Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In the progression of learning about various thriller conventions, I have gained more knowledge on what it takes to fit the demographic of a "thriller" where as previously I thought it was souley down to the plotline I now understand from not only my target research but from class that it's to do with creating suspense and mystery through camera shots and angles. Our media opening wouldn't have been a success if it wasn't for those key shots that emphasised a scene e.g Ellke being pushed near stairs. During our filming we were also unaware of the idea that clothing could give a certain image to the audience. For example the idea of Lucas character just wearing socks in the house wouldn't be as effective if he had been perhaps barefoot due to him dressing then slightly more different then Ellie. Soundtracks are also important I learnt when trying to convey a mystery and build suspense - this is one of the key things we found difficult when trying to find a soundtrack that matched to how the scene went - instead of going on in with a harsh and dominant sound effect,though market research, we found that it would be better to do a build up that gradually became louder. This technique had previously used in films such as Gone Girl.

In our preliminary task we showed little to no mise-en-scene as at that time of filming we didn't realise how important things such as costume would make a difference. One of the big things that have changed is the use of our narrative as within our pre-lim the sound was very on and off as we only thought to use over the top sound effects rather than a slow build up. Additionally the use of props has dramatically changed as when filming our pre-lim we had zero props and didn't think through previously on how when filming and editing the shots it wouldn't leak clean cut. Comparing to now I believe our media work has vastly improved because of the new skills we have learnt that have allowed us to adapt to how we would like our work and although the progression of our work will continue we believe we have extremely changed from our first task. My personal editing skills have dramatically improved as now I know what to spot in order to create my work more clear to the audience as before I tend to focus on the final product rather then focusimg on every small detail to make a good final product. Our film pitch/ideas, planning and themes were overall more consistent this time around in making the final product more of a success when distributing.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In order to edit and peice our media thriller opening together we used the latest version of IMovie which could be found on the IMacs, this updated version allowed us to edit our varied shots to our preference, added visual effects, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds and crop particular shots. Additionally we used the effect to stabilise our shots which was extremely helpful when shots were very shaky due to the weather conditions. Everyone in our group contributed to editing im there own way and were able to bring a range of skills to everything they did, however June was our main editor as she felt more confident when it came to her editing because of previous knowledge on how to do it. I personally learnt how to crop and rearrange the different layers of sound, this has personally helped me and so in future projects these knew skills will be used. I also learnt how to lighten and darken different shofs to create an overall effect on our shots to add some dimension. Additionally I've learnt that by speeding up the flashbacks at a quick pace it helps to create a mystery and the fast paced thriller shots that people seemed to enjoy  In terms of camera skills I have learnt how to focus and film various shots that help captivate a sense of a thriller genre by using shots such as pans and tracking shots.

In conclusion I have learnt a collective of technology and skills that have allowed me to create a thriller product that I believe could become successful due to the range of different technology's I have used to help construct my product.

How did you attract and address your audience?

 How did you attract and address your audience?

As a group addressing our target audience of 16-24 year olds by casting two teenagers as the main characters was a priority because they are able to relate due to similar ages, locations and social status. Mise-en-Scene is an important factor when trying to attract our audience (16-24 year olds) as we wanted to to influence the audience. The variation of products such as fake blood, pills and overall scenery eg the graveyard & household all contributed when needing to convey to the audience our thrilled opening. Our audience could be attracted to the location as these are common places in which  could relate to our age group e.g the household. By using this juxtaposition it shows an area in which likelihood should be safe and comforting contrasting to the supposedly eerie graveyard, the shots from the graveyard make up the majority of our thriller opening as it represents darkness therefore attracting a more mysterious take on our adaptation of a thriller. The abuse flashbacks additionally could also attract young couples as they are the maim demographic for real life statistics of domestic abuse by a partner this gives a sense of awareness to the topic that is not recognised a lot in real life situations. Furthermore the use of age relativity will really attract our audience as we as a group are hitting our own demographic therefore understanding what people our age age would expect to see in a thriller with psychological elements. I personally believe teenagers and young adults are more inclined to see this thriller is to how relatable the characters appear and although there is domestic violence and mental health problems that they are still young adults figuring themselves out. The use of age related characters/actors additionally emphasis my point as if we're to use older actors that the plot line wouldn't appear right and the target audience wouldn't be able to relate.

A crucial part to our research before filming our thriller opening was to attract a wide range of audiences and demographics whilst still being able to attract 16-24 years olds. By attracting our audience with a range of demographics such as gender and hierarchy - especially in our female detective - not only would this correlate to our main age focus but also those who were middle aged and older. We have displayed our females detectives status of authority by placing her in what seems like a white room surrounded by evidence against Lucy's character, the use of a female trying to catch a man suggests she has not only high authority but social class. Her character juxtaposes Ellie's character who the audience will pity and sympathise with, we managed to portray these two very different female characters by using a majority of high angle shots of Lucy and low angle shots of Ellie.

