By Lauren Hunt

Lauren Hunt

Thriller Opening Sequence Evaluation

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

How my media product uses conventions of real media products

Firstly we used an establishing shot of the house. It seems like someone is watching the babysitter from outside the house,

which is a convention often used in thrillers.

It’s dark outside, which creates a sinister atmosphere .

The only character in the opening is a young teenage girl. She plays the vulnerable female character that is common in the

thriller genre. (Defenceless, weak, easy target)

The teenager is searching the house, as if she doesn’t know where things are, which indicates it isn’t her house, putting her at

risk further.

The door opens ‘by itself’ indicating someone/something may be outside. This mystery creates tension and

suspense – generic conventions of thrillers. The fact the vulnerable girl then goes outside, increases these

feelings and the audience wants to continue watching.

The music playing over the film opening is typical of the thriller genre. It has louder parts that increase the

suspense at key points and the entire piece adds to the mysterious element of our thriller.

A red herring like ours is often used

in the thriller/mystery sub - genre as it adds a

twist and keeps the audience’s interest longer.

How my media product challenges and develops forms and conventions of real media products

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

We did not use any fast pans, which create a sense of confusion, we instead used much

slower pans which is not a convention of many thrillers. We made our pan follow the action in a realistic way, rather than create a desired effect.

We have not used shadows to purposely set a sinister theme when planning how we have lit our thriller opening. This is unconventional for

thrillers, as sometimes they do this to show where relevant things could possibly be hidden.

We haven’t used any weapons or dangerous objects in the mise – en – scene. These things are used to alert the audience of some action that may be taking place later on in the thriller.

We did not use any jump cuts or special effects either, this was because our thriller didn’t require

a sense of bewilderment or uncertainty.

We mimicked some of the conventions seen in the thriller films we analysed for use in our

thriller opening.

When A Stranger Calls uses a

mysterious phone call after watching

this film, we decided to use a similar idea.

When A Stranger Calls also uses a vulnerable young female, which was a

convention we thought worked well.

Babysitter character

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

Social groups my media product represents:

This is the main character in my film opening.

She is a teenage girl – around 16/17 years of age.

She is of White-British race.

She is most likely to be of middle

class.

I don’t think the race of the girl would not affect who watches the film. There may

be some people who feel they can relate more to her, but in this day and age, it is not seen as any different than another

race. So would therefore not change the way in which the filmed is viewed.

This girl may appeal to girls of a similar age, as they will be able to relate to her more. This is not 100% certain though, as males are more likely to watch the thriller genre, so they may like to watch the film for other reasons, like

action, rather than the ability relate to characters. This can be identified by

the clothing we placed her in. Casual clothes,

which indicate she is not likely to be a working women. The costume also indicates her age,

so it is immediately clear to the audience.

The gender of the main character is represented in a stereotypical way, that is typical of thriller films. She is a vulnerable

young girl, who is very much a passive character in the plot. The strong male influence

arrives much later on in the film.

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

Distributing our product

How similar films are distributed:DVD

Television

Internet

Cinema

DownloadsWatch online

Money made from ticket sales

More publicity

Distributed differently when the film has been

shown long enough

High budget films

Available to a wide audience

Cheap and easy to access

Sold to institutions

The film can be watched over and over

Continually generates

money, even after the film is

popular

Our film is not a high budget professional production, so would not

be distributed to cinemas.

More likely to be distributed online – easier for amateur

productions like ours.

YOUTUBE

Free, quick and easy. Gets the product seen by a wide market.

We researched film distributors for thriller films and from our research

we discovered:

When a Stranger Calls Taken Silence of the Lambs

20th Century FoxTouchstone Pictures Orion Pictures

Distributed on cinema and DVD formats

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

Opportunities Within the IndustryFranchising is a way of making huge profits. This is mainly done by large

scale productions and would be out of reach for our film.

This is the most likely way, other than online, we would get to

distribute our product.

This distribution company specialises in distributing

films with a ‘micro’ budget. This applies to us.

This company also has options to do with marketing,

knowledge from experts and funding available.

Our low budget film could be seen by our target audience through

this method of distribution.

We could however, have promotional items that would generate more interest in our product and is a realistic way in which we could get more

people to watch.

Merchandise is another way of distributing/getting more people to watch your film. We wouldn’t

be able to afford this however as we have a small budget.

Legal downloads is a quick and easy way we could distribute our

product. However, illegal downloads would lose us money.

