Media Evaluation

Media Evaluation

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Analysis of Mise-en-Scene

Analysis Of Final Mise En Scene

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Location Shots

I uploaded a few pictures taken during the process of our filming...


This is where our storyline takes place in, Maricas Avenue, Harrow.

Siobhan Devine plays the psychotic middle aged woman who finds out about her cheating husband.


Our actress, Stephanie Devine plays the young dead mistress. In this picture she is putting vaseline on her face, before laying on a pool of blood, erm, fake blood.


Stephanie and the actual pool of blood.



Diana, our director and camera woman filming the 'creepy smile' scene.


Diana adjusting the tripod.

Ideas for Soundtrack pt 2

Here is the list of the classical, jolly, 'feel good' songs, in case we decide to have a contrapuntal scene in our thriller. These are the ones I thought were worthy to be on our list

Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
Colbie Caillat - Falling for you
Dean Martin and Helen O'Connell's - How Do You Like Your Eggs In The Morning ?
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Corinne Bailey Rae - Just Like a Star
Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On
S Club 7 - Have You Ever
Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is
Faith No More - Easy
The Carpenters - Close To You
Bee Gees - Staying Alive
Shanice - Loving You

I embedded the videos from the songs selected above. These are jolly and also quite cheesy. I reckon they would make a brilliant contrapuntal scene !


Colbie Caillat - Bubbly


Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On


Bee Gees - Staying Alive

Shanice - Loving You

Ideas for Soundtrack

I have done some research on Youtube and other websites in order to find songs for our opening sequence. Even though our film's genre is thriller, I have also looked for jolly, 'feel good' songs, to make possible the idea of a contrapuntal scene, if desired so.

Here is the list of the up beat songs, that could be used in our film to match scenes of violence.

Bullet For My Valentine - Tears Don't Fall
Cannibal Corpse - Make Them Suffer
Deftones - Change
Disturbed - Inside the Fire
Disturbed - Prayer
Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache
Three Days Grace - I Hate Everything About You
Rammstein - Sonne
Rammstein - Du hast
Renholder - The List
Sunna - Power Struggle
Slipknot - Duality
Slipknot - Wait and Bleed

The ones that are standing out of the list are the ones I have chosen, I uploaded below videos from Youtube where you can listen to the selected ones. I chose them because I loved the sound of them and thought they were the most appropriate to our film, they would match the disturbing images. Slipknot - Wait and Bleed, I picked particularly because of the lyrics, since it can be applied to the main character. I will be discussing with the rest of the group, we will decide which of these will actually play on our film.

Sunna - Power Struggle



Renholder - The List


Slipknot - Wait and Bleed


Rammstein - Sonne

Title Ideas

We decided to think about different titles for our project only when we finally got the story and the script done. Then we started to think of nouns and adjectives that could somehow match our story. So we searched for synonyms on Thesaurus, to broaden our vocabulary and invite more ideas in. We looked for 'Insane' synonyms, we quite liked the idea of 'Moonstruck' as it is not common, and it sounded interesting, like a Thriller title. Then we found another website, http://watchout4snakes.com/creativitytools/RandomWord/RandomWordPlus.aspx , which was really useful, since it helped us to finally decide the title for our film. We searched for random words, when the word 'Blackboard' appeared on the screen, we really liked the idea of 'Blackboard' as our title, but then we searched for synonyms to 'Blackboard', and decided to stick to 'Chalkboard'. The reason to why we really liked the idea of 'Blackboard' or 'Chalkboard' as our title, was because our main character snaps, goes insane and goes on a killing spree, and she coldly keeps the records to everyone she's killed on a chalkboard, tally mode.
We then got excited about the idea of the title 'Chalkboard' and decided to write the credits on our opening with a chalk, we will either use actual chalk or graphics, so it will look something like this. Below, there are a few examples of the 'experiments' I have done with our chosen title on a graphics generator, with different fonts and effects.



We will discuss as a group whether to use graphics or to actually write down on a chalkboard the titles needed for our project.

Mood Board

I placed together in a mood board potential props and ideas for our thriller opening !

Preliminary Exercise

This is our Preliminary Exercise, we done this in order to practise our filming and editing skills.

Initial Ideas for the Mise-en-Scene

Media analysis mise en scene

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Fight Club (1999) – Directed by David Fincher.

