A2 : Students : aeapmedia : AS work : Evaluation

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

http://www.wix.com/xamyx1/theobscura

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film includes a British teenage girl, who seems innocent and targeted by a sadistic murderer for no apparent reason. Her clothes are similar to those that a youth might wear today (jeans, Ugg boots, knitwear and a coat) which suggests that she is a normal member of society. The fact that she is an ordinary member of her community suggests that this situation could happen to anybody, even those who seem to be in a safe environment. Her costume seems quite casual, indicating that she is simply carrying out her day to day life. The girl playing the role was convincing in terms of acting, her subtle expressions that conveyed panic and anxiety helped to make the murderer seems even more intimidating. The reason that her expressions are subtle is so that the performance is more believable, if she had been over dramatic, it would have become more of a theatrical piece that is not received well on film. As the audience feels closer to the murderer through shots of his point of view, this implies that perhaps we as the audience feel as if we are also threatening, giving us superiority and power over her.  Also, the fact that there are no implications that she is in a rush or startled, this indicates that she is just living her daily routine. To then have someone following her as she walks down a quiet road suggests to the audience that this type of incident can occur for anyone in society, providing that they are isolated and therefore more vulnerable to be attacked.

      The other character included in the film is the murderer, but interestingly I have shown half of the film from his point of view. This makes him seem more threatening, as the audience can see him closing in on the girl. An alternative interpretation is that as the audience are seeing the film mostly from his point of view, we feel sympathetic for him as he clearly has sense of reality and so is not part of a normal society. However, he is physically seen near the end of the sequence, to suggest that actually when the audience step back from his viewpoint that he is still a murderer, regardless of his psychological issues. The black and white filter for his point of view reflects his lack of emotion, which also conveys his character as being malicious as he does not have any motive for killing people. When the murderer is seen outside of his point of view, I have deliberately not shown his face, but only glimpses of dark hands and his body. The effect of this is that he seems more mysterious and ominous, perhaps the shadowing of his figure reflects his lack of personality and identity. Also, as a member of society, it indicates that he is not popular or noticed, and so he is a lonely and anti-social person. Although the actor playing the role of the murderer is 17 years old, I intentionally wanted the murderer to be older (in his 20’s), and I chose that particular actor as he seems older than he is. The reason for this is that being older than his victim gives him more power, and so it foreshadows that she is unlikely to survive against him. Also, it indicates that young people give can be perceived as being older than they are, perhaps to suggest that young members of society are ahead of their time, and so their thoughts are more advanced and mature for their age. Even though the actor playing the murderer is not fully visible during the sequence, he is seen more at the end of the sequence. I then decided to visually reveal more of him after the murder to make him seem more human, so that he audience can now see that he has an identity. By doing this, it has implications that because he has now interacted in an extreme form with somebody else, he now feels more socially involved with the world around him. Also, this therefore implies that he is likely to continue murdering people in order to constantly make him feel involved in civilisation. When he was killing the girl, he evidently lacks emotion and so he seems more as if he is inhumanely hunting. Because of this, it portrays him as not being involved in a social group, but an extreme abnormality to society. However, after the horrific incident, these shots allow the audience to see him in a less sinister light, which may change their negative views of him. As he stares at his latest photograph of his victim, it implies that he is lingering on the thought of her, like he is proud of what he has achieved. Through the actor’s performance, it creates the idea that the murderer is extremely neurotic as he gets pleasure from preserving mementos of his murders. Evidently, this will make him a social outcast from the rest of civilisation, as no one can relate to him. However, as he keeps photographs of his victims, it gives the impression that they are a substitute for friends and relationships that he is lacking in and so he therefore treasures them. The effect of this is that the audience will sympathize with him, as this indicates that he does have normal emotions (such as affection) but he is showing them in bizarre ways.

