Atta Ahmed's media BLoG: 2013

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

How a psychological thriller works is through the perception that the audience creates individually; meaning that it plays with the audience way of thought. The very first scene that the audience views is a stereotypical night out for a group of teenagers of that particular age; meaning that the audience will be able to become curios towards the story and would be able to judge it relatively to what the film can feature, since they can relate to them.

The initial shot of the film is a set of mid shots used to describe the location and environment, featuring the close ups of the young group of people, indicating the presence of each character, the use of props, such as; alcohol and other substances that the audience might presume, give out this very stereotypical effect towards teenagers; this is referred from the media industry. Most thrillers portray the environment, meaning the way the characters are engulfed by the shadows, or by the mood or location of the circumstances. The darkness around the characters increases the vision of darkness and loneliness; based on the expression the main character indicates, since the plot features the guilt of the main character being unable to keep his mentality to the point where he kills himself, relieves himself from the enclosing past.

The use of the editing in this particular way, can describe what had happened between the character and the concluding killer, a realistic thought or vision was needed to indicate the psychological scenario between the characters; which gives the audience the rough idea of whom and what kind of being the main character really is or was. Our aim was to manipulate the function of the what the audience might interpret; meaning that the killer is not really the villain but the victim and the protagonist is in fact the villain and not the victim of the story, this format creates a set of subvert conventions following the scenario, that occurs later on. The use of a mid-close up of the characters facial features after the psychological breakdown that occurs or haunts the protagonist; the flash back which indicates the horrific innocents of verbal death that had been forced upon the killer which describes how and what the mood and emotions surround our protagonist through the phantom of the story. The use of simple shots which feature around the characters allows the regulated thriller theme to build up slowly creates tension; which usually plays a big part in any type of thriller. Here we tried focusing on the diegetic sounds that represent the script which was made up rather than planned, because the characters would have to rehearse the script and act it out, in this case we allowed them to talk as much as they want, and what they want. This relates to a natural speaking pattern where in some cases the cast would stutter or would forget some of their own lines. The diegetic sound was especially focused on, because we wanted to make it look like it was a distorted memory towards the audience, so they can imagine that the main characters situation. Only the non-diegetic focuses the phantom killer featuring that we see later on. This allowed us, and the audience to be able establish the theme that we relate to in a horrific and suspense filled scene.

The difference here is that the theme doesn't follow the Todorov’s theory in order; Equilibrium - Disruption of the Equilibrium - recognition of the disruption of the Equilibrium - Attempt to repair Equilibrium - Repaired Equilibrium. Here the disruption of equilibrium through the recognition of has already occurred the protagonist is trying repair the disrupted equilibrium because he recognizes the disruption. The props theory may also refer to the subvert convention that are set out in our film. This type of occurrence happens in many crime thrillers, were the beginning describes what has happened before the event and then refers back to it at the event.

The theory suggests that each film or story consists of 5 stages that repulsively follow a current of events, meaning that when one person is affected, automatically it leads to another person’s behavior based on the person who was affected to the point where it creates disequilibrium. When this happens the story will focus on the aim and objective of the hero based on the journey they make together. The event follows a recognition of a disequilibrium, based on how the event is carried and what actions has been taken to avoid the disequilibrium breaking down, carried by hero and the characters with the hero, this means that the what event that has occurred has forced the hero to come out to take action. An example would be “UP” PIXAR FILM BY DISNEY, in the beginning it is all peaceful and very childish, as it talks about the kids life as he is growing up, he the hero makes a promise that he couldn't keep with his lover, as they aged, his lover past away; this disequilibrium is the start of the event where the hero takes action to keep his promise or to fight his destiny. This leads to another stage where a new equilibrium is formed that is set of the hero’s achievement and the result of the action that he had taken. The new equilibrium is the set of the actions taken and the end following the equilibrium was everything now is calm. The structure of the theory refers to story that may inflict several components of justice and moral evil, such as murder or death and possible mass destruction. The theory consists of different characters. This means that each character plays a specific role considering the event, it can create twists and it could have a happy ending, depending on the emotional or physical disequilibrium. This type of narrative structure is very familiar to ours and can be applied to many ‘mainstream’ films of today.

