Final Thriller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00vMjVPWQW8

Introduction to evaluation

For my coursework I was set the task of creating an opening sequence for a thriller film, therefore I had to research and plan different conventions and effects used within the thriller genre. Within my group there was myself, who had the role of director and producer, Tom Tovey, who was allocated as an actor and editor and finally Scott Arbuckle, who was cameraman. As director and producer I was responsible for the settings, filming schedule, positioning of the actors within scenes and has the final say in the editing stage. From my experience of this I had learnt how to give out directions and constructive criticism in order to improve and create a successful piece of work.

I believe my group did work very well together during the planning and filming stages we each contributed ideas, which we agreed would to use within our opening sequence. However when it came down to the editing stage, there was quite a lot of conflict as we disagreed on several choices in terms of the sound effects and editing pace. Although we disagreed it benefited us in the long term because we had decided to compromise and combine the ideas, which created a better effect within our opening sequence. Even though there were many sections we could have further improved if we were given more time and expertise.

 I believe my opening sequence has been successful, because it included many features and conventions of a thriller e.g. enigma, low key lighting, death and many more other effects.

Question 6

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

Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Thriller comparison - Miss Georgiou

I believe my opening sequence of a thriller was successful in most areas, for example our opening sequence used low key lighting effectively to create suspense for the audience watching. I believe because we knew the features needed to make a successful thriller, therefore made appropriate and effective choices. Most of creativity was shown through the element of cinematography, this is because we made many brave choices which were risky in taking as they subverted from the conventional thriller camera angles. For example when the killer is at the end of the alley and it is a long shot in which not much of the character is easy to see.

There are many micro elements in which aspects of our opening sequence can be compared to, however I can compare my thriller to any successful existing one and still prove that my thriller is conventional.

Psycho

Psycho is a very successful and important film within the thriller genre, it was an Alfred Hitchcock movie that was released within the 1960's and now ranked one of the greatest films of all time.

• The narrative involves a deranged character who becomes two personalities, he then kills other characters because of hes unstable state of mind. This is similar to my narrative as the killer within my thriller is deranged and is a lot not in a stable state of mind as he chooses to kill an innocent character within the clip. This narrative is proved to be successful and therefore I believe is a sensible choice to have made.

• The editing withing Psycho is very simplistic however this is due to the lack of development within the production stages and technology at the time period the film was created. Therefore my thriller has used slightly more advanced editing although we did not include too much as we did not want to distract the audience from the realistic storyline.

• The setting within Psycho varies within different scene however the main setting is at the hotel of the killer, which is in the middle of a derelict area. This is slightly similar to the setting I used within my thriller as it takes place down an empty alley and an overgrown forest, I believe this is a sensible choice to have made for my thriller. This is because it creates alot of suspense for the audience as they build up the instinct that the victims will not survive due to there being nobody around to save them.

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Target audience feedback - Miss Georgiou

Audience feedback is important within a production, because it helps people make changes based on what their specific audience wants. With the criticisms and positive comments, the material can be altered to fufill the pleasures of the target audience, this will help make a much better and appropriate sequence.We collected our audience feedback through our media class, as they are within the age range of ourn target audience, we played our rough copy to them and handed out feedback sheets for them to fill in. Within the sheet, there was questions on how effective and pleasureable certain features of the film were. This then helped us make changes within our opening sequence to make it more successful in fitting the criteria and following the conventions of the thriller genre.

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.

  
  

Question 7

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

Before I had to begin to start my planning and filming my opening sequence I had to carry out a preliminary task, in which we had to film and edit a simple scene. Within our preliminary task Tom was appointed the role of director of photography which Scott and myself were starring in the clip.

From carrying this out I had discovered how to switch angles of the camera to create a realistic effect for the audience watching, so that they could feel connected to the characters. This played a massive role in helping our opening sequence much more professional and more pleasurable to watch.
We also learnt that through re-doing clips it became much easier within the editing stage, this is because if one clip was not up to our standards or incorrect in anyway we would not have to go back to re-film as we would have backups. This became very useful when filming our footage for our opening sequence as even though it was time consuming at the time, in the long term we had saved a lot of time.

Having completed this preliminary task, we now have experience on how we can film and edit our opening sequence using different angles and editing skills. We learnt how to use the stand and camera and use many techniques for creating different effects using them. However we did struggle to repeat certain angles and positions of the camera when filming the conversation between myself and Scott, this is because we had to change the camera position each time one of us replied in the conversation. This was tricky as we had to return the camera into the exact same place, otherwise the whole clip would have been out of focus.

Here is the female victim, played by Sophie Ledwith and next to her the killer, played by Tom Tovey.

Question 3

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

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Within my opening sequence I used two characters, a female victim who was played by Sophie Ledwith and the male killer played by Tom Tovey. Sophie played the victim who was eventually murdered by the killer; this is a very conventional representation of victims within the thriller genre. The victim tends to be a female gender to represent vulnerability as females are stereotyped as the inferior sex. My group and I chose to use this convention, as we believed it was a successful method to relate the audience to the narrative of the opening sequence.

