Evaluation Questions

1: In What ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?     

In our thriller we incorporate many different conventions of modern thrillers. The slow paced walk of the unidentified man walking towards the body is generic as this is seen in many psychological thrillers, this shows we have meet the specific criteria for a psychological thriller. Also in psychological thrillers the identity of the killer is not revealed until the end of the film whereas our thriller reveals the identity in the first few minuets. This challenges the conventions of thrillers as it does not leave the audience guessing the identity of the killer instead they want to know how it got to this point. The conventions of our thriller such a mystery to help uncover the sub genre witch is a psychological thriller. The conventions that appear in our thriller help to reveal the sub genre as they give a view of the story line and the conventions appear in other psychological thrillers such as 'Silence of the Lambs'. Through are thriller we were trying to modernize such classic films like 'American psycho' and the novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

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

In our thriller the representation of gender is mostly towards the male gender as there are no women present in the opening of it. The age that is represented in out thriller is young males between the age of 16 and 18. You can tell this by the dress of the actor and the setting which is a college room. the social classes that are represented in our thriller is that of young working class

student coping with a set of problems.

As gender is not a central theme in our thriller their is no conflict for power between the sexes in the opening due to the fact that only men appear in it.

This links to are target audience by appealing to the male population that would go to view a thriller.

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

We believe that our thriller could be produced by a major Hollywood studio because it incorporates a lot of conventions that you wold expect to see in a psychological thriller while at the same time keeping the audience guessing to what is happening. From the thrillers that we are aware of their is nothing that is similar to are thriller opening.

Our thriller would not be suited for tv because it is not a common story for a thriller as they are mostly fast paced as the slots for tv are short and our thriller is slow paced and takes a while to start up.

Our thriller could be an art house film as it has the individuality that art house films posses so would therefor appeal to the community that enjoys them.

The thriller we have produced could be an internet only release as it has the qualities of individuality and that is mostly what you see on the internet people expressing their individuality.

I think that our thriller would be passed over by a big Hollywood company and be picked up by a small british film makers as it is simplistic and relies mainly on the actors and not big special effects as it is just a room with a cloak for a prop whereas a big budget studio would have gone all out for it.

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

The target age and gender for our triller would be males between the age of 15 and 18. We believe this as it is a psychological thriller so would appeal to the male population as it is a thriller that revolves around the themes of murder and mystery witch are common traits in thrillers that appeal to men.

Our thriller is similar not to a film but to a novella called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as it contains the possibility of a split personality and the conflict going on between the characters in the book. This novella appeals to readers of mystery and conflict as this book is filled with it. Our thriller is also similar to the film saw as their is a very deep sense of mystery around who is committing the murders and what while the outcome will be. this thriller also appeals to those interested in plot twists and mystery but also incorporates gore witch are thriller does not.

5: how did you attract/address your audience

Our psychological thriller will be attracting young adults around the ages of 15-18 years old. This is because this wouldn't attract younger audiences or older also we have used people in the film around that age so the audience will have that connection with the film as a teenager is in a lead role for the film. The gender I would want the film to attract would be even in both genders because people like psychological but is also a specific amount of people that can watch a psychological thriller. 

I think in our film there isn't alot of sequences in our film that will terrify any gender because it isn't a scary film it is a  thinking film which gets your mind working like how does this specific idea happen in the film. We used a variety of shots so it would keep people interesting instead of using the same shots and if we did we would split them up so it isn't a continues. We used alot of point of view shots so the audience who would watch the film would feel like the killer in the film which is a good idea because it isn't used in alot of films because it is only used in specific genres of film like horrors and thrillers and fantasies. 

          They audience are asked to be put themselves in the shoes of this teenager who has just been killed and you are the same person who has just killed him which show like he has killed a copy of some sort and you wouldn't know if he is real or not so not only do u see someone dead you are portrayed as a killer as well which I said before I think is a unique thing to do.

     I think it would have a pretty big impact because you are seeing tow people that are the same and we end up seeing this person being killed and we want to get the audience asking why was he killed ? Why is there two of them? if those two questions would be asked it means we have met our target audience who like that genre of film which is a psychological thriller. we create suspense by the type of music being very slow and fits in with the type of story line like it is very emotional piece of music with pianos and light taps of drums in the music symbolically using them as walking and a heartbeat to show that the killer is nervous and doesn't know what to do next so he basically panics by putting the jacket of the body and running. Also  we create suspense with the editing using fast and slow paced editing like when we go over the body we go very slowly to get a look at what he looks like and we use slow pace editing when he is walking to the body and elevating the camera to look at the body but not to show his face as that would give the plot line away. We use fast pace tense in some parts to show his anxiety to get to the body and cover it so no one can see it we showed this when he was walking to through the first door and into the room.     

