Evaluation

Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develope or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The key to any film from any genre is the opening sequence. The opening sequenceof a thriller tells the audience a lot about a film whilst giving its plot and characters an enigmatic entrance. If it is made following the industry's conventions the opening sequence tells you the name of the studio, the name of the production company, who the producers are, who the director is, who is starring in the film, who created the music and what the film is called. We are also told indirectly what the genre of the film is and what the film could possibly be about. In my research I identified some main conventions of opening sequences of thrillers. The conventions that I found were that it established the plot, created enigma, built up tension and attracted the audience (http://gs52011.blogspot.com/2011/02/conventions-of-thriller.html). I looked at three opening sequences from three different films; Se7en By David Fincher 1995, Panic Room By David Fincher 2002, Psycho By Alfred Hitchcock 1960 and Vertigo By Alfred Hitchcock 1958 (http://gs52011.blogspot.com/2011/02/thriller-research.html , http://gs52011.blogspot.com/2011/02/thriller-research-continued.html , http://gs52011.blogspot.com/2011/02/thriller-research-continued_07.html). Whilst most of them contained most, if not all of the conventions that I listed there was one opening sequence that differed from the rest; Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. Unlike all of the other sequences this one did not establish the plot as it had no plot visuals in it. It mostly contained titles to attract the audience and music which gives away the genre and adds enigma to the film. After further research into it I found that this could be due to the time it was made in and the lack of technology during this time. My media product uses these conventions to gain the attention of the audience. Through my visuals I established the plot of the paedophile as the antagonist seeking his next victim on his list and the innocent girl as the antagonist. The visuals do not give away a large amount of the plot and thus gives the thriller an enigmatic feel. The music which I made specifically for the intention of this film consists of fast strings and a heavy base to createtension for the audience. Lastly I have created titles to advertise everything that would normally attract the audience; the name of the production company, who the producers are, who the director is, who is starring in the film, who created the music and what the film is called.

Question 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I do not believe there are many media products in the mainstream film industry that represent particular social groups in their plot unless a message is attempting to be conveyed, for example, Boyz n The Hood by John Singleton 1991 represented the social group of South Central Los Angeles African American gangs and conveyed the message of peace to the world. My media product does not convey a message and I do not think it represents any social group but if it were to apply that concept I believe that it would represent young families and the fear that parents feel of not constantly being able to protect their children from the horrors of the modern world. My media product focuses on children and their vulnerability. To convey this I had to get the casting of the actors right so that it made the victim seem extremely vulnerable. My protagonist is a murderous paedophile who preys on young children. To make the protagonist, the child had to seem extremely vulnerable compared to the antagonist who had to seem inescapable and so when I cast my characters I was looking for a middle aged man that had a fairly big build. I cast Nicholas Chawner as my antagonist as he has a big build and is middle aged. I didn’t have to be very specific with this character because not a lot of him is seen throughout the opening sequence to keep with the convention of enigma. My antagonist is a young girl who is the "victim-to-be" of the film. I chose the character to be a girl because, stereotypically speaking, the female gender is seen to be the weaker sex and so making the character a girl adds to the vulnerability against the antagonist who is male. She had to be of a small build and she had to look young so that she is the opposite of the antagonist in every way thereby exaggerating the fact that he would be inescapable.I chose Elena Bowley as she is of a young age and small build and thus is perfect for the role of my protagonist.(http://gs52011.blogspot.com/2011/02/casting-location-costume-and-props.html) Similarly the film, Along Came a Spider By Lee Tamahori (2001), also is about a vulnerable young girl who is kidnapped. The girl chosen for this film is also of a small build. They have done this to emphasise the girl's vulnerability, just as I have.

Question 3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that my media product would be distributed by New Line Cinema because the film Se7en by David Fincher was used as my inspiration for this project and it was distributed by New Line Cinema. My media product was made using the inspiration from that film and thus it has a similar style to it, this is the reasoning behind my choice. New Line Cinema started in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne. It has distributed an enormous variety of films in its time. It also created a lot of thrillers, i.e. Final Destination By David R. Ellis (2009), Snakes On A Plane By David R. Ellis (2006) and A History of Violence By David Cronenberg (2005). Originally New Line Cinema did not distribute films outside the U.S. Instead it would contract with other distributing companies to distribute it's products overseas. More recently it made a more permanent contract with Warner Brothers to distribute over seas. I think that with the other range of films that it has distributed my film would ft in quite comfortably with the other films as they don't distribute too many thrillers so that there is a competition between them and they don't distribute so little that it would seem to be the odd one out. Economically the distribution company seems to do quite well with thrillers. Two out of the three thrillers I mentioned earlier doubled the amount of money they had to start with in profits. The other broke even. Thrillers distributed by this company appear to do quite well gaining a good amount of profits and would be another reason for being the distribution company for my thriller.

