Thursday 30 March 2017
Wednesday 22 March 2017
Monday 20 March 2017
Friday 17 March 2017
Monday 13 March 2017
1. In what ways does your film use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - UPDATED
Mise-en-scene
We wanted to use the mise-en scene within our Thriller opening to create a bleak atmosphere. We have used effects such as low-key lighting, shadows and barren backgrounds to create a desolate image, conforming to the Thriller genre by creating an atmosphere that inspires pessimism and a melancholy theme. Our mise-en-scene also conforms because of the aspects of film noir we have used. This is shown through our positioning of the camera to show shadows, this chiaroscuro effect playing a homage to film noir, and serving as a way to create an effect of isolation and fear.
This side-by-side view shows the similarities between our film and the classic Thriller genre. The shot from our film opening (left) shows our protagonists shadow in the scene which they wake up after being kidnapped. This shot, much like the shot from a film noir on the right, emphasises the loneliness of the protagonist at this point.
Similarities can be seen between these two images. Our female character (left), uses a similar stance, also by a door. This, compared with Joan Bennett from 'The Woman in The Window' (1944) on the right, shows that we have intended for our female character to appear as flirtatious and inviting, traits often found within film Noirs femme fetale, and have conformed with the Thriller genre because of this decision.
The use of a darkened alleyway as a location also conforms to the Thriller genre, as they are often places that people with dark intentions will wait, much like our antagonist. Thrillers that also show this representation of alleyways include Collateral (2004), and much of film Noir. We found that like with film Noir, we were able to use alleyways to experiment with light and dark in order to create atmosphere, which we found very useful when making our film.
Protagonist:
For our protagonist we wanted his characterisation to show him as an average young man in a cruel world, so used average clothing that did not stand out. Doing this means we did not conform to the Thriller genre, as our costume does little to suggest importance of our character, and instead does the opposite to symbolise his ordinary persona.
Female character:
The costume of our female character features a dress, complete with a leather jacket. We felt this combination created a modern approach to our character, while maintaining her female image. The use of a dark dress symbolises the inspiration of the iconic femme fetale that we used, as dark colours can have connotations of evil, but a dress still shows her character as seductive. In this way, we have conformed to the Thriller genre as women are often wearing dresses to accentuate features and sexualise them, especially femme fetale. However adding the modern approach of a leather jacket creates a sense of rebelling and power for this character.
This film focuses heavily on red lipstick and clothing, contrasting with the use of black and white for the rest of the film. The use of red hair instead of lipstick or a red dress creates a contemporary quality to our Femme fetale inspired character. We have conformed to the genre conventions because of our use of colour, but because of showing this through hair colour, it means we have been able to add our own modern twist to the iconic use of the colour.
Our antagonists costume is important, as it was needed to show a negative representation of this character, and show the audience he is not to be trusted. We used a black hoodie to show this, making sure the face was covered to create mystery. Black is a colour that often has connotations of corruption and immorality, traits we wanted to come across within our characterisation of our antagonist. Black also helped with our shots of this character, as we wanted him to look like a looming and threatening silhouette, enforcing the idea of mystery. In this way, our antagonists costume does conform with the genre because of the connotations a black hoodie has, often used to present ambiguity and darkness of a character.
Characters
The characterisation of our protagonist both does and does not conform. He does conform because of the focus that he is an average person in a dark and cruel world, a trait often within many thriller protagonists because it presents an idea to the audience that this could happen to anyone in the real world, creating a tense atmosphere and making the audience sympathise with the character. This type of characterisation is shown within films such as 28 Days Later (2002) which presents an ordinary man who wakes up to a world of destruction, and Heartless (2009) which also presents a young man thrown into a world of darkness he did not know he was connected to. These story-lines create a sense of fear for the audience, and creates the idea that they live within this possibility. We have used this within our plot to create the same sense for our audience, so in this way our protagonist does conform with the Thriller genre.
However, branches of the Thriller genre, such as film noir, show that our protagonist does not fit entirely with this genre. Film Noir protagonists such as Johnny Kelly in A City That Never Sleeps (1953) and Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly (1955), show protagonists that live within this world of darkness already, often portrayed as detectives or officers of the law, and are familiar with antagonists, much unlike our own character. In this way, our protagonist does not entirely conform to Thriller conventions of classic protagonists, and instead challenges this classic concept.
Our female character does conform to the Thriller genre, specifically film noir.