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

During filming we had some problems with the camera as we had to film it holding the camera so the film came out a little shaky which doesn't look good when you are trying to watch the film so we had to make the camera as still as possible during filming. This also meant though we could be flexible with filming like being able to get the correct camera angles as we used free hand but this did make filming alot longer as we would have to re film  bits as it would com out unprofessional  and we want maximum as possible marks we could get for it.

            During the filming period we had wasted alot of film time which affected us slightly also we have finished it but the tape got damaged  when we filmed so we had to rush it which would effect the film slightly as it looks rush which would mean we would have to put more time into editing the thriller than filming it so i had to use my knowledge of editing and try and do a good job on the film. Programs on the macs like Final cut pro would hep with editing the film garageband would help with music and getting the right type of music for the specific genre of thriller and the music turned out very good for my first time also we used livetype to do our credits and title. With all the programs we had hardly any problems the only problem was Final cut pro as it took along time to edit the work and i had never used it so it was complicated to do but it was very useful and once you know how to use it is very easy to use.

            What i have learnt about editing on Final cut pro it takes a long time to do but is very useful when using there wasn't particular effects i used all i wanted to do was get a mix of fast and slow paced editing in the film to create suspense and to show the mis en scene to give the audience and idea of where the film is being set and how the background looks like is it dark or not which it was dark to show the killer didn't want anyone seeing the killer hide the dead body I enjoyed using garageband alot because it was easy to use to create a very good supspecfull  piece and fitted in with the film very well and i was surprised hoe quick i did the music as i was new to using this software so i was kinda thrown into the deep end also time was another factor cause i had wasted alot of time i had to rush the music and had to get it perfect first time  as we didn't have alot of time till it had to be handed in. Live type was also very useful program because it made our credits look professional  and was very useful to use  all these programs enhanced our film and without this help full programs i think we would got a low grade for the film.

If i didn't use garageband i would of used a different program that used music on the mac or I would of got a piece of music off the internet which was copyright free source.  

7: Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel ?

To get a idea of what genre of which thriller to use we basically did a questionnaire to get a idea what target audience we will have and what type of genre we will be appealing to for our thriller like how old what sex the person is and what thriller they would watch. With the storyboard we  had an idea of what we will do so we drew it out then when we had finished the film we just print screened the images of the thriller to put on  the storyboard which was easier and better to do. We knew what shots we wanted and discussed where they would be put in order for it to make sense we captured all the shots we had done and basically deleted the ones we didn't need which would make the process quicker which made our work alot easier to do. 

            I didn't have a great knowledge of camera shots just basic ones like long shot close up and mid shot. So doing point of shots was new for me and the turned out very well on the film which was relief also shots like panning shots and tracking i also didn't really know and they also worked very well in the film. So they would of improved dramatically form the first time i did it  so that is another thing I have learnt.

                 I am really confident using all the equipment again and i enjoyed using them like garageband as I had great success with the music  as it suited the thriller perfectly also final cut pro i liked using as it made my life easier and made the editing better than using windows movie maker. I don't think final product will be a great success because we had wasted time and the work is probably week but is good so i hope it will get a good grade  as we have both work really hard over the last few months to get it done.  

Thriller questionnaire results 

preliminary task storyboard

opening of thriller

Prelim task

Thriller script

shot 1: Medium long shot of man walking through a door.

shot 2: Point of view shot of man pushing door open.

Shot 3: Medium long shot of man walking through second door.

shot 4: Close up of mans legs on floor panning up him.

shot 5: Mid shot of man walking towards the camera holding a cloak.

shot 6: Close up of body on floor panning up even further.

shot 7: Extreme close up on face of body on floor.

shot 8: Close up of man covering camera with cloak then a still shot of mans face. 

No dialouge

pictures of scenery and actor

Panic room and Se7en comparison

There are many diffrent thrillers in the media industry. Two of theses are 'Panic Room' and 'Se7en' two very completely differente thrillers. The two films open very differently to achive a different result on the audience viewing them.

