James D Lock AS Media Studies
Foundation Production G321 – Evaluation
In mid October me and my group, Tisya Khairuddin, Kane Wright and Elizabeth Wood were set the task of creating the opening sequence of new thriller, including titles, aimed at 15 or 18 certificate audience (approximately two minutes in duration). We have now completed this task and obtain our final product titled “Flashback”.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The foundation of form and conventions used in our media product were developed by researching and analysing comparable media products during the early stages of production, for example, “The opening sequence of the film starts from what appears to be the night before, then follows to the next morning, it has a linear narrative structure, it shows a man preparing for his day, the audience are taken through his roles and routine.”, this is taken from what I wrote during the analysis of narrative structure in American Psycho, this can be directly related to Flashback. The start depicts the visions of Shelly’s nightmare of which took place the previous evening whiles in her hypnotised state, the following morning the audience are taken through Shelly’s routine, it too has a linear narrative. The similarities and influence of structure can clearly be seen in our opening sequence, when writing the film we decided to use a structure like this because we thought it was more effective than that used in comparable media products such as Jaws or Seven as in these films we felt that even though we found ourselves asking questions such as “Who’s that” and “Why isn’t he saving her?” they were the kind of cliché questions that became quite repetitive after we had watched allot of thrillers. Once we had come to this conclusion we started to develop our Ideas, one particular idea that stood out was the idea of incorporating dreams and flashbacks this allowed us to “jump” from one time to another and show two sides to Shelly’s life, creating binary oppositions such as good/day versus evil/night similar to those created in the opening sequence of American Psycho, In American Psycho such binary oppositions have been incorporated very subtly, for example, in the beginning of the opening sequence what appears to be the main protagonist is shown in a night club, it is very dark, and there is loud up-beat music playing, a simple jump cut takes the audience to the next morning, it shows the same man in his apartment, it is very bright and there is calm classical music playing. This shows the audience that the character is different person during the night. We chose to convey similar binary oppositions in our media product using the flash backs to show the audience a different side to Shelly, we chose to do this as we thought that communicated this through the flash backs had a much more dramatic effect and in a way confused the audience generating a second source of questions such as “Did that really happen?” and “Where and when did this happen?” we were happy with this is we thought it was the best way we could generate the maximum amount of questions from our audience and from the conclusion of comparable media products we knew that all thrillers used the question and answer module and we knew from our own experience of watching thrillers that making the audience ask questions makes the audience want to watch more.
When writing the treatment we used the convention of the transformed city as from our analysis of comparable media products we found that it was the most common of thrillers, we also found that due to the nature of our story the convention would have been created even if it wasn’t done intentionally, this is because our thriller is set in an average home in an average suburban housing estate, from are audience research we found that our audiences most preferred location was a desert, we could not acquire sufficient funding to film in this location, using this convention gave us the writers the opportunity to turn our chosen location something generally considered drab and mundane in to something laced with horror, mystery or anything else we thought would appeal to our audience. We also decided to include an element of mazes and labyrinths, mazes and labyrinths lead off in many directions and have many dead ends like, one example of this in the opening sequence is when is when Shelly is washing her hands and the water turns blood red, this was intended to hint to the audience that the blood was literally on Shelly’s hands related her to the visions of the dead girl, we chose to do this because it was the ideal convention that went with the storyline because we wanted the audience to think about what was going on, following this convention allowed us to give the audience clues and tricks to who the killer is, we knew it worked very well as shown in seven.
After Shelly suspects that she is the killer but dose no know why hires a private investigator to investigate her so called husband (Steve Wilson) the investigator (Mr Gool) finds out more information about Steve slowly unravelling the mystery until it’s too late and Steve confronts Shelly before Mr Gool can warn her. In the opening sequence of our production we chose not to include any shots of Mr Gool as he was purely a creation for the element of mazes and labyrinths which works by delaying information over a significant amount of time to the audience, since our opening sequence was only allowed to be approximately two minutes long we decided we wanted to concentrate that time on the main protagonist, Shelly.
When creating our media product for the most part we tried to follow all the codes and conventions we could as it being our first time making a media product of this time it seemed sensible to abide the rules and get it right, although we did try to develop and add a twist to some conventions such as all the thrillers we analysed had a male killer, with the exception of Jaws, In our product the literal killer was female but she did not kill under her own will, she killed because of the hypnotic influence of a male, who she must then kill to break the hypnotic spell, so technically we have not broke the convention.
When story boarding our media product most the angles and types of shots we planned to use were centred around making the audience feel like Shelly is vulnerable, that she is being watched and what the audience were watching is something they shouldn’t, we planned to do this because from our analysis of the thrillers we found that all the camera work attempted to do this, although some thrillers attempted to use camera work to make the main protagonist in the opening sequence very powerful but this only occurred when the main protagonist was the killer, in our case Shelly is the killer but yet is the victim
How dose your media product represent particular social groups?
In our opening sequence we planned to represent Shelly’s character as that of an everyday person, as our opening sequence is set in a “Transformed City” we are trying to show the extraordinary things that can happen to normal people, we thought this was our best choice as our audience mostly are “average people” therefore we thought we would have a better chance of connecting with our audience, I would say that in our opening sequence even though our killer is the female, this is not her wish, she is being controlled by a male, and the male has the power to make her do anything he wishes and when Shelly tries to do something about it, Steve puts an end to it. Therefore I would say we have represented males as superiority, we chose to do this as in all the thrillers we analysed the theme of male superiority is apparent throughout.
When choosing the right person to play the part of Shelly we had a select a female from the appropriate age group which was anything from 20-50, we had decided this because we thought it was a believable age for somebody to own their own home and get involved in the existing situation, the other important factor that we had to consider is that ourselves do no own our own property therefore we had to use someone else’s which limited us to who we could star in our film and there times of availability.
A dead female is shown in our sequence, this yet again follows the theme of male superiority in thrillers, we made the choice to have a girl because in the storyline the girl who is murdered previously accused Steve Wilson of sexual harassment and attempted murder, but charges were dropped and Steve seeks his revenge, we could have replaced this role with a male but considering the events in the storyline we thought that would be too much of a controversial issue that may shock or disturb our audience. Even though we chose not to challenge this subject the fact that we chose not to use a male still raises issues of how socially things are accepted for one sex but not the other.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think the place most likely to see our production would be on the internet on websites such as youtube.com, these kinds of websites have become highly popular for amateur film makers as it is free to distribute your film and can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.
I think that it is possible to digitally distribute our production on the internet, I doubt that our production would be distributed any further than this as we would not be able to raise sufficient funds.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
We chose that our production would be certificate 15 because our selves are not 18, therefore it would not be suitable for us to watch or make it, also we believe that certificate 15’s have a wider range of audience as they can be watched by any age from 15 where as certificate18 cuts out 3 years of potential audience. Even though we chose on certificate 15 our production is aimed at 15 and up, I think our film would appeal to a very wide age range as we have an interesting story that isn’t to complex but at the same time is too simple, our production deals with mature issues such as murder, paranoia and agoraphobia and on top of that building up tension and suspense with the odd flash of blood, I believe from 15 the age group of our audience is in no way limited, although we could not prove this as our audience research was aimed at an audience with in a close proximity of the film age certificate (15-18)
How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract an audience to our film we first created a questionnaire which was distributed to the public so this gave use both general and specific results to what would appeal to our audience, using this as a guide to the elements of our production. Fro example the questionnaire showed us that our audience preferred the villain to be male, there for in our story the villain was male. When considering the location for our thriller we found that the audience preferred a city, followed by house and country which were equally preferred, even though the highest location preference was the city we chose to film ours in a house, we did this because the weather and lighting outdoors is highly unpredictable, also we did no think it was safe for us to take the camera equipment out in to the city. I think our completed production is appropriate for our target audience because we have followed are audience research very closely and met the demands that the audience wants through out or come to a high standard of compromise such as location.
