Evaluation

This is my Evaluation for the Media Foundation Production Portfolio.

Audience Feedback Survey Results

Unfortunately not many people were willing to fill out our survey, we did however get a few results so we will base our feedback on what we did get.


 With the site we used for the survey, we could see what each persons results individually. In order to take advantage of this I created a graph to display the results and to what each person answered.

	Gender?	Age Range?	Did you enjoy the Film?	Appeals to what gender most?	Rating out of 5?
1	Male	15 - 17	Yes	Males	3
2	Male	15 - 17	Yes	Males	4
3	Female	15 - 17	Yes	Males	4
4	Female	25 - 34	No	Males	1

From this we can see that we were right about our films age rating. We can see here that the three that were in our targeted age range were the ones who enjoyed our film. The female within the targeted age range also said she liked the film, however they all agreed the film was better suited to a male audience. From this we found that members of an older audience would not enjoy our film. The ratings we got from the ones who enjoyed the film were at 3 and 4 showing that we made a good film in their eyes, just not the best. 

Our survey also returned a few feedback opinions from our audience, which are as followed:

"I thoroughly enjoyed the opening, I felt it was eerie but not too scary, also built a lot of tension and was good to watch"

"I felt it was intense and kept me engaged throughout"

"The storyline left me wanting to see more and engaged me very well especially the scene with the woman in it who appears to be the evil character within" 

Chance - Feedback Survey

To get feedback to aid in with the Evaluation Questions, we created an online survey using a site called TypeForm.

Link to Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqjgHebiQbA

Link to Survey: https://chanceasmedia.typeform.com/to/uKwbAN

The questions for the survey are as followed:

Chance - Final Cut

This is our Final version of our Thriller Opening 'Chance'.

Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqjgHebiQbA

Evaluation Question Further Analysis

As a group we came the the decision of each working on an analysis of each question, and analysing our film to relate it to a question each. 

I decided on working on the question: "How does your media product represent particular social groups?"

This means that I have to describe the different age, gender, social and ethnic groups represented in our film and why.

Most of our characters (With the exception of the drunk) all fall into a classy, or fancy group as they all are dressed in smart, casual clothing. They are seen as being classy group and belong to the upper class.

In terms of ethnic groupings, they are all represented on an equal level.

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

Opening Titles - Positioning of the Titles

One of the decisions we had to make was where to place the opening titles.

Our options were:
- At the beginning in a block of all the titles
- At the end in a block of all the titles
- Throughout the film, overlaying the footage.
- A combination of two of the previously mentioned ideas.

In the end we decided on having it start with a block of the of the titles, however have some of the titles play during the first half of the footage. We chose this as from our prior research into the thriller genre, we had found that this is the best flowing option which suited the film well.

Coursework: Sound Editing

For the film we needed some sound to play alongside the video. We ideally wanted some instrumental music, preferably as dramatic as possible without being too upbeat or falling into an action sound track. We found that using a sound bridge would be a good way of improving the fluidity of the film. We also made the decision that we would need two pieces of music for the film, to help signify a shift in scenario.

We started by searching for sounds to use on the copyright free music sites which the school had provided us.

The main site we used when searching was:  www.freeplaymusic.com, a site recommended to us by the teachers. It allowed us to easily search for specific music genres and try to find the most suited one.

In the end it was Chelsea who managed to find the best sounds to use during the film. Better yet, she had been taught how to manipulate the sound within Adobe Premier, meaning she could make the found sound even more suited to the footage.

The names of the sounds we used were:

- Digital Info

- Army Angels

- So Focused

The idea of Black and White

We had the idea of making the film in black and white, rather than in colour. We thought about this as it was a film technique commonly used in thriller films in the past. It would commonly be seen in Psychological thrillers, for example the film 'Noir' made use of it, they used it to create tension between the film and the audience.

A more modern example of black and white films would be a film known as 'Tabu', which was brought out in the year 2012.

We were discussing whether to go through with the Black and white, and tested it out with a black and white filter. In the end, we decided on keeping it in colour as we felt it would end up being too close to previously made films and would make our film seem like any other thriller film.

Camera Issue - Refilming

Due to part of the film being filmed on a different camera, we were unaware of the fact that the resolution was different. The resolution of the other camera was lower, and the only way to make it fit would be to stretch it out, which in turn made it look terrible. In order to solve this issue we went out with the first camera and re-shot Aman's scenes and the Motorcycle scene.

