Final Evaluation - Fraser Ward

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

1. Our thriller was based around a murderer who disguises himself as a interviewer to get close to the people who destroyed his fathers crime career. The audience had to have no idea of this until the very end of the sequence, so the interview had to look authentic and like it had little to do in relation with the story. This brings the audience into a false sense of security as they sit back and begin to take note of what each character is explaining. The first shot shown is a camera angle that is very commonly seen in interviews. This helps establish that an interview is taking place. The camera is placed at a 1/4 turn from being directly in line with the interviewer. This shows the facial expressions and body language of the character, yet the angle allows it to be shown without distortion that may occur if the camera angle was positioned directly in front.
        

Examples of camera angles widely used in interviews

 

The first scene of my media project is set in a lounge. The country-life setting is quiet and calming which doesn't reflect a thriller movie in any way at all. This was solely to lull the audience into a false sense of security. The quiet setting acts as a medium to allow the flashbacks to take place and build tension throughout the section. The penultimate scene is where the interviewer shoots the interviewee, which is to shock the audience. This is created through creating long scenes without cuts to try and make them quite like the opening scene to Pulp Fiction. The mix of some quick shots with long shots that drag on heighten the nature of the conversation. This makes it easier to follow the storyline, rather than focus other things in the scene.

2.In some of our shots we revealled the filming equipment to make it look as if it were a part of the interview. This add to the authenticity along with extra characters standing in as boom mic operators. This allowed us to break the 'Fourth wall' of filming (The parts the audience don't get to see). The fact that these simple touches lure the audience into mis-interpreting the interview allows the conventions of a thriller to be used uniquely. The tense moments begin to arise when the viewer had realised that the interview is not what it seems. This adds lots of drama to the scene, which is what we intended.

3.In the third shot shown, a different location was used to show a flashback. The scene began with a man strapped to a chair wearing a bag over his head. This instantly rasises questions of his identity or his purpose for being there. Interrogations are brilliant ways of adding dramatic tension to a thriller movie. They lead the audience to wonder why the oerson is being interrigated as such, and whether the victim will be set free or killed. Usually in this kind of scene, it would be expected that the villains would be the ones torturing a hero, yet we broke this convention by showing the main characters torturing information out of the rich crime boss. This is because there are no heroes in our media project, its one criminal after one another which brings audiences to the edge of their seats as each character is as unpredicable as the next as they are without morals and not within the law. 

     We did draw some inspiration from other types of movie genre to add different elements into our project. The bag worn over the head of the person being interrogated has a smiling face crudely drawn onto it. This was a conscious decision to make the opening shot in the garage seem a lot more eerie and twisted. The idea came from the notorious horror films Saw where the killer uses masks to hide his identity throughout the series of films. These elements of horror in our film break the conventions of a normal thriller movie, yet keep to the plot and script of one. Masks have always been a brilliant way of creating mystery and scary vibes, so we also used one to disguise the identity of our antagonist.

Left- The infaous jigsaw killer mask                                                   Right- Our antagonist's mask

4. The fourth shot shown is a revealing shot where the identity of the interrigators is shown. The low angle shot also communicates power to him in order to inform the audience that he is in charge. The whole idea of one of the main characters using torturing methods is a developed idea that not each thriller film needs binary oppositions such as police and robbers or governemt and rebels. Our film uses a unique twist which pits criminals against criminals, yet each is against the law for different reasons, which is what separates them.

5. Every thriller film is based around the idea of tense moments, not such that create horror, but fast moving storylines with hidden information and plot twists throughout. During our media film we hoped to create moments that would make the audience jump or get chills down their spine. We accomplished this mainly during the second flashback wherein glimpses of the 'masked killer' crop up which climaxes on a bag being thrown over one of the characters heads. This was heightened further more with non-diegetic sounds to break through the tense silence. This is quite typical in thriller films such as Taken or The dissappearance of Alice Creed, which centre around kidnappings. The scene where the girl is kidnapped in taken is fast and she pulled away quickly to make the audience jump and feel shock and empathy towards the character. We used this technique in our project by the masked killer appearing suddenly and bringing down the bag quickly. The abduction scene from 'Taken'