      My film is set in present day using young actors, which I deliberately used to show how society has become so corrupt that even younger members of society can be harmful psychologically insecure. Also, as the two main characters in my film are of similar age in reality, it raises questions in the audience as to who is the victim and villain in the situation. However, it also is appropriate for adults because although the characters are young in age, some of their characteristics may be connected to an older audience (such as the girl’s unawareness and innocence).  However, unlike a typical thriller film, I have chosen a different setting- a middle class countryside town that is populated with an older generation. This is shown through the old Cotswold buildings, that are inhabited by older people who are settling down for a quiet and peaceful life. This was done to suggest that places that are apparently serene and calm can be disrupted by a young and corrupt generation. I have

intentionally challenged the conventions of a thriller, the idea I am trying to express is that even cosy and quiet areas of Britain can prove to be dangerous and frightening, therefore nowhere is safe. In addition, the characters in my film are Caucasian, which excludes other ethnic groups. The reason for this is I wanted to use a fully British and white cast, to deliberately break the idealistic stereotypes that American film companies portray them as.

3 and 4) Who would be the audience for your media product and how did you attract/address your audience?

• As a conventional thriller film should be gripping (with a building of tension), I was very much focused on this when planning and creating my film. I managed to achieve this through the sound effects/music and the increase in pace as the plot got to its climax. An audience for a thriller film is mainly males, aged 18-35 years old. The film is based from the murderer’s point of view, which may appeal to males in the sense that the film will be more centred on the action and crime, which stereotypically is more engaging to males. However, my film is a 15 certificate, which cannot emphasize gore or violence too much. I kept this in mind when making my film, and I decided to imply the murder so that it avoided the strong themes. Also, if I had included bloodshed and carnage, it would have made the film more of a horror genre, which would not have fit my initial brief.

• When carrying out my first questionnaire, the interviewed people suggested that the sequence should be left on a cliff hanger, with twists in the plot. Throughout my first few edits, I filmed a struggling scene between the murderer and the girl, which is not leaving anything to the imagination. I realised later during the creative process that it is more ominous to not visually show the murder onscreen, and so people are perhaps not sure as to what was inflicted on the girl. Also, the end scene in the dark room stayed constant throughout my edits; the sequence ended with the murderer adding another photograph of his latest victim to his collection. This leaves the film open, and so the audience are perhaps left speculating as to what happens next (E.g: Would he be finally caught by the police or will he continue on with his murders?)In my research, I found that people preferred the crime in the sequence to be a murder. The main reason I decided go with the results was because the idea of death is more daunting for an audience, as they are being shown that the girl has no chance of escape or living, which therefore makes the man targeting her seem more ruthless in his actions. However, the murder is perhaps not entirely clear in the film as it is not shown onscreen. Originally, I did film the murder, but I realised after editing a few times that it was not as effective as I thought. Also, I found it fairly challenging to portray the murder as being creepy but at the same time not being too graphic and so it seemed better to leave the murder to the minds of the viewer.I also found that all people questioned preferred to have the sequence set in night time, which I did. I filmed the sequence mostly in daylight so that the shots were clearer and less pixelated, but I then edited them using dark filters, to give the illusion of night. The reason that night time was an essential to my sequence is because it gives an impression of unawareness, the girl would become more paranoid as she cannot fully see around her. In terms of the film title, somebody suggested “Shutter” or “Hide and seek”, both of which I liked. However, I shortly afterwards discovered that both titles were already established in the film industry, and so I unfortunately could not use them. Instead, I used the photography terminology of “The Obscura”, which actually means a dark enclosed space in which images are projected and developed. In my opinion, the audience probably would not know what “Obscura” means, unless they are involved in photography or media themselves. Therefore, this title for the majoirty of the audience would immediately make them curious as to what the title means and it’s link to the film. This worked well for the storyline of my film, as it is based on the murderer and his work, where he evidently spends much time hidden in the shadows and in a dark photography developing room.

• To ensure that the audience were curious and interested in the sequence, I only revealed small parts of the murderer. As shown above, shots of his hands preparing and developing photographs were integrated in between the main part of the film. Because of this, it broke up the scene of the girl walking so that it was not a monotonous sequence. Also, the red filter suggests danger, even though the audience at this moment are unaware of who is developing the photographs and what the photographs are of, they already are getting a sense that the person in the frame is not perhaps of a good-willed nature. The music used in this shot is gritty and fast in pace, which is typical to a thriller film to suggest that the action is increasing. The shot is not long in length, so that the audience only get a glimpse of parts of the storyline. At this point, the audience may be curious, trying to understand and link together what this shot has to do with the girl walking. Because of this, it is making them think for themselves instead of being fed the plot which makes it arguably more entertaining.

