Exile Evaluation 1

‘EXILE’ EVALUATIONJoe Candlin

My media product makes use o f the common codes and convent ions o f the thr i l l e r genre , I made th i s c lear f rom the outse t o f ear ly deve lopment and made cer ta in that the product s tayed t rue to what i s cons ide red a ‘ thr i l l e r ’ . However , as I d id l as t year I have hybr id i zed my fi lm wi th the horro r genre i n many ins tances , spec ifica l ly w i th my s imi lar use o f h idden ident i t ies fo r the antagonis ts (even though the antagoni s t o f ‘Ex i l e ’ i s not as c lear cut than in my AS coursework) . One o f the most common aspects o f a thr i l l e r i s the chase , not as an ind iv idua l scene but as a concept . Throughout a la rge major i ty o f thr i l l e r fi lms the antagon is t i s p r imar i l y in some form of metaphor ica l chase , i n cons tant pursu i t or re t reat f rom the antagon is t . Whi le I have exp lo red the concept o f ‘ the chase ’ (not the TV programme) w i th in my fi lm, I have a l so subverted the common pro tagon is t vs . antagoni s t bat t le in that there i s no c lear antagoni s t i n the fi lm. The fi lm beg ins w i th an ambiguous atmosphere but lacks an antagoni s t , i t then es tabl i shes the pro tagon is t ’s doub le as the antagonis t but then goes on to sh i f t once more in to por t ray ing the in terv iewer and who she i s work ing fo r as the pr imary antagoni s t – l i ke I sa id a lo t less prec i se than my AS coursework . Re turn ing to my in i t i a l po in t that I have hybr id i zed the fi lm in to be ing an occupant o f both the thr i l l e r and horror genres , I fee l as though th i s becoming inc reas ing ly common among the thr i l l e r genre and genre fi lms as a whole as explored in an ear l ie r b log post on the s ign ificance o f genre and whether or not i t s t i l l ex i s ts . In th i s v iew the common codes and convent ions that I have been intending to fo l low are ins ign ificant in l ight o f the w ider i s sues surrounding the dec l ine o f c lear cut genres or i f there were ever c lear cut genres . I f you cons ide r sub-genres and hybr id i zat ion then th i s argument becomes even more va l id as genres beg in to merge wi th one another , in one ins tance g iv ing b i r th to the sub-genre ‘psycho log ica l thr i l l e r ’ which ‘Ex i le ’ be longs to.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE/DEVELOP/CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL

MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Protagonist’s Double

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE/DEVELOP/CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL

MEDIA PRODUCTS? Drama through Dialogue

‘Zodiac’ Along the course o f produc t ion I reached a

po int where I wanted to rework the p lo t , a main reason for th i s was the in te res t I ga ined in Dav id Fincher ’s work - spec ifica l ly ‘Zod iac ’ (2007) . A v ideo essay I watched charac ter i zed Fincher ’s work as “drama through d ia logue” mean ing the narrat ive o f h i s fi lms are dr iven by the protagoni s t and s imul taneous ly the v iewer “ learn ing a l i t t le more o f the t ruth .” I was capt ivated by th i s form o f s toryte l l i ng and dec ided to implement i t in to my fi lm p lac ing more o f an emphas i s on d ia logue , wh ich can be seen in the d ifference between my two sc r ipts – one o f which i s longer but i s made up pr imar i l y o f v i sua l descr ip t ions o f scenes and has min imal charac ter in terac t ion , whereas the second vers ion i s large ly d ia logue and takes p lace in two locat ions but i s b roken into four scenes . Narra t ive i s ent i re ly dependent on in format ion , w i thout i n format ion the re i s no s tory to be to ld – conversat ion/d ia logue i s a h igh ly effect ive medium for t ransport ing th i s in format ion , which i s why I made i t my pr imary focus .

Another source o f insp i ra t ion – not accred i ted to an ind iv idua l fi lm but a co l lec t ive – i s the p layfu l nature that psycho log ica l th r i l l e r fi lms take up w i th the t ime l ine . Todorov ’s narrat i ve theory presents a l inear v iew on s toryte l l ing, whereas my fi lm takes up a d i s j o inted and cyc l i ca l approach , wh ich i s common of the psycho log ica l thr i l l e r sub-genre . ‘Ex i le ’ l i te ra l l y begins at the end but the v iewer i s unaware o f th i s unt i l the fina l scene , the flashbacks the v iewer th inks are be ing re - to ld are ac tua l ly the present . What in t r igues me about th i s s ty le o f narrat ive i s that i t invo lves and immerses the v iewer in a way that ‘ t rad i t iona l ’ l i near narrat ives can’ t – l i ke the protagon is t – the v iewer i s m is led in to be l iev ing someth ing that i sn ’ t t rue and has the i r v iew on the rea l i ty o f the fi lm re -shaped.

