Evaluation question 4) Who would be the audience for our media product?

Potential Target Audience

We have attempted to make the Thriller suitable for the age of around 15-18, of both genders. This is due to the fact that we asked mainly 16-18 year olds to fill in our surveys, and we asked mainly that age group questions about what would make a good thriller. We also chose this age group, due to the fact that the people acting within the Thriller, are aged between 16-18, making it more appealing to that age. This may effect our outcome, due to the fact that it gives us a very narrow outcome.

How will the project appeal to our age group?
. We have done this by using upbeat, poppy music to give an edgy effect, as well as making it appealing to the 'younger', teenage audience who usually listen to that genre of music. 

We gave the Thriller a large amount of suspense, by making it so that the audience know that the murderer is there, before the actual victim does. This appeals to the younger target audience, who tend to get more excited at films containing a lot of suspense and tension. 

We also meet our age group by not using any blood, sexual references, extreme violence or bad language.



We took a survey on what the younger generation thought would make a good thriller, and we put their answers into wordle.

Evaluation question 3) -What kind of media industry would distribute our film?

There are a variety of different film companies and institutions that may wish to distribute our thriller. Me and my group have researched into the typical companies that distribute typical psychological thrillers, such as the one we have created. These types of companies, are companies such as Summit Entertainment and Universal Studios.

However, because we do not have a full movie, the type of companies/distributors that would want to distribute our films could also beTV companies, that would use it as a short advertisement, or once developed into a full film, could produce it as a television series.

There are many ways our thriller could be advertised, for example, on television, on posters, leaflets and billboards, in cinema's, magazines and newspapers, and also on the internet. By using a larger form of advertisement, it would be possible to attract a larger audience. These methods are used by a number of companies, such as 'The Women In Black', 'The Avengers', and 'The Dark Night'.
        

Evaluation question 2 + Evaluation question 4) How does the media product represent particular social groups?

Potential Target Audience
We have attempted to make the Thriller suitable for the age of around 15-18, of both genders. This is due to the fact that we asked mainly 16-18 year olds to fill in our surveys, and we asked mainly that age group questions about what would make a good thriller. We also chose this age group, due to the fact that the people acting within the Thriller, are aged between 16-18, making it more appealing to that age. This may effect our outcome, due to the fact that it gives us a very narrow outcome.




How will the project appeal to our age group?
. We have done this by using upbeat, poppy music to give an edgy effect, as well as making it appealing to the 'younger', teenage audience who usually listen to that genre of music. 

We gave the Thriller a large amount of suspense, by making it so that the audience know that the murderer is there, before the actual victim does. This appeals to the younger target audience, who tend to get more excited at films containing a lot of suspense and tension. 


We also meet our age group by not using any blood, sexual references, extreme violence or bad language.



We took a survey on what the younger generation thought would make a good thriller, and we put their answers into wordle.




A feminist critic may critisize our video, due to the fact that no females are included. However, the sexuality of the masked villain is not classified, making it possible to be a woman. This contrasts the typical sterotype of women, and of thrillers in general.

In our film, there is a lack of input from a range of ethnical minorities, which we did not take into consideration in our thriller. However, we do not contain any offensive, or racial related actions. Similarly to this, we did not feel that sexuality was relevant to the topic of our thriller.

Evaluation Question 1) How does our thriller meet typical thriller conventions?

Creating the IDent.

To start our thriller opening, we needed to create an IDent for our production team. Although we still haven't found a suitable sound to accompany the animation, the actual IDent itself, is complete. We named our production company, 'CCTF'. Each letter stands for the first letter of each persons name. 

Firstly, we added a background effect, called 'fog machine', that created an eery effect. Then we added the text that was created with the 'cat eyes' effect. We than created a logo, (that's not visible in the picture), which also fades in with the text. We will later add this into our thriller opening. 

Editing and sound.

When editing our Thriller, we came across the problem that one of the sounds, does not sound as suitable to our Thriller as we thought it did, but we think this may be due to the fact that the computer in which we viewed out Thriller on, has different speakers to the computer we edited on, so we decided to leave it.

Graphic Matches

Towards the end of our thriller opening, we use a graphic match for the continuity between the two shots in which the victim is knocked unconscious, and when he wakes up in an unknown place. When the main characters head is slammed against the wall, there is a slight pause as his head rests there, and it then blurs into the same shot, using a black and white blurry technique, but instead of the main characters head being against the wall, he is against another surface, which we then find out is the floor. We do this by changing the angle of the shot, by 90 degrees, once the graphic match has been made, as we feel this is an effective way to put the two shots together, and continue the thriller opening. 

Filming Our Thriller- Mise En Scene.

Our thriller contains an ordinary man and a villain. To exxagerate the fact that the villain is actually a villain, we dressed the villain in all black, and made him wear a black mask. We also used black make-up to cover up the gaps in the mask to add extra effect. The character of the ordinary manm wore pyjama bottoms, and no top, to give the audience the idea that he had just got out of bed. The whole opening, is filmed in daylight, which emphasizes the fact that its morning. The house itself was made to look as if the man lives by himself (so no one bumps into the villain or can save the victim). This was done by making sure that only one toothbrush was in the toothbrush holder, one towel in the towel rack, breakfast was only made for one, and the man spent all of his time on his own.

Make-up to add effect

                                                            Morning Mise En Scene

Finished Villain

                                      

Thriller Animatic + Our revisions from the storyboard plan.

To create a rough basis on what we were going to do for our thriller, we had to create a storyboard. This storyboard would tell us the length of the shots we used, the basis of the shot, and then sound effects and music we used in that shot. We then had to create an animatic of the storyboard, to give a rough basis as to what the film would look like. 


