Our Final Film

'Good Mourning' Film Introduction

Audience Response

The focus groups were a mix of males and females. For the second group of the audience feedback we used 2 females and 1 male, intentionally set up like the films cast so that we could get a mix of views.  Despite trying to persuade them they were not comfortable with being filmed and so we only have an audio file.

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progession of it to the full product?

One of the key themes we gathered from the preliminary task was the time available to us and how quickly it goes. During the preliminary task I think we under estimated how long it would take to set up all the cameras and to actually film the acting. Prior to the filming we had a clear plan for how long it would take but this didn't take into account the cameras needing charging, setting up the cameras so that it fitted with the 180 degree rule and providing a match on action. In addition we didn't take into account the mistakes, acting wise, that were going to occur and as you can see from earlier on in the blog there were many mistakes that we didn't account for. However I think this was highly beneficial. These mistakes made in the preliminary task pushed us to be more organised, plan when would meet up and how long it would take to film. This became most apparent for the detective scene. The scene itself only took up 55 seconds of the film introduction and yet we gave ourselves 2 hours in the building for us to set everything up, take into account the mistakes made by the actors and then pack everything away. By the end of the filming session it had taken us 1 hour and 50 minutes to film that small section. I think that without the mistakes made in the first task we would have been less experienced and mature when it came to time management. In this evaluation I will be analysing how our use of camera and editing progressed from the preliminary stage to our final product.

One of the most beneficial aspects we took out of the preliminary task was that of the 180 degree rule. Prior to the preliminary task we had no idea that this was a rule. However most conventional film use this in their films. It provides the audience with a smooth transition between shot and makes it appear more believable. Whilst the aim of our main task film introduction was to trick the audience into thinking the antagonist and the victim had some sort of relationship we gathered that 180 degree was important for making a high quality product and instead we used the handheld camera technique to create a sinister mood. In addition we combined the themes of representation and realism in our main task to create a sound foundation for our film introduction. For the scene in which the antagonist is stroking the arm of the victim we can see initially an over the shoulder shot of the victm and then a two shot of the victim and the antagonist, looking down on the bed. Despite our group having a basic knowledge of representation and how mise en scene is important in productions we didn't initially see the importance, for a sense of a realism with you being in the scene, when it came to match on action and thanks to the preliminary task we were able to achieve both. The high angle should looking down at the victim highlighted how inferior she is compared to the antagonist and then in the detective scene this is subverted as the detective, played by Candice Feddis, is at eye level with both the camera and the antagonist. During this scene we had to make sure that we were keeping the camera stationery and still to keep the audience ingaged in our film opening. In addition, keeping up with the theme that it should be simple and easy for the audience to connect with, one of the issues from the preliminary task that we noticed was the pace of it. We tried to slow down the main task by adding in fade to blacks and slower music. This allowed the audience to keep up with the action rather than it being quite staggered.

In addition the progression made by our group in the editing side of things was very much evident. In the preliminary task it became apparent that our editing skills were very basic. Occasional gaps in the sound or lack of cutting down meant the quality of our finished product was relatively poor. However we managed to improve dramatically when it came to the main task. Whilst in the preliminary only Candice Feddis had some knowledge on how to work iMovie, over time the whole group became comfortable with how to work iMovie and that meant more and more ideas were brought to the table on how we could improve our film introduction. As our confidence grew and grew so did the originality of our film. Initially we were sceptical about using music as it appeared hard to implement it into the editing from the preliminary task but soon we gathered it would add a lot to the film, as the audience feeback showed that progression of a thriller should come from sound and visuals as apposed from dialogue. Eventually Katie Finch, a keen pianist, decided to play the piece for our film introduction. Not only did this add to the originality to our film introduction, increasing our USP, but it also made our group feel more attached to the film as it felt our own. To make it easier to watch and to edit as well we thought it be best if we had one long shot of the antagonist walking up the stairs and then him going to the bathroom. Whilst we did this we also slowed down the music in the background so it wouldn't drown out the scene and deter attention away from the action. This is something we struggled with in the preliminary task. In one scene the male actor said 'your such a coward' intentionally in two shots for it to be made into one sentence. However to make it seem smooth in correlation with the rest of the short film the effect didn't work and the whole scene seemed a bit jagged.

The group working on the editing of the detective scene.

The audio file for Katie's music can be seen here...

Evaluation Question 6

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

Link to prezi presentation can be found here....

http://prezi.com/ob_8li7fauip/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Genre Conventions

Our film appeals to those who want to be challenged when watching a film in which the motif or story behind the film is not clear. Films such as Psycho, 1990 (Alfred Hitchcock) would fall under this bracket as you are constantly questioning what is reality and who can they trust, this keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. In most high budget films the narrative is more or less 'spoon fed' to the audience. One is not challenged mentally when watching say 'Die Hard 3'. And so this was a key feature we thought pyshcological thrillers break the mould in and challenge people to come up with their own narrative. The theme of reality and non-reality was also used in the Christopher Nolan's Inception, 2010, where by the simple use of a spinning top the audience would find out whether or not the scene was a reality or not. The final scene ends with Dom Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) being re-united with his children after being cleared of criminal charges. He spins the spinning top and then goes to play with his kids. However the spinning top remains spinning for a while and one starts to think, is he in reality or not.

