In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film has certain shots that could be compared to 'Seven', 'Red Eye' and 'Strangers On a Train' as well as other thriller films.
There is one shot of partial vision in our opening sequence, when Abbie realises that she has lost her phone. We can only see her head which is lit up with a red light. This red is to connote death and is a colour that is often used in thriller films. The dark background is a result of it being set at night like the opening of Red Eye, Deep Blue Sea, Bourne Ultimatum and others. This is to relate to the saying that evil species come out at night. Night time is also seen to be unsafe as well as when all the teenagers stereotypically go out in large groups and 'walk the streets'. The dark background allows the audience to see nothing that surrounds her including the other characters. This singles Abbie out so the audience know that they should concentrate on her and also highlighting that she is one of the main characters.
Another example of how our film, Playground, is similar to other thriller films is when the hand held camera walks along the path towards the park. This can be compared to Strangers On a Train, when the camera is looking out onto the train tracks. Both of these shots show the viewpoint of the camera and do not involve any of the characters. However, in Strangers on a Train, the train tracks show multiple destinations as well as crossing paths whereas in Playground, there is only one straight pathway with one desired destination. The audience is unaware of this destination, therefore creating typical questions such as, where does this path go? Why are we going along this path? What is at the end? Questions being asked like these are a code or convention of the thriller genre. Other codes and conventions that appear in our film as well as other thriller films that I have researched include the colour scheme of red, white and a small part of red as well as the narrative structure that follows part of Todorov's theory. The equilibrium is the happy teenagers as they are walking around the corner and the disruption comes when Abbie looses her phone and the resolution is to come later on in the film.
The second example is the title sequence of Playground compared to that of Seven as well as The Bourne Ultimatum. In all of these films along with others, the titles are in a white font against a black or dark coloured background. This contrast creates connotations of good and evil which is another code or convention of the thriller genre. In Seven and playground, the titles also appear over the action of the opening sequence and fade in and out. This allows the film to carry on the story providing clues to what will happen in the thriller films without the titles interrupting it. However, usually, the action that the titles are over aren't very important or complex but simple so the audience doesn't miss out on vital information if they are concentrating on the titles. for example, in Playground, the titles are only over the walking down the path and in Seven they are over the planing of the murderer. So that the action isn't interrupted, the titles are in a small font apart from when the name of the film appears. This often signifies the end of the titles unlike in Red Eye where it comes first. The final credit before the name of the film is always directed by because this person is one of the most important when it comes to creating a film. Being last means that the name is the last one that the audience will see so they will remember it more easily.
Playground can be compared to Red Eye as well as Seven, for the presentation of the title. Red Eye appears in a big, bold, bright red font which is a convention of a thriller film with both the font and the colour of it. Therefore, Playground also appears in a big, bold, bright red font before it fades back into the action. However, Red Eye shows the audience the name of the film at the very beginning whereas with Playground, we decided to put it at the end of the opening sequence. We chose to do this so we could get the audience's attention straight away and get the film started. Also, to pause the action to show the title also leaves the audience in suspense as to what will happen when we get back to it. In the case of Playground, this is an innocent child who the audience believe to be dead, going round on a roundabout. This can be compared to State of Play with the innocent pizza guy who is shot and the audience think he is dead but we then learn he is alive.
Finally, Playground has further links to the thriller films that I researched through the camera, editing and mise-en-scene as well as the narrative structure as already mentioned. The editing in Playground is slow at first to mirror the equilibrium but when the disruption comes the editing speeds up to match the speed of the conversation and also reflect Abbie's heartbeat as she gets more scared that she has actually lost her phone. The cuts along the pathway between the walking and the pictures of the teenagers is very fast to give the audience a quick insight as to what they have been doing on their holiday so far. We have used close ups like in Deep Blue Sea to show the reaction of the characters, in particular Abbie and Kim (the child at the end). As briefly mentioned, the lighting of Playground matches that of all the other thriller films that i have analysed because it is set at night time creating a dark and mysterious atmosphere.
All of these elements together have created the opening sequence of a thriller film with the same codes and conventions as real media products.
Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The opening sequence involves a group of five teenagers and one eight year old girl. The teenagers are represented how the majority of people see them. They are walking along a street in a big group, drunk, swearing and being loud. This is not a good representation of teenagers but it is stereotypical so some people will be able to relate to them. The teenagers are also seen in the middle of the village in the 'holiday pictures'. They are in a group again looking drunk. These pictures are realistic as to what would happen with normal teenagers as shown in the screen shots and pictures below.
(Screen shots)
(General pictures of teenagers)
Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A small media institution would probably be distribute our media product rather than a more well known film company such as '20th Century Fox'. This is because our film does not include any well known actors or actresses and we are only amateur producers. Also, i feel that the large distributions would not benefit from having such a small scale production in their filmography. One example of the smaller companies is Coffee Films. This is a British independent film production company. It has majored in wildlife documentaries but is currently working on the release of a horror/thriller film called Lucid. Their experience with this film will be useful for working on another thriller film. Norfilms could also be a potential media institution we could use as it is based in Stockport, Cheshire which would be local to us. They also specialise in low budget films as their website says, "No helicopter chases, but who needs them in a psychological thriller?"
I think that these small distributions will benefit more from out small production because is '20th Century Fox' did distribute it, they would not receive a big enough profit for it to be worthwhile for them.
The links below will take you to the home pages for the media institutions mentioned above.
Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for our thriller film is teenagers and adults aged 15 and over. This is because the majority of people who go to the cinema to watch thriller films are teenagers as well as the fact that we gave 'Playground' a 15 certificate. We have also chosen this target audience because of the main characters in the film being teenagers. This will allow the audience to relate to the characters and put themselves in their positions to think about what they would do if they were in the same situation. It allows them to align with the characters and make the film seem more realistic.
(Pictures of the target audience of all ages)
How did you attract/address your audience?
During our planning period, we created a questionnaire that we handed out to 40 members of the public to answer for us. The response that came back from these questionnaires helped us to understand what our audience expects to see from a thriller film allowing us to continue with our planning ensuring that our target audience would enjoy it. The questionnaire also confirmed our ideas that we had already come up with, such as 'Playground' being a good name for our film as well as the use of young children being slightly creepy.
The video clip below shows an audience feeding back on our finished production.
Question 6
What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
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