Evaluation - Danielle Driscoll

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

Conventions of a thriller:

• Suspense 
• Enigma
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Victim
• Threat

Many of the conventions above were included in our Media Studies AS thriller production to establish our film within its genre. Since our production was an opening, we wanted to specify our audience straight away and isolate them by using enigma and suspense, as well as a victim for them to sympathise with.

In our film the threat is not clear straight away, but as the film continues it becomes apparent that Jasmine is the antagonist, and Jessica is the victim. The relation between the two is similar to that of Danny and Alice in 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed'.

Our production conveyed Jessica as a victim by using specific camera work and mise en scene.

This is an EXT LS that establishes where the film is taking place. It also creates enigma  as to where it is; in a garden? Will a child be involved due to the swing? What country is it? Why are we shown this first? Why not go straight to the action? This all raises questions, which is why we chose to show this at the beginning; it puts the spectators in a position where they might not like it, creating suspense and isolation. This shot is an example of restricted narration, because like the character, the audience is unaware of where she is and why. The location is dark and eerie and there are leaves on the ground suggesting it is late autumn, early winter. The combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound creates parallel sounding, helping to enhance the mood and vision; the whistling wind complements to dreary atmosphere.

This high angle MLS of Jessica automatically raises enigma; who is she? Where is she? The same place we saw at the beginning? Why is she in a cage? Why is she tied up? Has she been kidnapped? This is another example of restricted narration as the audience know little or less than the character does. The high angle MLS also allows a sufficient amount of the background and props to been seen by the audience, which adds additional communication about the meaning. High angle was used to show power and demand through the antagonist. This shot shows a victim who is open to vulnerability as she is alone, we know this by the fact that she's tied up around the wrists and ankles with rope which is revealed through a slow tilt to create suspense; a key prop in thrillers which connotes hopelessness, isolation, fear - but also strength; all conventions of thrillers which impose the audience to sympathize with the character. We chose to clothe the girl in a grey jumper, put on by the antagonist (which we don't see happening, but perhaps if the film was to continue we may have seen it in a flashback) which shows they have planned the kidnap as they disposed her previous clothes to get rid of any evidence. The setting is in a cage connoting entrapment and torture and the natural low-key lighting is overlooked as dull and energy-less; this reflects on how the girl is feeling. The non-diegetic sound is the music; high pitched and eerie which helps create a sense of foreboding. The diegetic sound is the rustling of the girl as she starts to panic whilst regaining consciousness.

This canted POV, low angle MLS is of the victim as she starts to come round from the deep sleep once the pillow case has been pulled off. A canted shot was used to show disorientation from the victim as she doesn't know where she is and the low angle anchors the fact that she is weak and vulnerable in this situation. Ellipses has been used to condense the time of her sleeping straight to the next scene. The focus pulling reinforces this idea as it shows she is tired and the immediate contact with daylight hurts her eyes. This is something the audience can relate with as I'm sure everyone has experienced this when out in the sun. As the girl starts to focus, the audience will see that the 'kidnapper' is holding an electronic device, a mobile phone, which the antagonist then takes a photo of the victim, backed up by the foley of a shutter sound to emphasize the prop. Spectators will then ask, why did they take a photo? Will they send it to someone? Is this a two man job? Prior to this the audience sees the victim in the boot of a blue Nissan, revealing there has been a car journey - significant in thrillers. It could be arguable that the narration is both restricted and unrestricted as the girl was in a deep sleep and wouldn't know what has happened, even up to the point of the photo being taken. The diegetic sound of heavy breathing compliments the fear of the unknown, the victim is distressed - another element in thrillers. 

This LS of the antagonist shows them pulling down the garage shutter. Enigma is brought up as the audience don't know where this is. Why is the threat there? Why are the shutters being pulled down? Where is the girl? Is she still in the car? The villain is also framed to the right of the shot showing a lot of the shutter, this composition shows just how vast the garage is, making the audience feel lost. We decided to use a garage as a setting as it has strong connotations of entrapment, isolation, dead-end - making the audience feel all of these when watching it. The shot starts off completely black and the diegetic sound-bridge of the shutters is high pitched, putting the spectators in a place they don't particularly like as high frequencies trigger pain in the ear and sound similar to screaming. Along with this is the parallel non-diegetic sound that is a low, alarming gong, notifying the audience that something concerning is about to take place. We chose to put some titles here as it shows up nicely against the low-key lighted background, and we used a filter where individual letters fade away, connoting the victim's mental strength slowly disappearing as she doesn't know what's going to happen. At this particular point it is yet again arguable that the narrative is restricted and unrestricted and the audience don't know if the girl is in the garage or not, thus creating suspense and tension.       

