Individual Evaluation

Thriller Opening Sequence Evaluation

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

Our media product incorporates specific crime thriller generic conventions from real media products, such as films, for example Taken. Our final media product is similar in ways to this film as we built up suspense in the same way, by using similar camera work and editing to engage our audience in the same way. Some of the camera and editing techniques that were used by the producers of Taken were the use of short shot duration, the close ups and the handheld effects of the camera in order to show urgency and worry. An example of when some of these camera techniques are used is in the abduction scene of Taken. They used handheld effects when the girl was looking at her friend being taken by the intruding men. This is also a point of view shot which puts the audience in her position, therefore creating more anxiety and fright for the audience. We also noticed in opening sequences to other thriller films such as Se7en that they included fade in and fade outs to different shots which made it run a lot smoother and so we added these into our own opening sequence. We incorporated these techniques into our opening sequence to suggest to our audience what sub genre our opening sequence was.  Our thriller conforms to the genre of crime, as we came up with a similar narrative to Taken. The narrative for our opening sequence is based on the abduction of teenage girls. It is focused on one girl in particular, who wakes up in a forest to see a man digging a hole and her best friend lying on the floor, looking either unconscious or drugged. Our opening sequence ends with the man grabbing the main characters face, leaving the audience wondering what is going to happen to her in the rest of the film. We decided on this sub-genre of crime as we found out from our primary and secondary research that crime thriller films are popular within the film industry at the moment. From our planning and research stage we came to a conclusion that in most crime thriller films there is a lead antagonist, and one, if not more, protagonists. An example of a film where we found this out from was The Dark Knight. From this research we applied this to our own opening sequence, by including 3 characters, the main antagonist being the male, and two protagonists being the two teenage girls. Our use of conventions indicates to the audience that we have been influenced by other crime thrillers as we have used the same skills and techniques, for example the fade in fade out transition from one character to the next, which is what we saw in most of the crime thriller films, especially The Hostage. We did this in order to make it the best we could, and make sure that we correctly portray this sub genre to our audience. We also researched a lot into the music involved in crime thriller opening sequences. We found that the music in thriller films can vary a lot, depending on the narrative and sub genre of the film. From listening to the music from the thriller, Se7en, we found out that the music in the opening sequence started off slowly, and gradually got faster to build the suspense and is parallel to what is happening in the film. In our own production of the music for our opening sequence, we used windy, slow sounds as this is parallel to what is happening in the film when the main character is waking up in the forest. To add more suspense we added a high pitched, unnerving sound when the camera moves onto her wrists which are tied up with rope. We heard in other thriller films such as Memento that the music starts quiet and gets louder towards the end of the opening sequence and so we added this into our own opening sequence. I think that our media product uses and conforms to conventions of real media products as we were influenced by many popular crime thriller films.

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

Our media product represents young people as our film is based on 3 teenage and young adult characters. Teenagers and younger adults are represented in our opening sequence as the flashback of two girls getting in a young mans car is a stereotypical thing for teenage girls to do. The girls are very stereotypical, as they are young and want to go out and get drunk etc, whereas the man in the film challenges the stereotype in some ways. The man in our opening sequence is portrayed as an abductor and a murder, which is very different to the stereotype of a normal teenage boy. Gender is represented in a stereotypical way in our opening sequence as the man in the film is shown as powerful and dominant and the two girls are seen as weak, vulnerable and defenceless. The male in the film is shown as powerful by the use of the camera work. We made sure that he was always positioned above the girls in the opening sequence, showing his status compared to them. An example of this is when he grabs her face at the end, which shows she is weak and defenceless as she cannot do anything to help herself. It is also portrayed by the use of props. We made it obvious by using an extreme close up of her wrists tied together with rope that she was being held hostage, which again shows she has no control over the situation. The way that our opening sequence represents the youth community links into our target audience of teenagers to young adults. From conducting primary and secondary research we found out that our target audience enjoy to go out with friends to parties, and like to socialise which links in very well with the narrative of our opening sequence. By our audience being able to somewhat relate to the story, whether it being through age or gender etc, it would make them want to watch the film a lot more and so engage them and leave them wondering what could happen throughout the rest of the film.

