EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1In what ways does your media product, use or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

After thorough research on original thriller movies, as a group, we had come to the conclusion that the idea of a 'thriller' was one that built tension. Despite the idea that our piece may slide towards the 'horror' genre, due to the telling of the ghost story, but we felt it built a good volume of tension; the feeling of being on the edge of your seat and shaking with anticipation to know what happens next. 

The story of this thriller opening is explained by the characters themselves. A group of drama students practicing have taken a break, in which one character takes the advantage of the creepy setting and decides to retell a ghost story. The story telling goes on to become a voice over as the opening cuts between establishing shots of the school they are in at night, and a mysterious sixth character. The genre of this opening is that of a 'thriller' with hints of 'horror, which is attempted to be made from the dark setting of the piece and the cuts between the unknown girl running, and the establishing shots.

We were caught with the question; why are there students at night? Well, the characters playing in this piece were all part of the schools drama club, who are preparing for a performance to come, resulting in late ours of practicing. The location for this meeting was important as we had to consider the mise-en-scene. Where would be in a drama room? It was very important to  create a theatrical room for this piece; even though it was very subtle, the use of an open and empty room was very useful. Drama students need room to practice! The tiny props, such as the big curtains in the back of the room and the big stage lights on the other side of the room added perfectly to the 'theatrical' feeling we were hoping for.

As a group we had created character profiles which described not only the costumes and appearance of the characters but the personality of each of them. Now, as stated before, these characters are drama students, so we had to take into account how they would dress and look over all. We felt that instead of a tightly fit school uniform, casual clothing would fit the characters much better. We wanted their clothes to be considerably light, to contrast against the darkness of the set, making them stand out and making sure the audience focus' on them when they're on screen (as seen in shot 2).

The characters here are mostly introduced through the dialogue of the piece; we can identify from the shots and the voices that there are five different characters. The actors had to portray their personalities through their tone of voice more than their facial expressions and actions due to the film opening jumping between different scenes. The use of voice overs came in very effective as the 'ghost telling' went on to be said despite the scenes shifting between the drama club and a sixth, mysterious character.

Characters:Six students; specifically part of the schools drama club - 2 boys and 3 girls (not certain).

Character 1 (boy): Telling the ghost story of the mute girl. Should be confident and mysterious while narrating and slightly mischievous, as he is eager to scare the other characters.

Character 2 (boy): Listens rather tentatively, however shows no initial reaction to the story and keeps his emotions and thoughts in check. Doesn't want to show any fear due to pride, and since

he is the leader of the group.Character 3 (girl): Gives her full attention and seems rather eager for the story, however she

isn't very affected due to her strong personality and teases the scared girls next to her.Character 4 (girl): Her fear shows evidently on her face as she clings to character five

continuously. She tends to eye the room around her at times to make sure 'nothing' is there.Character 5 (girl): Attempts in hiding the fact she is scared out of her wit due to character 4 constantly depending on her, however when character six walks in the room, she is the most

frightened and reacts the loudest out of all of them. Character 6 (girl): Isn't in the room with the other five characters in the beginning, but is the one running down the hall, however you only hear her deep breath and smacking shoes as she

runs down the hallway; suggest fear of the dark and the 'unknown'.

This unknown character is immediately introduced after the opening line "Have you guys heard of the ghost that haunts our school?" Once the ghost telling goes on, the audience should feel a sense of ambiguity, as they are confused as to whether this 'girl' running is actually the ghost that haunts their school or if it's another student? This is uncertainty built inside the audience can cause immediate tension. Tension which is need to make a 'good' thriller. This girl is running, from someone? Something? The audience never knows, and the fact that this girls face is never revealed adds more tension. The use of decreasing focus on the screen is made deliberate in order to give this sixth character a mysterious yet fearful feeling, adding tension to the thriller convection. The audience is constantly left on the edge of their seats, filled with fear or anticipating as to who this character is, and what she's doing. A contrast between this mysterious girl and the 'ghost' is made clear, as the description given on the ghost is not portrayed through the girl running, however the fact this girl is never heard speaking could also pull the audience back in to wander if it is a flashback? Or another scene happening at the same time? This confusing tension was made deliberate to create a mysterious yet anticipating feeling within the audience; necessary for a thriller.

The camera work were very essential aspects to creating the omniscient and eerie feeling of the piece as a whole. As seen in shot four, we had taken a 'point of view' shot of this unknown girl running, with a hand held camera, we had run down the hall, in attempt to express the fear and confusion of the girl running. The us of a 'point of view' shot almost makes the audience take on the role and feel immersed in the scene. There are no shots taken behind the girl running, which suggests that the girl running, as well as the audience doesn't know exactly what they are running from. Thus creating a fearful tension, felt in many horror movies, which links to our genre of 'horror'.

The tension continues to build through the tracking shots taken of the girls feet as they run, these shots were taken with the stools and tables in front, so the camera only caught her feet between the seats as she ran. The unfocused shots taken here were used to suggest the rattling emotions felt between the girl running, contrasted against the drama club members. Where we have the girl running away in fear and the members anticipating the fear that is to come with the telling of this ghost story. These contrasting and shattering feelings are projected into the audience as a way to build tension into the two scenes.

With the opening reaching the climax of the tension, notice how the last time we see the girl running is when she finally turns back to 'look’. The use of lighting in this scene is contrasted between the light blaring behind the door and the darkness of the hall the girl is in. This light is almost a symbol of 'hope' for this girl, however the audience never really knows whether she made it into that light or not. This uncertainty goes onto to build as the scene refocuses on the drama club members. The line "It's rumoured at 6:48, everyday, when the halls are silent, she roams around the school." is suggestive of the climax of this opening, tension has been built to it's highest. Fear has been shoved into the audience through the characters, as the characters go into to turn to focus on the clock (shot 7), the audience finds themselves focusing as the clock as well as it 'tick tock, tick tock' it's way to 6:48. Whilst that the jumping shots between the clock and the door (shot 8) continues to shift, the audiences attention and feelings begin to rattle; these conflicting emotions brings affect into what makes our thriller opening... thrilling! The use of editing in this piece is mainly subjected with

continuity shots. The piece slowly begins in establishing shots of the school, which is overtaken by the shots of the drama club members, which eventually coincide with the shots of the mysterious sixth character. The use of 'fade in, fade out' editing is used when the camera is circling around the drama club members allowing the close up shots of their faces to quickly introduce the characters individually to the audience.

The use of font and style is very subtle in the opening credits of this piece. We had intended to go for a simple and cold feeling for the font. Nothing that stood out of the screen but not to an extent in which people completely ignored it. This was specifically inspired by the film 'Flight Plan', where it's opening had simple credits in white and almost blended in with the scenes. We also felt that the use of white font would make it stand out against the dark setting of the piece.

The title 'MUTE' was also done in a similar font with the same intentions for the credits. However, we wanted more focus on the title as we wanted to make it a name that stood out and could be remembered. The abrupt and direct use of the word 'mute' is reminiscent of that idea as we felt that the smaller the titles and the better it'd stay in people's minds. With this in mind, we used special effects to make the small blue light in the background, intending to give the title a very cold and eerie feeling as it slowly blinks across the screen.

The title of the film originated from the protagonist of the ghost story. Further on into the plot of our story, these same club members are suddenly targeted by a mysterious person with intent to harm them under the pen name 'Mute', blaming all these harmful incidents on the ghost of the girl that had committed suicide.