Hannah's Evaluation

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

   Protagonist and Antagonist 

• There are many conventions of thriller films, the main conventions that are obvious in thrillers are to create a tense atmosphere and show Good Vs Evil in many plots. Many films identify the main characters either being protagonist or antagonist. 

Protagonist - Main Character who is said to be good and is followed throughout the film.

Antagonist- Bad/Evil- Going against the Protagonist  

• In our film, the contrast between good vs evil is obvious, the protagonist character, Gemma, is shown as the innocent/venerable character as she has flashbacks of being hit and pushed around by her boyfriend (antagonist) while walking through the woods. It is also obvious that Gemma had been hurt as we made bruising by make-up, this made the audience question why she was hurt and questioning who the antagonist would be. Using a middle close up/ panning of Gemma was very effective in our movie as it showed Gemma looking like a normal girl walking in the woods then the panning to a close up of Gemma's face showed her bruising which created enigma in the shot. Why does she have bruises? Who hurt her?
•  Within our film, Mise en scene was important to show the characters personalties and how they will be portrayed in the opening, in our film we had the main character Gemma dressed in casual clothing which fitted her age (18), we also wanted her to have up to date clothing as our audience is ages 16-20 girls and this outfit would be typical of that age group. However, we did not want Gemma's costume to be too over the top, as the character is shy and blends in with the crowd, so we wanted to show that through costume. Gemma's hair was very casual and fitted with the style of her clothing, her hair was down so that we could show that she is covering her bruises and is embarrassed of them. The casual clothing and hair portrays Gemma as just an average girl and not particularity different to any other girl her age, this is a typical convention of a thriller to show the protagonist of the film. The antagonist (Tom) was not typical of the thriller convention of antagonist, Tom was dressed in very casual clothes (big causal shirt and black jeans), in many domestic violent thrillers, the antagonist tends to have certain mise en scene to show that the character is a threat to the protagonist.
• In our film the beginning shots our set in the woods, the set up in the woods is used very regular in thriller films, the wood as a location adds enigma and suspense, this adds tension to the audience as they don't know what is around the corner, here is an example of a thriller film that starts of in a wood.. The Silence of Lambs-  

Here is a screenshot of our movie for comparison..

Our film is very similar to The silence of Lambs, both opening scenes show the protagonists as vulnerable and alone in the woods. 

Flashbacks

In our film we included a flashback, this can be a typical convention of a thriller, in films flashbacks are an alternation of story order in which the plot moves back to show events that have happened earlier than the one already shown.

Open Grave

Here are some screenshots of flashback in the Open Grave Clip:

In this screenshot it shows a different effect added to the flashback, to show different time but same place.. this is similar to our film. We changed the shot effect to show different time and place. Here is a screenshot..

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

In our film we don't have a specific social group, however we targeted it at middle class teenagers, we wanted it to be understanding for both genders female and male. 

Female

- AGE (16-20)- we showed the age group by using current clothing for Gemma, which the audience could relate to as they would wear similar or the same. 
We wanted to have the female as the protagonist as this is very common in thriller films, an example of a main female protagonist in a film is.. 

The Girl With Dragon Tattoo- 

This film is very similar to ours as it shows a clear difference between the female protagonist and male antagonist. 

-Female characters in many films are presented as the victim and have low power to the other male characters in the film, however films such as Precious show a female beating up her child, this contradicts the stereotype. In Imprisoned the female is presented as the protagonist even though we only snapshot of the events that happened at the beating and after, the rest is unknown, this leads the audience thinking that the female is the victim.

I think that the audience would be able to relate to the protagonist as she is a teenager in a serious relationship that has turned bad, this is very common with serious relationships that have become too toxic, this leads to the audience sympathising with Gemma, seeing the violence from another angle.

