Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions from real media products?

Evaluation Task 1:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions from real media products?

 

 Frame 1: Our Title

My first frame of choice is the title of our film, we chose naughty list because of its direct to the theme of Christmas that runs through our film and links to the plot. Also, the word "naughty" connotes the danger the guests are going to find themselves in. A generic convention of psychological thrillers is to have black/dark backgrounds as it is a mysterious colour associated with fear of the unknown, this will allow the audience to instantly recognise the thriller genre. Compared to stereotypical thriller titles from research into other thriller trailers such as 'The Gift' and 'Krampus'. By having our title short and with only two words we believed it made the title easy to remember, also the phrase "Naughty List" is frequently used in relation to adults telling off their children acting as a warning to the audience. Having the word 'Naughty' coloured red in "Naughty List", which is a stereotypical convention with thriller film titles, it emphasises the danger the guests are in for, and symbolises the anger Scarlett is feeling towards them.

Choosing the font for a title is an important decision as it can change the whole mood and message behind a film. I chose the serif font 'Times New Roman' this is because it is a stereotypical convention of thriller film posters, taking into account that the same font will be used for my film poster and magazine front poster, I preferred this font as it made my ancillary texts look professional.  by using this font, I was able to relate them to the stereotypical thriller genre, however, if the font was a graphic chiller font, it could make the film look like a comedic parody (spoof) because the title would take away from the sinfulness of the film. For example, the films "The Terrible Two", "The Mummy" and "No One Here But Us" look more serious and are recognisable as being from the thriller genre.

 

Whereas the film "Saturday the 14th" is clearly a spoof of the film "Friday the 13th"; a classical thriller/horror film. I can tell it's parody because the original has used the stereotypical thriller font, and the spoof has used the generic chiller font.






Frame 2: Storyline and Plot

Frame 2 is one of our intertitles. I think this frame is a perfect representation of our storyline as this is the whole basis of our film. the whole story is about how Scarlett's childhood friends were put on her "naughty list" as they didn't attend her Christmas party 6 years ago, therefore this sparked her inspiration for a holiday-themed revenge plot. The question asked throughout the film is "what happens if you're on the naughty list, therefore by including this intertitle, not only is the audience given a clue to the plot but it also creates a sense of fear in the audience. Yet, it many thriller films audiences see the antagonist directly tormenting the victims, therefore ours challenges this idea, as throughout the trailer audiences are unaware what happens to the guests, although you know that they were tied up and are also seen running freely, you know that whatever Scarlett is doing to the guests it isn't pleasant. However, I did not include any scenes of direct harm. as our trailer is left on a cliffhanger; what happens to the guest, do they die? It, therefore, conforms to the generic conventions of thriller trailers to leave the audience wondering as this entices audiences to see the film in cinemas to find out the outcome.

Frame 3: Setting

Our settings included, small dark rooms, a long corridor, and Scarlett Rosewood's house, all of which a middle-class viewer would recognise. As our film is set in a homely environment it portrays Scarlett as a normal citizen, which then makes the audience feel uncomfortable as your home is usually a secure and comfortable environment and will scare them into believing that anyone can be after you. Many other thriller films such as "The Purge" and "The Strangers" are set in household settings.

Throughout our whole trailer the only glimpse you get of the outside is when Scarlett is looking out her window, everything else if set inside Scarlett's house. This is to create the same feeling of claustrophobia as the characters, by not getting to see the outside, the audience will feel trapped and isolated. Other scenes also created a similar feeling, for example, the small rooms in which Scarlett trapped her guests and tortured them, these scenes create a lot of tension and confusion. Will the guest ever escape? Where in the house are they?

Frame 4: Prop and Costumes

The protagonist in our film kidnaps and tortures their dinner guests, whilst wearing a Santa costume. The costume is a important aspect as it the face shown in our film poster, magazine cover, DVD case cover, or any advertisements of ours. We wanted the costumes head to be the face of our production because it is easily recognisable. By seeing Santa's face people will automatically associate our film with Christmas, and happy memories. However we want our audience to not just think about Christmas but think of a more creepier version of Christmas, this is why we chose this exact costume.
The face of the costume is similar to the masks used in "The Purge" and "The Strangers", the masks have rosey checks, big eyes, and round faces. this creates the impression of an innocent child, however because these features have been exaggerated it makes the overall look of the mask, sinister.

Frame 5: Camera and Editing 

We planned almost all of our shots in our trailer, each shot composed in a certain way to produce different connotations. For example this shot in our trailer, like many others, was sped up. We chose to speed up certain shots to change the pace of the trailer so it was stereotypically fast paced like other thriller trailers. 
By having a close up of the kidnapper's hand creeping around the door, the audience will begin to feel scared ad creeped out because even thought you can imply that its Santa's hand because of the sleeve, it doesn't give away who it belongs to, therefore leaving the mystery of who is torturing the guests? This particular scene is also seen in other films such as "Door to the Other Side". 

