Emma Perry: Evaluation

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


The most common conventions of a thriller:
Antagonist - Villain


Protagonist - Hero


Victims


Suspense 


Enigma

Going from left to right 1 - 9

Shot 1

For our title sequence we decided to keep it simple, we thought that going to all lengths with complex titles would distract from the opening itself. This opening part shows the distributors and we decided to make our own called 'HEH Productions', which was just the first letters of all our names, and then use our college name in the next. 

Shot 2

We thought that this for our establishing shot would clarify where we were, and what time of day it was. It then tilts down where we first see our main character, at this point the audience don't know whether Haydn is the antagonist or protagonist. This gives our opening the first dose of enigma.






Shot 3

This long shot could suggest that someone is watching him, there are two flashes/jump-cuts that show passing in time. However, audience we showed, confused it with a camera flash. By this shot we can see that he is a middle class working man by the briefcase and his costume, later in this shot it shows his car, which a lower class person 

probably wouldn't be able to afford. Haydn seems to be in a vulnerable state as this shot makes him seem insignificant, this leads to him getting taken by an unidentified subject, we decided to keep the identification of the attacker unknown till later because this adds to the mystery.

Shot 4

For our opening to make a little more sense, we needed to include a shot of the bank that the audience would assume Haydn works at, and by Haydn's costume, they could also assume that he has a high position. In the post-production process we added filters to make it look like a flashback, took away the original sound and inserted a heartbeat, which could be his. This shot gives the audience the idea that this bank had something to do with why Haydn was attacked, and that the attacker and him had some trouble between each other.

Shot 5

This is the last part of our title sequence, deciding to have it after the attacking scene as it kind of acts like a cliff hanger. The audience don't actually see the kidnapping so they are waiting to see what happens, this delays that and tells them the title of the opening. We also decided to keep the text characteristics the same as the first two titles so it keeps continuity. This shot then leads into an off-screen sound effect of a crate door opening and shutting, suggesting that the, who we expect to be the antagonist walking in. We tried to keep the identity of him under-wraps for as long as possible, until the interrogation begins, in which we see his face for the first time.

Shot 6

This close up of Harry's hand gives us the first glimpse that he is getting angry, the audience would take that as a warning sign that something bad is about to happen. Also at this point we get the idea that Harry is in fact a possible victim in this situation and Haydn is the villain. The mentioning of Harry being in prison suggests that Haydn was the cause of this and maybe some betrayal was involved. Even though Harry, being bigger and more threatening than Haydn, looks like he would be the antagonist, it turns out to be the other way round.

Shot 7

We wanted to do a scene where it shows Harry being tougher than Haydn. This medium shot clearly shows us that Harry is much taller, and Haydn is put into a vulnerable situation.

Shot 8 and Shot 9

These last two shots put the audience at their most tense state, we can clearly see that Harry is by far the most threatening. At this moment Haydn might feel regret for doing what he apparently did to Harry. The audience could feel sorry for Haydn, but we don't yet know exactly what the situation, only that it involves money and prison. We 

decided to end it where we did as it leaves it on a cliffhanger, does Harry kill Haydn? Does Harry get the money? Do either of them succeed? I believe it's clear that our opening follows the conventions of a thriller.

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

Our media product doesn't really cover many social groups, but there is one obvious one, gender.

Our opening doesn't contain any women, only two men, one of a lower class, and one that is of middle/high class. People may think it's stereotypical to have two males involved in a bank robbery, as they are the 'stronger/braver sex'. This is not correct as female criminals are just as capable of robbing a bank as men. But even though I think this, I also believe that if we did have females or for example one female and one male, it would of been highly likely that it would be the female that would be in Haydn's position. If it was the other way round, the film would have a totally different feel to it, and maybe even less threatening. 

Examples of strong female characters:


Lara Croft

Catwoman

Alice (Resident Evil)

Katniss Everdeen

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

I have looked at different UK film distributors such as 20th Century Fox, Icon and Sony Pictures, and I have decided that Sony would probably be the most suitable choice. This is because Sony are a huge company that relate to many different areas of the media like, gaming, photography, TV and more. 

