audience research

To help with the opening of our thriller our group went to the streets, our friends and our families to gain information from the general public to help us find out what people like about thriller films/ We made sure the results where fair and asked 20 females with 10 being over 20 and the other 10 being under 20, we did the same for the males and these are the results.


1) What is your favourite thriller?


It was hard to get an answer for this one as most people didn't really know the full meaning of the term thriller. However films such as Reservoir dogs, Kill Bill and Snakes on a plane scored highly for the males showing they prefer the more gritty action thrillers however the females also went for Kill Bill, Bourne identity and Seven, this shows the variety of audience a thriller has and therefore when making our thriller it needs to be able to appeal to males and females.





2) What do you enjoy most about thriller films?















Using this information gathered we thought an action film would be most popular with our audience. we added voilence to our thriller film with a fighting scene and added suspence by raising questions and keeping mystery about the characters.



3) Do you prefer a male lead role or Female?















although the public wanted a male main role we decided to break stereotypes but with every other actor on screen a male apart our femme fatel we still included thier opinions

4) Do you look for Ambiguity in a thriller film or a more give-away plot line?













we decided to use this information in making our film full of ambiguity so as not to spoil the storyline as it was strongly popular within the male and female audience.




5) Do you prefer Modern day thrillers or the more classic thrillers?












with our thriller aimed at men we decided to go with a modern day themed classic in order to gain as wider audience and this also allowed us to have more fun using modern locations and costumes.




6) Do you like thrillers to be in colour or black and white?
















with these results we shot our film all in colour.



7) Where do you prefer to watch thriller films?

















8) What is your preferred length of a thriller film?

Planning

we needed a suspence buliding introduction of a scene that goes well with the setting of our scene.

The music we think sounds best for this is Portishead Wandering Star.
The album Dummy in which this song was taken from also included the single "Glory box", which has been used in films such as The Craft. It has also been used in television dramas and such as Skins.

we are hoping to extend the beginning beats to prolong the tension for our scene and feel this also sounds like a heart beating which is relevent for our film

Story board!

Shot
1:Lighting: Noir, ambient coming from slit from outside
Shot: Close up
Sound: Non-diagetic: Portishead wandering star Diagetic: His breathing to let audience know there's someone in there.

2:Lighting; Ambient from outside
Shot: Extreme close up of heels
Sound: Non-diagetic: opening of Potrishead Wandering Star to go with her footsteps creating a pulse

3:Lighting: Noir, Ambient through gap from outside as shadow blocks the original light so we know there is someone outside through seeing the siloutte
Shot: Extra long shot, his perspective in the crate
Sound: Diagetic; his breathing increases and sounds of the woman outside opening the crate.

4:Lighting: Ambient
Shot; Extreme close up of her mouth smoking
Sound: Diagetic, emphasis on the sounds of her smoking

5:Lighting: Noir, Ambient as the light shows onto his face
Shot: close up of his face, his eyes adjusting to the light
Sound: Diagetic of his mumblings as we see his panic increase

6:Lighting: Ambient from outside as the sun shines on her ,highlighting her as a main character.
Shot: Long shot, first time shown in full profile.
Sound: Diagetic as she says the only piece of dialogue, which needs to be ironic to a thriller film.

7:Lighting: AmbientShot: Longshot showing two of Monika's men appearing beside her
Shot: medium shot
Sound: Non- Diagtic music begins as before to set up the pulse and fear.

8:Lighting: Ambient shot from outside
Shot: Medium Close up, Femme fatale looking away
Sound: Non-diagetic sounds of the man being beaten up Diagetic of Portishead Wandering Star.

9:Lighting: Ambient
Shot: Medium shot her returning with an object found in the crate.
Sound: Non- diagetic: sound of the man groaning on the ground and the men still beating him Diagetic: Portishead wandering star.

