Friday, 3 April 2009
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Thriller Evaluation
1. What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our production was of the thriller genre, and therefore it was important that our opening sequence used codes and conventions of the thriller genre.
Firstly, the characters had to be thought about carefully and what impression they give to the audience, so their personalities had to be reflected through their clothes, the location, lighting, and camera angles. We had one character living in a run down, dirty, empty house which only gave him basic resources and wearing casual clothing including a red t-shirt, which was there to signify that he was in danger (The use of red to signify a mood, theme or feelings).
The location implies that he has a very disrupted, isolated and poor lifestyle. Because of this, we used dark, low saturation, a cold pallet of blue, white, grey and black, and natural lighting on that character and generally had the camera angle facing downwards to him, as if to say this character is low down in the social class demographic and is also the victim.
To create a form of suspense, which is a typical thriller convention, we worked the camera so you could not see the attacking characters face, so the audience would only judge this character on his preset stereotype by the way he is dressed and by the knife he is carrying. We felt that by showing the audience the attackers face, this may change and personalise their views towards his character as he may not look very convincing to the role he is playing, and any unintended facial expressions may change the tone of his character and effectiveness of the introduction. Also, we used camera shots such as over the shoulder shots which are frequently used in thriller media to back up this suspense and intensity, and continued to vary shot types by their frame, and the way they pan, track and move along with the villain and murderer. We chose the music for the way that the music builds up over key shots that we want to attract the audience’s attention towards, and some notes are held over a period of time and add a feel of tension into the clip.
The way we edited the clip together made a big difference. We added fade ins and outs as the action of the clip switched between the two characters to make this switch of action smoother and less disorientating to the audience. When the lighting was brighter, this allowed us to use dissolve techniques to switch the focus, that when the focus was switched to the killer at the door looking through the blurred front door. This creates a bold mood and brings the presence of this character very much to the audience’s attention.
The choice of location was vital to our sequence. It was important that the location was deserted and looked fairly run down to get across the desired connotations to the audience regarding the victim character in the house, and also the availability of a train track beside the house proved to be key as a suspenseful and intimidating approach of the killer to the location, and approaching the victim could be set.
2. How does your media product represent a particular social group?
This is represented through the thriller introduction by its level of potential violence, dark storyline, strength and impact of realism. Social groups can be represented through the characters.
The characters in the sequence are very mysterious and shadowy, not much is shown about them to the audience. However the dark representation that is given to the audience about life in rural areas through our sequence, social groups can be drawn out by the audience to link the characters to in some way.
For instance, the victim character living in a run down house has very poor standard of basic resources to live from (he is living a very lowlife), and is an outsider from society, which could indicate that he belongs to the social group of a squatter who has had to find shelter on his own without any money or contents to place within the shelter.
The killer character is different to this. The characters bold and tough choice of dress shows he is from an urban area, living a poor standard of life himself as he is carrying a weapon and the tough, worn clothing, in contrast to his victim who is at the low point of rural life. Therefore the killer character would fit into a social group of a thug or a gang member doing what he can to earn money to support himself.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A media institution such as an Art House would distribute our media introduction because of the detailed and atmospheric camera shots, angles and effects that compose it. An example of a shot from our media introduction would be of the train entering the station. I single out this shot because the camera was still on the tripod as it filmed and was positioned at a precise angle to allow the train to enter the shot at a specific point travelling in a specific direction and leaving the shot and cutting at a precise moment. Therefore a cinema such as Cinema City in Norwich would screen our thriller intro rather than Odeon, which screens mostly mainstream media.
The way location and characters are represented in mainstream films is more bold and stereotypical through the use stock characters and stereotypes than in art house productions. Art house productions are less conventional through the way that its characters are presented with more mystery than mainstream films.
4. Who would be your audience for your media product?
The audience for our thriller film introduction would be aged between 16-25, which is the typical cinema demographic, who particularly are interested in thriller films, or films that follow our sub-genre of crime thriller. If our audience would be interested in such crime thrillers such as ‘Criminal Intent’, then our audience will enjoy our crime thriller introduction.
Because our thriller introduction consists of two main characters that are male, then primarily our production could hold interest of a male audience because of cold colour and situation through the killing and use of a cold pallet of colours, will also primarily attract a male audience. I understand this should be the case because my audience research of the crime thriller film ‘Speed’ showed that primarily a male audience would be attracted to a film with use of cold colours. However, female audiences would also be attracted to the production, because of the detailed and atmospheric shots that an art house production such as ours possesses, such as the shot of the train entering the station.
5. How did you attract and address your audience?
We intended to attract the attention of the audience through such techniques such as symbolic representation, thus addressing our audience towards the characters’ personalities. Also we intend that these techniques will challenge codes and conventions of the genre of thriller and sub-genre of crime thriller.
