Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our thriller film is probably best shown through YouTube which is a free video sharing website. This would be the best way to share our film as student film makers as it targets a wide audience of different age, gender and culture. Our target audience which is 16-24 year olds, aren't very likely to pay to watch our film, therefore YouTube is probably the best place. Also it will allow the audience view for free and give any feedback they wish to. Our thriller could also be put up on streaming sites, which is similar to YouTube and means that we wouldn't make a profit out of it, but would allow a lot of views.

However as film makers our film is independent and low budget, and therefore would probably be best exhibited in Art house theatres such as Cinema City. Because our film includes locations around Norwich, it would appeal and relate to audiences from this city. Also British independent films tend to do well in places like France and other European countries, so this would allow it to be globally viewed. 

If our film was to be distributed through home entertainment, I would think that it would appear on channels such as Film4, because it is usually the type of TV channel that would exhibit indepedent films. If it was to be distributed professionally, I would expect the distributors to be ones such as Optimum releasing which distributed films such as Dead Man's Shoes. The films are similar so therefore would probably have the same techniques used for distribution and exhibition

Thriller Opening Final Cut

Question 4 and 5

Question 4 evaluation

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2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our thriller film, our storyline only inludes male characters which means there are no female actors involved in our opening, so this creates a very male dominated genre. We didn't intend on omitting female social groups, it was just that male characters were well fitted to our storyline. The males in our film are all represented as gang members which suggests the type of people that are criminals.

Youths are also represented in this was because our film is also fairly youth dominated as two of our active characters are young 20s and the is around the age of 30. We don't have a proportional representaion of society because all characters are a similar age. Similarly, we only did this because it was convenient to use the actors we did and because it fitted well into our thriller as a reprentation on youths. I think the way we have portrayed our characters is a stereotypical view on teenagers and young adults. Their hoodies and jeans reflect their criminal ways therfore these characters do not represent all of youth society.

Our film also has a representation of family as a social group. It is one our the main themes in our film, because the whole storyline is based around it. The storyline enforces the importance of family, as the aim of our main character is to get revenge of the man that killed his twin brother. This suggests their love and  closeness for family and friends.  

Our film is an independent thriller and a lot of our ideas and thriller conventions were influenced through other films. For example Essex Boys, which is also an independent film and Memento, which uses flashbacks and is a psychological thriller. The main sub-genre of our film is the British Gangster style. It also has aspects of a psychological thriller because it particularly includes mystery and suspense. We have aimed our film at audiences from age 16 to 24 who enjoy independent thriller films. From our research we found out that from all the people we asked, a range of them enjoyed independent films. The type of people that will appeal to our independent film are those who respond to individuality. The unusual storylines and different actors create mystery that hopefully appeals to our target audience. Our audience will get pleasure from our thriller because of it's independency, as they like to see themselves as independent. Other films that our audience enjoy are independent thrillers such as Dead Man's Shoes, which relates in many ways to our thriller opening and the fact that they will enjoy films like this means that certain aspects of our film will also bring pleasure to our audience. The locations we used in our filming included the use of city areas. We thought that this would appeal particularly to youths because it focuses mainly on a similar age group and relates to real life situations that could occur. Some of the locations, (the one on our poster in particular) represents a dark part of the city where drug dealing takes place. By including this image on our poster, we thought that it would appeal to our target audience, so that they can get an idea of how our film will grab their attention. In our thriller we also used locations such as a garage. This relates to the claustrophobic aspect of thrillers, and the spacing and lighting helps to build tension. We hoped that this would appeal to our audience because small spaces are commonly used as a place where action or violence takes place. The social group involved in our storyline represents a gang of young criminals. Our target audience may not be similar to this lifestyle but they should be able to identify with the main characters because of similar ages and the fact that the film is from Archie's (the main character) point of view. This will be able to help the audience put themselves into the situation and relate themselves to the storyline. In our poster it shows a shot of Archie dressed in a hoody and jeans which represents a lot of young people these days. We constructed a narrative of our film by specifically focusing on Archie, who is the main character. We thought that this would help our audience to follow the storyline and identify themselves with Archie. The flashbacks of the murder focus on that certain event within the story, so the narrative is created by telling the background story. In our poster we included the quote “Tense and Gripping”. We wrote this on our poster so that it would appeal in more ways to our target audience. This would attract a larger audience if they knew that it was the type of thriller that strongly grabbed their attention throughout the story. The genre of our film will help appeal to a larger audience. We hoped that the detective aspects of our opening will relate to many other things that the audience enjoy. It create a sense of order out of chaos, so therefore a wider audience could enjoy it.

