Evaluation - Rhea Clemente

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

Hamlin is a psychological thriller following the main codes and conventions of the genre. It is quite similar to the production Seven (1995) only the violent killings and kidnappings are occurring in the small English village of Hamlin. The audience is immediately introduced to the situation, with a scared young girl running through the woods being chased by the antagonist, a hooded figure creating fast paced action identical to The Matrix (1999). Eventually she is at the mercy of the antagonist and is taken into a basement where she is ritually sacrificed. A main convention which we have adopted in our thriller is not showing everything to the audience. This leaves them guessing as they are immediately hooked by the intrigue furthermore it is an enigma code. Additionally with the use of parallel editing, having two scenes run parallel to one another. Firstly a family moving into an English village and the other a young girl is being chased in the woods. It confuses the audience even more as they are of different periods in time. However they are connected through the estate agent who is also the hooded figure. Adding such a twist into the narrative is a very typical convention of a thriller.

Our thriller uses a typical antagonists and protagonists, showing a binary opposition between the characters. The antagonists mind set is typically wrong as he kidnaps children and sacrifices them. Although the estate agent is able to kidnap the children, showing his strength he does have a disability being an atypical characteristic. Although the estate agent is perceived as jubilant he hides his sinister characteristics. There is a bird’s eye point of view shot of him looking down upon the family portraying how superior he is. Our protagonist is made the victim and as they/she is taken by the antagonist. The protagonist is furthermore typically shown as inferior to the antagonist.

When editing, we intertwined quick shots with one another of two different scenes to create tension and helped it build. When the little girl is running we decided to create tension by using the camera hand-held as it created a sense of urgency and action to the opening. Also when shooting the young girl victim. We used extreme close ups, so her fear expressed was emphasized for the audience to see. The music created a tense atmosphere as well as creating energetic action as the constant heart beat portrayed a pounding fear. Our locations were not typical of thrillers as opposed to exciting locations as we chose everyday locations. This helped us show that this kidnapping could happen in average quiet locations. Seven (1995) has influenced our work in the style that we have chosen to adapt within our sequence. Similarly we used quick cuts and very atmospheric music keeping the audience on edge. Furthermore our storylines contain a twisted killer similar to Seven (1995).

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller represents the males and females to be very stereotypical. Firstly we have the young girl being chased through the woods. She is portrayed as being vulnerable and weak through the sound of her heavy breathing. She is tied up in the basement and unable to free herself suggesting that she is powerless emphasizing her age. Through her pink night dress and her hair being in plaits it provided her with typical feminine characteristics. By using a young female it makes the audience feel sympathetic towards her. She is shown to be careless and naive as she is captured by the hooded figure.

The family is represented as a typical middle class nuclear family of White British origin. The father, Chris in the family is seen as the dominant sex between the couple as he is shown driving the family car. He is revealed to be a very typical man as he shows his aggression towards his children, also portraying his short temper resulting in him getting out of the car. He is also portrayed as the head of the family by introducing himself and his family to Mr Griffiths the estate agent. Sarah on the other hand is portrayed as the caring wife who is able to calm her husband down showing that they have a very close loving relationship. This is many showed through the use of two-shots.

However the representation of the estate agent is not stereotypical however he does appear normal to a certain extent. Through the estate agent being Oriental Asian it helped portray the binary opposites between the protagonists and the antagonist, the estate agent. He wears dark colours such as greys and black representing death, and him as a villain. Furthermore his disability emphasized his evil character. Usually characters with disabilities are seen as frightening as they are not seen as the “norm” in society often. This is similarly seen in the 300 (2006) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Moreover the estate agent had moustache which helped portray him as a sinister man.

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

Hamlin would unlikely be funded by a major Hollywood film studio like Warner Brothers or Paramount because it is an English independent film. These are quite unpopular in the film industry today. A popular organisation that could help fund our production would be the UK Film council. They partially fund low budget films (around 50%). Others include the Prince’s Trust, National Lottery and the BFI. Hamlin would attract these institutions as it contains an interesting storyline using predominantly British actors and settings. Universal have worked in relation with Working Title and have co-produced many successful films such as Bridget Jones (2001) and Billy Elliot (2000). These are some examples of successful British films that ours could imitate. This could be done by getting funding for Hamlin through the UK film council because Hamlin has an interesting storyline with an issue of kidnappings common in our society.

