Evaluation
Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?
To make our thriller opening scene we had to come up with ideas, so we though about movies that inspired us to use the techniques they used and put it in our thriller in a creative way.
The photo at the top is from my thriller opening sequence and the photo below is from the opening sequence of 'SE7EN'. We added a similar ghosting effect as it helped to portray madness and insanity, and help the audience understand the character more.
The photo shot below is from SIN CITY, and the one below from our thriller sequence and you can see we have only shown the colour in the woman figures nails both with the same colour pass effect. This effect was clever to use, but we didn't get across the meaning of lust, passion and death because our actress had pink nails and that gave off her being girly. If we had used red, then perhaps the message would have been much clearer.
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Our film is based on a story about two brothers, and their differences. It shows how jealously can become hatred, and the actions as a result. It follows the plot of a murder, leading to regret, changing the culprits intentions. Our murder is shown, and the middle will be a flashback of what lead to the incident. We showed the murder first as this is a typical media convention of mysery, which also incorporates Pascal Bonitzer's theory on thrillers having "partial vision". Close ups and extreme close ups are used through out the sequence, and only parts of the culprits body are shown in detail. We also had a few tracking shots to focus on items in the shot which show some significance. We also used point of view shots to give a sense of realism, and to help the audience visualise what the characters are feeling, like when the victim had been drugged. We also used a shallow focus, and a deep focus to show the audience what was the main feature was in the shot, when we showed the wine being drugged. The music tracks we used were at first diegetic, where we had a jazz track to set a calm atmosphere, we then had some a more dark and sinister track playing which was non diegetic. This helped to create a more tense atmosphere.In terms of editing, all the shots are short, helping to keep the pace of the sequence to remain tense and fast. For graphics, we showed the composers(ourselves) names and titles in white on a black backgound as it make the text more bold, and stood out. However, the main title, "Incognito", we put in green to symbolize envy and jealousy. We also blurred the text to eventually reveal the title. We did this to represent confusion, and how the future is still unclear.
Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Daniel Redford(man in the suit) - We chose to represent this man as a well-off, wealthy, and successful man. As we can see he is fairly young, he has a very attractive wife and is also quite handsome. We wanted to make others envious of the character because of how successful he is, exactly how the culprit feels.
Claire Redford(woman in dress) - This is Daniel Redfords wife. She is very attractive, and the typical type to marry a young,handsome, and wealthy man. Her dress is purple, conveying wealth and greed. Her figure is also well looked af
ter and something the media typically expects.
John Redford (Dr.Redford) - John Redford we chose to portay as the less successful, less appealing younger brother. He has his shirt untucked, long hair and glasses. This shows his appearance being less appealing than Daniels, and that his scruffy hair connotes he doesn't take pride in himself.
This explains the reason behind his jealousy, and how hate turned to vengeance. He also wears glasses,and these perhaps make him seem more geeky than his brother, rather than just smart.. This shows how John feels demeaned as a younger brother and feeling less important.
In this black & white shot, Claire and John are "discretely" meeting in everyday clothes. This is to convey how anyone can be capable of commiting a crime. The hoodies help the characters blend in socially both visually(looking like a gang member), and in their actions, as well as hiding their identity. The black & white helps to show that this is a past memory/flashback.
Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
My media is more mainstream as it’s following the idea of many other films of its genre and putting a slight twist on it. The kind of media institution to distribute it we would have liked to distribute our film would be 20th Century Fox,Universal Pictures, or Orion Pictures as they have produced successful films such as Wanted, Public Enemies, and The Terminator. This would ensure the successfulness of the film and increase the overall profit of the film.
http://www.fox.co.uk/
http://www.universalstudios.com/
http://www.orionpictures.com/
However, as this would be a low-budget British
film, it would most likely be a Film4 style production. The film would require many special effects, and therefore would fit in with other Film4 productions, such as In Brudges starring Colin Farrell.
http://www.film4.com/features/article/about-film4-productions?intcmp=productions_what-we-do
In terms of promotion, trailers could be shown along with scenes of the film on Youtube. Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter could also help spread awareness of the film.
Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience was for those aged 15 and above. As you can see from the photo, these are young adults, who aspire to role models and be successful as they become older, just like Daniel Redford. However, some may not be succesful and may change their attitudes and become blinded by revenge, like John Redford.
The reason for choosing a target audience for those aged 15 and above, was due to our questionnaire. This type of audience was more mature, and had more patience allowing us to create more suspence, making them more intrigued into the movie. This type of audience is a lot smarter, allowing them to puzzle the mystery of the story together.The feedback we received told us that the audience liked a bit of blood, suspense, fear, and the occasional romance, hence we encorporated these features into the production, classifying it as a 15 certificate.
Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The general feedback for our film 'Incognito' was positive, with many approvals in the choices of music,edit decisions, and visual effects for the opening scene. Many of them were impressed with the ghosting hand on the diary, as well as the blurring vision helping to show the action of taking the drug. We also received praise on the setting, with props such as hanging pictures being highly recognised. This proved to show that our attention to detail was highly recognised. The flow of the story was found unusual, yet interesting concept, with the memory flashback impressing our audience.
The audience highly regarded how the murder was being written, and shown at the same time. They also liked how the the bodies were only shown up to their neck, a typical media convention based on Pascal Bonitzer theory of mystery/ suspence, and how in thrillers, the audience get a partial view of things, with important details being obscured.
However, there were some concerns with the colour pass efect. Some of the audience liked it, although some thought it could have been better. As to colour shown was pink, some of the audience found the colour didn't suit the mood/ atmosphere of the scene. The colour red was a suggestion as it had a more sinister colour connotation, as well as purple, or black.
Also, the shot where documents of the victim were being faded together, there was a time-code difference, which didn't make the slide transition look as effective, but this was a problem existing from the technical side.
Q6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
1. Video Effects - Our group use a few effects in our thriller to give meanings to different scenes. We used the 'Black and White' effect on the scene of the woman and man meeting to create the feeling of a flashback. 'Colour pass’ was used during the flashback to make the woman’s nail varnish stand out in the frame. We used 'Ghosting' effect to create a sense of fear and delusion around the doctor, during the scene in which he is writing in the diary. Finally we used the blur technique twice to create a point of view shot, firstly of the primary victim collapsing and also to prevent the audience from seeing the next victim to draw the attention of the audience.
2. Video Transitions – We used ‘Fade to White' to make a more realistic flashback scene, drawing the audience by making them experience the flashback as their own. We used 'Fade to Black' to fade the scene into the title sequence to establish the ‘true beginning’ of the production.
3. Audio Transitions – We used 'Constant Gain' to raise and emphasise the power of the music, allowing it to build up gradually through the scene. We then used 'Constant Power' due to the fact that the section of music we chose was too short for the scene so we had to elongate it to fit the scene.
4. New Item – We used the 'Black Video' technique in the opening to add dimensions to the establishing shot, to add the white text to the background and make it seem like it is jumping out at the audience.
5. Source (Effect controls) – The source is where we can present the source of our filming, allowing us to accurately capture scenes. ‘Effect Control' is where we adjusted the effects that we added to the film.
6. Captured Shots - This is where all of our concentrated shots were stored, ready to be edited to incorporate match on action. We added the music and the black video, which we then dragged into the source box allowing us to watch and capture the scene accurately.
7. Razor Tool - We used this tool to allow us to cut-up sections of each shot which then enabled us to place together create a continuously flowing scene.
8. Capture Tools (in/out) – We used the ‘in/out’ tool to render the recently captured shot, enabling us to access and move the shot in and out of the frame to create a scene with little continuity.
9. Program - This is the media player where we would preview the sequence to check for glitches enabling us to correct errors and improve the overall production.
10. Video (1,2,3) - This is where we put our clips together. We used all three layers to help create the ghosting affect by overlapping shots. It also helped us to create a realistic ghosting affect by varying the speed setting of the clips.
11. Audio (1,2,3) - We used the audio tools to enhance the diegetic and non-diegetic sound to create a sense of realism in the production. This allowed us to blend two types of music together, allowing a smooth transition, changing the calm atmosphere to a tense atmosphere.
Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