We were set back by this as some of scenes recorded on the lower resolution camera we thought were perfect, so it was de motivation for the group, we did however know that we had to refilm so we pulled ourselves together and doubled our efforts further to get the new footage filmed.

Progression

Since the beggining of this project I feel that both as an individual and as part of a group I have improved greatly.

In terms of skills, I was already skilled in using Adobe Premier, however I knew there was more I could learn. Throughout the project I learnt about more in depth editing of footage and sound which could be done in Premier, however what I feel I learnt most about was about the base settings whilst editing and the formatting needed.

What I feel that I learnt about most was using cameras and the effects camera angles had. Before I only had basic ideas of photography and filming, however after learning about all the different ways a single shot can be filmed and how that can result in several different meanings. Another thing I feel I really made progress with, was the use of Adobe After Effects. I had never used this program before so I didn't have too great an idea of what I was doing. After having a brief introduction to it I managed to start picking it up quickly. I feel that during the research stages I improved in my analysis skills, which I used to feel that I lacked, I've been able to use this during filming to improve our shots and be able to get closer and closer to the perfect shot. I now realise that at the start, I was far too lax on the research initially, because that has made decision making more difficult, however with the rest of the group we managed to get through the stages and make the choices that were best for the film.

As a group I feel that honestly, we had a very poor start. We weren't very motivated at the start barely got the research done, however as soon as we realised the remaining time I feel the group really went forward in terms of work and effort. We were constantly filming as much as we could to get all the shots, and while the others handled the bulk of the editing in premier, I feel they needed the experience of its use much more than I did. We became progressively more efficient as went on and really made progress with filming. The after the others picked up editing they really improved, I wasn't needed to advise or help them with the editing at this point and could spend my time putting together the other parts of the project, such as the Titles themselves and the 'Cube Motion' introduction.

Making The Company Introduction - Change of Plans

In the end we decided against the use of the rotating cube. As a group we decided it was too much for a thriller opening, which were typically just the text of the studio in a similar, or the same, style as the titles themselves. Although I was a bit disheartened by the fact that the Introduction I spent quite a lot of time on was shot down, I knew it was for the best and moved on. In the end we decided on a simple San-serif font, with the effect of fading in and out if a black screen. Although personally I though it was a bit too basic, It did suit the film just fine, and we did not have time to argue over small details.

Making the Company Introduction

Another task that needed to be done was the creation of the companies logo/ Introduction, with this in mind we came up with the idea of calling the Company, 'Cube Motion'. After a brief mind mapping session we came up with using a 3D Cube rotating, along side text saying Cube Motion. To make this 3D I made the descision on using a 3D modelling software I was skilled with called 'Blender'. This would allow me to animate the Cube on a time line, and adjust it easily.

With limited time remaining, while I was unable to make the introduction, I used Photoshop to create a brief plan of how it would turn out, and adjust colours to be able to find what works best.

Unfortunately I found that the program I was using, was no longer functioning properly as of an unfortunate bug. So instead I found tutorials on how to make one using Photoshop and After effects and made a new one relatively quickly.

From here I placed the Cube into Premier, and began editing it into a sequence.

I placed the Cube on the side of the Screen and made the decision to have the text fade in on the other side. For now the Cube was Black with a white Outline, making it easily stand out on most colours of backgrounds in case of a later change in colour. I wanted to chose a san-serif as I felt that it worked well as the idea of the company being friendly towards it audience. After that I used the effects to make it so the text and cube fade in, whilst following the order of

- Cube + Company Name
- Productions
- Presents

This was a simpler more time efficient way of making the intro and I made it so it would be easy for any future edits.

Making the Titles - Change of Plans

In the end we found that the typewriter effect I had been working on was no longer the best option for adding dramatic effect to the titles. We decided instead on using some effects for them made in Premier as it was faster, easier and we had more control over them.

The Titles in order of appearence are:

"Motion Cube Productions Presents"

"Name of Production Company"

"Starring"
 - Aman Dhillon
 - Luke Mayes
 - Lisa Machin

"Cinematography"
 - Priyanka Chawla

"Sound"
 - Luke Mayes

"Editor"
- Chelsea Wilson

"Producer"
 - Priyanka Chawla

"Director"
 - Chelsea Wilson

Making the Opening Titles

While the rest of the filming for the film was being done, I needed to take our ideas for the opening credits / titles and create ones suitable for our own thriller film.

