2. How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups? (Josh Jeffs)

Prezi presentation below:
http://prezi.com/x7wwkyd8xckm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

in what way does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

in what way does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

. discuss the ways in which your thriller incorporates generic conventions ( identify specific scenes)

There are several elements within our thriller which conform with generic conventions which you would usually expect in a thriller film. For instance  the convention of the 'chase scene' and voyeurism is explored within the opening two minutes of the thriller; we start to get a sense that the students are being followed by the 'persuant'. As the opening progresses, in certain long shots Jamies character is present in the background  t the start he is not noticeable or obscured) but his presence becomes more noticeable than the shot before each time.

There is a sense of mystery and an eerie mood is created particularly during the grave yard scene when izzy's character walkthrough the church graveyard by herself   she is singled out and vulnerable as she is no longer within the company of her two friends (sam and matt) and this innocence clearly shows that she is a protagonist because audiences will sympathise with her.





Mis En Scene
Jamies 'Persuant' costume fits with generic conventions of a thriller as it clearly portrays him as the antagonist. He wears a large  biege overcoat to imply he has something to hide and effectively creates mystery around the character.  a similar effect is created  with the hat and glasses he wears as they obscure Jamies face and makes it difficult to see  what he looks like or what his true emotions are. which makes the audience curious to discover 'the persuants' identity and works as an incentive as it is intriguing  to continue watching  because as an audience we want to know who this person is, what he looks like.

Music editing, camera shots
We were able to develop these conventions through many contributing factors; the music and the angle of the shots help us to achieve this because the music we used 'Darkness is Coming' tied in extremely well with the setting. The track we used had a biblical sound to it and linked in very well with the church setting and established a sense of danger as Izzy went further through the church yard the music intensified creating more tension. the sense of danger was also established through certain shots used during the church scene; we had an over the shot shoulder  shot of Jamie whist he was standing at the top of a flight of stairs ( near by the church). The shot was angled  so emphasis was put on the fact that Jamie was looking down (watching over her)  at Izzy's character the female student. The positioning of characters in the shot was effective because as well as it being the first audience see Jamie's figure (close up shot from behind) it also implies  that as Jamie appears higher and larger in the shot, that he is the dominant character and izzy's character is the weaker and more vulnerable as she appears smaller.


We used two different music tracks during the first two minutes of our thriller film, both of which we found on incompetech. We chose 'Night of Chaos' and 'Darkness is Coming' because we felt they were very similar to our original music inspiration Brian Eno's 'Complex Heaven'. Brian Eno is known for doing the Lovely Bones soundtrack, a film which i felt explored very similar themes to our piece; it involved voyeurism and a man who has an obsession with making elaborate plans to take young girls. Brian Eno's theme for the antagonist Mr Harvey was extremely effective and rather chilling, it evoked real fear. Mr Harvey's theme (which is based around complex heaven)appeared many times during the film, every time 'Mr Harvey's' character was present, so the audience would immediately associate the music with unpleasant or bad things.
we were inspired by this idea so we used 'darkness is coming' and 'Night of Chaos' and used it as a device like 'complex heaven'. although it was simple it evoked fear. it had similar musical elements, but we ensured that the tracks we used weren't overly intense to that  extent that it turned into a horror film as this is not what we wanted to achieve. the tracks we used created just the right amount of suspense and fear without being to dark and intense (we wanted to build the tension slowly). we used two tracks as opposed to one simply because we wanted two separate
moods (or sections) within the opening. the first track 'night of chaos' is much less intense  and more ambient (but still builds tension) which is exactly what we wanted as it sets the scene and , whilst is sounds quite mysterious it wasn't too intense and it couldn't be, because we needed to establish narrative and setting to ease the audience into the film before the music becomes more intense and changes to ' Darkness is coming' when it becomes apparent that Izzy is being closely followed.

does your use of conventions indicate what other thrillers have influenced your work?
One Hour Photo, the collector, the people under the stairs, the lovely bones.



 All these films explore and incorporate similar themes: kidnapping, stalking, elements are portrayed by using tension and suspense to create a thriller style and fit with the conventions of thriller.
One hour photo and The lovely bones both delve into the phycology behind the Antagonists i.e how the obsession grows and why they have become this way.

Evaluation question 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When planning our preliminary task we used a simple story board and simple ideas were put across in basic group discussion. We didn't take any inspiration from certain thriller films or take any practise shots to see how they would look on the camera and we did no audience research to see what people who enjoyed watching thriller film look for in the genre.

We took the lack of planning in our preliminary as a positive when moving onto our final task as we knew that the more detail the plan is, the higher the quality of the finished piece. For our main film we started with a questionairre on 'SurveyMonkey' to get feedback from audience members of what they expected from thriller films. we then progressed to interview potential audience members of our piece who also told us what they enjoyed about thriller films and why it was their favourite film genre. This therefore gave us ideas to appeal to our audience in the things that they enjoy which came off as a positive as the people we interviewed enjoyed our final film. We made a story board in more detail and also took location shots and revised certain shots such as the 'Dutch tilt' to imply tension and unreality in our piece.

 Our progression in practical work is evident and as our knowledge grew around the genre, so did the quality of our work. For example in our preliminary there was no establishing shot. It started with a two shot which may have created confusion of what was happening to the audience rather than mystery which is what we intended. With the main task we started with a clear establishing shot which was then followed by numerous establishing shots in long and short form that helped to show the surroundings and ease the audience into the film. In our prelim we did not include any music. This therefore made it not only difficult for the audience to distinguish the mood of our piece. The use of music would have also eliminated unwanted diagetic sound in the background. This is something we identified after finishing our prelim and would ensure that suitable music would be in our main task to stop this happening again.