Question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience which my product is aimed at are adults of both genders. I have chosen this because from my research I found that it was mainly adults that watched thrillers because thrillers contain plots that are not suitable for or would not be understood by children. I also chose to aim my product at adults because only adults can understand the fears that a parent has of people who could take advantage of their children. Even if they do not have children of their own they will still remember what it was like for their parents worrying over them and thus when they are watching my media product they could also feel fear and terror for the child character in my media product. My film is quite a general film when it comes to target audiences as the only thing that would specifically define people to watch this would be age. Only adults who really understand the topic of the film would understand it and want to watch it. They would be interested by it because through human nature we are naturally inquisitive and would want to know what is going to happen to the child; Is the antagonist going to kill the child? Will somebody save her? If so who? It is the enigmatic style of the film which will really interest the the large target audience of my film.

Question 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my target audience through the opening titles. The opening titles attracts the audience because if the media product was produced in a professional film industry then the actors and directors would be "A Listers" and thus they would be in the opening titles as they are much more popular with the target audience. It would draw my audience in because they would want to watch it due to the famous people in it. Se7en By David Fincher (1995) readily advertised it's "A Listers", Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in their opening titles as they were extremely popular at the time.

I addressed my audience because of the plot and how the audience relate to it. Then plot is about a murderous paedophile that is stalking his next victim to be a child, aged eleven years old is. They can relate to how they fear for their own children’s safety and how this would be a parent’s worst nightmare. Adults who don't have children can also relate to the film as they could emphasise with the child and how fearful it must be. Furthermore adults do not have to be parents to relate to the fear that the child's parent might feel as it is possible that they are a sibling to a brother or sister and could relate to the fear they might feel for them. To get the full views of the audience I sent them an email containing the link to my film. I asked them to evaluate it. The thing that they enjoyed the most was the music. They said that they enjoyed how it was fast paced and full of heavy base which they said gve it a threatening effect suitable for the film. They said that to improve it they would change the last shot as it gave the impression that the girl was already dead when she is supposed to be the next victim and still alive. This made it confusing for them.

Question 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of making my media product I have learnt and developed many techniques. Whilst I was filming I developed my knowledge of the equipment that was available to me. I used a Canon SX 30is camera. I used this camera because it is a HD camera that shoots in a widescreen format which gave the product a professional cinematic feel and quality. The two main techniques which I learnt about was how to make the music with a program called Cubase 6 and how to edit the footage with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. When I shot my footage of the antagonist I used a colour saturation of black and white to create the negative effect of the antagonist.

Making the music for my product was the hardest technique to master in the entire product because first of all I had to learn how to use the software and also I had to find the right sound out of thousands of sound files that I could choose from. The first thing I did was to listen to my examples, Panic Room By David Fincher (2002) and Bourne Identity By Doug Liman (2002), that I was taking my inspiration from. I chose those films as my examples because they had the right fast paced, tension creating rhythm and strings which I needed for my own film. The way that the software worked was that I selected a specific file of sounds and those sounds were transmitted to a keyboard which was connected to the computer. Then I would simply play with the sounds on the key board until I found a pattern that I liked. I then recorded it and then edited it by moving the notes that look like little red bars, to the left or right to get the timing right and up or down to get the pitch right. The sound files that I chose are called Metallic Guitar and Secret Spy. The file Metallic Guitar gave me the screechy sounds which gave a tense feel to the music. I used the Secret Spy file gave me the strings and the base which gave an overall building up of tension feel to it. When editing my product there were two audio tracks. One of the audio tracks contained the audio from the footage and the other contained the music. I muted the audio from the footage because i think that it took away from the sinister feel of the film.

