After filming and editing our thriller we felt that it would be a valuable exercise if we showed the finished product to a focus group that consisted of different people with different tastes in film. This was a great way of getting a first hand response from our target audience. The focus group consisted of an equal amount of Boys to Girls this is very important because it allows us to get a balanced response and to see which areas they enjoyed and where we could improve.
The Focus Group liked the fact that we didn't force one perspective on the audience which subverts the convention of the thriller genre where the audience is commonly "forced" to side with one party rather than be free to make their own choice of which character they like and dislike. This was our intention when making the thriller and it is good to hear that due to the balanced editing that we were able to convey these ideas.
Another positive thing that was said was that they liked how our editing helped build tension because of the increasing length in cuts which we intended to do whilst editing. By having relatively quick cuts at the beginning which gradually get longer you help build up to a big reveal or event (climax).
One of the things that they felt needed improving was our casting decision because they felt that the two gang members might be too young for the part and that this took away from the plot a bit. However another member of the group mentioned that they felt this signified how young people get caught up in criminal activities and that they liked this side of the story.
Finally the group said that they felt the editing wasn't as clean as it could have been and that it distracted from the story a bit. Nevertheless a member of the group said that they liked this rough cutting because they felt it added to the very hectic atmosphere that we wanted to create.
Overall I felt that this was a very informative exercise and really opened our eyes when it come to what the audience feels and sees when they view our thriller.
The difference between my Prelim and Main Task are huge. Throughout the course my skills have improved in all areas of Media -Sound, Editing, Camera and Mise-En-Scene as well as research and planning. By improving in all areas I was able to then go and Plan/Research, Film and Edit my main task.
Sound
The sound throughout the prelim was inconsistent because there was no continuity. There were different noises in the background which would normally be intrusive. The Actors were inconsistent when it came to the volume and pitch of their voices. Sound was not really an important part of the prelim task, however this changed drastically in the main task where sound was paramount. In my main task the timing of sound effects, continuity in volume and pitch were extremely important for the success of the thriller. For example we used crossfades between different background/diegetic sounds in order to make the transitions seamless and comfortable for the viewer. I also edited parts of the dialogue were appropriate with different EQ's to create different effects such as a telephone sound. The sound manipulation in our main task was of a totally different standard compared to the prelim.
Editing
Editing skills have improved by a huge amount since the prelim. In our prelim the cuts were very jumpy and had a view similarities with the jump cuts that youtubers like to use, however this sort of editing would not be ideal for a thriller. Furthermore the editing was messy and lacked continuity as well as precession which are key for a successful thriller. Another very important factor is that the prelim was a lot shorter than the main task, which means that during the main task the editing has to help tell the story otherwise there is a danger that the story won't make sense. During editing of the main task we went more in depth because we had to make sure that the cuts as well as any effects or manipulation that we performed would not interfere with the telling of the story.Through editing we were able to manipulate how the audience viewed each character and also how the narrative was going to be played out. Whereas our prelim did not contain much of a storyline, and that of it was very much condensed.
Camera
When we shot the prelim we had a very basic knowledge of how to use the cameras and for many of us that was the first attempt at filming anything. The aim of the prelim was not to look for the shots that would improve and tell the story best, but rather take as many different shots to be able to experiment with the different effects that they had on the story and the perception of the characters. This changed when we filmed our main task because it was essential that we used shots that would tell the story as well as convey the emotions that we wanted the audience to feel. Cuts in the main task were much more complex and were designed to create a perspective or view that we wanted the audience to have towards the characters. We also shot a lot more footage during our main task because we wanted to be able to have a choice of what we wanted to use whilst editing incase we changed our minds about the narrative of the thriller.
Mise-en-Scene
Our prelim didn't have any mise-en-scene, the set was plain and didn't link in to the story. We did not have any sort of atmosphere that we wanted to create and this was reflected in the final product. However this was very different when it came to the main task because we had a clear idea of what we wanted to create and how we would create it. We built a set in a container that resembled a drug lab for the gang and any police scenes where shot on location.We did not use costumes, just the clothes which the actors were wearing and we didn't cast the actors specifically for the role, we just used people who were not filming to read the lines for us, as best they could. The main task was planned and every actor was specifically cast for the roll. Lighting was standard in our prelim, there was no special lights we used and no choices made as to what light we wanted, this was not the case during our main task because we knew exactly what sort of lighting would create the atmosphere that we where going for.
