Thriller Evaluation

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


There are things connected in our media product that use other forms and conventions of real media products such as; the setting, characters, props, costumes and scene structure.

We decided to film at a friend’s house. This is a large country house with 5 floors, a swimming pool and 37 acres of land. I believed that this was a good idea, as it has a long winding drive, large forest behind the house and many different aspects of mise-en-scene which all connected really well to what we had in mind and thrilling angles for filming a thriller. There are other such thrillers that use similar scenes of a large house and desolation such as; The Strangers and Insideous. Our location was successful in the thriller genre due to its isolation. The long winding gravel drive was ideal for filming our thriller, as it adds to the mise-en-scene of the thriller genre. This helps by effectively isolating our area with such a long way to enter or exit the house. We inventively use the poor weather to our advantage, as during the week it had been very foggy, and damp, as we arrived, the dead trees either side of an old fence, the old and dead trees give a sense of helplessness and the fog surrounds the house with mystery, as if to say what’s happening here? Due to the isolation of the area it fits in well to the mise-en-scene of the thriller genre.

2) How does your media product represent a particular social group?
   Our media product represents British teenagers or young adults, which is normally the age of thriller audiences. Our film is slightly more bias towards the male gender as it contains two main male protagonists and one female protagonist who is actually in control of what is happening as she is the cause of the suspense.
We use both male and female characters in our productions however, we follow the norms in our production as far as characters are concerned, a young female, who has been killed. A young man trying to work out what the problem is.



3) What kind of media institute may distribute your product and why?

The type of media institution that may distribute our media product would be websites such as YouTube, social network sites and television. YouTube is a brilliant media institution to start with as millions of young and older people go on YouTube every day and watch all different kinds of videos. This is good for marketing trailers and audience feedback. We also uploaded our draft cuts of our film onto YouTube to get lots of different feedback which would be helpful to us trying to promote a new film and improve it. YouTube is also a good indicator of whether or not the film would be viewed and popular as from YouTube it marks its views. Social network sites such as Facebook would also be a good place to put our film as we could publish it all around the age group we are targeting and get feedback on what they think and who they think we could try and distribute our film to. They are also good for general advertising.



4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our audience would be mainly 15-19 year olds, as this is the rough age group of our thriller. With some general exceptions from older viewers, but predominantly it would be this age group of both males and females, however, our thriller shows bias towards the male gender with two male protagonists. People around this age also enjoy being frightened and scared by films. People who watch this film also normally enjoy films like, Kick-Ass, The Book of Eli and Panic Room.



5) How did you attract/ address your audience?
We used many different ways and methods to attract our audience, our main one being able to relate the audience of boys and girls to the characters in the film, this gives it a better sense of realism. I believe that our non-diegetic sound is the most effective in attracting and keeping our audience. In our rough cut survey we got feedback saying every person who filled out our survey thought our created music was either good or effective. I believe that our sound is very effective in keeping our audience hooked as we have used it to build tension as at the beginning the music is very calm, eerie but when the film unravels more into the plot; it changes the motions of the audience.


6) What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have increased my knowledge of using a filming camera, tripod, IMac Pro, IMovie and garage band. As I filmed the thriller, I got to grasps with how the tripod and camera where used and worked. Also, as we used IMovie for editing our thriller, I am now confident and comfortable with using the equipment, and really enjoy it. I made the music for our thriller film, and used garage band on an IMac, which was an excellent experience, as I now feel comfortable using this independently, with almost any music genre, which will benefit my future productions.


7) Looking back on your preliminary task; what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Confidence is probably one of the biggest growths in my progress from my preliminary task. I am now fluent, and comfortably working on equipment independently. Thanks to my use of applications and the like on my thriller task, I am now comfortable with any task that is required of me.
Planning was also a main concept, as we did very little in our preliminary task, we had so much time, and went into a great depth of planning for our full product.

Thriller Opening Rough Edit

This is our rough edit, we screened it for an audience and required they answered a questionnaire. Our results are on the previous blog post.

