1.) Voice Recording. For the introduction of our film we included a voice recording of the antagonist and the possible protagonist having a brief conversation over the poker game and we recorded this just before and slightly during the title sequence with a black background being screened.
. We thought that this would be a good introduction for our thriller because there is no imagery of the characters that are in conversation so already curiosity is raised over whom these characters are and what important part do they play in the film.
. Therefore, this matches the conventions of a thriller because of the element of mystery being portrayed from the anonymous voices that are being overheard and the use of the black screen almost suggests that they are hidden from sight which creates a feeling towards the audience that they are not welcome and that this is a private and secretive event between the antagonist and the possible protagonist.
2.) Disquilibrium
. We then went straight into the disequilibrium of the film by having the antagonist throwing the possible protagonist to the ground.
. This allows the audience to go straight into the action; almost clueless of the reason for why the victim (possible protagonist) is under threat because the film had went from hearing the two characters in conversation over a card game to the protagonist being victimised, enforcing that this part of the film contains an aspect of restricted narration.
. However, the conversation at the beginning of the film does give hints that the two characters were playing cards and then the next shot involved the antagonist wanting his money back, therefore giving the impression that something must have gone wrong during their game but as it is not clear yet what went wrong, the audience are only guessing what occurred.
.This proves that the element of mystery still exists in the film and the fact that questions are being raised to what has happened therefore implies that the aspects of this film matches the conventions of a thriller up to this point of the film.
. We then went straight into the disequilibrium of the film by having the antagonist throwing the possible protagonist to the ground.
. This allows the audience to go straight into the action; almost clueless of the reason for why the victim (possible protagonist) is under threat because the film had went from hearing the two characters in conversation over a card game to the protagonist being victimised, enforcing that this part of the film contains an aspect of restricted narration.
. However, the conversation at the beginning of the film does give hints that the two characters were playing cards and then the next shot involved the antagonist wanting his money back, therefore giving the impression that something must have gone wrong during their game but as it is not clear yet what went wrong, the audience are only guessing what occurred.
.This proves that the element of mystery still exists in the film and the fact that questions are being raised to what has happened therefore implies that the aspects of this film matches the conventions of a thriller up to this point of the film.
3.) Titles
. Throughout the film we used titles with white font and a black background. We used this simple yet effective technique because the contrast between the two colours, black and white, seems to reflect the attitudes of the film because the black screening seems to imply the secrecy and obscurity of the film and the white wording combines well to stand itself out for interpreting clearly in front of the black screen.
. Another effect of the titles is that the top line and bottom line gradually slide across each other and meet together. This effect alone produces an eye catching effect and the fact that the two lines of the titles slide across each other and meet for a split second could subtly suggest that there will be confrontation in this film and because the titles look like their creating friction by sliding across each other, it could also implicate that the comfort zone for both the characters and the audience will be pricked which develops an atmosphere of tension which therefore matches well to the context of a thriller.
. We also used a brief drum beat when the titles came into view which manages to develop an atmosphere of tension and creates a chilling feeling that successfully sets the unsettling mood of the film which matches the conventions of a thriller well because tension is being implanted into the audience’s feelings.
. Throughout the film we used titles with white font and a black background. We used this simple yet effective technique because the contrast between the two colours, black and white, seems to reflect the attitudes of the film because the black screening seems to imply the secrecy and obscurity of the film and the white wording combines well to stand itself out for interpreting clearly in front of the black screen.
. Another effect of the titles is that the top line and bottom line gradually slide across each other and meet together. This effect alone produces an eye catching effect and the fact that the two lines of the titles slide across each other and meet for a split second could subtly suggest that there will be confrontation in this film and because the titles look like their creating friction by sliding across each other, it could also implicate that the comfort zone for both the characters and the audience will be pricked which develops an atmosphere of tension which therefore matches well to the context of a thriller.
