Task 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Task 5: How did you attract your audience to your thriller?

The driver pp on attracting audience

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Task 4: My target audience

The target audience for my film would be 15-24 and a secondary 25+ years old. I feel that a younger audience of girls would feel shocked as the girl gets taken and it would allow them to think more carefully when they are out and who’s car they get into, I think that the audience would all enjoy the thrill of the film and enjoy watching her find her way out of the large house full of women. My target audiences would mainly be in education either college or university or even in employment. The typical interests of that age group would probably be Sport, performing arts, films, relationships, shopping/fashion and using technology (facebook, twitter, youtube). I would use facebook, twitter and youtube to advertise my film as most 15-24 year olds use these on a day to day basis.

My secondary audience would be the ages 25+ of people who enjoy action thrillers, I feel that couples could enjoy this film together as there is a strong female character and the males would enjoy the thrill and action. I feel men would like my film as we have used a young attractive female character and female’s would like our film as there would be several male characters that would be muscular and middle aged. I feel that the film would attract a greater male audience as it is full of action but I feel some females would enjoy it too.

Task 3: What institution would make my film?

The institution that I think would make my film would be vertigo because they produce and distribute low budget films. They want to produce and distribute commercially driven independently made films that enable them to make a profit.
Their aim is to compete with the mini majors such as fox searchlight, who distributed the film Taken, in the U.S.A. so they would try and produce and fund an equally as successful film as Taken. Similar films that are made are London to brighten and the Hitcher as they are both about people running away from someone which is what is going to happen in our film as her boyfriend is going to come and chase the men down which is going to make the film full of action.

Vertigos film budgets range between about half a million to about three million so as a first time director this would fit as I feel that my film would cost around this much. Vertigo have made a series of horror/thrillers such as the Children, The Cove and Outcast which shows that they have a niche audience from the ages of 15-24 that would watch my film. My film would mainly be viewed by a male audience so we have a female protagonist to attract female viewers. Vertigo sell the films abroad sometimes before the film is made so that they can put money into the film whilst making it which enables them to fully fund it and make the most out of the film.

Task 2: How does your product represent particular social groups?

I was looking into the death of Miss Yeates, 25, who was found Christmas Day, eight days after going missing from her home in the Clifton area of Bristol, which gave me the idea of doing a thriller with a woman being taken. We looked into to doing different starts, we thought through her splitting up with her boyfriend and being shook up when she got in the taxi but then we thought a better idea would to be her coming out of a club. I wanted to influence woman to fight back rather than let it happen and I wanted to persuade people not give up hope and make them try hard to fight and plan a way out. I thought the club was a better idea for these morals as it is teaching girls to be aware that at night there are people out there that would take them, so they need to make sure they don’t get too drunk and do something stupid. I think it will be a great learning block for young girls who are just starting to go out and get taxis late, no matter how nice someone may seem check there license.

Police charge Vincent Tabak with Jo Yeates murder  
Jo Yeates's body was found on Christmas Day A man has been charged with murdering landscape architect Jo Yeates.

Avon and Somerset Police said Dutch national Vincent Tabak, 32, who was arrested on Thursday, will appear at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Miss Yeates, 25, was found dead on Christmas Day, eight days after going missing from her home in the Clifton area of Bristol.

Her body was found next to a country road in Failand, three miles from where she lived.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had been strangled.

Miss Yeates, who was originally from Ampfield in Hampshire, was reported missing by her 27-year-old boyfriend Greg Reardon on 19 December when he returned to their home after a weekend away visiting family in Sheffield.

She disappeared on 17 December after going for Christmas drinks with colleagues at her architectural firm.

Mr Tabak, an engineer, lived next door to Miss Yeates on Canynge Road.

Earlier this week a reconstruction for the BBC's Crimewatch programme was filmed, tracing Miss Yeates's last steps.

There have also been a number of public appeals from her family.

I also looked at the film ‘taxi driver’ which influenced me to make the driver something to do with war and maybe be mentally unstable which is why he was wearing an army jacket showing his obsession with the army. He is a working class soldier who has come back from fighting in Afghan and Iraq and may have watch a lot of friends dying and has come back with post traumatic stress disorder which has lead to mental health issues. He doesn’t have a job so is working in his own car to try and give people lifts and now has an obsession with young red headed girls and can’t bring himself to drop them home but has to take them back to his to for fill his needs.

Task 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

Lottie is coming out of a club by herself which makes our audience feel unsure as they know that at night you should never walk alone. Lottie looks fairly innocent which sets the scene for the thrill of the film as she is a lonely girl who doesn’t look like she can defend herself very easily.

