AS Evaluation - Question 1

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

There are several generic conventions that are widely used within the thriller genre. For example, most thriller films include an isolated setting (usually where the killer is) to portray the killer’s loneliness and/or separation from the victims. This is seen in the thriller film series Saw. The villain in Saw is always in a different room to the victims, and he communicates with them via video tapes. The villain is mostly always in an isolated setting, portraying his separation from everything. Furthermore, the villain communicates with victims using a puppet, hiding the actual killer’s identity. This is also a convention within the thriller genre, as villain’s usually have hidden identities. It creates a distance between the villain and the audience, and the villain and the other characters in the film. Also, point of view shots are often used throughout the thriller genre. An example of this is in The Happening when one of the woman on the bench looks at the crowd in the park that have all suddenly halted. The point of view shots lets the audience see the scene from the character’s point of view, which increases the relationship between the audience and the character, and the audience’s fear.

I followed a lot of generic conventions in my thriller film. Firstly, the killer uses a knife to kill her victims. This is a classic, conventional weapon to the thriller genre. It is also realistic, as knives are easily accessed (kitchen knife). Secondly, close up shots are widely used in the thriller genre, and many were used in our thriller film – mostly when the killer/bride is looking through the wedding scrapbook/photo album. This helps the audience focus on what the bride is looking at, emphasising the importance of the scrapbook, and the bride’s unhealthy mental state. Similarly, it is typical within the thriller genre to include a villainous character with a troubled past. My thriller sequence defines the thriller genre due to its use of the codes and conventions of the genre. I've used several conventional parts of micro-elements such as cinematography and mise-en-scene. My analysis of existing media products has greatly helped me in keeping with these codes and conventions. For instance, some parts of our sequence are completely silent. This builds tension, as is used widely throughout the thriller genre. Furthermore, the title of my film - Eternal - is quite conventional to the thriller genre. It is a short, one-word title with connotations of the film's narrative, which is common throughout the film industry as a whole. For example, my film involves death, and death is 'eternal', but also the word 'eternal' has connotations of love and marriage. All three of these themes - death, love and marriage - are central to the plot of the film.

Shock, surprise, and suspense are all present within and throughout our sequence. The end of the sequence contains a shocking scene, where the ex-fiancé goes to the bathroom and opens the door, and the bride/killer is standing with a knife, staring. This is the moment that all previous suspense throughout the sequence had been building up to (through the use of tense low key lighting, soundtrack, etc). We chose to include this scene to close our opening sequence as it is conventional for a shocking image to be shown after tension is built up throughout the sequence.

The shocking shot at the end of the opening sequence

Furthermore, I used the Kuleshov effect within our sequence to add to the shocking and surprising elements of the film. I used this editing technique/effect when a shot of the bride crossing out a young man's face is shown, followed by the bride walking behind the same young man, holding a knife. The way these two shots are edited one after the after implies a third meaning - the bride has already killed this boy, and the following shot was a flashback. This effect engages the audience as they have to figure out what is actually happening. The use of tension-building aspects such as those previously stated adds to the conventionality of my opening sequence. I feel that my media product resembles a conventional thriller sequence.

My thriller film could be compared to existing media products such as Scream. The killer in Scream has a hidden identity due to the mask and costume. The killer in my thriller film is dressed as a bride, and hides behind this seemingly innocent and harmless exterior. Also, both killer use simple kitchen knives as weapons. The killers also both kill the people that have wronged them, so they think the murders are justified.

The bride/killer holding a simple kitchen knife, about to kill one of the victims (implied, not shown - part of the Kuleshov effect)

Thriller Comparison

I think that I have created a successful thriller sequence. We aimed to create a thriller sequence that would create tension and excitement for the audience, and we feel that our sequence has achieved this. We used conventional thriller aspects within our film, as well as including a unique twist in our plot, which we think has engaged the audience with our film and narrative.

