AS Media Studies Evaluation

AS Media Studies Evaluation

Rachel Cemlyn-Jones

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Upon making our final product ‘Disconnected’, we used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products. We met the conventions of a typical crime/ psychological thriller genre, but we also challenged some of these in order to give the audience a sense of familiarity and repetition, as well as variation.

Moreover, we used the help of our research into other thriller title sequences to help us to construct a conventional opening that wasn’t too distant from what audiences would expect. By analysing the camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene I was also able to learn the technical codes and conventions that help make a thriller, a thriller.

Firstly, I studied the opening of Black Swan and as the images show, my group and I have used some of the conventions found in this opening in our final product. For instance, Black Swan portrays a weak, feminine female protagonist through a number of technical codes including camera and mise-en-scene. Therefore, we used similar ideas to convey a weak, feminine female protagonist in our final product through some of the technical codes we analysed. In Black Swan the protagonist’s costume consists of a white ballet leotard and tutu, the white connotes purity and the outfit itself is very feminine. Hence, we dressed our protagonist in a blouse and skirt to add femininity but chose to challenge the conventions and clothe her in darker colours to symbolise mourning.

Generic conventions such as the establishing long shot of the protagonist in Black Swan also compares to the first long shot of our protagonist who too is centralised within the frame introducing her whole costume and body language to the audience. In addition, the camera shots and angles also help to convey a weak character through the high angle shown on the right, we also used this convention when shooting the young protagonist actor to represent her position of weakness.

Furthermore, the titles in Black Swan contain a black background and white text which I discovered was very conventional when completing my research. Hence, we used this along with the use of serif font because it’s feminine to relate to our female protagonist.

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In addition, we incorporated some conventions from the thriller, Karthik Calling Karthik and we were particularly interested in the use of a flashback from the protagonist’s childhood. In this flashback, the colour of the shots had been altered to signify a change in time. Thus as a group we felt a flashback using a technique like this would fit our narrative and help to create an ominous tone and link our opening to the thriller genre. Furthermore, the use of a dip to white effect before and after the flashbacks incorporated into our opening is also conventional of the genre and helps signify to the audience that those particular shots form part of one overall scene from her childhood.

However, in some cases we subverted the conventions in terms of camera and used reoccurring mid shots of our actors to convey both their facial expressions as well as their body language in order to reinforce the narrative and allow the audience to connect with the protagonist. This was instead of using conventional close up shots seen in many films of our chosen genre as we felt the abundance of close up’s adds a sense of mystery to our product.But, we have used many typical conventions when considering camera too such as the use of an establishing shot of the house so that the audience is aware of the location of the scene.

We used a conventional score within our piece that created a melancholy and eerie atmosphere but we developed this convention by not building up the non-diegetic score to create tension or suspense as we felt this didn’t fit the narrative at this point in the film. Alternatively, we have used lots of diegetic sound within our opening which is conventional and adds verisimilitude and authenticity to our product and helps to slightly increase the pace.

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Evidence of unconventional lighting can be seen within our product mainly due to the vast amount of natural light and the brightly coloured room which ensures everything within the scene is visible. We had to ensure that there was enough light because we had dressed our protagonist in dark clothing, and if the light was too dark then she wouldn’t be visible. Nonetheless, many thrillers such as James Bond also have scenes set in the daytime therefore, we haven’t journeyed too far away from the typical conventions. We have also dressed our protagonist in a stereotypically feminine costume which consisted of a skirt and blouse similar to the feminine costume presented in Black Swan for the female protagonist. Moreover, the costume is also symbolic of mourning reinforcing our narrative. Finally, when choosing a location for our filming we chose to set our protagonist in a large house connoting wealth which is stereotypical of someone of her ethnicity.

