as thriller evaluation.docx

Media Evaluation (draft)

1) A thriller is a film which contains suspense and tension. A sense of threat is introduced

gradually in the Mes en scene with suggested symbols and images. It is surrounded by

mystery and suggestion and is slowly unveiled as the film progresses. Shock can be

created by a sudden unveiling of the threat e.g through murder or sudden frightening

images. Horror can also be involved in thrillers.

Thriller sub-genres include,

Action, conspiracy, crime, disaster, forensic, mystery and psychological themes. ‘The

Bourne Identity’ trilogy has aspects of a number of these genres e.g it begins as a

mystery and unveils a conspiracy with the main character being the victim of the plot to

kill him. The film is filled with action. Other films that use tension, mystery and

conspiracy, there was also a sense of enigma and a sense of problem solving and also

may have a twist at the end, such as ‘The Conversation’. We chose the psychological

thriller because we found it gave us a variety of ideas we could all use from examples of

psychological thrillers which we wanted to explore.

An audience’s expectation of this genre, they’d like to relate to the central character and

recognise the threat. They’d expect tension and mystery which they would recognise

psychologically. We used the title Alter ego as we thought it linked well the storyline.

The location we chose was in my house, it helps give off the impression of a normal

atmosphere. This gives the audience the impression that it’s too normal, putting the

audience on the edge of their seats waiting for something to surprise them. We used

one character that played both roles, the normal girl and the mad girl. A thriller film we


were inspired by was Black Swan. The story of Black Swan tells us how an innocent girl is

influenced by the pressure of being the best dancer and how it effects you mentally and

emotionally. The normal version dresses very casual, to give an innocent approach. The

images show a contrast of the same character, the left image show Nine from Black

Swan looking fragile and frightened with her frightening reflection in the mirror, this

reflects the other side to her personality which is also shown in the image next to it. The

mad version dresses in all black this gives a dark impression of her character. We used a

large variety of shots for different effects, we wanted the audience to feel like they were

witnessing the act in great detail. We needed the audience to feel the tension where it

was intended and to feel on the edge of their seats. The close-ups were a good use of

camera work because it helps add tension and the audience gets an idea of what the

character is feeling. We used a few long shots and mid shots these created a similar

effect that it made the audience see an overview of the scene and could see clearly

where it was all going to take place. The storyline has a clear message once you’ve seen

it. The opening shows a very normal girl reading through a fashion magazine that goes

through a lot of beautiful models and how it effects the girls that read it.


These screenshots are from the physiological thriller Black Swan. The two images show

a contrast in personalities. They clearly show the two sides of her personality. Similarly

like in our thriller it also shows both sides of her personality. You can tell the good and

bad side relatively easily. The image of the left shows her without makeup and looking

innocent and frightened, whereas the image on the right shows her with slightly gothic

makeup with the very pale skin and with the red eyes. She looks very serious and

fearless.


Comparing our thriller to black swan, it shows the

two different sides of her personality. The good and

the bad. The good side I found would be wearing light

coloured clothes be wearing subtle makeup and

would show signs of vulnerability in her facial

expressions. The bad side would often be wearing darker colours and be wearing heavier

makeup and would look quite striking.


2) I’m comparing the image of Elle (the main character) to the main character (Nina) in the

Black Swan. I noticed there are clear similarities to these two character and their roles.

They both look like bad characters due to the way they’re presented with the use of mes

en scene. The lighting of the shots appears to look cold, this helps to the tension

because it suggests they have a cold personality. They both look gothic from their

makeup in particular. Dark eye makeup and pale skin is good for this effect. By looking

at these two images you would think that they were the villain because of the way they

are presented.

The main actor of Alter Ego identifies with the front cover model of magazines, she is

obsessed with the criteria needed to take on the role of a front cover magazine model in all

of that she identifies with the ‘perfect image’ of an attractive woman who is perfectly

beautiful. In all of this image the reality of the manufactured, photo shopped beauty;

perfectly made up with all the aspirational makeup products, clothed in couture. And limbs

and body and face photo shopped and air-brushed to promote the perfectly unobtainable

image presented by the glossy magazines that she is obsessed by.

In ‘Black Swan’ the main character, Nina aspires to become to achieve the prima donna role

of Odette in Swan Lake. It is the ballerina’s golden chalice. Just as the front cover of a

fashion magazine reflects every girl’s aspiration.

Both films focus on the characters as successful young female roles. The characters on the

surface are heroines. However in both films the characters are deeply flawed within and

there are very dark psychological tones. Both characters are borne from aspirational middle

class white families. This speaks across the Western community. The status of both

characters is indicated by a comfortable home environment; the mother in black swan


compounds this aspirational quality through her loving and encouraging motherly figure.

This emphasises the power of the external pressures from the ballet corps on Nina. This is

suggested in Alter Ego by the collection of magazines that surround the main character in

Alter Ego, she is surrounds by these images there is no escape.

