Evaluation - Jess D'Alvarez

There are many different conventions of the thriller genre and these include:

Mise en Scene:

• Urban settings
• Dark atmosphere. Possibly using hard lighting to create very defined shadows, gives a creepy effect or using low key lighting to create dark areas and to accentuate the contours of a object, where there is shade (dark areas) in part of the picture and the light focuses on part of the person/object.

Camerawork and Editing:

• Faster cutting is usually used for violent action
• Crosscutting is used to create suspense
• Sometimes point of view (POV) camerawork is used. Usually as the murderer approaches the victim.

Iconography:

• Weapons: guns, knives etc
• Dark places
• Police, police cars and crime scene investigation
• Blood

Sound:

• Sound effects such as screams, footsteps etc are used to build suspense and/or to create shock.
• Non-diegetic sound is usually used to build suspense. For example when an antagonist if approaching a protagonist.

Typical Story Features:

• A thriller usually conforms to the narrative structure of the set up, disruption and resolution. The set up (sometimes called the equilibrium) is the initial situation in the narrative of the film, giving context. The disruption is the arrival of a force or character which opposes normality and creates a problem. The resolution is the closure or ending of the story being told.
  
• The narrative usually builds up to the solving of a crime(s) and then the final elimination of the criminal.
  
• Some thrillers use a flashback, which means that the end of the story may be shown at the beginning of the film.
  
• A thriller is usually structured using oppositional characters such as good vs bad or justice vs injustice of which then the narrative heads towards the resolution of the oppositions.
  
• In a typical thriller, there is both a protagonist, the main character (usually the hero or heroine), and an antagonist, the villain that opposes the protagonist(s). Binary Opposition is also a typical convention of the thriller genre; this is the way in which a protagonist will typically oppose an antagonist.
  
• Enigma Code is another typical convention of the thriller genre. Enigma code is the devices used by the narrative to raise questions in the minds of the viewer. For example, if in a thriller the face of the antagonist is not shown until a while into the film, it will raise questions in the minds of the viewers as to who that person is, why they are killing/attacking, etc. An example could be taken from the opening of the thriller Seven. Within just the first few minutes of the film i.e. the opening, many questions are raised in the audience's minds.
  
• Restricted Narrative, elements of a story that are not presented in the narrative to create intrigue for the audience, is usually used in a typical thriller in order to keep the audience always wondering what is going to happen next. An example could be taken from the opening of an episode in the TV series Criminal Justice. The audience are not given any clues as to who any of the characters are or their relationships with one another, this would also be an example of enigma code.
  
• Unrestricted Narrative, where the narrative shows us everything, giving us more knowledge than the characters, is also usually seen to be used in a typical thriller as it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats because they know more of what is going to happen than the characters do, which also makes it more exciting for the audience.

How did our product, Love Links, use the above conventions and forms of a thriller?

Our product used many typical conventions and forms of a thriller such as, enigma code. We chose to have no dialogue in our thriller opening in order to raise questions in the audience's minds as to what has happened and why the male character, Fred, wants to kills the female character, Katie.

Another example of how we used enigma code would be that we chose not to show Fred's face until the bathroom scene as we wanted the audience to wonder who he was and what relation he had to Katie. However, we chose to show the picture that Fred was holding, whilst walking to Katie's house, which should help the audience come to a conclusion as to the relationship of Fred and Katie.



We also used unrestricted narrative because our opening showed Fred walking to Katie's house and the audience saw this, however Katie was unaware of the fact that Fred was making his way to her house, therefore the audience knew more than the character, Katie.

Our opening includes two of the three stages of narrative and these are the set-up and the confrontation/disruption. Our whole opening would be the set-up to the full film 'Love Links', however the set-up to the opening would be Fred walking to Katie's house and again when he throws the photo of him and Katie on the floor and we see that it is ripped in half. This shows that something is 'not right', which is typical of a thriller set-up.


We also used the second stage of narrative which is the confrontation/disruption. The confrontation/disruption is the arrival of a force or character which opposes normality and creates a problem. In our opening the confrontation/disruption is when Fred creeps into the bathroom, whilst Katie is getting ready to go out, and then grabs her and covers her mouth with a rag of chloroform.




We chose not to include a resolution because it is the 'closure' or ending of the story being told and our product was only the opening of a thriller, therefore we didn't use it, however it would be used if 'Love Links' were to be made a longer film.

In our thriller opening we have a villain, male character; however I would not class him as an antagonist because he does not oppose a protagonist e.g. the hero/heroine of the story. Therefore because of this, we have not included binary opposition in our thriller opening.

