AS Evaluation Question 4 - YouTube

Question 4

Target audiences can be identified through different methods such as;

Personal Interviews – Used to ask personal questions and get specific answers back.

Identifying a target audience for my film was a critical decision as it would change the dynamics of the thriller.  Without a strong mind of a target audience it is hard to realistically expect success. It was important that as a group we decided on my target audience early on because we were then given, ideas on what we needed to included within my thriller to make it appropriate for my target audience. Furthermore it was good that we thought of an appropriate target audience early on because it allowed us to come up with ideas which would be appropriate for the chosen target audience.

The target audience that we decided to choose was 15, mainly because we believed it would enable a larger target audience to watch my thriller. We had a decision to make on whether or not we should make my target audience 18+, or 15+. Finally we came up with the decision to choose 15+ as we believed it wouldn’t restrict some teenagers from watching my thriller and also the audience would be re-assured that the film doesn’t involve aspects of an 18+ film such as gore, and violence.

My narrative would appeal to the audience because there are signs of suspense and tension throughout which would suggest to the audience that my thriller will be engaging throughout. The narrative idea of a young girl being possessed would immediately create empathy amongst the audience as they can see that she looks innocent and therefore, my narrative would help build a relationship between the audience and the characters. For example in the editing stage we incorporated sound of eerie music which would again reiterate her innocence and vulnerability.

Also I used mise-en-scene in order to make my thriller appeal to the audience, because aspects of mise-en-scene would enable us to introduce and create new atmospheres. For example I used low key lighting in order to make the audience feel suspended and tension throughout my thriller. The fact that low key lighting is used would make my thriller more appealing as more people are likely to watch my thriller if it makes them feel on the edge of their seats.

My group and I also tried to incorporate many different sound techniques such as eerie music and contrapuntal sound. Mainly because we thought that eerie music would create suspense amongst the audience as they’re constantly hearing the same repetitive tone which would make the narrative more serious as girl is being possessed and the music will match her emotion. We aimed to use contrapuntal sound as we thought it would be good for creating a contradictory mood amongst the audience, would also be good for making the girl seem more innocent and  therefore help create empathy amongst the audience and help build a relationship between both the audience and the characters. If there is a strong relationship between both the characters and the audience then it would help my thriller seem more dramatic as the audience has a strong feel for the characters and therefore do not want anything bad to happen to them. So therefore we would be achieving many thriller conventions such as shock as they feel strongly affected by anything that happens to them.

Another factor of mise-en-scene that we wanted to strongly stress was camera angles. We were hoping to use camera shots such as high angles and establishing shots to make the girl seem innocent and smaller than she actually is which ultimately makes her seem more vulnerable.  Furthermore this would help contribute to the relationship between audience and characters as the audience are constantly reminded of her vulnerability. This is a strong factor which would contribute to successfulness of my thriller because it would create suspense and tension which are conventions of good thrillers.

AS Evaluation Question 3 - Prezi

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Audience feedback - Miss Georgiou

Audience feedback is important to a production because it provides the user with an accurate analysis of what people what to see within the production and therefore the production company are able to see what they need to include within the production. Once they have included what the audience want to see more people are likely to purchase the film and result in a higher success rate and high levels of sales revenue. If a organisation wasn't to conduct audience feedback then they could potentially risk having low sales and result in the film flop.

There are several methods to collecting customer feedback the main three different types are; Questionnaires, focus groups and screening of the production. Questionnaires helped our group to gather interpratations on ways in which we needed to edit or change ceratin aspects of our thrillers, some of the questions included "What aspects of our thriller do you think contributed towards making the audience feel suspense". Overall I think that this particular collection of thoughts benifited our group as we were able to see what people thought we needed to improve/alter with regards to different areas of our thriller. One thing that we changed as a result from the information gathered through a questionnaire, was the use of music and the atmoshphere that different music can create within the audience. Secondly focus groups benifited our group because we were able to see through face to face interactions/conversations what they thought of our thriller this was highly benificial to our group because the answers given we could conteract them with a response to get a true justification of the points in which they made. It also eliminated the opportunity for mis interpratations through written communication as we were able to clarify un certain points. Although focus groups were time consuming it allowed us to better our production and include important points the audience suggested. Finally the screening of our production was argueably the most successful method of feedback. Mainly because our group was able to watch the reactions of the audience and see what they thought regarding different aspects of our work. The audience that watched our thriller was a class of 30 meaning that the opinions were varied. When we presented our thriller it had barely little to non effects or sound so therefore was very benificial to see what audiences thought could be included and added to make our thriller more successful.

