Thirller Final Edit

Evaluation

Evaluation

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

Our initial research into thrillers involved looking at the codes and conventions so that we knew what to include in our own thriller once we began producing it. We decided that we would develop on the original conventions of thrillers instead of challenging them. This was because we were only producing the introduction of a thriller, so if we challenged the conventions the audience might not realise that they were watching a thriller. Although we developed most of the conventions of thrillers we still wanted to challenge at least one convention for our media product. I carefully researched the different codes and conventions for thrillers so that I knew what to include in my thriller to achieve maximum marks.

The codes and conventions are what makes a thriller and this is the main reason why we wanted to develop them rather than challenge them. Usually thrillers have an enigma which is a sense of mystery and we wanted to use this in our thriller because we believed that it would be extremely effective, because it will keep the audience on the edge of their seats as they will not know what to expect. This is what we wanted to achieve with our thriller. This is used in our thriller where it slowly builds up to the death, which I believe is mysterious because the audience were not expecting it.

Another convention of thrillers is that the editing is usually fast paced, so we decided to use this in our thriller where it cross cuts between the to two characters, this is fast paced to buiild tension and to create suspense. However particular parts in our thriller are slow paced which shows that we also wanted to challenge the conventions of thrillers, for example: the first shots used in our thriller show the opening of the gate and a close up of the kettle. The start of our thriller has slow paced editing because we the editing to start of slow and gradually increase. Slow editing is also used again when the two characters in our thriller first see each other which happens when the victim has entered the garden and knocks on the door and the villain appears as he answers the door which then cuts to a plain black screen for a few seconds. The final few shots also have slow paced editing , because we decided to use a long shot showing the villain drinking which is follwed by a point of view shot of the villain walking towards the lounge. The editing in our thriller gradually speeds up as the villain is making a cup of coffee and the victim is walking closer towards the house this is also where fast paced editing is used. Then the editing slows down when he reaches the second gate and enters the garden. Fast paced editing is also used to show the three white screens which are seperated by fast paced close ups of the gun.

In most thrillers there is at least one death which occurs so we decided to develop on this convention and base our opening sequence on a death. This is because we believe that it will excite the audience as they will begin to ask questions as to why the death happened and therefire they will be eager to continue watching to find out what happens next. In thrillers, deaths usually occur at night because it gives the thriller a more frightening atmosphere; however for our thriller we decided to challenge this and film it during the day instead and because the death occured during the day, it was unexpected and mysterious. The colour black is also conventional of thrillers because of the connotations of the colour as it has negative representations such as death. We decided to build on this and show a black screen moments before the dead body is revealed, as this foreshadows the death.

In thrillers the villain is usually male and we decided to develop this and use a male villain for our thriller. A male villain is more effective because of the stereotypes which are associated with men such as being more powerful and dominant. However we challenged the conventions of thrillers because they usually cast a female as the victim as the stereotypes associated with women are weak and vulnerable but we decided to cast a male victim. This was also easier as it meant we could act in our thriller instead of spending time finding actors and actresses which could be very time consuming. Another convention which our thriller develops is that it takes place in an ordinary every day location where nothing unusual is happensing, this is done so that it looks like the events that occur could happen to anyone in life.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The thriller that we have created represents the youth. Our thrilelr represents the youth because the characters in the film are in in their late teens and early twenties which made it easier for us to cast for our thriller as we are also members of the youth. The dialogue used in our thriller "Hi, come on in man", shows this because it shows the type of language which is used by the youth because it is informal and short. Our thriller portrays a member of this social group in a negative way because the protagonist is shown as a murderer, although this is how the youth are represented in our thriller, we do not believe that this represents all of the youth, but only a small minority who suffer from problems. These are the teenagers who disagree with society’s norms and values and the villain shows this by being rebellious and going against the law. However the other character in our thriller is also a member of the youth but he is not portrayed in a negative way or a positive way because he is a minor character in our thriller which is shown by the fact that he has no dialogue. The victim is shown as innocent and vulnerable which is also a stereotype of teenagers who are walking alone and can suffer from bullying issues etc. Another stereotype of members of the youth is violence which is again another negative stereotype which is shown in our thriller because of the murder which occurs. We decided that it would be a good idea to represent the youth in our thriller because both of the actors are from that age range which means they will be more believable when playing the role instead of an adult. We also decided on a negative representation rather than a positive one because this fits in more with the thriller genre. The costumes which are used in our thriller are also generally clothes which would be seen on teenagers as they are casual.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that Optimum Releasing could be a possible company which might distribute our thriller because they focus on releasing British films especially over the recent years which is good because everybody involved in our production is from Britain and also the setting of our product is in Britain, so I believe that they would be interested in our thriller. I also believe that Optimum Releasing would be the most likely institution to distribute our film because they would have the money to market and to distribute our thriller properly on a large scale and this would increase its popularity. I also believe that Optimum Releasing would distribute our thriller because over the years they have distributed many different thrillers such as ‘Donkey Punch’ (Oliver Blackburn, 2008) and ‘Eden Lake’ (James Watkins, 2008), and they are also distributing thrillers in the future years such as ‘Psycho Killer’ (Richard Franklin, 2012). This link http://www.imdb.com/company/co0106149/ shows the different films which Optimum Releasing have released and interesting information about each film. This link http://www.optimumreleasing.com/ is the official website for Optimum Releasing which prodives information about the company, their DVD releases and theartrical releases. The final link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimum_Releasing shows a brief summary and description of the company Optimum Releasing. Another distribution company which might distribute our thriller would be Lions Gate. This is because they have distributed other thrillers such as Saw (James Wan, 2004) which is why I think they would be interested in distributing another thriller. They are a very well known distributing company which means they must have a good reputation. Another thriler which Lions Gate has distributed is Final Cut (Omar Naim, 2004) where the protagonist is confused which is slightly similar to our thriller. Lions Gate are also known for distributing films with first time directors which is good because we would need somebody to take a risk with us as we are also first time directors. This is a link http://www.lionsgate.com/to Lion Gates official website.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

