My Thiller Evaluation

Thriller Evaluation

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

An opening sequence is the most important part of a thriller as this is the first thing that the audience will see of the film. Therefore, it needs to give a good impression of the film so then the audience will want to carry on and watch the rest, it needs to grab their attention and make them feel excited about what is going to happen next after the opening sequence, so then the audience will want to watch the rest of the film. If the opening sequence does not make the audience feel like this then in most cases they will not be bothered to carry on and watch the rest of the film as they will think it looks boring. That is why the opening sequence is so important. However, although the opening sequence needs to be exciting and give the audience little clues of what is going to happen throughout the film, it cannot give too much away to the audience because then they will already know what is going to happen so why would they bother to watch the rest. So as you can see it’s extremely important that you get the opening sequence just right. To help achieve this perfect opening sequence I looked at some of the codes and conventions of some other opening sequences. I found that in most of them the music created a tense atmosphere, the title of the film is always shown, non-digetic sound is used to create suspense, you get introduced to the main character, main location gets introduced, credits are shown, dialogue is often used, hints of what is going to happen in the story are put in, low key lighting is used and tension building and low base music is normally used. My opening sequence has got most of these conventions in it as the two main characters are introduced (the little girl and the unknown man), main location is introduced as we see the unknown man in the garage where he will later take the little girl, I created tension building and low base music that makes the audience feel tense and excited, the credits are shown, hints are put in of what is going to happen in the film and I feel that my opening sequence has really drawn the audience in and created that exciting and tense atmosphere to make them want to carry on and watch the rest of the film. However, in some ways my opening sequence has challenged the codes and conventions of opening sequences as although we get an idea of who the main character is going to be he hasn’t really been introduced to the audience as we do not see his face and he isn’t shown much. The reason I did this though was because I thought that it created a bit of mystery for the audience as this man could be anyone. Also the other main character is the little girl again she does not really get introduced either, we see her sitting on the swing and running down the street and that is it but again I thought that this would create mystery for the audience as they will be unsure of what is happening. My opening sequence then challenges the codes and conventions again as the lighting used is very high key in some place but then in others it’s very low key. The reason that I added in the high key lighting was because I wanted to show a contrast of the good and bad as the low key lighting is used when the villain is shown and then the high key lighting is used when the victim is shown. This gives the audience and idea of what the characters are like and what their roles are going to be in the film. Finally, no dialogue is used in my opening sequence and non-digetic sound is not used either. I felt that this was not needed in an opening sequence because again it creates mystery and tension because the characters are not talking and all you can hear is tension building music. I just wanted the audience to focus on this music which is why I did not put in any non-digetic sounds either, the music really gives that exciting and tense feeling so I thought by just making the audience hear this it would make them feel that way too and make them want to carry on and watch the rest to then hear the character’s speaking as they will want to find out why they weren’t and who they are. Although my thriller does stick to most of the codes and conventions from other opening sequences I believe that is does have its own style too. As my thriller is about a stalker I have tried to add a bit of mystery into the opening sequence so then the audience do not know who the stalker is, I think that this aspect of the opening sequence really makes my thriller stand out as in most films the main character in my case the villain would normally be introduced. This really creates suspense and tension to the audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My thriller has quite an open and wide range audience as it does not attract one particular type of social group. It could be aimed at middle aged adults with children as it shows them the dangers in society for their children. It also shows that although you may think your child would be safe just travelling to school and back on their own or just going to the park on their own they might not always be safe as there are many people out there who want to harm children for no reason. This opening sequence really does show the dangers of just everyday life and implies that just because you let your child do this every day it’s still not safe as just one person could make a difference in that child’s everyday life. I believe it really does send out the message that most parents say to their children “don’t talk to strangers” and persuades parents that this message is very important to keep telling their children. My thriller could also be aimed at young naive children that go to school as it shows them of what could happen if you do not listen to your parents or if you do talk to strangers. As the thriller is very realistic it shows the children that it’s very true to real life and persuades them more to be aware of other people they do not know and as the child in the thriller is their age this also makes it feel more realistic for them. If I had to put it down to just one social group I would have to say working class people because it is them who seem to have the problem of taking their children to and from school as they might not be able to as they need to get to work themselves. Therefore, this thriller really relates to them as it shows them the dangers their children might face when walking to school or going anywhere on their own really. The message of this film really is to just make sure your children are aware of other people as not everyone is as they seem. As you can see this film really does relate to everyone as everyone in life has once been told by their parents “not to talk to strangers”. However, I think that children under the age of 12 would not be suitable to watch this film as it might be too violent and scary for them as they are not at an old enough age to understand these kinds of dangers yet. So I believe the main audience for my thriller would be middle aged adults and above (25 and above) who have little children or once did have little children as they could really relate to this film as they have experienced how hard and fretful it is being a parent and letting your child go out on their own. The main social group for my thriller would be working class people.

How did you attract/address your audience?

