AS Evaluation Question 3

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Target Audience Feedback - Miss Georgiou

Audience feedback is important to a production as it enables the producers of the opening sequence to get an insight into what the audience thinks of it and are able to get both positive and negative feedback in order to improve it in a way that appeals to the audience.

Our group got this feedback by showing about 15 people, between the ages of 15 to 18 which is our target audience due to our age certification being a 15. We then asked them a short questionnaire, these consisted of questions such as:

• 'What was your first impression of our thriller sequence?'
• 'How did it make you feel?'
• 'Do you feel it was conventional to the thriller genre? If so how?'
• 'Is there anything you would change to make our thriller better?'

The feedback we got from the group would benefit our production of the thriller as we are now able to go back and improve certain elements to make it even better, potentially allowing us to get a better mark.

 

Some positive feedback my group received was:

1. We included a wide variety of cinematography which made the sequence interesting and effective. - I agree with this comment as this was something we tried to do. We wanted to show a range of shots but made sure they were consistently conventional. For example, we always used a high angled shot looking down at the little girl to portray her as the victim.

2. The idea and use of the underwater scene was unique and made it stand out compared to other thriller opening sequences. - This comment also sums up another one of our aims as we had this underwater scene idea right from the start. We wanted our thriller film to be different but by still being conventional. Also we noticed that there wasn't a lot of other thriller films who have an underwater scene and so thought if carried out correctly this would make our narrative really successful.

 

3. We were also told that our opening sequence was very conventional to the thriller genre, such as the use of low key lighting, the characters of the protagonist and unknown antagonist, as well as the choice of tension building music. - We wanted to try and make our opening sequence very conventional and so did this through the examples listed above as well as many more. We also made the music match the images and edits on the screen, so that it would build suspense and be even more effective.

 

Some negative feedback my group received was:

1. The narrative was very confusing and some of my audience didn't understand it. - I think that by planning, researching and re-editing the film so many times, we understood the narrative and so assumed that our audience would too.
2. They said that whilst our credits were good, they could be improved by making them look more conventional and more suited to the narrative of the little girl.
3. The idea of the flashbacks was good, but we needed to make this clearer and easier to understand.

To improve these points my group did the following:

• Whilst our narrative was confusing to viewers, my group and I were not too worried about this as this is what we were trying to do. By confusing your audience you make them vulnerable to feeling many different sorts of emotions, such as them feeling nervous or anxious to what is to happen next. This will allow the climax and ending of the opening sequence to have a bigger effect on the audience, and this is what we were trying to do. However, saying this, we did re-watch our thriller and got a second opinion and decided to take out a few of the shots in an attempt to make the narrative easier to understand.

Finished Thriller Opening Sequence

http://youtu.be/xDWOiPs_KOM

Planning Sounds - Miss Miller

In thriller films, sound is used to build tension and suspense in order to engage the audience in the scene and make them feel on edge. My group needed to plan the sound we wanted to use to enable us to complete our thriller opening within the deadline set. Sound is what makes a thriller film scary or 'jumpy' and so will play an important part in the making of our thriller opening.We needed to make sure that we matched the sounds used with the images on screen, and as we had already planned the cinematography my group wanted to use, it was a little bit easier to plan the sound.

Silence
Silence is often used in thrillers as it helps to build tension which is conventional. I thought it would be good to incorporate silence into our thriller clip to build the suspense. Therefore decided to have periods of silence after the underwater fight scene which includes a lot of noise so the transaction is noticeable. This is effective, as it contrasts from the loud tension building sounds played in the fight scene, into the immediate silence that would show the girls shock having remembered this flashback. By having this silence for a period of time, it may overwhelm the audience as they begin to reflect on what has just happened, which should make them feel nervous and create a tense atmosphere for the rest of the clip. Not only is this atmosphere created conventional, but it also allows the viewers to connect with the girl as they begin to worry about her well-being.

Non-diegetic Sound
Non diegetic sound is any music or sound that is added on after, such as in the editing stage. We needed to explain to our viewers how the little girl got in the water during the underwater scene. Therefore we decided on a blackout, which we joined with a crescendo of sound effects. Firstly, you hear the sound of running footsteps, followed by the sound of heavy breathing playing over the top. This would end with the sound of a girl screaming, ending with the splash of water, ready for the underwater scene. This helped manipulate the audiences senses as they can only imagine what is happening through the sounds, due to not being able to see anything making them feel on edge and possibly nervous.  This is conventional as it will mean the audience experience the full effect of the thriller, and will be more shocked at how it ends. The reason for adding the crescendo before the fight scene, was to create an enigma as to what is going to happen to the little girl.

