Target audeince Research

Hey,

We compiled some research for our target audience. As a group we decided to aim our thriller at the age group of 18-25. This is because at this age is when you will most likely be going to watch a thriller. When we did our questionnaire we asked what age range people were and the most concentrated amount came from 16-20 year olds and 21-30 year olds. We don't want to aim at too young of an audience so we have gone for the middle and gone with 18-25. This is the sort of age that watch thriller movies and enjoy going out to watch them.

Initial ideas

Hey,

Here are a few of our original ideas that we decided to reject due to not liking the idea completely and the complications of the idea. 

- At first we wanted to do a home invasion turn abduction/murder but we felt like we wouldn't be able to portray whats going on in the beginning of the movie without confusing the audience or giving it all away within the first couple of minutes, so we decided to scrap that idea and brainstorm some other ideas. 

- Our second idea was to do a huge plot twist opening. Yet again we felt like we wouldn't be able to portray whats going on without making any sense or giving it all away.  So we went back to the drawing board and came up with our current idea, this idea makes much more sense and it will be so much easier to film, direct and portray.

- Our last initial idea was to do a thriller opening based on a historical event but have a twist on it or doing a thriller based on the future and how negative it will be, but again we collectively decided that this idea would be to difficult to portray and would be confusing to the audience. 

Questionnaire / Target audience research

Hey,

Today we set up a questionnaire on survey monkey and posted it on Facebook for ur friends and family to respond. This was a good in helping us with our research and ultimately helped us choose our title for the thriller movies and also helped us settle debates on our ideas on what would work and what would not. In total we had 34 responses which was more than we thought we would have had.

Here are the questions and how they were answered: 

Question 1:
What gender are you?

Dark Blue - female - 97% (33)
Light blue - 3% (1)

Question 2:
How old are you?

Dark blue - Under 16 - 3% (1)
Light blue - 16 to 20 - 59% (20)
Light green - 21 to 30 - 9% (3)
Dark green - 31 to 40 - 9% (3)
Grey - 40+ - 21% (7)

Question 3: 

What movie genre is your favourite from this list?  

Dark blue - comedy - 28% (9)
Light blue - romantic - 19% (6)
Light green - thriller - 12% (4)
Dark green - horror - 19% (6)
Grey - action - 19% (6)

Teal - drama - 3% (1)

(Other)

We got a response of Rom-com and Historical.

Question 4:

How often do you watch thriller movies in a year? 

Dark blue - Never - 12% (4)

Light blue - 1 to 3 times a year - 18% (6)

Light green - 4 to 6 times a year - 24% (8)

Dark green - 7 to 9 times a year - 18% (6)
Grey - 10 + times a year - 29% (10)

Question 5:

What is your favourite thing about thriller movies?

Dark blue - explosions - 3% (1)
Light blue - chase scenes - 6% (2)
White - A death - 0% (0)
Green -  plot twists - 53% (18)
Light grey - Flashbacks + flash forwards - 9% (3)
White - fight scenes - 0% (0)
Light teal - all of the above -  18% (6)
Dark grey - none of the above - 12% (4)
Other - 6% (2)

Question 6:

Which of the following titles of movies appeals to you the most?

Dark blue - Stolen - 18% (6)

light Blue - Ransom - 18% (6)

Light green - 24 Hours left - 32% (11) 

Dark green - The Harrison Family - 21% (7)

Light Grey - Family kidnapped - 12% (4) 

Question 7:

What do you expect to see in the opening of  a thriller movie?

Dark blue- A death - 38% (12)
Light blue - Flashbacks - 31% (10)
Light green - A kidnapping - 16% (5)
Dark green - A fight - 16% (5)
White - A Robbery - 0% (0)
Other - 6% (2)

Question 8:

What is your favourite thriller movie on this list?

Dark blue - Gone girl - 18% (6)
Light blue - The butterfly effect - 3% (1)
Light green - The woman in Black - 21% (7)
Dark green - Shutter Island - 6% (2)
Light  grey - The girl on the train - 29% (10)
Teal - Taken - 24% (8)

Question 9:

What soundtrack do you like in a thriller?

Dark blue - Starts slow/quiet and builds up - 53% (18)
Light blue - loud/fast and then quiet/slow - 3% (1)
Light green - Slow and then music is loud in certain places - 41% (14)
Dark green - Other - 3% (1)
The person who said other said:
"The music should not overpower the words, its awful and makes it difficult to watch the film."

