Production Report Evaluation

Production Report Evaluation

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

For my media production I produced an opening for a thriller film. I researched the genre and looked into how such films are represented and how they appeal to the audience. After finishing my film I would categorise in terms of age as a 15. I looked in how films are rated in terms of what they contain on BBFC website which explains that category. I have chosen the 15 age range because in terms of language there may be frequent use of strong language but only if it is justified by the context, sex and nudity has to be little content with no strong detail. Violence may be strong but detail to pain and injury, weapons are approved but no glamorising of the effect and must not promote drug use. These are appropriate to the thriller genre by the way they are seen by the audience, making them scared, worried or anxious. One of the limitations that would apply to me would be the horror content which goes to the extent of gory images which I have not included. I also collected information on other thriller films to see their content and the age classification. I found that nearly all the films I watched and researched were 15 and above. It is obvious the content is a big part of the age rating to I decided as my opening didn’t involved any graphic material but may be offensive to a lower age to 15. In conclusion I thought I would classify my opening as a 15 certificate.
In my research I found that thriller as a genre is a wide conclusion of which includes many other subgenres which makes it hard to relate to one concept. Thriller’s as a genre can interlink with other genres in terms of how it makes the audience feel and what it contains, this is called a hybrid. For example a thriller could involve aspects of horror which would be different compared to a thriller involving more of an action feel. There can be many interpretations of what conventions that associated with the genre. An overall view of the genre involves mystery, suspense and tension, these are very important in how the film connects with the audience. These aspects are important as it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and effectively ‘thrills’ them. The sense of unknown gives the audience the appeal of wanting to continue watching the film, grasping their attention.

This connection is achieved by included high levels of anticipation, uncertainty, anxiety and tension. As the genre is not specific to one aspect it can include a range of different genre aspects combined which makes it a varied genre in terms of content.
Thriller films are highly varied and are hybrid as they can contain elements of different genres. These may include aspects such as action thriller, crime thriller, disaster thriller, drama thriller, horror thriller, medical thriller, psychological thriller supernatural thriller. Many thriller films could have elements of these subgenres so it is very hard to categorise a thriller film due to the wide variety on content they involve. It is very important for an opening of a thriller to intrigue the viewer to want to watch the rest of the film. In creating narrative camera shots are the main focus, the use of close- ups is used to give the effect of suspense and tension. This is important as what the audience doesn’t see gives the feeling of danger and constant interruption to give a dramatic feel. I chose to opt for a drama/horror thriller as I thought it would be easy to portray with the storyline I chose, as it fitted to the horror conventions of scaring the audience.
To explore the thriller genre and establish what a thriller contain I studied three thriller openings, these were No Country For Old Men, Dead Calm and Jagged Edge. No Country For Old Men involved a lot of mystery as the audience isn’t informed of what is going on. The main element of the opening was death this was portrayed through two different scenes of an escaped murderer and a hunter finding a drugs raid gone wrong in the desert. The element of mystery links to the fact the audience does not know what happened in the desert and the motive of the killer is unclear. Dead Calm is more of a tragedy thriller which involves a family which has lost their son in car accident. The use of time, switching from past to present tense is significant in setting the scene. There is very little dialog in the opening which gives a sense of shock for the character. The camera shots used connects the viewer with the character blurring the shot which represents blurred vision. The opening of jagged edge is a horror based thriller where the viewer sees an attack on a woman through the killer’s eyes. This idea influenced me to film through the killer’s point of viewer and not see any killers face which I found was very effective. The camera shots were mainly close ups which emphasized the main focuses such as the knife and the victims face. This opening was very influential on how to create the tension with the point of view shot. This made it much easier to connect with the viewer as they were in the killer’s shoes.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

From the results it was clear that the content of my product can appeal to different social groups by how they perceive the characters and storyline. In order to represent to certain social groups I had to think about how they would interrupt my film in terms of what it contained. I think I have targeted more of a teenage group through the interruptions of the environment, clothing, age and gender. With the main character (victim) being a teenage girl we can see that by the way she is dressed and the use of technology, this can be appealing as these aspects are seen to be important. It is very common for a teenage girl to be a victim like the character so the stereotyped image shows the girl being innocent and no threat. I used a female teenager as I knew that this would create the innocence and potentially the vulnerability aspect of the character.

