Our opening was to the start of a thriller. Throughout this project, we wanted to make sure that we kept to the conventions of thrillers, so we made several efforts at doing that so as not to deviate from the genre. We gave out many questionnaires to many people to try and pinpoint the exact kind of thriller we needed to do. We analysed the results of the questionnaire and concluded that we should make a crime thriller, which is not frightening, but suspenseful. We knew that the most efficient way to cast actors in the film would be to use ourselves as we all have acting experience. However, this meant that all the characters we play had to be of our age group and that the cast of the opening would have to be all 17/18 year old people. We knew that this was not a common thriller convention, but we made the descision to stick with it. One thriller convention we were certain we wanted to include was that of tension and suspense. We did this throughout the opening. We create suspense by making Tom and Sophie appear to be in a tranquil setting where they appear safe. But because of the use of first person camera, the audience know that they are in fact not safe as they are being observed. As the characters begin to realise that someone may be watching them, tense music begins to build up and leaves the audience highly anticipating what happens next. The mystery of the stalker's identity and intentions is sustained as the camera is blurred when it is dropped. We also use the convention of mystery earlier in the film when Andrew is walking in the streets. This creates mystery as the viewer knows that Andrew is significant in some way, but is unsure how and what his purpose is. A similar use of tension building is in the film 'Hannibal'.
We use a similarly tense music in our film and use a similarly serious type of font. Our title sequence was an important part in establishing that our film was a thriller. One important thing it did was establish the narrative. It did this by having a pan of photos which showed that someone was stalking and observing three separate people. There is also text on the photos such as: “bitch” and “cow” labelled on Sophie’s character which indicates that this stalker has an interest in Sophie’s boyfriend, Tom. This indicates to the audience that the film is about a stalker and there may be violence involved later in the film. We also conform to the thriller convention of introducing the protagonist in the title sequence. The protagonist in our film, even though it is not completely clear in the opening, is Tom. This is because we make clear who Tom’s character is and his relationships with other characters. Another thriller convention that we conform to in our title sequence is to create mystery. We do this when we showed the clips of Andrew. The audiences are unsure who Andrew is and are unsure of his fate either. All these conventions and techniques we believe successfully draw the audience into the film as they are likely to be anticipating what happens next. We added a spotlight effect to the photo pan to give the impression of darkness and enclosure in our film which may foreshadow what happens later in the film. We also knew that the title sequence had to include actor names, and people such as the Production Company and Distribution Company. Even though we used our real names, we invented the names of the Distribution Company and Production Company calling them “ENU Cinema” and “Dirty Lens”. We chose these names because we thought it would sound like the type of companies that would create this thriller. We also chose an appropriate font for our titles which we thought would maintain the tense atmosphere. We did the same for the final title reading: “OUT OF FOCUS”. We wrote it in capitals to show that there was a tone of importance to the film. There is a similar use of title font in the opening of the thriller film 'Panic room'. Although the titles are fixed in one place on the screen,
2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The main social group that our thriller opening represents is that of youth. The stalker is never seen clearly during the opening so it is unknown what age or any other social groups he fits into. The other three characters appear 16/17 and behave as people of that age would. Tom and Sophie are clearly in a relationship during the opening. This is typical of people of their age group as it is a common convention of youth to be in a very active relationship as older people in relationships typically appear to be less interested in their partner. Andrew however appears in the opening alone all the time. This is not typical of youth as youths are often thought to travel in large groups, but Andrew appears completely alone. This is to give the impression that Andrew's character is a lonely character which may make the audience sympathise with him later in the film if we had created a full thriller film. Another representation of youth that is in our film is that it is insinuated that there is a likely chance that the characters in the film will be murdered. One person between the ages of 16-18 who saw the film, commented that they felt they "connected with the characters". This shows that our descision to use youth actors was good as it allowed audiences to connect and sympathise with the characters. It is common in thriller films for young people to be murdered in a film. This is evident in films such as the psychological thriller 'Scream'.
This is an advantageof our film as now conforms to more thriller conventions.
For the actual product we have now created, the most likely source of distribution would be on the Internet on websites such as YouTube. It would be most likely to get the most views as it can be accessed anywhere in the world, it is short, and it is free to view. If we had actually created a full thriller, our distribution options would increase. We would be able to allow a cinema distribution company such as Optimum Releasing to view the film. Optimum Releasing are a suitable distributer for our film because they are known for distributing smaller budget films from less known film makers. They are also known for making horror/thrillers such as 'Wolf Creek'. Even though 'Wolf Creek' is described as a horror, it has similarities to our film such as the victims being youths. If they believed it good enough, they could distribute it to various cinemas around the country for cinematic exhibition. If Optimum Releasing rejects the film for cinematic exhibition, they may still manufacture the film straight onto DVD and sell them to shops for distribution.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Although we surveyed people of all age groups and took ideas from all ages into account, I believe that after viewing our final product it would be more suitable to people of ages ranging roughly from 15 to 25. This is because many of the main characters in the film are within that age range and are more involved in the events of the film. This means that people over 25 are less likely to identify or sympathise with any of the characters in the film.
5.How did you attract/address your audience?
The film would attract audiences most likely by word of mouth. Assuming our product was distributed on the Internet, people who liked the video and people discussing it with each other means that it is more likely to receive more viewings. Viral marketing may also be an effective way of spreading the video around the internet. Other ways we could have attracted audiences would have been to add a short teaser trailer to YouTube to generate interest. We could have also augmented the page the video is viewed on and add things such as pictures and taglines. We could have also advertised the film on certain websites including YouTube and Google. However, as the film would not make any income from views, it would be ineffective to pay for advertising despite it generating viewers.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The main technologies I have learned about during the process of constructing this product are that of digital camcorders and the brand of editing software 'Adobe Premier Pro'. Before the task I had little knowledge of how to operate modern DV digital camcorders. Throughout the process, I learnt how to correctly set up the white balance, the screen ratio and how to record to the tape efficiently. Along with this, I also found out how to correctly use the tripod accessories with it to film shots correctly. During this project I learned how to correctly use 'Adobe Premier Pro' editing software. Before the project, the only experience I had had with editing software was that of 'Windows Movie Maker' and similarly less advanced editing programmes. During the project, I learned about its features such as, video effects, video transitions, audio effects and audio transitions. We have at least used one effect from each of these features such as cross dissolve, tint and exponential fade. I also learned how to add multiple layers of video and audio.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
One of the main things I have learned from my preliminary task is that important tasks have a tendency to go wrong. For example, our group often had problems with the programme 'Adobe Premier Pro' such as it being unable to play back footage. When we did our main task, we loaded the programme on two computers at once so there would be less chance of an error during the loading. We also learned to check the digital camcorders for battery life because of the danger that it may run out during shooting. If we had had longer to observe the essential features of the digital camcorders during our preliminary task, we would have been less likely to have had some of the problems we had later the main task. The main one being the accidental filming of the photo pan in 4:3 ratio while the rest was filmed in 16:9 ratio. This was unnoticed until editing because we had had no experience with the make of digital camcorder we were using, which meant we had to re-film the photo pan sequence at a later date.
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