The final scene of Inception

Not only have we tried to provide a twist in the sense that the antagonist is not who one believes him to be but we have also subverted the gender roles. To gain recognition for our film introduction we have both subverted and conformed to gender stereotypes in thriller. We have used Izzi Harrison as our victim who is seen as peit and pretty and a character that the audience can warm to. In contrast we used Candice Feddis as our lead detective. She was a powerful actor, much like that of Viola Davis in Suicide Squad, who acts as a source of empowerment for the viewer and this alternative view on how gender can be presented would be enlightening for the audience. This is a key aspect of our USP as still to this day most thrillers have a narrative in which the woman is the victim of abuse or murder. Including both a strong and vulnerable woman widens our target audience.

Sound and Music

Looking back on our initial audience research into what out target audience want from a psychological thriller and their opinions on current thrillers, 60% of voters wanted the plot to be built through music and 20% through visuals. For audience purposes we incorporated both of these into our film introduction. Katie Finch was the pianist for the non diegetic music. She builds up the atmosphere as she starts slow, with the antagonist walking up the stairs, and then when the audience is introduced to the victim the music builds. This can be seen in Stephen Spielberg's 'Jaws' where the music builds up to a climax. The slow music is unique to our film as the music appears to slow down the scene, allowing the audience to notice events in the scene. This can be seen when the music reduces in volume and the audience's attention is brought to the diegetic enhanced dripping noise, symbolic of the end of some.

Pace and Editing

In addition we edited the scene in a slow manner. Due to such a complex story we thought it would be neccesary to slow everything allowing the audience to see the twist in the plot and to get to know the characters personality. Using dissolves and fade to blacks we made the audience feel immersed in the action due through match on action in the bedroom. This technique is also used in Inception where we see non diegetic opera music to enhance the drama and create the illusion of slowing down the music.

Mise en Scene

We drew people into the action by enhancing the sinister tone. This was first achieved by the connotations provided by the light. In the bedroom scene and in the detective scene we see a natural light shining through a two shot. This connotes innocence but also vulnerability, especially with the victim. Ben Nixon was wearing a black jumper throughout which has connoations to deep love, obsession or death. Candice Feddis also highlighted how she was suberting gender roles as she wore a brown shirt and black trousers, commonly linked to that of a working man. This shows that she is suberting the stereotype that only men are serious workers and providers.

Evaluation Question 4

Before we made the film and afterwards we took into account what the target audience would be and how we would alter or enhance aspects of the film introduction to suit this target audience. Evaluation Question 4 will be defining and describing the sort of target audience we have and Evalation Question 5 will analyse how we made this film introduction not only into a thrilling film but also one that will attract our target audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Some common themes in most thriller films are violence, psychological issues. These both may be a problem for younger audiences, but they may also be too intellectually demanding for younger audiences. Because of this, the thriller genre as a whole is often aimed at more adult audiences. However, there are several sub-genres to the thriller genre, each of which often having different target audiences.Our film introduction is that of a psychological thriller and Psychological thrillers are the most intellectually demanding of all the thriller sub-genres, and are therefore often aimed at older audiences, ranging from young adults (17/18 to 25 onwards). The confusing twists and turns and mature themes of psychological thrillers story lines may be too much to handle for younger audiences. A popular psychological thriller is 'Se7en' (1995). In addition a lot of the target audiences for Psychological thrillers are 18+ as they involve a lot of violence and psychological issues which would be disturbing for younger viewers, this could cause nightmares for younger viewers and cause them to be very scared for a longer period of time There is also research that shows that females are more attracted to psychological thrillers because they enjoy the story behind the events that take place in the movie, it has also been shown females like the intellectual side of strange psychologically challenging behaviour that features in psychological thrillers. People watch psychological thrillers for different reasons. After psychological research, researchers found a strong link between the desire to watch suspenseful and scary films or entertainment, and the viewers need for physical arousal and excitement. Meaning we like to watch these movies for the thrill of it. 'People like to be scared, when they feel safe' - Alfred Hitchcock. This is the idea that we enjoy watching it, as we are not the ones living it. Some people may watch it to revisit a trauma when younger, instead of having to actually re-live it. Or others may choose to watch to to help express/release their own aggressive and violent thoughts. Researchers at Kings College in London Found that the key to having a successful scary movie it to have the balance between the horror/suspense and gore, an example of this would be jaws.

Possible member of our target audience;

• He would be a law or psychology student who is fascinated by the human mind and finds films challenging these conventions a perfect watch. This is someone who challenges modern day stereotypes and conventions and reads between the lines. He enjoys films which are hard to grasp and requires an intellectual mind to understand the key concepts of a psychological thriller
• He would be the sort of person to listen to alternative music or maybe even dark music. He would not follow the refined mainstream pop music but delve further into the music world to find alternative, sometimes less well known music, and dramatic music such as opera would also be what he would listen to. 
• Following the theme of breaking the conventions of mainstream society he would look to shop in an alternative fashion and is very much wary of the issues surrounding fashion, including the increase in deforestation in Indonesia due to use of palm oil for clothes, or the use of child labour in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan for the production of cotton for Western clothes. Therefore he would reduce his budget and shop mainly in charity shops or second hand clothes. 

