Evaluation: Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions?

Planning: Opening scene narration

My scene
The scene starts with a girl who is locked in white room of a mental hospital, due to her past life experience and tormenting  memories. she is shown kneeled down with her hair covering her face and three flashbacks appearing of her getting raped by a man who she did not know, which left her scarred for life. the second flashback is of the unknown man saying "like nothing ever happened". this sentence became a stimulus which triggers a side of her that seeks for revenge. in last flashback we see her in a corner of the room, crouched down rocking back and forth while hiding in the shadow. at first we hear her crying and shouting the name of the man responsible for who she has become and this makes the audience feel sympathetic toward her; but then there is a sudden change in her character where she starts laughing strangely bringing out another hidden personality.


as the scene develops we see how she was brought to the mental hospital and who she was referred as because of how she acted and never seemed to have said a word to anyone in the facility. no one seemed to understand what was wrong meaning that there wasn't a specific way to help her, so therefore precautions were taken when she was given her peels and food. we also see that she was never brought out of her room and neither visited by anyone.

toward the end her carers started becoming comfortable around her as she never tried to hurt anyone and always listened to what she was told but never responded. she seemed to be getting better and looked more like a normal person, but what came next was unexpected.

At the end she is showed in her room sitting on her bed with a male nurse who was giving her meal, she accidently drops the tray of food and started panicking but she is reassured by the male nurse that every is alright and its "like nothing ever happened". those were the last words which the male nurse ever said as he was brutally murdered by being stabbed countless in the throat with a fork.


Applying theory:
My narrative will have a clear start, middle and end to Follow Todorov's theory of equilibrium. I will make sure that my disequilibrium will occur during the middle of my opening to ensure there is a build up of tension. At the end when there is a new equilibrium, I want my audience to feel more settled, but still very confused.

Research: Opening Credits

What are opening credit?

Opening credit are writings which appears at the beginning of a film. This writings tell the audience who is the film produced by and what actors will be starring in it, and the different roles each member in the production undertook. Opening credits are usually accompanied by a distinct sound or set of images to represent the genre of the film.
 

What is the purpose of opening credits?

The purpose an opening credit is to give the audience some information such as the actors starring in the film, the production company, and each individual who help out or contributed in the making of the film.

What do they provide the audience with?

An opening credit provides the audience with information such as the name of production company and the studio in the first minutes of films as they are the most important aspect in the film and also converted what was just an idea into reality so that they audience can watch, following is the producers and directors names, then the actors who will be starring the film as they are also one of the key aspects in ensuring the success of the film. The film title would mostly come right after, followed by the editing group, the music/sound composers, the storyboard designer and at last the costume and make-up team. The ideology of having an hierarchical structure in the opening credit create a sense on authority as the audience are able to see who are the most important figures in the making of the film and who would be held responsible if the film succeed or fails to reach its target audience.

Example
 

Video of sev7n

In the opening credits of the film seven, the writings are accompanied by a mysterious sound a set of images of a man who seems to be plotting information in a book. Straight away the audience can identify him as the antagonist and a suggest that the film is about crime as we images of people being placed in the book and  names getting crossed out. The first written information we see is of the production company (new line cinema/Arnold kopelson production) this is because they may have created films with the same genre and therefore letting the audience know what to expect. Next is the producers name who appears, then followed by the name of only two actors who are Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, this tells the audience that they are our main characters in the film and most like our protagonist. We also get to see some honourable mentions such as the music team, the editor and the make- up artists. Finally the opening credit is concluded with Producers name, emphasising once more their importance in film making.

Conclusion

This post has been beneficial to me because it will allow me to correctly provide the audience with information regarding the production on my thriller. For the opening credit in my thriller, will have a combination of an eerie sound which will build tension in audience as it will be accompanied by

Research: MES-Setting and Iconography

MES-setting and iconography

What is setting and iconography and why is it an important convention? How can it help the audience with understanding? Discuss connotation and denotations.

Every film has a setting or in other a words a set location. Setting is important in a film because it allows the audience to understand the film better and also creates sense in the narrative. Setting can play a big role in a film as it can be connected to the occurring events, allowing the audience to create a conclusion to what may be the outcome. Another important feature in films is iconography; this refers to any sort of object which may be linked in any sort of way to the narrative. It can be symbolic and can give the audience a hint to what they film may be about or what to expect when watching it.

Setting: what are typical thriller setting and why? Discuss connotation and denotations?-use examples

The typical thriller locations are hospitals prison, houses or in an isolate place such as desert or a forest. This type of location creates a sense of mystery and builds tension in the audience as they do not know what to expect in a particulate scene. The thriller “Devil” released in 2010 in an urban environment which is the city. This connotes mysteries which need to be uncovered as it will build excitement in the audience. The setting then changes to inside of  an elevator where a man is hunted by the people he killed, the change in setting makes the audience feel trap and bound to experience what the character is experiencing in the isolated setting as there is nowhere  for him to run.

Setting and sub-genre: how are setting dependent on sub-genre?-example

The setting of a film is dependent of the sub-genre because it gives a meaning to the narrative. It also helps in evoking emotion in the audience and for them to better understand the plot in film.

Psychological thriller

Most psychological thrillers tends to set in places such as hospital, in a house or prison, these setting well connotes the state of character we are introduced to as they will most likely be mentally unwell.

Religious thrillers

Religious thrillers would be set in places such as a house, cemetery or in a church. This is conventional to the sub-genre as events such as exorcism is expected to occur in this types of location. 