Question 10:

What actors/actresses would you expect to see in a thriller?

Dark blue - Matt Damon - 39% (13)

Light blue - Daniel Radcliffe - 15% (5)

Light green - Emma Roberts - 27% (9)

Dark green - Katie Holmes - 3% (1)

Grey - Other - 15% (5)

This questionnaire helped us a lot, it helped us chose our thriller title because it got the majority of the votes (24 Hours left) as well as help us adjust our story slightly to fit our target audience which will be crossing into two of our age groups. We chose the age range 18-25 as the groups 16-20 and 21-30 had the most amount of people and 18-25 is the age that most people watch thriller movies, who go out with friends and who this movie is aimed at because of the characters that are in it and the story. 

It also made us be very cautious with the music and we made sure when editing we didn't drown out any of the dialogue between actors.

Class feedback

Hey,

Today we presented our idea to the rest of the class, this was eye opening as we received many comments that will help us advance and improve our thriller opening. 

The questions we received were as follows:

1. A robbery is a very different approach to a thriller, how will you make it as suspenseful as possible. 

2. It seems like a lot to fit into one shot opening,and you don't need to have the questioned answer in the first 2 minutes. Can you somehow change your plot to make it more mysterious for the audience?  

These questions made us really think over our original plot which was a robbery themed murder. As a group we decided not to continue with this idea as we would face many problems and set backs. We talked and decided on a new approach and that was to create an abduction opening. Our storyboard describes the plot and goes into more detail.

Negatives with our prelim that we want to avoid

Hey, 

Today when discussing our thriller opening we talked about what we did not want to include after working on our preliminary task. Here are some of those ideas.

- We don't want to have music through out the whole opening like we did with the preliminary task, this is because it was hard to hear the voice over and it was a little too much going on in the clip to be able to take it all in. 

-Secondly we don't want to film with a phone and we want to work with a better camera. Obviously because of the media we chose the film was always going to be not up to standard so when we film our real task we want it to be as professional looking as possible. 

- Additionally another issue we had with the prelim task that we want to avoid in our main task is the use of some of the shots. This was because of timing purposes they were difficult to incorporate  into the clip. One example was the match on match shot. It wasn't long to film it, but it took a while to edit it to get the timing done right, so it looked as fluid and realistic as possible.

Plan for our thriller opening

Hey,

Today we discussed as a group what our plans are for our thriller opening, here is what we came up with:

Location:

For our location we have decided to film at Amy's house for the main part of the movie. (all the filming we will do inside) we will be filming in Amy's house and the surrounding areas. We have decided on this location as there is a a long pathway in which we can have the beginning filmed. We have decided to film at my house because there is a large area of field and an orchard which will be a great place to film the last couple of scenes, where we see the children that have been kidnapped. There is also an abandoned farm house and wrecked stables that will help us portray the atmosphere and theme when filming, We want to create suspense and this will help create it. 

Music:

For our non diegetic audio we have decided to choose a piece that we found on youtube. This piece is called "Meet the maker". We choose this because it starts off slow and quiet and then gradually becomes more dramatic and more intense. This will be a great piece to have in the background of our last shot when we see the children trapped in the house. Here is the link to the music in which we are going to be using:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKO0ap3g5s0
We will be using the music from the beginning until 2:12. This is because the music is at its most intense part. 

For the beginning and middle of the clip it will be silent in effort to build suspense and tension to the scene as it will be extremely quiet at times. We will have diegetic sound such as a door slam when the mum enters the house, the mum screaming to her children and the oven ticking repeatedly and louder to build suspense until the dad marches in. This will be a suspenseful moment and also a moment that will make the audience jump out of their seat. 

Actors:

Demi: Step Dad

Amy: Mum

Catherine: teenager 1

Alicia: Teenager 2

Roles:

As well as acting we will all be taking part in filming and directing, this way we can all have a say in the production of our thriller opening. As Catherine and I are not in as many clips we will be directing the filming more so than the other just because we are not in the clip, but when Amy and Demi are not in the shot they will be taking over filming. 

Shots:

These are some of the shots that we really want to make sure we use such as a panning shot and a low angle shot. We want to use these especially because we feel these can help us create the right atmosphere in the opening and also let us show of our filming skills. 

We will be discussing more features of the opening as we go on and I will take note, but for today this is what we came up with.

