EVALUATION Q1 By Maria Beardall

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

OPENING SCENES:

Our film company logo

Starts of from a fade in from white

Depth of field/pull focus shot whilst out of focus

To it now being in focus

ECU of eye

ECU of mouth

CU of chest, all three above shots to emphasize breathing

Final close up in dream state before
change in soundtrack and cut to titles

Company name in title font, to left to deviate always being central

Birds eye shot POV shot, also has super imposed
writing in same place as previous titles

Shot of Eliza walking from a distance

Steadicam created shakiness whilst she walks
 to show presence of another unseen character

First Match On Action shot

Pan/POV shot of sky

Second Match On Action shot

Mid shot of Eliza's face to highlight facial expressions

Canted, low angle shot to show disorientation

Start of pan of arm

End of pan down arm to show tension in fist

Long shot

Cross dissolve from long shot to show
time has passed whilst she has been captive

POV shakey shot

OTS shot

Long shot to show nervousness

Match On Action to show removal of
earphones - Eliza has realized something is wrong

Mid shot to show she is scared from her movement of her head

POV shot to show presence is still there

Tension rises as clear antagonist is hiding 

Start of pan down arm

End of pan down arm - similar to one in hall to
show feelings are remembered and fresh

Mid shot

Faster, more panicked pan POV in sky

CU to show feelings and tension heightens

POV as suspense is almost over

CU of her face to show it is too late

Cut to titles and fades to black to dramatize it

CONVENTION - ENIGMA:

Enigma is a convention in Media that keeps the audience guessing and actively viewing the film as they are constantly asking questions about the film; with questions left unanswered they will feel curious and generally intrigued they will have more interest in the film and finding out. Our Final Piece uses this convention as the whereabouts, what has actually happened to the main character Eliza and who the antagonist is are unanswered in the opening. We deliberately created these enigma codes that other thriller films have done, such as Kill Bill - where questions such as why the woman is on the floor, what has happened to her, who by and who the other unseen person in the room is etc. spring to mind. We wanted the opening to really grab the audience and keep them attentive, and attract any potential viewers with this generic convention that will promise them an interesting and on edge film. The opening of our thriller film never shows what has happened for Eliza to be in the hall, and only the hand of the suspected antagonist is seen - cleverly done to be left answered later and keep the audience excited for the whole film as the suspense rises.

(EARLIER ANALYSIS FROM KILL BILL)

'The shot then cuts to a CU tracking shot of a man's black shoes as he walks, and the footsteps and her voice are the main diegetic sounds to be heard with an eerie echo - the footsteps sound imposing and very threatening to the victim, giving the unknown status. This is also given as she is on the floor and he is standing, telling the audience he is strong whilst she is weak. The abuser of her is not revealed and seemingly dangerous, making this scene tense and focused. This creates suspense in case he will be revealed, but the later shots show he is hidden apart from his name.'

CONVENTION - RESTRICTED NARRATION:

Restricted narration has a similar purpose to enigma coding (at least in the sense we used it for), as we did not let the audience know the whole story line of the film - they knew less than the main character Eliza. This ties in with enigma coding, the restricted narration is used to not tell the audience everything and keep them wanting to know more. It also makes the whole piece much more thrilling and keeps the audience on edge. This convention has been used in The Bourne Identity, where the opening is without context as a man falls from a sky - the audience know as much as the fisherman do when they board him onto the ship to help him, yet in our opening the audience know as much as Eliza begins to tell them and as they see in a flashback, they have to begin to piece together what has happened themselves which makes the opening much more interactive and memorable. It is also seen in The Usual Suspects where the antagonist is unknown until the end whilst he tortures his victims. That is how in our opening we developed using restricted narration; the audience (at the beginning) know as much as they learn - and therefore enigma comes into play when they want to know more and begin to ask questions from the little information they can gather.

(EARLIER ANALYSIS FROM THE BOURNE IDENTITY)

'When the lightening flashes there can be a body seen - and currently the audience have an objective view compared to the crew, yet there is no reference to where he has appeared from in the opening scenes.'

