Evalutation

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

There are several codes and conventions I had to think about and try to include in my text in order to make it successful and professional. I had to research different elements to an opening as well as a whole film in general such as:

· Genre

· Narrative codes and structure

· Characterisation

· Credits and titles

· Target audience

By researching the different elements and real examples I knew what I had and wanted to include in my text. My opening looks professional it uses sets the rest of the narrative without giving too much away and does this through the use of action and enigma codes, it doesn't set up equilibrium as it starts during disequilibrium and will show the story and equilibrium during a flashback to relive/show the audience how they've arrived at this point. I have made sure include several props that will have some relevance to the narrative and allow the audience to make guesses. The opening introduces both the protagonist and antagonist but doesn't say what they’ve done or going to do to end up in the situation they're in. The actor’s names are introduced in a way that has integrated them into the text as if they're meant to be there. By using different camera shots I was able to add the style and tone the text that I wanted.

Genre

For my genre research I had a look at ‘prisoners’, this intense thriller helped me understand what I had to do to make my text successful. I noticed that the colour scheme and the non-diegetic sound track of the film is very dark which helps to reflect certain events that have happened or will happen. The opening sets up any relations between the main characters and possibly shows or singles out any characters that maybe a target or threat. Due to the fact that my text is a thriller and the protagonist is usually male I tried to make sure mine was male in order to appeal to a certain audience. I had to research the different genre codes and make sure I could include as many as possible to help give my opening the edge it needed and make sure it was definitely classed as thriller due to the iconography, themes and moods that are normally associated with a thriller text.

Narrative structure

For the narrative structure I focused on todorov and his theory diagram, his diagram which includes a protagonist, agent of change, problem, quest and the resolution. The protagonist is the character who in the case of my text is James who is forced to search for the antagonist (Ethan) after he carried out an attack at an army base where he and his brother are based killing James’ brother in the process. The agent of change doesn’t necessarily have to be a person, it can be something that forces the protagonist to go out of there way and force the narrative in a different direction. In the case of my opening, the agent of change is the folder or when the brothers decide to go off to the army. The problem is the thing the protagonist has to go on to try and restore normality (equilibrium) but due to the past events it’s referred to as the new normality as it won’t be the same as before. The problem in my text is when James’ brother is killed and he has to find a way to make things right. The quest in a narrative is what the protagonist has to do or go on in order to restore normality and end up at the resolution.

Narrative codes

The narrative codes are action and enigma codes, these help to move the text along in certain ways through the use if posing and answering questions. These are the type of codes that allow the audience to pose and answer questions related to the text, it’s this that keeps the audience hooked and makes them want to watch more to see if their questions will be answered. The questions aren't always answered straight away in the text; some may not be answered until the final minutes which then also add the enjoyment of watching. By using the codes, it hints to the audience which way/path the narrative is moving. In my text I have tried to use as many as possible as it starts at the end and flashes back to show the audience how the characters ended up where they are now. At the start I have the protagonist looking around a location for something, the audience are unsure what this is and the question is answered once the character places his hand on a document on a table. This then poses another question, what’s in the document? This question will then be answered later on in the text but not in the opening two minutes. Later as one character enters through a medium shot and the other on a over the shoulder shot. there are two characters that are face to face, the tense and edgy atmosphere will pose questions to the audience as they'll wonder why the two characters are acting like this to each other and how/why they've ended up how they are now. questions like who are they? Are they or were they friends? They’re talk about an incident that has happened and won't be relieved until later on in the story. The viewers wont know what the incident is which poses more questions and is it because of this that they're face to face?

Credits and titles

The opening titles and credits tend to appear within the first fifteen minutes of the text either straight away or after a section of footage but in most cases the titles are integrated into the footage throughout the first ten minutes. The main purpose of the opening titles is to help along with the narrative codes to set up the text and build the audiences expectations. Almost all the time the titles have a certain style and or theme that links them to the genre of the text, this could be done through the use of font and colours. In my text I have incorporated the names of a few members of the cast but instead of editing them in on post-production, I tried to make it look like they were meant to be there due to the type of props I used. I go the idea from school of rock because as one of the extras walks down a corridor the names cast appear on the set. For example, one appears on the back of someone’s jacket. I chose specific colours when it came to choosing the colour of the font in different sections to help set up to narrative. The red font when the title appears suggests the emotion and feeling associated with the certain subject. The colour red symbolises anger, rage and possibly hatred so when the title appears the audience will hopefully make assumptions that a character will feel these feelings and wonder why.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My final media product only represents a few social groups due to the tone and mood I wanted to get across to the audience. The main social group I have featured in my opening is gender, only because the start just shows the protagonist and antagonist. Both characters are are male and as well as this mainly appealing to generally a male audience, I've tried to represent the male theme through changing the enviroment and how the characters interact with each other. Males tend to not always be very open about how they feel so in the shot of the protagonist sitting down we can see he has his arms folded; this helps to reinforce how he feels. In conparasion to the antagonist, even though he's male he's open about how he feels and what he's done as in a long shot of him we can see his open body stance.

