2. Question 1- In what ways does your media
products use, develop, or challenge forms of
convention of real media products?
• · Use- Mystery, Enigma, Suspense, Elliptical editing, typical conventions, Hybrid genre, Idea developed from a true story, Non-
linear editing
• Our psychological Film tried to use mystery and enigma throughout the opening scene. For example the boy (with the scar on his
back) was shown in the mirror very briefly, we showed this quick scene to create the viewer to question, whether that was actually
a scar? And how did that scar get there? This was our attempt to use Elliptical editing. Non- linear editing was also used to cause
confusion and question, along with story -telling. These two questions we were hoping for the viewer to ask themselves when
watching our opening.
• This is common in psychological thrillers to build suspense especially in the opening scene, as this sets up the whole question on
what is going to happen in this thriller. Furthermore, our first scene involves a trope. Where the boy is seen packing multiple packs
of beer into his suitcase, suggesting there is something troubling about this boy, and sets the question, for does that scar perhaps
link to this teenage boy’s alcohol addiction? We used the flashback (the boy when he was a young kid) then the boy when he was a
teenager, packing for his cruise ship holiday with his family. When the film starts, one may assume our film could perhaps be a
drama, but when the scar and the flashbacks are introduced it is clearer that this film is going to be darker, making the audience
know that it could quite possibly be a creepy psychological thriller, making it a hybrid genre. When I decided on the plot for the
film I actually found a similar story online involving a young girl going missing on a cruise ship who was never found, although this
is not what happens in our thriller, this real life story helped me to develop our film into more psychological thriller based film,
which I adapted and changed into my own idea. Our flashback montage created intrigue. Our entire film is set on a cruise ship
(apart from the opening scene) which is a enclosed space, which creates even more intense Closter phobic feeling, of once you’re
on this long hour cruise ship, there isn’t any way out. One might associate films filmed on ships with the record money breaking
film Titanic, which again was a tragic true story turned into an intense thriller, so when someone is watching our thriller, they may
instantly think about the titanic and this builds further suspense over whether will this ship crash?
3. Question 2- How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
• Teenage girl
• Teenage Boy
• Young boy- ( flashback of the teenage boy)
• Stereotypically teenagers have all sorts of dramas, whether it’s through alcohol, social media, or drugs there’s always something
which occurs within the teenage lifestyle. What I like about our opening is that that “stereotypical” teenage alcoholic is portrayed
very obviously, him having plenty of beer bottles along with the teenage boy going out for a cigarette. But really, the dark secret
beneath the surface is not his alcohol addiction, it’s something much murkier than that. So the audience is almost tricked during
the opening into thinking this is going to be about an alcoholic boy who is slightly messed up due to alcohol, but that’s not really
the reason he’s messed up, the abusive dad is the reasons he is messed him up mentally. Our thriller represents a Small mysterious
family which was broken down by the Fathers death. However this isn’t the key reason why the family is so troubled, the real
problem within the family involves the brothers relationship with the dad, one which is far from which one would expect. It’s
difficult to sympathize with this abused teenage boy who has suffered all his life by his despicable Father, especially after killing his
own Sister. Moreover, there’s even more mysterious questioning over was the boys motive to kill the sister acceptable?
Considering he only killed her to stop the sister telling the mum (who is pregnant with the dead abusing Dads baby). So
underlining I thought I’d give the audience the question of what was morally the right decision, to save the mothers mental state
and the future baby’s life, or keep the sister alive but mentally destroying the mother, the baby and most probably the entire
family in the long run. (Because if the brother didn’t kill the sister, the sister was going to tell the mum about the father abusing
the son the following morning)
4. Question 3- What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
• Due to the fact that there are not any adults in our opening and our film is
genuinely based around teenage problems, our ideal screening would be
eventually to get our film shown via the BBC, but of course we have to be realistic
and patient with hopes. Because we are first time film makers, it would be ideal
to show the film to the Sundance festival and hopefully get it picked for a limited
screening release with Dogwood or Curzon, which they would be hopefully be
satisfied and intrigued by our film. We could also possibly get an art-house
screening and work with a distribution company and get it on DVD with Artificial
eye. But the only place I think we can start, to see if even amateur viewers who
are watching it for leisure like it. I would hope that it would get increasing views
on YouTube which increases the chances of someone who absolutely loves our
film, and the best case scenario forward it onto further film websites or
recommended it to film companies. Or even one of the YouTube viewers being
part of a film company which absolutely loves it, that would be incredible and
higher our confidence as a group to get our film out there even more.
5. Question 4-Who would be the audience for
your media product?
• I would say our target audience is between the ages of 16- 25, perhaps slightly older? Personally I think it
depends on the individual viewer, to be frank I reckon a wide range of audiences over the age of 25 would
think that our thriller is perhaps slightly unrealistic. However, I disagree that the film is unrealistic and im
sure many would agree with me if they watched it, as it really is a traumatic ethical decision, on who to kill,
mentally( the entire family) or physically (the sister). Overall I think this film would be most appropriate for
teenagers as there is a lot of relatable scenes in the film. For example the whole reason why the brother
opens up to the sister about the dads abusive past is because they have had one too many drinks at the
cocktail bar at the cruise ship! I think teenagers ( and young adults) would love the unexpected plot twists
and enigma which is portrayed throughout the whole film.