Furthermore our thriller could be suitable for a one-off television drama that could be shown late at night. We believe that Hamlin’s BBFC rating would be rated a 15, because of the violence and therefore it wouldn’t be shown before 9pm. Hamlin is an independent film created with a limited budget and therefore would likely be made only for TV or DVD release. The advantage of this would be that it can reach audiences around Britain in the comfort of their own home. If an independent UK distribution company were to be interested in it, it would have to compete with other films with higher statuses. Additionally it is very difficult for many UK films to be released and unfortunately a lot of them never make it. However ours has a unique selling point as it has a different interpretation of the well known story of the Pied Piper.

Our production would definitely attract the attention of audiences between the ages of 15-35+ according to our research. Hamlin could help show that kidnappings are an important rising issue in our society, for example Madeline McCann. It can give awareness to the issue as it is a sensitive subject. There are some opportunities that could arise such as sequels or using the film and turning it into a late night TV series. This has happened similarly with the film 10 Things I Hate About You, and has now become a popular sitcom on ABC Family in the USA. Also there could also be spin off products such as t-shirts bringing awareness to the issue shown within Hamlin.

4) Who would be the target audience of your media product?

Our target audience for Hamlin would be from the ages 15-35+. From our audience research we came to the conclusion that mainly people tended to see thrillers BBFC rated at 15. Therefore we decided to make our thriller targeted towards mid teens and onwards. Our target audience revealed to us that they preferred thrillers that were psychological thrillers. Also they preferred to see fast pace action. Very popular preferences were that they liked the feeling of confusion as well as the building up of tension. We have portrayed this as we have an unknown character immediately seen running through the woods dressed for bed. To help build tension we focused on using really atmospheric and eerie music. We relied on the use of short takes intertwined within one another to help build tension. A common dislike which we discovered was that our audience didn’t think exotic locations would be the right setting for a thriller as a typical setting for the genre. Taking into consideration our target audience views we carefully selected locations commonly found in everyday life. By having this it hints that these sinister events could even happen in the most common places without your knowledge. It helps tell the narrative in the way that these killings are happening in this small, quiet English village.

The BBFC classification we are hoping to achieve is a 15. We believe it would be rated as such because it has elements of violence however the injury is not dwelled on. For example the killing is not shown but simply seen as a shadow on the wall. Furthermore blood isn’t a main component in any of the scenes showing any gory images. Also there is no nudity within the thriller and only reasonable use of strong language. Our thriller is most like Seven (1995) as we have adapted a style similar. It shows quick shots of an unknown event and character, confusing the audience. We have achieved this affect by having sinister people kidnapping a child in black hooded cloaks. Additionally anyone interested in the Harry Potter films may be interest in Hamlin as we incorporated a mysterious cult similar to the “Death Eaters” found in the Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (2005).

5) How did you attract/ address your particular audience?

From our research evidence it showed that mainly our audience preferred thrillers that were from the point of view of the protagonist. Also they preferred thrillers set in normal locations such as a typical English village. Additionally the most preferred type of thriller was psychological thrillers, which is what Hamlin is. We have also attempted to attract our audience through actors. Firstly by using a young girl in the opening sequence the audience is able to feel sympathetic to the girl as she is being chased relentlessly. With the family we tried to represent them as a typical family with the male being the dominant sex hopefully relating to a wide range of audiences. This is emphasized through their clothes as the young girl dresses in pink, and also has her hair in plaits. With the estate agent we wanted to achieve an intimidating look even though his jubilant manner contradicted his look. He has bold framed glasses as well as a moustache, while wearing colours such as black and grey which helped connote an evil man. As there is the use of violence within the thriller it will mainly attract older audiences.

The audience is asked to sympathize with the young girl, as we positioned them from the view point of the killer for example during the big close up before she is taken. It was used to show her fear and how helpless she was. Also some bird’s eye view shots were used to show that she was in a very vulnerable position. Additionally using many hand held shots while running through the woods to create a sense of urgency. The woods scene is shot mainly from the antagonist’s point of view as the audience is then able to identify that this person is the killer. Throughout the audience is kept in the shadow as to who the main hooded figure is. This creates suspense and confusion as the audience then starts questioning who the person is similarly to Phone Booth (2002) and The Bourne Identity (2002). The audience only sees very short quick shots of the little girl as we cross cut with a couple driving to a village, using quick cuts adding to the suspense and sinister and building tension. Additionally the constant heartbeat and sinister music was an important element in creating suspense as it is in every thriller, it mimics the girls fear and emphasizes it, with hand held shots drawing the audience into the action.

