Target audience for the trailer of Jaws

The trailer for Jaws attracts a younger audience of around 15+ because it was a 15 film. It was realeased to coincide with summer holidays and would therefore attract a younger audience. The trailer shows young attractive women in bikinis therefore this would attract a male audience. Roy schneider a famous hollywood actor would attract a worldwide audience and gave the film a presold element and would therefore attract a audience of all different ages, the director steven spielburg would also attract an older audience who would know alot about his reputation as a film maker.The film is about sharks and gory so would therefore probably attract a younger audience who would be more interested in scary films that include gore. This film would also attract fans of a horror genre.

How these posters attract a target audience- Thrillers

The dark dramatic colours of this poster, follow the typical conventions of a thriller, we see it is set on a desolate island which is also another common convention of a thriller, therefore this film would attract fans of the thriller genre, in addition to this, the closeup of leonardo di caprios face, would attract fans of leonardi which would be a more female based audience, who are not the typical target audience meaning this film can attract a wider audience rather than just thriller fans. 16-25 because younger people would be attracted to the horror like aspect to the poster, also younger people are more likely to go see a scary film.

This poster has a gory aspect to it, the use of body parts hanging on string suggest violence and torture, this would attract fans of horror films, the title Saw also suggests use of weapons which would attract the male audience, the tagline suggesting it comes out in halloween suggests it is a film targeted at a younger audience around 15-25 who would be more likely tocelebrate this holiday and want to watch a film of a more scary nature.

Idea for thriller

The Idea I had for my Thriller would be a girl being followed, stalked and hassled by a masked stranger, in my opening sequence we would see her waking up receiving a text from an unknown number she would tut under her breath as if she thinks it is a prank, this would need a zoom, then we would see shots of her eating breakfast. Then we would see her walking into the bathroom to see writing on the mirror here there would be a shot reverse shot of her reaction, and then she starts to run. all throughout the house shots the camera would be following her as if someone is watching, then when she is running to school we would see her captured, and brought back to her kidnappers house, this would need fast pace, tracking shots and the mise en scene would include her clothes being ripped, hair pulled and the stalker would be in black with a mask, when she is in the kidnappers house she would be tied to a chair before the ‘masked stranger’ removes his mask, here we would see shot reverse shot and close ups of her reactions, before she realises that the kidnapper is her uncle, he would say “my long lost niece” then she is gagged and knocked out. The screen would go black.
My influences include
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/17/vincent-tabak-held-jo-yeates-throat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/18/police-failed-mother-beaten-death-casey-brittle
Prom Night (2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prom_Night_(2008_film)

How do these clips conform to the typical connotations of the thriller genre.

The music is dramatically built up and is eery and we hear clues that signify whats going to happen ie: the scream and the phone call. Then we see the colours of black and scream written in red which signifies blood and horror, this shows the audience its going to be scary. The repition of the phone call, signifies that it is important and that the fact we cant see the person speaking only the woman signifies that they arent meant to be known. The diegetic sounds of crickets show us theyre in a desolate place which conforms to a sterotypical thriller film in that the character can't escape or be found. The knifes that the woman is playing with shows the weapons which she might have to use later and informs the audience theres going to be violence. The camera is always behind her and following her round, this makes it seem like someone is watching her, and that could be the person who keeps calling her this builds up tension which is stereotypical to the thriller genre. The sounds of piano and dog and the diegitic sounds of the mans voice all build up dramatically and put the audience on edge, The wide shot of the garden establishes what shes looking at and there is an eye line match of her looking outside to check if theres anyone outside, again conforming to the thriller genre, she has left the popcorn on the oven signifying that shes disracted and scared of the guy on the phone. The camera zooms in on her as the pace of the phone call gets more angry and fast this signifies that the climax is about to happen. The music gets really loud and follows her as she runs out the house, this increase of pace builds up tension and shows the audience that something big is about to happen this signifies it is a thriller. The shot of her looking through the small gaps of the window slightly hide part of her vision meaning she cant fully see what is happening which also brings horror to the scene.

