1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the time of my research into the thriller genre and learning the codes and conventions, I realise that the theory of intertexuality is evident in all films; the ideologies behind the representation are linked in with conventions that the audience would be familiar with.
And so in order for me to challenge forms and conventions I would have to incorporate what the basic of ideologies from other real media texts, but yet making it original. Along with the codes and conventions thriller films usually involve a protagonist, who may or may not be responsible for their torment from the antagonist. For example in ‘The Birds’ the female characters code of dress which consists of patent black high heels and a black fitted dress. Where the colour black being the connotation of class and sexiness. We challenged this stereotypical representation of a female protagonist by demonstrating juxtaposition in quite a unconventional way. In the preliminary task were the character is a art teacher. And so what the viewer associates with the character is individuals who have mild and awkward personalities.
What also challenges the conventional codes was that the antagonist was a child. We recognised that innocence is a conventional characteristic that passive viewers decode from child characters. The narrative in our preliminary is delving in the binary opposition between the innocence of a child and the bitterness of the deceased.
How the ideology differs from existing thriller films is that the mother character is unconsciously guilty and there is a 3-way conversation as she is talking to the painting and the child is talking to her. This is attempting to demonstrating a failed relationship. On the other hand in the film ‘Hide &Seek’ the viewer is lead into a false sense of security as they think that the child is psychotic, whereas in actual fact the father is the psychotic one. It is the exploitation of the connotations of innocence that child characters hold that influence my ideology for the preliminary task.
In our main task we developed the conventional representation of a antagonist child. And so represented the disposition of a commercial/conventional character. Through my research into other films I could see that this type representation has become residual . I felt that this character necessarily challenged the characters in films such as Hide and Seek for example. I felt that I challenged directly the way in which Hide and Seek was constructed by John Polson to represent ‘intimate moments juxtaposed with suspenseful ones’. For example the opening sequence reflects the bond between the mother and the child, for example in this scene a long shot is used demonstrating a male character overlooking mother child, However the long shot connotes distance allowing the audience decode that he is a stranger. We later realise that he is the child’s father. This methodology of filming is quite restricted in that it requires the audience to pay specific attention to the narrative. Whereas in my main task, there is meaning that can be created explicitly through technical aspects.
Through the analysis of my case studies I found that there where a numerous amount of narrative theories in evidence. For example in The eye (2008) we see Barthes narrative theory in evidence. ‘The death of the author, is the birth of the reader’. (Barthes 1968)
Through the use of a dark and grimy mise en scene, the film becomes an open text to the audience. Although through the use of varied camera angles and specifically close-ups in the opening sequence enables the viewer to make their own interpretations, even though the close-up shots that project the characters distress onto us. The narrative takes the audience into different twists and so the audience can link the representations they see and make a final interpretation. In our preliminary task, there is a constant psychological battle between the mother and her deceased daughter.
We challenged the forms of existing media products is that instead of promoting the daughter as purely evil and the mother as purely good, we constructed confusion within the viewer. By the narrative taking twists through dialogue , for example portraying the daughter as innocent by her saying ‘mummy why don’t you love me’ and then the mother sounding hurt, confused and upset. By saying ‘I didn’t want it to be like this’. The audience then decode of a character being provoked by her daughter and thinking that must have been something evil within her daughter to push the mother to kill her. Through technical aspects such as mise en scene, editing and camera angles we have positioned the audience to feel confused about who to sympathize with.
For example this shot reverse shot, shows the protagonist looking in the mirror. We created meaning by demonstrating voyeurism. Voyeurism is the construction of camera angles that demonstrates the feeling of possibly an antagonist gaining pleasure at looking at a female character whilst remaining anonymous . In our film we are admiring her as she is admiring herself. We are creating restricted meaning because the audience can make their own interpretations. They could decode of a self-obsessed protagonist who had an aid in their demise or a protagonist that is killed because of their appearance.
The narrative structure follows a young teenage girl who is bubbly and content, and in a sense this could be deemed as a unconventional personality trait. Through my study of other thriller films it has come to my attention that the main character is pre-constructed to have some kind of disposition, I have found that this the basis for many thriller film narrative structures in that that is what is supposed to engage and unsettle viewers from the beginning. But I feel that following the classic narrative structure is much more effective in heightening tension within the viewer, in that the disequilibrium is unexpected. For example in the first scene of our opening sequence we used a medium-shot, however we positioned the shot at an angle at the side of the staircase, this camera angle allowed the viewer to decode of normality, I feel that this challenged the codes and convention of existing thriller films as most opening sequence tend to do a lot of cutting and pasting of shots, which results in the viewer trying to work our the narrative, it builds tension within the viewer to early. I feel there needs to be that initial normality, in order for there to be a gradual increase in fear and unsettlement.
