In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have selected 8 frames from my film opening which I believe best use and challenge the generic conventions of my chosen genre, psychological thrillers. Some frames illustrate how I've intertwined the horror and psychological thriller into one, to create a hybrid film.
Frame 1: Story & How the opening is set up
Frame 2: The title of the film
Frame 3: Setting & Location
Frame 4: Special Effects
Frame 5: Costumes & Props
Frame 6: Genre & How the opening suggests it
Frame 7: How characters are introduced
Frame 8: Camera Work & Editing
Frame 1- Story & How the opening is set up
Due to my film being quite abstract, I decided to go against thriller norms of starting of with a pan of the room, to give the audience a sense of what the film will be about through the mise en scene. I believed that opening a film this way helps to build and create suspense and I believed that this would be better as it helped to create a sense of ambiguity from the beginning. Whilst this is being shown, the audio behind the clip is of screaming fans yelling out "Debby, Debby/ Take my picture." I've chosen to have this enter under this particular frame to create an enigma and t draw in my audience as they'd want to know who this Debby is and why these people are screaming her name.
From my research, I discovered that a lot of psychological thrillers start of slowly and quite ambiguously as the storyline builds up, nothing is revealed till later. Hence why I decided to have the second frame be an aerial shot of the main character sleeping, to start feeding questions into my audiences head. Who is she? Why is she fully clothed? How did she get there? Moreover, the audience can already start to make assumptions and judgement of the character through her costume as she is wearing a red dress and red is usually associated with promiscuity and danger.
I chose to make this shot a static one rather than have it pan in because I didn't want the audience to connect to the character straight away. This was inspired by the opening scenes of the Machinist, as we are first introduced to the main character through a long shot coming from outside of the window looking in, which made it quite intrusive.
Frame 2- Title Font & Style
The second frame chosen to demonstrate how I incorporated
the conventional techniques of a thriller into my piece is the title of the
film. The title plays a key role in providing the audience with a taster of the
narrative of the film without revealing too much of the plot. With my title
being "Broken", I decided to have it on black background as it just
broke the scene of the main character awakening through its entrance, this is a
reflection of her fragmented mind as she isn't sure of her location, her
identity or what is happening.
The title plays a key role in providing the audience with a taster of the narrative of the film without revealing too much of the plot. With my title being "Broken", I decided to have it on black background as it just broke the scene of the main character awakening through it's entrance, this is a reflection of her fragmented mind as she isn't sure of her location, her identity or what is happening.
The capitalisation of the letters, has been purposefully done as I wanted to create a sense of urgency through this and also to stress the importance of the word, hinting to the audience that this film is an abstract film that will be "Broken" and fragmented. I believed that this would have created intrigue as the word itself is quite ambiguous as it could be relatable to anything, thus becoming an enigma. This fit in well with the psychological genre as the titles are usually quite simple yet strong and powerful such as "Awake."
The font is representative of the characters fragility, through the patchiness of the letters. This once again relates to films such as "The Butterfly Effect" as this film's title is also simplistic yet bold as the writing reflects its message as one of the "f's" is backwards to create the look of a butterfly.
The motion of the text is each letter flickers on light a broken light, this is a reflection of the narrative as the main protagonist Debby is like a flickering light bulb, as she is constantly getting flashbacks of herself and a little girl. Moreover, the addition of the sound effect helped to add depth to the title, heightening the flashes of the letters. I chose to do this, to illustrate the irritation received from Debby after getting a flashback, through the harsh sound, an effect often used in films and television shows.
Frame 4- Special Effects
Here is a screenshot of the program "After Effects." I used this to find my font and to create my credits which I then imported into "Final Cut."
Frame 3 is one of many flashbacks that Debby gets, this particular flashback is of her and a gentleman planning to embark on what looks to be a kiss, however before the audience is able to tell it would have already gone of the screen. I chose to add the dream effect on the flashback sequence because I wanted to distinguish that this is what she sees in her head, I added "light rays" on the shots to blur the picture to demonstrate her haziness and lack of clarity of the situation she is in. I think this effect was successful as it was essential to the narrative as it echoed the confusion she felt.
Lighting in my thriller took a very long time to perfect due some of the scenes taking place in poorly lit rooms, during the production of the film there wasn't an issue as I was able to see everything I wanted to see clearly however when I was editing I noticed that there subtle differences in colour that would have been a continuity mistake. Therefore I had to use "Colour Corrector" on Final Cut which helped to brighten up the clip. The shot on the left is a product of the colour corrector tool.
Frame 5- Genre and How the opening suggest it
This is a screenshot of the part of the film in which Debby has a flashback of herself and a man, this is often found in psychological thrillers. However, through my editing I realised that my thriller could be perceived as a hybrid of mystery, horror and psychological. I have incorporated many shots which imply that the character is mentally unstable through the constant flashbacks and the paranoia of seeing the child and hearing things.
My thriller incorporates the genre of a psychological thriller through the special effects; the soundtrack, the ambiguous narrative and the constant flashbacks and the cyclical quality of ending my thriller with the main character waking up in bed.
