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

    There are a few mains thing I think are most important concerning this question and
that is our setting, characters, props/costumes and structure. These are the things I think
most relate to conforming to or challenging the conventions of real thriller films.

    The entirety of our thriller opening was situated in a wood, and a wood or forest is an
extremely conventional location for a thriller film. A wood creates an elusive setting in
which the character(s) seem isolated and lost, as if nobody can reach them and they can’t
get away from where they are. There are many examples of thrillers in which a main
location is that of a forest, some being Dog Soldiers, The Blair Witch Project and Evil Dead. A
wood was an ideal location for our thriller as we wanted our characters to seem very
secluded from civilisation and this wood brought about this effect. In terms of iconography,
the trunks of the trees appear similar to that of prison bars when light is shining from
behind them – and this gives a very enclosed feeling and a sense of entrapment. Therefore
the character in our thriller seems like they can’t get out and that they have to deal with
whatever problems they may face on their own. This is a very similar sort of situation as to
those of The Blair Witch Project and Dog Soldiers; in The Blair Witch Project a group of
young people have to face what they believe to be some kind of attack by a witch in a forest
and in Dog Soldiers a group of military men on a training mission have to fend off
werewolves. The setting of a forest, especially since we filmed in autumn time, also added
to creepiness of the atmosphere. In autumn leaves were orange/ brown and were falling off
the trees; this symbolises time passing as well as perhaps death which can be seen as a
negative thing. As our thriller consists of the current time as well as flashbacks, this symbol
is quite appropriate. Death is also a conventional theme to be portrayed in thrillers in
general, in our representation of it using leaves it creates a kind of foreshadowing effect
before we even seen any violence in the film.

    Linking to The Blair Witch Project, we also used a POV camera shot – a part where are
main character (Rhys) is looking around frantically as he thinks there is somebody else with
him. Through his eyes we see the figure of the Lady in the Gas Mask appear in multiple
places – we managed to achieve a very nice effect! I’m not only pleased with this because of
how well it worked but also because a POV camera shot breaks down the distance between
the screen and the audience- it makes the audience feel like they are a part of the film. In
addition to this, our thriller opening sequence contains very frantic scenes of violence and
confusion. This primary thrilling scene draws the viewer in straight away, and also engages
them as it causes them to raise questions about what is going on in the film and why things
are happening. Therefore they are inclined to watch the rest of the film to understand the
meaning of it all. This kind of structuring is also common in thriller products, such as in the
film Body of Lies - the opening scene is that of a police SWAT team breaking into an
apartment with terrorists within, an explosion follows. This is a very effective form of thriller
products and thus we are glad we conformed to it.

         The characters in our thriller also conform to those of conventional products; one
character is ordinary looking and relatable while one is devious, mysterious and seemingly
intelligent. Rhys is a character that dresses in usual clothes and just looks ordinary, and
therefore the audience can relate to him. The fact that a very ordinary looking person is in
this film realises the situation – it makes it seem like it could actually happen. The
convention of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people is rather common in
thrillers, an example I thought of was 28 Day Later. In this film Cillian Murphy play a man
who wakes up to a deserted hospital and city (because most people are now zombies), that
character himself looks ordinary – a usual build, a usual haircut a usual face – but he finds
himself in a very unusual situation. There is also the case of our other character, the lady
wearing the gas mask. She is the antagonist in our thriller, and as in a lot of thriller she is a
villain that appears human. However she is actually a hallucination experienced by Rhys, and
because she differs between being in reality and in his mind she has a sense of mystery and
danger about her. Most villains in thrillers do tend to be some kind of extraordinary human
(whether in brain or brawn), or some form of monster. She also wears an army-related
costume that contains military boots, coat and of course a gas mask. Connotations of the
military tend to be strength, organisation and intelligence all of which are also relatable to
an antagonist. For example, in The Fifth Element the villain is a very clever human and thus
is the case in most good vs. evil situations.

         The last thing I will discuss in relation to our thriller and the conventions of real
products is that of props. We didn’t need to use many props in our thriller opening but one
I’m going to talk about is our weapon. In one of the flashbacks the lady is hitting Rhys with a
rock; this is a very blunt and primitive weapon. I tried to think of thriller films in which blunt
weapons are mainly used but couldn’t – weapons tend to be that of knives or guns in most
conventional thriller films. In Shaun of the Dead the main weapon of choice is that of a blunt
one, as they make clear as it is apparently the best weapon for killing zombies – however,
although this film has zombies it is not necessarily a thriller film, it’s a comedy. Therefore
this is one of the aspects of our film that perhaps challenges the conventions of real media
products.

