Margaret Ansu

AS Media Foundation Portfolio G321

OCR Media Studies

Evaluation Activity 1: In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product uses many codes and conventions that real media products (similar to ours) would have used. The aim of our production was to create a two minute opening sequence of either a thriller or horror film. After researching the two genres we decided that they were very similar but decided to go more with the thriller side. Now that we had chosen to do a thriller, as there were many subgenres to choose from, we as a team thought that our initial idea for the opening sequence falls more in to the Psychological Thriller side. However the whole story was more like an action film. Therefore our whole product is a Psychological Action Thriller as it involves some form of a chase scene. For our opening sequence we wanted to put the audience in a state of confusion, leaving them with unanswered question that could only be answered by watching the rest of the film. We did this through building up tension, by using flashbacks, quick cuts and obtrusive editing. This is an example of Roland Barthes theory on enigma code, as it keeps the audience guessing for not everything has been made clear to them, which is an example of Barthes other code, hermeneutic. Unlike most real thriller products our antagonist was identified from the start of the film, his face was shown and the audience knew who he was. Although, due to the quick cuts and other editing techniques the audience still had to watch to make sense of what they were watching. For our opening sequence a lot of Close-Ups were used but not to show the emotion of the main characters face as the main character was the villain in the opening sequence and we did not want the audience to connect with him on an emotional level. However there were some Close-Ups of The Mans face but for the audience to decide if there was to this guy than the eye can see. For our two minute opening Mise-en-scene played a very important part for the idea to work. The setting along with the tools, costumes, lighting, sound and shot types all contributed to the suspenseful and sinister atmosphere to opening sequence. We decided to follow a typical convention of thriller at the very beginning of our sequence and that was the use of Non-Diegetic sound. The use of Non-Digetic sound means we were able to choose a sound that suited the intended feeling to the scene to create a suspenseful atmosphere. Furthermore, through editing we were able to change the level of lighting and we made the footage have lower lighting as low light gives a darker atmosphere, which is mysterious. This is due to a sharper contrast of light in darker areas on screen which produces deep shadows and silhouettes formations. The shadows give the sense of darkness and sinister behaviour, just what we want to convey to the audience. Low key lighting, is also a typical thriller convention.

Margaret Ansu

AS Media Foundation Portfolio G321

OCR Media Studies

Here are 8 frames from our opening sequence. The frames are all numbered and I shall be talking about the type of conventions we have used.

Frame Number 1: Is a medium establishing shot. It sets the scene for the entire opening sequence. We have gone with a typical location used within many thrillers, that is of course the use of a small spaced area and we have chosen a garage. The reason being for this choice is that a garage is full of tools usually also suggesting that some form of violence will take place later on. Also as its a realistic setting the audience can relate to the film more. The Man is introduced but the audience can only see the side profile of his face, therefore they cant tell the emotional state that hes in. However it is clear that hes not the innocent of looking characters as the costume we chose for him and the fact hes smoking shows that he may be some form of a low life. The non-digetic sound used is a low droning sound causing a sense of negative emotions. The use of non-digetic sound along with the props used and the layout of the whole shot (Low key lighting/dodgy looking character) tension is created. An establishing shot like this may be used in real media products like Criminal minds or CSI. Frame Number 2: Is a shot of when the camera is going over The Mans board. This shot reveals to the audience what the man was looking at before. We can see that there are pictures of young females marked with red in. We decided to use these as props for in thrillers pictures are usually used to show victims of the villain. Next to the picture is a newspaper article that reads till we find her this was a sly clue that the man might have something to do with the business of abducting people. For this shot panning was used leading the audience to think something horrific was going to be revealed. Frame Number 3: The Mans full face is revealed. The fact that we had revealed the face of the antagonist so soon in the film is very different from what is expected of a thriller film. Most thrillers hide the face of the antagonist to keep the audience guessing and interested within the film. However we wanted to challenge this convention and find different ways to keep the audience watching and guessing. Also through this shot the audience can tell that no emotion is really being shown by The Man causing them to think have they got it all wrong. Frame Number 4: A low angle medium shot is used. This keeps the audience guessing as they dont know where The Man is walking to. Also why is The Man walking, wasnt he just in a garage? We

Margaret Ansu

AS Media Foundation Portfolio G321

OCR Media Studies

used montage editing a common thriller convention to create confusion of time and space within the audience viewing. Unlike other thrillers though we did not give much indication to what was happening. For instance we didnt change the footage through editing to black and white colouring. This was one of our ways to keep the audience interested within our opening sequence. Frame Number 5: When shooting this shot I remembered the thriller convention of using mirrors. This convention states that within thrillers mirrors are usually used to show the reflection of a character. Therefore I decided to do a close up of The Mans reflection. This reflection indicates to the audience that theres more to the character than what meets the eye and most of the time its meant to be a negative side to the character. Yet again we decided not to follow the usual rule of the convention as the audience already know that he is the villain. Therefore the use of the mirror was to suggest that this villain may jus of gotten caught up in the situation accidentally without knowing the full repercussions of what he will eventually end up in. This suggests that, The Man is really just a good guy who has ended up in the wrong crowd. As well as the fact that a close up is meant to convey the emotions the character is showing, to the audience the shot of the reflection is meant to suggest that what his initial emotions are the actual opposite of his true emotions. Its our way of challenging the stereotypes of the typical thriller serial killer villain. Frame Number 6: This frame shows how we played with the depth of field, from the victims point of view causing everything to be out of focus. It resembles the audiences state of confusion as the victim is also unaware of what is happening. The audience are able to familiarise with the victim making it easier for them to sympathise with victim to as they are both in the same mental state (confusion). We also showed the fat that shes waking up confused through editing we made it look as if she was blinking. This is not a thriller convention but we just decided to do this as it we were looking for new ways to engage the audiences interest. This might have been used in a real media product such as Inception the film. Frame Number 7: This frame shows the victim gaining consciousness which again resembles what we are expecting the audience to feel as the opening sequence has come to an end, and all the confusing aspects of the sequence have lead to this shot. This should cause the audience to piece things together but also leave them questioning why. Just as the man is supposedly axing the victim the screen goes blank and leads to the title of the film. We decided to leave the next part to the audiences imagination as it causes suspense for The Man might have not finished his actions and the girl might be alive but it is very unlikely that she will but the audience wouldnt know this unless they continue watching, setting up the storyline for the whole film as there is a twist and the girl has not been axed. The use of the quick cut is a thriller convention and has been used in many real media products such as Criminal Minds and Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho. Frame Number 8: The title is in red and white font. Red is a colour used for many thriller titles as it signifies danger and fear automatically because we as humans have learned to associate the colour red with those attributes. The lettering of the C in consumer has been made to seem as if its devouring O. The reason for this is that we wanted to show that the film is called Consumer because the villain preys on the mind of his victims with C representing the villains mind and the O representing the victims mind. We decided to leave the title of the film to the end of the opening sequence as whilst the audience are watching the opening sequence it allows them to think why the film may be called The Consumer. Introduction of Victim When the victim was introduced, she was introduced to look harmless and helpless, a typical convention of thriller used within our opening sequence. This is because within thrillers the victim

Margaret Ansu

AS Media Foundation Portfolio G321

OCR Media Studies

is most likely to be a defenceless young white girl. Also not much of the girl was shown and when her point of view shown it was from a low angle. We decided to use a low angle to show that she was defenceless and somewhat inferior to her abductor.