Use of Camera:

As soon as the scene begins, the director uses a extreme close up to introduce us to a important prop on the action, but as it is a XCU, it is not clear for the audience to understand straight away what the prop is, so depth of field is used therefore the image of the gun in the foreground goes out of focus, it becomes blurred and the image of the man with the gun inside his mouth is suddenly sharp. So the audience’s focus is on the man, and by this one shot the viewer immediately knows that his life is at risk.

The protagonist is sitting down, whereas the antagonist is standing up, so the camera is filming the protagonist from a high angle, which makes him look more vulnerable, smaller.The little of the villain which is being filmed, is filmed from a low angle which makes him look taller, stronger, more threatening to the protagonist.

Special Effects:

The graphics at beginning of this film are meant to be impulses purely based on fear, it is the fear center in the nameless narrator’s brain. This was beautifully used in order to entertain and engage the audience, since it gives the feeling of what kind of film they will be watching, it shows that there will be action and that it will be thrilling.

Editing:

The very beginning of this opening sequence it is indeed very interesting to look at, it’s in a way abstract and surreal, the viewer can’t comprehend what is being shown straight away, particularly because of the fast pace which was used in this, which creates tension and therefore helps to build to the climax, also creates an enigma which makes the audience curious, consequently grabbing their attention, engaging them to carry on watching the film.

Mise-en-scene:

The protagonist tied up on the chair is sweating, this can connote that he is nervous, scared and this helps to build up the tension in the audience. The narrator is not wearing trousers, he is only wearing a shirt and a underwear, this connotes that he is even more vulnerable. He also has under eye bags which implies that he hasn’t been sleeping properly as he has probably being held in hostage for days or that he simply has insomnia, which we find out later it is indeed his case. There is a contrast between the mise-en-scene of the protagonist and the antagonist, the narrator looks restless, skinny, weak, tied up on a chair, he is helpless and vulnerable whereas the antagonist is tall, strong, he looks like a body builder as he is wearing a vest which makes his muscles stand out, he is a free man as he is not tied up on a chair, he has a gun therefore he is under control.

Sound:

Non-diegetic sound: Up beat song playing at the very beginning, the genre of the song is rock, the song matches the image, it is not contrapuntal at all, it fascinates the audience and sets an atmosphere for the film, the upbeat song can imply that the film will definetly be thrilling, and that there will be a lot of things going on, and it will be interesting. Diegetic sound : “(...)And I wondered how clean that gun was.” The narrator is disgusted about the dirtiness of the gun inside his mouth, which ain’t a stereotypical reaction at all, this suggests that he is not normal, that he is not sane, for he is worrying about the wrong things, that’s what makes him a unique and amusing character.

Conclusion:

Lastly, David Fincher uses a brilliant technique in Fight Club, also used by Quentin Tarantino in Reservoir Dogs, he edited the sequence of the film so it would begin with it’s last scene. The film opens with the climax, confusing the audience but at the same time engaging them, creating mistery and enigma, making them curious, therefore grabbing their attention and keeping them watching so then, they can understand what is going on. An example of enigma, which was used in this opening sequence, was the fact that the antagonist’s face was hidden, and so was his identity as he doesn’t mention his name. This evokes curiosity and interest in the viewer.

This opening scene also introduces themes, such as Violence and Crime, props such as fake blood and guns are used as they are iconic symbols of Crime and Violence in thriller films.

This opening title establishes characters through the use of dialogue.When the nameless narrator says: “(...)And I wondered how clean that gun was.” This suggests that he is not normal, he is not an average guy, otherwise he wouldn’t be wondering about how clean the gun was, but about his life. His reaction to the situation is not stereotypical, that helps to make him the intriguing and interesting character that he is.

BrainStorm

I tried to put together all aspects and conventions of thriller films, in order to get some ideas for our own opening title.

BrainStorm Thriller Films

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Meet the group !

Hello stranger ! We will be posting here thriller analysis, ideas, brainstorms, pictures, embedded videos from youtube and every other important piece of media coursework !
We are a group of 4 chicas who love media studies and are all eager to get cracking on this filming !

MEET THE GROUP !

Jasmine
Role: Camera lady and editor

Diana
Role: Director and Producer

Becky
Role: Art Director and Production Designer

Leticia
Role: Director of Photography and Art Director Assistant