Evaluation

AS Media Evaluation on Prezi

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

Title:
The first two frames are of the opening shots. It consists of the production company "Playground Productions" and the title. We used LiveType to create them and kept the blue colour scheme to match our company logo. For the title, we felt that the white font against the black background would give it a more sinister effect.
Having the "R" reversed, it reflect the title and is a unique way of presenting it.

Setting/Location:
The setting for the movie was our local children's park and one of our group member's houses.We felt that this would be an appropriate setting for the storyline whilst also being practical for us to use.

Costumes/Props:
In frame 4, we can see the two characters, Amber and Izzie, in the park. The prop here would be the swings that they are sitting on. You see Amber wearing a blue hoodie with jeans and Izzie is seen to be wearing a grey hoodie with jeans. We chose this to be the overall look for the two characters as this would be what teenagers would 'typically' be thought to wear.
In frame 7 we include a camera as part of the props to be seen with the 'stalker'. We felt that this fit in with the stereotype of being a stalker.

Camerawork/Editing:
We used a variety of different shots throughout the opening of our film and these are shown in frames. The film starts off with a close up of the back of the stalker's head with the girls in the distance on the swings. This would raise questions for the audience and make them ask who this person is and why they are watching the girls. A series of long shots then follow, allowing the audience to establish the relationship between the different characters. The final frame is a close up of the music box. This leads the audience to once again question what significance the music box has to the rest of the story.

Title font and style:
The font used for the titles was Times New Roman. We decided to keep the use of this basic font as we wanted to make it creepy and make it seem powerful without having to try too hard with different styles and animations.

Story and how the opening sets it up:
I feel that the story is set up through the first shot; a hooded figure watching the girls on the swings. This links into Roland Barthes' theory of action and enigma codes as it directs the audience to question what is happening and make links throughout to try and guess what the story is about.

How the characters are introduced:
The characters are introduced through their association with each other and how they behave. There is no direct introduction and the audience are able to make their own interpretations of how the characters are perceived.

Evaluation

As Media Studies- Mirror Image

Analysing DVD Cover Eight

On this cover, the first thing that catches your attention is the figure of the woman at the window. The audience would immediately ask questions such as who is she and why is she by the window. Also as she is pressed up against it, looking in, it makes you feel trapped like you have no escape. The window pane looks grimy and dirty so makes us question where this is and why it is so dirty. There is a eerie feel to it as we cannot see the woman's face and all that is behind her is foggy woodland.
The title itself tells us that the woman is not wanted. The font used has a creepy feel to it also.

Analysing DVD Cover Seven

The main focus of the cover is the characters. The woman's face stands out as its very pale with bright red lipstick on. The blood dripping down from her mouth leads the audience to believe that she is the victim. The other characters are all placed behind her, which could denote the meaning that they were behind her death or that they are all linked to her and that she is the main focus in the film.

All the characters shows different emotions on their faces. Josh Hartnett comes across as looking worried and anxious, Aaron Eckhart makes it look like he is sure of something and looks in charge of things whereas the two actresses look like they both have something to hide, making the audience question if they were involved. Questions that may arise from the audience could be who is the woman, why is she dead and how did she die.

The colours used in the title fade from red to black. This may be done intentionally as the blood from the woman's mouth drip down to the title.

Analysing DVD Cover Six

On this cover, the way that the characters are positioned and the props that they are holding mean significant things and show the relationship between the two of them. For example, the fact that she is imitating the way he walks and looking at him shows that she looks up to him and that he is possibly a role model to her. We can see that he may not be an "appropriate" role model as he is carrying a gun while she is carrying a teddy bear. This shows an important difference between them and that he may be out of his depth with the young child.

The title being in red could represent danger. The background sets the scene and allows the audience to see where the story is taking place. A possible enigma to arise from the poster could be he question of why she is with him and why he is carrying a gun.

Analysing DVD Cover Five

The colour scheme used in the cover are quite warm but the reddish tones and shades of black add a dark, sinister feel to it. These warm tones could also be seen as a connatation for the antagonists passions and motives. The seven sins being listed down the middle and then being crossed out with a red line may also give the audience a insight to the antagonists motives; the tagline: "Seven deadly sins. Seven ways to die" add to this and give them a sense of his inspirations.
The eyes of the two characters are emphasised the most out of their whole face and I feel they portay two different emotions; fear and determination. The title is styled and written in a way as if it were blood and had been smeared on.

