7)Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the product?

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Media evaluation question 6

5) How did you attract your audience?

How did you attract your audience? on Prezi

4) Who would be the audience for our media product?

The audience for our thriller are people aged between 16-25 years old, we know this because our thriller is similar to most conventional thrillers and the target audience is the same. Also because people aged 16-25 years old are the age group that most go to the cinema making them the bigger and target market.
We used many methods to think investigate into what our target audience want and what they like to see in thrillers.

First we used woodle to come up with some ideas on what questions to ask:

We used survey monkey to conduct a questionnaire:

After that we had a study group of about 6-8 people which we interviewed:

This process helped to invent and construct our ideas for the coursework, I think that our target audience would want to watch our thriller because it's fast paced and full of action.

3) What kind of Media Institutions might distribute your media product and why?

3 what kind of media institutions might distribute your

View more PowerPoint from Jay Eclipses

2)How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The age range of our actors in the thriller was between 16-late 20s; which is also the age of our target audience. All four actors were male as they were the only actors we could get at the time to film as everyone was busy with their own thrillers, regrettably there were no female actors meaning no female representation. If given the chance to film again we would have used a female actor to play the part of the Mysterious Character.

Even though there was a lack of female characters, there was a range of different ethnicities covering a range of different culturally and class background e.g. middle class, working class etc. Sexuality presented in the thriller was intended as heterosexual, not saying homosexuality is bad, we just didn’t think too much into our characters and their ‘love life,’ our characters were more about self respect and overcoming their personal obstacles. The development of every and any character in any thriller, is what the audience engages and relates to the most whether it being similar personality traits or the situation they are trying to overcome in the film.

Stereotypes

In all thrillers a representation of a character is key to the storyline and the part they play, there is always going to be both negative and positive representations of certain characters depending on what their role is and what kind of a character they are.

In our thriller, our Henchman was stereotyped negatively as his role was to deceive and cause a temporally obstacle for our protagonist. The Henchman blends into everyday society as he is wearing the normal styles and brands people wear at 16-18 years old. He wears dark clothing and a body warmer. From another critics point of view our Henchman character could be stereotyped as what the media call ‘a chav’ because of the way he dressed and the harm he causes to those around him (being our protagonist).

Another stereotype was our Mysterious character as he was dressed in dark clothing; which we associate with ‘evil’ characters.

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The finished product

Finally finished the thriller after many months, many refilming and hours of editing. It's finally finished, and I'm very proud of all our hardwork as a team.
Here it is, enjoy.

Poster!

Filming

Today we re-filmed and included some extra shots to add to our thriller. The film experiment, that I posted couple of weeks ago, we included to use today which will then fade into the title of the film 'The Search Engine.'
Last time we filmed the lighting was dark; but today we tried to vary the lighting, using natural lighting coming in from the windows as well as using some artificial light. This time re-filming, we also varied the shots to add interest.

When editing we took on board the constructive advice our media teacher gave us when we asked him for advice, so to keep up the pace we kept the editing fast paced.
Here is Ezekiel editing the footage:

The Mysterious character and New scene locations

The mysterious character is the one who lost the information when it was in his possession, he plays a minor role like a plot device.For the new scene we used one of the media rooms (below)

The MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER is a rude and secretive character who rarely speaks adding to the mystery. He is dressed in black; which is a dark colour we associate with moral corruption and 'evil.'

Production Process:Editing

Today we started the editing process! Before editing we looked over the footage, to see what scenes to use, as a team. Most of the clips were good; but there were some desired shots that were missing and would help to show diversity in shots and view points of the characters. Later this week we'll refilm or/and film extra shots using varied angle shots and lighting etc.


The first part of the opening, when the titles are running, fast paced editing was used to create a tense atmosphere, making the titles interrupt the scene helped to enhance this effect. In the opening sequence the effect we wanted to convey was to make the audience feel just as confused, paranoid and tense like the protagonist. 

