Evaluation

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?

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.

Feed Back for Thriller

Questionnaire

The questions in our questionnaire you should rate with 3 being the highest and best mark and 1 being the worst and lowest according to the question asked.

We gave our questionnaire to 20 people to fill outand made sure they were of a variety of gender and age as our targte audience for our thriller is a wide majority of people.
We then produced tables for the results of each question to see our results clearer.

From these the results, we had a positive outcome for the majority of our questions in particular people mostly thought that the music we chose was effective, we chose this track specifically because the lyrics matched and were relevant to the religious theme we were trying to portray.

Also because we used a variety and range of camera angles and skills throughout and put good use to editing this made our thriller more attractive and accessible to the audience which yet again proves positive from our questionnaire.

However, from these results we can see that costume, hair and make up was definintely a factor that could be improved. There could have been more thought in emphasising the victim as being weak and helpless by the way she looked setting her up more as the stereotypical female.

Also we could of done this with the attacker, usually their costume and appearance conforms to what we expect of a male murderer being dark, mysterious and unattractive which we could of exagerated a lot more to make our thriller effective.

We also had feed back from people who had viewed our opening on youtube, these are the comments we had back:

Snakezpride the music suits, good use of the slow motion and sudden flash of images, as said below, good at creating the tension, however minor mistakes such as, the girl doing the make up would have a mirror wouldnt she? and so the door being behind her, shouldnt she see the man opening the door :P haha, and another mistake is where u can see in the mirror at 1:57 someone moving about.
and thought the end was just about the same as the start but overall two thumbs up, good work :P xx 12 hours ago

whsmediastudies2010 this is excellent! the music fits well with the action. 4 days ago

hannahfyfe1993 i think the combination of music and lighting is extremely effective at creating tension that is often used in thrillers. 4 days

Critical Comment


Overall, there were a few minor errors throughout our thirller as "Snakezpride" through youtube picked up on which we did'nt which will help us in our next film.

We had a few problems during filming and editing that we were able to alter for example during the scene of the attack, the actor playing the murderer was smiling too much, however by editing using the letterbox effect and fast forward we were able to resolve this problem to hide the actors expression which was useful.

Also during filming, a main part of the thriller opening was by accident filmed over which meant we had to repeat this all over again. However we had prepared in our planning for any mistakes to organise an extra shooting day in our call sheet and therefore we were able to overcome this problem and film all the footage needed without anything being unplanned.

MEDIA THRILLER - MISSING

Media Thriller Story Board - Planning

Call Sheet for Thriller Opening - Planning

Initial Ideas for Thriller - Planning

Initial Ideas

For our initial ideas we made a few mind maps on powerpoint to get down as many ideas for setting, props and sound/audio that we could think of. These are our mind maps on powerpoint presentation.

Shower Scene from Pyscho and Essay

How does Alfred Hitchcock in “Psycho” create the “shower scene” to be so effective in conforming to the conventions of the thriller genre?


The film “Psycho” is a 1960 American thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock which is based on the 1959 novel by Robert Bloch. The film depicts an encounter between a secretary “Marion Crane” who finds her self hiding in a motel owned by “Normal Bates” after stealing money and running away from an employer. “Psycho” initially received mixed reviews; some suggested in particular “the shower scene” contained filming which was far too shocking and graphic. However, now “Psycho is considered one of Hitchcock’s best films winning several Academy Awards and being praised for being great cinematic art

Alfred Hitchcock effectively incorporates the conventions of the thriller genre through mise-en-scene for example “Marion Crane” in the film represents what we would consider the stereotypical woman victim. She has blonde hair, make up and wearing a silk dressing gown which all suggest the typical females that are seen in comparison to men more weak and fragile. Therefore setting “Marion Crane” up as the perfect victim which is a convention that is important in thrillers. The setting is also a typical, hotel room that is effective in this thriller as it subverts away from the usual conventions. We expect an attack to happen in a more dark and dangerous setting therefore it is more of a shock to the viewers when drama happens in a typical setting.

Adding to this, Hitchcock’s use of camera movement and skills is another convention that makes the “shower scene” so effective. Before the attack actually happens there are several mid shots of “Marion” in the shower as it is too much inappropriate content to have a full shot. Further more, during the actual attack; Hitchcock very cleverly uses a wide variety and range of shots to interpret the murder to the audience without actually showing any violent content. For example there are several close ups of Marion to show her reaction clearly, also numerous extreme close ups of her screaming, her hand and at the end of the scene her eye to show she is actually dead. There are also high angles to show the victim weak and helpless, birds eye views shots and point of view to show the attack from Marion’s view. Here Hitchcock uses editing skills such as straight cuts and shot reverse shot to switch from each shot quickly which is effective in interpreting the death without actually showing her getting stabbed. To build tension in this scene there is an establishing shot used to show Marion and the murderer approaching her from behind the shower scene by creating this excitement and tension is a main convention of thrillers and therefore why Hitchcock has made “the shower scene” so effective.

Use of sound is also a convention that is effectively incorporated into the “Psycho” to build suspense for example at the start of the scene non-diajetic traditional, calm music that was popular around that time is played to settle the audience and make them believe nothing is going to happen. Following this, there is only the diajetic sounds of the shower running to create a more silent feel to the scene, it brings the audience in to create tension and suspense that when the attack happens the shocking, dramatic music that is played suddenly gives them more of a shock and surprise. This element of the thriller is also one that conforms to what we expect of the conventions and is therefore why the “shower scene” is so effective.

Overall Alfred Hitchcock creates an effective scene by conforming to the conventions of a thriller, by using dramatic sound to surprise and create tension for the audience. Also by using technical camera shots and movements, giving a wide variety and including straight cuts and shot reverse shot is a clever way of interpreting the attack without actually showing Marion getting stabbed and murdered.