I enjoyed using Cubase 6 very much as it allowed me to create my own music to the way that I liked it for every single part of my product. It also was a lot easier and simpler to make my own music rather than to waste time having to search for someone who will give me permission to use their music. The next technique I had to learn was how to edit my footage to create my product using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. This was very difficult for me as I had never edited anything before this project. It took some time but once I got the hang of what each tool did and where I would find each tool it became a lot easier to use. Thankfully I only needed to use basic techniques like how to create a straight cut and how to add effects onto my clips so there was not too much to learn. To cut my first clip I had to find where I wanted to cut my clip, then I selected a tool that looks a little bit like an eraser and selected with it where I wanted to cut my clip. Then I selected the selector tool, the little arrow, selected it and pressed delete. To add effects I simply had to go into the effects folder and drag the effect that I had chosen to where I wanted it on my footage. Once I got used to the software I actually found that it was quick and easy to use and when used properly it gave me a product with a high quality finish.Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I have learnt a lot even on just how to blog properly. I realise now that I have to write what I have done and why I have chosen to do that in a lot of detail. When I first worked on the preliminary task I found that it was hard keeping the group together and chasing down bits of missing work and so in this project I decided that I would just work with one other person so that it was easier to track down pieces of work if they were missing. It also meant that I could work more closely with my partner so that we could produce the best work possible. In the preliminary task although everybody worked together and the work was shared equally because there was so many of us certain roles had to be delegated to certain people. I think that my time management has improved significantly since my preliminary task. In my preliminary task we left everything untill the last minute and it was very stressful. I learnt from that and begun doing everything when it was set and as soon as possible. This meant that it was less stressfull and I had time to go back and make sure everything was as good as it could be. I had to do the role of the director; making sure that everyone delivered work on time and to the best of their ability, rounding up everybody’s ideas and putting them into play and to delegate the roles. Due to this I did not really get to try to edit and to shoot the footage and thus my skills were not very developed but since then in my thriller project I have been a lot more hands on and have done a lot of the editing and filming. I have also done more than I would have got to have done on the first project I made the music. I believe that working in a group of two has allowed me to have the benefits of shared labour on the project without missing out on the technical aspects and therefore I have learnt how to basically edit a project, make the music for a media product, shoot footage for my product.

This is a video to show the basic editing skills that I have learnt during this project.

Final Edit

Editing

The Editing Stage:

After filming I had many video clips in which I needed to edit and add effects to, to create my thriller. I decided to edit it in the order in which we wanted the clips in the video so the first thing we created was a title of the production company that I had made up called Key Chain Productions. The name was a mix up of my self and my partner's name. We chose a picture of an animated man holding a key from the Internet. To make the image my own I edited it on Adobe Fireworks CS4 to give it a transparent background instead of a white one so that it would transfer easily to the title that I eventually created. After editing the image in Adobe Fireworks I added the image into Adobe Premier Pro CS4. I then added text to the image which was the name of the production company. I gave the text the font, Copperplate Gothic Light and made it a gold colour to give it a professional look.

The first shot I then added after this was the of the antagonist flicking through the pictures of the victims and his victim to be. At the end of the shot it zooms in on the picture of the victim to be. The problem with this was that the closer the zoom got to the picture the more blurred the footage became and so I cut the shot when you can clearly see image of the victim to be but also so that the shot is not too long.

After this I then added in another title enlisting the names of the actors involved in the making of the film. The font we used was Birch Std. This gave a sinister look especially with the bland black and white colours used on it. I also added a shadow on the title. The shadow is a white shadow which adds to the bleak colours used and adds to the sinister look.

The next clip I edited was the clips of the victim to be swinging in the park. I cut it down to not much longer than 10 seconds and then added dissolves to either side of the clip to make the movie run smoothly. Most the other scenes have been edited in the same way by cutting them down and adding dissolves to make the movie run smoothly.

On the last clip I edited it exactly the same way. However, I created the title of the film in the same way as the others but so that it would run over the top of the last clips to really emphasise the title of the film and to give it a ghostly, sinister effect.

For the music I muted all the audio from the footage that we received. I then created music to run over my thriller. I created the music on a piece of software called Cubase. To create the music I listened to the music from other popular thrillers like, Panic Room and Bourne Ultimatum took my inspiration from them and timed to to my own film. After looking at most of these films I realised that most did not have sound other than the music and is why I muted the sound on our movie from the other footage that I collected.

To improve my draft the angle of two shots will have to be changed. The first shot to be changed is the shot of the victim be of the swing and the shot is taken from behind a bush. The problem with the original shot is that the shot is taken from over the hedge so it seems as if the antagonists head would be poking over the hedge and so I will re film the scene so that the angle will seem as if he is hiding behind the hedge. The second shot that needs to be shot is that of the victims legs when she is running. The original shot is too quick and so you cannot see who's legs they are. To change this I will re film this scene and make it so that you can see her legs running off into the distance so that you can definately see that it is her. This changed footage will be edited the same as the original footage was.

