TASK ONE: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

These nine images are all screen grabs from our thriller. They are in chronological order.

         1)This opening shot, personally, is my favourite. I chose to do this when we were originally creating the story board as when I watched the opening sequence to “Don’t Look Now” in class there is a shot held for several seconds zooming into the water/ river. In “Don’t Look Now” the water shot seems to be saying “there is something beneath the surface”. In “Immersed” there is this same effect as the stillness of the water is very eerie and makes the audience uneasy. This is the same way we feel throughout the opening sequence to “Don’t Look Now”. In “Don’t Look Now” the rain is constantly breaking the surface of the water but in “Immersed” the water is completely still until the girl dives into it and there is a loud splash, breaking the tension yet shocking the viewer.

         2)The shots of the stopwatch, which are continuously being showed throughout the sequence is the element of time which I hoped would be a theme throughout the film. This enforces and adds;

-The idea that time is running out.

This is seen in many programmes and films particularly in WAZ (Produced by Vertigo) where the two investigators must find out who the serial killer is before any more lives are lost.

-Tension.

It gives the audience foresight- showing them that something bad is going to happen.

This shot also shows the swimmers obsession with the sport and her strong desire to do her fastest time yet in order to get herself to the Olympics.

         3)This underwater shot of the girl doing a tumble turn adds to the theme of isolation as she is cut off from the “real world”- literally because she is underwater but metaphorically because she is distracted by her obsession of winning.

          4)We chose this shot of the girl swimming toward the stopwatch for a screen-grab because it illustrates our choice of font. We chose to have;

-Simple, sophisticated font.

We believed that the modern edge to the scene made it sophisticated and the naturalism and lack of dialogue in the scene made it simple. Therefore we chose the font which we thought fitted well with the scene.

We also thought it would be best to keep it simple as we didn’t want to hint, through the text, that the girl was in danger e.g. by using red font.

-The title placed on the tiles and other plain backgrounds

This made the font convenient as the viewer easily read the titles. I believe this to be very important because people spend moths/years working on films and they deserve to receive credit.

         5)This slow- motion shot of Bethany doing a tumble-turn is in order to;

-Cause confusion as the audience’s view of Bethany is obstructed by splashing water.

-Show the audience that Bethany is imagining herself in a swimming competition as often in races the competitors actions, good/bad are repeated in slow-motion.

-It also build up intensity and tension as time is slowing down showing the viewer to know that something bad is going to happen, and soon.

         6)This slow-motion of Bethany coming up for a breath was done in order to add to tension as the sequence comes to a climax. We also used a recorded sound of a girl breathing as (due to the slow-motion) Bethany’s breathing was very low and almost inaudible. By putting in this recording it added to the idea of desperation as it is a strong gasp for air. The breathing also sound quite internal reminding us that Bethany is completely immersed in the swimming and is completely unaware of what is going on.

         7)This shot is the second of two underwater shots which are disjointed and add to the confusion and discomfort of the scene. It also makes the viewer feel slightly disorientated and quite nauseous, again adding to the audience’s discomfort.

         8)This tracking shot of Adam’s feet again builds up the tension as he gets closer and closer. Along with the animalistic/tribal drumming the audience is made to feel uncomfortable, again, and possibly even fearful.

         9)We chose this shot as a screen grab as we spent a while using After Effects to make a very subtle ripple and reflection of the title. This adds to the theme of swimming/water-sports which is continued through the plot of Immersed as people from British swimming teams start to go missing.