The use of camera in 'Panic Room' is effectiver as it consist of many different shots in the opening sequence. AT the start the camera has a mix of long tomid range shots of what looks like a big city possibly New York. This is effective as it shows how big the city is with comparison to a panic room witch is a very small confined space on witch the movie is based.

'Se7en' use a completely different set of camera chots. The opening sequence consits of mostly closeups of a males fingers and a variety of tools. This works well with this story line as the use of camrea in the opening creates a very dramatic sense of mystery to the identity of this man.

The use of sound in 'Panic Room' is very effective in the opening sequencem, it is mainly the sound of a very big busy city in an everyday cituation with the faint sound of cars in the distance. This is effective as the use of the sound does not give much of the plotline away and most people view sound as in ineffective but the opening music in this sequence grabs the attention of the viewer.

The use of sound in 'Se7en' is also very effective. It gives the opening sequence a very dark and omminus feeling to it. The music is an uncredited remix of the nine inch nails 'closer'. This is effctive chioce as it helps add more mystery and suspence to the opening sequence that the camera use had already created.

The use of mise en scene in 'Panic Room' creates a sense of insugnificants in the viewer due to the use of the very big sky scrapers all around and the birds eye view of the busy roads and streets below

'Se7eb' is the complete opposite. Most objects in the opening are small such as the razor. The use of the razor is effective as it is a deivice that is usealy related to self cleansing whereas the use of it in 'Se7en' is the complete opposite to what the audience would expect.

Editing in the opening of 'Panic Room' is very slow paced cuts between scenes. This gives the impretion that the film would be a sklow paced with thriller with the plot slowly unfolding. So with the simple use of slow cuts it completely subvertes the viewers idea about the film.

Editing in 'Se7en' compared with 'Panic Room' has simlar diffrences it starts of slow paced shot to shot burt as more of the plot seems to be revealed the faster the editing gets witch creates a sense of confusion in the viewer and that is not achived in 'Panic Room'

Working script for prelim task

Shot 1: Tacking shot of man walking towards camera walking through door.

Shot 2: Man walks through door match on action into the room into a room, walks towards the table sits down facing a woman with the camera over her shoulder.
Man: Stop putting the guilt on everyone else.
Shot 3: Camera faces the woman over the mans shoulder, over shoulder shot.
womam: i dont no what your talking about
Shot 4: Camera know over shoulder ofd woman facing man.
Man: you do know what im talking about

Shot 5: 180 degree rule of actors sitting at the table.

Thriller Questionnaire

Name:

1. What sub genre of thriller do you prefer?

Crime
psychological
mystery
Drama

2. How important is the inroduction of an enigma or mystery in the opening sequence of a thriller?

Very important
Not important
Sometimes

3. What traits draw you to a thriller genre?

Mystery
Suspense
Dramatic twists

4. What age ratings do you prefer for a thriller?

12
12a
15
18

5. How do you prefer a thriller to open?

Everyday situation
Flash back
Future

6. Should a thriller have a fast paced story line?

Yes
No
Sometimes

7. Does the accompanying music track to the opening of a thriller contribute to the opening of it?

Yes
No
Sometimes

8. How much information should be revealed in the opening credits?

Lots
Not much
Not at all

9. What do you want to grab your attention in the opening of a thriller?

Plot line
Setting
Music

Opening Sequence Analysis

Panic room 

Camera Shot/Angle/Movement

the camera shot at the start of the opening sequence is a extreme long shot and the camera is panning forwards as well they do this throughout the opening sequence using long shots panning shots and high and low angle shots to show different parts of the city and these are quick shots.

Sound

there is diegetic sounds in the opening sequence at the end of the scene with talking between two people and also the cars who are driving and are in traffic 

Editing

in the opening scene of the film with editing the start is slow but it then picks up pace with a gap of seven second between switching this is done to shoe the background and to give us this creepy feeling. the also make editing scene longer to show us the characters of the film the directors and the producers of the film. this editing is very different compared to seven because there editing between scenes were fast where as panic room editing is slow. 

Mise en Scene

the first shot of mise en scene is a long shot of new york city. Then in the other s

shot it show some more buildings in new york city but is closer and show shadow and bits of darkness on the buildings. Throughout the opening sequence there are various shots of buildings they show this because the story is this women and daughter are looking for a new home in this area so that is a reason of showing the buildings.

Characters

in the opening sequence you don’t see any characters in the opening scene but you see the names of the stars of the film instead. but you do see two women talking at the end of the opening credits.

Locations

 the location for the opening scene and for the film is new york city. 

