Script
1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film opening followed the conventions of a Psychological Thriller; this genre appealed to us as we wanted to create a dark, exciting opening; we were heavily inspired by other Psychological Thrillers such as Seven and Identity, which we studied in our research. We wanted to create a very intimate scene in a lab revealing the story of a recluse scientist. We made our opening idents and credits long to build up the tension of what is going to come, we thought the background music was appropriate as it helped build up the tension too. We were inspired by Seven to create a series of close ups showing different props linking to the storyline, these props were well thought out to fit within the genre, for example our first scene revealed a close up of jars this was to show the audience the storyline is science related. This also followed a convention of a Psychological Thrillers as we wanted to disgust them with the 'gore' of the dead animals.
The next scene shows a close up of the 'mad scientist' reading; we chose our protagonist to be a male, as stereotypically they are shown as more powerful in Hollywood and the protagonists in the other Psychological Thrillers we researched had males as the leading roles. We were inspired by the movie Seven to show a slow pan of a close up of a book to suggest the scientist is researchin his next move.
We chose to use fake blood in this scene to suggest danger, we wanted to give the audience an idea that the scientist is a killer, this fits in with the typical conventions of a Psychological Thriller as there is always one main murderer, for example in The Human Centipede the protagonist is a scientist who kills humans and stitches there bodies together, we wanted to base our character on him as he similarly has an obsession with the human body.
Our film opening followed the conventions of a Psychological Thriller; this genre appealed to us as we wanted to create a dark, exciting opening; we were heavily inspired by other Psychological Thrillers such as Seven and Identity, which we studied in our research. We wanted to create a very intimate scene in a lab revealing the story of a recluse scientist. We made our opening idents and credits long to build up the tension of what is going to come, we thought the background music was appropriate as it helped build up the tension too. We were inspired by Seven to create a series of close ups showing different props linking to the storyline, these props were well thought out to fit within the genre, for example our first scene revealed a close up of jars this was to show the audience the storyline is science related. This also followed a convention of a Psychological Thrillers as we wanted to disgust them with the 'gore' of the dead animals.
The next scene shows a close up of the 'mad scientist' reading; we chose our protagonist to be a male, as stereotypically they are shown as more powerful in Hollywood and the protagonists in the other Psychological Thrillers we researched had males as the leading roles. We were inspired by the movie Seven to show a slow pan of a close up of a book to suggest the scientist is researchin his next move.
We chose to use fake blood in this scene to suggest danger, we wanted to give the audience an idea that the scientist is a killer, this fits in with the typical conventions of a Psychological Thriller as there is always one main murderer, for example in The Human Centipede the protagonist is a scientist who kills humans and stitches there bodies together, we wanted to base our character on him as he similarly has an obsession with the human body.
We chose to replicate this scene from Seven as we thought it was unusual, it shows the scientist writing equations which gave him some sort of intelligence.
We replicated this scene from the movie Seven, this stood out to us as the idea of a shadow drew mystery, which we thought would interest the audience. Instead of using a pen we used a scalpel knife to suggest the scientist is cutting into something.
We then showed victims faces similarlt toto reveal the vulnerable characters in the movie, it shows previous victims and then his next target, this was used to give the storyline some depth and danger, typically this falls under a convention of Psychological Thriller as there are always characters trying to escape the danger of the villain to survive.
Lastly our soundtrack was ideal for this opening as it helped build up the tension, we chose this particular soundtrack as we liked how the beat dropped each time and the scene changed, similarly to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which we researched, we thought this speeded up the pace of the opening and made it more dramatic.
We then show the prop of the knife at the end to suggest the vulnerable girl is going to be killed, we hoped this would leave a suspense for the audience.
2) How does your media product represent different social groups?
We based our protagonist on a stereotypical 'mad scientist' We first introduce our character here, lurking through the jars, we wanted this to scare the audience and suggest he is a creepy character. (pause scene)
We then learn more about him when he is revealed reading a book and we see he is wearing a lab coat, this was to inform the audience he is a scientist; he is shown wearing a white lab coat whilst in the lab, suggesting this is his comfort zone, however when he is shown outside he is wearing a disguised black jacket suggesting he does not feel comfortable in this environment (pause scene).
