TASK 7

Our Thriller and our Preliminary Task we did at the very beginning of are vastly different. The first difference between the two is that in the preliminary task we were allowed to pick our groups whereas for our thriller we had a groups delegated to us which was a massive challenge seeing as we were all very different people and had tendency to argue about our ideas, in the long run it was beneficial because we all matured and became more patient with one an other. Because we all had such different personalities our ideas and thoughts were very different so this benefited the thriller as a whole.

For our preliminary tasks we got given a storyboard which we had to follow so we had to take the camera shots that were given on the storyboard, however for our thriller we created our own storyboard this then made the thriller much more of a challenge then our prelim task because we called the shots. Deciding which camera shots we would take and how our thriller would be structured.

In our preliminary task we used a very limited amount of shots including medium wide shots, wide shots and close ups. There was no noticeable high or low angle shots within our prelim so it is very noticeable that our thriller camera work is much more complicated because we have a much wider variety of camera shots.

Another difference between our prelim and our thriller is the difference in the importance of the Mise-en-scene. In our preliminary task the Mise-en-scene was very basic. An example of this is for our prelim we only used natural and no artificial lighting whereas in our thriller we used LED lights, Red heads and light reflectors to create the perfect lighting state. For our prelim we only had one lesson to film in whereas for a thriller we had a whole day. This is evident in our prelim because it appears rushed and not organized. This is the same for our for our prelim we only had 2 lessons to edit whereas for our thriller we had 3 weeks. Another difference is that our thriller shows how much preparation and work has gone into creating it whereas our prelim shows there was little preparation and work spent on researching and planning.

 

Undoubtedly our editing for our thriller was better than our prelim. Initially because we had more time to edit our thriller then our prelim. Another reason is that when we were editing our prelim it was the first time we were using Final Cut Pro, so it was a learning process so when it came to editing our thriller we were more experienced and familiar with the program. I found that with our thriller we were able to make smoother transitions between shots but the biggest difference between the two is that in our thriller we were able to use special effects making a sizeable difference. The sound for our prelim task was of very low quality, with some sounds much louder than others and some, which contained our group speaking behind the scenes. For our thriller we were able include sound effects using sound track pro and both pan and compress sounds to make sure they were at an even volume. 

TASK 6

Here is our finished product and also an explanation of how we used digital technologies in our Thriller.

Addressing Our Target Audience (TASK 5)

Individual Audience Member (Tumblr) (TASK 4)

Here is the link to an individual audience members tumblr blog:

                                                                    

http://the-dark-city.tumblr.com/archive

Dark City's blog has many black and white photographs from noir films such as Casablanca and Sunset Boulevard, we can see from their blog that they have a strong passion for noir and neo noir films and thrillers from the 1940's. This blogger is the perfect example of the type of audience we feel would enjoy our film because it is a neo noir based on a 1940's style detective thriller.

Who would be the audience for our thriller (TASK 4)

Seeing as our thriller sequence is a film noir our target audience would be quite diverse. For example film noir has been around since the 1940s therefore many a people would be attracted to watch it from the older generation through to younger people that are interested in older films. An example of a old noir style film in Brighton Rock which was remade in 2010 by Roland Joffe and will therefore target a younger audience who may rediscover older film noirs through this. Our film is a homage to 40s film noir a film such as The Big Sleep, the Maltese Falcon and Sunset Boulevard. These films are classics so therefore they will target a wide audience of film fans around the world.

Film noir underwent resurgence in the 1990s with neo noir films coming out such as LA Confidential, The Last Seduction and The Usual Suspects. These films at the time of release were targeting a younger audience and although you wouldn’t say they were mainstream they had a widespread release although their audience was probably a little more niche than that. I feel that the audience for our thriller will be equally men and women of any ages over the age of 15 but because of the subject matter and the attention to period detail our film would probably target a more mature audience. Younger fans may appreciate our film if they discovered it girls in particular because of our strong female lead character men would like to court her whereas women would like to be her. As goes for our lead male with older women being attracted to him and younger women might want to watch it just to see him get his comeuppance.

Overall I think our film will probably mainly appeal to over 30s equally male and female and would probably get shown at art-house cinemas and therefore appeal a niche audience. A younger audience of 18- 30 would also like our film but that would mainly be the secondary audience unless they were cineastes.

Who would distribute our thriller (TASK 3)

Either vertigo or warp would distribute our thriller because it is a low budget distributer and our film is low budget production. Our film would be distributed into art house cinemas like other warp films, such as submarine made by Richard Arayoade and Tyrannosaur made by Paddy Considine. Both of these directors are first time film makers so it is already established that warp are willing to take a risk on first time film makers because there is previous evidence. By having these film distributors produce our film would be suitable because they specialise in low-budget art-house films. Another reason we have chosen vertigo to distribute film is that they support independent directors such as Gareth Edwards who is also a first time film maker making them willing to take a risk on us with us being first time film makers. Much like Gareth Edward who editing Monsters at home we have edited our thriller at school. Another similarity between Monsters and Let the sleeping dog lie is Edwards used a £2000 Sony EX3 camera to film and we used a £3000 Sony NX5 digital HD camera. The reason we are not choosing a large company like Universal Studios or Time Warner is because is all because we have a low budget and our films noir is aimed at niche audience whereas there films are more aimed at the mass audience from every generation. This contrasts to our target audience because we feel that our film would appeal more to those existing in the 1990s the neo-film a period and the 1940s where film noir was for the mainstream audience. As well as this these large conglomerates would not produce our film because they specialise in films that are going to take more money in the box office and on merchandise then ours. Our film would probably make its money through DVD sales and television and as such its limited opportunities would mean that a bigger company would not want to take a risk on us.

Vertigo being a British film company would help us promote our thriller because the British population would want to support the British film industry because they want to make it match Americas industry. This is very helpful to us because our film is made in Britain but based in America make its similar to American film noirs. The film Bronson another Vertigo film was distributed in America through the company Magnolia pictures which specializes in both foreign and independent films. This is we think that it would be suitable to distribute our film through this company in the USA because they would be a perfect match for our thriller. This might help attract our target audience because they have a pre existing customer base, also our film deals with murder, drugs and has a strong female character which is similar to Vertigo films such as London To Brighton. This film deals in social realism and was made for a budget of £187,000 with additional lottery funding. The film had a limited theatrical release before finidng its audience on Film 4 and DVD which is probably similar to ours.

Vertigo specialises in genre films and ours is very much genre based being a film noir. Vertigo work in partnership with the BBC and the BFI on several productions and this would be of benefit to our film for distribution. Combining with other companies through cross media convergence means that they can share the costs. This benefits both the film companies as the minimise their risks by cost sharing and also our film as there is more chance that the BBC would show it on TV and help promote the film throughout the UK and Europe. Another example of a film that utilised this is The Kings Speech, although they still needed to sell it to the Weinstein Company in the US for distribution having the BBC’s name attached help sell the film in the UK as they are considered a worthy and venerable institution.