Final Product - ' A night at the dance '

Flora BA Clarke - Question 1

The title of the film:

Our original name for our film was going to be Prom Night but not only has this title been used but it has also been reworked so many times it have become more of a cliché. So ‘A Night at the Dance’ became our title which works better as it gives the audience less clues as to the content as prom night would have. We used red font contrasting with the white font we used for the rest of the credits. This was to represent blood- cheesy though that sounds we were playing on the way many teenage films make there clues overly obvious. The red also ties in with the red tinge on all of the shots.

Setting/Location:

Our location need to be somewhere the character could be alone, typical of a thriller film, it makes the character seem more solitary. The use of the dark room makes the character seem less mainstreams and more out of the ordinary and so straight from the beginning she stands out from crowd as being abnormal. Using a darkroom also allows us to make good use of the shadow and light convention allowing us to cast shadows on certain areas to give an effective sense of mystery.

Costumes and props:

Our Costumes were simple-just a black dress to show how unlike the rest of the girls in the film she is. We wanted the makeup to stand out- smudged almost slept in mascara with pale skin contrasting the either red of black surroundings and then red lips with a bitten shadow showing an attempt at beauty yet giving off an eary unsettling feeling this was important as her lips are a motif throughout the extract. The scrapbook was another significant motif show our characters need to list he past killings and also gives and insight into what will be happening in the future of the film.

Camerawork and editing:

Similarly to Pulp Fictions all our movements were slow and calculated, thought out, this represented how our main character thought and moved. Originally we had planned fast paced shots to give the audience an uncertain feeling however after trying to do this a couple times we changed our shots as we felt we did not have the skills or equipment to get it looking good enough to work.

We made some of our shots speeded up and some slowed down and made use of the camera going in and out of focus and blurs to show the characters mental state and her own lack of awareness of her surroundings, this was also shown by the many close ups.

Title font and style:

The title font was the same as the font the credits and was also the same font used to create the cut out from the prom invitation, it was a girly calligraphy type font called Edwardian Script and it tied in with our storyline greatly but also challenged the conventions of a classic high school killer by making her appear to aspire to be more girl like.

Story and how the opening sets it up:

The use of the scrapbook shows the audience what is going to happen and so therefore shows that what is important is how it happens rather than the details of the plot. The fact that the characters face is only seen at the very end of the clip shows the mystery surrounding her and also builds the tension for the big reveal.

Genre and how the opening suggests it:

Using the black, white and red colours as bases we were able to easily show the characters complexity in a simple way and the use of shadows and light let us show the battle of good and evil. The close-ups let us explore the theme of identity. The character looking in the mirror let us use the theme of seeing, reflection and mirroring. The scrapbook made it clear the narrative centred on murder which is often used for thrillers.

How characters are introduced:

The whole sequence is building up to introducing our main character, this was particularly prolonged to mirror the film, a prolonged look at a short period of time builds the tension and suggests a big climactic twist at the end. 

Flora BA Clarke - Question 2

This shot challenges views of how girls are typically seen as. It says- girls only care about their image-even if they are physco killers. This is also seen in Orphan when the girl dresses ‘sexy’ to appeal to the dad. As if by putting abit of makeup on its okay to kill people.  In orphan the shot shows the expression, we chose not to do this as it makes the make up seem more mask like and its more of a question as to what is behind the mkeup and therefore makes it even more important that shes putting it on

Flora BA Clarke - Question 3

We decided to make our own distribution company- Rancid Films, this came from the t-shirt I was wearing one day that we took a picture of and made up on Photoshop. If we had made our full movie we all agreed that it would be distributed by a mainstream distribution company like universal or Warner Brothers Both these distributors are very large and so would be able to invest a lot of money to get our film out as far as possible.  We thought that the film would be based in America as having a Prom themed film would be most popular there as it would seem more real to the audience because in America prom is a reality rather than something you watch on TV or in Films. Many films are made in America and so it would be a great starter point for our film. Our film can compare to films like Carrie, Dance of the Dead and Prom Night.

