Evaluation question one

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

Our film begins and thirty seconds in to the film the main character is sat at a desk. It cuts from a close up of the main character to a point of view shot of the clock. The clock says its 12:18 it then cuts back to the close up of the main character looking back across to his computer. Finally it then cuts back to the clock which is now at the time 1:49. This breaks continuity purposely which contrasts with other films because most films try to keep continuity. It breaks continuity because it becomes obvious it is a film with the passing of time being so quick. This is an example of shot-reverse-shot, this is a film technique where one character or object is shown looking at another character or object then the other character or object is shown looking back at the first character. This is a very popular technique and is used in most films multiple times as it shows the connection between two objects or character. It is typically used for conversations between two characters as it typically provides continuity in conversation with characters filmed at eye level. A classic example of shot reverse shot is in Paul Thomas Anderson's feature debut Hard Eight.

However our film also contrasts this because we have not used the convention typically, we have used this to show the passing of time, and we felt that this was a good use of the technique because it focuses attention to the passing of time. As well as linking our main character to this passing of time so that our audience can see that he isn't getting anywhere with his work it saved time as our film is only a short that could have been used to improve on other scenes. Also as this technique is used in many successful films it will be easy for our audience to understand as they will have seen it before many times. Later in the film, about one minute fifth teen seconds in there is a collage of shots of the main character sat at the desk and objects on the desk such as the phone when it rings. In this collage of shots we have followed the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the onscreen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object onscreen. It is typically used for conversations similar to the shot-reverse-shot technique. It is also used when someone is focusing on an object or travelling for example a car chase and finally used to record sporting events such as football. It is necessary because if it is broken the whole scene would appear to be flipped. If people are having a conversation they would appear to switch places, car chase scenes would appear to be going the opposite direction to before the cut and it would be difficult to tell which way football teams are shooting. If we didn’t use it for this scene things would appear to have moved on the main characters desk, this would confuse the audience and break continuity. However sometimes it can be effective to break the rule, it can be used for dramatic purposes or to give the audience the impression that the character is disorientated or confused. We decided it wasn’t a good idea to break the rule because our character is not confused yet and also we wanted our audience to feel that the character is sane and “normal” at this point in the film. 

Our film is a psychological thriller, we have shown this by the overall storyline of the film as he is going mad and see’s things and can’t finish his work but we have also used mise en scene to show this as well. We used a weird shot that fades from outside a computer to inside it that has non-diagetic sounds and diagetic sounds of a fan, this gives the audience the impression he is mentally stuck in the computer which links to the psychological element of our film. Also we have used a cross-cutting technique to give a weird affect as our main character it in both cuts of the film, this confuses the audience as the main character can’t be in two locations at the same time. This shows the audience that one of the locations isn’t really happening and must be something that is going on in his head. Finally we have used a collage of shots towards the end of our film that includes repeats of sound such as the phone ringing and jump cuts to show the main character breaking down, this shows that the main character has some kind of psychological problem.  To show that our film is a thriller we have used lots of build-up music, also our film is Noir which many older thriller films are. Finally we have used blood in our film which is often a large factor in thriller films. One thing we have done related to the psychological thriller genre’s history is the fact that we have made our film Noir, this is an old fashioned style of filming that is filmed in black and white and uses shadows and a set style of music. Many successful old Noir style films are thriller genre, this shows that the Noir style of filming is effective in the genre we have chosen. Whilst creating our film we used other films and shorts for inspiration.

One short film that gave us a lot of inspiration was a short film called Doodlebug. This is a short film about a man trying to kill a bug on his hands and knees, when he finally corners the thing you can see that it is a smaller version of himself. The short film is also filmed in a noir style and has a similar psychological surreal genre and many David Lynch such as The Elephant Man. This makes the short similar to ours and we used it for inspiration, our characters are similar they are both middle aged, and similar class. This type of character suits the noir style of film as it is quite old fashioned and many old fashioned films would star a lead male. By giving our film a normal effect helps keep continuity and stops the audience realising it’s a film. One thing we have replicated in a similar way is the scene from the film where the phone rings, he answers the film and puts it in a glass of water. We thought this was a good effect to use because it shows the confusion and anxiety in the character.  This is because it is a weird and confusing thing to do and shows he doesn’t trust anyone trying to contact him because he doesn’t even listen to who it is.  

One thing we kept in mind whilst creating our film was Richard dyers pleasures of entertainment theory. He says that people will respond to the message a piece of media offers if it offers them compensation for their inadequacies in their own lives. Examples of this are used in TV adverts for example anti-smoking campaign adverts focus on the clear motives and benefits for example gaining money, and improving health as motives to gain compensation from the advert. My audience may have their own psychological problems or confusions so may be looking for some kind of clarity from our film. They may feel they live mundane lives and therefore may be looking for some kind of excitement or adventure. They may feel they are in poverty and may be looking for abundance in our film. We have provided these things by explaining the psychological aspect of our film as it is clear by the end that he suffers from writers block, this provides our audience with clarity. By having the character go through his own personal adventure and using an antagonist and a protagonist creates excitement. Finally by having a long storyline in a short film provides a lot in a short time which may make up for abundance in our film.