Evaluation Questions

Our media product is a short clip of three minutes to an opening of a thriller. The storyline is based on a woman being
1. In what
captured waysvillain
by a mystery does and your
lockedmedia product
in a basement. use,choice
This specific develop or builds
of storyline challenge
up anxietyforms and
and suspense
adding to the horror theme. Martin Rubin points out that a Thriller should be categorised as a ‘metagenre’. It is considered
one of the most broadest genres in film as it can have many sub-genres coming from it, such as crime, action adventure,
mystery etc.
conventions of real media products?
Due to thrillers being broad, it is the most difficult to identify, however, there are elements within it that an audience will
expect to see. These include, a sense of unease, danger, tension and anxiety. If a thriller is successful it should keep the
audience on the edge of their seats. This is usually achieved by the particular use of both diegetic and non-diegetic music,
camera shots and angels.
Before we began filming we all researched a number of thriller films, this was in order for us to learn the conventions that are
needed to create a successful thriller film, we did this both as a group and independently. We focused on their story lines and
openings, comparing them and looking for similarities. The two main films we analysed were “Memento” and “Silence of the
lambs”. After having watched the openings to these thrillers we began noticing the similar aspects between them, we also
noted what the evident conventions that occurred in them, some of these where; narrative enigmas, suspense, mystery, eerie
music and a sense of uncertainty. These allow the audience to be drawn into the film and feel a part of the characters
experience. Another thing that really helps create a thriller, is when the audience knows just as much as the character, really
putting them in the same position. We too tried to perceive these aspects in our own opening, leaving the audience in the
dark as well as the characters.
Although the films have completely different storylines they both use narrative enigmas in the same way to keep the
audiences attention. As well as both creating an air of suspense and mystery. We used non-diegtic music, it has an eerie
quality and fits into the background perfectly, this adds to the tension of feelings amongst the audience watching and makes
them feel on edge. At some points we erased the idea of music and used the technique of silence which added to the
uncomfortable, dreary atmosphere, we felt that this helped with the mystery and suspense you would usually achieve in a
genuine thriller . Throughout the filming process we decided to use two locations, this was because the house we was using
that had a basement didn’t look as scary from the front so we decided to use a different house for that specific scene.
Both the chosen locations had a weird, creepy feel to them, which definitely fitted our thriller storyline and brought the edgy
and hostile feel we needed. The basement (house 1) was dark, cold and very mysterious; it really helped guide us along the
way, adding a great deal to the storyline and creating this horror-like feel we aimed to achieve.
When filming the basement
On the Right : The scene,
two we shot from various high angled points, helping to create a feeling of claustrophobia for
the audience, therefore
films we hadputting
inspirationthem
from in the same position as the actors.
‘Memento’- with the
women waking up in an
unknown placeand
‘Silence Of the
Lambs’-with the idea of a
serial killer targeting
young women.
 1. Continued

For the front house scene (house 2) we filmed an establishing shot of the old looking Tudor house, which told the
audience where the action was happening before it actually did. Overall, we were entirely happy with our location
choice as it has all the main elements of a thriller.
We decided to keep the amount of characters very simple, the villain and the victim. I felt that this was a good
choice because it helped express the seriousness of the situation by having minimal actor’s showing a smaller
chance of a heroic ending, this leaving the audience questions, what's going to happen next?. All the scenes
involving the villain where shot from behind, we felt it would be better to keep the characters face anonymous
creating a real tense atmosphere and leaving the villain rather intimidating.
We used make-up on our actresses to help add to the realism and also create the illusion of bruises and scratches to
show the horror and pain in which our victim had gone through. Also, the use of blood expresses the pain and
danger experienced.
We then began discussing what to call our project, we looked back to the thrillers we analysed. “Memento” was a
one worded title we thought this had an impact on the audience, because its fast and striking. It also helps the
audience to think more in depth about what they are about to watch and the main point is that it also links to the
storyline, another aspect I feel makes a good thriller is when everything pieces together at the end, its like a task,
trying to work out what's happening and at the end you see if you have achieved this. This keeps the audience busy
and into the film, and pretty much ensuring they are going to watch it till the end.
We finally decided to name our product “number 24”. We chose a short title which had important relevance to the

<- Anna’s being tied up and prepared in the basement by

Elena A.

