Research into Target Audience- Miss Miller

Research into target audience

The research we did needed to be carried out so that we could understand the audience that our film was targeting, for example what type of audience would like a hidden identity. We had to ask 40 people as this would determine who our audience is and 40 people would mean that there are a lot of different opinions about different conventions in a thriller, it shows that the research gathered is varied. The results that we have accumulated will shape our film to be what the most of the audience want as this would mean we are actually listening to the audiences opinions and as this for them, they would know best.

The first pie chart is a question about the people we're interviewing, the question is are you male or female, this determines which gender our thriller film will be targeted towards and as you can see we have asked more males which means our thriller is targeted towards males, though you can say it just the amount of the specific gender we talked to and that doesn't mean we are alienating the other gender, in other words, we just happened to interview more males than females.


The second question is a bit more important than the first, as this is something that is defining our target audience. their age so then we will look over our film idea and see if it will be an 18 or a 15 rated film. our target audience for this are 15 to 18 year olds, so to make sure our target audience are not being alienated we will have to hit the 15 rated criteria which means we will have to tone down some specifics in the film for example swearing may be very minimal to compensate for the dark theme that surrounds this film.


The third chart tells us the sub-genre that is best that goes well with a thriller film, so this tells us that psychological thrillers are prefered more than a crime or action thriller. What these results mean is that we would have to show something twisted about the human mind, as the story we have based ours on will have a dysfunctional antagonist so we may show the aspect that he is twisted and deranged. However we have to take into account that this is only an introduction to a thriller film so not much about the antagonist will be revealed so early on in the film. I would say we would need to incorporate a point of view shot with a hand held movement to convey his sick twisted mind and psyche.

The fourth chart shows our target audience prefers a female victim than any other gender. The reason behind this is because women or girls are commonly associated with being fragile and innocent, it isn't very nice to say that they're prefered but it has worked out that way throughout the history of thrillers. However, our target audience want the female victim so this is something that we will include into the intro as this is the common opinion for our audience. We will use a female for our introduction to be the victim.




The fifth chart represents what location or setting in a thriller film is most popular within the target audience we are reaching out for, the chart says that abondened houses are more of a popular choice, however this will be hard for to do as finding an abondened house is very difficult however abondened forests can be much easier to film in so we will implement this in our film by filming at a forest at night so not many people will walk past.


The sixth chart shows that gory thrillers, this means there is blood and human entrails that are exposed in thrillers, are more prefered. The reason for this is because the gore can emphasize the amount of danger that the characters are in as it makes it seem a bit more realistic. This will be something that must be included into our film but as said before we cannot alienate our audience so not too much gore as if we get lots of it on screen the film will become an 18 there fore blocking out potential target audience.



The seventh chart tells us that our target audience prefer our antagonists or villains to have a hidden identity or remain a mystery to our audience throughout the majority of the film. This means that when we start filming we will have to make sure that the antagonists face is not clearly shown, not much back story is given about him and that he doesn't talk as this will create enigma and suspense about him for the audience and both are conventions to a thriller film.




The eighth chart shows us what films our target audience liked previously and the chart says that from an inspiration standpoint we should be taking it from fight club which again comes under psychological but not a typical thriller the way we will film ours. What we need to do is watch fight club and take as much inspiration from that film as we can and try to input as much of the style of fight club into our film that we can.





The ninth chart shows the audience that we have questioned shows that a gun would be prefered as a weapon in our thriller film. We will use a gun in our opening sequence to a thriller film as the target audience have said that it is their favourite weapon to be used, however we need to make sure that their is no death at the beginning as this would then ruin the narrative that we have already set up for the rest of the film, but we will implement this for our film.





the final chart of the all the questioning we did was to ask the specifics of what they like about the thriller genre including the conventions you see throughout all of them. shock seems to be the highest on this list according to our target audience which means that when we start filming we will have to add some shock into the sequence to show that we are reaching out towards our target audience.




Finally here are some vox pops I filmed of three individuals where I would ask the questions that were part of the questionnaire. This is proof that I have gone out there and asked people for the opinion and beliefs about the thriller genre including what they prefer.