I have learnt that our primary target audience consists of people between the ages of 16-30 and that the thriller genre is popular throughout the age groups and that it is not gender specific although it is commonly assumed that women are less interested in the genre.
Based on the results of the Questionnaire I have created four Social Network profiles that show our target audience.
Name: Ellie Heap
Age: 23
Hobby's: Clubbing, Meeting Friends, Listening to music, Watching Film
Education: BA in Business
Job: Works for Brain Net
Music: Pop, House and Rock
Favourite Films: The Proposal, Star Trek Into Darkness
Favourite TV Shows: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Arrow, Desperate Housewives
Name: Rob Pearson
Age: 24
Hobby's: Going out with friends, Listening to music, watching films, Traveling
Education: BA(Hons) in Music Production and Business
Job: DJ at Radio One
Music: House, Hip-Hop, DnB, Pop
Favourite Films: Avengers, Thor 2, Oblivion
Favourite TV Show: Suits, Scandal, Two and a half Men, Big Bang Theory
Name: Simon Woodward
Age: 19
Hobby's: Going out with friends, Rugby, Football, Hockey, Listening to music, watching movies.
Education: Freshman at University of Kent
Job: Currently doing a part time internship at Simmons & Simmons Law Firm
Favorite Music Genre: EDM, Rap, Pop
Favorite Music Artist: Eminem, Jay-Z, Avicii, Calvin Harris, Dada Life and Flo Rida
Favorite Films: The Avengers, Skyfall, Man of Steel, Iron man 3, The Wolverine, Fast and Furious 6
Favorite TV Shows: Breaking Bad, Hawaii 5-0, Arrow and Family Guy.
After Uni: Wants to become a Lawyer.
Name: Grace Smith
Age: 22
Hobby's: Clubbing, Seeing Friends, Traveling, Listening to Music and Watching Movies
Education: Doing Masters Degree at the Royal Academy of Music
Job: Works part time at Starbucks
Music: House, Pop, Indie, Rap
Favourite Films: Shawn of the Dead, Taken 1&2, Five-Year Engagement, Legally Blond
Favourite TV Shows: Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, Nikita, Hawaii 5-0
After Uni:Wants to be a session Singer
Our target audience is varied and not age specific, the have varied interests in a range of different films but are particularly interested in the gangster film. Our film shares many similarities with other crime/gangster films such as 'Layer Cake', 'Lock Stock' and 'The Sweeney' therefore I have researched the stats on IMDB to confirm whether our audience is the same as theirs.
Here are the target audiences for films that are similar to our thriller:
Layer Cake
This clearly shows that the majority of the audience for Layer Cake is men aged between 18-29.
Blow
This also shows the majority of the audience to be men between the ages of 18 and 29. The majority of the other films that we have looked at appear to have a mainly male audience that is between the ages of 18 and 29. Therefore we should be aware that men between 18 and 29 are mostly likely to be the ones viewing our thriller. We wanted to target our thriller at a vast range of people with one thing in common, their love of thrillers. Our target audience will be anyone above 15 as it may not be appropriate for children younger than that. Bearing in mind that are audience is most likely to be men we have tried to appeal to the male population. This includes danger and violence which is stereotypically what men like to watch
The ideal distributer would be one of the big six in America, this is however extremely unlikely because these companies are only interested in high concept films. Our Production is extremely low budget and niche therefore it is highly unlikely that we will be able to get our film distributed by one of the big six. The most realistic and affordable route for me to take would be to self distribute and market. I would do this mainly through social media, for example Facebook and Twitter. The first step I would take would be to create a Facebook page and do some advertising through that. Secondly I would spread the word and rely on word of mouth to raise awareness, this is a very effective form of marketing because it is cheap as well as quick, because if 10 people watch the film and they enjoy it and tell 10 of their friends then already a 100 people have seen the film without me having to spend any money. I would also look into possibly making a trailer of the film and put it on YouTube as an advertisement, this however depends on the amount of money that I have available to me at that point. In the case that my film is picked up by a small UK distribution company like Vertigo who have made their fair share of thrillers, for example 'The Sweeney' which is an action thriller about the police vs. the criminals. Vertigo would be an ideal distributer because they are very familiar with the genre of our film and what has to be done in order to make the film a success, such as marketing strategies. 'The Sweeney' is very similar to our film because the story is about good vs. evil and that only one can succeed. There wasn't a massive marketing campaign because Vertigo prides itself on making low budget films that are commercially driven, there was a fair amount of in the UK because the film was expected to make its main profits in UK. The film did show internationally but only in a moderate amount of cinemas. The only problem there is with UK distribution is that most companies do not have the capacity to distribute or make the films by themselves. On top of that if the companies want to get their film into the European market then they have to sell the rights to another company based in Europe, this also applies to the USA. Therefore if my film was to be distributed in America I would need to sell the rights to a company like magnolia pictures, who would probably release it straight to DVD or perhaps on XBOX Live as our primary audience would probably be males aged 18-30 who are also gamers and who would therefore download the film for a small charge maybe $3.99.
