(Question 1)
In our thriller opening ‘GONE’ we use many typical thriller conventions. For example we include: Low-key lighting, quick cuts, shadows, changes in angles and shot sizes, diegetic sounds of breathing and shots of protagonist in the mercy of the antagonist.
We made sure we researched into thriller openings to gain understanding of what typical thriller conventions are used. Looking back at my thriller research, I studied: Drive, Alice Creed & The Usual Suspects. All of these thriller films have the typical conventions of the thriller genre. These films do this by using all four technical codes: Mise En Scene, Editing, Sound & Camera work, generating enigma and showing restricted and un-restricted narration to engage spectators to a point were they are 'on the edge of their seats'.
Comparisons between researched thriller openings & GONE:
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| GONE |
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| Alice Creed
These two shots from Alice Creed & GONE have similarities due to the black costumes covering identity, generating restricted narration and then in turn creating enigma from spectators.
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| GONE |
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| Alice Creed |
These close-up shots from Alice Creed & GONE allow spectators to see facial expression, in turn allows us to sympathise with the characters. Both facial expressions look innocent and hurt in one way. This is a convention in thriller films as the protagonist is to be sympathised with.
In our final media product, we used typical thriller conventions and forms that are being used in real media products, for example the film opening I studied, 'Drive':
The film 'Drive' starring Ryan Gosling has extreme restricted narration in the opening of the film. The way in which camera work and low-key lighting does not reveal his identity, creating a response of enigma from spectators, this is because the audience will want to know why the face is not being revealed. In our film 'GONE' our main and only male character Marcus is never truly revealed creating restricted narration.
-This is a shot from the first scene in 'Drive'. This shot contains low-key lighting and a medium-long shot of the male characters reflection in the mirror. However, it is so dark spectators cannot identify the characters facia expressions generating restricted narration, which in turn creates enigma.
-This blocking shot from our opening sequence of 'GONE' clearly shows the generated restricted narration we had created by positioning and framing the camera in a certain way. This restricted narration then creates a spectator response of enigma and fear.
Title / Thriller Conventions
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| Title sequence for thriller film 'GONE GIRL'. |
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| Title sequence for thriller opening 'GONE'. (Our final product) |
Looking back to the title sequences I studied, one that really took to my interest and engaged me was 'GONE GIRL'. This title came across simple and plain, overlapped on a moving image, however really generated an interested response from me and my group.
As you can probably see, our title is extremely similar to thriller film 'GONE GIRL', especially the way in which we used our font, colour and positioning. The colour is white on a low-key lighting background, allowing the title to stand out, which draws spectators to speculate what the meaning and message behind the title is. 'GONE GIRL' inspired our title sequence as the font is very simple yet intriguing. Our thriller opening has a story of someone disappearing, therefore we named our film 'GONE'. However, we did not narrow it down and say what has 'gone' as I find it is much more engaging and alluring being just a single but catchy word.
However, there are differences between the two titles. 'GONE GIRL' is titled at the beginning of the film, 'GONE' is titled about 2 minutes into our film. But there is also a similarity, which they both are being filmed in a linear and chronologically order, linking to Todorov's theory. This clarifies a sense of balance in both films, however, despite the similarities between the titles, both use thriller conventions in their own way.
During our opening thriller sequence, we also use editing techniques which are typical thriller conventions. For example, the scene were the 'undiscovered' character' prepares the hazardous poison, we cut it in a high frequency, resulting in jump cuts, this connotes time passing. This fast paced jump cutting also contributes to spectator response, as the non-diegetic music is parallel to the jump cuts in editing, creating an uneasy feeling and anxiety felt atmosphere.
(Question 2)
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
GENDER & AGE
In our opening sequence from our film 'GONE' gender and age is represented through the use of Mise en Scene. From our research of thriller openings, we gathered inspiration about different social groups, giving us a better understanding, therefore allowing us to embed it into our own project. In the opening sequence, we have one male and one female role. The way we present their gender is stereotypically modern. This is because our female character has as much right as our male character does, therefore, no matter the gender, both are equally as strong and foreshow their own opinions in the dialogue, costume, make-up and body language. Traditional thriller conventions are used to portray our characters in the specific way we imagined too. However, using these conventions, most are set in our modern day.
As our opening sequence is set in the modern day, we included more commonly and current used thriller conventions of gender and age. In the modern day, females and males are seen to have more equality than ever before. We show this between our female and male characters in our opening sequence 'GONE'.