How posters fufill the generic conventions of a thriller

The connotations of this poster of the film "The girl with the dragont tatoo" that show us that it is a thriller start with the colours of Red and Black which are common signifiers of the genre as they symbolise blood and danger and the darkness symbolises mystery and the unknown. You can only see half the girls face meaning theres something we don't know about her and that we will have to watch to find this out which is a good selling point for the film, The bright red dragon contrasts with the dark colours of the poster signifying to us that it will be an important symbol throughout the film.

In this poster of the film "The conversation" the connotations that show us that it is of the thriller genre include the site, which symbolises weapons and also signifies to the adience that someone is being targeted, The man in the foreground shows us hes important and also we can tell by what hes wearing, e.g formal wear and glasses hes intelligant which could imply he is trying to investigate the crime, he also appears to be looking at the people within the site, but also out of the window which is within the context of the film, the saturated feel to the black and white gives us the impression of vintage and the fact the film isn't that modernit also looks photographic which would stick with the investigational idea of this conspiricy thriller.

Finally in the film poster for Firewall we see the conventions of a Action thriller shown clearly by the explosions in the background, to a man running from them, we see two men, both slightly foregrounded but Harrison Ford is more highlighted signifying that he is the protagonist and the other man is clearly the antagonist, the use of modern colours signify that it is quite a new movie, and the sillouette of the man holding a gun signifies violence and danger, which are all signifiers of an Action Thriller.

Conventions of a Thriller

The simple conventions of a thriller is something the audience will respond well to therefore making it succesful and good at connecting the idea to the audience, These conventions are:
Protagonist is usually at mercy of the antagonist.
Cheap suprise- easy shock usually made by unexpected sound/movements/action
False ending- appears case is solved when in fact it is not, this is done by the protagonist praising the antagonist this is used to build up the villian.
Make it personal- where the crime/plans draws in personal aspects of the protagonists life to change the plot making it a personal journey and there intentions become much more emotionally connected which reinstates there victim status.
Theatre of mind- this forces the audience to have to imagine somethings by not showing them
Antagonistts are the key to a good thriller, they drive the plot and are normally the 'villain' they drive the protagonists actions by making them react therefore without an antagonist there would be no plot. certain characteristics include:
Mindset- Antagonists are often sociopaths and are so involved by self reflection and do not become motivated in their plans by wrong or right but by there own aims.
Institutonal power- The power that comes from being rich, having access to functions of state or being in a gang (Eg. Noah Cross, from the film China Town)
Physical Power- They feel power from having excess strength/resilience
Motivation of shadow- It is best to keep the motiviation of the Antagonist slightly secret from the Audience to create mystery and dramatic tension, Here you just give hints.
Spirit of evil- Something that makes the Character become just a bit nastier, they take pleasure from seeing pain or causing harm rather than money or power.

What is a Thriller. What types of thriller are there?

Thrillers are usually defined by their main theme of Injustice Vs Justice, There uis also normally a price that must be paid to come to the conclusion of the story. Thrillers are usually done by point of view of either Hero, Villian or perhaps someone prosecuting the Law ie: A court room drama. The protaginist can normally have a minor and a major role in the plot and an oppisite for example in Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock is a major and his oppisite would be his nemisis Moriarty.

There are many different types of thriller Including Political in which the hero must ensure the stability of the government that employs him the success of such films like 'The Day Of The Jackal' Established the sub genre in the early 1960's.
In addition there are also Conspiricy Thrillers in which the hero confronts a large group of enemies, in which there true extent only he recognises. 'JFK' falls into this genre.
Another Type of Thriller would be a Physcological thriller this is where the conflict between main characters is more mental than physical, examples include 'Stranger on a Train' and 'Suspicion' both films by Alfred Hitchcock. And finally Horror Thrillers are quite wide in that they include elements from all other thrillers including mental,emotional and physical.
Other genres of thrillers are Spy, Military, Legal,Medical,Techno and Forensic.
People enjoy watching thrillers due to the fact that people in the modern western world have an attitude which means they can define the victims and feel empathy for that victim. it also means they are tempted to empahasise with an antagonist thrillers are meant to scare people because they know somethings going to happen but they can't do anything about it!