Nevertheless we conformed to codes of conventions in having a somewhat dark mise en scene, although in most thriller films this is achieved naturally, for example the opening montage in ‘The eye’ demonstrates a dark and dirty mise en scene, but in our film that is not the case the mise en scene originally had bright lighting, the film being set in a modern (and most importantly) welcoming semi-detached house. I feel that this was best because, through the editing technique of colour correction I was able to adjust the brightness and contrast of each clip. I feel that the effect of this technique leaves the viewer in a state of flux, they can see that the mise en scene is welcoming, however the darkness of the lighting confuses them, making them unsure whether to prepare for a disequilibrium. Even with that being the case they feel as though there may still be hope because of the evidence of appeal.
Initially we planned for the audience to read what the protagonist received, however I felt it would be more suspenseful, to evoke mystery and wonder within the viewer.
Overall we were able to develop the reflection of Propp’s character theory seen in Panic room. The burglars that break into the house of the innocent characters are the villains. But these villains are varied with one villain being the most dominant. Here we can see a development from Prop’s 1928 basic analysis of folk tales, but the basis of his theory of there being a 100 character type is evident in the film Panic Room. How we challenged this is through demonstrating a more developed character type than Prop’s simplistic theory implies. For example the protagonist character could be identified as ‘the princess’ because of the modernised good-looking female character we are portraying. How we developed this was by the character not having a straight forward personality, that Prop would identify ‘the princess’ as being innocent and attractive. Our character is not straightforward in that she has a hidden agenda that is unknown to the audience, she is harbouring a secret.
In our main task I feel that my case studies enabled me to see the way characters and representations are constructed to make thriller films. This enabled us to develop this further, in order to make successful texts. We played on the narrative, using it to create suspense we demonstrated Propps theory in the sense that the title of our film is called ‘The Secret’ . And so the villain antagonist who we named ‘The unknown character’ represents at first ‘evil’ because through mise en scene, camera angles we have constructed such innocence in the character. But the fact that she is a bubbly and self-consumed teenager means that it can be harder for the audience to sympathize with her.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In order for us to establish what social groups our media product could represent , we had to find out what age range within the social demographics our film could be applicable to. I felt the recent 2008 film The eye would be a good basis for what age to target our film for, as our film is similar in representation. I found that both ‘The eye’ and our film ‘The Secret’ represents women from a voyeuristic perspective. We did this by playing on the idea that through camera angles such as shot reverse and her friendly mode of address, we thus created the feeling that an anonymous antagonist is gaining pleasure from watching her. This represents the teenage girl social group as we creating links in characteristics that any teenage girl can be demised for. For example her mode of address signifies a naivety which is associated with being teenagers. And thus the camera signifies the voyeuristic pleasure the antagonist feels .The difference between ‘The eye’ and our film is that the protagonist is very young (aged 17).
I feel that for our film to evoke the most fear, our target social demographic would be middle class/working class young teenage girls. We constructed the mode of address and code of dress to connote the subtle barrier between working class and middle class teenage girls. For example, with her dialogue she says phrases like ‘Thanks love’ and ‘Hold on one sec’. This represents her friendly mode of address, we felt that this was the perfect way to attract a wide range of teenage girls. Since through language they will be able to relate to her. The Protagonist mode of dress was light green pyjamas, we felt that this was best as oppose to pink which has become a residual ideology. Because the colour pink connotes the utmost femininity. The social group that we are trying to represent would engage with a representation that reflects them. Stereotypes of the colour pink would restrict the audience, so through moving away from this widens the audience.
I also researched the reasons why The eye (2008) was rated a 15. What is different from our film and ‘The eye’ is that the sexual/ nudity, violence etc aids to the representation of age and thus the social groups for example the female protagonist is often wearing revealing tank tops. The frighting/ intense scenes entail the protagonist having very disturbing and shocking visions. If the ideology for our film would have taken any basis from these representations. Then within then it would not represent our age range and British teen demographic .
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