Evaluation Q5

5) How did you attract/address your particular audience?

I attracted the target audience by the use of a normal Muslim female who turns psycho. By showing a normal female, this brings the audience to reality, that even a normal successful female can experience a number of phenomena’s. The audience begin to side with the female character who is seen as the protagonist and are expected to sympathise with them and make the audience put themselves in the position of the character and also witness what the characters going through, however there is a sense of enigma because the audience isn’t shown why she is receiving mysterious phone calls and messages such as ‘I know what you did’. This leaves the audience wondering whether the character is really a protagonist or an antagonist.

I used particular editing styles to make the audience feel part of the character. I wanted them to feel as if they are part of the dream, and also a part of the reality. In addition, I made sure that as part of my production, I used one essential ingredient of the creation of the thriller genre which is suspense.
Suspense in our thriller is used throughout. The audience are expected to be at the edge of their seats waiting for what will happen next and trying to put together why this is all happening in their heads. As they are waiting to see what happens next, they are left with the title of the film ‘Deranged’ and then a loud scream which brings them back to reality and they begin to realise that it was all a dream.

When the production was completed, I introduced a group of 15+ to the sequence and asked each of them 5 specific questions. These questions were:

- Does the sequence fit into the psychological thriller sub-genre?
- Would you go to the cinemas to watch the movie?
- What did you like/did not like?
- How did it make you feel?
- Rate the sequence out of 10

Overall, the feedback was positive and everyone said they would definitely watch the movie in cinemas. The highest result was 10/10 and the lowest was 8/10 which shows it was a success. The majority of people said they liked the idea that it was a dream and reality put together.

'i know what you did'

Lulu Business Woman getting on the bus

Part of mise-en-scene. Main characters outfit..

Tasha filming

Tasha setting up the camera to begin filming

Before filming..

Setting up the scene and writing text on the wall - 'your next' in red nail polish.

Evaluation Q4

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

As a group, we decided the target audience would be ‘15’ and over since most psychological thrillers are rated a 15. For all social groups and ethnicities. Those who are part of the Islamic religion and wear the hijab may feel they need to watch the thriller to see if they are represented positively or negatively.

The representation of the Muslim Women social group was positively represented; this was because it challenged the stereotype of women staying at home and being a ‘house-wife’ whilst the man earns the money. It also represents gender and woman in general by showing that women can also be successful and independent.

During our initial research, we found that most people liked the idea of the character being in a dream state and are brought between the two; a dream and reality. However, there was an issue as some felt there needed to be more scenes of the character being in a hospital to emphasise the idea that the character is in a mental hospital dreaming and caught up between what lives was before she went in there and how it’s affecting her now.

I think our thriller would appeal to people who like Shutter Island and Final Destination 2. Final Destination 2 has a scene of a female character that is in a mental hospital because she has experienced a weird phenomenon, because some of our ideas came from this scene such as the mise-en-scene and lighting.

Evaluation Q3

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product, and why?
I think our thriller could be a successful Hollywood movie as many of our ideas have been inspired by popular Hollywood movies which have been released in cinemas such as ‘Se7en’ and ‘Final Destination’.

Evaluation Q2

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our thriller we have different representations of different social groups. One social group are Muslim women. As part of our mise-en-scene, the main character wore a headscarf also known by the term ‘hijab’ to represent Muslim woman covering their hair as part of their religion.

Also, another social group represented is the social class and status; this was by creating a character that is high in status and known as middle/upper class. This character was a female entrepreneur, again as part of the mise-en-scene; the character was dressed in a formal outfit. This was a smart shirt and skirt with heels and a small briefcase. In addition, even if the audience are not aware of the character’s occupation, they still have an idea she has an occupation and is seen high in status.

However, gender is not represented stereotypically because the opening shows the main character having a conversation with another character who is also associated as being a business woman by the way she is dressed. Therefore, this shows the main character being dominant and not a stereotypical ‘passive woman’.
The main representation is mental patients; our thriller is mainly about an ordinary successful female who progresses into a mental patient.

