Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In the time between the production of our preliminary task and our thriller, I have learnt several things about how to construct media texts effectively. The main thing I have learnt is how to use camera angles and shots to enhance the atmosphere of a film. For example, in our bird's eye view shot of Jonathon Cody travelling down the stairs, the bird's eye view shot implies that he is being watched. Furthermore, the high angle shot connotes vulnerability. Without the research and planning I did prior to making our thriller, I would not be aware of these things. In that case, I may have just used a static medium shot of Jonathon going down the stairs - this would be boring and would lose the audience's interest. In our thriller opening, keeping the audience gripped is vital.

Bird's eye view shot of Jonathon travelling down the stairs

Another example of this is our low angle tilt shot of an enigmatic figure in the window. Before, I would not have known how to use a tilt shot to show corruption and mystery - but due to my new knowledge, me and my group managed to use this, combined with the power shown by a low angle shot, to construct a great shot.

Low angle tilt shot of an enigmatic figure in the window

Also, I learnt about other techniques of film production, such as the 180-degree rule, match on action and shot-reverse shot. The 180-degree rule and shot-reverse shot are used in the part of our thriller where Jonathon Cody discovers his mother, Eve Cody, and there are shots from the positions of both Jonathon and Eve - but they never cross the line of the 180-degree rule.What I learnt about these things is shown in our thriller - for example, the way our thriller cuts from shots of Jonathon Cody to shots of the enigmatic figures to show the link between these characters and the possibility that Jonathon may be caught up or involved in the dark actions of these mysterious, enigmatic figures. Below is the final cut of our thriller, "From the Dark", where you can see the different shots and filming techniques being used for different effects.

While constructing our thriller, me and my group also learnt how to successfully cooperate to produce a successful thriller film. We each took one main responsibility - James was the main actor, Joe was the main cameraman and I was the main editor. Alongside this, we also each took a decent role in each of the stages of producing our thriller e.g. I was responsible for shooting some of the thriller. For some stages of producing the thriller, we had to work together to make the best choice. For example, choosing the soundtrack was a bid decision and we ended up making a joint decision after looking at several different soundtracks. Here is the link to my blog post displaying the soundtracks we made our decision from:

http://wrmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/soundtrack-ideas.html

We chose the soundtrack based on the tension and suspense it produced, along with the way it pulled you into the action. The heartbeat, which becomes more and less prominent depending on the action, pulls you into the action and tells you what Jonathon is feeling. This also tells you how to feel.

A major decision for our group was the title for our thriller. At the beginning of the production process, when we had the idea of "marks" on each character to link them to each other, we were using the name "Marked". But when we decided to simplify (and improve) the film by taking out the marks, we had to collaborate to choose a new name. After many conversations, where we looked back through our research for inspiration, we finally decided on the name "From the Dark" (which one member from our group, Joe, slightly altered into "From the Night" for his final cut). This played on the generic thriller convention of locations, characters and ideas originating from the darkness or night. Also, the shadowy, enigmatic figures from our film lurk in the shadows and the darkness - this title is a direct reference to that. We chose the font because it was subtle and quite old-looking. This stopped the font of this title, or any of the other titles, taking your focus away from our thriller.

Titles showing our thriller's name, "From the Dark"

As aforementioned in Question 6, the process of producing our thriller also taught our group a substantial amount about how to effectively edit our thriller so that it was gripping - this was done using effects such as dip to black and cross dissolve.

By showing our thriller to members of our target demographic, as well as our teacher, we have been able to positively alter our film along the process of making it. When we received negative feedback, our group did not ignore it or get frustrated - we simply used it to improve our thriller and end with a film we are all proud of. If we had allowed to affect us negatively, then our film would have gone downhill. On the whole, the feedback we got from our target demographic was much better than we expected - this form that a 17-year old male (a member of our target audience) filled out was very positive (this form was used for Question 5). This person also found our thriller's narrative easy to follow and clear - this was also a very good sign, as it meant the main structure of our thriller was acceptable and we only had to slightly edit around it.

A questionnaire filled out by a member of our target demographic

Example of a cross dissolve transition

I do not think the film has many weaknesses. One weakness could be that it has not got a large budget, which prevents us from using the special effects, CGI and expensive equipment that are frequently used in big-budget films nowadays. This could prevent us from making the film more visually appealing to the audience that likes films such as "Transformers", where special effects play a large part in the appeal of the film.

Overall, I feel that the most important thing I have learnt about film making in the time between the preliminary task and the thriller we have made is how to edit and put together a film so that it holds the attention and interest of the audience and improves their enjoyment of the film.