3)      What kind of media distribution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that our media product could be distributed by a major film company such as 20^th Century Fox or Warner Bros Pictures as these production companies have produced very successful crime thriller films which are similar to our own media product. I think that it would be a popular film if it was distributed to cinemas as the idea of abduction and murder is very appealing to all types of people, but mainly the younger generation (teenagers and young adults). We found out from completing a target audience profile that teenagers and young adults also spend a lot of their time visiting the cinema and socialising with friends, and so I think it would receive a lot of viewings if it was to be released in a cinema. I also found out that crime thrillers are very popular among the youth generation by looking at the Pearl and Dean Website and looking at the views on crime thriller films. I believe that our film would be popular if it were to be released, and could open up opportunities for merchandise and franchises, as it could be released in different cinemas, such as Vue, Odeon, Empire etc. From our film being released in major cinemas worldwide it would then open up opportunities for merchandising, such as clothing, mugs and dolls.

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

The audience for our media product is young people, ranging from teenagers to adults. Our thriller film is suitable for both genders, as both are involved in the film so that the audience is able to relate in some ways. I think that both genders would enjoy the narrative of the thriller film as it would interest them, and the way the characters in the film are around the same age as the target audience it would engage them more into the film. We found this out from conducting primary and secondary research into what film genres are most popular within the age range for our target audience. In order to gain research into our target audience we conducted a questionnaire which we handed out to people, which included questions such as their age, what their hobbies and interests are, and their favourite film genre. We found out from our questionnaires that our audience would be 16+, and their main interests would be socialising, partying, fashion and music. The genre which came out on top was thriller, with a few people specifying crime thrillers as their favourite. We also used the Pearl and Dean website in order to research a few popular thriller films, for example Shutter Island, to find out what percentage of men and women had viewed the films. We found out from this that the percentage between men and women was quite close, and so we came to a conclusion that thriller films are appealing to both genders. It was very important for us to conduct this research so that we could create a thriller film which would appeal to and interest our target audience. There are already very popular crime thriller films that have been released that are similar to ours, and so we knew that this genre would be very successful if our film was to be released in cinemas. A big inspiration and a film very similar to ours is Taken, which is also about an abduction, but it has a different story behind it.

5)      How did you attract/address your audience?

Our primary and secondary research helped us attract our audience as it gave us ideas on what sort of things our target audience like and are interested in. We involved both genders in our thriller film by creating male and female characters and giving both of these a big role in the film. The age of the characters in the film would also attract our target audience as they would be able to relate with them, and we also found out from our research that 15-24 year olds would be the most interested in the narrative and creation of our film. There are many parts of our media product which would attract and maybe even frighten our target audience, as the film is about two teenage girls being abducted, and so the audience may be able to put themselves in the characters shoes which would make the film more interesting and thrilling for them. We wanted the camera work in our thriller opening sequence to be interesting in order to attract the audience. We did this by including some of the techniques that were used in other popular thriller films, such as close ups and extreme close ups which help show the expression and urgency of the character, and also canted shots. We used a canted shot when the girl had fallen to the ground, in which it followed her head back up to look at the man. We did this so that it would put the audience in the characters shoes as it was from her point of view, which we found was included in other crime thriller films such as the scene in Taken where the main character see’s her best friend get abducted by 3 men. We also used the out of focus tool when we filmed from the characters point of view to suggest to the audience that there is something wrong with her, making them ask questions about what may have happened to her. We received feedback on a rough-cut of our opening sequence which told us that the audience were questioning and worried about the girl, and that they felt on the edge of their seats as the suspense built up, which is what we aimed to achieve. 

