How this relates to conventions of a thriller
Shot 1
It follows her feet as she walks upstairs and there is alot of empty space to show that she is alone, and isolation is one of the main themes that is used in thrillers alot.
Shot 2
In this shot yopu can clearly see her pill and water and soon see her taking the pill through the mirror this shows her dependancy on the pills and her weakness and power and status is other important theme that is used alot in thrillers.
Shot 3
Her facial expression looks nutural showing no emotion which is used in alot of in thrillers for example hide and seek as the central character Emilie doesnt show much emotion to show she is lonely and has lost something in her life and doesnt know how to deal with it so has given up.
Shot 4
You see her lieing on her bed about to go to sleep some thrillers use a bedroom at night as some people are scared of the dark and feel that bad things can happen to you in the dark and at night and and feel insucure and unsafe which is way many thrillers are set at night.
Shot 5
The title sequence is used dark which relates to the fact that she might just be waking up so her eye sight is not fully normal yet which also suggests this might be a point of veiw shot, but also an establishing shot of the forest, the fact that the title is a bright light is was also used in a thriller opening we saw called 'The Silence' which used bright lights expanding as the title sequence which gave us the idea.
Shot 6
Her lieing on the floor and her facial expression shows confusion shows that she probally hasnt planed to be here.
Shot 7
Long shot used to show theres no'one around her, shows loneliness and isolation a main theme used in many thriller.
Shot 8
Body language is tight and she is hugging her knees to suggest she is frightened and scared and also again show loneliness.
Shot 9
Footsteps make the audience wander where shes going and what she's doing, makes them concerend as they don't know whats haoppening.
Shot 10
Facial expression looks worried and scaredm, the camera is at a close up shows something bad is about to happen, camera is also at a high angle to show her weakness which is a main theme in thriller. It is a point of veiw shot which means the protaonist is higher than her to show they have the power and the higher status.
Ideas we got from other thriller we've seen
• When we started learning about thriller opennings one of the first examples we watched 'The Killing' which began with a women in a forest, trying to escape from a group of dogs and people as they chased after her. This developed our idea of setting our thriller openning in a forest.
• The women in 'The Killing' was running away from someone and is scared and doesnt want to be in that situation, we changed this idea as in our openning instead of running away she just ends up there, she is a little cofused at first but is then quite happy to be there and instead someone finds her and only then does she want to run away.
• The idea of starting with forest scene in 'The Killing' was that no'one knew what she had done and who she was which created enigma which is what our openning creates as no'one knows why she's there and what is happening which makes both opennings restricted narrations as no'one knows whats happening.
• but as 'The Killing' continues we might have found out that that was infact that was a flashback so therefore may turn into slight unrestricted narration as we know that during the film she will do something to cause a chase and then end up in a forest. As in ours if we were to continue the film we may find that as the girl has insomnia it may become a repetative routine, so therefore may become unrestricted narration as the audience know whats to come.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The disorder
• Our openning revolves around the issue of insomnia as it's about a girl who suffers for insomnia. There are many writter and directors that base their film on someone suffering from insomnia. This shows it is a comman and important issue that writters feel they need to address. Film such as:
*Wide awake- directed by Alan Berliner
*The cure for insomnia- directed by John Henry Timmis
*Insomnia directed by- Christopher Nolan
*Dreams of an insomniac- directed by Tiffanie DeBartolo
Gender
• We used the gender of a female as females are sterotypically known as being the more vunerable sex. We made the character feminine by using the mise en scene:
*The costume of the white nightdress shows her innocents and purity.
*The prop of the tablet shows she depends on that to get her to sleep which shows her vunerablity, making the audience feel sorry for her. This also shows her dependency.
*In the bedroom scene her facial expression is sad and tierd showing she isn't looking forward to this nights sleep again to make the audiece feel sorry for her.
• But in the majority of the forest scene her facial expression is happy and excited to discover whats in the forest showing her more "masculine" side as she is adventurous and willing to explore.
• by using the prop of the log and her throughing it also shows her "masculine" side as she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty ect.
Status
• The camera is used to show her status as after she gets up in the forest and begins to walk around, the camera is at a very high angle to show her weakness.
• But as she continues walking in the forest the camera is normally at eye level, or at a low angle for example when she walks passed the strind and looks up at it, to show she is now familiar with her surroundings and has become stronger as a person.
