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

When conducting research for our opening we created other blog posts exploring and discussing the typical features of a psychological thriller and a normal film opening, linked below.

Typical features of a psychological thriller

Typical features of a film opening

Production Title

This is our production company's opening title we cut it down and added sound effects, we sped up the film just as a brief recognition of our company which is seen in most film openings.

Graces bruising

After screening our first draft we were informed that the bruises on our hostage looked unrealistic and the makeup used shimmered, making it look unprofessional. Therefore when re-filming i used different techniques in order to make Graces bruises look more realistic; i used different eye shadows which had no shimmer and was able to blend purples greens and browns in order to create the right effect. We chose to apply a bruise to these areas of our hostage because the neck is commonly seen as one of the most vulnerable places.

Final Storyboard

This is the final draft of our storyboard after completely updating our storyline.

Update

Filming Schedule

In order to make the most use out of our time we have created a schedule to follow when filming:

1:30	Arrive at location, prepare the actors – makeup, costume etc…
2:00	Begin to film the beginning shots of John.
2:45	Experiment with ways in which the psychopath can seem delirious (eg stumbling)
3:00	Film the shots with both Grace and John
3:45	Shoot some shots of the outside of our location in order to show isolation

Actor Scouting

After shooting our initial film opening, as a group we decided that it would be much more engaging for the audience and almost more realistic in order to have a younger role play the hostage. Currently, our hostage actress is a middle- aged woman and we felt that was not appropriate for the genre as the usual target are young girls as they are vulnerable. Therefore, we attended a year 12 drama lesson during school hours so that we could scout for new actresses to play the role whilst they rehearsed.

Sound

 

This screenshot shows our build up of sound in the film opening. We hope to add more after re-filming, we used our own foley sounds (such as the plate smash) as well as the inbuilt sounds from iMovie with no copyright issues.

First Draft With Directors Commentary

This is the first draft of our film opening. We have included a directors commentary in which we discuss the things we need to change about the opening and the feedback we got from our first screening.

Costuming

Costuming of the Psychopath

For our psychopath, we thought it would be suitable if he was wearing fairly ordinary clothes, as this shows that he seems like an ordinary man, who is only insane on the inside. We decided that he should also wear fairly plain clothing so he doesn't look like he cares a lot about how he looks. Plus, he is wearing dark shades of clothing, as this gives connotations of evil and fear, opposed to him wearing yellow, which has connotations of happiness and sunshine. However, some psychopaths in films do wear white, which contradicts the connotation of purity, so makes the audience feel uneasy, as well as adding to the use of plain clothing.

When looking at other thrillers, the psychopaths similarly match this costuming:

Shutter Island



Henry: Portrait of a serial Killer

Se7en




Fatal Attraction



Hostage

After receiving the feedback from our first draft screening, we have decided to change our hostage. We will now be using a younger actor with better makeup and costuming. Our current hostage is a woman who is wearing very warm clothes and doesn't seem too bruised.

 

Above, the hostage is shown with a head injury, we hope to improve our makeup when re-filming in order to make it look more realistic.

 

In all the examples above, the hostage is somehow restricted in their movement. All of them have their hands tied up and some of them are gagged, this is a common convention which we will use when we re-film.

As for the clothing, all the hostages are wearing clothes which reveal a fair amount of flesh, this makes the women seem more vulnerable and at risk. In most of the clips used above the hostages tilt back their heads to show their necks, the neck is a very vulnerable part of a women's body and can be used to show their inferiority.