Sunday, 14 April 2013
Georgia Johnson: Evaluation Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The main thriller conventions we have incorporated into our opening sequence are:
Ambiguity
Mystery
Suspense
Complex narrative
Isolation
The title of the film
The title of our film 'Locked In' suggests a sense of being trapped and unable to escape which is what we were trying to portray. We also wanted a title that was short as we felt it would give more impact, especially as the title is revealed at the very end of the opening sequence. We decided to have the title at the end because we thought it would be effective to build up to to a climax to keep the audience guessing. In the film, 'Knowing' the title appears at the end of the opening credits and flows nicely into the beginning of the story whereas another film, 'The Experiment' shows the title somewhere in the middle of the sequence and this seems to get lost within the other credits and doesn't have much impact. In terms of colour we chose to have the title as white on a black background; the white represents the experimenter as he is shown wearing a white lab coat throughout the sequence and suggests that the partipants can't escape from his immoral ways. The black background was suitable as it represents darkness and danger as well as evoking mystery.
Setting/location
One of our most important props is the advert for the experiment which you see in the initial shot of our opening. This advert is something we found from a trailer of 'The Experiment' and we thought this was a good way of beginning our film as it helps suggest the plot and gives the audience some initial context. Other props were also imperative to introducing characters. There is the typical experimenter who wears a white lab coat and latex gloves. For our protagonist Bonnie, we didn't give her a specific prop or costume as we wanted to create this idea of an "ordinary girl" she makes herself out to be and we thought we'd let her character develop over the course of the film. In terms of editing, we decided to cross cut the various shots to lead up to the moment where all of the characters would come together after the 'Locked In' title. We thought it was an interesting way to show what the different characters were doing at that same point before unusual things started to happen.
Camerawork and editing
We spent quite a lot of time researching and deciding what were the best fonts to use for the titles. I am really pleased we did this because we came across the font Reprise Stamp which we chose for the main title as we thought it reflected the ideas of the film well.
Genre and how the opening suggests it
By researching a range of thrillers as part of our product research, we were able to incorporate many aspects of the thriller genre to suit our opening sequence. We received some audience feedback in relation to how our opening successfully suggests a thriller genre, such as:
Ambiguity
Mystery
Suspense
Complex narrative
Isolation
The title of the film
The title of our film 'Locked In' suggests a sense of being trapped and unable to escape which is what we were trying to portray. We also wanted a title that was short as we felt it would give more impact, especially as the title is revealed at the very end of the opening sequence. We decided to have the title at the end because we thought it would be effective to build up to to a climax to keep the audience guessing. In the film, 'Knowing' the title appears at the end of the opening credits and flows nicely into the beginning of the story whereas another film, 'The Experiment' shows the title somewhere in the middle of the sequence and this seems to get lost within the other credits and doesn't have much impact. In terms of colour we chose to have the title as white on a black background; the white represents the experimenter as he is shown wearing a white lab coat throughout the sequence and suggests that the partipants can't escape from his immoral ways. The black background was suitable as it represents darkness and danger as well as evoking mystery.
In order to create and retain a sense of mystery, we did't want to give too much away with regards to the setting and location of the experimenter's environment.
This is something I thought worked well in 'Kill Bill' which I understand is more of an action film than a thriller but the opening shows many thriller conventions. The close-up shots in 'Kill Bill' mean that the setting is difficult to distinguish and therefore increases ambiguity which is one thriller convention.
The locations we used in
'Locked In' were quite plain which helped achieve an ambiguous feel. Most of the shots include white walls which reinforces the representation of the experimenter, a quiet corridor where the participants waited for the experiment to begin, and a small room where the experimenter was setting up, ready for the participants to use. Unfortunately we failed to get access to a small, mostly empty room where the experiment would take place so the doors the participants walk through towards the end of the sequence do not match the door that is locked at the end which is one of the issues we weren't able to solve completely. However we did have the location of the protagonist's house which was included for the purpose of the audience to identify with the protagonist, Bonnie Fair, and helps establish her character more as it is Bonnie's story that we follow.
