Evaluation Question Seven

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

When I look back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt a lot from that point until now, having finished my final project.

Firstly I have learnt how to work as part of a team, effectively. I have learnt that communication is important, you have to make sure that everyone is having their ideas heard and taking part. I've also learnt how important it is too stand up for what you think is going to benefit your group the most, this was something I was unable to do whilst filming my preliminary task. Working as a part of a group is a great thing, it allows you to spread the work load out evenly and not let just one person do all the work, as well as get a variety of different opinions and ideas in order to work to the best of your ability, this I am grateful for, as I don't think I would've coped on my own. 

Another thing i have learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the full project is the amount of work goes into making something like this. I have a new found appreciation and respect for film writers, producers, directors ect... because I know how much work I put into my project, the amount they must have to put in must be immense. 

I have also learnt that your mise-en-scene is more important that I originally thought, when filming our preliminary task we didn't really have to think about the costumes or make up, location, props ect because it didn't matter we were trying to showcase our camera skills. But when it came to filming, I found myself picking up on it, like the spacing of the location we used, because I knew it was something the audience would pick up on, if it wasn't done to the best of our ability.



I also realised how much your camera, and camera quality affect your movie. If the camera quality is rubbish or the camera is shaky, it looks bad on you as the creator, so I learnt from my preliminary task how to handle a camera better, as I was the camera operator. It was something that took a while for me to get my head around as I had never really used one for this purpose before hand. 

A final thing that I have learnt from the progression from my preliminary task to my final project is how important it is to take into consideration the current forms and conventions of a thriller film as well as looking at the issues surrounding your audience and how you think it will effect or benefit them. I found myself thinking about it more and more as the project commenced, and I began making decisions based on whether or not it would help the audience understand or if it challenged or conformed to the conventions of thriller movies that already existed. 

Evaluation Question Six

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

Here is an audio clip of me answering this question:

Evaluation Question Five

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question Four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question Three

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social group?

Evaluation Question One

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

Throughout our thriller opening we have tried to both use and challenge forms of other media products. We have done this through the use of camera angles, character choice and the mise-en-scene, in particular the spacing of the characters on the screen.

Towards the beginning of the opening, there is a close-up of our female victim. We show her to the stereotypical, blonde haired, vulnerable victim, she is seen to have been crying and begging for her life. This complies with the conventions that we see in many thriller movies that women are vulnerable, needy and weak; this is similar to Drew Barrymore’s character, Casey Becker, in Scream. She is seen to be vulnerable and weak as she begged for her life, we wanted to draw from something like that when it came to our female victim. 

We tied up our 2 victim based characters in the centre of the room, there are shots to show this in various points throughout the thriller movie. This uses the forms and conventions of a thriller film, as it has a female victim, which isn’t uncommon throughout the genre, examples including; Taken, Along Came a Spider and Trapped. It gives into the stereotype as it tends to be women who get kidnapped as they are seen as ‘easier prey’. However we also challenge the form and convention by also having a male victim, especially considering it was a female antagonist.

We have a strong female character antagonist, which isn’t very common throughout thriller movies, but is becoming increasingly more common to show women in thriller movies to be enigmatic or disturbingly sadomasochistic. We wanted to challenge the stereotype that not just thriller movies, but all movies have. That is that women are weaker than men, we wanted our female lead to have all the qualities that a male character would have in that position; no remorse, motivation, merciless and vengeful. Thriller movies that have a strong female antagonist include; Crimson Peak, Stoker and Excision. 

Them- The Completed Thriller Opening

This is our completed Thriller opening which we have named them. 

Behind The Scenes: Editing

Our editing took up the most amount of time, this was because when we went through each part of our filming we did, we noticed things that didn't quite fit together properly, so we had to go back and film extra bits to add in. 

In the beginning, our film once we'd edited it all together, only came to 1 minute 45 seconds and it was pretty boring as there was nothing that built up to the ending. So we decided to film how each character ended up there. Firstly we filmed how the mistress got kidnapped and we edited that in with the shots of her tied up, then we did the same with how the husband got kidnapped. 