 

Flora BA Clarke - Question 4

Audience on Prezi

Flora BA Clarke - Question 5

We used our product research to cast our main character- white female but made her more accessable to the audience by putting her on the outskirts of any social group therefore applying to everyone and including a thriller convention in one swoop. We provided an inside look into the mind of a tortured teenager which is a person every adolescent can relate too. If this were to be a real film we would cast someone very good looking as the main character to pull in both genders. the girl in the film is very obsessed with the way she looks and is constantly comparing herself to other girls and so this again will allow people to relate to her.

 Putting on makeup much like most teenage girls do- helping them to put themselves in her shoes.

The other cast member would also be typically good looking most people to relate to at least one of that characters in the film. 

Flora BA Clarke - Question 6

Technology on Prezi

Flora BA Clarke - Question 7

In our preliminary task we wanted to focus most on getting to grips with the technology and thought about different techniques we could use for when we were shooting our final piece. However in doing this we overlooked the thriller conventions. From our audience research we found that most of our target market wanted to see comedies and so we focused on this during our preliminary and on looking back this made our film seem more of joke than a thriller. We also used speech as our way of telling things to the audience thus making things extremely obvious whereas in our final piece we used important symbols and motifs to hint at the outcome of our film. The techniques we used in our preliminary we very basic- shot reverse shot, zoom and continuity editing. In our final we used more advanced shots like a pan and extreme close ups. A major thing we learnt from the preliminary task was the rule of 180 and we took this into account during editing our final piece and had to flip some of our shots around. We also learnt about match on action and used this both in the preliminary and the final during both scenes with the door.

Chylo Dynair - Question 1

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

Our media product is a thriller opening sequence, so in order to create our own product we had to analyse and research typical conventions found in a thriller movies opening sequence...

Thriller Conventions on Prezi

Sound: The non-diegetic music we had playing in the background of our opening fits in well with the typical convention. Usually, music played in a thriller includes high pitched sounds and clashing notes, which are both aspects of our piece used. As well as this, some soundtracks are used as they resemble the tune of a child's nursery rhyme, and again our soundtrack does the same as it is repetitive. This could perceived as a way of exaggerating the characters repeated actions (of killing and applying make-up) or to show that the girl is deranged and psychotic at such a young age.

(nursery rhyme used to create tension and suspense in 'A Nightmare on Elm Street')

Narrative: Unlike the sounds used in our opening titles, I personally think that the narrative for this film isn't a conventional storyline (or at least isn't from a typical perspective). Yes, there are many conventions in the story line, - for example the killer being driven by jealousy and attention from the opposite sex (both shown in the movie 'Orphan') - the point of view this movie is shown from isn't typical of a thriller movie. If we were to stick to 'Orphan', though our storyline is slightly similar to this films, the point of view is not of the killer (like in ours) .

Although this may lead to the audience creating a 'soft spot' for the killer in our movie - instead of focusing on hoping that the girls being targeted stay alive - this will give anotheroutlook on the story, hopefully showing why the murderer is killing people, rather then just who she is killing. Hopefully, this will then lead to killer becoming someone the audience want to help, rather than just be afraid of - which will then lead to the character and movie being on the viewers minds, even after the film has ended.

Above: camera seen to be trying to pry into killer's life. Wide shot used.

(Taken from 'Orphan')

Below: camera involved in killer's life. Point of view shot is used.

(Taken from our film)

Audience Pleasures: Though it is hard to add a range of audience pleasures within the first 2 minutes of a film (for example, it cannot be said at this stage if the audience will be confused and left in the dark about the characters until the end of movie), we have tried to add as many conventional audience pleasures as possible, while still keeping to the group aim of seeing this from the killer's perspective.

One way this has been done is through the use of lighting. The movie is from the murder's point of view, but we have still made the opening hide the characters identity, making her seem like an ambiguous and interesting character. We are a part of her life (as we see her den/dark room from her perspective), but we still know little about the character (as if the character herself knows little about her own personality and hobbies, and her life only entails killing others).

Another way we have tried to create pleasure for the audience is through tension. Right at the end of the clip, the screen goes black but the soundtrack playing still remains. By the sound continuing, it creates suspense for the audience as they automatically feel that something is lurking in the darkness of the screen, or that someone is in danger. The sound acts as the killer's soundtrack, so the audience feel that they can hear the killer, but cannot see her.

Iconography: There is a lot of iconography used in our opening sequence as we have tried to hide our characters identity by showing the objects in her den/dark room rather then the character herself. A popular choice of iconography used in thriller movies is a scrapbook, and this is no exception in our movie...

