'The Employer' - Final Film

'The Employer' Final Poster

After consulting our media tutor, we decided to remove the background image of the eye and curtains and enlarge the central image of Kyle. This way an audience could understand how The Employer was more central to the plot than the eye and theatre curtains.

'The Employer' - Radio Trailer

Radio Trailer

Evaluation - Question 4

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation - Question 3

3  What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The positive ways that the film developed was only possible because of the feedback from the audience. From preproduction, when we read the plot to members of the public and then answered questions about the film, we received feedback to consider such as assumed genre, whether the story line made sense etc.

Some of the audience considered the plot line to fit in the genre of crime, drama or plainly thriller. From this we decided that should adapt the film to involved more psychological conventions to ensure our film fits into the psychological thriller genre. The responses from the initial audience feedback was more focused on the violence in the film. This is a main element in the film as it is what ruins the Employers life and inspires his revenge, but I feel it is more important for the audience to focus on the message and the idea of the flashbacks rather than the violence. To tackle this issue we decided that we wouldn't only include shots of physical violence in the flashbacks, but of the setting in which it happened too. This was so that the audience would understand that, although, the violence is a huge indicator in the plot, the we did want them to focus on the meaning behind it and the irony of the setting that it occurred in.

When we decided to film, we kept in mind the non-linear narrative. We had to consider the audience and eliminate any possibilities of the audience becoming easily confused, especially by the flashbacks. Because of this we focused on making the flashbacks as obvious as possible. 
When filming the flashbacks, we wanted to make sure that you could tell that the beating was happening for no reason. It was a mugging and was committed with a purpose and there was a clear motive. When we filmed the scene when Kyle takes the Employer's money, we wanted to make the money the central focus. To do this we make sure that the money being physically taken from the wallet wasn't obstructed in any way so that the motive behind Kyle's attack was clear as this is what would eventually lead to the Employer's revenge plot.
We also had to consider the shots in the confrontation scene. Because the monologue was possibly the most important part of the film itself as it tied up the lose ends of the plot, I believe it was necessary that we use simple shots in the conversation scene. These are shots like shot-reverse-shot, over-the-shoulder-shot and establishing shot. This would mean that because the conversation scene is so simply shot and easy to follow, the important dialog would be easier to follow as the audience's concentration wouldn't be thrown off by any confusing shots.

Once all of the shots were filmed, we created a rough cut of the film to show to audiences and receive some feedback to be considered for the final cut. Responses varied and a main concern was that it was never apparent how Kyle received the box that was so important in the first place. This was something that confused the audience in the feedback and I feel that this scene is particularly important to the narrative. Because of this, in the final film we decided to completely re-shoot the first house scene and have it completely clear that Kyle receives the box and is told to go to another address. 
We also had a lot of respondents claim that they didn't truly understand why Kyle went to the houses in the first place. 

Before the rough cut was actually completed, we did have some class mates view the pre-rough cut. They also claimed that they didn't completely understand why Kyle was going to the houses. This was when we decided to film the scene where Kyle found the note in his pocket. I believe that this is the scene that would establish why Kyle was to go about to different addresses. 

After the rough cut finished, there was still some confusion over the films narrative. After looking further into the audience feedback, I found that a lot of the respondents didn't understand the plot again.

When we edited the very final cut of the film, we decided that instead of having to re-shoot the scene in which Kyle finds the note and have the contents of the note shown to the audience, we would record a voice over of the contents of the letter. I think that this was the element that clarified the beginning of Kyle's journey of why he travels to the houses. The voice over was also used as a sound bridge from one shot to another. I believe that adding the voice over gave the Employer an omnipotent tone, which showed him as powerful and, again, aided the way his character was viewed and went with the atmosphere we wanted to create. 

The responses to the final film were particularly positive. Respondents claimed that they understood the film a lot more now as most of them had actually seen the rough cut so had a clear comparison between the two films, therefore could comment on our development. Although, most of the respondents thought that the film was a psychological drama instead of our intended genre of a psychological thriller. This is something that I feel we would have helped by putting a lot more into the iconography of a thriller, but overall I feel that creating a dramatic effect is still effective. I don't feel that we lost the audience's grip and attention in anyway by this because the respondents still understood the message that we were trying to put across. The respondents still found the message of revenge and people changing that we were trying to portray and personally I feel that this is an achievement.

