The conventions of a thriller are shown in the spider diagram. Our thriller incorporates the crime and murder convention and the antagonistic - protagonistic narrative structure.
It also contains voyeurism, which is a general convention of thrillers.
However, we do challenge some thriller conventions such as the lack of a male lead. In most thrillers the lead character is male but in ours the lead is female and the developing character gets stronger as the film progresses.
Our thriller is a psychological thriller with some crime. This is indicated through the flash-back to the antagonist performing the killing and through the voyeurism. The voyeurism causes the audience to wonder who is watching the action - is it them? Is it Amy? Is it the antagonist? This psychological confusion is created by jumping between different perspectives and camera angles - between the body, camp fire and the POV shots in the different scenes.
Each group member came up with a story idea and we chose one of these to develop. The final storyline was created from my original idea. I was influenced by my location and some aspects of the crime convention in CSI. As I live on a farm, I know how scary it is at night and this gave me ideas on what sort of effects could be created if we filmed there.
How does our media product represent particular social groups?
The social group represented in our media is white males and females around the age of 17.
Gender representation in most thrillers I've seen include a stereotypical male lead for example in the film crank (watch from 2.40 to 3.45), all the focus is on the male lead who has to keep his adrenaline pumping. But ours is not stereotypical of gender because it has a female main. The secondary lead could be male or female, however from the stance and style of the figure the assumption is that they are male.
What kind of media institution might distribute our media product and why?
If our film were to be released it would be a TV movie because our target audience (15-30) includes students still in school or university who tend to watch more TV. Our film probably would not be an Internet release only film as it is aimed at an audience who are more likely to watch TV than spend time searching the Internet for thriller films.
Our film would offer opportunities for franchises such as video games and investors. Merchandising could offer opportunities to make money through the making of t-shirts, mugs and posters. Also money could be made through DVD sales. Posters would appeal to our target age group as they are likely to be young people who like decorating their rooms with posters.
Who is the audience for our media product?
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/downloads/pub/Guidelines/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202009.pdf
How did we attract/address our audience?
Our audience profile is both genders between the ages of 15 and 30. One of the ways we attracted this audience was by using characters of a similar age, for example the group of friends around the camp fire are all meant to be 17+ and the antagonist and victim are slightly older, aged 20-25.We also attracted our audience by making the flashback brutal and violent to increase the tension and to confuse the audience as to what is going on. However, a younger audience could be terrified because of the jumping between angles and because the sequence is in black and white to make it dark and show that it is a flashback.
Throughout, the audience are asked to put themselves either in the position of Amy or watch the action themselves. They are able to witness what is happening to Amy as well as the positions she is in. They also witness what she sees in her mind when the flashback occurs. This allows them to see character development and allows the audience to be in Amy's position.
This creates suspense by them not knowing whose point of view it is from and who is meant to be seeing it happen? - The audience, Amy or the antagonist? This is what also causes it to be a psychological thriller because it jumbles things up in the audiences mind.
The music and sounds used attract the audience because they build suspense, eg. a mix of the feet walking through the leaves and the eerie sound of 'Scary Playground' over the top. Since the music had to be copyright free we used the websites below and got permission:
http://www.enetiworld.com/Enetiworld/Music.html
http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Horror
The mise en scene we created was one way we attracted our audience, shown below: (click the image below)
What have I learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
One of the main problems we experienced during filming was the camera batteries were not charged, but as we used 2 cameras we were able to leave one on charge while we used the other, as the scene we were filming at this point didn't require 2 angles. We experienced problems with a generated light as the generator made too much noise and so overpowered all of our speaking. We resolved this by re-filming the parts with the problem without the generator, using a different power source.
Another problem with the re-film was that we had get back the actors that we had before as other scenes that we had already filmed included some of those from the original footage. We managed a date where most who were in the original footage were available and others replaced those who could not attend.
One piece of new equipment that I had never used before was the gels which changed the colour of the light. We used a blue one in the killing sequence and this deepened the colours but enhanced the knife as the light caught it. We turned the final killing sequence into black and white to give a better effect because the blue gel used didn't make the scene dark enough.
I have learnt more about the use of final cut express and what the tools and features do. Since the preliminary task I have learnt how to add effects.
One useful effect was the cross dissolve as it was a way of showing time passing. I also learnt how to make the sequence black and white.
One interesting feature was the speed effect. We sped up part of the flashback where the knife is pulled away from the body. In final cut express we edited the music and sound using the sound bar so there was no need to use garage band. (to view image please click on it)
One thing I found useful was the amount of filming that we did. We asked our actors to repeat the same parts 4 or 5 times so that we could get a good range of takes and any problems that occurred could be discarded. We did takes with different light and different angles which helped us when we came to edit because if there were any problems we were able to use a different take and combine takes to get a sequence that we liked. Using this process we got many outtakes from it like the one below:
Looking back on the preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Throughout the planning and research we worked well as a group to put our ideas together to create the final outcome. We brought together our different interests and knowledge to create the camera angles and effects. (to enlarge image please click)
Storyboarding was one of the hardest parts of the project because we had to think about our sequence of events and try to create a frame for each. As a group our storyboard was successful and we were able to easily follow it when filming. The image below is a sample of our storyboard. (please click to enlarge)
The practice filming that we did a few weeks before our final filming allowed us to make changes to our storyboard. We were able to work out what lighting would need to be changed and what angles. It allowed us to see which gels would work best for lighting effects and where the light needed to come from to illuminate important features.
You can view our practice filming on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nfgsearth#p/u
Since the preliminary task I have a better understanding of the shot types and how to use them. We used many different camera angles within our piece, one of the most used being POV shots. We also used simultaneous time to show that the group of friends were carrying on as normal while Amy was wondering through the woods finding the caravan. This is shown where the scream is heard by the friends.
I feel much more confident with all the equipment than I did in the preliminary task. This is because in the meantime I had practiced with the camera and got much more experience during the filming process. I had a lack of understanding on how to use it before we had started our filming. The practice filming and testing helped me to gain confidence and understanding. I now understand how to set up all the equipment and how to use it.
Overall we have met the task requirements of making an opening to a thriller. It meets our aim of making a psychological thriller that creates suspense and confusion.
I asked some viewers for their opinions on the opening and their feedback is on the following link: http://nfgsearth.blogspot.com/p/audience-feedback-grace.html
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