FRAMED

EVALUATION

Evaluation

Introduction

http://prezi.com/px5xspd4hbws/as-media-evaluation/

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

Opening sequences are created to give the audience enigma coeds as to what may happen later on in the film. The opening usually sets the scene creating mystery and enigma codes leaving the audience wondering what may then happen later in the film. Examples of Thrillers which I have looked at are; Psycho, Taxi Driver, Jaws and Scream.

This is a video from youtube of the Taxi Driver Opening Sequence. 

 When looking into different thrillers I discovered that they are usually set in eerie cities and small scale villages and towns. We decided to use a typical convention where our opening starts with an establishing shot on a dark street. We did this to create an atmosphere which is spooky and that viewers can relate to scary times in the past where it is dark.

This is an image of our opening shot. 

  Lighting, camera shots, music and mis-en-scene are used effectively to show the protagonist and the antagonist. The opening sequence is where we have our first impressions of the main characters in the film its self. We made sure that we focused on these conventions so that the correct atmosphere for our opening was created.

   We used dark lighting trough out the opening sequence to give our opening the spooky edge we wanted. The lighting used for the antagonist was darker than the lighting used for the protagonist as we wanted to make it prominent the difference between the too. This lighting follows the typical codes of thrillers. To show the prominence of the male antagonist we also used low angle camera shots to make him look like a more powering, dominating character. As for the female protagonist we used high angle shots to create the image that we look down on her and it also makes her look smaller and have greater vulnerability. The mis-en-scene used when filming the protagonist outlines her vulnerability as she looks like a feminine girly person. We created this by the costume being a girly jumper, skinny jeans, and wearing jewelry (rings). The house also looks well looked after as there is no clutter and doesn’t have a masculine touch to it. 

        

Here we can see the contrast between the two with the dark lighting outside being fearless and the bright lighting inside being fearful.

  Our opening sequence is in the present tense. It starts with an establishing shot of the antagonist looking at the house in a dark street. In this shot the lighting is dark which represents the darkness within the character. As the character moves towards the house the lighting then changes slightly and begins to have a red tint to it. Red is a signifier as it is seen as the colour of danger which automatically triggers the views senses as they predict something negative may be about to unfold. When inside the house with the protagonist the lighting is bright and happy in contrast to the dim lighting outside where the antagonist is lurking. This shows the contrast between the two.

 From inside the house we see a shot of the protagonist sat watching TV, unaware of the antagonist looking in. For the thriller genre the antagonist is usually portrayed as a female. During this shot we see an enigma code as all of the furniture is black and the curtains surrounding the window which the antagonist is looking through are black. Here black is a significant colour as it is portraying the darkness within the characters’ lives and puts the view on edge building atmosphere as they predict something is about to happen.

  Black then continues a significant colour throughout the opening as during a scene shot inside the protagonist’s house there are pictures of what look like family photos in black frames. As the protagonist slowly moves their fingers over the frames he alters the position of certain pictures. This leaves the viewer questioning if they are the next victims. This is all art of the mis-en-scene as they are the props within the shot. I like the use of these props in this scene as they help to increase the atmosphere as there is a sense of fear behind the adjustment of particular pictures.

  The mirror at the then of the landing is a common code used within thrillers. The positioning of the mirror makes the antagonist seen that much more careless as they see their reflection and behind them the adjustment of pictures yet still continues with the process in mind.

  The mask warn by the protagonist shows that they do not want to show their identity. This then leaves the view wondering if they are male or female and is typical of a thriller. However, when we see the protagonist we are given the impression that they are male by the stereotypical way in which they are dressed, walk and the usual convention of the male protagonist.  

Here we can see the antagonist wearing a mask to hide their identity. This gives us the impression that they have something to hide.

   There is a scene where the there is a close up of the protagonist putting in their gloves before entering the bedroom. If I was to re-shoot this task I would ensure that the protagonist puts on his gloves before entering the house. It is unusual for a protagonist to put on gloves after leaving finger prints around the house.

  We wanted our opening to be like a guessing game for viewers in attempt to make then want to watch the rest of the film. During the first few minutes of a film is where the viewer makes their judgement as to whether or not the film is boring and worth seeing the rest of. As of this I think that it is important to captivate the audience right from the beginning.

