Thriller Conventions :
Thriller is a film genre which effect the audience. They are normally fast paced, tense and unpredictable. They regularly explore psychological and often dark themes.
Editing:
Thrillers tend to be fast paced, this is achieved by short spaces between straight cuts. Often camera shots change with in a few seconds.
Sound:
Many films of this genre use enigma, very little information is given to the audience causing unpredictability and uncertainty, this can be created by very small amounts (if any) dialogue in diegetic (between characters) or non-diegetic (narration). Foley is often very loud. Non-diegetic music tends to be fast paced, percussive and are normally parallel to the action (not contrapuntal). The opening to "The disappearance of Alice Creed" is a very good example; it uses percussive non-diegetic, the Foley has been enhanced and there is no dialogue till the very end of this clip:
Mice en scene:
lighting is often low key (back lighting and silhouette) this can create a more sinister feel and can be used to hide identities and create enigma.
There can be a specific prop which could fore-shadow or play an important role in the plot of the film (e.g. spinning tops in inception). Cities and towns are often used for thrillers as the audience are more likely to relate with this.
Camera:
Recurring shots in thrillers are close-ups to create a claustrophobic feel although extreme long shots can be used to create loneliness or isolation (in psychological thrillers). high shots are used to make certain characters seem helpless. P.O.V with steady cams can be used but in thrillers the audience are generally spectators to the action.
our film:
editing:
The first 59 seconds consist of only 3 cuts, this creates a very slow pace and challenges a thriller convention of speed and fast cuts but also creates a build up which raises the tension. Past 59 seconds, over 14 cuts in the following one minute and fourteen seconds, this abides by the convention of a thriller and creates a sense of speed. only straight cuts are used.
a match on action and a cut away clip:
The title appears over a gap in the cloud showing the sun shine through. This imagery works with title being "sunlight". Bright white text is used through out.
Diegetic : The first 59 seconds is kept relatively quiet, with only the actors dialogue. The other side of the conversation is not heard by the audience. This with holding of information creates enigma. another device to create a sense of mystery, often found in thrillers, is the fact the second character (59 seconds to end) does not speak once. The audience does not know who he is, where precisely he is going or what he is going to do, only the automatic voice on the station platform ( at 1:56) gives the audience any indication of where he might be going. Foley of foot steps and the unfolding of the picture has been enhanced during the film past 59 seconds.
Non-diegetic: Again the first 59 seconds are relatively quiet with only a slow piano underneath the dialogue of the character. It is parallel with the footage as it is quite sad and solemn, this challenges thriller conventions as it is in a more emotional in style and is not aiding a focus on speed or panic. At 58 seconds the piano fades but remains just audible creating a sound bridge linking the two characters. As it hits 59 seconds a large drum is heard and a faster more percussive piece begins with synthesizers. The synthesizers create an eery feel whilst the drum machine creates a sense of speed and sound quite metallic and cold.
mice en scene
lighting: Before the 59 second mark lighting is low key and during this time rim lighting is used effectively. along with back lighting This creates enigma and keeps this character relatively concealed from the audience.
from another angle the rim light becomes a complete silhouette with back lighting. Again creating mystery.
Omni-lighting is used under the credits, it's source being the sun. Although partially diffused by the clouds.
This shot uses soft light and is ambient as the suns light is being diffused by the clouds. This is natural and aids realism in the film.
This is contrasted by the second male character who has large arm movements and his head held high display a confidence even an arrogance. The body languages of these two characters are stereotyped as the female is a timid emotional character and contrasted by the confident swagger of the male character.
The interior of the bedroom reflects the character. Posters of bands, soft colours like pinks and blues fit the teenage girl whom the character could be or the maybe the subject of the phone call could be about. She also holds the scarf in a manner that could show this belonged to the character who is lost.
The prop above could be very important to the plot as it is focused on in a close-up.
Camera
movement: a pan is used in the first shot to show the audience the room and details (posters ect).
A slight track of the character in this shot shows his relative freedom and his control over situation.
Close ups are used to show important props. Could be foregrounding.
This over shoulder shot does a similar job to the the close up. showing the audience detail in the picture. This cuts away to a canted close up shot of his face.
This shot, although it does not serve any true purpose to the story line, it is kept for it's artist merit and could also be a hint to the ideas of light experimented with throughout this film.
2: how does your media product represent particular social groups ?
Gender stereotypes are used on this film and even creates a direct split in two parts of the film.
