How did you attract/address your audience?

How Did We Attract Our Target Audience[1]

The Editing Process

On our first editing day, we went through all our shots and marked the ones we preferred most for our sequence and shots we preferred not to use.  Some shots we didn’t like included punches that looked unrealistic, dialogue that wasn’t said properly and awkward shots where the actors hadn’t played their role properly.  We wanted to create meaning for the audience by using tense shots where the Russian men were serious and intimidating towards the spy.  We also wanted our sequence to be as realistic as possible, so discarded shots that looked too overtop or unrealistic.  Our film followed the conventions of a thriller as we used suspense and tension as our main elements, which give the audience a high level of terror and anxiety. 

We used continuity editing devices in our sequence by cutting between different shots and in some cases, by using ‘cross-fading’, which made them smoothly join into a sequence together that worked and made sense.  For example, at the beginning of our sequence, a Russian punches the spy in the face and we cut from a wide shot to a close up to emphasise this.  This cut helped the audience see the real pain on Simon’s face and the force of the punch, which would bring a tense mood to the atmosphere.  We used short reverse shot most commonly between the main Russian and the spy during their dialogue so the audience could see the contrast in moods between them:  the main Russian is aggressive towards the spy and the spy is terrified but still tries to be brave and somewhat aggressive in return.  Most of the camera time in the diegesis is focused on the main Russian and the spy, as they are the main characters, therefore most of the close-ups and mid shots are of them.  We used slow motion at one point when Simon is dunked in the water to bring a tense and anxious feel to the audience as everything is quiet and there is an anticipation of what will happen next. 

The main difficulty our group found when editing our thriller was that the pace, especially at the beginning seemed to be too fast and jumpy between cuts.  Therefore, to slow down the cuts between each shot we used ‘cross fading’ and slightly extended our shots over each other and as a result, the pace slowed down.  Particular attention was made to the beginning where the spy is punch and the effects of that as each shot individually was cut very short so a lot of cuts had to be made in a small space of time to create this one moment.  We decided to discard some shots from the beginning also to make it more simple and easier to watch for the audience, as it was less jumpy and confusing.  We did this by cutting out unnecessary shots, such as an extra wide shot of the room. 

We wanted to show the Russians to be more intimidating and threatening, so we created this perspective by dressing them in black and differentiated them by having them speak in Russian between one another at some points in the sequence.  This made the spy look like an outsider and a lot weaker as he wasn’t in control of the situation.  This was also supported by the fact he was tied to a chair and was wearing much more casual clothes.  He also has a wound on his cheek, which shows they have tortured him for a while and that he has a lot less power as they have no cuts or bruises.  Consequently, in this opening sequence we made the Russians stronger and bad, and the spy weaker and good.  This idea of the Russians being cruel is again reinforced when they bring the spy’s daughter in and threaten to kill her as well as him. We also showed this by using close up of Simon’s face to show he is suffering and comparing it to close up’s of the main Russian, which represented him to be punishing, violent and serious.  The close up’s of the Russians face also show that he isn’t even effected by the violence taking place in this room that he truly doesn’t care about how this spy is treated.  Evidently, this makes the audience favour the spy as he is affected and does have feelings, which are depicted when his daughter enters the room. 

We used a background sound throughout the whole of our opening sequence, which represented how it was in the middle of nowhere and emphasised the tense mood in the isolated room.  We also used punch effects in our thriller to make it more realistic and believable that the spy was being tortured.  I found this process of matching up sounds to actions quite hard because I wanted the audience to really be shocked and affected by the man being tortured so I wanted them to believe it, which made me take a lot more care in assuring the sounds were perfectly matched.  Sounds of the spy screaming were used to create meaning but once we were in the editing suite, we realised at the end of our sequence, the screaming was too loud and over top.  Therefore, we made the volume of his screaming quieter and cut out sounds of him screaming in other shots.  This was much more effective as, I believe the audience would be more affected and shocked by a scene where they truly believe the man is petrified for his and his daughter’s life. 

