Section 12 - evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

In a typical thriller film the opening scene usually contains a link or a source to the rest of the film and contains relevance. In Dead end the female character hods a piece of information of great relevance to the rest of the plot. the other picture is taken from the film seven and shows morgan freeman holding a piece of paper,also of great relevance.Aswell as the link to the rest of the film we have included a type of setting to show how secrative and smart are killer is ( Forest). In seven, we compared the setting to dead end and found that towards the end they use a secretive place also (Dusty land in the middle of nowhere). The location is important in any thriller type film, because it sets the scene and then you can read into the film with more depth. in other parts of the scene you see a shoe and a hand, which shows that there has been a murder.

2. On the face of Edward we have used a ghosting effect and also changed the contrast and colours. The group have done this as we thought that this would give a brief over view on what the character looked like, and also to show he himself is cold and ghost like. The ghosting also doesnt give too much away, as from the image you cant really figure him out. He looks sort of inteligent, but just like everyone elso so it gets the audience thinking. The image of Edward attracts a certain audience as he doesnt look particually old and we casted him so we would attract a certain audience, the teens/youth. Excluding the ghosting effects you can see that edward is some sort of intelligent man, as he is dressed smart from what we can see and also the glasses show broad connotations of inteligence.

Q3. With a 40 year background within the industry, Dream catcher films provide everything from film production through to documentarys. based in the noth west of england, dream catcher films has established a reputation for providing an enthusiastic and professional approach to our work, allowing you to feel secure in the knowledge that your project will be captured and finished to the highest standards. Ofcourse dream catcher films offer a full range of capture and finishing formats for your project from standard PAL to the latest high definition.

Q4. Our target audience for Dead End would be people over 15. the audience would be a younger generation ( like college students ) as the film cotains graphic scenes of action, strong language and mature themes. We tried to make the production appeal to a younger generation as it would be easyer as i am part of the generation and can relate to them more. i also think that the film genre of thriller would appeal to the younger generation, as most of the generation enjoy certain types of films ( from the collated results we can see that most of the answers under the question of " what is your favourate film?" shows that more of the youth we chose out of 50 prefer films with action and thrilling scenes.

Q5. Target audience.





Q6. While using adobe premiere i learnt alot of useful techniques to make a good quality film such as adding effects, making changes to the effect such as in the shot above we used the effect 'Grain' yet we used the effect control pannel to adjust the level of 'Grain' on the shot. the right hand window is used to view your film in progress.

Q7. After both the preliminary tasks i feel i am able to be confident and set my ideas infront of new members, and to make editing decisions with my group. also i have learnt and improved on how to make good editing decisions like what types of transitions and methods to use on my thriller opening. i also feel more confident to use, set up and utilise the camera and equipment for maximum effect, resulting in excelent shot making. When editing, me and the rest of the group could easily discover mistakes when preparing the preliminary tasks so we knew how to avoid them in the thriller opening.

