uses and gratification

According to Bulmer who was writing about media in 1950 5 years after the second world war, During which he concluded that most propaganda protests where through media such a newspapers, poster art, radio and films, which attempted to persuade mass audiences to follow their polices, Bulmer concluded that media must have seemed like a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands as it was capable of persuading millions to follow evil men, showing how powerful media can actually be to an audience.

The uses and gratification theory is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking ‘what people do with media’ rather than ‘what media does to people’ (Katz, 1959). It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audience are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs.

It is suggested that the uses and gratifications theory has to fulfil one of the following when we choose a form of media:

• Identify- being able to recognise the product of a person in front of you, role models that reflect similar values to yours, aspiration to be someone else.
• Educate- being able to acquire information, knowledge and understanding.
• Entertain- what you are consuming should give you enjoyment and also some form of ‘escapism’ enabling us to forget our worries temporarily
• Social interaction- the ability for media products to produce a topic of conversation between other people, spark debates.

 

This could relate to our thriller due to the fact people use thrillers and horrors to put others in that position and make them think it is them in that situation, I think this is a good use due to the fact that we aim to make the audience feel involved and part of the thriller rather than them just watching it and not identifying with it, we aim for the audience to be entertained, be educated and identify with our thriller.  

Helping to understand the criteria

So on Friday we had a lesson on evaluating other thriller openings, I thought overall this was a useful lesson due to the fact that it gave us an idea as to what was required for the grade we aim to achieve and gave us more of an understanding on the criteria given. I felt that the A grade video was very successful as it had lots of focus pulls making it more mysterious and the camera skills being more experienced, this clip also contained material which was appropriate for the target audience and task as it created a lot of tension giving an idea that its a thriller, I felt that this clip had a lot of control on the setting and what was in the frame as everything looked planned, and nothing out of place not breaking the mise-en-scene they aimed for, it was clear they wanted to create a more rural idea to the clip in which was met.  I also really liked the use of the voice over as it gave an edge to the video and broke up any awkwardness that the audience may have experienced if there was other sounds or dialogue, as it was on a beach, the noise of the waves may have made it difficult to understand what was said from the microphone of the camera picking up background noises so the use of a voice over went well with the setting.

I felt that one of the clips we were shown which was a C grade did meet the requirements as it used sound with images and editing appropriately and that they used appropriate titles, However, I think that it didn’t meet the task set, as it was meant to be a horror, it didn’t create any tension, it seemed more like a comedy, I think that if they filmed at night time and made the dialogue more clearer by having voice over’s instead of using the microphone on the camera due to the fact that there was a lot of background i.e. wind and cars, then maybe it would’ve cause more tension making it less funny for the audience as that wasn’t the aim of the clip.

Practice shots

Elsie and Bertie decided to do a few practice
shots for ideas and inspiration of what we could
do for our final opening thriller film.

Textual analysis of Final Approach

http://www.slideshare.net/10lowean/textual-analysis-56371067

Click above to read my other textual analysis...

One page pitch

One Page Pitch

Working Title: A Souls Redemption
Tagline: Sometimes the kindest of hearts can be tainted
Film Genre: Paranormal thriller

Commissioning Editors: Conabel Productions
Length: 1 hour and a half. The reason our film is this length is because there is a lot of information which needs to be addressed to the watcher. This is proven with what I have written about the plot below.
Plot:  Bertie has been possessed by the devil when a dark part of his soul has been unlocked after witnessing everyone he loved being killed. This caused him to be possessed due to his soul being caught by the devil after the anger of seeing the murderer kill his family weakening his good will. This means Bertie is still in his body but trapped in the devils grasp.  But then a person comes and triggers a memory which keeps reoccurring meaning that Bertie begins to fight against the devil to return to his body.
Statement of intent: The main theme of our story is that even those who once had such innocent eyes can be changed simply by the devils hand. We want to tell this story in order to teach people how one event can change a person’s life forever and cause them to be someone they may have hated before. However Bertie gives out the message that it does not define you as a person but can simply just make you stronger.
Visual realisation: We will put black and white colouring  when editing and use high angled shots, tracking shots and close ups. Cabin in the woods slightly explored this with the use of dark lighting and basic colours like brown. Also the Blair witch project has also done it with night vision, a hand held camera and dark lighting.
Target Audience: We have chosen a target audience of 13-17 year olds. The reason we have done this is because anyone at young age may find parts uncomfortable to watch and agitating due to the way Bertie is acting. We were guided by Cabin in the woods for our target audience which is an inspiration for our thriller. 
Story synopsis: A young boy playing in the woods. Does he mean any good? Or does he kill just for fun. No one will ever know. All because the devil is in control. While Bertie fights in his mind, hoping that he will survive. 

Extra research: While telling others of our thriller I was told that Bertie was a parallel to Anaken Skywalker from Star Wars. The reason is because Bertie turns evil out of losing the ones he loves while Anakin does simply from the fear of losing his wife and unborn children. Therefore this shows the common theme in films with good against evil. 

   

Role of a script writer

Okay, so, to be honest,I didn't really know what a script writer was until I got researching, its basically someone who writes a screenplay in which you need good story writing skills and a good imagination (which actually appeals to me since i have a good imagination).Every script starts with a theme or idea with the script writer intending on selling them and having them produced, Screenwriters are not hired, as they are 'contracted freelancers'. A lot of screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation also known as a 'spec' this means they write without being hired or paid,if a producer likes the script,and the script writer decided to sell their script, this is called a spec script. 
The basics in which should go into a script is concepts, characters, plot and the structure.By concepts it means what the films about and what you intend the actors to say, without a scrip writer they'd be no script and so no order on set. The characters within a script are essential as you need to know who the film is about and the main characters, You also need to include the protagonists and antagonists of the movie, the script writer needs to have a good ability to develop a character and make them believable.The plot is what drives the story and what happens to the characters to make the story line, the plot needs to be engaging otherwise it'll bore the audience making it unsuccessful.

Script writers use this particular font ( 12-point courier) as the standard screenplay format is designed so that one page approximately equals one minute of screen time, consistent character spacing is important.

Thriller opening intial ideas

Our groups initial idea is in a wood setting simply because it looks very creepy and edgy. We aim to give it a old fashioned effect with black and white tones,either by using dark lighting and actually doing the filming at dusk to give us a darker affect or we use after effects once we've finished filming. The Characters within the opening will be Bertie ( Elsie's younger brother) and Elsie, The plot of our opening is basically, Bertie is possessed and creepily skipping or running through the words. I thought it'd be affective if after each tree he runs past, we have the title sequence going on at the same time with names on the tree's. We would ideally start off this  opening with old fashioned news paper articles with 'Missing boy' on the front hinting to the audience who Bertie could be and that what he's doing could suggest is out of character, we initially will open with an establishing shot in order to show where its taking place and with Bertie first walking into the woods, We also aim to use a low shot when finishing the opening with Bertie pushing Elsie over and a low shot pointing to the ground to show the distortedness . During the title sequence,we will also overlay Elsie's cover of the song for non diegetic sounds to give it a more creepy affect and also use other non diegetic sounds such as owl sounds and leaves rustling.