I believe that the main audience for our media product would be male teenagers; this is because the characters in our product are male teenagers which means it would be easier for the audience to relate to the characters. However I also believe that women and adults could possibly enjoy our product as well because it is an exciting thriller. I believe that it appeals to males more than females because there is a death in our thriller which would interest men more than women as men prefer scenes similar to that. I would say that the best audience for our product would therefore be males aged 18-30 because it has psychological thriller elements which would appeal to the this audience. From my research, such as my internet research and my questionnaire I found out that the majority of people who watched thrillers were teenagers and adolescents which is why it would be best for us to aim our product towards them. I also found out from my questionnaire that 40% of the audience prefers psychological thrillers, which is another reason why we decided to produce a psychological thriller so that we had a wider target audience. Our thriller also appeals more to the male audience because it is a male cast so therefore they are the dominant characters in our thriller. There are also other thrillers with a similar target audience to ours such as ‘Halloween’ (John Carpenter, 1978) so we believe that our thriller could reaech the same target audience. It is also much easier to advertise to the younger generation in a variety of different ways such as posters, billboards, magazines, internet, television and many more. It is also now possible to distribute films via the internet on websites such as http://www.youtube.com/ which gives your film a worldwide audience and the potential to make a lot of money and become well known.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

The first way we attracted our audience was by the location of our thriller. This is because it is an ordinary house which can easily be identified and related to as it is a common household. It also seems like a house that the character would live in because it is slightly old. We also tried to make our film look like everyday life and this was mainly done by the use of mise-en-scene. An example of how we made our thriller seem like everyday life is by having the villain making a cup of coffee because this is an everyday activity for most people. Another way we attracted our audience is by having the characters in the thriller similar to the audience of our thriller because this can create a scarier atmosphere and then the audience can imagine what it would be like from the protagonist’s perspective and the audience can also relate to the characters. Another way of attracting our audience was by having an important event at the start of our thriller so that it excites the audience and puts them on the edge of their seats, wondering what is going to happen next. I also knew that teenagers and adolescents enjoy watching thrillers especially psychological thrillers which are dark and mysterious; I knew this because I found it out when planning my thriller by producing an audience questionnaire. I also believe that it is important to have a mysterious opening because it creates a sense of fear and this is also used in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (Jonathan Demme, 1991). The costumes of the characters in our thriller are also typical of a teenager which makes it easier for the teenage audience to relate to the characters. Also the non-diegetic music builds up suspense and creates tension which is exciting for the audience and therefore they will want to continue watching.

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

By constructing our product I have learnt a variety of new skills and techniques. Firstly I had never used a blog before to present my coursework but I found this much more useful as I stopped the need for carrying folders and paper to every lesson and I could not lose any of my work. The blog also allowed me to use different multimedia in my coursework such as images, screenshots and videos which enabled me to fully evidence and demonstrate the points that I wanted to make.

I also learnt a lot about filming during the creation of our product. One of the first things I learnt about filming was that it is too difficult to shoot at night because it was too dark to see anything. Then I learnt how to shoot a steady shot by using a tripod and how vital it is to use a tripod when filming. I thought that this was going to be difficult but it was easier then I had thought.

I also learnt a lot about editing whilst constructing our product because I had never previously used Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier Pro. The first thing I learnt when editing was how to intercut different shots which we used between the two characters when the victim is approaching the house and the villain is making a cup of coffee, at first I thought this was quite difficult but it got easier. It was difficult though because it took time and concentration to make the timing just right and we also needed it to flow which I believe we managed to do. Then I succeed at turning some shots black & white and creating the credits for our thriller. This was not as difficult to do because I already knew how to create the credits and to change the shots to black & white and even if I didn’t know it is still fairly simple. To see part of my editing, view the ‘Editing’ post. The last thing I learnt was how to insert music over our thriller and have it dip when the dialogue begins and return to normal once the dialogue has ended which was fairly simple as you just insert the music and turn the volume of the music down and up when you want to.

•Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From looking back at our preliminary task, I have learnt how important it is to work accordingly to a time schedule to ensure that you do not fall behind. I have realiseds this because our preliminary task was slightly rushed and did not come out as well as we would have hoped whereas our thriller did.

Another key point which I have learnt is that it is also very important to plan and prepare before filming. This means doing different research such as audience and internet research and also creating a storyboard. The preliminary task was miniscule compared to the thriller and did not take anywhere near as long as the thriller did to create. This showed that research into the different aspects which we could include in our thriller to help us produce it were extremely important and definitely worth it.

The preliminary task also helped me understand the 180 degree rule, so that I could use it properly when filming our thriller. I believe that we have improved in every aspect because our thriller looks much more professional than our preliminary task did. I think that this is because of all the different camera shots and editing techniques which we learnt. From our preliminary task I learnt that it is more effective to have an actor/actress who is the same age as the character because it looks more appropriate and believable. A key thing which I have learnt from our preliminary task is that communication and teamwork are vital when it comes to producing a product.

