Evaluation Question 1

1)

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

Our Opening scene has mostly kept to the conventions of the thriller genre. One way that we have kept to the genre is in the use of the dark locations as a locations such as the darkly lit interior at the first scene – this is similar to several thrillers, one example of which would be the motel rooms of No Country for old men.

We have also within this scene we have used angles that do not reveal the characters face while they’re pouring the chemicals. This creates mystery around the character that helps re-enforce the thriller genre within this scene. This is similar to the way that Quentin Tarantino filmed Bill in the intro to Kill Bill Vol. 1 where you never see his face, but you do see other parts of his body as well as the handkerchief with is name embroided on it. We have also used a sound track that creates a tension within the scene, which is also a convention of many thrillers. We also used camera angles when we were filming the character of the girl with the poison/toxin that were never at eye level to make the audience feel as if there is some unfamiliarity between them. This is also in keeping with several thriller films, often used to indicate how powerful the character is within the scene – using a low-angle to show power and a High angle to show insignificance in the current scene.

Also, within our thriller, the main, female, perpetrator has some characteristics of a femme fatale, such as the mysteriousness created around her -created by the camera angles in the start of the scene - although we have made her more like a male character with the costume. This is unlike the stereotypical femme fatale found in many thrillers such as Once upon a time in America and Thelma and Louise.

We also chose a soundtrack that would create tension in this scene. We also cut it to get the sound the fade out during key moments in the scene, this was to draw in the audience and to keep them concentrated on what was happening within the frame, rather than the soundtrack.

We have also used props within this film, one of the few is the container of the poison. This is very important in our scene as it helps create the mystery around the character of the killer. And as the audience doesn't entirely know what is in the container, we could (if we were filming the entire film) keep this liquid a mystery though-out the film as a enigma, which is a classic thriller characteristic. A good example of this could be the silver case in the film Ronin, where the audience never finds out what is exactly contained within the box.

Evaluation Q4

4)

Who would be the audience for your media product ?

Our audience for our thriller film would mostly be people of about our - or slightly older - within the European market. We chose to focus of this age group because it would be the most natural market for us to produce a thriller film to appeal to – as we are that age. Also because more and more people in this age group are watching thrillers. For example the user ratings on IMBd for Psycho show that people of our age group rate more highly of this film. Also looking at the user ratings of other thriller films supports this data. This data also shows that these thriller films also appeal to a mainly male audience, with females of all ages giving a lower rating.

And so our thriller film would be mainly aimed at a male of around our age group, who is part of the same social class as we are. So some one who, for example is not privately educated, or generally quite affluent, within society. Our chosen audience is also limited to Europe as we feel that teenagers in other parts of the world would not have the same tastes in films as some European teenagers do.

The actual characters within our thriller will also influence our target audience as they will want to see a films that they can associate with. For example a film such as Star Wars will not be able to associate itself with a audience though the characters as it is a fantasy/sci-fi film, whereas a film such as The Bourne Ultimatum would allow audiences to associate themselves with some of the characters as it does have a plot line where some aspects are beliveable.

Evaluation Q7

7)

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

One of the main things that I feel that I have learnt since the preliminary task is the characteristics of the thriller genre. Things such as the various camera angles that were required to successfully create a opening to a thriller film. And also how different editing techniques, used in conjunction with with different camera angles can be used to add the the storyline, for example using low angle shots to show that the character is in charge of the current situation.

We also learnt several rules such as the 180˚ rule, which is used in conversation. This rule dictates that when there are two characters having a conversation, the camera always stays on the same side to stop the audience getting confused between the two characters. However, I also learnt that you can sometimes break this rule, as it can be used to great effect to create a kind of confusion in the scene to further add to the plot-line. I also learnt about match-on-action and shot/reverse shot. Match-on-action is when the editing cuts to a different angle as a action happens in the scene, and shot/ reverse shot is often used in conversations and is when the camera angles go back and forward between two people, which is created during the edit.

I also learnt about using various aspects of mise-en-scene such as location, costume and lighting. Location is very important to set up the right mood in the audience and to establish the product to be a thriller film. Generic location for thriller films are dark or dimly lit interiors or wide open desolate landscapes, examples of this would be the countryside or the dark motel rooms of No Country for old men. The costume is also important for the audience to establish what the background or even what the character is like. We have used these both within our thriller to help itself establish it as a thriller film.

Finally we also learnt that we needed to keep to a particular time-frame as if we didn't get one part filmed one time we couldn't get the edit done in time although we managed to get the edit done in time for the deadline. 