The reality of the situation of the run down character at the house was that he has been removed from the group of individuals that the killing character belongs to, and therefore is writing a letter about why he will not abide and is intending to escape. The killing character’s role is to intervene and prevent the run down character’s word getting out about the group of individuals’ intentions. Throughout this sequence, we inserted subtle hints about what may happen to this run down character. Such indicators were of the red t-shirt to signify danger, the possession of a knife in favour of the killing character to show his intent to use the knife and the tracking shots of the killing character as he gets ever closer to the run down character to indicate the run down characters impending attack. We challenged the codes and conventions in this sequence by using ECU shots of the key aspects such as the knife, the build up of music to increase the intensity and suspense at important points of the clip, and fading in and out shots of which transitions gradually get quicker for intensity as the impending clash between the characters draws nearer. The dark and cold lighting that we kept as natural as possible we hope helped to darken the mood of our thriller introduction to a more pessimistic mood of gloom surrounding the run down characters lifestyle and situation, that was hopefully emphasised by this noir lighting.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt about the technologies involved in creating a media product through filming and through editing. For filming I have learnt that to create the right mise-en-scene, aspects such as lighting, camera angle, camera zoom, and camera movement all play a big part in creating the right theme to match the connotations you want to draw to the attention of the audience and for them to react to. I found that this understanding was essential for the part in the production where the victim is writing a letter on the floor. The camera had to be angled to a position where it is looking down of the character to make him seem inferior to whom he is writing the letter to, and that the lighting was dark to highlight his situation but enough light through natural light to see what the victim was doing, and also the zoom was another factor for how much of the character or letter should be included in the shot and what should be the focus of the shot; either the victim or the letter.
For editing, I realise that it is important to involve a wide range of shot types, shot effects, transitions and time variations of each individual sequence that composes the final product. Like for filming, the editing can determine what connotations can be drawn out of the mise-en-scene of the shot and it is the aspects of lighting, colour, camera angles, camera movement, editing effects, transition effects and shot lengths that can bring out micro aspects that contribute to macro areas of the media products that will be intended to be highlighted to be notice by the audience over less important areas of the clip. A part in particular of the production where editing was significant was the sequence beginning at the killer stepping off the train and slowly making his way towards his victim. Transitions between these shots had to set the right atmosphere of danger and suspense, and the movement between each shot had to be smooth and flowing.
7. Looking back to the preliminary filming task, what have you learnt in progression from that to the full product?
I have learnt that there are many aspects that contribute to a shot and a filming sequence to think about when planning and shooting a media product. The preliminary task was a much more condensed and basic task compared to the thriller introduction because we had artificial light that we did not have to change, clothing and props were straight forward to give the look of a student (which we are), and the range of shot types that we needed to carry out was not very varied. For the thriller introduction, a wider picture was set in front of us to think through thoroughly about each individual shot and which micro elements of a shot that will affect the bigger macro elements of the shot and to the overall project. Lighting, saturation, contrast, colour and location were all important to set the tone and mood of the film, which creates the mise-en-scene to which the characters clothing and personalities can be drawn out from. These features were much more important in the thriller film to give a sense of history and chemistry between the characters that the audience can grasp to, and relate to any stereotypes that the characters appearance will indicate. Whereas in the preliminary filming task, the history between the two characters was not needed as the dialogue took centre stage, and because our thriller project subsequently had no dialogue, first impressions were very important to our audience.
Our production was of the thriller genre, and therefore it was important that our opening sequence used codes and conventions of the thriller genre.
Firstly, the characters had to be thought about carefully and what impression they give to the audience, so their personalities had to be reflected through their clothes, the location, lighting, and camera angles. We had one character living in a run down, dirty, empty house which only gave him basic resources and wearing casual clothing including a red t-shirt, which was there to signify that he was in danger (The use of red to signify a mood, theme or feelings).
The location implies that he has a very disrupted, isolated and poor lifestyle. Because of this, we used dark, low saturation, a cold pallet of blue, white, grey and black, and natural lighting on that character and generally had the camera angle facing downwards to him, as if to say this character is low down in the social class demographic and is also the victim.
To create a form of suspense, which is a typical thriller convention, we worked the camera so you could not see the attacking characters face, so the audience would only judge this character on his preset stereotype by the way he is dressed and by the knife he is carrying. We felt that by showing the audience the attackers face, this may change and personalise their views towards his character as he may not look very convincing to the role he is playing, and any unintended facial expressions may change the tone of his character and effectiveness of the introduction. Also, we used camera shots such as over the shoulder shots which are frequently used in thriller media to back up this suspense and intensity, and continued to vary shot types by their frame, and the way they pan, track and move along with the villain and murderer. We chose the music for the way that the music builds up over key shots that we want to attract the audience’s attention towards, and some notes are held over a period of time and add a feel of tension into the clip.
The way we edited the clip together made a big difference. We added fade ins and outs as the action of the clip switched between the two characters to make this switch of action smoother and less disorientating to the audience. When the lighting was brighter, this allowed us to use dissolve techniques to switch the focus, that when the focus was switched to the killer at the door looking through the blurred front door. This creates a bold mood and brings the presence of this character very much to the audience’s attention.
The choice of location was vital to our sequence. It was important that the location was deserted and looked fairly run down to get across the desired connotations to the audience regarding the victim character in the house, and also the availability of a train track beside the house proved to be key as a suspenseful and intimidating approach of the killer to the location, and approaching the victim could be set.