A screen shot of how we added parts in. 

When I made the opening credits the first time, the actual credits took up 25 seconds of the film, and they were on a black screen. Which got me thinking, if they were going to take that much time, then maybe we could use that time for something that helps to develop our plot line. As I previously mentioned, I then decided it would be a good time to introduce the female character and her way of thinking. I hoped this would attract the audiences attention immediately and want to make sure that they weren't bored, so we decided to go with this instead. 

It took us a little while to get our heads around how iMovie worked, but after a while we did. We were able to use the little bits to make our movie the best it could be. For example,we layered the sounds on top of each other, and took away the audio on the actual footage to make it sound more realistic, as seen below. 

I spent a lot of time, editing on my own as one of the girls in the group went on holiday towards the end of the project being finished. I found this extremely time consuming, but it also fills me with extreme pride to know what I am capable of. We also, used windows movie maker to create the end section, see below, and the opening credits so we could use the font we wanted and have the background we wanted. 
 

Behind The Scenes: Camerawork

We tried to use as many different camera angles as possible throughout the opening.

We used a canted angle when the wife was looking at the mistress. We used this to show how the wife's anger has caused her to become desperate and frantic. As well as this, canted angles tend to catch the attention of the audience as it allows them to ask why they are viewing it from this angle. We wanted our audience to feel sympathetic for our mistress character, showing her innocence throughout- we did this because we wanted to go against the stereotype that you see about them. Usually they are portrayed to be manipulative and unsympathetic to the family of the man they are with, but we wanted her to play a victim, she was unaware that he was married. 

We used a few long shots throughout, many of these were used to set the scene. The first one we used showed the setting- it was used in the same way an establishing shot would've been. It shows the couple tied up and the woman behind them. It immediately clarifies to the audience what they are dealing with. These types of shots are used frequently in thriller movies. As well as this we used one when we showed the male character getting home from work. We did this so the audience would be able to see the whole of the scene, as throughout this scene, the camera didn't move- the people walked towards the camera.



We used an extreme close-up of Amelia's face (she plays our mistress) to show the innocence of the mistress and how she was unaware he was married. She is begging for her life. We did this to make our other two characters seem more like villains than they really are. We want there to be a certain degree of dislike for our lead female character as well as a dislike for the male character. We also used an extreme close up to show how the male character felt no remorse for his actions. 


The majority of our shots were either mid-shots or point of view shots. This was done, firstly to show consistency throughout the shots, so the audience didn't get confused. It was also done because we wanted to show the audience how the wife views these people, who she believes has 'sinned' her. There is also a use of a point of view shot with our opening credits, as the female character walks towards her house. We wanted to show how her mental illness effects her life- hence the shaking camera and fast movements looking around checking that she is not being followed, this is because she is paranoid- she hears voices in her head and she doesn't know what to do about it. We wanted to show why the characters have been abducted for something as menial as cheating- we thought this would be the best way to do that. 

Behind the Scenes: Mise-En-Scene

Setting- As previously mentioned we chose to use a garage as our main setting because it fits with the theme of our thriller film, this woman wouldn't have access to elaborate places to hold the couple- especially on such short notice as 15 hours. This also made it easier for us as it allowed the filming process to be a lot simpler as we had constant access in case we needed to re shoot any shots, which we did. The image to the right shows the location we used. Although it is smaller than we originally thought, we made it work to fit in the way we wanted, to get the right aesthetics. We also shot in our school car park, this was to create the ambiance of surprise. We made it as though our mistress, has been surprised on her way to work the next morning after meeting Jack. It had high key lighting as it was during the day, however this also created a problem for us as it was sunny. The sun kept reflecting off of the cars and washing our actress out, this meant we had to wait until the sun went behind the clouds, to keep the location we wanted without ruining the scene by making our actor difficult to see. We also used the hallway of a house, to show how the male got to be where he is, he comes home from work and ambushed by his wife who hits him over the head with a pot. 