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

In research media distributors I have decided that I think the best company would be paramount pictures. Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, located in Hollywood, California. It was founded in 1912 and is currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom. They have produced films such as Top Gun, Mission Impossible, Lara croft, Collateral, War of the Worlds, Four Brothers, Transformers, Shooter, Cloverfield and Watchmen. In 2007, Paramount was the highest-grossing film studio in the United States. I have chosen paramount pictures to distributor my product as is a very popular American distributor and it has produced many famous films. It is well known and has distributed many thriller films, such as Cloverfeild, Transformers and Eagle Eye which have all been very successful. In 2005 Paramount pictures joint took over Dream Works which was an animation based company. This broadened their production profile by producing children’s animated films such as Shrek and over the hedge, which was a change to their other productions which were not animated. They also produced films with a variety of genres such as Zoolander, School of Rock and Without a Paddle which are comedy’s, Coach Carter which was a drama and Stepford Wives which was a science fiction. I think they would be a appropriate institution to distribute my product as they distribute a wide variety of genres and have distributed many famous films which shows they have success in the film industry.

Who would be the audience for your product?

As a results of my questionnaire sent out and the audience research I have found that most peoples views on thriller film suggest they have an interest in crime, other genres such as horror, mystery, drama, action, are an adrenaline junky and like unrealistic content. This my be specific to a younger age as they would thrive off the dramatic element more than a 60 year old. Males may have more of a specific interest on films rather than females who may have a broad interest in what elements they prefer in thrillers. I have tried to incorporate these elements into my product by observing other films and how they create it. The films that I found most helpful were Jagged Edge and Dead Calm, of which I used the point of view shot and the flashbacks from. An influence of which may change this view may be lifestyle and culture. Also people may have some different attitudes and emotions towards how the film is represented and how they see it. People may be more offended to a killing and how it was shown compared to others who may have seen different representation in other films which may have been worse in terms of the extremes of what the audience saw.
Taking this into context I think that my main audience for my product is people who have an interest in unrealistic content and those who are interested in mystery. I found that consumers of thrillers would have a large consumption of their time watching films and tv.

How did you attract/address your audience?

After looking at other thriller openings and doing research I as able to find out the conventions of which may attract a certain audience to the genre. I think the elements that attract the audience consist of chase scenes, psychological dimension, close up- human unknown, normalcy vs unexpected, darker side of life, injury/death, nightmare, disturbed, flashbacks (time), credibility/ believability, distortion of reality and power. All these elements are consistent through all thriller films. I have tried to incorporate some of these aspects into my product. I have used the idea of darker side of life which I have expressed through the stalking and death of the victim. I have also included flashbacks in black and white to represent the time movement and interrupt the flow of the film. The idea of power I showed through the victim being a young girl and the idea of the girl being weak. I have included a chase scene where the stalker is seen by the girl and she runs away, this adds anxiety for the audience.

Aspects such as the abnormality and unknown are a major part of thriller films as the create mystery and tension. They are normally set in a exotic setting which was very hard to do as we are limited to where we can film. By using point of view shots of the killer I found it was easy to accommodate for the crime element and murder as we have not physically shown this but used cues to make the audience believe that a murder has happened. I think the camera work is very important in creating this assumption, by using mostly close ups I have created the danger and mystery feel. By building up this tension with close-ups and contrasting frames it will attract the audience by building up to the climax. I have used close-ups of the victim in an opening area to show the isolation and create tension. I have also created tension using the point of view shots of the killer stalking the victim which gave a good effect on how the viewer saw the victim.

By using point of views shots I wanted the audience to be in the killers shoes and have a mystery of what was happening, eg not being able to predict what was going to happen next. By having flashbacks it was easy to create the tension switching from past to present. I was easily able to create this flashback by editing the footage into black and white. I also wanted to feel a sense of danger for the girl as the audience doesn’t know what’s happened to the girl which again creates the idea of power the killer has and a dark side to life. I think I have met the audience expectations as I have included many of the elements you would expect from a thriller film and I think I have provided a well constructed storyline. However I think my downfall would be that the actual opening it very slow and doesn’t contain a lot of content which may have a affect on the audience view to watch the rest of the film.

The BBFC has had an influence on my film in the sense of restriction into what can be shown and how it is represented. With age restriction I needed to think about what elements I could use to fit into the restrictions. I think it is important to have restriction on thriller films as they show a lot of content which may offend the audience. This was not the easy when making my film as I had no explicit footage that would offend the audience.


