EVALUATION QUESTION 1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTIONS?
Our film is a Crime Thriller of which is entitled Boxes of People and focuses on
the issues in society regarding social groups, indifferences and conflict. We chose
to make the film about teens as they seem to be the most diverse demographic
regarding issues in society.
MISE-EN-SCENE/LOCATION
We chose where to film rather carefully. Both sets of
shooting the school and Bens garage allowed us to
create contrast between good and bad, of which
helped us demonstrate the meaning of the film even
more, the way the outside shots are presented
connotes freedom and/or purity due to the bright sky,
clean cut grass and naturality of the whole shot
surrounding the characters portrayed by Joe and
Connor of which places them in a sight which
emphasises how they are protagonists in the situation,
whereas the gloomy garage of which is visually un
natural, accompanies by sheers, tools and dirty rags in
the back of the scene allows the audience to
metaphorically compare the character played by me, Harry, to the shot itself.
COSTUMES
Like the location and mise-en-scene of the film, the
costumes were carefully selected to present the
characters in certain ways. Each character wears a
light colour which becomes slightly controversial when
considering the idea of how my character and Joes
character are binary
opposites. However the light colours reflect how there
is a sense of will and morality within that darker
characters as many in society always do what they see
fit, yet its isnt always seen that way in other
perspectives, to contrast the light side of my character,
I wore black jeans and had my shirt ruffled at the
bottom which implied a sense of mystery and un-
organization which could be a metaphor for the mental
state of my character considering that he is extremely
twisted compared to others. We did this to comply with
typical conventions of the thriller genre, as the
audience are left to use their own intellect to pick apart each character in order
to understand their motives and personality without having the producers make
it obvious for them.
CHARACTERS
The characters show some similarity and many differences. The blocking of my
character shows pure dominance over Joes character due to the way that my
character overshadows him and also is accompanied by clever camerawork of
which I will analyse later. My character is visually calm, yet has a backstory
which could compromise his initial image, with his friend being taken in by Joes
father of whom is a police officer aiming to crack down on childhood gang
violence. Joes character however has body language of which is fidgety and
connotes fear. This is useful as Joe doesnt have too many lines which weakens
him also as he isnt focused on as much as me or Connor. Therefore, developing
a realistic visual of Joe being held hostage mentally and physically. As well as
this, Joe comes from a group of whom tends to do the most moral thing in
situations considering that his father is a PC therefore making him seem
unfamiliar to the situation that he is stuck in. Connors character although isnt in
the film for too long is rathe symbolic. The way that he stands in the middle of
the gazebo connotes his power compared to Joe, as Joes character sat at the
edge of the gazebo. As well as this, the gazebo connotes an umbrella
(metaphorically) and Connor is at the centre of it which could therefore create
connotations that maybe he has power over my character too. The gangs arent
aiming to kill one another or harm each other that badly, whereas they are all
just wanting to do the best thing possible. This inter-textualizes to the film West
Side Story of which focuses on a similar idea. And although the gangs in WSS
are pacifistic, intensity is developed through the atmosphere and metaphorizing
of different aspects, of which we took and used in our film to not only conform
with the thriller genre, but also to generate a dynamic story from a low budget.
PROPS
The chair was reasonably the only prop we used in out film. Initially, we aimed to
isolate it from the frame due to how we had no choice over its shape or colour,
therefore not allowing us to precisely create any connotations from using it.
However, the latter part of filming presented us with the idea of what the chair
could symbolise due to its colour. The white seat could connote purity obviously
and could reinforce Joes innocence as he is sat o it during the interrogation.
However, when my character sits on the chair in the final few shots, it develops
the idea and story that morality and innocence is being shadowed out my
darkness/vengeance of which the audience would have already interoperated
from watching the initial few minutes of the clip.
