Audience Profile

Our main target audience is independent film watchers aged from 16-24. From our audience research it showed that both female and male of 16-20 year olds enjoy independent films instead of or as well mainstream films. We found they enjoyed independent films because of their sense of reality, unpredictableness, the unusual storylines and different actors who have a sense of mystery. We tried and have hopefully have incorporated these themes into our thriller opening. Others that enjoy independent films are those who respond to individuality and some who are trying to make the word a better place - reformers. Our audience will get pleasure from our film because of it's independcy, as they like to see themselves as independent. We intended our film target audience to identify with are main character because of the similar but a wider ahe range would also be able to identify with our sub-genre as older people may watch detective series on TV so able to relate with our film in that way. Our film is an independent film and Essex Boys was a strong influence which is also an independent film. Another film which also gave ideas and techniques was ‘Memento’ it is a psychological thriller which also includes flashbacks as does our thriller. Another independent film that our target will enjoy and can relate to is Dead Man's Shoes which has a similar storyline and aspects of our thriller. our thriller is British Gangster as it contains crimes, criminals, weapons and gangs. Our thriller opening also includes aspects of psychological thriller films because as it incorporates ideas of mystery and suspense. I think our sub-genre will appeal to our target audience because it focuses on youths and their lives today. We used mainly just two different locations one was a garage this created a claustrophobic place which is a well used thriller technique, the dark lighting also help builds suspension. Our second location of filming used city locations, for example, Castle Gardens. Using city areas allows youths to relate because they will recognise the places as where teenagers go. Some of the locations, for example, under the bridge is known as a drug dealing place which represent a unwelcoming area of the city. We included the shot of the bridge in our poster as hopefully our target audience will be able to relate to it and it attracts their attention. Our thriller is hitting the mood of the moment with teenagers and early twenties are involved in drugs and crime. The social class used in our thriller is about in the c2 class which means the characters may be skilled or unskilled but may not have jobs, which represent a gang of young criminals. I think some of the audience may a have similar social class but might not be able to relate to the situation that has occurred but identify with our main character (Archie) because of the age and hopefully the audience can put themselves into Archie’s situation to understand and feel the storyline. Our narrative was focused on the main character Archie this allowed the audience to identify with him and also follow the storyline easily. We included flashbacks into our thriller, which are of the murdering which is an important event in the narrative because it is telling the background story which shows we really thought and focused our narrative on the characters. In our poster we included two different quotes to help interest and grab our target audience attention. “London Independent Film Festival award winning” this was to attract the attention of the viewers who enjoy independent films. The second quote “Tense and gripping” help attract the attention of the people who like the genre and them.

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

Our media production was to create an opening to a thriller that lasts up to two minutes. We created a 'British gangster' genre thriller. Our thriller consisted of twin brothers who were involved with a gang. One brother (Archie) is asked to do a job by the gang leader and when he refuses it results in his death. The other brother (Nathan) is very distressed and upset, and then decides to take revenge.



Weather in Cathing Justice



Weather in Essex Boys

One of our biggest influences on our opening is Essex Boys as it has the British Gangster sub-genre which we also tried to create in our own opening but following the same techniques and conventions, for example the dull, grey sky which represent typical English whether, therefore we chose a dull day to shoot our footage. (example above). Our opening and Essex Boys are independent films; which both the locations indicate. For example, Essex Boys and our thriller opening both include scenes in dirty, gritty garages which wouldn't be seen in mainstream films. In our thriller opening we decided to dress our characters in gangster clothing, for example, jeans, hoodies and hats that represent the idea of rebels and youthfulness. Our main prop was the gun which was used to kill the main character brother, a lot of thrillers contain weapons to make the character seem demanding, authoritive and powerful. The gun also builds up tension as it is seen a before the actual murder. I think we made our gun user have high status by shooting low angle shots of him. We used other props such as pens, paper, hole puncher, books and photos this was during the planning of the revenge to suggest the idea of organisation of how determined he is, but when he pushes everything off the table it conveys how unstable he is.

The Black Swan

In the editing of our film, we included flashbacks which is a technique that thrillers such as Memento and Casino Royale used. In Memento they used flashbacks to give the effect that the main character was confused and disorientated and we use flashbacks to try and convey the same effect. In Casino Royale the flashbacks are in black and white to show the past time and in our thriller it is to show the imagination of the main character because he wasn't actually at the death of his brother. Flashbacks are a narrative device that gives the audience details of the storyline, which is another main reason we included them. The lighting in our thriller is quite dark to create the sense of danger and tense atmosphere, which is included in most thrillers, for example, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Bourne films and The Black Swan.



The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo





In Essex Boys a voice over from the young male protagonist is used to help the audience identify with him. In our thriller opening we have a young male protagonist but he doesn't have a voice over but hopefully the camera shots, for example, close ups helps us identity with him. A typical convention of thrillers is claustrophobic space and is used in Essex Boys with a car going through a tunnel and as in our thriller the technique is used to create tension, and also may convey an uncomfortable situation.



The characters in our thriller opening include the gang leader/murderer and the twin brothers. The gang leader/murderer is a threatening, evil man whom most thrillers include. We used Hattie's Dad for this character as he was convenient and we could make him suit the role. In British gangster films the gang leader or the person in charge usually pass their jobs onto a younger weaker characters that isn't sure about being a criminal/gangster. In our thriller Archie has this role. We decided to use Hattie's Brother Jack for this character and he was also used for Nathan, Archie's twin in the flashbacks. As well as these characters being convenient they also fit the criteria of the characters we wanted and also the convey the conventions of thrillers. In some cases this caused a problem as it wasn't always clear to people that they were twins. Twins aren't usually used in thrillers so it was good to try something new and  to see if it would work well. I thought it was good but if it didn't look clear it can add to psychological apsect of our thriller.