Upon analysing our initial audience research it became apparent that our target audience is someone who likes films with high levels of atmosphere and tension. 60.87% of the voters found Stephen Spielberg, renowned for his ability to create suspense (e.g. Jaws), to be the best thriller director of all time. In addition the graphs beneath show how atmosphere plays a key role in a thriller for our target audience. 

As we found out in most of the openings to thrillers dialogue is less prevalent and important than the music and the visuals as that will create the most atnosphere in the shortest space of time and subsequently will draw the audience in quicker. 

Red has connotations of blood, anguish and love and black has connotations of a sinister motif or death. Both of these are commonly used in thrillers to create atmosphere early on and we have tried to implement this into our own film introduction.

Audience Response

We audio recorded a mixture of groups for our audience response. Focus group one was made up of 5 girls spanning from the age of 16-18 (reaching the lower end of our target audience) and the second focus group consisted of two females and one male (as seen in the film introduction with two females playing the role of detective and victim and one male playing the role of antagonist). The second focus group also had a wider age range. The youngest participant was 18 years old and then we featured a 54 year old and a 56 year old to get a difference in answers from people who are at two different ends of the spectrum for age in terms of target audience. Beneath you can find the conversations recorded. 

Evaluation Question 3

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

My groups film introduction would be best suited for the multiplex cinema market. Firstly, it would not suit an art house audience, which are renowned for screening gritty films which provide a sense of realism, due to the plot. Our film is about a female (played by Izzi Harrison) who has been abused and killed by a psychologically damaged antagonist. This topic has been covered many a time in mainstream films and programmes and therefore in that sense wouldn’t match the target audience of an art house film who are looking for something that is alternative and outside the box. Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999) a very successful American New Line production, focuses around people who have been psychologically disturbed. Our plot conforms to the mainstream stereotypes that the victim is an attractive and vulnerable female and the antagonist is someone that seems ordinary but does the extraordinary. This can be seen in the BBC production ‘The Fall’ which follows the story of a family man who has two children, with the audiences being led to believe that he follows a normal life, but it soon becomes apparent that this character also kills multiple woman throughout the series. This expands my point that psychological thriller is not the uncommon therefore justifying why it belongs in the multiplex cinema bracket.

Our budget suits that of the medium budget range and therefore we would allow a budget of $35 million. Whilst some low budget productions can appear to be unprofessional and rushed, we on the other hand managed to secure two settings. One of which was access to a house beneath a school which immediately promotes spinster connotations and the other being a warehouse which enabled us access to an office for our detective scene. In addition, we used a spotlight to focus the viewers’ attention fully onto the detective and how the antagonists react and therefore our production feels slick and smooth. In addition, the victim of the murder was wearing a ball gown and the detective was wearing jewellery around their neck and hands. The use of these props therefore made this film feel well organised and something that would match the medium bracket. As I touched upon earlier the plot is much like that of the Fall and Sixth Sense, featuring a female victim and a psychological character. The antagonist has sections where he is trying to be clever and win over the support of the audience and in that respect we also see this in Se7en, with Kevin Spacey providing that persona. This is much like the Silence of the Lambs where despite the antagonist being someone with serious psychological issues we see the build of a relationship between the antagonist and protagonist. Se7en had a budget of 30 million US dollars and Silence of the Lambs had a budget of 19 million US dollars. This is promising for our film introduction as it shows that we can produce it in the way we want to whilst staying inside the medium budget range with a budget of $35 million.

David Fincher

For our film we would employ David Fincher to be the director. He has never written or produced a film he has directed as he wants to focus fully on the job at hand. Whilst David Fincher has a wide range of work he is most renowned for his thrillers which match our brief. The American budget for a film is split into three brackets. The top bracket is worth around $4.5bn, middle is $140m and the bottom bracket is worth $795,000. David Fincher, much like our film, is consistently hitting the lower end of the middle bracket. He directed Fight Club, Se7en, Gone Girl, Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, Zodiac all were worth less than $100m with Se7en, most like our film, only costing $33m. David Fincher doesn’t shy away from the repulsive side of human nature 9the infamous office scene from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of the glaring example). He has also stated that he tries to get out the scrips way and show the movie from POV of the characters. This is the underlying principle of his Michael Douglas starrer the game.

20th Century Fox

Taking inspiration from David Fincher’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2011 (produced by Columbia Picture and MGM and distributed by Columbia Pictures) we would do something very similar. For us hitting the American audience and to spread the word of our film is so important to make it stand out from the crowd to make a profit. Therefore, we would look to collaborate with 20^th Century Fox. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six Major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills. The studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. Whilst they have produced high bracket films such as Avatar which cost $230 million they have also ventured into the lower end of the middle bracket and this can be seen with Chronicle a 2012 film. So they provide us with the platform to put our product out there with sufficient funding and a range of connections. In addition, we would also get Spyglass Entertainment to partner with 20^th Century Fox to produce this film. Spyglass Entertainment was an American production company, co-founded by Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum in 1998. It is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. They have produced films like The Sixth Sense, a 1999 American supernatural horror-thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. This combination has been used before with 20^th Century Fox and Spyglass Entertainment partnering up on the production side of the film to create ’27 Dresses’. Whilst 20^th Century Fox have slowly ventured into the middle bracket in terms of budget, Spyglass are renowned for producing lower budget films with Sixth Sense being a strong example. I believe with this partnership the two companies can work in unison to fund and create a solid foundation for our medium budget film.

Spyglass Entertainment

Not only are 20^th Century Fox stung producers of film with the funding they hold but they are also fantastic distributors. In recent decades they have distributed films like Avatar, Titanic and The Revenant. They have access to a wide range of platforms and people who can promote their product and with the money that they have they can produce plenty of billboards and pt. advertisements for our film. Since January 2000, this company has been the international distributor for MGM/UA releases. In the 1980s, Fox—through a joint venture with CBS, called CBS/Fox Video—had distributed certain UA films on video, thus UA has come full circle by switching to Fox for video distribution. Fox also makes money distributing films for small independent film companies. In August 2012, 20th Century Fox signed a five-year deal with DreamWorks Animation to distribute in domestic and international markets. This shows that they have the capabilities to spread this film globally and they will be more than capable to fund our $27 million film.

In late 2005, when YouTube was just a few months old, one of its co-founders announced that the site’s users were consuming the equivalent of an entire Blockbuster store each month. Today, 300 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. cording to just-released June 2011 data from Google, Facebook is still the world’s most popular website, with 870 million unique visitors and a whopping 1 trillion page views per month. Right behind Facebook–in terms of unique visitors, at least–is YouTube, with 790 million visitors per month and 100 billion page views. it is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000.  On July 23, 2007 and November 28, 2007, CNN and YouTube produced televised presidential debates in which Democratic and Republican US presidential hopefuls fielded questions submitted through YouTube. In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS, allowing the companies to post full-length films and television episodes on the site, accompanied by advertisements in a section for US viewers called "Shows". The move was intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney. YouTube was awarded a 2008 Peabody Award and cited as being "a 'Speakers' Corner' that both embodies and promotes democracy". So with this amount of people and attention centred around YouTube one marketing technique which should be used is to advertise across. As our film has such wide audience range with the cast and the genre pushing it on to the most used services will increase profit as people will know more about the film and feel more inclined to watch it. To increase revenue advertisements on prime time television, in the evenings, on the most well known channels (ITV for UK) and (CBS for the US) would gain a lot more recognition and venturing possibly into advertisements on Facebook which now has more than 950m people using the social networking service is another method of boosting recognition. 

In addition to YouTube and advertisements I think it would be important to also focus on the issue of the media and psychological issues. Our film covers the topic of a psycologically disturbed man who is acting uncontrollably. Despite some assuming we are mocking those with mental health issues it would be important to connect with another type of audience. Connecting with those who are concerned about these sorts of issues through an interview, preferably for the guardian as they get over 100 million online viewers every month, talking about the issues and challenged covering this topic caused for us would be beneficial. This was seen with the film The World's End, 2013 (Edgar Wright), which was solely a comedy-action film designed for those under the age of 15 or those who are into gore and unrealistic alien action films. However to the suprise of many Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the comedy duo in the Cornetto Trilogy featured alongside Edgar Wright in an interview for the guardian, providing a deeper meaning to the film rather than just another alien action film.

The full interview can be accessed here.... https://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2013/jul/17/worlds-end-simon-pegg-nick-frost-video

In terms of our cast

Viola Davis would be perfect for the role of the detective. In roles such in Suicide Squad and Luke Cage she has played characters who are not afraid to take no for an answer. She is being extremely powerful woman who holds the floor in any situation she goes into. When facing a psychologically deterred character we need someone who is cold and calm in unnerving situation and Viola can bring that to this film. In addition, would help distribute our film to a wider target audience. She has featured on many different platform during her career. In recent years she has ventured into Netflix Original programmes such as Luke Cage and A Series of Unfortunate Events as well as working with Marvel or some more realistic lower budget films such as Fences (released in 2017). Therefore, she is a face that so extremely well known with a wide range of audiences. By using her at the forefront of our posters it enables us to a promote the product global and to a large amount of people, increasing revenue. In addition Viola Davis won the oscar for best supporting actress this year for her role in Fences and so including her in our film would boost recognition. 

Cillian Murphy would be a great candidate for the role of the antagonist. This role is not something that would be unusual to him. He has played many antagonists in his career most notably Scarecrow in Batman. His supposed handsomeness and range of character profiles provides our film for a character the audience should be curious about. Despite playing roles in mainstream high budget films such as Batman he has ventured into medium budget productions, most notably with Peacock in 2010. His face is extremely recognizable and along with Viola Davis he would be a good marketing point to focus the poster around as people would recognise him, as he attracts a wide range of audiences due to variety in roles, subsequently increasing profit.

