A thriller is by definition a film that contains elements of fear and surprise in order to keep the audience on edge with high tension. Camera angles are used to literally not show the audience certain things and keep them in the dark, a good example of how this is used in a feature production would be in se7en where the constantly changing point of view disorientates the viewer and helps set up the character portrayed in the opening as insane.
Another example of good editing techniques would be the music of most thrillers for instance in the happening the images in the introduction clash with the music as being a mix of calm and chaotic which disturbs the audience and puts them on edge. The best example of this is perhaps the film the happening when eerily calm and upscale music is used over images that just don’t fit with it. This both disorientates the audience by showing them two things that just don’t match and then bombarding them quickly with lots of images at once
It could be argued that the most important convention of a thriller is a plot that thrills and characters that backup that attitude. For instance in the film Nightmare on Elm Street a terrifying main villain Is combined with the idea of being attacked in you own dreams, this unnerves the audience because it is when we are asleep that we feel most safe but are most vulnerable and it’s because everyone knows this that makes it frightening.
If I had to single out what conventions were used in our thriller piece I would narrow it down to four.
1. Disjointedness-certain clips are not in actual canon with the story this creates a feel of uncertainty for the audience and makes them feel like they are completely unable to predict what is going to happen next.
2. Musical conventions-the music is very calm and collected in contrast to the images of action and the events of the storyline. Although the amount of build towards the end of the track we used is exciting there is no real finale. This is the norm in many thriller films as cutting from something before a conclusion makes the audience wonder what is going to happen next.
3. Camera angles the original idea of using mostly point of view shots was inspired by the film Clover Field where the story is told mostly through the perspective of the main character using a hand operated film camera this was good in that film as by having shots that would not usually be included in a film it seems somewhat more realistic.
Though this has been changed from the original plan I believe it was a good idea in principal and would have created a lot of tension. Most of the shots now are long shots taken at a distance which although they don’t do much for dramatic tension allow the audience to fully take in what’s going on.
4. close up shots these occasional close ups also helped keep the audience in the dark about certain things which helped us along with the wider shots to keep a sense of mystery while still keeping the audience somewhat in the dark.
Other conventions
Not much regard was given to too many other conventions such as props or costume although a prop gun is used as a conventional weapon it is never seen up close and was obviously fake. A lot of thought was initially put into costume but most of these ideas ended up not being followed through. Our original idea had the assassin in a sharp black suit but the large coat used in the final filming somewhat gives the character a grizzled rough around the edges look. This does volumes for his character as it gives you a feel for the type of person he is. Another thing that didn’t go as initially planned but ended up working in our favour was our choice of actors. I was initially cast as the assassin as I had the best grasp of acting the villain but the part was then given to John Hughes which gave the character the aesthetic of a lumbering menace rather than a refined assassin. This worked in our favour as it would put more sense of fear in any audience as it is easier to find something to fear in a tough looking thug than a sharply dressed man of average build who may not pose a threat at all.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product is not particularly representative of any social groups as it is impossible to accurately project the age of the actors and there is no mention of any ethnicity or groups as there is no speech or subtle nods to indicate this in any way. Although the main villain was planned to be Russian in the original plot this was later scrapped due to limitations involving voices. Neither character is on screen for particularly long but one can definitely make out definite social roles for them. Since the work has no female actors this would be a representation of men. What one might absorb from the lack of women and the obvious violence perpetuated on men by bigger men is that this film is trying to single men out as those who attack each other. The representation of one man killing two weaker men might be taken to represent brutish instincts in men. Although the hero spends more time off camera and in reality you only ever see his feet an ample measure of his character can be guessed from what you do see. He is quite informal as you can tell from his costume and he is also resilient a trait one can pick up from his fading in and out of consciousness after his kidnap.
Since there is not much use of dialogue or characterisation to show how the characters are represented most speculations on character need to be made on their look. The antagonist is big and bulky in a black coat and oftentimes appears blurred this gives him a tough look but also makes him an established man of mystery. The protagonists clothes are generally the same but the audience notices he is wearing jeans and sneakers which are generally more casual foot wear. This may suggest he either does not take what he does very seriously or that he is an innocent victim.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Obviously a big well established company like Warner bros isn’t going to take on an almost completely project like this but we may be able to attract interest from small independent film companies that are specific to our genre. These small companies would be more interested in independent projects as they are usually cheap to produce and can turn a modest amount of profit.