From our previous research we found that the typical thriller film makes use of a sanserif font. We found some various fonts.

"Lucky Typewriter"

"Last Draft"

"Harting"

In the end we made a group descision on using the 'Harting' font. With this in mind I went on to create the opening Titles for the opening.

Screen Shots of making the Title Sequence:

The previous ones were made in photoshop as it was more efficient for someone else to make them quickly outside of Premier in order to save time.

Making the TypeWriter effect was more time consuming, however we felt it would be worth the time spent. We planned to only have this typewriter effect for the character introductions, e.g. Jack of Spades etc.

To do this, I used the timeline in Photoshop to create a gif, making the letters appear rather sharply, like an actual typewriter. We again used the Harting font as we have learnt that it's best to keep these consistent to prevent any confusion within the audience.

Coursework: Filming Motorcycle Scene

I came up with this introduction scene when we found we needed to further extend the footage, I had a friend who would gladly assist with the filming by using the motorcycle. We started by filming the bike going round the area, and then having it pull into a parking spot. We did a few practise runs to see how it would look on camera and what the best angle would be to film it. We found that filming from a diagonal angle, then panning into the parking spot worked really well, so we decided to use that footage.

We found that the first attempt was somewhat shaky and wasn't usable. We decided to film again the following day and found we managed to get the perfect pan, we found that we managed to get some really good footage at this point. Following from now we would start to edit all the footage within a file at the mac we were using.

Coursework: Filming Second Shoot

We once again returned to the train station, however this did not go as planned. Although we had learnt from our past mistakes and found ways of improving out filming, we were unable to film there as we had been complained about. This meant we had no choice but to stop filming and rework the character entrys. This was when we decided on using the school for the majority of the filming. We chose this as it was the easiest place for us to film at, and was also the most convenient.

The way we remade the this part of the film was by making Aman's character walk out the schools automatic doors, this being chosen as they somewhat resemble the image of a train station. We then decided on again using parallel editing to make the characters eyes meet to show the acknowledgement. The idea worked well as we found that the set up itself worked out well, however we also found that we needed to lengthen and re-shoot this scene.

Coursework: Filming First Shoot

Our first shoot was taken near a train station in order to get the original idea of one of the characters exiting out of the train station. We also needed for him to make eye contact with the character I was playing and have a nod between the two to show they acknowledged each other. With this in mind we decided on having my character placed sitting down at a table, whilst facing the train station exit. We tried many shots out to see what worked best however in the end we found that the footage we had taken wasn't usable as the camera was shaking at some parts of the scene.

We did make a trial edit of the first scene which allowed us to get more used to premier and see all the flaws with the footage we had.


This meant we would have to return to re-film at a later date.

Coursework: Props

Once we had all the costumes planned out, we needed to make a list of all the props we would need. These were:

- Glasses

- Bottle of Alcohol

- Electric Cigarette

- Car

- Motorcycle

 

Editing Research

Editing

Editing has been around for as long as media has existed. I learnt that even back in the time of using cameras with film, there have been some form of editing. Back before digital cameras and recording I learnt that they would physically cut and paste footage to alter the old films. I also learnt how thorough they can be with modern editing. They can completely changes the opinions people have on characters.
With editing they can even manage to change the narrative structure based on changing how characters and signs are interpreted.

Coursework: Costumes Planning

Now that we had the plan for the characters, we needed to decide on the costumes that would be used in the film.

For the woman in our film, we wanted to play on the stereotypes for the woman being controlled by the man, or being objectified. To do this we planned on having the actor being dressed in a dress to appear classy. We  found a picture which gives an indication of how we want her to appear:

"Red Dress Woman Pic"

The second character was being played by one of our group members, Aman. We wanted to continue the idea of class among most of these characters, so do this we planned on having Aman wear a suit. We wanted to have him appear to be like a business man as he was to appear coming out of a train.

We once again found an image which gave an indication of how we want his character to look like:

"Suit Pic"

The third character was being played by me. We wanted this character to appear to be the serious male character, who isn't one to mess around. Both mine and Amans characters were planned to have some form of rivalry shown through the scenes as in the storyboard, when they both first meet, they make eye contact and simply nod without a word.