Target Audience For Thriller Opening

For our thriller opening we felt that our target audience was for for late teens and young adults. This was because thriller films nowadays are more viewed by a younger generation. The film was intended for both genders, however, in the film there is a bias as two of our main protagonists are male and the other one is female. This film is available for anyone, however due to the sheer size of the country estate we film at it may be more attractive to a wealthier audience.  

The Last Lane, Questionnaire Results

1. Could you estimate the time of day during the film?
   Morning: 7
   Noon: 4
   Evening: 9
   Night: 0
   
   
   We mostly got good results from this question as the majority of people who answered believed it to be evening which is what we were looking for although a moderate amount also believed that it was the morning but the amount wasn't enough to consider re-editing the film and moving it into Adobe After Effects.
2. 
   
   Were there smooth transition between shots?
   Yes: 15
   No: 1
   Didn't Notice: 4
   
   
   We found that most of the audience did in fact think that the transitions were smooth which was great as one of our main concerns was that the 'bittiness' of the shots was going to come across as a lack of editing skill rather than adding to the effect of the movie. One person said that our transitions weren't smooth but when asked for a reason they simply wrote “Some panning shots are a bit”. So we looked at our panning shots and decided that after the fairly useless comment we wouldn't change it. And lastly 4 of our audience didn't notice our transitions which was okay as we know they aren't the most prominent feature of our film, also it is important to remember that we simply screened the film to a group of our peers and not film critics or experts so it's fairly normal to not pay complete attention to our transitions.
3. 
   
   Did you find the opening effective in drawing you into the story?
   Yes: 18
   No: 1
   “Sort of”: 1
   
   
   Most of our audience found our opening did want to draw them into the story, for such reasons as they wanted to see what would happen next, there was a cliffhanger, the use of music was effective and it simply kept them interested. This was obviously great as Jack took a long time on the music making it work alongside the visuals, and we also took time to frame the shots well using the weather we had i.e. mist etc. One person said that it sort of found it effective in that it left lots of questions unanswered which was good but it was in fact too slow so therefore didn't draw them in.Lastly one person said no as it was they didn't really understand it. So we looked at our thriller and to perhaps make it more clear of the times that the videos were taken we put dates and times on the video of emily as a child and also of Liam cycling up the driveway. This also solves the problem of people thinking that the video is taking place early in the morning.
4. 
   
   Do you think the ending of our opening was appropriate for a thriller film?
   Yes:17
   No:2
   'Kinda':1
   
   
   We found here again that most people thought that the opening was appropriate, reasons people gave were, there was a cliffhanger, it was mysterious, leaves questions unanswered and because you're completely focused on it. One person said yes and no, because of slight continuity errors such as when Liam gets off his bike then back on the go up to the house, we decided that perhaps it wasn't clear enough that Liam saw something then went up the house, but in all honesty we couldn't think of any way we could change this without re-shooting. So we decided to risk it and leave it a it was as it wasn't the majority who were concerned about why he got off his bike.
5. 
   
   Would you pay to watch the entire film?
   Yes: 12
   No: 8
   
   
   Here we had the majority who would pay to see the entire film but also quite a few who wouldn't, while at no point am I trying to make excuses I think maybe the question should have been worded better. As it may have come across as “Would you pay around £5-7 to watch this 2 minute clip at the cinema” rather than “If this were made into a feature length film would you pay to see it”. I also think this as one comment was 'No, I wouldn't because it's 2 minutes long”
6. 
   
   Do you feel this film is true to the thriller genre?
   Yes: 18
   No: 2
   
   
   With this question it's important to remember that not everyone in the audience would know much about the ideas of thriller genres, but I think it was important to see if the people who would be watching the film and paying to see it thought it was.
7. 
   
   Which gender are you?
   Male: 6
   Female: 14
   
   
   This was just to see if there may have been a correlation between the amount of people there and whether it was the gender difference that made some of them like the film and others not. Stereotypically males would like thrillers more but here we saw that we got mostly good feedback even though the majority of our audience was female.
8. 
   
   How old are you?
   15-16: 5
   17-18+: 15

Final Cut: Thriller Opening

This is mine and Ed's final cut of our thriller opening for our coursework. This is what we will be marked on.