Question 1: In what ways does your thriller use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real thrillers?

The thriller opening that we have constructed is based on a 'British gangster' style thriller. It is about the story of two twin brothers who are follow a gang full of criminals. The gang leader ends up murdering the main character's twin brother because he wasn't following his orders. Then Archie (the main character) starts planning revenge on the murderer.

One of our main influences was 'Essex Boys'. We tried to use the same British gangster sub-genre by following the same forms and conventions. For example, the dull grey weather represents typical Englishness and so we tried to choose a cloudy day to do our outside filming, and I thought it was quite successful. Also both Essex Boys and our thriller film are independent films and I think our use of locations helps to indicate this. Essex boys similarly follows the life of a young male protagonist, and although our film doesn't use voice over to help the audience identify with this character, we still hope to do this by our use of close ups and following panning shots.

In the opening we have created, we have included flashbacks of the time in which Nathan was murdered, to give details of the storyline. This relates to the thriller Momento, which also used this technique. It is a typicall thriller convention and was also included in Casino Royale at the beginning to help give background information to the audience. This is what we hoped to do with our use of flashbacks. Also our use of lighting helps to develop conventions of thriller. The scenes in the garage are fairly dark which is a common technique used to thrillers to create a tense feeling. The garage is also quite a claustrophobic area which again is a convention of thrillers especially Essex Boys again, which uses a car going through a tunnel which also uses limited space, which creates suspense.

The characters in our thriller opening the gang leader/murderer and the two twin brothers. The gang leader is a dangerous threatening character. We used my dad for this character, mostly because he was the most convenient person to use. This was the same case my brother who played both of the twins. We decided for my dad (the murderer and gang leader) to be dressed in jeans, black hoody and black hat. We thought this would help to bring out a criminal type character. My brother Jack, who acts as the main character Archie, and also plays Nathan (his twin brother) in the flashbacks. They also both dress in jeans and hoodies to show how they are also part of the gang.

We also hoped that the props we used add to the forms and conventions of thrillers. Our main prop was what the gang leader used to murder the twin brother. Most thrillers contain guns or another type of weapon. It adds suspension and a sense of danger and we hoped that this prop would help to build up the tension. We used other props such as pens, paper, photographs, and books etc. This was during the planning of the revenge. It helped to represent his organisation and determination of how much he wanted revenge. However, when he pushes everything off the table it conveys how unstable he is.

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?

I worked in the same group for my preliminary task than my thriller opening. I think that working on our preliminary task helped us to pick up ideas and tips for our thriller. For example, the main aim of our preliminary was to include certain shots and this definitely improved our confidence of using a camera and tripod for the shooting of our thriller. We used shot reverse shot in our preliminary task as we were told to do, and also included a few close up of facial expressions which involved zooming on the video camera. We also used close ups in our thriller and we were much more used to doing this with help from our preliminary task.

There was a lot more research and planning involved for our thriller and that differed from our preliminary task. However we learnt how to plan out our filming using storyboards during our preliminary task. We drew out different shots of our films and wrote down what was going on in each part of the scene. This was useful and helped us in our production of our thriller by following through all our planning.

The fact that I was working with Holly in the preliminary task helped us to get used to working and planning our films together. So when it came to making our thriller, we were quite well organised with our research, planning and construction of the film. Also I think it worked well having a small group of just two people because it meant that we could communicate and listen to each other easily without getting too disorganised.

Question 6: What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of producing my film, I have learnt more about the use of digital video camera. I have learnt that the angle and steadiness of the camera has a big impact on the shot. I improved on this by learning how to use a tripod to make sure all the shooting was accurate. We used a panning shot during this part of the video. The fact that we had learnt how to use the tripod really helped us to set it at the right angle and follow the actor as he ran past. 

When editing our film I learned how to use Adobe Premiere Elements programme to cut the clips, add effects, transitions and titles. I benefited well from learning how it works because it will help me build progression on work throughout the course. The programme also allowed us to add effects, such as fade in and black and white. We used the black and white effect for the flashback shots, so that it made it clear when was past and

when was present.

We use Blogger to post all of our work on, so that it can be marked. Our blogs enable the teachers to look at all our work and give us feedback. This has helped me to improve on all my work and planning for my thriller. Blogger also allows us to add YouTube videos, which means that all the films we make or clips that we relate to can be included in our posts. YouTube has been very helpful during the process of constructing our thriller, because it allows you to watch any videos for free, which meant that I could use other thriller films and get inspiration from the different ideas and shots.