Silence of the Lambs

Promo

posters

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

Age:Gender Film Certification

The 15 certificate we gave our film is

for the following reasons.

The film contains mature themes, unsuitable for

young audiences.

The plot may be difficult for them to understand.

The film has bad language, violence and is

intended to frighten to audience.

Children will not enjoy this.

Both genders like to watch thriller films, I found this out through my research.

Males are typically more likely to enjoy the mature themes/violence/action in

our film than females. Females are seen to be more sensitive, so are more likely to relate to characters similar to them and to feel sympathy towards other characters who in a difficult

situation. (The missing wife)

We are targeting an audience aged between 15-30. This is because young audiences would not understand our

plot, would be disturbed by the themes running throughout and be offended by the bad language. This is also the case for elderly audiences. They may also

be offended and might not be interested in the modern film.

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

What our questionnaires told us We created a questionnaire to give to a focus group of students within our target audience (15-30) The questionnaires gave us feedback on how

successful our product was.

The ratings given are very high, ranging from 7 – 10. This shows

that our opening has engaged/attracted our

audience’s attention – Success.

The feedback we received was very positive.

‘The phone call was a good introduction to

the film’

‘I liked the ending as you did not know what was going to happen next’

‘The character was realistic and easy

to relate to’‘The character was the same age

as me, so I could relate’

‘The titles were very effective’

These two pieces of feedback show that we have attracted our audience through the

character we have chosen.

Males watching our thriller may feel the need to protect the vulnerable girl. This is

due to the angst and apprehension they will be feeling because of the situation the

young girl is in. When the audience feels the same emotions as the character, the

are addressed on a personal level.

Our establishing shot places the audience in the position of someone looking into the house. This creates interaction, and gives the feeling of

being watched – holding their attention

The camera shots used are not conventional for what our young target audience is used to,(quick

cuts) but they are meant to create mise – en scene rather than create

drama.

Attracting the Audience

6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Garageband - was it a useful programme for creating a suspenseful soundtrack? What challenges did you face during this process?

Strengths and weaknesses of the camera equipment

STRENGTHS: Very easy to use.

Adequate quality image.A tripod was the only other piece

of equipment needed.

WEAKNESSES:Poor camera battery life.

Bulky tripod caused some positioning problems.

The camera had no focus adjustment.Short camera lead meant extension

lead was required.Tripod height meant we could not have

high angled shots.

Problems faced/Resolved

Editing Software

We did not get the chance to use new high tech equipment that would have enhanced our thriller. We were limited to a camera and a tripod. This

resulted in a much more amateur production.

We used the Apple Macs to edit our footage. (I movie) This software was confusing at first glance, but we soon

got used to it. We discovered that overloading your footage with effects and transitions looked amateur, and it was much better to use a variety of

effects in small quantities – More professional.

Faulty camera battery – We kept the camera plugged into the mains inside, and used an extension lead outside.

Actress kept laughing – We edited out the bad scenes using I Movie.

Car alarms went off when filming – We eradicated the sound using I Movie.

We found it very difficult to find royalty free music - We attempted to create our own, but in the end found a piece on a website specialised in copyright free music. We put this to our film opening and it really added

to the suspense.

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

What I learnt from the planning stage

What I learnt from the production stage

How successful the final product is

When creating our preliminary, we only had a vague storyboard and had no shot list or shooting schedule. I learnt that these things are very

useful and make filming run much smoother.

The camera work used in the final product is much more developed from the preliminary. This is because I felt more confident when using the camera. The match on action shot for example, was much smoother and more effective in the final product than in the preliminary. I learnt to use a variety

of different shot types to create a certain atmosphere – Tension. I also learnt a lot about I Movie from the preliminary

task, meaning the editing was much more effective in the final product. I think the final product is a success. This is backed up with the

positive audience feedback we gained from the questionnaires handed out at the screening. The brief was to plan, research and construct a media product, which we have done. I feel we have

included many conventions of the thriller genre (discovered through detailed research) as well as challenging such

conventions. People who watched our film, said they liked the idea, and the enigma created was a success.

The final storyboard is much more detailed – more useful.During the preliminary task, I learnt that storyboarding is a very good way of trying out ideas before they get to the

filming stage. It is easier to imagine how the shot will look when filmed.

After the preliminary task, I researched into the thriller genre a lot. This meant I had a much clearer idea of what conventions I

should be using in the final product.

We did have some things I think we could have improved: Smoother camera work during zoom and better lighting in some areas. Taking into account these things, I still believe we created a successful

thriller opening sequence.