Final Thriller

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


For my preliminary task, myself and my partner were asked to film a conversation which had to include various camera techniques such as over the shoulder, mid shot, point of view etc. This was asked of us so that my partner and I were able to learn what we found easy about doing this and what we thought was hard about it so that we would know what we would struggle with. This would then help us in the future as we would be able to combat our weaknesses so that we were the best that we can be.

I think that over the shoulder was difficult to film as it required more two people and it was only myself and my partner. So, it took us a long time to try and do it right as we found it hard to do it ourselves with no one to help us. It was difficult because we weren't able to maneuver the tripod correctly as we had to keep moving the tripod ourselves. This in turn, made it harder for us to get the task done in time as we had to waste time trying to place the tripod in the correct place in order to get a professional looking 'over the shoulder' shot. In the end, this problem was overcome because we were able to figure out it would be easier to film over the shoulder when someone is standing, this makes it easier so that the other person can film whilst they do so. So, I found that it was much easier than filming the preliminary task when both of us were sitting down as one person was able to work on the look of the film whilst the other one acted, and vice versa.

When filming this, i have learnt many skills such as how to use a tripod correctly, for example, I learnt that I must always hold the tripod as well as the camera and secure it in its place so that the camera doesn't fall off if any sharp or quick movements are made. I also learnt how to use the camera. For example, I learnt what the small buttons on the side of the small screen mean which meant that when it was time to film the thriller opening sequence, i would be able to film correctly using the right buttons which would in turn save us a lot of time. Then, this time would be spent elsewhere, such as in the editing stage, making the thriller sequence as good as it can be. I have also learnt how to do the majority of the key camera angles and shots through this task. For example, I learnt how to do the mid shot, the over the shoulder shot, even if it was difficult at the beginning. I also know how to correctly film a POV angle. This in turn helped with my thriller opening sequence because I was then able to film accurately without focusing on how to use it properly because i knew what to do from this task, so I saved a lot of time from learning what to do in this preliminary task.

In conclusion, I have learnt that i must always use the tripod, no matter what is being filmed. This allows a professional look to be created, so it didn't look amateur in the end. When filming the first time, I hadn't used a tripod as I wasn't aware that I had to use it at all times. When I had finished filming, I watched back the sequence that I had filmed and noticed that the quality was very shaky and unprofessional looking so I decided to refilmed it to get very good feedback at the end.

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

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

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

Question 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Question 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Within my thriller piece, there are two main characters. These first character is Mark, he is the hitman/hostage of the opening sequence. The next character is 'C'. This is the mysterious texter with a hidden identity. Although they are not seen, they have a big role to play.

In the opening sequence, my characters are portrayed and represented in various ways, Mark is a 25 year old male who is first seen at the beginning of the sequence tied up with blood on the side of his eyebrow. He is presumed to be a male hostage. He is wearing a white shirt with black trousers, the shirt is scruffy and dirty, this can signify that he is unprepared and confused as to what is happening behind him, making him look vulnerable, so the audience like him in that moment of time as they believe that he needs help to get out of the situation that he is in. The use of a white shirt can portray pureness and innocence, aswell as good, making him liked by the audience as they momentarily believe that he is a good person, wanting to save him. The black represents evil and darkness, making the audience wary of what is going to happen as they are unsure whether they should trust him or not. So, the clothing can show the audience that he is a mix of good and bad. The role of Mark ends up revealing to the audience that he is a hitman, which clearly shows to the viewers that he has a bad side. So, the audience are left horrified when he reveals his true colours by agreeing to kill an innocent woman. In the sequence, he is shown as a selfish and confused man which makes the viewers question his true motives throughout the thriller. The relationship created between Mark and the audience is strong at the beginning as they feel sympathy for him because they wonder why he is being tied up and what he has done wrong in order for him to be put in this situation. They begin to think about what they would do if they were in the same position as Mark. However, when they see that he has agreed to kill the wife of 'C', their feelings towards him change, they begin to wonder why he is so quick to agree to the task. They feel anger towards him because he is selfish, killing another woman for money rather than facing the consequences that would have occurred if he hadn't agreed to do so.

The last character i will be discussing is the wife of 'C'. The audience never find out her name because it is irrelevant to the story and she doesn't have enough screen time for it to matter to them. The audience do not know her age, however she shown to look young, as she looks 21. This plays with the audiences emotions as the fact that she looks and is young makes her look vulnerable as she is not yet ready to face what is coming. Her youth is seen with the clothing that she wears, she is wearing a cream top with blue jeans showing her purity and innocence. The use of these clothes shows that she is a typical young woman. She is the female victim in my thriller, this means that she is weak and vulnerable looking to the audience, which automatically means they feel sorry for her as they know that she will most likely die. She is seen to be wearing fresh looking makeup and this shows that she isn't expecting what is coming because she has had time to do it without thinking of anything bad happening to her. Also this shows that she is alone alot, so, her and 'C' may not be very close, explaining to the audience why 'C' may not care if his wife is dead or not. In the narrative, she is shown as young and weak, making her look vulnerable, so the audience want to protect her so that her life is saved from the evil that she is faced against.

I believe that my thriller is gender stereotypical as it contains a male killer. This is always seen in thriller films because the men are made out to be stronger than women, making them more capable of killing someone. They also use male killers to represent the use of toughness and dominance as they are in control of their victims life. For example, C, even though the audience do not know if C is male or female, they believe that he is male due to the way that he is acting and the fact that he is being so cruel to this young woman. C is controlling the life of his poor wife as he determines whether she is killed or not. However, the hitman, Mark, also plays a role in this as he decides whether he should kill her or not. Also, the use of the female victim is stereotypical because women are made to look inferior or weaker than men. This is stereotypically used as woman are represented as more the 'taking orders' than 'giving orders', they are portrayed as not having any willpower or determination to do anything for themselves. I have used stereotypical genders so that my thriller can be easily matched to another one.

I believe that the audience can and cannot build a relationship with my characters. I believe that they can build a relationship with Mark as he is quite a young adult, which may appeal to my younger target audience. This is because they can relate to him as they may have been in trouble which is affected their life. It may not have necessarily been as bad as what Mark has been through, but it may be bad enough that they understand why he killed her as he was just trying to get away from the evil antagonist black mailing him orders. At the beginning, the audience feel sympathy for him because he is tied up and confused, however once he agrees to kill the wife, the audience begin to wonder why they felt sympathy for him as well as wonder why he would want to do such a thing.  They also imagine themselves in the same position and know that they wouldn't have agreed to kill the innocent woman, as the audience, mainly women, may think of themselves being in the same shoes as the female victim, and feel horrible as her life was taken from her without her even having the time to defend herself. The audience turn against him due to the things that he's done and therefore want him to get caught by the police, and punished for the crimes that he has committed. As for 'C' it is harder for the audience to build a relationship with him, the audience assume that it is a 'he' as this would be gender stereotypical. The viewers fear him because they are left unsure of what they may do next, because they can't relate to them or even see them, so it is harder for them to feel as though they are in that person's shoes. The viewers never like 'him' because they wonder why he would do such a thing as to want his own wife dead. So, they begin to come up with a list of reasons as to why he may do this, leaving their imaginations to get the best of them. Again, even though the audience do not know who 'he' is, they want 'him' to be caught again by the audience. The wife is liked by the audience because as far as they know she is an innocent victim. When she screams, the audience see this as a warning that she is scared and she knows that she is going to die, which makes the audience feel sympathy towards her as even though they have barely seen her, they want her to be okay. The female victim doesn't get enough screen time for the viewers to build a strong relationship with her, but they do wish that she hadn't died as they would have liked to see more of her and see her defend herself.

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

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

For media, I was asked to create a two minute opening thriller sequence which should appeal to my specific target audience.

There are a variety of conventions which helped me gain inspiration. For example, in the film Mama, low key lighting is used in the scene where the men are looking for the children in an abandoned cabin in the woods. The use of low key lighting suggests to the audience that there is a darkness or an evil presence lurking in the background. This is because the audience can hardly see what is in the home as it is in the dark. This creates suspense for the audience because they are aware that something will appear in the darkness, it is typically seen within thriller films, so, they are used to seeing this happen. Another convention is the female victim. This is seen in the film, Halloween, when an young boy is seen killing his older sister.. This is typically used in thriller films because it makes the female look weaker than the male. This creates shock as the audience do not expect the young boy to kill his sister. Although it is conventional to see a male kill a female, the audience feel surprised because they expect young children to be innocent and naïve, rather than killing family members. In Scream, an obvious convention would be the hidden identity. This is used to make the audience imagine who the person under the mask could be. This then creates the effect of shock and suspense when the person reveals themselves. This is because the audience have not yet seen that masked person, so, when they do see, they are caught off guard because they didn't know what they would look like even though they tried to picture their resemblance in their heads. The fourth convention is the use of a male killer. In the film Psycho, a man is seen killing a young woman. However, the audience do not actually know who it is at first, but find out later which then allows the audience to feel shock as  well as suspense as they wait to see the fate of the female. It is expected by the viewers because they know that the first female seen is the one that is typically killed. In the film, The Strangers' there is sinister music being heard in the background as the young girl approaches the window, only to see the antagonist outside. The use of sinister music makes suspense and tension build up within the audience because they await what is going to happen next. They know that what they'll see will be sinister and dark, so they also feel suspense because they want to see it happen. The last convention I will discuss is the use of death. This is seen in the film, The purge, character is seen dying on the stairs with his family around him. This is seen to represent the evilness in the air and allow the audience to build up their emotions. This creates the element of shock because the audience didn't expect him to die as he was the main character of the film. They also feel sympathy for the family as they are grieving and the audience begin to imagine what it's like to be in the same position.

I believe my thriller products uses conventions of real texts to make my sequence just as successful as other thrillers.

