How can we widen our target audience and who are our primary target audience

Our thriller is aimed at men  aged 30 and above because from recent research done it has come to our attention that that is the age group and gender that like the type of thriller we produced.

At first we thought we were going to be able to attract a teenage audience of both genders. But our research proves that we were aiming at the wrong target audience to start with. Teenager seem to be the group that give movies like this its least views. So if we marketed our movie and targeted it at teenagers the movie might end up being unsuccessful.

It will be more beneficial to aim at men aged 30 and up because more of those men are likely to go watch the movie with partners maybe wives and girlfriends and it is not likely to find more teenagers with girlfriends and wives then men aged 30 and up .

So these men could then help us widen our target audience by bringing their girlfriends and wives and even in some cases their children. So this is the best group to aim our thriller at because it could help us widen our target audience  which in turn will make our thriller more successful.

women that are married to men aged 30 and up are expected to be attracted to the male figure of Bobby the actor. Whilst the 30 year old men whether single married or in a relationship are expected to be attracted to the female figure of our actress Lynn.

We still expect to get teenagers to watch but when marketing we are not going to direct it too much at teens as there are our secondary target audience. Because teens give the best publicity via word of mouth as they are the generation who use a lot of social media to communicate so just one tweet or post on Facebook about the movie could get more teens/ people their age to watch the thriller.

Evaluation Of Editing

After the stressful shooting we thought we were going to have a little break before we went back to anything regarding our thriller. But we were so wrong. The following week we had to start editing our thriller and a whole different task had found its way to us.

Firstly we had to watch all the shots we did in all the different angles we shot in. Fortunately for us we only had 4 different shot and 1 of them was the title sequence shot. As opposed to our other classmates in other groups who had 8 shots and more. So we thought we did not have that much to do. But we were very mistaken.

We had a lot of tracking shots and they were all very long and we had to watch them over and over again carefully to identify any errors that could prevent us from doing a good job with our final editing cut. But after we picked the best one and cut out a few glitches it was going downhill with the rest of the editing. The other shots we did were easy to put into the timeline because all our options were going so we could not really go wrong with the ones we chose.

Everything was going smoothly but just like the great editors in Hollywood we encountered some minor setbacks. Because all of us in our group were not used to editing we made some rookie errors when we had to cut and paste footage but later on we got better at that. Then our sound gave us some problems because in the cuts we chose some of them were not pasting onto the timeline with their sounds. But we didn't panic we made sure we got it right after a couple of tries.

after we smoothed out our transitions we had to smooth out the volume because some scenes were louder then others when everything was meant to be the same volume so we needed sharp ears to make sure we got it right which we later on did. After all we had left was to put in the credits into the opening sequence and this took patient hands which Only matt Flynn could display. We had to go through different fonts and choose the ones that would make our clip look like a thriller and we had to choose one that actually fit the mood of our thriller and that required a calm mind and patience.  As all of us got fed up when we made the smallest mistakes eventually Matt got us out of the dirt and finished up the credits and we believed we were done.

However we all felt like there was something missing because the tracking shot and opening sequence were so long and quite we thought that it would make our audience bored really wick because nothing happens in the tracking shot and opening credits sequence. So we thought and thought then I came up with a solution I gave the idea of putting music into the thriller and then we all agreed on it. The only question was. What music are we going to use ? It was then up to me to find good music that flowed with everything that happened in those clip. Although we originally planned on it being silent with no music and words we decided to change it up and give our actress Lynn 1 line and add music.

I went through about 20 different albums searching for good songs then I ended up selecting 10 different songs from 3 of the albums I listened to. I picked:

Burlesque and Beyond
Candy
and an Exotic lounge album

I then showed my group members all the tracks and we listened to them together and ended up picking the first track from the first album which was Burlesque and Beyond track 12. we then tried to drag it onto our timeline but the format was different so we had a dilemma. Fortunately for us I have experience in ICT so I was able to change the format of the song and export it to our timeline we then cut some parts out and made the music blend with our shots and we chose this music because it gave that sort of seductive feeling the opening part of our clip is meant to have and then we put it in along with all the other background noise soundtracks that we recorded on the day of our shoot. Now we are done putting things onto the timeline all we have to do is make sure everything goes smoothly and correct the smallest errors to make sure we can pick up all possible marks.

And we hope that our hard work gets recognised and we get the marks we deserve at the end
 if the day

 

Pictures and videos from shoot day

Account Of How Our Shoot Went

Our shoot day started in the morning as we got to the media studio and found out they did not have a set for us as somebody had misplaced the set sample that we drew and gave them. But nevertheless we had come too far to let that get in the way. Matt Flora Beth and I went hunting around the to school to find everything we needed and also to find things we could improvise with. we started setting up by 10 30am by this team we had a bed, a sofa, a dressing table, whiskey glasses, an empty bottle of whiskey a standing lamp coloured fluorescent lights ornaments, an ashtray, a pack of matches, a lighter, some slides and all the costumes in place.