6. P.O.V shots are normally used scarcely in films in general, yet they are effective in placing the audience in a character's shoes. We used this shot during the flashback to try and give the audience on how the victim feels in his current situation which is more immersifying. The focus pulls relate to blurry vision to try and obscure his surroundings slightly so only a rough idea of who is causing him such pain is given away. One of the key components to a good thriller storyline is mystery and enigma. Holding information back from the audience and leaving them to guess is a fantastic way to keep them stimulated and immersed in the story. We tried to keep out audience as immersed as possible through these methods to ensure a good quality thriller introduction.

7. With this shot, we decided to break up the tension with a completly unique viewpoint to give a different perspective.The CCTV angle helps the audience feel that the situation is more authentic. A murder would not go unnoticed in the real world, so different ways that the story could continue, such as someone analysing the footage allow viewers to feel that the murders are more truer to reality. This CCTV stlye angle is also used in other thrillers and crime dramas

A promo for the hit US TV Thriller '24' showing a short clip of CCTV angles being used as an alternative perspective.

8. One of our penultimet shots was the gunshot scene, which was attempted many time to try and get right. It had to be perfect as it was the climax of the section and had to be done quickly and sharply. It's quite typical to hold a gun up to the camera as part of a P.O.V shot in a thriller movie, yet it is a good technique to unsettle the audience and make them feel as if they are the ones being threatened. Many films such as James Bond show points of view looking down the barrel of a gun, yet we did not have the resources to do this and we also wanted to reveal the masked killers identity at the same time. Although this shot is a typical convention of a thriller movie it is highly effective and was perfect for use in our project. 

9. The final shot in our whole opening is there to completly break up the tense action that is occuring. Thrillers are based around not knowing the whole story, or not seeing whats really going on. A perfect way to show the death of a character is not always a graphic scene, yet not seeing whats happening can be far more distrubing. The high contrast between the serene flower waving in the wind and the brutal murder of a criminal creates a distrubing image, yet it is highly effective in the context of my media essay.

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

Femininity and masculinity play massive roles in media texts as the stereotypes are easily recognisable by audiences.

MALE- Many thriller movies play heavily on the idea of men being the villains who are power hungry or lead by money. Our villain plays a dominant antagonistic role, driven by vengeance for the loss of his father and the empire he had stolen from him by the interviewee and his colleagues. Our villain therefore had to be confident and strong-willed enought to put on the role of being an interviewer nd maintaining complete control of the situation. The egotistical male stereotype plays heavily in his attitude throughout the opening sequence as his almost cocky remarks seem to narrate the conversation, yet flaws in his words are picked out by silly mistakes such as the scene where he mentions 'Cesar DeLino' yet there was no recollection of him ever having the knowledge to know that name. This represents a more fragile side to the personality of the villain in the scene as it highlightd the fact that his dominant role is not an animalistic and natural feeling, that he is more 'putting on' a tough exterior due to the circumstances which begins to break through the representation of dominant males. As the ending to the opening sequence draws in to a finish you can see more panicky expressions on the antagonists face as he notices his surroundings such as the CCTV camera in the corner.

FEMALE- Women are generally mis-represented in media texts, yet this is mainly due to directors or script writers playing on fraile and fragile female personailties. Throughout our media project, the women are represented as being tougher and also retaliate against the villain. We did this to highlight the fact that our media project is set out to be a Villain vs. Villain/Antihero storyline, so it didnt necessarily fall into a generic thriller stereotype or category. The change form a linear plot line meant we could play around a lot more with our types of characters, as they didnt necessarily need to meet standard thriller conventions without them looking 'out of place'.



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


Our media project was produced at a very small scale, and it would be too costly to show this product at a high end cinema due to costs. A film such as this is more likely to relased digitally or straight to DVD. DVD copies are easy to produce is not costly.

