Who would be the audience for your media product?

Aloha!

This blog is answering a specific question for the evaluation of the movie my group and I made. 

Who is our target audience?

When doing the planning and research for this movie, my group and I decided that our target audience would be teenagers. In particular, teenagers aged 15+. This is because Thriller genres only attract a specific type of audience, so infants wouldn't be suitable for it as they wouldn't understand the story line. They have to be old enough to understand the content provided. 

Within our target audience, middle aged people could also be classified because they would probably enjoy the thrill that they get out of it as well as being able to understand the meaning behind certain bits of the movie.

What gender is our audience?

Our audience is both male and female, but due to the fact that all the actors in the movie are men, it may attract more male audience than female. The females won't enjoy it as much because the movie has no leading actress or any sort of role in the movie.

What TV shows do they watch?

During the research, we had to think about everything our perfect audience would have; even the TV shows they prefer. In the case for this movie, which happens to be quite niche and not main streamed, the audience would also watch shows that are not very popular with the rest of their generation. Showing that they are quite secluded from the world and only focus on the things they like and enjoy.

This would be the same for the types of films they got and watch - niche movies.

Demographics and Class?
Our movie is not partial towards specific groups of people, it is open for all to watch and to enjoy. The target audience is for young people of all backgrounds and raced. As far as it concerns class, this does not affect the presentation of our movie or the way we regard our audience. 

Similar Films - 

Whilst we were planning our movie, one of our tasks were to think of similar movies and compare their audience to the one my group and I had envisioned. 

One of the movies would be "Jacob's Ladder"; this is especially a psychological thriller and the audience for this would be people who have a passion of being scared and having to think about the plot of the movie constantly because psychological thrillers are there to make the audience use their minds and think. 



Comparing their audience to our audience, there is a similarity 
that the audience has to pause and think about what the story line of the movie is trying to present. 




          Thank you for reading! 

The Storyboard for WHO

Aloha!

In this post I will be inserting the images that were drawn for our new movie - WHO

The images on the below are all in order..


So please have a look!




















































Thank you for looking at these images of our storyboard and we hope you are interested in watching our movie!

Editing and Meaning in a Thriller Genre

Aloha!

During this week of lessons, I learnt many new things. For example, the Kuleshov Effect, the Niche genre and the editing and meaning that takes place in a thriller genre

This blog is about, as you already guessed, Editing and Meaning in a Thriller Genre.

To start off, as a class, we watched the opening of the movie "se7en". Which I must say is very gruesome.

 As well as that, our teacher had asked us to answer some questions whilst watching the opening. They were: 

1. How does the editing construct meaning in the opening sequence of "se7en"?

To answer this, the beginning of the movie, an eerie music is added in to give the audience a sense of suspense and unnatural behavior. In addition, the introduction is full of different shots and scenes of things going on. For example, blades and writing, a lot of artsy action like sticking images on paper and looking at video reels. This leads the audience to think about the man is really doing and feel obliged to watch the whole movie. 

2.  How does the opening titles of se7en communicate meaning about the killer?

The opening titles of the movie is practically like telling a story as it starts off with an empty book and ends with the book almost full. The shots in between show the book in progress of filling up. For example, a person holding a pen and writing within the book and pages being turned.
Furthermore, there is change in dynamics with the sound being played in the background. If listened closely, the beginning of the clip has slow and mysterious music but the end has violent and compelling music. This could explain a lot about the character; his thoughts or even actions. 

Overall, this opening clip helped me to understand that the opening of a movie is immensely important as the scene of the entire movie is set and is where the audience decides whether they want to watch the movie or not. 


Thank you for reading this blog!

The Moodboard for "My Bestfriend's Man"

Aloha!

This blog is all about the mood board that me and my group created for our film - "My Bestfriend's Man"
In the images below, you will be able to see how we had characterized each of the three characters, whose names were as the following:
Michael Lewis
Courtney hill
Katherine Lopez

Mood boards are originally produced because they let the creator(s) experiment with ideas. These allow the creator(s) show the audience a proposed look/ a vision they have in mind. 




In the images of the mood boards in this blog, the basics of each of the characters are established.  This was a baseline to what we as a group were going to stick to whilst directing. 

I hope this was helpful and you understand what we had in mind whilst directing the actors for out movie. 


Thank you!

The Kuleshov Effect

Aloha!

Today I will be explaining something that most of you probably haven't heard before. It's called the Kuleshov effect.

The correct definition is -  "The Kuleshov Effect is a film (montage) effect demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910's and 1920's. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation."

In class today, we watched a clip called “2001 a space odyssey - the dawn of man” and we had to write about the introduction.

We got given two question to answer and below I have got them as well as the answers 

1. "What meaning is being created/communicated?"