First Draft

This is the first draft of my project.

Filming

Filming

Everything went to plan and everything was filmed as we had planned to. We also got more than we had planned to so that in the editing stage myself and my partner will more to choose from. Firstly when we filmed Elena in the park we got interesting shots of her on the climbing frame like the close up shot of her feet on the climbing frame. We could use these shots to still give the same feel and aspect but it would make the film more interesting to watch.

We also got more shots than we had to when we filmed the scene with Nick in the garage. This time we got some mid shots from a side angle of Nick opening and closing the book. I liked these shots and could possible use them because they give a more sinister look to him and thus adding to the whole affect of the thriller.

Risk Assesment

Risk Assessment:

There will be a few risks when filming my thriller.

When filming the shots needed in the park the risks are:

Dogs and other people in the park.

The road near the park.

The climbing frames and play equipment for the children in the park.

These risks cannot be eliminated but they can be minimized. These risks could affect all working on the thriller and we must therefore put measures into place to reduce those risks. Generally in the park we need to just be aware of these things and to steer as clear as possible from the road and to keep a sharp eye out for things like play gyms and people and animals that we could possibly bump into.

The risks for filming on the street are:

The road.

The pedestrians walking by.

Again these risks can affect all people working on the thriller and also can't be eliminated. The risks can be minimized by again steering clear of the road and any on coming traffic and by again watching out for pedestrians.

The risks for the garage are:

Furniture, tools and stored items from the house.

Due to the fact that the garage belongs to a home within the garage there are things such as furniture, tools and stored items. These can not be eliminated as it would take too long to move everything out and so everyone involved in the making of this film will have to be careful when moving around in such a small area as this.

Filming Schedule

Film Schedule:

All shots of the child in Toton park and child on Seaburn Road will take place on Sunday 20th February.

If the weather is bad this filming will take place on Monday 21st of Febuary.

For this I will need Elena Bowley to play her character and I will need Haydn Bowley(Elder sibling of Elena Bowley and owner of the camera in which he will be in charge of as my camera man). The shots that will be taken will be the long shot and close up of her at the park and on the swing and the long shot of her walking down the street.

All shots of the villain in a garage will take place on Sunday 28th February.

For this I will need Nicholas Chawner who plays the antagonist and the book of images of past and present victims. I will also need my camera man and camera again.

These shots will be taken undercover so a back up plan for weather is not needed.

The shots filmed will be the close up of his hand turning the pages and of the high angled over the shoulder shot of the same aspect.

Casting, Location, Costume and Props Planning

Elena Bowley


Age:10
Elena has had no professional experience in acting as she is only ten years old and is currentley not interested in taking acting as a carreer. She is suitable to play the role of the innocent ten year old in my thriller as we needed somone who is ten or looked ten and experience is not needed as there is no dialogue or specific acting. Her simple role is to act normal as she plays on the park and walks along the street in which we need to film her. For the costume I am going to ask her to wear her school uniform In which she is wearing in the picture above. Her school uniform consists of a blue shirt, navy blue skirt, navy blue tights and black shoes. The costume has been chosen because it will exadgerate her young age and her innosence/vulnerability. As Elena is only 10 years old I have had to require her parent's consent to allow her to be involved. I have received consent as shown below.

Nicholas Chawner

Age: 49
Nicholas has also had no proffesional acting experience. Again as said before this is not a problem as there is no dialogue and the acting does not require amazing acting skills. He is appropriate for the role of the antagonist/murderer because he is the right age that we are looking for, which is middle aged, maybe slightly older and he has a good solid build which exadgerates the innosence of the child that is being preyed upon in my thriller. As for the costume he will wear a black shirt and some denim jeans with trainers. All his clothing will look scruffy (Top button undone on his shirt, one side of the collar flicked up and one folded down ). This is to give him a rough/dangerous look.

Locations:
The first place I have chosen to shoot my thriller in is my garage. Inside my garage there is a work bench where I can have the actor standing with his props on the work bench whilst he plays the antagonist. I have chosen this location because it has a dirty, rough look which makes it seem very sinister and perfect for my thriller. It also has a light that is positioned just above the work bench and so this means that we will not need any additional lighting and thus means that we won,t have to waste time setting up the additional lighting. As you can see there is a lot of stuff on and around the bench but they will be removed ready for filming.

