Thriller Course Work Evaluation 2

Thriller Coursework Evaluation Natalie Nicolaides

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? •

After our group had done a variety of research of different thriller genre films such as Memento by Christopher Nolan and The Bourne Identity by Doug Liman, we incorporated some of the techniques that they used to make our product as believable and as realistic as possible. As a group we brainstormed and incorporated favoured ideas from other thrillers and from this created our own storyboard. Our storyline being the capture of a woman by a mysterious character incorporates all that the real media products do such as suspense, narrative enigmas, eerie tense diagetic /non-diagetic music, that all help create the perfect atmosphere and feeling a effective thriller should create. Whilst researching the openings of thrillers our group noticed that all incorporated a similar convention of attracting the audience by creating a sense of mystery. As this is a very effective technique, our group tried to create this in our product.

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A key convention that we included In our product was the use of a effective soundtrack, as sound can manipulate the audience into feeling scared and thrilled, just what an effective thriller should do. We did this by using eerie non - diagetic music in the background of most of our scenes. Another convention that our product included was location. Our group had two main locations. One being a basement, a typical thriller convention and the second being the outside of a Tudor looking house. Whilst filming at our first location in the basement we used effective camera angles to give our villain a intimidating effect on the audience. We also kept his identity unknown by not showing his face to the audience, this added to the narrative enigmas and sense of the mystery. To help make our product more believable and convincing we used props such as fake blood and dark make-up to give the impression of cuts and bruising. This also added to the suspense of the audience, to keep them guessing what could of happened.

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A convention that our group also incorporated was the idea of a short title. This came from the idea of again keeping the audience in suspense and to encourage them to think in detail what the thriller could be about. A good example of a real media product that uses this convention is “Memento” by Christopher Nolan.

-Continuation of question 11)In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products? •

Also as part of our research we looked at Martin Rubin’s essay on “Thrillers” so we knew exactly what a thriller really was. In his essay he suggest that “The "thriller" is in fact a metagenre that "gathers several other genres under it's umbrella". This helped our group in what and how to include certain techniques whilst filming and editing to make sure we were appealing to our right target audience and attracting them properly. When reading Rubin’s essay it became clear that “Thriller” components usual work well together for example you will see a thriller action genre film, or a thriller crime genre film. Our group incorporated this and created our film as a thriller/mystery genre film so that our product will appeal to a wide range of people in our targeted audience.

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As a group our outcome was to create a thriller genre product to create a sense of mystery and make the audience feel shocked and uneasy by the effective use of codes and conventions in real media products. We also looked closely at the expected and unexpected elements of a thriller product and used these In a number of ways to attract our targeted audience. When researching real thriller products we looked at the films ‘the silence of the lambs', 'Memento’, ‘The Bourne identity’ and ‘The departed’ we looked at how they used their expected an unexpected elements in their product to see if we could use them in the same way in our product. For example, one expected technique that we used whilst filming was the camera angles as we realised that the camera angle used when looking at a villain was from a low point of view therefore creating a towering intimidating effect on the audience. An expected element that we used from ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’ was the use of a continual background soundtrack. The film uses this to create continual tension and mystery, a good example of this in the film is when Clarice is visiting Hannibal Lecter, in the background we can hear eerie tense music to scare the audience. We also hear the same music later on when she is in Buffalo Bill’s house.

-Continuation of question 11)In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products? •

In our product we used this technique when our main character has just walked in the front door of the house and is following the blood stains on the floor. We also used the same music in our basement scene to show continuity and also to create tension.

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An expected element that we thought was effective in ‘Memento’ was the lasting narrative enigmas. We thought these were used very effectively and tried to included as many as possible in our product as we have seen through our research how effective they are. A good example of the use of narrative enigmas in ‘Memento’ is in the opening scenes, when we see a man holding a Polaroid picture. As we watch on we realise that the photo is not developing and see that the action is being rewinded backwards. We thought this to be very effective and included this also at the beginning of our product when our main character is walking down the road holding the piece of paper with the address. We ask why is the address so important?, where it is?, is she there at the address? As we see thrillers use expected elements in a very effective way however they also include unexpected elements to attract their audience and to keep their product unique. In the film ‘the shining’ we see how they use location as a unexpected element as you would not expect the sort of activities that happen to take place in a hotel. Another film that uses unexpected elements is the film ‘The birds’ we see a high class wealthy woman move to a small costal town (and unexpected element in itself) and get attacked by birds. This is very unexpected as you would not suspect birds of such vicious threatening behaviour.

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Taking into consideration the effective use of unexpected elements we have tried to include unexpected elements however have not been very successful therefore our group focused mainly on the expected elements of thriller products rather than the unexpected as we wanted to stick to the typical thriller storyline. Accordingly our product did not really challenge the codes and conventions of real media products as well as we used and developed them to suite or product.