Case Study: No Country For Old Men

No Country For Old Men
I) Institutions

The thriller film I am studying is no country for old men. This is a thriller film set in the ‘old west’ of America. The directors of this film are the Coen brothers, Ethan and joel. The production company used for this film was ‘paramount vantage’ & ‘miramax’ productions. The film was released on the 18th January 2008. The film was obviously shot in the USA due to its background and actors. The box office return of the film was a staggering $25’000’000.


II) AudienceAs all the protagonists in the film are male, the film is set in the 'wild west' a naturally male environment surrounded with guns, cowboys, dynamite and a variety of other stereotypical wild west items. The main 'quest' of the film, is down to money. An assassin has been hired to hunt down the money that a local man found whilst he was hunting. As the film was rated a 15, i believe that the audience, was aimed at males, from teens to older years. As the film was full of male protagonists, bar one woman, filmed by a pair of brothers, you can see how it is that the audience is quite clearly male.  This is a mixed review I found about the film:958 out of 1398 people found the following review useful:
Wish I loved it (Spoilers), 12 December 2007

Author: littlegoldwoman from The Woodlands, Texas*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I have a plea out on the message boards for someone to please explain this movie to me. I love movies and I am not one of those who insist on only being hand fed obvious characters and plots. I enjoy movies that make you think and use symbolism. 

But I honestly did not understand this film. Im not saying its horrible but I will say I don't think it deserves the ratings it is getting. I personally rated it a 1 because I feel compelled to balance out the absurd over ratings it is getting.

What I saw was two men fighting over the same two million dollars. One who is somewhat good and obviously poor and the other who is this maniac psycho killer. Im not even sure its his money, how he knows about it or why he even wants it. None of that was clarified.

The good guy is running with the money the bad guy is chasing him the sheriff seems like he is supposed to be chasing them but doesn't really want to and would rather be some sort of hillbilly philosopher about the whole thing.

Then the good guy suddenly dies. The bad guy escapes death by the skin of his teeth AGAIN the money disappears and the sheriff retires but not becoming so philosophical that the whole movie just ends right there at his dinner table with him rambling on about some dreams he had.

Again I would love to figure out this movie.

I am a 40 year old movie buff Academy Award trivia expert I own over 700 movies I've been a member here for 6 years And I have a college degree.

Maybe I ate too many milk duds or something but it went right over my head.

If you are looking for a Donnie Darko, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind MUST SEE A SECOND OR THIRD TIME TO FULLY UNDERSTAND kind of movie then go for it!

If you think you are going to see a Titanic, The Green Mile or Silence Of the Lambs kind of movie where the plot unfolds at a normal pace and doesn't make you search for answers and meaning then don't go see this thing. 

Again, not a bad movie. Great acting, cinematography, pace.... the works... just incredibly difficult to understand after the first half.

In fact the first half is very good, suspenseful.. second half does not fulfill. Leaves you hanging and wanting more.

OK Im done. Thanks for reading. __________________________________________________________________________________ As we can see, this review is giving a mixed review, not saying its good, or bad, but difficult to understand. This is showing us typically that this more masculine film, is typically more difficult to understand, just like a man. Here is a quite different review which i found very interesting: If this doesn't end my year in the top two films of the year then we are in for one hell of an awesome year of movies.

The new film from two of the best filmmakers working today No Country For Old Men shows the talents of the Coen Brothers on top form. After a couple of disappointments (Intolerable Cruelty had flashes of Coen genius but felt more of a Coen imitation than the real thing; Ladykillers had the odd funny moment but was the blandest film the brothers ever made, and there's just no excusing Marlon Wayans!) they knock this violent western drama out of the park.

More in the vein of their superb early mostly-serious efforts Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing (my personal favourite of the Coen back catalogue) No Country For Old Men is a slow-moving, character-driven masterpiece about uncompromising and uncompromised characters. It is very violent and bloody and not always for the squeamish.

Shot through with moments of humor these come, as in life, from real situations and observations so don't be fooled into thinking this will be the serious film with goofy-characters Coens of Fargo. No Country For Old Men is a tough, gritty story.

The unrelenting pace may take its time but you are gripped every moment. This is a thriller that genuinely thrills.

