Thriller film evaluation.

1).In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Within the planning stages of our thriller film, we looked at other thriller films for influence which we could apply to our own production. When we first started researching; we concentrated on Alfred Hitchcock’s, `Psycho` and within the film we concentrated on the close up shots of the characters to create suspense and ambiguity. We also looked at Carol Reed`s, `The Third Man` and concentrated on the film noire aspect to the film, that helped to create the very stylised mise-en-scene and the shadows of the characters on the wet cobbled streets and the tilt shots, which create a sense of disorientation. However when we had filmed a section of our film and reviewed the section, we then decided that our film related more to Andrea Arnold's, Red Road which is an independent British film. We made this decision because of the colour palette of Red road, being very soft and using a limited amount of colour, which creates a very independent and gritty feel

to the film. The lighting in our film, is very similar to Red Road, because of the natural lighting that has been created, because of our location next to a river, where there are aline of streetlamps, which all have a pink and red tint to them, therefore creating a natural and soft colour palette to our film, that similar of the colour palette in Red Road. We also related Red Road to our own film because of the locations of both the films; our film, Missing; is located in a busy city, therefore the location is urban and the scenes of the everyday life of the city, relates to Red Road, which is set in Glasgow. The theme of Red Road, relates to our own film also because Red Road follows, a security camera operator, who sees someone on the camera with whom she has perhaps previously been in a relationship, she then finds out where he lives and invites herself into his party he is hosting at his flat. Whilst she is at the man`s flat, the man tries to seduce her, this relates to our own film, because of the theme of stalking, however in our film the boy is stalking the girl, but they still both have connotations of vulnerability and they both create ambiguity. The costumes that were used are modern and fairly plain, which are the same in Red Road because it is a contemporary film, being produced in 2006 rather than the 1940s and 60s like Psycho and The Third Man. The camera angles that have been used in our thriller, have been created with influence from Psycho, because of the close up shots of the two characters; a male and female, just like in Psycho, which creates ambiguity and suspense, it also helps the audience to feel more involved, because they can see the characters expressions, thoughts and feelings.

2).How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our film represents women in society as vulnerable. The woman in our film is represented in this manner, because she is being taken advantage of by a man in the street after getting drunk on a night out. It also represents women as being out of control. It shows the vulnerability of women in society, because within the film she is put into a vulnerable position, after she get very drunk after a night out and on her way home a man starts stalking her. However her firstly acts like the protector, but this changes and he turns into the criminal and the women becomes the victim. The villain has been represented in the film as someone with a split personality as, when we first meet the man; we get the impression that the girl sees him as her protector and makes her less vulnerable, however i think the majority of the audience can see that he is the villain, from the beginning when he is lurking behind the girl, which instantly makes him look suspicious, especially as he is dressed almost entirely in black, which connotes evil. The gender of the villain and victim is very important within our film, as the villain is male and the victim is female, this is therefore very stereotypical and not challenging stereotypes in anyway way. The use of a female to play the victim is very representative of women as a whole in film noir as this is usually what we hear in the media rather than males being the victims. The choice of a male being the villain is equally stereotypical, because men are usually branded villains within modern day society and are the first point of blame when these type of incidents happen in society.

3).What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Our film would be distributed in a picturehouse cinema, for example cinema city, because cinema city shows independent films and specialist short films. Our film could be part of a British film season on the television channel Film 4, which has an alliance with warp productions, which produce independent films, short films and music videos. Our film would not be shown in a mainstream multi screen cinema, such as Vue or Odeon. Our film would not be shown in either of these two cinemas, because they both show mainstream, conventional films that will appeal to a wider audience, rather than a very specific audience such as the films that are shown in Cinema City. The references we made to Red Road in our film, would affect what cinemas it would be shown in, because it is an independent, British film, it would reach a smaller and more specific audience than a mainstream film, because of aspects such as; the location, mise-en-scene, lighting and camera angles.

