Evaluation Question 2

2. Our media product featured a male antagonist, and two female victims, which is very conventional to a thriller, as this is one of the main features and what you would commonly expect to see in a thriller, for example, it is present in Alfred Hitcock's best-seller "psycho". This is conventional and common as females are usually seen as easier to overpower, which makes the audience more fearful and draws them in more if they see a female being attacked instead of a male, as it builds further suspense as their feelings of fear are stronger. As many people are used to seeing this, we did not try to change a typical and standard convention, as although we wanted to be a little bit different, we did not want to take too many risks in doing so incase our audience did not like our production.In our production, the male is displayed as powerful, unpredictable and dangerous, like many other thrillers, an example being hannibal lector from silence of the lambs, who displays all of these characteristics, however we also tried to display cameron slightly differently in a less-stereotypical and a more subersive fashion, as he had a bad childhood, showing he is depressed and emotionless, but it is not his fault, meaning that the audience show sympathy for the antagonist, which is rare for a thriller and I believe a good twist yo our production, as it also draws the audience as they have many emotions and feelings towards the antagonist. The females in our production are displayed as worried and innocent, like many in most succesful thriller films, meaning it is stereotypical, as it is a main convention of the genre and we used it in our production seeing as it had been so well known and successful in the film industry. Although we wanted to be different, we did not change the stereotype of women in thriller films, as although subersive plots such as the plot in silence of the lambs where the main protagonist is an aggressive dominant female has worked before, audience are used to seeing women as vulnerable, powerless and endangered, and in the past this has been the most common formula to grip and attract an audience. The characters appeal to the audience in a number of ways, Cameron's girlfriend is a typical, outgoing and innocent teenage girl, which many females aged 14-19 who view our production can relate to. Our main antagonist, Cameron is an emotionally confused and depressed character, which may be hard many member in our audience to relate to, however the audience feel sympathy for him, as the problems as has been through are not his fault and it's almost as if he cannot help it, bringing out strong feelings from the audience towards him.

Shot of Cameron stalking his Girlfriend

Cameron killing his mother

Evaluation Question 1

1. My product; Disutrbia managed to use, develop and also challenge real life thriller media products in a number of ways. In a thriller film, it is usually expected that there is a main antagonist and protagonist, with the story usually being the two battling each other, with suspense and tension created leading up to this, followed by surprise and shock. Your typical thriller may feature the following conventions, such as a powerful dominant male being the main antagonist and a vulnerable female being the main victim, usually seen with blonde hair, films such as the shining and psycho are both examples of vulnerable female victims being hunted by a powerful male antagonist. Suspense, shock, tension and surprise are the four main elements of a thriller, which are usually built by micro-elements, such as mis-en-scene, sound, lighting and cinematography. My film builds tension in a number of ways, especially during the kitchen scene, where iconography and slow editing is used to build suspense, where Cameron grinding the knife gets slower and slower, coming to a sudden point where he slams it into the plate, the audience are taken away by this, which further draw them into the scene, which then leads into the shock where Cameron kills his own mother. My film also followed the generic conventions of a thriller in a number of ways, having a dominant and unpredictable male antagonist have weak and vulnerable female victims, as Cameron kills his mother and the ending features a cliffhanger where his girlfriend is in danger. This can be compared to a thriller such as the shining, where the main character, Johnny is hunting an innocent, weak and vulnerable female, which is his wife. Although our character is not as insane, he too like Johnny is mentally unstable and the added sense of unpredictability creates suspense and keeps the audience on edge, wondering what will happen next.

Tension:

Shock:

Surprise:

Eery Music

Suspense

Slow editing

Final Group Thriller- Miss Georgiou

West Htach High School-16807

Jake Butler- 9313

I also worked with Molly and Claire

Molly Emmerson- 9327

Claire Golightly- 9334

Rough Cut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NWTiw5BU7A

Audience feedback is important to any group/director about their sequence for a number of reasons. It allows the directors of the sequence to see peoples real opinions of the production, it is useful for knowing what went well, what the audience didn't like about it, and also what to change for next time if you were to make a sequel or second production. Feedback from various members of the audience allows you to gather an insight of what people thought in general about your production.

We recieved various feedback from our potential/actual audiences before and after the film in a number of ways, using questionnaires, vox pops, and also actual youtube comment reviews about our thriller sequence. The questionnaires towards our intended target audience allowed us to see what they prefer in a thriller film, such as weapon used, villains identity and sub-genre of thriller e.g crime, psychological. Our vox pops were used to show visual evidence of this and real-life interviews, which were also posted to youtube. After hearing and taking the comments into account, we then set about making our own thriller sequences in groups, looking to make them as effective as possible and also appeal to the needs of our target audiences after hearing their opinions.

Here we have four youtube comments that are reviews from people who watched our sequence, and these comments were left under the post of our uploaded thriller production.