Mise en scene:
The use of colours in the the two shots are hints in the gender split. The female character is shown in a room filled with "soft" colour; pinks and blues. in contrast to the greys, black and whites for the male character.
They're body language also show the stereotype. The male character has large confident arm movements with his head held high. in contrast the female character is hunched over and curled up to make her seem more emotional and shy.
The two characters are even dressed in the colours that would be stereotypical. The male's costume is a black and white suit which is authority figure like whereas the female wears a pink hoodie.
The female character has a high angle shot used over her throughout the majority of her scene. this makes her seem less powerful or inferior.see above image.
In contrast the male character is shot using a (sometimes only slightly) low angle shotto again show his status, most likely powerful or commanding.
Sound: The non-diegetic creates a divide between the scenes. although the piano from the first fades creating a sound bridge it is separated by the drums. The first scene is only accompanied by only piano which is quite slow and emotional this fits with the female stereotype of being "over" emotional. Past 59 seconds (where the divide is ) it is more masculine in it's style. It is drum driven and fast. Louder and more brash.
3: what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why ?
Traditionally a low budget film would have to be seen in a independent art house cinema (not in a chain or mainstream). These art house cinemas specialise in small budget movies . A independant art house like the Duke of York's picture house
This seems like an outdated way of distribution and is quite slow with reels going up and down the country and the need for adistributor.
A more modern way would be to use the internet for distribution. instead of advertising over t.v and on poster a far more cost effective and easy way to get straight to the people would be over a social networking sight. for instance facebook, which is only economically viable through it's advertisement. 500 million acounts are active with 175 million people using facebook everyday. Smaller budget movies are also more likely to draw interest from students and younger adults. These are the largest age groups who make use of social networking sites and so would be the target audience. The movie will also be a 15, as a thriller may contain dark themes, this works with the networks as there are very little amounts of children under this age.
Digital downloads would be the easiest way to reach thee audience. It is considerably cheaper and the likeliness of people having accounts with certain online download stores (Itunes, Amazon, PlayStation store and xbox live) would be almost certain as they would have seen the advertisements on social networks and thus would have an internet connection.
An international audience could be found for this film with minimal costs. It would be relatively more of a gamble as it depends on first impressions and whether people would want to spread the links (to go viral).
4. who would be the audience for your media product ?
The most likely target audience would be young adults and most likely male. As a generalization the audience would be male as it would contain some peril and this is more likely to be enjoyed by a male audience.
The classification for this film would most likely be 15. this would stop any young children from viewing the film, so it would not be targeted at people older then 30 as they may have children. With the way the film is being released it would be less appealing to an elderly audience.
5. how did you attract/address the audience ?
The way most thrillers keep the viewer's attention and on the edge of their seats it through enigma. hopefully this opening seen would force the audience members to ask questions. Speed is another thing a thriller can use to keep the audience focused on the screen and get them hooked.
6. what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The main issues with the cameras, for me anyway, were the setup features for shooting (such as white balance etc) other than that the cameras were is easy to operate and i had no trouble filming. the only issues where in decided with in the group of which shots were used (from the selection of rushes). The editing software used were i movie and garage band. The only issues ran into was a slight delay on audio after going through these programs which was easily fixed.
7. looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product ?
The main improvement from our prelim is continuity as much of the filming was done with in a few days which meant our props and locations where all at hand and did not change. Whereas the filming on the prelim took l considerable longer for less of an end product, so the main thing we all improved on was efficiency.
The newer cameras also allowed us to film a lot more rushes and film for a longer time.
I also believe my ability to edit the shots together has vastly improved.
I feel the plots and character development in the film has improved. Especially the use of enigma and concealing parts of the story from the audience.
Lighting and location was one of the original worries as we couldn't use the original room for the prelim. the continuity was dreadful and was very unrealistic. The final film had no such trouble and went relatively smoothly. For the final film we experimented with omni-lighting and a more natural diffused light compared to the quite harsh hard lighting of the prelim:
We used less dialogue in the final piece. This was because it gives away too much plot and can cause an audience to get board if the entirety of the plot is handed to them on a plate. Other non-diegetic sound was similar in that we had enhanced the Foley to stick to the conventions of a thriller.
The only thing the final film lacks compared to the prelim was the variety of movements. This tracking shot used on the prelim :
The final film was a lot more rigid interms of camera movements but had larger shot variation:
I believe the final film was a massive improvement on our prelim. We had advanced in our technical ability, the continuity and variety of our shots with in the films.
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