Casting the actors

Characters on Prezi

Red Road

Red Road on Prezi

Target Audience for my Thriller

Target Audience for my thriller on Prezi

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

From the time we did the preliminary task to the full product I have learnt a lot about the conventions of thrillers and looking out for the generic thriller conventions. This gave me the knowledge to plan my thriller and include the conventions of the thriller genre including mise-en-scene, soundtrack, characters and camera shots. Working in the group to do the preliminary task allowed me to be part of team decisions which benefited me within the group that I did my full product with. 

From the preliminary task I feel I have made a great progress and  I feel I have learnt a lot. When we did the preliminary task we had to plan within our chosen groups how we were going to structure the task whilst including a number of different techniques such as 180 degree rule and others. The final version was fairly successful considering we had many problems with casting it and considering we didn’t really know how to work the camera and use the editing software. I have made progress since the preliminary task to now because I am now aware of the rules that we have to stick by when filming and also I know how to use the camera and the editing software. I learnt these techniques and that a lot of filming that we actually did do to begin with, we didn't end up putting in our film, many scenes had to be re shot because we wanted to get them as close to perfect as we could. 

Although we didn’t have a soundtrack on our preliminary task, I found it quite easy to find the type of music that I wanted. The music I chose allowed me to create tension and to emphasise the narrative of my thriller. When we first started to research the music we found several music sites that had many suitable soundtracks, but eventually me and my group chose the two most suitable music that would fit with our thriller the best. This allowed me to progress from the preliminary task because I then learnt how to add the soundtrack to my film in the editing software. Also, I was the director of my film, I found it quite hard to film and direct because a lot of the time things didn't go to plan. However, the actors and I worked well together which made it easier to be able to direct and film. 

Choosing a name for my thriller was quite difficult. I wanted to name it something short and catchy so it has an effect on the audience. I originally had the idea to call it ‘Stalker’ in either Spanish or French. However, I changed my mind because I learnt that my thriller had to be called something that would relate to its target audience. That’s how I came up with the name ’Obsession’. I thought that teenage girls could relate to it as when they are at that age teenagers can obsess over things. I wanted it to be a strong bold name that stands out and that’s what I think I achieved. 


Compared to the filming of the thriller, I found the editing a lot more strenuous. There was a lot of components that made up the editing such as adding all of the clips, the sound in the right place and all of the transitions. If we hadn't done it perfect then all of the filming that we had done would have been ruined. It took me several weeks, and many re shoots to get my final edit. 

I have had many people watch my thriller and I feel very happy with the feedback that I have had. I have had constructive criticisms from my teachers which have caused me to re think some aspects of my thriller which have meant that I changed things for the better. The majority of the people who have watched my thriller have understood my intentions and been able to read the narrative structure of the film. Overall I am very happy with the result of my film and I feel I have learnt a lot since the preliminary task. 

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

From the construction of this product we started by learning how to use our blogs. This meant that we could post our work and ideas to it. Also, for guidance we can look at other students blogs which can influence our own ideas. Along with this we have also learnt how to use internet and became familiar with websites such as ‘imdb’ to help with our research and with collating clips and stills of the films.

Before the process of constructing this product I barely knew how to use a video camera and I had never used the editing software before. During the process of constructing my thriller film I have learnt about the effects of each type of shots, the camera movement and angles. Before the process of constructing the product, I did already know how to use a digital camera; however I didn’t know that we had to take stills for the location shots. So whilst planning my film, I took shots of the location that I had in mind for my thriller.

I learnt how to use a video camera whilst doing the preliminary task. Whilst doing the preliminary task I learnt techniques such as the 180 degree rule during a conversation which are vital in creating a good film. I then used these techniques and shots such as extreme close ups and long shots in my film which created the effect of disorientating the audience.

