My thriller with begining slide and higher quality

Our Thriller - Revenge

Here is our finished thriller.

Evaluation Question 1

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

My media product uses many conventions of the Thriller film genre.  The location for my film opening develops from an already grim area of city at night time to that of an underground dim-lit car park covered with graffiti with few cars, a desolate and sinister location.  Car parks like this are typically generic locations for films of the Thriller genre.  This is because of their vacancy and lack of isolation.  Also the reputations of incidents and crime in such places are high making the scenario have a degree of realism of which the viewer may be able to relate to.  The darkness and artificial light all helps to create the atmosphere creating shadows and obscuring what we see slightly, adding ambiguity.  A brilliant convention in Thrillers, this is used in ‘The Third Man’ extensively and although this is a black and white film, I have used similar lighting and contrast methods.  Throughout the film, a concept of expanse and loneliness develop and change into a claustrophobic location which helps to create an oppressive, extreme   and uncomfortable atmosphere.  This is  similar to the opening of the film ‘Psycho’ because the camera pans from an expansive and open shot and then delves into darkness.  The film ‘Leon’ does this similarly; my film however is different because it is mostly at night.

The characters in my product both have identifying cross references that may relate the viewer to the situation.  One character (Tom) is a teenager, he wears high top shoes that help the reader identify the sort of person he is, for example a ‘well off’ male of his age may wear smart leather shoes.  Instead Tom is wearing generic, post ‘emo’ style shoes that a wealthier person would not have.  The second character (George)

wears a leather jacket.  A typical thug image is given off by this as well as it makes him look older and more well off than Tom.  This sense of his power is what I aimed to achieve from the different appearances.  The mise-en-scene of the motorbike in my thriller is a direct inter-textual reference with Kill Bill which is a typical thriller also, this reference suggests an even more sinister situation for Tom in the conclusion of the opening two minutes.

The soundtrack in the film opening I made to fit the film.  The soundtrack introduces a sympathetic tone of sadness when Tom is first on screen.  The music gains cynicism when George enters, this makes it clear to the viewer who the ‘bad guy’ is.  This helps convey a mood throughout the opening and makes it authentic as a thriller.  As well as the soundtrack, I have also used the diagetic sound towards the end of the two minutes to remove the atmosphere that has built up and to create suspense that silence can portray.  This emphasises the cliff hanger at the end of the two minutes.

Throughout the opening the characters are presented to the viewers in different ways.  Although it is mostly the soundtrack that adds to the tension, some of the shots themselves add to this by presenting Tom with a number of High angle shots.  Close ups are also in the product to enhance the understanding of emotion for the audience.

In my film I included shots of a spiral staircase which is a classic Thriller convention that I chose to use in my film. I have used a modern staircase which fits in well with the modern setting and helps the target audience to relate even more easily with my film.

Eastern Promises

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulmNjp_Vbos

Here is a link to a clip from Eastern Promises.  This clip is an intense fight scene.  We will aim to have our fight scene in a similar yet less extreme style so that acting is not an issue.

Thriller Character Profiles

Tom Reeve

Tom is a lonely male in his late teens who has had an unfortunate childhood and a troubled up bringing. He has become involved with a gang of drug dealers who he went to for drugs.  Tom struggles with a balance between providing for him and his girlfriend and trying to cope with his addiction.

George Stronge

George is a hardened drug dealer who makes a living from taking advantage of vulnerable and/or nieve people. 

Some results of my research

By looking at similar Thriller films to mine on the Internet movie database I can find who may be attracted to my film most. For instance Eastern Promises:

	Votes	Average
Males	62,163	7.8
Females	7,496	7.8
Aged under 18	339	8.0
Males under 18	300	8.2
Females under 18	38	6.2
Aged 18-29	42,905	7.9
Males Aged 18-29	38,463	7.9
Females Aged 18-29	4,303	8.0
Aged 30-44	21,451	7.6
Males Aged 30-44	19,044	7.6
Females Aged 30-44	2,244	7.8
Aged 45+	4,851	7.6
Males Aged 45+	3,957	7.6
Females Aged 45+	853	7.2
IMDb staff	14	7.9
Top 1000 voters	618	7.3
US users	19,014	7.9
Non-US users	45,290	7.8
IMDb users	79,013	7.8

 Here there is a mainly male audience with a main popularity in the under 18' male catergory.  From this I hope mine would be similar.

Here are some of the results from a survey I carried out on people that are within my thrillers target demographic.