Looking at the top comment from Kerry Boyne, we can see that she was generally pleased with what she saw and liked our production, giving us credit for our narrative, which in her opinion made the sequence "interesting and engaging" which meant we succesfully were able to draw her into the plot and the sequence itself. Another positive to take from this comment that our low-key lighting used throughout was pretty effective as it built tension. Kerry believed that we could have maybe left the titles up longer so that they were easier to read and that also a darker filter should've been used during the suicide scene to further set the tone. I believe overall this was a very positive comment, Kerry clearly enjoyed our sequence, and if out of two constructive comments she could only find the timing of titles to be a bad point, then our sequence was effective at drawing her into the plot and at the same time entertaining her.

From Amy's comment, we noticed that she pointed out slightly different positives about our sequence compared to Kerry, instead praising our use of Cinematography and camera angles, as well as the acting in the scenes. She thought we could use more sound at the final point of the sequence to build more tension and suspense. This could also add shock to audience, as they would not expect it, which is a good point to take from Amy as she could be right and maybe this would've made the ending more effective, however adding suspenseful and shocking sound to a character appearing from no where would almost pretty much be a jump scare, which is very typical and common in the thriller genre and we have stated from the start that we didn't want to be so one dimensional and sterotypical and also seperate ourselves to have our own style, plus it was revealed in our questionnaire that most people nowadays would actually prefer if a thriller film did not contain jump scares.

From Malu's comment, we can gather that like Kerry, she also liked our narrative, which means it was clearly effective if others were agreeing with this statement, however Malu also shared constructive comments with Kerry and Amy about the sounds behind used when morgan is in the frame, which shows this was a clear negative in our sequence, as it was a common constructive comment and that we could have clearly done better to make the end of our sequence more effective.

From Bettie's comment, we can see again our audience liked our transition of shots and use of them, but also another common negative as she also felt our credits did not appear long enough, but it is evident that she enjoyed our sequence as this was the only negative that she could point out, meaning overall, apart from the sound used when Cameron appears in shots, our thriller sequence was effective, the audience were drawn in and engaged into our narrative, and we displayed our scenes and shots well with good camera shots.

In conclusion, the audience in general liked our narrative, and were very impressed with our shots, meaning Claire did a very good job in her role as filming the scenes. We could however have done better towards the end of the sequence to build even more of an atmosphere and create shock and more tension for the audience, but overall we were clearly effective in doing this otherwise, and our sequence recieved generally positive reviews and it's clear to see our audience were staisfied.

.

Production Roles - Miss Miller

Production Roles

When creating a film, many roles are included as well as actors that take place behind the scenes. All people involved in the film are assigned their own role and credited in the film.  It is essential to have directors, actors, producers and people behind the scene to contribute towards the film.

In our group, the following roles are as follows

Producers- Go Butson
Director - Molly, Claire
Actors - Morgan, Jake, Molly, Grace
Director of photography- Claire
Music producers- All
Screenplay writer- Jake
MES co-ordinator- Jake
Editors- Molly

We all played a part in producing and worked together as a group to create things such as the storyboards and posts, molly and claire were the directors as they previously filmed a production at GCSE, whilst I opted to create a magazine instead.

Morgan is the main character and antagonist and while my group had to re-film I had to cover for him, molly features as his girlfriend while grace plays the mother. Claire was made director of photography as she previously took this as a GCSE subject. We all helped in chosing and producing the music relevant to the scene as we used molly's computer to open editing to edit and compare the sounds. I was made screenplay writer as I was able to showcast my talents in this as I take A-level english langauge and achieved an A in GCSE. I was made MES co-ordinator for my previous work in media studies at GCSE. Molly is the main editor as the film and memory card is on her computer.

From working with claire, mainly in molly's absense, we were able to make very effective editing with sound and also some shots in the sequence. We agreed on most ideas together and it was fun working with her as we got a lot done when on a task alone together, and hopefully I can continue working with her more in the future.

I believe Molly voiced her opinion well with most topics and took a good stand on things, especially improvements to make and the overall editing and also she performed well in her acting role, however I tried to involve myself as best as I could within the group and felt I was often shut out, and from the beginning they did not need me to act nor change the plot, and although I enjoyed my roles as MES Co-ordinator, screenplay writer and sound editor, I wished she would've let me take part in more things in the group, that I hope will happen during the next group task we are given.

Overall I believe everyone contributed well in their role, they were chosen well and all for a reason, which is why everything has worked out effectively so far in our group and I enjoyed participating in the roles that I was given. I don't believe anything could've been done differently as everything has been effective and has played out well.

Opening Sequence Narrative

Opening Scene Narrative

Introduction

The first frame of our opening sequence is of a longshot  of the main character and antagonist, Cameron, shot in the school corridor, dragging a chair along the hallway creating an eery sound, and preparing for his own suicide. The sound used here is very basic in this scene, as the focus is mainly on the squeaking sound of the chair, which is an eery and adds suspense, keeping the audience on edge and unsettled. The scene continues and goes onto a medium shot and the sound and frame remain similar, now focusing on just building up the tension in the scene. This scene then shows Cameron opening the door which follows the scene with the stair case. This shot here is another medium one and all the audience can hear now is the door creaking slowly behind him, which then this changes into a close up of the door, which then shuts firmly and suddenly to show how trapped Cameron actually is. The scene then fades to black, by using low key lighting to set the mood and is reunited with a close up of him tying the rope around the metal staircase. 

