Ivana Pusceddu Media Evaluation

For our Media studies coursework task we were asked to create a thriller and actually produce the first 2-3 minutes of it. As Hitchcock defined, thrillers are when you place ‘an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation’. Using this famous definition, we were able to correctly and successfully create a thriller under these guidelines set by one of the most well-known thriller directors of all time.

During the production of our thriller I was constantly thinking about ways in which I could use aspects of already existing media products and incorporate them into our own thriller, I also thought about ways we could further develop these ideas in order to make an even more bold statement. 

The main and biggest influence we had in our thriller was the work of the famous thriller director, Alfred Hitchcock. We based most of our work on his, as he is one of the most successful thriller directors around, and found that he included many different theories and techniques to make his own unique filming style. The fact that Hitchcock uses such a wide variety of approaches enables us to choose and incorporate the aspects of his work of which we enjoyed the most, and using the same cutting process it allowed us to exclude several effects of which we did not find were replicable or where inadequate for our type of thriller.

Hitchcock uses the Auteur theory; This is defined as ‘The concept describes the mark of a film director in terms of: thematic or stylistic consistencies, personal aesthetic vision, recurring themes, established technique, a defined view of the world and a significant degree of control over production.’ There is one main way that Hitchcock has used the Auteur theory that made us want to use too, which is where he gives inanimate objects symbolic power, this has been shown in ‘Blackmail’ with the bread knife and ‘Notorious’ with the key. We decided that paying attention to one object and making it seem like a symbol and giving it added importance was something we were going to carry on into our filming. An example were we have done this is at the beginning of the thriller where there is an alarm clock being shown. The alarm clock is meant to symbolise that time is quickly running out, and if we had filmed more than 2-3 minutes of it we would have further emphasised this point. We wanted the audience to feel like time was quickly running out because I believe this would have added suspense to the beginning part, leading up to the part where he discovers the hostage situation. Another way that this could have been interpreted would be that the character we were trying to portray was always late, unorganised and unskilled; this would have given the audience more of a connection with the main character as they are getting to know him through different ways using some subtle hints left around in the filming.

We also used the Coen Brothers when getting ideas for our filming. In one of the movies they directed in the early 1990’s named ‘Barton Fink’. There was one particular shot that we paid attention to during the production of one of our scenes, and this was the guestbook scene. In the guestbook shot, the guestbook is spun in an anti-clockwise direction, whilst the camera spun in a clockwise direction meeting round so the book is back to face a normal direction. I found this shot very aesthetically pleasing, so decided it would be good to re-create. We decided to put a shot-style like this whilst our main character was opening the letter containing the hostage. We felt that placing so much emphasis on the letter whilst it is being slowly opened, would show the initial importance of the object, and how it would have an extraordinary effect on the ordinary main character in our story after he has opened it.

When producing and configuring our thriller, we took several of the narrative theories into consideration. The first one we paid attention to, was todorov’s narrative theory. Todorov suggested that stories begun with an equilibrium, which is disrupted by an event, setting in chain a series of events. Then the problems are solved and the new equilibrium is created. We showed this in our story by showing this theory in it. The equilibrium in our story was shown by having the ordinary man get up in the morning like normal, and the disequilibrium being when he gets a letter through the post of the hostage. This is tried to be restored when he goes on a quest to make this right, and at the end of the story there is a new equilibrium put in place as his life is put back into normal.

The second narrative theory that we have taken into account is Vladimir Propp’s theory. In his theory, we included some of the aspects that made the propp theory. According to propp, each story has a villain, dispatcher, helper, prize, a donor, seeker hero and a false hero. We have tried to incorporate several of these characters within our story; an example of this is where the main character sets out to be a hero. His boss is illustrated as a helper, but in actual fact he’s a false helper. The female hostage would be seen as the prize.

In the blog I have based a section on the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The BBFC is an organisation which has been set up to regulate the moving image into age appropriate slots for the public, to prevent the actual viewing of something before vulnerable members of the public view unsuitable or damaging content. In order for them to come up with suitable designated spots for different ages, they undertake extensive public research, consultation and also, through experience. They ask questions concerning the most sensitive of subjects and issues such as language, discrimination, violence, sex and drugs. Throughout this blog post, I looked and analysed the different age classifications for films and the reasoning behind them which helped me decide an appropriate age group restriction for our personal thriller; which resulted in the decision of the most suitable audience. 

