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

Conventions of the thriller genre can be split into 4 subheadings, technical aspects, characters, narrative and sub-genres. Technical aspects consist of what makes a film, a film, e.g. cinematography, editing, sound and mise-en-scene, within cinematography lay camera angles, camera shots and camera movement, my thriller clip followed the basic structure of cinematography in order to achieve the final product, the group used tracking shots to identify the female victim and we used medium shots to identify the villain. Most of the shots used were medium shots and medium close-ups; this was because we didn't want to reveal too much, we made the audience consider what they are seeing. When it was time to edit our clips the group decided to order it 1-2-1, meaning, montage, murder, montage. Throughout the clip it was quick cutting, we made it clear enough to distinguish what was murder and what was montage by changing the contrast of the two clips, the murder was dark and the montage was light, by producing an obvious difference within the clips, it is clear to see the murder storyline progressing along with the montage, the pace of the film was backed via the score, it was louder when D and AJ were causing havoc in the area but became quieter when the murder was taking place, there wasn't a big jump of sounds between the two but it was noticeable.

We didn't need to use any ambient noises, the sound was practically muted and the score was played over, the opening 3 clips were introduced with claps, fade ins and fade outs, the rest of the opening scene was the score and cross cutting. We achieved high key and low key lighting within the film by editing the contrast which made the montage clips lighter than the murder clips, the location of our film was in Chiswick, but where we filmed, didn't look like it, D and AJ's hideout was in a friends shed, but we made it out to be in the same park where the murder took place so the location of the film was used and manipulated really well, there wasn't any key props, except the key to the hideout and the medium shot of D's wallet, the rest was uniform with the film.

The costumes were how D, AJ and the murderer were distinguished, D and AJ wore hoods and woolly hats portraying they are teenagers and with there hoods up they are intimidating and the murderer wore a long coat, leather gloves and black boots which murderers are stereotyped to wear. The performance, costume and actor appearance were spot on, facial expressions, movement and body language were complimentary to each other, the costume was correct to the age group and time period and the actor appearance of all characters in the film were excellent, the murderer looked murderous in his costume, the female victim looked vulnerable and scared and the shop keepers were foreign so the actor appearance fell hand in hand.


These conventions can be split into classic and contemporary, classic being Alfred Hitchcock’s work e.g. “Psycho” and contemporary being Quentin Tarantino's work “Kill Bill”. We followed the classic structure for our film but because the story is modern we updated it, meaning we didn't make it a black and white film, we was going to but the effect wasn't the same and we didn't use any orchestral instruments for our score, but we did keep the vulnerable female victim.

The film in which we were influenced by when creating out film was “Kidult hood”, this is because we were filming where everyone would and should know, there were no high priced Hollywood actor's and our audience were 15+, the editing techniques came from “Bourne Identity” and “Psycho”. Our film can be identified as British not only because it has a sign saying “Chiswick” at the beginning but also the weather and the buildings, compared to American thrillers with there extravagant buildings and plots, major league actors and complicated twists.


How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The gender for the film suits both men and women but murder appeals to men slightly more than females, the age group is for the youths, so 15+, ethnicity suits everyone, the regional identity is in a West London urban area, the presumed sexuality for everyone is heterosexual this is because the sexuality issue isn’t addressed therefore the characters have an assumed heterosexual validity as this is the dominant group and the social class is working, the costumes our two main characters are wearing are stereotyped to be youths, hoods up, jeans down, I used stereotypes to progress my narrative more quickly, by casting the murder victim as female and the antagonist as male and out protagonist as male we are stereotyping so the clip is easily followed and in a since we can tell what may happen. The gender also helped by casting the victim as a female they are portrayed as negative characters because of how society sees youths now, I represented the characters this way because stereotypes are quick and easy to communicate information about the characters, our stereotypes don't challenge the representation, instead they follow in order to save time on our characters and not having to do background information via dialogue to introduce the characters, instead the way they are dressed tells their story already.

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

A media institution is either a company or organisation, there are three types of institution that films can be put in, mainstream, independent and art house, mainstream is all the Hollywood films with big budgets and high priced actors, independent is low budget films in British studios, art house is low budget and experimental work, my film fits into the independent sector because of the fact we didn't have a budget and we didn't have any famous actors but it wasn't creative and experimental to be in the art house sector. Mainstream films have big budgets, A-list cast and less challenging themes. Films can be distributed and exhibited in 4 main ways, cinema, film festivals, the internet and television. The cinema is major. All the mainstream films e.g. Hollywood films will be shown in the major chain cinemas, such as Vue, Odeon and Cineworld. Independent and art house cinemas are more likely to show independent films cinemas that are Waterman’s in Brentford, Electric in Notting Hill and Curzeon in Soho, examples of independent films include, Cube, Blood feast and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Film festivals are good, you are able to screen your short films and get feedback from the community and also directors go to these festivals so if your short film is good enough they may want to sign a contract with you, there are festivals focusing on student and independent films.

