Grace Suiter - AS Media Studies
Evaluation
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Typically, thriller genres consist of a protagonist or a group of protagonists versus an antagonist or a group of antagonists. Throught the film, the antagonist is trying to kill or injure the protagonist and their general intention is to scare the audience and make them feel intrigued and on the edge of their seats. Katie, Tommy and I all ensured that mise en scene, editing, camerawork and sound were used to develop the conventions of real media products. The conventions of a phsycho thriller is to incorporate mysterious elements and this creates drama and concerns the audience. Therefore, we used a blonde protagonist because blonde connotes unintelligence and helpless and so our protagonist is presented as a damsel in distress who cannot save herself. Our antagonist was a male clown and clowns have the connotation of being mysterious and freaky and so the way our creepy antagonist is following our helpless protagonist, is quite concerning for the audience and instantly instills an axious feeling too. The damsel also wears a white T-shirt and this reiterates her innocence and purity which emphasises that she has done nothing wrong and is still going to be injured by the antagonist and there is nobody there to save her.
Mise En Scene
The mise en scene in our thriller opening supports the conventions of a real media product. Normally in thriller openings, the protagonists are just normal people and so this supports the conventions because our characters are all dressed casually and look as though they are everyday people. The antagonists in thriller openings range from being normal to being supernatural so our antagonist fits the genre because he is a clown and isn't supernatural. Our female character wears a white T-Shirt which is vaguely on show and this is to emphasise her innocence because white presents purity and honesty and so these connotations present her personality and this makes the audience empathise with the character. Whereas the antagonistic character is all covered up and looks extremely mysterious because we cannot see his face or any body features because of the costume he is wearing. The female damsel has a camera which is a prop and towards the end of the opening, it is revealed as to why she has the camera because the close up image of the clown is on the camera screen. This doesn't particularly support or challenge the stereotypical convention of a real media product because I haven't seen a camera being an important prop before. However the setting defintely supports the conventions of a real media product because it is a stereotypical setting due to the mysterious atmosphere and natural low key lighting. This means that as a group we stuck to the conventions of a typical thriller opening and so when our audience see the initial establishing panning shot of the woods, they should be able to associate it with the thriller genre. Also, when we conducted our audience research, the woods was the second highest response and this means that we are appealing to our niche audience because we are setting our thriller in a location which would appeal to them. The girls looking quite natural and casual also supports the conventions of real media products because the protagonist/damsel characters are normally normal and unaware of what is going to happen to them. Similarly, the antagonistic character is stereotypically mysterious and enigmatic because they are unpredictable. Therefore, the audience should be able to identify who the antagonist character is and who the damsel character is. This supports the forms and conventions of a real media product because when an audience watch a thriller film, they can normally quite easily identify who the protagonist, antagonist and damsel is. To support this, in our audience research, Annabel said that she would expect the antagonist to be twisted and evil, Arthur said that he thought the antagonist should be unpredictable and change personality at any time. This supports our antagonist character because a clown is meant to be a childrens entertainer and make people laugh, however there is a role reversal because in our thriller opening, has a twisted and evil clown, not a humourous one. It also adds to the mystery of whether he has killed in the past or who he intends to kill. The lighting also supports the conventions of a real media product because normally when you watch a thriller film, the lighting is quite low key to represent mystery and create an enigmatic atmosphere and this is also quite
implicit because it doesn't give too much away to the audience. There is more than one shot where the clown is standing behind the damsel character and the use of blocking suggests that she is unaware that the antagonistic character is standing behind, this makes the audience feel uncomfortable and creates mystery because we wonder what is going to happen to her. It also emphasises the vulnerability of the damsel and the advantage the antagonist has. The blocking of the four girls whilst they are walking also indicates that they are the only people in the forest and so when the clown appears, it again emphasises their vulnerability and the fact that they have no idea what is around them. Also, the main damsel character is positioned in the middle of the four girls which suggests that she would be less likely to be the victim. However the fact that she then stops and the next block shows her secluded from the rest of the group, this then reiterates to the audience that she is now alone and the others have left her. This again supports the conventions of real media products because there is normally one main victim which gets trapped by the antagonist.