Seeing the taxi pull away from her makes the audience worry as she is a young girl and is on her own at night in the streets. This makes the audience begin to wonder how she is going to get home.

Seeing this car pull up and Lottie getting in without a Taxi plate on it will worry the audience as it shows that she is getting in to an unlicensed car  which is illegal and makes the audience sense that something bad is going to happen next.

 

Seeing a wide shot of the two of them talking allows the audience to see both of there reactions to the conversation and makes them begin to realize what is happening to Lottie.

Simons eyes In the mirror begin to worry the audience as Lottie has fallen sleep which is shown in a montage. This begins to make the audience wonder about what he is going do to her.

Lottie being looked at my simon in the mirror, a point of view shot to show that she has fallen asleep which is then taken advantage of as simon takes her a different way.
















Seeing her point of view of Simon handing her the ID makes the audience feel how she is feeling. It puts the audience in Lotties shoes to scare them and make them engage in the film more.

Having her looking around and wondering where they are going begins to alert the audience as to why she hasn’t been this way before. The audience realize with lottie that she is being taken somewhere very strange and that she is in trouble.

Seeing lottie's face in the darkness and her voice being very quiet creates the lonely feeling and keeps the audience on the edge of there seat, wondering what is going to happen to  lottie.

Shoot Day

Shoot One

The Shoot in Guildford went really well, we did a shot of the club sign tilting down showing Lottie Putting her jacket on coming out of the club and looking for a cab.

We did a shot of a cab driving away from her and the unlicensed cab pulling up and her getting in. We then did a shot from another angle when Lottie is walking towards the camera and we see the black cab and unlicensed cab pulling up again.

After that we did a shot through the window of the unlicensed cab as Lottie gets in it. These shots went really well for us but it was difficult as there were a lot of people walking past. It was also hard as we didn’t have a lot of time so we were rushed. This was my first time using a camera out in a town filming and there were a few inconveniences that I didn’t really think about before shooting i.e. the sound of the road, the traffic outside the club and getting the taxi to pull up on time. We could have used a better form of communication i.e. walky-talky’s to get everything coming at the correct time and making sure that people were not getting in the way of the camera.

Shoot two

On the second shoot day we filmed outside, it was raining which was great for our film as that was what was planned as we needed to make it look like the car was moving, it also adds to the scary effect of a thriller. We set up the lights with a red film over them and each took it in turns to move them so it gave the effect of cars driving past. We set up the white balance and focus after placing the camera on the tripod and than began shooting.  We started by doing a close up of Lottie’s face showing her reactions and showing how she feels when she finds out what really is going on. I was on the camera, we had Nat and Patch moving the lights and holding the microphone in position for the shot.

 

We did the first shot twice trying to get the correct shadow and effect of cars driving past. The second shot was through the windscreen of the car showing Simon looking back at Lottie and showing the darkness of the car to create the eerie emotion of our film. We had the shot from the front seeing both Simon and Lottie's faces as they are driving along with the windscreen wipers going this time patch was on camera and I was holding the door shut so it didn't open when Lottie tried to get out of the car.

We see Simon look into the rear view mirror which we later took a shot of as he looks into it. We then took a close up of Simon driving to show that he is on edge and has something else on his mind which I was directing and we took a shot of Lottie’s phone to show her trying to call the police to show how scared she’s getting, her ID and bracelet to show that Simon has been stalking her (which was a point of view shot) and Simon’s eyes in the rear view mirror to show that he is looking back at her and something strange is going on.

I chose Lottie as she looked innocent and attractive which I feel is the type of woman that a stalker would go for. I wanted the behind story to be that Simon stalks red headed girls so she was the perfect choice. We had her phone, ID and Bracelet to add to the story and to show that he has been following her for a while to continue with the strange atmosphere. We chose Simon as he could drive and plays the stalker very well. Lottie was wearing a black Jump Suite with black tights and heals as she was just coming out of a club and looks more street wise when she is looking for a taxi. She is carrying a black bag and is wearing natural makeup. She is looking like this to make her look attractive as that is why Simon is following her.

We also did a shot of lotties point of view when she is seeing Simon handing over her ID, we did this shot because we wanted the audience to feel how she would in this position, we decided that placing the audience in Lottie's shoes would allow them to begin to attach themselves to her.

We had lights with a red film over them to create the effect of other cars driving past, we moved them from side to side to create movement and the sense that they were traveling from a town to the country, as well as the lights reflecting off the rain on the windows. We filmed in the dark to create the typical sense of a thriller which helped the story build up to its final effect. I think that our lighting really worked as the viewer wouldn’t be able to tell that the car wasn’t moving and it successfully created the effect of the car passing other cars and street lights.

