Wednesday, 27 April 2011

Evaluation Activity 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?




Title of our film: We found that coming up with a name for our thriller was a lot harder than we expected. As a group we brainstormed lots of different thriller names but we found that none of them really fitted with the storyline of our thriller. We moved on to deciding what props and costumes were going to be used and as we decided on the antagonist wearing a white mask we decided to call our thriller "Blanc" which means white in French. We thought that the name "Blanc" fitted our thriller well because most people associate thrillers with dark colours however in our case we chose white (Blanc) which is known as a pure and innocent colour. 

Setting/Location: Our opening to our thriller has two locations which are both in Shenfield woods. It starts by a lake where our our character is sitting looking innocent and vulnerable which straight away gives the audience the impression that something bad is going to happen. To make our character look vulnerable we used a range of shots down by the river such as a over the shoulder shot of him playing with a rock. As he is playing with a rock it makes him look nervous. The second location was a forest where the chase scene took place. Both the antagonist and protagonist are running through the forest. Rapid editing was used to make the chase look realistic and scary. 

Costume and Props: When we had to decide on the props and costumes we tried to be as original as possible. We wanted to avoid knives and other similar weapons as they are overused. When picking costumes we wanted the antagonists appearance not to be revealed to the audience so we decided to use a mask. The mask which we chose was a really simple white mask which looked effective. To make the mask stand out our villain wore a black outfit. When the outfit had been put together we felt it looked very creepy. The weapon that we decided on was a crowbar as it matched the antagonists appearance. As for our innocent character we picked a simple black outfit which did not reveal to much about his personality.   

Camera work and Editing: Before we went out filming we planned most of the shots so that when we arrived at the location we could get straight into it. As a group we decided that we needed to get as many different shots as possible so that when it came to editing we had a wide variety of shots to choose from. We had no problems editing the thriller as we used our own editing software which we were familiar with, this meant that the editing process could be completed quickly and professionally.

Title and Font style: Choosing a font style which could be used in the introduction to our thriller was fairly simple as we used the same font as the title. This font fitted perfectly with the mood and was a very unique styled font. The way in which the opening titles appear on the screen was a long process to edit as masking out the tree took a long time. The titles slide out from behind a tree and then slide back behind it before the end of the clip. As a group we thought that the text sliding out from behind the tree was a unique and suitable method to use.

Story and how the opening sets it up: The opening shots make the thriller seem calm however the soundtrack which is being played is creepy which straight away makes the audience think that something bad is going to happen. The antagonist follows the victim in the opening few scenes without the victim realising, this creates an enigma for the audience.

Genre and how the opening suggests this: As the genre of our film is a thriller, we wanted to get the genre across to the audience as quick as possible by the way in which we filmed it, the costume and props which were used and the soundtrack which creates suspense and is very creepy. During the chase scene the music speeds up and so does the speed of editing to creating tension which also helps the audience recognise that they are watching a thriller.  

How characters are introduced: The characters were introduced in ways which fitted with the filming of the thriller. For instance our victim is introduced at the start of the thriller and the way in which he is acting sets the mood. The antagonist appears at different times throughout the opening of the thriller this makes it seem like the villain has supernatural powers which gives him an advantage over the victim.

By Alex Cirino

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