'There is a CU cut to the hand of the body, still not completely seen to create suspense and longing anticipation to find out who the body is. When the hand moves in the low lighting so it is just visible, the crew shout a little in alert and may make the audience jump as it was surprising and unexpected for him to survive, the crew rush to help the barely alive man as the non diegetic soundtrack and deep string made beats of the music go hand in hand to create a chaotic scene as the crew shout above the storm, and the editing pace is faster to continue this as the shots are mostly all handheld or Steadicam shots to make the frame move around and create an unstable mise en scene as they head down to the packed cabin areas - all rushing and looking for things.'

(FROM THE USUAL SUSPECTS)

There is a small amount of unrestricted narration in the flashback, where Eliza is unknowingly being followed, yet the audience can see from the antagonist's perspective that she is, and then cuts back to her feeling watched and nervous - this is a small snippet of unrestricted narration where the audience can guess what will supposedly will happen before she does, yet it is a flashback so she will have already experienced it, yet it provides a taster for the audience to have clues for what has happened.  

CONVENTION - PROPP'S CHARACTER THEORY OF PROTAGONISTS AND ANTAGONISTS:

Propp's character theory describes that many narratives have certain typical 'traits' to do with characters and actions, which formed a pattern and is seen in most thriller films, if not all. The main characters are the protagonist (the hero) antagonist (the villain) the donor (helps the protagonist) and the damsel in distress (the victim). There is always a battle or fight of some sort between the protagonist and antagonist and the antagonist is always overcome and loses, to which the protagonist is recognized and the antagonist unveiled. We applied this theory into our opening and developed it slightly as the main characters in a thriller genre are usually easily found and as a major convention for most thriller films it gives the audience a generic factor to look for that is familiar and entrusts it will provide action that other thrillers do as the two components are there. Eliza is our protagonist, coded in white and blue clothes to connote innocence and vulnerability, and also can be seen physically as scared and alert therefore can be sourced as an obvious protagonist. However she is the only one seen, and camerawork has to help provide a presence of the antagonist as he is unseen. This is where we twist the generic rules, unlike in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy where both protagonist and antagonist can be seen, with obvious differences between them. It is, however, similar once again to Kill Bill; where you can't see the presumable antagonist yet you can hear him. Instead of diegetic sound, we used a Steadicam to create a POV shot of the antagonist, to create an unnerving presence and let the audience see two different perspectives. This therefore creates the unseen, looming danger of the antagonist through camerawork until the end where the antagonist's hand is seen (that is all), which creates mystery and again, enigma. Therefore the only real character seen on screen is Eliza, unlike Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but similar to Kill Bill. We have developed this two character theory by not even showing the antagonist, yet that heightens the mystery and effect generically for a thriller.

(EARLIER ANALYSIS FROM TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY)

'The man he is meeting is supposedly on his 'side' yet seems very odd as his costume is presented very well, with a dark roll neck jumper and a smart blazer. Compared to this, the first agent looks very relaxed yet both don't look at ease - their body language looks uncomfortable and odd, a hint to the audience that something isn't right and puts them on edge.'

CONVENTION - (CAMERA) CU'S AND SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD:

CU's can emphasize and create more attention on certain details that may otherwise be overlooked and unseen by the audience, and these CU's usually give clues to the tone or general feeling of the clip, which are then understood or mirrored by the audience after noticing the convention. In Inception CU's are used of the protagonist's face to show confusion; this gives clues that he doesn't know where he is therefore it the audience can relate and start to question where he is. The same conventions has been applied to our opening, there are shots of Eliza looking around with worried and scared facial expressions, which gives clues to the audience through this convention that she is in trouble and also sets the tone of anxiousness of what is to come as the threat of danger seems more real with her reaction.

(EARLIER ANALYSIS FROM INCEPTION)

'It can be assumed that these are shots to show the audience where they are and give them a false sense of security, but also give the character seen in a cut from the waves, who has washed up on the beach unconscious, a sense of where he is as he begins to wake up - these are visually his thoughts and his processes seen like he would see them so the audience know as much, or slightly less, than him; and this is confusion and realization, his senses trying to kick start again.'

'There is also a shot reverse shot/cutaways and cutbacks to him slowly waking up, yet in a state of delirium.'

