Kiss me deadly analysis

Cinematography-
The shots used in kiss me deadly are very normal, the shot used predominantly is the mid-shot, this is a very normal shot to used as it only shows the top half of the person, this does not create a lot of tension in itself, however the plot contrasts to this so much that it does create tension in that its almost too normal. Howevert combined with the use of long shots and tilted angles, it creates a lot of tension and also hints that the story will unfold to be very chaotic and will involve a lot of dark themes.

Sound-
The sound used here is relative to the period (1955) and is a very typical peice of music from that time period, as such the culture of the film is shown very clearly in the opening sequence. This will show the themes present at the time and also can explain the dialogue that is used and how certain things are done throughout the film. The sound apart from that are very natural this creates a very normal scene for the time period.

Editing-
The titles that are used are rolling across the screen, this puts a lot of movement into the scene, added to this there is a car in the background, this increases the tempo of the scene and makes the tension created a lot higher than it usually is. The editing apart from this is limited, this also shows the time period when combined with the titles, as technology was limited in the 50s.

Mise-en-scene-
The mise-en-scene here is dark as the scene is set at night, this increases the tension created by the shots and the titles. However the fact that it is set at night and clearly set in america it tells the audience a lot about the two characters evident in the scene, we can know their cultures, and as one of them owns a car the demographic they fit into. The darkness also symbolises the thriller genre that the film fits into, this makes the opening sequence very effective as it tells the audience about the genre, the characters and it hints at the rest of the plot.

Sixth Sense analysis

Cinematography-
the shots usd here are used to great affect to create tension and to hint at what will happen later on in the film, this achieves one of the aims in the conventional thriller opening. The shot when the camera is behind a wine rack watching the woman does both of these things, it creates tension as its almost like she is being watched, this could make it a POV shot (point of view.) This is also a very beautiful shot as we have the wine rack in the foreground and the focus in the background, this creates a very real sense of depth.

Editing-
The titles are the main editing here as they take up a lot of the opening sequence, they create tension as the font is very ominous. Also the colour of the text and the background is very ominous, the dark blue connotes a very dark and dangerous future for the film. These two in combination cause the audience to feel the tension and also hint a lot about the storyline which is to follow.

Mise-en-scene-
This is very dark and deep opening sequence, the colour affects the mise-en-scene a lot as it is a very predominant feature in this sequence, the dark blue connotes a very dark plot line, this combined with the very mysterious nature of the shots used shows the theme/genre very well, thriller (psychological.) However the normality created in the initial shots contrasts with the titles very well, this creates the tension and builds upon it as the audience constantly expects something bad to happen.

Sound-
The music is very ominous as it builds tension as it is very mysterious (like the colours used and the shots used) it does this by slowly increasing in volume, this symbolises the building tension present in the scene. However by keeping a low pitch and a constant tempo the soundtrack is very subtle and doesnt take away from the tension created by the shots or the titles.

Conventions of an opening sequence

The purpose of an opening sequence is to entice the viewer into watching the rest of the film, it does this by creating a hook, be this visual or plot related the viewer must be interested in the film. It is also meant to introduce the plot line of the film, it does this by introducing; characters, setting and the beginnings of a story. In a thriller film usually mystery is created by the opening sequence, this is done in our opening sequence in the use of flashback, however we have had feedback that we might be creating to much mystery and we have confused the viewers, this is a risk that filmakers take in creating mystery in the very first scene.

The conventions of an opening sequence apply to four main areas; cinematography, editing sound and mise-en-scene. Cinematography is used in that establishing shots are usually used in opening sequences, this is due to the fact that they introduce a setting very well, and therefore help to convey the main purpose of an opening sequence. Pans are also frequently used throughout the opening sequence as they can achieve a very broad look of the scene for the viewer.

Mise-en-scene is a key part in most opening sequences, they are used in two different ways, the first way is to create a very calm enviroment for the viewer to indulge in, this lulls them into a false sense of security and adds to the tension to be created later on in the film. The second way is to throw the audience to the story head on, usually by showing the end first, this way can be risky as it could reveal to much of the story or confuse the viewer. However in psychological thrillers it could connote the main characters detached mental state.

Editing comes in the form of titles which are frequently used in the opening sequences of films, they are there to give credit to those who worked on the film. However they could also be used to show off the actors/actressess in the film, this could be a hook in the film, as a famous actor could make it more successful. These titles also show the producers which tells alot about the film, weither they be big or small the films producers could define the target audience of the film.

The sound used in an opening sequence is usually very ominous (especially in a thriller one) this connotes that there will be horrific events coming up in the film, this manages to acheive one of the aims of an opening sequence, which is to make the genre/main themes very clear. Another thing that sound does is dialogue, which makes aspects of the characters very clear, this can make the viewer make up their minds about specific characters, this causes an instant interest in our film.

Script

We decided not to use dialogue in our opening sequence, however music did play a large part in our opening sequence, this is a very key part of a lot of thrillers that we have seem, fargo is a prime example of this as it uses no dialogue but instead it only uses music, this creates a lot of tension due to the fact that the characters do not give anything away about the film.

However this can have to much mystery and can confuse the viewer of the film, this is the risk we have taken with our film, the sound is not needed in ours as the shots convey enough of the story to keep the viewer interested in our film. in this way we keep to the conventions of our genre, as we have followed the pathe that "FARGO" set out for us.

Another reason we did not include any dialogue is the fact that the soundtrack that we have created on garageband creates a lot of tension by itself, including dialogue would have taken away from this. Added to this not having dialogue actually increases the tension created by the soundtrack as it is very eerie knowing that its the only sound present in the scene.

