Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Before deciding what to do we researched a few thriller openings, we did this to collect some ideas which we could use. We came across the film Seven, we wanted to base our opening on some ideas we seen in this opening. Its quite a dark and creepy thriller opening and that's what we wanted, in our piece we used a lot of dark shots, scary fonts and made into a sort of montage of a stalkers planning, we wanted to show a gap in time by showing the planning of an event and then switching to the event itself. We used normal forms and conventions in our media piece, our opening was a thriller, we used a male suspect and a female victim. Having a female victim is a typical convention of a thriller. We wanted to show the victim being vulnerable by tying her to the chair, also in the reoccurring shot the victim is in a dark room on her own to show that there is no one to help her. We wanted the male suspect to be shown as a mysterious character, we hid his identity by having all his shots from behind so the viewer can't see his face. We tried to emphasise his masculinity by having him hold some kind of weapon in one of his shots and in another wearing a vest, we originally used the vest to show the suspects tattoo, this might make the audience think he was a bad character but we couldn't get the right shot so we decided against it. With our production we also wanted to slightly change the normal idea of a having an adult as the "main suspect", we changed this by having a teenager as the character instead. We also had the suspect in one shot wearing clothing which any other teenager would wear.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our production piece is a thriller, by stereotypical views this will be a film suited for young teenaged males. Young male adults are more into actions and other films around that genre so our target audience was young adults and teenagers. Other social groups such as teenaged females probably wouldn't be interested in our product because stereotypically girls might be more interested in more romantic films. There are a lot of dark and sort of creepy shots in our piece which could represent and attract "emos" and other social groups of this type.

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

The media product was a low budget production, this means that no major media institution would be interested in distributed it. The only way of distributing the product on the budget that we had, which was nothing would be to start some kind of viral campaign on the Internet. Uploading it on video websites such as Youtube or social networks such as Facebook or Myspace could get the product the publicity it needs. Posting it on social networking websites can create word of mouth which would get more and more people interested in media piece, if it really relates to the target audience then the young people who watched it would begin to talk about it. If the audience is really interested in it and its getting good publicity, there is a chance of getting financial aid to turn this into a media product which could make a profit.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience was male teenagers and young adults, the piece is a montage of different shots. I don't think there is anything in the piece which would attract other audiences. Obviously it wouldn't be suited to children or families because there is multiple shots of someone being tied up and someone carrying a weapon. The older generation of viewers wouldn't be interested in the product because there simply isn't anything they could really relate to, I think if our casting was different and we had adults and teenagers playing the characters then they might take an interest.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We thought that because we were using young people as the characters, young people and teenagers would be able to relate to the characters. We were mainly aiming the product at young males, the typical young male is more interested in action and thriller films. Our product is a thriller but we tried to give it an action element, we did this by the speed and length of each individual shots. We didn't want the production to seem to repetitive so we tried to vary the speeds of the shots and place the titles in different places to keep the audience interested.

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

Whilst constructing this product I think that I now have a better understanding of the technologies I used, we used a number of technologies which were new to me. When doing the reoccurring shot we used over hanging lamps, I hadn't used these before so it was tricky getting the positioning right. The hardest part when using them was trying to get a good balance of  lighting and darkness. I had never filmed before so getting the right shots was difficult, I tried many different angles to finally get the ones we were going to use. One of the biggest problems when constructing the piece though was editing, I also had never used the Apple Macs so trying to edit was hard. Filming was probably the easiest part of the production, the hardest part was editing, it was a lot of work putting all the shots together. Our piece contained many different short shots so we had to make sure there was no continuity errors. After doing the production I now have better understanding of how to get the best result when using the technologies.

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

When comparing my preliminary to my production piece I have noticed quite a lot of errors. I now know what shots should be used and where and know the best way to put shots together. We had a lot more time to edit and put this production together, this gave us time to make sure there were no continuity errors, the pace of the shots was right and the music was right. I think our final production looks a lot more professional. With this piece we had a lot more freedom to do what we wanted to do, when doing the preliminary we had to follow some points which restricted us.

Machination

Risk Assessment

There are not many hazards which are going to a problem when filming our piece, we only have two locations which we are filming in. One of them is going to be a small dark room with only a small light source, the risk in this is because its dark and there is a chance of falling over filming equipment due to not being able to see where we are going. This is the same problem with our other location, we are using another room but there will be more lighting so there will be less chance of tripping over equipment. We are going to clear everything that is unnecessary to us and move it out of our filming area to reduce the chance of causing an accident. In our production piece we have a wall full of photos of the victim, the biggest hazard in our production was taking these photos. We wanted to take pictures of the victim in her normal day life so this involved taking photos by the road and out on the street and other locations, we had to make sure that we were not in danger of being hit by any cars by checking the roads before we took them.