Our Thriller: "From the Dark" - Final Cut

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the process of making our thriller, "From the Dark", I have learnt new things concerning technology and its link to our thriller. The main thing I have learnt is how to edit a film effectively into a clear but absorbing narrative. By using effects such as "dip to black" and "cross dissolve", we could change between shots of the boy, Jonathon, in the house, and the members of the enigmatic group outside the house or somewhere else in the house. This prevented any long, boring sections where only one character is being followed. Again, without our new experience and knowledge of thriller films, we would not have been able to efficiently create this effect. We managed to achieve this effect without affecting the narrative, creating a clear but gripping thriller. Our thriller is below - this contains evidence of these effects being used.

Furthermore, I have also learnt a great deal about sound. Before the construction of this thriller, I did not realise the huge importance of the sound choice in a thriller - I now know that the soundtrack can completely change the atmosphere - as the wife of Bernard Herrmann (American composer for motion pictures, who worked with Alfred Hitchcock in famous films such as the thriller Psycho) said, "The music tells the audience how to feel and what to think,". Because of this, we chose a soundtrack that had a heartbeat that changed as the situation of our thriller changed, which also had an eery background sound to help the tension and suspense increase.

http://www.freesound.org/people/hello_flowers/sounds/32424/ - Main soundtrack
http://www.freesound.org/people/steveygos93/sounds/91572/  - Non-diegetic gunshot sound

Also, I learnt a great deal when operating my media blog. While setting up and using the blog was quite straightforward, the main thing I learnt was linked to the different ways of presenting my work. Using a blog for my media studies coursework cause me to use things such as Prezi and how to embed Microsoft Word documents into a blog. Before this I had not even heard of some of these ways of presenting my work e.g. Prezi. By using a media blog, it has increased my knowledge of how to present my work and improved my ability to use things such as Prezi. My Prezi I made to display the target audience for our thriller, "From the Dark", is shown below.

Target Audience for our Thriller "From the Dark" on Prezi

In addition, using the website IMDb assisted me greatly when trying to research other thriller films. For example, we used the "user ratings" section for "Animal Kingdom" to find out it's target audience. From this we learnt that it's target audience was similar to the target audience of our thriller, "From the Dark" - the males under 18 gave it the highest rating. This told us that successful features from Animal kingdom could work in our thriller. For example, we created the character Jonathon, who is similar to "J" from "Animal Kingdom". (as discussed in previous questions).

As well as this, YouTube helped us construct our thriller. As we wanted a similar costume to that of "Harry Lime" in "The Third Man" for our mysterious, enigmatic figures, we could use YouTube to view sections of "The Third Man" to help us analyse the costume. Below is a sequence from "The Third Man" that I analysed in our thriller research.

Also, we used many new techniques for changing the lighting in our thriller. We used several different lamps and lights to adjust the lighting, and in our edit we tried both black and white, noir lighting as well as full colour. In the end we decided to use full colour. At the start of filming our thriller, the lighting we used was too dark and we realised that and decided to re-shoot. The discarded footage is shown below:

                   

Finally, the school e-mail helped the production of our thriller film, as we could e-mail our teacher with any problems or enquiries and receive feedback. This meant that we could get quick feedback and advice.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

To address the target audience for our thriller, "From the Dark", we used characters of similar ages (mostly), such as Jonathon Cody, which was discussed in Question 4. A familiar location, a middle-class house, is used, and we chose this to comply with our target audience and the nature of our thriller.

Furthermore, the room of Jonathon (our main link to our target audience, similar to the character of "J" in "Animal Kingdom" also has many distinct aspects of mise-en-scene that will directly appeal to our target audience. Many posters of popular comedians and musicians are on the wall, and this is a direct link to our audience and their culture (an image of this is in Question 4). This would promote interest in the film from them, our target audience, immediately as this shot of the boys bedroom is one of the first in the thriller.

Our camera shots were also designed to draw you into the film and empathise with Jonathon Cody, our main character. This is done with close up shots of Jonathon, as well as point of view shots that take you into the situation. This is especially effective when a point of view shot is used when Jonathon discovers his dead mother - it makes the shock affect you directly in the same way it would affect Jonathon. Again, like "Animal Kingdom", these shots are used to put you in the place of the boy of a similar age.

Point of view (POV) shot of Eve Cody, Jonathon Cody's mother, from Jonathon's point of view

The lack of speech in our thriller also helps you to empathise with the character of Jonathon Cody. It lets you focus on his feelings and the atmosphere, further connecting you with him and his situation. A voice over or dialogue would distract you from the action and ruin the atmosphere of the film.

To see the opinion of our thriller, "From the Dark" among our target audience, we made people from the demographic we have chosen fill in a questionnaire.