-Continuation of question 11)In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products? •

Taking into consideration the effective use of unexpected elements we have tried to include unexpected elements however have not been very successful therefore our group focused mainly on the expected elements of thriller products rather than the unexpected as we wanted to stick to the typical thriller storyline. Accordingly our product did not really challenge the codes and conventions of real media products as well as we used and developed them to suite or product.

Here is a picture we of Elena Antoniades took whilst filming in our first location, the basement.

A picture of Elena Christodolou filming the blood stains scene at our first location .

Here is a picture of Anna Philona getting her make up done before filming .

Thegla Savvides filming at our first location.

2)How does your media product represent particular social groups? •

Our media product is targeted mainly to attract 16 to 24 year olds. We chose this because as a group we thought this would be the best age range for us as we are all within this age group so would find it easy to attract other people of our age to our product.

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The people within our age group who may be attracted to our product will be people who like to watch thriller products, and also people who are also interested in watching crime, mystery and psychological genres as these are all subgenres included in our product.

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Our product is based on a young female teenager with the traditional damsel in distress thriller storyline. As the girl walks down the pathway the audience automatically sense the girl is uncomfortable and scared, something that is very relatable to our target audience and so can understand how the character is feeling. A good example of how this is used in a real media product is in ‘silence Of The Lambs’ by Jonathan Demme when we see Clarice’s character visiting the prison, as she walks down the corridor we get the immediate impression that she is vulnerable and in danger as she walks past the all male prisoners in their cells. This also encouraged us to also use a older male villain character as it has shown to be very effective and also add to our theme of intimidation.

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Our film will attract a wide range of people within our target audience as we have not narrowed down the representation of different social groups in society. Therefore all the groups will be attracted to our products. Here is a picture we took of Anna Philona who played our main character being tied up for the basement scene. .

3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media production and why? •

As our media production is only a low budget production so we need to find the right distributor to market our product. Overall I believe that Microwave Films will do the adequate job to distribute our media production to its full capacity. Microwave Films is the capital’s film and media agency which debuted in 2006 to debut feature film makers in London. Open to a wide rang of genres Microwave films work with documentary, animation, fiction and more genres and is very appealing and recognised which is important with audiences as they like to know of previous features created by the company. The BBC, LDA, UKFC and Skillset all back Microwave Films by funding each project with £75,000 along with unique mentoring and bespoke training by leading figures in the industry. Microwave films and its partners offer a rang of help and facilities from companies such as Ascent Media and AFM Lighting. It also offers popular and competitive locations from local authorities which will return a generous percentage of any revenue they make back to the film maker. •

Also completed projects are lucky enough to get a theatrical window on the BBC before they are even broadcast and the teams working on the film will be given the experience to get professional and tailored marketing/sales advice which will give them a very lucky head start in the international workplace.

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Two features that have been successfully done through the help of Microwave films are ‘Mum and dad’ written/directed by Steven Sheil and ‘Shifty’ written/directed by Eran Creevy. The successes of Microwave Films I believe will help distribute my media production effectively and efficiently as it has shown through its past projects successes what it can do for small independent film makers like our production. The logo of Microwave films .

4)Who would be the audience for your media product? •

-I have aimed my media product mainly at 16-24 year olds who are interested in watching either mystery, horror, adventure and action genre films. I have tried to make my product as realistic and as believable as possible so it would attract the right audience. I have done this by including as many codes and conventions that are used in real media productions, some being narrative enigmas, eerie soundtrack, dark lighting etc.

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To make a successful product you need to establish what attracts the audience and use this in a efficient way so that you can attract the suitable audience for your product . In my group to establish the likes and dislikes of our audience we handed out a questionnaire to gather some information on what they did and did not expect in a thriller genre films. We handed out our 19 questionnaires, 11 went to females and 8 to males all between the ages of 16 to 19 years old. We asked them what they expect to see when they watch a thriller and the result was –scary moments and an element of the unknown ,also realistic/believable props. we also asked what most appeals to them when they are watching a thriller the result was- storyline, suspense, location, element of surprise and music. We also asked what was their favourite type of thriller out of psychological, urban (realistic storyline), horror type, unrealistic/Sci-Fi or mystery, the result was – psychological thriller. From these results I became more confident in knowing what my audience wanted and expected therefore giving me the right information I needed in creating my product and being able to attract my target audience successfully.

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Even though I believe my research in finding out what my target audience expected was very successful and helpful in my final product. I believe further research could have been done in researching current trends of thrillers, and also researching target audiences for thriller products. I believe this would of made my research more specific for thrillers and their audiences, helping me further in what to include in my product and how to attract my audience.

5)How did u attract/address your audience? •

I order to attract our target audience we used the specific elements that we had found out from our research on our target audience( questionnaires) combined with the research we did on other real media products to create a successful thriller that attracts its target audience.