Section 1 - background to thriller genre

The thriller genre consists of many different sub genres. Most thrillers include fast paced, frequent action and resourceful heroes. In a thriller i would expect a main Protagonist ( usually detectives or political workers) who are better equipt the the other characters. Also, a suspicious villian or antagonist creates numerous cases for the protagonist. many devices are used to create suspense, for example; red herrings, cliff hangers and plat twists. i would expect most thrillers to take place in busy cities or large towns. Also a dull and depressing atmosphere. Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories, but are distinguished by the structure of their plots. I would expect and prefer a thriller film to be in a non- linear fashion as it creates more suspense and gets the viewers thinking. Sub-genres ; action thriller, conspiricy thriller, disaster thriller, drama thriller, eco thriller, political thriller and spy thriller. More than often, the action thriller is used as it is loaded with suspention.Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and overlapping sub-genres. Films such as The Bourne Identity, Phone Booth, Se7en, Kiss the Girls and Red Eye are key examples of classic thriller films. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must destroy the plans of more-powerful villains. Thrillers often take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts or high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are usually "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen or aviators. There are many ‘Sub-genres’: action-thriller, crime-thriller, drama-thriller, eco-thriller and spy-thriller. Thriller was discovered by ‘GK Chesterton’ in the early 20th century, he determined the whole thriller concept and that it was a modern genre. He was know to say that thriller was an attempt to find ‘poetry in modern life’ and that excitement was in everyday life. Although Chesterton came up with the thriller concept he could never explain it well so ‘Northrop frye’ took Chesterton’s theory and adapted it. He did this by going into more detail and he brought in that it would be more exciting if an ordinary nine to five man could inevitably be the hero. The public was happy to believe in the situation as it could relate to romance fiction. A quote from Frye read ‘the hero of romance moves in a world which the ordinary laws or nature are slightly suspended.’ the public likes this, it could relate to them as they are all ordinary people, not aliens or superheroes. a lot of theologises picked up and tried to adapt the original theory of Chesterton after they saw how successful Northrop Frye was, John Cawelti basically just took both Frye’s and Chesterton’s thriller theory’s and combined them. He transformed the modern industrial city into an enchanted place full of mystery this was achieved by introducing ‘the exotic’ into the everyday world. W H Matthews took a different type of approach to thriller, Matthews work relates to mazes and labyrinths, an underground maze full of twists, turns dead-ends and puzzles. When you are creating a thriller narrative you must add twists and turns so that the audience doesn’t solve the problem too easily. Pascal Bonitez thought that Matthews was describing ‘partial vision’ when he was avoiding mazes, he believed that the audience should only be able to see so much so it gives a shock factor. As what the audience doesn’t see is part of the system of thrillers. The narrative acts like a maze for the audience giving them clues along the line as if they are the hero trying to solve the mystery. Lastly Lars Ole Saurberg believed that there were two different ways in which suspense could be added. Such as deliberately hiding something away from the audience or delaying or protecting and expected outcome. Thrillers will always evolve as time does and more theologises will be made to back up different theory’s.

Section 2 - research into examples of thriller opening scenes

SE7EN-
The 1995 film seven from David Fincher is set in a rough unnamed busy city. The weather is never changing and its often raining to give the city a dreary dull feeling. The gritty urban setting holds four main characters. Detective summerset and detective mills are the protagonists. These two males are rather opposite in many ways, the representation of black and white and the fact that summerset is a lonely old man who is experienced within his work. Where as in comparison mills is married, white, young and has little experience with high cases such as the one they are set. Brad Pitt and Morgan freeman are Hollywood stars so its nice to see well known actors working so close together. The villain within seven is a Mr john doe, he kills people in the pattern of the seven deadly sins- hence the name. his name is ironic as it is what they call unknown body’s founded upon. Doe is very religious and feel he is doing gods work. Mills had a wife named Tracey, for the hot headed detective she holds everything together whilst he is dealing with this vulgar head scratching case. As we can tell mills loves her a lot there for she is an easy weakness and target to get to mills as we see later on in the film when doe kills her for the jealousy sin. Seven is a Lina narrative, it flows in chronological order once again it is ironic about how long it lasts as summerset is supposed to retire in seven days and that’s how long the killings last for.

The title of the films flashes from what you realise is john doe, he is cutting the tips of his fingers off so that he is unknown and will not leave fingerprints. It cuts between research on the murders straight back to doe preparing for them. Each book he creates could refer to a new book, a new chapter. a lot of images to do with god is shown such as crosses and bibles to show the religious authenticity of the film. Graphics within the title are used well, ghostly images are destroyed to add an uneasy effect. As john writes in his books his hand writing is scruffy and joined up almost child like, the hand writing puts you off trying to read it, its like writing you can only read when its your own. But that might be the point. He could never get caught them.

RED EYE-
Our first research into opening scene started with Red Eye, I noticed that it had typical codes and conventions of classic thrillers. It was places in an urban landscape which was rainy and very busy, not much is given away so this helps the audience become intrigued. The camerawork within Red Eye is very fast, there are a lot of close ups on the wallet with the letters ‘JR’ on, this show that the wallet holds great importance. Also a lot of close ups keep is in the dark within this opening scene so we know that there is a lot more mystery to be reviled. The narrative structure of this thriller is linear, it follows her journey. We know nothing serious is going on yet because nothing important had happened to her yet. There are lots of fast cuts from different scenes this shows that whatever plan has been made about the wallet has been planned very precise and correctly done.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN-
Strangers on a train was produced in 1951 Alfred Hitchcock directs Farley Granger as Guy Haines, an amateur tennis player who is on his way to see his estranged wife, Miriam (Kasey Rogers) to ask for a divorce so he can marry his new love, Anne (Ruth Roman). On the journey a stranger, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) strikes up a conversation with him. Bruno knows all about Guy's and Anne's romance and how difficult Miriam is being, because he's read about in the society magazines. He also knows that Guy's life would be much easier if Miriam was out of the picture full stop. He knows it would be easier because he has a similar problem with his domineering father, and this leads to his suggestion to Guy: if Bruno killed Miriam, then Guy could kill Bruno's father, and they would each have perfect alibis. After all, why would either kill a perfect stranger? Guy laughs this off, but doesn't realise just how seriously Bruno is taking this idea until it's too late. The filming is very authentic and the camera work is slight uneasy but this makes it loved by many, as it was such a break through for its time. They are dressed rather smart In suits almost like the detectives in seven. There is no non-diegetic music within this scene its just them having a conversation which takes a turn. There are no graphics, sound visible editing. The film overall is very basic.

