This document summarizes key points from researching movie conventions and planning for a student film project: 1. Films like Reservoir Dogs, Phone Booth, Seven, and The Silence of the Lambs provided inspiration for thriller elements like setting, characters, and plot devices. 2. Character details were outlined, including a detective protagonist and an antagonist focused on revenge. 3. Target audiences for the film were identified as action/thriller fans ages 15-40, who may be interested in the mental health themes, kidnapping, and character dynamics. 4. Surveys showed interest in crime thrillers and psychological elements, which the film aims to include. Effects work could make scenes more immersive.

1. Talking points
Researched Movie Conventions
Question 1
Reservoir Dogs – This taught us that gangsters or mafia fit more with film noir
than thriller.
Phone Booth – A good setting & Mise en scene. This gave us the idea of shooting
it within a phone booth and forcing someone to do something. This was the
biggest inspiration in all the thrillers we researched.
Seven – Mystery, slight horror elements with danger.
Silence of the lambs – it rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again
Identity – mental health issues, Multiple Personality Disorder reveal at end.
Question 2
Detective mid 30s off duty, casual clothes to blend in. Profanity shows he is
mature – married.
Sergio late 30s, only cares about revenge, slicked back villain hair
Jessica vulnerable female got kidnapped, screams.
Movie message is – How far would someone go to protect their loved one.
Question 3
Paramount is a big distributor of thrillers, having some very successful thrillers
released such as Shutter Island.
Question 4
What would be the audience for the media product.
Married couples?
Action/thriller fans, primarily males. Above 15-40 due to age certificate.
Interests could be interested by the mental issues, the kidnapping, the
interesting dynamic between Sergio & Peter. We selected this target audience
because of mature themes. 40 year could relate to the pressure and the conflict,
whilst the 15 year old would be interested in the action. Appeals to different
people with different things.
Research 15 is one of the highest grossing thrillers in movie production., this
target audience for thriller is the biggest one.

2. Question 5
We did a survey, the results were 38.89% for crime thrillers, which is our genre.
So that would attract some people as well as psychological elements in 2 of the
picked favourite thrillers, shutter island and se7en. These we’re both picked
twice out of 13 survey answers.
Pressure from Sergio to commit a crime would interest people such as the part
when he is forced to go into a building and kill somebody. Attracting a certain
audience such as the 15 and above male thriller/action audience means that the
movie will bring in the most money.
There are a lot more effects in modern movies. You see this in movies such as
The Hobbit where a majority of scenes are filmed on a green screen and input
CGI in post-process. This changes movies and allows movies to be more
immersive and full of things that you can’t put in without effects.
Question 6
We learned how to operate a Panasonic HD handheld camera. We also learned
how to use a tripod and how to do camera techniques using the tripod such as
pan and tilt. We learned how to use editing software such as Final Cut Pro. We
also learned how to use Photoshop in order to create a logo. The best
technologies were Final Cut Pro. This was the best because we tried to edit with
iMovie but it wasn’t as effective as Final Cut Pro.
We tried to use Garageband, however it was too complicated and we opted to
use royalty free music instead.
We learned to use these technologies from applying ourselves and trying the
technologies (just by doing it really) and also using skills from other lessons such
as photography and film studies to help us with the logo and camera techniques
respectively.
Question 7
We didn’t have quiet on set on set during the prelim – we had nobody else to
detract from our sound when we recorded.

3. Our cuts while recording in a room suddenly had more people in it in a later
scene – we recorded within a certain time frame for continuity in our new
project.
Editing effects were poor – Black & white didn’t suit our prelim, and silly effects
detracted from the value.
Lukes understanding of editing techniques has improved by trial and error and
discovering techniques that work better in the themes and contexts of certain
things.
We have learned to organise our time and create a recording schedule in order to
create our movie. Our creative decisions have improved due to making mistakes
in the past and learning from them, moving forward to become a better group.