Thriller Evalution

 

In order for my group and I to produce a thriller opening which was successful and professional looking, we started by researching and comparing existing thriller openings. Doing this helped us to verify the conventions that thriller openings must contain. The use of mise-en-scene in thrillers in order to create suspense is approached in various ways. For instance; location in a thriller opening can stand as a very important narrative clue. In The Shinning, (a thriller that greatly influence my work) for example the location of the Overlook Hotel where it’s presence alone is slightly alarming, is used to reflect the protagonist's contrasting civilised behavior with his later malicious and psychotic possessed personality. This is demonstrated by presenting the character within the surrounding of a ‘normal’ environment, with his wife and child. I challenged the forms of conventions by using the idea of taking a normal setting and placing a character out of the ordinary in it. I used a busy city location to reel my audience into thinking everything was ok. I then used an isolated suburban setting to progress with a growing sense of threat or danger and the excitement of pursuit, an example of this can be found in the scene where the main character spots the disturbing figure with her house keys. I believe the use of these conventions indicate the sub-genre my thriller may come under.

In my product we used a teenage African female as the main ‘innocent’ character. The costume used for the main character was that of a normal teen from a working class background; dark coloured jeans, plim soles, a dark jacket and a black woolly hat. 

Having been influenced by movies such as the ring, and the shinning, we thought the thrill would be more effective if we used a ‘typical’ young dark haired, Eire looking, Caucasian female as the mysterious threatening figure. The costume used for her was that of a little girl; blue jacket, plain jeans, boots and colourful scarf this helps enforce the realism and innocence of a little girl. This links to our target audience of viewers aged 15+ because the conventions used in our thriller are similar to those you would find in Hollywood thrillers. We used common traits that connote danger in films such as; gradual tension building music. (Insert audio clip) Also the location used and mentioned is a well known area so youths can feel they are more a part of it and can possibly relate. In thrillers females are usually put in the frame as the victims, as they are seen as naive and vulnerable, and men the bold heroes who come to solve the mystery and restore peace and order to the civilians. We challenge genre by placing a female in the lead role.

I believe if taken on by a great director and given a reasonable budget, my film has the potential to be produced as a big Hollywood studio, as our ideas are quite similar to existing products, for e.g. The Bone Collector 

but having said that, realistically I feel that my movie is more likely to be a small independent UK release having media institutes such as small art houses distributing my film. It holds no big universally known actors therefore it is not likely to drawn in a massive audience. The m

ise-en-scene used visually, although a well known area, may only appeal to those who live in the east end or north area. What encouraged us to use these  areas were films such as bullet boy and kid/adulthood. Both films use similar well known locations as a way to get the audience more involved and 

attentive.

As I previously mentioned, my target audience is people aged 15 plus. We closely focused on the target audience we were aiming our film towards. We chose a wide target audience of both males and females ranging from ages 15-30. People from this age group are more likely to visit the cinema and watch particularly a thriller film. Jade, 18, works in fashion retail and enjoys watching thrilling movies with friends, shops on the high street, lives in a suburban area, is from a working class background; this is typical person who would fit into my target audience. Aimed at those primarily from a working class background, it is not single gender specific. Our narrative was aimed to allow our target audience to be able to relate. A modern young black teenage girl with dreams and aspiration just like any normal teen, on her way to a social gathering and gets abducted and is missing for a long while. From our previous study of the thriller genre we were aware that to create an effective opening which creates suspense in narrative, there must be unanswered questions which will compel the viewer to anticipate action with a resolution. For our opening sequence we wanted to create a narrative structure that would encourage the viewer to continue watching the rest of the film and that would leave areas in which the film could develop.

I tried to keep my audience at the edge of their seats and interested, I knew this would be hard as teenagers are easily distracted and tend to have short attention spans. To keep the audience interested and alert, we added the flash of the mystery girl and the alarming music which we were sure would make viewers jump this shot was influenced by a similar shot from 'The Shinning' (insert clip). We used a point of view shot here and medium close up. T he audience is asked to put themselves into the position of the main character and are being allowed to witness the event from her eyes and possibly feel the confusion she is feeling. This shot has a great impact on the audience as they then feel that they are a part of the movie and can feel the suspense rising. To market my film I would have a well known, attractive, preferably young female actor e.g. Megan Good

 play the role of the main character. This would attract the female viewers as they will envy her and may look up to her as a role model, and it will attract the males as they would find watching beautiful women on screen very interesting. I would advertise my film on the internet as it is a global network and through franchises such as Mc Donald’s which will bring in viewers of my target audience as fast food is consumed mostly by the working class.

