Tuesday 10 April 2012
Wednesday 4 April 2012
DECIPHER Evaluation
- How does your media product:
- Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
DECIPHER typically follows the conventions of crime/thriller, though there are few, deliberate examples where it subverts the conventions that are followed in that genre. Challenging the normal chronological flow of typical film, DECIPHER enters a phase of leading flashbacks that wind around the present time of the interrogation that deliberately allow the audience to enter this dream-like state that eludes them into the film; however, these flashbacks are typical to that of the crime/thriller (mostly Film Noir, where flashbacks, stark lighting and black and white are most commonly seen). Sound, subject and technique typically follow crime/thriller conventions, whereas our representational connotation remains mostly male ordinated, here there are subversion’s of class roles.
Interrogation
The first thing the audience will immediately note is the large difference between the interrogation scene and the flashbacks; the lighting here is cinematic, dark though bright in an orange like, artificial glow that adds a stylistic brush to the image. In crime/thriller, there is a typically strong appeal of dark room shots, enlightened by more un-seen, side shot lights that exists much to the conventions as it does to aid our representation in creating atmosphere and different representations between characters. Sherlock, Ocean 11, The Departed and The God Father all are examples of the opening scene which shows a power struggle between light and dark. These light and dark balances or complete control connote the power struggle that flows through this genre naturally, and more so aids to the representation of a particular individual (for example, Ryan (Barry) is always in the light: once the audience learns that Ryan (Barry) is not the killer, this comes to no great surprise as his previous lighted shots represent and subconsciously feed this to the audience in normal conventions that they would have witnessed). However, most importantly, Nick (Reece) is never seen until the end of the opening scene; whilst it is clear to the audience that he is interrogating Ryan (Barry) – his faint outline clearly indicating that there is indeed an individual there – it follows the strong convention of representing the bad character in dark lighting (The Departed, for instance is an example).
Flashbacks
The flashbacks in DECIPHER are the strongest attribution towards following the conventions that is crime/thriller. With such films that have been our largest influence as Casino Royal that have been labelled an idol in crime/thriller, it is obvious the clear conventions of the more traditional side of this genre, postmodern: film Noir. Film Noir is stylistic, sleek and atmospheric to aid the genre which it upholds; film Noir is typically black and white which all of the flashbacks had entered to connote this convention. Stark lighting is also another feature of film Noir, which was used in these scenes by simply adding no cinematic effects (as done in the interrogation scene) and using real-life like footage. Yet with modern intervention into film Noir, this style has typically seen few adaptations such as binding this style with other, more conventional ones and more so adding effects such as time stretch to lengthen scenes and create either disorientation or attribute to atmosphere; which had been added to these flashbacks particularly as they were meant to be ‘dream-like’ to connote their purpose whilst working with the conventions of the style.
Other features overall such as sound and camerawork followed the conventions of crime/thriller as well. Sound in DECIPHER is diegetic through dialogue and is strict to do so as such things as voice overs or additional sound effects or themes are rarely used – except for the atmospheric soundtrack that runs the whole opening to create drama within the piece. Dutch shots are the most effective contribution to following conventions in DECIPHER as seen greatly and most effectively in Casino Royal, they are typically found within film Noir, but have been adopted by the thriller/crime drama due to its stylistic approaches – in DECIPHER, this is seen at particular intervals such as the tunnel and integration scenes.
Representation & Conventions
In DECIPHER, representation does follow typical conventions of crime/thriller; however we also do offer a point of subverted representation of social classes. Firstly, following the conventions gender in crime/thriller is out thrown; its male dominated and rarely female influenced or balanced as typically, the audience for this genre is dominantly male. Quoting from Swordfish, ‘bam, the pretty blonde gets it’, the female population in this genre are the ones that normally die first or are the only ones to die – more so in heavy crime examples of this genre such as Sherlock is an example where most of the victims are female and are often the girlfriend which are often murdered. We replicated this by simply including two male actors and one female actor – immediately, the synopsis gender representation in the film is out weight two to one. This follows the typical conventions of crime/thriller, as the audience is typically male and therefore these conventions of audience translate into representation and gender presentation balance. The fact that the female character dies and the male power struggle is predominant in the film further contributes to these conventions.
