Hannah - Evaluation

Introduction
For my project I created an opening sequence of two minutes of a feature film. I worked along side Matthew Clarke. We both contributed to the project equally, getting involved with cinematography, mise en scene ideas, lighting and sound choices, and the final stage of editing. I wrote the script, but we both then worked on it to make it better.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre of our sequence is teen thriller and social realism. We hit upon all the generic conventions of that genre in order to achieve the right audience reaction. Having a teen protagonist shows the teen side of the genre. The working class setting of back yards and an alleyway reflects the social realism aspects. The typical narrative of a thriller is often a mystery surrounded by action. This typical narrative is used in the form of enigmas in our sequence and the running from our main protagonist. The protagonist is a male teen, the typical character of the teen genre. The non diegetic music used when the protagonist is tied up is typical of the thriller genre as it is eerie. The low key lighting in the scene is also typical of a thriller, causing metaphorical contrasts.
Our sequence is an opening scene and therefore must include all the conventions of an opening sequence. The film is firstly set with the establishing shots of houses, roads and alleyways. The audience are aware of the working class location and also the social realism genre.

The protagonist is introduced through a montage of running shots. Here, the audience is aware of the teen genre. Enigmas are used – why is he running? Who’s caught him? – to keep the audience hooked. Here, the audience establishes the thriller genre. From the opening sequence we see the teen running from something which could suggest the theme of good vs. evil shown through the low key lighting. The lighting creates juxtaposition as it is light and dark – good and evil. The big difference that we have in our sequence is that we have mixed genres together to gain a wider audience. There is teen, thriller, social realism and also elements of horror and crime. The hybrid genre of our film makes it appeal interesting to the audience. It is vital to do something new to a genre as it keeps the audience hooked and stops them getting bored. We like the familiar, but we like ‘the same but different’ even better.
I thought that the new differences would be successful because we have a teen protagonist and our films audience is mainly for the teen. This works well because the audience find it easier to relate to a character of the same age and will therefore enjoy the film.
After we screened our sequence to the class, I found that our new differences were successful as most of the feedback was great.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film focuses on the social group of young people, specifically teens as the protagonist of our film is a male teen. He is created under a specific image in order to reflect the social realism. His costume consists of a tracksuit and a hooded top, representing the stereotypical teen. His hair is short which reflects his age and social trends.

His speech is that of a regional accent, sounding cheeky, rebellious and working class. The stereotype of the working class of northern England. His actions consist of running which suggests that he has done something bad and is being chased. The setting of the film is that of working class suburbia, a stereotype of the gritty north. The non diegetic rock/punk music, when the protagonist is running, suggests a rebellious teen. This track is non copyrighted. My brother use to be in a band and he allowed us to use his song. The quick paced editing from the running scene creates a sense of chaos from the teen. When the protagonist is firstly revealed he jumps over the camera and is therefore in a low angled shot.

This suggests power from the teen, like he is stepping on society. We incorporated this ideology into our sequence as it reflects today’s zeitgeist of uncontrollable teens dominating people and places.
Within the short two minute sequence, the stereotype is not revealed as being challenged. However, if the rest of the film was to continue, the protagonist would become a more complex character, places would change and the stereotype would therefore be challenged. This is done to portray the saying: don’t judge a book by its cover. The character will start out how the audience expects him too and then change as the story unravels to make it more interesting.
From the audience feedback I noticed that the audience did respond to the protagonist as expected-

Me: ‘Who are the main characters in the sequence?’
Audience: ‘The guy running.’
Me: ‘What details made this clear?’
Audience: ‘He was in all the shots... he was tied up... and he was the one doing the voice over.’

One of the main reasons for our opening sequence is to help the audience establish the protagonist, and that’s exactly what it did. However, if I created the questionnaire I would have put in another question: ‘How is the protagonist portrayed?’ This kind of question would have given a more detailed feedback of the protagonist such as stereotyping.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Similar products have been made by Miramax Production Company, known for producing the British films ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘Brassed Off’. These two films focus on social realism, like our sequence and also use the gritty northern stereotype. ‘Brassed Off’ is filmed in a working class location, as is our film and ‘Trainspotting’ uses the same kind of cinematography to our film in the opening. The non diegetic music is also similar –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmzaBvKzrZI

If I was to send our film to Miramax I believe that they would consider backing the product for real. Firstly, Miramax seems to do a lot of social realism films and our film fits that category. Secondly, it is filmed in a professional way as all films are. And thirdly, our film reflects the zeitgeist of today and most films get made because of that, so the audience can relate.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The main target audience for our film would be 16-25 year olds, the cinema goers, as the main characters in the film are around that age. But to make it more specific I would say the male gender, as the protagonist is male and thrillers often attract more of the male gender than females. As our film is set in northern England, it would appeal more to a northern audience as they would be able to relate to the social realism part of it as it is slightly different to the southern social realism. Also, fans who enjoy a more complex storyline will definitely be targeted. All these audience’s are a mix of a large mass audience, due to the thriller genre and a loyal niche audience, due to the social realism genre. Over all it is a very big audience that will bring in a lot of money for the film so our product would do very well financially.

5. How did you attract your audience?
We decided to play around with the disruption of our film, trying to find the right place to put it. In the end we decided to place it right at the start, so that the audience is thrown into the action of the storyline and are hooked by it. However we still have the equilibrium. Our film is in a non chronological order, starting in the middle, going back to the beginning and then playing it all through to the end, with flash forwards and flashbacks.