2. How does your media product represent a particular social group?
This is represented through the thriller introduction by its level of potential violence, dark storyline, strength and impact of realism. Social groups can be represented through the characters.
The characters in the sequence are very mysterious and shadowy, not much is shown about them to the audience. However the dark representation that is given to the audience about life in rural areas through our sequence, social groups can be drawn out by the audience to link the characters to in some way.
For instance, the victim character living in a run down house has very poor standard of basic resources to live from (he is living a very lowlife), and is an outsider from society, which could indicate that he belongs to the social group of a squatter who has had to find shelter on his own without any money or contents to place within the shelter.
The killer character is different to this. The characters bold and tough choice of dress shows he is from an urban area, living a poor standard of life himself as he is carrying a weapon and the tough, worn clothing, in contrast to his victim who is at the low point of rural life. Therefore the killer character would fit into a social group of a thug or a gang member doing what he can to earn money to support himself.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A media institution such as an Art House would distribute our media introduction because of the detailed and atmospheric camera shots, angles and effects that compose it. An example of a shot from our media introduction would be of the train entering the station. I single out this shot because the camera was still on the tripod as it filmed and was positioned at a precise angle to allow the train to enter the shot at a specific point travelling in a specific direction and leaving the shot and cutting at a precise moment. Therefore a cinema such as Cinema City in Norwich would screen our thriller intro rather than Odeon, which screens mostly mainstream media.
The way location and characters are represented in mainstream films is more bold and stereotypical through the use stock characters and stereotypes than in art house productions. Art house productions are less conventional through the way that its characters are presented with more mystery than mainstream films.
4. Who would be your audience for your media product?
The audience for our thriller film introduction would be aged between 16-25, which is the typical cinema demographic, who particularly are interested in thriller films, or films that follow our sub-genre of crime thriller. If our audience would be interested in such crime thrillers such as ‘Criminal Intent’, then our audience will enjoy our crime thriller introduction.
Because our thriller introduction consists of two main characters that are male, then primarily our production could hold interest of a male audience because of cold colour and situation through the killing and use of a cold pallet of colours, will also primarily attract a male audience. I understand this should be the case because my audience research of the crime thriller film ‘Speed’ showed that primarily a male audience would be attracted to a film with use of cold colours. However, female audiences would also be attracted to the production, because of the detailed and atmospheric shots that an art house production such as ours possesses, such as the shot of the train entering the station.
5. How did you attract and address your audience?
We intended to attract the attention of the audience through such techniques such as symbolic representation, thus addressing our audience towards the characters’ personalities. Also we intend that these techniques will challenge codes and conventions of the genre of thriller and sub-genre of crime thriller.
The reality of the situation of the run down character at the house was that he has been removed from the group of individuals that the killing character belongs to, and therefore is writing a letter about why he will not abide and is intending to escape. The killing character’s role is to intervene and prevent the run down character’s word getting out about the group of individuals’ intentions. Throughout this sequence, we inserted subtle hints about what may happen to this run down character. Such indicators were of the red t-shirt to signify danger, the possession of a knife in favour of the killing character to show his intent to use the knife and the tracking shots of the killing character as he gets ever closer to the run down character to indicate the run down characters impending attack. We challenged the codes and conventions in this sequence by using ECU shots of the key aspects such as the knife, the build up of music to increase the intensity and suspense at important points of the clip, and fading in and out shots of which transitions gradually get quicker for intensity as the impending clash between the characters draws nearer. The dark and cold lighting that we kept as natural as possible we hope helped to darken the mood of our thriller introduction to a more pessimistic mood of gloom surrounding the run down characters lifestyle and situation, that was hopefully emphasised by this noir lighting.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt about the technologies involved in creating a media product through filming and through editing. For filming I have learnt that to create the right mise-en-scene, aspects such as lighting, camera angle, camera zoom, and camera movement all play a big part in creating the right theme to match the connotations you want to draw to the attention of the audience and for them to react to. I found that this understanding was essential for the part in the production where the victim is writing a letter on the floor. The camera had to be angled to a position where it is looking down of the character to make him seem inferior to whom he is writing the letter to, and that the lighting was dark to highlight his situation but enough light through natural light to see what the victim was doing, and also the zoom was another factor for how much of the character or letter should be included in the shot and what should be the focus of the shot; either the victim or the letter.
For editing, I realise that it is important to involve a wide range of shot types, shot effects, transitions and time variations of each individual sequence that composes the final product. Like for filming, the editing can determine what connotations can be drawn out of the mise-en-scene of the shot and it is the aspects of lighting, colour, camera angles, camera movement, editing effects, transition effects and shot lengths that can bring out micro aspects that contribute to macro areas of the media products that will be intended to be highlighted to be notice by the audience over less important areas of the clip. A part in particular of the production where editing was significant was the sequence beginning at the killer stepping off the train and slowly making his way towards his victim. Transitions between these shots had to set the right atmosphere of danger and suspense, and the movement between each shot had to be smooth and flowing.
