How audience research will effect my production

Through my audience research I have more knowledge of my target audience. And I can now reflect this in my production. For example I have found out more people like physiological thrillers then any other sub genre of a thriller. Therefore I will take this into consideration when coming up with ideas for my pitches. As I found out more and more about my audience I can start to understand what to include in my production to maximize positive feedback. For example most people chose psychological thriller in question 8 therefore we have decided to use this as a sub-genre.

Rationale behind the idea i have chosen

I chose pitch two out of the three pitches because it seemed the easiest opening scene to capture with the equipment we have, also location is easy to find for this pitch as it is just in a run down house, although the idea is very simple it is also very complex in to the way in which it will be understood and has a lot of back ground meaning and in depth psychological meanings. Props for this opening scene will not be hard to find as it is very simple and no weapons etc is shown as you do not even see the murderers face. We did not choose pitch 1 as this would be to complex to create the image of a police raid because we do not have the props and there are weapons shown so therefore is not very suitable for what we are aiming to create. The third pitch was nearly chosen as we believed the ideology behind it would have boosted up our final grade , but this would be to complicated to film and get across the idea well enough. So in conclusion I chose pitch two as it was more relevant to linking with the conventions of a thriller film. Me and my group also will also be better suited to this pitch as we all will enjoy preparing and filming a physiological thriller as appose to the action thriller pitch.

research of thriller genre

I researched into what the thriller genre is all about and my search result came out with the explanation that a Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. But as thriller is such a broad genre I wanted to specialize in a certain sub genre of a thriller and this is when looked into different types of a thriller and came up with the idea of a psychological thriller as it would add to the aspect and weirdness of my film. A Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre. Also, occasionally this genre will border into the also wide-ranging Horror genre. In conclusion I believed this sub genre of a thriller fitted best with my film idea as it would link in with the mystery and horror genre as well as mainly focusing on the thriller genre.

summary of conventions for an opening of a film

In the opening of a film you must enable the viewer to understand time (showing day light or nightlight) expressing where the scene is located e.g. Saying in script what country etc. opening to a film must show different types of camera shot, for example give a range of high angle, close ups, mid shots, zooms etc. show the use of different editing like cut shots and things, at the end of the opening scene of a film you must express which genre the film is, for example when we watched the film casino royal due to the mass amount of action , shooting, adrenaline etc we then realise the film is mostly aimed towards the action genre. Props in the opening scene are essential as this is being interpreted and the whole idea of the film is being expressed, for example in my production there is not a lot of unusual props and filming will be very basic, this expresses that the film is physiological and as there is not much shown in the scene it keeps the viewer in suspense. In an opening scene The use of pathetic fallacy to set up the mood of the opening scene is useful as it creates the scene sticking to conventions of a thriller, further pathetic fallacy will keep adding to the unsettling mood.

Preliminary Task Planning

We were given a preliminary task of people walking into a room and interacting with others. We were allowed to make it how we wanted to and use our own ideas. We were shown prevoious years prelimary tasks to give us a few ideas of where to go with it.



My group consisted of Myself, Jacob Thompson and Ben Thompson and we came up with the idea of a school parents evening situation in which a student and her parent would come into a room and talk to two teachers and they would argue.

For this idea we needed two extra people to act as i would be filming and we would need four actors, so we asked two freinds from our media class ( Sophie Dash and Clodagh Breen) and they agreed to act in it.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Myself, Ben Thompson and Jacob Thompson did all of our filming in a sixty minuite lesson and edited it in around half an hour. We did it abit rushed as we left it too late.

We filmed it in a classroom that we found was free, and used 2 freinds from our media class (Clodagh Breen and Sophie Dash) to also act in it aswell as Jacob Thompson and Ben Thompson. I was filming it. We explained what would happen and then filmed it, trying to put as many shots in as possible in the short time we had. This went reasonably well as it did not take us too long but we did have quite alot of outtakes to edit out.



We then put it on the Apple Mac to edit it, which we had to work out to use as we went along but it was quite easy to do. Then after we had edited all the outtakes out, put in a few effects for example slow motion and added titles we put it onto a DVD adding a menu screen for when it is put in. Overall i think our preliminary task went ok but i think we could have made it better if we had put more time into it.