DISTRIBUTION- Film distribution companies can vary heavily in what types of film they distribute, so for our project it would be more likely to approach a smaller scale and British film distribution company. Studios such as Revolver Entertainment distribute UK films on a level that they are not to high budget and are mainly UKbased. A plus side of using a company such as revolver is that they specialise in PR stunts and marketing. This would be perfect for a film that is stylised such as ours by possibly making actors roam London in the villains mask to spread the word of the film.



ADVERTISING- Advertising  film can be expensive, so using low budget soloutions such as adverts on popular websites, such as facebook. Advertising to friends through mediums such as a trailer would be a perfect way to spread the word of our movie to other groups of individuals. Getting featured in an 'up-and-coming' section in a high end magazine tht focuses more on independant cinema (such as HotDog Magazine)

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

•  GENDER - A male audience is more likely to enjoy the action elements of our media product. The fight sequences are meant to be pumped full of adrenaline to add a faster pace to the film. The intricate plot however is more suitable for all. Avoiding making the opening sequence an action packed sequence means the story is more interesting to watch and can appeal to people of any gender.
• AGE - Our final product is not excessively violent. This was done to make sure that the film would be more accessible to all ages. The tense thriller moments are intended to keep audiences of any age group on their toes and in suspense, yet this is done through creepy sections (Such as the mask in the door frame scene below). 

From the charts above you can see that in an interesting revelation, more women watch thriller movies than men. This may because women enjoy the richer storyline, rather than a man enjoying a cold, fast action film with little to do in terms of narrative and lots to do with heavy handed action sequences or gun shootouts. The storyline to my media project is quite intricate and detailed, so it should hopefully appeal stronly to a female audience who enjoy this stly of film. Women are quite empowered thorught our opening sequence also, which should also help boost the attention towards the female gender.


5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I feel our media project would be enjoyable for our audience because it not only delivers a solid, yet intricate and weaving storyline, but is also quite stylised.

STYLE-  The style of which a film may be shot or directed can be subtle or very outstanding and obvious. Films directed by the likes of Quentin Tarantino such as 'Planet Terror' revolve highly around the classic, low-budget, B-movie experience. This creates an identity for his work which becomes a running theme to relate to all his films

 The gritty, film texture adds the B-movie touch to this film, yet we did not take such an approach as this and went for a simpler method. For our project we used props such as the antagonist's mask and the bag over the victim's head to create a strange, twisted and playful nature to the film, yet we also used a frame skipping effect to the flashbbacks to make them all relate to each other and create an old-timed feel, as if the audience were looking into the past. This allows the audience to enjoy the film more, as there are items and props that the viewers themselves might want to own as a collector item. The video effect would make the film more recognisable if others were made and it could become a trademark of that film's franchise.


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

An example of using Live Type to integrate dynamic and moving text into our media project.

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

 A comparison of a shot that was not white balanced in our preliminary (Left) and a shot that was white balanced in our final project (Right)

• MISTAKES- When filming our preliminary project we slightly rushed aspects of it which, unfortunately, lead to there being some errors in continuity. Simple mistakes in our preliminary could have been avoided such as setting the white balance properly every time. For one of our POV shots (above, left) we simply rushed the shot to save time and setting the white balance was overlooked. This impacts the film massively as the audience will notice a change in colour of the lighting which reminds the audience they are watching a film and takes them out of the storyline. In our final media project we made sure that every single shot had the white balance set. This cuts out any problems such as having to re-shoot a whole scene.

•  KNOWLEDGE- Valuable knowledge was gained from shooting our preliminary. We learned that is was possible for us to be adventurous with our camera shots even without resources that are only accessible with a large budget. Our 360 degree spin in our preliminary was the shot that was designed to 'wow' the audience. It was cleverly carried out through using a small dolly and sped up in post-production. The ideas gained from creating that shot broadened our knowledge of using editing software. This gained knowledge helped tremendously when shooting our final project as it allowed us to determine how we could perform different shots so they would be easy to manipulate during editing. Featured below are a couple of examples of such choices.

For this shot we left a large open space in the extreme close-up to have enough room to fit the actors name in the background. We also used a focus pull to make the text seem dynamic as it pulled in and out of focus in time with the scene.