2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• When creating the our final piece ‘Chance’ we focused on closely
following the codes and conventions and key concepts of a typical
psychological thriller. However there were some areas where we
challenged the codes.
Before, creating our piece, I carried out extensive research regarding a
psychological thriller. By doing this I became familiar with what the
audience will expect to see, therefore we could make decisions as to what
we wanted to include in our final product. Through my research, this is
what I found and this is how it corresponded with my final piece.
The title sequence:
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Within an psychological thriller, the type of titles generically used is simple text,
centralized on a black background. Regarding the titles we followed this
convention. I believe that following this theme was beneficial to our media
product because, it added to the simplicity of the product. In my opinion it
increased the level of suspense within our piece, ensuring that our audience
was engaged at all times.
However there were codes and conventions that we went against and didn’t not
include in our title sequence. This was the use of a Black and white filter.
Though this filter is not used in every thriller it is used in some of the most
iconic psychological thriller, for example In the thriller ‘Psycho’ produced by
Saul Bass, his film was black and white, whereas we went with keeping it
natural, because I believe we did not want to enter the field of following the
codes and conventions of film noir. To conclude in our opinion black and white
would not have suited our psychological thriller. Our final product had a slight
element of action within it, therefore changing it too black and white may
have given out mixed messages to our audience.
4. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
Our media product as a whole, focuses on the typical stereotypes. For a start
the majority of our characters that feature within our title sequence are of
the male gender. The use of camera has helped me enhance the fact that
men are the more dominant gender within our final product. As the
cinematographer I felt that close ups on the characters face showed that
their importance throughout the rest of the film will be significant. This
also follows the key concepts of stereotypes. In terms of media, as an
audience we often see the male character, being more in control and
significant. Therefore this is what we have followed, to attract the
audience and keep them engaged with what they are watching.
Examples of two
close ups used on
the male
characters to
enhance their
dominance.
5. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
Further on in our media product the idea of stereotyping men as the more
dominant gender was enhanced with the use of sound and the mice en
scene. In this particular scene the mise en scene was that the only female
character in this sequence was in the kitchen cleaning, then a few seconds
in the scene there is a voice over from a male ordering her to hurry up.
This scene enhances that the
women is there to serve the
men throughout the scene.
6. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
The use of editing also enhanced the significance of the male gender
throughout the piece. The screen time of characters also signifies their
importance within the piece.
Thus, when the journey of the two men were shown, their screen time was
equal, but took up the majority of our opening sequence.
The use of costume also helped enhance their significance. The two
characters were wearing dressed in a smart manner, black trousers and a
shirt. This showed that they belonged to a social group that was high class
and well put together.
7. What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
• When deciding what media institutions would be best to distribute our
media product, I had to research various media institutions, regarding the
types if movies they have distributed and if they follow a specific pattern.
The media institution that seemed most appropriate from my research
was Warner Bros. I believe that this will be well suited to our media
product because, they have released a few other psychological thrillers,
therefore, consumers will be familiar with that particular genre, therefore
most likely making the film a popular hit, quite soon.
8. What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
Other media products that have been distributed by Warner Bros, that follow
the psychological genre are the following:
These thrillers are similar
to our media product in
terms of thee codes and
conventions it follows.
9. What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
To conclude, our decision was made because we feel that the mise en scene
of the movie is quite suspense building and engaging, something that the
audience look for when they go to the cinema to watch movies.
As a personal opinion, I believe that the movie should be released on to T.V
soon after it has stopped being shown in cinema, for example on the sky
store. This will increase the popularity of the film, as people enjoy
watching movies in the comfort of their own home.
10. Who would be the audience for your
media product?
To decide who our target audience would be, we created a simple survey for
anyone to fill our anonymously. From our research we gathered that our
film is best suited to males who are 15 and over. The reason we chose
males was because, I believe that they will be able to relate to the male
dominance throughout the media product. Because they can relate to the
male dominance that was represented frequently throughout the piece.
However personally I believe that females could also be interested because of
the ending of the title sequence, where a woman is shown spiking a
drink, they could be engaged, to find out what would or could happen.
To gather some feedback we conducted a survey, in order for people to have
their say after watching our title sequence.
11. How did you attract/address your
audience?
In my opinion I believe we addressed our audience showing them what they
wanted to see, and in some ways what they expect to see. For example
having male dominance is a key concept that is represented in many films
of today. However they were also drawn in by something slightly
unusual, and something that pushed boundaries slightly, but not so much
that it put the audience off. And this was the fact that we had a female
protagonist.
By having a close up of the female protagonists hand,
enhanced that the audience should pay close
attention to this character and that her actions link to
episodes throughout the rest of the film. I believe that
this would attract the audience because their curiosity
would get the better off them, and all they can do at
this point is carry on watching.
12. How did you attract/address your
audience?
I also believe that the title of our
film, had a huge impact on how our
audience was attracted to watch our
sequence. In my opinion I think this
was attractive because it was short
and sharp, rolls off the tongue easily
and is a word that the majority of the
population would associate with on a
day to day basis. Therefore the idea
of familiarization will attract the
attention.
13. What have you learned about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
Throughout this task my main job was the cinematography. I had never filmed
anything before this task, therefore whilst I was filming it took many re shoots to
perfect the shot. However throughout the filming process, I believe that soon
enough, my filming skills became stronger and stronger, and I was able to take
more control of the camera. Therefore allowing me to create the right meaning
behind what I was filming. The type of shot I believe I perfected the most was a
pan shot. This shot was carried out during AmanDhillons scene. The problems that
kept re occurring were that either his head was not in the shot, or the camera was
too shaky or the pan was not keeping up with this movement. However after many
hours of repetition, the scene was eventually perfected.
Alongside the cinematography, I believe I strengthened my skills in the editing
department. Prior to this task I was able to conduct basic editing techniques,
however this task enabled me to learn how to cut clips and move them around to
change the narrative. I also learnt how to change the filter of the clips and add
sound over the movie.
14. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you
have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
Compared to my preliminary task I have learned many thing, not just skills
related to the technical side, but also teamwork skills.
Communication has a huge impact on the progression of your task. Within my
group we learned the difficult way that a lack of communication between
each other slows down production in every way, and can risk our success
severely.
I have also learned that detailed planning at every stage is essential in order
for us to refer back to ideas and make improvements. I learned this from
our continuity editing task, because the execution of one of our shots was
not as planned. Had we written down the plan before hand and looked
into it more deeply it may have worked slightly better.
To conclude taking this concepts that I learned over the tasks enabled me to
succeed in helping create the final product we are left with today.
