Thriller Evaluation

AS Media Studies
Thriller Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge form and conventions of real media products?
Our thriller film uses codes and conventions of real conspiracy thriller movies by having the tension all the way through the film. We have managed to do this by creating a quite serious image for the film; by having two smartly dressed men doing a bag swap without properly looking at each other, showing hardly any facial expression; by having the lightning jumping in as soon as the film starts; clearly having the unmistakable bags, where the audience would immediately know that whatever is inside has some worth, creating suspense; bringing in the hooded man to go after Teddy and steal the bag back which performs one of the best things you could have in a situation like this, for a thriller movie. We have used the instant arousal idea (where David goes after Teddy), from the “Watching” documentary. We have done this because, as it says in the documentary “a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn’t know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn’t know too little”. We have portrayed this by preventing the audience from knowing too much. For example, the audience do not know the purpose of the mobile phone in the bag, which leaves some mystery to it. Also the audience know some aspects of the film, such as the fact that Emre has conned Teddy by having David, Emre’s partner, to go after Teddy to get the bag back from him, which only the audience know about. As Alfred Hitchcock says, “Let ‘em play god; they’ll work like a devil for you because they know what fate is facing for the poor actors.”

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Although the actors in the film were all 16-17 year old college students, we aimed our target audience to be 25-40 year olds, possibly middle class and have a job in a formal workplace. The way we established this, was by getting out of our usual clothes and to go for a smarter look, because this social group are most likely to appoint to this article of clothing on a daily basis. The reason why we didn’t have David smartly dressed was because he wasn’t part of the exchange of bags and that his job of stealing the bag from Teddy required for him to wear a hood, because he was engaging in noticeable criminal activity, so he couldn’t show his face. We also thought about David’s clothing to represent the stereotype of a robber. Our thriller was made in the Barbican Centre, which helped justify the extent of which the bag swap had a serious role in. The Barbican Centre was quite desirable for our location as the structure of the area and the tall buildings surrounding it had some representation of businessmen/women having a job there. The codes and conventions were best suited to the 25-40 year old category because that is the age group that would have the highest level of employment, and that the idea of business would relate mostly to 25-40 year olds. The idea of middle class came to mind as people in that class would have a job associated to an office or in the management area, so the Barbican Centre also gets points for that. The maturity of the thriller would also have the biggest impact on out target audience, as other audiences, such as the younger generation are more likely to watch films with greater action and adventure.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our thriller film was influenced greatly by the briefcase scene in the film Collateral, where two men go after Tom Cruise to get his bag, and since it is a successful movie, it may have a positive impact on our film too in the Hollywood scene. It also fits quite well into being a thriller film, as it performs the codes and conventions of a thriller film, such as creating the suspense and leaving a mystery, and letting the audience “play God”.

However, the actors aren’t in the age group that they have targeted the film to be at, so it would seem very amateur, because people in a certain age range would inherit different characteristics, for example the clothes they wear, their posture, their attitude, the way they speak and their appearance. The lighting or the quality of the image isn’t up to date compared to what we would receive from the Hollywood film industry. Overall, in my opinion I would say that our film may not shape up to fit into Hollywood standards.

Nevertheless, I would see this movie as a British underdog rather than a Hollywood mainstream movie and would think that it has a chance to draw itself into Britain’s movie screens.

I think this film would be accepted by the British film industry, as our film has the factors that make a film British. In terms of the atmosphere its dark, its dreary weekday in London, and the characters are in a rush to get the bag swap over and done with. The level of lighting is one good example. Our film is quite dark and many British films possess that feel. It’s almost like a disease. The Barbican is also another good example as it is a well known location in London. Compared to American films it also has people from ethnic minorities which reflect a diverse British culture.

Also it will be suited to placing a spot on the famous YouTube website, as it is recognized for hosting many types of video production, including amateur films, documentaries, music videos etc. Yet it will need quite a lot of attention and web hits to become noticeable worldwide and make a name for itself. After some research I found that our thriller film was quite similar to another amateur film called “The Briefcase: chase scene”. It is about a boy walking a long distance and after some time he finds himself being followed by another person, and his aim is to grab that bag off him. It’s had 594 views and is getting positive comments from other YouTube users. I think YouTube has its highly respected reputation for having a ground for amateur videos, and is the type of media we would like to distribute our video to.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My audience would go as follows. A 25-30 year old entrepreneur who is making a considerable good amount of money because of his genius. He has a good sense of humour and has good negotiation skills. He is a success. He loves to watch Dragons Den and likes to grab ideas for his next invention. He drives a brand new Audi, with his own personal number plate. He is very much into his social life as he goes out to bars and clubs in the weekend. He is single, and makes the most out of it.

5. How will you attract/address your audience?
I will attract my target audience through billboards around the UK. A billboard is a suitable method to approach my target audience as they will be outside, at work, at lunch, unavoidable seeing advertisements like these. The billboard itself will have just a photo of Teddy, turning behind his back with an angry facial expression. That billboard will give the idea that he is going to do something unpleasant, for example take revenge. But we will show that he is “the good guy” on the billboard. Also I would extend the presence of our thriller by having trailers onto the internet, with a great deal of slow motion shots and a beat to go with every shot that pops up. I will use sources such as YouTube and Vimeo. I will also raise the awareness of our thriller through social networking websites such as Facebook and create its own discussion group for people to put their views about the film.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
My experiences of filming and editing have been phenomenal, as I have gained new skills using the camera and getting to grips with the editing software Final Cut Pro. Filming has been fun as we didn’t suffer any problems during the process, and experimented with the camera angles to make our film look neat. We used as many shots as we could that would suit our thriller. I used to do some editing before, but final cut pro on a Mac was more of a challenge for me, as I wasn’t familiar with using Mac’s and that I didn’t know how to use Final Cut Pro. My editing skills, such as log and capture, creating effects and adding text into the video have expanded. I have also used the internet whilst making and editing the film. This was to help me blog for every lesson I had during the project.

7. What was the audience feedback from the class and cinema?
When we showed the video in class to the other groups we had in set 1, they were pleased with the plot for the film, that it was a conspiracy thriller and it had its unique vibe to it. They found that the soundtrack went well with the film, as it was a good combination of opera sounds that we used from the software provided.

In the cinema the audience were very happy with our performance as there was cheering from many people, and we got an applause after the film had finished.

8. Compare your thriller film to your preliminary task?
Our thriller film, compared to our preliminary film showed that we put great efforts into this project. The reason is because, although our prelim was enjoyable to watch, it didn’t grasp the idea of a thriller film. Instead it was more of a comedy, as we had David smiling all the way along the film.