Audience Theory

To what extent does your thriller conform to the tradition structures of Representation?

In our thriller we followed the structures of representation, so that the majority of social groups would be able to understand and follow the ideas of the film. If we was going to challenge the structures of representation we would have had to focus on a niche group of people and follow their ideas of stereotypes and dominant ideas.

Our film followed Marxism in the way in which we reinforced the representation of the psychologically damaged, we represented this character through the mise-en-scene. However by having the film from her point of view challenged the dominant ideologies typically shown in films. As they are seen as 'different' to the majority of people, by giving her a voice in why she is like that and suggesting their is a reason behind her states gives people a different view.
David Gauntlett said that "artists play with the idea of identity in modern society", which I believe we have done as we have distorted the representation of our main character by giving her power of the film. A message behind this to our audience, is that people often ignore psychological issues in reality, and it should be brought to more peoples attention.

We challenged the structure of stereotypes in our thriller,as the main character is a mother but does not look or come across like a typical mother figure. Dyer said that "stereotypes depend on the different social groups", so we have tried appealing to different social groups by challenging her stereotype.
 Another stereotype we have challenged is the woman as the female we used is not portrayed through voyeurism. Berger said that "men act, women appear" which is not the case in our thriller because she is the main character, and in our opening no male characters appear. Having the point of view from a female character also reinforces the idea of feminism. In comparison to the majority of Hollywood films, where the main character or the point of view is shown from a male.

Baudrillard explored the idea of hyper-reality, which is what our character explored through her hallucinations. From the audiences point of view they have to resolve what is reality and what is hyper reality. The reality of the film, is the characters hyper real world, which confuses the audience as this is a post-modern characteristic of film.

Representation

Does	Doesn’t
Marxism	Stereotypes
Feminism
Postmodernism- Hyper reality

To what extent does your thriller conform to traditional structures of genre?

The opening for the film which we made, was made for a thriller movie. Our thriller, did conform to the conventions of a psychological thriller. This is the sub-genre which is more commonly used in modern film. 

Our film began showing  the main character, who is dressed in mental hospital clothing and her costume was made to be dirty to suggest her insanity. This is a convention which we used from typical thrillers. Chandler said that genre is "a type of film, with familiar conventions and characteristics to identify it by". We have used these "familiar conventions and characteristics" within our opening to set up the genre. As well as our main character, we used a young child who we edited to make her sem like a hallucination to the audience this questioned the main characters mental state and again showing her with psychological difficulties.

The location, where we shot did not conform to the typical conventions of the thriller genre as it was a normal garden however the reason for this choice was because it was secluded so that we could emphasise the characters loneliness. To make the location conform to the genre we used editing to darken some of the shots, and decrease the sharpness of scenes to let the audience see the dazed point of view in which our character is in. 

Steve Neale said that "genres evolve and develop over time" contrasting to this theory, our opening and plot for our thriller was made to conform to the basic rules and structure of a thriller. More specifically we conformed to the sub-genre, making our conventions more specific. Creating a hallucinating effect on the camera influenced the stock characters, which we used.

Altman, another theorist, explored the three pleasures in which he believed are provided for audiences. These pleasures being, "emotional, visceral and intellectual puzzles". Our thriller conformed to all three of these pleasures. First of all our film is shown from the main characters point of view creating a bond and bias like for her. This bond is continued throughout with close ups, and learning she was/is a mother because she is then seen as a mother figure to the audience. Sympathy is created as the enigma code is revealed to the audience, because they learn that she has ended in this mental state because of an abusive and struggling past.  

Secondly our thriller conformed to creating a visceral pleasure. The largest example of this was created through our soundtrack and foley, because we used this to create suspense  The foley of the main character scratching the wall was used to make an eery atmosphere, and as this is at the beginning they do not know anything about the character therefore do not know what is going to happen. Following this the enigma code in our thriller is the intellectual puzzle, for the audience to work out. The mystery which we gave our audience was "what has happened to the character?" and "who the child is?"

To guarantee that we created a thriller movie, we had to thoroughly follow the conventions of the genre. When planning it seemed very difficult to challenge the genre without resulting in making a different genre film. This is what challenges Abercrombie's theory that "Genre is dismantling the boundaries and therefore becoming more permeable". 

Genre- Thriller

Does	Doesn't
Chandler	Metz
Neale	Buckingham
Mittell
Altman
Abercrombie

Conclusion- Our thriller opening, although conforming to many of the typical conventions of a thriller as the genre has developed we followed a more specific take. We created a psychological thriller, this is a sub-genre.

Explanation	Evidence
Our thriller followed the typical thriller "genre", by using the conventions which make it obvious as to what genre it is.	Chandler
More specifically our thriller is a psychological thriller, this is conforming to Steve Neale's theory that genres are processes and therefore develop and evolve over time.	Neale- sub genres
Mittell says that genres are a way of selling films to the audience through culture, our thriller personally is aimed at a general audience. However the conventions we have used are what audiences will typically understand.	Mittell
We have tried to apply all the 'pleasures', emotional, visual and intellectual in our thriller for the audience to enjoy. Emotionally the audience connect with our main character as it is from her point of view and as a mother figure you feel sympathy for her. Visually we have created a pleasure by the amera editing conforming to the genre conventions. And intellectually we have challenged the audience with the mystery/enigma code of the film.	Altman
	Metz Stages of genre 1.experimental 2.classic 3.parody 4.deconstruction
We have followed a sub genre, psychological thriller, which is a dismantled more specific thriller genre.- Without the detective etc.	Abercrombie
Genre is constantly changing, however we have conformed very closely to the typical conventions of thrillers.	Buckingham

Narrative- thriller

Conclusion- Our thriller does not conform to traditional narratives, this is because if it did the it would not fit the thriller genre. The thriller conventions involve mystery and confusing the audience, the majority of Hollywood narratives are very simple so that the audience can understand and follow them easily. Although our thriller does conform to some, like including an enigma code (Barthes), it is because without any narrative there would be no plot and therefore not a film.