Me putting make up on Anna to create a realistic feel for

both her and the audience. ->
 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I would say that our media product is represented to attract specific target groups. The main character is a young, teenage
girl, she walks along the sidewalk alone. She is seen to be nervous and fearful, the audience can immediately pick up this
emotion. Some teenagers watching this can relate to this specific character and what she may be feeling and why.
Her costume is a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt giving her a casual everyday look, this shows she is not of a high class.
This will help our teenage audience relate to her character as she seems to be an average teenage girl. There is not a lot of
dialogue at all, so an accent couldn’t be recognised, which will not single her out either. We did however represent the
North London area as one which is associated with violence, I say this because you are less likely to find this sort of
violence in other areas such as the city.
However, in terms of the ethnicity, race and sexuality aspect we decided not to add any emphasis on these aspects as they
are not the main subjects of the film. The film is shot from the perspective of the audience watching, as if they are following
the characters which really gets the audience involved.

In our product, we chose the traditional stereotype of a victim and villain, victim being a female and the villain being male.
This was also the case in “Silence of the lambs” the character Clarice is the victim and is in danger. I felt that with the
careful choice of a female victim, gives the audience a much higher perception of her vulnerability. We used an older male
for the villain in order to achieve the great sense of intimidation and power towards the young teenage victim, I felt that
this also helps the storyline along.

<- Anna simply wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

2. Continued

With the choice of our main character being a teenage girl, the audience will be able to relate to her vulnerability in an unknown
situation. Many teenagers find themselves in situations they are not particularly familiar with, and come sometimes feel trapped and
alone like our character does in the basement scene.

Our film represents this vulnerable teenage girl with the point of view of the camera, its as if it is following her. With the use of these
camera skills it shows the audience her journey from her perspective, this allows the audience to feel as thought they are with her in
her position. By following the character this way, instead of straight angles from above for example, it will make the audience feel as
though the have a relationship with the character, hence being able to relate to her circumstance.

<- Me and Natalie M,

following Anna, from a lower
point of view ->
 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?

<- The company I feel that would best to

support the budget of our project.

As my Media product is a low budgeted film I need to take into consideration certain factors in order to market it
effectively.
I have to think sensibly and think about whether these distributors will be the right ones for our horror themed
product.

I have decided to go for metrodome distribution, which is a small independent London based distribution company to
distribute our coursework piece. I have also chosen The Microwave film Project to financially support our film
alongside metrodome. I feel that this decision will definitely be beneficial towards the successful production of our
project.

Recent films such as Eran Creevy’s Shifty, have been acquired by Metrodome for UK, Eire and Eastern Europe
distribution. While Steven Sheil’s contemporary horror Mum & Dad, which was co-financed by EM Media, has been
picked up by Revolver Entertainment for UK, Eire and North American distribution. These where distributed by
Metrodome and financially supported by Microwave.
The success of these first two features is a fantastic boost for Microwave, a unique and groundbreaking initiative
launched by Film London in 2006. From the outset the aim of the scheme has been to make micro-budget feature films
which combine creative scripts and talent with an entrepreneurial approach to produce a commercially viable product.
Microwave challenges film-makers to shoot a full-length feature film for a budget not exceeding £100,000 including all
3. Continued

The first two greenlit features were ‘Mum & Dad’ and ‘Shifty’:

-Mum & Dad: Writer/Director Steven Sheil’s intense horror film, produced by Lisa Trnovski, is set around London’s Heathrow Airport.
A murderous and perverse family life at the end of the runway, right under the roar of he flight path. The special thing bout this film
was that it was released in the cinemas, on dvd and also available for download all on the same day.
-Shifty: Written and directed by Eran Creevy and produced by Rory Aitken and Ben Pugh. Riz Ahmed (Britz, Road to Guantanamo)
takes the title role of Shifty, a thriller charting on action packed 24 hours in the life of a young crack cocaine dealer on the outskirts of
London.
-Shifty was distributed by metrodome distribution.

The microwave Film Project allows films of a small scale, to have the opportunity to be shown in cinemas. I would say our film has the
potential to be shown in big multiplex cinemas where it will get a larger audience, however, If they was to not give us the budget of our
film, it would get shown in smaller localised cinemas which have a much smaller scale audience.