10:Lighting: Ambient
Shot: Medium Close up of her standing over the body walking away, while dropping her cigarette into his blood
Sound: Non-diagetic: her sighing and walking away, diagetic: Portishead Wandering starShot

11:Lighting; Ambient
Shot: Longshot looking in on her as she gets into the car
Sound: Non-diagetic: sounds of her walking and opening the car door. diagetic: Portishead Wandering star

12:Lighting: Ambient
Shot: Close up of back of her head as we see whats going on in the mirror of the action behind her.
Sound: Non-diagetic: car engine diagetic: Portishead Wandering star

PICTURES!

PHOTOGRAPHS!

These are our location images.
Our location is based outside Hewett grounds and is a gloomy unglamorous site perfect for filming our thriller in.
We like the idea of the puddle being used as a reflection so we did not have to directly look at the violence going on in the film; we also thought blood filling this puddle would look good for our thriller.
Our group is going to use the storage crates as a place where one of our characters is held hostage. We will use both the inside and outside of the crates as well as around them. We chose this location as it was accessible and unglamorous.
The crate gave us an idea for the beginning of our thriller and seemed like the perfect place to start shooting.

Characters, summarys and brief back stories

Monika Quiero- Our femme fatal, a skinny brunette, around 5.8" , 28 years old. Born and raised in Turkey for 8 years, bought up in England after that, seeks revenge for murdered father and seeks safety for her mother. Training herself over the years in combat and fitness she was always ready to come face to face with the reasons for her father’s death.

Costume and prop ideas

Michael and paul
Monkia's right hand men- Michael and Paul once working on a building site met Monika as a child, and watched her grow up practising swinging from the scaffolding and dented walls with punches, they protected her from danger they grew close. Monika accepted her new brotherly figures with open arms. They assist in Monika’s deeds when she doesn’t want to get her hands dirty. Passionate but intimidated by Monika they stick by her through all the dirty work, Especially after she promises to share her good fortune and protection with them.
Costume and prop ideas

Un-named caught drug mule- roughy looknig and scruffily dressesd this guy is caught my Monika and her men and is soon killed with little dignity.

costume and prop ideas

our thriller summary!

SUMMARY OF PLOT;
Monika seeks revenge on an old family friend who is after her money. He sends his men one by one to kill her, all failing until eventually he has to do the job himself. In our opening we see one of his first men sent in to kill Monika fail at his job creating the beginning of our thriller adventure.


BACKGROUND STORY
Our story is about Monika Quiero, a 28 year old lady from Turkey. Monika was bought up by her mother and father (Norman and Penelope Quiero) in turkey, When Monika was a child her father was big named drug business partners with Mr Suri who also had a son Monika’s age, Ali. One day Mr Quiero is mysteriously killed. Mr Suri has always been a suspect but no proof was ever recovered. Fleeing in fear from Turkey and their home town Penelope take Monika to England to start again. Penelope also takes however 70% of the business money from Mr Suri believing that this money is compensation of this dreadful deed of her husbands death and in revenge as she is also amongst the suspicious of Mr Suri part in her husbands murder.

18 years later Mr Suri is found dead. Ali is trying to resurrect his father's name by carrying on his bankrupting drugs business. he however struggling decides its time to take revenge on the Quiero's. Leaving turkey this youthful gangster starts his chase to kill his childhood friend and retrieve what he believes was always rightfully his. Starting in England along with his hench-men and drug mules he searches the country far and wide for prize.

But Ali is missing something, he has not seen Monika for 18 years, Monika however has been following Ali in these 18 yrs and has been preparing herself for his 'surprise' visit in all of this time developing into a strong female determined to protect what is rightfully her mothers and her own.

Monika is prepared for what ever Ali throws her way and slowly kills off Ali's drug mules and hench men using sex, drugs and manipulation until it's time for her to come face to face with Ali, starting with his most feeble of his hench-men found in a crate....