The equilibrium is not shown in our sequence but is hinted at when the film rewinds – through the disruption – and to the beginning of the equilibrium when our main protagonist opens his eyes.

The use of rewind is an enigma. It suggests that it is going to show us something important and therefore keeps the audience watching. The use of binary opposition lighting, when the protagonist gets caught, not only suggests good and evil, but also a more in-depth character. It hints at there being more to just the stereotypical teen. The two non diegetic pieces of music are also contrasted. The change from the upbeat punk track to the eerie music suggests a contrast in situation. The protagonist obviously thought that he was free and rebellious as he ran but then realised he was doomed when he is caught.
The use of voice over gives more of an insight to the protagonist. It is played during the captured scene and so compensates for the fact that he cannot speak aloud. Instead the audience is taken into his mind to hear his thoughts. Even though it sounds like a direct audience address, introducing himself, it still holds qualities of his thoughts and feelings as he reacts to his surroundings, and analyses himself of why it’s all happening.

The opening establishing shots are slow edited and go on for quite a while and, as they pan around, it makes it seem like you’re looking for someone. The shot from in the tree is almost like a point of view shot from somebody watching and waiting for the protagonist. The diegetic sound of birds, children and cars creates the sense of realism for the audience.

In the second part, the high angle shot as the protagonist jumps a fence is almost like from a CCTV camera, again creating the sense of being watched, surveillance society. The tracking shot from behind the protagonist is like he is being chased.

The side pan shot through the fence metaphorically suggests that he is trapped in a cage as his chasers are closing in on him.
The editing is a fast montage which contrasts dramatically to the establishing shots. As the protagonist kicks the metal bin, we have used the diegetic sound enhanced by a non diegetic sound effect to make it more exciting. Then there is a blackout which suggests that the people have knocked him unconscious to take him where they need to go.
In the third part, there is a slow fade in from black, symbolic of the protagonist waking up. The medium close up is used to reveal his confused reaction to his new surroundings. The cross fading editing and blur is to portray his disorientation. The low angle shot reveals his hands tied by rope above his head. It shows the seriousness of the situation he is in.
The brick walls set the eerie location for the audience. The zoom towards the protagonist is to show that somebody is approaching. At this point the eerie non diegetic music gets tenser to enhance the approach.
In the fourth part, the camera is placed on the ground and the protagonist falls into the frame as he hits the floor to emphasise his fall. The low angle shot as the antagonist approaches suggests power over the protagonist.


There is more diegetic sound than non diegetic used in order to enhance the brutality of the attack. The editing is continuous so that the action flows realistically for the audience to follow.
The use of a freeze-frame on the antagonist’s foot is to create suspense in the audience as we don’t actually see him stand on the protagonist. Also, because it’s from the point of view of the protagonist, we only see it how he wants to see it, and he won’t want to be stood on. It is like the protagonist is telling us a story and is editing it for us, only telling us what he wants to.

In part five, the rewind is very quiet with only very little non diegetic eerie music. There is no diegetic sound at all. This means two things. Firstly, it reflects his mind, the silence now that he is unconscious again. And secondly, that it is not real, or more precisely, not happened yet.

6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Technology has played a major part in creating our sequence. In the research stage, I used ‘Youtube’ a lot to look at opening sequences of films to give me ideas for my project. In the planning stage, we used an online blog to write down our ideas. The fact that it was online meant that we could update it anywhere at any time. The blog also enabled me to put on clips from ‘Youtube’ so that they are down as research. It has also allowed me to upload photos of our filming sessions and our final product.
I have learned a lot on how to edit our footage using ‘iMovie’. It holds a huge range of editing techniques, sound effects, transitions and titles, all of which we used to our advantage in our sequence. However the editing techniques were quite limited. We wanted to overlap shots but it wouldn’t allow it. Because of this, we had to redo some shots and get it all in one take. To get our audience feedback we screened our sequence to the class and filmed the question and answer session afterwards. We then posted the video onto the blog. This is an effective way as it clearly shows that we can use all of the technology provided and it can all be put together – neat and tidy – on the blog.

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

Before we started our project, we did a preliminary task. The aim was to film using continuity editing in the smoothest way possible from shot to shot.

Our final product is better than our preliminary task for many reasons. One being that the tracking and panning shots are much steadier due to a homemade steadicam we created from a monopod. The mise en scene and decor of our location is much more meaningful and interesting due to the fact that we didn’t have to film in college like we did for our preliminary task. We chose our locations wisely. We took on board what we learned in the preliminary task about continuity editing and for our final product we mixed it with a montage of non continuity editing in order to show a time lapse. With more preparation, more time and a wider use of mise en scene, we were able to create a more in-depth character. The lighting was a lot more meaningful, especially in the captured scene, as we didn’t have to film it in college. We could experiment with our own lighting. The sound in our final product was more meaningful as we had more time to find the right song and sound effects.

FINAL PRODUCT - ENTITY

Conclusion
Overall I think that our final product is very good as it follows the opening conventions and generic conventions. It’s different to the ordinary of the thriller genre due to the teen and social realism aspects of it, therefore coming across as interesting to the audience. I feel that it is very close to an opening of a real film and could pass for one. The only weakness is that you can tell that it is filmed on a camcorder. The equipment used to film and edit were quite restricting in what they could offer. If we had more professional technology and equipment we could have created something that looked better, glossy maybe, like Hollywood. But in conclusion, our film looks very good despite that and I think that we have made a very good job of it.

Hannah Darbyshire