The day started as we had planned. We had a short meeting with our cast about the exact schedule that we wanted to follow and then proceeded to prepare the set and emptying the containers of anything that we didn't need or want, this took us longer than expected because the containers contained two vehicles which had to be removed before any preparation could begin. We knew where we wanted to start and what our first shots should be and why so we focused mainly on preparing the set so that we could start shoot as soon as possible.
This was the table before any "Drugs" had been placed on it.
We shot behind the studio, there are two big containers there that we used for the drug gang scene.
Our goal was to create a dark and dangerous atmosphere and therefor we chose to shoot in the container. We decided against extra lighting because we were fortunate enough to be shooting on a sunny day which meant that the container was being sufficiently lit by the sunlight so that no extra light had to be added, this was very convenient because it meant we had the perfect amount of light.
This is what the table looked like in the finished product.
We chose to make different shots of the same sequence this was so that we would have a big selection to choose from during the editing process. We felt that medium and close up shots were very helpful when it came to explaining what was happening within the story. However it also became clear during the day that not all of the ideas that we had would work as we had hopped, this didn't surprise us though because we were aware of the fact that not everything was exactly doable but we managed to overcome these minor setbacks. We set up on location rather than in the studio. We felt that making a set in the studio would be too difficult and time consuming, also the containers looked perfect for what we desired: dark, slightly grimy and industrial looking. We want to make it clear to the audience that this was criminal activity. We felt that this would appeal to our target audience as it represents danger and excitement which is typical of action thrillers. We used many more wide shots than we initially wanted to. This was because we wanted to fit all the action into one shot as well as fitting the set in the shot. We also used many more close up shots to concentrate on specific action that we felt would add towards the thriller genre. This would make our thriller much more interesting, also making it much easier for the audience to follow. This also came in handy during the editing process.
We had organised costume and props for each of the characters as well as the set. To create the drug lab we used a bunch of chemistry equipment, we also used guns as well as bullet proof vests for the police officers. The police all had typical dark clothing and some had bring yellow police jackets with police boots, this would make the thriller much more believable, we were trying to make it as similar to a drugs raid as we could.We asked Ted to wear a black shirt to show that he was in power and asked the boys to wear casual dark clothing, nothing too bright. We were inspired by hot fuzz and the bill.
The Bill
Hot Fuzz
Our cast also unexpectedly changed during the course of the day however this didn't cause too much of an inconvenience because we where more satisfied with the end result than we were with the original cast.We used Dave as we originally wanted to but instead of using Ian and Jason we cast James, Phil, Simon and Tom.