Throughout the duration of this thriller my group and I learnt a substantial amount of things. Despite the fact that we faced many set backs we were still able to complete our media product before the deadline. Mid way into filming our thriller we were forced to make a tough decision. We originally set out to film at night time but due to bad lighting it was recommended that we set it during the daytime. During playback we realised that the footage we filmed came out too dark.  Filming during the day proved easier and we weren’t waiting around for the sun to go down. We learnt that in order to include successful match cuts, the same action needed to be shot from different angles, being careful not to break the 180 degree rule. We explored different camera shots; extreme long shots to show the physical context of action and landscape, long shots, medium shots, and close ups to focus on one character and their facial expression which are 

very important. We used low angle shots of the main girl shutting the house door and a pan from the door to the radio. This was used to bring variety to our shot and to bring something to the common shots we had previously used. We used a close up to focus on the keys which were significant as they were a narrative clue .We also used camera techniques such as; panning of the bus approaching and tilting of the girl searching for her keys to create the feel of eyes following the movements of the focus.

We used soundtrack pro to put together our soundtrack then exported it to final cut pro where we played around with the volume levels and made sure sounds came in at the right times giving the right effects (Audio of Sound Track). Logging and capturing was simple. The editing process became more enjoyable once we got the hang of using final cut pro. As I became more familiar with the program editing became quicker. 

 The trouble we faced was meeting the rule of the thriller being a maximum of two minutes. We had exceeded the 2 minutes by a minute. Cutting out some footage was difficult as we felt every clip was important. We overcame this by repeatedly watching our footage and taking out different bits and deciding if the narrative would still be clear without the bits, we also asked the opinions of class mates and teachers.

Although Filming and editing was important we also had to record everything that we had done throughout the process and we did this on Blogger. At the end of every lesson or sometimes every week I would blog what ever I had done in the lesson. This was a good way of keep a track of whatever I had done within that week of lesson.

When I look back at the preliminary match cut task that I did. I have realised how important it is to plan and story board the ideas that you have for your Thriller before we go and film it. For the actual Thriller we decided to film many different angles of the same piece of action and this was something that we didn’t do in the preliminary task. The match cut task really helped me when I came to do my actual Thriller as it allowed me to have knowledge of how to do really good match cuts. I believe match cuts are important for helping to establish a strong continuity of action. It can be used to underline a connection between two separate elements, or for purely visual reasons. (Video of Preliminary task) When it came to editing the Thriller it made it slightly easier as we had practiced on the preliminary but there were still things that need to be learnt. Having done the preliminary task, it allowed us to also get to grips with our organisation and also sharing out the task. We knew that it wouldn’t be easy to do anything without the whole group pulling their weight. As the process continued I found myself being more confident in using the software’s like Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro and Live Type.

We had very positive audience feedback which made me proud of my work. We were told that the black and white effect was effective and the use of sound effects worked. I was really pleased that people enjoyed watching the Thriller and that they were supportive of the work. If I had to do this again I would plan more in depth and know exactly what I was going to go and film before I started as this wasted a lot of time. (Video of Thriller)

Louise Olanipekun

Workshop Editing

When i first arrived at college my group members had not yet arrived so i got into the editing room and working on completing the editing. The rest of my group joined me shortly after and together, we began  thinking about how to build up tension and create a sense of suspense through sound for the shots where the sudden flash of the mysterious girl appears and the walk before reaching massie road.  We decided to have different sounds layerd together but bringing them in graduall inorder to create a false sense of sercurity, so the viewers think it is nothing but a normal day.  Making the sound proved difficult as we found it hard to blend everything together smoothly and make the transition between diagetic and non-diagetic sound seemless.

Towards the last few seconds of the Thriller, where the main character is being stalked was said to be to much of a long continous clip abd we were therefore adviced to break it up between diffferent shots. But we could not fit any footage in between because of the daanger of too much repetition. So after serval minutes of debating we had come to the verdict to leave it how it was. We speed up the last 4seconds of footage inorder to create the effect of sudden obduction and to create a more exciting effect.

After lunch time  Gerald and I returned to media workshop anxious to do more work as the deadline is tomorow! We worked on fitting the new suspense sound that we had made into the footage and it worked very well together.

Tomorrow Myself and Gerald plan to get to college for 9:00am even though we start at 1.15 inorder not to risk leaving little bits and bobs of editing till last minute as i am sure the suites will be rampacked later on in the day. During this time we will be adding the last bits of visual effects where neccesary to enhance the thrill of the scene e.g.the  illusion of the girl and also the stalker scene. I believe as a group we have worked considerably well to get our Thriller completed by the deadline, but if askes to do this again i would make SEVERAL modifications. But i enjoyed working on this project.