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One of the main aspects we used in our product to attract our audience was the typical thriller storyline, as it is the capture of a woman who is attacked and finds herself waking up tied up in a basement. The storyline contains all the typical components that a traditional thriller would, for example narrative enigmas, realistic “thriller” props, eerie music, dark lighting etc. Another technique we used to attract or audience was the effective use of a short title. Our product title being called “Number 24” creates a number of enigmas for the audience, we developed this technique from our thriller research when we were looking at the film “Memento”, a real media product with an effective short title. Whilst researching we also looked at the film “silence Of The Lambs” which inspired our soundtrack. In a thriller genre film the soundtrack has to be very effective and is important so it can manipulate the audiences feeling and emotions to draw them more to the film. Our soundtrack consisted of a mixture of noises and creepy eerie music repeated throughout the product to show continuity and also so the audience can familiarise themselves with the product. I believe if our media product were to be released with the help of a distribution company such as Microwave Films, and a variety of ways of advertising the film so that people become drawn to the product, I believe our product would be a success, as it contains all the typical expected elements that the audience expect to see and create a believable situation that is easy relatable.

Here is the front cover of the film ‘Memento’ which we used as research for our product.

Here is the front cover of the film ‘Silence Of the Lambs’ which we also used for research into thrillers.

6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? •

Previous to filming our media product I was unaware of the sort of complications and problems that we would encounter whilst doing so. However I am very pleased with the final product that my group has created and whilst creating the product have identified the strengths and weaknesses that would challenge us along the way.

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During the process of creating our product we faced two main problems. Our first issue occurred whilst we were filming, as our group had not fully prepared before filming and took too long on organising the scene, and the lighting outside became to dark for us to film. The second issue occurred with the camera and its battery life. In both situation we re scheduled filming and learnt from our mistakes taking them into consideration second time round.

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Also from filming this product I have learnt how to work in different locations, as our thriller required us to change locations for our different scenes. One of our key scenes was located in a basement, from filming these scenes I have learnt how to work in confined spaces, as the basement we were filming in was very small and cluttered which became quite challenging to work in with six people in it all doing different jobs and trying to work together. Although challenging we still managed to get all our shots and used the lack of space as a technique in our filming, and were very pleased with the outcome of our basement shots. •

Another more specific example to demonstration what i have learnt about technologies from the process was when we were filming at our first location. Whilst filming the shot of the gates closing we wanted to get close to the gates and move with them slowly. I had to be very careful whilst filming this as i had to make sure I did not shake the camera whilst getting the right angle and frame of the shot. This helped me with the further filming we had to do like this as I had learnt from my first experience the correct way to hold the camera in this sort of circumstance.

-Continuation of question 6-

6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? •

Finally I believe from the process of constructing this product I have learnt how to effectively use a camera and incorporate different shots and angles whilst filming to create a realistic image. I have also learnt how to edit filmed footage to create a product that is effective and to any standard required, and to involve sound and noises to a moving image to finish the overall product to a real media product standard. On the completion of this task I have now got the confidence to do further filming tasks with experience in a number of ways such as editing, putting a soundtrack to a moving image and of course filming.

Here is a picture which we took whilst filming in the small confined space of the basement.

Here is an image that we took whilst filming in the basement. Thegla being an extra in the background, as you can see it was a tight squeeze.

7)Look back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? •

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a great deal of new techniques and methods, which I have confidently involved in my final media product, and developing and challenging them so that I can use them to their full extent. Thinking back to the preparation of my preliminary task I think that our group focused far to much time on group disagreements and not enough time in planning the storyboard. This caused problems when we started our filming, however we still managed to get our work done and produced a effective preliminary task. One of the key things that I have learnt from my preliminary task was being able to work in a group and involve everyone's ideas in our final product.

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One of the main skills that I picked from help from another group member in my preliminary task was the right way to hold the camera without shaking it, this also helped me develop my skills in frame work and mise-en-scene. •

Another skill I learnt from my progression in the preliminary task was efficient use of time. I learnt that you could film the same shot in a variety of different angels so when we came to editing our footage we had of plenty choice to choose from. This was very useful and took into consideration when filming my final media product.

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Another important technique that I learnt from my preliminary task was the use of media techniques such as fades and jump cuts. Although unrealistic in media products I learnt how to use them discreetly without being obvious, this I believe to very useful as it is not easily done but we still managed to include them in our task and learnt the right method for future use. •

Overall, looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a great deal, and it has given me the right confidence I needed in preparation for my final media product. I feel that everything I have learnt in my preliminary task I have brought successfully into my final product using my skills to the full extent

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7) 7)Look back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you

have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? •

From the progression of my preliminary to my final product a lot of planning of production took place which was also very effective in helping us complete our final product. Such as creating a storyboard so that when we came to days of filming we knew what scenes we were filming and what we had to include in them. Also graphs such as shooting schedules, shooting script, recce forms, risk assessments and booking forms were all required so that filming was made easier and more organised.