2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film used conventions from a range of different thrillers,
such as Gone Girl, The Returned, and Before I Go to sleep; all
extremely psychological and thought provoking films, which play
on the viewer’s expectations, and manipulate their responses.
The main objective of our thriller was to expand these concepts
that are used in those thrillers and interpret them in our own
way. For example, the opening scene of Lola opening her eyes
was influenced by the ending scene of Avatar, where Sam
Worthington abruptly opens his eyes, which is quite shocking
and unexpected for the viewer. This idea was very intriguing for
me, and although many films have used this idea in the past, I
think that we managed to accomplish this shot very
successfully.
3. The French television series, The Returned, and the new film, Before I
go to Sleep, were our main inspirations for the thriller; There was
something so chilling and disturbing about the idea of a woman waking
up in a secluded area with no recollection of where she was, which I was
so captivated by, and had to include into my own film. The last scene in
our film, which shows the collection of photographs on the wall of Angela,
was also inspired by the film, Before I go To Sleep; we adapted this
convention in our own way by placing Malcolm, the main actor in front of
this display so that he would appear as a very strange, and frightening
for the viewer. The objective of this final scene was to make the audience
feel very unsettled and concerned about what Malcolm has done, or what
he will inflict to Angela.
Another convention we used was the opening sequence of Dexter, the
television show, in which is shows himself cutting, and making food
however, in a very stimulating, and intense way; I wanted to take this
idea of preparing food, but turn it into something psychotic, and
deranged. Obviously, our own interpretation, wasn’t as professionally
developed as the original sequence of Dexter was, which I don’t think we
would have been able to accomplish any way, unless our camera
equipment was extremely advanced. However, I think that the sound
effects we used, such as the harsh scraping sounds of the knife, was
very compelling for the viewer; I am very pleased with this idea, as it was
completely our own, and wasn’t a convention from another film we had
seen.
4. The famous classic thriller, ‘Memento’ was the
final inspiration for our film, which very similarly
to ‘Before I Go to Sleep’ portrays a young man
who has no recollection of where he is, and
suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory
loss. After watching these films I was very
intrigued by the concept of ‘memory loss’ that is
used in film; I feel that the audience become so
compelled and attentive as to what the character
with the condition might do, and there is such a
distressing uncertainty to these films.
5. 2. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
Our film includes a range of different social groups,
such as the representation of youth. In our film, the
audience is presented with the character of Angela,
a troubled young woman, who is trying to cope with
the abusive behavior of Malcolm, the man who has
been keeping her in his custody; we know that that
this woman is not safe right from the start of the film,
when we see her running through the woods, looking
disheveled and having no recollection of where she
is. However, by the ending scene Angela, has
overcome her vulnerability, and become more
confident as a person.
6. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
I think the best way for distributing my film would be online;
YouTube would be an obvious outlet and we could try and use
twitter, Facebook and other social media to generate interest and
increase the number of hits. Especially, Facebook in particular
which is a great medium for sharing short films which people enjoy
to watch. YouTube also holds films competitions and a great way
to get the film talked about would be for us to enter it into some
film festivals, such as 'Your Film Festival', or 'London Short Film
Festival' which is widely used for students that would to distribute
their films.
7. Ultimately I would like to create a film that would distributed by major
independent film companies, such as Vertigo Productions and Working Title
Films. However, trying to distribute our film in cinema, would be extremely
difficult for us at this point because to get audiences to come to a cinema we
would need to have a publicity budget to advertise our film, and we would
probably need some well known actors featured in our film. Another outlet for
distribution would be TV; Channel 4 run an occasional late night season of
short films, and we could apply to this and see if our film would be taken on
however, that would be a very long procedure and we may not get any more
viewers this way then we would on YouTube.
Overall, I believe that Social Media would be the most sufficient and
successful way in getting our film distributed; We could post our film onto sites
such as YouTube, or Facebook, which people would then start to share, and
could later start to become trending on sites such as twitter.
8. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
I think the primary audience four our thriller would be sixteen to
twenty five year olds, particularly because this is the
demographic of heavy online users; also because all of the
characters featured are of a young age, which would make it
more relatable for a younger audience watching it. Although
there is no form of violence, drug use, or sexual behavior, our
film is supposed to be more psychological thriller, so I wouldn't
suggest anyone under the age of twelve to watch it, simply
because they would not understand it.
9. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?
In preparation for creating our thriller, we were looking at the different ways our audience
could be addressed; we knew that the audience targeted was from around sixteen to mid
twenties, the reason for this being because the characters were of a young age, which
ultimately makes the film more relatable, and there for attracts a younger audience.
Most importantly, our audience was addressed through the conventions from other films that
we adapted into our own. There are some major similarities between aspects of our film, and
others; such as Before I Go To Sleep, or The Returned, which I think could attract the
audience, as they would be able to recognize these conventions used and make a personal
relation to our thriller.
I think the most sufficient way we tried to attract our audience, was the build up of suspense
in our thriller. Right from the start of the film, the audience is faced with the character, Angela
who struggles to cope with the disastrous accident inflicted by the character, Malcolm.
10. 6. What have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Through the process of developing our media product, I have become more conversant on the technical
side of film, this includes, using camera equipment for filming, and Final Cut Pro, which we used to edit our
product. As a group, we decided to apportion responsibility to key areas according to our strengths, so I
decided that I wasn’t going film, as the other members, were very passionate about wanting to film, and felt
comfortable with using camera. Having said that, I took an important role in deciding key shots of the
filming, and I wanted to make the film as visually spectacular as possible. For editing our thriller, we used
Final Cut Pro; which I was quite hesitant in using from the start however, as I progressively started using it
more frequently, I am now extremely comfortable with the editing software.
In saying that, I personally was more involved in the makeup aspect for the thriller, which is something that
I have a very strong interest in; I was also in charge of deciding what clothes the actors and actresses
wore. For example, I wanted to portray Malcolm as a rough-looking, disheveled man; but at the same time
was quite a powerful, intimidating character, so I decided for him to wear a tank top and chain. For the
character Angela, I wanted to depict her as vulnerable and feminine, as she wakes in the woods, so I chose
for her to wear a flowery dress, which I thought would accomplish this ‘look’ more successfully. However,
for the second part of the thriller, I chose for her to wear jeans, and a long coat, to try and portray her as a
more sophisticated character.
11. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at our preliminary task, I have become a lot more conversant on programs,
such as Final Cut Pro, which we used for editing all of our footage. I would say that before
filming our preliminary task, I was fairly confident with the program, as we had previously
used it for editing our 'Heathers' opening. However, in comparison to our thriller, I am now
able to edit completely on my own, and I am fairly confident with it now.
There are some aspects of development, which I believe I could have saved a lot of time
on, such as the story boards, which I could have developed faster if I had not been trying
to perfect them so much. I also think that using final cut pro, was quite challenging for all of
us especially at the beginning of editing. However, by the end of the process, we were all
capable of using it a lot faster than from the beginning.
I think my biggest accomplishment throughout this process is defiantly become more
accepting, and open minded to other people’s ideas; at the beginning of development, I
can honestly say that not only I, but the other members of my group were all quite
stubborn, and dismissive of each other’s ideas. However, we learnt to collaborate our
ideas, and although there were many hiccups and disagreements on the way, we
accomplished something I believe was very successful.
We all had our own strengths, which we worked extremely hard to reach. Although Benji
and Harold, my group members took control of the technical side of making our thriller;
However, as I am quite a visual person, I was in charge of the Mise En scene; I think that
this really not only allowed me to become more confident in my own ideas, and work to my
strengths; but also become more accepting to my member’s ideas too.
