In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The conventions of the thriller genre are to do with sound and editing. E.g. quick cuts and camera angle changes, music that gives tension and has pace when appropriate. It can be to do with lighting especially the use of shadow. Mirrors and stairs are also conventions of thriller movies.
Se7en arguably one of the best thrillers ever made probably has almost every convention you could think of putting into a thriller, not that they overdone it when making the film. Like our film the introduction of the main protagonists are very similar as they are both represented as mysterious characters, both calm in a way even though both have obviously been through a lot.
Phonebooth in particular is a thriller that does not play to the conventions, it avoids darkness and shadow etc. The one way to link it to standard conventions is to say that you hear and see the story from the killer’s point of view, you are made to feel sorry for the male protagonist and that you are told a story with the use of flashback and quick passed editing. Otherwise the this film is unlike most thriller movies and avoids the main conventions and may even not be classed as thriller but psychological thriller as it plays with your mind rather than shows you like a conventional thriller. I feel that this movie gives the film enigma which makes the viewers ask questions throughout the film. For example some of the mise en scene used will basically make you ask certain questions. Photobooth uses the binary opposition of the main protagonist and makes the antagonist criticise him for it throughout the film, and uses it as a reason to hold him hostage in the photo booth. This is because of the dominance the protagonist has normally, but when he picks up the phone the dominance switches.
Like Photobooth I feel that our thriller opening didn’t play on all the typical conventions of a thriller. In our opening we also avoided darkness and shadow. For example the funeral was held on a sunny day. In the planning and throughout filming and editing we were trying to create enigma, as it was an opening we didn’t want to give much away, but at the same time you see enough to get an idea of were the movie is going. About 80% of the opening was set in a church at the funeral.
The immediate question that we were hoping to be raised was; “who is this girl in pictures and flashback” and “why, is she dead? Is this her funeral? And if so how did she die.” I feel that we made the viewers think in one way or another about these questions. Although in our peer evaluation feedback we got some negative feedback where people were saying it didn’t feel like a thriller/lacked conventions of a thriller. Because we got so much feedback like that maybe they were correct, but I feel that as it’s an opening our group didn’t want to fall into the trap of giving away too much and simply making it harder for the movie to continue. Apart from the lack of “thriller-esque” we got positive feedback about our use of mise en scene, and lighting etc.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our opening we decided to only represent one social group, white middle class. We felt that the plot didn’t hinge on the social group of our characters. By this I mean that unlike a typical gang film, which can include young black males as the antagonists - a social stereotype used commonly in films, we felt that we needed a stereotypically normal looking protagonist. Social stereotyping tends to depict middle class white men as normal and therefore we used them for this purpose.
In the opening we only wanted you to get an idea about the main protagonist, and how his mood and body language change between flashback and present time at the funeral. Even though the character seems to be fairly normal we wanted him to be fairly mysterious and have a distinct change when he is with Frankie and without her. In the first line of the non-diagetic sound track, “this is me and this is you”, it cuts to a flashback of the main protagonist and the girl being happy giving the impression that there is a relationship between the two. We purposely decided to put that shot in as that line was said to give the audience the idea that they are/were together. The happiness depicted between the two is used to give the impression that they are together in a loving, happy relationship, not one marred by stress/guilt/mistrust.
When Frankie’s death is later implied, this two shot of them both adds to the enigma of the film by removing one potential reason for her death, i.e. revenge for an affair, and most importantly acquitting the main protagonist of being involved in her death. Although this shot is intended to remove blame for her death from the main protagonist, we could also use the impression given of the protagonist to add to the shock of a potential plot twist revealing that he was not as innocent as he was made out to be. For example the killing could have been intended to hurt him for something he has previously done.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
In my opinion with a low budget film like ours we would need it just to get out there and get as many views as possible, this being “A Bad Boy Productions” second piece, we would not expect it to get it to get onto the big screen. But I think with the correct budget it has the fundamentals for a blockbuster film. I and my group had not come to a final decision but we had been talking about who we would like to get to distribute our film and I personally think that Pathe would be a good choice.
Pathe is one of the UK’s leading impendent film distributors, Pathe distribution releases around 20 titles each year, ranging from quality and specialised films to crowd-pleasing mainstream movies and genre titles.
The Reason Pathe stood out for me was that they are prepared to distribute movies such as The Blair Witch Project which had a low budget and was filmed by amateurs.
