Aftermath Evaluation - Laura

In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

Low angle shot shows dominance

Our opening sequence of the film, 'Aftermath' is of the thriller genre; therefore we have incorporated many generic conventions of this genre into our film, considering editing, lighting, mis-en-scene and many other things to give this opening sequence a real thrilling feeling. We have used a range of camera angles to depict the dominating and powerful within the scenes. The use of a low angle shot creates a sense of power when used to film the kidnapper. We also made good use of point-of-view shots during our film, which makes the whole situation seem more edgy and really gives the audience a feel of what's going on in the film as you can see it through the kidnappers view. The point-of-view shot is common within the thriller genre, which again shows how we have incorporated generic conventions.Throughout the two minutes we have a used a low, eerie, non-diagetic music track which helps to build up the tension to Emily and the kidnappers conversation. The use of the blood and bruises on our character Sophie also corresponds to our thriller genre and the way she is tied up an a dark, scruffy garage creates a typical thriller scene - combined with the dark lighting, it creates a creepy, uncanny atmosphere.

Point-of-view shot

I would say that our film is indeed part of thriller hybrid, which would be crime. This is because not only does it create the creepy and tense atmosphere as a thriller genre does, it also has the crime elements, such as: the kidnapping, the tasks Emily is forced to carry out, how the police will be involved nearing the end of the film and the drug dealing Emily's father has been taking part in. Therefore, I would very much say it is a Crime Thriller which would give it more action and make it become more uptight.

Our title sequences





Seven title sequences

Like the opening sequence of the thriller film, 'Seven', our film also makes use of the flickery, scratchy images which you will see on our title sequences which were created on photoshop. The images flicker and appear scratchy with spots of blood on them matching those seen in 'Seven'. Also, you get a sense of being in the murderers point-of-view during the opening sequence of 'Seven' - like when we seeing him removing his fingerprints - quite like what we've done with our point-of-view shots in the park. The text stands out well from the black background on the 'Seven' title sequences, which is something we've tried to recreate in our film to give a striking effect. 

How does your media product represent social groups?

Higher up in the scene shows power

In the opening sequence we have created, the characters very much take on stereotypical roles of men being more dominant and the women more passive. We have show this by making the man the kidnapper and shown him in a lot of high angle shots, and made him appear higher up in a lot of the shots, showing his dominance. Whereas Sophie is tied up for the majority of the sequence and Emily is being made to do as the kidnapper says. However, as the film draws to an end the stereotype will subvert, leaving Emily in a more dominant role, as she will make the kidnapper get sent to prison.

The characters and their stereotypes, particularly the two girls, link well with our audience as a large majority of our target audience, would in fact be teenage girls. As Emily would subvert the stereotype towards the end of the film, it would give her a sort of heroine status, empowering any teenage girls in our audience and allowing them to aspire to be like her.

We have used mis-en-scene well to portray the different characters. We have dressed both Emily and Sophie in regular, stylish clothes which a typical teenage girl would wear. There make-up is also quite simple - apart from when Sophie has her blood on her face - to make them look fairly innocent and girly. In contrast, we have dressed the kidnapper in dark clothes and a balaclava to try and conceal his identity. The dark clothing also so shows is dark nature. Also, by showing Sophie tied up throughout the clip it shows she is a very vulnerable character.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?After researching into many different productions companies, we decided our film would best be distributed by the British company, Optimum Releasing. We chose this company as not only is it British, so the film would be release throughout the company creating familiar stereotypes seen throughout Britain; but it also had a lot of success with the low-budget film, 'This Is England'. Like this film portrays many typical stereotypes which will be well known by the British people, ours does as well, so it would be a good idea to use the same distribution company they did, as they would know how to market and promote it to cinemas around Britain.

