In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our thriller incorporated generic conventions due to certain methods we used. For example, our thriller has an antagonist and a protagonist. This is widely associated as a thriller convention. Our outdoor scenes, where you see the victim running, are set at night. We felt this suits the thriller genre well as a running scene during daylight, may not have been as effective, or thrilling. During the chase, you can hear the sound of footsteps. Our thriller challenges the “protagonist/ antagonist” convention as we don’t actually see the antagonist it is just implied. If our thriller were to have a sub-genre, it would definitely be action. The running-chase scene is very fast-paced and exhilarating and could easily be classed as an action film.
The film Se7en influenced us. Both our opening scenes involve a character at a desk writing. We liked this film and so it inspired us to do something similar.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our thriller, we only included very few characters and so could not cover a wide range of different social groups. Our main character is a white, middle-class male investigator in his thirties. Our victim is again white, middle-class but a teenager. The last character in our film is the antagonist, who the audience doesn’t see, but presume it is the one chasing the victim. Gender is not represented in a stereotypical way as our thriller only includes males. In which are the victim and protagonist. You see the male victim running away from something and a shot of him at the end in fear. This challenges the stereotypical view that men are dominant.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our movie could potentially make it on the big screens being produced by a large Hollywood organisation. Sometime after its cinema release, it would be shown on the television. The film could potentially follow on to a sequel depending on how successful the original film is. This could work as thrillers aren’t often associated as having sequels and so it would be exceptional. Also, dependant on the factor of its success, it could lead to the merchandising of products such as posters, t-shirts, memorabilia, character figures and video games. Our film is similar to other existing products by adopting thriller conventions, which other products use. In conclusion we can gather that our film has a dark yet upbeat mise en scene, having a disturbing feel to our film, we can see this from the chase and our use of camera work with dark lighting.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
With a group decision, we certified our thriller to be a 15. Although setting a young adult demographic of 18-25. We feel our media product is suitable for 15 year olds, but more 18+ people would want to watch it. During the opening, no violent or unpleasant scenes are shown, and therefore it could be classed as a 12 or 12A. We did this on purpose to create suspense, and, to not give too much away during the beginning. So we certified our thriller as a 15 because there would have been violent/ unpleasant scenes in the later stages of the film. This would be unsuitable for 12 year olds.
A film similar to ours is Se7en. The only part I can compare similarities is the opening, where you can see a person sitting at a desk writing. Se7en’s certificate is an 18. So evidently is aimed at ages 18+. Similar to our audience, however we certified ours leniently.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
We addressed our thriller to all genders, of those that are aged 15 and over. We chose this decision as spectators of our movie, who were of all genders and aged 15+ agreed. The beginning scene where the camera pans across the newspaper creates an eerie feel. This could particularly frighten young children.
Also the ending scene, where the victim runs into a dead-end and screams, could terrify a youth.
The audience may feel as though they take part as a spectator of the victim’s life. At the ending, where the victim runs into a dead-end, the audience see's the victim, but not what the victim sees. This means that they don’t put themselves in the position of the victim, but the spectator of the victim, possibly through the eyes of what the victim is facing. At the end, we used a close up and it displayed the fear in the victims face and body.
We made our piece suspenseful by building it, to breaking it down. To elaborate; throughout the film you see the victim running to a fast-paced soundtrack and then at the end, when the victim finds himself in a dead-end, the music stops frantically. This adds to the climax of the suspense.
What have you learnt about technologies from the progress of constructing this product?
Not blaming our equipment but I felt that the cameras let us down. The cameras we used are not great at capturing light, especially at night, when light is limited. However, a strong point of the camera equipment is the usability. I found the camera easy to use, and to set up on the tripod.
After our first time filming, we realised it was too dark and the footage was inadequate. So we filmed it again when the skies were lighter. This created a problem for us as it was time consuming. Another problem we faced, which was more of an annoyance, was that some of our footage somehow got overwritten, so we had to re-film it.
As for new experiences, I had never used an iMac before I took up Media Studies. It took some time getting used to, but now I can fluently use a Mac. I also used Final Cut Express for the first time. I had done some video editing pre-sixth form using Sony Vegas so it was an intriguing experience using a different program. Final Cut Express enhanced our thriller to make it look more professional-like. I found the Fade In Fade Out effect most useful as it gave a simple but effective result that could be applied to any form of media, such as text and video.
(Apologies for bad quality)
My group and I did not use Garage Band to create our soundtrack. However a fellow group member used the program Cubase to create the soundtrack.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Before we made our thriller we researched into thrillers. We watched opening title scenes to analyse how thrillers are made, what techniques and camera shots are used, and to expand on our knowledge of the genre. We made several storyboards displaying our thriller in detail by drawing out the exact shots and locations that were going to be used. We planned to film our thriller shots in the order they occurred. When we came round to editing, it was much easier and simpler.
When doing the preliminary task, we only used a couple of shots. So I think my use of shot types has improved, as in the thriller, we used close ups, medium shots, an establishing shot:
And also a match on action shot:
I feel much more confident with the equipment now than I did in the preliminary task. I wasn’t very confident with using the camera before and I wasn’t too sure which buttons did what. Now though, I am more certain and knowledgeable about the camera and equipment.
Thriller definition: “a book, film, play, etc., depicting crime, mystery, or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement and suspense”. I feel as though we achieved this as we used certain techniques in order to create suspense. Also I feel as though our movie is very exciting with the fast paced running scene synchronizing to the matching soundtrack. So in conclusion, I feel our end product successfully fulfilled the initial task of creating a thriller opening.
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