The internet has video sharing so you can get a worldwide view and your audience expands from the community to nationwide, so Youtube, Myspace and Facebook are all networking sites that you can upload the short film and get feedback, benefits include a global view, the fact that it targets a larger audience and it can be easily accessed.


The television especially terrestrial channels are good for your short film, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4 are all public service broadcasters, Channel 4 is the most likely to play the film as it has a remit to promote independent British films and they provide programming for minority audiences, e.g. youths and pensioners. I would distribute my media product firstly at a film festival where I may be able to get spotted by a potential director, from that point I’ll arrange something in which my short film may get shown on channel 4 maybe in the afternoon or before the major films come on in the evening, by that stage the film may show in independent cinemas. The only institution in which the film does not fit in, is mainstream because of the fact, the budget is low, there are no mainstream actors in it thus my audience isn't as big and there are no extravagant sets.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience are youths from the starting age of 15+, personally I think that my product is suitable for my target audience because there isn't any bad language, the content of the film isn't to extreme that it has to be an 18 certificate, there is enough action to hold the attention on the audience and it is in a local neighbourhood where the audience can visit themselves, it is like Darren Browns book “The Lost Symbol” you are able to visit the locations.

How did you attract/address your audience?
As a group we constructed audience feedback sessions and got sheets with a few simple questions, on average everyone was satisfied how relevant our film was to a thriller, 70% say it is quite relevant, everyone agreed that it is relevant to the target audience; some said that they didn't understand the montage because it was going too fast and some said that a humorous side showed more than the thriller side of the film. The theme and narrative attracted the audience because it was youthful, but also mature because of the fact it was based on a murder.

We constructed our film to make it relevant to our target audience by looking at films that the target audience watch to date and that was Kidulthood and Adulthood, we thought of how we can adapt traits from that film along with a thriller and make it into our own, the theme was modern, so was the score and the characters were all modern with classical attributes. Conventions used were the stereotype of the youths, this is so the audience can relate or at least understand, the results were successful and the audience liked it. In terms of content and theme we attracted the audience by making it appealing to youths but also the way it was filmed it can also be appealing to adults because it is about a serious matter.

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

I used a blog to upload work, I used Youtube as research to look at other thriller openings also Google and Wikipedia helped with research about directors, new media technology has helped he production via copyright, the score we have playing is from a website where everything hasn't been copyrighted so we can use for out production, sound effects from the Apple computers also helped and so did the audience feedback (blog).
Non-linear software helped my production because we were able to be free with our recording, we could start with the middle the go on to the beginning, so we were more creative with our recording, if it was linear recording then if we did a slight mistake we would have to start from the beginning and do all of the work again, the film took shape in the editing process and we could see the storyboard that we thought of on screen so it was a big relief that it was coming to plan. The cameras we used to record were Mini-DV Camcorders, Eastenders uses DV tapes in order to make it real, rather than film that make the actors look more enhanced with more bright colours, DV did suit my film because it added realism to it all, especially at the end where we ran out of the shop with the shop keeper shaking his fist at us.

There were some limitations, sound being the biggest factor, because we were only using the sound from the camcorders recorder, also lighting, we had to improvise thus us using light and dark contrasts, but the natural light showed more realism.

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

I learnt that natural light plays a big part and depending on the lighting depends on the mood you put across to the audience, my preliminary task was an eye opener, you have to make sure that there is a reason (camera shot) for you doing any action, e.g. opening a door, you need to get a shot of you putting your hand on the door first, I learnt fast, it became uniform to do an “understanding shot” before every main shot you do, editing and sound also helped me to complete my main task more successfully, I was able to get a better understanding of how to change and make sound and lighting more effective. Organisation played a big part, the storyboard, script and researching our locations whether it is in an open set or closed set, our final product was shot both in an open and closed set, the closed set being the greenery, it was a friends garden and the open set being outside on the road.

Danny's Evaluation

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

Our media product uses and I feel develops forms and conventions of real media thriller products in many ways. First of all we have included most of the technical aspects used in thriller genre products as we have a dramatic score playing throughout our media product along with another sound effect playing at specific times, our score is at a fast pace to match our montage in our media product. We also have cross cutting between the montage and the murder scene because they are linked as the murder in our product is to set up the youths who feature in the montage however this introduces some dramatic irony like leaving the audience in suspense as they will be left puzzled as to why the girl is getting murdered and then being placed in the youths hideout by a stranger whose identity is kept from them at the beginning. In our media product we have followed the forms and conventions of real media products through our characters first of all we have a vulnerable young female walking through a park in the evening alone which only draws attention to the grave danger she is in as she is a girl walking though a dark park alone in the evening time, we also have our two main characters placed in a menacing situation from which escaping seems impossible as they have been set up for a murder they did not do but all the evidence is against them however they eventually manage to free themselves by finding out who did it. The locations we have used in our media product challenge the forms and conventions of real media products because we did not have the resources to use big open lands of park area and have our own corner shop to rob from however we managed to use local places and gardens but then film it so the audience does not know the exact whereabouts of where the shots of the vulnerable girl in the park is or the corner shop used to film, however we have added a bit of urbanization into our media product to do with the main characters appearances which again challenges conventions and forms of real media products as we have our two main characters dressed in hood’s to match the theme of our film and where it is set in west London. I think London to Brighton influenced our film most compared to all the other films because it had an urban feel to it and has a non-linear narrative, which is what we wanted to show in our media product for it to fit into where our film was set and match the characters characteristics. I believe our film is identifiably British because of the streets and right at the start the two characters are introduce with a shot under a hotel which is called Chiswick hotel which shows it is a British film.

