Evaluation

Evaluation

This is my thriller. 

http://shannonmcphersonfoundationproduction.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/preliminary-video-cheater.html - This is my preliminary. 

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

When you are filming a thriller you must use the conventions. The typical conventions of a thriller are:

·         The protagonist/s (main character) deals with death, their own or someone else’s.

·         The main storyline for the protagonist is usually some sort of quest.

·         The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.

·         The film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonist's point of view.

·         All action and characters must be credibly realistic/natural in their representation on screen.

·         The two major themes that underpin the Thriller are the desire for justice and the morality of individuals.

·         One small but significant aspect of a great thriller is the presence of innocence in what is seen as an essentially corrupt world (Binary opposition).

These are needed to create the emotional connection to the audience that every thriller needs to make the audience respond to the film.

There are many sub-genres of thrillers. Some of them are: crime, disaster, mystery, political, psychological, religious, and supernatural and techno etc. The sub-genre my group and I chose to do was a psychological thriller as it was different. We did this as it was more interesting than doing any other sort of thriller. This is because you can do more with a psychological thriller like create a storyline in which makes the audience have a greater reaction towards the film than any other ones.

By calling our film ‘Lily’ people would get the feeling that the film would be about an innocent girl rather than what the film is actually about, tricking the audience into making expectations of the film before even watching it and then seeing what it is about, therefore extracting a reaction from our target audience. The expectations from the audience of this type of thriller are that using the right elements it should give them a thrill but also keep them interested and to not bore them but also it has to let the audience relate to the characters. The main elements in this genre that my group and I chose to use were making the shots that we chose to have continuity and to get a reaction from the audience. We developed each shot to create a feel of the thriller but also how the shots were all placed together. We challenged the ways of filming a car going one way than the other without it breaking the 180° rule which we overcame and pulled off well. We did this by using a rotation effect on the clip where the footage was flipped to go the opposite way.   

 

Filming techniques of a thriller are:

Mise en scene – Where everything on a set/or stage etc. must be placed e.g: lighting, props, actors, settings, costume.

Editing – How the shots are edited together to make the thriller get an emotional reaction from its audience.

Shot types – The many different shots that create emotion within the thriller.

Sound – Whether the sound needs to diegetic or non-diegetic.

For example I looked at the film Leon, I looked at the conventions in this thriller.

Opening scene – The music is strange with windpipes making a build of tension start. A tracking shot (travelling point of view shot) feels like the audience is moving along with someone. The urban area which this scene is set in shows that it’s not a rich place so it shows the film may be about gangs. At this point the music changes and a close up of a hand, then someone lighting a match, close ups of mouths, hands, eyes etc… this shows mystery and makes the audience wonder what’s going to happen. We already know it’s going to be a quest as the character shows another a photo of a guy who has done them wrong, this makes the tension of the film rise even more. An extreme close up is intimidating, makes the audience feel uncomfortable, nervous, it’s unusual, you want to know who they are and where they are. This scene relates to our thriller as we have a similar type of scene. In our thriller we have shots that build up the tension like this scene described above. You never really fully see the face of the main protagonist. 

In the next scene the music is low with a beat to show something is going to happen. A man with a gun to his face shows us that this film may be about trained killers. The gun is threatening, and you can see it’s serious but you can’t see him, it makes you want to know what he looks like. The shot is from Leon’s point of view though the audience don’t know it. This shot shows Leon is a cold blooded killer; the guy had run out of usefulness, so you know he is a hit man.

It then shows the man who was in the picture in a couple of scenes before, you can see he is panicking and knows what is going to happen, he is talking fast and getting changed fast so he clearly knows who is after him, this makes the audience really want to know what’s going to happen and who this man is it builds the tension even more.

You only see parts of Leon; he is so fast you don’t see him fully. It makes the tension rise and intimidates the fat man to scare him and to make him know what is going to happen to him. He is panicking and starts to shoot aimlessly but everyone knows Leon isn’t dead as you know he wouldn’t die straight away. In our thriller we used this type of scene as inspiration as the way the scene is set up and the way the shots are used creates tension which we wanted in our thriller. So in our thriller we did lots of fast shots which didn’t fully show the main protagonist.

The lighting gets dimmed as the fat man gets scared and knocks the lamp over, shows that he is panicking and something is going to happen. Heavy breathing shows how scared he is. But the dim lighting is significant as it sets the mood but also makes the tension very high.

The shot of his back makes us know that it is from Leon’s point of view. The music is like a heartbeat and as soon as the knife touches the fat man’s neck it stops.

 

When we looked at our character ‘Lily’ we looked at how we wanted her to come across to the audience. By looking at the way ‘Leon’ is shown like in the shots above we wanted to make her more innocent but used Leon’s character as an influence into our ‘Lily’. 

These shots above are of the next few scenes, these show the life of Leon but also of this little girl which gives the audience both time to relate to the two characters and to see how Leon is two types of people. It shows the contrast between his real life and his job. Face is hidden, smoking, about 12. Behind bars could mean that she may be bad. It’s a mystery. She may feel trapped in the building. Close up of the bruises on her face, that she has been beaten; he noticed it as he is very observant. She lies to him making him walk off as he doesn't want to get involved. The choker around her neck could show someone has control over her. Leon may have walked off because he is angry that the girl is treated like that. He doesn't harm women. He kills bad people. This scene makes the audience think why this girl may be an important part within the film. It influenced our thriller as the way the little girl was shown, small and almost innocent, helped us to create our character in a way.