Analysing DVD Cover Four

The tagline shown at the top: "We tell ourselves there's nothing to fear but sometimes we're wrong" reflects the colours and setting shown in the picture. The front of the room where the main character is standing seems normal and it doesn't show anything threatening however as we move towards the back of the picture it gets darker and we see a masked figure placed at the back. This reflects what the character has to "fear". This device is known as dramatic irony; where there audience knows something that the character does not.
The masked face in the background also leaves the audience with an enigma and leads them to question who it is and why they are there. The stretched out effects placed on the title give it an eerie feel and almost give it a blurred effect making you have to look twice.

Thriller Directors

Steven Spielberg:
Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of all time. Born on December the 18th 1946, he has directed some of the most memorable movies such as Jaws and Saving Private Ryan. In his early years, many of his movies were of the sci-fi and adventure genres. This meant that they were filmed in a child-like and naive way. In order for him to portray these themes, he used low height camera tracking shots which went on to become on of his directing trademarks. He uses the low angle shot to give the view of someone swimming.



The clip above starts off by filming under the water. This is to give the point of view of a shark. It then films upwards and we see the silhouette of a woman in the water. This shows that she is in danger and the music playing in the background builds up tension and suspense. At 1:16 you see Spielberg's distinguished low angle shots mixed in with underwater shots. This is to show the children playing in the water and to give the impression that there is a something coming to harm them. This is successful as it positions the audience to understand what is happening and allows them to also figure it out for themselves.

Facts about Spielberg:

• By the time he was 13, Spielberg knew about different camera angles and shots. He also made his first movie at the age of 13. This movie was called "Escape from Nowhere" and was only forty mintues long but went on to winning a prize in a small contest.
• One of Spielberg's trademarks is his use of music by John Williams. This is to add visual impact to the scenes of his movies and to create a lasting picture and sound.
• Many of his films often show children in some sort of danger.
• Some things he likes to use in his movies are paino elements in key scenes, references to World War Two and references to Disney movies or theme parks.
• Actors that he usually casts are Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise and Richard Dreyfruss.
• The protagonists in his films often come from families with divorced parents, where the fathers are portayed as absent or responsible. This is due to Spielberg's own personal experience.
• A common theme in many of his films is an ordinary person discovering something extraordinary.
• Has had small uncredited cameo roles in movies such as Vanilla Sky and The Blues Brothers.

Analysing DVD Cover Three

The expression on the face on the front of the cover has a high impact on the audience as the eyes are quite hypnotising and make you want to know why the woman is screaming and what relevance she has to the story.
The ascending light from the mouth to the eyes draws the attention specifically towards the woman. The title being in red indicates blood and fear. The reflection of the "R" in the title is cleverly done to echo the title itself. The poster had very little writing and lets the images speak for themselves.

Analysing DVD Cover Two

This movie poster clearly reflects the genre of thriller. The only colours used on the whole poster are black, white and red. These colours together signify danger and fear. Also the effects on the word "house" depict it as blood splattered which can make the audience question what happened and whose blood it is. Significance of the house is also shown as the only object highlighted is the house and it is the only word in a different colour in the title. This leads the audience to question why the house is so important. The tag-line of the movie is:

"If bad people hurt someone you love, how far would you go to hurt them back?"

This allows the audience to guess what the "bad people" did and make links into the movie with what might happen. This question is also questioning the audience directly and challenges them to say what they would do if they were in the characters positions.

Dream Video

Analysing DVD Cover One

The colours used in this cover are very dark and sinister. The blurring around the edge of the man in the window may suggest mystery and leads the audience to question why he is standing there. He looks like he is troubled by something outside as his hand is placed firmly against the glass making him look like he wants to go out. This leads the audience to want to watch and see what it is.
The name itself is quite disturbing and may be a link into the main characters life. The only light seen on the cover is from the inside of the room the man is in. I think that this is purposely done to highlight the fact that this man may be the main character. It may also be done to show us the facial expressions of the man (determined to accomplish something, troubled).