• This shot clearly suggests that the girl is now at the least unable to move, and most likely dead. As the majority of people asked wanted the sequence to involve a murder, this is appropriate to imply that. The evidence for this is in my thriller research, where I directly asked people a questionnaire that asked this (see research page). For the audience, this is satisfying as they are being told that she has been killed by the murderer, but there is still an unclear feeling about his actions, which still keeps the audience thinking about how or why he carries out his murders. In addition, this shot is particularly ominous as the person on the other end of her call is still there, wondering what has happened. To the viewer, it makes them feel more important as they more of an idea what has happened to the girl, whereas the recipient on the phone does not.

Reactions to The Obscura

• The cast that were voted for by my interviewed people were Ashleigh Wozencroft, Harry Clucas-Tomlinson and Danielle Godwin. I agreed with these choices, but due to complications of time and schedules, Ashleigh was not available to play the role of the victim. Although Elizabeth Glynne-Jones was voted with the next most votes, I thought about using India Rowell instead. As India had was flexible and reliable for filming, it came in useful when filming on short notice. Also, I found that she was a decent actress, and so her performance onscreen helped with the overall verisimilitude of the sequence.  In addition, Harry Clucas-Tomlinson was unmistakeably the majority vote for the murderer, and so I used him to act in my film. In the first few edits, some of the shots revealed him onscreen, which in a way was interesting as he had certain qualities that made him a believable murderer.  However, halfway through my edits I realised that it was more frightening to make him mysterious, and so I ended up cropping shots so that he was not see much at all. Also, I completely discarded the original struggling scene as his face was shown onscreen, which seemed to ruin the curiosity around his character.  Furthermore, I also initially wanted to have Danielle Godwin as the murderer’s accomplice, and to be present at the murder scene to ensure that he would not be caught in the act. In my first edit, she is only seen very briefly and my reasoning for that was so that the audience does not linger on who she is for too long, so that the revealing of her being on his side later on is more shocking and unsuspected. However, comments on my blog showed that they did not understand why Danielle was in the film (Quote: “I recommend cutting a few shots like the one of Danielle as it doesn’t make sense why she is here.”/” I didn’t feel that the woman in the window was necessary as it makes the audience feel like the girl is going to be fine, and also I don’t understand why she hides behind the car as she more than likely wouldn’t do this if it was a real situation.”). Although I could have possibly given more indication as to why she was there, it would have ruined the storyline. It is only at the end of the entire film that her character is revealed to be his assistant, and so to have elaborated on her character would have not fitted with what I intended. Instead, I had to cut her out of the film so that the sequence is solely focused on the murderer and his target. This affected my narrative in the sense that one of the characters is completely cut out of the first sequence, which actually affects the entire plot. However, if I were to continue making the rest of the film, I would have found some way to reintroduce her into the narrative, as she is a crucial part of the end of the film where she is found to be the murderer’s accomplice.

A major problem I encountered in my film was the continuity of sound. Whilst filming on a public and main road, I initially wanted to include dialogue of the girl talking to her friend on her mobile. However, cars were constantly going past, and therefore drowning her voice out. Also, as I linked the shots together, it was apparent that the car sounds were not even and did not flow into one another (Quotes: “I think the sound was a bit mismatched and didn’t join together that well.”/ “I think the sound at the beginning of the cars doesn’t fit in very well.”/ “I don’t like the noise when India is talking as there’s too much background noise of the cars.”/ “The sound could be improved as you can hear the traffic a lot and when India is speaking, it is quite quiet.”/ “The diagetic background varies so maybe use more music instead?”) To solve this issue, I had to remove all diagetic sound of the shots (including India talking) and replace it with a car SFX, that ran smoothly from one shot to the next. Although India could not be heard, the actual dialogue was not relevant to the plot, and so it was not a problem for it to be cut out.

