Media Studies AS Level, Foundation Portfolio, Main Task

My Evaluation

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

When thinking about creating a successful thriller opening we had to immediately interpret to the audience that this was a thriller, as it was only 2 minutes of which we had to do so. In doing this we had to include distinctive thriller conventions in which the audience instantly recognise this, such as mise en scene, camera work and editing, characters, narrative structure, iconography, music/sound and ideologies.
In order to accomplish this we had to research into this genre, we did this by watching a range of thriller films and openings, such as The Usual Suspects, Seven and Memento to name but a few. Our group all particularly liked Seven and so in out of school research we watched the whole film. Seven has an extremely fast pace the whole way through and instead of starting at the beginning it starts at the end and throughout the film there are ellipsis’ in time. This therefore gives the audience restricted narration and for the duration of the film a lot of tension is built. This was the main inspiration for our own thriller as we really wanted to keep this fast pace with lots of quick cuts and ellipsis’ in time.

For the Mise en Scene we used a range of typical thriller conventions. We chose our setting to be mainly in the house, but for our nightmare sequence we just used one undecorated wall and added some warped pictures and words which you instantaneously identify as the antagonists “lair.”



This took a reasonable amount of planning before hand and so I and Alex researched for pictures we could use and also words or newspaper articles. The “bloodstained hands” on the wall we later added for a more distressing effect and also the victim’s names. The lighting was also quite low key although we had to make sure we could still see quite clearly what was on the wall. We filmed just with the key light on and then put a diffuser in front of it to try it with that. The colours we used were mainly dark and grungy colours such as greys and blacks but then the red which we added on later connotes the blood and anger and helps to give an overall more dramatic effect. Props used in the nightmare scene were all the pictures and words on the wall but we also had a baby doll and weapons shown in the sequence. The use of the doll in the sequence was used to show that our antagonist is particularly twisted, and so to demonstrate this we burnt parts of the doll and scratched one of its eyes out.

Dolls are also quite a common fear that people have and so this tapped into people’s insecurities. The weapons we laid out on the table in a constructed way, this was not only to show them off clearly but also we wanted to portray an organised side to our dark antagonist, showing that he plans his killings and that they are not just accidental. In the house shots there were a various amount of props used. In the bedroom, we had small personal things such as a picture of the protagonist and her dad when she was small, and an alarm clock. In the bathroom she then had to use a toothbrush and a hairbrush, and in the scene downstairs in the living room we used her mobile as the main prop. When thinking about costumes we wanted to show that this girl was not particularly rich and so in bed she just had normal pyjamas on and then downstairs quite casual type clothes. If we had made the whole film you would later find out that she is living with family and not in her own house and so that shows why she hasn’t got the nicest clothes and only has a few personal belongings. The antagonists clothing was made so he looked quite smart in a suit but makeup gave off a more “dirty” look.

With body language we tried to show that our protagonist was generally quite hesitant and afraid, although you wouldn’t find out until a bit later in the film that her nightmare had already happened and that she had already been through a lot which has made her like that. The body language was more confident and structured for the antagonist showing that he is in control of the situation and clearly more dominant. Again these characteristics were reflected in facial expression as well.
Camerawork and editing are extremely important when filming a thriller. However we did challenge it in someway by not using a typical crosscutting sequence which is usually used to help build suspense. Instead we used fast quick cuts in the dream to create this fast pace, which keeps the audience on edge the whole time. None of our shots lasted longer than about 6 seconds and so this enabled us to do this. We also edited the colour and the brightness in some of the shots, using inverts of them to give a flashing eerie effect. Combined with the quick cuts this gives the exact outcome we wanted. Editing also allowed us to switch around the shots, putting the ones that we filmed after into the middle of the nightmare sequence, showing two periods in time. The titles were also important in our thriller opening as they needed to convey that this was a thriller. The titles we chose to use were decided by the entire group, and were a dirty graphic style type font which slide in from left to right. We also used the jilt effect to portray the jumpy feel to the film and also show that this is a thriller and not any other genre.

The camerawork took the most amount of time but is one of the most important parts when filming a thriller. We wanted to include as many types of shots as possible and with the most interesting angles.

