6) What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
For both the main task and preliminary task we used Adobe Premier Pro software, I feel that it enabled us to edit as proficiently as possible. We had one editing session even before we had scripted our preliminary. When it came to editing our preliminary task for the first time it was difficult adjusting to the software as it was so advanced compared to the I movie software I had used in the past. However this was good practice as we had many editing sessions on the preliminary task. This meant that when it came to editing our main task it was much easier, and meant that we were able to edit it more efficiently.
Adobe Premier Pro allowed us to crop, cut and paste a clip. It enabled us to change the speed of the clip whilst maintaining the speed of the sound. It also enabled us to import sound from other sources. Essentially it allowed us to add all these components to make a scene, with the most important ability was being able to cut one clip and paste it to another clip, or simply just cutting a clip down where there was unnecessary footage that was not relevant.
In order for me to learn and understand the technologies that enabled me to construct our product I researched how editing was achieved before software's such adobe came into being.
I found that around the 1970s Analogue audio editing has been used. Which involved locating the points where editing was needed by rewinding the tape to the desired location. Then the playback motor has to be disengaged, then the reels have to be manually rocked back and forth until the editing point is heard to be lined up. Then this point has to be sliced off carefully with a razor blade. http://emusician.com/special_report/brief_history_editing/
In terms of planning I feel that the use of the electronic diary via blogspot.com is of very efficient use as a film producer it is better than using a normal pen and paper system in that corrections can be made. For example when I was documenting my planning for main task, many changes were made to the narrative and blogspot.com allowed me to create new posts whilst keeping the old posts which contained my old narrative structure. This is good in that I was more inclined to keep this evidence of planning and logical thinking if the diary was via a word format or handwritten then it would have been easier to not keep this evidence of planning . I feel this is good so you as the examiner can see my progress.
I have also researched on the effect of recent media technologies such as digital editing. I found that new and improved digital editing enables film editors to creatively work and rearrange a narrative and all the components within the narrative.
Enabling them to be essential in the film- making process. Why new digital technologies are important is that it less expensive and is beneficial for independent film producers like myself. For example in the past picture editors only dealt with picture editing. The new technologies enables editors to develop their creativity and interlink all the components that used to require separate editors with specified abilities.
Overall I have been able to see that technologies have come a long way since the strenuous and time consuming methods of Analogue Audio editing. I can also see that the preliminary task enabled me to improve the technicalities needed in order to construct our main task. I also learnt new skills in a different sense of technologies for example through learning how to create a website simulation and uploading my progression through the production on a more modern form of a diary, a blog.
7) Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In the preliminary task we recognised the restriction, that involved the match on action, shot reverse and 180 degree rule. However this was determined through camera angles, props and mise en scene to construct a production that did not just follow the production but that was creative and reflected meaning. In the preliminary task we experimented with high angles, and low angles but still incorporating a shot reverse shot, but when it came to editing individually I decided that it was best to leave it out due to the fact that the preliminary had to be about one minute in duration. This did not stop me from being able to do more creative thinking so when I was drawing the storyboards I decided that tracking would be a good choice as it is not prescribed and so I felt it demonstrated the ability to think outside the box even though the restriction did not allow us to use a wide range of creativity. From filming the preliminary task I the problems faced was the 180 degree rule, as it was our first time doing handheld filming we sought to address this as much as possible in the main task. We addressed this by ensuring that we experimented with different camera angles within the technique of handheld. For example in the last scenes of the main task we used panning in the form of an establishing shot.
In terms of mise en scene the art room in which we used was very constricted, it did not allow us to move with the camera and so we had to keep starting and stopping to change to another shot. However I feel that we were able to efficiently create the child character through make-up, but I feel that this was too time consuming and so we overcame that by constructing a character that make-up was not needed for the desired representation to be achieved.
The props that were used for the preliminary task (the painting and the paintbrush) was too simplistic in that, we didn’t realise that it would be more realistic if the character would be painting as we filmed it as opposed the painting being pre-painted. In the main task I feel that proficient planning took place as we created the letter weeks before we knew we were filming. I feel that all the preparation for our preliminary task was taken seriously on my part so that it enabled us to prepare for the next step in the coursework. I learnt how careful planning and time management is so vital.
