In our piece we did our best to bear in mind a lot of the typical conventions of a thriller, like a slow paced story with plenty of twists and turns. We also hinted at an Antagonist at the very end of our piece
After drawing up the storyboard we decided that we were going to use a lot of fast paced, quick cuts for a lot of different angles in order to build and hold a higher level of tension and suspense for the audience. That way, when the music stopped at the end of the piece and the camera stopped moving there would be a very tense feeling of anticipation for the very last scene of the introduction. I think that the main way our piece challenges traditional conventions is through its soundtrack. It's very rare to have such a fast paced soundtrack for a film such as a thriller. The idea was to give as little information about the rest of the movie as possible but still try to keep the viewer engaged. The loud, fast soundtrack definitely places our piece as a more action oriented thriller. I felt that there was a little influence from films like "Se7en" in our piece, like the camera panning across the table littered with snippets of information.
How does your media product represent certain social groups
As far as our introduction goes you only really see middle class Caucasian males. We only had male group members and our storyboard didn't involve any female characters in the introduction. However, this could appeal to our target audience due to the audience simply being able to relate to the characters on screen in terms of social class. The piece is set in and around
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Ideally, our film would be suited to a mainstream cinema release, featuring a mildly well-known cast and a slightly better than average budget. The kind of movie that is released in the cinema and then several months later goes to DVD for the masses to purchase. This would make it more accessible to consumers of all types, instead of JUST the target audience. It could potentially have a sequel, but that would depend on the success of the film and the overall plotline. I can see it being very hard to make a sequel for a thriller movie due to all of the plot twists and turns that it takes during the course of the movie and if anyone had not already seen the first film then the chances are that they would be lost upon watching the sequel. There might also be a chance for a spinoff novel to appeal to fans who like to read. We are hoping that the film would be quite well received so that merchandising can begin and more money can be made by appealing to audiences of all ages instead of just the 15 and over mark.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience was to be 15 year old and older members of both genders. This would mean that the plot line could be as rich and inventive as possible without having to cater for a less imaginative or less interested younger audience. Obviously aiming for the sort of audience with enough disposable income to spend on a trip to the cinema and also an audience sophisticated enough to respect and acknowledge the subtleties that a thriller movie implies.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I thought that there were a few points in our intro that would appeal to this audience. First of all would be the intriguing pan across the desk to reveal the newspaper, second would be the fast paced, loud running scene with he tense ending. We used a series of quick cuts that jump from location to location to build suspense and to look like a very fast paced scene. We decided that these quick shots would place the audience in the position of a spectator, viewing the events without any prior knowledge. This would add to the fast paced aspect of the scene but also builds the viewer's interest as to the previous events of the story.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I learnt that operating a camera with insufficient light is a nigh impossible task, and that using tape cameras instead of USB or memory stick ones is a very unreliable way of filming. The main problem that we faced was the lack of light and no way to produce it. We tried using quite a high powered torch but it still had almost no effect whatsoever on the quality of light on the finished product. Using final cut express was a new challenge for me as I'd previously had no encounters with editing software before. After I’d got to grips with the basics though I became relatively adept at cutting and placing scenes and sound. We also used visual effects such as simply cutting to black or using a fade to build suspense. For our soundtrack, we didn't use Garageband; we used Cubase instead, as we had previous experience with it.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product
The planning stage was more difficult than I thought it would be. I watched several celebrated thriller films such as Se7en, One hour photo and (my favourite) Memento. There were definite similarities in style between all of them and we tried to use these to our benefit. I was the one who wrote the storyboard that we used for our final piece and in I am very pleased with how it turned out because my vision was almost perfectly recreated. I knew what kind of movement and shots I wanted and how quickly everything would need to be and I feel that we did as well as we could. During our first film shoot, we decided that the shots we were using weren't good enough, and that they could be improved. The second time around we improved the previous shots and then added a few new ones in, such as the key dropping shot; to add to the mood.
After this project I definitely feel much more confident with the Apple Macs, cameras and the use of final cut express. All in all, I think that the filming and editing aspect of our piece went very well indeed, and we're all quite happy with the final product. I am aware however, that our blog was indeed lacking in quantity of posts and that there is no remedy for this.
Overall, I think we started out slowly but eventually we managed to get out piece to the standard that we require.
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