The main conventions of this thriller are:

Props – plant + spray – Shows he can look after things and that he isn’t just a killer, it stands out. There is a hole in door to look at the girl – shows he is protective but also curious. The weapons – can show how dangerous he is. The leather full chest holster- costume, is important as part of his job, it shows he is prepared for anyone or another job.  The plant – substitute child, cares a lot for, lonely. It means everything to him as it is centre stage so when he walks in it’s the first thing he sees.  The picture of religion- not normal as religion is peaceful, but he may believe what he is doing is for god. The glasses – hides his face, identity, when he was killing people. He hides his emotions.  He sleeps in a chair – to be prepared if someone comes in. For props in my thriller I had to think of what we could use to make our main protagonist look younger than she was but also more innocent. The props in this film have influenced the choice in ours , for instance with the plant it shows how the Leon cares about it so in our thriller we had a toy dog prop and blanket to make people care about the little girl.

Lighting – dimmed down to show mystery.

Music – is dull and slowly contrasting with the fast pace of the first scene when he is killing people. Shows how different his real life is and his job is.

The kitchen is messing, shows he doesn't really care much for it.

The film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonist's point of view. Most of this film is in the point of view of Leon as he is the main character but it is also in Mathilda’s point of view as well. It is seen in the point of view of these characters as it effectively shows us how they see other people and the action but also shows the relationship between the two characters and how the interact with each other but it also shows us the contrast between the two lives and how they are brought together. The audience like this as it involves them more in the film making the experience give a greater impact on them. This influenced our thriller as we decided to make our shots not to a point of view of any of the characters but to make the audience feel like they are actually there in the film.    

All action and characters must be credibly realistic/natural in their representation on screen. Natalie Portman plays the little girl who has a very realistic plot of some families that are real, abusive, drug dealers etc… Leon isn’t as natural when he is being a killer as not many people go around and kill people but when he is going about on his normal life it is more realistic.

Leon has a religious picture in his flat; it shows that he thinks that he is doing it for god. This film plays on the fantasies of what we would do if we took the law into our own hands. The desire for justice in this film at the start is mainly bad guys trying to scare someone who has done them wrong, it isn’t justice in a sense as we think but as bad guys think.  

One small but significant aspect of a great thriller is the presence of innocence in what is seen as an essentially corrupt world which the innocence is the girl (Natalie) as her family is murder she has no one left. The way her family treats her, she has bruises and bloody noses and is beaten you know that she is just an innocent. She has no role model and has no one but her little brother. She is happy that she can help Leon out as she watches him and knows that she is useful for something. 

Leon perfectly fits the conventions of a thriller. It does not try to challenge the conventions as it doesn’t need to; if it did the film wouldn’t be effective on the audience making it unsuccessful and would be unsuccessful. It has the right conventions as it uses the right music; it sets the mood and gives the film an overall feel which all thrillers have. It uses camera shots to create mystery, drama etc… which is needed in all thrillers as it sets the scene. It also uses lighting to set the mood; it has the entire Mise –en –scene that all typical thrillers have.

A thriller opening that inspired me was the girl with the dragon tattoo. The music starts and its creepy which builds tension and the screen is black and white writing appears which stands out on the black background. This has influenced us as it shows us a way of building tension with simple shots, which has helped us with how my group and I set up our thriller opening.

The scene fades from black to the opening shot of the title scene. The editing is fast as shots of different objects/ clothing flash onto the screen as the camera pans upwards as if going up a body. It’s strange but makes the audience want to watch, it gave us an idea for what we could do with ours. As the shots of the different things appear there are credits on the screen. The shot of the black water can symbolize something dark, mysterious and dangerous is going to happen.

The music picks up speed and gets slightly louder to create the sense of action. The shot pans over a struggling foot in water then moves over a key board which could show some sort of person or people are going to overpower others and they cannot stop it. The extreme close up of the burnt eye makes you uncomfortable but also makes you go wow, as it’s like the saying the burning hate in your eyes. This influenced me as it is strange but effective so I wanted to make sure our thriller opening was effective but not as graphic.

The fire and the black background contrast with each other it shows us passion, power, danger etc… but it also interests the audience. The rest of the shots are creepy and gothic, they are like people struggling to get free of different bonds, like guys, drowning etc… the electrical cords, hands, vines and flowers all show that they are trying to break. It then fades to black.

These conventions all make this opening interesting and makes you want to watch the film, this inspired me how to do the opening of my thriller. Below are screen shots of my thriller and of real thrillers.

‘Leon’ inspired me as the way the shots create an emotional connection to the audience makes a huge impact. With this I wanted to make sure the shots I used within my thriller opening made an emotional connection with the audience but the main thing I wanted to create with the thriller opening was an interest in the film but also tension. Another thriller that inspired me was the title sequence of the James Bond Casino Royale. http://youtu.be/oWEPGNjDi1M

Only the first few seconds are important in the video above, as we want to use a similar shot but we want it to go from a full screen shot to spiral out like the James Bond spiral but as it spirals it changes to another shot and then that shot becomes bigger as if the spiral is unravelling. In the end we decided that this type of shot would be too difficult and would possibly confuse the audience as the spinning effect might make them feel that they have missed something.

Sixth sense was another film we took inspiration from as it was a psychological thriller which we wanted to do as well. The fact that this film contained ghosts also inspired us to do the same and it kind of helps with our film to as some of the shots are interesting like one of the car scene.

This scene where the mother and son are in the car is what inspired our idea to do a car scene between a mother and daughter but also the ghost. This is because it gives a sense of mystery as the audience would want to know who the characters are, why they are important and what has happened to the ghost girl and how the two relate to each other. In this case the relationship between the two is they are all a family and the little girl dies.

