Evaluation of "The Mother"

G321 Coursework:

Evaluation of “The Mother”

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

My thriller “The Mother” gets its inspiration from various elements within thrillers such as “Essex Boys” for example the dark, dingy environment of which connotes aspects of the thriller genre. The location I filmed my short thriller film in get its inspiration from such British Films such as “London to Brighton”, looking at the more lower social class areas and suburbs. Through this, I wanted to achieve a mise-en-scene which would grab the audience and send shivers up their spine.
One of my proudest achievements in the making of my thriller film is the music I use within the film. The soundtrack intensifies the mood towards the audience, with its creepy “psycho” like sounds and evokes the mise-en-scene and really ends the film with a bang. At the start of my film, I used the sound of the rain, at the making of my film I had no intention of using the sound, but when I came to edit the rain just bought out a sense of darkness and nightmare.
The location of my shooting was inspired by British Films, from watching films such as “Essex Boys”, “London to Brighton” and one of my all time favorites “Layer Cake” really made me want to find the perfect location and setting which could bring out the definition of the word “Thriller”. I have managed to achieve this through the cobble stones, old run down houses and the pouring rain. These aspects have really manage to bring out this dark sense of loneliness feeling, making the audience themselves feel scared which is what I want my thriller to achieve. The tilted camera angles and the use of the rain hitting the cobble stones, really bring out this intense gripping feeling which captures the audience attention. The final shot of my film takes place in an alley way, this unglamorous, claustrophobic setting makes the victim in my film feel trapped and insignificant. If we look at the scene in London to Brighton where the poor girl gets locked into the toilet it connotes a sense of claustrophobia to the audience and the feeling of trapped, similar to my film.
The purpose of my characters names in my film was to resemble a marriage, I want the audience to know just by eye and not the word of mouth, that they can immediately see that Louise White and Darren White are married, I achieved this not only through the use of the same surnames but the mystery photography which is the cliffhanger of my thriller film.
Both characters in my film come as a completely anonymous, mysterious people towards the audience, we know little about them. Throughout the opening, my goal was to keep the audience questioning, trying to understand what is happening. Once the audience feels they have grip and control over the film, a new sudden clue pops up. For example, the photograph which is completely out of the blue, no one expects it to happen and it leaves the viewers going “ahh, what’s going on here”. In a sense, I end my opening with a cliff hanger, the photograph is the glue that holds my project together, its what leaves the audience wanting more.
One of the most important factors I had to take in to consideration whilst making my film is the title. The title is what resembles the feel of the thriller genre and is what most importantly catches the audience eye. So I’ve gone with yet a simple name but the name that gives a secret hint in the film, for this I chose “The Mother”. This title, The Mother, portrays an image inside the audience head, they can put together piece by piece a story of what’s happening. Just from the title the audience can make out that female victim character “Louise White” in the film is obviously The Mother, so we can therefore work out that there our children involved. Not only that, if we look at the photography scene at the end we can work out that male character “Darren White” is the husband and the father of the children, so the audience can piece a story together. This is important as I just don’t want the mise-en-scene of the thriller genre, I want to achieve most importantly the storyline of the thriller genre.
Casting was one of the many important factors In creating a “thriller opening sequence” I didn’t want to use friends or people from school as it’s hard to try and make them menacing and I didn’t want to end up making my film a laughing matter. Therefore I decided to go along with my parents, this was a lot better than I had expected. My father, manage to look incredibly menacing and really put your teeth on edge, whilst at the same time my mother manage to play the victim role perfect, with her a good acting skills.
In order to give my film that thriller outcome and feel I needed to add in factors such setting, props and costumes. The costumes I have used in my film and yet simple but give a very good thriller genre outcome towards the film. For the villain I used all black to give of that menacing factor and for the victim I used a simple dress which makes the female character come across weak and innocent.