Although we used a variety of different medias to bring the attention of our thriller opening we found that the use of various social media platforms worked best as you knew you would be hitting your demographic straight away as our whole group used personal social medias to distribute our product. This was a pro decision as we knew by doing this not only would a mass of people would see it but we would be hitting our key demographic. Also the use of above line marketing such as YouTube itself wouldn't of allowed us to show our thriller opening whilst gaining views if it wasn't for using it. Attracting our audiences attention through social medias consisted of our group constantly retweetimg one another's tweets by doing this it expanded our demographic through new people, by using simple links that our audience could click on allowed it to be easier than ever for them to know what our thriller was about but also allowed us to know people were viewing it because of views and page activity. Lastly by leaving comments under our thriller opening we would later know what people liked and disliked which would help us later on in other projects such as our Year 13 work, this links to wanting what people would like to see as if there pervious videos our aud ience had watched matched the genre of our thriller opening it would be found in there suggestions/recommendations. This is otherwise known as the Hypderdemic Syringe Model - a theory based in media implying certain medias are purposely "injected" into our audiences to show them what they want to see the most of.

                     
       

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Prior to filming our thriller opening our group did exstensive research into what our target audience, 16-24 year olds, would expect when watching a thriller film and the stereotypes they expect to see. Upon researching I found a statistic claiming 16-24 year olds are one of the largest age groups to suffer with mental health issues. By using someone of this age not only does it show the demographic that relates to the statistics in relation to promoting these mental disorders but also the age range could appear as though we can correlate with a young teen audience. In my research which I collected through an internet survey I found that a significant amount of our audience would want to watch a thriller that mentioned/discussed mental health, due to the majority of previous films have spoken falsely or they mis-interpreted how someone with the condition might act. I also felt it was right to speak about mental health issues being apart of the death because of the stigma that surrounds Schizophrenia such as the lack of empathy, it is made clear in the narrative that he does feel sympathy but yet is unaware of how to convey his emotions to others. Lastly I found through research that the majority of our audience watched thriller films through streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime closely followed by just watching in the cinema. By using a service such as Netflix it would mean using a cross- media convergence to achieve a synergy - this is when a cross media convergence is successful.

In relation to gender, making sure that our media was targeting both females and males was pinnacle as our plot of the film was based on the audience being unbiased.  The main topic of our film is neutral as it can be subjected towards male and females because the plot surrounds mental health issues which are experienced by both genders. The physical violence in our media could appeal to men and the domestic abuse could appeal to women, due to statistics of domestic abuse being higher in women than in men. As for males although the rates of them abusing there partner is higher (29%) the rate of suicide is more prominent with men suffering mental health issues at 76% causing suicide to being the biggest threat towards men, figures are currently highest they've ever been. By making our thriller opening we hope to ensure to highlight the key aspects of suffering with Schizophrenia to highlight that the stigmas surrounding this issue are not true.

With regards to various social classes we have explored a variety of ways to indicate to the audience that this is thriller opening is something you can relate to therefore making it appear more scary in the long run because of the likeliness of something like this happening. The main characters that are seen in the duration of our opening can quite clearly seen as average stereotypical teenagers. By the setting and the costume the audience can already understand that this is supposed to relate to day to day life due to them being dressed in very ordinary clothes. Additionally the use of them not wearing bold colours and not being dressed up indicates a middle class/ working class lifestyle. However a clear juxtaposition can be seen when we introduce Lucy's character who plays the female detective at the end because of her Lanyard seen around her neck creating the illusion that if she's wearing her job may be important. Also the use of wearing navy could symbolise stereotypical hierarchy jobs such as the police. Lastly the mise-en-scene where Lucy's character is already suggests she may be working for a hierarchy job because of the scattered candid shots of Lucas and recent newspaper articles surrounding a previous case.