In terms of editing we focused on keeping to the conventions of crime/psychological thrillers through not only centralising our protagonist within the frame but by giving her the most prevalence. We have used a dip to white effect before and after most of the flashback scenes in order to make it obvious to the audience that it’s a flashback. As well as using a combination of intercuts, action match and eyeline match between the two actors to represent the fact that they are the same character. Moreover, we opened with a conventional slow pace then slightly built it up but, we then slowed the pace back down in order to create sympathy and therefore, develop the convention of a climax.

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How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Throughout our product we focused on how different social groups could be portrayed to convey meaning to the text.

The first representation represented in our product is gender and we decided to create a feminine and stereotypically weak female protagonist through a number of codes and conventions. Firstly, her costume is very feminine, consisting of a navy blue blouse and a black leather skirt and this use of dark clothing is then symbolic of her mourning. Moreover, the leather skirt could imply danger or a misunderstood character too which could be considered atypical and a point of strength. In the 3 rd scene however, she turns to alcohol connoting her mental instability due to the fact she’s drinking during the day moreover, the vast number of alcohol/spirit bottles on the table imply this isn’t a one off experience. Therefore, this conveys the idea that she’s not mentally strong thus, a weak character.

But, we have atypically chosen to use a female of Indian decent instead of sticking with the generic conventions and using a white female. This was because, stereotypically Asian families have strong bonds which is one of the key themes within our narrative. Due to the fact our protagonist and her brother were so close when he went missing it affected her so negatively and has then led to her troubled actions and mental weakness. Ethnicity is also stereotypically represented through the opening establishing shot of the large house connoting wealth within her family too. Furthermore, the protagonists costume covers her whole body except her face which too represents a stereotypical representation of her ethnicity as well as religion.

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Our protagonist is a stereotypical middle class citizen represented through the large house and mise-en-scene connoting wealth. Her costume and the location suggest a privileged upbringing but, this has been affected by her brother’s disappearance. However, it could be argued that stereotypical middle and upper class citizens are opinionated and speak their mind whereas, our protagonist has no dialogue throughout the whole opening sequence. On the other hand, in the flashback her character asks many questions. This conveys to the audience the idea that when she was younger she had this stereotypical representation and her brother’s disappearance has caused the direct link which has caused her representation and personality to slightly change.

We have targeted a younger audience through the use of young actors and actresses. Our protagonist is a young adult, aged 20 years-old which is stereotypically represented through her vulnerability and lack of life experience. This reinforces her mental weakness and stereotypical representation because it shows that her childhood has directly affected her growing up. Furthermore, we have also chosen to show the character at the point where she was told about her brother’s disappearance when she was only 11 years of age. She wears her school uniform denoting her age because it shows she’s still at school and it could also represent her intelligence which is stereotypical of her ethnic background. Finally, this character is shot from a high angle portraying her weakness and the close up shots help to clearly show her concerned and sad facial expression. 0:44

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What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Research

20th Century Fox, is one of the six major American film studios as of 2011. It’s located in Los Angeles and is currently owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

It distributes a number of Sci-fi thrillers such as Star Wars and X-men, as well as a number of action/crime thrillers that are similar to my product including, Taken.

TakenA retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.

Although our plot doesn’t involve a kidnapping because we wanted to steer away from this cliché idea, it does involve a disappearance. Furthermore, if the film were to continue the audience would see that throughout the film the protagonist is attempting to hunt down and find her missing family member (brother) in the same way the protagonist in Taken is attempting to use his skills to find his daughter. Hence, bringing our product into the crime thriller genre.

Simple, generic black and white titles.

The act of the protagonist looking through a photo album and having a flashback signifies the protagonist looking back at their memories.

Dressing the protagonist in dark black leather connotes a sense of danger/ mystery about the character.

Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an American film division of Fox Entertainment Group alongside the larger Fox Studio, 20th Century Fox. It specialises in independent and British films.

In addition, it has also distributed a number of films similar to my product such as Black Swan. In this film we see two different personalities of one particular character and the trigger which causes this change. The female protagonist is represented as weak. feminine and pure through high camera angles and pale pink/white clothing. After winning the lead in “Swan Lake” she then starts to be represented as a much darker and troubled character through the mise-en-scene. For example, the darker clothing but, the weakness of her character is continually portrayed throughout the film.