This subjective POV is a CU of the victims hands as she struggles to free herself from the rope. This induces the audience to feel isolated and anxious. The diegetic pulling and struggling helps to reinforce these feelings. The spectators are still taken along the path of a restricted narrative as this gets them involved with the action as they too are still questioning as to why this girl is tied up and captivated in a cage. The mediate cuts prior to this shot create pace, showing the girl is panicking; creating a rise in the audience's heartbeats, as they too are panicking whilst sitting on the edge of their seats.    

This eye level POV conveys the threat walking towards the victim in big, black, leather boots. These stereotypically relate to males and masculinity, and because of that, we chose the antagonist to be wearing boots because of that factor. They're also Dr. Martens boots, which have a history with skinheads and connote violence. We also included this shot as it shows detail to what sex they are; big feet, approximately 50cm walking length, stern footing - which all resemble to males. Of course now, the spectators are convinced the threat is male. We deliberately fooled the audience to believe the threat is male as stereotypically they are, and disguised the female antagonist by making the character wear a leather jacket and balaclava - typically associated with men. Particularly the balaclava which is tagged with terrorism and hidden identity. Prior to this shot the audience sees an EXT LS of a figure walking whilst the camera slowly pans to the left indicating where the subject is going and making the narrative unrestricted as we now know more than the victim, accompanied by parallel sound where the non-diegetic changes to a more sinister tone, alerting the audience that this character is a threat.

This MCU shows the victim being drugged by the threat as she starts to struggle and for the first time we hear her vocalize, which gets the audience to engage and sympathize for her. We decided to use a tissue with chemicals to make the victim go into a deep sleep as many thrillers seem to have this in them. Before this shot the audience sees the girl leaning up against the cage with a pillow case over her head and her hands still tied up. This could raise enigma as to why she doesn't try and run, but as we soon find out her feet of course are still tied up. But the need for the audience to shout 'GO, RUN!' shows they can relate to how she is feeling, and feel hopeless when she is drugged. We used a pillow case to cover the victims face as it heightens the fear of isolation and senses - she can't see, which creates tension and darkness. The slow eerie non-diegetic sound anchors the slow deep sleep the victim in going in to.

This high angle EXT LS establishes where the girl is, and from this we know she's in a mechanics garage, because of the ramps. tires and oil pumps - this all shows the victims isolation. This then raises enigma as we don't what will happen. Is she going to be tortured? Is she on her own? Will she escape? We chose to show this through CCTV as it shows she is being watched constantly, and there is no way to escape because of this. Whilst on CCTV, there is a jump cut to when the victim stands up and starts looking around. However, the CCTV was all done in post production which fools the audience into thinking it is real - this was done by adding a CCTV filter which includes faded lines and time. It was also recorded in night vision. The narration is unrestricted and objective as we now know more than her; she hasn't a clue that she's being watched by cameras. The diegetic sound of the CCTV turning on emphasises that fact that the girl is being watched. We chose to film this in night-mode as it makes it a little more spooky and questions whether it's day or night.

We decided to put the title of the film right at the end of the opening instead of the beginning as creates more of a suspended atmosphere. We used a filter to make the numbers show vertically on top of one another to reinforce the importance of the number and that each individual number means something in the film. The non-diegetic sound of the thunder roll empowers the entrance of the title and engages the audience as they have just discovered the antagonist is a woman, along with the eerie bells making the audience feel distant from the victim.

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

In our thriller we show only two characters Jessica (victim) and Jasmine (antagonist), but none the less they represent certain social groups; such as class, age and gender.

• Class

It is uncertain to pin point what class both characters are from, but because Jessica is going to be trained to be an assassin, her class would be educated. However, in the film we see her to be vulnerable due to the situation she is in. Jasmine would be upper-middle class; quite wealthy, as she is an assassin. Although, she doesn't come across as this because of the costume she is wearing - leather bike jacket, boots, balaclava.

• Age

Jessica is meant to be in her mid twenties as she needs the mental and physical ability to become an assassin, although in the film she is portrayed to look 20-21 due to her costume which makes her look vulnerable. She's naive, pretty and innocent, and the way she reacts in her captive situation; heavy breathing and slight whining, suggests she is unable to cope when out of her depth.