• Then when she goes into the tunnel it goes to a high angle again to show she is vunarable which is also shown by her body language as she is curled up in a ball, hugging her leg.
• The high angle continues still when she gets out of the tunnel as the camera is at a very high angle.
• Then again in the antagonist's Point of View shot to show that the antagonist has the higher status. This is also shown by the girls facial expression as she is shocked and scared. It is also a handheld camera to show its a POV shot.
Protagonist and Antagonist
• All these things also show the audience the girl is most likely the protagonist as she is bought across as being vunrable. She is the lower status character and in the majority of the forest scene her facial expression is happy to show the audience she wouldn't harm anyone.
• There is also a antagonist but only comes at the very end of our thriler openning but their face is not shown we just see a point of veiw shot, through their eyes, and see the facial expression of the girl who is shocked, then we here the diagetic sound of two gun shots. The fact you don't see who shot her creates enigma. This has happened in many films were you don't find out who the antagonist is untill the end, such as:
*Hide and Seek, who is Charlie?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9uEkTPchIo
*What lies beneath, who killed Mrs Spencer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm4Fw2QElA4
*The Box, who kills the stranger when the button is pressed?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFHa-ygkF_M
Age (of character and time period)
• The age of the character is a teenager about 16 years old
• She is clearly a fairly modern teanage as she she has a modern house, her staircase has carpets, she has a dartboard on her wall ect.
• You can tell she is an isolated girl though as her room is very simple as it doesn't have lot in it.
• Also the clothes she is wearing is not the normal style of clothing a modern girl would wear to bed. Showing she's not "fashionable" and may have lead a shelter and lonely life. A modern teenage girl would normally wear something like this:
• But instead she wears a full length nighy:
• She has clearly had insomina from a young age as she has tablets and a glass of water beside her bed when she enters the room so has obviously been perscribed them. Now taking them before she goes to bed as part of a repeated daily routine.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• Producers who are us, get money from the distributors in two ways
* upfront- because they want the right to your film
* percentage of sales, showing and tickets
• Because you get paid a percentage of the sales you want to get as many people to see your film as possible.
• The timing of your film and when you bring out your film in the cinema is really important
*It is normally bought out on a friday so it can catch the weekend or in the school holliday so you get more students coming to see it
*There shouldn't be too much competition already out there, for example if you bring it out the same time as the Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 2, there would be less people coming to see your film.
• There are many ways of that a distributors can avertise and promote your film, for example:
* Merchindice of your film but because this is a thriller and isn't a commical or happy storylined film merchindise is highly unlikely to be used as people would rather have 'happy' things on there T-shirts or pencilcases ect. Marchnidise is normally only used for cartoons or very popular films.
* Reveiws in magazines such as Empire, as our target audience is 18-25 year old they would most likely be reading Empire as it is eye-catching and picture orrientated with alot of big bold titles, colours and solgans.
* Viral messages, word speading and distributors planting things on google
* Premieres
* reviews on TV programmes such as film 2011
* Trailers
* Posters
* Bus posters and poster on bus stops
* Billboads
* Film festivals
* Talk shows/ interviews
* Radio advertising
Who would be you audience for your media product?
• For our media product we have worked on the opening to a thriller
• There are loads of different types of thrillers such as psychological thrillers, mystery thrillers, political thrillers, action thriller and paranoid thrillers.
• I think if we were to continue with our thriller it would become a psychological thriller as one of the definitions of a psychological thriller is, the suspence often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.
• Another one is a characters battle against ones own mind.
• This relates to our thriller as the main character suffers from insomnia so therefore is constantly battling against her own mind through her dreams and nightmares.
• Also at the end of our opening she see's the anatagonist who shoots her and if we were to continue with the thriller. It might be a repatition where the antagonist constantly destroys her dreams and turns them into nightmares, which shows that antagonist is trying to demolish the main characters mental state.
• The main audience for a psychological thriller is males and females so your not being sterotypical towards females suggesting they can't handle watching them.
• around the age 18-25 as many thrillers have an 18+ age certificate on them.
• who enjoy watching films that mess with their minds, keep them guessing, and includes a twist. This is essential because if you dont like these you don't like these things then you wont like the film.
• Psychological thriller with an age certificate of 18+ include films such as Seven, Fight club, Sweeney Todd, Hard Candy, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Hannibal Rising and Unthinkable.