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

In constructing my production I have used technologies such as a video camera, editing software and computer software. I was new to using a video camera so I have learnt a lot in how to use it and how it works. I have learnt how to use different shots and different effects to construct my footage, such as a black and white effect on the flashbacks, slow motion and fade in and outs to show movement in time. I used panning and tracking shots, close ups and point of view shots to achieve this. It was very important we shot multiple shots of each section to get a variety of angles to choose from to get the best result. I have also learnt about continuity, showing everything is the same in each consisting shot, so nothing is moved into or out of the shot. In order keep the camera still I used a tripod to make it easy to pan smoothly. When it came to editing I found it very hard to learn what each effect did, after experimenting with the software it became much easier. From the preliminary task to the opening to a thriller film I have gained a lot of knowledge in how the software works from a teacher and from experimenting with how the effects work. I learnt how to capture the footage into clips, how to cut the clips efficiently and fade in and out to a black screen. I have also learnt how to add sound onto the footage strip and change and overwrite any diagetic sound recorded from the camera.

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

Comparing my knowledge from the preliminary task to the final product I think I have learnt a lot. I have found that the camera angles are very important in showing continuity I found in my preliminary task I crossed that 180 line rule. This has a big effect on the film so I was very aware of this. I think one of my strength in the preliminary task involved the different shots used. I think I used a variety of shots which helped increase my knowledge of how each shot works with representation such as panning shots, close ups and point of view shots. I think my weaknesses of the task were again crossing the 180 line without realising until the editing process. In filming the production we had to change some aspects of the storyboard such as the girl falling, I felt that it would give a good effect but it would be too hard to look effective enough. Also I made the decision to add another shot to create and more stalker feeling, this worked very well. I think that my planning and preparation should have been much more detailed as I had to think on my feet when I was filmed as I didn’t account for any problems such as difficult camera shots. I think my organisation of filming dates and time keeping helped me keep to my strict deadlines.

If I had to do the project I think I will make my storyboard much more detailed as I had to think of how I could change some of the shots to suit the camera angle, such as the birds eye view shot which would have been very difficult to do with the little resources. I also think that I could have put more thought into the blood scenes and to how I could make them more effective in the sense of the blood looking as real as possible. The editing took longer than I was expecting to next time I think I will remind myself of the software before I come to edit the opening properly. I worked in a group of two which was at my advantage as we both had similar ideas on how the film should look and how it would be filmed. We worked together on most of the film but I was distant for some f the editing as I have less knowledge of it than him.

Thriller Opening Ideas

Idea 1 –

Storyline
• Set in a abandoned house at night
• Group of teenagers exploring
• A joke becomes real
• A killer takes a victim
• Others run out of the house.
• Filmed in a point of view shot from a camera
(Blair witch project)

Key Thriller elements-
• Gives a dark feeling
• Puts viewer in the characters shoes.
• Unexpected


Idea 2 –

Storyline
• Starts with a chase scene of a girl running up the street.
• Runs into a cornfield
• Killer approaches girl she screams then cuts to black screen.

• The use of diegetic sound to create the atmosphere of being watched.
• Filmed from the point of view of the attacker, add sound of breathing to create tension.

Key thriller elements-
• Chase
• Distortion of reality
• Paranoia



Idea 3 -
Storyline
• Start with flashing images of blood and knives
• Introduced to a crime scene in a bedroom (no body)
• Detectives processing the scene, taking photos
• Discussion of what happened, any witnesses etc.

Key thriller elements-
• Death
• Flashbacks
• Disturbing outcome


We decided on idea 2 -

The reason we have chose this as a final idea as it gives us some interesting camera shots to work with e.g. Point of view shot. The idea will capture the interest of the audience and will give the audience an idea of the film from the killers perspective as well as creating tension and showing fear from the victim. The film uses interesting techniques in camera work as when the screen goes black it creates tension and suspicion of the killer as he remains mysterious showing no facial features. The chase scene creates tension as this will make the audience scared for the girl and capture their interest in the film. When the girl is trying to escape through the cornfield this creates paranoia as the killer is nowhere in sight but at the same time could be very close.

After further discussion into the idea we found that it was easily adaptable and we could change parts that would be difficult to achieve. Elements such as a cornfield would be hard to find so we changed it to a woods. We could also add other thriller elements into our idea such as flashbacks to give a false sense of time and show the events leading up to the present day, the past tense will be shown in black and white to show time movement. We talked about maybe including a music overlap and not having any dialog which maybe harder to get a storyline across.
To add more affect of the killer we decided to add a more stalker feel rather than a serial killer, we would do this by showing flashbacks of bloody weapons, pictures of his victims, washing blood off his hands, camera shots of him stalking etc. The chase scene will mostly include a point of view shot from the stalker to create tension. We thought of adding stills to the film to show interruption and give it a dramatic feel.

Analysing my research

When conducting my research I produced a questionnaire to find out how we are going to fit the thriller elements of what the audience expect.

