1. Mackenzie Baxter Moss Media AS Thriller Evaluation

2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Conventions of the thriller genre – compare with real films) Conventions of the thriller genre contains elements such as red herrings, where a diversion tries to carry the audiences attention away from the main issue. A MacGuffin is a plot devise that draws the audiences attention away from the main issue. And a cliff hanger holds the audience’s attention with a troubled character trying to overcome an obstacle. In our thriller we concentrated on a subgenre which was the crime thriller, where the main plot was based around drugs, deals, violence and legitimacy. We used this as crime can be easily related to by most people, if not, it is interesting to see how the baddies (or the antagonist) gets their comeuppance. We wanted to create a lot of tension and suspense in our thriller because we think that they are vital necessities of a thriller. This was done by using a huge forest as the location, although the film its self was filmed in a very small corner with very few trees. The scene is set with a panning shot of a huge forest, this shows the vast size of forest to indicate that there will be huge secluded parts within it, perfect for people not wanting to be seen!

5. The thriller also uses the typical stereotype of a mysterious stranger with their hood up, this was intentional as it clearly indicates a shifty looking person not to be trusted. To show further that the hooded criminal is young and still in education (sixth form), he has a school bag, trousers and shoes on. This hopefully creates suspicion and an element of tension. In recent years, the news and media have shown the public violence associated with teenagers, this is also used in our thriller as another stereotype of young people, this again is so that the target audience can relate to our storyline and also to show that this kind of story can happen in extreme cases. We also keep the first killer’s face open to see by the audience to keep their suspicion of him further, with his face available to see and his shifty mannerisms such as walking slightly behind and controlling the walk. Like mentioned earlier he is loosely based on the Harry Potter character Professor Snape and the way the film portrays his shiftiness.

7. How these film distributors may advertise our film would be viral, this would be due to our target audience. This audience are the majority of internet users so it would be more sense to use the internet. As our target audience is the late teens, we would benefit hugely if our film was advertised on social networking sites such as facebook or twitter, much like other film producers who target the same audience. Apart from social networking sites, websites such as YouTube are constantly be used to watch music videos and such, adverts along the perimeter of the website. As YouTube receives around 100 million hits a day and commands up to 64% of the UK online video market, gaining this much attention for our film for free makes absolute sense. As it would such a small time film, it would not reach the cinema, so to broadcast our film as wide as possible we think it would be beneficial for it to go straight to DVD and get on TV. The way or film would get on TV would be through Film4 Productions, here it is not just a film channel but they make their own productions too. Film4 have created and co- financed a number of big time films, films such as Slumdog Millionaire, Happy Go Lucky and This Is England.

8. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? (Use of surveymonkey.com) Like mentioned earlier, our film is similar to SKA Films such as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, so our targeted audience will be the same as theirs. To make sure we knew our target audience for sure I created a survey using surveymonkey.com. This is a really useful website where you can create a quick and easy survey in seconds and post it onto your facebook for your friends to complete. It was just a general survey asking different types of questions on the thriller genre, one question of which is the age group. As thought, the age of the majority of people that would be interested in our thriller are 16 to 19 year olds. Also it is common knowledge that films that include, violence, guns and crime generally appeal more to the male gender. Although that is just a typical generalisation, females may also enjoy the film as two female characters end on a cliff-hangers, this being they don’t get caught and run away meaning that they could very well become the protagonists. We have not targeted any particular race or culture, simply because it is not relevant to our film, therefore our film is simply targeted at 16 to 19 year old males. Researching the BBFC (British Board if Film Classification) guidelines, our film qualifies to become a 15. Our film qualifies as to be a 15 as it shows drug but does not promote them, there is no language, discrimination of any sort or nudity and only shows brief violence. This is good because it allows our target audience to see the film without having an age barrier.

9. As soon as we finished editing our thriller we uploaded it onto YouTube. After that I posted the link onto my facebook so all of my friends could watch it. A few friends of mine also do media and so we were all interested in each others thrillers, other friends who don’t do media were still interested in seeing it too. So straight away we had a few people that wanted to see our produce. The first thing we think draws the audience’s attention would be the title “Decus et Tutamen” meaning An ornament and a safeguard . This is written on the side of the one pound coin, this links to the subject of money which is one of the film’s plots being a money deal. We think this draws the audience attention as the audience will want to know what the foreign language means. Our film title is not predictable like other films, films such as “Taken” when the audience can clearly guess that the film is about someone or something that has been taken. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

10. While our film was being watched we incorporated techniques to interest the audience, such as red herrings, twists and common subjects for our target audience (mentioned earlier crime, drugs etc.). To ensure that this is what the audience wanted in a thriller, we created a wordle image from survey answers. We also used quick editing, also know as jump shots throughout the sequence, using this creates the atmosphere of nothing is stable and everything is uncertain. This creates tension as the audience then wants to know what becomes of story. The jump shots time between eachother are at random, there could be a few jittery on and off scenes or there could be a longer timed sequence of the film. Between the jump shots are black out shots, this again creates eeriness and randomness. We used cliff hangers too, this is vital in a films to keep the audience’s attention and to keep then guessing and anticipating the next scenes. We show this through the chase scene when two of the bohemians split and the criminals pursue one person. The audience are then asking where did they go and what becomes of them, keeping the audiences attention and interest levels high.

14. Final Lighting – Our location was in a forest so our lighting was all natural light. We had no effect on this what so ever, although we did have to wait to film in similar lighting to previous recordings or it would look odd and unnatural. Final Sound – We planned for our music to be played throughout the film with only dialog and heavy breathing to be heard over the music this was because it was quite windy and was taking over the sound. Film Editing camera shots/angles – After research into fast paced thrillers we decided to do quick jump shots throughout the film to create an uncertain effect. We also opted to use extreme close ups for further effect. Film Story – We wanted to include typical thriller conventions so we used a red herring. We had a lot more time to thoroughly think through a good stable thriller typical storyline. In conclusion I think we have learnt a huge amount, this being due to a lot of trial and error and some element of Experimentation with all of the software. Not only has our quality of film making improved but also our ability to use the software effectively. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIw3gVROvcA (Preliminary Task) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33izkV-BTnU (Final Product)