AS Media
G321
Foundation
Portfolio
Friday 6th March
Question 1; In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The first part of our main search was research and planning. For our research we had to look at codes and conventions of the thriller film and view how some directors used these in well known thrillers. I applied this my research and personal knowledge to the construction of our thriller opening.
Mise En Scene is an important element in Media, it consists of multiple things, all of which we carefully and selectively used to construct our opening. One of the elements of mise en scene is costume. We used this to establish characters and give our audience some idea of who characters were and what role they played in our opening. Our antagonist was dressed in black (1:55); she had on an ankle length dress and nothing on her feet. The black connotes lifelessness and darkness; it also provides an element of mystery as to why she chooses to dress like that, this would intrigue the audience.
The black dress makes our antagonist look strange and unfriendly. This is conventional in terms of thriller films.
By doing this we wanted to give her a sinister feel and create an aura of wickedness. In thriller films it's typical for the antagonist to be much darker that other characters, this is often done through dark costuming. In the openings I analysed there was few that had explicitly shown antagonists, the ones that did however wore dark clothing. I think we were successful in creating the atmosphere we intended around our antagonist. We did this by selecting her costume to be black and to have not much else on in terms of costume (jewellery, hair decoration) this made her quite plain and easier to focus on. We also created her dark look by contrasting with other characters costumes. Since none of the other characters were dressed just in black it implied the antagonist was different and should be avoided (0:54).
Other characters were dressed considerably brighter, in lighter colours and with more costume embellishments.
'Now You See Me' featured an antagonist wearing dark clothing in it's opening scene.
In our opening we also made use of setting as an element of mise en scene. We used multiple locations in our opening to create interest and present the locations that would have been used in the full film. We also did this to create suspense as the audience has been shown more than they can take in, the presentation of different settings will make them think about what's going on and try to figure things out like a conventional thriller film opening would. We used five different locations in our opening (Park, Classroom, Living Room, Driveway, Woods) the separate locations will entice and make the audience pay attention.
 Location 1 - The Car |  Location 2 - Living Room |  Location 3 - The Park |
|---|---|---|
 Location 4 - Classroom |  Location 5 - The Woods |
The use of multiple locations in a thriller opening is atypical but it is seen in a few openings I looked at. 'Shutter Island' uses multiple locations in the opening, 'Layer Cake' also shows more than one location. Other thrillers used no specific locations. 'The Number 23' and 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' both use no locations. If we had chosen to do this it would've relied much more heavily on editing and soundtrack and there wouldn't have been as much opportunity to vary our camerawork or mise en scene. I think we made the right decision in using multiple locations because it keeps our audience interested and makes them more attentive because of what's going on.
'Shutter Island' features multiple locations in it's opening. Whereas 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and 'The Number 23' features no locations. This is because it fits with their themes and style.
We tried to choose a mix of conventional and non-conventional locations. Typically thriller films aren't set in cars, parks or in school locations. We chose these locations to be unconventional because it's something our audience won't have seen before. We chose the park scene because it's different to what you normally see in thriller films; it's very bright and light and makes the audience feel more fear because of the open location. They also typically don’t feature younger children because it’s aimed at an older demographic but we felt use of younger characters would intensify the effects and emotions caused by our opening.
Two of our locations however were more conventional; the living room and the woods. These locations are more conventional to see in thriller films, as characters often have a home or some kind of familiar base set up in a room that they return too at points during the film. This creates some familiarity and a sense of hope for characters and therefore for the audience. We used a living room because it's something the audience will be able to relate to closely since they'll all have a room like the one we used that they have and feel safe in. However they're disturbed because of the events they see take place in this room, it makes them feel unsafe and anxious because it could happen to them.
The opening of 'Se7en' features many events presumably done the characters 'base' location or sanctuary.
The woods is a conventional location and is very common in thriller films as it causes fear and tension because it's very easy to get lost or lose someone you know in the woods. We used the woods because of this reason and also because it always seems lonely and connotes an overlooming tragedy since they're often linked with missing people or used as a place for people to find/hide bodies. This is often used in thriller films as murder is a common theme of the genre.
