There are many ways we tried to attract our target audience; predominantly through the genre of our sequence. Thriller/Horror films are becoming increasingly popular amongst younger viewers so we thought it would be a good idea to look at the forms and conventions of these types of films. They generally consist of:
A typical villain, lone psychopath
Lots of murder victims
Dark lighting, eerie music
Suspense and enigma created from asking questions - enigmatic narrative
Usually one person surviving, the villain is defeated
We knew we would have to stick to some of these, and break others, to create an enigmatic feel. It is through this idea, of repetition and difference, that we structured our sequence.
From researching this genre I found that typical fans of Thriller/Horror like the feelings of fear and isolation throughout the story. We tried to play on these fears by creating a shocking end to our sequence [when we realise he is the killer]. By doing this, we are advancing the 'Emotional pleasures' some fans get from watching these types of films. We specifically wanted them to feel asense of fear/shock/disbelief when the audience see him take the knife from the drawer and when he glances in the mirror before he leaves.
[We got a few comments about how this scared some people during the screening, so it worked!]
We attempted to make a narrative enigma, whereby the audience’s questions could only be answered by watching the rest of the film; the mystery of the unknown is what captures their attention. This is an example of an 'Intellectual pleasure'. We tried to recreate this feeling amongst the audience by including a lot of montages of newspaper articles, again to create that sense of enigma. The audience read about the killings and try to piece all the information together just in time for the climax, and so are constantly trying to anticipate what will happen next. We used a classic narrative structure, set as a continuous sequence, to convey the realism of the piece. Our intention was to create a believable sequence, whereby the audience are able to suspend their disbelief and get involved with the action.
All of these techniques seemed to work because 33 out of the 34 people we screened to said they would like to watch the rest of the film to find out what happens next!
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
When we initially began planning our sequence, we had to choose our target audience. This was difficult to do at first because we kept drawing on ideas that appealed to us, so it was hard to step away from our preferences and try to create something that would appeal to others. Finally we agreed on a Target Audience Profile.
PRIMARY AUDIENCE:
18-35
Appeal to males more; Thriller / Horror stereotypically ‘male’ genre
People that enjoy watching Thrillers and Horrors, predominantly young adults – the Thriller / Horror market targets young adults specifically with films like Final Destination (Wong, 2000), House of Wax (Collet-Serra, 2005) and more recently Disturbia (Caruso, 2007)
British audiences – set in North London
We based our initial target audience on these main factors, however as the project developed, our audience profile altered slightly. For instance, as our actual plot progressed, and we decided that the protagonist would be an ex-solider, we automatically found ourselves broadening our audiences.
SECONDARY AUDIENCE:
16-40s
Possibly attract people that have served in the war [majority male?]
People interested in war-themed films…with a twist
People that particularly enjoy watching young film-maker’s films, regularly attend film festivals or have a preference for niche films.
These profiles have proved to be quite accurate, as from our screening we found that 16-17 year old males rated our film highest, and all of them wanted to watch the rest of it. However, we weren't able to screen to anyone towards the upper end of our audience age boundary, but at least we know we're heading in the right direction so far!
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
‘Remembrance’ is an independent British film so it would not make sense to try and distribute it on an international scale. Therefore, I have found a small, independent company that would be ideal in distributing our film. The company, Dogwoof(http://www.dogwoof.com/about.html) is a UK based film distributor renowned for supporting independent films.
Through Dogwoof, it could be distributed to independent cinemas such as the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley. If we were able to get a screening in the Phoenix, it would realistically only be for one night, as part of a film festival:
The NEXT film festival (May) – independent films
FrightFest (August) – Thriller, Horror, independent films
Audience members would consist of other students; local people interested in the particular event/genre of film, and possibly scouts for talented young film-makers.
As it is not a high-budget, action-packed blockbuster it would not suit public viewing in large chain cinemas. We were not trying to achieve the ‘Hollywood’ look when we made our product therefore we think it should be distributed on a much smaller scale, with the possibility of developing a cult status and fitting that particular niche.
