Questionnaire

I am planning to make a survey of questions about my thriller genre for my respondents, so I understand what type of thrillers they like.The public audience opinion is very important for my questionnaire. I will have a total amount of ten questions to be asked, the questionnaires will not have inappropriate questions, and incorrect ordering of questions, incorrect scaling, or bad questionnaire structure as this negativity can make the survey pointless and confuse the respondents when answering.I will  insure that I will look over my questionnaire to confirm that my questions are not inappropriate and other negatives that corrupt the survey is removed so that my questionnaire’s objectives are complete.

The type of questionnaire category will be for social group (public). These respondents are mainly everyone of every age, up to 11 years old and above. I am going to let this category answer the survey because they are my main attraction to my soft drink and also the most important category when selling my product. I will not add any unnecessary categories, as a matter of fact not any, to this questionnaire because it will cause confusion to my survey, as my respondents should not find in more than one category. If I do add another category for example government it would cause questions to be poorly answered.

After my questionnaire is finished and looked over accurately, I will first inform my respondents of the results and data of the questionnaire so that they have a clear cut idea of what them the public prefer and have an understanding of. Lastly and most importantly the data and results will help me the creator of the survey decide the actions I take upon making a new production. Questionnaire results are always important because they allow you to take advantage of the respondent’s answers fully so that your product can sell well in cineama and also if it’s a test so it can be marked accurately by the test scorer.
What sex are you?

Male…..      

Female…..

Prefer not to say…..      

What age group are you?

12-18…..      

19-25…..      

26-35…..      

35 and over…..      

What ethnic are you?

White British…..                  Black African…..                           Asian …..      

White Irish…..                      Black Afro Caribbean…..      

White European…..             Black Mixed…..      

White other…..                    Black other…..      

What kind of thriller do you like as a sub-genre?

Sci-fi…..        

Action…..      

Comedy…..        

Horror…..      

Animation…..      

How many children do you have?

0…..       1…..       2…..      3…..      4…..      5…..      Other…..      

Do you watch films often?

Yes…..        

No…..      

Sometimes…..      

What’s your favourite film out of these below?

Inception…..                Pulp Fiction…..      

The Dark Knight…..    Goodfellas…..        

Fight Club…..               None…..      

Psycho…..      

Other…..        

How have you become interested in thriller?

Trailers…..          Posters…..       Films…..           Word of mouth…..   

Billboards…..      Mobile…..        Newspapers…..                Internet…..      

Magazine…..       Other…..      

Did you enjoy my production?

Yes…..      

No…..      

I don’t know…..      

What thriller generic conventions should’ve used more?

Weapons…..                 Locations…..                    Lighting…..      

Characters…..              Shots…..                           Other…..      

 

Evaluation part 2

I was asked some questions by my teacher about my production which was recorded below.

 

After listening to my interview I think i could have improved it by speaking more clearly and answering questions fully.

Evaluation

This youtube link below is my final opening sequence thriller production, which I Anthony Williams, Jona, Daja, Jordan Duberry, and Daniel Richardson created.

JOKES ON YOU:

This youtube link below is my final opening sequence thriller production, which I Anthony Williams, Jona, Daja, Jordan Duberry, and Daniel Richardson created.

In this stage of my task I will briefly evaluate my production by answering the six questions my teacher has given me in bullet points.

1. How successful is your thriller?

• We successfully used the three Ss’ which represented our production’s generic conventions as a thriller.

• The micro elements used in are production connected to the genre well for example close-ups and character representations.

2. How does it confirm to existing media?

• My production conventions was influenced by many thrillers, in one particular the horror/thriller film “IT” as the mise-en-scene settings of the costume was similar to our own villain who also was a clown.

• One of our scenes were very similar to “Child’s Play” own, which confirming that our production as a thriller.

3. Discuss the representations of your characters?

• The main character is portrayed as a sweet innocent young girl who has become a damsel in distress while baby sitting, this character is played by Jona Daja.

