Evaluation

Foundation Production Evaluation

Question 1: In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A thriller is a novel, play, or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage but there are many other types of sub genres.

Thriller sub-genres

Action Thriller

Take any other thriller subgenre, give it’s defining elements a back seat, and focus on the action, and you have an action-thriller. An example is Taken.

Conspiracy Thriller

In this subgenre the protagonist must confront a large, powerful organization whose threat only he sees. Usually he must do so alone. An example is Bourne Identity.

Crime Thriller

This subgenre focuses on crime, and is usually from the criminal’s point of view. Physical action and eluding the police take the place of gathering evidence and trying to discover the criminal. An example is Untouchables.

Religious Thriller

This subgenre uses the history and myths of religion. Usually it is about a religious artifact or historical secret is discovered, different people and groups fight for control. An example is The Da Vinci Code.

Disaster Thriller

In this subgenre a (usually) natural disaster is taking place, and the antagonist is either trying to stop the disaster, the extent of the disaster, or just save themselves before time runs out and the disaster has run its course. An example is The Day After Tomorrow.

Eco-Thriller

In this subgenre the protagonist must stop a threat to the environment (man-made or natural) that will have consequences for society if left unchecked. An example is The Happening.

Legal Thriller

This subgenre takes place in and around the courtroom. Usually the protagonist is a lawyer who has found their case threatening death for either them or their client. An example is A Time To Kill.

Mystery Thriller

This is a subgenre of both mysteries and thrillers. An example is Shutter Island.

Political Thriller

In this subgenre political relations or the whole government is at stake, and the protagonist is employed by the government to stop the decline. The protagonist may have been low-level before having attracted attention. An example is Enemy of The State.

Psychological Thriller

In this subgenre a lot of the conflict is mental, rather than physical. An example is Seven.

Romantic Thriller

This is a subgenre of both thrillers and romantic novels. An example is Mr And Mrs Smith.

Spy Thriller

It’s hard to call this a genre mash-up when spy novels almost have to be thrillers. At any rate, this subgenre focuses on the high adventures of field agents. An example is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Supernatural Thriller

In this subgenre otherworldly elements are introduced, usually as an antagonistic force, but just as in the romantic thriller, the plot line and feel or distinctly that of thrillers. An example is Legion.

I chose the genre religious thriller because it is a genre which is like by many of my target audience. I have seen many films in this genre like the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons and I know what makes a good religious thriller. The main audience expectations of any religious thriller would be suspense, confusion, tension and the typical plot usually about a religious artifact or historical secret is discovered and different people and groups fight for control. When making a religious thriller you must make sure that the audience feel tense at certain parts of the film. The challenge when making this was to find a way how to do this and a character which will help create the tension.

Conventions of Thrillers

·         Dim lighting, shadows, quick cuts, changes in camera angle, tension music, stairs, flashbacks, use of photographs, black and white and disorientation of time and space.

Camera work

Typical shots:

- establishing shots, this is to establish the setting of the scene.

- Mid-shots, this is to show what the character looks like and show their mannerisms.

- close ups, this is often used to show a person’s expressions and sometimes make the audience disorientated.

Use of Composition/framing:

- Key props, they often film the key props in certain way. For example if a murder weapon is being shot they would make it look dangerous and often single it out or put it into a picture with the murder that was committed.

- Creates suspense, an example of this is using a point of view shot through a sniper, using this framing would let the audience know that the sniper is about to be fired and this creates tension for them because they may see a murder.

Use of camera movement/angles:

- High/ low angle shots to show power/status

Editing

Straight cuts, these are used without fade aways so it is very quick and often confusing for the viewers but it creates suspense to see what the final outcome is. Psycho use this technique.

Flashbacks

·         Flashbacks contribute to a sense of time and space disorientation in a thriller and this confuses the audience.

·         It is also a convention of a thriller film because it can display what has happened in the past to give the audience an insight into characters pasts.

·         An example is in “Shutter Island”

Black and white

·         Black and white is another convention of a thriller because it highlights the use of shadows and it can often appear quite dark and eerie.

·         An example is “Psycho” by Alfred Hitchcock.

Inspiring films

No Country For Old Men

In this image you see the villain in a mid shot. Here he is surrounded by darkness which makes it hard to see his face. The darkness surrounding him could connote that he has evil ways about him and that he has a dark mind. The cage in front of the villain could signify that he belongs behind a cage because he is dangerous. Having his face hidden by the cage and the darkness of the car leaves the audience asking a lot of questions.