Alternatively 'Remembrance' could also be self-distributed on the Internet on sites such as Undergroundfilm (http://www.undergroundfilm.com/aboutus/index.tcl) or Caachi, who happen to give 75% of its revenue to the filmmakers.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
‘Remembrance’ represents adult males and females living in North London today through the two characters – the killer and his mother.
REPRESENTATION OF MALES
-The protagonist, the villain
-Caucasian male in his mid-twenties; an ex-soldier in the Iraq war
-Still war-obsessed -- dresses in army clothes, photos, refers to the war during phone conversation
-Mentally unstable
-Challenge the stereotypical view of an ex-soldier - we would consider this man to be a hero in society However, we have played on this idea and it could be interpreted that in fact, the pressure of this so-called ‘heroism’ is the cause of his psychotic unbalance; thus leading him to become the villain.
-Breaking conventions - exposing the darker side of the war and witnessing the negative effects it may have on one’s mental health
We compared Thriller villains such as Dr. Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs (Harris, 1991) and Patrick Bateman, in American Psycho (Harron, 2000). By doing this, we noticed a few common factors amongst them:
-Both appear to be normal at first
-Respectable jobs, such as a banker or psychiatrist.
-This trust and value that society puts on them that makes the fact that they are cold-blooded killers so terrifying. Likewise, we tried to create our main character in the same way; he was a soldier, therefore is perceived as a hero, but when the audience realise he is a killer, we hoped it would evoke the same feeling of shock and terror.
Mise-en-scene
House in the suburbs of North London; the fact that it is completely standard and not overly-furnished just reinforces the image of a single, middle-class man, appealing to the well-known surroundings that the audience are used to seeing on an every day basis
REPRESENTATION OF FEMALES
The role of the mother is also represented in a specific way. We do not know what she looks like; we have to draw conclusions about her character from the responses he gives when on the phone to her. Her cause for concern over the deaths of ex-soldiers reinforces the ‘overly-cautious’ nature of an older mother, perhaps looking after her only son as if he were still a child. We chose to contrast her anxiety with the killer’s lack of, to emphasise the fact that secrets are kept from close family members all the time
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product is a two-minute opening sequence of a fiction film. To construct this opening sequence we had to consider a number of elements that it must contain.
GENRE
As our film can be classified as a thriller/horror, it was absolutely vital that we studied the opening sequences of other thriller/horror films. We found that the protagonist in this typical genre of film is usually male, who is a villain or killer; suffering from mental instability or a deformity of some sort such as:
Norman BatesPsycho – (Hitchcock, 1960)
Jack TorranceThe Shining - (Kubrick, 1980)
Dr. Hannibal LecterThe Silence of the Lambs – (Harris, 1991)
Our story literally depicts the character as a hero; an ex-soldier in the Iraq war, however, as we find out later, he is anything but a hero. This could be an example of the ‘false hero’ character role, as identified by Propp in a narrative structure.
An interesting twist in our plot is the portrayal of victims in 'Remembrance'; they are not stereo-typical victims one would find in Thriller / Horror films. They are male, ex-soldiers who are seen as strong, tough characters, unlike the vulnerable, female characters usually depicted as the victims.
ICONOGRAPHY
Signifiers of a film, recognised my audiences instantly Examples in Thriller/Horrors are:
Michael Myers’ mask in John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978)
Shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
Remembrance Poppy
The meaning the audience receive from the poppy will be interpreted in many different ways, depending on what a poppy actually means to them. Therefore, everyone will have a different reaction to the sequence, and will hopefully be able to relate to it in a specific way. Using a poppy can symbolise many things; for example the poppy itself denotes the war and Remembrance Day. However, it can also connote that not only are we remembering those that have died, but those that are going to die too.
The image appears many times throughout the sequence and ties in with our title ‘Remembrance’ to highlight the importance of the sign.
