The importance of music:
Our group focused a lot on the music in our production. We really wanted the music to reflect the way the characters were feeling or the situations they were in. I think we did really well with our music choices. Wake (Linkin Park) is very ominous and creepy, much like the dream and the context of the dream. This particular piece built up the enigma and tension as it gradually got louder and I was pleased with the final result of using this piece. Something In the Way (Nirvana) was almost the perfect piece for reflecting the mood of the character and creating a foreboding atmosphere. We tried quite a few pieces of music in its place and came to the conclusion that it was the best fit.
As a group we fully understood that the music plays a huge part in a production. It can be used to create completely different atmospheres and change the mood of the production completely. To prove this point we played around with the music and decided to experiment with different tracks. The first video is our original production, the second video is the musical experiment.
(Original Production)
(Music Experiment)
As you can see by adding an upbeat and happy song it completely changes the atmosphere and mood of the production. It almost appears as if the production is not a psychological thriller as it appears to be more comical. This in turn shows the significance of the music in the production as without it it would be very difficult to portray a tense and foreboding atmosphere around the character.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Thursday, 15 April 2010
How did you attract/address your audience?
How did the inital audience survey help us to develop our ideas?
Before we began on the practical production it was advised that we did a survey to see if people would like our idea. As a group we had come up with a clear idea we all liked, but there was no point in just us liking it. We therefore devised a questionnaire that contained our idea mixed in with several other ideas we had come up with. We then surveyed 30 people, most from the 16-24 age range as this was our target audience. We then analysed these results and found that the majority of people surveyed would like the basis of our thriller.
We originally did not intended to have much action in our opening sequence as it would be a bit off putting, especially in a psychological thriller. So it was never planned to have loads of action in the opening sequence, the results from this question confirmed that there was no need to put in loads of action to please our potential audience.
All of these results helped us develop our idea into the opening sequence a lot. We weren’t 100% sure whether the audience would like our idea and how we would portray it to please them. So obviously research and analysis played a big part in us getting the idea from our head to the Mac in a way that would please both the audience and allow us to keep the originality of our idea.
Before we began on the practical production it was advised that we did a survey to see if people would like our idea. As a group we had come up with a clear idea we all liked, but there was no point in just us liking it. We therefore devised a questionnaire that contained our idea mixed in with several other ideas we had come up with. We then surveyed 30 people, most from the 16-24 age range as this was our target audience. We then analysed these results and found that the majority of people surveyed would like the basis of our thriller.
The two characters the 30 people wanted to see the most were a ‘Hero’ and a ‘Mysterious character’. Initially we had actually planned to have both of these characters in our opening sequence. But we then questioned whether Michelle would be classed a mysterious character or as hero. We eventually came to the conclusion that she would be the hero and that Natalie would be the mysterious character.
When we came up with our initial idea we knew we wanted it to be a psychological thriller as we wished to incorporate elements that would get inside the viewers head. It would also be deemed a psychological thriller as the main character also experiences things that ‘mess with her head’. When we surveyed our potential audience the largest percent of them preferred a psychological thriller. So we felt that we should stick to that type of thriller.
This was a very important, it told us what our audience think is the most important aspect of a thriller was. This question helped us develop our storyline further as at the beginning we were unsure what people would be most interested in. The two most important aspects chosen were the acting and characters. This sent us on a search for someone who could portray and outsider well and we eventually found our Michelle. We understood that we had a tight filming schedule and would probably need to film during school hours too; this resulted in me being cast for the role of the girl in the mental institute. We eventually found a person who could portray Michelle’s annoying friend well and thus the cast (for at least the first 3 minutes of the movie) was made. As for the special effects and graphics I was already confident on iMovie having used it for GCSE media studies. I did the majority of the editing, but the rest of the group was always there assisting. We all discussed the editing as it was happening so it was not just a one person job. There are no amazing CGI effects in our movie because we were using iMovie, but I still feel that the we did the movie justice with the effects and used them effectively to aid the storyline. As we knew these were the 3 most important aspects we focused on these 3 more than the music and the credits.
We knew as a group that the most important element of any opening sequence is to make the viewer want to watch the rest of the movie and in this case we would have to build up a sense of suspense or enigma. We discussed ways in which to do this effectively and came to the conclusion that it should be done in two parts. The first being the suspense built up by the dream Michelle has. This could be slightly confusing to the audience but it would definitely create a tense atmosphere and build up suspense. The other way is to leave the opening sequence on a cliff hanger. That way the viewer would want to see the rest of the movie as they are unsure what is going to happen next. I think the most effective way we built up suspense was through the cliff hanger ending.
