Question 1 from 09houlbr
Question
2
How
does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our
male actor, Bradley Hoult, represents a stereotypical cheating male, lying and
betraying the trust of his doting fiancé. In the beginning scene, we use a
variety of different camera angles, showing Bradleys arrival to the house,
which emphasizes the anticipation of his fiancé and the realisation of what
he’s done. Bradley remains calm as he fixes up his hair in the mirror, whilst
in the background she waits – almost in a ghostly state – for him to enter. I
felt that it was important to use a long, tension building first scene, to
introduce the long period of time that Bradley had been completing these
infidelities. It is clear that in our thriller, males are not represented well,
despite the fact that it is clear Bradley’s character has a good job – by
wearing a smart outfit to work – it could also be suggested that through
Bradleys high status and wealth, with the luxury house they both live in also,
lead to his power going to his head and feeling that his fiancé must be
submissive and play the part of the obsessive lover, whilst he continues to lie
to her every day.
Although
males are not represented well, it is also arguable that females are depicted
far worse. As the emotions the woman in our film feels, are far from what is
considered the normal for a healthy relationship. She has consumed and based
her life around this man, to the point where her happiness depends on it. We
stereotypically had her cooking dinner and he out at work, to show that
society’s conventions of how young adults should behave, does not always mean
that they will be happy. I personally feel that if we’d have included our
female character, Olivia, out with her friends or in the workplace it would
take away her vulnerability. As if she is shown to have numerous friends to
support her through his implied cheating stage, people may not feel as sorry
for her. We did this to evoke emotion, and also show that he is the centre of
her world, and all thoughts lead back to him, making it more heart-breaking for
her when she feels that he has completely betrayed her. As she looks back on
her events, it is seemingly told from a bitter perspective, which could show
that as she’s gotten older or time has passed, her thoughts and feelings of the
time have become more anger related than sad thoughts. The voiceover, from the
woman’s perspective, doesn’t give the male a voice, which I feel goes against
the normal, as many stories have leading male characters such as Harry Potter,
Batman and Spiderman. The woman, Olivia Needham, narrates her thoughts and
feelings on the whole experience of being in love, and being betrayed, however
we have left it to interpretation whether or not Bradley did in fact cheat, or
our main character, Olivia, was simply paranoid and in a mental state. As even
though the camera focuses on a text that Bradley receives saying “Meet me at 7
at the usual place babe”, this does hint at the prospect of a romantic affair
however it could nevertheless be a friendly text for meeting up for a meal.
This could show that societies depictions of males over time, to cheat on woman
over again, in our view can sometimes be highly exaggerated and the woman’s
actions can often be overlooked, perhaps she did the same to him? It shows how
the media can influence woman’s states of minds, convincing them that if the
popular celebrity they like such as the beautiful, talented, Jennifer Anniston,
has been cheated on by her partner, why can’t it happen to them?
Age is also represented in our thriller piece to create effect. For example our actors, Bradley Hoult and Olivia Needham are both 16 however through our mise-en-scene we attempted to make them appear slightly older so the plot was more realistic. Our aim was to make them seem around 19/20, an age where many people are young and in love, and tend to be reckless and impulsive. I tried to make our actor, Olivia, appear older by giving her outfits that I deemed too old for a 16 year old. Considering most 16 year olds where leggings which make them appear that age, I steered clear and went for jeans, skirts and cardigans for our actress – more conservative outfits. I also applied makeup fairly heavily to my sister, using techniques such as contouring that many older celebrities such as Kim Kardashian use, to avoid looking baby faced. As well as this I lined her lips to make them look fuller, and more appealing and noticeable in the thriller. For our male actor, Bradley, we chose to put him in outfits like suits, and more casual t shirts for everyday life, as he is fairly tall there was not much else needed to make him appear older. By making our actors appear 19/20 we hoped to successfully represent this age range as being reckless, and to rush into things quickly. With having their big house, this shows the success they have received early on in their lifetime, and also could suggest ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ which is definitely a message we were trying to convey. Although on the outside things appear to be perfect, things may be quickly falling apart which is something that can happen commonly in young relationships.