• The villain is seen a evil clown doll who has some how stumbled into the residents and has disguised as a toy but is then shown as a disturbing living being.

4. What media institution would distribute your film?

• My media institution’s name was called “Harlequin” as it represents the French myth of soul catches, the name has a meaning to of audiences being attracted to our films also having a thrilling meaning behind it.

• New Line Cinema would be our production’s distributor as they have produced many successful thrillers films for example “Se7en”, “Set it Off”, “Final Destination series” and “Child’s Play”.

5. Who is the typical audience of thrillers and how did it attract your audience?

• Thriller films attract an audience who enjoy thrill and excitement for example murder mysteries and sub-horror.

• My production’s target audience is of a young audience mainly an age group of 15-21 due to the teenage actors and generic conventions but can also appeal to others due to it being a thriller everyone can enjoy it.

6. What have you learnt?

• I have learnt how to use the generic conventions well enough to know how to set a specific genre.

• I have learnt how to use a handheld video camera by learning how to take number o cinematography shots also by the use of the tri-pod.

• I have learnt how to use Logic on the Mac computer as this software helped me produce my soundtrack for our production.

Post Production

As one of my roles and responsibilities was take up being the sound producer it was my reasonability to create the sound track for my group’s production. Most of the sound track took place inside the school’s Mac room on the software Logic but as I was creating the sound track I grew very inpatient with the software as I could not use it to my full potential, thus leaving me to go home and creating some of the sound track on Reason 4 and bringing back to school to edit and add more sounds.

When creating the sound track Logic was the main option for our class to use but as I couldn’t take full gasp to the software I asked my teacher if I could perhaps create the sound track at home which she agreed on due to me having more time at home when creating the soundtrack unlike inside school. The soundtrack took me a week to create as I intended to make it the best to my capability by finding and using the right instruments and folders, once I finished the soundtrack at home I uploaded it on the school Mac on Logic by then adding more sounds and editing it as it needed to fit the videos time limit of 2 minutes. Once this was finished I gave the soundtrack to the rest of my group, who was editing the video on Final Cut Pro which then they uploaded the soundtrack on the video.

Logic was not only hard for me to come across but also for other students in my class as we were given the software straight away to take full effect to, thus we was given a guide book to help us with our struggles and to teach us how to create a soundtrack.

The I learnt a lot from the post production as I taught me what sounds to use to suit my genre of film and production for example sharp tense sounds for killer atmosphere and deep base instruments for dark suspenseful scenes; this allowed me to create a soundtrack that I believe is worthy for any thriller as it offers a dark sinister feeling towards the audience which they would enjoy.

Production

When filming the opening sequence I think everybody cooperated well together to make a successful film, we shoot the film on two different days which I say was a total of three hours and in between those days we reviewed the shots and planned questioned ourselves if we should improve some scenes which we did on four occasions.

When filming there was a few out takes also when editing some shots was cutted strongly this suggesting that some of our shots were a waste of time and unnecessary. Me and Jordan were strongly organising the set as it was our duties to make sure everything was done correctly because of are roles; as my role of being the camera man and Jordan's being the director we strongly had to work together on how to catch the right facial expressions and body language from the actors to create a strong thrilling tense atmosphere for the narrative. Richard wasn’t used in many shots as the lighting wasn’t mainly an objective. Jona had to organize herself, props also give Karl his costume and spend an hour putting make up on him this making him look more realistic for his and her shots; in my opinion Jona had the most work to do as she had to cover being the props, hair and make-up manger also being an actress which covers many demands.

The location of our production was filmed in Jordan's house on Bell Lane Road Enfield, it was easy for each remember of our group to make to the location as each of us lived close to Bell Lane Road, the reason we choose to make are production in his house was because it suited our narrative for example use of props and settings.

