Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A Thriller is a genre of film or novel that has a gripping and often an exciting yet mysterious plot. This genre typically will include a protagonist and an antagonist that will hold the main storyline. In the thriller genre the plot tends to involve a death, or the investigation/revenge of that death. Thriller films tend to be filmed in towns or cities, in quite urban areas or in a very isolated and empty place. The characters tend to go on a journey throughout the film, travelling to many different places with events occurring because of or within the journey.

The thriller that I have filmed is based on the psychological subgenre. Before I started creating my thriller I did lots of research into the thriller genre as a whole, and then into detail as to what a psychological thriller would need to include. I watched many different thriller films such as ‘se7en’, ‘Leon the professional’ and ‘no country for old men’. I explored the different subgenres, but through my personal favourite and the audience response (from the questionnaire) doing a psychological thriller seemed to be the best subgenre to choose, I looked at psychological thrillers such as ‘Shutter Island’ and ‘saw’. Choosing a psychological thriller meant that I could play around more with the way that the opening was created and the atmosphere that it gave to the audience because in this genre the plot always unwinds to be very complex, so the opening should allow the audience to ask lots of questions. I chose to create the opening without giving too much away about the plot, this is because from the audience research that I did before starting the production.  The majority of the audience said that they preferred to watch a film that you had to concentrate on and ask questions about. Doing this grips the audience more and therefore the film would achieve its goal by making the audience want to watch more.

 

Psychological thrillers are a sub-genre from the range of thrillers, and are closely linked with some horror Genres. Psychological thrillers often include elements from drama or mystery genres, as well as its traditional thriller traits.

Themes:

Mind - This is the human consciousness; the part that has the thought, personality, memory, reason, emotion and intelligence. The mind gets used a lot to show narrative conflict, for example when characters have to battle their own minds in order to understand or reach a new level of perception.

Death - Characters are either fascinated by death or have a fear of dying.

Purpose/Existence - The reason that something exists; the aim that a human must strive for in order to understand why they exist. Characters try and discover the purpose of their lives, and the way that the narrative conflicts are often a reason for the character to discover their purpose.

Identity - The definition of a character. Characters often get confused with who they are and are out to find their real identity.

Perception - The interpretation of the world that somebody gets through their senses. Characters often misinterpreted the world around them, or outside factors alter their perception through the narrative.

Reality - Characters are often trying to find out what is true and what is not through the narrative.

Through watching psychological thrillers I noticed that there is typically one charachter (the one that has the disturbances) that is isolate and alone, I had to make sure that this was portrayed within my film as this is what the audience would expect and it creates an isolate and worried atmosphere so the auience will start to empathise with the charachter and wonder what will happen to her. I didn't use any speech in my film because I thought that using the music makes the girl more isolate and the soundtrack creates a strong atmosphere, if i gave the charachter a voice it could make her seem like a strong charachter instead of damaged, which would give away the wrong interpretation; also not having an narration lets the audience focus on what is happening and connect with the film more.

 

A cut away shot to the shoes tapping

I have used a wide variety of shots in my film, because typically in thriller films they use a wide variety of shot types. Close up shots are particularly focused on because it gives an uncomfortably close and claustrophobic feeling to the audience and shows them close up what is happening, for example on the face of a character showing the emotion.  The editing in thrillers is also conventionally very fast especially at the start because it builds up the tension before the rest of the film unfolds. I wanted to use this technique in my film, however I also wanted to match the

Pan shot of the derelict looking house

editing to the soundtrack as best that I could because the soundtrack expresses the mood and emotion of the film really well. I used a lot of fast pace editing when putting in the cut away shots, this created the tense and un-natural atmosphere – if these shots were slow it could make the situation seem quite relaxed when really it was tense and stressful on the character. In thriller genres, the characters tend to be in a public setting, for example walking through town or on a busy city street; however I decided to go the opposite direction and put her in a derelict looking house and gravel path next to a graveyard. I did this to reflect the isolation that the character was experiencing and how very alone she was during the whole possession from her shoes. This makes the audience feel for her and become more involved in the film. However in order to fit the thriller genre criteria she did walk down the street in a village, this did help though because it shows that she did connect with “normal” life, and wasn’t always like this.. Which makes the audience then ask questions as to how it happened to her?

For my thriller opening I used the track from Baku by John Atturbery, the track is called “Into the Nightmare” which is also where I got the title name for my film from. The pace of the music was reflected in the film by the pace that the character moved in. The music gave an eerie atmosphere and when put with the film it made lots of tension which is important especially with a psychological thriller, because of this I decided that using this track would be the best option, it fitted my plans perfectly and helped to give ideas for the way I edited.

