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

Our thriller opening in many ways conforms to the forms and conventions of a stereotypical thriller opening. The use of camera throughout our opening is conventional for a thriller film, for example as Olivia receives a phone call, the camera zooms in on her face which distracts us from Amelia. The camera shots use give the impression that they are being watched, this is emphasised in the shot of the eyes.

Another convention used is the protagonist having a flaw in which the antagonist takes advantage of, for example Olivia's flaw is what when she receives a call she ignores Amelia, to focus on the call, this then results in her going missing.

The music is typical to the genre and helps to create suspense and an eery atmosphere throughout the opening.

We think the use of conventions in our opening is at first not clear as to what sub-genre it falls into, however as the scene progresses, it is clear the it is a psychological thriller.

At first this helps to add to the mystery of the film as the audience are made to think what has happened and what is going to become of this. They can then compare what they thought was going to happen, with what actually did happen, and this then changes amongst other audiences.

setting and location

Costumes

Props

Camerawork and Editing

Title font and style

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social groups represented in our thriller are:

White, working class, teenage female, middle class mid-aged male, children, parents.

Gender is presented very stereotypically throughout our opening. Although he man isn't seen that much, we feel as though he dominates in the way that he abducts the baby without actually being there and being seen with the dominant male, and the passive female. Olivia is almost presented as "The Damsel in Distress" having lost the baby, and now being alone having to find her.

In the opening scene, the audience only meets Olivia and Amelia, but in no real depth you could also say you have a slight encounter with the mystery man.

Olivia in ways could appear as a stereotypical teenager, with her clothes, phone and in the way she acts however she also shows a certain independence as she is able to take out her cousin alone, although she does have a naive side to her.

It's hard to represent all characters in the opening sequence, as there is no dialogue in the opening, however i feel that you can relate to Olivia, and sympathies for her and Amelia.

Although we don't meet the man, we conclude that he is a pervert and instantly think that he is the kidnapper, we get this impression though the camera shots used, the close up on his eyes and through music.

 Our key character

Julia: the girl who is kidnapped in Flightplan.

Kim from the Taken.

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

Our film is an independent, low budget film and so would be produced by a company like 'Film 4' or 'Working Title Films'.

It is most likely to be produced by a company like Film 4. It would most likely be aired on TV at a late time and possible aired by UK independent cinemas.

it would be released as it addresses the issues of stalkers and child abductions, which is not a well known issue is society.

The mise-en-scene in the film on terms of lighting and setting reflects our low budget production. This type of style is typical film produced by Film 4. The UK film market needs to be different to typical blockbusters institutions and therefore Film 4 is the most appropriate institution for our film.

We 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our thriller opening is likely to be from 15 to 19, maybe upwards.

Other films which are similar to our thriller opening is; 'Gone Baby Gone', 'Flight Plan' and 'The Forgotten', in which all deal with the idea of someone either going missing to being kidnapped, where the protagonist is vulnerable. These all create tension and mystery, which from our questionnaire showed that most 15-19 year olds agreed it is their favorite part of a thriller.

In terms of genre the target audience is likely to be girls as they can relate and sympathies with the protagonist.

We drew pictures of our target audiences and the different things they like. 

How did you attract/ address your audience?

We based our film opening around kidnapping; we used some of the stereotypical conventions. We used a teenager as the person who mucks up and has to in the end look for the missing child. Using a teenager as the main character it attracts our target audience of 15-19. the part where we see through the bushes and some eyes show up as if they are looking through at the protagonist. This could be terrifying to the audience if they didn't expect it to happen. The setting we have used is pretty ordinary, an everyday setting, whereas when we see the shot from the bushes we know something is going to happen as we don't really see people in bushes. We also used the convention "male predator" seen in the bushes shown as superior to the stereotypical victim, a child and teenager . The close ups on Amelia show her as our main character in a vulnerable way. The bush scene is very likely to confuse the audience as they are going to want to know what is in the bushes. Throughout the beginning from the camera positioning we can tell something bad is going to happen.

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

There are lots strengths and weaknesses in terms of the camera. One of the issues we found, was trying to was trying to hold camera steady so it didn't shake or move the wrong point as did not have a tripod to use. On the other hand the camera worked very well in creating a realistic opening. One of the problems we faced was filming in the park where is was very busy. Although the park was the perfect place to film; with some advantages. We didn't really have a change to light the scene or edit the staging in any way, we had to deal with things as they came. Another problem we had was the change in the weather, using a young child and we couldn't control passes by.

 

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

When doing our preliminary task we learnt how to film different shots: 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shot, then when it came  to filming our thriller we elaborated on these shots making them our own. We also learnt to use Final cut pro when doing our preliminary task, this later helped when editing our thriller as we were able to transfer our skills over and learn even more about final cut pro. 

Snatched our thriller opening.

