Final Thriller

Thriller Comparison

Do you think you have created a successful thriller sequence and why?

I believe we have created a successful thriller film as any conventions that we have carried out from the thriller genre have been successful in affecting the audience, all of these conventions being stereotypical tot he thriller genre, which defines our film as a thriller.

What micro-element, best shows your creativity and understanding of the thriller genre the most?

The micro-element that best shows my creativity is the use of iconography in the opening, instead of using the stereotypical knife, me and my group decided that it would be better if we used a hammer instead, as this is not a stereotypical weapon. Also because of the fact that the killer in the opening is so mysterious it begins to give away hints at what his personality is like, by him using a hammer it could show that he is a more brutal killer and using a hammer if a vicious way to hurt someone and can cause serious damage, similar to a knife however I think that a knife does not say enough about the killer to have an impact on the audience. In addition, the hammer adds anonymity to the killer as anyone can simply pick up a hammer and use it in that manner, which indicates that the killer could be simply anyone. Iconography is an important convention in the thriller genre as this helps the audience begin to build a fear, for example by the killer using a hammer they can begin to develop a fear for the hammer, as they know what the hammer is going to be used for.

Compare your opening sequence to a successful thriller and explain how your thriller is conventional?

A successful thriller film I can compare my thriller film to is Scream, like my opening Scream is a very conventional thriller film, displaying them clearly. In Scream, like ours, the main character is targeted by a killer for no apparent reason, however there are many other different characters in the film, for example the victim's best friend and boyfriend. This is similar to ours because we have the same idea of having a victim who is seemingly targeted by her for killer for no apparent reason. Another aspect in which they are similar is because of the representations of the killer, and the victim. This is because the killer is represented as deranged, the same as 'Ghostface' in Scream, having no apparent reason  to be after the victim. Both of our thrillers use reaction shots, timing of shots, straight and jump cuts. One factor in which the two films are different are the type of settings used, Scream tends to use more in-side house settings as these are relatable, whereas our thriller uses a forest/street setting, we have used these as these are conventional of the thriller genre and anyone can be there. This allows the audience to become more involved in the film as they can begin to feel the fear of the character as they can think as if they are in there situation. Our iconography is different as they use a knife for the killer's weapon, whereas we have changed it to a hammer. Our costume are the same as the victim is often seen in clothes which are represented as innocent, aswell as our killer dressed in all black, just like our thriller.

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The purpose of the preliminary task was to familiarise ourselves with the filming equipment and the editing software that we was going to use for my own thrillers. From the preliminary task, I learnt how to edit a clip and put it in the correct order, for example in our preliminary I had to film a conversation between two people, including seeing someone walk in and out of the room, therefore I had to make sure the clips were in the correct order otherwise the conversation would not of made sense. Another skill I learnt from the preliminary which then helped me with our opening was cutting at the correct time for example during walking scenes, when the character is walking through the garages and there is a switch in camera angle. I made sure that the character was standing in the same place before the camera angle switch as well as the same after, otherwise it would of not made sense, I learnt this from the preliminary when we had to film someone walking into the room, meaning I had to cut it at the correct time so we could see the person walk towards the room and then switch to the camera inside, making the editing look more professional.

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Primary research was essential to my production because this allowed me to have a greater understanding of the thriller genre, this helped me to develop our own thriller film and know how to appeal to our target audience.

There were many stages included in developing my thriller opening, the first being research of existing thriller. I researched mise-en-scene, the conventions, cinematography, the history of thriller films, sound, research into age certificates and the BBFC. This is where I developed my understanding of the thriller genre, learning how different aspects effect the audience differently, and what effects they have, for example a high angle camera shot shows that the character is inferior in the scene and vulnerability whereas a low angle shows that the character is superior. The second stage was research into the narrative theories, the narrative theory we followed was Todorov's. Todorov's theory is not about the characters but the narrative and that they evolve around an equilibrium and disequilibrium, there is a state of equilibrium, a disruption to the equilibrium, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair the equilibrium followed by the restore of the return or the equilibrium. My research assisted me a lot in the planning of the opening as my understanding of the thriller genre developed. From the research into sound I heard that non-diegetic sound tracks have a great effect over the audience, having a big influence on how to the audience feel at that time, for example a suspenseful sound track would put the audience in much more suspense rather than a scene without it, as it puts the audience in anticipation to what the sound track is building up to. I also carried out research into the cinematography used in the thriller genre, I looked at the clip from SAW, from this I found out that "point of view" (POV) camera angles gave the effect that they are the character allowing the audience to build a stronger bond with the character, therefore if you do the POV camera angle for the victim, the audience can begin to feel the fear of the character, making elements like suspense a lot more effective. Due to this I decided to add the use of POV angles in order to appeal to the audience more, a benefit of the research. During the planning of our thriller opening I decided it was best to carry out some primary research, I did this in the format of questionnaires, this was an important stage in the  planning as this gave me the opinion of the target audience on thriller films and let me know what people like to see in thriller films, this included which setting they would like to see and what characters they would like to see. The results I received were that they preferred anonymous killers and a forest setting. From this I based our thriller opening around the results of the questionnaires and it also helped us develop ideas that we already had, benefitting me greatly. This helped me develop the narrative as I now knew what the target audience preferred when watching thriller films, which meant I could incorporate those ideas. 