Initial Ideas

• Female victim tied to a chair
• Mysterious male
• No face shots of the male
• Two characters
• Wall full of pictures
• Montage of the stalking male
• Only two locations

We want to make a thriller opening which creates a lot of mystery, we want the audience to question what is going on and who are the characters. By having many elements such as a blind folded girl and shots of a man from behind without showing his face it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, this creates tension and gets the viewer interested.

Experimental Pictures

Storyboard

1) the first shot fades from black to a shot of the victim from behind, she is blind folded and tied to a chair. The camera pans around the victim. The victim is disorientated and scared.

2) The next shot we a close up of a map with circled locations on it, there are also photos pinned up around the map. The camera slowly pans across the map.

3) This is another shot of the victim from a different angle, the camera continues to pan around the victim.

4) The camera cuts back to panning across the map, this creates a sense of mystery and makes the viewer want to know what the significance of the map is.

5) The shot fades to black with the production name and a cast name.

6) In this next shot we see a close up of somebodies hands cut out a photograph of a girl, this makes the audience interested in finding out who the girl is.

7 ) The shot cuts back to the front of the girl tied to the chair.

 8) The shot cuts to more credits.

9)  The credits fade to a close up shot of some of the pictures around the map.

 10) In this shot we see a close up of someones hands putting a photograph of a girl up on a wall, this makes the audience want to know who the girl is and why there so many photographs of her.

11) This is another shot of the victim tied to a chair from a different angle.

12) The previous shot fades to black and the title of the film appears.

13) The shot fades from black to the camera panning around the victim from behind her.

14) In this shot we see a wall with the map and all the photographs of the girl around it, there are also other things pinned up around the map.

15) In the last shot we see a male looking at the map and all the photographs on the wall, its an over the shoulder shot which creates a sense on mystery to who this male is.

Shooting Schedule

Click to see full shooting schedule.

The Bourne Identity Intro Analysis

The Bourne Identity

In the first shot of the film we can see a floating body in the sea from under the water; the body has a flashing light on it. It cuts away to an establishing shot where we can see a ship in the middle of the sea, its dark out so we know it’s nighttime. It’s raining and the lightning gives a quick flicker of light on the ship. There’s calm non-diegetic music playing in the background, which gradually gets louder and another instrument is introduced. It cuts away to the inside of the ship and there’s a high angle shot of four men playing cards around a small table, the room is small and cramped, everything in the room looks dark and dirty including the men’s clothing. The camera is moving around a bit to suggest the weather and the waves outside. The next shot is of the sea and in the bottom left corner words come up saying Mediterranean Sea 60 Miles South of Marseilles; there is a lot of ambient sound coming from the weather and the waves. It cuts back to the inside of the ship where the men are joking and laughing whilst playing cards, they are talking in a foreign language. We see the body floating in the water again from underneath and the camera gets closer towards it. Back on the ship we see a man wearing waterproof overalls walking out on the deck, he stops to put his hood up due to the weather. He empties a crate over the edge of the ship and sees the body floating in the water, the camera cuts away to underneath the body in the water even closer than before and the shot fades to the title The Bourne Identity. There’s an ellipsis as the men are now dragging the body onto the ship, the non-diegetic music is now fast paced and more instruments have been introduced. We the bodies face and now know it’s a man, he wearing some sort of under water swimming suit. The men chuck him on the floor and start talking about the man assuming he is dead, but the body moves so the quickly rush him down into the ship. They lay the body down on the table where they were previously playing cards, one of the men brings out some kind of toolbox and all the other men leave the room. The non-diegetic music calms and there’s an extreme close up of the man cutting open the washed up mans clothing; the man discovers he has several bullet wounds on his back. He begins removing the bullets with instruments from the toolbox and putting them in a small tin. He cuts open more of the mans clothing and finds a lump under his skin, he slices open the lump and pulls out a small metal object, there’s a close up of the object as the man runs it under a tap. The man looks at the object through a magnifying glass and makes a small red light shine through the glass into his eyes; he observes the red beam and shines it at the wall. It projects some words, letters and number on the wall. The man goes back to the table where the man was laying and he’s gone, all of a sudden the man who was laying on the table grabs him from behind and shouts “What the hell are you doing?”. He throws the startled man up against the wall and strangles him; he asks again what he’s doing. The fisherman explains that him and the rest of the crew found the man in the sea, he begins asking where he was and becomes weak. The fisherman leans him up against the table and asks what the metal object was doing under his skin; the man is confused and doesn’t seem to know what is going on. The fisherman asks him what his name is and he replies “I don’t know”, the man then passes out on the table.

