Balpreet's evaulation

Question 1
In what way does your media product use; develop of challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The opening sequence of our psychological thriller “Wrath” has replicated the conventions of a thriller to make it more appealing to a mass audience, as we are targeting a mainstream audience.

• Main character is disturbed – We have shown our main character as disturbed by using shot composition to show isolation. Types of shots that have been used are close-ups, and extreme close-ups to show her emotions. A point of view shot has also been used which shows her as a disturbed character.

• Women are seen as the victim – Traditionally the characteristics of the protagonist are of a victim, however her psychotic behaviour suggests that she is the victim of the situation. We would have scenes were there would only be objects rather than other people as we wanted to present her being isolated, which would show her presence as insignificant. Many close-ups and mid-shots were used to suggest her being neglected from society.



• Sound – We have used non-diegetic music, which developed throughout the opening sequence of our psychological thriller, to increase tension. At the beginning of the opening sequence we are introduced to the main character that is cutting images out of magazines, unexpectedly the music emphasised on the cutting sound of the scissors. The linear narrative of our opening sequence worked well with the sound track, as it created a realistic mood to the sequence.
  
• Mise-en-scene – The clothing of the main character shows her in casual clothing, which targets the teenage audience. When filming the bathroom scene, which was a two shot, accidentally the flickering light was shot. This however goes with the disturbing effect that we were trying to get across to our audience, to show her as a disturbed character, and this was in her imagination.
  

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

The social group that we were initially targeting were 17-24 year old, in order to do so we have used actors that are around the same age group, which would make the audience relate to the narrative. The impression that our audience will be left with after seeing the way in which we have represented the teenage characters, would be that they seem to very concerned about their image, and clothing, and also her psychotic behaviour towards her actions. She assumes that people do not appreciate here because of her image. Stereotypically teenagers have become more concerned about their image, which is related to the film "Mean Girls". "Mean Girls" has been one of our inspirations to represent the teenagers the way we have in the opening sequence. This is shown through camera shots, which include long shots and mid shots to represent them.

Looking at this shot the audience are able to see the clothing of the characters, this gives it a more realistic feel to the viewers, making them relate to the situation.

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

According to our narrative structure, there are many elements that make it a mainstream distributed, however it can also been seen an independent as there were some elements included. The conventions of a thriller that we have mainly challenged and interpreted are music clothing mise-en-scene. This was because from our finding of our product research, there seemed to be more focus on the sound either diegetic or non-diegetic, however with our opening sequence we have focused more on the non-diegeitc sound. Looking back at the films that were researched to inspire us on the techniques used to develop in our opening of a psychological thriller. "Flight Plan" has used many techniques such as sound both degetic and non-diegetic, which build up tension, many different camera shots, angles and movement, which give different views on the characters as well as building up tension. The use of editing the audience are shown two different scene, this has an effect of suspense and building up tension. We have used these techniques in a similar way to build up tension and suspense for our target audience. Both Flight Plan, and Flight Club are mainstream films, which have both been inspirations for our production. The way in which we have used the conventions of a thriller are typically known as maintstream.

Therefore I feel that the distribution company such as Twentieth Century Fox may be a good choice because they have previously distributed thriller movies. However Warner Bros can also been seen as another option, as there are films like "The Dark Knight" that are seen a thriller and distributed by the company. Both Warner Bros and Twentieth Century Fox distribute mainstream films. Therefore I feel that the best company would be Warner Bros to distribute our opening sequence of a thriller. This is because they have been very successful over many years, especially with their recent film “The Dark Knight”, which have gained them a lot of recognition. By doing this our psychological thriller will gain the same recongistion and will be promoted in high budget, by promoting of TV, radio and also the internet.

Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?

Looking back at my audience research, we as a group have produced an opening sequence that will appeal to them, which was clearly mainstream according to our narrative structure. The narrative has been based around jealousy, image and friendship, which was how "Means Girls" became one of our inspirations. Even though it was not a thriller, we have used elements of the narrative to adapt it to our opening of a psychological thriller’s narrative structure. "Mean Girls" was mainly aimed for teenage girls, although in our psychological thriller the narrative structure suggests that it is aimed for only teenage girls, it can also be aimed at a male teenage audience. In order to give our opening sequence a more of a mainstream feel, we have used motifs. We have used a diary, which has been shown in many of the shots that have been taken:-

• The first shot of the opening sequence is to illustrate the title sequence which is handwritten. This was done so that we could give it a sense of realism to bring our audience together.


