In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Before we began the filming stages of our coursework we researched the generic conventions, codes and themes involved in the thriller genre, to give us a better understanding of the way cinematography, mise en scene, sound and editing can be used to its best ability within a thriller narrative. As well as looking at the filming aspects of the project we also looked at narrative possibilities, going into sub genres of thriller, e.g. 
Action Thriller or Psychological thriller. The sub genre we delved into was religious thriller, we thought it was a rarely approached sub genre to thriller, and looking at most religious thrillers I have personally seen the majority are good, for example The Da Vinci Code or The Sin Eater. An opening scene or trailer for a thriller movie is does rarely need to be coherent as its aim is for the audience to question what is happening on screen and create mystery and suspense. In the first scene of the opening we used the location to construct an image of the protagonist in a different light to what she is going to be seen as the majority of the film, this image conveys to the audience that the girl is innocent and couldn’t possibly be a villain within the narrative. Conventionally women are seen as mothering figures and carer’s,
in our case both girls are young and so are seen in a more innocent and vulnerable light, we took that convention with the protagonist to begin with and then changed her into the complete opposite because of loss of a loved one, when she lost the one person who she knew would always love her would always be there, she lost her sanity, or even that when people who don’t appreciate the life they have and when good people like her father die needlessly, those people should have it taken away. Sound within our opening is a key aspect, from the score that continues throughout helping to keep the same mood until the last moment, builds starting heavy with piano and a light drum beat and slowly just softening out into light hymn like synthesiser noises. The use of props and location is another very good feature; we chose to have the protagonist dressed in light clothes to portray innocence while the victim dressed in low cut clothes, to give a feel of vulnerability, the hair and make-up of the two characters also relates to the dress, protagonist with little make-up on natural feel, while the victim with darkened eyes and slightly messy hair to show she has had a rough night. There is a slight transition with the style of the protagonist to show her descent into madness after the death of her father, she doesn’t care how she looks to anyone. Seeing as our theme was a Revenge/Religious we decided as the sequence on screen unfolded the theme would also get stronger. The religious themes can be seen through the good use of close-ups on religious props. E.g. when the protagonist is praying we have a shot of her hands with prayer beads, there is also a close-up of a burning candle, just before the scene cuts to the last. The flicker of the flame makes this a very interesting shot and also ties in with the narrative, as flame slowly burns down the wick so has the protagonists mind. The editing software used was i-movie, very easy to understand and use. Unlike most thrillers, ours progresses slowly and there isn’t a lot if any quick sequences. The second scene has been coloured black and white to let the audience know there is a time lapse and we are looking at the past. Within the last scene there was a lot of point of view shots as the protagonists stalks the victim and very good use of match on action, when the protagonist is almost seen, the editing is very fluid. The thriller films which partly influenced my part in the creation of our thriller opening were.
Action Thriller or Psychological thriller. The sub genre we delved into was religious thriller, we thought it was a rarely approached sub genre to thriller, and looking at most religious thrillers I have personally seen the majority are good, for example The Da Vinci Code or The Sin Eater. An opening scene or trailer for a thriller movie is does rarely need to be coherent as its aim is for the audience to question what is happening on screen and create mystery and suspense. In the first scene of the opening we used the location to construct an image of the protagonist in a different light to what she is going to be seen as the majority of the film, this image conveys to the audience that the girl is innocent and couldn’t possibly be a villain within the narrative. Conventionally women are seen as mothering figures and carer’s,
in our case both girls are young and so are seen in a more innocent and vulnerable light, we took that convention with the protagonist to begin with and then changed her into the complete opposite because of loss of a loved one, when she lost the one person who she knew would always love her would always be there, she lost her sanity, or even that when people who don’t appreciate the life they have and when good people like her father die needlessly, those people should have it taken away. Sound within our opening is a key aspect, from the score that continues throughout helping to keep the same mood until the last moment, builds starting heavy with piano and a light drum beat and slowly just softening out into light hymn like synthesiser noises. The use of props and location is another very good feature; we chose to have the protagonist dressed in light clothes to portray innocence while the victim dressed in low cut clothes, to give a feel of vulnerability, the hair and make-up of the two characters also relates to the dress, protagonist with little make-up on natural feel, while the victim with darkened eyes and slightly messy hair to show she has had a rough night. There is a slight transition with the style of the protagonist to show her descent into madness after the death of her father, she doesn’t care how she looks to anyone. Seeing as our theme was a Revenge/Religious we decided as the sequence on screen unfolded the theme would also get stronger. The religious themes can be seen through the good use of close-ups on religious props. E.g. when the protagonist is praying we have a shot of her hands with prayer beads, there is also a close-up of a burning candle, just before the scene cuts to the last. The flicker of the flame makes this a very interesting shot and also ties in with the narrative, as flame slowly burns down the wick so has the protagonists mind. The editing software used was i-movie, very easy to understand and use. Unlike most thrillers, ours progresses slowly and there isn’t a lot if any quick sequences. The second scene has been coloured black and white to let the audience know there is a time lapse and we are looking at the past. Within the last scene there was a lot of point of view shots as the protagonists stalks the victim and very good use of match on action, when the protagonist is almost seen, the editing is very fluid. The thriller films which partly influenced my part in the creation of our thriller opening were.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