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

     The first character I’m going to talk about that represents a social group in our thriller is
Rhys. Rhys is a young man, about 19 years old, who has schizophrenia and is involved in the
drug scene. You often seen young characters involved in this kind of thing in crime/gangster
thrillers such as Twin Town. Now Rhys doesn’t represent a normal kid that’s a part of the
drug scene so he can’t be a complete representative as he is a character who already has
mental health issues. However, in our thriller those people who are a part of the drug/rave
scene are represented to end up with problems as Rhys ends up being attacked by his own
mind as a result of abusing recreational drugs by using them with his prescribed ones.
Therefore there is a negative representation of violence and mental distortion associated
with this kind of social group in our thriller as it shows the effects on a potentially normal
life as well as an underlying condition. You could also say this negatively portrays people
with mental health problems (an actual current issue and campaign against mentally ill
people being portrayed negatively in media as they are often villains, etc). However I think
this is meant to induce sympathy in the viewer, not to make them dislike the character. Rhys
also is a representative of all seemingly ordinary people. It is important to me that Rhys
represents this as I believe this social group is most relevant to us all. I think most ordinary
looking people are thought to be just that, ordinary. However in most cases this doesn’t
seem to be true; people’s lives are complex and full of history that you cannot understand
just by looking at someone. Therefore I think Rhys also represents all of us in a way – in that
we can be mistaken for something simple when we in fact hold many secrets, although Rhys
may be seen as an extreme case of this as he is extremely abnormal. Rhys also represents
victims in our thriller, as he is himself a victim. He is fairly tall and fairly thin which adds to
his vulnerability, we also edited the footage to make him look paler to emphasise this. Even
though Rhys is male and the general thought may be that males are stronger than females –
in our thriller this is not the case. Therefore it may be considered that Rhys is an
unconventional representation of a victim.

    The lady wearing the gas mask is of course representative of women. In films, women
are often portrayed as sex objects or people of a deceiving nature. In a way, we slightly
conformed to the idea of deception as this character has a lot of mystery to her. However,
we gave this character a lot of power and strength although she is a woman – she is no
classic damsel in distress. Therefore she’s a slightly new representative of females in that
she is strong, mysterious and slightly inhuman.

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

    Thinking about our thriller film, if it was to be made into a complete production (not just
an opening) we wanted the film to be fairly distorted and confusing. This was because the
main character had schizophrenia and had heavy delusion/hallucinations; therefore the film
would differ between looking at reality and looking at the world through his eyes.
Consequently, the film would probably be a little confusing and perhaps quite heavy and
messily structured which could perhaps make it suitable for showing at some kind of art
house or gallery. The film would have a pretty dark theme, and half of the film would be
manifestation of the mind and some not so the complicated natures makes it seem
appropriate to those interested in the art that can be produced based in the potential
darkness and disarray of the mind. However, this would depend on which sort of direction
we eventually went with the entire feature.

        Another possibility would be release straight on to DVD because the film does stick
to quite a few thriller conventions, assuming we would stick with these if we made a full
feature film. The setting, characters and themes all are pretty common amongst the thriller
genre so (as aforementioned) it would depend really on which direction we went with the
film and how structured and obvious we made it. Also, because the film is fairly conforming
it may not be a new enough idea to be appropriate for a release in a cinema as a feature
film. Furthermore, although this film may not be good enough for cinema release it is a
desired film type in our day and age. Psychological thrillers are some of the most popular of
their kind, examples being Shutter Island and Inception which were extremely successful.
Thus this film would still hold what the majority of a modern day audience desires, and
therefore could be suitable for commercial release onto DVD.

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

    Our audience research questionnaire showed us that the people we interviewed
preferred the sub-genre of psychological thriller or horror. Luckily, we had already planned
to make a psychological thriller so we were already planned to deliver to audience demand.
We mainly interviewed college students and I also interviewed my parents, so there was a
majority of ages 16-18 in our results as well as a few people aged 40-50, and psychological
thrillers and horrors were still the preferred genre. Therefore it might be safe to say that the
audience for our media product/thriller film would be people of most ages above 15/16
from this research. This could be because people above this age generally have the
intelligence to comprehend films of this kind with complex storylines. Our film also centres
around a 19 year old male involved in the drug scene, which is fairly relatable to college
students (it has to be said..).

    In general, it is my opinion that most people these days like a psychological thriller
because they like the thrill of being scared as well as having their minds messed with. Films
with basic plot lines are not always sufficient; clever films that require thought and engage
the viewer can be most successful. Successful and recent examples of these being films such
as Shutter Island and Gothika.

Here I would like to indirectly quote a comic book I have read called Johnny the Homicidal
Maniac by Johnen Vasquez; a psychological/horror/black comedy comic intended for 15+. In
the introduction piece at the beginning of the comic, a side of one is explained as some form
of dark side. That we all have something inside us that craves violence and wants to kill
those who annoy us, and that if we don't satisfy this side of us with our imagination or the
medium of books/film/etc then we will go insane. I quite like this idea as I do think that
people enjoy the thrill of hearing about the horrible things that happen within humanity,
and that that humanity has committed. We all have a side that contains those basic feelings
to kill but that we suppress. This is why I think most people would be interested in a film of
this sort; because people enjoy watching the insane things that go through peoples' minds
and the behaviour it produces.

