Incognito Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use/develop/challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product is representative of the common codes and conventions of the thriller genre, however we have also tried to hybridize our product with the horror genre. By looking at films and TV series' such as 'American Horror Story' and 'The Blair Witch Project' we decided to include some key horror motifs in our sequence, one of which can be seen in the POV handheld camera footage that is edited in. We took direct inspiration from 'The Blair Witch Project' in this case as it was described as being one of the films most gripping features because of the way it made the viewer feel involved in the action. Our product follows the traditional conventions of a thriller in that it has the main character in some form of danger as well as there being an ongoing chase/stalking. We decided to challenge convention in the same way that the movie 'Se7en' did in that we did not reveal the antagonist's face at first but instead using the reveal as a climax of the events on screen. Obviously ‘Se7en’ was a full length film so they had a lot longer to build up to the climax, whereas we were only making a sequence meaning if we wanted to include any interesting plotlines it had to be explored fairly quickly or at least teased at them. This technique builds suspense as well as making the villain more intimidating as people are known to fear what they cannot see/understand.

In what ways does your media product use/develop/challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A large inspiration for our title sequence’s more eerie scenes came from the movie ‘The Blair Witch Project’. This is a ‘found footage’ style horror film shot entirely in the woods, this means the only camera used was a handheld being operated by one of the actors. This is an extremely low budget technique meaning that virtually anyone can make use of it, we took advantage of this by implementing handheld camera shots into our sequence. The angle and motion of the shot makes audiences feel connected with what is happening on screen as it seems more authentic, therefore making them engage more with the suspense and tense atmosphere.

In what ways does your media product use/develop/challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Significance of font

When we began coming up with the initial ideas for ‘Incognito’ I made the title screen that can be seen on the right, however we developed the idea further and with that came a change in appearance for the title itself. We decided to take a more modern approach to the title and after researching popular thrillers we found that a lot of them had large spacing between characters and quite often had a very basic background. Looking back at the transition we made; the finished title is a lot easier to read, is more memorable/iconic and also looks a lot more professional than the original.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have two main characters in our sequence; the detective, who represents the police and enforcement of law that is commonly seen in the thriller genre and we have the killer, who is the main antagonist of the sequence and portrays a mysterious villain rather than the usual bank robber or murderer. We tried to create a sense of the supernatural and an animalistic portrayal of this villain as we felt it was more intimidating to the viewer. We achieved this by using whispering audio motifs whenever the antagonist is present which creates an eerie sense around the character. We also used POV shots from the killer's perspective that make it look as if he is stalking the detective like an animal; combining this with the heavy breathing, the whispering and the sound effects it allowed us to create an eerie and threatening antagonist. The detective is not really in the spotlight, although he does hold a significant part of the screen time  the focus is mainly on the antagonists pursuit of the detective. We tried to make him look like an off duty police officer to give the impression that he is looking for the killer on his own time, suggesting the killer has become an obsession of his, a lot like the character John Luther from the TV series 'Luther'. A lot of the time in thrillers the protagonist is a 'loose cannon' type of character and we tried to reflect this in our protagonist as well.

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

If the sequence were to become a full product I feel that it could be distributed by a variety of media institutions. It wouldn't be in a documentary or educational style which rules out institutions such as National Geographic. Because the sequence isn't nailed down entirely to one genre or theme and the lines between genres in the current generation have been blurred (even though we have labeled it as a thriller) it could be distributed by most companies ranging from Netflix to the BBC, the product wouldn't be absolute on any themes and wouldn't have anything unsuitable for viewers around the age of 12 meaning the product would have variety in who would distribute it. The most realistic form of distribution our media product would have is on social media, the product would be posted to YouTube and promoted through platforms such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

The sequence was intended to be suitable for viewers from the age of 12 upwards, this is why we rated it a 12 on the bbfc age ratings. We took age into consideration but also took current interest in specific TV shows as a major factor in the decisions we made during the production of the sequence.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

At the moment the traditional thriller e.g. 'Die Hard' isn't necessarily the most gripping or interesting thing to audiences, a lot of the most popular shows and movies today have supernatural themes or something that at least makes the viewer think e.g. 'Inception' and 'Interstellar'. The top three TV shows on IMDB at the moment are 'The Walking Dead', 'Daredevil' and 'Game of Thrones'; all shows with supernatural or fantasy based themes. When creating our thriller we didn't want to follow the basic and pretty much outdated thriller template and instead looked at the modern audience and what interests they had. This is represented in the scene where our main character confronts another version of himself. Originally we hadn't intended for there to be a supernatural theme in the sequence but after the first and second draft seemed to be building up to an anti-climax we decided to add the scene in. The whole sequence gave the impression of someone watching the protagonist so the supernatural theme fit in quite well with the already established eerie atmosphere

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

When creating the sequence we had to learn to use and understand camera work, editing and sound. Out of the three I think I am most confident with camera and editing whereas sound was more improvised but still to an acceptable standard. We filmed on a Canon G16 and I edited on Final Cut Pro X. I learnt that you don't need the best equipment to make a good product, its more about the technique and the person using the equipment that makes good products. Take the fact that we were using the built-in mic on the camera for the entire sequence, we didn't have a industry level mic but we managed to create a sequence with decent sound that still conveyed the right message through editing and improvisation. The camera we were using was amazing but wasn't exactly built for the type of filming we were doing yet we still made it look really good even if there are some shots that could be improved. I originally was editing on Premiere then I moved over to Final Cut which I had to learn how to use but ultimately I ended up having a better understanding of Final Cut than I ever did of Premiere.

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

Overall I feel I have learnt a lot from the task, I think I have developed a good understanding of camera work as well as editing while also developing my skills in teamwork. Looking back I feel I could have experimented with sound more but the final product wasn't too heavily affected by this.