Foundation Portfolio - Leah, Lucy and Abbie: 2013

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

Conventions of a Thriller:

Creates suspense
Leaves the audience asking questions
Disorientation
High level on anticipation
Fast paced
Building to a climax
Keeps the audience on the edge of their seat

By using these conventions I believe this helped us succeed in making a successful Thriller film opening we used a number of different shot types, angles, lighting and editing to create these conventions. The main camera work that we used was CU, MS and OTS by using these the audience cannot see what is going which makes them ask questions. Lighting is dark and dimmed showing the characters personality this also makes the audience weary of the character as they are unsure what they're like. When building to a climax we used quick cuts to create more tension and suspense.

The CU draws attention to what the protagonist is doing here we see a similar scenario happening in the film Se7ven. Where the Mise En Scene and CU draws attention to what the character is doing.

The MS allows the audience to see the protagonist body language to get an understanding of what kind of character they are. In the top screen shot you can see how the character is standing up straight and head up high portraying that he is confident/cocky. Whereas the bottom one the character is looking down and more slouch this could suggest that he is

more confined in himself.

the OTS creates disorientation because you cannot see the protagonist face just what they are seeing so you do not know how they are going to react. Where as in the top screen shot the OTS is used to focus on his outfit and the props he using to get a more of an understanding of what the character is.

By using these conventions and forms me and my group have created something unique and different. We have tried to make a twist to the story line by making it look like the killer is the victim and the victims are the killers. We believe this is different because it does not fit in with the cliché thriller yet sticks to the codes and conventions.

Picture One:

Restricted narration is used to hide his identity
Non diagetic sound use creates tension when he is opening the letter
The focus on the letter creates tension and makes it more intense.
Low key lighting making Duncan look more suspicious to the audience as the antagonist.
Dark clothing to represent his personality being mysterious and dark.

Picture Two:

The frame is just about right so that unnecessary space is not shown
Lighting creates a shadow which adds effect adds the effect making the shot look more dramatic and adds to his personality by making him look like the antagonist
Props make audience ask questions
Non diagetic used to add to the tension and create more climax
Slow pace to create suspense leading to climax

Picture Three:

Props; the book says 'violence' represents Duncans personality and what he is planning to do. Clock shows time passing and leading to what he's planning to do
restricted narration focuses on the book and what he is writing
Lighting highlights the props that are used focusing the audience attention around them more

Picture Four:

Camera is handheld making it more realistic and that this personal towards Duncan
The setting is urban as each scene cuts through walking through underpaths, streets and fields
Costume, hair and makeup all add to the characters personality which fits into their strereotype
Soundtrack constructs the mood0
Harsh dialogue makes it more intense on the audience

Picture Five:

Lighting creating a shadow adds to effect
Picture black outside creates more tension as people connotate the dark to be when something dangerous is going to happen
Restricted narrative hiding his identity creating more suspense
Camera gives us a POV of what Duncan sees

Picture Six:

Framing focuses on the map and everything that he's planning
Continuity of restricted narrative to hide his identity
Low lighting creating more tension
Sound adding to the climax slowly getting louder and louder as the camera tracks around him building suspense

Picture Seven:

Restricted narrative to hide his identity
Lighting uses warm colour to represent to the audience that his room is where it creates suspense and tension.
Diagetic sound and sound effects used to make it more realistic
No soundtrack to make the sound effects more intense

Picture Eight:

Shallow depth of field used so the audience focus on the mug
Mug is used to change setting
Focus fades back to show Duncan walking out of the room this creates tension for the audience as they do no know what is happening
Low lighting again is used this represents his personality and this room is a dark place and evil

Picture Nine:

MCU used to focus on Duncan when he is planning an important bit
Evidence board is a good prop adds to realism
Soundtrack hits climax and is just about to zoom out to show Duncan project

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For the teenagers the social class that we wanted to represent them in a social class E this is because the audience will automatically stereotype them as being a threat. There is a mixture of males and females so that we could represent both sex. We wanted the teenagers to be represented more masculine therefore they seem more intimidating and strong and dominate. Their age is around 16-17 this is because this age of teenagers are always stereotype and in the public eye are the main cause for problems. Their ethnicity is a mix of white British and black British this gives us a mixture of ethnicities which will be easier to stereotype so the audience have a greater understanding about these characters. We kept all the characters heterosexual to keep them more masculine and aggressive.

For Duncan we wanted to represent him in social class D this is because he works for what he's got but he didn't have a high paying job this is shown because he lives in a council house. We wanted to represent him masculine because of the twist it shows that he is independent and strong and can handle himself. His age will be late 40's because we didn't want him to be too old so that the audience felt sorry for him so much that when he goes on to kill them later they do not feel bad towards the teenagers, we didn't want the audience to empathises with him.

For the teenagers we wanted to use the camera as it looked like a camera phone. The idea come from the screen shot above from the film 'Harry Brown'

we wanted to represent their social class and age by doing this.