Jasmine is also meant to be in her mid twenties, early thirties as she needs the mental and physical ability to an assassin and train her apprentice. Our thriller has very negative connotations of her being sinister as the audience would feel she's kidnapped this girl for no apparent reason to their knowledge. However, due to her costume, she looks a lot older in her mid thirties perhaps. 

• Gender 

Gender in our film plays a very important part as we decided to go against the stereotype of a male kidnapper. The mise en scene of the antagonist is all very masculine; leather jacket, big boots, balaclava, strong build, tall, threatening - which positions the audience to believe that she is a male. Although, they could have have been wearing just a balaclava and masculine clothes, but to make the audience feel threatened by the character, dressing them as they were was the best decision to portray them as sinister and dark. This all then later raises enigma when she picks up the phone as say's 'I've got her', as the spectators would hear a voice that sounds like a female. The way she walks has a very intended way about it; she knows what she's doing, everything is deliberate which can be associated with manliness.  She is in charge, dominant and independent.

Jessica's gender is also shown through areas of mise en scene; costume, facial expression, hair, make-up and body language. Her costume consists of a grey jumper, fluffy boots and grey, tight jeans which emphasizes her curves and reflects her femininity. She is very stereotypically feminine, she's a victim and weak, vulnerable, dependent and beautiful. Her facial expressions and body language show this vulnerability and weakness; the way she doesn't try and scream or cry for help, shakes and struggles as well as the look of fear on her face. Her hair and make-up reflect her beauty. However, if she was to be dressed more provocative and a lot more kick ass, the audience may not sympathize with her as much as they may feel she can stand on her own two feet and stick up for herself.       

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

I decided not to distribute the film via the cinema due to cost; it's a low budget UK thriller with new actors that no one would have heard of, and on average, one print costs around £1800. A saturation release would approximately have nine-hundred copies of the film, with around 5 reels per film. So, the grand total to exhibit the film would be £8 million.

Upon these facts, I feel as though making a deal with Apple and releasing the film on iTunes would be the best way around it based on these reasons:

• The target audience for my film are teenagers and young adults, particularly males but females too who are the mainstream of iTunes.
• The age of my target audience would suggest they are still in education and spend a lot of time studying on the PC listening to music, mainly downloaded from iTunes. Because of this, it would be the perfect opportunity to advertise the film when they go to the iTunes Store to purchase/download something.  
• Because it would be exclusive to Apple only, I would contact Orange as they too have a deal with Apple where as if you're an Orange customer, every Thursday you can receive/download a new film from iTunes on them. This would be perfect for students as they financially don't have the money to spend at the cinema or on DVD.
• The Orange mobile phone network is also a major UK and world brand with both a strong network and customer base in the UK. The Orange network has more base stations than any other UK mobile phone network and offers a comprehensive overseas service for customers.
• I would have the film released on iTunes on a Wednesday as it's a low budget film and if it has enough views in the UK it can always be released on iTunes worldwide. 
• If you download the film, it can easily be watched via television by connecting the PC to the TV and most households today have a widescreen plasma TV, making it feel cinematic. It can also be watched whilst on the go on an iPod, iPad or iPhone, meaning you can watch it as many times as you like wherever you are. 
• It's also more economic than watching it at the cinema or on DVD.

Spike Jonze, who's an American director, producer and actor, created a short sci-fi romance film called I'm Here, which was premiered on Facebook and Sally Potter, a British film director and screenwriter created a film RAGE, which was all filmed on an iPhone and is simultaneously available on mobile, online, digital screens and DVD. This all goes to show that you don't need to spend thousands of money to distribute a film in theatre.

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

The age guideline for this film would be 15 because as the film progresses, there will be accounts of violence and perhaps strong language and imitable behavior.

The audience would be teenagers and young adults who likes action, suspense and constant enigma being raised. Particularly, stereotypically, males as this kind of thriller would definitely address this demographic, due to the attractive women and the adrenaline packed action. However women too will enjoy it as it conveys this whole cultural 'girl power' - they are equally as strong mentally and physically to men.

I would point out that anyone from the older generation would probably not be interested in this film and may find it inappropriate as it shows infliction of pain and they may not understand the whole modernized culture of today's society.  

I was originally going to put 12A as the guideline for the film as it has similar aspects to the newly released The Hunger Games, but due to the recent criticism it's had I decided to change it to 15.

