Task 2: How does your product represent particular social groups?

Our lead female role is played by Karis. She represents a young successful female because she looks professional - wears glasses, hair up, does not wear an uniform (makes her more important than everybody else in the swat team, audience should assume that she is in charge). The audience expects a lead female role, in this case a young detective, to be attractive and that is the reason why we have chosen her. However, this does not mean that this is an accurate representation of female detectives in general. Nevertheless, in movies the representation is not realistic and an example for it is Angelina Jolie, she played in several movies an investigator such as Salt (2010) - CIA agent, as you can see in the picture she wears a black suit, dark clothes - as Karis is in our thriller. She also played in various similar movies as "The Bone Collector (1999) and "The Good Shephard". She was obviously chosen not only because of her acting abilities but also her attractive looks. In Holywood there is no realistic representation, so this is the reason why we have also chosen an attractive girl for our thriller.

Richard is our lead male character. He represents a young working detective. Due to casting difficulties, our choice was restricted. However, if we had a bigger budget we would have taken slightly older male character in order to portray masculinity because the expectations of the audience require an athletic, particular type of male. An example for this is Clive Owen who also played a detective in "The Magician" (1993), which meets the expectations of the audience for an attractive male character.

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

We opened our thriller without including the distribution company, which subverts and challenges the convention of real media products. It shows that the film is endependent and might go straight to a film festival.

                                                                                                                                                                      The first name, which appeared in the titles was the producer's name because as the film company is independent, the film is possibly financed by the producer as well. So, that is the reason why the producer's name is most important. We conform the convention by putting the producer's name at the beginning.

   

After the producer's name, the main character's name comes, which conforms the convention of a real media product because if there are any stars in it, people would like to know.

The director's name comes at the end, shortly before the film starts, which uses conventions of real media products.

We conform the conventions of a thriller because we have included some actions scenes, which reinforce the idea of the mystery being conveyed afterwards. It conveys the fact that they are investigators, breaking into the flat.

The pan across conforms the conventions of a thriller because normally thrillers start with a hook.

These two pictures also conform the conventions of a thriller because as the last one, do not reveal the mystery, but nobody knows who is taking the photos and the blind spot idea is reinforced. She sees the picture of her and then have the shot of herself (same one), but live. So, who is watching and how is it possible?

On the other hand, we develop the convention of a real media product because the actress represents a typical Hollywood version of a female detective.

Background

In my thriller I represent a police woman whose behaviour is rather feministic. The blind spot mystery represents mental health sufferers who are obssessed by something (stalking people, they do not see him, end not known, probably go missing or dead). The last group is the swat team that represent the life of people fighting against crimes, people missing etc.

I was inspired by the case of Ryan Quinn.

"Ryan Quinn was struck by a train in Portrush, County Antrim, after being chased onto the track in January 2009."

The mother of a boy who died after being attacked in Portrush two years ago has appealed for anyone with information to come forward. Two suspects in his killing has not been posecuted because of lack of evidence against them. The mother is desperate and tries to appeal to people to tell in case they know something about her son's death. "Please come forward as the police have set up a Facebook page - even to go on there and leave anything at all," she said.

The teenager had been attending a birthday party when he was assaulted and chased towards the railway track. He died instantly after being hit by a train.

"But the investigation is not closed. It is now more important than ever for those people with information, some of them young people, to come forward,"  Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison said.

"I want to ask them again, through traditional news media and through social media, to look into their hearts and examine their consciences" said the mother.

"A 14-year-old schoolboy lost his life. The family struggles to get through every day without Ryan and with the knowledge that people with information have not come forward."

I think that this case is very moving and shows that people have chased him and caused his death, which overlaps with our thriller idea because nobody knows who the murderer is. The difference is that in our case it is more of a mystery because it can be something that you never see, your blind spot. In Ryan's case people know that somebody is covering the murder and they know that somebody killed him is not just a random supernatural power etc.

Account of Shoot Day

Day beginning and comparison to original plan

The day began with going to the studio and setting up. The artificial walls were already made and were covered with mock brick in order to reinforce the not very wealthy invironment, dirty room, suggestive to its owner. The floor we covered with wooden boards to signify the floor. So we can make the room more messy, we added to the dusty and dirty floor restovers, toilet paper on the floor, old newspapers, used, uncleaned dishes - cups with left coffe, bottles and trash. We brought the props with us as we had planned before - the large amount of photos, a lamp, the bottles, two tabbles, pins, guns and torches. We sticked the photos on the wall carefully (thinking about the purpose e.g. photos of the same person around the same spot). We prepared the cast - we gave them the costumes and props the use. Then we learnt how to use the lighting (to dim it, brighten it and add lights - red light coming through the window). When we started filming, we used our storyboard and shotlist as a guideline. However, it happened that we changed some of the shots and took additional ones in order to make the sequence more energetic and interesting for the audience. It was easier to add shots and it was more obvious which shots we need on the spot as it was when we were planning it. The changes were effective e.g, we added a tracking shot which was not planned originally, but we thought that it adds a very nice effect to the mystery of Jenna spotting a photograph of herself. It also signifies the "eyes" of the things that you do not see, the blind spot idea, which also reinforce the fact that we were making a thriller.

Reasons for our choices

We chosen a more attractive female character in order to catch the target audience's attention. We also chosen her clothes to be appealing, but still her character was supposed to reinforce the idea of a strong, powerful woman, which would also appeal to women audience (feminist type) because Jenna acts like a man, has this strong personality, very controlling, but she is also a beautiful girl- would look better on screen and would attract also the male audience as well. We used a long, slow tracking shot in order to signify the suspense of Jenna looking at the photos. We also used close-ups of the leader police woman, so it is clear for the audience that she is in control, she is more important than the policemen. We changed some shots as: we added close ups of gun, different perspective of policemen breaking in, checking the room. We did not think of this before, we improvised with some pans and camera movements in order to reinforce her looking at the photos (we added natural eye movement), which would add to the sequence feeling of suspense (we filmed the shadow of her opening the envelop with photos in it).