The micro-element used within our thriller sequence that best shows our creativity and understanding of thriller conventions is mise-en-scene. The lighting for most of the shots in the sequence were relevant to our plot and to the thriller genre - we used low key lighting frequently within the film, which is conventional to the thriller genre. Additionally, the layout and presentation of the bedroom setting that is shown a lot within the sequence portrays conventional thriller themes such as dark, isolated settings and contrasting monochromatic colours. Furthermore, the costumes used in the sequence were relevant, and the bride's wedding dress and veil helped create a hidden identity for the bride/killer. This also applies to the bride's hair and make-up, as she looked frightening and resembled a stereotypical thriller film character/villain.

Comparison To Another Thriller Film

My thriller sequence (Eternal) has both conventional and unconventional characteristics, which helps its comparison to Orphan, relating to: narrative; representation of characters; sound; editing; and mise-en-scene.

The narrative of Orphan can be condensed into: a girl entering a family, but not being as innocent as she first seems. Similarly, our narrative is of a young woman who was about to marry into a family, but the wedding fell through, and she defied all innocent expectations that the characters and the audience had of her. Both seemingly innocent main female characters are revealed to be serial killers and mentally unstable.

The representations of characters within Orphan and Eternal are similar as both films feature female killers. These representations subvert the conventional stereotype of males being the killers and females being the victims. This unconventional aspect of the representation of the films' characters heightens the uniqueness of the films and engages the audience. This also increases the likelihood of females watching the films as they are not being represented as victims within the films.

The female killer/bride in my thriller film

The female killer in Orphan

Both Orphan and my film Eternal use conventional non-diegetic sounds throughout the film/sequence. For example, all throughout the clip of Orphan, there is tense, non-diegetic sound playing. This helps add tension to the atmosphere, as this part of the film is very suspenseful and at times shocking. The music used makes the part of the film seem more frightening, and it engages the audience with the narrative. This is mirrored in my thriller sequence, Eternal, where suspenseful music is heard throughout. Our film also reflects Orphan's use of non-diegetic tense music as, in both films, the music gets faster and louder when there is action on-screen.

From the same clip, we can see the fast editing during the action-filled parts of the scene. This adds to the excitement and engages the audience with the current events in the film. However, our film generally has slow editing the entire way through, except during the last few shots. This is because our entire opening sequence was building up to this moment, so we included mostly slow editing to help build tension.

Lastly, mise-en-scene is very important within Orphan and Eternal. The elements of costume, hair and make-up are very important to both clips. For example, in the aforementioned clip of Orphan, it is extremely important to the plot of the story that Esther, the deceiving adopted 'child', wears black ribbons around her wrists and neck. This is because, as the audience discovers in the clip, Esther is actually a 33 year old woman who has scars around her wrists and neck from being in a straitjacket. She also wears a lot of make-up to hide her true age. Esther's hair and make-up, and costume are all essential to her character's instability and identity. This is also true for the (unnamed) character of the bride; she uses her wedding veil and dress to hide her true identity of being a killer. She is also very unstable and this is evident due to her smeared, messy make-up and the fact that she always wears her wedding dress. It is central to the plot that both of these things remain constant, mirroring Orphan.

Esther (from Orphan) wearing a black ribbon on her neck to hide the straitjacket scar

The bride in my thriller opening sequence, not revealing her identity (with the aid of a wedding dress, veil and make up)

Audience Feedback

Audience feedback is important to a production as it gives the creators of the media product the chance to reflect on their work and see what they did well and what they could have done better. Media companies that go on to create further media products use all positive and constructive criticism that they receive to improve further creations.

We received feedback from our target audience by screening our film and collecting feedback from a questionnaire. The audience involved a group of approx. 25 people, divided into groups averaging 3 members each; groups filled out the questionnaires together. They answered questions involving positive and negative comments about our production. This feedback benefited our production as we were then able to reflect on what we did well and what we could have done better. This allows us to reflect on our production and how we could do better if we were to create another film.

