Evaluation of "The Lodger"

1. In what ways does your media production use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?
The Lodger is a mainstream thriller, as a result of that it was created with many aspects as possible from iconic thriller films. Inspiration was taken from independent research into thriller films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” in order to produce effective costumes and mise-en-scene’s that represent each character and time that the film is set in and to achieve the mainstream characteristic that appeals to the target audience. Psycho’s Marion really inspired the creation of leading character “Abigail”. When developing her character it was important not to look into her personality as this was something that was very different from Abigail’s.
I felt that Marion portrayed a classy and sophisticated woman very well through her image. Marion’s well groomed appearance was used for inspiration, however a more modern interpretation was used for Abigail, for example: Abigail wears a white shirt, similar to the one pictured on Marion. You rarely see Abigail’s face however; we produced two shots which focus mainly on her face and eyes. We thought this was important in order to show the audience the importance of Abigail in the film and too also reflect her personality, showing her more vulnerable side as she prepares for her birthday meal.

Inspiration was also taken from “The Third Man’s” Harry Lime, developing ideas from the costumes for the murdering character “Scott”. His long black coat, black trousers and shoes question his innocence and suggest that he could be a very sinful character. We felt it was important to make the costumes look as professionally done as possible in order to meet the expectations of a mainstream thriller. We also felt that the interior and exterior
décor of the housing in the thriller created a perfect chilling mise-en-scene and therefore used Libby’s house as a setting because of the antic presentation it carried. The doorway from the famous tilted shot of Harry Lime in “The Third Man” is inspired in a shot from “The Lodger” when “Lisa” the best friend of Abigail, approaches the door with flowers and a birthday card. The archway represents closure and how the events that follow may trap the characters. The famous shot from "Sin City's" front cover inspired one particular shot in the production of our thriller, the shot as Scott stands at the bottom of the stairs with the blood covered knife. The importance of this shot is shown because the title then appears, showing the audience that the film has begun.

Our soundtrack starts as Scott approaches the house. The shots before this, shows no sign that this is a thriller film so as the music jumps into play the audience immediately become more intrigued. It was felt that this was the perfect place to start our music because the audience can then identify that Scott is a dangerous and ruthless character and that something back is starting to unveil itself. It also creates suspension, it’s almost as though as the music gets louder so does the heart beat of the audience. “A Clock Work Orange” also opens with the music starting at low volume and slowly building up as the characters start to be unveiled, also as the tempo of the soundtrack begins to build up, the audience can tell that the climax of the opening is approaching, adding more suspense to the viewing. The music then stops as we see Lisa’s flowers being dropped out of fear as she starts to realise something has happened to Abigail, the suspense of the film turns into shock and the audience are frozen. Only diegetic sound can then be heard from that point so that the audience can relate to the scenes more, becoming more involved and feeling empathy for Abigail who has just lost her life.

Only one main location was used for the filming production of our thriller opening, Libby’s house. This house was used because we felt it carried some similar characteristics to a ‘haunted house’, such as the big front door, the wooden floors and the general antic looking décor. We felt by using a
house as a base for our murder scene was perfect because it gives a very personal impression. A house is someone’s home and very personal too them, it’s a place in which you feel safe and warm, therefore for a murder to take place in it, these characteristics are no longer there and the film becomes more spooky and thrilling as there is no safer place than your own home. The summerhouse at the bottom of the garden also carried a cabin type look, something which can immediately be identified with Eli Roth’s “Cabin Fever”. Both places related to sinful events.

The shower itself in which Abigail gets murdered is something the audience can relate too. It’s something that people use everyday, something that we come across so often that we do not believe anything sinful could ever happen there. The rush of the water, not only washes Abigail’s blood away as she lays stone cold in the shower, but it is also washing away her life. The diegetic shower sound almost replaces the soundtrack, the calm sound of the water running can be heard as the audience feel great compassion for Abigail. I feel that the audience will connect with the characters and that this will lead to an attachment with the rest of the film, which is what I aimed for.

