AS Media Thriller Opening Evaluation

By Steven Jones

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?Our titles establish that our film is from the crime/action thriller genre. They are in white font over a black background, which is common used in the thriller genre. This is common to the thriller genre because it grabs the audience’s attention. These titles are seen in ‘Cape Fear’ (1991) which is a crime thriller.

This is the ‘Cape Fear’ movie poster the title is white with a black background. This shows that films with a crime thriller genre have these titles because they are very effective.

This is the title for one of our production companies in our project. It is also white with a black background.

The setting of our thriller opening shows that the characters are in a location which has quite a high population because of the high amount of houses and cars. This therefore shows that there may be a high crime rate. These conventions are developed later in the opening when the robber tries to steal the car showing that there is a presence of crime. This is established further when the car owner chases the robber showing that he maybe a violent man.

This is screen shot from ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994). It is set in a city environment showing there is a high crime rate and adding to the conventions that it is a crime thriller. This is similar to out thriller. This is because our thriller is also set in a densely populated area which tends to have a high crime rate.

The chase scene establishes that our thriller has a sub genre of crime/action thriller. This is because the chase scene is fast paced which is commonly used in action films. The build up to the chase also incorporates generic conventions. This is because the build up to the chase has a great deal of suspense because of the music used and the point of view shots which are used to draw the audience in.

This screen shot is from ‘Casino Royale’ (2006). It is from the genre of action thriller. The chase at the beginning shows that Bond wants to get the bomb maker, who he is chasing. He ends up killing the bomb maker. This chase scene is fast paced and is common in action thrillers proving that our thriller beginning must be in the action thriller genre.

This is a screen shot from ‘Point Break’ (1991) the chase adds to the establishment of the genre action/crime thriller. This is because bank robbers are being chased in the scene. This is similar to our thriller beginning because in our beginning a robber is also being chased.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents social groups in a variety of ways. In our thriller opening we have two characters in their late teens. One of them is trying to rob a car where as the other, the owner of the car, is stopping them, he does this in the shot where he see the robber taking place and begins to chase the robber. By one of the characters trying to steal the car it represents that social group as criminal. The other character is also represented in some ways as a criminal. This is because even though he is portrayed as “the good guy” he chases after the robber intending to hurt him in some way. The audience knows this because after he stopped the robbery he chases after the robber which shows that he may want revenge for the attempted robbery. This is good because it adds to the classification that our media product is in the thriller genre.

This movie post of ‘Kidulthood’ (2006). This shows that young people are criminal. Our beginning supports this because a young person is trying to steal a car. The poster shows that some of the teens are wearing a hoody and one of the characters have a weapon showing violence and criminal.

Gender is represented in a stereotypical way in our thriller beginning. Our cast is an all male cast. The male is also the protagonist. This shows the males may have a heightened importance than females but it might also show that females would tend not to steal cars or chase after robbers. This gives males a bad image portraying them as the main gender behind crime and violence.

Race is not represented at all in our thriller. This is because both of the characters are white which does not support any stereotyping of race. Class is a relatively kept to the minimum in our media product. Both of the characters are wearing reasonable casual but nice clothing. This shows they are of a middle class because they can afford nice clothes. But by the way the robbery tries to steal the car it shows that he may be of a lower class than the car owner. This is because he is stealing which supports the typical stereotype that lower class people steal. The robber also walks to the car showing that walking may be his only method of transport unlike the car owner who, of course, owns a car. The robber walks down the street where as the car owner leaves a house. This shows that the car owner is of a higher class because he leaves a house and has a car. The car owner is also a lot more confident than the robber because he chases after the robber where as the robber runs away. This shows that the car owner believes that he will be able to overpower the robber.

This is a screen shot from ‘Escape from L.A.’ (1996). The main character in the film is a violent villain which gives men a bad image.

This is a screen shot from our thriller showing a male character trying to steal a car.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I do not think our thriller would be something produced by a major Hollywood studio. This is because of a variety of reasons. Compared to other famous chase scenes such as the one at the beginning of Casino Royale it has been poorly made and developed. The chase is very limited, unlike the Casino Royale chase that lasted for approximately ten minutes, and is not believable that a robber would be chased for just trying to steal a car. It also lacks verisimilitude because the pace of running changes throughout and makes the audience disbelieve that the chase is real.

This is a screen shot from the Casino Royale chase scene. It is very well made and includes a lot of action and is very tense.

This is a screen shot from our thriller it is very limited unlike ‘Casino Royale’. The chase goes on for approximately one minute.

I think that our thriller would have to be a television movie. This is because it is quiet innocent for a Hollywood studio and lacks the special effects normally seen in Hollywood pictures. This film would be released because even though it does not match up to high budget Hollywood pictures, it would still be quite entertaining for the audience to watch. This is because the pace of our thriller is quite fast and tense with draws the audience in and encourages them to keep watching.

I think our film would be on television during the week on ‘Five’ at around 9pm. This is because it cannot be show during the day because of its certificate and ‘Five’ tend to show quite a lot of low budget releases.

