Evaluation Task 1 - In what way does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The film title

The title of my film as seen in the top left image 'Deranged' is typical for a thriller genre film title for many reasons. Our film is a story based around a psychopath who chases down a girl that he tried to kill in the past. So, for our film title we wanted to use a word that was a synonym of the word "psychopath". Examples of some of the words we considered were 'psycho' 'crazy' 'insane' 'disturbed' and 'deranged'. We felt as if Deranged sounded the best for our film and was most fitting to the genre. We wanted a one-word title as this is a stereotypical convention of thriller genre films, examples of real life media products with this convention include: 'Se7en' 'Saw' 'inception' and 'Momento'. A one-word title such as 'Deranged' will create a chilling feel for the audience and will allow the audience to create assumptions based on the narrative of the film. The title is in a sharp/pointy font type which we found on cooltext.com and it is called 'Animated Glow'. We chose this text and removed the glow in order to give it a transparent background so we could use it for our trailer and our ancillary tasks. We chose this font because it looks as if it the word 'Deranged' has been carved using a knife, which is the assumption that we wanted to give the audience. An example of a thriller film with a similar convention would be the film 'I Saw the Devil'. The poster for this film is seen below. As you can see, the text on this poster for the name of the title also looks as if it has been carved or scratched into the poster - giving the same sort of effect on the audience. We also decided to use a silver / metallic colour for our title as it works well with the sharp font type to present the connotation to the audience that the psycho's weapon of choice is a knife, this form of connotation is also a feature of thriller films. 

I Saw the Devil poster

Fonts and colours of titles

As seen in the top middle and top right images, we used a font similar to Ariel for the titles, and we also made each of the titles white with a black background. This is the most common use of titles in the thriller genre to have white text on a black background. One example would be in the trailer for Lucy:

Title screen in Lucy

 They use a similar font to ours, as well as having a white font with a black background. Also, the titles that appear on our screen fade on and off using a black fade which is also present in many thriller films, Lucy included. The titles in our trailer are also presented in the centre of the screen as seen in the images on my 9 frames. This is also very common with thriller genre trailers. The text as you will notice is also all in capital letters, with some key words in the titles being bold. This is because we wanted to present the importance of the text by making it capital letters and we wanted to ensure the audience noticed key information i.e. HE'S BACK // FOR THE ONE THAT ESCAPED. This is key information that we want the audience to focus on as it is crucial in the understanding of the narrative. As you can see with the titles in the Lucy trailer, they are also in capital letters and this is used in nearly all film trailers, not just those of thriller genre. It magnifies the importance of the text.

Editing and special effects

As you can see in the top-right image of the collage, we used a 'fade to black' fade for all of the text when it appears on the screen. This was to make the text appear in a more appealing way for the audience. Otherwise, the text would just appear on the screen and it would look very poorly edited. We didn't just do this with text however, a 'fade to black' fade was used to separate all of the shots before the music built up and the action shots in the trailer started appearing. This is when white flashes were used between shots in order to make the trailer more exciting and gripping as the action starts to occur. This is a common convention of trailers, as they often start with slow cuts and black fades between shots when the narrative / back story is being presented in the trailer, before then using white flashes and faster paced cuts when the music becomes more intense. As you can see in the middle-right image, this is an example of when we used the white flash - however this was near the beginning of the trailer when the images of the killer's victims were being presented to the audience. We did this as well as insert a 'camera flash' sound effect in order to give the audience the impression that the detective had taken these photos at the crime scene. As well as the black fades and white fades we also used fast paced cuts and these are a very common convention in a thriller film trailer. This is because the film needs to appear exciting and 'thrilling' for the audience - they need to be drawn to it. The use of fast cuts and black fades or white flashes will help do this as they will help the transition of one shot to another occur more smoothly and appealing for the audience. 

One prime example of a real life product the uses these features is the Inception trailer. As with our trailer; this one also uses black fades a lot at the beginning of the trailer to break up text and to separate shots, and then it uses much faster paced cuts in-time with the build up of the music. Below is the link for this trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM


Settings

As you can see in the POV shot in the middle-left image on the collage, the main character is seen in her home. This is one of the few locations that we decided to present in our trailer. The settings we chose to use included: the home of the main character, the office of the detective (protagonist), outside the mental institution and a dark alley. The mental institution and the dark alley were only used for one shot but they were used to good effect in the trailer. The shot outside the mental institution was to assist the understanding of the audience as they see the antagonist pick up his mask - this ensures the audience know who the antagonist is and how he found the mask - assisting with understanding of the narrative. The dark alley was used on a few occasions to break up title screens and for the audience to see the antagonist walking in the dark which creates a chilling feel for the audience as they know by then that he is coming after the girl, who is seen in the trailer as being at home. The home scene was used frequently as was the detectives office. These two settings are crucial to the narrative and it is important that we used them a lot in our trailer. Both the main character and the psychopath are seen in her home, which counter-types the stereotypical representation of a person's home being their 'safe place'. When the psychopath is seen in the girl's home it creates an element of fear / suspense among the audience as they become aware that the deranged killer has broken into the girl's place of safety. 