Frame 6- Costume and Props
During my thriller openings there isn't a wide range of props used as it fairly simple and abstract
-
Teddy bear
- Toys
- Red dress
The costume in this thriller is symbolic, as the red dress symbolises the possible promiscuity of the character as it red, however, the leggings are worn to protect her modesty, showing that this character is fairly innocent and young. Moreover, I chose to keep her face completely clear, as I wanted to illustrate the character's vulnerability and youth, making the audience sympathise with her confusion.
She isn't wearing anything that looks particularly expensive or extravagant, perhaps suggesting that she isn't a character that is well off. This suggest to the audience that the house she wakes up in might not neccecassirly be hers or that she doesn't live there alone, making them question who that is and what is their relationship. In one of the scenes you can see a flash of a little girl playing in the living room, I chose to use a POV shot for this to create an affiliation between the two characters, suggesting that they might know each other even though, my main protagonist doesn't remember.
Through the constant flashbacks and back and forth editing, it is hard for the audience to figure out who the antagonist of the movie is. In frame 9, you can see there's a character whom the audience have not been introduced to and do not know how he looks like. However judging from his trousers and shoes he's not someone that is financially healthy or he's part of a gang. Wearing ripped jeans and Nike shoes is stereo-typically someone who is rough or is part of a gang.
The teddy bear is a motif as it is in a lot of shots, this bear is symbolising the characters innocence because every time she only sees it in flashbacks, and it is only when she goes into the room, to follow the voice she heard from upstairs, that she actually sees the bear in person and triggers her to see a little girl in that same room playing with the bear, thus helping to create an enigma through the ambiguity.
Frame 7- Introduction of characters
My target audience is introduced to three characters in the opening of my thriller through different types of shots. My first character is someone whom we takes prevalence in this opening, as the audience follow her through her coming to turns with her surrounding; this helps to give the audience a connection with her as we're discovering new things at the same time she is. The audience are introduced to her lying down on a bed, the aerial shot used is quite intrusive thus making the connection between the audience and this character quite intimate. The second character we're introduced to is male, yet he remains unknown as the audience only see's glimpses of him in flashbacks and in a photograph, which has been blurred to match the haziness of her memory of him. This then leaves the audience with questions like "who is he?" and "what is his relationship with the character Debby?"
We're then introduced to the little girl playing in the living room- editing was used to introduce the little girl, as I used the video tool on Final Cut to make it look like that particular clip was a home made video. Once again making the audience question who this little girl was and what she meant to Debby. Typical conventions are used while introducing the characters through various camera shots. A lot of medium / close-ups are used to give the audience a clear view of what the characters look like.
Lighting in my thriller took a very long time to perfect due some of the scenes taking place in poorly lit rooms, during the production of the film there wasn't an issue as I was able to see everything I wanted to see clearly however when I was editing I noticed that there subtle differences in colour that would have been a continuity mistake. Therefore I had to use "Colour Corrector" on Final Cut which helped to brighten up the clip. The shot on the left is a product of the colour corrector tool.
Frame 8- Camera Work and Editing
I decided to use POV shots to film the child as I wanted to give my thriller a more intimate vibe, making it more personal, this also helped to structure the narrative as by doing this it was clear that the protagonist Debby has an affiliation with the little girl. However, due to the fast paced editing, I've left this to be quite ambiguous as the audience are unaware of the two's connections, thus leaving them to ask questions; building a sense of intrigue and suspense and the need to know more.
I used a variety of different shots e.g. CU, Mid shots, POV shots, Over the shoulder shots, tracking shots etc.. however I deliberately chose to use shots that were in close distance rather than panning shots and extreme long shots because I wanted to create a sense of intimacy as this is a very abstract piece, the intimacy if the shots represented the entrapment of the character, how she's confined in close quarters.
I think I was successful in doing this, as I believed it was really effective as it helped to develop the narrative as well because these different types of shots each have a purpose and therefore, fit in with the story.
This is a screenshot of the part of the film in which Debby has a flashback of herself and a man, this is often found in psychological thrillers. However, through my editing I realised that my thriller could be perceived as a hybrid of mystery, horror and psychological. I have incorporated many shots which imply that the character is mentally unstable through the constant flashbacks and the paranoia of seeing the child and hearing things.
This is an example of a POV shot that I used, I found using point of view shots really effective in my thriller because it really helped to create an intimate intense atmosphere that most thrillers create, it put my audience in the film as it made them feel like it was them, which helped to create suspense.
Lighting in my thriller took a very long time to perfect due some of the scenes taking place in poorly lit rooms, during the production of the film there wasn't an issue as I was able to see everything I wanted to see clearly however when I was editing I noticed that there subtle differences in colour that would have been a continuity mistake. Therefore I had to use "Colour Corrector" on Final Cut which helped to brighten up the clip. The shot on the left is a product of the colour corrector tool.
Name: Claire Kyle