I asked a range of students aging from 15 – 25. I found that this age range was much more fitted to the thriller genre. This shows that thriller films involve more adult themes which I need to incorporate into my ideas.

I used a variety of open and closed questions to get a wide range of research. When constructing my questions I needed to make sure I could make it specific enough to construct ideas and interpret the results to create the final product.

I found from my research that most preferred thrillers 15 or above. The audience were interested in crime, mystery and horror thriller types but not containing too explicit such as graphic rape or torture and racial offence.

From the research I can conclude that our audience would prefer a more dramatic opening which links to films such as no country for old men which shows intensity not giving much away, adding mystery.

The most common thriller film our audience has chosen is psycho which is a classic horror thriller. It has a very significant opening not going straight into the killings leaving the audience in suspense.

After analyzing the research we need to think of how we can include these results into our own final thriller opening.

BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), originally British Board of Film Censors, is the organization responsible for film, DVD and some video game classification within the United Kingdom.

Universal Children
Suitable for all, but especially made for children under 7 years of age.

Universal
All ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children.

Parental Guidance
All ages admitted, but parents are advised that certain scenes may be unsuitable for children under 13

12 Accompanied
Suitable for those aged 12 and over. Those aged under 12 are only admitted if accompanied by an adult at all times during the performance (replaced the standard 12 certificate for cinema releases only in 2002)

12
Suitable for those aged 12 and over.
No-one younger than 12 may rent or buy a 12 rated VHS, DVD or game

15
Suitable for those aged 15 and over.
Nobody younger than 15 may see a 15 film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a 15 rated VHS, DVD or game.

18
Suitable for those aged 18 and over.
Nobody younger than 18 may see an 18 film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an 18 rated VHS, DVD or game.

Restricted 18
Suitable for those aged 18 and over. May only be shown at licensed cinemas or sold at sex shops, and only to people aged 18 or over.


Guidelines to concerns when classifying films are –

Theme – the acceptability depends on the context and sensitivity of presentation. The most problematic themes are drug abuse, sexual violence, paedophilia and racial hatred.

Language – The concern about particular words or expressions depend upon the context within it is used.

Nudity – Natural nudity providing there is no sexual context is acceptable at all classification level except U.

Sex – The portrayal of human sexual activity can range from kissing to references of making love. The classification system depends in which progressively stronger portrayal is allowed as the categories rise.

Violence – Works that glorify, glamorise or sexualise violence will receive a more restrictive classification and may be cut.

Drugs – Any detailed portrayal of drugs use likely to promote or glamorise the activity may be cut.


When rejecting films they look at -
Graphic rape or torture
Sadistic violence or terrorisation
Illegal or glamorised drug use
Material likely to incite racial hatred or violence
Portrayals of children in a sexualised or abusive content
Sex accompanied by non-consensual pain, injury or humiliation
Material likely to be found obscene by the courts.


Thriller Films -

MY BLOODY VALENTINE
Classified 22 December, 2008 . (18)
Contains strong gory violence, horror and sex

THE UNBORN
Classified 22 December, 2008 . (15)
Contains strong horror

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
Classified 19 November, 2008 . (12A)
Contains moderate threat and injury

STUCK
Classified 07 November, 2008 . (15)
Contains strong language, gore, sex and drug use

Analysis of openings of thrillers

Jagged edge

Jagged edge is a typical horror based thriller opening with an point of view attack from the killer. The storyline starts with a peaceful mood showing scenery and calm weather. The build up to the attack is emphasized by loud music which creates tension of the killer not being seen. The victim is first unaware of the attacker in the room which creates tension and anxiety for the viewer showing a stalker feeling as he watches her sleep.

The contrast shown by the attacker’s violence and the victims innocence sets up the storyline for the rest of the movie. As the attack begins the victim is very defenseless which creates the feeling of power they have over her. The scene is very viscous which again sets up the atmosphere for the rest of the movie.

The camera shots used are mostly close ups which concentrate on the knife as the main object and the victims face; this puts the audience on the victims shoes. The knife also represents the power idea and the lack of control the victim has over the situation. The camera concentrates on the knife at the end of the attack where the victim screams then the shot is cut to a view of the ocean. This highlights the contrast of innocence and violence being washed away by the sea.


No country for old men

The story starts off with a series of still pictures of deserted places giving a peaceful feeling contrasting with the murder aspect. The voice over tells a story which sets the scene. The police involvement shows the crime element highlighting the character and a possible weapon. The storyline gets straight into the key element of the thriller which is death. The murder scene of the police man shows the characters personality and the unexpected horror of his facial expressions setting the mood. The effortless murder gives a sense of a serial killer with an unusual murder weapon intriguing the viewer. The second killing also gets the viewers attention into finding out more about the character. A second character is introduced hunting which emphasizes the idea of killing. The scene is set in a dessert which shows isolation and an unknown outcome. The massacre of dead men shows the danger and gives the audience as sense of mystery of what happened. The finding of the money shows that there was obviously a drugs situation gone wrong.