I think the gaming side of Sony could be helpful with our thriller as our opening would mostly steer towards males rather than females, this is because films with crime and fighting involved is more of male surrounded genre. Men are 60% of all the game users and if trailers of our film could be shown on gaming channels, and websites this could be a easy way to get the word out. Sony is linked to Love Film and Netflix on the Playstation 3, so Sony could get a bit of profit if they distributed out film through one of these sites. 

If we were to release to the cinema with the help of Sony, I think that the film would be released in smaller scale cinema's like 'Vue'  or 'Odeon', these cinemas aren't as well known as 'Cineworld', but I wouldn't give our film out to an Arthouse as these only show the lower budget films and only distribute to a couple, or even one area of the UK. The cost of distributing our film to a top-end cinema would be pretty high, this is a downside of releasing to cinemas. One celluloid film costs around £1800, and to do a large release can cost up to, and over 1 million. 

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

I would aim our thriller to an age group between 15 and 25 and mainly male, as thrillers usually attract a male audience instead of female. Our thriller is very British and would probably appeal more to a UK audience than a American audience. American thrillers tend to involve more violence in the sense that it is much more common to see a lot more guns in US thrillers than UK. There are many sub-genre's in thrillers, such as crime and psychological, examples being: 

The Eye - Psychological 

Sin City - Crime

I asked 50 men if they would go see a thriller film in the cinema.

I then asked 50 females and the result was quite different, therefore providing evidence that men in the target audience are more interested in thrillers than women in our target audience.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I thought that Facebook would be the best bet of attracting our target audience, as they're from the ages of 15-25, these age groups are regularly using social networking sites such as this. I posted our thriller opening on my Facebook account and asked for any type of feedback. These were two interesting responses that I received, one female, aged 18, and one male, 23.

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

• When we first shot out interrogation scene, we didn't use much shot variety, this made the scene very boring as it was the same shot one after the other. The lighting and location were not perfect either, so we decided to re-film this particular scene to make it more visually appealing. 

• I also learnt that sound is a very important factor in the making of a film, while editing we didn't concentrate on the sound as much as we should have. Such things like foleys could of been added to make Haydn's footsteps in the first few shots a bit louder.

• Something I would of done differently when we first put the recordings on the macs would have been naming all the different pieces of video and deleting things we didn't need, as it was a bit difficult trying to find a certain clip, being more organised when editing would of sped up the process. 

• Continuity was a huge part of editing our opening, we needed to make sure that all the cuts were clean. Some cuts of the opening are a little sudden, this was either because we stopped filming too early or that we accidentally cut away a little too much while editing. I have therefore learnt that continuity is a very important thing to pay attention to and that the more takes you do on a shot, the better the product outcome.

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




Preliminary task:

Camera:

As we were filming our opening, we got to use the Sony HD cameras, this was a massive privilege and made filming much easier. We did a few test shots, playing around with the focus pull so we could find out how it worked and tried to decide how we would use it in our film. We as a group learned how to use these and import them onto the macs. Picking up on how everything worked on it was pretty simple in the end. Compared to the tape cameras we used for our preliminary task, I much prefer these as they are much easier to import and use in general. Tape camera's were difficult as we had to do 'capture scratch' to get all the footage. This was very time consuming as we had to watch what we just recorded while it imported, which was usually a lot. 

Editing: 

Once we filmed everything we needed, we uploaded it all onto Final Cut Pro, this programme is used by Hollywood film editors and is a very high tech piece of equipment. This meant that it was probably the hardest thing to figure out and use during the whole of this project. We first used it during our preliminary task, so we were okay with the basics. But knowing we had to make it look professional, we had to make use of its ability as much as possible.

Harry's Evaluation

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

What are the normal common conventions of a thriller?

Enigma

Victims

Suspense

Antagonist

Protagonist

An Example of Protagonists and Antagonists would be:

Protagonist- V

Antagonist- Adam Susan

 In Our Production we wanted to raise a few questions:

Is Harry the True Antagonist?

Is Haydn really a victim?

Shot 1.