Section 3 - brainstorm of ideas for your film

SYNOPSIS FOR FOREST IDEA

The first scene sees the credits running through a scene of a man murdering a woman, who holds an important piece of information scribbled onto some paper. The scene cuts back and to from the night before (the murder) to the day after (where the murderer puts the woman into a sac).
throughtout the film, we look at the murderers character (edward fisher) and what he has to do to keep this important information from the world. The main plot of the narrative shows edward fisher trying to kill and destroy all knowladge of the information. Three men across the globe want to share this information to the world but edward needs to help his country and assasinate them for the good of humanity. During the plot, until the end, nobody finds out about this infrormation. One of the killers 'Jin Koueng' plays a large part in the plot as he knows too much about the secret and will never give up. Towards the end there is a confrontation between edward jin. the secret is spilt (to the viewer) and edward eventually murders jin. As Edward is the only person who knows now, he ends his own life so then the secret is burried and dead.

Section 4 - audience research - and research into BBFC film classification system

How old are you ………

Gender - Male Female (please circle)

24 male 26 female

Do you watch Films? If so on average how often do you watch films a week? (Please circle)
0 1-4 5-10 10+

16- 0 films 24- 1-4 films 9- 5-10 films 1- 10+ films

What is your favourite film and why?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What is your idea of a thriller film?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Which is your favourite thriller?
………………………………………………………………………..

What is your preferred type of thriller? (Please circle)

Action Conspiracy Crime Disaster

Drama Political


39- action 3- crime 5- disaster 3- drama 0- conspiricy 0- crime


Do you prefer a male or female hero? (Please Circle)

Male Female

42- male 8- female

Your preferred characteristics of the protagonist (Hero)?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Do you prefer a single hero or many? (please Circle)

Single many

37- single 13- many



Do you prefer a male of female villain?

Male Female

42- male 8- female


Your preferred characteristics of the Antagonist (Villain)?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Do you prefer a linear storyline (story follows itself) or a non-Linear storyline (Story flicks
through time)?
…………………………………………………………………………….

Out of these plots which is your favourite? (Please Circle)

1. Political women running through the woods from the killer as she has something concerning the government the killer wants

2. Average business man working in his office when he gets a phone call from a man who has his son hostage and says his son has 48 hours to live.

3. Old house occupied by a strange. The man was a doctor who got fired for an operation that went wrong and ended in the patient dying. he get people to come inside so the man can ‘operate on them.’

4. A man killed someone with witnesses watching it now he stalks the witnesses trying to kill them off before the police catch on to him.


21- 1 16- 2 3- 3 10- 4


What is your ideal death?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Should the killer be known or unknown? (Please circle)

Known Unknown

6- known 44- unknown


Should the opening scene consist of the graphics (Credits)? (Please Circle)

Yes No


46- yes 4- no


What colour scheme should be used in the credits?
…………………………………………………………………..

What soundtrack would you like to hear? (please Circle)

Orchestral Recognisable song up coming artist


30- orchestral 14- recognisable 6- upcoming artist



Which film title do you prefer? (Please Circle)

Piece of Paper above the law 48 hour Phone call Dead end

0- piece of paper 17- above the law 10- 48 houre phone call 23- dead end


Any other opinions?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Thank you



From the results our group collated, we could recognise that people like different things, but the questionare was quite bias, as we only asked our targeted audiece of 15- 20.

Section 5 - treatment

Treatment
Dead End is a political thriller showing world leaders and how corrupt they can become when change is approaching.

Concept
An upcoming MP is set to killing government officials who plan to kill a world leader which plans to make change. If the assassination of the world leader is successful it will lead to global war among countries.

