Use these examples to help you see what you can add.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During our AS Media coursework, we have used many conventions of real media productions to make our thriller as genuine and true to thrillers in the sub-genre as possible. Looking at other films in this genre, it is clear to see that there is a pattern which extends all of these films. If we could use these conventions, our thriller would become greater than without.
Our narrative is about a Deputy police officer inspecting and reacting to a crime which has been committed. This storyline idea has been used many times and is close to one of our films we researched for the planning of it: Se7en. In this, the protagonist is searching for a murderer of the seven deadly sins. While the story of this is similar to our movie, two of our other research analysis films; Memento and Sin City are in our genre of ‘Noire Thriller’.
Our thriller contradicts the narrative theory proposed by Todorov. This is a theory in which starts with peace at first, but disruption occurs during the middle however, the film ends with a return to order and equilibrium. Our thriller does not follow this path as it starts with a call which immediately takes our thriller to disequilibrium. The call represents a murder report which in turn changes the equilibrium however as this is the first action done in the film; we cannot count the immediate start as equilibrium. As well as this, it does not end with a state of peace. As it is an opening to a thriller. This means we will not have equilibrium due to the end not being filmed.
Another theory of film was created by Charles Derry. He describes a suspense thriller as “a crime work which presents a generally murderous antagonism in which the protagonist becomes either an innocent victim or a nonprofessional criminal within a structure that is significantly unmediated by a traditional figure’. However, our thriller does not follow this overall basis of a thriller. Even though it accepts that there is a murderous antagonist, the protagonist never becomes a nonprofessional victim due to it being his job to uncover the criminal. Derry also redefines the thriller, putting them into six sub-genres These are; political, acquired identity, psycho traumatic, moral confrontation, innocent-on-the-run and thriller of murderous passions. Unfortunately, our thriller does not go into any of these either despite having some correlation between a thriller of moral confrontation. It is a genre of thriller that was popular in the 40’s and 50’s but lately has been forgotten but for a few exceptions such as memento and Sin City.
The final thriller theory we have studied is Action and enigma codes introduced by Roland Barthes. An action codes is described as an element in a story in which a character performs an action which is important to the story. Our thriller has many of these. One example of this in our film is the loading of the gun by our antagonist. It intrigues the viewer because the action may take importance later in the film. Enigma codes refer to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that need an explanation. One enigma code in our thriller is the opening of the case. The viewer does not know what is in the case and therefore raises questions. To intertwine both action and enigma codes, we used a gun firing as an action code immediately after the enigma.
Our media product uses conventions of real noire film productions as we used a non-diegetic voiceover throughout the film. This is used in famous and successful noire films such as ‘build my gallows high’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’. Voiceovers are successful as it lets the audience sympathise with the character speaking as you know his true intentions and what he feels. This is good for our film as our protagonist has very few words to say and therefore could be hard to sympathise if he were quiet throughout the film. We also implemented a voiceover as, like our examples, they are noire films and it serves as a key part of this genre.
Another convention that we used in our noire film was a weary protagonist. This is used in other noire films such as ‘The big sleep’ in which the protagonist; Phillip Marlow is a private detective that is troubled by complex cases. A weary protagonist is good for a film as it shows the work ethic of the main protagonist and this in-turn lets the audience further sympathize with him. In our final thriller film, we have used a criminal underworld. This is used and frequently represented in the sub-genre we are looking towards. One example of this is in the movie ‘Chinatown’ in which the criminal underworld is the main plot of the film.
To make our film more historically accurate, we incorporated historically accurate fonts. For this time period, we found that art deco was the most suitable. This font enhances our film as it lets the audience become more engaged due to it fitting the genre and therefore makes it look in place as opposed to un-natural looking. Historically accurate fonts are a widely used convention. To create the font, we first studied three opening sequences of well-known and high priced movies. All three showed us that the font is changed in order to accept the location and genre of the movie.
As with the font type we used, the non-copyrighted score we used was inspired and designed around the genre of our film. We researched this and found the most fitting sub-genres of music for this time period would be jazz and blues. This helps the viewer engage with the film as, like before with the font, it puts the audience in a mind-set which allows them to accept the set and time which the movie is from.
To conclude, our whole media film has accepted and use conventions of real media products that are associated to the genre of the film. However, due to many thriller theory’s not implementing noire thrillers, our final piece does challenge forms of media as well
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at our preliminary task, our original task looks very basic, poorly planned and overall very dull. In contrast, our finished film looks a lot better due to us learning from our mistakes in the preliminary task. We incorporated a lot more to our final piece to make a greater product.
Our thriller work was planned well unlike our preliminary task where we did not plan what so ever as we did not make any storyboards and simply went off a whim. Our final thriller was planned well with detailed shot list showing shot type, shot number, costume and props needed for the scene. This was accompanied by very accurate drawings of what we want to achieve with the shot. This benefits us as when we get to the location, we can immediately set up and know what to do. Interesting narrative. Audience feedback with rough cut.
When doing our final thriller work, we had a target audience in mind. This was unlike our preliminary task. This 16 and over audience helped us achieve a greater product as it gives us a good idea of what we need to improve on as well as what we have done correctly. The narrative was taken well by this group but they stressed on adapting the personalities of the characters, especially the protagonist. After we had filmed, we had rough cut of the product. This was then shown to the target audience. We asked various questions such as “is the film suspenseful at all” and “how did you think the protagonist was displayed” as well as an open question at the end which let us pick up on feedback which was not covered by the set questions. Looking back at our preliminary task, we did none of these and when eventually displayed to an audience, it was not taken too well. We had learnt from progression that using your target audience in the building of your movie is key to success as it can give an outside view of your work without being biased.
Our preliminary task did have editing but this was very simple. The edits were slow and the overall looked un-professional and felt boring to watch. Our final product however, was much more sleek and better. We had been new to final cut originally and thought it was best to use Imovie: a piece of software that is simple to use but unfortunately doesn’t have all the tools final cut pro has. Luckily we did pick up Final Cut fairly quickly. This made us able to edit shots correctly and make the piece look refined and fast paced. This refinement was made in Final Cut as it enabled us to use various specialist tools which let us change the colour correction, saturation, contrast. This was essential for our film due to it being film noir. This genre relies heavily on atmosphere and this can be achieved by stylising the film using these tools. For example, during our opening scene, the lighting is essential to show atmosphere. Desaturation made this scene look good as it enhances the low key lighting in areas stand out as well as turning the colour off, which is used in many noir films such as Chinatown or the more modern, Memento.
In our preliminary exercise, we were criticized for the lack of shots used. Along with this, the shots used were nearly all static. This makes the task look boring and unimaginative. Fortunately, we reviewed our mistakes and understood that we must include more active shots. Panning and tilting
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our coursework film the mob boss character (the antagonist) represents a rich, powerful, criminal social class. When he is first shown the camera is at a low angle and tilting up at him, by doing this we instantly empower the character, giving the audience the idea that he is more powerful than the other characters due to his social class. When the secondary character arrives the antagonist is assertive while the secondary character is submissive. The antagonist is dressed smart and expensively further empowering him and suggesting he is wealthy, it also contrasts with the poor, civilian character whose costume is opposite to the mob boss in terms of social character. We used an action code when the antagonist shows his gun, the audience does not know if he will use this weapon or not. This character is portrayed negatively because he shows no remorse for the murder of the poor civilian. He takes the money in the case afterwards which follows the stereotype that rich people are greedy and take money from the poor.
