film music

For our thriller, we decided that we would create our own music by using links and loops as these can be much more effective and full of effects that would be very difficult to make using live instruments our self. We had done a lot of research to music tracks used in other similar films and we have been over the internet searching for soundtracks that we could take ideas from. In the end we came to the conclusion that our thriller should involve some spacious music that makes people wonder and scared of what’s to come next.

We did use one clip from youtube that we asked permission for. This was a heartbeat sound effect. We desided to use this as we couldnt find anyway that we would easily be able to re-produce the sound of a heartbeat. This is the link for it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIzBbEGPQdw

Below we have a picture of us using garageband below:

permission forms

The consent forms are to provide concent for the childs image to be filmed. I have made a generic form so that everyone involved can sign it. I will also ask for concent from the school to make sure that I can film in the certain areas of the school grounds. All forms are have been photoed and posted below:

shooting schedule

We desided that to produce our thriller, we would need two evenings to film. These two evenings were on the 15th and 17th of march. We hoped that after school had finished we would be able to film as the sun was setting so it was getting quite dark and spooky. all of our filming was done in our school grounds so it was easy to get there and there was no transport problem. we would start on the first evening by shooting all the outside scenes and then on the 17th we would film all the inside scenes. We did it like this so that the weather was not too different from scene to scene.

Scripts and storyboards

 A short while ago we planned out all the shots on a storyboard and draft scripts so that we were ready to shoot our opening scene as soon as we could. the pictures of our storyboard and script are below

Potential target audience

Recently we have been looking at who our audience is mainly going to be and we came to the conclusion that the best way to find out who to aim our film at is to make a questionnaire.

1) what age group are you in? under 12, 12-15, 15-21, 21 +

2)Are you male or female? .................

3) How often do you watch films?
   - Never
   - Rarely
   - Sometimes
   -Often
   -Always

After completing the questionnaire it came clear to us that the main watchers of thriller films were in the category of 15-21 year olds and well over half of these are male so this is what we think we will aim for when producing our thriller.

Attracting our audience

We created a survey type questionaire in order to find out information contributing to our research of our media. After asking various amounts of people in random circumstances we found that our target audience was actually that of our own, so from about 15-21 and thats what we based the film on, around a bunch of 16-17 year olds. We also found out that people enjoyed both thrillers that made you jump and others that slightly confused you in different parts, so we thought we would make a thriller involving both those aspects. In our movie we have a group of mates that travel to Holland on a school trip for fun, but theres a twist including a lot of strange happenings. We also appeal to the audience via the music too, as theres some dubstep which is fairly popular within our age range and we use alcohol props too which all in all attracts youths and young adults.

audience for our media

We believe that the ideal age for our film ranges from 15-21, any gender can watch it too. Our film is not gory and theres not much swearing so its suitable for ages from 15. Any culture or background can watch our movie as there is no racist comments or ethical concerns within the film. I believe our film could become a massive hit in the world as it has a great appealing factor, considering its similarities to many scary movies involving youths so it relates to our own age, I also appreciate that everyone has their own tastes and opinions and so some may not agree with it but in our opinion it is seen that everyone will enjoy our film from the beginning all the way to the end.

Distribution of our media product

It would be amazing getting the choice between production companies such as Sony productions, virgin, paramount pictures or warner bros as these are all great companies within the film business and to have a film distributed by these companies would increase popularity massively in the media as they have connections and all other types of media surrounding them. Some films that are similar to ours are paranormal activity which is actually produced and distributed by paramount pictures and the exorcist which is produced and distributed by warner bros. Our own company called 'E-clips productions' were behind the production and distribution of our film, the reason we chose to back ourselves was simply because we thought it would show more of an example to others looking to make a film too.

Social groups within the media

Our film involves four characters of which are around the age of 16-17, so stereotypically we are mischievous teens, only looking for a good time without a care in the world. All four of us are caucasian, although I am partially oriental asian too, this is good within the film as it shows a difference between cultures in the characters. The type of audience we can expect to watch our film and relate to us are teens and young adults ranging from 15-21. Already just in the first few scenes a beer is captured, showing the motifs of a youth. The reason being for our choice of age group is the simple fact that we are of that age group and felt that it would be much better for us to relate to people of a similar age, in order to get a better audience within the media.

Conventions of real media

Most thriller openings tend to express forms of spine tingling and suspicion, making the audience curious as to what happens next in the film. Our film starts off with a simple but intrigueing phone conversation between the four main characters of the film in a split screen, this is a casual beginning to a thriller as quite a lot of thrillers start with a 'talking' scene. Our film has aspects of many thrillers, such as paranormal activity and the exorcist as different objects in our film move by themselves.Our film displays strange happenings within the first 2 minutes and when ending with '2 weeks earlier...' it gives the impression that something big is going to happen next. Also our blogs are used to advertise the film around the web to get more popularity through the media, despite the fact ours is different to most.