Final Product - Thriller Opening

Media Evaluation VII - Anissa Daud

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? 

I feel that since the beginning up until now, I have managed to learn quite a lot.

For one thing, I have most definitely learnt the importance of teamwork and how it is crucial that all members of the group are not only focussed, but also that they are able to co-ordinate well with each other. I feel that, on the whole, we've managed to work well and co-operate with each other.

From the technological point of view, I feel that I have learnt a variety of invaluable new skills regarding software such as iMovie, Adobe After Effects, etc. and that these will help me in future endeavours.

One of the most important things that I feel we have managed to grasp as a group is time management - we learnt the importance of prioritising different aspects of the project and, although we ran out of time for some things, we feel that overall we've done a good job.

Another thing is that we have learnt how there are a lot of things that need to be almost-perfect in order to make a scene look the best that it can - mise-en-scene was thankfully not too big a problem, however, we did find slight troubles with framing things as accurately as possible. Additionally, we learnt how to properly utilise all of the filming equipment, which had previously been an issue during the Preliminary Task.

Overall, I am satisfied with the output and I feel that there have been a lot of lessons and skills learnt between the initial Preliminary Task and the Final Piece.

Media Evaluation VI - Anissa Daud

Media Evaluation V - Anissa Daud

Question V: How did you attract/address your Audience?

The fact that the protagonist is a teenager already helped to attract the audience, due to the fact that the target audience is also around the same age range as Sophie. Additionally, we've tried to tackle issues that would undoubtedly allow our audience to relate - although the kidnapping element of the film is one that is slightly unrealistic, the theme of bullying is an issue which is quite prominent within our clip and this helps our Target Audience relate considering the fact that they will have come across this issue during some point of their teenage years.

To further attract our audience, we have carefully selected the location to be on school grounds - this again ensures that our audience is able relate to the Opening.

Media Evaluation IV - Anissa Daud

Question IV: Who Would be the Audience?

We had two methods of carrying out our Audience Research:

• A Vox Pop
• Questionnaires 

Through both of these methods, we were given an outline of who we wanted to target the Opening at and also, it gave us a bit of an inkling as to what sort of issues and topics should be addressed within the Opening. 

Results from the Audience Research showed that the majority age range was that between 16-25. This then meant that we were addressing young, mature adults and so there could be slightly more explicit content shown and more violent/mature themes that we were able to address within the Opening. 

There are quite a few points within the Opening where we have tried to incorporate some of the Audience Responses. For example, most of the respondents had stated that what attracted them most to a Thriller film was the dark, mysterious lighting. We therefore ensured that we had some scenes which had been filmed in dark lighting, such as the scene where the protagonist has been kidnapped and locked away.

Media Evaluation Question 3 - Anissa Daud

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The feedback from our Audience Research showed that our target audience was a lot more familiar with more mainstream Directors and films. Consequently, we decided that our film would be best suited for Mainstream audiences, due to the fact that we include a lot of stereotypes that the more mainstream film industry also include within their films.

An independent film, such as David Lynch's Eraserhead, breaks the regular 'mould' of traditional stereotypes and although we subvert some representations, we do not think that our film would be suitable for a more niche audience.

In terms of the company that may distribute our film, we feel that a company such as 20th Century Fox or Universal would be good options as they are some of the leading mainstream distributors, on a global scale.

 

 

Media Evaluation Question 2 - Anissa Daud

Question 2 : How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Considering that our target audience was aged  15-20, we thought that they would be able to relate to some extent with our protagonist, who is a young school girl.
In our Final Piece, we have adhered to some stereotypical representations of one or two social groups, we have also tried to challenge some of these representations within our Project.


1. The Kidnapper:

Conventionally, kidnappers are seen to be the most elusive and ostracised member of society. They often choose their victims spontaneously and follow them for quite a period of time before actually abducting them.

