Evaluation5):How did you attract and address your target audience.

Secondary research:

I used secondary research in order to help me attract and address my target audience. The reason is because secondary research helped me to identify the conventions that are used in a thriller to appeal to the target audience. For instance, secondary research helped me to identify the convention of a female victim with the colour of the clothes that she is wearing to connote her vulnerability.

Further from my research, I found the target audience of thrillers are people aged between 15-40, unisex, employed people, students or unemployed people. Also, the target audience are all ethnicities, it is not specific to one race.

The thriller audience enjoys conventions that are in the thriller genre, mainly the types of characters, especially the male anatgonist who is used to intimidate other characters in the movie and to be the person that the audience fears. Another convention, that is liked by the audience is the Iconography used. The iconography in thrillers is usually blood, weapons and money and all these conventions appeal to the audience into seeing what happens next.

The emotion that the target audience feel towards the thriller genre are tension, fear, excitement and suspense. These emotions among the target audience mainly occur when the action is taking place. Overall, the audience will have enjoyment in unique characters and plots that are twisted.
From my research, I decided that the target audience for my product should be:

Age/s: 15-40

Gender: Unisex

Ethnicity: Diverse

Occupation: Mainly students/employed and unemployed people

Hobbies/Interests: Socialising, watching thrillers and horrors, going out and being thrilled in many ways.

Attracting my target audience:

I designed a questionnaire to receive the expectations of my target audience and what they wanted for my media thriller product. The questionnaire results helped me to realise the elements and conventions that I needed to include within my thriller. This was good because the results were specific, relevant to my ideas and the feedback was from people I wanted to appeal to.


Four questions asked in my questionnaire:

One key question I asked was "What thriller character appeals to you the most out of a female victim ,antagonist and a protagonist? Most answers I received were for the male antagonist. This meant that I needed to make the male antagonist the main focus in my thriller film, to make sure that I was addressing my target audiences needs and desires.

Another key I asked was "What is your favourite sub-genre thriller? The options were out of psychological,crime,horror and action. The results showed that most people said that their favourite was psychological. This meant that I should use a psychological element within my thriller to appeal to the target audience and try to attract them.

Also I asked a key question of "What gender victim do you prefer?" between a male or female. The majority of the answers were in favour of a female becoming the victim. This means that I need to have a female as the victim, in order to make it more appealing.

Feedback from my target audience:

Positive: People in my target audience had enjoyed the thriller I made with my group here are the some of the positive comments I received:
"The thriller had carried out my expectations, in terms of making me excited but with fear at the same time. I found the characters very appealing in different ways".- Sean Mutiso 17 years old.
"The thriller lived up to the standards of the film genre, especially with the tension that was created"- Jordan 17 years old.

Negative: However, other people in my target audience had disappointing feedback to say about my thriller, here are some of the negative comments:
" In my opinion, the thriller was too typical and also it didn't create much tension as I had expected".- Samuel 18 years old.
"The narrative of the thriller was too complex for me, it was hard to follow the thriller, for it wasn't making sense".- Chloe 18 years old.



Focus groups:

These focus groups show the production and work of our thriller production in process.

Evaluation1): In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

THE TASK:

The task was to produce a 2 minute thriller opening, that fufills the conventions and expectations of it's film genre. This must be the result of the research and planning that we did before we started filming and editing.In additon, we had to use all of the micro-elements within our thriller productand ensure we were following conventions.

GENERIC CONVENTIONS OF A THRILLER:

In cinematography, conventions involve film shots,angles and movement. One convention, is a high angle which is used to show the inferiority of a female victim or a protagonist. Another convention for thriller within cinematography is the use of a low angle. Low angle shots is used to show the superiority of the antagonist during the film, it makes the antagonist more intimidating to the audience than the other characters. A close up shot is another convention as it is used to view  detail of Iconography and character etc. With editing, the generic conventions are slow paced editing which is used to build up tension amongst the audience. Fast editing, is a convention as it speeds up tension and suspense amongst the audience. In Mise en scene the generic conventions of iconography are gun, knife and blood. The types of characters are victims and antagonists.



GENERIC CONVENTIONS WITHIN MY THRILLER:



Cinematography: One convention that we used is a close up shot on the female victim. This will show the audience and give the impression that the girl has just had a disturbing dream, therefore showing the effectiveness of what this shot has on the audience. This uses and develops conventions because from my research I found close up shots that are used in existing thriller films create and influence the impact of any action that is taking place.