"Third Character Pic"

For our final character we wanted someone who opposed the class of the other characters. To do this we decided on using a 'drunkard'. We planned to have someone walking through an alley while in a drunken state. We found this interesting as is broke the chain of class that the other characters had.

"Drunken Man Pic"

Coursework - Planning: StoryLine

After much discussion we finally decided on going through with the Western Thriller Hybrid. We plan to incorporate the conventions of western into the usual Thriller codes and conventions. The next step we felt we needed to take was to create a basic story line plan for the film.

We decided on using a Western Style Poker game in a modern setting. We wanted to include a variation of  characters to display a difference in the classes and yet they are forced into the same situation. We decided on having the characters be:
- Classy Man
- Objectified Woman
- Drunkard
- Middle Class "Working man"

We thought that by using a range of stereotypes we could add tension among conflicting personalities, causing possible reason for a thriller event to follow, e.g. Murder.

The basic plan was for characters to each enter dramatically and create tension when they came into contact.
After planning out this, we then needed to create a storyboard.

Coursework - Planning

After going over our research we decided that the fist step we needed to take with planning was creating a mind map going over the ideas of what works with the audience and what we could make within reason.

(Mind Map Picture)

We came up with several ideas about how we should go about the Thriller. We shot down some of our ideas for being far too cliche, one of these was having a girl run through the woods from a killer in a classic styled Horror thriller hybrid. However it became clear to us that this had been done many times before and wouldn't have been interesting by the end as it had been done too many times before.

We after discussing all the ideas we came up with, we narrowed it down to a western styled thriller, and a thriller romance hybrid. We needed to decided between the two, and find which would be the best to make for our group.

Editing Task - Second Shoot

For this second shoot, we now knew we needed to think things out further, we started off by coming up with a Shot list for our new footage.

Shot List:

- Establishing shot of Doors, before camera begins zooming

- When the two characters enter through doors, the 'child' is shown being behind the 'mother'

- Match on Action used in this scene

- We see the character in the classroom as we are introduced to the 'teacher'

- The conversation between the parent and the teacher makes use of the shot-reverse-shot 

- Scene ends with the son looking down in disappointment, makes use of a piano instrumental, accompanied by a fade out in the end.

Final Cut Video Found Here

http://chelsea-wilsonn.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/continuity-task-second-shoot.html 

From filming this we realised that again we failed to come up with sufficient planning. Some of our cast were not the most suitable actors, as we had frequent bursts of laughter. We did however all manage to get more confident in our use with cameras.


Teacher Analysis - Due to my blog originally being made in pages rather than posts, the comments made on the removed pages became invisible, there for I decided to copy over the comment to the related post.

Level 1: 15/60 A lot of work is to be done in your understanding of how to use the camera to engage the audience and subsequently your shot selection and the reasons for them. I have the sense you have simply pointed the camera to film, instead of pointing the camera to really construct meaning in relation to the plot and story. You attempt match on action but it is not executed well, and further understanding of this technique is needed. There needs to be more fluidity across the shots to engage the audience into the idea of time passing. Your sense of clipping and timing in the editing process needs a lot more attention to detail to make the sequence seamless. Continuity is lost as you move from characters walking to a shot of the feet which start from a standing position. There is no actual SRS evident, and this particular technique is one you need to address. Your technical understanding of camera use is in need of a lot of further consideration. SRS is from the POV of each on

My Response: In response to our feedback, I have realised that there is much more research needed to be done into the process of filming, we need more experience with filming and editing and a group. We need to further look into alternative shots we can use while filming, and also remember to experiment while filming to see if we can find a better angle or shot. Our main flaw I found was our lack of planning. Without a proper plan, we only got a basic film in the end, worth few marks overall. This meant we would have to put much greater efforts into the future Thriller film. 

Editing Task - The first shoot

This was the video produced from the first film shoot.

