Question one
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
One major way we have used a technique from real media thriller productions is the non-chronological order that we set the film out in. In thriller films such as Kill Bill they will do the exact same thing by using the ending scenes of the movie to make the opening.
Ending:
To the Opening:
Directors use this technique because it creates enigma and also most the time gives away key moments of the movie and can also deprive the viewer of some information to make them watch the whole way through to find out what actually happened.
Just like our company logo the title to our thriller opening, “Vengeance”, has a less obvious meaning behind it. Just like the title to “Gravity” the word is very spaced apart and each letter seems to be on its own and is not affected by the others which was a metaphor towards the fact that at the beginning to the thriller opening there is very little evidence shown to link each flashback together. This is just like how each letter is so spaced apart it is hard to link them together until you read the entire word and realise the meaning, Just like at the end of the film when all the flashbacks (letters) link up to give the meaning.
Tony BryantEnding:
To the Opening:
Directors use this technique because it creates enigma and also most the time gives away key moments of the movie and can also deprive the viewer of some information to make them watch the whole way through to find out what actually happened.
For example when our protagonist is having flashbacks he sees a man preparing to kill him. At first you don't know why but this scene plays out later in the film explaining what is going on.
B) The titles
Our film company logo at the beginning of our thriller is designed to be simple but memorable. The design is based on the front of a film camera lens with the shutter doors closing inside it. This is not obvious at first glance and is only recognisable after being told the context, This was intended as our thriller film is based of the repressed knowledge of the context around the action on screen until the end of the film.
Just like our company logo the title to our thriller opening, “Vengeance”, has a less obvious meaning behind it. Just like the title to “Gravity” the word is very spaced apart and each letter seems to be on its own and is not affected by the others which was a metaphor towards the fact that at the beginning to the thriller opening there is very little evidence shown to link each flashback together. This is just like how each letter is so spaced apart it is hard to link them together until you read the entire word and realise the meaning, Just like at the end of the film when all the flashbacks (letters) link up to give the meaning.
C) Format
During three flashbacks there is a POV (Point of view) angle which makes a stronger link between the viewer's emotion and the characters, this would make the audience more e.g frightened during a scene that is quite intense and terrifying to the character.
All the flashbacks had a vignetting, Colour degrading and blur effect added to them in post production to make it more obvious that it is in the passed and not what is presently happening in the film.
Our main point of inspiration of information that we took from researching blockbuster thriller openings is that most of them try to create a sense of confusion, Bewilderment or disorientation by showing scenes that either are shown later in the film (In the plot of the film) or is later explained in the film no visually but auditory (In the story of the film). This all in turn creates enigma which then keep the view hooked for the rest of the film.
Question two
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Are dress code for our protagonist was run down, cheap and dole which was to create the assumption that he didn't have a large amount of money, which would lead to him making irrational choices towards things.
For our two minute thriller opening we used friends and connections that have had experience with acting before with the exception of Connor and Jake. The cast consisted of only men due to coincidence but this also coincides with the stereotype that men are normally more physical and get into trouble.
Tony Bryant
Question three
Tony Bryant
Question Five
During the opening the flashbacks become more and more relevant to the situation of our protagonist laying on the floor as the heartbeat’s pace increases.
The flashbacks at the beginning of the film end with our protagonist waking from their injuries which makes the viewer want to carry on watching to find out what was done to him and why he didn't succumb to his injuries.
Question three
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A company that specialises in distributing films created by low budget indie filmmakers, companies such as Dog woof do this. This would mean that they might be able to get the film into small cinemas.
Although our first film would not be made to turn a large profit but rather to get our names out as film-makers.
Tony Bryant
Question four
Question four
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our thriller film was not intended to be aimed towards a certain gender but if you stick to the gender stereotypes then this film would be aimed more towards men due to the mild gore and violence.
The action scenes in our thriller were directed more towards being an action film because we wanted to draw in a larger audience. This worked because it meant that there was several different aspects of the film to like e.g. the action scenes.
Our target audience would be young adults+ as there is no graphic scenes with would make it only available to adults, although the plot of the movie would be extremely confusing to a younger audience due to the fact that the scenes are not set in a chronological order but instead start with the ending to the movie and flashbacks to scenes throughout the movie, This was to create enigma.
Tony Bryant
Question Five
How did you attract/address your audience?
We used techniques that we saw in other blockbuster thriller film that were trying to address our target audience. Such techniques as showing key parts of the film at the beginning but not giving any context towards them which in-turn makes the viewer want to carry on watching to find out what happens. Other blockbuster thriller films that have used this is e.g. Kill Bill.
During the opening the flashbacks become more and more relevant to the situation of our protagonist laying on the floor as the heartbeat’s pace increases.
The flashbacks at the beginning of the film end with our protagonist waking from their injuries which makes the viewer want to carry on watching to find out what was done to him and why he didn't succumb to his injuries.
6.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt how to use a new editing program called final cut pro which took a while to get the hang of because i had to use a Mac therefore it was a completely different layout and operating system.
I had already had experience using adobe Photoshop but i had never used it on a Mac before so that took me a while to get used to as well.
Tony Bryant
Question Seven
Question Seven
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that i have learnt how to properly manage the video clips and audio within final cut pro on the Mac’s. I was able to easily find all the content for my short film and i also picked up most the different shortcuts to make my editing sessions quicker and more effective.
We had serious problems with our recording equipment in the preliminary task leading to us not being able to use any audio that was recorded on the day we shot the film, This meant that we had to re-record all our folly sounds and all dialogue. This was more time consuming but made the dialogue much clearer than it would have been. During the shooting of our final 2 minute short film I had learnt for our mistake and connected an extra on board microphone and also had Jake hold a microphone to pick up most the sounds created by our surroundings such as birds, car engines and the wind.
I realised how big of a difference it makes from using just natural and surrounding lighting to using that paired with our own lighting set up, It makes everything in the scene easier to see and also stops noise leaking through when using a high ISO.
During the preliminary task we rented out all the equipment for the first day of shooting but this lead to problems with footage being lost and we also had problems being able to hire the equipment while all the people in our production were free to shoot.