When choosing the idea for our thriller, as a group we felt it was important that the opening was mysterious and didn’t let the audience know much about what was going to happen or what has happened. To ensure that this is what we achieved we added flashbacks that were very short clips and were from all different camera shots and angles, the clips showed different parts of the rape of a girl at a party, by making the clips short it hopefully will make the audience want to see more of what is happening and therefore want to keep watching. By the opening having a sense of mystery I believe it will be easier for the audience to label it as a thriller and not get confused with different genres. By using various different camera shots it should hopefully keep the audience watching as they do not know what is coming next. After discussing with a member of my group what kind of a title we should have and how the title would appear during our introduction, we decided to watch some introductions of other thrillers for inspiration, one caught our eye particularly and it was ‘Fargo’ from 1996, the title appears over the introduction in bold white and is simply faded in. I liked this one and believed it would be effective as it was simple but straight to the point, as our title ‘The morning after’ is quite suggestive of the storyline I felt it was important for it to be obvious what the title was. ‘Fargo’ was also part of the inspiration for our introduction, the introduction was simply a car travelling down a long road, the introduction answered no questions but created lots for the audience, you began to ask where the car is driving to and who is driving it. As a group we also wanted the audience to ask questions so we tried in our work to create the same amount of tension and mystery as seen in ‘Fargo’. Trying to stick to thriller conventions was quite difficult, when trying to ensure the audience can understand that it is thriller it was important we made it clear it wasn’t a horror. Thriller conventions such as tension and mystery were very important when planning our thriller; I believe that our thriller successfully achieves the amount of tension and mystery of that of a real thriller. By watching other thriller introductions we were able to ensure that our introduction looked like a professionally done thriller. I believe that creating the suspense that we have has come mainly from our choice of music as the victim is seen walking. The music is eerie and quite slow gripping the audience and making them continue watching. The piece of music that we chose was called ‘demented dream’ and was found on a copyright free website. The introduction is now drowned by music the music is played quietly over the original audio, throughout the introduction sounds such as footsteps and breathing can be heard, this portrays how lonely the character is when she is walking and also enhances the tension. Sound effects are regularly seen in the opening of thrillers, sound effects of children laughing, screams and a phone ringing are used in the 2004 film ‘Man on fire’. We have also used the sound of a phone ringing in our thriller. When discussing sound with my group I had ‘man on fire’ in my head as I believed the sound succeeded in creating suspense and tension. When filming our thriller it was important what time of day we filmed as thrillers use dark lighting in order to create mystery, as our thriller is set in the morning it was important we filmed very early in the morning in order for it still to be dark enough to achieve the feel of mystery.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
As our thriller opening only featured a girl and a boy it’s hard to a represent a particular social class, especially as you do not learn much about either of the characters for dramatic effect and suspense. By using a young woman as the victim in the opening it sticks to typical thriller storyline. Young women are represented as being vulnerable in the opening of our thriller. It is possible for our thriller to be criticised for portraying females as weak. The film ‘Straw Dogs’ was criticised for its violent concluding sequence and a complicated rape scene that was said to be debasement to women. As our opening shows the rape of a young girl perhaps this could also be seen as degrading to women. By sticking with the usual thriller scenario though it reduces the risk of confusion when being watched by audiences. As the characters in the opening are middle class, it represents middle class teenage boys in a bad light, a boy in his late teens is seen to be raping a girl at a house party in an upstairs bedroom, and this implies that teenagers are irresponsible with alcohol and uncontrollable. Alcohol is also used in our opening, the under age girl is seen vomiting into a sink and then continuing to drink a bottle of wine that was on the side, by seeing her do this, the girl is shown to be irresponsible and not knowing where to stop, this represents the social group of 16/17 year old popular girls to be un sensible when drinking.
What kind of media institute might distribute your media product and why?
If distributing my thriller film to a company, I would distribute it to Warp X. Warp X is a pioneering new film studio based in Sheffield, with offices based in Nottingham and London, and is allied to warp films and warp records. With the company being so close to where our thriller was filmed it would attract them to our product as our film like their own are low budget. The theme of our film also matches some of theirs that have been successful in the United Kingdom, such as ‘Donkey Punch’. Warp X’s first slate of films was set up by the UK film council and film4. There other key financial backers are EM media and screen Yorkshire. By starting of with the small company that is backed by more famous and successful film companies it gives chance for our company’s success to advance. Warp X is built on creative talent and not by high budget blockbusters; the company target a niche audience which could be helpful when trying to reach our audience.
DONKEY PUNCH
DONKEY PUNCH follows three girls on a hedonistic weekend in Spain. They meet a group of lads who take them back to their luxury yacht to carry on the party out at sea. Drink and drugs fuel the highly charged atmosphere on board but the euphoria abruptly ends when sexual boundaries are crossed, resulting in a horrific accidental death. The once idyllic and carefree afternoon rapidly turns to one of mind games, terror and a frantic fight for survival.