I feel that part of our ability to create the main task was because of our choosing to do a thriller for the preliminary task as an experiment to the genre. It enabled us to recognise the difficulties we faced in representing codes and conventions and develop this. The fact that our main task had no other specified requirements other than being two minutes long, meant that I had freedom when deciding on narrative and most importantly camera angles. I feel that if the preliminary task did not have a specification then it could have lacked evident progression. But because of this specification it meant that we were sure to construct a film that was in complete parallel to the preliminary task. We did this by ensuring that we had different locations and so it wasn’t stagnant as we felt the preliminary task was. On set, we both set out to check the framing ensuring that the shots were steady and there was nothing within the shot that could destroy the shot. Creativity was in evidence when on set we experimented with camera angles, added new scenes which we felt would be appropriate for the representation we were trying to portray. For example the shot were the unknown character was stoking the dog. I feel that during our preliminary task, we had thought that we had planned scheduling and props efficiently but it was the little mishaps that effected us slightly. For instance the first shot where the character has to cross the room, because we wanted to use a photography room, as it was dirty and reflected the passion the character has for art, we didn’t realise until filming that the room was not big enough.
This meant that we had to change the mise en scene to the main art room. And so this was not a reflection of creativity but minor insufficient planning. However this meant that when it came to our main task we had planned things out more sufficiently.
In terms of soundtrack in the preliminary task I looked for one song that resembled a creepy music box, however before the main task I had completed my case studies meaning that I had watched a number of thriller films. What I learnt from this was that suspense can be created with subtle non-diegetic sound in the concluding scenes and thus what fuelled me to obtain two forms of suspenseful music was wanting to show the progression from preliminary task to main task.
We chose a company name to put in the opening titles called ‘Chillier Media’, I feel that this makes our film more professional and shows how we thought about beyond the end of the production, unlike the preliminary task where that was not taken into consideration.
Monday 26 April 2010
Evaluation 3-5
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
During my production I, have researched companies that have distributed my case studies, particularly focusing on the films that I feel our most similar to our main task and preliminary task. So I chose ‘The Birds’ and ‘The eye’. These films both feature the construction of a female protagonist who’s antagonist voyeuristic fuelled attack on them is reflected through technical aspects.
During my research, I have come to realise that distribution companies decide whether to distribute particular films, based on the genre and whether the representation links into how their company has made their name. For instance Warner Bros. have made their company so recognisable through representing commercial films. ‘The birds’ was distributed by Universal Studios, it is one of the six major American movie studios. Universal studios in the late 1950s- 60s (around the production of ‘The birds’) experienced the takeover of the Music Corporation of America the studio was upgraded and thus there was evidence of the link between prestigious directors/ producers such as Alfred Hitchcock and the service of distribution Universal Studios were providing. The historical development has seen the company develop from a horizontally integrated company, that had a low capacity in exhibition venues. The early days of the companies saw the targeting of audiences only to small American towns. And most importantly there was a focus on the distribution of Western genre films. However since the 1970s in Universal Studios there has been a recognition for the need to appeal to audiences needs. And thus high production values that are seen in Hitchcock movies are able to get the distribution facilities needed to reach success.
And so from this observation I have, seen the company has been able to fulfil the audiences needs from the films they choose to distribute. And so it was important to consider this when constructing both our preliminary and main task, so our productions could be successful. Although I researched into Lionsgate Entertainment, which is a more recently) established (1970 company holding many successes especially Hitchcock’s 1990 box office success American Psycho. It also distributed ‘The eye’ and when I researched on the official website I found the company to describe themselves as holding a prestigious and prolific library original and daring motion pictures. And you click on the link you will find the full description http://investors.lionsgate.com/
I find this appealing as it is modern company and thus I feel that it would be perfect to distribute our media text as the reason for their success has been because of the recognition of the need for modern representations. In the industry. Why I Think that our film would be good for the distribution company is that there is no historical value. For example in The Birds there is evidence of one preferred meaning. The ideology that is reflected is one of dominance in that context. I feel that Universal recognised that and that is what fuelled them to distribute. Because a distributer ask a messenger between the trust of the production team and the exhibition facilities. Universal trusted what The Birds was representing and so went on with the distribution, we want our film to have an evident representation so that we could choose which company to distribute our film. We feel like Lionsgate would be the best distribution for our film. Because for example in the narrative we have constructed a character who reflects a residual ideology.