Age is also represented in our thriller piece to create effect. For example our actors, Bradley Hoult and Olivia Needham are both 16 however through our mise-en-scene we attempted to make them appear slightly older so the plot was more realistic. Our aim was to make them seem around 19/20, an age where many people are young and in love, and tend to be reckless and impulsive. I tried to make our actor, Olivia, appear older by giving her outfits that I deemed too old for a 16 year old. Considering most 16 year olds where leggings which make them appear that age, I steered clear and went for jeans, skirts and cardigans for our actress – more conservative outfits. I also applied makeup fairly heavily to my sister, using techniques such as contouring that many older celebrities such as Kim Kardashian use, to avoid looking baby faced. As well as this I lined her lips to make them look fuller, and more appealing and noticeable in the thriller. For our male actor, Bradley, we chose to put him in outfits like suits, and more casual t shirts for everyday life, as he is fairly tall there was not much else needed to make him appear older. By making our actors appear 19/20 we hoped to successfully represent this age range as being reckless, and to rush into things quickly. With having their big house, this shows the success they have received early on in their lifetime, and also could suggest ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ which is definitely a message we were trying to convey. Although on the outside things appear to be perfect, things may be quickly falling apart which is something that can happen commonly in young relationships.
Regional identity is
also shown in our thriller, as it is clear the two characters are from a well
off background, living in a country house. We were able to do this by simply
only filming in Brandon’s house and garden – as opposed to travelling around,
as we wanted to capture the country feeling that Brandon’s house had and also
we wanted this so it showed how secluded our characters are from society. This
represents their relationship, how they have been secluded from their friends
due to their obsession with each other. The fact that we aimed for the
characters to appear to have a country lifestyle, with the women staying at home
and doing domestic things such as cooking, it shows how different they are to
everyday society. For example if we had chosen to set the regional identity to
a city, such as London, this would mean that our whole thriller would have to
be adapted. Through things such as the fact that the house is so big and
spacious, the women would most likely be out working as well as our male
character, and this could mean that the plot would not be able to develop as
she may not have realised he was home late if she, too, came home at that time.
Question 3
Q3 from 09houlbr
Question 4
Question 5
Question 6
Tripods - For almost all of our shots, except the shots of the protagonist killing her lover - we used a Tripod. We felt that by using a tripod this was essential to get the shots that we wanted and for them to look steady and professional. There was never discussion between our group to not use a tripod, as we both felt that it was needed to get the high quality shots that we wanted, so our film looked as good as possible. I have learned a lot about tripods from creating our thriller product as we have had to adjust them to various
different heights to get the type of shots we wanted - for example we had to construct them in the shot of the wheel moving forwards, which was from a low angle. We then had to make them tilt upwards to capture the shot of our two characters walking down the stairs, so it gave the perspective they were feeling superior in their love. Another way we constructed the tripod was to get the perspective of the two characters sat down when he proposes to her.
DSLR's - The DSLR was a piece of equipment I was very familiar with, having had one purchased for me 3 years previously, that I used to capture photo's of my holidays and travels to Australia. By having this bought for me it made me realise my passion for photography and filming with cameras. The camera I had bought for me was the Fujifilm Finepix, and it helped me learn a lot of things such as how to work the Aperture, how to film in poor lighting and how to reduce the shutter speed. This knowledge was the reason that when filming, I really wanted to use a DSLR to capture the shots. I had seen the quality that the handheld camcorders produced - when filming our preliminary task - and I knew that it did not look professional and I wanted ours to look as good as it possibly could. By using the DSLR's we even borrowed a spare lens from school so that we were able to experiment more with focusing on subjects. By focusing on the characters more and blurring out the background, such as in the shot where Bradley is getting out of the car - where he is in full focus - and in the blurred background we subtly chose to have our other character, Olivia, in the background looking at him - to emphasize her paranoid state.
Soundtrack - For our movie soundtrack was an ongoing issue, which unfortunately we left until quite late in the editing process. My initial desire was to use the song 'Once Upon A Dream' by Lana Del Ray as it sounded eery and mysterious, I felt it would really fit in with the prospect of our thriller. Unfortunately, due to copyright issues we were not allowed to use this song, therefore I considered asking someone I was close was to cover it, or cover a song similar- as the notes were very low - such as Rihanna's Love the way you lie, as this also fits in quite well with the tone of our thriller. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts she was unable to record for us, and therefore we went on a copyright free website and found a very creepy sound that was quite synth based, which we used as background music to our thriller. I have learned from this experience that soundtrack is a crucial aspect to the movie making process and must be considered far in advance of editing the final project.
