evaluation of ‘the spectator’
TRANSCRIPT
evaluation of ‘the spectator’
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
Shannon Edwards & Emily Radcliffe
1) Did you aim to conform or challenge conventions in your product?
When doing the plot we decided to start with having the typical actors playing the typical roles. This is that we should have that antagonist being male, this is because they are typically known as the ones who cause the trouble/problem. As we decided to have the female victim as this then gives that tension between the two different sexes. We identified this as it is the most typical use in thrillers and that even thought it is common it does work really well. For example, in the film ‘the hunger games: catching fire’, we see Katniss Everdeen the main female character who is the typical female victim, and we also have President Snow as the male antagonist. Although, some films rarely have the male victim, for example, ‘the dark knight’ has Batman as the male victim and The Joker is the male antagonist..
1) Did you aim to conform or challenge conventions in your product?
continued…
When plotting our opening sequence we decided to try and use eerie sounds that would help to create tension as this is what a thriller is meant to do. We also used heart beats in the start of it this was to try and give the idea of panic and to help create an atmosphere for the audience.
1) Did you aim to conform or challenge conventions in your product?
continued… With our opening sequence we went to challenge the conventions, but
decided not to with what we wanted to do. But other than those conventions with the typically female victim and the male antagonist, we do have other typical conventions for the ‘thriller’ theme, such as a lot of black, sudden loud noise at the beginning, its calm at the beginning, and we see where the it is set, what the surroundings are, of the typical forest scene. The images we use, are dark, they seem quite and abandoned, like there wouldn’t be anything wrong and the silence and peace distract it from seeming dangerous. A certain camera angle we use when the camera is on alex’s face and it follows her as she shots up, it is a creative shot, it makes it as though she is coming out and it makes you jump as she jumps. The camera movement of when we see the point of view shot of the victim running in the field, shows danger and creates tension as it is blurry and you cant really see anything. The sound effects we used typically the heart beat slow and then faster as she is running and gets shocked. We have no music, just at the background sounds, either natural like at the beginning we have the wind chime at the beginning is the sound from the clip and is a natural sound. Our main theme is a thriller, but we have also maybe used the horror theme in some ways as we have tried my it scary and to shock people.
2) What forms of conventions did you identify through your research? When looking at different thrillers we took note of the typical
conventions that should be found in a Thriller. This consisted of the plot having a mind twist in the middle of the film, for example thinking someone killed someone and finding out that it was someone else. The reason for this is to keep the audience interested. When looking at Thrillers the normal sounds that are used is a eerie backing sound to the actions that is taking place on the screen. Other sounds such as heart beats, screaming and enhanced sounds such as the wind or a creek is often used. The use of settings often consists of sun down houses such as cabins of little flats that are found in rural areas. The settings also consisted of woods/forests and very dark places. This is because it fits into the miss en scene of dark areas that look uninhabited or are out of the usual. In the opening sequence the titles often tend to be white or red on a black background and the fonts tend to be jumpy and bold. Our opening sequence is aimed at the male gender at any age. The reason for this is because when we did an interview on our family members we all found out that it was mainly the male gender that were interested and that it did go form the age of 18-60. So when doing our opening sequence we tried to aim what we did at these pacific age groups and genders.
2) What forms of conventions did you identify through your research?
continued… We tried to represent them through the many different ways such as the plot of our opening sequence, titles, sounds, editing ETC. In the plot we decided to have a male antagonist and a female victim this is because it is what they expected as they liked having a female as the victim as they seem vulnerable and make a good easy victim. By doing this also went into the typical idea of what is in a Thriller of what helps to then interest the older ages as well as the younger ages. Throughout the whole of the opening sequence we also kept the lighting dark and we also had most of the sequence in the forest of what is 'typical’. it also helps to create the sort of scary atmosphere that they are looking to find in the thriller. To try and help the scary/tense atmosphere when in the running scene at the start we used a point of view shot and used a very loud heart beat. the reason for doing this is because we where trying to bring the character closer to the audience and make them feel as she was. When coming to sound this type of audience are going to want loud and intense and enhanced sounds. The reason for this is because they are going to want to feel as if they are experiencing it them sleeves as they want to feel the adrenaline rush from the loud sounds such as the heart beat and the eerie music.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A Hollywood company such as Warner Brothers for example wouldn’t distribute our media product, this is because our product does not fit the typical conventions that are found in a Hollywood film. The reason for this is because we had a very low budget and do not have the resources that a big Hollywood film would have to be able to higher big actors/directors, have a big fan base already existing, nor were we able to have amazing CGI as we did not have the things we needed to do this available. However if we were to have these different things such as big actors and a high budget to allow good CGI etc then they would have been more interested in distributing our media product as they would have gotten our product more interesting and would have made it more profitable. However our media product would be more likely distributed by a British institution than a Hollywood one. This is because of numerous reasons such as having a low budget, Niche Audience because of our specific theme and because of our British typical conventional thriller.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
continued…What British institution would be interesting in producing our media product?