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

YouTube has helped during the production of our thriller opening because the videos clips are free, it allowed us to search into different thriller clips and openings giving us an idea of how we wanted our thriller to look. The clips also showed us different techniques thrillers use, for example, different camera shots and film noir. During my research and planning of our thriller opening I a variety of videos clips to help show my point and give examples of different techniques and sub-genres. As well as having video clips YouTube has a range of music videos which allowed us to choose the type of music or if an unsigned band the exact music we wanted to include in our thriller opening. YouTube has provided us with lots of ideas and inspiration during the making of our thriller.

As well as YouTube, my blog has been useful during the production. It has allowed me to post my work and allows all of my work to be in one place as video clips, photos and links can be included in posts to support work. On my blog teachers can give feedback which I recieve before the next lesson allowing me to imporve my work for the lesson. The blog was a bit confusing when I first starting using it but the blogger website isn't to complicated and became easy to use. It allows me to keep my work in one place and the labels help others and I to find work easily. Blogger helps my work to be very well organised.

Digital camcorders was the main piece of technology used when filming our thriller. Throughout the filming of our thriller production my partner and I shared out the camera work so we both needed to know how to use the camera correctly. We shot in two different location which both contain a lot of different camera shots and movements which the camera being handheld helped as it was easily portable. The camera allows us to rewined and fastforward through to see the footage, this was useful because we were able to redo or change shots. The footage was filmed on a small tape which means we were able to move the tape from camera to camera. Also the camera connect to the computer so we were able to quickly and directly download the footage ready to edit.

Adobe Premier Elements was the program we used to edit our thriller. It allowed us to crop, use effects, cut and other tools to edit our opening. For example, in this shot we have used effects to make the clip black and white, which helps gives the effect of past time as the clip is a flashback. Throughout our opening we used the time tool a lot, this helped us slow down or speed up the action according to what fitted. The program was quite easy to use as we had practice from our prelim task, but i also learnt new skills and I will be able to take them with me through the media studies course. Adobe Premier Elements was very useful and our thriller turned out how we wanted it to look.

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

My thriller group and my prelim group consisted of the same people. I was with a friend so it made it more convenient to shoot footage at each others houses. Also working in a group of two meant that we could communicate and include both of our ideas into the opening. It also helped us know how we work as a team when shooting footage, editing and planning. After practice from our prelim task during the whole production of our thriller we were organised, collaborated and managed the production well. Doing our prelim task before our thriller really helped my partner and I learn how to use the editing program to a certain degree, so we knew the basics when it came to editing our thriller.

Our prelim also helped us gain confidence with using a wider variety of shots. We were asked to do shot reverse shot in out prelim which we also included in our thriller, we also used a lot of close ups to show facial expressions which involved zooming in on the video camera. An example of close a close we shot in our thriller is above on the right. When planning our thriller we did a lot more research compared with our prelim task. For our prelim task we drew a rough, basic storyboard with short details which guided us through the storyline of our prelim task. Whereas in our thriller planning we did more planning,  for example, longer and more in-depth storyboarding, exploring how thrillers worked and different techniques used, watching beginning of various thrillers to look at sub-genre, watching previous years to get idea and tips This was useful and helped us in our production of our thriller by following through all our planning.

Research into other Thrillers

Editing in Memento
In the opening scene in memento, there is a lot of editing techniques because the film is includes flashbacks and the film includes quite a few cuts from the end of the film. As the protagonist suffers from amnesia, the flashbacks involve the audience into his world of disorientation. In the original movie, the black and white sequences progress chronologically forward in time and the colour scenes are arranged in reverse order. Normally flashbacks are in black and white to show that they are in the past. But having the real time in black and white shows that maybe he is living in the past and resolve a mystery. The protagonist is the narrator and his memory and life confused which are shown by the flashbacks which suggest that he becomes an unreliable narrator as he doesn’t know what is real.

Sound in The Bourne Ultimatum

In the Bourne Ultimatum includes both diegetic and non-diegetic sound is used to create different effects at different points throughout the film. The film starts with non-diegetic piece of music constructed by strings and percussion which is quite tense music and conveys to the audience that the film will have an anxious, perhaps agitated and an on edge beginning. This is then followed and overlaid by diegetic sounds, for example, sirens, traffic, footsteps and shouting. This shows that the film is set in a cityscape area and the sound effects give a sense of urgency, pace and maybe even catastrophe. During the opening scene at one point all of the sounds pause to give sense of relief or it could also suggest that he is hiding an a bit obscure. When the flashbacks start the non-diegetic music becomes slow and including violins reflecting the music and protagonist as she is becoming sad, regretful and woebegone.   

Copyright

When finding music for the opening of our thriller it was hard to find a piece because we had to use non-copyrighted music. Most songs made by mainstream and signed musician are copyrighted which means that we don't have the right to use their music in our own production.  It also means that copyrighted songs are not allowed to be cut and put into a different order or  a cover of the same to be made. But copyrighted music can help give us an idea of what sort of music we would like to use. We had a choice of using non-copyright music of an website, ask permission of an unsigned bands, make the music ourself or use music under creative commons. Creative commons means that we can use a song just for the purpose we stated and it cannot be cropped, cut or resequenced in any way.The source of our music was http://www.mobygratis.com/, this is a website which specialises in music for independent and non-profit making films, using creative commons .