                  However we ended up having to improvise which included us changing up our set and then eventually our backstory. Firstly the only bed we had access to was a single bed as opposed to a king sized/double bed which we initially planned to have then we could not get access to an ice bucket champagne glasses and champagne so we ended up filling up a whiskey bottle half-way and using whiskey glasses without an ice bucket. Also we could not get cigarette butts to put into the ashtray so we just put in burnt out match-sticks.  They slides were not initially a plan of our set but we used them to make the set look more devious and mysterious because it was abstract. Then we put some magazines on the floor to make it look like the place was ransacked. Our initial plan was to make it look like a wife killing her husband in a glamorous hotel. But we ended up changing it to a mistress killing the man in an upper class motel. But we got the ornaments we wanted so from the set up everything started flowing nicely.

                  We use the media studio in school because it has the lighting that we needed and it had a sort of dull/dim atmosphere which put some emphasis on the thriller. Also the media studio is dark a spacious. The dark lighting inside keeps the mood of the movie constant. We tried to build suspense through a long tracking shot and we took this shot about 10 times because we wanted to get it just right. It was quite nerve wrecking and frustrating as I had to operate the crane over and over again until we got the right shot. The tracking shot was also used to show our whole set and to show all the props that we used. We also used a close up on our actress because she is the one attracting the young adult male target audience and we know that it is her that our target audience want to see.  We only had one close up on our actor Bob to show that he was dead and it came at the end of the tracking shot so it was part of the tracking shot. In total we had about 4 different shots. We also realised before we started shooting that the way we set up was not going to work. So we had to change the positions of the sofa and the bed this helped us shoot Bob and Lynn in better angles so we benefited from those changes and we ended up liking every change we made and it showed that as a group we were always ready to work together and we were always in agreement because even when we had nothing we did not give up and everything turned out well in the end. However not everything worked on the dressing table because it was making it looked to cramped and organised to we did not put everything that was on the dressing table on the tracking shot. If we had a choice we would’ve tried to put more things from the dressing table in the tracking shot and we would have tried to make bob look deader but it would have been too obvious that he was wearing make-up but we managed to make him look pale enough.

                  We got a black dress for Lynn to wear because black is known as a dangerous colour so it was meant to signify that she was danger. Also we put red lipstick on her and the colour red also represents danger but at the same time it represents blood and it was used to try as a sort of sign to our audience that she was a dangerous killer who had blood on her head and also to confirm that Bob was dead. And this dressing was mostly inspired by monsters by Vertigo films and Bob was given a white button up shirt because white represents innocence and peace which signified that Bob was just an innocent peaceful man that was murdered by a serial killer who had killed other men in her past.

                  We used red blue and purple coloured (neon colours) fluorescent along with a white one. The colourful ones were used to give emphasis that the scene was taken in a motel and it makes the audience visualise how motels look with their signs that are normally neon coloured and bright. The lights worked as we did not put them in obvious places we put them in a way that they would all blend in and not stand out too much, and that is what we wanted we wanted to keep the room we shot in dark but also make it colourful as well and the coloured lights did not make the room look bright which worked perfect for us and we then used the white light to even out the tone because even when we wanted to room dark it was a little too dark with only the coloured lights. However we did not really have any added sound. All we did was record 2-3 minutes of silence in the room with the sensitive microphone and then we recorded 2-3 minutes of the room with the projector on. We wanted it to be silent because the scene does not go on for long before the actress starts talking so the silence will bring up the suspense like it did in a scene from Olympus has fallen when the agent on the inside found the presidents son hidden in the white house there was a period of silence before the terrorists started shooting and what that did was build suspense and keep the audience on the edge of their seats and that is what we would like to do to our own audience. The use of the recorded sound projector is to make the audience wonder what was going on right before the victim got killed.

                  I played an important role in my group I was used to help out with the setting up as they needed a male figure to do the heavy lifting and move things from place to place also like everyone else I did help organise all the props we needed even as we had to improvise and make do. I had a positive mind even when things did not start off well and that helped me get through the day. Apart from that I took part in filming the tracking shot as I operated the crane. It took quite a long time practicing the tracking shot and it got my arm a bit tired after all the takes that we had to do but eventually I got the tracking shot done well enough for us to move to the next scene. I was also assisted in making sure the lighting was not to harsh or was not too dim when we were doing a close up on our killer and I did this with a large rectangular shaped polystyrene foam.