Additional Research consisted of myself an my media group getting our class and peers to watch the opening to see what the initial reaction to the editing of the shots to see if the understood the plotline. The majority were able to understand that there was a previous altercation (flashbacks) that may or may have not led the female character to die. However without the running narrative within the soundtrack they wouldn't have understood he had problems. There are some pros to this piece of criticism as we tried to make Lucas appear as normal as possible so that the audience would be shocked to find out he had a mental health issue - the added touching of the face and constant hand trembling was also an addition to help them understand. A film I have been focusing on during my media research is We Need to Talk about Kevin'.This is just one of the films I chose to look at as of me previously watching was intrigued by the idea of this boy having a clear problem coping and also being a teenager. The use of the colour red throughout the film Is what I was captivated by because of how they managed to subliminally use it to predict the outcome otherwise known as pathetic fallacy.These dark themes such as death an mental health issues are often not spoken about as people with the condition either feel embarrassed to speak about it or society doesn't want to know.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We chose two big conglomerate companies Universal and Lionsgate to distribute our media opening due to them being extremely triumphant with a large net worth of $4 billion. Universal is also one of the top 3 conglomerate companies to produce successful synergies, Universal is also known for producing some of the best thrillers for example Psycho, To Kill a Mockingbird and Jaws. One of the most recent thriller films distributed by Universal Studios is 'Split' - a film about a man that suffers with 23 personalities who kidnaps 3 girls. Due to the film company dominating the film industry, the marketing money is spent on making sure the film is being mentioned everywhere they can do this as they afford it (this is usually done through the actors themselves promoting the film and social media pages being made for the film - otherwise known as a cross media convergence.)

Music Institutions could also consider distributing our thriller opening because by doing so this would be a cross-media convergence, this is when two different types of media join together in a synergy to promote the two media's trying to be sold. Take the film "Fifty Shades of Grey" the film had many expectations after becoming a best selling book in 2011, the adaptation which was later released 2015 was the most anticipated film of the year but what was more anticipated was the soundtrack - two of the most profound songs from the album was 'Love Me Like You Do' by Ellie Goulding and 'Earned It' by The Weeknd, these songs created a synergy between universal studios and productions therefore causing both the film and soundtrack to become more successful.Like in the film, the use of a original soundtrack emphasised the hype surrounding the films credibility. Another way film can be linked to the music distribution is Music Videos, in both videos references and clips from the film are interspersed therefore allowing Ellie Goulding and The Weeknd fans to not only watch the film but buy the soundtrack.

Lastly Social Media institutions would distribute our thriller opening through popular social media's such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Instagram. Because of the globlisation that social media's have become in the past decade we are now able to promote products quickly through adverts. It is beneficial to promote through social media as by doing this it creates page activity and viewers,for example a twitter page being made for a new film could create a hash tag that there audience could use to interact therefore showing distribution companies how well a film is doing. Additionally as social media is  broad you cater to all class, age groups and cultural backgrounds which is a pro when needing to hit a large demographic. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Throughout our thriller opening we cover the issue of grief, young adults, those who suffer with mental disorders and class. We wanted to make sure that we kept everything politically correct to ensure that what we were trying to convey was not offensive to viewers.The central topic of our work is Schizophrenia, by creating an accurate representation of young people suffering with this disorder we wanted to shed light on the fact not all previous depictions in previous films was true e.g sadistic, ignorant , lack of guilt and aggressive behaviour which similarly is linked to those who are Psychopaths. Prior to picking a disorder to focus on we looked at what was common within people of our own age (16-17) and found out that it was most common within people who are late teenagers and men.Although only 1% of a population has Schizophrenia over 250,000 cases in Britain since 2015 have been diagnosed. We wanted to give an indication to the audience that Lucas's character had a disorder of some sort by making him appear slightly restless and fidgeting. Lucas's exterior is presented as ordinary and almost relatable to the audience whilst the narrative and the make-up surrounding his eyes suggest something isn't normal leaving the audience to speculate. As well as this we made sure that Lucas lacked any empathy or remorse whilst visiting the grave to show that the way he is feeling is more intricate than to do with his disorder and the his lack of emotion is to do with how he is as a person. During the flashbacks a high angle shot of Lucas can be seen holding Ellie by the neck and almost "telling her off" displaying his immense frustration towards her, this reinforces the damsel in distress stereotype. 
Although he has the vulnerability of someone weaker his physicality gives him an advantage. Similarly our group took inspiration of this twist from the psychological thriller "Black Swan" - in which a women has an array of mental disorders that slowly begin to take over making her increasingly more vulnerable.

Consequently we have portrayed both males and females within our opening as a social group. As Lucas is the only male to feature in our opening it suggests to the audience he is perhaps a dominant figure however as the narrative beings you learn he is in fragile state due to being haunted by what happened on the night of Ellie's murder. The use of a button up shirt suggests he is  dressed smart casual showing he's put effort into his appearance to visit Ellie however the dark colour paired with dark jeans reflects his dominance of a male and his feelings towards Ellie. Lucas's role as the antagonist is unknown until the flashbacks  show him using his physicality to overpower and treat harshly. It is estimated that 70 per cent of women worldwide have experienced physical violence in there lifetime. Portraying Lucas strong and aggressive reinforces Ellie being submissive. The use of camera angles also creates the illusion he's towering over whilst constantly belittling her character. Although both male and female characters in our media opening are presented as emotionally damaged and weaker, closer to the end of of our opening a female detective Lucy, can be seen analysing the case and growing frustrated at finding out what happened to Ellie.

