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

We all started the Planning of our production by firstly studying well-known thrillers and studying their conventions of thriller film. We did this to help us with firstly ideas for our films story line, but also so the the codes and conventions of the thriller genre should be more enhanced in the production of the film, such as lighting, sound and what types of shots. We watched and analysed films such as Psycho, London To Brighton, The Third Man and Leon. As you can see we analysed thrillers that have chose to watch a wide variety of Thrillers. We have included independent films such as Third Man and Mainstream films like Leon. Out of this part of production we found that a lot of close ups and quick cuts both help make a thriller really a ‘Thriller’ we also found from The Third Man that lighting is a huge part of thrillers as it can change the atmosphere of a film dramatically. One of the main parts of editing in a thriller is by far the most important aspect of a thriller. Music, music is an exceedingly important part of a thriller as it brings atmosphere and ties the shot sequences of films together.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our Characters within our thriller film are of all different statures of social class. Our young girl character played by Matilda Pine is alone and can be assumed that she is a fairly low in status, which makes her seem like a venerable character towards the rest of the characters such as the three men that are involved with in the opening. They seem to know there way around the place and there clothes shows the audience that they seem to have a fair bit of money as the character in the hat seems to have a bit of money. This character also seems to be even higher in stature than the other characters as they seem to listen to him and even though the other characters are bigger than him, they still seem to respect him. Our film represents particular social groups such as the young girl who seems to be the age of 12-16 being open to attack and unsafe. It also represents the social group of the men in there 30's showing them that characters within the same age group can be seen as can very dangerous and not to be trusted.

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

I think our thriller film is Mainstream, as it has a basic thriller feeling, and is very easy to follow. So therefore it will be shown in cinemas such as VUE and ODEON, but could also be shown in cinemas such as Cinema City as they show mainstream and specialist films as well as independent films. The film is Generic to mainstream films for example the train station that we use in our film can be seen in films such as Heat and Witness. A popular setting in mainstream thrillers, as the often start at Travel Terminals. The clock used throughout the film is very iconic. It brings a essence of involvement for the audience to the film as they are watching the clocks when they appear, constantly wondering how much time has passed, working out in there heads what order these events happen. Another generic feature involved within the film is the heartbeat. The heartbeat brings a constant to the film making the character seem nervous but also the audience feels the heart beat too. Finally the city bustle within the train station making the character of the girl feel isolated and the audience sees this also, another film that uses this in a thriller is Leon, where the camera from the establishing shot sweeps through the city with all the haste of the people in the city. This haste of the city and the sheer amount of people isolates the singular characters making them seem vulnerable.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

We started an audience research programme to find out what our target audience would appreciate seeing in our thriller. I asked people from the age group of 15 years old to 18. I found that the target audience would like to see a crime thriller above any other subgenre also that they would prefer a fast paced thriller. With these questionnaire results we had re-enforced our view on sound being the most important part of a thriller film, as 80% of the questionnaire participants agreed. The results of my questionnaire sparked our ideas in to the films aspects. With my audience research in mind the audience would consist of a wide range of ages from around 15 onwards as I don’t think a certain age group would be the majority of the people who would want to go and see it. Also the audience would most likely to be people who have an enthusiasm for the thriller crime genre. Thirdly I don’t think that the film would rely on a certain gender. It is a possibility that male population are more likely to come and see the film as they are represented in the film as gritty rebellious high class men, and feel that they want to relate to the film, as they seem that they want to experience a life with adventure. On the other hand the young girl population could also relate to the young girl who appears in our film, and as this young girl is shown as a low class vulnerable, and would seem that she will experience a traumatic experience in the film. The young females of the public wouldn’t want to relate themselves to this character.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

Firstly our thriller film attracts a wide audience because it is a mainstream film. Being a mainstream film it will be advertised on a vast scale within the commercials on television, trailers on the adverts when you see other films, radio, magazines, and the internet that many people have access to in the modern world of technology. Having a mainstream film means that it can be recognised easily. The internet can be a good thing for distributing our film wider and advertising it. But it can also be a threat to the film because of illegal downloading. I am part of the target audience so I know what types of films I like to spend time watching. Our film consists of drugs and a venerable isolated child. Hope fully the film will attract people who have an interest on these subjects and would inspire them to do something about these problems. Our film is set in a recognisable place if you live in and around Norwich, but on the other hand the audience might not recognise the setting of the film. Either way we have made the film to be attracted by the audience research results where we found that the best locations would be unknown for a thriller as the audience won’t know what is coming next impacting on the confusion of the thriller.