                  My team was great on that day. Even when we were having a very stressful start nobody stopped trying to make the thriller a success. Everyone helped out in getting the props and setting up but apart from that we all did well in our separate tasks. Elizabeth Lane did very well despite getting her finger caught half-way through the shoot. She did not let that slow her down she didn’t get frustrated and she just kept moving on, she made sure the actors were happy all the time and she made sure everyone was content. When our make-up artist cancelled on us the minute we needed her Elizabeth did not panic she just went looking and immediately found someone who did a great job with the makeup she also sorted out the costumes and made sure everything was available when we needed it. Then Mathew Flynn played a big role. He helped me out with the heavy lifting and he was the one who did the close up shots on our killer with him never getting frustrated when he could he helped Elizabeth make sure the actors were satisfied. Then there was Flora Slater who did a very good Job making sure we were spot on with our continuity she had the sharp eyes and she was responsible for making sure everything was in its place before we started shooting. She told us when to stand by and start rolling the camera and she made sure there were no glitches as we were recording. We all played a very big part in the shooting and we all had a very positive attitude throughout the day. All of us put the work we did together with the tracking shot lighting and the close up shots together and created the suspense we wanted and we are sure that it will be in high demand to our target market.

                  At the end of the tiring and stressful day we were all satisfied with what we put out especially considering the fact that we had nothing to start the day off with. We all stood up to the challenges that came up to us and overcame them and in the end of the day I think that our mis-en-scene successfully encapsulated the right effect and I don’t think I would change anything that we have done for the shoot because it was quite a good job from the team. And everyone put effort  in what they did

New Idea after pitch

We pitched our idea to Matt Luke and Paul and this time we were more certain that our idea was solid. However after all the hard work, discussions and planning our idea was turned down and we had to change almost the whole thing once more. But this was alright because they put us into reality and asked us if we would keep watching it if we were the audience and we responded n. So now we want to make it more appealing and more audience-friendly. We have not scrapped our whole idea but we have made a significant amount of changes to the original idea.

Firstly they tried to convince us to change where we were going to shoot from the media studio to Ted Jackson office in Cornhill manor. But we stuck to our choice because the environment is better the studio has more space for the wide shots and also because it will be more convenient shooting in the media studio.

Then we changed the storyline a bit. instead of Lynn choking Bob to death with a belt we are going to have bob dead at the beginning of the scene already and we are going to give our audience the impression that he has been poisoned to death because our other idea required too much contact between the 2 actors which could have been seen as inappropriate.

but other than the slight change to the storyline all we have only added a few props and taken out a few props.

Letter to our actors

This is how we asked our actors to act in our thriller

Dear Lynne,

 

We would like to formally invite you to be in our thriller, filming on the 22nd of January. We have chosen you out of recommendation of our media teacher Simon and we think you're perfect for the part. Obviously, there'll be a little inconvenience for you to come and shoot, so we are very grateful to have you on board!

 

You've been cast as:

 

Ava who overpowers men due to their weaknesses of desiring younger women. In the scene, you've just murdered your 6th husband, and leave as you remove your wedding ring. You won't have to kill him, as that happened previously.  

 

You're costume:

 

You get a choice of whatever outfit for Ava, as long as its fairly glamorous, as it saves us asking Loz. Also, if you have any stockings, it would be fabulous if you could provide these as they're featured. If you have troubles with this just let us know asap.

 

You'll be needed:

 

For a short amount of time, and we'll let you know closer to shooting day.

 

Thanks again for everything

 

Beth, Matt, Flora and Toby

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Bob,

 

We would like to formally invite you to be in our thriller, filming on the 22nd of January. We have chosen you out of recommendation of our media teacher Simon. Obviously, there'll be a little inconvenience for you to come and shoot, so we are very grateful to have you on board!

 

You've been cast as:

 

Barry- a businessman with a weakness for younger women (We apologise profusely). It isn't a huge role, as you won't have to say a word, and are only playing dead, laying on a bed. You're co-star will be Lynn Winehead, as we heard she was in your top list of 3.

 

You're costume:

 

If you could bring a white shirt and black trousers, and suite jacket, that would be fabulous, as it saves us asking Loz. If you have troubles with this just let us know asap.

 

You'll be needed:

 

For a short amount of time, and we'll let you know closer to shooting day.

 

Thanks again for everything

 

Beth, Matt, Flora and Toby

Interview

1. What do you expect to hear in a thriller ?

2. What do you like about thrillers ?

3. Tell me your favourite thrillers and why ?

4. Would you watch a film about murderers who take advantage of vulnerable people ?

5. What is your favourite film genre ?

6. How old are you ?

7.  What do you look for in a good film ?

8. Do you like Thrillers ?