The nightmare sequence was mainly all at eye level as we wanted to make it look as if the audience was looking at it, however we did try out shooting it from a low angle and high angle as well. We used many different sizes in these shots ranging from ECU’s on certain parts to long shots of the whole wall. When filming the weapons we tried panning across the screen from a very high angle MS and found that this looked the most effective as it made you feel as if you were there yourself looking down on the weapons from left to right. As it was quite a slow pan it helps to build a little bit of tension. Another interesting shot type we used was a very low angle shot of our antagonist one he has captured the protagonist, tilting up quite slowly again whilst cutting to other shots. We eventually get to see our antagonists face and this shows him from the very low angle and so makes him seem very dominant in the frame. As it is a mid shot you can see his facial expression quite clearly with a very confident and menacing look. All these things help to show that he is instantly recognisable as the antagonist which is what we had to achieve in such a short space of time. A further interesting shot which I like is the one where we have used subjective camera work of a POV shot of the antagonist watching the protagonist on the outside of the house. This is classically used in thrillers when a murderer approaches their victim and so was a good shot to use in our opening sequence.

The use of sound in this shot also adds to the shock factor of the scene where the hand slams against the glass and you get to see a reaction shot of the protagonist turning around.


We also managed to use a 2 shot and combined it with a match on action in the mirror scene where she bends down and her cousin comes up behind her (however you do not know who it is at the time).

When thinking of characters we knew we had to include an antagonist and a protagonist. Our antagonist had to portray the usual characteristics that a “villain” would have in a thriller and we also knew we had to avoid the supernatural villains such as “monsters” which are commonly found in horrors so as not to confuse the genres. Our antagonist was in the criminal role of a murderer who has a fan base following him and wanting to replicate what he has done. Overall we had two antagonists although one was just a follower and one was the main one, occurring in the dream. Our protagonist was just a normal teenage girl, and is the victim throughout the film. We chose to use a girl as being a girl there is already the stereotype of being the weaker sex and the “damsel in distress” so we wanted to use this to our advantage. There is also another protagonist in the sequence although she is just the main protagonists cousin and so doesn’t play a huge part although we knew in casting that she couldn’t look threatening or scary at all and so that is why I was chose to play this small part.
In the narrative structure we tried to conform to the standard type, the equilibrium, disruption and the resolution however this is the second time that our protagonist has encountered danger with the antagonist seeking revenge. However we also went against this because we have switched the order round with the use of the flashback nightmare. We have also used the usual oppositional characters, good vs. bad, which in the end is solved by the resolution of her escaping from the antagonist.

Memento is an example of the exception of narrative order, using flash backs where we are shown the end of the story first.

Sound was also very important when developing our thriller. We used both non-diegetic and diegetic sound. The non-diegetic sound used was made to be parallel to what was happening on screen and so using garage band we chose sounds which relate to what is going on and are not contrapuntal. The use of diegetic sounds used were there to emphasise and help create shock, such as the hand going against the window and overall sound helped a lot to create suspense. However from peer evaluation we did get some slightly negative comments on sound commenting that some did not sound clean cut and you could tell the difference between the foley diegetic sounds which we added in in post production from the sound which we could have got from the camera.
The main ideology we used which is the main convention of the thriller genre was the source of threat to an individual and the common fear of that individual, which most people usually find scary and or threatening.
Overall we used many typical conventions of thriller whilst challenging some as well.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

There are three main characters in our thriller which we particularly needed to think about on the terms of how we represented them, however the main protagonist you do not see in the first 2 minute sequence. We decided to keep up with what is going on in the world now with Obama coming into power and so chose to have our main protagonist as a black male. The whole situation he has with his daughter not living at home as he works away a lot is a common one today, with extended family often living with you. Also he is quite a young lone parent, which is generally more and more frequent in today’s society, however we challenged this by choosing a man rather than a woman as this family type is rarely represented. As he is not represented in the beginning you just get to see his daughter Claire. We needed to make her come across as quite alone and vulnerable, although she is living with family not really feeling as if she has a place.

The camera shots we chose to represent her were either from a high angle looking down on her, or at eye level. This is because from shooting at a high angle she appears to look small and so therefore this really emphasises her vulnerability. This helped us to create empathy with the audience and they want to help her and so when she is captured there is an emotional attachment between this character and the audience. The antagonist character is always meant to look controlling and dominant within the frame. We usually shot from a slightly low angle or an extreme low angle to portray this. Also when shooting quite close up he seems more dominant in the frame as takes up more of it, compared to the protagonist who is usually in long shots, making her look small in the frame. As our target audience is quite a young one (the film would be rated as a 15) we chose our victim to be of that age and this way they can relate even more to this character. Our antagonist does fit in with the standard stereo type however our protagonists do not and we did this as we wanted to create something different to make ours more up to date as there are many different family types and ethnicities in the world today.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