QUESTIONNAIRE

In our group we wrote out a questionnaire and went and asked 40 members of the public to fill them out, (we aimed for 10 over and 10 under 20 yr old males and 10 over and 10 under 20 yr old females.)

feel free to copy and paste and fill it out as a comment! your audience review would be greatly appreciated!

Media studies thriller Questionnaire!


1) What is your age?
15-19
20-25
26-30
30+

2)Are you male or female?
Female
Male

3) Which thriller film do you enjoy the most?…………………………………

4) What do you enjoy most about thriller films?
- Gangsta
- Violence
- Storyline
- Action
- Suspense

5) Do you prefer to watch a male lead role or female lead role in a film?
Male lead
Female lead
Dont Mind

6) Do you enjoy ambiguity or a give away plot line? E.g psycho where you don’t find out until the end who the killer is or Kill Bill bit more giveaway.…………………………………

7) Do you prefer classic or modern day thrillers if so why?Modern day Classic Dont MindWhy? …………………………………

8) Do you like films in colour or films in black and white?
Colour
Black and White
Dont Mind

9) Where do You most like to watch thriller films?…………………………………

10) What’s your preferred length of a film?
60-90min
90-120min
120+

My Perfume Advert.

The inspiration for my perfume advert came from seeing this picture of Mikel in colour, I thought the waistcoat and dog symbolised London life. I liked the thought of having red standing out from the page so I went on google to look for a red perfume bottle and decided on a 'Hugo boss' bottle. I then copy and pasted this and erased the edges to fit into the corner of my frame under the writing that said 'MADE IN BRITAIN' and I thought this was a catchy well known slogan that would make for a catchy title for my perfume advert. I used a bold font as i thought that this was manly.
I thought that the pose Mikel is standing in showed confidence and looked sexy with his unique stance. The dog also shows him to be in control, not only of his dog but in what seems his life; The camera angle from head on, looking slighly worms eye makes Mikel seem big.

I thought all of these things contributed to the reasons for this photo being a great backdrop for my perfume advert.

Thrillers –

Unbreakable
Bourne 1, 2 & 3
Sin city
Jackie Brown
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Gone baby gone
Fight club
Silence of the lambs
Memento
The Matrix 1& 2
The Transporter
Skeleton Key
The Strangers
Awake
James Bond
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Phone booth


Title
Sin City
Directors
Frank Miller
Robert Rodriguez
Quentin Tarantino
Date Released
3rd June 2005
Country made
UK
newspaper review
Sin City, based on three of Frank Miller's seven graphic novels of the same name, is as faithful an interpretation as you're likely to ever see.
User comments
In short, Sin City delivers a blistering ballet of bullets and blood, dames and danger at every turn. It's a kinetic masterpiece of pop culture for the new millennium (and a case could be made that this was the movie that CGI was invented for).
User ratings
8.4 males 7.9 females
35.0% rated 10/10
Your opinion
7/10




Title
Pulp Fiction
Director
Quentin Tarantino
Date Released
21 October 1994
Country made
UK
newspaper review
As the title suggests, the film is about the world of gangsters and gamblers that populated the cheap paperback fiction of the thirties, forties and fifties, updated to a somewhat nebulous modern time. Just as SHORT CUTS interweaved various highbrow story threads into one somewhat convoluted and far reaching story, PULP FICTION takes themes from Cornell Woolrich and Raymond Chandler, mixes them with Seventies' TV and Fifties' movies into intertwining stories of deals gone wrong and criminals searching for some bigger meaning to it all.
User comments
It's no wonder that fans spend so much time debating what was in the suitcase, reading far more into the story than Tarantino probably intended. The film is so intricately structured, with so many astonishing details, many of which you won't pick up on the first viewing, that it seems to cry out for some deeper explanation. But there is no deeper explanation. "Pulp Fiction," is, as the title indicates, purely an exercise in technique and style, albeit a brilliant and layered one. Containing numerous references to other films, it is like a great work of abstract art, or "art about art." It has all the characteristics we associate with great movies: fine writing, first-rate acting, unforgettable characters, and one of the most well-constructed narratives I've ever seen in a film. But to what end? The self-contained story does not seem to have bearing on anything but itself.
User ratings
9.0 males 8.3 females
46.5% voted 10/10
Your opinion
7/10

Audience research - a few examples

What films do you watch?
Every kind, from comedies to thrillers to independent films.

