Game Show Convergence

Crazy Canoes

The gameshow will consist of 5 contestants, who all have to build a canoe/raft from various materials and then have to race to the finish down a river with obstacles... Sort of like Scrapheap Challenge. The prize is some sort of canoeing/white water rafting holiday for 2.

Convergence:

There would be many ways to interact with the game show...

• Iphone App (a simple version of the game you can play on your iPhone) downloadable from the app store.

• Flash version of the game on the website you can play to win prizes... The person who scores the highest per week could be invited to be a contestant on the show (contestants usually apply using the online form on the website)

• Clothing – a range of Crazy Canoe t-shirts, jumpers etc sold through the website's shop.

• Downloadable ringtone of the show's theme tune.

• Downloadable wallpapers/screensavers for your computer.

• Bet on the contestants using the red button on your sky remote or on the website.

• A Facebook page for fans to 'like' and comment about the show – with random prizes to give away such as Crazy Canoe clothing and backstage tours of the show.

Male Gaze

Mulvey said the cinema is in 'male gaze'. This means we project sex on female characters and see them as sexual objects. Darkened auditoriums foster a sense of 'voyeuristic fantasy'.

Thriller Evaluation Final Draft

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

  
  

In our thriller, we looked at many traditional conventions of existing thriller movies such as The Blair Witch Project, Donnie Darko and The Book Of Eli. We did not want to conform to all thriller conventions as our thriller falls into the psychological thriller sub-genre so challenging some conventions (such as gender roles) would enhance the overall feel.

The location we chose for the entire opening for our thriller film (above right), a forest, is a common convention of the thriller genre as the setting can give the audience a sense of abandonment, loneliness and desolation. This helps to convey the feelings of hoplessness and being lost that the main character would feel. Also, the vertical lines of the trees can represent bars in a cage and entrapment, another convention of thrillers. This can help to give the audience the feeling that the character is unable to escape. We looked at other films where a wood or forest is the setting such as The Blair Witch Project (above left), the opening of The Book Of Eli and Dog Soldiers.

Masks are another convention of the thriller genre. Our hallucination character, the woman in the gas mask, wears a mask in order to appear more mysterious and less human. We chose to do this as she is not actually real so does not need to appear normal. A mask is worn by the character in the opening scenes of The Book Of Eli (left) in order to make the character look more mysterious. We hope we have achieved a similar effect.

We tried to use a variety of different camera angles and shots in order to keep the audience's attention focused on the action. We used some POV shots where the character is looking around the forest, this links to the Blair Witch Project again as the same style shots are frequently used in it.

Our plot fits into the Psychological Thriller sub-genre as it is a bout mental illness. Our media product is, in many ways similar to Donnie Darko as in the film he has hallucinations of a big weird rabbit thing called Frank. We looked at this film in order to draw inspiration for our thriller opening. For exaple, the eerie music during the opening scenes of the film.

We decided to have our psychopathic hallucination as a woman and the victim as a man. We did this in order to challenge the conventional gender roles in movies and hope to have achieved the effect of amking the viewer challenge ordinary conventions in their heads... We have chosen to conform to many traditional conventions of the thriller genre; bars, entrapment, voyeurism, masks... We did this in order to make it easy for our audience to be able to recognise it as a thriller movie but hope that they do not become bored through seeing exactly what they expect to see in a thriller.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group shown in our thriller is british youths as our main character is Rhys, a 19 year old schizophrnenic drug user. Our plot involves drug use and the rave culture. I believe that our thriller represents this social group well in that it shows how seemingly normal people can have serious underlying mental health issues...

Our thriller challenges gender roles as our 'victim' is male and the 'villain' is female. This contradicts the stereotypical gender roles in movies as it is usually a male who is the villain and the female is usually the damsel in distress.

Our thriller does conform to the theory of male gaze as the female character is dressed in tight jeans and therefore is slightly portrayed as a sexual object. However as this is combined with the challenges to gender roles, she is not seen as a useless woman in need of rescue.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

There are many ways to distribute our thriller opening. The internet is a good place to start. Websites such as Youtube allow anyone to upload and view videos for free. This is good in a way as there is no cost to us for distribution, however this also means that it is very difficult to make any money from these kinds of websites. One very good thing about using websites such as Youtube is that you can target almost all audiences simultaneously.