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

We came to start filming at the chosen locations some shots seemed to be too hard to achieve, such as a shot that we had to go under the bridge that was in a river as we thought there was a platform there. But there wasn’t so we resulted in doing this shot on a side path that was almost the same level. This change didn’t affect the film too much as the shot that we got instead wasn’t too different from our original idea. One other Change we had to make was because of the weather. On the days that we wanted to film, it had snowed. We decided that we should still film because the snow we thought gave off good lighting, and effects that you cant get any other way as. So we thought we should make the most of it, as it brings new aspects to the mise-en-scene. As you can see from Still number 3, the snow on the ground and the classic street lamp, together represent fantasy and an evil landscape. The lamp and the snow connote this because of in the film ‘Narnia’ these two things represent the evil, in which the snow connotes fantasy.
When Creating and putting our thriller film together, and through all the individual processes I have become aware of the facts that miniscule touches to the film, can change it dramatically, such as steady shots (to obtain a steady shot, we used a tripod.) and that the more shots we took the better all from different angles such as a high angle shot a low angle shot, over the shoulder shots, two shots, tracking shots and panning shots all go together, to create a fast paced movie that keeps the audience involved and wanting to see more. When we were editing we found that when we got our music and soundtracks sorted it was much easier to edit as we had beats to cut too. In our film for the transitions I used fade to black mostly as this transition enhanced our heart beats effect that repeats through out the film. We liked this idea as when you can hear the sound but the screen is just black the audience can become confused, this is perfect for a thriller.

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

The next piece that we did after the audience research was our thriller treatment. Jasmine Dinnage wrote our thriller treatment. This Thriller treatment is primarily our brainstorm of ideas for the storyline of our film. After this I created the shot list, the shot list consisted of all the shots that we would have to take on the days that we had the camera and ready to shoot. The shot list was then passed on to Yvonne Frosdick to draw the storyboard this was done to start to see what the film would start to look like, also to be able to see if some of the shots in the sequence would work properly and whether it would be up to our standards.
Our Preliminary task was a huge wake up call, showing us that editing a film, even a short film well, was very time consuming. Secondly creating the preliminary task gave me experience with the editing software (Premier Elements) and filming itself. I learnt how to manage a good tracking shot, panning shot, high angle shot and many other shots. The editing process of the preliminary task was very difficult to get the grasp of as I was new to this programme but by the time we had finished editing, I was fairly fluent in editing. Further more the process before editing and filming such as story boards and shot lists became simple and straight forward by the time we came to do our thriller production. Overall the Preliminary task became a useful experience as it made our individual organisation skills and filming intelligence more efficient.
During the production of our thriller we were assigned to work in groups, at the beginning of the production we worked well together giving lots of ideas to each other for the treatment and the shot list and also the story board. The treatment was contributed by all of us with ideas. (Jasmine Dinnage, Yvonne Frosdick and me) the treatment was written by Jasmine Dinnage, The shot list was created and written by me, and the story board was done by Yvonne. The Location Shots were taken by jasmine and I, the document about location shots and characters was drawn up by me. The costumes and props were written up by jasmine Dinnage. Jasmine found two pieces of music that were used in our thriller that I edited. What I think we could have done better would be our team organisation and communication skills as we didn’t all see eye to eye at some points during the creation. Also if we had planned the film better we would have had an almost effortless time filming. On the other hand this production has turned out very well and came from, passion and pure determination, to get it completed and completed well. The preliminary task taught me to plan.

FinJasmineYvonne_Ricochet_FinalCut.avi

How do films 'The Third Man' directed by Carol Reed and 'Insomnia' directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg use the codes and conventions of film noir?

Here is harry lime in the sewer chase scene, this is an extreme close up High angle shot of his face. In this shot he is looking up on to the road surface, showing his rejection from the city.

here is a famous scene from the sewer chase showing the stylized mise en scène of the shadows and lights in the vanishing point.

this is a very well composed Tilt shot of harry lime, as he is running away from the sounds of sirens. This shot is well composed because of the lighting of the shadows with the reflections off the road. The tilt of the shot makes the audience become disorientated and more involved with the film.