Finally, I would use Laia Costa to play the role of the female victim. Not only does she fit the role of a stereotypical vulnerable petit woman who is prone to being abused due to her dainty looks but she is also a great marketing aspect. After her role in the German film Victoria which earned fame for being filmed in one shot in the space of 2 hours she shot to fame. She is very much now in the public eye and has landed herself a role in a much anticipated film Newness (being released in 2017). If we could manage to get her involved in our film and put her, with Davis and Murphy, then our film would gain a lot of public recognition and enhance our market.

This would all play into the USP of our film. We promote our film on the basis that it subverts gender roles. In most thrillers the female is the victim and in that respect we have stuck to that theme but in more and more thrillers, especially with the continued rise of feminism women are given more oppurtunities when it comes to roles. As seen with Viola Davis in Suicide Squad, 50 years ago that would have been unheard of. Therefore using Candice Feddis as a strong female black detective would gain a lot of recognition in a white dominated film world. 

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film introduction we have tried to cover three types of social groups throughout. Firstly, the detective represents powerful strong leading woman who has a commanding presence. Despite all the actors being under 18 the aim was to create a film where age was not a key aspect but only references to children and the subsequent connotations of innocence are prevalent in our film introduction. Gender plays a key role in the opening to 'Good Mourning'. With the victims character we have tried to present in a relationship with the antagonist, due to her exposed look (high cut dress and lying on bed). However we played around with the victims look to apply a twist to our story as it soon turned out that she was a victim of abuse. Her outfit represented vulnerability and fragility due to her exposed look. So in that respect gender played a key role in the development of our film introduction due to the twist it set up. However, compared to film from the late 20th century (in which women were often seen as fragile and made to look a certain way), we aimed to also attract to social groups who push for female empowerment. Through this we have used Candice Feddis who acts the detective in 'Good Mourning'. Her character holds the floor well and holds eye contact with the antagonist, showing she is not fased by his presence, for the majority of the scene. The camera is consistently placed at an eye level angle highlighting how this female character is neither above and more importantly beneath the antagonist in terms of superiority. 

Our antagonist

Ben Nizon pictured who plays the role of the antagonist seen in 'Good Mourning'

Anthony Perkins

I think our male antagonist, Ben Nixon, has many similarites and in some aspects is based of the character from Psycho, 1960, Norman Bates played by Anthony Perkins, pictured above. Anthony Perkins was an American actor and singer. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his second film, Friendly Persuasion but is best known for playing Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcocks 'Psycho'. Both film were thrillers and the aim from the directors was to lure the audience into thinking that this character would never do any harm. This was achieved by the fact that they are what one may call attractive males. In the film psycho Norman Bates's mother is accused of murdering many different people and so people are quick to assume that Norman Bates himself has some role to play in the murders. However as the story progresses one finds out that this Norman Bates character is dressing up as his mother and is therefore the muderer. We have tried to use a similar effect in the way we have shown Ben Nixon's antagonist. When he is intially walking up the stairs he is surrounded by white light and we see his broad figure. When he reaches the bathroom and then the bedroom one assumes that he is in a relationship with the female due to the way in which he is stroking her arm. We have used the illusion of his body and in the following shots his face to draw the audience in, so to speak. This effect can be seen also in 'The Fall' where Jamie Dornan, also a model, plays the role of father and muderer but due to his appearance the audience would warm to him. We have used the cover of appearence to alter with the viewers thoughts that a murderer is someone that is a gruesome person both inside and out, subsequently allowing us to provide the audience with an enhanced sinister tone and twist. 

Jamie Dornan

Jamie Dornan

In addition they both wear similar clothes which hide their true identity. In 'The Fall' Jamie Dornan plays the role of a father who can be seen taking his children to school, and caring for his wife. He wears light brown clothes which promote warm connotations and the same can be said for Norman Bates in psycho. In the images he can be seen wearing relatively ordinary clothes, a work shirt and trousers (a seemingly ordinary outfit for a working man). However both these characters almost use this outfit to blend in and to enhance the element of suprise. Jamie Dornan slips into black overalls when he goes off to murder innocent women and Norman Bates dresses up as his mother changes his personna completely, he uses this to then disregard any accusations made against him. However with Ben Nixon's antagonist we have and haven't implemented these features. We have dresses Ben in seemlessly ordinary clothes to show how anyone is at risk and break the stereotypes and safety barrier the audience would hold. Rather than dress the anatgonist in completely different clothing when we filmed him by his victim we offfered the audience the chance to work out whether this man is ordinary or is pyschologically disturbed. As seen in the image below the antagonist can be seen wearing his trouser leg reaching beneath his foot. This is an unusual sight and whilst this was initially an accident when filming this scene we used this to our favour, taking inspiration from Norman Bates and Jamie Dornan's Paul Spector, as this highlighted that this ordinarity was false and the anagonist actuually leads a double life. Much like in the final scene in Psycho, when Norman Bates appears to be possessed by his mother in that moment as he completely disregards 'her' wrongdoing in recent murders we have tried to implement a similar technique into our film opening. At the end of the interrogation during the detective scene Ben Nixon can be seen to completely disregard what the detective had been saying, when he says 'I like you'. This completely diregards the intermedation technique the detective had been trying to build and shows the audience how truly sinister and psychologically disturbed the antagonist is to feel no remorse for the victims but instead is fascinated by the detective, in it's simplest form (also in psycho) this makes the audience feel very unnerved and 'frightened' of this character. 

