overdue audience research

 1. What is your favourite movie genre?

·         Thriller-1

·         B. Horror-4

·         C. Drama-0

·         D. Comedy-2

·         E. Action-9

From this I can learn that a generalised audience is not aware of the thriller genre as a whole and that they might confuse horror with thriller as it is more popular and most thrillers some across as horrors because they share some conventions.

2. What do you see in the opening of a movie that you enjoy? Two lines max

• Interesting opening credits
• Nice establishing shots
• Something that introduces the story
• Nothing should be too simple
• Cool opening effects
• Story should be not too simple
• Opening music should be good
• Music should be suspenseful
• It shouldn’t be too inactive
• Something should happen
• There should be lots of confusion
• It should be really smooth
• The plot should be clever
• The music should have something to do with the rest of the film
• There should be something impressive right from the start
• It should grab your attention

From this I can take any number of ideas that can be easily applied to the editing of our thriller project. You learn that there should be suspense in everything-the music, the effects and the setting. You can also take bigger things such as story and plot ideas from this such as “it should be complicated” or otherwise.

3.  If you had to choose a Thriller sub-genre what would it be?

• Crime-Thriller-13
• Psychological Thriller-3

From this it is easy to learn that the general audience is not into psychological thrillers perhaps due to the sometimes overcomplicated plots and strange themes or perhaps due to the fact the psychological sub genre is not as well promoted and created as the crime thriller.

4. If you had to choose, what would be your favourite Thriller movie?

·         Saw films-7-terror

·         Donnie Darko-terror/complicated plot

·         Inception-complicated themes

·         Kill bill-high action

·         Van Helsing-high action/good effects

·         The matrix-high action

·         BBC’s production of the 39 steps-well acted/suspenseful

·         The great escape-high action

·         The godfather-characters/plot/story/themes

·         Memento-clever well thought out plots

From each of these you can take different ideas about thriller films that people enjoy

5. What do you like about that movie? I.e. the tension it creates. Two lines max

• the plot
• the music
• the action
• the horror
• the use of plot
• the storyline
• the story
• the story
• the way it all fit together
• how clever it was
• the action
• the action
• how clever the story and plot was
• how scary the villain was
• how terrifying the villain was
• how strange it was

This more specifically tells you what was liked about the film. It helps to back up the previous answers.

6. What setting do you think is best for a high tension thriller? One line max

• in a dark warehouse
• in a small village
• inside a characters head
• it should turn out to all be a dream
• in a creepy alley
• spread out across the country
• in a big city
• it should move from place to place
• a abandoned theme park
• graveyard
• wide open space like a field
• abandoned school
• forest
• abandoned factory
• old museum
• spooky wood

There may be little we can learn from this question due to the answers being very scattered from each other. However answer number eight could be very useful.

8. What in the opening to a Thriller would keep you asking questions? Two lines max

• I’m not sure-6
• Not much of the plot should be given away-4
• You should be confused by it-4
• A complex plot-2

This tells you a lot specifically of course it’s important to try to use all of these techniques but it’s important to know how the audience is going to react to these techniques. Also the fact that six people were unsure shows again that the general audience has little knowledge of genre or film techniques.

9. Give your age?

• 11-3
• 12-1
• 13-1
• 14-1
• 15-5
• 16-3
• 17-2

Of course appealing to a large range of ages is a good idea its easier of course to focus on a specific age and also to aim for an older age range as it will broaden the target market and make it easier to fill any specific gaps in the market.

10. Your status (lower class/middle class/upper class)?

• Lower-5
• Middle-11
• Upper-0

This is just an aid to help slim down our target market but it might tell us that we don’t need to be overly intelligent with the script and also that we need to keep it action packed and suspenseful as this is keyed more at the middle class than other markets. Also appealing to a middle class audience will also attract small numbers of other class markets.

11. Do you like intelligent well thought out films?

·         Yes-12

·         No-4

This tells us we need to be careful because if the plot and use of effects and editing gets too confusing it may directly affect the audience’s opinion of how well thought out the opening is.

13. Do you like foreign films?

·         Yes-4

·         No-12

This perhaps shows that the general audience are unaware of foreign films and it shows that we are to aim for a market which is not too culturally diverse; this puts less worry on us about how certain groups are represented.

