AS Media Thriller Opening- ‘Oblivious’- EvaluationBY ASHLEY BANGER

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

One way our product uses real forms and conventions of thriller films in todays world is that we have used a dark colour pallet in the opening part of our introduction, along with an overall low key lighting. Traditionally in thriller films, or films of other genres too, a colour pallet mainly using darker colours such as blacks and browns connotes more reality to the Mise en scene, and portrays the scene to the audience as more mysterious and bleak. This is why we chose to use dark colour in the bomb assembling scene; as this was the main thrilling part of the video, we needed to make sure the audience was hooked and felt uncomfortable during this scene.

As you can see from the 2 screenshots below, the shot from Seven (1995) and Oblivious are both using low key lighting. Our aim of this was to draw in the audience, supported by the fact that with our lighting you can never fully see our main characters face properly, keeping things mysterious and unsettling. Seven was one of our main films we used research on, so we wanted to try as much as possible to utilise this research into our opening.

I think another way our thriller product uses real life forms and conventions of real media products is in the way that we used music in our thriller opening. In most modern thriller films, the score in the background is either fast paced, most likely to be used in chase scenes or scenes that are keeping the audience on the edge of their seat. Or the music can be more atmospheric, it’s still playing in the background but it’s not right in your face; the audience are focusing more on what is happening on screen.

As our opening scene involves the protagonist assembling a bomb, we decided that the music should be a more ambient, atmospheric piece so that the sound doesn’t distract the audience from what’s happening on screen. Therefore after several drafts of using a more fast paced song with hip-hop elements to it, we decided to change it to a more unsettling atmospheric piece. This is so that the audience was focusing more on what our character was doing with the bomb compared to being more distracted by the sound. We feel this new piece does this finely and we are really happy with it.

I believe one way that we have challenged forms and conventions of real media products is in the way we have used our main character as a Christian. Yet he is a brown person. This mixes up racial and religious stereotypes in films, most people would probably associate Joseph with Muslim, or Hinduism or Sikhism because of the colour of his skin. The idea of radicalism is also less commonly talked about and associated with the Christianity religion, which is why we chose to make Joseph a Christian instead of any of those other religions listed. This signifies Joseph is purer of a person, and believes in good things, like stated in the religion of Christianity. However we twist these expectations and make him a man of violence and terror.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think the first way our media product represents particular social groups is the way we use Joseph as a symbol of the people who are prone to radicalisation and who are turning to radicalism in their lives. Joseph is a teenage student who goes to school and works hard, to everybody he is normal and is just living his life. However in secret he is working to become a terrorist, and plans to inflict danger upon other people, in this case the people in his school.

We feel that this character was good to represent the people you hear about in the news today, how they were unsuspecting when it comes to joining forces of terrorism, and how they are travelling to such places like Syria and Iraq to join organisations such as ISIS. The main reason this symbol works is because the people around the person are definitely unaware of their secret activities and beliefs, such as with Joseph in the world of Oblivious and real life people in 2015 today. The way Joseph’s classmates interact with him also adds to the hidden identity bit of his, they have no idea what he’s talking about when he states he was working on a project of his, and in general they just think he is a bit of a loser and a school nerd, when in fact he’s something very different.

The other way our media product represents particular social groups is the way we used background people in the scene of Joseph’s school in the classroom he enters.

They are all the regular, everyday students who attend school and want to get a good education and do well in life. This can be seen in the way they question Joseph as to why he’s so late; they think school should be a main priority of Joseph’s and can’t see why he would need to be this late to lesson. However Joseph was caught up in his secret life of radicalism.

We also used these extra characters in the scene so that Joseph truly looked like he blended in in the world of Oblivious, he very much looks like he is just a less popular school student but is there to learn and doesn’t care about if people don’t treat him as well as others.