Editing: Slow paced editing, is mainly used to build up tension and suspense among the audience. This happens when the antagonist steps into the kitchen to murder the female victim. This will be effective in making the audience see what is going to happen next with the suspense that is building.

Fast paced editing is used when the female victim is attacked. This speeds up the action in the film and the tension within the audience as the victim is being murdered. This develops conventions.

Sound: Non diegetic sound is used in the thriller with the soundtrack. This gives the impression to the audience that the thriller would be haunting and the sound will have an influence in the tension that will later be created within the audience.

MES:

Costume: The main colours of the costume that we used were black and white, the victim wearing white while the antagonist is wearing black . This was to inform the audience the characteristics of the characters which the colours connote in the thriller. White will connote vulnerability and weakness of the female victim. Black will connote bad motives of any person.

Iconography:  The Iconography that is used in the thriller fits the expectation of the audience. A phone is used by the female victim to text the antagonist a message that is going to motivate him to murder her as a result of his obsession. This shows the significance of the mobile phone. This Iconography is used in the first movie of Scream where the girl Dru is being blackmailed by a masked killer on a phone. Even though, the phone has been used differently, it still has significance.

Knife, is another Iconography that is in the thriller used by the male antagonist. The knife will connote the bad and evil intentions of the male antagonists towards the female victim as he murders her or tries to. Similarly, in Scream the masked antagonist breaks into the house to kill the female victim. This develops conventions of the thriller genre.

Setting: The setting also fits the expectations of the audience in terms of convention. The setting is a house where the female victim is the only person living there. The house is isolated which is the reason why it fits with the conventions. The house is where the main action will take place making it significant. This shows the use of conventions.



CONVENTIONS OF A TARGET AUDIENCE AND OPENING CREDITS:

The target audience  like to get an emotional response that is being scared,anxious and frightened . In the case of thrillers, the generic convention will be a to appeal to an audience that is aged 15 and over. The reason for this age is because a target audience that is below the age of 14 will not be able to relate to themes of thrillers and they will also not be able to watch the content. This is what we took in consideration when we were making our thriller, to make sure our content used and developed that of the 15 certificate.



THE NARRATIVE CONVENTIONAL STRUCTURE THAT WE FOLLOWED:

The narrative theories we used for thriller were aristotle and barthes theories. The aristotle influence comes when there is a climax of the tension when the female victim is being tormented. The Barthes influence comes into play with the connotation of the vulnerability of the female character and the connotationsof the bad motives of the antagonist.

Planning:Pre- production paperwork

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE:

In the production schedule, it states what is going to happen in the film production. Everyone in the film crew must be given this to be aware of the time and dates for the film production. This will help the film to run smoothly.

Location recce:

This form is for the location for the filming, to see if the location is perfect for the filming and the plot to take place. It is crucial for everyone to have this form so that everyone is aware of the location that the filming is going to take place.

Release and Consent agreement:

This form is for the actors mainly to neogotiate the terms and agreements made by the film producers the form must be signed and given to every person that is involved or part of the caast. This form will influence the film to run smoothly as there will be no disputes over the agreement being signed or not.

LOCATION RELEASE:

The location release is document that is legal and it gives the film crew permission to film. The terms and agreements are made and dicussed between the film crew production and the local company,councilor people who gives us the permission to film there. Without this legal document, the film crew will be ilegally prohibited for filming without a signed approval to film. But with a signed location release the film crew can prove that they have the right to film on the location.

RISK ASSESSMENT:

This is the most important form that everyone in the film crew should have as the film crew will crucially have to be aware of the risks that could arise during the filming of the real production. Therefore, the risk assesment form will help the director and producers to make plans to avoid the risks from ocurring on the location, which could be be hazardous in reality. The risks of the location should be known by every person on the film crew.

Planning: Storyboard

STORYBOARD:
Storyboard is the graphical representation of a narrative that is used to plan the plot of a film. The storyboard shows each movement that will take place in a film production. This benefits our groups because it prepares us for what we aim to film in our thriller opening. The story board has information that is essential to our thriller opening. For example, the nuber of shots, the angle were filming from, number of scenes in the thrilller opening etc.

 

This storyboard helps us to give a visual aim of what we want to happoen in our thriller.
The main features it has is:
.Lighting
.Sound
.Costume
.Editing
.Props
.Location
.Camera shot
.Narrative description
.Actor

CONCLUSION:
The storyboard represents the ideas of every member within my group. This is the format that we are going to follow when we are filming.

Planning: Sound

PLANNING SOUND:

In our thriller, it is also crucial for us to plan the sound we are going to use for it will create the atmosphere and mood of emotion etc .

