2. Our influences:
When first researching thrillers, we came across a genre called
‘Physiological thriller’. We took inspiration from this concept and adapted it
to fit both our original idea and the typical ideas of a thriller. For example,
when looking at the Francis Lawrence film ‘I am Legend’ we took inspiration
from the protagonists isolation as loneliness and we adapted his characters
persona to fit the protagonist of our thriller Theo Grey.
Also in the Lawrence film, the main male character is shown in the location
of a previously busy town that has now been destroyed post apocalypse, we
also adapted this in our film as we used the location of a high street that is
recognisable to our target audience as the familiarities of shops and adverts
became an immediate recognisable feature.
This style of thriller is attractive for our audience as it cerates as eerie
mood and forces them to put themselves into the role of the protagonists
therefore creating empathy and a rapport between the character and viewer.
3. Target audience
The target audience for ‘I am Legend’ would also be similar to ours as the
predominant male character would be similar and relatable to the age and
gender of our stereotypical target audience.
Also our main ‘Theo’ would be liked by the target audience as he’s a new
actor and therefore the audience experiences the situation through his eyes
for the first time. This therefore means that the actor, James Ginn, will be
recognised purely for that role and therefore the audience, who are likely to
be young adults, and they believe that they are getting a personal new
character in which lives in a modern and developed world similar to theirs.
Finally, our character would be attractive to the audience as he has a military
background and therefore has immediate sympathy from the viewer as people
will roles within the forces and held in high prestige within society.
4. Conventions of a thriller
There are a number of conventions which apply to thrillers, for example, when
editing and directing a thriller film, you must consider all elements including
editing, cinematography, sound and mise en scene. A director must
thoroughly consider these elements before making his thriller as the audience
will only be attracted to the film if it seems realistic and fits the codes and
conventions of a thriller
Cinematography: we needed to ensure that we used familiar shots and
complex shots in order for the audience to recognise our genre of thriller. For
example, we used close up to show the reflects the emotions of the main
character, wide shots to show the audience the location and tracking shots to
create the illusion that the protagonist is being watched
Editing: we used rapid editing to reflect the fast pace of the characters life,
we used continuity editing to make it look realistic and believable for the
audience
Sound: a soundtrack is necessary to create an eerie sense and build tension,
also we decided not to use dialogue as it will make the thriller seem
unprofessional
Mise en scene, we gave the protagonist a military style outfit to fit the
conventions of a stereotypical adventitious male thriller character
5. Our unique selling point
The U.S.P that would most sell our thriller is the unusual location; by placing it
in a busy town it apposes the stereotypical location of a thriller that you would
expect to see in a house or creepy location. We decided to make out thriller in
a recognisable and normal location is it meant that for the directors it was
easier to make the setting eerie as it would extremely juxtapose the normal
bustling and busy town and thus forth in parallel the audience can picture
themselves in the position of the protagonist, this is appealing to the audience
as they feel sympathy for the character and put themselves into the situation
and therefore are want to find out the conclusion of a film.
This idea would be effective as it means our brand ‘GPM Production’ can
francize the thriller and make multiple sequels or prequels to the film and the
main character will become globally famous so ‘Universal Pictures’ can sell
merch or converge with other brands such as Apple, to fund the later films
6. Teaser poster:
Our teaser poster depicts an empty road which has clearly been left isolated,
this therefore fits the style and theme of our final idea as our main character
is also left isolated in an empty world.
The fact that the picture is of a road could suggest that theirs something
waiting at the end or that the broken world can be escaped, this is also
suggested in our thriller as the last scene of the opening shows a hanging
phone that’s ringing and therefore the audience are unaware of what's
approaching for the character next.
This is appealing for the audience as they are unaware of what's going to
happen and therefore want to continue watching as it entices them. This is
reinforced by the caption on the poster which state “You though it was over”,
this again entices the audience as they don’t know what's going to happen
and consequently want to watch on.
7. Our social networking
We decided to use Instagram as our main social network as it appeals to our
young target audience who will be familiar with the format and regularly check
their social network
Also it allowed us to upload photos so that our audience could experience the
progression of our thriller with us and therefore feel more persuaded to see it
when its released as they have experienced the creation of the thriller with
the producers
We also used twitter, this is a social network that allows you to post regularly
to your followers in 140 characters or less. This again appeals to our target
audience as they are young and often check their social networks, also media
such as photos or videos can be uploaded so that our followers can keep up
to date with the progression of our thriller