Therefore the other programmes that this kind of audience could well be products of a
similar nature; other various horrors and such. But I also think that most people like this
kind of film and so could watch any variety of TV shows that are available, whether they be
drama, comedy, or anything else. I believe the audience would be so wide for this kind of
film that it would be difficult to note down all the other kinds of programmes they would
watch.



   5. How did you attract/address your audience?
One of our conventions used in our thriller film was intended for the purpose of
addressing the audience straight away at the beginning of the sequence; and this was
opening on action. After the panning shots of the wood and the brief setting of the scene,
the flashbacks that are shown while the body is panned engages the audience straight away.
The viewer is soon raising questions in their mind, such as Who are these characters? What
are their stories/connections? Why is one violent towards the other? Why are thy dressed
like that? Etc. Our plot line was set so what was shown in the beginning of the film is pretty
much what happens at the end, and that the rest of the thriller would explain what
happened before it reached that point and therefore the audience is inclined to watch the
rest of it.

      Also, the character that is primarily introduced is that of Rhys our main male character.
Straight away the audience sees a character they can relate to and therefore the situation is
made to seem more real straight away, which makes it more thrilling as it makes it seem as
if it could actually happen in the real world. The shots of panning as well as the POV shots
are in close proximity of the characters which breaks down the distance between audience
and screen, therefore the viewer is drawn into the film as if they are actually there.

    Our feedback session showed us that people were interested in our kind of film, and
that they were truly attracted to it. Providing a screening and feedback session in essence
attracted people to our film as they had then gained knowledge of it – if we were to then
make this into a real product the public would already have some intrigued knowledge of it.


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


    In terms of camera use and editing, I’d already had a fair amount of experience with
technologies due to video making being a slight hobby of mine. Therefore I’ve worked with
digital video and picture cameras in the past; I was also already familiar with basic editing
because of my work with Windows Movie Maker. However, although I did not learn much in
the way of cameras because I’d used them much before, I did learn a fair bit about iMacs as
well as the more professional editing program Final Cut Express.

     The first thing I learnt about the iMacs was that they were difficult. After using a
windows operating system for my entire life iMacs were fairly difficult to get used to;
although I do spend quite a lot of time with computers so it didn’t take too much time,
although not having a proper right click all the time was irritating! We’d used the default
software of iMovie to edit our preliminary task, and we found that this was trustworthy and
simple program to use (fairly similar to Windows Movie Maker, which made it easier I might
add). When we moved on to editing our thriller opening, we had a group member that
already had good knowledge of Final Cut Express due to them taking the AS and A2 course
at the same time. Thus we had an advantage, as this group member (Jos) was able to kick
off our editing and in the process show the rest of us how to use it. Unfortunately we were a
little behind schedule with filming due to ill-fated weather and so didn’t get around to
importing all of our footage until later than the other groups. Furthermore, as the camera
was brand new the settings left it film in HD as oppose to standard. Due to this and other
various problems we had a lot of trouble importing our all of our footage which was time
consuming. From this I’ve learnt that plenty of things can go wrong when you mix an iMac
with a video camera. However we did manage to solve the problem with the help of some
others, and so we could finally being our editing.

     Now, although Macs are very nice, aesthetically pleasing and virus-free that does not
make them simple. When we began editing our thriller all manner of things went wrong, the
main one being that every time we loaded up the software for editing most of the media
files would be offline and so we would have to relocate them. We tried to fix this by moving
the files to the desktop so the program could find them easily, but to no avail. So all the way
through our editing we had to put up with relocating files each time, and so I have learnt
that Macs in combination with Final Cut Express is very time consuming and problematic!

    On the bright side, I have now had more experience with more professional editing
equipment and was able to play around with hue and brightness to create the desired effect
we wanted (to help set time of day, etc). Thus we increased the contrast of the shots, toned
down the brightness and made the hue slightly blue – all of this gave the shots a dark, cold
atmosphere and also made our main character look pale and more vulnerable. Furthermore
we altered the saturation of the flashbacks and also added in some distortion effects, to
make it clear they past events and not current. Also, I was in charge of creating the title
piece for our thriller using the program LiveType. This program was also frustrating but I
managed to get the hang of it in the end and create a suitable sequence for the title ‘S1’.
We also used Garage Band effectively to create our much loved soundtrack. So in the end,
despite all the problems, we managed to conquer to systematic errors and finish editing our
thriller successfully.