The next shot is filmed in the same location, which is still shown as damp and dusty to the audience. The use of iconography is now present in this frame as the chair and scarf are now seen, which is used as a suicide rope for Cameron. As the main character Cameron steps onto the chair, eery sounds can be heard non-digetetically as they are not on seen on the screen. A close up of Cameron's lifeless and emotionless face is then shown to the camera and also the audience. We used makeup under his eyes to show his exhaustion. His facial expressions continue to appear as if he has given up, now on life itself as suspense and tension is created as it is clear his intentions are suicide. 

The cinematography in this scene changes as it zooms out into a medium shot. The editing is very slow in this part, as we planned to use slow motion to prolong his death and drag out the scene, creating tension and suspense. The final frame in this scene is filmed with a medium shot. The audience can see his legs continuously struggling. The iconography remains the same and all the audience see now is the chair being kicked over by him. The soundtrack remains dark and depressing to create the effect and realisation that his life has come to an end. The positioning of the character Cameron remains very unsettled as we see his struggle after killing himself. The editing then comes in from a big fade/flash transition to show we have actually gone back in time to where Camerons struggles began. 

The first frame in the next scene could suggest that Cameron had a 'normal' family life growing up. The sound of eating is present and digetic and the long shot is used to show the positioning of the characters which is Mother and Son placed awkwardly at different ends of the table, creating suspense. The iconography in this scene is the cutlery and food that is left out for the pair of them to eat. The constant sound of eating and knives against the plate is can be heard and the lighting remains quite natural considering this is shot during the evening. The shot that follows is a P.O.V shot form Cameron's eyes as he is looking at his mother as she begins to nag him, talking about a doctors appointment. 

Her facial expression remains concerned and the only digetic sound we hear is the mother raising her voice about how she believes Cameron has behaved. 

A close up is then shot of Cameron stabbing his knife into the his toast here. The audience see the anger in the way he uses this iconography which builds up the audiences perspective of what type of character Cameron is. We then see Cameron's whole body language after this, his position stays very stiff and his facial expression remains very tense. The lighting then becomes darker as the scenes atmosphere fades away. The sound of his mothers dialogue and speech is faded as Cameron's intentions and thoughts turns dark. The next shot shows an extreme close up of Cameron's dark eyes. Eery sounds begin then appear as we see the frustration in his facial expression. A sudden fade then comes in which lasts roughly 3 seconds. Cameron then shuts his eyes. 

After a flash transition the frame is led from Cameron's point of view and side of things and the use of iconography is used and repetition is used showing of the knife is constant and carries on. The short and violent scene are brought to the audiences attention in quick editing. The character Grace is shown being stabbed and falls off her chair while she then looks confused and dazed after being wounded. Cameron then remains in power as we see him struggle to maintain purity as he murders his mother. We hear nothing but the soundtrack being played, which is a cover of Tiny Tims - Tip Toe Through The Tulips. This parallel sound is played as Grace snuggles to get her son off of her. Although this diagetic sound is muffled, We are able to here Cameron's muffled breathing. The lighting is still dark at this point to show that his 'dark' side is present. The title of our film "disturbia" is then displayed on scene in white font in front of a black background, whilst tiny tim "tip toe through the tulips" plays in the background.

The final scene is then played out, with a medium shot that shows Harmony, his girlfriend walking. The audience are then able to see an empty looking street and a bush to the right. The following shot remains quite low and only shows half of her body. Her phone then begins to ring and a medium shot is used so the audience can see her answering the phone. 

When the phone remains fuzzy and threatening she panics and a P.O.V shot is shown as she frantically looks around to see if anyone is watching her. Cameron replies with 'Cameron's Not Here Anymore' - As Harmony walks off we see her in a black coat. She wears all black to connotate that danger is near for her. We got Cameron to remain in a suit almost to show the contrast in characters. When he is innocent he wears white. When he is in black he is evil and the fact he is in a suit at the end shows that this is only the beginning for Cameron. His 'protagonist side' wants to trick the audience into thinking his in charge.

Conclusion

If this was an entire film the storyline would continue to show how Cameron's innocent side deals with the guilt which leads him to his suicide and how does the film actually end does Cameron really die. The fact that Cameron appears to kill himself at the start how does this differ to sterotypical thrillers.

Risk Assesment

It is important to consider risks before filming, as we do not want anyone getting injured during our production and also make sure it is completely safe to film in order to ensure there is no distractions and we are wary of hazards so everything can run smoothly. If a group member or actor is hurt from a hazard, not only may they not only be able to take part in the production, serious injury or even death may occur, which is very bad for obvious reasons.

The risk assessment will assist us with filming as it will make sure we are in a safe environment and remove all possible dangers that we may encounter before filming. It also ensures no one is hurt and that we have covered all possible dangers we may encounter when filming, meaning that our group members and actors will be perfectly safe and aware of all hazards.