One of the titles in the opening

The skull and axe props
 

In the production I didn’t use many props, they were really only used in order to set the scene for example; at the “executioners hut” I placed a skull and an axe on the door step giving some hints as to what could be happening to the character in the future another. Another prop that I used was the shoe box that I presented the shoes in; this was red and white in order to mix the destructive connotations with red and the pure innocent connotations of the white. I did this because Josie was playing the character when she was younger before the Red shoes took over, whilst she was an innocent young girl, however including the red ties in what is going to happen to her. I created some titles and added them in throughout the film; this gave some more creativity to the film instead of using the typed titles that were on iMovie. My titles follow the conventions because they show the actors and the title of the film, however I did not put them in the conventional order. In a few of the titles I was able to reflect some of the characters life/emotions, for example I covered Josie’s title in white and grey feathers and blew them off, this reflected the innocence that the character had when she was young (which was when Josie played her) and how quickly it was taken away from her. Another example would be the burning of the paper, the fire reflects the destruction that the shoes have caused for the character, and either take all the destruction away from her or course more harm…this makes the audience ask question.

Coming up with the narrative was difficult, I wanted to do something out of the ordinary but not too much that it didn’t fit with the genre at all and the audience would be attracted to it. I had the idea for the narrative (using the storyline of the red shoes) But it took me a while thinking about how I could put it together and fit in what is needed with a thriller film. Whilst making the film I had to make sure that I was only giving subtle hints as to what the storyline is because it is only a two minute opening and giving too much away would stop it looking like an opening and could possibly push it into the style of a trailer, also it would give all the story away so there would not fit with the task which was only to create the opening.

 

screen grab of the speed during a cutaway

From my research I found that thriller openings edit the shots together using more straight cuts than other techniques, because they make they make the scenes stiff and unnatural because the next shot abruptly comes onto the film rather than fading in. I chose to use straight cuts throughout my opening as this fitted with the conventions, and also because it gave the unnatural effect I was looking for. The editing was fast paced in parts, especially when it was the cut away shots so the use of straight cuts allows the fast pace editing to show through.

 

A sound effect added on

The use of a soundtrack is relied heavily upon in films, especially in the openings because there doesn’t tend to be much speech. The music that I have used gives an eerie effect to the opening and makes the audience feel tense and nervous. Along with the soundtrack I added in some sound effects in selected parts of my film in order to lift those parts from the soundtrack and give some more effect to it. I used effects such as a burning, sizzling acid sound for when it was a cut away shot to the shoes tapping as if they are burning at her feet and character. I also added in a tapping sound which I sped up when showing Mae’s title because it was a louder more distinct sound than what I had caught in the film, it created more tension and put emphasis on the tapping and constant sound, The sound of somebody tapping is often annoying so having this loud and distinct put the audience on edge.

Although it is not from the same subgenre, the film Se7en really inspired the opening because it didn’t give too much of the narrative away, however it did show enough for the audience to get into the film and start to ask questions.

The axe cut away shot

In my opening I used many of the conventions of a thriller and for my chosen subgenre. I used a range of camera angles as the character started her journey, I also used close up shots on her shoes, this is because it gives off an uncomfortable effect to the audience, which needs to be shown as the shoes are not pleasant and she doesn’t want them. I created this effect by the close up shots of them tapping un-controllably, the close up shots give a claustrophobic effect which makes the audience feel trapped, empathising with the character. Also the use of different angles gave the effect that this destruction has been happening over a long period of time. When the older version of the girl was introduced, she had a distinct look of distress on her face and her posture wasn’t as strong as the younger version, this shows from the beginning that this was not a happy tale. I also added in shots showing the character pulling at her tights and shoes trying to get them off.  Using Fast pace editing and straight cuts, especially when doing the cut away shots built up tension and gave the audience different clues as to what is happening. The end of the opening was edited slower, which gave the impression that she had reached her destination and the real in depth narrative was about to start, leaving the audience on a cliff hanger and making them ask questions which is a typical convention to a thriller film. On my shot list it shows different types of shots that I had filmed, this was so that I had a variety of different shots that I was able to work with when editing.  The majority of these close up shots focused on the red shoes as this was the key part of the film. The cut away shots that I used to cut to the red shoes tapping and the axe giving away hints to what could happen, where a typical convention in thriller films. The shots were cut very short, and were like small flashes on the screen. The effect that this created was tension because the audience didn’t get long to concentrate on it; also it was showing small suggestions foreshadowing what would happen if a whole film was to be produced. These shots had sound effects added to them as well in order to lift them from the soundtrack and make them more significant to the audience.  The shots interrupted the journey that the character was on; this helped with the continuity of the film and to stop the walking from becoming too tiresome for the audience. It also added a sense of mystery because the audience never really got to establish her surroundings because after almost all of the cut away shots she would be somewhere new.

