Evaluation - Laurel Drew

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



Hidden Identities in our film

Hidden identities in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

•  The identity of the phone owner and the caller is hidden which creates enigma and questioning for the audience which is a key convention of thriller films. During my opening titles and credits research I discovered that the best opening titles sequences were those which characters had hidden identities. Also creating more enigma is that the audience don't know how the phone got into the field or why the other characters are being rung. The audience also don't know how the characters relate to each other or who they are creating further enigma This part of out product shows the use of creating enigma for the audience.
• We also use the convention that the antagonist is a human who is attacking the women who is ringing her friends for help. However our opening doesn't show this because we wanted to create enigma for the viewer.

• We also used the convention of restricted narration because the characters don't know who is ring them or why and neither does our audience. We also want the audience to find out the information along with our characters because I think it makes the film more interesting to watch and keeps the audience engaged with the story and plot. While researching thriller openings I found that many of them used this type of narration and I thought it worked better than the openings that had unrestricted narration. I found the openings with restricted narration made me want to watch the film more than those with unrestricted narration did.

Thriller films with restricted narration -
Inception http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1et4
Oldboy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhTbqWlUeI0&feature=related
Goodfellas - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ2RofOEAEU 

• We also used discontinuity editing because are opening begins part way through the story. This is shown by the establishing shot of the field where the attack has taken place previously, how the phone is already in the field and the man is already walking out of the gym. As our film progresses it will go back and show the audience the events prior and how they led up to the opening sequence. While I was researching the thriller openings at the beginning of the project, I discovered that both Inception and Old Boy used this technique and as a group we thought it worked really well so decided to develop it and use it in our opening.



Our Film - discontinuity editing



Oldboy (top row)
Inception (bottom row)
- discontinuity editing

• Our film begins after the disruption stage of narration which is another convention of thriller films. While researching thrillers I found that openings that started at this stage of narration were more interesting and gripping to watch. They also made me want to watch the rest of the film to find out what happened whereas those that didn't interest me began before the disruption or another part of the stages of narrative.

Films that begin with the disruption -
Inception http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1et4
Oldboy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhTbqWlUeI0&feature=related
Goodfellas  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ2RofOEAEU 

• We decided to use close ups of the characters hands when they were answering then the phone. We decided to do this because in Vertigo there is a shot of a mans hand holding onto a beam which drew attention to it. We thought this worked well and wanted to incorporate something similar into our opening. A similar thing was also used in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo showing the man opening the letter which again drew attention to it and created enigma and anticipation to what would happen next.



Vertigo - close up



Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - close up





Our film - close ups

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

• The representation of gender within our film is stereotypical as the woman is in the kitchen reinforcing the view that they are domestic and the other is in the bedroom brushing her hair showing shows the stereotypical view that women are concerned with there appearance. This is also shown by the beauty products on the dressing table further reinforcing this stereotype. Also representing the stereotypical views of gender is that we see the man coming out from the gym, this reinforces the stereotypical view that males are strong. However this also begins to show the changes in gender and the representation around it, for example as the man is exiting the gym it shows that he is also concerned with his appearance which is a more modern representation.





Gender Representations











• Also reinforcing the traditional gender representations is that a woman that is in danger from a male, although our opening doesn't show this, it is a women who is calling her friends for help. However representing more modern views is that both her female and male friends will eventually rescue her from the danger reinforcing that women are becoming more dominant and stronger.

• Our characters are more middle class people showing that they are normal, average people allowing the audience to empathise with them more. They are also aged around 19/20 showing that they are more independent than a teenager but they are still vulnerable because they are still young. This reinforces the stereotype that the younger you are the more vulnerable and weak you are because you are less likely to be able to look after yourself.

• The costumes also show the more traditional stereotypical representation as the man is wearing a blue jumper, jeans and trainers whereas the woman is wearing pink pajamas and the other is wearing lighter colours. This shows the stereotypical view that blue is a boys colour and pink is a girls. Also the simplicity of the males costume shows that he is less concerned with his appearance compared to the female who we can see is wearing jewellery further reinforcing the traditional views.



Costume



• A more modern representation of gender is shown by how the women own technology and know who to use it as shown in the mobiles they use. The more traditional view is that women don't understand technology and our film contradicts this by showing there capability to use them. The following screen shots show the phones which are owned by the women.