Similarly, we represent our protagonist as a weak and pure character through the flashbacks from her childhood. We then represent the more troubled and darker but still weak character that she is now through the main sequence of our product. Thus, aspects such as this and her mental instability bring our product into the psychological thriller genre.

Black SwanA ballet dancer wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan.

Again, simple generic black and white titles are found in this thriller.

Representing both sides of the same character on screen at the same time to represent their change of personality over time.

After completing my research…

After completing my research I have come to the conclusion that Fox Searchlight pictures under the parent of 20 th Century Fox, would be the distributor for my media product. I have identified this through conducting some research into similar media products to my own and enquiring which media institution distributes each of them.

I have compared our product to other films distributed by this particular institution such as Black Swan, and we have used and developed conventions as well as taken inspiration from this product therefore, the institution would be familiar with our product and know how to distribute it accordingly. Fox searchlight Pictures also specialises in independent and British films which I would classify my product to be hence, I believe this would be the most suitable and appropriate institution to distribute our product.

20th Century Fox is the parent company of Fox Searchlight Pictures, and they too have distributed popular films that compare to our product. For example, Taken, which has similar narrative ideas and themes to our product such as the disappearance of a family member. Furthermore, similar codes and conventions can be seen throughout both products reinforcing the idea that this particular institution should be the one to distribute our product. However, 20 th Century Fox tends to set their films in America and include American actors such as Liam Neeson thus, this is one main contrast to the idea of this institution distributing our product as ours is set in England with British Actors.

Additionally, I think that 20th Century Fox along with Fox Searchlight Pictures would be the most appropriate institution for our target audience. This is because they are most likely to watch a film of this institution compared to any other such as an Internet only movie. Moreover, I think our product would be popular and what audiences will expect due to the number of crime/psychological thriller conventions and technical codes we have followed. Thus, there isn’t necessarily a gap in the market for our product because it’s not completely different to anything produced before. However, although similar ideas have been portrayed in other thrillers, we have developed and challenged enough conventions to make ours unique. As shown through the comparison of our product to action/ crime thrillers such as Taken, and psychological thrillers such as Black Swan. This presents how we have successfully merged codes and conventions from these two genres of thriller.

When considering whether or not our film would produce merchandise I decided it wouldn’t be appropriate. This was because our narrative doesn’t allow it because merchandise usually occurs from action or spy thrillers and our product is neither. Furthermore, I don’t think our target audience would be particularly interested in film merchandise as stereotypically film merchandise would be sold to children and teenagers under the age of 18, and our target audience is predominantly females aged between 15 and 25. For example, popular film merchandise includes action figures or dressing up costumes from superhero films such as Spiderman.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As a group during the planning process we decided that the appropriate target audience for our product would be aged between 15 and 25. They had to be over 15 as we have given our product a 15 age-rating due to the themes and issues raised in the text. For example, the idea of a close family disappearing and causing such emotional pain to the protagonist may be distressing for a younger audience to watch. We also have young characters such as our protagonist whom our audience could identify and relate to as well.

Our product also has a few psychological elements similar to some of the distressing scenes found in the psychological thriller, Black Swan. This movie also has an age-rating of 15 and due to this psychological nature I feel the content of our product would only be appropriate for those aged 15 and above to watch. Furthermore, the crime thriller, Taken also contains similar themes and issues to our product and this film also has an age-rating of 15 due to it’s violence and occasional drug reference. Hence, the fact that our product has similar ideas about narrative (missing family relative) means that our film will also appeal to a mainstream audience encouraging more people to watch it.