There are various interpretations of our film, especially when it comes to the final scene. It is down to the discretion of the viewer as to whether they find it appropriate that the Employer killed Kyle or not. We did receive some vast views but overall this is the kind of thing that we wanted to achieve. I think its extremely effective to allow an audience to consider things like morals and human nature, this is something that I consider goes hand in hand with a psychological thriller. This is because it considers elements of the human mind such as deep rooted revenge and allows the audience to consider what they would do in that situation or whether they accept Kyle's death.

Overall, I believe that it is down to the discretion and morals of the audience as to whether they agree with the message that we were putting forward in our film.

Evaulation - Question 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 4

Q4  How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

-RESEARCH/PLANNING

Blogger was an essential tool when researching for our films production. We were able to create our own media page on Blogger in which Blogger acted as a medium we could all collectively share ideas through and monitor each others work.  From researching and constructing our own story lines to posting our final film, Blogger did not only have the tools that allowed us to write analytical essays, but and the function to post images through. I feel it was the way Blogger acted as an online storage file for all our work that made the process of making our film a lot more successful than if we were not using it. 

Celtx was fundamental when creating our own individual storyline, free downloaded from the internets allows a professional document to be created with set action segments, and shots all provided to help illustrate the kind of environment we wish our script and film to be created in. This was very helpful for our research to be put into action. 

Facebook serving as the most popular social networking site was also helpful when researching and distributing material for our film. We created multiple online questionnaires mainly concerning the storyline of our film in which we were able to post on our individual facebook profiles for our friends to fill out. This proved to be very successful as the feedback we received helped us improve the storyline drastically. 

IMDb proved to be, in my opinion the most effective tool when researching different films. The multimillion film database covers a wide range of films from different genres. This allowed us to view recent and older psychological horror films and use similar cinematographic within our own film.  

YouTube played a similar role to IMDb when researching psychological horror movies for our film. The significant difference between YouTube and IMDb was the films on YouTube were a mixture of professional and unprofessional. This allowed us to observe the differences between conglomerate media productions compared to low budgeted student films.

-PRODUCTION

We used Adobe Photoshop for our subsidiary media production: our poster advertising our film. Photoshop gave us the ability to take the photo we had taken on our professional camera (rented from the media department) and edit into an industry standard poster that would describe a synopsis of our film. The additional effects Photoshop allowed us to create included the black fading around the central image of Kyle, as well as the the 5 star review icons.

This voice recorder was the piece of equipment we recorded our second subsidiary media product on. The radio trailer was clear and easy to hear due to the recording of me and Kyle recorded without any harsh sounding tones in our voice and usual flaws founds in camera phones such as wind and 'bumps' in speech. These were easily removed in editing and when the device did pick them up it removed them from the original audio file.  

When filming in multiple different places, we all carried round our mobile cell phone in order to take visual evidence of the production completed in that day. We chose specifically not to rent out more professional cameras due to the photo having less importance than the poster. Additionally mobile phones are easier to  manoeuvre that large cameras. They were also almost always at hand due to needing them for purposes outside of filming. I used my phone (Samsung Galaxy s2) on shoots in which I was excluded in terms of acting. In shoots in which I was acting (the majority) Annie used her phone. (Samsung Galaxy S3). Both phones provided us with clear photographs. 

The Sony HD 2000 Camera Corder was the technology in which we created our final media production. The HD quality footage it provided us with allowed us to create a high quality film with additional audio collected through the inbuilt microphone. 

Final Cut was the video editing software we edited our finish film through. I felt happy that barnsley college's media department had funded us with the latest equipment in terms of editing footage. The use of cutting and fading and split clipping with many additional extra features allowed us to create an industry standard film we could all be proud of. 

When we created online questionnaires for audience feed back of our story lines and final films, we collected the data and analysed it the Microsoft Excel. I found Microsoft Excel useful as it allowed us to have a visual representation of the data in the form of graphs, columns and pie charts. This collectively highlighted potential flaws within our story line/film and so we could create alternative shots in order to correct the situation. 

EVALUATION-

When evaluating my third question, I felt that Microsoft Powerpoint would be an appropriate programme to present on. After I had completed my evaluation, I had to share it on blogger, I did this through SlideShare. SlideShare is an online programme in which users can upload their presentations for other people to see and use. SlideShare comes with a embedded code system, in which I could insert into blogger. 

