The Reunion: Thriller Evaluation

In contrast to the many media products that have been made for the consumption of media audiences, I think my thriller film does oppose a few of the many conventions, in the sense that my thriller’s opening shot is not an ESTABLISHING SHOT. Whereas my thriller begins with a ZOOM out of a letter, where the character’s current activity is established. In support of this, my group and I wanted the audience to be uninformed of what is happening initially.

One famous film that does follow some of these conventions is the 1958 crime thriller, Touch of Evil film directed by Orson Welles, starring Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston. Although the film does not begin immediately in an ESTABLISHING SHOT, it does include one legendary, continuous, three minute CRANE SHOT.

Still taken from 'Touch of Evil' film (below)

My media product is not deliberately subjective to any social groups and in my opinion, I do not think this presents any issue in my film.The characters in my film represent two working class, white males. However, it was not deliberate that both of the actors would be of the same racial identity but it was primitive that they would both be of the same gender. This was mainly for the purpose of the bullying scene. It would have been a little out of character for a boy to be bullied by a girl and vice-versa, but not impossible.

If my film were for the consumption of media, audiences it would be distributed to a small number of UK ‘art house’ cinemas and would have been a small independent UK release. The reasons for this are that the film was produced on a minimal expense budget and the facilities were provided. In addition to this, the film is intended as a student project.Despite this, the film if released or if made available for public consumption for any reason, would have to distribute via the most cost effective means.

YouTube owned by Google, is a video sharing site that users can watch, upload and share video content. Once a registered user you are able to upload numerous videos.This would be a good website to use if choosing to broadcast my thriller, as it is free and available to any internet user for consumption.

Channel 4 is an independent, commercially self-funded media company.
The channel offer opportunities for new directors to produce films for broadcast television. In the form of a three-minute media product, appropriately named Three Minute Wonder (3MW).If I were intending to broadcast my short film on television, I would consider approaching Kate Vogul, the Commissioning editor at Channel 4.

Other sites I would consider if intending to broadcast my film include:




The target audience for my media product would be 17 – 22 year olds. I think that the audience that would find my short film most interesting would a predominately white working class background, mainly aspirers.

An example of a person that would be typical of my audience is ‘David, 18 works at Sainsbury’s part time whilst studying A level ICT, Electronics and Film Studies. David also enjoys socialising with friends, festivals and supporting small niche groups, spends most weekends with his girlfriend Sophie.

To attract my audience I would have an internet campaign and trailers on Channel 4. As I would be working on a small budget, I would like to market my film based on its reviews. I would like to get as many valuable reviews as possible that praise the film, as it is generally ‘word of mouth’ that sparks interest and debate into most films.I would also popular television programmes talk about my film, e.g. London Tonight on the 6 o’ clock news when one of the critics could express their opinion on the film and that is available for viewing at selected cinemas.

Having reached the end of the project and reflecting on my preliminary task, I now understand the importance of a soundtrack in relation to any moving picture. I am now fully aware that sound can be used to manipulate the interpretation of images.

After reviewing footage from my preliminary film and thriller film, I think it is clear that my filming and editing skills have developed greatly. I noticed that in the preliminary film that I was using the ZOOM function unnecessarily at times.I also noticed that the CUTs in between shots in my thriller are much smoother than the ones in my preliminary film.

As the planning for the preliminary film was of a low standard, I think it is apparent in the quality of work that my colleagues and I produced on this occasion.

An example of this is that the location we had for filming our preliminary task was decided on short notice. The room was untidy and I believe, distracting for any audience as it has no relevance to the mise en scene. At one point, there is a plant stem in one of the MEDIUM ANGLE SHOTs.

Still from Preliminary task (below)

I also learnt that professional film makers only use 10% of the rushes they shoot. When filming the preliminary filming my group members and I were short of choice as we had a very basic array of shots to choose from when editing.

However, when editing my thriller the choice of shots was vast and at times, we were undecided on what shots we should use.I have realised the importance of thorough planning. If the planning at the beginning of the project had been more in depth, I am more than certain that my media product would have been of a higher standard and most definitely had a better concept.