The second location will the park where the child will be shot playing. The park was chosen because it has plenty of bushes that we can shoot from and thus we can recreate the look of the serial killer stalking the child. It will also have other children playing there naturally and so we will have our extras without having to actually employ them. It will also make the diegetic sounds of the other children playing which will give to the effect of the vulnerability.

The third location we will be filming in will be the street in which I live on (Seaburn Road, Toton, Nottingham). I have chosen this location because I wanted a long shot of her walking down a street on her own to exaggerate her vulnerability.

Props:
There is only one prop in my thriller and that is the book of photos of past and present victims of the serial killer. I have chosen to use this prop as like in the thriller Se7en it gives hints into the plot without revealing anything major and thus still keeping the enigma which is one of the things which my target audience like about the film Se7en. At the moment the images are not in there but we will put the images in the book after filming Elena at the second and third location using the stills.

Planning Ideas for Thriller

Planning Mindmap:


This is a mindmap of my Ideas for my thriller. I started out by thinking of things that myself and the target audience liked from the subject film of seven. I liked the aspect of the book and how he had the planning of the murders inside it. I had a rough idea from the start that I wanted the plot to be based on a man that preys on the innosence of young children. This was where I came up with the idea of having the book with the images of past children he has prayed on and the present child in which he wishes to pray on. Originally I was going to have a wall of pictures of children but I realised in the time that I had I would not be able to gather all of the pictures for it to look effective in time. Also I planned to have a slow nursery rhyme made with minor chords for the soundtrack. However, I decided that although the nursery rhyme would fit with the theme of young children it would not fit with the genre of the thriller. Therefore I have chosen to make a soundtrack inspired by that of the soundtrack made for the thriller, Vertigo. It will also contain a heavy base line in it to build the tension within the audience as that is one of the things listed in the questionnaire that I did earlier that the audience liked about the thrillers. I decided that there would be an image of a girl that the antagonist was planning on murdering and thus this is what the film would be about. The shot would zoom in on the image and would then cut to a clip of the girl. There could be two clips of the girl in the opening scene; one of her on a swing in the park and one of her skipping down the street laughing. These would be filmed in colour to show that she is good. The antagonist will be filmed in black and white to show his negativity. In between all of these shots there will be a black screen where the titles will be shown. A flickering effect will be added to the titles to add to the genre of thriller. I planned that there would be a shot of the girl on a matress and tied up. However, I decided that I could not find a location for this and thus I decided that it would not be included in my thriller. Also at the end of the opening scene there will be a gigle from a laughing child. Although it is not on the mindmap, I have decided that the name of the thriller will be called The Unfortunate Souls because sometimes when somone refferes to a child they say "she's a wonderful little soul". I like the idea of the innosence that the refference of souls give also they would be unfortunate because obviously they've been killed as you've seen in the book.

The Story Board:

This is my story board.

The first frame is simple. It will be black with the title of my production company on it. The next frame will be an over the shoulder shot of the antagonist and the book of images of the other victims in the past and the victims of the present. After this the next scrren will flick on and again it will show the titles "Directed by Ellie Keys and Stephanie Chawner". The next frame will be a long shot of Elena playing her character on the swings at the park. After this the next frame will be credits again that will list the actors. The next shot will be a longs shot of Nick playing the atagonist who will be planning the murders. The next frame is credits with a black background. The credits will be about who created the music. The next frame will be a long shot of the protagonist walking down the street. The next frame will be a black screen with the credits reffering to the costumes. After this the next frame will be a close up of the antagonist. After this there will be another black screen with the credits reffering to who it was produced by. There will then be a long shot of the protagonist on the park which will fade into the first shot of the over the sholder shot of the antagonist with the book of photos of the antagonist. The screen will then fade to black and the title of the film will appear.

Target Audience Research

At first I conducted a random survey to find out who consumed the most thrillers on average, per month. I asked thirty-two people from the age of sixteen to fifty-one plus. I did not ask anyone below the age of sixteen as most thrillers are rated at the age of sixteen or higher which means that people below that age cannot purchase or watch the films.

Out of the thirty-two people I conducted the survey with it was the sixteen to twenty-five year olds who consumed the most thrillers at one to three thrillers a month and some who consumed six plus films a month. Due to the fact that it was this age group that consumed the most films, I decided then to do a focus group on this age group. I also decided that my target audience would be the people who watched the most thrillers, sixteen to twenty-five year olds.

