Question 1 - Evaluation - Miss Georgiou

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

The task that my class and I were set was to create a two minute opening sequence for a thriller film. For this task, the class was divided into separate groups so members each had different strengths and weaknesses which they could work on together to create a successful media product.

Conventions are certain expectations that a particular audience have of a film from a specific genre such as in a thriller film, a murder is expected to take place in some form. When analysing different thriller films when planning for the creation of my media product, I noticed a main convention evident within Scream was the use of hidden identity. This is shown by the murderer's face being remained unknown underneath a 'GhostFace' mask and the identity is not revealed at any point within the film. I think that this was effective as it created a maximum amount of tension  and allowed for sequels to be made in order to extend the enigma created and keep the audience guessing as to who the antagonist could be. This, in turn, is conventional to the thriller genre as it can be used to evoke certain responses from the audience and allow for these to be heightened, creating crucial elements of tension and surprise to encourage and entice the audience to want to watch on further to find out who the antagonist is. This also leaves the hidden character as being mysterious to the audience due to not knowing who they are or anything about their background which may act as an indicator as to why they are doing what they choose to.

Another convention I identified was the feature of a knife being used in a murder scene taken from the film Halloween. A knife can be used to immediately connote an element of danger as the audience will recognise it as a weapon that can be used to inflict serious injury or even death if anyone were to get their hands on one. A knife is conventional as it is the most popular and well known weapon to be used to kill in thriller films which is shown through its diverse feature in a number of thriller films as well as Halloween. This therefore creates suspense within the audience as the representation of a knife will make them aware that a murder is about to take place.

Furthermore, non-diegetic sound was another convention I managed to interpret when analysing Sinister. On a majority of the most tense murder scenes, creepy and unsettling music was added in  and played over the images in order to inform the audience that something bad is about to happen. For example, within the infamous 'Lawnmower Scene' a monotonous sound can be heard when the figure is stood outside a family's house looking in at them which is used to build up suspense and make the audience wonder what will happen next. When the lawnmower is started up and a person appears and is ran over by the lawnmower, a high pitched note can be heard which is the climax of what has been built up beforehand which creates an element of shock as viewers were left unaware that people were going to be killed and are left in anticipation when they witness what had happened. Non-diegetic sound is conventional in thrillers as it is used to create elements of surprise and tension which are crucial in order for a thriller film to be successful. This type of sound also can be used to shock the audience allowing for the emotions they may already be feeling to become heightened and feel involved within the scene taking place in the film creating escapism values.

Another convention I identified from the film Saw was the use of a murder scene. This can be shown throughout the entire duration of the film when the infamous 'Jigsaw' subjects his unsuspecting victims to partake in sick and twisted games eventually leading to their murders. This is a main convention within the thriller genre as an audience would almost always expect to see a murder take place at some point. The frequent murders would create shock and tension within the audience as they begin to question why the victims are being tortured and killed in such a horrific way, especially as it is left unclear if they'd done anything wrong. This would also evoke sympathy from viewers as they feel sorry for the victims therefore creating a definite relationship. Furthermore, murder is conventional within the thriller genre due to constructing  a narrative for the film to be driven upon as well as raising questions within the audience as to why the victim character is being murdered in such a horrific way.

Having said this, I was able to take on board ideas and inspirations from these films in order to plan my own thriller sequence and gain knowledge of which conventions I needed to include to ensure I was making a product that would be conventional to the genre. The first convention evident within my thriller, Amnesia, was a female victim. My partner and I decided to have the victim being the wife of the antagonist who pays a hit man to kill her. The female victim is shown briefly within the murder scene and is portrayed as being weak and vulnerable in order for the hit man to have the ability to overpower and kill her. This is conventional as female characters are usually always shown to be inferior to their attackers as they are the characters who die first, due to constantly being represented as innocent and vulnerable.

Another convention I decided to include was a hidden identity. This is clearly shown within my media product through the antagonist leaving the hit man a text message on his phone which he receives when waking up in an unknown location after being left there unconscious. The text gives the hit man instructions on what he is required to do having developed amnesia and being confused as to where and who he is. This helps to keep the antagonist's identity to remain hidden which is conventional to the thriller genre. This therefore prolongs the tension created and encourages the audience to watch the entire sequence to have an opportunity to come face to face with the antagonist. However, this character is not shown at all within the opening sequence to prolong the enigma as well as suspense created.

