Media evaluation
Question 1: In what ways does my media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
A thriller is a genre of film that
primarily uses suspense, tension and excitement to entice its audience.
Thriller films heavily stimulate the viewer giving them a high level of
anticipation, expectation, uncertainty, surprise and also terror. A thriller
provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement and exhilaration that drive
the narrative. It keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as they never
know what will happen next as the thriller builds up to its climax. The basic
storyline of a thriller usually entails a villain-driven plot in which they
present obstacles that the hero must overcome. Thriller sub-genres give more
detail to the thriller that the audience would be watching, thriller sub-genres
include:
Conspiracy thriller- this type of
genre consists of some sort of hero or heroine who are stereotypically
journalists or investigators who find themselves trapped in a very powerful
organisation. The story later on unravelling evidence in addition to many
enemies who would try to keep the secret organisations alive through lies and
propaganda. These companies are then brought down by the protagonist character.
This type of genre plays with the identification of good to overrule the evil.
Conspiracy thrillers often incorporate government secrecy and major
organisations in history. Examples of this sub-genre include Enemy of the
State, Vantage Point and Safe House.
Crime thriller- crime thrillers
often focus more on the criminals and their activities in leading up to the
crime or in retrospect the ending of the film leading back to how it all
started. Crime thrillers usually emphasise action over psychological aspects
although there can also be a psychological part to this sub-genre as well.
Central topics of the films include serial killers and murders, robberies,
chases, shootouts, heists and double crosses. Examples of this sub-genre
include Taken, Seven and Psycho.
Disaster thriller- this particular
sub-genre follows a certain groups or persons survival against the harsh
conditions of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and
volcanoes. Many disaster films have also had causes of mankind to the brink of
extinction through nuclear disasters. This type of genre plays with what the
future could bring for mankind if such disasters were to happen. Examples of
this sub-genre include 2012, The Day After Tomorrow and Pompeii.
Mystery thriller- this sub-genre
relates a lot to crime thriller. It focuses mostly on the efforts of the
detective or private investigator in order to solve the mystery. This sub-genre
looks at the circumstances of the mystery or crime itself in order to try
figure out what the clues are. This genre gets into the psyche of the audiences
as audiences have a prime offence that they also follow as the protagonist is
finding out information as well. This brings more dramatic effect to the films
during the investigation in order to know what the crime is. Examples of this
sub-genre include Shutter Island, The Usual Suspects and Lucky Number Slevin.
Political thriller- this sub-genre
looks into the state of a government and the reliance on a hero or heroine who
must ensure the stability of their government in order to prevent anything bad
from happening. Examples of this sub-genre include Argo, The Manchurian
Candidate and State Of Play.
Psychological thriller- this is the
quintessential sub-genre that is implemented into all the thriller
sub-genres.it plays with the audiences minds and produces suspense in film
because it reflects the main characters conflict being mental and emotionally
hindered. It shows the mentality of a character and the thought processes that
they go through which adds the suspense. Examples of this sub-genre include
Vacancy, Memento and Cape Fear.
Religious thriller- this sub-genre
connects the plots closely religious objects, institutions and questions. Many
religious rated films usually unravel the good and points about a religion in
particular the catholic belief. The plot usually entails finding out a certain
truth to that religion. Examples of this sub-genre include Angels and Demons,
Constantine and The Exorcist.
Supernatural thriller- supernatural
thrillers often bring an otherworldly element that shows something out of the
ordinary happening to a protagonist that has to overcome this factor. This
sub-genre is also mixed in with tension and suspense in addition to also having
an unsuspected twist in the film. The protagonist or villains usually have a
supernatural gift that helps them get to the source of the problem. This
sub-genre is very closely linked with religious thrillers as usually demons
entering the body, alien life form, apparitions or the possession of a pivotal
character is an element of a supernatural film. Examples of this sub-genre
include The Sixth Sense, Insidious and Paranormal Activity.
Gangster thriller- this type of
sub-genre usually follows the wrong doings of a specific villain (usually a
gang, mafia or mob leader) in a big city and introduces a protagonist who would
try and thwart the villains operations. These sub-genres mostly contain action
over anything else but also contain elements of psychological warfare between
the villain and protagonist. Examples include The Godfather, Scarface and
Gangster Squad.