This is a screen shot from our thriller. The chase is quite tense because of the POV shots used and the fast pace music used.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product would mostly be teenagers. Our product is an action thriller which is very popular with teenagers. The characters in our product are young adults which means teenagers would be attracted to our product because they can relate to the characters in some ways. Our product would also attract male adults. This is because males rather than females tend to prefer action and violence. Other films such as the James Bond saga somewhat relate to our product. This is because these films are also of an action thriller genre and are aimed at teenagers from the ages of roughly twelve plus.

The majority of the James Bond films have a 12 certificate and has the maximum certificate of fifteen years old. The James Bond films do contain some violence but there is nothing graphic and do not contain much bad language or sex and nudity.

Our product does not contain any strong violence like James Bond but the audience is aware of violence present. Such as in our product the chase is a symbol that the car owner wants to catch and maybe even hurt the robber showing this may be quite a violent film similarly to Casino Royale where there is a chase scene, but there is more violence present mainly because of the use of guns.

Screen shot from ‘Casino Royale’ (2006). This shot is taken from the beginning of the film where James Bond chases a bomb maker. The gun shows that there is a high amount of violence and danger present.

Screen shot from our thriller. The robber is eagerly trying to open the car door showing quite a low presents of violence.

This shows that there is a high amount of danger present because the car owner is chasing the robber intending to hurt him in some way.

Our product does not contain any bad language, like James Bond, which leads me believe they would roughly target the same audience which means it would be either a PG or 12 certificate. This is because a vast majority of the Bond films are either PG’s or 12’s with only one of them classed as a 15 because it contains high amounts drug use.

From the researching James Bond Collection it shows that a high majority of them have been rated at PG and very few have been rated a 12 or 15 with none of them rated a U or 18 certificate.

From the survey I constructed on Survey Monkey it showed that a total of 71.4% of the people who completed the survey prefer to watch a certificate 15 than any other certificate.

How did you attract/address your audience?The chase scene in our product would be the most appealing to our target audience of teenage males. This is because the chase is quite tense because of the atmosphere and the music used. This would therefore draw the audience in and encourage them to keep watching, this would therefore contribute to the success of the product. The beginning of our product would also appeal to our audience because of the high amount of tension and mystery used building up to the chase. The opening shot is of the robber walking up to the car. There are then further shots of him trying to enter the car and of the car owner coming out of the house. This draws the reader in because they start to wonder what is going to happen.

Opening shot is of the robber walking up to the car.

Further shots of him trying to enter the car.

Car owner coming out of the house.

The camerawork in our product also contributes to the attraction of our audience. This is because we have used vast amounts of point of view shots. This attracts the audience because it connects them to the characters in the film because they can see the characters point of view which in some ways puts them in their shoes. This creates suspense because the audience feels connected to the characters.

These are some of the point of view shots used in our thriller beginning. These include a POV shot of the robber approaching the car, a POV shot of the car owner coming out of a house and a POV shot of the car owner chasing the robber.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a great deal about technologies from the process of constructing our product. I learnt the most about editing and constructing a video in Premiere Pro. We used this software greatly and would not have been able to construct our product without using this software. At first I found using the software was a great challenge because I was very complicated because of the vast amounts of features and tools. I soon overcame this challenge be practicing a great deal and soon got used to using the software. A further problem of using Premiere Pro was that it frequently crashed which meant our work did not save. This problem was overcome by frequently saving our work.

The cameras used were Panasonic full HD cameras. They were very high quality and good to use when filming. There was plenty of memory space which was very useful because this meant we did not run out of memory and could film each shot many times to ensure that it was correct. The only weakness with the camera was the battery. In one of our filming session we met up and started to film but could not continue because the battery ran out of power. We overcame this problem by making sure the battery was fully charged before each filming session. Our main problem when filming was that it was far too dark. Our original idea consisted of the chase being filmed in the dark with the use of torches to build tension and to add mystery of how the chase is going to end. This was not successful. This is because the footage was too dark and the audience was unaware of what was happening. We overcame this problem by filming in the daytime to make the audience more aware of what was happening.

These are two shots from our original idea. It is far too dark and the torches can hardly be seen in both of the shots.

Torches

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it

to the full product?The preliminary task helped greatly with the completion of our thriller. This is because from completing this task we were able to build our knowledge of how to use the camera as well as how to use Premiere Pro. This meant that we were quite skilled at using the equipment before completing the final product which meant we could complete it very well and quite quickly. Our research into the thriller genre was also very useful because it showed us what the basic rules of a thriller were and what a thriller should contain. From our research we were able to establish what our opened needed to ensure it was a thriller and not another genre such as action. We also found out from our research that the points of view shots were very effective to build tension and to add mystery which encouraged us to use these types of shots in our thriller.

Point of view shot of the car owner which is used to build tension and to draw the reader in.

The animatic was not very useful. This is mainly because we changed our idea after we had completed the rough cut. We changed it because it was original too dark for the audience to see. I believe our final thriller was very successful. This is because a good variety of shots were used and it can easily be clarified as a thriller because of the vast amounts of tension built.

In our animatic the robber breaks into a house where as in our finial piece the robber tries to steal a car.

Variety of Shots

Low Angle

Point of View

Long Distance