Storyboard

Snatched	By	Olivia Foran & Jessica Massey
		Thriller Opening

Shot 1: Olivia pushing buggy holding Amelia’s hand

Shot 2: Olivia & Amelia playing

Shot 3: Shot of Olivia & Amelia playing through bushes

Shot 4: Olivia spinning Amelia

Shot 5: Another shot through bushes

Shot 6: Olivia & Amelia playing

Shot 7: Olivia taking a phone call

Shot 8: Olivia realising Amelia is gone, and searching for her

Shot 9: running around looking for Amelia

Shot 10: Spinning shot around Olivia’s head

Shot 11: Olivia running around park on the phone looking for Amelia

Shot 12: Finding dummy on the floor

working script

Snatched

by

Olivia Foran & Jessica Massey

Int. scene - description

1. Shot of Olivia And Amelia walking down path pushing buggy
2. Shot of Olivia And Amelia playing in the park
3. Shot of Olivia and Amelia through bushes
4. Shot of Olivia spinning Amelia
5. Another shot of Olivia and Amelia through the bushes
6. Olivia and Amelia playing
7. Olivia taking a phone call
8. Realising Amelia is missing, searching for her
9. Running down path
10. Shot around Olivia’s head
11. Running around park on the phone
12. Finding dummy and picking it up
13. Shot of a mans eyes
14. Shot of Amelia playing
15. Shot of someones eyes

Special effects

The special effects we have chosen to use are addictive dissolve and non addictive dissolve between each shot, to make each shot to move on effectively. We have also put to shots together to make the illusion there being watched even more real by having eyes also in the shot.

How characters are introduced

There are two character in our thriller which we see, there also could be another character, but this is only hinted at. We are introduced to both of our characters right at the beginning the beginning of the thriller; we see Olivia and Amelia coming down the path of the park. This is when we know that these will be our to characters. There is also a part in the thriller when there is a hint at another character; we see a point of view shot through a persons eyes; whose we do not know, and then again at the end of our thriller we see the eyes of someone we do not know.

Genre and how the opening sets it up

The genre is evidently Thriller.

The use of quick succession shots, or montage, sets up the thriller genre as it, along with the music, will create tension and confusion.

The light and open area's in which we will film will create a normality where you don't expect bad things to happen.

We have deliberately chosen to have no dialogue in the opening sequence as we believe this to be the most effective way of beginning, both from experience and from our audience questionnaire results.

Story and how the opening sets it up

Our thriller is very simple, it is about a young girl who is baby sitting her little cousin for the day. All is going well until Olivia gets a phone call from a friend. she looses her concentration and stops paying attention to Amelia, when she turns around after her phone call Amelia is not there and all which is left is the ball which they were just playing with. At first Olivia thinks Amelia may be hiding from her, but after a few short seconds she realises this is not a joke and Amelia has gone. she frantically runs around looking for her, but cannot see her anywhere, she finds a dummy on the floor with Amelia's initials on it, this is when it all becomes real. After this more children start to go missing, but no one seems to be able to solve what is happening. There are no clues to what is happening, people have been questioned and places have been searched and yet nothing. People are starting to believe that anything is possible and nothing is beyond belief.

Title font and style

Snatched is the chosen title of our film. We created it in Motion and we used a font called Skia-regular.  

Camera and Editing

The camera work which will use in our thriller is going to be very simple, with only the key shots. There will be a variety of shots, we will use long shots to show the relationship between Olivia and Amelia, with some close-ups to show the happiness of them playing when everything is normal and their just leading the usual lives. There will also be some point of view shots, firstly through the eyes of Olivia, we will see her running around, panicking looking for Amelia. Next we will see a point of view shot through the eyes of an on looker, this character will remain a mystery to us, and will hint at the fact he could be the kidnapper. This shot will be shot through the trees, to create the effect the on looker is hiding and should not be there. There will also be Two extreme close up shots, one of Amelia's dummy, which Olivia finds, and then an extreme close up of someones eyes, who's we do not no.

The Editing for our thriller is going to also be simple. Throughout the opening there will be quick cuts, we are doing this to show the fast pace at which everything is happening, and to show the panic that Amelia has gone missing. For our editing between each shot we used two effects: addictive dissolve and non- addictive dissolve, this meant that when we played each shot everything ran into one, creating the effect that everything is moving very fast and happens quickly.

costumes and props

Olivia will wear: leggins, boots, a top and jacket, with her hair loose.

Amelia will wear: jeans, converse, top and a rain coat.

The costumes that the two characters will be wearing are going to be casual, as that is what is needed to set the scene for our thriller.

The props which are used in our thriller are: a mobile phone, a ball, a pram and a dummy. These all help us to set the scene for our thriller, by making it more realistic and helps to create more tension.

Setting and Location

The setting we are going to pick to film the opening to our thriller is Eltham park. We must pick a quite part of the park to ensure that we are not interrupted when we are in the middle of filming. 

The title of the film

What is the best title for our thriller? 

1. Missing 

2. Snatched     << This is the title we are going to pick

3. Disappeared 

4. Kidnapped 

5. Gone

We gave out a survey to our peers, and asked them to pick out of our five options, Missing, Snatched, Disappeared, Kidnapped and Gone what they liked best as an opening to our thriller about a girl going missing. The most popular title which people chose was Snatched. 

Opening to thriller planning

Preliminary Task

Questionnaire and results