Abigail’s name mainly signifies her innocence. Via the soft pronunciation of the name, people can identify her loving and trusting personality. It helps to reveal to the audience what her personality holds in a very short space of time, her name appears next to her face as each character is created, her name connects with her innocent face and therefore easy for the audience to identify her sensitive personality. Scott’s name is very harsh sounding because of its small and bunt pronunciation. The name almost hides him, as though Scott isn’t his real name and he carries a concealed identity. Abigail’s best friend “Lisa” also has a very hidden name. As the viewers are unaware of what identity Lisa holds it is hard for them to make a judgment about her. It opens the question of, who is she? Will she be the next victim? Did she maybe have something to do with it? This will help create a gripping cliff hanger.

As previously explained before, Abigail holds an inspired look from Psycho’s Marion Crane. Her personality on the other hand is very innocent and ‘ditsy’. Her personality can also be closely linked with that of “Thelma and Louise’s” Thelma. Thelma much like Abigail is a very loving and calm person and we see that in her vulnerability at the start. Again, like Abigail, Thelma is a victim of Louise’s wild personality, whilst Abigail is a victim of Scott’s evil and cunning plans. Although Scott is seen as a very evil and cunning man, the audience are unaware of Scott’s background. This adds to the tension building up into the rest of the film. Scott commits a murder because he is truly in love with Abigail. Thelma and Louise also commit a murder, linked in with the confusing elements of relationship and lust.

“The Lodger” may be a very obvious title to call a film which uses the use of a lodger from the very beginning but the audience may start to question a twist which may occur later on in the film, is “The Lodger” too basic or will their be a sweat gripping ending to the film? From the very beginning the viewers are who the lodger is and can clearly relate this to the title of the film, they immediately connect with Scott as he appears in the beginning sequence. The title itself is short and carries a thriller aspect to it even if someone was unaware of its genre.

When casting, actors had to suit and be involved with their role. Laura Manning was cast as Abigail because she carried an image that I recognised as Abigail and one that I knew the audience would also associate with Abigail’s character. Abigail carries a very similar personality to Laura, both bubbly and trustworthy people, this helped tremendously when filming and helping actors get into role. It also helped when developing Abigail’s character. Before casting other actors, as a group, the possibilities of who would suit the role of the other characters was discussed. Libby’s dad (Nathan Stannage) was confirmed to play Scott because his image carried that of a man in his thirties, Nathan was also then able to bring his own character to the role. Phoebe Wall-Palmer was also cast for the role of Lisa because again her personality fitted that of the character and her image was able to fit the concealed identity of who Lisa is. The first shooting session was mainly seen as a trial shoot too see if the actors fitted their roles. If changes to the cast needed to take place, new actors would be found as soon as possible.

The Lodger was filmed in a typical house therefore not many props where needed because the everyday essentials you would find in a house where already there. The weapon used to commit the murder was a knife. The knife is known as a ‘cook knife’ which Abigail uses to prepare her meal. Something the audience can also relate to having these kind of items in their own homes. This weapon also represents the rise in knife crime amongst teenagers in the UK, something that brings realism into the film, again making it more appealing to the target audience who are aware of such crime. However so that our film didn’t tackle any sensitive issues involving these events, the age of the killer was not that of a teenager but a grown man in his late thirties.

The significance of the plot was to entice the audience into getting gripped to the film. I wanted the audience to go away feeling that the film has had an effect on them and it was going to be one that they will remember and can relate too. Furthermore, the opening sequence was too produce a bold and striking start to the film, getting the audience addicted in the first two minutes of the film.

