Conventions We Used
Our thriller film, Nostalgia, conforms to various conventions of thriller films in multiple ways. We used the binary opposition convention which presents a fundamental difference between the antagonist and protagonist, Detective Vince Clarke and Dominic Christopher. This is shown through the Mise-En-Scene, especially the outfits which create a contrast in class such as the Detective's suit to the hooded jumper and trackies of Dominic. 
Binary opposition is used in The Dark Knight between (good character) Batman and the (evil character) Joker. However the use of Mise-En-Scene but more specifically the costumes contrasts to how we use it in Nostalgia. Batman's costume mimics that of a bat which has negative connotations despite him being the protagonist but the costumes still mirrors a knight armour whereas Jokers' costume mimics that of a clown which has more positive connotations. However the messy style of make up presents him as a more terrifying figure.
Another convention we used was a credit sequence (as shown on the left). This enabled us to do various things. Firstly, it broke up the action going on, allowing us to change shot type smoothly (helped by the cross fade) and, as a result of this, create a more professional looking opening. Secondly, the credits allow us to introduce the name of the actors, director, distribution companies involved and who the music was produced by.
Conventions We Developed
We developed the thriller convention of the use of time for effect. We developed this convention by playing around with flashbacks from the detectives point of view of significant times which he spent with his daughter, Alice Clarke. This allowed the audience to be kept ambiguous to whether Alice Clarke is still alive or if something happened to her as well as evoking empathy towards the Detective. 
The film 'Memento' also uses the convention of time and has developed it in a way that, if the audience would have watched the film all the way through, they would realise that the opening sequence is in fact the end of the film. This developed use of time, like ours, makes the audience ambiguous of time period when the film is set.
Another convention which we developed was that we had a drama genre entwined within our opening. By not basing in solely as a thriller we showed clearly a strong father and daughter relationship which makes the audience feel empathy towards both of the characters. The signs of this strong relationship between the detective and his daughter are the two flashbacks, where he is remembering specific and sentimental memories. Another sign is the teddy bear on his dashboard of the car. By him keeping the teddy bear close to him shows how he still is not able to let her go and further encourages the audiences empathy.
Conventions We Challenged
The thriller convention we challenged in Nostalgia was that of establishing shots. Throughout our thriller opening we never used a establishing shot as we wanted to create an aura of mystery to where the opening of Nostalgia was specifically set. We only reveal that the opening is set in a forest, but an exact geographical location remains ambiguous. As a result of this, the audience feel uncomfortable as the opening location, for all they know, could be close to where they live.
We challenged the convention of us of low key lighting such as black and white lighting by not using it at all. Furthermore we also set our opening pursuit sequence in the daytime which differs from many other thriller films. By not using low key lighting (and instead washing out the colour and increasing the brightness) allows us to portray a more positive relationship between the detective and his daughter. Also by setting the pursuit sequence within the day time removes ambiguity to the appearance of the 'bad character' and opens up the audience's vision to the action.
This challenged convention is also used in 'Seeking Justice' as the protagonist (as seen on the left) is being chased and escaping from the pursuers however in the daytime which differs from the majority of other thrillers which tend to use the night time for chase scenes. The film also does not use low key lighting in this scene which removes the ambiguity to the action going on and the audience have completely clear vision of what is going on. Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups
I focused on the four key social groups which are shown in Nostalgia these include: Gender, Age, Class and Race. I talked about each social group in detail, supporting each point I made with screen shots from Nostalgia.
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
http://nostalgia2012.wikispaces.com/ - Answer on link
From prior research of our target audience, I believe it would be most appropriate to have a smaller distribution company based in England (for example Studio Canal UK) to distribute Nostalgia as we are a strictly British film, focused on a niche market.
Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
Judging from our research into ideal audience members I discovered that our target audience would be between the ages of 15 - 25. However to be more specific, the exact age of the ideal audience member for our film would be a 24 year old male called Lawrence as he would have experienced and gained greater knowledge through secondary school, 6th form and University. In addition Lawrence is attending university, to study law as our Thriller film is heavily law related and it contains a specific lexical field of law such as "suspect", "criminal" Case "167". Therefore his parents both earn a good salary as they paid for his entry fees.