But as that is not a realistic way of us getting our movie distributed I would say that we should put it on Youtube and make some more openings etc to get as many subscribers as possible because then we may be able to get sponsors and then have a real budget to make and produce our films. That could help lead us to getting our movie signed by a well recognised distributing company.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
We would be looking to target people aged 16-24, one to maximise the profit as this the age range of people that watch the movies especially big blockbuster. This is also the case because of the age of the main protagonist so the viewers between these ages will be able to relate to this character with less difficulty than if the main protagonist was older.
I really think this would be a movie that would be promoted like the movie twilight, as it has some similarities that could be used to promote it to that range of viewers. Like Twilight, although the genre isn’t really the same, it could still be promoted for people aged 16-24 but more predominantly towards the female market. Maybe a film that a girl would drag her boyfriend to.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The normality and realism is where we would look to be grabbing our viewers’ attention. We would use the characters emotion and passion of the main protagonist to attract the female viewers. The idea of revenge would be a way we could keep the male side of the market happy and interested in our film. Apart from that you will have the enigma which we would like to think we would have maintained throughout the film to keep all viewers on their toes and thinking. If that isn’t enough we have gone for the vulnerable girl with strong protagonist male.
How distressed the main protagonist is?
Whose Funeral is this?
The two protagonists together?
Then the same place but empty, does this mean anything?
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout this task I used the following technologies:
- iMovie
- Video Recorder (Camera)
- Garage Band
- Tripod
- Various Lights
After our preliminary and the practice shoot of this piece, we felt really comfortable about shooting different shots. For example the tracking shots of the protagonist’s feet are hand held and there were some pans that took some skill setting up and shooting. Looking back at the task I feel that as it progressed I became more aware of which camera technique to use for a particular shot in order to give the most effect. As a group we discussed every shot beforehand and had at least three practices using different shots in order to select the right one. As our understanding increased though less practice shots were needed as we already had a good idea, from previous shots, of what technique would give us the best results. Other than this, tasks such as white balancing and mounting the tripod were known to us before the task began and therefore I don’t feel I learnt anything here.
As I added the soundtrack and played around with different sound levels by myself, I gained knowledge in how best this should be set up in order to maximise impact and yet not become the focus point. After editing the piece for the first time, I decided to change the length of certain shots in order to time other shots with relevant sections of the music. For example the first shot of Frankie and the main protagonist appears during the words “This is you and this is me”. This second draft flowed much better and the soundtrack had more impact. This knowledge gained in how to maximise sounds during the film sequence led to me deciding to add the sound effect at the end where the gun shot goes off which I feel adds enigma.
As a group I feel that it was a success I enjoyed working with Luke and Arran as they are friends outside of the classroom. We had good communication throughout and it helped the production come together smoothly. At the start of the production I crashed my car which resulted in me missing a couple lessons, but I feel that I wasn’t “carried” at the start because I was there when we did important stuff such as the synopsis and the storyboard. I attended all filming and editing sessions with Arran and Luke, plus I was able to get the church as a venue and got Shortfall to give us permission to use their song Fragile. Overall I think we worked well and everyone put effort in despite my low attendance of lesson time at the start of this production.
As I already mentioned above in the peer evaluations people felt that it wasn’t like a thriller, but I think there is a floor in there thinking as it was an opening, not a short film or trailer. It was simply setting the scene and introducing the main protagonist and Frankie whose funeral it may be. The gunshot at the end of our opening gives away maybe even how she died if she is dead.
Apart from that the peer evaluations said that every area of our opening was at least good, things like: “well edited”, “very steady shots” and “music very good, blends well with dialogue”
Some of the bad points were: “not really a thriller”. I agree with that comment but at the same time it did what it was meant to do and that is open the move up. “Possibly music too loud” I agree strongly I noticed in one part the music goes way to loud, but I didn’t notice until it was played in class.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In our preliminary task we showed great continuity editing and match on action. It lacked any sort of understanding or storyline. Also in the preliminary we felt that we didn’t note down on the blog what we did and we were told about how important blogging was and I think we made improvements in managing the blog. This production we took more time when filming, as we shot the whole of the church scene un-costumed before shooting the real thing. Out panning and tracking shots were really nice. Experiments using higher angled shots were introduced. But at the same time we kept a high standard of continuity and our match on action shot of the main protagonist leaving the church couldn’t of went better.
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