Thrillers are usually shot in the dark to make them seem scarier, therefore we tried to do this for our opening and shoot Fred walking to Katie's in the dark, however we came across a problem. The problem was continuity. We tried to shoot all of our outside footage in one go at around 6:15pm however it got dark quickly which meant that we were unable to see our actor. We then decided to shoot some more the next night and when uploading our footage onto the Macs we could see that there was a clear continuity problem due to the fact that we had shot on different days and even though it was at the same time, it just wasn't the same darkness. To overcome this problem, we chose to shoot the outside shots in the daytime and in post-production, add a night effect to the shots. We did this, however the shots don't look like they have been shot at night, but they look gloomy; which I think also has a scary effect.

We have used many elements of typical thriller iconography in our opening such as a weapon. Guns are the most popular weapons used in thrillers however we were not allowed to use a gun therefore we chose to use a knife instead and this worked just as well. I found that our use of camerawork, in the shots where the knife was involved, helped to dwell on the knife and made the knife the most important part of the shots they were involved in, which is what we wanted because it was a main focus of our opening sequence.


Another typical thriller element on iconography would be blood. In our thriller opening we wanted to show Katie's blood seeping through her shirt overtime, after being stabbed. We thought that this idea was unique and different to any other thrillers; however we still had the typical thriller iconography element of blood. A member of our target audience described the blood as 'cool' and another said that this particular scene looks like a 'crime scene photograph', which is the effect that we were going for.


Police and crime scene investigation are both very typical of thrillers and the above scene has been described as looking like a crime scene investigation and we have police sirens playing in the background at the very end of the above scene and then as the title of the film appears, the shot to the left. This was described as 'the cherry on the cake' by one member of the target audience.



Thrillers are usually set in a urban, often seedy setting, however our opening is not set in an urban setting and is in fact set in a small town/village. We thought that if our opening was set in a small town/village where everyone knew each other and everyone was friendly, then a murder would come as a shock and be very out of the ordinary and hopefully raise questions in the audiences minds as to why this murder has happened, which is an example of enigma code.


How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents two different people, one of which is a 17 year old, middle class female and the other of which is a 17 year old, middle class male.

We wanted our main female character, Katie to seem like an ordinary, 17 year old girl, who likes to have fun. By ordinary we mean, a girl who is middle class, she is not poor however she is not rich, a girl who goes to college, has friends but isn't one of the 'popular' lot and a girl who just likes to go out and have fun once in a while, especially considering she has just broken up with her boyfriend.

During the research and planning stage of our coursework, we were thinking about subverting the the typical thriller by having a female antagonist and male protagonist and create something out of the ordinary. However we decided not to do this and conveyed to the typical thriller convention of having a female protagonist and male antagonist.

Our male character, Fred, is represented as stereotypically dominant throughout our short opening. We used a low angle, pov shot in order to make the male character seem more powerful and dominant. We dressed our male character in black clothing to conform to the idea the 'bad guys' in a film are represented by wearing all black.

We didn't want to over dress our female character, specifically because of our zero budget, therefore we dressed her in a plain white t-shirt, leggings and teamed it with a gold coloured necklace to make her look slightly dressed up, as she was going out for the night with friends. Being a teenage girl myself, I think these items of clothing are what a typical teenage girl would wear now-a-days. This outfit represents her age because it is something that a young, teenager would wear and not particularly something that you would see a 40 year old women wearing.

We wanted to have Katie listening to music, however we were not allowed to use real songs because for this we needed permission and gaining permission would have been a lengthy process therefore we decided to make our own music, however this was a difficult task because there are many different subcultures within the stereotype of a teenager; for example, goths, chavs, emos, punks etc. We didn't want Katie to be stereotyped, however the truth is people do judge and stereotype people, therefore whatever music we had Katie listen to, she would've been instantly stereotyped and classed as a 'chav' or 'goth' etc. In the end we did make some music to put in the background of the bathroom and in my personal opinion I think it sounds rather upbeat and rocky, therefore Katie could be stereotyped as a 'rockchick', but we did not intend to specifically stereotype Katie.
I think our representations of Katie are positive because we just wanted to show her as an ordinary, 17 year old, teenager.

I think using young, teenages actors in our short opening means that our target audience will be more inclined to a film in which people of the same age appear and of which they can relate to.

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

We would be looking for a small independent film distribution company in order to distribute our film. There are many small independent film distribution companies who would be suitable to choose in order to distribute our film. I have not been able to find such distribution companies who specialise in thrillers however distribution companies such as Guerilla Films, Shorts International and possibly Verve Pictures would be possible companies to enquire with about distributing our film. After choosing a film distribution company to distribute our film, they would then determine the release strategy and release date for our film. Our distributors would then present our film to exhibitors and negotiate agreements to have the film shown in cinemas.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think the audience for our media product would primarily be teenage girls, aged 15-19 as our film is about a psycho ex-boyfriend and I think that some/most teenage girls can relate to a psycho ex-boyfriend; however it may not be to the extreme that Fred goes to. Despite this, I think that some males might enjoy our film; however teenage girls are definitely our predominant target audience. An example of thrillers, similar to ours, that teenagers (our target audience) might enjoy could be Prom Night (2008), Fatal Attration (1987) or Obsessed (2009). (Film posters below)


How did you attract/address your audience?


