How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For our media product we represented each character to be quite stereotypical with some connotations. For the victim, we made them to be a she to be the “damsel in distress” which is a typical thriller convention. Morgan, who was the actor for this, was small in her frame size which makes her look vulnerable as well. We made her wear everyday clothing to make it look like when she was kidnapped randomly. The red nail varnish which you see when there is a close up of her hands could have connotations of danger which also links to the innocent by passer is in a red coat which could have similar connotations to the danger and it’s a coincidental colouring that the innocent by passer could have worn.

The two lads that dump the body were in dull clothing and had stiff movements to make them seem like robots as they are getting on with a job. They are also in a lot of shadows and you don’t really see much about their facial features so there wouldn’t be much to recognise them by. There is a lot of secrecy and they are hidden quite well. Most of the camera shots are done from behind them lads so all you see is their backs. Whether they are involved in the crime or whether they have been paid to dump this body is unanswered for this. Do you see the killer? Are they the two lads? Or is it someone else? These are the questions that we hoped would be asked by the audience when they see this opening when they see these characters. The innocent by passer that comes across the body we wanted in just plain clothes as if she was just walking past going to meet somebody, or just going for a walk. We didn’t want anything to unfold as to why she was there.

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

There are many media institutions that produce box office movies, all with different histories and drama’s of their own. The media institution that could distribute our media product could be Universal Pictures. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle; Universal Studios is the second longest-lived studio in Hollywood, second to Paramount Pictures. The company continues today an in innovator in the area of expertise in; film, television, music, theme parks, home video and other consumer products.

Thriller films that Universal Pictures have distributed go from the Bourne trilogy, Psycho, Changeling, Angels and Demons, Dirty Harry and The Italian Job.  All of these films have been highly successful productions and are still well known today.

Universal Pictures is an appropriate institution to produce/distribute our Thriller because it is a well known company that has had successful films in the past. Also, it being an American company it can help make it a successful film over in the United States and maybe Worldwide. Because of this more money can be put into it and make more money from it due to a wider audience. Also, because it is a large media institution it can entice audiences in by advertising the Thriller and financially be able to back the film with a large sum of money.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We wanted the film to appeal to the older generation and to people of our age group as well purely because of the psychological elements. We did a questionnaire to find out results from a range of people to find out more about the audiences preference on Thrillers;

For my media studies project I am studying thriller films, please could you answer the following questions;

1. What age groups are you in?
   10-20    21-30    31-40    41-50    51-60    61+

2. What is your favourite genre of film?

Thriller            Horror              Comedy            Romance           Sci-fi

Crime               Adventure         Western            Drama              Other

3. Which Thriller sub-genre do you prefer?

Psychological                Crime               Disaster            Medical

Mystery                        Religious

4. When watching a thriller what do you expect?

Violence            Murders           Detectives         Chase scenes

5. What do you associate with Thrillers?

Fights              Darkness          Dead bodies       abandoned houses

6. What music would you expect to hear in a Thriller opening?

Slow pace          Fast pace          Upbeat             Monotone

           

            Other, if so what?

7. What characters do you associate with Thrillers?
   Detectives         Vulnerable people          Murderers        Police

Baddies             Heroes                         

8. When watching a Thriller, how does it make you feel?

Excited             Scared              Worried            Happy              Sad

Other, if so what?

9. What camera shots do you expect to be seen used?

Close-ups          Pans     Long Shots       Mid Shots         Extreme Close up

10. Where do you expect Thrillers to be filmed?
    Cities                Abandoned houses/towns           Café      Police Station   

Office                Other, if so where?

 From the questionnaire we found that the favourite sub-genre of Thriller films was a psychological thriller. This also linked to how the people who liked psychological thrillers like slow paced music or monotone music.

We gave the questionnaire out to people aged 10 and above because of the content in thrillers, according to the BBFC. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

A ‘15’ is for people over 15 years and over, no one younger can watch a ‘15’ film in a cinema or buy/rent it when it is released. The specification for a ‘15’ film is this;

Discrimination – The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour

Drugs – Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror – Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour – Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language – There may be frequent use of strong language. The strongest terms may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity – Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex – Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme – No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence – Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We made the opening appeal to our audience by using actors of a similar age and having the sub-genre as a psychological thriller.  By doing this the audience will be able to relate to the actors and could also share similar interests. The clothing that the characters wear is also very young and modern in style. By looking at the results from the questionnaires it states that people of the age 10-20 prefer psychological thrillers which went well with our idea. We didn’t give the questionnaires to anybody under the age of 15 because after looking back at the BBFC website at their classifications on film ratings it wouldn’t be suitable for people under the age of 15 to watch thrillers due to the content in them, especially when it comes to psychological thrillers. The audience prefer a slow paced music so we used a slow paced music to help us with the timing of our thriller opening as fast editing wouldn’t have flowed well with the slow music. The audience also stated that they expected to see a lot of extreme close ups and pans.