Social classes particularly are the representation that we had subverted from the crime/thriller; in the film, we have two opposing social classes, lower class and middle class. Ryan (Barry) is the example of the lower class, the mise en scene of his ‘cheap sport’ clothes connotes the ideology of lower class England whereas Nick (Reece) is constantly seen in a suit and having more power as he is in the middle class. Whilst the mise en scene and the power control of these representations follow the typical conventions of crime/thriller representation, we do however subvert the actual characters intentions. Ryan, seeming in trouble as being the lower class citizen and therefore the assumed culprit, is actually the one who is innocent – this is shown through lighting as he is always bright, connoting that he is the innocent one and therefore subverts these conventions and also the stereotypical ideology. Nick on the other hand is actually the culprit, which is shown by the darkness he is always hidden in until the end of the integration scene, showing that he is the dark character that steps away from the conventions of this genre. This representation also insinuates that Nick being the middle class citizen is breaking typical ideology in comparison to Ryan as the lower class is seen as the criminals in most representations and more so these conventions; because we swap these roles, we subvert the representation conventions.
00:41
The image above taken from 00:41 (the first shot of the opening sequence) shows the immediate reflection of power in the piece. Whilst it becomes shortly established that this is Nick, the interrogator, the darkness in this shot represents his control of power which influences the opening scene and the power that the higher class obtain – more so, darkness here, indicating power or strength, combined with the mise en scene of the black suit, represents the power of the male character.
02:05
02:34
In this example, representation is dominantly focused on the gender balance; there are two males, both quite threatening in both mise en scene and composition, taking centre frame of the shot, they maintain the power as the un-named female character retreats. Mise en scene of the tunnel plays into the representation of Ryan being lower class and being in a supposed run down, urban area. Nick on the other hand, only seen as a figure of black, is dominant over all power of this shot, thus reflecting his social representation as well as gender representation of the opening sequence.
Representation and conventions examples:
- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Firstly, we chose Warner Bros because of its wide variety of films such as The Dark Knight and Ocean’s 11 in the genre that we were studying, but also because of its successes with audiences. Warner Bros is one of the 8 major leading film companies which dominates the film market in both theoretical exhibition and physical sales and is familiar to most ideologies and countries overseas. This substantial backing into DECIPHER ensures a budget push as well as grouped audience from Warner Bros followers; for example this situation may work in the way that The Dark Knight has found success, the institution develops a positive mark in the industry. Primarily, we chose Warner Bros for our distributer due to its capabilities to market with audiences through new technologies; blogging, creating websites, YouTube advertising and social networking sites branch out to audiences, which in retrospect to a small independent company; Warner Bros can reach out to audiences further. Warner Bros major placement in the film industry also ensures support for new technologies as HD for DECIPHER.
- What would the audience be for your media product?
Once we decided on the genre film type that we were going to create, we immediately sought into research of marketing, audiences and distributes – what audiences in gender, age groups, countries and fan-built-credit basis would be susceptible to (e.g. Warner Bros. Pictures is respected for its thriller/crime films as The Dark Knight) and more so who our audience was. Barry and Reece both studying business, used a tactic to find consumer markets. Firstly, we looked at the film market over 2011 and 2010 and focused on the success of crime/thriller genre’s in all industries. In 2011, only one crime/thriller had made the top 25 box office, whereas in 2010, there was a larger amount of crime/thriller films that had made the top 25 box office. Comparing results to 2010 and 2010, we decided that 2011 was more likely an anomaly, and that there was still a market established for our crime/thriller film – ensuring that there was an audience. Our film is aimed to the age range of 18-64 year olds as the genre itself is timeless and spans over different interest of age groups as its variety in context various, however the crime/thriller genre having a mature tone meant that it could not be targeted at anyone under 18 (containing violence, swearing etc.). From these age groups we could also determine that the crime/thriller genre is aimed at male consumers (hence the male dominant presence in the films – our opening sequence connotes these conventions – as The Dark Knight had only shown one woman and Swordfish was entirely male populated). We found that whilst representation and ideology is mostly male targeted, we also found that the actual context itself of introducing sciences, maths, action scenes etc. influences the male audience side more and has a larger success rate. Whilst we could base this information from more modern crime/thriller films that we studied, this ideal also applied in the 1960’s, as males were the ones typically featured in the crime/thriller films also, e.g. Scarface reflects crime in a realistic view, as it is male dominated, its realistic approach is more appealing to the male audience. DECIPHER does this by following the representational conventions of the genre; having the opening sequence heavily male influenced as opposed to female, appeals further to the male audience that it attempts to capture. It’s stylistic and plot mixing also appeals to the male audience as it is something to work out and applauds constant suspense and action-based drama. Lastly, DECIPHER also targets lower / middle class audiences; the class out way which the opening sequence demonstrates realistic, and in sub convention, reflects the changing roles in today’s ideology of Britain. However it reflects the ‘gritty’ reality (e.g. being accused for something that they did not do, small urban spaces) represents the audience in which it tries to target; already familiar with the ideology that is presented to them, these class aims will similar personas, similar situations and similar jobs which they can relate to – often leading to success with the audience in the situation where they can see the characters or situations as themselves.