Shallow Depth of Field can both enhance a film and add detail, and force the audience to notice important details or confuse the audience. In Total Recall there is a focus pull/shallow depth of field to show there is confusion and disorientation after, seemingly, an explosion or crash of some sort.We used it in our second shot to extend the period of confusion for the audience before the establishing shot, and also would edge and create eagerness to see who the first, and only, character that is to be seen. It was also to create and prolong the confusion and seem very unhinged as an odd first shot (in black and white, an odd setting.) Therefore we have also used this convention in an extremely similar way that other thrillers have, to create suspension which is generic of a thriller film.

(FROM TOTAL RECALL)

CONVENTION - (EDITING) FILTERING:

First to be noticed, after the fade in from white, is that we used the conventions also seen in Kill Bill, where the opening title is in black and white to create dramatic effect and add a sense of disorientation. We however only used this for one of our scenes between the two which cross cut each other to make them seem much more obviously separated and create an eerie vibe of confusion. It creates a split between the two scenes entwined together and also represents there is a time difference between the two. It works perfectly for us as it also emphasises her eyes and the connotations of her make up, and also makes the Foley's more heavily focused on as the lack of colour could potentially be slightly more boring for the audience as they are so used to high definition in terms of quality. It creates this abrupt beginning to the sequence to grab the audience's attention and exaggerate her facial expressions.

(EARLIER ANALYSIS FROM KILL BILL)

'In the first scene of the opening of Kill Bill, it is immediately recognized that the whole of the scene is in black and white. This drastic, added in effect would have been added in post production, a decision that makes whats in the frame look much more contrasted and exaggerated - therefore stands out, to which enigma for the audience becomes involved.'

CONVENTION - TODOROV'S THREE STAGES:

Todorov's theory was of the narrative of a story, split into three stages: equilibrium, disequilibrium, a new and different equilibrium. The first stage is where there is balance, the second is a disruption of the balance and the last is the restoration of the balance, yet there has been a change. In Kill Bill the order is switched and abruptly begins with the disequilibrium, which is what we began with, and this convention creates enigma and raises questions to how she got in that state and who did it, and also immediately captures the audience's attention. This is the effect we wanted to replicate in our Final Piece and therefore began with a disequilibrium to disorientate and throw the audience off guard, causing shock, surprise and great interest to entice potential viewers. We, however, developed this as in a flashback we show the previous equilibrium just before the disruption changes it, therefore playing with the order of the narrative to our advantage to create a generic suspension. The titles also break up and discontinue the tension causing suspense. Therefore the three stages are shown in a different order to be more generic - to create a more captivating opening to make viewers think and speculate as they don't know the outcome; they are left on a cliffhanger for thrilling effect.

(EARLIER ANALYSIS FROM KILL BILL)

'...makes whats in the frame look much more contrasted and exaggerated - therefore stands out, to which enigma for the audience becomes involved; where did the character on the floor receive her brutal cuts from?'

'The man rests his foot nearby her head - body language, which could be used to hurt her and is seemingly uncomfortable for the audience that the of that possibility to play out. He then proceeds to wipe her face a little, using a prop which is a customized hankey that has 'Bill' embroidered on it. This sends alarm bells through the audiences brains as they know the films name is 'Kill Bill' and that there is a revenge mission surrounding him, and that he has in fact hurt her.'

TITLES:

We wanted our titles to be simplistic yet effective, and used the convention from No Country For Old Man, who kept minimalism yet powerful by having white font and a black background, yet to add extra information super imposed some information to differentiate the scenes - in the style of the titles of Kill Bill and Se7en and with our titles font (and also to the side, like in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, to add differentiation and interest to otherwise boring titles). We had the titles at the beginning, middle and end of the opening to seem more professional and as if the opening scenes was a small title sequence, like in Se7en and also The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. We left the actual title at the end to dramatize the title and create suspense and excitement for typical generic reasons.

KILL BILL - super imposed titles

SE7EN - super imposed titles

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
 - to the left 

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN - simplistic

Overall Opinion:

I believe that we have followed generic and appropriate conventions of a thriller film, that have also been used in other researched thriller films, and have even developed those ideas to suit our own opening and have shown and understanding to thriller films and what they encompass.