1. Low Key lighting. This shot demonstrates the use of low key lighting. Dark/ low key lighting is a common factor in thriller films as it creates a sense of mystery and tension. This works in my film, as it crates a sense of mystery around this central character. Below is an example of low key lighting from the film 'Double Indemnity'.
2. Close ups / Extreme close ups. These shot types are used frequently in thrillers because they show the audience the expressions and emotions on the characters face clearly. This is used in my film to show the upset in my female protagonists face. A good example of this is Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho'. Below is the infamous scene from 'Psycho', and examples of the extreme close ups.
3. Mise en scene - Urban setting. Urban settings are use often in thrillers as they are a likely place for a crime to take place. The urban setting may also be in a state of decay, showing the audience a state of terror in the city. We used the urban setting of a train station. An example of this is from Christopher Nolan's 'Inception', seen below.
4. Eye line match. An eye line match is an continuity editing technique which is used in thrillers to give the audience a clear view of the object the character is paying attention to, for example, in the opening of Niels Arden Oplev's 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. I used this in my film to show what the male protagonist was looking at, to make it clearer to the audience.
5. Low angle shots. These are used for the simple reason that they give a sense of power to the individual. This is useful in thrillers as they convey a characters status or power to the audience. I used the low angle shot above to show the audience the power and higher status the male protagonist has. Again, I am using an example from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'
6. High angle shots. Similarly to low angle shots, high angle shots give the impression of surveillance, or 'being watched' which creates tensions and foreboding in the audience. Similarly to the low angle shoot, I used this high angle shot to show the 'survillence' of the protagonist.
7. Straight cuts. This shot above is an example of a straight cut. These types of cuts are used to build pace and tension, so are perfect for thrillers. I used a selection of fast paced straight cuts to help build pace and tension in my film.Below is the link to my example, the chase scene from 'Terminator 2'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnM7mFX8D_4
8. Foregrounding. This shot represents foregrounding. This technique is perfect for thrillers as it give the audience a sense of fear and builds tension. In our case the train is of vital importance to the plot. We used the shots of the trains to foregrounded. Another example would be that of the panning shot used to foreground in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rear Window', example below from 1:29 to 2:13.
9. Asking questions. A good thriller opening will always ask questions. Who is the man? Where is he going? Who is the woman on the phone? What happened to the missing girl? Ect. This is caused by enigma. A character or situation the is described as enigma is mysterious or puzzling, and raises questions to be answered. WI used the shot of the male protagonist being reflected on the train to help build is enigma.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my film opening, we represent the social group of gender.
Men and women are constantly portrayed differently, with assertive men and submissive women. An example picture is below.
Gender
In my film I represent both males and female. The protagonist is male, and is in this case a stereotypical male, as hie is portrayed as stronger, more powerful and more socially important then the female protagonist.
To convey the males power and stereotypical traits to the audience, camera work was important. I used a wide variety of low angle shots, giving the impression of power to the male.
The female protagonist, however, is portrayed as a stereotypical woman. She is film from a high angle, showing the audience that she is weak, and of lower power to her male counterpart.
I also filmed her at an eye level close up, which aloud us to see her sadness and gives the impression of normal human emotion. I also used an extreme close up of her playing with the scarf to show her dependence on it.
With mise en scene, I dressed the male in a typically strong colour, black, to again show the audience his strength as a male. His body language is paramount to his portrayal as a male. He walks tall and independently, giving the impression that he needs no one and that he is capable of handling things on his own.
The woman was dressed in the stereotypical girl colour pink, and her make up was running, which together gives the impression that she is more vulnerable and needs to be protected. She is also on the phone, presumably to a man, which again shows her dependence on males.
The male protagonist does not speak at all. This could suggest that he doesn't feel the need to talk and this makes him look dangerous or brave. The non deigetic sound that accompanies the males journey is fast paced and percussive and unlike the females non deigetic sound, gives the impression of confidence and importance.Meanwhile the woman's non diegectics is a simple piano tune, slow and melodic, which again makes the woman look weaker and less in control then the male counterpart. She also does all of the talking, which confirms to the stereotypical view that all women do is talk or gossip.
Finally in editing, cuts play great importance to the representation of males and females in my film. The section of film containing the male has a total of 14 cuts, building the feel of pace and tension, both linked to male, while the woman's scene has only 3 cuts.
I could have also challenged the stereotypical views of man and especially women, by making my female protagonist 'stronger and more assertive', and more stereotypically male. A perfect example of this is the female protagonist from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo', Lisbeth Salander. She is a strong, powerful woman, who dresses masculine and has disregard for the law, other people and most of all men.
Lisbeth Salander Profile
Before the creation of the Internet, films could only be distributed through the large chain cinemas. Nowadays in this modern world, films can be distributed in various ways; through video sharing websites like YouTube and downloads, television to film festivals and Dvd / Blurays. As our film is a small budget film, it would be an idea to distribute our film in may platforms, not just one. This would attract a larger audience.
As a multi platform film, one place we should target is the cinema. However as a low budget film, made independently and not by a large organisation, large cinema chains like Cineworld or ODEON, would not necessary show this film, they are more keyed to showing mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. An independent cinema, like the Duke Of York Cinema in Brighton , would be more likely to show such a film.
