Our main concern relating to generic conventions was establishing aspects like the character, setting and plot. In order to establish the setting, we used a range of different shots and angles. This allowed us to establish the setting in full. In the transition between the present and past (0:37 – 0:45), there are generic conventions in the contrast between the two; in the present you have the character in a dank, ugly setting looking lousy and demented, then it jumps to the past where the character is in a nice, warm setting looking happy. This helped us to establish the character as it really emphasises him in two minds, as well as his mentality in those two periods of time. This is much like the opening of Oldboy when it jumps from Oh Daesu in the present with his face obscured by shadow to the past when he is sitting drunk in a police station after being arrested. There is a great contrast between the two time periods; something we were heavily influenced by in our thriller as we wanted to emphasise the present to the past. The plot of our thriller plays by generic conventions as it has a plotline of revenge. Oldboy, once again, and Deathwish influenced this as the killings that are to happen later on in our thriller are carried out in a similar way – he wants to get revenge on his sister’s killers in the most brutal, twisted way imaginable. Oh Daesu’s confusion about his abduction was an influence on our character’s confusion of why his sister was murdered, which is part of the enigma. We didn’t give too much away about the character’s motive in the opening as we wanted that to be the enigma while establishing that it is something to do with his sister. Another generic convention is the use of a wide variety of different angles which we used to portray the character’s confusion, hostility and demon-like anguish, like 0:13 – 0:17 when the character’s shape appears distorted and hunched like a beast. Mirrors are another generic convention and they play a big part in our thriller (0:13 – 0:17; 0:17 – 0:22; 0:33 – 0:37) as it’s the place where our character goes when he needs to compose himself and adds that shroud of mystery to him. To create enigma, we have left the question ‘Why has he changed?’ open while the biggest enigma is the numbers on the wall and what they mean. This was really well-received in our feedback: the audience picked up on the enigma of the numbers and his change and questioned them. The numbers on the wall were the most effective according to the audience. This is great as we wanted the audience to question the numbers and leave it completely open to interpretation. The audience also said that we created a good deal of suspense, particularly our use of non-conventional sound to create atmosphere, which made them wonder “what was coming next”. Our use of conventions indicates some other thrillers that have influenced our thriller. An example of this is the first shot (0:13 – 0:17) when the character raises his head; the influence comes from Terminator 2: Judgement Day when the Terminator rises from the foetal position to add that beast-like demeanour. The computer game, Condemned 2: Bloodshot’s, Ethan Thomas was a massive influence on our character physically and mentally as they are both on a trail of vengeance and the appearance of our character was based heavily on Ethan Thomas. One of the ways that our thriller challenges and develops generic conventions is that we haven’t used any kind of external music soundtrack but the diegetic sounds of the public toilets we filmed in to set the atmosphere, plus a couple of non-diegetic sounds (i.e. 0:03 – 0:12; 0:56 – 1:11) played in reverse to evoke a more disturbing atmosphere. I think that our use of conventions indicates the subgenre of our thriller – crime/psychological thriller – as it has the emotional, twisted characteristics of a psychological thriller mixed with the crimes carried out by our character and his way of working against the law and taking matters into his own hands. Social class is represented in our thriller, particularly in the contrast between the character in the past and in the present. In the flashback, the character and his sister appear to be from a middle-class background. This is made clear by their house and appearance – they are obviously wealthy as they can afford expensive luxuries. This scene shows us the interior of their house, helping us determine their social class as middle class. In the present, there is a great amount of contrast between the social classes; in the present, the character is presented as almost not even belonging to the social structure. Because of the events that happened, he has left his home and become wild; living wherever, sleeping rough and not working. This gives us the impression that he is part of the underclass in the present. Gender is represented in our thriller; it shows the male taking revenge for his sister, reflecting the stereotype that males are the stronger, dominant character.