The first question I asked was "Which genre of thriller do you like the most?". Forty percent of the sixteen people I interviewed said their favorite genre of thriller was action/adventure. This was closely followed by the genre, sci-fi, voted by twenty-five percent of the people interviewed. From this I have decided to do an action/adventure thriller as that is what my target audience enjoy the most. Here I have made a pie chart to demonstrate my findings.

The next question I asked was "Have you seen any of these films?", here I was referring to the films that I had analysed in my research. I wanted to incorporate the conventions that the target audience liked from those films into my own. I found that thirty-eight percent of the people I interviewed had seen Psycho, closely followed by the thirty-one percent of people who had seen Se7en. I think that most people had seen Psycho as it is a timeless classic that has been spread through the generations from the first people to see it to the people who are only discovering it now and who will ultimately also pass it down through the future generations. I also think that a lot of people have seen Se7en because it is a modern film that people of this age group would go to see in large groups of them and their friends. Here is another pie chart to show my results.

After asking the previous question I then asked "What did you like about them?" I generalised their answers into four categories; sound, plot line, visual effects and feelings (how the film made them feel. fifty-three percent of the people I interviewed said that they liked the films because of the interesting plot line. Following this twenty-seven percent of the people I interviewed said they like it because of the music (sound) and how it made them feel scared. From this I have found that to make my thriller entertaining for the audience I must have a good plot line which they would find interesting and the soundtrack must be good enough that it would help me into building up tension in the thriller so as to make them feel scared. Here is a pie chart to show my results.

In conclusion I have decided that I will aim my thriller at people aged sixteen to twenty-five as they are the people who are most likely to watch it, it will be a action/adventure thriller as that is the favorite genre chosen by the age group and I will make sure that the thriller has a good plot line and has a good soundtrack as that was what was enjoyed most in the thrillers I asked about by the target audience.

Internet Target Audience research:

For my internet research on my target audience I found a website containing some graphs with appropriate figures on the the population of the country compared to how many watched thrillers.

This graphs shows that combined the under twenty-five year olds hold nineteen percent of the overall population and they consume the most thrillers at thirty-nine percent of all the thrillers. This backs up my own research when I did my own questionnaire and also found that the nearly all the under twenty-five year olds I interviewed watched at least one-three films a month. This also backs up my reason for choosing this group as my target audience.

This is a pie chart that shows the ratio of men to women who watch thrillers. From this I can see that from the total audience of those who watch thrillers in the general population fifty-seven percent are women. This tells me that my target audience should be swayed to a female target audience. However, looking at these figures I have decided to keep it a general target audience as the percentages are almost equal.

This information was taken from:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22176569/Target-Audience-and-Genre-Research

Conventions Continued

• In all the opening scenes that I have seen they all had an enigma. An enigma is when there is a mystery in the opening titles, which keeps the audience guessing. This is there to initiate the story line.
• Most of the opening scenes are also made up of close ups of people, objects or places to do with the plot line. They use close ups so that you can't see the whole object creating the enigma.
• This brings me to my last convention. In nearly all the opening scenes we are either introduced to the main character or location of the film. This is to set the scene for the beginning of the film.

Conventions of a Thriller

Conventions of a Thriller
When I analysed the openings of the four thrillers I found that there were certain conventions that all of them had and that I will attempt to put in my own thriller opening.

• The first thing I found was that the sound on the opening titles of the thrillers mainly consisted of non diegetic sounds. It was used to build tension and sometimes to hint indirectly hint at the plot.
• Due to the fact that they are the opening titles they have titles over the top of the visuals to advertise who has made the film and who is in it to advertise them to the audience as if the actors are stars or if the director is extremely famous some people might just want to watch it for that reason.

Thriller Research Continued

This is the analysis of the opening scene to Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Unfortunately I couldn't embed the video on my blog as the embedding code had been disabled on the video. However, I will still analyse it with the use of screen shots instead.

Sound

• The theme tune consists of a fast paced sound made by string instruments. This builds tension and thus following the genre of thriller.
• The theme tune is composed mainly of minor chords giving it a sinister tone and thus allowing the audience to know that the film is of a thriller genre.
• This piece of music becomes the theme tune throughout and builds tension because the audience know that when this piece of music is played they know something bad is going to happen.
• The music ends on a long high note signaling the beginning of the film.

Camerawork

• There is no camerawork in the opening credits as in the time that this film was made they did not have the technology to merge footage with visual and sound effects. This then means that the audience's attention is focussed on the people in the film and who made the film. They also focus the audience's attention on the music, giving them a taste of the genre.