Most of my original sequence consisted of shots of the girl walking, which understandably can become monotonous for the audience- especially when a thriller genre is meant to be fast in pace and attention-grabbing. I still wanted to keep the bulk of the shots, as it is building slowly to the action at the end. If I had have had the murder earlier on in the film, it would not have had a dramatic effect as the buildup to the climax would have been too short. (Quotes: “I think that the camera following them walking should slightly vary, as it is slightly boring.”/”Also when the girl is walking it does tend to get tedious as there isn’t a variety of shots used.”/” I really like the storyline but I think some of the shots of the actors walking could be cut down a little bit.”) My response to the feedback is that when doing another shoot, I did various shots at different angles of India walking to break up the monotony. Also, I intergrated other shots of close ups with her walking to keep the shots visually interesting, rather than just seeing her walk.

              Cartoon comic of my feedback, created using www.pixton.com

5) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

If my film were to be produced by a company, I think that it would probably be best as a Warp production. The main reason for this is that my film conveys the idea of Britain being corrupt, a gritty and realistic side to how places can be. For instance, Warp’s film ‘Tyrannosaur’ represents Britain as having corrupt members of society, involving murder and imprisonment. This is therefore a good company for my film as mine also represents Britain as being unsafe due to crime. Although I have appealed to a global audience in the sense that my setting is a ‘Heritage British’ and typical cosy countryside setting, I have then presented it as not being perfect, but instead suggesting that such places in Britain can be involved in crime as much as anywhere else. This would not appeal to a global audience as they prefer formulaic films that represent Britain as being perfect and conventionally typical, and so it would not fit in with their idealistic interpretation of what Britain is like. For example, Working Title make films such as ‘Four weddings and a funeral’, where Britain is represented as countryside and as being idealistic. The end of the film results in the man finally marrying the woman he always wanted, and so it is representing the situation as positive and comforting to the audience, which a global audience would appreciate.

Therefore, the film is also aimed at a national audience rather than a global one, as it is made for a British audience. A British audience can appreciate films that break their stereotypes, and actually the dark humour and sarcasm of British people in general would perhaps make them prefer a more alternative and unique storyline. An example of this is Warp’s ‘Four Lions’- although the storyline is based around a sensitive subject of terrorism and anti-patriotism, the characters are represented as being humourous which made the film popular in the UK. Although films made by Warp are distributed via digital technology (such as online internet streaming and digital cinema), I think that my film would be better to be distributed in a more traditional form such as DVDs and traditional cinema. The reason for this is that although the film is not playing on stereotypes, the plot is not unlike other conventional thrillers in some respects, and so it could potentially be appreciated by a mainstream audience in Britain.

If the film were to be streamed online or digitally, it would be targeting a niche audience that are loyal to innovative storylines. I think that perhaps such an audience might enjoy the film because of the gritty realism involved, however I also believe that the conventional thriller elements of it will also appeal to the mainstream audiences of Britain. I can understand that the unconventional setting might be a risk for a mainstream audience, as presenting the countryside as being corrupt might not appeal to them. However, due to the nature of British people, I think that they would overlook this or even find this aspect of the film intriguing.  I also understand that producing under a film company such as Warp and then attempting to distribute to a mainstream audience could be extremely difficult, as the company does not have as high of a reputation or popularity compared to Working Title or the globally reknowned Universal pictures. On the other hand, it is arguable that Working Title is only as successful as they are due to their $600,000,000 deal with the American film production company Universal Pictures. This suggests that it does not matter about the success rate, as Warp’s mission statement is to provide completely British made films aimed at a British audience, and so as the focus is on Britain alone, it arguably will appeal to them more than a film that tries to reach a global and wider audience.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In terms of new media, I have used the internet such as a blog for my thriller film. The blog made it easier for my film to be exhibited, as it did not cost anything to upload it to my page. Although my blog is not popular enough for the film to be viewed by a large audience, it is an easy way for people to access it regardless. Also, throughout the process of editing my film, I found the blog useful in the sense that people commented on various edits, and therefore helped me to improve the film through the creative process. By getting personal opinions, it was helpful in ensuring that it appealed to the audience more. In addition, other films made by similar students to myself are also uploaded on the blog, and so it was useful to look at films from the past for inspiration and an idea of the standard that my film should be at. To help other students, it was useful for them as I could give them constructive feedback on their film edits. The blog in general is also a more organized way of collecting and retaining all of my work, and so I can easily access and refer back to it. The internet is beneficial to creating my film as I heavily relied on it for my thriller film research. What I have learnt from using the blog is that the film can be more readily exhibited and direct feedback can be exchanged, which is particularly useful when trying to edit on tight deadlines.