Mise En Scene
Our wood location is similar to one seen in 'Silence of the Lambs'
'The Shining' also featured a large location that it would be easy to get hopelessly lost in. This creates the same effects as the locations of the woods.
I think that our use of location was mostly successful; we used a mix of both conventional and non-conventional settings and created a range of effects combining them with our other elements of mise en scene. However I think our narrative would've possibly been clearer if we'd used less locations/scenes and spent more time on the ones we picked, this I think would've made the meaning of the scenes more apparent to our niche.
Lighting is an important part of mise en scene in Media. In order to create a range of effects on our audience, We used artificial, natural, high key and low key lighting in our opening so we could manipulate our audience’s feelings depending on what we wanted them to feel when a particular event was on the screen. We used mostly natural, high key lighting in our park scene so that the events could be seen clearly. This is atypical since the majority of thriller films tend to use low key lighting throughout opening so that it feels suspenseful and thrilling to the viewer. We chose not to do this with this particular scene because we wanted the audience to feel shocked and scared for the children.
‘Layer Cake’ and ‘Memento’ both used highly lit images and scenes in them, I think primarily this was used to create intrigue into what was going on. We also used this type of lighting to create interest but it was primarily to shock our target audience by what they're seeing.
For our end scene in the woods we used natural lighting. The scene is in high key lighting because we chose to use natural light instead of artificial lighting, there’s a very low level of saturation because of this. This makes the scene feel quite sinister because the antagonist is out in the daylight (again) and could be seen by anybody, this causes anxiety in our audience.
We gave a conventional location a twist by using non-conventional lighting in the scene. This will intrigue and surprise our audience like a typical thriller would.
‘Layer Cake’ and ‘The Shining' both use natural, high key lighting in their openings to create suspense and make the audience await what's going to happen.
High key lighting is quite conventional and often used to create fear, anxiety and anticipation; this is often mixed with other elements of mise en scene for greater effect. I think we successfully used lighting for effect in terms of what we were trying to do by using it. I feel that our use of lighting was appropriate for each scene. The park, classroom and woods felt much more sinister with the use of high key lighting. We used low key lighting in our car and living room scenes because these are locations you're supposed to be safe in and we wanted to make them feel much less safe than they are for our audience. I think we were successful in trying to achieve this with our lighting.
Location 1 - The Car | Location 2 - Living Room | Location 3 - The Park |
|---|---|---|
Location 4 - Classroom | Location 5 - The Woods |
We used a number of props in our opening, some of them because it fit in with the scene but some were chosen for more specific reasons. We wanted to use a mix of non-conventional and conventional props so that our audience would see formulaic items from thriller films but also see new things that would alert them that our thriller opening is unique. One of the more conventional props we chose to use was missing posters and newspaper articles. We chose these to convey messages and give clues to our audience. The articles were mostly used in superimposition to convey the impending doom for the characters; this is often seen in thrillers. It's common for thrillers to leave small clues about what is going to happen or about how to solve the mysteries contained in the events of the film, (also a convention of thrillers). I think the use of these were effective in what we were trying to convey.
 1 |  2 |  3 |
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We made personalised articles and missing posters so that our opening would be more authentic and look more professional. The effects on the audience are more intense because of this.
 4 |  5 |  6 |
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'Se7en' also uses a range of paper props such as newspapers, books and papers. These are all used to draw in the audience and to make them think.
Soundtrack
In our thriller opening we used a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. We used non-diegetic sounds such as the backing track (0:00 – 2:02) and fire crackling (0:45 – 1:51) we chose to use these so that the audience feels dis-connected from the events on screen and feel helpless because they can’t help the victims and they feel somewhat victimised themselves. Non-diegetic sound is conventional of thrillers films; many use it for suspense and anticipation. Good examples of use of non-diegetic sound in an opening for suspense are 'The Shining' and 'Psycho'. I think we could've perhaps layered a louder, more sudden noise over our superimposed images to create a more intense feeling of anxiety in our audience.
