4.Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product? ( Josh Jeffs)

An Example of An Ideal Audience Member

Name : George Smith
Age : 19
Gender : Male
Home Town : Cambridge
Hobbies:  George likes to watch both classic films and new films and like a variety of genres but mostly thrillers, His favourite film is Pulp Fiction, a highly rated thriller film by Quentin Tarantino. He is also interested in sports.
 
               

in what way does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

in what way does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

. discuss the ways in which your thriller incorporates generic conventions ( identify specific scenes)

There are several elements within our thriller which conform with generic conventions which you would usually expect in a thriller film. For instance  the convention of the 'chase scene' and voyeurism is explored within the opening two minutes of the thriller; we start to get a sense that the students are being followed by the 'persuant'. As the opening progresses, in certain long shots Jamies character is present in the background  t the start he is not noticeable or obscured) but his presence becomes more noticeable than the shot before each time.

There is a sense of mystery and an eerie mood is created particularly during the grave yard scene when izzy's character walkthrough the church graveyard by herself   she is singled out and vulnerable as she is no longer within the company of her two friends (sam and matt) and this innocence clearly shows that she is a protagonist because audiences will sympathise with her.





Mis En Scene
Jamies 'Persuant' costume fits with generic conventions of a thriller as it clearly portrays him as the antagonist. He wears a large  biege overcoat to imply he has something to hide and effectively creates mystery around the character.  a similar effect is created  with the hat and glasses he wears as they obscure Jamies face and makes it difficult to see  what he looks like or what his true emotions are. which makes the audience curious to discover 'the persuants' identity and works as an incentive as it is intriguing  to continue watching  because as an audience we want to know who this person is, what he looks like.

Music editing, camera shots
We were able to develop these conventions through many contributing factors; the music and the angle of the shots help us to achieve this because the music we used 'Darkness is Coming' tied in extremely well with the setting. The track we used had a biblical sound to it and linked in very well with the church setting and established a sense of danger as Izzy went further through the church yard the music intensified creating more tension. the sense of danger was also established through certain shots used during the church scene; we had an over the shot shoulder  shot of Jamie whist he was standing at the top of a flight of stairs ( near by the church). The shot was angled  so emphasis was put on the fact that Jamie was looking down (watching over her)  at Izzy's character the female student. The positioning of characters in the shot was effective because as well as it being the first audience see Jamie's figure (close up shot from behind) it also implies  that as Jamie appears higher and larger in the shot, that he is the dominant character and izzy's character is the weaker and more vulnerable as she appears smaller.


We used two different music tracks during the first two minutes of our thriller film, both of which we found on incompetech. We chose 'Night of Chaos' and 'Darkness is Coming' because we felt they were very similar to our original music inspiration Brian Eno's 'Complex Heaven'. Brian Eno is known for doing the Lovely Bones soundtrack, a film which i felt explored very similar themes to our piece; it involved voyeurism and a man who has an obsession with making elaborate plans to take young girls. Brian Eno's theme for the antagonist Mr Harvey was extremely effective and rather chilling, it evoked real fear. Mr Harvey's theme (which is based around complex heaven)appeared many times during the film, every time 'Mr Harvey's' character was present, so the audience would immediately associate the music with unpleasant or bad things.
we were inspired by this idea so we used 'darkness is coming' and 'Night of Chaos' and used it as a device like 'complex heaven'. although it was simple it evoked fear. it had similar musical elements, but we ensured that the tracks we used weren't overly intense to that  extent that it turned into a horror film as this is not what we wanted to achieve. the tracks we used created just the right amount of suspense and fear without being to dark and intense (we wanted to build the tension slowly). we used two tracks as opposed to one simply because we wanted two separate
moods (or sections) within the opening. the first track 'night of chaos' is much less intense  and more ambient (but still builds tension) which is exactly what we wanted as it sets the scene and , whilst is sounds quite mysterious it wasn't too intense and it couldn't be, because we needed to establish narrative and setting to ease the audience into the film before the music becomes more intense and changes to ' Darkness is coming' when it becomes apparent that Izzy is being closely followed.

does your use of conventions indicate what other thrillers have influenced your work?
One Hour Photo, the collector, the people under the stairs, the lovely bones.