Inspired by the femme fetale which is shown through characterisation, our female character does conform with the classic Thriller genre. This is shown through femme fetales within films such as Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and D.O.A (1950).
However our female character does also challenge conventions of a femme fetale, as we have adapted the iconic character to be much more contemporary, shown through aspects of costume such as a leather jacket and red hair.
Props
Props used within our Thriller opening does conform to the genre. We have used items such as an alcohol bottle, wire to restrict protagonist in the kidnapping scene, and a bat that was used to create the effect of the protagonist being attacked. These props inspire themes of violence and mental health issues within our protagonist, and help create themes of immorality and corruption within our film, showing the audience that this is a dark Thriller through these themes. The themes created by use of these props conform with the Thriller genre, as items like these are often found within Thrillers to have the same effect.
Lighting
We wanted to use the mise-en scene within our Thriller opening to create a bleak atmosphere. We have used effects such as low-key lighting, shadows and barren backgrounds to create a desolate image, conforming to the Thriller genre by creating an atmosphere that inspires pessimism and a melancholy theme. Our mise-en-scene also conforms because of the aspects of film noir we have used. This is shown through our positioning of the camera to show shadows, this chiaroscuro effect playing a homage to film noir, and serving as a way to create an effect of isolation and fear.
This side-by-side view shows the similarities between our film and the classic Thriller genre. The shot from our film opening (left) shows our protagonists shadow in the scene which they wake up after being kidnapped. This shot, much like the shot from a film noir on the right, emphasises the loneliness of the protagonist at this point.
The positioning of our actors was also something we considered as part of our mise-en-scene, especially with our female character, as her stance at the end of the opening is all the audience have to make deductions about her role within the film and her personality.
As this character is inspired by the classic film noir femme fetale, we used images from film noir to decide how this character should be positioned.
Similarities can be seen between these two images. Our female character (left), uses a similar stance, also by a door. This, compared with Joan Bennett from 'The Woman in The Window' (1944) on the right, shows that we have intended for our female character to appear as flirtatious and inviting, traits often found within film Noirs femme fetale, and have conformed with the Thriller genre because of this decision.
Location
Three locations are pictured within our Thriller genre. Our first location in our opening scene is a train station, which conforms to the contemporary Thriller genre because of its connotations, train stations often representing escapism within a film, exploring ideas of loss of hope and a last resort which are themes found within our own Thriller.
The use of a darkened alleyway as a location also conforms to the Thriller genre, as they are often places that people with dark intentions will wait, much like our antagonist. Thrillers that also show this representation of alleyways include Collateral (2004), and much of film Noir. We found that like with film Noir, we were able to use alleyways to experiment with light and dark in order to create atmosphere, which we found very useful when making our film.
Costume
Costume within our Thriller opening is something we found important.
Protagonist:
For our protagonist we wanted his characterisation to show him as an average young man in a cruel world, so used average clothing that did not stand out. Doing this means we did not conform to the Thriller genre, as our costume does little to suggest importance of our character, and instead does the opposite to symbolise his ordinary persona.
Female character:
The costume of our female character features a dress, complete with a leather jacket. We felt this combination created a modern approach to our character, while maintaining her female image. The use of a dark dress symbolises the inspiration of the iconic femme fetale that we used, as dark colours can have connotations of evil, but a dress still shows her character as seductive. In this way, we have conformed to the Thriller genre as women are often wearing dresses to accentuate features and sexualise them, especially femme fetale. However adding the modern approach of a leather jacket creates a sense of rebelling and power for this character.
Furthermore, the use of red within our costume also represents the characterisation of this character. Our actress has red hair, useful for us as red is a colour that is often used to symbolise danger and passion within a femme fetale, which is what our character is inspired from.
This trope is used in films such as Sin City (2005).
This film focuses heavily on red lipstick and clothing, contrasting with the use of black and white for the rest of the film. The use of red hair instead of lipstick or a red dress creates a contemporary quality to our Femme fetale inspired character. We have conformed to the genre conventions because of our use of colour, but because of showing this through hair colour, it means we have been able to add our own modern twist to the iconic use of the colour.
Antagonist:
Our antagonists costume is important, as it was needed to show a negative representation of this character, and show the audience he is not to be trusted. We used a black hoodie to show this, making sure the face was covered to create mystery. Black is a colour that often has connotations of corruption and immorality, traits we wanted to come across within our characterisation of our antagonist. Black also helped with our shots of this character, as we wanted him to look like a looming and threatening silhouette, enforcing the idea of mystery. In this way, our antagonists costume does conform with the genre because of the connotations a black hoodie has, often used to present ambiguity and darkness of a character.