7. Looking back to the preliminary filming task, what have you learnt in progression from that to the full product?
I have learnt that there are many aspects that contribute to a shot and a filming sequence to think about when planning and shooting a media product. The preliminary task was a much more condensed and basic task compared to the thriller introduction because we had artificial light that we did not have to change, clothing and props were straight forward to give the look of a student (which we are), and the range of shot types that we needed to carry out was not very varied. For the thriller introduction, a wider picture was set in front of us to think through thoroughly about each individual shot and which micro elements of a shot that will affect the bigger macro elements of the shot and to the overall project. Lighting, saturation, contrast, colour and location were all important to set the tone and mood of the film, which creates the mise-en-scene to which the characters clothing and personalities can be drawn out from. These features were much more important in the thriller film to give a sense of history and chemistry between the characters that the audience can grasp to, and relate to any stereotypes that the characters appearance will indicate. Whereas in the preliminary filming task, the history between the two characters was not needed as the dialogue took centre stage, and because our thriller project subsequently had no dialogue, first impressions were very important to our audience.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Friday, 13 February 2009
Method 2 - Audience Research
I carried out a questionnaire about thrillers as films and as a TV series and to gain opinions from my audience about the thriller genre, and handed them out to a select group (10 participants in total) to obtain their thoughts about the thriller genre and how they consume their thriller media. The data was collected at CNS, which was a convenient place to gather my data as all my participants live in Norwich. The age band of the audience was from 16-52 and there was an even balance of men and women in my audience (5 male and 5 female participants). I am hoping that the information I receive will help me in regards to my thriller opening coursework that I will be composing. I received the following results:
Question 1: Aspirations?
When asked about their aspirations, 6 participants of my audience wanted to go to university (age 16-19 and 46% of the total answer), 4 wanted jobs (3 out of the 4 already had jobs, the 1 person who wanted a job was 16), 2 wanted to travel (1 age 17, 1 aged 19) and none of the audience wanted any alternative. This suggests that the younger people of my audience are keen to experience adult life and further their education; where as the older participants from my audience, were focused on what they already have.
Question 2: Where do you watch film?
When asked where they watch their films, 8 participants from my audience watch films at home (40%), 8 watch films at the cinema (40%) and the remaining 20% watch their films using another method, of which 3 stated computer and 1 stated iPod. The male participant who suggested iPod was the youngest participant who took part in answering the questionnaire. Going to the cinema was the most popular choice within the audience, which suggests that the cinema is more appealing to my audience and that they may prefer to view their film as a group of two or more, this group perhaps consisting of friends, family and work colleagues as all of my audience are old enough to work. Therefore, my audience could also see viewing their media at a cinema as a social activity.
Question 3: How do you watch films?
When asked how they watch their film, 8 participants from my audience watch films via DVD, 4 watch films via PC (all under 19), 3 watch films by VHS (all over 48), 8 watch films by DTV and 8 of the audience visit the cinema to watch films (the two that don’t visit the cinema were both males under 18). DVD, DTV and Cinema all received individually 25.8 %; all three together totalled 77.4% of the audience response for this question. Those who didn’t answer cinema answered both DVD and computer. Cinema again proved to be the most popular as it did also in question 2, confirming that my audience prefers to watch their films at the cinema than at home or anywhere else, and also on the big screen in preference over DVD, PC, VHS and DTV.
Question 4: What attracts you to a film or TV series?
When asked what attracts them to a film or TV series, 6 participants from my audience answered advertising (26%) , 4 answered word of mouth (all under 19) and subject/matter/theme, 2 answered actor/actress and director (only women answered this), 7 answered genre, 3 answered report (all under 19) and 1 answered interview (male aged 17). This implies that the older aged participants from my audience select their TV and film media from what they confront on their daily basis lifestyle as they only answered advertising, subject/matter/theme and genre from the above (advertising and subject/matter/theme being daily basis, which they would come across through either their occupation or on their journeys between this occupation and home). Where as the younger generation in general have more leisure time, will socialize with their friends and view a higher level of media in a higher level of ways, therefore expanding their range of how they find out about films and TV series through such as reading reports online or through a friends opinion (word of mouth).
Question 5: Who do you watch films with?
When asked who they watch their films with, 8 of the audience answered family, all the audience answered friends, and 2 answered work colleagues, none of the audience answered alone or other. Those participants who answered work colleagues were all aged over 19. Friends therefore receiving 50% of the audience’s response and it would seem that watching a film is a social event (which is backed up with 40% of question 2 viewing their film at a cinema) most enjoyed when viewing with friends.
Question 6: Does cost affect your choice of what film you watch and where you watch it?
When asked if cost affects their choice to which film they watch and where, 7 participants (70% of the audiences’ vote) said yes cost does affect what film they watch and where they watch it, and the remaining 3 participants from the audience said no. Those who said no were all over 48, which suggest the value of the film is more important to them than the cost to view that film and they will appreciate the film for what it is rather than compare it to how much it costs them to watch the film. Because these participants of this age group are in a different lifestyle and occupation that allows them to explore a wider range of experiences compared to the rest of the participants, they would watch the film for the experience rather than letting the cost affect their decision to watch the film.
Question 7: How often do you watch films?
