Intended target audience and how you will attract them

Age

The target age range of our thriller is 18-23 year olds. This is because the certificate for our thriller will be at least a 15 as there is lots of gore and as a result of the level of violence we have.

Gender


The gender we are aiming our thriller at is males.

Why

This is because there is lots of guns and action, and one of our main characters is a merciless male figure. Our thriller is also quite similar to video games such as Hitman:Absolution, which our target audience will like as they would play video games quite often. Our young male audience like action and death, and the mystery of our male actor. They will also like the briefcase which we plan to include and the whole story about what's inside.

How we intend to attract them in the first two minutes

We intend to attract our audience straight away by having a really tense scene which ends up with an unexpected event. This could be a death of a character or a significant event which alters the narrative drastically.

More Genre

What is a Hybrid Genre?

A hybrid genre is a mixture/combination of different genres. For example: Action-Thriller, Romantic-Comedy.   

Why is Genre used? 

Genre is used to classify each film made into categories, which is a way of targeting specific audiences for which the film is made for. These genres additionally provide multiple varieties of films which allows for people of all ages to enjoy movies, depending on the genres which they like. 

 What are genre Conventions?

Genre conventions are inclusions in a film to help the audience associate that film with its genre. For example, conventions of horror include jump scares, scary setting etc. These different genre conventions are illustrated through the use of camera movements, the editing, the sound used and the mise-en-scene in the films.

Thrillers

What is a thriller genre?

A thriller film is a film which is created to thrill the audience, and is done so by leaving the audience with questions and for them to wander what will happen next, and normally finishes with a shocking twist or a powerful ending.  

What are the main Conventions of a Thriller?

The main conventions of a thriller are: Suspense, Tension, mixture of slow and fast paced, Powerful ending, and normally includes an exciting and unpredictable twist. 

Genre, Audiences and Institutions

WHY IS GENRE A RELEVANT CONCEPT FOR AUDIENCES?

A genre of a film can be a method of describing what films people enjoy, such as a comedy, romance film or a horror. The genre of a film has a massive affect on whether the audience will ever watch that film or not. 


HOW DOES GENRE EFFECT FILM PRODUCTION AND FILM DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES?

A genre is a huge part of a film and to its audiences. A genre determines what a film's target audience is. Film production companies want to make as much money as possible, so they make their films using as much of the conventions of that particular genre as possible, to make their film as attractive as possible to its chosen audience. Distribution companies advertise the films, using many methods such as trailers and posters. In these media texts, are some enrapturing parts of the film being advertised, such as the main characters and some sort of action in the background. Once again, this is too reach out to the chosen audiences, as lots of conventions of the chosen genre is used, and to get as many people watching the film as possible.  

Sub Genres

Despite thrillers coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes, within thrillers are sub-genres, within which there will be a high degree of similarity.  

What is a Sub-Genre?

A sub-genre is a division/genre within a genre which makes the film more specific in detail when classifying the film.  For example: Psychological-thriller, Political-thriller, Erotic-thriller. 

Here are 3 Conspiracy Thrillers, which is an example of a sub-genre in Thrillers. 

SIMILARITIES:

In each of the 3 films, there is a main, male protagonist whom is followed most closely by the audience. Additionally, there is also a woman character whom acts as a backup-role of the male protagonist, but who is seen on screen a lot with the male character. The themes within these films are similar too, as they all include the twist of how its a conspiracy, which is designed to shock the audience whilst watching. 

Here is a list of Thriller Sub-Genres:

Personally, I find that psychological thrillers to be most exciting. They are done to confuse the audience and let them leave asking a load of questions, which i think is a great ay to end a suspenseful film. Our Opening Sequence for our Thriller which we are making has a lot of questions which are unanswered, which is used to keep the audience entranced into watching it. 

Genre Difference, Repetition and Simialrity

The thriller genre is different from most other genres because on the surface, many of them look entirely different from each other. Here are some examples:

These films are all classified as thrillers but are very different. The far left film is about an ex CIA agent on the run from the CIA. The middle film is about a group of businessmen who do their work within peoples dreams. The far right film is a political battle between President Nixon and a TV interviewer. The key differences are the variety in violence levels, narrative, and the character differences. 