We originally did not intended to have much action in our opening sequence as it would be a bit off putting, especially in a psychological thriller. So it was never planned to have loads of action in the opening sequence, the results from this question confirmed that there was no need to put in loads of action to please our potential audience.All of these results helped us develop our idea into the opening sequence a lot. We weren’t 100% sure whether the audience would like our idea and how we would portray it to please them. So obviously research and analysis played a big part in us getting the idea from our head to the Mac in a way that would please both the audience and allow us to keep the originality of our idea.
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
How did you attract/address your audience?
Target audience feedback on our opening sequence:
We asked 9 people from our target audience to watch our opening sequence and answer 10 questions on it. Many of them were ‘Yes or No’ questions, but they still gave as a good idea of how our opening sequence. We also asked 2 questions that allowed the audience to respond with in depth comments on the opening sequence.
1. Did you understand the narrative?
This question is a little bit misleading, as sometimes you cannot simply understand a movie if you have just seen the first 2 minutes of it. This is why the majority of the audience voted ‘A little’. It was however a good response in that nobody said ‘No’. So our narrative must have some clarity at least.
2. Overall, how much did you enjoy the thriller opening sequence? (1= Not at all, 5= A lot)
Again, not a bad response. Nobody really liked it, but nobody hated it. Most of our target audience thought it was satisfactory which is okay. It just shows us there is some room for improvement in our production.
Our group spent a long time looking for music that reflected the mood of the characters and the environment they were in perfectly. We struggled for a while to find the right combination of music that was not only subtle, but pleasant to listen too. It seems that our efforts paid off with all but one person saying the soundtrack was effective.
We picked the music so it would heighten the suspense, we attempted this though several other elements to. But we didn’t want to build the suspense up so much that it would be unbearable in the first 2 minutes. So again this is a good response, we only wanted to build up a little bit of suspense so that the audience would be curious as to what will happen next.
This was quite a good response from the audience. I would not say that the title was our strongest suit. It is a very interesting title that would grab your attention but what I think the viewers were responding to was the placement of the title. I’ll admit it could do with some work as we were unsure where to place it so it got a bit neglected and was the last thing we did before finishing. But overall, a good response.
10. What could be improved?
'Clearer narrative'
'The narrative'
'Narrative clearer'
'The talking interacting scene between characters a little confusing'
'Make narrative clearer'
'The shot of the two people talking talk louder'
‘I really liked the beginning, especially how the music builds up to the main character. The dialogues weren’t really clear though, but like how you made the opening sequence continuous at the end. Well done!’
So there are two main things the audience would like us to improve. The first being the narrative. I personally think the narrative works well, and if we had had more time (for the production) we would have cleared a few things up, but as it was such a short space of time it was difficult to get everything we wanted in there. I guess if we were to re-do it we could make it less busy and maybe have less scenes. The other thing was the conversation between the characters. Some people found it confusing whereas others just couldn’t hear it properly. If we were to sort out that scene we would definitely make it louder and try to add some clarity to the conversation if we could. But this conversation would have become clearer the more the story progressed.
But, overall I think we did well to please the majority of our target audience. Our film seems to be aimed at a more niche audience as certain people in the people we surveyed liked it and others didn't. This is generally what happens with films that a released in the cinema as one film cannot possibly appeal to every niche group out there. If we were to mkae the rest of the film we would take into consideration what the target audience have said, sort out those things and make sure that the rest of the film would appeal to them.
We asked 9 people from our target audience to watch our opening sequence and answer 10 questions on it. Many of them were ‘Yes or No’ questions, but they still gave as a good idea of how our opening sequence. We also asked 2 questions that allowed the audience to respond with in depth comments on the opening sequence.
1. Did you understand the narrative?
This question is a little bit misleading, as sometimes you cannot simply understand a movie if you have just seen the first 2 minutes of it. This is why the majority of the audience voted ‘A little’. It was however a good response in that nobody said ‘No’. So our narrative must have some clarity at least.2. Overall, how much did you enjoy the thriller opening sequence? (1= Not at all, 5= A lot)
Again, not a bad response. Nobody really liked it, but nobody hated it. Most of our target audience thought it was satisfactory which is okay. It just shows us there is some room for improvement in our production.3. Would you watch the full film? 