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

If I want to make my production company a successful company, I would need to be able to distribute my media product. As my film isn’t exactly a Hollywood blockbuster film I would start out on a smaller scale, there are social networking websites such as Facebook, twitter and Bebo which I could capture the interest of all different age groups and social groups. If I want to build a committed fan base around my film, I would need to put my film on a social website, where everyone can come together and talk about the film and I can keep my fans updated on further releases.
There are websites out there which I can use to gain recognition for my film such as UK Competitions, London short film Festivals there are many websites which I can use to boost up the popularity and spread the name of my film.
My production company, “Gilbody Productions” would be able to qualify for a specific short film competition. I manage to find this out through research background, I went onto the two days later short film competition website and found out, the film must be made independently and be under 10 minutes, although their genre doesn’t match my film as their theme is currently horror, other websites such as UK competitions match the needs and specifications I have.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

For my thriller film, The Mother I would have a wide variety of different social groups of audience, but I need a primary audience that I am targeting my film towards. My film would attract both of the demographic audience, both male and female as each gender in my film plays a vital, important role and the target age group for my film would be of 16-35 year olds. This age group may appear wide, but the ages in general share a common ground, of that which they are both young and can both in away to some extent, be more interested in my opening sequence.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Because of the personality and characteristics of my characters within my opening thriller sequence, it would be hard to identify any particular social groups to relate towards it. But to some extent there maybe sub genres in the social groups which my media product may particularly represent. For example, maybe to some extent married couples could pick out key elements, not necessarily the actual murder in the opening film, but other elements to relate to.
My media product attends to represent the more evil but yet to some degree a bit of a good. The beauty of my film is that you can’t judge it, it may come across as the man being evil and the woman being innocent, but once all the clues and hints are thrown into place the audience then begin to question the actual storyline to the film.

How did you attract/address your audience?

There are various ways of how I manage to attract my audience, for example one of my many key features for attracting the audience is my soundtrack. Instead of going for a more indie/techno, metal and dance, modern music approach I decided to use a more “old fashion” music. The music I used is similar to the music played in “Psycho” it really catches the attention of the audience, the screeching sounds and the confusion between the notes keep my audience glued to the film. The music builds up tension as my film plays which is vital in attracting an audience.
Once my films gets onto popular social websites such as You-tube I’ll be able to receive feedback from people on my film and with that develop my product to attract a wider audience. I will also be able to draw attention to my film as to some extent it can relate to today’s social issues and problems. For example, if we look at the issues that are on the media and news such as gun crime, knife crime and themes such as violence etc, these are all the aspects within my film. This would be able to gather in an audience.

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

My knowledge on technologies has expanded throughout the process of constructing my media product, through the use of my blog to YouTube and websites such as IMBD to gain background information on my films and social network sites to get feedback and ideas on my product development.
My blog has allowed for me to upload any ideas and planning of my media product directly to a source where I can gain quick access to. It has allowed me to put up, storyboards, photo shots, case studies. With my blog, I can gain quick feedback from tutors and teachers to help develop my product further and a gain a better understanding of what objectives I need to achieve.
Websites such as YouTube have helped me in my background research for finding clips of thriller films to help give me ideas for my opening sequence as well as finding possible soundtracks and different generic aspects of the mise-en-scene.
One of the key websites that has helped me with my Thriller research is IMBD, this website has given me background information on all my films, it tells me the producers, cast and the UK release date as well as personal reviews from people about the film and demographic information on the film. This website has been supporting my research.
The most important technology I have learnt about is editing. The use of the editing software, Adobe Premier has helped me to put my film, piece by piece together with the use of special affects such as colour changing, tints the use of merging one clip to another by using the dissolve feature and adding titles and music to my film. Through the process of editing my film I have gained a better understanding on how to use the software and I will be able to confidently edited films in the future.