 All these films explore and incorporate similar themes: kidnapping, stalking, elements are portrayed by using tension and suspense to create a thriller style and fit with the conventions of thriller.
One hour photo and The lovely bones both delve into the phycology behind the Antagonists i.e how the obsession grows and why they have become this way.

Audience Interviews

Promotional Poster

survey (audience research)

https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/CSU4WyRh90_2FS_2BQv8Kx6VHgD4flOI_2BiSKTKR5tJqb6hM_3D

implications in the first 2 minutes of a thriller film

Implications in the first 2 mins of a Thriller film (Isabelle smith)

The first 2 minutes of a film has many implications on the film as a whole; a mood needs to be created, a narrative needs to be established as well as a strong opening can all be important as a hook to engage the audience. If people aren’t intrigued or gripped by the opening it can have an effect of people having a more negative opinion of the film overall, so the opening to minutes is vital as it establishes certain key themes and indicates what kind of film this is going to be (genre).

Panic room: the first 2 minutes is solely the opening credits in the background of New York City, while this could be considered as not particularly gripping, it is done in a way which sets the mood and tone predominately through sound and the films score. In the opening indents there is a sound of thunder as if a storm is brewing, as well as this sound unnerving the audience it could be argued foreshadows later events in the film. The score (by Howard Shore) is important as most of the pieces follows a similar sort of pattern to the overture in the opening credits; it begins with a double bass playing a very minor, deep base tune, so the audience begin to feel more unsettled and are made more aware of the tone of the film and an implication that something unpleasant or bad is on the brink of occurring. This is reiterated by the sound of police sirens suggesting that crime is one of the key themes. The music gets noticeably more in the minor key as it slowly pans across Jodie Foster’s name (which is in white bold text and appears to be a part of the one of the cities buildings signs)which signifies her importance, and may also suggest that she is in danger. Not long after this we see the film title which appears to be floating in the city among the buildings as soon as it cuts to Kristen Stewarts name the music’s pace increases dramatically it has a much more staccato pace it is much shorter and faster which successfully keeps you on edge and arguably it could be foreshadowing the theme claustrophobia, the fear of being trapped. The music reflects this theme by the increasing intensity of the music, it becomes more jerky and a tapping begins and gets faster (possibly mimicking the increasing heartbeat). The implications of the opening are effective in foreshadowing like feeling uncomfortable (e.g. when Kristen and Jodie are hiding in the panic room from the criminals) later events and keeping the audience intrigued by the unnerving sounds and music  and the new York city setting and therefore would have a more positive opinion of the film as a whole as openings are often crucial in setting up ideas, key themes and symbolism in the film so when done effectively has the implication of making the rest of the film more engaging as it relates to the start of the film.

Inception: the opening of the film has lots of implications on the rest of the film as we don’t really understand at this point why certain things or people are there as we are not aware of what significance they carry yet. This leads us to asking a lot of questions in our head, the mystery arguably helps us to pay attention to what’s going on in the opening 2 minutes as we are trying to engage ourselves to understand what it all means. The film begins with brass music, its very deep and increases in pitch and intensity throughout the company idents. The opening shot is an extreme close-up of some strong waves smashing up against rocks, the music previous to this reflects the wave’s strength and power, the fact that the music has stopped when the waves are shown could imply that a harsh sea storm has just passed. The next shot leaves us asking questions in our head;  an extreme close-up of Leonardo Dicaprio swept up from the sea, we are intrigued as we want to know how he got there. It then cuts to two young children playing and laughing on the beach, the shot is slowed down and the shouts and cries sound echoic almost as if they are not there, this is also reiterated when Dicaprio tries to reach out his hand to them whist still on the ground which suggests that he cannot reach them in the sense that they are fictional and that they are significant to Dicaprios character. When he closes his eyes this is foreshadowing later events ‘ the dream within a dream’ theme. Significant objects are shown in the opening 2 minutes which implies that they will be important to the narrative later on. The spinning top for example; the man who has taken Dicaprio to his house is intrigued by it, “I've seen one of these before” which connotes that is more than just a regular spinning top and speaks about it as if it is of great rarity. The opening in Inception whilst unclear is very intriguing as it helps us identify narrative and has the implication of gripping us and helping us understand later events as they are foreshadowed in the opening.