Finally I believe that my filming and editing skills have improved dramatically from the preliminary task and I can now use a wider range of camera shots and different editing techniques which making them more varied and less repetitive. Another reason why I believe my skills have improved so much is because I have never really filmed and editing much prior to this.

Editing

For the final edit of our thriller we decided to use more credits, however we had always planned on doing this. As I have watched a few thrillers recently for inspiration this also gave me a wide variety of different types of credits I could choose from to include in our thriller. One of the thrillers that I have watched recently was 'The Shining', and this helped inspire me create the titles for our thriller. To edit the credits I needed to choose what they would say, the placement of the credits, the font, the size and the colour of the credits and I wanted the title sequence to look good which is why I spent a bit of time doing this whereas I could have done it extremely quickly instead. I also had to choose which shots to have the credits shown over so that it looks more effective.

This screenshot shows me doing the first part of editing the credits. This part involved me choosing what the credits will say in the thriller. To help me complete this I used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits. I used this website because it showed me the different credits which I could include in my thriller and what order to place them in and I did this so that my thriller was convention and also so that it looks professional. I decided that the first title in our thriller will read 'A film by Robert Hartman'. I have chosen this title first because it shows who the film was created by which is normally the first title in the title sequence. We also decided as a group that it would be better to make up sensible names rather than using our real names. As you can see in the screenshot, this part of the editing involved me changing the font, font size and whether to have it in bold and italics. I decided on the font Berin Sans FB Dami and this is because it is easy to read and looks smart. I also decided to have the font size of 26 so that it isn't too small but it also isn't too big and it is easy to read. I then decided that it would be effective if the titles were in bold because it makes them stand out more. This part of the editing also gave me the option to edit the alignment of the text and I thought it would be more appropriate to have the text in the middle. I had to do this editing for each title that I was included in our thriller such as the production company, the director and the title of the thriller etc.


This screenshot shows me doing the next part of the editing for the credits. This part involved me choosing the placement of the credits. This meant that I could choose where to place each title in the shot. I believe that I chose a suitable placement for each title so that it looked effective, noticeable and also flowing with the rest of the thriller. However this part of the editing was more difficult than it looks because I am a bit of a perfectionist and I wanted to have the titles in the perfect position which meant that it took me a little while to complete this because I was able to place the credits anywhere on the shot.



This screenshot shows me doing the final part of editing the credits. This part involved me changing the colour of the titles. This part probably would have taken me ages to complete because of the wide variety of different colours to choose from. However I already had an idea of what colour I wanted the titles to be. Although I slightly knew what I wanted to do this part of the editing probably was still the most time consuming because I wanted to make sure that I used a suitable colour which also looked professional. As I have previously mentioned, 'The Shining' inspired me when it came to creating the credits. This is because I enjoyed the colour of the credits which were used in the opening sequence of the film and thought it would be an extremely good idea to use a similar style in our thriller and I believe that this worked because in my opinion because I think that it suits our thriller and looks very good.

We decided that we would keep the cross-cutting the same because it looked professional and we had received some positive feedback on it. We also decided to keep some shots in black & white and the others in colour for the same reason. Again we decided that we would only use straight cuts because they are a convention for thrillers as they make the thriller fast paced and it will also keep our thriller flowing. We also added in two white screens which are only one for split second and could be missed in the blink of an eye. The only thing that separates these two white screens are a close up of the gun which is again only displayed for a split second.

Re-filming - We also re-filmed the final shot in our thriller. This was the shot where a point of view shot is used moving from the kitchen to the lounge where there is a dead body on the sofa. We decided to this because we didn't believe that this shot looked realistic enough. This is because the blood on the dead body was difficult to notice because of the lighting so we thought that we needed to change this. We also changed the gun which was used because the other gun was slightly old fashioned whereas this one is more modern and looks more realistic. I believe the shots we re-filmed look much better now than they did.

Music - The non-diegetic music for our thriller took us quite a while to find. This is because we wanted music which was suitable for our thriller by having a slightly mysterious and scary soundtrack. This was also time consuming because we had to find music which was not copyrighted so that we could use it in our thriller. This involved us looking at loads of websites however some didn't allow you to download music for free and others just did not have a soundtrack which we thought suited our thriller. Eventually we came across the website http://www.jamendo.com/en/, this website allowed us to download royalty free music for free. Then once on the website we typed "soundtrack" in the search bar to see if there were any suitable ones for our thriller. After browsing the website for some time we eventually decided on a piece called 'Lia e o Moleiro' on the album 'O Rio e o Moleiro' by Daniel Catarino. We decided on this track because we thought that it suited our thriller because the music builds up and creates tension and this is also shown in our thriller as it slowly builds up to the death by the victim walking towards the house and the villain making a cup of coffee and it is foreshadowing the death which is about to happen. We then had to download this piece of music from the website, however this was very simple to do.
The next part involved editing the music we had downloaded into our thriller. To do this we used the software 'Adobe Premiere'. To put the music into the opening sequence of our thriller was fairly simple. However the hardest part of editing the music was when we decreased and increased the volume of the music at certain stages in our thriller. We did this where there is dialogue, the music decreases in volume when the dialogue begins and increases when the dialogue finishes. We did this so that it was easier for the audience to hear the dialogue. Then Jonathan increased the volume of the music at end when the title 'Invite' appears and then crescendos in to silence, which gives the thriller an eerie and mysterious atmosphere.

Thriller Rough Edit

Editing - Oliver, Jonathan and I decided that we would all edit different sections of our thriller so that we all were involved in the editing. We decided to edit on Jonathan's laptop because he had the 'Sony Vegas' editing software which he was very fond of and knew how to use it because he has used it a few times before. So firstly we had to upload all of our shots which we had filmed onto Jonathan's laptop before we can begin to edit our thriller.