• Although my predicted target audience is 16-25 year olds, that’s definitely not to say adults at any age
wouldn’t enjoy this psychological action packed thriller. Take the Horror/thriller the Babadook for example.
The plot of this film involves a monster who is haunting a mother and her son in their own house, similarly
to our plot the father had just recently tragically died. It got 6.8/10 from IMBD and many of the reviews
written by middle aged adults, loved this thriller, despite the fact that it was certainly aimed at teenagers. So
I think with Thrillers in particular it is often down to personal preference and if you truly believe the story
line, and the actor/actresses. I do think though if any person of any age (above the age of about 13) were to
watch our opening scene they would be engaged simply because our opening gives so little away. All one
would really assume is: troubled teenager, something bad has perhaps happened to him in the past, and
then a family packing for a holiday. This doesn’t give much away what so ever so I would hope that would
encourage viewers to watch the entire movie, to see what would happen next.
6. Question 5- What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
• I would say the thing that surprised most about filming our film “ All aboard” was how important
lighting is when filming. Lighting in particular was definitely a struggle to get right because we
needed to make our opening seem dark and mysterious, while trying to contrast this with brighter
scenes to create suspense and enigma. As a whole, editing was going fine at first until we noticed
a few problems in the change of day time to night time lighting which the viewer could see
through the windows. This then meant we had to use these scenes as flashbacks instead. We also
had to Edit our actor playing the teenage boys cigarette scene because, one we felt it was too
long, and in my opinion it seemed clear that the actor playing the teenage boy was not a natural
smoker. This then of course caused even more controversial discussion between me the story
writer/director and the editor. Moreover, as a group I felt our use of tripod wasn’t too
challenging. However there was one issue where during the flash back , the tripod was angled
incorrectly in comparison to the teenage boy scene where the tripod was much higher up. Even
though this was because the two actors were different heights, it still caused a slight problem
within our group. I feel confident using camera and lighting equipment now, along with using the
editing software Final Cut Pro X. We were taught the basic functionalities of how to use the
equipment in class. Originally we were given the microphone on level 10 which at the time we
didn’t realize, but that was way too high, so it severely damaged our audio, so we put it down to
level 5 to have a more accurate sounding audio.
7. Question 6- How did you attract/address your
audience?
• We attracted our audience by employing typical tropes used in thrillers.
Thrillers have become more common on TV with lots of subgenres. Our
thriller is a psychological thriller like one of my favorite movies “Shutter
island”. Psychological thrillers are all about drawing the audience in and
making them want to know what happens next, which is why often with
psychological thrillers, trailers play a huge role in attracting and audience.
Ideally I would want to put the trailer on a channel like BBC three, because
the target audience for that channel I would say is around 16-25 year olds.
But of course that’s not to say other age groups wouldn’t enjoy our movie.
Anyone of any age enjoys a nail-biting thriller so I think that’s what makes
ours so unique, thrillers come under a genre which any audience of any age
would love. Unlike certain crude comedy films like ”Bruno” acted by Sasha
Baron Cohen- a lot of people of the age of 60 hated Bruno because of its
supposedly “inappropriateness”.
8. Question 7-Looking back at your preliminary task,
what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
• I think our group has progressed really well. There were of course disagreements and decisions in which one
group member who was not happy with something, but we managed to discuss it maturely and overcome it.
This is definitely common in the film industry, no one in a group making a film, whom of which all have
different roles are of course going to disagree with certain aspects of the film. I think if we didn’t have these
disagreements, we wouldn’t have had progressed, so overall the few disagreements we had were beneficial.
We learnt to use the camera/tripod in class right at the beginning of the year in October when we filmed our
remake. I certainly think the practice of filming that gave us as a class confidence to go on and film our own
opening scene, from our own idea. Overall, I feel more confident in most aspects of media since the
preliminary task. Despite the fact that we didn’t have too much time to film our preliminary task, that didn’t
effect our ability to film the opening of our thriller which we have spent roughly 4-5months on now. As a
result of this long period of time and effort our group have put into our thriller, I am really hoping it comes
out as best as we could have predicted. Though, that’s not to say there wont be more disagreement
between the 3 of us, but like I mentioned before; disagreement results in change, change in which I would
hope would be positive change. We have also learnt to use the camera correctly and I feel our knowledge
with the camera equipment has improved. This goes the same for the editing software, the preliminary task
was made after our film opening remake so our skills developed further. Applying filters and using colors
correctly is another thing I have learnt. I have also learnt how to use screen-flow correctly along with final
cut pro. I didn't’ find the preliminary task too challenging as all we needed to know was the 180 degree rule
and how to cut and edit in shot reverse shot.
