In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product firstly used, developed and challenged forms and conventions from real media products such as the films “Psycho” by Alfred Hitchcock, “Seven” by David Fincher and “Taking Lives” by Philip Glass. We watched several thrillers during lessons however these two in particular influenced ideas for our film “Missing”.
The film “Psycho” influenced us in our opening specifically in the famous “shower scene” because of the way Alfred Hitchcock in particular creates the attack by using several camera shots and angles to portray “Marion Crane’s” death but without actually showing It. The way Hitchcock uses shot reverse shot and straight cuts to show flashes of the murder was extremely effective and an idea we thought would be good to use in our thriller opening. Therefore to show the attack in ours we filmed numerous shots and angles of a knife with blood on to emphasise death also with the murder washing blood off his hands exaggerates to the audience that there has been a death without actually showing it. Also the way in which Hitchcock uses an establishing shot to show the murderer coming up from behind the victim; this created great tension as the audience can see the attacker coming and therefore they are viewing something the victim can’t see which creates good suspense. We used this idea in our opening also to create the same effect.
Adding to this, we also developed and used ideas from the film “Seven” by David Fincher. At the start of this film, the director has chosen to do close ups of specific objects such as a the pages turning in the book, close up on writing, pictures being cut out. Straight away we get the sort of impression about the theme and instantly a feel to what the film may be about. Also the film as a whole inspired us with our ideas for example the religious theme. The seven deadly sins we thought was a really effective, different and clever idea compared to most thrillers. Therefore in our thriller opening we decided to combine these to ideas together by doing close ups and extreme close ups of religious objects for props to create the theme for our opening. We used a bible, rosary beads, religious statue, prayer card and several candles to set the scene. This helped us from our initial ideas to decide on using the religious props over all our other options.
Further more, “Taking Lives” by Philip Glass also helped us use ideas from the film in particular with the setting. At the end of the film Angelina Jolie is purposely dressed and put in a setting that makes her the stereotypical female victim, wearing a white and yellow dress, being pregnant and in a normal everyday house. Therefore, this draws the audience in to believing that nothing is going to happen which is why it is more of a shock to them when the attack happens. We would expect the attack to happen in a more dark and dangerous setting but “Taking Lives” contradicts this to create a more shocking effect. This is the idea we developed in our thriller we wanted the attack to take place in a normal, typical bedroom where you wouldn’t expect something bad to happen. Also we wanted the victim to be a stereotypical girl for example blonde hair, make up and feminine clothes to make her seem weak and helpless. Therefore “Taking Lives” helped us to decide our setting for our opening compared to all the other ideas we had from initial ideas.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product firstly used, developed and challenged forms and conventions from real media products such as the films “Psycho” by Alfred Hitchcock, “Seven” by David Fincher and “Taking Lives” by Philip Glass. We watched several thrillers during lessons however these two in particular influenced ideas for our film “Missing”.
The film “Psycho” influenced us in our opening specifically in the famous “shower scene” because of the way Alfred Hitchcock in particular creates the attack by using several camera shots and angles to portray “Marion Crane’s” death but without actually showing It. The way Hitchcock uses shot reverse shot and straight cuts to show flashes of the murder was extremely effective and an idea we thought would be good to use in our thriller opening. Therefore to show the attack in ours we filmed numerous shots and angles of a knife with blood on to emphasise death also with the murder washing blood off his hands exaggerates to the audience that there has been a death without actually showing it. Also the way in which Hitchcock uses an establishing shot to show the murderer coming up from behind the victim; this created great tension as the audience can see the attacker coming and therefore they are viewing something the victim can’t see which creates good suspense. We used this idea in our opening also to create the same effect.
Adding to this, we also developed and used ideas from the film “Seven” by David Fincher. At the start of this film, the director has chosen to do close ups of specific objects such as a the pages turning in the book, close up on writing, pictures being cut out. Straight away we get the sort of impression about the theme and instantly a feel to what the film may be about. Also the film as a whole inspired us with our ideas for example the religious theme. The seven deadly sins we thought was a really effective, different and clever idea compared to most thrillers. Therefore in our thriller opening we decided to combine these to ideas together by doing close ups and extreme close ups of religious objects for props to create the theme for our opening. We used a bible, rosary beads, religious statue, prayer card and several candles to set the scene. This helped us from our initial ideas to decide on using the religious props over all our other options.
