Research For Our Final Piece

We decided to base our final piece on the famous murderess, Myra Hindley who committed the Moore’s murders. I researched Hindley and the murders to gain an insight of her mind set and to gain as much information as I could to make our opening sequence realistic in presenting the ways of Hindley.

“The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17- Pauling Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans – at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. The murders are so named because of two of the victims were discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was

discovered on the moor in 1987, over 20 years after Brady and Hindley’s trial in 1966. The

body of a fourth victim, Keith Bennett, is also suspected to be buried there, but as of 2010 it still remains undiscovered. The police were initially aware if only three killings – those of Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey and John Kilbride. The investigation was reopened in 1985, after Brady was reported in the press as having confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. Brady and Hindley were taken separately to Saddleworth Moor to assist the police in their search for the graves, both by then having confessed to the additional murders.” (Wikipedia)

Brady and Hindley undressed Downey. Photographered her and recorder the piteous sounds of her crying on a reel-to-reel audio tape machine. Brady and Hindley could be heard relentlessly mocking Lesley Ann as she called out for her mother.

The press described Myra Hindley as “the most evil woman in Britain” and the “female icon of evil” which gives out media product a huge inspiration to focus on.

Throughout researching the murders, I found that Ian Brady (Hindley’s lover) was fascinated

by the work of Hitler, and he indoctrinated Hindley into following the drastic, disturbing Nazi ways. This is the reason why in our media we decided to use April as the focal child in the piece, as she has blonde hair and blue eyes; following Hitlers conception that Arians were the only race worth living. This is why the character of Hindley in our piece is so fascinated with the young girl.

We decided to base our media piece upon Myra Hindley, as if she was alone and Ian Brady did not assist her, purely because we thought that the piece would seem much more disturbing if it was just a normal woman who didn’t have the powerful influence of a “disturbed” lover. The idea is to use our interpretation of Hindley to give an insight into her sick, deluded mind and to show an entrance into a disturbing story which is similar to the way Hindley would have carried out a murder up on an innocent young child.

Initial Research

I began my research into the media studies course through a series of textual analyses. Our class watched a variety of opening sequences to films and a few television clips to gain an insight into how opening sequences work. Whilst viewing the sequences we consider four key focuses points to base each textual analysis on; camera angles/movement, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. We used films with different genres to give us an idea how opening sequences differ dramatically according to the genre of the film which helped us to plan our final piece in a way which is sufficient to the genre.

We used ‘Dirty Harry’(1971) a cop thriller which has influences of the “modern” western style and follows the ideology of ‘goodies and baddies’ in which the police are the goodies who we side with and we want them to succeed in their mission overall. From this textual analysis I concluded that ‘Dirty Harry’ obtains a dramatic opening in which the audience gains an immediate idea of the main characters intentions and potentially how the plot will develop. The audience are successful in identifying the hero and the villain in the film from the first few minutes of the film, giving them an insight of what will happen later in the film. The sequence is effective in setting the scene, the audience easily classify that the film is set in San Francisco.

I also used another cop thriller, ‘The Usual Suspects’ (1995) to support the textual analysis of ‘Dirty Harry’ so that I could fully understand how cop thrillers are constructed to create a successful opening sequence. From analysing this opening sequence, I made the conclusion that ‘The Usual Suspects’ is an effective opening sequence in many ways. It is successful in representing the characters, establishing the setting, portraying the genre of the film and also illustrating to the audience what the narrative of the rest of the film is likely to be. The variety of techniques used in the opening sequence creates high levels of tension and suspense which intrigues the audience and make it an extremely effective opening sequence.

I also wrote a textual analysis (which focused upon representation) on a clip of an episode of ‘Sex and the City’ which is a romantic comedy. In conclusion, the opening scene of ‘Sex in the City’ is extremely effective in creating an authentic representation of both the city of New York, and the people living there. The general idea the audience achieve after watching this clip is that New York is a hectic, busy city full of exciting happenings and that the people who live in there lead a glamorous lifestyle with the large amount of wealth they have. The clip makes New York appear as a very attractive city, it focuses on the brightness of the New York and doesn’t represent any negative ideas. However the idea that New York is not what it seems is also revealed which gives the audience that a different idea of the city and the people may be obtained in the rest of the episode.

From writing several different textual analyses I have gained an important insight into what things need to be included in opening sequences to make them successful. I have also learnt how opening sequences are different depending on the genre, which is extremely helpful with the planning, filming and editing of our final piece.

Aspects of filming:

Mise en scene

All the elements which are placed in front of the camera to be framed, including the setting, props, lighting, costumes and make-up, figure behaviour, acting style, etc.

Décor - An important element of "setting the scene" is décor; the objects in the scene which help to establish the location of the scene and the idea of the piece. Décor can also be used to emphasise different character's emotions or can be used to enhance the focal mood of the media product.

Rear Projection - Usually used to combine action taking place in the foreground, (often conversation), with a background shot from earlier, (often on location). Rear projection is useful as it provides an inexpensive way to set films in exotic or dangerous locations without having to transport expensive actors or put up with demanding conditions whilst filming.

