Thriller117Z1: Final evaluation By Amy Beckwith

Evaluation

By Amy Beckwith

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

Thrillers are films that use suspense, enigma and tension as their main elements of the film. Thrillers create these elements by using camera work, editing, mise en scene and sound. An example of this is thrillers use not allot of dialogue which creates tension, sound effects that create all elements of thrillers and change the mood and parallel and cross cutting to create suspense. In our film we used many conventions of thrillers.

The first and second picture we used the thriller convention of flash backs which help with mystery and enigma. As it lets the character go back in time and see what happened in the past either to answer a question within the plot or make the audience ask questions about what they just saw. We wanted to use this as it meant we could explain the story through memory's so the film would not have to be filmed over a large length of time. Thriller films that use this are marchlands.
The third and fourth picture show the thriller convention of empathy for characters as we used a little girl for our main character which came across as a innocent, sweet and happy child we found inspiration for this character in films such as marchlands, hide and seek and dark water. We also implied that the young girl is a protagonist as a convention of thrillers are that their are protagonists and antagonists, we also restricted narrative on the viewers information about the opening as people don't know who the characters are and what happened to the mother. We used a extreme close up shot on the child's face when she was crying to make the audience focus on her emotion and help create empathy.
In the fifth, sixth and seventh picture we used the thriller convention of point of view shots which show the viewers what the character is seeing but also builds a larger connection with that character and the people around them as you are seeing the characters through the actors eyes and you see first hand their experiences. We wanted this because we wanted the audience to build a relationship with the character and share emotions and feel sympathy for them.
The eighth and ninth picture we also used the theme of a mother and daughter which is a quite commonly used theme in thrillers this is a good theme as an innocent child characters are easily empathised and sympathised with in films and also the bond between a mother and daughter is so strong and everyone can connect with that theme for example if they lost their mum of left their child. films with a mother and child theme are flight plan, dark water and pans labyrinth.

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

Our thriller opening represents many social groups for example we have a strong representation between a mother and daughter relationship. As you can see from our opening there is a strong bond between mother and daughter as they like going out and having fun together.

Our young girl character is the stereotypical traditional innocent girl, we chose her to wear a pink dress as it represented her prettiness, femininity and innocence. Her hair we added a pink rose hair band because it was very girlie and the flower is a symbol of fragileness and pink roses a symbol of happiness which we wanted to get across in our film. Her actions are done with allot of care which is a construct of a traditional female girl especially when painting and she walks very sweetly and daintily like a ballerina. The lighting and colours we use are also very bright to symbolise and give the impression of happiness. Girls like this are in such movies as light plan and dark water.

In addition our mother is constructed as a typical mother who is very caring for her child. For example when pushing her on the swing she constantly asks her if shes having fun and is pushing her from the front showing a strong connection between them as they always have eye contact. her clothes are very plain but quite formal showing that she has working side and probably a good job another indication to this is her grey hair and how she may have stressful parts in her life this is a construct of the modern working woman. But is still very caring and sensitive towards her daughter as shown in the scene where her daughter is painting and she praises her for her good work which is a traditional construct of a woman. In addition the décor of the house is incredibly clean and with the addition of the bright yellow flowers shows that she is a domestic house proud woman who likes feminine touches and yellow colours and bright lighting also supports this and gives the impression of a bright happy house hold.

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

Now we have finished producing our film it is time to start looking for a company to distribute our film. Distributors get the legal rights off film producers to exploit a film. They pay the distributor money for the licence and then distribute the film out to the exhibitors for example, printing film and transporting it to cinemas where it would be played, creating downloads for mobile devises, printing DVDs and selling them to company's to sell and selling them to TV companies to be broadcast. The production company and the distributors earn a percentage of the takings made from all this exhibiting. Not only this but they also deal with marketing the film. Well know distributing companies are Pathe, Warner Bros and Paramount.

For our film i would choose Optimum Releasing as our distributor. i have chosen this distributor as they are a English film distributor that distributes alternative and new films that would not normally do well but advertises them brilliantly and gets them slots in good mainstream cinemas and they become quite popular. Another reason why I would use this distributor is because they have distributed such films as Pans Labyrinthine that gave us some inspiration for our film and Brighton Rock which is filmed in Sussex the same place where our movie was filmed. Personally think our film is one that could work well in both alternative and mainstream theatres. I think i would distribute it in one or two cinemas in every region one being in a independent cinema and one being in a mainstream I want to do this as I think mainstream theatres are shutting down independent cinemas all over the country and if I can attract more people to come to independent cinemas then I can help out the industry.I would also make sure my film does not release at the same time as a popular release like harry potter as people will be less likely to see our film.

I would advertise the film to audiences by showing adverts in cinemas in showings of films that have a connection to our film and have the same target audience, bus and cinema posters are also a great way to advertise a latest release but posters have to be eye catching and automatically attract the viewer this is best done by odd or different imagery that make the people want to look at it longer and not giving too much of the story away. I would do one TV advertisement every couple of days on a prime time slot when our target audience would be watching, i would not do lots of banner and pop up adverts all over the internet as people find these more of a irritant and a nuisance other than something to attract you to the film and in addition i would either create a viral video about how or film could be a true story and lots of fake evidence for it to attract attention to the film and its story or I would create a simple internet game based on the story that includes cut scenes of the film and that you can place your score on a world wide high score list to attract people to play and beat there friends it would be placed virally over the internet for people to play and send to their friends to play and would attract them to watch the film. this is one of the most cheapest and fastest way to advertise your product and the fans do it all for you.

