In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The opening to any film especially a thriller, sets the tone for the rest of the film and gives the audience an idea about the story line as well creating questions which they want answered. Conventionally thriller openings are used to build tension and suspense for the audience and foreshadows ideas about the film. The mise en scene, sound, music and editing all contribute to setting the atmosphere for the audience. In the thriller that we have created we used some of the conventions of the thriller as well as challenging some of the forms which are expected. After gathering the results of our questionnaire we decided to focus on a paranormal thriller, as it held a popular choice to what sub-genre people preferred to watch. Throughout our opening we tried to create tension by using quick snappy cuts, typical of a thriller opening. We were influenced by the film 'Se7en' 1995, directed by David Fincher as this also uses quick cuts to shots which are mostly extreme close ups and close ups.
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| Example of a close up shot which influenced out opening. |
We used quick cuts to try to create excitement for the audience and also give ideas about the story line and what was going to be included throughout the film. Shots such as the Ouija board and the table tipping to show the paranormal side to the film and imply to the audience that ghost hunting is a definite theme throughout the film.
Establishing shots which we used of the church helps to draw the audience in as they begin to wonder the history of the building and why that is relevant to the activities which are going to happen. Although all the shots were filmed in the light, we have edited our clips so that it looks a lot darker. This fits a convention of a thriller opening sequence as they are often dark and have shadowed areas which symbolises the film as the shadowed areas are seen as the mysteries of the story line which are not yet uncovered.
We chose to film the opening of our thriller in the setting of a chruch as this is a conventional setting for thrillers to follow. A chruch leaves the audience with many questions as there are many possibilities to why you are there. As well as a church representing positive things, such as a wedding or faith. It also follows a negative attitude as there is a grave yard which represents death. The mise en scene presents obviously to the audience that they are not there for a celebration which makes them question why they are there. This is conventional of a thriller opening as it creates questions for the audience.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
After the research results from our questionnaire most of the people who took part in answering it were ages 15-25. Therefore we tried to make our thriller most suitable for a younger target audience as they were obviously the people who seemed most interested in film and this specific genre. The actors which are used throughout are all between the ages of 16-17. We believe this will help relate to the specific ages of the audience as they will be around a similar age. The mise-en-scene which consisted of a dark shady atmosphere, contrasted with the characters within it as they were dressed normally which, to the audience, makes them seem vulnerable as it seems they are not ecpecting what could possibly happen, we believed this will also help relate to the audience. All of the actors which are in our thriller all follow different styles, however none are too outrageous or out of the ordinary. We believe choosing a style which the majority of young adults follow will help suggest ideas about the characters personalities. Throughout the film I am wearing leggings, with a buttoned up blouse and military boots. Kristina is wearing jeans, a jumper and UGG style boots. These choices of clothes allow the audience to see that the characters are just stereotypical teenagers. It also suggests where they have been or are expecting to go as none of the characters are dressed warmly suggesting they were expecting to be inside or not out too late, which gives more suggestions about the storyline. All of these trends are often followed by other people, the characters' clothes suggest something about their background as none of our outfits look unaffordable, leading to the audience's conclusion being that the characters are representing the working class. Our hair and make up is very naturalistic. In the film ‘Paranormal Activity’ 2007, directed by Oren Peli. The characters are similarly wearing clothes which are common of many people.
Their hair and make up is also naturalistic which adds to the effect of the film as it shows the film is set in the ideas of every day life. The mise en scene created in ‘Paranormal Activity’ shows a middle class social group as their house is presented obviously to the audience as a big house.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Many film distributing companies are interested in thrillers as they are a popular genre favored by the audience, shadowing comedy and action films which take the lead in top releases and have a total of 45.6% of gross from the box office in 2008 from films such as ‘Sex and the City’ 2008, directed by Michael Patrick King and ‘Quantum of Solace’ 2008, directed by Marc Forster. I believe film distributors such as 20th Century Fox, although focus on lighthearted films such as ‘Glee’ 2009, and ‘Narnia’ 2005, directed by Andrew Adamson, they also have released successful thrillers such as ‘Black Swan’ 2010, directed by Aronofsky, which was placed second in the top 10 thrillers of 2010. Both ‘Black Swan’ and our thriller, ‘The Haunting’ both follow the same sub genres of mystery and drama.
