Evaluation
(1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
. We tried to use as little dialogue as possible as we wanted to shock the audience with our drastic camera shots.
. Are overall aim from this thriller was to create suspense and anticipation for the audience, a key way of achieving this was through the chase scene, with its speedy camera transactions and movement, alongside the intense non diegetic music really thrilled the audience.
. Are overall aim from this thriller was to create suspense and anticipation for the audience, a key way of achieving this was through the chase scene, with its speedy camera transactions and movement, alongside the intense non diegetic music really thrilled the audience.
.In our opening we also attempted to raise questions, such as why is the protagonist of our production tied up on a chair in a darkened room. This is shown by the opening shot (long shot) although the shot is rather narrow so obscures other information on the surroundings, this makes the audience feel almost claustrophobic which adds panic, anxiety and tension.
. Mise en scene was a key aspect in which we attempted to thrill the audience as the country footpath surrounded with greenery added to the tension, as the theme of claustrophobia was continued as the trees seemed to arch creating a tunnel like affect, which increased anxiety and also made the shots seem faster as the leaves appeared to fly past you this added the theme of danger.
. The setting of our thriller challenges a stereotypical or thriller as it is filmed during daylight, as we felt a night time chase scene was too predictable. Also we chose to film in a rural area that looked like a country path to avoid a typical urban surrounding so often associated with thrillers such as this.
Our characters challenge a stereotypical thriller as they are both dressed smartly in shirts and ties, looking fairly middleclass, contrast to the predictable youths in tracksuits you may expect from a production such as this.
. Due to some clever camera work we were able to perhaps create the biggest question of our thriller, which is what is in the bag? It’s made clear that the contents of the bag is very important to the film as it completely changes the atmosphere of the film as tension rises between the two characters, as it inspires the little dialogue we used.
Another way we raised questions within our thriller was in the titles at the end of the opening, we used a vague and mysterious image to provide a background for the film title. This alongside some intense sincere non diegetic sound really creates anticipation.
We were inspired by this chase scene, with its edgy non diegetic sound and fast paced camera transactions this was something we also tried to achieve. We felt this got us on the edge of our seats, just as we wanted our audience to.
(2)How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We feel our media product goes against the stereotypes of most thrillers; we did this by using a male victim character in contrast to the typical female ‘damsel in distress’ used by many other thrillers.
We also wanted to avoid the typical underclass, tracksuit wearing, housing estate characters which are commonly associated with chase scenes, we did this through costume; dressing our characters in smart shirts and ties. We also achieved this via setting as the running through a country side alleyway with much greenery to promote this theme of characters.
This could be perceived as a negative view of the middle class as they are not usually associated with criminal activities perused by our characters.
(3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I would plan to produce our thriller as a strictly digital product. To save money on celluloid film prints as well as other cinematic outputs. I would advertise the product on the internet on sites using viral advertising on sites which are target audience use often, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Our film will be available to buy from iTunes as well as games consoles such as Xbox 360 and PS3 additionally it will available on demand on BT Vision as they are more likely to show low budget British thriller than Sky television. It will also be possible to download and view the film on portable devices such as iPhones, iPods and Smartphones; we feel this will capture our target audience’s attention.
Having discussed possibly shooting a 3D version of the film, although we decided there wasn’t enough funding. There was also not enough funding for a Film distribution company so we will approach advertisers and distributors ourselves.
(4)Who would be the audience for your media product?
Due to the general violent themes and fast paced action are film is generally more targeted at a male audience, although can still appeal to the female audience. Thrillers in general are targeted towards males, this with the combination of two main male characters should really home in to our target audience.
Both of our main characters are young actors meaning it will generally appeal more to a younger audience although we cannot ignore the adult themes within our production such as torture and intense violence, because of this i feel a certificate of 15 would be ideal for our film, the target audience will be in between the ages of 15 to 26. This is key to our advertisement plan, as research shows our target audience are keen website surfers on the sites discussed above, as well as game console players.
(5) How did you attract/address your audience?
The theme of the film was key to attracting our audience, as we wanted intense themes with a helpless protagonist, which allows audience to feel empathy and therefore develop relationship and attachment with the characters. The chase was also important to grab the audience attention and add first instance of suspense.
Camera work was important as we wanted some extreme shots that shock the viewer such as those below.
Editing was also an important aspect to attract our audience; we used straight cuts to add pace to our chase scene. Through fast paced transactions and also the seemless transaction through which the flash backs turns back to the present. A bright filter was used on the chase scene to add to the experience of a flashback.
Sound played a key role in giving pace and changing the mood in our production. Foley sound is used at the beginning to make water drops which creates an eerie mood, then non diegetic sound is used to create a beep noise over the ‘3 hours earlier’ this builds up the viewers’ suspense, then an intense soundtrack is played over the chase scene which really adds to the intensity.
(6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We used the Sony HD Handycam to film both our preliminary and final product, i really enjoyed using this camera as it was easy to use, but also offers HD quality. We found it easy to create detailed shots and colour and white balance.
We recorded the dialogue for the product on a separate microphone for better sound quality; this was easy to then add to our product. We did our editing using final cut pro, this was the best piece of software at our disposal and helped us to add flow and pace to our product, as well as add video filters to certain scenes to add effect alongside transactions and our title sequence.
We used Garageband to create all the sound in our production minus dialogue. We created a soundtrack and also added necessary Foley and ambient sounds. We used a lighting kit for the basement scene in our production to create an eerie effect, we failed to use a lighting kit in our preliminary so this took some adjusting but we are pleased with the final product.
(7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
The improvement from our preliminary to final production in unquestionable, everything has improved from sound to mise en scene, the ability to convict different themes such as weakness and power was clearly demonstrated using the new techniques we had learnt.
From our preliminary in progression to the final product, we have improved our use of camerawork, editing, sound and mise en scene hugely as we have learnt about different techniques to use in order to convey different things such as power.
Camera work was far improved with a faster pace and more diverse range of shots made this an intense thriller for the audience, we did this by using the environment to create extreme shots such as climbing in trees and crawling below fences.
I also believe the shot reverse shot was more affective as it was better framed than the preliminary. The way we perceived are protagonist to be weak was very affective as we film from high angle.
The editing with our final product was far more diverse where as in the prelim we only used straight cuts making our film tedious and predictable.
The use of sound was greatly improved as we added a soundtrack for our chase scene which created far more tension, also the Foley sounds used gave it a far more professional feel to our prelim.
We put far more time and thought into mise en scene in our final product, costume was key to promote our characters’’ background, and raise questions about them such as why are they wearing a suit?
The setting was far more relevant to what we wanted to achieve in our final product. Whereas in our prelim it was clear that we simply just filmed in college using little creativity.
Although in our final product we chose the setting purposely to replicate a dungeon this raised futher questions for our audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment