2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
The basic genre of the opening is of a thriller/horror. I researched many films such
as ‘Inception’ (Nolan, 2010), ‘Shutter Island’ (Scorsese, 2010) and ‘Ocean's
Eleven’ (Soderbergh, 2001). The film's basic concept revolves around that of
Inception. The first decision that had to be made was about the title of the
opening, for which we considered multiple options like:
However, after giving the titles great thought we
decided to go with the following title font and style.
As it seemed the most suited to our plot and idea
and was a conventional format style for our opening,
this format had an enigmatic feel to it which led to us
using this format in our opening.
3. The plot of the film revolves around a boy who finds out that anything he dreams
about tends to take effect in the real world as well. However, he decides to take
advantage of this ability and takes revenge from people who have wronged him.
The opening has made use of shots which conform to the conventions of a
thriller/horror style. This has helped us make the opening more enigmatic and
interesting for audiences. By using editing and visual effects we have been able to
ensure that our piece is able to meet almost all the conventions that a horror/ thriller
film represents.
The black and white blur effect has
allowed us to not just use it as an
enigmatic factor to the opening but also as
a way to differentiate the dream sequence
from the events that would take place in
the real world of the film. Another,
convention that can be seen is that the
killer remains hidden which would make
the text of the film more interesting for
audiences.
4. The camera positioning in the shot also has an effect on the audiences, as it helps
in character exposition. The camera position connotes this to be a very sinister or
dangerous character and mise en scene helps add to that by the non verbal
language of the character as he checks the knife.
The field and house seemed to be the most ideal location for the shoot as they
both fulfilled the criteria we had set for our shooting locations. The field was an
empty space which made it ideal for us to make the opening shot as it helped in
character exposition of the antagonist helping establish the fact that he is someone
who is alone and undermined by the world.
5. The house was also a very suitable location for our purpose as the plot stated that
the person who gets killed is found in her room. We used a tracking shot for the
scene where the antagonist goes up the stairs which allows us to place the
audience in the line of action of the opening sequence.
The sounds used in the sequence are mostly non diagetic
as there was no dialogue in the opening sequence. The
sounds help add to the enigma in the whole sequence. The
sound track of the opening was designed by joining multiple
sound effects to create one track which fits perfectly for out
opening sequence.
6. The use of mise en scene has also helped us make this opening more
conventional. The props that were used also reinforce the ideology of the use of
a dangerous weapon by the antagonist. Another thing that helped us in making
the opening more interesting was the use of blood in the final shot of the
opening. Non verbal language has again helped play a part in making sure that
the opening conforms to the conventions of a thriller/horror. The non verbal
language of the female victim connotes a person who’s unaware of the coming
danger.
7. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The main social groups represented in the film opening are teenagers. The main
protagonist in the plot is the female that discovers her friend in her room; we decided
to make a female our protagonist to intensify the conflict in the text. The
representation of the protagonist in this opening is to challenge the social norms
about the female gender as a whole. At the same time however, we also use a
female to fall victim to the antagonist’s deeds.
The protagonists’ non verbal language connotes that she is a confident and
independent person and is willing to go through great trouble to find out what
happened to her friend.
The antagonist is a person who is undermined by everyone, always alone and
distressed. The shot below shows the conventions of a classic thriller/horror
antagonist. The use of camera angles also helped us reinforce ideologies about
the antagonist such as a person who is powerful, hides in plain sight and is on
the look out for revenge.
8. The antagonist in the opening
is a vulnerable and
emotionally disturbed
individual. However, as the
story continues he gains more
confidence and power
knowing that he is in control of
a unique ability. Thus,
reinforcing ideologies about
antagonists found in
horror/thrillers.
The female characters in this opening are used to both challenge and reinforce
ideologies about female characters in the horror/thriller genre. In the text of the film
the protagonist is shown to be vulnerable and strong when needed in the course of
the film. Thus, challenging the traditional gender roles by fighting back to a person
superior in power.
9. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Since our film is more of a mainstream film I think that it would be better if it would
distributed by an industrial film distributor such as Warner Bros., Universal or Columbia.
In order to distribute the film we would firstly need to find an influential sales agent who
would be willing to take our product to such big distributors. Once the companies agree
to buy the distribution rights the marketing would start, which traditionally includes the
release of a trailer, posters, merchandises, press conferences etc.
Since this is a mainstream film it would cover 3 of the 4
quadrants of the audience i.e. male, female and adults. The
core audience for our product is mainly teenagers and young
adults (15-24 year olds). This will allow the distributors to
focus their marketing campaign on the target audiences.
10. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of your film making?
Throughout the making of our opening sequence we made use of different softwares
to ensure that our work is up to mark. From planning to post production, technology
has been a key aspect in our film making process. For the planning process we made
use of Blogger.com to collaboratively work on our planning process.
We used the blog to post
our research, location
reccies and comment and
suggest improvements on
each other’s work and
share ideas with each other
on our opening.
11. For the filming of the whole project we were provided camcorders by the school
which allowed us to shoot footage in High Definition giving good picture quality. I
also mastered the use of a tripod which allowed us to steady the camera and
make it easier for us to do panning shots with which we experimented in our
preliminary task.
12. I also made use of a steadicam frame which allowed us to shoot handicam shots
which made the shots more steady and easy for us to shoot. We also got a chance to
experiment with the tracking dolly that gives smooth and steady moving shots which
allow us to place the audience in the action thus, creating verisimilitude and attracting
the audience in to the film’s plot.
The editing software played a key role in the completion of our final piece, using this
software we were able to add visual and sound effects to the opening which made it
more interesting and enigmatic. The screen shot is an example of how we used the
editing software to add titles to our final
piece to make it look more visually
attractive. For the post-production process
of the opening we made use of the adobe
premiere editing software which allowed
us to ensure that our opening sequence
keeps in line with the continuity editing and
180 degree rule.
13. I also made use of Youtube as a way to exhibit the opening to audiences and
collect responses and suggestions from them in the form of questionnaires and
comments. Along with Youtube I made use of other prominent web 2.0 applications
such as facebook, survey monkey, prezi and slide share.
Survey monkey is a sight I used to design
questionnaires to carry out audience research
for our production and to see whether
audiences understood the concept and design
of our openings.
Another application that I made use of was prezi
which I used when making the pitch for our film. This
website allowed me to make the pitch look visually
attractive and allowed me to draw a path toward all
the aspects I wished to cover in the presentation.
At the end we used an external hard drive to export our final piece on to the
school computer which was allowed to be used for the audience screenings.