When asked how often they watch film, 2 people answered more than twice a week (all female), 1 participant answered once or twice a week (male aged 17), 3 answered once a fortnight, 4 answered once a month (all over 48 and making up 40% of the audience’s response for this question), and no one answered less than a month. This suggests that the younger section of my audience aged 16-19 all have more time to watch films (which fits into the typical cinema demographic of 16-25), compared to the 4 participants from my audience aged 48-52 who all have jobs.
Question 8: What makes a good thriller character?
For this question each of the audience members could give any response they wished to give, and when I asked them what makes a good thriller character, 1 participant from my selected audience answered innocent, 1 answered scary, 3 answered psycho (those who answered psycho all watch films once a week or more), 1 answered young male, 2 answered young female and 2 answered tough guy (both men over 50). Therefore, 30% of my audience’s response suggested that a good thriller character should be a ‘Psycho’ type character. As the audience who suggested Psycho watch films once a week or more, I assume that if the audience watched plenty of films direct to this genre, they will appreciate the codes and conventions that are allocated to this genre and to which character is most effective within the thriller genre.
Question 9: What is your favorite part of a film?
When asked what their favorite section and scene sequences of a film was, 4 participants from my audience answered intro, 3 answered beginning/middle, 1 answered middle/ending (1 female aged 48), 2 answered ending and no one answered middle or other. The introduction sequence therefore, proving to be the preferred part of a film with 40% of the response from my audience. This may be because the introduction is such a big part of the film as it set the theme, setting and tone to which the rest of the film will follow throughout, so a big impact has to be made to the audience to maintain their attention and focus.
Question 10: What setting or theme makes a good thriller film/TV series?
When asked what setting or theme makes a good thriller film/TV series, 3 participants from my audience answered claustrophobic, 2 answered a deserted town, 1 answered airport, 2 answered an old house (both men under 18), 1 participant answered busy city and 1 answered back alleys of a city. Claustrophobic proved to be my audience’s preferred setting for a thriller with 30% of the vote from my audience. When linked with question 8, it would appear that my audience favour a thriller in a claustrophobic setting with a psycho as the main character.
Question 11: Are thrillers best as a film or a TV series?
When asked if thrillers are best in the form of a film or TV series, 8 participants from my audience opted for film, meaning the remaining the remaining 2 participants from my audience answered TV series who are both male (1 aged 17 and 1 aged 52). Therefore, my audience (with 80% majority of the audience’s response) prefers thrillers as a film rather than a TV series. The males who chose TV series it appears chose to appreciate many individual and continuous installments of a thriller series over a regular basis rather than one large installment of a thriller medium.
Question 12: Are thrillers best in colour or in black and white?
When asked if thrillers are best in black or white, 6 participants from my audience answered colour (all under 20), the remaining 4 of my audience answered black and white (all over 48).This could indicate that this section of my audience were around at the time that classic thriller films were introduced, such as ‘Psycho’ which is a black and white film (and incidentally my audience do prefer a Psycho character in a thriller film as I found out in question 8). As the younger section have been viewing thriller media for a shorter length of time, only more recent thriller released over the previous 20 years would have been brought about with them as they grew up and therefore more related to them and their age group, such as ‘Seven’ that was released in September 1995. With 60% favoured response, my audience like thrillers best when they are in colour.
Question 13: Are modern or past thrillers best?
When asked if modern or past thrillers are best, 4 participants from my audience answered modern (all under 20), the remaining 6 answered past. My audience, therefore, have suggested to me that past thrillers make more of an impact on them than modern thrillers, with 60% of my audience answering past in the questionnaire. When linked to question 12, 60% of my audience voted that colour thrillers are preferred to black and white. Most of the past thrillers that have made an impact such as again ‘Psycho’ were in black and white, although past thrillers that have made an impact have been in colour such as ‘The Godfather’. Over more recent years such as over the last 10 years, it has been unusual to see a brand new black and white thriller film be released.
Question 14: What type of thrillers would you watch?
When asked what type of thriller film would they watch, implying if they were to direct a thriller film themselves or simply watch a sub genre of thriller film of their preference, 3 participants from my audience answered action (all male), 8 answered comedy, 2 answered crime, 2 answered disaster (both female under 20), 4 answered drama (all women), 5 answered horror, 1 answered legal/politics (male aged 52), 2 answered medical, 3 answered psychological, 1 answered supernatural (male aged 16) and no one answered other. It would appear that comedy would be the most accepted thriller out of my audience with four fifths of the group choosing it (80%).
Evaluation of Questionnaire
Overall, my questionnaire has helped me successfully research into and answer my objective of how audiences view thriller films. Finding a group of 10 participants evenly balanced between males and females was an advantage as I got an idea for each age group what their preferences are when it comes to viewing films and thriller films. However, to improve my investigation I could have had one male and one female grouped at one age, and a different pair of one male and one female a decade older and repeat this pattern. However this does stray from my target audience demographic and may not help to relating that further research to my thriller introduction. On the other hand, that idea could work because it would show how a male and female of the same age range view their media compared with other age groups.