The main message we wanted to communicate to the target audience is that Shelly was vulnerable, scared of something that she didn’t understand, that she is confused and paranoid, we wanted Shelly’s emotions to transfer to the audience we to wanted them to feel shocked by the flashbacks and like Shelly want to find out why she is having if there are a figure of her imagination or really happened.
What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the process of constructing our product I have learnt to how to use the Adobe Premier Pro and After Effects software, Once all our footage was captured we converted it into a digital format that can be editing using a computer, the majority of the editing was done through a process called key framing, this involved choosing a desired effect for example, “dissolve to white” which we used to create the flash back effects, the effect was inserted to a time line which reflected the duration of footage and a start and endpoint to the effect inserted, I have also learnt how to operate the cameras correctly and import the footage on to a computer. During the process of filming I always filmed the shots we wanted two to three times which usually gave me a better quality of shot each time I did it whiles learning in a practical method, it was also good to have a range of shots to select from when editing the footage as the quality of one given shot can sometimes be hard to determine while concentrating on filming. We took a small amount of unplanned shots during the process of filming, most of these shots were taken on the second day of filming and were we had to correct errors such as lights being turned on already, which in some case looked unusual, so to amend this we filmed such things and light switches being turned on/off, door handles being turned etc. One of the main problems we encountered during filming was keeping the shots fluent and smooth in motion or steady when stationary, problems like this occurred on shots such as when we filmed Shelly in bed the tripod had to be placed on the mattress over her which was a soft uneven surface, this was something that we just had to try and improve through practice and taking care at all times. We did encounter some small issues with costumes and props due to us filming in an active household when filming shots on another day it was difficult to ensure that things were in the right place to avoid creating any continuity errors, when we found a major continuity error there was nothing we could but go back and film the shot again, but in some circumstances we were able to sacrifice a small part of the shot during the editing stage so the error did not appear. We encountered similar problems with lighting, yet again as we were restricted by the time we could film on certain days we found that a difference natural lighting in the shot was sometimes visible, we tried to correct this using indoor lighting whiles filming but we found this often just created more problems such as unwanted shadows and contrast. Out of all the shots we had captured I would say the most problematic are those which
zoomed in/out, panned or both, this was mainly due to inexperience but at times the tri-pod and zoom control on the camera proved difficult to use.
When editing our production we used additional sounds that we obtained off a free website as we were not permitted to use copy right music, we added titles and credits using a specialised text tool in the software, this was relatively easy to do, all we had to do was type what we wanted, select a desired colour/font from a palette and position the text where we wanted it, the credits were adjusted in the time line just like footage, we learnt how to changed and replaced colours in a scene using more of the tools in the software, changed the pitch of certain sounds, slowed down sounds and footage and also added audio files that we created. at first I found I found it difficult to use the Adobe Premier software as I had never used the software before but once I had become familiar with how the software works and how to perform certain actions the software became easy to use.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?
Starting from the preliminary task to now a full product I have learnt how to construct an opening sequence and how to do it successfully, I have learnt how to analyse an opening sequence and how to apply what I have learnt to a working piece of work, I feel I have adopted a logical understanding to what makes a product successful, If I was asked to do this again I would know how to do it correctly and what works, and I would have the proof. The only real difficulty I found during the project was writing the treatment, unlike the other tasks where I was able to research to find out what makes a product successful, I feel that I struggled piecing together Ideas in to an understandable story line. I know I have fulfilled the terms of the brief as I have created an opening sequence which I could Identify as thriller through it codes and conventions, opening sequence was assigned a classification to which I feel the product is appropriate for, it includes titles and is approximately two minutes long. I am pleased with the opening sequence I believe it has met all the requirements stated in the brief and meets our audience’s demands. I think that when comparing our production to that of a professional standard I think one clear difference would be in audio and visual quality, secondly I think our special effects are of a limited standard as we ourselves cannot use the software at a professional standard, but most of all I think our camera work is the most obvious contrast.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
SECTION 1: THE THIRLLER GENRE
-The Thriller Genre-
Definition: A genre of fiction that attempts to thrill the audience by putting characters at risk, there is no clear ingredients of what a Thriller should consist of, Thriller is a problematic genre.
Thrillers can be categorized by fast paced editing, action, heroes who must outwit the villain, devices such as cliff hangers and red herrings are common.
Thrillers usually take place in exotic places, the hero is usually a strong masculine figure accustom to danger who originates as your everyday person. Thrillers often overlay mystery stories but on a much grander scale, such as bank robberies and terrorist plots.
-Thriller Sub Genres-
Action Thriller: Race against time, lots of violence, antagonist (When one muscle that relaxes another contracts), Heavy use of guns and pyrotechnics.
Conspiracy Thriller: Hero confronts a powerful group of enemies whose true extent only the hero recognizes.
Crime Thriller: A hybrid genre of both thriller and crime films, projects a suspenseful account of crime, often focused on the criminal, emphasis on action rather than psychological aspects.
Disaster Thriller: Conflict against a natural or artificial disaster.
Drama Thriller: A genre of both thriller and drama film, large amount of character development, slower pace, plot twists.
Eco Thriller: Protagonist (The main character in a play around whom most of the action is based) must rectify environmental problems.
Erotic Thriller: A genre of both Erotica and Thriller, became popular since the 1980’s
Horror Thriller: Conflict between the main character is emotional, physical or mental, fear plays a key element throughout the thriller
Legal Thriller: Lawyer/hero is in jeopardy of not only losing their case but their lives, confronts an enemy.
Medical Thriller: Heroes are of a medical profession working to solve a growing medical problem.
Political Thriller: hero must create stability for the government that employs them.
Psychological Thriller: Conflict between the main character is of a mental and emotional state, rather than physical, often is resolved violently.
Spy Thriller: Hero is typically an agent employed by the government to violently combat agents of an opposing government, recently terrorists have also been used as opposition.
Supernatural Thriller: Conflict is between the main characters, typically one of them has supernatural powers, combines tension of a regular thriller with basic horror oriented ingredients such as ghosts, Supernatural Thrillers combine these elements with frightening but often restrained film. There are more graphic elements in supernatural thrillers to sustain a mood, often protagonists either battling a malevolent ("wishing or appearing to wish evil to others") paranormal force or trapped in a situation seemingly influenced or controlled by an paranormal entity beyond their comprehension.
Techno Thriller: Focuses on technology, typically military technology, It is described in detail to the audience and made essential to their understanding of the plot
-Codes, Conventions. Concepts & Theory’s-
The Transformed City: Simply, where a thriller is set, this is usually large urban environments, It should expose the poetry in modern life, modern life is realistically considered to be drab and mundane, Its the thrillers opportunity to excite this life, the city is transformed in to whatever the writer wishes, exciting, dangerous, unusual etc, the city is transformed.
Hero Romance: The hero is an ordinary person, they are transformed in to a hero because of the extraordinary circumstances they are put in, the hero exists in romance, and the laws of physics and nature are suspended, romantic setting.