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

        Our preliminary task was on a fairly small scale; we could choose any simple storyline
we wanted and therefore finding locations and props, etc wasn’t an issue as our preliminary
task was just a tryout. Beginning with planning, for our preliminary task we decided as a
group on a storyline and then created a rough storyboard of the camera shots to be
included. That was about all the planning we did for our preliminary task, but of course for
our thriller production we needed to go into much more detail. The main thing we carried
over from our preliminary task planning to our thriller planning was group discussion; after a
lesson or so we assigned different parts of the planning to different members of the group,
each member double checked with the group their ideas for their section before making the
decision final. Luckily there weren’t too many disagreements regarding our thriller planning,
and so we managed to cover all areas together with our individual contributions and group
discussion. Unfortunately, in reference to the storyboard, when we filmed our preliminary
task one of group members was absent with the planning sheet so we had to work from our
memory. When we shot our thriller opening, we also forgot the storyboard this time round
and once again had to work from memory. We should have learnt from our mistake in our
preliminary task. However we did have to go for a second film shoot for our thriller as we
didn’t think we had sufficient footage to work with when we began editing. Therefore we
went out to finish filming, and this time we brought the storyboard and managed to shoot
all the footage we needed to create our sequence.

          While shooting our preliminary task, we all took turns with working with the camera
and equipment so we could all get used to it for when we took on our coursework task.
When it came filming our thriller, two of our group members needed to be acting in the
actual film leaving us remaining two to man the camera. As was made clear, Jordan had a
smoother hand when it came to panning shots and also was simply better at using the
camera than I was. I still helped with setting up the camera to make sure it was in
accordance with the storyboard, so although I couldn’t help too much with the actual shoot
I still had a role. So once again, as in the planning, when we shot our film we all adopted
individual roles in order to work as a group.

        When we edited our preliminary task we used iMovie; a much simpler video editing
programme found on Macs in comparison with professional video editing software. We all
sat around the computer and agreed what the titles would be, what the soundtrack would
be and all other aspects of editing; it was all done on a small scale using the simple default
programmes found on the iMacs. When it came to our thriller, our group was one of the few
to primarily import our film on to Final Cut Express and begin editing using this complicated
software to get used to it. Most of the other groups formed a rough cut on iMovie first as
they were used to it from their preliminary task and then moved it over into Final Cut. As
we’d learned from our preliminaries, it is handy just to jump in and use software in order to
get used to it and be able to use it at its full potential. As similar to our preliminary task, we
all contributed to editing by discussing as we went – although some of us were better at
using the software than others. We were only happy with leaving the piece of editing we’d
just done if everybody in the group was satisfied with it.

        I’ve learnt that working in a group is very important, and that each member has to
put in an equal amount of effort as the others in order to produce a final product. As
aforementioned, we achieved this by assigning individual roles in the planning, filming as
well as editing. As is apparent from what is posted on our blogs, you can see which parts
were assigned to who when we planned. Myself, I was in charge of coming up with the
costumes/props, character backgrounds as well as the casting information. All the other
parts that the rest of the group was in charge of, I commented on to show how we
discussed these parts as we went through them. In the early stages of planning, before clear
roles were assigned to each other we all monitored what each other were doing closely. For
example, we all expressed our opinion on the storyboard as it began to be made and we all
also contributed to finding an appropriate soundtrack and other sound effects for our film
primarily. Being able to work individually in order to work as a group proved an effective
method to get our work done.

        Becky acted in the thriller and was in charge of the storyboard and explanation as a
result of the original plan for the opening plot being hers. She also created our shooting
schedule and prop list. Jos also acted in the thriller and came up with a synopsis for the rest
of the film (beyond the opening), he also posted on location. Jordan worked on creating the
entire soundtrack and also manned the camera in most of the filming. We all contributed to
explaining our lack of script and original brainstormed ideas as well as the editing.

         From the screening of our rough edit, we found out that most of the audience
members understood what was going on in the film; which was good as we wanted a certain
degree of clarity. However, one audience member thought that there were numerous
characters in gas masks following the POV shot where it looks like Becky (The Lady in the
Gas Mask) is in various places. Therefore we knew that our film also had a confusing aspect,
which we also wanted as it is a psychological thriller with a heavy basis on manifestation of
hallucination. We didn’t receive too much serious constructive criticism, which was nice but
also slightly unhelpful. However, at that point we already had ideas ourselves what
improvements we wanted to make for our final thriller edit.

         I would say a strength of our production is the ability to let the audience roughly
know what is going on but at the same time confusing them; like I’ve said we wanted a
certain degree of clarity so the audience knows what is going on but we also want them to
raise questions so they are inclined to watch the rest of the film that unfolds the
background of this initial violent confrontation. I think we used the camera and editing well
to create distinction between current events and flashbacks in the film. However, I think
some parts of the filming we could have improved on; when we pan up the body of Jos
(Rhys) the camera is fairly shaky as we had to hold the camera close the ground as well as
move it- doing this smoothly was very difficult without a dolly. It was also difficult to make
alterations in editing once we had synced the soundtrack perfectly with the video, making it
difficult to add in the title.