4).Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my film would be; people who have an interest in the crime thriller genre. My audience would watch programmes such as; CSI, Waking the Dead and New Tricks. I think that the demographics of my audience would be; people from the age of around 16, any gender and generally people who enjoy watching programmes with suspense and mystery. People of either gender, would watch these types of programmes or films, as they do not appeal to one gender more than the other. The age of audience could be any age, as it does not hold any specific aspects that would appeal to a particular age group, however this type of genre would not be suitable for the very young, because of its content can be disturbing. I carried out some research on a group of around fifteen 16-17 year olds and they said that in a thriller film they prefer; a recognisable locations, instrumental only music, psychological thrillers, to be set in the present, to find out the location of the thriller within the first two minute of the film and the characters to be wearing clothing that is relevant to their personality. I have applied my research to the film by using a recognizable location; riverside in Norwich, which all of my respondents would recognise and so would the majority of its residents, within the thriller film we have also concentrated on using instrumental music, our thriller also comes under the sub genre of psychological, because of the theme of stalking, the costumes that the characters are dressed in are relevant to their personalities because; the female character is dressed in fashionable clothing which shows her youth and that she is outgoing, the male character is dressed relevant to his personality, because he is mainly dressed in black clothing, which represents his dark and evil personality, it also shows that he is mysterious and hard to read, because of his role in the film, changing from the protector to the villain.

5).How did you attract/address your audience? We attracted our audience, by taking on board the answers we gained from the auidence research questionaire that we individually carried out. We tried to make sure that the audiences preferences were included in our film, in order to attract our target audience. Within the mise-en-scene of the film we included the conventions of typical british independant films such as; Red Road. We asked people what they thought of our thriller film and they replied; they thought the music was powerful within the film, because of the way it reinforces the urgency and danger that is present in the film, people also commented on the location, the limited pastel lighting and the ambiguity that is present in our film.

6).What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Within the construction of our thriller we have had to use different technologies such as; a video camera, a digital camera, tripod, dv tape and editing software; Adobe Premiere Elements . Throughout the editing process, I have learnt about the transition of the shots, special effects that can be added, sequencing the shots and adding credits and titles to the shots. We used a digital camera, in order to take the location shots within the planning stages. We used a dv tape to record the film, this allows us the capture the video onto the video editing software and delete scenes and create a sequence, which makes sense in the order that it has been put into. The video camera and tripod allowed us to capture a vast variety of shot types and the tripod allowed us the move the camera to different heights in order to capture different things at different angles, the tripod also made sure that the image we were filming was steady, which creates a more professional look to the finished product. The use of a tripod, also enabled us to create establishing shots, which introduce the audience to the surroundings and get an understanding of the location. Within the construction of our thriller, it was we needed to re shoot the footage we took on our first shoot, because of the lack of lighting and the fact that we could not see that characters` faces, however we filmed these parts again and took onboard our mistakes from our first shoot and made sure that we had the correct lighting in order to see the characters` faces and concentrated on getting a greater amount of close ups of the characters faces, in order for the audience to understand what the characters are thinking and to create ambiguity. The use of the tripod, enabled us to shoot specific shots such as; the shot of the girl walking down the stairs, because it enabled us to keep the camera steady and to create a high angle shot to show the girls importance in the film, it also enabled us to get low angle shots of the girl when she fell over, which helps to show the audience the girls` vulnerability.

7).Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The preliminary task helped us as a group, to identify each individuals strengths and weaknesses and establish what each production team member would do, in terms of their contribution towards the final production. We then made the decision that; we would all help in all aspects of the filming, however myself and Lexie would take a more directorial role and Sam would film for the majority of the time. We then decided that Lexie would complete the storyboard and locations shots. Sam would complete the casting, costumes and music. I would complete the treatment, shot list and shooting schedule. The preliminary task helped us to understand what the filming and production process entailed, it also helped us as a group to delegate roles. The shooting of the preliminary film, helped us to understand what impressions different camera angles would make and how we could represent the characters and their actions through using various shot types to show them in different lights.