As Jonathan had used the editing software before we all decided that he should do the first part of the editing because he was more familiar with the software. This also allowed Oliver and I to watch what Jonathan was doing so that we also knew how to use the software and Jonathan also explained what he was editing and how he was editing it so that Oliver and I knew exactly what he was doing and how he was doing it. Jonathan and Oliver did the majority of the cross cutting for our thriller because they preferred to do that and I didn't mind as I wanted to edit the titles and credits for our thriller because I had a fantastic idea of how I wanted them to look because I have watched a variety of different thrillers recently for inspiration. As we wanted parts of our thriller in colour and other parts in black & white, we then had to change some of the shots to black & white which Jonathan and I changed.

We also decided as a team to only use straight cuts in our thriller and this is because they are the most common and frequent type of editing technique. They will also keep our thriller flowing so that it looks professional and by using straight cuts it also makes it easier to make our thriller fast paced which is one of the many conventions of thrillers. However for the first draft of our thriller we did not include a lot of credits because we only decided to include the title which meant I did not do a lot of editing for the first draft of our thriller because this meant that I only had to change some parts of our thriller into black & white. We also didn't include any music in our thriller because it was difficult to find a perfect piece of copyright free music which was very suitable for our thriller and we wanted it to be perfect so we decided to spend more time looking for the music. In our thriller we also used a black screen and this was done to show a passage in time but also the connotations of black are generally negative with connotations such as death, which is why we decided to use black.

Thriller Rough Edit Feedback

As a class all of the different groups watched each other’s thrillers one after the other, so that everybody could have a look at other people's ideas and I believe that this was quite useful. This involved us giving feedback on positive and negative aspects of other thrillers and also receiving feedback for our own thriller. The feedback we received for our thriller was generally positive, stating that we used a wide variety of different shots, cross-cutting etc. were all very effective. The credits at the end were also credited for being relevant to the thriller genre. However an issue which came up a couple of times was that we need to include non-diegetic sound but we had always intending on adding this into our thriller.

Filming

On the day of filming we went to Oliver's house because this is the only location for our thriller because we used his garden, lounge and kitchen to create our thriller. Before we started filming we looked at our storyboard again for about 20 minutes so that we knew exactly which shots we wanted to use and when, this also enabled all of us to know what to do and when to do it. This therefore meant that all our thriller could be filmed as efficiently as possible and this also stopped us wasting valuable filming time. We also needed to make sure that the weather was suitable for us to begin filming because we needed the weather to be clear so that there was no fog, rain or other weather which could disrupt our filming and luckily it was a sunny day so we could continue filming just as we had planned.

The filming did not take to long to do because our locations for the shots were all close together so that we didn't waste time moving from location to location. We also had to film the outside shots during the day otherwise it would have been too dark to film because you would not have been able to see the character(s) in the darkness. We also filmed each shot at least 3 times because we wanted to make sure that we had more than one take for each shot just in case we noticed something was wrong or not as good in one of the takes, which enabled us to choose the best take for our thriller and also when it comes to editing we will have more shots to choose from.

For part of the sequence it didn't matter whether we filmed at night or during the day because we could turn lights on so that the characters are still visable. We eventually decided to film during the day so that we could film this straight after the outdoor scenes. This is because it will allow us to complete all of our filming at once so that we do not have to worry about having to film the rest of our sequence. It was also more difficult for us to film because we were filming out of college which meant that we could not record during lesson, so we had to find some time where none of the three of us were busy in order to allow us to film. We also made sure that we had the props we needed to film.

The risk assessment we completed prior to filming was extremely useful to us because this enabled us to prevent any possible dangers from occurring whilst we were filming. This is why I believe that there were no problems whilst we were filming. We were careful when using the camera and the props so that nothing broke. We were also careful whilst filming making sure that none of us fell over. This is why I believe the risk assessment was very successful in preventing any possible problems.

Once we finished filming we checked what we had recorded to make sure that we had recorded every shot that we needed to and it looked suitable to start editing.

Before we filmed we believed that it would be quite simple, quick and easy to do because we knew exactly what we wanted to film such as the shots we wanted to use because of the planning we did prior to filming and this helped us out when it came to filming our thriller.

Another reason why the filming did not take ages to complete was because Oliver and Jonathan were confident in their acting roles and I was also confident in being the cameraman. I believe that all these factors contributed in enabled us to do all the filming on the first attempt. Now that we have completed the filming we can finally begin editing our thriller, which we are all eagerly excited to do.

As we planned the storyboard thoroughly and looked at it again just before we started filming we didn't need to make any changes to the storyboard. I believe this is good as it shows we did some good planning because we didn't need to change any of the shots we wanted to use. It also shows that we had a clear idea of the thriller we wanted to produce even at the early stage of creating our storyboard.

As our storyboard was very detailed there were no major changes which needed to be made however we did add a few shots and changed the order slightly. The first shot we added was a close up of the smallest gate closing after the victim had walked through and then another mid shot was added to show the victim walking which cut to an added shot which was a close up of the kettle boiling. We also added in a mid shot of back door being opened and instead of using a black screen we used three white screens which were separated by close ups of a gun which then cut to the black screen we had originally intended on using.