Frame 6: Introducing Characters

Our trailer, consisted of 5 characters, which I feel is conventional of a thriller trailer, by having 1 villain and 4 innocent victims, scares the audience into thinking that this one person is powerful enough to control them all. To make sure our film wasn't too confusing we strayed away from having too many, by making 4 of the 5 characters, guests, therefor our audience isn't overloaded with story lines. 

Our guests were first introduced during the dinner scene where they were soon to be drugged. therefore creating a happy, calm atmosphere, which will soon turn manic and disorientated. This then creates the basis for our plot. Here we have challenged generic conventions of thriller films as aren't stereotypically introduced all at once, at the same time. We also challenged the generic convention of showing all the terrible things the villain is capable of and them revealing the villain. As we introduce our antagonist right at the beginning of the trailer, this goes against films like "the gift“ and "Krampus", who introduce there villains later on in their trailers. However because we introduced our villain so early this is where our enigma code comes in. By having our kidnapper where a mask when torturing and tying up their guests, no ones actually know who is behind the mask, leaving the audience to wonder and work it out themselves. 

Frame 7: Special Effects

We limited the amount of special effects in our trailer because we wanted to keep it realistic as it will then make our trailer more creepy, as we are distorting reality. One of my favourite special effects used in the film is when the guests all wake up after being drugged, as they are all trapped in small rooms and can't escape there must be a way for the kidnapper to check on them. So i thought of the idea to add the strobe effect in premiere pro, by changing the strobe colour to black, increasing the random strobe probability to 80%, add overlaying a glitching sound effect this gave us the final effect of a glitching security camera. I really like this idea as a special effect as it makes the audience feel uncomfortable as its like they are wacthing the guests wake up along with the villain. other films used the same security camera effect like, "The Purge". I believe its especially creepy as they can look like they're so close to you yet they could be far away. 

 

Frame 8: Film Poster

I believe my film poster followed numerous stereotypical conventions of thriller film posters. through my research in film posters I found that pulling in the audiences interest is down to a captivating main image, and having too many images can make the story and plot unclear. Therefore i chose to have the main image of the antagonist, which is stereotypical of film posters to either have the main antagonist or protagonist.

Just like our title I chose the serif font 'Times New Roman', stereotypical convention of thriller film posters, as I preferred this font as it made my ancillary texts look professional. By adding a cracked glass effect to the word 'NAUGHTY' as well as making it red, emphasised the danger in the film.

I included a review from a newspaper or film critic, just above my film title. By keeping the review short and too the point this way the audience instantly get a positive opinion of our film, as well as a five star rating instantly catching the audiences eye. After looking at film posters such as 'Black Swan' I could see that a black background was conventional of film posters, there for I used a Layer mask to fade my main image into black. As well as adding in a tag line, billing block, and main cast, all personalised to our film. As our film is an independent, low-budget film, our film poster needed all these conventions as we don't have a well known production company like 'Warner  Bros' or 'Sony', so we must rely on critics and our audiences opinions before distributing the film.

I tried to follow the convention of having the actors names just above the film title, just like they have in the 'Black Swan' film poster, however, again, because our film is an independent low-budget film all of our actors are other student and do not have any star power. Therefore we were unable to include the stereotypical convention of using a famous actor/ actress to entice audience into watching it.

From my research into  the film poster 'Mr Brooks' the tag line is placed at the top of the poster and gives a slight insight to the plot of the film. I wanted my film poster to directly address my audience so I chose the tag line 'Are you on the Naughty List?' and the word 'you' created that created a direct address with the audience. This is intend to grab our audiences attention by making them question not only the film but themselves as well. Also by having the word 'you' coloured red connotes danger and fits in with our thriller theme of black, white and red.

Frame 9: Magazine Cover

Just like my film poster I used an image of the main antagonist in our film, Santa.
This is what I found to a stereotypical convention of  a magazine front cover when looking at the film posters of  'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Sherlock' The main characters of those films are the main imagine.
Looking at many film magazine covers I can easily spot that masthead are stereotypically large and fill the width of the page, as well as being slightly covered by the main image. For example in the 'Sherlock Holmes' magazine front cover, Sherlock's head is overlapped on top of the masthead.



I liked using this layout for my magazine because by covering some of the masthead confirms the companies confidence in their magazine, by assuming that audiences will recognise their magazine without actually seeing the whole name. My masthead is bold, clear and white, keeping to the thriller colour scheme. I chose the word 'Cinema' for the masthead because magazines like 'Total Film' and 'Premiere' their names both relate to film, which instantly causes the audience to assume our magazine is about films. 

I used the stereotypical convention of  a puff like they did in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' magazine front cover. I chose to make mine in a circle similar  and chose to make the word "WIN" in red bold font and in all capital letters, similar to like 'Empire' have done with 'Pirates 4' this therefore draw the audiences attention to buying my magazine as they will want to win cinema tickets.