Here in this close up shot of the villain’s hands you can see where the handcuffs have been pulled against his wrists, this was because he strangled the police officer with them. This close up works effectively in showing how much the killer struggled in killing the officer; you can see this by looking at his bleeding wrists. Here he is cleaning the handcuffs and washing the blood away from his wrists, this makes you think about the officer’s death and how the villain is crazy.

Seven

One of the first shots we see is a bird’s eye view shot of five objects lined up on a table. This shows the audience that he is a well organised person who may be a bit superstitious. Also, two of the objects are an FBI badge and a knife, which show that he is likely to be a detective. Having every item lined up in this way shows us a side to his personality, which may be a serious one if he is this dedicated to lining everything up.

In this next scene we see a gruesome dead body in a mid-shot. This proves that our assumption of a detective was correct. The room is very dark apart from some natural light coming through a window. This stays the same throughout the entire opening. There is hardly any light apart from the widow and some torches the officers have. It is a tense atmosphere because of the body and the blood surrounding him. And the fact we don’t know why this was done and how it happened. The lighting in this scene is fits perfectly to add tension and it makes us feel under suspense as we desperately want our questions answered, just like the detectives.

Conventions of thriller openings

The most important things in a thriller opening are:

·         Titles - The titles are usually unique and different to other genres. They try to make them memorable and sometimes try to fit them into the story as it goes along. Seven is a good example for this as it is unique and memorable.  

·         Storyline - At the beginning of a thriller opening the audience are left with many questions and are often slightly confused. This attracts them to keep watching because they want to find out the answers to the questions they first thought of at the beginning. No Country For Old Men has a very interesting opening with a good plot that keeps viewers keen on watching.

·         Camera angles and shots – In most opening to thrillers they use a wide range of shots from extreme close ups, to show an object or persons expression , to an establishing shot which will set the scene for the audience. Shots from Shutter Island.

·         Music - This is a very important aspect for thriller films to consider because if they get this wrong it can give out the wrong atmosphere and put of the audience from watching. Most thrillers have eerie noises which make the atmosphere very tense. Shutter island is a great example for using music well in a film, it makes the films tense for the audience

Two thriller openings that inspired and influenced me:

Seven - this is a very good opening for a thriller because it is unique in the way it has made its title’s. When the credits begin we straight away hear some disturbing sounds, there was screeching and pounding. They are harsh sounds which makes the audience tense up as they are sounds which are unnerving. There are lots of cuts showing different images but the audience struggle to put them together. This is a confusing feature but keeps the viewer interested and makes them want to watch to see how they link. The credits have come up in a mysterious font which adds to the effect of the mysteriousness and confusion. The white text contrasts with the dark murky background and makes it stand out for the audience.

Da Vinci Code – This thriller opening inspired me to make my religious thriller. This is because its storyline and the way they it was shot was very good. This film inspired me to use some of the same shots and techniques of filming to make my film as good as it can be. Throughout all of this opening sequence we see very stereotypical conventions of a thriller film. Mainly that the villain isn't revealed until right at the end of the opening sequence and that we are only given clues. This would result in the audience having to think about what and who it may be. You can just see the shadow of the villain and this is a good way to make the audience tense up and feel nervous for the victim. Here in this shot they have a cut away which you think cuts away from the action until you see the shadow. In this shot not only do they give you the information for the audience to work out where they are but they also show the shadow of the villain. This is quite conventional to do this because it does not give away who the villain is but lets you know that he is there in the scene about to cause something bad to happen.

Comparing my production to real film’s

Seven                                                                       Father Of Sin

Here is my production on the right and the picture on the left is from Seven. We tried to make our film similar to Seven in the way that the title sequence is unique. But our titles are different in the way that we made our titles by hand and in the film seven they were computer generated. But in both scenes there is eerie music in the background to add tension.

 Seven                                                                      Father Of Sin

In these pictures they both show buildings from the outside. From them both you can work out what kind of buildings they are but you do not know where they are. This is to make the audience ask questions and keep watching to find out the answers to them. Both of these shots are conventional to thrillers. Both places in the first scenes a quite conventional when looking at the type of thriller sub-genre they are in. Seven is a Psychological thriller, which often has a death or something along those lines at the beginning and this is exactly what has happened here. They are often in a dirty and rough area which can look like a criminal’s hangout or house. This is what we have in Seven here, it is in a very dirty and scary looking place which looks like it is common to have crimes happening. The main reason we think this is because of the cage like door which could be for extra protection.  Our film is in the sub-genre of a religious thriller and this goes with the conventions of one, this is because we have set the scene in and around a church, which is the perfect way to follow the conventions.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Da Vinci Code                                                         Father Of Sin

This is the character Silas in the Da Vinci Code and he was the inspiration for us. This is why we have a similar outfit for our priest. This is a creepy outfit because it covers part of his face which makes us think that he doesn’t want to be seen by others. The difference of these two characters is that the one out of the Da Vinci Code is following his leader but the one in our film Father of Sin is doing all of this on his own accord.

