Target audience research

I constructed a questionnaire on thriller films and then handed them around to other students in my college, the aim, to get feedback to attain the optimum results for my product.

The first question: What is the minimum age a Thriller should be aimed at?
 Feedback showed that they thought the acceptable age for a Thriller was 15+ to include all the conventions successfully. This was the target audience for our film anyway.

I also found that the audience we asked wanted their films to be exciting and gripping with elements of suspense however they wanted it easy to follow. Attaining this research has meant that we are now able to please this audience, whilst making it acceptable viewing for young adults who don't want to constantly have to piece the film together.

Our potential target audience is 15 to 25 year olds, this is because our group age range is 16-17 year olds therefore we can relate to the younger end of our target audience but the plot will attract older viewing.

Mise-en-Scene

Mise- en- scene

Below is the description of each mise en scene category and explanation why we are using what we are using.

Costume- Thomas Ryder/ antagonist/ Agent Ryder

·         Black trousers- which look smart and formal to show knowledge of his character.

·         White shirt (with some undone buttons)- the shirt goes with the formal look whilst having the buttons partly undone it shows that Tom will be getting involved with the action

·         Black leather shoes- This type of show is formal and expensive to go with the rest of the outfit.

·         A large watch to show Tom’s status within the film, also the watch can represent his personally because it shows his expensive life style and that he must be successful.

Thomas Riley/ Antagonist/ Agent Riley

·         Grey suit trousers- Make Tom look formal and serious.

·         Black shirt (top button undone and rolled up sleeves) - The rolled up sleeves show he is the fighter and not to be messed with.

·         Black leather shoes- to complete the formal image we have given to Tom.

                Adrian Northcott /Antagonist/ Unknown name throughout       

·         Black trousers- formal black suit trousers to match other villains to show they are part of the same “gang”.

·         Black leather shoes- To match the rest of the outfit and again to make character look formal.

·         White shirt-the white shirt is very simple but works for the character instead of a bright green shirt because the character looks more meaningful.

·         Black suit jacket- The only character to wear a full suit to show his wealth in the film and shows his success

·         Large watch- To show success and for formal purposes.

·         Black sunglasses- to hide his identity and to appear mysterious to the audience.

             Arthur Scholes-Furness / Protagonist/ Mason

·         Grey cotton joggers- the joggers look informal and very ordinary, this can show the vulnerability of Arthur’s character because he doesn’t look out of ordinary and mysterious.

·         Polo shirt- This again is ordinary and very casual everyday clothing, this stops Arthur looking suspicious.

·         High tops- Casual shoes that suit the rest of the outfit, helps Arthur blend therefore he isn’t suspicious looking.

Props:

·         Chair- The chair is significant in the opening sequence because Arthur’s character spends most of the time sitting on it. Used instead of stool because we can tie him to it.

·         Rope- the rope is used to tie Arthur to the chair which shows his vulnerability because he can’t pull the rope apart. More realist than string for example.

·         Car (Mercedes Benz) - The car is black keeping in with colours of antagonist colour, it can represent evil.

·         Tape player- Used to record Arthur speaking and used as evidence in the main part of the film.

·         Gun (pistol)- the weapon used to kill Arthur’s character in the opening sequence

·         Bag (potato sac) - This type of bag is common ids used in a lot of thrillers for effect, so we want to be in keeping whilst using thriller conventions.

·         Fake blood- used on Arthur when he has been hit repeatedly be Thomas Riley, more realistic than ordinary make up.

Makeup: The only make up we use is the fake blood to show realism within the film. None of the other characters have makeup on to show they are very stereotypically masculine.

Lighting:

·         Interrogation room- This room will be dimly lit by a small ceiling light (we will use a large torch to create this effect) the light will be directly above Arthur draw the viewer’s eye to him, whilst the rest will be dark to create enigma due to the shadows from the other characters.

·         Car- the car will be lit by street lights and passing cars for a realistic night time drive, creates partial confusion because the setting is obvious for the viewer.

·         Street- Street lights as well with possibility of security light if nothing in shot is clear. The dim light creates nothing intruding but shows that the equilibrium has been disturbed due to the dodgy events that would look out of the ordinary in the day. And not as realistic. Also we want it to look natural to the scene so nothing artificial.

Location: Tom riley’s garage is been used because it large enough to represent an interrogation room.  Also the house is the most remote therefore it looks more dangerous. It creates tension due to the fact that Arthur will have no where to escapes to. The driving scene will be filmed down and around Tom riley’s street due to it not being busy which could be dangerous with a higher chance of a collision.

Actors/ Characters

Actors/ Character	Reason why chosen for role
Thomas Ryder	Thomas is the main controlling antagonist because he is built for the role and looks like a fighter and more controlling than Arthur.
Thomas Riley	Riley dresses more formally than Arthur in the film to make him look powerful but not as controlling as Thomas Ryder. This shows that Ryder is the “gang leader”. Riley is used for this part for that reason to appear brutal when really he is under Ryder’s control.
Adrian Northcott	We chose Adrian because he is an experienced driver and looks very professional when in the characters costume. Also he is very serious which matches the character who doesn’t mess around, this is shown in the opening sequence.
Arthur Scholes-Furness	Arthur is the protagonist because by his appearance looks very genuine with nothing to hide this suits his character because we want the audience to feel sorry for Arthur and want to help him.

