Group research- Audio discussion-

As you can hear from our discussion, we have been talking about our research we have done and put it together to further utilise the data and make sense of it all.

I spoke about how I did some secondary research, by this I researched other peoples blogs about the Thriller genre, and the conventions that surround it. I understood how other people view the genre and how they understand it, this furthermore helped me to understand what exactly we need to do for our task. After, I talked about how I examined the mark scheme. There was a set of questions within the mark scheme that I began to look at and to understand. I answered the questions I could, some of the others required our product to be completed.

Aayush talked about his survey. His survey gave us a good insight on what the audience expect for Thriller films. We discovered that they like in terms of characters, people that reflect upon other peoples and themes in today's world. We are now thinking to try and apply this idea into our two minute thriller opening. We also found at that the audience like and expect to see fast camera cuts in Thriller films, so we will definitely be looking to apply this to our opening.

Benoit talked about how he examined the openings of some Thriller films such as 'Seven'. He talked about the things he saw and how the director chooses to execute the opening. Such as with Seven, there was a montage of graphic extreme images to make the audience feel uncomfortable, and to hint at the overall direction of the film. He has done the same task to other Thriller films for our research.

Jamie has been looking at the specific conventions in Thriller films, such as the camera angles and sound. He found out the main purpose of of Thriller films is to create suspense, and one way to do this is to use slow eerie music, along with slow paced shots. He also thought the main convention of Thriller films is the thing that creates the suspense

Coursework- Addressing the Evaluation questions

In our mark scheme, the coursework evaluation requires us to answer the following questions:

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

• How did you attract/address your audience?






Firstly, I believe our product uses conventions of real media Thriller film products because of the following. Our opening will include tension. Most thriller films will feature some kind of tension within their opening scenes, and we too will be doing this for our product. Also, our opening two minute scene will have similar colours and contrasts for our footage, darker colours so the tone is less positive, this is a common convention for thriller films, they all have darker colour pallets. Also we will be using similar camera angles in our product like the ones in mainstream thriller films. 

A media institution that may distribute our media product would be a film production company, that mainly involves independent thriller films. 

The audience of our media product is older, more maturer audiences. We think that teenagers aged 15 and above will enjoy this feature, and adults too. More older audiences can appreciate thriller films more as they're more likely to accept the tone, understand the character developments, the script and so on. Audiences who like action films should like this two minute thriller opening. 

We will be attracting and addressing our target audience through the use of our conventions within our two minute product. We will make our product alluring by including conventions used to produce a good thriller such as: quick camera cuts, suspense, interesting narrative, twists, hidden meaning and reflecting people within society. We believe these conventions can lure in out target audience effectively. 

Secondary research- Thrillers

Recently I have been researching on the internet to try and find some secondary research for our project. I have found some research from this source: http://www.slideshare.net/dyamfool/thriller-genre-research

On an uploaded Slideshare the user said how thriller films are more popular amongst people under the age of 25, and more commonly more popular with the females. This can be reinforcing the results that Aayush attained from his survey, as 60% of the people who completed the survey were female. Whereas 40% were male. Furthermore the people who completed the survey were mostly either 24+ or 15-19. This supports the claim stated by the user, and we think this supports our primary research.

The picture above shows how the user is talking about the typical codes and conventions of thriller films. People in Aayush's survey also stated they expected to see quick cuts, fast pace, tenser music, and dark lighting. These conventions are needed within a thriller because it keeps the tone uncomfortable, and mysterious. For example eerie music and quick cuts are in a film like Seven, here is a Youtube clip to show this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3INW_XHHV0

As you can see from the clip, the film includes very fast paced eerie music, and quick cuts from the camera to present the idea of dread. These are some of the main characteristics of thrillers and which is why Seven is such a defining thriller film.

Gender presentation in the media

Recently in Miss Brown's media classes we have been discussing how gender is shown in TV, film, and the media overall. As an assignment, we had to get into pairs and pick a TV drama and analyse how the different genders are being presented, and then present our ideas to the class. Me and Aayush chose to do a clip from 'Friends', we thought this clip showed gender clearly and was a good clip to use. The clip is linked below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ne54mgfAcs

The first thing said in the clip is by Chandler and he says 'Those were like the best seats ever'. This fairly obviously suggests they just went to a football game, as men love going to see sports live and very much care about where they sit; a stereotype of men.

Both the men's flat and women's flat display iconography to present each gender. The men's flat has simple colours, and more importantly a Foosball table. Men are often associated with liking football and love to play Foosball, therefore. This is a masculine game and men like to play it, which is why it is in the men's apartment. However in the women's apartment, we instantly see more girly colours such as purple. This connotes to feminine colours and which is why it is used in the girls apartment. This contrasts to the more plain colours in the men's flat, and also portrays how men don't care too much about colours in their home, however women love decorating and colours within their home.

The clip in addition presents how women are great and know how to manipulate men, using something sexual such as kissing each other. When they propose this to Joey and Chandler, they look surprised instantly, and then it cuts to a shot of them walking back into their apartment as in they just watched them kiss and then left.Furthermore, this presents how men love to experience acts of sexual nature and how they go with it, through the use of Chandler and Joey's reactions to the offer. Also it shows how women manipulate men very well using their features and sex.

Lastly the facial expressions of the characters can depict how gender is represented also. The men seem to have more angry, shocked faces whereas the women have calmer, more relaxed facial expressions. This shows how men get angry more and more easier than women, and how women will remain calm and try to calm the man down.

The coursework- Introduction

Recently in Media Studies, we have been assigned and began to start our year 12 coursework. In groups of 3's or 4's, our overall task is to create the first 2 minutes of the opening to a Thriller film. We have to research, plan, develop and construct, so that our final piece is as good as it can be and thought and work has been put into it.

A lot of emphasis is being put into the research stage. This is because we need to make sure everything is right; we include the right conventions in our film, we need to make sure it can satisfy audiences for which we have used a survey. The survey was done by a member in our group and asks questions about Thriller films. Some questions touched on what people expect to see in a thriller, what kind of characters, music, how it climaxes etc. We thought the survey was a great thing for us as we have now gained some more insight on how we should approach the thriller opening, and additionally understand what the audience wants to see, and what they expect to see. The survey is linked below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QB7H68D

So far for the research stage I have looked into and wrote about the mark scheme. I will be picking out what exactly we need to do to gain the most marks, answer some questions about the mark scheme, and what we need to do for each stage such as plan, film and edit.

We have also been researching into thriller films to see what makes a thriller good, what makes a thriller bad, and what thrillers audiences like the most.