Shot 1: 
- 6 seconds, 
-Camera shot/Framing : Over the shoulder shot, from alarm clock, person laying in background. Maybe use pulling focus, alarm clock in focus first, then pull to focus on the man, as he reaches for the alarm clock. (In our actual thriller opening, we used the over the shoulder shot, but unfortunately couldn't use the change in focus, due to the fact that our camera did not have the correct settings)
-Sounds: Silence at first, then the alarm goes off, and just as the man taps the alarm, the upbeat music starts and the sound of the alarm stops. 
Shot 2
-2/3 seconds. 
-Camera/Framing: Close Up of feet moving into slippers. 
-Sounds: Backing music still plays, and the diegetic sound is hidden. (We kept the background music, but decided to make the diegetic sound audible, otherwise the beginning of the thriller opening looks too much like a music video, and the sound also adds emphasis on the actions).


Shot 3
-3 seconds.
-Camera/Framing: Close up/mid-shot filmed into mirror while the man brushes his teeth.
Sounds: Diegetic sound of man brushing his teeth, background music still playing.


Shot 4
-2 seconds. 
-Camera/Framing: Medium shot, angled down, as the man opens the drawer, pulls out a knife, and cuts the apple in front of him. (We did not stick to this angle, due to the fact that it looked unrealistic, so instead, we decided to take a side on angle, placing the camera on the table, so that the audience are at eye level with the apple, in which the main character cuts)
-Sounds: We still hear the background music, and the diegetic sound of the drawer opening and closing, and the  apple being cut. 


Shot 5
-2 Seconds.
-Camera /Framing: Mid shot of man spraying himself with cologne. (we decided to remove this shot, due to the fact that our thriller opening was reasonably long).
-Sounds: We hear the sound of the cologne being sprayed and the background music. (we removed the sounds, due to the fact that we removed the clip).


Shot 6
-3 seconds
-Camera/Framing- mid/long shot, maybe angled downwards (shot from stairs)
Sound&notes- Man adjusts himself in the mirror, before walking to the right, opening the door, leaving and closing the door behined him. Diegetic sound of door opening/closing included.

shot 1 - 6 is to be repeated twice, getting faster each time, clips being cut shorter each time.


shot 19- (6s)
Camera/Framing- slight over shoulder shot (similar to shot 1). (We decided to change this, to emphasise the fact that the man's daily routine has drastically changed on this particular day that he wakes up)
Sound&notes- alarm clock goes off but is on the other side of the bed, man slams cupboard assuming clock is there, before waking up and looking confused.

shot 20- (5s)
Camera/Framing- Long shot, raised above bed slightly
Sound&notes- man looks around, stops alarms clock, picks it up and stops it, all slow and confused (music has stopped at this time, diegetic sound only from here onwards)

shot 21- (3s)
Camera/Framing- Medium shot
Sound&notes- Man looks at alarm clock, confused. Swings legs to hang off the side of the bed, sounds include squeaking of the bed.

shot 22- (3s)
Camera/Framing- Close up of feet, on ground level.
Sound&notes- Man goes to put feet in slippers, but one is further than expected and he has to find with foot.

shot 23- (4s)
Camera/Framing- Medium shot (similar to shot 3)
Sound&notes- Man brushes teeth. looks round suspiciously, sound of brushing included.

shot 24- (3s)
copy of shot 4


shot 25- (3s)
Camera/Framing- Closeup/medium shot, angled up.
Sound&notes- Man raises knife to identify blood, looks horrified, maybe a gasp included.

shot 26- (4s)
Camera/Framing- Medium shot on eye level
Sound&notes- Man chucks knife back in drawer in panic, starts to back up onto other side, knife banging into the drawer (sound included)

shot 27- (3s)
Camera/Framing- Medium shot, continuation of last shot
Sound&notes- Man carries on backing up, rests hands on side, turns (his right) and rushes off

shot 28- (1s)
Camera/Framing- Medium shot, eye level
Sound&notes- View of man walking off, maybe from behined

shot 29- (4s)
Camera/Framing- Mans feet is followed, camera rolls up from feet to head, medium shot
Sound&notes- Man looks into mirror, see's writing and looks scared. Writing says "you're no.11"

shot 30- (3s)
Camera/Framing- Angle changes to mans right, medium/long shot still
Sound&notes- Man carries on looking in mirror, another man appear in background, man 1 is oblvious to his presence.

shot 31- (2s)
Camera/Framing- Shot filmed as though the mirror was the camera, close up
Sound&notes- Man 2 rises behined man 1, although slightly unfocused. Sharp intake of breath included.

shot 32- (3s)
Camera/Framing- Medium shot, angled down
Sound&notes- Man 1 on floor, blood dripping from back, villain seen holding bloody knife.

shot 33- (6s)
Camera/Framing- Medium shot filmed from behined man 2 (standing behined the body of man 1). Camera rises from shot of feet to shot of face/back of head.
Sound&notes- Man looks into mirror and ticks off underneath the writing. His reflection is seen as well as the shot of the back of head, over the shoulder shot. 

Problems when filming- No Tripod and Fake Blood.

When we finally decided a date and time to film our Thriller, we realised that we left both the video camera and the tripod. The camera situation was easily fixed by a friend who offered to lend us his own video camera. However, we still had no tripod, and this is a problem, due to the fact that in the criteria of the film, we had to be able to hold a steady shot. Therefore, we had to create a makeshift tripod, using a washing line and a shoe. Despite its rather odd appearance, it was able to hold both the camera steady, and the the angle of the camera with much more ease than we could of with a handheld shot.

Another problem when it came to filming and mise en scene, was that the fake blood we needed to use to put on the knife, was too fake looking, runny and transparent in colour. To solve this, we had to thicken it, and we used peanut butter. Although probably not the best thing to use, it did thicken it up effectively.