Lighting- Our film has low key lighting throughout for a few reasons, firstly, most garages don't have extensive amounts of lighting and we tried to be as true to real life as possible throughout the filming process, as well as this, a common convention of thriller films is low-key lighting that helps to build the suspense and tension throughout the different scenes which is something, I hope we incorporated in our work. We had no natural lighting, and the artificial lighting we had was a little light bulb attached to the ceiling. This again helps with the ambiance and aesthetics were going for in the scene.  However when we filmed outside and in the hallway we used brighter lighting to show the normality in contrast to the scene where they are tied up, as him coming home from work and her going to work is a normal part of a daily routine.


Costume and make-up- Our mistress, named Emily wore a simple, yet nice grey dress, as though she was going on a casual date with Jack, her partner. The husband, Jack was wearing a shirt and trousers and the wife was wearing everyday clothes during the bulk of the scene but she was wearing more professional clothes when she kidnaps the husband and his girlfriend indicating to the audience she may have a normal job. This also shows how her mental illness might be underlying and only comes to show when it is triggered. We chose this because we have this theme throughout to show the normality of the situation, a surprising number of people cheat on their husbands/wives, and showing how this has escalated to the 'sinners' being held captive against their will. 


Space and Staging-

We had limited space and we tried to use it to our advantage in the garage. We placed the chairs where our actors would be sitting in the centre of the space- this was done to show they were the main focus of the film, with a sofa behind for our antagonist to sit on. It was placed here so it would look as though she had the situation 'under control', as she felt she could sit down. This could link to the fact that her mental illness means her mind his always paranoid in every day life, but in this situation she feels under control.

Props-
The props we used included; 2 dining room chairs, an old seat belt to tie them up with, a sofa, and a cricket bat, when we were filming in the garage. In the scene that Emily (the mistress) gets abducted there was a mobile phone, and a tissue that looks as though it has chloroform on it. Finally for the scene where she abducts her husband, we used a wedding ring and a pan that she used to hit him over the head with. Each of these items was accessible to us, meaning it is likely that it would be accessible her. Which again, shows how normal these people are, and how this can change in a matter of hours. 

Extension Task: Analysis of Three Film Posters

Shutter Island:
Shutter Island is a 2010 American Psychological Thriller Film




Identity:

This is an audio clip of me talking about the film poster.



Gone Girl

Gone girl is a 2014 is and American psychological thriller.
The title immediately suggests that someone is missing, but doesn’t give away whether that is physically or mentally, or whether it was by force or by choice. The use of alliteration makes it sound pleasing and it leaves you asking questions , so you want to watch the film.
The colours used in this poster are blues, white and pinks. Blue has common links to mental health, but is also a natural colour usually associated with nature because of its links to water and the sky. This could indicate that the woman is mentally unstable and maybe she hasn’t disappeared but she has something wrong with her.
The fact that half the title is hidden by the clouds could also indicate this as it could represent her clouded mind and how she is unable e to remember who she really is, and again this has links to nature.
The main image is of a man, and we are unsure whether he has something to do with her being ‘gone’ or if he is trying to help. The landscape around him indicates he is searching for something he may never find- whether that is the girl or if it is answers we aren’t sure.
If you look really closely, faded in at the back there are a pair of eyes that leave you questioning if they belong to the missing girl, they look frightened which could indicate that she has gone missing.
Running near the bottom, is a strip that looks like something you would see at the bottom of the screen when you’re watching the news- this challenges the mental health point, as it would  stipulate that the girl is really missing as the news always shows you this in order to help bring the person home.
All of this links in to the conventions of a thriller film as it leaves you questioning the information you have and why it may be inaccurate. It also features the colour white, which I have previously identified as a colour commonly associated with thriller movies. This may be because it represents the victims as white has connotations to innocence and purity. 

Extension Task: Famous Actors

What's the difference between being a Hollywood Star and a British Star- can you be both? 