- How did you attract/address your audience?
The main priority of audiences was the representation and ideology within the DECIPHER so that it would reflect the audience in which we were targeting; male domination, male power, similar personas and jobs etc. so that the viewer can thereby see themselves within the situation or character and enjoy it further in understanding and enjoyment of what they are seeing. That said, our decision to mix the time frames and twist the plot continuously (e.g. revealing that Nick was really the killer) introduces a sophisticated approach which is both dangerous yet cleverly placed so that it attracts the audience. Instead of feeding the audience a chronological film which shows events by events of what has happened (less artistic and unique as we’d try to attempt), we decided to introduce multiple plot twists by revealing the true killer at the beginning; whilst the audience is aware of the real murder, Nick’s intentions of doing so are not clear, what is to happen to Ryan is also a mystery – immediately suspense and drama is created by the fact that the audience has to work out what is to come next, or the various possibilities that DECIPHER is open to (aptly, our opening sequence is named DECIPHER to replicate the puzzle in which we create). With this, we are also following a modern phase in crime/thriller films as these puzzle like plots are introduced, forcing the audience to input thought. Because the audience does so, they are more focused on the film, pay more attention and appreciate it more. That said, DECIPHER does also attract its audience in the climatic build up at the end of the opening sequence; the constant fade in, fade out between the sequences shown does not imply what has really happened, or is to happen, in reality, the first scene is open to endless possibilities. Doing this intrigues the audience and creates a sense of natural curiosity to watch further. The artistic film Noir in which we follow conventions of in DECPHIER also attracts fans of the older instalments of the crime/thriller genre, and offers a less-mainstream approach to film over all; offering something that is not entirely new, but different enough to attract audiences.
- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Personally, what I learnt and found most interesting to be was the dolly or steadicam equipment’s used to make shots more smooth when in hand held, tracking or panning – I personally planned to make a steadicam, from finding the model manual of the camera’s we used online, I found the weight and with my dad figured out the counter eight plus 1lbs for stabilisation. My dad made it with wood and plastic and with a gimbal, it was held at the top and the led weights at the bottom, it countered the weight of the camera – however when we came to use it during DECIPHER, a gimbal screw had fallen off, destabilising it considerably (yet it was still used for the final shot where it pans up the side of Barry’s head when Reece comes to ‘reassure him’). Homemade or bought technologies such as these meant that we could add a depth to the film that wouldn’t be accomplished otherwise – the pan up we made was relatively smoothed as opposed to a hand held shot and we focused on the quality of the shots itself at first hand pre-editing so that we would not have to focus on editing techniques primarily. In DECIPHER, we used two different types of editing software, alongside with other technologies that we already knew how to control, such as a video converter and Adobe sound booth to lengthen the sound track from Secession Studios. We used Adobe Elements 4.0 and Adobe After Effects 4 on my laptop; these two different software’s in tangent meant that we could adjust things or even create things that we couldn’t in the other software, for example Adobe Elements 4 allowed us to produce a cleaner edit and adjust sound volumes where as we used Adobe After Effects 4 to create our studio logo and titles within the film. From scratch we learnt how to use Adobe After Effects 4 completely from reading the online Adobe guide, tutorials and forums on tips and hints, which allowed us to learn the basics and then take it off in our own tangent – our DynamiteKittySTUDIOS logo is our best example of which. I learnt of the dynamic layering which is needed in this software, and how complicated a title sequence can become with a composure of 3D effects in particular (originally, we had a 3D spinning title sequence) and how the camera reacts with null objects and the text on which you compose all work together to produce something of a higher quality than even Adobe Elements or Adobe Premier Pro. In all, After Effects lead to the exploring of the new technology, and produced several betas of the logos and title sequences that were produced before