Target Audience - Thriller Film

The age of our target audience is around 16-25 years. This is due to 80% of the questionnaire samples being given out were students. For our film, this can be related to by the audience as our main characters are teenagers which provides a pathway for connection from the audience.
The gender of the target isn't as specific as age ranges or demographic classification however, it doesn't mean that it isn't important. For our film, our gender of the audience would be mainly females as there is two girls getting ready for a party although males may be attracted nonetheless. When the scary parts come in I feel that this is when the males will be most attractive. Our group researched into films which we thought were excellent thrillers and it showed that males enjoyed these types of films compared to females. For example, Jaws has a male user rate of 6.0 however, the female rate is only 4.3. It also showed that 18 to 29 year olds who are both male and female enjoyed the film more than under 18's. This is due to the 18 to 29 age group voted 6.4 and under 18's voting 6.0. Also, for Se7en males also rated the movie higher than females.
The majority of our target audience will be made up of students due to the age range. Also because of how around 80% of my thriller consumption research proved to be thriller fans. The interests of our target audience are demonstrated mostly by other thriller films which they like such as, Jaws, Die Hard, Se7en and Silence of the Lambs. So this means means film reviews of our films which we have associated with our film are important, as shown above with the gender and age results I obtained.

Scripting

Girl 1 – Katie

Girl 2 – Honor

Scary person – Amelia

Honor: you looking forward to tonight?

Kt: yeah, not sure what I’m wearing though! Shall I just wear what I’ve got on?

Honor: yeah babe! Me too then

(Lights go off)

Honor: oh err!

Kt: Not to worry babe happens a lot, they should be back on in a sec

(Lights back on)

(Honor’s blusher has gone, doesn’t think a lot of it)

Honor: (laughs) yeah

(Camera goes to towards Katie in the bathroom – she picks up the toothbrush)

Kt: put some music on honor

(Music comes on)

(Katie drops toothbrush, picks it up, then a scary person appears in the mirror. Lights and music off)

Kt: Oh, that don’t usually happen, don’t know why the music’s gone off!

Honor: OH MY GOD, I don’t like it.

Kt: its alright, we have probably just ran out of electric.

(Flash on and off again)

(Honor freaks out and runs downstairs to get a torch. Katie follows, both go towards the games room)

Kt: Got to go out to the pool, the switch is there, want to come with me?

Honor: oh I don’t really want to. It’s dark plus it’s freezing

Kt: well... One of use needs to, I don’t really want to but...

This is what we have of the script so far. As the script isn't done and the whole group aren't rarely available all at the same time then we haven't had chance to film the end of our media task. The final filming will take place on Thursday 27th January.

Media Conventions and Audience Theory

Audience Theory
It is virtually impossible to go through a day without encountering media in some form. Some types of media are; radio, iPod, billboardsm television, films etc. We are an audience for all of the different types of media products. There have been fears that media texts could make their audiences react in different ways, e.g. becoming more violent.  The audience can be easily manipulated to buy a product due to advertisement.

Media Conventions
Things that we would class as media are 'recent inventions'. The things we call media now would have been fantasies over a hundred and fifty years ago. The times which are spent with media are either on our own or im small groups. Millions of people across Britain or the world experience the same media event(s). The media has an unprecedented power to affect us in negative ways.

The Hypodermic Syringe - According to the theory the media ia like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a poweless mass have little choice but to be influenced - in other words, you watch something violent, you may go and do something violent, you see a woman washing up on TV. and you will want to do the same yourself if you are a woman. However, if you are a man you will expect the women to do the washing up for you.

The Cultivation Theory - Because of difficulty of proving the effects of individual media texts on their audience, a more refined version of the theory has been created called the cultivation model. According to this, while any one media text does not have too much effect, years and years of watching more violence will make you less sensitive to violence, years and years of watching women being mistreated in soaps will make you less bothered about it in real life.

The Two Step Flow - The idea of this is that whatever our experience of the media we will be likely to discuss it with others and respect their opinion, the chances are that we will be more likely to be affected by it.

Camera Shots/Angles

Camera Angles
The three camera angle which my group will be focusing on in the main task is the 180 Degree Rule, Match on Action and also Shot/Reverse Shot. We have chosen these angles because they match the requirements and as we had practise at them in the preliminary task, we thought it would be relatively easy.

The first of shot which will be used is the 180 degree rule. This will take place in the bathroom where I am as I am speaking to the the other actor Honor who is in a different room. This will distuinish between me and the mirror in front of me. Ellie, the person who was holding the camera at the time had to pretend that their was an imaginary line between me and the mirror. She also had to maintain continuity as this line must not be crossed.

The next shot is shot/reverse shot. This is a film technique used to show one character looking at something off screen. Usually another character in a convrsation. Then the camera switches to another person that the original character was looking at. Since me and Honor (the actors for this scene) are shown facing in different directions , the viewer unconsciencly assumes that they are looking at each other. The scene has not moved the for shot/reverse shot and both actors are in the games room. This is a cold, dark place. This type of shot will really show how tense me and Honor are as the camera points straight at out faces of worry.