Their costume and hair represent their class and what area they come from. There is only one cut during the teenage scene this shows that it on a simple phone which they are recording representing what class they are in.
The sound for the teenagers is dialogue the way the speak represents them in a lower class as they use slang with terms such as "blud" "mans" "dat" and "doe".
We stereotyped them as 'chavs' we choose this because chavs are represented in a negative way as they are always causing trouble, loud and aggressive. This is achieved by being cliché with the way they dress and the way they speak and also the way they act this is all represented in the screen shots above.

For the main character we wanted the camera work to not always be on his face to make him more mysterious and insecure.

From our inspiration being from 'Harry Brown' we wanted to recreate that image but a younger more modern version. Here you can see that he is casually dressed but not being portrayed as the stereotypical 'chav' we wanted to represent him in a higher class than the teenagers.
The main character has more edits such a cut's. The cuts are at a quicker pace to create more tension and build the climax.
There is no dialogue therefore it represents how traumatised he is that he's lost his voice, his identity.

At first we wanted to represent the main character positively this is represented by making him look like the victim when he is the complete opposite. Not till the end of the clip he is scene to be the antagonist.

We represented the teenagers the way we did to represent them as the antagonist. We wanted the audience to think that they will be able to predict what was going to happen which will throw them off with the twist at the end.

Our characters with help to target the audience because some people are able to relate to them. Some of our audience will fit into the stereotype and will understand and be able to connect with the characters. Because when they connect with the character.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Metrodome is a fully integrated rights management and distribution business which provides content across all distribution platforms in the UK.

Metrodome works with some of the biggest names in the business including :

Demi Moore

Colin Firth

Michael Caine

Jet Li

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience will be both aimed at males and females.
It will be more masculine so it will be for an audience who do not mind violence.
Age will vary from 18-45 because those are around our characters age which will be easy for them to understand more.

Best movie I’ve seen in a long time—and equal comments from my seventeen year old son and 45 yr. old brother who were with me—in fact I know that my wife and daughter would love this movie also (they’re planning on seeing it today). - Lisa, 42, UK

“The Dark Knight Rises” was an excellent finish to a good trilogy. Christopher Nolan did a great job with all three movies. “The Dark Knight Rises” has a deep, compelling plot that will make you think and demand your attention. The script is so beautifully written, the acting is magnificent, and the action was impressive. The movie is pretty violent. Nothing bloody or gory, but it is violent. Bane is a merciless, cruel villain. He shows no mercy to any of his victims.- Margaret Ivory, 25, UK

This has to be the most well made movie I have seen in a long time. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman put on great performances as detectives. The language was the part that was the most offensive to me (75 f words). The violence was gruesome, but they had to tell the story in some way. I wouldn’t recommend this to the squeamish or little children.- Joel, 18, UK

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Story line

We thought about the storyline in detail and know exactly what we want.
It keeps the audience asking question with what Duncan is doing
The twist throws the audience off so they do not predict what going to

Camerawork

Different types of shots mainly over the shoulder we didn't want to give away too much of Duncan identify and felt that this was for the best way to do it.
There are some shots filmed hand held this makes it more of a direct address because they look like they are talking to the audience
Some shots appear in CCTV creates voyeurism for the audience making them feel as if they are spying on the teenagers.

Mise en scene

The lighting gets darker as the teenagers get closer to Duncan's house we purposely chose this because we wanted to show time changing through each clip.
By sticking the the stereotypical look it makes the audience understand why they look like the antagonist.

Setting

The setting shows that Duncan lives in a place where a middle age man would live. But also fits in with the costumes for the 'chavvy' teenagers because it is a council house. This portrays a more realistic effect because you can understand why the teenagers are around that area.

Use Of Character

The teenagers were the right age because if they were any younger they wouldn't be a threat and if they were older it wouldn't be as effective when they got killed.
Duncan was also the right age because if he was younger he wouldn't be a prime age for the teenagers to target and if he was too old it would be harder for him to carry out the killings.

Sound

The sound effect such as turning on kettle and the mug hitting the surface this add more of an effect because the sounds are so intense.
The teenagers use dialogue they are the only characters to use it this shows they are loud and outspoken which fits their stereotype.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

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

Use of camera

I feel as if my camerawork has improved
Using different shot types than my preliminary more CU, MS all examples of this are shown in the screen grabs above
Learnt how to frame a shot properly not leaving unnecessary open space.

Sound Editing

I have learnt how to use garage band
I have also learnt on final cut pro how to adjust the volume at certain points to create suspense and an atmosphere

Vision editing

Learnt how to use a filter this is shown in the first 15 seconds with the clips including the teenagers we had to make the camera look as if it was being recorded from a camera phone.
Learnt how to fade shots in and out
How to use transitions
I also learnt how to put text over the top of the clip

Construction of character

I definitely have improved with my construction of character. Because before I didn't realise how important it was to think about the characters and how that attracts the audience. Now I think about every detail and how that will attract my audience.