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

I think social media and video sharing giant YouTube will distribute our product, perhaps by some small, independent film distributing companies with a YouTube channel. This will be advantageous as there will be no money or financial system required, there won’t be any external copyright issues due to all our material being made by us. They would want to distribute our product to help draw in the audiences that like to see independent thriller films, or features, that are also willing to see the more unusual themes of young people involved in terrorism or the process in being radicalised. Also on YouTube videos are extremely widely available , instantly ready for audiences all over the world to enjoy and view. Furthermore, small time film distributing companies based on social media giant Facebook may also want to distribute our product. This is due to the fact that Facebook is one of the best sites, if not the best for sharing around video links and pictures all around the world, and all the film distributing companies are aware of this. So if the small time film distributor does put it onto Facebook, they may get many views and shares to raise awareness for Oblivious, this is also a free process and won’t be affected by any copyright issues. Oblivious is also less appealing to the main, general audience, so having the option to view it on YouTube or Facebook is more suitable as the audience is aware of what they’re watching, and then they can enjoy it more.

In addition, I think if we had a greater budget and scale of production, small time film distribution companies may directly distribute our product, but on a small scale. Because the scale of distribution is small, we wouldn’t have to worry about the audience not wanting to see this product as much. This is because they know it is a highly independent product and it’s only being aimed at small segments of people. So an advantage of small scale distribution is not having to worry about lots of people accepting the product, because smaller numbers of people only will see it. However this is harder to achieve, as there are many independent films produced a lot of the time, so competition in a business as such is tough. The reason why the small distribution company would distribute our product is because they realise it’s tackling less commonly used themes and ideas, and perhaps audiences want to see things as such. They would also be aware of the real problems in real life facing radicalisation, so that maybe Oblivious can help show people this hidden world.

 Who would be the audience for your media product?

One main form of our target audience is viewers that are more open to less common, more controversial subjects explored in the media product. This is because Oblivious is more controversial as a thriller film in the way radicalisation and terrorism are the main themes, but audiences who remain keen to watch it despite this are the suitable target audience for Oblivious.

In terms of the audiences age, we feel that Oblivious should mainly be watched by people aged 16-24+. Of both genders. This is due to the fact that Oblivious is more of a mature product with themes and ideas that need to be properly thought about and considered. We don’t want people of younger ages watching the product and then taking away the wrong ideas from watching it; we want it to be watched and then the audience can fully see what’s happening with the character and ideas in the film. We also feel Oblivious, if it was a full film, would be too explicit in terms of controversial content, such as the radicalisation side of Oblivious, to show to people of younger ages, which is why we feel the 16-24+ target audience is suitable and effective. We need our audience to take this thriller introduction seriously, due to the fact that similar situations are occurring in real life today, as seen from occurring news stories about ISIS and people leaving to go to Syria. The acts of violence and terror presented in our thriller are also very criminal; nobody should be watching this and getting the wrong message out of it due to the viewer being less mature or a younger age than required to see the feature. As a result the minimum age we feel the viewer should be to watch the product is 16.

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

One way we attracted the audience to Oblivious is simple, just by establishing the themes and subject of the product we felt was implicit enough to draw in people to want to watch it. This is because, which I’ve said before in this evaluation, the themes in Oblivious are less commonly looked at in thriller films and so this is something the audience would want to see. I think as soon as the audience hear that in our product the themes of radicalisation and terrorism are included, the audience would feel interested and keen to see it as a result of these themes being under-looked in film, and because they are

Another form we attracted in our audiences is due to the reality of the situation; of a young man becoming radicalised in a secret life of his and joining into the forces of terrorism. He also plots to blow up his school, which when you think about it, is a terrifying idea and could make our audiences think about if they ever had a similar situation happen to them or their school they go to. This is an idea that wouldn’t leave their mind straight after watching it in my opinion, I think it would stay with them for a bit, which is also how we attracted our audiences.

We also got information on how to attract our audiences due to our survey we completed, back in the preliminary research stage. We found out that the people who answered the survey find that the choice of music/score, the choice of lighting, and the camera angles distinguish between the higher quality and lower quality thriller productions. We then took this on board and decided to focus our thriller product around these technical aspects. Therefore, and as you can see in our product it has been successful, we put quite a bit of effort into getting the right lighting and toning for the opening scene of the thriller production. This was also in attempt to lure in customers as the mystery and gloominess of the scene is enticing to watch in the mind-set of the audience. We also put greater effort into getting the highest quality camera shots, along with framing for Oblivious. We realised the audience like to see well constructed scenes with camera work that has been thought about and has meaning, so we tried our hardest to shoot Oblivious as well as we could.