Camerawork
Our initial first shot was of the production company which was presenting our thriller opening and this was very simplistic with a black screen and white writing which is slightly conventional. Stereotypically, thriller openings have official credits which appear before their thriller openings, however due to copyright reasons, it was impossible for us to achieve this and so we decided to keep it quite simplistic and just clearly state the company which was producing our thriller opening. Our second shot was an establishing shot which was gradually panning upwards and this is to show the secluded environment of the warren and also suggests to the audience that the rest of the opening is going to be mysterious, automatically linking it to a thriller opening. Establishing shots have been used in previous thriller openings, including the Purge and it looks very effective. We thought that the establishing shot also looked quite enigmatic because it is quite implicit and doesn't give too much away. The following shot is a match on action shot and it begins with an extreme long shot of the back of the girls and this then quickly cuts to a long shot of the front of the girls and this is to give the audience a good view of the girls appearance and this is to suggest that they are completely innocent and this emphasises their vulnerability because the girls are in the middle of a secluded forest. The next shot is a long shot of Emily which shows her turning around and suggests to the audience that she has heard something and is therefore curious as to what is around her and is clearly unsure about it, her NVC suggests this due to the rapid movement and her concerned facial expression. Following this is an extreme long shot of Josh and this is try and make the clown character seem as implicit as possible and to also show that he is hiding away in the darkness. It then cuts to a mid shot of Emily turning her head around slightly and this suggests to the audience that she is too scared to turn the whole way around. This then cuts to a second extreme long shot of the antagonist character and the clown has moved forward and this is to suggest to the audience that he is getting closer to the damsel character and creates an enigmatic situation because the audience are unaware as to what is going to happen next. This then cuts to a panning mid shot which follows her as she turns around and starts walking to investigate the noises she has heard. The slight low angle shot gives the audience the assumption that she is a confident character and isn't afraid whatsoever. However, it gets gradually less low angle and becomes normal which represents the change in the characters mind because she is suddenly afraid again. This challenges stereotypical media conventions because normally the damsel is shot in a high angle shot to present her vulnerability and the fact that they are weak and so the low angle shot challenges this stereotypical representation. Shot 10 is another exteme long shot of Josh and this shows that he is gradually getting closer and the 5 shots which are back and forth of the antagonist and the damsel is shot reverse shot because it is going from one character to another in a small time frame. This creates tension because the audience are aware that the clown is following the damsel character however she is unaware and the fact that the antagonist is gradually getting closer means that anything can happen. The next shot is a panning mid shot of Emily the damsel and it is slow paced because the audience will wonder whether the clown will appear or not and sure enough he does and again this creates a personal connection between the audience and the damsel because they feel sympathetic towards her due to her innocence and unawareness. This shot then become a two shot and the two main characters of the thriller opening are together and indicates to the audience that it is a battle between the antagonist and the damsel and the damsel is completely unaware. Shot 12 is a panning establishing shot of the tops of the trees and this shot is to emphasise the abandoned warren and show that the damsel is completely alone due to her friends walking off without her. This makes the damsel seem deserted and far from safety which supports the stereotypical conventions of a thriller film. There is then a long shot of Emilly running away from the danger and this then cuts to a long shot of the antagonist running after her however the damsel is not in the shot and the clown disappears into the trees. This makes the audience wonder whether the damsel has seen the clown or whether he is still mysteriously following her; creating a mysterious atmosphere. This then cuts to a low angle close up of Emily and this shows her worried facial expression and close up's are commonly used in thriller films to show characters reactions and so the use of the close up supports typical media conventions. There is then a P.O.V view shot of the woods and this is supposed to be as though the damsel is now laying on the floor and can simply see the trees and the sky. This is implicit because the audience is now unaware as to what has happened to the damsel character and this is typically the character who they want to help. There is then three seperate panning shots and these show different close ups of Emily's body laying on the floor and this again is quite implicit and creates mystery and enigma and the low key lighting adds to this. Camerashots being quite implicit support the conventions of a real media product because thrillers are intended to intrigue the audience and not give too much away. Shot 20 is a long shot which implicitly showed Emily laying on the floor and then towards the back of the shot there is the clowns feet which indicates that he has either killed or injured the damsel character. This intrigues the audience because they are unaware as to whether she is dead or alive. The final shot was then a close up of the camera prop which was in the damsels hand throughout the film and it then zooms into the camera and shows a close up picture of the clown face who is standing next to her. This is mysterious because the audience wonder what is going to happen next and this supports the conventions of a real media product because the audience are constantly intrigued during thriller films.
Editing
In our thriller opening we attempted to use both simple editing techniques as well as using more sophisticated techniques such as fades in and out. Our initial cut was a black screen with "Blumhouse Production Presents" and this then has a straight cut into the establishing shot of the warren. We then used a fade in from the establishing shot of the woods into a black screen with the Escapist, the title of the film, appearing. This editing technique looks very smooth and professional and it is very appropriate because it shows the audience where our thriller is set and gives them an indication as to what genre our film is. "The Escapist" then fades into the long shot of the back of the girls and this is where the fades stop and straight cuts are used. If too many extravagent editing techniques then the thriller opening would begin to look unprofessional and wouldn't fit the codes and conventions of a stereotypical thriller opening. Therefore the use of straight cuts make the thriller opening seem normal and typical as opposed to over the top and tacky. Cross cutting is also used to differentiate between the antagonist (the clown) and the damsel (females, mostly Emily). It generally cuts from Emily and then to Josh and this technique allows the audience to realise that the damsel is completely unaware that the clown is in the warren with her too. When it gets 42 seconds into the thriller opening, fades are used again and fades from the establishing shot to a shot of Emily running and this suggests to the reader that Emily has realised that she is being followed and is running in the opposite direction. This then cross cuts to the antagonist (Josh) running, in what seems, the same direction as the damsel and this suggests to the reader that Emily is in danger. The cross cut indicates the different steps of the two different characters and shows where they are in relation to each other.
