Representation of Social Class in a clip from 'Monarch of the Glen'

Clue to region (Scotland): Location, accent, title of the show, aspects that are within the mise-en-scene, the soundtrack which goes with the clip which are pipes (non-diegetic)।
Genre of the television programme: Family drama because it is clean with no violence, no sex, no swearing and realistic problems like the girl who runs away from school.
Girl coming up to the Boy sweeping, shows social class because of the job he is doing. The Boy is in a grey jacket, and the colour pallette is dull, dismal and drab.
Within the mise-en-scene there is a washing line with towels which shows that the people are not wealthy, but the terraced housing and a lot of the objects within the mise-en-scene are working class signifiers.
(00:23) The washing line is a symbol of social realism which is always associated with working class. Casting two teenagers for Monarch of the Glen attracts a wider viewing audience for the show.
(00:32) Low angle shot of the boss makes him seem more dominant, and that he is from a higher class because he gives the orders and he stands over everybody else.
(01:34) The headteacher comes looking for the girl which shows she has runaway from a private school because if you ran away from a public school the headteacher wouldn't come looking for you but just contact your parents by letter/telephone. The headteacher coming to look for her also shows she has lied to everyone.
(01:45) Old fashioned representation of the headteacher - tweed jacket, jumper, tie and patches on his jacket which all point to him being traditional.
(01:53) Archie MacDonald is of Upper Class Gentry because he has a lot of money and objects within the mise-en-scene point to all of this. Crystal glasses, well-bound books, panelled walls. Archie MacDonald portrays wealth and authority. Archie MacDonald doesn't fit the 'Monarch of the Glen' because he is dressed down and previous shots show him to be very 'hands on'. Modest dress sense shows Archie is of old money, and doesn't like to show off the money he does have.

shot list of thriller opening

1. Close up of the girl with her head on her knees.
2. Close up of the girl raising her head and she looks scared and she has a lot of jerky head movements to show she is scared.
goes into a flashback
1. Vanishing point of girl walking down the raod
2. Panning / tracking shot up body
3. Long shot of girl
4. Close up of man's feet
5. Over the shoulder shot of the girl entering the park
6. Mid shot of the girl walking and looking over her shoulder and she appears to be on edge
7. Mid shot of the man on the side in a hoodie under a steet lamp
8. Long shot of girl walking around a building and this will be shot through the railings of the bandstand
9. Side mid shot as she walks past the pond
10. Close up of the man's feet, reverse shot gouing from close up of his feet to hers and when you get to the end of the reverse shot both pairs of feet begin to speed up
11. Close up of the girls face as she looks over her shoulder, the mam has dissapered.
12. She turns completely around, and her expression looks like she is searching for him.
13. Then a long shot of him walking away from her through the trees.
14. Tilt shot of the girl running.
flashback ends
3. close up of the girl looking scared again, and she starts questioning herself and what happened that night.
4. close up of the girl and her head drops back onto her knees.
fade to black