Costumes and props |
| Close-up shot from 'Kill Bill' |
The locations we used in
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| Doors don't match... |
'Locked In' were quite plain which helped achieve an ambiguous feel. Most of the shots include white walls which reinforces the representation of the experimenter, a quiet corridor where the participants waited for the experiment to begin, and a small room where the experimenter was setting up, ready for the participants to use. Unfortunately we failed to get access to a small, mostly empty room where the experiment would take place so the doors the participants walk through towards the end of the sequence do not match the door that is locked at the end which is one of the issues we weren't able to solve completely. However we did have the location of the protagonist's house which was included for the purpose of the audience to identify with the protagonist, Bonnie Fair, and helps establish her character more as it is Bonnie's story that we follow.  |
| Advertisement snapshot from 'The Experiment' |
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| Advertisement snapshot from 'Locked In' |
The majority of our shot list consists of close-ups. This is how we thought we could create a mysterious and ambiguous feel especially in terms of keeping the identity of the experimenter hidden. The opening sequence of 'Se7en' includes mainly close-ups/ extreme close-ups and as I watched it I found myself asking lots of questions as to what was being suggested so we incorporated this into our own sequence.
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| Handheld close-up of Bonnie running |
- A handheld close-up shot of Bonnie running to reflect her hurrying to get to the experiment on time.
- A tracking shot showing the polaroids of the participants which then fades into the characters actually sitting ready for the experiment. This may have been more successful if the order of the polaroids were the order they were sitting in as it would have been effective to have the last chair empty to create more tension than it does having the
second chair along empty. It could have also created a sense that everything was going to the experimenter's plan.
Tracking shot showing the polaroids - Crosscutting between the participants and the experimenter helps to show how the participants have no idea of what the experimenter has planned for them and makes the audience feel more involved as they are aware that the experimenter is preparing for something.
We spent quite a lot of time researching and deciding what were the best fonts to use for the titles. I am really pleased we did this because we came across the font Reprise Stamp which we chose for the main title as we thought it reflected the ideas of the film well. - There are little cracks that pass through the letters which suggest things falling apart and deteriorating which we thought would foreshadow relationships between characters and their gradually becoming weaker from the lack of food and water the experimenter fails to provide the participants with.
- The white titles, as I mentioned before, represents the experimenter who is the cause of the participants being'Locked In' so the cracked letters also suggest the partipants attempting to break through from his hostage.
- The letter spacing is also quite close together implying the close proximity of the characters in the small space.
- The font size is quite big and bold to give a big impact and for it to also seem like the participants are trying to get the audience's attention that they're trapped.
I think our decision to have the first shot as the advertisement of the experiment was a good idea because it immediately gives the audience an idea of the story. From then on there is the voiceover of Bonnie who gives the information on characters as well as her own. The voiceover also helps to reinforce the visuals such as when Bonnie talks about the "bunch of other teens" and describes their personalities as they appear onscreen. This foreshadows the relationships Bonnie forms with the other characters which is suggested by the opinion she has formed on each of them. Furthermore, we thought the voiceover could also foreshadow Bonnie being interviewed by the police about the incident and therefore this suggests that she escapes from the experimenter. Crosscutting helps to establish a connection with all of the characters which helps set out the story.
Because the experimenter's face isn't revealed in the opening, we relied heavily on sound and props to portray him as a suspicious and manipulative character. Whenever the experimenter appears, the shot is accompanied by a sharp, non-diegetic sound effect which we use as the experimenter's motif which enables the audience to identify the experimenter as a dark character from the start. The experimenter takes a lot of care and time with each of the props such as putting his gloves on and pouring water and this slow pace in comparison to Bonnie rushing to be on time suggests a sense of power and control representing the experimenter as a superior figure.
Because the experimenter's face isn't revealed in the opening, we relied heavily on sound and props to portray him as a suspicious and manipulative character. Whenever the experimenter appears, the shot is accompanied by a sharp, non-diegetic sound effect which we use as the experimenter's motif which enables the audience to identify the experimenter as a dark character from the start. The experimenter takes a lot of care and time with each of the props such as putting his gloves on and pouring water and this slow pace in comparison to Bonnie rushing to be on time suggests a sense of power and control representing the experimenter as a superior figure.