Evaluation Q6

6)

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

During the construction of our thriller film we learnt about several aspects of the different technology involved in constructing, not just a thriller, but any genre film.

One of the first things we learnt to use was the camera that we were using, which was my own compact camera. We chose to use this camera over the school cameras because we though that is would be easier to capture/copy the footage onto the computers that we were using and to start editing them. However we found this difficult because of the programs that we were using, which was originally Adobe Premiere Elements 1 for the other people in our group who were editing on the school computers, and Serif Movie Plus SE (a free program) for us as we were editing on my own laptop. We found that both programs would not open the raw footage produced by my camera, however we solved this by buying a add-on for the program on my laptop and converting the footage to a format that would work on the school computers. Eventually though we found that the program that we were using was not providing the results we were hoping for and I managed to buy a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 10, which we found to be a much more capable piece of software.

Another problem that we had to overcome was that of lighting. We found that the camera itself would sometimes record slightly darker than the scene actually was. This lead us to re-record a large proportion of the scenes with more ambient lighting as we did not have access to studio lighting that would have been available to thriller films with higher budgets than we did.

Another piece of technology that we use extensively throughout the production of our thriller was Youtube. We used this primarily for looking for clips from other thriller films for inspiration. We also found that there were many videos of other thriller films made by people also doing Media studies. There was also a great many videos providing us with examples of the thriller genre. We also had to learn to use Blogger for our blogs. This involved us embedding videos, as well as prezis and documents from other online services such as scribd.

Evaluation Q5

5)
How did we attract/address our audience ?

We attracted our audience mainly though the use of the soundtrack. We chose this particular soundtrack because of the way it builds tension. The soundtrack we chose builds tension through its very slow tempo, and it way that we have cut it so it gets louder during the scene. We have also cut it so that when the “killer” pours the chemical/poison into the cups the sound becomes quite loud and then goes suddenly quiet. We feel that this draws in the audience into what is happening before them and to signify that what is currently happening within the scene is important in relation to the plot-line. This is similar to the opening scene of Casino Royal (which has some thriller conventions) in which the soundtrack gets louder or quieter as the two characters talk or depending on the action happening within the scene.

No County For Old Men

We also used familiar location that the audience would recognise or have some familiarity to other locations (such as their own house or street or other parts of Britain). We did this so the audience could have some connection to the actual film. This is unlike some other thriller films such as No country for old men which used filming locations that would be recognisable to some American audiences, however it would be very difficult for a European audience to “connect” with the characters and find some recognisable features within the filming locations. Contrary to this would be thrillers such as The Bourne Ultimatum/ Supremacy and Unknown. These are thrillers that are primarily filmed in European locations and therefore would be more likely for a European audience to connect with as they would have more likely seen or been too the filming locations.

Q2 Evaluation

2. How Does our media product represent particular social groups ?

Our thriller represents a couple of social groups, mainly to do with gender. Though the way we have represented challenge some social stereotypes.

One way that we have represented the female gender is though the killer. We have portrayed her as a very hidden character. We have also created her be quite masculine though her costume as the large coat which could show that she is a masculine, but also that she could be a very “closed-off” or isolated character. However the way we have filmed also gives her a presence within the scenes, and the other characters lack this presence – suggesting that they are not important in the scene. This is quite a negative representation of the female gender. We have also included another female character who is the complete opposite of this, appears to be very open, although she lacks presence as do the other two male characters. This would be contrary to the stereotypical male who is controlling and in charge of the situation – an example of this would be the character of Bill in the opening scenes of 'Kill Bill Vol.1', whereas the male characters in this scene are more like the character L.B. Jefferies in 'Rear Window' – unable to her with what he believes to be a murder. This film also has a very negative representation of the female gender, as It objectifys women as a femme fatale of the character Lisa.

Another Way that we have represented a social Groups – although not as strongly as gender – is social class. The characters within our product are represented as low/middle class though the clothes they are wearing. They are wearing very nondescript clothing as to suggest being unimportant, though not wearing scruffy clothes which suggests a lower class and not wearing smart clothes – such as suits – which suggests a high social class or even aspirations to be in a social class than they are currently. This differs from the main character – or “the killer” - who wears the large coat, which could suggest that she is in a lower social class than the rest of the characters.

We decided not to show any other social groups as some could be quite sensitive – race for example – and we didn't not feel comfortable or confident representing them. We also had the limitations that no-one in our group was of a different ethnicity, sexual orientation or explicitly religious.

Question 3 Evaluation

Q3 Evaluation

Our Final Thriller Opening

Please Note My (Jack Monahan) candidate number is 2545