[Task 4] Thriller - Target Audience

 

The target audience would be male and inbetween the ages of 15 - 24. Teenagers and young Adults are generally the main age group visiting the cinema. Younger Children also come into this category but due to its thriller content, my film would not be suitable for them.

The average Teenager will be surrounded by other teenagers and as they spend a good amount of time consuming various media platforms, like TV, magazines and the internet, increasing the possibility of being made aware of my movie, then again increasing the possibility of word of mouth, which is one of the most important aspects when it comes to the distribution of a movie. Another point why it is advisable to target a movie to this age group is the financial situation. A lot of young people are financially secured by their parents and don‘t have anything serious to spend their money on which is why they will spend it most likely on entertainment like for instance, the cinema.

The majority of the audience would be male for several reasons. The first being the genre. Thrillers are due to their intimidating, dark and scary content more frequently watched by men as the average woman prefers to watch upbeat films that include themes of romance and comedy as opposed to horror and gore, where as men are known and stereotyped for being into films of that kind. The second reason is the female eyecandy. The female lead, Helena Lageder,  impresses by her good-locks and expensive clothes.

Outside the target audience, I would like to reach girls who admire a woman as a lead, juxtaposed to the picture of the stereotypical submissive and victimized woman that you normally see on TV. Helena Lageder, plays a powerful and strong woman, almost a femme fatal as she knows how to deal with thougher situations and does not mind pulling the trigger if she has to.

[Task 5] Thriller - Ways to attract an Audience

[Task 6] Thriller - Technologies

[Task 7] Thriller - Comparsion of Preliminary and Full Product

The differences between my preliminary task and the finished product are extremely obvious as my skills in filmmaking and my knowledge on how a movie has to be distributed,  have improved immensely since the shot of the preliminary task. Using screencaps from both Sequences ( Preliminary left, Thriller right), I'm going to discuss how I fixed mistakes I had done in the preliminary task in my Thriller Opening Sequence.

 

Mise en Scene: In my preliminary task, the choice of location was very limited as I didn't have the time to carefully think the sequence trough. The background didn't fit with the storyline, and the main character just seems very misplaced with her gun. The costume and the light both didn't help to create a dark atmosphere as it was extremely sunny and both actors just seemd extremely miscasted. In the finished Thriller Opening Sequence, this is different. Helena, who plays the main character, was provided with an perfect outfit, which established her as the femme fatale she is supposed to represent. The locations and surroundings are much more realistic and the props are given more relevance and are introduced in better ways. Helena's ring for example is obviously shown in one of the shots, establishing that she is married where as the gun in the Preliminary task randomly appeared, without giving the viewer any possible understanding on what's going on.

 

Camerawork: A lot of changes also happened in the camerawork. In our original preliminary task, the different shots were all relatively flat. The shots in general would like an amateur movie, without any professionality. We would use zooms for example, which movies generally don't use anymore. In the thriller, I ultimately learned out of my mistakes. We used the camera for a lot more than just filming. We used different shots to deliver information to our audience. Helena's wedding ring shown to the camera for a purpose. The picture of Helena and Ted is the next example. We needed to introduce the husband apart from Helena talking to him on the phone, so we included several shots of family pictures in order for the viewer to understand who is talking to whom and what everything is about. The visual esthetics of the Thriller were much more distinctive than the ones in the Preliminary task and we spend a fair amount of time choosing the right cinematography which makes the Sequence what it is in my opinion.

 

Sound: The Sountrack to my preliminary task can't be compared to the one of the opening sequence. During the preliminary Task, there are several clips in the sequence where the sound just goes off, it crackles or doesn't make sense with the continuity. We would ignore little things like that during the editing progess where as we spend a lot more time and focus on the Thriller Opening Sequence, using self-generated songs we recorded post-filming and Sound providing programms such as Soundtrack Pro, which we got our score and a lot of different sound effects from. In the Preliminary Task the only 2 sounds we had were the door closing and the gun going off. In our finished Thriller, we used various sounds such as Telephone ring tone, Shower, door slamming and others. We also played with the volume of those sounds to establish distance. When the phone was ringing in the bag, the volume would be turned up after the character got the phone out for example. This way, the sequence seems more real and creates a verisimilitude atmosphere.

 

Editing: The differences between the editing of the two sequences are the most obvious. The Thriller Sequence offers a bigger variety on editing techniques than the Preliminary Task does. In the Preliminary Task, every clip follows the one before without any changes where as our Thriller Sequence has a lot of different editing techniques to it. For example the fades at the beginning and the ending of the sequence, the title cards and especially the Title Credits. We adjusted the brightness of some clips, and most importantly, changed the speed of several clips to create tension and suspense.