Workshop Editing

Today pareece, Gerald and i came to lunch time workshop to edit and ended up staying to after 6pm editing as we were very determand to complete all of our editing by thursday. we aimed to log capture and edit all the film and just leave music for tomorow mornings lesson. Whilst editing we faced a couple of problems with shots being discontinued and as a result we had to add certain effects such as a cross dissolve, to make the transitions from one shot to another  run smoother. Now that we have edited and logged and captured all the shots we want, we can now devote our time to working on putting sound effects where needed and embedded our soundtrack onto our footage.

Final Filming 24-02-09

Gerald and I decided we had to film some bits again as we had not gotten somethings right. We had no time to wait for Thursdays lesson so we decided we would go and film the things today. We revisited our outside location Massie Road and reshot a couple of shots where we had broken rules such as the 180 degree rule. We also had to re film the stalker bit because the way we filmed it, it didn't look like someone was getting stalked but just looked like a normal camera looking at the girl. We had broken the 180 degrees rule and so then shot the stalker from a different angle. To show that there was a stalker we used the camera behind cars and moved a lot to show that the girl was being watched.

 

When we were satisfied with our new footage we moved to our indoor location, where we concluded our filming. We first shot the bit where the girl left the house and panned to the radio. We shot this from many different angles, giving us a variety of shots, which we would be able to use for variety and also make very effective match cuts.

 

We plan to attend Media Workshop tomorrow.

let em play God

We were given a sheet in lesson about Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock. He was born on August 13th 1899 in Leytonstone London, and died on April 29th 1980 in Los Angeles at the age of 80. He wrote an article about how to create supense and what it really is. 

His article is called thrills, suspense, the audience'. In this article Hitchcock talks about how every mystery movie makers aim is to have the audience at the edge of their seats the technique involved in doing this is suspense. According to Hitchcock suspense is created when you let the audience play God. If they are unaware whether a character is a hero or villain they will not know whether to rejoice or not rejoice. Hitchcock says if the audience have been told all the secrets that the character dont no, “they’ll work like the devil for you because they know what fate is facing the poor actors”. He describes this as “Playing God”.

Hitchcock believes that when characters are not convincing you only get suprise but not suspense. He also believes that inorder for suspense to be created, you do not need effects such as shadows, stormy/dull weather and creaky doors; his movie ‘Rope’ was evidence for this point. As Hitchcock became more interested in developing his suspense techniques, he chose to shoot these type of stories exclusively; this conclusion came by the time he had made his movies‘Secret Agent' ,‘Sabotage’, and ‘The 39 Steps’.

Workshop/lesson

today my group visted workshop in order to create more time for ourselves because although we had a lesson straight; with the deadline being on friday we felt we needed to work extra hard and faster in order for our thriller to have a good outcome.

We edited our footage but still found that there were minor pieces of footage either missing or not usable meaning once aqain and for hopefully the last time, we will have to book out a camera and re film those missing parts.
Although we couldnt complete editing because of the missing footage, we decided to move onto trying to fit our music in with the footage. We also thought about the different effects we will be using and where they will go. As a group we have planned to attend workshop every lunch to complete this work and meet the deadline.

brainstorming the thriller genre

in this lesson as a class we discussed and brainstormed all the different thriller sub genres. 15-12-08

THRILLERS




-psychological thriller-plays with your mind. frightening becoz it cud happen.
- kidnapping
- Super natural- based accult-ghosts ect
- Sci-Fi
- Crime- spy thriller-

political thrillers- Government corruption political conspiricy
- Action
- Acquired identity . Cloning. Stealing
- Innocent on the run
- Good vs Evil
- Murderous passions- Love triangle, affairs blackmail
-

Half Term Catch Up Workshop

On Monday I came to college borrowed equipment and went to Geralds house to re-film shots we didnt get quite right. After refilming all the shots we needed we decided that we had fully completed the filming for our thriller opening and all that was left to do was to log and capture the new footage and edit everything. We went to college ffor the catch up workshop where pareece joined us to edit our footage. Although we didnt get alot of edited done because of time, we still logged and captured all our shots which will make it easier when we come to edit first lesson back on monday. I plan on attending monday workshop as our dealine is fastly apporoaching.

More Editing

Monday 9th Feb 2009

In Mondays lesson I began editing and bringing together all the footage we have filmed so far. I noticed a few scenes that needed to be redone because of obvious errors. I had a go at playing around with different effects and just seeing what didn't look good and what did, such as cross fading credits onto the end of a shot. I also tried to match cut a lot. Next lesson i play continuing with embedding the credits into the scene and possibly getting some music down.

