Production: Soundtrack of the thriller production (Ms Begum)

Soundtrack and its importance

Sound is seen as one of if now thee most important element used when creating a film. Sound is able to create the audiences response to the film due to the way the sound makes them feel and the state it leaves them it. In addition, Sound creates and set different atmosphere around different scenes. This then allows the audience to sense to feel of the scene while keeping them on their toes. The sound used in films especially thrillers are often slow until it stars to speed up until it reaches the climax of the scene which is often a scare or a just a false alarm.
For example, ''A young girl see's the lights turn on in a cupboard, she grabs something to use as a weapon and walks up to the cupboard slowly''. The closer she gets to the cupboard the faster the soundtrack will be. '' As she grips onto the door handle, she is then about to open  the door''. At this point the sound will be at its loudest and fastest, the audience is also expected to be on their toes bracing themselves for impact. ''It turned out to be her cat'', The audience will then feel a sign of relief at this point as the sound will suddenly stop and they will be a lot calmer and less tense than before. The audience will also be glad nothing happened to the character as they may have been able to build a relationship with themselves and the character due to his/hers representation. This is often the point in films where the girl i used in my example above will turn around and there will be something behind her. This is when a loud pierced sound will be used to scare the audience, this is effective as it is unexpected and loud which will scare the audience and also keep them on their toes for the remainder of the film.

There are many different conventional sound elements which can be used in a thriller film in order to make it conventional and have it able to have an effect on the audience. However, I believe in all thriller films including mine they use at first low speed sound which is to create tension and suspense amongst the audience then this sound gradually begins to increase and get faster. This is to then to have the audience on their toes expecting a scare, this also gives the audience a feeling of tenseness and anxiety as they don't know whats going to happen next. The mood of the scene will then change into all together which contributes towards keeping the audience wary of whats going to happen next.The soundtrack is suddenly get louder and louder as the scene closes in on the climax and then there will be a loud sound which then suddenly goes quite during and after the scare scene. This is effective as it will then leave the audience in a stage of shock while reminding them of the genre of the film.

The sound software we used to create our thriller film was a software on the iMac called ''Garageband''. This was chosen to create our soundtrack for our thriller film as my group felt that it was easier to use than the likes of Logic Pro for example. In addition, The wide range of instruments it offered us allowed us to create distinctive sound which would match and merge perfectly with our scenes in order to create a successful and conventional thriller film. This also contributes towards making a really effective thriller in which our audience can appeal to.

My group and I created a very slow, calm and relaxed soundtrack in which we used throughout our thriller film. This is because we wanted to try and keep our audience cautious as we hoped to use unexpected loud sound during a scene to scare them. This is effective as it reminds them of the genre and also keeps them on their toes as they wont know what to expect as they watch on.

My film inspiration is Sinister, this is because I loved the way they merged they merged lighting, editing and sound together all in one scene at one point to create a catastrophic effect amongst the audience. But when thinking of the soundtrack alone. I also liked the the eerie background soundtrack the film had through it as this is used to help create mix emotions amongst the audience and also helps keep the audience engaged into the trailer.

The montage scenes used the conventional type of sound I used in mine which was slow pace sound which gradually turns into fast past before using a loud sound at the climax of the scene to scare the audience, from the screams I heard in the cinema I guess this was very effective in sinister's point of view.

            (2:05 - 2:20) Montage effective sound scene.

The different conventional sound types I used in my thriller:

Firstly, Non-diegetic sound was used my thriller film during the scene where the husband is walking up to the window at a slow pace, this is when the soundtrack will start to kick in. I have chosen to use this because this will help increase the audiences curiosity while keeping them feeling tense as they are expecting something to happen. This is conventional to the thriller genre because this builds tension & suspense amongst the audience which is then followed up by a loud noise to scare the audience.

Secondly, On screen sound was be used in my thriller and used effective during the scene when someone has a butchers knife and is seen dragging it across the surface of an kitchen counter. This sounds is effective as it clears our any unnecessary questions the audience may ask as what they see is what they expect, this then focuses them on the main questions the film wants them to ask. 

Lastly, Off screen sound, was used and i felt used effectively in my thriller as its main purpose was to put the audience in a stage of shock, insecurity and confusion as they won't know where the sound is coming from or whats going on. This will then lead on to us scaring the audience with using loud noises which would then leaving a very chilling effect amongst them.

I Believe what made my thriller effective was the analysis and research we did on soundtrack and also soundtrack of our film influences. This then allowed us to come to a decision in which sounds we would try and replicate in order to make our thriller effective and conventional. My thriller production had a dual purpose, the first was to make it into a conventional thriller film, similar to our film influences. Secondly, we also aimed to have our audience on their feet as this will make scaring them with unexpected loud noises easier due to their tense state. We also tried our best to replicate and place the soundtrack in which was used in sinister and use it in our own was we thought this was a very good way of using different speeds of sound to create different reactions from our audience.

Conclusion
The soundtrack used in my thriller film has allowed it to look and feel more like a thriller film when watching it as it helps creates a tense state of mend amongst the audience and it also sets the mood. the soundtrack was very effective as without it we wouldn't be able to keep our audience engaged enough to scare them and also the soundtrack can tell the audience what to expect depending on its speed. In addition, this is also just another micro-element in which i used in order to make my film conventional and more like a typical thriller film.

