Evaluation - Part 1 - In what ways did your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways did your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Frame 1:  Our first frame is an establishing shot, which shows our scene from both sides of the road. This shows us setting the scene of our media product and doesn't reveal much to the viewer to create that sense of mystery and confusion.

Frame 2: The second frame shows the serial killer deciding which tool to use on his victim. The lighting in the shot used makes it effective as the light is shone onto the tools and we can only faintly see his hands which also adds a sense of mystery as we don't know what he is doing with the tools and who he is.

Frame 3: The third frame shows our title. Our title is in a plain and simple font as we thought it looked more professional. However, there is an effect of what looks like blood flowing through the title, although in the frame the shot has been taken while it was clear and no blood was flowing through.

Frame 4: Our fourth frame is of the victim walking. This shot has been used as we thought it would be good to have a slow start which was of me just walking, and then the scenes would gradually become more intense throughout. Further on in this shot the victim turns around and it looks all blurry, this was used because it shows that the victim is under some confusion. This bodes well with our sub-genre which was psychological. 

Frame 5: The fifth frame is a still of a title shot. Our titles did have quite a sinister look to them as they were in a bloody red colour and the font was similar to the one of a typewriter. This challenges thriller conventions as the titles are also on a black backdrop which gives the the movie a dark and gloomy feel which many thrillers attempt to create.

Frame 6: The sixth frame in our 9 frame sequence is the victim actually getting kidnapped from behind, this is the bit where we see how the victim got to the scene of the torture. This adds to the thriller conventions as there is some sort of action taking place.

Frame 7: This frame shows the victim in the actual torture scene struggling to understand his surroundings and what is going on, this is also backing up our sub-genre of psychological thriller because we can infer that there is something wrong with the serial killer and is insane due to the way he has tied the victim up and what weapons he has in his arsenal.

Frame 8: The eighth frame shows the victim walking from the front this time. We included this in because we wanted to get more type of shots into our movie.

Frame 9: Our 9th frame is the last shot of the film. The serial killer is about to hit his victim with a hammer, this adds to thriller conventions as there is some sort of violence taking place.

Institution and Audiences Blog

http://mananv94institutionsandaudiences.blogspot.com

DVD Cover

I chose 'Captivity' as a relevant film cover to choose as it relates to someone being captured and tortured. Also the fencing which is infront of her face symbolises that she has been trapped and the tear coming down from her eye may suggest she's also being tortured. This relates to our film as ours is a kidnapping and torturing. We could also use something like this but a bit more sinister by making it more dark. As our film has a normal working man in a busy area. Obviously our one the main character wouldn't be standing still, the shot could be from behind the character walking in busy crowds, as our film has a chase in it.

Filming Over Holidays

I had the flu over Christmas and others were busy celebrating. After Christmas we had to revise for mocks, and therefore also couldn't film. However on the Friday 14th January Devki and Shreyaa decided to go to Harrow Town Centre and get some filming done, David had an exam and I was recovering from a cold and therefore couldn't come. We have now decided to go film some more in Harrow on our Friday frees without David as he has lessons. We are still trying to decide a date on when to film in David's garage but we are trying to make it sooner rather than later so hopefully within a week or so. My thoughts on our groups progress so far is a bit slow as we have all the ideas for our film but we just haven't got enough filming done down to being lazy and other commitments. However we feel we have an idea of what and when to film and will hopefully have a rough cut by next Thursday 27th January.

Todorov's 5 Stages

No Country for Old Men

Equilibrium - Man living with his wife in a caravan with no money.

Disruption - Ponders across a drug deal gone wrong. Everyone's dead in the scene, just bags of drugs and a suitcase of money which the man comes across and runs away with.

Recognition of Disruption: A serial killer finds out and wants the money. He has a sensor on the suitcase and can track the money.

Attempt to Repair Disruption: Man who has suitcase of money attempts to fightback the serial killer and also tries to escape. The serial killer kills the man in the end and threatens to kill his wife, who finds out and leaves the serial killer for the police.

Restoration of Equilibrium: Woman lives on as a widow, however serial killer is taken by police.

We felt that our animatic task went better than expected, as our chosen genre of 'Musicals' was one we were very stuck with, although we did choose it ourselves. I don't feel that our actual idea was great but I felt we helped ourselves with the mise-en-scene side of things as we thought about costumes and surroundings. Also our story board was quite detailed even though we were lost for ideas. The storyline we came up with was quite silly but Musicals are generally silly. We got our ideas from High School Musical and South Park and tried to merge the two, with silly and cheesy. If I were to do the task again I would definately choose a different genre as this was too hard for us to think of as we haven't seen any Musicals ourselves (well many). We feel we could achieve a better idea with the genre of Action/Thriller/Comedy or Horror.

2 Film Openings.

Se7en.

It starts off with a close up of an open book with the page being turned. It then blacks out to the titles. While this is all going on there is sinister music in the background playing which flows with the editing and cuts of the opening. It then fades into a drawing/picture of some hands in an awkward position. It then goes into some weird gears or cog type things turning making weird noises sort of electrecuting like. We then see an extreme close up of a mystery mans hands with a blade scraping the tips of his fingers off. The title of the movie then comes up in capitals with a black background 'SE7EN'. The mystery man now has plasters on all fingertips and is taking a book out but we can only see the book and the finger prints to keep the man exclusive and a mystery. We then see someone writing which then fades to red with a picture of Brad Pitt I think in it. It is then shown an extreme close up of the man cutting film reels and pictures. While this is all going on the music in the background is playing. The music is quite psychadelic which adds to the effect of the red representing evil. The music is a fast paced beat which works well with the opening. The titles are in scribbled writing suggesting as if the maniac killer has written them with his scraped fingertips. A great shot of a book page being slowly turned with a lamp light shining through it is used as we can see in the shadow a syringe which he uses. It then closes up on the book as he is highlighting in black words. For one shot it is half red and half white which could suggest there are 2 sides to the story. During the whole scene we don't exactly know what's going on which gives the viewer a sense of mystery. He is now sewing random stuff. The director has given little information during the opening to grip us into the story and the mystery of the killer. From the narrative side I can't really tell what this opening is portraying apart from the fact is it dark and sinister, the rest is a mystery.