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.

Media Questions- Media evaluation question 4

4. Who would the audience for your media product?

We have made questionnaires and pie charts that have helped us to learn about what members of a 15 audience would want from films.





This 15 year old boy may shop in:


Skater shops.

Indie or hipster shops.

Young stylistic shops.

High street shops such as New Look for men or Topman.

Cheap shops such as Primark for men.

Online independent labels.


This teenager who is the age of our target audience may listen to music such as:


Rock/punk music.

Indie music.

Hip Hop or rap music.

Acoustic music.

Chart music.


Reasons why this teenage boy would watch our film:

It has a lot of tension.


It is fairly gory.

There are quite a few scenes that would leave this sort of viewer on edge.

They could relate to the protagonist and antagonist as they are roughly the same age.

It is thrilling.

It is interesting as you do not know what is going to happen next.

The setting may be familiar to the areas in which this aged boy may hang around.


The taste of this typical 15 year old boy who would be our target audience might be:


Indie/hipster style.

Informal, skater style.

Laid back and chilled settings.

The favourite TV programmes of this typical 15 year old boy:


Top Gear.

Car shows.

Music channel programmes.

Action/reality programmes.


’24 hours in police custody.’

‘Catfish.’

‘Pimp my ride.’

MTV shows.

Audience Feedback after showing our opening film.

These show the questions that we asked to students aged 16-17 after they watched our opening film. Two of the people we interviewed were prototypes of our target audience. One of these was a 17 year old boy. The other two people we decided to interview were not included in our typical target audience as they hadn’t experienced many psycho thrillers, however they were in the age group that we were targeting.


Questions that we asked:


1. How typical of a psychological thriller is our opening film?

2. Were you entertained by our opening scene?

3. Do you understand the plot of our film?

4. What do you think will happen in the end of the film?

5. Do you think we used lighting effectively?

6. Do you think the audio fits the scenario happening?

7. Have you left out any elements of a psycho thriller?

8. What is your favourite shot/angle during the film?

9. Have we done well to fit this genre?

10. Do you think there is anything we could improve on?

First interviewee, Shaunna Rees, 17 year old student






Answers to questions from above:

1. “It wasn’t typical due to the roles of the characters in the film. The setting of the college being included was an untypical feature also.”

2. “Yes I was entertained, it was good."

3.“I think I do understand the plot, the girl is imagining the man because she is on drugs.”

4. “At the end I think she will kill herself or she will die.

5. “I think the lighting was used effectively during the pool scene.”

6. "Yes, the music is intriguing.”

7. "No I don’t think you have left out any elements.”

8. “The knife shot was my favourite. The blood looked realistic enough.”

9. “Yes, the protagonist does seem like she is on drugs.”

10. “The jump into the pool could have been improved.”


 

Second interviewee- Hannah Heaps, 16 year old student.

Answers to the questions from above:

1.“The film was typical of the genre due to the unexpected actions that the characters were doing.”

2.“Yeah I was entertained because you wonder what is going to happen next.”

3.“I don’t entirely understand the plot of the film as I haven’t watched many psycho thrillers.”

4.“In the end I think at least one person will die, probably the girl and it will be an unnatural death like murder.”

5.“Yeah the lighting is good during the car park scene.”

6.“The audio does fit because it sounds surreal.”

7.“I wouldn’t know what elements you missed as I don’t watch psycho thrillers.”

8.“The shots in the woods are my favourite shots, you can tell a lot of effort has gone into it.”

9.“Yes you have done well to fit the genre because of the settings used.”

10.“To improve you could use more of a variety of music.”


                     Third interviewee- Ejaz Din, 16 year old student.



Answers to the questions above:

1.“It is typical because the film creates suspense.”

2.“Yes I liked the opening, it lead to me asking many questions in my head.”

3.“Yes I definitely understand the plot.”

4.“I think in the end the girl will go crazy because she keeps on seeing someone there even though the guy isn’t real.”

5.“Yeah the lighting was good when he goes into the car park and it darkens when he opens the door. You can tell it’s not a good place to be. Also the shot with the stairs in it, the bricks add a good effect.”