What I found most useful while doing this research is the fact that these answers mean that they are all shaping the film themselves and we're just trying to make produce and create an idea by using all this information gathered from the questionnaire, this therefore leads us to believe that this film will be successful as this is what the target audience want. We will have to talk about how to incorporate all of this information into our film but some may be too much of a problem to introduce so we may have to let a few ideas go. If i were to carry out this research again, I would make sure that there was communication with group members more often than there was for us, we did communicate just not very frequently.

Group narrative- Miss Georgiou

Group narrative

In my group is Jessica Day and Ryan Samuels.

Ryan Samuels-Boy and a girl are having a lunch picnic. Girl comments on how glad she is that the boy forgave her for the terrible thing she did. Boy looks away and we see that he looks menacing. Cut to flashback of the boy walking to the edge of the platform at a train station, about to jump but deciding not to at the last minute. Cut back to the present, the boy's girlfriend asks him to pass her the apple juice. Then we see the hamper and as the boy moves the apple juice we see a knife. Boy grabs it, screen fades to black, girl screams.

Advantages: It is easy to film and create. The audience understand the antagonists motives clearly.
Disadvantages: Doesn't show many conventions of a thriller.

Jessica Day-The opening sequence for this narrative would be of the friends walking through the forest, when their friend goes missing and getting the text from the antagonist, the focus would go back and forth from the characters and pictures of the chalk circles and weapons, that could possibly be used. The credits would be written in text font like the phone to show some of the narrative about the antagonist sending them messages. The rules could be being read out so that the audience are aware straight away that there is some sort of game involved.

Advantages: It builds up suspense which is a main convention of a thriller.
Disadvantages: It's brief, so it could be a bit more detailed.

Me-For my thriller film I am going to be base it around a wife who is in a room on her own. The audience see her facial expressions seem depressed at the beginning and she hears noises outside of the room that she is in. The woman opens the door to investigate the noise but doesn't see anything so as she sits back down she sees a silhouette of someone standing there. Then it cuts to black as he walks in the door, we hear struggling noises and then finally silence. Then we see a silhouette walk out then the camera pans to the woman's desk and we see blood all over it.

Advantages: Good narrative and good use of conventions within a thriller.

Disadvantages: It's hardest to make and it is not clearly detailed.

Group narrative: Based on Jessica's one but we will change it so that it is from the person who gets kidnapped instead as this was would increase the sympathy from the audience to the character being taken, we won't know much about the antagonists intentions, we will just see the friend being kidnapped. We will get rid of the game theme as this is quite cliched, and it would be too much to fit in the opening sequence. We may show a bit of the killer but not too much as we don't want to give it away as to who the killer is so early in the film. So it's about a group of girls who are on their way home until they come across a fork in the road and one of the girls must leave the others to get home. On her way home she sees a mysterious figure and tries walking the other way but upon turning around she realises the figure was dummy but the mysterious person is behind her. The girl blacks out and slowly regains consciousness soon afterwards as she is is getting dragged through the forest and then the sequence ends. We all agreed on this narrative as this wouldn't be too hard to make. It was Jessica's idea but we all discussed it and made small changes that we thought could have elevated the piece of work to a much higher standard.

Our group agreed that our story follows the theory of Todorov, this is when the story has an equilibrium to start with and during this there is disequilibrium to put the protagonist into action ande prove he is the hero, some films start with a disequilibrium and then they show the protagonist and shows his/her perspective as they try to save the day. Our film starts with a disequilibrium as the in the very beginning sequence we already see that there is a disruption in this world and someone needs to help.

Our group narrative is conventional to a thriller as it makes sure that the killer remains with a hidden identity which is a convention in all thrillers as they want the audience to pay attention to the character that is on screen as it could give little hints or pointers about their character. We also have the abondened forest which is conventional to the films setting as this always conveys a mood of isolation or that there is no help near or around. it appeals to our target audience because we based our film around the responses that we had got from the people of the public, we went with the ideas that got most of the positive responses, so we are reaching out towards our target audience.

Individual narrative ideas- Miss Georgiou

 Narrative ideas

The narrative to any film is very important as this will let the audience know why stuff is happening on screen, the narrative is also the part of the film that keeps the audiences attention. For example if there was a horror about a killer and showed only his murders then the whole movie would have no rhyme or reason, the audience do not know why the person is doing this and if he is even a bad person as these people he/she kills could be bad, yes you could say that most horrors start off with no narrative, but this is only to get the audience excited and ready as they will explain the narrative later.