The titles were created in Livetype; which ha proved a useful multi-use program to use and effective to our thriller.
After we edited the phone booth scene and the antagonist scene, including adding music and titles, the duration of the coursework came to just about a minute. To make the opening sequence longer I suggested to write another scene, so I wrote a scene where the protagonist finds the memory stick. 

This did help to increase the time, and tomorrow we will be filming some more shots to add to the scene; but this time we are doing to vary the range of the lighting instead of just being filmed in near darkness. After filming some the extra shots and edit them hopefully we can add extra features such as sound effects etc.

John le Carre

John le Carre is a famous British writer who has written many Spy Thrillers, he has written many novels which some have been made into films and television shows such as 'Tinker Tailor Solider Spy' (film and tv series) and 'The Spy who came in from the cold.'

 Here is some more information I found about John le Carre on Wikipedia
Films

• In 1965, Martin Ritt directed the first film adaptation of a John le Carré novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, with Richard Burton as protagonist Alec Leamas.
• In 1966, Sidney Lumet directed The Deadly Affair, an adaptation of Call for the Dead, with James Mason as Charles Dobbs (George Smiley in the novel).
• In 1969, Frank Pierson directed The Looking Glass War, with Anthony Hopkins as Avery, Christopher Jones as Leiser and Sir Ralph Richardson as LeClerc.
• In 1984, George Roy Hill directed The Little Drummer Girl, with Diane Keaton as Charlie.
• In 1990, Fred Schepisi directed The Russia House, with Sean Connery as Barley Blair.
• In 2001, John Boorman directed The Tailor of Panama, with Pierce Brosnan as Andy Osnard, a disgraced spy.
• In 2005, Fernando Meirelles directed The Constant Gardener, with Ralph Fiennes as Justin Quayle, set in the slums in Kibera and Loiyangalani, Kenya. The poverty so affected the film crew that they established the Constant Gardener Trust to provide basic education to those areas. John le Carré is a patron of the charity.
• In 2011 Tomas Alfredson directed Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, starring Gary Oldman as George Smiley. The film was released on the 5th September 2011 at the Venice Film Festival in the UK on 16 September 2011.

Television

• In 1979, the BBC adapted Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to television, with Alec Guinness as George Smiley. Two years later, in 1981, he reprised the role in Smiley's People. The BBC did not adapt The Honourable Schoolboy, featuring Jerry Westerby (Joss Ackland in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), because production in East Asia would have cost too much.
• In 1987, Peter Smith directed the television adaptation of A Perfect Spy (BBC), with Peter Egan as Magnus Pym, and Ray McAnally as Rick.
• In 1991, Gavin Millar directed A Murder of Quality (Thames Television), with Denholm Elliott as George Smiley, and Joss Ackland as Terence Fielding.

Radio

• The 1994 BBC radio adaptation of The Russia House features Tom Baker as Barley Blair.
• The Complete Smiley is an eight radio-play series, based upon the novels featuring George Smiley, that commenced broadcast on 23 May 2009 on BBC Radio 4, beginning with Call for the Dead, with Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley, and concluding with The Secret Pilgrim, in June 2010 .^[28]

Writing Style
"the le Carré Cold War features unheroic political functionaries aware of the moral ambiguity of their work, and engaged in psychological more than physical drama"

John le Carre builds tension psychologically as he builds the story developing his plot creating complexity. As his story progresses the reader is collecting and building a case study; which gets the reader on and helps to identify with characters in the novel. Le Carre includes false heros like in 'Tinker Tailor Solider Spy' creating paranoia and espionage as no one can be trusted. There are political elements to most of his earlier/popular works, which involve democracy and how as humans we can be fallible. His novels contrast Ian Fleming's James Bond which is rather glamorous in comparison, it's not until his later works 'The Naive and Sentimental Love' that he became more mainstream.

