Thriller117Z1: Final Evaluation

Final Evaluation- By Bethany Keerie

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

Thriller opening and movies are films that use 'Suspense and tension' taken from wikipedia. Thrillers also create phsycological tension by including mystery and drama in the opening sequence to get the audience enaged and wanting to know what will happen next. The main conventions of a thriller are camera work, Mise en scene and editing and sound.
Our Thriller opening includes these conventions of a thriller as there is little dialogue which makes tension build up as the sequence goes on. Also over egaratted sound effects help to over empathasize on certain object which could be significant further on in the story line. Also we included a flashback into our thriller piece which helps create a mystery as you don't know any detail about the story or what the flashback has to do with the story so far. Another thing that we used which is a convention of a thriller in our opening is camera work, such as over the shoulder shot and close up so that the viewer can clearly see the characters reaction and facial expression.

Shot 1. In our Thriller opening is an establishing shot to show where one of our main characters (The little girl) is and why. Which in our example this shot shows that the little girl is in a children's park, however we purposely had to swing the swings before the shot was taken so that it would looks fairly realistic like a sterotypical thriller film almost like they were swinging by themself.An example of swings being used in a real thriller would be in Hide and Seek.

Shot 2. Our second shot is an extreme long shot. However this is of the little girl's memory, almost like a flash back of when the little girl's mum was pushing the little girl on swing. Also why we made the shot itself so high key is so that it comes across as more of a dream,and as it's a thriller a more eerie ghost like feel. Also in this scene there is a lot of dialogue included bteween the child and the mother, which is a complete constrast to some of our other shots.

Shot 3. Our third shot is an extreme long shot aswell, this kind of shot can be used to make a character appeal insignificant or weaker in this case it could be the little girl. Also this shot is taken from directly infront of the little girl on the swing. This is also the viewpoint of what the mum character is seeing, from this we can also clearly see the facial expression and body language. In this the little girl is happy and eager in a way to keep swinging because she's enjoying herself.

Shot 4. This shot clearly shows the little girl by herself again, which shows that the little girl is 'back in reality' and where she was in the first shot. Also in this shot the girl walks over to the far left side on the shot so that she is still on screen where she picks up a picture. Also because this shot doesn't include any dialogue it's creating an atmosphere and building the emotion up on what the little girl is feeling.

Shot 5. This shot is an extreme close up which is focused on the eye's on the little girl's face. Which represents her facial expression which clearly shows she's upset. Eyes are a good indicator of emotion and what the character is feeling and thinking. This is a big difference on how she was feeling in her memory.

Shot 6. This next shot uses an editing technique to change from one shot to another while still being able to see the previous shot faintly underneath, this is called a 'fade'.In our case this shot goes from this to another memory but of a painting.

Shot 7. This next shot is a medium shot of the little girl walking up the stairs then going into a room to the left (the bathroom). There is still no dialogue included in this shot as it's meant to represent a thriller which will create suspense and enigma as you know something is going to happen very soon and suddenly. This shot also includes natural back lighting which is when the lighting comes from behind the character creating more of a silhouettes.

Shot 8. This shot is of the little girl washing her hands in her bathroom, Also in this shot you hear a scream (diegetic sound), The lighting in this shot is alot lighter than the shot previously which could make the audience re think that something bad is going to happen, however it also take the audience by suprise which makes it more of a thriller.

Shot 9. This shot is of our ending title sequence. Which shows a ripped up version of the painting that was in our thriller sequence earlier. However it's missing the part with her mum.

Which's creates mystery as you don't know why she has vanished. Our Title 'Alone' appears on the top left hand of the screen. We also included a soundtrack of a music box over the top which is non diegetic sound while this shot is being viewed as it makes it more eerie. This sound is a typical thriller sound track, however it also relates to our little girl as children often have music boxes aswell but as it is creepier it comes across as a thriller.

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

I feel our media thriller opening represents particular social groups such as families, as our main characters shows a strong relationship between mother and a daughter as they have a very common bond to each other. An example of this would when the daughter character shows the mum her painting of them together and the mother then praises her to show that she cares for her.Also when the daughter has a flashback of her mum and her in the park, while her mum is pushing her on the swings suggest a that she is a traditional caring mother. Also the costumes worn throughout the sequence makes our characters come across to the viewer as being quite middle class as they are both wearing quite classy clothes, especially the daughter who is wearing an evening dress. Which comes across as being quite formal and upperclass for just a normal day out to the park. However our thriller also could represent a single mother and we know this because throughout this sequence there is no mentio of a 'father' figure. Another reason why we know this is because when the daughter paints the mother a picture she doesn't paint a dad figure.