Todorov’s theory

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE/DEVELOP/CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL

MEDIA PRODUCTS? The typography of my fi lm i s one o f the few

fac tors that hasn ’ t changed over the course o f p roduct ion, th i s i s most l i ke ly because o f my personal pre ferences to the ‘modern ’ look t i t le that makes use o f the sans ser i f font . A l though the p lot came first for the fi lm I s t i l l had an idea o f what font I was go ing to use and had ‘D IN Condensed’ i n mind f rom an ear ly s tage . My AS coursework had the t i t le ‘ Incogn i to ’ which was longer and looked bet te r w i th a l arge amount o f spac ing between charac ters , ‘Ex i le ’ i s a lo t shor te r and uses a d ifferent font mean ing I had to re th ink my usua l spac ing to su i t the new t i t le . In the end I went for moderate ly spaced characte rs that he lp to d i s t ingu ish the t i t le f rom bas ic text but don ’ t make i t l ook out o f p lace . Th is type o f t i t le i s characte r i s t i c o f the majo r i ty o f th r i l l e r fi lms, las t year I used ‘Ob l iv ion ’ as an example o f th i s but ‘Ex i le ’s ’ t i t l e (spac ing and font ) can be used across genres – I was in t r i gued by and not i ced s imi lar i t ies w i th Wes Anderson ’s use o f the ‘Futura ’ font .

Desp i te fee l ing as though I had chosen a bet te r font for my fi lm I fe l t as though i t was lack ing in c reat iv i ty and there fo re ad justed the face o f the X to be red – der ived f rom the ‘ Ins id ious ’ fi lms ( tak ing insp i ra t ion f rom horror as we l l as thr i l l e r due to the hybr id i zed s tate o f the fi lm) . Th is change d id in i t ia l l y support a p lot po in t that was then changed but I dec ided to keep the red X because i t d idn ’ t l ook out o f p lace . The main change I made to the text was the g l i tch effec t , I was aware I would be us ing a g l i tch effec t w i th in the fi lm’s p lo t f rom an ear l y s tage and th i s was a feature in both sc r ipts . I l i ked the look the g l i t ch effect gave the t i t le and used i t as my main typography, apply ing i t to both the fina l fi lm and the poste r.

Typography

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE/DEVELOP/CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL

MEDIA PRODUCTS? Typography – Ancillary Texts

My anc i l l a ry texts make use o f the i r own ind iv idua l typography, the magaz ine rev iew uses ‘Ar i s ta 2 .0 ’ and the fi lm pos ter uses ‘Stee l tongs ’ in i t s c red i ts /s lug l ine . My anc i l l a ry texts s tay t rue to common convent ions o f the i r respec t ive media texts that I researched throughout the year.

The magaz ine ar t i c l e i s d i rec t l y i nfluenced by another rev iew I researched, as we l l as tak ing insp i rat i on f rom the rev iew’s l ayout I have a l so incorporated the genera l s ty le o f i t s typography in to my own rev iew. I knew that I wasn’ t go ing to have my main typography ( ‘Ex i l e ’ t i t l e ) i n the rev iew as the purpose o f the text i sn ’ t to promote the fi lm but instead to rev iew i t – hence the name fi lm rev iew not fi lm promot ion. The typography I used was another sans se r i f font but was rounded mak ing i t appear more co l loqu ia l – as a magaz ine shou ld .

The use o f ‘Stee l tongs ’ in my fi lm pos te r wasn’ t necessar i l y tak ing insp i rat i on but instead fo l l owing gu ide l ines /convent ions fo r fi lm pos te rs . S tandard c redi ts in fi lm pos te rs use the ‘S tee l tongs ’ font or var iat i ons o f i t and there fo re I used i t in mine to make the poster seem more profess iona l . The font that I used was a generator that wou ld type text such as “Execut ive Producer ” when typ ing in lower case ; because o f th i s I was ab le to get the convent iona l fi lm pos ter look. I a l so used the upper case var iat i on for the s lug l ine o f my fi lm as i t v i sua l ly appealed to me and i s a mul t i -purpose font anyway.