Male

AGE- (16-20) - Antagonist 

• Our main male character in our film was Tom, Tom was the teenager boyfriend who was perpetrator of domestic violence. In Imprisoned we wanted the male character to be realistic, in many thriller films, the male offender tends to carry certain stereotypes that show the audience that he is the Antagonist, these made include Tall, dark clothing, dark personality (evil, mysterious and cruel). However in Imprisoned Tom is dressed very up to fashion wearing a bright blue and white short, this colour of the shirt contradicts the stereotype of a dark character, this also makes the situation more easy to understand to the target audience. We also added a fashion hat, we added this because this is very common of a teenager and this could show the audience how immature the characters are. The casualness of the male creates enigma to the audience and create questions like.. Why did he start beating her up? was there reason? did she start it and is she just of antagonist as him?
• We also added a beer to the scene and some shots of Tom drinking the beer, this allows audience believe that Tom may be an alcoholic and Gemma may be in more danger than usual, the finished beer symbolises the fact the characters patience has gone and he's not waiting any more.

Here is an image of our Antagonist in Imprisoned.

Here is a stereotypical view of Antagonist in a thriller film.









3. What Kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?  

When researching many film institutions and distribution I found many independent UK companies, one independent company that stood out for me was Artificial Eye.

Artificial Eye is a British film distributor, specialising in foreign-language and art house films for cinema and home entertainment. This would be appropriate for our film as they deal with small budget UK films that are created to show awareness or show there love and passion for video media. It is important that the distributor is for home entertainment as nowadays home entertainment is biggest way of watching films, this may include the internet, TV, DVD and even video game consoles. These home entertainment distributions are perfectly aimed at are target audience (16-20), as it easy to access, such as Itunes, LoveFilm and Netflix. 

A Bigger Film distributor that I also found that would be a very good company to distribute Imprisoned is Pathe, the film company has produced many big films in the UK but still distribute many independent films and create opportunity for low-budget films. This would be ideal to inspire for a larger audience and show awareness of our topic domestic violence.  

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


i decided to rate our film a 15, i chose rating of 15 because 
i felt like our opening included quite distressing scenes, these included Tom punching Gemma and shows Gemma in the bath. We want the rating to be higher so that we could have an more mature audience, that would understand the film and maybe relate. 

-Gender: Female Audience- 

We wanted the target audience to be women because as the lead character is a women, i think the audience will be able to relate more and be attracted to the film, the sad thriller storyline will attract audience that maybe have the same as Gemma, know some who has experience the same or are trying to tell someone that they are in that situation and tell someone. 

-Age:16-20-

I chose ages 16-20, i chose this age especially because it is very common age to be pressured and feel vulnerable, so the audience would be able to understand and relate to the movie, even maybe if they are being abused currently, stand up and tell someone. Both characters (Tom and Gemma) are young, this shows that people there age are getting beaten (domestic violence) and that people should be aware. 

Similar Target Audience is Precious

Precious is based on a teenage girl going through childhood suffering from abuse from her father and mother.
Genre- Drama
Certificate- 15 

The female lead is a similar age to Gemma, and is suffering similar difficulties as the main character in Precious, however Precious is a different genre to our film, precious is a drama but still has concepts of thriller. 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted the audience in many different ways..

Characters-  We chose average teenager so that the character can not be obviously from a certain social group (middle class/working class) so the movie could not miss out any certain audience and everyone who has experienced the same situations can not feel like there the only ones. However, the film still has different types if emotions involved so could be linked to both genders.

Setting- we chose a nearby setting so that it could be relatable and it was accessible, the wood is a very well know scenery so it is nothing out the blue, however adds enigma to the piece. why is she walking through the woods?.

Snapshots of messaging




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


Here is a prezi.. 

Throughout the process of filming and editing i have learnt a lot about different technologies and many more basic skills that i need to know while filming/editing, these include final cut pro (cut/video transitions) and camera (turning it on/ converting). 

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


Preliminary Task- 

Thriller Opening-

Lighting - 

•  From the  Preliminary task you can see a great difference of Lighting, During our process of filming Preliminary task, we used many lights (umbrella, LED light and standing lighting), however we forgot to do white balance, this meant that the lighting was fuzzy and didn't have a clear High definition focus, my group and i learnt from this mistake and made sure that we used WB before filming the thriller opening. The small and simple step (wb)  that we missed out, made a big difference when filming and editing the thriller, we found it easier to see character in the shot and correcting the white balance before shooting allowed the camera to identify the pure white, this gave the shots more of a cinematic look. In our preliminary task our lighting was purely focused on using alternative lighting to natural lighting to create the atmosphere, on the other hand  in our thriller opening we used  a lot of natural light and artificial light, this was very effective to show the contrast of Gemma (protagonist) feeling peaceful alone and her being beaten by Tom (Antagonist). Overall I learnt through the process of preliminary to thriller that natural light is just effective as artificial light but both together creates a very cinematic and professional look. 