  A film which inspired us was Scream, a thriller written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. I like this film as I thought it portrayed the typical codes and conventions of a thriller very well. I like the use of the female protagonist alone in a house and the make antagonist outside. 

This is the beginning Scream which i found via youtube. 

  When researching into different opening sequences I discovered that the music added is extremely important for created the right atmosphere. We decided that we did not want any speech in our opening as our actors where just people from our group so therefore it may not have as been as effective. Our music starts to fade in from the very start from where our company logo appears. This emphasises the logo as the view concentrates on what is on screen rather than what they can hear. Once the fading of music ends, the sub titles appear so that their visibility is enlarged. This is emphasised by the change in music. The music then changes from the one track to another. This helped us to create the mood of the film as the music is rather sinister. As we wanted the atmosphere to remain consistent we kept the music the same until the end. By doing this we were able to speed up the atmosphere, keeping the audience engaged and on edge to know what happens next. If we were to redo our music I would change the purse in the music where the antagonist is putting on their gloves. Here I would put a more upbeat piece of music so that there is not a gap. From the audiences point of view they may feel that the purse is because the track was not long enough to continue to the end. However, this was not the case, the majority of our group thought that it worked better to create suspense as we have a differ of opinion. After the purse of music we then go into a more terrifying track which is associated with danger, keeping the audience alert. We used three different tracks as we thought it was important to split the piece up into 3 sections. I liked the use of this as it helps to create the intensity of the atmosphere.
   One of the thriller films I looked at was Jaws. Jaws has a very famous piece of music in it which is very recognisable to many people today. The famous piece of music was used to create suspense so that the viewers would have an incline that danger is arising. 

  Adding titles where the last thing we focused on when editing our opening as it is important that they fit in with the music and what is happening on screen. We chose red for the colour of the subtitles and main title as red is a significant colour of danger. For all subtitles we kept the font the same as we found that they were prominent and wanted them to match. Our main title “Framed” is bolder and in a larger font as we wanted it to stand out from the subtitles. The main title comes in after the screen has faded to black so that it is the main focus and the audience will remember it more. I liked the use of this as I think it is effective and important for the viewer to know what the film is called. We called it famed because it is ambiguous. The framed which the protagonist touch show that the people in the pictures have significance, what is on the laptop screen is famed and significant and also the incorrect person is famed for the abduction.

How does your media represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence there are only 2 characters. Like most typical Thrillers we have a male antagonist and a female protagonist. The teenage girl represents a vulnerable victim. She represents the stereotypical role being defenceless and unaware of the dangers. Her height also heightens her defencelessness of fighting somebody off. In the shots where we can see the protagonist she is alone which created the impression that she is isolated from anybody who could help her. Also adding to the stereotyping, our female protagonist is blond and wears trendy cloths which show a sense of innocence. The audience will feel more pity for the female and want to warn her, this keeps them engaged. Having a female to play the role of the protagonist of a technique commonly used in thrillers, such as Silence of the Lambs, as it makes the audience feel more scared and worried.

  Our antagonist is a male but throughout the opening sequence we do not have a definite answer to what sex they are as their face is constantly covered with a mask. The stereotypical way in which the antagonist walks gives us the judgement of them being male. This is due to the way they walk and dress. Our antagonist also wears the typical clothes of a villain as they are all dressed in black and hides their identity as if they have something that needs to be covered up. This helps create atmosphere as the view may be scared that this situation could happen to them.

 We have aimed our opening sequence at people aged 15-20. This is we have a teenage cast so that the audience can connect more to the film. A prop also used to attract our target audience was the signed posters in the bedroom of the protagonist.

Here we can see the typical bedroom of a teenage girl as the bedding represents the characters femininity and people can also relate to this character by the posters on the bedroom walls of Kids in Glass Houses.

    

The posters on the wall of the bedroom are of a band called Kids In Glass Houses, popular with teenage girls. This attracts our target audience as they can relate to our protagonist and feels sorry for her guessing what is about to happen. Also as we can see, the protagonist is on her laptop and we later see that she in on tumblr, we website commonly used by teenagers.

