Evaluation of 'Even' - Bethany Eddleston

This project is an opening sequence to a feature length thriller film. It shows a girl running away from her house where she has just stabbed someone. I worked on every aspect of the project; however, my focus was on the editing of the sequence.

The genre of the sequence is thriller and we have used many conventions of this genre to make this obvious. The use of low angled shots, low-key lighting and fast paced editing make this sequence typical to the thriller genre. We have made this project different to other thrillers by keeping the victims identity a mystery to create enigmas. Also the music is not typical to the thriller genre but I think it works because it quickens the pace of the sequence making it more exciting to watch. It is important to do something different and new to the genre so that the audience don't get bored of the same thing. To confirm that they didn't get bored, we asked ten people to fill in questionnaires on the sequence and 90% wanted to see more of the film.

In my project I represented women in a way which doesn't fit the dominant mode of representing this group. Women are usually represented as innocent and vulnerable, as in such films as the scream franchise, where women are targeted because they are weak and vulnerable, but in my sequence the girl is shown to be a killer, therefore evil and strong, similar to Sarah Connor in Terminator. This is represented through the shot of her stabbing someone (right). The use of the low angle in this shot shows her as dominant and strong, also the blood on her t-shirt has connotations of violence which is nto commonly associated with women in the media. The representation of women that the audience got from the sequence is that they are the opposite of their stereotype.

I think that the institution most likely to distribute my film would be Film4. This is because they have a reputation for producing and broadcasting alternative and challenging feature films. Also, Film4 say that they are 'committed to enhancing the British film industry by uncovering, nurturing and funding new talent', my film is a British film with unknown actors, this gives it a good chance of being distributed by the company. My film will also appeal to the inquisitive and demanding audience of Film4 as it is an independent, psychological thriller which will excite and challenge the audience.

The audience for my media project would be 16-25 year olds of any gender. This is a good audience to target as they are potentially the biggest audience. Financially, the project could benefit significantly from targeting this specific audience. This is because they visit the cinemas the most; therefore spend the most money.

The sequence does many things to attract the audience such as create enigmas. We asked the audience what enigmas were created in the sequence, they came up with things such as why is she running? who is she stabbing? and where is she going? This helps to propel us into the rest of the film and hook the audience. The audience is also attracted by the tension which is built up. It is built up in many ways, for example, the pace of running and the use of flashbacks. The flashbacks create tension because they hold back information from the audience, leaving it to their imagination what is going on. The music we have used helps to keep the pace of the film fast and tense. it also helps to build tension as during the flashbacks the volume of the music decreases and a non-diegetic high pitched sound can be heard, This creates tension because it makes flashbacks seem strange and eerie. The low angled shot of the girl attracts the audience as it limits their knowledge significantly, creating suspense. They cannot see who is being stabbed; also they cannot see the girls face which hides her emotions from the audience. The use of the black and white effect used on the flashbacks has the same effect as the high pitched sound, it makes the shots seem strange and different.

For my project and my research i have used many different technologies. I used a website called http://www.blogger.com/ to create an online blog showing my research and my progress through the process of making my opening sequence. This has enabled me to learn how to create a blog and also how to embed images and videos onto my blog. I also used http://www.youtube.com/ to search for music and similar sequences to mine. I learnt how to use the URL of a video to embed it onto my blog. By doing this project I have also learnt how to use the cameras to shoot footage and import it onto a computer so it can be edited. The program we used to edit our footage is called Imovie and being the editor I have learnt a lot about this program, I can now split shots, apply sounds and effects, use and apply transitions, edit and delete shots amongst many other things. Imovie made it possible for me to create the black and white flashbacks, apply the music and slow down the shots.

Whilst we were making our project we encountered a few problems. We needed to re-shoot a few shots because the camera was zoomed in too close to the protagonist; we also needed to make some shots longer so that they were long enough to apply transitions and effects to. Another problem we came accross was having to edit the sequence twice because the computer crashed before we had saved it.

