Target Audience

We need to figure out what target audience we would like to attract with our film. A target audience is a group of people that would be most suited to the product that we are making. In our case it is a small film that we are producing and we need to know who is most likely to watch it and we can adapt it to their needs.

Most thriller films nowadays are certificated 18s which makes the target audience to be 18 and above. Ours however is not as it is not a very long piece and we are targeting our classmates (who will watch it and give feedback). This would mean we would have to put an aged 15 certificate on our film.

This is so we can have a clear understanding of what we want to achieve whilst we film. The audience questionnaire we sent out was mainly to 16-17 year olds. This is where we start from as the information we have collected would have been from their mindset. This gives us some information about what they like and expect to see from the thriller genre. As we already have that information for that age-group.

The gender information is not as important as the age-group. This is because no matter what the gender it is it all depends on each person's individual interests. Both male and female groups enjoy thriller films, but it is not to everybody's taste. However, in the idea for our film, the target audience varies- at the start when the girls are getting ready it is aimed for more of a girly audience (girls getting ready, gossiping etc). The ending, however, it aimed at both genders as that is when it turns psychological. This generally interests both genders. Because we have all females in our production it might attract a female audience more than the male population.

Camera Angles

There are few camera angles that we must include in our filming. These are;

• Shot/Reverse Shot
• Match on Action Shot
• 180 degree rule

This is a film technique used to show one character looking at something off screen. Usually the character is in a conversation. The camera then switches to the person that the original character was looking at. Since the characters are shot facing in opposite directions, the viewer unconsciously assumes that they are looking at one another. The shot/reverse shot is a shot of one subject, then another, then back to the first. It is often used for conversation or reaction shots. We plan to use this shot when me and Katie are in the games room having a conversation. The camera will flit in between each of us therefore making the shot/reverse shot.

This is cutting from one shot to another view that matches the action and place of the first shot. This creates an impression of continuity although the shot although the shots have been filmed weeks apart. If the character begins an action in the first shot and complete the action in the next, a visual ‘bridge’ is created which acts to disguise the cut from one to the other. A typical example of this is a car entering from one side of the shot and leaving them appearing from the left again. We used this shot when Katie was walking towards the door in the games room.

This is a basic film editing technique used usually in conversations and to distinguish the left/right relationship between two people. To do this there is an imaginary line between the two people to maintain continuity, this line is not to be crossed. A new shot from the opposite side is known as the reverse shot, the character will be seen to have switched places, but from the viewers perspective, will be in the same place. We used this technique whilst in the bathroom and Katie was shouting through to the other room to me.

Location

We have decided to have our filming at Amelia's house as we feel that this can bring all of our conventions together in an easy and effective way. This is because at the end of the garden there is a pool that we wish to use to make our thriller different and effective. We will start filming upstairs where Katie will be in the bathroom and I will be in Amelia's bedroom. We will be speaking to each other through the different rooms and the camera location will capture this effectively.

The second room that we will use in our location will be the games room downstairs after the house has gone dark due to a power cut. This room is dark and next to the garden so it is a good place to hold a conversation.

The filming then moves down the garden, when at this point will be pitch black and not a light in sight. This also means that we have to ensure it is dark when we are filming. At the bottom of the garden is a swimming pool with a roof over the top. Having the swimming pool at the bottom of the garden means that we can add to the psychological effects of the watcher, by making them think that there is something/someone in or near the water. This is ultimately the main reason for choosing Amelia's house as our location and we hope that this can add a twist to our filming.

The location we used for our first scene was in the bedroom. This was when i was getting ready and shouting to Katie through the bathroom. We thought that this would be the most effective as it seemed 'real' this is because when getting ready the bathroom and the bedroom are the main places that girls go. This adds realism. 

The second location that we filmed in was the bathroom. This flicked from where I was getting ready to where Katie was getting ready. Katie was brushing her teeth in the mirror. This is where we started filming the 'supernatural'. We could make good use of the mirror and when Katie dropped her toothbrush, a figure appeared...

We then filmed from the top of the stairs. This was when things started to get scary. It was used for long in the film, only when I ran screaming down the stairs because the lights flickering were scaring me.

We then got the shot of when i came down from the stairs to make it seem more dramatic and effective. I ran towards the camera using match on action.
















This is the scene that we filmed in the games room. We used shot/reverse shot for the conversation that took place here and also match on action when Katie walked towards the door.

The last location that we filmed was outside. However the quality of the pictures that we took were not good enough to post. The rest was filmed going up to the pool area and then in the pool area.

Audience Research Questionnaire

We sent out around 20 questionnaires to various people around college and waited for the answers to come back to group the data. We asked four questions that we could group the information and could see what the audience want to see in the thriller genre. This will help us when we start to film and think of our idea. (we can do it taking in the preferences found in our audience questionnaires)

This is what our questionnaire looked like, it is visually very easy on the eyes and simple to understand.

I made graphs to show the results of the audience research questionnaire more clearly. It helped me visually see what the audience wanted in a more effective way.

This is the chart for question 1. As you can see horror was the main choice of genre that the audience liked. Thriller was the second favourite choice of genre. This is good as it shows that a few of the people filling in our questionnaires are interested in thriller films, this makes our research more valid.

Our second question was 'Why is this your favourite genre?'. The answers we got for this question were extremely difficult to put into graph form and, therefore, we could not do it as it was based on individuals opinions. It was helpful, however, in finding out why people's favourite genre was thriller. This means that we can take the conventions that appeal to people and try our hardest to put it into our filming.

The third question was an open question 'what makes a thriller film' we sent out these questions and writ down the answers that people gave us. This graph allows us to see what thriller concepts the audience would like to watch.

The fourth question we asked the audience what thrillers they had already seen. The audience could fill in more than one box which is why the answers come to more than twenty. As you can see, Jaws was the top answer. As I deconstructed Se7en it was reassuring to know that a few people were familiar with this type of film

This question was asked in the same way as question 3. We asked the audience and then collected the feedback, it shows the importance of each aspect and what the audience would like to see. It means that we can now see what will make our film interesting and the aspects that we need to work on the hardest.

Second Blog Entry

So far we have decided the idea (genre) for our main task and have started to think of possible ideas that we could use for our film. We have designed our Audience Research Questionnaire and are in process of retrieving the answers. This will help use decide what the best ways to construct our film will be. It also shows what an audience are looking for in a thriller film and what will make our production more effective and interesting.


I have also deconstructed three openings of different genre of films. This will help me when it comes to filming our film as I am aware of the different techniques that can be used whilst filming and the ones that will be more effective for me and my group to use. It starts to give us all ideas about how we want to film ours.