Media Evaluation Question 1 - Anissa Daud

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. The Title of the Film:

Possible titles for our film included 'Stockholm', 'Conjoined' 'Lex Talionis' and many others. We finally decided on 'BOUND' mainly because it was the one that wasn't already taken, but also because it was well-fitting, considering the plot.

The "to-get-her" section came about spontaneously; our fellow group member, Louisa, was editing the titles when she thought that there could be a double meaning within the title of our film.

For example, the word 'together' would insinuate that both the Janitor and Sophie are physically together, yet are also 'together' because they've both been victims of bullying. The word can also be broken up to form "to-get-her" - and this is the main aim of the Janitor, with regards to Sophie, the main protagonist.

A good Thriller usually includes some sense of enigma, as well as the idea of solving a riddle, and by including this, we feel that our title is quite conventional, as it is punning and implies more than just one thing.

Additionally, the colouring of our titles was extremely important and we thought that we should also make use of symbolism through the colouring. For example, the background is black, which implies darkness, mystery, evil, etc. It is also a colour which is used quite frequently within Thriller titles and so, it was a conventional use of colour on our part. The text itself is red; this displays a double meaning alongside the actual title - red stands for danger and blood, but it could also be used as a symbol of passion, which is also an element within our story.

In order to depict the relationship that the two protagonists share, we wanted a font that was disjointed, yet still connected in some manner. We did some titles research on dafont.com and browsed through the 'Distorted' category. We finally settled on the font 'Ruptured Sans' as we felt it helped to represent our plot the most. We downloaded the font, after which we opened the font on Adobe After Effects, in order to animate our Title appropriately. We had initially wanted to have a smokey introduction, so as to reinforce the idea of mystery and secrets, however, lack of time meant that we would have to leave out the smokey idea, however we then added a simpler, yet more effective, animation to it.

2. Setting/Location:

As we were only supposed to film within the school premises, we had limited choices for potential locations. However, the fact that our narrative required the backdrop of a school helped us to overcome that particular obstacle as we then made use of our two primary locations, which were the toilets and the drama room. We used the drama room because we knew it would be equipped with things that would further aid us in this project; for example, we made use of black material to filter the lighting - as low key lighting is usually used abundantly within Thriller films; another generic convention that we have adhered to. We also utilised the available lighting equipment in order to create an eerie atmosphere within the room. In the toilets, we ensured that the lights were off, however there was a lot of natural light coming in through the windows. This did not cause too much of a problem, as we later dimmed the brightness of the clips during the Editing process. 

                     We ensured that the lighting was dark, and that the main focus was on Sophie. 

                                                             

                                                      Preparing for the bathroom shoot. 

3. The Plot & Characters: 

After much deliberation, we decided on the plot as being about a young schoolgirl who is the victim of bullying, who is abducted by the school Janitor so that he can "train" her to stand against those who have wronged her. He does this as he feels he can relate to her as he has also gone through similar experiences in his past and so feels that this is his chance to "rectify" that. Although at first Sophie is seen to resist all his attempts at "helping", she is gradually affected by the Stockholm Syndrome and ends up strongly sympathising with the Janitor.


The very first time that we see Sophie is through a smudged & distorted mirror. This already displays to the audience that there are some evident struggles that this girl is facing. This point is further reinforced by the flashbacks that are shown later on during the opening, when the audience are shown what kind of abuse she has been dealing with. This type of an introduction is quite conventional, as it intrigues the audience as to knowing why the character was introduced like so and what they could be hiding.



The first glimpse of a second character is through a long shot - we see the back of the Janitor & we understand that he will also have some role to play. There is some cross-cutting as the scene cuts from Sophie to the Janitor, then back to Sophie after which we see a face outside the toilet door, albeit covered by natural light shining through the window. The fact that his face is not totally seen carries on creating the sense of an enigma and also implies that some sort of secrets are being hidden. It also presents him as a potential 'dark' character. However, the fact that it is white light shining on him contradicts the previous fact and it could be argued that he is a "messiah" of sorts. These contradictory ideas play well into the plot, due to the fact that the Janitor is not wholly 'good' or 'evil', but is rather a shady character, whom the audience is wary of, which again, is quite a conventional idea.

4. Camerawork, Sound & Editing

We initially used our storyboards to plan what and how many camera shots/angles we would include in our Final Piece. This helped us to form a 'checklist', which we went through whilst shooting, ensuring that we were adding a decent and appropriate amount of camera angles within our Piece.