How did you attract/address the target audience?

Our film attracts the target audience in that the main character is of a similar age and demographic as our target audience, they are both young males, who belong in the B demographic (upper middle class.) This attracts our target audience in that they feel they can relate to the main character (Nathan) this makes our film more relevant to the modern society, also the fact that he appears to be so normal creates a very big shock when we find out that he is clearly not i the right state of mind.

Another part of our film that makes it relevant to modern society is the setting, as it set in london this makes it very relevant to our target audience who clearly are a modern audience, as this film would be released in 2011. As this is a british film it also shows us a lot about the institution that would help to produce/release our film, this would also attract a british audience as they are very familiar with the setting (being their capital and all that.)

However we present london in a very eerie way this made sure that our thriller genre was very clear to the audience, this was very clear in the audience feedback that we received when we showed it to our peers in the media showcase, by doing this media showcase i was able to receive vital information about my film. For instance the few shaky shots that were present in the film were noticed by the audience and did not go well with them, however the audience did appreciate our flashback and one person was confident enough to tell the group that we were one of the few people to use flashbacks effectively.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I imagine the audience viewing our film as being young guys, the kind of person who is intelligent enough to understand the psychological elements of our film (as it is a psychological thriller this is a necessity.) However the target audience also appreciates the smaller british films, so perhaps they are into media or film, maybe they do english as well. We adress these aspects by being a very low budget british film, this is also shown through the unknown actors we have used. Also our film is produced by vertigo films, who specialise in making low budget british films (they also do some thrillers,) this makes them the perfect producers for our film.

Our target audience also has a tight knit group of friends, we have therefore made our film accessable to all (it has a plot line that everyone can understand) this means that our target audience can watch the film with his friends. Our target audience is about nineteen this will be adressed by making the film an eighteen, this features adult themes such as violence and sex, this makes the film very mature, like our target audience. This matureness also comes through in the storyline of our film, which can be complex at times, it is meant to confuse the audience in order to display the characters mental state (however all becomes clear in the end making it accessable for all mature audiences.)

Ryan Rooky (pictured above) is an 18 year old student, he does maths, art, IT and COPE, he is very interested in independant films produced by smaller companies, films like; "The Disapearence of Alice Creed" and "Hurt Locker". He and his friends work very hard at school and are all aspiring to be a high demographic in later life (A-C1), Ryan himself wants to go into IT or possibly the editing business.

Ryan spends his spare time in the gym and at Air Cadets, he contributes to the community as much as he can in his remaining time, he also likes to go to the movies with his friends at the weekend. Recently he has enjoyed films such as "Shutter Island" and "Inception", these thrillers are both psychological and are very in tune with Ryans lifestyle and choice in movies.

What Kind of Media institution would distribute your product and why?

I imagine paramount pictures being one of the institutions that would distribute my film as they have produced similar films as the ones I have made, one such film that is similar to our film is “Shutter Island” starring Leonardo De Caprio, this film is all about the mind and crimes/murders that have been committed by people with mental disabilities. As such it fits very well into the psychological thriller section of thrillers; this is the same category as my film. However paramount pictures are a very big company that produce high budget films, this is not the sort of look that we have created for our film, as our one is a low budget British film.

Another institution that I think would produce our film would be Lions-gate; this is quite a small production company that does a lot of small British films like ours. One such film is “The disappearance of Alice Creed” this is a great film that is very controversial, and is a very low budget British film, just the sort that Lions-gate produces. This fits very well with the overall image that we have wanted to create for our film, however they haven’t produced many psychological thrillers, this means that they haven’t produced our type of film before, so the genre of film they produce is not similar to our film.

How does my peice represent social groups?

My piece does challenge some representations of social groups as we have cast an upper class man as a murderer, this challenges the conventions of upper class citizens, as they are usually very proper in the way they do things, as such the fact that he is a murderer comes as a shock to the viewer. We have kept to some representations of some social groups, for instance our victim is lower in the economical chain than the murderer, and this shows that the rich have more power over the middle and lower classes. It also shows certain callousness from our murderer as he feels he can murder a lower class woman and get away with it, instead it will haunt him.

This is another convention we have broken, as in thrillers the convention is to have a cold hearted killer that does not care who they hurt as long as they get what they want (shown in films such as the Hannibal series) we have created a killer with a conscience, this challenges the conventions of a thriller, and, the representations of killers. We have done this on purpose to make our film stand out from the crowd

Challenging forms and conventions of the media

My piece does not really challenge the conventions of thriller genres, for instance we have chosen a blonde haired blue eyed girl (Kayleigh Hobbs) to be our victim, and this is a deliberate choice for us as it helps to familiarise the viewer to the genre of film that we have elected to do (thriller.) We have also kept to conventions by having a male being the murderer; we did this for similar reasons as the first cast. When we film the murderer we use low shots, this makes him seem very powerful, in contrast we use high shots on our victim, by keeping to these conventions the viewer can become fully emerged in the storyline that we have created.

We have however challenged some conventions by making the murderer seem very normal, he has a job, wears suits, goes to work every morning, this challenges many conventions of a thriller, the killer is usually seen as lower class/ demographic (C1-D) we have made him upper class, this makes him more liked by the audience as he seems very normal to the audience. In this way we manipulate the audience to like and dislike him at different points in the film, we can do this using a variety of different camera shots, for instance use a tilted shot when we want the audience to dislike him, and use straight/steady shots when we want them to like him.