Through the different collection methods of feedback we recieved a variation of comments and suggestions for example one positive comment recieved through the use of questionnaires was; "variation of camera angles used". This particually provided a sense of reasurance for our group as we were shown others perspectives on how they reviewed our use of camera angles. We aimed to use a vairety of camera shots because we wanted the audience to feel different and certain points of our thriller. Furthermore a second comment gathered was that "The costume wore by the girl helped illustate her innocence and vulnerablilty". When we were planning our thriller we wanted the audience to be able to clearly see that the girl is young but still has been possesed, we aimed for this to create a sombre mood agmonst the audience and help them feel empathy. In concusion when we reviewed the comments we saw that there was an overarching opinion regarding the location of a forest, some commented saying "the location of the forest emphasises her innocence and isolation", we thought initally that the forest would emphasise her lonlieness so we were happy that we accomplished what we wanted to.

Although we recieved positive feedback we also recieved negative comments and constucional points. A first construction point that we had was "Add effects in order to engage and add significance to the narrative", we knew that we still had to change the thriller and the effects dramatically so therefore this comment reiterated what we already knew and the importance editing has on the narrative. Secondly a comment that was constantly reacuring was "the credits needed to be bolder" as a result of this comment we changed the colour of the text and the transactional features and the entry and exit it has when coming onto the screen. We came to a realisation that the credits needed to be affective and clear because they are what the audience see first so therefore need to give the audience a good initial impression of our thriller. Finally a comment that we collected was a question directed towards the production of our film, "Why did we not use dialog" our response to this question was the fact that we wanted to keep our narrative little to non dialog because we wanted it to make the girl seem more isolated and innocent. We also thought that dialog would make our thriller portray less suspense and tension and therefore wouldn't follow the typical conventions of thrillers.

In conclusion I think that I followed the brief correctly and abided by the points in which I needed to include within our thriller. I aimed to incorporate as many conventions as possible because we wanted the audience to feel suspended whilst watching our thriller, because this would contribute towards the established relationship between both audience and characters and add empathy to the connection. Overall I thought that I successfully managed to create a effective 2 minute thriller clip that added emotion to the audiences thoughts and feelings.

Rough cut - Miss Miller

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zCpjDSZEWE

Rough cut are very important within the filming industry because they help prepare us for the opening scene. It also allows us to use the constructive feedback from the audience to alter our thriller and make it more conventional to the thriller genre. When we showed our thriller to our peers it was barley edited so it meant that we needed to do lots of improvements in order to make it more successful. Our rough cut included some edited footage but not many filters and credits so therefore we was expecting a lot of feedback. From the feedback we were able to see what is good and what needs improving. Once our rough cut was finished we exported it to YouTube to enable a large audience to watch it and give us feedback on what needs improving.

 

 

The audience feedback is a major consideration to consider to take into a account when analysing the feedback. The audience feedback will also help us gather general conceptions of how we should improve our thriller. The feedback gathered will be fair and non bias as it was taken from a variety of people and they were open and wrote their thoughts onto the paper so that we could gain as much from the experience. We are able to see all the things that needs to be improved and take all the audiences opinions into account.

 

 

We gathered our feedback through handwritten feedback in the form of interviews, the advantages to our group of gathering feedback in the form of interview are;

1) We can ask specific questions in order to gather valuable information.

2) Can be easily interpreted.
By gathering feedback it meant that our group was able to interpret data and gather points in which we need to alter our thriller so that it is the best that it can possible be and furthermore stay conventional to the thriller genre.

In conclusion the rough cut was very useful to our group when trying to gather a perspective of the strengths and weaknesses of our thriller.

   

Filming schedule and risk assessment - Miss Georgiou

It is important to have filming schedules with in thrillers because they help organise and structure the co-ordination of the film. As a group we thought that it was important to have a structured plan of what we were going to do.

For example our filming schedule consisted out of different times in which we would shoot each angle. For example at 4pm we were to begin filming the sequence of the girl getting ready and also an establishing shot of the street so that the audience can gather and interpretation of the urban build of the area. Secondly we would record the scene when the audience see her interacting with water, we would all have a understanding of how each sequence would be filmed and also at what times each should be shot. We believed that if a strict filming schedule was implemented in our clip then it would eliminate any possibility for mistakes. Then we would film the short scene when the girl is walking down the street, we planned as a group to stick to our schedule to make sure that we were spending a sufficient amount of time on each scene. After we would film the sequence of the girl walking into the forest towards the lake. Next we would film the remaining scenes left in our clip. After we thought we had completed everything we would go through our recordings to see where we feel needs improving, this would help our thriller clip as there will be less mistakes and will flow more easily.

As a whole I feel as though the filming schedule provided our group with a sense of clarity amongst all of the people involved in the film. Filming schedules make films efficient as they're able to glance at the schedule and see when they need to film each scene of the play. It is also less time consuming as the people involved are working quickly to ensure that the film is completed on time.