Narrative/Plot

it is about a women who is just divorced and her daughter who get a new home in new york  and when they are in their mansion they come across a panic room so when they get burgled they go to the panic room but what the burglars are looking for is in that room.

Themes

Visual Style

Genre

this film genre is a crime/thriller 

Opening Sequence Analysis

Se7en 

Camera Shot/Angle/Movement

there is a close up on the books with the pages moving followed by his fingers being shown repeatedly. then a high close up shot on a book with two hands. Then a close up on a variety of objects being shown. there is another close up of the character writing in his book and using a marker crossing out specific words. then there are two mid shots of him cutting out pictures and showing a book with paragraphs in the book.

Sound

non-diegetic and diegetic sound throughout the opening scene the type of music is suspense and gives a way of telling what type of film and how it is going to be throughout the film.

Editing

with this type of editing it is fast paced and slow paced throughout the opening sequence it is fast paced to give a jumpy edgy feeling which tells us what the film will  be like during the film. they use slow paced to give a detailed view of what the character is doing to himself and his books. 

Mise en Scene

dark conventions which gives us an idea of how the film is going to be like the darkness can be used as like shadows where he hides from people and the red as blood could represent his victims that he has killed.

Characters

the killer and pictures of his probable victims.

Locations

in his apartment where he stays all the time. 

Narrative/Plot

shows us what he does in his spare times and also shows us pictures of his victims or potential victims.

Themes

theme of the film is shown to us in the opening credits which shows us terror and shows how sick he is when killing his victims 

Visual Style

Genre

this genre of film is a thriller. 

children of men 

Camera Shot/Angle/Movement

the first camera shot in the scene is a mid long shot showing everyones facial expressions. this camera shot stays the same for the next 20-30 seconds the second shot is then a low angle shot which that keeps showing for 30 seconds  then there is a tracking shot following the character walk out of the cafe. then they keep using the tracking shot then rotate the camera when he stands still then they use a mid shot for the top half of his body.

 

Sound

in the opening seconds of the sequence there is diegetic sound of people talking about a disaster that has happened there is more diegetic sound when the traffic is going by to show how busy it is where he is. this noise continues to when the bomb explodes and then there are people screaming.

Editing

In this scene there isn't alot of editing because they want to show an effect of the people in shock or in pause because of the news that they are reading.  the next editing scene is when they switch to the tv to look at the news story. then they switch to the crowd again and then follow him out and don’t use another editing again.

Mise en Scene

During the scene the use of Mise en scene is effective because if you start with the Mise en scene it gives you an idea of where you are what it is like being there and what is going on in the country and also makes you feel a part of the  action of the film,

Characters

Clive Owen stars in the film as one of the main characters in the film who trys to help the world also Michael Cain. 

Locations

 It is set in London in the future of 2027.

Narrative/Plot

The film is about children stopped being born and there is alot of chaos in the film as people come to breaking point. 

Themes

Visual Style

Genre

adventure/mystery and sci-fi 

Saw 

Camera Shot/Angle/Movement

the first camera shot that is shown in the sequence is a high angle shot looking at the lights turning on to give that shock effect and also surprise. Then we get a close up on one of the characters face to give shock. then there is a mid shot showing the  character also in shock from the light and the surroundings then a long low shot showing a dead body and the character who is trying to break his chain. 

Sound

the diegetic sound comes from the two characters and them making screaming noises and also the chains when they are moving them about furiously all over the place as they can’t get out of the chains.  

Editing

when the guy is in the water there is quick editing to give you a surprise and a shock to the audience when watching it then is edits to the room where the two main characters are locked in the room the room in chains. it then edits to the other character to show what his facial expression is and it is the same as the other guy because they want to know why they are there .  

Mise en Scene

The background in the film where they are in the toilet shows the tiles all white and the floor is covered in blood because of a person has been murdered on it. the mis en scene looks all gloomy which makes you think they are in a bad place because the person who was killed was left to rot.  

Characters

there are the two main characters Cary Elwes who plays Dr Lawrence and jigsaw who is played by Tobin Bell. 

Locations

 The opening scene is in a a white room in a abounded house and the room is all white which in other cases is a peaceful room and is good place to be but not in that room.

Narrative/Plot

A psychopath who calls himself jigsaw plays a game with people who dod wrong things in their life and decided that they are not worth living so he makes them work for their life.

Themes

Visual Style

Genre

horror/ thriller