Scrapbook used in 'Se7en'

Scrapbook used in 'Orphan'

Scrapbook used in 'A Night At The Dance' (our film)

To make our killer look obsessed with her victims, we tried to also include as many shots of photography equipment as possible in our opening. To do this, we had shots of her developing photos, a chain of drying photos, and a shot of a camera (shown below).

In this shot we also had an image of a tiara to show the characters main goal (to be prom queen). By having the tiara and camera shown together in this shot, it suggests that the camera is needed - as in she needs to stalk her victims - in order to achieve her goal.

We did have many typical objects/iconography in our piece, but didn't have one of the most popular and conventional iconography - we didn't have any weapons. This was purposely done so that the audience do not know how the murderer kills her victims. It is assumed by the audience that a female character who is obsessed with her physical appearance wouldn't be the best at planning a murder, so by having no signs of how she kills her victims - only proof through her photos - keeps the audience in the dark, which makes her seem more powerful (as she knows something the audience doesn't).
 

Editing: The only editing we have used in this piece that is conventional of other thrillers is the use of slow paced editing and the use of slow motion. By having shots stay on screen for such a long time (shots being 4 seconds long on average), it gives the viewer a chance to register what is being shown on screen (as it can be quite hard to see what things are in the lighting used), but it also creates suspense for the audience - as when things are calm in a shot, it automatically makes the audience feel that the next scene will have something shocking in it.

Mise-en-scene: Shadow and light is a popular choice used in thrillers, and was used throughout our whole opening sequence. I really like how shadow and light was used in our piece as the black room lightened by the red tint added to the suspense that the shots and the music created. Out of all the features to our piece, my favourite feature is the shadow and light made in the dark room. We began our piece hoping to use a black and white tint on our shots, but after coincidentally finding red tints, we decided that this creating an even more tense atmosphere (and now I couldn't imagine the opening without it). The shadow and light used in our piece not only hides that the setting of our plot is in a school darkroom, but it also helps to hide the main characters identity and forces the audience to focus on what is being shown on screen (rather than the shots being shown easily on screen and not being taken in by the viewer).

Shadow and light used in 'Sin City'

Shadow and light used in our film opening

Another conventional aspect of a thrillers mise-en-scene is to have the setting in a isolated place - which we have also done. The dark room in our school is already quite a small area to film the whole of an opening sequence in, but seems even smaller when the dark room is shot is low-key lighting. This again makes the audience feel uneasy, as it creates a claustrophobic atmosphere for the viewer.

Shot taken from 'The Birds' - scene shot is small and claustrophobic hallway

Camera: The camera shots used in our thriller have been mainly used either to hide identity, or focus the audiences attention onto a certain detail on screen, and these are both typically used in thrillers.

Here is an example from the movie 'The Box'. In this scene there is a car screeching past making a lot of noise, but the camera is telling us to focus on the box that has been left on the porch by the driver - instead of focusing on the drivers identity and appearance.

We have also used point of view shots so that the audience can relate to the characters better. Again -sticking with 'The Box' - the audience is forced to be in the main characters shoes by showing a point of view shot of what she can see through the peep hole. We have done the same (as shown below) by forcing the audience to see what the killer is looking at...

Characters: Again, the characters used in our piece are all conventional of a thriller opening. Our main character for example has a psychological illness and intrigues/attracts the audiences attention by having a hidden identity (the camera never shows the characters full face, or when it does it is in a dim lighting). The characters seen in the scrapbook also have conventional characteristics as they are all attractive females, which makes the audience assume that they are victims/ easy targets for the killer, and therefore damsels in distress.

Chylo Dynair - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

All the characters shown in the movie/opening are teenage girls, who all seem to be obsessed with popularity and appearance. It could be suggested that this is a representation of a modern teenage girl living in the 21st century, as the majority of girls worry or would like to change something about their appearance or relationships with others of the same age.

Our opening titles could show white female teenagers as a social group that is highly affected by appearance, and also highly motivated by acceptance of people of the same (and the opposite) sex. Studies show that 53% female teenagers are unhappy with their appearance (31% claiming to have suggested surgery), and other statistics show that nearly 48% feel unaccepted within their social group. Although this movie/opening titles was not created to widen the amount of interest and awareness on teenagers self esteems, it could be something that is explored by the media to gain more attention for the movie.