We could have been more organised e.g. we did not have enough photos to cover the whole wall, so we lost some time to find more. In addition, we changed the policeman who aks Jenna whether or not this was what she expected, it would have been better if we casted them properly beforehand. Some of the shots we have used on the day, we not planned at all. However, they helped us (a pan) to reinforce that we are filming a thriller as we were inspired by the Sixth Sense as I have mentioned in a post before, when Cole and Michael are coming into the room of the little girl that was killed by her mother. The suspense was reinforced by a pan showing the room full with dolls.

Costumes/Props

We chose black jump suits for the swat team. We decided to use torches and guns in order to complete the look of the team. We were inspired by the action thriller S.W.A.T. (2003). We looked at the body movements and routine behavior in a mission in the movie in order to be more accurate in our representation of the breaking in - they we supposed to look confident and experienced.

For Jenna - the leader of the operation - we chose a smart blue shirt and a blue jacket in order to reinforce the fact that she was at work. However, she was wearing high-heels. We wanted to put across that she is an attractive woman, but behaves like a man - confident, feministic. We tied her hair up and she was wearing glasses to signify the strictness and superiority.

In terms of props we used torches held by the swat team in order to reinforce the investigation when they come in (light was dim, so you could see the lights all over the place well). The pictures on the wall and the almost absolute lack of furniture singnified the thriller as the mystery around the photos.

Lighting

The lighting was rather rare and we had a light bulb as a central light source in order to increase the suspense. We drew inspiration from the film The Others where the lighting was also very spare, it increases the tension. We used a red light coming from the window in order to light part of the pictures in a more interesting way and to signify location, he could be living in a cheap part of town. The torches as already explained reinforced the swat coming in, investigating - tension in what are they going to find.

Sound
As sounds we had the knocking on the door of the swat team creating suspense and tension before they break in. They were also shouting before they break in - "Police! Open the door!", which created stress and tension. Afterwards Jenna comes in and says: "Secure the area! and later one of the swat guys comes to her and asks her "Was that what you have expected?" and she says "It's worse" and sees the picture of herself, which is the scary bit because you do not know why she is in the picture and who took the pictures of all the people without knowing. My inspiration was from the Sixth Sense when you did not see you is behind you, which is a similar idea to ours.

My Role
At first I explained again to the cast what they should do and made sure that their appereance (hair, costumes) is as we want them to be. For example for the girl I made sure that her hair is tied up, that her make-up is not very strong - natural lipstick, and that she has the right look overall. When the production started I observed I gave pieces of advice to the actors as how loud to talk, in what manner and attitude. I also decided to make a change in the cast - we switched the boy who played the main swat guy with another one from the cast. In addition, I holded the microphone for the first shots. Later I also filmed and used a variety of camera movements. I filmed the pans, point of view movement of Jenna looking at the photos, additional movement from photos then the shadow of her picking them up and the actual photos, close up of one of the policemen and the tracking shot at the end. This particular tracking shot took me longer time to shoot because we needed to adjust the dolly and the band. We needed to get out of the way everything that would cause a trip over etc. In addition, it was hard to move the camera smoothly, without harsh movements and walk in the same time.

TeamWork

We all together set the setting in the way we have planned before. We sticked the photos on the wall. We devided the work and some of us were bringing the props as tables, chairs etc., others were taking care of the lighting. However, we all made sure that the right mise-en scene is created in order to reinforce the right suspense - put the props in the right places and make the room more dirty and messy. We all decided what kind of light we need for the window outside and how much to dim or brighten the main light bulb. As a team we made the decision together which shot needs to be done and how. Watching on the big screen, we all discussed no matter who was filming whether the person is on focus or not or whether the frame of the shot was right. We all taken care of the cast and decided how they should act etc. and made the neccessary changes if needed. We took the decision together which shot is good or not in order to be put down on paper in order to be easier for us when we edit the shoot. Everybody in the group paid attention to the continuity in the shots and props - not to move something to the wrong place. At the end we all cleaned up and brought everything in place as a team.

 

End Result
I think that the shoot went really well considering the fact that this was the first serious shoot we ever have done. Everything went smoothly and I liked the setting, especially the wall with the photos because unexpectedly some of them did not look like as we thought they wook because they were taken with a desposable camera, which added a very nice overall feeling of the setting, creating the needed tension and suspense. I think that the shots we added to the planned ones were really creative and show our idea much better and reinforced everything we wanted especially the tracking shot, which I personally think is one of the best shots in the thriller sequence.

Pre-production of Opening Sequence of The Blind Spot

    This is our basic floor plan used for our opening title sequence. It was important for us to make one, so we knew on the shooting day where exactly our props are going to be and would not waste time. It is also crucial for the preparation of the set, which is done earlier.

Props List: We needed one because we had to provide everything we needed and make sure that we have all the props on the day.

Dialogue: We have written the dialogue before the shooting because the cast had to know exactly what they are saying and when.

Swat team:  Police! Open the door!

Jenna walks over to the pictures on the table and starts to look through them.

Officer: ‘is this what you expected’


Jenna: ‘its worse’

Cast List:

 Karis Aghiros - Main actress playing the role of Jenna, the police woman, boss of the operation.

Richard Hill - playing swat guy, helping Jenna dealing with the mystery

Niall Green - part of the swat team










Storyboard (example): It is important to have a storyboard because it helped for continuity and clarity of the shots needed on the day. It also helps to see any flaws of the production.