The opening titles are there to introduce the audience to not only the film but the producers and the production company. By putting these titles at the start the audience are intrigued to know more about the film, rather than after when they loose interest. The production company is called ‘LPL Productions’. The three letters stand for each of the group members, making it very personal to the group and what we have produced.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I feel that my media production represents a few social groups, in particular women, femme fatale, social class and the victim. Women are represented in a very powerful and yet victimised way. ‘Abigail’ is a very classy business woman, she has a lot of power over her life and her money and yet this almost gets taken from her when she loses her life, something she no longer has power over. The audience can clearly see that Abigail has a lot of power over her life as she lives alone in a detached house. Her costume also represents wealth and fortune in both past and present times. Another reason why she may be represented as powerful is the way she has managed to attract
the attention of the lodger without realising it, she doesn’t realise that the lodger has fallen in love with her. Her social class is represented by the way is which she prepares the dinner party, she pours expensive wine and prepares a liver based meal which we see her thoroughly cutting to perfection at the start of the film. We can compare her social class to his by looking at her living situation, she is living in a detached house and he can only afford to rent a summerhouse at the bottom of the garden. Abigail is however the victim of a murder with ‘Scott’ being the killer, he has more power over her now and finally gets revenge over her. ‘Abigail’ almost represents a different form of femme fatale. Although she covers a lot of aspects of a typical femme fatale such as her appearance, clothing and money and we can see this reflected in other famous femme fetales such as Anna Schmidt (The Third Man), Marion Crane (Psycho) and Jackie Brown, she is seen as more ‘victimised’ and innocent much like Thelma (Thelma and Louise), she doesn’t have a bad side. Like “The Third Man’s” “Anna” Abigail’s role in the film will become very concealed, creating more suspense for the audience.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The best way to advertise and exhibit our thriller is through a very well known website like YouTube. Millions of people would be able to access our two minute opening to a new thriller film for free. However a using a website for advertising could be difficult as you can’t guarantee that everyone has the internet to access YouTube. Using other websites for advertising is a very clever way of getting the clip out there. Websites such as YouTube, gaming sites and music sites have advertisements at the side of their pages or appearing at the bottom of other video clips. This is useful when grabbing the attention of a certain target audience, in this case, the age group 15-25. Social networking sites such as Facebook are being used by millions of people a day, by advertising your film directly via advertisements on the side of the page or creating fan groups for your film for people to join, you are guaranteeing that a very
large number of people are reaching your film advertising and are aware that your film is being shown. Other websites holding competitions are also important, one website that holds a Feature Film Competition is www.filmaka.com. Each year the websites holds the competition
asking members to submit a 3 minute film on a new film. Our thriller clip could apply for this because it holds the right amount of time and strongly supports a certain theme which is what the website are looking for. If our film clip didn’t get far in the competition, recognition for our film would be met. Using other forms of media can also be a big contribution when exhibiting a thriller. For our thriller, a game for Play Station 3 for example could be made which will introduce people to the film before it is released. iPods are also the hype of this generation and the target age range in which we want our film to aim at, therefore a good way of exhibiting our film clip through this would be buy creating applications for our film for example: a small game or updates on new film releases. Flyers are a useful way in which we could get our thriller noticed, placing it in places we know people will see it. Buses usually support
 a film by displaying a film poster either on the side of their bus or the bus stop itself. This will guarantee that our film advertisement can reach a great deal of
people in a short time.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience lies between the ages 15 and 25. The reason being, a lot of aspects appeal to that age group such as the age of the characters involved and the gender of the two main characters appealing to both genders of the viewers. The modern setting of the film also makes it easier for the audience to relate to, as well as gruesome and gory scenes to keep the audience
intrigued. This has been proved via my audience research. For example: from my questionnaire results show that, that age range prefer less suspicious characters (characters that unexpected to be dangerous or the main thrill behind the film), my media film clip was then adapted so that this aspect could be put into place, for example: the lodger being a person that Abigail (the victim of the murder committed by the lodger Scott) could trust. This audience may also watch other thrillers such as ‘Seven’ and ‘Casino Royale’, I feel that they will enjoy these thrillers because of the young characters used in the films such as Brad Pitt who’s ‘good looks’ appeal to the female audience and the ‘cool’ masculine image that he carried appealing to the male audience. The same reasons go to “Casino Royale’s” Vesper Lynd. Casino Royale is also full of action and fighting, scenes in which appeal to a teenage and young adult audience.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The audience was attracted by looking at audience research that was conducted which looked at the expectations of a target audience ages 15-25 and adapting the film around those results. It showed that our audience prefer characters that you would not expect to be behind the thrill of the film. Therefore it was decided that a character that was expected to be trusted and a nice person in the film was going to be casted in order to shock the audience when it came to them viewing the clip; it also helped us create an effective cliff hanger. The audience also preferred both loud and quiet music, in order to adapt this into the film the soundtrack started after about 30 seconds of the clip so that the audience could experience both quiet and loud sound. The music piece itself has quiet and loud, this creates suspension. By analysing my results from my audience research, i managed to identify what the target audience were looking for and used these answers to make the thriller more appealing to them. Another way in which the target audience could be attracted is via advertising. Different websites such as YouTube and Facebook could be used to exhibit the thriller.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot from filming the thriller opening with my group. One thing that has helped me extremely in the process of planning, making and developing my thriller and my media skills in general is my blog. It is situated on www.blogger.com and it allows me to upload my research into thriller films and my target audience as well as progression updates on my filming and the planning that has taken place before filming. The research into thriller films such as “Psycho”, “Thelma and Louise” and “Panic Room” has helped me develop
my understanding of the thriller genre and the different aspects it carries. When planning and filming my film I was able to relate back to this research for inspiration. The planning of the film helped me and the group to get organised and the blog was an easy way for me to access this planning. Some of the things which are included in the planning are, characters, equipment, story boards, shooting maps and roles of the group members. The blog also allows me to receive teacher and student comments which I use to help me in developing the film and our skills as a group. This technology also helps us back up the work we have done, so that if it is lost, we are able to retrieve it easily.