Editing

• Again due to the lack of technology everything is in black and white. However, this works to their advantage as it makes everything seem more sinister thus helping to tell the genre of the film.
• A reverse block is used to show the opening credits to really attract the audiences attention to who's in the film and who made it because these facts alone could make the audience want to watch the film. [1]
• Alfred Hitchcock has used special effects in the transition of the credits as they change from one thing to another. This is to make the opening credits seem more interesting to the viewer so that the attraction is not lost. [2]

[1]

[2]

In conclusion I have found that Alfred Hitchcock directed this film in a time that had a lot less technology then we have now. This meant that he had to let the music do the hinting of the plot and genre rather than the visual aspects. I also found that in terms of the visual aspects he had to focus all his attention of making the stars and himself stand out to make the film more attracting to the audience.

Thriller Research Continued

Sound

• The opening scene starts with the sound of thunder. This is an example of pathetic fallacy where human feelings are attributed to the weather. In this film the thunder creates a feeling of tension.


• It then starts with the soundtrack as the opening credits are played. It consists of heavy base, fast strings and the sounds of brass instruments in the background. All these instruments put together using mainly minor chords. This gives the feelings of fear and tension which then tells the audience straight away the genre of the film which is thriller.


• The soundtrack builds to a crescendo as the main title of the film is shown. This is to express the importance of the film title to the audience.


• After this in the soundtrack there is a constant ticking sound. Along with the fast paced music it gives an impression of a time limit that is quickly running out. This could be a taste of the plot within the film.


• Throughout the opening credits of this film there is echos of sirens and traffic sounds. This gives the audience a hint of the setting and plot. The sirens also hint at a crime and therefore giving the genre of a crime, thriller.

Editing

• The clip fades in at the start. This is to signal the beginning of the film.


• The straight cut is used throughout the clip this is to give a quick and snappy representation of all the main people involved with making the film e.g. the star actors. This is to attract people in with the big names in as little time as possible.

Camerawork

• Most of the camerawork consists of long shots to show the setting of the city and also to show the credit in front which they have placed there in the editing stage of production. These are used to give establishing shots to give the audience an idea of where it is set and who will be in it and who made it.


• Also a lot of the camerawork consists of panning and zooms to give more of the setting then the long shot could. It also makes the credits more interesting to watch.

In conclusion, I have found that this director has used mainly sound to give hints to the audience of the plot line and the genre. It is also used to build tension and so sticking to the genre. The camerawork and editing is used to give a representation of the credits and the setting of the film.

Sound

• The soundtrack in this film has an electric sound with heavy base in it. The electric style gives screeches within the music which then gives a very sinister feel to it. The heavy base has been added to create tension. This sticks to the genre, that due to these techniques the audience knows that the film is a thriller.


• The music heightens when you see a shot of a picture of a boy being crossed out in a book. This adds to the shock effect to the revealing of what looks to be a murder plan.

Camerawork

• The camera work mainly consists of close ups of someone's hands doing thing. This is to hint at and show the importance of these things in the story line.


• At a several points in the opening credits you see close ups of a book that appears to have things in it about people and selections of there books in there. The close up is to highlight the importance of the book in the plot-line.

Editing

• The editing mainly consists of straight cuts to the credits and time lapses between the making of what seems to be a book about planning murder.


• The time lapses show the making of the book and thus hints towards the plot-line.


• The straight cuts to the black screens with the credits on singles out the production companies, the director and the star actors and actresses in the film to attract the audiences attention.


• Within the straight cuts to the black screen the title of the film flickers in the background. This gives an old fashioned reel affect which then gives a ghost like sinister effect to the title which then gives the film an overall thriller genre.

In conclusion I have found that for this film the director has focussed on hinting the plot line of the film and the genre of the film. He has also concentrated on highlighting the actors who were in it, himself as the director and the production companies who have produced it to attract the audience.

Thriller Research

Thriller:

A genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal- to provide and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the edge of their seats as the plot builds towards a climax.

Today most thrillers are now hybrids with other genres unlike the classics. There are several genres that have been mixed with the thriller genre. For example action/adventure, sci-fi, crime-caper, western, film noir and romantic-comedy.

Action/Adventure-An action-adventure is a genre that is driven mostly by the action in the film, such as a high-speed chase.

Sci-Fi- A science fiction is a genre that uses speculative, science based descriptions of phenomena that aren't necessarily accepted by mainstream science.