Another idea that worked well with my questionnaire was the depth of each question as they produced some really interesting answers at times, such as questions 8, 10 and 14. Questions 8 and 10 the audience member could state an answer of their choosing which proved to make some intriguing answers. As in other cases, other participants answered similarly to a specific question which helped me to identify a common pattern, and link that pattern to corresponding patterns found in other questions. This worked in the case of questions 8 and 10, where I asked my audience about their ideal thriller characters and settings. My audience suggested in this case that a ‘Psycho’ character would be better in a ‘Claustrophobic’ setting. Later on in my questionnaire I found that I could link this finding to another of my questions I asked in my questionnaire about how often each of my participants watch thrillers. Those who answered ‘Psycho’ in question 8 all visited the cinema once a week and agreed that thrillers were best as a film. This indicates to me that those individuals from my audience watch films regularly, they will have watched a wide range of media which could involve the thriller genre, and so may have a strong indication of what characters and situations make an appealing thriller film.
From question 10, as my thriller opening will be located in some shots in an old house, it is good that I got a positive response of two votes making it the joint second highest scorer for that question (level with deserted town, but behind claustrophobic by one vote) from my audience as it shows that this would be an acceptable location to include in a thriller film. Also in regards to question 8, in my thriller opening I will be including a ‘tough guy’ and a ‘young male’. I am pleased that tough guy got a positive response of two for ‘tough guy’, but disappointed that ‘young male’ only scored one vote.
Question 1: Aspirations?
When asked about their aspirations, 6 participants of my audience wanted to go to university (age 16-19 and 46% of the total answer), 4 wanted jobs (3 out of the 4 already had jobs, the 1 person who wanted a job was 16), 2 wanted to travel (1 age 17, 1 aged 19) and none of the audience wanted any alternative. This suggests that the younger people of my audience are keen to experience adult life and further their education; where as the older participants from my audience, were focused on what they already have.
Question 2: Where do you watch film?
When asked where they watch their films, 8 participants from my audience watch films at home (40%), 8 watch films at the cinema (40%) and the remaining 20% watch their films using another method, of which 3 stated computer and 1 stated iPod. The male participant who suggested iPod was the youngest participant who took part in answering the questionnaire. Going to the cinema was the most popular choice within the audience, which suggests that the cinema is more appealing to my audience and that they may prefer to view their film as a group of two or more, this group perhaps consisting of friends, family and work colleagues as all of my audience are old enough to work. Therefore, my audience could also see viewing their media at a cinema as a social activity.
Question 3: How do you watch films?
When asked how they watch their film, 8 participants from my audience watch films via DVD, 4 watch films via PC (all under 19), 3 watch films by VHS (all over 48), 8 watch films by DTV and 8 of the audience visit the cinema to watch films (the two that don’t visit the cinema were both males under 18). DVD, DTV and Cinema all received individually 25.8 %; all three together totalled 77.4% of the audience response for this question. Those who didn’t answer cinema answered both DVD and computer. Cinema again proved to be the most popular as it did also in question 2, confirming that my audience prefers to watch their films at the cinema than at home or anywhere else, and also on the big screen in preference over DVD, PC, VHS and DTV.
Question 4: What attracts you to a film or TV series?
When asked what attracts them to a film or TV series, 6 participants from my audience answered advertising (26%) , 4 answered word of mouth (all under 19) and subject/matter/theme, 2 answered actor/actress and director (only women answered this), 7 answered genre, 3 answered report (all under 19) and 1 answered interview (male aged 17). This implies that the older aged participants from my audience select their TV and film media from what they confront on their daily basis lifestyle as they only answered advertising, subject/matter/theme and genre from the above (advertising and subject/matter/theme being daily basis, which they would come across through either their occupation or on their journeys between this occupation and home). Where as the younger generation in general have more leisure time, will socialize with their friends and view a higher level of media in a higher level of ways, therefore expanding their range of how they find out about films and TV series through such as reading reports online or through a friends opinion (word of mouth).
Question 5: Who do you watch films with?
When asked who they watch their films with, 8 of the audience answered family, all the audience answered friends, and 2 answered work colleagues, none of the audience answered alone or other. Those participants who answered work colleagues were all aged over 19. Friends therefore receiving 50% of the audience’s response and it would seem that watching a film is a social event (which is backed up with 40% of question 2 viewing their film at a cinema) most enjoyed when viewing with friends.
Question 6: Does cost affect your choice of what film you watch and where you watch it?
When asked if cost affects their choice to which film they watch and where, 7 participants (70% of the audiences’ vote) said yes cost does affect what film they watch and where they watch it, and the remaining 3 participants from the audience said no. Those who said no were all over 48, which suggest the value of the film is more important to them than the cost to view that film and they will appreciate the film for what it is rather than compare it to how much it costs them to watch the film. Because these participants of this age group are in a different lifestyle and occupation that allows them to explore a wider range of experiences compared to the rest of the participants, they would watch the film for the experience rather than letting the cost affect their decision to watch the film.
Question 7: How often do you watch films?
When asked how often they watch film, 2 people answered more than twice a week (all female), 1 participant answered once or twice a week (male aged 17), 3 answered once a fortnight, 4 answered once a month (all over 48 and making up 40% of the audience’s response for this question), and no one answered less than a month. This suggests that the younger section of my audience aged 16-19 all have more time to watch films (which fits into the typical cinema demographic of 16-25), compared to the 4 participants from my audience aged 48-52 who all have jobs.
