In my final media product ‘Next’ we used, developed and challenged the use of codes and conventions compared to real media products in a number of ways. Before the planning of our media thriller, we concentrated on existing media thrillers and the codes and conventions that are used to distinguish the sub-genres. From this I was able to know what is expected in a thriller opening. (See post ‘conclusion’ – Thursday 6th November 2008).
It also helped us develop our ideas of mise en scene we could use throughout our product to help establish our genre and the effect we wanted to create in ‘Next.’ One main aspect I noticed when analysing the existing media products where their stereotypical ideologies are used throughout. These being: colour is used at a minimum, cold colours are used to create uneasy environments whilst contrasting with bold colours, such as red which often connotes danger. A long first establishing shot is used which helps the audience immediately distinguish the narrative and the genre and over the shoulder shots are commonly used, helping the audience engage as it creates mystery and confusion. From my research I also discovered that the music is generally at a slow pace with the use of instruments like violins and piano, which further creates a sinister feel to the opening and a sense of tension. However, some films use the soundtrack in a completely opposite way; some use loud, fast paced music such as the opening for Casino Royal but this is often used to reflect the genre. As our thriller is a Romantic – mystery – teen thriller we chose to use a gentle piano piece.
I also discovered the beginning titles are symbolic to the narrative, whilst being attention grabbing, although titles differ due to the genre of the thriller. For example, when making the titles for my product, I was highly influenced by the thriller ‘Psycho’ – Alfred Hitchcock, seeing as it’s a psychological thriller with a similar narrative. The titles used are simply black with white text, which could represent a sense of good vs. evil between the protagonist and the antagonist. Not only this but the white text contrasts with the background, therefore creating an attention grabbing effect.
To further entice the audience and to use the codes and conventions of real media products we added fading transitions to the titles, representing the steam created by the bathroom where the protagonist drowns his victims.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product is about a teenage boy who is isolated from his school peers, leading him to become a psychopath. Seeing as our protagonist and the majority of characters in the thriller are teenagers, we used mise en scene to represent – clothing, surroundings, props, location and body language. To distinguish the characters roles within the thriller we represented their social status to portray their gender and age. This mainly applied to the main character, the psychopath. We used low key, blood orange lighting to reinforce his mental state and used dark clothing to produce a sense of mystery about the character. On the other hand, we represented the couple to juxtapose with the psychopath protagonist. We decided that we wanted them to look vulnerable compared to the protagonist. To do this their costume was smart and simple, the female character wore a dress, enhancing the attractiveness of the character. We also filmed their shots in daylight; we initially had planned to film on sunny days to assure high key lighting, representing their innocence and vulnerability. It also created a nice atmosphere and surrounding to intensify the fact they are happily in a relationship.
This screenshot clearly shows the contrast in lighting which we used to represent the characters roles within the narrative.
The locations we used also played a big part in how we represented our characters. The location of the protagonist is mainly in his bedroom, being a stereotypical place to represent isolation. We also used mise en scene to intensify this. In the first shot (see film - 48 seconds) the book shelf includes a number of education books, such as Spanish books and the dictionary, representing the character as nerdy – which stereotypically are cast out by the majority, becoming the minority in teen cultures. It also represents the teenage culture of today; the ongoing obsession and want for popularity, as modernity has made it – being the grounded rules for teenagers to become ‘individual’ and ironically fall into ‘unindivudual’ groups or groups with only the interest of friendship through their naivety.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our product would be published by an Art house, which mainly aims at a niche audience. As our audience will be mainly aimed at men, an art house film would be most suitable as Art house publications are mainly aimed towards the male gender. From my research I believe New line cinema would most likely produce our thriller as they have previously published films with the same sub-genres.
One film that is similar to ours that new line cinema has produced is ‘seven’ – directed by David Fincher, which has a similar opening. Out film would be consumed through small chain of cinemas in order to create a unique factor.
4) Who would be the target audience for your media product?
The target audience for ‘Next’ is teenage – middle age. The BBFC that we thought would be suitable is a 15, seeing as the majority of the cast in the film are 16-17 years old.
However after finishing the final cut and having analysed it myself, I feel it is border lining an 18 certificate. This being because the narrative itself is extreme and some of the shots used are explicit. If this film was to be further produced I would expect it to involve detailed portrayal of violence and maybe even sexual assault. However, because of our age restriction and the budget, we wouldn’t be able to include that. Not only this but such extreme shots are not part of the codes and conventions that are used to create a successful thriller opening. A previous film in which has a similar narrative to ‘Next’ is ‘ All the boys love Mandy Lane’ as it’s a romantic –mystery –teen thriller, which is based upon jealousy and the youth of today’s behaviour, especially when it involves the opposite sex. However, even though this film includes characters of teenage years, it is an 18, as it includes detailed convocations about sex and illegal drug use. Our thriller would also appeal to men more so than woman. The dominant sex represented in our thriller is male; this is because stereotypically men are seen as the dominant figure. The main character which we used is therefore male, his position in the narrative is that he stalks and takes notes of pretty popular girls around the school (stereotypical factor of teenage life). However he is mainly obsessed with the one girl, Abby Jones. This immediately shows the male dominance as the female character is shown as a possession.5) How did you attract your target audience?
