Jaz evaluation

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


Conventions of a thriller:

•  Enigma
•  Suspense
•  Threat
•  Antagonist
•  Protagonist 
•  and Victim.

Our film used a majority of these convention with a combination of sound, editing, mise en scene and camera work to create a product of the triller genre.

This shot clearly identifies the girl in the frame as the victim. The mise en scene helps to create enigma, we see a girl inside a cage. This raises questions such as

• Why is she there?
• What has happened to her?

The props, such as the rope she is tied up with also create suspense by suggesting being kept there against her will. Which also creates a sense of threat. Threat is also created in this shot by indicating that she is alone, and in an eerie, empty location.

The sound is also key in this shot. It is non diegetic and consists of a high pitch tone which enhances the eerie, lonely mood. which in turn creates suspense and
enhances the idea that the girl in the frame is the victim.

This shot also conforms to the genre by including more of the conventions of a thriller.

• Mise en scene is used to great effect in creating suspense, enigma and threat. The make up which we chose to use ( the mud on her face) was used to make it appear like she had struggled and been miss treated in some way. Which, naturally helps to portray her as the victim, and creates suspense and enigma by again raising questinos as to who is she, and what has happened to her?
• Costume was important in creating atmosphere in this scene. We went with the grey coulours to enhance and reflect the mood of the film, grey connotes a dull, miserable and dangerous feeling.
• Camera work is also very important in this shot as we used focus pulling. We decided to use a focus pull as we were trying to give the impression that the girl had previously been passed out and was coming to in an unknown location. The camera was also at a slightly high angel, which helps the character look vulnerable and inferior.

This is the first shot that introduces the potential threat/ antagonist.

• The costume is very important in this scene as it strongly disguises the character, creating enigma and causing the character to seem more threatening.
•  The costume is black, which creates negative connotations, it is a very dark, mysterious colour which again enhances the danger associated with the character.
• This shot is also a very strong contrast between the previous shots of the girl, struggling and in danger. This contrast is important as it clearly distinguishes the difference in the characters roles in the rest of the film. 
• Editing was also important in this scene. This is an example of cross cutting. This helps to create suspense as the viewers can see the threat getting close to the victim, but the victim does not know. 
• The sound in this shot starts with a subtle thunder roll which helps show the characters importance, and again helps with idea that this character is a threat to the girl in the previous shots.

This shot enhances the portrayal of the antagonist.

• Mise on scene helps to reinforce the sense of thret by being able to see the padlock of the door.This prop is emportant as it emphasises the fact that the girl is trapped and unable to escape.
• with the sound in this shot we used a foley of the padlock being unlocked again to enhance the negative, threatening connotations of the shot.
• The shot composure also helps to disguise the identity of the character, creating tension and suspense.
• We were going to follow this shot with a close up of the padlock, however we felt is appeared to obvious and would have disrupted the flow of the scene.

This shot helps increase suspense, enigma and enhance the threat.

• The mise en scene helps to create engima. The victim is having chloroform put over her face to force her to pass out. This raises questions as to why she need to be passed out? where is she going to be taken? why can she not see where she is going?
• The camera work also helps create enigma. The threat is not fully in the frame, causing their identity to be disguised. This again raises questions like who are they? why are they in disguise? why can the girl not see them? 
• Suspense is created again by the mise scene. The girl is not much more vulnerable as she is passing out. She has no way of defending herself, so anything could happen to her. As the audience do not yet know the purpose they would expect a very bad outcome.
• We also used a foley to create suspense. We recorded the girl screaming separately and put in on the film afterwards. This helped to convey the girls emotions, which was scared and panicked. This helps the audience empathise with the character.

 


This is a shot which helps creates enigma and                                           suspense.

• This is a point of view shot which helps the audience empathise with the girl. The see what she sees, which creates suspense as initially she has a bag over her head, this restricts the view creating suspense and enigma.
• Enigma is created by the mise en scene. The person taking the picture is very questionable. Why are they taking the picture? What will they do with the picture? 
• This shot also used focus pulling, this emphasises the girls drowsy state and the fact that she has been unconscious and has no idea where she is/what is happening to her. This again creates enigma, Where is she being taken? 
• We also used a foley of the girl breathing, this enhances the point of view shot and makes it more realistic. The breathing is quick and panicked which helps to create suspense as its obvious the girl is scared. This causes the audience to be nervous for her. 
• Here is an example of restricted narration, where the audience only knows as much as the victim, this helps to create suspense.