Cinema Survival: Compare the ways in which Cinema City and Vue/Odeon attract audiences

Mainstream and independent cinemas attract audiences in different ways. It is now harder for all cinemas to get as much attention from an audience because of many reasons including the recession, DVDs, download and piracy. Another main reason for this is the invention of TV. Since the 1950s cinema audiences have decreased because of all the different channels, and films shown on television.

Vue and Odeon Cinemas are both mainstream cinemas, which means that the films they show are also mainstream. They include a large amount of cinema screens and almost a full schedule. This attracts all audiences from and age, gender or class because the films shown are so varied, and bound to suit almost everyone’s preferences. Odeon cinema and includes curtains, atriums and cut-outs, which adds to the “Hollywood” experience. This helps to attract audiences, as it gives everyone a fairly glamorous feeling. Vue and Odeon work to increase their audience’s by giving customers voucher that give money of the next film, which helps to keep them coming back. Also, the cinemas are both placed in the city and are easy to access with car parks not far from the area. Since the major release of Avatar, mainstream cinemas have recently put a lot of the screenings into 3D. The amount of new technology is definitely helping to improve the audiences.

Cinema City attracts audiences in similar and different ways. The fact that it is an Independent cinema means that they show mostly independent films and they get subsidy for showing European films by the company Europa. Cinema city also has a completely different environment. Instead of normal cinema seats, the screenings contain sofa seats and allow you to take wine and refreshments into the film. It also includes a restaurant area where you can eat meals, so it offers a bigger range of things to do other than watch films. Also some days they have screens for people to play video games, and occasionally hold opera evenings where the cinema is connected up to an actually opera show. These factors are important for cinema city, as it attracts a wide range or audiences. Similar to Vue and Odeon, Cinema City is located in the city centre, therefore is easy to get to, and has a small car park just around the corner.

In conclusion, the entire experience of the cinema is definitely worth it especially with all the new technology and other things involved. Although Independent and mainstream cinemas have different ways of grabbing the attention of their audiences, I think both ways work, and are very effective.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary task questions

What planning did you do? How was this useful, and how did you change from your planning?

When planning our preliminary task we created a storyboard in order to plan out which shots would come where and to help us plan out a storyline. I think this was an effective and useful way of planning, as it allowed us to remember exactly what are intentions were throughout the making of it, and reminded us of the different angles we wanted to use.

What camera skills have you developed? How confident are you with using cameras? And has this confidence changed during the project? Give details of specific camera skills/techniques you have developed and include areas where you lack confidence or need to improve?

I have developed the skill to establish the difference between camera angles, and how to use them. I feel quite confident when using a camera because I have my own, therefore am quite used to it. However I feel as if I have improved the way I control and use it. Now that I am aware of the different shots and angles, I can use the camera more effectively.

What editing skills have you developed? How confident are you with using the editing program? Give details of specific editing skills/techniques you have developed, and include areas where you lack confidence?

I had never used the program we used to edit our film, so the techniques we used were quite new to me. However I found it reasonably easy to adapt to it. The skills in editing that I have improved on are the ability to crop the clips and move them about in order for the film to run smoothly. I think I need to improve slightly when using the program, to make it easier for myself to navigate around and be able to edit correctly.

Prelimary Task Planning

Changes in Planning

We decided to change the location of the cellar, because it was located out of the city therefore was difficult for our actors to reach the village. Also we found that the lighting in the cellar was quite dark so it made it more difficult to film. To avoid this problem we decided to film this scene in my garage which is also a location for one of the other scenes. To make the scenes look different, we changed the furniture around and tried to add a different atmosphere. Also the other garage scenes were flashbacks, so we are planning to change it to black and white which will also give the different scenes seperate effects. 

Findings for Research Project

Marketing

How do you find out about the films you want to watch?

I asked 10 people both of my questionnaires, and the results showed that half of them find out about films by viewing trailers at cinemas. So therefore this is the most popular answer. The other ways that some of the interviewees learned about films was from Word of mouth, Internet Adverts and Magazines.  Which meant that from the group of people that I asked none of them heard about films from Posters, Radio, TV trailers more than any other. I also found that the people that heard about films through cinema trailers were on average younger than those that answered differently. This suggests that people of a younger age visit the cinema more often.

