Alicia - question 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The intended audience for my film ‘Payday’ would be the 18-35 age range. This is because the film would develop into something more sinister with intentions to appeal to spectators who enjoy terror and gore. It wouldn’t turn into a ‘horror’ film with supernatural or evil elements, it would merely develop into something more mentally challenging for younger viewers. Having said this, I would rate the film a certificate ‘15’ in order to attract a younger demographic, but would intentionally be more appropriate for people of an older age.
• I did a survey asking 30 people questions about thriller films. I made sure 15 were male and 15 were female in order to get reliable and comparable results.

RESULTS

·         By looking at the results above, I have come to the conclusion that the male sex would be most interested in my film as the majority have a higher interest in the thriller genre than women.

·         But also, the fact that the overall most enjoyable genre is ‘psychological’ relates to my film as it follows this genre also.

·         This means that although men have a higher taste for thrillers then women, at least if a female was to watch a thriller film then it would be one which fitted the genre my film follows, indicating that my film could suit both male and female, giving it a wider demographic and more of a chance to succeed.

• Psychological thrillers are a popular brand of thriller film; therefore when in the process of releasing my film I must be aware to target my audience beforehand to prevent from clashing with other thrillers. This will become easier for me as I am aware of my audience and fan base now because of what the statistics show.

A newly released thriller film ‘Hunger Games’ has hyped up a large demographic already within the first few weeks of release. Although this film doesn’t have the same qualities as my film in terms of the fact it isn’t exactly ‘psychological’, but it targets the same demographic that mine is aimed at. Therefore, I asked the same 30 people about this film…

This goes to show that what an audience of the thriller genre is looking for is a genuinely good thriller film that will have them on the edge of their seat. Therefore, creating a psychological thriller fits into this category of ‘sitting on the edge of your seat’ and it plays with the mind of the audience, which therefore demonstrates how I have grasped the idea of which audience type would be suitable for me and my film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/ - Hunger Games (IMDb)

http://www.imdb.com/genre/thriller - Thriller Genres (IMDb)

Jonah - Evaluation question 7

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

[Two shot, white balanced slightly off] 

Since my Preliminary task i have progressed my learning mainly in post-production, editing, Foley effects and how to construct a character. I have furthered my understanding in camera work, the rule of thirds, and cross cutting.

[Focus pulling, blurring the mirror
image and restricting narrative]

• Camera work - The main aspect of camera work i have furthered my learning is in white balancing and how critical it is to maintain a believable, realistic, video. By learning how to spot when white balance is incorrect i have made sure that in my thriller white balance is good all the way through, although the first shot of the main female character in bed is very red which was done deliberately too add realism as the sun was shining through red curtains. In my thriller i used a camera technique called focus pulling and this added greatly to the whole clip as a depth of field could be created focusing on a character or object to created restricted narration.

[Here the masking
 of the alarm is visible]

•  Post production - During the post production of the Preliminary task i didn't learn, in depth, Final cut pro and Garageband as post production was very basic for that video. But through creating the Thriller opening i have learned a lot about both pieces of software, in depth. An example is the masking over the alarm clock and creating a filter to create a night shot. During the production of the Preliminary task minimal audio editing was required so my learning was not furthered. But during the editing process of the Thriller opening audio editing made up a huge proportion of time while editing because of the audio that was unusable and had to be replaced by many different Foley effects.  

• Construction of characters - Through creating this fully finished product i have learnt a lot about character construction and how to portray that on screen. For my preliminary task character construction wasn't necessary so i don't learn much about how to create a character, so for my Thriller opening character creation was a priority to progress in. By using effective and recognizable costumes, locations and camera angles i tried creating characters that could be identified with although this was hard considering i had no dialogue at all, to explain and get a feel for the characters.

• Continuity editing -  This is the foundations of any video product, without solid continuity a product such as my Thriller can completely fail and ruin what could have been a great story. I have learnt about continuity editing from the very beginning of the Preliminary all the way through to the filming of the Thriller. During the process of creating the Prelim task the emphasis was on 180(degree) rule and shot reverse shots, which are used religiously on sequences with two characters. But with my Thriller i didn't have two character in the shot at once meaning i couldn't apply a shot reverse shot and the 180(degree) rule didn't have much importance. 

• Shot 2 and 3 - These shots from my preliminary task are good examples of bad white balancing. At the time i couldn't notice if the white balance was good or not, but by learning about the function of white balance and where it needs to be applied i have learnt to white balance correctly for my Thriller.
• Shot 4 and 5 - These shots show the bad lighting technique i used which create glare and reflect harshly back into the camera. In these shots i only used one light which caused hard lighting, but i have learnt now to use 2-3 lights and use a Key light and a Fill light to create less harsh shadows and create different atmospheres by changing the intensity of the light. 

