Target audience

The target audience of a thriller varies depending on the film, and also if the film in hand has a specific sub-genre. Traditionally the target audience is said to be males, as stereotypically the tension and plot lines thrillers have are more appealing to that gender. Usually the age would start at 16 and end at perhaps late fifties. I think this because children under the age of 16 probably wouldn't enjoy a thriller, they might find it too scary, and the certificate may be out of their age range. Older people tend to enjoy more mellow genres, but quite a few middle aged people enjoy Thriller films (For example..My dad).

The film Phone Booth is a good example of how the target audience can change depending on the film. Phone Booth doesn't contain hardly any gore, and is more suspense building than scary. This means it may appeal to a younger audience, but also an older audience because the plot lines are clever and twisting. This illustrates that thriller films can capture any audience depending on the subject.


A completely different example would be the film The Dark Knight, which is often classified as an action thriller movie. However, because it is based on Batman, and has many famous actors which a younger generation are more likely to know, it therefore appeals to a younger audience as well as an older audience who would probably have seen the original Batman movies and would have been curious to see the new take on the story. This shows how film remakes can also contribute to a different target audience.


My final example is the film Memento. The opening scene of this already has blood and gore included, which following a stereotypical view of genders might mean that female and younger viewers would be immediately put off of the film and switch it off. The film also has a lot of clever twists and turns to it, which is why I think it would be more likely to appeal to an older male audience.

Sub genres

Sub-genres are similar to hybrids. Often, a film genre has traits of other genres mixed in with them. For example, a rom com, a mixture of romance and comedy. Thrillers are often hybrids with other genres. Examples of these are:
- Action thrillers
- Crime thrillers
- Western thrillers
- Horror thrillers
- Film-noir thrillers

An example of a film in the horror-thriller sub genre is the film 'Memento'. This is because the beginning of the film opens with blood and is quite gory. Thrillers often don't have blood and gore, they are known for suspense which tends to be more subtle than horrors.

Shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule

A shot reverse shot usually shows a conversation between two actors. It usually is filmed as an over the shoulder shot, and has too have a least three switches between the two actors.

The 180 degree rule is shown in the diagram below. It means that if the camera films a conversation between two people on the left side of the room, the camera can't then switch to the right side of the room and continue filming because then the people on screen would be backwards as to how they were in the previous take. This rule is put in place to save confusion among the audience.

First prelim task: 23rd September

Today we got into groups of three and filmed a short journey using as many different camera shots as possible. My group decided to film the journey of Joe going too the toilet. This allowed us to use many different shots such as a wide panning shot, and a worm’s eye view shot.

We began the lesson by looking at the equipment we would be using, the cameras and tripods. We had to learn how to load a tape, switch the camera to VCR or Camera mode, film footage and zoom. We also had to learn how to adjust the legs and many different parts of the tripod.

As Paige and I had used the cameras before in our GCSE media lessons, we were quite comfortable with it. We used the tripod for the wide panning shots and used a hand held technique for worms eye and close up shots. We didn’t find it particularly difficult to think of different shots to use, but learned in the process how useful tripods are. Many of the hand held shots had to be re-filmed several times because the shot was shaky or slightly out of focus.

We also faced the problem of continuity. One shot was filmed with the bags put on the grass in a certain way. We moved the bags before we realised we needed to re-do the shot. This meant we had to re-watch the footage and try and line the bags up exactly as they had been before.

We enjoyed using the cameras and coming up with different interesting shots, for example, when Joe was coming down the stairs Paige sat at the bottom step and managed to get a low angle of his feet. We also managed to get a birds eye view of Joe walking through the foyer by standing on the balcony which was above the foyer.

Overall it was quite a successful project, as it reacquainted me and Paige with the cameras and tripod, and allowed Joe to use them for the first time. Once we corrected the problems we had we managed to get the prelim finished to a level which we were satisfied with.

An introduction to shot types, angles and movements

There are many different types of shot types, including:-
Close up (CU)
Big close up (BCU)
Extreme close up (ECU)
Medium close up (MCU)
Extreme long shot (ELS)
Medium long shot (MLS)
Medium shot (MS)
Long shot (LS)

Different types of angles include:-
Low angle
High angle
Worm’s eye
Bird’s eye
Canted
Eye level
Two shot
Over the shoulder shot
POV

Movements include:-
Panning: The horizontal scanning of a scene.
Tracking: A shot in which a camera is mounted on a cart, which travels along tracks.
Crabbing: The camera moving sideways, but the shot staying the same. The camera doesn’t follow the action.
Zooming: Altering the focal length of the lens to give the illusion of moving closer to or further away from the action.
Tilt: Tilting the camera up and down.
PED: The camera moving up and down, but remaining at eye level.
Hand held: attempting to imitate a steady cam but by detaching it from the tripod and carrying it.
Steady cam: attaching a camera to you, needs a license for it.