To create a film there are three main stages. These are production, distribution and exhibition. The film productions job includes actually making the film; the film distribution company’s job is to secure the placement of the film on an exhibitors screen and for home viewing via DVDs and videos. Lastly the film Exhibition is the place the audience watch the film such as the cinema. The most recognisable film distributor’s names are 20th century fox, Paramount and Pathe. As ours is a low budget film we would not be able to get one of these major distributors and so would have to look for a distributor that distributes independent films as well as mainstream or just independent. Icon film distribution is one of these types of distributor and so this is a possibility for a place where our film could be released. http://www.iconmovies.co.uk/

The Independent Cinema Office are also distributors worth considering as they focus mainly on distributing independent films such as our thriller would be. http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As our media product has a range of characters and ethnicities it has quite a wide range of audience. However as we have agreed that it would be for a 15 I personally think our product is aimed at a reasonably young age group, such as 15 year olds to early 30’s. We have tried to aim at both sexes as I don’t think our thriller would be particularly gory but more psychologically frightening as women usually tend to avoid gory films. As our target audience is around our own age it wasn’t too hard to decide what they would find frightening or interesting. However we did ask a couple of slightly older people in their 20’s but found their film taste was reasonably similar to our own. Everyone in our group prefers the more psychological thrillers, and personally I found that the more gory ones made them more similar to a horror. We also found that many of our target audience prefer thrillers with quite a large amount of enigma and so we resulted that our thriller too, would have to contain enigma too.
As the main protagonist in our thriller would also be quite young and good looking, and fits into the “hero” category this would help to attract more females from our target audience as many people go to see films for who they have in them, rather than wanting to see that particular film. However although our target audience is aimed at young people as they can relate to the characters, I also think that as the film uses enigma and the storyline is quite clever, that older people could come and enjoy watching it too.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Throughout the 2 minute sequence of the opening of “Behind the Lens” we tried to include all things that would make it as interesting for our audience as possible. Not only in the character’s but it the shot types as well. As the first few minutes of a film usually set up the audience’s impression for the rest of the film we knew that we really had to reel our audience in. As I have already mentioned the characters have a huge part to play in attracting the audience to the film, but also in our thriller opening we chose to use interesting angles and shot types to not only convey it as a thriller but also to keep it fast pace. This is also created by the editing, with quick cuts and short shots the pace is kept fast and the suspense is built. We also decided that to initially attract our audience the plot itself had to be appealing and diverse from any other thriller.
Firstly we started with the set. This needed to be as eye catching as possible and also recognisable as something which is related to the antagonist. As there is initially quite a lot to look at and the audience doesn’t have enough time to do this they are instantly engaged, asking questions about what is going to happen and what is the relevance of it. The low key lighting also attracts the audience as they can’t see everything in the shot and so wonder what else is in that room all helping to create enigma. As we have created this within the first 2 minutes this will have an automatic “pull” on the audience and so therefore they would want to continue watching the rest of the film. Our thriller is also relevant to recent social evolutions such as lone parent families becoming much more popular and also political happenings such as Obama. Connecting our thriller with these things it becomes more modern but also has it has never really been done before people want to see something new. The sound used can also attract the audience as not only is it instantly recognisable as eerie music but it emphasises the events happening within the sequence. Often it sudden sounds can make you jump more than what is happening on the screen and so trying to make audience scared within the first few minutes gets them excited for what is going to happen next.
All these things have helped us to attract our audience but I think that the main thing is the general plot of the story, as if you do not have a good initial idea that captures the audiences attention, they are not going to want to go and watch the rest of the film.

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

Throughout this project I personally developed my technological skills quite a lot from the preliminary task. We used a range of equipment when filming “Behind the Lens” These included using the XM2 camera, tripod, dolly and a complete lighting kit including diffusers and gels. I got to have several chances at filming, but mainly liked to find interesting angles to film the shots from, or different shot ideas such as filming in the mirror. When using the camera I learnt how to set the white balance, and general things such as zooming and setting the camera up on the tripod. However there was a small problem which occurred with the zoom, as when trying to zoom in slowly, it was set automatically to a higher zoom speed. Once we got into the editing suite there were many programs that we had the choice of using. These included iMovie, Final Cut Pro and Garage Band. We chose to use iMovie over Final Cut as we had had previous experience of this before and so knew relatively how to use it. When using iMovie I learnt how to split clips into the parts that we wanted and delete the other sections and then switch them round into the bit where we wanted to put them. I also learnt how to add in some titles and then add effects to these. I did enjoy using this program however I still find editing quite hard to do. When using Garage Band I learnt how to add the foley sounds we picked onto our production. I enjoyed picking which foley to add onto our production and which one suited it best and overall learnt quite a lot about both programs. I would feel confident with using these programs again.