We wanted to ensure that we included a variety of camera shots within our Final Piece, in order to not only showcase our understanding of them, but to also challenge ourselves and to see how many we could include in correspondence with the pace of the film. Moreover, after doing our initial Product Research of films like Shutter Island, Psycho and Se7en, we realised that a variety of camera shots/angles were necessary. During the Post-Production stage, we realised that a lot of the footage we had consisted of a lot of long shots. We therefore tried to narrow them down, so as to use them only where appropriate and also to ensure that there was fluidity to our Opening through smooth, dissolve transitions.

                                                            One of our panning shots 

 5. Props

In order to avoid any complications/confusion, we decided to keep props and dialogues to a minimum. However, there were still some things we needed to take into consideration. For example, Sophie is a schoolgirl, and so therefore we had to ensure that she was wearing appropriate clothing; as our actress is also a schoolgirl, the uniform was not an issue. However, as Mr Gibbs was playing the role of the Janitor, we had to request the appropriate uniform and trolley beforehand, in order to avoid wasting any time on the day of the shoots.








Janitor's Outfit

















The trolley used by the Janitor
                                                                                                 

Louisa Cheung: Evaluation 7) 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, I feel more confident in knowing what to shoot on camera and taking in consideration of when and where to film. I feel that the improvements made were our groups ability and relationship with the camera and how to use it properly and for what shots.

The editing we had for the preliminary was rough and only made it to try and make sense of what was going on within the clip and so therefore i feel like we learnt a lot more in terms of how to edit and cut clips, inserting sound and adjusting the lighting using iMovie.

Louisa Cheung: Evaluation 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Louisa Cheung: Evaluation 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Following the convention of the opening of a thriller, we chose to include a distributor and a production company. This is so that when viewers are watching, it gives a  sense of professionalism and also that as we have a distributor, it gives the impression that the narrative of the film is successful.For the Rising Star Productions,we used Adobe Illustrator to create the logo.Afterward to make the ray of light appear we imported the logo onto iMovie and put on a title effect.

We created the animation by using After Effects and created the Soundtrack by using Garage Band. We used the idea of a light bulb because when researching how other films introduce their distribution and production companies a common trait used are lights (e.g. 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Dreams). Another common trait is the  sound. The triumphant soundtrack played on top also makes a big impact, as viewers relate back to the company once hearing it.

We used the school toilets to start our opening thriller because it's where we introduce our protagonist. As she is a victim of bullying, we looked at how other films illustrate victims when they are alone and so like in the beginning of Mean Girls when Cady is eating alone in the toilets, we filmed our girl alone in the toilets crying and looking at where she was injured and hurt by the bullies.

Our target audience is aged 15 and on-wards and therefore will either still be in education or have left start work. The narrative is set in the school scenario and therefore our audience can still relate to it. Also by using a young protagonist will ensure that our target audience can relate to her situation.The smudging that we applied on the mirror with paint was intended as it was a reflection of Sophie's life. It shows her inner conflict and barrier within herself to which is unresolved in the opening.

During the process of editing, we also distorted the lighting of the shots where the girl was being bullied. It shows that it's a flash of the past and is continuously used when cross cutting occurs between the toilets and the flashbacks.


To confirm to the audience that caretaker is involved in the film,we dressed our actor (Mr Gibbs) in dirty overalls and got him to push a red trolley.We added subtle appearances of the caretaker to entice our audience and therefore it is them to question why is he in the shots and what sort of relationship will form?


Once again by using After Effects, we were able to animate our title which causes the letters to expand. This ironically contrasts the words together which is included within the title, but is supports the unconventional, confusing relationship between the protagonist and antagonist.We decided to choose a shattered bold font that reflects the couples relationship within the film. Also by applying the soundtrack inspired by David Lynch, it gives a jerky distorted impression which is generic of a thriller as it makes you uncomfortable.

Another convention we included in our thriller opening, is the late appearance of the antagonist. We shot this with a low angle shot to illustrate his importance and power in the film. The low angle shot not only reveals his sense of power over Sophie but also it feels like he is belittling the audience.

We were able to attract the attention of our target audience by the issues raised within our thriller opening. The issues of bullying can be applied universally and therefore the issue can be applied to the mainstream audience. Bullying is a sensitive topic to which our mass audience would relate to.With there having many dimensions to bullying such as cyber bullying and physical bullying etc. we had to take precautions to what we could film and include in our thriller opening.