Our thriller opening has a challenging plot in that when we screened our rough cut, a lot of the feedback that we got pointed to the fact that people thought there was more than one gas mask-wearing figure surrounding the character or Rhys. This was the effect we were going for so that it could be explained during the film that she is a hallucination. This could lead to our thriller receiving finding to be made into a feature film and then released in cinemas. This is, in my opinion, the best way for our thriller to be distributed as it would be a lot more well done with adequate funding and would also make a tidy profit at the box office.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

Through our audience feedback sessions, we discovered that most people enjoy watching psychological thrillers. However, to be a little more specific - our thriller is mainly aimed at intellectual people who enjoy watching movies that make them think... Movies that you need to actively think about while watching in order to fully understand the complex plot. I believe people who would most enjoy our movie are people who enjoy other Psychological Thrillers such as Donnie Darko, Inception and Shutter Island.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

One way in which we attracted our audience was through our choice to have no dialogue in the opening of our thriller. We did this in order to keep the tension in the scenes. We hope this had the effect of making the audience want to watch the rest of the film and our feedback supported this.

Also, by having lots of action during the opening we capture the attention of the audience. The beginning of our film is what happens in the end of the film. This could have the effect of boring people through the rest of the film as they already know what will happen, but we intended for our audience to be fascinated by the events leading up to the attack in the opening and also we wanted them to wonder who these characters are and what their stories were. In our audience research, many people did not realise that the woman in the mask was in fact a figment of Rhys' imagination so hopefully the audience would be interested in finding out what is going on by watching the rest of the film.

• What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From making the opening of the thriller movie, I have learned many thing. Firstly, I have found out how to navigate my way round a mac, as I have only ever previously used windows. I found this very difficult at first, but after lots of practice and learning the various keyboard shortcuts (which was quite confusing after being used to windows shortcuts).

Also, I have learned how to use the video cameras in the college and the various settings on them which is very useful. It would have been a lot more useful to know more about the cameras before filming though as we had a lot of trouble trying to import some of the video we filmed as we had accidentily filmed it in HD which Final Cut did not like at all. I also had some advantage with the editing software as I had previously used it to make a music video during activities week at the end of last year and from doing the music video for A2 media.

We also ran into a bit of trouble every time we opened our thriller in Final Cut because it would tell us that it had lost some of the files or that they were 'offline'. This meant that they needed reconnecting every time which was annoying to say the least. I also learned a bit more about transitions and effects such as hue and saturation (used to make some clips darker to make it appear as if it is evening/night) as I had only previously used simple transitions and not used the effects fully.

We also used Garage Band to create our music track, this also threw up a few problems but only minor ones and they were easily overcome.

• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learned in the progression from it to the final product?

Our prelim task was a lot different from our thriller opening in that it had a much simpler storyline and was much shorter. Creating the prelim did help a lot in the making of the thriller opening as it taught us how to plan a shooting schedule effectively and showed us the importance of following a storyboard (although we did accidently forget it the first time we went to shoot some of the thriller so had to go back for a second session).

Another thing I have learned is the importance of working in a group. We were all assigned different jobs to do so if we were too slack, we would be letting the whole group down. Audience feedback is also very important, we did not do any form of audience feedback for our prelim task as it was really just a practice for using the cameras and the editing software. We found the feedback sessions very useful and got some good comments from it to help us improve our thriller.

Thriller Evaluation (draft)

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

  
  

In our thriller, we looked at many traditional conventions of existing thriller movies such as The Blair Witch Project, Donnie Darko and The Book Of Eli.

The location we chose, a forest, is a common convention of the thriller genre as it can give the audience a sense of abandonment and loneliness. Also, the vertical lines of the trees can represent bars, another convention of thrillers. This can help to give the audience the feeling of entrapment.

Masks are another convention of this genre. Our hallucination character, the woman in the gas mask, wears a mask in order to appear more mysterious and less human. We chose to do this as she is not actually real so does not need to appear normal. A mask is worn by the character in the opening scenes of The Book Of Eli in order to make the character look more mysterious. We hope we have achieved the same effect.

Our plot fits into the Psychological Thriller sub-genre as it is a bout mental illness. Our media product is, in many ways similar to Donnie Darko and we looked at that film in order to draw inspiration for our thriller opening.

