Evaluation Question-7

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

The camera angles and movements within our preliminary task are basic and boring, due to our undeveloped skill set when it came to filming. Throughout the production of our prelim and our final media product, we have all developed our filming skills and are all able to shoot a variety of professional looking shots. My role in the preliminary task was to act within the video and to edit the video together.  Preproduction had a massively positive effect on our video as it allowed everyone in the group to be clear on what was happening and when it also allowed us to have a clear plan to take when beginning to film. The video could have been improved massively by the addition of some key shots we missed out on such as a shot of an actor in a chair, a hand on a door handle being pulled open as well as a shot reverse shot of two sides of the door. We were unable to add this into the video because the camera we were using was wiped accidentally after a filming session. The addition of more fitting sound effects would have also improved the prelim task as the loud bang sound repeatedly put in the video to add suspense had to be modified when taken into iMovie to adjust its pitch to fit in with the level of fear portrait in the shot, this was not carried out with the level of skill that we would be able to achieve now. The editing within our preliminary task is extremely basic, the transitions mainly consist of cuts with the addition of very obvious fades and dissolves which should be edited into the shots in a way that makes it subtle and not noticeable. This again relates to the lack of editing experience and skill when producing our preliminary task. There is no credits or text of any form within the preliminary task, this shows that we missed the opportunity to try out the range of editing options on offer. The shot showing a leaf falling from a tree has been slowed using iMovie, this is a shaky and unrealistically edited shot, however. This could have been perfected by adjusting the speed of the shot with an advanced editor (which we used in our final media product to give it a professional feel). In addition, all of the shots could have been stabilised when in the editing stage to give the final product a precise and professional look. Finally, the sound effects and soundtrack are badly planned as they do not work well with the genre and setting. 

The overall tone of our final media product is of much higher quality when compared to our preliminary task and is far more professional. This is due to a combination of a more developed skill set in relation to editing and filming as well as a more developed idea of sound and how it relates to the product. The soundtrack we chose to use in our media product is unsettling, a typical convention of any thriller soundtrack. In addition, the sound effects used to add to the build up of tension created throughout the two-minute opening. Whereas when comparing this to our preliminary task the soundtrack and sound effects did not create the level of tension and suspense we needed it to, also the soundtrack was unrelated and did not work well with the video as a whole. I filmed shots in the media product consisting of the flashback scenes and the shots of Lucy with the crime board. These shots were some of the most effective as they held meaning. The split-second flashbacks are important as it is the first insight the audience receives about the events that will occur within the film and are also introduced to the film's non-chronological order. Comparing the establishing shots used in both our preliminary task and our final media product, there is a key difference in the speed and accuracy of the pans used. In our preliminary task, the pan is shaky and long. Comparing this to the establishing pans used in our final media product, where the pans are stabilised and focussed. This difference is due to a more civilised and developed editing skill set I have developed over the duration of the production process of both of these productions. We learnt to allot from the production of our preliminary task, we made sure to include a variety of shots within our final media product as we had left out vital shots previously, this let down the overall look of our preliminary task due it looking unappealing and unprofessional. Looking at the typical conventions of the thriller genre we stuck closely to these within the preliminary task as we did not understand how to developed and challenge certain conventions as we do now. Whereas in our final media product, we chose a subject that is rarely touched upon in films, mental illness. Those suffering from mental illness also often think of it themselves as a weakness. this challenged various gender stereotypes, making our sequence very unique as we wanted to cross boundaries and portray a male (who are usually less vulnerable that females) with a mental illness to make him appear more vulnerable, showing that males are just as vulnerable within the media, meaning we challenged the convention of having a typical vulnerable 'damsel in distress' the main character, as the male has to be saved from his mental illness. As a group, we decided to build upon this and use it as a foundation to our opening. Looking into the representation of stereotypes within real media products and my own I notice both similarities and differences. One common stereotype is that women are portrayed as shy, passive and submissive they are also organised and clean, whereas men are portrayed as tough, aggressive, self-confident and dominant they are also lazy and messy. We have stuck closely to this stereotype as Ellie is shown in the short flashback sequence as submissive as she is the weaker in the argument between her and Lucas, despite Lucas' mental state he is still physically stronger than his girlfriend.

Evaluation Question-6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your media product?