The real differences between our media product and a real media product is that the use of subvert conventions. In a typical thriller you have the protagonist fleeing from the antagonist; and this is usually set in a way where the event occurs in the beginning that captures the audience and then refers back to the actual event and what really happened, a bit like “Limitless”, where Bradley Cooper is at the edge of life and death trying to escape reality, narrating then later on of how he got in this situation. Crime thrillers usually emphasize the action rather than the actual psychological occurrence. This type of thriller is surrounded by many different ways of murders and investigations were a common theme of revenge and anger is taken towards the event. The way we made use of the subverted convention was through the initial characteristics of the antagonist and protagonist; the protagonist is big, male and unusual, were as the antagonist is small, female and different to what a typical thriller holds, usually the antagonist is another male and opposite to what the killer in our plot emphasizes. Other differences that occur in our type of thriller are the subsequent use of un- stereotypical emotions. Usually a male really is strong hearted and would overcome a tragedy in this state, but here we made the protagonist look like he actually is possessed, haunted or even mentally corrupted.

How does you media product represent different social groups?

In our film, the use of different social groups that are indicated in our film are the set of ethnic and gender based representatives, since the young group of people do see or are able to connect themselves with media portrayed youths that are seen a stereotypes nowadays allows that type of relationship to occur. The teenagers are presented is in a form of stereotyping, since the small group of youths is outside hanging together and drinking, it can be seen in the forms of gangs. This would be the typical view from major media organizations such as the BBC or ITV. This type of conventions are also used in real media products, in the sense that it can be described as humor, such as in the film; another hood.

Ethnic societies are featured through thrillers as groups or gangs in the terms of how the characters relate in the story, such as; the mafia in the movie “The Godfather”.

From the first scene onwards, we see that our protagonist is drinking, even if it isn’t addictive drinking, it is still very much scene as a ad stereotypes towards youths; cutting to the flashback that we see throughout the major representative of teens is viewed by their relationship. The relationship the different audiences see is represented in the form of hate, presumption and scum towards the protagonist who two-timed within a relationship. Other forms are materialized when it comes to heavy drinking; creating the illusion of time that the editing represents, from mood to mood; from a depressing flashback to the sense of motivation and the dismissal of regret that the main character tries to eliminate during the first scene.

As we can see from the second scene onwards, we see that the hipster format of the stereotype he is appearing to be can be related to those who have the similar attributes or similar sense of clothing.

What kind of institutions would distribute your media work and why?

There are many different types of institutions were many types of products can be distributed in a formal or informal way; referring to the fact that this product is not capable of top companies like 20^th century Fox or Sony Entertainment. This kind of product may only be distributed in the sense of free costs. Companies such as VEVO or YouTube will be able to distribute the media product out of free costs, meaning that the product may only become popular through the sense of mass social networking by sharing. This allows a enormous range of audiences to be able to see the film rather than allowing companies that take up major marketing costs to publish in a way that the product may fail at, therefore companies such as; VEVO and YouTube are more reliable in that sense.

Companies as such that produce major entertainment for the media industry often have a criteria that the film has to have; based on the popularity and demand of films in the same sector. The media industry often criticize the way a conventional thriller creates illusions, depending on how the film actually makes an impact, also because of the age limit, if the film is not fascinating enough the reviews might not even let the film be shown publicly. The closest set of company that would be able to distribute my media product in a unrealistic form would be the company New Line Cinema who would be an excellent option to use since it is well known and realistically foundation to distribute this kind of product. New Line Cinema would be the kind of institution to propose the type of thriller films that would be aimed at our target audience, which in this case is; the age 15, with a nixed gender. They could be easily be distributing our mid quality media product with their power and well know capacity because of our film is to set be more profitable where they get an enigma thriller where the institution would make more money for both of us.