One of the sounds we are going to use diegetic sound to make it part of our thriller. The diegetic sound will be shown throughout the film, as is actual sound will be recorded in our thriller. One of the actual sounds that will be recorded is the heaay breathing of fear from the female character this shows the audience that she is scared and vulnerable making them relate to her.

Another sound, that will be used in our thriller is non-diegetic sound. Non-diegetic sound will be used as we plan to use sound effects to create more tension amongst the audience especially. It will; be specifically used when the female character/victim opens her eyes from her tormenting nightmare. It will also create a cliffhanger and reminds the audience that it is only a dream. Non diegetic sound also creates connotations that are different and makes the audience anxious for the next scary scenes that are coming.

Soundtrack will be used to influence and enhance the theme in the thriller to raise the level; standard of fear, mainly amongst the audience.

Planning: Character representation

CHARACTER REPRESENTATION:

Character representation gives the audience more of an insight into the narrative, which is the reason for it being useful in the film production. In order for a film to be conventional to it's genre it is crucial for representations of a character to meet the audience's expectation within that genre.

Name:Unknown

Age:15+

Character Role: Victim

Gender Stereotype of role: Female and Beautiful

Costume: Light coloured normal clothes/Pyjamas

Hair and Make-up: Simple/Normal, Natural, Straight hairstyle

Body language and facial expression: Small/average size, Physically weak.
 Usually portrays a emotion of fear     
Represented as: Vulnerable, Inferior, and a beautiful character

Role within the narrative: To be tormented by the anatgonist in the thriller.

The audience will be in fear for this character as she is being tormented in her home. For they can relate to this female victim/character.

Name: Unknown

Age:15+

Character role: Antagonist

Gender Stereotype of role: Male

Costume: Dark normal clothes

Hair and make up: Natural.

Body language and Facial expression:  Strong-physique
                                                                Evil looking

Represented as: Intimidating, Superior

Role within the narrative: To torment the female victim inside her home.

The audience will be in fear of this character as he is tormenting the female character. Also, at the same time the audience will also be showing dislike towards this character (male anatagonist) as well.

As you can see, there are two characters in total within the thrilller production, This analysis of the roles for both charactders helps me more to understand how the narrative is going to play out. In additon, this would benefit the audience in understanding the narrative and characters much easier. This analysis will help my group to think about our characters more carefully and to see how we can improve them in our thriller. My group will now know how the characters should look and act in the film production, due to this analysis.

Planning: Mise en Scene

MISE EN SCENE:

As I explained in one of my earlier posts, mise es scene is setting,lighting,body language, facial expression, costume and Iconography.

MIS ES SCENE IN MY THRILLER:

In my 2 minute thriller, mis es scene will be crucially used every time and to make conventional to a thriller.


LIGHTING:
.Natural lighting  will be used when the girl arrives home from work. This will help convey the atmosphere and the mood that is taking place for the audience to watch. Also, lowkey lighting will be used when the antagonist is introduced in the thriller, this is used to make the antagonist make more intimidating to the audience as well as the film.

SETTING:
.The setting will be a Isolated house where the female character lives by herself. We chose this setting because it is very convetional to a thriller, since it is a Isolated location .The female character is living by herself,making the audience fear for her.

BODY LANGUAGE/FACIAL EXPRESSION:
.The body language of the female character will associate with fear and vulnerability, therefore her body language will be tensed up as she fears for her safety since she is physically vulnerable. Her facial exppression will be similar in terms of her fear, her face will portray a emotion of fear to the audience that are fearing for her as she sees the antagonist. As for the antagonist, the body language will portray intimidation to the audience as well as the female character, with the way he stands in the female character's bedroom . In other words, the body language of the antagonist will associate with their character through Intimidation. Facial expression of the antagonist will be a expression that strikes fear into the audience as well. It will be portrayed when he's in the girl's bedroom and when he stands in the kitchen of the female character.

COSTUME:
. The costume of the female character will be clothes of bright colours or white to connote her mental and physical vulnerability and innocence, in other words it will associate with the other mise es scenes that are being portrayed in the thriller.
 .As for the antagonist, he will have a dark costume in order to connote his dark motives and to portray his intimidation to the female character and the audience.

ICONAGRAPHY:
. The Iconography that we will use will help determine the action that happens in the thriller. For instance, when the girl has the keys to open her front door it is clear to the audience that the action will take place in the home within the 2 minutes. The Iconography will influence tension amongst the audience, to summarize the point  I am making on our use of Iconography and the impact that we intend it to have.