Thriller - Storyboard

Oliver, Jonathan and I created the storyboard after we decided what the plot of our thriller was going to be. We spent quite a lot of time on the storyboard making sure that was accurate and easy to understand. As Jonathan is the best artist out of the group and is also taking art at AS we decided to let him to the drawings and writing for the storyboard so that it will look as good as possible. Me, Oliver and Jonathan all came up with ideas such as camera angles, editing techniques and sounds whilst creating the storyboard. Some of the ideas when it comes down to creating my thriller may be changed slightly in case they are too hard to do or we have found a better idea to do instead. We created the storyboard shot by shot so that it was easier for us to understand and clearer to look at. Each shot which has been included in the storyboard has little description next to it describing what is happening in the shot and it also says whether it is being filmed in colour or whether we are going to film it in black & white.



The first shot we decided on using is an extreme close up of the kettle being turned by the murderer which is followed by a mid shot of the victim slowly and carefully opening the gate. The next couple of shots are close ups and extreme close ups of which involve the murderer taking a mug in preparation for creating a cup of coffee for himself. The next shot show the victim walking towards to the house which is a low shot and this shot is followed by a close up of the gate slowly squeaking shut behind him. The next shot is an overhead shot of the coffee being placed and stirred in the coffee mug which then cuts to a side tracking shot of the victim walking closer and closer towards the house. This is similar to the side tracking shot used in the opening sequence of ‘The Silence of the lambs’. The next shot used is another over head close up shot of the coffee being stirred which then cuts to a close up of the victims face which allows the audience to see some of his facial expressions and the background. This then cuts back to a close up of the kettle being boiled which again cuts to an extreme close up of the victim’s face which shows his eyes and this shows the characters emotions and expressions. Another cut is then used which shows a close up of the murderer pouring boiling hot water from the kettle into the coffee mug. This is then followed by a tracking shot of the victim and the camera is following him from behind watching him getting closer and closer to the house, again this tracking shot is similar to a tracking shot used in the opening sequence of ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. This is then followed by an extreme close up of the milk being opened by the murderer. The shots used so far in this sequence which involve the murderer are shown in colour and the shots used so far which only involve the victim are shown in black & white to make it seem more like a thriller and also to create effect.




The next shot we decided to use is a mid shot which is a tracking shot which again is showing the character getting even closer to the house. This then cuts to a close up of the murderer slowly pouring milk into the coffee mug. This then again cuts back to the victim however this time a close up is used to show the victim opening another gate slowly which is followed by a long shot of the victim walking towards to front door. The long shot is used to show the characters appearance and also the setting of the scene which is followed by a mid shot showing the victim knocking on the door. This then quickly cuts to a close up of the murderer stirring his coffee and he immediately stops and beings to approach the door. This then cuts to an over the shoulder shot which is used to show the victim looking at the murderer and this cuts to a point of view shot from the victim looking closely at the murderer and the murderer says calmly “Hey, come on in, man.” This is the only dialogue used in the opening sequence because we didn’t want to reveal too much in the opening sequence. Again the shots used so far which only involve the murderer are in colour and the shots so far which only involve the victim are in black & white. The next shot we used is an extreme close up of the murderer licking his licks whilst looking at the victim. This shot shows the murderers facial expressions and emotions. The next shot is and editing technique we want to use where it cuts to black and this is used to show a short passage of time has passed. The next shot used is an establishing/long shot of the murderer drinking the cup of coffee he made and this shot shows the setting which then pans across from left to right to reveal more of the scene and a gun on the kitchen work top and this then cuts to a close up of the gun. A point of view shot is one of the final shots used, which shows the murderers point of view walking into the lounge slowly and looking at the victim’s dead body lying on the couch, this is a long shot because it shows the setting and also the character. This then cuts to a black screen and the title appears which is “HIRED HELP”.

Overall I believe that the storyboard is a good planning method and it has been very successful in helping me, Oliver and Jonathan develop our ideas for our thriller. This is because it has given us an idea of the camera angles, props and different editing techniques that we want to use in our thriller, which we can then develop further. However once it comes to filming our thriller we might have changed some of the ideas slightly to improve our thriller.



This is another mind map that me, Jonathan and Oliver created whilst planning our thriller to give us different ideas for the location, idea, plot and different camera shots that we could use for our thriller.

Thriller - Rough Storyboard

This is a rough outline of our storyboard. A rough version of the storyboard would help us understand the plot, characters, shots and editing better because the success of a film usually depends of the pacing and building of the tension which is perfected by the planning and researching for the film.




This rough sketch shows the opening of the sequence with the man approaching the house, opening the gate and walking down the alley. Then we will later change the opening shot to an insert of the switch on the kettle being flicked on, to boil the water. This is because it will demonstrate the intercutting between the two actions which are happening at the same time.




The next part of the storyboard shows that we intend to use the shot of the kettle switch as the first shot because it is the first frame. This then allows the storyboard to continue from where the previous page of the storyboard ended.

To make this sequence more like a thriller we decided we needed to build the tension because this is conventional of thrillers. This can be done by start with a medium shot of the man walking which cuts to the kettle boiling and then back to the man walking. The intercutting intensifies the scene which builds up the tension and suspense.




The final stages of the rough storyboard shows the man getting towards the doorway which is intercut with the coffee being made. When the man knocks on the door, another figure appears and asks the man if he would like a cup of coffee. The shot will then cut to black for about 3-5 seconds to build the tension.

This black screen is also symbolic of the killing of the man and shows the passage of time. Black is also conventional of thrillers because of the connotations of the colour such as death. This also does not give anything away to the audience because there is no image or sound so this also builds tension.