We decided that our product would be suited to a more female orientated audience mainly due to the use of a female protagonist and the emotional aspect of the film as a whole. Furthermore, we have frequently used serif font which is generally viewed as feminine. However, I think our product could also appeal to a number of males too due to the thriller conventions we have used and stereotypically some of the content of our product will appeal to more males than females. For example, the mechanical sound effect we have used over the top of the flashbacks in our sequence. Hence, the gender balance may even out but, it’s more likely to attract a higher proportion of females. In addition, audiences who enjoy watching the thriller genre would also watch our film due to the number of stereotypical thriller conventions we have used. For instance, the fact that our product has similar ideas about narrative when compared to Taken (a missing family relative) means that our film will appeal to a mainstream audience encouraging more people to watch it thus, maximising our audience.

In terms of race our target audience is rather broad. This is because it’s predominantly aimedat people with an Asian ethnicity due to the Asian protagonist and antagonist. However, wehave also used English actors and set the film in England which would therefore attract many British citizens to watch it too.

Target Audience FeedbackIn order to fully evaluate our product we created a survey using Google Surveys to help us receive some audience feedback. This is aSummary of some of the feedback we received.

84% of the people who answered our questionnaire told us they were aged 16-25 which was great because it allowed us to receive feedback from our target audience age, and see whether we had chosen our target audience correctly.

Finally, 90% answered yes after being asked whether they enjoyed our opening and a further 80% said they would want to see the rest of our film. This means that we have successfully achieved creating an engaging opening that draws the audience in and makes them want to continue watching our film.

What was it about the opening that you liked?Overall, we received a broad amount of positives over many of the technical areas for our product. However, the majority of people commented on how they enjoyed ‘the flashback element’ and found it effective when it kept ‘cutting back to the flashback’.

A number of people also commented on the narrative. For instance, some of the examples of what people answered includes, ‘I thought it was a captivating opening sequence’ and ‘I thought it was an engaging/interesting storyline’.

Finally, we also received a number of positive comments on our use and choice of editing and music in terms of adding tone and atmosphere to the piece too.

Below are the results from our question about genre and as you can see the majority (a total of 81%) said they thought it was either a crime or psychological thriller. This means we can say we effectively used the codes and conventions of these genres to our ability in order to portray a crime/psychological thriller effectively.

Furthermore, it was also reassuring to see that 82% agreed with the fact that our target audience would be dominated by females too, due to the emotional element throughout the narrative.

Overall, we decided to not show the antagonist in the title sequence, and instead make the opening one-sided towards the protagonist making the audience feel more sympathy towards our her because they are completely unaware of her brothers whereabouts. This also increases the tensions and adds a sense of suspense and mystery to our opening and helping us achieve an ambiguous atmosphere.

How did you attract/address your audience?Overall, our target audience is predominantly targeted at the female market, aged 15-25 and here are a number of ways we have attracted and addressed our audience throughout our product.

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We introduce our protagonist through a long shot making her appear very feminine and therefore, appealing to both genders.

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The flashback scenes may appeal to the latter ages of our target audience (22-25) due to the age of the teacher and they may feel more sympathetic towards the child.

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When the pace increases and action arises our product appeals to a male audience because her actions are more aggressive and therefore, stereotypically more masculine.

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Our use of a few POV shots help bring the audience into the diegesis and see everything from her perspective. Therefore, the audience get to further relate and sympathise towards our protagonist and put themselves in her position.

The ending stereotypically appeals to females of all ages due to the melancholy tone enabling them to sympathise towards our protagonist.

We have also used serif font for our titles and made them very simple attracting the feminine audience.

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What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of constructing this product I have learnt a variety of skills ranging from the use of effective planning, to skilled camera work and good continuity editing.

I would personally say that one of the areas I gained the most skills through was the ability to learn how to use camera in specific ways in order to portray different meanings. For example, using high angle shots in order to convey a weak and inferior character, and I believe this is something we all achieved as a group through the filming process. However, some issues did arise when we were filming due to the quality of the camera. For instance when we tried to film a reverse shot of our protagonist looking out the window we found it impossible because we simply didn’t have the equipment available to us to get the height we needed to film the shot as well as the resolution on the camera. This would have been caused by the fact we had no budget either.

