Audience Profile

Target Audience

    The target audience for our thriller production 'Beach Comber' is 15-22 year old British people, as our main characters/actors are British teenagers, and the locations we used are in Norfolk (UK).

    Due to the victim in our narrative that we track from the very beginning being female, it is possible that our audience would primarily be females as they would sympathise with the character, although our production could appeal to both male and female audiences; so is not limited to an 'all female' audience.

    Other films our audience may like are 'Submarine', 'Dead Man's Shoes', 'Tyrannosaur', 'The Loved Ones', 'Seconds Apart', 'Attack the Block' and 'The Cornetto Trilogy' ('Shaun of the Dead', 'Hot Fuzz', 'The World's End').

    Our audience may like 'Submarine', 'Dead Man's Shoes' and 'Tyrannosaur' as they are all Independent British films from Warp Films - a Independent British film company from Sheffield who want to get British film 'out there'; as well as Tyrannosaur being Paddy Considine's directing debut.

    They may enjoy films like 'The Loved Ones' and 'Second's Apart' as the main characters featured are teenagers/young adults - especially both the victims and antagonists; much like our production.

    Whereas they may like 'Attack the Block' as not only does it's narrative revolve around a group of deviant British youths, but -similarly to 'Tyrannosaur'- it is Joe Cornish's directing debut for film, produced by Film4 and with Edgar Wright as Executive Producer.

    Similarly, 'The Cornetto Trilogy' will appeal to our target audience as it is a collection of British films written and directed by Edgar Wright (co-written and starring Simon Pegg), set and filmed in British locations; with social commentary on certain issues - issues of which could possibly be of interest to our target audience.

Contextual Study: Weybourne Beach - Production Location

Solved: The 23 year mystery of man’s body found on Weybourne beach
     
    For more than two decades a grave with no name has stood in a north Norfolk churchyard. Despite a six-month police investigation, the man’s body could not be identified - leaving villagers to gather for a poignant funeral at Weybourne cemetery in April 1990.

    But now - thanks to modern detective work - the mystery of the body washed up on Weybourne beach in 1989 has been solved.

   Police can now reveal that it is Michael Sutherland, 34, of Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, who was found 23 years ago on October 9 by local fishermen.

[text omitted]

                                     

Text and image from: www.edp24.co.uk

    The fact that there was a body found at our primary location of Weybourne Beach in North Norfolk helps to add depth, dimension and meaning to our use of this location. It does this by adding a fairly eerie and foreboding feel as it strengthens the idea that something bad could happen to the victim Sam in our narrative whilst being followed at this location. 

Thriller Production: Casting

Casting for our Thriller Opening

Thriller Production: Rough Cut

Good Points:

• Understandable narrative
• Range of shots used
• Elicits appropriate response from audience 

Bad Points:

• Soundtrack to be added
• Some shots are a little bit too long
• Adjust diegetic sound levels

                                      

Thriller Production: Props

Thriller Production Props

Lighting Effects & Camera Movement

Lighting

    For the majority of our shots -especially in the primary location of Weybourne beach- we decided to use ambient lighting to add a sense of realism to the production, as well as to make the dark costume of the antagonist Ian Moone stand out to the audience more.

    Whereas in the interior shots from our secondary location - the shed that we filmed in- we decided to use chiaroscuro lighting from a compact torch that our victim has in our narrative. We used this to highlight the crucial moment of our victim Sam - along with the audience- seeing the antagonists face for the first time, along with accentuating the shot as a pinnacle moment within our narrative.

We wanted to use this shot for when we first see our antagonist as it is similar to that in 'The Third Man' when we first see the character of Harry Lime, and resultantly realise that he isn't actually dead; as we were earlier led to believe. 

This lighting used in 'The Third Man' helps to suggests links from Harry Lime to the concept of a phantom, much like the lighting used in 'Nosferatu the Vampyre' (1929).  This link helps to reinforce the eerie feel of our narrative and character of Ian Moone, who manages to follow our victim Sam without being noticed, and when she turns around cautiously; he has suddenly vanished. 