We have chosen to conform to many traditional conventions of the thriller genre, bars, entrapment, voyeurism, masks... We did this in order to make it easy for our audience to be able to recognise it as a thriller movie.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group shown in our thriller is british youths. Our plot involves drug use and the rave culture. I believe that our thriller represents this social group fairly and there is no negative representation of british youths.

Our thriller challenges gender roles as our 'victim' is male and the 'villain' is female. This contradicts the stereotypical gender roles in movies as it is usually a male who is the villain and the female is usually the damsel in distress.

Our thriller does conform to the theory of male gaze as the female character is dressed in tight jeans and therefore is slightly portrayed as a sexual object. However as this is combined with the challenges to gender roles, she is not seen as a useless woman in need of rescue.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

There are many ways to distribute our thriller opening. The internet is a good place to start. Websites such as Youtube allow anyone to upload and view videos for free. This is good in a way as there is no cost to us for distribution, however this also means that it is very difficult to make any money from these kinds of websites. One very good thing about using websites such as Youtube is that you can target almost all audiences simultaneously.

Our thriller opening has a challenging plot in that when we screened our rough cut, a lot of the feedback that we got pointed to the fact that people thought there was more than one gas mask-wearing figure surrounding the character or Rhys. This was the effect we were going for so that it could be explained during the film that she is a hallucination. This could lead to our thriller receiving finding to be made into a feature film and then released in cinemas. This is, in my opinion, the best way for our thriller to be distributed as it would be a lot more well done with adequate funding and would also make a tidy profit at the box office.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our thriller opening is mainly aimed at intellectual people who enjoy watching movies that make them think... Movies that you need to actively think about while watching in order to fully understand the plot. I believe people who would most enjoy our movie are people who enjoy other Psychological Thrillers such as Donnie Darko, Inception and Shutter Island.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

One way in which we attracted our audience was through our choice to have no dialogue in the opening of our thriller. We did this in order to keep the tension in the scenes. We hope this had the effect of making the audience want to watch the rest of the film and our feedback supported this.

Drag Me To Hell Case Study

Drag Me To Hell is an American Horror/Thriller about a woman who works in a bank. She wants a promotion so decides to evict an elderly gypsy woman from her house. The gypsy then curses her and she is forced to seek help from a psychic before the evil spirit she was cursed with comes to claim her soul.

Production Info:
It is dicected by Sam Raimi and stars Alison Lohman, Justin Long and Ruth Livier. The film was released on 27th May 2009 in the UK. It had a budget of $30,000,000 and has a gross revenue of $90,850,000. The film was produced by Universal Pictures and has a runtime of 99 mins

Narrative Structure:
The film has a linear structure and there are no flashbacks, but the end does link back to the opening of the film in that the woman that tried to help Christine (the cursed woman who works in the bank) is the same woman who tries to help a small boy escape the same curse.

Conventions of the Thriller genre:
The movie follows some conventions of the Thriller genre such as the notion of being watched. This can be best shown with the example of the scene where Christine is walking back to her car and feels like she is being followed. This voyeurism is a popular convention of Thriller films. Another convention in this film is being chased. The woman is contantly being chased/hunted by the evil spirit who eventually claims her soul.

Semiology:
In the film, flys are a reccuring symbol. In the opening, when the child reveals the necklase he stole from a gypsy wagon, a fly comes out of his pocket too. When christine is cursed, a fly crawls into her mouth while she is sleeping and comes out during a dinner with her boyfriend's parents. This fly could symbolize that they are cursed and it is like a disease so people should stay away... Also, eyes are seen throughout the film, which is another reference to the notion of being watched. The old lady who curses Christine has different colour eyes, the symbol in the psychic's wondow is an eye and an eye appears in the cake in the scences during the dinner.

Sound:
During the opening of the film, there is choir-like singing and high-pitched screeching. This creates an eerie atmosphere - perfect for the opening scenes of a Thriller movie. The dialogue in the opening is in Spanish, giving you a sense that you don't belong here, and you are an outsider intruding on the scene. It also has the effect of disorientating you slightly as you do not know exaclt what is going on - there are subtitles, but not all dialogue is subtitled.
Throughout the film, during scenes of high tension and anticipation, harps and other stringed instuments are used to build the eerie sensation as well as the screeching noises. Bird song is used immediately after one scene where Christine is being taumented by the evil spirit. This has the effect of making you think that it is all over and everything is back to normal...