I wanted a very masculine feel to the product and have as little feminine elements as possible in order to create the testosterone filled product I wanted. I’ve tried to appeal mainly to the 15 plus, sometimes 12a male audience as I know that the thriller genre is usually aimed at them when it comes to real products because the content these sorts of films normally contain like the chase scenes, violence and very little romance if any. When it comes to age, I wanted the characters to be older than they were but unfortunately I couldn't find anyone the age I wanted who I thought would be able to play a believable part.

 

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

I think the type/kind of media institution that would distribute my product would have be a major film company due to the style of film and its contents. The company or company that may be interest maybe ‘europacorp’ or ‘Columbia pictures’ due to other films they have distributed. Europacorp have released films such as ‘taken’, ‘Lock Out’ and ‘Transporter 3’. Each film was successful in its own rights and all seemed follow the same style and genre. They’re all action adventure films full of tense moments and fight scenes. Moreover, Columbia pictures (Sony) have also released several films that aren't necessarily the same genre but are big films and could only have done well with a big budget that a company like Sony could have provided. This can be said will films like ‘Skyfall, ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ and the rebooted version of MGM’s ‘Robocop’. Each film when on to do incredibly well, with ‘Skyfall’ entering the list of only a few films that have managed to make $1 billion at the box office, ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ was a huge hit with the audience as a result of its summer time release and CGI effects. Due to the large amount of money Sony is able to provide through the many sponsors it receives, they’re able to provide they films with some of the latest technology such as camera’s, editing software and equipment all resulting in a high end product which may not of been possible on an independent label.

My product would most likely be distributed by a major label as I would most likely need a big budget in order to carry out some of the CGI, money to go to different locations and props. Also, as Sony have Columbia pictures they’ll be able to provide a sound track for the product which will then boost the awareness for the final product.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When in came I setting an audience for my product I looked at real thriller films and researched their certificate and audience they tried to aim their film at. For example Black swan was given a certificate of 15 due to the sexual references and mature content that wouldn't be appropriate for younger viewers, preferably people aged below 15. For my audience i wanted to make sure they were mainly male and aged between 15 and 45 as thriller films normally are due to the sort of content within the films. This is because thriller films usually have violence, chase scenes and male characters which simple doesn’t always appeal to a female audience or under or above a certain age group of males. In order for me to identify my audience I chose to create and give a survey for people to do which would then help me to narrow down the age gap and whether or not I would focus the product mainly for males. I wanted to ask questions specific to the genre in order for the best overall outcome that would help fuel my product and what to include in it.

I now know who my audience is as I have looked at several past films and researched the age certificate their film wasn’t given and some of the other products that were released at the same time as the film. However, some thrillers could and have been aimed and females due to the possible love interest in the film. Moreover, females may be interested in the as there maybe an actor or actress they like and will go to see a film for that reason.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The audience for my product is aimed at is mainly a male audience aged 15 - 45 due to the content in the text. My product contains elements such as violence and potentially graphic scenes and for that I thought it wouldn't be suitable for younger ages. My production company logo helps to attract my audience due to the style of the logo. The logo is in black and white and really gives nothing away to the plot or narrative; which links to the thriller genre in the sense that thrillers are very mysterious and there could possibly be a lot going on but it may not be obvious to the viewers.

I was able to attract my intended audience through the style of music I had chosen to put alongside the product to give it the tone and mood that’s normally associated with these sorts of films. After I had carried out my survey I realised that I may have to change what I would include in my opening two minutes due to some of the comments and answers I had received. They also recognised some of the most important key feature to the genre such as the fact that a thriller has to be tense, have suspense and chase scenes. One of the many reasons people like to watch thriller films is because how they feel whilst watching a film within this genre. They like to watch as a main element is the unpredictable factor, not knowing what’s going to happen next and whether or not the protagonist will survive or not. This is due to the action and enigma codes. The enigma codes posing the questions to the audience and then being answered by the action codes either straight after the questions have been posed or later on in the text. The codes are one of the main reasons thriller films attract a certain audience, as they watch in hope that their questions will be answered. For example in The Dark Knight Rises the audience can ask several questions as at one point the protagonist Bruce Wayne/Batman is in prison and whilst watching the viewers are wondering whether or not he'll be able to escape. As well as the genre posing multiple questions the genre also provides the audience with mixed emotions whilst watching. Thriller films fill the audience will adrenaline during the tense and suspense scenes as they grip their seats wondering if their favourite character(s) will make it out alive.

Many people wanted the main character to be strong, outgoing and eventually catch the villain (antagonist). However, it was very obvious that this couldn’t be the case right at the start. The protagonist becomes the character or type of person he is through what he has been through. The people I had asked realised in many thriller film that the protagonist usually loses someone close to him, preferably a family member, friend or love interest which then makes the hunt for the villain that more tense and exciting to watch knowing that someone is in danger. This also makes it that much more satisfying and or relatable when the protagonist gets his revenge.

