Evaluation - Lorna Wilson

Media Studies AS Level, Foundation Portfolio

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

For our media product we chose to use an unrestricted narrative that shows the audience everything, providing more knowledge on the characters, essential to the sequence. The end of our opening sequence enforces an enigma code, as well as the opening close ups. We’ve done this to leave to possibilities open but mainly to suggest possible outcomes to the audience, raising questions; a popular convention in thrillers. This technique adds suspense to the plot. An example of this from our own work is in the last few shots where the antagonist is following the protagonist, the sequence ends before the audience can find out if she’s caught up with her.

The framing in the opening shots are tight and choppy, to increase tension by keeping the protagonists identity a secret. We also used this technique when shooting the antagonist as the audience could only recognise the character by the significant bracelet. This technique was something we continued with throughout our sequence. In a majority of the shots involving the antagonist, focus is kept on a significant bracelet (circled in red) . This was our idea to join the narrative together, as the antagonist turns out to know the protagonist.

Keeping with the thriller genre, we made our opening quite chaotic, by using a selection of short, choppy shots piled together amongst longer ones; this is used in both the beginning and end sequences, and helps to fasten the pace.

Mise en scene

• Sound - As well as shots to create a chaotic feel, we also used sound. We came across the idea of using conversations and background noise played in reverse whilst messing about with ideas in the editing suite. It reminded us of the opening titles in Se7en, and the type of fragmented music they used. We found the noises gave an eerie whilst realistic atmosphere, so continued to use this as our main non-diegetic soundtrack, alongside the sound effects.
• Lighting - We used a red head light to shoot in the Gym scenes. We positioned the light source at a high angle and lit the scene from above, to the side of the actor. This didn’t make too much difference to the initial look of the scene, but it provided more of a heightened atmosphere. For the rest of the sequence we remained with natural light.

• Camera work - We used a montage of ECU and CU at the beginning of our opening to disclose the protagonists identity and add a sense of chaos to the sequence, throwing the audience straight into action. Throughout the sequence we disclosed the antagonists face, in the conversation this was through high over the shoulder shots, that cut out her face. In the dance studio scenes we used fragmented point of view shots to reveal someone coming up behind the protagonist (unrestricted narration). Using the positioning of the camera and the mirror we created suspense by panning up to reveal the antagonists reflection, unbeknown to the protagonist.

• Editing - In the editing suit we played around with many of the special effects we speeded up and slowed down some of the choppy clips at the beginning of our opening to give a variation in feel. We also cut and paste most of the chase scene to again, give a chaotic climax, adding tension. The only transaction apart from cutting we used was a dissolve. We did this in the transaction into a flashback to signify the change in time.

• Titles - We used a simple 'music video' font to give details on the film such as "AS media production" situated in the bottom left of the screen. For the main title "The Betrayed" we experimented with quite a few styles before deciding on a black screen with the words used as a window to the moving image, which fades red. The colour choice was taken from Misery where red represents danger or blood.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For our opening sequence we tried to stray from too much stereotype. However we still uses the standard stereotype of women playing the victim; yet we changed the antagonist to a feminine character as too avoid too much stereotypes. Out media product both reinforces and challenges the presentation of popular gender conventions; by having both the protagonist and antagonist played by females.

• The narrative breaks traditional viewpoints and challenges them. We kept the traditional representation of femininity with the protagonist but then added a complex, modern representation with the antagonist also being female. This was partly for convenience however, we were also keen to stray from the traditional guidelines.
• The ideology of gender, particularly in the thriller genre conforms to the one idea of femininity playing the victim, the protagonist; masculinity being the stronger antagonist, a negative connotation.
• Mise en scene - The lighting in the opening scene casts light upon the protagonist giving an innocent, passive quality. The protagonists costume isn't particularity feminine, however the antagonist's is, shown especially by the significant bracelet.
• Camera work - The point of view shots that we use for the antagonist acts as an enigma code, and adds suspense as her identity remains a secret, a popular thriller convention normally used with masculinity.
• Setting - The first setting of the gym contradicts ideology of femininity as it isn't a domestic location and carries more masculine connotations.
• Sound -

Our antagonist is portrayed with entrapped masculinity something present in other thriller films such as Hard Candy where her body language shows power.Just as in our opening sequence where the antagonist stands over the protagonist from behind in the dance studio scene. Another example of femininity in the antagonist is Fatal Attraction.