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

The preliminary task gave me great understanding on the wide range of camera angles and shots, from the 180-degree angle to long shots and close ups. Before we filmed our preliminary task we had to plan out what our ideas were, plan out what people we were going to use and the camera angles as well as the story line to our preliminary task. This helped to plan out my main thriller opening sequence, through the previous practice I’ve had, I could plan and developed all the thriller aspects of the mise-en-scene for my sequence. It gave an in depth detail to the sort of shots and angles I need to be using, most importantly the locations I need to shoot my film in.
When it came to producing our preliminary task, we required casting, at this time a cast wasn’t particularly important as we were more focused on the camera and editing. But when it came down to the final product, I decided to go for an older cast, e.g. my parents this was to give the film more creditability and a more realistic edge to it, instead of young kids running about.
Finding the appropriate soundtrack was the hardest task when it came down to editing the final piece because even if the music was good it had to be in sync with the film itself. I originally had an idea of the sort of music I wanted for my film, I wanted to have more noise than music, confused patterns of chords that don’t fit in right to make the audience feel confused, to give that sense of thriller!
The main important factor that the preliminary task had helped me with was understand and knowing how to use the editing software. If it wasn’t through the practice the outcome of my final product wouldn’t have been as good. I learnt how to use the special affects such as cross-dissolve and cutting out piece of the clip which isn’t relevant.

Previous Film (NAF Parkour 3)

I have used editing in before in the past, one example of a sequence I’ve made is “NAF Parkour 3” this was the use of the extreme sport “parkour”. Here we can see some of the editing skills I have in use and this has developed onwards to give me a better skill and understanding of how to edit.

Establishing Title of film and the Soundtrack (draft)

Establishing Title of film and the Soundtrack

Evaluate the purpose of the title of your film as well as explaining why the audience may find it appealing. Also how the title integrates with the theme of your film.

I have named my thriller film “the mother” this is for a number of various reasons; certainly one of the key aspects of the title is that its concept and purpose brings out an image which to some extent makes the audience question the title.

My film is about a family, a family with two kids, one husband and one wife, but somewhere down the line chaos has been created. Maybe the husband murdered his wife to bring order to his life or is it the female runaway that is the innocent one? The title the Mother, almost brings out a narrative structure to my film, it connects to the audience, immediately they know my film is about a family.

The purpose of the title is to bring out a more story to the film, not just the thriller aspects. “the Mother” is representing that something has gone seriously wrong, within the end of my one and half minute film, we find the mother dead, but…in the back round there is the sounds of babies crying, calling for their mother.

Questionnaire Results Analysis

Overall the results I received from my questionnaire were similar to the results I was expecting to get. I have found out that more people would expect an innocent victim within a thriller film and expect a deviant villain. This helps to give me an understanding of the type of personalities and characteristics for my characters I need within my thriller film. Through my questionnaire it has also given me knowledge of the sort of music I should use in my thriller film, from the results I found out that participants would expect to find “composed instrumental” music within a thriller film. The questionnaire I have devised together has helped given me an understanding of the audience expectations and has helped to give me key ideas and knowledge for my own thriller opening sequences.

Questionnaire Results

Results



As we can see from my results the majority of participants said they find out films through Cinema Adverts. This was the result I was expecting to receive as advertising in the cinema is probably the best way to advertise a film as you know you have an audience.



From question 2 “what cinema do you often go to?” We can see that most people got to Vue whilst another six participant said they go to Odeon. Once again this is the sort of result I was expecting, due to Vue being easier access and more popular as well as Odeon.



Most participants said that they go to the cinema twice a month where as eight participants said once a month. Participants said to me though, it varies, they said it depends what’s going on in the cinema.



As we can see from the results more people go to watch a film at either there friends house or cinema, rather than their own home. So I’ve established that most people go to watch films as more of a social event rather than by themselves, although there is still a small minority that watch films in their own homes.



The majority of participants prefer Crime/Gangster Thriller and the rest of the participants prefer Action/Drama Thriller. Crime/Gangster Thriller attends to have a more sort of interesting plot to them, they can leave you on the edges of your seats. Where as Action/ Drama Thriller can attend to become repetitive on story lines etc.



Most participants went along and said that they would expect to find composed instrumental music within a thriller film. One participant told me he wouldn’t know what to expect, this may be due to the many various thriller film that contain different aspects of music within them.



Majority of participants said they would expect the victim to be innocent; this is probably due to many pass thriller films. With their typical story lines, man wants to kill woman etc. Five participants said they would expect their victim to be deviant this may be due to new thriller films coming out on the market, new, interesting, exciting storylines.



Most participants said that they would expect to find the villain deviant within a thriller film, this may be due to new modern concepts of the thriller genre coming out on the big screen. Only a small minority said they would expect to find the villain unstable, the reason for such a small number of participants is due to the new complex and narrative structure of thriller films.