  This shot creates threat, enigma and suspense.

• The diegetic sound is extremely important in this shot, it is a high pitch screeching sound. This is a sound which makes the viewers uncomfortable s it is not something which they are used to hearing. This creates threat as it is out of the ordinary and makes the viewer cautious.
• Threat is also created by the restricted narration created in editing. The viewer has no idea where the girl has been taken, or what is gong to happen to her. This also creates enigma... Where is she? why is it such a secret location?
• The mise en scene also helps. The setting is dark and very low key lighting was used. This creates suspense as the viewer cannot properly see what is happening.

In this shot, the victim does not appear as vulnerable as before, however she is unaware that she is still being watched.

• The mise en scene shows the victim standing upright,  showing her panic as she had previously been pretty much unconscious. Also, the night vision effect and the numbers at the bottom of the screen make it clear that this is through CCTV. This creates a threat and suspense as there is now unrestricted narration. The viewer knows that she is probably unaware of the CCTV. They also become concerned for her safety as she is now alone.
• The camera work is also very important in this scene. The camera is at a very high angle and the girl is seen from an ELS, this makes her seem more timid and vulnerable, which increases the connotations of her as the victim.

This scene is probably one of the most important within the opening.

• The mise en scene is essential in  this scene. It now becomes clear that the threat character, which was previously portrayed as a male is actually a female. This shocks and confuses the viewers and creates suspense for the events which are to unfold.
• The sound is also crucial. The woman says 'I've got her.' (We were going to change this to something which was more controlled, such as 'target acquired' but we were unable to re-film this section.) This sound is so important as it is a female voice which emphasises the fact that it is a female speaking, again shocking the viewer.

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


Our thriller, only having two characters, represents certain social groups. The main ones being

• Age
• Gender

All of these different representations help to construct character and atmosphere.
Age:

• The age of the victim (jess) is late teens. This helps to appeal to our audience, as they would be of a similar age and can relate to the character. 
• Her age plays an important par tin Jess's characterisation., as her age is young, she is portrayed as vulnerable and slightly naive. Her age is portrayed by a comination of mise en scene and camera work.
• Mise en scene:                                                                                                                                Her costume was very important when we were planing, she had to look young but not in a way that would cause the audience to believe she was a child. 
• Camera work:                                                                                                                                    The camera work also helps to show her age by using a lot of high angle shots, this helps because she is seen as more timid which would imply that she was of a younger age.

•  The age of the antagonist is mid 20's. In the film this character is a fully trained, skillfull assasin. The age had to be older as the skills which this character posseses have had to be learned. The older age also implies power and experience, somethign which was a key feature when deciding on out characters. 
• Mise en scene:                                                                            The costume helps with age as it is almot completely ambigous, however the costume which we chose was one which was intimidating and powerful, with black being the main colour. We also chose for out character to wear Dr. Martens, a boot which has historical connotations to violence and threat.

Gender

• The way gender is represented in our film is very important. We have challenged, and conformed to stereotypes. 
• We challenged the stereotype of a male antagonist. Although the antagonist originally appears male, at the end of the opening it becomes clear that it is actually a female. This would shock viewers and they would be surprised at this revelation. This represents females as strong, powerful individuals which is similar to the film Salt, by challenging the stereotypes the whole film becomes different and this could also change the demographic.
• The mise en scene of the antagonist is very masculine. The costume,  the majority of which is black,  holds many many masculine connotations. The biker jacket specifically. Motorbiking is an activity which is stereotypically male dominated. 

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

I would choose Kaleidoscope film distribution to distribute our film. They are a relatively new comapny, which started out in 2010.They distribute several films which are similar to ours, such as interview with a hit-man an action thriller which follows the life of an assassin. They are a british company who 'As part of its mission to support independent film and film makers, in its first year of operation, KFD part financed eight of its feature titles.'