Camera Shots/Angles:
In the scene where Christine is cursed by the Gypsy woman, high angled shots are used of the gypsy and low angle shots of Christine as well as a shot-reverse-shot technique. Combined, these have the powerful effect of giving the impression that the gypsy woman is the dominant one and Christine is the weak one. This is mirrored in the narrative as it is the gypsy woman that is putting a curse over the other woman.
In scenes where the evil spirit is tormenting Christine, the camera is tilted slightly on the side, this has the effect of distorting the viewer's perceptions. This has been used in order to make the viewer feel sort of the same as Christine would in these scenes - as if she has no idea what is going on and it could all be a dream...

Gender Representation:
The female gender role is represented fairly stereotypically in the movie. Christine is shown to be a young and attractive woman. Even in the graveyard scene where she has just dug up the body of the woman who cursed her and is covered in mud, she still looks attractive. This links to the theory of male gaze (Mulvey, 1975) where females are prepresented as passive objects of male desire. Christine is shown to eat ice cream for comefort and also to want cake, highly stereotypical of women. You get the impression she is opressed in the work place by her male co-workers as she believes that her boss favours her opposition (a man) for the promotion she desperately desires. This could link to the feeling of opression she might be feeling in life as you could say that she is being opressed by the evil spirit.

How Does Your Music Magazine Target Its Audience?

Q magazine is an alternative music magazine aimed prodominatly at people in their 30's and 40's. The front cover has the magazine name at the top right hand sinde meaning that it is the first thing you look at. It is also large and on a red background, again in order to draw the eye straight to it.
This issue has a small label over the magazine name which tells you that is is a 'bumper' issue. This has the effect of making the consumer feel like they are getting more for their money so they are more likely to buy the magazine.
Madonna features on the cover. A close-up of the singer, with her name in red capital letters across the line of the lower third of the page, this use of the rule of thirds is probably used to make the magazine look more aesthetically pleasing. The red capitals almost shout at you about who the main interview is with in this issue.
The cover also has a banner at the bottom of the page advertising the free 70 page special booklet about women in music. The picture used is of a young and attractive woman in a slightly domineering pose. This could be to show how sexy women in music are and to appeall to the male audience (which is the majority of the target audience for Q Magazine). Or, on the other hand it could be to show the power and success of women in music and to appeal more to female consumers and pursuade them to purchase the magazine.
The theory of male gaze is used extensively on this cover. This can be shown by looking at either picture used in this issue. The picture of Madonna shows her wearing lots of make-up, in a sexy pose, the picture is also probably extensively airbrushed to make her appear more attractive. The picture for the Women In Music portrays the woman as a sexual object, with her legs open... However, it does counteract this slightly by talking about 'girl-power' below. This has the effect of women seeing them as icons and idols and perhaps buying the magazine in order to learn how to be so successful...

No Country For Old Men Coin Toss Analysis - Sound

In this clip from No Country For Old Men, Chigurh walks into a gas station and asks the man at the till to call a coin toss, the man does not realise but he is calling it for his life.

In this scene, there is actually no non-digetic sound used. Only digetic sound is used, this could be in order to build suspense in the silence between the dialogue. When neither character is speaking, the silence creates a sense of feeling uneasy, like the feeling the man in the gas station would actually be feeling in this situation.

The dialogue itself is quite quiet and both characters have low voices, this has the effect of building tension because you find yourself on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what is said next... The other digetic sounds used also help to biuld suspense. For example, Chigurh's footsteps at the beginning of the clip when he first walks into the gas station. You cannot yet see him, the camera focuses on the attendant, but you can hear his slow footsteps as he approaches the till. This can have the effect of making the viewer question who is going to appear as they might expect that the director would try to throw them off track with a red herring, so they might expect it to be someone other than Chigurh.

The sound of the coin being tossed in this scene also appears to help the director build that sense of uneasiness and tension. This high-pitched 'ding' helps to break up the dialogue, which is quite soft and gentle. This juxtapositioning of sounds sort of throws the viewer off track, surprising them slightly. You do not actually see Chigurh ge the coin out of his pocket so you do not expect the sudden 'ding'. This could be used to break the tension in this scene to then build it back up with the dialogue, like a false climax.