Final Cut - "Broken." (Group)

Thriller Opening to "Broken." by Elliot Stahlmann and Evan de Roeper (Group 4) - AS Media Studies

Evaluation - Question 7 (Elliot)

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Comparing our thriller opening to the preliminary task it is clear to say that the planning stage has dramatically improved and much greater consideration has been taken into account when considering cast, setting and costume to name a few. Overall, we have put much greater focus on the aspects of film such as; mise-en-scene; camera angles, shots and movement; sounds; and editing. It can also be said that if the pre-production and planning stages had been considered greater for the preliminary task, the overall media product would have been significantly greater.

For example, in terms of match-on-action and continuity editing, I have dramatically improved and the 180-degree rule has been applied well in our thriller opening: 

Continuity and match on action in my preliminary task:

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Continuity and match on action in our thriller opening:

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Overall, the editing in our thriller is significantly smoother and the match-on-action and continuity principles have been applied more successfully than in my preliminary task.

What's more, following the preliminary task I learnt about the rule of thirds and technical use of three-point lighting. This is another great improvement because the lighting for the preliminary task was a weakness whereas now it has become a strength in establish setting, atmosphere and characters and three-point lighting is a concept that has fully been utilised in our thriller opening. This can be seen in the flashback scenes where key-light was used to create effect and establish character and setting. In contrast, three-point lighting was a concept that remained unused in my preliminary task and thus made the product appear unprofessional and dimly lit. Had I known about technical areas of lighting at the time, my preliminary task would be significantly better.

Moreover, the variety of camera shots and angles has changed and been utilised successfully, where low-angle shots and high-angle shots were used to connote power and authority over other characters in our thriller opening. Also, the composition of the shots where the rule of thirds can be applied has been developed. Rather than following the rule in every shot, the rule has been specifically broken for effect. For example in the second shot below, the antagonist is central to the shot and his eyes do not touch any of the cross sections whereas in the first shot the protagonist lies on the right had vertical third and her head and body are at the bottom and top cross sections for this third. However, the rule of thirds in my preliminary task was conformed to throughout rather than developed and this has a less dramatic effect on the audience and has monotonous feel to it.

High low-angle shot of the protagonist

Low high-angle shot of the antagonist

Evaluation - Question 6 (Group)

Evaluation - Question 5 (Elliot)

How did you attract/address your audience?

With reference to successful films such as Lucy (Besson, 2014), The Hunger Games (Ross, 2012) and Divergent (Burger, 2014), where the main protagonist character was female, Evan and I decided that our focus audience would be within the key demographic, being 15 - 25 year olds. We felt that our thriller would have been appropriate for a younger-than-18 audience according to the BBFC as the violence contained in our thriller would not be too significant nor would there be any illicit sexual references.

Also, I found that, from questionnaires, thrillers were most popular amongst this age range and so our thriller would be most successful being targeted to this audience. More particularly, from looking at film series' such as Divergent and The Hunger Games trilogy I found that female protagonists were highly successful within the film industry - especially those that are portrayed as being on a journey of discovery. 

Furthermore, I also saw that thrillers were least popular amongst girls and so by having a female protagonist we opened our thriller up to a wider response from both male and female audiences as thrillers conventionally have male protagonists. In light of this, I wondered whether having a female protagonist would discourage male viewers but, again from our questionnaires, found this not be the case and in fact some male participants from our audience focus group said that this would make the thriller more appealing, if anything. Although females are stereotypically the damsel in distress, it is not often that they are central protagonists and so this "set the film apart from others within its genre" as the only example thriller with a female protagonist within the past few years is Lucy.

In addition to the above, our thriller opening also uses specific settings such as a busy highstreet at the weekend and a coffee shop; all settings that are familiar to our target audience and by using such settings our thriller opening becomes more appealing to our target audience. As these settings are relatable to our audience, the protagonist character becomes more relatable for the audience. Thus, this aspect of our film would appeal to our target audience.

Additionally, we felt that with current technology such as social media and internet streaming, this would be the most effective way to attract our audience. As a result, I set up a Twitter account for the movie (search @Broken_TheMovie on Twitter) and have posted movie posters, that I created, from the account. I created the (below) movie posters on photoshop and then had to translate the images to jpg format in order to upload them.

Overall I feel that both movie posters are highly effective in constructing and attracting an audience as they establish enigma and present Andrea (Rosie Gill) as the protagonist of the film. From looking at the poster above we can clearly see Andrea with a masked antagonist in the back. Both characters are visible but remain in shadow, creating mystery and establishing the thriller genre to the audience. In spite of this it could be said that the poster is borderline horror, however as there is no blood or gore I feel that the poster is effective in implying that the this is a thriller not a horror.

