Opening Sequence of

By Matthew Hersey

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

The media product I have created is a crime thriller that uses generic and existing conventions associated with the thriller genre and twists on these conventions to add slight originality in this style of film. This has then helped to create an interesting take on the genre.

Once our plan of an idea was finalised and the product started to develop as meet up sessions and prep work continued, the ideas and elements of our final piece was manipulated as research points challenged our own ideas. We investigated the crime thriller genre in discovering the conventions of the use of : Protagonists and antagonists, sense of enigma, investigation, low key lighting, quick cuts in editing, tense music which all participate in the creation of a crime thriller film. We then used these conventions in our final product, to achieve the wanted feel the audience of our product would expect, but then developed some of these conventions to challenge these forms.

Mise En Scene

We used darker colours on the protagonists to challenge the idea of stereotypical protagonist of the female gender, as they would use light colours to connote venerability to a dark antagonist. This then challenges the convention and presents to the audience that anyone of any type can be victimised by crime which adds an ambiguous feel to our film. We also challenged the convention of areas of venerability such as dark ally ways and dark back streets and placed our protagonist in an open social area for the everyday person which is the ‘Common of Chalfont St Peter’. This then challenges the convention as this area of frequent usage would be considered a safe place which then shows the seriousness of the kidnapping suggested within our opening which would add tension to parts following up in the film which would not have necessarily been scary.

Blond Hair andwhite clothing connotes innocents and venerability as theyare pale, light colours.

Lily has darker hair andclothing of dark shades which challenges the stereotype a stalker wouldbe able to get.

Instead of a cliché setting we replaced the setting with an environment of common usagewhich add an edgy feel to the product due to crimes being possible anywhere.

Dark ally, contrasted with an open public area.

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

SoundWhen contemplating the wanted sound for our product we went through a process of choosing a sound track which would suit our piece in creating a tone of mystery and ambiguousness which also would fit in with the style of filming and acting that we had produced. Considering the thriller convention of tense music, we experimented with a few, in trying to achieve something with a suitable pace which matched the editing of the product. We found some which suited well, so I assisted Matt B in experimenting with them against the edited clips and the track which suited most became obvious to our group. This process of elimination worked well for us however took some time in testing out against our editing. We also considered using music which completely contrasted the usual tense tone, like when thrillers and horrors use children's music to create a creepy tone to the audience. We decided this wouldn’t work with our product, as the display in the pin board section needed to be over exaggerated to achieve the tone we wanted, so using the convention helped us achieve the feel we and the audience desire from a thriller film.In some areas we needed some added sound effects, like the quick stutter zoom in within the pin board sequence to add a dramatic tone in this highlighted section. Finding sound to suit was simple for Matt B, as he looked into action film sound tracks for parts of high tension which he then cut out and sped up for this section within our opening. We followed the thriller convention for sound and I’m glad we did, as it adds thriller elements to our film for audience recognition of a thriller film and adds tone and darkness to sections which sound be emphasised.

Camera and Lighting

Cinematography was a big part of our media product, as I wanted the product to present ambiguous content to add slight confusion and multi sided storyline elements within the introduction to add to the feel of the thriller convention of investigation and discovery. To do so, we show a door opening and closing, keys being thrown onto a desk and then a sequence of investigation on a storyboard presenting a pathway of information of the protagonist to the film, like a plan which the audience can infer as a stalker and his plot of kidnapping which would become evident as the film progresses. However, I wanted to achieve ambiguous factors to introduction, in not showing who the person entering this room is or what his plan is as he exits the room and the end of the sequence. This was shown as this person could be many things, the stalker himself, a police officer, somebody following the mystery ect, so this independent interpretation the audience would have to think from the start of the film adds to the tense feel of our product, and follows the tense convention of the thriller genre. I showed this using low key lighting in many sections, using a bright white lighted torch for natural light tones to create a vignette shadow around the subject that was focused on. This added a dramatic feel to the subject of the shots which followed the dramatic convention of a thriller product. Using close up shots, helped create this tone as well, as it emphasised action within screen time to present the motion of the antagonist in a disguised way.

Vignette shadowing aroundantagonist for an emphasised focus.

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

Editing

When editing we wanted the audience to visually work out foreshadowing characters, things that may occur/ be shown later in the film so screen time played a large part in the exposure of our intensions.

In the first section of the introduction the antagonist is shown, however there are more shots of the pin board section with images of the protagonist growing up to present time, so a realisation of who this person may be can be thought by our audience.

Fades in and out of these clips of our protagonist are further used to add discovery and foreshadowing, as the close ups of the faces are still focused on by the audience as the clips fade out to darkness which suggests the unknown to these characters shown; events of a dark nature further on in the film which follows the thriller convention however develops it to a level beyond obviousness.

When editing I wanted to go away from the usual coloured environment, a typical dark/ night time sky, street light lit, and replaced this with a dull coloured grey-blue tone to suggest a dreary day. This doesn’t challenge the convention of darkness, however has developed this convention to a form which suggests dark undertones but uses a time in the day which many people would be out and about still so the development would present a further creepy tone as the protagonist is followed.