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

A target audience are the people that the product is aimed at, in this instance it is what the audience that the film is made to appeal to the most. My film had the target audience of teenagers, therefore when making the film we made it with teenagers in mind, considering what would appeal to them the most. I chose teenagers as we carried out a survey in which I found they watch thriller films the most, also because we are teenagers, it would be easier to make the thriller more relate able. The narrative of my thriller film was relate able for the audience because of the simplicity of it, a teenage girl walking home on the streets who is then followed by a mysterious figure, this is relate able because of the possibly of it, this could happen to any teenager, anywhere. By having a female teenage victim this means that teenagers can easily relate to her situation, by making it easy to relate it makes the audience more involved in the film, and as the film progresses the audience will start to feel the fear of the character, making it more effective. Another element that made my film successful and would appeal to my audience would be the costume and makeup, this was a big factor in making my film more relate able for teenagers as the costumes that our characters wore were clothes that anyone could wear, this meant that the audience could again become more involved in the film, as they can relate to the clothes that the victim wears allowing them to put themselves in her position. This was also the case with the killer, the clothes of the killer are ones that anyone could wear again, involving the audience in the film again because they think that the killer could be anyone, drawing them into watching on as they wish to find out who the killer is as the assumptions of who the killer is increase.

Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question 2 - How does the media product represent particular groups?

There are only two characters within my thriller opening, the first being a blonde female teenager. My group chose to use this as she is a very conventional character to the thriller genre, this is because blonde hair is seen as innocence, and the light colour then goes onto portray the colour white, which has the connotations of good. This is then complimented by the fact that the victim is a teenager, this again shows innocence, as teenagers have not had to get jobs and live by themselves, this represents vulnerability, therefore by making our victim a teenager we can appeal to our audience as they will begin to emphasise with the character. Also my target audience are teenagers the audience can relate to the character, allowing them to feel the character’s fear, which is important in helping the audience becoming more involved in the opening sequence. The fact that my victim was a female was because females are often depicted as being weaker than males, like age, it again portrays vulnerability, this again allows the audience to emphasise with her situation and begin to fear for her wellbeing, therefore once the killer is seen the audience begin to build some fear, therefore making conventions for example a chase scene more effective.

The other character I have included within my thriller opening is the killer, he is a hooded male dressed in black. From the fact that the killer’s identity is hidden it represents that the killer is going to do something bad, this is due to the fact as people want their identity hidden it means that they don’t want anyone to know it was them who did it, from this assumption the audience will believe that the killer is going to do something bad. Therefore as soon as the audience see that the characters identity is hidden they will automatically begin to build a fear for the character. Also because the fact that the killer is wearing all black this carries the representation that the character is going to be bad. Black carries the connotations of bad, evil and death, so therefore the audience will automatically think this of the character as he is dressed in all black. This again builds on the audience beginning to fear the character as they automatically assume that he is going to do something bad, this is the reason why we chose to use this character.

Question 1 - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The conventions of the thriller genre are dark/isolated setting, a victim, a protagonist, chase scene, suspense, shock, surprise, iconography, low key lighting and enigma. One series of films that uses these conventions well is the Scream series, always having a victim and a killer involved in a chase scene, the iconography of the mask of ghost face, also an enigma of always who is the killer.

One convention I followed was iconography, this is the killer's weapon, and I chose to use a hammer instead of a knife because it portrays a more brutal side to the killer, which reveals more about the killer to the audience, which intrigues them, and makes them want to watch on hoping to find out why he uses a hammer.

 A film that uses the convention of iconography well is Scream, they use the stereotypical knife however uses it well, as the audience already have an instilled fear for knifes as people know the damage that they can cause. Scream plays on that idea and therefore uses it for the killer portraying him as deadly.  Another convention I used was a chase scene, this is because this is a good way of creating suspense in the scene, as the audience begin to emphasise with the victim, therefore as she is being chased by the killer they want her to get away, therefore putting them in suspense as to whether she is going to get away and what is going to happen if she is caught. This is important in a thriller film as suspense is one of the main effects that the thriller genre aims to create for the audience. One film series that uses this convention well is the Halloween series, as it often uses them throughout the series, like our chase scenes they are made in order to put the audience in suspense, as they wish for the victim to get away and are scared for what is going to happen to them. This is the same effect that we are trying to create, and is a key convention of the thriller genre. Another stereotypical convention of the thriller genre I used was low key lighting, this is used to add enigma to the scene, this means that less of the scene is revealed to the audience, which leads to them not being able to see what is behind the characters and etc, creating a sense of tension and suspense. I used this convention throughout the opening and especially during the chase scene, this reduced the audience's view of the scene and gives the idea of the victim being lost, as you cannot see where she is going, therefore it gives the idea that the victim does not know where she is going. This was used well in the film Mama, this was used during a chase scene and throughout the film.