 ("First Shoot End Video") - Link to Group Members Blog Page with First Cut
http://chelsea-wilsonn.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/continuity-task-first-shoot.html 

Teacher Feedback: After producing our first video, the teacher had a look over it and told us what was good, what was bad and how we could improve. The positives were that we kept to the 180 degree rule really well, and that our overall filming was rather good, however we found there was a few clipping issues within the clip. Another issue we had with the final video was that we used a dissolve transition for the Match on Action, we were told that this wasn't right and that it was an improper use of the transition and that it would be far better to use a quick cut between the three stages. We also were told we needed better movement tracking with the Match on Action, we were advised to change the final part of the match on action to the actors sitting down rather than them already seated. We were told this would create a better idea of passing time with cuts. This also lead us to the discovery of the mothers face being blocked by the child's. This meant she couldn't be seen and looked rather sloppy in camera work. The improvements that were suggested to us was to create an establishing shot before the entry of the actors, rather than having them come in straight away.

What I have learnt: From this first shoot I have learnt that the whole process is a case of trial and error. Shoots don't always go flawlessly and that its okay to re-shoot as many times as needed as long as we get the quality result we're aiming for. I also learnt that editing is espicially important during this post-production as there are so many ways to approach the raw footage and many different changes for different effects. Throughout the editing I found new ways and approaches to editing than I had known before and feel that it will be really beneficial for the Thriller film opening.

Editing Task - First Shoot Filming

Once we had the film planned out, we next had to start filming. This was somewhat challenging as it took a lot of organisation to get the area we needed for the filming, along with the needed people. For this task we found it easier to use ourselves as the actors, as it meant we would have greater control over the video and would have less risk of an actor not being able to show. The main issues we had with the camera was learning the best way to use the camera. None of us had much knowledge on the actual practical use of professional filming, which meant we first had to find to best ways to shoot, the best angles and then a few practise videos just to get the idea of how we do it.

The first shoot itself had a few minor bumps, delays to charging of equipment, finding a suitable tripod. Once the filming got started we had learnt what we needed and how we could get the shots we wanted. We had to repeat parts of the shoot because the actors needed time to get serious and avoid bursts of laughter which come with nervousness. We had a few of these moments however by the end of it we had the shots we needed.

The most interesting shot we used with the film was the match on action shot that we implemented. We found that the shot itself was rather interesting as it added a certain depth to our video to make it seem more dramatic.

The editing was were I felt most comfortable as I had previous knowledge of using Adobe Premier making it easier for us to proceed and opened up more editing options. After teaching the rest of the group the basics of editing we managed to produce the edited clip with the footage. We added in effects for transitions and endings to make the video look more professional and better suit a films style.

Editing Task - StoryBoarding(WIP)

The second part of this task was to plan out a usable storyboard to base our shots around.

("Image of Page with Story Board")

Editing Task - Brief and Beginning

We have been tasked with the creation of a short, 60-90 second film, based off using various editing techniques and camera manipulation.

To begin with, we looked over the tasks sheet, giving us an idea of how we should go about the task.

My first thoughts on this task was that it would make good practise for the production of the Thriller Opening later on.

The first part of this task was to plan out the shots that we would use.

Coursework - Thriller Questionairre Results

Audience Research Questionnaire:

www.surveymonkey.com/s/wcxt3wy

By using Survey Monkey for a survey we managed to gather and collect results far more effectively than if we did it by hand. The questions we used for survey were decided with the intention of finding out which target audience the thriller genre best suits.

1) What is your Gender?
     - Male
     - Female

2) What is your age range?
     - 5-12
     - 13-17
     - 18-25
     - 26-31
     - 32+
3) What is your favourite genre?
     - Action
     - Sci-Fi
     - Romance
     - Thriller
     - Comedy
     - Horror

4) What is your opinion on thrillers?
     - Like them
     - Hate them
     -Don't mind them
5) Do cliffhangers add interest to the opening of a film?
    - Yes
    - No
6)  What is your favourite Thriller film?
      - Box left open to person filling out survey

7) What music adds to an atmosphere of a thriller film?
     - Eerie
     - Mysterious
     - Calm
     - Up-Beat
     - Classic

8) What setting would best suit a thriller?
     - Abandoned Building
     - Graveyard
     - School
     - Woods

9) What aspect of a Thriller movie scares you most?
     - Relation to characters
     - Jumpy Scenes
     - Ambience
     - Music
     - Antagonist

10) What would you expect to see in the opening of a thriller film?
       - Gore
       - Death
       - Mystery
       - Weapons
       - Other

Survey Results Analysis

Question 1:

Female: 67.89%      11
Male: 42.11%          8
From this we can tell that out of the people who filled out the survey, the majority of them were female, however the difference between the numbers isn't too great, with just three more people being female. From this we can gather that the thriller genre appeals to both genders.