We combined the use of non-diegetic sounds with diegetic sounds in our opening. Some of the diegetic sounds we used were; the radio (0:07 - 0:17), the door slam (1:34), the children giggling (0:39 and 0:51) and the message tone (1:01). The use of diegetic and ambient sound makes the film seem more authentic and closer to reality, this would intensify feelings because people feel closer to events they've seen/been through no matter how common or how uninteresting they seem (Uses and Gratifications Theory; Personal Identity). I think we used these quite subtley and were successful in creating the intended effect. I think we could've possibly improved our use of diegetic sound by choosing a more appropriate door slam and lowering the volume of the door handle being pulled at because it was louder than the door slam and I think we lose some of our authenticity and professionalism because of this.
For the backing track that’s played through the video we chose a track in minor key, to conform to the conventions of thriller films. The majority of thriller films use a track in minor key to create suspense and fear within the target audience. We chose to use minor key for this reason and also because it’s conventional and we know it works because a lot of thrillers (more famous and less well-known) use it. Examples of this are; 'The Number 23', 'Memento' and 'The Shining'. I think we picked a good track that was suitable for our opening and fit with it quite well, however I think we could've perhaps varied the sound more or made it sound more interesting by sectioning it, repeating certain parts or adding sound effects to make it sound more scary and non-continuous like the sound used in 'Se7en'. We chose not to use a track in major key because it would create a light hearted tone which isn't suitable for thrillers films and therefore non-conventional.
In our opening we had a crescendo (1:25/6) the use of crescendos in thrillers is conventional and they're used commonly at moments of high intensity and anticipation. Although crescendos are conventional I think we used ours in a non-conventional way because our crescendo was a kind of red herring because it implied a moment of climax but there was none (also known as an anti-climax). The use of red herrings is also a convention of thriller films, many using them to lead the audience in a wrong direction or make them falsely believe something. 'The Number 23' featured crescendos in it's opening to signify the end of the opening.
Editing
We used a mix of both slow paced editing (0:15 – 0:23, 0:36 – 0:48) and fast paced editing (0:58 – 1:08, 1:46 – 2:00) we felt that this would be more effective because we were being selective and specific about our shot length. We thought it was an important element because it had to be done well and be combined with our use of superimposition to look good. Although use of both fast paced and slow paced editing is conventional it’s not usually very commonly fluctuating as it was in our opening. It’s common for thrillers to begin with quite slow paced editing and gradually speed up, they may fluctuate in an actual film but it’s not as common in the openings of them. I think using a mix of both created an unpredictable feeling about our opening that would cause unease and apprehension about our target audience like a thriller film would. I think we could improve by creating a more gradual feeling with our opening however this would be difficult due to the limit on how long our thriller opening was.
For shot transitions we chose to use a combination of both straight cuts and fades. We used the straight cuts during the lengthier parts of the scenes (0:18 - 0:33, 1:00 - 1:45) because we thought it was effective and use of other transitions such as dissolves or wipes wouldn't be suitable for the mood we wanted to create. We thought that the use of other transitions wouldn't look professional and possibly make the opening feel comical. We chose to use fades when we were beginning/finishing a particular scene in our opening (0:15, 0:36, 0:59) we felt that the slower movement would make the audience feel helpless and like the rest of the scene was quite fast in comparison making them feel overwhelmed. This is shown to be conventional looking at my research; 'Shutter Island' is a movie opening I looked at that also used a combination of straight cuts and fades with no other transitions. 'Memento' used fades as shot transitions throughout the opening featuring no straight cuts.
We chose not to cross cut any of our scenes because we thought that would've been more appropriate if we'd decided to include our protagonist in the opening which we did not. I think these were good decisions made on our part because I don't think they would've fit in with what we were trying to do and they would've confused our target audience and make the narrative harder to understand. We also looked at how unconventional these editing techniques were in the openings we looked at; none of the openings I analysed featured either of these techniques because they're more suitable for action or adventure movies.