Screenshot from American Psycho

As you can see in this screenshot from the American Psycho trailer; this is another example of how a person is under threat in their own home. This is a countertype used in many thriller films and it gives a strong psychological effect from the film. Lastly, the setting of the main protagonist's office is see frequently in the trailer. This has been done in other films, like in Se7en for example (as seen and discussed below). It is to assist audience's understanding of narrative and characters' roles.

Focus on key characters / how they're introduced

As you can see in the centre image, the focus is on the detective of the film as he tries to work work out what the psycho' next move would be in order to catch him. In this clip, the detective is seen in his office and this is to connote his role as the detective and as a protagonist in the film. This is a common convention in thriller genre films as it is very important to present the key characters in the film to make the narrative easier for the audience to understand. There needs to be a clear distinction between protagonists and antagonists. Another example of a thriller film trailer with a similar shot would be Se7en. Below is a screenshot of two of the main detectives / protagonists in their office:

Se7en screenshot

As you can see in this screenshot, the detective is also holding key information in his hand. It is evidence / pictures taken at the crime scene that he has been investigating. This clearly presents his role as a detective and as a protagonist in the film and this is something we re-created in our trailer. As you can see in the shot of our trailer in the middle image of the collage; our detective is also examining key information of the crime scene. This will allow the audience to create assumptions on the characters involved and they will now understand that the detective is a protagonist.

Use of props

Some of the props that we used are presented in the grid above. We used a mask for the main antagonist which is seen in the middle-left image on the grid, and we also created two notice boards for the detective which are seen in the bottom left and the centre image. For the first notice board (the bottom left image) we used photos of our friends as the supposed victims of the deranged killer, and then stuck them on top of a map of St. Neots - which is where the killer had broken out of the mental institution.We used string and attached them to the images, and then to a specific location in the St. Neots area where they got killed. This was because we wanted to show evidence to the audience that this particular detective was on the case and this is presented through him adding notes and pictures of victims to these notice boards in the trailer. The second notice board took a lot longer to make. For this one, we created several newspaper articles for the victims of the killer, and then we cut out the important information from the articles and stuck them around the second notice board. We took motivation from the film Silence of the Lambs to do this as you can see in the screenshot below:

Newspaper articles in Silence of the Lambs

As you can see, this set up is similar to ours (in the centre image of the collage). This is the sort of thing we wanted to recreate and we did so by making this notice board. As mentioned, another prop we used was a white mask. We selected this particular type of mask as we wanted to make the killer appear emotionless, therefore adding to the affect that this guy is a psychopath when he commits his murders, as it connotes he is emotionless. The white mask is something used in many psychological thrillers and is a stereotypical convention of the thriller genre and this is why we chose to use it. One example of a real life thriller film which uses a white emotionless mask is the film Bruiser as seen in the screenshot below:

Mask used in Bruiser film

World created and world valued

The screenshot from our film in the middle-bottom image of the collage from Deranged is one example of the type of world we created in the trailer. In this scene, the main character is seen running down the stairs as she rushes to lock her front door after spotting the psychopath outside her house. This is just one example of how we created a world of panic, anxiety and fear in the trailer. When the main character runs down the stairs after spotting the psychopath, this is when the music intensifies. The loud orchestral music, along with the fact it is night time, she is home alone and that she is in her considered place of safety, all add up to make the trailer a lot more intense and these factors contribute to created a world of fear. The loud orchestral music and quicker cuts / faster paced movement in a trailer are all general conventions of a thriller genre trailer as the audience needs to be aware of the type of world that the main character finds herself in. These conventions therefore also work together to create a different form of world that is valued in the trailer. When a world of panic, anxiety and fear is created - a world of safety is valued and this is what is presented in our film when the detective calls the main character in the trailer to let her know that he is on his way to help her. The phone call creates a feeling of relief among the audience as safety is valued. 

Production company logo

This is seen in the bottom-right image on the collage and this is a stereotypical convention of any genre film trailers, including thriller genre. We included the production company logo before the actual trailer had started. These are usually always presented either at the beginning or end of a trailer - especially when the film has been produced by a world-widely known production company. We called our production company Prime Films as the word 'prime' symbolises finest or peak quality, which is the sort of connotation that we wanted to give. This is a typical convention and another example of a production company that has also done this is Paramount. Below is our production company logo: 

Our production company logo

We had our production company logo appear in front of a black background as therefore it still fits the typical conventions of a thriller film by utilising dark colours. Another example of a production company logo being presented in this way is in the Saw trailer: 

Production company that produced Saw

As you can see this production company logo has been presented in a similar way to ours, with a black background and the colour silver dominating the main text. 


Release information

Another typical convention of real life trailers that is not presented in my 9 frames above, would be the presentation of the release information of the film. This is always the last shot of the trailer and usually lasts around 3-5 seconds in order for the audience to read the information. Below is a screenshot of this in our production compared to that of a real life one:

As you can see on the left, our also has a whit background, white text and also includes a website for our film, as well as a mention of the production company again with their website. All these features are also found on the Lucy one below and therefore this is another typical convention of a real-life product.