I really enjoyed the editing process and I found once I learnt how to use final cut pro after the first two sessions, I found it quite easy to use.  However, I found assuring the cuts weren’t jumpy quite challenging at points when a lot of action and different camera shots were happening at one specific moment, such as at the beginning of the sequence.  This took a lot more work than other parts in the sequence but because I understood what I needed to do to make the cutting more effective, all it needed was time to perfect it.  I also found putting all the shots together to make the opening sequence work quite challenging at the start as various punches and dialogue needed to be cut out to make it more understandable for the audience.  As a group we also discarded shots that didn’t look realistic, which were key for some action to happen in our open sequence.  Therefore, we had to make sure we were able to cut them out and still create a successful piece of film, which was thrilling and made sense to our audience. 

If I would do anything differently, I would have used less dialogue so more non-diegetic could have been used, as I believe this would have been a key technique to attract the audience and make the mood even tenser.  During our editing process I noticed at some points there was too much dialogue and not enough action so not much sound could be used.  However, with the story our group chose, we had to use dialogue otherwise the storyline would have been too confusing for the audience to comprehend. 

I enjoyed editing because I found the process exciting and interesting.  Furthermore, I loved the idea that I was able to create my own piece of work and make my own decisions that I thought would be best for a thriller.  I also enjoyed learning how to use final cut pro and from the beginning of the process, I was able to work well on my own. 

At the beginning of the editing process, I thought we worked well as a team when choosing what shots we liked best and what shots we would use in each order to create a successful storyline.  However, I found when the task became more vigorous and more attentiveness was needed, I took a lead role.  I believe I worked consistently throughout the whole process and therefore, took part in all the possible roles needed in editing:  marking and editing shots, cutting, sound and perfecting our final opening sequence.  However, throughout this process, the whole group still took part in these roles also and contributed in parts.  I believe I worked well during this editing process and contributed a large and important amount towards our opening sequence.

I feel this process was a lot easier and more exciting than the preliminary task as I was more confident with the camera and editing so I was able to work on it harder and take more time in making the sequence as effective as possible to create a successful thriller, which an audience would enjoy.  In addition, it was harder editing the opening sequence than the preliminary because their was a lot more detail and shots that you had to concentrate on, which made the process a lot longer.   

Through this experience I have learnt that the whole process of filmmaking takes a lot of time, concentration and care to create something prosperous.  During this experience of editing on final cut pro I have overcome challenges of working with sound as before I found it a lot more difficult to figure out how to edit it correctly.  Furthermore, it was difficult to add sound efficient enough to work well with our dialogue to make it sound like a thriller and appeal to our target audience. 

Target audience for Thriller

I believe that our target audience for our film would be ages 15-25 because it contains suspense and action, which most suits this age range.  The audience would be attracted to the 'action' in our thriller also, mainly males because through research,  this is the most popular type of genre for them.  People aged 15-25 would normally go to the cinema on the weekends or be out with their friends.  However, in the day, our target audience would be studying, which means that our Thriller would be best released during a holiday, preferably in winter because the cinema would be even more popular then.  Our secondary audience would be 25-35years.  They might like this film because it is based on the Chechnya War, which they can relate to more than our younger target audience.  Our genre of film would be more likely to attract a more male audience as it involves violence and action but it's not so brutal that a female audience wouldn't be interested because its emotional also (when the spy's daughter is brought in).  Therefore, our film is aimed at both a male and female audience.  For example, the film 'Taken', which inspired our idea of our thriller was an action thriller and contained violence but it was still very popular towards a female audience because it had the emotional attachment of the man's daughter being hurt and taken from him - similar to our thriller.  



Example of a member of our Target Audience

 

Name:  Merlin

Age:  17

Interests:  Boxing, cars and playing Xbox

Favourite Movie:  Taken

Favourite game on Xbox:  Call of Duty – Modern Warfare

What institution would make your film?

•   Fox Searchlight would want to make my film because it specialises in independent and British films and is variously involved with the production and/or distribution of these films.  We would choose them because we feel our film would appeal to a global audience. 
• Films that've been made similar are:  'Street Kings' and 'never die alone' - both action thrillers.  Street Kings was also released as a game, which could be a distributing factor used for my film also.
• Fox Searchlight is a company, which distributes many low budget films, such as Juno and Slumdog Millionaire that have become very successful in the box office.  Therefore, the company does fit in the egos of the institution as my film is a low budget film. 