Tom played the villain who murdered the female victim, this is another conventional choice of characters as stereotypically males are portrayed as the superior gender therefore the female would be very powerless compared to him. I chose to abide by the convention as it is a very effective element used within thrillers. This characters was tall and had his identity hidden, I believed this would appeal to our audience, as they would most probably react in the same way the victim did. Having the killers identity hidden created a larger impact of suspense on the audience, as they were unaware of the killer's appearance therefore unaware of what he might do.

I believe my characters build a relationship with the audience as they are of similar ages therefore can connect with them in a stronger way, this included the characters wearing very conventional clothing for their age group. This will make it more relatable for the audience watching as they become aware of the age of the characters through this. There are many different existing thrillers that include female victims and male killers for example;

• Halloween- Male killer, many victims equally of both gender however main victim was female.
• Scream- Male killer, many victims all of the female gender.
• Psycho- Male killer, other victims however main victim is female.
• Last house on the left- Male killers, female victims.
• Hide and seek- Male killer, few victims however main victim female.

Question 1

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

My opening sequence included many generic thriller conventions including;

• Chase scenes- which is used in many famous, successful thriller films such as Scream and Halloween. Within these thrillers several victims are chased by the villain, therefore within my clip there is a chase scene where the female victim is chased by the Killer in the forest. Throughout my research I found that during the chase scene the killer seems to walk in a fast pace rather than run like the victim, this is believed to make the victim seem more vulnerable and the killer seem deranged and superior.

• Female victims- which is the most common thriller convention, used in many films such as Paranormal activity, Jaws, Roommate and Scream. Within these thrillers, the main and majority of the other victims are female. For example Roommate, which uses a young, pretty female as the villain of the film. However within my thriller I decided not to subvert against the codes and conventions of a thriller, as I did not have much research collected on thrillers that did this and stereotypically females are the weaker more vulnerable gender. Therefore the audience can relate to my choice of characters as they are aware of these stereotypes.

• A forest setting- which is used within The Blair Witch Project, which is where most of the surprise and shock elements come into action. Within my thriller 50% of the footage is filmed within a forest location, it creates a higher level of suspense and fear for the audience as it is not a comfortable or familiar setting. The use of all the dead trees conveys the victims future, as she is in danger at the specific time the trees appear in the frame. They also create more suspense and drama for the audience as they become connected to the character and become distressed as they can not see anywhere for her to hide from the killer.

• Low-key lighting- which is used within aspects of most if not all thriller films for example Halloween and Scream. This is the main convention used to help build suspense for the audience. Low key lighting begins in my thriller sequence when the chase scene begins, this was used to create a scarier atmosphere, as the low key lighting builds up more suspense and shock for when the killer captures the victim. The low key lighting used within my opening sequence gradually becomes more apparent as the narrative becomes darker and more dangerous, this is used to alert the audience of the upcoming events within the narrative.

Handheld camera- which is used within documentary films such as Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project. This is used used to create a very realistic effect for the audience. Within my opening sequence the handheld camera effect was used many times from the victims point of view, it was used to show her point of view and portray her emotions to the audience as the camera becomes jerky and unstable. There is also another point within my opening sequence in which the killer is holding the handheld camera, this is used to convey his control and emotionless behaviour towards the victim, we added in an effect over the footage to emphasis this representation. 

• Iconography- I chose to use a hammer as the weapon, this is because it gives effect when the weapon choice subverts from the stereotypical weapon. For example within Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a chainsaw is used instead of the stereotypical knife. Although I did make a slight choice in iconography which was not conventional to most thrillers. Instead of using a knife was the weapon, I chose to use a hammer, this is because my killer had to be portrayed as deranged and I believe this is a good way to reflect this. I directed Tom to hold the hammer and make a hand gesture with it, I believe this gave him a much more terrifying portrayal as it looks like he is enjoying stalking his victim.

All of these conventions plus many more are used within thrillers to help build suspense for the audience so that they are aware of the genre of the film and become frightened. When watching a thriller the audience become drawn in by the conventions as they experience the three S's, suspense, shock and surprise. To create the 3 S's films need to include many generic conventions, however many films challenge the codes and conventions of a thriller. 

Overall I do believe my thriller is conventional, as it includes many codes and conventions in which the audience can become aware of the genre of the film, they can associate all of the elements and effects that I have used towards the thriller genre. The title of my opening sequence is 'Aphotic' which is another word for 'Dark'. I chose this to be the title of my thriller as it is very mysterious which reflects the narrative of my actual opening sequence. I believe this is a very conventional title for a thriller as it has a deeper meaning which represents the atmosphere of most thrillers, it builds suspense for the audience as they are unaware of this deeper meaning until the end of the film.