For my thriller film I am going to be base it around a wife who is in a room on her own. The audience see her facial expressions seem depressed at the beginning and she hears noises outside of the room that she is in. The woman opens the door to investigate the noise but doesn't see anything so as she goes back to her desk and sits back down she sees a silhouette of someone standing there. Then it cuts to black as he walks in the door, we hear struggling noises and then finally silence. Then we see a silhouette walk out then the camera pans to the woman's desk and we see blood all over it. Then it slowly fades to black.

I will briefly explain the narrative of the opening sequence and mention where we would film it. I will also get their opinions on the narrative idea of my own and see if they think it is conventional to the thriller genre or if it is too much of a horror, but I will answer questions that they have about the narrative and whether or not it makes sense.

Inspirations- Miss Georgiou

Inspirations

Inspiration can come from many things, you need interest in something so that you can be inspired to create something. If you had given someone with no interest in films or filming and camera and said make a film, he wouldn't enjoy it nor would he even do it. Inspiration can come from a range of different things, most of time it comes from researching that specific field like thriller films for me. I had to keep analysing a range of different thriller sequences so I could get some inspiration for my own thriller film.

The first bit inspiration our group have taken is the opening credits scene in the film "se7en" as this scene is very creep, it creates an off putting atmosphere that isn't really seen much in other films. The reason I also found the credits creepy was because of the font the writing is in almost seems hand written badly by the antagonist himself which conveys that he is unstable and even unstable. The music is probably the most eerie I have ever heard and it conveys that suspenseful and creepy atmosphere tremendously, the whole of this opening sequence is just off putting and puts the audience in an unnerving state. The opening sequence does a fantastic job at creating enigma about this character as the audience have no idea who this is and this is how he is introduced into the film. The thing that stands out the most is the font it's in and the music in the background as both of these create such a creepy tone to the movie.

Another inspiration from the film se7en I wanted to use was the unidentified antagonist as throughout most of the film you don't even know what the killer looks like, you get very short sightings but you don't see his face until right the end of the film. For our sequence you will see our killer but you won't see the killer's face to let him remain a mystery for the audience throughout the whole sequence, this creates enigma which is a convention of the thriller genre as the audience are confused as to who this character is and why he has done it, but it keeps the audience concentrated.

My next huge inspiration when it came to making the scene and one I took much influence from was the here's johnny scene from Stanley Kubrick's the shining, for this scene i analysed the sound, the reason for this was because I always found the music in this film scary and this one scene highlighted that eeriness more than any other in the film. The music sounds all over the place, none of it is soothing or nice about it but that is the point it is supposed to be horrible, it puts the audience on edge and the whole scene illustrates just how mad Jack is in the film. That eerie music is not something I would want to replicate as it doesn't sound like it would fit in our film but it has given me the idea of using eerie music to make the audience feel on edge when they watch our scene.

Another big inspiration was the film directed by Martin Scorsese shutter island, the lighting was something I liked the most about this scene as throughout the whole thing it's low key or at least the majority of the scene that is. The reason that the lighting is conventional is because it leaves the audience wondering if there is something in the dark waiting to jump out at the protagonist or victim, it can even suggest how little hope there is for the character in the situation. This is something will we use in our sequence as low key lighting is conventional to a thriller.

My final inspiration that i would like to take into account is the beginning scene in the film Halloween. We only see a point of view perspective of the killer but it makes him that ever more mysterious as we see the actions he commits from his perspective almost as if the director wants us to understand his reasoning for these actions. However it also uses that element of an unseen killer as we don't see his face until the end of the scene where it turns out to just be a kid, which then creates engima as the audience want to focus on the narrative to why the little boy did this in the first place.

I think that noting down all my inspirations has been incredibly helpful, it has all been incredibly helpful when it came to getting ideas for a narrative, as then we could see what we would like to see in our film that has been in other films. I think the most noticeable inspiration that was used for ours was se7en as I had to say two inspirations that i thought were incredibly important to the sequence of ours, so if we hadn't had taken note of that film, then we may have missed out one of the most important conventions which is a unknown killer or antagonist.

