Section 12- Analysis of completed thriller

Media evaluation

The codes and conventions within a media film are normally quite obvious, mostly being those of darkness, protracted outcome, the urban landscape ect; our product does meet a few of these codes and conventions the first is the use of a protracted outcome, we achieved this using a door and focusing on the door handle, it is obvious that the door will open however we also do not show the person opening the door so this then helps with showing partial vision this again happens when the girl has the light on her face, the audience is not shown what the light is or who she looks scared so this then causes the audience to subconsciously ask questions using more again codes and conventions. Although out project was set in a garage (urban landscape) it is not completely obvious however tools are visible I the background giving an idea, however one of the more obvious conventions is that there is a lot of darkness within this opening as shown by the still.

However going along with all if the above codes and conventions I think that we may break a convention as our ordinary day hero is actually a child in the opening sequence who then grows to become the ordinary hero, where as is films such as seven the ordinary adult hero is automatically introduced, so it merges the beak of conventions and the original conventions.

Our product and the whole opening sequence is based around a small girl who is abused by her farther, I understand that some people may find this relatable however I then realise that they are very likely to be a minority so therefore most will not be able to relate to Adalade, and for me this then may create more tension due to the fact that for many it is the unknown, however due to everyone for the most part growing up in a domestic environment they can then compare their situation with that of Adalade’s.

From the questionnaire our group produced we found that the most likely age range for the viewing of this film would be 15-17 year olds, however out character is only 10 years of age, this may not be a dramatic contrast between the character age and those who the film is aimed at but I think it could work fine as they can imagine how it would be to be in that situation whereas it may be more difficult if the character was dramatically older.

The main representation of Adalade’s character would probably be venerable and living in fear, this is neither a negative or positive light of portrayal. However it has been found that by portraying a film in which the audience is portrayed in a negative light can work, Harry brown, released in 2009 and directed by Daniel Barber is about a old, ex-serviceman who lives alone after the death of his wife, who is looking to avenge his best friend's murder by handing out his own form of justice upon the teenagers and young adults in his community who committed the murder; this film portrays the audience of the film in an extremely negative light however it seems to work as it received great reviews from critics and young people who watched the film.

The mise en scene within our film I think plays in the stereotypes within the area of domestic abuse. The Costume consisted of a pair of pyjamas that were evidently too small with a cupcake on the top; this was to give indications of her age being young. The setting was a garage floor ensuing that she was surrounded with modern equipment this would have left the lighting very dark however we used candles for more light around her and we also relied on a small window that added some light to the garage. Form out questionnaire we found that staring was the second highest choice of what makes a child scary so this was what we had her do, there is also very little speech within the opening sequence this was to make things easier on the actor who was 11 as I we did not want her having to learn lines but also to add tension so that when she did speak it would have more of an effect. Although it is not easy to see on the film her makeup was very pale with large bruises on her lip, eye and head, this was to reinforce the feel off abuse, her hair was also something we wished to do this as it was all backcombed and tattered in order to make it look like she was not well looked after. There was only on prop within our opening sequence and this was the old tattered teddy bear as again from out research we found that this could help add to the feel off neglect.

Aside from independent film festivals such as rain dance and sun dance where people can have there films shown and viewed by an audience of people from all over the world, there are also websites such as www.dogwoof.com who will allow you to upload your film or film trailer in order to have it viewed world wide, they specifically have an area for student productions. A better known company that could distribute our film or any film is film4 who are famous for showing British based films and low budget films like paranormal activity, they co-finance film productions and are known for working closely with the most talented people in the UK, one of the films they are shown in 2009 was Ken Loach’s Cannes competition film, this shows the variation within the movies that t hey choose to show on the television, and the way they mix “armature” film productions with those of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog millionaire; by there participation and close eye on the Sundance film festival it is easy to understand how they come across so much new talent and untapped potential. This shows me that perhaps participating in a film festival and sending copies to the many companies is a good way to go about doing things until anything is made official.

I think that the audience hat will enjoy to watch our film and that are more likely to view the film would look like this, I think this shows the ages of 15-17, the happy faces also show they have happy personalities showing a happy upbringing then contrasting with hat of Adalade, resulting in subconscious comparison. There are more boys in this image as we questioned more boys than girls.

By looking at our audience research we found that more people like to watch films with a plot that has a creepy or scary feel and that is follows a psychological plot, we also found that children can give a scary feel to a production therefore making it more appealing to our target audience as it is what they would like, we also found that the best thing for them to do was to sing however the second was staring and this was what we decided to have our actress do. We found that a tatty teddy would, can add to the feel of neglect so we decided that this was also something we would try to incorporate into our film, this may also enable our ideas of domestic abuse to be more evident.

I personally think that our film works really well as it matches the codes and conventions and has a storyline and a subject within it that causes emotion, I also think that the use of dull lighting and a quite environment adds a feel of suspense and tension. I felt that the main thing that made our film a successful or productive product is the music, it matches well with the scene’s and scene organisation as when the music dips the black screen is on the screen and this really works, it also has very little dramatic rumbles or louder sounds resulting in it giving a mood I felt of no hope further adding an effect and atmosphere to this opening sequence. When shown to different people we gathered their opinions on our film, they commented on the music and sounds added and within working well together and adding tension to the film, the effects on the titles were good and fitted with the music and feel, the direction of the actress was really good, the camera work was stead, we used relative pops to the ideals and the time and one person even said “it made me jump.” I think all of this positive feedback is great as it shows that it is what people aged 15-17 (our target audience) like the film and the ideas within it.

Bellow will show some of the basic steps me and my group took when editing and improving our film.

These basic steps really do make the film what it is and once we had got the hang of the program it is very simple to use.

The main preliminary I did was about two boys having a conversation and then suddenly one turning form a boy into a girl, this being the first film was I thought quite good, however when looking back on this film I think this is to a much higher standard. I think the main reasons that this film was better than the first is that we did more research giving us a better idea of what our film should be like from the ideas from critics and the codes and conventions and what should be in it such as props, costumes and actors. I think that the use of actors that were not in our production group helped as we could concentrate on the technical elements and direction separately. I also felt the entire group was much more focused as we all knew what we wanted from the film and this them made the film better this time, however with the preliminary I think that I didn’t take it as seriously as I should, I also found that with the preliminary we improvised quite a lot towards the end of the filming, whereas with this piece we had everything planned and knew exactly how it should look and what was going to happen. The technical elements such as music and variety of shots were also very different as in this we actually listened to different tracks that we planned to use in our film but in the preliminary there wasn’t even and track music on it; there was also a lack of credits or graphics on the preliminary whereas on this again more research was done to look at what we though would be appropriate. I genuinely think that the finished product was as good as we could have possible made it; I love our film and think that it matches the thriller genre perfectly.