14. What is your favourite type of music?

·         Rock-4

·         Pop-4

·         Rap-6

·         Classic-2

·         Country-0

This shows us that when composing tracks for use in the thriller we need to think about using instruments or sounds associated with rock and pop as they are the most liked genres. We wouldn’t use rap because it would be hard to use it to good effect in a thriller.

15. What was the last film you watched?

·         Don’t remember-6

·         Harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2-3

·         The smurf movie

·         Cars 2

·         The hangover part 2

·         The green hornet

·         The inbetweeners movie

·         Keeping mum

·         Kill bill

These films to have been seen the first time are obviously good but repeated viewing indicates a favour for those films in particular. One can take from these films idea about plot.

16. What was the last thriller film you watched?

·         Don’t remember-11

·         The matrix

·         The godfather

·         Saw 4

·         V for vendetta

·         Donnie Darko

This again perhaps shows ignorance of thrillers by the general public but it also shows that while some of these appeared as favourites the ones that didn’t must also be popular and we can take lessons from them about what it is that makes them great

17. What did you like about it? Two lines max

·         The characters

·         The storyline

·         The scares

·         The storyline

·         The storyline

18. What did you not like about it? Two lines max

·         How complicated it was

·         The characters weren’t likeable

·         The complicated story

·         nothing

·         nothing

These are obviously things to steer clear of.

Evaluation of audience research

Our audience research was very important in editing as it helped us to narrow down a target market and decide what was best to do with the shots we had. We narrowed down our target market substantially to just a few details. Our audience is young between 15 and 18 perhaps even 19, they are intelligent and reflect that in their choice of films, they are most likely middle class and either quite well educated or just smart. They have good varied personal taste in music and can adapt to like most things. They are not particularly far from our culture that is to say that they are British and most likely do not take an interest in how foreigners are represented.

This means we should make a smart film, with young actors and not worrying too much about our representation of certain groups.

this is the media preliminary i worked on with James Dench, Jake Fox and John Hughes

evaluation of a preliminary task

Evaluation of prelim task

My original preliminary was a video I did with Jake Fox, James Dench and John Hughes. Here is a link to the channel the video is hosted on youtube-www.youtube.com/user/plato503

While the preliminary task went quite well there were some minor continuity errors and schedule clashes. The most notable continuity error is halfway through when my character the runner is running up the stairs and halfway there my trousers change, the reason for this is that on the second day of shooting it was “jeans for genes day” where students give a pound to charity in return for being able to wear jeans for the day. Another minor continuity error is that Jake Fox loses his sunglasses in the second scene he’s in due to him sitting on the earlier in the day. On the first day of shooting we had some minor problems due to James having to leave early for a science lesson.

The great strength of the preliminary task is that it was very straightforward and in the end did what it was supposed to. It got finished on time with a minor amount of complications. I learned from this task that it takes a lot of shots before you have what you really want but that it’s worth it when you put the work in. if  I could do it all again I would make very few changes but I would re-shoot several scenes for continuity also I would want to re-shoot any scenes that use the dolly for the camera because they didn’t turn out as well as they could.

summary of the thriller genre

Summary of the thriller genre

Often confused with the horror genre the thriller genre contains many of the same elements as the horror genre meaning to scare. But where horror focuses on the unreal and the frightening thrillers prefer to focus on the tension and excitement inherent to some plots. More often than not the thriller genre draws from reality in a way that makes one think “this could really happen to me.” The most well known thriller sub genre is crime usually involving hostages or murders the idea will usually be based around one character trying to thwart a villain. Many thrillers are psychological both in storyline and how they deal with the audience. The films will use music, lighting and effects more than story events in order to interest the audience.

Of course the genre has many sub genres that use different events, storylines and techniques in order to thrill their audience.

·                    Conspiracy thriller usually political directed at certain groups meant to make a point or expose something the writer thinks is going on.

·                    Crime thriller usually follows single characters who work within the law forced to make ifficult decisions contains many similar aspects to psychological thriller

·                    Erotic thriller romantic or risqué in someway usually just old romantic stories retold to fit the genre

·                    Legal thriller most plots revolve around justice being done despite the attempts of the defendant to sway the opposing defense usually through money or violence

·                    Psychological thriller usually void of action until the conclusion in which two characters face each other over emotional or psychological grounds rather than physical ones. Meant to psychologically effect the audience as well as the characters.