The last of the shots used is match on action. Match on action is cutting from one shot to another view that matches the action and the place of the first shot. This creates an impression of continuity although the shots may have been filmed weeks apart. If I was to begin an action in the first shot and complete an action in the next shot, a visual 'bridge' is created which acts to disguise the cut from one to another. A typical example of this is a car entering from one side of the shot and leaving and then appearing from the left again. In my group's main task, this is when I walk out of the door and Ellie film me from behind, and then the camera is cut whilst Ellie runs in front of me and then filming is resumed.

 

Shot Types

The Rule of 3rd's - This a compositional rule of thumb in photography. The rule states that the image can be divided into 9 parts by two equally spaced lines horizontally and vertical. The four points formed by the intersections of the lines can be used to align features in the frame. Users of the technique claim that aligning a photograph with the points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would.

Panning shot - Panning is the horizontal movment or the rotation of a camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or display device. Panning a camera is a motion similar of that to someone shaking their head 'no'.

Tracking shot - A tracking shot is also known as a dolly shot or a trucking shot. It is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a wheeled platform which is pushed on rails whilst filming or photographing. Tracking in on a stationary subject is used for emphasis, as is tracking out, and also tracking beside a moving subject. Tracking shots can include smooth movements forward, backward, along the side of the subject, or on a curve. Trackers with hydrualic arms can also smoothly 'boom' or 'jib' the camera several feet on a vertical axis. However, tracking shots cannot include complex pivoting movements, arial shots or crane shots.

Dolly-zoom shot - The dolly zoom is an unsettling in-camera special affect that appears to undermime normal visual perception in film. The effect is achieved by using a zoom lens to adjust the angle of veiw (aka field of view) while the camera moves towards or away from the subject in such a way as to keep the subject the same size in the frame throughout. In its classic form, the camera is pulled away from a subject whilst the lens zooms in, or vice versa. Thus, during the zoom, the subject stays the same, however the directly noticeable feature being in the background appears to change size relative to the subject. The effect was first developed by Irmin Roberts, a Paramount second-unit cameraman, and was famously used by Alfred Hitchcock in his film Vertigo.

Pedestal Shot - A pedastal shot means moving the camera vertically with respect to the subject. This is often referred to as “pedding” the camera up or down. The term comes from the camera support known as a pedastal. They provide a great deal of flexibility as well as very smooth movement, and have the ability to move the camera in any direction; left, right, up, down. 

Tilt shot - This means that the camera is in the same position but tilts the angle of veiw up and down. It means that the camera is looking up or down at the subject in the frame, instead of being at the same level, as these are usually more dramatic than straight-angle shots. A downward tilt is usually used to observe a large area or oversee action, creating a kaleidoscope effect, making the subject seem less important. However an upward shot, creates an impression of superiority.

Crabbing Shot - A crabbing shot is basically tracking or dollying, however it is a side-to-side movement at a consant distance from the action or subject. It basically mimicks how a crab would walk along the beach.



Locations

The locations of the filming will be in one of the group members house called Amelia. Firstly, we start upstairs where I will be in the bathroom and Honor will be in Amelia's bedroom. This is due to speaking to each other through different rooms as we are both getting ready for a night out.

Second location is the top and the bottom of the stairs. This is when Honor runs down because she is scared The pictures are of the top and the bottom of the stairs in Amelia's house.

The next location is in the games room downstairs after the creepy powercut has happened. As we are both spooked out this would be the perfect spot for filming as it is right next to the garden and also fairly dark in that particular room. This room is normally fairly cold and this would help the me and Honor as actors to make a better production as we may be rigid and stiff which adds to the scaryness of what is going on around us.

The filming then moves down the garden, when at this point will be pitch black and not a light in sight. At the bottom of the garden is a swimming pool with a roof over the top. This is where all of the scary things happen and therefore this is why we needed a creepy abandoned scene to make our film as thriller as we can get it. Having the swimming pool at the bottom of the garden means that we can add to the physocological effects of the watcher, by making them think that there is something/someone in or near the water.

Questionairre

We decided to do our questionairre based on the thriller idea which is going to be the genre of our main task film. This is our questionairre which we handed out to twenty people in order to get ideas for our thriller film:

The look of the questionairre is easy to understand and also simple to answer.

When the questionairres were handed back to the group, we decided to put the answers into graph form.

Question 1

As you can see from the answers, most of the respondents chose Horror as their favourite genre of film. The results then show that thriller was the second most popular then romance, drama and sci-fi. As thriller was the second most popular this shows that many people will be into the type of film which will be making for our main task. Also, as many people like horror our group could decided to put a scene of horror in there, just for the watchers enjoyment. As no one chose the genre sci-fi then I feel that our group made the best decision by sticking with a thriller film. I feel that most people like thrillers because of the physcological effects. This could be by the hypodermic needle model as the messages of thrillers are directly recieved and wholly accepted by the reader therefore, they want to watch more of the film even though it scares them.