Throughout the opening his identity is not revealed as we wanted to intrigue the audience, we show him alone in the lab this suggests he is different to the outside world, therefore a 'danger' to everyone else. We emphasised the stereotype of a 'mad scientist' by making him a murderer who is obsessed with the human body the blood suggests he is capable of killing. (pause scene)
We thought the documents were appropriate as it suggests the scientist has been researching, therefore is knowledgeable and carries a lot of power; we also wanted to suggest the scientist was extremely clever, once again we were emphasising the stereotype of a mad scientist; in this scene we showed him writing equations to show his knowledge.
We flashed images of victims to suggest they are vulnerable, we chose a variety of girls and boys that look like ordinary people, this was to make the victims relatable to the audience, therefore scare them even more as they can imagine themselves being a target.
We introduce our first victim here coming out of the station to suggest she is independent, however us as the audience know she is being watched therefore comes across vulnerable to the audience. We chose a female for this role as stereotypically in Hollywood females are seen as the weaker character, who plays the part of a 'damsel in distress', We chose the costume to be young and an outfit worn by ordinary people, once again to make it more relatable to the audience.
3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? We chose Sony Pictures to distribute our film; this is a high budget distribution company, we thought this was appropriate to target an international audience.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product? & How would you attract/address your audience?
We aimed our film opening to the age group 18+. One of the reasons we thought this was suitable was because in our research we found movies with similar genres produced by New Line Cinema were also aimed at this age group, for example Seven was aimed at the age group of 18.
From our feedback of our questionnaire, we found it extremely helpful to give us an idea of who would be most interested in Psychological Thrillers, the results showed majority of respondents were young adults, dominantly males. This helped us put together a storyline, we thought stereotypically science is a male subject, therefore our viewers would be interested in the narrative which involves a scientist. We had the choice to make our opening a 15 or 18+ as our feedback showed a group of young adults between these ages, however we chose to make our film an 18+ as this would allow us to include more gore and thrills in our opening. (speed up to scalpel scene)
For example the blood and scalpel knife was used to create suspense, we wanted the blood to connote murder and we thought this would be most appropriate to an older audience; stereotypically males are more drawn to gore elements in a movie, therefore we thought this would appeal to them.
We showed different shots of the documents, including close ups so you are able to see what the information reveals, we thought this would appeal to a male audience interested in science, as they can understand what these props are showing.
Our feedback also demanded high suspense, we tried to achieve this by using dark lighting, we thought this would create a tense atmosphere and keep the audience intrigued. As well as that, our soundtrack was well thought out, we chose it as we thought it would keep the audience interested, we thought it would build up suspense and dramatise our scene (speed up to station scene)
Although a majority of our target audience were males, we also had a high female target. Therefore we made our victim a female as we thought this would be relatable to other females, our victim played a vulnerable character we thought this would appeal to both men and women.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?Cameras: TriPod
-Shooting in certain lighting, practiced different shots.
Final Cut Pro: Editing
- Added effects on top of filming
-Trial and error which one looked best
-Learnt how to cut and trim clips
-Learnt how to adjust opacity
-Trial and error different transitions and flash effects
Photoshop
-Darkened images
7)Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Editing Skills, Camera angles/movement, Lighting, Mise En Scene
We replicated this scene from the movie Seven, this stood out to us as the idea of a shadow drew mystery, which we thought would interest the audience. Instead of using a pen we used a scalpel knife to suggest the scientist is cutting into something.
We then showed victims faces similarlt toto reveal the vulnerable characters in the movie, it shows previous victims and then his next target, this was used to give the storyline some depth and danger, typically this falls under a convention of Psychological Thriller as there are always characters trying to escape the danger of the villain to survive.