Technology owned by the female characters



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



As a group we decided we would want our product to be distributed on the internet site BBC Film Network (http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/). We decided to distribute our product on this website because it is fairly popular and also broadcasts many other low budget and independent British films. Also we may distribute our product on Facebook to allow us to attract a wider and bigger audience. Using the internet helps us to target our audience of 15+ year olds because they use the internet for many different things and it is also very easily accessible because most people have easy internet access. We also decided to distribute our film on this website because we would then be look to be able to broadcast it on BBC3 television channel to reach a wider audience and help make our product a success. We would rely on internet and link advertising on the BBC Film Network and Facebook, and maybe post links to these sites in Myspace as well as using word of mouth to inform people of our film.

Advantages

• Cheaper way of broadcasting
• Targets our audience as well as a wider audience
• Social networking links to the broadcasting of the film

Disadvantages

• People not finding out about the film
• People not having internet access

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The main audience for our project would be ages 15 to 21. This is because our characters are aged around 19/20 and this audience would be able to relate, empathise and sympathise with our characters. Our film is also aimed at 15 year olds plus because there are scenes containing violence, imitable behaviour as well as a strong threat from the antagonist. There is also strong language throughout the film. We have decided to classify our film as a 15 because of all these reasons and we research the guidelines and boundaries of the BBFC website (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2) in order to make our classification accurate.
• Thriller films are generally associated to be aimed at males however I think our film is aimed at both male and females because the characters are both male and female. I think our audience would like our film if they enjoy other thriller films and like to try and answer the enigma and mystery with created throughout the film, and try to do so before the characters themselves. I think if they like trying to work things out along side the characters with the same information and try to beat them to it, then they may also enjoy this film. Whereas if they prefer to know all the information before hand and prefer unrestricted narration then they may not enjoy our film as much.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

• Our characters are roughly the same age as our audience which i think attracts and addresses them to the film because they can relate and empathise with them because they are the same age.
• Also the film contains violence which is thrilling therefore attracting the audience because that's what they want to see.
•  A lot of enigma is created within the opening helping to attract the audience because they begin to ask question about what is happening as well as becoming confused. This helps to draw the audience in because they want to find out the answers to these questions as well as what will happen next.

Audience Feedback :-

The use of music is effective as it’s creepy yet pleasant. I like the way you used the numbers at the bottom of the screen for you names and the phone called leaves me wanting to know who’s called and why. – Lena

I like that the camera shots sort of have a CCTV feel to them because it puts the audiences mind in to the area of crime and creates anticipation-also the disjointed cuts, switching from one story line to another are really cool because they create intrigue and a sense of the unknown .I really liked that the sound seemed to get louder and more intense because it held your attention and felt like it was building up to something. I also liked the attention to little details like toast popping etc. – Jessica

Ooooh it's scary.. The fact that no one spoke apart from answering the phone built up tension as it left you wanting to find out more about the characters. I liked the obscure camera shots of the phone as it gave the impression of something being wrong or not as it should, the whole clip also gave out minimal amounts of information about the plot leaving the audience wanting to watch the whole thing. Also the shots of people in familiar places such as the kitchen makes the audience feel uncomfortable because they can relate to the situations. – Isabel

I really enjoyed it! The music is so creepy and i like the way the names appear. I also like how it introduced the characters with minimal information which left the spectator wanting more. It is very realistic and i think you should be pleased! – Alex

I think just enough information was given so the audience knows that there are 3 characters and their names and that is it. This is effective as it creates tension and atmosphere as the audience become curious and wish to find out more about these characters and their story. I like the camera shot at the beginning that zooms in on the tree with the phone underneath this draws the audience in. I thought it was effective how there was minimal dialogue used and all three characters said the exact same 5 words and that was it. I think the use of music complimented the piece well without over taking. It helped to create atmosphere and the fact that there were no lyrics meant that it didn't distract from the piece. I liked how parts of the filming were disjointed such as the toast moving from the toaster straight to the counter i thought this showed how the situation had no order and there was something wrong. I thought it was a very strong opening to what looks like a great piece, i really want to see what happens, Well done – Charlotte