The Exotic: Something within the thriller is exotic, for example, the use of middle eastern artefacts, It could also be said that the place within it is set is exotic.
Mazes and Labyrinths: Mazes lead off in many directions and have many dead ends, by the law of thrillers the plot and narrative or the “Maze” should be complex and should be able to, for example, identify a killer through strategy and cues to the audience etc. The audience gains pleasure through prolonging this.
Partial Vision: Things are hidden from view, this achieved by the way the audience is positioned and how its filmed.
Concealment and Protraction: Concealment and protraction are two techniques used together and together act as the theory behind partial vision, concealment is the withholding of information key to the audiences understanding of the film, protraction is a suspense delay technique, it pulls the audiences thoughts in different directions to confuse them.
Question and Answer Model: The question and answer model ensure that audience needs to ask questions about what’s happening. Who? Why?
Moral factor/Probability factor: Moral and probability factors can be used in many different ways for example, a character that is mentally unstable performs an action that is perceived to be morally wrong or highly improbable would emphasize unstable characteristic to the audience. The audience also gets enjoyment out of not seeing what comes next, like the common phrase “I didn’t see that coming” moral and probability factors allow the audience to believe something is going to happen by instinct or what is widely considered correct, this gives the writer of the film the opportunity to trick the audience or present something that is unexpected when the audience is least expecting it.
Definition: A genre of fiction that attempts to thrill the audience by putting characters at risk, there is no clear ingredients of what a Thriller should consist of, Thriller is a problematic genre.
Thrillers can be categorized by fast paced editing, action, heroes who must outwit the villain, devices such as cliff hangers and red herrings are common.
Thrillers usually take place in exotic places, the hero is usually a strong masculine figure accustom to danger who originates as your everyday person. Thrillers often overlay mystery stories but on a much grander scale, such as bank robberies and terrorist plots.
-Thriller Sub Genres-
Action Thriller: Race against time, lots of violence, antagonist (When one muscle that relaxes another contracts), Heavy use of guns and pyrotechnics.
Conspiracy Thriller: Hero confronts a powerful group of enemies whose true extent only the hero recognizes.
Crime Thriller: A hybrid genre of both thriller and crime films, projects a suspenseful account of crime, often focused on the criminal, emphasis on action rather than psychological aspects.
Disaster Thriller: Conflict against a natural or artificial disaster.
Drama Thriller: A genre of both thriller and drama film, large amount of character development, slower pace, plot twists.
Eco Thriller: Protagonist (The main character in a play around whom most of the action is based) must rectify environmental problems.
Erotic Thriller: A genre of both Erotica and Thriller, became popular since the 1980’s
Horror Thriller: Conflict between the main character is emotional, physical or mental, fear plays a key element throughout the thriller
Legal Thriller: Lawyer/hero is in jeopardy of not only losing their case but their lives, confronts an enemy.
Medical Thriller: Heroes are of a medical profession working to solve a growing medical problem.
Political Thriller: hero must create stability for the government that employs them.
Psychological Thriller: Conflict between the main character is of a mental and emotional state, rather than physical, often is resolved violently.
Spy Thriller: Hero is typically an agent employed by the government to violently combat agents of an opposing government, recently terrorists have also been used as opposition.
Supernatural Thriller: Conflict is between the main characters, typically one of them has supernatural powers, combines tension of a regular thriller with basic horror oriented ingredients such as ghosts, Supernatural Thrillers combine these elements with frightening but often restrained film. There are more graphic elements in supernatural thrillers to sustain a mood, often protagonists either battling a malevolent ("wishing or appearing to wish evil to others") paranormal force or trapped in a situation seemingly influenced or controlled by an paranormal entity beyond their comprehension.
Techno Thriller: Focuses on technology, typically military technology, It is described in detail to the audience and made essential to their understanding of the plot
-Codes, Conventions. Concepts & Theory’s-
The Transformed City: Simply, where a thriller is set, this is usually large urban environments, It should expose the poetry in modern life, modern life is realistically considered to be drab and mundane, Its the thrillers opportunity to excite this life, the city is transformed in to whatever the writer wishes, exciting, dangerous, unusual etc, the city is transformed.
Hero Romance: The hero is an ordinary person, they are transformed in to a hero because of the extraordinary circumstances they are put in, the hero exists in romance, and the laws of physics and nature are suspended, romantic setting.
The Exotic: Something within the thriller is exotic, for example, the use of middle eastern artefacts, It could also be said that the place within it is set is exotic.
Mazes and Labyrinths: Mazes lead off in many directions and have many dead ends, by the law of thrillers the plot and narrative or the “Maze” should be complex and should be able to, for example, identify a killer through strategy and cues to the audience etc. The audience gains pleasure through prolonging this.
Partial Vision: Things are hidden from view, this achieved by the way the audience is positioned and how its filmed.
Concealment and Protraction: Concealment and protraction are two techniques used together and together act as the theory behind partial vision, concealment is the withholding of information key to the audiences understanding of the film, protraction is a suspense delay technique, it pulls the audiences thoughts in different directions to confuse them.
Question and Answer Model: The question and answer model ensure that audience needs to ask questions about what’s happening. Who? Why?
Moral factor/Probability factor: Moral and probability factors can be used in many different ways for example, a character that is mentally unstable performs an action that is perceived to be morally wrong or highly improbable would emphasize unstable characteristic to the audience. The audience also gets enjoyment out of not seeing what comes next, like the common phrase “I didn’t see that coming” moral and probability factors allow the audience to believe something is going to happen by instinct or what is widely considered correct, this gives the writer of the film the opportunity to trick the audience or present something that is unexpected when the audience is least expecting it.
SECTION 2: RESEARCH INTO EXAMPLES OF COMPARABLE MEDIA PRODUCTS
-Seven-
Narrative Structure: The opening sequence of the film is in a linear narrative structure, it shows somebody making a book and researching something in a clear systematic way, we don’t know who the person is, what they are researching or why they are doing so.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Partial vision, concealment and protraction are used throughout the opening scene, this hides key things from the audience such as the characters identity and a clear location, and this frustrates the audience and makes them keep on watching as they have many questions they want answers to.
Camerawork: Lots of close-up shots and point of view shots are used to show what the characters doing with the book, close-up shot on the character cutting their fingers, the close ups are used to signify the importance of something.
Mise-en-scene: The scene is quite dark, it has a real cold and dirty feel to it, not everything in the shots used is visible, concealment and protraction is being used to hide things from the audience but we do know he is in some sort of personal office space, the movement in the scene contrasts the typical fast paced editing of thrillers.
Sound: The song used throughout the scene is an adaptation of a song called “Closer to God” by “Nine Inch Nails” it features the sound of a mechanical sounding heartbeat and scratching noises all of which are used to make the audience generally disturbed and uncomfortable, the character cuts out the word “God” simultaneously to the song title being sung giving the audience a glimpse of the characters motive.
Editing: Lots of jump cuts have been used, this gives the appearance of speed and instability and aid the really sharp feel the scene has, a split screen effect is used to show multiple actions of the character.
Graphics: Sketchy white text is used in the credits, although the audience can’t see very well it may be the characters hand writing, giving the audience another glimpse of them, the credits flash from point to point around the screen unpredictably building suspense.