This is a shot of Harry Lime as he is lit up by a passing cars head lamps. This close up of Harry Limes face shows the light on his face where as every where else is dark. This represents the goodness of Harry Limes heart and the darkness around him is connoting the evil and how every one (apart from him and holly) see him as a criminal and a danger to society.

this is a graveyard in Vienna connoting death and has an eerie presence also giving the feel of danger.

Here is Jonas ready to shoot the criminal in the heavy, heavy fog but instead he shoots his partner. This shot has a dark and gloomy colour pallet, with the gun barrel dominating the mise en scène. All these connote the darkness and the way the character Jonas gets tortured through the rest of the film to come.

Here is Jonas as he dominates the mise en scène, after shooting dead his partner. his facial expression tells a whole story of what is to come for this confused character.Here is Jonas's Partner in Jonas's arms dieing. The colour pallet in this frame is very dim again with blacks and greys dominating the mise en scène showing the bleakness of this mans future.
This screen shot taken from the cable kart scene where you can see that the other man suspects Jonas... or not suspecting but suspicious of him.
here is Tanya being filmed by what seems to be her lover but then of course she is brutally murdered. She dominates the mise en scène with the rule of thirds acting very well in this frame, as Tanya is taking up a third of the frame. the colour pallet in this frame, are much brighter and more colours involved too with the bright green of the grass and the deep blue of the sea. The colour pallet connotes the happiness of the character.

Insomnia is a Norwegian thriller film created in 1997 directed by Erik Skjoldberg. In the film Jonas Engstrom and his partner Erik Vik, investigate a murder of a young girl in Norway. You view what looks like the murder in the opening sequence. The two investigators investigate this murder, which results in a chase scene between the police and the criminal. Unfortunately there is heavy fog resulting in a mix up as Jonas shoots his partner instead of the villain. Confused Jonas doesn’t own up to this even though he knows it was an accident.

The third man a famous film noir thriller is directed by Carol Reed and is set in the city of Vienna in 1949. The character Holly Martin travels to Vienna to meet his friend Harry Lime who has a job waiting for him, when he arrives in Vienna a man greets him and informs, Carol Reed that Harry Lime is dead. As the story continues the truth is revealed about Harry Lime’s death. Harry lime turns out to have faked his death and committed a terrible crime.

In Insomnia the character Jonas must decide to admit his mistake on shooting his partner by accident. And in The Third Man, Holly Martin, meets his friend that he thought was dead, but he also knows that he is a criminal. So Holly is stuck with a dilemma similar to Jonas’s dilemma in Insomnia, where he has to decide whether to betray his best friend, or not. At the beginning of both films these characters seemed to be innocent, this gives a dark side to both characters persona.

In thriller films lighting and sound are both very important aspects. They are used to create suspense with the littlest actions in the film. The directors in the third man emphasise the impression of tension in situations. Most film noir films use strong lighting as a key for a good film showing light and dark, good and evil. The third man does, this very well and creates an ambiguity that, keeps the audience on there toes. Carol Reed uses a lot of silhouettes in the third man this connotes the confusion of the characters and the audience. As through the whole film you are never sure on who the good guy is or not. There is a scene where you first see the character Harry Lime, as he is standing in a doorway obscure from lighting so no one can see him, but then a car drives past and the headlamps glisten on the characters face. Half of his face is caught by the lighting where as the other side is still blackened, this represents the good and evil that is Harry Lime. In Insomnia, Jonas Engstrom is lit up in a similar way as Harry Lime. The Director uses this lighting effect on Jonas to imitate the mental tangle between good and evil, which affects Jonas throughout the film.

The colour pallets in the two films are very different as intently they are set in different time periods. In insomnia you can tell that its is set in a fairly modern time period as the colour pallet is greys, blacks and whites connoting technology which also connotes modern times. Where as in the third man, the colour pallet is just black and white as it is a film noir film. This just means that the film depends intensely, on the lighting in the film.