LIGHTING
We initially found it hard to work out how to light our shots. We saw how the
natural lighting in our preliminary task wasnt controllable at all and there was no
way to darken it without darkening the whole shot. Therefore, we decided to use
natural lighting for the flashbacks to separate them from the rest of the shots,
therefore making it clear that it isnt a chronological part of the story. This is a
feature that we have seen in TV shows such as Arrow and Doctor Who and has
worked really well in these. It can be argued that we didnt consider this when we
filmed Connors dialogue sequence, however it gives the illusion that it is further
on in time and is clear that it is after the interrogation as the shots cut back to
my character. Therefore, to contrast the light shots of which are filmed outside,
we used a powerful, singular, non-diegetic bike light of which we had a lot of
control over. The effect that was caused because of this was a half-lit face which
also casted the target into darkness. This connoted that everyone has two sides
to their personality. Reinforcing how the costume colours allowed us to do this
also, the light was able to clearly show that the characters have a strong sense
 of morality for if not each other people who they
care about. We didnt want the film to be in black and
white which is typical for the genre of film noir, yet we
wanted minimal light initially in the opening sequence
to set the mood for the rest of the film, therefore, we
composed many chiaroscuro shots (The interrogation)
to develop the sense and mood of mystery and danger. As well as this, the low lit
shots allowed the metaphoric lighting to prevail, which would again allow the
audience to involve themselves more in the film and interoperate the meanings
of each aspect. We didnt want any diegetic lighting as we thought that it would
symbolise a sense of hope/freedom. Yet as well as this, we didnt want the non-
diegetic light used In the interrogation to look like its natural as it would have
implied the same thing. The way that the interrogation
shot is lit minimises the garage and emphasises that
there is no escaping from it. This could again reflect
the mental state of my character.
SOUND
We didnt want the sound to be an aspect the constructs too many connotations,
as we thought that the visuals were easy to understand and infer from. However,
we did want the sound to be relative to the genre and have it develop the
atmosphere even more. I composed a white noise-like score on FL Studio and
added police sirens and car skid sound effects on top of it to produce a piece of
music that gives the illusion that more is going on than seen, this non-diegetic,
ambient sound allows the audience to consider what is happening in the
background again developing the mood and complexity of the opening
sequence. We also needed to emphasise certain sound stings in the shots, an
example of this is Joes heavy breathing after the extreme close up of his eyes.
This was emphasised on the sound mixer and the volume was increased to
create a more eerie and echoed sound. Furthermore, we recorded Foley sounds
for certain moments such as the punch, we did this by recording clapping, then
we took the .mp3 to the sound mixer and gave it a lower tone to sound more
realistic, this allowed us to add more realism to the scene and give the audience
the impression that Joe was punched properly. The sound is controlled by my
character at points, for example, when I clamp down on Joes legs, the score
picks up with an emphasised boom of which also connotes power. We used ADR
for Connors dialogue as the wind was too strong outside and we didnt have
access to a dead cat or a boom mic for my camera which was difficult to
compose yet we managed to make it work as most of the dialogue shots are mid-
long shots.
CAMERAWORK
Our camerawork varied significantly to make the film intricate and diverse. We
used extreme close ups of Joes face and mine too in order to develop a sense
of intensity and intimacy, we did this mainly in the still shots with no dialogue
just to purely focus on the characters emotion and nothing else. This allowed us
to emphasise the seriousness of the sequence and engage the audience even
more. This is like how close ups were used in Captain America: The Winter
Soldier as I analysed n a previous blog. We managed to maintain a level of
equality throughout the film as the camera angles didnt entirely suggest power.
The cameras stayed moderately at the same height with shots of both me and
 Joe, this was intentional and well thought out as we could
through this use other aspects of production to develop
connotations of personality without making it too generic.
Furthermore, the shot of my character at the end in the final
dialogue sequence is tilted down slightly, this produces two
unexpected effects. It ground me as in it makes my character
seem as if he is human and not overpowered which contradicts
the other aspects used, as well as this, the camera angle
shows weakness in my character of which therefore makes the
audience see me as more mortal. Another aspect of
camerawork of which we found successful was the POV shot initially,
this placed the audience in the shoes of Joe and caused them to watch the
sequence from his perspective. This also pointed out that joe is the hostage and
that the audience should be rooting for him.