For example:
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| This medium-shot of our female character 'Addie' is dressed in a black and dark purple sophisticated suite and pencil skirt connoting the importance of the role she plays and also generates a response from spectators, by creating enigma about her job and class. From her costume, it really creates a high class aura about her character, this costume also gives 'Addie' a powerful reputation. The phone 'Addie' is holding, which is a prop that is used, is an iPhone, which shows that it is set in the modern day and her taste is expensive. This then links to the iconography of everyday, as today most people own an iPhone and is seen to be a popular device, which is also part of globalisation. |
- Our male character 'Marcus', we wanted spectators to build a dislike to his character, as we set him up to be the antagonist, through the use of dialogue and his aggression. We made 'Marcus' character aggressive and rude towards 'Addie' as spectators would begin to guess that it was him who killed 'Addie' which in reality, it was not him. We positioned 'Marcus' in a way that manipulated his character by making him become the antagonist, when in reality he is not.
- In an earlier time period, male characters were predominantly seen to play the strongest roles and protect the female character, stereotypically, males would go to work and the females would stay at home to do the housework. A good example of male dominating Thriller films, is a film that I have studied called 'The Usual Suspects' released in 1995. There are several male roles in this Thriller film with all extremely dominant roles, this is because their characters are seen to be dangerous and strong. Women in that day and age would been seen in a completely different light. An example of males dominating 'The Usual Suspects' is the DVD cover case:
In recent thriller films, we are exposed to strong, female protagonists. This is due to the equality change from 30-40 years ago. Instead of being stereotypical and casting 'strong males', to reach a wider and to maximise the target audience, females began to be casted. These female roles, exited the traditional 'damsel in distress' and became much more equal to males. In todays society, males and females have become increasingly equal. An example of this is through film is: Gone Girl. This thriller film involving a strong female lead also inspired us with our title sequence as shown in question one.
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| Immediately we receive an important message from the film poster itself. The titling is suggesting a female, which reflects this also through the imagery- a female in front of a male. This denotes the strong female role in this thriller film. The facial expressions from both the female and male is connoting the thriller itself, due to there emotionless expressions. This is also reinforced through the darkened colours and low-key lighting, which is a typical thriller convention. |
However, there are still some stereotyping within the representation of gender. For example: There are still films of all type of genre in the industry that represent women as emotional, a mother and looks up to their husbands or partners in a way of security. This tends to occur a lot in thrillers. The male will go and check on the 'bang' or 'creepy noise'. An example of this is the US film Insidious. This film uses certain shot distances and angles to connote the strong male role, for example:
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| This shot is a medium-shot at eye-level. However, the way in which the characters are positioned in the frame suggests different representation of their genders. As you can see the male character is far closer to the frame than the female, denoting his strong male role. His body language also looks broad and emotionless, how a stereotypical male is represented. In 'GONE' we try to stay clear of stereotyping our characters, as both of the female and male roles have strong characteristics that are represented through the use of: Mise en scene, sound, editing and camera work. For example: The diegetic dialogue we hear from Addie becomes aggressive in the car scene during their argument about their relationship. |
- However, in our opening sequence, we wanted to set it in the modern day, generating a more equal gender roles. This meant we clearly represented both characters with different characteristics, both showing traits of being strong, emotional and mysterious characters.
- Having a female and male character in our opening sequence, widens our target audience. This then targets both genders as both characters in 'GONE' are represented equally through the power they present forward through, mise en scene and sound, for example: the tone in which their dialogue is expressed.
During the telephone argument between Addie and Marcus, certain mise en scene elements begin to take place to represent thriller conventions. For example: as we hear the diegetic sounds of Addie becoming more aggressive and angry at Marcus, high frequency cuts are used to emphasise the rise in aggression, allowing spectators to understand Addie's personality. As the diegetic sounds begin to crescendo, Addie begins to become more insulting towards Marcus as the scene develops showing Addie's dominant characteristics. CLASS & STATUS
In our opening sequence, class and status as a social group is question upon by spectators. This is due to the ways in which camera work and mise en scene represent the concept of the argument between our male and female characters, 'Marcus' and 'Addie'.
- Here is a gif of a clip from our opening sequence 'GONE' showing our female character Addie relaxing, drinking her red wine in the hot tub. The way in which the high-key lighting reflects onto the hot tub, really generates an expensive looking shot as hot tubs are known to be very expensive, therefore, spectators immediately think of our characters are of a high class and status.
- Our male character Marcus, who is thought to be the antagonist, is not represented in a way of high class and status through mise en scene or camera work. However, the diegetic, on-screen dialogue we hear from Marcus is represented in a way that shows his aggressive emotions and addictions we discover through the argument that Addie brings up during the argument.
- As you can see Addie and Marcus both live in a gated community, which connotes that they both are wealthy and prosperous people. By portraying the young wealthy adults in a expensive surrounding, intentionally should make spectators build a sense of stability, tricking their emotions and anxiety to the intense scenes which slowly builds up.