Lastly our soundtrack was ideal for this opening as it helped build up the tension, we chose this particular soundtrack as we liked how the beat dropped each time and the scene changed, similarly to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which we researched, we thought this speeded up the pace of the opening and made it more dramatic.
We then show the prop of the knife at the end to suggest the vulnerable girl is going to be killed, we hoped this would leave a suspense for the audience.
2) How does your media product represent different social groups?
We based our protagonist on a stereotypical 'mad scientist' We first introduce our character here, lurking through the jars, we wanted this to scare the audience and suggest he is a creepy character. (pause scene)
We then learn more about him when he is revealed reading a book and we see he is wearing a lab coat, this was to inform the audience he is a scientist; he is shown wearing a white lab coat whilst in the lab, suggesting this is his comfort zone, however when he is shown outside he is wearing a disguised black jacket suggesting he does not feel comfortable in this environment (pause scene).
Throughout the opening his identity is not revealed as we wanted to intrigue the audience, we show him alone in the lab this suggests he is different to the outside world, therefore a 'danger' to everyone else. We emphasised the stereotype of a 'mad scientist' by making him a murderer who is obsessed with the human body the blood suggests he is capable of killing. (pause scene)
We thought the documents were appropriate as it suggests the scientist has been researching, therefore is knowledgeable and carries a lot of power; we also wanted to suggest the scientist was extremely clever, once again we were emphasising the stereotype of a mad scientist; in this scene we showed him writing equations to show his knowledge.
We flashed images of victims to suggest they are vulnerable, we chose a variety of girls and boys that look like ordinary people, this was to make the victims relatable to the audience, therefore scare them even more as they can imagine themselves being a target.
We introduce our first victim here coming out of the station to suggest she is independent, however us as the audience know she is being watched therefore comes across vulnerable to the audience. We chose a female for this role as stereotypically in Hollywood females are seen as the weaker character, who plays the part of a 'damsel in distress', We chose the costume to be young and an outfit worn by ordinary people, once again to make it more relatable to the audience.
3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? We chose Sony Pictures to distribute our film; this is a high budget distribution company, we thought this was appropriate to target an international audience.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product? & How would you attract/address your audience?
We aimed our film opening to the age group 18+. One of the reasons we thought this was suitable was because in our research we found movies with similar genres produced by New Line Cinema were also aimed at this age group, for example Seven was aimed at the age group of 18.
From our feedback of our questionnaire, we found it extremely helpful to give us an idea of who would be most interested in Psychological Thrillers, the results showed majority of respondents were young adults, dominantly males. This helped us put together a storyline, we thought stereotypically science is a male subject, therefore our viewers would be interested in the narrative which involves a scientist. We had the choice to make our opening a 15 or 18+ as our feedback showed a group of young adults between these ages, however we chose to make our film an 18+ as this would allow us to include more gore and thrills in our opening. (speed up to scalpel scene)
For example the blood and scalpel knife was used to create suspense, we wanted the blood to connote murder and we thought this would be most appropriate to an older audience; stereotypically males are more drawn to gore elements in a movie, therefore we thought this would appeal to them.
We showed different shots of the documents, including close ups so you are able to see what the information reveals, we thought this would appeal to a male audience interested in science, as they can understand what these props are showing.
Our feedback also demanded high suspense, we tried to achieve this by using dark lighting, we thought this would create a tense atmosphere and keep the audience intrigued. As well as that, our soundtrack was well thought out, we chose it as we thought it would keep the audience interested, we thought it would build up suspense and dramatise our scene (speed up to station scene)
Although a majority of our target audience were males, we also had a high female target. Therefore we made our victim a female as we thought this would be relatable to other females, our victim played a vulnerable character we thought this would appeal to both men and women.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?Cameras: TriPod
-Shooting in certain lighting, practiced different shots.
Final Cut Pro: Editing
- Added effects on top of filming
-Trial and error which one looked best
-Learnt how to cut and trim clips
-Learnt how to adjust opacity
-Trial and error different transitions and flash effects
Photoshop
-Darkened images
7)Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Editing Skills, Camera angles/movement, Lighting, Mise En Scene