Our priest is represented as a villain in the film and he is a legend or myth among the people. His age in the film is unknown because we do not reveal this to keep the mysteriousness about him.

We use the fact that his face does not get shown to the audience to make them fear him, this is because we want the audience to fear him. We do not give the character any props as we want him to be plain and simple character on the outside but it is a different story on the inside. We filmed this character in the church and you do not see him anywhere in this opening scene apart from the church. We kept the lighting quite dim around him to show his darkness and evil side. Both of these characters are villains in the film and these are the people who try to stop the hero’s from succeeding and are often slightly crazy or possessed in a religious genre.

                    

                      Road to Perdition                           Father Of Sin          

There is not that much that I can compare between these apart from them both being average teenagers and something unexpected happens to them both to change their lives. The boy in Road to Perdition is called Michael Sullivan Jr. he was forced into a life that he didn’t expect. Before this he was similar to our character, innocent and unaware from the danger he was under. They are wearing a similar outfit and we did this because we felt that the outfit that Michael Sullivan Junior wears is a smart outfit, which could connote that he is a smart but innocent young man. But these two are different in the way that our boy is slightly older and a very peaceful religious boy who would not expect something bad happening to him. They are both victims but in different ways. Our boy does not have any help whereas Michael Sullivan Junior has his father for protection and he is a victim in the way he has been forced into a life of a gangster and a life of murders.

Question 3: What Kind of Media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Company name and Logo

This is the finished logo. We added a Zulu shield to make it more unique and aesthetically pleasing. We initially made different versions of the shield but this looked the best and most professional. We have the spears going through the shield to make it look more realistic.

This is the shield we based our design on.

A logo that inspired us was Summit Enterainmen’s because of it’s

simplicity. We wanted ours to be simple as well because we felt that

it was one we remembered and this was because it looks good. This is why we made ours simple.

A production company helps to create a film. It assists in the budgeting, scheduling, scripting, casting and more. The company usually looks over the film from when it’s just an idea to completion.

A production company who would be best for my film is Columbia pictures. I feel this would be the best choice because they have many thrillers before and in particular religious thrillers. They have produced the films Angels and Demons as well as The Da Vinci Code. These two films fit perfectly into our genre so I feel that this company would be best for making Father Of Sin.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for the media product?

For my audience I took into consideration gender, age, psychographics and demographics issues. And with this information I identified my audience mainly men aged between 18- 28. We have found that the majority of our viewers will be men and this is because we have found out that more men watch thrillers because they like the excitement and the concentration needed to watch. The age is in this range because it is old enough to understand some of the confusing details in the film and it challenges the viewers to work out what is happening.

These will often be in the psychographic group of Succeeders, they are people who seek control, know what they like in brands and very often in films. They are smartly dressed people to show that they know what they like and dressing smart is that. Our target audience is focused on intellectual men who like watching thrillers because they challenge them. They also enjoy watching many other types of films but thrillers are their favourites.  Amongst the sub-genre of thrillers psychological and religious thrillers are most commonly watched by them. A typical film they would watch is Seven for its drama or Da Vinci Code for the challenging plot. They would much rather watch a film than a TV show but when they do watch TV, they usually watch drama’s which involves a good plot, Breaking Bad is a good example for this. Reading is not a part of their interests apart from the newspaper to catch up on news. But when travelling or relaxing they tend to listen to music and with all this knowledge of music and films they know what goes well in films and whether the music is suitable. For them a soundtrack for a film is very important.

We did our research audience by making a questionnaire and giving to many people who fitted our criteria of our expected target audience. And we also included people that were not in our expected target audience.

 

 

Evaluated questions

The top rated sub-genre is psychological thriller. We have made our thriller with this in mind having a rather scary priest who is creepy and he plays with people’s heads as will be seen in the opening.

The best thing people liked about a thriller is suspended we are using suspense in the way that the audience know the priest is there but the boy doesn't this makes the audience more tense we believe.

The largest chosen director was Steven Spielberg we couldn't really link this to our price because we are directing it ourselves.