A good response to this question, nobody said ‘No’ which meant that we successfully engaged the audience. Much of the audience voted ‘Maybe’, Obviously 2 minutes of a film is not enough to base a judgement whether to watch a movie or not. Usually an audience would want to watch it due to the advertising around the movie. We did create a trailer, but the audience did not get a chance to watch this before the movie was screened, it may have prompted a few more people to say ‘Yes’.
4. What did you think of the effects?
'The effects were relatively good'
'Lovely'
'I think they set for something good to happen'
'Good'
'They're good'
'Very effective at the beginning'
These were all good responses to the question, some vague. But nonetheless they all say the special effects were good. So there is no need for mass improvement in that area.
5. Did you know that it begins with a dream?
This is a definite area for improvement. As our group understood the narrative it appeared clear to us that it was a dream. She opens her eyes and is in bed so we expected the audience to piece two and two together. If we were to go back and improve on this we would definitely start with making it clear that it was a dream.
6. Was the soundtrack effective?
Our group spent a long time looking for music that reflected the mood of the characters and the environment they were in perfectly. We struggled for a while to find the right combination of music that was not only subtle, but pleasant to listen too. It seems that our efforts paid off with all but one person saying the soundtrack was effective.7. Did it build suspense?
We picked the music so it would heighten the suspense, we attempted this though several other elements to. But we didn’t want to build the suspense up so much that it would be unbearable in the first 2 minutes. So again this is a good response, we only wanted to build up a little bit of suspense so that the audience would be curious as to what will happen next.8. Was there any confusion whilst watching it?
I wasn’t too surprised at this reaction from the audience. Admittedly if you do not watch the movie carefully and closely confusion can arise as there are very small and subtle hints in the movie that if you miss may throw you off. It is also not uncommon for there to be slight confusion at the start of the movie as usually it is cleared up as the narrative progresses. Obviously we did not have enough time to clear up the confusion, but if we had had longer we definitely would have cleared up some of the confusion.
9. Does the title grab your attention?
This was quite a good response from the audience. I would not say that the title was our strongest suit. It is a very interesting title that would grab your attention but what I think the viewers were responding to was the placement of the title. I’ll admit it could do with some work as we were unsure where to place it so it got a bit neglected and was the last thing we did before finishing. But overall, a good response.10. What could be improved?
'Clearer narrative'
'The narrative'
'Narrative clearer'
'The talking interacting scene between characters a little confusing'
'Make narrative clearer'
'The shot of the two people talking talk louder'
‘I really liked the beginning, especially how the music builds up to the main character. The dialogues weren’t really clear though, but like how you made the opening sequence continuous at the end. Well done!’
So there are two main things the audience would like us to improve. The first being the narrative. I personally think the narrative works well, and if we had had more time (for the production) we would have cleared a few things up, but as it was such a short space of time it was difficult to get everything we wanted in there. I guess if we were to re-do it we could make it less busy and maybe have less scenes. The other thing was the conversation between the characters. Some people found it confusing whereas others just couldn’t hear it properly. If we were to sort out that scene we would definitely make it louder and try to add some clarity to the conversation if we could. But this conversation would have become clearer the more the story progressed.
But, overall I think we did well to please the majority of our target audience. Our film seems to be aimed at a more niche audience as certain people in the people we surveyed liked it and others didn't. This is generally what happens with films that a released in the cinema as one film cannot possibly appeal to every niche group out there. If we were to mkae the rest of the film we would take into consideration what the target audience have said, sort out those things and make sure that the rest of the film would appeal to them.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Reinventing Your Exit teaser trailer:
As a group we understood the importance of advertising in accordance with the release of a film. We were not told to make a trailer but we felt it would benefit the viewers as it may help them understand the movie more (this is just a short teaser trailer). We made this using iMovie, just like we did for our opening sequence. Once we had finished our opening sequence we felt we may as well have done something productive with our time and thus a trailer was made. Enjoy.
As a group we understood the importance of advertising in accordance with the release of a film. We were not told to make a trailer but we felt it would benefit the viewers as it may help them understand the movie more (this is just a short teaser trailer). We made this using iMovie, just like we did for our opening sequence. Once we had finished our opening sequence we felt we may as well have done something productive with our time and thus a trailer was made. Enjoy.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
A typical audience profile:
Our target audience is between 16 and 24 year of age. But realistically our audience would be aimed at teenagers more than young adults. This is because the film is very heavily influenced by teen culture and lifestyle. Our movie would also probably not appeal to all types of teenagers and will probably only appeal to a niche audience.