 Shutter Island gave us inspiration because of the flashbacks. In our opening we are using flashbacks so watching this filmed helped us see how we could make them work within the other shots we used. http://youtu.be/nocPOvZ2-bg

The film Gone is a good film to use for inspiration as in the film it plays on the mind but also the title ‘Gone’ is simple but effective. The film also uses good music which also helps us with our film as the music is the most important part as it is what gives scenes obeisance. It helped with choosing the music in our film as we needed to find a piece that gave the same effect as this film did.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group in which my thriller opening represents is a stereotypical family as there is a father and two daughters one younger than the other. The first character in my thriller opening is the little girl Lily. She is a typical young girl with the dress, teddy and blanket except that she is a ghost. She is a similar character to Kayleigh played by Amy Scott in The Butterfly Effect as both of the characters are at the age where they are still innocent which relates to the parenting social groups. 

This is Kayleigh played by Amy Scott in the Butterfly Effect. You can see how she is young, pretty, just like a child should be like. By using the simple young like features such as how the hair is worn and the clothes she wears shows the innocence is the same with our main protagonist. Her role within this film is mainly to be the main focus of the main character.

 This is Lily played by Laura. The way her hair is set and the clothes she wears are similar to Amy Scott’s character. As our character is a ghost it makes no difference from her childlike looks. Her role within this film is to be the main character. Using components  from kayleigh’s looks and personality helped make Lily as they gave us an idea of what a child that age looks, dresses and acts like in a family but also alone and with friends, which we used to help us with Lily.  

The differences between these two characters is that Kayleigh is portrayed as a young abused girl but she cares about one of the other characters, she looks after herself and is old in the sense that she is more grown up instead of acting her own age. Lily is more of the fun playful girl where in her youth she was killed, so she has lost those years of growing up.

With using a little ghost girl for our main character we have represented a young female victim in everyday family life with a twist as it’s more of the loss of the main protagonist. We decided on using a young character as mostly they appeal to the mother or father. But they are also easier to relate to as they are simple and not confusing, though being so simple can make a person think many different complicated things about a character which we wanted people to do. The way our main character looks is used to make an impact on the audience, as the first few scenes of our thriller the audience sees a pair of childlike wellington boots skipping, this makes the impression that the film may include a child. Then you see the dress, teddy, umbrella and blanket and you start to think that something is going to happen to the kid, but when the close up shot of the face comes up you then get to see the pale skin and black eyes so you know something has happened. The audience will start to relate to ‘Lily’ as everyone was young and innocent one time in their life but some people might also have either children or young brothers and sisters, so the protective instincts start to show. By the different types of clothing and make up people can create different feelings within an audience, for us we wanted the audience to be in suspense and to think but also we wanted to image of the girl to stay with them as it will make them feel sorry about her but it will also catch there interest, so they will want to know what happened to her. 

The different camera shots we used within the thriller opening were all chosen as they best represented either the different characters or they created a mood to capture the audience. For instance we used a series of close ups for the title sequence, this was because we wanted to create mystery. So not showing the girls face made people want to know what she looked like. We also used some long shots so that you could see the whole surroundings but it also created a sense of someone watching what was happening on the side-lines, this was so the audience would feel like they were actually there.

With the props we only had the two main ones which were a dog teddy and a blanket with the name Lily stitched onto it. These were very important as they showed the innocence of the main character but they also represented how every child has these, once again making the mothering or fathering instincts come out of the people and parent in the audience.

We used two locations, the first where we filmed all of the flashback scenes was at Grimsthorpe Castle and the second is at a village where I lived as it was away from lots of traffic and was easy to get to, this is where we filmed the title sequence and the other shots. We used natural lighting in all of the shots except for one shot where we used the back light in the car to see the face of the main character through the rear view mirror, which gave the shot a creepy look to it. It will make the audience think they are seeing things as well.  

The other character in my thriller opening is the father played by my dad, Wayne McPherson. He is only the driver in the video and isn’t really similar to any other character, but doe represent a typical father figure as fathers are the ones who drive the child around.  

The last character is Lily’s sister who is played by Ronnie. Her character is similar to Katniss Everdeen played Jennifer Shrader Lawrence in the hunger games. 

She is a strong character that has very protective tendencies to her sister but also another younger character, this shows that she is a caring character. She is also pretty and skinny appealing to young men. Her role in the film is being the main character that brings about a change.  

Our character is a young teenager just like Jennifer’s character. She is a strong, caring character just like Jennifer’s. The way both characters look appeal to younger men which is what we wanted. Her role within our film is to be the big sister who keeps seeing her little sister. She is representing a typical big sister from the way she dresses and how she looks.  

The differences in these two characters are that the looks are completely different. Jennifer’s character is simple but messier as she is mainly in the outdoors but also she is a poor person in the film. Our character on the other hand is more business like making her look older and showing she has money.

For this character we wanted to represent to the audience that the girl was a teenage sister from a broken family. We did this as in the video it only contained a father figure and a dead sister showing how the family may be broken because of this.  

We decided to use a teenage girl character for our thriller opening as having just a single father for a little girl wasn’t what we wanted as the audience may blame the little girl’s death on him but we wanted something different so having a sister who keeps seeing her makes the audience think what is the relationship between the two girls. By dressing this character in clothes that made them look older it gave the impression that she is an older relative of the little girl. 

The shots we used of this character were to capture her reactions as she sees the little girl. For example we used a mid- shot to point of view to mid-shot to show her reactions when she sees the little girl up close. We also used a mid-pan shot behind the Lily character as the car went past to see our other characters reaction as she sees her. These all are used to create tension in our thriller opening.

 Again we used two locations, the first where we filmed all of the flashback scenes was at Grimsthorpe castle and the second is at a village where I lived as it was away from lots of traffic and was easy to get to, this is where we filmed the title sequence and the other shots. We used natural lighting in all of the shots except for one shot where we used the back light in the car to see the face of the main character through the rear view mirror, which gave the shot a creepy look to it. Again we used natural lighting in all of the shots except for one shot where we used the back light in the car to see the face of the main character through the rear view mirror, which gave the shot a creepy look to it.  