I think its possible for you to be both a Hollywood Star and a British Star, look at people such as Christian Bale, Jamie Dornan and Eddie Redmayne, each of these stars have had their big break in an America thanks to a film series; Batman, 50 Shades of Grey and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, respectively. What I think the difference is however, to be a British and a Hollywood Star, you have to be British- an American can't be both because they were not born/ raised here in Britain. 

Extension Task: Top 10 Grossing Thriller Films of All Time

Here is the list of the top 10 grossing thriller films of all time;

1. Inception
2. The Da Vinci Code
3. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One
4. Gravity
5. The Hunger Games
6. The Sixth Sense
7. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two
8. Oceans Eleven 
9. Bourne Ultimatum 
10. Signs 

Unlike in the top 10 grossing films of all time only 4 of the top 10 are made by conglomerates (the big six)- this shows when making thriller films you don't have to work with a conglomerate in order to have a successful film. This could be down to the fact that thriller films technically are made for a niche audience so conglomerates are less likely to invest in them unless they have a big actor, such as Inception has Leonardo Dicaprio, or they are based off something that already has a large following. Bourne Ultimatum was a book originally so it has a guaranteed audience even before the release. 
M. Night Shyamalan, who was the director of The Sixth Sense and Signs (6th and 10th) is known for making thriller movies that involve a contemporary supernatural element as well as various different plot twists. He has earned a name for himself within the thriller movie community, although he has been quoted saying, "that all [his] movies have twist endings, or that they're all scary. All [his] movies are spiritual and all have an emotional perspective."

Extension Task: Top 10 Grossing Films of All Time

Here is the list of the top 10 grossing films of all time

1. Avatar
2. Titanic
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
4. Jurassic World
5. The Avengers
6. Furious 7
7. The Avengers: Age of Ultron
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
9. Frozen
10. Iron Man 3 

The top two grossing films are directed by the same person; James Cameron. It's been said that Cameron's films hold reoccurring themes and subtexts; conflicts between humanity and technology (Avatar in particular shows this), strong female lead and a strong romantic subplot. I think both show these and their own way and that is why his films are so well thought of, and successful. the fact that he wrote both of them, leading him to gain a certain amount of respect in the film and media industry as well as earning a lot of success in his own right. 

All of these films have been distributed by one of America's 'big six' (Universal, Disney, Warner Bros. Paramount, 20th Century Fox or Sony)- this indicates that to have a 'top grossing film' you must work in partnership with a conglomerate. This may be due to the fact that they have the resources, ability, time and funding to spend on each individual film. In fact, half of the top 10 grossing films have been made by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, this can be brought down to the fact they are the leading producer and distributor of children's films. But as well as this in 2009 they acquired the rights to Marvel Entertainment- who had a large influence over the superhero genre of films. This gave them the edge over the other big six films because they appealed to a larger audience due to their various areas of expertise. 

Costume and Props

Here is the list of the props we will use:
 

• Baseball/Cricket Bat- This is one of the main focuses within our film opening as it is the weapon and the woman's only form of protection. We want to add emphasis to this as in thriller films there is a lot of focus on the weapon- it is a convention of a thriller film. 
• Cable Ties- These are what we will use to keep the 'hostages' to their chairs. This shows the unpreparedness that the woman had in this situation as she didn't have a plan. Cable ties are easily purchased from your local hardware store. 
• Chairs- We will use the chairs simply to put the 2 hostages on as we tie them up with the cable ties. This prop is more of a formality than an actual prop to be used within the scene. 
• Computer- This will be used when he is at work, what he uses to message his mistress off of in order to keep his wife off of his back. 
• Sofa- There will be a sofa situated directly behind the chairs where the hostages are tied up. It is where the woman will sit, it contrasts the uncomfortableness that the 2 hostages are in. 

Here are the costumes and makeup that we will need/use?