Question 2:

5-12: 0%                     0
13-17: 84.21%            16
18-25: 5.26%              1
26-31: 0%                   0
32+: 10.53%               2

From this we can tell, people aged 5-12 have little interest for the Thriller genre, likely due to the age limits on thrillers rarely going below 12. The graph shows that age group which Thrillers are most popular with are people aged 13-17, the teenage years. From this we can get a good idea on who to aim the Thriller at, and what age rating we should suit it towards.

Question 3: What is your favourite genre?

Question 4:

Question 5:

Question 6: What is your favourite Thriller film?

- Psycho
- Insidious
- Sinister
- Shutter Island
- The Dark Knight Rises
- Dark Skies
- The Pact
- Phone Booth
- Pulp Fiction

These results were gathered from an open box, these movies were choices from the surveys. These will be good for later research into what makes the movies popular with the target audience.

Question 7:

From here we can tell that the audience believes that Mysterious music is the most effective addition to the atmosphere. This will be useful when deciding on what sounds to include within the opening sequence.


Question 8:

From this question we can gather that the Abandoned building is the most preferred or recognised setting for a thriller film. We also can tell that the school is the next favoured. This will help give us some foresight on how we should go about making our thriller opening sequence.

 Question 9:

From here we can tell that the Jumps in thriller films is the most effective way to scare someone through a thriller film. From previous  research on the conventions of thrillers, making it scare the audience in some way or another is an important part of making the thriller genre.

Question 10:

The results shows us that mystery is what is expected during the opening of a thriller film. This links back to prior research as we learn that typography is often used to create ideas of mystery and wonder.

Coursework - Common Traits of Thrillers

Common Traits of Thriller Films

-Low Key Lighting
-Shadows
-Obtrusive Editing(Quick Cuts, Changes in camera angles)
-Tension Music
-Stairs
-Flashbacks
-Black and White
-Freeze Frames
-Slow Motion

Typography used in Thriller

Silence of the Lamb Opening

The font used in this opening is a San-serif font. It's been capitalised, which makes it stand out more and seem more dramatic. The black font indicates that something dark is to follow, for example death, bad events etc. The white outline around the font allows the black to be readable, rather than blending with the dark background.

Se7en Opening

The typography used in this opening Title is a San-serif font. The font used is rather rough, it looks as if someone has tried shredding it, this makes it seem more viscous and violent, creating the idea that something is about to happen. The title is shown at seemingly random times at different sizes throughout the opening sequence, this adds a sense of mystery to the film.

Shutter Island Opening

The font used in Shutter Island is again a San-Serif font. The font used is a rather basic, no extra details or various effects added to make it look mysterious. The colour of the font is red, which often indicates that there will be some form of bloodshed within the movie. It also represents a form of danger is sure to follow. Like other opening sequences this one seems to also fade to black to present the opening title.

From the research on the typography I have learnt that there is common traits found among the thriller genre. The idea of using fades on the text to create a rather mysterious effect. The use of San-Seriff fonts creates a surreal effect, making it seem that isn't real, perhaps adding to a psychological factor. Another common trait between the used typhography is the use of black or red, these colours are often associated with darkness or evilness, so adding them to the thriller genre creates an idea of violence or tragedy.

Coursework - Alfred Hitchcock Research(WIP)

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was the most famous thriller director of his time and was said to have helped shape the modern-day thriller genre. He was said to be considered a master of manipulating is audiences fear and desires, and taking viewers into a state of association with facing the reality of the character. He would often include a taboo or sexually-related theme into his films.

Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim (an average person) into a strange, life-threatening or terrorising situation, due to mistaken identity, misidentification or wrongful accusation.

The first thriller he ever made was named 'Lodger' in 1926.  This film is based upon a woman  (a landlady) who believes that her lodger is a madman murderer who is killing women who live in London.