As said above, our film is about a psycho ex-boyfriend and the extremes he goes to in order to ensure that if he cannot have Katie, then no other male can and in a way, I believe that many teenage girls can relate to this. However, you may be thinking, just by watching the short opening, how would an audience know that this is about an ex-boyfriend wanting to kill his ex-girlfriend? And the answer to that would be the fact that we showed Fred throwing a torn picture of him and Katie to the ground, and I think this is a very important part of our opening. We emphasised this scene in two ways. The first was by having Fred throw the picture to the floor, in order to show that he was heartbroken by the break up and the second being that we showed a close up of the picture, really emphasising what the picture showed and the tear down the middle of it. I think once the audience see this scene, then they would instantly know Fred and Katie's relationship and the simple fact that the picture has been torn, shows that their relationship is 'torn' indicating that they have split. Over this shot the music was very quiet and slow. This would indicate that this photo bought back sad memories for the person holding it and once again help the audience to understand what has happened between the two characters.

I think that some teenagers i.e. members of our target audience, would listen to the type of music that Katie is listening to in the bathroom whilst getting ready. It's the rocky, upbeat music that some teenagers like and I think that this could help to attract our audience.

I also think that after watching our opening, the audience will have questions as to why Fred killed Katie and not automatically assume that it was just because Katie ended the relationship with Fred, as well as questions such as does Katie die? Do the police find Katie? Do they find Fred? etc. I believe that our opening acts as a cliff-hanger and draws the audience in and makes them want to watch more. This is an example of how we used enigma code and restricted narration.

Another mechanism used to capture an audience would be titling. Some films such as The Orphanage, Seven and Old Boy have very sophisticated opening titles and I think they are used in order to attract an audience and make them interested in the film. Our titles are not very sophisticated however I think the sound, police sirens, used over our main title 'Love Links' attracts the audience and gets them wondering what will happen next e.g. asking questions such as are the police involved? etc. Had we thought more about our titles and had more experience in creating titles, we could've possibly used a heart to replace the 'o' in Love Links, as this symbol links in with the titles. We also had the idea of having a red ribbon morph into the words 'Love Links', which would've appeared to be more sophisticated and created a more interesting title sequence.

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


Using the camera:
I have learnt a significant amount about each different piece of technology used in the process of constructing this product. During our preliminary I didn't use the camera as much as I would've liked to because I didn't feel confident when using it however during this project I felt more confident using the camera. I also did some individual filming of the actor (character Fred) and I came to enjoy the filming process because I took many different shots using different angles and heights etc. Being allowed to shoot some shots individually helped me perfect shots such as panning shots as I was able to practice and practice without the pressure of fellow group members. I also learnt how to perfect the setting of the white balance and now it is the first thing I do before beginning to shoot as we discovered that some of our shots looked blue, due to the white balance not being set. I have searched for a tutorial on how to set the white balance on the Panasonic NV-GS90 however I cannot find one for this specific camera. Setting the white balance is similar on all cameras, therefore to learn about how to set white balance, please click on the 'setting the white balance' linke above.

We were given the option of using either iMovie or Final Cut Pro when it came to editing our rushes together. Having used iMovie in our preliminary it probably would've been ideal to use this programme for editing as we had near enough got the hang of using it however having briefly looked at Final Cut Pro we discovered that it had much to offer than iMovie did therefore we chose to use Final Cut Pro. At first it took a while to get the hang of using Final Cut Pro and remembering the shortcuts, in order for us to edit our work quickly but after roughly two hour sessions of using Final Cut Pro I found that I could use the software confidently whether it be with my group or individually. During the process of constructing our product I have learnt the basics of how to use Final Cut Pro as well as how to cut a clip, edit a clip together, add effects to clips, such as: darken and lighten, add transitions to clips and how to add impose titles onto clips. Screen grabs of our titles below:

The use of cameras and the editing suite allowed us to demostrate continuity, which was totally new to us before this course. Continuity is the consistency of the characteristics of people (characters) in a film, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over a period of time. A match on action is an example of continuity and we demonstrated many of these in our opening. In order to achieve this type of continuity, using walking through a door as an example, we had to shoot our character walking through the door from behind him and then shoot him walking through the door and closing it, from the other side. In order to make sure out match on action was perfect we had to ensure that the our actor opened the door with the same hand for both of the shots. We also has to make sure that he put the same foot forward, when walking through the door. Then when in the editing suite, we were able to use the software, Final Cut Pro, to cut and edit these clips together and make it look like it was shot all in one go.