The following are examples of 3 positive comments that we received about our film:

1. Good, unique narrative and characters
2. Well-balanced conventional and unconventional aspects
3. Appropriate use of sounds

I feel that the first comment is due to our unconventional and therefore "unique" narrative. Our narrative follows an unconventional plot of a mentally unstable woman killing for revenge (the story is told through her point of view) because he ex-fiancé left her just before the wedding. She kills people close to him, working her way up to killing him. This is the plot of the opening sequence, as it ends with her surprising him at his home. Furthermore, the killer in thriller films is not usually female, so this our film challenges conventions and becomes interesting for the audience. Moreover, we have both unconventional and conventional aspects in our sequence, which the audience appears to find engaging, as proved by the second positive comment that we received. We have conventional aspects such as low key lighting, tense music, and the traditional kitchen knife weapon. These are all familiar to the audience and they will engage with the film as it will create a pre-established idea of the kind of atmosphere a thriller film should create. However, intertwined with these conventions are unconventional aspects. These include the representation of characters, narrative, etc. This helps maintain the film's engaging atmosphere and keep the audience interested and enjoying the film. Lastly, after watching our film and receiving feedback, I have concluded that our use of sound throughout the film was appropriate for the atmosphere that we wanted to create. The tense soundtrack within most of the sequence was helpful in maintaining the frightening, tense atmosphere for the audience. Our use of diegetic sound in this sense was good and appropriate. Furthermore, our use on non-diegetic sound at the start of the film (showing the flashbacks of the bride and her best friend getting ready for the wedding) was also helpful in creating a contrast and making the audience curious about the future plot of the sequence/film.

The following three statements are examples of negative/constructive feedback that we received:

1. Music is too loud
2. No sound at the end of the sequence: ruins atmosphere, boring
3. Too much dialogue

With help from the first criticism, we discovered that the music during our sequence was too loud. This was easily solved, as we re-edited the sound in our sequence. This then helps to make the final product more enjoyable for the audience as they can focus more on what is happening in the scene. However, music was still important for the scenes, so we made sure that the soundtrack was still audible. Next, we realised that the lack of sound at the end of the sequence takes away the shock factor of the ending (when the bride surprises the ex-fiancé), and this was reinforced by constructive criticism #2. To fix this, we found a copyright-free mp3 file of a 'shocking' sound to add to the end of the scene (as non-diegetic sound). This increased the levels of tension and fixed the problem of the end of the sequence being "boring". Lastly, at the last minute, we cut a short scene from the sequence because our target audience found it to include too much dialogue. Too much dialogue in that scene evidently ruined the tense atmosphere of the entire sequence, taking away the shock and surprise element that thrillers must include. This is the reason that we chose to remove that scene; now our film 'flows' better and is easier to understand, while also remaining suspenseful.

I followed the aims of the brief in my creation of the opening two minute sequence to a thriller film. My group and I researched and created the thriller film without any outside help, and our final products both uses and challenges conventions of the thriller genre.

AS Thriller Evaluation

Using Microsoft Word, Blogger, and Prezi, I have created an evaluation of my AS Thriller project. I filmed (using a HP webcam) two parts of the evaluation, uploaded the videos to YouTube, and included them in the relevant blog posts. 

Within a group, I had to research, plan and create an opening sequence to a thriller film, which includes a soundtrack and credits. The sequence had to be (up to) 2 minutes long. My group and I edited our film on Final Cut Pro X. My group members were myself, Lily Badcock, and Jazz Chrystie. The production roles involved with the film-making and editing process of the opening sequence were: producers, directors, actors, director of photography, sound producers/music, screenplay writer, mise-en-scene co-ordinators, and editors.