If we look at thriller posters such as those for Lucy we can see that the eyes are conventionally used. This is perhaps because the eyes, when in focus, are often very unnerving and also can seem somewhat threatening - conventional of psychological thrillers. Both posters for Lucy and for Broken have quotes that convey the underlying themes of the thrillers. "The average person uses 10% of their brain capacity" immediately presents the theme of human intelligence and the limits of the human mind whereas our thriller opening has a quote by Tolkien, relating to themes of self-defeat and inner-strength; "The crownless again shall be king". 

What is different between the thriller posters is that I included an age rating on both so that our audience will immediately know that they can see the film and also the extent of the violence and sexual content as lower age ratings would have less adult content. Like Lucy, the first poster also has the release date of the film so that the audience can be made aware of when the film will be available to view in cinemas so that they can keep the date, attracting our target audience. What's more, the use of the short-hand date "5/9/2015" in American Typewriter font establishes synergy within the film and portrays the theme of memory, establishing a diary-like feel to the film poster.

Also, as our film would have been marketed to a Hollywood media institution we would have had cast interviews on talk shows such as "Alan Carr: Chatty Man" where he has interviewed well-known movie actors such as Morgan freeman, known for his roles in Sherlock and The Hobbit. This would help to attract our audience, as seen from our questionnaires, those that fell in the higher age range for our target audience (around 18-25) watch this talk show and so this would likely attract our audience.

Besides the above, I also created a short film trailer that would be aired on TV prior to the release of the film. The trailer would also be available to view on Facebook and YouTube and I have posted a link to this via the Twitter page. This immediately addresses the audience and makes them aware of the film and the details of it. In turn, this would hopefully attract and grow the audience with members of the public sharing the trailer and other links via social media and word-of-mouth; "a key advertisement tool" that is essential to the success of a film whereby people essentially spread word about the film amongst conversation with friends, family and people they meet - thus, creating the mass audience, conventional of Hollywood blockbuster movies.

Moreover, the portrayal of Andrea (Rosie Gill) as a troubled female protagonist is also what might appeal to our target audience as some members from the focus group commented on this and said that this would help our film stand away from mainstream thrillers and invite viewers from other backgrounds such as those from The Hunger Games that is heavily fan-based on novels written by Suzanne Collins. In contrast, The Hunger Games and Divergent both have female protagonists that are white dark-haired teenagers and so this would appeal to our audience as this is typical of movies with female protagonists (as seen below).

Katniss, Mockingjay - Part 1

Tris, Divergent

Hazel, the Fault In Our Stars

Evaluation - Question 4 (Elliot)

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our psychological thriller, "Broken", would be both males and females that are aged 15-25. A reason for this is that individuals who fall into this category are considered to be "the key demographic" as they tend to have most leisure time and also surplus disposable income to spend on recreation, thus making them ideal candidates for an audience. Additionally, we can look at recent similar films, such as Lucy (Besson, 2014), where there has been great success amongst a similar audience - making around $126 million in gross (according to the IMDb profile). In addition, we could look at The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lawrence, 2013) where a similar film to our thriller made the majority of its profit amongst the lower end of our audience and was particularly unsuccessful amongst individuals older than our target audience. I recently found on YouTube some videos that demonstrate these differing opinions and shows exactly
why our film would do best amongst teens and early adults rather than anyone else.


Reactions to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Teens vs. Elders)





It is clear that films similar to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire are particularly unsuccessful amongst older generations whilst they are significantly profitable among younger individuals. Also, it is clear in the first clip that that film struggled to connect with the 14-year-old audience members and so this could perhaps explain why we have cap-lined the audience at a certificate of 15. Having a younger rating of 12 or 12A would mean that a lot of action and violence from our thriller would have to be cut, not only this but perhaps those younger members would struggle to connect with the film and therefore give bad reviews of the thriller. This would in the long run be detrimental as this means negative word-of-mouth press would spread and the profit of the film would decline and not be at its maximum.

Male audience: The male audience members seek to be thrilled. They enjoy spending time with their friends and would fully engage with the action of our thriller and the eerie ambience of the opening sequence. They have part-time jobs and have disposable income to view our thriller. As young adults and teens, they can relate to themes surrounding our thriller and and engrossed with the action. The representation of the male character in the opening presents males as dominant (which is a stereotype of males in a patriarchal society) and so this thriller would appeal to them.

Female audience:  The female audience members love spending time with their friends and have the time and energy to spend at cinemas. In part-time employment, they have the means to afford trips to the cinema regularly. Also, the portrayal of the female protagonist as damaged and vulnerable makes her fit the stereotype of women as being vulnerable in our society. This therefore appeals to the female audience. Casting the protagonist as female means that this film becomes relatable for teenage girls and the theme of self-identity is universal to this.

