Our thriller incorporates several generic conventions of a thriller such as in our burial scene we have a close up of a shovel pouring dirt into a grave, which a fairly stereotypical thriller sequence, and contains an element of mystery and intrigue, both key aspects of a thriller.
(the lighting is reduced due to the uploader, the final piece is much more visible)
However we also challenge these conventions with our protagonist. Instead of a standard, run of the mill, psychologically impaired and evil murderer, in tend on fulfilling their murderous desires, we have a very influencable teenager who isn't inherently evil, but is brainwashed by the cult.
How does your media product represent partiular social groups?
The main character is depicted as a dominant person, however that is because there isn't another character to challenge him for dominance. The dominance does waver in moments of weakness, such as the mirror scene.
The character's social representation is linked to the target audience as he is familiar to the target age group as he is of the same sort of age, and so the target audience can relate to him.
What kind of media institution might disribute your media product and why?
It could be produced by a major Hollywood institution, because it shares a number of conventions of a typical thriller, such as the cliffhanger/suspense building opening which leaves some unanswered questions, however it differentiates from the normal thriller in subtle ways that make it more unique, such as we know the identity of the killer from the start, and the killer isn't actually evil.
The thriller offers sequel opportunities and merchandising potential, for example, a second film could be made based around the cult recovering from the events of the prequel. In terms of merchandise, it offers potential action figurines in the form of the main character and the cult leader, but I think they could only be sold in specialist shops because the film wouldn't appeal to a huge audience and the majority of the consumers would most likely be collectors, but if distributed on a small scale to specialist shops, then some profit could be made, however it wouldn't be anywhere near as large as a more mainstream movie's merchandise.
The visual style of our thriller is very dark and sinister, and we achieve this through our use of lighting, props, costume and editing. Most of our lighting is dark/barely lit, for example the house POV shot scene is lit with only candles, the living room light and a torch held by the cameraperson, which create a very sinister effect.
In terms of props, the spade in itself is portrayed not only as a tool, but the character also carries it like a weapon, and this makes the spade seem like an instrument of death. Costume also adds to this sinister feel, dark baggy clothing and a hoodie creates a feeling of anonymity as the character could easily blend into a crowd. With the editing, shots like the close up of the character's boot, and flashes with the jump cuts, create a mysterious and suspense building atmosphere.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our thriller would likely appeal to a teenage audience, as they would be able to relate to it, but due to the dark nature of this film, they would be late teens, and also a more middle age audience would be attracted for the thrill aspect.
How did you attract/address your audience?
By using a main character who is similar to our target audience in terms of age, we made the film relatable to teenagers.
To do this we had several shots designed to appeal to our teenage target audience. The most prominent example of this being the mirror clone, which I've spoken about above, but it is attractive to teenagers, as it has paranormal/supernatural implications, which fascinates young people, for example, Paranormal Activity has been a very popular film amongst teenagers.
A TV trailer for Paranormal Activity :
The generic conventions that our film conforms to is the building of suspense, though the use of music and camera angles, the POV shot is quite fear inducing, and the use of cliff hangers, such as the burial scene, where the audience is left with unanswered questions.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
The camera's did the job, however the quality wasn't fantastic, due to the age and mega pixels of the camera, and also it would refocus if the lighting was adjusted, for example if something reduced the light on the lens, such as someone walking past it, and would create a horrible gritty blur for a moment, however this could be solved by having the focus set to manual. Also the camera's weren't very good at picking up light, and the battery life was very minimal, but these flaws were not too hard to work around.
Lighting was our biggest problem. The camera wasn't picking up light very well, so we had to supplement it with torches and other sources of light, such as a car's headlights, to get the lighting level we wanted, due to the fact that lighting was reduced upon playback and through the viewer. We used new Apple Macs and Final Cut Express to edit and splice our movie, but that's it in terms of relatively new equipment.
I have learnt a lot about Final Cut Express throughout the production of our opening. Implementing text, overlays, effects and superimposing images were fairly simple to get the hang of, and by the end of it I was proficient in using them all. Using keyframes to fade music in and out throughout our opening greatly improved the atmosphere of our film, and the mirror clone shot was great for showing a whole new level of depth for the character by cropping in a second clip on the other half of the screen to achieve the clone trick. Also using a couple of effects enhanced the atmosphere further, such as the blurry flash during the POV sequence where the character looks at the table, and were easy to implement. Also specific features such as the sped up and slowed down POV sequence and the day night cycle were fairly easy to achieve after I learned how to manipulate the speed of the clips, and they worked fantastically to make our film a bit different and more suspenseful.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
My use of specific shot types has improved greatly. The POV sequence was mostly improvisational, in terms of what I filmed, apart from the path I was to take which was planned out, and took a few takes, however to create realism I just reacted on impulse, looking around my surroundings, lingering on important objects or symbolic surroundings, and subtly shivering at the sight of the cult bible. Also flowing from POV to medium long shot was tricky, however with planning we figured out the best angle to film from as to avoid breaking the flow and atmosphere.
After the production process I feel infinitely more confident with the equipment we used. Editing in Final Cut was new to, but by the time the final edits were made, and the length of the sound clips were synchronised, it had became second nature to me, and I had already had experience filming before, so I built upon that throughout the filming procedure. Using a Mac properly for the first time was tricky too, as I'd had difficulty in the past using one for small tasks, however I became used to it very quickly, and even learned some commands and shortcuts about it as it gradually revealed its secrets.
I am very pleased with our final product. Through a combination of planning, skill and occasionally dumb luck, everything has come together, and it is far better than I'd dared hope. The music we used throughout just seemed to fit to the clips as if they'd been fated to link with specific events, and it was just dumb luck that that the tracks were around the right length and synchronised so well. The filming was stressful due to the lighting, but after a refilming session of the horribly lit sections we managed to wrap up filming, and get down to the editing, and alot of it just seems like coincidence how it all came together so naturally, such as how the mirror clone didn't look out of place even though we'd impulsively decided to include it. So it seems we got out of it what we put in, and I am very happy with the result.
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