I don’t think our production is something a major Hollywood studio would produce as it has an underground feel and is probably more suited to be an art house film. It’s the grittiness of it that condones it from being a big-time film. It may, like Oldboy, have the potential to be a successful low budget (with a grand total of £1.50 in expenditure) film, with some kind of independent label backing it. I think the film offers opportunities for merchandise as there are things that have the potential to be created as merchandise such as t-shirts with the infamous 001-006 printed on them, or a print of a corpse-chalking with “Matt Doel was here” underneath it. Small-circuit DVDs of the film are a possibility too. I think this is also the sort of film that could push a small amount of advertising through small forms of media such as subway stickers, posters and leaflets. As it’s an underground film, it’s better suited to these forms. I don’t think that it offers franchise opportunities as it is a one-off production as the storyline can only go as far as this production, and any kind of sequel would be unnecessary.
The age group our thriller would appeal to is 16-21 year-olds. These figures were attained from our questionnaire results. It would be given a BBFC certificate of 15 as it contains strong violence, disturbing scenes and strong language, though it doesn’t contain any sexual nature. As well as it being a massive influence on our thriller, Oldboy is similar to ours because of the flashbacks, which is something we play on heavily. Deathwish is another influence as the film’s component of revenge is something we wanted to incorporate into our thriller, developing the idea further with the “numbers on the wall”. Our production would appeal to those who appreciate cult films; a film that has acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans, such as The Evil Dead and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Regarding the age and gender of our target audience, the younger side would probably enjoy the action and the goriness, while the older side would probably be more inclined to the grittiness, plot and enigma. Females would admire the sweetness and the emotional connection between the brother and sister. I think we incorporated a good balance of these things in the opening itself, but more-so the general plot of it.
In order to grasp what the audience wanted to see in a thriller opening, we composed a questionnaire comprised of ten questions and handed them out to thirty people. The results from the questionnaire showed that people like flashbacks and time jumps. This is something we took into consideration as it helps to establish the character and the character’s background. Results also showed that people thought the most important thing to establish is the character; it allows the audience to understand the character and sympathise with them. We achieved character establishment by using a range of different shots, such as 0:22 – 0:33, which shows the character as agitated and also gives the impression that he is preparing himself, or 0:33 – 0:37 where his temper is displayed. We tried to make these establishments clear as it lays out the character’s state of mind. The shot 0:13 – 0:17 makes the character appear beast-like and misshapen – another reflection of his state of mind. In order to emphasise the character, the public toilets do this well as the character is the central focus of the shot. The audience liked our character development, stating that the contrast between the time periods was effective, particularly his psychology and the fact that you are always discovering things about him. Our questionnaire also showed us was that people like contrast between the past and present in flashback scenes. We took this into consideration, making sure there was a large amount of contrast between the two time periods. What we emphasised most was the character’s state of mind and the mise-en-scene. The mise-en-scene in the present is dark, dank and generally ugly. There is also very little use of bright colour, while there is a lot of colour, cheeriness and animation in the past. In our feedback, the audience said that our use of mise-en-scene was really well-constructed and effective, particularly the costume and lighting. The juxtaposition in 0:37 – 0:45 is central to the film as it is where the contrast is. To attract the audience, we decided to include things they could engage with and even question, such as the back-tracked sounds and the enigma of the film.