-

We decided to have the first part of our title sequence at the beginning. It does not reveal the actual title but is intended to represent distributors such as Lionsgate. We chose the name of our college as a suitable alternative. We decided to keep things consistent and simple by using all lower case text in whit in a pitch black background. Its sets a dark mood and this is emphasised by accompaniment of a mysterious soundtrack which leads straight into the film and act like a sound bridge. We didn’t want a lot of emphasis on this part so by keeping things clean and plain the audience is set into the right mood. We are not aware of any threat yet.

Shot 2.

We start of the thriller with a shallow depth of field shot. Using this creates a form of mystery making the audience wonder what it is in the shot. Using a focus pull brings the audience into a real place and a real time. You can see that it is night time with all f the street lights and the dark sky. This setting alone feels far more threatening to those watching then a bright sunny day. The pan down introduces our first character. Who is He? Where has he been? Why is he in the film? Questions are raised which is normal in the opening of a thriller. The character doesn’t appear to be in danger and doesn’t seem to be feel uncomfortable where he is. The uneasy non-diegetic soundtrack ensures that he isn’t in a safe place. The soundtrack has no happy or quirky qualities to that and does keep the mood fairly tense. 

Shot 3.

This shot is the first shot where there is any suggesting of danger. It’s shot in a way that suggests that someone may be watching him. This imposes threat and Enigma which are both key to creating suspense in a thriller, very few thrillers don’t feature these key conventions. With the use of mise en scene we can see that the man is fairly well off. He is wearing smart clothes, his hair is well kept and he’s carrying a suitcase. He wouldn’t be placed as an antagonist so we would assume he might be a potential victim. We have started to make assumptions about the character a relate to him. The surrounding area is very dark which implies the danger can be anywhere, which increases the suspense. We fear for Haydn as we have no reason to think that he has done anything wrong. Despite the worry, we still know very little about the character. He’s still a bit of a mystery to the audience and this all leads to the penultimate scene where he is attacked.  We didn’t want to show any of the attacker the use of the handheld camera helps show that it is a person approaching him. This raises more questions as to who the extra person is.

Shot 4.

 

We wanted to get a shot of the bank into the sequence because it is a big part of our story line. This scene work as a flash back and leads into the title of the movie. By desaturating the clip, upping the exposure and adding some blur the scene gets a dreamlike and surreal effect. The removal of the original sound and using a heartbeat gives the viewer a visceral reaction. We would assume that the heartbeat belongs to the character of the scene, a heartbeat is a very personal sound and can only be heard at a time of complete silence or when pressed up against someone’s chest. Also a heartbeat might put Haydn in a bad situation, a heartbeat doesn’t often get used in a cheerful situation.

Shot 5.

The Title sequence had to be carefully chosen to fit in with our film. A high production title sequence like the one in Se7en really wasn’t an option because of the allotted time and our ability to produce such and item. Although Se7en’s titles set a landmark in cinematography and many movies tried to replicate it’s style. We went with something far more basic. It had to stay relevant to the rest of our film. Taking into account our initial credits we kept it all lower case and had it against a plain black background. I think it works well as anything too fancy would have distracted from our film and the tension built would have been lost.   

Shot 6.

The idea behind this shot was to elongate the mystery and enigma behind Haydn’s kidnapping. A Medium Close up of Haydn with the Mystery man behind him. It emphasises that Haydn has no control of his situation. It also establishes the power in the situation. My (Harry) hands grasping his shoulders make him look small. It also reinforces the idea that Haydn Is the “Victim”. He seems to have had something done to him as he can’t speak or see clearly and can’t hold up his own head. This would suggest he has perhaps been knocked out but we don’t know for sure. We now see me as the antagonist. I have imposed threat and therefore raised the tension in the situation.

Shot 7.

 This close up of the antagonists hand shows the frustration and violence he’s capable of. It’s a foresight into what is to come and what to expect from the character. It reinforces his place his place as the more violent antagonist, but as the script progresses we get glimpse that maybe Haydn isn’t completely the victim. This character went to prison and its suggested that Haydn was the cause. It raises the question of who is to blame and heightens the tension. This shot gives a glimpse into my mind. It shows that I am angry and that anger is building up will probably lead to an outburst of some sort.