6.“I think the audio is good because it has a continuous tempo.”

7.“Normally in a psycho thriller there is an additional person included that the main character knows, like a side friend.”

8.“My favourite shot is when she turns around and the guy isn’t there anymore, that when I got the plot.”

9.“Yeah the genre fits in well as you have created a real and unreal atmosphere.”

10.“You could improve by adding another person that cares about the protagonist.”

Media Questions- Media evaluation question 3

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

Our film is a gritty British art-house style film. This is due to the fact that it has a low budget and it would appeal to the sort of audiences who are attracted to this style of film making.

 

Director of our film- Richard Ayoade: Director of “The double” and English comedian, writer and TV presenter.

Cast:

The Protagonist- Maisie Williams: English actress, best known for her role in the series ‘Game of thrones.’

The antagonist- Evan Peters: American actor, made his debut in the drama film ‘Clipping Adam.’

Budget- $5 million. Quite a low budget film.

Production company- Film4. They do quite a lot of films which are underrated, do not always show the Hollywood blockbusters.

The distribution company for our film would be ‘Artisan Entertainment’. They distributed the film ‘Requiem for a dream’ which is the film that is most similar to ours. This is due to the fact that is also of the Psychological thriller genre and shows the protagonist on drugs, which is what our protagonist is shown doing also. We would have the UK look but with the US budget.

For the marketing campaign of our film we decided to take inspiration from the marketing of the film ‘Blair Witch project.’ We would put up posters around the big cities such as Bristol and London of the antagonist of our film to say that he is missing. This would raise the audience’s awareness of our film and would also led them into thinking the reason as to why he may be missing, which watching our film would then explain. We would also show our films at film festivals as this is where our target audience is mostly likely to go, therefore we would be able to attract them into the campaign of our film by showing it to them in this kind of setting. We would also do buy one get one free tickets for the first weekend of the preview of our film. This would ensure a good turnout of the student audience which we are targeting. Our film would be most likely to win a BAFTA award, as it is not the sort of mainstream film that everyone would decide to go and watch, it is much more creative and has to be well thought about to understand entirely. Our film would be released in late autumn as we feel this would be the best time for people to go to the cinema as summer would be over and the weather will start to get worst. Also many teenagers would have just finished going to festivals and would be in need of relaxing at the cinema.

Our film would be shown at Art house/ independent cinemas due to the complexity of the ideas behind it and the artistic approach.

The unusual idea which we had about the marketing of our film would be to show it in the woods where we filmed one of our scenes. This would mean that the audience would feel more connected with our film and therefore more interested in the events which take place. The fact that they would be watching it in the actual setting would be a great marketing strategy for our film. We would project it onto a white screen during sunset in Leigh Woods in Bristol and publicise this a month or so beforehand.

Media Questions- Media evaluation question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

·        The social groups which are presented in our film opening are teenagers, drug users, emo’s and hipsters. The age of these social groups are most likely to be around 15 to 25. Their race is likely to be White British or American. These social groups are mostly presented as lower class individuals. The gender of these social groups is mostly men with slight exceptions for women.

·        The similarities between Seymour Parrish and the protagonist in our film is the fact that they both share the same message; they are interested in another person, to the extent where they want to stalk the other person to find out more about them. They share the same values, somebody to be around to stop the loneliness and time; they value time because that allows them to become closer to that person that they so desperately want to be around. Both protagonists in our film and ‘One hour photo’ represent insanity, they are both away with their thoughts and do not tend to see things how they really are, or what they are doing as something that is not normal.

·        The appearance of our protagonist and Seymour Parrish is very different as our protagonist is female and Seymour is male. Therefore they look very different as they are different genders.

·        The costumes of our protagonist and ‘One hour photo’s’ protagonist are very different also. This is because our protagonist wears dark black clothing which very much emphasises that she is in her teenage years and going through the experimental stage. However Seymour is shown in his work clothes throughout most of the film which highlights the fact that he is a grown man and should not have this obsession with other people’s lives, therefore this makes him less socially acceptable.