Production: Audience Feedback (Ms Begum)

Audience Feedback & Its Importance

Audience feedback is when people who have watched a film of some kind leave their comments behind which can be seen as constructive criticism. Audience feedback can be both positive or constructive depending on their view of the film.
Audience feedback is seen as very important as the feedback the production receives from the audience will then allow them to see what they have done well in the film for example, use of lighting. In addition, this also outlines the area's they think the film production could make some changes to for example, the characters representation. This then allows the film production to make the film better whilst satisfying their target audience.

Before the actual film production started me and my group all had to create our own individual questionnaire which would gather information for us on what our target audience want to see in our thriller film. The information gathered would then allow us to target our audiences specific request in order keep our audience happy while using their feedback to help make our film as conventional and enjoyable as can be. I found the questionnaire very useful as the results I received from my audiences feedback would be very beneficial towards my group as we will then get an idea of what our target audience want to see, how their request will contribute towards making our film a conventional thriller production and this will also allow us to start thinking about how we'll give them what they want.

A target audience is a group of people who a film specifically targets, this is due to either their age or gender. The target audience for my thriller production are young teenagers around age of 15 as they will be able to relate themselves to the film and also the content in which my film contains may be seen as harmful and disturbing to younger viewers. My decision on the thriller films age certificate was mostly due to the research I carried out around age certificate and film censorship. From my research I was able to have a better understanding of film censorship & age certificate as it allowed me to learn about all the different contents in a film which decides upon its age certificate and also what contents can also see a film get banned or removed from the cinema. This then allowed me and my group to make careful planning on the scenes were going to do as we want them to safe for people to watch.

In the examples below I will be providing 3 positive comments about my thriller production which I received from my target audience:

Roy Aged 17: Hey guys, nice thriller trailer, I loved the way you guys used the quick editing near the end of the trailer. It reminded me a lot of my thriller film and my film influence sinister. :)

• This comment showed me and my group that our decision to add fast pace editing near the end of our thriller film was a good idea as it was obviously effective and it was able to appeal to our target audience.

Lucy Aged 19: This has to be up there with one of the best thriller films I've seen. I'm Sure you got a very good mark for this! I particularly liked the way lighting was exploited in your film, I loved the way the lighting got darker and darker and the sound good faster and faster. Left me on my toes! Literally :p LOL xx

• This comment I received from Xavier made me see and feel better about of decision of using both effective lighting and sound at the same time to create tension and suspense amongst my audience. I also didn't think anyone will realise how dark my scenes will slowly get as the film goes on. This was done as it represented the mood of the scene.

Xavier Aged 21: Well firstly, your actors were of top class! and secondly, i thought the use of iconography and quick editing at the start of the film was very good as it made me forget to click to watch another video.

• I thought this was a very positive comment as it allowed myself and my production crew to see how the use of fast editing at the start of our film allowed our audience to start asking questions and entices them into wanting to watch more. The iconography bob was talking about was probably the bag which was used to cover one of our victims head.

Overall: I thought the positive comments were very beneficial to my group as it allowed us to see where we had done well and how effective was it. In addition, the comments also allowed us to see whether our intentions of using certain lighting, editing elements had an effect on the audience and was their response something of what he had hope to achieve.

In the examples below I will be providing 3 Negative comments about my thriller production which I received from my target audience:

Laura Aged 15: This was overall a good thriller production as i felt it contained all the conventional thriller elements in it. However, i thought that the soundtrack did not really match with the scenes and maybe needed a bit of adjustments.

• Whilst giving a few positive mentions I liked the fact that Laura pointed out of she felt our soundtrack didn't really go with our scenes as we can now look back at it and test a variety of different sounds to see how we could of changed it.

Rachel Aged 16: This thriller production was quite good, however, i feel let down as the start of the film looked very good and it grabbed me and my friends attention but as we kept watching it, the more and more the floor was suddenly become interesting. I thought you could of done with a extra scare scene in order to keep your viewers interested and scare them unexpectedly.

• Although this comment was very negative and positive at the same time and it benefited my group as we then went back and looked at the scenes we used and thought of different ways we could of made them better or even the different potential scenes we could of used.

Scott Aged 18: Is it me or was this just solely about the father and not the mother and kids? Don't me wrong this was a great film production but myself and I'm sure others would of liked to see more of an involvement of the other characters.

• I totally agreed with this comment as me and my group all thought the same. There wasn't enough involvement of the other characters as they both was almost equally as important as the father.

Overall: I thought the criticisms i received were also predictable as i myself was able to pick out those weak area's of my film. This benefited me as I now know what to do in order to grab and keep my audiences attention. This also allowed me to next time think outside the box and send a copy of my completed film to 5 or so people in my target audience age range and see what constructive criticism they could comment on.

My Comments about my thriller film:

I Believe i have created a very successful thriller film, This is because i believe i exploited the use of micro-elements very well and according to my positive comments my viewers all noticed it  as they all mentioned it in their comments and also they were able to appeal to it. 

I choice of characters was very good as they both acted at a professional standard which added that little bit of quality to my thriller film. In addition, even during a constructive comment one of my viewers noticed and complemented my actors.

Although, to improve as one of my viewers pointed out to me, the scene flow could of been improved and if i cold go back and improve this I believe this would get a very positive response from my target audience.

Conclusion:

From my audiences feedback I believe me and my group can give ourselves a pat on our back as the thriller film was a great success. I believe the fact that even when our viewers were commenting on the bad side of our film they still were all able to talk about atleast one big significant positive side. This showed us that our film was effective, it allowed us to see our audiences response and also it was able to appeal to them.