Surprising twists came in at number one on what appeals to our target audience and we don't really have this but it could unfold in the later part of the film which we aren't focusing on.

Most people think props costume and make up are important we have taken this on bored and made our main focus to be on props and costume in our opening.

Our questionnaire says that the plot is the most important element of a thriller film so this is the reason we spent a lot of time writing the plot out and matching it to the shot list.

Music is the main thing that builds suspense according to our target audience this is why we aim to use it as effectively as we can we have looked into ideas of what should be cool and have a good idea in our heads.

In our two minutes of the film we do have the action unfolding quite quickly because this is what our audience want.

It is set in the present because that is what the audience want it is also better because it makes it closer to home for the viewer.

In our piece we have as little plot reviled as we can we want the audience to question what this man is doing and why.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organization, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the United Kingdom. It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and, to a lesser extent, some video games under the video recordings act of 2010.

I have chosen a 12A for Father Of Sin because it will does not have severe violence and is good for people of and over the age of 12. This is fine for our target audience because they are above this age range. Another film that is of the same genre is The Da Vinci Code and that is also a 12A so I thought that would be a good basis to go on. This was a successful film at 12A so ours can still be a good film without as much violence.

Question 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

I think that we attract our audience straight away with our credits and title name. I feel this way because we have made our credits and title in a very unique way which has not been done before. With our idea being unique it will intrigue our viewers and mainly attract our target audience to keep watching. This is because they like to see unique aspects to the films they watch so that it isn’t stereotypical and tedious. With the creepy eerie sound playing during the title sequence it straight away causes slight tension for the audience. I also think with this close up it shows off the burnt effect on the wood, it makes it look old and battered which is the look we were going for. The mis-en-scene is a good place to start when filming the credits because it shows instantly that you’re about to watch a religious thriller, this is clear and straight to the point which is good because some people may not have seen the trailer. There is not much editing apart from the cut aways which makes it seem like it is a person’s point of view, looking in closely at the crosses.

This is the first time you see the boy and at this time the audience know nothing of him. 

In this picture we see the boy in a mid-shot from behind, for all the audience know he could be the antagonist in the film and this is interesting for the audience because they want to know who he is a why he is going to church. My target audience would like this because they like it when some things are not clear at first so it leaves them asking questions. This is a good shot because it does not show his face a keeps him hidden from the audience leaving a hint of mysteriousness about him.

We used another mid-shot here to show his emotionless face and the stiff movement he makes when walking. This could make the audience think that he is possessed and now more assumptions are made that he is the antagonist in this film because of his emotionless face. This is what we tried to make the audience think and by doing this they are in shock when they come to realise he is the victim. Here we still have the ongoing eerie music which helps make the suspense greater because the music builds as it goes along.

Here you can see our boy walking into the church unaware of the foul being behind him. This image is a mid/two shot which shows the difference between good and evil, evil being the priest and good as the boy. When the priest is visible you can hear another sound over the top of the music which is playing, this makes the audience aware something is going to happen and the man behind the boy is a dangerous character. This slight change in music raises the tension and adds to the questions of what is going to happen to the boy.

A long shot is what we used here to show once again the villian and the victim. In this section of the opening you see the boy sit down with nothing in sight behind him. But when he lowers his head to pray you suddenly see the black cloaked figure appear from thin air. This would have confused the audience which is exactly what we were going for. Our target audience would love this section because they will be trying to work out how the priest did it but that they will never know. You see the priest after the dialogue stops which is a suspense filled moment because the audience start to guess that some how the words the narrator is saying are linked to the priest. These are the words he says, “And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers”, what the audience would get from this is that the boy could be someone who opposes the priest and his “brothers”, which will be the priests fellow followers. This type of plot is great for my target audience because they have to really think about what the words mean.

In this extreme close up we show his eye and how he knows he is in trouble. You see the eye move very quickly in shock and then not move much at all as if he is in acceptance that he may not live. To get to this shot we use a quick fade to black which is hardly noticeable and is smooth to watch. We zoomed in on his eye to lead to a fade to black to an image of his whole body which has tensed up in fear. This fade to black works very well because it flows well with the darkness of his eyes. We do not show if he dies or not too keep the audience interested to find out what has happened to him. This is the exact thing my target audience is looking for in a film, slight confusion with some suspense. Before the music rises and rises as the tension rises but here it reaches a climax and suddenly the sound drops when the boy tenses up, this could mean it’s all over for the boy but the audience do not know.