From our audience feedback, the reception from our thriller was good. In terms of camera work the shots were level and smooth. Additionally the audience thought that the sound was clear, that was down to editing. A main positive was that the majority of the audience realised that the black and white scenes were in the past with the minority of 5% who didn’t. Additionally 95% of the audience understood that the estate agent was also the killer which was a vital link that we needed communicated. It concludes that we were able to get our ideas across to the audience in a clear way and not over complicating things. In terms of mise en scene we did very well. 100% of the respondents said that our costumes, locations and actors were appropriate in creating a realistic atmosphere; this shows we were successful in this area. Overall 70% of people rated Hamlin four stars out of five. This shows that it was successful with our target audience.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

We mastered the camera equipment well but a problem we encountered was the use of the Canon XM2 lenses. Trying to achieve a pull focus was difficult as it was a matter of turning the lenses to a specific spot and not beyond. Although it’s not an obvious pull focus it is in our sequence during the basement scene. However for a good effect a very smooth action and sharp focus would have been used but within the rest of the sequence our shots are all in focus. During the car scene glares were picked up from the light shining onto the actor’s jacket. During editing we were unable to remove this and decided not to use the shot. Another problem was the tripod given to us, as it didn’t have a spirit level. This disadvantaged us as we had to continually estimate whether the shots were level. However we did achieve shots that were usable. Our location was next to a pub which caused many problems as it was very noisy. Also many cars used the small road we were filming on preventing us filming for a period of time. However the noise did lessen making us able to film without any people shouting to each other in the background.

In terms of location filming we found that there were many complications, however we overcame them with the use of the college equipment. For our interior basement scene, a lot of the shots were grainy. This was because we were filming in a dark room with a lot of black clothing and minimal lighting. We were able to fix this by using the lilliput lights to enhance the lighting without it looking too bright. We also used scrim over the lights to create softer lighting.

When using Final Cut Pro it allowed us to achieve a wide range of effects for our final sequence. Firstly we changed shots into black and white to connote the past. Additionally we were able to use the shots from two scenes and intercut them in an affective parallel editing sequence helping to build mystery. A problem we had with some of our shots was that the gun microphone picked up mainly the background noises and not the dialogue. We were able to overcome this by making the dialogue louder, and adding an affects track of traffic across the shots. In future we could get closer to the actors when saying their lines. We use multiple tracks of music which helped create an atmospheric track. We used a heartbeat with a classical style piece of music complimenting the picture, creating a sinister mood. Furthermore we used many transitions within the opening titles such as a fade up from back starting the sequence and a fade to black ending it. The use of slugs in between the opening titles allowed us some time to fade each shot in and out smoothly. Also we were able to use inserts as well as animating them with Adobe After Effects. It allowed us to create affects on our inserts as well as different text fonts and colours that would be appropriate to our thriller.

With blogging we learned how to create new posts which contained information in relation to our thriller. We created a house style so that our blog looked professionally. Additionally we were able to add stills from our thriller helping us to make reference in certain places. We were able to create a link which would enable people to see our final product.

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

While planning for our preliminary exercise we had some problems communicating our ideas to each other. Eventually we were able to compromise. Filming our exercise was harder than we perceived. Firstly we had difficulties remembering how to set the camera and tripod up. The main problem we had was matching our shots together so it would allow is to achieve continuity editing. We overcame this by using the roll tool which helped us to a certain extent. Also seeing as we lacked in actors we had to act within the sequence. This disadvantaged us and as a result of this we moved at a very slow pace. Another problem we realised only until editing was that our compositions were incorrect. I believe this was because we were inexperienced with the equipment. When editing we had a few problems matching the actions as we had continuity problems while filming. However the editing process was quite straight forward.

During our actual thriller production we had fewer problems as a result of learning from our earlier mistakes. We were more organised as each person on our team knew what they needed to do when filming. Our group produced a very good project schedule, research documents and script development. By creating in depth work we were able to gain a deeper understanding of the equipment as well as knowing what we were going to do on the day of filming. We were able to overcome any problems before they could occur as we had thought everything through. We had the right locations, good actors, props and costumes to produce a professional thriller opening. Furthermore we were able to achieve better compositions while filming as well as covering each sequence from different angles, giving us a lot to work with during editing. It allowed us to match the actions easily compared to the preliminary exercise. During our post production stage we had less difficulty and improved increasingly compared to our first time editing. We were able to find good music which created the right atmospheric mood for a thriller sequence, for example the constant heart beat.

Overall I believe our group worked very well as a team and our strength was that we were organised in pre-production which benefited us in many ways working similarly to professionals. Overall we felt a lot more confident in using the production equipment as well as our new blogging skills, which we are still developing. We also believe that our product was quite successful meeting the particular brief and also it contains a degree of professional work within our final product, allowing us to gain the skills needed for any further work within filming.