-Jaws-
Narrative Structure: The film starts with balanced equilibrium and narrative structure, a group of teenagers are having fun drinking on the beach, neither concealment or protraction is used so straight away we know that the film is linear, the audience at this point does not feel threatened by any existing danger but when the girl goes in to the water disequilibrium is created as it becomes apparent that she is in danger.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Partial vision, concealment, protraction and question and answer modules are all used in the scene, the audience does not know what is under the water, when it’s going to strike, what it looks like, why is no one saving her? All this together creates a great sense of panic amongst the audience.
Camera Work: The scene opens with a point of view shot which immediately is making the audience ask questions as they are wondering from who’s point of view are they in, there is a tracking shot that establishes that the point of view is from the sea this cuts to a shot of the teenagers on the beach, this lets the audience know that the previous point of view shot has its eyes set on the teenagers, there is an over shoulder shot showing what the teenagers are doing, this makes the audience feel like part of the group and like there spying and shouldn’t be there, this suggests that the teenagers shouldn’t be there. There is a close up on a man in the group this suggests that he has some kind of superiority over the rest, the close up on the girl that follows suggests that she is connected with him in some sort of way, high angle shots of the group make them venerable. The extreme long shot of the girl in the water with the buoy shows how far out she is, it shows that’s she is so far out that she is out of touch of the group and can not be helped.
Mise-en-scene: The location of the beach is typically a happy fun place, the teenagers are intoxicated and relaxed creating a false sense of safety, the sequence is dark throughout so the audience is not to sure what is going on.
Sound: The film theme builds tension to the audience, it is non-diegeticm, it builds tension as we are expecting change, diegetic sound of actors such as laughing and general background noise helps make the audience feel calm.
Editing: The shots are quite long with no obvious break in them this helps build tension, quick shot reverse shots are used to build tension yet again, editing cuts from creature in water to teenagers on the beach to link them together.
Graphics: The credits are big, bold and in your face, they are the first thing you see on the screen.
-American Psycho-
Narrative Structure: The opening sequence of the film starts from what appears to be the night before then follows to the next morning, it has a linear narrative structure, it shows him preparing for his day, the audience are taken through his roles and routine, the opening sequence is very clear, the audience is introduced to the killer and his life immediately which is unusual this breaks the common conventions of thrillers, the characters life is in a state of equilibrium.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Transformed City, Question and answer module leaves the audience with no answers such as who is he? Everything seems to be overly obvious to the audience, leads them to think that the character must be hiding something.
Camera Work: The film opens with an overhead shot introducing us to the nightclub, it shows the audience the atmosphere of the club, there is an over shoulder shot on a man whiles a women serves him at the bar, show the audience what’s going on, make them feel involved in the situation. In the next scene tracking shots take us through the characters apartment, camera work is slow and steady. There are close ups on the products the character uses in the shower, may be used to emphasize a trait of the character.
Mise-en-scene: The night club scene and apartment scene contrast each other greatly, binary oppositions such as light and dark are used, this is used to portray two different personalities of the character, reflections of the character are used, this also suggests multiple personalities, in particular his reflection in a painting on his wall. Everything seems to be in order and in place this shows the character is precise, the characters movement is precise and purposeful, this shows the audience that the character see’s himself as a figure of importance, there is no suggestion that the character being a killer at this point, this makes the audience confused and ask more questions.
Sound: Diegetic 80’s music is playing in the night club sets a time period or that the character likes 80’s style nightclubs, in the characters apartment there is classical music playing, it is unclear whether it is diegetic or non-diegetic but either way gives us an in-site in to the characters taste and class. Non-diegetic narration dialog at the begging, it says “I’m not really here” this could be suggesting that the character is the exotic element in the film.
Editing: Shot reverse shot lets the audience see the conversation at the bar and helps the audience feel involved, editing also matches the aesthetics of the piano in the apartment, aids fluid movement.
Graphics: Bold white capital letters for the credits at the start, typical of thrillers.
-The Transporter-
Narrative Structure: The opening scene of the film has a linear narrative structure, it shows the character waiting for his watch alarm to go off at a specific time, he drives to a destination where he arrives at what appears to be a specific time, the equilibrium of the character is disturbed momentarily but shortly resolved. The audience are taken through his role as a driver and his rules that he wont break.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Transformed City, the character is the most powerful person there along as he’s in his car, the audience has a brief idea that he may be some kind of get away driver but don’t know who he is, or if he will get away also they are left asking questions like is he hero, villain or Samaritan, The city may also be the exotic element.
Camera Work: The film opens with slow moving shots panning around to the car at a low angle, this gives the car a powerful image, it continues panning round to the passenger window where a man can be seen sat inside, the credits over lap this shot reading “The Transporter” so the audience knows that this man will be the main protagonist. The are close ups of his watch, radio, gloves and key pad whilst he interacts with them, this emphasizes there importance to him and the mechanical routine he seems to be enrolling suggests he has done this many times before and dose so very professionally, there is a frontal shot of the car as he turns on his head lamps. The audience is almost tricked in to thinking it is an eye line match and feel involved as its as if the car is looking at them followed by a shot of him gripping the wheel of car yet again in a precise manor, from here there are tracking shots of the car as it leaves the multi-storey car park and to the roads, this is followed by an establishing shot of the city he is in.
Mise-en-scene: The character is in a sharp suit and flashy car which shows that he is wealthy. Good and professional at what he dose, puts on a pair of driving gloves after his watch goes off, this aids the theme of professionalism yet again and shows the audience at this point there is a divide between between him on and off the clock, the key code ignition on his car suggests his job has a high element of security and that his car is valuable to him , he drives out of the car park slowly showing that he is calm and in no rush, the next shot of him driving out doors contrasts the last greatly in lighting and colour, it suggests that he lives his live hiding ‘underground’ and only reveals him self for his profession, as he drives round the city you can see yachts showing he is in a wealthy place.
Sound: At the start of the film there is non-diegetic music, it sounds cool and tense setting a mood and giving an added value and richness of the scene to the audience, the character plays what appears to be diegetic classical music in his car, the audience thinks this because of the synchronisation of the character pushing a button on his stereo and the start of the music, the source of sound is implied through the present action, but the aesthetics of the music do not change between inner and outer shots of the car, this is gives the audience an insight in to the characters personality, the sound is used to render his feelings and emotions of the current situation, and the fact that the aesthetics of the music do not change when they theoretically should makes the audience feel more involved with the character as they are experiencing things how the character would, classical music also has relaxing concentration aiding properties suggesting that he is preparing him self mentally for what’s about to come, it could also be said that the music is used in this way to portray the character as anempathetic to the tense mood previously created. The footage of the character staring his engine, plugging in his seat belt and tyre squeal are accompanied by their characteristic sounds they are also synchronous to current actions in narrative, as the car begins to leave the car park the music changed back to non-diegetic sound, it is cool and tense yet again restoring empathetic sound, sounds of the characters environment accompany many of the shots of the city to create and ambience that establishes the scene and location.
Editing: The opening scene starts with a shot which has been edited to look as if it was a security camera, electrical sounds can be heard in sync with the flickering of the screen, this suggests that technology is going to involved or that the audience are watching something they shouldn’t. Match on action is created with jump cuts when the character checks his watch and plugs in his seatbelt etc. There are more cuts from in to outside of the vehicle so the audience can see what’s going on. Multiple shot reverse shots during the conversation between the main character and the bank robbers.
Graphics: In the opening sequence the film title appears in aluminous green letters with a sharp glowing effect, the type face is clean cut and modern, and yet again has technological and futuristic effect. The credits continue to role in a similar style in white.