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

This is the production logo. We decide on using the first letters of our names as the name for our company, the actual logo was hand drawn by me, we didn’t have any inspiration. It is a howling wolf as it is a wild and intelligent creature which gives me inspiration for the type of films I want to achieve. I got the idea to draw this as I was watching a film with wolves in and I thought that it would look good as a production logo.

A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video. The production company may be directly responsible for fundraising for the production or may accomplish this through a parent company, partner, or private investor. It handles budgeting, scheduling, scripting, the supply with talent and resources, the organization of staff, the production itself, post-production, distribution, and marketing. Production companies are often either owned or under contract with a media conglomerate, film studio, entertainment company, or Motion Picture Company, who act as the production company's partner or parent company. This has become known as the "studio system". They can also be mainstream independent or completely independent. In the case of TV, a TV production company would serve under a television network. Production companies can work together in co-productions.

 An example of a production company is Paramount. https://www.paramountmovies.com/login.html?destination=mylibrary

 Paramount Pictures Corporation is a film and television production/distribution company, consistently ranked as one of the largest (top-grossing) movie studios. It is a division of American media conglomerate Viacom. Paramount is the fifth oldest existing film studio in the world behind Universal Studios, Nordisk Film, Pathé, and Gaumont Film Company.  This company creates millions of films etc bringing in $1.2 billion revenue to the economy. This company produces many types of genre films but some of the thrillers they produce are:

Jack Reacher a homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims. This film was a co-production with Skydance Productions, TC Productions and The Mutual Film Company. So far in box office this film is getting $153,178,000.  It includes people like Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, and Werner Herzog.   

The money we would have needed for our film would have had to come from either ourselves or if we got another production company to invest in our film. We could also get a loan from a bank or raise the money ourselves and do a low budget film.

So many people get named within the titles as there are lots of people needed to help when creating a film. Every single job from a director of photography to a stunt double is listed in the end credits normal from the most important jobs or the jobs that have the most involvement to the least involved but they are still all named. By seeing this when we were creating our own title sequence we wrote down every person in the film but also their jobs so, for example, Ronnie in my group was the director of photography, Laura was costumes and props, and I was the in charge of the camerawork.

Our thriller is a psychological thriller just like The Sixth Sense. Sixth Sense was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, and Barry Mendel. Written by M. Night Shyamalan and Stars Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette. Music by James Newton Howard. The studio which made the film was Spyglass Entertainment and The Kennedy/Marshall Company and was distributed by Hollywood Pictures. 
  

The Sixth Sense is about the film tells the story of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who tries to help him.
The film established Shyamalan as a writer and director, and introduced the public to his traits, most notably his affinity for surprise endings. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. 

An example of how this film is similar to ours is in the car scene. http://youtu.be/3qqVQcZxpqA (only part of the scene).

The scared little boy (Cole) and his mother’s reaction makes the boy not want to tell her but then does. Shot of a dead women that only he can see is creepy and the mentioning of grandma shocks the mother as the boy talks about her. The emotions make the scene more intense and makes the audience feel the same way as it involves them. Mother starts believing him when he says things that he shouldn't know but the grandmother would. Boy is traumatized  He can really see her and you can because of his reaction and what he is saying. So nervous to tell his mum. Speaks quiet and has strange language.

Shots, Mise-en-scene, plot: There is a voice over as a tracking shot goes to the mother’s car. The camera zooms in and around to her window before going into a mid-shot of the mum and boy. It focuses on the boy as his expression, scared, nervous, but his eyes are the golden mean of the shot. The mum is focused on accident but he is focused on the mum. In the background there is noise to make realistic. It’s a two shot as they have a conversation, which is a big deal as it could make him look mental or lying he has never told her and he wants her to understand as he is so young and scared this creates tension and suspense. The camera now goes into the car, there would typically be some music but there is nothing which is strange. When the camera does a reverse shot between the two characters, there is no music because there is no panic as she doesn’t believe him. A close up shot to see her reaction, as she wants to listen to him. The scene is very conventional as typical mum and son, environment. When it closes up on the mother she looks out the window as if to make sure because she wants him normal, close up of the boys scared face and the dead women behind him as its from his point of view so the audience believes him, makes you feel uncomfortable. This is unconventional as it’s his mum’s point of view but she can’t see her and the boy is in the shot and so is the women though the mum can’t see her makes you feel uncomfortable. All diegetic music is normal and natural no edited in music or sound, close up of mum panicking.

All of this from this one scene makes it very similar to ours as when did a car scene like this, though it wasn’t because of an accident that the car stopped it was because they thought that they had seen their dead relative, we created the same effect as the car scene in this film but this time both of the characters could see the ghost. Both sixth sense and our thriller are good in separate and similar ways. In ours we made sure to play on the audience’s emotions to create a good thriller by using inspiration from other thrillers, like the sixth sense, to see how they created a reaction from an audience and then tested with ours to get the same effect in which we did.

We would want Paramount to be the production company to co-produce our film as they are big company which have a wide audience which they have gotten from their previous films. The films they have done before have all been successful and they used the latest technology to create them which if they helped us do our film then it would be done to with the best actors, props, camera man and women and it would have professional people which could help us with the concepts of our thriller and help us improve it to achieve an effective psychological thriller.       

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience I think our particular thriller is aimed at is mainly 15 year olds and above. The reason for this is the content is more from the mind of a typical 16 year old. With different elements like lighting, sound both diegetic and non-diegetic and Mise-en-scene which are in all typical thrillers, makes it more aimed at the people who like to be either shocked or slightly scared. The film is aimed at both men and women as the characters appeal to both genders as they make motherly and fatherly instincts come out in people.  The demographics – statistical characteristics of a population (earnings, disposable income), are what we have to consider for our film as well. The demographics we looked at and then chose from were:

Group A – lawyers, doctors, scientists, well paid professionals.