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

Our media product represents a particular social group which is young males in London who wear hooded jumpers in a negative way as we show them in our media product as little thieves who rob little corner shops also we show them robbing bikes from locks and jumping over peoples back gardens. We have represented them in this way because we stereotyped young males who roam the streets of London especially black males as we have a young black male in our media product because people have preconceptions about black teenagers so including one in our media product helped our audience understand the characters more and what they are like. We have stereotyped them in hoodies because it helps move the narrative forward even though they are being represented in a negative way but it makes the story more understandable and realistic because it shows the reality of what most young males of the working and some middle class get up to in their free time, we also try to introduce low key lighting in the shed to make it seem more tense in the shed with the murder and increase the audiences anticipation on the murder scene. We have represented males in a negative way as we have the two main characters just doing bad things like stealing bikes and robbing people, the murderer is also male which makes it more realistic because two females robbing bikes and people for the items would make the media product seem unrealistic, we have one female in our media product and we have also represented them in a negative way because we make them come across vulnerable to males as she does not put up much of a fight. Our film has only young people in it and we have represented youths in a negative way as well because they are doing all the bad things in the film so we make them look bad in our media product however this adds more realism to the film as many people do stupid things when they were younger but then mature as adults. The regional identity of west London comes across in a negative way because it has people like our two main characters and a murderer in it which makes it come across in a negative way.

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

The type of institution that probably would distribute our media product is an independent film or art house because our media product was at a very low budget and does not fit into a mainstreams film category as it is not a big budget film and does not include a Hollywood A list cast, a mainstream film will also have less challenging themes and they would be easier to understand as see and hear as everything is at a professional standard. I would say our media product would fit into the independant category and would be shown at an independent/art house cinemas which is just one of the many ways it could be distributed and exhibited for example like at the electric cinema in Notting Hill Gate in west London or chizeon in Soho in central London. Our film would be shown at these type of cinemas because they are not mainstream cinemas which show big budget films however they show films on smaller budgets and our film does not fit into the mainstream category in every section therefore could only be shown at these independent/Art house cinemas. Another way in which our media product could be distributed could be at an independent film festival for example at sun dance in America or at community film festivals where there is short film festivals and student film festivals however I don’t think our film fits into that category but more realistically our film could be easily distributed on the internet on video sharing sites such as YouTube which could easily get our film recognise and a lot of views if popular as people could directly upload them onto facebook which is a social network where people communicate over the internet which could gain our media product and you could ask for people’s opinions on the film likewise on YouTube, you could also have profit possibilities through YouTube as you could sign a contract with them and carry on making videos to share on their website which would then give you money and YouTube views for their website. One last way our media product could be distributed is through television but only on channels such as channel four late at night because it is public service broadcasted which provides programming for minority audiences also on community tv channels on cable tv which feature user created content which is why we could have our media product broadcasted on it but they probably would not broadcast our film as it is very low budget.

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


The audience for our media product would be aimed at older teenagers from the age group of 15-20, our product is suitable for this target audience because we were able to include a bit of strong language and also violent scenes could of be shown however, there’s a certain degree of violence that would not be acceptable if we would have wanted to keep to the 15 certificate’s demands. We lacked in the skill and equipment department to do a highly violent but at the same time realistic film for our audience so we hardly included any violence to keep our product as realistic as possible to keep the audience interested and keep them watching on. I believe our product is suitable for the BBFC of 15 because firstly the actors we used in our film are around that age which then will attract many young people of the same age group because they can relate themselves to not just the film but towards the characters behaviour and lives. We think they would be our audience for our media product because most adults would not take any interest in a genre hybrid of urban-crime thriller because they would not understand it as much as young teenagers would and could not relate themselves to it as much as young teenagers could.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Firstly we thought that if we included young actors around the same age as our target audience it would generate a lot of interest from them because they could relate themselves to the characters, we also decided to shoot the film in and around the area our audiences would be coming from, places they would recognise straight away so then they would be more interested in watching the film. We also thought if we added an urbanized score which one of our strongest points in our audience feedback as every person said our score was well suited to the film and they thought it had great relevance to the film and the genre of the film which was a crime thriller because there are many crimes committed in our product to a urbanized score which we thought would attract our audience because teenagers would prefer to have a urbanized score playing instead of for example a classical slow score because it would not suit our target audience nor would it have gone with the theme of our film however we received very positive feedback on the score but some people thought it seemed a bit comical rather than a thriller because of one shot when Azzari has a little smirk on his face when climbing a wall.. We also thought that teenagers would be more interested in an urbanized crime thriller than for example a romantic thriller as some of the other genres would have been difficult to use like action thrillers or horror movies as we was on a very low budget.

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

The impact of technology on our media product has given me and my group a greater understanding on how to use the technologies that we used to a greater extent for example when using the internet to research on thriller genre films we used YouTube to view clips of thriller conventions and sites such as Wikipedia to find our information on certain thriller conventions and all the different sub genres used as well as all the films that fit into those categories and why. The process of posting all our posts on our blog has taught me how to use and create a blog from start to finish from designing it and how it looks to including pictures on our posts and putting them exactly where I wanted them to be. New media technology has influenced our film as we had to use the internet to find a score on a copyright free music website (image on the left) which has thousands of sound tracks to choose from, this influenced our film because we choose our score from this website under the urban section to add the urban feel to our film which is what we wanted to do. The use of sound effects such as foreboding which we used in our product on the murder scene to add that extra bit of tension when the female is walking alone in the park. For our production we filmed it using a mini-DV camcorder which helped me gain more knowledge on how to use one as I had never used one before, for example on how to put the tape in to how to record it and not film over already recorded footage on the tape however because of our low budget we was not able to use to celluloid type camcorders which have brighter colours and are used in mainstream cinema Hollywood films. The mini-DV camcorder has some limitations to it for example the fact we have no external microphone means we had to keep dialogue to the bare minimum to add realism to our film otherwise most part of the dialogues would of been taken over by the ambient sounds. Another factor is night filming was a problem as we could only rely on the natural light provided by the sky and the sun which therefore meant we had to improvise around that to make our film the best we possibly could with what we had, the effect of using a mini-DV camcorder suited our genre of film well because we wanted to add realism so the teenage audience could relate to our product as they film would come across more realistic so they would be able to relate it easier rather than if we used a celluloid camera because it would not be as realistic as it adds more glamour and has a less gritty approach but London teenagers would find it difficult to relate to this. During production we used a non-linear software which helped us a lot because it meant we did not have to shoot the film in the order it was going to appear on screen which meant the film only then took shape in the editing process because we would put it all in order on the timeline and then it is where we started to add all our sounds like our score and titles that were going to appear on screen. Our film changed quite a bit from the original story board however our final draft of the story board that we did just before shooting the film we stuck to mostly, apart from one or two shots that we was not able to do because we lacked either the equipment or the location we was intending in doing it in but our product was based on our final storyboard which gave us a massive boost when shooting it because then we knew exactly what shots we was going to do and for how long.

7. Compare your approach to your preliminary task to your main task.

When we did our preliminary task we first encountered problems with recordings and sound because we first recorded over some of our already recorded footage but then only realised when we went to edit the footage. This helped us on shooting our product because we took extra care on each recording and then made sure that we was not going to repeat the same mistake we made when doing the preliminary task. Also when doing the preliminary task sometimes we would forget to turn the recording off when setting up our next shot so we would have minutes worth of unwanted footage which we would then have to end up deleting when editing and we did not take as much care into how long each shot was going to be and from which angle and how far or close it was going to be from the person in the shot. This again then helped us on our product because we took extra time into preparing how long every shot was going to be and then took extra care into where we was going to place the camera for each shot and why we was going to put it there, all this would not have been possible without having done the preliminary task which set us up for our product. Whilst shooting the preliminary task we did not really take much notice of the locations where we was going to do it however now when doing our product we saw the locations as one of the most important things because we needed a suitable location to suit the theme. One thing we discovered when doing the preliminary task was that sound was not of the best quality because of the equipment we had was not of the highest standards as we had a very low budget so this helped our product come across more professional as we did not have to deal with ambient sounds coming over the dialogue and speeches and we kept dialogue to the bare minimum to add more realism to our product. I feel the preliminary task helped us the most when it came to editing because when editing our product we edited it quickly and efficiently when we needed to which helped our product take shape and look even better than expected in certain areas which we was unsure on at first.

Rosie's Evaluation

The ways in which our media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products Our media product is crime thriller. We took the classic thriller conventions and modernised them so that young British teenagers could relate more to the characters and enjoy the opening sequence more. We used some conventions of a typical thriller such as dramatic irony as the audience knows that ‘Aj’ and ‘Dee’ and being set up for a murder when they haven’t even found out yet. Also, we used a dramatic score adding to the excitement and anticipation. However, we updated this typical convention by making the soundtrack/score urbanised and modern. We overlapped a tense and suspenseful score with a upbeat urban soundtrack and made them subtly play together throughout. This was so that the murder footage was more tense and serious than ‘Aj’ and ‘Dee’s’ childish antics. Also, we used a urban soundtrack so that our media product would appeal more to our target audience and make our media product a genre hybrid; an urban-crime thriller. Many of the distinctive thriller conventions such as tension, suspense, anxiety and enigma are not fully fulfilled in our media product as it is not a typical thriller. Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller films were highly inspirational for the process of creating our media product. Hitchcock had a trademark for playfulness and a sense of humour in his work which I would like to think we portrayed in some of the montage scenes of ‘Dee’ and ‘Aj’ being rebellious and disruptive in their local neighbourhood such as when ‘Aj’ peers over a garden wall cheekily when plotting to steal a bike. Also, we took inspiration from the way Hitchcock presents women in his film; we had a young, attractive girl suffer and get killed similarly to how Hitchcock would have women as helpless victims. Additionally, after closely analysing some of his most famous works such as Psycho, it is evident that Hitchcock was very brave and experimental in his work and I wanted to take on this attitude for when creating our media product so that we could produce something creative and new. Our film is identifiably British as it is set in West London with an all British cast. Everything that takes place in the footage is filmed in London and this is evident as the locations are clearly in an urban city and show an urban way of life for many young male teenagers.

The ways in which our media product presents particular social groups The opening sequence of a thriller that my group and I completed represented the youth of London in a negative way. Young adult men are shown to be rebellious, law-breaking, troublesome, difficult and lacking morals. We used only boys to play the unruly teenagers as it is more credible to an audience for boys to be terrorising their neighbourhood than teenage girls as teenage boys in London are stereotypically known for being disruptive and often breaking the law. It was important that the boys we casted were teenagers as it’s a significant part of the film; teenage boys can be recognised as intimidating and rebellious therefore the narrative of the story is more credible if we have young actors in the film. Additionally, we had one white teenage boy playing ‘Dee’ and one black teenage boy playing ‘Aj’. Having ‘Aj’ played by a young black male added realism to our plot as being young black and male comes with many preconceptions as the audience may already assume that he is a menacing character as a result of stereotypes against youths in this ethnic group. Although stereotypes against young black males are negative we saw it as an easy way to communicate information to our audience about the characters and move the narrative forward. This is because the audience already have a fixed idea on how young black males should act and behave as they are portrayed as negatively in other media products such as newspaper stories, Hollywood films, advertisements etc. West London is represented in a negative way in our opening sequence as it is shown to be the playground for two teenage boys to disrespect and violate. It gives off the impression that they are the homes of troublesome teenagers that wouldn’t be a pleasant place to live in.

The kind of media institution that might distribute our media product and why Our media product, in terms of institution, is an independent film as it is low budget and does not have backing of film studios. Additionally, it is also an urban themed thriller with a gritty approach and we have casted all unknown actors which many mainstream films would not do. To distribute our film we could post it on the internet for public viewing and feedback on sites such as YouTube, Facebook or Myspace. Although the distribution of the film does not come with profit on these video sharing sites and uploading them onto it is free, there is a still a possibility that advertising agencies could give a small cut of their profit to us as the creators of the media product. Additionally, some advertisers can sponsor the film which would result in a profit. The kind of media institution that might distribute our media product is a terrestrial television channel such as Channel 4. It is a public service broadcaster and provides programming for minority audiences and therefore may show our film. Channel 4 also has a permit to promote Independent British films. Moreover, commercial broadcasters have advertising funding which means that our media product could also generate a profit from being show on Channel 4. Furthermore, our media product could be shown on a community channel as the content is user created; these sorts of channels are on digital, cable and satellite television and could exhibit our media product. Another way to get distribution is exhibit our film at a film festival. There are many short film, student, community film festivals that would distribute our film. However, more widely renown film festivals such as the Cannes, Sundance or Venus film festival may not distribute a media product as independent and low budget as ours. No cinema that is a major chain, such as Vue, Cineworld or Odeon, would distribute our film as it is not a mainstream film with a big budget and does not have an A-list cast. Mainstream films tend to have less challenging themes whereas an independent film, such as our media product, tackles more realistic themes that are experimental. However, independent art house cinema, such as Watermans in Brentford, the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill and Everyman an independent chain, may exhibit our film as they show independent films.

The audience for our media product Our initial target audience was young adults from the age of 15-20. We aimed for our film to be suitable to be classed as BBFC certificate 15. I feel that we met the guidelines set by the BBFC as we thoroughly researched what they were before developing our media product. There is no dialogue in our product therefore no extensive use of strong language and not a high degree of violent scenes, even though we would not of been able to provide ourselves with the facilities or skills to create highly realistic and intensely violent scenes even if we wanted to, therefore I think that we successfully created the opening sequence of a thriller that can be confidently classified as a 15 certificate as it obeys and follows all the guidelines set by the British Board of Film Classification. On our initial audience research we chose this age group as we felt that young adults of this age would be able to empathise with the teenage boys ‘Aj’ and ‘Dee’ and relate to them in terms of the way they behave, their interests, how they present themselves and the way in which they speak.