(http://foundationportfolio1272.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/lighting-exercise.html) - this links to my previous lighting exercise to show how i have learnt about different types of lighting.

• Shot 5, 6 and 9 - These shots are an example of bad framing. Having bad framing in a video really detracts from the story and doesn't help to enrich it either. In shot 9 the camera wasn't set properly on its tripod so the shot become slightly canted which was not planned and shows sloppy camera work which lowers the production quite of the video.    

• Shot 1 and 5 -  These are examples of focus pulling. From learning about focus pulling and how it can restrict narration and emphasis objects, using it really adds to the story and gives emphasis to parts of the story e.g. in Shot 1 the camera is unfocused to emphasis that this character has quite woken up and is still feeling tried and heavy eyed, getting the audience connect with this character.
• Shots 2 and 3 - These shots clearly display how i have learnt how to use the white balance function correctly and to use it in different lighting enviroments.
• Shots 6,8 and 9 - These shots display how i have progressed in the use of lighting, this time purposefully creating a high amount of contrast to hide part of the characters faces adding to the tension and suspense of the scene.   

Alicia - question 3

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

·         When ready for the release of my film, I would approach distributors such as 'Pathe Distribution' since I am aware of their successes in the film industry. British films such as ‘Adulthood’ have been under Pathé’s distribution as well as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which won 8 Oscars.

·         However, in order to succeed further once approaching a distributor, I would then consider the next steps in achieving a successful release of my film. With the help and advice from Pathé (or similar distributors) I would then begin the search for my fan base in order to prepare for the final release. To achieve this I would use sources such as the internet including social networking sites, in order to promote the release of my film and get a ready audience.

Online promotion

• Social Media (Facebook fan pages, Groups and Twitter)
• Video marketing (Youtube, Vimeo)
• E-mail marketing
• Advertising (Google, Facebook)
• Integrated partnerships
• Social Plugins
• Forum marketing

All these sources are possibilities in terms of promoting online, and is also a sensible starter to the success of my film because nowadays this is where the majority spend their time and would therefore follow the release.

Release of ‘Payday’

·         When releasing something, whether it’s a film, video game, song etc. it is essential to keep an eye out for competition in order to make sure you’re release isn’t at the same time as something that could steal your audience.

·         As ‘Payday’ isn’t a high-budget film, it can easily lose its targeted audience if something bigger and higher-budget was released at the same time. Therefore, planning in advance is crucial in order to make sure that the research for possible competition was done way before the release date.

·          This would refer to the release of ‘Avatar’ and ‘District 9’ both with similar themes are heavy use of CGI. Avatar won the war of largest audience after they were both released together. However, the anticipation for the release of Avatar was a lot larger than District 9 where Avatar clearly planned their techniques of creating ‘hype’ before the release. This is why it is essential to create hype by using the above promotion techniques in order to grab the audience’s attention before it’s too late.

·         After release is a totally different ball game where films then slowly come out on DVD and TV. However, when my film has made it onto disc, I would then approach companies such as ‘Netflix’ and ‘Lovefilm’ to help sell my film further. These would allow ‘customer’s’ and audience members to enjoy the film over and over again but also by keeping it in profit.

Alicia - question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller has a traditional approach to social particular social groups in the respect that we have cast the characters stereotypically.

Firstly gender- it is rare to see the female character as to behold the higher status or protagonist stature. This occurs particularly in thrillers where the antagonist is usually making the females feeling inferior and to become the victims where the protagonist is then there to ‘save the females’. We included this reference into our film in order to approach the thriller genre typically in order to convey a truthful response in relation to the theme. We have the two females who are at risk of kidnap from the male as he holds the higher, threatening status. This occurs in other thriller films such as ‘Batman: the dark knight’ where the Joker is the villain of the film whereas Batman is the protagonist.

Protagonist and antagonist examples

·         Female current victim: has the lowest status throughout the film opening as her character is held captive by the male character’s intentions. She portrays this as she is helplessly carried ‘unconscious’ throughout numerous shots within the clip by the male antagonist.

·         Female possible victim: this character holds the most mysterious qualities in the sense that enigma is created through the appearance of her character. Is she next to become a victim? What is her relation with the other two characters? This supports the idea of enigma being created in a typical thriller and also reinforces the actions of the male in the other scenes as she is happily continuing her life.

·         Male antagonist: the traditional element to a thriller film. The male within our film holds the superior status as he beholds villain-like qualities as he takes one female for advantage. His murderous ways become apparent when the clip ends on him committing his crime.

