Evaluation Question 1

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

Use of narrative

My narrative is greatly inspired by the thriller "se7en," in the idea of a variety of people who have done something wrong to the antagonist who seeks to eliminate them, metaphorically in the case of my own media product. I was also inspired by the vastly popular TV show catfish which documents the phenomenon of fake social media accounts targeting people for money, attention and a variety of different reasons. My narrative follows an emotionally unstable individual who has been rejected by her friendship group and seeks revenge by pulling them into online friendships through fake social media accounts. This narrative challenges other media products of this genre because it has a very current and modern theme that I have not seen being the focus of many media products, other than the movie "Unfriended" which I have taken a lot of inspiration from also and have analysed it previously in my blog. In terms of the other part of my narrative and the targeting of a group of people, this conforms to conventions of other media products such a "se7en" and "SAW" and many more.

Mise-En-Scene

I have filmed the majority of my media product outdoors but juxtaposed this with extreme close ups of technology and social media, challenging conventions of media products that are usually filmed primarily outdoors. Challenging typical conventions of real media products, there are no weapons or threatening objects shown throughout the opening sequence, as I wanted my antagonist to seem more pyschologically harmful than physically, as it is more current in the media and was easier for me to produce under the circumstances. In terms of costume, the actors throughout wore typical teenage clothing to juxtapose the normality of their nature and appearance with what is happening to them, and I also wanted the teenage age group to be clear throughout the characters. During an extreme close up time lapse of myself i'm wearing red lipstick slightly overlined to make my character seem eccentric and creepy. I also have taken inspiration from the opening sequence of "se7en" and used pictures of the "victims" on a plain wall and created time lapses of them showing the antagonist scribbling out their eyes in red pen.

Editing Techniques

I went back to edit my piece multiple times to ensure I was enitrely happy with it, and I experienced some difficulties with the sound editing that needed correcting multiple times. Because the only dialogue and sound in my entire piece is the voiceover, I wanted to make sure the narrative was completley clear through the voiceover and made multiple adjustments to it in order to do so. When scripting the voiceover, I watched the completed filmed piece and wrote in time to certain shots, to make the catfishing narrative clear. After adding the completed voiceover to the editing software, I realised there was a great deal of background noise underlying the recording, and had to figure out how to remove that the best I could.Voiceovers are typical of thriller openings as they help to create the personal dillemma and eerie atmosphere. I sped up certain shots by X100 to make the movement in the shots jittery and static, conforming to conventions of exsisting thriller products, for example the shots of the other characters on the swings, making something quite childlike and innocent quite scary, speeding up shots conforms to exsisting thriller products, used to create the same jittery effect.. I overlayed a few shots of computer screens, messaging apps etc on top of the characters face who is currently recieving the messgaes, to show their reactions to the messages as soon as they recieve them. I also slowed down some shots by X50, to create a calm mood after the fast paced editing and quick shots, which isn't typical in thriller products.

Use of Camera

Conforming to features of exsisting thriller pieces, I use many extreme close ups and close ups throughout my opening sequence, of characters faces to show their emotions and of the antagonists eyes and the eyes of the multiple protagonists, to show the closeness of the relationships between the characters. I also use panning shots of nature and trees juxtaposed to panning shots of the pictures on the wall of the catfish victims, which uses the conventions of typical thriller products, many of which feature photographs of the victims to depersonify them, widely used in pyschological thrillers. I used a zooming effect on the phone screens when each protagonist was recieving messages from the fake social media account to bring the audiences focus to this, used widely in thriller products to focus the audience on a particular character or feature in the piece that maybe wouldn't have stood out without the zoom. When we can see the protagonists recieiving messages initially, I used long camera shots to show Josh sitting on a wall on his phone, Jasmine sat on a bench on her phone and Caitlin walking whilst on her phone, to establish their character and make it clear to the audience they are the people in the pictures.

Special Effects

The titles I used in my opening sequence are in a typography that appears to be typed on a computer, fitting with the themes of technology and the growing social dependency of the internet and social media. This uses a typical feature in exisisting media products however usually it is written typography, primarily used in horror thrillers. I also used time lapses rather than flashbacks to show the passing of time rather than looking back, as the background story to the narrative is explained through the voiceover, and because our sequence is only the first two minutes, I wanted to avoid flashbacks for fear of it appearing trailer-like in nature. I used the time lapses to show the stunted mind-set of the schizophrenic and pyschotic antagonist, and hoped the unsettling nature of the time lapses would be symbolic of the antagonists mindset, a common feature throughout thriller products.