Evaluate how your product used, developed or challenged the form and conventions of real media products

Evaluate how your product used, developed or challenged the form and conventions of real media products

Contact Sheet

 

1.    Title

 

• Plain and simple white text on a black background. Slightly bigger and the motion is slightly slower than the credits.
• The type write font that is used is simple but effective and suits our genre of a psychological thriller.  

     2.     Credit

• White text on a black background.
• Type writer effect very similar to the title so it all fits in with our genre, which needs to have simple and non-distracting credits, to be able to still have a thriller sense about our film.
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     3.     Characters

• We wanted our film to have a happy ‘home life’ feel about it where the characters are ordinary so that events seem even more shocking.
• Characters that are used in psychological thrillers are usually people that have a stereotypical ‘ordinary’ life like the two sisters do.
• The age of our main characters are 11 and 17.
• It is very stereotypical to have young people in psychological thrillers as their youth makes them vulnerable.
• As Ellie is younger and has an innocent look about her, it would be more stereotypical for her to be kidnapped where as we have changed this to her older sister to be kidnapped - this shows how you can surprise the audience if you subvert conventions.

4, 5 and 6 Mise-en-scène

• Lots of thrillers are set in houses where the family living in it are a happy family.
• We tried casting people that were just seen as ordinary people that did not have anything that would stand out as not being normal. This helps to create a sense of reality to help connect the audience to the characters
• When casting our kidnapper we had to make sure that his build was like a stereotypical kidnapper. This was so that we could give a realistic affect that the audience would know.
• The only main prop that we used was the photograph at the end of the sequence. This was to make sure the audience knew that this was Ellie grown up and the nightmare did really happen. A photo from the past is a very common prop in the thriller genre.
• The costume that we used for the sisters was just average day clothes that you would wear when you’re at home.
• As for the kidnapper, we thought about how a stereotypical ‘media presented’ kidnapper would be dressed. With this in mind we decided to dress him in all black with his hood up, so he could not be clearly seen.
• The lighting that we used in the first part of the sequence was natural light. As the house was bright it gave that warm feel we were aiming for.
  

7. Editing

• When we were filming we have to take into account what we had to edit, so that  it would flow properly in order to have continuity editing. This kind of editing helps to really draw the audience in and make them believe in what they are seeing.
• A good example of this was the shot reverse shot, which you can see in picture 7. We had to make sure that everything was in the same position in order for it to flow smoothly, so that the editing does not draw attention to itself.
  

8 and 9 Camera Angles and Movements

• When we were filming we tried to get as many different shots from different angles as we could so when it came to editing we could pick the ones that we liked most.
• We a used a good close up of Ellie when she is looking for somewhere to hide as you can see in picture 9. It is important in thrillers for the audience to be able to identify with the main characters and their emotions need to be tansparent.
• Another close up that we used was when Georgina was getting kidnapped. This was to show the scared emotion on Ellie’s face.
• For the scene where Ellie is grown up and having a nightmare, we used an establishing shot at the beginning to show where she was and to show the audience what she was like now that she has grown up.
• We used over the shoulder shot in the bedroom when Ellie and Georgina were having a conversation. This is typically used in all types of films and is a simple technique to show who a conversation is between and to see the facial expression of the characters.
• We used a panning shot of when Ellie is grown up and turns to look at the photograph. This gives the audience a chance to see the location of Ellie’s bedroom.
• The last shot in the sequence is a close up of the picture. We used a zoom for this so that that we could understand Ellie’s focus and concentration. This shot also allows the audience to see what Ellie is looking at.
• We have also used a POV shot form Ellie’s perspective in order to show what she is seeing when her sister is being kidnapped. This positions the audience to feel sorry for Ellie and she is having to experience her sister being kidnapped. POV filming is very common in our genre for this reason.