How Does Your Product use or Challenge Conventions? And How Does it Represent Social Groups or Issues?
How Does the Product Engage with Audiences and How Would it Be Distributed as a Real World Media Text?
How Did your Production Skills Develop Throughout this project?
How Did You Integrate Technologies In this Project?
The Adobe Editing Suite
The cut scene involving a lot of sounds
added together
The shot where I broke up the long shot
with small cuts
I used a lot of sound and audio effects from folders on Adobe and the school media drive, and this really was a library in which I could do almost anything I imagined would help the film, and it did, helping to create a compelling world in which this all could've happened by managing to create a realistic array of sounds. I also used the speed\duration tool in Adobe Premier Pro to help speed up some action clips to help raise the intensity of the action, which is smooth and works rather well. I also integrated some cuts in-between long shots in the fight scene to help push the action along.
In this psychological thriller, Christopher Nolan presented a film completely different to anything audiences had seen before, and used conventions to a new effect. It uses close-ups to to show what is happening throughout the scene, and to show us how the scene is playing out (which is, of course, backwards). An example of this is the development of the picture of the man who has been shot, fading away instead of developing. This forces us to focus in on what exactly is happening, and adds a claustrophobia to the whole atmosphere, an unsettling feel permeating off the shot.
The use of a close-up to show how some events play out in
the scene helps adds a mystery to exactly what is happening.
In this opening scene, we also experience a massive question which is asked in psychological thrillers, which is, is this set in the real world or set in the mind? From the first scene we are introduced to a way of editing which makes us immediately suspect what is happening. Obviously time does not go backwards, so are we seeing this character's memories? Is the character the narrator here? We ask these questions simply by the editing, and that is what a psychological thriller should do, and Nolan uses that to help build the audience's interest in the opening sequence.
Mirrors are a huge symbol and convention of the psychological thriller genre, used to reflect the person's inner self and explore their 'dark side'. Nolan takes this convention and twists it in a unique way, using a photograph to reflect the main character's inner self. We open on a shot of a photograph of a person who has been shot. Immediately we are opened up to the main character's actions and ways of dealing with a situation, and see a glimpse into his motives, telling us that this character is inherently violent and brutal, and we haven't even seen his face yet.
Here is a clip of the opening:
The Bourne Identity:
In Doug Liman's incredible thriller, he uses a lot of conventions in the thriller genre to help set up his film. One is the lighting of the opening, with lots of dark shadows and unclear images, the water obscuring vision, this method is used to create mystery and makes the audience question what is happening. It could also be seen as a way into Bourne's mind, reflecting the murkiness of his memory and past.
The shadows surround Bourne, reflecting how he is
shrouded in mystery.
Another convention the director uses is the use of shots to portray Bourne, usually using a range from medium wides to extreme wides to show Bourne's situation. These are used in action thriller to express clearly the action taking place or in other thrillers to express loneliness of a character. In this scene Liman uses it more for the loneliness factor, helping to show the audience Bourne's drifting and loneliness. It, again, makes the audience question the situation, wanting answers from the small teaser of an opening.
Here is a clip of the opening:
Drive:
This neo-noir crime thriller by director Nicolas Winding Refn has a very subtle yet important quality, opening with a rule that the audience needs to know for the rest of the film. It uses a quality that is very important to neo-noir thrillers, which is the lighting. The tonal values that ooze from this shot are soft yet dark, with a lot of difference between light and dark. This can be symbolic of the danger of the driver's job, how he is in a sea of danger yet he stands and prospers in this setting. This entices the viewer into the intentions of the driver, and makes the viewer want to know more about him and his little business he runs.
This picture expresses the tonal values of this scene.
Another thriller convention Refn uses in this scene is the use of diegetic sound in the scene, a very slow, subtle beat vibrating throughout the scene. This trope is used in thrillers to help build tension and sometimes to add an unease to a scene, and this is definitely present in this clip. The sound is almost frantic in nature, and this can reflect the nature of the "five minute window" he gives to his clients, and this can help give the audience a glimpse into the frantic nature of his job for his clients, that time is ticking.
In this fight between Barons Quinn and the Widow, the producers have quite cleverly subvert the views of gender that a lot of shows have. Usually the female is presented as a love interest in need of safety and protection, but here they are presented as someone who stands up to the male and takes them on with equal skill. The use of keeping the camera focused on both characters and not just the male helps show how well matched they are in battle, the use of the camera facing down on both of them at 0:49 showing weaknesses in both characters. Both wearing dark colours gives a subtle power to both, again not raising the male above the female in appearance, but showing both to stand out from the pristinely white-washed background. The editing allows focus on both characters to recover from injuries and enjoy success, which helps add this overall balance of power and skill to the clip, the audio full of diegetic sound amplifying both character's successes and failures. Overall, there is a massive balance in each character in this scene which is a huge subversion of the gender trope of men having more power than women.