Within the film, we used a number of techniques to engage the audience. This mainly consists of violence and danger – key for any sub-genre of a thriller and also mystery – key for keeping the audience engaged. Part of our film which i feel worked successfully due to violence and danger is (see movie 1:36-1:57.)I feel the gradual pace of music that increases really intensifies that shot, the location looks hot and stuffy, also intensifying the shot as it increases the sense of suffocation and finally that the shot is filmed using POV, increasing the mystery. I also feel that the shot where the protagonist strokes the photo booth picture of the girl and her boyfriend worked successfully. The high key lighting reinforcing the fact that this is the character that envies the girl and her boyfriend, and that he is the one who is the psychopath protagonist. However, you don’t get to see his face properly throughout, yet in this shot you can only see his hand and hair, intensifying the mystery of the character (see film 1:09-1:15). I believe this would attract the target market as violence is a big seller in today’s media market. Also sexual attraction is a big seller in today’s market; from this we included Abby Jones as our attractive main girl, who would attract out target market. We decided to use her because of her close resemblance to the actress Amber Heard, the stunning lead girl from the thriller ‘All the boys love Mandy Lane.’ Both of which portray innocence by their long blonde hair and perfect smiles, perfect for the part of endangered female character.
This image clearly shows the close similarities between our chosen actress, Abbie Jones with Amber Heard, the actress used in a similar thriller as ‘Next’.
Seeing as the majority of teenagers and young adults use a social networking site, we felt it was important to set up a Facebook group advertising our thriller publically to attract our target audience.This turned out to be a brilliant success as we received some positive and negative responses. It helped me understand where we went wrong during the production of the film, whilst getting our work observed and enjoyed by our target market.
I feel the last response is the most helpful, they have noticed our overall intentions of the thriller to attract our target audience.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
Over the course of making this media product I have overcome a number of difficulties. At the beginning i struggled to use the camera at a high standard, although I was capable of using it, because of this I took the role of the director in the preliminary task and in the final thriller piece. However after a number of times re-filming, I took charge of the camera work as well. From doing this my camera work significantly improved, I even found myself shooting effective point of view shots. When we first began filming, we realised how ineffective zooming is, as we used it in nearly every shot. We also realised it is very rarely used in successful thrillers, unless it is the beginning first opening shot. Example – (2:00minutes into opening – The village). Another problem that occurred was that we forgot to check id the camera was charged, which put back our shooting schedule. After this we always made sure the camera was fully charged before shooting. One problem that I struggled with throughout the course of this project was the software, ‘premiere pro.’ As much as I was instructed to use it, I still found myself struggling to use and understand it. Gradually I became more confident and I can now edit footage at a good quality, fine cutting work to gradually build suspense by the length and build up of the shots, although I can still further improve this skill. I feel the transitions we used worked really effectively with our piece, helps to flow better as there is too much going on in the two minutes.
7) Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
At the beginning of the coursework where we were given planning tasks to make an animatic, storyboard, shot schedule and to choose the sub-genre for the thriller. I felt completely out of my comfort zone as it was the first time I’ve ever made a movie. Looking back, I wish I understood how important the planning was in order to create successful footage. Especially the storyboard as the one we made was far too vague due to the fact our ideas kept on changing. We finished with completely different shots than we originally planned due to the poor storyboard. One of the main parts that we had to change is that we included shots that weren’t suitable for the BBFC certificate. From the preliminary continuity task, I feel I have improved massively. Before I was incapable of fine editing and using editing to create pace (see blog ‘Monday 17th November 2008 – real continuity task -13 seconds). At this point of the footage I didn’t even remove the unwanted dialog saying ‘action’. This clearly proves that my technology skills where poor, where as now, I was able to remove any unwanted sound whilst fine cutting the soundtrack to enhance the crescendo at the climax of our thriller.
This is the first exercise we ever made using any media equipment. The pace of the music should be playing parallel to the action on screen, yet the music and sound effects are completely out of time with the action. (See animatic- 0.22 seconds) the bellowing music should be used to signify the characters importance, however the music is introduced 2 seconds before the character is even in the shot, reducing the crescendo of the piece. However to build up the suspense, we attempted to edit the shots to gradually build up a paces towards the end of the piece.
This continuity task does show some developed skills. Some shots are steady, especially during the shot reverse shot (see continuity task 0.10-0.17 seconds). However the majority of the footage is poor quality. The continuity of the character walking to the door, then entering the room is too long, creating the sense of reality to be destroyed, (see continuity task 0.00 – 0.09). The sound is also a major issue. We were unable to control the background unwanted noise, however we could of edited this, therefore leaving the piece sounding unprofessional.
This is our final media product showing the overall development I have made as a media student throughout the year compared to the two previous preliminary tasks. I feel the following are the main improvements I have made:
I feel the use of titles are effective as they are simple but with the use of black and white colour scheme linking back with the narrative and genre of the piece. I also learnt how to use transitions effectively, reflecting the narrative and genre of the piece, common forms and conventions used in real thrillers. (See film: 0.00-0.47)
My knowledge of understand how to use sound effectively and efficiently has developed significantly compared to the previous tasks. We used incising eerie music which is used to develop suspense, sound effects are also added during title sequence reflecting on the narrative (see film: 0.00 -0.47). We also used a gradual build up of music to increase the thrill and suspense towards the crescendo (see film: 1.37-2.02)
My camera work has dramatically improved after the constant re-shooting sessions as we included technical use of camera and a variety of shots:
Smooth panning (see film: 0.56-1.00)
POV shots (see film: 1.31-1.43
Close up shots with panning (see film: 1.56-2.02)
However the camera work could still be improved as some shots are not steady, I feel this destroys the sense of realism and makes the film look unprofessional. ( see film: 1.17-1.21) and (see film: 1.56-2.02) This is something I feel I can and will be able to further improve.