When recording the production inside the house it was simple to complete all shots from our storyboard and acting as it was a large house which affords a lot of freedom. We couldn’t use the house freely due to Jordan's mum and family members being in the house some times so we had to confirm dates to Jordan of when we wanted to film are production, this forcing us to make sure we finish the production on these dates only. Our location is relevant to our production because the scenes we filmed in are all related back to our storyboard as we used dark locations of the living room, bed rooms, stair way and the garden; this relates to a thriller because the locations look mysterious and unsettling. The location targets are main audience because the use of locations the lifestyle of a normal person and babysitter and what they have to deal with by going in the baby room also resting in the living, the use of the baby monitor prop also helps out to attract the target audience in this way.

I have learnt many techniques in the process creating this production by learning how to capture actor's feeling and emotions by the use of the right camera shots, also by seeing everybody else's roles it has helped me understand what it takes to be a director, lighting, props, hair and make-up manger by seeing my group members complete their roles on set.

The reason why I made a thriller film was because I believe that the generic conventions are easier to follow and are simpler for the audience to understand as they find it easier to relate to the film and realise what’s happening in the scene. For example the location and low-key lighting was very important towards my narrative as the low-key lighting in the front room makes the location look dark, shadowy and secretive which creates suspense which leads to a nervous response from the audience. The low-key lighting also helped as the audience have trouble seeing the main characters emotions this making as she uses her phone this creating tension. The cinematography used was mainly close ups and a mixture of high and low angle shots to show different other shifts to make the audience sympathise with Jona and know she is distressed.

Some strong points of my production were my conventional use of micro features as they followed the conventions of a thriller film. For example the non-diegetic music is very sharp and, intense, as it creates a lot of suspense throughout the scene. We changed the non-diegetic music for the phone point-of-view scene as we planned to add heart beats in the soundtrack to make the scene look tense and serious, thus we decided to change it as the audience realise already what is happening in the narrative. When making the soundtrack the use of sounds creates the impact of excitement, suspense and tension making the audience feel on edge. I used this because I wanted to create anxiety, fear and thrill as a response from my audience because these feelings and emotions are conventional to a thriller.

One of the weaknesses my group had whilst creating our production was using low-key lighting to express the dark atmosphere surrounding the main character, as a defenceless person. Daniel had to adjust the lighting many times from the right angles to create the perfect setting. The way we overcame this was by making less light come in through windows and directing the main character Jona to look more disturbed and shocked in his facial expressions, so our audience could recognise and understand her facial expressions.

One of the most crucial shots of the scene was the over-shoulder shot from the clown  showing the main character look at the clown shocked, this created shock and suprise as the audience are brought to the attention of the clown. This was important because it allowed the audience to acknowledge the importance of the clown in the narrative as a new character.

The way we could have improved our production was through the mise-en-scene by having better costume and by making the suspicious clown look more devious by having him wear a darker costume this making him look of much more of great importance giving the audience a feeling that the suspicious character is not just a normal toy clown but a evil being.  This would make the audience understand the narrative better as showing that the main character has got involved with something to do with the super-natural evil. This have creating even more climax and excitement to our scene.

I have learned that the micro elements are important in any scene as they cause meanings and reactions from the audience. The audience needs to understand the generic conventions used in order to recognise that the film is a thriller, and without the right use of generic conventions, this could be misunderstood. I believe we used the micro elements well in my scene because they all worked together in each shot in the production which made the audience understand my thriller which allowed my audience to enjoy it.

In conclusion I think we could have filmed some shots better. Some shots were rushed as I believe we should have taken more time on crucial shots because when filming with the camera it wasn’t steady enough when filming. In the end I still think we did a great job on tracking shots and close ups especially point-of-view shots of Jona using her phone this shot was hard as the camera moved often and it was hard to steady, the second point-of-view shows somebody message Jona as we were recording. Our group decided to keep that shot and not record a new shot as it makes the film look more realistic as if neutral events are taking place. I think when filming every body did their job well enough to create not a perfect film but a successful thriller opening which creates a cliff hanger for the audience, I believe the narrative is clear  to the audience and also I believe the acting was done well by are actors.