Question five

My primary research was essential to my thriller film, the questionnaire allowed me to find out what the audience wanted in the thriller film and what they didn't want, the vox plots allowed the interviewees to explain their answers, helping us understand the audiences decisions and why they did or didn't want, for example, when questioned on what sort of iconography they wanted, the majority claimed they wanted knifes as it showed the antagonists dominance. We researched into conventions, age certificates, mise en scene, editing styles, cinematography and sound, I took inspiration from each, from research into conventions we took the idea of low key lighting from Halloween resurrection we took the idea of low key lighting, this was used in the scenes with the antagonist in, for our thriller we used it when the victim entered the forest, showing the danger she was in, similar to Halloween, in which the effect was successful, from research into editing styles we took ideas such as shot reverse shot, we took the idea of the reaction shot from the strangers, this successfully created shock when she sees the antagonist outside, helping create a relationship with the audience in which they feel sympathy toward her as they can she how she is feeling without saying a word, making them feel closer to the character, this is stereotypical in thrillers as they are commonly made to create relationships with the characters, we used this shot when the victim sees the antagonist and you can see the intense fear in her facial expression, from research into cinematography we took the idea of the panoramic shot to the antagonist, this was used in 'silence of the lambs' it created suspense and shock effectively, therefore we used it ourselves, we used this whilst she is walking through the forest to show her movement, this would create suspense, the audience wonder whether the antagonist may appear in a spot not on the screen, building suspense, lastly we took inspiration from research into sound, we took the idea of the high screech sound, used in 'silence of the lambs' in the presence of the antagonist, the use of this caused the audience to build a relationship with the audience, they fear him when he is on screen as the audience are shown that he is dangerous and is made to be feared. The primary and secondary research were key in the planning of our film, the primary research, questionnaires and vox plots, helped us understand what we should base our opening sequence on from target audience recommendations, the secondary research, screening, helped us understand what we should add, remove and re shoot in our sequence and therefore improve the opening sequence