Assessment of our Thriller by a member of our Target Audience - 17 year-old

In this assessment of our thriller, high marks are awarded. Their only problem with our thriller was the sound, which we have since edited and updated. This choice of music was then approved of by our assessor. They did not find the narrative confusing, and they were not offended by the thriller. They especially liked the editing, which they said "fits perfectly with the opening scene". I believe that this is due to the editing which quickly goes back and forth between the enigmatic figures and Jonathon to keep the atmosphere while linking the characters together. This editing is shown below in the final cut of our thriller, "From the Dark".

As the assessor is a 17 year-old male, his profile ideally fits our target demographic in terms of age and gender. As most of the characters in the thriller are male (and the only female in the opening sequence is dead), the film appeals more to males than females. The fact that this person was impressed by our thriller is a good sign that we have appealed well to our target audience.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our thriller, "From the Dark", is 16-25 year olds, as described in my Prezi describing our target audience.

Target Audience for our Thriller "From the Dark" on Prezi

This age group would be able to relate with our characters, as the main characters are teenagers/young adults, except from the mother, Eve. The standard middle-class teenage/young adult boy is a standard figure, and the audience would be able to relate with him, and empathise with him as he is thrown into a world of crime - like "J" in Animal Kingdom. As discussed in the Prezi above, Animal kingdom has a lot in common with our film in terms of audience - it is aimed at the same age group, and our thriller would ideally be advertised in a similar way.

"J" from "Animal Kingdom" - a similar film in terms of audience to our thriller, "From the Dark"

The standard, middle-class house can also be related to by the audience of our thriller, which is British, white, middle-class males aged between 16 and 25 - this further helps the audience relate to Jonathon Cody, as the location will be reasonably familiar. However, the action in our thriller, where this standard person is thrown into a new world of crime and danger, will excite the audience and keep their attention. This combination of a familiar figure and a sudden, drastic change in events will keep the audience interested.

As I have just mentioned, the audience of our thriller is British, white, middle-class males aged between 16 and 25. Our target audience is white because of the white characters of our thriller, and British because British people will be able to relate to the locations, themes and characters of the film. Also, the mise-en-scene of many shots contains cultural references to Britain e.g. the posters on Jonathon's wall showing British comedians and musicians. The audience is middle-class due to the middle-class house and characters. Finally, the audience is male because the characters of the thriller are mostly male. All of this helps the target audience relate to the character of Jonathon.

Posters showing British musicians, comedians, etc.

In addition, the fear we have utilised in our thriller (the fear of being alone and stalked by an unknown, hostile figure), is well-recognised to be universally suffered from. Most people have this fear, and by using it we have made the thriller more frightening and absorbing. The 16-25 demographic are often fans of horrors and more mature, non-child-friendly media texts as they are discovering things that they could not access before, when they were young. So by using a widespread fear, that of being stalked, we are making our film more exciting to this demographic.

Our target audience would likely watch thriller films such as James Bond, Animal Kingdom, etc. They would be interested in independent, niche, lower-budget films that are gritty and dark - such as our thriller, "From the Dark". This is also discussed in my research into our target audience.

Target Audience for our Thriller "From the Dark"

Target Audience for our Thriller "From the Dark" on Prezi

Soundtrack Ideas

These are the soundtracks we found that could be used in our thriller, "From the Dark". We ended up only using a select few, but they are all focused around building suspense and tension, and so assisting the feeling of being stalked in our thriller.

The soundtrack is a vital part of our thriller. Without the extra suspense built up by the soundtrack, the thriller loses a lot of the fear factor we have tried to achieve.

http://www.freesound.org/people/tradeshowmusic/sounds/136721/

http://www.freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/82299/

http://www.freesound.org/people/suonho/sounds/58962/

http://www.freesound.org/people/hello_flowers/sounds/32424/

http://www.freesound.org/people/imaginaryband/sounds/79417/

http://www.freesound.org/people/imaginaryband/sounds/79418/

Furthermore, we needed a loud gunshot for the start of our thriller, when Jonathon Cody wakes up. These are the possible sounds we found for this gunshot:

http://www.freesound.org/people/Audionautics/sounds/133966/

http://www.freesound.org/people/Shades/sounds/37236/

http://www.freesound.org/people/tradeshowmusic/sounds/136721/

http://www.freesound.org/people/steveygos93/sounds/91572/

This will be the noise that is heard when Jonathon wakes up. It could either be a sign that something bad has happened, or the end of a nightmare giving a bad omen about what might be about to happen. It could also be thought of as something that foreshadows later events in the thriller.