Question 7 - Mrs Georgiou 3184

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

The preliminary task was to prepare for the thriller opening sequence and to make sure everything worked.  The equipment included the camera, the tripod and the editing software (final cut x pro) which we used to finish the film.

 From the preliminary task I learnt how to use the camera and all the function on it, also how I should go about actually filming our sequence such as using particular locations and specific camera angles e.g. high shot. These interesting shot angles would make film much more interesting than if we just used a middle shot to shoot it all.  Finally I learnt the way that I should get our actors to act while on camera so they know what they are doing. While filming I learnt how to direct, and how to use the camera on location and to edit the film to its finished product. In the editing I learnt how to cut, crop, input videos and how to add music.

In all I knew what I was doing in relation to filming before I went to the filming location and had it all planned previously. This made the filming much more efficient and most of the shots went to plan. Although things such as weather and light did make things happen differently than we originally planned on thing such as lighting. The preliminary task also enabled us to use editing techniques which further improve our film to make it look more professional.

Question 6 - Mrs Georgiou 3184

Question 5 - Mrs Georgiou 3184

                                                        How did primary and secondary research assist in planning your thriller. Primary research helped my own film in many ways, I used a questionnaire which outlined the questions related to a thriller. Such as what makes a thriller scene better, the build up of the scene with tension or the final thrill of the scene. Secondary research also helped me as I was able to research what other successful thriller films were, and take points from them. As we were meant to stay with the thriller convention it was easy to see the main points which continued to come up in lots of films. These conventions we would include in my own film.

Question 4 - Mrs Georgiou 3184

Question 3 - Mrs Georgiou 3184

Question 2- Mrs Georgiou 3184

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main and only characters in my own film are a small woman and a murdering man who is masked. The victim in our film is a small woman on her way home from work who gets apprehended on her way to her house. We decided to use her for many reasons in our film, she is a small woman so is very stereotypical of the thriller genre as the damsel in distress and cannot defend herself very well. She is also physically weaker than the killer which puts her in a vulnerable position compared to a man of similar stature to the antagonist. This makes it easier for the audience to relate to her, she easily represents a vulnerable woman that the audience knows so the audience will care for her more than if it was a characters who they could not relate to. This can also be seen in men as they naturally would want to protect the woman against harm. Furthermore she wears some white clothing to represent how innocent she is to the audience, which again makes the compare her to the violent antagonist dressed in black. This all builds up to when she is murdered as when it comes to the murder the audience will have more of a connection to her and the killing will be more personal to the audience. This will make them want to continue watching as they want now to find out what happens to the killer.

The second main character is the murderer who is a young man who stalks and eventually kills the woman. The murderer is a man, so that puts him at a physical advantage over a smaller woman and a man is a stereotypical a killer as they are associated with real killers. This immediately makes the audience dislike him simply as he is a man as men are portrayed more negatively than women in many other thriller films. Secondly he is completely covered and we cannot see his face which makes the audience feel uneasy with him. This will make the audience dislike the man which is our objective as it makes the killing of the woman harder for the audience to watch and they will hate him for murdering her. This is one of the most important roles as it gives a reason for the woman to be murdered and makes for a better chase scene and without him no thrills would happen; which is the overall objective of a thriller film. To an audience this is the characters they want to hate, I do this by dehumanising him and this makes him more distant with the audience. This makes scenes feel more terrifying for them as it is someone they cannot relate to and cannot identify.

Overall we used typical stereotypes to represent our characters in our film for many reasons. This helps the audience relate to the characters and to make the experience more traumatic to them. Women are often seen as victims and that they are weaker and scared, this makes the characters much easier to relate to than a male. This is because women feel sympathy for them and men feel protective of the women in the film. If we use stereotypes then the audience can connect this with what they have seen in other films and make the relate it to other thriller films.

Men are often portrayed as strong characters in thriller films, they can either be the killer or the person trying to stop the murder. So it is very stereotypical that they are represented in my film as a negative character. They are often represented as either the killer or a strong character mainly due to the perception that men are strong and dominant, this makes it easier to represent them negatively this is why they are used in these roles.

Question 1 - Mrs Georgiou 3184

Question 1 – In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?  

The thriller genre has many conventions that are associated with it; these are just some of them: low key lighting, dark and light clothing, male and female characters, suspenseful music, quick cuts and the themes of shock and suspense. Some of the films that use these are Se7en with low key lighting, Shutter Island with suspenseful music and No Country for Old Men with different colours of clothing representing good and evil.

