creating my survey

Today i created my survey using http://www.surveymonkey.com/
In order to gain a variety of answers from a range of different people i posted my survey onto my facebook for people to complete. I asked 8 questions which will hopefully effectively answer my question of who the target audiece will be for our 2 minute thriller. I asked questions such as the persons age, sex, favourite thriller, how much they like thrillers etc. Below is my survey posted onto my facebook wall;

Sabotage, 1935

Sabotage was another of Alfred Hitchcocks brillian creations, made in 1935. This film shows dramatic irony throughout, characters within the film knows something but we as the audience do. In this case, the husband of Stevies sister, Verlock gives Stevie a package to deliver to Picadilly circus by exactly 1:30. The boy does as he is told, not knowing that the package he has been told to deliver is in fact a bomb, set to explode at 1:45. Verlock tells the boy to go straight to Picadilly circus and be sure that it arrives at exactly 1:30, however Stevie is prevented from doing so by many different obstacles such as the Lord Mayors Show. This has deadly consequences!

How Hitchcock creates suspense and tesion throughout;

Hitchcock creates supense in a number of ways, one in which is through a number of close ups and extreme close ups of the bomb and the boys, Stevies, face. They occur more and more frequently as the boys time starts to run out.

There are also many close ups of the image shown above, what time the bomb will blow, and close ups of the time on various clocks to emphasise the change in the time. These also increase as the time decreases for the boy to deliver the package, bomb, on time.

The music creates tension, it sounds as if it is counting down making a 'tik tok' noice, similar to a bomb or clock counting down. The 'tik tok' noice speeds up as the time runs low creating the tension to build. The sound whilst the boy is walking through the market also creates tension and is contrapuntal sound as it doesn't fit in with the surrounding happy atmosphere.

Identifying Our Target Audience

The target audience depends on the sub-genre of the thriller and also the topics in which it contains.
For example a thriller such as 'No Country for Old Men', which contain more action and violence, seem to have a more popular audience of young males. This is becuase the fast paced nature of these films appeals more to male viewers. 
Another example is thrillers that can also be categorized with horror such as 'One Missed Call', these seem to appeal to young females rather than males. This could be because horror films normally target young women, therefore women would be able to grab their attention.

There are many ways in which we can identfy our target audience. Such as carrying out an interview with a range of people, and finding out what their favourite thriller and what, in their opinion, makes a thriller good.
Furthermore, another method could be carrying out an online survey also asking various questions to establish what different people think about different thrillers. This could be posted onto facebook, which would offer a variety of answers from our family and friends.

graphic matches

Graphic matches are two similar images placed together to create an overall smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next. however, the image doesn't have to look the same, it can just have the same patterns of light and dark, or the same positioning of the figures within the shot. The director, could also choose to present a contrasting shot to achieve a different effect.


an example of a graphic match is used in 2001: A Space Odyssey as shown below in this clip i retrieved from youube;

The graphic match within this scene is between the bone flying in the air, thrown up by the apes and the satelite in space.

'Shadow of a Doubt'

'Shadow Of A Doubt', another one of Alfred Hitchcock's brilliant films, was created in 1943. It was one of Hitchcock's favourite out of his own collection of films. We watched this film together in class and analyzed the mise-en-scene as follows;

Settings and props

One of the main props is the Cigar, this suggests that 'uncle Charlie' has a high taste and a lot of money to spend. The large sum of money scattered over the bedside table and floor reinforces the first prop and also suggests that Charlie has more than enough money as he is careless of it, its of little importance to him. The place uncle Charlie comes from seems rundown, poor and almost eerie, with it's broken and burnt cars and bad atmosphere. This contrasts with Santa Rosa where his neice lives which looks a much nicer place; almost perfect with its white picket fences, flowers and smiling faces.

Positioning of characters and objects withing the frame
When uncle Charlie seems to be escaping the two men, he seems very csual and resourceful when avoiding them. Also Uncle Charlie is positioned in the centre of the screen, with the two men who are after him in the foreground, whilst Charlie is in the background. Also the fact they are either side of him, suggests a sense of entrapment on Charlie's behalf. Also uncle Charlie seems to come to life in the dark, this could be suggesting that there is a sinister, dark side to him. It also suggests that uncle Charlie is the antagonist. Uncle charlie and his neice, Charlie seem to both be positioned in the same way on both of their seperate beds, showing the contrast between the two.

Below is a montage of uncle Charlie and charlie which i created using http://www.onetruemedia.com/ 

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Costume, hair and make up

The costumes in which everyone is wearing seem very smart, casual and old fashioned. Uncle Charlie's suit in particular looks as though it is emaculate, he is very particulate about looking smart. Also his hair seems to be slicked back, these both reinforce the fact that Charlie is in someway wealthy and looks as though he takes pride in what he looks like.

Facial expressions and body language

Both Charlie and uncle Charlie are both seen to be lying on the bed in the same relaxed and uninterested matter. Both of the characters display an emotion of boredum and tiredness and seem as though they are lifeless.

Lighting and Colour

At the begging there is light entering the room from the window in which, untill what suggested as his landlord comes into his room and pulls the blind down. Charlie now enters darkness, at which point he moves from his relaxed, lazy position on the bed to a more tense, on edge position and moves around. This reinforces that he tends to 'come alive' in the darkness, further suggesting that he is the antagonist of this film. The opening seems to have a lot of shadows, and uses low key lighting, givimg the film a more eerie feel to it. Uncle Charlie has an ominous look when he is on the phone shortly after, due to the shadow that is created over his eyes, by the hat he is wearing, perhaps suggesting he is sinister.

Preliminary exercise; storyboard

This is the story board we created for our preliminary exercise before we began to film it.

Preliminary exercise

Above is mine, sarah's, Hollies and connors preliminary exercise. To start with we had to create a storyboard then we had roughly a whole lesson to complete the filming of our preliminary exercise.
We decided on using many shots including;

• long shot
• Pan shot
• extreme close up

In order to produce our outcome, we filmed each part several times, making sure we could peice them together. I feel as though our preliminary exercise went well as it seems to all flow nicely.
However, we did encounter some errors. One of which was due to the fact that we could not hear the audio whilst editing so just focused on the visual side of things, we did not realise that the camera man can be heard saying 'Go'. Also at one point one of the characters look at the camera, showing that they know it is there. Also due to the distance of the camera, some of the dialogue is rather quite, too quite to really be heard and other parts can be heard clearly. 
Although, I feel as though we have been able to notice our mistakes, and therefore will take these in to consideration whilst filming in the future.