Costume - Costume simply refers to the clothes and accessories which the characters wear. Costume in films is used to signify character, amplify particular fashions, or to make distinctions between different characters. The costumes of different characters, inlcluding elements such as colour, can be viewed upon to give a representation or connotation of a particular subject or emotion. e.g wearing red could signify lust and passion and black could signify death.

Lighting

The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting all have massive effects on the way an image is viewed and perceived by an audience. Light affects the way colours are rendered (in terms of hue and depth) and can focus the audience's attention on particular parts of the shot.

Three Point Lighting - In order to model an actor's face (or any other focal object of the scene) with an effective sense of depth, it is necessary that light from three directions is used, as in the diagram below. A back light picks out the subject from its background, a bright key light highlights the object's main features and a fill light from the opposite side ensures that the key light casts only faint shadows which are therefore not distracting in the shot.

High Key Lighting - This is a lighting technique where the fill light is raised to almost the same level as the key light. This produces images that are very bright and that have little shadows on the principal areas. This bright image is a recognisable characteristic of entertainment genres.

Low Key Lighting - This is a lighting scheme that employs very little fill light, creating strong contrasts between the brightest and darkest parts of an image and often developing strong shadows that hide some parts of the principal subject. This lighting is regularly associated with suspense genres like thrillers.

Genre

We discussed different genres between the group and decided that we wanted to focus on a dark genre. We wanted the plot to have a huge level of suspense and be exciting for the audience to watch. We want to create the idea that once the audience has seen the opening, they will be intrigued to watch the rest of the film, if we were producing a whole film rather than an opening sequence.

Crime/detective - is based around a criminal act, usually where the story of a detective is followed who introduces the main aim which is to solve the crime and ultimately catch the criminal at the end of the film.

Horror/thriller - involves death and other horrific acts which aim to scare and thrill the viewer. They often involve plots with mysterious, unexplainable deaths, supernatural villains and innocent victims.

Comedy – the main emphasis is on humor. The plot is always light hearted and sometimes exaggerated to create humor and in most cases ends with a happy, usually predictable ending.

Romantic – the film revolves around a central romance and follows the love story of the characters who are involved. Again, the majority of the plot is light hearted however there are sometimes some serious sections at the climax.

Action – the focus is on high energy physical actions,usually including characters fighting for justice, rescuing and escaping from danger. Action films usually include some impressive, high budget stunts and clever editing skills.

Animation - created using stop-motion or other forms of animation. This is usually used for films where the target audience is young children but is often enjoyed as a family viewing. Animation films usually have simple story lines which are easy to follow, which comedic sections and some twists.

Musical – films that emphasise a song or/and dance routine and revolve around musical numbers. Musicals are usually lighthearted and predictable.

Drama – serious films which focus highly on plot and portraying realistic characters in a realistic setting, to make the film seem realistic and therefore more effective for the audience to understand.

Adventure – follows and exciting journey which focuses on new experiences which are found from the characters and new objects or people/animals which are found on the adventure.

From this, we decided that we wanted to use a combination of horror and thriller as we thought that they were the most effective genre's to create the biggest impact on the audience. So therefore we decided to use this sub-genre for the final piece;

Dark Suspense Thriller

This type of genre promotes intense suspense and a high level of anticipation, anxiety and nerve wracking tension. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. The plot provides thrills and keeps the audience on the ‘edge of their seats’ whilst are taken through a journey containing extreme agony and fear; focusing on the suspense and danger that is generated throughout. Characters in thrillers include criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, psycho-fiends, and more. Generally, thrillers focus on plot more than on characters, which emphasises physical action over the character's psyche.

The haunting and chilling German film "M" (1931) directed by the great Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre as a criminal; a child killer. The story was based on the life of serial killer Peter Kurten, also known as the 'Vampire of Dusseldorf'. In “M”, a group of children are playing a game involving a song about a child murderer. This foreshadows the appearance of Hans Beckert, the serial killer and implied pedophile who was obsessive towards children in 1930s in Berlin. Initially the audience do not see his face; they only see his shadow, shots of his body and hear him whistling "In the Hall of the Mountain King". The film “M” can be used for inspiration when planning our final piece.

Alfred Hitchcock is considered the acknowledged master of the thriller/suspense genre, manipulating his audience's fears and desires, taking them into a state of association with the representation of the often ‘crazy’ reality facing the character. Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim into a strange, life-threatening or terrorizing situation. This is a useful style which we will consider using in the planning and preparation stage of the media piece.

After we had decided that we would use the genre of dark suspense thriller, as a group we thought about different ideas which we could base our opening sequence on. We knew that we wanted our piece to be fast, with shots only displayed for a short period of time with quick and exciting edits. We really like the style of the 'Seven' opening sequence, so we watched the sequence and used it for inspiration for the final piece. We also decided that we would use a combination of black and white and coloured shots in the piece top create a sense of mystery and unknown.