Treatment for thriller opening

The scene will open with the girl in her room, and she is clearly traumatized by something. The opening will then go into a flashback of a night where the girl is walking home from work through the park. In the flashback we introduced another character, and through the scene we have used shots to make the boy character seem like a stalker to trick the audience into thinking that is what he is. The boy character goes the same route as the girl to get across the park and the girl thinks he is following her which makes her panicky, but when the boy disappears and he goes another way she looks around like she is searching for him. Then she runs across the field in the same direction she was heading, then the flashback ends and we are back in her room. She lifts her head and then she seems like she is having a conversation with herself saying things like: 'Did I do it?' 'No I didn't do it.' 'He was following me.' 'Of course you did. Its always your fault.' The things she is saying indicates that the girl is not in the right frame of mind, and may also be slightly crazy. The last thing she says will leave the audience in suspense, because they don't know what exactly she did, or what happened next, or was the boy innocent all along?
For the location we are using Eaton Park because at night time it can seem quite mysterious and it has interesting features for filming - like the trees around Eaton Park, and also the streets which run around the perimeter of Eaton, but also the bandstand the railings which we are going to film through. For the costumes we have put the girl in clothes which indicates she has just been to work, so she will be wearing a skirt, blouse, tights, heels and a coat to go over the top so the coat shows she is now heading home. The girl has blonde hair, and brown eyes and is quite short and has a small frame - we chose her because of these features, she seems innocent and you wouldn't suspect of her hurting somebody else. The boy will be wearing all black and a black hoodie which is very important for our filming because this hides his identity but he will also be wearing trainers which shows he could be a teenage boy, maybe the same age as her even. We weren't very particular when it came to choosing an actor because the character's identity will always be hidden. We are using a lot of close ups to engage the audience into the expressions on the actor's faces, and a tilt shot when the girl runs away to create disorder and confusion.
We don't have a particular age group which we are aiming this film at, but if we filmed the rest of the movie the genre would be police/crime which would probably depend on the audience's tastes in movies not their age. The movie would be independent, not mainstream even though the stalker theme does seem quite mainstream and like its been done several times but there aren't many modern police/crimes thriller genre movies which the movie would be if we filmed an entire movie. If I had to link my thriller opening to a movie I would link it to the independent movie 'Brick' where a girl is found murdered and her ex-boyfriend is trying to solve the mystery behind it. The reason it reminds me of it is because someone is found murdered, and even in the opening of my thriller they are questioning a girl about it.
Written by Laura Lewis

Audience Research Questionaire

1. When watching a thriller where do you prefer the location to be? :
a) A place you recognize (The city, the country etc) - 2
b) Somewhere exotic (Rainforest, desert etc) - 2
c) Somewhere unknown to you (Different planet etc) - 5

2. What do you prefer the soundtrack to be? :
a) Instrumental - 8
b) Soundtrack you recognize -1
c) None
d) Other: - written soundtrack

3. What sub-genre do you prefer a thriller to be? :
a) Action - 2
b) Crime - 1
c) Psychological - 6
d) Drama
e) Spy - 1
f) Other

4. What aspect of a thriller do you think is most important? :
a) Characters - 3
b) Plot - 6
c) Costumes
d) Location - 1
e) Other

5. How should the killer in the movie be presented? :
a) Obvious (You know it's the killer when the movie opens) - 2
b) A mystery (You are unsure of the killer until the ending) - 7

6. What time period do you prefer a thriller to be set in? :
a) Future
b) Past - 1
c) Present - 1
d) Doesn't matter - as long as all the thriller aspects are within the film - 7



The audience who answered my questionaire preferred the location to be somewhere unknown to them, like a different planet or somewhere fictional. Audiences preferred the soundtrack to be instrumental, instead of a soundtrack they recognize. Audiences preferred the genre to be psychological and that the plot is the most important aspect of a thriller. Audiences preferred the killer in a thriller to remain a mystery until the end of the movie. Audiences said that it didn't matter what time period the thriller was set in as long as all the thriller aspects were within the film.
The thriller questionaire will help with my thriller because it has given me an idea on what audiences prefer in a thriller. I won't consider all of the answers when going to plan my thriller because I have my own ideas, but I will take on board what audiences like especially the music because before I didn't know what sort of music to use but from this questionaire I have an idea of what audiences will like.

Ideas for our thriller opening

Location

Eaton Park, and the streets around Eaton Park. We decided Eaton Park was a good place because it is quite mysterious and has a lot of places where somebody could hide. We are also using a bedroom, doesn't matter which one because that whole scene will just be close ups of the girl's face so you won't actually see the location.

Casting

Girl - Georgia Sinclair. Georgia is very small, and looks very innocent and quite childlike. Somebody who you wouldn't think would be able to defend themselves against someone else.
Boy - I have asked a boy to do this, but it doesn't matter who plays him because his identity will always be hidden by a hoodie, and there are going to be a lot of shots of his feet so he remains a mystery. We want to create a 'stalkerish' feeling around this character to trick the audience into believing he is a stalker.