. We also used a brief drum beat when the titles came into view which manages to develop an atmosphere of tension and creates a chilling feeling that successfully sets the unsettling mood of the film which matches the conventions of a thriller well because tension is being implanted into the audience’s feelings.
4.) Fade Effect
. As there is a shot that focuses on the body of the character, the shot gradually fades out into a white screen.
This is to emphasise that a change of time and location is taking place and because we used fade outs and fade ins with a black screening, we deemed it necessary that using a white screen was more appropriate for indicating that the time and location of the film was changing.
. As there is a shot that focuses on the body of the character, the shot gradually fades out into a white screen.
This is to emphasise that a change of time and location is taking place and because we used fade outs and fade ins with a black screening, we deemed it necessary that using a white screen was more appropriate for indicating that the time and location of the film was changing.
5.) Narrative Strucure
. The white screen then fades out and you see a clear medium long shot of the possible protagonist and it is now easy to see that he does not look beaten up but looks more presentable with his tie being done up properly which reinforces that a change of time and location has taken place.
. This proves that this matches the aspects of a thriller because the narrative structure has been manipulated due to the change of time and location which leaves the audience a little confused but the use of the white fade in/out and the clear image of the character being fully dressed and not beaten up is enough to suggest to the audience the a change of time has occurred.
. The audience know also that the scene they are viewing now occurred rather recently because the character is still wearing the same clothes before he was beaten up and another giveaway is the zooming out close up of the cards which allows the audience to figure out that this could be the scene when they were playing cards from the beginning of the film when the voices were being spoken.
. This evidentially shows that the film matches the conventions of a thriller because the restricted and manipulative narrative of this film is now starting to unfold and the audience starts to gain more of a knowledge of what’s going on which arouses curiosity on the audience’s behalf and urges them to continue watching to find out more of what’s going on so that they may gain an understanding of the film.
. The white screen then fades out and you see a clear medium long shot of the possible protagonist and it is now easy to see that he does not look beaten up but looks more presentable with his tie being done up properly which reinforces that a change of time and location has taken place.
. This proves that this matches the aspects of a thriller because the narrative structure has been manipulated due to the change of time and location which leaves the audience a little confused but the use of the white fade in/out and the clear image of the character being fully dressed and not beaten up is enough to suggest to the audience the a change of time has occurred.
. The audience know also that the scene they are viewing now occurred rather recently because the character is still wearing the same clothes before he was beaten up and another giveaway is the zooming out close up of the cards which allows the audience to figure out that this could be the scene when they were playing cards from the beginning of the film when the voices were being spoken.
. This evidentially shows that the film matches the conventions of a thriller because the restricted and manipulative narrative of this film is now starting to unfold and the audience starts to gain more of a knowledge of what’s going on which arouses curiosity on the audience’s behalf and urges them to continue watching to find out more of what’s going on so that they may gain an understanding of the film.
6.) Lighting/Sound
. This scene uses a low key, top lighting which creates a very dim and gloomy effect to suggest the seriousness of the characters and to emphasise the darkness of the situation that there is no joy or fun being portrayed from this event which allows the audience to develop a great deal of anxiety towards the circumstances.
. When the shot comes into view where the possible protagonist places his chips in the middle, the sound of a heart beat replaces the non diegetic soundtrack.
The emphasis on the sound of the heartbeat is to represent his and indicates that he is now intensely anxious and uneasy over his action of moving the chips in which implies that he obviously is in trouble and his way of life may be at risk if this game does not go his way.
This greatly stirs up tension within audience because the audience now understands that the possible protagonist is under some form of treat which could potentially destroy his life.
. This therefore matches the aspects of a thriller because the combination of a murky lighting effect and the sound of an emphasised heartbeat develops a great deal of tension and anxiety within the audience and another disequilibrium seems to have redeveloped itself so that the apprehension of the audience consistently exists throughout the film.