Our media thriller opening also represented a few examples of thriller programmes and films. One example would be Marchlands, and Hide and Seek. As they both include a strong relationship between a mother and daughter figures.

This screen grab is from the film Hide and Seek which we were inspired by, which similarly show a mother and daughter characters playing in the park.

3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Now that we have finished filming our thriller opening sequence we have to choose a media institution that will distribute our finished product.

Distributors get legal rights from other film producers to release a film, also knows what attracts the target audience. They will do this by communicating what the film is about in a interesting way which will appeal to correct target audience and show them exactly what the want to see in a film. Then if it successfully appeals the distributors pay money to distribute to the exhibitors. Like printing the film, and showings in cinema, also onto portable devices such as mobile phone and ipod's where it can downloaded, then finally printing DVD's and selling onto other companies which then advertise on the TV.

An example of lots of Distributors is taken from this link where it shows the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motion_picture_distributors.
I have chosen the distributor 'Paramount Pictures'. Mainly because they are a film distributor who have released quite a few thriller films.

This is the logo for 'Paramount Pictures'.

It has distributed films such as 'Shutter Island', and 'The Godfather'.

The picture on the right is the front cover of 'The Godfather'.

The picture on the left is the front cover for 'Shutter Island'.

I think if our Thriller opening was released in mainstream cinema's it would be more successful as it could be seen by a much larger group of audience. Then if it does become even more successful we would take the nect step up and maybe allow it to be shown in independent Cinema's.

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

I feel the audience for our Thriller opening would be teenagers in an average age of 16+ because it should appeal to viewers that are strongly enjoy thriller and the psychological suspense but at the same time it won't have elements of horror in it, and it won't be too violent for an 16 to watch. Also our thriller opening isn't aimed at an audience of 15 and younger because they might find it confusing to follow the plot and story line as our opening thriller includes a flash back scene so they might get confused between the real time and the past. As well as it being to inappropriate for that age group.

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

I felt our Thriller opening was a good example of addressing and attracting our audience as we successfully created a thriller opening title sequence which created a sense of enigma and made our viewers want to watch more. Also the calm and very ritual common day to day life normality of the relationship between the mother and the daughter going to the park seems very similar to most families lives so it almost makes it more obvious that something bad's going to happen very soon.

I feel that the use of our flashback does make our audience more involved as they want to find out what happened too the daughters mum and if she actually did die. You can tell from our opening that its made to look like a flashback as you can see in the screen grab to the right there is an image of the daughter character who is staring at the swings that her and her mum were playing on. Also the editing of the fade overlaps the past with the present as in a way you can see both the images at the same time.
Audience feedback here:

Sister:
"I like the that the painting that the daughter does in the opening links everything together, and how it also leaves a sort of cliff hanger in the title as you see the ripped painting without the mum, however an improvements could be made in some shots like the kitchen scene when the girls painting he picture as they accidently talk over each other, overall nicely done!"

Friend:

" I think you've come up with an interesting opening idea and it has worked really well, There are lots examples of a thriller idea in your sequence. Definitely creates mystery!"

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

From constructing a thriller opening i have learnt a variety of how to use different technologies, which we included into the construction of our opening. Such as using the HD quality camera and how to set them up and how to set white balance which is an adjustment setting on the camera which is used in wherever there is light to make everything that is white like objects in frame appear white on screen. This is vital because if you don't set it every time you change location or somewhere that has a different light level to before it won't match everything in real life that is white.

An example of this can be taken from our first abandoned thriller sequence called 'Scarlet'. White balance was just one of the many problems we had with filming which made us head towards creating our new opening which is 'Alone'

This screen grab shows two shots from our opening of our Preliminary 'Scarlet'. The one on the left with White balance not applied. Then the one on the right when the white balance was applied.

Instead it will either give off a yellow or blueish tinge to your film.

We also learnt about the 180 degree rule which is when two characters who are in dialogue have an imaginary line going through them which the camera must not cross over to the other side because this will be breaknig the 180 degree rule as the shot of the two people having a conversation switched sides.

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 at our Preliminary task i feel i have learned loads more as we personally have progressed over time to now where we have produced a thriller opening sequence. Probably from producing a more successful story board in a short amount of time however i still think that alot of planning still went into it.
Although our first thriller opening did cause some problems with location, and camera settings i feel we have learnt from out mistakes taken it on board with us and in a way we've had more experience as we know what went wrong and we have corrected it so if it happens again we know how to solve it.

We've also progressed in a way that our camera work has more match on action and shot reverse shot compared to our prelim.

As well as our editing skills such as transitions between shots.