Who would be the audience for your media product?

My initial idea was for the audience for my media product to be around a similar age to the actors in starring in the thriller. We chose to do this as audiences are often more interested in something if the actors are a similar age to them. They can feel intimate with the actors as they are at the same part of their life and can place themselves in the shoes of the actor in the story. The audience will be around the age of 16-23, this target however doesn't say anything specifically as to who is going to watch this, it isn't based on one target audience it can easily be varied if people find it to be there cup of tea.

We have chosen the age certificate to be 15 as some of the content could be seen disturbing to children younger. There is a mental illness that the killer is filmed and proved to be going through with falshbacks through the scenes. This slowly begins to drive him slightly crazy and he begins to illusinate things, objects and certain people that just aren't there. This cannot be understood by a younger child as it is quite complicated for people to grasp as it requires thinking about what the actors is thinking, a skill of interpreting that isn't fully developed in a younger childs brain. The images will just be of a distress to them visually and  scare them so a certificate is just a warning. Also the other horror/thrillers we viewed that had similar content also had a 15 age certificate which proves that our judgement is around and about the right one. 
We aimed our thriller at a middle/working class group, however this does not mean other social groups will not enjoy it. We aimed it at a middle class social group due to the fact they have the largest population therefore there will be a larger audience, and higher viewing figures. We did this by assessing certain problems that are common in the world today. For example the mental illness issue that some people can relate to and others want to know more about. In order to make the thriller more interesting to the audience we over exaggerated elements of this.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

- My thriller represents different stages of a teenage life and how they can be portrayed. The victim is a young girl aged thirteen and the fact that she has been murdered, suggests that young teenage girls are naïve and can be seen as weak. However it also represents their innocence in contrast to the killer who shows teenagers/young adults in a bad light. Instead of using the typical ‘youth’ stereotype with the dark costume and the baggy clothes, I chose to dress the killer in jeans and a vintage leather jacket.

- This makes the killer’s image more mysterious and intriguing, as he looks like an ordinary male to the audience. I did this to show that there is no stereotype of a ‘villain’ or a ‘murderer’ and that anyone is capable of it. I also did this as I wanted to audience to constantly question what was happening in the opening sequence, therefore making them want to carry on watching to find out the answers.

Sound

The sounds that we ended up using were taken off of a 'free sounds' website where drones and certain, quick sounds are available to download. Exporting these onto Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, placing them onto the audio tracks beneath the visuals, and deleting the ambient sounds of the raw recordings in the films.

We didn't use that many sounds, keeping it as simple and as blunt as possible seemed right to us as it will focus the audiences attention more towards the quality of the filming.

The low drone starts the film off to create sudden suspense and get viewers glued to their seats. A metallic crash of a noise with echo is hit to create more drama when the camera cuts to Matthews close ups. This exceeds all expectations as to when the next noise will come, meaning that it can be expected after the first time.

The girl laughing is also put it when she appears to be in Matthews surroundings which is there to send a chill down the audiences spine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Attracting an audience can be done in the first 3 minutes of any film, the opening sequence. Grabbing the initial attention and maintaining it is a skill that many directors do well. However, It's a challenge trying to achieve this because if it goes over the top, it looks an awful lot like a trailer. Putting too many cuts and shots into a opening sequence can make it seem silly and lose any focus of the audience.

• The Questionnaire that both me and Amelia set out around college set up a foundation of what we were going record in our Thriller. The stereotypical thought of a thriller from teenagers our age (16-18) shown up in our results that is agreed. Majority of the numbers had said a young, innocent girl usually has a vital role in what mischief is occuring. Aswell as that, the setting was most common set on a woods or abandoned area of some sort, which they both are involved in this thriller.

• The low drone sounding music that is being played in the background whilst the titles are showing creates tension straight away to the viewers as they being to wonder what's happening and what will happen.

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

• I believe it is important to think about what media institution would go with my target audience, and what kind of media institution would distribute my product. Even though the opening sequence has only been filmed, I have to take into consideration that this will eventually be distributed as a film.
• Thinking about this, I thought about the kind of media institutions that would want to distribute a thriller aimed at teenagers and young adults. There are often thrillers shown on the sky movie channels, however they are often not aimed at specific audiences and cover a larger target age range.
• This may be of a problem sky movies do have specific channels for specific genres that could go with my thriller theme. However sky is a large conglomerate company that only shows movies of a high cinema standard. My thriller opening sequence is obviously not at a high quality cinema standard therefore it may be best suited to a small independent company. My thriller as a final edited product seems to hold quite a lot of elements of horror in it which means it could also go with the horror genre, and be distributed that way.

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

My media product seems to challenge forms of conventions of real media products with how the way the opening sequence is set out. The opening sequence includes sequenced and quick paced flashbacks which may confuse the audience as to what to storyline is and what will happen further on. However we wanted to do this so the opening sequence will also be part of the end sequence. The end of the opening sequence is also the start of the opening sequence where the movie will then play out the story that then lead to the outcome of the opening sequence. The end sequence will include part of the opening sequence, however this time the audience will understand the plot. We did this in order to create suspense that will draw the audience in and make them want to carry on watching the movie.

The fact we decided to make an opening sequence that would also appear and the end of the movie used conventions of real media products, as this concept was used in ‘Usual Suspects’. The forest location also uses forms of conventions of real media products as is it a typical location for horror/thriller movies.

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

I have learnt and grown in various different areas of media since I began to plan my preliminary task.

My knowledge in camera work, effects and softwares have increased a lot since the filming of the prelim task on a little, poor quality flip camera.

It is strange now as when I sit down, relax and watch a film or TV drama, I tend to subconsciously analyse what is being purposefully done with the sound, mis en scene and camera. I can identify certain techniques and rules that have been obeyed by the filming crew in the programme and why exactly they did it. I understand that some shots create more of a different picture than others and where they become necassary or over the top.

This is also my first real experience with a proper HD camera where I'm set out to complete a task a big as making a Thriller opening sequence. I enjoyed it very much and it has appealed to me, I can see myself doing plenty more work that is similar. I'm creative by nature as I study music and take interest in any other art that I come across. It also opened up my eyes as to how much work a film crew including actors, directors, producers and editors go through to achieve a maximum credential product. It cannot be done independently so people skills and other individual aspects and traits have to be highlighted. Leadership is a must amongst a crew. Everything down to the smallest edit on either visual and sound can make something out of contrast to what is wanted by the director and their cognitive process.

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