Our thriller incorporates some generic conventions for thriller films such as never seeing/not knowing who the bad guy is (in this case the stalker) We also used music in the minor key to create atmosphere and tension, a technique that is used in abundance in thriller films.
In our thriller we developed the convention of point of view shots from the stalker in order to develop this convention we used the steadiness and focus of the camera shots to show how the stalker was feeling to the audience. For example
In this clip as the camera is very unsteady and the shots are very out of focus due to the fast movements of the camera it shows that the stalker is very impatient and excited about something which makes the audience want to know what happening
As the opening to our thriller only includes one charac
ter the audience can see we did not represent a lot of social groups only women aged between 20 – 25.
Our thriller does represent gender in a stereotypical way by showing women as the protagonist and passive sex ending up as the victim (especially in stalker films) This however could be seen as a successful convention as many thriller films have done this such as
Our thriller would be produced and released as a TV movie. This is because it is inexpensively produced and it would only feature a small cast and it would not use very expensive special effects, which are all common traits of TV movies.
The visual style of our thriller is also lending to TV movie as the lighting effects are kept simple, as are the props and set.
This thriller also has opportunities for sequels, which would make even more profit.
The rating of this thriller would be a 15 however the target audience of the thriller would be older from 25 + of both genders. This is because our thriller will contain no 18 certificate material in the film such as gore, this means it will appeal to an old
er age range because of this and this would also mean it appeals more to women. Also I think the lack of expensive special effects within the film
mean that it would appeal to the older more mature audience rather than the younger audience. The older audience will also be able to appreciate the way the film makes you think about what’s happening and the way it allows them to try and draw their own conclusions before the film ending is shown.
In order to attract our target audience we used point of view shots from the stalker so that they feel like they have privileged knowledge of what’s going to hap
pen to the victim. It also allows them to see and feel like the stalker in order for the
m to try and figure out what he will do next.
The scenes where the woman is waking up in the shed and looking around at all the pictures of her would particularly scare the women in the audience as because it’s a point of view shot they are forced to put themselves in the position of the victim and feel the dread of realising they have been watched and the terror of wondering what’s going to happen to them next. This is also confirmed within our audience testing where 100% of the woman asked wrote that down as the scariest point within the thriller.
During the making of the thriller we learnt a lot about the different technologies and their strengths and weaknesses. The camera equipment we used was good although the cameras were not high definition and so did not pick up every detail.
The tripod was useful in helping create smooth panning and tilt shots. One of the problems we faced while filming was how the camera picked up the lighting. The beginning of our sequence was all shot in the day, however on the different locations the slightest change of light made the sky look a lot darker than in previous shots, however this was easily sorted out during the editing. One effect we managed to produce well in the film was the effect of the operator talking on the phone. In order to make this sound realistic we had to record someone’s voice on the end of a phone and impose it onto the film. One particular effect I found useful for creating the required mise-en-scene of our film was the colour correction tool. Our thriller was supposed to be set on a gloomy, over clouded day. However when we filmed it was very bright and the colours on our film were very vibrant. By using colour correction and de-saturating all the colours in the scene, taking out the whites and adding in more black tones I managed to create the right atmosphere in the scenes. De-saturation was the main effect, which helped to create a dull, eerie atmosphere. Our audience testing showed that 100 % of the people asked said that the lighting helped create the atmosphere and tension within the film.
Before colour correction
After colour correction
Garage band was a useful tool in the production of our thriller. We merged three tracks together and used the volume control to determine the volume of each track and specific points in the soundtrack. For example when we wanted the heart beat quiet in the background and then decreasing melody two and increasing the heartbeat volume when we wanted it to be more recognisable within the soundtrack. This was good as the audience testing showed that most people said that the increasing volume of the heartbeat built tension in the piece and helped build it towards the action.
One of the problems we faced using garage band was getting the timings correct in conjunction with our film.
Looking back at our preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a lot since producing it. Through research I have learnt a lot about the genre of thriller films and the effect different areas can have on the overall appearance of the film eg. Lighting and camera shots. The detailed planning of our thriller film helped to make it easier to produce as the storyboard helped us take all the correct shots and make sure they complied with the timings we had written down. During editing we had the storyboard stuck on the wall in front of us, which made it easier for me to cut the shots to the right timings and to arrange them in the correct order. It also made it easier to see which shots could be cut down if one shot went slightly over time.
Our use of specific shot types has improved, such as the match on action, which we did in our preliminary task, which was not very successful as the timing was not very good. However in out thriller we managed to do an excellent match on action in the editing when the woman is seen getting out of her car.
Throughout the project my confidence with the equipment has grown and I now feel that I can do proficient camera work and am very good at using final cut express and garage band to edit and add atmosphere to the film.
I believe that the end product we have produced is fulfilling the task we were set as we have remained within the genre of a thriller and not crossed over to horror. We have used different effects in order to create atmosphere, tension and understanding within our thriller and have used our research, which we conducted before filming to help us produce a thriller, which would appeal to our target audience.