I think this would be a good distribution company as it helps support independent films, which is what ours is and can also help with funding. 
They have just signed a powerful new thriller called Victim Written by and starring Ashley Chin and Michael Maris (both Sket and Anuvahood).  This film will be distributed internationalls and screened at the berlin film festival.
This is the type of distribution which I think would benefil our film.

Here are two videos of films which they have previously distributed.


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

Initially I thought this film would be a 12, however after gaining audience feedback and thinking about the plo of the film i have decided to make it a 15. There could, potenitally be a lot of violence which for younger viewers could be a bit too much.

The audience would be 16-25. I asked around ten people and all of them said they thoguht the age range would wither be 16-25 or 16-35.

Everyone I asked also though the film would be directed at a male audience, this is because of the action which is involved with the characters being assassins.
Our film would also be for people who enjoy and are interested in films which contain a lot of enigma, suspense and action. Films which would share a films which share a similar audience include:

• Hanna
• Hitman
• Salt
• Bourne identity

5. How did you attract/adress your audience?
Initially we were unsure of our audience, but after researching we discovered that for thrillers the demographic is mostly young males. As opposed to horror which is aimed at a more female audience.

• To attract this male audience, we used stereotyping of the victim. A young girl, who is in potential danger and an authorative, seemingly male antagonist both help to intreague the male audience. The girl is young and attractive which would appleal to the male audience, and th other character would also potentially appeal to the male audience later on in the film when they find out its a female for the same reason.
• The action element would also appeal to the male audience as stereotypically men normally enjoy big action fight scenes much more than women.
• The suspense would also appeal to our audince, people who like thrillers like the sense of engima as it creates a puzzle which people like to try and solve before the film reveals itself.

We addressed the age by not including too much violence, or making it too scary for the younger audience,

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?

This was our prelim video.

After doing the preliminary exercise, i feel we bacame much more confident and experimental with our filmin techniques.

In this shot we used focus pulling, somthing wich we did not use in our prelimiary as we were unsure how to do this. However after learning this technique we though it gave a great effect in giving the impression of the confused feeling whic our character was experiencing.

Here I felt we experimented with camera angles, and frame composition. The filling of the frame, gives a cluttered and distressed feeling, again reflecting theb feelings of the character and emphasising the mood of the scene.

we chose this shot as it emphasised the pannic of the realisation of the situation the character was in. We edited this into the sequence as a match on action, but, unlike our preliminary we chose to cut to an extreme close up, which makes the audience feel uncomfortable which adds to the suspense. As this is a point of view shot it helps the audience empathise with our character.

Here we used sound as an accompaniment to the appearance of the credits. This was something we had discovered in our research and planning, and though it worked to great effect. We had not done much planning or research in our preliminary so the ideas were not as broad, this taught us that in the thriller we needed to research other thrillers to gain new ideas and inspiration. A film which also does this include Deja vu

In our preliminary we did not have as many titles, which did not make it clear what the film was about. We chose assassin 429 as the film is about an assassin and she is to be the 429th assassin that has been trained. We this is effective as it creates enigma because its not clear which character is the assassin when intact both are.

We also used a lot more point of views in our thriller compared to our prelim. This is because it helps the audience empathise with the character and there is only point of view shots from one character, showing that the story is about her.

Here is where I would say we were much more experimental with shot composition and camera work. The whole of the antagonist is not in the shot, which creates mystery and this also allows the audience to see the victims facial expressions.

We used effects in final cut pro to gain this cctv effect which was something we didn't use in our preliminary. This all adds to the suspense and atmosphere.

This was and over the shoulder shot, and we also experimented with the zoom on the camera. When the camera zooms out it reveals that there is someone watching the CCTV, which again creates suspense. We did not use zoom in our prelim and we were unsure how to incorporate it into our film.

Title Analysis - Danielle Driscoll

THE GIRL WITH A DRAGON TATTOO

In this shot the picture flashes to the beat of the non-diegetic soundtrack  - The Immigrant Song. Before this even happens, the audience are shown a black screen with the faint noise of The Immigrant Song, perhaps implying the sequence is going towards them. We're unclear as to what exactly is being shown to us, thus creating enigma, but I believe it to be part of the logo for this film - dragon tattoo. Low key lighting has also been used in this dark, sinister opening to build more of an atmosphere. The font of the titles is quite Celtic, shadowing it with a dark, bloody period. 