I think that our final product is 100% better than our preliminary task, this is because of many factors. The sound on the preliminary task was very poor whereas the sound on the final product is good. Also the shots used in the preliminary task were very plain and simple, whereas we have used different shots, such as the low angled stabbing shot, the point of view shots and the flashbacks, to attract and appeal to the audience.

In conclusion, I think that my product is a very effective opening sequence. This is because it creates enigmas, introduces the main characters and also sets the pace for the rest of the film. I think the use of low-angled shots, point of view shots and effects successfully creates tension and suspense and also hooks the audience. However, I do think that we should have varied the running shots a bit more to make the sequence a little more interesting for the audience.

Storyboards

These are our storyboards for our project. A script is not necessary as there is no dialogue in the sequence. Our storyboards are not set out in chronological order, they are set out in locations so that there are two sheets for house shots and two sheets for woods shots. 

These two sheets are our house shots for our sequence.

These two sheets are our wood shots for our project.

Analysis

This is a short sequence from the film 'Shrooms' (2007 Paddy Breathnach). It shows a girl hiding behind a tree in the middle of some woods. This is relevant to our project as the protagonist in our sequence runs through the woods, hides behind a tree then breaks down crying. I find the media language in this short sequence very effective in creating a dark, scary atmosphere. The lighting creates a foggy, mysterious effect which therefore creates fear in the audience. We may be able to re-create this effect by filming early in the morning or late afternoon.

Are you making something new?

There are many films that are similar to what we are planning to make. these include 'Shrooms' and 'memento'. The location and dark, eerie atmosphere of 'Shrooms' makes it similar to our and the non-linear narrative structure of 'Memento' makes it very similar to ours. 

There are many ways in which we can make our project differ from other typical thriller films. One of the ways in which we can do this is to make the characters as non-stereotypical as possible. For example, in most typical thriller films there is a ditzy female protagonist, in our project the protagonist is going to be female however she is not going to be portrayed as ditzy or dumb. Another stereotype that our sequence will challenge is that males are stronger than females. This is because within our story there is an argument between a girl and a boy, the argument escalates and the girl ends up overpowering the boy, pushing him down and seriously injuring him. This shows the girl as stronger than the boy, challenging the typical stereotype.

Media language

We are going to use different types of media language in our project to convey the emotions of our character, which will be panic and fear.To do this we will be using a range of different techniques such as high angle shots which show the character as weak and vulnerable, canted angles which show the character as disorientated or paranoid, hand held camera shots to make the scene seem unpredictable and uncontrollable and extreme close ups to emphasise the characters emotions further. All these techniques will work together to create a sense of danger, panic and disorientation in the scene. they will also build tension within the audience as the camera angles and movement will create unpredictability in the sequence.

This sequence uses high angle shots and canted angles to show the vulnerability and confusion of the character:

We will be using similar media language to convey the emotions of our protagonist.

We will also be using low key lighting to create an atmosphere in our sequence.

This clip also uses low key lighting to create a tense and scary atmosphere:

Initial idea

Our initial idea is that of a girl who is running through some woods, away from something that she has just done, but no matter how far she runs she cannot seem to escape from the woods. She is extremely scared and distressed by the events that have just taken place and needs to get out of the woods. The narrative is not linear as it keeps flashing back and forwards from her running away, to showing what she has just done.

The genre of this initial idea is thriller and the themes are fear and escape. The media language i think would work best in this opening sequence would be fast paced editing, lots of handheld camera shots and canted angles.

This is a sequence i found on the internet. It has most of the same conventions that my group plan to use in our project. However, this is not an opening sequence so it isn't exactly what we will be doing. Instead, we will just use this as inspiration and use some of the media language used in this clip. Personally, i think that it looks very effective when the pace in the sequence is increased as it shows the characters panic and disorientation. We could use this in our project because our character is also panicked and disorientated. The use of canted angles and handheld camera shots also looks effective, this is another thing that we can use in our project.