Elise Thompson

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
The title of our production:
We had a tough time coming up with a name to match the concept of our idea as
well as a name we could all agree on, however, when the name Temptation was
brought up we all agreed on the name immediately. As the sequence begins the
audience is misled by the props, costume/make-up and other mise-en-scene into
believing the genre of the production is a romance film and therefore the title
Temptation is ideal as it connotes passion and lust. However, the definition of
Temptation is the desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise
and therefore this also fits the true genre of our production, a dramatic thriller as
it hints to the disequilibrium that will occur.
I think the title helps to catch the audiences attention from the start as attention
as it acts as an enigma as they
wonder exactly what she will
be tempted by as the nondiegetic soundtrack creates a
relaxing atmosphere
contrasting with the title that
suggests some form of
intensive actions.
Title, font and style:
The title is a simplistic black
background with white capital
letters we wanted to keep the
title rather simplistic after
such a dramatic opening
sequence, it does not particularly fit the conventions of a dramatic thriller,
perhaps the colour red may have been more appropriate as it connotes danger
(more likely to the protagonist) however, because the protagonist has already
experienced a mass amount of danger it was not that important to add the
symbolic shade of red in our title. The capital letters makes the title look bold
and therefore memorable to the audience, the white text over a black
background is simplistic and therefore brings the audiences attention to the title
alone, without any other distractions to draw the attention away from the text.
Our production ends on a dramatic cliff-hanger and therefore the use of this
simplistic title makes the final scene much more intense and therefore entices
the audiences pleasures by the ominous atmosphere adding to the mystery of
the cliff-hanger.
The setting/location of our production:
The location we based our production in is a house for the interior scenes and
the roads for the exterior scenes. This setting allows the audience to make a
personal connection with the protagonist by entering into their intimate

Elise Thompson
environment of their bedroom. The house is a
stereotypical environment for a thriller to take place
such as The Purge (2013) as it is a rather
unexpected location for things to go wrong as well
as the fact that it can act as an advantage to the
protagonist (if following the typical narrative theory
of Todorov) as they are aware of their surroundings.
The white dcor of the protagonists Chelseas room highlights her innocence and
reinforces how impure the violence taking place in her room are.

Camerawork and editing:

I had the role of the director and as part of this role I had to work closely
alongside both the cinematographer and editor to ensure my intial idea had been
communicated through their work. Our work consists of several different shots
(e.g extreme close ups, wide shots etc) compositions (e.g focus pull and 180
degree rule) and movements (e.g tracking, panning and arc).
Our production begins with a medium
close up which our editor had slowed
down by roughly 10% in order to add
symbolism to this moment in the
sequence. After the previous shot, the
screen fades to black then suddenely a
wide shot of our protagonist laying on
her bed is seen to set the location for
the sequence, a few shots after this
one a wide shot is seen of the protagonist getting up from the bed, the
movements of a tilt then tracking is used to follow her around her bedroom to
her en suite. All this shots simply just set the scene as well as the mood,
everything seems to be calm.

Elise Thompson
The most emblematic shot in our
production is the simple high angled
point of view shot that at first shows
the antagonist Shane romantically
caressing Chelseas hair when
suddenely he strangles her. The quick
transition of the caring to aggressive
stage directions within this shot act as
almost a jumpscare to the audience (a
convention of thrillers) and allows them
to recognise the true genre of the
production and recognise that they are
transitioning into the disequilibrium stage
of Todorovs narrative theory. Another
important sequence of shots is the long
shot with use of a focus pull with
Chelsea running towards the camera it
then pans to show her hide behind a
wall. Within this sequence the
audience can see the true fear in
Chelseas eyes as they well up. The
penultimate shot in our opening
sequence is the same shot used in the
very beginning of our sequence it now
makes sense to the audience as to why this shot was emphasied at the
beginning, then the final shot is a medium shot as Chelsea lays limb on the floor.
Depth of field is switched in this shot starting with the focus being in the
foreground to begin with then transending into the background so the audience
have a clear image of Chelseas lifeless body.
Costume and props:
The costumes of our characters were used in order for our audience to depict
meaning about the characters within the text. The protagonist Chelsea is dressed
in a white dress with a floral lace pattern on it, the represents the innocence and
purity of her character she is the victim in this sequence and all she wanted to
do is show love which is connoted through her red lipstick. In opposition to this,
the antagonist Shane wears an all black outfit this was chosen to represent him
as the evil villanous character he is.

Elise Thompson
There are hardly any key props involved in our
sequence however the main one is Chelseas
phone that allows the audience to recognise
Shane when he walks in as they previous
witnessed the collaged pictures of them as her
screensaver. The phone is also used as a way of
progressing the narrative and making sense of
what happens (for example the texts messages
show that Chelsea tells Shane the door is open,
which makes sense as to why he just walks into the room).
How characters are introduced:
The first character the audience are introduced to is the protagonist Chelsea, this
is a stereotypical feature of most films, by introducing the protagonist first the
audience can recognise their overall importance within the text. The audience
view a quick shot of her turning to face the camera then the scene fades to black
and she is laying on her bed. This quick contrast was used in order to raise
suspense for the audience and fade to black is used to create a flashback. It
leaves the audience wondering what the first shot symbolises and how it refers
to the rest of the sequences.
The antagonist is first seen when Chelsea looks at her phone as we see the
images of the two of them together as her phone display picture. The audience
can depict the romantic relationship between the two of them because of these
pictures as the sequences persue and the audience are actually introduced to
Shane a contrasting representation is presented as he acts aggressively towards
Chelsea physically abusing her.
Genre and how the opening suggests it:
For our production to be successful we thought
it would be important that the sequence fits in
with the typical codes and conventions of a
dramtic thriller, however, in order to take the
audience by surprise it was important to also
match some of the convention of a romance
film, we did this through the location as well as
the costume and make-up. The location
matched the conventions of a romance film
through the colour scheme and the fact we
carried out most of the sequence in a bedroom with connotations of lust that we
wanted to create. The colour scheme of the bedroom is white and silver rather
bright colours that create a positive atmosphere as well as the high-key artificial
lighting in the room, this representation fits into the optomistic atmosphere a
majority of romance films create. The costume of the protagonist dressed in
white with a red lipstick connotes romance and love but it also hints to two
contrasting representations, the white could represents innocence and the red of
her lipstick connotes the danger a stereotypical feature of dramatic thrillers. The
antagonist is dressed in all black an stereotypical look for antagonists in dramatic
thrillers such as Scream it portrays an enigma and connotes danger.

Elise Thompson
Cinematography is also used to portray the
genre of our production, the use of tracking and
panning creates an idea that the protagonist is
constantly being wacthed by someone this
creates an ominous atmosphere within the text
a stereotypical atmosphere created in dramatic
thrillers. The use of an extreme close up of
Chelseas eyes show the fear in her eyes as
Shane groupes her body we can see the trauma
in her facial expression and this creates a chilling affect on the audience as they
begin to witness the crime of sexual assualt. Crimes such as this are
stereotypically involed in dramatic thrillers such as Gone Girl and Precious.
Story and how the opening sets it up:
Todorovs narrative theory is presented within this
extract, the equilibirum is presented within the
beginning montage of shots showing Chelsea in
her room waiting for Shane. The disequilibrium
then occurs when Shane strangles Chelsea shown
in a high angled medium shot to display her
inferior position within the text. This completely
changes the audiences mood from the sensual
mood previously created, following this the point of
view shot showing Chelsea running away as she
attempts to restore the equilibrium. These are the only three stages the
audience will be able to recognise throughout our sequence.