By researching a range of thrillers as part of our product research, we were able to incorporate many aspects of the thriller genre to suit our opening sequence. We received some audience feedback in relation to how our opening successfully suggests a thriller genre, such as:
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| The ambiguous experimenter |
- The ambiguous experimenter- we decided not to reveal the experimenter's face throughout the whole of the opening sequence to keep the identity of the antagonist a mystery.
- A creepy soundtrack - a lot of synth effects were used to build up a dark and menacing tone in order to represent the dangerous experimenter.
- The title at the end creates an edgy feel as it comes into focus along with the shaky effect - we noticed also that a lot of thriller films have their titles on black backgrounds e.g. 'Se7en', 'Blood Simple' and 'Donnie Darko'
- Various close-up shots means that not everything is revealed to the audience and therefore creates an element of mystery.
All of our shots are quite light which is something that challenges the thriller conventions such as in 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' which has a black theme throughout the whole of the opening. We wanted to create more of a clinical and cold atmosphere to coincide with the main storyline of the psychological experiment. Therefore, this creates a mysterious tone by suggesting that it all starts off as an intriguing and maybe hopeful experience for the participants, but as soon as the dark titles come into place, the audience feel that it's not quite what the young teenagers expect.
'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'
We used props/costume and sound to represent characters.
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| Snapshot of Cassie |
- Each of the characters has specific props or items of costume to signify their character such as the bubblegum, pink lipstick and high heel boots to highlight attitude and represent the "outspoken and full of pride" Cassie or headphones to represent the "all talk and no action, but hooded up and ready to rock" Nathan. The quotations mentioned were taken for our opening sequence where the voiceover describes the characters which helps introduce the characters.
- As I mentioned before, sound helps to introduce characters such as the experimenter who has his own motif (the sharp sound effect). I think we could have also maybe tried to use sound to represent other characters, particularly our protagonist Bonnie as it might have been a good way to contrast Bonnie's motif with the experimenter's. Bonnie supposedly defeats the experimenter in the end so we could have foreshadowed this through the soundtrack.
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| Snapshot of Nathan |
After seeing 'Se7en', the first thing we thought of when thinking about special effects was to make the titles shake. We managed to achieve this by getting to grips with the software Adobe After Effects which took quite a while to master. We also managed to get the smaller credits to flash in and out of focus. We thought these effects helped create an edgy feel and during audience feedback we were told that the shakiness and the title slowly coming into focus at the end creates a disorientating feel. We thought it also reflects the unstable experimenter.
Mulki Raage Cayduruus: Evaluation Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The Tile of the film:
'Locked In' reflects the narrative of the opening as it represents the issue of being confined in a place were the protagonist and her companions a forced to survive in inadequate conditions. The antagonist is a psychopathic experimenter which is conventional of thrillers.The reprise stamp font is used to conform to generic conventions such as a mysterious atmosphere, distress and suspenseful moments.The use of white against black suggests the tainting of innocence. The title was placed right at the end which is an unconventional of an opening sequence. By doing this it confused some people as the thought it made the opening look like a trailer.
Setting/location:
As a group we choose to keep the setting ambiguous so that it follows the generic convention throughout the opening sequence and to help stimulate the atmosphere felt in an experimenters surroundings. From my product research; Se7en used a lot of ambiguity through extreme close-up's shots which would
not give the audience to much knowledge about the antagonist.
Camera and framing:
The first location uses a variety of shots to acknowledge who the protagonist is which is assisted by tracking shot, mid-shots and close-ups. Our framing is mostly conventional except towards the end as we start to use more mid-shots for the audience to familiarize themselves with the characters and to create a clinical feeling. However to keep the identity of the experimenter hidden we choose to use just close-ups.Editing:
Cross-cutting was the main editing technique used between the experimenter and the participants. This creates a sense of distress on the audience as we know that the editing is used to suggest a link between the two scenarios. This link could be something the experimenter has planned which the participants are not aware of however the audience are.