For our thriller opening we decided to have a majority female cast, Kate staring as the protagonist and Carolina the victim, both young girls in their late teens. By using young actors it gives our chosen audience (15-35) a way to relate to the narrative and the characters involved. In our sequence we both challenged stereotypes and used those typical to the thriller genre. Research into thriller openings showed us that throughout the thriller genre males are the dominant gender; males are generally given more onscreen time and are central to the films narrative. Having a mainly female cast is very rare in any thriller and has possibly not been seen in our chosen sub genre. When we started writing up scripts and storyboards for the sequence there was originally 2 victims, however we weren’t able to find a suitable victim no. 2. Although it may have worked a lot to our advantage, having just one victim adds more tension to the scene, being alone she is a lot more vulnerable and it makes the audience not only feel like she had it coming for acting the way she does, but also empathetic as know something is going to happen to her. Our leading lady Kate is white Irish descent and the victim Carolina of Hispanic; leading roles in thrillers are particularly Caucasian males e.g. Angels and Demons, Signs. So on one aspect we have challenged that having a female lead but met it seeing as she is Caucasian. Having the main characters female in the sequence also meets 
another stereotype, the girls are portrayed and represented as quite vulnerable, in the way they are dressed and the actions seen on screen, although the progression from the vulnerable lonely priest’s daughter to a killer is quite unnoticeable, almost like she had it in her to do something like this before, and Carolina’s role as the young drunkard, stumbling through the park alone with hardly any clothes is the other end of the representation of British women. In a certain way we do have 2 other characters that are male within the narrative, the protagonists father is mentioned, but as we find out he has tragically died, and the Policeman who brings the bad news to her, although neither are seen, only heard or talked about, this reinforces the way we have tried to represent females as the dominant gender in our opening.
For our thriller opening we decided to have a majority female cast, Kate staring as the protagonist and Carolina the victim, both young girls in their late teens. By using young actors it gives our chosen audience (15-35) a way to relate to the narrative and the characters involved. In our sequence we both challenged stereotypes and used those typical to the thriller genre. Research into thriller openings showed us that throughout the thriller genre males are the dominant gender; males are generally given more onscreen time and are central to the films narrative. Having a mainly female cast is very rare in any thriller and has possibly not been seen in our chosen sub genre. When we started writing up scripts and storyboards for the sequence there was originally 2 victims, however we weren’t able to find a suitable victim no. 2. Although it may have worked a lot to our advantage, having just one victim adds more tension to the scene, being alone she is a lot more vulnerable and it makes the audience not only feel like she had it coming for acting the way she does, but also empathetic as know something is going to happen to her. Our leading lady Kate is white Irish descent and the victim Carolina of Hispanic; leading roles in thrillers are particularly Caucasian males e.g. Angels and Demons, Signs. So on one aspect we have challenged that having a female lead but met it seeing as she is Caucasian. Having the main characters female in the sequence also meets 
another stereotype, the girls are portrayed and represented as quite vulnerable, in the way they are dressed and the actions seen on screen, although the progression from the vulnerable lonely priest’s daughter to a killer is quite unnoticeable, almost like she had it in her to do something like this before, and Carolina’s role as the young drunkard, stumbling through the park alone with hardly any clothes is the other end of the representation of British women. In a certain way we do have 2 other characters that are male within the narrative, the protagonists father is mentioned, but as we find out he has tragically died, and the Policeman who brings the bad news to her, although neither are seen, only heard or talked about, this reinforces the way we have tried to represent females as the dominant gender in our opening.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Within the Media distribution for films there are three main groups Mainstream, Independent and Art House. Mainstream distributed films are generally big budget and feature less challenging themes for the audience to deal with. If I was to place our film in a category I would say Independent, low budget, possibly a television movie. The Confession the final title of our thriller would most likely be best viewed as a short Thriller drama, possibly 2-3 parts, each an hour or so, with a decent amount of publicity an audience interested would continue to watch all three as they are shown once or week, or even once a fortnight, with the narrative unfolding and revealing to the audience what happened in the two weeks that had just passed so the time scale is relevant to them. An appropriate television channel to air the small series could be channel 4 and then possibly combined into a movie length format and viewed on Film4. There are a lot more mediums in which to show our thriller if television was unsuccessful or even to branch out its success if it was over the internet so that not only Britain but the world could view our work. E.g. Youtube one of the most used websites in the world receiving over 1 billion views per day, our opening has been uploaded to the site and we are awaiting a few comments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiKj5pf3S-w&feature=player_embedded, another site able to show the Confession would be the independent film company http://www.ifc.com/.