Our film is would be distributed throughout independent, UK cinemas. However, I believe our film would need to be shown on TV to get large recognition, on channels such as, Channel 4, Film 4 or even Channel 5. All of these channels tend to show more, low-budget, British, TV movies; therefore it would be suitable to air them on these channels. The film wouldn't be suitable for channels such as BBC 1, ITV 1 or Sky Movies, as they show more big blockbuster, Hollywood films. I don't think our film is fit for a lot of franchises and merchandising. The film would mainly need posters to advertise it and possibly Internet advertisements. Other than that, there are no merchandising possibilities which could be used for sales.

Who would be the audience of your media product?

Jumpy shot

The target audience for our film would be quite a large range, both males and females, younger and older. Specifically our audience will be males and females, 15-30. Although, we think that the film may attract more females than it does males, as we see the female characters taking on heroin roles, showing a more confident and powerful side, which many young girls would like to see. The intriguing storyline would attract an older audience, whereas the developing action throughout the main of the film would attract younger males. The storyline as a whole could create a strong, recognisable and emotional link between the characters and the audience. The fact that Emily is willing to do anything to save her friend, Sophie is something that young teenage girls could relate to and the story of Emily's dad getting involved in drug dealing is something that some young girls could also relate to, as it would be a serious problem for them. It could give them comfort that at the end it would all stop, or even convince them to talk about the whole situation with there relative that has the problem, or someone who can offer help and advice.

Through the audience research we carried out (shown above) we were able to find out that people enjoy watching thrillers as they tend to be quite jumpy and tense. We have tried to incorporate this as much as possible into out film by using tense, eerie music. The part where the kidnapper rips the tape from Sophie's mouth could be considered jumpy as it is quite fast paced and ends abruptly. Also, the part where Sophie opens here eyes could be seen as jumpy too.

I believe that the most appropriate certificate for our film would be 15 due to the subtle violence seen throughout and the threatening nature. The film may also include strong language as the film develops and the mentioning of drug abuse also pulls the certificate up to a 15. Our film could be compared to the film 'Hostel', which holds an 18 certificate. Like ours, the film focuses on people being held hostage, however, it focuses more on the gruesome, physical torment of the hostages. The film 'Taken' could also bee seen as similar to ours, even more so than 'Hostel' as it holds a 15 certificate. Like ours, there is the use of violence, but it is not directly focused on and it is more involved with the criminal side, rather than psychological or painful.
Here are the guidelines for a 15 certificate film: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2

After we had finished our film, we asked a few of our peers questions about our film and recorded their thoughts (shown below). We found out that they liked the use of flashbacks, eerie music and point-of-view shots, which are all thriller generic conventions.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Flashback

We have used lots of different camera work to try and engage our audience, mainly our point-of-view shots. These shots put us in the point-of-view of the kidnapper, therefore making the whole scene feel more scary and tense. It's a way for the audience to actually feel like they're witnessing what's happening and a more intense view of hatred towards the kidnapper. The whole situation where Sophie is kidnapped in a park while on her way to meet her friends could terrify the younger females in the audience as they could have experience that vulnerability and fear when walking to meet a friend alone. It could also terrify any parents in the audience who tend to worry when their children are out alone. The flashbacks also attempt to connect with the audience, as it helps to give them a better idea of what is happening.

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

Overlap of sound

I believe that the filming equipment we used, which was a Sony DV1000 high definition camera and a tripod were very easy to use and didn't cause us a lot of problems. The camera we used was a more high-tech camera than we normally use and what we used for our preliminary exercise. This camera made the picture much clearer and crisp, and giving us a better quality picture to work with and edit. Although there were no major problems during filming, we did encounter one problem that we didn't notice until we put the film from our tape onto the computer. Even though we'd pressed stop recording after filming our shots, the camera carried on filming, so we had long bits of film which weren't needed. To overcome this we put all our film onto Final Cut Express and deleted all the long parts we didn't need.



