When we began planning the opening to our thriller it was important we researched the genre and look at key features and conventions in thrillers. Particularly, we used technical elements such as fast cuts and cross cutting, as well as close up shots and shadowy antagonists to help in establishing our piece as a thriller.
We hoped to include many thriller elements, whilst including an element of youth in our characters and situations, something uncommon in modern thrillers. We included a typical thriller convention with an innocent victim being caught up in a deeper mystery, creating a sense of sympathy for the protagonist and a sinister air and sense of dread about the mysterious antagonist. The hero is an unlikely one, a young teen who is investigating the conspiracy behind the death of his friend, is unlike the stereotypical crime thriller protagonist, usually a gruff and seasoned detective or private eye.
(Typical thriller Protagonists, Brad Pitt in 'Seven')
(Stereotypical thriller antagonist, Norman Bates 'Psycho')
Our Character types reflected thriller conventions with our victim being an innocent, and kind young female, who is murdered for seemingly no reason and the murderer a hooded figure who remains an enigma in our opening.
We sought to create excitement and anticipation, dramatic tension, uncertainty, fear, and anxiety, all key elements of thrillers which makes them not unlike the horror genre, however the latter often is more graphic, shocking and disgusting the audience rather than building up tension, we looked to reflect this by not showing violence in any great detail, or any gore, using different camera angles to shield the audience from any graphic violence.
We also looked to utilize enigma, another important aspect of thrillers. We did this by raising questions that are not answered in our opening, prompting the audience to keep watching, our main enigma was the reasoning behind the murder, and who killed April. In our initial edit, however, audience feedback told us the plot became difficult to understand through our use of flashbacks, however for our final edit we re-ordered the scenes making the story more coherent and improving the product as a whole, while keeping an element of mystery, a common convention of thrillers.
We broke away from conventions however by targeting a younger audience than a typical crime thriller. We aimed to attract at an audience of 15-24 year olds rather than an 18+ audience, we looked to do this using a younger cast, and incorporating themes such as bullying as well as a school setting.
It is a contemporary thriller, with a modern setting, reflected in our set and the dress of our characters, as well as the stereotypes portrayed reflecting those seen today.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our opening sequence featured few characters, meaning the importance of those featured was emphasised, although all our characters could be socially grouped as youth, they all fall under different stereotypes.
Our protagonist Michael, is an outsider amongst his peers, he looks to represent the ‘emo’ stereotype, wearing predominately black, with dyed, colourful hair, this reinforces his depressed mannerisms, and represents a key segment of youth culture in a positive light as he is the main protagonist. The audience should feel sympathy for his victimization for being different to his peers and support him as he tries to avenge his friend. This is also reflected in the rock tinged score, another trait associated with the emo stereotype.
April, represents various aspects of feminine character, she is seen to be kind and cares for Michael when no one else does, her youth is shown through her school uniform, and her out of school attire are common, fashionable clothes. Her bright demeanour should contrast Michaels depression, emphasising both.
The bully character also represents a common stereotype of the youth, his look and behaviour displays traits of the ‘ASBO teen culture’ a cultural representation which is common in today’s society, which should create a sense of dislike toward his character as he victimizes the protagonist. His appearance is that of a ‘geezer’ showing he is a common, possibly violent youth.
There is also a sense of regional identity, with sights such as the river Thames and the London eye being shown, this combined with the accents of the characters gives a sense of teen life in a busy city, showing the pressures and stereotypes living in the capital.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
In order to distribute my film, its lack of budget or known actors in the cast would mean it would be considered an independent film.
It would be distributed on the internet, through video sharing sites such as Youtube, Dailymotion and such. This would also enable feedback to be viewed quickly and easily in the form of video comments. If it were successful it may be distributed widely, perhaps in small, local cinemas showcasing local filmmakers, or at some sort of film festival, such as Sundance.
4. Who would be the audience of your media product?
Before producing our film, we considered our target audience, and chose to aim for a BBFC 15 certificate, in order to establish our film as a teen crime thriller. This meant we had to limit any violence, as restrictions stated we may include ‘violence as long as the film does not dwell on the infliction of pain’. We were careful to abide by this, showing violent scene briefly and with less emphasis on the action but more on the effects.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We looked to address our target audience throughout the film, and I believe we did this effectively as our feedback showed our piece was ‘very relevant’ to our target audience. The young cast, school setting as well as the themes reflect youth and this directly relates to a 15-24 year old audience. In addition to this the themes of loneliness and isolation are easily relatable to teenagers, creating sympathy for the character of Michael, also all the characters dress in teenage fashion or school uniform, meaning physically the characters are no different to the audience again meaning it is easier to feel a sense of empathy towards the characters, making our media product more effective.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In making this product, I have learned a great deal about the process involved in constructing even a short film. The internet was a crucial part in our research before production and ensured we could look at a wider range of films. Youtube clips gave us examples of thriller opening sequences from various films including ‘Seven’, a crime thriller.
In creating our film we used multiple programs on the computer, such as iMovie and Garageband. Garageband was used to create our original score and was useful as it allowed us to get exact timings and the score we needed to create the correct atmosphere. iMovie on the other hand was our main editing tool and was an easy and simple interface, allowing even inexperienced film makers such as ourselves to use it effectively, especially as it was designed to work with DV cameras, which we had used. This provided an advantage in storing footage over celluloid or other film types. iMove also gave us editing tools enabling us to use effects, particularly the black and white and high contrast effects we used to differentiate the flashbacks. I believe this went well as it is clear the film occurs in three different time periods.
The DV cameras themselves gave a gritty and realistic image, which was effective in making the film more realistic and relatable to our audience, especially the bathroom scenes which the gritty nature gave the impression of a video log, creating a personal connection with the character.
7.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I think our final product is a great deal more developed than our preliminary task, I learned a great deal about editing, such as adding titles that fit the tone of the film, as well as adding effects and more complex cuts, such as the wipe and fade out, I also experienced making a fitting score and editing it to add to the atmosphere of the product in what I believe is an effective way.
We also had to adhere to a filming schedule, something we had not needed in the preliminary task, due to filming on location and needing correct weather conditions. The open set was useful to us as we were able to convey a sense of crowdedness through the busy nature of the place itself.
We also improved in our filming technique it’s self, taking more ambitious shots, such as our establishing shot of the river, taken from atop a high tower. We also used more interesting angles in the bathroom scene, creating askew angles in order to reflect the havoc of the situation Michael is in. This progresses greatly from the basic shots seen in our preliminary task.
We also progressed greatly in terms of editing using more advanced techniques including our effects used to convey flashbacks and some of our cuts. This again is a development on the basic techniques we used in the preliminary task.
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