. This scene uses a low key, top lighting which creates a very dim and gloomy effect to suggest the seriousness of the characters and to emphasise the darkness of the situation that there is no joy or fun being portrayed from this event which allows the audience to develop a great deal of anxiety towards the circumstances.
. When the shot comes into view where the possible protagonist places his chips in the middle, the sound of a heart beat replaces the non diegetic soundtrack.
The emphasis on the sound of the heartbeat is to represent his and indicates that he is now intensely anxious and uneasy over his action of moving the chips in which implies that he obviously is in trouble and his way of life may be at risk if this game does not go his way.
This greatly stirs up tension within audience because the audience now understands that the possible protagonist is under some form of treat which could potentially destroy his life.
. This therefore matches the aspects of a thriller because the combination of a murky lighting effect and the sound of an emphasised heartbeat develops a great deal of tension and anxiety within the audience and another disequilibrium seems to have redeveloped itself so that the apprehension of the audience consistently exists throughout the film.
7.) Camera Movement
. The following shot is a medium long shot that steadily tilts up allowing the audience to see the antagonist of the film.
The tilt is very effective in the shot for it ever so slowly reveals the antagonist of the film which the audience previously saw earlier in the film.
. This confirms that the antagonist he is playing against is the same person who beat him up which gives the audience a sense of what might the card game had resulted in which lead to the possible protagonist being beaten up consequently which enforces the view that the antagonist is threatening and potentially dangerous.
. Once again, this demonstrates the conventions of a thriller because the shot of the antagonist makes the audience feel uneasy because they have previously seen that this character is threatening and can potentially inflict harm which proves that the audience are developing a clearer understanding of the personality of the characters which they didn’t originally understand from the anonymous voices which is evidence that they are figuring out aspects of the film which is an element of what a thriller usually contains.
. The following shot is a medium long shot that steadily tilts up allowing the audience to see the antagonist of the film.
The tilt is very effective in the shot for it ever so slowly reveals the antagonist of the film which the audience previously saw earlier in the film.
. This confirms that the antagonist he is playing against is the same person who beat him up which gives the audience a sense of what might the card game had resulted in which lead to the possible protagonist being beaten up consequently which enforces the view that the antagonist is threatening and potentially dangerous.
. Once again, this demonstrates the conventions of a thriller because the shot of the antagonist makes the audience feel uneasy because they have previously seen that this character is threatening and can potentially inflict harm which proves that the audience are developing a clearer understanding of the personality of the characters which they didn’t originally understand from the anonymous voices which is evidence that they are figuring out aspects of the film which is an element of what a thriller usually contains.
8.) Main Title
. Another white screen fade in and out occurs to indicate the change of time and location again and a shot appears with an extreme long shot of the body (reinforcing that the film has gone back to the original setting of when the possible protagonist is on the floor) and the main title is centrally positioned in the screen with the same white font colour.
. We did this because we understood that most thrillers presented their main title differently to their other titles to indicate that the title was the name of the film.
Therefore we decided to use a slightly different font type and positioned it in front of the extreme long shot of the image because this allows the audience to take in what they are seeing and allows the audience to identify the significance of the title whilst viewing the body of the possible protagonist.
. We did this because the other titles we used were positioned in front of a black screen and used an effect that we didn’t want to repeat again in order for the audience to clearly interpret the title as being the main title that stood out from the others.
. Another white screen fade in and out occurs to indicate the change of time and location again and a shot appears with an extreme long shot of the body (reinforcing that the film has gone back to the original setting of when the possible protagonist is on the floor) and the main title is centrally positioned in the screen with the same white font colour.
. We did this because we understood that most thrillers presented their main title differently to their other titles to indicate that the title was the name of the film.
Therefore we decided to use a slightly different font type and positioned it in front of the extreme long shot of the image because this allows the audience to take in what they are seeing and allows the audience to identify the significance of the title whilst viewing the body of the possible protagonist.