Flashback effect



Altering white balance

I have learnt a lot from using Final Cut express when editing my film, and believe it to be an excellent programme for editing projects such as mine. We used lots of different techniques to make our film look as professional as possible. At one point in our film, we had forgotten to alter the white balance during film so therefore had to alter it on Final Cut Express. We also used a good effect to make the flashbacks scenes appear more like a flashback. Also, we merged the sound over at different points in the phone conversation so that you could hear the kidnapper talking while the camera was still on me; this was affective as it showed the fear in my face. Also, we had many successful match on actions, making the film flow smoothly.

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

Preliminary exercise

Final film

The progress we have made from our preliminary task our final, two minute, opening sequence is substantial and clearly shown. When first starting our media course, we made a 30 second film after only a few lessons, and so our group weren't experienced with the camera, editing and the use of cinematography. As we've progressed into creating our two minute film, we have used a wider range of shots to help storyline unfold, and used affective editing to make our film look quite professional. The pre-production stage was of crucial importance when creating our film as it meant we were more organised for what to do when filming and gave use a clearer idea of the storyline, rather than just creating something that didn't fully make sense with the rest of the film. The use of storyboards, scripts and shot lists all contributed to make everything in our film together correctly. Practice shots also helped to film, as we had a better idea of how to go about difficult shots.

Overall, I think the task of creating a typical Thriller opening sequence, which will make the audience want to watch the rest of the film, has been fulfilled well. The film makes good use of typical generic conventions and creates that tense, jumpy, eerie feeling that you are likely to get in a Thriller film. The whole story line appeals to its audience well and with the combination of camera work, cinematography and editing creates the whole feel we were going for.



Aftermath Evaluation - Alice

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

Our film, ‘Aftermath’, is of the thriller genre and throughout the opening sequences we focused on portraying this genre through the use of mise-en-scene, sound, camera shots, lighting, editing and title sequences. High angle shots and low angle shots were used in order to show status and dominance of certain characters, for example, a low angle shot is used to show the kidnapper to show his dominance and power over Sophie.

From looking at the title sequences of our film, it is quite obvious that we were inspired and influenced by the 1995 thriller, ‘Se7en’. Similar to ‘Se7en’, our titles are written in a white font on a black background, we decided to us e these colours as we wanted to use som ething eye-catching that attracted the audience’s attention and the colours white and red stands out a lot on the black background.

Initially, we wanted to have title sequences similar to those of 'Se7en' including images flickering behind the titles etc, but we found that to do that would be very time consuming. In the end, we did take inspiration from these title sequences by choosing to have flickering white/red text on a black background but we did not use any images or camera footage.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?Our film includes two different social groups. Emily and Sophie are both teenage girls who come across as quite passive. They are represented as being vulnerable, especially Sophie as she is kidnapped. We decided to have both girls dressed in normal, everyday clothing that would be typical of a girl of that age to wear. Both Emily and Sophie have tidy hair and make-up (apart from after Sophie has beed kidnapped which then shows her with blood on her face) which shows that they were dressing for no particular occasion.

The kidnapper is a 25 year old male who has previously been involved in crime. His role in the film is very stereotypical as he is extremely dominant over Sophie and Emily. His dominance is portrayed through the use of low angle shots whereas Sophie’s vulnerability is shown through the use of high angle shots. The status of the characters are also shows through the use of mise-en-scene as we see Sophie tied up which shows the dominance of the kidnapper. Most films of the thriller genre have a villain and they are usually male. We chose to dress him in dark clothing which represents his ‘dark’ personality, as well as him wearing a balaclava to make it look realistic and to hide his identity as most thrillers are secretive and mysterious about the identity of the villain until the very end. Although the characters are very stereotypical at first, by the end of the film, Emily takes charge when completing the tasks etc, and she is the one who frees Sophie, this subverts the stereotype as it puts the women in charge and shows her power and dominance as she becomes the hero. As the film is about two teenage girls, the film will attract a female audience of around the same age and as the females in the film have to take charge, the film could be seen as being inspirational for teenage girls. However, the fact that the two main characters are females could also attract a young male audience. For the older end of our audience, they will be attracted by the intriguing and tense story line, which will inevitably keep them on the edge of their seat.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that our film would benefit from being a product of a British film company such as Warp Films as the main characters, Sophie and Emily, will attract a smaller audience due to their age and gender. They will attract more of a younger, teenage audience probably consisting of mainly females but also males. Our film would only need a small budget as the locations used are very basic and very few special effects are needed.