YouTube has also helped us as a group tremendously. When completing research into thriller films I personally found it helpful when looking up clips to back up my evidence. We were able to search for possible soundtrack ideas, easily browsing for free. After the completion of my preliminary task, I uploaded it onto YouTube. It was then easy for me and the other students and teachers in the school to access. It also allowed feedback from the general public allow us to develop our end product. YouTube also makes it easier to embed clips onto my blog to then receive further advice.










IMDB is a website that displays information about most films. It allows people to view reviews, user ratings, user comments and institutional information. When doing independent research into thriller films I was able to look on IMDB for information and reviews in order to find out if the film was successful or not. The reviews and user ratings and comments were also useful when I was doing research into the film industry itself, by looking at how successful the film was I was able to see how successful film companies such as Working Title are and how Universal influences the making of their films.

The equipment used was very easy to access and use. It made it easy to develop the film as immediate playback on the camcorder could be accessed and therefore changed to our film could be made. Other functions on the camcorder which became helpful was the small light which could be attached on if necessary, this was experimented with when working outside. Editing software helped make the raw footage a final professional piece. Transactions where placed in to make the film opening smoother to watch and titles and sound could also be added to introduce the film easier.


7. Looking at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From filming my prelim task I feel that I have learnt a lot. With the preliminary task, the only planning that took place was a group discussion and a storyboard. From this I have learnt that in order to keep to the filming schedule more planning would have to be done for example: the order in which the shots will be filmed. Learning about the 180 degree rule also helped in making sure that our thriller looked professional, for example: when looking from different peoples point of views, two characters in the scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. Towards the end of editing my film, our group was unsure whether I final product would meet the standard that we planned it to reach, however we where very happy once we had added our soundtrack to our final piece. The piece fitted very well with our film opening and completed the product. Furthermore, it added more thrill, suspense, fear and addiction to the film by starting when the killer Scott starts to emerge from his summerhouse, building up to the murder, and ending once the murder has taken place. Also by doing this, it helped support the narrative structure, making it easier for the audience to understand. This is important because if the start of a film is misunderstood and can be hard for the rest of the film to make sense to the viewer.

