Before we began our own media production we looked at several thrillers, such as: 'The Usual Suspects', 'Clockwork Orange' and 'The Great Escape' in order to become familiar with the basic conventions of the thriller genre and apply these to our product. The thriller that we have produced we feel challenges the stereotype that all men are related to crime and action, for example, one of our protagonists includes a feminine woman who wears a dress and has fair hair which subverts the convention of only male orientated characters being associated with violence. However, the eerie non-diegetic music played in the opening creates tension that is universal in the thriller genre. Moreover, our product has been kept simple without including conflicts such as high adrenaline chases that are apparent in the majority of our classmates productions as well as blockbuster films, such as that in 'Vertigo' (1958).
How does your media product present particular social groups? (Sean)
Most simply, using young characters within our product allows teenage groups to understand the actions that are led by the characters. The only inaccuracy that could be argued when presenting social groups is this misrepresentation of age. This is because the majority of murders are performed by adults, and the use of younger people in society may lose a sense of realism and belief in our narrative. However, we feel that this is out weighed by an equal representation of factors such as gender, race and physical ability. The first of these is possibly the most evident in masculinity and femininity both being subverted, where our male character is not dominant and in control of the situation because in fact the female detects him first rather than the stereotype of women being helpless and under the mercy of a male killer. Also, we feel that race is presented honestly as there is an inclusion of British and Asian actors, which has allowed our media product to present race in a positive format. The last social factor of physical ability is again apparent in our product, because our actors are of different sizes and appearance. This makes for a fairer portrayal of society and the groups within it, as opposed to the use of only one race or sex in a way that may detract meaning from a media product.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? (Louise)
Our product would be most appropriate as a mainstream film that would be shown in a wide range of multiplex cinemas across Britain. In order to make this happen however, distributors will have to release the film itself. A realistic example of a media institution that may distribute it would be 'Universal Studios', this is because as a hollywood-based company, they would be able to obtain enough money to distribute the film successfully as well as advertise it to the general public. As Universal Studios are a well established instituion worldwide, they have distributed several award-winning films including, the Bourne Series as well as the recent thriller State of Play. More to the point, this has enabled Universal Pictures to build up a level of trust with film consumers, giving our product a sense of reliability that in turn would be responsible for the amount of distribution.
Who would be the audience for your media product? (Sean)
The audience for our product is within the range of 15-25, this is a wide enough age gap to receive enough response as a product, as opposed to the limitations of a specific audience, for instance 12-15. The typical conventions of a thriller have been used enough in our product to attract the normal thriller audiences. This will encourage positivity of the product, for we have met the standard conventions of the thriller, these predominately include:
CONVENTION: EXAMPLE IN OUR PRODUCT
A crime at the core of the narrative: Scott hands photographs of future victims to either assassin
A complex narrative structure with false paths and twists: Cross cutting that shows either image of both killers to reveal that they have been set up
A series of enigmas which are later resolved: The pattern of the envelopes which is explained through the photographs being revealed using camera zooms
Themes of identity, enigma and voyeurism: Pictures are used to convey an importance of identity and the deceit that they are both sent to murder one another
A scene in which the protagonist is in peril: Victoria is weary of being followed and turns around anxiously to see Ken watching her
Moreover, viewers that are attracted to the thriller as a genre and the sub-genres of it are our primary audience; in this case our product is a hybrid of a psychological thriller and a spy thriller. The first of these is because it features such elements that are linked to psychology, where our characters conflict is mental as opposed to physical, for there is no evidence of violence such as; fighting or pain. Our product also contains values of a spy thriller in there being a sense of voyeurism, one character following another and both of them acting almost like silent, spy assassins.
How did you attract/address your audience? (Louise)
To appeal to a thriller audience, we most noticeably used non-diegetic sound throughout our product. This background music consisted of eerie and suspenseful drums that were to most importantly build tension. To give maximum impact to this sound we decided against using much dialogue, the only case was in Victoria saying; 'Yeah, I'm on my way now', to again create a sense of suspense and mystery around where it is she is going. Together these types of sound attract our audience and offer an element of predictability to our audiences, for they may assume where she is going or heading towards. This predictability among the audience was reinforced where there was use of a whip pan from Victoria back to reveal Ken following her. He is seen by the audience first, rather than Victoria which allows our audience to make an attempt beforehand to guess what will happen to her. This idea is rounded together at the end in Victoria realising that she is being watched by Ken and turning around dramatically to leave the sequence on a cliffhanger, this technique is commonplace among thriller openings and therefore almost expected by audiences, aswell as being what we wanted to achieve.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constricting product? (Sean)
Primarily, to film our product we used a Samsung video recorder and camera tripod . The latter was not used in every camera shot, but became useful when attempting point of view shots as well as camera zooms. The tripod enabled the camera a guaranteed level of steadiness and focus that would make each picture frame clearer and therefore easier to see what is happening. The camera was the base of our product and often we made full use of its capabilities, such as a focus technique where deep focus shots can be achieved. This meant that objects in the foreground would be blurred and those in the background would be in great detail and better focus or vice versa. Once we had recorded our actual product, we used Apple Mac computers that featured software capable of professional editing. The programme we used was Final Cut Pro and it contained effects to make both text appear more stylistically and transitions in shots be continuous, which was crucial in order to maintain the Match On Action rule. However, in watching what we had previously filmed certain shots were not at the best possible standard or left out elements that needed to be included, this meant that some shots needed to be recorded again both in the same way and from a new position. This made repeating the same shots difficult because it became complex when trying to make each shot flow together smoothly without jump cuts or errors of continuity. However, in terms of improvisation and improvement when using such technologies we feel we performed better, for instance in trying to find new camera shot and better angles to film from, we reconsulted our script and storyboard. Also, in finding music to apply to our product we first used Youtube by creating a range of searches such as: 'Eerie thriller music' and 'Creepy soundtracks', and were successful in finding the right non-diegetic sound by searching 'strange thriller sounds'. Once we had found the right music we then used Zamzar to download the soundtrack to a film format that was readable in Final Cut Pro to then add and play alongside our media product.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? (Louise)
The preliminary task that we produced consisted of a character opening a door, walking across a room and sitting down opposite another character. In terms of production it was rather basic and the only rules that needed to be followed were the 180-Degree Rule, Match-On Action and a Shot/Reverse Shot. Therefore, there were no conventions of a genre to adhere to, which made for basic cinematography, a small amount of editing and overall less time to complete the task. This therefore makes a great deal of contrast to what we have more recently produced in the opening of a thriller. For example, the camera shots used in our preliminary task were limited to a mid shot, a tracking shot and two over the shoulder shots. However, in our opening of a thriller we carried forward that knowledge of camera shots and how to use them as well as add more advanced and difficult camera work. We implemented shots from different angles, perspectives and as part of the mise-en-scene, the last of these is evident whereby Victoria is seen looking back at Ken and the camera is placed inside of a bush in order to achieve the final shot.