I could also make the film go viral, by distributing via free Internet download. Most legal download websites are managed through another source, like a blog. One example of such a blog is Freedownloadmusicblog.com. Being on a blog format, it is likely to gain a large audience. Although this is a music sharing site, it works the same as a film download site. Even though I would not make any profit with having this film as a free download, I would ‘get the film out there’ and it is also the cheapest way to distribute it.
The only problem with viral films is that anyone can watch them. Even if a film rating institution such as the BBFC rated the film as a 15, it doesn’t stop people younger then the desired age from watching it. This is a problem if the film is unsuitable for under 15’s for any reason; Sex, violence, drug use. Fear ect.
Another way to distribute this film would be through a film festival, such as the Edinburgh Film Festival. This is a good way to get low budget, independent films on show to the public. However you do have to submit the films to the EFF council so they can decide whether to show your film or not. Alternatively, I could distribute this move through a film TV channel like FILM4 or SkyMovies. They often have ‘seasons’ where they show films of a certain genre, like Horror or Comedy. Our Thriller film could be show during a Thriller season.
Personally I think the best way to distribute this film would be through free downloads, as its easy and cheep fro both the makers and the viewers.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my film could be quite wide. I showed my film to 10 people; 5 male and 5 female, all between the ages of 15 and 35. I asked them what they thought of my film. 3 of the 5 males said that they would like to see the rest of the movie, but only 2 of the 5 females said they would like to see the rest of the film. Of the 10, 5 where under the age of 25, the rest where above. 4 of the 5 people who said they would like to see the film again where under 25, the other was older. When asked what other similar thriller films they liked, one replied with 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' and 3 others replied with 'Inception'. Both of these had wide audiences of different genders, but Inception did attract more females then Alice Creed.
I have concluded from this research that this movie is aimed for a n audience of predominately males of ages 15 to 25. I would classify this audience as young adult. However it has the potential to attract an older audience and a wider audience for females.
5. How did you address/attract your audience?
Story and Narrative
I attracted my audience using a wide variety of techniques. When I asked my 10 person audience what they thought of the narrative, 7 said that they where intrigued by the storyline (see synopsis for details) but 3 of them said that the storyline was a bit overdone and it could have been more original. They also said that the narrative of the was clearly conveyed, and that the use of a panning shot at the start of the film gave the narrative a new dynamic.
Camera
When asked about the use of camera work, they said that the use of the close ups where good, as this allowed them to see the characters emotions clearly. A few people even said that there was a feeling of foregrounding in some of the shots, especially in establishing panning shot of the train station, see below.
Mise en scene
With mise en scene, my audience said that the uses of dark, low key lighting in the first scene added a sense of mystery and suspense. As this is a thriller and not a horror, they also said the use of naturalistic costume, hair, make up an settings made the whole thing more believable.
Character
I also asked my select audience about the use of character. They said that the male protagonist was mysterious, and that both of the characters causes questions ( Like 'Who is the male character? And where is he going? Called enigma.) and that they would like to watch the rest of the film to find out the answers.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of construction this product?
Bellow is my video of me discussing the answer to question 6.
7. Looking at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
Match on action example
2. This shows my improvement in continuity editing. This is an eye line match, a more complicated continuity editing piece that that I did not challenge in my pre-lim. I had intended to but due to problems with continuity I decided not to.
3. This shot represents two things. One, my improved sound editing with the use of a sound bridge ( Deigetic or non deigetic sound played over two shots, which suggests a connection to the audience and binds the two together, watch 1:54 until end.), again something which I had not challenged in my pre-lim and;
4. Two, with being a unique and interesting shot which shows my improvement in camerawork. In this shot you can see the male protagonist reflection in the train, and you cant see the camera or camera person. It took a long time to achieve this shot, and so this shows my improvement in commitment.
5. This shot too shows my improvement in camerawork. In my pre-lim I failed to achieve a good, un-blurred Over the shoulder shot, so when filming this shot I took more time to assure my actor was in the right place to stop blurring.
6. This shows my improvement in mise en scene. In my pre-lim I didn't think too carefully about the setting, but in my actual film, I thought a lot more about costume, hair, make up and setting. I especially made sure I paid more attention to setting, as during my pre-lim, I had major problems with setting as we had to change 3 times during filming due to things beyond my con troll. This time I made sure we would not be interrupted during filming.
7. This shot shows my improvement in how I construct a character. This character is more mysterious then the last protagonist and raises more questions. My last protagonist was too open and easy to read, while this one has more depth, has enigma and raise questions.
8. This shot shows my improvement in how I construct a narrative. This narrative has more of a story to it unlike my pre-lim, which was difficult to understand, not only due to poor writing but also poor sound quality. In my final film I have thought more about narrative, how to construct a beginning, middle and end and how to convey character through narrative.
9. This final shot shows my improvement in titling. In my pre-lim, I didn't even have titles, where as I use a more advanced computer program to title my final film. While the titles are simple, I believe that thy build tension and are more mysterious then other titleing choices I could have made.
By Chloe Hobden
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