Using magazines or weekend newspapers to give away free introduction DVD, e.g. Empire Magazine or the Sunday Times, a behind the scenes look at the production team and what story and message the narrative is trying to get across to the audience.
Using magazines or weekend newspapers to give away free introduction DVD, e.g. Empire Magazine or the Sunday Times, a behind the scenes look at the production team and what story and message the narrative is trying to get across to the audience.
Before we started to script for our chosen sub genre we had to decide on what target audience we were going to aim for. We chose a wide target audience of males and females age 15-35, we decided on this age range as we discussed who and why someone may want to see our thriller film. The younger age 15-25 would be interested in mainly the action on screen, the victims being stalked for example for the tension that builds in these scenes and the thrill achieved at the end of them. The older section 26-35 would most likely be more attracted to the narrative of the film and the story being delivered on screen. Having researched BBFC (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classifications) we found that in context to our thriller and the audience age range addressed we could use violence in our thriller - may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, Drugs - Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse, Imitable behaviour - Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Although violence is not seen on screen we know that some one has been attacked due to sound used effectively, drug taking can also be seen as alcohol abuse, when the victim is stumbling and drinking vodka, this can also be seen as imitable behaviour.
A film with similar revenge theme to ours although in a different sub genre would be ‘I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’ Starring Clive Owen. The film was rated 18 due to sexual scenes, violence, drug use and profanity. The narrative although a completely different we do share one main aspect with this film, the revenge theme, in ours the father died, possibly murdered, and in ‘I’ll sleep when I’m Dead’ the protagonists brother is violently raped and because of this commits suicide,. From here they follow the same narrative path, finding the people who are involved with what happened to their lost loved one and avenging them. The ways in which we kept the same revenge theme with a 15 age rating were reducing the actual seen use of violence of drug taking, e.g. having the last shot of the opening cut to black with just the sound of a scream, letting the audience know something has happened to the girl but not showing them, this builds suspense for when an if the audience eventually do find out what happened to the girl.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Before we started scripting for our thriller we needed to know what our audience would be looking for and what they would want to watch. We decided that our narrative would be slow to start with a big climactic finish, as apposed to constant thrill, we wanted to build tension straight away and have the audience concentrating at a slower pace so they can understand the narrative on screen, eventually building up to the first shock moment. Our narrative was quite unusual for the thriller genre, we decided on Religious thriller as it’s a rarely seen thriller sub genre that can be very effective. The narrative it self is a revenge/religious thriller, undertones of religion because of the locations used e.g. churches, and the name it self ‘The Confession’. The characters used are few but effective, with a mainly female cast, it may seem that women may find this movie more appealing as they can relate more to the protagonist, although men can also relate to the story itself, as we all know how to feels to lose a loved one, and the measures we would go to get them back. Another factor to attract a female audience is the empowerment of the protagonist, in a way making women in the film the more dominant gender. The way in which mise en scene is used is a very important factor in addressing the audience. We first see the protagonist in a chapel praying holding rosary beads, this suggests to the audience that the girl is religious, wearing light coloured clothes giving an effect of innocence about the girl. The victim character on the other hand is wearing minimal clothing, short skirt, low cut top, making the audience immediately judge her for her appearance and mannerisms. The representation of the characters in a way justifies to the audience what the young innocent religious girl is going to do to avenge her father; in a way doing what she may think is the work of God, cleansing the wicked.