• In our opening the female protagonist is portrayed as weak and vulnerable as she is a petite person alone in quite an open space, this is shown especially in the gym sequence. through framing. Her everyday costume suggest she's just going about everyday activities and as an audience we presume there's nothing unusual.
• The female antagonist is portrayed as independent, a role of masculinity despite being female. As an audience in the opening we don't fully meet the character, all we know is that herself and the protagonist had connections in the past, and as for appearance we only see snippets, as we mostly used point of view shots. However what we do see, is deceivingly feminine, show especially through choice of wardrobe and body language, a twist to traditional conventions of antagonists.

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

After a lesson concentrating on distribution, our group discussed possible methods of distribution available to best fit our media product.

• Independent art house vs mainstream.
  We decided our film would be classed as low budget and because of that would suit an art house rather than a mainstream cinema where more higher budget projects are shown.
• When browsing smaller distributors, we firstly looked at artificial eye. Although this was the right kind of distributor, most of the films they produced none of us had heard of and we were after something with a few more well known titles; so we carried on our search and found focus features. We browsed there film catalogue and found a range of known and unknown films, so decided upon this as our distributor.
• We also chose focus features because of similar themed films they'd distributed in the past. For example 21 Grams and Reservation Road which include complex narratives and similar themes.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

As a group, we decided ours would be rated at 12A. I think both males and females could enjoy this film, however because of the focus on female gender in the characterisation of our film, it would be more aimed at females. The age group I think its most likely to appeal to would be late teens- 20+. This is largely because of the age of the actors used, modern locations such as the gym and the costumes worn.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

Narrative: Two female characters who used to be friends with each other, the protagonist is pursued by an anonymous antagonist after confrontation between the two, the antagonist is revealed to be the friend. The rest of the film would be about the events and conflict that lead to this evolving.

The narrative of our story is realistic, yet by using unrestricted narrative creates suspense and gives the audience more knowledge on the characters, an omniscient relationship. The use of camera in the opening varies from short and snappy to long shots, especially in the end chase scene. I think the pace, use of colour and ranges of angles help the audience to enjoy the film, as it keeps them in edge.

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

Within this project we used a range of technology to produce our main piece.

• DV Camera and Tripod - We used this to film our opening sequence.

• Red Head light - We used this in the Gym scenes to add extra shadowing to our actors face.

• I movie - We used this to edit our entire opening sequence.

• Final Cut Pro - We used I movie to edit our film, but had to use Final Cut Pro to put our soundtrack of voices taken on the sound recorder in reverse.

• Garage Band - We used Garage Band for our sound. Mainly we just altered the volumes and overlapped the soundtrack. We didn't need to add any sound effects as the camera had picked them up really well from filming.

• Sound Recorder - We used the sound recorder to record our soundtrack. We took it into the common room to pick up general background noise, and experimented by scratching different surfaces and making sounds into it.

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

I think we've made good progress from the preliminary task, and have evidently picked up on some of the criticism feedback and taken them into consideration. For our thriller opening we made a conscious effort to stick to the 180 degree rule, as this is what we had the most trouble with last time. Despite our opening not turning out completely how we wanted due to various problems, the biggest being unable to re-film the beginning gym scenes because of our actors. I personally feel we've improved greatly over all by being able to:

• Use more equipment and having a greater knowledge of the technology.
• Having the option and ability to use better, more inventive settings, rather than just sticking to college grounds as we had to for our preliminary task.

• Our preliminary task :

• Our Thriller opening sequence, the final product.