  

Thriller - Shooting Day

Group: Paula Riemann, Holly Finlay, Emily Benson Rhodes, Mehran Karimi
Cast: Helena, Ted Jackson
Locations: Cornhill Manor, Ewhurst Place, Staff Rest Room

 

Before we started filming, we organized the set, got our actress ready and arranged all the props. Holly went to the costume departement a few days before and got a red dress and black high heels. She also took her fur coath and a red bag. We tried to make Helena look as sexy and cold as possible, as she is supposed to be the gold-digging, icey Step-mother. I was in charge of the photography, as we needed pictures of Helena and Ted Jackson, looking like a couple. We put the pictures up in the whole house and later shot a few close-ups of them in order to give the viewer an idea of what is going on and who this woman is. Paula took the main role in getting Helena ready for the shoot. She did the hair and helped her with the make-up. Emily brought a lot of hygiene products with her which we needed for the shower scene we shot later in the day.

The day began in the studio were we checked if we had all our props and went trough our storyboard one more time. Soon we were already on the bus to Cornhill were one of the main difficulties immediately took place. The kitchen of the family was obviously used by a family consisting of parents AND children. In our original concept, the couple was supposed to be living on their own, without children, showing how selfish and cold the protagonist is. We improvised and changed her character to the cold,sexy and gold-digging step mother, which is made visual to the audience by her being very annoyed at things the children do. At first we were slightly annoyed that we couldn't stick with out original idea,but as the shoot went on we learned to embrace all the good things that came with the new idea. Apart from the very big change in the storyline, we changed a lot of small things aswell. Most importantly the ending. Originally we intended the burglar to be visible in the end. Luckily we changed that and only showed an over the shoulder shot plus the protagonists face in fear. If we would have shown the burglar at the end it would not have seemed right. You're not supposed to introduce the killer that early in the movie. We realized that we are shooting an OPENING SEQUENCE, not a short movie. The final product is supposed to slowly dive into the plot, not reveal everything there is to it.

One of the highlights of the day were Helena's acting skills. We casted her mainly due to visual reasons. She looked how we wanted the character to look. Surprisingly, her acting was superb. We thought that her italian accent was going to be difficult to convince the audience but it made the image of the cold stepmother even more convincing. All of us agreed that our casting choice was perfect. The fact that Helena looks older than people her age but still not old enough was perfect. She was the perfect rebound woman for "Teddy".  She was very professional and just

 

All four of us are very creative people, all of us in different and their own ways. At first our opinions how to do a certain job clashed but we succesfuly managed to incorporate everyones ideas. We dealt with the situation in a mature way and decided as a group trough votes, which idea we would take.

                                                    

                                      

Thriller - Shot List

The complete list:

1. Establishing shot of house, then we see car pull up.

2. Close up Shot of her shoe sliding out of the car.

3. Close up tracking shot, close up of her shoes walking up to the door.

4. Medium close up of her side, unlocking the door.

5. Close up of hand unlocking the door. Door opens.

6. Close up of bag and keys onto work surface.

7. Tracking shot of family pictures.

8. Close up of hands turning shower on

9. Wide shot of shower filling up with steam

10. Medium shot of phone ringing.

11. Focused on phone, we see her approach the phone.

12. Background mid shot of her on the phone. (dialogue)

13. High angle shot of dogs barking. POV

14. Medium shot, her reaction, confused, shadow in the background.

15. High angle shot of dogs barking. POV

16. Medium shot, of her on the phone shadow gone.(Dialogue)

17. Wide shot of her entering another room (muffled sound of dogs barking)

18. Medium close up of her on the phone (realises its her husband)

19. Extreme close up of phone falling out of her hand.

20. Match on action shot, floor close up of phone. Phone falls into frame.

21. Her reaction shot, medium close up.

22. Over the shoulder shot of the killer, facing womans back. She turns and gasps.

Thriller - Prop List

 To create the perfect atmosphere for our Thriller, we had to think about and organize our props in advantage. Here is a list of them. 

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Locations

The houses we choose for our characters home, are Ewhurst Place and Cornhill Manor. We used to oustide facade of Ewhurst as it is big, has a beautiful balcony and along the fancy cars parked out side signifies a lot of money. For the interior, we choose the kitchen of Cornhill Manor, which is a really luxrious one, again signifying the financial capability of the couple.

The Establishing shot of our opening sequence is a panning shot of Ewhurst Place, and a Ferrari 599 stopping at the house, followed by our main character getting out of the car.

Costume

This is where the costume of Helena comes into play. Holly organized a red dress, black high heels, a massive wedding ring, a red bag and a expensive looking fur coat. Helena plays the role of the cold but sexy step-mother which we tried to highlight in her dress choice.

Items

The fact that she drives a Ferrari 599, which Holly's dad kindly provided us with, again establishes her as an independent woman who is able to take care of herself. And she's gold-digging.

The other props were expensive hygiene products, Emily provided us with.  I was in charge of the photography so I had a photo shoot with Helena and Ted, making them look like a couple. Paula provided frames, the pictures would then be spread around the house.

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The Team

DIRECTOR - HOLLY FINLAY
PRODUCER - PAULA RIEMANN
CINEMATOGRAPHER - MEHRAN KARIMI
SOUND ENGINEER - EMILY BENSON RHODES