The thriller we have created uses forms and conventions of typical thrillers. Our film is a hybrid of the horror and drama genre, as the full version would contain some meaningful messages about crime in society today. It is a simple story of someone investigating a girls disappearance, however the fact that the world we have created was for the youth of today. The house scene conforms almost exactly to scenes from 'Seven' or 'Gone Baby Gone' which is where we took our inspiration from. The fact that the story builds up from the party, to the attack scene, then to a murder shows how much it acts as a successful thriller.
Our piece is mainly focused on the youth of modern day society. Our representation of this particular group changes as the story progresses. The first images we see of the hooded character walking, acts as the stereotype that the majority of youth in the United Kingdom wear hoodies and are involved with a large percentage of crime. This automatically gives the audience the notion that this character is likely to be the enemy in the piece. We then cut to the series of shots showing three hooded individuals breaking in to a house (keeping the stereotype) and then the party scene. The party scene was intended to show the recklessness of youth and their connection to crime and use of drugs and alcohol. The attack scene also introduces the representation of gender, showing weakness in the female character and strength in the male. After the attack we return to our hooded character from the beginning. Through the voiceover we can understand that he is the heroic character of the story challenging what we thought previously in the piece.
As the thriller genre is one of the overruling ones in popularity, we would aim for distribution from large film companies, who have the ability to show it in cinemas and then sell DVD of it. I would also consider independent companies such as Film 4 who guarantee to show there releases on a free well known television channel to attract more figures.
Following rules and guidelines from the British Board of Film Classification, our film would probably be rated a 15. This is because it includes violence, drug use and gory images. This would also be more effective as we intended for the film to be aimed at teenagers over fifteen.
We attracted our audience through tension and suspense. Our piece continues to build up suspense until the very last minute when the audience is left hanging as the bloody sheet is thrown over the screen creating the questions and leaving people wanting more. Because of the relationship that is created with the character the audience feel drawn to him. Once this relationship is constructed it creates interest and entices the audience to keep watching.
During the construction of this product I have seen how composition, lighting and camera angles make a film, not the quality of the camera. The camera we used was my own personal one as it still had better quality than the schools, however we managed to create some beautifully lit shots through use of stage lighting which gave the film the ambiance of a thriller. As I was mostly in charge of the editing I worked for hours with macs and my knowledge and understanding of Imovie progressed and advanced to a semi-professional level.
Viewing our final piece I can appreciate how effective some of the shots are and how the story is especially well written. I have learnt how much consideration and planning there has to be for the shoot. We needed prop lists, the final storyboard, actors and lighting. I understand now from experience that things never go to plan. Many problems did occur while filming, not including outtakes. We had originally planned in the storyboard for the hooded character to have a gun, however we filmed past the point he reveals the weapon without realising. In the end we continued to film without the gun and adapted the story slightly. Locations needed to be considered as well, for weeks we thought of appropriate places to film until Adam showed us his house which had been damaged by a burst water pipe and we decided that would be an appropriate setting for or thriller. Actors needed to be contacted to come in for shoots and we also had to visualise the piece as we were filming, as in many cases we filmed at different times meaning we had to be aware of continuity within the scene. The party scene for example was shot on two separate days, one with the couple and one with the others. The most important aspect was creating the storyboard and deciding on framing. We had to think about how to make the shots effective, however when we came to shoot it, it did not always go to plan. We realised that not all shots would be possible with the space we had to work with. We all enjoyed the production of this film and are all very proud of the final outcome.