Coursework Progress

Two of our original actors couldn't refilm, so we had to recast the main character and henchman. Yesterday we filmed the scene again and it went really well and there were some good shots. Today we finished editing the footage including titles; however the overall time only came to a minute or just under. The maximum time for the opening sequence is 2 minutes 30 seconds, so the overall time being under a minute isn't good enough for the coursework. 
To increase our time and to develop the story I wrote another scene to add.
This is the new scene:

OWEN walks into the room. Sitting at a computer is a MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER who is centred in the middle of the shot; she/he gets up and leaves in a hurry pushing past OWEN. The MYSTERIOUS character leaves the room (match on action), they look in their bag and realise they’ve left something important behind, she/he looks into the room watching OWEN as he discoveries the memory stick. (Point of view shot from MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER)

OWEN goes to the computer and realises a memory stick has been left behind, he turns back but the MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER hides out of the view of OWEN, OWEN then turns back to the computer and the MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER comes out of hiding looking in nervously. To look for clues OWEN looks in the files (and out of curiosity) to figure out whose memory stick it is.

As he is going is looking in the files he stumbles upon something that shocks him and gasps. The MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER leaves and walks down the corridor and makes an important phone call whilst walking to MR G.

MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER: We have a problem.

The scene then returns to OWEN who is typing into Google ‘The Hendermann Deal’ but there are no results. OWEN then types in ‘The Search Engine.’

End of scene.

Production Process:Filming

Today we filmed these two parts, the first part:

OWEN walking fast to booth, clearly tense about something.

OWEN enters the phone booth and tries to make a phone call but the number isn’t available.

OWEN clearly frustrated

OWEN: (frustrated and distressed) Come on work!

OWEN forcefully puts down the phone, brushes hand through hair, he then rips a page out of the phonebook

Camera zooms out, point of view shot from HENCHMAN 1’s view

Firstly did a long shot of the protagonist walking to the booth getting straight into the action and establishing the urban settings and the ‘hero.’ Using a panning shot to follow the protagonist as he enters the phone booth to keep continuity, by following his continuous actions making it seem more natural. Stopped recording and got into place to do the next shots which were a mixture of close-up and extreme close-up shots so the sound was accurately captured. Stop recording again and then set up for a medium shot to capture the protagonist’s frustration and him leaving the booth. Due to amendments of the script the “he then rips a page out of the phonebook” was taken out. Then the camera zooms out gradually, stop recording and moved into place of where the HENCHMAN 1 is and capture a shot from his point of view.

And the third section:

HENCHMAN 1 (hesitates and then answers): Yes, sir

End of call.

OWEN comes out of the phone booth. HENCHMAN 1 approaches him pretending to be a normal citizen so he doesn’t give away his true identity and cause panic.

OWEN: Have you got a phone, I need to make an important call

HENCHMAN 1:  looks in his coat pocket looks up (Reverse shot) HENCHMAN 1 punches OWEN

Close-up of HENCHMAN 1’s face then of him saying his line and he then hangs up. After the camera was repositioned, so we see HENCHMAN 1 approaching OWEN the protagonist. Repositioning the camera again to capture the first shot of OWEN talking, then repositioning again to capture the reverse shot of HENCHMAN 1, to show him looking in his coat pocket then pretending to punch the protagonist. For this shot, firstly took the ‘pretend punch’ shot with the camera on HENCHMAN 1and then to get another shot/reverse shot and diversity of angles we re-filmed that part with the camera on OWEN.

The second part of the script was filmed last:

HENCHMAN 1 is on the phone, on the other end of the phone we hear MR G his superior speaking on the other end.

MR G: The Hendermann deal is going through. It’s too much of a liability to keep him alive. Get rid of him. No evidence.

The name and character of Mr G was inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s villains as I am a big fan of his films so I persuaded the rest of my group for ‘Mr G’ to be this cool, sophisticated and ambiguous villain. To capture the speech clearly a microphone was placed just underneath the camera. Making our mastermind villain still mysterious, the scene was shot with the antagonist facing the opposite way so all we see is him speaking on the phone, keeping his identity still hidden.  

Filming experiment

Whilst filming the opening scenes and titles we tried many different ideas, even though we are re-filming, this clip I especially liked when he's typing the title of the project on the computer screen. For the thriller coursework we were going to include this but when we started to film, our ideas took a different path.

