Evaluation

Introduction
Creative Process Evaluation
When creating our final piece we faced many challenges as well as picking up many skills along
the way. We learnt how to organise and produce a short film clip that follows specific
conventions. Through research we also were able to decide how to filter content that could
display our creative produce in the best way possible.

Writing
Our group worked out an appropriate script. We also tried to use stage directions when
necessary. We started of with mostly improvised scenes before translating them into clear
speech. From the mood of the scene I was able to recognise what type of tone the script should
comply with.

Storyboards really helped us to grasp which ideas are most significant in the film and plan out coherent
actions. Since the short film is within the thriller genre we tried to write a script that had a tone relatable for
the audience. The characters are of a specific age bracket that tend to speak informally and so we made sure
to include words that are relatable for the audience
Stage directions help to communicate to the actors on how the characters are feeling. Something as simple as a
slumped posture helps to indicate a feeling. In my research I consider certain conventions to do with thrillers, so I
know the right stage directions to give actors so they portray the right body language, for example in our film, Grace
when she constantly avoids eye contact with the social worker and instead fiddles with whatever is in her hand.
Gestures such as hand drumming from Grace- played by Chloe helped to indicates she is apprehensive and Social
worker- played by Johnny used a lot of deep sighs and hand movements with the pens and stroking his chin which
helped to depict him as irritant. We focused mainly on body language rather than speech as we personally prefer
this style of communication in film and my group agreed it is equally as effective. We personally find that an
audience responds to this style very well. In addition it helps to keep realism a key theme in the thriller genre. The
genre demands the audience to keep interest and convert their ideas into notions about each character, for example
a character that regularly covers their wrists may imply they self harm or are in some way insecure. This infers
certain characteristics of the characters and makes the audience constantly involved by the story.

Footage of the fiddling we

highlighted in our film opening
DEMOGRAPHICS
Category A (Upper middle class bankers, doctors);

Category B (Middle class teachers, middle managers, creative/media);

Category C1 (Lower middle class office supervisors, nurses);

Category C2( Skilled working class tradespeople);

Category D (working class unskilled manual labour);

Category E (People at the lowest level of income unemployed, students, pensioners)

Our Target Audience

Why we chose these psychographics
Reformer (High Classed)- They have freedom from restriction, personal
growth, social awareness, value for time, independent judgement, tolerance of
complexity, anti-materialistic but intolerant of bad taste. Curious and enquiring,
support growth of new product categories. They select brands for intrinsic
quality, favouring natural simplicity, for them small is beautiful.

Explorer (Younger-Student) - They have autonomy, experience, like to

challenge or be challenged, they are new frontiers. Brand choice highlights
difference, sensation, adventure, indulgence and instant effect, they are the
first to try new brands.

Aspirer (Younger, clerical/sales type occupation)- They are materialistic,

acquisitive, affiliative, orientated to extrinsics/image/appearance. They have
charisma, persona and fashion. They are the type to find attractive packaging
more important than quality of content.
Q1 - Who Is The Target Audience?
Teenagers, Young Adults and Working adults were the main attraction for our film. Therefore,
we set the target audience for our thriller film was set for 15-25 year olds.

When deciding which audience category according to ABC1 C2DE, we thought it would be
more appealing to C1 and below as they are usually living in a working class/middle class
environment, as our film is being set in an urban setting and embodying city life including
retailers such as Tesco. The main characters are teenagers in our film so students will be
attracted and probably relate to the film more(E demographic). We concluded that teenagers
will be the crucial and extremely valuable target audience our film will receive due to the plot
it has to offer and how age groups react to it.
Values & Lifestyle
We also wanted to make it relatable to teenagers in the shopping scene since this is a leisure
event large amount of teenagers partake in, shopping casually with their friends. As well as this,
the train station is also a constant place most working class (older 18 +) people are familiar
with and it is a popular public transport people use to get to and from work. One of the busiest
forms of transport in London infact so I think our film will take an interest to both the explorer,
aspirers & reformer psychographics based on this.
Shopping with friends