Camera

    As to accentuate the isolation of our victim and the Weybourne beach location, we decided to use an aerial shot which not only successfully did this, but also extracted the audience from within the action and provided a change in camera movement; keeping the audience interested. As this was a very interesting and distinct feature of our production, me and Madeleine decided to create a commentary of the use of the aerial shot to explain how and why we did this:

Thriller Production: Opening Credits/Title Sequences (Fonts)

 
    As the opening credits are one of the first things we see, it is important to use a font that is fitting of our production as it may be used to set the tone of the whole text, and also influence the audience's initial response to our production.

    In 'Hansel & Gretel: Witch hunters' the opening credits are very fitting of the text and set up the audiences expectation for the production. 

    The way in which we present our credits is very important as this could also have an effect on the audience's perception of our production. By animating the text so that it fades up and out again - like in the titles of 'insidious'- makes it look like smoke, creating an eerie feeling; as well as suggesting the supernatural elements and the theme of astral projection explored within the production. In this example, the use of the opening credits is clearly very fitting of the overall text, and intrigues the audience from the very beginning. 

    In the opening credits of 'Se7en', the text flickers and twitches, which could be seen as reflective of the unstable, psychotic mindset of the murderer within the narrative - a psychotic individual being a generic thriller character type. Once again, this shows that the use of text within the opening credits is very important in setting the atmosphere for a production - further reinforcing the importance of finding a suitable and effective font choice for our production as not only will it be one of the first things that the audience sees, but it may also influence their initial attitudes towards the film. 

Thriller Production: Storyboards

Thriller Production: Sound

    As music has a massive influence on the feel of a production and the way the audience react to it, it was very important to find the right sound for our thriller production.

    For example, in films such as '28 Days Later' and 'Requiem For A Dream', music is used to signify pinnacle moments in the narrative; reinforcing its importance both to the story and lives of the characters involved. Much of the music that is used in this way usually layers up the instrumentation and crescendos to build tension and suspense within the audience, creating a very foreboding atmosphere.

    As we want our production to be very suspenseful and eerie; we decided that having a full piece of music to accompany the action may not fit our production as it wouldn't create the right atmosphere to go with what is being shown on the screen, as well as also possibly being very distracting.

   Despite this, we still wanted to have some sound in the background - to accompany the diegetic sound - to try and build tension within the audience. This is why we decided to have a drone that constantly crescendos and builds up instrumentation in the background of our production, hopefully creating an eerie and unnerving atmosphere.

    We also decided to add a different sound for when we see our antagonist's face for the first time, hopefully creating a similar feeling of tension in the audience; as well as clearly indicating to the audience that this character is our antagonist.

    By using sound clips from freesound , it eliminated the issue of trying to find non-copyrighted/royalty free music; and also helped us to find sound that fit our mise en scene better than many of the tracks we had originally tried.

Thriller Production: Secondary Location

Secondary Location

Thriller Production: Revised Shooting Schedule

Thriller Production: Character Profiles

    In our original idea, we decided to have both a female antagonist and victim. We were going to use these characters to both follow and challenge generic thriller conventions.
    Upon reviewing our raw footage - under advisement from our teacher- we later decided that our antagonist wasn't very fitting for what we wanted to do with our thriller production; so decided to change to a new, male antagonist character.


Bonnie

    Originally, we were going to have a female antagonist named Bonnie. We decided on this name as it is a feminine name that comes from the Scottish word "bonnie" meaning "pretty, attractive"; hoping to create an ironic juxtaposition from the connotations of the name with the nature of an antagonist. we also chose this name in reference to Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (Bonnie & Clyde) - who I have included in my 'Female Serial Killers' contextual study. 
    
    Bonnie's costume was inspired by that of Richard in 'Dead Man's Shoes' - incorporating the army jacket and gas mask. We decided to use fairly dull colours to try and follow the convention of having the antagonist in dark colours -creating a cool, iciness about the character, reflective of her personality- and added pink gloves to try and create a contrast to this; reinforcing the femininity  of the character. We wanted Bonnie to have a fairly similar costume to Sam - the victim- as to reflect the fact that Bonnie is trying to 'blend in' with others, and seem 'normal'; as many real life psychopaths try to. We used a gas mask and hockey stick - along with the military boots - to try and make the character appear to be threatening and unnerving. Thus, making it clear to the audience that this character is the antagonist of our narrative. We later decided to change our antagonist to a male character as we didn't feel as if the character of Bonnie looked or felt threatening enough for our thriller production.  