We used discontinuous editing in our opening primarily around the superimposition and more noticeable at the very end of our opening when our antagonist walks towards the camera, she's seen jumping forwards and backwards during this time. This creates a fractured reality and is confusing and agitating to our audience because they don't understand everything fully (the full story would usually unwind at the end of the film however since we're only making an opening there is no reveal at the end). This is unconventional in thriller openings unless it's a heavily used in the actual film, I think this is due to the fact it's quite complex and difficult to do well in a short time. I think that we did manage to do it quite well however I think we should've made it more prominent or apparent during the opening and not just during the end scene.
'Now You See Me' used jump cuts in their opening when this character is shuffling his cards in the mirror.
As seen here, our antagonist moves both backwards and forwards in this scene. The use of discontinuous editing will put our audience on edge.
A thriller film known for its use of discontinuous editing is 'Memento' in which the events of the film aren't in order but backwards with one scene (that's cut into pieces) acting as a kind of break in-between scenes. Another example of discontinuous editing that I looked at was 'Now You See Me' when there are a series of jump cuts in the opening that are not continuous. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is ambiguous in the fact we can't tell if the editing is continuous or discontinuous. Ambiguity is conventional in thriller films as they often like to keep their viewers guessing and on their toes. I think we successfully did this with our opening because our target audiences were unable to guess what could happen next.
During our editing we added sound effects such as the door slam (1:34) and the giggling (0:39) at this stage. We also used visual effects post filming to create an atmosphere for our locations. For each location we used filters, we used a different filter for each scene selecting one that we thought intensified effect. The two more obvious examples from our opening scene are the park scene and the woods scene. For the ending scene in the woods we put a 75% black and white filter to make it seem much more melancholy and dark and make our target audience feel anxious and frightened of what was happening or going to happen. In our park scene we used a high colour saturation to make it brighter and creepier (much like the opening scene of 'The Shining').
The park scene is much brighter due to the high saturation, whereas the woods scene has a 75% black and white filter making it look darker especially in comparison to the park.
Another editing technique we made use of was superimposition in our opening, we used superimposition in every scene to foreshadow the future (and the danger) and also to make our audience feel useless due to the fact the characters deaths are predetermined. This is unconventional looking at the openings I've analysed as only one of them (Se7en) used superimposition in their opening. It's very heavily featured in 'Se7en' and is used during a majority of the shots and opening. I think that our use of superimposition was successful and if I were to redo the task I would definitely still use superimposition in the thriller opening.
These are examples of superimposition. On thel left is that from 'The Shadow Concept' and on the right is from 'Se7en'
Both are used to overwhelm and confuse the target audience of the film.
The selective use of filters is conventional in thrillers films. They're used very commonly in thriller films, more commonly used are dark filters for creepiness and tension. The use of these are seen in 'Shutter Island' and 'Se7en', 'The Shining' uses very bright, highly saturated lighting for effect like that in our park scene. I think that our use of filters was successful because it made each scene stand out from the ones surrounding it and gave a unique feel to each one.
Characters and Events
During my research I found that the majority of key characters in thriller films and their openings are male. We decided to go against this convention because we felt it would give us a little more originality and appeal to a larger amount of females in our niche. In our opening we have a female cast; this is non-conventional since women don't usually have key roles in thrillers films, the majority being the side and/or background characters. Our antagonist is female and so are the victims featured in the opening; this creates intrigue or interest in our opening. I think our use of characters was successful however I think it may have made our opening more authentic and more applicable to the real world if we had a few male characters instead of all female.
As the murderer.
As murder victim
As murder victim
As the murderer.
We featured no protagonist or 'good guy' characters in our opening, this is conventional of thrillers since many of them don't feature protagonists in their opening either. We used it to create a more intense feeling of anxiety and fright in our audience. This is also done for effect in 'Se7en' and 'The Shining' which both only featured one character without showing their face. We decided against doing this because we thought that the introduction of victims of the antagonist would be more frightening and make the events seem more real. I think that if we had chosen to just use one character we would've changed the entire opening. I think this would've included a change in cinematography, heavier use of props and location (set design) and be more reliant on a motif. Such as the typewriter in 'The Number 23' and the Polaroid in 'Memento'.
Both 'The Shining' and 'Se7en' focus around the antagonist or an unidentifiable character in their openings.
