Thriller Evaluation

Thriller Evaluation

Frequently in thrillers there are the conventions of suspense. This is shown in the opening of my groups’ thriller ‘The Following’. We created tension by not showing a specific characters face by using camera shots and camera work such as point of view and over the shoulder. We also included camera work that included tilting from the feet to the back of the head and a close-up of the feet. This creates many questions to the audience, as they don’t know who this mysterious character is. Another thriller convention that was included was the setting of the attic. The attic gave a creepy mis-en-scene and showed a contrast between light, the dark lighting in the attic and the natural lighting from the outside. The last panning shot of the different pictures was influenced by the movie ‘One hour photo’. Having this shot influenced by this movie thriller connotes that the character in this movie is a slightly disturbed person which adds to the convention of a thriller.







In the opening of this thriller there are only two protagonists. Looking at them you can see that they represent two opposite characters that can attract a wider audience. The only comparison between both of them is that they look roughly around the same age. This is 16-18. Whereas ones a male this is showed to the audience by clothes. A baggy black tracksuit represents a typical adolescence because this is what they mainly wear now. The fact that it’s black connotes that the character is very dark and mysterious. In the opening the hood is up for the whole time which creates this character to be very anonymous. But looking closely you can see that this person has a black ethnicity. This particular person is represented slightly as a creep because of the constant obsession of the other character. Whereas the other protagonist is a female who is represented as a typical teenager who may even be superficial. This is shown by her going to a clothes shop and then a phone shop purchasing items. This character has a Greek ethnicity which is opposite to the other character which creates a different representation especially to the target audience.
The movie ‘The following’ seems like it would be a small independent UK release distributed around a descent number of UK ‘arthouse’ cinemas. This is because a UK audience can relate to it more with the characters and the rest of the mis-en-scene. It wouldn’t get any bigger than this because it doesn’t have a big enough budget or have a wide enough audience to become a Hollywood blockbuster.
For the thriller ‘The Following’ the target audience for this film would male and female 17-21 year olds. This is because the two characters in the movie have a totally different race from each other which widens the target audience. As the audience is around 17-21 they would mainly be in a college/sixth form or university. You may still get workers who are this age who didn’t want to carry on their education but would end up having quite a low paid job. Thinking about the class of the target audience it would mainly be mainly a young working and middle class, this because at this age you are only the class of your parents and I find that this audience would be more of a niche audience. The reason why they are a niche audience because the movie doesn’t appeal to really big audience or have a big enough budget to be mainstream. For example the target audience would in include someone like… Phillip, 18, is doing his last year in college but has a part time weekend job in Sainsbury’s. Likes getting clothes from Topman, Primark and H&M. And has an I-pod, Nintendo DS and a Sony Erricson.
The trailer for the movie ‘The Following’ would be shown on channel 4, Film 4, the 15 minute break between movies on sky Action/Thriller. Also other channels that appeal to the target audience. You could also see the trailer on ‘You tube’ for those who loves the internet more than television. It wouldn’t be on the really big billboards on top of buildings, but it would be on the billboards on the bus stops. There isn’t any ‘star’ lead role in the movie they are all fresh up coming new actors. So this would be they’re first big British film.
I’ve enjoyed making this film a lot even though I wasn’t behind the camera much, I did do some of the point of view shots. Which I did like especially feeling like a director shouting out action. But what I found the most challenging was the Final cut pro. It was new to me but it was easy to get the hang of especially how we filmed a certain way which would make the match- cuts easier. But my favourite was doing the sound and music, watching the film at the same time as adding all the sounds for example the door opening and closing and the alarm of the phone going off, doing all of this was fun to do. Using the blog was like having a diary on to the internet. Because it I had to record down everything we had that linked to the thriller and the process of making it. To have the film then launched onto the internet would be perfect because it would get a bigger audience because other people would then send it to other to go and watch. To also see the movie on Youtube would be good because then we could get views and peoples ratings on how they feel about the movie.
Making a movie without a storyboard is nearly impossible which is why it is there for a reason. Even though we didn’t always have a storyboard with us, we had a very strong idea of what we wanted to film and edit. So we kind of had a mental storyboard with us. Going back at the preliminary task I found it very difficult to do the match-cuts on to the computer as I was very new at it and I thought that I would never get it. But after moving onto my own film it got easier as I knew what I wanted so I then got the hang of it. What I have learnt from all of this is that it’s not that easy making a film and editing but having the post-productions makes it feel like a routine as there is always a deadline for making a film.
As I got to watch back the film with an audience not just to myself, I got to hear their feed back. A lot of it was very similar from everyone and that was that we had very good match-cuts, the credits was very nice and simple using just black and white. Having the credits simple didn’t make it cheesy or tacky. They also mentioned the fact that one of the characters was wearing a red coat which made her stand out to the audience which made everyone know that she was a target. They also liked the sound effects that fitted perfectly was the door opening and closing and the sound of the camera click. Looking back at the thriller I would only change little things such as a female playing a boy. It would have been much easier and faster if an actual boy played that character. But apart from that I wouldn’t change anything else especially the main female character wearing a bright red coat because it made her dominant to the audience as she stood out.


The Following from 283goswell on Vimeo.