How does your media Product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

This shot is from a film where the mysterious villain is leading two chained zombies through a wood. This character is wearing a dark green hooded jacket and dark trousers this implies the character is very dark ad mysterious. The angle of the camera is angled looking up at the characters this is to make the characters looking dominating to the audience. This shot also gives the centre character a lot of depth as they are masked and are holding a weapon this implies to the audience that they are dangerous. The fact the character is also holding two men on chains shows how they are in charge.

Our villain character is wearing a dark green hooded jacket and dark trousers to go along with theme of woods and mystery which is similar to the character above.

These shots are from our thriller where the angle is you can't see the stalkers face and they are hidden to

keep the suspense and mystery. I've compared this character to the one above as our thriller villain was based on being masked gender and identity wise this was mainly for dramatic effect and it is a typical convention of a thriller. Also the above shot is relevant to our thriller as ours has a theme of woods/trees/open spaces as well. The shot has similarities with our shot of the stalker walking through the gates as you the stalker is centre of the screen with two gates either side showing power. The spikes on the gate also show danger as does the weapon in the above picture.

This shot is from the movie Taken and it is when the wife is kidnapped, the theme of this thriller relates to our thriller theme as it is very similar. The difference with this film to ours is that a weapon is shown to show that this character is in danger our thriller shows the girls make up run and they look 'tortured' which implies danger. This character is wearing casual but quite dull coloured clothing this is to show maturity and maybe danger as her jumper is a maroon/red.

In this shot the two main characters of our thriller are being trapped in the stalkers house, the girls at this point have been abducted and are being seen trapped.

The girls are dressed in age appropriate and weather appropriate costumes to their characters. One is wearing a white jumper this is to show the innocence of the girls. The other girl is wearing all black to resemble a darker truth. The camera angle is slightly angled to looking down on the girls this is to show their vulnerability as well as making the audience seem like they are watching the situation. The scene is in an enclosed, long hall way this represents the girls being trapped. The large door finalises this like closing the lid on a box.

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

 


The kind of media institution that might distribute our media product is MGM. I think this as some of their thrillers that they have produced ('Are you in the house?’, ‘silence of the lambs') are similar to our ideas. The way we have filmed and produced ours, may not be on the same professional level, the lay out is similar.

MGM today: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is a leading entertainment company focused on the production and distribution of film and television content globally. The company owns one of the world’s deepest libraries of premium film and television content. In addition, MGM has investments in domestic and international television channels, including MGM-branded channels.

 MGM is also proven quite popular through their audience with their thriller productions as well so this would be appropriate for our thriller.

 

What is a thriller?
Dictionary definition: A novel, play, or movie with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage.



A thriller is a genre of film and its purpose is to thrill the audience. It uses elements such as suspense, tension and excitement this is to effect the audience's emotion a few examples would be: anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced. Thrillers also tend to within the literary end on cliff hangers, involve red herrings and constantly use plot twists this would be to keep the audience on the edge of their seats in anticipation.

Sub-genres of thrillers:


- Conspiracy
- Crime
- Disaster
- Mystery
- Political
- Psychological
- Religious
- Supernatural
- Techno

* Thriller sub-genres. These are the sub-genres of the thriller genre which gives more detail to how a thriller should be laid out, in addition to giving specific examples of specific films for each sub-genre category.

For our thriller we chose mystery as it is a popular topic and the story we had created seemed to fit appropriately with this sub-genre. This genre relates to a lot of crime thrillers as it uses the conventional detective to solve the mystery. This also includes the plot twist. The audience follow the main character as they try to discover the clues and what they mean with the character, with this sort of interaction created a more intense effect and made the audience want to know what the crime is.

For our thriller opening the audience follow the two main female characters and get an inclination that they are trapped, the stalker however remains masked, it isn't clear what their gender is or what they want with the girls which is what starts the mystery. Another question in the audience's minds is why the girls had to meet the stalker. This creates immediate effect of mystery. We don't have a detective as it there hasn't been a crime, yet, the audience follow the two girl's story with cuts to the stalker to show what they are doing. We found getting the grasp of a mystery while shooting quite challenging at times as we were unsure it would fit with the criteria of a mystery.

The typical setting for a thriller is usually in an urban area or city. As well as this they can be set in quite villages which are in the middle of no-where with a lot of surrounding space. With the main colours black, white and grey this would help to emphasise the vulnerability of the victim. With the use of these colours it makes the setting seem dominant and over whelming as well as being quite fierce towards the victim, they also imply to the audience that the victims are in danger.