Evaluation Q1

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

Our sequence is a psychological thriller. Usually, thrillers focus on plot over character, and emphasize the intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.

The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from one or more characters playing with one another's minds, either by playing illusionary games with the other or by slowly trying to destroy the other's mental state. This was effective in our thriller because the main character had been experiencing weird things such as the phone ringing at a specific time every day, letters saying ‘I know what you did’, writings on the mirror saying ‘you’re next’ and loud noises such as a glass breaking.

Sometimes the suspense comes from within one isolated character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is a struggle to understand something that has happened to them. These struggles are made more dramatic with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of physical appearance or events that occur during the thriller.

'' • Psychological – Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature.
• Thriller – A genre of fiction that attempts to "thrill" its audience by placing characters at great risk. This constant unease throughout the story makes the narrative suspenseful to the reader by creating a tense atmosphere.
• Psychological + Thriller – By combining these two terms, the definition changes to a narrative that makes the characters exposed to danger on a mental level rather than a physical one. Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. ''

There are specific uses of sound and editing which follows the code and conventions of a psychological thriller. The sound we used was a mysterious noise which was continuous and had an almost creepy feel to it.

Also, the editing followed the codes and conventions of a psychological thriller. The titles were created in a way to emphasize the creepiness and give the audience a feeling they want to know what the film is about.

In The Process Of Filming

Filming got off to a slow start. We had planned to film in the half term break, but in that time members of the group had difficulties getting to the set and also we had some equiptment difficulties. So the first stages of filming wasn't very succesful.

Our first shots we got for the film deranged we got was good but when we took it to the editing suite we felt could be improved. The mise en scene costumes we thought could be improved and we needed high quality longer shots. There was also problems with the location we wanted to film at. We wanted to use a building in Harrow that looked very corporate for our character Onika to walk out of. When we asked for permission from the security guards in the building they refused, as did the security guards in the Harrow Shopping Centre.

Then we had to rethink our strategy. We planned more accurately our schedules for filming and we changed our film locations. We decided that we would film our opening in Edgware in Starbucks and towards the bus station. This was a more practical and in the end more helpful choice. Edgware was close by the location we were going to shoot the interior shots.

We fisrst wanted to shoot inside Starbuck's to imitate a lunch date that would be discussing business, but the manager of Starbuck's would not allow that either so we shot outside the shop on benches. We thought that this idea still worked with the rest of the filming idea.

We filmed inside the drama studio at college for the interior shots of the pshychiatric ward. This bit was really fun because of all the hospital props we used for the doctors and nurses. We also loved the spotlight we used on the hospital bed. It created a great atmosphere because the focused light on the bed kept the rest of the drama studio in the dark which was good. We made lots of shots in the drama studio of Lulu twitching and of the doctors restraining her. Some were usable, but some were bloopers.

We filmed at Lulu's house for the interior snapshots. We chose her house because it was more suitable because it was more spacious and had great lighting. We finished the shots at her house in 2 separate days and it didn't take too long because we knew what we were doing. Making the stalker letter and the note on the mirror in the bathroom was the best bit of filming. The hardest part was carrying the tripod all the time.

Subject Matter

There are lots of subject matters presented in our thriller movie.

Mental Patients
Stalking
Young Businesss Women
Young Muslim Women
Female Mental Patients

Lights, Camera, Action!

We booked a camera to use over the holidays, we planned out what scenes we were going to shoot and went ahead with doing so.

Storyboard

Posted up soon..

Locations

Whilst planning our opening, we decided to take pictures of different places we would like to film and use as part of our opening..

Psychiatric Ward

In our opening sequence, there will be a short scene of the character in a psychiatric ward. We researched different thrillers to get ideas of the mise-en-scene, setting and the camera shots.



