Full Evaluation-Essay

Although words and phrases do change throughout my presentation on different platforms- in some cases paragraphs and sentences are added or removed but generally, my evaluation is written below in an essay form:

AS Media Studies: Opening Sequence Evaluation.

"Create the titles and opening of a new thriller film, to last two minutes".

            Many conventions of the thriller genre are apparent in our product, whether they be conformed to or challenged. For example, tension, suspense and uncertainty are all common conventions that encourage the audience to want to know what happens later in the storyline. We chose to fit the theme of uncertainty but decided against the ideas of tension and suspense because these themes did not fit with the events in our opening sequence and would be more appropriate in the other events, which we planned for later in the film. Also, conventional plots of thrillers are said to ‘involve characters, which come into conflict with each other, or with outside forces the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy’ we chose to both use this convention and oppose it in the lighting of our sequence. For example, in the car scene we chose low lighting to add enigma (showing that something out of the ordinary is about to happen), however, in the hospital scene, we chose artificially bright lighting to show a contrast and also because bright lights have multiple other connotations; for instance, seeing a bright light could symbolise many things including safety (being associated with light houses for sailors), also, there is the saying “a light at the end of the tunnel’ which implies that despite the current difficult situations, there is hope. Furthermore, there have been a number of cases where people have seen a bright light when they have had a near-death experience (this happens to Lily in our sequence so we thought that bright lighting was appropriate), and finally, in some cultures and communities, it is thought that seeing a bright light symbolises life after death; we liked this idea because once her boyfriend dies, it is as if Lily has to start a new life after the death of Lily’s boyfriend. 

      Also fitting with conventions, we decided to have an unnatural death, in the opening sequence however, you are unsure quite how the accident occurred, and we hoped that this would cause the viewer to want to continue watching the film because conventionally, having crime in the core of the narrative of a thriller keeps the viewer keen to watch more. Themes of mirroring are also extremely conventional and we use this in our idea for the rest of the film where she is shown in the position as her best friend, also, voyeurism is apparent subconsciously during the opening sequence but becomes more apparent throughout the film. Having a complex narrative structure is also a convention that we have chosen to use with false paths and clues, although not all of these are apparent in our opening sequence they are all in the narrative plan for the rest of the film- these effectively create enigmas and keep the audience questioning when the resolutions to the problems will occur. Once again conventionally, we decided to use the opening sequence in order to show the protagonists phychological state- and also the reasoning behind it- we read that ‘the titles usually mirror the type of film’ we therefore decided to have just the name of the film, in a simple font, and fairly small in the corner of the screen to show confusion and give a sense of the unknown and uncertainty which are themes that we were keen to reflect throughout the film.

      Again following conventions later in the film, the antagonist (he who causes the crashes) has the disadvantage at numerous points throughout the storyline when we think that Lily is going to come out on top but eventually, he ends up victorious as Lily loses so many of her closest friends and loved ones due to her obsession. Our entire film, including the opening sequence, is set in typical locations and typical situations enabling the audience to be attracted to the film and familiar places and relationships are addressed throughout enabling them to relate to the situation and increase the effect of the emotions. The main conventions of thriller genre are also said to help the plot by determining the characters’ traits and experiences, we also decided to keep this convention but challenge it slightly in the fact that Lily is finding out things about herself as the audience are too, one of the archetypes of finding true identity in a psychological thriller is the loss of innocence which we see later in the storyline (http://maisieheskethmedia-main.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-storyline_24.html) when Lily becomes obsessed with finding the antagonist’s true identity.

I think that our opening sequence only really represents two social groups- gender and age. We did not want to complicate our character relationships and include too many social groups as we wanted our target audience to be able to relate to our characters as effectively as possible.

Gender is represented fairly stereotypically with the female protagonist and the male antagonist. Lily, the protagonist, is portrayed as a young, stereotypical girl with long blonde hair and big eyes as this emphasised her vulnerability and made her appear more innocence, and hence creating more sympathy for her in her loss and process of mourning after the accident. During the planning process, we decided that our target audience was 16-35 year olds because we thought that they would be able to relate to the characters better so the plot of the film would be more effective. We chose to use Brogan Adams as the actress for Lily in our opening sequence not only for convenience; we thought that she had the image and appearance that we had imagined Lily to have; slim, and feminine with long, blonde hair. Brogan dressed in ‘normal’ every day clothing in order for the audience to relate to her character more so that they would feel more empathy towards her and a sense of catharsis would be created. The idea behind this was that we thought if the audience could relate to the character- if not the experience- that it would make them want to watch the rest of the film.