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

When it came to choosing the type of software I would use, I thought about first experimenting with different programmes to see what I had at my disposal and see what each would and wouldn’t let me do. I thought about using ‘IMovie’ on a Mac as I had previously used this to edit my preliminary and I was fairly happy with the results but felt somewhat limited when I heard about what some of the other software was capable of. I attempted to edit my opening on Sony Vega pro but after an hour I found it was too complicated and struggled to do some of the simplest tasks, like for example adding a simple fade transition. I had heard that someone was using a programme on Windows called ‘Camtasia’ and was told it’s very simple and easy to use. So after installing the programme I got to work and realised the difference immediately, Camtasia had and did everything I needed it to; allowing me to give my product the tone it needed by adding certain transitions, slowing down specific clips and adding music for the final touch.

From the different software’s I have learnt that different programmes may work better for other people, whether that’s because they know how to use it or because it has everything they need for their product. Also some are easier to use than others as I found the user face on some software was too complicated and difficult to find what I needed.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have improved my skill set when it comes to editing, using a camera and the overall understand of film. I now feel more confident when it comes to editing as when comparing my opening two minutes to my preliminary, there’s a huge difference in terms of the different layers that have been applied to each individual clip such as the speed of the clip, the filter (if one has been used) and whether or not there’s any added sound effects or music; things that I didn’t really have chance to add or didn’t feel were needed in the preliminary. Now when using a camera, I know what angle I should use in order to get across a certain tone or mood to the audience depending on the genre of the text and how each shot should be edited together for the best result.

Moreover, I now understand why films have been shot in certain way, how a text is filmed and the people chosen for each role is all done for a reason. The actors or actresses maybe famous for playing a certain style within film so are chosen as the writer’s and or director feel they’ll do the role justice. I understand the difference between independent and major film companies and why certain companies are associated with certain films due to the other products they can release alongside their product to benefit each other and help create awareness for each through the use of synergy. For example take Sony and Skyfall, each James Bond film is famous for having a different theme song and as Sony own their own record label they’re able to choose one of their artists to perform the song.

Film Evidence

The equipment I used when filming was a Samsung HMX-F80 i made sure the camera was set to 'HD' and '1.6m' to ensure when capturing the footage, it was in the best quality which meant to would recieve the best results. When in HD the camera captures in 1280x720.

Description of two minute opening

All fade in will be from black

The scene starts with a black screen, with the sound of someone moving objects and rummaging around. The production company fades onto the black screen for a few seconds as the logo begins to fades out, some tense, non-diegetic music starts to play. Then fades into a long shot of a dark location with a smartly dressed man (James) walking around, opening draws and cupboards but doesn’t show his face, fades out and the director’s name of the film will appear in white font on screen ‘A film by Jacob Pitcher’, fades out and then back into a medium shot of James' back, he is stood behind a counter with some envelopes and leaflets on. James moves them around to set up the next part of the shot, James leaves the shot to reveal the names of two actors (Jack Lockyer and Sam Burgess) that are printed on two envelopes. The camera stays on the letters but you can slowly hear James walk away and then fades out.

Fades into a low angle shot of a folder/important documents on a table with James now a blurred figure in the background; James starts to walk slowly towards the folder it then fades out again. Then fades back into an aerial shot of the folder upside down, a hand enters the shot and turns the folder round the correct way so the contents on the front can be read to reveal the title of the film ‘Avenge our fallen brothers’, the shot fades out and the title then reppears on screen and the background music gets louder.

The title fades out, once it has dissappeard the camera fades into a long shot of James sitting down beside the table that was seen in a previous shot. He starts to take a gun out from his jacket; an action match continues to show the removal of the gun but as a close up as James is about to place the gun on the table the shot fades out. Fades back into a close up of a door handle, the door opens and the antagonist (Ethan) is revealed, he pauses as he opens the door just so we can see him pull a small grin as if he knows something the audience doesn’t. Cuts to a point of view shot of Ethan walking down the hallway, follows by a series of jump cuts and shows the walk he's has taking. Cuts to a low angle shot of an area soon to be inhabited by Ethan and as he enters he pretends to look surprised to find an old acquaintance sitting at his table.

*high angled over the shoulder shot of James

James: why?

*close up of the side of Ethan’s face

Ethan: I had a mission and I always finish my missions and you were the only one standing in my way.

*long shot of James

James: a mission? No. that’s murder. (James starts to get agitated) What you were trying to protect and what you did to do so. You took Mat, my brother away from me, you took our brothers away. Our brothers of war.

As James speaks he picks up the folder on the table and makes reference to it as he speaks to Ethan.

My opening two minutes

Synopsis

The film starts with a small montage of the protagonist (James) which ends up with him holding the antagonist (Ethan) at gunpoint threating to kill him if he doesn’t explain why he killed a group of soldiers, which included his brother a few years ago back in Afghanistan. He explains he was mentally ill after an encounter with the Taliban and the other soldiers were aware of this. James then mentions how he intends to do what’s right, and avenge his fallen brothers and what he’s been through to end up at Ethan’s house. It then flashes back to when James and his brother Matt were younger playing ‘army’. When James, the older of the two mentions how he’ll always be there to look out for Mat.