'Memento' and 'The Number 23' both feature motifs in their opening that are reflective of their movies. 'Memento' uses polaroids and 'The Number 23' features a typewriter in the movie and the opening credits look as though they're been typed out on a typewriter.
In our audience research when asked if they would see a full movie based on watching our opening all participants said they would. The primary reasons being that they wanted to find out the killers motive and see how the story played out. These show 'Uses and Gratifications' theory as people want to see how the story plays out (Surveillance) and what the motive is (Personal Relationships/Identity). This shows that we're successful in creating interesting characters that people want to understand and events because people are wanting to see the whole movie and how the events play out. I think if we were to redo the task I would like to make our narrative clearer since some of our participants for audience research didn't fully understand the concept.
Our audience research shows clear interest from our target audience in the full movie (eventhough it's a theoretical question).
Titles and Credits
During my research on thriller openings I found that the most used colours for text were white, grey and red. Looking at the effects of the text on the opening we decided that we would conform to this convention and we chose to use white for the majority of our titles and use the same for the title. This was conventional in a lot of the openings I looked at, most of them using the same font and colour for all their featured titles.
This is a sample of our opening titles; our chosen production company and our film title.
Making the title stand out in thrillers is conventional; often the title of the film will be much bigger in terms of size than other text shown in the opening however it seems unconventional to make the title of the film a different colour or font than the rest of the titles. The majority of openings I looked at didn't do this however 'Shutter Island' and 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' did use this technique in their openings.
In these openings the title is in a different font and colour that the rest of the titles.
We used a serif font for the majority of the titles featured in our opening; we used a serif font because it looked more professional and nicer on screen. We'd originally planned to use a sans serif font however we changed our minds after a comment received in our audience feedback. I think this was a good decision to make because it looks better than our original chosen font would have and it's more conventional in terms of thriller films with a large number of the openings I looked at using a serif font.
We chose to use a serif font because it looks good and it was conventional of thriller films, as seen in many of the thrillers I looked at.
The title of our film we chose to use a sans serif font for so that it stood out against the other text shown in our opening. I think that this was effective as it makes the audience pay more attention to the title of the film and makes them think about what it means which a typical (and successful) thriller should do.
For our title we chose a very different look for it than the rest of the text, it was sans serif, white in colour with a red glow effect and added movement to the text. It was shown to be quite unconventional since not many of the thriller openings I looked at used many effects on the film title. We chose to put movement on the film title because it would make it stand out more and accentuate the importance of it. This is quite unconventional however it is used in 'Se7en' one of the more famous thrillers. I think this was a good decision to make however if I were to redo the task I'd like to look at creating a kind of mist around the text instead of a glow around it.
Camera Work
Looking at my research into camerawork in the thriller genre I found that extreme close ups are conventional of the thriller genre; six of the thriller films I analysed featured them in their openings I've put examples from 'Now You See Me' and 'Vertigo' below. We decided we should include an extreme close up in our opening to conform to this convention because we thought it would fit in our opening and also showing a more conventional camera shot will appeal to people who watch a lot of thrillers. We opened with an extreme close up of a hand (0:05) this was create intrigue within our audience immediately. I think that our extreme close up was a good shot to open with because it will perplex the viewer and make them pay attention to what's happening (this is also partly done with the radio static sound effect).
This is the extreme close up from 'Vertigo' and the one from our own opening.
We used over the shoulder shots at various points during our opening, in the car (0:09), and in the park (0:51). We used this to convey to the audience what the characters were seeing or looking at, this will help them relate to the characters (Uses and Gratifications; Personal Identity). This was an unconventional shot in terms of the openings I looked at with only none of the thrillers I looked at using an over the shoulder shot. We challenged this convention by using an over the shoulder shot multiple times in our opening, I think that we used this shot well and successfully communicated a message through to our audience.
This is an over the shoulder shot used in our opening
During our opening we used close ups to frighten our audience, in particular the shot of our antagonists face at the end of our clip (1:58). A close up is a conventional shot often seen in thriller films, six of the openings I looked at contained a close up. We conformed to this convention, I think it was appropriate, effective and memorable shot in our opening.
