Unit 21.1 Response to the client brief

Demographics
Our target audience is around the age of 16-24 years old , this means that we are appealing to more of a young and mature audience. In order for us to appeal to this type of age group(our audience) within the UK we will need to ensure that we have modernized environments and the language used must reflect that of the language spoken within the United Kingdom especially London. One of the advantages associated with making a thriller movie for this age group is that we can be extremely creative with our approach and what we include in the thriller opening sequence. Another strength that we gain from having a youth based target audience is that because we are youth ourselves we can relate to the new and upcoming trends and convey that within our opening sequence. On the other hand it will also be slightly challenging to make a thriller opening sequence for this audience because the age rating is so wide it means that some of our audience wont be able to watch the thriller if it includes 18+ content therefore we can only make the thriller opening sequence a age rating of 15.

Conventions
Conventions are the agreed ways of doing things for a particular genre or category. The type of thriller I am making an opening sequence for falls into the sub genre of psychological thriller. The key thriller conventions I will need to ensure is in my final piece that I have a clear antagonist, protagonist, screaming or maybe sounds of shock/horror. The most important convention I will need to include is creepy/suspense building music that is copyright free. I will include the music playing throughout  the opening sequence and reveal the protagonist/antagonist at a suitable time within the opening sequence.


Industry Requirements
The institution that my thriller is being produced for is the Thriller Chiller Film Festival from Michigan USA. My group and I can find out more information on what they are looking for, winners in the past etc. on the scenario we have been given .The advantage with working with Thriller Chiller Film Festival is that the United States of America is so much bigger than the United Kingdom with such a larger population meaning that our product will be able to reach further and more people will be able to see it. Our target audience may be under the age of 18 so therefore still a child by law. This means we need to be very particular about the content that we put into our opening sequence as some parents may have different standards to what a 16/17 year old may be exposed to at that age. All films/opening sequences must have a certificate/ green card stating that their opening sequence has been reviewed by British Board Film Classification for the UK and MPAA for the United States of America.


Medium
The medium that I have decided to work with is film. This is because I have a strong passion for them and also have a lot of knowledge on the subject. The type of text I will be designing is an opening sequence for a psychological thriller. The genre that my type of text will fall into best is thriller because of the conventions I am including in my opening sequence. The reason I have chosen to go for a psychological thriller out of all thriller sub genres is because I feel that from the research I have done psychological thrillers would suit our target audience the best.


Strengths
One potential area of personal strength I have is that I like to watch a lot of psychological thrillers such as the Get Out film (which is a personal favorite of mine). The reason I class this as a strength is because it allows me gain wider knowledge and a deeper understanding on the conventions that need to be considered when making thriller opening sequence for film. Get Out is a reasonably recent movie and is still fresh in my head. My goal is to make my opening sequence as memorable as the get out film with the use of suspense building and thriller subgenre conventions.Watching thriller films such as bright have helped me to process ideas for my opening sequence.Another potential area of strength for me personally is the fact that I have done a lot of research aside of watching thriller films on frequently used themes, editing techniques and ideas for building suspense. I used many websites found through Google search as a means of obtaining my research. Whilst researching I found many useful editing techniques to incorporate in my work when I begin to edit my opening sequence. An example of some of the techniques used is obtrusive editing and the use of flashbacks as a way of explaining the narrative to the audience.

Weaknesses

In terms of deficiencies I personally believe that because the only form of thriller films I watch are psychological thrillers I lack knowledge on conventions within different thriller sub-genres. Having a broader knowledge on areas within sub genres will allow me to perhaps pic 'n' mix with the techniques used in each. Another weakness I have picked up on regarding myself  is the fact I have never produced an opening sequence for a thriller movie nor have I produced anything for the thriller genre itself. this puts me at a slight disadvantage as I am new to this area within media.

How I will improve my negatives?

The way in which I will improve this weakness is by taking time to watch thriller films that I wouldn't normally go for to help me gain a better understanding of what is expected of different thriller sub genres. This is particularly important as I am not sure what form of thriller I am going to produce an opening sequence for. The final way in which I will improve my weakness is by practising several times different filming and planning techniques used before actually producing my final product therefore it will become more natural for me when it comes to actually doing it.