Typically thriller films have many identifiable traits which leads us to the conclusion that what we are watching is a thriller. One thing we can use to tell us what the film is classed as is the score. My film was an action thriller, this is identifiable because usually a thrilling score builds tension and suspense and usually reaches a loud, booming crescendo when we are revealed a plot twist or revelation on screen. A score in a thriller is never usually in the middle of any measureables, eg: it’s usually very loud or quiet, very fast paced or very slow. This is done because it isn’t considered normal and anything abnormal will discomfort the audience, which is a typical feeling that any directors want to convey. My films score was generally fast paced and I tried to synchronise the cymbal hits with cuts in the film however this was hard to do and it didn’t work every time, but when it did it sounded great. The first piece of music I used was based on a bass riff. It wasn’t as thrilling as the second piece and you could say that it was more based on action, but considering the fact that my film is an action-thriller, this is acceptable. It does not cause discomfort which I believe challenges conventions of real media products. The second piece of music was faster paced and had a choir of singers in the background which is associated with heroes. Still keeping on the subject of sound, my film contained some sound effects, which are usually more likely to be present in action films. The effects I used were the noise of the main characters weapon being drawn, a swooshing sound and a punching sound. I chose to put them in because my film had elements of a pastiche. The film I based this pastiche on was Kill Bill. Pastiche means an imitation, when talking about drama, film or art. In Kill Bill (an action thriller) many sound effects were used during fight scenes. The cinematography in thrillers usually contain close ups, high angle & low angle shots and a variety of other shots typically to disorientate the viewer. One particular shot that is used for this effect is the dolly-zoom I attempted to use it but I was unable to because I had no tracks for my camera to run across. Editing can play a major part in the pace and rhythm of a scene. As I said before, thriller techniques are used at both ends of the spectrum and a rarely in the middle, so to build tension the editing is either slow and eerie or fast and disorientating. Another technique used in thrillers is cross cutting, which can relate two people or objects together making the audience believe that is part of the story, however, as I will discuss in narrative, this can be a red herring. My film had a mix of quick and slow cuts to represent what was happening on screen at each turn, like when the Main Character was running I sped up the cuts to keep the audience interested, as a man running around in one long shot is not. The slow cuts were coupled with no music to emphasise the eeriness of the situation. Misc-en-scene can make or break a film in all aspects that it covers, if the lighting is off, it can convey the wrong feeling, if the casting is poor then the film can become laughable etc... In my film the lighting was captured well in my opinion as we had no artificial light to work with and when we re-shot parts we were unsure of how similar the light would come out. I cast the two characters because they were brothers and the house & garden they had was good for my film. The garden we used was poorly maintained and gave a dank and old look that is typical if thrillers. In thrillers there is usually a damsel in distress but in my film I chose not to have one as it would take away from the action and “kick-ass-ness” of my film because it was a pastiche of Kill Bill. One world famous thriller series is the James Bond films; they too have action elements in them and I tried to use the suave well dressed look from the protagonist of that series in my film. Based on this graph my film was slightly more subjective than objective and more restricted than omniscient.
Subjective means that I focused more on one character than both of them and restricted means that the audience knew less about what was going on than the main character, typically thrillers create dramatic irony by having an omniscient narrative, but in an action film you generally know what the main character knows so you can feel the tension being built throught events happening at that time, not events that will or won’t happen. In my film it was neither which is a challenge to the typical conventions of an action-thriller. I think that what I have said above ties in with the typical conventions of an action thriller. I also think that the age of my main characters is the main thing that challenged conventions of an action thriller, because typically the main characters are older and look like they have experienced many thrilling, action-packed moments before.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In the media there are 7 main social groups that must be taken into account. They are: Gender, Age, Ethnicity, Regional Identity, Sexuality, Class and Status and Disability. Some are easier to consider than others, eg: I doubt that someone in a wheelchair could play the main character role in my film because it is not an accepted character trait for an action thriller because people are usually represented as physically strong. The messages that are conveyed in my film about each class are that Men are mainly fighters as are teenagers, they look Indian but have a London accent they are fairly rich and they are able bodied. Sexuality cannot be discussed because we have nothing to point us towards an answer, but the typical assumed sexuality of teenage males is that they are heterosexual. I represented the main characters as males because most thrillers have a male protagonist; however it is ironic that the film I imitated (Kill Bill) has a female lead. They are represented as teenagers because it is rare to see a young master of the martial arts, let alone seeing them battle it out in a fight to the death, but my film challenged the typical conventions of action thrillers by putting in two. They were Indian because Asia is an area that is heavily associated with martial arts and I wanted the audience to assume that the main characters were masters. I wanted to make them look rich (we can assume this because one is in a nice house and the other is wearing a suit) because the rest of the film represents them as two superpowers in the business world (like “Lucky Number Slevin”) and it would be odd to see major businessmen wearing rags. We could assume that the Asian and being good at martial arts is a stereotype but the part of Asia that usually produces martial artists is East Asia eg: Japan, China etc... I did it to quickly communicate a message, so that the audience didn’t spend time confused and missing out on the plot. The counter stereotype I used is that the masters of the arts who are usually old men who have experiences great battles are merely teenagers. The effect of this is that the audience question why they are so young which keeps them interested in the plot.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
An institution is a company that will show my film. There are many different ways to get my film seen by the public and the three main ones are television, cinema and the internet. Cinema is where most films that are made are supposed to end up. There are three types of cinema, mainstream, independent and art house. Mainstream is where you find your Hollywood, big budget films that get massive media attention, independent is where you find your lower budget films, often made by a smaller country than the US eg: the UK, Canada etc... and art house is where you find your less conventional, and more experimental films. Other differences between mainstream and independent films are that the casting is based on potential popularity of the film and budget rather than who is the right fit. If the audience wants to see Hugh Grant play a warrior from olden times then usually that’s what they get because it guarantees money, whereas independent films usually fill the roles with the actors best suited to them. Also Hollywood films look rather artificial, but independent films tend to look more gritty and real. Independent films are usually more “challenging” ie: will tackle tougher subjects like terrorism, prostitution etc... examples of mainstream cinemas: Cineworld, Vue, Odeon. These will not be places where my film will be shown, they are more likely to be shown in an independent cinema like the Electric Cinema, or The Everyman Cinema. Film festivals such as Cannes or local ones for schools or boroughs, are also a great way to get exposure so your film can be distributed. The internet is the best way for my film to get exposure as most video hosting websites tend to be free, it is also an ideal way to reach my target audience. I have uploaded my film onto YouTube to get some feedback; however, it has not been up long enough to get any sufficient advice and ideas. This is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eoXjDpdQBg.