Filming plan, Roles and responsibilities

Planning of filming roles

   We haven’t been able to establish a complete schedule of when we are filming due to other commitments like work which is difficult to get time off due to the time of year. However we do know that we will be filming between Tuesday the 27^th and January 3^rd. Dates we currently can't film are Monday 26th December, Wednesday 28th December and Saturday 31st December

Roles and responsibilities:

Mark Northcott- Director, Cameraman, Editor

Thomas Ryder- Actor, Editor

Thomas riley- Actor, Editor

Arthur Scholes-Furness- Actor, Editor

We are all going to be involved in the production of the film, as well as this we will all bring props, makeup, costumes we need. Each costume the actor is wearing is their own.

Props:

Mark will provide the rope, the sac (the one to go on Arthur’s head) and the car (my dad’s car which he will drive)

Ryder will provide the fake blood and tape player.

Riley will provide the chair and filming location (we are using his garage)

Arthur will provide the gun and the torch

Shooting Script

Storyboard

Pitch we gave to class

Film plot (altered)

The feedback that we got from our class for the first plot of our film was that it was far too action themed to be called a thriller, also we were told that it would be far to confusing, so within the rest of the group we decided to completely change the plot for our film to make it more thriller based, so this is what we came up with:
The opening sequence will entail a kidnap of young man who will be viscously interrogated. The start of the film shows the prisoner getting kidnapped, the rest of the opening sequence shows him been taken to a secret location where he will be interrogated. During this scene the prisoner will experience multiple flashbacks that are blended together to create a sense of confusion. We enter the film at stage 2 of Todorov's theory where the equilibrium is disrupted.

The main sequence of film shows the lead up to the events in the opening sequence. The scene will show his everyday life whilst letting the know he has been falsely accused. The opening is near the end of the narrative, so when the opening sequence is shown again in chronological order of the film, we will understand what is going on and why. The end will stick to the natural order of films with with narrative resolution where the prisoner is rescued and the villains taken down by law enforcement officers.
This is a lot more thriller based tan the last plot of our film, We also did a questionairre on this plot, and found that audience feedback felt a lot more like they would want to watch it in this plot.

Feedback sheet

This is a blank template of the feedback sheet that we used to get results from our class.

Audience feedback

1.     Do you think this film has the potential to be an effective thriller?

2.     Does this idea meet all the criteria of the task?

3.     Which ideas of the planned product did you personally find effective and why?

4.     Which bits of the ideas of the planned product did you feel were not particularly good and why?

5.     What could we change with our idea to make it a better product? 

6.     What age of target audience do you think that this idea is best to aim at?

Media film questionnaire

This is the blank question template we used to record our results

Media film questionnaire

We have already explained the plot and ideas to you now please fill out the questionnaire.

1.     What do you think of the overall plot?

2.     What do you think to the point of which we join the film?

3.     Which ideas could be improved?

4.     What age group do you think our film is aimed at?

15-18    19-22   23-27   28+

5.     Do we introduce the characters/ plot/ Setting?

6.     Will the main sequence of film be able to continue on from our opening sequence?

            

7.     Does our opening sequence grip you the viewer to watch the rest of the film?

Media Questionnaire Analysis

To find out research on what other people thought to the ideas in our pitch about what our film was about, I created a number of questionnaires and handed them out to various people for them to fill in. The questions on the questionnaires were all related to ideas for our film, so individually I had to give the pitch to the people who the questionnaire was given to.

The first question was "what do you think of the overall plot?" Out of the five people that I asked, four people said that the plot sounded very entertaining and that they were intrigued by it. These people were all under the age of twenty five years old, however the person to say that it did not interest them was forty three years old, this shows, so far, that our film, and this particular genre as a whole mainly appeals to people that are of a younger age group. 

The second question we asked was "what do you think to the point  of which we join the film?" This means "what did they think to the stage in which our film starts" only three of the five people who we asked said that it was a good point to start the film , saying that it engages the audience straight away, however the other two said that it would confuse them, dropping them right into the action, this means that we may need to change the scene at which we introduce the film as to avoid confusion. 

The third question that we asked was "Which ideas could be improved" two of the five said that it was flawless and did not need improvement, however one of the others said that we should change where we enter the film as to avoid confusion, , another improvement was that apparently it sounds a bit boring so we could change the overall idea to something more exhilarating. The final piece of improvement that we could make would have been that there should be more characters, therefore being able to make more attachments to the characters, as at the time being we are only planning on having two characters that will be introduced. 

The fourth question was "what age group do you think our film is aimed at?" and gave them the possible answers of "15-18, 19-22, 23-27 and 28+" four people voted for 15-18 and only one person voted for 19-22, this shows that our film should definitely be aimed at the younger age group, as the majority stated this. 