In conclusion to the question, I have distinguished that both the directors use conventions of a thriller film, to generate a refreshing piece of cinema for the masses to enjoy. Secondly both films demonstrate how an insecure and solitary character can attract any audience, grip and hold them to their seats.

Costume & Props.

Man 1 - Cameron
Man 2 - Ray
Girl - Matilda

Man 1 costume: Black leather bomber jacket
Dark jeans
Smart black shoes or Dark trainers
Scruffy hair




Man 2 costume: Black mack/anorack/coat
Dark Trousers
Smart black shoes
Black trilby hat


Girl costume: Summer dress in bright colours
Long coat
Small pump shoes
Scarf



Props

Two brown parcel bags

Two/Three family photos


A bag of herbs/spices – supposed drugs

by Jasmine Dinnage & Finbarr Pine

The Music.

the music was found by Jasmine Dinnage

'I found 2 of the pieces of music that we are using on freesound.org this website has a range of sound effects which we were able to use.
They music is part of the Creative Commons Sampling License.
This means we are allowed to use the music for sampling and creative transformations. This also means that we are allowed to distribute our film with this music for noncommercial purposes.'

Film Title.

Our Film is called Ricochet because our film flashes back and forth between the past and the future, but also between the different views of all the characters. It also helps show the differences and similarities of each characters nature.

Shot List.

1. Shot one black screen of Gareth talking about eerie and suspicious things.

2. Establishing - Long - panning shot of the market and at the end of the pan zooms in to a clock tower.

3. Cuts to black ‘heart beat’

4. Cuts to a eerie street lamp and slowly zooms out to see Cameron walk past the camera

5. Medium panning shot of Cameron turning the corner in to the marketplace

6. Medium panning Shot of Gareth passing the package 1 to man 1

7. Cameron walks in to camera – camera cuts.

8. Medium panning shot of Gareth handing over package and saying ‘Here is the item.’

9. A long panning shot of the girl walking over the bridge.

10. A close up of her face as she walks along a street (camera should be over the other side of the road as cars in the foreground seem to automatically cut.)

11. Then a close up of man 1 getting out of a taxi out side the train station (shot should be from out side the taxi, looking in to the taxi at man 1’s face as he gets out.)

12. Long shot of man 1 getting out of the car and girl can be seen in the back ground (within this shot man 1 walks in to the camera to cut.

13. Medium pan Shot of man 2 as he faces towards the girl walking towards the train station.

14. Establishing long shot that starts in the roof of the train station and pans down to an empty seat that the young girl comes and sits on as soon as the camera is still.

15. Camera pans very quickly after the young girl looks towards the left as man 1 walks in to the frame.

16. The camera zooms in with the gaining distance of man 1 walking off to look at the clock and move to the right back in to the young girls view.

17. Cuts to black (credits)

18. Close up of the near side of the young girls face (still sitting) with man 1 in the background walking towards the young girl / exit of the train station.

19. Close up of the girl standing up almost in to man 1 as he walks near.

20. Medium shot from the other side as the hit in to each other and both let go of their packages.

21. Close up of the packages hitting the floor, and the two characters picking the wrong ones up.

22. Close zoom out shot of man 2 standing and looking shiftily around the exit of the train station. (Zoom out until you can see the young girl walking towards the exit/ man 2)

23. Close up of the two characters knocking shoulders

24. Extreme close up of the two characters faces (eye to eye)

25. Close up of the Characters walk away from each other (shot should be from the other side as the young girl walks in to the camera as it cuts.

26. Cuts to black (with credits)

27. Medium shot of man 2 tapping man 1 on the shoulder and taking the package. (Shot from behind the two men.

28. Close up of the package being opened by man 2, from the front (slow zoom out to view both the characters watching.

29. Cuts to an extreme close up of the package being opened from above/ in-between the two characters,

30. A close up of a photograph being pulled out of the package from the front slowly zooming in to an extreme close up of the face on the photograph (should be a recognisable photo of the young girl in the film)

31. Panning shot of the two characters debating what has happened to the original package.

32. Over the shoulder shot of man 2 talking to man 1

33. Over the shoulder shot of man 1 talking to man 2

34. Zoom in to man 2’s face. As he finishes the conversation. (Medium shot to a close shot)

35. Cuts to a shot of man 1 looking in to the ceiling of the room in disbelief.

36. Flashes of stills of the last minute of film

37. Shot of the two men realising the photos that they possess are of the person who they have both seen and recognise (this should be a medium 2 shot of both the characters realising this and both looking over there shoulders towards the exit of the train station.)