Camera Work- 

• In our thriller opening we used many different types of camera work e.g.. handheld and still, we used handheld camera work when filming the side middle shot pan of Gemma's face, we chose handheld because we had greater freedom of the movement during the shot, the handheld allowed us to have a flowing shot that followed Gemma while she was walking. The most effective reason for handheld in this specific shot was to show the side of Gemma that had no bruises then suddenly the camera shows her whole face and the audience see her bruises. We also used a canted handheld of Gemma's POV on the floor after Tom had hit her, this showed the power that Tom has over Gemma, this is affective when showing antagonist to protagonist. Our use of Camera-work has developed from Preliminary to thriller, our preliminary included lots of similar over the shoulder still, that didn't add enigma, it was all very simple and had no real effect to the audience. I have learnt that camera work is very important to allow a film to flow and enable the audience to feel emotion, this was learnt by making mistakes in preliminary and correcting them in the thriller. 

Editing- 

• Editing is very important went putting a film together, the pace of edits can make the mood an atmosphere of the piece. In out preliminary  task are editing was very technical, we used very simple shots to shots. In our thriller opening we wanted to create  technical professional editing, however the editing that we wanted to create did become tricky, we wanted to show clear precise match on action between protagonist and antagonist in the house. However, in the preliminary the match on action worked very well, this made it clear to us that we should keep it simple and not add lots of effects which would take away from the relationship between the two characters trying to be shown through 'match on action'. 

Here some snapshots of our match on action: Thriller Opening- Main Task

Here are some snapshots of our match on action: Preliminary Task 

Here you can see both match on actions, in preliminary task the match on action is more precise and add tension, this is what we have developed into out final task- thriller opening. 

Storyboard- 

During the beginning stages of planning, storyboards are key, however we found it hard to structure the storyboard while planning are preliminary task, while filming we also found difficulty as we couldn't efficiently order our shots, this was visible in our film, as certain shots were extra and didn't continue the continuity within the film. This mistake allowed to evaluate what to do better in our next film and how we should improve our organisation. Storyboards were very much approved in our thriller, this meant that we could easily follow step by step shots and when we came to editing we could clearly see the shots in order.

Overall...

I think that are thriller opening has developed massively  from the preliminary task, the mistakes that we made in preliminary we made sure that we didn't make in the thriller, on the other hand all the good points that we got from the preliminary we included into our thriller. Our experience with editing on final pro has definitely progressed which allowed us to try things out and work out which is best. 

Gemmas Evaluation

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

 

·         Generally thrillers show justice and injustice (Via good or evil) fighting against each other with a strong feel of suspense. Most often the identity of the antagonist is known and the protagonist must intervene with their plans. Throughout a thriller it’s typical for there to be a bigger threat of danger the more into the film it gets.

 

·         In the Zodiac opening the protagonist is a boy and girl who are sitting in their car when a man drives up, gets out of his car and come to the driver’s window and shots both the characters, we don’t know who the antagonist is but all we can tell is that it’s a man dressed in dark clothing.

 

·         In our opening I am the protagonist, I get injured by the antagonist. The difference between the two openings is that the audience know who the antagonist is in my opening whereas in the zodiac little information was shared with the audience,

 

·         It is common in thrillers to include iconography, in thrillers this would include props such as knifes to create a dangerous feel, confined spaces to create the feeling of being trapped and shadows to create suspense, enigma and mystery.

 

·         In Silence of the Lambs the first shot we see is of the woods, this automatically creates a mysterious feel as the lighting too in the shot makes for a creepy dark feel. It is later shown that the woods aren’t a danger to the character from the scenes that we see.