Our close up next to the one from 'Now You See Me'
At the end of our opening at the beginning of the last scene (1:47) we cut to an extreme long shot (or extreme wide shot) of our antagonist. This is an unconventional shot not used in a lot of the openings I looked at; 'The Shining' and 'Layer Cake' both feature extreme long shot of the car the character(s) are riding in. I think we successfully create a creepy atmosphere and cause tension in our audience because they don't know what's going to happen. At the end of our opening at the beginning of the last scene (1:47) we cut to an extreme long shot (or extreme wide shot) of our antagonist. This is an unconventional shot not used in a lot of the openings I looked at; 'The Shining' and 'Layer Cake' both feature extreme long shot of the car the character(s) are riding in. I think we successfully create a creepy atmosphere and cause tension in our audience because they don't know what's going to happen.
These are examples of extreme long shots from the openings I looked at.
This is our extreme long (or wide) shot, we used this to cause anxiety in our target audience and for fright.
In our opening we chose to use selective focus in our living room scene, at 0:27 we have a shot in shallow focus, as our antagonist appears we use a focus pull and switch to deep focus. This particular camera technique was something I knew I wanted to use before we began filming because I thought it was effective in directing the viewers attention to a particular detail in our case the mug on the table. By having the mug in focus we imply it's important giving them the idea they should pay attention to it (Hypodermic needle theory).
This was an unconventional technique in the thrillers I looked at for my research, three used shallow focus however I didn't not down any focus pulls used in any of the openings I look at in my comparisons. I think that this was a good thing to use in our opening because it displays sophisticated use of the camera, looks professional and is one of my favourite shots in our opening.
We used selective focus and a focus pull in this shot to direct our audiences attention to a particular item/place onscreen.
In my research three of the openings I looked at used a canted angle, this is a fairly unconventional shot used in the openings however common in the actual thriller films primarily for confusion and to represent dis-orientation or chaos in a character or environment. We used a canted angle (also known as a dutch tilt)in our opening at the time of a characters death (0:27 - 0:33) we used it to show disorder as it's conventional in a lot of thrillers films (although not seen in a lot of openings).
This is a picture of our canted angle taken from our thriller opening 'The Shadow Concept'
We tried to use varied camera shots, angles and movements for different effects, we used panning to open our park scene (0:36 - 0:45) it was combined with a long shot so that the audience could clearly see the location and the characters in the setting. We used this to create a feeling of dread as the audience see a happy location and children after the previous events. This was conventional, six of the openings I looked at used panning in their openings for effect, these inclue 'Se7en', 'Shutter Island' and 'Now You See me'. I think if I were to redo this task I'd still use this shot or a similar one for effect because I think it looks good and works well in terms of making a viewer feel a certain way.
Panning in our opening (above) and an image of the panning in 'Now You See Me'
In our living room scene we used a hand-held shooting (0:24 - 0:27) to create unease in our audience, this was unconventional in the thriller openings I looked at, none of the openings I analysed for research used hand-held shooting in their openings. I think that this was one of the lesser shots in our opening and if I were to redo our video or improve it more I'd like to reshoot this particular shot because I don't think it fit in with the rest of the shots or the openings as well as other movements and angles did. I think that I would use a tripod if I were to redo it.
Stills from our hand-held shooting in the opening.
Aerial shots were used in four of the openings I looked at and were generally quite successful in what they were trying to convey/imply. We chose to go against this convention because we had no place in our openings for an aerial shot, we also thought it'd be difficult considering our lack of sophisticated equipment.
Another convention we choose to go against was the use of zooms. Half of the openings I looked at contained the use of zooming, we chose not to use a zoom in our opening because we didn't think it was appropriate; there was nowhere we could place it in our opening where we thought it would make sense and not look comical in any way. I think the choice not to use a zoom was a good choice because I don't think it would've make sense to use one in our opening.
Overall I think that our use of camera work was varied and for the majority of the shots successful in what we were trying to do and that most of our shots look good and fit with the scene and the opening as a whole. I think that there's not a lot of things I would change in terms of the use of our camera work in our opening.