Titles Font Ideas

Now the filming is getting on, it's time to think about what fonts to use for the titles and the title of the film. Using this website, that let's you download free fonts, on www.dafont.com helped to give us an idea of what kind of font we wanted to use for the titles. Because our thriller is about computers etc, I suggested to use a standard recognisable font then adding to that Luke suggested to use a type effect using LiveType.

Revisions

When filming to make actions smoother and to improve quality as a group we decided to change a few things within the script. After editing this is now the new imprved script!

OWEN walking fast to booth, clearly tense about something.

OWEN enters the phone booth and tries to make a phone call but the number isn’t available.

OWEN clearly frustrated

OWEN: (distressed) Come on work!

OWEN forcefully puts down the phone, brushes hand through hair

Camera zooms out, point of view shot from HENCHMAN 1’s view

HENCHMAN 1 is on the phone, on the other end of the phone we hear MR G his superior speaking on the other end.

MR G: The Hendermann deal is going through. It’s too much of a liability to keep him alive. Get rid of him. No evidence.

HENCHMAN 1 (hesitates and then answers): Yes, sir

End of call.

OWEN comes out of the phone booth. HENCHMAN 1 approaches him pretending to be a normal citizen so he doesn’t give away his true identity and cause panic.

OWEN: [close-up shot] Have you got a phone, I need to make an important call

HENCHMAN 1:  looks in his coat pocket looks up [Reverse shot] HENCHMAN 1 punches OWEN

Black shot (text: 24 hours earlier …)

Updated planning details

Originally published 26/01/2012, updated 16/02/2012

The characters that will feature in the opening titles are:
Owen- the protagonist
The voice of Mr G- the antagonist
Henchman 1- who is Mr G's right hand man who does the 'dirty work'

Locations, locations, locations...
Ict room 2 for the Mr G filming and then we're going to use a public phonebooth for a more modern day realistic effect.

Music and sounds:
Decided for the sound effects we're going to use Final Cut Express, for the ident and the anamatic I used Garage Band to create the music it was really easy when I got the hand of it after a few learning curves. For the music we signed up for mobygratis.com and we're looking and seeing what would work well and give the most effect to the coursework.

Blog Poll results

Finally got round to reviewing the poll results on my blog and here they are,

And the winner is the Spy Thriller, so love the fast paced action and violence hey? Well then guess you'll just as excited as me about the new Bourne film coming out in August, uncovering more information about the anymonous operation Bourne and others like him were enrolled in.

Review of footage

After reviewing the scenes we filmed on Tuesday, the shots were shakey so after half term we're going to film them again. 

Hopefully after half term the weather conditions will be better also as the snow and ice will have probably melted.

Filming!

Today we started to film our opening sequence for our coursework. Recently there has been lots of snow and ice but thankfully the ice had mostly melted so we took the opportunity to film. We filmed the first part up to the phonecall then the third part after the phonecall.
To save alot of time going to start editing the film that we already have, and hopefully soon we will get all the filming done, start to edit and thinking about how to present the titles.

Risk Assessment

1. No filming in inappropriate locations.
2. Check safety of locations e.g. roads.
3. Minimise risk of theft or equipment.
4. When filming on location ensure teacher or responsible adult know where you are and have a telephone number and a time of when you will return.
5. Check all equipment is working before you leave.
6. Ensure you have permission for filming if necessary.
7. Always film with at least one other person.
8. Ensure you have permission of those you are filming

Risk Assessment Sheet

Programme Title: The Search Engine

Client: AS Media Studies Coursework

Writers: Ezekiel Ignacio and Jessica Pye

Producer: Colin Chafer

Director: Luke van Gelder

Date: 31/01/2012

Major Issues:

Filming at:

Robert Clack Upper site A18

Local phone booth at Fiddlers

Solutions:

We made appointments with actors to get ahead of their busy work schedule and to book when to film, which is at morning times between 9-10:30 and after school times when students (and other background) won’t cause too much of a disruption.  