How often do you watch films?
Depends on how busy I am, usually once maybe twice a week.

How do you watch films? (DVD, CINEMA)
Usually I buy DVD’s but love going to the cinema a lot to see new films

How do you decide what films to watch?
I see the trailers and think its good and ask what my friends want to watch and then we decide if it’ll be worth it

Social factors?
Its great to catch up with friends and/or talk about films we’ve watched and it can be a night out or in so they are good fun

Rachael ↑




What films do you watch?
Mostly comedies and I don’t really like scary films.

How often do you watch films?
Probably about twice a week

How do you watch films? (DVD, CINEMA)
I don’t mind going to the cinema but mostly on DVD

How do you decide what films to watch?
I love watching trailers so usually I will pick a good looking one and we’ll rent it out at the next sleep over.

Social factors?
They are good at sleepovers! It’s also great to meet up and go and watch with other people.

Judith ↑



What films do you watch?
I love romantic comedies and chick flicks

How often do you watch films?
About 3 times a week

How do you watch films? (DVD, CINEMA)
The cinema every time, I don’t mind DVD’s but its always more fun to go out.

How do you decide what films to watch?
I usually read the reviews on films to see weather they seem worth seeing or not.

Social factors?
They give you something to talk about and are great to have friends round for a film marathon.

Dani ↑

Media- my thoughts

My hobbies include hanging out with my friends, not so much my family. I work for what feels like forever but when I’m not working I love shopping, I love music, every thing from listening to playing (drums and piano) to going to gigs and festivals, I love going to the cinema, nights out, sleepovers, snowboarding, kickboxing and general activities that keep me busy.

I’m not a massive fan of print media. I don’t really read newspapers or magazines, occasionally I pick up a “Heat” or “Good Housekeeping” magazine that my mum or sisters have bought. I might look through a paper like “The Sun” that is in the staff room at work on a break but I don’t ever go out of my way to buy reading material.
I find things like the radio times and media surrounding celebrities can now all be found easily online now or even on the radio and this is how I prefer to catch up on the ‘latest gossip’.

I love listening to the radio, especially radio one, not only do they always play music that I love, they play all kinds of music and all the DJ’s have different shows for different aspects of music or comedy and I find them really funny and inviting to listen too.
DJ’s like Chris Moyles and Scott Mills also talk about everyday things that I can relate to in a comedic way and they always get the listeners involved making it even better to listen to, and DJ’s like Jo Whiley give bands the chance to do covers of songs they wouldn’t usually play opening everyone’s eyes to different music tastes.

I love the music industry and I love every kind of genre in music except from hardcore metal because I can’t understand the lyrics or pick out any sort of guitar riff in there, I love everything from indie rock, pop, grime, dance and hip hop.
I think that the music industry can influence your aspects of your life, like dress for example. When looks of artists become iconic like Geri Halliwells Britain flag dress, or the ‘Sex Pistols’ leather jackets and skinny shoes, but look how many are following the trends of mini’s and leather jackets now. I would not wear it myself but it’s something we associate with bands like the arctic monkeys bringing on the look of polo shirts and skinny jeans, since hitting the charts these styles have come back into fashion on our streets. Girl bands like ‘Girls Aloud’ showing us that you “really can look good with a big leather bag and skinny jeans and you can look good buying our new organic range of clothing from topshop” also make us think high of these girls and make it seem all the better to want to be like them as their “good models”.
I think not only can we look like our favourite artists but we can listen to them and read about them too making us all feel that we really know them.
I think our attitudes can change with bands or against them depending on their polite or party hard image making these people we love to listen to seem really nice or make us feel we shouldn’t support them as fans if they are rude offensive all the time.