        The most important things I learned about film making is that everybody needs to
make an effort, and that remembering the storyboard is a very good thing! Also, that
computer problems make editing very, very difficult and time consuming at times. If I were
to do this project again, I would make sure we were using a trustworthy computer and
would also make sure we remembered the storyboard and checked the weather forecast for
when we planned to film.

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Creative Critical Reflection #1: Conventions and Representations
 

Media Evaluation Final.

  • 1. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions and forms of real media products? There are a few mains thing I think are most important concerning this question and that is our setting, characters, props/costumes and structure. These are the things I think most relate to conforming to or challenging the conventions of real thriller films. The entirety of our thriller opening was situated in a wood, and a wood or forest is an extremely conventional location for a thriller film. A wood creates an elusive setting in which the character(s) seem isolated and lost, as if nobody can reach them and they can’t get away from where they are. There are many examples of thrillers in which a main location is that of a forest, some being Dog Soldiers, The Blair Witch Project and Evil Dead. A wood was an ideal location for our thriller as we wanted our characters to seem very secluded from civilisation and this wood brought about this effect. In terms of iconography, the trunks of the trees appear similar to that of prison bars when light is shining from behind them – and this gives a very enclosed feeling and a sense of entrapment. Therefore the character in our thriller seems like they can’t get out and that they have to deal with whatever problems they may face on their own. This is a very similar sort of situation as to those of The Blair Witch Project and Dog Soldiers; in The Blair Witch Project a group of young people have to face what they believe to be some kind of attack by a witch in a forest and in Dog Soldiers a group of military men on a training mission have to fend off werewolves. The setting of a forest, especially since we filmed in autumn time, also added to creepiness of the atmosphere. In autumn leaves were orange/ brown and were falling off the trees; this symbolises time passing as well as perhaps death which can be seen as a negative thing. As our thriller consists of the current time as well as flashbacks, this symbol is quite appropriate. Death is also a conventional theme to be portrayed in thrillers in general, in our representation of it using leaves it creates a kind of foreshadowing effect before we even seen any violence in the film. Linking to The Blair Witch Project, we also used a POV camera shot – a part where are main character (Rhys) is looking around frantically as he thinks there is somebody else with him. Through his eyes we see the figure of the Lady in the Gas Mask appear in multiple places – we managed to achieve a very nice effect! I’m not only pleased with this because of how well it worked but also because a POV camera shot breaks down the distance between the screen and the audience- it makes the audience feel like they are a part of the film. In addition to this, our thriller opening sequence contains very frantic scenes of violence and confusion. This primary thrilling scene draws the viewer in straight away, and also engages them as it causes them to raise questions about what is going on in the film and why things are happening. Therefore they are inclined to watch the rest of the film to understand the meaning of it all. This kind of structuring is also common in thriller products, such as in the film Body of Lies - the opening scene is that of a police SWAT team breaking into an apartment with terrorists within, an explosion follows. This is a very effective form of thriller products and thus we are glad we conformed to it. The characters in our thriller also conform to those of conventional products; one character is ordinary looking and relatable while one is devious, mysterious and seemingly intelligent. Rhys is a character that dresses in usual clothes and just looks ordinary, and therefore the audience can relate to him. The fact that a very ordinary looking person is in
  • 2. this film realises the situation – it makes it seem like it could actually happen. The convention of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people is rather common in thrillers, an example I thought of was 28 Day Later. In this film Cillian Murphy play a man who wakes up to a deserted hospital and city (because most people are now zombies), that character himself looks ordinary – a usual build, a usual haircut a usual face – but he finds himself in a very unusual situation. There is also the case of our other character, the lady wearing the gas mask. She is the antagonist in our thriller, and as in a lot of thriller she is a villain that appears human. However she is actually a hallucination experienced by Rhys, and because she differs between being in reality and in his mind she has a sense of mystery and danger about her. Most villains in thrillers do tend to be some kind of extraordinary human (whether in brain or brawn), or some form of monster. She also wears an army-related costume that contains military boots, coat and of course a gas mask. Connotations of the military tend to be strength, organisation and intelligence all of which are also relatable to an antagonist. For example, in The Fifth Element the villain is a very clever human and thus is the case in most good vs. evil situations. The last thing I will discuss in relation to our thriller and the conventions of real products is that of props. We didn’t need to use many props in our thriller opening but one I’m going to talk about is our weapon. In one of the flashbacks the lady is hitting Rhys with a rock; this is a very blunt and primitive weapon. I tried to think of thriller films in which blunt weapons are mainly used but couldn’t – weapons tend to be that of knives or guns in most conventional thriller films. In Shaun of the Dead the main weapon of choice is that of a blunt one, as they make clear as it is apparently the best weapon for killing zombies – however, although this film has zombies it is not necessarily a thriller film, it’s a comedy. Therefore this is one of the aspects of our film that perhaps challenges the conventions of real media products. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The first character I’m going to talk about that represents a social group in our thriller is Rhys. Rhys is a young man, about 19 years old, who has schizophrenia and is involved in the drug scene. You often seen young characters involved in this kind of thing in crime/gangster thrillers such as Twin Town. Now Rhys doesn’t represent a normal kid that’s a part of the drug scene so he can’t be a complete representative as he is a character who already has mental health issues. However, in our thriller those people who are a part of the drug/rave scene are represented to end up with problems as Rhys ends up being attacked by his own mind as a result of abusing recreational drugs by using them with his prescribed ones. Therefore there is a negative representation of violence and mental distortion associated with this kind of social group in our thriller as it shows the effects on a potentially normal life as well as an underlying condition. You could also say this negatively portrays people with mental health problems (an actual current issue and campaign against mentally ill people being portrayed negatively in media as they are often villains, etc). However I think
  • 3. this is meant to induce sympathy in the viewer, not to make them dislike the character. Rhys also is a representative of all seemingly ordinary people. It is important to me that Rhys represents this as I believe this social group is most relevant to us all. I think most ordinary looking people are thought to be just that, ordinary. However in most cases this doesn’t seem to be true; people’s lives are complex and full of history that you cannot understand just by looking at someone. Therefore I think Rhys also represents all of us in a way – in that we can be mistaken for something simple when we in fact hold many secrets, although Rhys may be seen as an extreme case of this as he is extremely abnormal. Rhys also represents victims in our thriller, as he is himself a victim. He is fairly tall and fairly thin which adds to his vulnerability, we also edited the footage to make him look paler to emphasise this. Even though Rhys is male and the general thought may be that males are stronger than females – in our thriller this is not the case. Therefore it may be considered that Rhys is an unconventional representation of a victim. The lady wearing the gas mask is of course representative of women. In films, women are often portrayed as sex objects or people of a deceiving nature. In a way, we slightly conformed to the idea of deception as this character has a lot of mystery to her. However, we gave this character a lot of power and strength although she is a woman – she is no classic damsel in distress. Therefore she’s a slightly new representative of females in that she is strong, mysterious and slightly inhuman. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Thinking about our thriller film, if it was to be made into a complete production (not just an opening) we wanted the film to be fairly distorted and confusing. This was because the main character had schizophrenia and had heavy delusion/hallucinations; therefore the film would differ between looking at reality and looking at the world through his eyes. Consequently, the film would probably be a little confusing and perhaps quite heavy and messily structured which could perhaps make it suitable for showing at some kind of art house or gallery. The film would have a pretty dark theme, and half of the film would be manifestation of the mind and some not so the complicated natures makes it seem appropriate to those interested in the art that can be produced based in the potential darkness and disarray of the mind. However, this would depend on which sort of direction we eventually went with the entire feature. Another possibility would be release straight on to DVD because the film does stick to quite a few thriller conventions, assuming we would stick with these if we made a full feature film. The setting, characters and themes all are pretty common amongst the thriller genre so (as aforementioned) it would depend really on which direction we went with the film and how structured and obvious we made it. Also, because the film is fairly conforming it may not be a new enough idea to be appropriate for a release in a cinema as a feature film. Furthermore, although this film may not be good enough for cinema release it is a desired film type in our day and age. Psychological thrillers are some of the most popular of
  • 4. their kind, examples being Shutter Island and Inception which were extremely successful. Thus this film would still hold what the majority of a modern day audience desires, and therefore could be suitable for commercial release onto DVD. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? Our audience research questionnaire showed us that the people we interviewed preferred the sub-genre of psychological thriller or horror. Luckily, we had already planned to make a psychological thriller so we were already planned to deliver to audience demand. We mainly interviewed college students and I also interviewed my parents, so there was a majority of ages 16-18 in our results as well as a few people aged 40-50, and psychological thrillers and horrors were still the preferred genre. Therefore it might be safe to say that the audience for our media product/thriller film would be people of most ages above 15/16 from this research. This could be because people above this age generally have the intelligence to comprehend films of this kind with complex storylines. Our film also centres around a 19 year old male involved in the drug scene, which is fairly relatable to college students (it has to be said..). In general, it is my opinion that most people these days like a psychological thriller because they like the thrill of being scared as well as having their minds messed with. Films with basic plot lines are not always sufficient; clever films that require thought and engage the viewer can be most successful. Successful and recent examples of these being films such as Shutter Island and Gothika. Here I would like to indirectly quote a comic book I have read called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Johnen Vasquez; a psychological/horror/black comedy comic intended for 15+. In the introduction piece at the beginning of the comic, a side of one is explained as some form of dark side. That we all have something inside us that craves violence and wants to kill those who annoy us, and that if we don't satisfy this side of us with our imagination or the medium of books/film/etc then we will go insane. I quite like this idea as I do think that people enjoy the thrill of hearing about the horrible things that happen within humanity, and that that humanity has committed. We all have a side that contains those basic feelings to kill but that we suppress. This is why I think most people would be interested in a film of this sort; because people enjoy watching the insane things that go through peoples' minds and the behaviour it produces. Therefore the other programmes that this kind of audience could well be products of a similar nature; other various horrors and such. But I also think that most people like this kind of film and so could watch any variety of TV shows that are available, whether they be drama, comedy, or anything else. I believe the audience would be so wide for this kind of film that it would be difficult to note down all the other kinds of programmes they would watch. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?