I Like it! I like the way you zoom in on the phones and focus on the time. With only very little dialogue it creates tension and makes you want to carry on watching. There were various angles and camera shots. The creepy ringtones really help with the atmosphere and the writing in the corner tells you enough. It kind of reminded me of paranormal activity, the way it's kind of disjointed and how it's kind of like somebody is stalking you, watching your every move and planning something. And by only having a few characters makes it easy to follow and i think builds up tension. – Zoe

I thought that all of the camera angles from the phone to the next scene were very good as it was like you could see it from all angles around the phone and to the person the camera was 'following' it all made it look quite effective. I also think that the music went very well with the story line as it brings up lots of tension with that and little words were added in each scene, only 'Who Is This?’
To improve i think that the voices in the scene could be a bit louder as you can't hear some people as well as others, but overall it was a great performance and it makes you want to see more of which was going to happen. – Sasha

The title sequence and the cast names is really cleverly thought out. I liked that you saw the phone calling with no-one there. Also all the sound both diagetic and non diagetic worked really well. When the toast pops out the toaster in the next shot it appears on the counter but all in all a good opening with a good storyline, really kept me wanting to watch more and find out what was happening with the phone. – Amy

With the audience feedback I found that :-

• They enjoyed it
• They wanted to find out what happened next
• They were confused by the enigma created but were able to understand enough about what was happening.
• They liked the use of music and the camera work
• Thought it was realistic

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

• How to set a white balance on a camera and how it enhances a product.
• How to spot when the white balance hasn't work which allows me to know if the white balance needs to be changed, helping to make our product easier to watch as well as being realistic.
• How to use final cut whereas for our preliminary exercise we used imovie. This helped our product because we were able to use more advance editing software with a wider range of effects and options to use allowing to increase the standard of our product.
• How to use a HD camera which allowed us to get better and clearer footage of a higher quality. This allowed us also to increase the standard of our project.
• How to use Garageband as we used all the natural sound when we did our preliminary exercise. This allowed us to create a more realistic and natural film as well as use sound effectively. Also it allowed us to put a soundtrack onto our film helping to create the mood. We were also able to use both diegetic and non diegetic sound with the use of Garageband.
• How to change the volume of the sounds so they don't overpower each other helping our film to be easier and more interesting to watch.
• We used natural lighting as to create a natural and everyday feel to the opening. We wanted it to remain simple as to create more questions are create a contrast between the attack on the women (later within the plot) and her friends being unaware.
• We also used zooming on the camera at the beginning when we are gradually focusing onto the phone.

• That in order to shoot someone looking in the mirror effectively without the camera being seen the camera needs to be place in a certain position. This helped us to keep the realism within the opening without breaking the illusion and the audience seeing the camera.
• That the pace of the film can be created by the length of the shots but also the soundtrack used helping us to increase the pace of our film which is a convention of thriller films.
• That you can shorten footage, and cut bits out of the middle of the footage to increase the flow and pace of the film. allowing us to increase the pace and flow of our opening as well as allowing the footage to make more sense.
• That the better titles are often in block white letters as shown in my 'opening titles and credits research' as well as that they genuinely stood out more. We decided to apply this to our thriller opening titles.



White titles for 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo',
'One Hour Photo' and 'Vertigo'



White tiles for our film 'Phone Grid'





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

• For our preliminary exercise we were only allowed to film within college, whereas for this project we were able film off site, allowing us to get a wider range of locations and giving us more options. In this project I have learnt that often the simpler the storyline and locations are the better and more effective it is likely to be. 



Location shots



• Also there was a point in our preliminary that the white balance was off  and since then I have learn how to tell and how to fix it. Also to help us reduce the danger of the white balance being off we have used a HD camera compared to the standard camera we used for our preliminary.

Prelim. white balance

• In our preliminary exercise we also used mostly natural sound whereas for this project we used Garageband to enhance the sound.
• How titles effect the film and require thinking about, not just putting any positioning, font style and colour. This is contrasting to our preliminary exercise where we didn't use titles at all. This reinforces how we have gain more knowledge and put in into practice.
• We spent a lot more time working on the sound for our thriller opening compared to our preliminary exercise. I have learnt that sound can either enhance the film or ruin it. As we spent a lot of time working on the sound we are able to make sure it complimented our film as well as being realistic.
• Since our preliminary I have learnt about how both non-diegetic and diegetic sound can be created on Garageband and how the right sounds can increase both the pace and atmosphere within the opening.