<- ‘Shifty’

‘Mum & Dad’ ->

 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

In order for a product to reach its highest potential there are a few things that need to be ensured, every
product produced is aimed at a specific target audience, this is done in order to achieve a successful
product and making sure its based on the interests and likes of the individuals at which it is aimed.
As a group we created a questionnaire in order for us to research what audiences want from a thriller. We
sent out 19 Questionnaires, 11 went to females and 8 to males.
We asked them what they expected from a thriller and the most common answers that arose were:

-Scary moments
-Elements of the unexpected/ unknown
-Convincing props such as Fake blood/knives etc.

We also asked what appeals most when they watch a thriller. The most common answers from this were
-The storyline
-Suspense Our use of Fake blood to ad d
-Elements of surprise to the realism. ^
-Realistic Locations
-The music

-Also, the favourite type of thriller was the Physiological thriller.

<- some thrillers that where

mentioned.
4. Continued
After looking at our questionnaire results, we decided to aim our Thriller at people of both genders
ageing from about 15+. Taking into account all of the aspects of our product, for example, its thriller
theme there are particular groups we have aimed our film towards. Our products target audience are
people who enjoy frequent trips to the cinema and often enjoy thrillers.
I feel this to be the most popular age group to enjoy thrillers, and as a result watching our product
also. This age is also at an advantage because the characters in the thriller are also teenagers so
therefore this age group are most likely to be drawn in, relating it back to themselves and their own
experiences.

The reason for the target age to begin at the minimum of 15 years old is due to the fact that it may be
unsuitable for anyone younger. It is based on a thriller storyline and it therefore contains thriller
elements that anyone younger could find uncomfortable to view.
Some other films that have the certificate of either 15 or 18 are: Psycho(15), The Usual Suspects (18),
The silence of the lambs (18), and Memento (15).
I researched the Thrillers which are currently in the cinemas now; a few of these are ‘State of Play’

<- The British Board of Film Classification is an

independent organisation that exists to regulate and
classify the content of films shown in cinemas and
released on video.
It does this by awarding a classification certificate
based on what it considers to be appropriate age limits
for the film in question - and, if deemed necessary, by
requesting that the film's distributor make changes to
the film, usually in the form of cuts.
 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In order for us to be able to attract an audience we had to use specific requirements that would overall make our
product a real success.

Starting with the short title, “Number 24” this was mainly created to draw in audiences. It works along with the
storyline not only linking the name to the plot but also leaving the audience questioning what significance the
title has in the film and therefore persuading them to watch it to find out.
During our editing stage we decided to use a few transition techniques.

The storyline was the main attraction, its persuadable, grabbing peoples attention and creating a real curiosity.
The story was based on the life of a young woman being captured by an unknown suspect, to wake up and find
herself trapped and tied up in the basement of a mysterious location. Our storyline is full of narrative enigmas,
such as Where did she find the address to this house?, Who is the mystery villain?, What does he/she want?,
whose blood is it? And so on, these narrative enigmas help to draw In audiences and keep them interested, to find
out the answers of what may happen to the characters and why. We were influenced to use narrative enigmas by
the film ‘Memento’ which is full of them. We also agreed that it reached the standard of other well known horror
films. Although we also used other elements.
We have tried to keep the conventions in our film clear so the audience can identify then and the film will fit
precisely into the category of ‘Thrillers’. A convention we attempted to control was the lighting. We tried to keep
the dark and dreary feeling. We also tried to include an establishing shot, which would give the audience a slight

<- Thegla acting as the dead body

 5. Continued

During the editing stage, we tried to keep transactions simple and effective, We felt that the use of a
black fade out during a few scenes, added to the amount of suspense created which many thriller films
use in between scenes for the similar reason.
Another thing we used to attract the audience was the specific choice of music. At the beginning of the
film we chose a spooky, eerie track to set the mood. This added to the threatening actions and feelings
the audience prepares for before a horror film. We also found in our questionnaire that this sense of not
knowing things that are going to happen, really create suspense and add to the thriller experience. We
tried to keep our sound affects realistic and not too bold- keeping them in the background rather then
main attraction.

