Throughout the production of our thriller, our media project used developed and challenged forms and conventions of media products. Firstly, our production challenges film conventions in the way that we used a female for our voice over, where stereotypically within thrillers it’s often you hear and see a male as the lead. Films that influenced our choice to use a voice over, were films such as “Sin City,” as the voice over used in that conveyed mystery, yet made the narrative more clear to the audience. However, we did use typical thriller signifiers in our production, such as spiralling staircases and the use of the gun shot at the end. Our mise-en-scene of our production (block of run down flats) is also typical of a thriller setting, as it creates a sense of mystery in itself. The use of camera angles does vary in our production, as for example at one point we used hand held camera, which you don’t often see to much in other thrillers. Therefore I and my group felt that this did challenge certain forms of real media products, as I haven’t viewed a thriller film yet which use this camera technique in the opening. The music in the background was deliberately chosen as it matches the fast paced conveyance of our thriller; furthermore this is very apparent in thrillers, as you often see the openings using up-beat music to engage the audience.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents particular social groups in certain ways. For example, we actually did perceive women in a stereotypical way, as we have our female lead being chased by the man, making her look vulnerable. Therefore this doesn’t challenge the stereotyping, and the only way we do that is that we have the female as the lead, despite not making her look strong. The voice over in our film also makes our female fatale seem quite weak, lost and over powered by men, and it is also sympathetic to the female protagonist. This is because we are encouraging the audience to identify with the character through the use of voice over. We also represent males in a stereotypical way, as we have our male protagonist chasing a young woman with a gun, which is obviously quite apparent in many thrillers, but we haven’t challenged the male stereotyping in terms of thrillers. The age of our characters are also young adults, which we haven’t represented them making them look harmless, instead we are almost portraying them how the outside world expect them to behave. (Gang culture of young teenagers.) Therefore our thriller is actually quite a true picture of what does happen in the outside world.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
For our thriller, the media institution which might distribute our media product would be an institution such as Working Title Films. This is because our thriller is main stream, in terms of its narrative as it is stereotypical chase scene involving thriller signifiers such as violence and drug use. However, at our age, once we have made the thriller film it would be more likely that we would have to distribute our film straight onto the internet and broadcast it, in hope that a institution such as Working Title Films would discover our film and hopefully fund it. The scheduled time on TV if our film ever made it onto television veiwing, would be that it would be braodcasted around 10.00pm as the certificate for our film would have a 15 certification, therefore wouldn’t be suited for viewings at around 9.00pm as it contains drug use and violence.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media product would be mostly males between the ages of fifteen and thirty years. This result has come from audience research, as more males than females were proven to be more attracted to thriller films, especially with the plot of violence and drug use. Males would also be largely attracted to our films as it has a female lead (also wearing a stereotypical skirt which males would be attracted to) and males would be intrigued to watch a thriller film with a female lead instead of a male one. However, the symbol of the stereotypical skirt of sexually objectifying the female, as the character is being judged just by what she is wearing by the male audience. Males are also more attracted to thrillers involving thriller signifiers such as chase scenes, simply because they almost aspire to behold that strong position of power of holding a gun. The other type of dramas which the audience would watch would be programmes such as “24” and “Prison Break” as they also contain similar narratives.
How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience in many ways. For instance, we used characters that our male audience can relate to, as there young and are carrying the object if a gun which is a male obsession, particularly for males between the ages of about 15-25 years, as its between those ages where men are attracted to video games which use violence such as shootings. Therefore they can relate with the male prospective. If our thriller would also attract a female audience, then they would relate with the female lead and narrative of being chased. We also attracted our audience however, with a 1st person voice over, which encourages the audience to identify with the female character, as you gain a sense of her as an actual person, and you also feel her vulnerability. The male audience would also be attracted to this as they would be intrigued to here the female’s perspective of what’s happening to her. The mise-en-scene would attract males, as the setting if the block of flats is quite a rough area, and is therefore attracting a particular type of a male audience as they like settings which are quite “rough around the edges,” and doesn’t have a calm sense or feel about them. Again, the age group of these males would be around 15-25 years as they would find this type of setting dangerous and also similar of a setting in films such as “Layer Cake,” which this demographic would be interested in watching.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the process of producing our media product, I’ve learnt a huge amount about camera angles, movement and shot types. For example through the process of filming me and my group tried a huge range of varied shot types such as close-ups, medium and long shots, hand held camera, panning shots, birds eye shot, low and high angles shots. Therefore we have learnt the technologies of the camera and how it works, and through this I have also learnt how to keep a steady shot, so it’s not jolty or moving around. Throughout the editing stage, we have learnt what relevant material to keep and what needs to be cut out. I have also learnt how to create both fast and slow paced shots, so you gain a pace to your film. My group and I also used and experimented with a variety of transitions, and how to make our narrative structure more clearly by using a voice over. Finally, we edited our sound mixing our voice over with our background music, to gain a more up-beat sound to our thriller opening, and the voice over to engage the audience.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Overall, looking back at our preliminary task, it allowed me and group learn more about the camera, and it enabled us to learn more about how to plan, shoot and edit our final film production. Me and my group found it very successful to be able to plan when to shoot as there were only two of us together. Therefore, when it came to planning and shooting our film, the process went swiftly, and without any complications such as not being able to all meet up on a certain date. We both also contributed equally to our film, and split the responsibilities evenly. After looking at our audience feedback, they all came back better than I expected. The comments were helpful for me and my group to find out on how to improve our thriller and a majority of the comments were all positive with just a few comments explaining the weaknesses, which enabled us to know how improve on our camera skills in future. For example, the lowest score we got out of 10 for any of the categories was a 6, and the highest was a 10. Overall, the category which seemed to reach the highest scores was our framing shots, what relevant material to use, and using image and sound effectively. Quotes from the audience feedback included sayings such as “Loved the music,” “Liked the long shot when there running,” “Liked the staircases,” “Good steady shots,” and “Liked the way the titles faded out.” The main thing which we seemed to score the lowest points on was the narrative and the fact it seemed to be un-clear, and one person commented that “Ending didn’t work with music,” and “didn’t like transitioning of title.” This showed us the strengths and weaknesses of our film, but overall I was happy with them. However, due to the audience feedback me and my group altered the ending of our thriller so it had a clearer narritive that was more readable for the audience. One person from the audience commented that one of our shots could have been mpre steadier, therefore next time we will make sure to hold a more steady shot. The most important thing I have learnt about film making is all the planning that has to happen before, otherwise the whole film production doesn’t work.
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