When we used the editing software, I learnt how to add parts of the clips to the timeline in the order I want. However, I realised that some clips I had were not the right thing that fitted to the thriller conventions. This meant that we had to re shoot a big part of my film but it taught me that you had to get the right shots because when certain ones don’t work they can ruin your whole film. I also learnt how to add the music. In some of my clips the lighting was a bit too dark so I learnt how to brighten them using the advanced editing tools which I had never used before so I didn’t have to re shoot a lot of my film like I had already done before. The still inserted is an example of a clip that got brightened. It gave my film continuity throughout because many of the shots were the same brightness when they should have been, unlike before when they were very dark. Also, I learnt how to add transitions to my film. Whilst editing, I also had to add titles to finalise the film, I learnt this through the process of constructing the product.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

In my thriller I attracted my audience by creating very strong female characters that they can relate and identify with. They are both teenage girls which the audience can relate to as they are the same age as the target audience. The ambiguity of both characters in my thriller can be identified with the female audience because many people do have two sides, one less appealing than the other. 

A current issue that is explored in my film is the use of social networking sites to watch, bully and enticing people into the bullying. As this is a current issue the audience can relate to it because it is happening in modern society. Many people use social networking sites to bully their victims therefore my thriller will appeal to people interested in the zeitgeist. The audience is attracted through the narrative structure. Many teenage girls can identify with the emotions of jealousy and obsession and the themes are interesting to the target audience. These are both explored in my thriller which would be interesting to the target audience. 


In my thriller I have used conventions of psychological thrillers. From my audience research into films such as ‘Red Road’, which could also be seen as a psychological thriller I have found that these are more popular with females, because of this I have attracted my audience through the subgenre of my film.
  

Throughout my thriller I have created a sense of mystery, suspense and unease. The audience are attracted to my thriller because audiences get a pleasure out of the feeling of uncertainty. I have created a sense of mystery through the contrast in locations, the wide open space contrasting with the enclosed spaces cause the audience to feel disorientated. Through the shot types and ambiguity in character I have created suspense. The audience feel that something is about to happen throughout my thriller, yet they can’t actually guess what it is. Audiences like this feeling of suspense as they can’t wait to find out what happens.  

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The characters in our film are 16-18 year old females, this means our film would appeal mainly to girls of this age group who could identify with the girls in the film who get caught up with emotions such as jealously which a lot of young girls in society experience. Many emotions that teenage girls experience are explored in our thriller which means that they can relate to the film.

One of the costumes resembles high street fashion. Many teenage girls are interested in fashion therefore the costumes were very important. The female in our thriller who is being stalked wears very fashionable clothing which the target audience can identify with. However the stalker wears clothes that are not identified by the target audience which alienates her so they know that she is likely to be the stalker character.

Our audience will also use social network sites such as ‘Facebook‘. Marketing our film on the internet to this demographic will be economic and persuasive. Many students have been using social network sites such as ‘Facebook’ to keep in contact which each other in the case of the student protest movement. Also, in our thriller we use 'Facebook', this means many people can identify with the idea of 'Facebook stalker'.

Other films that our audience may watch are films like ‘Red Road’ and ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. Both films have strong female characters, like my film. ‘Red Road’ has a similar narrative to my thriller however, my narrative develops more rapidly than ‘Red Road’. To research my target audience I used the website ‘IMDB’ to find out the demographic of both of these films. They were very similar to my intended audience and they give an insight to my specific target audience.

Question 3. What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

A platform on which distributed my film is ‘YouTube’. I uploaded my film to the website. This means that a variety of audiences will watch my film, including an international audience, and seeing the opening of the film will market my film by word of mouth and persuade people to watch it in a cinema or by another media outlet such as DVD or via Ipods and games consoles. Social Networking sites would also distribute my thriller to the target audience as many young people have sites such as ‘Facebook’ etc. This is because I can upload my film onto these sites to distribute it to the target audience.

My thriller wouldn’t appeal to many distributing company because it is not stereotypically British and it doesn’t has strong British signifiers. Also, many companies don’t distribute films as short as 2 minutes; therefore I would have to enter my film into film festivals such as the ‘Student Film Festival Awards’ to get funding.

I could also enter my film into short film competitions which would help me distribute my film because I could get funding and be rewarded for my films. If I did this, my film could be recognized among professionals and the broader public which would enable to find future funding.