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

Looking back at the preliminary task I think I have learnt a lot. I have learnt that using continuity editing is one of the most important things and also improved on a lot. I have learnt that from putting the camera at different angles and positions you can portray a character in a completely different way. I also learnt that the setting and mise en scene is extremely important and I think that I had a big input in designing the sets and deciding which props should be included and are relevant to what we want to portray. I believe that even though our preliminary received some very good feedback, our final product received even better. I have also learnt that managing a group of four people and getting them together at the same time can be quite difficult, so my organisational skills have also improved.
Overall I am very confident with our final product and believed that all of us did our part and had an input, whilst learning a lot about the thriller genre.

Research-Momento

At the beginning before we had done any of the filming, me and Alex Lloyd decided to watch Memento. By doing this we hoped we would gain some inspiration, as at this point we didn't know what we wanted to do for our thriller. The whole film does not happen in a chronological order and therefore the film has many ellipsis' in time, this creates confusion for the audience which might be to mirror the main characters confusion, as it is made evident from the beginning that he has lost his memory.
The audience is given a very restricted narrative and are not meant to know too much, giving the film a great sense of enigma. The audience gets questions raised in there head throughout the whole of the film, at one point I was even beginning to doubt whether the main character was meant to be the protagonist and not the antagonist.
This happens with quite a few other characters in the film, whether the main character can trust them or not, the effect of this is that the whole time you are on edge, because you are not sure at all what is about to happen or if a person is a protagonist or an antagonist.
The main plot of the film is that Leonard (the main character) has a damaged memory due to an injury he sustained during the brutal attack and murder of his wife. He now can only remember things for a short period of time and therefore tattoos things on himself or takes Polaroid pictures of people to say whether he can trust them or not. The main theme of this film is revenge as the whole time he is looking for the person who killed his wife so he can kill him.
At the end of this film we gained quite a lot of ideas and had a basic idea of what we wanted to do, deciding on one of the main themes of our thriller to be revenge and to also include ellipsis' in time jumping from on time to the next in a fast sequence.

Textual Analysis of the Opening Titles of Win a Date With Tad Hamilton

Each member of our group was chosen to analyze a set of opening titles to different genres of films. The genre I was allocated to do was a teen movie. I chose this movie as it has particularly interesting titles.These credits are separate to the opening sequence, although they are not just set against a blank screen but have a mini narrative of their own to give you a sense of what this film is about. You also get a small idea of what the "tad" character is going to be like due to the relation between him being a celebrity in Hollywood.The whole of the titles are animated, using a few actual photos of the actors.
The first thing I noticed was the colour scheme used, which was mainly all orange, blue, white, bright green and purple. These are all very warm colours and so you can automatically assume that it is not a horror or a thriller. The typography used also connotes this warm feeling, as it is very curved, slightly bubble font. The mixture between the bold writing and the unbolded writing adds to the fun feel, but also draws your attention to the people acting in it rather than the other type on screen.
The beginning part is set up like a scrap book, with different things sliding in from each side. The images used look like they have been drawn and are made to look animated. They have used the image of a plane and a hot air balloon flying across the screen to bring in the names of actors/actresses in the film and so you begin to get an idea of what the rest of the film is going to be about.
The use of the Hollywood sign, the limo, the signposts, the women sunbathing and the signposts all show signs of the typical Hollywood lifestyle of the rich and famous. You know who the Tod character is supposed to be straight away from the red carpet, the shot of where his "pad" is the people touring to see him with the "I love Tod" t-shirts on. The text also reinforces this from captions such as "heartthrob" and "megastar"
All these credits flow onto one another in a sequence which makes sense, such as taking the plane from here over to Hollywood, and seeing the sights.All these things reinforce the fact that this is a teen rom/com and definitely does not fit into the category of a horror or a thriller.
Overall I think that these titles are very interesting, and do not bore the audience before the film begins as they have a mini narrative of their own.