Group B – teachers, middle management, fairly well paid professionals.

Group C1 - junior management, bank clerks, nurses, ‘White collar’ professions.

Group C2 – electricians, plumbers, carpenters, ‘Blue collar’ professions.

Group D - manual workers such as: drivers, post sorters.

Group E – students, unemployed, pensioners.

My group and I decided to aim our thriller at group B. We have specifically chosen as it is more suited to our type of thriller opening as we have chosen this it doesn’t mean that other demographic groups won’t look at it as well. We chose this group as it is the middle of the demographic, meaning it may be easier to make the film appeal to that type of audience as they are the type of people who have a break once in a while whereas group A may be harder as they may be too busy. 

The only problem with this type of demographic is that the film might not appeal to them if a fact is incorrect for example, they could be very intelligent and the film may include some wrong information making this type of audience go off the film making it unsuccessful. It suggests that this type of audience wants a factually correct film which at the same time doesn’t make them have to think too much.    

To research what type of audience we should go for we did a questionnaire which is below:

 The results of this were we found that some people in the same age group had different views on different media based subjects which were similar to each other meaning it would be easier for my group and I to relate to this type of audience. Below is one of the results from the questionnaire.

As you can see above only 20% of people we asked liked to watch thrillers where as 40% of them liked to watch comedy, using this information meant that we needed to work harder for people to like our thriller.

Another thing we looked at to determine our audience was the BBFC.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the United Kingdom. It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010.  

The classification for our film is a:

15 - Suitable for people aged 15 years and over.  No one under the age of 15 should watch the film in cinema, rent or buy the film when it is released. For a certificate rating 15 you do not get accompanied by an adult if you are under the age. Classification for a 15 depends on whether there is sexual content such as nudity, the language use is it frequent and how much violence occurs are there gory deaths or mild scenes where someone gets shot. Horror films are usually rated 15 or 18 as they contain more violent behaviour, scary scenes and possible gore from the deaths, they can be psychological making it unsuitable for a younger audience as it may give them nightmares.

I would rate my thriller this certificate as it is as we are aiming the film at 15 year olds and older, it will contain no sexual natures, but it may contain things like drugs or alcohol content, violence, swearing and may contain psychological natures making it unsuitable for a younger audience as it may give them nightmares. 

For example:

Film title	Film rating and a reason why
HUGO	U –An orphan goes on a mystery involving his late father and a robot.
The Incredible’s	PG – A family who have powers such as ability to run fast and disappear.
Sherlock Holmes	12 - quest to solve a string of mysterious and brutal murders, Sherlock Holmes and his trusted ally Watson plunge into a world of dark arts
Safe	15 - A suicidal New Jersey cage fighter protects a young Chinese math prodigy from Triads, Russian gangsters, and corrupt cops in this action thriller.
The cabin in the woods	15 - A twisted and unusual take on the familiar ‘cabin in the woods’
The Shining	18 – A family heads to an isolated for the winter where an evil spirit influences the father into violent behaviour psychic son starts to see forebodings from the past.
Disclosure	R18 - A computer specialist is sued for sexual harassment by a former lover turned boss who initiated the act forcefully, which threatens both his career and his personal life.

In the table above are some films in which why they are rated at different levels and why. By looking at the different things that are included and how it relates to our film we came up with the rating of 15 and older, as it will contain any sexual, drug or alcohol content in it, for our film. The film that is similar to our thriller in this table is The cabin in the woods as it is like our thriller in some ways like the way it effects the audience but not totally as it is mainly a horror.  

From doing all these research we came to the final conclusion that our film is a 15, that it will be more appealing to the younger generation rather than the older and that to make the film appealing to that generation we would have to make sure it included things they liked and that it would have to make a great impact on the audience by them just watching the thriller opening. Even with the age rating of 15 and older it doesn’t impact our thriller at all as it gives us a chance to do more with it to make an effective thriller whilst staying in the guidelines of the BBFC.

This picture is from my thriller it shows why our thriller is classed as a 15 as in the picture you can see how it is psychologically effective. This is because of the way the girl looks; it is a disturbing and effects the audience if younger kids saw this it may affect them and give them nightmares.





This picture is of a typical 15 year old teenager. She is the type of audience that we are aiming for with our thriller. With this type of audience the typical media products they consume are things like magazines, different TV programmes, but also things like using the internet for different social media’s. As this type of audience uses things like Twitter or Facebook means that advertising films is easier for them to access and see rather than any posters but also most people this age watch a lot of TV so adverts on they are seen well. All of this helps us both to see what they do with media products but also how we could promote our film to appeal to this type of audience.

This picture shows the type of person we want to aim our thriller at. She looks happy and kind and like someone who uses different media sites often. She could have might listen to things like The Script or Jessie J. She could watch things like Jersey Shore and read girly magazines with different fashion tips etc. She may shop in expensive clothes shops like River Island. Basically our audience is typical 15 year olds and older of both genders and any type of job in a middle class demographic. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

We made sure our thriller opening didn’t give too much away straight away and that it built up to a point where the audience would be wondering what’s going to happen.

This shot appeals to the audience as it creates some mystery. It’s a close up shot framed to see a hand brushing the characters face, the lighting is natural but the effect makes it dreamlike so the audience doesn’t know if it’s real or not. The way the shot is set up makes the audience concentrate mainly on the hand and the face. At this point there is some creepy childlike music which also makes an impact on the audience. Because we had recorded the singing and then put a reverb on it which is when the music echoes. We did this as in the questionnaire most people liked similar things like TV programmes and music which from looking at that and what kind of films they watched we decided that this type of shot plus the music would to the audience.    