The ways in which we attract/address our audience Our media product related to our relevant target audience as we had the two main characters, ‘Aj’ and ‘Dee’ are genuinely seventeen year old boys therefore our audience, 15-20year olds, may feel for more empathy and understanding towards them as they have more credibility as characters. We also had the actors dressed in normal teenage boys’ clothes that the audience may recognise and then feel as though they can relate more to them as they’re dressed in clothes they might like to wear. Also, they're shown to be doing things that many people in the 15-30year old age group may feel they can relate to as they do it as well, such as playing Playstation. Additionally, the soundtrack of our media product is of an urban genre making it appeal to the tastes of our target audience and generally make it more enjoyable for them to watch and listen to. Our audience feedback was a very useful and an important part of creating and editing our media product so it is of the highest standard possible. Many people who watched our opening sequence and gave constructive criticism to help us improve suggested that we make the overlapping of the score and soundtrack more consistent and subtle. They also suggested that some of the shots were too quick and that we should make them longer to help the audience understand the story a bit better. My group and I followed through with their suggestions as the people who were giving us feedback fitted in to our target audience age group therefore we saw the importance of making the film appeal to them as much as possible. The subgenre of our media product was crime thriller. Specific conventions we included to make it appeal more to our target audience was having a urban soundtrack.

The things I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing our product Throughout the production of our media product we used many forms of technology to complete and edit it. To complete the research section of our media product we used an internet blog to update different parts of research we had completed before doing the practical part of our media product. All members of our group had a login name and password to the blog allowing us all to put up all sections of the research such as photos of the locations we were planning to film in, drafts and final drafts of our script, synopsises of existing films and our own, analysis’s of relevant opening sequences of renown thrillers, audience and BBFC research etc. Additionally, I also used sites such as YouTube for research purposes to watch clips of thrillers and A-level candidates existing work for inspiration and to help our group to understand what looks/sounds effective in the opening sequence of a thriller. Moreover, we used the internet for finding a soundtrack off a copyright free music website. It was really helpful as we could browse lots of different genres of music that were all the length of a normal song (3-4minutes) that we could easily download and put into our opening sequence. Without the internet we would have been very limited to what music we could have used in our film which may have resulted in using a soundtrack we weren’t happy with that didn’t suit out media product. When filming our media product we used more technology; we used mini DV (digital video) camcorders. These are not high definition but add realism. Mainstream cinema films and US soaps often use ‘film’ (celluloid) which gives a less realistic look and adds more glamour to the image when being filmed. Although we were on a low budget and therefore did not have the option of using ‘film’, using a mini DV was still most effective for what we were trying to achieve as it adds a gritty realistic feel to our media product. When filming, we had some technological difficulties and limitations; we had limitations with sound as we did not have external microphones therefore sometimes the sound was not as successful as we’d have hoped. Although there is no dialogue in our media product, as a result of no external microphones, the ambient sound that is very important in our film to adding to the anticipation and suspense is often not as clear and effective as we’d have liked. Also, we had to improvise with natural light as we had no equipment to create the exact lighting we wanted. We had to make do with however the weather was on our filming days. Coincidentally, the days we filmed on were quite glum and gloomy therefore it created quite a good gritty atmosphere for a thriller to be filmed in; specifically the murder scene. However, we did experiment with lighting in one of the murder montage scenes by shining a large spotlight on the female victim as the key prop was placed on her; this was to add emphasis to the key prop and make sure it was clearly seen (as seen in the photograph on the right). We used a non-linear editing to complete the editing process of our opening sequence. This was really helpful as is not destructive like a linear editing as we could play footage of film into the timeline of scenes at different points and not be ruining the whole film in doing so. The software we used was iMovie on Apple computers to edit our film. It was really useful as it came with a lot of tense sound effects that help build suspense in our media product relating back to thriller conventions. It also came with transitional effects that make our media product more professional and well edited. However, we did not use many of the over-the-top and theatrical transitional effects as we just wanted to stick to simple ones such as fade out to black to maintain a professional look. iMovie was helpful as we could manipulate lighting on it when we did not have the equipment to do it as we filmed it. We were able to adjust and manipulate the colours and brightness of the footage and make there a dramatic visual difference for the audience to immediately pick up on between the murder scenes and the scenes of ‘Dee’ and ‘Aj’ terrorising their neighbourhood.

Looking back at the preliminary task, the things I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product My approach to the preliminary task was a lot more laid back and ignorant. I did not anticipate how much work would have to go into the whole filming and editing process of our media product. With the first preliminary task we encountered technical problems with the mini DV. We realised we had erased all our footage that we’d just filmed and then had to quickly re-film it all. Additionally, when we came to watch it all over at the end the footage did not look as continuous as it should have to be effective. Also, we often did not leave enough time at the beginning and end of each take so we did not have enough footage to edit and manipulate. Moreover, when filming in darker lighting we did not expect for the footage to come out so dark, we remembered this so that when we filmed out final product we did in natural daylight so that all the footage can be clearly seen. Also, we had many problems with sound such a laughing and talking in the background which helped us learn that those sorts of sounds are very distracting and make the footage look unprofessional. We learnt from our filming mistakes and technical difficulties and made sure we did not repeat them in our final filming. Furthermore, I made sure my organisation skills were at their best as there was a lot of work involved in the whole process of making our media product. The story board we had to re-draft more than once, finding appropriate locations that we could use we also difficult and making sure they were closed set to ensure we had no unwanted sound was also hard. However, in some scenes the ambient sound added to the realism and urban themed atmosphere, such as when ‘Dee’ and ‘Aj’ are sat at the bus stop.

