What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?
View more presentations from ns04126815.In what ways does your Media Product use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?
How do you Attract/Address your Audience?
- This thriller product is a psychological thriller. Like all thrillers is designed to give the audience excitement and suspense. There are 7 theories about the different elements that could make up a thriller. This thriller is made up mostly of ‘Heroic Romance’, because of the way he is an ordinary person with extraordinary beliefs affecting his lifestyle. ‘Partial Vision’, represented by the way he casually acts out his morning routine, similar to everyone elses yet differences because of his superstious actions and flashbacks of his past, all of this hiding important information that would explain the nature and reason of these things. ‘Question and Answer’, shown by the questions of, ‘Why is he superstitious? What made him this way? And what relevence do his flashbacks have.
- I chose to make this psychological genre of a thriller using the strange behaviour of the character in everyday situations to create subtle hints of suspense based on both of these theories.
- I based this thriller on these theories because they worked well with the psychological theme and suited the setting for the thriller. The opening scenes are in a normal house, so this worked well with the use of partial vision. The partial vision is created because the character goes through his every day routine, but this routine includes differences to the audiences expectation. This makes the audience question why and what might happen and introduces suspense and excitement. The audience only see part of the story in the characters actions as he goes about his routine of getting up in the morning clues of his superstitious beliefs start to emerge.
- The Heroic romance theory uses ordinary people in extraordinary situations, so this wouldn’t have been suitable for this thriller. There was also no way of using the maze, so this wasn’t included.
- This thriller is different from other thrillers in how subtle it is in suspense compared to Jaws or Se7en. In these examples you know from the start that it is a thriller through the use of music and the death of a person. This thriller is also created with no speech, which again is unusual for a thriller but emphasises the psychological theme.
- I used close up shots to emphasise details for the audience such as the shock in his eyes when he knocked over the salt. At the beginning I used a high angle shot, looking down on the character, which made him look smaller and implied he was insignificant. The shots were focussed on the character almost the whole time. This was because the thriller is based on the character and his actions. The flash backs were created by close ups of photos, to show that his past life was ordinary and explain the fact that his ex-girlfriend had left him because of his superstitions, without using narrative.
- I think that the opening sequence works well as a thriller because the audience are led to question what has happened and makes you wonder what will happen later in the thriller. The clues to the audience are given using camera shots.
- The main character was male which is common for thrillers, because this seemed to be more appropriate and have more impact for an overly superstitious person.
- The opening sequence focuses on the character rather than the events that happen around him. As this is a psychological thriller, the opening sequence had to quickly introduce the characters obsession with superstition and show his mental and emotional problems. The sequence shows that it is the character is scary, rather than the setting which is an ordinary house. Close shots on the character emphasise his emotions, and the high shot looking down on the character shows his lack of importance in his own mind. An over shoulder shot was used to show him cleaning the mirror, which then cut to a shot of him wiping the lens of the camera which seems to the audience that they are looking through the mirror at him. Mirrors are symbolic in thrillers to show reflections and imply that there are two sides which appear similar but may be reverse images.
- The candle was lit by the character to create flickering and shadows, which was then developed by it going out suddenly as an omen of dark spirits and the demons which he is frightened of later in the story.
How do you Attract/Address your Audience?
- To find out what people wanted I produced a questionnaire with 20 questions, these included, people’s ages, genders, hobbies, fears and what people wanted or didn’t want in a thriller.
- I analysed the questionnaires to find out what people wanted in a thriller:
- Most people wanted fast-paced themed music and dark lighting
- Most wanted the main character to be a male adult
- Most people preferred a thriller that was real but based on obsession and has a hidden message possibly a cliff-hanger
- People’s favourite thrillers were ‘Red Eye’ and ‘Se7en’
- Most people thought pain was scariest and the most scary room was the kitchen followed by the bathroom
- People didn’t like a thriller that was predictable or too scary
- Looking at what people wanted I decided my thriller would be an obsessed male adult with lots of hidden messages and hints at what’s going on
- The opening sequence was set in the kitchen and living room
- We used fast paced music and no dialogue to set the mood
- It is appropriate to the target audience because people can relate to the male main character
- The narrative is told through hints and flashbacks so the audience is left with hints and questions and it isn’t predictable or too scary
- It is not as scary as thrillers such as ‘Silence of the lambs’ or ‘Psycho’ because there isn’t obvious violence, but the tension was built through the main characters strange behaviour, which isn’t immediately explained.
- I wanted the audience to feel intrigued and curious and maybe a little nervous they were supposed to understand that the male character had reacted to events in his life and had gone from being superstitious to being obsessed in a dangerous way
- The target audience were asked what they thought of the film again using a questionnaire the full results and details are in section 11 of my blog
- The film worked because the audience didn’t immediately recognise it was a thriller so it had a subtle opening sequence, but it had a hint of mystery because people wanted to keep watching
- Most people thought the plot was interesting and would watch the film when it was finished
- People liked the camera work, thought the music added suspense and the actor’s facial expression worked well for a thriller
- Everybody rated the scene 3 and above out of 5
How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups
