Evaluation

Evaluation

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

Our media product mostly uses the typical genre conventions of a thriller film. In terms of score, our media product uses a suspenseful, slow score that reflects the dark tone of the film. For instance, when the stalker is shown, the score changes from the more calm score to a score that suggests tension and suspense. Furthermore, in editing, our thriller film contains common conventions such as prolonged cross cutting. This happens throughout the opening sequence to show there is a link between the Stalker and Anna. Also, the prolonging of the cross cutting creates extended tension and foreboding as to what is going to happen between the two. The opening sequence also contains some conventions of cinematography techniques in thrillers. We added a variation of shots that were edited to coincide with each other, for example long and medium shots of Anna and then close-ups to follow to show emotion.

There are other common conventions that are present in our opening sequence such as the use of lighting. We used low key, sinister lighting in our sequence when the stalker is portrayed. This is a common technique to reflect the dark and sinister tone of the events happening and of the character. This contrasts with the more realistic and higher key lighting shown in the scenes with Anna. The Lighting can also been seen as more low key when the stalking becomes more apparent in the diegesis to Anna, up to the point where she disappears. This creates a more eerie atmosphere and more immediate tension. Furthermore, our character selection is that typical of classic thriller films. We included ‘Anna’ a defenceless, female victim, typical of the film “Psycho” for its infamous shower scene. Also, we chose a dark, masculine figure for our antagonist stalker. Also, when choosing locations, our group opted for realism, we used everyday sets e.g. a school, a house. This resulted in an overall sense of realism and believability in our sequence.

In terms of narrative our film is an example of a classic thriller. Since the days of Hitchcock there have been psychological obsession-based thriller films such as ‘Fatal Attraction’. There are numerous enigmas within the opening sequence which causes the audience to query, who is the stalker? What is the significance of the bag? Why is the stalker fixated with Anna? Etc. In addition to common narrative techniques which are in our project are the themes portrayed, the themes of obsession and psychological crime. Furthermore, all violence within our opening sequence is inferred rather than being graphically shown which maintains it as a classically-styled thriller.

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

Our opening sequence represents two different groups of people. Firstly, Anna, a white, female teenager from West London. The use of Anna as the victim in this opening sequence is important as it conforms to the classic thriller conventions. The fact that Anna is a woman is important as women are more often than not the victims in thriller films than men. This can be comprehended as women being more vulnerable and helpless than men in society. However this is the case with most thriller films such as ‘Psycho’, whereas the opposite can be seen in films such as ‘Flightplan’. We chose to use a female as the victim in our opening as this match the trends of many great thrillers such as ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’. However, there is also a more social belief in places such as London that women are more vulnerable than men in positions such as this, this makes the sequence more realistic and allows the audience to relate to it more. Therefore, in choosing to use a woman in the role that we did, we have abided to social and classical thriller stereotypes.

In order to maintain the classical style of our opening sequence of a thriller we decided to cast a masculine, strongly built male to portray the stalker. This is key in keeping with our precept of creating a classical styled thriller. The use of this masculine antagonist is important as male antagonists in thriller films are often well built, such as Patrick Bergin in ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’. However this is not necessarily conforming to stereotypes of the role of the stalker, as in most societies, men obsessed with women to the stage where they stalk them, are often though of as frail, sleazy men. Therefore, our casting of the stalker can be seen to challenge social (but not thriller) stereotypes.

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

Our opening sequence to a thriller is an independent, British film. This connotes that it is a low budget, amateur film, which is correct as budget was scarce and apart from our preliminary task, no member of our group had any experience in film making. In comparison to mainstream and Hollywood films which have the big budgets to fund high profile casts and special effects in an attempt to make the productions more realistic, whereas they end up looking unrealistic. Whereas our independent opening sequence shot with low cost cameras on DV tape (oppose to celluloid), create a more gritty and realistic look.

Due to the independent nature of our opening sequence it is not a possibility that it will be distributed via mainstream cinema chains such as Vue, Odeon, Cineworld etc. This is due to the fact that lack of a high profile cast and production company, as a result of lack of funding would mean we would not receive sufficient advertising to draw in large groups of audiences, nor would we be able to pay the cinemas. Therefore, it is more probable that we could show our film in a local, independent cinema such as the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill or in the Everyman Cinema chain. An alternative is to have our film screened during film festivals, film festivals such as the London Independent Film Festival which started in 2004. Or, we could attempt for a more local film festival such as the Portobello Film Festival. An attempt at a film festival such as the Cannes Film Festival or even the Sundance Film Festival would be impractical due to the high profile nature of the events.

Another important option for distribution of our opening sequence would be the internet. Internet sites such as YouTube and MySpace gain millions of visitors a day; this makes them a vital medium for showing our sequence to other people as the social networking side to these sites mean that large numbers of viewers can be attracted quickly, almost like a domino effect. Furthermore, sites such as MySpace allow for profit to be made as people have the option to download the videos, which we can charge for.

In addition we have the option of looking for a television station that would broadcast our opening sequence. Channels such as Channel 4 which is a Government owned public service broadcaster. It is their remit to create and broadcast shows and films for minority interest. This would allow us to put forward out independent film for use as minority viewing footage. There is also the option of finding a more localised, community channel on cable or satellite which broadcasts user created content for viewing. This would allow us to have our opening sequence on television, very cheaply, although there will likely be a small average audience.