Thriller Genre & Sub-Genres

Thriller: One that thrills, especially a sensational or suspenseful book, story, play, or movie. (From The Dictionary of the English Language)

Charles Derry was a very famous thriller theorist. He produced the first book that analysed the popular genre of suspense thriller. His research led him to the popular theorist Michael Ballint. Ballint studied the concept of "thrill". He wanted to know why some people liked putting themselves into dangerous situations and others completely avoided them.
As Derry continued to conduct his research he found that it could be split further into six different sub-genres.

1.) Thriller of murderous passions= This is often a love triangle and includes the murder of one member. This is usually has a motive such as passion or greed.

2.) The Political Thriller= This usually has the assassination of a political figure or someone associated with the Government.

3.) The Thriller of Acquired Identity= This is when the protagonist has taken on the identity of another character. This often has implications which in most cases is murder.

4.) Psychosomatic Thriller= In this type of thriller, the protagonist is always the victim and is usually suffering from psychotic effects of trauma.

5.) Moral Confrontation= This is your basic good versus evil. It shows a clash between them and allows us to see their differences. It leads the audience to question who will triumph.

6.) Innocent on the Run= This is pretty self explanatory. This is usually when the victim finds themselves on the run from the villian and the police.

Despite there being six sub-genres, all of these still split up further into hybrids!

Alfred Hitchcock

• Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on the 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, London, England, and UK.
• In 1956 he became an American citizen while keeping his British citizenship.
• He is often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker of all time.
• He often described his childhood as being very lonely and sheltered, due to his obesity.
• The idea of being harshly treated or wrongfully accused is frequently reflected in Hitchcock's films.
• By the end of the 1930s, Hitchcock had become one of the most famous filmmakers in England.
• By 1950, Hitchcock had filmed in many areas of the United States.
• One of the most famous movies he made in the US was Vertigo.
• He followed Vertigo with three more successful films. All are also recognized as among his very best films: North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963).
• After completing Psycho, Hitchcock moved to Universal, where he made the rest of his films.
• Hitchcock died from kidney failure in his Bel Air, Los Angeles, California home at the age of 80.
• Hitchcock's body was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Pacific.

Quotes:

“Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.” – Alfred Hitchcock

“I was an uncommonly unattractive young man.” – Alfred Hitchcock

“Cary Grant is the only actor I ever loved in my whole life.” – Alfred Hitchcock

"Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." – The Telegraph

Thriller Moodboard

Some of the emotions and feelings that I wanted my mood board to convey were:

• Fear
• Voyeurism
• Paranoia
• Worry
• Nightmares
• Bad past experiences
• Troubled children
• Curiousness

Analysis of "The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock

The clip starts off with a long shot of the actress in her surrounding area. This sets the scene for the audience and establishes the area. It then cuts to a mid shot of the woman knocking on the door and her entering into the house. This, however, is from a different angle inside the house but it is still a mid shot. The camera pans her movements as she explores the kitchen. When the actress stops walking, the camera stops moving too. The characters facial expressions make it look like she is fixated on a particular object and gives us a sense that she thinks something is wrong. The camera then zooms in to a close up of her face. This leads to an enigma for the audience as they are left questioning why she is reacting this way? And what does she think is wrong?
As the actress enters into the hallway, we go from a mid shot to a long shot which allows us to fully see her reactions and analyse her body language. When she enters the room, it cuts from a long shot straight into a mid shot. This sudden change in shots allows us to see her facial expressions as she looks into the room. We are then given a point of view shot as she scans the room to see what has happened. We are shown that there is a broken window with a dead bird in it and the ornaments and shelves have all fall down. This again leads the audience to question what has happened and why. The camera momentarily focuses back on the actress in a close up and shows her looking at the floor. It then cuts to a close up of the bloody feet and speedily back to the actress. Following this we see the dead body. It progresses from a long shot of the body, to a close up and then an extreme close up of the face. This leads to questions such as who is this man? And what happened to him? We see the character rapidly turning around and running away. Her body language here shows that she is frightened and shocked by the whole situation and doesn’t know what else to do.
Throughout the whole clip we constantly hear diegetic sound from the movements that the character makes such as closing and opening the door.