By using a dominant female it goes against the stereotype as for the majority males are used and as although Lucy's a female she still retains a high social status due to her occupation which gives her authority. This similar use of female authority can be seen in the interrogation scene where Detective Rhonda Bhoney can be seen asking meticulous questions to see if Nick knows anything about his wife.


With regard to class, we have shown only two versions in which the two main characters are off a lower social class to our detective because of the authority and mental stability to complete her job.The ring seen on Lucy's middle finger could show the idea of her being financially stable yet and not married, indicating she's more focused on her job. This contrasts to Ellie and Lucas as both can be seen in dark clothing and no ring's showing they are perhaps less financially capable therefore leaving the audience to suggest the reason they are fighting is because of money troubles.

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

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

We have challenged conventions of a typical thriller by incorporating aspects of our sub-genre which is psychological thriller. Before even beginning to film for our thriller opening we did a lot of extensive research on various popular psychological thrillers such as Black Swan,The Silence of the Lamb and Gone Girl. We were heavily influenced by the idea of creating a character where the audience were apprehensive on how to feel about him. Lucas's character is portrayed as a grieving boyfriend in the first couple of seconds but as you see the flashbacks it switches the perspective we have of him. This technique was similarly used in Black Swan where Nina starts of as innocent but progressively becomes more twisted.

As a group we wanted to target a minority in which young people could either relate to or become more educated on as later on in the film we would be divulging more into this issue. The topic of mental illness and schizophrenia in particular has not been covered in many films so to be able to cover is in AS media could educate young people. Typically in films those who suffer with mental illness are presented as weak and the majority are females whereas we have used a male. This is deliberate to show an alternative perspective of those who suffer with mental illnesses. By having the majority of our opening shots in a graveyard it set the ominous effect of our thriller opening this is a juxtaposition to how our main character is feeling due to the death of his girlfriend and his surroundings of death. This is otherwise known as pathetic fallacy. The additional use of flowers/greenery contrasts with the dark location suggesting that life can come after death. Daffodil's are used as a symbolism for rebirth and new beginnings, in the case of our media opening we are unsure if this is a good thing for our male main character. 

The conventions we developed in our media opening were the elements of suspense and apprehension in which following our main male character to a grave that is yet unknown to the audience. We used a narrative to develop our conventions throughout our plot line to give some insight in to why he's visiting a grave and how it links to our thriller. The use of a narrative explores the way he not only is feeling but how much we wanted to do suggesting perhaps he wanted to help but not being able to because of his mental heath and how broken he is. Similarly the use of music conventions add depth and a inquisitive feeling because of the gradual build with it starting mellow following through with a loud ending. Using this type of slow paced soundtrack was befitting for the opening scenes as it matched the mise-en-scene.

Next the use of clothing to show conventions of death and dejection is used to give an obvious way to convey how the characters are feeling. As a group we thought it'd suit best if Lucas's character stuck with wearing dark colours to implicate him as one of the main reasons why someone has died. Also dressing him in black also brings about a presence with him contrasting to the bright flowers and sky. By wearing a black shirt and jeans also gives a casual setting therefore indicating to the audience that the person was laid to rest some time ago. Throughout the flashbacks both characters are dressed in casual dark attire, one of the reasons for this is to enforce the idea that there relationship is broken and figuratively dark.The casualness of the outfits is to normalise there location. This particular camera shot taken from a birds eye view helps execute the fact she is weaker and at a loss of emotion hence matching the tone of the narrative. Ellie's character is dressed similarly to Lucas to show a union within there relationship almost as though they reflected one another at some point. Aforementioned the use of a female convention where the female is weaker and the victim is used show how although Lucas's character, the antagonist, is suffering with a mental disorder he is still at an advantage due to him being a tall male.This particular scene emphasises the damsel in distress stereotype.

Our media opening is heavily influenced by Gone Girl as prior to making our opening we knew we wanted a relationship with the same dynamic in which they had regular arguments to show an unsteady rocky relationship. One part we enjoyed from this film was the fight scene because of the levels the camera managed to capture whilst they argued. You begin to sympathise with Amy but as the scene progresses and she grows more angry it starts turn against the stereotypical quiet female with her even pushing Nick. We took inspiration from the location of the fight as we felt as though it was somewhere a fight could result in Ellie's characters death.