The thriller sub genre that we
chose to base our film opening on was a gangster thriller. Originally we chose
this because we thought that it was very appealing as it has a wide range of
fans across the world and the majority of our questionnaire showed most people
enjoyed it, also it was substantial enough to base a good plot around and make
the audience want to watch the rest of the movie. Some of the main conventions
of a Gangster thriller opening are that they contain guns, violence, organised
crime and antagonist/s that are made to seem feared. The main things that the
audience would expect from this genre are action, violence, tension and suspense
each of which we planned to include within our opening sequence. It is
important to know what the audience wants because then you know what to do that
will attract them to your movie. In our opening to a thriller film we used the
tension, suspense, violence and also mystery because we thought it would be
enticing to the audience and make them want to watch on. Tension is used to
build up the story slowly for the audience, suspense is used to make the
audience scared as to what will happen next, violence is used to give a bit of
an adrenaline rush to the audience and make them feel in the action and finally
mystery is used so that the plot is shrouded as to what it is about which makes
the audience want to watch on.
Typical shot types that are used in
our video and a gangster thriller are mainly mid shots showing either the upper
or lower half of the body. As well as that
they can have close ups on specific objects and they would frame them so
that the whole object would only be partially shown and this can create an
element of tension or suspense and the audience would want to watch on to find
out what that object was. We used each of these shots because they suited the
gangster thriller genre and also were very useful in building up tension and
suspense.
One of the main thrillers that
inspired my groups work for our opening scene was the Gangster Thriller film
Gangster squad. The film was influential as it has examples of the elements
that we wanted in our film opening. The film Gangster Squad has many good
conventions of a thriller that we could use such as violence, tension, suspense
etc. An example of violence within Gangster Squad is the scene below on the
right in which the main villain and the main protagonist are having a fight
which is a prime scene of violence. The mis-en-scene contains the antagonist
and the protagonist along with a crashed car in the background. The shot is a
mid shot as it shows the characters from just below the waist upwards to the
top of their head. The only narrative in this is both of the characters egging
each other on during the fight. The non-diegetic sound that is used is very
subtle but at times it can be heard in the background slightly which I believe
is effective as it gets the audience more into the scene. The scene below on
the right is from our film opening and has some similar traits to the Gangster
Squad scene. It shows who is possibly believed to be the antagonist and the
protagonist together with the one believed to be the antagonist about to hit
the other character. As well as having the same characters as well as violence
it is the same shot type as it is a mid shot as its from around the waist
upwards. However in our film opening there wasn’t any narrative involved which
is a difference from this scene in Gangster Squad. Another similarity is that
in our scene we also have the non-diegetic sound so that it is only just heard.
An example of tension within the
gangster thriller Gangster Squad is this scene below on the right in which
there is about to be a gun fight and the tension is rising which would make the
audience want to watch on. In this the mis-en-scene shows 3 characters along
with a large pile of guns and weapons stacked around the room. This shot is a
mid shot as it shows the characters from just below the waist upwards. There is
not any narrative in the scene as it is just the characters collecting some
weapons to take along with them. There is however non diegetic sound over the
top that is building up the suspense as it is playing quietly in the background
and then building up. On the right is the most similar scene that is from our
film opening as it contains a panning picture of a gun and that relates to the
guns in the Gangster Squad scene. A difference between our scene and the scene
from Gangster Squad is that our scene is a close up of a gun whereas in the
other scene it is a mid shot that contains the guns. A similarity between our
scene and the other scene is that each of them do not have a narrative as they
are both just a short clip thrown in their to build up tension. Another
similarity is that in our scene the non-diegetic sound is quiet and slowly
builds up, building suspense as it goes.
