In what ways does your media product use, develop or chalenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- 1. My Product Typical Horror/Thriller Conventions My Production – Use, Develop or Challenge Comparison to Existing Products Titling - Colour - Font - Style Production titles on a black background in a dedicated title screen White fonts - Pure, contrast to thriller genre and to black background Capital letters Bold, simple font Later titles cut into action Red titles represents fear, danger, anger An example of white titles on a black background can be seen in the opening titles of ‘Possession’ In my production we used the convention of a title on a black screen with plain, white font which was bold and in all capitals We went with this rather than red titles, as we discovered that this was more common It’s also more simplistic and doesn’t give away any of the film which gives the audience less information and adds to the uneasiness of the film This is an example of my production, with the white titles on a black background – Using the conventions of a real media product We got our ideas for titles from a variety of different films including ‘Possession’, ‘The Cheap Detective’, and ‘Panic Room’. These films all featured bold, white titles and here we learnt the conventions Putting it on a black screen allowed a break up from the action and titles, as well as allowing the titles to stand out Camera Movement - Pan - Track - Crab - Cane Begins with an establishing shot of the environment Tracking shot to give a sense of the victim/antagonist We began our production with a menacing establishing shot of spiked fence to show a sign of danger. This doesn’t give away much information about the environment We also used tracking shots to follow the antagonist, but mostly we kept the camera in a fixed position on a tripod as we felt this was the most effective way to film our production This challenges the conventions of a real media product as we didn’t begin with an establishing shot, but started with a production title and then the action straight away We didn’t really use a film template to base our camera movement. This was a more determined on location We used the movement that we felt best conveyed what we wished during filming and was not pre planned In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- 2. Framing a Shot - Extreme Close Up - Close Up - Mid Shot - Long Shot - Extreme Long Shot Mid shots/Long shots to introduce a character Close ups to make the audience focus on objects This can be seen in ‘The Cheap Detective’, as the opening 2 minutes includes mostly mid shots and close ups As can be seen here We used a variety of different shots including: Close ups Mid shots Long shots Extreme long shots We used these on both the victim and antagonist to show the full costume of both characters or to concentrate the audience’s attention on a particular area We used a series of close ups on a series of objects to set the background of the film, which was shown throughout in the ‘flashes’ and at the end in the shed scene. This also helped to give the background of the character and what may happen in the film – Slightly giving away content Here, our film resembles ‘The Cheap Detective’ as it involves a variety of shots including mid shots and close ups. We felt that this was a good use of angles which enabled certain details to be focused on throughout the sequence Camera Angle - High - Low High and low angels are common in thrillers High angels are used to show superiority over another character, often used in conjunction with the villain Low angles are used to give a sense of powerlessness or weakness, often used in conjunction with the victim Low angels can also give added height to a character which can help inspire fear and insecurity in a viewer We used both high and low angles in our production, and in no particular order. We didn’t use any particular angles to represent superiority/inferiority in regards to a certain character We also used a cantered angle to suggest imbalance and instability We used and challenged conventions as we used the same angles, but not in relation with what they’re typically used for/to suggest Below is the example of cantered angle used We decided to use own camera angles depending on what fit the moment best, we didn’t use them in comparison to any real media product, but just used them when appropriate throughout our production
- 3. Mise-en-scene Often quite dark surroundings and at night, to represent an uneasiness and fear of the unknown Villain is often in dark clothing to show the darker side of their nature Victim often in warmer, brighter colours to reflect their personality Props used to help give a sense of the villains/victims character Horrors/thrillers are often in black and white to help add to the eeriness An example of this is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho – Filmed in 1960, it was deliberately made in black and white to add to the mood of the film Another example of a different type of mise-en- scene can be seen in the ‘Woman in Black’ – This is filmed in colour, however the settings are quite old, shabby and run down looking. The scenes are always quite dark, reflecting the genre and gives the audience an idea of the surroundings and what is to be expected in the film We put our film in black and white and added an effect called ‘keying’, which made the product even darker We believe that this adds an easiness to the product The dark also creates the ‘fear of the unknown’ and it allows products to lose certain details and not be as clear, again adding a feeling of mystery and eeriness to the product The antagonists costume was a big, baggy coat, a hat and leather gloves, which we thought fit with the conventions of the genre and aided in showing who the character was The victim was dressed in typical teenage clothes of a hoodie and