Garageband:
We use Garageband in order to edit the diegetic sound picked up whilst filming. However, not all diegetic sound can be picked up and there may also be the problem of picking up unwanted sound, therefore Garageband sound effects can be used to emphasise the diegetic sound that may not have been picked up very clearly and it can also be used to cover up the unwanted sound. There are a wide range of sound effects on Garageband, therefore this enables people to choose the right effect that suits their genre.
Garageband was not completely new to me as I had practised using it before, as did the other members of my group, therefore we had an advantage and this meant that we wouldn't waste time trying to get the hang of the programme. I feel that I wasn't very confident when using Garageband because the other members of my group were more confident than me, therefore I only participated a little when editing the sound of our product. We were great as a group when it came to using Garageband because we all agreed on the sound effects and there were no disputes. In terms of actually editing our sound, in most of our scenes we cut out the sound and added a soundtrack to it. We didn't have any dialogue in our piece, therefore we didn't have a problem with background noise and not being able to hear dialogue etc. Garageband is a great piece of software to use in order to edit sound after filming.


Blogging:
The blogging experience was not totally new to me as I am a member of social networking sites such as, Facebook, therefore I found it relatively easy to blog through the construction of our product. However, because I had never used Blogger before it took me a few sessions to get the hang of it, but I found that it was quite basic and easy to use and I also learnt how to create a new post, edit a post, delete a post, insert a photo into a post and how to embed a video, e.g. a YouTube video.


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

Personally, I think, individually, I have progressed greatly from the preliminary task to the main task and that as a group we have also progressed greatly. I have mastered the techniques of using equipment such as: the camera, tripod and redheads etc, Final Cut Pro, Garageband and Blogging. I have also learnt a lot about the thriller genre and the conventions of a thriller after looking at and studying various thriller openings such as: Seven and Arlington Road. Researching the conventions of a thriller really helped me understand what a thriller is and really what people expect of a thriller.


One large, and rather noticeable improvement, would be our lighting. In our preliminary task our lighting was terrible and not continuous which made the film look poor. Therefore, during this main task, we focused on lighting a lot. One lighting problem we had was the outside lighting and that fact that some of the shots were very dark, too dark to even see the actor, therefore (as mentioned above) we shot these shots in the daytime and then added a dark/gloomy effect to make it more eerie.

Another problem we had with lighting was the continuity of the upstairs shots. We wanted to shoot the stabbing using a shadow effect, as we could not find another way of showing the stabbing. At first, we used a large portable torch to create the shadow; however the battery in this torch died very quickly and left us with poor shots, which also meant we couldn't shoot the other upstairs shots because the lighting would be significantly different. We then got a redhead and used this in order to create a shadow and we then shot the stabbing. Again using the redhead we shot the POV shot, as well as the blood scene and this gave us a consistent light, which meant that we had concurred our lighting problem.


Bad lighting in preliminary exercise:




As you can see there is a very noticeable difference in the lighting.





I feel that in our preliminary exercise our match on action was well executed, however it could have been slightly better therefore one of our main focuses in our main task was to perfect our match on actions. In our final product we have three match on actions, which I think were well executed because we focused on these a lot. We were so determined to get our match on actions right, we made sure that every last detail was pinpointed and correct, right down to the hand our actor put on the door, to the foot he used to step inside the house and through the doors etc. Below is an example of one of our match on actions, where Fred walks through the side door into Katie's house.



Another element which is significantly better than our preliminary is our framing. In our preliminary task our framing was quite poor. Looking at this specific shot, we can see that there is a lot of unnecessary space above the male actors head. There is also lots of unnecessary space between the two characters' which makes them seem very distant. Compared to the next shot, our framing in our main task looks significantly better as the female characters head fills the whole of the shot and there is no unnecessary space in the shot.

When brainstorming ideas as to what our opening was going to entail, we knew that we wanted to do a killing, however we did not know what story we could have behind it. At first we were going to have a psycho serial killer, who killed people for no apparent reason and then took a picture of his victims and stuck them in his little black book, even though this would have been a good idea we then came up with the characters Fred and Katie, and decided to create a killer love story. Having created the characters, Fred and Katie, we knew that some members of our target audience would be able to relate to either how Fred or Katie were feeling after their break up. We also wanted to bring the police into our film as we researched and found that a typical thriller would include police and/or crime scene investigation, therefore the police would be introduced after the opening, which is why we used the police sirens over our titles, the police officers would then become two more main characters.