How does your media product represent different social groups?Who would view your media product?

When planning out the characters and situations which should be included in our production, socials groups played a big part in the decisions we should make in choosing these elements.

Teenage stereotypes and teenage conventions in thrillers was the main thing we had to consider when creating our protagonist, as portraying a role too true to the stereotype would create a predicable tone in our product which would spoil the way the audience would view our piece. We wanted our protagonist to be a female, as venerable and a naïve nature is a convention of the female gender in thriller films, however we wanted to develop this slightly in making this protagonist relatable to our target audience of people aged 15+ to represent the teenage social group more accurately. To do so our protagonist had darker hair and clothing, while maintaining a stylish look within teenage fashion so that our audience can relate to the styling of our character which then allows us to present the teenage social group in a modern way.

The other social group we had to consider was this minority of the unknown, the antagonist in our piece. Strangers are considered a threat to most people, many of which are harmless however we had to create a threat with minimal appearances of the antagonist in the product to create our ambiguous tone. We had to follow the stereotype in this circumstance, wearing black clothing with a hood to hide the identity of the stalker to follow the idea of the unknown. However he didn’t wear a mask or a big trench coat, instead it was simple clothing: black jeans and coat, which represents this unknown person tin a more realistic way to our audience in connoting the antagonist as being anybody, not just a weird odd person with a messed up background.

The audience that would view our product would be our teenage target audience of people aged 15, young adults up to the age of 25 and teenage parents. I could tell this would be our target due to us planning our protagonist in her teens and being relatable to teenagers of her age. We also considered the max age group which would view our product, being people up to the age of 25. We thought this through, and from our initial survey of thriller films the results presented people up to the age being the max age of interest in this style of film, and considering the protagonists age, people aged 20+ would find it hard to want to watch due to the character being younger than themselves. Parents might watch our product as well, as they could be interested in the plot of our product and how this could relate to real life situations of our modern world.

The protagonist

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

When contemplating the media institution that might distribute our product, we had to look at other institutions of a similar style to make the decision.

Lily investigated into ‘Independent film’ in what and why it would suit our production. An independent film is a film production which results in a feature film that is mostly produced outside of major production and distribution companies. These independent films usually have a lower project budget and produce and distribute the films by themselves without major company input.

This would suits our work, as the style of our work can be related to this styling of production, in a lower costing, amateur created piece of work, which we could distribute on a lower level to more private screenings like the school we study at to be shown. Also we cannot achieve major company input with the quality of our final piece so independent distribution works well.

Our Production and distribution Company

Another example of an Independent filmcompany

How did you attract/address your audience?

There were many ways I planned the final product to attract and address my audience to be able to create an interest in the content and the purpose of the production. An element of relatability was needed to achieve this, so that my audience of teenagers aged 15 plus can view the content and understand the plot and purpose.

With the protagonist, I had to style the character to suit the modern society of teenagers today, through fashion and styling of her clothing and attitudes towards the things that happen. To start off with, using dark yet fashionable clothing was key to the relatability between the protagonist and the target audience, as her clothing fit modern fashion so immediately our protagonist becomes relatable in the fact that she represents a large social group of modern day teenage girls. The dark clothing is fashionable, yet contrasts the stereotype of venerable teenager girls, in the fact that conventions of bright minimal clothed women are targets in thriller films and her clothing of dark shades suggests elements of tom boy attitudes which would suggest she might be better aware to threatening situations in which she is still exposed to. This then presents how anybody can be targeted in crime which adds an factor of fright to the product to the audience and how she is relatable to our modern day audience further shows that’s crimes can happen anywhere to anyone.

There were other subtle ways the audience was addressed which further adds fear to our production. The use of modern day technologies were brought into the equation to present this.

For our pin board section, a range of images are shown to present the growth of the protagonist/victim and how the stalker has followed the character up to present time. I researched popular social medias including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and how modern society's use these technologies and have modelled their everyday life's around the presentation of themselves to other people around the world.

Using this information, subtle messages were put into the product to portray this. There are three images of the protagonist on the social media platform Facebook included in the growth of her life, present herself posing with her close friend Katy who is tagged in the image as well for everybody to view who they are and links to personal profiles. The use of this is effective, as the target audience can relate to the use of social medias and the usage/ purpose of which the protagonist is using it. This is then put onto the threatening plan of the stalker which then presents and addresses the audience in stating the message of how anyone anywhere can access personal information about anybody and how in extreme situation how it has effected/ will effect our protagonist which then makes a personal link to the audience.

Relatablesocial media

What have you learnt about the technologies in constructing this product?

Before starting this project I had some experience using a camera and editing software, from interests of extreme sports editing and filming which is a hobby of my own. Coming into this project, I learnt more in-depth about each skill in other ways which has improved my overall knowledge and skills in both.

