Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication, whether newspapers, TV game shows or a film such as The Secret, has its own creative language.
In the example of films, these creative languages usually represent the genre of the film; such as a horror film using scary music to heighten fear, or in a romance film using camera close-ups to convey intimacy. John Fiske's theory that the existence of genre benefits audience and institutions states that genre allows institutions to market films effectively and genre allows audiences to recognise familiar characteristics and make decisions of whether to watch a film based on this. Creative languages vary in each genre, which is why it's so important to be aware of the characteristics associated with a particular genre whilst filming. In 'The Secret', we used the characteristics of both an indie teen-film and a romance film. We tried to manipulate sound to fit the characteristics of these genres, such as using upbeat acoustic music in the opening scene. The music used here not only allowed us to manipulate the connotation; ie the feelings of the audience to think that 'The Secret' is an upbeat, happy film, but it also reflected the typical music you would hear in a teen-film. This immediately gave the impression that this film would be surrounding a young person, and probably surrounding topics such as relationships, friendships, family and behavioural issues which are typical themes seen in teen-films, in which some of these themes are heavily incorporated into 'The Secret'.
The music we used in 'The Secret' was actually quite special because as it began playing it was classified as non-diegetic sound because the sound was not located in the story world, but rather it was not explained in terms of any perceived source within the story world, but as the scene progresses, the sound changes to diegetic sound as it seems that the music is coming from the radio which appears in Will's room, so the sound's origin actually is located physically in the story world. This makes the audience feel as if they are included in the film as they hear the music changing from outside the story world, to being involved in the story itself. We also incorporated another source of sound from the radio, which was a news interview with a politician about gay marriage rights. This diegetic sound not only represents the theme of the film and presents Will's LGBT view point to the audience, which in turn, hints at Will's sexuality and gives an insight into the film's plot, but it also plays quite quietly in the film so the audience is almost subconsciously hearing the radio report which makes the audience feel more included in the story world; as if they are watching Will from the same room.
Mise-En-Scene refers to anything that goes into a shot, such as set, props, actor, costumes, camera movements and performances. All of these aspects were extremely important in bringing the plot of 'The Secret' across and conveying it to the audience in the way we wanted. For example, there was multiple text books and school books lying on the first desk that you see as Will enters the room, accompanied by a pair of tossed shorts and his school blazer. As well as these, there was also some aftershaves placed on another desk above it, which helps to represent the more masculine side of Will's character. The props in particular helped to represent Will's age group, and the fact that he is classified as a typical teenage boy, despite his sexuality being determined as 'different' to many people. Along with the objects within Will's room being gender neutral and almost slightly masculine, we also kept this theme in place by keeping the colours throughout the film neutral, featuring blues, greys and reds which are all gender neutral colours. All of these small details add up to give the audience an overall feel that Will is just as masculine as any other boy of his age, despite his sexuality.
Throughout the film the lighting consists of only natural lighting. We didn't incorporate any artificial lighting into the film apart from the close up shots of Will texting Taylor. The reason we used artificial lighting for those shots was because trying to capture the phone screen and focusing on the texts, making them readable, with natural lighting simply wasn't working. The use of artificial lighting helped to make these shots much clearer and easier for the audience to read what was going on in the film. Apart from those few shots, the lighting was strictly natural to give a feeling that this film surrounded a very normal topic within society. We felt that if we added lots of artificial lighting it would make the topic of the film seem very over exaggerated and almost over produced, which defeated the purpose of the film. We also chose to stick with natural lighting as natural lighting is a key convention in the romance genre and also in many teen-films, so we tried to stick as closely to those conventions as we could.
The shots taken throughout the film were all taken at eye level, as if the audience was at eye level with Will at all times. This height of shot simply makes the audience feel more included in the story, as we are seeing everything in the story world from Will's eye level. This changes in the shot where Will's sister enters the room, as the camera angle slightly changes from eye level to a lower angle. This gives the indication that Will's sister, who is presented as the homophobic character in the film, is of a position of power that intimidates Will as the audience is forced to look up at this character. This also helps to emphasise the differences of opinion between Will and his sister, and how Will's opinion on sexuality is almost deemed as less important/more looked down on in society, which can draw parallels with how society is today. This shot in particular allows the audience to relate the film to the society they live in, which makes the audience feel more included within the story. It is important to note that this shot is also taken as the sister states her opinion on gay rights on marriage as she uses a derogatory term against homosexuals to insult an LGBT pro opinion, which shows that from the perspective of Will, opinions like sister's are the opinions that determine and steer his relationship with Taylor- which we see is going badly due to his hesitancy to be honest to his family about his sexuality.
We used continuity editing in our film because our story followed a timeline of Will's life at a particular time in which he was struggling with his sexuality and relationships with both his family and his romantic partner. The story takes place in order, in other words, it follows a sequence and there are no flash-backs or flash-forwards. All of our shots transitioned into the following shot by cutting- meaning one sequence of film is immediately followed by another. This was simply because there was no need for any more complex transitions, and we felt that cut transitions just made it easier for the audience to follow the story without over dramatising it or adding unnecessary editing techniques.
In conclusion, lots of messages were brought across during 'The Secret' through connotations and denotations, which, as a result, help the audience to feel more included within the story world and understand exactly what is going on at that moment, as well as subconsciously giving them clues about the film plot and theme through techniques such as props, costume, and setting.
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