‘The Haunting also adds horror to its sub-genres which will allow 20th Century Fox to explore a range of different genres within the films it produces. Before ‘Black Swan in the top 10 thrillers of 2010 is ‘Inception’ which came first and was distributed by Warner Bros. This is another distribution company which I believe would be interested in our product. Warner Bros. is another distribution company which was had a successful background in the films it has been involved with. Such as the ‘One Missed Call’ 2008, directed by Eric Valette and ‘Batman Begins’ 2008 directed by Christopher Nolan, which are both follow some of the conventions of a typical thriller. I believe these distribution companies would be interested in 'The Haunting' if the budget was bigger and more advanced as it follows the typical chain of thriller conventions. As the film is low budget Warp X Films would be a good distribution company as it has had many successes with low budget films, such as 'This Is England' 2006, directed by Shane Meadows. Other films which they have released which follow the similar genre to 'The Haunting' includes 'Donkey Punch' 2008, directed by Oliver Blackburn and 'Hush' 2009, directed by Mark Tonderai. Which are conventional of a thriller/horror genre which is what our film, 'The Haunting' is trying to follow.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
I believe the most suitable target audience for our thriller, ‘The Haunting’ would be people who have an interest in the paranormal world. People who enjoy watching or taking part in ghost hunts will find our thriller exhilarating and captivating. This can apply to all ages, however we believe that the most popular age bracket would be between 15-25 year olds as they will have most in common with the characters and therefore get a feel for the personalities and experiences as they can picture themselves in the same situation. I believe that aiming ‘The Haunting’ at this target audience would be the most economically viable as aiming the product at an age any younger could limit the people who buy it as it may raise some causes for concerns by parents as it is about the paranormal world. As well as young adults older people who may have experienced something which is similar to the story line of the film may also be interested in buying the product as they would be able to relate the situation to their own. The questionnaire which we devised when researching for our thriller, helped us recieve an overview on the sort of people who are most interested in the thriller genre. We found that although there wasn't a significant difference between who was interested between males and females we found that males were slightly more dominant in who were most likely to watch the thriller.
There people who we asked to fill in our questionnaire were mostly working class. Therefore as the majority of people were of the working class we tried to create our thriller so that it was most appealing for this class, making them more likely to watch it.
How did you attract/address the audience?
Throughout the creation of our thriller we always tried to keep the codes and conventions of a typical thriller opening in mind. We tried to ensure that the majority of our thriller followed these conventions as we wanted to use the most effective method to create tension and suspense for the audience. Influenced by the film 'Se7en' 1995, quick, snappy shots are used, we tried to follow this example as we used quick shots to create suspense, for example, the shots of the Ouija board, table tipping, and the glass sliding across the table.
Another way in which we tried to attract the audience is by location which we set our thriller in. An establishing shot is used to clearly show the audience that we are in a graveyard, just outside of the church. An establishing shot similar to this also applies to the opening of the film 'Thriteen Ghosts' who also use an establishing shot to clearly show the audience where they are.
Based on the results from the questionnaire we tried to create a specific atmosphere which we think will attract the type of people who are going to watch the thriller. The characters which we used helped create the atmosphere which we wanted as it relates to a wide number of people. In the questionnaire the results showed that the biggest target audience would be people of a younger generation, therefore the characters which we used are of a similar generation, we believed this would help attract the audience as they could feel that they relate more to the people in the film. In the opening we wanted to foreshadow ideas about the film, the quick cuts, which are seen as flash backs are used to attract the audience as they will want to carry on watching to see the full memory not parts of it.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From filming this product I have found that however well planned and organised the production of your film may be it may not turn out how you would prefer it to. Perseverance and patience will eventually lead to the final product coming together. Our group experienced many attempts of filming and editing, and although some times it did go adequately others we faced problems which we then had to overcome. Our first attempt of shooting our thriller was an example of where things didn’t go to plan. We first shot our thriller at Tutbury Castle. During shooting we learnt that preparation was crucial as soon after we arrived our camera ran out of battery, limiting us to doing only inside shots. However, we still gathered as much footage as possible and tried to get a range of different shots so that we could experiment with them during the editing. As well as doing pan shots and zooms whilst the camera was on a tripod we also did handheld shots as we believed it would add some effect to our thriller as it would put the audience into the view of the characters within it. However once watching the footage back we found some of the shots were to shaky effecting the quality of the overall film. The camera which we used to film was new to the group as all of us had used different types of cameras but not specifically this one. Throughout filming I learnt how to adjust the settings on the camera to focus change things such as the saturation and the exposure.