My media product has intertextual references with 'Red Road', which also gained funding through film festivals. Therefore my thriller would also be identified as an independent film. Because of this, my film will more likely be in an independent cinema such as ’Cinema City’ or there might be the possibility that it went straight out onto DVD. 

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My thriller represents teenage girls in a negative light. It represents them as looking ordinary but havinghidden motives. It represents the conflict between the stereotypical bitchy teenage girls and the stereotypical 'loner'. My thriller shows that teenage girls of this age group have strong, powerful emotions that can possess them to do the most ridiculous things such as stalking and becoming jealous of a girl who isn’t really that much different to themselves.

At the start of my thriller the tension is built up with the stare of the anxious eye, this image creates the loner image as it is not a glamorous eye, it is plain and ordinary. It suggests that the loner/stalker is threatening towards the other girl, even though the audience is not sure what is happening yet. In contrast, the first image we see of the other girl is when she is looking in the mirror, looking very glamorous and playing with her hair. This connotes how someone so glamorous really is childlike along with the shot of the girl with her rabbit. It suggests that she is naive and doesn't really know what is happening. This is also suggested when she accepts an invitation to the girls house, even when she clearly doesn't know her very well at all.

 At the start of the opening, there are a lot of cutaways to the girl being stalked, this suggests the threat she is under, but because she is so naive she doesn't know what is happening even though it is right under her nose. The representations of the girls represent the school context grouping and how different girls belong to different social groups purely on what they look like and this is shown throughout my thriller.

The audience can relate to these stereotypical characters and their emotions in the thriller. They know what it feels like because they experience a mixture of these emotions in their teenage years and can sometimes struggle with the effects of them, just like the girls in my thriller.

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

When we researched the thriller genre we watched numerous films such as 'Leon', 'Identity' and 'Psycho'. All of these films game me inspiration for my own thriller, however the film that inspired me the most was 'Red Road', directed by Andrea Arnold. I took the idea of the stalker from 'Red Road' but developed it to make it about obsession, not revenge.

The narrative structure in my thriller is very similar to 'Red Road', from the camera positions we are unsure of who is stalking who and we are unsure as to why she is being stalked, it is an ambiguous narrative structure which quickly develops within the first two minutes, where as the narrative structure in 'Red Road' develops over a long period of time.

Many of camera shots I used were inspired from the thrillers I have watched throughout my research. I got the idea of lots of extreme close ups from the opening of 'Identity' when the psychiatrist is looking at evidence from the case. Along with this, the zoom in 'Red Road' inspired me to use it with the shots of the computer screen. Also the pan through the window in 'Psycho' inspired me to use it in my thriller. However I  decided to pan a isolated field with fog which is a contrast to the setting from the room and the close ups which disorientates the audience because we go from wide open spaces to enclosed spaces.

The characters in my thriller are typical thriller characters, they are both ambiguous and one of the girls has features of a femme fatale, she is very glamorous and seems helpless and as if she hasn't done anything wrong. Our perception of this character in my thriller soon changes when we realise she is a typical bitchy teen, stereotyping the other girl as being 'weird' because she is different to her. The close ups of the stalker make her appear to be ambiguous, as an audience we don't know what she looks like so she could appear to be anyone in the thriller, this is just like Jackie in 'Red Road'. She is an ambiguous stalker and we don't know her reasons for any of it until towards the very end of the film. Both the characters in my thriller are flawed and are typical conventional thriller characters.

The mise en scene in my thriller plays a big part in creating the thriller atmosphere. The key lighting in my thriller creates mystery, especially when the girl is catching the rolling glass. We know that she has been drugged but we don't know what with and what effect it will have on the girl. Key lighting is a typical convention in thrillers because of the effect it has.

The music I chose was quite different to the thrillers I watched whilst doing research. I decided to use different music from the typical thriller because I wanted it to sound different and wanted the music to build tension which would leave the audience on the edge of their seats wanting to know what has happened to the girl. The repetitive music highlights the continuous obsession that the stalker has with the girl.