Camera and tripod: During the production of our media product I was able to develop camera and filming skills and used a range of settings on the camera to achieve a range of shots, angles and movements. I have also learnt how to use a tripod to effectively stabilise the shots I was taking. I filmed shots in the media product consisting of the flashback scenes and the shots of Lucy with the crime board. These shots were some of the most effective as they held meaning. The split-second flashbacks are important as it is the first insight the audience receives about the events that will occur within the film and are also introduced to the film's non-chronological order. The shots of Lucy pinning information about Lucas and his continuation on her crime board show the characters relentless determination for the truth. I was able to develop my filming skills my getting the opportunity to film multiple shots within the opening, my aim when filming was to capture the necessary shots with the appropriate variations of camera angle, focal length, and camera-to-subject distance. From developing my camera skills I learnt that taking into account the lighting and angle of the shot can affect the outcome of the final media product as when uploaded can look irregular and not flow as one. This then creates problems as the shots will become inconsistent when layered with shots from different days. To ensure this didn't happen every filming session was planned with an outline of the shots we needed to cover, how long they needed to last and a brief description of the shot. Another skill I was able to develop was the ability to use a tripod when filming, the purpose of this was to allow the shots to remain steady and consistent. Throughout the production process, I was able to learn how to attach a camera to the tripod, how the tripod moves and how it could improve the shots I was filming. This played a huge role in the production of the final media product as the camera remained steady throughout the entirety of filming giving the final product a professional and appealing finish.

iMovie: I have previously used iMovie before beginning the production of this media product so knew some basic editing skills. When editing the shots we had filmed together and realised the high level of work we wanted to produce as a group it became evident to me I was going to have to research higher level editing skills to allow our media product to stand out and look as professional as possible. I learnt many new skills during the production process such as title duplication, which allowed me to effortlessly duplicate text, whereas previously I would spend time creating new text and trying to make it match the previous text. I found that highlighting the clip that had the original title and clicking on the "clip" button on the menu and selecting "duplicate last title" option allowed me to duplicate text easily. When it came to the editing of the voice over, I was given the opportunity when using iMovie to add an individual touch to the product without distorting the original content. I was able to easily download the voice over Mp3, adjust the length of the audio as well as its volume to my desired level. In addition, when editing the visual effects within the media product I found a tool on iMovie extremely helpful that I had not used before, 'one-click visual effects' which I used to improve the quality of all of the shots within the product. I was also able to use this skill to speed up, slow down and fade videos among many visual effects available, I used this to speed up the flashback shots to increase suspense with the audio effect of the heartbeat lasting the same amount of time as each shot. I also faded together certain shots to allow the transition to be controlled and flow easily. I also slowed down certain shots that were too short or that had a credit overlay to allow the credit to remain clear and give the audience time to read them. One of the most effective editing skills I have learnt to use during the production process of our media product is how to stabilise shaky videos. This was achieved by ticking the 'stabilise shot' box on every video on the iMovie timeline, this gave the final product a professional and high-quality finish. When it came to transition editing I was able to browse a range of transitions and was also able to get the chance to edit them appropriately. There are pre-made as well as customised transitions available. The majority of the transitions in our opening cuts to give a quick fast paced tension filled effect, the subtle use of other transitions was customised to allow them to give the opening a unique feel that was in keeping with the effect the cut transitions gave. Finally, I learnt a great deal about the audio effect and advanced audio management, I was able to use the advanced audio management to change to tone of the voice over, sound effects and soundtrack of the opening. Using these advanced settings I was able to remove the background noise of the voiceover, to create a clear and easily understood voiceover by removing the rustling in the background that distracted away from the characters speech. 

YouTube: When it came to uploading our final media product onto the media platform YouTube, I learnt to allot about the media platform itself and how to physically upload a file. During the process, the platform made me aware of the privacy settings of my account and the videos on my channel. Our product had to be previously saved into the theatre on iMovie to allow the file to be uploaded onto the YouTube platform. As the video uploaded I was given the opportunity to edit both the basic information and the advanced settings of the video and decide if I wanted to notify subscribers. I firstly named the product so people were able to search for the product, the title was clear and easy to search for. To add to this, I chose the thumbnail for the video which shows Lucas looking down at Ellie's grave. I used this image as the thumbnail as in my opinion it is one of the most effective shots of the media product and reflects allot about the film's plot and genre. Using video manager and the advanced settings I was able to ensure that the product was centred on the screen when being viewed to ensure to focus pull was the video itself. I was also able to write a short sentence in the description box of the video stating it was for educational purposes only. When uploading our final media product I learnt allot about the media platform YouTuube and how to upload files onto it.

Evaluation Question-5

How does your media product attract and address your audience?