 

 

·         In our opening we used the woods as an iconography as the woods can be portrayed as a sense of being lost, the characters walking the woods to try to figure out how they can escape their circumstances. Being in the woods creates a feel of being isolated which can be seen as being alone and vulnerable.

 

·         The use of close camera shots was important in the making of our thriller opening as we wanted the audience to feel the characters emotion by being closer to them. By placing the camera in certain places and distances allows the makers of a film be in control over how much emotion is portrayed in a scene by where the camera is placed. Also close ups show the significance of something, for example in Alice Creed, there are lots of close ups which make the audience question what is going on, also it enhances the effect of a thriller by building suspense and tension.

 

·         In our opening we also used close ups to attach the audience to the emotion I was feeling as the victim of physical abuse. We see close ups of the antagonist too briefly when the action is occurring which is also disoriented and quickly moves on from the flashback.  Here we see me looking vulnerable and Tom (the antagonist) looking angry.

 

·         Mise en scene was important in our opening as we wanted me to fit in as easily as possible using costume. The clothing was casual which allowed me to fit in rather than drawing attention to my character, I had natural hair which was down for the same reason and also by having my hair down allowed me to use my hair as a mask to hide my bruises. The bruises were created by using makeup to give the effect that I had been hurt and by having them shown to the audience along with my close up framing meant the audience could look into my character more. The reason for the use of clothing and hair allowed me to look like a normal girl who fitted in. I had in date clothing on so that my target audience could relate to me being a typical 18 year old girl, our target audience is females between the ages of 16-20. The audience sees me in a casual pair jeans and a basic jumper, nothing jumps up as suspicious and “worrying” about what I am wearing. Tom the antagonist is wearing an oversized shirt, a hat backwards and a pair of black jeans. The black jeans symbolise himself as he is a mean man.

 

·         Both the men in Alice Creed are wearing dark items of clothing which will represent their role in the film which is that they are both antagonists. The men are also wearing black gloves which are a symbol of danger and murder.

2) How does your media product represent particular social group?

 

 

 

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

·         Artificial Eye is a British film distributor, specialising in foreign-language and art house films for cinema and home entertainment, this would be good for my film as a small art house film is what I was looking to release. An art film is intended to be a serious piece of artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal, they are made primarily for appealing reasons rather than commercial profit and contain unusual or highly symbolic content in a film. Also the fact the distributer provides their films for home entertainment is important to me as although cinemas are still a popular way of watching a film, our target audience (females aged 16-20) still enjoy the comfort of watching a movie with their friends at home. Artificial Eye releases some 20 new theatrical films and 30 DVD titles in the UK each year such as on DVDs and BlueRay, as well as digital releases via several platforms, such as iTunes, Lovefilm, FilmFlex and in-house Curzon On Demand.

 

·         We would distribute our film at peak release times, Fridays will be a good day to release our film as this is the most common time for people to go to the cinema, especially for our target audience as they will most typically be at school, college or university during the week. Also Wednesdays are becoming busy due to 2 for 1 tickets from Orange.

 

 

·         Online ways of distribution will also be popular for our target audience due to the increasing use of tablets and phones. The technology has improved allowing people to watch films at all times of the day  and also is a very popular form of watching films such as on websites including, Lovefilm, Netflix or even YouTube.

 

4) Who would be the audience for your media products?

 

Gender-

I think it will be mostly females that will watch our film, this is due to the fact the film involves emotional scenes I feel as though its more likely that females will be attracted to it. Its easier for females to relate to female characters, men may not get the same attraction to the film due to the gender of the character.

 

Age-

I feel as if the scenes in Imprisoned could become distressing so I think that the film should be aimed at 15+ as it contains violence. This is also the age in which people are starting to get into serious relationships so will give people advice and make them aware of what can happen without realising.

 

 

 

5) How did you attract/ address your audience?

 

 

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

 

Transcript

There were 4 main pieces of technology I needed to use in order to make my thriller opening.