Costumes

Girl - We have styled the girl to be wearing a knee-length skirt, blouse and black tights with heels. A costume which would suggest the girl has just finished work and she is walking through the park to get home. We are also going to make her wear a jacket over her work clothes to cover her up more, and to also show that the park is cold.
Boy - We are going to make the boy wear all black, and trainers. We chose trainers to show that the boy is like any teenage boy, and the trainers should make him seem less suspicious. The boy will be wearing a hoodie which is important because this will hide his face and make him seem more mysterious because we don't know the identity of the boy.

Plot

The thriller will open where the girl is in her bedroom and she is clearly traumatized then we go into a flashback of a night where she is walking home through the park. There is a boy walking behind her and he follows the same route as she does and she slowly begins to panic and thinks he is following her. Then there is a shot of him walking away from her and then the last shot of the flashback is her running across the grass. The audience believes she is running away to the safety of her home. Then the last shot of the thriller opening will be her face and she say's, 'I didn't mean to do it. I thought he was alive when...' then she stops talking and rests her head on her knees and the opening ends.

Relating 3 Thrilers to our own Thriller Opening

In the opening shot of Sin City you get a tracking shot up the body of a girl, and in our thriller we have a similar opening because we do the same tracking shot up our characters to body to get a sense of what the character is like and what they are wearing and finishing with a close up of their face shows the audience what the character looks like, and engages the audience into the character's emotion.

In the movie Heat they use a lot of over the shoulder shots, and in our thriller opening we have used a lot of these sort of shots to create the feeling of panic our character is feeling and also the sense of being watched.

In Pschyo when Marion has runaway after stealing the money, and she is in her car she has very expressive facial expressions. You can tell what she is thinking through her expressions, and in our thriller opening we want to create this because our character is very scared of the thought of being stalked, and once bumping into her stalker we want the character/actor to look extremely panicked. We want to create the looks Marion has in the car, because they are very effective within the mise-en-scene.

Preliminary Task & Questions

1). What planning did you do for your filming task, and how did this planning aid in the filming?

For the planning of our preliminary task we did a story board, a shot list and a shooting map. On the shot list we decided what shots would be used throughout the preliminary task. For the story board we drew what would be within the mise-en-scene, and the angle of the camera. For the shooting map we planned out where we would get our character to walk, and what way they would leave. All the planning before the preliminary task helped because the shooting of the short film went quickly and smoothly because we knew where we wanted things, and how we wanted it to look. We referred to the shooting map, and shot list a lot while filming because these two things helped us with where to put the camera, and what we had decided through filming.

2). What camera and editing techniques and codes did you use in your film and how do they influence the audiences understanding of the film? (eg. camera and shot types etc; match on action, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule)

We used close ups, long shots & mid-shots. When Liam & Ellie (actor's in our preliminary task) were having a conversation we used a reverse shot between them. When Ellie was speaking we placed the camera over Liam's shoulder, and the same when Liam was speaking. We made sure we used a range of camera angles so we could practice filimng these shots. We only followed one of the characters movements to the other character so the audience would understand that the short film was from this characters point-of-view.

3). How did you use new technologies in your construction, planning and evaluation (eg. digital camera; non-linear editing software; youtube, blogger) and what skills do you have at using this technology? (strengths and weaknesses eg. steady/shaky camera; variety of shot types; smooth/clumsy; independence when using technologies...)

To construct the prelinminary task we used a digital hand held camera, with a tripod. A few times myself and my prodution group took the camera of the tripod because it was easier, sometimes this resulted in a shaky scene. I think some of the preliminary task was quite clumsy because you can hear the people behind the camera speaking, and the actor in the preliminary task sometimes went the wrong way. To edit the preliminary task we used Adobe video editing which is quite simple to use once you get the hang of how things work. We then uploaded the video into youtube and from there we embedded the video into our blogs. Using new technoligies is quite important for the preliminary task because we relied very much on these new technologies to achieve the outcome.


From this preliminary task I have picked up several techniques which I can apply to our thriller opening, and the mistakes I made on this task will hopefully not happen with the thriller opening.