1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?
Our thriller offers the same conventions as other thrillers out in stores today, such as using simple, yet disturbing title screens with a very popular colour scheme - black and white. An example of this would be the title screens for Saw four, and The Grudge, which are both psychological thrillers, such as the one that we have created. It uses black and white to show contrast between good and evil, or to show the difference between two distinct characters involved in the film.
The Grudge Credits:
Our Film Credits:
These two title screens show the similarities between high production films, and our film, and how they are interpreted in similar ways. 'The Grudge' uses white text on a black background to explain the history of the film that you are about to see, and this shows the contrast between good and evil. Also, many thrillers have the opening credits over graphics, such as 'The Grudge' because they believe it will obscure all details and hopefully interest the audience into watching it. It also means that the audience concentrate more on the actors names and who is in it, rather than watching a scene behind the text. In addition to this, our title screen has white text and a black background to show that there is a contrast between good and evil, but we do not explain the history behind the story, we wanted the audience to find out for themselves that the story was about. Also, we used an establishing shot, so that the audience knew where the film was set, and this is usual in thrillers, because the setting is usually very significant to the story, such as cloverfield being set in New York, which resembles that it is a 'Transformed City' Thriller, changing a city to make it significant. Although, I believe the lighting in our establishing shot did not work to our advantage and next time, we should use a filter, rather than natural darkness.
'The Hidden' Establishing Shot:
Also, we used filters during the acting scenes, because we wanted to make it look realistic, and being a thriller, people expect it to be set at night. It also makes it more interesting because people want to know why someone has left their house very late at night. This is different to some thrillers, because they prefer to keep everything obscured with more graphics to make it more interesting to watch, and also limit the information given to the audience. We prefered to show them a scene which would not make sense at first, but when the film continues, the story behind the opening scene unravels. We put a filter over the scenes to make the scenes look like they were set at night, and this makes the audience wonder why someone is leaving their home so late at night. It leaves the audience asking questions, which is what we aimed for - What is he doing? Why did he pack a bag? Who is he? Is he the bad guy, or the good guy? etc.
Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our thriller includes people of all ages, but it can specifically be aimed at teenagers who feel as the character does in the film itself - left out of their family, or as if another sibling is the favourite between them both. Also, it means that they can relate to it better because they can put themselves in the characters shoes - although, adults could have repressive memories of this happening to them too, and therefore, it is also aimed at adults.
Our media product uses common codes and conventions present in most thrillers. These Codes and conventions are used to enhance the theme of the film and draw the audience into the story. Some examples include such things as, questions, darkness, crime and an everyday setting. Our media product follows these codes and conventions. Firstly we introduce questions when we are introduced to the character, the question that come to mind include, who is this person, why are they up in the middle of the night? And what is important about the flashbacks? Our product challenges the codes and conventions of real media products because we show the villains face almost straight away. This challenges the norm because usually we have to investigate the mystery with the main character. While in our product the main character is the villain. We keep to the darkness convention to add a sense of mystery and eeriness, the advantage of doing this is that people will know what genre of film this is already. Most thrillers are set in a common normal place such as a city or village. We developed this idea by introducing the film in a tighter area, in this case the house. The house is drastically smaller than a city or village and so it brings the setting into a smaller area. This also gives the product a smaller, personal feeling which people may be able to relate to. The advantage of this is that people will see themselves in the product which could increase their liking of the product. One code or convention that is prevalent in a lot of modern thrillers is the government. Some examples of thriller films that contain the code or convention are The Bourne trilogy, State of play, Enemy of the state and Air force one. However we chose not to do this. For if we did then the effect of the personal feeling would have been lost due to the drastic contrast.