However, we believe that the final shot will be a bit of a challenge and fairly difficult because it is one shot which lasts a while which starts as a close up of the gun in the kitchen which then goes to the lounge to reveal the dead body on the sofa. Long shots are also conventional of thrillers because they are used in such thrillers as 'Goodfellas' (1990) and 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992) and they are often used to reveal something about the character or the plot.

Our thriller will show that whilst something normal and part of everyday life is happening in one room, something violent and horrific could be happening in another room. This is why we have decided to juxtapose the shot of a man drinking his coffee, with a dead body in the next room.

Character Profiles - Thriller

Casting is definitely one of the most important processes in the film making process because the characters and actors/actresses are the driving force within the narrative for the majority of the time. The opening sequence for our thriller will only include two characters which means we will be able spend more time choosing each character because there are only two actors are needed.


Character's Name: Man 1
Actor: Oliver Morroll

The first character we have decided to cast is Oliver Morroll. This is the character who is more dominant in this sequence because he is shown the most during the thriller. This is the character who is walking towards the house. We decided to call the character 'Man 1', this is because his name is never revealed in the sequence.

We believe that Oliver is perfect for the part because it requires some acting experience which Oliver possesses because he has acting in different short films which we have made previously. Oliver and Jonathan had more experience than me in this part because they have twice entered the George Spencer School Film Competition, where they finished third and second.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLIVtP0voeY
This is the short film 'Picture This', which came second in the film competition. It shows the talent which Oliver has.


Character's Name: Man 2
Actor: Jonathan Hawes

The villain in our thriller will be called 'Man 2' and this is because his name isn't revealed in the sequence so we left it for the audience to guess. This is the only character in our sequence who has lines of dialogue, which is when he greets the victim at the door and the dialogue is "Hey, come on in, man. Do you want some coffee?". This character needs to look fairly evil and sinister to the audience but not to the other character in the sequence because the audience can then see that he is quite evil but he still gains the other character's trust in coming into his house.

Jonathan does not have as much experience as Oliver when it comes to acting but he has directed a few short films and can use this past experience of directing others into his own performance.

Costumes

The costumes are an important part of the sequence because they need to represent the characters personality and they are the first thing the audience will notice about the character especially because we are planning on using little dialogue. We decided on what the each character should wear fairly quickly because we all had the same idea of what we wanted the characters to wear.

Firstly we wanted both the characters to wear normal everyday clothes so that the audience can relate to the characters which makes it seem that the story of the thriller could actually happen in real life which will hopefully frighten the audience. We also want both characters to look casual, which can be shown by the costumes. They are also meant to seem like ordinary normal people as well. We also wanted both of the characters to wear similar clothes so show that they are similar characters because they have a similar personality and lifestyle and I believe that if they wore the similar clothes then this point will be demonstrated well. As both characters are male we decided that they should wear dark colours because they are stereotypically male colours and show masculinity and power and dark colours also make it seem more scary because it gives the sequence a dark atmosphere which fits in with the thriller genre.

As we do not have a budget we cannot purchase any new clothes, which means we can only use clothes we already have or which somebody else lets us borrow for our sequence. We also thought that the murderers costume should definitely be dark to show that he has done something evil. The murderer is wearing a causal dark grey top which also has some black elements to it, and he is also wearing darkly coloured jeans, these colours have negative connotations and represent such things as death and this fits in with the genre of thriller. Black also symbolises mystery and it is a mystery as to why the murderer killed the victim which is why this colour fits into our thriller. The colour black is worn by the murderer and it represents evil, crime and power and the murderer clearly has power which is why he committed the evil crime of murder. These colours can also show the murders personality as being dark and evil. He also has his sleeves rolled up which suggests he was just performing an action and didn't want to get his sleeves dirty, this action could have been the murder.

The victim is also wearing a casual top, however his top is green which has connotations such as jealousy, which shows that the victim was possibly jealous of the murderer and tried to do something to the murderer which is why he murdered him. The victim will also wears jeans which are a similar style to the murderer which again shows that their personality is similar. The blue jeans the victim is wearing brings the connotation of sadness which is shown by an innocent man being murdered. Again the victim similar to the murderer has his sleeves rolled up and by this and similar clothes it shows that they have a similar dress sense and a similar personality.

Risk Assessment

We had to think carefully about where the location of the filming will take place and the props we used in filming because we needed to make sure that we were being safe and everybody's safety is extremely important. We needed to make sure that none of the equipment we were using gets damaged and that none of us get injured. This is why I have looked at all the possible dangers that could happen, who/what the danger affects and ways to prevent this risk from happening.

Damaging the camera - There are different ways that the camera can become damaged. These are mainly by the camera being dropped or by spilling something on the camera such as the milk or water that we will be using in our sequence. The chances of this happening however are minuscule because we will be extremely careful when using the camera to prevent this from happening. However it the camera is damaged it could have many consequences because it could stop us from accessing footage we have already recorded and stop us filming more footage which will delay us. Another way of preventing the camera from damage is by using a tripod because this will stop the risk of the camera being dropped. However it is not very efficient for us to use a tripod because of the different camera angles that we will be using. When the camera is not in use we will make sure to keep it in a safe place and in a case to prevent damage to it.

Losing equipment - Losing equipment can have extremely bad consequences because if we lose the camera we will have lost all the footage we have recorded which means that we will need to spend time finding the camera or recording it all again, which is a waste of time. However the chances of losing the equipment is very unlikely because we will not be able to lose it whilst we are using it because we will be careful and when we are not using it we will store the camera in a safe place and remember where we have placed it. If we lose the milk/kettle/mug/gun etc. it will be extremely easy for us to replace these props because they are easy to obtain because they are not expensive.