Editing my preliminary task:

Before we started we had to log into our footage and log out, we used final cut pro software on a Mac computer. .We first watched through all the various shots we had of different angles, places etc, we picked the best ones to use to completely the scene however made sure not to delete anything just in case we wanted to use them for sounds or reaction shots. We started of by cutting them down so we could use a different type of shot for a different line of dialogue, this was tricky as sometimes the sound didn’t match so sometimes we had to take the sound from a different shot and grab it out and match it to footage, we chose the shots on how they looked, we wanted to include shot reverse shots low and high angles. The footage we used that we didn’t want the sound we had to grab some silent sound from our footage and put it together so it didn’t sound odd and out of place. When we had finished we look through and decided some bits needed to be lengthened and some shortened when we had finally put everything together we checked it to make sure everything was continuous and the cuts were clean and not jumpy we wanted to make sure it looked professional. I found using it quite difficult at first as sometimes the Sound didnt match the footage and we somtimes had to redo the cuts several times to make sure they were clean. What i found easy was eventually making it all fit together so it was clean, and then lengthening and using the scissor tool to cut things out for instance sound or footage then using it in other places

Preliminary Task

We filmed in a classroom for our prelinimary task as we thought it would look sophisticated and flow with our plot. I think it worked well all in all, we used little furniture that was on the set but it gave it a more educational feel. My role was varied as we tried to have a go at doing all the roles in our group to really help us get a feel of all different aspects of filming. I did alot if the camera work and directing as I had a very clear idea in my head of what I wanted it to look like.
The lighting in the classroom was quite bright and harsh because it was artificial light, the actors looked good in the light because we wernt that focused on building dramatic tension and therefore didnt need dark or soft lighting. I feel it also emphasised the power of the conflict the actors had and was important to the scene.
We spent a lot of time setting up the camera and adjusting the angle of the tripod and then bubbling it to ensure we had a level shot, if there were any doubts that it might not have gone well we redid the shot and this was helpful as by the end we had plenty of footage to edit. We used high and low angle shots to show power and who was superior/inferior this signified who was the goodand bad character.
We had a story board and filmed the whole scene in wide shot, over both shoulders and a close up of both actors, high angle and low anfles and an extreme close up of the door opening. This was important that we had footage of several different camera shots so we can vary the scene when it comes to editing.
We made sure we conformed to the 180 degree rule to keep the continuity of the film and we made sure to use terminology such as "action" "stand by" to make sure everyone was aware of when we were starting the scene and when it was ending. So far I have learnt how to film different types of shot and what they signify to the audience. I have learnt how to direct film and call out actions. I learnt how to strike the set and set up a camera and also to adjust the settings such as the white balance to make sure the lighting was just right.

Basic camera shots

A close up shot is used to establish a character and signify the importance of them in the scene and shows the audience that they are important, and extrweme close up focuses on specific detail to the narrative with a person or an object before watching this video i didnt know the difference between the two. A mid close up includes the close up and can show a bit more of the characters body language and show the audience more of their mannerisms. We used an extreme close up in our preliminary to show the girl walking through the door, we focused on the door handle to emphasise the importance of this. A long shot can be used to establish the area around the character and informs the audience of the situation they are in and gives them more of an idea of what is happening withing the scene it also draws attention the the characters clothes and what they look like so signifys that they are important. Over the shoulder shots can be used to show 2 characters conversing, we used this in our preliminary task and made sure not to break the 180 degree rule in order to keep the continuity of the scene going.
High angle shots are filmed above the actor looking dow on them to signify low power or that they are inferior and Low angle shots are filmed looking up at them to show high power and that they are superior. We used this in our preliminary task aswell to show the audience who was the good and bad characters.