The main protagonist represents a middle class detective attempting to stop this manipulative criminal. We do not use any low angle or high angle shots for this character because we do not want to empower or disempower the character, we want his level of control over the crimes in the film to be less than that of the antagonist but not too low for him to be submissive. Enigma codes are used for this character towards the end of the film, after he finds the secondary character dead it is unknown whether he will be able to stop the antagonist or not. In terms of social class the detective appears to be lower than the mob boss. The mob boss wears expensive looking clothing and carries cases full of money while the detective dresses practically and does not attempt to show off wealth. He is portrayed positively because he is the heroic protagonist who is helpless to stop these crimes but determined none the less. This characters also follows a stereotype, he is portrayed as a hard-working middle class detective.
The secondary character supplying the drugs is submissive; he represents an innocent, civilian social class who is drawn into this dangerous drug deal with the antagonist. We made this character and the antagonist binary opposites in order to empower the antagonist and disempower this character and to also show the divide in social class. The antagonists costume makes him appear rich and powerful but somewhat sinister while the secondary characters costume makes him seem poor and innocent. It could be argued that the characters low social class instantly makes him a victim while the antagonist’s higher social class allows him to steal money and get away with crimes. The two characters that are lower in social class to the mob boss are both portrayed positively which in turn portrays the rich character negatively and as a stereotype.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
For our movie, we wanted the age rating to include the most common cinema viewers. I had researched the cinema audience and found that this was both men and women aged 13 to 21 years old. Unfortunately, we believe that the age rating would be set at 15 certificate due to the excessive violence and drug references our film contains. The detective thriller theme we are looking for may not appeal to mainstream market but could intrigue certain people therefore making our market niche and independent. This certain selection of market is what made us chose independent marketing and distribution companies for our film such as New Market Films. The target audience we are looking for may also be directed at older aged people as our film is not reliant on fast-paced editing and action which could not appeal to an audience that is not mainly consisted of young people. Also the main protagonist may not appeal to younger audiences because he is not in a situation that younger viewers will understand or relate to which means it will be harder to make younger people sympathise with him. This is why we are aiming for an audience of higher age group.
I researched what the average audience for thriller films is and found that it is mostly men ages 18-35 years. This is good because it fits with our predicted 15 certificate and even gives us room to go higher if we want. It is also a broad age group allowing us to target our film at more people despite its independent non-mainstream status. In terms of social class we are aiming at a more middle-class audience. We are able to do this because the protagonist is presented as a middle-class, hard-working, heroic detective while the antagonist is presented as a rich, powerful, empathy-less criminal. This makes it easier for a low to middle-class audience to empathise with the protagonist and be drawn to the film more.
After researching the average audience for thriller films I researched what the average audience would be for noir/crime drama films. I found that it is also mostly male ages 18-75. This is the same demographic that I found before with thriller films with the only difference being the drastic increase in the age group limit.
What have you learned about technology from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst planning, developing and producing our film we came across many different technologies which aided us such as:
• Final Cut Express
We used final cut for a few things, these include editing our film; editing our pitch which we then uploaded to YouTube and embedded to our website so that we were able to review them at a later date; and to splice together clips for our animated story board, that we also uploaded to YouTube and embedded. Without this we would be unable to do any work for our final piece and planning.
We have definitely learnt that without this form of technology we would be unable to get the quality of edit in to our film as we were able to zoom in for precision when needed and layer music and dialogue when it was needed
We were also able to de-saturate the image to give a pure noir visual to the film; using final cut also enabled us to merge a variety of sound clips to create a score that was fitting for our genre.
• Livefonts
we used livefonts to try and get the right feel to our titles we needed to experiment with the key tones, shadows and the colour pallet so that we could create a better suited title and develop the theme of 1930’s film noire thriller.
• WIX
This was essential as it served as a hub for all of our coursework we were able to present all of our work including our films on the site. We wanted to show our research on title, costumes, props and theory’s such as codes, Barth and Derry. We also wanted to have a place where we could all see our thriller analyses and our shot list and story board.
• Weebly
Weebly has the same properties as WIX we first made our website on it but we encountered problems due to publishing errors.
• YouTube
We used this as a hub for all our video clips so that we could later embed them into our website we had some problems with uploading times and the likes but apart from that it worked fine.
• Dafonts
We used this website to fine fonts that matched our 1930’s titles these included noir et blanc; sierra madre; one dance; hooverville and nite club. We felt that these selections gave the best overall 1930’s feel one of our favourites is Montgomery this is very slick text but we needed a title which came in bold and this did not.
• Looperman
We used Looperman to find sound clips that I could then edit together for our final soundtrack and score we were able to find tension sounds on the site and also some good loops which I was then able to splice together on garage band.
• Garage Band
I used this to edit loops together for the first half of the score in our film I also found some good loops on the program as well for example brass loops and jazz loops.
• The internet
If we were lacking the knowledge or information then we would you Google or other search engines to find out what we needed also without the internet we would be unable to use any web based applications or sites therefore we would have no titles, score and no website.
I feel that all the different combined technologies allowed us to develop new skills and problem solving techniques; I feel like more of a professional and am more confident with editing now than I was at the beginning of the year. I feel that if we did not have the multitude of professional software that was on offer then I would have been unable to do the majority of things that I now feel confident in doing. I also feel that it would have slowed down our learning progress and our ability to produce our final product.
By using the software that was available to assist us in our group project I have learnt how we can apply our new found knowledge of editing and visual effects to a future group project and be able to obtain higher marks. The editing and visual effect software such as Final Cut Pro has been highly used over the course of our group project and has allowed us to do things with our final piece that would have been otherwise impossible. Even less important programs such as the Wix website creator have been useful in that it has allowed us to log our progress, shot lists and inspirational sources for our film style.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During our AS Media coursework, we have used many conventions of real media productions to make our thriller as genuine and true to thrillers in the sub-genre as possible. Looking at other films in this genre, it is clear to see that there is a pattern which extends all of these films. If we could use these conventions, our thriller would become greater than without.
Our narrative is about a Deputy police officer inspecting and reacting to a crime which has been committed. This storyline idea has been used many times and is close to one of our films we researched for the planning of it: Se7en. In this, the protagonist is searching for a murderer of the seven deadly sins. While the story of this is similar to our movie, two of our other research analysis films; Memento and Sin City are in our genre of ‘Noire Thriller’.
Our thriller contradicts the narrative theory proposed by Todorov. This is a theory in which starts with peace at first, but disruption occurs during the middle however, the film ends with a return to order and equilibrium. Our thriller does not follow this path as it starts with a call which immediately takes our thriller to disequilibrium. The call represents a murder report which in turn changes the equilibrium however as this is the first action done in the film; we cannot count the immediate start as equilibrium. As well as this, it does not end with a state of peace. As it is an opening to a thriller. This means we will not have equilibrium due to the end not being filmed.