Digital technology was also useful in creating a decent quality of film. For instance, I used a HDD digital camera, which filmed to a respectable standard providing that the lighting was sufficient. Also, the camera used did not need tapes or disks to retain the film, and so it was easy for irrelevant material to be deleted instantly or re filmed. In my first few shoots, the film was shot without a good source of light, and so the film as a result had a grainy effect and was too dark. However, to resolve this I re filmed the shots in daylight, and so I added a preset effect in iMovie afterwards to give the impression of night time (called “Day into night”). From this, I have learnt that lighting is actually an important aspect of filming- and although the camera is of a decent quality, it makes no difference if there is not enough light that it can receive. In terms of editing, the iMovie program made it easy for me to create the film. When altering aspects of the film, the shots became easy to rearrange, cut and remove. Because of this, the production stage can become more experimental and creative, as the program allows the clips to be manipulated in different ways. Also, sound effects could be dropped into the film and moved, which allowed me to put them in the exact place needed. In addition, various default transitions/effects on iMovie provided a choice of titles and filters that added to the overall effect of the film (such as the black and white filter or my opening credits). Although my titles were simplistic, it can still have an effect on the audience if positioned at the right time, and so I learnt that titles are a significant part of opening a sequence. For the shots that were too shaky, I used editing to stabilize the shots, so that although they involved movement they were not poor quality. This was achieved using the editing program iMovie, where there is a setting called “Stabilizer”, which automatically attempts to remove movement from the shot to make it more smooth. By doing this, it allows the audience to concentrate on the action onscreen, rather than getting irritated by the shakiness of the film. Also, as the murderer draws closer to the girl, I used editing to increase the speed of the shots, which made the girl look as if she was walking hurriedly towards the end. The program iMovie also achieved this, there is a slide bar that can decrease or increase the speed of a shot, and by quickening it it created a climax to the end of the sequence, and therefore making it more exciting for the audience to watch. Also, the rapid building of pace is a convention of a thriller, and so climax created tension up to the murder.

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

In both my practice project and preliminary task, I found that retrospectively I have made many mistakes in my film and editing. In my practice project, the film resulted in being highly pixelated as the settings when importing the footage were not correct. However, I soon learnt from this and made sure that the settings were correct in my preliminary task and thriller sequence. Also, the practice project was meant to be a conventional western film, which mine was not as the film revealed green and hilly British countryside. Also, in the western film I did not keep all of the shots still- in fact a lot of them were very shaky. In my preliminary task, I realised that it was important to keep the shots stable and so I learnt from there onwards to keep them still. In addition, I found that in my practice project had footage that was too long, and so the audience would get bored. I kept the shots fairly brief in my thriller, to prevent them from becoming monotonous. Another problem I encountered is that the sound effects (especially in the practice task) did not flow well throughout, some of them cut out abruptly and did not fit the sequence well. Although I did not particularly use many sound effects in my preliminary task, I thought more carefully about the sound in my thriller sequence.  The sounds in my thriller sequence had to be altered and swapped many times until they fitted the action onscreen, which in the end was beneficial as it enhanced the footage. The evidence for this is all of my edits on the blog, where if listened, the music changes throughout the edits. For instance, the high pitched screeching violins during the murder worked well as they conveyed a strong sense of panic in the girl and unease in the audience.