-Man on Fire -
Narrative Structure: The opening scene has a linear narrative structure, the audience are introduced to the villains and the nature of their actions in the first scene, it shows someone being kidnapped, the kidnappers contact the family to arrange a ransom for the family’s son and the audience see the man being tortured what appears to be the father of the son drops off the ransom and his son is released on a motorway, the opening scene starts from a happy couple walking through the city, the equilibrium changes to disequilibrium very quickly.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Transformed city, question and answer module, who’s being kidnapped? Who’s kidnapping them, why? Etc.
Camera Work: The opening sequence begins with an establishing arial shot of the city, it rotates round as if it where on an axis keeping two towers centred symmetrically in the shot, there is a medium shot tracking a couple in a busy crowd, the camera also pans round the crowd, it passes people both closely and at a distance creating a busy and hectic atmosphere, there is long shot tracking a white car, followed by a medium shot of a girl and her partner, there is a yet again a shot of the two towers, the shot is now cantered suggesting a sense of corruption to the audience, this is followed by another tracking shot of the white car, two men get out of the car and force the woman’s partner in to it, the camera work is uneven and shaky communicating a sense of panic, there is an over shoulder shot from the crowd making the audience feel involved in the situation, there is a shot of the white car from the rear view mirror of the car ahead and from the side-walks involving the audience from more than just one obvious point of view. The next part of the opening sequence features a close up of a women crying followed by a close up of what appears to be a family picture, the camera zooms in closer yet again focusing on the boy in the image, this shows the audience that the man kidnapped has family involving the audience again in the emotional response of the family
Mise-en-scene: Editing is heavily used through the opening sequence, it consists of quick jump cuts and overlapping shots, the surroundings in which it is filmed are crowded and busy, there is also a wide array of sound that can be heard, all this together projects a strong element of disruption and confusion, the lighting is dark and the shots are slightly over exposed, the colours which the consist of are mostly dark urban colours, giving the film a dirty rustic look, the majority of the buildings and cars in the shot look run down showing that the place there are in is under developed aiding the probability of kidnappings and “Underground Activities” (moral and probability factor)
Sound: There is non-diegetic music at the start of the opening sequence, it features angel like voices, church bells can be heard, it is unclear wether these are diegetic or non-diegtetic, these to sounds suggest the element of religion in the film, child’s laughter can also be heard it’s unclear yet again whether this is diegetic or non-diegtetic but suggests that it is a child will be kidnapped later in the film, the sound of thunder can be heard on a shot of the two towers giving them more presence, non-diegetic music kicks in, it consists of an up-beat Latino style rhythm, this helps set the atmosphere of the location to the audience the music could also be considered anempathetic as it does not match the current actions of the film (kidnapping) after the actual event of the kidnapping is over the music changes, it sound sad and sorrow, it is empathetic to the current situation, anempathetic and empathetic music used together in a single narrative situation creates a greater contrast between the beginning and “after effect” of a situation in the narrative, diegetic sounds such as the car doors closing and tyres on the road can be heard as expected.
Editing: In the opening sequence of the film there is heavy use of editing, cut shots are used to jump from view point to view point, shots are overlapped making the frames overcrowded and difficult to see, this confuses the audience, shots are slowed down and speeded up in what appears to be an irrational manor, the frame rate of the shots have also been edited giving a sense of corruption and suggesting the equilibrium is going to be disturbed, the lighting of the shots differentiates from light to dark quickly to create a strobe effect startling the audience.
Graphics: Fairly small clean and clear white text is used to display the director etc. Larger and bolder text is used to state the facts about kidnapping on the screen, the fact that it is bigger and bolder emphasizes its importance to the audience, it signifies that the film has a message.
-Comparable Media Products Concluded-
After analysing Comparable Media Products I isolated the codes and conventions that all or the majority of the products contained.
Equilibrium is always fully or partly restored.
Facts, objects and other information are always hidden from the audience.
The audience are always asking questions.
Suspense is held throughout the opening sequence.
Panning shots are vigorously used.
Long shots were used.
The editing always matches the pace of action on screen.
There is usually none or very little dialog, with the exception of non-diegetic narration.
The location in which set is always made very clear.
Camera angles and movement were often used to make the audience feel as if they were seeing something they shouldn’t.
Eye-line match was often used to show the audience something from the characters point of view, involving them in the narrative.
The product title usually stood out to the audience.
Non-diegetic sound is used to influence the audiences mood, thoughts and emotion.
The credits are always in rhythm/sync with the music or sounds.
Unusual and uncomfortable settings are often used.
Enigma was often used to baffle the audience and make them ask questions in effect making them wanting to watch more.
Diegetic sound was often complex and crowded overwhelming the audience.
The audiences questions are rarely given an answer.
The opening sequence always starts with disequilibrium or moves to disequilibrium shortly.
Characters power/status is always presented clearly to the audience.
The main protagonist/character we are presented with at the start of the opening sequence always has unusual/unique personality.
Reflections were used to show something or represent a characters alter-ego.
Scenes often contrasted each other in light and sound, for example, The Transporter starts in a quite underground car park, the lighting is dull and the colours in the shot are reserved and bland, the next scene enters the city, it is bright and vivid in colour, diegetic sound is very busy.
Binary oppositions are often used
Events take place which the audience did not expect (red herring/moral/probability factor)
The equilibrium is often disturbed or threatened.
Elements of danger are always present.
All contain some element of partial vision, concealment and protraction.
All are set in a transformed city.
There is always a villain although the villain is not always human.
The credits always start more or less at the beginning of the opening sequence.
The majority of the opening sequences have a linear narrative.
The majority of the credits are in black or white, although there are some exceptions, for example, In The Transporter the credits are luminous green, but this is done to emphasise a technological element in the scene.
Music is always in sync/rhythm with the motion of action or mood on screen; it is also used to hold suspense/tension.
Tracking shots are always used to build tension.
Characters emotions are emphasised by using close up shots.
Narrative Structure: The opening sequence of the film is in a linear narrative structure, it shows somebody making a book and researching something in a clear systematic way, we don’t know who the person is, what they are researching or why they are doing so.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Partial vision, concealment and protraction are used throughout the opening scene, this hides key things from the audience such as the characters identity and a clear location, and this frustrates the audience and makes them keep on watching as they have many questions they want answers to.
Camerawork: Lots of close-up shots and point of view shots are used to show what the characters doing with the book, close-up shot on the character cutting their fingers, the close ups are used to signify the importance of something.
Mise-en-scene: The scene is quite dark, it has a real cold and dirty feel to it, not everything in the shots used is visible, concealment and protraction is being used to hide things from the audience but we do know he is in some sort of personal office space, the movement in the scene contrasts the typical fast paced editing of thrillers.
Sound: The song used throughout the scene is an adaptation of a song called “Closer to God” by “Nine Inch Nails” it features the sound of a mechanical sounding heartbeat and scratching noises all of which are used to make the audience generally disturbed and uncomfortable, the character cuts out the word “God” simultaneously to the song title being sung giving the audience a glimpse of the characters motive.
Editing: Lots of jump cuts have been used, this gives the appearance of speed and instability and aid the really sharp feel the scene has, a split screen effect is used to show multiple actions of the character.
Graphics: Sketchy white text is used in the credits, although the audience can’t see very well it may be the characters hand writing, giving the audience another glimpse of them, the credits flash from point to point around the screen unpredictably building suspense.