Sorority Row screen grabs, related to the age of the characters

The 'boss' in full view of costume and status

Secondly age- although the age of our characters in ‘Payday’ aren’t specified, it follows a typical age range as in real thriller films. In teenage thriller films such as ‘Sorority Row’, the characters are usually young and naïve as it reinforces and emphasises the bad/evil elements of the storyline as they are so oblivious. Although our characters are at work (due to the indication from the costume choice) they are within their late 20’s which supports the idea they are oblivious to the dangers around them. However, the male antagonist is portrayed to be around the 30/40 year old mark as he is also the ‘boss’ within the film, relating to the title ‘Payday’. This again supports the fact that he has the higher status as he is higher in ranking at the ‘office’.

·         Female current victim: she is wearing basic black and white office wear to indicate her status within her work place, and also the fact that she is younger than this antagonist. This again relates to her naivety in initially trusting the man in her employment and thus ending up in her current situation.

·         Female possible victim: she appears quite air-headed and youthful in relation to the dark scenes in which her scenes cut to. As she continues her day naively it could relate to the idea that she trusts the man at work and therefore maybe is too young to experience people like him and other such circumstances.

·         Male antagonist: like other thriller films, and other films in general, the male is the oldest of the cast. This gives him the chance to give his character more mature characteristics and the ability to carry the victim on his shoulder. Without being classed as sexist, this gives the females an indication to show their inferiority in relation to himself.

Uma Therman in 'Kill Bill' shows representation of status in relation to Bill as she goes through all that trouble to hunt him down- shows he's hard to capture, again showing his status.

David Carradine in 'Kill Bill' showing superiority over other character's as he causes the most chaos without  physically being part of it all, emphasises his higher status.

Finally social class- although not much is given away within the opening about the background story and relationships with the characters, it is apparent that the male does hold the higher status. As well as being the ‘boss’, he is also typically portrayed through the idea that he is a male. These elements are relatable to thrillers such as ‘Kill Bill vol:1’ where the male holds superiority of the females (the bride and Bill). This is where the females may seem tough, but the males hold the higher status over-all.

Victim's helpless status in comparison to the male antagonist

·         Female current victim: has she has little action and movement within the clip, this shows she doesn’t have the free will to do as she please unlike the other two (the other female and the male antagonist). She beholds the lowest status, but this reinforces how the act and actions of the male has made her unable to do as she pleases.

Happily going to work, naively

·         Female possible victim: she seems to have confidence in our film as she happily gets ready for her day. This shows how she looks forward to her job at work but is therefore naïve to the actions of the ‘boss’. However, she acts as though she has the ability to stand up for herself in later scenes, which relates back to the idea that we have created enigma for the audience as it isn't shown within the film that she even gets involved with the murderer.

·         Male antagonist: obliviously have the higher status as he has control over the narrative and the murders themselves. His effect on other people’s lives shows his superiority within the film.

Alicia - question 1

1.      In what ways does your thriller use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real thrillers?

·         Films and productions of a ‘thrilling’ nature must convey the same themes and techniques in order to fulfil the requirements for a genuine thriller. One of the most essential requirements for a thriller film is that it creates ‘enigma’ for the audience. This fills the criteria for the thriller genre as it adds a sense of mystery and suspense for the audience. This applies to my final product of ‘Payday’ where the opening leads the audience into the unknown as enigma is created. I have achieved this by restricting the narrative in order to leave the audience ‘guessing’ i.e. whether the character dies or gets kidnapped etc.

·         This also helps with audience interaction and involvement as it leaves them wanting to continue with the viewing experience in order to find out what happens next. This is relatable with real thrillers as restricted narrative contributes to the creation of enigma as the spectator waits in anticipation for something to else to happen or be revealed.

·         In order to achieve the effect of restricted narration, we have used no dialogue or speech, as other thrillers do, to demonstrate the fact that there is mystery to be solved and uncovered. This relates to other thriller openings in particular where bits of narration are left out and speech is minimal so that the spectator feels the need to find out more, thus continuing to the end of the film.

·         Another technique used to contribute to the realism of a thriller film, is the use of iconography. This is appropriately used in our film where props such as weaponry (spade) and dark nights are associated with the thriller genre. This is seen in other films as well in order to capture the genre and themes of the film, in which we have done so accordingly.

·         Another contribution to meeting the forms and conventions of real thrillers is our use of the four elements; mise en scene, camerawork, editing and sound.

·         MISE EN SCENE: we used appropriate props for both the series of narratives (cross-cutting of actions) happening within the clip. It is important within a thriller that everything is perfectly framed within the shot in order to convey that particular genre. For example, in films such as ‘Batman: the dark knight’ in the opening if the Joker’s make-up was perfectly applied, he wouldn’t portray this eerie character whom gives off a distressed, troubled image. This is also relatable to our film where the kidnapper is wearing a distressed business suit which suggests he’s in the middle of a crime/up to no good; appropriately conveyed in relation to mise en scene. This also relates to ‘Hanna’ where she is portrayed as a dangerous, skilled young girl who clearly has the skills of the use of a bow and arrow, whereas if she used a gun it wouldn’t portray such a dangerous character. Again with our film, if the kidnapper used a gun rather than a spade, it wouldn’t portray this character as someone who’s willing to torture and brutally murder rather than quickly fire them with a bullet.