Contacts:

Mr Johnson Head of Media Studies

Emergency services:

On Site Services: Going to be accompanied with and adult at all times as actors are adults (teachers)

Local Police: Metropolitan Police at Dagenham East

Local Fire: near Central Park

Local Hospital: Queens’ hospital in Romford

The Art of the Titles

The Art of the Titles is all about honouring as well as going into detail of film opening sequences and titles seeing how they're made and key elements that make them memorable.

The Art of the Titles is "a compendium and leading web resource of film and television title design from around the world. We honor the artists who design excellent title sequences. We discuss and display their work with a desire to foster more of it, via stills and video links, interviews, creator notes, and user comments. 

Featuring opening title design for film and television from Croatia, New Zealand

The British Board of Film Classification

Our thriller opening sequence for coursework, including film titles, must be aimed at 15 or 18 certifcate audience. Knowing that I did some independant research into what makes a film a 15 or 18 certifcate on the http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ website.

Suitable only for 15 years and over

"No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work."

Discrimination

The work (as a whole) must not approve or support discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Suitable only for adults

No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema.
No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video.

Crime

If the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence.

Behaviour
Where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – for example, any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts.

Drug use
or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals.

Violence
This may include portrayals of sexual or sexualised violence which might, for example, eroticise or endorse sexual assault.

Sex
There are more explicit images of sexual activity which cannot be justified by context. Such images may be appropriate in ‘R18’ works, and in ‘sex works’would normally be confined to that category.

Film Language: Thrillers

Every different genre of film will have its own conventions which help us to identify what type of film it will be. Film language is a big part of this as the scene is set, props in place and actors ready - these features help to foreshadow what's to come.
So what features do we see in thrillers?
Themes:
- action
- violence
- horror
- tension/suspense/shock

Camerawork:
- slanted camera angles
- tilt shots to show disorientation
- angled shots
- extreme close-ups to show fear


Editing:
You could use:
A straight cut which is most used in any editing/films
A fade-out to show time passing
A dissolve which is the blending of two scenes creating a linking sense in the story
A wipe cut; but these are rarely used
or finally a jump cut to draw the audiences attention and create tension/disorientation as an object/character is brought to our focus attention

Lighting:
Normally low key lighting would be used to create shadows and give a chiaroscuro effect to create a dark foreboding effect. However high key lighting may be used to create a contrapuntal effect by having a normal setting which is more effective as it's more realistic.


Sound/music:
Something minor or discordant sounding  to add suspense/uneasiness and prepare the audience for what is to come or to mislead into a sense of security using contrapuntal music to contrast the events to come.
For example one of the most famous pieces of film music of all time is in Psycho in the famous 'shower scene'

Ident

Interviews

For further target audience research we interviewed seven media studies students and one of our media studies teachers. We asked six questions and filmed the responses.
After editing in Final Cut Express the video is now complete, here's the video:

Music

Got the email back from mobygratis.com and our requests have been approved so the music for our AS Thriller coursework has been finally decided.
Here's the songs we requested and are using in our thriller:

Animatic

Here's our animatic, hopefully might give a better idea of the opening titles for our AS Thriller coursework

Analysis of Past Student's Work

Decus Et Tutamen

By Connor Dyer, Simon Moore and Mackenzie Baxter Moss

• Flashing shots at the start of different places and people – unclear of what's happening
• Peaceful setting then an unsuspected killer strikes!
• Flash effects creating panic and uncertainty
• Thin twigged crooked trees that look evil and foreboding, start spinning as the situation spins out of control
• Running through the woods, hand held camera effect creating more panic
• Point of view shot of the killer then he shoots and titles come up

Storyboard

The amazing storyboard to my AS thriller coursework :O

The script

[OWEN walking fast to booth, clearly tense about something.

OWEN enters the phone booth and tries to make a phone call but the number isn’t available.