A male killer was a convention I decided to include within my thriller sequence to closely follow the genre. I have used this within my product by having the hit man slicing the female victim's throat, although this image is never shown to the audience as Kuleshov effect is evident in this particular scene. This helps to create elements of tension and surprise as it is inhuman to have your murder set up by your own husband as well as being killed in somewhere that is supposed to be safe. This links in with my narrative as my partner and I wanted to include a psychological theme in order to play on the audience's mind as well as the characters. Therefore, the audience are forced to question their own sense of security after witnessing this horrific murder which, in turn, evokes a sense of realism and suspense. This is conventional as having a male killer means that they are superior and more stronger and are able to kill their victims quite easily as females are usually represented as weak and unable to fight back.

Furthermore, the use of low key lighting was another inspiration I included within my media product to closely follow the codes and conventions of the thriller genre. This type of lighting is used throughout the entire sequence to keep the suspense building up until the murder scene where the maximum amount will be reached therefore acting as a climax of the scene. This evokes a response from the audience as the lighting is used to prolong suspense suggesting that something bad is going to happen but the exact point at which this happens is left unclear so as to keep viewers on the edge of their seats and watching the entire sequence to see what may happen next. This is conventional to the genre because low key lighting is used to connote mystery and suspense relating to the narrative as the audience are left wondering who the antagonist is and why he wants his wife killed. This also prolongs the enigma previously created at the beginning of the sequence which is effective in keeping the audience engaged in what they are watching.

My partner and I also decided to use frequent examples of Non-diegetic sound to create tension for the audience. We edited in several different sounds at different points within the thriller to build suspense up in certain parts such as when the hit man is seen to be walking down the hallway and creeping up on his unsuspecting victim. This is used for dramatic effect as it aids in constructing a relationship with the audience as they are aware that the female victim is about to die therefore evoking empathy as they feel sorry for her being completely oblivious to what is about to happen. This is conventional as the sound brings an ambience to the thriller and is responsible for creating tension and panic within a certain situation for example the murder scene.

The final convention evident within my own media product was the use of constant change of camera angles. This is shown in our thriller by the constant use of different cinematography techniques such as canted angle, over the shoulder, point of view (POV), close up, mid shot and panning. We decided that by introducing different camera shots and angles, as well as displaying our high level of skill with cinematography, it created different connotations relating to the narrative and the sequence is therefore more thrilling for the audience to watch. For example, the canted angle is used near the beginning when the hit man is seen to untie himself and attempt to gather his surroundings, by using this particular angle, it helped to portray the psychological theme as it represents disorientation and confusing relating to the hit man's situation. He had just woken up from an unconscious state and is seen to develop amnesia which is further shown through this camera technique, this has then helped to inform the audience so that it doesn't get too confusing. This is conventional of the thriller genre as the change in camera angles helps to pass the pace of the scene as well as displaying change in relationships between characters. It also creates elements of suspense and tension as the angles can be used to play on the audience's minds and wonder why these have been specifically chosen.

Rough Cut - Miss Georgiou

Audience feedback is essential within media production as the audience are responsible for bringing in the revenue and make a person's work credible as well as the feedback determining if a film is popular or not, the more people enjoy a particular film, the more publicity it will gain therefore meaning it will become successful resulting in profits. The crew roles within the production of a film i.e. Producer, director and editor are significant as they need to ensure that the film pleases the audience as well as exceeding their expectations as the audience is mainly the purpose behind a film. However regarding short films, it is sometimes not about making the money and number of people who watch it but rather expressing it as a hobby although audience feedback is still valid in some cases as a successful film will still need to be created in order to entertain. A rough cut is important to carry out beforehand because this is the first time that all of the clips would have been edited together combined with the other micro elements such as sound and effects and then checked thoroughly for continuity. This allows for revisions and new ideas to be tried and tested to enhance the appearance of the piece as a whole and make the product more successful and appealing towards the target audience.