Many media companies are able to promote product that are able to make profits for both shares, in this case the way our media product will be promoted would make a steady flow towards the audiences that we are aiming at. In any case, the media product that would have been distributed by New Line Cinema would be firstly previewed at a local cinema within London. That way the limited audience from London would be able to judge and comment the film.

The way our film would contrast would be through the fact that the film is unique and be formidable since the production was filmed and the way it is presented towards a large target audience of 15 years of age or more, for both genders. A psychological thriller for this target audience would be a very enigma based, suspense thrilling experience, because both the target audience and the contrast between real products to our have a complex relationship were the audience could relate to.

What would be the target audience for your product?

The target audience for “A Lesson Learnt” is aimed at 15+, at teenagers of both genders in the sets of working/ middle class, because the use of subvert conventions that we have featured which allow the audience to relate to the situation in a mental manner. One main reason that we are featuring audiences in both genders is because the way we focus our killer and our victim. Since our main character is male and is mentally disturbed and our killer is female refers of the growing number of cases were females are dominating in a relationship and are becoming more violent.

In the media product, we feature the set of a suicidal murder, in both cases. This means that the only appropriate film criteria that the BBFC permits would be 15+. The use of weapons and props that are established in our film would not be suitable for 12 year olds since the case of imitation would be very high. The use of psychological terms and the issue of mental balance can influence many younger audiences. Thereby the restricted use of certain horrific attributes has been limited in the media product. This also cross boundaries towards how horrific it can be so we limited to only 15, otherwise the media product would have been at most be an 18+. The main reason that we didn’t choose or media product to be aimed at 12 year olds, is because of the hypodermic syringe theory. This theory suggests that the media allows the procedure of intimidation to be formed. The younger generations more likely to force itself towards violence and other causes, based on how the media injects its content to the audience. This is similar to how a small child would copy their parents at a young age, such as; the imitation of smoking or pretending to be drunk as studies suggest that these cases are rising. This can be referred to the “Audience reception theory”. The Bobo doll experiment was tested in year 1961 to see if any behaviour that was mentally learned rather than biologically inherited, through the genes, this meant that social imitation and copying one another might trigger this instead. Social behaviour that might have been learned through looking up to certain people, this could mean that the type of music, lack of role models in many senses, is the boundary that differs from person to person, because the state that the mind comforts can be separate to what actually set a emotional response, this can be caused environmentally, where it can be through the people you might befriend or look up to. The reason why this experiment was created was to see if children do imitate adults, the way Albert tried seeking the answers was through inter-pretending people (actors) to play roles of good and bad to see how the children reacts. Aggressive and non- aggressive people where used to see the result of the experiment. The usefulness that the experiment had set an example of how to really raise children, this is where adverts of parents smoking influences actually come from as well.

Adult behaviour is naturally picked through mental exhibitions of different behaviours towards once a child has experienced it or has noticed it, these sets through different stages where children of any age can be good or bad, especially through puberty.

There are many approved criteria’s for thrillers by the BBFC that relate to certain age groups: PG ratings are the set rating for children, a young audience, of the ages 8+. PG stands for parental guidance that refers to the content of the film, depending if the parent does allow the child to watch the film, examples, such as; “Shrek” and other Disney Pixar films are rated PG. A certificate is given to a film that has the right to be called a PG film, meaning that the film has the allowance based on the majority of the young age group to be viewed or sold. No theme is prohibited at PG, as long as it is treated in manner towards the appropriate age category; meaning that the film highlight the set of issues like domestic violence, bereavement or racism. This means that if we aimed our psychological thriller towards this age group, he effects to the audience at this age would create disorder in many aspects.

12/12A this category of audience refers to an age limit of 12 years of age, any under this age will not be appropriate or suitable to a younger audience; BBFC considers that any content of this category can be presented to an audience of the age of 12. The statement that 12/12A gives is that the audience can be allowed to see the film unaccompanied by an older audience or parent/guardian. A child or younger than 12 years of age is only allowed if the parent/guardian considers the film appropriate towards the child; being judgmental based on the content of the film. The content of 12/12A can have a content of strong language (f**k) but is only appropriate if the words are infrequently used. Any racist terms or discrimination used within the film will not be appropriate for such target audience.