A British company such as Hammer would be interested in our Media Product because they are an institution that are based in the United kingdom and are known for a series of gothic ‘hammer horror’. even though our product isn’t a horror it is a thriller and des contain some same conventions such as having the jumps and the mystery. They may also be interested in our media product because we have stuck to the old traditional conventions of a thriller that may appeal to their audience. this is also typically british as we haven’t gone against the conventions or tried to change it and it is why it wouldn’t fit a typical Hollywood film as they try to go against the conventions. As we haven’t gone against the conventions and have stuck to the typical film it makes our film had a niche audience and this is what Ealing attract. They also would want to produce our media product because it is one a low budget meaning they would be able to easily produce our product meaning they would be more likely to earn back money and make a profit.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
continued…
Who would want to distribute and how?
Artificial Eye & Entertainment One are both companies that might distribute this film. This is because they both have headquarters in the UK and both hugely distribute within the UK. They both have an interest in distributing film of entertainment and Entertainment One seem to have a pattern of distributing a few horrors and thrillers.
They could distribute our film though many different ways such as:
There are a number of different ways in which our media product could be distributed this could be done through the internet by online adverts and trailer or through bill boards/ posters.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
continued…
The different channels that would distribute our opening sequence:on sky channels such as film4 other channels such as Sky premier or crime and thriller, sci fi and horror, horror channel
This is just one example of how we’d distribute our film. The poster we’d use to attract an audience.
4) What would be the audience for your media project?
When doing the audience research we said that it would be mainly the male gender compared to boys that would watch it and that it would also mainly young and maybe the old. our opening sequence is to typically entertain the people watching it. Our opening sequence is niche this is because we want a specific audience to watch it and we want our opening sequence to appeal to the male gender as we know that they are most likely to find it more entertaining . Our audience wouldn't be main stream because it isn't a suitable film for younger ages and it isn't the type of film that a family would watch either.
4) What would be the audience for your media project?
continued…
most teenagers enjoy thrillers because of the typical conventions of the jumps and thrills that come along within the film such as adrenaline. The older generation is not typically attracted to this type of genre as they don’t enjoy the typical convention of a thriller. The may also not understand or be able to link with the new types of thrillers as they may prefer the older films as they may understand them more. However middle ages people may enjoy out genre of film because firstly it is a diversion also with the mystery they may enjoy trying to solve the mystery that underlies the storyline of the film. younger ages under the age of 16 wouldn’t watch thrillers as they tend to have mystery with them of what tends to play on the mind in a scary way. Meaning they my no understand hat they are watching also would find it too scary. our thriller film also wouldn’t typically be aimed at the female gender, but at the male gender. This is because females aren’t typically into mind playing jumpy films, but into the stereotypical chick flick films. However males are typically into the conventions of a thriller such as the dark mystery, the jumps and scares and the mind twisting plots that are in the film. Another type of target audience that needs to be in consideration would be what class this type of genre would appeal to. Typically this genre would no appeal to the upper class because they may find it too easy to understand and may find out the mystery before the ending of film therefor ruining it for them and may prefer more sophisticated pass time; they also may not find this genre of film interesting or appealing. However this type of film would appeal to the middle and working class this is because it is an easy diversion also when figuring out the mystery may make them feel clever.