This is a clip from Final Destination 2. We have chosen to put this up because in this particular sequence, there is an encounter in a psychiatric ward. In our opening sequence, there will be a scene in a psychiatric ward. Therefore, we researched different thrillers where they have used a psychiatric ward and we focused mainly on the mise-en-scene and different camera shots.



This is a crabshot from the sequence, the mise-en-scene is really effective because of the lighting and it has a unique setting as it shows a lot of trees, fog and is almost is an unknown place. This creates a miserable sense of feeling because the lighting is quite dark and gloomy. You can tell that it is a psychiatric ward or hospital as the people who are doctors are wearing only white.

Title Ideas

Before we came up with a title, we looked up different words which would fit perfectly with the storyline.

Firstly, we wanted to name the film 'Mental', we then decided to go on to www.thesaurus.com and see different words which were similar.

We then had a choice of four different titles. These were:
- Disturbed
- Deranged
- Out of Line
- Frenzied

We couldn't decide which one we wanted to use, so we looked at each of the definitions and decided that 'Frenzied' was the best.

Its definition was:
1. extreme mental agitation; wild excitement or derangement.
2. a fit or spell of violent mental excitement; a paroxysm characteristic of or resulting from a mania: He is subject to these frenzies several times a year.
–verb (used with object)
3. to drive to frenzy; make frantic: She was frenzied by fear when she smelled the smoke.

We thought this fit perfectly with the character.

Plot Ideas

Our group came up with many different plot ideas. We then decided to combine different elements together to create one.

Firstly we gave out questionnaires and found out that the most enjoyable and watched thrillers are psychological thrillers. This is why we decided our thriller would be psychological.

The first plot idea we came up with was that the opening would show a character who is experiencing weird things and briefly hint to the audience what the rest of the thriller is about.

As we researched psychological thrillers, we came up with another idea of adding a psychiatric ward and create a character who has gone 'mental' and ends up in a psychiatric ward.



As we done further research, we noticed that most thrillers included little girls. This added more suspense and drama to the whole psychological thriller.




We then decided to combine these ideas together and create an opening sequence where there would be a character who finishes work and leaves her workplace at about 7:00pm. She waits for the bus and there is a little girl constantly watching her. However, the character doesn't see the little girl watching her but the audience do.



During her journey home, there are short snaps of weird things that she has previously experienced. These things include writings on the wall/mirror, a shadow, someone at the window, burnt pictures, letters and continuous phone calls at a certain time. The character has nearly reached home and there is another quick snap of her in the psychiatric ward twitching. She reaches her home, slams the door shut and it cuts to her in the psychiatric ward screaming, and all the doctors rush in to calm her down.









We continued our research to see if there were any improvements or any other ideas we could add or change. We came up with another plot which involved a diary. We were going to use this diary as an object that would have a big influence in the storyline and would also be used for the credits. This opening sequence would be a girl at the psychiatric ward talking to a doctor, this girl would be rocking back and forth. This would indicate to the audience that the girl is a bit 'crazy'. The doctor would ask the girl 'When did it all start?' and then the girl would point to a page in the diary and it would show the girl coming out of work.. etc. This is similar to the first plot, whereas in this storyline, as the girl comes out of work, she drops a diary. This automatically indicates to the audience that the diary has some sort of importance to the film.



Both plots were very similar. However, the first plot started with the psychiatric ward being shown later on and the second plot began with the character being in the psychiatric ward and explains how she got there.

After a long time discussing various plots, we came to a conclusion that we would use the first plot. This is because as it is only a 2 minute opening sequence, the diary credits would take too much time there would not be enough time for everything to go on at once.

Preliminary Final Cut

Lulu Analysis

Introduction To Group

Our group is going to be producing a opening sequence to a thriller. To help the making of this run smoothly, we decided to assign ourselves a role to be in charge of.

Tash - Camerawoman

Natasha - Director

Lulu - Editing

Although we are in charge of these roles, we will be contributing ideas to each other when needed and will decide on decisions as a group. Every now and again we plan to have a group discussion about improvements that might need to be made and to ensure that we are progressing well.