Coursework - Thriller Codes and Conventions

Codes and Conventions

Characters: Resourceful Heroes, Convicts, Soldiers, Spies, Law enforcement, stalkers, men associated with danger, criminals, assassins, Innocents which are dragged into danger, Psychos, Prisoners

Themes: Terroism, Political conspiracy, Psychological mind games, supernatural events, crime, spies, chase, suspense

Symbolism: Cars, Weapons, Urban settings, tension building music, fast paced editing, low lighting

Effect on Audience: Excitement, suspense, anticipation, nerve wrecking tension, anxiety, uncertainty

Coursework - Thriller Genre Research

Thriller genre

Thriller uses suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewers moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast paced.

A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace. It keeps the audience on “the edge of their seats”.

Thrillers often make use of literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists and cliffhangers. A thriller is usually a villain driven plot which presents various problems a protagonist must overcome.

Psychological thrillers are fictional thriller storys which enphasizes the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states, with similarities to gothic and detective fiction in sense of “dissolving sense of reality”, moral ambiguity, and complex and tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters.

Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of mystery, drama and horror.

Examples: The Machinist, House of 9, Straw Dogs, Shutter Island.

Supernatural thrillers bring in otherworldly elements(such as fantasy and/or supernatural) mixed with tension, suspense and plot twists. Sometime the protagonist and/or villain have some form of psychic ability or super powers. Examples: The Dead Zone, Chronicle, Frequency.

Techno Thrillers are suspense films in which manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part. Examples: Jurassic Park

Spy Thriller: The protagonist is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of a rival government or (in recent years) terrorists. The sub genre usually deals with the subject of fictional espionage in a realistic way. Its is a significant aspect of British cinema.

Examples: The parallax View, The Tailor of Panama, Taken, Unknown.

Comedy Thrillers: The normal aspects of thrillers are exaggerated and used in ironic ways to create humour rather than the usual effect of scaring the audience. This sub-genre uses the similair devices, but will often reverse the negative effects and replace it with something which will again create humour.

Camera Angles Research

Camera Angles

Throughout visual media, different camera angles have been used to create various effects.

Close-Up: A shot which shows shoulders and above of a person, allows the emotions of the face to be exaggerated and made clearer

Extreme Close-Up: A shot which shows either just the head, or a part of the head. Used to dramatically increase the effect of the facial expression and the emotions within.

Mid-Shot: A shot which shows the people from the waist up. Shows the body language and reactions of the characters in the shot. Allows greater effects from a conversation.

Long-Shot: A shot which shows the entire body of the people, allows groups of people to be shown, can be used to represent isolation when person is separated from a group of people in the same shot.

Aerial Shot: A view from where the camera is set up directly overhead the focus to ensure a clear view

Canted Angle: A shot in which the camera is set up tilted to one side, this angle is often used to present disorientation.

Crab Shot: A type of shot which involves the camera being placed into a confined space, for example, if a camera is place inside a container as the person opens it.

Deep Focus: A camera technique which allows objects which are both near and far be in focus simultaneously.

Establishing Shot: The shot which is used at the beginning of a scene, this is mainly used to establish the setting of the scene.

Hand-Held Shot: A shot filmed whilst the camera is held within the camera man's hand, opposed to some form of tripod. This is often used to make the shot seem shaky, which creates useful effects for making the scene seem realistic to the audience.

Head-On Shot: This is when the action comes directly towards the camera, rather than the camera following the action. This is often made use of with action movies or war films in order to give the audience a sense of involvement.

High Angle: This is when the subject of the camera is looked down upon via the camera, by having the camera held higher and angled down towards the subject. This is often used to make the subject seem small and insignificant.

Low-Angle Shot: This is when the subject of the camera is looked up to via the camera, by having the camera held lower and angled up towards the subject. This creates the idea of superiority which the subject posses.

Master Shot: A camera shot used at the beginning of a sequence to establish key component elements and relationships found within, and allow them to be able to make sense of them.

Pan: The camera is carefully and gently moving across a 180° Angle across the subject on a horizontal axis.

Point of View Shot(POV): A camera shot taken from the position of the subject in an attempt to create a sense of involvement and realism with the audience.

Pull Focus: This refers to a shot where one object was on focus, which is followed by another object becoming in focus. This is often used to present a shift in importance.

Rule of Thirds: This a common technique used in both photography and filming. They include the use of a 3x3 grid in hopes of dividing up the frames and finding which area of the frame will objects look best in.