Damaging the mug - This will not have any serious effect because Oliver has a set of these mugs which are all exactly the same so even if we broke one we would have an identical one to use instead. However we will be careful when handling the mug to prevent this from happening.

Milk/Water spilling - We will also be very careful so that we do not spill any liquid on the floor because if we do there is a serious safety concern because we could fall over and becoming seriously injured.

Hot water - We also need to be careful when handling the hot water because if we spill it on ourselves it will be extremely painful and we could have a severe burn so we need to prevent this from happening. We are filming next to a sink during when the hot water is being used which is useful in case somebody does burn themselves because they will then be able to run it under cold water straight away to avoid a serious burn.

As we are filming at Oliver's dad's house this means that it is private for us to use. This therefore means that we do not have to worry about disturbing the public or worry about being hit by vehicles because we are not filming on a public road, which will prove to be beneficial when it comes to filming. We also filmed when no one else was in the house to prevent Oliver's family also being at risk which is useful because it ensures their safety. As we have looked at all the preventions to possible dangers that could occur when filming I believe that it is safe to film because we know what we need to do to avoid these risks.

Props

As the opening sequence is not very long, I have decided not to use many props because they are not needed.

Gun - We decided to film a close up of a gun on the kitchen work top which is then followed by a shot of the dead body.This gives the audience the idea that the man has been killed by that gun.Murders are a common theme in thrillers and creates a scary atmosphere and fear among the audience.Also when researching for my thriller I found out that the majority of people I interviewed believed that a gun is a good prop to use for a thriller and I have put this to action. Obviously the gun is a toy and is definitely not real. The gun is the most important and the most effective prop used in our thriller because it is the murder weapon and is only revealed at the end of the sequence. We used a toy gun because it would be too difficult and too dangerous to use and obtain a real gun.



Mug - The coffee mug is shown a number of times in our opening sequence. As we were filming in the kitchen we just took a coffee mug from there. However we did choose carefully on which coffee mug to pick and we decided on the one we used because it was plain and a dark colour which fits in more with the tone of the thriller. We also made sure that the mug was clean as well.







Milk/Kettle - Again as we are filming in the kitchen it was easy for us to obtain these two items to use in our thriller. We needed the milk and kettle because the sequence involves the murderer making a cup of coffee and then drinking this coffee after murdering somebody.







Credits - The title of the thriller is shown on a background and the background is extremely interesting. Oliver's dad is a teaching assistant and the students he taught had to write a story and one student just repeatedly wrote 'dead' because that is how he said he felt at the time of writing the story and he is only in year 4. This was easy to obtain because Oliver's dad had it as the class had to hand the work in. We then thought that it would be a could idea to use this as the background for the title instead of just a plain black background because it is more effective and death is a key convention in thrillers.It also reminds me of a scene in the thriller classic 'The Shining' (1980), where the character who we think has been writing a novel, has actually been writing one phrase over and over again on hundreds of sheets of paper.

We also had other props on show such as butter, plants, bins etc. and this was done to make our thriller seem like normal everyday life which means the audience can relate to the thriller more and therefore making it scarier for the audience because they believe it could now happen to them. There is also a shot used showing the kitchen which shows normal kitchen appliances to reinforce the fact that this could be normal everyday life. There is also some alcohol placed on the kitchen table which could imply that the murderer has drinking problems which is one of the reasons he has just committed a murder. All of these props are extremely easy for us to obtain which is very useful. The props are an important part of he mise-en-scene and are key in thrillers. They can be very effective if used in the right way.

Brainstorm

Me, Oliver and Jonathan were quite exciting when it came to planning our thriller because we were eager to being filming and planning took us one step closer to this. We all had a lot of ideas which were very creative and interesting. We have thought a lot about different aspects for our thriller. We have looked at props, costumes, camera angles, sounds, plots, sub-genres, editing and locations to help us decide what our final idea will be for our thriller which was difficult because we had a various amount of different ideas to choose from. However these ideas that we have come up with are not final and we may change something through the process if we think it will have a better effect but we probably won't make any huge changes. We also chose ideas which were typical and conventions of thrillers so that our thriller would fit into the film genre of thriller. This brainstorm helped us decide on what to do for our thriller and help us to create it. We also decided to have a murder occur in our thriller to make it more exciting and we also chose the sub-genre for our thriller which means it is a psychological thriller because this makes our thriller more interesting.

Locations

We spent quite a while deciding on a suitable location to film our thriller. Firstly we decided that we did not want to film our thriller in school because this was not the setting we wanted. This meant that instead of coming to our lesson in college we could film at our desired location. We then decided that we wanted to film at a house because this would be an extremely suitable location for the plot of our thriller. This meant that we could choose whether to film at my house, Jonathan's house or Oliver's mum's house or his dad's house. The best time to film our thriller would be when we had a free house this is because no one would be able to interfere with our work and progress. Me and Oliver thought it would be a good idea to film at his mum's house but Jonathan wanted to film at Oliver's dad's house and after some discussion we decided to choose Oliver's dad's house to be our location for our thriller. This is because Oliver's dad's house looks more old fashioned when compared with his mum's house which looks more modern. The old fashioned look automatically made our thriller a bit more interesting and effective. We decided to use the kitchen because it was on the back of the house facing the garden. Also the back door was clear glass which meant the victim and the villain could see each other before the door opened. We also used the lounge which was where the dead body sitting on the couch was.

The gate which the victim walks through is slightly creaky which makes the atmosphere more mysterious, which is why it fits in well with our thriller.