OWEN clearly frustrated]

OWEN: Microphone needs to be just underneath out of view from the camera so the speech is picked up clearly  (frustrated and distressed) Come one work!

[OWEN forcefully puts down the phone, brushes hand through hair, he then rips a page out of the phone book]

(Camera zooms out, point of view shot from HENCHMAN 1’s view)

[HENCHMAN 1 is on the phone, on the other end of the phone we hear MR G his superior speaking on the other end]

MR G: Microphone needed so speech is clear The Hendermann deal is going through. It’s too much of a liability to keep him alive. Get rid of him. No evidence.

HENCHMAN 1 (hesitates and then answers): Yes, sir

(End of call)

[OWEN comes out of the phone booth. HENCHMAN 1 approaches him pretending to be an normal citizen so he doesn’t give away his true identity and cause panic]

OWEN: Have you got a phone, I need to make an important call

[HENCHMAN 1 looks in his coat pocket looks up (Reverse shot) HENCHMAN 1 punches OWEN]

Black shot (text: 24 hours earlier …)

Planning and formatting of titles

Media Studies (OCR)

AS Coursework G321

Robert Clack 12127

Candidate names and numbers

Ident

A Film by Group 76 

Main actor(s)

Other actors

Music by

Editing by

Director of photography

Costume designer

Director

'The Search Engine'

Analysis of target research

Reviewing Survey Monkey we found that most people’s fears were spiders, other animals (mostly types of birds) and death/murder. The survey and questionnaire also showed that the majority of people preferred conspiracy thrillers and the second most voted was Sci-Fi and political thrillers.

Our target audience as mentioned before was younger people aged 16-25, so we used questionnaires then later uploaded the questionnaire onto Survey Monkey so more people could answer. Survey Monkey puts the information in a database which you can make graphs, percentages etc on the collective answers.



The conspiracy thriller is full of fast paced action, in depth thinking and many opportunities to add twists and red herrings. Reviewing the surveys it was clear that our target audience wanted something that would make them think indepth and want to solve the enigma themselves so we decided as a group to create a conspiracy thriller.    

Treatment Sheet

Name of the film: The Search Engine

Outline of ideas
The idea for the coursework was that a young intelligent man comes across a memory stick which is left at a computer, the memory stick is encrypted and full of a secret government's hidden information. The protagonist is isolated and has no one they can trust as the mystery unfolds. Two different parties want to obtain the memory stick and will do anything to get that information.

What resources will you need?(include actors, props, settings)

• a phone booth
• office settings for the antagonist's office/evil headquarters
• 3 actors
• phone
• a yellow pages book for show

Justifications of ideas in relation to the genre:
The idea relates to the genre because of conventions such as suspense, the macguffin, a false hero, protagonist more powerful than the villain at the end of the film and the protagonist being doubtful in whom he can trust as the enigma unravels.
Thrillers are all about these conventions above, and hopefully come filming these ideas can further justified when they are finally represented.

Research for the thriller coursework

Conventions of the genre:

• mysterious phone caller
• weapons
• a secret organisation opposing threat
• sophisticated villain/antagonist
• resourceful protagonist
• suspense
• protagonist usually 'wins the day'
• flashback of an important character building memory or/and containing a clue to solving the mystery
• a false hero
• Macguffin
• fast paced action sequences

Research into real films of the genre: (other films watched, ideas, references etc)
Using The Manchurian Candidate as a model of a conspiracy thriller in the film there are elements including:

• a secret organisation working against the protagonist's efforts
• mystery phone calls
• weapons
• politics
• forms of science and High-Tech gadgets that haven't been invented
• a distant memory that holds an important part in the puzzle
• a young intelligent protagonist who comes across information that they shouldn't have 
•  fast paced action

Research into potential target audience:

The target audience we chose was people aged 16-25; because they are the age group that goes mostly to the cinema and of course we fall into that genre so making a film that would appeal to us and other people our age was what we wanted to create.