Audience feedback - Miss Georgiou

Explain why the audience feedback is important to production?
Audience feedback is important to the production as the film is made with them in mind, therefore their opinions on the film are an important factor, if the audience finds a certain element ineffective then that element has been unsuccessful. Using the audience's feedback can help making improvements, and therefore a more improved final version, which has a greater effect on the audience.

How did you receive feedback from your target audience?
I received target audience feedback by doing a presentation, this presentation first showed the audience where we got the idea for our setting, character, narrative, and the inspirations behind them. We then proceeded to show them the rough cut of our thriller opening, giving them sheets in which they had to place what mark they thought we deserved and then what went well and what should be improved. Another way we collected information from the target audience was through questionnaires, this was before we had filmed our thriller opening and greatly benefited us when we was planning, this gave us the existing opinions on the thriller genre, therefore we knew what was effective and what we could include in our very own.

How would your feedback benefit your product and the industry?
This feedback would benefit our product as this gives us guidance of what to improve, letting us know what aspects of the film we need to change in order to have a greater effect on the audience, this would greatly improve the final product. This would improve the industry as by having a more professional looking final product it would make the industry more competitive as they would be challenged by our film, making them want to make even better films, improving the industry all together.

Constructive comments made by other groups

Narrative - One of the comments made by the other group was to make the narrative of our thriller clearer, this is because the target audience found that our narrative was not clear enough for them top understand.

More sound effects - The audience found there was not a wider range of sound effects and found that the ones that are there did not have a great impact on them, feeling that the sound effects should be used for more effect.

Improved lighting - The other comment we recieved was that the lighting in the final scene was too dark, meaning that they couldn't see clearly what was happening in the final scene.

How we overcame these comments

Narrative - We overcame the narrative problem by adding extra clips to the sequence, this gave the audience more to watch and to help them understand the narrative.

More sound effects - We overcame this problem by finding more suitable sound effects, especially ones to use during the chase scene as this intensifies the clip which means it would have a greater effect on the audience.

Improved lighting - We overcame this problem by going out and filming the sequence again at an earlier time, this meant there was more sunlight which made the scene alot clearer, during this time we was able to make improvements the actual narrative of the sequence.

Rough cut post - Miss Miller

Why is a rough cut important to consider?

A rough cut is the first cut of a film, without no or minimal editing. This is an important process in creating our thriller as this allows us to see how our opening is looking so far, this is also an important process as this allows us to receive feedback about our thriller opening, therefore letting us know how to improve our thriller film and what to change in our thriller films, for example what editing techniques to include and how much of each clip to cut.

Why is it important to consider audience feedback?

It is important to consider to audience feedback, as it allows us to find out what the initial ideas of the target audience are about our thriller film, and what they think could be improved in our thriller films, for example if they didn't like a certain part or aspect of our thriller film, we could find that out, and then improve it according to there feedback, this helps us appeal to our target audience more.

How did we collect our audience feedback?

One way in which we collected our audience feedback was through audience feedback forms, these were given out after the presentation of our rough cut, this form included what we mark they think we deserved out of 60, what went well in our thriller opening and then what we could of improved on.

The second way in which we received feedback was by giving a presentation of our inspirations of the narrative, the setting and then the characters, and the reasons why we included them, after that we then received questions about our thriller from the target audience in which we answered appropriately.

What feedback did we receive?

The praise from the feedback we received was mainly about the cutting of our clips, saying that the cutting of each of the clips went well and that we cut them at the correct times, for the correct effect. However we did receive many more improvements that we could make, one of them being that we should increase the amount of effects that we should add, as our editing was basic at that point in time. Another improvement we had to make was improving lighting of the final scenes of our opening scene, as this would make what is going on in the scene a lot more clearer to the audience, however this was an improvement we couldn't make as we had no time to re-film, and it was harder to film as it got darker as we had to rely on natural light because of the setting, and if we was to film it any earlier it would of not had the same night time effect. The other improvement that we received was to add more sound effects, due to this feedback we are now going to find a more sound effects that we could add into our thriller opening however we need to be sure that we don't over use sound effects.