jeans which also helped to establish they’re character We also took advantage of the sunlight on the day and used this to create our ‘stalking silhouette’ scenes We filmed on an empty street which makes it seem more menacing as you get the impression that there would be nobody around to help the girl if she got into danger We also used the spiky fence, and look out sign to help the audience get an understanding of the film The villain is filmed through a thorny bush, to show that there is a danger to them For the ‘shed scene’, we used an old, run down looking shed to add to the feel of the character, all the props inside (newspaper, hair, photos) help to give an We used a variety of different techniques for our mise-en-scene The black and white effect is similar to Psycho with the effect used to add a veil of mystery The characters clothing and age is similar to that of the Lovely Bones, and although this film was set in the 70s, the victims clothing was common for teenagers of the time, as is our victims, in a hoodie and jeans The building use in the shabby shed scene was similar to that of ‘The Woman in Black’, in which the run down exterior of the building sets a feeling that bad things will happen in there and also that the building is quite foreboding
- 4. It can be seen in the images above that colour is just as effective to portrays the eeriness, and is becoming more common/conventional of modern day thrillers insight into the character and the film At the end the antagonist is placing pictures on the wall which spells out the name of the film which helps to show that he is stalking her We mostly stuck to the conventions of a thriller in our mise-en-scene, however we did develop them quite a bit, and challenged them as ours was mostly filmed in daylight rather than at night Editing - Jump Cuts - Match Cuts - Reverse Shots - Cutting Rhythm Jump cuts are common to increase pace and give a sense of the distortion Cutting rhythm is fast paced in scenes of actions to increase tension and suspense, but slow and drawn out for the majority of the film to help set an eerie mood This can again be seen in Possession, in which the film starts on a series of jump cuts which help to set the scene. This appears in a series of flashing photographs from a police report giving away the nature and background of the film, which is cut up with the title scenes An example of one of the images can be seen below, giving away some background and context of the film, as well as shocking the audience We used a sequence of jump cuts throughout our production in the form of the ‘flashes’ to show the nature of the film and give the audience a sense of the context and to build up tension in order to put the audience on edge We used various different images to do this and placed them throughout at irregular intervals to challenge when they would be expected by the audience Our flashes are split up with action from our film rather than titles This is similar to real media products, and we used this as we believed it was an effective way to create the feeling of our film This is an example of one of the flashes from our production Our editing jumps from fast to slow; fast moments for the flashes in a series of jump cuts, to slow periods when the characters are on screen Our aim was to make the audience jump and realize that not all is as it seems, and although something quite dark s going on with this young girl being stalked, in actual fact, something much darker is at play This also helps add to the uneasiness of the film as it jumps from fast to slow Here, it is similar to the film ‘Possession’, as these jump cuts also feature in the film quite heavily
- 5. Sound Low toned Eerie Quiet Strings are a common instrument to help build up tension Slow paced at times to put the audience on edge Fast paced during action to create an anxious feel and increases with drama Digetic sound is also frequently used, and in particular footsteps, often of the villain to signify someone’s being followed Gives an inside to contents of film and what is going to happen We used eerie, low toned music, which contained a series of different sounds It began with a series of clicking sounds, which gradually progressed and gained more instruments such as the piano, which signified a change is the type of scene. This piece of music also contained words, which is very rare for the thriller genre, however the words were appropriate as they were quite dark and fit in with the nature of the film All thrillers use this style of music as it help adds to the tension and creates the feel of the film and the genre Such films include ‘The Grudge’, ‘One Missed Call’, ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and many more Narrative Theory A thriller normally contains an older, highly intelligent male antagonist, and a young, vulnerable, innocent female victim. The male is often hunting the girl and/or performing horrendous crimes. There is also someone trying to uncover who the ’bad guy’ is and expose him for who he really is Our production normally contains the same basic narrative theory as it is a typical thriller We have what is portrayed to be an older, male antagonist, whose intelligence is unknown We also have a young, female victim who is being followed by the antagonist In the ‘shed scene’ we see the crimes he commits and what he does to his victims, showing he commits these horrendous crimes The opening two minutes does not reveal if someone is trying to uncover his identity, as this would be shown later on in the film The narrative theory is typical of most films in the thriller genre We chose to introduce the victim and main antagonist in the opening 2 minutes We didn’t go straight into any action as we didn’t want to give away too much of the film in the first two minutes, but just wanted to introduce the plot to the audience in order to them the feel of the film