Jamie Dornan's Paul Spector in 'The Fall' in a scene where he is picking up his children

Paul Spector after coming back from one of his murder (the clothes suggest he has two personnas and that he is truly sinister)

Ben Nixon in 'Good Mourning'

Norman Bates

Norman Bates again but this time he is dressed up in his mothers outift. This shows a complete change in personna from someone who is usually quite calm and quite to someone who is a brutal murder, enhancing the shock aspect and the sinister nature of the thriller. 

Evaluation Question 1

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

In our film introduction we used a range of shots, angles and camera movements to give off certain representations enhancing the quality of our film. In this evaluation question I will be analysisng 9 different shots taken from our film introduction "Good Mourning" and comparing them to similar techniques used in other media products.

One of the first tasks we had to do was to analyse generic film openings, my finding can be found on this blog. Once we had understood the film world and generic conventions we regrouped and focused on one genre for us to develop into a film introduction. We chose to study Thrillers and looked further into the conventions present in those. One thing that became apparent, correlating with our initial audience research, was that people preferred the story to be told aesthetically and visually more so than through dialogue.

Shot 1 (Title Sequence)

To build up drama and suspense, key themes of a thriller, the audience had to be capitvated from the beginning and one way most film do this is by having a unique title sequence, which could foreshadow, hide or envoke certain things or feelings. This is what we have tried to achieve in our title sequence.

Taking inspiration from Se7en (1995), a David Fincher film, we have tried to create an atmosphere in which the audience feels uncomfortable and confused. Above, when stopping both film introductions when the name of the film has been stated, there are many similarities. The font used in Se7en is that which one would most associate with a young childs handwriting, scruffy and messy. Partnered with the non-diegetic parralel screaming of a child and the noise of the chainsaw one begins to feel very unnerved. The film tells the story of David Mills, a young detective who is partnered with the retiring William Somerset and soon tasked with tracking down a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy and pride) as tropes in his murders. The films title seqeunce therefore has represents and foreshadows the plot as children are not prone to these deadly sins at such a young age and often have no awareness of them. The simple white childs writing on a black background envokes a sense of innocence and immediately implants sinister undertones into the audiences mind.

We have aimed to achieve a similar affect. Like most psychological thrillers there is some sort of twist occuring in them and our film introduction is no different. It tells the story of a woman, played by Izzi Harrison, who one assumes is in a relationship with the man walking up the stairs due to the physical touching and stroking. However it soons becomes apparent that this woman has actually been killed in her own home and therefore we have tried to capture this immediately in the title sequence. A common phrase to say to your loved one is good morning and the colour red has connoations to love and affection. We have played on both of these by changing the morning to mourning. Partnered with the deep red font and classic love letter esque font the representation of this film completely changes and creates an immediate sense of suspense and unnervningness. Red also is the colour of blood and the mourning is defined as the expression of sorrow for someone's death. Therefore through the title sequence alone, much like in Se7en, representation has been built up to create high levels of suspence and unnerves the audience.

Shot 2 (Setting)

In many respects our location is not that dis similar to that of other classic psychological thrillers. As we can see from the audience research earlier in the blog many people thought it would be best if the 57.69% of the voters thought it would be best if the film introduction was set in a private building. We applied that to both halves of the film introduction. The aim was to create an atmosphere in which the audience felt very uncomfortable and to slowly build up the tension, whilst sticking to the idea of having a twist in the film introduction, that being that the victim had no relationship with the antagonist. By filming it in a house it would hit harder on the audience as a house is an area where one is supposed to feel safe and private in their own confounds. However we have tried to break this safety barrier by placing the murder scene in the victims bedroom where she is extremely vulnerable. This convention of breaking down the safety barrier and making the audience members feel on edge is something that is not unheard of in the thriller world and is actually the norm.

Most notably this has been applied in the film Psycho (1960), a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (whom 17.39% of voters in the audience research said was their favourite director). This film is about a man called Norman Bates who 10 years previous had lost his mother in a supposed suicide. However as the story unfolds the audience comes to realise that Norman dresses up as his mother and murders many people in attempt to prolong the relationship he had with her. This only becomes evident in the final stages of the film and therefore inspired the twist seen our own film. The idea of breaking down this safety barrier occured also in Pscho. The idea of a hotel is somewhere you can feel safe to stay for the night and you are trusting the person who owns the hotel to look after your safety. However Norman Bates' character breaks this down. We decided to film our scene in a house to add to the intimacy and enhance the idea of breaking the safety barrier between the audience and the film. 