final cut of the opening sequence – the original logo was spinning as compared to the draw one now and the titles were at first hand spinning, growing or glowing past the screen. That said, by using Adobe Elements 4.0 we were already familiar with the software, for me personally I’d had it for several years and had taught Barry and Reece how to use it in our free periods and after school when we produced our first project Prisoner (which is why we decided Adobe Elements 4.0 was our best resort due to its more simplistic nature). However, there is one thing I learnt in particular when creating DECIPHER, the timeline effect which increases or reduces the speed of a clip – which was used in the Flash back sequences. More so, we learnt not to entirely rely on the cameras and focus more on our pre-set lighting and sound before the shoot as editing can only do so much. Even this went through stages as we planned to re-record all dialogue on the opening sequence via Sound booth and further before the shoot we had thought of buying a small boom mic due to the un-reliable capture of the cameras that we used during this project (yet even thinking consciously of the technology we were using to capture footage beforehand allowed us to jump around obstacles that were in our way such as lighting).
- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In a short answer, a great deal. There are so many things we’d learnt to do and what not to do from our continuity project as compared to this one. From the footage itself, we’d learnt to gather more as we found in the previous we ran out of shots and variation, and with over 90 minutes of film for our opening sequence we had more plenty to choose from in both range of shots and different selections of each (for example compared to the first rough cut and the final cut, the very opening had a pan, which we replaced with two different shots that jump to each other, stating the exact same thing). Even when disaster hit and the camera died towards the end of the flashback shoot, we’d came up with a plan for alternative endings by taking photos of the weapons in case we didn’t have enough footage (which was one of the cases with our previous task). Similarly, we found from our previous project when we came to arrange all of our shots, the camera was always miss placed or did not align properly with pervious shots – meaning our continuity was off as well as quality of the film. In DECIPHER we applied what we learned thoroughly by running through all the lines in the script that we intended to have in a certain shot type several times over. Our master shot was over 30 minutes long and covered all of the script and was set up as a default shot if any of the others were unusable for some reason. Our flaws in particular in relation to the previous task was the reverse shots, in DECIPHER we placed the camera in one point and ran through all of the characters lines that would be within the reverse shots, meaning that we only had one referral clip but also that continuity would maintain throughout the opening sequence. Whilst these were some of our major flaws, we also learned from our previous task to always back up the project file as we lost the original within the first week of our continuity project – on my laptop we had the original file and another copied file called DEC_AL1, meaning that we always had a safe-fail copy if anything were to happen to the original. In our previous project we also found that mise en scene and planning of arranging footage in a timeline was an issue; it was obvious it was within school, which harmed the quality of our piece and the incapability to plan accurately what was to go where and when to cut meant that it was rather sloppily edited together and often broke continuity. In DECIPHER we did film within school once to use the drama room – with which we completely blacked out, covered everything and used curtains to hide anything that could have harmed the project; in addition with the art photography lamp that we borrowed, we created a low light effect which we wanted to create. And eventually when we came to re-view our footage, we continuously referred to the script and physically wrote what clip we were to use and the times in which we could piece together an analyse which was best in line of the film and overall quality.
DECIPHER Making of
http://vimeo.com/39797589
A collection of post or during filming clips when explaining our methods or intentions. The end cuts off as the result of the camera memory being full and running out of explanation footage.
A collection of post or during filming clips when explaining our methods or intentions. The end cuts off as the result of the camera memory being full and running out of explanation footage.
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