Sam

    In our narrative, we have a fairly ambiguous female victim named Sam. We decided on this name as it is a fairly common unisex name, which makes it seem as if the victim could have been anyone - hopefully evoking tension within the audience by making them feel as if it could well have been them in Sam's position.

    We wanted Sam to have a similar costume to Bonnie as we wanted to reflect the fact that Bonnie was trying to 'blend in' with normal people. After we decided to change our antagonist to a male character, we decided to keep Sam's costume as it was because we still wanted to include the 'Dead Man's Shoes' inspired costume; but to use it in a very different way for this character. We decided to 'flip' the idea of Richard's style of clothing being used for the antagonist to the victim as in our narrative, there are points in which it seems as if the ambiguity of Sam as a character briefly leads the audience to question whether or not she actually is the innocent victim they were all lead to believe she was.



Ian Moone 

    Originally, we had a female antagonist called Bonnie; but as we felt the character wasn't quite what we wanted for our thriller production, we decided to change our antagonist to a new, male character. We decided to call this character Ian Moone after Sqweegel, a character in an episode of the same name; from the 11th series of 'CSI'. In the show, Sqweegel is an enigmatic male serial killer who goes by the alias of 'Ian Moone' - an anagram for 'I am no one'. As our antagonist is also very enigmatic - wearing only dark colours, following the victim and never revealing his face until the end of our thriller production and also watches and attacks victims in their own homes, much like Sqweegel; we felt that this would be a very fitting name.

    We wanted Ian Moone to have a costume composed of only dark items of clothing, to portray his cold, calculating nature. The use of a dark costume also helps to reinforce the feel of enigma about the character, making him seem very shadowy and shifty; which would be very beneficial in helping him to execute his devious and repulsive actions that are soon to unfold. This would help the audience to identify that Ian Moone is the antagonist of our narrative, hopefully causing the audience to feel disgust and distrust towards this character.

Thriller Production: Shooting Schedule

Thriller Production: Final Idea - Rough planning

Thriller Production: Moodboard

Thriller Production Moodboard

Thriller Production: Location

Weybourne Beach

This location is an effective choice for our thriller production as the primeval setting of the beach helps to reinforce the predatory feel of our antagonist in our narrative. This setting also helps to portray a certain frigidness by appearing to lack all warmth and feeling, reflecting the antagonist and any possible ordeal that may occur. As it is a beach location, the audience can recognise and associate their own experiences of such places in numbing weather; adding to the bleak and steely atmosphere we intend to portray. 

Baconsthorpe Castle

This location is an effective choice for our thriller production as it's aesthetically pleasing greenery creates a welcomed contrast between the brutal iciness of the beach location, yet is also isolated; luring the audience -along with the victim in our narrative - into a false sense of security. The ruins of the castle surrounding the grounds could be seen as metaphorical of the antagonists decaying sanity, symbolising their eroding mental state. 

Possible Locations for Thriller Production

I took these photos of possible locations for our thriller production, at about 15:50 - 16:20.

Whitlingham outdoor centre/park

 I chose this location as it had a very primeval feel to it, which would highlight the idea of the 'victim' in our narrative being hunted by the aggressor; due to the predatory feel created by the location, of which links to the primeval beach setting of 'Essex boys' which very much creates a similar atmosphere. This setting has a fairly dystopian feel to it, fitting the dark mise-en-scéne of our narrative; which would mean this could hopefully be a effective backdrop for thriller production.

Whitlingham forest

I chose this location as it linked very similarly to the setting of the film 'Ils', which has a large amount of the scenes where the 'victims' are being chased/'hunted down' by the aggressors taken place in a isolated forest in a secluded part of the town. Due to the setting being a main aspect in creating the tension in this film, and we have a similar idea with an aggressor 'hunting' the 'victim'; I thought this would hopefully be a suitable location to fit our thriller production. The use of this desolate forest would fit well with the narrative for our production, therefore hopefully creating an effective setting for our thriller production.