Which of these do you think is most effective?

For this question, most people again gave the answer of Cinema Trailers. For those that gave a reason said things such as: ‘They give the most information, and more of an insight to the film itself’ and ‘They show the best parts of the film to draw in the audience’.

Do you think your occupation or affects the films you watch? Or how many?

Most people said that there work did affect how many films they watch but not necessarily the type of films. All but one of the people that were in education suggested that the amount of work decreases the amount of films they watch.

Do you think your lifestyle affects the films you enjoy?

About half of the people said that there lifestyle doesn’t affect the films they enjoy at all.  Although most of the people I asked were probably from the same sort of culture and similar class. So their lifestyles probably weren’t all that different from one another. However I found that the ones that said it did affect them were the ones of an older age. Maybe this could be because they have had more experience of older films, or perhaps because they have young children.

Exhibition

How do you normally view films?

Half of the people I asked said that they usually view the films they watch on DVD.  Two people answered Cinema, and TV and one person answered Internet. Both the people that said they watched films in the cinema were both at college/sixth form. This suggests that this could be one of the reasons they go to the cinema more often, maybe because they are close to the city, or perhaps because it’s a good way to get together with school friends. The reasons for watching films on DVD varied. For example ‘If it’s on DVD you can watch it as many times as you want.’ And ‘it’s easy and possible at any time of the day.’

When do you usually watch films?

Most people said that they watched films in the evenings or weekends. This suggests that for anyone who is in education or employment, this is their only free time, as the person who was in no education or work put the answer ‘whenever’.

Research Project Questionnaires

Exhibition Questionnaire

How do you normally view films?

Cinema   TV   Internet   DVD

And why?

Do you prefer to watch a film by yourself or with others?

On your own     With others

If with others, who?

When do you usually watch films?

Weekends   evenings   while completing other tasks  whenever  Afternoons  Other

If other, when?

Research Project Questionnaires

Marketing Questionnaire

Age:

Gender:

Are you…

In School?  In college/Sixth Form?   At University?  Unemployed?  Part-time work?   Full-time work?  Other?

Do you think your occupation affects the films you watch? Or how many?

And why?

How do you find out about the films you want to watch?

Cinema Trailers   TV Trailers   Posters   Word of Mouth   Internet Advertisements   Radio   Magazines

Which do you think is most effective?

Do you think your lifestyle affects the films you enjoy?

Research Project into Film Audiences

For this project I would like to find out how there is a difference in marketing between independent films and mainstream films, and what type of marketing is most effective. Also I hope to find out more on the exhibition of films and what is most popular way of viewing films. I will attempt to find out more on this, by gathering data using questionnaires. The questionnaires will include both quantative so that I am able to count up the data and create graphs and charts to help with my results. I will also include qualitative in my questionnaires. This will allow the interviewees to write what they think, and also will help me to get an insight into people's personal opinions and views.

I also want to find out about the audiences of films. I would like to find out how people's difference in gender, age, culture or class may effect what kind of films they enjoy. This may help me to find out what kind of things to include in my thriller, to help attract the audience I am aiming for. To do this I will probably create another questionnaire, if not an interview. I think that collecting data from other people will be the best way to find out what I need to know about the audience's for different types of films.

Audience Research Results

Where do you normally watch films?  

As you can see from this graph most people watch films at Vue which is the cinema in the city centre so it is easier for people to get to. Cinema City is the other cinema in the city centre but it is out of the main city. Also it shows a different selection of films such as independent and a few specific mainstream films. People might not go here as they haven’t heard of the films because there aren’t any TV advertisements. There is only a fraction of people that actually go to Cinema City. A lot of people watch films on the television which are just a random selection of mainstream films, and occasionally independent. 

Do you usually watch mainstream or independent films?

As you can see from these results only 1 person just watches independent films who was a 50-year-old lady. The rest were 16 or 17 year olds. This shows that most people aged 16-17 watch mainstream films and about half of them watch independent films as well. This is good to know as we were planning our thriller to be independent and to know that our target audience age will also watch independent films as well as mainstream. We will definitely make our thriller opening scene independent because we don’t have the mainstream equipment or money. Also from this graph it shows that maybe older people would enjoy our opening to a thriller, as it will be independent.

What do you like about mainstream films?

The main reason why people like mainstream films is because of the special effects, actors and the locations, having high budget they are able to do this. During our opening scene we will not be using famous locations as it is an independent film and they do not include them, mainly because of money but also it gives it a sense of reality for some viewers as they can imagine it happening in their own town. All of the people that said they enjoy special features in mainstream films were mainly male apart from one and all teenagers that are 16 or 17.