·                    Supernatural thriller uses things outside th

·                    Action thriller: In which the hero confronts dangerous adversaries, obstacles, or situations which they must conquer, normally in a violent or suspenseful manner. Usually these films are less like thrillers in that they are just other genres like horror or romance retold in order to fit the thriller genre.

“...Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. There are all kinds. The legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller. The list goes on and on, with new variations constantly being invented. In fact, this openness to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics. But what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing its job.”

James patterson 2006

conventions of a thriller opening

Conventions for the opening of a film

I have learned by watching the opening sequences to several thrillers such as Donnie Darko and Sleepless that the opening must set the scene but also keep the audience in the dark. This is the main setup for the plot so it must keep the audience tense. The music or indeed any audio must keep with the visual and be very tense and usually has a fast tempo to heighten the drama. In such films as the happening classical music is used making the film seem intelligent but many films choose to use unconventional instruments like a Theremin in order to make an odd sound that knocks the audience into a state of slight shock.

Most camera shots in an opening sequence will be unconventional usually not even establishing a clear plot or storyline. These sequences will usually be altered in order to disturb the audience removing them from their comfort zone using footage of perhaps everyday events which has been sped up or darkened or contrasted in order to create a psychological effect. When the story begins the camera will usually revert to a normal state following specific characters or objects. The mise en scene in most thrillers is a normal town or city somewhere with lots of ordinary people the purpose of this is to add an element of realism to the initial setting so that whatever incidents occur throughout the rest of the plot the audience remains with an idea of this could happen to me. Usually the films target audience is linked directly to the setting for instance if I wanted to use a film to send a message to hundreds of people in a specific area of the country I would base my film there and then make sure it was known that the events of the film affected everyone in that territory.

a short analysis of conventions found in various films that i wrote about a while ago and had to dig out of the school computers

Uploaded homework

Reasoning of chosen idea

The main reason for our choice of the first idea was the apparent difficulty that recording idea two and the lack of thrilling material in idea three. Idea one in short was the most realistic in terms of completion using set and actors. Although it was easier to adapt this script to the lack of set and props we were faced with I would have to say that it is the most plot driven of our ideas due to the good writing and use of powerful narration story and ideas.

Idea number one was also the most popular overall when presented to the class (teens and avid media boffins who fit our target market.)

250 word treatment

The original proposal for the opening has been changed a lot to make it what it is now. Most changes have mainly been made during editing. The first of the three proposals originally entitled looking for vengeance was mostly point of view shots from the main character. A single piece of audio was set to be present throughout the entire piece namely loud heartbeats coupled with heavy breathing. The point of view shots follow the character through his experiences after an encounter with a dangerous enemy. His experiences are mixed as his memories aren’t correctly ordered and he switches between what is happening and what has happened.

The second idea originally entitled police protection was planned to be a crime thriller starting with two guards in a maximum security prison watching over a high priority inmate who has turned himself in for protection. As they talk a man is seen entering the prison who is then spotted on a monitor the guards have on the cell of the prisoner. As the guards run to save him we see the inmate being threatened by the unknown man.

The third and final idea was also a crime thriller. The instrument revolved around a detective with special deductive abilities investigating a single crime scene profiling the criminal responsible and then realizing that something bigger is going on.

Record shoot details

There were two days of shooting the first of which I was unable to be there for. The advantage to having the camera on the Friday was that it gave us extra shooting time over the weekend. So I arrived on the second day of shooting. The shooting of the main sequence went very well the only major problem we had was the fact that our piece was meant for recording during hours of dusk which limited the amount of shooting time we had before things became unable to shoot. We managed to get all the footage we need in the bag before then though. A major problem we face right now in editing as I see it is that certain people in our group have opposing opinions. While John and I believe there are too many point of view shots to cap off the film successfully Zander believes that we can carry the film with the footage we have now. We solved this problem by developing two initial cuts of the film on two different computers which sometimes presented problems due to one computer being used during lessons when Zander wasn’t there so we couldn’t review the work he had done.

I apologise for the lack of work put up recently I am uploading this at a cafe with free wifi I was unable to Upload anything over the holiday and will be unable to upload anything once at home.

I would also like to place my finished studio ident here it was made from various of the old design and then was redesigned with the help of john hughes suggesting the colour as it would appeal more and set the mood of the thriller

i hope the animation still shows...

more soon if I am able to find it