The thriller opening incorporates common conventions by using many close ups at the beginning, so the audience cannot immediately identify the character. The close ups also show the significance of some props or characters, extreme close ups are used in ‘Seconds’ (Frankenheimer, 1966) it is able to build tension for the audience because locations and people are not able to be fully recognised. An opening I studied to form ideas for my opening is 'Seven' (Fincher, 1995). The scrapbook is the main focus along with pictures of a torturous nature. In my thriller the album/ scrapbook is the main focus along with the pictures and the character using the props. As the main character (James Coffey) opens the sequence (00.00.46 - 00.01.15) he dominates the screen with the amount time he is featured, it shows his significance to the film and his character position. James opens a scrap book with pictures in and also starts to go through it this is similar to 'Seven' (0.28 - 0.37) when the extreme close ups of the character's fingers are moving pictures and writing on paper. The colouring of the opening sequence to 'Seven' is black, white and red, my thriller uses dark lighting with a bright light used to create the dark shadows, this is particularly evident in (00.00.50 - 00.00.54) part of the sequence. Fincher uses a similar effect (0.08 - 0.11) however the lighting isn't as strong, and looks more natural compared to 'Next' although I think the darker, artificial lighting looks better than the natural lighting in ‘Seven’. The sound in the beginning is a high pitched violin sound, this is also similar in ‘Physco’ (Hitchcock, 1960) the violins are quick and builds the tension in the opening, in ‘Next’ (00.00.14 – 00.00.24) there is a low, one note violin sound which also builds the tension as the title is in shot, then the other music comes in which builds to a crescendo. The high-pitched sound is a common convention of the thriller genre; the sound in our thriller starts off very quietly and slowly gets louder, adding a tense edge to it. Similar to ‘Seven’ we have a continuous sound that runs through the background. At the beginning we use slow editing, and then built it up slowly to create a tense atmosphere to make the audience want to watch more, however I am aware that the editing is at times too fast for an opening, which is what makes it slightly like a trailer. The use of conventions such as the focus on pictures and specific characters, close ups and the scene of the drowning in the bath (00.01.36 – 00.01.42) indicates that it is a Psychological thriller. Mise en scene highlights what other thriller mainly influenced our work. The use of the scrap book is similar to that of ‘Seven’, especially when the character is flicking the pages. When the titles comes in and out of shot, there is a sound of pages flicking, a thriller that has the titles come in and out to a sound is both ‘Psycho’ (0.36 – 0.38) when the music changes and ‘Seven’ (0.15 – 0.19). I have challenged the conventions of thrillers when the title of the sequence comes on screen, the music starts then (00.00.13 – 00.00.15) whereas with ‘Seven’, ‘Psycho’ and ‘Hostage’ (Emilio Siri, 2005) already have music playing, that changes when the title appears on screen. For ‘Hostage’ music change see: (0.22 – 0.32).
Se7en opening
Psycho Opening
Hostage opening
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The social groups represented are teenagers and the common issue of ‘Love’ at their age. It represents both social groups as it stars female and male actors, class is not so much of an issue, and however the victim is smartly dressed, showing her age and possible dress sense, (00.01.26 – 00.01.30) we have not used any ethnic groups in our thriller; this is not purposefully done as we used the actors available to us. However it sports a stereotypical white male who is the killer, this is a common convention of a thriller. The genders are represented in a stereotypical way, the girl is inferior to the male killer, and she is also a brunette and typically in thrillers/horrors the blonde girl is always saved and the brunette is killed. The victim has less screen time than the killer, thus showing that her existence is limited in the rest of the film. It could appeal more to the male gender more because of the idea on control and dominance portrayed through the main character. However the male figure of dominance is contradictory because the woman has been unconsciously powerful enough to drive the male to commit murder. This links to the target audience, as it explores the common teenage attitude between a boy and a girl after a breakup however it takes it a step further. I also think that the stereotypes are shown in the good-looking male actor, who is the killer and a pretty female victim. On the groups Facebook page ‘ESA movie opening for Media’ we were able to get some feedback from the target audience.
‘Overall incredibly engaging. The type of film I’d choose to go and see. Narrative was easy to understand even though there was no dialogue.’
‘Has the making of a real horror film, the sound and camera were awesome.’
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1366322850&ref=profile#/group.php?gid=72056914724
What kind of a media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The media institution to distribute our product would be a small company, possibly keeping it as just an English film rather than a large Hollywood film such as MGM or Warner Brothers. It would be an art house film, this means it will be non-commercial and be independently made, and art house films are typically aimed at niche audiences, an art house film company would be ‘Sony Pictures Classics’, ‘Caravan Film’ http://www.caravanfilm.co.uk/ Examples of an art house film would be:
- ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Tarantino, 1994)
- ‘Psycho’ (Hitchcock, 1960)
- ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (Demme, 1991)
It would be released for the entertainment of the audience, there is no opportunity for merchandise as it will be a non-commercial film. The visual style of the thriller uses dark lighting, a variety of point of view shots and was often said to be slightly confusing (see Blog Tuesday 14th April 2009) However we did get some positive feedback on the visual style of the sequence:
‘The lighting is also extremely effective, the choice of slightly red/orange lighting makes the piece seem very artistic and dramatic - making it very interesting to watch.’ (Facebook Group)
The switching back from different locations and faster editing that normal thrillers use, thus making it different from ‘mainstream Hollywood films’ such as
- ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ (Ruben, 1991)
- ‘Presumed Innocent’ (Pakula, 1990)
These films have one long scene for the opening sequence, with hardly any cuts making the editing and pace very slow. ‘Presumed Innocent’ uses a long pan through a court room whilst the character narrates. ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ has a scene on a beach which introduces the main characters slowly, with a slow pan in to introduce the main woman.