Javier Bardem gives the best performance of his career. And, yes, I have seen The Sea Inside and he in superb in that but here he is simply extraordinary. It is a portrayal of unrelenting evil, of true derangement, of a human being with no shreds of humanity that ranks at the very top of studied film psychopaths. And I say film not movie because this is not a clichéd character. This is not a character whose lunacy you enjoy over popcorn. This is one of the most frightening performances ever committed to celluloid. I felt truly nervous of what was going to happen every time he walked on screen.

Josh Brolin essentially carries the bulk of the movie and he is excellent in a role that challenges him. I have never seen him perform to this level and if Bardem didn't steal the film you'd be talking about Brolin all the way home. As it is this gives him a showcase for his talents that should see him get a lot more attention.

Tommy Lee Jones is used sparingly but to great effect. Sounding more like Michael Parks than ever before his scenes pepper the movie with a wearied view on a world he doesn't really like or understand to great effect.

I did find Stephen Root a little distracting as i have never seen him in a serious role before and he just looks amusing but he is in very little.

Roger Deakins' cinematography is breathtaking as usual and the Coens' script is superbly crafted. There are moments, almost asides from the main plot, that would be superfluous in most scripts and excised in most studio films but which work perfectly in the overall context of the movie as only the Coens can achieve. One scene featuring Bardem in a gas station is up there with the best scenes i have ever seen on film.

I have not gone into the plot here because I saw this film having not read Cormac McCarthy novel and knowing little other than the basic log-line - a man out hunting comes upon a scene of dead bodies, guns, drugs and money on the Mexican border and comes to the attention of both those behind the scene and a local world-wearied sheriff - and i think that's the way to see this film.

Go in knowing as little as you can but knowing at least this: this is a serious, violent, slow-paced character piece from the Coens. This is not a Fargo. If you are squeamish don't see it. If you have a short-attention span don't see it. If you only love the Coens for their fantastic comedies like O Brother and Big Lebowski and the comedy/thriller Fargo don't see it. But if you want to see an intelligent, superbly acted, powerful, beautiful cinematic treat that will remind you of the true power of cinema see it, see it, see it. It's a masterpiece. Bravo Ethan and Joel. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ This review is giving the Coen brothers a wonderful review. Giving it strong feeling, of power, technology, and general brilliance. The review is constantly referring to the brilliance of the film.

III) Technology The internet, youtube & television, are now the new ways of advertising & ways to help and attract your audience into the film, and increase the chance that they will end up viewing the film. In No Country For Old Men, they use the internet as one of their main sources to advertise, increase audience knowledge and their access to the film. For this film, Warner Bros created a website for the film, for the audience, possible fans, and other people to interact with the film and what is happening, such as, releases dates, length, actors, a plot and various other critical components for the film. Here is a screen shot of the page:

Youtube is another main source of advertisement, increasing audience knowledge and their access to the film. The company used Youtube as a means of advertising, seeings as nowadays Youtube is the most viewed video and entertainment site on the internet, it is quite easy to upload movie trailers and cast interviews. These are ways which help the audience to engage with the film, this is what will draw their attention into the film to then pay to watch it at their local cinema screening. Youtube is also helpful as you can post comments about the footage you have just watched, which if positive, can also increase media attention and access to the film. Television is an older form of audience access, but still a major contributor. It helps for those people without a computer, or couch potatoes, previewing the film in trailers during ad breaks is a positive and useful resource to use to interest an audience.






IV) Codes/forms & Conventions of the thriller genre
The film is located in a desert at the start. Typical of the 'wild-west'. It is very desolate, barren and unused. The type of camera shot used is a long shot & an extreme wide-shot. This gives the viewer the effect that they are alone, but someone is watching them, from a distance, and they have noone around them. The film is unusual to the thriller genre, as the first half of the film is shot in daylight, which is not true to the thriller genre and is unusual. In the film we have typical thriller characters, we have our assassin who is also a psycho, we have our detective (sheriff) who we are briefly with and we have our victim. For this film we also have typical thriller narratives, we have death, common in most films, being watched and followed, by our assassin psycho. We encounter most thriller films during this movie, in the first scenes, we meet isolation and gain, then as it develops we begin to meet entrapment, revenge, however, all the way through the film, the main theme is gain. Iconography is common in the second half in the town, we have a shoot-out in the dark, street lamps, confined spaces in the hotel, we do meet running water once, in the hotel room, and often have an effect of bars, on the few windows shown during the film.

