When evaluating my second question, I felt that Prezi would be an appropriate programme to present on. After I had completed my evaluation, I had to share it on blogger, I did this through Prezi. Prezi is an online programme in which users can upload their advanced presentations for other people to see and use. Prezi also comes with a embedded code system, in which I could insert into blogger. Additional features such as tracking and motion is also included within Prezi. 

After our films completion, we, as a group created a facebook page dedicated to our film. This facebook page was called 'The Employer'. On this page we kept fans updated with out latest trailers and posters and radio trailers in the hope that the page would work similarly to the ones used within the industry. 

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation - Question 1

1. In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product this year, stuck typically to the themes and conventions expected of a psychological thriller, except for the ending. The film ends with the character that has had the main focus of the audience through out being killed. We chose to end the film in such a way as it would add as an unexpected twist that might captivate the audience. 


In regards to a technical level, we were careful that we wouldn't break any conventions of film and editing. This was evident in the final confrontation scene and also in the first door to door scene. 

180 Degree Rule from Sin City

In the confrontation scene, we made sure to try and keep the 180 degree rule as we wouldn't want to confuse the audience by having fragmented directions in conversations. To break the 180 degree rule would work in shots where this fragmented and jolted view would work such as in a fight scene but to ensure this scene portrayed everything it should for our genre, we made sure we considered the rule. 

We also wanted to attempt to do some high angle/low angle shots. This proved particularly difficult because there was around an entire foot in height difference between the actors playing Kyle and the Employer. We couldn't get the right levels in height for the shot to look right and create correct over the shoulder shots. Because of this, we reviewed the the content of the scene to see whether it was needed and we decided against it. I think that the dialog in the scene is obvious to who is in power. Also, I believe that in regards to Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites, the overall difference in physical appearance between the characters is enough to show the audience who is in power.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 Shot/Reverse Shot

We also made sure that 'shot/reverse shot' was also involved in the confrontation scene as we wanted to ensure that each character was shown so that the conversation would be clearer to the audience as the monologue spoken by one of our character would give the audience clarity on the link between the two characters. 
Along with the 'shot-reverse-shot', another element to consider was an establishing shot. This was to ensure that the scene and setting was clearly established to the audience, again, so the location of the characters were well established so that the important monologue made sense. This was also present in the scene when Kyle first receives the box. We wanted to ensure the conversation was seen from both sides. The establishing shot showing the box and the envelope was also necessary to ensure that the audience was aware of the props as they play important roles in the narrative.

When editing the title sequence, we felt it particularly important to establish the difference between the two main characters. To do this we filmed shots of the character of Kyle firstly, that involved him in a natural environment to show how this character is vulnerable and down to his bare essentials. After these shots were filmed we then filmed shots of the Employer that almost mirrored the shots of Kyle, again, like Strauss' theory of Binary Opposites. To do this we had to edit together clips to ensure that they were shown doing similar things but in extremely opposite environments. 

At first we struggled to try and portray their similarities because of the vast difference in environment but over time, our message about the characters became particularly apparent when we edited 2 panning shots together and added a cross dissolve. This edit meant that the two characters were 'merged' together foreboding their connection, even though their characters are completely opposite. 

This was aided with a typical language of film, the score. We had it created with a constant rhythm and underlying instruments such as the violin to come in surprisingly at points to foreshadow events to come that might surprise an audience. This fit the film in with the genre of a psychological thriller as hinting and suggesting things to an audience creates ideas in their head that leads them to connotations and creating their own ideas, much like many other psychological thrillers.

Shutter Island close up shots

We also used extreme close ups and medium close ups in shots that we felt that the characters facial features portrayed more  emotion and the plot than any other body language could have. It also creates a sense of intimacy between the characters and the audience. This generically can cause a connection with the audience and the characters or plot. In the circumstances of the flashbacks, this was our intention. We wanted to show that Kyle was repressing these memories and they were leaving him in a state of mental conflict. We used closeups on the Employer to show the audience that even though he is making these serious threats, he is still smiling. To have close ups to see his mouth and eyes in particular are clear indicators of people's emotions, so, showing that the Employer is still smiling even though he's making serious threats portrays him as powerful, revenge-ridden and ruthless, which is the way we wanted him to come across.

Shots from our flashbacks

Our film is actually a sub-genre of the largely done genre, thriller. We chose to make a psychological thriller as we made a psychological horror film as our first media text, so we were already used to conventions that would aid this sub-genre. 