-Jaws-
Narrative Structure: The film starts with balanced equilibrium and narrative structure, a group of teenagers are having fun drinking on the beach, neither concealment or protraction is used so straight away we know that the film is linear, the audience at this point does not feel threatened by any existing danger but when the girl goes in to the water disequilibrium is created as it becomes apparent that she is in danger.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Partial vision, concealment, protraction and question and answer modules are all used in the scene, the audience does not know what is under the water, when it’s going to strike, what it looks like, why is no one saving her? All this together creates a great sense of panic amongst the audience.
Camera Work: The scene opens with a point of view shot which immediately is making the audience ask questions as they are wondering from who’s point of view are they in, there is a tracking shot that establishes that the point of view is from the sea this cuts to a shot of the teenagers on the beach, this lets the audience know that the previous point of view shot has its eyes set on the teenagers, there is an over shoulder shot showing what the teenagers are doing, this makes the audience feel like part of the group and like there spying and shouldn’t be there, this suggests that the teenagers shouldn’t be there. There is a close up on a man in the group this suggests that he has some kind of superiority over the rest, the close up on the girl that follows suggests that she is connected with him in some sort of way, high angle shots of the group make them venerable. The extreme long shot of the girl in the water with the buoy shows how far out she is, it shows that’s she is so far out that she is out of touch of the group and can not be helped.
Mise-en-scene: The location of the beach is typically a happy fun place, the teenagers are intoxicated and relaxed creating a false sense of safety, the sequence is dark throughout so the audience is not to sure what is going on.
Sound: The film theme builds tension to the audience, it is non-diegeticm, it builds tension as we are expecting change, diegetic sound of actors such as laughing and general background noise helps make the audience feel calm.
Editing: The shots are quite long with no obvious break in them this helps build tension, quick shot reverse shots are used to build tension yet again, editing cuts from creature in water to teenagers on the beach to link them together.
Graphics: The credits are big, bold and in your face, they are the first thing you see on the screen.
-American Psycho-
Narrative Structure: The opening sequence of the film starts from what appears to be the night before then follows to the next morning, it has a linear narrative structure, it shows him preparing for his day, the audience are taken through his roles and routine, the opening sequence is very clear, the audience is introduced to the killer and his life immediately which is unusual this breaks the common conventions of thrillers, the characters life is in a state of equilibrium.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Transformed City, Question and answer module leaves the audience with no answers such as who is he? Everything seems to be overly obvious to the audience, leads them to think that the character must be hiding something.
Camera Work: The film opens with an overhead shot introducing us to the nightclub, it shows the audience the atmosphere of the club, there is an over shoulder shot on a man whiles a women serves him at the bar, show the audience what’s going on, make them feel involved in the situation. In the next scene tracking shots take us through the characters apartment, camera work is slow and steady. There are close ups on the products the character uses in the shower, may be used to emphasize a trait of the character.
Mise-en-scene: The night club scene and apartment scene contrast each other greatly, binary oppositions such as light and dark are used, this is used to portray two different personalities of the character, reflections of the character are used, this also suggests multiple personalities, in particular his reflection in a painting on his wall. Everything seems to be in order and in place this shows the character is precise, the characters movement is precise and purposeful, this shows the audience that the character see’s himself as a figure of importance, there is no suggestion that the character being a killer at this point, this makes the audience confused and ask more questions.
Sound: Diegetic 80’s music is playing in the night club sets a time period or that the character likes 80’s style nightclubs, in the characters apartment there is classical music playing, it is unclear whether it is diegetic or non-diegetic but either way gives us an in-site in to the characters taste and class. Non-diegetic narration dialog at the begging, it says “I’m not really here” this could be suggesting that the character is the exotic element in the film.
Editing: Shot reverse shot lets the audience see the conversation at the bar and helps the audience feel involved, editing also matches the aesthetics of the piano in the apartment, aids fluid movement.
Graphics: Bold white capital letters for the credits at the start, typical of thrillers.
-The Transporter-
Narrative Structure: The opening scene of the film has a linear narrative structure, it shows the character waiting for his watch alarm to go off at a specific time, he drives to a destination where he arrives at what appears to be a specific time, the equilibrium of the character is disturbed momentarily but shortly resolved. The audience are taken through his role as a driver and his rules that he wont break.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Transformed City, the character is the most powerful person there along as he’s in his car, the audience has a brief idea that he may be some kind of get away driver but don’t know who he is, or if he will get away also they are left asking questions like is he hero, villain or Samaritan, The city may also be the exotic element.
Camera Work: The film opens with slow moving shots panning around to the car at a low angle, this gives the car a powerful image, it continues panning round to the passenger window where a man can be seen sat inside, the credits over lap this shot reading “The Transporter” so the audience knows that this man will be the main protagonist. The are close ups of his watch, radio, gloves and key pad whilst he interacts with them, this emphasizes there importance to him and the mechanical routine he seems to be enrolling suggests he has done this many times before and dose so very professionally, there is a frontal shot of the car as he turns on his head lamps. The audience is almost tricked in to thinking it is an eye line match and feel involved as its as if the car is looking at them followed by a shot of him gripping the wheel of car yet again in a precise manor, from here there are tracking shots of the car as it leaves the multi-storey car park and to the roads, this is followed by an establishing shot of the city he is in.
Mise-en-scene: The character is in a sharp suit and flashy car which shows that he is wealthy. Good and professional at what he dose, puts on a pair of driving gloves after his watch goes off, this aids the theme of professionalism yet again and shows the audience at this point there is a divide between between him on and off the clock, the key code ignition on his car suggests his job has a high element of security and that his car is valuable to him , he drives out of the car park slowly showing that he is calm and in no rush, the next shot of him driving out doors contrasts the last greatly in lighting and colour, it suggests that he lives his live hiding ‘underground’ and only reveals him self for his profession, as he drives round the city you can see yachts showing he is in a wealthy place.
Sound: At the start of the film there is non-diegetic music, it sounds cool and tense setting a mood and giving an added value and richness of the scene to the audience, the character plays what appears to be diegetic classical music in his car, the audience thinks this because of the synchronisation of the character pushing a button on his stereo and the start of the music, the source of sound is implied through the present action, but the aesthetics of the music do not change between inner and outer shots of the car, this is gives the audience an insight in to the characters personality, the sound is used to render his feelings and emotions of the current situation, and the fact that the aesthetics of the music do not change when they theoretically should makes the audience feel more involved with the character as they are experiencing things how the character would, classical music also has relaxing concentration aiding properties suggesting that he is preparing him self mentally for what’s about to come, it could also be said that the music is used in this way to portray the character as anempathetic to the tense mood previously created. The footage of the character staring his engine, plugging in his seat belt and tyre squeal are accompanied by their characteristic sounds they are also synchronous to current actions in narrative, as the car begins to leave the car park the music changed back to non-diegetic sound, it is cool and tense yet again restoring empathetic sound, sounds of the characters environment accompany many of the shots of the city to create and ambience that establishes the scene and location.
Editing: The opening scene starts with a shot which has been edited to look as if it was a security camera, electrical sounds can be heard in sync with the flickering of the screen, this suggests that technology is going to involved or that the audience are watching something they shouldn’t. Match on action is created with jump cuts when the character checks his watch and plugs in his seatbelt etc. There are more cuts from in to outside of the vehicle so the audience can see what’s going on. Multiple shot reverse shots during the conversation between the main character and the bank robbers.