A producer prepares for the making of a film, and supervises the making of the film. Producers sometimes hire an executive producer due to time demands. A producer also has the final say with hiring a film director. The director visualizes the script and controls the film’s artistic and dramatic aspects. Actors are the people visible on screen in the film, who act out the script. The director of photography operates the camera and controls the lighting of the set and the visual look of the film. The sound producer controls what sounds are used in the film and where they are placed. The sound producer mostly participates during the editing stage, however, a plan of sounds that will be used in the film is made before filming, and during the editing stage, the sound producer follows this plan. Music [producer] decides and/or composes the music that is used in the film. The screenplay writer writes the script for the film. The mise-en-scene co-ordinator controls the mise-en-scene - every part of the physical environment of the frame. Lastly, editors add the footage together, cut unwanted parts out, and add transitions, credits and sound.

I was my group’s director of photography, lead editor, and sound producer, as well as an actress. I was responsible for operating the camera, creating good lighting for the shots, being the person who does the most editing on the film, controlling which sounds are used in the film, and acting in the film. I learned how to use a camera and tripod, how to edit using Final Cut Pro X, how to cut and place audio into specific parts of the sequence, and how to create credits for the sequence.

My group worked well together. All problems, such as filming schedule changes, were solved, and the filming/editing process was generally smooth. We had no internal or personal conflicts, which aided the process of making this film sequence.

I feel that the thriller we made was quite successful, in relation to the conventions used. However, parts of the film, such as incorporating a female killer, challenged thriller genre conventions. Our film did follow thriller conventions, nonetheless, in the categories of settings & iconography (isolated location and classic kitchen knife for a weapon), hidden identity [of the killer], low-key lighting (to create suspense and uneasiness), unexpected twists (bride is a killer), and cinematography (such as handheld camera shots and canted angles).

Indivdual Storyboard - Miss Miller

The purpose of a storyboard is to illustrate how we each envision the opening sequence of our thriller film. Storyboards will help us in our current planning stage as we will each express our own ideas of what we think the opening sequence should look like. This means that everyone involved in the creative process of a film can express their individual ideas before a finalised storyboard is produced. In turn, this means the film will include only the favoured elements, as crew members would have decided, after the initial individual storyboards are made, on what features to include in the film.

We have each created an individual storyboard because it is important that we illustrate what we would like to include in our opening scene. Each member of the group will have good points and bad points in their storyboard. After we have created our individual storyboards, we will combine all of our best ideas to create our final group storyboard. This allows for the best possible group storyboard.

I feel that my opening sequence idea portrays influences from films such as Saw, as the killer has a backstory/reason for the killings, and there are dark and mysterious locations involved. It may even be noted that there is inspiration taken from Psycho, as no actual stabbing/violence is shown on screen. Inspiration has been loosely taken from Orphan, as the opening scene/narrative has the idea of not always knowing what a person is capable of. Furthermore, Orphan has a female killer and so does this film. This film's killer has a hidden identity, which is something that most thriller films have in common.

I think my storyboard is a moderately good illustration of what I would like to see in my thriller opening scene. It may help my group in this storyboard process as I may have ideas that they like and want to include in the finished product. Although I conveyed my ideas in these storyboards, I feel as if I should have included more frames. This is something my group and I will consider when creating our group storyboard.ž

Storyboard page 1

Storyboard page 2

Storyboard page 3

When planning my storyboard, I encountered an issue. I found it relatively difficult to convey my ideas into set frames. To overcome this, I thought carefully about everything that I wanted to include in the film, and converted them into the storyboard(s) above.

Rough Cut - Miss Miller

Group members: Amber-Louise Reed-Johnson, Jazz Chrystie, Lily Badcock

Watch our rough cut here.

------------------------------

It was important for us to make a rough cut before finalising our opening sequence as we needed feedback so we could make our thriller sequence as good as possible. Also, myself and my group members watched the rough cut and pointed out mistakes, so now we can make improvements ready for our final cut of the sequence. Rough cuts help reveal any editing mistakes, sounds that need changing, music that needs to be added in, shots that need re-filming, etc.

