As Media Studies Foundation Portfolio 2010

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








 For our opening sequence we knew we wanted to create certain enigma codes to put questions in the minds of the audience that only watching the movie will answer. This was also shown by Roland Barthes’ theory on enigma codes. We wanted to create a chase; this is a classic thriller signifier, especially at the opening of the film as it creates mystery and intrigue and makes the audience wonder what will happen next, it also sets a fast pace to the film. Suspense is created, as the identity of the antagonist is not revealed at any point in our sequence, apart from an over the shoulder shot used at the beginning of our sequence. This was done to ensure that the audience are kept in the dark throughout and puts more questions in their minds. We used a variety of shots to convey what was happening in our sequence. Close-ups were used to show detail of the character’s face and to allow the audience to see the emotions being conveyed in the main character’s face. A good example of this is the close-up used when Jessica is running up to the house; this shows the audience the panic and fear in her eyes as she looks around.

The Mise-en-scene was very important, as we wanted to create a creepy atmosphere; an example of this is in the scene where the audience see the main character running. It causes the audience to ask questions and wonder who the mysterious person is. Suspense is also created through the use of Diegetic and non-Diegetic sound. We used this convention in our sequence as we listened to different sounds and then selected the ones we thought would suit our sequence. We chose to use slow, tense non-Diegetic sound at the beginning which is typical of the thriller genre. The sound gradually gets louder to create a sense of confusion and fear. Dark lighting is a typical element used in thrillers to frighten the audience; we used different techniques such as darkening effects in our sequence to add a sense of danger and unease. Some of the conventions that are shown within our thriller opening indicate an influence that we have had from other thrillers such as the film ‘Taken’.


Figure 1 - We watched some thrillers and we noticed how their title posters related to their film and gave the audience an idea of the film. I created the title poster on Photoshop CS2, and it didn’t take me that long to create it as I had some experience with the software. We chose the colour red for our film poster as it’s a common colour which is used in the thriller genre. It is mostly associated with blood and connotes danger and fear. A convention that we decided to bring to our film was a short title. This came from the idea of keeping our audience guessing and allowing them to think of what our film could be about. ‘Psycho’ by Alfred Hitchcock is an example of a real media product which uses this convention.

Figure 2 - To ensure that our sequence was effective we wanted to find a location to film that gave the visual codes we were looking for. We went on a recce and discovered a location which was perfect for our opening sequence. A convention of thriller films is using realistic setting to allow the audience to be able to relate to the story and to keep them in suspense. We applied this to our opening sequence by filming in a family home. Our product challenged the forms and conventions of thriller films as we filmed during the daytime in an open area, a typical location for a thriller would be in dark, atmosphere. As a group we intended for our audience to feel fear for the victim and to keep them guessing. For this reason we decided to film our victim running down an abandoned street.

Figure 3 - An example of a prop we used in our opening sequence is a telephone, this is a very important element in our sequence as the main character asks Melinda to call the police. The audience are led to believe that Melinda is making a call however they later find out that the batteries were taken out on purpose. This adds suspense as the audience may begin to feel some sympathy for Jessica. In a thriller the colour of a character’s costume is very important as it tells a lot about the personality of the character. For example we chose to dress our antagonist, David in a black jacket; we did this as it connotes danger. However we dressed Melinda in a white top and a dark pair of jeans which proves that the audience can’t always rely on costumes to judge the characters.

Figure 4 - Our sequence uses camerawork and editing to support the stereotypical conventions of a thriller and to frighten the audience. When filming Jessica we put the audience in her shoes using a Point Of View shot. This is a convention used in thrillers to put the audience in the same position as the character.

Figure 5 – We used bold font for our titles as this would stand out more. We used the color red as this is typical of thrillers. We wanted our audience to feel fear before the sequence even begun.

Figure 6 - I chose to screen grab this shot as it’s the first thing the audience see when the opening starts. It shows an over the shoulder shot of someone watching a girl running. This effective as it causes the audience to ask questions and it makes them want to know more.

