Conventions of the Thriller Genre

Thriller Mood Board

Target Audience Questionnaire Analysis

Questionnaire Results Analysis

I conducted this questionnaire in order to identify my target audience for my final production. It gave me an insight into to what people want, and will essentially help me to develop an intriguing opening sequence that will captivate my audience.

             

The majority of the people that answered my questionnaire were male, which could potentially cause my research to be biased and provide an unrealistic depiction of the general target audience for thrillers. It was also answered by people of the same age group, which could once again make it biased and affect the results of my questionnaire.

However, when answering the question: ‘Do you like to watch movies?’, 100% of people answered "Yes", male or female. This may make my questionnaire more reliable as both males and females agreed that they liked to watch films, and there were no anomalies answering "No".

Pre-liminary Task Media Studies

'City of God' Analysis

Analysis of the effect of camera angles, editing techniques and sound effects in the ‘City of God’ opening sequence on target audience:

Immediately in the opening sequence the audience is shown a close-up of a knife, accompanied by the synchronous and pleonastic sounds of it being sharpened. This creates a sense of worry in the audience as a knife is a well-known indexical sign of death or violence. This essentially foreshadows what is to come later on in the film, and allows audiences to decode the mood and tone of the film.

The image of the knife is then followed by a montage of images. Amongst them are various close-up shots and mid-shots of chickens being cooked, eaten or gutted. This further connotes signs of death to the audience; the chickens may symbolise events to come later on in the film. A mid-shot of a live chicken is shown as it watches others being killed (shown via eye line match); its expression and body language suggests it’s frightened as the camera tracks it running away. Low angle shots and canted angles are used when the leader of the gang is shown. The audience can decode that he is the leader as low angle shots are used to suggest he has power. It can also be inferred by the audience that the leader almost acquires the characteristics of a dictator as the canted angle suggests that something is wrong and distorted with his leadership.

There is a distinct change in the diegesis of the film emphasised by the change in soundtrack from festive to adventurous. This essentially suggests that something is going to happen and foreshadows events to occur later on due to a change in the tone of the film.  This therefore creates worry in the audience as they don’t know what to expect.

The fast paced editing of the shots creates a rise in tension amongst the audience; the narrative voice also makes it easier for the audience to extract and decode meanings. The camera cuts from the fast paced shots of the gang chasing the chicken to a long-shot of the two guys walking down the road (Rocket – main character, and his friend) in which the camera tracks them; the pace of the editing is slowed down. This completely contrasts with the other scene of the guys running as the sudden decrease in the pace of editing and the change to slower soundtrack makes the diegesis more calm, and displays a distinct contrast between the two scenes, making the characters binary opposites.

The camera cranes over the gang as they chase the chicken, putting the audience in a position of power as they look down upon the characters from a high angle shot. The asynchronous sound of gun shots can be heard in the background, as well as the foley sound of a car beeping. This contributes to the tense and chaotic atmosphere of the scene, and almost creates discomfort within the audience; the gun shots once again generate worry within the audience as violence is signified. As the camera arcs around Rocket this signifies to the audience that the film will revolve around him. There’s a significant decrease in pace of the film when the focus is on Rocket which allows the audience to empathise with him more as they get to know him (facial and body codes contribute to this), as opposed to the gang, where fast paced editing is continuously used; this once again emphasises that they are binary opposites and almost puts in the audience in favour of Rocket as they are more familiar with him.

During the flashback to Rocket’s past there is a distinct change in lighting from low-key lighting in the present, to high-key lighting in the past. This suggests to the audience that things were better in the past than they are now. When the scene is in the present the colour palette is much darker, and the audience can identify an alteration in the mood of the film from more sinister to happier.

In the present a close-up of the main character Rocket is shown, and the audience are able to see his worried facial expression. This allows the audience to empathise with him as they can decode how he is feeling through his facial code and body language, as opposed to in the past when he appears happier.

In the flashback, the props of a football and seeing Rocket as a child reflects his naivety.  As this is shown directly after seeing him in the present day it suggests that he still inhibits this innocence and childlike behaviour, and allows the audience to decode his characteristics.