Within my thriller opening sequence, I have used many conventions such as low key lighting. The audience see this as the hostage/hitman unties himself. This can connote to the audience that something bad/sinister is going to happen as the scene is dark and mysterious. This describes low key lighting perfectly. I believe that it can connote that there is evil lurking in the shadows. Low key lighting is a hint to the audience that something sinister is approaching. This creates the effect of shock and suspense as the audience await to see what darkness is going to make itself present. They are engaged within my sequence because it allows them to feel 'thrilled' as they watch on and see the bad things to the man. It gives them a sense of suspense as they anticipate the upcoming events. The use of low key lighting acts as a mist which can be used to hide part of the story from the audience. For example, in the picture, the man is tied up and is bleeding, so, the first thing that the viewers will be wondering is; 'what's happening', so they want to watch on to see how the story progresses.

Another convention is screaming. The use of this is shown when the wife is about to die. I believe that this almost like a warning to the viewers that she is going to die. Also, it highlights her vulnerability, innocence and naiveness. This makes the audience feel sorry for her. This creates shock and suspense as the audience have to wait to see her death. They will feel shocked due to the fact that although it is typically seen in films, and was obvious that it would happen within my sequence, the audience still feel like it was unexpected. This wasn't shown on screen because the audience know what happened. Also, the cut after the scream is very quick because it allowed the killer to be shown, so the audience understand that she has been killed without having to actually see it, this progresses the story further without the audience getting bored of what they are watching. It also allows the audience to think for themselves without having to be shown everything that is going on.

Another is the use of a female victim. As the audience will be able to see, the wife is the female victim within the sequence. She is made to look weak so that the audience will understand her fate straight away. This creates the element of tension and suspense as the viewers must wait for the murder to happen. The use of the female victim makes the audience feel scared, especially girls because they feel as though they are in that position themselves, making them feel scared and vulnerable. I decided to use a female victim within my sequence in order to make the audience feel certain emotions when watching her be killed by the hitman. This makes the thriller sequence more intense because even though the audience feel sympathy for the woman who is being targeted on, they want to watch on to see how the story will progress with this bad event.

The fourth convention is the male killer. Using this is a convention because the males are made to look superior compared to women. Therefore, making it slightly typical. It also makes the audience feel at ease because it is something that they have seen before. This creates tension, shock and surprise for the audience because the events that are occurring currently were very unexpected as the viewers didn't believe that the man would actually go through with the murder of the innocent, young woman. I decided to use a male killer within my opening sequence because i wanted the audience to again, feel a certain way about this character. At first, they feel sympathy for the man because they don't understand why he is tied up and feel bad because they imagine themselves in the same situation. However, as the story progresses they begin to hate him as he makes the wrong decision when he agrees to kill the innocent woman.

Another convention is the use of the hidden identity. In my sequence the texter, 'C' is the one with the hidden identity. This is conventional because it allows the audience to imagine who it could be and what they look like. This allows them to use their imagination. This creates shock for the audience as they expected the antagonist to be shown and present within the scenes rather than on a phone. This makes the audience feel scared because they can't see them, making them feel smaller, and less powerful than 'C' because they have the advantage over the viewers. So, the audience want to watch on to see how this antagonist continues to show their 'badness' in the upcoming events. I decided to use hidden identity within my thriller opening sequence because i believe that it added mystery to my story. It allowed the audience to feel fear with this antagonist, making the story more enjoyable and allowing the story to be named a 'thriller'.

The last convention is sinister music. This is heard in the background at most times. This thrills the audience and also allows them to feel suspense and tension as they wait for the upcoming scenes to show. Also, it is almost like a warning to the viewers that something bad is going to happen. This creates the element of tension as well as suspense as the audience must wait to see what happens in the upcoming scenes. The use of sinister music allows the audience to want to watch more of the thriller sequence in order for them to see how the sinister music makes the story scarier with the scenes that they are about to witness. I decided to use sinister music within my opening sequence so that there were certain emotions that the audience felt whilst hearing this music aswell as watching the screen to see the events that occurred. It allowed my audience to again feel fear and although they were frightened, they would be gripped to the edge of their seats, anticipating the rest of the story to be shown so they can see what happens.

When looking at another successful film, such as Scream, I believe there are a variety of similarities and differences. For example, one similarity could be that there are hidden identities used within the films. Within my thriller, 'C' is the hidden identity. In Scream, the hidden identity is the person in the long black robe with a white mask with black spaces where the eyes are and where the mouth is. This means that the person in the robe can see the victim they are trying to kill, but the victim can't see them. Another similarity is that both films contain a large amount of sinister music. Both intentions of the films are to thrill the audience, and I believe that both films do so. The music starts off quiet and gets louder as the evil scenes approach. This creates tension for the viewers because they have to wait. One difference is that my thriller is psychological and Scream is just a typical thriller. This is because both films have different target audiences. My thriller is a psychological thriller because of the amnesia that the hitman has.