It is imperative that we consider audience feedback as it is critical that we get our film up to the highest possible standard. The feedback that we received from our rough cut was given by an audience of our target audience's age, which means that it is highly relevant to our film. We must make changes and improvements to our film according to the feedback that we received. Furthermore, the audience may have discovered a mistake or bad-quality part of the sequence that myself and my group may have overlooked (possibly due to bias, as this is our film and we want it to be good).

We received our feedback by uploading our rough cut of 'Eternal' to YouTube, creating a PowerPoint presentation discussing our narrative, inspirations and conventions and showing both of these things to our peers (aged 16-17). We received positive and negative feedback and many possible improvements to make on our thriller film. We must make the following improvements: add more music and make the sound/sound effects more relevant to each shot; include more credits and change the font of some of them; re-film some of the shots that are towards the end of the sequence; and generally 'touch up' our thriller sequence. This helps us immensely with finalising our thriller sequence as we now know exactly what can be/needs to be improved, and we will do this as thoroughly as time allows.

Group Narrative and Narrative Theory - Miss Georgiou

Group: Amber-Louise Reed-Johnson, Lily Badcock, Jazz Chrystie.

Group Narrative

A narrative is the way in which a story is told within media texts. The purpose of a narrative is to tell a story to an audience through written/spoken words or in a sequence of moving pictures. This post will discuss the narrative of my group's future opening scene of a thriller film.

My group showed each other our 'individual ideas for a narrative' posts. We discussed which aspects of our narratives that we all did or didn't like, and combined all of our good ideas into our group narrative.

Group member 1: Lily Badcock [read narrative here]

Lily's narrative involved a damaged man who was abused in his childhood. He blames the whole world for what happened to him. He was a burns victim, therefore fire is a theme throughout, as the man burns his victims. The opening sequence would involve a montage of childhood images, overlayed with footage relating to fire and smoke. The killer uses a mask to cover up his burns and also hide his identity.

 A good point about Lily's narrative idea is the originality behind it. However it is still quite conventional, as many horror/thriller films involve a killer with a terrible childhood/backstory who blames everyone else for his past and who targets innocent people (this is also seen in Saw). However, a disadvantage of this narrative is that it is quite difficult to film because we cannot realistically burn people/buildings.

Group member 2: Amber-Louise Reed-Johnson [read my narrative here]
 

A summary of my narrative would be that a woman's fiance leaves her at the altar, and her mental state deteriorates and she kills him for revenge. The opening sequence includes her in a dark, basement-like atmosphere flipping through a photo album of everyone who was invited to the wedding [then a flashback to the wedding], and landing on her ex-fiance's face and crossing it out. Flashbacks to killing him and his family.

An advantage of my idea for a narrative again is the originality of the plot. Also, the creepy atmosphere would build suspense, keeping up with the conventions of a thriller. A bad point of the plot is that there isn't anything that the scene is building up to because we know the ex-fiance is already dead/been killed by the woman. An improvement could be that we see that she has already killed his family, and she is preparing to kill him. Then, the scene could cut to show her standing outside his house, watching him. This would build a lot of tension and frighten the audience because they know what is coming next, but don't know when.

 

Group member 3: Jazz Chrystie [read narrative here]

To summarise Jazz's narrative, his idea is about a man who is obsessed with insects and uses them to kill his victims. He is tall, angry and 'dominant' and his victims are usually attractive females. The opening sequence involves many bodies in a room that contains many dead bodies with insects crawling all over them. The scene would have low key lighting, and eerie sounds such as dripping water to be heard, to emphasize the quietness of the room. The killer will drag in many dead bodies throughout the scene. The opening scene will also keep cutting to investigators trying to find the serial killer. Blood and insects will be a motif throughout the scene.

A good point about this narrative is that there are many conventions, such as a male killer and vulnerable female victims. However, the scene would be almost impossible to film as we would need many dangerous insects for the scene to make sense. Furthermore, the scene is not building up to anything and therefore lacks the elements of surprise and shock.