The actor appearance of the two characters is also very suitable, the protagonist played by Kate Blythe, aged 17. She looks younger than her age which adds the innocent feel needed. Girl (2) is played by Carolina Garcia-Ocha, aged 19. Her body shape enables a good portrayal of character, yet her gender and age enables her to seem mature, yet vulnerable. The location used is also very relatable to an audience, as that kind of urban environment is typical for the thriller genre. The filming aspects the sequence also helps the audience relate to characters. The use of close-ups and point of view shots put the audience closer and into the protagonists shoes which builds a connection between character and audience. This in itself is connected back to the general conventions of suspense by timely shots that create tension, and includes the audience in the narrative. The audience feedback we got on the first viewing in class was very helpful, the main aspect of our opening people seemed to enjoy was the narrative itself, comments like unique and different from the average thriller. The main thing we picked up on ourselves was the sound quality, in some places where dialogue needed to be heard it was quite faint, this was addressed making it a lot easier to hear and make it seem more realistic.
A film with similar revenge theme to ours although in a different sub genre would be ‘I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’ Starring Clive Owen. The film was rated 18 due to sexual scenes, violence, drug use and profanity. The narrative although a completely different we do share one main aspect with this film, the revenge theme, in ours the father died, possibly murdered, and in ‘I’ll sleep when I’m Dead’ the protagonists brother is violently raped and because of this commits suicide,. From here they follow the same narrative path, finding the people who are involved with what happened to their lost loved one and avenging them. The ways in which we kept the same revenge theme with a 15 age rating were reducing the actual seen use of violence of drug taking, e.g. having the last shot of the opening cut to black with just the sound of a scream, letting the audience know something has happened to the girl but not showing them, this builds suspense for when an if the audience eventually do find out what happened to the girl.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Before we started scripting for our thriller we needed to know what our audience would be looking for and what they would want to watch. We decided that our narrative would be slow to start with a big climactic finish, as apposed to constant thrill, we wanted to build tension straight away and have the audience concentrating at a slower pace so they can understand the narrative on screen, eventually building up to the first shock moment. Our narrative was quite unusual for the thriller genre, we decided on Religious thriller as it’s a rarely seen thriller sub genre that can be very effective. The narrative it self is a revenge/religious thriller, undertones of religion because of the locations used e.g. churches, and the name it self ‘The Confession’. The characters used are few but effective, with a mainly female cast, it may seem that women may find this movie more appealing as they can relate more to the protagonist, although men can also relate to the story itself, as we all know how to feels to lose a loved one, and the measures we would go to get them back. Another factor to attract a female audience is the empowerment of the protagonist, in a way making women in the film the more dominant gender. The way in which mise en scene is used is a very important factor in addressing the audience. We first see the protagonist in a chapel praying holding rosary beads, this suggests to the audience that the girl is religious, wearing light coloured clothes giving an effect of innocence about the girl. The victim character on the other hand is wearing minimal clothing, short skirt, low cut top, making the audience immediately judge her for her appearance and mannerisms. The representation of the characters in a way justifies to the audience what the young innocent religious girl is going to do to avenge her father; in a way doing what she may think is the work of God, cleansing the wicked.
The actor appearance of the two characters is also very suitable, the protagonist played by Kate Blythe, aged 17. She looks younger than her age which adds the innocent feel needed. Girl (2) is played by Carolina Garcia-Ocha, aged 19. Her body shape enables a good portrayal of character, yet her gender and age enables her to seem mature, yet vulnerable. The location used is also very relatable to an audience, as that kind of urban environment is typical for the thriller genre. The filming aspects the sequence also helps the audience relate to characters. The use of close-ups and point of view shots put the audience closer and into the protagonists shoes which builds a connection between character and audience. This in itself is connected back to the general conventions of suspense by timely shots that create tension, and includes the audience in the narrative. The audience feedback we got on the first viewing in class was very helpful, the main aspect of our opening people seemed to enjoy was the narrative itself, comments like unique and different from the average thriller. The main thing we picked up on ourselves was the sound quality, in some places where dialogue needed to be heard it was quite faint, this was addressed making it a lot easier to hear and make it seem more realistic.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I would say I was quite familiar with filming equipment before the beginning of this project, but still my knowledge of how to use the camera effectively and how lighting and angles can be used to great effect has definitely improved. As the project involved a lot of filming I was able to get a lot of time using the camera and experimenting with different angels shots and lighting effects. I now know a lot more shots that can be used to give a certain feel to a scene; close-ups for example, give a more intimate view of a character or can be used to reveal a key prop. Extreme long shots are used to introduce a new setting or location to the audience. I also have greater skills using the editing software i-movie, being able to cut and remove certain sections to make the film flow, timing the rights scene changes so you get a match on action shot, or shot reverse shot. Being able to add a score is also a very important part of the editing process, the score adds another dimension to what is being seen on screen, and can make an audience feel how you want them to. Finding a good piece of music that fits with the narrative is crucial and is a very good skill I have learnt and would like to improve, the site we used to download free music as our score was http://freeplaymusic.com/ there is a very wide range of downloadable music from ambient noise to full intrumental songs. I have also become a lot more familiar with using the blogger site, and being able to properly research the right media terms and finding certain clips from thriller films that use a certain camera shot or angle to get a point of view or perspective without the use of dialogue, which was vital to our opening as dialogue is minimal. The editing software was also very interesting to use for the first time, begin able to film any part of the movie and then just cut it all together how you want it is a great tool for the media in this day and age, considering how celluloid film used to be cut by hand and filmed in order. Over the summer I hope to improve my camera and editing skills for A2 possibly making a short movie or music video.