Characters
The characterisation of our protagonist both does and does not conform. He does conform because of the focus that he is an average person in a dark and cruel world, a trait often within many thriller protagonists because it presents an idea to the audience that this could happen to anyone in the real world, creating a tense atmosphere and making the audience sympathise with the character. This type of characterisation is shown within films such as 28 Days Later (2002) which presents an ordinary man who wakes up to a world of destruction, and Heartless (2009) which also presents a young man thrown into a world of darkness he did not know he was connected to. These story-lines create a sense of fear for the audience, and creates the idea that they live within this possibility. We have used this within our plot to create the same sense for our audience, so in this way our protagonist does conform with the Thriller genre.
However, branches of the Thriller genre, such as film noir, show that our protagonist does not fit entirely with this genre. Film Noir protagonists such as Johnny Kelly in A City That Never Sleeps (1953) and Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly (1955), show protagonists that live within this world of darkness already, often portrayed as detectives or officers of the law, and are familiar with antagonists, much unlike our own character. In this way, our protagonist does not entirely conform to Thriller conventions of classic protagonists, and instead challenges this classic concept.
Our female character does conform to the Thriller genre, specifically film noir.
Inspired by the femme fetale which is shown through characterisation, our female character does conform with the classic Thriller genre. This is shown through femme fetales within films such as Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and D.O.A (1950).
However our female character does also challenge conventions of a femme fetale, as we have adapted the iconic character to be much more contemporary, shown through aspects of costume such as a leather jacket and red hair.
Props
Props used within our Thriller opening does conform to the genre. We have used items such as an alcohol bottle, wire to restrict protagonist in the kidnapping scene, and a bat that was used to create the effect of the protagonist being attacked. These props inspire themes of violence and mental health issues within our protagonist, and help create themes of immorality and corruption within our film, showing the audience that this is a dark Thriller through these themes. The themes created by use of these props conform with the Thriller genre, as items like these are often found within Thrillers to have the same effect.
Lighting
All light sources within our Thriller is digetic. We used light to control light and dark, creating an emphasis on darkness in some shots, creating similar bleak themes often found within Thrillers. The low-key lighting used allowed us to control it within shots, as well as inspiring themes of corruption and unhappiness.
Light behind characters, especially within the shot shown below, creates an effect we were happy with.
In this shot, the antagonist stands in front of the low-key natural light, blocking it and creating a sense that they are blocking out hope, light often representing themes of hope and happiness. In this way, our lighting does conform with the genre, as a lack of hope is often found within Thrillers, shown through the lack of light.
This shot is similar in our use of digetic lighting, only the brightness of digetic car headlights reflects on the mystery of the dark figure, the emphasis on the dark silhouette creating ambiguity.
In this shot, we have used chiaroscuro lighting, this stark contrast of shadow representing loneliness, and also conforming with conventions of Thrillers, particularly film noir.
Light behind characters, especially within the shot shown below, creates an effect we were happy with.
In this shot, the antagonist stands in front of the low-key natural light, blocking it and creating a sense that they are blocking out hope, light often representing themes of hope and happiness. In this way, our lighting does conform with the genre, as a lack of hope is often found within Thrillers, shown through the lack of light.
This shot is similar in our use of digetic lighting, only the brightness of digetic car headlights reflects on the mystery of the dark figure, the emphasis on the dark silhouette creating ambiguity.
In this shot, we have used chiaroscuro lighting, this stark contrast of shadow representing loneliness, and also conforming with conventions of Thrillers, particularly film noir.
Sound
We have used non-digetic sound within scenes to create tension, low and haunting soundtracks often used within Thrillers to create this effect. We also used haunting music to create the same desired effect.
Digetic sound within our Thriller includes the bang of the protagonist being attacked by the antagonist by a bat. We used a sound effect for this to get the right effect, as we wanted this sound to be sudden after the build up of the suspenseful soundtrack, in order to make our audience jump, and giving a sense of shock and fear before it cuts to black.
As our protagonist wakes up, we have used a sharp ringing sound, digetic as this is what our protagonist hears as a consequence of being attacked. We have also used a sound effect to create this. This is used to create discomfort for the audience, and show that the protagonist is hurt, and is often used within Thrillers to demonstrate that a character has had a temporary loss of hearing after an attack. An example of this being used is in The Hunger Games (2012) in which the protagonist loses their hearing after an explosion.