The soundtrack we chose to use in our media product is unsettling, a typical convention of any thriller soundtrack. In addition, the sound effects used to add to the build up of tension created throughout the two-minute opening. From the research conducted throughout the creation of our media product, we found that our target audience looks for a soundtrack in keeping with the tone of the film itself. We also looked into other surveys conducted by other people regarding the music industry activities of our chosen demographic. A Voxburner’s survey of 913 16-24-year-old Brits provides some more figures on the familiar trend of YouTube as the music consumption platform for this demographic group. The survey found that 83% of 16-24-year-olds use YouTube to simply listen to music (as opposed to watching videos). Apple’s iTunes and traditional radio were both cited by 56% of respondents as a way they listen to music, with 48% saying Spotify, 32% saying TV and 25% saying Soundcloud. A separate question on how the demographic discover new music found 63% citing radio, 56% streaming services, 49% Facebook, 42% “websites”, 27% Twitter and 25% Soundcloud. Meanwhile, 16% of 16-24 year-olds in the UK buy music at least once a week according to Voxburner’s study, while 65% stream it at least once a week (and 31% every day). From this, we realised that by releasing our soundtrack onto YouTube, Spotify and Soundcloud separately after the film had been released, using cross-media convergence we could create synergy between the music and film industry. The genre of music used for our media product is a variation of instrumental, melody and techno. This genre of the soundtrack has worked successfully in other films such as Avatar where the melody is quiet in some areas to fit well with the calm actions within the film (similar to the opening of our media product) and the techno increases tension in the action filled sections within the film. The instrumental infusion within the soundtrack has also worked well with films such as 'If I Stay' a film that was extremely popular with our target audience of 16-24-year-olds and that successfully created synergy as the sales of the motion picture soundtrack was individually successful as well.

The advertisement techniques we used for our media product were chosen to best suit our target demographic of 16-24-year-olds. We found that the best form of advertisement was through social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. All frequently used by our target group, this is the most effective form of advertising due to the international and mass scale audience it will reach. This form of advertisement is also cheaper than bus stop ads and billboard etc. Mass audiences are able to like subscribe and comment on videos, images and other related posts such as upcoming events related to the film and its release. In addition, another favourable method of advertising to 16-24-year-olds would be a trailer. This is used to encourage our target to watch the film once it is released. This would appeal to our target audience because the trailer can be uploaded to a range of social media's in which it can be shared with an even wider audience. The setting and location of the film address' our audience also, this is due to the 'younger generation' feel to the different locations within the film. We chose locations such as this as the film setting to firstly address our audience directly and secondly to keep the settings realistic for the ages of our characters. The graveyard location for the opening sequence of our film is an obscure location to choose in relation to such young character and target audience as graveyards are associated with the older generation. We broke this stereotype to show the progression of the main characters, the film is set in non-chronological order (something that had been received well on the questionnaire from our target demographic) because of this the beginning of the film shows one of the last scenes the film shows the audience, the end of the film will reveal why Lucas is visiting the graveyard and who's grave he is standing over. The location of the opening shows the journey in which the characters have embarked on from a happy relationship through to a completely dysfunctional and ultimately destructive and damaging one. The advising methods we used for our opening are shown bellow on some of our twitter pages and some other advertising forms if our film were to actually be related to the public such as the trailer and someone sharing the trailer with their friends on Facebook as our demographic would.

Finally, we attract our target demographic by using a combination of relatable and aspirational characters within our media product. Lucy's character could be identified by the audience as a goal, The character has a highly paid job (detective) and is depicted as strong and doing what is right. The audience will immediately identify with her as she is the character on the side of the law as compared to Lucas who is a criminal and unstable. We are shown the status of Lucy through the use of mise-en-scene the props used by her such as the crime board show that she is investigating a crime and doing what is right, she is also wearing a diamond ring on her right hand which again shows her status over Lucas and Ellie as throughout the film they are depicted as looking very mundane and ordinary. The costume and makeup of Lucy also shows authority and a higher status, when compared to other characters as (although the makeup of Lucy does not show in the two minute opening it would be shown as sophisticated through the film's duration) the costume worn by Lucy, shows as discusses authority and high status, the top she is shown wearing is a 'royal blue' this represents power. Her hair is down and straight showing that she has taken time and effort when it comes to how she looks and comes across to the general public (as her job is directly involved with the public and her image is important). A niche audience within the target demographic will identify with Lucas, anyone suffering from a mental illness, family members of those people and anyone who wants to further educate themselves on the subject will identify with the character. The costume of this character also addresses the audience as he is depicted wearing casual and mundane clothing which the age group of 16-24 can relate to, also the makeup worn by Lucas in the later shots of him (also in flashbacks) shows that he is tired and struggling to maintain himself, dark coloured makeup was applied under his eyes to achieve this look. A large portion of people within the target demographic will identify with Ellie, mainly females as she is shown to be venerable and in an abusive relationship that is damaging to both parties. Some members of the audience may be able to relate to this as it touches upon domestic abuse which is a topic that links to mental illness, the younger generation including 16-24-year-olds should be educated and learn to speak openly of issues such as these. These topics were included in our film in efforts to aid this. The costume and makeup is worn by this character also address our target demographic as the costume worn by Ellie shows a recent fashion sense which 16-24 year olds will relate too as well as the makeup worn also keeping to recent trends this year.