After watching donkey punch I believed that the self proclaimed ‘thriller’ was more of a horror. But after analysing the use of camera shots and sound to create tension in the film I believed that our thriller, has successfully used lighting and camera to create mystery and tension in the same way a successful film made by Warp X had. As the films that Warp X produce are similar to the one me and my group have began to create I believe Warp X would be the right company to distribute our product as we meet there usual films.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
I believe if the opening to our thriller was made in to a full film it would be given a 15 certificate as the opening is rather graphic. Although it would be given this certificate I feel that the age group who would be most interested in the film would be those of there late teens to mid thirties. If the audience can relate to characters then they will be interested in watching the film as they feel a connection. I also believe though that the target audience would be those who enjoy psychological thrillers and films that will make them think about things. The film we have created is made to be filled with tension, mystery and suspense and the target group that come to watch our films should be able to enjoy the confusion of the film throughout the duration. When viewing the results from the questionnaire taken from our target audience it became clear that 70% of the audience we asked preferred a slow paced opening to a thriller, after taking this into account we made the opening slow paced to fit the needs of our target audience.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Ways in which I attracted the audience was mainly through suspense, by making the sequence mysterious it therefore leaves the audience asking questions and wanting to watch more of the thriller. By the first clip being of a person, the audience can then connect with her. We used a skilled actress to make the acting look as real as possible to engage the audience so they want to know more about this character. The choice of music we used was important in order to attract our audience, we used music that was mysterious this kept the audience on the edge of there sits and waiting for something to happen to make them jump. By using various sound effects the audience’s concentration is kept throughout the opening as it isn’t just a repetitive song playing in the background, for example a phone is used in order to keep the audience questions and wanting to find out more about the characters featured. By adding in violent flashbacks throughout the opening the audience become hooked and want to find out if the attack was provoked and whether the victim knows the attacker. Through giving many UN answered questions in the opening to our thriller we then have the audience’s full attention for when the films storyline begins. The costume we used for the female character also created lots of questions for the audience to ask, the second shot in the opening is a close up of the actresses legs walking across the bridge, the first thing the audience pick up on is that the tights the character is wearing have large un neat rips in them, the audience immediately question what has happened last night. The flashbacks we use are open ended and give the audience time to make assumptions of the storyline and paint a picture of what they expect will happen, this keeps them interested in watching the film. The lead actress in our opening doesn’t say anything until she answers the phone at the end of the opening, the way she answers the phone and the way her facial expressions change when she hears what’s on the phone, show the audience the true horror of the flashbacks they have previously watched. I think that we successfully use different ways to attract our audience and to encourage them to continue watching.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
As I did not take media for GCSE using the cameras was new to me, after picking up the basics pretty easily then learning pans, zooms colour contrasts etc learning the rest came quickly. From being able to work the camera successfully it gave me and my group the freedom to try out different and more adventurous shots that would be impossible to pull of without the initial knowledge of the camera. During our filming we learnt the ability to do shots such as shot/reverse shot, close ups, long short, over the should shots and we also added in various pans and also over head views of our characters. The most effective shot I believe we did was a point of view shot from the victim, the way that we made the camera look shaky in order to symbolise the victims fear looks very effective in our final piece. Learning how to use Adobe Premier was more difficult then learning how to work the camera effectively. As I have little experience with the software I was not the main editor I still picked up on the main functions of the software and contributed to half of the editing team. Although I have sat and learned how to work it all I haven’t yet had chance to operate the programme on my own. This aside I still know how to work the programme. With Robert we enjoyed experimenting with different options on the programme, through the trial and error process it was difficult at some times to find exactly what we wanted and that would look as effective as we were tying to make it look. Now our final piece is finished I believe that sticking it out and working with all different options on the programme we have a good opening to a thriller.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt a lot in the time from the preliminary task up until now. Learning how to work adobe premier has been the most useful thing I have learnt. Knowing how to work editing software means that I can practice and get better so that my work can continue to look more and more professional. Also choosing locations for filming is a useful skill I have learnt, if the location doesn’t have relevant to what you are trying to capture when portraying the character then the illusion is broken. Working with Robert in the editing process has given us both chance to learn how to make things look real and choosing sound that fits in with the clips on the screen. I think by Robert knowing how to work software and me working with him has been useful for me as I have improved a lot on understanding editing. The preliminary task first introduced the basics of working the camera, it gave me an outline of what to expect when beginning our final piece. The preliminary task helped me practice dealing with problems that I would face in the thriller task. I learnt the ‘180 degree rule’ and as I did not understand it on paper I believe practicing it was the perfect way for me to learn. When finishing the preliminary task I believe that I could have used more effective shots and lighting that would of further prepared me for the final product. When first beginning the final product I was still not 100% certain on everything, but I began to work hard to ensure that I did for when the filming and editing process was underway. Effects we used in our preliminary task I took forward onto our final piece, changing the preliminary task into black and white was effective so I decided to pitch this to my final piece group. We all decided that not changing it black and white but making flashbacks different to the present was very important, to over come this we changed the lighting of the flashback to make them darker and more mysterious.
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