Another theory of film was created by Charles Derry. He describes a suspense thriller as “a crime work which presents a generally murderous antagonism in which the protagonist becomes either an innocent victim or a nonprofessional criminal within a structure that is significantly unmediated by a traditional figure’. However, our thriller does not follow this overall basis of a thriller. Even though it accepts that there is a murderous antagonist, the protagonist never becomes a nonprofessional victim due to it being his job to uncover the criminal. Derry also redefines the thriller, putting them into six sub-genres These are; political, acquired identity, psycho traumatic, moral confrontation, innocent-on-the-run and thriller of murderous passions. Unfortunately, our thriller does not go into any of these either despite having some correlation between a thriller of moral confrontation. It is a genre of thriller that was popular in the 40’s and 50’s but lately has been forgotten but for a few exceptions such as memento and Sin City.
The final thriller theory we have studied is Action and enigma codes introduced by Roland Barthes. An action codes is described as an element in a story in which a character performs an action which is important to the story. Our thriller has many of these. One example of this in our film is the loading of the gun by our antagonist. It intrigues the viewer because the action may take importance later in the film. Enigma codes refer to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that need an explanation. One enigma code in our thriller is the opening of the case. The viewer does not know what is in the case and therefore raises questions. To intertwine both action and enigma codes, we used a gun firing as an action code immediately after the enigma.
Our media product uses conventions of real noire film productions as we used a non-diegetic voiceover throughout the film. This is used in famous and successful noire films such as ‘build my gallows high’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’. Voiceovers are successful as it lets the audience sympathise with the character speaking as you know his true intentions and what he feels. This is good for our film as our protagonist has very few words to say and therefore could be hard to sympathise if he were quiet throughout the film. We also implemented a voiceover as, like our examples, they are noire films and it serves as a key part of this genre.
Another convention that we used in our noire film was a weary protagonist. This is used in other noire films such as ‘The big sleep’ in which the protagonist; Phillip Marlow is a private detective that is troubled by complex cases. A weary protagonist is good for a film as it shows the work ethic of the main protagonist and this in-turn lets the audience further sympathize with him. In our final thriller film, we have used a criminal underworld. This is used and frequently represented in the sub-genre we are looking towards. One example of this is in the movie ‘Chinatown’ in which the criminal underworld is the main plot of the film.
To make our film more historically accurate, we incorporated historically accurate fonts. For this time period, we found that art deco was the most suitable. This font enhances our film as it lets the audience become more engaged due to it fitting the genre and therefore makes it look in place as opposed to un-natural looking. Historically accurate fonts are a widely used convention. To create the font, we first studied three opening sequences of well-known and high priced movies. All three showed us that the font is changed in order to accept the location and genre of the movie.
As with the font type we used, the non-copyrighted score we used was inspired and designed around the genre of our film. We researched this and found the most fitting sub-genres of music for this time period would be jazz and blues. This helps the viewer engage with the film as, like before with the font, it puts the audience in a mind-set which allows them to accept the set and time which the movie is from.
To conclude, our whole media film has accepted and use conventions of real media products that are associated to the genre of the film. However, due to many thriller theory’s not implementing noire thrillers, our final piece does challenge forms of media as well
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
To fully answer this question first you need ask what a media institution is. It is a company that disperses a media product for audience consumption. Mainly the film would be sent to cinemas nationwide or internationally, but after a while it would then hit the shops in the form of DVD’s Soundtracks and other paraphernalia.
Also the director or producer is able to go and pitch their idea for a film and maybe receive funding for the project.
Some media distributors include: 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures and Lionsgate.
Unfortunately, our film does not match the genres that these companies specialize in, which is mainly high costing mainstream media production, ours on the other hand is an arthouse production and belongs to a very niece market. We also have to take into account that our film is very low budget and there for we would be more suited to take on a so we have decided to research which media institutions and find out what film match out genre, which is thriller and then what companies distributed their films.
I have decided to use SIN CITY, Watchmen, Se7en and Memento.
SIN CITY- Dimension Films and Troublemaker Studios
Watchmen- Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lawrence Gordon Productions and DC Comics
Se7en- Cecchi Gori Pictures and New Line Cinema
Memento- Newmarket Capital Group, Team Todd, I Remember Productions and Summit Entertainment
These are the kinds of institutes that might destitute our film, I think that New Line Media would be our best bet because they have helped to make many great thrillers and they also help indie films make a name for themselves.
How did you attract/address your audience?
During our planning for our film, we used a peer review to asses our work so far. We read them our storyboard and pitch as well as showing them the pictures alongside the text. After showing this to them, we asked them to answer 12 set questions on them as well as an overall, open question which let them give us answers to any things we had not identified. The feedback was mostly positive. They also gave us specific feedback. For example, the audience gave us a clear understanding that we need to develop our character's personality more so the audience can sympathize with him. The audience also made us change the upper limit cutting point. Subsequently, we have changed our limit from 13 to 21 year olds to 13 to 31.
One idea in our production which was changed by the audience was costume design. We wanted to distinguish between the protagonist and antagonist without either of them looking out-of-place in a 1930’s scenario. To do this, the audience suggested changing the tie colour. Red was picked for the antagonist as it connotes violence while the protagonist used a purple/blue tie which connotes calmness and peace.
Our audience changed our production during the rough cut as well as during the initial planning. They told us to stress on the sound of the production. This is a good idea as the noir film is heavily based on post production and much of this is about the score creating a sense of tension while remaining historically accurate. Before the majority of post-production, we decided to focus mainly on lighting. However, a broad range of focuses is more beneficial as without a score, ambient sound and a voiceover, the film looks slow and lacking tension.
The audience gave us feedback about the pacing on the rough cut of the film. They told us that at points, certain shots dragged on for too long, making the film seem un-interesting. We changed this by shortening a few shots and re-using them later. This helped our overall film as there is a flow to it, making it look sharp and less amateur.
As well as this, the audience helped the mise-en-scene. They did this by explaining that low key lighting would benefit the film. This was a great idea as low key lighting emphasises stress and a sense of uneasiness as well as fitting better than our previous lighter natural colour scheme. The overall look makes the whites whiter and the blacks darker.or you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
What have you learned about technology from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst planning, developing and producing our film we came across many different technologies which aided us such as:
• Final Cut Express
We used final cut for a few things, these include editing our film; editing our pitch which we then uploaded to YouTube and embedded to our website so that we were able to review them at a later date; and to splice together clips for our animated story board, that we also uploaded to YouTube and embedded. Without this we would be unable to do any work for our final piece and planning.
We have definitely learnt that without this form of technology we would be unable to get the quality of edit in to our film as we were able to zoom in for precision when needed and layer music and dialogue when it was needed
We were also able to de-saturate the image to give a pure noir visual to the film; using final cut also enabled us to merge a variety of sound clips to create a score that was fitting for our genre.
• Livefonts
we used livefonts to try and get the right feel to our titles we needed to experiment with the key tones, shadows and the colour pallet so that we could create a better suited title and develop the theme of 1930’s film noire thriller.
• WIX
This was essential as it served as a hub for all of our coursework we were able to present all of our work including our films on the site. We wanted to show our research on title, costumes, props and theory’s such as codes, Barth and Derry. We also wanted to have a place where we could all see our thriller analyses and our shot list and story board.