The alley which leads to the front door also creates a mysterious atmosphere. This is because the house looks fairly old fashioned which makes it more gothic and scary.



This is an image of the kitchen in Oliver's house. We believe that is a suitable and excellent location which will look good in our thriller. It also leads onto the lounge, which can be seen by the final shot where it slowly moves to the lounge from the kitchen.




This is an image of the lounge in Oliver's house. We decided to use this as the setting for the dead body because it suits the theme and atmosphere of the thriller. It is also the location of the final shot, where the murderer is lying dead on the sofa.

Audience Research - Questionnaire

I decided to create a questionnaire in order to find out information which I could use to help me create my thriller. My questionnaire involved 14 different questions which will give me a good insight as to what to base my thriller on. I decided that I would ask 30 different people because this will give me a fairly wide audience which means I can generalise my results however looking at 30 people on a large scale it is a fairly small sample. I asked my friends and family in person and over the internet for my results.

1. Are you male or female?
- Male (15)
- Female (15)

I decided to ask the same amount of males as females so that my results will represents both genders. I chose to ask 15 of each gender, it did not happen by fluke. However after I had 15 of each gender I chose the rest at random. I needed to ask both genders so that I had both gender's opinions and a wider audience.

2. How old are you?
- Child (3)
- Teenager (9)
- Adolescent (9)
- Adult (7)
- Elderly (2)

I asked people of all ages because this gave me a wider audience and a view of what people of different ages believe which could possibly help me when I am making my thriller. The majority of people I asked were between the ages of a teenager and an adult because they are the people who will most likely watched thrillers. This age group were most likely to be asked because they are the digital natives who are the people who watch films the most. I also asked a couple of children and the elderly just to give me a wider view on people's opinions.

3. What colour would you prefer the thriller to be in?
- Black & White (7)
- Colour (8)
- Both (15)

I decided to ask this question because there have been thrillers which have been shown in colour or in black & white. So I asked people which colour they would prefer the thriller to be shown in and most people said both so I might possibly use colour and black & white in my thriller.




4. Would you prefer the character to be revealed or hidden in the opening sequence?
- Hidden (21)
- Revealed (9)

Some thrillers have had the characters revealed in the opening sequence whereas some thrillers haven't. I wanted to see which my target audience found most effective so that I could possibly use it in my thriller opening.



5. Would you like the opening sequence to be open or mysterious?
- Open (7)
- Mysterious (23)


I wanted to know whether to reveal the plot to the opening audience or if I should keep it mysterious. If it is mysterious than the audience will want to continue watching but I don't want the audience to get bored so I will need to reveal a little bit of the plot in the opening sequence but I do not want it to ruin the thriller by revealing too much.



6. Would you prefer the lighting to be dark or light?
- Dark (16)
- Light (14)


I predicted that most people would prefer the lighting to be dark rather than light because it creates a sense of mysterious and sets the tone of the film. Dark lighting also makes it seem scarier whereas if it is lighting it will not seem as scary. Dark lighting will also make the character seem isolated and in a constricted area. I will probably use fairly dark lighting in my thriller for this reason.


7. How often do you watch thrillers?
- Every week (7)
- Every fortnight (13)
- Every month (6)
- Every 6 months (4)


I needed to know how often people watched thrillers in order to help me create my thriller. The results are as I expected because I predicted that most people would watch a thriller every fortnight.


8. What is your favourite film genre?
- Comedy (7)
- Thriller (8)
- Horror (6)
- Action (7)
- Other (2)


I predicted that most people would've said thrillers because that is what my questionnaire is based on. However comedies and action films are also really popular with my audience.




9. What is your favourite thriller sub-genre?
- Crime Thriller (7)
- Conspiracy Thriller (3)
- Mystery Thriller (5)
- Psychological Thriller (12)
- Other (3)


I had predicted that most people would've chosen psychological thriller because they are the most popular sub-genre for a thriller. Looking at the results the sub-genre for my thriller will most likely be psychological thriller because this is the type of thrillers most people enjoy to watch.


10. What props could I use for my opening sequence?
- Gun (21)
- Mobile Phone (4)
- Knife (2)
- Other (3)


Looking at the results from this question I will most likely use a gun in my opening sequence because most people see a gun as the most effective prop used in thrillers. This could also fit in with my thriller if I choose to do a psychological thriller.



11. Would you prefer to have a lot of dialogue or a little dialogue in the opening sequence?
- A lot? (11)
- A little? (19)



Most people I asked preferred thrillers with only a little bit of dialogue in the opening sequence. This is why in my thriller I will only use a little bit of dialogue because this proves to be more effective with my audience.




12. Would you prefer the lead role to be played by a male or female?
- Male (18)
- Female (12)

I predicted that most people would choose to have a male play the lead role in a thriller because it is conventional of thrillers. However women have also started becoming lead roles in thrillers now. Looking at the results from this question I will probably choose to have a male play the lead role in my thriller.


13. Would you prefer the the victim to be male or female?
- Male (12)
- Female (18)



I also predicted that most people would choose to have a female play the victim because this is also another convention of thrillers. However this makes women seem weak and vulnerable which is an old negative stereotype.



14. Would you prefer the villain to be male or female?
- Male (16)
- Female (14)


I also predicted that most people would choose to have a male character play the villain because this is another convention of thrillers. This is because men seem more powerful which is a positive stereotype of men. I will most likely choose to have a male play the villain in my thriller because it is more common for this in thrillers.


This questionnaire has given me some good ideas as to what I can include when it comes to creating my thriller.