However, despite these differences, these films are all very similar. They all successfully are very tense and suspenseful, and keep the audience on the edge of their seats at all times. The three all have, in one way or another, a main antagonist included, whether its the ex-president, the CIA or an enemy of the protagonists. 

Development Meetings

First Group Meeting

This is the first time we have met together as a group. Our first task as a group was to pitch all of our ideas and then we would decide as a group which one we liked the most.

My original idea(RECAP)

The original idea which I pitched was about a group of terrorists who scatter across London and simultaneously plant bombs across bust areas throughout London.

Feedback

The feedback of this idea was mainly neutral. People liked the suspense I wanted to portray, liked the title sequence and enjoyed how it was a relation to current day issue. However, the class also thought that there was too much going on and that I needed to narrow down the ending and climax of the sequence. This feedback was very helpful and useful to take on board for the future.

Our Chosen Idea

Each person in our group pitched their 3 or 4 ideas in which they had come up with and we all gave positive and negative feedback on each idea. After all ideas pitched, we struggled between 3 ideas : Nikita’s Rock star, Simone’s Gangster or my woman in the office. After discussions, the idea of a woman in the office was decided to become our idea, with the Rock Star being our backup. 

Feedback of Chosen idea

We liked the tension created and how we can make it a very visual and powerful in that way. We also thought of it to be simplistic but effective. However a problem we immediately encountered was the fact that we would need a huge office for our location of the idea.

Second Group Meeting

The second time our group met we were lucky, as most of the other groups were unable to progress their group work as some members had other commitments, in this case English Coursework.

 However, our entire group was present which meant we were able to continue. Today, we decided to start writing up a storyboard for our Thriller, in which we could put our thoughts and ideas on how it should be filmed onto paper.

We did this for the duration of the lesson and we were happy with what we had done. However, we did change a few things as we progressed because, as a group, we decided that a few things mentioned would have had a positive influence on the outcome of the Thriller. 

Here is an example of a storyboard: 

 

Third Group Meeting

Today was the 3^rd time we met up as a group. Today, we started toad technical aspects such as duration of shot, camera angle, lighting, sound etc. to our storyboard which we have been working on as a group.

We also filled out a sheet which helped us to decide on details such as characters needed, location, ways around tough scenes to shoot and certain props we would need. I found this particularly helpful as I felt it cleared up our idea much more and it helped us gather a clearer idea of how we would actually shoot our Thriller. However, we faced a few problems. We were unable to get an idea of non-diegetic sound we would use, and exactly what diegetic sound should be used. Despite this, our group worked well as we each gave each other a specific job to do, which made us as efficient as possible, and if any of us stumbled across a problem, we would have discussed it as a group, then moved on. 

Fourth Group Meeting

Today, we were without a member of our group. However, we were still able to continue, and I have emailed the relevant information to the missing member.

 

We continued to complete our storyboards, and we are very close to finishing. We still have to decide on the ending of our practice shoot, and whether we should include certain locations such as the car park. 

We also went through with Mike, our teacher, whether the locations we wanted to use were okay and to see whether it would be possible.  He gave us the all clear, but to be concerned as the location we want may be being used. In the case of this occurring, we have decided on a number of different backup locations.

One thing we did well is that we included a lot of fresh, new ideas. We enjoyed the idea of introducing a briefcase and that the woman should be orientated around ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ documents. 

We are filming this tomorrow, and I am very much looking forward to it. 

Fourth Meeting

Today, we filmed our practice shoot. We used our storyboard as a guide in which we ordered our shots and which camera angles to use. I directed the shoot, with the help of Nick who put forward ideas which we did use, and he also worked the camera, using a variety of movements and tracking such as high angles and tracking shots. 

We had an issue as we were unable to time our tacking shot in which we had to move the camera at the correct speed to successfully get Simone into the frame. Additionally, we weren’t 100% sure how long we were spending in each of the chosen locations. 

However, we did like the outcome of our shots and we thought it all worked well. Furthermore, we made some minor adjustments which we thought improved our shooting, such as the inclusion of a villain, and the final phone call to leave the audience with an unanswered question.