Sin City Intro Analysis

Sin City
At the start of there is an establishing shot of a woman walking to the edge of a balcony, which over looks the city and there is ambient sounds coming from the city; the woman is wearing a dress. Everything in the shot is in black and white except for the woman’s dress, which is red. There’s a voice over narrating what the woman is doing. The shots cut to the front of the woman and there is a man walking up from behind her, the voice over narrates the man walking up behind the woman. The man is wearing a black suit and tie; he offers the woman a cigarette. The man’s voice is the same as voice over. She turns around and there is an over the over the shoulder shot as she takes the cigarette, we can see that the woman is wearing red lipstick but everything else is still in black and white. Shot reverse shot is used as the two characters have a conversation, the man looks happy to see the woman and they begin to act flirtatious to one another. There’s a close up of the woman’s face as the man lights her cigarette, he talks about the woman’s eyes and they turn green for a moment and then change back to black and white. The woman turns back around and looks down at the city, the camera starts to zoom up at the man standing behind the woman. The man starts talking about the woman running away and not being able to face something, the characters begin to act more serious as the camera zooms even closer. The woman turns around and looks at the man, the shot changes to long shot of the two characters, the characters kiss and are now two white silhouettes against the black and white city landscape. The shot changes back to normal and there’s a close up of the man hugging the woman, the voice over starts talking about the woman in detail such as the smell of her perfume. They kiss again and the voice over says, “I tell her I love her”. For an instant there is a quick white flash and a sharp shooting noise. The woman falls into his arms and his hand comes into the shot holding a pistol with a silencer. The shot cuts to a high angle shot of the man holding the woman on the floor in the rain, the voice over says “I hold her close until she’s gone, I’ll never know what she was running from”. The man looks up at the sky and then back down at the woman, the shot zooms out going into the sky. The camera goes out rotating around building until it’s looking down at the city. The buildings make out the words Sin City and slowly turn red, which contrasts with the black and white city.

Identity Intro Analysis

Identity

At the start of the film the Columbia Pictures credits comes up and there is a sound bridge of a man talking, the shot fades and words Columbia Pictures Presents show. The words disappear except for the letter I from pictures stays in the shot on its own, it cuts away to a close up of a tape playing with the name Malcolm Rivers. Another voice in the sound bridge says, “Where did you learn that? Where did you learn that poem” and the voice replies “I made it up, when I was a kid”. Someone presses a button on the tape recorder and a rewinding noise plays and there is a quick flash montage of images, including some documents, black and white mug shots of a bald man and a drawing of some stick figures with red around there necks which may suggest death. The voice over conversation continues and there is mysterious non-diegetic music being played by violins, there’s a close up of more stick figure drawings. In the next shot there’s a table with the tape recorder on it and a collection of drawings and cuts outs of people made with maps. Someone throws a file on the table with some documents, fingerprints and mug shots of a woman. The man in the voice angry and starts shouting “Don’t beat around the bush! Don’t beat around the bush Doc!”. This suggests that these conversations are going on between a doctor and a patient, possible the man in the black and white mug shots. The doctor’s voice says “Tell me what you remember about your mother?”. It quickly cuts to the mug shots of the woman holding a sign saying Rivers, C. The camera pans across the details of the woman in a file, the camera looks up at the man who has been listening to the recordings and looking over the documents. Next to the mans face, letters form the word Identity and the mysterious music plays again. There’s a close up of all the mug shots of the woman and the man in the voice over says, “I remember my mother was a whore”. The shot cuts away to the man looking at the table, there’s an eye line match and we see that the man is flicking through some newspaper articles. There’s a sharp noise as the camera zooms into a picture in the newspaper of a child in the back of a car, the picture isn’t very clear of who the child is. There’s another quick montage of the man looking through some documents in a file. The shot cuts away to see the man looking down at the files and he’s in some kind of office, there are certificates in photo frames up on the wall. We can hear ambient noise from the rain and lightning outside the window. The man looks over some news paper articles and there’s a close up of the headlines, one reads Mountain Nightmare, and another reads Mass Murder and says the name Malcolm Rivers underneath it. In the next shot we find out who Malcolm Rivers is as the camera cuts to the man holding a file with mug shots of the bald man from the start holding a sign saying M. Rivers. The doctors voice in the voice over says “Do you remember the murders?”. The shot cuts away to a picture of a woman lying on the floor covered in blood, it quickly cuts to the man holding another photo and in it is a man lying on the floor covered in blood. There’s a montage of the man going through more murder victims, documents on an autopsy of the stab wounds and newspaper articles. The man quickly drops the pictures on the table, the man presses a button on the tape recorder and a rewinding noise is played, at the same time there is a quick montage of all the documents the he’s looked through. The man looks down at the table and begins to write something, there’s a close up of the word evil. He begins drawing some kind of diagram, there’s another cut to a newspaper article, and another article reads Insanity Plead Denied. The doctor says in the voice over “Who am ii speaking to right now? What should I call you?”. The voice replies “Call me what ever you like”. The shot cuts to another article, which talks about someone being sent to death.