At the beginning of the project when we had to state our skills to form groups, I opted for the tech side of the spectrum which put me in the group I am in now, knowing I would have to learn more in both skills and teach others within my group basics of both to be able to get the work finished in time of deadline. The continuity task was the first time we got into the tech side of the project, having to film and edit a piece of work using the 180 degree rule and show technical competence in the way it was structured. Using my knowledge of camera angles and planning skills, I was able to storyboard the entire task in 3d sketches to form a visually recognisable plan of each specific shot, and then film the piece using a range of these angles which although didn’t have the most interesting content, had a range of camera angles which flowed well together and was easy to watch. This is where I learnt more in depth about the camera, having to use and learn the 180 degree rule. I was not aware of this technique and its effect on the view as I had never seen it in use in the style of film I personally watch. It took about three re shoots to get the 180 degree rule into our continuity task, as I initially thought changing scenes but continuing in the same angle still followed the rules however the technique is most noticeable when there might be a convocation in shot, and multiple angles are shot in one side of the room along and 180 degree pivot which took multiple reshoots to achieve. This is an initial example of a further learning of my skills in the technology side of the project.

By the final task my camera work and editing skills had up to date practice, being able to construct my continuity task in an effective way using the 180 degree rule and other techniques like match on action to produce an effective piece of work. By the real task I had upgraded my camera to a higher quality DSLR which will produce high quality professional footage for the piece we are making in comparison to a poor quality cam corder which made shots in our continuity task poor . From the continuity task to the final task, I had learnt that multiple reshoots of each section over a course of many filming sessions was going to occur, due to discovering flaws and problems with clips in the continuity task and having to reshoot them multiple times, and other problems such as availability of rooms and equipment which delay progress. We started our final task outside and managed to film a third of the shots in one filming session. We then discovered problems once starting to edit due to props missing between shots, weather/sky changing between shots and wind effecting audio this meant further sessions needed to get the wanted clips at the quality that we want them at. This was a constant throughout our project , including the first section of our project which was lit in the dark which took many attempts (over 100 shots in this section) to get right and meant a lot of my time and efforts were put into the production having being the technical person in the group/ the filmer and part editor.

What have you learnt about the technologies in constructing this product?

Overall I have learnt a lot about the technology element of the product, although having previous experience in this subject in the filming and editing side of things. Problems occurred throughout both tasks, knowing they would happen in the final task through the experience of the preliminary/continuity task which meant making time to resolve these problems was planned a head. I had also learnt how to film and edit in this style of film, creating a suited title sequence to fit the genre and edit a film to create effects on the viewer which follow or challenge the genres conventions, whereas the style I have previously filmed is most shot at similarly low angles for height effect and amazement on the audience. Technology plays a large part in the creation of the final product, and learning this style has resulted in a quality product.

Me Filming

Using a camera and tripod for a steady shot

Filming in the dark was challenging due tohaving to spot light wanted things to emphasis elements of the product.

Surrounding vignette shadowspot light

Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product?

Looking back at the preliminary task I feel there has been a progression in the learning of the creation of the final product, including the timings of sessions, filming, editing and production. Completing the preliminary task has helped me get to the stage I am at now, and a clear escalation in knowledge and experience can be seen.

Overall, the preliminary task was a challenge. We found it difficult to find the time to film, and once we did other problems became evident such as not the correct equipment to use, problems with props like different costumes, availability of places to film etc. which delayed the process of the task. Once we had then gathered clips people in the group had to learn about the editing process, in cutting clips to wanted lengths, sound and sound bridge and effects. Although this took time others in the group had a basic understanding on the editing side of things which is a benefit as the editing side of the project can be shared out late on in the final task and also I feel from teaching these skills I had refreshed knowledge to help me edit well later on in the project.

Between the preliminary task and the final task there has been personal skills of mine that have progressed. The first thing would be my camera work, from the preliminary task to the final task I started with a hand held cam corder and further upgraded to a semi professional DSLR camera with equiptment like tripods, the difference being I was able to film in high quality and use a large view finder which enabled me to see more of what I was doing. This then helped me progress my skills as I was able to plan out shots better and view clips once filmed so I was able to know if a shot should be re filmed at the time. This then made the most of time and the filming sessions as we didn’t have to wait for results of the clips.

I also progressed in my teamwork and leadership skills. As the preliminary task dragged on I became more anxious of getting the work finished in time of deadline which made my efforts further increase, this then made me take on a leadership role in organising meet ups and editing sessions to enable us to complete the task. Me taking on this style of role I feel boosted the mind-set of the rest of the group. I then took this skill through to the final task, not being ‘the leader’ but using leadership skills throughout the project to help keep the pace of production which has meant I have gained a skill through doing the preliminary task and final product.

I further progressed from the preliminary task to the final piece in my editing skills, from using basic skills though to more complex match on action techniques to produce a more professional final product. For the preliminary task the 180 degree rule was needed with some other basic techniques to show competence which I had to revise and learn to get correct, which took multiple tries. Learning from this when going into the final task, I used these learnt skills and looked up other effective editing skills such as fades in and out, effective title sequences to match genre and style of piece, adding matching sound track and sound effects to emphasis visuals and cross cutting two scenes which all helped create a well structured piece. As I edited the project with Matt B it was important we both understood and contemplated wanted sections so being a team player in decision making and the actual input in producing helped making this task successful in comparison to the preliminary task.