Other peoples thoughts on thrillers ( they back up what we said above so we can use it and say how it does back up out perspective and how it fits in with the theories of the typical audience for this type of film)
Person 1
Person 2
Person 3
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
This type of genre is normally aimed at elderly teens such as 16 and above of whom would tend to watch this as a diversion. This is because most teenagers enjoy thrillers because of the typical conventions of the jumps and thrills that come along within the film such as adrenaline. The older generation is not typically attracted to this type of genre as they don’t enjoy the typical convention of a thriller. The may also not understand or be able to link with the new types of thrillers as they may prefer the older films as they may understand them more.However middle ages people may enjoy out genre of film because firstly it is a diversion also with the mystery they may enjoy trying to solve the mystery that underlies the storyline of the film. Younger ages under the age of 16 wouldn’t watch thrillers as they tend to have mystery with them of what tends to play on the mind in a scary way. Meaning they my no understand hat they are watching also would find it too scary.Our thriller film also wouldn’t typically be aimed at the female gender, but at the male gender. this is because females aren’t typically into mind playing jumpy films, but into the stereotypical chick flick films. However males are typically into the conventions of a thriller such as the dark mystery, the jumps and scares and the mind twisting plots that are in the film. Another type of target audience that needs to be in consideration would be what class this type of genre would appeal to. Typically this genre would no appeal to the upper class because they may find it too easy to understand and may find out the mystery before the ending of film therefor ruining it for them and may prefer more sophisticated pass time; they
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The technologies we used were helpful in our media as it was the high quality camera of Toms that we used, which he knew how to use well and was familiar with which meant no faffing with a camera that none of us know how to use. With the planning, we used story board sheets which we had to scan into the computer to add onto our blogs. The sounds we used, some were natural but also some we had found on the internet, and had to make sure that they were not copy rights. With the editing we used the Apple Macs, which on them we used the programme ‘imovie’, which we originally didn’t know how to use except for Tom, but we all observed and helped with the editing, and with what we observed Emily did some editing herself and helped a lot with that. With blogging what we had done and how we did it, who did it and why or when we were doing things, we used Blogger.com. Which was really helpful and it gets us to put down everything we did and who did it and when, why, how. It also helped with planning when to film and organisation of it all.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product? continued…
personally i’ve never used imovie before or blogger, but now after using it for a while, I have and I'm sure others also now have a good understanding of it all and how it works . The technologies we used at each stage were helpful especially with blogs as then, as i’ve mentioned, we knew what we’d done, what we had to do and having the filming dates on there was helpful so then we could easily remind ourselves of when and the location of the filming. With the technologies we’ve used, we’ve learned that there is a lot to do and has to be done in stages and has to have time, preparation and planning, as it cannot be done all so quickly and all at once.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
before we did the preliminary task we didn’t really realise the process of the film industry. The Production (Pre-production, production and Post-production), Distribution, Exhibition and all the steps that have to be taken in each one.
PRE-PRODUCTION: The planning of the filming including writing, casting, sorting out locations and clearing any legal problems.
PRODUCTION: The actual filming process.
POST-PRODUCTION: The editing process, including any adding of special effects or CGI.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt
in the progression from it to the full product?
continued…
DISTRIBUTION
Deciding on release date
Deciding how many prints to produce and in which cinemas to screen them
Advertising campaigns
Designing art work for adverts, posters, flyers and billboards
Organising premieres
Booking talent (i.e. stars or director) for press interviews and personal appearances
negotiating deals regarding film’s dvd release and tv showings
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt
in the progression from it to the full product?
continued…
EXHIBITION
This is the process of showing a film to an audience, mainly referring to the cinema environment, but also including other types of screening i.e. the internet, on aeroplanes etc.
The ways in which it is possible to view a film are sometimes referred to as ‘windows of exhibition’.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
continued…
took, especially with the credits as they didn’t look professional when we did them the first couple of times, so we had to keep editing a lot, and having to make sure that everything fitted well and worked together fitting and that it looked good when the shots changed, that it all fitted well and that the lighting of it could be changed to fit the genre and the area it was filmed it, such as if it was bright and it’s a dark film, we’d need to edit the lighting on the programme, and it is important to keep everything look professional for the opening sequence as it is the start of the film where you’d first get everyone gripped onto the film and interested, you don’t want them to get bored within the first few minutes. So making sure that everything was good enough to make sure it didn’t have the bored factor. With the technologies we used were helpful in our media as it was the high quality camera of Toms that we used, which he knew how to use well and was familiar with which meant no faffing with a camera that none of us know how to use. With the planning, we used story board sheets which we had to scan into the computer to add onto our blogs. The sounds we used, some were natural but also some we had found on the internet, and had to make sure that they were not copy rights. With the editing we used the Apple Macs, which on them we used the programme ‘imovie’, which we originally didn’t know how to use except for Tom, but we all observed and helped with the editing, and with what we observed Emily did some editing herself and helped a lot with that. With blogging what we had done and how we did it, who did it and why or when we were doing things, we used Blogger.com. Which was really helpful and it gets us to put down everything we did and who did it and when, why, how. It also helped with planning when to film and
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt
in the progression from it to the full product?