• Weebly
Weebly has the same properties as WIX we first made our website on it but we encountered problems due to publishing errors.
• YouTube
We used this as a hub for all our video clips so that we could later embed them into our website we had some problems with uploading times and the likes but apart from that it worked fine.
• Dafonts
We used this website to fine fonts that matched our 1930’s titles these included noir et blanc; sierra madre; one dance; hooverville and nite club. We felt that these selections gave the best overall 1930’s feel one of our favourites is Montgomery this is very slick text but we needed a title which came in bold and this did not.
• Looperman
We used Looperman to find sound clips that I could then edit together for our final soundtrack and score we were able to find tension sounds on the site and also some good loops which I was then able to splice together on garage band.
• Garage Band
I used this to edit loops together for the first half of the score in our film I also found some good loops on the program as well for example brass loops and jazz loops.
• The internet
If we were lacking the knowledge or information then we would you Google or other search engines to find out what we needed also without the internet we would be unable to use any web based applications or sites therefore we would have no titles, score and no website.
I feel that all the different combined technologies allowed us to develop new skills and problem solving techniques; I feel like more of a professional and am more confident with editing now than I was at the beginning of the year. I feel that if we did not have the multitude of professional software that was on offer then I would have been unable to do the majority of things that I now feel confident in doing. I also feel that it would have slowed down our learning progress and our ability to produce our final product.
By using the software that was available to assist us in our group project I have learnt how we can apply our new found knowledge of editing and visual effects to a future group project and be able to obtain higher marks. The editing and visual effect software such as Final Cut Pro has been highly used over the course of our group project and has allowed us to do things with our final piece that would have been otherwise impossible. Even less important programs such as the Wix website creator have been useful in that it has allowed us to log our progress, shot lists and inspirational sources for our film style.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During our AS Media coursework, we have used many conventions of real media productions to make our thriller as genuine and true to thrillers in the sub-genre as possible. Looking at other films in this genre, it is clear to see that there is a pattern which extends all of these films. If we could use these conventions, our thriller would become greater than without.
Our narrative is about a Deputy police officer inspecting and reacting to a crime which has been committed. This storyline idea has been used many times and is close to one of our films we researched for the planning of it: Se7en. In this, the protagonist is searching for a murderer of the seven deadly sins. While the story of this is similar to our movie, two of our other research analysis films; Memento and Sin City are in our genre of ‘Noire Thriller’.
Our thriller contradicts the narrative theory proposed by Todorov. This is a theory in which starts with peace at first, but disruption occurs during the middle however, the film ends with a return to order and equilibrium. Our thriller does not follow this path as it starts with a call which immediately takes our thriller to disequilibrium. The call represents a murder report which in turn changes the equilibrium however as this is the first action done in the film; we cannot count the immediate start as equilibrium. As well as this, it does not end with a state of peace. As it is an opening to a thriller. This means we will not have equilibrium due to the end not being filmed.
Another theory of film was created by Charles Derry. He describes a suspense thriller as “a crime work which presents a generally murderous antagonism in which the protagonist becomes either an innocent victim or a nonprofessional criminal within a structure that is significantly unmediated by a traditional figure’. However, our thriller does not follow this overall basis of a thriller. Even though it accepts that there is a murderous antagonist, the protagonist never becomes a nonprofessional victim due to it being his job to uncover the criminal. Derry also redefines the thriller, putting them into six sub-genres These are; political, acquired identity, psycho traumatic, moral confrontation, innocent-on-the-run and thriller of murderous passions. Unfortunately, our thriller does not go into any of these either despite having some correlation between a thriller of moral confrontation. It is a genre of thriller that was popular in the 40’s and 50’s but lately has been forgotten but for a few exceptions such as memento and Sin City.
The final thriller theory we have studied is Action and enigma codes introduced by Roland Barthes. An action codes is described as an element in a story in which a character performs an action which is important to the story. Our thriller has many of these. One example of this in our film is the loading of the gun by our antagonist. It intrigues the viewer because the action may take importance later in the film. Enigma codes refer to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that need an explanation. One enigma code in our thriller is the opening of the case. The viewer does not know what is in the case and therefore raises questions. To intertwine both action and enigma codes, we used a gun firing as an action code immediately after the enigma.
Our media product uses conventions of real noire film productions as we used a non-diegetic voiceover throughout the film. This is used in famous and successful noire films such as ‘build my gallows high’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’. Voiceovers are successful as it lets the audience sympathise with the character speaking as you know his true intentions and what he feels. This is good for our film as our protagonist has very few words to say and therefore could be hard to sympathise if he were quiet throughout the film. We also implemented a voiceover as, like our examples, they are noire films and it serves as a key part of this genre.
Another convention that we used in our noire film was a weary protagonist. This is used in other noire films such as ‘The big sleep’ in which the protagonist; Phillip Marlow is a private detective that is troubled by complex cases. A weary protagonist is good for a film as it shows the work ethic of the main protagonist and this in-turn lets the audience further sympathize with him. In our final thriller film, we have used a criminal underworld. This is used and frequently represented in the sub-genre we are looking towards. One example of this is in the movie ‘Chinatown’ in which the criminal underworld is the main plot of the film.
To make our film more historically accurate, we incorporated historically accurate fonts. For this time period, we found that art deco was the most suitable. This font enhances our film as it lets the audience become more engaged due to it fitting the genre and therefore makes it look in place as opposed to un-natural looking. Historically accurate fonts are a widely used convention. To create the font, we first studied three opening sequences of well-known and high priced movies. All three showed us that the font is changed in order to accept the location and genre of the movie.
As with the font type we used, the non-copyrighted score we used was inspired and designed around the genre of our film. We researched this and found the most fitting sub-genres of music for this time period would be jazz and blues. This helps the viewer engage with the film as, like before with the font, it puts the audience in a mind-set which allows them to accept the set and time which the movie is from.
To conclude, our whole media film has accepted and use conventions of real media products that are associated to the genre of the film. However, due to many thriller theory’s not implementing noire thrillers, our final piece does challenge forms of media as well
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
To fully answer this question first you need ask what a media institution is. It is a company that disperses a media product for audience consumption. Mainly the film would be sent to cinemas nationwide or internationally, but after a while it would then hit the shops in the form of DVD’s Soundtracks and other paraphernalia.
Also the director or producer is able to go and pitch their idea for a film and maybe receive funding for the project.
Some media distributors include: 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures and Lionsgate.
Unfortunately, our film does not match the genres that these companies specialize in, which is mainly high costing mainstream media production, ours on the other hand is an arthouse production and belongs to a very niece market. We also have to take into account that our film is very low budget and there for we would be more suited to take on a so we have decided to research which media institutions and find out what film match out genre, which is thriller and then what companies distributed their films.
I have decided to use SIN CITY, Watchmen, Se7en and Memento.
SIN CITY- Dimension Films and Troublemaker Studios
Watchmen- Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lawrence Gordon Productions and DC Comics
Se7en- Cecchi Gori Pictures and New Line Cinema
Memento- Newmarket Capital Group, Team Todd, I Remember Productions and Summit Entertainment
These are the kinds of institutes that might destitute our film, I think that New Line Media would be our best bet because they have helped to make many great thrillers and they also help indie films make a name for themselves.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During our AS Media coursework, we have used many conventions of real media productions to make our thriller as genuine and true to thrillers in the sub-genre as possible. Looking at other films in this genre, it is clear to see that there is a pattern which extends all of these films. If we could use these conventions, our thriller would become greater than without.