How we have reflected this is through the code of dress of the protagonist character. We opted for green pyjamas instead of a residual ideology which would be pink. There was too reasons for this, one was that it would not represent our primary target audience, this is very important because if we were not able to do this then we would not be able to get a prestigious ‘daring’ company to entrust in our film to want to distribute it. The second reason why we did not use pink coloured clothes in the protagonist’s code of dress is because of the representation of our character in itself, whilst constructing our narrative we were bearing in mind that Lionsgate represents films of originality.
Our film would be a closed text if we used her code of dress to connote innocence and thus our film would only have encoded messages of denotative meaning. As opposed to it being a open text and allowing the audience to make different interpretations. I feel that in the sense our film would be beneficial for Lionsgate as it being more of an open text in the sense that the audience can interpret her mode of address as innocent, but this is juxtaposed with the use of the letter, that states ‘If you tell anyone I am going to kill you’ and so they can also decode that she is not as innocent as she seems and has done something (unknown) to the antagonist to provoke her demise. I think Lionsgate will be able to recognise the originality in the narrative structure, making our film successful and their company successful.
Another example of why I think Lionsgate would be a good company to distribute our film is the way we our able to attract our audience through camera angles, so in the last few scenes where the character is leaving her house to look for her missing dog, we use point of view through hand-held camera. The camera goes from her walking to the camera imaging her walking. Through shaky camera we are putting the audience through her despair and frantic feelings. This a methodology that reflects Hitchcock as Auteur.
And this a code that is rarely used in films trying to evoke such a feeling in the viewer.
Overall although we appreciate Hitchcock’s way, in which he tried to evoke fear in the audience, we have reflected that but made it more modern and thus a distribution company like Universal pictures would not be preferred because if it’s inability to move a away from commerce and residual ideologies. We feel that Lionsgate should distribute our film because of the daring and prestigious films they have been known for, we feel that this plus our technical aspects is what will make our film successful.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our primary target audience for our media product would be the C1 Lower middle class. Our secondary audience would be the C2 skilled working class of the social grade classification scale. I felt this would be appropriate as the mise en scene is particularly reflective of a young teenage middle class girl’s privileged lifestyle. We emphasised this representation through the bright light which reflected the daytime. What we also showed was the responsibility she had that most teens her age would have. We felt that the alley way where the protagonist is killed is reflective of a rough and uneasy life that is a stereotypical representation of the working class. I feel that our product would suite a working class teenage audience because we have constructed a balance between the working class and middle class representations so that both audiences would engage in the narrative.
As opposed to a sci-fi genre with more unrealistic characters, I think that within British culture especially middle class teen audiences are less likely to engage with unrealistic representations and that as part of the uses and gratification theory (Katz 1959) audiences have an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own beliefs and feelings. The protagonist character allows the audience to establish personal relationships with her character. For example they feel confused and upset when she cannot find her dog, and through the use of a close-up the relationship between the character and audience is strengthened.
We thus concluded that our film should be a certificate 15, and so I researched the BBFC- The British Board of Film Classification The classifications below are appropriate to the themes we reflected which enabled us to see the depth of issues we portray and why they cannot be suitable for any person under the age of 15 years old.
Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic
or sexualised.
Violence
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and
self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be
copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.
Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is
appropriate for 15 year olds.
5) How would you attract/address your audience?
During the planning of both our main task, I have kept in mind in doing things in such away that keeps the audience engaged. We used the characters to affect the, along with the narrative that makes them want to know more. For example the protagonist is female and thus resemble teenage girls, this alone is putting the female audience (which is our primary audience) into the mindset of the character, building up tension within the viewer. On the other hand, the male section of our audience can identify with the antagonist, in the sense that the camera is reflecting the innocence of the character, engaging the male viewer, this is because our film is quite conventional in the sense that a young attractive girl is being kidnapped and so the male viewer may be interested in watching this demise.
