Thriller Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our media product, we researched three thriller openings and watched many in class. Our film opening is very much like No Country For Old Men. We used the idea of the panning shots of the landscape and the idea of a voiceover. Also, our soundtrack is piano and is tension building music, therefore suits the thriller genre. Our original idea was due to be something similar to the Blair Witch Project which features teenagers camping in a wood. We had to change our original idea, however, because of weather and the fact that it would be hard to get all the equipment easily and in time. Furthermore, our new and final thriller idea has strong conventions and links to other thriller films that are of similar qualities. The strongest links come from No Country For Old Men, as we use the panning shots of the countryside, the voiceover from the Keeper and also we used the suspense from the conventions of other thrillers such as Leon, The Interpreter and Identity.

How does your media product represent particular groups?
The victims are two girls (Emily and I) who are of a teen age. Other teenage girls could therefore relate to these two girls which will make them want to watch the film, as the whole film is centred around the two girls’ lives. The villain (Dan) is presented as a true mad man; the voiceover shows us that he is almost blood thirsty along with the pheasants. Therefore, the social group that we have represented the most is teenagers. The Keeper (Dan) is an adult, but he hates teenagers, so this would only appeal to the few adults that hate teenagers! However, he is a conventional thriller character and is vital to the storyline.

What type of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As a class, we all evaluated each other’s films, and we all came to the conclusion that our film would be a mainstream film. Therefore, it would be distributed in a Multiplex cinema such as the Odeon, Hollywood Cinema or Vue. This is because mainly teenagers go to these cinemas on the weekends when they go to the city with their friends. In Norwich, these cinemas are easily accessible so more people would want to come to them too.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience we will be aiming our thriller film at will be for teenagers and young adults from around 16-24 years of age. Our film can appeal to either males or females but we think that males will tend to like it more as there is action in the opening. We also believe that our film opening will appeal to; esteem seekers who are acquisitive and materialistic and aspire to what they see as symbols of success, including things and experiences; innovators that are self-confident risk-takers, seeking new and different things and set their own targets to achieve; and strivers that attach importance to image and status as a means of enabling acceptance by their peer group and at the same time hold onto traditional values. Most of our audience, therefore, will be members of the lower B, C1, C2 and the higher D. But mostly C and D as they are only probably in part-time or small jobs, the smallest of which could be a paper round. We think that the people that could view our film would have a job but not necessarily a great one. The audience that we expect to view our film can be of any race or culture but our film cast consists of only white males and females so therefore those of other than white British culture may not have anyone to relate to in the film so therefore may not wish to watch it at all. If we had to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of our film opening, this would definitely be one of them. The target audience will have completely different media interests but they will all have an interest in either the thriller genre or suspense in films of the thriller genre or any other genre. Our film opening has suspense and because our film is about a man killing off the four main characters then starting his killing regime again, it is packed full of tense moments too. The mainstream audience will consist of people who watch programmes such as Spooks or one off dramas such as Dead Set. Also any other dramas such as Flood and possibly Torchwood or Doctor Who although these are more Sci-fi programmes, but however, have tension.

How did you attract/address your target audience?
We attracted our 16-24s by having two teenagers as the main characters in our production, both in the opening and the rest of the film that we won’t be making. The voiceover intrigues the teenagers as it is about the two main characters being in trouble for being in the woods. This pulls in the 16-24s because they think that they will be in trouble as they can relate to the characters and possibly could have been for a picnic in the woods in their life.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?
From the skills needed for the preliminary task, we knew how to use the cameras, however, this was different because of the longer length of film, different location and completely different brief. We learnt how to use the tripod effectively to achieve our panning shots of Poringland Woods at the beginning of our opening. Furthermore, we learnt how to use different camera angles to achieve different shots and shot types. With the editing, as we were particularly poor on our preliminary task editing, we found out how to do titles, which we put at they beginning to accompany the panning shots and the voiceover, and also found out how to achieve smooth transitions between shots. Our film was mostly edited by Dan, but Emily and I did our fair share of cutting and moving to achieve our final product.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Planning the preliminary task taught us new ways to plan our thriller opening as it consisted of the same, the only addition being the treatment. Our group, me, Dan and Emily, worked surprisingly well. Emily and I were already good friends as we lived on the same road and went to high school together. I knew Dan from high school and primary school but never really spoke to him throughout. Dan suggested that he worked with us both because it would be easier as we all lived in the same village. Anyhow, as the work on both the preliminary task progressed, our group became a much more productive and well functioning group with no regrets. Most of the ideas that we came up with individually were what the rest of the group were thinking anyway, so nearly all of the ideas were collaborative. The strengths of our production are that of the better editing, the titles, and also the way that we put it all together post-production. The weaknesses, as mentioned in the target audience, are definitely that of unfair representation of culture and age. As all of our characters in the opening are white and young, this may not appeal to the older audience or any audience from a different cultural background. The most important thing I have learnt about film making is the hard work and planning behind it, which without them, the film wouldn’t be possible or as good.