In Alter ego the main character represented is both heroin and victim. Just as Nina in black

swan is have both good and bad in her. The characters appearance in alter ego reflects the

dichotomy of the character the light clothing representing the good side and the darker

clothing representing the bad side. Nina’s sweet character in black swan is picked up by her

fluffy pastel pink coat and toning scarf; her dark character is represented with the darker

clothing and makeup. The camera angles used to show anxiety extreme close ups, zooming

in and out very quickly. The impact of these camera angles makes the audience feel the

tension of the character, the extreme close ups are used to make you feel as though you are

in the characters zone and you feel what they are feeling.

Our media product represents particular

social groups. Particularly to girls that feel

differently when they are faced with things

that make them feel insecure. Its suggests how

girls may cover up the way they really feel.

The main similarities of this are innocent side of the main character and the villain side of

the same character.



3) Our production company name AMOA stands for the initials of our group’s surnames.

We thought this would be appropriate as it shows that we worked together well as a

group. It’s also very feminine and its linked to the meaning love. The tone of the logos

inspiration from film noir, due to the black and white font shows classic thriller film

types. The logo shows a tree with all the leaves blown off it. The logo I drew by hand.

We got inspiration by looking at key things that symbolise a thriller film. We thought this

would be a good symbol of a thriller because it gives off a daunting impression and a

sense of mystery which symbolise a thriller.

A production company is in charge of what goes on when making the movie from the start

to the finish. A production company is responsible for supervising the filming from concept

to completion, and they hold the sole legal and financial

responsibility of the movie as a whole. They are also

responsible for if the movie was bad they will be the

once responsible for it. Lionsgate is known for doing

good thriller films. Just as a lot of production companies often do specific genres which they

have been successful for. We set the roles of a director, a producer, an editor and a costume

and makeup designer.

If we could select a distributor for our short film we may consider a small, international

company, such as the ‘Little Film Studios’ based in California. This might be an independent

company. It has a small management structure, to include Alexia Melocchi, Alexandra

Yacovlef, Harry Lowell. They are involved in developing small films for on an international

platform. For example Alexia has had a successful career in the international marketplace,


as both a sales agent and buyer’s rep for eleven territories, giving her diverse exposure to all

types of films and functions in the entertainment industry. As consultant she works on

packaging films, securing co productions and arranging for US and International Distribution

of several projects of her clients using her expertise in international sales, pre-sales,

international acquisitions and a global film marketing approach.

The money to fund small films like our one could possibly come from one like the BFI.

They’re the largest public film fund in the UK. They work alongside companies such as The

NET.WORK partners are Creative England, Film Agency for Wales, Northern Ireland Screen

and Creative Scotland. Film London will also deliver a number of targeted development

programme. The BFI network provides a platform from which new and emerging talent in

film making can share their work. This means, writers, producers, directors can show some

examples of their work which can they can air amongst a broader film making community

who might pick up their talent. They have creative centers Brighton where peoples work can

be shared along side other film makers. Larger film organizations include companies such as

Lionsgate. Such institutions would eb ideal and distribute our film on a broad, international

scale. This would be an outreach to expose our talent, and obtain an opportunity to extend

our film making careers.

Such short films as ours, might be funded by the BFI lottery fund which awards fund for

small films. Our film shows names of the people that brought it all together. It is tradition to

show who stars in the film at the beginning as that is often the main attraction, the middle

showing are the ones who did the makeup and editing etc. And finally the really important

roles such as the director and producer come towards the end of the titles.


They use various names as titles of films of actors, directors or producers. They do this

because if the audience recognizes a name of one of these they may be more inclined to

watch it because the name of one of these is a sign of a good film.


4) Our target audience was aimed mainly towards young girls, this is because the film

symbolizes the extremes of how some girls are effected when perfected supermodels

are shown all of the media. The kind of age group is often teenage girls as they are the

main audience for this.

Audience profile

Here shows a perfectly normal teenage girl. She is the kind of audience member we

targeted, looking carefully we can see she has a vulnerable look to her, by the way she is

looking, by what she’s wearing and the way she’s sitting. Her very fresh faced appearance

shows her real self, she seems to be looking very sad, by the way she’s sitting curling herself

up implies she’s insecure. She appears to look sad in this photograph, we can assume from

this that her media usage may consist of relaxing perhaps sad music taste. Thriller films look

as though they would appeal to her, as a thriller

consists of adrenalin which she could be

interested in. her insecurities may have been

caused by the media as shown in our thriller, she

would read fashion/celebrity magazines. By the

way she is dressed she doesn’t appear to be too


high matiness about how she dresses, black trouser and a grey short sleeve t-shirt, these

dull colors suggest she’s feeling negative. The type of film genres she would be interested in

would be of Chick flicks, romantic, a lot of these types of films are targeted mostly for girls

like this.

Questionnaire

1) Are you male or female?

2) What is your age? 12-14,15-18

3) Do you like thrillers? Yes/No

4) What type of genre of thrillers do you prefer?

Crime thriller

Action thriller

Psychological thriller

Medical thriller

Romantic thriller

Other

5) Who do you watch thriller films with?

Friends

Family

Other

6) Where do you watch films?