Research into conventions- Miss Miller

Thriller films conventions

Conventions means something that is typical, or you would normally see, within that genre. An action movie convention would be something like explosions. However a thrillers convention would be that it builds suspense and creates shock and surprise, thrillers always try to create enigma for the viewers or audience. The introductions always try to confuse the audience so that they watch the rest to understand in more detail why the thing at the start happened in the first place. For my example of the conventions, I will talk about the film the purge: anarchy and how it presents the conventions of a thriller.

As the scene starts we see that the lighting is low key as the two women run into the closet. Low-key lighting is used to give the effect that the scene is quite unclear or that the theme behind it is dark. This can be related to the audience as they cannot really see much apart from the girls as the lighting is low key therefore they relate to the characters as they are going through the same ordeal. This is conventional to a thriller because, as said before, it creates confusion.

Just a few more seconds into the scene we see some unknown people enter the room. These people are antagonists as the characters are hiding from them, and they are not seen clearly because in this scene we see them wearing gas masks covering their identity. This is conventional to a thriller as they want the antagonists to be mysterious for the audience, the audience again sympathize with the characters hiding as the audience do not know who these people are as well as the characters. This enables the audience to further build a relationship with the characters hiding at this point, and this is conventional to a thriller as they want you to feel for these characters.

There is another convention in the scene which is silence, this is when it cuts to the two girls in the closet trying to keep quiet. The effect of this is that it creates suspense as we cannot hear any of the intruders on the other side nor can we see them as the camera doesn't leave the girls, the silence is eerie and makes the audience feel uncomfortable. The audience can relate to this as the audience cannot hear the people and they cannot see them either the same as the characters in the closet, they also cannot see or hear them well, this builds up more of a relationship between the audience and the characters on screen.

There is a use of mise-en-scene with is the facial expressions of the characters whilst they are in the closet during the silence. They have lost their scared faces and it almost shows us relief. This convention is effective because the it shows us that the characters are safe. This is can relate to the audience as the silence has been for while so the people may have left, so the audience also have relief as the audience think our characters are safe, this builds a relationship with the audience and the characters which is conventional to a thriller.

The last convention is shock when the closet door swings open and standing there are the antagonists. This can be connected to the convention before as well. The effect of this convention is that it leaves the audience confused. The characters are also confused along with the audience as they thought they had gone, so this further builds up a relationship with the audience and characters which is again conventional to a thriller.

The scene creates the conventions in the thriller genre very well, it build up a relationship with the audience very well as they're supposed to feel sympathy towards these characters, the fact that the camera is with them the whole time suggests that the audience are in this situation with the characters and it also creates shock, tension and suspense which are all vital to thrillers. The ideas I can take from this is that I would like to keep the antagonist a mystery as it creates enigma for the audience.

Opening sequence Analysis- Miss Georgiou

How does the opening sequence of the film Halloween, inform the audience of the conventions of a thriller film?

The opening sequence to a a film is very important as it can convey the whole mood of your film in a short scene, the film can also start at this point and the rest of the film can be based off of this one scene when something bad happens. In a thriller films case, the introduction is supposed to create enigma, shock, surprise and suspense. The opening of Halloween shows the audience all of these and they even show the thriller genres codes and conventions throughout the opening sequence.

Cinematography



The first example is a Point of view camera movement which is used throughout the whole of the opening scene as we are seeing the perspective of the antagonist while he spies on his sister and walks around the house. This is used to create enigma as the audience haven't seen this person at all even after the girl is killed. This is done to intrigue the audience and so they pay attention later in the film to understand why the antagonist did this. This is conventional to a thriller as they want to confuse the audience at the beginning so they understand later on. Right at the end of the scene there is a zoom out after it is revealed that the killer was just a little boy. This is done to create shock for the audience as this almost like the audience have been taken aback by this, this engrosses the audience to make them feel as if they are there with the characters. This is conventional as the camera always tries to create shock for when the killer is presented to us and in this case the reveal is quite shocking for the audience. The very last shot is a high-angle shot of the boy and the house he has just killed someone in. This is done to make it seem as though the boy and the house do not seem so threatening, this clearly contrasts with the scene that just happened. This is used to gain confusion within the audience as now they are presented with the antagonist not being as threatening as before. This is conventional to a thriller as they always want the audience to be confused on the scenes they have just watched.