• The husband will have a suit/formal clothes on, telling the audience he has just got home from work. He won't have any makeup, only bruising around the wrist.
• The 'mistress' or Emily will have date-like clothes on, a nice dress or jeans and a nice top. This would tell the audience that she was on her way to meet the husband. Her make-up will be smudged as though she has been crying- indicating her panic and difficult situation
• The wife will be wearing typical day-to-day clothes, to show she is a housewife as she doesn't need professional clothes. Her make-up will look near enough perfect, this can show that she is in control of the situation. 

Production Schedule

Here is our production schedule:

The majority of our scenes are filmed in the same location, the garage, meaning it is more likely that we will be able to film them all in the same day. This will also help when we are editing because we will not have lighting inconsistency or problems with the make-up or the costumes looking different. We will film in the evening as it begins to get darker outside to fit with the convention that thriller films usually have, low-key, dark lighting. 
For the first 4 scenes we will include all of our actors- 2 of which are people who aren't in our media group- so we had to check when these people are available for filming as well. As well as this, we need to make sure they are available for the day after just in case something goes wrong and we don't get it all done at once. The 5th scene we will only ned the male actor for as you only see his hands as he types something onto the computer- you won't even see his face so if we don't manage to get this filmed its not that big of a deal as we can do it ourselves.
The final scene is computerised as it is just the title so we will have to do that on the school computers during the editing process, hence why the date is different as we will be unable to do that in our own time. 

Location Research

This is the location we have chosen to film in:

We will use the garage of this house as our location because it is accessible for our group, (its at one of our houses), its is easily manipulated. This means we can move things around and add or take away the lighting when we see fit. It means we will be fully in control of the location. As well as this, we will be able to film without any interruptions or distractions This location will be effective for the film as many thriller movies that involve a hostage situation are in places such as this with: ironically, it almost shows the normality of the situation. It shows the audience that our main character hasn't planned this or had it in her mind for a while, that its impulsive as she's used the only location that is available to her- her garage. 

Here are the pictures of the location we have chosen- 
The pictures show the front of the house, with the garage and what it looks like inside. We are going to remove all of the junk that is in it, too make it look realistic and although it is smaller than we anticipated we'll make it work. It has the perfect lighting which isn't too much, but enough to set the ambience of the scene that we are shooting.  

Our Storyboard

This is our storyboard:
In this image we show the first 8 shots of our thriller opening. It narrates the start of the scene. It starts as a black out and fades into a shot of the bat, the weapon of choice, we have chosen to use this shot because it outlines to the audience the weapon that the woman has chosen as well as building tension because in that moment you wouldn't know what was going on- who was using the bat or what for. During the decision making process we decided to add in the shot of the woman sitting on the sofa, she is going to be muttering to herself, almost as reassurance that what she is doing it right. We chose this because we wanted to indicate early on that she has a mental illness, and she sees this as justification for her crimes. Another shot we added in was the shot of the mistress' eyes, we did this ultimately to show her fear and indicate that she is being held against her will for something she is unaware that she has done wrong. 

This image shows the next 8 shots within our scene. It shows the women, moving around and it from her perspective almost as though we want the audience to understand what is going on and why she is doing what she is doing. These ones are ultimately a lot longer than the ones in the previous image because it includes the bulk of our thriller. 2 of our shots equate to 10 seconds each. The first being the second shot on the image. It will show a high angle shot of the women walking slowly towards the front of the screen, to stand in front of her victims. There is also a shot of the women knocking the light with her bat, we decided to add this to show her dominance in the situation. As well as this it will add tension to the scene. We have also decided to have an close up of the  husband and wife together, we are going to use this shot to firstly show them together, indicating that they are married. It also hows her anger towards him as she will get up in his face and call him a 'cheating bastard'.

These were the final 8 shots of our thriller opening. These are our shots that build the tension within our thriller. The soundtrack that we will use within these scenes will mirror this. We have decided to do the fourth shot from the perspective of the mistress and the black screen straight after will be as though she has closed her eyes. The sound will stop here and we'll wait a few seconds before inserting a scream. The next shot will be as though someone has opened their eyes. The setting would've changed to an office setting where we see his computer screen. This would be the beginning of the rest of the film and after that we will put the title page of our film, 'Them'. 