1. Age: 16
2. Gender: M
3. Occupation: -
4. How do you prefer to watch films? Cinema
5. What is your Favourite genre of film? The Prestige
6. Recent films that you have watched? Paul
7. Identify some thrillers you have viewed? The Prestige, Leon
8. What do you expect to see in a thriller? Suspense, Fights
9. Do you think that it is important that Britain has a film industry? Dont know
10. What attracts you to a film? Trailers at the cinema.  Actors (Simon Pegg)

1. Age: 17
2. Gender: F
3. Occupation: Student
4. How do you prefer to watch films? Cinema
5. What is your Favourite genre of film? Rom Com
6. Recent films that you have watched? Paul, Black Swan
7. Identify some thrillers you have viewed? Psycho
8. What do you expect to see in a thriller? Mystery, sinister, Justice,
9. Do you think that it is important that Britain has a film industry? Probably
10. What attracts you to a film? Directors (Danny Boyle)

The results i found suggested that for my target demographic, I would want to aim my film at a Cinema going audience and have distinct unpredictability within the storyline.  If my film were to have unpredictability, the negotiatable audience may be more interested and want to see the film more.  Also characters of similar ages would help the viewer to be able to relate to the characters in the film because the viewers will have a better, more accurate idea of the emotions, actions etc. 

Questionarre I made to use for my research

1. Age:
2. Gender:
3. Occupation:
4. How do you prefer to watch films?
5. What is your Favourite genre of film?
6. Recent films that you have watched?  
7. Identify 3 thrillers you have viewed?
8. What do you expect to see in a thriller?  
9. Do you think that it is important that Britain has a film industry?
10. What attracts you to a film?

Thriller research

The demographic for my thriller is most likely to be males between the ages of 16 and 24. The main character from my film is around 16 or 17. This allows an audience of this age to relate to the character well.

The social classes of the characters in my film are not clear.  The setting however, suggests a poor working class background. Because of this i believe that a more working class audience would be attracted to my film.
All of the actors used in my thriller are white British people. Because of this it is likely that my thriller will attract a mainly, western, white ethnicity.
Films that may relate to my own are:  Leon, because of the relations of drugs to the father who is murdered.
Eastern Promises, due to the fight scenes.

A typical image of someone from the target demographic would be a 16-24 year old British male who lives fast and for thrills, of a working class background.

My Thriller target audience

Gender – This film would be aimed relatively specifically at an all male audience aged between 16 and 24  This is simply because of the all male cast and general masculine interest in punch ups and motorbikes. 

The audience will be able to relate to the characters as they are of young ages.  Also, the idealistic adrenaline fuelled excitement of a classic ‘boys toy’ would increase interest mainly of a young, male audience.

Character dress

The main character (with the most screen time) in my film opening is dressed to look simple, plain and inexpensive. This is because we are showing his background and that he is not in complete poverty but at the same time he is definitely not well off.  The plain and boring colours represent his unhappy and pessimistic outlook on his own situation.  We chose his shoes to be big, stylish and purple.  This is to give our character some obvious identity (considering our film is mostly set in the dark). This makes the film less confusing for the viewer.

The second character (Thug) has a hoody under a leather jacket.  The hoody is typical of modern, young, thuggish type teenagers/young adults who are discreet about their identity.  The leather jacket over the hoody represents a gangster type thug.

Social class

My thriller would intrigue both a working and middle social class because of the unfortunate young character Tom.  He has a poor background that people could relate to and he is young, also intriguing a younger audience.

Character Profiles

There are 3 characters that will be in our thriller.

One is being played by Tom, he is the teenager who has been kicked out of school for drug abuse and general behaviour issues linked to it. He is the main character in the film, the one who gets beaten up because he owes money to the gang in relation to his drug addiction. He is a character who we are to feel sympathetic for in his situation.

The second character in the film is going to be played by Sam’s brother George. He is playing a sort of messenger for the gang, he meets Tom's character in the car park and beats him up and threatens him. We see little of his face to create mystery.

The third character in the film is my uncle. He will be playing a biker who comes across Tom laying down in the dark in the car park after the conflict between tom and the gang member. Instead of having the usual biker who is mean and a bad guy, our biker is going to break that convention and help me. We are doing this because we didn’t want everything to be the same as every other thriller that involves a biker, we wanted to create conventions and also test them to try and intregue the reader further.

Mise en scene

The mise en scene of our thriller follows the conventions. The lighting in the car park creates a very good atmosphere because you can only see one side of the car park, this is because lights only work on one side and the other side is completely black. There are only a few cars in the car park which gives the feeling that it’s a very derelict place. All of the graffiti on the walls suggests that no one really cares about the car park.


The clothing in the film is very generic to what type of person we are trying to portray. My character is very scruffy. He wears a coat which is too big for him and messy shoes. This portrays that he doesn’t really care about his appearance. This is also portrayed well through his smoking habit which is also a convention. The second person in the film is Sam’s brother George. He is wearing a hood and a leather jacket. The hood is usually linked with gangs and other bad types of people. It also creates a sense of mystery which is what we wanted in order to create curiosity and interest. The leather jacket is just another piece of clothing which helps to convey the message that this man means business and is possibly in a better financial position.

Shotlist

1) Birds eye view of traffic, it will be sped up.
2) Side view of the traffic, medium shot, still sped up.
3) Long shot to medium shot of character one walking towards the camera.
4) Extreme close up of the characters face whilst smoking.
5) Close up of character two walking down stairs, there is a fence in the foreground.
6)Long birds eye view of character walking.
7) Long shot of character two walking past a pond.
8) Close up of the pond & character twos reflection.
To be completed...