continued…
The technologies we used at each stage were helpful especially with blogs as then, as i’ve mentioned, we knew what we’d done, what we had to do and having the filming dates on there was helpful so then we could easily remind ourselves of when and the location of the filming. with the technologies we’ve used, we’ve learned that there is a lot to do and has to be done in stages and has to have time, preparation and planning, as it cannot be done all so quickly and all at once. personally, i’ve never been good with group work, because i like to work more independently, but with doing this, it has made the work better as there is more input to what is being done, said and created. Working in a group is good but can also be a bad thing as there is always one person in the group who doesn’t do the work as much as everyone else, which with most of the work if this happens it effects every bodies final grades on what has been done and makes the others upset and fall out. Which is bad because the group work doesn’t work well and it could fall apart if it doesn’t get sorted. the time management has to be used well as other wise things will not get done. The filming has to be planned really well, other wise things will get rushed and all done last minute, which can make things stressful and stress everyone out in the group. The timing or the project has to be managed well so that it can all be done in good enough time. The roles taken in this process of the film making was a struggle as three of us and never used the technologies that we had to use before so there was only one of use n the group who could do it, and do it well. We each had a different role in the filming, by sorting out the setting, the actor(s), the timing of where to get it done to make sure the weather would fit our filming needs and whether the setting would be okay, the actual filming, the editing and the research of our logo and
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
continued…How have your skills in these areas developed since your preliminary tasks?in our preliminary task, we didn’t have much of an idea of what we were doing as it was our first time filming and the programme that we used for our editing was the first time we used that too. In our Preliminary Task compared to our main task we had things that weren’t as good such as: There was no added sound or music Bad camera quality cuts from and to each shot weren’t as efficient and clean The setting is in school where as our new setting is outside of school so
we’ve explored our filming area options more in our main task The length of our Preliminary Task is only 30 seconds, where as our
Main Task is nearly 2 minutes We have better camera angles and shots in our Main Task one
compared to our Preliminary one, which shows that we have learned more, as we have, in our Main Task, a creative shot, where as in our Preliminary task, we just have basic shots and angles.
The actors in our preliminary where people from inside our group where as in our Main Task, we got people from outside our group, this was a harder task as we did have to make sure we matched up with her frees and times where she was free which was difficult, because non of us had her number or are in contact with her, but we managed to do it all in the end.
Age- 20
Gender- Male
What would you want to see in a typical thriller?
Sexual contentViolenceFunny Black ManSmart story line
Does our plan for our Thriller meet the ideas that you would want to see?
None of my ideas of a thriller are in your one however the dieas that have been presented are the typical ideas of a thriller. Meaning it only fits my idea of a thriller to a certain extent. (His verbal comment on this to me was that it fits the idea of the old fashioned typical thriller of the forest scene and woman victim however to meet some of the new modern ideas of a thriller that he sees today)
Would you do and see this in cinema?
Yes, as it seems to have a slight twist in the very start of the openeng sequence.
What would you change or add to make our plan better?
I would add in some back ground music as I have noticed that there isnt any in the plan. I would also try and escape from the Typical Thriller idea however it does work.
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Age- 38
Gender- Female
What would you want to see in a typical thriller?
A Twist in it such as a mystery - something that is hard to be guessed. Don't often watch Thrillers so I do not know what is to be found in them.
Does our plan for our Thriller meet the ideas that you would want to see?
Yes from what I know as it has a typical forest opening and typical victim being a woman. With using the phone it reminds me of the Scream showing the relationship between the Thriller conventions.
Would you do and see this in cinema?
No because this type of Film doesn't appeal to me as I don't like the jumps and gore.
What would you change or add to make our plan better?
I would add in some back ground music as I have noticed that there isnt any in the plan to make some more suspense.
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Age- 62
Gender- Male
What would you want to see in a typical thriller?
SuspenseTypical female victimBlood and goreA chase
Does our plan for our Thriller meet the ideas that you would want to see?
Yes, opening scene of the girl in a forest and not being able to see the man through the whole opening sequence. Also gives the twist of was the forest a dream or not, and mixing it in with normal life as if it didn't happen.
Would you do and see this in cinema?
Yes, because it has so many traditional thriller ideas that I like.
What would you change or add to make our plan better?
Add back ground music to help create some suspense.
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Katniss Everdeen –Female Victim
President Snow –Male Antagonist
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Batman/Bruce Wayne – Male Victim
The Joker – Male Antagonist
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