Lawrence is a regular cinema goer (twice a week) but with a small, neat collection of older classic thriller films on DVD such as Silence Of The Lambs. He prefers art-house films over mainstream as he is interested in film making himself. His preferred genre of films is Thriller and Horror but with a psychological sub-genre. He can also stomach strong gore in films. He shares a flat with two of his friends in the older districts of Cambridge and they regularly bike into the city centre for drinks in various bars and pubs.
Lawrence plays various instruments but his strengths are in guitar and piano playing. He regularly attends local indie band gigs playing at the corn exchange. He has a particular interest in movie soundtracks and has brought many soundtracks from films like Starwars to the likes of Slumdog Millionaire. Along with his interest in law, Lawrence has an acute knowledge of maths and enjoys crime-based thriller series like the CSI range and Numb3rs which have a strong mathematical theme.
James Patterson is his favourite author as he enjoys the fast pace and build up of suspense in his books. He enjoys reading in his spare time and preferably on the common in Cambridge as he has a small trace of claustrophobia. Lawrence is a strong Labour party follower and disregards the conservative views strongly. Due to his interest in maths and, although not being as knowledgeable in, science as well he is an atheist despite his friends being Christian. Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
The annotations on our thriller opening of Nostalgia show various ways we drew in the audiences attention by the use of ambient sounds, lighting, false leads, camera techniques, editing techniques and sound track.
Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Blogger
Actually using and posting information on a blog was a new experience, therefore using the webpage 'Blogger' required some getting use to. However after a lesson or two I managed to get to grips with it rather well and found out just how easy it was to post, upload, annotate information on and, personally, I felt it really enabled my group to work well as a team; either that be by orginising our work or sharing our individual views for the rest of us to commentate on and voice their opinion. Blogger also enabled me to present our work in a neat and cohesive way as well as allowing me to tag myself in my work which helped me to keep track of my individual posts and the other people in my group.
Blogger
Actually using and posting information on a blog was a new experience, therefore using the webpage 'Blogger' required some getting use to. However after a lesson or two I managed to get to grips with it rather well and found out just how easy it was to post, upload, annotate information on and, personally, I felt it really enabled my group to work well as a team; either that be by orginising our work or sharing our individual views for the rest of us to commentate on and voice their opinion. Blogger also enabled me to present our work in a neat and cohesive way as well as allowing me to tag myself in my work which helped me to keep track of my individual posts and the other people in my group. YouTube
Final Cut Express
Prezi
Although already having prior experience with Prezi, the more in depth usage allowed me to create more sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing presentations. I used Prezi early on in my blog http://nfgsgemini.blogspot.com/2011/11/conventions-of-thriller-film.html to present various thriller conventions, some of which we used in our thriller opening (Nostalgia).
TripodEven though for our preliminary video we used a tripod, we were not use to filming with it and therefore we had to practice a bit to get to grips with filming well executed panning and establishing shots. The tripod also enabled us to film steady shots avoiding any shaking (which would have lost us marks). These improvements were clearly noticeable once we came to edit our video and helped dramatically to create a professional looking thriller opening.
Panasonic HDC-SD9
We used this camera to film our thriller opening as it enabled us to upload our films in HD, for the best video detail and quality. Having prior experience of using a video camera, I was already able to use the functions such as: zoom in and out, start and pause recording, importing videos onto the Apple Macs and take photos.
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Below is our preliminary video where we have added annotations into how we improved in our final opening. This includes steadiness of camera, use of camera shots and positioning, editing, character tropes and stereotypes, use of props and location. Since our preliminary task we worked a lot better in our groups, each putting forward our individual ideas and working with each others strengths and weaknesses. This enabled us to each have a equal amount of input into the producing as well as editing of Nostalgia. Our progress up until the filming of Nostalgia was tracked with meetings (which can be seen on the blog and in the right) which helped us review our work and plan for the following lesson.
Further research was done into thriller conventions and the effect they have on the audience. Conventions such as: protagonist vs antagonist, POV shots, establishing shots, pursuits etc. Since our preliminary my camera skills have improved due to practice in using the cameras as well as practice in performing the various shots like panning, establishing shot, POV shots.
No comments:
Post a Comment