As I have said above the audience for my thriller is middle aged adults and above (25and above) who have children or once did have little children. I have attracted my audience to the film by putting in some events of what they might have to face in their everyday life with their own children. For example most parents always say to their children “do not talk to strangers” and this film really sends that message across as it is about a young girl being stalked by an older man. I have also attracted them by making it very realistic. For example the locations in my thriller are a street, park and garage. The park and the street are what most children would go to on an everyday bases, when they are walking to school, going to meet their mates or just going to have a play at the park. These locations are all very familiar to my audience as they would have had to take their children to these places or let their children go to the park, this is why it would be very realistic for them. The garage is just a typical place in a lot of stalker films where they tend to keep their victims as its dark, cold and looks creepy to the audience. Also as the child in the film is the same age as most of my audience’s children this will attract them to the film and make it a lot more realistic to them. The person who stalks the little girl in the thriller is a man and the victim is a girl, this is very typical as parents would normally tend to tell their children to be more wary of men as they are the stronger and more powerful gender and they are normally the typical character that would be the stalker in a film. This again makes it more realistic to the audience. I have also made sure that what the little girl looks like is very typical of what every little girl would look like so I made sure she was the right age and choose her to wear a school uniform as this is very typical of what any girl of that age would wear with their hair tied back into a pony tail and no makeup on their face, they just look very natural as most parents would say “your too young to wear makeup”. Finally, I made sure that the lighting was realistic by making it very natural when the girl was walking along the street and on the park as this is what anyone would expect it to look like in everyday life.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The institution that I think might distribute my media project is Paramount pictures. As they have made films such as Along Came a Spider and this film is about a stalker who kidnaps a child just like what my film is about. They have also made a film called Vertigo which is a bit scary and creates tension to the audience when you watch it. Although these two films are both quite different they both have elements in them which I have in my film such as tension building, mystery and a stalker. All the films that Paramount has made are all very different in some ways but I think that they all are the same thriller genre and some include mystery just like my film. So I think that this is the perfect company that would distribute my film as it makes films that are quite similar to mine in some ways.

The other institution company which i think would distribute my company is New line Cinema as one of the films which this company made was Se7en. This film was the inspiration for my opening sequence as i really liked the way that it gave the audience little hints of what was going to happen throughout the film and i added this is my opening sequence. It also gave the tension and edgy feeling which i wanted my thriller to be like. Therefore i think that this instition would be a great choice for my film as it has been a great inspiration for me making my opening sequence and a lot of other films that New Line Cinema have produced are the same genre (thriller) as mine too so i think that this would be a great company to choose as they have created same style films as mine.

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

I have learnt a lot about technologies while making my film as there are many things which I used that I didn’t know were used when making films. For example I used a HD camera when I was filming my opening sequence. I found it very tricky to keep the camera still when I was holding it so sometimes the shots were a bit shaky, but eventually I overcame the problem and was able to hold the camera and get the shot looking still. That is really all the technology that we used while making the film because most of the film was shot outside in the daytime we didn’t really need a light as we wanted the lighting to look very natural. However, when I did the preliminary task I used a light that made the shot a lot more clear when we filmed it, the room was very dark and you could not see the characters faces and you really needed to see their expressions to understand the shot, so a bit of high key lighting showed their facial expressions very clearly. When the editing stage came in the film making process I got the chance to use an editing program called Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. I found it very tricky to work out at the beginning because there was so many options I wasn’t too sure what they were all for but finally I got the hang of it and was able to create lots of effects on my opening sequence. For example I added in credits with bold fonts, added a black fade out and a white fade in (dissolve effect) and I also added in some overlapping of text on the images. Finally, when I was creating the music I got the chance to use some recording equipment and we was able to add some effects to our music which made it some very low base and tension building.

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

Looking back at the preliminary task I think that I have learnt a variety of skills that have made my final piece excellent. When I was doing the preliminary task I was finding the editing and filming very tricky to get right. The shots always seemed to look shaky and I didn’t really understand how to use the editing program very well. I was struggling with a lot of things which is why I believe it helped me a lot to work with one other person as there was so much to do and I thought that the other person I worked with would be able to help me with the bits which I didn’t understand and then I could help them with the bits they didn’t understand, and it really did work. I have now learnt how to use the camera and editing program properly. I have also learnt that if I worked with more than just one other person I think it would have been extremely hard to spilt the work equally between us and being able to get together and film the thriller would have been very hard too, because there is a lot of you it’s hard to find a time when everyone is free and that is when you start getting behind with the filming. I have also found that research is very important because in the preliminary task we didn’t really research the kind of film we were going to do, we just did a story board and then got on with it. However, when I did my thriller project I really did my research well and looked at all the different films with the same genre and looked at all the codes and conventions they used and I felt that all that research really helped me when it came to filming the thriller because I really understood what kind of characters I needed, how my characters needed to act, what costumes they needed to wear, the location and the lighting. It also really helped when we were creating the music because after research we realized it really needed to be low base and tension building. Overall, I think that this project has shown me just how much work really goes in to making a film and how much time you need to make it. I have learnt that you can’t just go on and make a film the planning needs to take just as long as what the filming and editing takes because every single part of making a film is extremely important.