Our narrative is about a Deputy police officer inspecting and reacting to a crime which has been committed. This storyline idea has been used many times and is close to one of our films we researched for the planning of it: Se7en. In this, the protagonist is searching for a murderer of the seven deadly sins. While the story of this is similar to our movie, two of our other research analysis films; Memento and Sin City are in our genre of ‘Noire Thriller’.
Our thriller contradicts the narrative theory proposed by Todorov. This is a theory in which starts with peace at first, but disruption occurs during the middle however, the film ends with a return to order and equilibrium. Our thriller does not follow this path as it starts with a call which immediately takes our thriller to disequilibrium. The call represents a murder report which in turn changes the equilibrium however as this is the first action done in the film; we cannot count the immediate start as equilibrium. As well as this, it does not end with a state of peace. As it is an opening to a thriller. This means we will not have equilibrium due to the end not being filmed.
Another theory of film was created by Charles Derry. He describes a suspense thriller as “a crime work which presents a generally murderous antagonism in which the protagonist becomes either an innocent victim or a nonprofessional criminal within a structure that is significantly unmediated by a traditional figure’. However, our thriller does not follow this overall basis of a thriller. Even though it accepts that there is a murderous antagonist, the protagonist never becomes a nonprofessional victim due to it being his job to uncover the criminal. Derry also redefines the thriller, putting them into six sub-genres These are; political, acquired identity, psycho traumatic, moral confrontation, innocent-on-the-run and thriller of murderous passions. Unfortunately, our thriller does not go into any of these either despite having some correlation between a thriller of moral confrontation. It is a genre of thriller that was popular in the 40’s and 50’s but lately has been forgotten but for a few exceptions such as memento and Sin City.
The final thriller theory we have studied is Action and enigma codes introduced by Roland Barthes. An action codes is described as an element in a story in which a character performs an action which is important to the story. Our thriller has many of these. One example of this in our film is the loading of the gun by our antagonist. It intrigues the viewer because the action may take importance later in the film. Enigma codes refer to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that need an explanation. One enigma code in our thriller is the opening of the case. The viewer does not know what is in the case and therefore raises questions. To intertwine both action and enigma codes, we used a gun firing as an action code immediately after the enigma.
Our media product uses conventions of real noire film productions as we used a non-diegetic voiceover throughout the film. This is used in famous and successful noire films such as ‘build my gallows high’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’. Voiceovers are successful as it lets the audience sympathise with the character speaking as you know his true intentions and what he feels. This is good for our film as our protagonist has very few words to say and therefore could be hard to sympathise if he were quiet throughout the film. We also implemented a voiceover as, like our examples, they are noire films and it serves as a key part of this genre.
Another convention that we used in our noire film was a weary protagonist. This is used in other noire films such as ‘The big sleep’ in which the protagonist; Phillip Marlow is a private detective that is troubled by complex cases. A weary protagonist is good for a film as it shows the work ethic of the main protagonist and this in-turn lets the audience further sympathize with him. In our final thriller film, we have used a criminal underworld. This is used and frequently represented in the sub-genre we are looking towards. One example of this is in the movie ‘Chinatown’ in which the criminal underworld is the main plot of the film.
To make our film more historically accurate, we incorporated historically accurate fonts. For this time period, we found that art deco was the most suitable. This font enhances our film as it lets the audience become more engaged due to it fitting the genre and therefore makes it look in place as opposed to un-natural looking. Historically accurate fonts are a widely used convention. To create the font, we first studied three opening sequences of well-known and high priced movies. All three showed us that the font is changed in order to accept the location and genre of the movie.
As with the font type we used, the non-copyrighted score we used was inspired and designed around the genre of our film. We researched this and found the most fitting sub-genres of music for this time period would be jazz and blues. This helps the viewer engage with the film as, like before with the font, it puts the audience in a mind-set which allows them to accept the set and time which the movie is from.
To conclude, our whole media film has accepted and use conventions of real media products that are associated to the genre of the film. However, due to many thriller theory’s not implementing noire thrillers, our final piece does challenge forms of media as well
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at our preliminary task, our original task looks very basic, poorly planned and overall very dull. In contrast, our finished film looks a lot better due to us learning from our mistakes in the preliminary task. We incorporated a lot more to our final piece to make a greater product.
Our thriller work was planned well unlike our preliminary task where we did not plan what so ever as we did not make any storyboards and simply went off a whim. Our final thriller was planned well with detailed shot list showing shot type, shot number, costume and props needed for the scene. This was accompanied by very accurate drawings of what we want to achieve with the shot. This benefits us as when we get to the location, we can immediately set up and know what to do. Interesting narrative. Audience feedback with rough cut.
When doing our final thriller work, we had a target audience in mind. This was unlike our preliminary task. This 16 and over audience helped us achieve a greater product as it gives us a good idea of what we need to improve on as well as what we have done correctly. The narrative was taken well by this group but they stressed on adapting the personalities of the characters, especially the protagonist. After we had filmed, we had rough cut of the product. This was then shown to the target audience. We asked various questions such as “is the film suspenseful at all” and “how did you think the protagonist was displayed” as well as an open question at the end which let us pick up on feedback which was not covered by the set questions. Looking back at our preliminary task, we did none of these and when eventually displayed to an audience, it was not taken too well. We had learnt from progression that using your target audience in the building of your movie is key to success as it can give an outside view of your work without being biased.
Our preliminary task did have editing but this was very simple. The edits were slow and the overall looked un-professional and felt boring to watch. Our final product however, was much more sleek and better. We had been new to final cut originally and thought it was best to use Imovie: a piece of software that is simple to use but unfortunately doesn’t have all the tools final cut pro has. Luckily we did pick up Final Cut fairly quickly. This made us able to edit shots correctly and make the piece look refined and fast paced. This refinement was made in Final Cut as it enabled us to use various specialist tools which let us change the colour correction, saturation, contrast. This was essential for our film due to it being film noir. This genre relies heavily on atmosphere and this can be achieved by stylising the film using these tools. For example, during our opening scene, the lighting is essential to show atmosphere. Desaturation made this scene look good as it enhances the low key lighting in areas stand out as well as turning the colour off, which is used in many noir films such as Chinatown or the more modern, Memento.
In our preliminary exercise, we were criticized for the lack of shots used. Along with this, the shots used were nearly all static. This makes the task look boring and unimaginative. Fortunately, we reviewed our mistakes and understood that we must include more active shots. Panning and tilting
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our coursework film the mob boss character (the antagonist) represents a rich, powerful, criminal social class. When he is first shown the camera is at a low angle and tilting up at him, by doing this we instantly empower the character, giving the audience the idea that he is more powerful than the other characters due to his social class. When the secondary character arrives the antagonist is assertive while the secondary character is submissive. The antagonist is dressed smart and expensively further empowering him and suggesting he is wealthy, it also contrasts with the poor, civilian character whose costume is opposite to the mob boss in terms of social character. We used an action code when the antagonist shows his gun, the audience does not know if he will use this weapon or not. This character is portrayed negatively because he shows no remorse for the murder of the poor civilian. He takes the money in the case afterwards which follows the stereotype that rich people are greedy and take money from the poor.
