Thriller Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The Mise-en-scene in our thriller was influenced by a variety of films including: miller’s crossing, Football Factory, Adulthood and Kidulthood and Layercake. The urban setting in Adulthood has recognisable locations in the film as it is set in a modern environment; the reason for the setting is to emphasis the feeling of everyday life. Our entire thriller is set in darkness including many of the inside scenes, using street light and faint light bulb to add the effects of mystery and suspense by allowing the audience to see small amounts of detail, leaving them expectation of what is to come. The use of guns and smoking is common in all the thrillers that influenced us in the making of our film. Stairs also play a highly influential role in our thriller which was used very successfully in Kidulthood and Millers crossing, it is used to emphasis the feeling of becoming trapped or trying to escape from something or someone. There were some typical thriller signifiers we used in effect in our film. There is a perfect example of mystery and intrigue which was influenced by Layercake were actor Daniel Craig’s characters name is hidden, known as “XXXX” in the credits, whereas the old man’s name or face is revealed in our opening. The feeling of being trapped is portrayed in our film using the claustrophobic space, when Simon is trapped in the bedroom, this is similar Chinatown with the main character is scared of heights.

The soundtrack used in our film played a highly influential role in creating tension and was selected due to the success of similar soundtracks within that genre, especially in the films Adulthood, Kidulthood and Layer Cake. The music genre in our film we decided to use was Dubstep Electronica genre; this was chosen due to its success in creating tension in some of the influencing thriller’s Layer Cake and Adulthood. Our soundtrack was a contrast of pace between the soundtracks of Adulthood and Layercake this helps us to achieve our aims in creating an opening to our thriller which gradually builds tension as the music’s pace and tone reaches a climax at the end of the film.

The editing of the film was reasonably basic, using simple short cuts, to emphasize the quick pace of the opening sequence; this is achieved by lots of cuts of footage changing the location and character in shot, to attempt to build tension within the audience. This is similar to a scene in particular from Kidulthood where Sam is returning to his home where he finds to find some unexpected guests, as he moves up the stairs, it cuts between him and the people in his house. Camera shots and angles were also a very effective way of putting an emphasis on a particular scene. We tried to use a full range of interesting camera techniques, the most interesting technique we used was positioning the camera to not reveal the identity of the man, and this was adapted from Layercake where you don’t see the Russian hit man Draken. We used some interesting camera techniques, including the shot on the stairs of both characters, shot behind the characters legs. This shot was inspired from a shot in Millers Crossing, when two assassinators. There is a close up of a phone showing the phone call warning from Jitmal failed to reach Simon, this idea was used to put fear into his friends waiting outside.


How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There are four main characters in our thriller and they all feature in the opening of our film. The entire cast is male, which shows complete domination of the male sex in our film, with a femme fatale not even being featured, this suited our film though as it is based around predominantly young male gangs roaming the streets. The cast are predominantly white, however Jitmal a member of the gang is mixed race, and this helps show that there is little if no racism between the gang. There are three young male gang members in the opening sequence each of similar age around their late teens. There social class of the group is lower class, come from a quite a poor upbringing, financially and the way they were treated by their parents, this has a direct effect to why they may be drawn to crime. Brought up on a council estate where they are around many people similar to them, so they will be influenced by the friends they make and the lack of responsibility and guidance given towards them. This fits the stereotype for young adults from this social group and the actions of crime using guns is an example giving evidence for this stereotype. The classy gangster in the film, whose age, is around late 30’s, early 40’s, is of slightly higher class than the young gang, but still counted as lower class as his wealth displayed through big house and BMW is believed and stereotypically gained through illegal means an example being drug dealing.


What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The thriller film we made I believe would attract a reasonably large audience so would be appropriate to distribute it in mainstream cinemas across the UK. I believe it would be classed as a mainstream thriller due to the success of other British films which vastly influenced our thriller including Kidulthood and Adulthood. I would use an English distribution company for the distribution of the film in the UK; Pathe Pictures International is an example of a company I could use, known for its distribution of films such as Adulthood, which is a similar film to ours so they will have experience working with this genre. The next distribution method I would be looking at for our film would be releasing it on DVD and making it available to watch on the internet, focusing primarily on the UK as our film would not be mainstream enough to be successful in the US. The internet is used on a worldwide basis with a huge audience, making it one of the best methods for attracting an audience.


Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our film would be a group between the ages of 15-25, because of the Certificate I believe our thriller would receive would be 15 due to use of violence and explicit content, these are the standards set by the BBFC. I believe that males will be more attracted to the film due to the complete dominance of male actors in our thriller; also i believe the audience will be similar to the audience of Kidulthood and Adulthood with 2031 out of 2313 viewers on IMDB being male and 1545 of them being between the ages of 18-29. The reason for the decision on the target audience of the film is based on research carried out around the thriller, investigating specifically what the selected target audience for our thriller views and opinions about thrillers, media platforms and the British film industry. The real-life scenario in our film will give any audience especially those of similar age to the gang, something to relate to and may find its gritty realism an attractive trait of our film. Also the subgenre of this Thriller is action thriller with the use of Guns, fight scenes, murder, drug abuse etc. These are all stereotypically linked to teenage boys and especially feature around gang culture, this will attract young male adults to our thriller as it interests them and films with similar traits have attracted large young male audiences.