Early Morning Filming-Catch up

On Saturday morning unfortunately only Gerald and I turned up for the much needed filming session although this was disappointing and a set back but we were determined not to let it affect us. When we filmed during Thursdays lesson the weather was icy, rainy and the sky was grey and gloomy looking, on saturday although it was cold, there was no icy, no rain and the sun was shinning quite brightly. This was annoying becuase we knew it would be obviously recognised wen watched. We therefore decided that we would film everything again that day jsut incase we were unable to make the two sets of footage look like they were filmed on the same day. We got a lot done outside, we reshot the bad match cut scenes which was quite difficult because we had to keep waiting for the same bus to come by without any other obsticles getting in the shot which proved difficult as it was main road on a saturday morning. Althought it took a while we managed to get it filmed and were happy watching back what we had down. After being outside for over 2hours we decided to move on and film the house scene.

When we got to the house we sat down and brainstormed a new way to set out this scene as members of our group were not present we could not do what we initally planned. After brain storming we shot the scene serval times from diffrent angel trying to be as creative as possible taking into account our target audience and how they would respond to certain scenes. It was a bit difficult to film the house scene because of bad lighting but we decided we would just film it and wait until editing to see if it is usable or if we would have to refilm it.

Although it was hard with just the two of us, we managed to get a lot of filming done as Gerald will be away next week. So we tried to get as much filimg done as possible in order to make sure that we do no tfall behind anymore. During Mondays lesson I be focusing on logging and capturing all of saturdays footage and seeking advice on the house lighting situation and the weather situation i will also be attending lunch time workshop in order to get more done as the lesson is quite short.

Ediitng Workshop

Thursday 5th January

After we returned to college from filming, we decided that we did not want to waste time waiting until next lesson before we edit our footage so myself and Gerald attended workshop because the rest of the group were unavailable, as we had a 3 hour gap it was the perfect opportunity to get some editing out of the way. As we were editing and trying to create good looking match cuts we realized that they were turning out to be bad looking jump shots, after asking the advice of a media helper, we were told that because we did not film the action to the end and cut straight to the same action in another angle we were unable to make the shot look smooth. We learned that you cannot match cut action from the same angles because it then looks like a jump shot. Having taken this in advice into carefully consideration for future filming, we decided that nothing could be dun and we would have to film that part again along with a couple other shots that had the same problem. After the helpful workshop we informed the group that we would be filming early Saturday morning in order to be up to date and not too far behind on our production schedule, we all agreed on 11am and the location our filming would take place. During this early morning session we aimed to get the unsuccessful match cutting shots re-filmed and the house scene starring myself and pareece filmed leaving our thriller pretty much completed and only editing footage, and making the credits and music left to do. We needed this early morning session as we were told that due to a college performance Gerald would not be able to attend any media lesson for the next week, so getting all the filming out of the way was of great relevance.

GETTIN FILMING OUT THE WAY

Thursday 5th January

In todays lesson we decided that we would take full advantage of the 3hours we had. Although it was very cold and it was raining an some of the group were again Not present, we decided that because of our situation (constant set backs) we had no time to let little things disrupt us from filming so we decided we would try and get the majority of our filming done today. We set out to our location and filmed a lot of useful footage. We made sure to experiment with different and intresting angles. After being out for over 2hours we decided to call it a day as we were beginning to slowly freeze. The weather conditions of the day were icy, cold, rainny and the sky was gloomy looking. We hoped that the next time we come to film the weather we be ruffly the same.

Set Back By Snow

Monday 2nd January

Because of the sudden and dangerous weather conditions college was closed therefore media was canceled and we were unable to film. This was a set back for us and a bit of a panic and my group and I had already had a lot of catching up to do and missing lessons was not helping. We decided that on Thursdays lesson we would work extra hard and fast in order to get the majority of our filming out of the way.

Changing Our Setting

Thursday 29th January

after having shown our footage to our teachers and other media staff helpers, it was decided that doing a night based thriller was not such a good idea as it would be difficult to work out a good lighting situation without making it look obvious. Although we were very keen to film in the night in order to convey to the audience our thrilling effect, it made known to us that basing our thriller in the night time just to enhance the thrilling effect was not worth possibly loosing marks for bad lighting. Also because we had chose to base it at night it meant that whilst everyone was busy getting on with their filming during lessons we were just sitting around trying to make up music and credits to go with our thriller which was hard because in order to make sucessful music that goes with the scene, we needing to be able to see the footage and go with the feeling we get wen we watch it. The same went for the credit. Taking all these things into consideration we changed our setting and based it during the day and we ended up altering our intial ideas to work better with our new setting. I believe that we will still be able to create the same thrilling effect in daylight maybe even better than we would have at nightime.