Graphics: In the opening sequence the film title appears in aluminous green letters with a sharp glowing effect, the type face is clean cut and modern, and yet again has technological and futuristic effect. The credits continue to role in a similar style in white.
-Man on Fire -
Narrative Structure: The opening scene has a linear narrative structure, the audience are introduced to the villains and the nature of their actions in the first scene, it shows someone being kidnapped, the kidnappers contact the family to arrange a ransom for the family’s son and the audience see the man being tortured what appears to be the father of the son drops off the ransom and his son is released on a motorway, the opening scene starts from a happy couple walking through the city, the equilibrium changes to disequilibrium very quickly.
Thriller Codes and Conventions: Transformed city, question and answer module, who’s being kidnapped? Who’s kidnapping them, why? Etc.
Camera Work: The opening sequence begins with an establishing arial shot of the city, it rotates round as if it where on an axis keeping two towers centred symmetrically in the shot, there is a medium shot tracking a couple in a busy crowd, the camera also pans round the crowd, it passes people both closely and at a distance creating a busy and hectic atmosphere, there is long shot tracking a white car, followed by a medium shot of a girl and her partner, there is a yet again a shot of the two towers, the shot is now cantered suggesting a sense of corruption to the audience, this is followed by another tracking shot of the white car, two men get out of the car and force the woman’s partner in to it, the camera work is uneven and shaky communicating a sense of panic, there is an over shoulder shot from the crowd making the audience feel involved in the situation, there is a shot of the white car from the rear view mirror of the car ahead and from the side-walks involving the audience from more than just one obvious point of view. The next part of the opening sequence features a close up of a women crying followed by a close up of what appears to be a family picture, the camera zooms in closer yet again focusing on the boy in the image, this shows the audience that the man kidnapped has family involving the audience again in the emotional response of the family
Mise-en-scene: Editing is heavily used through the opening sequence, it consists of quick jump cuts and overlapping shots, the surroundings in which it is filmed are crowded and busy, there is also a wide array of sound that can be heard, all this together projects a strong element of disruption and confusion, the lighting is dark and the shots are slightly over exposed, the colours which the consist of are mostly dark urban colours, giving the film a dirty rustic look, the majority of the buildings and cars in the shot look run down showing that the place there are in is under developed aiding the probability of kidnappings and “Underground Activities” (moral and probability factor)
Sound: There is non-diegetic music at the start of the opening sequence, it features angel like voices, church bells can be heard, it is unclear wether these are diegetic or non-diegtetic, these to sounds suggest the element of religion in the film, child’s laughter can also be heard it’s unclear yet again whether this is diegetic or non-diegtetic but suggests that it is a child will be kidnapped later in the film, the sound of thunder can be heard on a shot of the two towers giving them more presence, non-diegetic music kicks in, it consists of an up-beat Latino style rhythm, this helps set the atmosphere of the location to the audience the music could also be considered anempathetic as it does not match the current actions of the film (kidnapping) after the actual event of the kidnapping is over the music changes, it sound sad and sorrow, it is empathetic to the current situation, anempathetic and empathetic music used together in a single narrative situation creates a greater contrast between the beginning and “after effect” of a situation in the narrative, diegetic sounds such as the car doors closing and tyres on the road can be heard as expected.
Editing: In the opening sequence of the film there is heavy use of editing, cut shots are used to jump from view point to view point, shots are overlapped making the frames overcrowded and difficult to see, this confuses the audience, shots are slowed down and speeded up in what appears to be an irrational manor, the frame rate of the shots have also been edited giving a sense of corruption and suggesting the equilibrium is going to be disturbed, the lighting of the shots differentiates from light to dark quickly to create a strobe effect startling the audience.
Graphics: Fairly small clean and clear white text is used to display the director etc. Larger and bolder text is used to state the facts about kidnapping on the screen, the fact that it is bigger and bolder emphasizes its importance to the audience, it signifies that the film has a message.
-Comparable Media Products Concluded-
After analysing Comparable Media Products I isolated the codes and conventions that all or the majority of the products contained.
Equilibrium is always fully or partly restored.
Facts, objects and other information are always hidden from the audience.
The audience are always asking questions.
Suspense is held throughout the opening sequence.
Panning shots are vigorously used.
Long shots were used.
The editing always matches the pace of action on screen.
There is usually none or very little dialog, with the exception of non-diegetic narration.
The location in which set is always made very clear.
Camera angles and movement were often used to make the audience feel as if they were seeing something they shouldn’t.
Eye-line match was often used to show the audience something from the characters point of view, involving them in the narrative.
The product title usually stood out to the audience.
Non-diegetic sound is used to influence the audiences mood, thoughts and emotion.
The credits are always in rhythm/sync with the music or sounds.
Unusual and uncomfortable settings are often used.
Enigma was often used to baffle the audience and make them ask questions in effect making them wanting to watch more.
Diegetic sound was often complex and crowded overwhelming the audience.
The audiences questions are rarely given an answer.
The opening sequence always starts with disequilibrium or moves to disequilibrium shortly.
Characters power/status is always presented clearly to the audience.
The main protagonist/character we are presented with at the start of the opening sequence always has unusual/unique personality.
Reflections were used to show something or represent a characters alter-ego.
Scenes often contrasted each other in light and sound, for example, The Transporter starts in a quite underground car park, the lighting is dull and the colours in the shot are reserved and bland, the next scene enters the city, it is bright and vivid in colour, diegetic sound is very busy.
Binary oppositions are often used
Events take place which the audience did not expect (red herring/moral/probability factor)
The equilibrium is often disturbed or threatened.
Elements of danger are always present.
All contain some element of partial vision, concealment and protraction.
All are set in a transformed city.
There is always a villain although the villain is not always human.
The credits always start more or less at the beginning of the opening sequence.
The majority of the opening sequences have a linear narrative.
The majority of the credits are in black or white, although there are some exceptions, for example, In The Transporter the credits are luminous green, but this is done to emphasise a technological element in the scene.
Music is always in sync/rhythm with the motion of action or mood on screen; it is also used to hold suspense/tension.
Tracking shots are always used to build tension.
Characters emotions are emphasised by using close up shots.
SECTION 3: BRAIN STORM OF CONTENT AND CLASSIFCATION
FILM CLASSIFICATION
Our film will be certificate 15 because our selves are not 18, therefore it would not be suitable for us to watch or make it, also we believe that certificate 15’s have a wider range of audience as they can be watched by any age from 15 where as certificate18 cuts out 3 years of potential audience.
Our film will be certificate 15 because our selves are not 18, therefore it would not be suitable for us to watch or make it, also we believe that certificate 15’s have a wider range of audience as they can be watched by any age from 15 where as certificate18 cuts out 3 years of potential audience.
SECTION 5: TREATMENT
-Video Production Paperwork: Synopsis/Treatment-
Production Group:
James Lock
Tisya Khairuddin
Kane Wright
Elizabeth Wood
Production Name (Working Title): Flash Back
SYNOPSIS
Imagine waking up one morning experiencing flash backs of a chilling murder with no clue why. An un-familiar face from the past begins to haunt shelly, leading her further to investigate into an illicit death. Will she unravel the mystery of the cursed fatality?
