Evaluation of Thriller

Evaluation: Unit G321 Jacob Mardell 12.2.2

‘Requiem’

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

Our media project uses the forms and conventions of real media products well. Setting the film in a darkroom created a generically claustrophobic and dark atmosphere. This together with the soundtrack, creates tension and the piece builds up the film well. We also filmed at Elm Hill and used a huge variety of different angles such as high and low angle shots, over the shoulder and close ups. We made reference to 'The Third Man' by using low angle, canted shots. The costumes used reflect the codes and conventions of the thriller genre. For example, the innocent clothing of the victim makes her seem vulnerable in comparison to the dark clothing of her pursuer. The dark clothes represent 'the dark side' and makes the audience aware immediately. The girl's vulnerability is made greater by the fact she is in the dark room with one small exit. We knew we wanted a classical piece in our thriller and we wanted it to build up the film. Searching through classical compilations we came across 'Requiem'. The piece built up slowly fitting well with a film. It has a meaning because the word requiem means 'a song composed in memorial of a dead person, this could anticipate the audience. After researching into films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and The Third Man I realised they used a lot of unglamorous locations.

Using unglamorous locations in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie gives the film realism which fits well with the background of violence and drugs.
The graffiti and broken brickwork shows how unglamorous and run down the area is.
We chose the names ‘Simon Moore’ for the pursuer and ‘Leyla Kismet’ for the victim. The name Simon means ‘to be heard’ which means he wants attention and wants to be known. Doing something like murder may get him known or he could also be depressed by the lack of attention so he is angry. We chose his surname to be Moore simply because he wants ‘more’ attention. The name Leyla means born at night which is reference to the Dark room and how she is developing photos. Kismet means fortune in Leyla’s case bad fortune.

Overall, Our project succeeded in using the codes and conventions of a real media product such as 'The Third Man'. Our film uses generic conventions of a thriller such as unglamorous locations and claustrophobic spaces.

How does the media product represent particular social groups?

Our project features an 'innocent girl' and a 'spooky man'. The girl is immediately represented as an innocent and vulnerable girl which is added to by the spooky location. Having a female rather than a male does create more vulnerability and scares the audience more. The man is represented as an suspicious character who is possibly a serial killer.

The man is shot slowly walking up the stairs and along the street and the low angle shots represent his power and control he has over the situation. Stereotypically men are represented as the stronger sex and this can create a scarier atmosphere. If it had been done the other way round I don't think it would have created quite the same affect.

Many Thrillers use all male casts or just use males as main characters only such as ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and ‘Layer Cake’ this is because of the drugs and violence in these crime-thrillers. This is because women are portrayed as weak and feeble. Our thriller would not be as affective using an all male cast and it could also narrow our target audience.

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

This type of film should definitely feature in the cinemas to make it much more thrilling with surround sound and a big dark room. I think our project would be shown in an arts house, such as Cinema City in Norwich. Our film has no reputation whatsoever, for directors or actors. The film 'Phone Booth' had a box office appeal because of Colin Farrell and director Joel Schumacher. This makes the product more easy to market and can immediately be released as a 'Blockbuster'. Realistically our film is a small low budget film which would be better off in smaller cinemas. It would definitely been shown on TV. It could be a classic to watch in years to come and develop a cult following. The TV showing would have to be during late evening because it would have an age rating of 15 because of the violence.

With the latest expansion of Youtube and social networking sites. Everyone all over the world can see. This way trailers can be displayed and also shared around social networking sites to add to advertisement of the film. Itunes is also another great use technology development because films can be downloaded from them and put onto people Ipods where they can watch it when and wherever they want. This renovates money to the film because the distributors will sell the film to companies like Apple to sell the film in this way.

How did you attract/address your audience ?

From research I found that mystery thrillers such as 'Phone Booth' were popular amongst the age group 16-20 years. Our film features a young cast of around this age and audiences can relate to this. We aimed the film at both genders to widen our audience. The title of our thriller is Requiem and I feel this is quite a complex title which may attract an older audience of 20-30 years. I also feel that the title of our film makes it quite sophisticated and possibly intriguing. We thought of calling it 'Leyla's Requiem' but agreed in our group that just Requiem was stronger. We also consulted our classmates to see what they preferred. Everyone said they preferred just 'Requiem' which helped us to decide.

Using a classic track which is well known across the world of classical music. Fauré: Requiem, Op. 48 - 1. Could catch people attention when watching the film. From the feedback I have had people have said the soundtrack is a great piece which goes very well with the film.

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

I know quite a bit about digital cameras and how they work but I didn't know so much about tape cameras. The camera sometimes went out of focus due to changes in light or when zooming. These shots had to be taken again until they were right. I have used 'Windows Movie Maker' a lot and find it really easy to use but the editing software we used, 'Adobe Premier Elements', I had only used once before on the preliminary task but just for basic needs. However it was easy to pick up and add effects. For example, cross dissolve was a new transition effect I learnt to use effectively. As our project doesn't involve diegetic sound there is no problem with a buzzing sound of muffled speech. As we found in our preliminary task, speech on the camera isn't very clear unless you use the external microphone. Looking at films like 'Layer Cake' with an external monologue we immediately knew that a monologue wouldn't fit well to our piece. It fits very well in films like Layer Cake to help describe what is going on. In a Mystery Thriller the audience sometimes isn't clear on the story, but that is the mystery. We wanted our audience to work hard and to keep guessing.

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

Doing the preliminary task helped with our thriller project because it gave us some experience with the camera and the editing software. Especially looking specifically into the 180 rule and shot reverse shot which we did use in our project. This then gave us more time which could be spent usefully rather trying to find out how things worked. We have progressed well from the task to the full product because the ideas we have are stronger. We were stuck for a while on what to do for a very simple task. When the thriller came along I felt we wrote quite a complex storyline which is very effective. Practically, I feel it’s not a huge improvement but I am still happy, Our preliminary task was well shot with a good variety of angles and was hard to make a big improvement on. My filming has improved since I have used the camera for the thriller learning from experience. I also realised that your end product is always better with a lot of planning behind it. Planning is the key to great film making and time was wasted on ideas during the filming for the preliminary. Whereas with our thriller we knew what shots we wanted and what we wanted to shoot.

Overall, the project went very well. I learnt that planning well for each session and small details resulted in us using time more profitably. I enjoyed making the film and I know for next time small improvements such as when filming, not cutting the recordings too early because it can be edited at a later stage.

Audience Research

Our film was rated highly by other students; comments on the filming were especially good. Overall, I was pleased with the response we got from our fellow students. The only negative comments were made on the lighting because people found it a little too dark. We knew after filming that this issue might come up but knew it wouldn’t have a major effect. Our chosen location of a dark room made it hard to create good natural lighting but we did as best as we could.




Using the ‘Blog’

Using the ‘blog’ to replace traditional coursework being submitted in hard copies had a lot of strong points but also featured a few negatives. We also used the blog to post all aspects of the course.
Using the blog allowed us to put up videos this helped to give the reader easy access to the video that was possibly being analysed. Your whole blog can also be accessed on any computer that has the Internet which saved you also carrying round a big folder of hard copies.
The only weaknesses the blog had was that a piece you submitted could not be properly marked. Specific points could not be pointed out like you could on a hardcopy for example highlighting a word.

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