This shot appeals to the audience as it is strange which people will then want to know why a little girl is standing near a lake. The shot is framed to show the lake and the surroundings making the girl look small and lonely. The weather gives the shot a larger impact; as it’s not normal for a little girl to be alone in a big place in that kind of weather so it makes the audience feel almost protective and feel sorry for this girl.
The rain symbolises the life that is going to be washed away. The lighting doesn’t matter with this shot as we put an effect on it to show that it is a flashback which adds to the already growing story. At this point the music is the same as the shot above but it also has her singing twinkle twinkle little star which we recorded, but it still has the same effect on the audience making them want to watch it. It makes the audience think of lots of different stories for why she is there and what’s going to happen. It attracts the audience as it is different from most thrillers but it also grabs their attention and makes them want to know what has happened to this little girl.
This shot appeals to the audience as when people see cars, mainly men, they think there might be a car scene. Though there isn’t a car scene it doesn’t affect the audience it just makes them try to piece together what the car has to do with everything and as they watch on it becomes clear to them. The shot is framed to see the bottom of the car so you don’t know who is in it creating tension. They also start to make assumptions. The lighting is natural but the shot has an effect on it making it seem dreamlike. Because the shots that are dreamlike and the ones that are different it makes the audience think one is real and one is a memory but they just have to figure it out. In this shot they mainly focus on the bottom of the car as it travels past. We decided not to do an extreme car scene as it does not go with the storyline which we created. It would appeal to the audience as again it is different from most thrillers as you don’t normally see a car driving past slowly with a strange effect over the footage.


  
This shot appeals to the audience as it is creepy and strange. They feel like this as the shot is a mid-shot of the little girl, she is looking straight at the camera making the audience think she is looking at them. They may think about who she is and what she’s looking at, but it makes them uncomfortable. Again this shot has natural light with an effect on it making it a flashback though the audience might not think that. The music again is the same still giving the same effect on the audience. The audience would enjoy this as it is giving them a slight thrill, but it is mainly making them think which is normal with a psychological thriller meaning that it is successful.      

This shot appeals to the audience as it again is strange. It is framed to include the inside of the car, both of the characters in it and then a slight image of something next to the window on the other side of the car. It makes the audience want to tell the people in the car to turn around which they do. It makes people think why is the little girl doing this to them. The light is natural but again there is an effect on it to make the audience think about what’s happening. 

In the questionnaire there wasn’t any particular requests to put anything in the thriller, the questionnaire was mostly for finding out how to appeal to an audience of typical 15 year olds and older. We did this as we wanted to achieve an effective thriller opening which built up the tension in a way which made people want to watch it more and want to find out what’s going to happen. The questionnaire told us that not many people watched thrillers so it made it harder for us to pleas them. We appealed to them by using characters which they could relate to in one way or another.

When people who were the type of audience we wanted to achieve watched it they said that they had to think about what was happening but that it was good and the music made the opening creepier as well the way we dressed the main protagonist, the way she looked. From having those comments from not just one person but a few made us know the way we compiled our thriller opening made it an effect the audience the way we wanted it to.

The ways our(s) opened, I personally think it attracted the audience as it was a driving by shot of a sign of a town. This shot I think made the audience think what is going to happen here. Like other thriller openings the first shot is always the most important as it is the one that attracts the attention in the first place. I think that my thriller did that as once it went from the opening shot to the next the audience wanted to know what was going to happen next. Below is a table of the different conventions of a typical thriller and how I think we pulled it off in the thriller.

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

In doing this thriller opening I have learnt lots of new things as well as re-learnt them as I have some skills with filming and editing. When shooting digital video I learnt how:

- To keep the shots steady by using a tripod. A tripod is a stand in which holds the camera steady so that the movements can be smooth and steady which as there was a leveller on the tripod it made it easier to know if the shot was level or not if we wanted the camera to be at a low level or high one. 

- I learnt how to do the lighting and the differences between the natural and artificial light and how that using either of the lightings made the shots look different by either hiding things from the audience making it creepy or by making it light so the audience could see every detail. For example: this screen grab is from my thriller opening. The lighting in this shot was natural lighting, but as the day was getting dark the shot was dulled and it made the shot have a creepy, gloomy effect then by doing it in the bright sunlight as we left this shot till the end when it started to get dark.
- I also learnt that you had to keep to the 180 degree rule, which is when you film on only one side so the left or right of the characters every time. It was hard to keep to as if the person you were filming had to turn around then you would have make sure you were on the right side every time, but I found it easy to keep to as long as you knew which side to be in every shot. One problem was when we were shooting the car sequence, we did some shots on both sides of the car and when we got to editing they didn’t fit so we had to take some and flip the clip so they went the opposite way.

- Another thing that we had to consider with filming was composition and framing, which is where you do a shot that either includes or excludes certain parts of the person, object, surrounding etc. An example from our thriller is: This screen grab is of a car which i did a pan shot of but in this shot I framed it to only include the bottom of the car and the road so you could see the wheels as it drove past. I did this by zooming in on the bottom of the car before we got it to drive past. We did this so we could hide the identity of the people in the car to create mystery.

- Another thing was focus so the shots had either depth of field or not. The shots we did I made sure if we were focusing on a certain thing then the rest of the background wasn’t as in focus sop the audience would only look at that specific thing rather than anything.  

- Another thing was focus so the shots had either depth of field or not. The shots we did I made sure if we were focusing on a certain thing then the rest of the background wasn’t as in focus so the audience would only look at that specific thing rather than anything. The impact it had was that the audience had choice on what they wanted to focus on but it also gave the whole scene and the surroundings making them feel like they are in the film. 

- I learnt in sound that there can be issues with filming outside like the wind and rain. When we filmed the flashbacks it was raining and the rain made the shots look better but the sound of it didn’t make the footage any better so when we edited everything we took the sound of and replaced it with a sound track which was on for the entire length of the thriller opening as well as some recorded singing which had a reverb effect on it making it echo and give a creepy effect to the footage.