Filming 2nd scene

Last night we filmed the second scene of our thriller which was set in Alex's house. We used a few different sets, one outside the front of the house which was a car scene, using Alex's dad as an actor to drive the car. The others were set in the living room of his house and also the bottom of the stairs.
As we were on a time limit due to the time of day and the natural light we needed in the film, we had to do the car scene first. I acted in the scene, as well as Bea and Alex's dad with Alex filming. We took several shots of the same scene, varying the movement of the camera and the angle. Mostly this scene was shot at eye level, so we could capture both mine and Bea's facial expression and body language. The costume of this scene was thought out so that I looked a lot more dressed up in comparison to Bea. This reflected that she was staying at my characters house so she didn't have the clothes with her that she would have at her own house. After doing roughly 10 versions of this shot we felt we had enough variety in the shots to choose from so began our second scene at Alex's house.
The second scene was shot through patio doors from the outside into the living room where you could see Bea's character. We had Jack Storer play the part of the main antagonist in the scene, using an over the shoulder shot of Jacks character outside and looking in through the patio door's at Bea's character. Shooting it from this view will give the audience unrestricted narrative as Bea's character can not see the antagonist. The effect of doing this was to create enigma, getting the audience to start asking questions about who this person is and what is he going to do to her. We had to wait until it got reasonably dark to shoot this scene to portray that it would be night, however we wanted to still be able to see the antagonists silhouette standing outside watching in. The main part of this scene was the protagonist (Bea's character) getting a call from the antagonist (Jack's character) and not knowing who it is. Bea played the part really well, creating a tense and really believable atmosphere. The phone call ends with The antagonist character saying "you know who I am, I'm back" and the protagonist throwing the frantically throwing the phone. We didn't use any of the special lighting for this as we wanted it to look just like an everyday living room. After this we took the camera inside to shoot this scene from different angles and see which would look best. As we were filming one scene I was standing to the side and noticed that an interested shot would be behind Bea's character, but looking at her facial expression directly in the mirror so we could get the true effect of the scene. However we didn't get enough time to shoot this shot so when we complete all the rushes hopefully this shot will be included. We also took shots of Bea's character sitting on the sofa, reading a magazine before the phone call. This show's that before the call it is a completely normal situation and there is no stress or tension in the scene but this short phone call changes that.
The next shot we filmed was in Alex's living room, however we used hardly any lighting, apart from a torch light. This was of our main antagonist character (Jack Storer) In this scene I did the make-up which involved putting the red contact lens' in for both the antagonists and darkening under the eyes. Bea styled the hair into a more rugged messy type look that would suit the character they were playing. In this shot we wanted him to to look up slowly revealing the eye which is the most important part. We filmed this in several ways, using a dolly, having the camera static and using a slow zoom in, and also hand held. With the torch it gave it a very eerie effect, which was what we had hoped for. The only small issue we had with this scene was that we couldn't see the eye very well and so might have to manipulate this in post production.
The next shot was the last one we filmed and was of Bea's character being ambushed by Jack Sadler's character. We used a key light in this scene, however it was quite low key as we want to connote that this is a thriller throughout the whole sequence. We filmed this from a high angle looking down on the protagonist character to make her look more vulnerable. This scene's main function was to build suspense, with the light not working and then her peering up the stairs expecting something to be up there. This leads to the shock of the antagonist coming out of the door in the hall and putting a bag over her head.
Overall the second part of our filming went very well and having done a small amount of filming, acting and also directing I think I had a varied role throughout.

Filming the first scene of our opening sequence

Abi and I, on the 3rd of March booked out the equipment we needed for the first scene. This included a lighting kit, tripod and an XTM camera. We had planned out exactly it was we wanted to do which was to go to Abi's house with the equipment and shoot our first scene within the opening sequence. This scene was going to be part of the nightmare that Claire wakes up from, in this the audience see a wall with many horrific pictures on it as well as ripped out newspaper articles. All of this mise en scene is to connote how organised, sick and how much of a psycho our serial killer really is. We knew Abi's house was a perfect setting for this scene as her lounge is half way through being re decorated and is therefore without any wallpaper looking good with our props up on the wall making it look seriously creepy. We moved her furniture away so that none of it was seen in the shot and that we had plenty of space to do our shooting. Bea and Jack would have also helped but were busy on college trips, they did help plan it out and will help out with the rest of the scenes. Once the furniture had been moved, Abi and I printed off pictures that we found on the internet of radom people and crime scenes involving mutilated bodies. We cut out these pictures as well as newspaper articles that are related in some way with murders, we stuck these all up on the wall connecting images together with text by drawing arrows. We were very pleased with the mise en scene in the end and were happy with the shots we managed to get from it.