Further more, “Taking Lives” by Philip Glass also helped us use ideas from the film in particular with the setting. At the end of the film Angelina Jolie is purposely dressed and put in a setting that makes her the stereotypical female victim, wearing a white and yellow dress, being pregnant and in a normal everyday house. Therefore, this draws the audience in to believing that nothing is going to happen which is why it is more of a shock to them when the attack happens. We would expect the attack to happen in a more dark and dangerous setting but “Taking Lives” contradicts this to create a more shocking effect. This is the idea we developed in our thriller we wanted the attack to take place in a normal, typical bedroom where you wouldn’t expect something bad to happen. Also we wanted the victim to be a stereotypical girl for example blonde hair, make up and feminine clothes to make her seem weak and helpless. Therefore “Taking Lives” helped us to decide our setting for our opening compared to all the other ideas we had from initial ideas.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In the modern day, changes in communications, information and technologies are reshaping almost every aspect of contemporary life, including film. A growing, wide range of technologies are enabling consumers to view media content and in the process, these technologies have altered the ways that consumers interact with each other and film institutions. Media convergence offers movie clips through digital sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Bebo and Twitter. They allow fans to follow updates on their latest films and allowing interaction with each other. These sites also encourage fans to participate. Our thriller opening is on youtube and therefore involved with particular social groups that communicate through this digial site by viewing, commenting and exchanging videos of all types.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of media institution that may distribute our media product would be those inparticularly interested in the thriller genre. A lot of the ideas that we used and developed are from specific films such as "Taking Lives", "Seven" and "Psycho" which are all some of the most famous and popular thrillers that came from America. Hollywood directors and American films dominate markets in most countries in the world. Their films target not just national audiences but also global. The American film productions are the most expensive of all countries, and contain some of the world’s most popular and famous actors. Involving big film distributors such as MGM, Warner Brother, 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios that have been around for years producing on going best films of our time. The majority of their films contain action, adventure, suspense and end the way the audience want it to, a positive outcome. They contrast with a lot of European film distributors that have a different approach to their films and generally a different story line in contrast to the typical American film. However, as we have developed our ideas from popular and famous films that have been distributed from the biggest Hollywood companies, this is therefore kind of media institutions our thriller opening would be aimed at.
Who would be the audince for your media product?
The target audience for our media product would be specifically aimed at anyone in particularly interested in the thriller genre, films containing tension, suspense, shock and suprise. From previous successful films many of them have been included in the thriller genre which therefore proves it is a popular choice not just national but on a global scale. Therefore this suggests as my film has inspiration from these well-recieved, famous films that the target audience for my opening is a fairly wide range and variety of the population. However, from statistics i researched the percentage of the British population that watch Thriller Genre's and this is what i discovered:
- 62% - 12-20
- 21% - 21-40
- 17% - 40+
Therefore, from these statistics we can see Thriller Films are proved most popular with the younger generation/ teenagers. This may be due to the fact that a lot of them involve street crime, action and things that the younger population can relate to and therefore they are more interested.
I did some research into film ratings and I believe ours should be a 15 due to the violence it contains, also the adverts for our film would be shown after 9 o’clock.
'15' – Suitable only for 15 years and over
No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema.
No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video or DVD.
Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.
Language
There may be frequent use of strong language (eg 'fuck'). But the strongest terms will be acceptable only where justified by the context. Continued aggressive use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
Nudity
Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.
Violence
Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.
Imitable techniques
Dangerous techniques (eg combat, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on imitable detail. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
What have you learned about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the process of constructing this product there are particular elements we have learned about that we did not know before. Such as the technical media equiptment, we learned simply how to use the video camera, how to zoom in and out, and set up a tripod to where we want it to be positioned exactly for that specific scene, taking the camera off it adjusting the height or tension to allow us to give a range of movement whilst filminng.
We also learned how to edit on the AppleMac Laptops using IMovie and all the partitcular effects. Firstly how to cut our filming to specific parts we wanted and how to move and arrange them. Adding to this, how to add sound to our thriller but also adjusting the volume and speed to exacatly what we wanted. All the different effects such zoom, fastforward, flash and slide transitions are specific to what we used in our opening. Furthermore how to add titles with certain fonts, transitions and size that we wanted.
Finally, during this process wee discovered about loading our video on to youtube and then to our blogger.
Looking back at the continuity, what do you feel you have got better and progressed from to creating the full product?
I feel in our final product, we have improved upon in particular our planning and approach the creating the film. We took a lot more time to sit down and research other films which helped us greatly with inspiration for our own, we developed and used ideas from the most popular and famous thrillers to create an effect in our opening. Also we have learned to plan in more detail involving our story boards, call sheets and initial ideas this helped us be a lot more prepared whilst we were filming at one point we had a technical difficulty with the camera however we were able to over come this due to being organised with our schedule.
I also feel our camera skills and movements have developed well, we tried a variety of angles not just the ones we used in our continuity piece and we were confident about trying these. We had much more control over the camera as we had practised, during filming of our continuity we had problems with the camera shaking however in our thriller this was not an issue due to having more experience working with the video camera.
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