A shot which expresses the balance of character domination in the scene with both characters being given an overhead shot.
2) Ethnicity
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
In this scene from the 1962 classic, there is a huge underlying theme of racism running through it. The lack of MCUs and any type of close-ups of Mayella helps give us a separation from him, with the use of MCUs of the woman helping us to feel aligned to her views. The editing of the scene quickly passes Mayella and instead lingers on the woman and how she reacts to the scene, which forces the viewer to observe the scene from her perspective as we witness her reactions more than Mayella. The lack of dialogue from Mayella and the overwhelming cries of the woman also pound us with her voice and views, dumbing down Mayella's opinions and perspective. The clothes that Mayella wears gives him a much more poor, lower-class status, but the dress of the woman seems much more elegant and more higher-class, which gives her a power of status over Mayella, which at the time was common for these races to be organised in such a way status-wise.
The use of focusing on the back of Mayella helps show how much power this ethnicity has over the woman.
3) Identity
The Bourne Identity (2002)
In this clip from this 2002 thriller, it is a key moment in exploring the topic of Bourne's identity. We are shown different elements of Bourne's past with the bullet wounds and the holographic display item. All of this is shown with uses of dark lighting, only some small glowing lights showing the audience what is happening, displaying how shrouded Bourne's identity is and how there are only a few things which point him in the way of finding this identity. A lot of the shots throughout of Bourne are MCUs and close ups, helping to express the confusion he feels about his identity, the shakiness of the shots also showing us how unstable Bourne is as a character in this moment. The editing throughout is slow and observant, taking its time to give us a minimalistic picture of who Bourne is and what state he is in. And the audio of the piece is very raw, not hiding any sounds such as the thunder rumbling, which shows the rawness and simplicity of how we see Bourne, and how we only have a very small idea of who he actually is, a very raw picture.
Close Up of Bourne trying to take in the situation around him, a huge feeling of disorienfad etation is around this character
4) Romance
La La Land (2016)
The song 'City of Stars' in this hit film really does catch perfectly the dream-like romance between Sebastian and Mia. The tracking camera, almost as if it is simply observing what is happening, gives an ethereal flow to the actions of Sebastian as he dances and sings his way around the wharf. The audio is fully non-diegetic, again lifting the audience out of reality, helping the audience observe a flow throughout the sequence, their relationship seemingly in a more dreamy state than real. There is only one transition to another shot in this clip, a fade at 0:48 which again carries this ethereal feel, a soft transition to Mia not a harsh cut, their romance soft and building, seemingly like no troubles. The lighting is made up of purples and greens, and these colours do not clash with one another, they fade into each other softly and seamlessly. There is a certain encompassing of green in the second half of the clip, which could represent their love wrapping around them more and more, yet it is still soft.
The green lighting can represent how they are basked in love and romance
5) Age
The Breakfast Club (1985)
In this excerpt from the classic film, there is a definite contrast of ages portrayed. There is a definite separation portrayed through the use of different sized shots, with the teacher shot mostly with medium shots, but a lot of MCUs for the students, which helps represent the power the teacher has over them, encompassing more space of the room. The audio for the scene is completely diegetic, planting us in the now, the awkward silences helping to align us with what the students are feeling, which is already a sickness of being there, representing the childish age they are in. the editing is slow, observing each character's reaction to what happening around them, which represents the different ways each age group reacts with the same situations. The mis-en-scene is quite bland, and is very simplistic, which can represent how the students are feeling at the time, which is most likely boredom.
The focusing on different reactions really helps show how each age group reacts to the situation
6) Class
Blade Runner (1982)
In this iconic moment from the philosophical sci-fi, there is a huge representation of the balancing of classes. Deckard, in the universe the film is set in, would be considered as part of a higher class than Batty, yet here the camera is presenting them in either a close-up, MCU or Batty as the more dominant, representing the balancing of these two classes. The audio is a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic, which could possibly represent the mingling of the two classes, and once again the balancing of power. The editing is slow yet not lingering, which can help show the progression to the ultimate balancing of classes through a steady climb towards that point, which is when the speech 'Tears in the Rain' starts. The lighting is blue and hazy, which can represent, however, the haziness of where the power of which class lies, asking the question of who really has more control over this situation?
The use of haze and blue is used to great effect in this clip