Opening Scenaration - Miss Miller

1) Write up a DETAILED recount of your narrative/group storyboard
2) Include a summary explaining how and why certain elements (look at a few) will help make your sequence better/more conventional

In this post I will mainly be writing up a detailed recount of my storyline/narrative and write how I believe it will be conventional to the thriller genre. I will also be including a summary explaining how our thriller is conventional to the thriller genre and elements that could make our sequence more conventional.

Our narrative is based around the idea of a girl being possessed, it starts off by the girl putting make up on, we thought of starting with this innocent iconic opening mainly because we thought it would be conventional to the thriller genre as it would be an example of iconography and also the girl would be young and blonde which are also conventional to the thriller genre. The fact that it would start with such an innocent, lonely girl doing an average act (applying make up) would build to the relationship between both the audience and the characters as they would sympathise with the situation. It would also add to the shock when eventually she shows evidence of her possession.

As the scene continues we see glimpses of evidence which would all suggest her overarching possession of water, the fact that the audience see small evidence of water it would remind the audience that the girl is far from normal. It would be conventional to the thriller genre as it creates suspense amongst the audience as they know that it is building up to a climax. The water will be poured out of the glass onto the floor, it would be poured onto the floor to emphasise the idea of water being destructive and harmful. So the realism of the situation grows with significance because the audience find the idea of a young girl being possessed makes her seem abnormal and creates empathy. When the climax eventually arrives the girl has travelled to the lake through her overpowering water possession.

As the scene progresses we tried to incorporate the idea of typical thriller conventions such as low key lighting we thought to include this idea as it emphasises the iconography of the young girl because the dark lighting, will make the girl seem brighter because what she is wearing. This will make her seem more powerful and therefore will add to the already established relationship between both the audience and the characters because it will make her possession seem more individual and will add to the sympathy.


As we started editing our thriller clip we decided that we would need to re-arrange/alter we decided that there was a few things that we needed to add in order to make it more conventional -

Removal of watch - Initially Robyn came up with the idea of dropping a watch into the lake to lake to resemble the strength of the possession and the fact that its inevitable and time will not cure it.

Planning opening credits - Miss Georgiou

Our thriller film:
Actors- Robyn Tansley
Director- Domenico Martini
Title- The Water Bells
Music- Harry Fagan
Costumes- Robyn Tansley
Editing- Domenico Martini, Harry Fagan, Robyn Tansley
Production- MartiniProductions
Producer- Domenico Martini
Writing- Harry Fagan
Co producer- Robyn Tansley

In films the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They're usually proposed onto a black screen to emphasise the importance of them, often along side music or theme music to give an idea of the plot. The main reason credits are incorporated into films are to include and award credit to the director, production company and the actors. Opening credits are also useful when establishing the genre of the film because they're able to perceive the general ideas of a thriller film.

In our research into planning opening credits we looked at the film 'Se7en'. We wanted to know the order in which the credits appeared so that we could make our sequence realistic and professional. The order was: Production company, director, actor, title of film, actors continued, casting, music, costumes, editing, production, camera operator, co-producer, producer, writing and the director again.
When watching the opening credits we realised that a lot of low key lighting was used and also basic and easily accociated colours. Such as red for blood and black for mystery and danger. These techniques are conventional to a thriller because they create suspense and tension amongst the audience. The credits are portrayed onto a white background because they can show a clear differentiation between good and evil. There was also hidden identity used within the sequence because it emphasises the mysterious of the film, it also builds a relationship with the audience they're intrigued to who the killer is. The hidden identity also adds to the establishment of the genre, also the jerkiness of the credits adds enigma to the clip as well helps establish the genre to the audience.  These conventions would make our opening sequence more conventional to the thriller genre as it would make the audience immediately associate our thriller with a typical thriller. The fact that dismal colours were used would create both tension and suspense amongst the audience as they can clearly see that there will be a scary storyline. The colours would also make our main character seem more innocent and vulnerable as she is being portrayed as evil but yet looks like a child which are often harmless. The audience feels a stronger bond because they feel empathy for the character meaning that they don't want anything bad to happen to her.


Another film that we analysed the opening credits for was 'The Black Swan', we seemed to notice that music used is particularly relevant and appropriate to the genre of the film. The opening credits are written with charcoal this connects with the music being played as when the tempo increases the speed of the writing the credits. When the writing slows it creates suspense and tension as the audience are anticipating something to happen. We also noticed that the title appeared last this may suggest that its the most important aspect of the credits. Dark colours make up the majority of the clip so when the title is revealed in white, it shows that there is a underlining clarity between good and evil. This is also evident when the credits slowly fade out letter by letter, this would make the audience think that a theme of mystery is portrayed in the film and keep the audience engaged.