All thrillers consist of creating suspense, and therefore thrilling the audiance. The typical thriller is made up of good guys versus the bad, and we are normaly positioned onto the side of the 'good guy', which typicaly triumphs at the end, restoring justice to the film. We had three choices on how we wished to open our thriller, they were; to start with the films conclusion, leaving the audiance with a high sense of enigma. Start in the middle of the dissequilebrium, meaning the film opens with action, but does not give to much away, which tends to be the case with thrillers that start at the with the films conclusion, and new equilibrium. Or finaly, start at the very beggining, this is not very common as typicaly the audiance want to be given a sense of the thrill yet to come, and this is not the case with this type of opening. We decided that our thriller would start in what would have been the middle of a our feature lengh film, when the distrubense is arising. This type of thriller opening is rare, and thats why we chose it, as it stands out from the rest by challenging traditional forms of films. Also we prefered the concept that by opening with the disturbance, the veiwers are given a small teaser of suspense, without actually giving too much away, like can be the case when a thriller opens with the end of the film.
Our film addressed the usual criteria of a Thriller, such as Engima, leaving the audiance with questions unanswered. Binory opposition, the clear contrast between good and evil. Narrative, the order in which the story is pressented, usually a thriller would be laid out like this; Equilibrium - Disequilibrium - New equilibrium. Protagonist and Antagonist, good and evil, the main charcters that drive the plot of the film forward.
A question that is not immediately answered and thus draws an audience into a text
eg. a body is discovered at the beginning of a tv detective drama. The killer's identity is an enigma. We watch to find out who the killer is.
Narrative
Narrative may be reduced to one simple equation which is
equilibrium - disequilibrium - new equilibrium
Binory Opposition
The contrast between two mutually exclusive concepts or things that creates conflict and drives a narrative e.g. good/evil, day/night, male/female, presence/absence, old/youngProtagonist and Antagonist
Antagonist the character whose function in a plot is to oppose the protagonist. In straightforward hero's journey plots (most action adventures), the antagonist can be referred to as the villain. However, in character drama, the antagonist might not be a "bad" character, just someone who stands between the protagonist and his/her goals.Protagonist
The character who drives the narrative forward, through the choices they make and the actions they take.
The key to any successful thriller opening, is creating tension and enigma, here are a few shots that i feel accomplish that;
This close up shows the distress on the antagonist's face, and has been put in to give
clues as to the possible dissequilibrium between these two. It gives's further
suggestions that these two are the binory opponents in our thriller, but it also leaves certain enigma codes, such as why are these two men opposing each over, and why do they seem to be fairly civilisesed and relexed? However, this is also a good example of restricted narrative as the audiance do not know what reasons the antagonist has to be getting slowly more and more aggresive, and more uneased with the situation. This helps to build tension as well because suggests something may be building up to happen, possibly the disturbance.
This is the first shot after the cut to the tittle sequence, and it is where the disturbance is continoued. The use of an extreme close up shows the viewers the terror in this charcter, and his confusion. However, the audiance do not yet know whether this is the antagonist or protagonist. They also dont know what condition he is in, but the panic and sudden cut into this shot suggests that this charcter also has no idea where he is, what happened and how.
This is the first glimpse the audiance have of what condition the charcter, who turned out to be the protagonist is in, but also the setting is fully established through mis en scene. Such as, the drip he is attached to, the mask, and the heart rate moniter all confirm that he is in a hospital. In addition the lighting used in this shot is dark, adding to the confussion and disorintation suffered from the charcter. Also the close up, portrays the terror on his face, which reflects backs to the veiwers creating the panicing mood we intended.
Screen grab unavalible
This is a long shot of the suspicouse briefcase. As of yet the audiance still have
no idea what is in the briefcase and why it is signicant, so this shot is just to
intensify perspective on the prop, and too raise even more enigma codes for the viewers.
The shot was filmed as a POV shot from the antagonist, and is extremely shacky
and this adds to the concept of confussion a panic, but also suggests that
the protagonist is going to the effort of trying to reach the briefcase, despite
it being within his control. Furthermore, the audiance are left asking why, and how
the case managed to remain in his custody, despite him clearly having know understanding
of where he is and how he got here, if the viewers noticed this then it may lead them
to question wheather their is an added twist to the plot that has not yet been seen.
This screen grab shows the final shot of the opening sequence, and it was essential to finish with suspense and many questions unanswered. It is a low angle shot, which portrays the protagonist as a vulnerable person, who is clearly in shock and possibly uneased. Also it shows him latched on to the the breifcase, looking up to the doctors possibly weary of their prescence, which possibly could conotate to the audiance that he is on the run from someone (the antagonist from the plane) and is feeling insucure. There is no diegetic or non diegetic sound here of any kind, it is intentional to intensify the mood just before the cut, it adds to the tension and drama just yet again just for the audiance to be left in the dark and wanting more.
2. How does your media product repressent particular social groups?In any feature lengh film, it is key to ensure the viewers understand what each charchter repressents, and subconciously recongize that persons background, which contributes with positioning the audiance's oppinion of that, and each charachter. This is essential to any good thriller. The typical thriller consists of a protagonist and an antagonist (the protagonist being the good guy, and the antagonist is the bad guy) it is crucial that the viewers can immediatly understand who plays which role, but also to highten oppinion of that person, for example, the antagonist has to come across as the enemy to the audiance, therefore the director has to make that character seem as evil as intended.