Location Photos (exterior of secret hideout)

These photos show the exterior of the shed and its exact location in real life as it is a shed at the side of our friends house however when filming the audience will not have the knowledge about the sheds whereabouts in real life. We are going to film 'AJ' and 'Dee' walking into their shed as they do every day with a long shot and also we will introduce their shed with an establishing shot to show the audience where the final important scene of the opening is set. Also it helps the audience get a better understanding of what type of characters they are; where they spend their free time, what it's like, what they do in their free time. We have to ensure that when we film the establishing shot and long shot of the two boys going into the shed that we achieve the perfect angle so that you cannot see the side of the house the shed is attached to. This is because the shed is meant to be isolated and secret from everything and attaching it to a house will ruin this idea. Also, Aj and Dee are meant to be very independent individuals who don't have homely houses and families to go back to so this shed is a home to them. 

Location Photos (the interior of secret hideout)

This is where the main location of the whole opening sequence. It is where the body of a dead girl will be mysteriously found by Aaron Joseph and Dominic. The shed is a secret hideout where the two teenagers spend their time playing playstation and messing about. No-one else knows about their secret shed so it's a mystery how the body got there and why. The shed has low key lighting which will create a tense and exciting atmosphere for the audience. It looks very lived-in and messy adding realism and credibility to the location helping our young target audience to feel as though they can relate to the boy's lives. The shed, who belongs to our friend, already has many useful props in it already such as cigarette packets, pizza boxes, television, a console and other normal things that a lived-in shed belonging to teenage boys would contain. 

Casting

CASTING

The characters in the opening scene are: Dominic, Aaron, Kate. Danny will be acting as ‘Dee’ who is a local person, he goes to secondary school and has been labelled a trouble maker by the police, the other character Aaron who will be played by me (Azzari) is DJ’s best friend who is also labelled by the police as a trouble maker, he goes to the same school as DJ and live on the same estate and both of the boys are in constant trouble with the law. 

There aren’t any older characters in the film so the casting is specific, if there is any older characters, they will b e included in the film as normal pedestrians getting on with their every day life.

DJ and Aaron will be wearing tracksuits which is relevant to their age (15-16), they will obviously not be wearing formal shoes because they are not that type of character, instead they’ll be wearing trainers which matches their light, fast and quick lifestyle. The appearance of the two main characters will not be scruffy, instead they’ll be clean but their attire may be a little dirty, maybe dirt stains on the knees, just to add it to the boyish effect.  Danny and Azzari will be playing the two 16-year-old boys which will be realistic as they are both sixteen years old in real life. This will increase the characters’ credibility and make our target audience, young adults, empathetic towards ‘Dee’ and ‘Aj’ (Dominic and Aaron). We then move on to the appearence of the murderer whos identity is kept secret however in terms of appearence the murderer will be wearing a big dark coat hat and black gloves to emphasis on the darkness of what he is doing as he is commiting a murder.

The performance of the two main characters will have to contrast, they go from being calm and collect while they are having a conversation and eating into being worried and anxious when they bump into the dead body and read what is on the phone. 

Script

Scene 1

Exterior- day time, Abinger Road Bus 

DOMINIC & AARON are sitting at the bus stop on the wall eating fast food from a local London fast food shop in the area whilst wearing their normal daily outfits of hoodies, wooly hats etc. Then they start their daily terrorising of their local neighbourhood, montage showing loads of different little crimes like stealing from corner shops kicking down doors of neighbours gardens and taking their bikes, pushing random people on the street over and take their valubles also being involved with graffiti on local bus stops. Opening titles all coming up simultaneously. Scene ends with AARON & DOMINIC laughing.

Scene 2

Exterior- Evening time - Deserted Park

 This will be edited to be in Black and white. There will be cross cutting between AARON and DOMINIC in the montage of little crimes while the murder takes place at the same time. The murderers identity will be kept anonymous as we film them killing the teenage girl.  Parts of her face will not be shown to withhold the identity of the girl from the audience, as it is not crucial for them to know who she is at this stage of the film. There will be shots of the murderer coming from behind the girl and wrapping his arm around her neck to strangle her as she struggles to escape, then shots of the girl dropping dead onto the floor along with the murderer dragging her across the park.

Scene 3

Interior- Shed

  AARON and DOMINIC’s secret personal shed in the park. After their daily terrorising of their town AARON AND DOMINIC walk to their shed and casually sit down not recognising that there is a dead female body right at their feet that they have had relations with. AARON by accident kicks the body unaware of its presence and him and DOMINIC scream in shock as there is a dead body in their own shed that no one else even knows exists. In panic they both start shouting at each other thinking it’s some sick joke before they establish the fact that they know the girl from their college that they got kicked out of. 