Preliminary Task

                     Preliminary Task                                     

OCR, the examining board states that we should create a small preliminary, continuity task which involves "filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule."(OCR specification)

Initially, we decided to brainstorm a series of ideas which we could base the piece upon and establish which different types of shots we would intend to use within the piece. Once we had agreed on the final idea which fitted the specification, we created a storyboard to show the creation of the short sequences through a plan of still pencil drawings.

                          Storyboarding                         

The storyboard illustrates the different shots and sounds we intended to use whilst filming the footage for the preliminary task. It shows 8 simple camera shots which we would aim to achieve and base our short sequence upon. From the storyboard, the general plot of the piece is established. The sequence begins with a girl sitting outside a room, nervously awaiting an interview; a range of camera shots and angles demonstrate the characters nervousness. Then the girl opens the door, walking across the room, seating herself in a chair opposite another character who is presented as the interviewer. Throughout the rest of the sequence, the nervous persona of the first character continues to be portrayed as she struggles to relax and concentrate in the atmosphere .

The first two frames of the story board establish the first character and the way she is feeling. The first image shows a long shot of a girl, showing a door in the background, representing that she is waiting for something or someone to which the audience are initially unknown to. The next shot is a close up of the characters face which extenuates her emotions revealing her nervousness and worry for what is about to happen. During the first two shots, we will add a sound effect of a heartbeat which extends the focal idea of worry within the piece. The heartbeat continues throughout the piece to reveal the constant worry. We varied away from our original storyboard slightly whilst experimenting with the camera as we discovered an interesting high angle, long shot which presented the character in a vulnerable manner, which created a level of sympathy to be experienced by the audience.

The next two frames of the storyboard use the same combination of a close up and a long shot to show the character entering the room. The third image of the story board shows a close up of the characters hand opening the door. We decided not to film the next long shot of the girl walking through the door for this reason; when we began filming outside the office, it looked very shabby so we changed the location to a more modern area so the door was smarter and therefore looked more authentic for the setting of outside an interview office. Therefore we couldn't film the shot because the door which the character sat outside of in the beginning of the piece, and the door of the office where we filmed the rest of the sequence look completely different which would be that the sequence would be inconsistent. By eliminating this shot from the sequence, the consistency was able to be retained throughout the duration, making the sequence realistic.

The next frames of the storyboard establish the characters in the setting of the interview room. The first two-shot shows the two characters sitting at the table and establishes the location. The over-the-shoulder-shot from behind the interviewee enables the audience to experience the interview from her point of view. During this shot and throughout the majority of the rest of the clip we hear dialogue from the interviewer explaining the role of the application she applied for. When the dialogue starts, the heartbeat quietens which enables the audiences focus to be on the dialogue but lets them understand that the interviewee is still extremely nervous.

The final two stages of the story board continue to portray the nervous representation of the first character. The seventh stage is a close up of the interviewee’s hands which she cannot keep still as she fidgets and remains nervous. The final shot is and over the shoulder shot from behind the interviewer which allows the audience to see the situation from his point of view. Initially we were going to add a sound effect of heavy breathing but we decided that with the dialogue and the constant heartbeat, the sound of the piece was already sufficient.

                        180 Degree Rule                         

Throughout filming our preliminary piece, we had to consider the 180 degree rule which gives the piece an idea of consistency. The 180 degree rule is a basic filming guideline which advises that two characters in a scene should have the same left/right relationship to each other throughout. The camera has to stay behind the imaginary line, but if it passes the line, the new shot has to show the change of position and from the reverse angle. This is called crossing the line. We followed this rule throughout filming our preliminary piece to maintain consistency all to keep the idea of realism to the clip.

                       Shot reverse shot                       

We used shot-reverse-shot in our piece to show different perspectives. We produced an over-the-shoulder shot from behind the interviewee to show her point of view and then afterwards we used an over-the-shoulder shot but from the reverse view; from behind the interviewer. The use of this shot is successful in creating a picture for the audience who can therefore recognise and associate with the two different character's point of view, which helps them to understand the way the character's perceive the situation and to understand their emotions; showing how the interviewer is calm and laidback in a natural environment which makes a huge contrast to the interviewer who's emotions reveals ultimate stress and show unfamiliarity with the surroundings and the interview atmosphere.

                   Final Preliminary Piece                   

                              Evaluation                            

I think that the piece follows the specification of OCR, with a range of camera shots, angles and we encorperated a lot of media skills and techniques including shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

We filmed enough so that we could chose the best and then cut and edit the piece accordingly. We used effective editing in the preminary piece to keep the tension throughout. To add to the suspense, we added an appropriate soundtrack and made sure it was the right volume and right lenth of time which keeps the mood of the piece of worry.

We also chose the characters to be in the piece carefully. By using Mr Zaidi and Hannah, we achieved characters who are realistic which in turn create a high level of authenticity within our piece.

Our preliminary piece has many strengths, as it has helped us to progress our skills in planning, filming and editing to help us to produce our final media piece. The piece has a wide range of shots and angles. The piece also shows a high level of consistency and realism which is extremely important in media products. However, in some parts of the piece the shot is a little shaky which was unintentional. In our final piece, we will over come this problem by using a tri-pod when neccessary to enable shots to be steady, unless they are unstaedy for a specific reason.