In the planning stages, we carried out a questionnaire of which we included both open and closed questions in order to gain and overall idea of what is to be expected from a thriller which would appeal to a potential audience. From this, we also learnt about the codes and conventions of the genre in more depth as well as knowing what type of content to include in order to create a sequence that is conventional and thrilling for our target audience. This audience feedback was then put into pie charts  and we were able to calculate the most popular answer for each question of which we responded by ensuring that the most popular answers were evident within our media production. We also uploaded the rough cut version of our thriller opening sequence to YouTube in order to receive feedback from our peers about what they think was good about it as well as some negative comments that we can gain from and improve to boost our grade. A focus group was carried out as well in which we showed our thriller to a room of our target audience and asked questions based on what they had watched. As well as uploading to YouTube, the focus group was beneficial to Kate and I as the audience were the people we were specifically aiming our thriller at and it therefore useful to find out what they thought about our sequence as comments from our target audience are essential as to whether or not the film would be successful. This feedback would benefit the film industry as it allows for constructive criticism and are well aware of the positive and negative aspects of the film therefore if more positive aspects are present, the film will succeed more and make a lot of money.

Looking back on the comments that I have received, I have taken into account both positive and negative feedback as the positive helps me to know what I have done right as well as the negative helping me to improve on my sequence as a whole and gives me an opportunity to enhance the thriller and give it the best possible chance of becoming successful.

An example of a positive comment that I had received on a social networking site, Snap chat, was one simply stating, "I love the background music" of which was an extremely useful comment to take on board as both Kate and I had carefully planned out the different types of music we were going to use at specific points within the sequence and was therefore receiving a comment like this meant we were right in doing this and the hard work with this had paid off. Although this is a rough cut, we believe that we had finished all of the sounds completely and had to only add the slightest effects when editing for the final cut.

Another comment read, "I like the music as it is conventional to the thriller genre, however in my opinion, the transition from the room to house seemed artificial" This is both a positive and negative comment as the person included both something that went well within the sequence as well as telling us what we needed to work on in order to boost the grade of the piece and create the most successful thriller we possibly can. Both Kate and I believe that this was a fair comment as she highlighted the weak areas of the sequence that we can therefore justify and fix before submitting the final production. We both agree with what this comment said as in the middle of the sequence, a flash of 4 images is shown all at once and the narrative becomes quite confusing at this point as we have badly edited the clips of the hit man approaching the house together causing them to be seen for at least a second before disappearing off screen.

This comment also states a very positive aspect of our thriller as well as offering some constructive criticism as to what we could do to improve. It is a fair comment as it shows us that the credits were conventional and fitted in with the genre of the film. The part about the lighting needing to be dimmer at the beginning of the sequence can be rectified by using the editing software Final Cut Pro X to reduce the exposure on the images and therefore make it more darker for the audience in order to evoke more suspense and tension which are crucial elements for a thriller.

The comment below again offers some more constructive criticism that both Kate and I will work on. This is a fair comment as Harry provides us with some advice on what we should do more of in order to make the sequence more conventional to the thriller genre which is the main aim we are trying to achieve in order to gain a high grade. In order to improve on this, we will use silence with the inclusion of a footsteps sound effect in the part where the hit man is walking down the hallway and include the tense music later on in the scene when he reaches the kitchen and creeps up on the female victim. Having said this, the comment shows how our cinematography and editing worked well within the thriller which is a positive outcome as we were both determined to get the filming right the second time around.

Based on the comments that I have received, I will ensure that more transitions are placed into the sequence so that the clips are shown on screen for longer and the audience will be able to witness the hit man walking from the room in which he was being held hostage to the house where he will kill his victim. The transitions will also help to pass the pace of the sequence as well as allowing the thriller to run smoothly instead of cutting into the next clip which makes the film look very unprofessional and messy. I will also make sure to slow some of the clips down so that we can add more timing on as we had only achieved 1 minute and 51 seconds where the minimum required is at least 2 minutes. This will then help to establish the murder location more and make the audience well aware that this will be the setting in which a murder will take place as well as being used to create ideal elements of tension and suspense within the audience which helps us to create a thrilling sequence for our target audience. When transitioning from rough cut to final cut, Kate and I also added a focus effect, upon feedback, onto a majority of the images at the beginning of the sequence in order to create a shallow focus effect to divert the audience's attention onto the hit man suggesting that he is the crucial and most significant character. We also slowed down the image of the hit man walking up behind the female victim and then having the next image of him grabbing her at normal speed to achieve a slow timing of shots effect and prolong the surprise and tension elements which would keep our audience on the edge of their seats.