Evaluation of ‘The Good Daughter’

In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our initial thriller film idea was to be based around the plot of a generic crime thriller, involving the exchange and inevitable interception of two briefcases, therefore using conventions of generic media projects. However, later revisions to our film’s plot lead us to change the sub-genre of our film to a psychological thriller as we felt this to be far more enthralling. I suppose you could describe it as less ‘samey’ when compared to many other AS media projects. In a sense, this is in fact challenging the conventions of the large majority of all real media products, as I have only once seen this style of an almost incestuous, controlling family plot in one other film; this being Roman Polanski’s famous 1974 noir thriller, Chinatown. As well as this one example of challenging conventions, I also feel that in many ways, our project does in fact use and develop conventions of real media products. For example, in terms of costume, we decided to go with a smartly dressed range of characters as this gives connotations of high up roles in society, and gangster activities, which was inspired by such films as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. These were the films which we had based our costume on, because of the way in which gangster activity was portrayed so well in them, and feel that this is accurately represented in our film. Although with regards to location our film does in some respects meet the criteria of a conventional thriller in the sense that we filmed in some gloomy, abandoned walkways and alleys, our initial narrative idea included far more obvious and recognisable generic thriller locations. If chosen to continue with our initial narrative these would have included old abandoned warehouse doors and gateways, and a few more darker streets and alleyways, which we had in fact already shot; inspired by such films as Once Upon A Time In America and it’s very urban styled plot.

However, our shift in narrative meant that these shots were no longer needed as they did not fit the continuity of the revised film narrative. Our soundtrack was one obvious example of how our film used conventions of real thriller media. We used an unsigned alternative track that we found via internet. The music had a very melancholic tone and eerie ambiance, to connote the disturbing relationship between Isabella and her father. A change of pace is used to make the track feel more intense and reflects the violence; illuminating the action that is occurring on screen. We also used a large variety of close-ups, extreme close-ups, and many low angle shots throughout the film in order to make the evil protagonists seem more intimidating, a technique very commonly used throughout the thriller film scene, including British thrillers like ‘The Third Man’ and ‘Essex Boys’ in which they are used to make one of the main characters, Jason, seem intimidating. The character types themselves are also a very good example of how we utilised our characters in order to fit to the criteria of a real thriller media piece. The fact that we used a ‘big cheese’ older mobster and a femme fatale, however it could be argued that we challenged the conventions in some ways, in the sense that these two were in fact related as father and daughter, adding a sinister dimension, whereas in the majority of all other thriller films it would be the femme fatale who is double-crossing or outsmarting the male gangster character (one example of this being Jackie Brown). Isabella is devious yet enacts psychopathic behaviour, shown by the voyeuristic shots between her and her father. This voyeurism inspired by Norman Bates peeping through a spy hole in Jackie Brown. This suggests that Isabella is a deeply traumatized girl who is possibly being abused by her father. This then puts a new twist on the love triangle with jealousy and betrayal (being generic features of film noir, double indemnity). Christian has an extremely intricate, controlling relationship with his daughter in which he manipulates her thoughts into making her perform his twisted dirtywork (well indicated in our thriller by this crossfade between shots of Christian driving away and Isabella's face, as if to literally portray the fact that he has got inside his daughter's head).




How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film has used a number of techniques in representing various social groups, such as the villain as being an experienced, disturbing mobster by the way in which he is dressed smartly with a flashy car and expensive jewellery. He is portrayed as being an evil character by the use of low angle shots making him appear intimidating, and the large usage of close ups around his face to show his glaring eyes, which connote his voyeuristic nature. In contrast, Isabella is represented as being very upper class, and seemingly vulnerable, yet also deviant and sly, the main characteristics of a femme fatale character. The costume in terms of the high heels, tights, blonde hair and make-up present her as being potentially vulnerable, such as the character Thelma from Thelma & Louise, yet challenges this convention of women by actually being the sly character who is actually the murderer of Joules in our film. The fact that she actually is using a weapon in our film alone challenges the stereotypes of women characters from being weak and vulnerable, by straight away putting her into an offensive and powerful position. She is portrayed as being deceitful and sly by the large use of extreme close-ups especially on her eyes, as she is embracing Joules yet ignoring his company by looking ‘shady’ by the look in her eyes upon the embrace. Our Victim, Joules, is presented as being very naive and vulnerable. The fact that a large male character turns out to be the vulnerable role, is in many ways the opposite to how Isabella challenges the women’s stereotype of being vulnerable, as the stereotype for men is that they are powerful and dominant, and the fact that he is in fact the vulnerable character challenges this male stereotype right from the beginning. He is portrayed as being this naive character by the use of various shots showing his body language as being eager in anticipation for Isabella’s arrival, and his joy upon their embrace. When she then deceives him by his murder, this is what cements Joules as being the vulnerable, naive victim. But the representation of the father follows the traditional middle aged protagonist getting ‘his kicks’ by controlling his daughter, who is negatively represented.


What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Having just initially completed our film, the primary way in which we would look to distribute our film would certainly be via social networking sites such as facebook, where we would upload our film for a small section of friends and acquaintances to view first, to get an idea of the reaction it gives a small audience and gauge their opinions of the film. The other major site we would use to upload would be YouTube as obviously our project is a small independent opening to an A-level thriller film as opposed to the next big Hollywood blockbuster. Therefore we would be looking to distribute our film to worldwide internet audiences who are likely to catch a glance at our film via sites such as YouTube, rather than charging a worldwide audience to view it on the big screen at a mainstream distributor such as Odeon! Our film is not a large, mainstream blockbuster project containing world-renowned actors to draw in mass audiences, therefore if our film were to be fully realised and were to be distributed by a media institution, it would certainly not be a large mainstream company such as Universal due to it’s low level of worldwide appeal and controversial theme. Instead it would much more likely be a smaller independent distributor such as Working Title or Working Title Two (WT2), who have produced such small independent films as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. They are more recognised for producing smaller projects often released straight to DVD rather than in cinemas for smaller target audiences whom specifically prefer to view independent films, which is why if our film were to be distributed on a larger scale, a smaller organisation like Working Title would be the most likely candidate, other than that of social networking sites such as ‘Facebook’ or online video libraries like ‘Youtube’ where we can easily upload our film via the internet for friends, and others around the globe can view for free!


Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for our film is most likely to be a smaller group of people who specifically prefer an independent film, such as younger adult females aged roughly 18-30, as opposed to the majority of film audiences who greatly prefer the biggest mainstream blockbusters. For example, the kind of audience who would view our film for enjoyment when watching a real media product would probably want to watch such smaller independent films as Essex Boys because of it’s similar character types and generic thriller narrative, as opposed to say the latest James Bond film which concentrates it’s focus on bigger flashy effects and actors to gain the interest of the majority of film audiences to generate the largest profits possible. If our target audience was to be watching a TV drama for enjoyment, similar dramas to our film that they would be watching would include dramas such as Wire in the Blood, Harper’s Island, Silent Witness or Five Days. As you can see from these audience demographics taken from www.IMDb.com from the viewers of Essex Boys, of which our film would have a very similar viewing audience, in terms of age of our target audience, we would be looking to appeal more to a younger adult audience as opposed to a child, teenage or elderly target audience. This choice of target audience of our film is backed up as you can see by looking more closely at the Essex Boys demographics, with the age of voters that were aged 18-29 gave on average the highest rating out of all the ages asked, meaning our target age of audience should in theory enjoy our film the most out of any older audiences. In terms of gender, despite the demographics of Essex Boys showing that the film was enjoyed equally by both genders, I feel that our film would appeal more to a female audience due to the fact that Isabella, the femme fatale of the film, challenges the gender stereotype and successfully triumphs over the male character, Joules. This aspect of our thriller leads me to believe that women would perhaps enjoy the film greater than men as it promotes the power of women. In conclusion, our target audience would be younger adult (18-30 year old) females or a preference to independent film.


How did you attract/address your audience?
There were many aspects of our film which I believe contributed towards attracting our target audience. In terms of costume once again, we aimed to make the dress a far more formal attire in comparison to other thrillers such as Essex Boys and Layer Cake in which the costume was far more casual. I feel that this is one reason which aided towards the attraction of our audience of adults (aged roughly 18-30) as it is more sophisticated and feel that a costume based around that of thriller such as Reservoir Dogs would be more appealing to an audience of that age, in contrast to one more casual. When looking at the characters in our film, you can see that one way in which we attracted our audience of females is the fact that one of the most powerful roles of the film is filled by the female character, Isabella. Due to the fact that she triumphs over the male character, Joules, I feel that female viewers are going to find this aspect of females having their power promoted over males very appealing in terms of film enjoyment. Therefore the fact that our femme fatale plays a large, powerful role in the film played a large part itself in attracting the females of our audience. When looking at the non-diagetic sound with regards to our soundtrack, we used an alternative style track that we searched extensively for on various unsigned music sites. The track itself gives quite an eerie feel about the film yet at points is at quite a high pace, not too dissimilar to the soundtrack of an existing independent film in the form of Layer Cake. With both our film and Layer Cake being independent projects, they have a similar (yet not identical) target audience whom are very likely to enjoy the same kind of soundtrack; this being the alternative genre of music, which is why we chose the track as we felt that as well as creating a particular eerie ambiance about the film, it would attract the same kind of target audience (younger adults of an independent preference) as projects such as Layer Cake. Therefore, our soundtrack also played an important part in attracting and addressing our audience. For our soundtrack, we used the first 1 minute 27 seconds of Sunny Days Are Over in our film, as this was the song we felt most appropriate to fit our thriller soundtrack. We felt that the song created the exact eerie feel and chilling ambiance that we were looking for. The steady but intense beat of the music means that when editing we could cut the footage to the beat, heightening tension and drama further; once we actually put the soundtrack to our film, we managed to fit the film so that the soundtrack accompanied the footage almost perfectly in many places. For example, the use of deep drums when Christian's evil eyes first appear on the screen, and the actor's name (Martin Lambert) fades in, creates a great feel of fear and tension; a feeling that we aim to create as it connotes the character himself very well.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the process of planning, shooting and also editing our film, I have come across a number of different technologies. For example, simply the digital camera itself is probably the most important technology used in the making of the entire product. We used various different Canon video cameras over the time period in which we shot our film, capturing our footage onto standard Sony cassette tapes. I have learnt how to effectively use these cameras over this period, including all of their primary functions and modes, such as zooming, adding various camera effects (e.g. black and white), video capturing and also video playback. The whole filmmaking experience has been a great lesson into the proper function of these video cameras, and I have learnt a lot whilst using them. Whilst filming with the cameras, we also came across a number of techniques of how to use them in certain ways to achieve particular shot types. For example, when wanting to create a chaotic or frantic mood about the shot, we would use the camera freehand as this gives a shaky effect and is successful in creating a chaotic ambiance. In contrast, we also made effective use of the tripod in order to gain a sturdy shot in circumstances such as zooming into our characters faces. The tripod was also extremely effective in helping us to gain some high angle shots; we used these in order to make a character seem small, insignificant or overpowered. In terms of the editing process, we used an editing suite software called Adobe Premiere Elements to capture the footage from the camera onto the computer, and then cut out the shots we no longer needed, cut down the length of the shots to the desired length, drag the specific shots into the correct sequence according to our narrative, add transitions and effects to our film where we felt appropriate. My favourite, and I believe the most popular transition used amongst our group, was the cross dissolve effect, as it could be used very effectively in the merging of two shots without making them seem too ‘jumpy’ or sharply cut. We also used the ‘add title’ tab to add the specific film titles and credits to our film where we felt appropriate. One example of this is when choosing the placement of our production company’s name. We decided to call the name of our production group 'Smokescreen Productions' as it has a very mysterious ambiance about the word, and fits in extremely well during the opening shot of Isabella smoking. The title 'Smokescreen Productions' shall fade in and out during the point when Isabella is sitting on the windowsill, fading in amongst the smoke clouds. Overall, the use of technologies has been absolutely vital in both the construction and then final editing of our film in order to produce the work to such a standard as we did, and have learnt a great deal about the different technologies included when producing a small independent film, such as the camera, tripod and editing software.


Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product?


I feel that I have progressed a huge deal and learnt many valuable techniques in our progression from the preliminary task to the full, final edit of our film. Firstly, when we were planning and producing our preliminary task we discovered a large range of varied shot types which when reviewed we decided would be effective in our final film, and hence kept the ideas to use in our thriller! In contrast, we also realised some certain shots which were not particularly effective and would not have looked good in our film, so took a note of these for future reference, and avoided using them when shooting our thriller. As you can see from our preliminary task, on a couple of occasions we actually broke the 180 degree rule, making the footage appear confusing to the viewing audience as it is unclear as to which side each of the characters are facing. In the evaluation of our preliminary, we picked up on this flaw and ensured that we did not make the same mistake again in our final thriller, and successfully managed. In terms of the lighting in our preliminary task, we used 100% natural, ambient lighting, with no aid from spotlights or lamps etc; this was due mainly to the fact that the large majority of it was filmed outside during bright daylight. As a group, we recognised this to be effective and hence decided to continue this technique into our final film. In our final film, the majority of shots did involve purely ambient lighting, excluding the initial opening establishing shot of Isabella, panning up her body as she sits on the windowsill, where a small indoor lamp was used to create a brighter lighting effect and warm, voyeuristic ambience about the shot, inspired by the lamp shot of Eve in Once Upon A Time In America. When looking at sound in our preliminary task, we removed the large majority of ambient sound, and replaced it with a soundtrack over the top, which despite creating a happy feel about the atmosphere as intended, we felt did ruin the film in the sense that it spoiled the ambience (e.g.) not being able to hear the footsteps as the character walks past the camera at around the time 0.33 seconds. We realised this error in our editing and therefore decided to include all aspects of ambient sound in our final thriller until the very final stages of editing, where just a very little was removed due to unwanted interference or unwanted non-diagetic dialogue. We also decided that our preliminary task did not include nearly enough close-ups to challenge a successful thriller film (despite the preliminary not actually being a thriller!) however, from looking at other successful thriller products it is clear to see that the most effective shots are basically all close ups, such as the introduction to Once Upon A Time In America with the various close ups of Noodles. Having taken this into account, we decided to use a wide variety of close ups and extreme close ups in our final piece; a prime example being the rear view mirror shots of Christian’s eyes. Our preliminary task also did not include any titles, which obviously when editing and producing a film is particularly unacceptable! Therefore, in our final piece we decided to use this bold font as it clearly presents the bold 'no nonsense' approach of Christian, it has more power about it! We decided against using a calligraphy font as although it presents well the class and etiquette of Isabella and her father, it was very difficult to read on the screen. Our title 'The Good Daughter' will appear on screen towards the very end of our sequence as Christian's car is shown driving away, whilst crossfading into an extreme close-up of Isabella's face. This is used to literally portray the fact that Christian has got inside his daughter's head and is manipulating her thoughts. The title shall fade in, and then fade out again at this stage.