. We did this because the other titles we used were positioned in front of a black screen and used an effect that we didn’t want to repeat again in order for the audience to clearly interpret the title as being the main title that stood out from the others.
9.) Final Shot
. For our final shot, we had a high angled medium long shot that zoomed into an extreme close up of the possible protagonist’s face who then suddenly opens his eyes.
. For our final shot, we had a high angled medium long shot that zoomed into an extreme close up of the possible protagonist’s face who then suddenly opens his eyes.
. We used this idea from the film, ’44 inch chest’ because in that film, you see the character’s eyes wide open and then suddenly shut after believing that he was dead which had a surprisingly jumpy effect on us.
We therefore used that idea except we did the opposite where the character’s eyes remained closed but at the last second he suddenly opens his eyes.
. It seems to create a similar effect to ’44 inch chest’ because the opening of the eyes is really sudden and we also placed non diegetic sound as soon as the character opens his eyes to create more depth of the abrupt action and makes it more surprising for the audience after thinking that the possible protagonist was possibly dead thus creating an effective feeling of sudden shock.
This is the opening scene of '44 inch chest' that we gained ideas for our film from:
Feedback:
. I managed to gain feedback from my parents after showing them the film and they both agree on that the music combined with the timing of the titles created a very spooky atmosphere that created an interesting effect.
They also both believed that the voices at the beggining of our film followed by the titles portraying the time and location was very intriguing and clever which set the curious mood of our thriller well.
. However, they both admitted the film was a bit confusing because of the manipulation of the narrative structure of our story which potentially is a positive aspect because that's what we aimed to do to our audience in order to grab their attention. But then again my parents did say it could be more interesting if we worked on improving it a little more, say by adding more dialogue or increasing the dramatic atmosphere by building up more conflict between the two characters so that then it would emotionally connect the audience more with the victim and his dire situation thus making the film more intense and interesting to watch.
. The two characters in our film are representing young male white adults and the characters are being based around the topic of gambling, implying that these two men are common gamblers.
. These images are screengrabs from our film and as you can see, both characters wear formal clothing in which the shirt and tie strongly suggests.
This gives off the impression that both of these characters are from an upper class background but that doesnt neccassarily mean its true becuase these characters may actually be from a more lower or working class who are trying to succeed in life.
. This is hinted through the quality of the clothing which appears to be more shabby and less presentable than the clothing of an upper class character and plus the furniture's appearance seems less professional than the furniture from a real upper class gambling facility.
The two characters represent their masculinity through their formal costume and almost appear to slip into the category of the stereotypical view of men.
This is because their formal costume with a shirt and tie is a very formal and common choice of costume for men to wear at special events, implying that these characters a representing the stereotypes of men's costume.
. Also, it is noticable by watching the film that there are no female characters throughout the film because the film is based around the theme of gambling and brief violence, it could suggest that women have no significant association with the theme at all because traditionally the theme seems to be built around the association of men more because they men are seen as being more tough, outgoing and violent than women which therefore emphasises that the stereotypical views towards men and women exist in our film.
3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
This gives off the impression that both of these characters are from an upper class background but that doesnt neccassarily mean its true becuase these characters may actually be from a more lower or working class who are trying to succeed in life.
. This is hinted through the quality of the clothing which appears to be more shabby and less presentable than the clothing of an upper class character and plus the furniture's appearance seems less professional than the furniture from a real upper class gambling facility.
The two characters represent their masculinity through their formal costume and almost appear to slip into the category of the stereotypical view of men.
This is because their formal costume with a shirt and tie is a very formal and common choice of costume for men to wear at special events, implying that these characters a representing the stereotypes of men's costume.
. Also, it is noticable by watching the film that there are no female characters throughout the film because the film is based around the theme of gambling and brief violence, it could suggest that women have no significant association with the theme at all because traditionally the theme seems to be built around the association of men more because they men are seen as being more tough, outgoing and violent than women which therefore emphasises that the stereotypical views towards men and women exist in our film.