The antagonist- who we don’t actually come across in our opening sequence but is discovered later in the storyline- is a lot older than Lily. This also highlights her helplessness and vulnerability and emphasises the innocent connotations of the characters name. These are all very stereotypical ways in which younger females are represented. Later in the film we see Lily at an older age, which is why we chose a wider target audience of 16-35.

However, we did not want to conform to all representation stereotypes. Therefore, we decided that it would be the male who died in the storyline because stereotypically teenage males are shown as strong, both physically and emotionally. Contrastingly, our male protagonist experienced the ultimate show of helplessness- in death.

We began the planning process by watching and discussing existing thriller films that we, as teenagers, liked and what aspects of them we felt were the most effective. We then collected together the ideas we liked the most, and created a pitch, which we presented to our peers- as they too are within our target age range. Whilst they were watching our pitch we addressed our audience directly by handing out questionnaires we had created to collect information regarding the ideas it contained; which they liked the most and which they felt needed the most improvement- alongside suggestions of how it could be improved. We chose to use teenaged characters to allow more effective catharsis and to help the audience to create relationships with the characters. Also, we researched our target audience thoroughly in order to attract our audience by giving them exactly what they want.

We would advertise our film on posters around towns, on the Internet, trailers of other films for 16-35 year olds and on the television. This is because we would like our film to be seen everywhere in order for everyone to see an advert and be attracted to watch our film for it to be as popular and successful as possible.

After advertising, we would like our film to be shown in cinemas around the country because this is where films have the most impact on the audience as the best atmosphere is created due to the big screen and loud sound. Eventually, our film would be sold on DVD and BluRay and possibly even shown on television occasionally.

During the process of constructing this product I feel that I have learned a lot about technologies and that the level of my skills has increased greatly.

Whilst planning, creating and evaluating our Preliminary Task we used the Internet for research, Blogger for the planning (http://maisieheskethmedia-preliminary.blogspot.com/), a standard Video Camera for filming the product, Final Cut Express- in its simplest form- for the editing and creation of the product, and Prezi for the evaluation (http://prezi.com/ko4vglx75hm1/maisies-preliminary-task-evaluation/).

Although many of the technologies that I used in my Main Task are the same as those I used for the Preliminary Task, I feel that in each of the areas my skills have improved a lot; particularly Blogger, Final Cut Express and Prezi. I put a lot more posts on to my blog and added more detail to each of these. I think that my skills developed greatly in all aspects of Final Cut Express. My Prezi is also a lot more advanced than in my Preliminary Task as it now also includes links, images and videos to make it more interesting for the viewer.

Also, we watched and analysed past films of the genre, showed our film to an audience and collected feedback in addition to the Internet for our research. In addition to this, we made sure that we used a HD Video Camera for all of our filming in order for it to be the best possible quality, lighting and sound for our product. Moreover, (with the help of a friend) adapted our chosen song and used an electric keyboard to record the accoustic soundtrack for the latter half of our opening sequence, which we then had to adapt the track in order to upload it to Final Cut Express. Additionally, we learned how to convert the video on the Mac in order to upload it to YouTube, and how to burn our production on to a disk from the Mac to show it to our audience.

Finally, I think that our overall product was much, much, better than our Preliminary Task not only because of all the improvements in the use of technology, but for multiple other reasons. We researched our genre and target audience more, planned our product in more thorough detail, and made our narrative and storyline more interesting to grasp the attention of the audience more effectively. As well as this, we added a soundtrack and sound effects to our product to create atmosphere and set a mood for the film and also to create more interest for the audience; I think that each of these aims worked and I am happy with our final product.

If I was to do this all again, I would return to the idea of using a number of overlapping voiceovers during the hospital scene because I think that this was a really good idea and would have made what is happening here more clear, I think that it was a shame that the technology required to do this wasn’t working and that our schedule was too tight to do it later in the process. I would also maybe think more about the colours worn by the characters and maybe add some digetic music or conversation to the car journey at the beginning.

In conclusion, I am happy with our final product and I think that it fits the brief well. I think that it suits our target audience well and, despite challenging some conventions, think that it fits the genre equally. I am pleased with my progress in terms of technology and skills and think that a particular strong point of ours was teamwork! Overall, I am happy with what we created and hope that you enjoyed it!