I also think though that sometimes people we follow in the media can be inspirational.
I think artists can achieve this in a way that you can find artists that started from nothing that didn’t attend ‘Brit school’ or have £3400 singing lessons a term and learn about how they got to a really good place in the music industry encouraging others in similar situations to follow their dreams in music or other careers.

I don’t play video games, not because I think they are stupid, occasionally offensive, bad influences or unnecessary (which I sometimes think they are) but because I didn’t have a game console and I wouldn’t take it up now and I simply never have the time to sit down and play on them. Ever.

I think new technology is great, I mean the internet is the best invention since sliced bread, I don’t get people who can live normally without it, which is quite sad of me but it really helps from everything from researching, studying, watching shows I’ve missed, and listening to music I love but hasn’t been released yet. So for me I usually use the internet for google, radio times, BBC iPlayer and of course myspace.

I love the thought that the whole world is at your fingertips and I can talk to people around the world like friends I have in Australia for next to nothing, it really communicates me with people I don’t see everyday and people who live or have moved far away. I love how there isn’t just email, but video sending, msn and Skype all practically free.

I love new technology but realise I do just fine without it. I always have to be listening to music and after I broke my iPod I resorted back to an mp3 player that looks like a memory stick with a screen my older sister had about 3 years ago and realised how much easier it is than new technology and far less expensive it is. I also bought a phone 2 years ago, a MTR L7 SLVR (red because when I top up money goes to an aids charity) but already I think its failing due to lack of kindness on my behalf.
I also had a Sony mp3 walkman that was bought about 2 years ago but once the software had changed from Sony it no longer worked and proving that I didn’t know what to do when my technology failed me. We have become so reliant on technology I don’t even know what to do if my phone runs out of battery let alone if it stopped working tomorrow.
And I think this is a problem about technology that we cant always know why it fails or refuses to work occasionally, leaving us in the dark about what could be your plans of the day or important missed calls.

When I have time to watch TV I love to watch Hollyoaks, Scrubs, Gavin and Stacy and loads of comedy shows like Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Mock The Week.
I love the channels these programmes happen to be on too, like BBC 1/2/7 C/E4 and ITV, I also love channels like film 4 which give you the chance to watch films you’ve never seen before.

I like the subway adverts and the Carlsberg adverts because I think they are comedic and I always remember the slogans and jingles like “Carlsberg don’t do pub teams, but if they did they’d be the best pub teams in the world.”

I love getting scared at the cinema but not as much as I love watching action or chick flicks.
I fall in love with the films that make you wish were true, and could happen in real life, you just wonder why they never happen to you, I also love films like step up/2 and films that make you come out wishing you could dance or sing.
I watch most of the films I see at the cinema but love buying films as well.
I love films with Jake Gyllenhaal in them or Seth Rogen, Michael Cera, or Will Ferrell in, as I think these guys are FUNNY! In addition, Jake, Michael, and Seth are fit too and that is always a bonus.

I love watching films snuggled on the sofa but mostly love to go the cinema, either Vue or Odeon as they are both the regulars but also cinema city for those independent arty films. I do think cinemas are over priced but I love films but have never ever ever seen one by myself, I talk a lot and although you have to be quiet in films, it’s just not as fun to gasp or laugh by yourself.

In Conclusion…

I have to admit this section isn’t the best.

I chose to do media as the subject looked fun and interesting against other options and looked like a new challenge and something different to anything I had done for GCSE so I decided to take it up. Also I would love a job on the radio but tend not to let things like the media bother me in a way that anything sticks into my mind having offended me or enlightened me.
I have to admit in media I hate the whole objection to woman’s bodies, one minute were too anorexic thin but the next minute were told to trim up and loose the belly and cellulite which I hate so much!

If I had to construct a media text using any medium, I would probably use video as this way I can get my point across directly using many different ideas and getting as many people involved at possible.