I came to an overall conclusion that it was going to be rated a ‘15’. I came to this particular result due to the fact that I believed that the set guidelines and boundaries for a certificate ‘15’ moving image were best suited for the thriller we configured and partially produced.
The guidelines set by the trusted BBFC for the certificate ‘15’ most importantly of all meant that 'Passed only for persons of fifteen years and over. No person apparently under the age of 15 years shall be admitted to any exhibition at which there is to be shown any film which has received a '15' certificate from the British Board of Film Classification.' In other words, no one under the age of 15 is permitted to participate in the public viewing of the moving image it has been assigned to. I have also re-interpreted a list that they include with set boundaries and guidelines for what is and is not allowed to be included in a moving image which has been rated a ‘15’. These are as shown on the following list;

Language: Frequent use of strong language allowed.

Nudity: Nudity is not prohibited.

Sex: Sexual activities are permitted but with little detail.

Violence: Strong violence permitted, scenes of sexual violence must be brief and discrete.

Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques are unlikely to be acceptable. No emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons.

Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.

Drugs: Drug use must not be promoted and clear instructions on consumption is prohibited.

After thoroughly researching and analysing what is and is not restricted in a moving image which is rated ‘15’ I decided it was most suitable because our thriller included and addressed issues such as kidnap, adultery, violence and danger to such a degree that viewers under the age of 15 may find themselves to feel vulnerable and find some of the scenes unsettling and damaging. However, I felt that these unsettling issues and images were not shown or addressed in our thriller to such an extent for it to be rated any higher, or  in fact any lower. This is because the scenes which the public may find offensive are not shown to such a graphic level that would result in it being rated any higher, but are shown to such a level not to be rated any lower. As I have chosen for it to be a ‘15’, the audience would be anything above the age of 15, however, most commonly ranging from 15-25 as it will not involve much thinking and will not be too heavy, which makes it less suited for the older bracket of the public.

Once we came to the realisation of our target audience, we were able to come up with several ways in which we could reach them through different ways of extensive advertising, of which we could successfully entice them to take part in the viewing of our thriller.
Our age bracket ranges from 15-25 year olds; Rupert Murdoch labelled the new generations as ‘Digital Natives’, as they were born into the digital/internet based era, and because of this I thought that it was only right that the majority of our advertising would take part online. Choosing the places online to undertake this advertising is not a hard task, as the majority of the people within this age bracket are under the influence of the all-popular ‘Social networking sites’. These sites are set up for people to interact with each other through the internet, with friends and strangers, and as such a high proportion of our targeted audience are guaranteed to be account-holders, I personally could not think of a better place to get our advertising started and underway. We would start off by using the most popular social networking websites, such as ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’ and ‘MySpace’, and depending on how the advertising goes through them we will stretch out through the less popular ones in order to try and appeal and attract to everyone within our age bracket.
On these social networking websites, there are very few advertising spaces, which are allocated to the right of the page in small boxes. As a result of this, we will have to try and include all that our thriller is and includes in a small box and very quickly so that our target audience’s attention is grabbed from the moment the advertisement starts. I have decided that a satisfactory way of doing this would be to have a quick jump cut of the hostage struggling, in a dull lighting and in a black and white effect. Following this, will be an abrupt jump to a black- backed screen with a ‘jagged’ styled entering for the title of our thriller. I have gotten this idea from the famous thriller ‘Psycho’ (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The jagged effect on the title at the beginning of the moving image gives the audience an impression that the film that is about to be advertised has many twists and turns and this is done to make the audience feel uneasy and make them more curious to what the film entails even before the audience have seen the title. After this, another fast jump cut will occur to another shot of the hostage struggling. There will be a non-diegetic, contrapuntal sound playing throughout the quick trailer. This will include harsh sounds rapidly sped up on the hostage clips and slowed down during the showing of the title. I have chosen to do this because the rapid sound at the beginning of the trailer will attract the eyes of the audience to where it is allocated on the website and the contrapuntal sound will induce danger and vulnerability. Showing such a little amount when advertised will hopefully encourage the audience to appeal to this thriller and infuse them with the urge and need to find out more and hopefully, entice them enough to go and watch this thriller.   