Camera- Although it seems pretty straight forward, we had to learn the main features of the video camera so that we could use it to the best of our ability. We learnt how to use white balance which was an important thing to do before filming each different setting or angle. This means that the image we get is a nice clean colour and doesn’t effect the colour of it and add a tint to it.


Final Cut Pro- The fact the programme is on Macs and that I would be using a Mac throughout the process of editing was a challenge in itself. I hadn’t even used a Mac before and wasn’t used to the settings and shortcuts. The editing plays a crucial part in our opening and I needed to learn fairly quickly how to achieve the look we wanted. I learnt how to add text onto my footage as well as cut down clips, increase and decrease the speed of a clip and how to remove sounds from a clip.


Lighting- Lighting was a key aspect of our footage. We used lighting to portray emotion and effects into our opening. We used dark lighting when the protagonist was in the bath where the bruises were shown on her body. This allowed the audience to see the bruises but also get the feeling as though she was alone and scared due to the dark lighting.


Blogger- Using blogger was different to how I expected. Once I got my head around how to make it look good and how to put items on the blog it became easier. It allowed me to just upload items when I wanted to off of my phone or online which made the blog look more visually appealing due to the images.

 

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

Camera-

In our preliminary task we used simple camera work such as the shot distances we used and angles and a pan, this was basic and in our final piece we wanted to challenge ourselves. In our final we used handheld camera work and still cameras, by using these two types of cameras during filming. The handheld gave our final piece the effect of a Point Of View (POV) shot which is what we were looking to achieve in our piece. The handheld camera was also used in the canted shot of Toms feet walking away as well as the POV of me when I was being hit by tom, the camera made the feeling as if I was really being hit. Since progressing from our preliminary task I feel as though we used a lot more camera angles to build enigma which worked well with other aspects of techniques we used. In our preliminary task we used a lot of simple shots which looking back was boring and not engaging for the audience.

Editing-

Editing is a crucial part in making our final look effective. We have progressed a lot from our preliminary task, we didn’t use transactions in our prelim task which looking back made it jumpy and uninteresting. In our final piece we used lots of transactions which made the footage flow well and linked the clips together. We spent a lot of time trying to work out the best way to make the piece run together smoothly. In our prelim we used a match on action which looked good for our first attempt, I feel we have moved on a lot since our prelim by using more difficult editing techniques.

 

Mise en Scene-

I feel as though our mise en scene planning had a lot more time put into it than in our prelim task. We put more consideration into the antagonists hair and costume as we wanted our audience to connect with the character. This included making the character  wear up to date pieces of clothing which would help the audience connect and possibly could relate to the character.

 

Lighting-

The lighting has enhanced technically a lot since our prelim task. The lighting was placed in places which would improve the way our film flowed and gave an effect, we used dark lit rooms (i.e. the bathroom to give the effect of the antagonist being scared and isolated) we used natural lighting in the woods to give the impression of freedom, even if it was for a short period of time for the antagonist.

 

Katie's Evaluation

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

Because our media product is a thriller, we explored different aspects of real media thriller products. When doing this we established that we needed particular forms of lighting, mise en scene, editing, camerawork and sound. Additionally, we decided we needed both a protagonist (The main character, in this scenario a victim) and an antagonist (The 'bady', evil character).

In order to highlight to the audience that our film is a thriller, in the first shot, we thought thoroughly as to where we wanted to film. We all agreed on filming in Blunt's Wood in Haywards Heath, following our female character, Gemma, on an everyday walk. Instead of choosing somewhere quite busy and loud we thought we would really be able to catch a thrilling sense by using this location. By filming under trees created a really cold, dark natural lighting which was another thriller media product we agreed to focus on. We wanted to create flashbacks of some of the violent attacks Gemma had gone through and by doing this we used a dissolving edit.

Mise En Scene:
For our film, the mise en scene was a very important media product. We created bruised all over Gemma's face and back which looked very realistic. Facial expressions and body language was also a very important aspect to think about. When the audience see the first flashback, it is understandable already as to who is dominant in the relationship. Tom follows Gemma in a very aggressive way with Gemma looking down to the floor. With the close up of Tom's face it is clear to the anger in Tom's face.