Our confidence using the equipment and software was low as we had had no prior experience and therefore our knowledge was limited. when we began filming our main task we felt more confident using the equipment and were able to do so at a higher standard. it became alot easier as we progressed throughout the course to project our ideas from our head to the film and therefore increased the end happiness we had.  We used various editing techniques such as key framing and video transactions and filters. Our editing skill in the prelim was weak as we were not familiar how to use it. we took the knowledge gained from our prelim and orchestrated it within our main task therefore improving the quality and our knowledge.

we have been successful in the sense that our final task has turned out to a high standard. We were able to work as a team and help use individuals ideas into the final piece to ensure group respect. we developed our knowledge of the genre, software and equipment and overall have put ourselves in a good position for A2.

Audience Interviews

Promotional Poster

What kind of media institution might distrubute your media product and why?

We needed to consider on what scale our film was going to be produced and what companies would be doing so. we needed to also consider wether our piece would be suited to the Hollywood mainstream or appeal to more of a niche audience and be shown at certain small, independent cinemas rather than those including Empire and Cineworld etc. We came to the conclusion that our film was more suited to an indie film distributor and production company such as Drafthouse Films or Film4. We had a low budget and only used a single budget and did not have access to professional editing resources. we linked our film to 'A Field In England' and the themes of that film to come to the agreement that our film was for a niche audience on a small scale due to it's themes that may not appeal to mass target audiences. we also felt that we would premiere our film at a festival such as Sundance to see the reaction prior to cinema release.











The fact that we decided to premiere our film at a festival led us to the decision that our film was an arthouse film and would be scheduled for an internet release. We came to this decision because or product has been solely advertised via social media http://thirdpersonpictures.tumblr.com/ (our tumblr) and therefore if we had released the persuant in the cinema nobody would have anticipated the release and it would have not been sucessful. By advertising on social media it allowed us to advertise to a mass audience for free. This is very useful for a company like us as we were limited to a very small budget.
















We felt that the story of the obscure character of Jamie Ward who plays the Pursuant could be told. This could be done in a prequel to show any reasons for the actions that he takes in the film and also any motives that may have encouraged him to be the way he is. E.G. Alfred Hitchcock and his troubled childhood. Merchandise could also be released such as the trench coat and the bowler hat as they are very distinguishing of the character and also t-shirts with a silhouette of the character could be sold. We took the 'Heisenburg' t-shirts from breaking bad as an inspiration for this idea. The film may also be subject to a remake due to the enthralling storyline.

Costume is important in depicting the indie theme of the play for example the cheap style costume (rugged hat, plain coat and normal school attire). this also helped to convey the audience that the pursuant was not wealthy and could indeed be after ransom.

credits ordering, timings and style individual detailed anlysis of 3 opening credits sequences (2 must be Thriller)

Shutter Island opening credits (analysis)
the credits are a dark red, which often connotes and is associated with danger or bloodshed. the credits flicker flash when they appear, they also go in-between focus and blur as if someone is struggling to see or suffering from a physiological trauma which links in with the films plot as the main character (Leonardo Dicaprio) investigates the disappearance of a murderer who has escaped from psychiatric hospital located on an island. the dim lighting of the prison cells in the first shot make the credits difficult to read, and in the second shot in which the shot spins around a spiral staircase your attention is immersed in the film as you have to use a lot of concentration to read the credits as well as taking in the shots. Interestingly we get the creator of the film, the producers and screenplay in the credits first before any of the main actors are mentioned. the style of the credits being obscure and flashing away quiet quickly is very similar to Se7en's opening credits which indicates themes of the film i.e. mental illness (psychologically not stable) and this use of credits has a very mysterious eerie impact on the audience, they become more immersed and engaged with the film as a result of the way the credits appear. The white font implies a more neutral mood, the font doesn’t imply any danger, and it’s much safer and stable.

at 0.13 seconds the credits change; whilst they are still the same font they are white instead of red, and the shots that are playing out with them are less distracting and make these credits much easier to read, the events happening in the foreground in comparison to the spiral staircase shot are much more simple, the shot isn’t a busy. As an audience we start asking questions; who does that hand belong to and why are they lifting a tile enigma codes (questions) like this help to achieve a sense of mystery and effectively keep the audience intrigued

at 0.29 the credits of the actors start to appear, each actors credit has a separate shot i.e. Ben Kinsley’s shot appears to be a close up of a chair near a fire place, whereas after a black out Leonardo Dicaprios credits appear next to a new shot; a foot pressing down on a gun then pushing it away. Mark buffalos credit is alongside a dark night outside with snow. Arguably it could be said that each shot indicates something about the actors character and what they are associated with and significance they have later on in the film ( the gun plays an important role in Dicaprios character).

During the music credit (Robbie Robertson) the shot is black, however we start getting clearer glimpses (becomes more noticeable) of possibly a film reel or flickers of words (which has been done almost throughout the opening sequence) being played and the reel becomes less faded and becomes more concentrated.

At 0.53 there is an establishing shot of an island shortly followed by the films name in the Credits 'shutter island'. The font is the same as the previous credits but much larger (to signify importance) and has gone back to the dark red colour, which evokes a sense of danger. The shot quickly zeroes in on the words until it passes through the circle of the R which is followed by a blackout. The way it quickly zooms in on the words suggests that’s where the film is taking us and presumably the establishing shot of the island implies that this is the location which the film is based around and where key events will take place.