Looking into target audiences it was clear that different people or different ages like different types of thrillers, even different genders like different types of thrillers. For example a younger age group might prefer something more fast paced and bloody whereas an older audience might prefer more political and conspiracy type thrillers with little action but full of deceit and enigmas. Boys generally prefer action packed films; whereas girls might prefer something less action but something that will get their brains ticking. Who stars in the movie is also a factor as some actors are employed to attract a certain gender and also, depending on the actor, it could promote the film more because of their 'star status.'

To get an idea of what thrillers people like to watch we made a questionnaire which later expanded to an online survey on Survey Monkey. The questionnaire included questions such as: what was their favourite genre, last film they saw at the cinema and what they liked about it, if they would rather be the villain or the hero and why and lastly their worst fear. Hitchcock made films that explored many fears for example the fear of terrorism in ‘Sabotage,’ birds in ‘The Birds’ and the fear that someone normal can commit a murder in his most famous film ‘Psycho.’

Proposal as to how your project would appeal to the target audience and beyond:
This would appeal to the target audience (16-25) because of conventions such as fast paced action, scenes of suspense and that important macguffin. And maybe attract older audiences because of the mystery that surrounds the macguffin. What's on the memory stick and why does everyone want to obtain it? Guess you're going to have to wait for the opening titles for clues...

Organization of group

Before we start to do any work, as a group we discussed who will resume what role within the group. Colin and Ezekiel will do the editing, Luke resuming the role as director and myself - director of photography and script writing. 

Research of Titles

Before creating our own titles for the thriller we needed to research into film titles that can be considered as iconic. A good website which helped to research into this area was artofthetitles.com, it has loads of opening titles demonstrating different ideas and techniques that interested me and it has given me more ideas in what to do for my own titles.

In The Cut

• Titles appearing over the opening scene
• Opening shots showing the urban setting
• Titles appear alternating at the top of the screen and at the bottom
• ECU on protagonist
• 'When I was just a little girl' playing during the main titles; but piano is in minor key creating an abnormal/unsettling mood. Protagonist is dreaming, she begins to hum the song then the song continues non-diegetically in the background
• Sepia shot showing a flashback, the title of the film is then revealed almost as if the letters are bleeding

Seven

• There is an unsettling atmosphere which the music brings out with everyday sounds which are discordant and made into a musical score
• White non-focused, slanted and hand written like effect with some words in bold and others not
• Text flashes in and out
• Glimpse of unsettling images which are blurred and unclear adding to the eerieness

Panic Room

• Shots of New York, closer, closer the shots become until there is a close up shot of protagonist
• Embossed, large, and it capitals which are construction-like on side of buildings

American Horror Story

From the same creator as the 'Seven' title sequence and it includes same themes

• House noises and 'white noise' used to create the music, creates an eerie effect
• Point of view searching through the secrets of the house
• Dull dark colours
• Flashes of other and disturbing images
• Titles flash in and out showing actors names

Fight Club

“The opening title sequence was supposed to be starting inside the fear center of Edward Norton's brain. The electricity is like photo electrical stimuli that is running through his brain. These are supposed to be impulses, fear-based impulses. We are changing scale the whole time so we're starting at the size of a dendrite [and] we are pulling back through the frontal lobes, going through this black section where there are particles; we've left the brain and are going through the skull casing. This is inside the skull where Arnon's name appears, inside bone where apparently there is some fluid in, which I did not know. And then we pull out through this clogged pore. The first time we showed this to [Edward] he said, "My face is not that dirty." And I said that this was all based on actual photographs...of your skin." David Fincher

Mad Men

The opening title sequence features a graphic animation of a businessman falling from a height, surrounded by skyscrapers with reflections of period advertising posters and billboards. The businessman is presented as a  black-and-white silhouette. The titles are influenced by graphic designer Saul Bass's skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) and the movie poster for Vertigo (1958).

Reservoir Dogs

Perhaps the most iconic opening titles alongside Seven. Many other films have tried to imitate these iconic titles amateur like and professional. But of course this wasn't an orginal Quentin Tarantino idea, it was taken from the orginal Ocean's Eleven film.