The audience were also able to engage with the narrative through props, we made the prop attractive based on the age range that is 17. We used a letter that is being delivered that states ‘If you tell anyone I will kill you’, the audience are attracted to this because of what the letter contains. We thought this through and decided to cut out letters from a newspaper and stick them on paper to spell out the message, this would engage the audience because they are wondering whether she is being stalked, or whether she is about to be attacked as soon as she closes the door. And so they are engaged because of the different interpretations that can be made, as the audience can also decode that the protagonist must have provoked the sender of the message so much so that they had to get the message across in such a extreme and powerful way.
The second way we addressed the audience is through the use of the costume that was worn by the mysterious character stroking the protagonists dog. The character is wearing a black glove, and so the audience are left wondering whether the dog is going to be harmed. How the audience are enticed here is through the dog, which is white and small, with white holding the connotations of innocence, the viewer are being positioned to feel worried and frightened for what is going to happen to the dog. However when the protagonist awakens, she goes outside to look for him, her tone of voice here engages the audience as it one of confidence and assurance. The audience are positioned to think that the character is sure that she will find him and lead the viewer to further decode that the dog has gone missing before.
We also attracted the audience through a point of view shot, with the camera technique of panning. The viewer is a bit startled by this, but with the confident tone of voice still constructed in their mind, they are to confident that the dog will be found. This was used, also to create juxtaposition in the viewers mind as although they are confident that the dog will be found, the dirty, dark mise en scene hold connotations of a imminent disequilibrium in the narrative. And so through this their confidence is diminished, and so the viewer through this juxtaposition feels fear because we used point of view to make the viewer feel as though they are the characters and are experiencing this sordid mise en scene.
Whilst editing, I decided to reduce the speed of the clip and this in effective distorts the non-diegetic sound that I imported onto my production. I feel that this was effect in two ways in attracting and addressing our audience. One was that it reflected surrealism, in the sense that even when the character is disorientated from a bad dream one would not usually expect to hear distorted music. And the audience becomes reengaged from the last shot, in that they are left not knowing which direction the narrative is going.
The second way, was that at the end I slowed the speed of the clip and are also reversed the direction in which the soundtrack played, and so the audience our addressed in an unconventional way, because most mystery/thriller genres use conventional heavy brass and chimes that can be seen in Hitchcock’s 1958 vertigo soundtrack. However in our film there is evidence of a distorted mix of high and low pitch piano, leaving the viewer thinking what happened. What was ‘the secret’. Also the soundtrack isn’t given too much air time as the focus is the audience feeling confused.
In the last scenes, we used information to allow the tension to build at it’s highest within the viewer. The viewer knows that there is an emerging antagonist, that the other character is unaware of, and so what I did was cut and pasted the sound from the previous clip of the character calling for the dog onto this clip. So the viewer are being reminded of that, whilst we are showing them the back of the antagonist, they are able to see the knife and thus are worried as they can’t get the message to the character that the are going to get hurt. We made the audience feel so much fear through allowing them to build a relationship with the character up until this point when the feeling peaks.
During my production I, have researched companies that have distributed my case studies, particularly focusing on the films that I feel our most similar to our main task and preliminary task. So I chose ‘The Birds’ and ‘The eye’. These films both feature the construction of a female protagonist who’s antagonist voyeuristic fuelled attack on them is reflected through technical aspects.
During my research, I have come to realise that distribution companies decide whether to distribute particular films, based on the genre and whether the representation links into how their company has made their name. For instance Warner Bros. have made their company so recognisable through representing commercial films. ‘The birds’ was distributed by Universal Studios, it is one of the six major American movie studios. Universal studios in the late 1950s- 60s (around the production of ‘The birds’) experienced the takeover of the Music Corporation of America the studio was upgraded and thus there was evidence of the link between prestigious directors/ producers such as Alfred Hitchcock and the service of distribution Universal Studios were providing. The historical development has seen the company develop from a horizontally integrated company, that had a low capacity in exhibition venues. The early days of the companies saw the targeting of audiences only to small American towns. And most importantly there was a focus on the distribution of Western genre films. However since the 1970s in Universal Studios there has been a recognition for the need to appeal to audiences needs. And thus high production values that are seen in Hitchcock movies are able to get the distribution facilities needed to reach success.