• I believe Fox Searchlight wouldn't release my film to cinemas as there is too much competition with big-budget Hollywood action thrillers. Currently 9 out of 10 films at the cinema are owned by multi-national conglomerates. However as Fox Searchlight has the backing of its parent company 20th Century fox and Newscorp it would enable opportunity for my film to gain a wider distribution into more countries than just the UK. Fox searchlight are part of the horizontally and vertically integrtaed conglomerate and therefore our film would have the benefit of their distribution. This means that rather than rely on selling our film for distribution in other countries Fox seachlight have their own measures ion place to make our film a success or at least guaranteeing some return on their investment. Therefore eeven if our film failed to make the box office in Britain and the USA which is likely there would be a market for  it on DVDs and on BluRay.  They would also make money out of my film by the word-of-mouth buzz, similar to films, such as 'Napoleon Dynamite'.  Fox Searchlight  may still promote our film at films festivals, like 'Napoleon Dynamite' in the Sundance Film Festival.   But this would be to gain publicity and popularity.  Fox searchlight have proved that they are willing to take a risk on relatively unknown directors such as Ivan Reitmann who's first film was Thank you for smoking. Fox Searchlight has its own marketing and distribution operations and International distributions are controlled by Twentieth Century Fox that helped make this film a word of mouth success and although it was a relative slow burner and wasn't a global rel;ease at the cinema it's dvd sales enabled it to be a success on dvd and blu-ray sales.  
• The company produces small specialised films in genres, such as comedy, drama and horror.  
• I believe my film shows real emotion, like many Fox Searchlight films and attracts to American audiences.  

How does your product represent particular social groups?

We wanted to represent an idea of a Russian Mafia in our film, which are agressive and cruel.  Therefore, they conformed to dominant ideologies and were the stereotypical Russian type.  This was an idea similar to one represented in an episode of Spooks that we studied where binary opposites between the evil Eastern Russians and the Heroic Westerns were established.  This conformed to dominant ideologies of the Russians being corrupt and was a typical drama plot, which we put in our Thriller.  The agents represented in this Thriller were similar to how we represent the agent in our Thriller:  caring/considerate, has a family and feels responsible for their country:

Agents in Spooks

Fiona was very loyal, both to her family and colleagues but she struggled with the conflict of espionage and motherhood.  She loved her son Wes but would never leave the MI5 willingly.

Fiona's husband, Adam was a hard worker but always dreamt of sharing a stable home life with his wife and son.  However, Fiona was shot while trying to avenge her previous life in Syria.  Consequently, Adam went into denial at first but eventually realised that focussing on his work was the best way for him to handle his loss.

Danny was a young and sharp agent who lost his life for his country (in the Spooks episode that we studied).













In contrast, the idea of the Russians being opposite to the agent in characteristics is similar to how Russians are represented in the film Eastern Promises:


Images in the News in Russia in particular, represent how this idea of masculinity is represented for the stereotypical Russian in the media.  An example of this is an image of Putin hunting with his top off, presenting the 'Alpha male' type: 'The Telegraph'

In contrast, our agent in our Thriller is represented to have more feelings and is more caring, such as when he starts screaming in horror once his daugher gets brought in.  Consequently, this represents English men in a much better light compared to Russian men.  You could relate Simon in the Thriller to characters in films such as James Bond where the English man is presented as the 'Hero' and the more appealing person to the audience in comparison to foreign men, such as Russians:

The dunking scene in the opening sequence of James Bond relates to the slow motion clip of Simon being dunked into the tank in our Thriller

However the difference between James Bond and Simon is that Bond always escapes or seems to be in control of the bad situation he's in.  In our thriller, it is very unsure to the audience whether Simon will actually survive or not.  Furthermore, this is why it gives a exciting feel as unlike James Bond where the audience know he will always survive, the audience have the anticipation of what will happen next.  