15 is something more advanced than a 12/12A with a higher content rating, meaning that anyone under this age will not be qualified to enter or watch the film. A 15 film may have content based on: strong violence, frequent use of strong language, the use of minor sexual activity, sexual nudity, discriminatory language and appropriate consideration of the use of drugs. A certain use of parental advisory is based upon this type of content, meaning that the child can be considered not suitable depending on this set of age. Content at this rating can be viewed only by the age of 15+. This age group would be considered appropriate for our psychological thriller, since it emphasizes on suicide and other concepts.

Films rated 18 are at the audience based on adults only, any age below this target audience is not acceptable of viewing. This type of categories could follow horror, thriller, sexual contents and or violence / action. Content following this category: very strong violence, strong portrays of sexual activity, scenes of sexual violence, strong horror, strong blood and gore, real sex in some occasions, discriminatory behavior or language. There aren't many legal restriction following the content of the film, but can demonstrate a high frequent use of strong content which only would suitable for adults at 18+. Films such as; “Original sin” and “Killing me softly” are rated 18+. This age group would be the least expected to be used for our thriller since cases of psychological would not be enough to get the audience to get into the story. At these particular age groups the amount of detail we can add to our media product would be limited. The psychological idea that we are featuring in our film describes the sense of pain in a mental form, even though the death are physical, through the use of the knife is only limited by the two shots that we format at the end of the film. The reason for that is because of the weapon usage that the BBFC allows to a certain point, such as; the use of a chainsaw would be too gruesome and would result in many mental probabilities towards the younger generation. Imitations.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The way we attracted our audience was through the use of social media or “we” media as known. We firstly uploaded the video onto YouTube, with this method allowed us to get a wider audience from various countries since YouTube is an international site that is viewed as the 3^rd highest site to be regularly used after Facebook. This allowed us to be able to get various sets of information on how we could improve it and if it went well or not. Similarly I uploaded the video onto major social networking sites such as; Facebook and Twitter.

The use of social media allowed us to get peoples opinion relatively easily and also gets us more views through globalization. Social networking has a huge effect on many media based products. Tweeting, liking, sharing, posting, blogging and commenting expands the share of population to a very small source, this means that a chain of blogging and sharing allows the guardian to become broader and broader thereby making profits and becoming more popular. This way we are able to get an enormous audience and also more reviews on how to improve it or get a rough idea, that the media product is actually engaging with the audience as we hoped. In actual form it is a way to freely advertise our media product.

This allows us also to see, if the target audience that we aimed at, actually understands it. Base on Goffman’s theory were males are presented in a dominant way, we could see if that actually discourages our audience to watch it, but on the other hand, it could get more female users to view it instead. Since in this case, the female as our killer is more dominant than the male main character. Since the killer in our case is ethnically mixed race, we can get a wider audience even if don’t see the killer properly.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The primary task that we were given and the final task that we had to do had greatly taught me how to use new types of software, and how to manage time and work with others. During the preliminary task that we were asked do at first to see how much potential we had and how much knowledge we can use from the lessons that we were taught beforehand. The main problem was that I wasn't self-assured enough to engage with people with my ideas that I had, and also I didn't know how to manage and direct either. Once I set out the ideas that I had to the group that we organised, I offered to work on the camera since it was a very basic camera at first, but since I was acting I was only able to show them how to use the camera and what shots I needed for the editing. As I reviewed the scenes overtime, I saw that the group had firmly established the way to use a camera and the regulated rules that we were taught.

Even though I wasn't an actor in our final film, I decided to put in the contribution of fully editing it myself. The reason I did so was because I knew the software well, and I had experience making animations for our intro and endtro. The software I used to make the editing Adobe Premier Pro, editing software that allows Adobe After Effects, to be synchronised to the edits, these two set of software’s allowed me to create and piece together the different scenes of our film. I focused on having the most input for our film; the reason was because I wasn’t able to neither participate in the film nor handle a camera (which was a fairly complex Canon 550D) well even if I knew how certain shots that I wasn’t to be made. So I took charge into directing the cast, telling what shots I wanted to the two camera men that we had, also I directed the cast to do things that I had envisioned since I also wrote the story. This allowed me to have a good input in the project as well as use a new version of the software when I was editing. The version that the school provided for editing was Adobe Premier Pro CS 5.5; this had only default options and was hard to use at first, then I went to work where I was able to use the new version of Adobe Premier pro which was CS 6; which was the refined version of the previous version.

Once the editing had finally finished up, all that was needed to do was to render the sequence and upload the video to various sites on the internet; firstly I uploaded it onto YouTube, where many people are able to comment and add feedback to the video, just as I also uploaded it to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. This allowed us to get an international response if possible, meaning that various audiences, people and ethnicities are able to give feedback to us; not just our specific target audience. Having it uploaded to Facebook and Twitter; this way would let people who you know, comment on them and share it based on globalisation.

I developed various skills and learned many ways of developing the media product. Editing, time managing, directing, public speaking were many of the things that I learned in general.

Looking back the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from to the full product?

Referring back to the preliminary task that we firstly focused on; seemed like it was a piece of cake compared to the final task. In the preliminary task that we did, as a small group, consisted of small scenes, low amount of editing and there were no set conventions that we had to follow. The reference of having no conventions to follow meant that we could do as we liked but had to follow the certain rules that we were taught about filming.

The continuity task that we were given was to see; what we are capable of producing. This was a short task that involved a character and the set of camera shots regarding the situation. In this case the situation was set for an employee who had been slacking and thereby was given his second verbal warning or he would have been fired by the evil boss.

During the filming session we had prepared ourselves of the sense that each person will be given a role to play, meaning that everyone involved would be required to do something which they could. We prepared the setting in a way that involved a boss and an employee which we got the idea from a previous production or trailer that our teacher showed us. Once we started our filming we prepared our room and decided who was doing what; in this case I was the boss. Making sure that no other teacher or classes get disturbed we decided to film but at multiple times we had interruptions or people didn't follow the script; mainly because the atmosphere was too humorous, so filming the same scene several times allowed us to have back up footage, but mainly through editing we required extra scenes, so on multiple occasions we filmed and retook several shots again. Unknowingly to us we had filmed for several lessons and ended up wasting time.

I began editing once we filmed everything that we required to; compared to the final task this was relatively easy, since it was a small task and didn’t require the constant continuity set by each person, so in other terms, the more people the harder to keep the continuity consistent. In the continuity task, small errors would ruin the scene and thereby creating major continuity errors. Since I was the evil boss, I moved a lot to emphasize my impatience and my anger towards the victim, the employee; but because I was moving so much, the position I often moved around changed when I reviewed the task before editing. Also during one of the days that we started our continuity task, I didn’t really wear the same clothes as the week before; so that created a major continuity error, so re- filming needed to be arranged including getting the rooms that we had beforehand. These kinds of problems didn’t occur when we were filming our final task, but did require re-filming almost all of what we had done. The reason for that was because of the continuity issue of time based on the sun and location that we had used for our final product. Issues occurred because the sense of time was against us since it was winter, so we had fewer days light and because the area that we filmed was a public park, which created problems with people walking passed. The major reason why we required to re-film the whole film, was because of the unsatisfactory work that the cast put in; and because some people required to go back home as quickly as possible, so they were not available long enough for us to film, even when the rearranged the dates of filming.

We could have improved in a way where the use of more than one or two shots per scene can have more dynamic angles and at some points we could have used the most basic shots such as; a close up. We also could have used some non-diegetic sounds for the film. Fortunately it was good enough in our opinion and allowed the film to be posted on to YouTube.