Font Research

We chose the title 'Them' for our thriller as we have decided to do it from the unfortunate perspective of the wife. She is so mad that her husband, who she loves very much, could do something that could hurt her so deeply. She then begins to blame him and his mistress for the impact it has had on her mental illness. She blames 'them' for all her problems in life.

Here are the four fonts I have chosen:

Here is the first one, I liked this one because if we chose to write it in red it could look like blood. This would link to the theme of violence in our thriller opening and as well as that the brutality of the violence would also be portrayed through this. I like that its written in black capitals as it will stand out against anything we put behind it.

The second font I have chosen is one that looks as though it has roots growing out the bottom of it. This could link to how you make a family tree. The women who married this man placed her roots in him, their whole future and she feels like that has been ripped out from under her. The gaps in the words can link to the mental health, how parts of her personality are missing which mean she reacts more than she should to this situation. I think this font would be written in a dark green or brown colour which links to the idea of a family tree.

This font, is very similar to the first font so it links together the first font as well as the idea about the gaps in it linking to her mental illness. However the differences include the fact that this one is bolder and the corners are harsher- which inclines me to believe this one would fit better than the first one as it looks like it would fit a thriller movie better. I believe this would also be written in a red colour. This would again represent the theme of violence we would like to portray.

This one is different to the others, although it still has the theme of dripping blood, it isn't block capitals. I think this gives it a feminine touch- indicating that the antagonist is a female. As well as this, it could be seen to not be as 'creepy' as the others, which may fit our film opening better as it isn't a 'creepy' film opening. This means our film isn't based round supernatural occurrences or something similar it is very much a real life story (although it may not occur in everyday life). The font here enables you to think this.

Title Research

I have chosen four well known thriller films and have analysed them here:

Basic Instinct is a 1992 erotic thriller based around the murder of retired rock star Johnny Boz. The colour red of the word 'Basic' links to the theme of death in the movie. It is written in a basic font, possibly to draw attention to the next word- which is 'Instinct'. It is written in a more disturbing font, that is pushed closer together and is very sharp, it doesn't have curved edges. This could link to the brutality of the films main focus and how his life was taken from him without a second thought. The length of the letter 'I' links to the fact that the was stabbed to death with an ice pick. The word 'instinct' can be defined as 'a quality, especially a desirable one' which links to the idea that it is in this persons instincts to kill.

Shutter Island is a 2010 psychological thriller in which 2 US Marshals have to go to 'Shutter Island' which is remote and barren in order to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the hospital for the criminally insane. The colour red links to the murderess and her compulsion to kill. It shows that she's dangerous and they want everyone to know it. It is written in block capitals- almost as if the name itself  is a warning- telling people not to go there because it could result in their death. The fact that some of the letters are beginning to fade firstly show the eerie island for what it is and also link to the murderess and her disappearance. The name 'Shutter Island' tells us immediately that it isn't somewhere you want to be. If you 'shut' something you are usually avoiding it- just like how the US ignore the hospital for the criminally insane on this island.

The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero crime thriller film. It is clearly apart of the bat man series, you can see the intentionally placed logo behind the word 'dark'. Personally, I think this was used for advertising purposes, with the logo in the back you didn't have specifically say it was apart of the Batman series as people will just assume it is. The title is in a white font- this means that it stands out against the background which seems to have a lot going on. There is a use of an oxymoron- the word 'dark' is written in a white colour suggesting that not all is as it seems within the movie as it is a very pure and innocent colour. They have used a play on words- the word 'Knight' suggests it is about a person and that it is set at night which you can clearly tell from the scene playing out behind it.

