Who would be your audience for your media product?

Using the site http://www.bbfc.co.uk/, i rated our thriller a 15 as itr contains a bit of horror, violence and strong language although the main characters are teenagers they would be older teenagers of about 15/16/17yrs old as the characters acting the parts in our thriller are of these ages.
Symbol stating the age of the film >

The themes within the film could attract many different types of people. The audience of our thriller, with the sub genre being Sci Fi, it could attract a number of audiences.
For example,

• People who believe in Government conspiracies; that the government lies to us about certain issues they'd rather us not knowing and cover them up.
• Support the British Film industry
• Is interested in the thought of alien life/mutants/zombies
• Likes horror/thrillers
• Into Sci-Fi as a genre and interested in the backgrounds of Sci-Fi

The genre typically would attract males as horror/thriller is the type of genre men go for where as women are attracted to romantic comedies. This is stereotypically the audiences attracted to certain films but people do watch films out of their stereotyped genres. In my opinion, when i think of thriller, Sci Fi i think, 'nerds' or clever people who are interested in space who would go for our film.

'NERDS'
Another stereotypical group of people who would enjoy the films could be goths as they are seen to like gore which is a main part of Thriller films.

How did you attract and address your audience?

This is the link to our Opening Sequence on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mPwiZHSGd4 which we uploaded after we finished editing the final touches. Once on YouTube, it is open to members of the public to comment on. This allowed us to read the comments on our profiles and take the constructive criticism and use it to our advantage. Our friends and class mates commented on our opening sequence, giving their views on our video's. Another helpful factor is that, the comments we received were from people the same age as our target audience which was helpful.

The comments on our blog helped us find out what was good about the opening sequence and wasn't. The parts of our opening sequence that people mentioned told us they needed to be changed. For example, we received comments about a technical fault in our opening sequence. A few people mentioned that the transitions were disruptive which we fixed and changed the settings. We had many negative comments but very few negative comments. i believe we reacted well to the constructive criticism and made our opening sequence that little bit better thanks to the comments left on our YouTube page.

The positive comments we recieved showed us that people liked; the camera movement to show the mutants and victims running, the black and white effect used in the beginning with the news report as it made it look proffesional and told us what was going on without actually telling people what is happening and the 'irony' of the innocent, young girl being followed as young girls are seen as victims in thriller films.

The surveys our audience took provided us with the results me needed to help develop the plot of our thriller film so we would know indefinately that the film would attract our target audience. We decided on the sub genre Sci-Fi as through our survey's we learnt that our audiences prefer Sci-Fi.

What type of media institution would distribute our opening sequence, and why?

We discussed that as our film would be produced by a small independent film company we should have a large conglomerate that would be suitable for our film which is a small British indie film, such as, Celador or Fox Searchlight Pictures as they would help us reach a large audience and makes a large profit. Fox searchlight would be best as they distributed big indie films such as Juno and 28 days later, which both made a lot of money from their indie films.
Fox light is owned by a big media conglomerate which means that cross media convergence is cheaper as the company doesn't have to go out and find another company to use as it's already there.
There are many different types of media to advertise across such as; TV - large media conglomerate that owns Fox light is News's corp, they own the large channel 'Sky' which means advertising on their channel would be cheaper. This includes adverts, trailers etc.
Newspapers - owns various papers, The Sun being one of them. Newspapers can be used for putting adverts in or perhaps having interviews or main actors or include magazines for children or adults inside the newspapers about the film advertising it and convincing people to go to the cinema and watch.

Fox Searchlight Pictures has distributed the films The Hills Have Eyes and 28 Days Later, both with similar plots to our film. One is produced by An American company and one by a British company, both have mutants who have been mutated. They both have similar characters and plots and as the company have produced 2 films, like ours, there is more of a chance they'd be interested in ours as it's similar to them both.

The Hills Have Eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O76m3kpgPTQ

28 Days Later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEkJAaGhJhQ






+ They both have mutants who are the villians in their film.
+They are both set in deserted locations
+The main characters are young

Although, Pathe Pictures could be a distributor of ours. They support small indie British films like ours such as Creep which is a British film that Pathe distributed for whose plot is similar to ours as Fox searchlight is a large company which may not distribute a low budget film like ours.

In what ways does our clip use, develop or challenge conventions?

Our opening sequence shows the genre of our film though the conventions shown,

• The first convention we see in the opening sequence is the young girl who is being followed. Children are used in thrillers as they are seen as innocent and defensless in the face of danger also later on in the opening sequence, the mutants other victims are also innocent girls as females are seen as being vunerable.
• The idea of mutants being used can be seen in different genres such as sci fi but in our plot, the mutants are muderers and humanlike, different species of life are shown in thriller films also the mutants faces were always hidden from the audience to create mystery and make the audience want to carry on watching and make question what they are looking for. Their clothing also is a tell tale thriller sign, ripped, bloodstained, dark coloured clothes are also conventions of a thriller film as they are signs of trouble and a struggle prehaps which show the mutants are evil rather than innocent.
• We include blood, murder, eerie music and screams, revenge and mystery are all conventions of thriller films.
• The setting of the film is in a quiet desolated park which is a good setting for a thriller film as it can show the desperation of the victims as they have no-one to help them. They are shown as being the only ones in the park, apart from the mutants.
• The use of shots also shows us the genre of film we are watching. Our thriller uses some panning and also tracking to show running and following to create tension and fear with the audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

On my groups blog made character profiles for the actors in our opening sequence of a thriller film. We compared them to characters in other thriller films that are simular to ours such as, 28 Days Later. The characters in our opening sequence were all teenagers which tends to attract teenagers to watch the film as they can relate to the characters from all classes, ethnicities and both sexes.