38. Black screen that flickers the word ricochet.

Shot list: By Finbarr Pine.

Matilda - is our young girl character that gets mixed up with the wrong people in our film. we have used this actor as she comes across as a venerable young girl who could be in danger. which is exactly what we wanted for this part.

Gareth - this actor we found on a local market who owns this spice store that is very eerie and comes across as a actor that would think he is above the law.

David Martin Hill - this actor we used because he is a very mysterious looking man, and easierly represented as eerie.

Cameron Button - is our final character and is one of the main ones. He is very weary of what he is doing and is always watching what he is doing. This brings a whole new level of nervousness and weariness to the audience.

Digital Screen Network

What is digital screen network?

A £12 million investment to equip 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the UK with digital projection technology to give UK audiences much greater choice.

How can it help inderpendant producers and exhibitors like picturehouse?

Because it allows exibitors like picturehouse to have a wider range of films as they do not cost as much. Digital screening cuts the cost of releasing films. (a digital copy costs around one tenth of a 35mm print). Also the quality of the films when copied from the original source never fades.

What will it mean for audiences?

It means that audiences will be able to go and see more films at the same cinemas as the prices will be reduced as the film cost is a lot less than it is on a film real.

How does it impact on YOUR film consumption?

It lets me view a wide range of films, and a lot more frequently as the prices of viewing films would be cheaper. I would also then be able to see independent films that I might not have been able to view before.

What will this technology also provide cinemas? (audiences/alternative viewing)

This technology will bring in bigger audiences and therefore larger profits and a wider varied audience.

What can you suggest this might mean for other technologies?

The technologies used before digital networking such as a film reels as hardly any films are created on it anymore and therefore not used as much.

shooting schedule

Wednesday 10th - film on the market with the stall and the walk across the bridge, also some shots at the train station, maybe the taxi.
Thursday 11th - train station shots, getting out of the taxi, inside train station
Wednesday 17th - rest of the train station shots including the switching of parcels
Thursday 18th - final parts with the train station and when all characters leave th train station

How does ownership impact upon a film companies working practices?

Ownership of a film company holds a huge impact on a film companies working practices, it gives them any choice of what the film’s budget and what the theme of the film can be. For example working title are owned by universal but are aloud to make any film up to the budget of $25 million, but if they need more funding than $25 million then they must ask universals permission. This freedom is granted as the films that working title create are of very low risk to loose money, also being part of Universal studios brings Working Title Financial Security, a share of the profits from studio canal

The ownership has an impact on genre of the films that are produced by a certain company. For example ‘Working title’ is owned by universal, this is a good thing for the small film producers of ‘Working title’ as they can take advantage of, universals other ‘connections’ such as being able to use there music labels, so they will be able to use well known soundtracks throughout there film. Working Title use the same actors/ actresses (like Hugh Grant) for most of their films giving the same sort of genres through out their films. Working title have tried to create a different genre of films, an example of this is there own independent film company called ‘WT2’ this is the opportunity that they had been waiting for, now they can develop and attempt different genres of films, even if they are not effective for profit.

Working title construct there films to be represent Britain, in a strong and positive way. The representation of Britain in Richard Curtis films for working title is referred to as ‘Curtisland’ this is undermining how Richard Curtis has made Britain seem like. Richard Curtis makes Britain seem like heaven on earth with his characters seeming like they are angles, composing the British public to all seem like this, which is certainly as far from the truth. Warp Film Company is not designed to show a positive outlook on Britain. This is thanks to the way that Britain is illustrated. Britain is illustrated in warp films as a generally harsh environment with crime and violence.

Over all being under ownership has a large impact on a film company, as they have financial security especially if big companies such as universal own them. They have shared profits with other companies owned by the same company. Being an independent film company does not significantly mean that this company is going to be unsuccessful, just aspires that they do well and can do just as well but do not have that cushion in case something goes wrong financially, they do not have the connexions they would have if they were part of a branch of companies such as, warp films who have a link with film 4 which helps with their distribution.