Action thrillers

Most action thrillers will be set in locations such as building or a busy urban area. This is suitable to the genre as the audience would expect fights between protagonist and the antagonist where the lifes of the citizens is put at risk. This creates excitement in the audience as this it is conventional in this thriller sub-genre.

Image

Urban area, building,

Crime thrillers

Prison, city, house,

Iconography: what are typical thriller iconography and why? Discuss connotation and denotations-use example

The typical iconographies in thrillers are masks, knives, blood, guns or dolls. All this connote danger and creates fear in audience. Characters such as “Jason” from “Friday The 13^th” had two iconographies which is a mask that makes him mysterious and frightening as his identity is hidden from the audience, the other iconography is a machete which connotes death as most of his victims are killed with it.

·         Knives

·         Guns

·         Masks

·         Blood

·         Pictures

Iconography and sub-genre: how are setting dependent on sub-genres-use examples

Iconography is dependent on the sub-genre because it allows the audience to identify some hidden information or making an assumption to what an object may connote and how it may be linked with narrative. Objects such as a gun, money or drugs may be linked with a crime or action thriller as it connotes danger. Masks, dolls, crosses and the bible are most likely to appear in psychological and religious thrillers as it is conventional and can be related with events that may occur in the film.

·         Holy Bible

·         Dolls

·         Guns

·         Money

·         Drugs

·         Knives

Thriller scene analysis: Analyse a scene identifying the use of setting and iconography

Sev7en opening

In the opening scene of sev7en the use of setting and iconography gives the audience an understanding to what is expected in the film. The first piece of iconography we set our eyes on is the book where we see man’s hand recording some information in a disturbing way. The fact that that he uses a blade and cuts pictures of people tells the audience that he is the antagonist and he plans on killing target people. The setting looks a dark room which creates a chilling atmosphere and curious to what the character’s real intentions are. Other iconographies we also see are a thread, a needle, journals, a marker, some tapes and a dollar bill. From this we can assume that this film is about crime or a psychological character as the iconographies in the opening is conventional to these sub-genres.

Conclusion

In my thriller I’m thinking of using the setting of a hospital and an isolated room to connote the characteristics of my character that will be mentally unstable. The setting will create a sense of secrecy and obscurity in to the narrative, building tension in the audience as they do not know what will happen in a scene. 

Research: Results from questionnaire

why is it important to get and and analyze feedback?

Getting feeding on a particular product or topic would allow the researcher to see how it is viewed by different people and the ups and downs it may have. huge companies would collect feedbacks from people about a product and would be able to come up with a conclusion if the product should still be in the market depending on how the number of positive and negative feedbacks it may have got. I did the same thing but to find how what type of thrillers interest people the most, so I made some questionnaires which i distributed to 20 people then collected their feedback which i analysed to see what type of thriller I can create that would be suitable for the audience according to the feedbacks i received.

example of various graphs that you have made

Conclusion

The research gave me an understanding of who are my target audience and what type of thriller would be suitable for them. i now know what to include in my thriller in order to attract both gender even though girls seems to be the biggest fans of thriller as the graph shows me.

Research: Typography

 

You can see from the images about that some typography have different meanings to them. It is important to see what type of typography will suit the genre of film you are making and from this, you can then choose it for your opening credits.

 

When you think about choosing typography, you have to think about:

• Style
• Colour
• Size
• Letter case

From my research into thriller typography, some of the different types of typography I have mainly seen are the white in colour, and they look quite chilling and not very friendly. This is create feelings of mystrery from the opening. They can be bold or rellly faint and I think this is down to the sub-genre. sometimes I have seen it be red, but the white is used the most.

From this research, the typography ideas that I will use in my thriller opening are;

-white

-quite small

-looks quite faint so it looks mysterious

-I will use capital letters so even though it is faint, you can see it if it is capitals

Research: Age certificate

Age certificates are given to each film by the BBFC. This is a legal requirement for films to have as they need to be classified so people know what films are appropriate for them to watch. This will help audiences feel safe in what they watch and parents of younger people to also know that what their child is watching is suitable for them. For the film industry, age certificates are important because it saves audiences from seeing things that are not appropriate for them.

The BBFC:

This is the BBFC's job to classify films properly.

There are different age certificates that a film might get in the UK and these are;

U - appropriate for all

PG - themes to not be harmful
12 - can start showing adult ideas, but these must be addressed in a non harmful way and should not be upsetting

12A - have to be accompanied by an adult if you are under 12

15 - can show adult themed content
18 - less restricted in what you can show. Content can be controversial.

Depending on what age certificate you receive, this depends on the content you can show in your films. For example, if you have a U certificate, all content must be appropriate for all ages. In the same way that if you have a 15 certificate, you can now start showing things that are a little bit more controversial like violence and alcohol use etc.

Thriller films:

Thrillers tend to get the age rating of a 15 or an 18. This is because the content that they have can be quite upsetting for younger audiences and they will show things like blood, violence etc. A lot of their films impact their audience so therefore the audience must be a little older in order to be able to deal with this.

My thriller film's age certificate:

After doing this research, I think that I will give my thriller film the age certificate of a 15. This is because my opening will show content of a disturbing nature and anyone younger might be really affected by this. Also, when looking at other thriller films like 'Scream', 'Seven', 'Halloween' and 'House at the end of the street' they all had this same certificate. If I choose an older audience, I can be more creative with how I show some of my themes of innocence, revenge and violence. I will not make it too extreme as my film will not be an 18.