PART 1: Conventions and Representations (29th March)
This post will address the evaluation questions 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?' and 'How does your media product represent particular social groups?'
Firstly does the opening of 'Psychosis' challenge of develop conventions of real media products?
I would argue that in the opening two minutes, it develops conventions rather than challenge them. Both my piece and real films (in the thriller genre) begin with studio logos and some form of action. This particularly follows the Thriller genre as there are very few title credits, unlike an action or a comedy where you would have a 2+ minute animation or title overlay with most of the cast or crew. Many Thrillers will feature only the main actor, title and director, although some films cut straight to the action after the studio logos. For instance, in the opening of 'Inception', the studio logos are the very first thing you see. This is followed by the action. A similarity between my film and Inception is that it involves the mind. In 'Psychosis' the character of Nicolas is remembering the events of his fiancée's death, while in Inception it is a dream sequence where Leonardo Di Caprio's character is trying to extract dreams. In the 'Dark Knight' the film opens with the main antagonist committing a bank heist, which is similar to what happens in 'Psychosis', although this is seen from the police perspective rather than the antagonists. As well as this the 'Dark Knight' heist serves little purpose other than introducing the Joker, whereas in 'Psychosis', this is the event which leads to the protagonist’s condition/psychosis.
Another thriller film which opened recently is 'Shutter Island'. This opened with its main character in the middle of the action, on a boat ride to a psychiatric hospital. All three examples set up enigma codes, as does 'Psychosis', while introducing the main protagonists.
The difference between how our films start is that 'Psychosis' focuses on character and narrative, and while the others do this, the opening features lots of unanswered questions, or enigma codes. Some of these enigma codes include: What was Roy’s motive? Where did Jane work? How much time has passed between Jane's death and the meeting with the psychiatrist? These enigma codes would be answered within the main piece, and more would be asked within the main body of the film. Not all of the questions would be answered as many Thrillersleave some to make the audience think ('Inception's' finale, where it questions whether the protagonist is in a dream or not, or what parts of the film were actually set in reality, with websites created dedicated to answering that question).
There are also some action codes. We discover the relationship's between the introduced protagonists, and to some extent what they are like as people. Another action code is what happens to Jane, and who is responsible for it, which again set's up the characters and their relationships to each other. Like most Thrillers, more enigma code's are set up than answered.
The technical codes used within the opening two minutes are also often used within Thriller films. For instance, I use non-diegetic background music to build up tension, something common in films like 'Inception', which will some of their scores as motif's, so the audience know when a distinct event will happen. Examples in other genres of motifs include 'The Imperial March' in 'Star Wars' and 'Shark motif' in Jaws. The use of dialogue is used heavily rather than action, common in Thriller films, and sound effects replace set pieces. For instance, if it was an action film, having Nicolas and DCI Howard talk would be considered 'boring' and the camera may cut inside to see Roy getting into a shoot-out with the officers. However, this does not build up tension, something key in Thriller films.
The shot types and edits are common with dialogues, although I used a two shot throughout rather than Shot-Reverse-Shot, unless it could not be helped, such as the phone conversations. The reason I did this was so that we could see each character's reaction and gauge their mood or thoughts within each film. Other shots were used to demonstrate power within the film. For instance, Roy was filmed at lower angles to show that he has power over Nicolas by holding Jane hostage.
The mise-en-scene is typical of office buildings, such as the police station interior and the building exterior. By having a more realistic look to the buildings, it grounds the audience and tells them that this could happen, rather than being a representation of parallel world or a future time. The props and costumes are also very important in showing that this is a realistic world. Very few props are used but all have a purpose, such as giving the office a realistic and lived in presence. Character and clothing within my piece and real examples are similar, for instance Dom Cobb in 'Inception' compared to Nicolas in 'Psychosis':
Both are wearing suits, although what Nicolas is wearing is more casual. It should be said that he is a plain clothed officer much like this picture of an officer in 'the Bill'
The actor (DJ Scott Mills) is wearing smart clothing but not full uniform.
The characters I show are a thief/murderer, two police officers and a female worker. I tried not to play into stereotypical roles, although 'DCI Howard' is seen as more of an experienced character, who plays 'by the rules', with Nicolas being more reckless and driven by his emotion. The character of Roy is seen as quite 'heartless', however, from the response I've had back, the way Ryan plays Roy has made him the most popular character in the piece. He is not the usual villain seen in these types of film, rather than a stereotypical cockney gangster, which would normally be the type of character seen pulling off heist's in crime films, he appears quite level headed and following some sort of plan. Although Jane gets least screen time, she appears as quite calm, considering the circumstance, possibly as she believes that Nicolas will save her.