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

I have learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing our final media product, especially the use of the camera and Final Cut. As a group we had strengths and weaknesses in our filming stage, but we managed to overcome these in order to complete our opening sequence on time. We were all very confident when using the camera and the tripod as we all had good knowledge on the controls and knew exactly how we wanted our opening sequence to look. By using the camera when filming for our preliminary task and using it for test shots we knew how to use the camera and how to get straight into filming our opening sequence so that we didn’t waste any time. One weakness of using the camera equipment and our filming process was when our footage did not record properly on the tape. This was a big set back as we had completed all of our filming, but then could not transfer it onto the Macs in order to start the editing process. Although this set us back, we did not waste any more time and so went back out to our location to re-film our footage. As we filmed parts of our footage on different days it was quite hard to make sure the lighting was the same in all of the scenes. I think that we managed this very well as our opening sequence runs smoothly and look as if it was all filmed in one take. After we had completed the filming we went straight on to the editing stage using Final Cut. We found this easy to use as we had had practise when editing our preliminary task and so were all confident on how to use the programme. We learnt how to cut certain pieces of footage in order to make sure our opening sequence runs smoothly, and also how to add certain effects in such as a blur. Although we used the out of focus tool we thought it was not enough and so we added an extra blurred effect to make it more obvious to the audience what we were trying to portray. We added in white screens just before the flashback with transition effects to show the audience we are now in a flashback. We also added in a bright, blurry effect to show the audience that it is in fact a flashback and that it has happened in the past. We think this was a good idea as it added in a great effect of confusion and mystery to the audience. We used Garageband to make a soundtrack for our opening sequence. Before completing our real soundtrack we made a practise soundtrack in order to test out the software and the different sounds available to decide on which kind of sounds we wanted to use. We found a few suitable sounds for our opening sequence soundtrack, such as windy noises which built up suspense, but most of the sounds on Garageband were more artificial effects which we did not want to use in our opening sequence as we thought it would take away the realism of the opening sequence.

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

From completing our preliminary task I have learnt a lot about all different aspects of creating an opening sequence, going from the research into the genre and the actual filming of the sequence. I have learnt that we had to include a lot of research and planning in order to create an opening sequence that is going to attract and appeal to our target audience. We researched into the codes and conventions of thriller films and their sub genres so that we could include these in our own film to make it the best that we could. We also found out from our research what kind of camera and editing techniques are popular within the crime thriller genre, for example point of view shots and short shot duration, and so we were able to include these in our own product. I have learnt from completing a preliminary task that storyboards are very important in the production of a media product as it told us the details of what kind of shot type we needed, and what we needed to include in the frame. When creating the soundtrack for our opening sequence we created an animatic to give us an idea of what is going to be happening in the film when the music is playing in order for it to run smoothly and be in time. By completing a preliminary task before we started filming our actual media product it gave us confidence in some of the shot types we were going to use as we had had practise in filming and editing them. An example of this would be the canted shot of when the girl falls to the ground. As we had tried this out before filming we knew what camera techniques we had to use, and also how to edit it to make it look good and realistic. Looking back at our test shots I think that they have improved greatly as they look a lot steadier and therefore more professional. I feel very confident in using the equipment as I feel that I have had a good amount of experience after filming and editing a preliminary task and also our final media product. I feel that our end product is very successful in fulfilling the task we were set because we have included everything we were asked, such as the footage, the editing process and the creation of the soundtrack. We have included a variation of different shot types in order to make our production as interesting and professional as possible. I feel that we have edited our production well as we have made smooth transitions from different scenes, added in transition effects, such as fade in and fade outs, to add to the quality of the end product, and that we have added in our credits well. We created our soundtrack so that it would be parallel to what is happening on the screen, and I think that we added this into our footage well and that we made it fit as well as we could to make it work together. In conclusion I think our end product is to the best quality it could be due to all the research and planning into thriller films, and also the experience using the cameras in the preliminary task and our test shots.