The camera shots mostly involve close up’s giving a more intense setting. It shows the story through the audience perspectives by using point of view shots. The long shots used also show isolation and loneliness of the character being in the middle of nowhere. This is also highlighted through the way they have used sound. There is a lot diegetic sound used with very little environment sound creating the idea of mystery and darker side of life. The only non-diegetic sound is the voiceover in the first scene which build the significant of irrelevant murder.

The opening to the film really draws in the audience by developing two characters of which are a mystery. There are a lot of question raised which intrigue the viewer to want to find out.

Dead Calm

The story starts off with a scene at the train station, showing military men meeting their family. This is a good opening scene as it sets the film up for the next scene. The dialog used shows its Christmas giving sense of happiness. We are introduced to the first character (Sam Neil), his facial expression shows worry which contrasts with the happy atmosphere. The business of the station gives a sense of anxiety and when the police are introduced an element of fear arises as it is unknown what happened. As soon as the scene goes into the hospital the audience knows that someone is injured. The first dialog spoken explains the situation and informs the viewer. There is very little dialog which makes a good opening scene as it makes the viewer interested. There is mostly diegetic sound which builds up and get louder to create tension. There is a point where non-diegetic sound is introduced to create security before the car accident.

There are many camera shots that are used to create different effects. The station scene shows a slow circling around the character and a point of view shot scanning the room, this creates the idea of isolation in the crowd. There is slow motion used to create the sense of trouble and tension. To connect the audience with the characters a blurred shot puts the audience in their eyes indicating blurred vision. A fade out is used to show time movement this gives the audience a false sense of time as we see the results if the accident before the accident. The road sign shown gives clues to the viewer so there is no confusion in the sequence of events.

The atmosphere created is mostly connected to the weather. The weather expressed the mood of the scenes and characters and creates a contrasts with the idea of security. Another contrasts expressed is atmosphere of the scenes being happy at the start and slows becomes a tragedy.

Questionnaire

1.What gender are you?

Male Female

2.What age range are you?

11- 15 16-18 19-25 25 +

3. What social class are you?

Upper Middle class Middle class
Working class Under class

4.Are you interested in thrillers?

Yes No

5.Favourite genre of films? (tick more than 1)

Thriller Horror Mystery Drama Action

Comedy Sci-fi Adventure Animation Other

If other please state…

6.Do you spend your spare time watching films?

Rarely Often Daily

7.How do you watch films?

Cinema DVD’s TV Internet

8. What type of thrillers do you like? (tick multiple)

Sci-fi Supernatural Crime Action Mystery

Horror

9. Favourite film star? (state both)

Male……… Female………

10. Favourite thriller film?

Conventions of a thriller film

The thriller genre is a very wide spaced and can combine with others genres. The Genre mainly involves a sense of mystery, suspense and tensions which are big parts of a thriller. It involves a high level of anticipation, uncertainty, anxiety, nerve-wracking tension and gives a sudden rush of emotions.
Thriller’s are fiction based including fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains.
The thriller genre can include the following sub-genres, which may include elements of other genres:
· Action thriller
· Conspiracy thriller
· Crime thriller
· Disaster thriller
· Drama thriller
· Eco-thriller
· Horror thriller
· Medical thriller
· Psychological thriller
· Spy thriller
· Supernatural thriller
· Techno-Thriller

The key elements which a thriller will include are-
· Chase scenes
· Psychological dimension – unknown
· Close up- human unknown
· Normalcy vs unexpected
· Darker side of life
· Injury/death
· Nightmare, disturbing
· Flashbacks (time)
· Credibility/ believability
· Distortion of reality
· Power

Camera shots

To add intensity close ups are used to give a dramatic meaning the sudden cuts of close ups will give the audience a sudden surprise.
Build tension into a scene by using contrasting situations. Use two unrelated things happening at once. The audience should be focused on the momentum of one, and be interrupted by the other. To add suspense showing the audience what the characters don’t see and constant reminders of this looming danger will build suspense.

Misen scene elements

Thrillers often take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas.
The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger.
Thrillers also occur on a much larger scale: the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments. Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements. While a mystery climaxes when the mystery is solved, a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving his own life and often the lives of others. If it 'thrills' then it is a thriller