When filming our equipment for both the continuity task and our final task differed massively. In the small continuity task, we were provided with the equipment and editing software but, it wasn’t very professional and the camera that we were given was only 2- 3 megapixels, similar to an iPhone 3. This was pretty bad and didn’t hold great features for us to play around with. During the final task that we were filming, we used a Canon 550D HD widescreen camera and the software of editing was done of 64- bit Mac, which I used for editing. This high tech equipment was provided from either our own homes or work places. Whilst filming the final task we used two cameras which allowed me to make quick transition edits and thereby decreased the continuity problem if we needed add transition shots and also allowed us to film in one go; not having the cast repeat the scenes or have them move back, secured positioning of each character and allowed the continuity errors to be minimized. Problems that we faced during the final task were small issues, nothing major, this was once we filmed on the second trial that we had. On the day we first filmed, we aimed at filming everything at once, and my directing of the cast and characters wasn’t great, in fact once I checked the filming material that we had one the day, it was awful and the characters didn’t have time to film again; so on a different day, we got a new cast who agreed on helping us. With the experience that I gained on our first trial, I was able to direct very comfortably and understood how to minimize confusion and other problems.

In the first task the lighting that we depended on was a natural lighting in the room and also the artificial lighting of the room itself. This means that in the first scene of the preliminary task that w had to do didn’t require external lighting such as a LED lighting that could have been fitted by a socket or the camera itself. Since the filming was done in the evening we had to prepare quickly and finish it as quickly as possible, since the light starts to fade around that time. In similar circumstances we used the natural lighting of the sun when we were filming outside. This means that we only at least one shot and needed to film everything at a certain point. The final task required also a bit of patience, since we managed the time well enough for us to take a small break for the cast to relax and eat if they wanted to, this was essential so the cast/ characters don’t get tired or start to get fed up when filming. The light in the first half of the final product was needed to describe the darkness surround, engulfing the main character and also show that he is lonely. This creates the illusion that most real media products use to emphasize danger or depression. The use of the flash back when the main character is shown to the audience describe the situation that the character felt and the sudden transition back to the main character, describes the sense of anxiety and also describes how the surrounding people pity the main character; creating a subvert conventions against real media products that emphasize mental balance and general thrillers. The editing after the party; where the main character wakes up with a coat on top of him, describes that he was always alone from the beginning, meaning that he tried to resolve his depression from getting drunk as it is known to have a common remedy to most people who are depressed.

The sound and music that we used in our preliminary task was all but diegetic, this meant that we only referred to the sound coming from within the environment and didn’t use external sound; non- diegetic sound. This made the preliminary task really boring and unprofessional in some standards. The diegetic sound that we used made the environment more fitting, if for example we used an action pack set of sound, it would have made the sequence look really confusion and indirect to what is happening. In our final task we referenced our task to a psycho thriller, so we intended to use both non- diegetic and diegetic sound to make the sequence look like the main character is in distress. This creates both an emotional and physical contrast to the way the audience might interpret the main character. The use of non- diegetic sound in our final film; which was called “Creepy Loop”, creates the sense of tension and help convey the theme of the film itself.

In the both sets of tasks, we needed to be able to create and convey conventions of the theme and also try to subvert them as much as possible. The concept of creating scenes to describe the plot allows us to view the content from an audience’s vision. The sense of characters that we viewed them as; that the main character was at fault, meaning that he initially is the villain and that the killer is the real victim, this both subverts the convention and is something ne towards the psychological branch of thrillers.

The use of props that we encouraged was the set of objects that convey the sense of a hangover for our final product; this means that the use of equipment and camera shots described the sense of both death and danger. The use of alcohol; beer cans and knife which focus around the main character emphasize the sense of preparation of death also the other equipment which the different characters use such as; phones and torches emphasize the sense of youth which our audience would relate to. There wasn’t much positioning other than making sure that the props appear in the scene and that they stood out momentary s o the audience could interpret what happened. Each object represented something form the past, thereby emphasizing the main character past.

By Atta Ahmed