We then see a small montage of the two brothers growing up and going through several situations with each other and signing up and then training for the army. Then shows them once they get into the army, performing a few training exercises. Whilst doing this they’re put into a group with the antagonist (Ethan) and from that point onwards, Matt and Ethan become very close friends. Matt trusted Ethan very much but James was never very fond of him. Then shows a group from the camp go out on a mission were Ethan gets captured by what looks like the Taliban but were actually the American government. They told Ethan to take out the English camp where the brothers are based as they were close to finding a secret base were the Americans carryout illegal weapons testing on Taliban civilians.

Ethan makes it look like he escaped and tells the camp he was tortured by Taliban to give important information about the armies’ tactics and where the base was. Ethan decides to start small and take out a small group of the camp first but wants to make sure James is included as he was starting to get suspicious. Ethan takes the necessary precautions when setting up a timed explosive near the gas supply to make it look like an accident but something went wrong and Mat was killed instead. However, no questions were asked as Ethan made it look like an accident but leaving soon after made James’ suspicion grow even more. James goes to the captain and asks for his permission to do what’s right and avenge our fallen brothers.

As James prepares to leave he asks around the camp to see if there’s any word on Ethan’s where abouts but doesn’t find anything, so decides to get on the next plane home. Little did he know the plane was filled with Ethan’s men and started to attack soon after the plane takes off. James manages to survive so questions one of the men for answers. With new information James is lead to several false locations, each one leading to the next. Until at one point Ethan slips up and is seen leaving, he gets into a car and James follows. He follows Ethan to his house and after Ethan enters the building, James waits for him to leave.

Once Ethan left, James had the chance to sneak in. He then finds the truth about what really happened when he was captured. Later, Ethan returns to find James at his table holding him at gunpoint. This is now the point just after the scene at the start where James has explained the past events. Ethan then tells James he dropped out of the mission that was set to him by the American government as he was forced to take it in the first place. For once we think James believes him so he leaves the house to return to his car, only to find out Ethan was lying. He then pulls out a remote from his desk which set to some explosives in James’ car put there whilst James was looking for Ethan at the last location. Instead, James managed to re-route them to a set in Ethan’s house. Ethan pulls the trigger and James drives away.

Locations

For my location(s) i want to to use my house as I felt like I could change and manipulate in the way i wanted to achieve the desired location for one of the characters. However due to the fact it's my house and i have a lot of ornaments and decorations i had to move them either out of the shot or completely from the location, otherwise the location wouldn't have the effect I'd wanted. I wanted the mise-en scene of the house to have a fairly masculine feel to it so i had to remove some of the more feminine elements. I chose these location within the house as they're very small and enclosed with helps to create a very intense tone and mood for the text. The fact that I've tried to make the house look more masculine helps add to the codes/convention of the typical thriller as most of the time main character is male.                                                                                                                

Survey

 

These screen shots show the results of my survey. I asked four people, all of them male, i asked them all the questions that i thought would help best shape the design of my text. I have gone into more detail and analysed them in the Audience section.

Audience/Target Audience

I have decided that I will try to aim my product at mainly a male audience, possibly mid-teens (15) to mid thirty year olds (45). In comparison to real texts, this is the normal age range thats selected for a thriller film due to the type of content that's usually in these films. For example the film prisoners is very violent, contains graphic scenes and strong language that wouldn't be suitable for younger viewers. The narrative for my text is fairly simple to understand, it follows a typical revenge style film. However, could possibly quite violent and therefore unsuitable for younger viewers. People who liked prisoners, taken, Leon, shutter island and law abiding citizen will like my film as it will have some of the same elements. Like each of the past films mine will also have a main central protagonist who is very focused on what it is he wants to achieve.

After carrying out the questionnaire I can see many different trends, such as the key traits of elements people expect to see in a thriller text. 75% of the people asked said they expect to see tension or tense scenes. When people named their favourite films, most of the ones that were named were one word and very punchy. Other trend I noticed is many people said when they watch thrillers they were gripped to their seat and anxious to see what happens next.

After carrying out the research, it has outlined many different and useful trends that people expect to see in a thriller text. This will affect what traits and or elements I will add to my opening text and by doing so will hopefully mean that my sequence will have the key conventions that make a thriller successful. Therefore, I may need to add or remove a few elements to make sure the text is definitely a thriller and doesn’t have a sub-genre that could lead the text to be or have a different genre. The audience expect to see a text which keeps them ‘on edge’, a central protagonist who is ‘outgoing and strong’, and antagonist. My idea contains many of the typical traits, such as tense scenes, action, suspense, and chase scenes. It follows a somewhat typical revenge story, I want it to be gripping but at the same time very exciting. A typical trait of a thriller text I think is an element of chase, whether that’s a car chase for a short scene or one character on the hunt for another throughout the whole film. Also there should be a point when the audience start to question whether the ending will really be the one they expect; this is possible through the use of ‘suspense and tension’.