Props:
The advert at the beginning of the film is an idea drawn from 'The Experiment'. It helped suggest to the audience what the plot could involve. Also the use of the white lab coat and latex gloves helped inform the audience of the experimenter profession.
Characters and sound:
Mulki Raage Cayduruus: Evaluation Question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?
By making questionnaires we found out more about our target audience and their expectations. We choose questions which we thought we needed a guidance with when it came to making choices about what the next stage would be. The questions also informed us about what our audience find most appealing in current films. As well as questionnaires we did a vox pop which involved going up to random member of our school and interviewing them about what they think a thriller should include.
A greater amount of our participants choose comedy as another genre which they enjoyed. As a group we were finding it difficult to try and include this genre in our thriller. However after doing more project research we came across ‘The Breakfast Club’ which is about teenage stereotypes in society. This was a perfect film to take ideas from as the main character are a group of young people around the same age as our target audience.
The majority of our participants were female as we choose to hand out our questionnaires within our school. By making the protagonist a female, we would not only appeal to a greater amount of the audience but also have someone to associate themselves with.
Our cast portray a wide range of personalities which could attract a wider audience if the find that the can find traits in a character which they can also see in themselves.
A greater amount of our participants choose comedy as another genre which they enjoyed. As a group we were finding it difficult to try and include this genre in our thriller. However after doing more project research we came across ‘The Breakfast Club’ which is about teenage stereotypes in society. This was a perfect film to take ideas from as the main character are a group of young people around the same age as our target audience.
The majority of our participants were female as we choose to hand out our questionnaires within our school. By making the protagonist a female, we would not only appeal to a greater amount of the audience but also have someone to associate themselves with.
Our cast portray a wide range of personalities which could attract a wider audience if the find that the can find traits in a character which they can also see in themselves.
Mulki Raage Cayduruus; Evaluation Question 5- How did you attract/address your audience?
After deciding that our target audience should be 16-20 year old people, we looked at the character types.We choose 'The Breakfast Club' as one of our critical film choices to make reference to as the comedy conventions used in this film affect a character's personality and behavior. This may appeal to the audience as the film uses comedy to showcase teenage stereotypes. The stereotypes shown have a significant impact on our target audiences life as this may be the case in both their school and social lives.
To ensure that our target audience receives the appropriate opening sequence, I did some research on the bbfc which gave us some guidelines as to what is appropriate for our target audience:
Our product may also appeal to our mainstream audience as the location of the film is clinical which is emphasized by the white walls.
The narrative was used to help attract audiences by the use of having an ambiguous scientist. This will make audiences who regularly go to the cinema enjoy the experience of trying to fill the gaps of the narrative themselves.
To ensure that our target audience receives the appropriate opening sequence, I did some research on the bbfc which gave us some guidelines as to what is appropriate for our target audience:
- strong violence
- frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
- portrayals of sexual activity
- strong verbal references to sex
- sexual nudity
- brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
- discriminatory language or behavior
- drug taking
Our product may also appeal to our mainstream audience as the location of the film is clinical which is emphasized by the white walls.
The narrative was used to help attract audiences by the use of having an ambiguous scientist. This will make audiences who regularly go to the cinema enjoy the experience of trying to fill the gaps of the narrative themselves.
Mulki Raage Cayduruus: Evaluation Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Camera and composition:
Some of the framing in our preliminary task were not straight causing the composition to not be accurately placed. However when it came to the final product we were more careful of this and took more time to check the camera is placed well.
Continuity editing:
The aim of our preliminary task was to demonstrate our interpretation of continuity editing. Though when we had a look at the end results of our preliminary task we noticed that we did not show a lot of continuity editing. To ensure that this does not happen in the final cut we tried to use more match on action which will give us a higher level of continuity.
Some of the framing in our preliminary task were not straight causing the composition to not be accurately placed. However when it came to the final product we were more careful of this and took more time to check the camera is placed well.
Continuity editing:
The aim of our preliminary task was to demonstrate our interpretation of continuity editing. Though when we had a look at the end results of our preliminary task we noticed that we did not show a lot of continuity editing. To ensure that this does not happen in the final cut we tried to use more match on action which will give us a higher level of continuity.
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