·         CAMERAWORK: this is important with a thriller as the different uses of the camera can portray a ‘thrilling’ sequence. For example, canted and hand-held shots make a shot seem very distorted and eerie for the audience as it doesn’t apply the elements of normality. This again is used in ‘Hanna’, a real thriller film, in the opening where she is viewed as distorted from behind the trees as she is shot hand-held. This gives the sense that she is a dangerous character within the sequence. We again used the same technique when the kidnapper is looking down on the victim in the ditch in order to portray this idea that he is of a distorted nature and characterisation. Also, a worms eye view is used in the same shot described to add to the effect of the kidnapper’s ‘thrilling’ nature as he looks down superiorly.

·         EDITING: in order to challenge the forms and conventions of a real thriller, editing choice is essential to the effects created within the narrative. For example, in order to create a feeling of suspense for the audience, if in post-production the shots are made shorter and quicker it creates enigma for the audience as they watch in anticipation as to what happens after the shots are ‘cut’. We achieve this by making our shots shorter in order to create restricted narration for the audience.

·         SOUND: finally, our choice of non-diegetic sound is typically used in other real thrillers. This is because this type of music climaxes with the footage in order to add to the suspense and create tension. This ‘music’ begins when the shot of the kidnapper taking out his spade appears. This follows the conventions of a typical thriller as it adds to the effect of the footage and makes the climax more intense. 

Jonah - Evaluation Question 6

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

• By the general use of the cameras i mean using functions like 'white balance' and using different lens to create a different atmosphere.
• In additional to learning new software i learnt how use the hardware of Apple macs, as i have used PC all my life.

The images to the left and right are from filming on location the bottom left is from location research and the one of the bottom right is from the filming of our preliminary task.

(These are the logos to the software i used most during editing, 'Garageband'  and 'Final cut pro')

Jonah - Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

[Liam Neeson in Taken]

• Without addressing an audience of some sort a film is not going go succeed, so for my thriller i tried to attract my target audience by making it exciting and appealing to that age group. The aim for any successful thriller is come to capture the audience and have them on the edge of their seats and dying to find out what happens next, i tried to achieve this in my thriller.
• As i have found that the majority audience that watches psychological thrillers are males. Making my thriller appealing to men is priority, to some extent i have done this. With a climax/death within the first 2 minutes of the film its likely to grab the attention of the audience regardless if they are male or female because with the use of sound and editing the death is very exciting and 'Thrilling' but maybe more appealing to men as its high action and suspense. I used minimalist Non-Diegetic sound to build up to the climax and create tension and with the use of editing, cutting away from the action, it kept the audience in suspense creating further tension until the climax grabbing the audience and pulling them in within the first two minutes of the film. 
• This will appeal to the younger bracket of males in my target audience most as statistically they watch the most horror and thriller movies and enjoy the fright.
• Because i was limited to a short deadline and limited length video it was critical to engage the audience as quickly as possible. By using stereotypes this helps the audience identify the protagonist and antagonist quickly, so by having the male as the antagonist audiences can quickly identify him as being the 'bad guy' and begin to analysis him as a character.
• To attract the female audience i tried to make the main female character identifiable to the female audience by having her act out a regular routine that they would go through everyday, which adds to realism and make the thriller more 'scary' for that audience because in their minds this event could actually happen as the character may reflect their own life's.

Use of camera

• By having the camera moving as much as possible during the shoots with the antagonist creates a more exciting scene, camera techniques i used are as listed: 
• Pan
• Tilt
• Focus pulling
• dolly pan
• Obviously i didn't use many camera movements but that was all that was required, and having to many gimmicky camera techniques may have detracted from what was actually happening on screen and the audience may lose track of the story.

Mise en scene

• Both main character are dressed very well and look appealing which audiences will be attracted by, as to being dressed poorly which may not have been as attractive.

Sound

• Sound is very important in my thriller as the Non-Diegetic soundtrack build suspense and tension throughout the clip. Without the soundtrack there the audience would have been lost and put off as they would not  understand or expect a climax to happen soon.
• Just before the female character is killed i added a Non-Diegetic sound of violins slowly building until the spade comes down and the violins explode with sound making for an exciting climax after all the tension had built. This attracted audiences as they would expect an exciting story and something that would get them on the edge of their seats.