TREATMENT
BEGINNING:
At start of the film there will be a short dark shot of the upper half of a teenage girl covered in blood, the shot will be edited so that it looks slightly cloudy, the next shot will be of shelly waking up in her bed, the shot will be a close up on her face so the audience see’s her eye’s open and establishes that she plays a key role, it will now become apparent that the previous shot was a dream, this will be aided by the change in editing, making a clear and visible divide between Shelly’s imagination and real time footage, Shelly lays there for a moment then gets out of bed, the shot will change to a long shot from across the room to set a clear location to the audience, Shelly puts on her dressing gown and walks to the bathroom to freshen up, the camera will watch her leave the bedroom and meet her in the bathroom, in between on her way to the bathroom there will be a point of view shot of her legs walking, there will be high angled point of view shot whilst Shelly is washing her hands, where the water will suddenly turn blood red and she has another flash back of the girl, this startles Shelly as it becomes apparent that yet again it is another figure of her imagination. When the blood appears it will be captured using cantered shots to convoy the theme of something going wrong, She dries her hands quickly, her distress will be communicated further through camera angles movement and cantered angles. Shelly peers through the blinds to look out of a window, the shot will be bright and mid angled, filming her from behind, The next shot will be low angled from outside watching her look at the window as if someone is watching her. Shelly walks down the stairs and in to the dining room, she walks over to the window and looks out of the curtains, this will yet again cue and outside shot of her as if someone is watching her, the way she looks out out the curtains and her movement will show that she has a paranoid and timid personality, she walks to the kitchen, there will be a tracking shot of Shelly as she walks in to the kitchen, turns on the kettle and takes a cup out of the cupboard. She turns on the radio where the audience will hear a report about a teenage girl that has been murdered, whiles the audience is listening there will be a held point of view shot moving in to the kitchen towards Shelly, Shelly turns around shocked and drops her spoon in terror.
MIDDLE:
Shelly investigates further in to the murder of the girl, after researching she finds out that that the girl murdered was an ex-patient of her husband who filed a restraining order against him after she accused him of rape and attempted murder, her husband was taken to court but the he was found not guilty due to an alibi from a member of staff at the hypnotherapy clinic where he used to work her husbands name is Steve Wilson, and he had never told Shelly about this event, Shelly is deeply disturbed by this and is suspicious of her husband she hires a private investigator to dig deeper in to the past of her husband and there relationship.
END:
The private investigator Mr Gool confronts Shelly about what he was found, it turns out that Steve has been hypnotising her to commit murders him during the night. Shelly goes to confront her husband about what she has found and he is waiting for her with a knife.
Production Group:
James Lock
Tisya Khairuddin
Kane Wright
Elizabeth Wood
Production Name (Working Title): Flash Back
SYNOPSIS
Imagine waking up one morning experiencing flash backs of a chilling murder with no clue why. An un-familiar face from the past begins to haunt shelly, leading her further to investigate into an illicit death. Will she unravel the mystery of the cursed fatality?
TREATMENT
BEGINNING:
At start of the film there will be a short dark shot of the upper half of a teenage girl covered in blood, the shot will be edited so that it looks slightly cloudy, the next shot will be of shelly waking up in her bed, the shot will be a close up on her face so the audience see’s her eye’s open and establishes that she plays a key role, it will now become apparent that the previous shot was a dream, this will be aided by the change in editing, making a clear and visible divide between Shelly’s imagination and real time footage, Shelly lays there for a moment then gets out of bed, the shot will change to a long shot from across the room to set a clear location to the audience, Shelly puts on her dressing gown and walks to the bathroom to freshen up, the camera will watch her leave the bedroom and meet her in the bathroom, in between on her way to the bathroom there will be a point of view shot of her legs walking, there will be high angled point of view shot whilst Shelly is washing her hands, where the water will suddenly turn blood red and she has another flash back of the girl, this startles Shelly as it becomes apparent that yet again it is another figure of her imagination. When the blood appears it will be captured using cantered shots to convoy the theme of something going wrong, She dries her hands quickly, her distress will be communicated further through camera angles movement and cantered angles. Shelly peers through the blinds to look out of a window, the shot will be bright and mid angled, filming her from behind, The next shot will be low angled from outside watching her look at the window as if someone is watching her. Shelly walks down the stairs and in to the dining room, she walks over to the window and looks out of the curtains, this will yet again cue and outside shot of her as if someone is watching her, the way she looks out out the curtains and her movement will show that she has a paranoid and timid personality, she walks to the kitchen, there will be a tracking shot of Shelly as she walks in to the kitchen, turns on the kettle and takes a cup out of the cupboard. She turns on the radio where the audience will hear a report about a teenage girl that has been murdered, whiles the audience is listening there will be a held point of view shot moving in to the kitchen towards Shelly, Shelly turns around shocked and drops her spoon in terror.
MIDDLE:
Shelly investigates further in to the murder of the girl, after researching she finds out that that the girl murdered was an ex-patient of her husband who filed a restraining order against him after she accused him of rape and attempted murder, her husband was taken to court but the he was found not guilty due to an alibi from a member of staff at the hypnotherapy clinic where he used to work her husbands name is Steve Wilson, and he had never told Shelly about this event, Shelly is deeply disturbed by this and is suspicious of her husband she hires a private investigator to dig deeper in to the past of her husband and there relationship.
END:
The private investigator Mr Gool confronts Shelly about what he was found, it turns out that Steve has been hypnotising her to commit murders him during the night. Shelly goes to confront her husband about what she has found and he is waiting for her with a knife.
SECTION 6: CHARACTER OUTLINES AND SCRIPT
-Character Outline-
Character 1
Shelly Stevens
Clothes and props
Dressing gown, tea cup and spoon is carried/worn by Shelly Stevens. Props also used are items in the house such as the radio, kettle, towel, soap, water, and bed.
Character Outline
Shelly Stevens is a middle aged, blonde housewife. She has blue eyes and is roughly 5’1” tall and is wearing a red dressing gown. She had spent a reasonably normal life until she meets a strange man, who, unknown to her, hypnotises her to do his wishes. This leads Shelly to commit murders and is the killer, although she is still innocent and has no clue it was her.
Character 2
Steve Wilson
Cloths and props
None
Character Outline
Steve Wilson is an aging grey haired ex-hypnotherapist who had to resign from his job after being accused of rape and attempted murder, he lives with Shelly Stevens who has hypnotised to make her think that she is his lover.
Character 3
Mr Gool
Cloths and props
None
Character Outline
Mr Gool is an old private detective who specialises in out of the ordinary events.
Character 1
Shelly Stevens
Clothes and props
Dressing gown, tea cup and spoon is carried/worn by Shelly Stevens. Props also used are items in the house such as the radio, kettle, towel, soap, water, and bed.
Character Outline
Shelly Stevens is a middle aged, blonde housewife. She has blue eyes and is roughly 5’1” tall and is wearing a red dressing gown. She had spent a reasonably normal life until she meets a strange man, who, unknown to her, hypnotises her to do his wishes. This leads Shelly to commit murders and is the killer, although she is still innocent and has no clue it was her.
Character 2
Steve Wilson
Cloths and props
None
Character Outline
Steve Wilson is an aging grey haired ex-hypnotherapist who had to resign from his job after being accused of rape and attempted murder, he lives with Shelly Stevens who has hypnotised to make her think that she is his lover.
Character 3
Mr Gool
Cloths and props
None
Character Outline
Mr Gool is an old private detective who specialises in out of the ordinary events.
SECTION 7: REECE AND LOCATION SHEETS
-Floor Plan-
Note: Please click to view full Image
Down Stairs
Upp Stairs
Attic
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