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

In some respect, our film is very stereotypical. In the sense that the female is the typical passive and week
character who is a victim of violent behavior. In contrast, the male character also portrays a stereotypical man as he is shown to be aggressive and strong.

When looking at what social group our film represents, we wanted our product to particularly represent the middle class. Stereo-typically, people often believe that domestic violence occurs mainly withing the working/under class. However, our film creates awareness that abuse withing relationships can happen whatever social class you belong in.


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

Preferably we would want a low budget media institution to distribute our media product. For instance, Pathe would be particularly ideal for our film. This media institution is pretty well known and I think would be a good way of distributing our media product.


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

We all agreed that our film would be targeted towards female mainly between ages of 16-20.
We agreed to rate the film at the certificate of a 15+, simply because it may be an uncomfortable film to watch for particular viewers. The way in which we produced some particular scenes, for example, when the male character is abusing the female character is very violent and I don't feel would be suitable for a younger audience. As our main character is female, we agreed for our target audience to be towards females. We decided this because females are seen to be more week and passive, especially in films. Men may feel as if we were victimizing them and being too stereotypical or a male's intentions.

Provoked: Our film relates to this movie Provoked, as the target audience is aged 15+ and for females. This film is also how domestic abuse with the main character being the female who has experiences domestic violence for 12 years.



5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Because our film is targeted towards 16-20 year old females. We used a female as our main character. This way our target audience may feel more relate able with a film like this. Additionally, as this is a thriller, people who enjoy these particular films maybe interested. Additionally, as the title of our film is in strong bold colours equipped with loud, harsh music it doesn't make our product biased towards either gender, therefore may attract other audiences.


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

Before starting this product, I was extremely unaware of any of the editing software in which we were able to use. I didn't know how to use the camera in so many different ways. I now feel very confident when using a camera, I am equipped with skills on different types of angles and shots in which would make particular clips look better.


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

I believe that we have learnt a lot when looking back to our preliminary task.
For example, when we were shooting our prelim, we had absolutely no sense of structure when organising which shots to do in order, which became extremely difficult when we had to edit the whole film. Therefore, in our full product we shot each of our scenes in order which made it a lot easier to edit.

Additionally, we were unsuccessful when testing the white balance in our prelim. We used that as a learning curb and made sure our lighting and white balance was just how we wanted it for the final product. We thought very carefully as to what lighting we wanted for our final piece. We had already experimented with many lights, such as the umbrella, standing light and LED. However, for our final piece we decided that these types of lighting looked too bold for our thriller. We wanted to keep quite a cold, dark feel as we agreed that that was a type of a feel a thriller needed. Instead, we used a torch from our iPhones. As this light is very direct and doesn't have such a strong effect, we used it as a spotlight to highlight the main points of our shots.

When it came to editing, our prelim task was very minimal. We used the same types of cuts and transitions which didn't make the film flow that smoothly. However, in our final product, because are now equipped with more skills and better knowledge of technicalities we were able to distinguish what types on transitions and editing techniques would look better. The use of the dissolving made the flashbacks, in our final piece, look more realistic and gave our piece more of a 'thriller' feel.

Our camerawork had improved hugely in comparison to our prelim task. We became much more aware of what shots and angles would make each scene look better. Just like our prelim, we continued to use a handheld camera, which worked well ,especially when creating Point Of View shots. We also used the camera on a tripod, just like our prelim, but we took our angles into much more consideration. I particularly like the shot when the female character is on the floor when the antagonist is abusing her. Gemma held the camera herself and moved it to the left in time of the punches, which made the shot look really effective and realistic, also giving it a POV shot.

In comparison to our prelim, I am extremely happy with the final outcome of our product. I think our skills and media awareness had improved hugely and it really works with the whole plot of the film.

Editing

Video Effect- VIGNETTE- Hannah

Here is a video of me editing the abusive shots, i chose to add an effect to the shots as they need to look different to the real time shots, so the audience know that it is a flashback. I chose vignette because it is blurred and creates a POV of Gemma experiencing the abuse. 

Here is a picture of the shot with the effect:

The effect (Vignette) also adds dark lighting which a typical convention of a thriller film.