Unresolved final film

Main evaluation question 1

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

While writing the script, I brainstormed a number of different shots that I could possibly use. These included over the shoulder shots, extreme close shots, medium shots, POV shots and dramatic establishing shots. In the end I only used a few of these, like the over the shoulder shot and the extreme close shot. This was a decision I made based upon the actual script itself, and the best way to convey the speech within the medium of the film. The shot's I did use were typical conventions of movies in general, for example the over the shoulder shot being used for dramatic effect during the interrogation scene.

The times at which music is used in the movie opening are times where the audience are meant to feel tense and on edge, due to the action unfolding on screen. This is another convention of films.

However, there are some aspects of the opening that challenge typical movie conventions. For example the fact that the face of one of the two central characters within the opening clip is never revealed. This is not usually something that would be done in movies, even in horror and thriller movies specifically. This is because the aim of a film opening is often to establish characters and/or plot, and so not revealing the features of a certain character may confuse certain audience members. However I feel this adds to the mysterious effect of the media.
(As seen below, the protagonist wears the hooded jacket throughout, which adds to the mysterious effect of the opening.) 

Another convention I challenged was a typical thriller movie convention, which is to start the opening scene off as pleasant and seemingly normal, before descending into violence. My film opening does not do this, and immediately starts with a very dark tone, telling the audience who "Edward Stevens," is and how he murdered a father and son 40 years ago. I decided to do this as I only had a time frame of two minutes for my film opening, and I wanted to make the opening as dark as possible. I had a lot of information to give for the plot, and so there was no time to make the opening "positive." I feel this is effective however, and is a good way of immediately gripping my target audience.

Main evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media opening has two central characters. One is a detective who is investigating a murder, who is interrogating someone who was a work colleague of one of the victims. "Rob Fisher," is the latter. While devising the script, I tried to make the dialogue between the two characters seem as realistic as possible. I asked myself questions such as "What would a detective ask in this situation?", "How much detail would he give about the crimes?," and "What would the response of the psychopath be?"

I feel that the questions the detective asks are the kind of questions that would be asked in a real interrogation, and therefore he is representative of detectives in general.

I also wanted to exploit the psychopath "stereotype," as much as I could. I made the "Rob Fisher," character seem very quiet and aggressive, only answering the questions with one word to reveal as little about his identity as possible. I tried as hard as I could to make his character seem shady and mysterious. This was partly because this is how the "bad guys," in movies are often portrayed, and is representative of their "social group," if you will.

Visually, I made the detective character wear a black jacket and hat, complete with a badge. This is to further exploit the detective stereotype, as this what the average person would probably expect a detective in the same position to wear. I decided for the "Rob Fisher," character to wear a hooded jacket, mainly to conceal his identity, but also because this adds an air of mystery to the character, which could be seen as being representative of "bad guys," within films.

(The below pictures represent the two characters in "Unresolved," one being the stereotypical detective and the other being the mysterious villain who we understand little about.)

Main evaluation question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

If my media product were a real form of media it would be distributed by a film company, specifically one that focuses on low budget horror/thriller movies. This would ideally be a movie studio that distributes independent films.

While I was doing my research into thriller/horror movies I noticed that a lot of the films do not have a big budget, and are very story driven rather than the emphasis being put on big set pieces. I believe this is because thriller movies often have, or at least attempt to have, a "grainy," feel to them, and the low budget can often add to the horror effect. As I was going for this sort of atmosphere with "Unresolved," I believe that a small independent film company would be the best platform for this film, if it were a real media product.

Main evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As I stated in my synopsis for the film opening, the age range for "Unresolved," would be around 15-40 years. This is because the film could potentially be unsuitable for people under the age of 15 due to it's dark nature. People over the age of 40 however may find the film boring and immature, and market research has dictated that older people tend not to enjoy horror/thriller movies as much as the younger generations do. This is probably due to the fact that younger people are up for more of a thrill, and relish adrenaline fueled experiences such as watching scary movies.

If my media product were a real thing, it would probably be given a 15 certificate by the BBFC. This is the rating that is usually given to unsettling thriller movies if they are not of a sexual nature or do not contain scenes of extreme violence (which "Unresolved" would not.)

Main evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience? 

There are a number of specific things that I included within the film opening to attract the core audience. Firstly, the dark lighting that I used. Each shot in the opening is quite dark and dank looking. This is most noticeable in the climax where the detective is shot dead by Rob Fisher. This immediately tells the audience the kind of genre that "Unresolved," belongs to, which is thriller. Therefore the target audience is more likely to be interested. I also aim to serve this purpose with the music, which begins instantly at the opening and should be easy to identity by most as "thriller" music. This again serves to attract the target audience straight away.

Picking out methods used to attract and address your audience is surely very similar to picking out genre specific conventions that you used in your film. This is because your audience are the people you have concluded to enjoy that specific genre on the whole. The genre specific conventions that I used were the lighting and music (as previously talked about), the costumes, the locations and the camera angles.

Costume wise, the characters may not be able to be identified straight away as being in a thriller movie. For example you could find a detective in a comedy movie, or a hooded figure in a documentary. However I believe the lighting, mixed with the actual dialogue that is taking place between the two characters, more than makes up for this possible confusion. On the other hand I think the locations can definitely be identified as belonging to the thriller genre. We have the dark, claustrophobic interrogation room to start with, followed by the mysterious space in which the detective is being held hostage before being murdered, which is dark and narrow.

For camera angles, I believe the over the shoulder shot, and the shot of the detective's hand's fidgeting anxiously, help build tension, and therefore create a thriller movie atmosphere. Also the two shot (as seen below) helps create tension as we see the detectives reactions and the hooded figure to his right, of whom we know little about. 

Overall I think I did a pretty good job at addressing my audience and reaching out to them through the genre specific conventions.

.

Main evaluation question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

After finishing this task, I feel I now know more about technology since when I did my preliminary task.

Firstly, I now have a much better idea on how to use Premier Pro, the editing software that I used. Before, I only really knew how to use Windows Movie Maker and iMovie. However for this task I wanted to use something more advanced, and now feel that I can edit properly and to a higher standard.

Camera-wise, I now feel more competent at directing camera shot's, and positioning the camera ready for the shoot. I now know how I can improve my film making skills in the future, and know the importance of keeping the camera in exactly the same position for multiple shot's at the same angle. This is something I found difficult during the production of "Unresolved," as the camera noticeably changed position in the first edit of "Unresolved," when the camera was meant to stay in exactly the same place. This is something I addressed by replacing certain clips, deleting lines and using cross-fade techniques so the takes fit together more smoothly.