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

In our research into what audience we were targeting for our opening sequence we decided that we would aim for an audience of 16-25 year olds. This was because our sequence consists of a school girl, in a school; therefore it is unlikely that those older than the age of 25 would be interested in a film that revolves around teenagers. However we felt that aiming for a classification of 12/12A as we had no plans to include actions that would result in an older classification but that 12/12A allowed us to portray the themes we planned and make suggestive actions.

There weren’t any regulatory concerns as we had no plans to involve violence, but only to suggestive violence. Also, we had no plans to use strong language as there would not be very little dialect anyway, nor did we have intentions of including scenes that contain any sexual content. As we had no concerns to begin with when we decided to aim for a 12/12A classification, I feel we successfully achieved our target in creating an opening sequence that is appropriate for 16-25 year olds.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We set out after performing our research into BBFC classification and general research on the thriller genre with a target of reaching an audience of ages 16-25. We decided an appropriate means of reaching this audience was to set the sequence in a familiar setting, a school. This allowed the audience to relate to the sequence and added realism. Furthermore, we settled on the idea of a psychological thriller based around obsession and stalking. This worked well in a school environment as with so many people, an obsessed person can go unnoticed.

In our opening sequence, we used shots that allowed for creativity in the active minds of a 16-25 audience, such as a point of view shot towards the ending which allows the viewer to imagine what happened to Anna. Furthermore, we used common conventions of teenage-based films. An example of one of these conventions is again, the setting of a school. Many big teenage films and television shows are based around schools and are very successful, even if they aren’t thrillers (American Pie, 90210, One Tree Hill etc). A school is a comfortable, realistic and a setting which teenagers and those in early 20s can relate to.

After an extensive audience feedback session with approximately 15 participants we gathered much information. The majority of the audience all believed the sequence was ‘very relevant’ to the thriller genre, this is very good as this is our overall goal. This was followed by some suggestions for alterations which we took note of and sought to improve our sequence with. We took the advice and added score to the beginning of the sequence and also shortened many clips. Moreover, the audience all believed the sequence was either ‘very relevant’ or, ‘quite relevant’ to them as an audience. This was very good as the audience were ages 16 – 18 which is within our target age group. In terms of editing, the audience believe we should make the cuts towards the ending faster, which we did do. Concerning the titles, we took on board all the comments, we added more at the beginning and other comments from the audience were appraisal of our use of titles before so. Sound was another area we received feedback on, and again we made changes in accordance with it. We began by turning down the volume of diegetic noises such as wind which the audience felt was over-powering. Furthermore, we added more score and refined it.

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

We used a whole range of technologies when completing the assignment, from researching to filming and then to editing. When researching for our blog I used many sources from the internet such as Wikipedia, The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and YouTube. The use of the internet for research made the process a lot quicker than it would have been without it. Furthermore, it has allowed downloading and incorporating of copyright free music as well as sound effects from sites such as freeplaymusic. This has given us the opportunity to use fitting and suitable score to improve our opening sequence. Furthermore, social networking sites such as YouTube have allowed us to distribute our opening sequence easily for free to vast audiences.

Also, the use of non-linear video editing software, ‘iMovie HD’ allowed us to edit our opening sequence in modern fashion. As it is non-linear, we had the ability of being able to shoot and edit scenes when it was most convenient, whereas with linear editing, we would have to shoot and edit the scenes in order we wanted them to be presented in our opening sequence. This also allowed us to easily make changes to the original storyboard. This software saved lots of time and effort when it came to editing. ‘iMovie HD’ allowed us to be able to redraft, delete, input and change our sequence with simple actions. Furthermore, we used DV cameras, using DV tape. The DV tapes helped create a more realistic look and feel to our end product in comparison to Hollywood-style celluloid. Using DV tape resulted in more realistic lighting and action capture. However, the cameras we used did not have very powerful microphones, nor did we have external microphones to use in replacement. This meant that any audio such as dialect was no received well and so we tried to keep it to a minimum.

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

In comparison to our preliminary task, we have developed a lot with our opening sequence. The only planning we performed with our preliminary task was a story board. We did no research leading up to our preliminary task. This was very different to our opening sequence. We performed thorough research into the thriller genre, its conventions, subgenres and examples. We also planned, in detail our opening sequence using a synopsis, script, shooting schedule and story board. This helped us to create a more believable and less amateur final production. We carefully put together the mise en scene of scenes, such as the mural of Anna of which we carefully selected pictures to use and create a sinister atmosphere. We also had greater time and enthusiasm in selecting a cast and creating a story and diegesis for our opening sequence.

We encountered many problems with our preliminary task including cinematography problems such as violating the 180 degree rule. We learnt from these mistakes and were sure to not make the same ones in our opening sequence. In addition to this, we have also become more technically able and have been able to refine our opening sequence using computer software better than our preliminary task. Furthermore, the addition of score and titles is a large improvement. Our group was also much stricter when it came to scheduling and sets/locations. We were sure to maintain close sets when necessary. In total, I believe we vastly improved between the two tasks, the improvements are shown in our final opening sequence.