----------------------



My group has decided to create a thriller film for my narrative. However, we are changing the plot slightly. The opening sequence will now show a room covered in wedding decorations, invitations, flowers etc. and a woman crying on a bed. The woman, whose ex-fiancé left her at the altar, is wearing a wedding dress and sitting on the bed in the room, surrounded by the wedding decorations. A flashback will then be shown of her and her best friend/maid of honour getting ready for the wedding, and there will be a generally positive atmosphere in the flashback. However, the next frames will be of present-time 'bride' writing on the wedding balloons, crossing out "together forever" and writing "RIP". She then has a flashback, seen in wedding-video style, of her [now ex-]fiancé getting ready for the wedding with his best friends. The scene then goes back to the 'bride', who then looks through a photo album of everyone at the wedding that she knows. She has written various things across the several photos. She is then shown crossing out one of the best friends, previously seen in the 'groom's flashback, and the scene cuts to her walking behind him holding a knife, implying that she's killed him and this is a flashback. This then repeats with the other two men. Then, she circles the 'groom's face, and the scene cuts to the 'groom' with his new girlfriend, the best friend of the 'bride', and he goes upstairs to the bathroom. As he walks out, the 'bride' is there with a knife, waiting to kill him.

We decided on this narrative as it both challenges thriller conventions (stereotypical genders of killer and victim are swapped) and includes them (shock, surprise and suspense). We also thought that the plot was interesting and different, which would draw the audience in. It may also receive a higher female audience as it does not include a stereotypical/conventional blonde female as the victim. Our narrative was inspired by films such as Orphan and Saw, which are both very popular thriller/horror films. Orphan inspired our film due to having an unexpected and female killer. Saw inspired our film with its unique plot, and killer with a backstory. Scream also inspired our film as it includes a conventional, classic weapon - the knife. We have tried to incorporate all of these things into our thriller opening sequence.

Narrative Theory

There are 3 main narrative theories: Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan Todorov and Erving Goffman.

Vladimir Propp (1895 - 1970) was a Russian literary critic and scholar. He analysed over 100 Russian fairytales in the 1920s, and proposed that there were 7 broad character types in the tales that he analysed, which could be applied to other media.
These were:

1. The donor (prepares the hero, #2, or provides the hero with some sort of magical object)
2. The hero (reacts to the donor, #1, usually weds the princess, #4, winner)
3. The villain (opposes and struggles against the hero)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, usually sought for during the narrative)
5. The [magical] helper (helps the hero in the quest)
6. The false hero (believed to be a good character in the beginning but is revealed as evil)
7. The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)

The model highlights similarities between seemingly different narratives and stories. It also gives a good structure for a narrative. Some films' narratives fit this model, whereas others' do not.

Tzvetab Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian literary theorist. He suggests that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium, wherein everything seems 'normal' and happy. He proposed these stages of narratves:

1. A state of equilibrium
2. A disruption
3. A recognition of disruption
4. An attempt to repair disruption
5. A restoration of equilibrium

This model can be correctly applied to a wide range of films.

Erving Goffman proposed a character theory which suggests that there are four main types of broad character in a media text/production.

These are:

• The protagonist (the leading character)
• The deuteragonist (the secondary character)
• The bit player (a minor character, the audience is not aware of their specific background)
• The fool (a character that uses humor to convey messages)

Our narrative will most closely follow the narrative theory proposed by Erving Goffman. The protagonist of the film is the unnamed 'bride'/killer. The deuteragonist is Hayden, the 'groom'/ex-fiancé/victim. The bit player is the maid of honour/bride's best friend. She is unnamed and her story isn't quite known. The fool(s) are the 'groom's friends. We chose this narrative theory to follow as it most closely applies to the film industry. Vladimir Propp's narrative theory is most suited to fairy tales, and there is not enough time in the opening sequence to accurately follow every step of Todorov's narrative theory.