Other than this, I will advertise in more public places, such as the television. I have chosen to also advertise on the television because despite the majority of our audience being more likely to be in the lower bracket, the movie is certified to anybody over the age of fifteen, and because of this I need to advertise to everybody included. The television is one of the most popular electronic devices and as a result of this we will be able to advertise to a wider audience if we use it. For the television, the trailer will be slightly longer, however, starting similarly, to keep continuity. This will also make it easier for people to recognise it once they have seen it, which will hopefully emphasise the imprint of the thriller in their heads and further encourage them to watch it. Unlike the quick and short advertisement I described for the social networking sites, the one being shown on the television will incorporate more of the storyline, including the most exciting and thrilling parts of it in the advertisement so that the targeted audience would be attracted fully into consumption of the thriller. 

Prior to this task I had never used many of the technologies that were required during the construction of the thriller, and as a result of this, I learnt a great deal. I was shown what equipment and technologies that could be used within our thriller, and had to learn how to use it by ourselves. The first thing that I had learnt how to use is a video recording camera, the cameras at school are very different to the few that I have used in the past, and I found that it was quite straight forward once you understood what the basics were. After a few shots of using the camera, I quickly learnt that by using a tripod the shots were much more stable and clean-looking. The tripod could be readjusted to different heights, this made the filming much simpler for me as I was able to get different shots, varying the heights and angles without the quality plummeting. When recording, I learnt that you need to start filming a few seconds before and after the scene so that when it comes to editing there is enough film to cut and change each clip into something more suitable. I learnt this very quickly after the first few shots of our main task, because when we went on to cut the film into separate clips, we realised that each of them stopped too abruptly, which meant they did not flow into each other as desired. Because of this, we had to re-film some of the clips we got, despite this; it improved our end results drastically. When editing, we had to use the iMac’s at school, I had never used on of these before. The software on these computers is very different as they are ‘Apple’ so everything I did on them was very new to me. When we managed to link the camera to the iMac, we used the editing software called ‘Final cut express’. Having never been on an iMac prior to this, I had never used the software on it, so this was also new to me. Final cut express was very difficult to use at the beginning, and figuring out how to import the clips onto it was just the first hurdle to overcome. The clips had to be cut and compressed individually, into different folders so they would be easier to put together when we finished the filming and the actual production started. We named each clip appropriately so they would be even easier to allocate into correct places, and grouped them with similar clips with different shots and angles so when we came to edit we had a wide variety to choose from. When we put it together, we found that cropping the clips up even further to suit the place they were allocated was a difficulty, as they came with sound and it would go out of sync. To overcome this, we had to try and cut them so the sounds stayed in the same place, and eventually, we got this correct. Once clips were set down onto the timeline, each one had to be rendered in order to work properly, this made it easier to use as the clips stayed where they were rendered, and if they were moved it would say ‘un-rendered’ so you knew when a clip had been accidentally moved out of place and could easily be put back into place. When we had placed all of the clips onto the time-line accordingly, we had to place a soundtrack in order to make the thriller more interesting. We did not know what to include in it, and how to include it, so we watched some other films and decided to incorporate a song by filming the main character putting the radio on. This meant that we had to record a voiceover of somebody on the radio introducing the song, and we did this using a microphone attached to the iMac. We opened a programme called ‘garage band’, this enabled us to record the noise being transmitted in the microphone and edit it as we desired as it is a music editing software programme. When we recorded the radio voiceover, we came to the dilemma of what song to introduce. Any song under 50 years old has to have consent of use, because of this, we used a song which was older than this and edited into the voice recording. We exported this file and dragged it into our movie time-line on final cut express, and adjusted the place it was in until we thought it looked best. We had the song playing through, up until the scene where the post comes through the door. At this time, we faded the music out and replaced it with another sound. We went onto garage band again, and found some already composed sounds and effects. We found a ‘heartbeat’ noise and decided this would work very well when the hostage scenes were being shown. We exported this sound and edited it into our timeline, it worked very effectively as it started off slowly and increased in speed and sound whilst the ordinary man was opening the letter where he was to find a picture of a hostage.

All together, I believe that I have learnt a lot since the preliminary task we did at the beginning of our coursework. I believe this because we were given little to no help, and were given the responsibility and flexibility to undertake the task of successfully finishing the task at hand to a satisfactory standard. When looking back at the preliminary task, the standard of work produced then to the standard of work that we have just finished producing has got such a prominent skill difference. However, i do believe that without the preliminary task, we would not have known how difficult this was going to turn out, and really how much work has to be put in, in order to get a good piece of work out of it. Overall, I believe that we have completed this task to the level that was expected.