Media Questions- Media evaluation question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The genre conventions that we have used in our film link to similar films of the genre, psycho thriller. We have done this through the use of:

A protagonist and an antagonist who don’t know each other but have a mystery connection between one another.

The atmosphere we have used which is very dull, dark and gloomy. There is no dialect which creates a mysterious and tense atmosphere as the viewer does not know as much as the characters do/ what is going on in the character’s mind.

There is no sense of narrative in our opening film so the viewer gets what they are given on screen. There is no sense of knowing beyond what the character is doing at that point and the narration does not stretch to what happens in the final resolution between the antagonist and the protagonist at the end. Our opening film leaves the viewer on edge like thrillers are supposed to do.

The emotions of the characters are clear in our opening film. This could disturb the viewer as they may begin to feel a connection with our characters, this is a main convention of psycho thrillers.

 

The use of Mise-En-Scene in our film relates to psycho thrillers as we have incorporated many elements from our research into the conventions of this film genre:

We have used a lot of low key lighting in many of our clips. The main point of low key lighting within a psycho thriller is to build tension between the audience, the characters and within the setting. We have done this through making sure our effect whilst editing makes the film clips seem like they have been filmed at a low level of light and filmed on a dark day where there were many clouds, this enabled us to get a more natural effect and coincide the low level of lighting with the characters moods.

The settings we have used link very well with the typical settings of this film genre. One of the main elements of a psycho thriller is an urban setting. We have filmed on top of a multi storey car park which overlooks the centre of Bristol and all of the city buildings. Another common setting for a psycho thriller is a woods, we have filmed our main scenes in a woods which adds a very spooky and dense feel to our opening film. During my research I found out that a typical element of this film genre is water. We have made sure to cooperate this into our opening film as we are filming one of our clips underwater at the school swimming pool.

To relate to common psycho thrillers we have made sure that our characters clothing is dark, does not give too much away about their personality and provides a sense of atmosphere. The protagonist and the antagonist are both wearing black clothes which connects them in a more psychological way. Common characters from this genre often wear black clothing as it adds mystery and an insight into how the character/characters are feeling inside.

The use of camerawork in our opening film really emphasises our chosen genre. In psycho thrillers a lot of close ups and extreme close ups are used to emphasise the emotions of the characters without them having to say anything. The use of close ups and other camera shots in our opening film shows the characters emotions which relate to the tense atmosphere of our film genre.

 

The cinematography which has been used in our film links in well with other similar films of this kind as the camerawork within our film has been done to reflect common features of psycho thrillers:

 

We used a high angle shot to show the antagonist walking away from the protagonist. This built tension in our film as we view him walking at a high angle but then switch to see him behind the protagonist at a low angle shot. This adds a very psychological sense to our film.

We also used a medium two shot which is common between characters in this film genre to show the link between them without making it obvious. This is fairly mysterious as it switches between shots.

We used an extreme close up during the drug taking clip which is a very common shot. In psycho films such as ‘Requiem for a dream’, an extreme close up is always used when the protagonist is taking a drug to really emphasise the action in which she is doing and the true connotation behind it.

 

The editing of our film fits in with other psycho thrillers due to the fast pace and dark effects that we have used, therefore we have incorporated common elements of this genre through:

 

We added a dark, gloomy, atmospheric effect to the car park scene due to the fact that it shows the point where the antagonist is not a real person, just an imaginary figure. We made it stand out from the other scenes due to adding a different effect to it as we felt this was important because it was the turning point of the whole film.

The pace of film was fast and jumpy. This is due to the fact that the protagonist was meant to be tripping on drugs so we tried to interpret what the world would be like through her eyes. This relates to psycho thrillers as the main plots of these film genres are typically deviant teenagers and usually the viewing of hallucinations.

 

The USP of the film is fairly typical of psychological thrillers, however, we have added a few elements which are unusual and make our opening film stand out from others of this genre:

We subverted the typical gender roles within psycho thriller’s which are usually a male as the protagonist and a female as the antagonist. In our opening film plot which shows an element of stalking, it is especially common that a male is stalking a female in these types of films. 

We also made our film unique by using a wide variety of different scenery. We made sure that we used a variety of urban and rural settings so that we created different atmospheric scenarios. This meant that our film stood out because we tried to fit the setting with how the protagonist was feeling. For example the swimming pool scene reflects her sadness due to the fact that she is lonely.