Questionnaire Results

1. What is you’re gender?
Male 2 Female 2

2. How old are you?
10 –15 1 15 –18 2 18 -25 25+ 1

3. What genre of films and books do you like?
Horror 2 Sci-fi Thriller 1 Comedy 1 RomanticOther ______

4. How often do you go to the cinema?
Weekly Every fortnight 1 Monthly 3 A couple of times a yearOther ______

5. How often do you rent films?
Weekly 1 Monthly 2 A couple of times a year 1 Other ______

6. How often do you watch films at home?
Daily Weekly 1 Monthly 2 A couple of times a year 1 Other

7. What do you do more to watch films?
Rent 1 Cinema TV 2 Download 1

specific to a thriller

8. what sub genre do you prefer in a thriller?
action thriller crime thriller 1 sci fi thriller phycological thriller 3 other

9. what do you expect from a thriller?
suspense 1 action mysterys 2 a killer 1 romance

10. what settings do you prefer to see in a thriller?
woods 1 housing estate dark rooms 2 remote locations 1 busy city locations other

11. what gives a thriller suspense?
blood/violence 1 crime 1 break ups in relationships a mysterious character 2 other

20th Century Fox
The film production company I have chosen for my media research is 20th Century Fox. The Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is one of the six major film studios in America. The company was founded in 1935. It came about as a result of a mix of two titles, Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film Corporation. 20th Century Fox has produced many popular movies, including: X-men, James bond, the Bourne films, Star wars, Die hard etc. I chose to use 20th century fox because they are a well known company and they have produced and distributed many good thrillers in the past including The James bond and the Bourne films.

The feedback we got back from the class for pitch 1 was that it would be too complicated to do, and that it would be hard to make it look good as it would involve weapons and violence which we would only be able to show to an extent and they thought it was the least strong idea out of the 3.

We got good feedback from the class about pitch 2, they said it would be relatively easy to do without breaking restrictions of weapons and violence and thought it was the best idea out of the 3.

We got relatively good feedback from the class about pitch 3, they said they thought the idea of seeing different perspectives of a crime was good and would be effective, but would be hard to do.

Overall we recieved good feedback, and it showed that pitch 1 was not a very strong idea and that it was definately out of pitch 2 and 3.

using this feedback we have chosen to do pitch 2 as it is a good idea and will be easier to do and we will not have to use any weapons or offensive props.

Thriller Audience Questionnaire
1. What is you’re gender?
Male

Female

2. How old are you?
10 –15
15 –18
18 -25
25+

3. What genre of films and books do you like?
Horror
Sci-fi
Thriller
Comedy
Romantic
Other ______

4. How often do you go to the cinema?
Weekly
Every fortnight
Monthly
A couple of times a year
Other ______

5. How often do you rent films?
Weekly
Monthly
A couple of times a year
Other ______

6. How often do you watch films at home?
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
A couple of times a year
Other

7. What do you do more to watch films?

Rent
Cinema
TV
Download

The BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912, and videos since the passing of the Video Recordings Act in 1984. They have the authority to stop the viewing of films in cinemas and they decide what age people should be to view the film. All videos and games rated by the BBFC receive an age certificate, along with information of content if it telling the consumer if it includes, sex, drugs, violence, and strong language in it. For example something that says it contains sex, drugs and violence is likely to be classed as an 18, meaning only people aged 18 and above are able to view this film.

When classifying films the BBFC have to take into consideration many factors, such as discrimination, language, nudity, sex and violence. They also have to take into account different acts for example the Human Rights Act, Licensing Act, Sexual Offenses Act, Public Order Act, Animal Welfare Act and The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act.

The Different Classifications
U - universal, This means the film is suitable for all.
Pg - Parental Guidance, Some scenes may be unsuitable for young viewers
12 A - This means it it advised people ages over 12 view the film but people aged under 12 may view the film if accompanied by an adult
12 - This means nobody over the age of 12 can watch the film
15 - This means nobody under the age of 15 can watch the film, or rent the film
18 - This means the film is only suitable for adults ages 18+
R18 - This means the film can only be shown in licenced cinemas and sex shops only to people above the age of 18, and it may not be able to be supplied by mail order.