This image still is taken from right at the beginning of our sequence it’s the first shot. We chose to delve straight into using thriller conventions by showing a mysterious and illusive eye, also this lets the audience straight away indentify with the character we deliberately used this shot first to add this effect and show our theme of insanity.
This still image is from slightly further on in our sequence here you really see a convention of thrillers because of the insane look the character is giving and you’re left wondering why she is like this right from the beginning another trait of thriller films. I also feel this shot shows another convention, the fact that the thrillers are often based around crime and in our case, insanity and murder, this face gives of a sense of crime and that something bad and insane might have happened.
I feel that we have followed traditional thrillers with our soundtrack giving it a suspenseful non-diagetic sound that creates tensions and suspense throughout the sequence we achieved this by using sound effects and clips of different real life sounds that added to the picture in your head, this follows thriller conventions well. We noticed we needed this kind of soundtrack because from our rough cut the audience felt that the sound was quite weak and wasn’t powerful and didn’t really leave them with tension, so we changed it and made it simpler but added clips of real life sounds over the top. The second response from the audience was much more positive.
We used a red filter towards the end of the sequence to show that the mood had changed for the worse. We did this to help the audience realise what she was feeling and her mood of fear. We also used low key lighting (candles) to create mood and to add to the thriller like feel we had going on throughout the sequence and to create an atmosphere.
We also followed conventions of thriller by using a varied range of shot angles and camera movement to leave the audience pondering on what’s happening and leave them disorientated in their seats. We used shots that could betray the character being watched or being followed maybe emphasising the character being ‘possessed’ a typical thriller like theme. We also used shots that look like it is from the characters points of view letting the audience indentify with her, still connoting her being ‘possessed’.
This shot is mysterious and also connotes crime which is what the majority of thrillers are about. The blurred edges add to the mystery of the shot and in the film the shot is in slow motion really adding to the question of what the knife was being used for? Knife’s are a big convention of thrillers.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film represents middle-aged woman, we have used this age and social group because it can be done very well and successfully using different types of techniques such as; make-up and hair and the characters body language and the costume they are wearing.
This is the media example of our character, a famous serial killer from America. This is a good example of how we wanted our character to be represented like the combed back and messy hair gives a sense of not caring about looks and not looking after herself. This is also a good choice of personality because we wanted our character to look like a serial killer in the sequence and look insane; we accomplished our target i think. The fact that she is wearing no make-up and doesn’t look like she has looked after herself really helps represent our character because we were looking for this kind of look to show insanity and dis respect for themselves and that she has no humanity or life left in her this is shown in her dark bags around her eyes and greasy hair.
Not necessarily the look but the gradual turn of the personality of Natalie Portman’s character in the Black Swan really represents our character well, as in the fact that she starts of normal but changes into a different person and almost changes their whole inner identity due to events in the film that have helped make them like this, Natalie Portman’s insane behaviour towards the end of the film relates very well with the persona we are trying the achieve of our character in the opening sequence of our film.
3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think Universal Studios would distribute our film because they are a big name institution and have films such as “The Unborn” and “The Last House On The Left” which are also thrillers that look to interrogate their audience using mind games and messed up features and effects, they are a mainstream institution and that’s what we would be looking to go into.
4.Who would be the audience for your media product?
The magazine we would use to advertise our film and target our audience would be ‘Empire’ magazine because firstly they are the best selling British film magazine, also we are targeting our film at teenagers and adults of both genders to really widen our audience, I think our film would fit in well with this magazine because it is a best selling magazine and our film wants to be successful like the magazine. This magazine is also publishes in Turkey, Russia, Australia and Portugal giving us a wider market range. The likely audience that would read this magazine would be 16 to 35 year olds hitting the majority of our films target audience because of its 15-certificate rating. The layout colours and fonts on the front cover look to be more for a manly appeal, but this will still attract just general film lovers. The magazine is £4 so as it is newly realized once a month and the target audience being people that could be earning money I think the magazine still caters for a large proportion of the audience we are looking for making it a great choice of magazine for our film to be represented by. It is a mainstream magazine with not a real niche-market for it witch corresponds perfectly with our film as we are looking to go into the mainstream market. Empire has done reviews for films such as ‘se7en’ and ‘Girl with the dragon tattoo’ which our both thrillers that follow the same sort of themes and conventions to our thriller. Empire typically reviews big name films and blockbusters with a high budget, even though we don’t have a high budget as some of these films I think Empire would still review our film due to the popularity of these types of ‘mess with your brain’ thrillers.