We would want it produced by an independent and approachable company such as coffee films as they have an eye out for new independent projects yet they already have several very interesting films in their itinerary. Examples of coffee films thriller productions
They specialise in thrillers but do some other projects such as documentaries and dark comedy but everything they do has a darker side to it. This makes them perfect for us as they already have experience in dealing with how to market a darker film. The documentaries are all about ghosts or heavy metal bands and all their other work is very deep and psychological.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Judging from earlier audience research and the targets met by our film opening a rough profile of our target audience is as follows.
An older teen to a young adult(16 to 21) no specific gender but most likely male although an audience may or may not show a sixty forty split between male and female, quite normal personality wise and an average member of society, someone who blends in. their tastes will be quite normal they will watch more action and comedy than anything else but will still watch horror and thriller every once in a while even if just for a laugh.
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| ^our target audience^ |
How did you attract/address your audience?
Though the audience is not particularly addressed in the opening due to the lack of speech or reference for any characters, I would say that the audience is most drawn in by the feeling of unknowingness that the film provokes due to the disjointed plot and also the other uses of conventions.
first some almost random nature shots are used to set up a calm background against the edgy music(a technique adapted from the happening) which both disorientates the audience and relaxes them so they will be less set up for a big shock later in the opening.
the sped up passage of traffic which would normally represent the passage of time is used here to demonstrate the disorientation of the main character and also helps to put off the audience. This also helps to show the disorganised narrative and temporal structure caused by the protagonists constant blacking out and struggle to put his memory back together. 
This scene draws the audience in by its use of non graphic violence this is good as it gives the audience the idea of violence which will come later in the story while still leaving them with something to look forward to. While not having any graphic violence seen but merely inferred the audience has their first taste of blood lust this helps draw in the audience as they can become excited by the merest suggestion of violence via the gun and the heavy handedness of the antagonist in this scene.
the final scene before more non active nature shots when the protagonist is fading in and out of consciousness still picking up on bits of his memory is good for the audience as it directly shows the antagonist while blurring his face and masking his identity. This draws the audience in by making them think deeply about the identity of this mysterious individual.
The key elements that are used to attract our target audience are the promise of more graphic violence and the slow reveal of details about the plot that help you enjoy the story.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Having not taken as big a part in the editing as the recording process I have not been able to learn that much about using the Macs except for perhaps the use of garage band to create original music tracks although these ended up being unused. I learnt a lot about using the cameras themselves by doing small amounts of recording during the preliminary task. The small amount of editing I did learn considered screen transitions, music and soundtracks, cutting clips together and adding sound effects which was something I dealt with very highly. My main duty in the editing process was finding and adding appropriate sound effects. In all I have learnt how to edit with the best software, how to put music together and how to make sure there were no continuity errors.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I suppose the most important thing I learnt in the original task was to always pay lots of attention to continuity. This lesson comes from an on set incident where I accidentally changed the colour of my trousers halfway through filming due to jeans for genes day. If I had to say what else I learned I guess it would be that you must always take care with your equipment and try not to go ridiculously overboard and do something impossible. It helped me learn to mine my limits and that really helped.
There wasn’t much I took from my prelim to add to the final production as the prelim had no real ideas to add but it did teach me how to not make amateur mistakes concerning continuity or editing. The prelim did teach me a few things that I found useful in the final task.
- If you want the camera to move in a direction do not use a camera dolly unless it is a very good model because they shake the camera when they are moved on certain surfaces and in this circumstance it is much better to hold it up yourself.
- Try to get as many shots as possible while keeping the filming of a sequence of shots quite short because if you have breaks in between filming shots for the same scene that is where continuity errors arise.
- Use music that fits with action have musical cues that occur when a certain important action takes place and make sure that when you use tracks that run all the way through a scene that they change seamlessly to reflect the mood.
The preliminary task also gradually taught me how to use much of the editing software on the Macs. Although I taught myself how to do this mostly during the final task I feel that I would have been unable to learn without the preliminary task to practice in.
