The pace of editing, along with the sound throughout also fitted with the conventional codes of a spy/thriller genre. With the editing this is apparently as the shot pace speeds up dramatically once the action commences, this is common in most action thrillers as it shows a direct contrast and development of the narrative. Again with the sound, slow and steady music was used to build tension throughout along with the use of crescendos to develop the narrative. These were used for scenes when characters were introduced or key scenes were commencing. Therefore I believe predominantly throughout our product both
used and challenged forms and conventions of existing media products.
For my thriller opening, as previously mentioned, I decided to go with the conventional setting of a city scene. Also by choosing Gerrards cross I wanted to make sure that my actor’s complied with the sleek and professional atmosphere and social status portrayed by the upmarket town. I did this by focusing a great deal on their costumes and props. Both characters were dressed in business like attire with the lead character adding emphasis on this point through the use of a briefcase. Also through watching other thriller openings such as Casino Royale, I established that this sort of look was very prominent across the spy/ action thriller genre. For example Daniel Craig, like previous Bonds, is rarely seen not wearing a suit. Also through the use of an up-market coffee shop as a setting, teamed with one of my actors reading a broadsheet as opposed to a regular newspaper within the opening minute continued the sense of a stylish and professional atmosphere.
Along with costumes and props the use of camera angles also helped to establish a prominent male figure. This was done through a variety of CUs and the occasional high angle to help represent the dominance of the male characters. This again is seen frequently across the spy/thriller genre and also in all film openings that wish to portray the dominance of a male character whether, the use of CUs especially is very effective.
Initially we made our media product with the hope of it being a large Hollywood production and successful Hollywood film. This would make sense as Hollywood has released some of the most spectacular films of all genres especially that of action/ spy thrillers.
I think that a production company such as universal studios would be a suitable option for the production of my thriller movie. This is because they have also produced such movies as psycho along with the Bourne trilogy. This shows that they already have experience and a good back catalogue of production in my genre to justify being chosen. Also a conglomerate such as Universal studios will have a large budget for producing movies of this style. There would also be the possibility of synergy. From our media product we could produce merchandise such as action figures and collectables based on the movies narrative. This would be appealing to both a mass market and a niche market as it is mainly film fanatics that are likely to pay the price for collectables but the production of action figures as well will appeal to a far wider audience as they are likely to be inexpensive and in high demand. This allows further opportunities o develop our media product and give extra incentive to the media institutions to produce our movie as it will increased profitability.
We developed our media product around the age bracket of 15years and over. This allowed us scope to be more adventurous and less limited than that of a 12 movie but to have wider appeal by being less explicit than an 18 movie. Also the key narrative of our media product is likely to be too complex for a younger audience. This is because it takes a fair amount of second guessing the characters and also requires the ability to follow a deliberately vague storyline at the start. Also the genre/sub-genres of my thriller opening have a very male dominated market and for this reason we decided to exploit that by using a male hero to appease their expectations and stick to the common conventions. Although a lot of media products with the same direction in the action/spy thriller genre such as the Bourne trilogy, tend to opt for a 12 certification. This allows them to be viewed by a younger audience when first released aside from the fact that they are usually too complex and unsuitable for that age bracket. Therefore as we always intended to appeal to a market of 15 and above we decided to be true to our intensions and honest to our audience base by awarding our opening a 15 certification.
To attract our audience of predominantly males from the age of 15 and above we opted for both a male hero and villain. This does not only fit the regular conventions of an action/spy thriller but enables us to massage the audiences ego’s showing all the action aspects of our thriller such as duping their opponents using male actors, as opposed to manipulating that image through use of a female sidekick like there is in many action/spy thrillers such as James bond. Also the use of a POV shot towards the middle of the opening enabled the audience to gain their own perspective of the villain whilst helping to engage the audience by making them feel more involved in the action.
The costumes and props we used were predominantly of dark tones with no revealing aspects. This allowed us to create a mystery about the characters, which also appeals to our audience.