Review-
Delirium is a horrifically, spine chilling thriller that teases and tests your brain with every minute that passes. Its shocking, mind bobbling ideas leave you glued to your seat throughout. Delirium stars Trudy Banks (Catherine Morris) a normal stockbroker from London, until a series of never forgetting events haunt her and close friends and relatives for life. Right from the off you lose yourself in the tantalising tension and find yourself stuck into the film the whole way through. The editing techniques and cinematography look to be done by a genius with effects so life like, you forget that they’re not. The soundtrack fits perfectly with the suspense of the film and you lose yourself in it, its quirky effects and sound drops fit in perfectly. Some of the editing and sound effects even left me feeling like I was the character in the film and helped me relate to her whilst I was watching it, the fast heartbeat featured in the soundtrack various times throughout the film mirrored my heartbeat and really made me feel stronger about the film and gave me in depth feelings and opinions about situations happening in the film. The shots that felt like you were staring through the characters eyes were very effective and as a member of the audience it gave me new perspectives on some shots and situations she was in compared to of thrillers of this kind of nature and following these types of conventions. When the red lighting is used is really gives the audience a sense of insanity because of the different colour being used, this change colour really fits in well with when the characters personality changes and when she takes that step into insanity and it really fits in well.
Delirium overall is a ‘messed up’ film with tantalising parts to it that leave you frozen to your seat with fear. Empire give it a 4 star rating.
5.How did you attract/address your audience?
We managed to attract our audience using good and popular conventions to a thriller. We tried to add interesting editing techniques that followed thriller conventions and that helped add suspense and a different take on the normal look of each shoot. We also used a non-diegetic soundtrack with various clips of sound such a clock ticking and a heart beat to add to this suspense and keep the audience guessing.
The audience gave feedback on our finished product, they said that we used interesting editing techniques and a range of cinematography, they also liked the fact that the soundtrack had lots of different parts in it and sound effects it kept them interested in the film more and made it seem like a real thriller and made it seem quite frightening, they also really liked the transitions and fade in and outs of the characters face because it helped with identity and made it seem insane and almost like it was a rush of the characters thoughts. They liked the ending more than the rough cut because they had more of an idea to what was going to happen and what was going on.
6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
Throughout creating our thriller sequence I have learnt many different technologies whilst constructing and the process of the making the sequence. The two main programs our group used to make our film were Final Cut and Garage band.
Final Cut;
Final Cut is the editing program we used to put our film together and give it the editing techniques and cinematography it has. The first techniques I learnt how to do in Final Cut was time lapse effect we helped achieve this effect by spinning the hand of a clock round slowly at normal speed, then once the clip of it was added to final cut we sped it up and because we had a lot of footage of that particular thing we could make it look like the normal 24 hour day was going really quickly and it gave it a jerky effect. Another thing i learnt in final cut would be giving the edges of the shot a blurred effect this add a frightening and rustic feel that makes the shot seem out of the ordinary and freaky. Another technique I learnt was layering the shots making two shots and adding them together this gives a sense of insanity and helps you indentify with the character.
Garage band;
Garage band is the program we used to create our soundtrack. In garageband I learnt how to fade in out and out the different sound samples to make give them a slow fade in so the sound doesn’t sound so cut and so there isn’t a sharp change in the different sounds. I also learnt how to add our video to our garageband piece so that you knew the timing of when to add the different sound effects so the timing is perfect, and also so we know that the sounds to the background music fit with the images and make so they match the suspensefulness of the film itself. I also learnt how to edit a soundtrack finely so you get every part perfectly to your taste and this would help enhance the visual of the soundtrack. I also learnt how to add downloaded sound samples into our garageband so that we had extra effects so the soundtrack was more effective and interesting. Also I learnt how to make the sound of the clip quieter or louder in order to add more suspense to the sound and so each effect used could be hinted at by the volume of it or be more dramatic.
Equipment;
We used lots of equipment during our filming process. The main bit of equipment being the HD camera which I had previously learnt to use and work properly this time around I just had a better idea of techniques whilst holing the camera and how to create different effects whilst hand holding the camera. We also used a fish eye lens to add a surreal effect and give to audience a new perspective. Another bit of equipment I learnt to use was the voice recorder in which we made our own sound effects for our soundtrack (screaming, moaning, whispering) these were then lost on the computer so we couldn’t use them further. I also learnt how to set up and use the light properly and the coloured filters to go over the top to add a different perspective and make the shot look more insane like.
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