Thriller Opening Sequence Evaluation Questions

1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our thriller project we included a lot of the generic conventions of a thriller, for example; the opening makes the viewer ask questions because no one knows where the girl had gone and there was no indication to what it could have been. The music is slightly psychedelic which reflects the girls state of mind, we didn’t show what actually happened, leaving the viewer wondering what actually did happen, it’s based around a main character (the husband) and finally we had the woman as the vulnerable character, all of these elements fit in with the thriller genre. The opening also, like most thriller openings, introduced the main character, their flaw, visual style and the location. We also added lighting effects to create a more eerie atmosphere, more like subtle horror – which is expected in a thriller. We also tried to make the main character like others that we had seen in other thrillers such as ‘Vertigo’ we did this by making him slightly paranoid, and dependant on himself and perhaps didn’t trust anyone else.

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We originally wanted our actors to be adult, but we were unable to get any. So I think the main social group our thriller opening represents is gender, obviously the girl is being portrayed as vulnerable and dependant on the male, making the male seem slightly heroic, which is usually the case in most thrillers. I think we managed to fit the stereotypes well and weren’t discriminating any of the social groups, we also represented class because our main character was an inspector and because of the costume he was wearing the viewer can see that he is upper class and the doctor was also upper class, so we represented upper class as well dressed, highly qualified people.

3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Creating this would not cost too much as there are no special effects or needed to be in a special location, just a hospital or psychiatric institute. And because the storyline is quite complex and can effect a lot of people, just like ‘Taken’. I think that it would be too big for the internet or the picture house, but actually released as a film, I think our idea is very good and could be developed quite a lot into something that could hit the big screens.

4.Who would be the audience for your media product ?

I personally think that if we made our target audience any younger than 15 we would have to make it less serious and complex, and because it may include disturbing thoughts, young teenagers might not enjoy it, so I think the certificate would be a 15, because then we can include a more complex plot and will be able to expand on some of the thriller conventions, for example the enigmas we include can be far more in depth and can include more adult scenarios.

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

I think because our thriller opening doesn’t suggest a sense of horror or gore, or anything horrific, it is appealing to most young adults and adults, I think this because there aren’t many films based around psychiatric wards and seeing an almost parallel world makes the audience think and from our opening it shows that the whole film will probably be a light hearted question raiser not an intense 2 hour film. It also will attract people that are interested in inspector/detective things because the main character is one which would indicate that he is going to try and solve the mystery of his lost wife.

6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

From producing our thriller opening I have learnt that planning really is crucial and to always think of an alternative. Our camerawork and editing wasn’t amazing, but bearing in mind we didn’t have long to produce this and we filmed it at college, the final product was very good. We found out that you have to be so careful with the dolly, because the slightest accidental movement is captured and there is no way of editing it out and it effects how professional the whole thing looks, fortunately thanks to our editors, we had a very good effect on the shots making it darker and edited the pace, taking the attention off the camerawork. Right before filming our group encountered a massive dilemma, we were originally planning to shoot our footage at Addenbrookes Hospital because the mise en scene would have been perfect with the right effects, we were not expecting to be banned from the site, unfortunately there was an outbreak of the Nora Virus, and all students and teachers were therefore not allowed to go on the site, this all happened on the day that we were meant to be filming, luckily we were able to come up with a last minute alternative and used the sick room at school, removed some posters and objects that would obstruct the mise en scene and use the C corridor as our psychiatric ward corridor, when editing we made it really light so it almost glared because after looking at images of psychiatric wards on google we were able to identity that the walls are stereotypically white and ghost like.

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back, I think the preliminary task helped to an extent, going straight into the final task would have been a nightmare and we wouldn’t really know what we were doing, the preliminary task helped us get used to camera shots and using the equipment and computer software, it made it a lot easier for us. The main thing is that it would have taken a lot more time if we hadn't of done it because we’d be getting stuck on how to use Final Cut Express or Garageband, and how to import/export, however because we already knew how to use it, we were able to just upload it all and edit/save it within a few lessons.