Parallel Sound/ On-screen soundWhen the sound and the images on a screen complement eachother it is parallel/on-screen sound. My group decided that we will use parallel sound at the beginning of our thriller opening; this is when the little girl is walking through the forest and you hear the sound of leaves crunching beneath her feet. We will use this sound as it allows the scene to start straight away, as it allows the audience to have pure focus on the girl walking. This is conventional to the thriller genre as everything the audience hears that matches with what they see, which will make them feel nervous and on edge. This will help them to connect with the little girl by drawing the audiences attention on the girl who is portrayed as being innocent, which may make them feel nervous for her as they are scared something will happen to her, this is enforced and emphasised through the parrallel sound they hear.

To conclude,  our group now have a good idea as to how the cinematography and sound will match, giving us more time to focus on the editing of the clip. By having planned the sound we are going to get our sounds from the website freesound.org. The sounds we chose to use are conventional as when in sync with the images, the sound will be the main aspect that will build up suspence and tension which would make the audience feel on edge throughout. 

AS Evaluation Question 7

7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The purpose of the preliminary task was to show my understanding of cinematography and to get some experience with using the camera and tripod. In this short clip, I had to demonstrate several different camera angles whilst using dialogue. The cinematography my group tried to incorporate were; high angle, zooming in, over the shoulder, close up, tracking. When creating the preliminary task, I learnt how to use a camera and tripod, as well as executing the different camera angles, listed above. The preliminary task assisted me when planning and creating my own thriller film as it told me what not to do.
 Firstly, we took too long filming a short amount of footage, and so we did not have enough time to edit the footage in class. Consequently, we had to come back in our free time to edit the footage. This was helpful as it told me that we needed to ensure we plan everything carefully and in detail in order to film and edit within the deadline. We did in fact manage to complete our final product before the deadline and the footage was all filmed efficiently. It also gave us some experience as to using the camera and using the editing software and so when we made out thriller clip, it was not foreign to us and we picked up and familiarised ourselves with it quickly and easily. 
We gained an understanding of the types of cinematography that worked well and what did not; such as the tracking was good therefore we ended up including it in our thriller clip. From this task, I also learnt that we should ensure we plan what edits we want to use and why, instead of guessing and making it up at the editing stage to help base the edits around the footage so that it flows. We did this with the use of our storyboard which guided us through and assisted us when it came down to both the filming and the editing.

AS Evaluation Question 6

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AS Evaluation Question 5

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Primary research was essential to my group production as it gave me different view points of thrillers and what to expect from the public, knowledge of film certification and I was able to collect ideas and compare other thriller films to create mine at a good quality. I had many research stages that assisted me with producing our opening sequence including research into age certificates; this research gave me a deep understanding into why films are classified to protect the public from content that is unsuitable for their age group, and to stop children from seeing explicit images that may harm them. From this, my group and I decided to rate our thriller clip a 15 as the idea of the girl being taken seems quite violent, but you would not actually see this take place, and so it is simply and idea. Another source of research that was carried out to assist us was the narrative theory; here we were able to comprehend Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan Todorov and Aristotle’s Theory and relate them to our narrative. When comparing my narrative to the 3 theories, the one that I found suits it best is Aristotle’s theory that any film should be made using themes. I took inspiration from this theory by emphasizing the dramatic question raised through the use of enigma throughout. 

One of the main sources of research carried out was a questionnaire, where my group asked our target audience of around 15+, various questions as to what they thought should be included in a thriller film. We asked 40 people the questions on the questionnaire, the majority of those being from our target audience age range. We then thought the best way to present our findings would be by using pie charts as this is a clear way of showing the data we have collected. When creating the questionnaire we wanted to ask a variety of open and closed questions to make our results more reliable. An open question is one that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no answer, and so forces the person to give a more detailed answer. A closed question is simply where you answer with one word such as yes, no or maybe. By having the ‘other’ option mixed with the other available options, we created an open question, giving the audience the opportunity to say what they thought if they wished to. What I realized by the open questions not being answered was that people don’t like to decide or give their opinion as to what they want to see. I therefore concluded from this that viewers of the thriller genre like to be surprised by what they are watching; it doesn’t necessarily matter what the narrative is about, as long as the audience feel something from the suspense and tension created. Collecting this data was beneficial as it gave me and my group guidance with choosing what aspects such as conventions to use in our opening clip. It helped us with planning as it told us how important each aspect is and the amount of detail we need to go in if we wanted our clip to be effective.