COMPOSITION
We mostly complied with the rules for composition
regarding the immobile shots. We complied with the
rule of thirds for example as we levelled out the
characters eyes with the guidelines, etc... However,
when it comes to the rule of avoiding the middle, we
went against it in order to draw full attention to certain
characters. With the camera that we used not being able to pull focus too well,
we centred myself and Joe in specific, more intense, shots in order to engage the
audience fully as well as emphasise the emotion and story.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
As mentioned earlier, the narrative is linear and tells a story in
real time, however there are clear flashbacks in the short
montage of Joes capture of which we used to widen the story
and make it come across as more complex and intricate. Again,
this method of using flashbacks to give the story depth is used
in shows such as Arrow where the background is extremely
important to the real time events.
TITLES
Titles typically represent different traits of the characters and emphasise the
genre/plot of the film. In our thriller, we used a slick, sans-serif font to modernise
the film and make it seem more intellectual as fonts such as these are used in
films like Spectre. We also edited the fonts so they glitch/shake in order to
convey the mental state of the characters and expectancy of the idea as a whole
seeing how the main title Boxes of People shook and glitched around the
screen in no pattern puts emphasis on how the groups of people are unexpected
and dont follow any line/sequence of events or how they are bouncing around
outside of the law. Furthermore, the positioning of the title initially demonstrates
the power/superiority of the characters. As the title Harry Ames is higher than
Joe Blaxall this shows that my character has initial power over Joe. However, it
can be argued regarding the other aspects of the film that the title only
represents the current level of power. Again, similar to how the titles are placed
in Spectre of which initially shows James Bond in the position of a middle man
yet as the film develops, he gains more control and power over other forces even
 though he is a loose cannon and under no
rule.
EDITING
Editing was rather tricky as we had to
make a linear story, explaining/showing
enough to allow the audience to grasp
the full idea that we were trying to convey whilst including flashbacks which are
clearly separated from the current time. We used multiple cuts which built upon
shot reverse shots to make the dialogue more complex and exciting, even during
phone conversations this was used. The cuts were
carefully made in order to
maintain continuity and
match on action of which
made the clip flow a lot
more that it did in the
rough-cut phase. An example is where Connors
character pulls out his phone and checks it,
proceeding to ring/converse with my character on the other end. We regarded
the 180 degree rule during the blocking of our characters which made it easier
for us and the audience to understand the placement of the characters and to
also realise who is talking to who. This was never disregarded in our film as we
believed that it would make it look too disorientating and would reduce its
intellect and modernism. As well as this, the 30 degree rule was always kept in
mind as it allowed the cuts to come across as clean and precise as well as
maintain a professional standard throughout the film. The flashback as
mentioned before had to clearly be separate to the rest of the clip yet flow
perfectly to again maintain a professional standard. This was achieved by using a
montage of which was sped up, as well as an overlay of Joes eyes to create the
illusion/image that the audience is looking into Joes mind. We also dipped many
shots into and out of black to make the clip smoother whilst watching it, it also
helped develop connotations of mystery and slyness regarding the character
played by me. Another shot that we had to clearly separate from the clip yet
make flow was the CCTV shot. To do this, I added a time count and a date key
as well as made the clip greyscale to convey the idea of a filming camera. We
wanted to do this to reinforce how my character is low-key twisted. Overall, we
used editing techniques that we have seen in other thriller films due to how they
are all generic to the genre. However, we took aspects from films such as
District 9 and TV shows like The Walking Dead and Arrow in order to add
professionalism and diversity to out film through the process of editing alone.
To conclude, we used many aspects of films and shows that we analysed
throughout the planning and research leading up to the making of the thriller
clip, allowing us to give illusion and make the film far more enjoyable for the
viewers. Many conventions of the thriller genre were followed, for example: a
troubles antagonist, an unexpected hero and metaphoric representations to
conform with different aspects and these were strongly developed in my opinion.
However, we did go on a tangent regarding composition, colour and inter-textual
representations in order to not only add originality to the opening, but also to
make it less predictable and clich.