One favoured theme within the film is a woman who suffers from abuse inflicted by a male partner, while she prevails over her abused state and does not let this misfortune destroy her life, but rather lets it uplift her, resulting in more independence. One may watch films like enough (2002) or Sleep with the Enemy (1991) and consider the lead female characters as heroic and independent women who do not allow their abusive partners to hinder them in life any longer. Our media product, however, does not keep to this theme, our female lead sir comes to her male counterpart in the struggle of fighting his mental illness Ellie's character is killed by her own boyfriend, the film's duration explores the events that led up to this moment in non-chronological order. Lucas' character is similar to Trevor who suffers from an extreme case of insomnia in the film 'The Machinist'. The illness plagues his life and causes his mind to operate poorly in an altered state. Trevor’s insomnia causes a number of problems for him. This links to Lucas' character whose mind also causes problems for him as well as the people who are close to him. Lucy's character links closely to that of Stella Gibson in 'The Fall' A London Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent who arrives in Belfast to conduct a 28-day review into a murder case that had no suspects and is going nowhere. Gibson sets out with total determination and begins to unravel the mystery thanks to her driven, even obsessive nature. This obsessive nature is very similar to that f Lucy's character as she dedicates herself to find young Ellie's killer.

Final media product

This is our final media product released to the public via the media platform YouTube. This is in hopes to reach are target demographic of 16-24 year olds who are well known for using social medias such as YouTube. The opening will also be released onto other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, in hopes to reach the demographic in range of ways.

Evaluation Question-4

What audience would your media product appeal to and why?

The target audience for our media product is 16-24-year-olds. Mental illness affects people of all different ages, however after conducting research into this we found that this age group is least educated when it comes to mental illness awareness, as a group, we aimed to use this topic to show the younger generation how important it is to talk about mental illness. The interests of our target audience when it comes to films are listed in the mind map bellow:

Here is the survey created for our audience research, we conducted the research ourselves and drew conclusions from the collated results. From the research conducted the results show that most our target audience would genuinely enjoy or be interested in a film with the theme of mental illness within it, as 100% of our respondents said so. Just over half of our respondents said that they are often interested in the soundtrack of a successful thriller film, meaning the soundtrack of our film is crucial for our target audience. 90% of our respondents watched thrillers, or films in general - on online websites such as Netflix as opposed to purchasing the DVD, showing a clear form of globalisation  13 of the respondents also said they find non-chronological films more "interesting" and "engaging" as only 2 of the respondents said they are sometimes "hard to follow/keep up on". Now looking to our final product I can confidently say that the product we have created still fits nicely with our original target audience of 16-24-year-olds. 

The main reason for this would be the age of the two main characters being within the range of 16-24 themselves. Linking back to the mind map above, our final product is in keeping with the interests of our target audience as the opening is powerful and condemned and keeps the audience full attention, the character are unique and interesting and the whole plot of the film is one that 16-24 year old may be able to relate to as many young people are becoming educated and more familiar with issues regarding mental illness. To further this target audience we could have made some small adjustments to our media product such as a fast-paced soundtrack to increase tension within the audience, however we decided as a group that although the main goal for us was to appeal to our target audience we did not want to give too much of the plot or suspense build up away within the first two minutes of the film so decided to leave the opening very calm and tranquil and as the film continues the tension will again build up and leave the audience waiting until they get the answers to their questions brought about by the opening sequence. Comparing this to a real media product such as the recent film Split, a similarity between the two would be the target audiences. With both films being aimed at the same target group of around 16-24-year-olds as older viewers may not find the distressing scenes as interesting and ultimately enjoyable as the younger portion of society. 