Voice Over - We chose to include a voiceover, over our backing sound, to tell the story of the relationship. I wrote the script for our actress, and we recorded it on the microphone which made the quality very high. I was very happy with how the voiceover turned out, and with out it the questioning at the end "Is this what we've become?" hints to the audience that she either wants to kill him or has done, the voiceover gives the film much more meaning - and is quite a like other film openings, such as Mean Girls, to give a narrative of what is happening at that particular time.
Titling - At the beginning of the year, I experimented with a titling programme, Premier Pro After Effects. I began to follow a tutorial on how to create a bat title, and when we began thinking about thriller projects I came back to the titling and unfortunately found it incredibly difficult and time consuming therefore I was unable to continue with it which saddened me and is something I will improve next time. The title sequence we used was similar to a time lapse which is one of the reasons I chose to use it, as it is of the clouds and says Black Widow which is a title I am very happy with.
Question 7
Question 4
Question 5
Question 6
Tripods - For almost all of our shots, except the shots of the protagonist killing her lover - we used a Tripod. We felt that by using a tripod this was essential to get the shots that we wanted and for them to look steady and professional. There was never discussion between our group to not use a tripod, as we both felt that it was needed to get the high quality shots that we wanted, so our film looked as good as possible. I have learned a lot about tripods from creating our thriller product as we have had to adjust them to various
different heights to get the type of shots we wanted - for example we had to construct them in the shot of the wheel moving forwards, which was from a low angle. We then had to make them tilt upwards to capture the shot of our two characters walking down the stairs, so it gave the perspective they were feeling superior in their love. Another way we constructed the tripod was to get the perspective of the two characters sat down when he proposes to her.
DSLR's - The DSLR was a piece of equipment I was very familiar with, having had one purchased for me 3 years previously, that I used to capture photo's of my holidays and travels to Australia. By having this bought for me it made me realise my passion for photography and filming with cameras. The camera I had bought for me was the Fujifilm Finepix, and it helped me learn a lot of things such as how to work the Aperture, how to film in poor lighting and how to reduce the shutter speed. This knowledge was the reason that when filming, I really wanted to use a DSLR to capture the shots. I had seen the quality that the handheld camcorders produced - when filming our preliminary task - and I knew that it did not look professional and I wanted ours to look as good as it possibly could. By using the DSLR's we even borrowed a spare lens from school so that we were able to experiment more with focusing on subjects. By focusing on the characters more and blurring out the background, such as in the shot where Bradley is getting out of the car - where he is in full focus - and in the blurred background we subtly chose to have our other character, Olivia, in the background looking at him - to emphasize her paranoid state.
Soundtrack - For our movie soundtrack was an ongoing issue, which unfortunately we left until quite late in the editing process. My initial desire was to use the song 'Once Upon A Dream' by Lana Del Ray as it sounded eery and mysterious, I felt it would really fit in with the prospect of our thriller. Unfortunately, due to copyright issues we were not allowed to use this song, therefore I considered asking someone I was close was to cover it, or cover a song similar- as the notes were very low - such as Rihanna's Love the way you lie, as this also fits in quite well with the tone of our thriller. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts she was unable to record for us, and therefore we went on a copyright free website and found a very creepy sound that was quite synth based, which we used as background music to our thriller. I have learned from this experience that soundtrack is a crucial aspect to the movie making process and must be considered far in advance of editing the final project.
Voice Over - We chose to include a voiceover, over our backing sound, to tell the story of the relationship. I wrote the script for our actress, and we recorded it on the microphone which made the quality very high. I was very happy with how the voiceover turned out, and with out it the questioning at the end "Is this what we've become?" hints to the audience that she either wants to kill him or has done, the voiceover gives the film much more meaning - and is quite a like other film openings, such as Mean Girls, to give a narrative of what is happening at that particular time.
Titling - At the beginning of the year, I experimented with a titling programme, Premier Pro After Effects. I began to follow a tutorial on how to create a bat title, and when we began thinking about thriller projects I came back to the titling and unfortunately found it incredibly difficult and time consuming therefore I was unable to continue with it which saddened me and is something I will improve next time. The title sequence we used was similar to a time lapse which is one of the reasons I chose to use it, as it is of the clouds and says Black Widow which is a title I am very happy with.
Question 7