Synopsis
The beginning shows the killer, Edward Fisher, murdering a political women who holds key information about an assassination to a famous world leader who plans to make changes.Throughout the film, we look at the murderer’s character (Edward fisher) and what he has to do to keep this important information from the world. The main plot of the narrative shows Edward fisher trying to kill and destroy all knowledge of the information. Three men across the globe want to share this information to the world but Edward needs to help his country and assassinate them for the good of humanity. During the plot, until the end, nobody finds out about this information. One of the killers 'Jin Koueng' plays a large part in the plot as he knows too much about the secret and will never give up. Towards the end there is a confrontation between Edward and Jin. The secret is spilt (to the viewer) and Edward eventually murders Jin. As Edward is the only person who knows now and the famous world leader is safe, he ends his own life so then the secret is buried and dead.

Opening scene
The opening scene isn’t too revealing to the audience as it shows a man dragging a bin bag through a park with the graphics flicking between the frames. The graphics consist of the man reading the political section of the news paper and cutting out articles. We also see women’s features yet the audience don’t know why in till the end when the woman is revealed to be in the bin bag and the killer is throwing the bag with the women in away.

Target audience
Dead end is aimed at 15 year olds and over as it depicts how tyrannical politics can be and how corruptive MPs and world leaders are. We chose to pick ‘Certificate 15’ as young adults and adults themselves realise how deceiving our government can be. The film consists of violence and heavy swearing.

Section 6 - character outlines and script

EDWARD FISHER-
The killer is a lonely 22 year old male named Edward fisher. He’s a normal looking man but with a such a passion for success who knows what crimes he could commit. Other than the occasional beating from his father when he was younger there was nothing traumatic about fishers childhood. He is a new up and coming member of parliament, with straight black hair and a smart appearance, well sometimes. Edward will walk over anyone to get in power, he feels no sadness or regret for the crimes he commits as it is only getting him closer to success.

SOPHIE KING-
Sophie King is the female victim that Fisher kills for information. Her father is the highest in the business therefore she is vital for fisher as she’s the one who can get him ahead in the game. Sophie was a quiet young girl but enjoyed how much attention she got from her fathers prestige role, sometimes she may have got too much attention. She didn’t know Edward well and would have never guessed that he would ever be her killer. Working as a receptionist her father trusted her with all of his deepest secrets and fundamental information- which she kept in a file. One night Sophie was transferring the information, but fisher followed her. When she was reluctant to give him the information for money, he took it into his own hands. The endless torture was too much for her and fisher killed the young female.

MATHEW KING-
Mr King is the best in the business whatever he wants, he gets. Although he may not seem it King is a huge family man and when he finds out about the death of him beloved daughter it almost kills him. Matthew king will walk over anyone to get where he wants to be and cares not about feelings or friends, just success and money. There is no one who can become higher than him without getting into and discovering all of his messy secrets. King is fishers arch enemy, even though Edward would love to be in Matthew’s place. He is the world leader and everyone looks up to him. He devises a sick plot to damage the world as it is now. When he finds out that fisher holds this information he hires hit men to take him down and publish the secrets to evidently destroy humanity.

JIN KOUENG-
Jin is one of Edwards companions but he knows too much of the secret. He tries to help fisher but his good heart stops him and he attempts to tell the authorities as it is killing him inside. He never helps with the killings but knows when and where it is going to happen. Towards the end, Jin can’t contain himself and needs to tell someone, but fisher can’t allow this as there relationship brakes down he has to do what’s right for his country and his uncontrollable need to kill means he kills Jin Koueng.


SCRIPT-
The first scene sees the credits running through a scene of a man murdering a woman, who holds an important piece of information scribbled onto some paper. The scene cuts back and to from the night before (the murder) to the day after (where the murderer puts the woman into a sac).throughtout the film, we look at the murderers character (edward fisher) and what he has to do to keep this important information from the world. The main plot of the narrative shows edward fisher trying to kill and destroy all knowladge of the information. Three men across the globe want to share this information to the world but edward needs to help his country and assasinate them for the good of humanity. During the plot, until the end, nobody finds out about this infrormation. One of the killers 'Jin Koueng' plays a large part in the plot as he knows too much about the secret and will never give up. Towards the end there is a confrontation between edward jin. the secret is spilt (to the viewer) and edward eventually murders jin. As Edward is the only person who knows now, he ends his own life so then the secret is burried and dead.