- We learnt about the many different camera shot types as well as the different angles and how they went together to for example shoot someone coming through a door.  When we were planning our shot list for our thriller we drew them out in a storyboard so we could see if they went together. The screen grab is of a part of our storyboard.

-How to add /manipulate sound. In the picture above the green line under the footage at the top is the sound. When we put the sound on we edited it in garage band on the macs then exported it onto iTunes where we dragged it from there onto the footage. Our music was non – diegetic which is where the sound is a piece of music or someone narrating. There is also diegetic which is like background noise, so the wind, rain, children laughing which we didn’t use. We didn’t want to use it as it didn’t help give the film a larger impact on the audience.   

-Titles. There are titles on the mac which you can drag in front of the footage to introduce the film but you can also create your own which we did. This picture is of the title sequence we did. As you can see when did a hopscotch on a road with chalk and in each square is a title. We chose to do use this technique as it was childlike but also the main character was using it which also showed  what type of age she was. 

-Stills. Stills are taking a freeze frame from a piece of footage, there would be no movement like footage, but it would still be effective. This screen grab is a still from our thriller. We used one as it looked better in our footage because the footage was slightly shaky. It is only for a second so you can’t really tell that it is a still so it doesn’t affect the rest of the footage. The impact we wanted this particular shot to make was to creep the audience as it hide the girls identity but it also makes her look so still that it creeps the audience out. 

-Speed/ colour correction or effects/ editing effects. In my thriller we changed all of the footage so that you could tell that there were two entwined storylines that fitted together, in our case it was flashbacks and normal everyday life. On the flashback we used a dark dreamlike effect and on the normal footage we had an effect called romantic where it made the edges fuzzy giving the impression it was dreamlike. And in the title sequence we put an old movie effect on it so you knew it was separate from the main footage.  

-Garage band is software where you can edit together a track or edit a sound track like taking the singing off or just shortening it. We used it to edit our soundtrack so that there was no singing and that the music was on a constant repeat so it would fit the whole length of the film. We wanted the music to last throughout the whole film as it gave the film a better effect with the music rather than just silence.  

 -Structure narrative. This is where you would have two narratives, so flashbacks. We did flashbacks in our thriller; it is easy to tell this as one the two separate storylines we put different effect’s on the footage so that the audience could tell.  

These two screen grabs above are examples of how add different effects on the footage. You can tell that they are different storylines, so one is a flashback and one isn’t. The slightly black footage on the left is the flashback and the one on the right with the slightly hazy edges is the other storyline. I think the audience will react to this as it makes them think which one is the reality but also who is having the flashbacks.  
-When we had finished all of the editing we had to export the completed footage and then burn it onto a DVD. I found this easy once we were told how to do this.  

The other technologies that made a major impact on my thriller were:

-You tube as it gave us inspiration from watching other clips of thrillers to help us but also to get a taste of what type of music we wanted and then lastly it helped us actual get the music we wanted.

-Blogger as this is where I posted all of my research and planning as we did our thriller. This has made it easier for me to show all of my research but also where I could put everything I learnt and found out.   

-Google as it I would use it to look at links or images in which I needed to help me with my thriller. But also using Google maps helped when I was getting examples for the locations of my thriller. This has made it easier as it has all of the information I need on it but also images and videos.  

-Prezi’s as they helped show information that I found in a different way rather than in big chunks of text. This has made it easier for me to show information in a different way instead of a big chunk of text.     

-Wordle’s as it took important words and created a picture which broke up pieces of large text. This makes easier as it is a different way to show info.     

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

As a filmmaker I have improved in my editing and filming skills as well as how I present my ideas, research and planning. I learnt how to put my research on a blog breaking them up with YouTube links, prezis, wordles and pictures rather than a big chunk of information. This broke up my work making it easier to read and to show my research in different ways but it also made it easier to remember and more interesting to look at.

When I did my preliminary I knew the basic skills and techniques like shot types, golden mean, rule of thirds and others, that I needed to make a preliminary which I used in my thriller too. For example:

-Continuity editing is when the shots taken fade into each other without doing a jump cut. In our thriller we had to film a car sequence so we had to think about how we make each shot of the car fit together to create continuity and to make sure there were no jump cuts. In my preliminary I had to think about this as in the video we had to walk from one place to another going through doors and around corners. I had to use different shots making sure they stayed at the same level as the characters travelled, which I then had to edit together so that they flowed without doing any major jump cuts.    

-180 rule is when you have to film on only one side of an object, surroundings or a person. In my thriller we had to get shots of the car going the same way. Sometimes we had to put a flip effect on the footage which turned the picture the opposite way so that all of the shots of the car went the same way. We did this because we needed to keep to the 180 degree rule. In my preliminary I had to make sure that I filmed only on one side even as the characters went around the corners and through the doors. Because of learning this skill in the preliminary it made it easier to do in my thriller.

-Match on action is when one shot cuts to another shot. In my thriller I had to look at this when I was editing. I looked at two shots that showed this skill. For example there was a shot of the car’s wheels and then the next shot would be the car driving fast then stopping suddenly. In my preliminary there wasn’t much of this except for the walking around the corners and doing tracking shots as they walked down corridors.    

-Shot reverse shot is a shot of characters looking at each other or objects, like in a conversation.  In my thriller we had no characters doing this but in my preliminary we had a conversation between two characters as they played cards.

When I was doing my thriller we looked at the different shot types from my preliminary, which we developed throughout my thriller. For instance, we used continuity when we were doing the car sequence. We had to make sure the shots were continuous by making sure when we were shooting the car sequence we made the shots make a storyline were the audience could follow along with no problems. We also used the 180 degree rule during the car sequence which in the preliminary we did well and in my thriller we developed by flipping clips to make sure the rule wasn’t broken. 