   The setting of our opening also represents different social groups as having the male more masculine character our side shows the fearless side in boys and having the female inside represents how females like security and the safety of their own home.

What kind of media institutions might distribute your media products and why?

After looking at our opening sequence we feel that it is at good enough to be broad casted via the Internet or television for public viewing. For example: Youtube or Channel 4. 
   Social networking sites are a very good way or marketing our film as they are are free to use and can be accessed by masses of people. Social networking sites such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter are hugely used by teens as they are easily accessible and free for them to use. This is also very good for us use as we can see the audience responses and their opinions towards our film and we can also find out if different social groups are showing an interest into what we have produced. 
   Considering that we did not have an extreme budget or remarkable technology our opening sequence is of a very high standard. Our opening could be read about in magazines aimed for our target audience such as Teen Now and Sugar. This is a good way of marketing our product as we can advertise to pacific audiences which we think will relate to our film. we would choose these magazines rather than ones like The Guardian, Weddings and Gardening as they are aimed for older social groups which would not have an interest into the film as it is more for teenagers not older people. 
   An institution that may be interested in distributing out film could be Tornado Films. Tornado Films are a small company in south Wales which produce films to a high standard. I think that this film company would be interested in distributing our film as they are a local film company with minimum costs. this would be good for us as our film is of a low budget. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

To help us find out what audience to target we produced a questionnaire which we handed out to random people around school as that was an easy location for us to get the opinions of a large number of people. In this questionnaire we asked a variety of different questions and then looked closely at the answers given. We make sure that we handed out our questionnaire to as many different age groups a possible. This was a good way for us to see which age group like what sort of film. We found out that the majority of younger children like animated films where as older people tended to enjoy more of the musical side of films. We discovered that older teens most enjoyed to watch films of the Thriller and Horror genre. This works well for us as most thrillers have a certificate of 15 or 18. I also think that our film is targeted more for females rather than males. This is due to the female protagonist, posters of bands which girls like and a main plot that would interest more feminine people.

  In most thriller genre films there are many sense of violence and due to this they have to be awarded a fifteen or eighteen certificate. I like that our target audience is aged fifteen too twenty year olds as I can most relate to this age group. Although, if we where to do this task again I would look to aim our opening sequence at fifteen too twenty-five year old. This is because we could then have a more wider scale of viewers.

   In order to look closely at which age group to target I researched BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). The BBFC are an independent self funded organisation which work to protect vulnerable people from film content, such as young children. They have produced a banding system where they award films certain classifications due to criteria. The different categories of films are; U, PG, 12, 12A, 15 and 18. This ensures the safety of viewers and it is law that people follow the age restrictions.

   For my thriller, I would attract my audience by promoting my film on certain website such as twitter, facebook, myspace and youtube. This is a very cheap and easy way of marketing a product as you can put things out there for mass audiences to see. Also by using these websites you can see what aspects of the film the viewers like/dislike and what you could improve upon if the task was to be carried out again. If I had a bigger budget I would have used a cast of people well known with a fan base which would automatically attract social groups and mass viewers. This is an easy marketing strategy but comes with huge cost. Also with a bigger budget I would advertise my film on TV channels in between popular programmes at peak times and also via the cinema.

  

I found this picture showing the different BBFC classifications on a website called worthington.gov.uk.

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

From carrying out this project I have learnt how to use a video camera, an Apple Mac, imovie 09, photobooth and blogger. I also learnt how to upload videos to youtube and also connect them to my online blog.

This image shows what it looks like when uploading a video to youtube. I think that youtube is easy to use but it can sometime take a while when uploading a video depending on quality and the content.

  I used iMovie 09 to edit my opening sequence. Firstly we filmed our opening sequence and then uploaded it to the macs. Did not delete any footage just incase we needed to go back and use it. I found that iMovie 09 was useful for editing. Using iMovie 09 we where able to use precise cutting of selected clips, order them however we needed to, adjust the colouration and sound of clips and also add in transitions and sound effects. This software was also useful to add in our titles to the clips we wanted to. This software however does not allow you to edit things at industry standards. Other editing software such as jaycut would have however been more beneficial for our project as they allow you to do more complex edits. Using industry software we could have had more fitting text for the titles and better transitions. Our budget also restricted us from using an industry standard video camera. Our video cameras where provided by school as we could not afford to pay out for one. This meant that many people had used them before us and the lens on the camera was a low number of megpixels. With a better video camera we could have made our opening sequence better quality.

