Paramount is a high budget mainstream distributor.

It has distributed
popular endorsed films such as shutter island, Psycho and Gone. Due to
its release of a film like these, it could be a distributor for our films
because we follow a similar idea as the main character suffers from
flashbacks and hallucinations which Grace the protagonist in our film
also goes through .
Q4 - In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
In order to learn the conventions used in our film genre we researched and looked at various
films. The psychological thriller films that stood out to us were Sixth sense Conjuring and Orphan.
From here we learnt that they all use children as the protagonists main victim, as using their
innocence can cause audience to feel more sympathy towards the older characters trying to save
or help them. Our media product challenges forms and conventions by having the younger cast
as the protagonist instead of the older characters. We make it seem as if the social worker in our
film Grace is the bad guy but we include a plot twist at the end to be able to allow the audience to
have a change of heart towards the actual antagonist. Psychological thrillers tend to have their
story line by initially presenting a balanced happy setting (equilibrium), then some sort of
problem or obstacle (disruption of equilibrium) in the middle and ends by leveling out a
restoration of the equilibrium. We have similarly done this in our film. However we don't show
the problem resolved (restoration). In our media product it starts with flashbacks of Grace in a
happy setting with her friend Trinity but we then find out there is something twisted about their
friendship, which leads to the plot twist.
Our media product challenges forms and conventions by having the younger cast as the protagonist instead
of the older characters. We make it seem as if the social worker in our film Grace is the bad guy but we
include a plot twist at the end to be able to allow the audience to have a change of heart towards the actual
antagonist. Psychological thrillers tend to have their story line by initially presenting a balanced happy
setting (equilibrium), then some sort of problem or obstacle (disruption of equilibrium) in the middle and
ends by leveling out a restoration of the equilibrium. We have similarly done this in our film. However we
don't show the problem resolved (restoration). In our media product it starts with flashbacks of Grace in a
happy setting with her friend Trinity but we then find out there is something twisted about their friendship,
which leads to the plot twist.

The Close up & dark lighting

and shadows on his face make
him seem shady/suspicious. It
makes the character seem as if
he is a bad guy when really this
is not the case. His sinister
straight face also adds to this.
This helps the plot twist as it
can teach the audience to not
judge a book by its cover.
Here you see the disruption in equilibrium and the plot twist we tried to portray. This
was difficult as we did have to reveal quite a lot of the plot into minute.Tracking
Shots and Whip pan shots were the best way to allow viewers to walk along with the
characters or see what they see, making them more connected to the film. Below is a
video of different type of tracking shots we looked at to decide what was the best
technique to use. Side way shots were the best to carry out the now you see me now
you dont scene.
Q4 - Continued
The title of our film Grace hints what the overall storyline
of the film is about, the life of the main character Grace.
This is a common convention that thriller films do as the
title usually helps to give out an idea to what the film will be
about. The one worded title is also conformed to many
thriller/horror films for example Annabelle, Chloe, Oculus,
Insidious. This helps the audience to remember the title
easily. The production logo Schema Productions was also
made to help establish the genre of our film which is a
psychological thriller. As the word schema originates from
psychology and is the explanation of how the mental
framework of our brain works we thought it would be
smart to combine it to our film to emphasis that throughout
our film we are manipulating and playing with peoples
thoughts and emotions.
 We used the rule of thirds a lot which is when the main object is on one side of the screen to
allow the viewers to focus on one point and not several things. We had to make sure that
there wasnt any other big distractions in the background so we can maintain the focus on the
main character. Shots where there was a busy background and you could see the characters
full body were done intentionally in order to portray how open the character is with the world
compared to the other scenes where they are mostly close ups to show more of the emotional
and secluded side of the character. We learnt how these shots can manipulate a viewer's
perception with the video down below. We also made sure that we had high angle shots with
Example of Close up shot
Grace to show she is vulnerable and low angle shots with the social worker to emphasise how
small Grace is in his presence.

Example of use of wide shots and

Rule of thirds used.
As you can see it gives a different
effect. Her in the middle of a
clothes store shows shes normal
and somewhat happy/calm, whilst
in the train scene it is just her and
the train which can lead the viewer
to think she is in a hurry or
agitated. The next frame in this
scene comes out as a pan shot of
the platform showing her in the
middle of everyone else meaning
that regardless of everyone else
she is focused on herself and
getting away.
Q5 - What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
Constructing this product helped us understand the process of editing using Adobe Premier
Pro. We learnt how to do colour grading using RGB Curves in order to manipulate the lighting
in the scene (making the room temperature look colder by increasing the blue colour gradient).
We also learnt about trimming and adding sound. This added a greater thriller atmosphere to
the film. We learnt how to use transitions such as fade to black & crossfading to add clarity to
the storyline as it would indicate a change of scene or allowing the audience to process the
information the film has given and be ready to keep on with the rest of the film . We had to
learn how to use adobe premiere pro as our movie opening was filmed on Chloes Nikon camera
which meant the quality would be highly reduced if we edited on Splice. We also realised that
sound on the camera will not sound the same as sound recorded on a separate device. So
whilst we were recording our film we had a hidden voice recorder near the actors who were
talking, so when we merged audio and video together, their voice sounded clear in the end
product.
Use of Colour Correction
We watched many interview scenes in order to
know what are the best ways to have it set out
and what angles would fit well. We got the
idea of having a black monitor to show a
reflection of the person being interviewed from
the movie Batman vs Superman. This in a way
overshadows the person being interviewed as
it can show how they feel in the inside, as if
the inside of them is also interrogating them
since they can see their reflection and feel self
judgement.

Also the colour gradient was key in these type

of scenes. Batman vs Superman clearly use
RGB in order to make the colour of the room
blue, making it look drained out and fairly
dark. So we also used this in our interview to
illustrate a cold atmosphere within the room
but also within the main character.
We also looked at the popular tv series 13 reasons why. In 13 reasons why, they did a simple trick
which helped the audience know when the main character Clay was remembering something that
happened with Hannah (the other main character) and when he was in the present. They used
softer tones in the scenes where Hannah was involved or reliving and colder tones in scenes where
it was in the present, when Hannah was dead. We also used this trick in our film opening. Scenes
where it was a memory or our character Grace was in a sense reliving, they had a warmer tone but
in the other scenes where it is established her friend Trinity is dead and she is facing the
consequences of the real world, they are in colder tones. I believe that this is a way to keep the
scenes less confusing for the audience to tag along and they also feel the coldness of the dead that
Grace is constantly feeling.

Difference when the dead

people are alive, we have
soft colours and when they
are dead we use cool
colours
 Further evaluation
There is a scene between the schools social
worker with the main character of the show at
the end. The relationship between teacher and
student is instantly set by having a certain
space within them but the Social worker is
sitting in a slightly taller chair to show that he is
the one with authority. The main character also
uses dark clothing and slouches a lot. We
managed to convey the exact same scenario
with Grace and our social worker. Grace was
also dressed in black and was at a slightly lower
angle than the social worker to show that she is
inferior. The eye contact that both social
workers have in 13 reasons why and in our film
Grace, allow the audience to see how adults
struggle but try to connect with the younger
generation and how they feel. This will set
realism to our movie and allow our target
audience to relate.