 

What do you like about independent films?

A majority of the people we asked said that they like the storylines because they are different and realistic. Another main reason why people like independent films is because of the actors as they are not ones you see everyday, which gives the sense of mystery. Whereas in mainstream films if you see an actor in more then one film you are likely to associate them with a different character.

 

Characters and Castings

Archie

Archie is going to be our main character in the film. He was originally part of a gang with a group of his freinds until the murder of his brother. He is aged 19/20 and was very close with his brother, and was known for his bad reputation. The death of his brother forced him to turn his back on the gang once and for all, as one of them was the reason his brother died.  At the beginning of the thriller we will show how hurt and lonely he feels without his brother, and this will set the opening scene in an effective way.

Nathan

Nathan is the brother of Archie and they are twins. In the gang he was the newest member and most innocent. This meant that he was always told what to do even though he wasn't comfortable with the decisions of the gang, although his brother was always there to look after him. Apart from one time. When Nathan refused to do a job for the leader of the gang, there were serious consequences, which resulted in his death.

Gang Leader/Murderer

In the opening of our thriller, you don't see much of the murderer, apart from the flashbacks. The fact that he is the leader of the gang, makes him have much more authority over the rest of the gang members. He is a very sly and serious character, and his gang is the most important thing to him. When it comes to the jobs and crimes they commit, he will do anything to get his own way. This leads to him murdering Nathan.

Castings

We decided to use my brother to play Archie, and because we decided Nathan is Archie's twin he played both of the brothers. There were some issues with this because, we are not yet sure how obvious it is that they are supposed to be twins, and are not just the same character. We thought that my brother Jack would be quite suitable because he is about the right age or a couple of years younger than what were looking for, but I think it will work well. Also it is convenient for us to use him, because it was easy to get hold of him at any time. It is the same reason with my Dad, as he is around at the time we want to film. My dad is going to play the murder and gang leader. He was originally supposed to be quite a lot older because he is more experienced and confident in committing crimes. However my Dad is probably slightly older than we would have prefered, but we didn't think it would be much of an issue if we dressed him up correctly.

Thriller Film Planning

Story boards

Locations

In the first shot we are going to use the location of the roof of the Castle Mall in Norwich. This is where he reminisces over the murder of his brother. We decided on this because we think that it relates well to the British gangster theme as it gives an idea of a typical English thcity, whilst showing shots of the grey, cloudy sky to also emphasize the setting of England. It relates to the thriller 'Essex Boys' in the way we will show the sky. Also it will be easy to get to because it is near to where we live.  Also in e scene afterwards we have decided to film the shots of him planning revenge in a cellar. Because the cellar is small, it makes the location seem quite claustrophobic which is common in thrillers. The flashback scenes are going to e shot in my garage, again because it is a small claustrophobic space which also relates to the beginning of  'Essex Boys' The cellar and garage are located in our houses,  so will be very convenient. We think that it will add tension to the opening of our thriller.

Photographs of cellar

Costumes, Props and Objects

As this is a British gangster thriller, we thought that hoodies, jeans, jackets and hats would be appropriate clothing for our characters. These costumes relate to other thrillers such as Bullet Boy and Kidulthood. Also in Essex Boys they were quite casual clothes - mostly jeans and jackets. So the idea also came from this. We will make sure that in the flashacks of the murder, the brother and murderer will also be wearing similar outfits, just to convey the fact that they may have been part of the same group.

We will use props such as:

- Chair

- Photo albums

- Table
- Phonebook
- Paper
- Pen
- Photo of murderer
- Gun
- One of the most important props is going to be a picture of the main character and his brother. This will help to show the relationship between these characters, and how they are connected.

The mise en scene will help to establish the type of character and their personality. For example, in the cellar where the brother plans his revenge on the murderer, the phonebooks, address books, pens, paper, photos etc are going to suggest that he is very determined to find the murderer in any way possible. However, when he gets angry and starts to push all these props onto the floor this will show how unstable and depressed he is about the death of his twin brother. Also the gun will definitely help to show how evil the gang leader is when he takes it out and points it at Nathan. It will bring out his character and suggest the type of things that the gang would have got into. Not only will the props help to do this but the costumes that they have on will hopefully also show what kind og people they are especially the leader. The black hoodie and black hat will help to convey the evil side of him.