Psycho is a 1960 psychological horror thriller that focuses a women who goes to stay at a hotel run by Norman Bates and his mother. he use of the colour yellow in the font is a contradiction to the movie. The colour yellow represents optimism and stability along with self-respect and self-control. However clearly Norman Bates lacks of all of these qualities. This gives the audience a false sense of security about the stability of the main character. The crack in the letter 'C' could foreshadow the use of the kitchen knife that he uses to kill the women in the shower. The crack through the middle of the words that means some of the letters are titled, could show the instability of Norman Bates. Again the use of block capitals could be a warning.

Target Audience Research

 Here are the results from our questionnaire that we devised (see below)

Here is the questionnaire:

From our results, you can see that our target audience is definitely teenagers which may be down to the fact that as teenagers ourselves we can identify what they would enjoy seeing more based on what we would enjoy seeing in the thriller opening. The majority of the people we asked said their favourite type of thriller film was a psychological thriller, this was 30% of our recipients, around 25% of them said horror thrillers. This fits nicely with our idea as we want to make it seem as though our lead character has a mental disorder and a lot of it will be based on what's going on her head. As well as this, we hope to include some of the conventions of a horror-thriller film like a lot of gore and weapons. The most frequent answer to 'What is your favourite thriller film?' was Taken, which involves a hostage situation, which is what our thriller opening is based around. This shows that our target audience have a direct link to what we want for our thriller.
75% of our target audience liked or loved the idea of a male victim instead of a female one, and 80% thought the idea of cheating was wrong- one even went as far as saying 'death row' directly linking with the feelings and emotions of our female character. But overall the all these ideas help to link the feelings of our audience with those in relation to each of our characters. However, I think that we need to create more sympathy for the male and his mistress as although they did do something wrong, they shouldn't die because of it.
80% of our target audience like the idea of the hostage situation, helping to gain an interest in our film opening, this is good as this means they hopefully wouldn't get bored. The other 20% said things like 'its overused' which is true, many of the thriller movies I've seen include hostage situations- but hopefully, if we do it in the right way it'll be unique and grab the audience's attention.
80% of our target audience like the idea of suspense being built in the beginning of a film- which correlates to our idea of leaving people on the edge of their seats wanting more. Hopefully, after productions, the people in our target audience enjoy what we have created and feel as though the feedback they have given to us has influenced our artistic choices throughout.

Film Institutions: Conglomerate

Paramount Pictures:

Paramount Pictures is a large conglomerate that has been around for 104 years, it was founded in Los Angeles by W.W. Hodkinson, Aldolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. It is now classed as one of Americas 'Big Six' Film Studios along with Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros Entertainment, Fox Entertainment Group, Universal Entertainment Group and Sony Pictures Entertainment. They have helped to produce some of the worlds biggest thriller films such as: Instinct, Ghost, World War Z, Mission Impossible. These are all extremely large grossing films that have done really well in the box office and a long time after.

Ghost Opening sequence:

The opening sequence is very minimal, it involves the camera moving around a room showing you objects whilst some of the film credits pop up on the screen. Although the opening is cleverly thought out for the film, as a stand alone thriller opening I don't think it works. It has blurred images and natural lighting, making the audience wonder what it is or what the room is used for. The music is orchestral based with various piano based crescendo's which does attract the audiences attention to the screen. Although I hope to capture some of the essence this opening has, I don't think it gives enough of the story away in order attract the audiences full attention.

Would we consider working with them?

They have a large following of people who enjoy their movies who would watch ours just because they made it, allowing the amount of people who see the film to increase and possibly the amount of people who enjoy the film will increase due to this. They have 10 different production deals with smaller companies so that means they have many ways of making our movie and a lot of people who would invest a lot of time and effort into making it at the best of their abililty. As well as this, Paramount Pictures are international, this increases our pool of target audience as well as increasing the advertising and media coverage our movie would get. Finally due to it being a conglomerate they would have a higher budget as they would be able to do everything themselves without needing to outsource to smaller companies. However this being said we are more likely to loose creative control over our movie. In addition, even though they have a lot of experience, Twisted Pictures has a lot of experience with just thriller films so I think we would lose the help and input they could offer us as it would be so personal to us and them.