I would say I was quite familiar with filming equipment before the beginning of this project, but still my knowledge of how to use the camera effectively and how lighting and angles can be used to great effect has definitely improved. As the project involved a lot of filming I was able to get a lot of time using the camera and experimenting with different angels shots and lighting effects. I now know a lot more shots that can be used to give a certain feel to a scene; close-ups for example, give a more intimate view of a character or can be used to reveal a key prop. Extreme long shots are used to introduce a new setting or location to the audience. I also have greater skills using the editing software i-movie, being able to cut and remove certain sections to make the film flow, timing the rights scene changes so you get a match on action shot, or shot reverse shot. Being able to add a score is also a very important part of the editing process, the score adds another dimension to what is being seen on screen, and can make an audience feel how you want them to. Finding a good piece of music that fits with the narrative is crucial and is a very good skill I have learnt and would like to improve, the site we used to download free music as our score was http://freeplaymusic.com/ there is a very wide range of downloadable music from ambient noise to full intrumental songs. I have also become a lot more familiar with using the blogger site, and being able to properly research the right media terms and finding certain clips from thriller films that use a certain camera shot or angle to get a point of view or perspective without the use of dialogue, which was vital to our opening as dialogue is minimal. The editing software was also very interesting to use for the first time, begin able to film any part of the movie and then just cut it all together how you want it is a great tool for the media in this day and age, considering how celluloid film used to be cut by hand and filmed in order. Over the summer I hope to improve my camera and editing skills for A2 possibly making a short movie or music video.
Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?
During the preliminary task I learnt a great deal about the way thrillers films are set up and shot to create suspense, tension and attract their target audience with the narrative. When I first picked up the camera I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about how certain shots can be used to the best effect. I think I probably used head on long shots and mid shots, and possibly one or two close ups to introduce someone. I learnt a great amount from analysing opening sequences to see how actual directors approach cinematography, editing, sound and mise en scene can be used to make an opening sequence more engaging for the audience. Our preliminary task itself did seem very simple at the time but many problems were soon encountered. The first problem was location and length, we didn’t want to overcomplicate the scene and we didn’t want it to last over a minute or so. We messed about with different locations and camera angles, on stairs for example, whether to shoot from above or below to get a better shot. After a while we decided we needed to know what we wanted to do so we drew up a storyboard and then we could set the location around it. Storyboards are an integral part of any film process being able to see and read what needs to be done in a certain shot is a lot easier to follow then just trying to make it up as you go along. One of the main problems encountered was trying to get match-on-action shots correct, it wasn’t until after that we realised we could edit them in using i-movie, although the ones we achieved using the camera were very decent we still had wasted a lot of time. The other main problem involved with the task was our shot reverse shot-over the shoulder conversation, once again we didn’t know too much about the editing at the time and tried to film each small section of speech one after the other from the separate points of view, again wasted a lot of time, but we then filmed from each perspective entirely and then edited between each to get the full conversation. Much of these problems were resolved involving the filming with our actual thriller opening, the main dilemma was organisation, not all being able to meet at the same time for filming for example, but we managed to work around it, doing some filming sessions in school when all of us were in, and some directly after school in a nearby park so we wouldn’t have to travel very far.
Through practice with the camera equipment and editing software I have become a lot more confident with my own judgment of the work, one thing I would like to improve is sound, being able to get an effective piece of music that relates to the narrative and not only sounds good but is placed right so it is on track with the action on screen and makes the experience to the audience a lot more enjoyable. Looking at the preliminary to the final cut of the actual opening, as a group we have improved vastly. Our use of camera work and mise en scene, the audience can be drawn into the narrative and can predict what the characters are like because of it.
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