Each shot that we where to film was drawn on a storyboard along with the shot type, lighting and any other necessary information (eg: actors). A storyboard was remembered at each shooting session so we could refer to it when needed. When developing the mise-en-scene of each shot, we watched what we had recorded on the video camera and improved the mise-en-scene where we thought was necessary. For example: in the low angle shot where the murderer Scott is holding a blood stained knife, the lighting was too dull and we found that it was hard to see what he was holding and where he was, as a result of this we reshot the scene. In general, we shot a number of scenes in a variety of different shots, so when editing we could decide which one we thought was the most effective and worked well with the narrative structure. By developing the mise-en-scene, we developed our final product and our filming and editing skills as a group.

It was important that when planning our narrative structure that we made it understandable to the target audience. If this was not the case, the audience may loose interest in watching the rest of the film. We began planning a story line that involved a typical femme fatale approaching a shed at the bottom of the garden, after looking around and finding what she needed, the lady emerges and walks back up the garden path with a suitcase, a silhouette of a man appears at the window of the shed. It was decided that this plot didn’t carry enough thriller aspects and was very basic. Other adjustments where also made to the current plot. Before hand, Abigail’s boyfriend was going to come round for a romantic evening, however due to one shot consisting of dropping a bottle of wine being a health risk, it was decided that this was not appropriate. The plot of the film opening had to be easy to understand and set a tense and gripping beginning that would make the audience want to watch the rest of the film. By changing the plot in various ways across the planning of our production, the film has been able to develop and become of a higher standard.

When casting actors, I had to find one that would best suit the characters. Nathan Stannage was used because he was a similar age to Scott and therefore could no only relate to the character but also made the film in general more realistic. It was also important that we cast actors that where similar ages to the target audience (15-25), the reason being that the audience can then sympathise with the characters bringing them into the film. It was decided that one reason why the boyfriend wouldn’t be used was because of the actor’s age. Fraser Stannage is 14 years old and although the viewers didn’t see his face it wasn’t realistic enough for him to be playing an older character.

It was hard thinking of a title that would make my film eye catching. The title is always the first thing a person will read before watching a film and it gives a hint to the plot. There where various options that where going to be used for the title. ‘Happy Birthday’ was a play on words and held a lot of thrill and spook to it, however we felt that it may not give enough clue to the genre and wasn’t best suited for the plot because it was only the beginning sequence that held the birthday aspect. It was decided that we would use ‘The Lodger’ because it made it obvious who the lead character was, therefore the audience could quickly connect with Scott.

When planning the plot, the narrative structure for the whole film had to be able to fit in with the opening sequence. Therefore an over complicated plot was hard to organise. Pitfalls in the planning mainly occurred when trying to develop the boyfriend’s role and why he was coming to Abigail’s house and why Abigail would trust such an evil person.

Finding an appropriate soundtrack that was not copyrighted was hard because as a group, we where very unaware of pre-1950’s music. Sites such as freesound.org and cmixter.org where used to find un-signed pieces of music that would best suit the opening. It was hard to find something that fitted well with the narrative plot and changed temp and volume etc when the plot was intensifying.

When editing “The Lodger”, Adobe Premier was used. This allowed transactions and cuts to be made to the film, the development of the film progressed massively when I learnt how to use the program properly. When re-shooting some bits I was able to see what could be done when editing the film to make a particular shot look better which could not have been done before hand.

Year 13s from the same school watched “The Lodger” and gave their opinion on what they thought should be done to get a better grade. This feedback was taken into consideration and a few adjustments was made to the film, for example: some feedback suggested that some diegetic sound should be faded in, therefore the sound of the shower can be heard turning on and constantly running at the end of the opening sequence. This feedback was very important because it came from the target audience and therefore we could see what it was that the audience where looking for.

Like the experience I had had with the preliminary task I was able to develop a plot around the strict brief. However, some difficulties where discovered when including thriller aspects and they relate very closely with that of the horror genre. However, audience research helped set out what I was going to find out and what aspects of the thriller audience best appealed to them. It was also hard to work within a specific time frame; there was a lot of pressure to finish the product on time to a specific standard. However, various deadlines where set to help us as a group meet the different stages of the production, and as time progressed it was learnt how long certain things took to plan, develop and put into practice. On a whole, I feel that the group developed tremendously when working on all aspects of the film production.