We made sure we used a wide variety of angles and different types of shots so that we have plenty to choose from and backup during editing. We also had a few weapons placed on a wooden table being seen in an organized position. These will also create tension throughout the audience as well as a toy doll in the corner of the room also being shot, this doll was burnt on parts with one of its eyes torn out. This will also connote how sick our psycho is. During the filming, Abi had a good idea of using the torch as a lighting effect, we turned off all other lighting and only used the torch by slowly dragging it across objects such as weapons and the doll, this really did create a chilling effect. Throughout the afternoon, Abi was in charge mainly of the lighting whilst i was in charge of the filming.

Now to plan how we are going to shoot the next scenes.

Change In Story

Once we finished our storyboard, we noticed we would not be able to fit all the shots we wanted into our filming due to the time limit. We had to change what happened in our opening sequence in order to cut out any long lasting shots and replace with shots that wouldn't take as much precious time up. When thinking what we would do, an ellipsis came to mind, our opening sequence would be the ending of our film, afterwards going back in time to before Claire got kidnapped for the first time. We will not use linear sequencing by going back 2 years in time, this will be unrestricted narration for the audience as they will always know how it is going to end. The enigma is why it ends like that and why the kidnapper wants that girl. These are the questions that will be answered by going back in time in the story. By ending like it does, it could also leave the audience with a cliff hanger and is open to a sequel.

Abi Black's Textual Analysis of 'Seven'

Explain how mise en scene and editing are used to establish the situation and the character/s in the opening 2 minutes of Se7en. Explain how the film intrigues the audience.

Mise en scene and editing are both important factors when filming a thriller, helping to intrigue the audience and create suspense. Mise en scene helps the audience create a sense of realism between what is happening on screen to their own lives and assists the audience in recognising the locations that the characters are in and what kind of situation they are in. This includes settings, props, lighting, costume, make-up, composition, body language and facial expression. Editing helps to create a continuity effect, helping the audience to tie together scenes and create a fast pace.

The first 2 minutes is made up of many different shots and we are not shown whether this is in the same place or not. In the first 30 seconds we are shown a man lying in bed reading a book. We can tell he is in his bedroom as the props used all connote what you would have in your own bedroom, such as a bed, bedside table, lampshade, bookcase, curtains and a picture framed on the wall. Although these things usually create a homely atmosphere because of the low key lighting used I think it created a tense atmosphere. The man in the bed is wearing just a plain white t-shirt so we assume this is bed clothes. Throughout the shots with him in he is also centrally framed and so always the audiences main focus. This was then reinforced when the character took his reading glasses off and the camera did quick cuts between the character and a metronome standing on the bedside table. This creates a fast pace and the straight cuts from the metronome back to character mirrors the metronomes side to side movement. This all helps to create a vaguely tense atmosphere.

The audience then sees a shot of an open book and from here onwards there is a very fast pace and straight cut’s. This is edgy putting the audience on the edge of their seats due to the tension that it causes. The next thing we see is the credits starting with the main colour being black and white text over the top. The typography used is similar to that of a child’s which gives it a twisted edge and makes it quite creepy. This shot fades into the next shot, showing a picture of hands which were hand drawn with a red line down the middle, up to this point this is the brightest colour used so far due to the rest being dark, this fits in well with the low key lighting. Also seen in this shot is a shadow moving across the screen, which can creep the audience out. Many of the images seen within these opening titles can be quite horrific such as the shot of a blade scraping against someone’s fingertips, this raises questions and enigma making the audience want to know why?. Throughout the opening credits, the moving images all include things being done by someone, including Photo developing, picking up books etc, we see the characters hands but nothing else, this also raises questions and enigma as we do not know who the character is. The photo that is being developed is a picture of a distressed boy, this is an image that can stick into the audience’s minds as well as other shots with horrific images. We then see the text of seven written across the screen in different type fonts, some quite scratchy and some child like-all connote the same kind of twisted scenario. Again the background is black and the font is white creating contrast.

The next shot which again is a fast straight cut shows several pages of a book and also shows the man’s fingers who we recognise from before as they have bandages round the tips, is writing in it. This intrigues the audience as we can’t see what he is writing it has an element of enigma and so does the actual character himself as we want to find out who he is. Using the quick cuts it doesn’t give the audience enough time to see all the information within each shot and so they therefore want to know more. In the next few shots there are many flashes confusing the audience and creating suspense and tension as we are not sure what is going on. We then get the use of red again-which can connote blood and anger but we are not sure what exactly the picture is in the red. Again there is a shot of credits and the white writing is then reinforced with white scratches across the screen.