And so from this observation I have, seen the company has been able to fulfil the audiences needs from the films they choose to distribute. And so it was important to consider this when constructing both our preliminary and main task, so our productions could be successful. Although I researched into Lionsgate Entertainment, which is a more recently) established (1970 company holding many successes especially Hitchcock’s 1990 box office success American Psycho. It also distributed ‘The eye’ and when I researched on the official website I found the company to describe themselves as holding a prestigious and prolific library original and daring motion pictures. And you click on the link you will find the full description http://investors.lionsgate.com/
I find this appealing as it is modern company and thus I feel that it would be perfect to distribute our media text as the reason for their success has been because of the recognition of the need for modern representations. In the industry. Why I Think that our film would be good for the distribution company is that there is no historical value. For example in The Birds there is evidence of one preferred meaning. The ideology that is reflected is one of dominance in that context. I feel that Universal recognised that and that is what fuelled them to distribute. Because a distributer ask a messenger between the trust of the production team and the exhibition facilities. Universal trusted what The Birds was representing and so went on with the distribution, we want our film to have an evident representation so that we could choose which company to distribute our film. We feel like Lionsgate would be the best distribution for our film. Because for example in the narrative we have constructed a character who reflects a residual ideology.
How we have reflected this is through the code of dress of the protagonist character. We opted for green pyjamas instead of a residual ideology which would be pink. There was too reasons for this, one was that it would not represent our primary target audience, this is very important because if we were not able to do this then we would not be able to get a prestigious ‘daring’ company to entrust in our film to want to distribute it. The second reason why we did not use pink coloured clothes in the protagonist’s code of dress is because of the representation of our character in itself, whilst constructing our narrative we were bearing in mind that Lionsgate represents films of originality.
Our film would be a closed text if we used her code of dress to connote innocence and thus our film would only have encoded messages of denotative meaning. As opposed to it being a open text and allowing the audience to make different interpretations. I feel that in the sense our film would be beneficial for Lionsgate as it being more of an open text in the sense that the audience can interpret her mode of address as innocent, but this is juxtaposed with the use of the letter, that states ‘If you tell anyone I am going to kill you’ and so they can also decode that she is not as innocent as she seems and has done something (unknown) to the antagonist to provoke her demise. I think Lionsgate will be able to recognise the originality in the narrative structure, making our film successful and their company successful.
Another example of why I think Lionsgate would be a good company to distribute our film is the way we our able to attract our audience through camera angles, so in the last few scenes where the character is leaving her house to look for her missing dog, we use point of view through hand-held camera. The camera goes from her walking to the camera imaging her walking. Through shaky camera we are putting the audience through her despair and frantic feelings. This a methodology that reflects Hitchcock as Auteur.
And this a code that is rarely used in films trying to evoke such a feeling in the viewer.
Overall although we appreciate Hitchcock’s way, in which he tried to evoke fear in the audience, we have reflected that but made it more modern and thus a distribution company like Universal pictures would not be preferred because if it’s inability to move a away from commerce and residual ideologies. We feel that Lionsgate should distribute our film because of the daring and prestigious films they have been known for, we feel that this plus our technical aspects is what will make our film successful.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our primary target audience for our media product would be the C1 Lower middle class. Our secondary audience would be the C2 skilled working class of the social grade classification scale. I felt this would be appropriate as the mise en scene is particularly reflective of a young teenage middle class girl’s privileged lifestyle. We emphasised this representation through the bright light which reflected the daytime. What we also showed was the responsibility she had that most teens her age would have. We felt that the alley way where the protagonist is killed is reflective of a rough and uneasy life that is a stereotypical representation of the working class. I feel that our product would suite a working class teenage audience because we have constructed a balance between the working class and middle class representations so that both audiences would engage in the narrative.
As opposed to a sci-fi genre with more unrealistic characters, I think that within British culture especially middle class teen audiences are less likely to engage with unrealistic representations and that as part of the uses and gratification theory (Katz 1959) audiences have an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own beliefs and feelings. The protagonist character allows the audience to establish personal relationships with her character. For example they feel confused and upset when she cannot find her dog, and through the use of a close-up the relationship between the character and audience is strengthened.