A good example of suspense in the
film Gangster squad is in this scene below on the right in which the main
villain by the name of Mickey Cohen is holding a gun to the head of one of the
heroes and you do not know what will happen. The mis-en-scene shows the
character pointing a gun, presumably towards another character. I would say
that this shot is a low angle shot looking upwards at him giving him a superior
look. There is narrative in the scene that is on the right as he is talking to
the man that he is about to kill. There is no non-diegetic sound going on
during this scene from Gangster Squad. The scene on the left which is from our
film opening shares some similarities but mainly differences with the scene on
the right. The mis-en-scene shows a character who is presumably the antagonist
pointing a gun towards the head of a character. A difference is in the type of
shot as on the left it is a mid shot which shows the lower half of the
antagonist. Another difference from our scene on the left is that there is no
narrative whereas there is in the Gangster squad scene. As well as that a third
difference is that there is non-diegetic music playing in our scene on the left
but there isn’t on the right.
The above image of the character to
the left is the presumed antagonist from our film opening and the character on
the right is the antagonist from the film Gangster Squad. There are some
noticeable similarities and differences between these two characters and each
of them are unique to their own style of how they are supposed to act. One of
the most noticeable similarities between these two antagonists is how they are
dressed, they are both smart wearing shirts as well as a smart hat. The clothes
are essential in our film opening as we wanted the antagonist to look like he
is smart in what he is doing and he likes to make sure everything is correct
including what he is wearing, and that is the same with the antagonist on the
left, as well as that the clothes are typical of a gangster thriller as the
majority of the time the characters wear smart clothes etc and that is why we
used it because it relates to gangster thrillers. A difference between these
two characters is how they portray themselves towards other people, as with the
character on the left he brought himself down to the level of the person he is
looking at which could be effective in luring them into a false sense of
security, however with the character on the right he is looking down at the
person he is looking at which shows that he believes himself to be superior to
others. A second similarity with each of these characters is the expressions on
their faces, each of them show blank emotionless expressions towards each of
their victims they are looking upon. A second difference between these two
characters is how much information you are given about them in the opening of
the film. With our film opening you are not given any information about the
antagonist which leaves the audience wondering who he is, what he is doing,
what will happen to him etc. However with the character on the right from
Gangster Squad he is introduced straight away as the main antagonist which also
has its own effects on the audience as it lets the audience know he is a very
dangerous character and what he is capable of. The ethnicity of the characters
has no influence in both our film opening and the film Gangster Squad. As well
as that I played the character that was presumed as being the victim as I was
bound to a chair and getting beaten up (seen below). I am represented as the
victim by the audience as I am shown to be bound to a chair and being beaten
up/interrogated possibly by the presumed antagonist.
Question 3: what kind of media institution might distribute my media
product and why?
A production company essentially
helps to create the film, it assists in the budgeting, scheduling, scripting,
casting and much more. The company usually looks over the film from when its
just an initial idea until final completion of the film. They are responsible
for finding a director and the majority of acting talent that would be required
for the film. As well as that they would also be responsible if anything were
to happen to go wrong in the film, for example an actor being injured or
property being damaged.
A distributor is a company or
person that basically sends your film out into the public for the audience to
view. They decide where and when the film will show and they also promote the
film to the public. There are a number of steps involved in the process of
distribution. For my media product if it was available I believe that Warner
bros would be a good company to confide in. I would choose this distributer
because I thought that it would fit our film opening requirements more than any
of the others that I have seen. It has handled a lot of films in the same genre
as ours which would mean they would be better at finding which way would be
best to distribute our film as it has experience and knowledge also in how to
promote our film. Examples of films that they have been involved in are very
well known films such as Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, Gangster Squad, 300,
Casablanca etc. This is good because each of these movies have been extremely
successful and have made a high profit. This adds to the reason why they are an
appropriate institution to distribute our film because of the high profits and
good advertising skills.
A production company provides the physical basis for
works in the genres of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio,
and video. In the relevant genre which would be film, I believe that the
production company that would be best for us to choose would be paramount
pictures as they have handled many successful films some of which are the same
gangster thriller genre as ours, some of these films include:
·
The Godfather
·
Saving Private Ryan
·
Top Gun
·
Forrest Gump
·
Braveheart
Question 4: who would be the audience for my media product?
For our target audience for our
media product we identified that they would primarily be any males from the age
of 16 upwards that enjoy a gangster thriller film that includes violence and
mystery. As it is such a wide audience range it makes it harder to produce as
you have to take into consideration what it is that the audience enjoys the
most in a thriller of our sub-genre.