Lighting was another issue when we came to the filming process which we had to overcome. This was because we had originally planned to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere but this was not possible due to the fact that in our first cut we had attempted to create dark lighting through closing the curtains in the room. However, this looked too fake and didn’t work. Moreover, we then thought about filming at night but that was then too dark and the camera was unable to pick out what we needed hence, we decided against this idea. This would have been improved through the use of a correct three-point lighting system allowing us to use low key lighting to make it look dark and at the same time use a back light to pick out the subject from the background making it visible. In the reshoot we then decided as a group to not fight the natural light and instead use it to our advantage as we learnt through our research that it does not necessarily have to be dark in the opening of a thriller film.

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During the process I believe I have gained the most skills in my ability to edit. This is because at the start of the project I was unable to use a Mac, but, now I am confident in using the software, Adobe Premiere Pro in order to edit together a piece of film.

When creating our continuity task I didn’t participate in the editing too much and instead took more responsibility over the filming process. However, once I’d learnt the basics of the software I could then gain lots of practise and this then enabled me to become much more confident with the software to the point where I was able to come in in my free time and edit our final piece by myself. As a group each of us had this confidence which allowed us to continually move the project forward as we were able to all come in individually to do editing if we were not all available at the same time.

Finally, we all also had an eye for perfection which helped us a lot through constructing our product. This was because it meant if the continuity wasn’t quite right, or there was a slight jump cut or a missed transition we were able to pick up on it and improve it straight away. This then allowed us to create a piece to the best of our ability which we are all proud of.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary Task: Creating a piece approximately 60 seconds in length which shouldn't exceed 90 seconds and must contain a few technical requirements such as:• You must not break the 180 degrees rule• You must include a shot/ reverse shot• You must include a variety of appropriate camera angles • You must edit so the continuity is apparent and meaning is clear• You must include more than one location• You must include some interaction between characters• You must include some non-diegetic sound

Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video audio material must be original, produced by the candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

During the progression from our preliminary to our final product I feel I have progressed in many aspects. Firstly, I think something that aided us a great deal throughout the whole process, was our use of effective planning. This included researching into different genres of thriller to ensure we used correct codes and conventions as well as researching into real media products to gain inspiration and see how these conventions are used in films. Furthermore, I found that our detailed planning worked really well as it allowed us to plan out each shot exactly how we wanted so we knew what to capture in order to portray particular meanings. Once we had planned this we were then able to create a storyboard which proved very helpful at allowing us to visualise for the first time what our product may look like. By cutting it up and sticking it on the wall we were then able to play around with sequencing and narrative to see how it affected the rest of the product. After this was completed, we then created an animatic which then gave us an insight into the timing and pace of our product through the length of the shots and transitions.

I am now much more confident with all the equipment we have been using since we created our preliminary task. Firstly, our overall framing during shots has improved from our preliminary task, to our first cut and then to our final product as we have learnt how to keep the camera straight and make sure everything is in line and not wonky giving the product an amateur effect. Since the preliminary task I have also improved my ability to film specific shots such as POV’s. The one we filmed in our preliminary 0:30 is not steady and filmed to a bad quality, which compares to the much better POV we have used in our final product 1:16. Furthermore, we have also learnt to include a variety of camera shots and angles into our final product from our preliminary task in order to add more excitement to the piece. In addition, we were rushed when attempting to choose music for our preliminary task and ended up choosing something that was dramatically too sad and therefore, ruined its overall effect in our piece. As well as this, it has been cut out too quickly before the ending making it much worse than the way we have used music in our final product. For instance, in our final product we got a friend to make a piece of music exactly how we wanted and learnt how to loop the music if it didn’t quite last the needed length of time.

Overall, I believe we have created a successful final product which meets the demand of our main task. We have learnt and used our knowledge of the codes and conventions of crime/psychological thrillers in order to aid us through the process by using, developing and challenging them. As well as learning from our mistakes during our preliminary task, allowing us to produce a final product to the best our ability with the skills we have learnt throughout the year about representation, planning, filming and editing.