Mental Disorders

Mental Disorders

Initially, myself and my group where very interested in creating a psychological opening, it seemed very interesting and we could exploit this genre to create something innovative, possibly using mind games and tools in media to trick the our particular audience.

We then began to research what types of films, narratives and subjects this audience most likely wanted to see so that we could start developing a narrative of our own and move onto production of our media text.

We further concluded films which represent mental disorders were popular with this audience with such films as “Seven”. Many of these films show the condition, the effect of the symptoms and either a disintegration or relief of the mental disorder itself.

Next, we researched particular mental disorders shown in this thriller genre: 

o   Multiple-personality disorder 

o   Schizophrenia 

o   Bipolar 

o   Anorexia Nervosa 

o   Dementia 

o   Alzheimer’s 

o   and more...

It would not be possible to accurately represent these conditions without analysing them in detail. The most favourable option emerged as Schizophrenia, due to its suspicion around the condition as it is not often shown in society and respected as a temperamental and taunting condition; which can make the most basic tasks in life extremely difficult.

Myself as producer suggested we should look at particular cases of people with the condition through both recovery and experience of the condition and possible death. The website featured below was particularly helpful in showing us how to represent the condition of schizophrenia. 

YouTube was also very resourceful for gaining knowledge about the condition and understanding how society sees the condition.  

To conclude our subject-genre research we gathered some important facts to know about schizophrenia in regards to our opening sequence:

o    

• Hallucinations can be very random and very traumatizing for the person who experiences them.
• Not every person who has the condition experiences the same symtoms.
• Society now has a new perspective on the disorder and it has now begun to be accepted.
• We can experiment and explore with media effects to present the symtoms of hallucinations which will produce alot of enigma as it is not what is expected yet then this will still link in with the genre.

Question 5

Question 5 original

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Question 7

Question 7

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Question 6

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Question 5

After Effects and camera use

Camera and after effects cs5

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Question 4

Question 2

In most thriller films female characters are always portrayed as nice looking and very attractive. We have decided to do the same by choosing an attractive and young looking girl. It’s common to use white girls in most thriller films, so we decided to be different by choosing a female character that isn’t white. We wanted something other than white. It’s very rare to see other ethnicities in such films and mostly white girls are used. I have used two pictures as shown above to identify differences and similarities. The first picture on the top left is a picture that was taken using print-screen-shot on the computer while I was playing the video. The video itself is in black and white. The picture next to it on the top right is a picture of a young model for a handbag magazine called “Warmth.”

The similarities of these two female characters is that they are both are teenagers and they are both good looking. They are both tall and slim looking. They are both carrying a handbag which is a symbol for female characters. Their body posture is very similar as well, this makes them look tall. They are both dressed casually meaning its every day clothing. We decided to make our main character dress like this as we wanted the target audience to relate to her. We wanted people from the age of 15 to 25 to be able to relate to her. She is supposed to represent a student. They both look like students as they are both dressed casually and are both carrying a handbag. They are both wearing blue but we are not able to see that on the video as it is in black and white.
There are also some differences too. As we can clearly see the female on the right seems a bit older (about 18-23 years old) whereas our main character o the left seems to be younger (15-18 years old.) Our character has dressed so that we know what the weather condition is like. The white girl is wearing high heels and it seems like she is in a warm environment. Our character is wearing boots with jeans. The white girl is wearing a short skirt. The female character from the magazine on the right looks like the typical female victim used in most thriller films. They don’t appear as victims only but also as protagonists.

Both girls are in totally different locations. Our girl is in a rural area based on what we can see from the screen shot whereas the other white girl is in a more urbanised area. Our character has black hair and it’s fairly short. The girl from the magazine has got brown hair which is a bit longer. They have both tied their hair up which is a similarity. The character in our film is not permanently going to be dressed in the costumes we see above on the picture. This may change as we see more of the film. Overall both characters are portrayed in a stereotypical way. We can expect young teenagers to dress like that and there is nothing extreme or unclear about their appearances.

Question 1

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Question 3

Please turn your volume up as the video contains sound that needs to be heard.

Skills gained through this media project

What I've learnt from the making of 'Wraith'

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Proposal for the Thriller

Thriller Proposal

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Wraith Title Timeline

Here is the title timeline we prepared for our thriller after editing.

Our script

WRAITH Script

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WRAITH

Learning from preliminary exercise to make 'Wraith'

I made a video to explain what (I think) I've learnt by making my thriller opening sequence. In this video, I talk about the experience obtained through the preliminary exercise and how much of those skills I've used for the main project. This video is a part of my evaluation coursework where I reflect on my and my group's performance (in camera work, sound fx, mise-en-scene, editing and using websites as well as softwares)
* insert 'subgenre' at the end of the sentence from 03:36 till 03:42, I happened to 'lose' or 'cut' some words while exporting/compressing the video. I've mentioned that in the annotation.

Question 1

<div class="prezi-player"><style type="text/css" media="screen">.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }</style><object id="prezi_yxxaljjyu-ub" name="prezi_yxxaljjyu-ub" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf%22/%3E%3Cparam name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"/><param name="flashvars" value="prezi_id=yxxaljjyu-ub&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=no&amp;autohide_ctrls=0"/><embed id="preziEmbed_yxxaljjyu-ub" name="preziEmbed_yxxaljjyu-ub" src="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="400" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="prezi_id=yxxaljjyu-ub&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=no&amp;autohide_ctrls=0"></embed></object><div class="prezi-player-links"><p><a title="In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing thriller film openings?" href="http://prezi.com/yxxaljjyu-ub/question-1/%22%3EQuestion 1</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com%22%3eprezi%3c/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3C/div%3E%3C/div>

Lighting and microphone workshop

Before we started filming for our project, we had a workshop on lights where we were shown 3*lighting is set up and what it is used for. The Three Point Lighting technique is a (professional and standard) method used in visual media such as video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery. It uses three lights called key light, fill light and back light.