In our film opening we included the typical scene of

two friends going shopping and asking each other
their opinion on the piece of clothing they picked out.
We wanted this scene to be included because we
believed it was important to show a happy side of
Grace and her innocence, to be able to show a vivid
contrast of behaviour when her friend is no longer
there and how the fight with her thoughts is turning
her cold.
Q2 - How the film appeals to the audience?
Our specific audience are females (14-25). Our film appeals to this particular audience because they can relate
to the characters and storylines within the film. Our film focuses on the story of Grace with the use of
flashbacks into her life so the audience can grow a connection with her.
The use of plot twist draws the target audience into the psychological aspect of the film by enticing their
emotions with gripping suspense as the sequence does not end the way the audience expects it to end. Most
Female audiences enjoy intellectual, cognitive films which our films holds heavily. Graces friend Trinity being
dead in reality but alive in Graces head would make the audience want to know why Grace insists to sustain the
illusion of Trinity, when she knows Trinity is dead and how she died. The use of having to cipher unresolved
puzzles throughout the movie will keep the audience attentive and constantly drawn in as they would have to
be thinking in order to understand and not miss out a clue given. The target audience is clearly for those who
enjoy thriller. Even though the movie is of a specific category, I think that it could easily draw in a lot of other
viewers because of the storyline and the events that taken place. As for getting across to the younger audience
I reckon that because it is a modern film with great quality it adds to the enjoyment of the film, keeping up to
date with the industry. Some of the events that take place are ordinary and real which adds to the surrealism of
the film. We really want our audience to feel as though they are apart of what is taking place, to a point that
they would imagine themselves in the situations. So making the scenes look as close and familiar to home could
put the audience in this position.
Providing a plot twist is the icing on the cake when mastering suspense. You either lead the audience in one direction and
then pull the rug out from under them or relieve them with a happy ending.
But generally, it is a good rule of thumb to end a suspense sequence on an unpredictable note when making a thriller. A
very recent movie which included a plot twist was "Get out" which is probably why it got such high ratings, 99% Rotten
Tomatoes and 4/5 The Guardian. So our film having a plot twist may have the same effect on the audience as Get out and
cause advertisement through word of mouth. People who enjoy good thrillers normally recommend others to watch it and
people who choose to watch a movie that is out of their genre preferences, is normally due to hearing good reviews which
tempts them to also take on the experience and have an opinion for themselves. Especially with modern teenagers, word
of mouth and good reviews is a high incentive in making them decide to watch a movie or not. So in order for it to appeal
to our audience we have to master the main concepts in thriller movies such as angles and specific editing to catch their
attention.

This is a video I saw which includes

more techniques and edits used in
movies.
Post Production and editing
techniques
Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, and
photography. In horror movies, the victims always show up at the wrong time,
theyre either a little bit early or a minute too late. The only reason the victims
timing is so poor is because the editors timing is right on. The suspense and
tension that is built during a dramatic and horrifying scene keeps the audience on
their toes and coming back for more. A suspense-filled scene is built by more than
just the timing and pacing of its shots. One of the most important factors in setting
the stage for deep suspense and thrilling terror is what the audience hears, and
sometimes what they dont hear. Sound effects shape the environment of a scene
just as much as the visuals, they give life to lifeless objects on screen and reveal
what the viewer never sees. In our film production I looked up typical sounds in
suspense scenes, created them and embedded them in our film. I intentionally used
the "drum beat" sound 3 times as a a way to build up to the High note Piano scratch
at the peak point, which in our case was the revelation that Trinity is an
hallucination. I got this idea from The amazing spider man scene where Gwen is
hiding from the villain and the villain is hiding from her. In the next slide you can
see the video of that scene and how sound was made for our film.
I wanted to have the same background sound whilst the
built of tension was happening so I focused on the buzz of
the light bulb in the room and looked for it on youtube,
converted it into an mp3 sound online and put it in my film
editing. Then I used the same noise of the piano as The
amazing spider man continuously throughout the video but
unlike The amazing spider man suspense was not made but
instead it sounded annoying so I only included the piano
sound at the end and replaced it with drum sounds to give
the effect that it starts small then grows big.
Below is an extract of the sound merged together in our
film. The white points were used to dim out the sound to not
make the listener confused in having to hear more than one
background noise whilst the actor was speaking.

Close-up Shots
The use of close-up is to help the audience
connect the with the character. The close-up
being so close makes the audience feel as
uncomfortable as the character feels and to
feel the essence of being crowded. The
extreme close up will stay on show for long to
also make the audience want the same
distance as Grace wants from people. This
shot is edited to have a grey-scale to fit the
mood of the scene.
Props:
Black
television
monitor
To create the harsh shadow in the background a
large, black TV monitor was used. This was to
emphasise the theme of solidarity & isolation but at
the same time add an eerie atmosphere for the
thriller film. Close ups also make the character
seem trapped and isolated. Lack of space is
common convention seen in thriller media
products.
 Q3 - What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
INDEPENDENT DISTRIBUTORS
Our film would be targeted at independent distributors due to the fact it
is low budget. Low budget films usually tend to work with unknown
producers which big-time global companies would usually disregard such
as paramount pictures, warner bros, hollywood pictures Spy Glass etc.
Independent distributors such as Warp films are a small British targeted
institution. This would be a realistic possible distributor as it doesnt
distribute high budget films and targets British audiences which our film
is based around. Due to our film having British actors and only a low
budgeted film Warp films could distribute our psychological thriller as
they have released films such as Dead Man's Shoes. This is a thriller film
similar to ours in the terms of, it follows one character and their personal
state.
These are popular, high end distributors that
may not distribute our film but have
similarities in the films they distribute. If we
High Budget
had known actors, a higher budget and
successful directors/producers our film could Distributors
be considered.

New Line cinema is a popular distributor for

psychological thriller films. This distributor
has released films such as The Butterfly
Effect & Se7en which are both successful
psychological thriller films with a similar
storyline to our film, where it follows the
protagonists self state of being and how their
character develops.