- Money is often taken to concept of being a way security. Wealth can lead to being more protected physically and mentally. The large steel gates and modern looking setting and decor instills a sense of tranquility, therefore, spectators begin to believe that Addie is not at risk of anything and is safe. The large steel gated community acts and is symbolised as a sanctuary.
Having a sense of false security in a film is a typical thriller convention. This is because when creating a false sense of security, it becomes real to spectators that the characters are in safety, however, when things begin to take a turn, it becomes more of a shock to spectators due to the safe setting which is parallel for example: to the hot tub scene of Addie relaxing after a stressful day at work and argument with Marcus.
(Question 3)
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As we are a small independent British film production company who have created a low budget thriller opening to our film 'GONE', if we were to contact a large production company for example: Universal, it would not work for our production company. This is because we are independent, have not produced a big block-buster and are not very well known by the public, however, film production companies such as: 20th Century Fox and Disney are huge, global and known production companies that produce mega franchises and big block-busters!
To distribute our low-budget film, there are two options:
1) Have our film distributed through an independent film distribution company, for example: Studio Canal or Curzon.
2) Distribute the film ourself via modern platforms for home viewing, for example: YouTube, TV, DVD, Vimeo etc.
Before the rise of streaming through the internet and the significant rise of home viewing, the most popular place for the audience to watch a film was at the cinema. However, due to the huge increase of home viewing films, UK cinema admissions have significantly dropped and continue to drop as we speak.
-Although ticket admissions to UK cinemas have been decreasing since the significant increase of ways of home viewing, average cinema ticket price has rocketed up! Although a large amount of people still visit the cinema, many will be pushed away due to the price. However, the price has risen due to the technology advancements such as: IMAX, 4DX, 3D and the interior of cinemas nowadays. Cinema experience has become more materialistic, however, the result of this is increase ticket prices.
Cinema
The main issue with Cinemas today is the extreme focus on these mega franchises. For example: Exhibitors such as Cineworld & Odeon would be highly unlikely to exhibit independent films with such a low budget. Therefore, trying to exhibit your film into one of these cinemas into mainstream films, would be very unlikely. Current films at Cineworld & Odeon are all from large-scale production companies, for example: Universal or 20th Century Fox.
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| ODEON |
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| Cineworld |
Although we would struggle exhibiting our film in Cineworld, it would not be impossible to distribute our film with an independent distribution film company, therefore exhibit our film in an independent cinema. An example of this is The Duke Of York cinema, in Brighton. They offer to show low-budget, independent films in co-operation with the Brighton Film Festival, allowing to gather an audience for your film.
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| Picture House (Brighton) The Technological Revolution of self distribution : YouTube |
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• Since the activation of Youtube in 2005, it has allowed independent film producers to upload their films to Youtube, which costs them nothing, and in return if their film gains enough recognition, in return they receive money for their product they uploaded.
• With more than 1 billion users on Youtube a month visiting Youtube, independent film producers have such a brilliant advantage of getting their film really recognised, by building an audience and reaching contact with distributors and other well skilled film producers/distributors/exhibitors.
• However, with the amount of users on Youtube, there becomes competitive advertising, meaning, your film needs to be different and unique, it needs to engage your audience. Some say it is luck when you finally begin to increase your views, however, it is the way in which you promote your film though other social networks too, for example: using twitter to share and interact with your audience and Facebook to create a page with your films allowing your audience to be updated with your most recent projects.
You need at least 1000 subscribers before YouTube begin to offer you any money.
Using Youtube completely cuts out the part of hiring your distributing agency, therefore saves your independent film company money, which is highly needed with an independent film due to the tight budget. This makes Youtube incredibly unique to many film producers.
Advertising on Youtube is what increases your income. You can monetise your videos. Monetization means that you authorize the presence of advertisements on your videos, and YouTube charges advertisers for these and shares the fees with you, allowing you to make some money from people viewing your videos.
Conclusion
No matter what option you decide to go with and how to really achieve what you want with your film whether it is distributing it with an independent film distribution company or self-distributing it with the likes of platforms such as: YouTube. You are always going to run the risk of your film not making any money whatsoever or being a success. In my opinion, I would rather distribute my film with an independent film distribution company as I feel as they would have so much more experience than myself and have certain contacts that would be able to help me with future projects. However, it would be difficult due to our tight budget with our low costing film.
(Question 4)
Looking at the Pearl & Dean website, films that are most likely to be seen by our target demographic audience for our film GONE would also go and watch these films in the cinema or at home via home viewing platforms, for example: Sky Movies. Here are some of the films that would also be seen by our target audience:
VACANCY
As you can see this film has a very similar target audience to ours for our film 'GONE'. Both our audiences are targeted between the age of 15 to 24-year-olds. Also both are rated 15, meaning anyone below that age it would not be suited to them as there are certain scenes that may upset or disturb younger viewers.