Shot 8.

 Shot 9.

 

This is the end of the opening. I am now fully established as the Victimiser. Haydn is the victim but there have been a few questions as you would expect in a thriller opening. There is obviously some sort  of a past between these two characters and we’re not 100% sure that Haydn is blameless. Why did I kidnap him? What did he do to me that involved me going to jail? Did I hurt or kill him? The suspense has reached its peek and manifested itself with me attacking Haydn. In this shot I am at my most threatening. The lighting highlights the shadow of my triceps which makes me look stronger and far more controlling. Its common in thrillers for the antagonist to be stronger and scarier. If it were lighted differently it might not look as tense.

Its clear that our media production does follow the classic conventions of a thriller.

 2. How does your media production represent social groups?

There aren’t many social groups covered in this production but it does cover a few categories, such as social class and gender stereotypes.

Gender

Its common and perhaps even stereotypical that people who take part in crimes such as bank robbery are male. Both characters in the opening are male. It has a negative effect as it shows men as the more dangerous and threatening gender when the reality is that females are just as likely to pull of horrific crimes. It puts females in the situation where they are taken less and less seriously but if we were to have put a female into the scene instead of me then the film would have a very different feel. A Female would seem far less threatening. Haydn is your normal working class male. He follows the stereotype of the classic hunter gatherer image. He works until late probably to return to a wife at home who cooks cleans and cares for the house. Harry is casually dressed which might mean he doesn’t work in a formal environment and considering hes got a past in prison he might make money in less legitimate ways. Again this follows the stereotype of me being the ones who commit crime and ear the money.

The camera work between the two characters helps establish the power. It shows the antagonist we used medium shots to show the size difference between the characters which fits in with the classic stereotype that people who commit crimes are big, scary people.  We use more close up shots on Haydn to show the emotion on his face. This gives us more of a connection with him which is normal in scene where a person is being overpowered. 

An example of a film that stereotypes males and females would be Faster. This film starring Dwayne Johnson, as your protagonist looking for revenge over the death of his brother, conforms to the stereotype that men are the people who commit crimes and women dont have much of a part in it. Women in this film all take secondary roles as trophy wives or victims. There are no particulally powerful female characters in this film.  

How Men Are Portraid In The Media

Social Class

In the clip Haydn is a well dressed person. I would consider him to be the basic guideline of a working man.  The costume helps establish him as a working person. He is smartly dressed and holding a suitcase which would suggest an office job. The antagonist on the other hand wears casual clothes and doesn’t dress up I suits etc. This would probably say that he doesn’t work in a formal environment. 

The setting for the interrogation suggests that Harry chose the area so possibly he knows the area. Its not a nice setting. It’s a run down metal crate normally used for shipping goods. This says that Harry might not be above working class or he was lower class at some point. The lighting in this crate is dingy which emphasises it as a nasty place to be. Combined with the sound of the door, we as the audience know that this isn’t in a nice area. It would possibly be In an old or abandoned ship yard where these containers are common.

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

There are many ways to distribute movies in the modern age. With the power that the internet has more and more movies are distributed online through companies like Netflix and LoveFilm.  Also film makers are starting to see and take advantage of websites like Facebook. This website has millions of members and is a great place to spread the word of your movie

Personally I am a huge lover of the cinema experience. I think that there is nothing that is quite like sitting in a cinema a watching a movie. I would want the movie to be aired on a Wednesday with other smaller budget movies. Friday is when large budget blockbusters are released which our movie wouldn’t be. Also with help of Orange Wednesdays lots of people are starting to go to the cinema on a Wednesday.

A major downside to a cinematic release would be the cost of putting the film onto celluloid. A single celluloid film costs about £1800, so a large multiplex release would cost around £300,000 - £1,440,000. There are alternatives such as arthouse movies which may only be released in 10 venues or a localised release where you only send the movie to cinemas in and are like the south of England before you release it to the whole country. 