  To produce our film we had to lace all the clips needed in order and then cut them to down to how long we wanted them, this is where one scene ends and another one starts. We could then alter the brightness of each clip helping us to maintain continuity.

  We used jucsta positions when cutting from one clip outside to another inside. This was done to show the contrast between abnormality and normality.

   I was introduced to photobooth for the first time and can now use it effectively. This project was also the first time I came across blogger and soon picked up simple techniques to present my work more effectively. i done this by discovering how to import youtube videos onto my blog. I find that all the different pieces of technology I used all work together in different ways, pictures and video clips created using photoshop can be imported on blogger, like wise with youtube. I learnt that I could create a movie using imovie 09, upload it to youtube and then later import it to my blog.
   I was still learning how to do tasks as I was constructing my evaluation. I discovered that when using images in a blog post you can not simply copy and paste an image from a word document to a blog post. Instead you have to import all images so that they do not just come up as a blank box. 
  when creating our logo I made it on paint. At first we did not think that the colours worked well. To overcome this we simply edited it into black and white. This is an image of the logo before and after. 
[picture of logo] 

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

During the course of the preliminary task, we learnt how important continuity editing really is. If the continuity is destroyed then the realism of the film is reduced. For example, if a character is drinking from a glass half full and then the glass appears fuller than in the beginning the continuity is then destroyed. Like wise with lighting. When we were filming our outside shots we found it challenging to maintain continuity as filming in November meant that it got dark very quickly. The extent of this problem was reduced as we had a shot list and story board which meant we had clear guidelines which were easy to follow that reduced the time taken.

  Filming our continuity sequence before our Opening to a Thriller helped us as we were able to look back at all the various shots which can be used, such as shot reverse shots and over the shoulder shots which help to captivate the audience. 

During the continuity sequence task we also learnt the importance of the 180 degree rule and made sure we stuck to it during our opening sequence to a thriller.the 180 degree rule is important because it states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same right/left relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two it is called crossing the line. The new shot from the opposite side is known as a reverse angle. When filming the continuity sequence we also learnt how important it is to ensure that the camera is sitting straight on the tripod. If the camera is canted then the entire professionalism of the film is lost. The only time this is acceptable is where it is purposely done to create a specific atmosphere. We also learnt about hose piping and hand held camera techniques but chose not use them as the can often go wrong and destroy the quality of the film.

   Team work also played a massive role in the construction of our film. As we didn’t know one and other properly before making the film we weren’t to know if we would get along with one and other. We made use that no such conflict struck by all being assigned to individual roles which worked alongside our strengths and weaknesses. This tasked has improved my team work skills hugely. I have also learnt how to clearly plan my work and the importance of it. If I went ahead and constructed what I considered an opening sequence in the thriller genre to be with out any planned, my work would have been a fail. I am able to say my work is a success and I think the planning is the the most important aspect. When planning we also constructed a story board, this aloud us to clearly see the shots needed and not forget to film anything. I think it is a good idea to construct a story board because you can easily do the filming to a time schedule and you can prejudge whether you think a certain plot is good or bad.

   I found it easy to reach my deadline as a made sure I understood tasks given and did them straight away. I think it is easier to carry out tasks before deadlines so that if you make a mistake you can easily go back and correct yourself.

conclusion

After seeing the completion of our opening sequence to a thriller I feel that is a very successful piece of work. We followed typical codes and conventions of thrillers and I hope that our opening sequence will capture the audiences and give them a frightening experience. Our plot and story line work well to engage an audience of a similar age to us. We all worked well as a group which I think helped our opening sequence to be as successful. By sharing all tasks and editing, we each had our own input. We managed the tasks to work alongside each member of the group’s strengths and weaknesses to make our opening sequence – Framed, a success.

In completion to my evaluation I also have an audience response. Each different group of students in my media AS class watched each others opening sequence and then filmed a response to it showing their thoughts and opinions towards the different opening sequences.

The above is a video response of out  opening sequence - FRAMED.