ITS ALL ABOUT LOVE
The second film I discovered on the Pearl & Dean website was the film 'Its all about love'. I have researched statistics and information on this film. This romantic thriller has been rated at a 15- this connotes our audience and 'Its all about love' audiences have already a huge similarity, making the demographics in common.
Looking into more depth of this film, the narrative presents two lovers and their attempts to save the broken relationship. This is extremely parallel to our film 'GONE' as we present Addie and Marcus with a broken relationship using a range of camera shot distances and angles, allowing spectators to import themselves into the characters perspective, generating realism.
The genders represented in this film I have researched, are both male and female. This informs us that the target audience is very much aimed towards everyone, no matter what gender.
The target audience for 'Its all about love' would suit our film 'GONE' as the similarities are endless. From the age rating of 15 to the similar narrative that is about a broken relationship, including typical thriller conventions.
(Question 5)
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
Having audience feedback from your thriller film is vital, as it helps build a wall of knowledge that helps producers to improve. From audience feedback you also begin to create an understanding of who the target demographic audience is.
To collect audience feedback, I have asked four people a variety of questions to help me and my group understand what we achieved and what we could improve. I asked two media students, one non-media student and one adult.
I have asked each person two questions: 1) What is a typical thriller film to you? and 2) After watching our opening sequence 'GONE', have we met any of the conventions you have mentioned and how could we improve?
The Two Media Students response:
Both of the two media students I received a response from were different however, contained very useful information.
Connor began to say that the thriller opening sequence raised many questions to mind. As a group, this is what we had hoped for, because we focused on using restricted narration to generate enigma from spectators, so this thriller convention I feel as if we achieved. However, to improve, he said to take more time improving the quality of the green screen to help make the car scene look more realistic. However, we were so focused on editing the whole footage, we could not perfect the green screen. Next time if using a green screen we will take time to better the quality.
Jess mentioned how our titling and our soundtrack became very parallel to a typical thriller film. Also, similar to Connor, Jess stated how by not showing Marcus' face generated a really effective way to create enigma through restricted narration. Again, this was our main aim during the opening sequence, as we feel a very important thriller convention, is to generate enigma throughout to keep spectators engaged and 'on the edge of their seats'.
Non-Media Student
Kellie began to explain how a typical thriller to her is a believable storyline, actors suited to their role and something that keeps you engaged. Kellie then went on to explain what we did well and what we could improve in our opening sequence 'GONE'.
Kellie agreed that we had met typical thriller conventions. However, to Kellie, some parts of the plot confused her. This was the killing scene, Kellie was questioning whether or not she was murdered, poisened or just being hurt. However, we see this as an achievement, because we wanted spectators to question all the way through the opening, but to improve, we could imbed a couple more close ups of the hazardous skin irritant when Marcus is preparing to kill Addie. A way in which Kellie thought we could improved, is by creating a stronger storyline to create an even more thrilling sequence. 
Adults Response
Our adult’s response is very different from either of the non-media students to the media students. This is mainly due to the age difference. As our film is targeted to a 15-24-year-old audience, our adult is middle aged therefore has had more life experience with real events of life. Therefore, will have a different perception of our storyline and characters.
The adult response of a typical thriller film
is a film that generates suspense and something that will make
you jump. Also they mentioned that we have definitely met many
typical thriller conventions. Our main complement to our film is how well we
created restricted narration therefore creating an enigma response from
our spectators. However, to improve they suggested we made our shots of the
telephone argument have higher frequency cuts throughout to create a more
intense scene.
(Question 6)
Question 6: What have you learn't about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
To answer this question, I decided to present it in a PREZI presentation.
Click Link Below to see answer to Question 6 of the Evaluation:
Q.6 Evaluation
(Question 7)
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task and comparing it to my main task 'GONE', I have improved tremendously. I have increased my knowledge and skills in the four micro elements: Mise En Scene, Camera Work, Sound and Editing.
PRELIMINARY TASK:
(press play)
FINAL PRODUCT ('GONE'):
CLICK HERE: 'GONE'
Here is a PREZI (including voice overs & videos) about what aspects I feel I have improved from the progression of the preliminary task to the final product:
Click on link below:
Q.7 Evaluation
PRELIMINARY TASK:
(press play)
FINAL PRODUCT ('GONE'):
CLICK HERE: 'GONE'
Here is a PREZI (including voice overs & videos) about what aspects I feel I have improved from the progression of the preliminary task to the final product:
Click on link below:
Q.7 Evaluation
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