 

As I said before the character was in a very isolated setting, however on her journey she does enter more of an open environment which shows that she is still part of the outside world, even though it isn’t busy at all and no other interaction is seen. Down the side of the path there is a graveyard which can be seen in the side of a shot, I didn’t want to focus too much on getting that in the shots because it would give the wrong idea to the audience as she wouldn’t be getting killed (if the film carried on), however I did want hints of it in the background to add to the tension and bring more gloom to the situation.

 

In this shot I wanted to show the expression on her face when she opened the shoes, so the audience could see clearly how happy she was. This will give them a shock when you see the character as an older girl but very unhappy. Using a close up shot allowed the audience to focus on her emotion and not on the environment that she is in. I chose not to use an extreme close up because otherwise the shot could look uncomfortable; also I wanted to still have some of the red coat in the frame so that the connotations of red, such as danger and fear could start to come through. This shot being at the beginning is conventional because it shows the audience who the character is and focuses on her emotions so they can begin to get involved the film now they know the character.



As new actors were introduced in the film there would be cut away shots to their title. My title was first, as part of the establishing shots showing her environment because I was not acting in it, and I thought that putting mine in with the actors would not make sense. I didn’t want to use titles that were part of the editing software as that is quite boring, also by being creative with the titles made my film different and I could make them significant to the film that I was creating. Each title is individual to the person and their character, for example Mae’s title has her feet tapping over the top. The reason that I did that was to reflect that her feet began taking control when the character was older (which is who Mae played), also it is as if the shoes are trying to stamp out Mae’s character and to take her life.

This is a screen grab from one of the cut a way shots to the red shoes tapping. I used the Gorilla tripod to film these shots because it meant I could move it around more freely and get some really interesting shots and angles. The high angle of the shot is ironic because it makes it seem as if the shoes are being looked down upon and aren’t very powerful, yet they are in control of the character. The shoes are also framed to be in the centre of the shot because they are the most important feature and should be concentrated on. I also chose to film these shots on a concrete slab order to have a really plain and light background for the shoes, which makes the red colouring stand out stronger in order for the connotations to come out. The slab still looks like part of the area that the character came from as well so the continuity stays the same.

These two screens grabs show that I kept continuity throughout the film. When I filmed these shots, in order to get the flower in the frame it meant that I had to film from the opposite side, breaking the 180ᵒ rule. So that the rule wasn’t broken in the film, during editing I imported the clip onto QuickTime and flipped it. I filmed these two shots from almost the same distance away but showing a different part of her body, so that the shot would be slightly different (although still the same) which keeps the audience interested. It was important to me that the flower was in the frame because it reflects on the innocence that the character once; had everything else in the background looks old, dark and dead yet that flower stands out beautifully. The fact that she walks straight past the flower is as if she is walking away from her past and is taken away and the purity has been left behind. The flower could also connote that in the end of the film something good may happen to her and she may go back to the innocent child that she used to be. In the shot with the flower, I composed the shot using the golden mean so that when the character walks in to the shot, it is like a diagonal line from the top corner of the flower to the bottom when she walks and straight through her, the flower and the character are the points of interest.

This is the title of the film; the writing is in the centre of the frame to show its importance. The writing is put on the paper at a slant to show the disturbance in the film and how out of the ordinary it is. The back ground to the title is dark, with red on it linking to the red shoes and the connotations; also it looks like blood so foreshadows what could happen. Typically in films the title is in the middle of the frame because that is what is important so this shows that my film has followed the conventions of film openings.

This is a screen grab of her shoes as she leaves the room, the fact that in this shot it only shows her shoes (and the background)connotes that her shoes are the reason that she is leaving, already showing their control. This scene is a mid-shot, so that the audience can see the environment that she is in, but at the same time be able to focus on the main object (her shoes). The background in the shot is the flowery wallpaper; both the carpet and the wallpaper are in a soft cream colour. This makes the room seem like a homely and safe environment, so it makes the audience question as to why she is leaving that… will there be danger? The shot is set up to be floor level, as if it is under her bed. This was because it links back to the day that she found the shoes and as she is walking past the bed it is as if she is walking away from it. Setting the shot up like this also reminds the audience that she was once young and happy with those shoes, so they can see the contrast of to how she is now and empathise on her. When filming this shot I filmed her walking  into it, and made sure that she was out of the room and that the door was closed when she left to save the continuity., she also walked into the shot from the side because she would have come from that way when stood in front of the mirror.