The main protagonist represents a middle class detective attempting to stop this manipulative criminal. We do not use any low angle or high angle shots for this character because we do not want to empower or disempower the character, we want his level of control over the crimes in the film to be less than that of the antagonist but not too low for him to be submissive. Enigma codes are used for this character towards the end of the film, after he finds the secondary character dead it is unknown whether he will be able to stop the antagonist or not. In terms of social class the detective appears to be lower than the mob boss. The mob boss wears expensive looking clothing and carries cases full of money while the detective dresses practically and does not attempt to show off wealth. He is portrayed positively because he is the heroic protagonist who is helpless to stop these crimes but determined none the less. This characters also follows a stereotype, he is portrayed as a hard-working middle class detective.
The secondary character supplying the drugs is submissive; he represents an innocent, civilian social class who is drawn into this dangerous drug deal with the antagonist. We made this character and the antagonist binary opposites in order to empower the antagonist and disempower this character and to also show the divide in social class. The antagonists costume makes him appear rich and powerful but somewhat sinister while the secondary characters costume makes him seem poor and innocent. It could be argued that the characters low social class instantly makes him a victim while the antagonist’s higher social class allows him to steal money and get away with crimes. The two characters that are lower in social class to the mob boss are both portrayed positively which in turn portrays the rich character negatively and as a stereotype.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
For our movie, we wanted the age rating to include the most common cinema viewers. I had researched the cinema audience and found that this was both men and women aged 13 to 21 years old. Unfortunately, we believe that the age rating would be set at 15 certificate due to the excessive violence and drug references our film contains. The detective thriller theme we are looking for may not appeal to mainstream market but could intrigue certain people therefore making our market niche and independent. This certain selection of market is what made us chose independent marketing and distribution companies for our film such as New Market Films. The target audience we are looking for may also be directed at older aged people as our film is not reliant on fast-paced editing and action which could not appeal to an audience that is not mainly consisted of young people. Also the main protagonist may not appeal to younger audiences because he is not in a situation that younger viewers will understand or relate to which means it will be harder to make younger people sympathise with him. This is why we are aiming for an audience of higher age group.
I researched what the average audience for thriller films is and found that it is mostly men ages 18-35 years. This is good because it fits with our predicted 15 certificate and even gives us room to go higher if we want. It is also a broad age group allowing us to target our film at more people despite its independent non-mainstream status. In terms of social class we are aiming at a more middle-class audience. We are able to do this because the protagonist is presented as a middle-class, hard-working, heroic detective while the antagonist is presented as a rich, powerful, empathy-less criminal. This makes it easier for a low to middle-class audience to empathise with the protagonist and be drawn to the film more.
After researching the average audience for thriller films I researched what the average audience would be for noir/crime drama films. I found that it is also mostly male ages 18-75. This is the same demographic that I found before with thriller films with the only difference being the drastic increase in the age group limit.
What have you learned about technology from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst planning, developing and producing our film we came across many different technologies which aided us such as:
• Final Cut Express
We used final cut for a few things, these include editing our film; editing our pitch which we then uploaded to YouTube and embedded to our website so that we were able to review them at a later date; and to splice together clips for our animated story board, that we also uploaded to YouTube and embedded. Without this we would be unable to do any work for our final piece and planning.
We have definitely learnt that without this form of technology we would be unable to get the quality of edit in to our film as we were able to zoom in for precision when needed and layer music and dialogue when it was needed
We were also able to de-saturate the image to give a pure noir visual to the film; using final cut also enabled us to merge a variety of sound clips to create a score that was fitting for our genre.
• Livefonts
we used livefonts to try and get the right feel to our titles we needed to experiment with the key tones, shadows and the colour pallet so that we could create a better suited title and develop the theme of 1930’s film noire thriller.
• WIX
This was essential as it served as a hub for all of our coursework we were able to present all of our work including our films on the site. We wanted to show our research on title, costumes, props and theory’s such as codes, Barth and Derry. We also wanted to have a place where we could all see our thriller analyses and our shot list and story board.
• Weebly
Weebly has the same properties as WIX we first made our website on it but we encountered problems due to publishing errors.
• YouTube
We used this as a hub for all our video clips so that we could later embed them into our website we had some problems with uploading times and the likes but apart from that it worked fine.
• Dafonts
We used this website to fine fonts that matched our 1930’s titles these included noir et blanc; sierra madre; one dance; hooverville and nite club. We felt that these selections gave the best overall 1930’s feel one of our favourites is Montgomery this is very slick text but we needed a title which came in bold and this did not.
• Looperman
We used Looperman to find sound clips that I could then edit together for our final soundtrack and score we were able to find tension sounds on the site and also some good loops which I was then able to splice together on garage band.
• Garage Band
I used this to edit loops together for the first half of the score in our film I also found some good loops on the program as well for example brass loops and jazz loops.
• The internet
If we were lacking the knowledge or information then we would you Google or other search engines to find out what we needed also without the internet we would be unable to use any web based applications or sites therefore we would have no titles, score and no website.
I feel that all the different combined technologies allowed us to develop new skills and problem solving techniques; I feel like more of a professional and am more confident with editing now than I was at the beginning of the year. I feel that if we did not have the multitude of professional software that was on offer then I would have been unable to do the majority of things that I now feel confident in doing. I also feel that it would have slowed down our learning progress and our ability to produce our final product.
By using the software that was available to assist us in our group project I have learnt how we can apply our new found knowledge of editing and visual effects to a future group project and be able to obtain higher marks. The editing and visual effect software such as Final Cut Pro has been highly used over the course of our group project and has allowed us to do things with our final piece that would have been otherwise impossible. Even less important programs such as the Wix website creator have been useful in that it has allowed us to log our progress, shot lists and inspirational sources for our film style.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During our AS Media coursework, we have used many conventions of real media productions to make our thriller as genuine and true to thrillers in the sub-genre as possible. Looking at other films in this genre, it is clear to see that there is a pattern which extends all of these films. If we could use these conventions, our thriller would become greater than without.
Our narrative is about a Deputy police officer inspecting and reacting to a crime which has been committed. This storyline idea has been used many times and is close to one of our films we researched for the planning of it: Se7en. In this, the protagonist is searching for a murderer of the seven deadly sins. While the story of this is similar to our movie, two of our other research analysis films; Memento and Sin City are in our genre of ‘Noire Thriller’.
Our thriller contradicts the narrative theory proposed by Todorov. This is a theory in which starts with peace at first, but disruption occurs during the middle however, the film ends with a return to order and equilibrium. Our thriller does not follow this path as it starts with a call which immediately takes our thriller to disequilibrium. The call represents a murder report which in turn changes the equilibrium however as this is the first action done in the film; we cannot count the immediate start as equilibrium. As well as this, it does not end with a state of peace. As it is an opening to a thriller. This means we will not have equilibrium due to the end not being filmed.