Account of shoot day

We prepared to set up the studio with dark walls and floor to give a cold and isolated feeling.  However, once we went to do this, we realised that this wouldn't look good on camera and wouldn't work.  We then first decided that as we were using a fish tank in our scene, we would make an effect, which seemed that all the light was reflecting off that, which gave moving white patterns on the walls and made it quite mysterious.  Furthermore, we had a wooden floor and not as dark walls as organised because the camera made the room look darker itself.  We made this reflection effect by putting a big tank full of water outside of the set, with the light shining through it and as we moved the water, the light reflected on the walls.  

On set, we also agreed to have a bright blue light behind the door in the background, so when the door was opened, a light shone across the left wall, which I believe worked really well on camera.  These changes to the set worked better for our finished piece than previous ideas because once on set, we were able to look at it through the camera and see what lights worked best with our idea.  Our main target audience was around the age of 15-25years.  We ended our sequence with a cliffhanger and the effect we were going for was anticipation and eagerness to see what was going to happen next.  I believe this thriller appeals to our target audience as there is some violence, but nothing too brutal and the actors in it are rather young.  The daughter is also quite attractive and innocent, which would appeal to our target audience as they would feel more sorry for her.

We set up in the studio because we only needed a desolate, dark room, which was easily able to be done there.  Our storyboard was fairly similar to our original in the sense that all shots we were planning to use with our script, we did.  However, we also tried out more than one shot for lines in our script so when we edited, we had a choice to get the best shot for each line.  This was much more effective as if one shot didn't go as well, we had another one we could use so we didn't have to worry about having any bad shots in our final sequence.  I think before the shooting day we should of looked more carefully at our script as we didn't realise until the morning of the shoot that it didn't go that well with what we wanted to film.  The effect we were going for was an action thriller, which relates well to our target audience as this genre is the most popular for these ages (researched by a survey).  Action thrillers give suspense, excitement and a tense atmosphere in the audience, which would relate more to teenagers. 

We chose two of the Russian men to be wearing all black as it gives a sinister mood and the main man to be in an army costume as he is most likely from the Chechnyan army, evidently because he is questioning the spy about his involvement with the Russians.  Simon was put in casual clothes to represent how he most probably was taken very unexpectably and also as he is undercover he wouldn't be wearing suits to stand out, he would want to blend in with the crowd.  Futhermore, his daughter wore a white dress to represent innocence and purity.  The fish tank was a very effective prop used as the buffer shots of simon being dunked in the water, I believe worked well and the lighting reflected through it.  We had previously decided to have guns throughout the whole sequence but realised that they weren't needed until the daughter came in:  before that they were in the way.  Therefore, on the shoot we changed the idea to have the two russian men in black enter with the guns once they brought Clemmie in.  This made the last sequence very tense as you don't know if Clemmie will die or not.  Furthermore, once guns are brought into a film, the tension is built up a notch because it is a lot more agressive and serious.  The film 'Taken' inspired our choice of our thriller as it gave us the idea of a man being captured and tortured by a terroist.  The scene in 'Taken' where a man is tortured in a chair in a dark/isolated room inspired our setting.

We chose Clemmie to be our girl because her age was right in the middle of our target audience and she was pretty and innocent, which would appeal to our audience.  The Russians we used were also chosen because they had the right look for our film:  they were intimidating and agressive looking.  Furthermore, we chose Simon because he looked a lot more mature than using a student, which made it realistic and believable that he was a spy

We decided to shine a light through a fish tank out of the set, in order for a glittering reflection to be put on the dark walls in our setting.  This gave a unnatural and odd feel, which made the scene more disstressing and interesting to watch.  I believe this lighting worked because it gave a different look to the typical bare bulb in the studio.  I think it was an imaginitive idea made by the group and will work well for the scene.  We also had a blue light through the door in the back of the set, which was shown when the Russians opened the door.  This light was very different to the reflection on the walls, so when it appeared it was very shocking an noticeable, giving an unsure feel which creates suspense in the audience.  However, with just this lighting, the set looked unrealistic so we put a light on the right wall, which made the setting more believable and natural.  Therefore, I wouldn't change the lighting we used in our Thriller as I believe it was our most successful piece of mise-en-scene.