Click here for a link to our my group block.
http://maya-amber-aimee-niall.blogspot.com/2009/12/character-development-by-maya-and-niall.html

Task 2 - Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd - Tim Burton.

Narrative:

• We get a feeling the film is about death due to all the blood.
• In the begining of the film we see mince meat and pies being made.
• Also a red , white and blue pole on the building telling us it's a barber's
• The begining shows lots of chimney's and cobbled houses telling us it's set a long time ago.
• No major company advertised - shows the film is funded by the director and is not advertised by a big company which means a company wouldn't advertise for it or the director is self reliant.
• what is the significance of the pies? the blood? the barbers?
• the dingy shop looks creepy
• the lack of people in the begining sequence is almost scary and makes the audience wonder who owns the house.
• Organ music used to create a atmosphere of fear
  

Mise En Scene:

• thunder, lightening, rain, clouds, chimney's, smoke, barber shop, dirty windows, a chair, blood, trap door, cog's, minced meat, fire, pies, oven rats.
• The lighting is extremely dim and gloomy to show the film is set in the past where they had no street lights etc. Also the film is a Tim burton film and he always using really dark gloomy settings. The lightening in the begining brings some light to the sky but overall the lighting is very dark and dim to give it a creepy feel.
  
  

Camera Shot's and Angle's:

• Dolly - slowly moves across the landscape capturing the sky then slowly moving down towards roof of a barbers.
• Close ups - of all the different shots and objects in the film.
• Long shot - looking down on the chair but it somehow gives it a powerful look.
• Point of view shot - the whole opening sequence is like it is being filmed from a p.o.v shot as your following everything around and it's filmed all in one shot.
• Racking Focus - It goes from the background then moves backwards to show the houses and street.
• Low angle - to capture the weather and make a atmosphere.
• Crane Shot - of chair to highlight it and show it is a important part of the film.

Movement:

• Slow shots of the beginning of the film to make it seem more spooky and create tension and suspense for the audience. The camera follows objects which take over each other e.g blood, meat, rat etc. which our eyes follow.
• A rat is used to show dirtiness and fith.
• The main concept seems to be the blood. A theme of blood trickling down through the darkness of the industrial london. It is a visual journey of dread and eeriness.

Task 3 - Opening Sequence Of A Thriller

Taxi Driver

Genre:

The close up of the eyes create mystery otherwise known as 'enigma' the smoke and the feeling of not knowing also creates a particular image typical of a thriller film.
The music is louder at times and quieter at others this creates a feeling of suspense and leaves us hooked for more which is needed in a thriller.

Characters:

We only see the main characters eyes which doesn't tell us much about the character. The only thing we know for sure through different shots is that he is a taxi driver and the name of the film tell us this.

Conventions:

Red and black coloured titles.
A heavily populated city which is easy to loose someone and hard to find people in which creates a good setting for a thriller.
Tense/suspense music.
A lonely character that holds a grudge against people/nations or organisations.

How It Keeps The Audience Watching:

The tension filled music which increases in pitch and frequency.
By changing from light to dark to change the moods amid atmosphere.

Question's We Want Answered:

Who is the man?
where is he going?
why is he a taxi driver?
Why is he looking out the window?

Analysing Opening Sequences Of A Thriller Film.

Edward Scissor Hands



Titles
In the beginning of Edward scissor hands the first thing you see is the advertising of the conglomerate '20Th Century Fox' which is surrounded by snow to give it a eery effect of a cold desolate surrounding which tells us that's there is loneliness and coldness towards some characters.


The advertisements have thin, long text which looks creepy and old and in a white font which makes us think the film may be frightening or scary. It also may relate to the snow at the beginning and contrasts against the dark background. The size is small for titles of the film as it is harder to read and makes the background look darker and spooky.

The title 'Edward Scissor Hands' creates a sense of thrill as it seems to appear from in front of your eyes and flies towards the back to be viewed and then drifts out. This creates a sense of confusion and in a spooky atmosphere perhaps fear. The text is the same as the advertisements, White, long & thin text which stands out against the dark backgrounds. The title is slightly at a angle which also creates a sense of confusion. The title is the zoomed up on and the text begins to form a pair of scissors which relates to the film Edward Sscissor Hands.

The Names of the actors also rotate slightly in the same font as the rest of the text but the font colour is slightly different. It either goes from white to dark blue or blue to white and then fades out blending with the background. All the while the film is still beginning to show you the first few parts of the film. This carries on throughout the beginning of the film until the very start of the film.