If we had the opportunity to release the film we would use a number of different promotional methods to
draw in as many people as possible. The main methods would include: advertisement on the Internet on
socialising websites such as Facebook or MySpace (which is used by many 15-20 year olds) , Television
commercials, advertisement on busses, billboards and in magazines. These methods would work
successfully in attracting the target audiences age of 15-20.

<- The character (the Joker)

A mimicked costume of the

character->
 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing the product?

I was completely unaware of how difficult filming and editing the product would be, and the type of common problems
that could arise pre and post the production.
However, the outcome of our product was also better than I had expected.

During the filming process I learned that things don’t always go to plan. On two occasions we had to re-schedule
filming, on the first incident there was a problem due to the lighting. This was because we didn't plan what we was
going to do properly which caused confusion and conflict, by the time we had overcome these problems it had become
too dark to film, resulting in the shots being extremely dark and blurred.

We couldn’t get anything from the shots so decided to re-schedule but this time around learning from our previous
mistakes. The problem on the second time round, was a technical issue involving the camera not being fully charged,
yet again we had to re-schedule and re-shoot the same scene.
The majority of the shots where in the basement scene, this was a small confined area which had very little room for

Elena A (left) and

Thegla (right) during the
filming process
 6. Continued
We also encountered a minor problem when the camera battery wasn’t fully charged so we couldn’t
complete our filming day, it had already got too dark and we where left to reschedule.
I also found that certain thing on the camera such as the zoom function, don’t always work well, and it
didn’t look as good as we hoped it would.

We attempted to use a microphone during the basement scene in order to create a realistic feel, with the
characters heavy breathing. However, the microphone we had did not work as well as planned so we had
to make sure the sound taken in by the camera worked well and was effective.
I definitely felt I learnt a lot through the editing stage, I learnt how to upload the film from the camera
onto the computer and how to edit it successfully, adding the music and titles.
However, a few of the problems we encountered were not due to the technology side but more so due to
the weather. We overcame these problems by having to reschedule filming on some days and on others
we had to improvise by holding a sheet over the window to block out some of the light.
Overall, the most important skill I have learnt and greatly improved on is my camera skills, from being
somebody who had never filmed or edited before, to being involved in the filming and editing of our
media coursework, feels like a big step up and I am glad I have greatly achieved this.

<- us dealing with the

lighting issue.

I was helping Anna get into

position->
 7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel
that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?

Overall, I feel that I have learnt many different skills that I was unfamiliar with before. Working well as a group,
splitting up jobs and camera skills have all been main points at which I feel I have improved on. Thinking back to the
preliminary task I can definitely mention a number of errors that I would go back and do differently.

Although our preliminary task wasn’t too long ago I still feel that I have achieved a lot since then. I never really
looked into camera work before, I didn't think you could set a mood or show the hierarchy of someone through just
camera angles.
Our pre-production process was much more detailed in our final product, we completed a storyboard, a shooting
script, and a shooting schedule, RECCE forms, risk assessment forms, group production schedule and booking forms.
I know now that the Situations and locations we are sometimes put in can be used to an advantage, by filming shots
from different angles and with different lighting. For example, in some cases you may stand on a platform to get a
shot from high up or kneel down to get a low shot, and this can sometimes show peoples status.
I also learnt that we could adjust the lighting settings on the camera. This enabled us to get clearer pictures if we
had problems with the lighting. I learnt how to do a panning shot, which I definitely didn’t know how to do before. I
also learnt how to film establishing shots and close up shots and where it would be best to film them
(angle/positioning)

When we began filming our horror clip, I couldn't help but feel nervous, this was strange because I had already had
some experience with a camera during the preliminary task. After we did a few practice shots I gradually became
more confident and I felt I knew what I was doing a bit more. When we were filming this it was very unorganised and
we didn't really stick to our storyboard, later we found that if we discussed what we was going to do before we
actually did it, things would run a lot smoother, as they did when we filmed the horror opening.
I think that overall as a group we all worked together well making sure everyone's opinions and ideas where
addressed. I would say the respect everybody had on each other was the most important thing that improved our
work in many ways, We were able to give different ideas and opinions on what we thought worked best without an
argument arising.