Evaluation Question-3

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

Universal Studios and Lionsgate Entertainment are the best media institutions suited to distribute our media product. We have decided to use these film distributors because they are well known internationally and have worked on many successful thrillers such as Unfriended, The Purge and Lucy. With Universal being one of 'The Big 4' dominating the music and film industries alongside EMI, Warner Bros and Sony it will allow our media product to be well advertised and recognised across many countries. It will also allow our media product to have the larger budget, massively affecting its distribution across not just the film industry but perhaps others. Using cross media convergence the soundtrack of our film could be related to the music industry to increase the profit of the film itself. Universal is also associated with the distribution of many successful thriller films such as The Fast and the Furious, Jaws, The Mummy and Van Helsing. The Prezi bellow shows a wider range of thrillers distributed by both Universal Studios and Lionsgate Entertainment.

https://prezi.com/gncthvxl3n5v/institutional/

Looking closely at thriller films similar to our own final media product, I can see that the Butterfly Effects opening titles has similar sound effects to how our own opening. As the title appears with a brain scan with a butterfly floating within the title of the film appears with the sound effect of butterfly wing. This is very similar to our own opening, as the screen fades from black to the first establishing shot the sound effect of birds can be heard. Both of these sound effects are relevant to the introduction of the film as they fade in with the next shot or title allowing a smooth and unique transition from shot to shot.

The overall finish of our final media product is very similar to that of the film 'Still Alice' a glossy high level finish, the film touches upon the topic of the early onset of Alzheimers. The finish of Still Alice is of a high quality and is similar to our final product in many ways, the overall tone of the shots is paler than the original shot would have appeared. This is in my opinion to represent the fading of Alice's character as the disease takes hold throughout the duration of the film as the last shot fades to complete white. When editing our product we decided to edit some of the shots in this way to show how Lucas is overtaken by his mental condition.

When looking into films with similar titles to our own I firstly looked to where we had taken inspiration, two films I had looked into when deciding on the title of our film was Split and Gone Girl. We used a combination of both of these fonts as inspiration as throughout the opening the credits are in simple and easy to read font which is very similar to that of Gone Girl opening sequence and title. Then taking inspiration from split with the title dividing itself up as it fades to a black screen. This works well with the eerie sound effect that fades out to end the two minute opening, creating a unique blend of audio and visual suspense to draw the opening to an end and introduce the beginning of the film. The colour of the font throughout the opening remains white as it stands out and contests against the black background, it also allows the text to be easily read and understood before fading away. The position of the font is centred in hopes to draw attention to the font.

Evaluation Question-2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As a group, we decided to try and cover a range of social groups accurately and thoroughly. We made sure that this was carried out using the extensive research we had conducted through the preproduction process of our thriller opening. We aimed to cover the following social groups within our opening: gender, class, sexuality, mental health and age.

Gender: Females in the thriller films, are very significant because they have no overall stereotypical role in the genre, this is because in some films, they play the cold-hearted and emotionless and in others they are portrayed as the damsel in distress, who needs saving by the protagonist, which is usually the male as he is portrayed as mentally and physically stronger than females in thriller films. Our narrative subverts this particular stereotype as Lucas as the male lead is shown as weak due to his mental illness and is unable to save Ellie the female lead from his physical strength as it is later revealed in the film that he has killed her. So in a sense the narrative both subverts and adheres to this stereotype as although Lucas retains his physical strength (shown particularly in a worm's eye view shot of him looking down at Ellie's grave) his mental illness restricts his mental strength as he is unable to control himself and experiences periods of memory loss. The men in thriller film are portrayed as both the protagonists and the antagonists; The males are often portrayed as the strong hero, who saves the day by figuring out the enigma which is usually given to the audience at the start or middle of the film. They are usually mentally and physically strong and shows their strength and independence during the disequilibrium, to obtain the new equilibrium. The narrative of our thriller opening subverts this stereotype as Lucas is seen to be the opposite of this and is shown to be the antagonists which are the villain of the narrative. It is quite common for the females to be the survivor in thriller films, our narrative, however, subverts to this stereotype as Ellie is shown to be inferior in comparison to Lucas as he is able to overpower and kills her. Females are also often portrayed as very charming and glamorous and sometimes over sexualised in thriller films due to mise-en-scene such as clothing and makeup, an example of this would be the use of red clothing and makeup which could be used in the thriller to represent evil, danger and blood but when linking this colour to a female it could be used to depict her as a sex symbol. Although Ellie is not depicted in any red clothes, the makeup in which she wears could show her as a sex symbol as her features are over such as her eyelashes and lips. This also shows that she takes pride in her appearance whereas Lucas is portrayed as doing the opposite wearing very casual clothes and messy hair. We have also used nordic noir, is a genre comprising crime fiction written in Scandinavia with certain common characteristics, typically in a realistic style with a dark and morally complex mood. This closely relates to our theme and links to the mental issues experienced by Lucas also the idea that we have used a strong female detective investigating a male lead.