The feedback that we received for our thriller opening was very positive and some people offered us some improvements that we could have made. After putting the video onto Facebook people commented on it with their feedback;

“I like it, well done :) the mood of it is good and makes you wanna find out what happened. Don't get too carried away with different transitions though, simple is best. Also, one of the first things I learned was to cut to the beat of the music. For instance when you see the body and cut to the close-up of you, if you cut it half a second earlier on that last high pitched beat, your reaction may be more effective. Its excellent though, keep it up!” This was a very positive comment as this was somebody that I know of that studied Media at university, so reading this comment gave us a good thought process as to how we would improve it if we did it again.
Some comments weren’t as detailed as this one but still gave us some positive feedback;

“Looks cool, tension is nicely kept and didn’t stray from the story, well done :)” and “I thought this was very good. Seamless between shots, good build up, good dramatic effects, was pretty creative too :) effort! :)”

We also did a video interview with two other students:

These comments were done from people from the age of 15 and above.

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

 

Through constructing this product I have learnt a lot about using a digital video camera and editing software. The main thing about using a digital camera to get good quality footage is by keeping the camera steady. The best way of getting a good result was using a tripod as it will constantly be at that one height if doing a pan it wont make the footage look wobbly as no hand can really be 100% steady.

Also, when trying to get a range of shots e.g. zoom in/out, pans, extreme close up and long shots, the camera would be very still, there wouldn’t be any shaking or movement unless necessary and because of this the footage would be a very good quality.

The editing software that we used was Imovie, this helped us get the final result as it gave a variety of different transitions and the whole editing process was quite simple to use for a first production. On some clips we put different effects on to make it darker and show a difference in what was going on. These effects were mainly used on flashbacks to give it a feeling of ‘past time’ of a different mood to the rest of the shots. Throughout the planning stage of the thriller opening we used wordle to help with a range of words to summarise our ideas. To get footage from other thriller openings I got clips from YouTube so that the footage was a good quality and for the footage to be able to go onto the blogs. A way of getting feedback from audience we used social networking site – Facebook as many age groups use it and having a range of age groups that I am friends with on this site I could get feedback from them.

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

Considering the fact that I hadn’t ever done any professional filming with a digital video camera or using any video editing sites my skills were very basic. As a film maker my skills have come along way and I have also learnt many new skills. After doing the preliminary task I got a basic understanding of how to shoot different shots, how to use the editing software and how to make a successful product.

When doing the prelim task we made sure that we were fully well aware of the 180° rule. This meant that when we were doing our Thriller opening that we had taken a lot of care and put a lot of attention into it to make sure that we didn’t break this rule as it can change the whole feel of the film by breaking this rule. Keeping continuity as well in the prelim, when it came to the editing process, made the whole clip flow really smoothly. We realised that if the continuity isn’t that good then the whole product could be ruined. After putting this into practice with the prelim we made sure that we trimmed each clip so that each transition worked well.

In the preliminary task we wanted to just get used to using the camera, getting different shots and just to have a bit of fun with what we were doing.  We had a match on action section when the girl opened the door and you saw it opening to then closing. With planning on the prelim we didn’t do that much, we got an idea and stuck to it. With our final product we made sure that we did more for our planning in getting audience feedbacks, doing a pitch in front of a group with different age groups with 3 ideas to help us decide on one of them. We also did more of a story board for our final product to help with our planning. We had an idea of how we wanted to do our titles to make a difference compared to just plain text overlaid on the footage like we did in the prelim. By testing different transitions we could create an effect and make the titles completely different to what people would think of.

story boards

For our final product we could have improved on maybe getting different music for each of the clips or an extra sound for when it goes into the flashback. Also, if we hadn’t of had the trouble of our actors before hand, having to get new ones and having to explain to them what our idea was. On the day the overall filming was very successful. When we were editing the footage we had hardly any problems. The only issue was how we wanted to speed up the sunrise so that it moved faster but on Imovie it has a limit as to how fast we can do it so it didn’t speed up enough for how we wanted it to be.

This screen grab shows how we have used the rule of thirds to create this shot for the composition. The hands are positioned in the centre of the screen with not so much going on around it.

This wordle shows everything that I have learnt over this whole task on the different aspects of audiences, thrillers, conventions, camera skills and editing skills.

After watching the Thriller Opening Interview

This interview was done after they had watched our thriller Opening. Done with Max and Jack.