Preliminary Task

Film ideas

1. The film would start with flashbacks/dreams from past events, cuts to a man asleep, the flashbacks and dreams are his. As he is asleep we're able to see what's going through his had as a shot shows the scenarios happening above him. One of of the scenarios takes centre stage as this is the most important, in the flashback it looks like he's being held hostage by someone, he gets shot which results in him waking up. As he gets up and out of bed he walks past a shelf which shows his medals, badges, certificates (one of them revealing his name, Peter) and pictures showing images from old attacks, meeting people such as the queen and family members. These then reveal the he's an old MI6 agent. The next shot shows the inside of the MI6 base and the occupants rushing around, talking about a current case. There's rumours going around that the head of the agency had the leave the country for a couple of months due to personal reasons. There is then a picture of who we believe to be the head (the person holding him hostage), Peter and a group of people in suits.

It cuts back to Peters house where we can see a set of pictures of people and key locations all linking to each other. Through more flashbacks we find out that Peter was selected to undergo a special procedure to give him an edge and make him a new bread of agent. However Peter didn't want to go through with it, even though his family did. MI6 chose to get rid of his family and make it look like an accident, with his family out of the way, the agency manage to manipulate Peter to accept the option and go through with the surgery. The surgery happens and goes as planned but during the surgery instead of being put to sleep, Peter was just given anaesthetic and over heard a conversation between the head of the agency and several other members talking about how he would have never gone through with it if we hadn't taken out his family. Staying calm Peter waits until after the surgery and waits to see if the affects have taken place. After going through a number of training exercises and tests, he's set for field work. The flash back ends and Peter sets out, travelling to different places and locations around the world to fins the people who took after his family, in doing so he meets someone who was selected for a similar option for the CIA but it back fired and the people involved were no longer heard of for reasons that are unknown. Together they take down the people responseable with twists and turns without.

2.

Production company

For my production company logo i wanted it to look simple but at the same time very different and unique. I wanted the wording/font to stand out from the background picture to make it easy to read and understand. I didn't want the name to be complicated or for it to necessarily relate to my chosen genre (thriller). The logo does'nt give much away about the plot of the story, opening two minutes or the genre.

Props

For my props i wanted to do several things, incorporate the names, have a realistic looking document and gun. In the picture below you can see my props before I adapted them to suit the required needs. In the picture below i have a bb gun, two different sized evnvolopes, paper with the actors names, folder divider and organistion paper.

 

   

        To include something that would allow me to incorporate the actors name into the text as if they were meant to be there was difficult to think of as i didn't want the names to look out of place and just put in a random place just for the sake of it. I wanted them to look like letters or post that had been left there and the protagonist (James) would move around in order to try and find what he's looking for but as they audience we're unsure of what that is until later on in the text.

 

For the important document i wanted it to look very sleek the words to stand out from the background of the folder. As by step dad works for the British transport police he was able to get some stickers for me with the words 'top secret' and 'restricted'. By using these along with a yellow folder divider i was able to give the document the edge it needed and be easily read from the audiences point of view.

     

 Finally for the gun i used my old bb gun and bought some glossy black spray paint and sprayed the gun to make it look realistic. I thought about getting different colours for the gun like dark blue or grey but for the best results I thought I should go with the black.



Sound for my opening

When it came to choosing the sound for my opening I wanted to set the tone for the rest of the text so to do this I tryed to find 

Script

James: why?

Ethan: I had a mission and I always finish my missions and you were the only one standing in my way.

James: a mission? No. that’s murder. (James starts to get agitated) What you were trying to protect and what you did to do so. You took Mat, my brother away from me, you took our brothers away. Our brothers of war.

Characterisation and Character

It's down to these elements that allow the audience to make assumptions about certain characters before they even say one word. If a character comes across as perhaps to un-human then the audience will be unable to relate to them. By adding feeling and emotion it'll be easier for the audience to empathises with them. Specific devices have been and are used to establish characters such as:

• What they say
• Facial expressions
• What they wear
• How they look
• Mise - en scene
• What others say about them
• Their actions
• Sound motif
• Editing

The protagonist and in some cases, the antagonist is/are one of the first characters to be revealed to the audience and based on how they act, how others act towards them and what wear; the audience are able to build expectations as to what they'll be like. For example, take Tom Cruise's character in 'Minority Report'. As Tom Cruises character John Anderton enters the building he is greeted several times by different people, interacting differently towards each character we can assume that hes had a past with them. We can assume that within the work place he's very respected and he seems to have a high stature. Once he has arrived his work station he gets straight to work, putting on the very futuristic gloves and facing the screen, he talks very quickly and with smart words that seem to be associated with his job. This shows that he knows what needs to be done and that he understands what the other people in the room have to say.

He works for a team or 'precrime' police officers John uses these special gloves to watch footage on a screen of a crime before it happens, the gloves allow him to pause, fast forward, rewind, zoom and change the camera angle in order to try and figure out who is involved in the crime, stop it and or get the people to safety. Now the way he uses the gloves is with great precision, he's very clear with the movements he makes and uses. He's very focused and determined to do his job as best he can. John tends to wear dark clothing which could suggest that if he need to be he can potentially be quite a dark character, which may need to come in handy later in the narrative because as a cop they need to be aggressive in integration scenes.