Class: In multiple thrillers, money and social class play a part within the story. Often money is used for the breakdown of relationships which adds to the deterioration of a victim. A lot of issues in these films are sidetracked by money as a sub-narrative which underlie the main problems of the film. In our thriller opening we have used mise-en-scene to suggest links to class and social status of the two main character Lucas and Ellie, they are both seen to be wearing normal casual clothes and the house in which they lives seems extremely normal as well, this shows they are both of either working or lower class as the opening shows no sign of expense or upper-class activities or belongings. Social class is often used in the sense that a lot of high-class people are punished, usually due to being considered stuck up or not grateful for what they have. What is perceived to be a 'perfect' life i.e. big house, marriage and children, stable job is often quickly broken down in thrillers by a turn of extreme events, which proves none of these things counts for anything when it comes down to it, and aims to change a character. Our narrative relates to this stereotype to an extent as it shows Lucas being involved in the crime which is often thought to link more to lower class citizens than those of a higher class such as the detective shown in the final portion of the opening. She is depicted in higher quality clothes and brighter colours (a 'royal' blue top) this can also be linked to how she is on the other side of the spectrum in relation to crime as she is investigating and putting things right and the lower class citizens are the ones to be convicted and that suffer the effects of the crime as Ellie is killed.

Age: A stereotype typically associated with the Thriller genre is that victims/weak characters fall to teenagers and elderly people. This is usually because they can not handle the circumstances and are vulnerable to the situation, and audiences will straight away identify this. With this in mind by casting our lead character as teenagers it immediately identifies with our target audience as they can feel the danger of the character as they are of a similar age. For example, in the opening scene of Jaws, the audience instantly feel worried for the characters due to the carefree nature of the teenagers. Using this as a small token of inspiration our opening shows a teenager in a graveyard, a location often associated with the elderly. It is odd to associate such a young person with such a dark subject such as death. Our narrative may also be said to take a dark, twisted and unique turn in relation to such as the young person being killed, this alone brings an element of shock into the storyline. Although the age or identity of the person in the grave is not revealed within the two-minute opening it will be revealed through the duration of the film, this is intended as it leaves questions to be answered which build tension within the audience a key convention of thriller openings. 

Mental health: As a group we found that mental illness was not a common topic that past media groups had used as a foundation to thriller openings, with this in mind we decided that by perusing this topic we would have to take into consideration the effects of portraying mental illness' incorrectly, to prevent this we conducted vast amounts of research to ensure an accurate interpretation of mental illness was shown. Many people still wrongly believe, for instance, that all people with schizophrenia are violent. In fact, only a very small number of all people who are mentally ill are in any way violent towards other people. We have represented mental illness within our media product by depicting one of the main characters within our film with the mental illness schizophrenia, although Lucas portrays the small portion of people with schizophrenia who are violent, the opening itself does not portray him to be violent in any way, in infant shows his compassion for his victim visiting her grave and showing remorse. However throughout the duration of the film the different sides of the character would be shown in ways that show the reality of mental illness. The amazing thing about using mental illness as a foundation to any media platform is that it allows the people behind the film such as the producers and directors to educate the audience of the film about mental illness which is rarely touched upon in films. The mood set by this topic is ambient and increases to a high tension build up throughout the opening until the final cut to the title and eerie sound effect that opens the film keeping to the key conventions of thriller openings as the climax of the tension is as the title fades and the film begins. Lucas is portrayed in a relatively straightforward fashion, wearing casual clothing in a very non-casual situation (visiting his girlfriend's grave) this relates to his mental illness as he is shown to be a regular young man and in fact is suffering in a way in silence to the other character within the film, the audience however get a unique insight into how he is feeling from the distressing voiceover cast over the calm shots contrasts in a way that is in keeping with the conventions of the thriller genre as the voice over builds suspense and gives the effect that Lucas' character may snap at any second, the audience wait for this as they can see from his body language grabbing his hands infant of his body and walking with his head down showing guilt. He never snaps during the opening, this leaves the audience waiting for this highly anticipated moment within the film.