The fifth  question we asked was "do we introduce the characters/plot/setting well?" Everyone we asked said that they thought we introduced every aspect very well, and that they feel they know everything that they need to know about the film.

The sixth question we asked was "will the main sequence of the film be able to continue from our opening sequence" meaning will it be able to flow into the main film well, three people said that it will flow straight into the main body of the film well. However the other two people we asked said that as it drops you right at the end and then flashes back, said that they would find it very confusing, and said that it will be incredibly hard to pull off effectively. 

The final question we asked was "does our opening sequence grip you as the viewer to watch the rest of the film" Four out of the people said that they found the plot to the film to be very gripping and that they would like to watch the rest of the film, however the forty three year old said that it would be uninteresting and very boring to watch, showing age difference again.

Overall we have found from the results that our plot would appeal very highly to the younger audience, but not so much to older people. Also we found that our plot might be a bit confusing, and that we should incorporate a few more characters. From this we now know what our audience is looking for, and we can make the appropriate changes.

Pitch to the class

We gave our pitch describing our ideas about the film to the class. What we found was that it sounds far too much like an action instead of an action thriller, therefore we have made the choice, to significantly change our film or just change it entirely. Originally our idea was to have a large drugs heist, however this is far to action based and also seemed very "cheesy" so we are planning on changing it to an interrogation sort of film, where there is someone strapped to a chair in a blacked out room being interrogated, we think this will fit the conventions of thriller a lot more.

Genre research

Genre has developed a lot through history, especially with the thriller genre, one  such example of this would be After the assassination of President Kennedy the Political thriller and the paranoid thriller film became very popular.

Thriller genre research

Thrillers are a genre of literature, film, and television program that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. A common subgenre is psychological thriller. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Thriller films heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, with high levels of anticipation, suspense and uncertainty. Three of the highest rated thriller films are:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. The Dark Knight
3. Inception


Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller and might have horror elements. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre.


A Political thriller is a sub genre that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle. They usually involve various extra-legal plots, designed to give political power to someone, while his opponents try to stop him. They 
can involve national or international political scenarios.


Pulp Fiction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBfmBvvotE
The Dark Knight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqq4j52Fb4
Inception: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM

Preliminary task-Prezi presentation

http://prezi.com/bw0ptjqfzxec/preliminary-task-evaluation/

This is a link to my Prezi presentation

Preliminary task-progress

We have now watched everyone's preliminary task film, and given some feedback on their filming techniques (use of shot reverse shot, match on action, and the 180 degree rule) we also gave feedback on editing, timing, and sound quality. We presented our film to the class as well, and took our own feedback, which we will now use to put onto a "Prezi.com" presentation which will be our evaluation.

Preliminary Task - Wednedsday 12th October

Today our group has finished editing our film, and adding the sound, we have now put it onto a DVD, capable of watching on any DVD players/computers. We did this so that we would be able to show the rest of the class next week, so it can be evaluated. For the rest of the lesson we will be setting up a "Prezi" account so that we can do our evaluation of everyone else's group filming.

Preliminary Task - Storyboard

this is the storyboard that I used on my preliminary task filming to show the cameraman, what he must do and what goes on in a scene.

Preliminary: Detailed production schedule and roles

Group name: The B Team

Roles;

Tom Ryder: Actor/Editor/Producer. (In Charge of Locations)

Mark Northcott: Director/Camera Man/Editor (In Charge of equipment)

Arthur Scholes-Furness: Actor/Editor/Co-Producer (In charge of Props)

Tom Riley: Camera Man/Editor/Extra (In Charge of equipment)

Location: 

Mrs Knobbs office (subject to confirmation and availability)

Equipment:

Video Camera, Tripod

Props

Science coat

Clipboard 

Mug

Glasses 

Time: Tuesday 4th October Session 4, 1:45 P.M

As preliminary task

This is my preliminary task, for the first part of the task, we were told to research three editing techniques, here they are:

180 degree shot rule: - This rule is where, if there are two people sat at a table, then the camera will only be able to view them from one side, on an imaginary line, and if the camera were to cross that line, it will disorientate the viewer, as it will seem as the two people are looking the same way, also their eye line will not match, however, it is possible to cross the line however, if the camera films the cross, but then the rules apply for the other side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq40uhYowBI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdyyuqmCW14

Match on action shots: - This is where a camera is positioned in a room viewing the room, then if a character were to walk into the room and then exit the room and therefore the shot, the camera would not follow the character but switch to a different camera viewing a different place, where the character had walked into, this will happen many times. This makes it run more smoothly, and looks uninterrupted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laUPi7MPOSQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aSTIytBH1I

Shot/Reverse shot: - A shot reverse shot is a shot that keeps switching to two characters, and like the 180 degree shot the camera can not go off of the 180 degree line, so if you have two people talking at a table, it could be over the shoulder of one of the characters, watching the other talk, and then it will swap to the view of over the other persons shoulder while the other one talks, this technique is often used when there is important dialogue in a scene. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLkUHZ1qips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVcOqQ5j4wU&feature=related