  • 5. One of our conventions used in our thriller film was intended for the purpose of addressing the audience straight away at the beginning of the sequence; and this was opening on action. After the panning shots of the wood and the brief setting of the scene, the flashbacks that are shown while the body is panned engages the audience straight away. The viewer is soon raising questions in their mind, such as Who are these characters? What are their stories/connections? Why is one violent towards the other? Why are thy dressed like that? Etc. Our plot line was set so what was shown in the beginning of the film is pretty much what happens at the end, and that the rest of the thriller would explain what happened before it reached that point and therefore the audience is inclined to watch the rest of it. Also, the character that is primarily introduced is that of Rhys our main male character. Straight away the audience sees a character they can relate to and therefore the situation is made to seem more real straight away, which makes it more thrilling as it makes it seem as if it could actually happen in the real world. The shots of panning as well as the POV shots are in close proximity of the characters which breaks down the distance between audience and screen, therefore the viewer is drawn into the film as if they are actually there. Our feedback session showed us that people were interested in our kind of film, and that they were truly attracted to it. Providing a screening and feedback session in essence attracted people to our film as they had then gained knowledge of it – if we were to then make this into a real product the public would already have some intrigued knowledge of it. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? In terms of camera use and editing, I’d already had a fair amount of experience with technologies due to video making being a slight hobby of mine. Therefore I’ve worked with digital video and picture cameras in the past; I was also already familiar with basic editing because of my work with Windows Movie Maker. However, although I did not learn much in the way of cameras because I’d used them much before, I did learn a fair bit about iMacs as well as the more professional editing program Final Cut Express. The first thing I learnt about the iMacs was that they were difficult. After using a windows operating system for my entire life iMacs were fairly difficult to get used to; although I do spend quite a lot of time with computers so it didn’t take too much time, although not having a proper right click all the time was irritating! We’d used the default software of iMovie to edit our preliminary task, and we found that this was trustworthy and simple program to use (fairly similar to Windows Movie Maker, which made it easier I might add). When we moved on to editing our thriller opening, we had a group member that already had good knowledge of Final Cut Express due to them taking the AS and A2 course at the same time. Thus we had an advantage, as this group member (Jos) was able to kick off our editing and in the process show the rest of us how to use it. Unfortunately we were a little behind schedule with filming due to ill-fated weather and so didn’t get around to
  • 6. importing all of our footage until later than the other groups. Furthermore, as the camera was brand new the settings left it film in HD as oppose to standard. Due to this and other various problems we had a lot of trouble importing our all of our footage which was time consuming. From this I’ve learnt that plenty of things can go wrong when you mix an iMac with a video camera. However we did manage to solve the problem with the help of some others, and so we could finally being our editing. Now, although Macs are very nice, aesthetically pleasing and virus-free that does not make them simple. When we began editing our thriller all manner of things went wrong, the main one being that every time we loaded up the software for editing most of the media files would be offline and so we would have to relocate them. We tried to fix this by moving the files to the desktop so the program could find them easily, but to no avail. So all the way through our editing we had to put up with relocating files each time, and so I have learnt that Macs in combination with Final Cut Express is very time consuming and problematic! On the bright side, I have now had more experience with more professional editing equipment and was able to play around with hue and brightness to create the desired effect we wanted (to help set time of day, etc). Thus we increased the contrast of the shots, toned down the brightness and made the hue slightly blue – all of this gave the shots a dark, cold atmosphere and also made our main character look pale and more vulnerable. Furthermore we altered the saturation of the flashbacks and also added in some distortion effects, to make it clear they past events and not current. Also, I was in charge of creating the title piece for our thriller using the program LiveType. This program was also frustrating but I managed to get the hang of it in the end and create a suitable sequence for the title ‘S1’. We also used Garage Band effectively to create our much loved soundtrack. So in the end, despite all the problems, we managed to conquer to systematic errors and finish editing our thriller successfully. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Our preliminary task was on a fairly small scale; we could choose any simple storyline we wanted and therefore finding locations and props, etc wasn’t an issue as our preliminary task was just a tryout. Beginning with planning, for our preliminary task we decided as a group on a storyline and then created a rough storyboard of the camera shots to be included. That was about all the planning we did for our preliminary task, but of course for our thriller production we needed to go into much more detail. The main thing we carried over from our preliminary task planning to our thriller planning was group discussion; after a lesson or so we assigned different parts of the planning to different members of the group, each member double checked with the group their ideas for their section before making the decision final. Luckily there weren’t too many disagreements regarding our thriller planning,