Similarly with the music, audiences felt it is an important factor when it comes to the thrill factor of the product. Therefore, the first piece of music we used was more of an immersive piece that does ultimately distract the audience from what’s happening on screen. So we changed it up, went to the more atmospheric score so that the audience were remaining thrilled by what Joseph was doing on screen.

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

One key thing I have learned about technologies from the process of constructing our product is that it takes a lot of effort, thinking and consideration, and re-shoots to get the piece as good as it can be. We were never going to get the piece right first time, even though we thought we would at first, it’s very hard as you can be doing things wrong the first time round but when you film and edit it again you notice some mistakes you did last time. This happened to us, and the evidence is in the fact that we had four drafts. If Oblivious was correct and good enough the first draft round, it would of stayed at one draft, but this is very hard to do and equally unlikely. The major mistakes we did were improperly shooting the shot, such as the camera having some unintended movement, also we had some early framing issues where we would be cutting things out of the frame by accident such as our protagonists head. These things were all not supposed to happen so the only way we could learn and improve on this is to re-shoot and reflect upon why it went a bit wrong. Along with some guidance from our teacher, we were alerted of what we were doing wrong and then we addressed these mistakes the next time we would re-shoot the scenes.

I have also learned how that having a storyboard massively helps when it comes to producing a piece of film. Our storyboard told us shot for shot what we needed to film, and without it on the day of filming we would need to be making up the shots and composition of the scenes as we go along. This is why having a storyboard for any piece of film you’re doing helps so much, it plans out your whole video on screen and requires less stress and thinking on the day of the shoot.

Another main thing I have learned about is that the editing process, even though I didn’t take too much part in it, is a long process and forms entirely what the video will look and feel like. Such as in the way you colour correct the footage, the way you edit music over the clips, the way the opening title sequence is edited, and which clips are put next to each other.

If you are wrongly colour correcting your footage, it may ruin the overall tone of the video as you are not mixing the visuals of the video well with what is happening on screen and the messages behind the video. Such as if we colour corrected Oblivious into high contrast, bright colours, it would seem more of a positive, happy video even though it’s much more of a serious product with themes that are mature and controversial. This is why it is in best interests to make the colour of the video go well with the feel, tone and structure of the video. Furthermore, the way the music/score gets edited over the footage is significant and also plays a large part on how your video will feel on screen. The main thing is to find the appropriate and best piece of score as possible, and then in editing it is decided when the music will come in, when it will fade out, and times when it will increase or decrease in volume. I think our editor, and director Benoit, did a great job on this and he was thinking about how to make it as effective as possible. For example if you have put in the music for too long or too short in the thriller, it may ruin the overall direction of the video, for example you could be leading up to something great in the video but then all of a sudden it just goes as the audio has changed too early/too late. This is why it needs to be considered when the music is coming in, when it fades out and when it goes completely. Such as in Oblivious, we cut out the thrilling music as soon as the first shot of Joseph’s classroom is on screen. This was in attempts to symbolise how when Joseph is in school; he is a completely different person and you would never associate such ideas of radicalism and terrorism with a character like Joseph.

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

The preliminary task was all about making the video look as continuous as possible, the main term that focused on this was match-on-action. Match on action means what the character or scene is doing in the shot, is equally matched or carried on in the shot after. The main factor that makes this possible is just to think carefully about what you are going to shoot. The shots need to be thought about carefully so that shots next to each other look like they are continuing from one another. If you tried to achieve this without having a story board or thinking about it, this will be a lot more difficult to do as you are not sure what you’re filming and how you will run shots into each other. And if the continuity for the task doesn’t really work, ultimately the task has been failed.

In the transition from shooting the continuity edit to shooting the real thriller opening, we applied the basic rules and guidelines to the way we would shoot Oblivious. The way we shot the opening part where Joseph is assembling the bomb we were doing so continuously; each shot was directly linked to the shot after or prior to it. Without completing the continuity edit task this would have been a lot harder for us, but since we did complete it easier for our group to proceed with.