Research

In the past few weeks, I have been doing market research to identify what elements people would want to see in a thriller. In this market research we have been interviewing a variety of generations and watching previous works from students before. We also learnt how to use a digital video camera in order to prepare to video our thrillers. We then put this video onto youtube so other people could see what we have found. Below is a link to our video so you can make your own assumptions;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrfnzPS4_mw

After analysing and evaluating this video, I have made my own self judgements on the video. Although, admittely quite amateur, the camera is steady and the questions are clearly delivered and well answered which makes the content in the video quite good. On the other hand we have made a few errors in making the video, firstly we forgot to put microphones on two of our interviewers meaning they were not always clearly heard and secondly the camera shots were not always correct as we seemed to stick with a distant long shot all the time which is something we will have to alter for the film.

However, we still acquired some valuable tips while interviewing our audiences as we learnt some techniques that we may want to use in our own thriller. We learnt that audiences enjoy suspense in thrillers and shocks which made us think that we need to include a intelligent thriller with a lot of suspense before a big shock to make the viewer want to read on. We have a few early thoughts for our storyboard but we must consider a range of techniques and appropiateness before finalising any ideas for our thriller.

Research

This week, we split into groups and went to participate into some market research on Thrillers. We learnt how to use a video camera and interviewed people to ask them out about their favourite thrillers. We interviewed a variety of generations including the older generation in Mr Carder, the ever so slighlty younger generation in Miss Thompson and the teenage audience in Myles Wilson. This gave us an insight into how to use a video camera and attach microphones to conduct interviews.

In our interviews we learnt what people's favourite thrillers were, what they thought made a thriller and what they liked about a thriller. We were given a variety of answers into what people's favourite thrillers were including North to West, Jaws and Panic Room. We also learnt that people thought suspense, shock and cliffhangers were 3 main factors in what made a good thriller which gave us some idea in what our thriller could include. We also learnt that people thought building up suspense was one of their favourite qualities in what made a good thriller as it made them want to watch on more.

Analysis of Film Openings

Today, I watched 3 film openings to analyse what all film openings had in common and how they built suspense. The three films I watched the openings of were Children of Men, Memento and A History of Violence. In this post, I shall put them in order in which film built up the most suspense and I would want to watch the most.

Children of Men

1. Children of Men - Children of Men started in a gloomy atmosphere in the year of 2027 in the future. It first showed a packed cafe that were all mourning the death of the 'youngest person in the world' suggesting that people had stopped having children as the boy was 18. This builds up a suspense in the atmosphere and has you asking questions about the film. The director uses a technique that is used by Hitchcock called the 'Red Herring' where you are drawn to the ordinary man before the bomb goes off which acts as a shock to the film.

2. Momento - I found Momento a good start to a film as it starts with a flashback of someone getting shot which immediately makes you think and ask questions to as why he shot Teddy. You eventually learn that he believes Teddy killed his wife but within the opening few minutes you learn he has short term memory loss which makes you think maybe Teddy didn't shoot his wife. The director of this film also uses and enigma where Lennie the guy with the short term memory loss is searching for his wifes killer. This makes you want to watch the rest of the film to see what happens next and to whether Teddy did actually kill his wife or not.



Memento



3. A History of Violence - A history violence is very different to the other two in the way it starts a film as where its starts with a very calm atmosphere and then eventually builds up the tension before the shock at the end. It starts with the man coming out of the house and ends with the shock when he shoots the little girl. The film starts with when he returns where there is a dead woman, he then tries to calm the girl down and when she fails to calm down, he shoots her. This makes you want to watch the rest of the film as you want to know who the dead woman was and what possessed him to shoot the little girl.

A History of Violence