Louisa Cheung: Evaluation 4)Who would be the audience for your media product?

Whilst researching our target audience, we first did an audience research. One in the form of a vox pop and the other by using questionnaires. From this we were then able to generate what and what not to include in our thriller opening.

When doing our audience research, it was shown that the majority who were interested in watching thrillers were between the age of 15-25. This gave us an indication that we were more able to include more explicit content when planning our treatment and filming. Our young adult audience will be able to relate to most of the issues within our thriller opening.

Also when asked what was their favourite sub-genre within thrillers, the majority answered psychological. This to which we also embed in our thriller treatment as later on our protagonist develops Stockholm Syndrome. The development of Stockholm Syndrome also contributes to what our audience expect from a thriller. The majority of the answers were an unexpected twisted ending, to which we offer them the development of an unexpected relationship.

Louisa Cheung: Evaluation 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Mainstream or Independent?
As a group we decided to create a mainstream thriller opening as some of the treatment's traits were more commonly found in a mainstream thriller and that we thought that the .To be able to target our wide audience we had include issues relatable to everyone to which therefore would not effect cultural bias.

I feel as though the mainstream institutions such as Warner Brothers would  be a successful company to distribute our film as they are some of the most influential production companies of our era. From the audience research we gathered, we felt that the majority of our target audience's favourite movies were distributed by mainstream institutions than independent and that the well known directors we mentioned who had films distributed by mainstream institutions were more well known than those with movies distributed from an independent institution. Some of the well known thriller films produed by Warner Brothers have understandable traits that we have also included in our thriller opening. If Warner Brothers is producing our thriller opening, i feel it is only righ to say that New Line Cinema should distribute it as "New Line became a unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment in March 2008." and has distributed man fims such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Final Destination franchises.

Louisa Cheung: Evaluation 2)How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Louisa Cheung: Evaluation 1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

Lighting

Within the final piece, the conventions used are generic to the thriller film genre. Many adjustments were made during filming and also whilst editing the opening sequence.The The contiual use of low key lighting is used as it reveals an unclear, unresolved sense of enigma. It is also seen in other thriller movies and the effect of this is not to reveal as much as possible at the start of the film to which therefore grasps the attention of the audience.

Similarly in Fight Club, you can't make out the location and scenery of where the characters are. The shots taken with low key lighting, somehow translated grainy on screen which is a disappointment however you could interpret the graininess of the footage to be confusing and unresolved which in turn reflects the relationship.  

The use of the tinted red lighting in the shot where the caretaker walks in which shines on the left side of his face is used to symbolise evil and therefore could represent the unknown insanity of the care taker. The colour red itself is a liminal colour because it could represent the love and warmth within the couples relationship and the cynical, corrupt views on the relationship.

Drama class

School Toilets

Setting/Location

Outside the school toilets

For deciding the locations of where to shoot, we were restrained and therefore when coming up our treatment,factors such as location and actors also had to be taken into account.

School's humanities corridor.

However we took it to our advantage as our target audience is age 15 and up,we thought our audience could relate to the setting and scenario. They may have either witnessed bullying or they may have been a victim to bullying.

Titling

 We found that looking at other thriller posters and titling, quite a few used both black and red. The emphasis is therefore put on the name of the film. The boldness of the colour red is almost an alert,   a pre-warning to what is to happen in the film. We used this convention and embedded

Bound To-Get-Her.

 in our title sequence. At first we came up with the title Bound as it was referring to the couples relationship. However I thought of including a play on word which was To-Get-Her. The reason behind this is because it reflects what the care taker is feeling. On one hand, he has to capture the girl and therefore has to get her, but also the fact that in the end they would end up together.

The Care Taker

Sophie

 Mise-En-Scene  
Both our main characters are wearing clothing to which is not out of the ordinary and also to which our mainstream audience can recognise. Other props used when filming the opening are ropes, the trolley the care taker uses and the keys to the classroom. By listing these series of props, you can tell they are referred to some sort of kidnapping.


 Introducing the characters
 When we are first introduced to both characters, their faces are both distorted one with a smudged mirror reflection and the other with the natural glare of lighting. This reflects that both characters have a troublesome life to which if we were to film the whole movie, we would be able to find out     why.

As said in our Treatment we would include elements of the Fritzl case and Stockholm syndrome, it challenges what viewers expect to be the ending of the thriller. When doing our audience research, when asked what is expected of a thriller movie the majority answered with a twisted unexpected ending which therefore our narrative does fit into their criteria.