Within the opening, the clip shows dominance of the Gorilla over the Tapie. This is because the Tapie wanted to eat the same food of the gorilla but the gorilla does not allow that. This could be trying to portray that humans are very possessive over their objects and they do not let anybody touch their things. 
Furthermore, another meaning that could be created is the idea of survival. As shown in the beginning of the clip, a gorilla gets attacked by a cat, speaking practically, a gorilla is a lot more stronger than a cat but the clip shows that everyone is trying to survive their own way. 

In addition, I would say that in this movie, the audience understands that the theme of evolution is presented throughout, as the gorillas represent us, humans. 

2. “How is it being communicated”

These ideas are being communicated with the Kuleshov effect. The audience is shown one scene, then cut to another and then shown the original scene. Suspense is built up, which is why this effect is used particularly well within directors. 
To add to that, the different sounds in the clips also help the audience understand what is going on. 

Continuity Editing

Aloha!

Today I learned some new terms within the topic of continuity editing.

The first one is called continuity editing  - 

This is the predominant style of film editing and video editing in the post-production process of film making of narrative films and TV shows.

This makes the video seem almost natural and everything flows. 

Secondly, there is a continuity editing called match on action - 

Cutting on action or matching on action refers to a film editing and video editing techniques where the editor cute from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action. 

An example would be a man walking up to a door and reaching for the knob. 

Next, is shot/reverse shot - 

This is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off screen) and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. 

As shown on the right, there is a little explanation on shot/reverse shot and the images provided will help understand that this term of continuity editing is used very frequently. 


Lastly, I learnt about the 180 degree rule - 

With this rule, people are able to understand where everything in the scene is. So, the director films a scene, using separate shots. 

As you can see on the photo on the left, scenes that are shot will only make sense if they are within a an angle of 180 degrees. 

Codes and Conventions of the Thriller Genre

Aloha!

In this post, I'll be stepping aside from my movie - My Best friend's man - and be talking about the thriller genre. If people are confused with the difference between a thriller and a horror movie, let me explain..


A thriller movie is full of suspense. For example; The Dark Knight, The Maze Runner, Everest, Southpaw, Jurassic World and many more.

Whereas, a horror movie is chilling, spooky and creepy. Some examples would be, 
Sinister, Insidious, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activities and the list is endless.

Now, let's talk about the codes and conventions of the thriller genre. 

Here are some of the main things an audience would find in a thriller movie: 
- suspense and excitement is created 
- usually set in an urban or suburban area
- violence can be central to these films
- the hero and villain will have opposite sides but will have similar characteristics
- a major topic within thriller movies can be said is the injustice within society
- the hero is often an outsider, isolated but has moral values. 

So, what is a thriller exactly?
A thriller movie usually consists of a battle between the protagonist and antagonist. (just to be sure, a protagonist is the leading/main character and an antagonist either opposes the protagonist strongly or is hostile).
The producers leave the tension and suspense for the climax of the movie to keep the audience on edge the entire time. 
As the protagonist is the main character, his/her role is to restore justice whilst the antagonist seeks to destroy it. 

These are the conventions of a thriller: 
- Low key lighting
- quick cuts
- shadows
- tension music
- changes in the angle of shots
- diegetic sound of breathing 
- black and white shots
- a montage of shots


The characters:
- The protagonist is often a brave male who seeks to restore the stability. 
- The antagonist will have a hidden identity that the audience uncovers as the movie progresses
- The antagonist commonly goes out for revenge from a past event. 

Cinematography of a thriller:
- A lot of close ups as well as extreme close ups, mainly of the protagonist character
- These camera angles are often used to show emotions
- The shots of the antagonist will be cut quickly so the audience don't know of him/her until later. For example, a back shot, a lot-key shot, a silhouette or even a shadow

Editing of a thriller:
Many jump cuts will take place as the audience has to be kept unaware but also have to remember them for later on. This will eventually lead to the movie making sense. 
To build suspense, directors regularly use cross cutting and it is also essential for a thriller. 

The sound in a thriller:
Music is essential, whether it be in a thriller, adventure or even romantic movie. It helps to understand the mood of specific characters. 
In thriller movies, music adds to the suspense and tension

Mise en scene:
- For a thriller location is important because the audience can establish the theme 
- Often low-key lighting is used.
- The costumes for the protagonist will be ordinary and everyday clothes but for the antagonist will be in dark clothes.
- Make-up and hair-styles 
- Acting
- Film stoke (Black+white, colorful, Fine-grain or grainy)

At this moment of time, I really hope that all the information above has cleared up any turmoil or has given some completely new knowledge.

Thank you and I'll be back with some more new information!