Question 8: What makes a good thriller character?
For this question each of the audience members could give any response they wished to give, and when I asked them what makes a good thriller character, 1 participant from my selected audience answered innocent, 1 answered scary, 3 answered psycho (those who answered psycho all watch films once a week or more), 1 answered young male, 2 answered young female and 2 answered tough guy (both men over 50). Therefore, 30% of my audience’s response suggested that a good thriller character should be a ‘Psycho’ type character. As the audience who suggested Psycho watch films once a week or more, I assume that if the audience watched plenty of films direct to this genre, they will appreciate the codes and conventions that are allocated to this genre and to which character is most effective within the thriller genre.
Question 9: What is your favorite part of a film?
When asked what their favorite section and scene sequences of a film was, 4 participants from my audience answered intro, 3 answered beginning/middle, 1 answered middle/ending (1 female aged 48), 2 answered ending and no one answered middle or other. The introduction sequence therefore, proving to be the preferred part of a film with 40% of the response from my audience. This may be because the introduction is such a big part of the film as it set the theme, setting and tone to which the rest of the film will follow throughout, so a big impact has to be made to the audience to maintain their attention and focus.
Question 10: What setting or theme makes a good thriller film/TV series?
When asked what setting or theme makes a good thriller film/TV series, 3 participants from my audience answered claustrophobic, 2 answered a deserted town, 1 answered airport, 2 answered an old house (both men under 18), 1 participant answered busy city and 1 answered back alleys of a city. Claustrophobic proved to be my audience’s preferred setting for a thriller with 30% of the vote from my audience. When linked with question 8, it would appear that my audience favour a thriller in a claustrophobic setting with a psycho as the main character.
Question 11: Are thrillers best as a film or a TV series?
When asked if thrillers are best in the form of a film or TV series, 8 participants from my audience opted for film, meaning the remaining the remaining 2 participants from my audience answered TV series who are both male (1 aged 17 and 1 aged 52). Therefore, my audience (with 80% majority of the audience’s response) prefers thrillers as a film rather than a TV series. The males who chose TV series it appears chose to appreciate many individual and continuous installments of a thriller series over a regular basis rather than one large installment of a thriller medium.
Question 12: Are thrillers best in colour or in black and white?
When asked if thrillers are best in black or white, 6 participants from my audience answered colour (all under 20), the remaining 4 of my audience answered black and white (all over 48).This could indicate that this section of my audience were around at the time that classic thriller films were introduced, such as ‘Psycho’ which is a black and white film (and incidentally my audience do prefer a Psycho character in a thriller film as I found out in question 8). As the younger section have been viewing thriller media for a shorter length of time, only more recent thriller released over the previous 20 years would have been brought about with them as they grew up and therefore more related to them and their age group, such as ‘Seven’ that was released in September 1995. With 60% favoured response, my audience like thrillers best when they are in colour.
Question 13: Are modern or past thrillers best?
When asked if modern or past thrillers are best, 4 participants from my audience answered modern (all under 20), the remaining 6 answered past. My audience, therefore, have suggested to me that past thrillers make more of an impact on them than modern thrillers, with 60% of my audience answering past in the questionnaire. When linked to question 12, 60% of my audience voted that colour thrillers are preferred to black and white. Most of the past thrillers that have made an impact such as again ‘Psycho’ were in black and white, although past thrillers that have made an impact have been in colour such as ‘The Godfather’. Over more recent years such as over the last 10 years, it has been unusual to see a brand new black and white thriller film be released.
Question 14: What type of thrillers would you watch?
When asked what type of thriller film would they watch, implying if they were to direct a thriller film themselves or simply watch a sub genre of thriller film of their preference, 3 participants from my audience answered action (all male), 8 answered comedy, 2 answered crime, 2 answered disaster (both female under 20), 4 answered drama (all women), 5 answered horror, 1 answered legal/politics (male aged 52), 2 answered medical, 3 answered psychological, 1 answered supernatural (male aged 16) and no one answered other. It would appear that comedy would be the most accepted thriller out of my audience with four fifths of the group choosing it (80%).
Evaluation of Questionnaire
Overall, my questionnaire has helped me successfully research into and answer my objective of how audiences view thriller films. Finding a group of 10 participants evenly balanced between males and females was an advantage as I got an idea for each age group what their preferences are when it comes to viewing films and thriller films. However, to improve my investigation I could have had one male and one female grouped at one age, and a different pair of one male and one female a decade older and repeat this pattern. However this does stray from my target audience demographic and may not help to relating that further research to my thriller introduction. On the other hand, that idea could work because it would show how a male and female of the same age range view their media compared with other age groups.