In my opinion, the opening shows its audience that teenage girls are stereotypically self-obsessed. Every scene/shot in the opening sequence is only seen once, except for the shot of the girl putting lipstick on her lips (as it is shown 3 times). This could subconsciouslyshow the audience that teenage girls are dependent on their physical appearance (more so than their personalities, as the opening tells us nothing about the girl internally), and are reliant on seeming attractive to others - even those who are compulsive murderers. Again, this point is justified as (during the rest of the movie) it would soon be revealed that the main character kills all these other teenagers (those seen in the scrapbook) because they have been voted the most beautiful at prom.

(Several shots of character putting on lipstick)

Chylo Dynair - Question 3

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

In our thriller opening we decided to use ‘Rancid’ (a fake distribution company) but if our film was to be distributed by a media institution, I think it would be distributed by a mainstream American company. Our film is based on events that take place during a prom, and proms are more popular in the USA – compared to in the UK. Although the character(s) shown in the opening sequence may not be of an American decent, this is not obvious to the viewer as no characters have spoken yet (so an accent cannot be heard).I believe that a company like ‘Warner Bros’ would be a good distributor to use for this film. They have distributed other thrillers like 'Memento' and ‘Orphan’ which (just like in our movie) is also based upon a character with physiological problems. Not only this, but ‘Warner Bros’ is an American company that has in the past worked with (either distributed, produced or co-produced) other movies that are targeted at teenagers (our target audience), for example ‘Sucker Punch’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. ‘Warner Bros’ is one of the top 5 distribution companies in America, so as well as having brand loyalty customers, the company also have a lot of money available to endorse into the film.

A mainstream movie distribution company would work well with this movie due to the main theme of the main theme of the movie - obsession with apperance. The importance of apperance is common in all teenagers around the world, so the movie can be understood universally. By having a theme that relates to a mainstream audience, it makes sense to be distributed by a mainstream company (rather than only being distributed to a niche audience). Not only this, but the storyline/narrative is one that is equally confusing, misleading and _ to all audiences. For example, both an American audience would be left in as much suspence as a British audience.

'Mean Girls' - American movie based on teenage girls fitting in with their social group.

'Gok's Teen' - British programme about teenagers gaining self esteem.

Chylo Dynair - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Thriller target on Prezi

As the main characters of this thriller are teenagers, our target audience for this film is the same. By handing out our questionnaires, we have found that the social group that watches the most thrillers are white teens, so by targeting this social group, we are allowing the film to attract the most attention (and – if the film were real – to gain the most publicity and profit).

 

Chylo Dynair - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attempted to interest and intrigue our target market when casting our actors. The main character shown in our trailer is not only a part of the social group (a white teenager), but is also someone who is stereotypically attractive to this target audience. The girl seen in the opening (Flora Clarke) is a part of our group, so it was good as she was very reliable when we needed to film, but she is also a tall female with long hair – two aspects that are usually desired. Other girls who also were seen in the opening titles (the girls seen in the book) also have both these features, so again would be seen as attractive to the viewers. By having attractive actresses in the movie, it gains attention from both teenage boys – who find the characters attractive – as well as teenage girls - who wont necessarily find the characters attractive, but may be intrigued by the characters sense of style (or even see themselves in one of the characters…hopefully not the murderer).

All girls seen in opening sequence have stereotypical features of an attractive female teenager (long hair, fair complexion, thin bodies...)

Chylo Dynair - Question 6

Chylo Dynair - Question 7

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


When creating our preliminary task, we came across many problems (that were luckily resolved during the making of our final piece. One problem we had was avoiding too many conventions of thrillers, which in affect made it hard to see them as thrillers at all. In our group, we did want to break away from the norm and have some unique aspects to our thrillers, but in our preliminary task, we avoided (in my opinion) too many conventions, which lead to the film not seeming to be a thriller at all.


For example, in our preliminary task, we had used humor during some conversations. Although at the time we thought this was a good idea because we felt that comedy appealed to our target market (teenagers) we found that by having humor - and at the same time having little suspense, shadow and light, and intriguing characters - there was too much conventions of a comedy, so our piece didn't seem to be anything like a thriller.