Analysis of Continuity Project

Analysis of Continuity Project:
This video focuses on including the conventions of the thriller genre in order to create a title sequence which uses continuity successfully. I used techniques such as red herrings, dramatic irony and non-diegetic sounds to build up suspense and tension.
The video contains all the shots I have learnt about in order to convey a meaning to the story. The clip starts off with a mid shot of the character which allows us to establish that she is the main person as she is the first shown. Next there is an over the shoulder shot to allow the audience to see what the character is seeing and enabling it to set the scene for them. Following this is the shots where we are introduced to the second character. In order to show the relationship between the two, I have used the 180 degree rule. I had to make sure that the camera was equally spread apart from the two characters in order for the positioning of the audience to work and for it not to be awkward for them with the camera angles changing. Then we see a two shot showing how the relationship between the two characters has changed. It was especially hard to shoot this shot as I had to capture it from outside the window and the umbrella and the light was reflecting onto it and the characters face making it hard to see her.
At this point of the clip, we are able to establish who the antagonist is and who the protagonist is. The next series of shots are close ups and extreme close ups. The close up of the antagonists face and the weapon illustrate her true intentions and feelings. The extreme close up of the protagonists face shows fear and confusion which tells us that she was not expecting the attack.
I felt that ending the shots off with the image of the weapon would leave the audience with an enigma and would make them ask questions such as why is she attacking her? and has she done anything to be attacked for? which would prompt them to want to continue watching in order to find out what happens.
If I was to shoot this whole section again, I would hope for the weather to be better to make it easier to take the pictures or I would have to find a way to take the pictures I want and for my reflection not to be showing. I could do this by changing the angle or the position I am standing in. I would also retake the pictures in the classroom and improve the mise-en-scene so that only the things that need to be in the picture are in it.

Different Narrative Theories In Film

When looking at a narrative we look at the basic conventions which are:
- Genre
- Character
- Form
- Time

Roland Barthes:
Barthes came up with narrative codes. These codes allowed him to define a story and thoroughly analyse the meaning of it. He suggested that one way of unravelling the narrative was to look at a story from one view point to gain one insight as to what it could mean and to then look at it from another view point to gain a different perspective.
These codes could then be defined further into different groups:

- Action and Enigma Codes= This uses unanswered questions ( What will happen next? Who is he/she? ) and the anticipation of an action's resolutions to create suspense in a narrative.
- Symbols and Signs
- Points of Cultural Reference
- Simple description/ reproduction

Tzvetan Todorov:
Todorov focused mainly on narrative structures. He suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium (when all is how it should be), there is then a disruption to the equilibrium, next there is a recognition to identify that a change has happened, an attempt to correct the damage of the disruption then takes place and finally there is a revival of a new equilibrium. Problems are solved so that order can be restored in the world of fiction.

An example that fits into Todorovs findings is Mission Impossible.

Vladimir Propp:
Propp looked at hundreds of folk tales and identified that there are eight main character roles and thirty-one functions of character types. The eight character roles are:

- The Villain(s)
- The Hero
- The Donor= prepares the hero or gives the hero a magical object
- The Helper= that aids the hero
- The Princess= the one who is sought for; the heroes reward; the object for villain's schemes
- Her Father= person that awards the hero
- The Dispatcher= person that sends the hero on his way
- False Hero= person that takes credit for heroes work and tries to marry Princess

An example of film that fits into Propp's findings is Shrek.

Claude Levi-Strauss:
Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary opposites. Binary opposites are sets of opposite values which constantly create conflict to drive the narrative. An example of opposites could be Good vs Evil but Levi-Strauss was not interested in the order of which events occurred in the plot but was more interested in the deeper arrangements of themes. For instance, if we take Science-Fiction, we can identify a series of oppositions which are created by the narrative:

- Earth and Space
- Good and Evil
- Humans and Aliens
- Known and Unknown
- Normal and Strange

Opposites can also be visual (light/darkness), conceptual (love/hate) or do to with the soundtrack.

Narrative Image:
Narrative Image is what the audience thinks of the movie before they see it. This is all down to marketing and is the films identity and how it is branded. It comes directly from publicity surrounding a film ( posters, trailers, video releases). Marketing promotes the films genre signifier's in order for the audience to familiarise themselves with the movie and to recognise conventions of the movie. This broadens the films potential appeal.
Narrative image also centres around originality and difference. It has to make the audience ask questions and intrigue them into wanting to know the answers to the questions. This is the narrative enigma- the mystery surrounding the film.
In some cases, the narrative image is misleading in order to widen and appeal to a larger audience. The audience go and see the film expecting the traditional conventions in the genre but are shocked by unexpected breaks in the convention that may have put them off watching the movie if they knew about them beforehand.

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