Another theory of film was created by Charles Derry. He describes a suspense thriller as “a crime work which presents a generally murderous antagonism in which the protagonist becomes either an innocent victim or a nonprofessional criminal within a structure that is significantly unmediated by a traditional figure’. However, our thriller does not follow this overall basis of a thriller. Even though it accepts that there is a murderous antagonist, the protagonist never becomes a nonprofessional victim due to it being his job to uncover the criminal. Derry also redefines the thriller, putting them into six sub-genres These are; political, acquired identity, psycho traumatic, moral confrontation, innocent-on-the-run and thriller of murderous passions. Unfortunately, our thriller does not go into any of these either despite having some correlation between a thriller of moral confrontation. It is a genre of thriller that was popular in the 40’s and 50’s but lately has been forgotten but for a few exceptions such as memento and Sin City.
The final thriller theory we have studied is Action and enigma codes introduced by Roland Barthes. An action codes is described as an element in a story in which a character performs an action which is important to the story. Our thriller has many of these. One example of this in our film is the loading of the gun by our antagonist. It intrigues the viewer because the action may take importance later in the film. Enigma codes refer to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that need an explanation. One enigma code in our thriller is the opening of the case. The viewer does not know what is in the case and therefore raises questions. To intertwine both action and enigma codes, we used a gun firing as an action code immediately after the enigma.
Our media product uses conventions of real noire film productions as we used a non-diegetic voiceover throughout the film. This is used in famous and successful noire films such as ‘build my gallows high’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’. Voiceovers are successful as it lets the audience sympathise with the character speaking as you know his true intentions and what he feels. This is good for our film as our protagonist has very few words to say and therefore could be hard to sympathise if he were quiet throughout the film. We also implemented a voiceover as, like our examples, they are noire films and it serves as a key part of this genre.
Another convention that we used in our noire film was a weary protagonist. This is used in other noire films such as ‘The big sleep’ in which the protagonist; Phillip Marlow is a private detective that is troubled by complex cases. A weary protagonist is good for a film as it shows the work ethic of the main protagonist and this in-turn lets the audience further sympathize with him. In our final thriller film, we have used a criminal underworld. This is used and frequently represented in the sub-genre we are looking towards. One example of this is in the movie ‘Chinatown’ in which the criminal underworld is the main plot of the film.
To make our film more historically accurate, we incorporated historically accurate fonts. For this time period, we found that art deco was the most suitable. This font enhances our film as it lets the audience become more engaged due to it fitting the genre and therefore makes it look in place as opposed to un-natural looking. Historically accurate fonts are a widely used convention. To create the font, we first studied three opening sequences of well-known and high priced movies. All three showed us that the font is changed in order to accept the location and genre of the movie.
As with the font type we used, the non-copyrighted score we used was inspired and designed around the genre of our film. We researched this and found the most fitting sub-genres of music for this time period would be jazz and blues. This helps the viewer engage with the film as, like before with the font, it puts the audience in a mind-set which allows them to accept the set and time which the movie is from.
To conclude, our whole media film has accepted and use conventions of real media products that are associated to the genre of the film. However, due to many thriller theory’s not implementing noire thrillers, our final piece does challenge forms of media as well
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
To fully answer this question first you need ask what a media institution is. It is a company that disperses a media product for audience consumption. Mainly the film would be sent to cinemas nationwide or internationally, but after a while it would then hit the shops in the form of DVD’s Soundtracks and other paraphernalia.
Also the director or producer is able to go and pitch their idea for a film and maybe receive funding for the project.
Some media distributors include: 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures and Lionsgate.
Unfortunately, our film does not match the genres that these companies specialize in, which is mainly high costing mainstream media production, ours on the other hand is an arthouse production and belongs to a very niece market. We also have to take into account that our film is very low budget and there for we would be more suited to take on a so we have decided to research which media institutions and find out what film match out genre, which is thriller and then what companies distributed their films.
I have decided to use SIN CITY, Watchmen, Se7en and Memento.
SIN CITY- Dimension Films and Troublemaker Studios
Watchmen- Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lawrence Gordon Productions and DC Comics
Se7en- Cecchi Gori Pictures and New Line Cinema
Memento- Newmarket Capital Group, Team Todd, I Remember Productions and Summit Entertainment
These are the kinds of institutes that might destitute our film, I think that New Line Media would be our best bet because they have helped to make many great thrillers and they also help indie films make a name for themselves.
How did you attract/address your audience?
During our planning for our film, we used a peer review to asses our work so far. We read them our storyboard and pitch as well as showing them the pictures alongside the text. After showing this to them, we asked them to answer 12 set questions on them as well as an overall, open question which let them give us answers to any things we had not identified. The feedback was mostly positive. They also gave us specific feedback. For example, the audience gave us a clear understanding that we need to develop our character's personality more so the audience can sympathize with him. The audience also made us change the upper limit cutting point. Subsequently, we have changed our limit from 13 to 21 year olds to 13 to 31.
One idea in our production which was changed by the audience was costume design. We wanted to distinguish between the protagonist and antagonist without either of them looking out-of-place in a 1930’s scenario. To do this, the audience suggested changing the tie colour. Red was picked for the antagonist as it connotes violence while the protagonist used a purple/blue tie which connotes calmness and peace.
Our audience changed our production during the rough cut as well as during the initial planning. They told us to stress on the sound of the production. This is a good idea as the noir film is heavily based on post production and much of this is about the score creating a sense of tension while remaining historically accurate. Before the majority of post-production, we decided to focus mainly on lighting. However, a broad range of focuses is more beneficial as without a score, ambient sound and a voiceover, the film looks slow and lacking tension.
The audience gave us feedback about the pacing on the rough cut of the film. They told us that at points, certain shots dragged on for too long, making the film seem un-interesting. We changed this by shortening a few shots and re-using them later. This helped our overall film as there is a flow to it, making it look sharp and less amateur.
As well as this, the audience helped the mise-en-scene. They did this by explaining that low key lighting would benefit the film. This was a great idea as low key lighting emphasises stress and a sense of uneasiness as well as fitting better than our previous lighter natural colour scheme. The overall look makes the whites whiter and the blacks darker.or you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
What have you learned about technology from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst planning, developing and producing our film we came across many different technologies which aided us such as:
• Final Cut Express
We used final cut for a few things, these include editing our film; editing our pitch which we then uploaded to YouTube and embedded to our website so that we were able to review them at a later date; and to splice together clips for our animated story board, that we also uploaded to YouTube and embedded. Without this we would be unable to do any work for our final piece and planning.
We have definitely learnt that without this form of technology we would be unable to get the quality of edit in to our film as we were able to zoom in for precision when needed and layer music and dialogue when it was needed
We were also able to de-saturate the image to give a pure noir visual to the film; using final cut also enabled us to merge a variety of sound clips to create a score that was fitting for our genre.
• Livefonts
we used livefonts to try and get the right feel to our titles we needed to experiment with the key tones, shadows and the colour pallet so that we could create a better suited title and develop the theme of 1930’s film noire thriller.
• WIX
This was essential as it served as a hub for all of our coursework we were able to present all of our work including our films on the site. We wanted to show our research on title, costumes, props and theory’s such as codes, Barth and Derry. We also wanted to have a place where we could all see our thriller analyses and our shot list and story board.