Shot 3 (Props #1)

The scene where the tap is left running just before the Antagonist (played by Ben Nixon) walks into the room where the victim lies was inspired by the Usual Suspects, 1995 (directed by Bryan Singer). The film follows the interrogation of Roger "Verbal" Kint, a small-time con man who is one of the only two survivors of a massacre and fire on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles. He tells an interrogator a convoluted story about events that led him and his partners in crime to the boat, and about a mysterious mob boss known as Keyser Söze who commissioned their work. Using flashback and narration, Kint's story becomes increasingly complex. In the opening scene on the burning boat we see the oil dripping onto the deck from what looks like barrels. When it comes to the final drops we hear the diegetic synchronous sound of the oil dripping. This is symbolic of the final drops of the victims life and acts as a warning foreshadowing this person's death. Following on from the questionnaire which stated that over 70% of the voters wanted the film to be told through visuals rather than dialogue. The device seen in The Usual Suspects inspired us to use something very similar. The taps foreshadowed the death of the victim acting as our very own timer. 

Shot 4 (Props #2)

Again we tried to use props to create a sinister atmosphere for our film introduction. In this analysis it the presence of school bags in the scene. This topic comes under my earlier point about making the audience feel unsafe and uncomfortable. Firstly the house in which we filmed the first half of our film introduction it was based underneath and above school grounds. In addition as you can see from the shot beneath from our film there were 3 or 4 black school bags. Not only is the fact that the murder scene occured in a stately home but also the fact that the victim may have children of her own. This adds another sinister dimension to our film introdiction because children are something the audience may have and something one should take great care of. With the safety barrier ruined in this film it puts the lives of innocent children at risk. 

This convention is also used in modern day media products. We wanted to create our thriller film opening as sinister as possible and so we searched online for recent conventions in modern day media products which highlight the innocence of children and how they are used in the media to portray a sense of drama. This can be seen in The Fall (a BBC production). The Fall is a psychological thriller that examines the lives of two hunters -- one is a serial killer who preys on victims in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the other is a female detective drafted from the London Metropolitan Police to catch him. During one of the episodes the man has come home from killing another woman and is questioned by his son who is sat on the staircase. We see the serial killer version and then the parent, something the audience can relate to and therefore this makes the thriller more chilling, how this man can be so ruthless and yet have so much responsibility in raising a child. In terms of the child he is sat at the top of the stairs with a teddy bear in his hand. This symbolises comfort but the worried look on his face tells another story. This idea of using the theme of or an actual child inspired us to use this in our own film production to enhance the sinister aspect. 

Shot 5 (Camera Angles)

Building upon my earlier point, we aimed to have a massive twist in the story. Throughout the film introduction the audience is fed hints that the female is the victim and not in relationship and the antagonist is the threat, achieved through high angle shots, low angle shots and lighting, all to be developed later on.  The one I will be analysing is that of the twist in the film introduction. Inside the first 30-40 seconds of the film introduction one would assume that the eventual victim and antagonist were in some sort of relationship. Even 2 seconds before we see the victim is dead one would still assume that they are a couple due to 2 shot seen in which the antagonist is stroking the arm and legs of Izzi Harrison. However her vulnerability and death soon becomes apparent. Throughout the scene in the room the victim is only seen in extreme close ups in which she is still or in a high angle shot looking down on her. This highlights her inferiority to the antagonist as he is often seen in an eye level shot or in a low angle shot looking up, providing a sense of superiority. 

Unlike the other shots we mainly draw this technique from our own knowledge. Candice Feddis has been studying Media Studies for almost 3 successive years and after using the preliminary task and the educational lessons before hand we had a sound reseme to produce a strong foundation in our film introduction, throgh using techniques that enhance representation picked up throughout the year. Even though it was our own decision more so than the study of other films that led us to use this technique that doesn't mean it is not commonly used in films and other media products today. As a group we recently watched Gone Girl, 2014 (another film directed by David Fincher). This film is much like the idea for our film. et in Southeast Missouri, the story begins as a mystery that follows the events surrounding Nick Dunne, who becomes the primary suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy. Throughout the film the audience are set up to question and possibly be afraid of Nick Dunne as you fear he may be involved in the murder or dissapearance of his wife. Throughout, high angle shots looking down on Amy make her seem like the vulnerable one and her diary entries state how much she fears her husband and that he may 'kill her'. The plot ends up with her actually being alive and how she set up her death to go on a killing spree but it goes to show what impact camera angles and movements can have on the audience in creating certain atmospheres. 