Editing

Slow editing is used as the character is going up the stairs inside the house. This is done to prolong the sequence and to build up suspense. The audience relate to this as they feel that suspense and the slow build up going up the stairs. This is conventional to a thriller film as they always try to build up suspense.The next bit of editing is fast paced editing as the timing of the shots have increased to make the scene seem more fast paced. The scene shows Michael trying to leave after he has killed the girl. This shows the killer is trying to escape. The audience relate to this as they know why the scene suddenly speeds up. This is conventional to a thriller as they always try connect the mood of the scene with the filming of it, so the scene shows a murder which increases the pace of the film. The last use of editing is a reaction shot of the boy when someone takes the mask off. This shows the conventional theme in thrillers which is shock which again relates back to the audience as they also feel this shock which builds up a relationship with the characters reacting to the fact that the killer Michael is just a kid which is conventional to a thriller.

Soundtrack

The first bit of sound in this scene is off-screen sound when there are kids in the background are chanting and singing Halloween songs. This is done to show the time of year it is but it also informs the audience of the age of the killer. This laughter is contrasted later as a small kid killed his own sister. This is conventional to a thriller as they leave little clues to who the killer is and small bits of information that can be related to them. There is a diegetic sound of a clock turning as the killer goes up stairs. This is supposed to suggest that the killer will kill the girl and the audience relate this clock noise to the girl and realize she is now out of time. This is conventional to a thriller as they always try to give something away before it even happens. There is silence when the killer gets to the top of the stairs and is looking at his sister. The silence is used to create suspense, but it also shows the audience that the killer doesn't want to get caught. The audience relate to the tension as the audience feel it throughout this scene which is conventional to a thriller.

Conventions

The first shown convention of a thriller is low-key lighting  in this when the killer is looking at the house. This is used to show little and makes it seem unclear as to what the object is. This is supposed to build a relationship with the audience as they also do not know much about this as it is unclear to the audience as well, not just the characters. This is conventional as thrillers always try to confuse you. Iconography is used as well when the boy takes the knife out of a draw in the scene where he is walking through the kitchen. When the woman dies it shows a conventional theme to the audience as most of the time the woman is always in danger and the weapon itself that was used is also conventional to a thriller film . This makes the audience feel sympathy for her character. The identity of the killer remains a secret until after he has done the kill. This is conventional to a thriller as it builds up suspense for the audience.

Characters

The first character to note here is the point of view shot of his perspective throughout the intro scene, the antagonist. This creates enigma as we don't see what he looks like so we have no personal attachment to the antagonist and shock for the audience after it has been revealed that the killer was just a kid. This is conventional to a thriller as it leaves the audience confused as to why he did it but it is also quite menacing as he doesn't seem to have a motive, he just did it which makes him a sadistic killer. The victim is the second character in this scene a blonde girl. This is conventional as most thrillers have a blonde victim get killed, this is because blonde girls or women look more innocent, so as soon as the antagonist kills them it shows that he has no mercy and that he won't stop at nothing until he gets whatever he pleases, which still hasn't been revealed to us, making the audience pay attention as they are now scared on who else he may kill next.

Narrative

The things that we can gather from the intro that show us the narrative of the film is the fact that the film is during halloween as we have the title and the singing at the start to prove that. The audience can then relate halloween to scary themes. The audience are also shocked by the fact that a boy has just killed his sister and that the boy is the killer. The narrative at this point has already created shock, suspense and surprise and all of these are conventional to a thriller film.

The intro scene to this film shows the conventions of an actual thriller quite clearly, the antagonist is shown at the beginning, we see a blonde victim who ends up getting killed which is used to show the ferociousness of our antagonist, we have very low-key lighting to suggest the theme behind the film is very dark and to make the audience very confused so that they focus later in the film to understand the relevance of this scene.There is a murder weapon present during this scene to show off the films iconography. There is a POV shot throughout the whole intro to build up suspense and create enigma.

This film has taught me that I should make the scene confusing as this is a convention in a horror movie. This film has also taught me that females are mostly used for the victims and i may have to implement this into my film as this would make the audience side for her. I will have to make the killer seem mysterious so that it can create enigma for the audience. I would also try to keep edits slow before the murder and then speed up the timing of the shots during and after the murder.