Storyboard

http://prezi.com/o5qlhepcbrpz/story-board/

Title and credits

Opening titles and credits usually appear  within the first ten minutes of the text, this could mean that they are shown right at the very start, after a short clip or they are integrated into the text. The purpose of the opening titles is to set up the text but are the same time, also build up the audiences expectations. The style or theme of the title sequence is usually linked to the genre of the text

 

For example in 'Se7en' the titles and credits  enter the film in the first ten minutes which quite different. The film is a psychological thriller and a serial killer forces each one of his victims to embrace one of the seven deadly sins. The style of the titles and credits is very errie, with help from the non-diegetic soundtrack in the back ground and the jumpy/childlike style of the font helps to create a well connected theme that links to the genre of the text. The main character is not shown until the end of the sequence butthat allows the audience to create and or build expectations as to what the main character will be like and we can assume it's him who's creating the book.

 

When trying to decide how and incorporate titles and credits in my two minute opening, I wanted them to appear in the middle or in between sections of my text in order to create a certain mood/tone for the rest of the two minutes. When looking at previous examples I was unable to find one text that had everything i wanted, so chose to take different elements from several texts so i could create the tone I wanted. I really liked the dark and very gritty opening to casino royal as it set up the mood to the rest of the film, very tense and gripping.

When thinking about a way to include the names of cast and the director i wanted to make it look like they were meant to be there, so i had to think of a way to incorporate them into the set and or the props. I got the idea from 'School of Rock', they were able to include the names on extras, scenery and props. This is something i will try to do in my two minutes but it may not be as complicated, i may just use one design for more than one name.

When designing my two minutes I wanted to find a way of including my production company and create the illusion that time had past between each shot, so to do that i included a lot of fading in and out. I got the idea from the titles and credits from 'The Sixth Sense', they have used a lot of fade outs and after each one the names appear over a still image.

Genre

Characteristics of  thriller

Themes:
-Crime
-Chase
-Suspense                                         

Iconography:
-Cars
-Weapons
-Urban setting
-Tension building music
-Low lighting

Feelings :
- Excitement
-Suspense
-Tension
-Anxiety

Characters:
-Police
-Stalkers
-People associated with danger
-Psychotic characters

Critical Theorist

"The concept of "thriller" falls somewhere between a genre proper and a descriptive quality that is attached to other, more clearly defined genres - such as spy thriller, detective thriller, horror thriller. There is possibly no such thing as a pure, freestanding "thriller thriller." The thriller can be conceptualized as a "metagenre" that gathers several other genres under its umbrella, and as a band in the spectrum that colors each of those particular genres." Page 4 Thrillers - Martin Rubin

On the one hand, the thriller, grounded in a strong sense of mundane reality, with a hero who is generally "one of us," seems to operate in a domain that aligns it with the low-mimetic mode (although certain forms of thriller such as film noir, may edge into the ironic mode.

The thrillers practice of removing the everyday world from its familiar context is often underscored by the introduction of elements that are literally foreign and unfamiliar - that is, exotic

Analysis

The film that I'm going to analyse is 'Prisoners', this film is a thriller with the sub genres of crime and drama. It follows a deeply religious man called Keller Dover but loses everything when his 6 year old daughter and her friend (Joy) are taken from him. The dover family go round the Birch's house for thanks giving and before they eat, the two girls and their older siblings go for a walk. The two girls had to to be pulled away from a RV after they start to climb it. After eating the girls ask to go the the Dover's house to get Anna's safety whistle she's suppose to carry on her at all times but never return. Detective Loki, a member of the police department who has dealt with past missing children cases. After a police hunt a white RV is found near a woodland area next to a petrol station. Loki attempts to approach the vehicle but the driver Alex starts to panic and drives into the trees.

Alex is taken into questioning but is no help as it's found that he has the IQ of a ten year old and the RV has no forensic evidence so he's let free. Keller is unhappy with the decision so decides to attack Alex whilst he's in the car park and he hears him say "they only cried when I left", Alex saying this the try to comfort Keller. No one else was close enough to hear this but Keller takes this as a fact that Alex took the girls. Later that night Keller abducts Alex and takes him to an old building that his father used to own and with reluctant help from Joy's father, repeatedly beats him for 5 days for information. Joy's father decides to invite his wife to see what is happening, whilst talking to Alex she unties him and he tries to escape. With his attempt, Keller builds an enclosure for Alex. The enclosure lets in no light and if he wishes Keller can turn on the shower which gives out either boiling hot or freezing cold water.

Loki finds out that Alex has gone missing so decides to start tailing Keller, Loki manages to find the building but doesn't find Alex. During a candlelight vigil for the missing girls detective Loki notices a man looking very suspicious but loses him in a chase. Later shows subsequent scenes of the man breaking into the Dover household but nothing is revealed to what he did there. Detective writes down the mothers statement as she heard the window go and thought her daughter has come back. After a sketch of the man appears on the news someone who works at a supermarket recognises him as says he comes in form time to time and checks out children's clothing, he's revealed to be bob Taylor. She gives Loki the man's license plate so he can try to find him. After Loki finds him, he enters the mans house to find the walls covered with maze drawings and room full of black locked boxes filled with maze books, venomous snakes and bloody children's clothes. Both the Dover and the other family recognise clothing belonging to their missing children and Taylor admits to killing them.

