Creating My Survey

Today i created my thriller on http://www.surveymonkey,com/
I asked 8 different questions which will hopefully, if effectively answered, it will give me a rough idea of who the target audiece will be for our 2 minute thriller. I asked questions such as the persons age, sex, favourite thriller, how much they like thrillers etc. I sent my survey to people through an email on facebook to get feedback on their view of thrillers.
Below is my surevy posted onto facebook to get feedback,

Identifying our Target Audience

The target audience depends on the sub-genre of the thriller and also the topics in which it contains. 
For example a thriller such as 'No Country for Old Men', which contain more action and violence, seem to have a more popular audience of young males. This is becuase the fast paced nature of these films appeals more to male viewers. 
Another example is thrillers that can also be categorized with horror such as 'Hide and Seek', these seem to appeal to young females rather than males. This could be because horror films normally target young women, therefore women would be able to grab their attention.

There are many ways in which we can identfy our target audience. Such as carrying out an interview with a range of people, or setting up a survey for people to fill out, and finding out what their favourite thriller and what, in their opinion, makes a thriller good. 
Furthermore, another method could be carrying out an online survey also asking various questions to establish what different people think about different thrillers. This could be posted onto facebook, which would offer a variety of answers from our family and friends.

Auter

Auteur refers to the author or creator of the idea that some film directors impose a personal vision on their film. It is argued that Hitchcock stamped a number of creative features on his films, including:

• very high angled shots.
• exaggerated P.O.V.
• creative use of sound (non-diegetic music).
• exaggerated lighting effects.
• precise editing.
• characters who are trapped or imprisoned.
• misleading relationships.
• cameo appearances of Hitchcock himself.

Voyeur - watching something we're not meant to be watching. Also known as voyeuristic viewing.

Steven Speilberg is another auteur. His trademark techniques included ordinary people confronted by extraordinary situations. This was in films such as:

• .
• Jaws.
• E.T.
• Schindler's List
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Graphic Matches

Graphic matches are two similar images placed together to create an overall smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next. however, the image doesn't have to look the same, it can just have the same patterns of light and dark, or the same positioning of the figures within the shot. The director, could also choose to present a contrasting shot to achieve a different effect.

Below is a graphich match used in the film; 'A Space Odyssey'


The graphic match that is used in this scene is where the bone is thrown up by apes, but starts to fall as a satelite in space. 

Shadow of a Doubt, 1943

Shadow of a doubt was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, it was created in 1943 and was one of Hitchcocks favourits out of his own collection of films. We watched two parts of the film in class and analysed them with mise-en-scene, as follows;

Settings And Props;
One of the main props is the Cigar, this suggests that 'uncle Charlie' has a high taste and a lot of money to spend. The large sum of money scattered over the bedside table and floor reinforces the first prop and also suggests that Charlie has more than enough money as he is careless of it, its of little importance to him. The place uncle Charlie comes from seems rundown, poor and almost eerie. We know this as their are broken and burnt cars which seem to be placed in a bad atmosphere. This contrasts with Santa Rosa where his neice lives which looks a much nicer place; almost perfect with its white picket fences, flowers and smiling faces.

Positioning of Characters and Objects in a frame;
When uncle Charlie seems to be escaping the two men, he seems very casual and resourceful when avoiding them, almost as though he is used to this lifestyle. Also Uncle Charlie is positioned in the centre of the screen, with the two men who are after him in the foreground, whilst Charlie is in the background. Also the fact they are either side of him, suggests a sense of entrapment on Charlie's behalf, like the two men will close in on him throughout the film. Also uncle Charlie doesnt move when the curtain is open. but once drawn he seems to come to life in the dark, this could be suggesting that there is a sinister, dark side to him. It also suggests that uncle Charlie is the antagonist. Uncle charlie and his neice, Charlie seem to both be positioned in the same way on both of their seperate beds, showing the contrast between the two.

Here is a montage i made of Uncle Charlie and his neice on http://www.onetruemedia.com/

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

 

Costume Hair And Make Up;

The costumes in which everyone is wearing seem very smart, casual and old fashioned. Uncle Charlie's suit in particular looks as though it is emaculate, he is very particulate about looking smart. Also his hair seems to be slicked back, these both reinforce the fact that Charlie is in someway wealthy and looks as though he takes pride in what he looks like.

 

Facial Expressions and Body Language;

Both Charlie and Uncle Carlie are seen lying on their beds in the same relaxed way as if uninterested in the world around them. Both characters seem bored, tired almost as if they are lifeless.

 

Lighing And Colour;

At the beginnning of the scene their is light entering through the window, however when the landlady comes down and pulls this down the room is plunged into darkness, this is also when he moves from his relaxed position and becomes more tense as he moves around the room. This reinforces the fact that he is the atagonist of the film. The opening also seems to have a lot of shadows and uses low key lighting, making the film seem more eerie. Also later on when uncle charlie is on the phone he has a more ominious look about jim due to the shadow that is created over his eyes caused by the hat he is wearing, maybe suggesting he is sinster. 

Preliminary Exercise; Storyboard

This is the story board which we created for our preliminary exercise before we began to film it.

Preliminary Exercise

Above is mine, Ashleigh's, Hollie's and Connor's preliminary exercise. During the first 5 minutes we had to make a story board, for the rest of the lesson we had to film our preliminary exercise.
We decided on using many shots including;

• long shot
• Pan shot
• extreme close up

In order to produce our outcome, we filmed each part several times, making sure not to wind back to watch it which could have caused gaps in the tapes, we filmed each one a few times to check that we had it filmed well.
However, we did encounter some errors. Also at one point one of the characters look at the camera, showing that they know it is there. Also due to the distance of the camera, some of the dialogue is rather quite, too quite to really be heard and other parts can be heard clearly. Another of which was due to the fact that we could not hear the audio whilst editing so just focused on the visual side of things, we did not realise that the camera man can be heard saying 'Go'. 
Although, I feel as though we have been able to notice our mistakes, and therefore will take these in to consideration whilst filming in the future.