MEDIA EVALUATION TASK 1

By Amr Nabeel

EVALUATION QUESTION 1:

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

I have created an opening sequence to a thriller film ‘DAMMIA’, I will compare my opening sequence that match with shots from other media products, including film and TV. I will be comparing my thriller with shots from the opening credits of the show ‘Dexter’; as well as the classical thriller ‘Psycho’.

Genre conventions are typical features in a film which show what type of genre the film is. This includes themes, characters, plot lines, props or significant/symbolic objects. Filmmakers depend on the audiences ability to recognise genre’s by their genre conventions in order to promote and interest their target audience. Genre conventions are important because they are indicators for the genre of a film, for example, axes and blood are typical conventions of horror films, these would attract audiences who like horror films.

‘Dexter’ TV show My thriller ‘Dammia’

The picture on the left is taken from the opening sequence to the TV show ‘Dexter’, which first aired on October 1 2006, starring Michael C. Hall and produced by the Showtime network. The photo on the right is from our thriller. The shots are very similar, both of them frame a sink drain. In the ‘Dexter’ shot the sink is framed from above in a birds-eye view, whilst in our thriller the sink is filmed at a high angle looking at the drain from the side. We chose to film it at an angle instead of dead-on, so that we could see the water slowly drain out. The drain in the ‘Dexter’ sequence is very clean and new connoting the psychopaths young age, however in ours the psychopath was much older, so we tried to reflect this in the rusty appearance of the sink drain. The shot of the sink was done in low lighting, compared to the shot in ‘Dexter’ because we wanted to create a dark and eerie atmosphere. Whilst the opening sequence of ‘Dexter’ is intended to be entertaining and exciting. I think that the shot of the sink in ‘Dexter’ is more effective, because the lighting and camera angle make it appear very striking and is visually pleasing. Additionally when the drops of blood fall in the sink, the brightness of the sink contrast the crimson blood, which is a captivating element of the sequence.

Above on the left, is a shot of a drain from the film ‘Psycho’ released on June 16 1960, starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh; it was produced by Paramount Pictures. These two shots are similar as they show water drain through a drain, this was to connote the idea that hope is being lost and the viewer is descending into an inescapable whirlpool. However, in the ‘Psycho’ scene the water is draining rapidly down the drain, because it mirrored the fast sequence and the aggressive nature of the murder. Whilst in our shot, the water drained slowly, to hint at the slower pace and delicateness of the psychopath. I think that the shot of the water draining in our thriller was much more effective, because the viewer is forced to watch the water slowly drain, anticipating the next shot, evoking a tense and uneasy feeling.

My thriller ‘Dammia’‘Psycho’ shower drain

My thriller ‘Dammia’‘Dexter’ TV show

Both shots show a man clenching his fists, the convention here connotes that both characters are angry/ tense and are constraining their anger. In our thriller, you only see one of his hands in a glove, we chose this in order to show that the man wants to leave no trace. Additionally, the extra material, covers his skin, which is another element that hides the identity of the man and connotes the ambiguous nature of the opening sequence. I feel that our shot was much more effective because the brown and green hues in the shot create an unnatural and nerve-recking atmosphere.

‘Dexter’ TV show My thriller ‘Dammia’

Both shots show extreme-close ups of a fingernail. The close-up of the nails provoke intrigue, because evolutionarily humans have used nails as an indicator of good health, therefore there is a great interest in inspecting the nails as we watch them. In our shot, her finger rests as a nail brush paints over her finger nail a bright pink. This was to show the psychopaths delicate nature and also to juxtapose the rest of the shots that are lit with low lightening. I think that the shot in the ‘Dexter’ opening sequence is much more effective, because the shot of the nail is an extreme-close up that the finger can be easily missed. Additionally, the colour of the nail is a warm earth tone like the rest of the skin which make the shot interesting yet confusing to watch. This heightens the intense and panicky feeling of the opening sequence.

In the film ‘Psycho’ (left) and our thriller there are shots where there is an extreme close-up of a woman’s eye. This convention, makes the audience feel as if the girl is watching them, as if she is asking for help. It also emphasises the girls vulnerability,

making the entire process uncomfortable for the viewer. The only difference in ours, was that a mascara brush, brushed her eyelashes and her pupils were dilated.

During our research we discovered that pupils dilate when a person dies, so we made sure our actress used eye drops to dilate her pupils and make her appear

realistically dead. Although, in our shot the eye and pupil dilation were biologically correct; I felt that the eye close-up in ‘Psycho’ was more effective. This was because

the constricted pupil made her look cold and lifelessness and made her visually appear more dead.

‘Psycho’ eye close up My thriller ‘Dammia’

‘Psycho’ Plot: The film ‘Psycho’ has a very similar concept to our thriller. In ‘Psycho’, the psychopath ‘Norman Bates’ keeps the presence of his mother alive, by dressing up as her and preserving her dead body in the basement. Throughout the film, the viewer thinks that the mother is alive and murdering the guests t the motel; until they discover that the mother has been dead all along and her son has been murdering the guests.

‘Dammia’ Plot: In our thriller the psychopath digs up the corpse of his sister and tries to bring her back to life, by dressing her up and putting make-up on her. During the opening sequence the viewer thinks the girl is getting ready, until the end when the viewer realised that the girl had been made up by the man.

In both plots the psychopaths try to bring their loved ones back to life, however it is not apparent to the audience what is happening until the end.

In the film ‘Psycho’ and the our thriller the murder sequences were edited at a fast pace and with straight cuts in-between each shot. The murder sequences in ‘Psycho’ were edited so that the identity of the mother/psycho were hidden, and the illusion that the mother was the killer was kept till the end.

In our thriller, the shots were composed together, so that little information was revealed, but enough was given for the audience to understand that there is something wrong. The only difference between the two films was that our individual shots were much longer compared to ‘Psycho’. This was because the shots were very disturbing to look at and we wanted to sustain the suspense and make the viewer feel uncomfortable.

I think that the ‘Psycho’ sequence was much more effective because of the fast pace of the sequence, which gave little information that ‘Norman Bates’ was the mother. Whilst, in ours due to the close-ups of the face, the audience already can tell that the girl has been either drugged or dead.

The titles used in our thriller was also inspired by ‘Psycho’ opening sequence. The white writing on the black text is harder to read. White text reflects light, the reflected light hits the other letters. This makes the words harder to see, which forced the viewer to concentrate more on the word, making the word more memorable.

Both titles are very similar, however the fonts are different ‘DAMMIA’ uses a Times New Roman, whilst ‘PSYCHO’ uses a font similar to that of Arial. I think that our title font was better than that of ‘Psycho’, just because the more classical font, suited the theme that we were going for in our thriller. The ‘PSYCHO’ font was perhaps used because, at that time that style of font was new, this reflected in the film itself being a revolutionary piece of cinema.

The End