The next series of shots flash back and forth between text and images, all the time involving the audience as they are wondering what the relevance of these are. In these images we again see this mystery characters fingers crossing things out, highlighting pieces of information. The use of all these things such as the extremely fast pace and the quick cuts all keep the audience guessing and therefore intrigued. This is an important feature in any thriller.

Abi Black's Textual Analysis of 'The Usual Suspects'

Both camera work and mise en scene are very important factors when it comes to filming a thriller as they both help the audience determine how they feel about a character and whether what is happening in the scene is realistic and believable. Camera work is an easy, subconscious way for the audience to conclude how they feel about a character. For example, if the camera is at a high angle and looking down on the character, we can usually assume that the character at this point in time if feeling vulnerable or intimidated within the scene. The use of mise en scene is very important in helping the audience understand as it helps to communicate a range of meanings, using settings, props, lighting, costume, make-up, composition, body language, and facial expression. Without any of these the audience would find it very difficult to decide which character is an antagonist and which is a protagonist. It would also be much harder to intrigue the audience and create suspense.


The first 2 minutes is all in one scene. The first shot is a CU of matches being lit, and everything in the background is pitch black so we are assuming this is a dark place, or set at night. There is then an MCU of the first character, who at this point we are assuming is the protagonist in the scene. The whole shot is filmed at eye level view, although slightly tilts to focus on the characters face, and has a shallow depth of field only allowing the audience to focus on the character and not his surroundings. From what you can make out he is wearing seemingly regular clothes, although he looks worn out and slightly in pain, or has had a struggle. The fact that he is smoking a cigarette reinforces the fact that he is possibly stressed out or has had a struggle. All this immediately raises questions in the audiences head-where is he and why is he there.


The lighting used is just enough for the audience to see facial expression, and we can assume as its night, the light is coming from street lamps or the natural light of the moon. Although the background is out of focus you can still make out that there is a fire, and this shows that something "bad" has taken place here.
Props used are the matches and cigarette but also from what you can see the character is surrounded by wooden crates. All the mystery of where this man is and what he might be doing there involve the audience and create suspense.


It then goes to a cutaway shot of a tank leaking either water or oil onto the floor, and the use of the dark lighting makes this difficult to tell. The use of this is so that the audience is intrigued to know what the relevance of this is which you soon find out. It is an LS shot with most things in focus so you get a view of everything in the scene, and the camera slowly tilts downward showing the water spilling onto the floor. All the way through the scene the continuity is never broken, and in the next shot you see an LS of the character with the background now if focus. The camera is at a slightly high angle, domineering over the character. The character remains centrally framed throughout the scene. It is then a still shot of this character, with him most upfront and the crates in the background.
The camera then shows a cutaway shot of the fire burning that he just lit, which is a midshot and the camera is "following the fire" There is then an LS taken at ground level of the fire coming towards the camera. This all helps to intrigue the audience as he seems to be in a flammable place and the fact that he has just lit a rope up which the fire follows makes the audience wonder where the rope leads to. In the next shot the camera then tilts downward showing the fire being put out by something from above. Again this intrigues the audience as to what this could be. Straight after this shot from a different angle the camera tilts upward revealing the mystery person/ or thing that put the fire out. You get an ELS of this character who you immediately presume is the antagonist. He appears to be a silhouette wearing a long dark coat and has a chilling presence.


There is then a reaction shot of an MCU of the other characters face, showing his disappointed facial expression, showing that he recognises this other mysterious character. The camera the uses crane movement to follow the dark characters movement down the stairs, the shot is very low key light, reinforcing this characters dark occurrence. As this character was standing on a balcony the location of these characters becomes more confusing as you can’ t tell where they are. The next shot is then an MCU again but of his feet walking along and past what we assume to be a dead body quite casually. The camera is panning along at the floor level. The audience then see a shot/reverse shot of the antagonist approaching the protagonist. The protagonists facial expression is one of disbelief, and in a state of shock lights a cigarette. Throughout the dialogue in the next shot you can see the "good" characters face however the "bad" characters face remains a mystery. The camera remains a MCU on both characters during these shots and also remains a shallow depth of field making the audience focus on the characters faces and what is going on in the foreground of the scene.
You never get to see the antagonists face only his upper body and so this intrigues the audience as there is an element of enigma about him. After this there is an eye-line match shot of the character looking at the other characters gun is his hand. After there is then a P.O.V shot in the protagonist’s position of the gun being pointed directly at him. After this You get an establishing shot of where they actually are, and the audience then finds out they are on a ship in a harbour or a port. Although that answers one of the questions in the audiences mind at the time, they still remain intrigued as the antagonists character remains a mystery and therefore creating suspense of what will happen next.