After a group discussion we decided that although Tutbury Castle was a perfect location for what we wanted it was too difficult to access regularly especially as we thought we would have needed to go back on numerous occasions. Therefore we changed our location to a local church and grave yard in Attenborough. This was an easier location to access for the entire group. We then shot again, learning from our previous mistakes we made sure the camera was fully charged before setting out. We also made sure that the majority of the shots were done on the tripod so they would definitely be steady, increasing the quality.
Being a group of 4 we wanted to divide the tasks evenly so each person would be able to develop more of their skills on the editing program, Adobe Premiere Pro. Nearly all of the footage we took we edited to make it fit the conventions of a thriller more effectively. One of these included making all the clips darker, to create a sense of darkness and mystery. We made sure that all the saturation levels were the same so that non looked lighter than others, however as some of the shots were filmed at different times the natural light was different therefore we had to adapt the settings for the each clips to what time of the day they were filmed. As some were already very bright and others were quite dark. For example when my arm reachers to open the gate the camera look very over exposed.
Also clips such as the Ouija board and table tipping were done inside and are quick shots representing a flash back of a memory from Kristina who is describing her experience. Therefore we made these shots fade in from white and fade out from white so that it is obvious to the audience that they are from a different time period. Other editing skills which we learnt throughout making our thriller included adding titles, sounds clips and slowing down clips to add effect. Throughout editing all of the skills which we used to create our final edit were new skills which I learnt through experimenting on the program. How to use Adobe Premiere Pro was the biggest learning curve for me as prior to this task I have never used a film making/editing program of the same standard.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
On a personal level I believe I have made many improvements to my overall skills and thoughts towards the creation of film production. I think that having two different groups, one for the preliminary task and one for the final product help show a range of different peoples ideas and abilities which can be passed on to others to allow people to learn new skills on all the software including editing, camera shots and angles, and the overall production of the film. In the preliminary task the first panning shot of Will, there is a noticeable glitch in the camera which decreases the quality of the film.
Comparing this to the final product which we have produced there is a noticeable change in the standard of the quality as there is no blurring or distortion when doing slow panning shots. For example when there is a slow right pan of the church. It flows smoothly and does not show any distortion.
As well as the filming being more effective my editing skills are also more advanced. Throughout our preliminary video there is less editing and most of the transitions are all straight cuts, as well as the fade at the end and the slow motion in the middle. Also throughout our preliminary task, Will, who was in our group was a skillful editor therefore didn't often need to experiment on how to do things which meant I was restricted as I didn't often learn things for myself. The editing skills which I have shown in our final product are much more advanced as we have experimented more with the lighting of the shots, and also the way the audience view the film and what influence we can have on them through the use of editing and sound. For example, when the shot dips to white the audience can easily see that it is a flashback, leading them into somebody else’s memory, giving them the feeling of mystery and interest. The sound track of the preliminary task is just the natural sound of what actually happened. This differs entirely from the final product as all of the sound on it is through effects and no natural sound apart from the voices between Kristina and Emma are used. We believe that this creates more tension for the opening of our film, which is conventional of a thriller opening. Adding music to our thriller is another example of how my skills have developed, before this task, I have never had to find any copyright music and had import it onto our film. This is something which I have developed to do and in future would be able to use my skills to create more advanced filming and editing effects.