   

          We have tried to include as little dialogue as possible as we do not have the sufficent equipment i.e. microphones, so we included as little dialogue as possible to increase tension in this opening sequence. We have the montage to show the cross cutting between the murder and AARON and DOMINIC's daily routine and to add more suspense to the opening for the audience to then want to watch on and find out why the murder took place.

Synopsis

SYNOPSIS – a brief summary or general survey of something ;

an outline of the plot of a book, play, movie, or episode of a television show.

Examples of synopses for thriller films:

28 days later- A powerful virus is unleashed. Transmitted in a drop of blood and devastating in seconds, the virus locks those infected into a permanent state of murderous rage. Within 28 days the country is overwhelmed and a handful of survivors begin their attempts to salvage a future, little realizing that the deadly virus is not the only thing that threatens them.

Saw - Awakening from a drugged stupor, Dr. Lawrence Gordon finds himself chained to a pipe in a dingy bathroom, with another man in the same situation across the room. The men are the latest victims of the Jigsaw Killer, a maniac who uses elaborate traps to test his victims’ dedication to life. Given 6 hours, a hacksaw, and a bullet, doctor Gordan tries to figure out a way to freedom, hoping his kidnapped family can survive the nightmare as well. Hot on the Jigsaw’s trail is Detective David Tapp, an equally as insane cop who was once the victim of the Jigsaw’s evil scheme.

Psycho- Alfred Hitchcock’s landmark masterpiece of the macabre stars Anthony Perkins as troubled Norman Bates, whose old dark house and adjoining motel are not the place to spend a quiet evening. No one knows that better than Marion Crane, the ill-fated traveler whose journey ends in the notorious “shower scene”. First a private detective, then Marion’s sister searches for her, the horror and the suspense mount to a terrifying climax where the mysterious killer is finally revealed. It took 7 days to shoot the shower and scene, 70 camera set ups for the 45 seconds of this now famous footage- and not an actual bare breast or plunging knife is to be found in the final cut, just illusion through montage.

SYNOPSIS FOR OUR FILM- Troubled sixteen year olds ‘Dee’ (Dominic Junior) and ‘Aj’ (Aaron Joseph) find their lives turned completely upside down after they ride into trouble on a winters evening. They had been terrorizing their local neighborhood in West London when they find themselves on the run from the police in a desperate attempt to escape being framed for a murder they didn’t do. As Dee and Aj, alone and confused, move around London aimlessly with no one to rely on but each other, they begin to unfold the terrifying truth behind the murder they are being wrongfully accused of committing and these horrifying realities will change their lives forever. The boys start to reassess their own lives and reach a new level of strength in their friendship.

Audience

The suitable audience for us to target is the BBFC 15 certificate however this does not necessarily suggest that our film is aimed at 15 year olds but they are in the main age group that we are intending to target which is teenagers from around 15-20. We aim our film towards them because it is a British film that includes British actors in a local London park which therefore will attract many youngsters as they will recognise the area where the filming took place and will be able to understand and empathise with the actors interests and the way in which they speak. 

When making our film, we have to take in to careful consideration the guidelines set by BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). As we are planning to classify our film as 15 certificate, we are able to use strong language however not an extensive amount. Also violent scenes can be shown however, there’s a certain degree of violence that would not be acceptable if we want to keep within a 15 certificate. Although, wewould not have the facilities or skills to create violent, realistic scenes that would be classed as a 18 certificate. 

The audiences that may be drawn to watch thriller films are those that enjoy tense and suspenseful atmospheres. Audiences who enjoy thrillers like to be on the edge of their seat anticipating the next scene of the film and be feeling suspense and excitement. However, people who enjoy thrillers may have a preference to a certain subgenre of thriller, such as psychological, crime or disaster thrillers. For example, complex psychological thrillers with a restricted narrative will appeal to audiences that are relatively older than 20. Whereas, action thrillers would appeal to a young, male demographic audience that enjoy elaborate action scenes with guns, explosions, car chases etc. The Bourne Ultimatum and the modern James Bond films are examples of action thrillers that involve theatrical, expensive action scenes are intensify the excitement of the audience.

 

BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is the organisation legally responsible for film classification within the United Kingdom. It has been classifying cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and is an independent, non-governmental body.. It has also been classing videos since the passing of the Video Recordings Act in 1984. It was set up by the film industry as an independent body to bring a level of consistency to the classification of film nationally.

U- UNIVERSAL- all ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children

PG- PARENTAL GUIDANCE- general viewing, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for children under the age of 8

12- Suitable for those aged 12 and over. Those aged under 12 are only admitted if accompanied by an adult at all times during the performance. (Replaced the standard 12 certificate for cinema releases in 2002.)

12A- Suitable only for those aged 12 and over. Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. (Used for cinema as well before getting replaced by 12A in 2002)

 

15- Suitable only for those aged 15 and over. Nobody younger than 15 can see a 15 film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.

18-  Suitable only for adults. Nobody younger than 18 may see an 18 film in a cinema.
No-one younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.