Evaluation 1

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

 The first frame shows the name of the film, the setting and the main character. The title of the film is Lola Grey and appears at the bottom of the screen. We chose to put it here so it would not totally distract the viewers attention from the main character, but is still obvious within the frame. The font used is a simple, bold, red font, as we did not want to use a font with any connotations of a different time period or genre. Also after researching, we found that many thriller films use plain and simple titles. We chose to colour the title red, as many people link red with anger or blood therefore a hint of the rest of the film, creating a feel of tension and making the audience wanting to watch more.

We set the film in acres of fields, next to a railway and an abandoned farmyard. In the background you can see a worn down building which is used to store farming equipment, which we thought looked scary. By having this in the background the viewer will presume that the building is linked in with the flashbacks. Because the thriller genre covers such a wide area, it does not have a typical setting, but as psychological thrillers tend to have empty secluded space reflecting the mind of the character, which we used that in our film.

Unless the thriller is set in a specific time period, it is not incredibly important how the character is dressed. We dressed Alice in plain dark clothes complying with the dull de-saturated colour scheme, and covered her with mud to show her struggle. We also put ketchup on her representing blood. We used hair products to make her hair look messy and greasy, implying that she has not been able to wash.

In the first second and third shots we used a tripod enabling us to capture steady shots. For these shots we used a wide shot. We only used one shot to show continuity and emphasise that the other frames were flashbacks. When filming these shots we tried to use the zoom setting on the camera, but as the zoom has a set speed we found it zoomed out to quickly and was not very steady, resulting in us having to slightly change the way it was filmed to still get a professional look.

For the rest of the frames we used handheld so the shots would shake a little, implying that Lola was shaking from fear. Also by using a handheld camera is makes the viewer feel as if they are expiriencing the same things as that character, and is typical of a psychological thriller.These shots show the character in more detail, this builds a relationship between the viewer and Lola, and does not jump into a film with a character who the audience know nothing about. By showing the character from afar in some shots and close ups gives the viewer to build up a good profile and form an opinion on Lola.

The third and fifth frames show flashbacks. Because this setting is totally different to the others, a distinction between tenses can be clearly made. He movements show she is struggling and constantly thinking. The setting is dark and claustraphobic, so it uneasy for the audience to watch. There is also a big contrast between both settings, going from a wide open, relatively light space, to a small dark room inside.

The fouth and sixth frames show Lola rocking backwards and forwards; this shows her nervous distposition and is also typical of psychological thrillers. The eighth frame is an extreame close up of Lola's face focusing on the emotion. It is uncomfortable and claustraphobic for the viewer to look at.

For the seventh frame we used a completely black screen. This shows complete darkness and builds up tension for the viewer as they do not know what is going on, leaving the viewer wandering what is happening to the character. The next frame is an extreame close up of Lola's face, which appearing after complete darkness will stay in the audiences mind.

In conclusion, we felt that we have used used typical factors of a psychological thriller making the genre more apparent, and making it comparable to other thrillers.