Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Title of our film: We had some difficulties with deciding what to call our thriller. We were researching , split personalities and even phobias to try and think of an idea. When researching phobias we come across the fear of the dark which is 'Nyctophobia' we also found a fear of closing one's eyes which is 'Optophobia' which would be effective as the main character in our thriller closes her eyes before she changes. However, in the end we went back to our original idea of 'Nyctophobia' as we felt it was catchy and suited the themes of the Thriller well.


Setting/Location: For the setting of our thriller we wanted to find a place that was fairly quiet and slightly eerie to fit the themes of our film. We had thought of many locations, our original locations were a forest in Shenfield and The Secret Nuclear Bunker in kelvedon Hatch. We emailed the Secret Nuclear Bunker to ask for permission to film there. However, we as a group didn't feel that the location suited the storyline to our thriller. We later discovered an old abandoned house in Hutton Mount which we all went to look at. Straight away from standing outside the house we knew that it suited our story well, and as we were looking round each room we were already trying to work out which shots could be used in each room as we knew and all agreed straight away the location fitted well. We all also agreed that we wanted to stick to one location as our story is based around what is happening in and around the house and is really important in our storyline. Many thrillers use large abandoned houses usually surround by forests to create an eerie effect, thrillers such as 'The last house on the left' and 'The Shining' uses large buildings to emphasise the vulnerability of the characters, much like ours.


Costume and Props: As we created a story board for our thriller we all decided as a group that we wanted the two characters to wear contrasting costumes. We decided to put Anna's character in a black lace dress to get the viewer's thinking she is a villain, however, when my character is shown wearing a similar dress but it white it portrays to the audience the two side or personalities of Anna's character. We made sure we didn't use many props in our thriller as we wanted the main attention on the characters as well as necklace which creates enigma. We decided to use a key necklace as we thought it was a strong symbol which could be used throughout the film.

Camera work and editing: When filming for our thriller we used a variety of shots to resemble the changing emotions of the film, as well as seeing into the mind of the protagonist. The film begins with a 360 pan shot of the land outside the house, we made this blurred when editing to make it seem as if it is what our character is seeing. As our first character is introduced we use a low angle shot to get the audience thinking she is the villain, this shot is important in our thriller as it is where the necklace is first shown. We all decided that we wanted to use a shot that shows she more of a vulnerable character, however we did this by again using a low angle shot but this time it shows Anna's characters evil side to her personality, this shows her characters vulnerability. During our editing we also agreed that we wanted the flashbacks to be in black and white to show the difference also making it seem more eerie effect, films often use a blurry effect to create flashbacks, however the psychological thriller 'the element of crime' uses a sepia tone to create it.

Title and font style: We found looking for a font style difficult to suit our thriller. We wanted it to look different and effective at the same time. For the credits our names are written in a bold white font that has quite a rough look to it to emphasise the themes of our thriller. We decided that the title of the film would appear at the end of our opening rather than the beginning as it would be the last thing you see and has more of an effect. The font of the title is different to the rest of the credits as we wanted it to be a lot bolder, we also put a slight 'earthquake' effect on the writing as it gives it an un-steady effect.


Story and how the opening sets it up:  Before we started filming we knew that we wanted to create an enigma for the audience which is known to be a main convention of a thriller. The Whip pan at the very start creates confusion which represents what Anna is seeing, as it stops Anna is standing in front of the house holding a key necklace. This is what creates the enigma for the audience as they do not know who she is and why she is there but most importantly what the necklace symbolises.

Genre and how the opening sets it up: The genre of the film is a thriller. One of the main conventions of a thriller is being fast paced and as a group we wanted to create this in our film. We wanted to do this to create tension from the very beginning as it makes it more engaging for the audience. The location of our thriller also creates the genre of the film. Another main convention of a thriller is the location in which its set, 'Shutter island' is set on an isolated island where the protagonist is faced with numerous problems, much like the protagonist in ours.

How characters are introduced:  There are only two characters in the opening of our thriller. We wanted to introduce Anna's character on her own as we wanted to show she is isolated and creates questions for the audience of why she is there, who she is and why she is on her own. She is first introduced after the Whip pan which sets the location, we have also made it so that it seems to appear from nowhere giving off an eerie vibe to keep it in with the conventions of a thriller. We also used shots to keep her face hidden until she walks into the house such as, the first long shot of her from behind, the close up of the necklace, then a close up of her feet walking towards the house. We done this as we wanted a way to represent her hidden identity and split personality. My character is introduced in a flashback and i contrast from Anna not only because I am wearing white but from looking at Anna's previous state I am laughing. We wanted to use flashbacks as we wanted the audience to ask questions, and from the flashback of me then the fire we wanted the audience to assume my character had died which makes it more engaging when my character re-appears at the end.

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