Optimum releasing would be ideal for the distribution of our film as it has distributed films such as ‘This Is England’ which has a similar target audience to our film as the main characters are of the younger generation. In order to attract a wider audience, I think our film would benefit from being shown on the television. It would be suitable to be shown on channels such as Channel 4 and Film 4 as they tend to show low budget, British films. Our film gives many merchandising opportunities such as posters, t-shirts, mugs. Our film could be advertised through the use of media such as magazines, newspapers, radio, television and the internet.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Before creating the film, we decided that the target audience for our film would be 15-40 year olds, although realistically the film will attract mostly teenagers. Female teenagers will be interested in our film as two out of the three main characters are females of the younger generation, during the film the girls show their vulnerability throughout the kidnap and tasks but by the end of the film they show their bravery and dominance as they over power the kidnapper, this is subverting the stereotype and many females would like to see this happen as they will be inspired by the female characters. The film would also attract teenage boys due to the build up of suspense and action throughout the film. Because of the gripping storyline, the film would also attract older people up to the age of about 40, maybe even older.

We decided that the most appropriate certificate for our film would be certificate 15 as 12 would be too low as the storyline includes violence and swearing, there is also slight drug use included. Certificate 18 would be too high

as there isn’t any sex, nudity or gore included in the film; http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2 see the BBFC website for more details and guidelines.

After finishing making our film, we asked people a few questions about our film and recorded the video above. I also asked people to comment on the film and give their opinions, one of the comments was I thought the film was really creative, and so much suspense and tension was captured in just two minutes - I want to know what happens next! I thought that the use of the camera effect to focus in on Sophie was really effective, and the angles used made it feel as though you were looking through the eyes of the “capturer” which I found really interesting. Overall, an amazing short film, really creative, well done!”

How did you attract/address your audience?The main characters, Sophie and Emily, attract young females as they are inspiring due to their power and dominance towards the end of the film, this also attracts young males as they would like to see this stereotypical male role being played by females. Also, the older generation will be attracted by the gripping storyline.

Point of view shots are used and put audience in the position of the kidnapper. These point of view shots cause the audience to feel sympathy for Sophie as the kidnapper follows her through the park; this builds up suspense and tension. Another attracting feature of our film is the fact that the Kidnapper’s identity is hidden throughout which adds a sense of mystery and keeps the audience curious right until the very end of the film. Music is used very effectively throughout our film to create suspense, for example, when the Kidnapper makes a phone call to Emily, there is background music which imitates a heartbeat getting faster and faster as the conversation progresses, this influences the audience to feel worried which creates a lot of tension.

What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
At the very beginning of the year we did a preliminary exercise which included writing a script and filming. We used small hand held cameras which were incredibly easy to use but by the end of the year, for our two minute film, we used a Sony DV1000 high definition camera which was much bigger and required a tripod.

The Sony DV1000 high definition camera lives up to its name as it provided us with a very clear, high definition image, it was excellent. It allowed us to film all of the shots that we needed and gave us no problems in that area. We did have one problem with the camera; when filming after pressing the button to stop recording, it didn’t stop recording for some unknown reason which makes us think that we had a slightly faulty camera. This did not affect us whilst filming as we did not know that this had happened at the time and it wasn’t until we were uploading the footage onto the computer that we realised we had long periods of time of unwanted footage on our tape, this caused problems as it was very time consuming trying to separate the wanted footage from the unwanted footage. Final Cut Express was used to edit our film and personally I thought it was an excellent piece of software as it was very easy to use and it allowed us to do everything we wanted to do and more. We were able to edit the sound, footage and title sequences on this programme which was very practical. We found the music used in our film on a CD named 'Drones, textures and musical effects'.