• Another shot is when the main character is writing the diary, which shows a personal view of her character. The audience are not able to see who is writing, which adds a more mysterious feel. The shot that was used to represent this was a close-up, which made the audience focus on what she is writing.
  

This diary scene has been inspired from the film "Seven".

Question 5
How did you attract/address your audience?

When the final product was completed, it was unloaded onto Youtube so that we were able to get our audience feedback on their thoughts about the thriller. I have used to same people that I had used for my audience research, this was so that I have able to see if we as a group have meant their views on what an opening sequence of a psychological thriller would attract them. There were some questions that have been used so that the audience are able to give their feedback.

These questions include:

1. What do you like about the opening sequence?
   

There is one particular shot that our target audience like, which is the corridor scene when Joe is walking away from the camera and we see a door closing. Many of them said that it gives the opening sequence a feel of suspension, and mysterious. They also said that the narrative is easily seen by the shots that have been used, but also want to find out what will happen in result of the finished film production. A few people said that the soundtrack went well with the scenes, as it would build up tension in every new shot that was shown. The target audience particularly liked the bathroom, the way in which the girl disappears, and also thought that the main character reactions were well acted as it showed her confusion, and also jealousy.

2. What do you dislike about the opening sequence?

Many of the targeted audience did not understand the concept of having the title sequence written in the diary, this would confuse them slightly. A few thought that the scenes would have been shot during the evening hours, as they were comparing it the other thriller films that they have watched which would have been shot in a much darker atmosphere. They felt it would give the films a more psychological thriller effect.

3. How well did it function as an opening sequence?

Overall the targeted group thought that the film was well narrated and has an understandable story line. According the psychological thrillers that have been watched by them, they felt that it has the same effect as it was building up tension, which was mainly because of the music that we used. It made them want to find out want would happen next, what the main characters intentions are.

4. What improvements could be made, so that it is more a psychological thriller?

A few people said that if we were to show some violence or mixed emotions, it would give the main character a more psychological side, so that she looks more of a psychic character. This could have also been improved by dialogue, as it would express the main character emotions and intentions.

Overfall looking back our audience research, I feel that we have meet there thoughts on what conventions they think makes a pyschological thriller. Looking at the pie chart below music one the most feature that builds up our target audience tension and suspense.

Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

There are a few difficulties about the technology use in the process of constructing our opening sequence of a psychological thriller. Over the period in which we were given to complete the opening sequence I have learnt and developed the use of technical skills, especially whilst editing the shot that have been filmed with additional techniques. Throughout the project, during filming we had to be very carful with the shot composition, we did not want to have people or objects that do not have a meaning. For example, the library scene we wanted to show that the main character was hard working so we would have text books on the table.

When using the Apple Mac computers there were also some difficulties, of this was the editing. There were many transitions that needed to be added so that we were able to show the connection of two shots. Overall the music was the hardest to edit, as it was meant to contrast the shots. The music was in hands of one of our group member, who was able to put together a soundtrack that worked well with our opening sequence.

Above is a screen shot of imove, the programe which we used to edited our opeining sequence. As i have not used imove before, it was my first experience to do so, which was very experimental while adding transitions. The panel on the right is called the clips pane, this is were we would import our clips from the camera. We would then drop them down to the time line to create the order our opening seqeunce (narrative structure). Within the timline there are three clips, one of which is for the video, and the bottem two are for audio clips.

This is were we able to add transitions between the shots so we could show a connections between them and to also build up tension. We would experiment with a few techniques to see which one would work best, and give the effect that we wanted.

There is also effects for the titles, however we did experiment with them. We then deiceded that we would continuoue with the hand-written in the diary thoughout the opeing sequence.

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 think we all as a group have been able to meet set targets and have worked together to produce our final opening sequence of a thriller. As we had time left, we were able to experiment with the transitions in order to put the shots together. Looking back at out preliminary task I noticed that there were not a range of shots used. We had only used long shots, wide-shots, and mid-shots. And now looking at out final piece, we have been able to experiment with different camera shots, angles, movement, and the composition of the shot. These different shots have been used to emphasise the characters emotions, and different views on them.

One improvement that could be made to the opening sequence, is the title sequences towards the end. Throughout the opening the titles have been written in the diary, however when we edited to include titles such as “produced by, directed by and edited by” they had been typed up over some of the shots. I feel that it divides the sequence into two, as we have a mixture of titles on the diary aswell as typed.

Overall I feel our opening sequence of a psychological thriller has meant the requirements of our targeted group. This is because from the feedback that was collected, there were more likes than dislikes, and not much improvements that they thought should be made.