Question 2
This question was a sentence answer therefore it was impossible to put them into graph form. Also, everyone has their different reasons of the favouritism of genders therefore this is why we have decided to miss this question out.

Question 3

As you can see from the answers, most of the respondents chose physcological, the unknown and jumpy as their three things of what makes a thriller film. As these were the most popular these effects could be put into the film which our group are making to make it more appealing to the reader. Therefore, by using these three effects this could also be part of the hypodermic needle model as the message will be recieved and accepted. Also, as a few other of the effects were fairly popular then also these could be put into the film, but not play a huge part. For example, there could be a slight mystery, or a sign of the supernatural.

Question 4

The fourth question was 'What thriller film have you watched and enjoyed?' Most of the respondents chose the film Jaws. Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs came joint second and then Die Hard had the leat votes with with 4 people selecting this option. Wherever they are in the world, the audience for a media text are all recieving exactly the same thing however, some people respond differently to what they see than others, this is the audience at a mass. Most people maybe enjoyed Jaws because of the physcological effects of the thriller aspects on the watcher. The intensity of the shark waiting to be fed from the humans bones. If this is the case, the group could look into a way of putting something like this in the film. However, if their are too many of the above effects like in question 3, then our film can go over the top.

Question 5

For question 5 the group wanted to find out what the people who would be taking our survery thought made a thriller film. We decided to ask this question because this would give us an overall idea of what to do for our film, and how to add affects in which the audience would want to see and watch. Most people chose mystery, jumpy or confusion. Without a mystery a thriller film wouldn't be jumpy as there would be no tension. Also, mystery kicks in confusion therefore all of these aspects link in together.

Overall, I feel that the effects that will be in our groups thriller film is mystery, jumpy and confusion, also with a bit of physcological effects. We have decided to do this because these are most popular to the audience and they are the one's who may be watching our short film.

Work So Far

So far we have decided the idea (genre) for our main task and have started to think of possible ideas that we could use for our film. We have designed our Audience Research Questionnaire and are in process of retrieving the answers. This will help use decide what the best ways to construct our film will be. It also shows what an audience are looking for in a thriller film and what will make our production more effective and interesting.
I have also deconstructed three openings of different genre of films. This will help me when it comes to filming our film as I am aware of the different techniques that can be used whilst filming and the ones that will be more effective for me and my group to use. It starts to give us all ideas about how we want to film ours.

Deconstruction (Casino Royale)

This is the first image of the opening sequence. The man in the still clip is James Band who is pointing a gun at the screen. We can then see blood running down the screen, as if to say the camera was a person. Immediately the audience feels the amount of action which is going to be in the film. A gunshot is also is heard at this point in time therefore this also gives a clue that the action is going to be a significant amount.



The name of James Bong in real life is Daniel Craig, and this is the name which we see in the second still picture. This writing is surrounded by the symbols which are seen on cards. For example, clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds. These symbols show the signs of gambling and also the 'casino' side of the film. This makes the audience know that the title reflects around what is going to be in the film as it has already come up in the opening sequence. 

This is the third picture and the title of the film is centered within it. On each corner is a pattern, which has many different colours and shapes intwined with it. The outer colour of the shape is red and has sharp points. This could show the action side of the film due to the red blood and the sharp shapes meaning they could cut and hurt.

The fourth image also has writing for the credits on it. The font and style of the credits are all consistent throughout the opening scene, meaning that Bond could be following in these footsteps. We also see Bond holding a gun, this again gives the reader a clue to the amount of action which will be taking place within the film. The winding lines could symbolise different paths which need to be followed.

The fifth picture shows lots of guns in yellow and orange. This makes them seem like they are happy things. Coming from the guns is the symbols of spades on a playing card. This shows us that there could be lots of action that will be taking place at the casino.

This image shows some of the action which takes place in the Bond scene. It shows somebody trying to attack bond with a knofe whilst he holds the enemy in a headlock and makes sure he is unable to escape. When Bond gets the knife the enemy falls and breaks into peices, this shows that Bond is harmful and will do everything in his power to get what he wants.

This shows a mans hand holding a gun. Coming out from the guns is lots of lines spirals in different directions. This could mean that this person might not be after just one person, but a few. The lines are in different shapes so this could show that sometimes in the film action is calm however sometimes action is very very violent.

This image continues the gambling theme with a playing card. However, it also shows a gun target and two gun shots in the card. This also gives a clue of what will happen in the film.

  

This is the last image of the sequence. It has a futuristic feel to it and Bond is standing in the middle with the card symbols floating around him. The style and colours of the font have remained consistent as have the theme throughout the opening. I feel that this is what makes it so effective.

Casino Royale (opening scene)

I have decided to deconstruct the film Casino Royale as this is an action film and I haven't yet deconstructed one of this type. Casino Royale is about a man called James Bond trying to stop Le Chiffre (a banker to the world's terrorist organisations) from winning a high stakes polker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.