Keller starts to regret beating Alex but still thinks he may know something, Keller decides to go to the house (Holly's) where Alex lives and apologise about attacking him in the police car park. When it comes to Loki questioning Taylor he loses control and attacks him but Taylor manages to grab another officers gun and commits suicide. Days later Joy Birch is found and then put into hospital, she starts to ramble on about Keller being there. Keller then rushes off to where he's keeping Alex and Loki follows, he loses Keller but manages to find the imprisoned Alex. Keller goes to Holly's as he realises that it there were Joy heard him, Holly holds him at gun  point and forces him to take the same sedative the girls took. She forces him to put on handcuffs ,she then makes him go into a pit hidden under a functioning car made to look broken. In the pit Keller finds the whistle his daughter went to look for.

Loki goes to Holly's house and after knocking several times and saying Alex has been found, there's no answer so he decides to enter the house and as he slowly enters he can see Holly giving Anna a deadly sedative. The two shoot each other and Holly is killed, The bullet skims Loki's forehead and he rushes Anna to hospital. Loki is then later seen searching and digging up the garden area at Holly's near the pit where Keller is. Loki starts to walk away but can then hear Keller blowing a whistle in the background.

Character

When it come to the Protagonist(s) in this film, it's possible to argue there's more than one. Keller Dover's daughter is taken so he decides to take the law into his own hands due to the fact he thinks the police aren't doing their job as best they can. He takes in ans tortures someone who he thinks has taken his daughter or at the very least has something to do with it. Then there's detective Loki, a member of the police force who has been put on the case and at times in the film crosses paths with Keller as starts to question how he acts and what hes been up to. Keller is a man from a christian family, he tends to where rather dark clothing but on some occasions he has lighter under layers on. This could suggest that he can be a very dark character but the light could suggest that there's still some hope in him.

Opening Sequence

The opening sequence of 'Prisoners' first involves the father and son in the woods shooting a deer. This could symbolise the events to come as a woman and her husband take children away from their parents without them even knowing and them killing the dear is somewhat the same. After the hunting is over the Dover family go round the Birch's house for thanks giving, whilst they're there they eat and Franklin Birch insists on playing the trumpet. The opening sequence shows the Dover girl wearing bright pink clothing, this could suggest that she is relevent and possibly a target. The picture showing her on her fathers shoulders could suggest how vunerable she is. in most of the scenes, both families are wearing darking clothing to perhaps symbolise the dark horror that will over come them.


Production
Director - Denis Villeneuve
Producers - Broderick Johnson, Robyn Meisinger, Andrew Kosove, Adam Kolbrenner and Kira Davis
Writer - Aaron Guzikowski
Cast - Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul
Dano and Viola Davis

Narrative codes

Through the use of narrative codes, the storyline and the narrative of a text is able to move. Most importantly action and enigma codes, it's these codes that allow the audience to question the text, some questions are answered earlier than others. For example in a film, some questions are answered very early on, where as others are answered later in the film. This keeps the audience hooked and makes them what to keep watching in hope that their questions will find an answer. By using the codes, it hints to the audience which path or way the plot is moving and shaping up to be.

Action codes

Actions codes are important events that move the narrative of a text in a certain way. For example some post comes through the letter box or a car alarm goes off. Both examples can be used to keep the narrative and or scene alive. They give the audience useful information that maybe helpful and possibly reveal something about a character. This type of code helps to move the narrative along from one point to another.

Enigma codes

Enigma codes pose question to the audience which are either answered soon after being posed or later on in the text. The questions intrigue the audience and is they're not answered then it'll make the audience want to continue watching to find out more.

Such as, in the 'Silence of the Lambs' there are many examples that pose questions, answer them and then most the narrative along. The scene starts in a woodland area with a woman running, we as the audience do not know who she is or why she's running. It becomes clear that she is training for something once we see the obstacle course. We hear another character call her name "Sterling", we now know her name and as she is one of the first characters to be revealed/introduced we can suspect that she plays a main part and is very significant to the text. As the character approaches we see he's wearing a FBI cap, from this it shows who both characters work for and answers the question as to why she was running and training.

As the the click progresses Sterling enter the building we later get a shot of and we wonder why shes been called in. Several characters interact with her before she enters a lift. In the lift the she stands in the middle of a group of men, this could symbolise and or foreshadow future evens and in the lift she looks slightly uncomfortable and out of place which could mean that later in the narrative she'll be placed out of her comfort zone. After getting out of the lift she walks down a corridor and another member who works there tells Sterlin that someone is waiting to see her and to wait in his office. As she waits we get several different shots of the room such as long and close ups of different newspaper article revolving around a certain investigation. This poses another question, why so much focus on the case? This could suggest that this will be the next case Sterlin is put on.

