In my opinion, our media product was able to use, develop and challenge the conventions of real media products in the psychological thriller genre in the sense that, like in some films such as ‘Memento,’ we used a non linear structure, starting from the end of our character’s life and then (after our main character shoots herself) returning to the beginning. I believe this was effective in the way that it creates a more mysterious and confusing atmosphere - rather than starting from the beginning and working your way through the character’s story in a way which is seen as a traditional narrative structure, I believe we were able to befuddle the audience which helps add to the psychological thriller genre. We also used the theme of water, which is used in the film ‘Cape Fear,’ where, like our opening sequence, the first two minutes are continual water shots.
The use of different camera shots throughout our film lived up to the conventions of the usual psychological thriller, in that it used a variety of different shots, including a long shot, close up and extreme close up. This helps dehumanise the killer (which is what we were trying to do when we used an extreme close up on our actress’ face), which drops hints to the audience on the true identity of the murderer. Although we have used tradition forms of the psychological thriller genre, we have also subverted it in the sense that we used a voice over on our product, yet none of the films reviewed in class or by ourselves have included one, thus we challenged the customary form of the thriller.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The actress we used is 17 playing a 25 year old. The fact that she is killing other people shows younger adults in a bad light. However, because she was abused by her mother as a child, she is seen as a representative of this social group. The taboo subject which is child abuse is presented in a bad light, in that our main character, Faye, later has psychological issues, which is solely due to her relationship with her mother as a child.
The age of the victim of ‘Lifesaver’ (around 11 or 12) is accentuated through the motif of the teddy bear, which is stereotypical to the norm of that particular social group. However, we have subverted the customary techniques of thrillers in that the victim is much younger than the killer and mainstream psychological thrillers usually base their story around a couple’s inhibitions and anger between and towards each other.
Our media product also subverts the stereotype of lifeguards, in that they are supposed to save people‘s lives, rather than take them. This creates an ironic tone throughout our final product, which is new for normal psychological thrillers.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I feel that the media institution which would distribute our media product would be an independent one, such as Newmarket films, who have made a variety of different genre films, including the psychological thrillers ‘Donnie Darko,’ ‘Memento’ and ‘The Nines.’ Because these films are well known independent thrillers, our target audience are more likely to hear about ‘Lifesaver,’ as well as access it. Because of the financial values our media product has, I believe our main project would be independent - the film cost next to nothing for us because we did not have to buy any of the usual technology and the actresses used were pleased to do it for free.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
I felt that the audience best suited for our product would comprise of people aged 16 to around 30. I believe that we were able to target this audience through our opening sequence, in that our main actress is 17
and the lifeguard job is generally associated with adults aged 18 to 30. In my opinion, our media product falls into the independent category, rather than mainstream, because it shows both independent commercial value and independent aspects of the film. The independent commercial value is presented through the budget we had for the film - all in all, our group spent next to nothing because the cameras were already bought and owned by the school. Moreover, because ‘Lifesaver’ will not be shown in cinemas, we will not make any money, thus fulfilling the commercial aspects of the independent group. Another reason why I think that our opening sequence shows some conventions of the independent style is that the audience who will actually see our product will be extremely small in comparison to any mainstream film. However, it could be argued that because our film is targeting quite a large audience (16-30), the audience who would actually watch it if it was completely made could be large in comparison to some extremely niche independent films, thus our product uses both independent and mainstream factors.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We used slow non-diegetic music at the beginning of our opening sequence in order to draw the audience in and reflect the dramatic aspect of the psychological thriller. In order to compel the audience, we cut between the scenes so that there would not be any blank spaces in our production, thus compacting the audience’s reaction and the opening sequence would flow better. However, we also used slow motion to use the stereotypical techniques of a thriller so that the audience would know what kind of film ‘Lifesaver’ was from the very beginning. Like various other thrillers such as ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘American Psycho,’ we address the audience by using a voice over.
'American Psycho' opening sequence
However, in order to create the suspense which is the norm in psychological thrillers (to attract the audience), we thought that we would make the voice over so that it would not give much of the plot away. This links in with our audience research - 60% of our participants felt that they enjoyed an ambiguous storyline more than an explicit one. I feel that although we have used a lot of techniques which are associated with the psychological thriller, we have also subverted it, in the sense that we have a female killer and protagonist instead of a male lead role murderer.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the proccess of constructing the product?
This was the first time I had used both the school cameras and imovie hd, so at first, I felt that the task was extremely difficult. However, as time progressed, I began to get used to the cameras and the editing. However, one problem that I encountered was when we were shooting the first scene of the final opening sequence - because the tripod we were using could not go as low as we wanted it to go on the tracks, I decided to try shooting the dolly shots regardless, and, although the camera was hard to control, after a few tries, I managed to keep it steady and felt pleased with the result. When I first started editing, I thought it was difficult, in that there were so many options which could be chosen from - all which I was not familiar with at the time. However, after spending a few hours by myself using imovie hd, I found that I was progressing - both physically and psychologically - through the editing of our project. One difficulty that Jibola and I continued to face was getting the gunshot and voice over at exactly the right time on the timeline, however, we realised that it would just keep moving every time we edited or deleted part of the opening sequence, so decided to wait until the end before we sorted it out, therefore solving that problem. Overall, I believe that I have progressed and developed my technological skills throughout this project in a way which not have been possible in any other situation.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full project?
It is difficult to compare it with the full project, however, the progression we have made is evident in the techniques, teamwork and editing we have used. For example, looking back on the preliminary task, the camera shots we used were definitely not as diverse as ‘Lifesaver’ - whereas in the full project we used a complete range of shots, in the preliminary task, we hardly used any - only long shots and medium shots. Moreover, in the preliminary task, the camera movement was extremely shaky in comparison to the full project, because we used one of the small cameras in the subsidiary task, yet in the main task, we always used the larger cameras so that we could use the tripods to get a clearer picture. The editing of the main task was definitely more thorough and, because we’d practiced editing, was much easier to manoeuvre around imovie hd. The teamwork greatly improved and I believe that we got more organised as we progressed through the course. Although, like every team, we were up against a few obstacles, we managed to work through them and, I believe, worked to the best of our abilities.
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