This opening shot of the Island from the film Shutter Island shows the secluded space which is bleak and empty. It also follows the colour scheme of dull and dark colours for a typical thriller convention.
A recurring colour which is used prominently in most thrillers is red, this colour shows; danger, evil, blood, lust and warning. It sometimes shows that characters are going to die or it helps emphasis the climax of the scene. In our thriller we used a lot of dull colours and we used dull settings where there wasn't much colour, we also edited the re-wind section of our film so it was in black and white. Therefore we have used this convention

This poster show the title in red which is another typical convention of a thriller and warns the audience to expect danger, blood or death.

Camera shots for thrillers usually pan they are very steady or still. For dialogue between two characters in a scene the camera man will use a close up shot to show the characters in the situation whether it is part of the build-up, climax or just a conversation section of the film. In our thriller we used a lot of close up shots for the two girls.

This is a two shot in the opening sequence of Shutter Island where you can see the two characters having a conversation which is part of the build-up.

The characters are set in a small, dull room where the only colours are dark blue, white and black. With the shot from this angle the light coming in from the window is behind her which leaves a shadow on both girls’ faces. This leaves both characters in the dark which gives a hidden depth of what might become of them.


 

If in the scene the camera is moving around it is most likely for an action scene, we use this with the chase from behind the girls and when the camera is looking up at one of the girls face as she's running. We found this effective and definitely created tension in the scene. Another reason for camera movements is when the scene needs a sense of vulnerability or when something has gone wrong this is used to increase the suspense. Filming in low or dimmed light on a character is often used to make the audience think there is more to a character than they originally thought as well as if the villain is seen in a dimmed light it adds to the mystery and suspense. Props used in thrillers are usually big or easily identifiable like knifes or guns. We didn't use any props for our thriller as ours wasn't a murder it was more of a torment and mind games thriller. Thrillers are based often on what society is most afraid of or worried of for example: kidnapping.

Day of Filming

DAY OF FILMING 

Start - We started at about quarter to nine at my grandma's house in Thurlby where we were going to be doing all the main filming. We sat down for half an hour discussing our plan for the day so we were entirely clear on what we needed to do that day.

- We then started filming. We filmed a conversation between the two girls walking up to the street sign which said Swallow Hill on it which we later cut out of our opening. We also filmed the stalker walking up my grandmother's neighbour's drive to some eccentric electric gates which opened as the stalker walked up to them. Some other shots were of the girls walking through leaves and puddles and stopping outside of a house and looking.

- While we were there we also filmed a tree which is very tall and quite daunting as it was a pan up the tree is made the audience feel small and belittled which also helps create tension to the story.

- On our way to Clipsham in Castle Bytham we stopped at a old red telephone box and filmed the stalker walking in and picking up the phone.

- At Clipsham we recorded the victims running in and out of all the yew trees and being chased this was meant to be the effect of a large garden or grounds to seem that there was no escape and beginning the entrapment theme.

- For the final shooting of the day we finished back at the house. We filmed the porch light turning on and off while it started to rain, this in effect created the darkening atmosphere that we needed for our thriller opening.

- We also filmed the stalker walking through this small area which I call the "woods" at my grandmothers which is a small area off pine trees which makes the ground dry and crunchy with leaves and sticks. This, in effect, when filming the stalkers feet walking through we thought would help set the overall theme for our opening in the end however we didn't use this as we felt we didn't need it.

- The next filming was in the bedroom of one of the girls. We filmed one of the main girls knocking on the bedroom door and entering due to some sound and filming difficulties we decided to cut it as we didn't really need it. We also cut the shots we took of zooming out from the makeup table to where the second main girl was lying on her bed, initially this would have been our opening shot but it looked like it would be for a different genre of film so we cut it.

- Another shot which was a long shot to show the characters in their environment was when the two girls were having a conversation on the bed this was included and helped set the storyline, it also created mystery for the opening by leaving the question in the audiences minds "Why?".

-The last of our filming was of the girls when they were "damaged". For this effect all we did was wet our hair and smudge all our make-up down our faces and the white walls reflected off of our faces giving us a pasty un-well look. We took a number of shots of the camera moving backwards as the girls dragged their bodies towards the door reaching out and the door slamming before they could get out, the camera then panned to the window above the door where the two girls are stood with their hands on the window and then they disappear this effect showed the girls trapped in the house.

Evaluating our prelim