When I posted it on Facebook, it got a lot of views and people helped me with some ways in which I could make the film better. If I wanted to I could begin to charge for viewing my film but that could reduce views and setting it up is complicated. Television is a place where programmes are shown rather than films with some exceptions. A channel that would usually show films made by the public is channel 4. As a public service broadcaster Channel 4 shows programmes for minority interests and this is why I believe that my film would end up on there rather than ITV, BBC etc... The digital channels have a lot more dedicated channels for user created content, but they have fewer viewers.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
In my research it stated that “my film is directed at an audience of the age of 16-25” There were no regulatory concerns as the scenes we filmed did not contain any illegal activity. The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) states that a film that is rated 12 must not have any form of discrimination that is acted upon, any misuse of drugs, any imitable behavior, low levels of bad language, discreet and brief nudity (if necessary), brief sexual activity is allowed, mature themes (that a teenager could grasp) and moderate violence. My film did not break any of the above rules and that is why I believe it will be classed as 12. I believe that we did reach our target audience because when we got our audience feedback they all seemed to really enjoy my film. It is suitable because it contains the type of violence that cannot be deemed as bloody so it could be classed as a 12 if I wanted it to be.
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
The audience feedback I got was very positive in terms of how they received it as viewers and critics so I had to make minimal re-edits to make it as good as it could be. The young adult audience that I aimed my film at said they liked it and that the style I shot it in was good (a pastiche of Kill Bill). The theme of action mixed in with thriller was very appealing to the audience because when the recent run of films aimed at younger people have been action thrillers and they were pleased to see what they were used to. The score got very good feedback because the pace and rhythm of the scene was reliant on the pieces I chose and the audience recognised this in their feedback that they gave me. The audience also picked up on some other background noise that should not have been in the film and this helped me re-edit my film so that it is suitable for release.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the processes of constructing this product?
The different technologies we used were the internet, an iMac, a DV camera, a DV tape, Microsoft Word and iMovie HD. I started my coursework by collecting some research to process into a readable essay in Microsoft Word, then when I edited it as well as I could I posted it on blogger.com using the internet on an iMac. When I uploaded all the research and planning I needed I then began to film my opening sequence with a DV camera and a DV tape. When I was finished with filming I then uploaded all the footage to iMovie HD and edited it using cutting and effects. When I was finished I exported it as a Quicktime file and put it on an external hard drive to be analysed. New media (ie: internet, HD) has affected how I film, edit and distribute my product. The internet has made downloading any effects or free music easy and accessible and doable in less than two minutes. The HD element of iMovie made our film look better than it could have years ago which can unintentionally make a film look older than it is. The internet also gives a worldwide feedback centre if you get enough exposure. Non-linear editing can confuse someone who hasn’t story boarded their film, but sometimes films have to be filmed in a non liner order to make the most of natural lighting or weather etc... Also it’s easy to change and there’s no need to start again from the beginning. My film was completely different from the story board because some shots couldn’t be made ie: Dolly Zoom, High Angle etc... and the actors were unable to perform some of the tasks required eg: climbing. The tape we used was DV (digital video) tape, it gives a dark, grainy look but that is good for my film because it shouldn’t look too artificial. Also DV tape is cheaper than celluloid which I couldn’t afford unlike Hollywood films. For my research the internet (particularly Google, IMDB and Wikipedia) helped greatly with finding the info needed and putting it on a website for viewing. Blogger.com was a great website for putting up all my info because it is one of the biggest blogging websites in the world so you know its reliable and most probably user friendly.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
My approach to the preliminary task was not very serious and I didn’t take any big, outside effects into account like lighting or sounds. However, when I got to the proper opening sequence I got to work and it turned out great. Also I planned and researched for my film and it helped a lot. The Misc-en-scene of my film was better because we had time to cast the right actors and dress them properly. Also we were able to get the right lighting when we needed it. We were also allowed to use any location we wanted to. The set was closed so sound, lighting and who was there was in my control. The editing was better because we had software and we were able to do it in a non linear order. The lack of editing for my preliminary task was very irritating because we had to rewind and fast forward in perfect time to get the cuts right and we were unable to film in a non linear order so we had to make do with a half decent clip, not a perfect clip.
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