I wouldn’t rate our movie as an arthouse movie so I would want to send my movie to the larger cinemas such as Odeon Cinemas. As it’s a small budget movie I would use smaller distribution companies. There are few smaller distributors that would work such as Pathe and Icon. They aren’t a big as Lionsgate or Paramount but they would go well for British Thrillers.

Pathe are well known for there work the Aardman. They distributed movies such as chicken run which was very popular at the time. I think I would go with Icon. They have worked with movies such as Drive and The Killer Inside me so they know about the type of movie we have produced.

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

Choosing A Target Audience

I am aiming the film at people aged form 15 to 30. The film will predominantly be advertised for men as it is a stereotypical mans film. More often then not man will want to go see an action thriller more then women.

I feel that the film would appeal to the British film market more then the American or Eastern European market. Its  a British thriller, British thrillers aren’t well know for there massive international releases.  Also the term thriller is a very loose therm. There are many forms of thriller from horror thriller to action thriller. Our production is a crime thriller so it will have to appeal to the types of people who like crime thrillers such as The Bank Job.

Thriller Questionnaire.

What is your favorite type of thriller movie ?

 Would you go to the cinema to watch a crime thriller?

 

After asking 100 boys and 100 girls these two questions. Its clear that crime thrillers are no way near the most popular thriller genre. It did show however that teenagers still consider cinemas a good place to watch a movie.

 5. How did you attract/ address you audience?

As such a large number of our demographic a very technologically aware, I thought the use of Facebook would be a good way to address the audience.

Response 1.

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Response 2

 

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I feel that my audience will feel more inclined to go watch the movie if its released on the Wednesday as its common for there to a deal like orange Wednesday. Also by using social networks and other websites for advertisement we relate more with the target demographic. 

By having both of the characters as fairly young males, the target audience will feel more in tune with the film. 

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

 

Because this had to be a good quality film, I have learned a lot during the project:

-I have learned the importance of shot variety. Our initial interrogation scene had little shot variety and it was very boring. The new scene has a good shot variety and better lighting. Its far more interesting to watch and I’m far happier with it.

- To make the video flow, continuity is key. There are a few points in the film where the cuts aren’t particularly clean. There are few jerky points. I have learned to make sure that all points of the movie match up and  that the more takes you do the more chance you have to make a good product.

-This project allowed us to use the expensive, high definition camera. These are good cameras and provide a fantastic picture quality. I’ve learned the technology behind them. Also using them in collaboration with the macs. I also learned how to do different things with the camera, such as shallow depth of field, focus pulling and the basic adjustments such as white balance.

-I got to use a whole variety of new equipment in this project. I got to use the dollies for tracking shots. I got to use the lights to create certain mood.  I got to use sound recorders for things like Foley etc.

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

Since the start of the preliminary I have learned a lot of techniques. Techniques ranging from lighting to camera work to Editing. All of these skills I have picked up and brought into my final piece.

Sony HD Camera

 

I have learned many things to do with camera work. I now know the importance of continuity and how important it is to make sure it flows. I have tried to use as many techniques as I could such as tracking, panning and tilting. All of these techniques have proven important in creating a different mood. The mood is very important in a thriller.  Also I have learned the difference when using the HD and tape cameras. There is a real difference when watching the preliminary on tape and watching the final product in HD.

 

 

Costume and other aspects of Mise en Scene. The whole use of props, setting and costume has been important in our thriller and I now understand why so much money is put into it in the big budget blockbusters. We had to give the audience the impression that Haydn is well off and is a working man. As the beginning has no dialogue at all, the use of costume was important to us. Also the carpark setting allows us to give the idea that he commutes which again suggests he works. I understand how important it is to get these things right in a film.

 

 

Editing. Editing was a big issue for me as its all done on macs when I have a pc. Over the projects I have learned how to user a mac and understand it. Also we use final cut fro for our films which I found to be a very complicated piece of software at first. In the two projects I have learned a few of the short cut key and how to render and cut my videos. I also learned how to use a number of filters that I could put on the video to create different effects. By far the most important technique I learned was cutting up the rushes and making the whole movie flow.