When it comes to DVD release I would release my Film on DVD with a well designed eye catching cover to attract people looking at it using examples in this link and On-line for a small price due to the fact some people don't want to pay large prices for there films if they don't know if they like it or not and also its more convenient for them but it is vital that I make on-line viewing cheap otherwise people will just watch it illegally on-line. In addition distributing films on-line is allot cheaper for the company . Websites that do film hoasting are ones such as love film

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

The audience for our film are people over the age of 15 and people who enjoy thrillers that focus on enigma more than action. Our film is not for people under the age of 15 as it would include a heavy complicated storyline that people under the age of 15 may not be able to understand and follow and would also include scenes of murders. Our film would be specifically targeted at people that enjoy films about a strong mother and daughter relationship and also people that like twists and to think about plots and who the antagonists in films are as our film is about how the mother character died and the young girls struggle. Our film would also include a twist that reveals that the young girl isn't as innocent as she looks.

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

We attract and address our audience by giving a taster of our film from the opening. Our opening opens the story line to the film and starts to make you think what's going to happen next. Our opening comes across as a mystery thriller about a girl and her mother and how her mother died. The addition of flashbacks helps the audience understand that the events have already happened and that the film is mostly played through the memory's in peoples minds and events that have happened in the past. we have used a standard narrative structure which is a example of a disruption proceeded by normality.

We attract audiences by leaving the opening on a cliff hanger making the audience want to see more and what happens. Not only this but straight away you build a connection with the characters and you feel for their emotions as we use shots like extreme close up on the young girls crying face and point of view shots between the mother and daughter. Because you have built this connection with the 2 characters you want to carry on watching and find out what happens to them.

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

There has been many aspects to our filming of our thriller opening that has made us use new technologies and taught us many different skills. We used technologies mostly in sound and image editing and our actual filming.

In our actual filming we used film cameras for our preliminary which we learnt how to set up the tape and the camera and how to make sure you don't write over your filming by accident. In our actual film we used HD cameras that used a memory card to save our film on for these cameras we had to use things such as white balance, white balance is vital as without it the colour of your film does not match what you would see naturally and people can look the wrong colour. for example the image on the right is taken from our first film as you can see because we forgot to use white balance our image looks too yellow and unnatural.

We also learnt how important framing is and how different shots create different moods and atmospheres such as cantered shots and extreme close ups.
Another thing we had to learn when using the cameras is the 180 degree rule, the 180 degree rule is used when you are filming a conversation between people you have to imagine theres a line going through the two people and keep all cameras when filming on one side of that line otherwise it can be confusing for the viewers and it looks like the people have switched sides
We have learnt terms such as depth of field which is when images in front or behind are out of focus and also continuity.

Editing has also introduced us to new technologies such as using software like garage band and imovie. When editing we had to remember to used continuity which is vital other wise your film can look unprofessional and jumpy and can create the illusion of going from one room to another even if they are 1000 miles away from eachother, i also learnt that the slightest second counts when it comes to continuity editing. Pace of the film also is important as pase is what creates the calm or suspense filled atmosphere within the film. Pase is made by

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

Looking back i think that i have learned lots in progression from my preliminary task and my first film. For example i think one of the main things has been composition and framing. Our framing has improved greatly through the course of our filming and makes a real difference to our film. In addition our editing skills and story line has also got allot better. I have also learnt new skills like how to set the quality on cameras, how lighting can create a real difference to scenes and not only makes the picture better but changes the whole mood of the scene by using bright or dark scenes and how planning and timing is vital for creating a good film. I have also learnt that when filming what you see in the small screen in the camera is allot different to how it looks on the big screen. I have also learnt that it is vital to get all filming in the same place done at that time and made perfect because if you need to re film there can be problems like in our first film opening idea when we needed to re film our office scene but wasn't allowed to re film there.

There are a few things I would change about or film firstly i would like to change the lighting more between the flash backs and the present time shots as they are hard to distinguish between, i would like to change the title screen text so that it does not fade away again but because we used imovie instead of final cut this was not possible, in addition i would like to have changed the editing software we used to final cut instead of imovie as it would have made our film look more professional and would have made our titles better. Also i was disappointed that i couldn't use the toilet scene shot from our first trial "Scarlett" as i thought the shot was really effective. Finally one last thing i would change is the final scene of her in the bathroom as i would have liked to have added the little girl shouting "mummy whats wrong!" as she left and then letting it echo through onto the next shot of her on the swing crying.

Overall i think our film was a great success and really enjoyed filming and i think it showed some aspects of a thriller and showed many of the skills we learnt in our study such as continuity, match on action, transitions and sound bridges.

as you can see in picture one and two the framing of our shots have improved as in the first shot our character is not centred and the shot is slightly wonky. On the other hand in my second shot the characters are dead in the centre filling up the whole shot and the picture isn't wonky.
in the third and fourth picture you can see how our use of lighting has improved, in the first shot we used lighting and the whole character is pitch black and you cant see anything but on the other hand in the fourth picture we used lighting and their is a significant difference between the two shots as you can see all detail in the fourth picture
As you can see in the fifth and sixth picture these are flash backs between the past and the present and their are no differences for the audience to tell this is a flash back. I would improve this by changing the lighting and contrast of the flash back so it is easier to distinguish.
As you can see in the seventh picture this is our titles and because we used imovie instead of final cut pro editing software we could not have the title text their on the shot for the whole thing.
Image eight is of our toilet scene in our initial movie idea i really thought this scene was effective and i would have loved to have used it in our final opening but was irrelevant to the plot so could not be used.
In image nine this is the final scene before the film title and i would have liked to have changed instead of her just turning round and running to her shouting "mummy?!" and then running down the stairs.