Many thrillers have the main protagonist and antagonist separated and unrelated. We challenge this convention by creating a relationship between the protagonist and antagonist. However this is not a new idea, this technique has been done before. Some examples include, Taking lives, The Bourne Trilogy particularly The Bourne Identity and The Da Vinci Code. The usefulness of this idea was to narrow down the setting into a small community of people. This is done in our product which can be seen through the fact that our antagonist is the brother of our protagonist. However there do appear to always be connections between the antagonist and protagonist. This can be as simple as the protagonist’s daughter being kidnapped by the antagonist. Or as simple as wanting to be that person. This specific connection can be seen in Seven in which John Doe wants to be Detective David Mills. Crime is an extremely common code or convention in thriller films. In our short product clip no crime can be seen, however in the full synopsis of our product crimes will be committed. The theme of crime is used primarily for realism. This creates realism because of the fact that the most common form of disruption in real life is crime. Crime can be seen in every single thriller film no matter how small. It appears a lot in Seven, Minority Report and Surrogates to name just a few. Another common theme in thrillers is a policeman. This is used as a contrasting device for the person who commits the crime. This is also another common code or convention in thriller films, the theme of contrast. Contrast can be as simple as good and evil; however there are many more aspects to contrast. In Seven the colour of David Mills and William Somerset. This contrast could also be male and female, or age. The protagonist and antagonist can also be seen as a contrast in objectives.In our product we use and change thriller codes and conventions to add effect to the overall effect of the product itself. We also Challenge codes and conventions to give our product an edge and make it interesting for the audience to watch. This is very similar to how professional production companies and filmmakers make thriller films now, to attract a newer broader audience.
Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The distribution companies that we would use would be ones that have experience with low budget and or thriller films. two examples of these are as follows.
http://www.vervepics.com/
http://www.metrodomegroup.com/catalogue.asp
We picked these two companies because we believed that they both fit the criteria that meets our films needs, such as a low budget, low scale production which could be entered into small film festivals to show a range of techniques and styles.
Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience would be people who enjoy thrillers, and can be of all ages from 15 years onwards, but it would mainly be for between ages 15 and 30’s because they are people who use the cinema and DVD’s more often rather than middle aged people or OAP’s.An example of people who would enjoy our type of film would be:
This is teenagers over 15 who enjoy thrillers, and films that excite them.
Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?
See Section 11 for Audience Research, or click the link below to take you straight there:
There were a few things said about our film, such as that the music collided very well with what was happening on the screen, and also that the match on action shots were clear and precise. Furthermore, they continue to say that the opening
Q6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt how to use a camera correctly, and also the different kind of shots you can do to make something significant, such as a low shot, to make a character look superior, or a high shot to make a character look vulnerable and weak. I have also learnt how to edit on the computer using After Effects and Premiere Pro and how to add music to make the scene more interesting and captivating.
Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt how films are made, using storyboards and hours of planning to get it correct, and then spending a lot of time on editing to make it perfect for the audience at hand. I have also learnt how to work well as a group and also how to split tasks equally between us so that the film was made in time. I also learnt how to edit and also how to create tension through out using codes and conventions and also using music and certain angles so that some information is distorted and leaves the audience asking for more.
Our Film Credits:
Our media product uses common codes and conventions present in most thrillers. These Codes and conventions are used to enhance the theme of the film and draw the audience into the story. Some examples include such things as, questions, darkness, crime and an everyday setting. Our media product follows these codes and conventions. Firstly we introduce questions when we are introduced to the character, the question that come to mind include, who is this person, why are they up in the middle of the night? And what is important about the flashbacks? Our product challenges the codes and conventions of real media products because we show the villains face almost straight away. This challenges the norm because usually we have to investigate the mystery with the main character. While in our product the main character is the villain. We keep to the darkness convention to add a sense of mystery and eeriness, the advantage of doing this is that people will know what genre of film this is already. Most thrillers are set in a common normal place such as a city or village. We developed this idea by introducing the film in a tighter area, in this case the house. The house is drastically smaller than a city or village and so it brings the setting into a smaller area. This also gives the product a smaller, personal feeling which people may be able to relate to. The advantage of this is that people will see themselves in the product which could increase their liking of the product. One code or convention that is prevalent in a lot of modern thrillers is the government. Some examples of thriller films that contain the code or convention are The Bourne trilogy, State of play, Enemy of the state and Air force one. However we chose not to do this. For if we did then the effect of the personal feeling would have been lost due to the drastic contrast.
This is teenagers over 15 who enjoy thrillers, and films that excite them.
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