BBC showcased a series called 'Great TV Mistakes' which advocated my thoughts about our upcoming production in regards to the coherence of continuity in our production. The show consisted of pointing out "TV's worst blunders, gaffes and continuity errors" which will help me to consider even the slightest bungles in our production. The show also entailed bloopers, shots of camera crew and appearances of equipment.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00trbz2
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We had a lesson today on narrative structure which made use think about how we want to tell the story.
Circular: when the beginning and ending scene are the same. Episodic: when the narrative is shown in episodes from the characters life, it jumps to different parts. Linear: when the narrative has a clear beginning, middle and end. Restricted narrative: a narrative that allows the viewers to know what the characters know. Omniscient narrative: a narrative which allows the viewers to know more about the characters and their situations than they know. We think it would be clearer to our target audience if we constructed a linear narrative which would assume that our film has a beginning middle and end. Psychological thrillers have both restricted and omniscient narratives but our initial ideas tend to lean towards the omniscient narrative.
For our production, in the main film we will include all the characters that Propp suggests, however because we are only filming the opening sequence, we will only show the villain. Following Todorovs theory, our film will begin with an equilibrium where the audience gets to know the character and what he's doing. The middle of our film would have had the stereotypical dilemma however again we cant show this as we are only filming the opening sequence.
It is really essential that we are able to identify our potential target audience and then be able to learn what really engages them in order for our production to be successful.
Types of audiences: Mass audience: a production that has a massive amount of people watching it e.g. women, men, children, adults, etc. Niche audience: much smaller but influential, people with unique interests. Audiences can be categorised into social class/grade: Group A consists of lawyers, doctors, scientists, well paid professionals Group B consists of teachers, middle managers, fairly well paid professionals Group C consists of junior management, bank clerks, nurses, white collar professionals Group C2 consists of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, blue collar professionals Group D consists of drivers, post men, taxi drivers Group E consists of students, pensioners, unemployed Thrillers are mainly watched by adults and teenagers. Any younger than that wouldn't be able to watch the films due to the level of certificate it is, the lowest being 12A and highest being 18. The group that thriller audiences would fit under would be C-E. For our production, we are going to follow these criteria and aim it at these audience profiles. I have been analysing a previous group's work to help get a good idea on what is a Level 4 piece looks like. They went into great detail with every piece of research and from this they had a great outcome in their final production. To get an even clearer understanding on what could be achieved I want to focus on each micro element they contributed to the production of what they called Reminiscence. Group 6- Reminiscence
Thinking about our production, I decided to look at past media studies students opening sequence to expand my knowledge and understanding of the requirements and to gain a clearer perspective of how to achieve a high grade. I decided to look at the codes and conventions used by other students to create the suspense, tension and anticipation usually associated with thrillers. This opening scene demonstrates many different codes and conventions associated with thriller movies. For example, the non-diegetic music throughout instantly creates an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, keeping the target audience intrigued. The opening sequence consists of many different shots rather than one ongoing shot. This adds tension to the opening as the audience doesnt see the whole setting and therefore only specific key elements are shown. This helps me to realise that to keep the target audience interested, quick duration, jump shots and close ups are an excellent way to do this when thinking about our prodcuction.
I personally think that the font used was applicable to this type of thriller as it stands out on the background however it is not intrusive. The non-diegetic music creates a mysterious atmosphere as the audience anticipates the climax. The opening scene doesn't include any dialogue however it does include non-diegetic and diegetic sound. I feel that this doesn't allow the audience to relate to the character as much, making the audience lose interest. I feel that the lack of connection between the audience and the characters was however made up for in the amount of close-ups used as emotions were demonstrated carefully. The editing used from 1:37 to 1:42 makes it unclear to wether the key is reminding her of a past memory or pre-empting a premonition which confused me slightly. Therefore this helps me to realise that when creating our production we should be sure to have a clear narrative which can be easily interpreted. There is high key lighting throughout the scene which is a counter type of a typical thriller movie - however i feel that this gives the scene a more realistic outtake, however it does not build suspense or tension. In order to gauge what is possible in a student production I decided to look at some past A grade thriller film
I really liked the effects of using street and car lights during to open the sequence. Straight away the darkness connotes danger and mystery which is a well used code and convention associated with horror or thriller films. The black and white pan mid shot of the women walking with the non diagetic sound voice over in the creates tension and mystery with the words. The non diagetic music in gets faster and louder as the mid shot of the car pulls into the drive way. This connotes anticipation as up until this time the audience has not known who was driving the car. The tilted shots and quick edits suggest that the man stumbling into the door is drunk which creates a sense of panic as to what he has done or what he is going to do, this could be considered as an action code, as the audience are waiting to see what he does when he opens the door. I like the way the font is small and fades in and out in different parts of the screen because its noticeable but doesn't take the attention away from the actual production. The fact its white makes it stand out on the background. The hand held camera and short duration shots with the diagetic sound of screams create a sense of fear but makes you want to watch more. The hand held camera gets more shaky towards the end when the woman is running which engages the audience within the narrative. . The font at the end is in red which contrasts with the black background. The style of font is a bit plain and does not suggest the horror/thriller genre. This will be something our group will look into in depth as it is the details which tend to get over looked with student productions. The last shot is very dramatic as the camera pans up the woman's body, revealing the blood and her ripped clothes. I am not sure as an opening sequence that this works because the killer has already been identified so where does the narrative go from there. Perhaps if its a circular narrative this works as an opening. Blood and death are stereotypical in thriller or horror films which is why they incorporated that into their production. The use of sound in psychological thrillers is very important in order to create an atmosphere of tension and suspense. You can't just have someone going through a forest without the typical sounds of wind, twigs breaking, owls and so on. These sounds are what make the scene more tense, jumpy and has the audience feeling nervous with each movement. It gives us the audience an idea of how the character is feeling. The audience can tell by the type of music whether its getting louder, more eerie and high pitched that something could jump out at any moment and when the music relaxes again for when nothing is expected. Music is used as a kind of warning, and to get the full atmosphere. Other psychological thriller sounds involve around rain, thunderclap, footsteps, loud bangs, scratching of the floor and screams. Most of the sounds are from music they created to fit well into the scene. Rain I would say is the most common and stereotypical of psychological thriller sounds. Its meant to be a calming element but something about rain is rather menacing its unlikely to have good outcomes, unless coming from a romance. An example of rain is throughout Identity.
Lionsgate is a leading global organisation used in many opening sequences in media texts. formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 3, 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Since it was founded in 1997, there have been many different logos. Its the seventh most profitable movie studio. The logo in the top left hand corner was from 1997-1998. The plain white writing stands out on the black plain background which draws the attention to the logo more. The lion figure emphasises the name 'lions gate'. The next logo came about after the first one in 2998-2004. It hasn't changed much since the first apart from the colour. The third logo was 2004-2012. The logo has dramatically changed from the one before. Lionsgate have gone for a completely different look to recreate their image. The last three are from 2012 until now. The font of the text is cleverly chosen as its really bold and stresses the name of the company. Before the main title sequence comes, a short clip showing mechanical cogs turning with the camera zooming out rapidly to reveal the key hole then opening the 'gates' of the sky. As the gates open, it shows the clouds and the word "Lionsgate". The non diagetic sound of the dramatic music adds to the build up of the title at the end.
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