The big lights are called ‘Redhead’ and the small one is called ‘Lilliput’. The flaps covering the bulb are known as ‘barn doors’.

The key light is the main light as it is the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. Fill light is the secondary light and it is kept on the opposite side of the key light. It is mostly used to fill the shadows created by the key light. These two are the direct lighting in the technique unlike back light that is placed behind the subject. Its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject’s outlines which helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.

We set up the three lights on the tripods as shown in the paper which I (have to admit) was quite scared to touch as they were quite big and expensive. We tried different colour gels for the cameras (which are the thin sheets of polyester or polycarbonate), to get different effects that enhance the mood in photographs. Colour gels have the tendency to melt if kept in heat for a long time which might possibly result in fire so we had to be really careful while using them.

(My group had decided to film everything outdoors so the studio lights weren’t necessary for this project.)

We were also told about microphones and headphones, for example, mono mic (puffy mic) which has the windjammer to block out unwanted noise and the usage of ‘fish pole’ to record interviews and such without showing the microphone. We are to use the headphones while recording sound (interviews) so that we can change settings while filming: some things can be quite difficult to edit later in the post- production stage. 

How I attracted and addressed my audience

AS Media Evaluation 2 on Prezi

Production Company and Film Distribution

Production Company and Film Distribution

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'Wraith' representing social groups

Perhaps the cliché of thriller movies (or any movies, in fact) is the portrayal of slim and sexy/ beautiful white ‘girly, girl’ figures as the protagonists. They are often seen sporting skirts and figure hugging clothes to show off their curves and skin; most of the time they’re in (high) heels. We chose to make our thriller atypical in that sense. In place of a white girl/woman, we selected a black teenager as our protagonist. We thought there are very few films that have Blacks or Asians or Muslims as their main characters and we wanted to add our film to one of those ‘few’ films. We have, however, selected an attractive female figure like most of the movies.

Though they are both teenagers, the costumes of Dakota Fanning in ‘Push’ (left) and our actress is Lorraine (right) are totally different. Fanning’s clothes look very much girly but Lorraine’s doesn’t.  We decided our actress was to wear simple, casual (modern) clothes and comfortable shoes (converse). Thus our protagonists doesn’t quite appeal as a ‘sexy, seductive’ actress but rather as a ‘simple teenager’ who we hoped would make our (female) audience identify themselves with her (we are focusing on mostly the students: age range, 15 to 26). Their hairstyles are also very different: while Fanning has her wavy blond hair (highlighted with pink) loose, Lorraine has her straight black hair tied into a bun. I prefer to believe hairs also say something about personality or say, a person’s taste at least for that moment so in this case, Fanning can be thought of as carefree, relaxed and sort of hippie-ish. Lorraine on the other hand has taken time to carefully do her hair (straighten and tied) and prefers a bit of control maybe- tight bun.  

Like Fanning, Lorraine is also using a sidebag but whereas Fanning’s bag looks small and fancy, Lorraine’s can be classified as big and bulky-probably loaded with books. It can also be noted that both the girls are wearing comfortable (heel-less) shoes. Though there are some similarities and some differences in these two photos (and it is quite possible that the characters change their hairstyles and their costumes later in the movie), we have shown our actress represents a ‘normal’ young Black Londoner with no physical disability. Though she acts in a self-conscious and delusional way in the first few minutes of the movie (related to ‘schizophrenia’, she will later portray herself as an independent, intelligent female- unlike the common schema of ‘passive and weak females'. With some atypical elements, the movie or say, the opening title seeks to challenge the stereotypical view of good and pretty actresses.

BBFC Age Certificate

Here is what I summarised (and printscreened) what I found out about BBFC and what age certificates depend on:

As a director, I'll be aiming to get my film classified as suitable for 15.

'Wraith' following conventions of Thriller genre

Here is my presentation that answers whether or not our media product follows codes and conventions of the 'Thriller' genre:

Audience for my media product

Natalie Amy, an AS student, is 17 years old and lives in Harrow Weald. She enjoys shopping, swimming and going out to restaurants. New Look, H&M are the two main highstreet brands she goes to but she is no stranger to boutiques around London. Natalie is quite fashionable and though she also wears casual clothes: jeans and hoodies, she prefers girly clothes through which she can boldly express her femininity. She likes spending time in (nature) parks, comedy clubs and her friends’ houses and she loves being with animals in the animal sanctuary where she works.

Though she watches movies from different categories, Natalie considers the horror genre her favourite.  She mentioned Chainsaw Massacre, The Hole, One Missed Call, The Hostel trilogy and SAW series when asked to name a few movies she enjoyed. She usually watched them at home with her friends but she also likes going for cinema. Her favourite TV channels are e4, Channel 4 and More 4 where she watches Come Dine With Me, The Inbetweeners and Vampire Diaries.

She listens to a wide variety of songs- from acoustic, hard rock, pop rock to club/dub-step. But her ultimate favourite ones ‘depending on her mood’ are John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, everything - it ranges from acoustic, hard rock, pop rock to club/dub-step but my ultimate favorite things to listen to (depending on my mood) are John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, Color + City, Taylor swift, and evanescence Color and City, Taylor Swift and Evanescence.

I think our film would appeal to girls like her because, though it won’t necessarily have blood and gore (horror), Wraith is/will be packed with suspense and enigma. I showed her our opening sequence and asked her what she thought. Here is the screen grab from the Facebook interview about what she said.