The Music Box Evaluation

By Neelam Appadoo

The Music Box Evaluation

By Neelam Appadoo

The Music Box Storyline

Our film opening has two main characters; Elle is the teenage girl and also a ballet dancer who plays the victim role as she is being targeted by

Billy who is stalking her. He targets her on her journey home from ballet practice and we are shown their every move during the journey.

The film opening begins with a typewriter scene which

reads ‘the music box’, as it is telling a story and this sceneautomatically grabs the audiences attention as they would

want to know who the person typing is.

Then, the whole concept of the stalker idea comes into picture

when Billy slams the music box and Elle falls over in her ballet

practice. They pass through several places before finally

coming across an alleyway where Elle realises she is being

followed and begins to run.

This then leads onto a bridge scene and then to an underground car park for the climax

where Elle thinks she has escaped Billy but is unknown to the fact that he is approaching her

behind.

In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

Use- The genre for our film is ‘Thriller’ so to ensure that this genre is evident

to our audience, we included a thriller type font on plain black screens for

our production name.

Develop- The two characters in our film opening, Elle and Billy have

completely different characteristics. Elle is the victim and is innocent

whereas Billy is the stalker with the motive to kill. This relates to Claude Levi

Strauss’ theory of Binary Opposition as our two characters are opposed

and engages the audience.

Challenge- Our film opening consists of implicit horror rather than explicit

horror which I think is far more effective. During the followed journey

home, our intention was to build suspense throughout up until the point

where Billy approaches Elle. This is challenging other thriller/horror films as

we did not include any gory clips as all the horror was implied so that our

audience can come to their own interpretation.

How does your film represent particular social groups?

The victim(Elle) is represented as a teenage

girl who is vulnerable and is seen as an easy

target by Billy. She is dressed in black ballet

clothes to show Billy’s obsession with ballet

girls, hence the whole music box

incorporation. The colour black also symbolises

Elle’s mysterious feelings as she is mysterious as

to who is following her which is also shown

through her actions when she keeps turning

around to see whether anyone is following her.

The stalker(Billy) is dressed in all black similar to Elle

as the colour black has the connotations of horror

and he is the killer. He has his hood up throughout

the film opening which links with the typical

stereotype(O’Sullivan) of men following and

targeting women. The idea of the hood being up

also covers his face slightly which adds to the

overall thriller. We used a male character as

typically women would be targeted by men.

What kind of media institution might distribute

your media product and why?

After carrying out some research on

media institutions, I found that ‘Newmarket

Films’ would be the most suitable institution

to distribute our film. In the past, the

production company has distributed films

like ‘Prom night’ which is a thriller film and

has the similar storyline to ours of a man stalking a teenage girl with the motive to

kill her. Another film distributed by this

production company is ‘Death of a

president’ which is also a thriller and both

have the same classification of a 12A. The

distributer ‘Original Film’ could also

produce our film as they have distributed

films of the same rating and genre to ours,

for example ‘Stealth’.

Our film would be first publicised at the cinema,

and then 6 months later will be put into high definition

and distributed onto a Bluray DVD. This source of

distribution will allow the audience to purchase the

film and watch it in the comfort of their own home at

their own convenience. The film will still remain as a

12A classification when on DVD and will be distributed

in stores like WHSmith and HMV so it is available to

purchase. It will also be distributed online on websites

such as, play.com and Amazon.

Who is the target audience?

We have chosen to give our film a 12A classification following

the guidelines from the BBFC website, and this can be justified on

the fact that our film does not include any element of explicit

horror as all of our horror is implied.

We thought that a 15 would not be suitable as there are no

scenes which include and gruesome horror but we still manage to keep the thriller genre as we thrill our audience

psychologically with the building up of the suspense during the

journey home.

We thought that a Parental Guidance(PG) classification would

be too subtle as there are some scenes for example, the climax

of the two characters running fast in the car park could be

disturbing for a younger audience.

Also, by choosing a 12A classification this would broaden our

audience so it can be watched by more people and increase

our popularity.

How did you attract your audience?

Our film is titled ‘The music box’ and the initial

thoughts that are brought into mind from this title

are not necessarily linked to any sort of thriller or horror

content. This attracts our audience as they would want

to watch the film in order to understand the reason for the title.

The main part of the film opening is in the chase which begins in an

alleyway and ends in an underground car park. The fast speed at which

they are running and the several places they pass through grabs our

audiences attention and keeps their interest.

Our film opening is set in a local Town so that it

appears more realistic to the audience as they

could be in the same situation as the victim, and

therefore makes it scarier for them.

We included close up shots and jump cut editing techniques with low

key lighting which reflects the thriller genre and creates an overall

feeling of the victim as she is feeling uncomfortable.

What have you learnt about technologies from the

process of constructing your film?

Construction- During the construction process of our film, we learnt how to use a video camera to create different types of shots, one

being the tilting of the screen. Also, that the tripod is necessary for

creating a successful pan shot or pan shot follow as it creates a

smooth and steady shot. However, in other cases for example

during a chase, using a handheld camera is much more effective

as it appears more authentic to the audience and makes them

feel as though they are in that characters position . We also

discovered ‘night mode’ and used this quite a lot when filming.

Editing- The apple software ‘imovie’ has enabled us to cut our film and edit it so that it merges together to create one

continuous flow of shots. We have also learnt that you can add

effects for example, ‘sci-fi’ and adjust the contrast of shots. We

can also lengthen/shorten clips and over lap two shots which we

incorporated into our film opening. We learnt how to upload music

onto ‘GarageBand’ and edit the music by lengthening/shortening

other areas. We also learnt how to add sounds to existing music

and create our own music using the GarageBand sounds.

Looking back at your preliminary exercise ,

what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the film?

From carrying out the Preliminary exercise, it was an

opportunity for me to remind myself of the basic video camera

skills which made me more confident when filming. Also, we

learnt that the continuity needs to remain the same so the film

appears realistic.

The 180 degree rule was also new to me so when we

were storyboarding and filming our film, we had to ensure

that we did not disobey this rule. If we did then this would

confuse our audience, which we did not want to do.

The mise en scene needed to remain the same, for example

the folders on the table in front of me had to be the exact same ones all the time and positioned in the exact same position for

continuity reasons.