Other action thrillers this demographic would be interested in:

• Trapped
When their daughter is kidnapped by experienced nappers, the Jennings' turn the tables on this seemingly foolproof plan.

• The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Two men fortify a nondescript British apartment so it can serve as a prison, and then kidnap a woman and tie her to a bed. Before there's even time to react, we're plunged into a very nasty situation, but not a simple one.

• The Entitled
A young man, broke and jobless, abducts three rich college kids to try and get money from their fathers.

• Cellular
A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. The catch? The woman claims to have been kidnapped; and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Since our demographic is male we felt that a victimized, beautiful young woman would create sympathy and an attraction from them. Males like the idea of being a hero in such a situation which helps the thriller be of interest to them. The shots we used increased her vulnerability to create this sympathy and attraction, for example POV and CU.

Even though the beginning of our product is quite measured and slow the suspense makes up for this, and this high tension is liked among our audience. The fast pace of our cage scene is also interesting for a younger demographic; fast moving with enigma.

I showed our thriller opening to a few people around college, Facebook and at home, and this is what they said: 

"An excellent film, if you saw it on T.V. you wouldn't think it was done by AS students" - Kelvin Morris

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

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

Since our preliminary task I have progressed in my development of technology skills, the use of camerawork, mise en scene, and my ability in continuity editing.

I've learnt how to smoothly focus pull on a camera manually to show disorientation in a character and to create tension and enigma for the audience as they await to see what is to be revealed. This focus pull particular was brilliant in this shot as it shows the girl regaining consciousness.   

In our preliminary we used short takes and quick cuts in editing to build up pace and show Rebecca was late for her interview. In editing I feel as though I've learnt how to perfect this by using quick cuts in this scene to show the victim is panicking and to make the audience's adrenaline race as they start to sympathize for her. By doing this, I've been able to sharpen my match on action technique and improve long takes to to create mood and atmosphere. 

In this shot we used GarageBand to put non-diegetic sound on as the audience sees the antagonist for the first time. Since our preliminary task, I've become more confident in using GarageBand, as I hadn't really used it before making our thriller opening and in the preliminary, a querky, fast paced soundtrack was downloaded from YouTube, but because of copyright, music had to be created via GarageBand for the thriller, which took a while to piece together as it had to be parallel to a particular mood, and used more sparingly with varied volume to enhance the mood.

I found adding titles to our film reasonably difficult as there wasn't a particularly dark area to put them, and when there was, there was something important happening. During our preliminary, we didn't add any titles up until the end of the film making it easier to do. So, I've definitely learnt how to put titles in the right place. We also added non-diegetic sound as they appeared to give them more importance and to boost the tension.   

During this shot we used a foley to enhance the sound of the lock, making the audience feel uneasy by it and on edge as they know where the antagonist is going. In our preliminary, we didn't use any foleys. Therefore it's definitely helped my understanding in recreating sounds, which again is an improvement from the preliminary.  

I've learnt how to construct a character by using aspects of mise on scene, sound , editing and specific camerawork. In this shot the antagonist is presented through a canted shot, reflecting their mental and physical status. This is also a POV shot from the victim showing they are weak and vulnerable as she is looking up. The villain is holding a pillow case, which in thrillers are associated with suffocation, making the audience feel isolated like the young girl. In our preliminary we used certain features of a teacher to make the audience believe it is real; for instance, the setting was in a room surround by educational papers, timetable and a computer. We also used specific lexis like 'young children' and 'teachers 'assistant', to help reinforce this idea.

In this shot we decided to add another foley of the victim heavily breathing as we couldn't find any on GarageBand that were good enough to use. Because our characters were simple and didn't need to be manipulated in any way in our preliminary, I wasn't able to explore GarageBand or foleys enough.

This is another good example of match on action being used in continuity editing. In this scene we used different camera shots and angles to explore what moods and feeling they create for the audience. When filming our preliminary, we were still learning different shots and angles and were new to this idea of match on action and the 180 degree rule, but we managed to pull it all of in our opening and my understanding in the 180 degree rule has improved vastly.

In our thriller opening we got to explore mise en scene and the effects different lighting has on a subject. In this shot the antagonist is receiving a phone call from an unknown caller. The lighting on the character emphasis the sinister atmosphere they withhold as they are surround by black and are only lit up by the TV. We were unable to explore lighting in our preliminary as our characters didn't have a huge role to play around with in terms of lighting.