In our thriller, Max playing the protagonist, roughly repressents a 20 to 30 year old, middle class man. Max being only 17, meant that we would have to convey the fact that he is portraing an older male through the uses of mis en scene and dialogue. Max was dressed in casual clothing, but plain, less collurful clothes, this is how you would expect a midle aged man, who doesn't worry about his appearence too much, to dress like. Also his hair is brushed to one side, without too much attention to detail, just a simple haircut, reflecting the type of charcter max plays. In addition, we have the steward address our protagonist as "Sir", suggesting maturity to Max's charcter, and also asserting the reader that Max is playing the role of an older male.
And the escort (our antaganost) repressenting a mid thrity's male, who falls into the band of lower, upper-class law enforcing citizen. We make this clear to the audiance through his costume. Dan, the protagonist is dressed in black clothing, to suggest he is an older man, less concerned with his attire then younger men, but also the black leather jacket has meaning behind it. Leather clothing, especially dark leather, is commonly seen in thriller's, worn by more authoritive figures, therefore this acts as a hint to the veiwers that Dan, has a big part to play in our thriller.
This shot demonstrates clearly how we wanted our two main charchaters to be percieved.
Max on the left, playing the role of the protagonist, is wearing just normal casual clothes, which do not give to much away about him and his personality, but the majorty of the audiance can relate
to him in his fashion. However, Dan our antagonist, has been dressed up with the intention
that the viewers will be able to piece together aspects of this man. The dark colours suggest
he's an older male, but the way he holds himself through body language and facial expressions
hints that this is an authoritive figure, and likely to hold a higher status then our antagonist.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Obviously our thriller opening cost us no more then the price of our train fare's, and therefore was a low budget, simple film. Thiss type of production is what first time directors tend to do, to gain experiance and further knowledge. As a result a low budget film such as ours would certainly not be endorsed by production powerhouses such a Warner Brothers or Paramount pictures.
Therefore, we would expect a smaller, british company who support low budget films to distibute
"Hack". Possibly a company such as Film 4 would endorse our film. This company has helped publice other low budget british films, and supported many local British directors such as Danny Boyle, who has directed box office hits like; 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. All these films also fall roughly within the "thriller" genre.
The benefit of having film 4 produce our film, is that over recent years they have been behind some of the biggest films made, and therefore have built up a trust with its audiance that they endorse only the best. But also, channel four community has a vast expanse on the television world, therefore they could advertise our film on many different channels.
4. Who would be the audiance for your media product?
Our thriller is designed to be make the audiance think. The opening gives clues to the rest of the film, and potentially key concepts that the veiwer must recongise in order to understand the film. Therefore i would say our target audiance would be males between the ages of 14 and 26. My reasoning behind this is through the fact that its a computer based thriller, consisitng of violence and your typical boyish dialogue. So i would say our thriller would appeal to the typical technological thriller based audiance.
This chart shows the results we gained from asking 100 boys and girls if they where interrested in the genre that is thriller...
The results were stageringly in favour of the traditional stereo-type that boys prefere actions packed films like is typical in a thriller, whereass girls are far less keen. This is why are targeted audiance was focused heavily on males.
5. How did you attract/address your
audiance?
Our target audiance varied from young teenagers, to mid twenty's adults. And the film itself is targeted more at stereo typical men. Therefore to appeal to our audiance we had to first consider what would attract our audiance and draw them into the synopsis. Although it seems cliche, teenagers tend to be attracted to rebelious icons in a film, like batman or boyish films like the football factory where the almost outlaw type charchters are idolised. Therefore we decided on making our protagonist be portrayed as a seemingly law opposing middle aged man. We conveyed this to the audiance by having our protagonist remanded in handcuffs, suggesting he has proken the law.
In addition, in order to appeal to the older target audiance, we had to find away to make our audiance relate to our protagonist. We believed we achieved this through mis en scene. Dressing max up in a simmilar attire you would see worn by a typical mid twenties man. But also his natural hair style matched that of an older man, simply and effortlessly sweeped to the side.
This still shows our protagonist, currently being protrayed as a criminal, or an outlaw. This is how the younger audiance of teenagers will idolise our main character, through admiration for his rebeliousness. Also, your given the sence through dialogue that Max will turn out to be the good guy, so the audiance look at him as an outlaw, who's trying to help society instead of hinder it.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
Our preliminary task was hugely instrumentle in developing our pratical media skills as a whole, and also gave us the chance to try out techniques we had learnt, as well as find out our strenghs and weaknesses within the group. I feel that our progression and talent is demonstrated when you compare our two video's.
Preliminary final film:
Progression
Firstly, it is clear that in this film we had to work on our ability to use a tripod fast and effectivly. You can see that in many of the over shoulder shoots, that the camera is shacking, this made our film look unprofessional. Our main issue regarding the tripod was actually the quick change over's between shots. The whole process slowed us down, and as a result of complications, we did not have time to waste on loading and unloading the camera from the tripod. Also as just mentioned, our group suffered major set backs as we lost our footage twice. Since then we learned from our mistakes and became very orgonised with our planning when it came to our second film.
Also we didnt focus on our acting or script in the preliminary, and its clear that it brang the qulity or our film down hear. As a result we made sure that we put more effort into our script planning, and in our final film its clear that we took time and effort at the script turned out to be quite influential in creating a sense of tension and raising suspition.
Furthermore, we were all first time film makers, so we didnt know how long it would take to film or edit. From learning first hand just how long it takes to film a 1 minute piece, we new we had to be completely organised when it came to the 2 miute film in order to meet the deadline.
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