How is suspense created in 'Marathon Man'?

The opening of the film opens with a panning shot of Dustin Hoffman's feet running. This creates a sinister feel. In the scene "is it safe," various camera shots reveal that Dustin Hoffman is the protagonist. This is made aware by a long-mid shot with an empty frame showing he is the pray as he is sitting in the middle of an empty room. When the two men enter the frame, they are dressed in suits and surround him, which acts as a form of intimidation. The dim lighting in the scene shows only one light which is focused on Dustin Hoffman. This shows that he is the prey or protagonist as the men stay out of the light which also shows he is the main focus in the frame.

Evaluation 5; Who would be the audience for your media product?

The demographic of our audience is mainly teenagers. Into partying and having a good time they spend their weekends drinking and making the most of their weekend. Most of them will of had some experience with the misuse of drugs meaning they will be able to identify with the events in the film. The majority of the audience will be girls which challeges the normal conventional mainly male dominant target audience of thrillers. The film could also aspire to parents who would easily identify with the worry and panic the parents of 'Sarah' go through in the film.

Tinuke, 17, a dancer and artist attending brit school for performing arts & technology, loves socialising with friends, shops is American Apparel, dances, enjoys art and watches misfits on a school night. On the weekends she goes out partying all night and wakes up the next morning with a hangover having to do her college work to ensure she can can go out the next night aswell to make the most of her weekend.

Evaluation 3&4; What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/ address your audience?

I have an online marketing strategy and this is a step account of how I am going to construct

that strategy. I plan to make a trailer for my video and upload it on websites such as Youtube and Vimeo.

I would then distribute it to my friends on facebook who i would ask to carry on the distribution by passing it on to their friends.

link: http://vimeo.com/

I would also create a blog and myspace page hoping for positive feedback and to spread the film further. These sites are something that the target audience of my film would use in their spare time which hopefully means that the distribution of my film will be successful.
The reasoning behind all of this is to create a buzz around the film in a cheap way that is achievable by students.

http://www.myspace.com

As the film become known more widely i would try and send it off to be shown in film

festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca and other various film festivals around the world. At the same time i would try to distribute it to independant cinemas around the country such as 'Screen on the

Green'.

http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/

Evaluation question 3&4

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How would you attract and address your audience?

I have an online marketing strategy and this is a step by step account of how I'm going to construct that strategy:

To promote my thriller sequence i would firstly upload the video on YouTube. If my thriller then became a hit on YouTube i would create a Facebook fan page to extend the promotion of my thriller by letting fans join the page. This would increase its popularity as fans would also promote my thriller on their face book pages, leading more people to come to recognition with it. As well as creating a fan page on Facebook, i would also create one through Myspace as Myspace was pretty hyped up about before people turned to Facebook.

Here is a link to a film fan page on facebook; http://www.facebook.com/search/?post_form_id=e659063a357dc9f12b8dfe1c3be8c052&q=sir+michael+cane&init=quick&ref=search_loaded#!/slumdog?ref=ts
Slumdog millionaire was successfull british independant film.

So having fan pages on both the social networking website would surely increase my thrillers popularity. Also other than broadcasting my thriller net wise, i would also try and screen my thriller opening in private cinema screenings such as 'Screen on the green' which i have visited myself to show peers family and friends at first, then gradually take it to the public cinemas such as 'Vue'. I would enter my film into a film festival, some example s are Sundance and Raindance, often VIPS are in the audience, this way i will possibly be able get a distribution
deal.
Raindance
website: http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/

Evaluation 2; How does your media product represent particular social group?

Both of these shots shown have similar characteristics. Like the movie Marathon Man our thriller focuses on two characters; the protagonist (Sarah) and the antagonist (David). As the Antagonist, David was made to look the opposite of this being; dominant,

sly and like a predator. The amount of time the camera focuses on David is much shorter than the amount of

footage shown of Sarah. Therefore the audience will empathise with Sarah who is seen to be an innocent girl trapped in a house with this mysterious, unnerving character (David). The similarity of the two characters Dr Szell and David is that both are looking at their victim implying they have plans that they wish to implement on our protagonist characters.

As the protagonist Sarah was made to look venerable, innocent and like prey .

This convention

runs throughout a lot of thrillers where the story line follows good vs evil. The room she sits in is full of furniture which fills up a lot of the frame making her look very small to her surroundings. Much like the shot of Dustin Hoffman while he is tied up waiting for Dr Szell this shot makes her look very vulnerable, alone and prey-like.

We tried to portray each of our characters personas from the very start of our thriller opening. Sarah's pink, girly bedroom empahsizes her innocence and niavity. When she arrives at David's house their flirty body language is youthful and easily relateable to our younger target audience. However to an older target audience, who can relate to having a daughter, this makes her look very out of place which creates an un easiness in the audience.

Final Film

Evaluation- question 1.

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

I have decided to choose the title sequence 'Touch of evil' to compare with our thriller sequence. 'Touch of evil' establishes an urban environment, where as our thriller opening establishes a suburban street. There are several long shots to establish the house so the audience familiarise with the scene, showing it's normality. One other reason i chose this title sequence was because it shows two characters such as ours, one being protagonist and the other antagonist. Our thriller sequence consisted of many close up shots of Sarah showing her vulnerability and getting the audience to sympathise with her. Touch of Evil contains the key props of a car and an explosive device to help establish the genre. Our film contains the key props of drinking glasses and alcohol the lethal concoction that my be used with rohypnol that may cause the death of our main protagonist.

In Touch of Evil, the blatant key prop is the Time bomb, it is clear from the consistence of close ups and mid close up shots. The connotations of the convention are jeopardy and threat which clearly play a key role in the film. Our film uses similar conventions, such as the drink being spiked with Rohypnol. To make this clear, we show a close up of David pouring the drink, a close mid shot of Sarah and David drinking ( David the protagonist pretends to drink whilst watching his prey frm the corners of his eyes), low angle shot of base of the glass as Sarah drinks it, which builds dramatic irony all these contribute to showing the importance of this drink like the time bomb in 'Touch of Evil' .

In our thriller opening there is a protagonist and antagonist, which is clearly indicated throughout our thriller. Sarah is the protagonist and this is established through the use of several close ups of her getting ready like putting on her make up, getting dressed. This indicates to the audience head on that Sarah is going to be a main character.It is also fair to say that its clear that the audience know she is going to be the protagonist as well, as most thrillers do not show their evil characters (antagonist) at the beginning. getting dressed signifies that a day to day activity is taking place. My predatory character is shown through the shots too, most of which are of me expressing mysterious facial expressions like for example a still face, or shots of me without showing my head again emphasizing my suspicious and mysterious character. There are many point of view shots to contribute to my predatory character such as the point of view shot looking at Sarah. You can see the facial expression on my character, he begins to pull a smirk as i have set my prey (Sarah) for my characters intended trap.

Here above are two shots showing above are the beginning and then the end, there is a long establishing shot of the room in which Sarah is in the centre of it. She looks quite small and vulnerable in the shot which has connotations of her being the prey as well as the protagonist. Her body language also shows she not the superior as she is sitting up right covering her knees indicating a sense of insecurity or weakness. The second shot symbolizes the end of the thriller opening as well as our protagonist Sarah. When the last few seconds of the thriller opening is left David the antagonist is up stairs luring his prey into his room, at this point the movement of David shutting the door and then locking it is in slow motion. This builds tension as the audience wants to know what happens next. Also i believe our thriller opening challenges over thrillers, its different to others as for once the evil (antagonist) has completed his aim and won over the good (protagonist).