 

We all had a go at everything, Camera work, Directing, Moving the Lights and sorting the sound. I feel that we equally shared out the jobs and all managed to shoot something and all played a descent part in making the film sequence. I enjoyed being on the camera and directing shots as I felt I progressed strongly in those departments and feel that I have learned a lot more about using the camera and general skills about directing and bringing the team together as a group.

We have the diegetic, synchronous sound of rain hitting the car down which I feel gives a sense on loneliness and creates the atmosphere for what is going to happen next, also there is the synchronous sound of the street traffic . There is the diegetic sounds of them talking, which is the ambient sounds on the shoot day. There is also the sound of the doors slamming which is non diegetic.

So what happens next?

After Lottie's being taken away into the woods she is taken to a place far away from the city that was full of girls locked away. Driving through some large gates down a long winded road surrounded by trees and open fields they reach an old building with two security guards outside the main entrance. They drag her out of the car with her kicking and screaming and lock her in a large room full of red headed girls. They girls have cuts and bruises on there bodies and there is two dead bodies lying in the room with the other girls. Lottie tries lots of ways to escape out of this house but fails. We will follow Lottie who is close to death try and get out of the house and after her parents call the police, the police surround as many clubs in the area as possible and follow one man home when a red headed girl gets into his car thinking that it is Lottie. There is a car chase as the the driver realizes someone is following him in an unmarked car and the police search the area for the reported girls.

Prelim Shoot Day

Why Did We Use These Props?

Car- To use as an unlicensed taxi

Hose Pipe- To create the effect of rain and make the false impression of a moving taxi more realistic.

Bag- To carry her belongings and for her to drop it on the floor in order for the taxi driver to help pick up the contents and steal her purse.

Student ID- To show that she is at university which will suggest her age and also allow the taxi driver pretend that he goes to the same university.

Taxi Radio- So that the interior of the car looks more like a taxi and also for the taxi driver to communicate with the guy he's working with.

final idea

Interior Taxi- Girl misses a black cab and another car pulls up asking if she wants a lift. She gets in and they drive off
Taxi driver talks to her, asking if she’s okay and as she falls asleep looks through the rear view mirror and angles it at her.
Driving out of the city she wakes to find them going a different way which the driver claims to be a short cut.
After having dramatic shots like the drivers eyes in the mirrors and him adjusting it to see other parts of the girls body better.
They talk for a while and we see that they are now out of the city centre and on country lanes.
He then reveals her ID card and bracelet that he had taken three weeks ago the girls begins to worry.
There is then a blackout and the title 'The Driver' is put up.

shooting script

• Abby is really upset having just broken up with her boyfriend, she is standing in the rain waiting for a cab
• Tomasz: you alright love, want a cab?
• Abby : Thanks , How much will it be to get to 54 Cavendish road
• Tomasz: Oh I think about £20 will cover it
• Abby: Ok
• Abby: struggles to pick up her suitcase
• Tomasz: Want a hand?
• Abby: Yeah, thanks
• Tomasz goes to put Abby’s suitcase in the boot. Whilst doing so Abby is looking for her phone in her handbag and accidentally drops her bag on the floor-the contents falling out.
• Abby: Shit
• Tomasz: don’t worry ill get that get in the car (Picking up the contents of her bag from the road he hands the bag to her).
• Abby: Okay let me see how much I have got… (Pause)… Oh no I’ve lost my purse fuck sake today is not my day.
• Tomasz: How much you got?
• Abby: I have a tenner in my pocket (She shows him the £10 note)
• Tomasz: (looking through her purse at her ID cards) Don’t worry, you go to Warwick don’t you? You can pay me back there ill give you my card.
• Abby: Oh I didn’t know you went to Warwick? Thanks that’s great
• Tomasz: yeah on my third year now.
• Abby: oh what are you studying?
• Tomasz: Psychology.
• Abby: oh really? I’ve never seen you around.
• (all goes silent. After a few seconds another voice is heard through the taxi radio)
• Other Man(Russian): Mate after the job your on I’ve got another one for you
• Tomasz (Russian): I don’t think this one will be going home, she’s a looker.
• Abby: Excuse me, sorry, my flats that way. (points right)
• Tomasz: nahhhh I know a better route.
• (she falls asleep on the back seat)
• Tomasz (Russian): I’m Almost here get ready.
• Other Man (Russian): Ok great see you soon.
• (BLACK OUT)
• (Sounds of doors Slamming and a loud scream from the men who are shouting in Russian. )