We have tried to portray the Janitor in a similar manner, through introducing him only partially and never revealing his entire face, until the end of the opening. We have also challenged this representation, as this character is not wholly "bad" - he is a shaded character, which we feel would be something a little unexpected for our audience to witness.

 

 

2. Students & Teenagers:

 

Typically, when teenagers are presented in the "victim" role, they tend to be portrayed as weak, vulnerable and small. We have adhered to this representation by casting someone who fits this description reasonably well. This representation would also enable our audience to feel sympathetic towards her as these events take place.

 

In these two shots, the vulnerability and innocence of the young girl is emphasised.

 

 

3. The Janitor

 

Conventionally, Janitors are quite underrated within films. The only "breakthrough" roles of a Janitor can be seen in The Breakfast Club, where the other characters and the audience realise that he knows a lot more than he lets on.

 

'I look through your letters, I look through your lockers...I listen to your conversations, you don't know that but I do...I am the eyes and ears of this institution my friends.'  - These lines are quite fitting to our character as well, because although he does not say much, he does, in fact, know everything that goes on within the school.

This kind of a representation would be surprising for audience, as such characters are not shown that often in films.

 

The Janitor in The Breakfast Club

 

4. The Bullies | The Victims

 

Teenage bullies typically represent the "bad" side of teenagers; i.e. the violent, cruel, harsh and rebellious kind. Our bully fits in well into this representation, as she is tormenting Sophie for no valid reason. What little of her clothing can be seen shows that, unlike Sophie, she is not wearing the correct uniform, with a leather jacket.  

                    



The look of our bully takes inspiration from this character, from Waterloo Road

 

 

The role of the victim is stereotypically that of them being meek, easily intimidated & as having a much smaller frame & physique as compared to the bully. We have adhered to these representations, as our protagonist is quite small and looks quite fragile. Additionally, the fact that she is wearing glasses adds to her image of "innocence".

 

We feel that these representations are something that our mostly-teenage audience would relate, or sympathise with. 

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
                                                                                                 

I'm listening... Slender Man Sounds- Audio Research

As I do with my free time, I venture out into playing games and one which has recently caught my eye (or should i say ear!) is Slender Man. The successful horror game is where you are set in the dark forests with a torch and the aim is to go find these pages. however doing this you get the Slender San who occasionally appears in front of you, or to which you might run into. If you stare at the Slender Man or you hover around the are he is in or too long it is game over for you. Whilst playing this game I was influenced by the backing track of this. The emphasis of the footsteps and the crunch of the leaves made me feel cautious of where i was moving my avatar. With this sounds of the wind, birds tweeting were also accompanied to make the experience seem more realistic. The static electric guitar sound give it an edge to the audience as the obscured sound rounds off the game when you die in the hands of Slender Man. Even though this isn't a film and is only a game, I think that the influence in anoher media concept could be applied to our coursework. Both the game and out film have similar motives in which they are able to start to scare or in fact literally scare the audience. What we want for our audience is to be able to experiance the thrill and the rush of adrenaline to which i think the soundtrack of Slender Man does extremely well whilst also playing the game. 

Coming up with a production name and logo. (First draft of logo)

We began story boarding for our final piece, and we looked into production name and logos. We kept the name simple and clean having it the anagram of the first letter of each of our name.
Gracious
Anissa
Louisa
Pahi

 We chose to include a light bulb in our logo as it symbolizes generating and coming up with ideas. When included in our clip, we want to have the light bulb to flicker as Nyctophobia (being afraid of the dark) is seen to be a common fear. The idea of using a phobia in our production name foreshadows the movie genre to which we are to produce






Researching other film production logos, we are able to see that the glimpse of light or a light is a trending theme throughout.As we see with 20th Century Fox's logo the lights are being animated to move around the screen and to shine and focus on the logo.

Similarly we see this with Columbia Pictures the focus is on the woman holding the torch. The position of the torch is held to obscure the letter "U". The Ray of light branches out symbolizing hope and also the many ideas that it could branch out to.