Narrative structure

When it comes to the narrative there are four famous theorists, Vladmir Propp, Todorov, Roland Barthes and Levi Straus. Each with there own different theory of narrative. Todorov suggested that most narratives start with the state equilibrium in which life is and the protagonist is happy and well. This state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, which has to be fought against in order to return to the state of equilibrium otherwise known as new equilibrium, as it's a state of normality but thing maybe different to how they were before due to past events.

Todorov came up with the idea of the narrative theory diagram. there are five elements to the diagram, the protagonist, agent of change, problem, resolution and the quest. the protagonist is the main character the story follows as it's his or her actions that influence the story. The agent of change is the element of the story that makes it go in another direction in the terms of the plot. The Problem is one of the most important parts of a text as it influences the rest of the text. The Quest is the thing the protagonist has to go or and or complete in order to restore normality. Finally, the resolution is the last thing in any text. This is the point when the protagonist has completed the quest and normality is restored.
Narrative structure:

The model can be easily applied to a wide range of films, such as 'Taken'.

The model can be easily applied to a wide range of films, such as 'taken'. In this text, the equilibrium is when the protagonist Bryan is happy living his life in American with his daughter. He doesn't see his daughter as much as he'd like as him and his wife are separated so he's very distant from his daughter. The disequilibrium and or the agent of change is when his daughter and her friend travel to France for what she says is to see different museums but actually she plans on following the band 'U2'. Once they both arrive in France her and her friend suggest on taking pictures when a random man starts talking them and mentions a party later that night. Not long after the girls enter their apartment a group of men enter the building and take the girls, this is the problem in the narrative. The men are part of an organisation who are involved in prostitution and drug trafficking.

Bryan then decides head to Paris and try to retrieve his daughter and her friend this is the quest for the protagonist as it's the thing he must do in order to set or bring back equilibrium. Bryan has to gather several parts of information for him to have a lead on the where abouts of the two girls such as, the name of the organisation, where they're based and any smaller groups that maybe involved to help give him the edge. A long the way he encounters someone he used to work with who he thinks may have something to do with the situation. He manages to find out somewhere in Paris many different companies are going meeting up as a new set of girls are being bought in. Refered to as 'new talent', Bryan sneeks in and finds out the companies have to bid on the girls. To his shock his daughter was next, Bryan goes into one of the members room and forces the man to bid until he has won. The men realise it's his daughter and take him away but due to Bryan's background, he's able to escape but his daughter has already been shipped off with the other girls. He finds out where the yatch is going and jumps sneeks on. 

The resolution in the end is when Bryan rescues his daughter from the boat and free's all of the other girls left on the boat. Him and his daughter both return home to America, this is the new equilibrium. It's the 'new' equilibrim as due to the past events nothing will ever be the same again, so the characters have to live in this new state.

Taken Narrative Structure:

Opening Sequences

Opening sequences are the very first thing the audience get to see when watching a text. it will include many different elements that will set up the audiences exceptions of the plot, character(s), mood, location and genre. The opening will include some sort of credits at the start that have the same theme as the genre. They're designed to grab the audience's attention and integer them with the help of action and enigma codes. Within the credits there will be some sort of element that will help to convey the plot, themes and other traits in the text. In most cases usually the protagonist who is introduced first but it could be the antagonist.

For example, in the opening sequence of 'Jaws'. It starts with a point of view shot from 'Jaws' in the ocean slowly swimming along the bottom of the water bed. Later in the clip the shot is then  accompanied by the sound motif that enters almost every time there's a scene with the shark, which helps to build and sets up the mood/tone as it has a very eerie and tense feel to it, it could possibly also set up the location of the film. It then cuts to a group of people sitting, talking and playing guitar around a campfire. This sets the scene, makes it feel very real, natural and relaxed. Through the use of non-dietetic sound and the camera work it shows it's night which emphasizes there danger. Which forces the idea that there will be moments of unsuspecting danger within the text. This is then followed by a girl and boy running somewhere, we're currently unsure where this is but as they get closer to wherever it maybe, we start to here the noise of water and seagulls which hints the next location. As they're running the boy repeatedly asks the girl to "slow down". At one point when the girl is in the water he is still at shore fully dressed, this emphasises he wont wont be able to do anything/help her as he cant help himself. This sets up the fact that there will be times in the film when people are helpless and unable to do anything.

The scene of the girl in the water sugguests that the film will start very slow with small moments of fast pace but towards the end it will pick up. This is backed up with the water scene as she moves very slowly in the water but is then attacked once or twice. She is then pulled under several times before it goes quiet and she is gone.

Introduction

This blog is for my coursework on all things planning and understanding of film, this will then help me create a noteworthy two minute opening based on a text of my own creation. I have based my idea around the thriller genre. After choosing a genre i had to look up the codes and conventions as well as the characteristics/traits for my chosen genre to see what makes the genre unique to the others out there. This will then help me with things to include in my two minute opening as well as my synopsis. Task-wise I'm going to create synopsis, write a detailed two minute opening and finally film and edited it to make the finished product.