In the opening 2 minutes of The Usual Suspects, just analysing camera movements and mise en scene they introduced the plot of the story and intrigued the audience by using the classic thriller technique of enigma.

Peer Evaluations

In our class, we watched eachothers sequences and evaluated each of them, we recieved our feed back of our fellow class mates and have realised there are common strengths and weaknesses found within our film.

Common Weaknesses:

Our location, costume/makeup and Angles were seen as the most common weaknesses in our sequence between the class.
We found that the class saw our location as easily noticeable of being set filmed in the college. The room that we had picked out to be the office wasn't seen as being realistic as there were things such as posters on the wall.
We always knew our costume wasn't the best, only using a hoody to cover our characters face and to convey a 'gangsta' type character, we knew this wasn't really enough. Our class mates found that the costume was obviously just normal college clothes and thought we had not put enough effort into it. There was no make-up used although this wasn't needed for what we wanted to portray.
One problem some people noticed was that there was not enough variety in camera angles, they found we used the eye level shot too much which could cause any video to become boring.

We have taken these into account and will make sure we improve on them for our thriller.


Common Strengths:

One common strength that was seen as being very good and well used was our 180 degree rule, almost everyone said we had not crossed the line and that we didn't confuse the audience by the characters switching places.
Our shot/reverse shot was also seen as working well, it was said that we used the conversation between characters by using it to see the facial reactions of each character after the other had spoken.
We used a good demonstration of 'match on action' keeping a good flow and producing a good film of continuity.

We are pleased with the feedback we recieved and of those that were seen as weaknesses, we tend on paying particular attention to on our thriller.

Final Evaluation 14th January

We have gone through the process of planning, creating our storyboard, filming and editing and have come to a final result. We came across few mistakes and those we did come across we found a way in overcoming them. We are pleased with the whole sequence, one example of what we are pleased with is the editing and the way it shows continuity, we are also happy with the music and the way it also helps create suspense. One thing we wish could be better is the storyline, this is something that won't be marked on though and therefore isn't as important as anything else at all. Overall we believe we were at successful, in future, we plan to make sure we will be free alot more together creating more opportunities in bringing up better ideas and taking part in more with eachother.

Evaluation of Editing 7th January

We have finished our editing coming across few mistakes in the process which was fortunate. We found that it was difficult to edit together as we found there were few free periods we were all together on. We overcame this by discussing what we wanted done to it, and then whoever was free would complete the tasks. We also found that the shot we used a free hand stick on was more wobbly than thought, we found it shook very little, but enough to notice, we also found it almost worked as a POV shot and created suspense also therefore we left it how it was. It was very difficult to do anything about it also as if we were to do it again, the weather would be different and not fit in. Overall the editing has finished off our piece nicely creating great continuity and a smooth running sequence.

Location

We have several locations to choose from, we have decided to use a room in the E-Block which we will use for the dialogue scene, this will be perfect as the room will not be in use, so we will have it for as long as we need it, it was also easy to turn into an interview setting. However, the room does have a whiteboard which will have to be shown in the scene, this is bad for the setting, as it makes the piece less believable. We will also use the Corridors leading to the music area of college, to depict the character walking to the scene. These corridors will be good, as they are some of the least used in the college, so we will be able to film without disturbance. we could use the corridors in Eblock, but due to the lack of natural lighting, we will not achieve the effect we required.

What We Plan To Do

For this exercise, we plan to create a 1 minute sequence including many different shots that will be used to create continuity. Our specification states that we must complete it involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. In our 1 minute sequence, we will be recording a character walking around the college building and then walking into an interview room, in the room there will be a confrontation between two characters.

The story of our 1 minute sequence will be a 'Chav' looking male character walking into a meeting where he will deal Pokemon cards to our 2nd character: The Receiver. This will be ironic as a 'Chav' looking male would never be seen with Pokemon cards as they are seen as a 'nerdy' past time or hobby. This will be used to create humour as well which was the main reason for it.

Throughout our recording and editing we tend to use the college Video Camera, Tripod, Clipboard, Lighting, Computer and props, some owned by the college and some owned by ourselves.

At the end, we plan to achieve a good piece of work in which shows good continuity and fits with the specification asked. We plan on making an accurate storyboard which the audience can relate to. At the end of the filming, we will use the editing suite provided by the college including computers that have necessary programmes to use. We plan on creating our own music which will also be used in the sequence, throughout our project, we will use our good teamworking skills to provide a great finishing piece of coursework.