Critical Evaluation - Part 1

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

The following clip is our group's 5 minute short film called 'Alice'.




‘Alice’, is a fictional horror/thriller story. However the film is shown in a documentary style. The documentary style aspect of the film means that the technique ‘shot reverse shot’ is nonexistent. This is because, the majority of the film show the interviews of the people who used to be in Alice’s life.  The interviews are shot using the conventions of a documentary style film. Documentary style and interview camera angles are commonly medium close-up shots, as shown in my research. The medium close-up shot combines a mid shot and a close-up shot which shows the face more clearly but doesn’t get uncomfortably close.

The ‘Mother’ interview shot uses a high angle medium close-up shot. This makes the mother look powerless over her daughter Alice who the interview is about. 

As opposed to the opening shot when Alice is first shown to the audience where she is filmed using a medium close-up shot and the close-up shot of Alice which appears halfway through the mother’s interview. These are both low angle shots which give the impression that Alice is powerful and dominant.

Throughout the film, Alice is shown to be smoking a cigarette. This uses mis-en-scene and suggests to the audience that Alice is a rebel and doesn't care about damaging her lungs or killing herself.

As well as documentary styled camera angles, standard film camera angles were used in our film. The scene where Alice is walking through a tunnel, the camera angle begins as an over-the-shoulder shot. When Alice walks down the tunnel, the camera begins a dolly shot which slowly follow Alice down the tunnel. It gives the impression that someone is walking behind Alice. By the time Alice gets to the end of the tunnel, the shot has developed into a long-shot which gives a larger perspective of  Alice’s surroundings.

This camera angle is how the scene begins.

This is the long shot camera angle how the scene ends. I used a "flashframe" transition to get the really bright effect when the scene is merging into the next scene. This looks really professional and paid of in the editing.  

Throughout the film, many editing techniques are used to achieve a smooth level of continuity.

When Alice’s mother is first shown to the audience, she boils the kettle and makes a cup of tea. This scene is a perfectly edited sequence which establishes logical coherence between shots by using quick cut editing. This editing technique is achieved by cutting to continuity which achieves a smooth transition of time. Basically, it gives the effect of breaking a lengthy task down to only last a few seconds, and only includes the most important features of the subject of which the shot is representing. Inspiration for this shot is sourced from the “Gearing up” scene from the film “Commando”. This can found in my ‘Editing Techniques’ research.

A lot of positive feedback was received from my films questionnaire feedback data. For instance, “The editing was good. In some places shots were cut to the music. There was also an interesting use of transitional effects between shots.” This was answered from the question, “What did you think about the use of editing throughout the film?” The music matched the cuts in the opening sequence where the pictures in the photo album where shown. This visually satisfies the audience and makes the transitions between the photo shots smooth and appealing. This demonstrates a level of continuity throughout the film; including a high level of editing even in the smaller detail. The non-diegetic sounds match the visual footage shown on screen. The non-diegetic sound is the Alice’s voice-over, and the footage shown on screen relate to the things she says. An example of this is in the opening sequence when Alice says in the voice-over, “...this is the main protein in bone and is essential for its strength, so my doctor told me I had to eat more protein.” Whilst at the same time some footage raw meat on a butcher’s counter is shown on screen. This shows the fluency and continuity of the opening sequence.

The way each shot is filmed influences how the audience will perceive the narrative and characters.  “I enjoyed how camera shots were related to the narrative” - this is a piece of questionnaire feedback data in answer to the question, “What did you think about the camera work and camera angles used in the film?” This shows that appropriate shots were shown in accordance to the narrative and voice over. This is important to satisfy the audience and make them further engaged in the film.

“Excellent editing, I thought the way images blurred in and out e.g the text made it eery.” - This is a piece of questionnaire feedback data in answer to the question “What did you think about the use of editing throughout the film?” Attention to detail in the editing process helps the film to achieve the Horror/Thriller genre. The paradigm of the horror/thriller genre was researched so that I could incorporate some of those paradigm factors into my film. Blurring the text in the title sequence gives the film a horror styled eeriness. The music which is used throughout the film and radio trailer is a piano based song called “Love Hurts”.  The song reflects the horror/thriller genre achieving continuity. The sound effects which are used throughout the film are appropriate each scene. I have used, horror drones when appropriate to create tension; a cinematic boom when the title Alice appears in the title sequence. A reversed chime effect is used after the end scene which intensifies and underlines the shocking twist at the end of the film and retains the audience’s attention.

The radio trailer uses the same music “Love Hurts” and similar sound effects. The horror drone from the film, a heartbeat sound effect when Alice’s voice over is played. This is the first clue to what Alice actually is... A human in a world surround by Vampires. There are sound effects which are only included in the radio trailer such as a lightning effect to start and finish the radio trailer which strengthens the horror/thriller genre.