My group used the thriller conventions many times in our own film. One example is the clothing that is used in thriller film which can represent feeling and how good or evil characters are. Our murderer for example is in dark clothing which puts across the negative feeling that he is evil and not to be trusted.This makes the audience have a negative view on him which is exactly what we wanted, therefore this gives the audience a indication of what he is going to do. A second example is our female murderer, who is dresses in black and white, the white which makes the audience feel she is innocent while the black which may give the idea that something bad will happen to her. This makes the audience have sympathy for her as she is innocent and with bad things happening to her. The contrasting colours make her seem confused which makes the scene more conventional as the victim is unsure of the situation.

Another thriller convention is the use of shadows which is used in the ending of my own film, as the audience can see a man swinging the knife down on the woman and the screen fades to black. This helps with the thrills of the scene as we don’t actually see anything but the shadows this makes it all the more shocking for the audience. The shadows give the impression of a horrific death but still do not show what happened graphically.  This is used in Se7en where it is used effectively to hide the killer’s identity while still showing a death. This is conventional as the antagonist is still in the shadows but still commits a murder which links to hidden identity. This is much more appealing to the audience as it shows something that was not totally expected.

Having a female victim is also a convention and very stereotypical with it being in nearly all thrillers. This is used as women in general are physically less strong than men and is used to show innocence and vulnerability in thriller films. This is also generally why they are normally the first victims of a killer in thriller films, such as in Se7en with the detective’s wife.  This is conventional as the female is seen as the damsel in distress,  it is used in nearly all thriller films as the females in the audience feel sympathy for the woman and the men want to protect her. This is used in many films as it is one of the easiest ways in which a film can manipulate the audience.

 

Hidden identity is also a thriller convention which is often used to bring more fear to a killer in a film. I used this in my film and I believe it makes a killer somewhat scarier if you cannot see their face as the audience cannot relate at all to the character. This can also be seen in Se7en until the killer is finally found. It is also another easy way in which a film can make there antagonist feel separated from the violence. This makes it seem that the killer could effectively do anything as they are not responsible for what they do. This makes the antagonist limitless on what they could do.

Conventional sounds are also a way in which thrillers try to make the experience scarier  and more unnerving for the audience. If a scream is used at a perfect time it can take the scene to a different level of thrills from what it would have been without it. Another example is the sound of breathing which when used can mean someone watching, which is also very scary. This is used many times such as in Shutter Island when the detective is inside the cell block. In this scene it is used to shock the audience into making them jump from the sudden change in music and the image on the screen. In my own film it can be seen when the woman is being stalked by the antagonist. This is an effective way to make a scary scene into a terrifying scene.

Lastly, a quick cut is very conventional and is used in nearly all thriller films. This is when a quick cut is used when something happens and it goes very quickly from one shot to another. This helps as it can change the feeling of a scene quickly so is effective in keeping a narrative moving or revealing a killer. One example in my own film is where we first see the killer and it jumps to the victim. This is a excellent way in which a scene can become much quicker and action packed compared to other shots. This is also very exciting for the audience and makes them feel like it is happening simultaneously unlike other shots.

My own thriller film clearly defines the thriller genre as it incorporates many conventions that should be in a thriller film and I have made them more personal to my own film. It encompasses suspense, thrills and action and uses these effectively at points such as in my own film when the woman is being stalked without her knowing. Then the action and thrills start when she finally notices him and she is running away and the final murder. So overall it is clear that my own film closely follows the thriller film stereotypes and only adds a small amount of my own personality in the film.  

There were also many micro elements that I used in my own thriller to improve the quality of the film. An example is using a car park as a location; this creates the normality of a common place which makes the experience more unsettling with the killer for the audience.  Another is the iconography of using a knife, many films use knives as the deaths are more brutal. Also using a knife is much more dramatic than a gun which is good for a thriller film.  

My own thriller film can easily be compared too many other successful thriller films, this is due to me using conventions which overlap both films. The thriller film opening scene that I will be comparing to my own is the thriller film Se7en. Firstly the use of hidden identity in both films helps with making the killer more mysterious. We do it in different ways, me covering the face with a balaclava and Se7en not having his face in shot. This makes the audience feel more uncomfortable with the killer as they in no way can relate to them. We also both use conventional camera angles which add to the scene and conventional music at the correct times. This makes both films look much better than without these important conventions. We continue with the connections in that we both use unusual locations which are conventional to a thriller. I use a car park and a suburban street whereas in Se7en it is a small darkened room. This puts the audience in a unusual position as the scene does not match with the location. Finally low key lighting is used extensively in both films. In my own film it mainly is at the end of the film where the shadows start to form and darkness is more prominent.  In Se7en it is used throughout and is a main focus on the scene, the only light comes from a small light in the room.