The image above is a typical
audience member that we targeted for our media project. The average age that we
are trying to target is around 24 years old, however since the popular sub genre
that we have chosen, gangster thriller, is host to a wide variety of audience
members who enjoy it the age can vary anywhere between 16 to 60. The main
gender that we believe would be our target audience would be males as the
elements that our in our film opening such as violence, we have found out are
most enjoyed by males through our research.
What does U mean?
The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for
audiences aged four years and over.
What
does PG mean?
PG
stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general
viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for younger children. A PG film
should not disturb a child aged around eight or older.
What
does the 12A symbol mean?
12A
means that anyone aged 12 or over can go and see the film unaccompanied. The A
stands for 'accompanied' and 'advisory'. Children younger than 12 may see the
film if they are accompanied by an adult (e.g. someone over the age of 18), who
must watch the film with them.
What
does the 15 symbol mean?
No-one
under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated
DVD. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.
What does the 18 symbol mean?
Films
rated 18 are for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the
cinema or buy/rent an 18 rated DVD. No 18 rated works are suitable for
children.
·
strong blood and gore
·
real sex (in some circumstances)
·
discriminatory language and behaviour
I
believe that the appropriate age rating on our film if it were to be made would
have an age 12 rating as in the opening of the film there is violence, and
therefore it would be expected that there would be violence throughout the
course of the film as well as minor swearing offences. Further on in the film
there would go on to be violent scenes that would include fighting, gun fights
and murder which is why it should be a 12 as they would not be too gory or over
exadurated as some violent scenes are in films such as Django Unchained. There
would not be too much explicit content such as any sex scenes etc. as well as
that there would not be an overused use of swearing during the film.
Question 5: how did I attract/address my audience?
In our film opening we made it
appeal to our audience by including the typical features of a Gangster thriller
as we were sure that it entices the audience as been proven in previous movies
as well as adding some other features as well to make it unique in its own way.
The typical features that we included were what are primarily used in a
gangster thriller such as an interesting initial storyline that is only showed
partly to make the audience want to watch on, violence so that the audience are
straight away caught up in the ordeals which would take place and also a
villainous character of which you know very little about which gives them a
sense of mystery and builds tension from the start.
This shot is our opening shot and
it that attracts the audience as they see scenes of a watch ticking
repetitively throughout the opening, and that would make them want to see the
significance of the watch and whether it has any. This creates tension as well
as suspense for the viewer. It is an extreme close up of the watch so that you
can see it ticking clearly.
This shot is used to
attract the audience as they do not know who the character is that is bound to
the chair. This makes them want to watch on to find out who this character is
and what happens to him. This shot is a close up as it shows only the presumed
victim from the chest to the head.
This shot is
effective in attracting the audience as they can see the character that is
bound in the chair about to get hit by the other mysterious character that the
audience does not know about. Alike the other shots, this makes the audience
want to see the outcome to what has happened. This shot is a mid shot as it
shows each of the characters that are in the frame from the waist upwards.
This shot is very effective in
attracting the audience as there is a close up of a gun which connotes danger
and violence and the audience would want to see what significance it has and
what happened with it. This hot is an extreme close up pan as it shows the
features of the gun clearly as it slowly pans across it.
This shot is effective in
attracting and enticing the audience into the thriller opening as it shows both
of the characters, one of them presumably the antagonist pointing a gun towards
the character on the floor who is presumably the protagonist, and the audience
will want to know what happens in this situation. It is a very tense moment
because the audience do not know what will happen next, will he get shot or
will he somehow survive? This shot is a mid shot I would say as it shows the
presumed antagonist from the waist all the way downwards to the feet.
Our thriller opening
is slightly similar to some other thriller films of the same sub-genre,
gangster thriller. We used elements for the openings from different films that
have been extremely successful so that we know the techniques we have used
should be enjoyed by the target audience.
This image is an example from the
opening scene of the film Gangster Squad which we used elements of as we felt
that it adds in the affect of building up suspense. It is violent which builds
up tension and suspense and that is what we felt was essential to have in our
opening.