  

The most complex editing is shown in the “pool hall” scene. Firstly, the shot was wire framed to evenly fit the screen and look more of a framed angle shot. Secondly, the “pool hall” shots purpose is to demonstrate a passage of time, suggesting that Alice is in her own world thinking about her life, whilst not paying attention to events happening around her life. Because of this, the shot was speed up 850 times quicker than the normal speed that the shot was filmed at. 

To make the shot look more attractive and professional, a “wide frame” effect was added to the shot which creates a trail effect. This allows the balls of the pool table to travel 850 times quicker than normal with ghost like trails behind their wake. This visually stimulates the audience and achieves a level of high quality editing. The following clauses are quotes from the questionnaire feedback data. “Editing was very good. Loved the use of time lapse in the snooker hall”, “particularly liked the shots around the pool table creating the effect of time passing very clever”, “Brilliant film work, especially the part by the pool table where Alice stood still but everything else was moving around her.” And “Interesting - created trendy normal images -particularly liked the shots around the pool table creating the effect of time passing very clever. A hint of Blair witch documentary style - maybe hints of the monster inside or the dark side ... Haunting wanting to know more”

These questionnaire responses illustrate that the “pool hall” shots were effective. 

Another editing technique which is demonstrated in the film is the 180 degree rule. This can be seen in the Ex-best friend scene of the film. The interview shows Alice’s Ex-Best friend as a medium-close up shot sat at a table and facing the camera. In the interview the shot cuts to the right of the character where she is seen to be reading her book in the same place as she is sat in the interview. When the shot jumps to the right hand side of the character, the positioning of the camera angle keeps in the boundaries of the 180 degree line which makes the cut look fluent and natural. This high level of continuity visually satisfies the audience and makes cuts smooth.

Match-on-action is another editing technique which was used to strengthen the continuity of the film. “I liked the cutting between Mum's cuppa and the girl drinking coffee” This is some questionnaire feedback data of someone’s answer to the question “What did you think about the use of editing throughout the film?” This demonstrates the use of match-on-action of the transition between the two shots. This allows the transition to run smoothly. The shot was wire-framed to perfectly line up with each shot. The shot was flawlessly edited to capture the motion of the mug going to the mouth and then back down to the table.

A great example of a use of Match-on-action can be seen in our group's preliminary task before we created our short film. This task practiced are film making skills, i.e. camera work, acting and editing.

Our film follows the conventions of the horror/thriller genre throughout. Mainly this is achieved by the suspense and anticipation that the audience doesn’t know what is Alice’s illness and what makes her different from everyone else. This keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. The music follows the horror/thriller genre. The piano music is very eerie and carries with it a feeling of suspense. The following quote is from the questionnaire feedback data which suggests that the film has audibly achieved the conventions of the horror/thriller genre. “The sound effects made the film look more professional. The piano music went well with the genre of the film.”

The dark lighting throughout the film makes the shots look gothic which adds finesse to the shots and helps to achieve the genre of the film.

CLICK HERE for research about "Hitchcock the master of suspense". 

An audience pleasure which is provided from the film could be the Richard Dyers’ Utopian theory. The theory is the suggestion that people watch fictional films for the escapism and distraction from their everyday lives. This applies to my film for the people who wish to escape from their everyday lives and experience a fictional world that is unlike realism which contains monsters in a world which appears normal. However, the full extent of the theory goes on to say that people want to escape to a fictional place which is a perfect and ideal world; a Utopian society. In this case, this is not fully achieved from my film. However, the most significant audience pleasure which applies to my film is the uses and gratifications theory. This theory suggests that the audience take an active role in interpreting and associating the film with their own lives. My film ‘Alice’ is based around the angst of teenage life. The film appeals to anyone who is a teenager or has a relationship with a teenager. They could be parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, teachers or anyone who knows a teenager. This is because the main character of my film is a teenager; and the troubles and angst of teenage life is represented in my film. The following piece of questionnaire feedback data “From watching the film, who do you think is our films main audience and why? (Gender and Age)”, was answered to the question “From watching the film, who do you think is our films main audience and why? (Gender and Age)” this data strengthens my point. One theory which the uses and gratification theory can fulfil is educating the audience from the film. In the opening sequence of my film, the main character Alice talks about a bone illness which she was diagnosed with when she was young; called “osteogenesis imperfecta”. This is a real disease which gives the audience a level of education.

The film subverts the narrative of the film deliberately. This is because the final scene gives the film a complete twist. The final scene reveals that the Mother along with everyone else are Vampires; by saying “She’s not normal Alice, she’s not one of us” then snarling her vampire teeth at the camera. This adds a surprising twist. The narrative makes the audience think that it’s going to be Alice who is the monster to the audience. But actually, she was normal like the audience, but is not normal in a world full of vampires.