The thriller tends to challenge the common conventions of thriller films in this way with the locations switching, however art house films are known to not particularly follow the typical conventions. Who would be the audience for your media product? Originally the target audience would have been teenagers, but after reviewing that it would be an art house film, it is clear that a niche audience would be best for the film. It would possibly be students that are studying media or film production in University, and young film producers. This would be narrowing down the audience sufficiently. The gender of the audience would more than likely be male this is because the main theme of the thriller is an obsession with a girl. The film also puts the male in a dominant position, therefore appealing to male viewers, however there could be some female viewers because the majority of the actors would be male, thus potentially appealing to females. ‘Seven’ is similar to our thriller as it features a number of murders, done in a specific way, each murder leading to the next. Our thriller is about girls that the killer is jealous of; due to a badly ended relationship he makes happy couples unhappy by eliminating the girl. ‘Seven’ would appeal to audiences who are into crime/murder thrillers, ours is similar in terms of murdering, and however it is also psychological as the killer plays games. The age group that the thriller would be certificated to would 18. This is because the scene of the drowning in the bath (00.01.34 – 00.01.42) would be disturbing for viewers and if the film were to be produced it would possibly have sexual violence and could cause harm to the individual viewer and the society (The BBFC see Blog Post Wednesday 26th November 2008).
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
I have learnt a number of things about the technologies I used whilst constructing the thriller. I have been able to explore the many effects that Premier Pro (The editing software) is able to give to the shots, such as fading in and out and zooming in on shots that the camera hadn’t originally zoomed into, such as the ending shot in ‘Next’ (00.01.55 – 00.02.00). I have also learnt the different lighting effects that can be used on the HD cameras, and also how to handle a camera better. Lastly using a Mac has become easier whilst constructing the sequence, thus giving me skills to be able to explore other things the software can do. Strength and weaknesses of the equipment were; the camera didn’t always focus well such as in the book shot (00.01.30 – 00.01.33) what the character is looking at is hard to see because the camera took too long to refocus. However the picture was clear and picked up the natural light well. A problem that often arose was that the tri-pods were prone to breakage, which meant that when we logged one out, we sometimes had a broken one, which meant that some of our shots were unsteady. We were sometimes able to solve this problem by using a monkey tripod used for photographic cameras, and wrapped it around the top of the tri-pod. The filming camera was then attached to this and we were able to shoot relatively steady shots. Problems faced during production were the issue with being able to have actors and film crew free at certain times, we realised that we would have to carry on production without some members of the group in order to keep up with our schedule. In the original final rough sequence, we used a stand in for James as he was unavailable, (0.44 - 0.46) See blog post Tuesday 17th March 2009. I have learnt how to edit the sound that is originally picked up on camera, for example on the bath scene the scream is actually louder than it sounds. I also learnt how to use After Effects; this was used for the titles and fading them in and out and how to layer sounds appropriately. Whilst filming I found it hard to remember the continuity such as what the characters were wearing and how objects were placed before and after we had shot a scene. In the end I took to writing down what the characters had been wearing at that particular shoot. Planning took along time as we had so many ideas and we found it hard to incorporate them all, whilst we had a story board to go by, I found this constricting as I felt I had to stick to it, the animatic was easier to follow as the images were more realistic as we took photographs and I was able to visualise shots, however the end sequence turned out far from the animatic.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The preliminary task was our first ever use of camera and having a go at editing. I found the Mac hard to use and I did not understand the software. The continuity task, I felt could have been really good, if we had had more experience. The sounds were out of sync and the over shoulder hot of the door was shaky and unprofessional. (0.08 – 0.10) compared to this I think that I have learnt a great deal in working the Premier Pro software and using cameras to their almost full potential. The camera work in ‘Next’ is a lot more fluid and controlled than it is in the continuity task. I have learnt how to keep the camera reasonably steady and use a variety of shots, such as a POV which is used in my final sequence (00.01.30 – 00.01.33) and in the bath scene. I have become more familiar with the software since the preliminary task, and it shows when comparing both sequences. In the continuity task there are blackouts where I couldn’t get the shots correct, there are no breaks in the sequence in ‘Next’ because I managed to learn how to edit a sequence so that it flowed fluently. Because of my lack of experience with the software and the Mac the continuity task was not finished, however the thriller sequence is finished and edited properly. However I feel that the camera in our continuity task is steadier than it is at various points in the thriller opening. This is because we had a more simple storyline to follow and better surfaces to place the tripod on, as in ‘Next’ we filmed on grass, carpet, uneven pavement and broken tri-pods. The skills I picked up during the production of the continuity task and ‘Next’ have definitely helped and I feel I have improved a lot since I started using the editing software and camera equipment. My directing skills have also improved as a result, as has my team working ability.