We thus concluded that our film should be a certificate 15, and so I researched the BBFC- The British Board of Film Classification The classifications below are appropriate to the themes we reflected which enabled us to see the depth of issues we portray and why they cannot be suitable for any person under the age of 15 years old.
Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic
or sexualised.
Violence
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and
self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be
copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.
Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is
appropriate for 15 year olds.
5) How would you attract/address your audience?
During the planning of both our main task, I have kept in mind in doing things in such away that keeps the audience engaged. We used the characters to affect the, along with the narrative that makes them want to know more. For example the protagonist is female and thus resemble teenage girls, this alone is putting the female audience (which is our primary audience) into the mindset of the character, building up tension within the viewer. On the other hand, the male section of our audience can identify with the antagonist, in the sense that the camera is reflecting the innocence of the character, engaging the male viewer, this is because our film is quite conventional in the sense that a young attractive girl is being kidnapped and so the male viewer may be interested in watching this demise.
The audience were also able to engage with the narrative through props, we made the prop attractive based on the age range that is 17. We used a letter that is being delivered that states ‘If you tell anyone I will kill you’, the audience are attracted to this because of what the letter contains. We thought this through and decided to cut out letters from a newspaper and stick them on paper to spell out the message, this would engage the audience because they are wondering whether she is being stalked, or whether she is about to be attacked as soon as she closes the door. And so they are engaged because of the different interpretations that can be made, as the audience can also decode that the protagonist must have provoked the sender of the message so much so that they had to get the message across in such a extreme and powerful way.
The second way we addressed the audience is through the use of the costume that was worn by the mysterious character stroking the protagonists dog. The character is wearing a black glove, and so the audience are left wondering whether the dog is going to be harmed. How the audience are enticed here is through the dog, which is white and small, with white holding the connotations of innocence, the viewer are being positioned to feel worried and frightened for what is going to happen to the dog. However when the protagonist awakens, she goes outside to look for him, her tone of voice here engages the audience as it one of confidence and assurance. The audience are positioned to think that the character is sure that she will find him and lead the viewer to further decode that the dog has gone missing before.
We also attracted the audience through a point of view shot, with the camera technique of panning. The viewer is a bit startled by this, but with the confident tone of voice still constructed in their mind, they are to confident that the dog will be found. This was used, also to create juxtaposition in the viewers mind as although they are confident that the dog will be found, the dirty, dark mise en scene hold connotations of a imminent disequilibrium in the narrative. And so through this their confidence is diminished, and so the viewer through this juxtaposition feels fear because we used point of view to make the viewer feel as though they are the characters and are experiencing this sordid mise en scene.
Whilst editing, I decided to reduce the speed of the clip and this in effective distorts the non-diegetic sound that I imported onto my production. I feel that this was effect in two ways in attracting and addressing our audience. One was that it reflected surrealism, in the sense that even when the character is disorientated from a bad dream one would not usually expect to hear distorted music. And the audience becomes reengaged from the last shot, in that they are left not knowing which direction the narrative is going.
The second way, was that at the end I slowed the speed of the clip and are also reversed the direction in which the soundtrack played, and so the audience our addressed in an unconventional way, because most mystery/thriller genres use conventional heavy brass and chimes that can be seen in Hitchcock’s 1958 vertigo soundtrack. However in our film there is evidence of a distorted mix of high and low pitch piano, leaving the viewer thinking what happened. What was ‘the secret’. Also the soundtrack isn’t given too much air time as the focus is the audience feeling confused.
In the last scenes, we used information to allow the tension to build at it’s highest within the viewer. The viewer knows that there is an emerging antagonist, that the other character is unaware of, and so what I did was cut and pasted the sound from the previous clip of the character calling for the dog onto this clip. So the viewer are being reminded of that, whilst we are showing them the back of the antagonist, they are able to see the knife and thus are worried as they can’t get the message to the character that the are going to get hurt. We made the audience feel so much fear through allowing them to build a relationship with the character up until this point when the feeling peaks.
EVAULATION questions 1-2
Today I completed my evaluation, meaning that I have completed my first draft of my Production coursework.
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 .
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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