Another problem we had was with casting. During our preliminary task, we were unable to (and found it unnecessary to) cast any actors to film at such an early stage in the process, but after editing our preliminary task, we found that the actress we had chosen would give the team unnecessary difficulties during our final task. Although the actress used (me) was a part of the group - so would be more willing and free on more occasions in order to be filmed, we found that if I was used in the final piece, it would make it hard for us to use the convention of shadow and light. Because I have a dark skin tone, the lighting used on set would need to be bright at all times in order to see my facial expressions clearly, so we wouldn't be able to have a dark(er) setting that is usually seen in thrillers.



Here is an image of Flora shot in the dark room with the red lighting wanted in our film. Flora has quite fair skin, and difficulties are still found when trying to point out certain facial expressions or features. Although we wanted this mood for this particular shot, this would have been how every shot turned out (if not worse) if I was used in the final opening.

Hanadi Afendi Question 1 -In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

we have also made refrences from the product research we have done.

Hanadi Afendi Question 2 -How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As we were aiming our film at teenagers from a both positive and negative light. In any film we have realised that stereotypically teenagers are image conscious, always obsessed with how they look and what they wear, so appearance and popularity was very significant so we used this in our final product. Our opening sequence represents white female teenagers who are obsessed with their appearance as we see the application of the lipstick been shown more than once making the girl (the murderer) feeling the need to look pretty can imply this. Appearance to any girl is very important regardless whether they are a murderer or not. As a whole, white female teenagers as a social group are being represented as there are statistical facts that show that over half of female teenagers are unhappy with how they look. From the pictures above we can see that make up can also be shown as a mask and imply that she has two split personalities.

To do this we have made sure we had a white female teen quite attractive with the stereotypical long blonde hair, slim and tall and quite pretty. This was because it will gain the interests from the audience from both genders. Although this is a form of stereotype of teenage girls our film is more complex than this. Our protagonist has mental illness the use of repetition movements can show this as she’s obsessed with looking pretty and kills anyone that could be a threat to her at being prom queen. Mental illness is shown through other psychological thrillers such as ‘orphan’ and ‘Dream House’. We can see that she is quite close to her mum as well as at the beginning we can see her stroke the photo frame of when her parents won prom king and queen but through her mental illness ended up killing her as she would envy her mothers beauty. Through these pictures below we can see that the protagonist is obsessed with beauty through the repetition of shots used to emphasise her putting lipstick on which can also reveal the mental illness inside of her.  Through both Our film , ‘Orphan’ and ‘Dream House’ mental illness is the cause of why others are being murdered.

Hanadi Afendi Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Four our opening we decided to use ‘Rancid’ a fake distribution company we designed as a group from one of the tops one of our group members was wearing we however edited it to create our own twist. Although to me personally 'Rancid' does not sound like a mainstream company if it existed it, it is also sen to be original just as Lions-gate. If we did make complete thriller movie then we would want a mainstream distribution company. Preferably from one of the largest distribution companies such as 20th century fox, Warner bro’s and Universal as these are American companies. This would be great as they also have a mass audience. Also Warner bros’ distributed many other films such as ours like Orphan. As our plot line is about prom which we do not have much in the UK, but is largely important during the end of the American school year an American distribution company seems more appropriate. For example Mean girls are an example of a film that is targeted at teenagers and have had great success. Many distribution companies such as Paramount Pictures Corporation have also distributed similar films. As ‘Warner Bros’ have great reputation and have had so much success with the distribution of their films becoming worldwide. They would be able to help invest with a large amount of money to distribute our film, and make it into a great success reaching the mainstream audience globally. Our film is quite mainstream due to the complex of the narrative, which are not usually found in an independent film and also convey many conventions of a thriller. This is because in our opening we have a young female that’s obsessed with her looks, which is shown through many mainstream movies whether they are of a thriller genre or not and also the use of the psychological twist that’s included in many thrillers including ours as we have included a girl with mental illness. This would not be seen to appeal to a niche audience and this is why we have came to the conclusion to distribute our film through a mainstream company as it would be a great starting point especially through an american distributor as they are well known for having high ratings when it comes to films being distributed worldwide and becoming a hit.