what is wrong with the girl.

3) I like that it is set in an old hous because it looks more scary. Also the editing of the girl laying in bed is very effective.

4) You could improve by having sound while the girl is laying, moving around to make it more interesting.

Group 2 feedback:

1) Good editing technique. Good establishing shot/transition from old house to new.

2) Sub-genre is clear to identify, but whether it is a thriller or not is still unclear.

3) Ambient sound works well. Speed of certain scenes are effective. Really good editing and camera work.

4) Duration of last scene is too long.

Group 4 feedback:

1)  Camera work is good. Really good range of camera angles. Mise-en-scene has a really good location etc. We really like the overlapping effect in the editing as it adds to the confusion. There is no sound, but once added will add suspense.

2) Psychological as she looks as if having a nightmare. Good use of genre characterics.

3) Really like the editing overlap. Like the different angles used.

4) Walking upstairs at the beginning is too long - slightly tedious. 0.27 seconds it jumps, therefore it could flow better. Otherwise, it is fab!!

Group 5 feedback:

1) Editing transitions are proffessional. Lots of different camera techniques and shots of Annabelle from close ups to medium shots. Also a good use of shaky handheld that created enigmas. Mise-en-scene: Bright and high key lighting indicates the time of day. Costume of Annabelle helps to indicate that she is having a nightmare, which creates realism. The use of ambient sound (birds) also creates realism.

2) From the creeking door i can identify that the sub-genre could be psychological. Minimum used at the moment to portray a psychological thriller.

3) The editing transitions create the eerie illusion. The production logo comes at the beginning as it signifies well to who you are. The ambient sounds of birds are effective.

4) The blending pictures between the new and old house could be in the same angle to keep the continuity as the angles are different.

Rough Cut

Final Logo

This is our final logo. The hand image is quite detailed but making the logo a black and white colour scheme made sure that the whole logo is focused on, including the name of our company. We used this contorted image of the hand because it creates a mysterious appearance and could be linked with any film genre, not just thriller films. The font we used to write "JTMAR productions" creates an eerie display due to its tall and thin features. We decided to use this font instead of the chunky, thick font in our sample as it is easier to read and has a larger effect on the viewer by keeping the writing simple but effective. Similar fonts are also used for other famous logos so we knew that this technique would be effective. The main reason for which we agree that this logo is better than our sample is because the image is ambiguous and leaves the viewer intrigued about what our company is about.  

Analysis on Editing for Other Thriller Opening Sequences

I am analysing the first two minutes of two opening sequences from the thriller films Shutter Island and Black Swan.  I will analyse the editing techniques that they have used, how they are different and how our group could take inspiration from them.

The first film we analysed was Shutter Island. It starts out relatively calm, as the first shots of the titles fade in to each other, there is some text which fades in to the establishing shot to set the scene.  The slow fade that was used in this editing process calms the audience. The first character is introduced through short shot durations which breaks the calming atmosphere. It shows him on a boat clearly having sea sickness. The main cuts that were used were to establish the change of location from the interior of the boat to the exterior. Slow pace editing was used during the introduction from the first and second character while they were in conversation. There is a cut to the next scene which shows a flash back.