To establish our own unique style, we decided to go against the custom iconography used in modern day thriller/horrors; we did not use dark lighting in any of our scenes. This was deliberately done to try and simulate a ‘normal’ mood. This gained mixed reviews from people; some commented on how the lighting did not suit the tense atmosphere we were trying to create, whereas others commended the contrast of lighting to the sinister plot.
In addition, we chose to set our film in a very standard house. Again, not one of the most notable sets for thriller/horror films however, this enabled us to make our sequence more suspenseful and shocking. The fact that his surroundings are very familiar to the audience creates a false sense of security; a house is considered a safe place for some people. However, as they watch the sequence they come to realise that this is not the case, which could consequently make the sequence more disturbing, (a key characteristic of Slasher films).
Comparison of lighting and mise-en-scene between
our sequence and 'When a Stranger Calls' (West, 2006)
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
Differences in classical narrative pattern:
Elements of Barthes’ ‘enigma code’ - story is driven by asking questions. The viewer wants to know why he is killing people, and most importantly what is going to happen after he walks out of the door. The creation of mystery as the plot unfolds captivates the audience, enticing them to watch the rest of the film as they seek to find the answers.
Challenges Todorov’s theory - starts with a disruption (the nightmare sequence), restoring equilibrium once the character awakes. The story then comes across the recognition of a foreboding disruption (newspaper articles and broadcast) indicating another possible disruption. Audience become aware of disruption (the fact that he is the killer) and have to watch the rest of the film to see if it is averted and a new equilibrium is restored.
THEMES
Distinctive themes in thriller/horror:
-Fear -Murder
-Revenge -Voyeurism
-Isolation -Obsession
With this in mind, we chose the main theme to be revenge; as the killer is seeking revenge on those that abandoned him in the war.
Army-esque theme represented through:
Costume - Green shirt, Dog tags
Photographs - Placed on the window sill and newspapers
Our opening sequence is conventional in the sense that it serves the purpose of an opening sequence; that is, to introduce any main characters and establish the setting. Our opening sequence has titles throughout [as found in most opening sequences, in this particular case, I studied those of Jarhead (Mendes, 2005) because of the soldier theme].
We're finally done!! We finished editing last week, and now we're on to the feedback and evaluation stage! We'll be holding our audience screening tomorrow lunchtime; which I am really looking forward to! It'll be really interesting to get other people's opinions on our sequence and we hope we can reflect upon their comments in our evaluation!
Just a quick thank you to my absolutely LOVELY group members Ben and Tanya; thanks for all the laughs! I've had an amazing time!!
Well, we've just been transferred to a new Edit Suite, which means that we'll have more time to add the finishing touches to our sequence, hopefully in time for Tuesday :) This morning, we recorded the News Broadcast and found the possible name and logo for our production company. After teacher feed-back, it has conme to our attention that we just need to tweak a few things (such as sounds and titles) before we're done! We are now in the process of correcting the minor problems, along with adding the titles with the correct fonts...Wow, one more day to go!
During our two-week holiday, we had to re-shoot a few of the shots in our sequence. We met up on Friday to mainly re-shoot the nightmare sequence and conversation in the kitchen, we also shot the TV and reaction shots and the stairs shot too. The shoot went really well, we were able to get all the footage we needed in the one session, so we didn't need to meet up again.
When we got back to school, we captured and began editing all the footage. Our sequence is completed now [in terms of putting all the clips together], we just have to import the newspaper articles into the sequence, script and record the news broadcast and add more titles. I am feeling very confident after seeing the final footage; I didn't expect it to work as well as it does [me, forever the optimist!] I am extremely pleased, more so now than ever, that our project is coming together very well. Hard work really does pay off!...I am actually quite sad that it's coming to an end...:(
Hola! I'm Selina - one of the new kids on the block at Latymer! I'm studying Maths, Economics and Sociology as well the faaabulous Media!! :D Aside from watching a good ol' movie now and then I love listening to music and just chilling; with friends or infront of the TV! Welcome to my blog...let's Rock and Roll!!
...anything Media related ususally has the same effect on me!!