In this shot we see what looks to be dragon scales, embedding the idea of this dragon tattoo. Once again it flashes on screen to the beat of the soundtrack creating a fast pace, connoting the film will be action packed.

When the film title appears on screen it starts to be lured and taken over by black oil. At the same time the woman starts to sing this sort of Japanese tune that matches the font of the title, which I think looks quite Japanese. 

In this shot, a keyboard has been shown which is foreign as the letters are different and are in different places, this could perhaps establish where the film is set. There is also oil spreading across it, almost like a disease, connoting the girl with the dragon tattoo could also be like a disease and have control over others.

Here we see a pair of lips which I believe belong to a girl, and there is oil spilling out her mouth, almost like she's been possessed by this dark phenomena, suggesting it's demonic and evil. She also has a low lip piercing, connoting she's a bit on the wild side and rockish, stereotypically showing less care.   

I find this shot in particular odd, as to me it looks like some form of electronic sperm and later in the sequence we see them go towards this nest like egg. As they come together a nuclear reaction takes place where by this baton on fire ignites the oil and burns an eye, whilst both the human figures start is disassemble and a dragon is born. This is similar to a fuse when in contact with water - this might all be what's happening inside this girls head, lots of fury and pain, maybe down to a mans actions.

This shot shows a man drowning, which we see quite frequently in this sequence but with oil. This embeds the idea that this girl hates men. The effect on the titles also makes the letters slowly spread, especially the letter 'R', increasing the idea of a virus spreading. 

LUTHER

This is the second shot in the sequence and here we see the silhouette of a person, ideally a man who I think is Luther as the actor who plays him is Idris Elba. The surroundings are red and blotched almost like blood splatter, connoting gun crime. It's also an establishing shot as it appears to be in London. The non-diegetic soundtrack is also very chilled, which could be reflecting the complete opposite of Luther's life, which isn't calm at all.

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Here we see what looks to be barbed wire from a prison, which too helps to emphasize the crime in London and in the programme.

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SHERLOCK 

This EXT LS shows this is Piccadilly Circus in London, therefore it is an establishing shot. The pace of it is quite quick as it is sped up, perhaps to show the night rush in the capital of England. It almost looks like it's from a POV of a CCTV camera as it is slightly blurred and is at a high angle, connoting Big Brother is always watching you; ironic when the drama is to do with investigation. The parallel non-diegetic sound complements this as it's quite pacey, although the high pitched tones make it sound manic, suggesting the manic situations that happen in London. 

This shot too is like one from a CCTV camera, that also establishes where the programme is taking place, which is Central London as we can see the London Eye. This shot was dissolved in using a filter to help it flow better, and to show the continuous energy, night and day in London; the sped up pace helps reinforce this idea. The title 'SHERLOCK' is placed deliberately on the lighter area of this shot as is complements the dark font that has a slightly rustique effect to show time passing over a period of weeks, months or years.

As the individual strings are played in the shot, we see a string on the violin being plucked at the same time showing a connection between the two, making the non-diegetic sound more powerful. This shot is shown in the opening sequence as Sherlock likes to play the violin. Along with this are two names of the actors which fade in. They are shown at this point as this is one of the most least active and darkest shots in the sequence, making it easier to see what is written.  

Here we see a chemical liquid about to be dispatched from a pipit. During this shot there is a slight jump in distance as the text gets larger and in effect does the inanimate object at 0:22 seconds, along with this the non-diegetic sound has two fast keys played one after the other. This is another perfect place to include some titles, and so it does, once again using a slight rustique font to continue that idea of time passing.

Here we have a straight cut from the previous shot, similar to an eye-line match  inn terms that they've followed  exactly from where the solution was coming from and where it was going to - a sample of blood. As the solution starts to spread, the titles start to enlarge, showing they have been magnified by the solution. I think the titles have been placed on the blood sample instead on the white background as they were able to play around with effects and enlarge the text.

This microscopic view is of the previous shot where we see the blood sample. The last three shots of the sequence really help the flow in particular, as they're all of the same topic just zoomed in. Once again, the credits are placed here as they show well on the dark rouge background. The non-diegetic sound is also slowing down, noting the sequence is coming to an end.