Our sounds conform with the Thriller genre because the effect it creates builds tension or shock, often used within Thrillers to do the same.
Titles
Our Thriller titles conform with our genre, especially our font used for the title 'GONE', which shows a bold and harsh font, emphasising themes of rough harshness and spite. This font is also distorted, an effect often used within Thriller titles to make the audience feel discomfort and to reflect on themes of chaos within a film.
We have used non-digetic sound within scenes to create tension, low and haunting soundtracks often used within Thrillers to create this effect. We also used haunting music to create the same desired effect.
Digetic sound within our Thriller includes the bang of the protagonist being attacked by the antagonist by a bat. We used a sound effect for this to get the right effect, as we wanted this sound to be sudden after the build up of the suspenseful soundtrack, in order to make our audience jump, and giving a sense of shock and fear before it cuts to black.
As our protagonist wakes up, we have used a sharp ringing sound, digetic as this is what our protagonist hears as a consequence of being attacked. We have also used a sound effect to create this. This is used to create discomfort for the audience, and show that the protagonist is hurt, and is often used within Thrillers to demonstrate that a character has had a temporary loss of hearing after an attack. An example of this being used is in The Hunger Games (2012) in which the protagonist loses their hearing after an explosion.
Our sounds conform with the Thriller genre because the effect it creates builds tension or shock, often used within Thrillers to do the same.
Titles
Our Thriller titles conform with our genre, especially our font used for the title 'GONE', which shows a bold and harsh font, emphasising themes of rough harshness and spite. This font is also distorted, an effect often used within Thriller titles to make the audience feel discomfort and to reflect on themes of chaos within a film.
An example of a Thriller that does this is Seven (1995), which opening titles jolt and distort themselves on screen to represent ideas of madness.
In this way our Titles do conform with the Thriller genre because of what they symbolise.
Editing
Our editing does conform with the Thriller genre. We have used multiple effects of scenes cutting from black, used to create a sense of sudden impact after previous events, and making the audience immediately question what is going to happen. This is often used within Thrillers to create the same effect.
Towards the end of our opening, the pace of our Thriller quickens as the protagonist faces confusion. This is often used within Thrillers to create a sense of panic and fear, ideas we wanted to get across within our own Thriller.
In this way our Titles do conform with the Thriller genre because of what they symbolise.
Editing
Our editing does conform with the Thriller genre. We have used multiple effects of scenes cutting from black, used to create a sense of sudden impact after previous events, and making the audience immediately question what is going to happen. This is often used within Thrillers to create the same effect.
Towards the end of our opening, the pace of our Thriller quickens as the protagonist faces confusion. This is often used within Thrillers to create a sense of panic and fear, ideas we wanted to get across within our own Thriller.
Tuesday 7 March 2017
Soundscape
Sound is an important part of our Thriller opening, as we want to use it to manipulate the audience into feeling the tension and fear within our opening. To do this I have researched several sounds that we could use for this, using Freesound.
Score
First Score
The first part of this score could work, as it could create a tense atmosphere. However when the second higher pitched cello comes in it changes the sound which could effect the impact of it as a score, as it becomes too instrumental.
Second Score
The first part of this score could also work, however the volume decrease could make it too noticeable for the audience, and change the atmosphere when its not supposed to. However we could cut this before the volume decreases.
Sound Effects
Sound effect for the protagonist being hit over head is important, as this is a sound we want to represent fear after the tense atmosphere of our score. We need this sound to show impact and shock the audience.
Bang 1
This would certainly have impact and shock the audience, however I don't think the sound is right, as the materials together do not sound like a hit, but more like a gunshot.
Bang 2
I do not think this has as much impact, as it is much quieter. I am also not sure if the sound is right, as it sounds too high in pitch and has an echo, like a knock at a door. However if we do decide to use this one we could alter the pitch.
Bang 3
Although this does not have as much impact, I feel the sound of this could work. If we altered the volume and pitch and edited out the echo then this could create enough impact.
After the blackout before our protagonist wakes up, we want the audience ton feel his discomfort so they can engage with the character. To do this we could add a ringing sound, this high pitched sharp noise perhaps making the audience understand his pain. Ringing noises are also often used to show a head injury, so this could show that he is hurt, making the audience feel sympathy for him.
Ringing Sound
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