Filming- Continued

Monday 26th

This lesson was based on each group continuing with our filming and aimed at bringing our storyboard ideas to life. During this lesson my group were unable to film as we chose to base our thriller at night. But not wanting to fall behind we decided that instead of lounging around , we would aim at getting our credit’s a completed and out of the way as well as potential music, we created using sound track pro. Doing both of these things helped us and me personally get a better idea and understanding of how to use both the programmers. We arranged to have the camera after college and with a location in mind we set our to film. Once we got to our location and began filming we realized the challenge we were facing with ‘lighting’. Though we were given lights, they only lasted for a maximum of 15mins each meaning we had to work fast. We found it really difficult to film even using the light as everywhere we tried to place the light made it looks as if the was a obviously spot light on the subject we were filming. This was a set back for us because we only filmed a few shots before we had to pack up and go home due to the fact that ;the later it was getting meant the darker and less easy it was to film. We realized that between then and next lesson we would have to think of a solution to our lighting problem. If that meant changing our night time idea to day idea then so be it.

Casino Royale tutorial

monday 19th jan

This lesson was based on a Casino Royale tutorial. I learnt a number of things including:

• Sound Layering: Elements e.g. dialogue, music, effects can affect a sequence
• Sound Scapes: Palette of sounds to create a soundscape for still images considering  how appropriate how appropriate they are.
• Sound Sequences: Edit/mix own versions of soundtrack.

Three types of audio element

- Dialogue

- Music

- Effects

I was made to think of questions such as: Why each element had been included. 

Background noise: don't layer too much on as it can just sound messy, look for detail.  The aim of sound is to add not take away!

after doing this turtorial we got a chance to play around with adding sound to footage we had previously filmed, just to get use to using soundtrack pro in preparation for our thriller openings. 

Practise Filming

Our Peliminary Task:




We began to film for our Preliminary task by choosing our location and set up the equipment. Everything went smoothly apart from the fact that people kept walking through the corridors as we were filming meaning we had to stop, wait for them to pass and then start again. We then moved on to filming inside a classroom which was easier as it was silent work in that room. After capturing our footage and being satisfied we watched it over on the camera to make sure we had got the different angles necessary to put together match cuts.

Our filming was successful because we slightly more confident using the equipment and remembered techniques from the first filming. We knew the shots and angles that we required as we noted them in our pre-prepared storyboard which we kept during filming just encase. we learnt that it was essential to plan because sitting down to plan could be the difference between someone getting a good product and a inadequate one. We enjoyed filming and it made us more enthusiastic and anxious to being with our thriller.

Workshop-Editing

today i attended workshop to begin editing the footage from the lesson my group missed and therefore didn't get to film, but me and gerald filmed it outside of lesson times. As my group were unable to attend i decided to go at it alone. I thought doing it alone would be a good way to practice my editing skills and just to play around and practice using final cut pro in preparation for editing our 'thriller openings'. I enjoyed workshop and was given alot of help form Rebecca i think i am now capable of editing a piece of footage at a 'decent' level.

Catching Up

On Monday 12th Jan, myself and Gerald attended workshop in order to catch up with the work we missed out on when the half the group were away due to exam preparation. Our brief was to film a person going in to a room, sitting opposite character B and have a conversation about something. Because it was only two of us we found it hard to do certain shots but i please between the two of of us we did a pretty good job. And as long as our editing is as good if not better it wont even matter that we were missin half the group.

Selling Your Pitch

Thursdays lesson

the first half was spent finalizing ideas and plans for our thriller openings and preparation pitching our ideas to the class. The things our pitch had to include were:

• Main theme
• Setting/location
• Storyboard
• Music
• Lighting
• Camera work
• Key images/icons
  
• Production plan

Our pitch had to last at least ten minutes long.
I believe as a group we work very well together, tasks are distributed equally amongst us. In this lesson Rhea took control of writing up the summary of our thriller , Gerald took role of writing up our busy production schedule, pareece assisted everyone as well as bringing many ideas to the table, as for myself, i drew up a step by step storyboard of our thriller opening, breaking down every shot individually and visually and explaining their relevance and the effect we hope they will have.

In general i believe our pitch went very well, everyone had equal turns speaking and putting our ideas across, and we are all very excited and rearing to start filming.