In the practice project, I collaborated with two other people. The problem I found with this is that collectively it was more difficult to arrange times to film, and we had small disagreements about the creative process. I was mainly involved in the editing, whereas the other two did more of the filming process. Because of this, I had no expertise with filming, and so it was challenging when I did the preliminary task on my own. However, I chose from then onwards to work alone as I felt I had more control creatively, and so I could have the thriller sequence as I wish. Also, although the workload is greater, I did not have to rely on meeting with others for filming, but simply had to arrange the times with the actors. I quickly learned how to film, and so the jump between the practice project and the preliminary task was not as great as I thought. From this, I learned how to manage time more carefully and arrange filming dates, but also I gained more experience in using all of the equipment which resulted in making my film better than the preliminary task. The first two tasks I found easy to deal with the deadlines, as there was only one draft of the film in total. For the thriller film, the deadlines were more frequent and although I did meet them it became more of a challenge. However, I think that the constant improving and re-filming for deadlines resulted as an advantage, as my final outcome was much better than how it began. I found that working alone for thsi project was difficult in the sense that I had various people giving me feedback, which I had to quickly take on board and consider when constantly changing the film. Also, as the sequence involved more planning, research and edits than the preliminary task, in some respects this was also hard to do alone as it was time consuming and a large amount of work.

The practice project was not too difficult to arrange actors, as they managed to arrive when we needed them. However, the original person I casted for the preliminary task as the teacher was not available when I needed him, and so I had to get someone else to play the role. From this, I learnt that the people that you sometimes want for roles is not always practical, and so I have become more flexible and quick thinking when trying to arrange a different actor. In my thriller film, I clearly defined who would play the roles, and they willingly came at short notice to film on countless occasions. I found that the western film was difficult to as the surrounding villages consist of green countryside and cars, which are not conventional to westerns. We ended up using a location that was isolated, but cars were still seen in the background. Luckily this production was a practice, and so this did not matter too much. In my thriller sequence, I found this type of setting still unconventional but worked as an advantage in that it challenged the audience’s perception of society. However, I still had the issue that the street I used for the thriller was exceptionally busy, with passers-by and endless cars. However, when filming the preliminary task we did not even realsie the cars were there until afterwards, and so with the thriller it taught me to be observant in the surroundings I was filming in for continuity issues. I wanted to convey the girl as being isolated, and so this proved to be a challenge.  I also had to film in the afternoon so that the shots would still be clear when they were edited to look like night time. The afternoon happened to by the busiest time of day in the area I was filming, and so I resolved this by shooting in short bursts so that no people would be seen on the pavement. Also, I had to crop some of the shots so that the cars could not be seen driving down the lane. Costumes in the western project were difficult, but we managed to get hold of some conventional cowboy clothing/props (hats, boots, guns). I did not have an issue with costume in the preliminary task and the thriller as the costumes were clothing that the actors owned. Here, I learned that costumes and props are not always difficult to obtain, but the genre and setting affect how easy they can be found.

One of my actors for the thriller, Danielle Godwin, was cast for the murderer’s accomplice. However, unlike my first two films, I ended up cutting an actor out of the film completely due to the confusion from the audience. Also, the murder sequence did evolve and change over the edits, as I found it more effective to imply the murder more than show it all onscreen. During my first two projects, I did not particularly think about filming shots repeatedly so that there was a selection to choose between. At this point, it did not matter too much as they were only practice projects. Although I ended up re filming shots frequently for my thriller, that was more due to the lack of lighting, however I did do multiple shots during this project that I could experiment with. I actually think that I used more effects in the western film (such as the sepia filter, fading transitions and slowing down of shots), but I think that my thriller film did not need too many effects. I learned that films do not necessarily need many effects for it to be believable or good, and from the preliminary task to the thriller I kept them minimalistic to focus attention on the film itself. The only effects I used were the filters to fit in with the setting (the dark room), and quickening of shots. I tried to keep the use of effects minimalistic so that it was not overpowering the footage itself, but simply helping to set the scene.

Changes in the narrative

In terms of the narrative, it has changed in some respects. For instance, during my edits, some of the feedback did not understand why Danielle was involved in the sequence. Therefore, she is not seen in the sequence, but her character has significance later on as she is found to be the murderer’s accomplice. Although she is not seen as witnessing the murder, I still wanted her to be integrated into the narrative at some stage. Because of this, I have changed the narrative so that she is following the murderer around after the incident, but for the audience they do not know whether she is part of the investigation team or his accomplice. Another change in the narrative is the location in which the girl is murdered- I extended it a few steps further to outside the church, to bring in the theme of religion but representing it to be futile. Other than that, my narrative mainly stayed as I had planned it, I tried to keep to the plan as much as possible when producing so that it would fit the audience’s expectations.