·        Our protagonist and Seymour Parrish have a similar role in both films. This is due to the fact that that our protagonist plays the stalker and so does Seymour. Both characters do not make it necessarily obvious to the antagonist that they are stalking them to this extent as they do not show what they want to do in the end. Both characters are intrigued to find out more about the person which they decide to follow.

·        We chose to use this type of character because it fitted in really well with the genre of our film. Most psychological thrillers include characters that are stalkers, menaced women or innocent victims. Our protagonist comes under most of these definitions of typical phsyco thriller characters. This is because she chooses to stalk somebody else, she is troubled because of the fact that she is on drugs and shows a slight trace of being an innocent victim as she is struggling with loneliness and becoming an outcast.

·        We tried to create these particular messages and values because we thought that our target audience would be able to relate to how the protagonist was feeling in certain ways. This is due to the fact that the protagonist herself is a teenager and the audience we are trying to target are teenagers also.

·        We also chose to present our character in this way to build tension because if you just looked at our protagonist in the way which we have showed her you would not imagine what she could be capable of. This is why it is such a surprise to our audience at the end of the film when they see the real ideas and thoughts which our protagonist has.

Media questions-Media evaluation question 1

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

The title of our film. Typical to use a black screen with white writing. Simplistic but effective and adds to the dark aspects of the film.

Shot when the protagonist and antagonist meet. We used an over the shoulder shot to show the meeting of our two main characters. This is so we could emphasise the initial reaction of the protagonist towards the antagonist, intrigued, confused and suspicious.

    

Location/setting- Multi storey car park. Protagonist seems powerless.

  

Prop- A knife foreshadows death.

Symbolism- The knife. Symbolises the protagonist’s thoughts towards the antagonist as he is standing directly in the frame where the knife is pointing too. Shows the end event of the film.

Setting/Location- Ashton court. Empty, bare, cold. Setting reflects the protagonist’s feelings.

Location- Swimming pool. Water is a typical theme of a psycho thriller.

Prop/ Clothing- Black hoodie. Reflects the characters inner mood. More mysterious, fits in with the atmosphere of the film.

 

 

Lighting- Low key. The low key lighting used at this setting creates suspense as the audience now know that the antagonist may be cruel in some way. Creates a mood for the audience. Relates to the common theme of darkness shown in psycho thriller films.

Setting- Leigh Woods. Adds tension to the film due to the creepy and uneasy atmosphere of the setting. Common location used in films of this genre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
·Our opening sequence is fairly typical of a psychological thriller. This is due to the fact that we have not given much away during this period but we have allowed a big event to occur to provoke the viewer into thinking that something has happened; many films of this genre do this to get the ball rolling on the viewer’s ideas towards the happenings in the film.

·        We used conventions of a psycho thriller in our opening film such as having a purpose for the object which consists in our sequence, in this case it is the knife, it has a purpose for the whole film but the viewer does not entirely know what this is.

·        We also used the element of perception, seeing the protagonists own interpretation of the World around them through their own senses. Our protagonist’s perceptions are altered because she is on drugs; therefore she is seeing things which others may not necessarily encounter. This is a common element of psycho thrillers as misperception of the World builds tension for the audience.

·        We decided to use no narration at all throughout the opening to our film. This is fairly unusual of this film genre as often they use unrestricted narration so the audience then understand what is going on and it creates an element of suspense from what they are saying. We chose to have no narration as it added even more mystery to our film and got the audience thinking who the characters really are.

·        Identity is a typical convention of a psychological thriller. This is due to the fact that the characters in this film genre often do not understand their own identity and try to discover it throughout the film. This theme is clear to see throughout our opening film as the protagonist decides to stalk the antagonist to try and find herself. She takes the drugs and finds this stranger in order to chase her identity.

·        Another typical convention of this film genre is death, which is an evident concept of our opening film. Often in psycho thrillers the character/characters are fascinated by death or can fear it also. In the case of our opening film it is the protagonist that finds this sudden fascination with death, however the outcome of this is not shown. We tried to foreshadow the effect of death upon the antagonist throughout our film and at the end showed that death may be an option which the protagonist will place upon him.