On the final question of my questionnaire I was expecting the result to be around this area. There are a high proportion of participants that prefer mainstream than independent films. This may be due to the fact that participants may not be able to defy independent in its key terms or only think that mainstream films and films in the cinema.

Femme Fatale

Definition: A woman with an irresistible seductive charm, who leads those who love her into danger or despair.

Reference: http://www.allwords.com/word-femme+fatale.html

Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles

Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles

The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.

Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.

Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty, razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.

Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.

Film noir films were marked visually by expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtaposition of elements, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles (usually vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced or moody compositions. Settings were often interiors with low-key (or single-source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses. [Often-times, war-time scarcities were the reason for the reduced budgets and shadowy, stark sets of B-pictures and film noirs.]

Some of the most prominent directors of film noir included Orson Welles, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Douglas Sirk, Robert Siodmak, Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, Henry Hathaway and Howard Hawks.

Femmes Fatales in Film Noir:

The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).

Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames. It would be to pursue the goadings of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale who would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love. When the major character was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death. The femme fatale, who had also transgressed societal norms with her independent and smart, menacing actions, would bring both of them to a downfall

My Questionnaire

I have put together the following questionnaire below to help me with my Audince Research. Here I expect to find what sub-genres teenagers are Interested, what sort of villain/victim they would expect In a thriller film. As well as what music they would expect In a thriller film.

I handed my questionnaire out to 10 boys and 10 girls in our sixth form in year 12

Questionnaire

Gender:
Age:

1) How do you find out about the latest films?
- Cinema adverts
- TV adverts
- Word of mouth
- Social network sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter…)
- Other (please specify………………)

2) What cinema do you often go to?
-Vue
-Odeon
-Hollywood
-Cinema City
- Other (please specify………………)

3) How often do you go the cinema?
- Once a week
- Twice a week
- Once a month
- Twice a month
- Other (please specify………………)

4) Where are you most likely to watch a film?
- Home
- Friends house
- Cinema
- School
- Other (please specify………………)

5) What type of Sub-Genre of film are you interested in?
- Crime, Thriller
- Drama, Thriller
- Gangster, Thriller
- Action, Thriller
- Other (please specify………………)

6) What sort of music would you expect to find within a Thriller film?
- Modern
- Classical
- Composed Instrumental
- Other (please specify………………)

7) What sort of victim would you expect to find?
- Innocent
- Deviant
- Clever
- Maybe has a pass history
- Other (please specify………………)

8) What sort of villain would you expect to find?
- Planned
- Clever
- Deviant
- Unstable
- Other (please specify………………)

9) Do you prefer Independent or Mainstream?
-Mainstream
-Independent

Questionnaire ideas

Target group (16-18) Sixth form

Thriller Film Audience Research (draft)

What would you expect from an independent film? E.g. London to Brighton
What kind of characters?
What sort of locations?
Narrative
The mise-en-scene (media students)

What would you expect from a mainstream film? E.g. Fight Club
What kind of characters?
What sort of locations?
Narrative
The mise-en-scene (media students)

1)How old are you?
2)Are you male/female?
3)How do you find out about latest films? Through cinema adverts, tv adverts, word of mouth, social network (e.g. facebook) internet, magazines
4)How often do you go to the cinema? What cinema you go to? Vue, Odeon, Hollywood, cinema city
5)How often do you watch films
6)Where are you most likely to watch them? Home (on tv or renting or download) , cinema, school.

Thriller Audience Research (Proposal)

Thriller Audience Research (proposal)

What I want to find out:
1) The audience expectations of independent/mainstreams film
2) What sub-genres of Thrillers are 16-18 year olds interested in
3) Type of Villain
4) Type of female victim
5) Music

How I am going to find out:
1) Camera interviews
2) Questionnaires

What I expect to find out:
1) That this age group prefers mainstream films
2) They prefer Crime and Drama
3) That the villain is going to be a calculated man with planned actions
4) The female victim is going to be ambiguous she has a mysterious past
5) The music will be composed instrumental