During the phone call between the Kidnapper and Emily, we put an effect on the sound to make it sound like we could hear the voices through the phone, we achieved this by merging the sound and the effect together, and this was very effective. After watching the footage, we realised that the white balance needed editing on certain parts of the footage and Final Cut Express allowed us to do this with ease.

As our film includes flashbacks, we wanted to create an effect which would make it clear to the audience that the flashbacks were indeed flashbacks.

To do this we added an effect called ‘light-rays’ which distorted the image and really improved the look of the flashback.

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back to our preliminary task, I think that it was crucial and without it we would have struggled, I think that time management would have been a big issue without the experience as we had to do a lot more preparation for the two minute film including a script, shot list, storyboard and practice shots. From doing the preliminary exercise, we learned about editing, filming and cinematography which made the final task a lot easier and we were all a lot more confident in ourselves when filming and as we knew more about certain shots such as point of view and match on action, we had an advantage as we used both in our final film.

Although we encountered a few problems along the way (such as a member of the group leaving which meant that we had a lot more work to do) the final product is better than expected and it definitely complies with the thriller genre. I think it was very successful and had provided us with many skills which could benefit us in the future.

This is a photo of the main character, Sophie's costume. It is casual and relaxed. We wanted to use a costume that would look realistic, so chose some everyday garments which would also suit the character's personality. We will be using some Fake blood on the shirt which will add to the effect and storyline of the film and make the audience on edge.

Fifteen Minute Film Analysis:

Title Sequence Analysis: Se7en

The reason I have chosen the film 'Se7en' for my title sequence analysis is because it is of the same genre as the film that we are creating, it is a Thriller. The title sequences begin with a loud rumble of thunder which gives the whole film an eerie feel, the music used throughout the title sequences includes the sounds of a storm and is very thrilling, it gives the impression of suspense and tension. The music has a slight echo to it and is quite light to begin with, apart from the loud thunder-like sounds, although it does get heavier as it gets further into the sequences. In certain parts of the music, high-pitched noises are heard which could imitate the sound of a scream.

The title sequences for 'Se7en' are a big inspiration to me as I would love to create similar title sequences for our own film 'Aftermath'. The text used for the titles are scratchy and it flickers in and out of view and out of focus a lot which is really effective, it would be great if I could find a similar font to use for my own. As the font is white on a black background, it really stands out and catches the viewer's eye. The font used looks handwritten and as the title sequence is full of diaries, pens, paper and writing etc, it really works well alongside the whole sequence, it's really effective. The way that the font flickers makes it look sort of scratchy which creates a really good effect, it also links with the music as it seems eerie and it moves and flickers in time with the music. The images on the title sequences also move in sync with the music which is very effective. For example, when the fingers slide over the needle, a quiet but high-pitched noise is heard which links with the movement. We would like to create something similar to this for our two minute film.

The title sequences only show dull colours such as greys and blacks and the only bright, primary colour in the whole sequence is red, this is extremely effective as it shocks the audience as it is unexpected. The colour black could symbolise death and horror, the colour red could also symbolise horror alongside blood and danger, this gives the audience a slight clue as to what the film may involve. The footage and images used in these title sequences are mostly close-ups and consist of books and hands, they show a lot of detail such as writing.

Initially, we wanted to have title sequences similar to those of 'Se7en' including images flickering behind the titles etc, but we found that to do that would be very time consuming. In the end, we did take inspiration from these title sequences by choosing to have flickering white/red text on a black background but we did not use any images or camera footage for our sequences.