Figure 7 – This shows an image of a young girl cleaning her windows. We chose to this shot as it introduces Melinda. She is shown as domestic and caring. We followed the conventions of a thriller as normally the bad characters are very decieving.

2)  How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 Social groups are a very important part of today’s society however our product does not really represent a range of social groups. There are three characters in our opening however we chose to focus on two of these characters as we don’t reveal the identity of the antagonist. In terms of class, our main character is from a middle class background as she is dressed in fashionable clothes and acts in a manner which shows that she’s not from a working class background. Our product also represents the working class through the location we used. For example the living room features typical things found in the homes of working class people such as the television which is simple and not grand.

 Also gender is represented in our product in a stereotypical way as in most thrillers the female plays the passive role and the male plays the dominant role. We chose to follow this convention as our audience would be able to recognise this. Also Melinda, our second antagonist is a female we did this as we wanted to challenge the codes and conventions of a typical thriller. In a thriller the typical stereotype for Melinda would be an older, evil looking woman, but in our film we went against that stereotype and chose a black young adult with an innocent face. We did this as the audience would be shocked and would possibly alter their views on the characters featured in our thriller. A thriller which influenced our film is ‘Taken’ as in the film Kim is a victim similar to Jessica who is kidnapped.



 Above are two images of girls placed side by side in order for me to compare them. The key character from our opening which I have chosen to compare to a character in a movie is Jessica Brown. The reason why I chose Jessica is because she depicts a scared, nervous character. I decided to compare her with Maggie Grace, who plays Kim a kidnapped girl in the film ‘Taken’. I have chosen to compare Kim to Jessica as although the two films may have different storylines, they share some similarities.

 Jessica Brown is the daughter of a rich business man; the story unfolds later on in the rest of the film. Jessica is seen running from a hooded figure which makes the audience feel sympathy for her. She knocks on a door of a friendly looking woman and asks for help. However what she doesn’t know is that the young woman who promises to help her is actually part of the scheme to kidnap her. Jessica is a strong character and fights her way through the troubles which face her. As the audience watch the opening sequence it becomes apparent that Jessica has walked into a trap and the audience are put into suspense as enigmas are introduced such as ‘what’s going to happen to Jessica?’ this will motivate our audience into wanting to watch the rest of our film to find out.

 Kim’s character is quiet similar to Jessica’s, she’s the daughter of a decorated and highly-skilled CIA officer and is also an only child. She travels to France with her friend and gets kidnapped. Kim is about the same age as Jessica so there may be teenagers or young adults interested in the film. However there are some differences in the two storylines. In ‘Taken’ Kim gets kidnapped for drugs and prostitution but in our story Jessica is taken because of revenge and the antagonists wants Jessica’s father to pay some money in exchange for Jessica. People will sympathise for Jessica’s character as she seems innocent and hasn’t done anything wrong. I don’t think people will feel as sorry for Kim’s character as she lied to her parents about where she was going to live.

Q 3

4)  Who would be the audience for your media product?

 Our media product is mainly aimed towards females and males aged 15-25 who are interested in watching thriller and action films. My reason for this is that our main character is a female and is also a victim; this is likely to make our audience feel sympathy for her. We handed out 20 questionnaires, 11 went to females and 9 went to males. They were all between the ages of 15-21; this was done in order for us to get a better understanding of our target audience and the things they look for in a thriller. We asked questions such as ‘what thriller sub-genre are you most drawn to?’ and ‘what components do you like most in an opening sequence?’ From looking at the results we became more confident in creating a product which would suit the needs our target audience.

 This pushed us into doing some research on the ‘British Board of Film Classification’ to identify the age certificate suitable for our film. We decided our film is best suited to a 15 certificate as there will be some use of language in our film and there will be scenes containing violence. Our media product appeals to our target audience as the characters in our film are young our target audience would be able to relate to them and the use of Mise-en-scene will attract them as the character’s dress in the way most of our target audience would dress. Also the use of score music helps to attract our target audience as they are interested in slow paced music which draws them into the film.

