Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of the film.



Our film title is shown at the end of the opening sequence. It was produced by using an image from http://www.google.com/ and editing it on Photo shop. The contrast and brightness was edited to make the title look more effective and how I imagined it to be.

The title 'Stage Girls' resembles the fact that there is a stalker who follows girls who perform on stage. This sort of title may not be common in psychological thrillers in, for example, 'Silence of the Lambs'. However, my film is all about mystery, and because the title doesn't give away that the film is a psychological thriller, the audience would be pleasantly surprised and feel hooked to watch the rest of the film, after watching our opening sequence.

Setting/Location.



My location shot is outside the theatre and then inside the theatre. This links to the title of 'Stage Girls' I shot the theatre as empty, to show that there will be an element of mystery and mind games within the film, and this is reflected in the shot of the empty stage. The film 'Taken' has an element of mystery and comes under the thriller genre, this uses empty location shots. Our shots, obviously are much more simple than the shots in massive movies like 'Taken' but I still feel it gives a great effect and feeling.

Costumes and props.

Every film has costumes and props, and this is a typical media convention. In my film you can see the stage girl dressed in an evening gown, this is the costume. She is playing the piano, the piano is the prop. Like may films in the thriller genre, we closely relied on costumes and props to make the film clear and see the characters journeys. For example, Kim from 'Taken'.

Camerawork and editing.

This frame shows the transition between Alex waking up and Shaista and I about to be kidnapped. We have used the 'layering' effect and made the two shots opaque by reducing the opacity. This gives the effect of one character thinking about the other character they have been layered onto. In this shot, Alex is waking up and thinking about where her friends have gone. We have also used a close-up shot in this where Alex wakes up, this gives a great feeling of emotion towards her, it is very dramatic.

Here is another close up, this time of the stalker sniffing the scarf that Shaista dropped. This is a 'creepy' element and we really want to make the audience feel scared of the stalker, so we used a close up to emphasise this.






Title font and style.

Our production company title 'M.A.S.C Productions' is a combination of our group members initials. When we realised it was pronounced like 'mask' we thought it would be witty to add two theatre masks to our logo. This adds the element of irony to the production title.
The title 'Stage Girls' in the mirror, has a girly element, but because the writing is in a thick black font it also gives the impression of gloom and darkness, which our film reflects.

Story and how the opening sets it up.

The opening gives a sense of mystery, the fact that someone is waking up makes would already make you ask questions such as 'what is she waking up from?'. Because the film's genre is a psychological thriller we do not want to give too much away too soon, a lot of people who have watched the film do not understand what is going on, but after watching it a second time they understand that myself and Shaista are performers who are getting stalked and have gone missing, and Alex, the girl waking up is looking for us and remembering shots from where she's seen us last. We have used a lot of layering, this is to show Alex remembering and having flashbacks of different shots. This sets up the scene for the whole film as it will be based on Alex trying to find us with lots of twist and turns.

Genre and how the Opening suggests it.

Because we have used a piano playing over most of the opening, it gives a eerie effect and gives a sense of mystery. The layering effect also gives the impression of flashbacks and mind games, hence our genre being based on mind games with it being a psychological thriller.

How characters are introduced.

Alex is first shown on screen, and she appears to be waking up lost. She has a worried expression and therefore she would be seen as a serious character.
Then there's myself, playing the piano, I would come across as a creative character as I am a performer on stage. But, as I am shown screaming with Aaron behind us this shows I am young and naive.
Shaista is introduced slightly with me, walking in the park, dropping her scarf and screaming. She also is a performer but later will also be seen as naive and unaware until being kidnapped.
Aaron is the male stalker who follows girls who perform on stage. He is introduced watching the girls, picking up Shaistas scarf and sniffing it. This shows he is psychologically unstable and will make the audience understand our genre more.

Special FX.

Our film contains lots of special effects, varying from slow motion, change in opacity, 'staggering' effect as alex regains conciousness. The opacity technique is used to show alex's memories and what she remembers from where she remembers her friends. the slow motion adds to the dram and tension of the film.