There were a couple of problems with the camera equipment, especially the tripod during our first filming session as the handle became loose and we couldn’t manoeuvre the camera, also causing the tripod head to go lopsided. Luckily, we had about an hour’s worth of footage from that session. There are a couple of shots we actually used in the final cut when the handle wasn’t working and the footage appears wonky, like 0:37 – 0:41 and 1:21 – 1:26. The batteries were a weakness as they ran out quickly, even after being fully charged. Because of this, we had to know exactly what we were going to film so no battery life was wasted. In hindsight, this was probably an advantage as it kept us efficient. Our camerawork was very well received; not getting a single bit of negative feedback. The audience favoured our use of a wide variety of angles, saying it was “creative” and “clear”. This is great as we wanted our experimentation to show and whatever we were trying to establish made clear. Apart from that, the camera was user-friendly and easy to use. The layout of the buttons was straightforward and setting up the camera and affixing it to the tripod was straightforward too. During filming, the only problem we faced was to do with the lighting – we had to continuously experiment with where the light should be positioned. We had to stop filming a number of times because of a glare from the light appearing on the wall or too much light being concentrated on a single object. However, we resolved these issues by facing the lights towards the ceiling; the light would be evenly distributed around the room. In contrast to our preliminary task, there were differences in terms of things we could do to enhance our thriller. The extended running-time was great as it allowed us to experiment a lot more than the preliminary and keep a nice, even pace throughout the story instead of rushing through it. Because of the extended running-time, we were able to explore with a larger variety of different shots – something we weren’t able to do in our preliminary task as we were given instructions regarding what shots to use, etc. The fact that we weren’t limited to a number of shots was an advantage as we had more room to explore and develop the conventions. My editing and post-production skills have improved because of this task – I have a wider knowledge of Premier as we were able to experiment more with it. Because I did a lot of editing in the preliminary, I already had an understanding of the software, though I did find the software slightly difficult to use at first as there were a lot of functions and controls that I wasn’t used to, although the layout made it slightly easier to use. Because of the exploration, I have learned more about the software, like being able to un-attach the audio from the footage. This was very important to us as we experimented with the un-attached audio: reversing it, layering it, etc. We did this a lot throughout our film to evoke a creepier atmosphere and create a sense of mystery. We also experimented with different effects to make the mise-en-scene more appealing, like cross dissolves in the flashback scenes to signify the change between the time periods. We didn’t use any sort of filter, which I regret as it might have enhanced the atmosphere and made it creepier, though we were against using a filter on the flashback scenes as it’d make them look too tacky. With the audio, we chose specific back-tracked segments and used them where we thought most suited them, like the audio of me screaming while the flashback transcends to the present. We did this to foreshadow that something dreadful has happened to his sister.
Because we were given a longer amount of time to plan our thriller – compared to our preliminary when we were only allowed one lesson’s worth of time – we had more time in the planning stage to explore different conventions and watch more thriller openings. Doing this allowed us to gain a deeper knowledge of the genre and the sub-genres related to it. The film that stood out most was Oldboy - the film that was a major influence on ours. During this stage, we decided to split up and research different elements of the genre and come up with rough plot ideas. From this, we learned about a computer game, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, the story of an ex-agent whose life has descended into alcoholism and homelessness because of earlier traumatic events, basing our character’s appearance and state of mind on the game’s protagonist Ethan Thomas. We decided from the start to use Oldboy elements as it appealed to us and contained perfect flashback elements. Storyboarding was very useful as we were able to draw out a shot and alter it whenever we thought a change had to be made, also using it as a checklist. This gave us a great deal of ideas and helped make our thriller successful as we were able to mix two or three ideas together that each member had thought of, such as the plot, which was originally about a schizophrenic assassin with some scenes filmed in a town centre. We scrapped this idea as it proved too complicated and didn’t have the grittiness that we wanted. My use of shot types has definitely improved as I now know how to establish character and setting through the use of various shots, such as 0:13 – 0:17 which establishes the character effectively. Having the freedom to experiment with shots also helped my camera skills. I’ve discovered that it is a good idea to engage with the audience and have them place themselves in the characters’ shoes, and that I’m able to do this with shot variety. I feel a lot more comfortable with the equipment now as I had a lot of time to work with it and get used to it, particularly the camera which I’m confident with now, but wasn’t very during the preliminary because I hadn’t had much experience with it. I am confident that the final product fulfils the task and reflects the conventions of the thriller genre. I am confident particularly because of the editing which we spent a lot of time tweaking and perfecting, and that it is unique in itself because of things like the lack of a soundtrack and, instead, diegetic sounds of the reversed audio, which also goes against the conventions of the thriller genre. I think we established the character, setting and plot effectively, though we could have experimented more in post-production with transitions, etc. Overall, I am pleased with our production and think it is a success, and our audience liked it which is the main thing. It’s good to know that, from the feedback, we effectively established the main character and setting, as well as setting enigma, especially the numbers on the wall.
Gary Hawkins
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