This is an example of a person who would be our target audience:




 The reason why Marian would be a great example of someone from our target audience is that she is open minded; this is an advantage as our film explores different issues such as torture and violence. As she listens to different types of music she will be interested in our score music and how we combine it into our film.

5)  How did you attract/address your audience?

 The genre of our film is a thriller therefore in order to appeal to our audience we needed to ensure that we portrayed typical codes and conventions associated with thrillers. The use of suspense in our product appeals to mostly males, combined with non-Diegetic sound which causes tension and unease. We showed a female running away from an unknown person this would attract our audience, as they are familiar with watching thrillers, which portray the female character as weak, and a typical damsel in distress.

 A method we decided to use to attract our audience was to create a facebook page. One feature is the facebook fan page, a fan page is a tool by which can be used to expand social networking. We created a fan page on our facebook, as it would enable us to get feedback various different people. Also it helped us in our questionnaire research as we collected responses from different people. Also we will create posters and distribute them in stores and we will set up a website for our film advertising our Production Company and distributor as well as clips of our film. The unique selling point of our product is the fact that it's based in London and the cast are young. This will benefit our target audience as most of them are from the U.K and would possibly be able to relate.

Addressing the audience:

 Our questionnaire results allowed us to identify who our target audience would be; this allowed us to focus our opening sequence on the things they would look for in a thriller. We chose a thriller film as we knew that most teenagers and young adults would be familiar with this genre and would enjoy watching our film. Also we used Levi-Strauss theory of binary opposites in our opening. We had Good vs. Evil with the antagonist and the victim and strong vs. Weak with the antagonist and victim once again as we showed the victim running away from the antagonist.

 We used key iconography in our piece e.g. a modern kitchen where the second villain lives. We appealed to the audience by making our opening seem real and normal so the audience could relate to this. We chose to shoot during the day as people tend to feel safer during the day however we showed an element of fear when Jessica went to the kitchen to find the batteries removed from the phone. This introduced enigmas and kept the audience in suspense. The use of a variety of shots in our product such us close-ups and medium close ups kept the audience involved throughout and drew our audience closer.

Annotation of Sequence :

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


 Over the past few months of filming our opening, the use of technology has made it easier for us to produce a film. We used software such as Final cut pro when editing our media product; it made it easier to edit film clips and to edit a sequence of events. We included sound, titles, special effects and transitions to put everything together. As I was assigned the role of camera operator I had to familiarise myself with the video camera and the tripod, At first I found it quite difficult as every time we moved the tripod we had to ensure that the bubble was in the middle and that the tripod was on even ground. These equipments were very important in the production of our opening sequence. The director and I assisted the editor in editing as we all had to decide which shots we thought would be good for our opening.

 Looking back on our preliminary task I feel we have improved a lot when it comes to filming and editing a sequence. My understanding of certain aspects of filming has improved drastically as before I didn’t understand the terms used in filming such as match on action and shot reverse shot. I learnt the importance of planning our media product and the methods such as storyboards, treatment, scripts and synopsis. Without these things we would not have been able to achieve our final media product.

Things I've learnt about filming:

• Mainly I learnt how important lighting is when trying to shoot a thriller. When we were filming the exterior scenes we had a few problems with the lighting as there was too much light being reflected on the camera lens. We had to ensure that we had the perfect lighting to create the right atmosphere for a thriller.
• We realised that it’s not always possible to stick to the storyboard, we decided to be creative with our shots and we shot scenes from different angles in order for us to have a lot of frames to choose from when editing.
• Making sure the weather was right when shooting was very important as there were days where it would rain and it wasn’t possible for us to film.
• Communication was important when shooting as we had to inform our cast on the dates we would be filming. Without communication we wouldn’t know what’s going on and things would be disorganised.

Technologies we used:

Q 7