Question 6: what have I learnt about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
The main technologies of which I
have learnt and improved on using during the duration of constructing my media
product are the Macs and how to use Imovie on them as before this course
started I had no knowledge at all of how to work Imovie but now I can use
Imovie confidently and can construct work using it, as well as that I have
gained knowledge in the use of a digital camera which is essential as it is
what is needed to record any footage on for anything in the future. With the
digital camera I can now use it to take different shot types such as zoom,
focus pull, pan, long shot, close up etc. This is very important because now I
would also be able to film anything effectively and confidently without making
any major mistakes.
Camerawork:
With editing I have managed to
improve vastly in my knowledge of how to edit effectively and use many more
techniques than I previously knew. I have learnt how to use effects on the
iMovie to improve our film opening. When filming we used the tripod effectively
to steady all of our shots and film well which gave us some effective footage.
I have progressed with my knowledge on the amount of shots which are available
to use which gave us ideas of different shots to use such as where we placed
the camera as if it was the eyesight of the victim I played (the scene is
below).
Editing:
With editing on iMovie I have
expanded my knowledge in how to work on it and use all of the tools on it
effectively. It is important to know how to edit effectively as then it makes
it clear for the audience and could make them watch on. At first we slightly
struggled to import our clips from our video camera to the mac, but after around
10 minutes we managed to import our clips to the mac. We chose that we thought
it would be better to not have a narrative as we thought if we used one it
would be less effective. Some examples of the editing skills that I learnt
which we needed to use were cutting, splitting clip, transitions, sound effects
and sequencing.
Question 7
Looking back at my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in
the progression from it to the full product?
Strengths of my prelim and how I
built on and addressed these
The main strengths of my
preliminary investigation video were as follows:
·
a good transition between shots
·
it flows easily which makes it easy to
understand
·
a good range of shots used
·
suitable non-diegetic music
When we started the preliminary
video I didn’t have as much knowledge on transitions so we just used the most
basic transitions as that was what we knew how to do, however by the time we
had started editing our film opening we had improved vastly with our knowledge
on editing and managed to incorporate some new transitions that we did not
previously use which I felt improved the opening overall and was essential in
building up tension and suspense.
With our preliminary video we
managed to make sure that all of our shots flowed well shot to shot due to how
we edited them into each other which made the video easy to understand, however
with our film opening we chose that we needed the audience to know less seeing
as it’s a thriller opening, and to make them watch on we would want them to not
understand much so that they then want to watch on to try and understand and
find out what’s happening.
A good range of shots is essential
to have in any film as it helps to make sense of certain things or overall
improve the quality of the film as it adds variation to it which is exciting
rather than the same shots all the time. In our prelim we used a good range of
shots, however we knew that we would have to step it up in our film opening to
make it much better in terms of variation. In our opening we ended up using
close ups, mid shots, extreme close ups, panning and much more.
In our preliminary our non-diegetic
music sorted the kind of video that we wanted to make, but with our film
opening the music that we used in our preliminary investigation would not have
been suitable as we needed to use some eerie, spine chilling non-diegetic
sounds to make our opening effective in its own respect.
Shortcomings of my prelim and
how I built on and addressed these
The main shortcomings of my
preliminary investigation video are as follows:
·
could have improved the plot to add more tension
·
could have improved lighting to enhance certain
shots
in our preliminary investigation
video the plot didn’t have any tension at all as it wasn’t made to because of
what genres we decided to include in it, the main genre being comedy. However
in our film opening seeing as it’s a thriller we knew that we would have to
take a closer look at our plot and make sure its builds up tension not only
correctly but effectively, which we feel that we managed to do.
As well as not having tension, we
believed that our preliminary investigation video did not include the correct
lighting that was needed to enhance certain scenes. In our film opening we knew
that we would have to enhance certain objects and shots using lighting, but we
did not have the necessary equipment for this so we used our initiative and
found a good place to enhance scenes with natural light and as well as that we
used effects during editing to enhance certain points in our opening.
we approached planning all of the
shots by making a shot list which was very useful in letting us know what shots
to do and how to do them, which without having it we would not have been able
to construct our movie opening in the time that we had to film.