  • 7. and so we managed to cover all areas together with our individual contributions and group discussion. Unfortunately, in reference to the storyboard, when we filmed our preliminary task one of group members was absent with the planning sheet so we had to work from our memory. When we shot our thriller opening, we also forgot the storyboard this time round and once again had to work from memory. We should have learnt from our mistake in our preliminary task. However we did have to go for a second film shoot for our thriller as we didn’t think we had sufficient footage to work with when we began editing. Therefore we went out to finish filming, and this time we brought the storyboard and managed to shoot all the footage we needed to create our sequence. While shooting our preliminary task, we all took turns with working with the camera and equipment so we could all get used to it for when we took on our coursework task. When it came filming our thriller, two of our group members needed to be acting in the actual film leaving us remaining two to man the camera. As was made clear, Jordan had a smoother hand when it came to panning shots and also was simply better at using the camera than I was. I still helped with setting up the camera to make sure it was in accordance with the storyboard, so although I couldn’t help too much with the actual shoot I still had a role. So once again, as in the planning, when we shot our film we all adopted individual roles in order to work as a group. When we edited our preliminary task we used iMovie; a much simpler video editing programme found on Macs in comparison with professional video editing software. We all sat around the computer and agreed what the titles would be, what the soundtrack would be and all other aspects of editing; it was all done on a small scale using the simple default programmes found on the iMacs. When it came to our thriller, our group was one of the few to primarily import our film on to Final Cut Express and begin editing using this complicated software to get used to it. Most of the other groups formed a rough cut on iMovie first as they were used to it from their preliminary task and then moved it over into Final Cut. As we’d learned from our preliminaries, it is handy just to jump in and use software in order to get used to it and be able to use it at its full potential. As similar to our preliminary task, we all contributed to editing by discussing as we went – although some of us were better at using the software than others. We were only happy with leaving the piece of editing we’d just done if everybody in the group was satisfied with it. I’ve learnt that working in a group is very important, and that each member has to put in an equal amount of effort as the others in order to produce a final product. As aforementioned, we achieved this by assigning individual roles in the planning, filming as well as editing. As is apparent from what is posted on our blogs, you can see which parts were assigned to who when we planned. Myself, I was in charge of coming up with the costumes/props, character backgrounds as well as the casting information. All the other parts that the rest of the group was in charge of, I commented on to show how we discussed these parts as we went through them. In the early stages of planning, before clear
  • 8. roles were assigned to each other we all monitored what each other were doing closely. For example, we all expressed our opinion on the storyboard as it began to be made and we all also contributed to finding an appropriate soundtrack and other sound effects for our film primarily. Being able to work individually in order to work as a group proved an effective method to get our work done. Becky acted in the thriller and was in charge of the storyboard and explanation as a result of the original plan for the opening plot being hers. She also created our shooting schedule and prop list. Jos also acted in the thriller and came up with a synopsis for the rest of the film (beyond the opening), he also posted on location. Jordan worked on creating the entire soundtrack and also manned the camera in most of the filming. We all contributed to explaining our lack of script and original brainstormed ideas as well as the editing. From the screening of our rough edit, we found out that most of the audience members understood what was going on in the film; which was good as we wanted a certain degree of clarity. However, one audience member thought that there were numerous characters in gas masks following the POV shot where it looks like Becky (The Lady in the Gas Mask) is in various places. Therefore we knew that our film also had a confusing aspect, which we also wanted as it is a psychological thriller with a heavy basis on manifestation of hallucination. We didn’t receive too much serious constructive criticism, which was nice but also slightly unhelpful. However, at that point we already had ideas ourselves what improvements we wanted to make for our final thriller edit. I would say a strength of our production is the ability to let the audience roughly know what is going on but at the same time confusing them; like I’ve said we wanted a certain degree of clarity so the audience knows what is going on but we also want them to raise questions so they are inclined to watch the rest of the film that unfolds the background of this initial violent confrontation. I think we used the camera and editing well to create distinction between current events and flashbacks in the film. However, I think some parts of the filming we could have improved on; when we pan up the body of Jos (Rhys) the camera is fairly shaky as we had to hold the camera close the ground as well as move it- doing this smoothly was very difficult without a dolly. It was also difficult to make alterations in editing once we had synced the soundtrack perfectly with the video, making it difficult to add in the title. The most important things I learned about film making is that everybody needs to make an effort, and that remembering the storyboard is a very good thing! Also, that computer problems make editing very, very difficult and time consuming at times. If I were to do this project again, I would make sure we were using a trustworthy computer and would also make sure we remembered the storyboard and checked the weather forecast for when we planned to film.