V) Representation The characters represented in the film as we well know are 9/10 times male, with only one recurring female character. One of our main protagonists is a typical western american, living in a caravan with very little money, has a typical cow boy hat, boots & goes hunting to earn himself a living.  He speaks a typical tongue of the area, and we follow his journey of greed throughout the film. Our second protagonist is a strange man, with no friends. He is an assassin, and enjoys what he does. He is not typical of the area, his bowl haircut and somewhat strange manner, suggest he is from a rather quiet, harsh environment. Due to his attire, it lulls us into a false sense of security, which is what i believe to be part of his style. We also follow a county sheriff in brief parts following his story as the film unwinds. The purpose of the film is to engage the male audience in a thrilling chase, between 3 men. The film adheres to the genre of thriller well. The typical mise-en-scene are all visible throughout the film, e.g. shadows, lampposts, dim-light. This film is also suspenseful adding to the thriller area of the genre.

Thriller Evaluation

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
There are things connected in our media product that use other forms and conventions of real media products such as; the setting, characters, props, costumes and scene structure.

We decided to film at a friends house. This is a large country house with 5 floors, a swimming pool and 37 acres of land. I believed that this was a good idea, as it has a long winding drive, large forest behind the house and many different and thrilling angles for filming a thriller. There are other such thrillers that use similar scenes of a large house and desolation such as; The Strangers and Insideous. Our location was successful in the thriller genre due to its isolation. The long winding...

No Country For Old Men Scene Analysis

This is the Coin Toss Scene from the film No Country For Old Men. This is the scene I am going to analyse.

The opening shot is a extreme wide-shot. It shows a desolate, isolated petrol station with a convenience store. It is set in the 'Wild West' and is in the remote desert with very few people. We then enter an old and dark convenience store. A tall shadowed man enters in a suspicious manner. He has a strange haircut which gives us a sense of false security. The man who enters is hostile after the shopkeepers first demand. It also gives a sense of death, as behind the shopkeeper there is hangman's nooses all lined up and hanging behind him.

Thriller Opening: Props

Click here to see our group post about the props used in the making of our thriller opening:

Scene Analysis: Body Of Lies

This film opens with a quote from W.H. Auden
'I and the public know
what all school children learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return'
This is the opening frame. The next frame drops onto showing the location 'Manchester, England' when this appears there is a deep diegetic bass. This shows an area of significance or danger. With the first opening scene there is very little light and foreign middle-east language being used without english subtitles. The characters are wearing traditional clothing, with dark and little light which can represent God. Finally the scene finally uses  subtitles, our main protagonist in this scene now begins waving a finger while passionately delivering a speech on a video camera, as he is recording himself. He says "We will avenge  American Wars," in the background this man has traditional muslim music playing. The camera shot used is in 1st person as if we were entering the building and spying on the men as the camera uses a low angled shot. The muslim men in the scene have lots of scientific equipment which makes them look like they have been manufacturing items. This is also warning of a threat to come. There is now another man lying down on a poorly constructed bed, he is wearing glasses which normally represent intelligence and in this instance represent it as well. As this man is lying down he is clutching what appears to be the Quran close to his chest, his head is also leaning away from the camera and into the shadows which can represent evil. Camera shots begin to quicken for action & pace. As the British S.W.A.T Team is now approaching the houses all dressed in black and looking very efficient, precise and accurate. It is now the Government Vs. the people. In this instance the government appear to be the bad guys. Everything then dies down, there is little sound and it is very tense, which can represent someone holding their breath. The door the Police are now entering creaks and they enter slowly. We then switch back to the Muslim group of men and there are now no subtitles, their voices are now raised and rushed. The word Allah is now used twice in the dialogue. Then, a bomb explodes destroying the street. When the bomb is finished they use a high-angled shot over the scene, which can represent God looking down. The main title now appears...