Saturday, May 5, 2012

Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media prodcuts? (i.e. of film openings)

The title of our film is first shown when Jody spells it out using the building blocks we made. However, it is not fully clear that is the title until it is displayed at the end. This way of introducing the title into the actual footage is unusual and would go against typical conventions of a thriller as they would usually just edit the title in during the opening on a black background.

However, in the case of the font style of the thriller, our title does follow traditional codes and conventions in terms of font style. It is quite simple but also quite a quirky, spooky font which suits the genre. For example; in the film Black Swan, the title shot is plain black words on a white background, which is very similar to what we have done, however we decided to switch the colours around as it seemed darker and more fitting for our thriller.

In terms of settings and locations we had main locations while filming. We had a red room, which was Megan's Dad's study. This was our main location as this is where we witness the change that Jody goes through, turning from inncocent to evil. We would say that this goes with codes and conventions of a thriller because alot of films use colours to symbolise danger and/or isolation. This screenshot also introduces the character Jody. It shows her happily playing with her teddy and some building bricks. She is introduced straight away while the opening credits are being shown.

We also used Megan's Dad's car to film to flashback car crash scene. This goes partly with and party against conventions of a thriller because although flashbacks are used often in films, car scenes at the camera angles we used are not common.

This screenshot shows the majority of props we used as well as the costume. Here you can see a teddy, the building bricks, a photo frame, her white dress, and her hair and brusing make-up. We would say that this goes with conventions of a thriller as films often use props to symbolise things and make-up for effect. In our case, the teddy, white dress and hair in bunches shows her innocence, contrasting against the red background which represents danger.

In terms of the story, the main shot that sets what the film is about comes right at the end of the opening. It goes with traditional conventions of a thriller because extreme close ups are often used to show the expression of the characters. Red contact lenses or make-up/props are often used there abouts.

Genre wise, we have followed conventions of a thriller by having a scene with fake blood. This shows that it is a thriller. Lots of thrillers include fake blood and we used it in the car crash scene along with make-up to show that Jody had died.

Lastly, our best piece of editing was the photoframe shot. We used an aerial shot to look down on the photoframe as though we were seeing it through Jody's eyes. We used green card to make a green screen and edited in a Mum (Ms Thompson), a Dad (Mr Shearing) and Jody to make a family portrait type picture. We then made Jody fade from the picture as she died, like she never even existed. This, although is rare to see depending on the story of the thriller, has been done before in thrillers and therefore would follow typical conventions of a thriller. However, we were pleased with how it looked and thought the idea was clever. It shows a key moment in the opening as it makes the audience realise that she has died and makes the audience feel sorry for her and wonder what she will do next.

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