Sound
In our thriller opening we decided to use a range of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound and this is to give our thriller opening some variety to intrigue the audience instead of just having the non-diegetic soundtrack which can get slightly repetitive after a certain period of time. Due to the concept that a soundtrack can get repetitive after a while, we decided to use two different soundtracks; we used one for the whole thriller opening and then added the second one in halfway through and this added some different instrumental sounds which prevented the first soundtrack from making our audience lose interest. Katie and I found both of the soundtracks on YouTube and we made sure that they were loyalty free which they were; as long as they were credited appropriately. Both of the soundtracks were instrumental and had no vocals which meant that it was really spooky and built tension. We also edited the soundtrack to enable us to make the tense parts louder and this again builds enigma. The soundtrack is initially quite dimminuendo at the beginning and sounds like the Jack in the Box sound and this is already creepy because it is turning an innocent childhood toy into a scary sound which will build tension and concern the audience. However when the thriller opening gets to 37 seconds, the soundtrack goes crescendo and this coincides with the two shot where the clown appears behind the damsel, Emily. This builds enigma because we know that he is behind her, however because the sound is non-diegetic, there is no indication to the damsel that the clown is watching her. Our other use of non-diegetic sound was the sound of footsteps which were in the scene but was not visible to the audience which made it mysterious as to where the clown was and why he was walking around the damsel character. The sound was a clip from youtube which Katie converted and it sounds quite heavy footed which indicates that the clown was intentionally chasing after Emily.
As well as using non-diegetic soundtracks, we also used diegetic sound which is visible in the thriller opening and adds some character to the opening. The first use of diegetic sound was an added clip of sound which coincides with when Emily takes a picture on the camera prop and this emphasises what the damsel is doing and also emphasises the importance that the camera will have at the end of the thriller opening. This then makes the audience wonder why she is getting pictures and what will she get the pictures of? Our second example of diegetic sound is the sound of leaves crunching underneath footsteps; this is added in and makes the setting come to life and gives an indication as to what the conditions are like in the woods. The crunching of leaves is also quite an unpleasant sound which adds to the lack of comfort that the audience should feel. We thought that the diegetic sound being added in would be much easier to edit as opposed to using natural sound because that can pick up unnecessary sound which is near enough impossible to delete. Therefore we deleted all of the natural sound because it sounded to pixilated and etchy which doesn't sound professional, unlike the added diegetic sound.
Titles/Credits
Stereotypically, film credits are white, black or red and this is because they stand out and look professional compared to bright colours. Red has the connotations of danger and strength, black has the connotations of death and fear and white has the connotations of purity; however it stands out against a dark background and the white colour juxtaposes the typical connotation. In our thriller opening we decided to use a white coloured font because it stands out amongst the dark background which makes it easy for the audience to identify what is being shown on the screen. Using black would have been pointless because the audience would never have identified what was being said and this would be completely ineffective. Similarly, the colour red looked slightly unprofessional, eventhough it may have had the stereotypical connotations of blood and danger. On the other hand, white is a typical colour used in thriller openings which means that we supported the forms and conventions of a typical thriller film. In our thriller film we also used serif font and this again supports the conventions of a typical thriller opening because stereotypically, both serif and sans serif fonts are used, it just depends on what thriller film it is. We decided to use the serif font because it looked sinister and sneaky which coincides with the connotations of the clown. It also looks quite mysterious and looks like handwriting, which is quite enigmatic. Finally, in most thriller openings the credits do not appear directly in the centre of the screen, but in the corners and this is so they do not take too much attention away from what is happening on screen, but people are still credited properly. Therefore to meet the codes and conventions of a typical thriller opening, we placed the majority of our credits in the corners of the screen. However, we placed the production company name and the film name in the centre of the screen and this is to symbolise its importance; which is the reason we used both a black screen and establishing shot when presenting the first two credits. They were also in a much larger font and this is to emphasise its importance and priority. Throughout the thriller opening credits appear in an assorted order, in different corners and they are clearly visible, however the action happening in the opening takes priority.