3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
. Our group decided that we would like the media institution, Soda Pictures, to distribute our media product.
. We have decided this because the institution is based in the United Kingdom which would make distribution of our product a lot easier in terms of financial costs and also the institution has provided distribution for many award winning films including 'Frostbite', 'Into Great Silence', and 'Old Joy'.
. This proves that this institution has a decent reputation and has good expeirience with distribution of films which therefore makes this institution reliable for the distribution of our chosen product.
4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?
. We have deemed it appropriate that are film should be certificated as a 12+ because our film may contain content that is unsuitable for children under the age of 12 including scenes of moderate violence and other upsetting scenes.
. Therefore we will be targeting an audience over the age of 12 which will broaden our audience to view our film and we will also target males more specifically because the content in our film includes crime and violence which young adult males would be more interested in and enjoy more in the modern age of film.
5.) How did you attract/address your audience?
. I think that in relation to the production of our film and the aspects we focused on including sound, editing, narrative structure etc, our audience will enjoy the film because as we are targeting a male audience, we produced our film in a way that would make it most appealing to them by building and increasing tension and focusing on producing conventions of a thriller within the context of our film.
Sound
. We believe that the use of non diegetic sound in our film made the film more effective in developing tension than any other aspect of our film.
. We developed tension through combining a low yet brief drum beat with the titles that came into view on screen which proved to create an atmosphere that makes the audience feel uneasy thus diverting their full attention to the film.
. Throughout our film we demonstrated many editing techniques especially the use of the fade in and fade out effect on most (almost all) our shots.
. We used the fade in and outs to develop a dreary atmosphere which proved to be effective and created a mysterious element through the fade effect which arouses the audience's anxiety and questions get raised over what's going on in the story, therefore adressing the audience that this story contains aspects of secrecy and darkness.
Narrative Structure
. In our media product we manipulated the narrative structure of our story by establishing one location in the beggining of our film to then transferring to a different location at a different time and then transferring back to the orginal setting of our film.
. We did this to attract the audience becuase by manipulating the narrative structure in this way results in the audience raising questions over who the characters are and what's going on and what's going to happen next.
. The raising of these questions would prove that the audience are curious about the story and are therefore interested and want to discover more information in relation to the story and the two character's lives which therefore builds up a great deal of tension that grasps the audience's attention to the film.
6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
''Throughout the production of our chosen product we have had to use technologies including camerawork and editing software to construct our film apprpriatley. For example, our group had to use a video camera in which we eventually became more and more familiar with the techniqus, methods and procedures at the beggining and also throughout the progression of our thriller.
Personally, I have and understood the procedures of setting up the camera such as checkingthe batteries, white balance and making sure a tripod was always in use whilst filming and although only one member of our group was filming, we all as a group made sure the procedures were being taken.
In addition, I believe I have identified more efficiently how certain angles and movements of a camera can portray certain moods since producing our preliminary and our group put certain shots in our film that seemed to be effective in portraying the atmosphere we were looking for.
Once we finished the actual filming of our thriller, we then moved on to the editing where we worked with sound, titling and order of imagery for our product. Admitadlly, I did find the inclusion of titles difficult and complicated as I needed quite constant help to assist me in creating effects for the titles as I was never quite sure how to apply them appropriatley,
I also had trouble with the positioning of the titles as we wanted them positoned more in the corner of the screen rather than the centre and unfortunatley we never managed to apply that to our final product.
But on a higher note, I do believe that I and my group did well in eventually understanding how to reposition our clips to manipulate the narrative structure and also developed our understanding of editing in sound to our product to create the right mood we were looking for to assist in matching the conventions of a thriller.''
7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
. Overall, I believe that as a group we definitely learnt new and important information from the production of our thriller film and the knowledge we gained was put into good use for our film and allowed us to correct mistakes that we made in our previous preliminary exercise.