Dave
James
Phil
When deciding what sort of lighting we wanted to use we stayed very minimalistic and decided that since it was a sunny day the sunlight that shone into the container would suffice, therefore we choose not to add any extra lights. For sound we used an extra microphone which followed the sound sources in order to ensure that they were properly captured. When filming our shots we would let them run over for roughly 30 seconds to record enough sound that we could make use of when editing. There were specific sounds that we filmed for example the car engine running and driving off. This was because we didn't actually film the car leaving and therefore would have show the drugs gang departing through sound. We also made sure we got the sound of Ted dropping the container and the loud noise that it generated. We felt this would give the audience a shock and would portray Ted's anger, frustration but also his authority to the audience. During the day we took the filming in turns and when I wasn't filming I focused on continuity, sound and directing. This was very important because it allowed the whole group to improve their skills and have an opportunity at trying everything out as well as give a balanced opinion when it came to deciding what we wanted to shoot and what we didn't want to shoot. Directing was probably my favourite aspect of the whole process because it allowed me to take control of the situation and make sure that we created something that we would all like and be happy with, a product that would satisfy the entire group. As a group we worked very well together, we all took our favoured roles and there were no issues between who was doing what. We communicated very well together, if something wasn't working we would discuss how to sort it out and then re-do it as quickly as we could. We worked best together when setting up the mise-en-scene, and we were all very happy about the outcome of it so it paid off. After a few hours of shooting we all sat down and discussed what needed to be done next. We made a shot by shot list and mapped out each location and what would exactly be happening. This made shooting a lot quicker when it came to it as we had an exact idea of what was going to happen. Overall I was very satisfied with how the day went and the results that we obtained due to good communication within the group as well as a clear plan that we followed. However there were a few scenes that in hindsight I would have changed the location of but these are just personal preferences and have nothing to do with the turnout of the final product. On a whole I was very impressed with how we filmed our thriller as it definitely exceeded all my expectations.
When we pitched our final idea to Matt we got an overall positive response and only had to make minor changes to the idea after the pitch.
We have come to conclusion that filming in the containers outside the TV Studio would be more beneficial to the mood that we are trying to create, previously we where going to use the TV studio to represent a warehouse.
We also where faced with the question of how we were going to show that the Gang and police are at different places that look incredibly similar without it seeming like they are at the same place.
In order to make it seem realistic we decided that the best solution would be to keep everything that has something to do with the gang inside the container and all of the police shots outside, this meant that when the final product was done the audience would automatically assume that the police where standing outside the same container that the gang are in, which is the illusion.
We were originally going to have a freeze frame of Ted with a narration over the top. However, we decided against it because we felt that we should focus on the confrontation between the gang and the police rather than the story of the gang.
Our final change to the thriller was the white van that the gang where originally going to use. We decided that rather than be obviously suspicious we wanted the gang to seem smarter than the police and therefore use a Range Rover.
On the day of the shoot we added a few items of clothing to the characters costume.
Instead of an associate there were two gang members wearing casual cloths:
Hoodies and Jeans
We also had significantly more police uniform and props than anticipated.
We also decided to recreate a drug lab in the container to make the operation seem more realistic and professional. We used various tubes and powders that we acquired from the chemistry lab.
This is some of the equipment that we used to create a drug lab. We feel that it was very effective and that the use of genuine equipment adds to the believability of the mise en scene.
When we had finally finished with coming up with the idea for our film we decided to look for locations and get a rough idea of what sort of atmosphere we wanted to create. We also experimented with different shots as well as different perspectives that we could tell the story from.
This container would be a great lab for the Gang
One of the many shots that we experimented with.
Whilst looking for locations and shooting the pilot we came two containers which we felt would be perfect for the mise-en-scene that we wanted to create, therefore we decided to use these in our film. This was a lot better than the Film Studio we had originally planed to film in. The containers had a claustrophobic feeling which would have been harder to create in the studio.
We also experimented with various different shots, this was very important for us to understand exactly what sort of atmosphere each shot can create and therefore which ones we wanted to use.
Scene 1Ted and Theo and Ollie drive up to container. They stop, leave car and Theo and Ollie carry boxes in following Ted. Ted opens container door. They all go in. Ollie starts getting to work and Ted hits him around the back of the head.
Ollie: Again?
They leave.
Scene 2
Two policemen waiting in car and having a casual conversation.
Add lib.
Police 1: Wait... Is that them? That's them! Picks up the radio. Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
After pitching our final idea to Matt we decided to make some final changes. We decided that we wouldn't require a van to bring the drugs to a warehouse, instead the drug operation is run from a container which is a lot more interesting and adds to the suspense. We also discussed the best way to lead the audience into thinking that the police are outside the right container. There was also the discussion of how best to portray the smuggling of narcotics whether the container is full of the same boxes or if the gang smuggle multiple different things such as weapons or art.