I feel that these characters are acting as they would in these situations, and in some places this helped create a more real piece, and although some sections seemed more faked by the acting, some parts were also enhanced by the way the characters are being played. The character types follow typical Thriller films, as there is normally a male protagonist (Nicolas), a mysterious female, often dies within the film as some sort of test or as a main part of the narrative (Jane), and an antagonist with a plot more than 'taking over the world' or 'money' (Roy). DCI Howard is presented as an Antihero, trying to help Nicolas as much as possible but hindering him when Nicolas stops following the 'rules'.The opening to Psychosis also follows the typical narrative structure of films. For instance, we meet the hero, and the agent of change, which causes the disequilibrium. We see at the end of the opening 2 minutes the aftermath of the disequilibrium, but do not know the hero's quest, although because we are familiar with the Thriller conventions we can give an assumption, and we know that it will relate to the events within the opening.
PART 2: Institutions and audience (31st March)
This part of the evaluation will address: 'What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?', 'Who would be the audience for your media product?' and 'How did you attract your audience?'
Firstly the type of media institution that would distribute my film. It is a British film, which relies on character and narrative rather than effects. Therefore I felt that it would be distributed by an Indie company, which is what I envisioned BlackJack Films to be. Either that or a subsidy of a major company.
Now onto the audience. Thriller films tend to be aimed at both genders; however from my market research I discovered men prefer them. They also tend to be between 15 and 25. Therefore I tried to create an opening that would appeal to both genders, but mainly males under 25. The full feature would likely include things for this audience, such as a new romance (for the female audience), with someone deemed to be attractive to men. This would attract my target audience.
Although much of my feedback was positive, it was the guys who mainly praised the narrative I had set up.
Other ways in which I would attract my target audience are:
The use of stars (in the full feature) may attract the target audience, as they prefer younger stars, because they are more relatable.
I also used action to attract my target audience, as this is popular with males of all ages. Creating intrigue would hook the audience, and one of the main reasons people see films like Shutter Island or Inception is to have their own unique take on the narrative. I hope that there are different theories as to why a dead person is shown at the end of the opening two minutes, and maybe other questions would be raised in the full feature (the disequilibrium and the enigma codes). From my research this is the part of the film that people like in thrillers, the twists and the not-so-obvious plot-line, as although the film itself is entertaining, trying to second-guess or come up with your own conclusion add to this and why people tend to avoid spoilers.
PART 3: Technology and Preliminary
This section will focus on the final two evaluation questions: 'What have you learnt about technologies from the process of creating this product?' and 'Looking back what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from your preliminary task to the full product?'
The technologies I used were:
iMovie
iMac
JVC Mini-DV camcorder
iMovie was used for the majority of editing, because of its ease of use. Unlike the original submission, no editing needed to be done on Final Cut, as Matt and Brendan were available to shoot at the same time, meaning I could use a two shot rather than shot reverse shot.
The camera is not new, but uses tapes and has a fire wire port, which meant it could be imported straight onto the Mac, a problem we had to try and overcome with the original submission, which led to a dramatic loss of quality. As well as this, all the filming was done on one day, meaning all the actors were available and in costume, and so the shots could be simpler and less editing would be required to give the illusion that actors were in the same location. One problem that was picked up on was a few shots seemed 'shaky', which is due to a lack of tri-pods being available at the time of the shoot, although the people that noticed this said that it wasn't very noticeable. Another problem I could have had was seagulls over the top of the Nicolas/Howard speech, however any rerecorded audio would have been noticeable, as was proven in my original submission. Overall it did not matter whether they were included because the noise is only a few seconds and both actors can be heard over it. Any problems I did have I managed to overcome within the time limit.
Now onto the progression from preliminary to final coursework piece.
Many things are different in the two pieces. The preliminary was set in two locations, and although the second location (classroom/office) is fine, the outer corridor has a slight drop in quality which affected some of the outside shooting in the final piece. Also the final piece was not only filmed in more locations, but outside, meaning that the weather was an extra factor.
Although the use of actors wasn't a problem in the preliminary (all students in my media class), the final piece was made difficult because the location I used meant I could only film during school hours, and not every location was free/person was available. In the end I managed to find a convenient time for all the actors.
Finally there was the type of camera used. In my preliminary, I used a tape camcorder from the school, which meant that it was easier to import images etc. onto the macs to edit. For my final piece, I used my own camera, so I was not waiting around for school cameras to become available. Both used tapes and had the same connectivity, meaning that the import process was simple. There are more edits and the addition of an extra audio layer in the final coursework piece, however I believe I got the balance between music and dialogue levels correct
In summary, I believe that both shoots went well, although there was more of a problem involving availability in the final piece. The preliminary task definitely helped when it came to editing the final piece, as did learning from the mistakes made during my first submission.