This type of person would enjoy art and creativity (as they can relate to Michelle) and would also take a deeper interest in life. They may find it a little hard to make friends as they don’t always fit in, but when they do they are the ‘friends for life’ type. They would have a unique, yet subtle dress sense; usually dressing in plain clothing as they are introverts. Even though they seem slightly different they would still enjoy all the things a stereotypical teenager would, they would listen to music, go to the movies with their friends and just enjoy a good chat.
This would be the type of person to watch our movie as they can closely relate to the main character. This is the type of thing that creates a cult movie. If the audience feel they can relate to and understand the characters it makes the movie more personally and therefore more enjoyable.
But of course, this is only our target audience and sometimes other people from different age groups and different cliques will watch a movie if they like the look of it and if it is advertised well.
Our target audience is between 16 and 24 year of age. But realistically our audience would be aimed at teenagers more than young adults. This is because the film is very heavily influenced by teen culture and lifestyle. Our movie would also probably not appeal to all types of teenagers and will probably only appeal to a niche audience.
This type of person would enjoy art and creativity (as they can relate to Michelle) and would also take a deeper interest in life. They may find it a little hard to make friends as they don’t always fit in, but when they do they are the ‘friends for life’ type. They would have a unique, yet subtle dress sense; usually dressing in plain clothing as they are introverts. Even though they seem slightly different they would still enjoy all the things a stereotypical teenager would, they would listen to music, go to the movies with their friends and just enjoy a good chat.
This would be the type of person to watch our movie as they can closely relate to the main character. This is the type of thing that creates a cult movie. If the audience feel they can relate to and understand the characters it makes the movie more personally and therefore more enjoyable.
But of course, this is only our target audience and sometimes other people from different age groups and different cliques will watch a movie if they like the look of it and if it is advertised well.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Other thriller narratives VS ours:
So, of all the movies I have looked at so far many of them have something about the storyline that is similar to ours. I looked at these movies intentionally to see how they portrayed their ideas and how we portrayed ours.
The Eye: Possibly the closest we have come to a similar movie, the main character has visions and premonitions of the future that cause her to investigate why she is having these visions. Only her visions come from the donated corneas she gets to cure her blindness. In our narrative the characters’ visions come from her own subconscious, mainly occurring when she is asleep or daydreaming, causing her to question her sanity. In The Eye the main character knows she is not going crazy and has to try and convince others that she is not. In any case, both characters from both movies go off in search of the cause of their premonitions leading them both on haunting and revealing journeys.
The Ring: The main comparison between these movies is the girl Samara (The Ring) and Natalie (Reinventing Your Exit) appear to be psychotic. Neither of them actually appear in reality fro sometime in the movies but they eventually appear and the audience learn of their tragic pasts. The Ring is based around Samara killing people out of spite for what her father did to her. Whereas Reinventing Your Exit is based more upon Natalie trying to escape without killing anyone.
Donnie Darko: Of a completely different sub-genre, and yet there are similarities. Both of the main characters are troubled teenagers who find it hard to fit it and are both fascinated by the world. Only Michelle (Reinventing Your Exit) does not suffer from a mental illness, just an overactive imagination.
So, of all the movies I have looked at so far many of them have something about the storyline that is similar to ours. I looked at these movies intentionally to see how they portrayed their ideas and how we portrayed ours.
The Eye: Possibly the closest we have come to a similar movie, the main character has visions and premonitions of the future that cause her to investigate why she is having these visions. Only her visions come from the donated corneas she gets to cure her blindness. In our narrative the characters’ visions come from her own subconscious, mainly occurring when she is asleep or daydreaming, causing her to question her sanity. In The Eye the main character knows she is not going crazy and has to try and convince others that she is not. In any case, both characters from both movies go off in search of the cause of their premonitions leading them both on haunting and revealing journeys.
The Ring: The main comparison between these movies is the girl Samara (The Ring) and Natalie (Reinventing Your Exit) appear to be psychotic. Neither of them actually appear in reality fro sometime in the movies but they eventually appear and the audience learn of their tragic pasts. The Ring is based around Samara killing people out of spite for what her father did to her. Whereas Reinventing Your Exit is based more upon Natalie trying to escape without killing anyone.
Donnie Darko: Of a completely different sub-genre, and yet there are similarities. Both of the main characters are troubled teenagers who find it hard to fit it and are both fascinated by the world. Only Michelle (Reinventing Your Exit) does not suffer from a mental illness, just an overactive imagination.
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