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

While making this film I have learnt about how to use a digital camera as effective as possible. I make sure that I involve a wide range of shots in my production from establishing shots to extreme close ups and now I know the right times to use certain shots. I have learned how to edit clips together in an effective way making them smooth and flowing. One editing aspect that I can now do with ease is now is adding effects to the link the clips together, an example of an effect is fade to black, I have used this in my production. With these effects included in my film it makes it a lot more professional.

Here in this shot you can see all of the things I have included in my production. Here I have added some dialogue. I did this by recording it on Garage Band and editing it to make it sound mysterious. I added echo and slightly changed the reverb to make it fit into the opening. I then transferred it onto iMovie and added it on to the production. Here in this shot I have used a close up to show the name of an actor. In this shot we tracked along the path showing each title and credit.

Here in this image you can see the green background here. This is where we have inserted our music; we have this throughout the thriller opening. But we fade in and out as it goes along increasing the sound as the tension gets higher. We have also inserted other pieces of eerie noises when the tension gets to the highest point. This eerie noise that comes in indicates to the audience that the villain is getting close to the boy and that the boy is in danger. Here in this shot we have a slight pan, this is a good way to show that the boy is walking into the church and it shows the surroundings of the boy.

In this first image I have used an extreme close up; this is to show the panic in the boy’s eyes. You can see how he sharply turns his head and here he knows that he is being followed. At this time the door had just slammed shut and this scared him because he thought he was all alone. Here in this shot you can use the golden mean and it shows his eye is an important factor in this shot; this is what we tried to do when filming. In this image you can see that we have included lots of effects in our film and I made sure that our video worked well with all of these effects. We added music throughout sections of the video and lots of effects like fade ins and outs to make the video flow well.

In this next image we have used a long shot, which shows to everyone that there is no on around, even though the door has just slammed. Here the boy speeded up because he was scared of what just happened. In this shot we had a quick fade to black to make the different camera angles flow smoothly. So the transitions of the shots work very well. At this time we hear once again a non-diegetic voice speaking as the narrator and now the voice is much louder which raises the tension for the audience because they feel that something is going to happen.

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to full product?

I have developed as a film maker in many different ways. I started off with hardly any knowledge of how to make a film successful but as we learnt about the conventions of films and aspects of films that make them good, it taught me a good amount of knowledge for my preliminary. I have come from a student who would not have a clue how to make a film to one who enjoys making a successful thrilling opening.

Some strengths of my preliminary investigation were that we knew not to break the 180 degree rule which we stuck too, the transitional method of the titles and the wide range of shots used. These help make the film look professional which therefore made it more successful.

But some problems with the preliminary were the use of sound. Our different types of music did not link very well and we had trouble putting the music onto the film. A way we tried to solve the music problem was too fade them into one another, this worked to an extent but if we had longer to spend on it we could have made it so there was no problem. Another problem with the sound was finding gun shots that worked with the actions of Ryan (our actor). This was such a problem because we couldn’t find any that were suitable, so instead we had to put in some shots that did not work with the actions.

The main thing when making the thriller was to take into consideration  continuity, 180 degree rule, shot reverse-shot and match on action.

·         I had to maintain a continuous action of consistent details and actions. I have done this by keeping the light hearted manner throughout the preliminary.

·         I stuck to the 180 degree rule.

·         When filming I made sure I kept to the shot reverse-shot by lining the camera up before we started filming.

·         I made sure that the match on action is perfect. I have done this by being very careful in the editing process.

Comparison of Preliminary and actual Production

You can see the improvement of my work in the filming and editing from the preliminary to the actual production. I have made it better quality and more professional.

You can see in these images how we have improved our titles. First of all we did not just go for a simple slide on title, this is because it isn’t very professional looking and we wanted our titles to be unique. So in the real production we made the crosses as the titles because we wanted titles that a memorable. So we made sure our titles weren’t just a bit of simple editing and stand out.

In our preliminary we showed the audience our main character straight away which was not a very good idea because it did not create any suspension. This is why in our real production we did not show the boy straight away. We wanted to keep him mysterious so we kept his face hidden to start with; this kept the tension for the audience because they do not know if he is good or bad. We also used a pan shot in our real production, unlike the preliminary which was a shot that didn’t move. The pan shot works better because it also shows the surroundings.

In this image in my preliminary you can see computers all around the actor; this does not link with the continuity and stereotype of a thriller. In our production we have thought about this and we have not got anything that does not work within the film. We have mid-shots here I both of these shots and this is because it is a good way of showing emotions and body expressions.