Shallow Focus: This refers to a shot where an object in the foreground has been focused on, whilst the rest of the frame in the background has been blurred. This is often used to show the importance of an object/ character.

Soft Focus: This refers to a special blur in which a special lens or filter is used to create a hazy light around the subject(s). This is often used in romantic scenes within films.

Tight Frame: This refers to a shot in which the person or object within the frame, is given little to no free space within the frame.

Loose Frame: This refers to a shot in which the person or object within the frame, has lots of empty space around it, presenting the idea of solitude and isolation.

Tilt: A camera movement in which the camera is set in a fixed position, with the ability to move the angle vertically up and down.

Tracking Shot: A camera shot in which the camera moves along axis to follow the subject. This is normally done using a set of rails surrounding the subject in which a portable camera tripod is used.

Whip Pan: This refers to a very fast pan between two or more characters or points of interest.

Wide Shot: This can be used as an establishing shot or a shot to show the location. A good use of this is showing the size of a crowd or setting.

Zoom/ Reverse Zoom: By using the zoom function on a camera, the lens can be used to adjust how close or far the subject appears to the camera.

180° Rule: This is the rule of which during a scene, the camera must stay within the one side of the 180° Line, this line is an imaginary line which is used to add a sense of realism to the camera work, allowing it to let people get comfortable with the positioning.

Breaking the 180° Rule: This is when the decision is made to break the previously mention 180° Rule in an attempt to confuse and disorientate the audience.

Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

Throughout the time of media, theories have been made about narrative, explaining what they thought was the cause of how the narrative was made. The theories we have learnt about are:

-  Roland Barthes: Barthes theory is based around five codes which he decided, these codes are:

   -Action

   -Enigma

   -Semic

   -Symbolic

   -Cultural

These codes have different meanings to each audience, and it means the way things are represented depends on the audiences views and their interpretations.

- Vladamir Prop: Prop's theory said that characters each had their own narrative function, which then created the structure for the narrative. He based his theory on folk tales and fairy tales and how they where the ones who 'created' the story. He thought that it was the variation in characters which made the narrative structure what it was.

- Tzvetan Todarov: His theory suggests that narrative starts with an equilibrium, followed by a disaster, followed by a conflict, which then results in a new equilibrium, where its either back to how it was, or resolved for a better world.

- Claude Levi-Strauss: Claude's theory was that its the constant creation of conflict/opposition which carried along the the narrative. He thought that narrative could only end once the story's conflict as has been resolved. Claude believed that there was always an opposition found within films, for example, when theres love that has to be hate, wheres theres good, there must be evil and so on. These are all examples of binary opposites.

Audience Theory + The effects model

Audience Theory

All media is created to a set of conventions, which are specified for the intended audience. The differences which can make the different audience groups are:
- Age
- Gender
- Class
- Disabilities
- Race/Cultural Origins/ Ethnicity
- Interests

From audience theory, three main theories have been made around the principles of this, they are:
- The Effects Model/ Hypodermic Syringe
- The uses and Gratifications model
- The Reception Model

There is three ways which are theorised ways that the audiences consume media, these are:
- Primary/ Active Audiences: The audience is paying full attention to the media, and consuming all that it offers
- Secondary: The audience isn't focused solely on the media and will often be performing another activity whilst paying some attention to the media.
- Tertiary: The Audience is consuming the media sub-consciously, without paying any real attention to the media source.


The Effects Model

The effects model is a media theory developed in the idea of how media is consumed. There are three concepts related to this model.

Imitation: The idea that the consumers of the media are passively taking in ideals and copying them within real life.

Desensitisation: The audience is become more used to things they may have previously been seen as completely inappropriate and becoming a more normal scenario.

Catharsis: The audience is using the media as a way of escaping their own lives, to make themselves feel better about life by seeing something which they consider worse than their current scenario.

Research: HollyWood Classicism

Hollywood films have a theme of classicism throughout several Hollywood movies. These movies contain each contain their own codes and conventions, which are not set to a single genre.

- Five Determinates of Narrative Structure
1) One or two Protagonists
2) Desire catalyses story
3) Antagonist
4) Cause and chain effect:
     - A causes B
     - B causes C
     - C causes D
     - Closure
     - Narrative is a result of code and formalisation of Hollywood film