Initially, our film was going to be a psychological drama but we felt that the events that occurred made the film a lot more thrilling, particularly when Kyle interacts with the characters that give him the envelopes and when the violent flashbacks are shown, a definite convention of a psychologically based sub-genre film. We definitely reserved conventions of a product that is psychological. 

This was achieved by flashbacks being triggered. The flashbacks are mixtures of a violent event that the protagonist is repressing. Showing Kyle having flashbacks evidences his fragmented mentality and presents the idea to the audience that he has been/or is quite unstable and is typical of a psychological sub-genre film. Doing so ensured that Kyle was to be observed carefully through-out the film as flashbacks become more frequent through out. Although, the flashbacks are not in chronological order so they act almost as metaphorical jigsaw pieces that the audience have to piece together to piece together the plot and the secrets hidden through out the film. 

On the other hand, in a way, I feel that our film does actually go against some conventions at the end of the film. According to Tordorov, narrative, even in a thriller film, usually expects some sort of balanced equilibrium, which our film has when Kyle and the Employer are shown just going about their lives, then in the middle when Kyle comes into some problems such as running around attempting to deliver a box that no one will open or tell him why. Yet, according to this theory towards the end, the equilibrium is meant to be rebalanced or at least at a new more equal level. You would expect Kyle to confront the Employer, give him the box and be on his way getting on with his life, but instead he is killed for beating the Employer close to death. Upon first look, this is a unbalanced equilibrium as the protagonist you expect to survive and triumph, is revealed to less innocent than we perceived. I believe that it is down to the discretion of the audience as to whether they feel that the Employer getting revenge on Kyle and killing him. 
The film ends straight after Kyle is killed and doesn't give much time for reflection in other narrative, so the film follows the convention of letting the audience consider the plot even after the film is over. It is down to the opinion of the audience and leaves them to consider their own way of thinking as to whether they feel the Employer's vengeful actions were necessary or not. I believe our film's ending does and doesn't stick to conventions as the murder and truth reveal of our protagonist are completely not expected by an audience and therefore add the element of surprise setting it aside from the conventional. On the other hand, it may as a typical convention of a psychological thriller is to leave an ambiguous ending so the audience can relish on the ending and come to their own conclusion, which our film does. 

Our shadow from our final scene

Shadows created in film noir

We used the element of a shadow in the end of our film, much like a film noir. I felt that it was important that we included this as I feel that a silhouette is quite provocative to an audience. It insinuates events to an audience. This is particularly used in film noir where events are insinuated by shadows as another effective way to show events. 
The effect of shadows in thriller films can be disturbing and eerie, even though shadows are everywhere with everyone and everything, more or less all of the time. Shadows can have connotations of mental illness or even demonic forces, but in our film we used them symbolically. We used them in the final scene to insinuate to the audience the power of the Employer by casting a large shadow on the wall that would seem to overpower Kyle. Because of the struggle with high and low angle shots, I felt that this would be more effective and a lot more intricate for the audience to consider and study. 

I, personally, pushed this ending forward deliberately to try and get the audience to consider their own morals. This was to get them to consider whether killing another person for personal gain and revenge would be understandable to you or whether you are completely against it. It makes you sit and review the way you think and actually has a long lasting effect on an audience which is conventionally done and is one of the most effective elements of a film that focuses on the psychological side to the human mind. 

We looked at this short Closed Doors (see right) once we had finalised our final plot line. We took inspiration from elements of this film such as the flashbacks and the idea that everything isn't as simple as you see on the surface. 

As flashbacks are something quite conventional of a psychological thriller, we decided to take inspiration from the ones in this short.
We liked the idea that the flashbacks mirrored present events. For example the shot shown to the left. These shots mirror one another. The first being what is happening in the present and the second a flashback.

We also liked the idea of having extreme close ups in our film as it clearly showed the emotion that the characters are feeling. In psychological films, emotions tend to be shown through body language as opposed to dialog. It can be left for the audience to try and read physical signs and engage them. So we decided that we wanted to use this attribution in our film to achieve this effect.

These are particularly effective to the audience as it gives them small hints and clues about the character and allows them to try and feel involved with the plot and piece the narrative together.
This adds something different, as it almost directly invites the audience in with ways to become emerged in the plot, which is something I wanted to achieve.