The sound is another aspect of appeal to our audience. This is because it is a very masculine piece with low tones and the absence of any fancy compilations. It also helps to build tension through use of skilfully placed crescendos which is a large aspect of a thriller and often why people go to see them is to be kept in mystery and suspense.
The presence of a chase is a very common aspect of an action/spy thriller. This is because it always successfully portrays the hero character escaping the villains whilst helping to build suspense at whether they’ll be caught. This is done successfully in many similar media products especially movies such as the Bourne trilogy and James Bond. Finally the editing is cut successfully to mirror the narrative, slow paced at the start allowing the narrative to develop, then it became a lot quicker as the chase commenced. All these aspects were used to induce tension whilst engaging the audience in the narrative.
Through the making and development of our media product I learned to use several foreign technologies. One of these was premier pro. I had never used this software before and it took a while to get the hang of how to do more than just trim the clips. However I eventually got the hang of all the different tools and was soon able to shave unwanted dietetic sound from clips without deleting any footage. I also learned how to loop the music to help me when adapting the crescendos in the music to the narrative of opening.
I also learnt to use software called adobe effects. This was very useful as in the first draft of my opening we only used custom premier pro titles, which ended up looking unprofessional and garish. However by developing my knowledge of the other software available I was able to, with help, produce a range of far more professional looking titles with a much more attractive entrance method called bullet train.
However there were some aspects of the filmmaking, which were simply uncontrollable. The predominant issue for us was the lighting. With our limited range, of fairly low specification equipment we were unable to have any control over the lighting. The only way for us to work around this problem was to aim to film and roughly the same time each day. Maybe if we had a few high quality pieces of lighting equipment this problem could have been far more easily manipulated. Also the weather was a massive issue for us during our early filming process. Due to an unpredictable few weeks of snow and sleet we were set extremely behind schedule. Unfortunately this aspect of the process would have been uncontrollable even with the best equipment, although we may have been able to foresee the problem earlier to enable us a better chance of working around it.
Looking back at my preliminary task I realise how extensive the development of my skills has been. This is because the initial task itself was very basic and thus only required very basic skills to complete. Also the time taken to develop a narrative and shot list were non-existent as we were given the list of shot we had to include and the basic outline of the narrative we had to follow. This made it all a lot easier and quicker to complete.
However for the main task to produce, direct, edits and film a media product involved extensive research and brainstorming before the storyboard could even be produced. It took a lot of time and discussion to come to certain decisions such as the sub-genres we were going to adopt and how close to the typical codes and conventions we were going to stay. However once those big decisions had been made the shot listing and storyboarding all fell into place a lot easier. Although towards the beginning there were many drafts of the shot list made, I think that helped in making the final one the most effective it could be.
As the cinematographer I found that I had to pick things up fast to enable our media product to move forward. This was good as it left me with a good level of competency by the end of the project. This allowed me also to successfully execute shots such as the early tilt shot and the central POV shot to a high standard which all aids the realism and professionalism of the final product. However I was hindered at times due to my disbelief in my abilities even to a basic standard. This lead me to be very particular and at some points take up to 20 or 30 shots of a scene before I was sure I had one worth using. This as a result slowed us down to a degree but then it lead to a far higher quality of final filming. Also although it may have been excessive to a degree, in some cases it was only the 30th shot that was worth using.
Overall I am pleased with the progression I have made not only as a cinematographer but also, in all aspects of film production. I am now confident and able to both film and edit a media piece to a high standard and good level of professionalism. However in the future I would definitely intend to be more organised and regimental with the schedules I make for filming, storyboarding, editing etc. This is because although the final product worked out well and produced our group with an A grade our ability to meet deadlines throughout was virtually non-existent which always left us one-step behind our classmates. All in all though I am proud of what my group and me produced and honestly believe that we thoroughly deserve our A's.