Once we began our filming, we realised that we needed to edit our script because our previous one didn't fit well with the effect we wanted to make on our audience.  Once the actors rehearsed the lines, it didn't seem realistic enough so it needed to be changed.  For example, in our orginal script we had more or less no swearing but realistically, when someone is being tortured, they will swear, which is why it was put in on the shooting day once we'd started filming.  The effect we wanted to give from the Russian dialogue was for it to be quite intimidating and worrying as the main man was stern and very serious.  In addition, during our editing process after the shoot day, we added punch effects using Sound Pro.  During the production, I tried out a number of roles in turn with the rest of my group:  lighting, directing, camerawork and sound.  At the beginning of the shooting day I also took charge of organising all the costumes for each character by trying out various outfits on set and making sure my final decision was the costumes that looked best on camera and represented what our thriller was about the best.  The day before our shoot, I also put ideas across on what I wanted our set to look like and contributed main ideas to our final decision, such as using dark walls and having bits of rubbish on the floor. 

I believe our group worked very well together during the production as we had organised what roles we were taking and when.  Futhermore, we took turns on the most important jobs so we all had a fair chance to contribute and divided up tasks beforehand to research various things.  However, before our production day, I believe that the majority of the writing up work for our blogs organising mise-en-scene, shot types, lighting, costumes, etc was split between Jess and I and wasn't as equally shared out as it was on the shooting day itself.  Although, in putting across ideas before we wrote it all out, everyone contributed to create the correct choices and discussed what would work best to constitute the correct suspense and tension required to relate to our target audience of thriller fans.

Overall, I was happy with the overall result for our thriller and believe our change of decisions we made on the day were the correct choice to make our sequence more realistic and something that would relate to our target audience more.  Futhermore, I think our mise-en-scene was successfully encapsulated to create the right effect of a mysterious set, which created tension and worry.

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

1.  The first screen shot illustrates our groups engagement with existing forms and conventions as it demonstrates the use of the idea of a dark and solemn room - a convention of the Thriller genre.  In the shadow on the right, you can also see Simon who has clearly been tortured very severely as his eyes are shut and he has blood over his face - another convention of the genre.

2.  This close up of the main Russian expresses his cruel and aggressive characterisation, which has been developed from existing media products of stereotypical mafia Russians in Thriller films.

3.  The dunking scene is developed from waterboarding and is a type of torture, a key convention of the Thriller genre.  This is supported by the blood that spreads around the tank.  We developed the idea of a man being tortured from the film Taken. In this film, the man was tortured by electricity but we developed this existing convention and used water, which was effective for our lighting also and popular with our audience.

4.  This close up of Simon illustrates that he has been badly hurt and is injured.  Using blood in Thriller films is another existing convention used and we have added this to our finished product as well.  From this screenshot alone, it is suggested that it would be a Thriller as it is dark, mysterious and includes violence of some sort.

5.  The man screaming on the floor signifies that something horrific is happening:  the feet in the background and the tank in the foreground suggest that he is being tortured in some way and that it is emotionally scarring for him.  The screenshot below this also supports this idea as the girl is introduced, suggesting she will die if he doesn't do what they say - he's an important figure.  This ending sets up an enigma that would need to be solved within the context of the film.  The title, which says who the Director is also follows conventions.

Overall, these screenshots from our finished production illustrate our engagement with existing forms and conventions of existing media products as they use similar ideas that are developed or slightly altered.  For example, one of the Thrillers our group looked at during filming was Syriana and as a result, we developed ideas from the interrogation scene:

The screen shot on the bottom left is similar to the high angle shot our group filmed in our Thriller of Simon getting punched.  Furthermore, the image of the man lying down on the floor covered in blood can link to our developed image of Simon lying on the floor screaming and the closeup of him sitting on the chair similarly covered in blood.  The idea of Simon being tortured on a chair also developed from this Thriller as well as the film Taken, which I studied myself.