Finished Preliminary task - evaluation

Hey,

Today we finished our preliminary task. We all contributed towards the making of our short clip, here is the complete task in full:

There're many parts of the clip that we would like to change, for example, we should have filmed it landscape instead of portrait to avoid the black lines that it creates filming that way. This is not a major issue but just makes the clip look more professional and better to watch. We will avoid this when creating our main task by filming it landscape. Secondary we need to be careful with the quality of the footage. We need to make sure that the camera is focused before we start filming and also when we film (unless its part of the shot) we have a steady hand. 

Another Issue with the clip is the voice over. We were happy with the content but just not how it sounds. To explain, the speaking isn't clear enough because of the effects we added to the voice to make it deeper and sound darker. This can easily be avoided when we do our next task by making sure the speaking is as clear as possible and also not add as many effects. 

3 filming techniques that we used:



- A camera shot that we used within our prelim task was a two person shot. We used this shot a lot as we wanted to show the perspective of the two friends and then after show the perspective of the stalker. This would be a good shot to use in our thriller as it will help us portray the relationship of the mum and the dad and present their body language towards each other. This shot was easy to film and worked out well for us and we will definitely be using it in our thriller opening.


- Secondly another shot we used was an over the shoulder shot. This was used to let the audience acknowledge that there is a stalker but not to give the stalkers appearance away just yet. This shot will be good to use in our thriller when the two parents are talking but it will not be used in the same way that it is used in our prelim (to let the audience know about the stalkers presence). This shot was fairly easy to film when the actors where stood/sitting still but when they where moving it took more concentration to focus on what the camera was doing and making sure we aren't just filming someones back and missing the shot completely. This will be something we will have to keep in mind when filming. 

- Lastly we used a 3 person shot. This was to show each character and also to show the danger that the two girls are in and how close the stalker is. We also used a 3 person shot because it was the end of the clip and we were building up the suspense in seeing the stalker. As you can see in the picture to the right, you can not see the stalkers face just yet as he is looking down with his hoodie on. This creates suspense and keeps the audience watching and triggers their sense of wanting to know. We then, of course later see the stalkers face. This camera shot helps with the build up to the reveal. This shot will most likely not be in our thriller because there is not a scene in the opening where there are three people all together in one shot. 

There are many other issues with the clip but those are the main ones that can be easily changed and adapted to suit our opening.


Roles that I took on:
I filmed because I was not in any scenes and I have had experience in filming and editing and i very much enjoy doing so. 
I helped out with the editing as well because I am experienced with iMovie and the others in the group are not. I helped with downloading the clips, stabilising them and editing the volume. 
I wrote the script for Demi to do the voice over and when I put the Voice over into iMovie we didn't like the way it sounded so I deepened Demi's voice and made it slower to give it a deeper and darker feel to it.

Editing the music and length of clips

Hey,

Today we continued to edit our preliminary tasks.

We had to alter some clips and update the music because we were not happy with the way it sounded. We choose a song from the Hunger Games soundtrack. We decided to choose this song as it is a slow and dramatic piece of music and this fits well with our theme of the short clip. We altered the clips to fit better with each other, we didn't want any clips being too short to be noticed and also we had to check if any of the clips were out of focus or out of place.

After today we finished our preliminary task completely and was able to upload it to youtube. 

It was easy to work with the group as we all get along so the editing process for the preliminary task was an enjoyable process and we have learnt a lot from the task.

Continuing our editing of the prelim task

Hey,

Today in class we continued with our editing process. Here are some clips that I filmed for the group:

I decided to film the over the shoulder shot because I want the audience to see the mysterious figure stalking the girls, but I don't want them to see his face just yet, this is why I chose an over the shoulder shot. This is to help build suspense within the scene and the audience gets to see the stalker but not actually know who he/she is.

A second shot that We decided to do and I filmed was a 2 person shot. This was when Amy and Catherine are walking towards the camera then pass it, our eyes are then drawn to what we can see in the background, which is of course the antagonist. This is the script that we put together for Demi to read out for the voice over. We added effects to his voice to make it deeper and more suspicious.

"Do you ever feel like you're being watched.

When you think you're alone but deep down you know you're not.

A ghostly presence sends shivers down your spine

You say it's the wind, but you know, its me."

We all chose to write something that you would typically hear in a thriller, the antagonist speaking in a way to make the audience feel uncomfortable and suspicious of whats going on. We wanted to space the audio out to make a more frightening atmosphere.