Another idea that worked well with my questionnaire was the depth of each question as they produced some really interesting answers at times, such as questions 8, 10 and 14. Questions 8 and 10 the audience member could state an answer of their choosing which proved to make some intriguing answers. As in other cases, other participants answered similarly to a specific question which helped me to identify a common pattern, and link that pattern to corresponding patterns found in other questions. This worked in the case of questions 8 and 10, where I asked my audience about their ideal thriller characters and settings. My audience suggested in this case that a ‘Psycho’ character would be better in a ‘Claustrophobic’ setting. Later on in my questionnaire I found that I could link this finding to another of my questions I asked in my questionnaire about how often each of my participants watch thrillers. Those who answered ‘Psycho’ in question 8 all visited the cinema once a week and agreed that thrillers were best as a film. This indicates to me that those individuals from my audience watch films regularly, they will have watched a wide range of media which could involve the thriller genre, and so may have a strong indication of what characters and situations make an appealing thriller film.
From question 10, as my thriller opening will be located in some shots in an old house, it is good that I got a positive response of two votes making it the joint second highest scorer for that question (level with deserted town, but behind claustrophobic by one vote) from my audience as it shows that this would be an acceptable location to include in a thriller film. Also in regards to question 8, in my thriller opening I will be including a ‘tough guy’ and a ‘young male’. I am pleased that tough guy got a positive response of two for ‘tough guy’, but disappointed that ‘young male’ only scored one vote.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Thriller Film Shooting Schedule
Shooting Schedule
Day 1
Arrive at 2PM
1st Shot: Shot 2 (2.10)
2nd Shot: Shot 3 (2.20)
3rd Shot: Shot 4 (2.33)
4th Shot: Shot 11 (2.45)
5th Shot: Shot 12 (2.50)
6th Shot: Shot 14 (2.55)
7th Shot: Shot 15 (3.10)
8th Shot: Shot 13 (3.20)
9th Shot: Shot 20 (3.40)
10th Shot: Shot 10(3.55)
11th Shot: Shot 5 (4.10)
Day 2
12th Shot: Shot 7 (2.30)
13th Shot: Shot 8 (2.50)
14th Shot: Shot 9 (3.00)
15th Shot: Shot 6 (3.10)
16th Shot: Shot 16 (3.25)
17th Shot: Shot 17 (3.30)
18th Shot: Shot 18 (3.40)
19th Shot: Shot 19 (3.50)
20th Shot: Shot 1 (4.00)
Day 1
Arrive at 2PM
1st Shot: Shot 2 (2.10)
2nd Shot: Shot 3 (2.20)
3rd Shot: Shot 4 (2.33)
4th Shot: Shot 11 (2.45)
5th Shot: Shot 12 (2.50)
6th Shot: Shot 14 (2.55)
7th Shot: Shot 15 (3.10)
8th Shot: Shot 13 (3.20)
9th Shot: Shot 20 (3.40)
10th Shot: Shot 10(3.55)
11th Shot: Shot 5 (4.10)
Day 2
12th Shot: Shot 7 (2.30)
13th Shot: Shot 8 (2.50)
14th Shot: Shot 9 (3.00)
15th Shot: Shot 6 (3.10)
16th Shot: Shot 16 (3.25)
17th Shot: Shot 17 (3.30)
18th Shot: Shot 18 (3.40)
19th Shot: Shot 19 (3.50)
20th Shot: Shot 1 (4.00)
Thriller Film Script
For out thriller film project, we deliberately decided against including any dialogue or voiceovers.
We did start to write dialouge, but found it difficult because by doing so, we found that it ruined the ambiguiety of the characters and narrative, thus disrupting the atmopshere of the situation.
We would have inserted this dialogue into the section of our sequence where the man situated inside the run down house is writing his letter, but having this dialogue we felt told too much of the story too soon and ruined the desired effect of mystery within what was written in the letter (this mystery was our main catch line to encourage viewers to view more of the film and discover what was written in that letter and about his link to the killing character as why we was killed).
We did start to write dialouge, but found it difficult because by doing so, we found that it ruined the ambiguiety of the characters and narrative, thus disrupting the atmopshere of the situation.
We would have inserted this dialogue into the section of our sequence where the man situated inside the run down house is writing his letter, but having this dialogue we felt told too much of the story too soon and ruined the desired effect of mystery within what was written in the letter (this mystery was our main catch line to encourage viewers to view more of the film and discover what was written in that letter and about his link to the killing character as why we was killed).
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Thriller Titles
We are going to embed the titles within the long establishing shot at the beginning of the sequence. The editing speed of this will be fairly quick to impose the feeling of intensity and threat, and to make the introduction fast moving.
The titles themselves will be on top of a black background in what we hope is a thriller style font, that will be in white and slightly fading into the black background. Between the establishing shots and the titles, the screen will be fading to black to show the titles, and fade back from the titles and black background into the establishing shot again. We plan to immitate this editing effect with the music building up and getting louder as the transition takes place to show the titles, and as the sequence returns to the establishing shot the music will quieten and receed.
We got this idea from the film 'Heat' and we will be basing our titles sequence on this.
The titles themselves will be on top of a black background in what we hope is a thriller style font, that will be in white and slightly fading into the black background. Between the establishing shots and the titles, the screen will be fading to black to show the titles, and fade back from the titles and black background into the establishing shot again. We plan to immitate this editing effect with the music building up and getting louder as the transition takes place to show the titles, and as the sequence returns to the establishing shot the music will quieten and receed.
We got this idea from the film 'Heat' and we will be basing our titles sequence on this.
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