The following aspects that we identified and put into the production of our film to improve on our thriller opening were:
. For our previous preliminary exercise we used a title sequence that lacked any interesting effect for it was only a simple red fonted title that was placed at the end of the film.
. We realised that this did not demonstrate a good example for a title sequence for a thriller for it had no real interesting quality and did not create any real suspense that we were looking for.
. Therefore, we learnt that it would be more interesting if we included more titles and dotted them around our film to create a more movie-like effect that drew in the audience's attention and interest more.
2.) Location
. Unlike our previous preliminary exercise, we had a wide range of locations to choose from inside or outside of the college and we managed to choose locations suitable to the context of our film.
. In our preliminary we used various locations within the college premesis that did not combine well for the story because there was a combination of characters associated with violence and crime located inside a college which was not suitable.
. We progressed from our preliminary by choosing locations that were suitable for our theme of crime which included the location of an alley way which proved to be effective in making the environment of our film more realistic in relation to the story an the characters, showing that we have learnt that the choice of location is essential towards making an effective film.
3.) Editing
. I believe that I have learnt new and more effective methods of using various effects for our shots in the editing process from the progression of our film.
For example, I have learnt how to use fade ins and outs for the shots of our film which created a much more intriguing effect than the simple use of cutting that my group used constantly throughout our preliminary exercise.
. Comparing our thriller film to our preliminary, I believe that I have learnt more about how certain shots can create good effects that allow the audience to connect with the characters' feelings more.
For example, in our preliminary we used no shots that clearly portrayed the character's emotion because throughout the film we mainly used medium shots or medium long shots but through the progression of our thriller film, I believe I have identified shots that would clearly portray the character's emotion and as a group we used (extreme) close up shots to allow the character's emotion to be portrayed more clearly which proved to be more effective than the preliminary in terms of the audience connecting with the character and identifying their emotional state.
5.) Costume
. I felt that we had improved from our preliminary by understanding that appropriate costume was required for our characters in our thriller.. The costume we used for our thriller consisted of a shirt, tie and black trousers which greatly made the difference towards making our thriller more realistic because in our preliminary, we used casual clothing that did not match the requirements for the film and therefore no sense of realism was created which lowered the standard of the film.
6.) Lighting
. Looking back at our preliminary, I believe that I have learnt that including lighting in a film can produce a real positive quality to a film in terms of portraying various moods of the character(s) and their circumstances.
. This is something we did not include in our preliminary but in our thriller we used lighting a number of times including the scene where the two characters are playing cards.
. By using the lighting we managed to create certain dismal atmospheres in our thriller which really set the mood of the film well which proves that lighting can heavily effect the mood of a film.
7.) Sound
. I have learnt that sound, whether its diegetic or non diegetic, can have a huge effect on the quality of the film and communicates the mood of the film to the audience extremely effectively if used appropriatley.
. For our preliminary film, we did not use sound that efficiently or effectively for we only used a slightly tense soundtrack and an amplified noise of a gunshot whereas for our thriller, we used many sound effects including the noise of a fire engine and the wind blowing when the characters are outside which therefore creates a sense of realism and later on we used a brief beats of a drum which created tension and communicated the anxiety of the character well towards the audience.
8.) + 9.) Narrative Structure
. I believe that by looking back at our production of the preliminary exercise, I have learnt and understood more about the methods of manipulating the narrative structure and the results it can produce.
This is because in our preliminary, the narrative structure was not manipulated in any way to make the film interesting and attention grasping but from learning how to manipulate the narrative structure through restricted narration, my group applied manipulative and restrictave narration to our thriller product which resulted the film in being attention drawing, interesting and allowed questions to be raised over various circumstances of the film.
. This proved to be a positive success and the knowledge of manipulating the narrative structure that was applied to our thriller proved to set the film to a higher standard than our preliminary.
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