• Weebly
Weebly has the same properties as WIX we first made our website on it but we encountered problems due to publishing errors.
• YouTube
We used this as a hub for all our video clips so that we could later embed them into our website we had some problems with uploading times and the likes but apart from that it worked fine.
• Dafonts
We used this website to fine fonts that matched our 1930’s titles these included noir et blanc; sierra madre; one dance; hooverville and nite club. We felt that these selections gave the best overall 1930’s feel one of our favourites is Montgomery this is very slick text but we needed a title which came in bold and this did not.
• Looperman
We used Looperman to find sound clips that I could then edit together for our final soundtrack and score we were able to find tension sounds on the site and also some good loops which I was then able to splice together on garage band.
• Garage Band
I used this to edit loops together for the first half of the score in our film I also found some good loops on the program as well for example brass loops and jazz loops.
• The internet
If we were lacking the knowledge or information then we would you Google or other search engines to find out what we needed also without the internet we would be unable to use any web based applications or sites therefore we would have no titles, score and no website.
I feel that all the different combined technologies allowed us to develop new skills and problem solving techniques; I feel like more of a professional and am more confident with editing now than I was at the beginning of the year. I feel that if we did not have the multitude of professional software that was on offer then I would have been unable to do the majority of things that I now feel confident in doing. I also feel that it would have slowed down our learning progress and our ability to produce our final product.
By using the software that was available to assist us in our group project I have learnt how we can apply our new found knowledge of editing and visual effects to a future group project and be able to obtain higher marks. The editing and visual effect software such as Final Cut Pro has been highly used over the course of our group project and has allowed us to do things with our final piece that would have been otherwise impossible. Even less important programs such as the Wix website creator have been useful in that it has allowed us to log our progress, shot lists and inspirational sources for our film style.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During our AS Media coursework, we have used many conventions of real media productions to make our thriller as genuine and true to thrillers in the sub-genre as possible. Looking at other films in this genre, it is clear to see that there is a pattern which extends all of these films. If we could use these conventions, our thriller would become greater than without.
Our narrative is about a Deputy police officer inspecting and reacting to a crime which has been committed. This storyline idea has been used many times and is close to one of our films we researched for the planning of it: Se7en. In this, the protagonist is searching for a murderer of the seven deadly sins. While the story of this is similar to our movie, two of our other research analysis films; Memento and Sin City are in our genre of ‘Noire Thriller’.
Our thriller contradicts the narrative theory proposed by Todorov. This is a theory in which starts with peace at first, but disruption occurs during the middle however, the film ends with a return to order and equilibrium. Our thriller does not follow this path as it starts with a call which immediately takes our thriller to disequilibrium. The call represents a murder report which in turn changes the equilibrium however as this is the first action done in the film; we cannot count the immediate start as equilibrium. As well as this, it does not end with a state of peace. As it is an opening to a thriller. This means we will not have equilibrium due to the end not being filmed.
Another theory of film was created by Charles Derry. He describes a suspense thriller as “a crime work which presents a generally murderous antagonism in which the protagonist becomes either an innocent victim or a nonprofessional criminal within a structure that is significantly unmediated by a traditional figure’. However, our thriller does not follow this overall basis of a thriller. Even though it accepts that there is a murderous antagonist, the protagonist never becomes a nonprofessional victim due to it being his job to uncover the criminal. Derry also redefines the thriller, putting them into six sub-genres These are; political, acquired identity, psycho traumatic, moral confrontation, innocent-on-the-run and thriller of murderous passions. Unfortunately, our thriller does not go into any of these either despite having some correlation between a thriller of moral confrontation. It is a genre of thriller that was popular in the 40’s and 50’s but lately has been forgotten but for a few exceptions such as memento and Sin City.
The final thriller theory we have studied is Action and enigma codes introduced by Roland Barthes. An action codes is described as an element in a story in which a character performs an action which is important to the story. Our thriller has many of these. One example of this in our film is the loading of the gun by our antagonist. It intrigues the viewer because the action may take importance later in the film. Enigma codes refer to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that need an explanation. One enigma code in our thriller is the opening of the case. The viewer does not know what is in the case and therefore raises questions. To intertwine both action and enigma codes, we used a gun firing as an action code immediately after the enigma.
Our media product uses conventions of real noire film productions as we used a non-diegetic voiceover throughout the film. This is used in famous and successful noire films such as ‘build my gallows high’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’. Voiceovers are successful as it lets the audience sympathise with the character speaking as you know his true intentions and what he feels. This is good for our film as our protagonist has very few words to say and therefore could be hard to sympathise if he were quiet throughout the film. We also implemented a voiceover as, like our examples, they are noire films and it serves as a key part of this genre.
Another convention that we used in our noire film was a weary protagonist. This is used in other noire films such as ‘The big sleep’ in which the protagonist; Phillip Marlow is a private detective that is troubled by complex cases. A weary protagonist is good for a film as it shows the work ethic of the main protagonist and this in-turn lets the audience further sympathize with him. In our final thriller film, we have used a criminal underworld. This is used and frequently represented in the sub-genre we are looking towards. One example of this is in the movie ‘Chinatown’ in which the criminal underworld is the main plot of the film.
To make our film more historically accurate, we incorporated historically accurate fonts. For this time period, we found that art deco was the most suitable. This font enhances our film as it lets the audience become more engaged due to it fitting the genre and therefore makes it look in place as opposed to un-natural looking. Historically accurate fonts are a widely used convention. To create the font, we first studied three opening sequences of well-known and high priced movies. All three showed us that the font is changed in order to accept the location and genre of the movie.
As with the font type we used, the non-copyrighted score we used was inspired and designed around the genre of our film. We researched this and found the most fitting sub-genres of music for this time period would be jazz and blues. This helps the viewer engage with the film as, like before with the font, it puts the audience in a mind-set which allows them to accept the set and time which the movie is from.
To conclude, our whole media film has accepted and use conventions of real media products that are associated to the genre of the film. However, due to many thriller theory’s not implementing noire thrillers, our final piece does challenge forms of media as well
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
To fully answer this question first you need ask what a media institution is. It is a company that disperses a media product for audience consumption. Mainly the film would be sent to cinemas nationwide or internationally, but after a while it would then hit the shops in the form of DVD’s Soundtracks and other paraphernalia.
Also the director or producer is able to go and pitch their idea for a film and maybe receive funding for the project.
Some media distributors include: 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures and Lionsgate.
Unfortunately, our film does not match the genres that these companies specialize in, which is mainly high costing mainstream media production, ours on the other hand is an arthouse production and belongs to a very niece market. We also have to take into account that our film is very low budget and there for we would be more suited to take on a so we have decided to research which media institutions and find out what film match out genre, which is thriller and then what companies distributed their films.
I have decided to use SIN CITY, Watchmen, Se7en and Memento.
SIN CITY- Dimension Films and Troublemaker Studios
Watchmen- Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lawrence Gordon Productions and DC Comics
Se7en- Cecchi Gori Pictures and New Line Cinema
Memento- Newmarket Capital Group, Team Todd, I Remember Productions and Summit Entertainment
These are the kinds of institutes that might destitute our film, I think that New Line Media would be our best bet because they have helped to make many great thrillers and they also help indie films make a name for themselves.