How did you attract/address your audience?
The audience in the thriller was attracted and addressed through a variety of different ways using the mise-en-scene, characters, narrative and plot. The main way the target audience was attracted through being able to relate to the issues the charcters have to experience throughout the film and the actions taken to deal with them. The gang get caught up in a robbery in particular the main character Simon, his fear and anxiety through the scenes keep the audience hooked and anticipating what the fate of his actions will result in. The use of guns will attract the audience to our film as they are a signal of power; in that guns can potentially kill someone will intrigue the audience to how the plot will unfold and the way in which these dangerous weapons will be used to shape the storyline. The fact that the members of the gang are of similar age to the target audience will attract them as they will be able to relate to them, for example the style of clothes they wear. The setting of the film in urban streets, similar to area where the viewers may live, can relate to the area. The loyalty and betrayal featured between the gang members, showing the close-knit relationship of the gang, however there is the opposite feeling in the way the gang leave Simon trapped in the house, the viewers can relate to friends and loyalty with them, if not the crime side of the plot. The final gun shot at the end of the opening, will leave the audience hooked and the quick pace editing keeps the audience waiting in anticipation.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Over the course of creating our thriller we were introduced to a variety of different media technologies and my knowledge of camera work and using editing software has vastly improved. I only got a chance to do camera work on a practice for my preliminary task, as I was willing to perform as an actor in both the preliminary task and the thriller opening itself, although I do believe I still have reasonably good knowledge of the camera and its software. By the end of our second run at filming our groups’ camera and editing skills, were at a much higher level than our attempts first time round, this enabled us to create a better quality of film using experience we had gained throughout the process. The editing process was the hardest part of the media construction of our film and at first we struggled with getting the footage at the right speed and linking the different parts after cutting it down. After the first difficult stage, we began to get to grips with the software and it was interesting linking up the sequence of various shots. Another hard part of this stage was linking the cut scenes, to keep the narrative readable and also changing the volume of soundtrack to be able to hear the dialogue and build tension within the film itself.


Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
How were prelim and thiller tasks different/ harder/ more challenging? Skills/ understanding/ knowledge
Preliminary task was the first opportunity we had to practice filming and using the various types of equipment, we based the tasks we each did on what we would most likely be doing in the construction of our thriller opening. The tasks we got when creating our thriller are as follows: I did acting, writing (script), and helped with some editing, Roxy took control of filming and editing and Caroline did planning and editing. The preliminary task also taught us how to perform all the necessaries to then go on to create our thriller film, with experience we had gained. We had to set up a YouTube account to export our file to get feedback and allow an audience to see both our Preliminary task and more importantly our Thriller. There were two specific filming rules we learnt in the preliminary task that were vitally important we understood at this stage so we could go on to use them successfully in our thriller, these were the rule of thirds, the 180 degrees rule and reverse shot We had to borrow the filming equipment from school, this involved a process of signing the equipment in and out at the library, this was in fact a good learning curb as it improved our punctuality by making sure we returned equipment at the right time and date. The editing was the final process we went through, the first part of editing was cutting down the large amount of footage we had filmed, this involved cutting out unneeded parts and sequencing what we had left to make sure the film flowed smoothly and looked professional. We also got better at using the premiere elements software so when it came to filming our film we were more skilful, this involved using tools, timelines, cutting (editing) and rendering to prevent the recurring the blurry and jumpy parts.

Audience feedback
We gave a variety of evaluation sheets out to peers in my media group and a couple to our media teachers and asked them to evaluate our film, in a number of categories.
Holding the shot steady were the first category and the average score we achieved came out at 8.3 out of 10 with some of the comments being: Very good camera work in last shot, variety of steady shots and finally shakey in parts.
Framing shots and including what to include in shot we scored an average of 7.9/10 and some of the comments being: Great shots of guys in the sunset and the important points were shown, some stuff could have been left out.
Using a Variety of shot distances we scored an average of 7.6/10 an the comments from our audience were: -, yes, I think there was quite a few, could use more variety, not much variety (long and ECU), all similar distances.
Shooting material that is appropriate to the opening of a thriller film was an important catergory to do well in and we scored 8 out of 10 with one member of our audience giving us a 10, some of the feedback comments included: Good signifiers, Nice dark shots but some in night and daylight .
Selecting mise-en-scene to create particular effects was a category we didn't score as well in but there was still some high scores achieved of 10 and 9 with the average being 6.5. a few of comments from audience feedback included: Good realistic mise-en-scene, Chiaroscuro lighting and too dark to see all the detail at times.
Editing so that the meaning is clear to the viewer links well with shooting appropriate material and one helps to reflect upon the other and we averaged a score of 8/10 with feedback comments including: Good quick editing, very clear what was going on.
Using sound with images and editing sound effectively we scored an average of 8.1o out 10 we some of the audience feedback including: LOVED the music and Some actions went very well with music but gun shot not very realistic.
Any other points?(representational issues, effectiveness of characters, did the opening hook you?) we scored an average of 8.5 with some audience feedback comments being: good hook and good acting and could have been clearer who the male protagonist was.