Home


Cinema

Other

7) Do you find music to a thriller more effective when loud or quiet?

8) Do you prefer old versions of thriller film or newly made ones of e.g. Pshyco?

9) Do you like thrillers to have a twist on the story to clear the whole way through?

Are you male or female?

MaleFemale Are you Male or Female?

What is your age?

13-1415-18

Do you like thrillers?

YesNo


I did a questionnaire with some people I know and I asked them these questions, the

results show a lots of people like a variety of different thrillers and liked different

elements of them.

In order to preserve its independence, the BBFC's

income is derived solely from the fees it charges for its

services, calculated by measuring the running time of

films, DVDs/videos and other works submitted for

classification. The BBFC is not organised for profit, and its fees are

adjusted only as required to cover its costs. I chose the rating of age twelve, there are no

violent scenes. The music sets the scene of the film and tells you how to feel. The blood

poured over the ripped magazine and the mad side of the main character revealed at the

end may be unsuitable for people young than this age.


5) We posted our film on to Youtube and showed it to numerous people in and outside the

class. There received feedback form people clearly. Most of the feedback we got was

positive, a lot of people liked the storyline and thought it sent out a good and clear

message. I was given useful critical feedback too, that I would have been better if we

used more diegetic sounds as well and non-diegetic sounds.


6) Here shows the different technologies I planned to used when planning

how we were going to make our thriller.

Blogger is the first one, I used this to do all my research and planning.

This is a very useful website when making a thriller, it great because I was also able to


look at other team members blogs so we could all see how we were all planning it. On

blogger we could upload videos, pictures, notes and detailed analysis’s of planning and

research.

Youtube is another useful website I used a lot, it was useful because I was able to do

research when looking at other thriller opening scenes to see what specifically was

effective and why etc. we were able to see which convention were useful and which

ones were not.

The Apple mac’s provided and Imovie were what we used to cut out what we didn’t

need in the scenes and edit them. We could experiment with it by looking at different

sound effects, different fonts of the titles.

We used my IPhone 5c to film it, we found the camera quality to be good

and we were still able to use a range of shots from extreme close up to long shots. Some

difficulties did occur for example keeping the camera stable so it didn’t shake whilst

filming, we practiced with different strategies of keeping it stable but we kept it all

stable in the end.

Making sure the camera was always on focus was another difficulty but we managed to

keep it on focus when filming, we had to make sure the lighting was sufficient enough

for it to focus properly which is partly the reasoning for filing in the day. The film we

deliberately wanted to build up the tension as the film progressed, we did this because

with the research we did when looking at other thrillers and when asking other peers, a

lot of people agree that its more exciting if tension is gradually built up as the film goes

on, this keeps the audience on the edge of the seats and makes them want to keep on

watching it.


We used specific camera angles when we wanted to create different moods on the

audience, we used extreme close ups for the more frightening scenes, this makes the

audience feel what the character is feeling as they feel the tension

with music and you’re seeing exactly what the character is

seeing, this keeps the audience interested and want to

see the rest of it.

7) Looking back at our preliminary task, I feel we have improved largely towards the final

product, I have learnt a range of new skills using different websites and throughout the

research, using what I’ve learnt by looking at other thrillers and which types and shots,

lighting, mes en snece was effective.


When making our preliminary task, one thing

we noticed is that the camera quality wasn’t

good. It was difficult to make clear what was

going on when filming because of this. So in

our final piece we used an iPhone with a

better quality camera, this made it a lot easier

to focus and specific things. I used a range of

different shots, editing and techniques. I have

also developed a lot of editing skills, we made

sure we didn’t over-do it with editing, such as

adding too many sound effect or transitions

when they are not needed so that it still looks

realistic to the audience.

Sticking to the 180 degree rule we always kept

in mind, we kept going back and checking we

stuck to this rule. The location we filmed at my house in the day time so the lighting

would be better to film in. the weather was dry and cloudy but we filmed in a

conservatory, this was a good place to film in because it was so bright it meant the

camera quality was good. We tried to use a large range of shots to create different

moods on the audience. We did a lot of planning just before we filmed, we had to make

sure the phone we were going to film with was a fully charged and

as we were going to be using the camera the whole time we had to

be careful that it didn’t run out of life. We had planned the


storyline and decided what shots we were going to use beforehand but we did make

changes as we were filming, like adding in extra shots.

learnt that checking location, and lighting is has to be checked before filming.

This shot is also effective, it shows a

bird’s eye view on the selection of

fashion magazines covered in blood

or ripped up. This sets the scene

well because it implies how badly its effected the girl.

I think this shot is very effective because

it tells a lot of the storyline, we made the fake blood


Overall think the filming of our thriller went quite well. We used a range of shots throughout

the filming and everybody was involved. The location worked out very well for us and there

was convenient for everyone. I’ve learnt that filming a short film takes a lot planning and

research, it takes everyone a lot of time. From looking from our preliminary task to our final

film we learnt planning carefully is key, I with food colouring and golden syrup and dripped

it over the magazine for one of the scenes, a close up was used to show the audience clearly

what it was.

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