Weaknesses of preliminary, how I dealt with them.	Strengths of preliminary
Shaky. When a shot was shaky I would a stabilize action on the macs as I was editing.	The effectiveness of doing more than one shot as when we did one shot we would film it at least three times so we could choose the best one.
Not many shots. With the shots I got I made sure that the way they that set out were in a way were it didn’t need to have that many different shots.	The shots as the transitions between them showed a storyline and made it easy to follow.
Not very straight on some shots. With this is couldn’t do anything about it but when I did my thriller I made sure that they were always straight. We did this with a spirit level on the tripod.	Dialogue as it was simple and showed emotion when needed and gave a plot to the storyline.
The walking was too long. I shortened the shots and used less of them by splitting the clip then cutting the unwanted footage.	Tracking shot as well as other shots as they were all done at least three times and they were always practised before doing the actual shot.

When we were addressing the weaknesses in the preliminary we had to do practise shots and see how we could improve them before doing the actual one. If the shots were shaky we would stabilize them on the apple macs when we were editing. If the shots weren’t straight we would look at the spirit level on the tripod to make sure they were.  

All of these weaknesses we had in the preliminary we had to make sure that we didn’t do these when we were filming the thriller. We always made sure the shots were straight by looking at the spirit level on the tripod; we made sure we did a variety of shots and made sure that we didn’t make the shots to long.

This screen grab shows my skill of when I did a panning focused on the car as it drove past. I did this on a tripod and slowly pulled the camera around to follow the car as it went past. 

This screen grab shows my skill in framing and also of how to do a still and a high shot. I did this by standing on a ladder and filmed the characters just standing there and then on the apple macs I clicked on the part of the clip I wanted to freeze frame and right clicked and chose the freeze frame button which froze the shot so we could just have a picture.

This screen grab shows my skill in how to frame a close up to only include a face and a hand. I did it by zooming in onto the face but leaving a little room around the face so you could see the hand enter the shot and then leave it.

All of these shots that we used in the thriller we used in the preliminary as it were a type of practise to see if we could make mistakes and then improve on them in our thriller.

Our thriller opening was successful as when it was played to people our selected audience. I it appealed to them and they commented that it gave them a feeling of longing for the little girl but how they wanted to know what had happened to her which is what my group and I wanted our target audience to feel. The areas I think that could have been improved were there should have been a bigger variety of shots. The one we could have used could have helped to make an even bigger emotional effect on the audience making them want to watch the film. 

Weaknesses of thriller	Strengths of thriller
The ordering of the clips as sometimes the order wouldn’t make sense so we would have to change the order which meant the music  would go out of place.	It had no dialogue so no script was needed but also it made a better impact on the audience. Because the music gave the emotional connection to the audience better than a piece of dialogue would have.
The music didn’t always stay in the same place as well as the singing was slightly out of time in some parts.	The music gave the thriller a feeling as well with the recorded singing made the thriller affect the audience even more making it a good thriller.
On one part of the car scene the 180° rule was broken, even though it was fixed by flipping the clip.	The shots transitioned into each other well making the storyline clear and easy to follow.
Some of the lighting wasn’t brilliant as when we were filming the natural light was fading as it went into the evening.	No major accidental jump cuts, but the one that we do have doesn’t affect the film and doesn’t confuse the audience.
Not many various shots, more could have been used as it would have made the emotional impact on the audience greater.	Stuck to the 180° rule.
Some shots were too long just like in the preliminary so we had to cut them down when editing.	Kept things like golden mean and the rule of thirds in mind.
There is one shot that doesn’t fit very well, the one with the car still and Ronnie turns round and is scared by Laura’s character as the car isn’t moving.	The way the shots were placed built the tension up to the ending.

Looking back at my preliminary task I can clearly see how I have improved from that to my thriller opening. One thing I know that I have improved in is how I did the research and planning before we did any filming. In my preliminary the research was just of the different types of shots and the planning was a shot list and a storyboard. The planning for my preliminary was simple. It was easy to follow but it didn’t have very many shots and some parts dragged on. In my thriller I didn’t have this problem from doing lots of research and planning before going onto filming. The benefits of this were it was easier to be prepared for when we were filming as we knew what we wanted and how we wanted it to look.

Another difference between my preliminary and my thriller is the way the shots were set up. In my preliminary the way the shots were set up were very simple as there was no framing or consideration of the golden mean or rule of thirds. Where as in my thriller we would look at a shot before filming it and then would film it at least three times in slightly different ways so we could choose the best one out of the three. The benefits of this were we had a choice of which shot looked the best.   

In my preliminary it had only simple editing with dialogue which made the film drag on and not make a great impact on the audience. In the thriller we looked at lots of thriller openings which showed us that having dialogue in the thriller opening wasn’t needed and that without it, it made a large emotional impact rather than having dialogue but it also didn’t drag out and bore the audience. It created suspense and made people want to know what will happen so that they would want to watch the film.

The lighting in the preliminary was natural just like in the thriller but in the preliminary we didn’t think of how we could use the natural light to our advantage. In the thriller, we took advantage of both the weather and the lighting both natural and not making sure that we considered it in every shot, so we could make them better or make certain things stand out like the facial features or the outline of a body. This was an improvement from the preliminary as we didn’t focus greatly on the lighting as we didn’t need to emphasize anything in particular.  

In the preliminary the shots were not great as the camera was sometimes on a slant and the shots were shaky, so in the thriller I made sure that everything was filmed on the tripod. If it was a shot near the floor it would not leave the tripod, but when we were editing we also steady every single shot just in case. As the camera was always on the tripod we could make sure all of the shots were straight as the tripod had a spirit level on it which meant that unlike our preliminary we always knew that the shot was straight.