Evaluation - Question 3 (Elliot)

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

Distributors control and secede how films and other media products are distributed to audiences and how media products might be marketed towards them. In the film industry, they control the circulation of movie in theatres and home viewings such as DVDs, pay-per-view and television rights, to name but a few. What's more, they are vital as they control and aid the marketing campaign which organises and controls commercials, advertisements, magazine interviews, trailers and promos, for example. This is a crucial process as it spreads word of the movie and creates an audience (whom without, no profit can be made and for which the success of a movie is dependent upon).

For larger film studios, distributors will often organise exhibition screenings for exhibitors such as ODEON, Cineworld and Vue and other marketing techniques such as movie pitches in order to demonstrate financial success of the film and profit for the exhibitors if they screen it. This process is more significant for independent films and differs slightly. Due to the fact that independent films often do not have established cast members such as Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games it is vital that the films are marketed appropriately to create a concrete audience. Distributors for such independent movies as Night Bus (Baker, 2014) will utilise film festivals such as Sundance to reach out to their audiences.


In terms of current media products, I would compare our film to The Hunger Games and Lucy and thus can see our film being picked up by Universal or Lionsgate. Both Universal and Lionsgate have distributed major thriller blockbusters that are similar to ours as they both have female protagonists and convey similar themes and have received significant results in box office return.

Our film would primarily be released in cinemas and on the internet through sites such as Netflix and primarily advertised through social media such as Twitter as our target audience are aged 15-25 and mainly use the internet as a medium for film. Not only this, but our questionnaires have shown Twitter and Netflix are commonly used amongst this age group. Film is thereby more accessible to our target audience through the use of the internet and as our target audience are amongst the key demographic, they have the spare money and time to spend watching films.

The film would mainly be marketed online with teaser trailers being released on YouTube and shared via the Twitter page and movie site. Not only this, but as our thriller would be distributed by Hollywood and major institutions, trailers would likely be advertised on TV and interviews on TV talk shows. Additionally, with the release of posters, adshells and billboards, our thriller would gradually gain a substantial mass audience, building anticipation for the thriller release.

Evaluation - Question 2 (Elliot)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When we are first introduced to the protagonist character we do not see her face. The protagonist remains in shadow as she gazes out the window, drinking coffee - this is a high low-angle shot of the protagonist. It is not until we see a flashback of what she is thinking about that we see her face clearly. In this, the protagonist looks directly at the camera and is central to the shot. Not only this, but she is in a dark room wearing white and there is only one key light put on her face - this creates shadows around and behind her which draws emphasis to her feminine features such as her long hair, blushed lips and long eyelashes.

In contrast, when we are first introduced to the antagonist he appears in a flashback. Again in this flashback there is only one key light and this shot is a point-of-view shot from the protagonist's perspective. The camera is at a low high-angle and thus introduces the character as dominant and in power. The antagonist is then seen again in another flashback as he emerges from the surrounding shadows whilst the camera focuses. 

Evaluation - Question 1 (Elliot)

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

Allow annotations on the below clip to view my response:

Evaluation - Question 7 (Evan)

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When we created our preliminary task, we didn’t really think through what we were going to do. We initially just thought of an idea and developed it verbally. The planning was quite poor in terms of the potential that our preliminary task could have achieved if we sat down and discussed it fully. 

However, for our thriller opening, we decided to not follow our preliminary task. Instead we corrected all the wrongs that the preliminary task had sprung up. 

For example, we used storyboards to visually represent what we had pictured to be in our thriller opening. By having storyboards, we could see where new ideas would go into our opening if they weren’t storyboarded yet. We also researched our target audience so that we would know who would watch our thriller. This too was something that we overlooked in our preliminary task. 

 

As you can see in the stills of me in front of someone I am within arms length of him however, in the next scene I am further away from him. This was a failure in terms of continuity, as I should’ve stayed in front of him so that the story could have flow better. This error was due to my group forgetting about continuity. At the time, we were more focused on having a good narrative. We should have double-checked each recording as we were taking them.

Camera shots: As this was the first time my group had ever filmed, we didn’t know a lot of the different shot types and angles. In the preliminary task, we used match on action, close ups, varied shot lengths and over the shoulder shots. After we noticed how few shots and angles we used, we decided to research different types that would be effective in a thriller opening.  

We also showed conversation between two characters by using over the shoulder shots however; this shot was not used during our thriller opening as we only had one protagonist throughout.

Long shots are generally used to introduce the audience to the film thus; we used this as our first shot. 

 

Match on action is where two shots from different angles have complete continuity between them masking it look like one movement.