Crime-Caper- A crime caper is a genre that is driven by crime and comedic aspects.

Western- A western is a genre that is driven by the later half of the 19th century in the American Old West.

Film Noir- Film noir is a genre that is driven by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, menace and cynical characters.

Romantic-Comedy- Romantic-comedy is a genre driven by a light hearted, humorous mood centered on romantic ideals.

I am going to analyse the opening scenes from Vertigo (1958) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Panic Room (2002) Directed by David Fincher, Se7en (1995) directed by David Fincher and Psycho (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Sound

• The soundtrack of the opening mainly consists of minor chords. This is to give a sinister tone to the opening credits and allows the audience to connect to the theme as a thriller.
• The soundtrack is written in a 6/8 time which gives a fast waltzing sound to it. Due to the waltzing sound it gives an impression of dizziness which is one of the symptoms of vertigo and so linking it to the title of the film.
• The soundtrack builds to a crescendo when the Director's name and the name of the film appears to signify the importance of the names.
• Towards the end of the opening credits the soundtrack changes to the sound of fast strings to build tension as the story begins.

Editing and Camerawork

• At the beginning of the opening credits there is a close up of a girl's eyes. In her eyes she is showing fear. This gives the impression of the genre and it makes the audience feel scared.
• Towards the end of the opening credits there is another close up shot of the girl's eye. This time it has the main symbol of the film. This gives an idea of importance towards the logo and gives the audience a taste of what's to come and makes them want to continue watching it.
• The editing mostly consists of dissolves from one image to another. The images are spinning around. This could suggest dizziness and so once again linking to the title of vertigo.

In conclusion I have found from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, that using the techniques that I have highlighted he tends to give the audience a taste of the genre and also a taste of what's to come in the film. I have also found that he subtly links the opening credits to the title of the film so that he doesn't give too much away as the audience already know the name of the film.

Prelim task - final edit

Editing Continued

This is our fourth lesson on our preliminary task. Today our group continued to edit our clip. So far we have added some music and a slow heart beat as sound effects throughout the clip to create the thriller type mood. As for the footage we have got all the clips we want and in the correct place but we have yet to edit and cut some of it so that we can get the length of the clip down to a minimal size. The footage that we were going to convert did not get converted in the end as we decided it was needed for our clip as it would just lengthen the clip and the quality of the footage was not adequate. We plan to finish the clip in our own time.

Editing

Today we have started our editing process on our thriller. Unfortunately we have not been able to get a lot of the editing process done. When we filmed we filmed our footage on to different cameras. We have managed to import one camera's footage but the other footage needs converting. This means we will have to wait to complete the editing for when the footage has been converted.
So far we have chosen specific footage we want to use edited that and then added a heart beat sound effect to add to the overall mood of the film. We will finish the editing as a group in our own time.

Filming

This is our third lesson. Today we filmed our thriller. When we started out we already found a problem and that was that during the week we had asked the P.E. department in our school if we could borrow their storage cupboard for our thriller as it had the right visual aspects for the setting of our thriller. We needed a fairly dark room that at least looked cold. However, the P.E department did not allow us to film in their storage cupboard. Fortunately, we found another storage cupboard within the school that was just right for the setting of our thriller. There were a few minor changes made to the dialogue by Dougie who played our antagonist. It was originally planned that dougie would say "Tell me or I'll kill you!". However it was changed to "Say it!" as he hands James a piece of paper and points a video camera to his face. There is then no replie and Dougie shouts his line again, whilst shoving James. Jame's line was also changed from just screams to "I'm a hostage!". I think that these changes to the dialogue will improve the whole outcome of the video as I believe that this dialogue is better than the original.
The filming mostly went smoothly. There are a couple of outtakes but they will be edited out in the edditing stage which will happen in our next lesson.

Starting the Preliminary Task

This is our second lesson on the preliminary task. Last week as a group we created a basic idea that we were going to do a 30 second thriller. For homework we developed those ideas and today, we have used those ideas to create our main idea which we have story boarded. We have also created the dialogue for the characters in our scene.
Unfortunately there are only 2 of us present to story board our idea due to exams. This means that the ideas we have come up with might be changed if the other two people who are missing do not like the idea.

Our idea is to have a hostage situation. There are only two people in the scene, the victim and the antagonist. It will be mainly shot in a dark store cupboard. To set the mood mostly high angled shots will be used to make it seem like the footage was taken from a security camera. It will also be mainly filmed in black and white to give authenticity to the security camera feel.