Title Sequence Analysis: Panic Room

The title sequence starts with an establishing shot of a large city, we se a bold, capitalised text saying "Columbia Pictures". The theme of the city will keep on running throughout the film with the addition of the large text introducing cast and crew members. The title sequence mainly consists of extreme long shots and establishing shots of this city in America, by showing this normal, everyday

city, it gives the appearance that everything is normal and fine. However, by the build up of the music you can tell that something is not right as it creates a tense atmosphere. At the beginning the music is quite a slow pace, however its deep tone is quite distressing as the tension begins to build up. As the title sequences keep going, the music starts to quicken it's pace which makes the mood feel

like something serious is about to happen, which mirrors the plot of the film. As the music quickens, the storyline of the mother and daughter being held hostage unfolds. Towards the end of the title sequence, the pace of the music begins to slow again, this could be to help the music blend in with beginning of the film better. The music is quite eerie and apprehensive throughout,

which adds a lot of tension to these title sequences. A good effect in the film is the way the text - which reveals the cast and crew - is incorperated into the city images. It is noticeable that the texts which portray the main cast are much more evident than that of smaller cast and crew. For example, the main actress, Jodie Foster, is shown by a large text which is viewed straight on at the camera. The shot also pans past the name, giving a full view of it. In contrast, less impressioning names are seen at a titled angle and are sometimes merged in with the building giving a good effect. Another effect used to make the text seem party of the city is reflection. When the pant shot of the film title, 'Panic Room', is seen, we see the reflection of the text in one of the buildings windows. Also, as well as the music included you can hear things such as sirons, giving an impression of a busy city - you can also see cars moving and people walking below.

The reason I chose to edit these title sequences is because the film, 'Panic Room' is the same genre of our film, 'Aftermath', which is a Thriller. Even though the title sequences are effective for the storyline for this film, we wouldn't like something similar as we would like something more chilling, with shakey writing and a messy effect text.

Comments/Reviews

I asked a few people what their opinions were of our film, here are some of the responses:

“The music is good because it fits in with the genre of the film, the make-up is also good as it looks realistic” – Abbie

“I really liked it, the background music was really good as it added to the mysteriousness. It was really interesting to watch and it makes me want to know what happens next!” – Hannah

“I thought the film was really creative, and so much suspense and tension was captured in just two minutes - I want to know what happens next! I thought that the use of the camera effect to focus in on Sophie was really effective, and the angles used made it feel as though you were looking through the eyes of the “capturer” which I found really interesting. Overall, an amazing short film, really creative, well done!” – Rosie

“The music is really effective and the font you've used for the names etc is really effective too as it relates to the genre of the film” – Emily

“I think the music was relevant and created tension, the effects were good and the location fitted the story line and so did the titles” – Dale

“It's very interesting and intriguing, I would be interested in watching further to discover what will happen next” – Danny

Aftermath Film Review

Question 1: How can you tell that our film is a thriller?
Question 2: What do you like about our film?
Question 3: Is there anything that you dislike about our film?
Question 4: Would you be interested in watching the full film?

Aftermath - Finished Film

Make-up for Aftermath

Title Sequence Ideas

Production Logo Clip

This is the clip I created which will be put on at the beginning of our film. It represents an old film countdown which then blends into the moon for 'Moon Productions'.

Production Logo

Here is the logo I have created for our production company, Moon Productions. I have gone for a simple, but affective element which easily get across the name of company and stick in the minds of the viewers. This will be useful for future projects by this company because they enjoy the film and see another film by Moon Productions, they are more likely to watch it. Along with this I have also created a short transition to go on the beginning of our film.

The Kidnapper's Costume

These are the clothes that the kidnapper will be wearing throughout the whole of the film. The trousers he wears are just plain dark blue denim jeans which show him looking quite casual. The jumper he wears is also a very dark blue, we chose to dress him in these dark colours in order to represent his dark personality. The whole costume shows that he is working/middle class. The outfit will also include a black balaclava which shows only his eyes and mouth, this is so his identity is not revealed throughout the film until the very end when he gets arrested. A photo of the kidnapper wearing the balaclava is shown alongside his character profile.

Practice Shots - Aftermath

Photo Storyboard