• Are film should be given an 18 certificate because as it progresses the shooting may become clearer and might be more voilent as everytime she has this dream the protagonist might killer her in a more painful way than just shooting her and blood and gore could be seen and as it is a point of veiw shot you could she him tourching her more and more with would not be appropriate for a younger audience to see, also something might have happened to her in the past to make her suffer from insomina and the protatonist might be someone from her past or from a nasty experience with might be sexual for example rape, so therefore would have a sexual content with again would not be appropriate for a younger audience to see.
How do you attract/ address your target audience?
• We had to ensure the film reaches the target audience which in this case is around 18-25
• I got people who are around the target audience to watch our thriller opening and comment their thoughts on it. Here is some of the feeback:
- I don't like it, it creeped me out! Haha. Well I liked it I thought it was wicked but cos it scared me, I got all goose pimpley! I love the bit at the beginning when your sat on the bed and your in thee mirror on the bedside table - genius! And the bit where you suddenly go to the woods and the camera is all blurry and stuff. Looks all good!! When's the next part coming up?
• I also really like the shot in the mirror as I feel it is something different and shows a variety.
- very good indeed very eerie. I feel the ending should have been more sudden and louder but it did make me jump, also I thought if the toss and turn was slower it would have been effective, but i enjoyed it a lot.
• We never considered or thought about making the toss and turn bit slightly slower but personal I think if we were to do it again we could test that out and see what it looks like because I think its a good idea
- I really like this well done i love the music choices that you made it added a really good effect LOOKS REALLY SCARY
- it was a little creepy. Could have played around with the level of sound in the hushabye mountain bit.
• I personal don't feel we really needed to change the level of non-diagetic sound because we wouldn't want it to quite so we couldnt here it but we didnt want it really loud to distract away from whats happening on screen, but maybe we would have had it start of quiter and then slowy go up until it reaches the point where it is at the moment.
- From the moment you walk up the stairs it has an errie feel to it, I liked the lighing when you were coming out of the tunnel as it was different and effective. I also liked the extreme close up as it looked really scary. But I feel there was too big a jump between the bedroom and the forest scenes as it didn't feel like you had gone to sleep
• I agree with this as I feel we could have done one more shot to show me falling asleep to make it more obvious that I had gone to sleep.
-very nicely done :) great range of camera angles and cuts really kept me guessing, sound, very clever no diegetic sounds but just that one eary version of hushabye as a non digetic, really built the suspense..great effects on the dream to make it obvious its a dream.
• I also feel the effect on the dream worked well as it showed the audience it wasn't real life and made it seem more abstract and out of the ordinary
- i love it! its really good, and really scary! aha, i also really like the music choice :)
• I also love the non diagetic sound choices but feel we could have done more with the diagetic sound and added more foley affects in there
- It shows a good use of film techniques and uses archetypes well I think it creates a clear but also mysterious story with a sense of confusion as to what world is real. A really good piece!
• I agree that we did use archetypes as we had the white dress but we also could have used more by getting a blonde actress to do it instead.
- The shot the glass and tablet where you can see your face in the mirror is a really good shot, but what happened at the end? Who shot you? I want to know more.
• I like the fact there so interested and want to know more as it shows we have achevied atticipetion and angaziaty to the audience members.
• The main note that people have been saying is that they like the choice in non-diagetic sounds, but felt the pace in some parts needed improving for example it needed to be slower from the falling asleep to the dream and a quicker pace at the end.
What do you feel you have learned in the progression from the preliminary to the full product?
Shot 1 and 2
• How we improved on our framing as in the first shot is poorly framed as we are not fully in the frame at all times, but in the second shot I am fully in the frame.
Shot 3 and 4
• The title sequence in the thrid shot the writing is quite simple and is just the words fading in and out of the screen as the scene continues, but in the forth shot is a new shot almost like an establishing shot of the wood and the title expands to a white bright light that fills the bottom half of the screen. This makes it more eye catching and interesting to watch.
Shot 5 and 6
• The use of lighting in shot 5 is quite dark and you can hardly see the shadows on the wall but can still slightly see shadow and whats happening in the scene, but in the sixth shot the lighting is alot brighter and the shadows are alot clearer to see on the wall. Showing we have become more experienced using lighting and know where to place it in and how bright to have it order to show clear shadows.
Shot 7 and 8
• The use of lighting in the eighth shot is alot clear than the lighting in the seventh shot and even though the effect in both is the same as they both have half the face light and half the face dark, to show that the character has a dark side. But you can see this effect more in the eighth shot.
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