Shot 6 (Lighting)

Not only did we use many camera techniques to provide a sense of dominance, or inferiority but we also played with the lighting to create some sinister and serious scenes. This could be seen in the first half of the film introduction inside the house when we saw the ray of light shining onto the bed in which Izzi Harrison, the victim, was lying. This white which shone on it's own away from the dark surroundings was symbolic of purity and innocence which has some connotations to vulnerability. However it was most notable that we played around with the light in the detective scene. We used a spotlight to focus solely on the conversation and the relationship/chemistry the antagonist and the detective had, drawing the audience and almost forcing them into the action. Whilst the light in the first half was more symbolic with the white light around the victim symbolising innocence and the grey and black light when the antagonist was on screen being symbolic of sinister undertones the light used in the detective scene focused in on the conversation and the black edges provided a sense of mystery. This convention is extremely common in crime thriller especially. The example I am using can be seen in The Dark Knight, 2008 (Christopher Nolan). In this Batman is interrogating the Joker (the antagonist). There is a dim light which only lights up the faces of each character and then the surrounding light around these characters is dark. Again this not only forces the audience to really focus on what is saying, understanding the intensity of the conversation but also how the dark edges surrounding the characters may be symbolic of their dark pasts or things they are going to do, providing a sense of mystery (a key aspect of a successful thriller). So rather than change this around for our own film introduction we decided to use this to our advantage and enhance the drama being portrayed in the 2 minutes given to us. 

Shot 7 (Detective)

Unlike the rest of the cast we are introduced to the detective in a two shot with the antagonist at an eye level. The antagonist has his head drooped down whilst the detective, played by Candice Feddis, holds a strong powerful pose. Despite the majority of thrillers or dramas being based around males dominating against woman, with over 70% of the voters favourite thriller films involving women who are abused, killed or harmed in some manner, we wanted to provide our own little twist. Inspired by the recent realease of Suicide Squad, 2016 (David Ayer) we wanted to include this powerful female figure in our film and break some of the sterotypes most commonly used in thrillers over the ages. In Suicide Squad we see Viola Davis play the role of Amanda Waller. Initially we see how she is in a restaurant with men in smart suits and bodyguards around her. What seems like a male dominated environment, talking about crime and how they intend to improve the armed forces, she remains strong and dominant in a high pressured situation. We wanted to implement that into our own film. Candice Feddis is a strong actor and has had experience working on a film set. In our film we managed to implement this role of a strong female with the detective questioning and scrutinising a psychologically disturbed antagonist in the wake of a high pressure situation, hightened by the use of the spotlight. The roles of male and female have not only been used in the sense that the vulnerable victim is played by a petit female but also subverted in the use of a powerful female figure. 

Shot 8 (Antagonist)

Inspired yet again by The Fall we aimed to make the antagonist seem like an ordinary character to start of with. Through the use of low cut jeans and a black top the idea was to make people feel comfortable to start off with as he would seem perfectly normal. However once the audience had found out that this character was a murderer who was psyhcologically disturbed it would make them unnerved and enhance the sinister tone to the film. It would envoke the idea that this seemlessly normal person has an unnusual personna causing some of the audience to be uncomfortable. In additon when he is walking up the stairs and when he is in the bathroom the camera is always looking up at him. This gives off the impression that this seemlessly normal man is actually quite a dominant figure and someone who is a threat. This idea is not one of our own however. It is inspired by the recent BBC production The Fall. As I have talked about before, in reference to the innocence of children, we see how the antagonist in The Fall (played by Jamie Dornan) kills women at night and then comes home dressed not in a mask or outfit that one would associate with a murderer but of that of a normal person, someone you may see walking down the street. This is a successful method as it envokes fear that you can't trust anyone on face value and many people have dark histories or mysteries of there own. This is the effect we have tried to implement on our film introduction. This idea of them being normal and someone the audience may initially warm to is furthered. In The Fall Jamie Dornan is seen as a supposed attractive man and so to is Ben Nixon in our film opening. In this respect the audience may feel attracted to these actors and build some sort of connection and so the when you find out this character is a murderer the sinister tone is heightened as it comes as more of a shock to the audience. 

Shot 9 (Victim)

Within the opening seconds of seeing the victim we aimed to build up some sort of representations and played into many stereotypes. Often in thrillers the first victim of film evolves around a female victime who is supposedly beautiful with Psycho, Ex Machina being an example to name a few. Using this idea of them being petit and pretty we puposely played into that stereotype to create the idea that our victim would be someone who could be vulnerable in any situation. In the film opening we initially see a close up of the victims hand. She is wearing nail polish and is wearing a beige dress. This supposed attractive look invited danger in most cases and despite being quite predictable it did enable us, as film creators, to use this stereotype in our twist. Wearing a thigh cut dress and high heels one may assume that she is dressing up for a loved one and so even though we played into strereotypes envoking plenty of symbolism it is also worked for our twist. This idea of playing into sterotypes but with a twist can be seen in Ex Machina, 2015 (Alex Garland). The film follows a programmer who is invited by his CEO to administer the Turing test to an intelligent humanoid robot. The robot uses her sexuality and looks to lure the programmer into falling in love with her and eventually enabling her to escape. In one scene the robot is wearing a short skirt and is wearing a wig. This plays into the idea of her being vulnerable and petit as soon after she puts on the skirt the CEO breaks her arm off and she is prone to male dominance. Therefore after analysing this film we wanted to implement that idea of beauty and being petit with vulnerability, especially in thrillers.