AS Thriller Evaluation(Thursday 26th March)

AS Media Evaluation Final Draft

We were told to produce an opening sequence of a thriller for our AS coursework, therefore we were put into small groups of four. My response to the brief was to start with the ending then go back to the beginning in order to get the audiences attention about what has happened.Thrillers are supposed to get the audiences on the edge of their seat as the plot builds towards the most intense moments of the thriller. It will give the opportunity to go through an experience and get out the other end alive.Later we decided that our narrative should be anxious and suspenseful. For us to do make it like the way we wanted the group and I have to do the following:
-Storyboarding
-Research on the thriller and the target audience
-Blogging
-Production schedule (organising props and people, time management)










We have watched many opening sequences before we started the project, for example the last years students, pack of thriller openings and the documentary. When I was watching the last year’s groups, some I did not like but some of them were making me watch the rest of it because it created it suspense on me. The documentary we watched was interesting because it teaches us about how to create suspense and how it was to film thriller in the olden days. When I was watching ‘Collateral’ I liked the way they exchanged the suitcases and the shots like POV, mid-shots, long-shot and close-ups made it more interesting. I was planning to use that technique in our thriller but we did not use it because it was a typical storyline but it depends on how well you use the techniques. The technique we used was used by ‘Slum dog Millionaire’ as well which was released recently. I can say that we got that technique from that film because the film has being nominated to win the Oscar, BAFTA and this shows that it was a successful film. It started from the end and went to the beginning throughout the film.







After watching the samples of thriller openings like 28 Days later, The Shining and Collateral we were told to make a pitch to the producers (teachers) in order to see if they will accept our film to be made. The pitch has involved the brief explanation of our narrative, the key images and the props such as candles and the mask. We then talked about our mise-en-scene, camerawork, use of lighting and the sound. Our project is accepted by the producers and is ready to get the shooting start.






The media institution that might distribute our media product would probably be a small independent UK release, because I think this is the audience that it would appeal to, all ages. The reason for this is that thrillers are more attractive in the cinema because the darkness and silence dramatises what you are going to see on the screen. We had the chance to watch the film in the VUE, and the audience who watched it were the sort of audience that the film is targeted at. The audience were pleased and as a reward, we had applause

from them. I think this thriller will work best in

websites like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, because it has all ages and any people who would like to watch it could watch it free. I think it can be successful as an independent release in UK, because there is no competition on thriller films because there are not shown often. I think the thriller can be advertised through trailers in YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. Advertised through these websites has being successful and it is known that as a marketing techniques most informing is the most inviting.

I have learnt a lot about all sorts of technologies from constructing our thriller. My knowledge on the filming has increased it also helped me analyse films in different perspectives. When I meant the word 'different perspectives’, I mean that learnt all sorts of shots like establishing to POV and close-ups. I have learnt a lot on using the Final Cut Pro and it made the work became much easier about all the things that were difficult in the editing process. After Final Cut Pro the next step was to use Soundtrack Pro and it was a quite tough this one was. Soundtrack Pro took most of our time in editing because it was hard to find the correct music for the scene. After adding the music, it really worked well by dramatising some parts of the scenes and creates suspense on the other scenes. All the work we have produced was really enjoying and it really teached us a lot. We were also told to be blogging in order to keep up to date in our work; I have learnt that organisation was the key to the success. Our film was released first in Vimeo website and audiences had an easy access to watch the thriller. After the film was released, there were couple of feedbacks from the people that have watched our film.







To conclude, I think I have progressed a lot from Preliminary task to the Final product we produced. The 'match-cut' exercise was like a draft to our thriller and it really teached us about what to do and not to do in the thriller. I know that the quality of our shots was terrible in the preliminary task but then I have learnt about how to improve on them. We have made the storyboarding in our thriller detailed and drew pictures to annotate them. Before going to the filming, we have organised all the planning and maked sure that we have nothing wrong going so we would not stay baffled in the location we went to. The blogging really helped and all the steps in the Thriller production was fabulous. I think the planning we made before was the key to make it seem easier to produce the thriller. I liked each member of the group and will really like to work with the same people next year in the Music Video production. I am delighted with the final product and I think it was enough to be a good thriller.



I think that seeing it in the cinema made me realise that our film either would be a “made for TV” film or distributed in a number of UK 'art house' cinemas. This is because of the low budget that we would have to make the film a success, and the amateur nature of the project would make it harder to become a big Hollywood movie.

Here is the video that is published on the vimeo;

Tied from 283goswell on Vimeo.

The time at VUE(Thursday 12th March)

Today was the day for us to watch what type of thriller we have produced. The thrillers started in an ascending order which tells us that our film were going to be shown near the end because we were the 37th group out of 45 groups. We have watched all the thrillers for AS and I was satisfied with each of them because all of them had different ideas and different techniques. Our thriller was done well and had a big applause after the tittle sequence. I think it was a good organisation which the media department has done by making us watch what we have done in a cinema, i think it is a good credit for our effort.
I am looking forward for the next practical work which is next year, the music video.

The DEADline(Friday 27TH February)

As we finished most of the parts in our thriller, there was only one major part left and that was to add the right music. I was told by other people that the music takes a lot of time, so I and the group has met at lunchtime and started then. We have put together our soundtracks that we were planning to use and added to the thriller which had effects like heavy breathing, heartbeat etc.

We were looking for the right scream in the programme but we weren't happy with them, so as girls planned they went to the girls toilet and recorded Karess when she was screaming. We have added that sound in our film and it worked out really well.

We were finally finished, saved our soudntracks and added them to the thriller, watched the whole 2 minutes. I was satisfied with the work that was done and happy that it was finished just before the deadline. I think that our group had put a lot of effort in this work we all really worked hard in this project. I am looking forward to watch our thriller in the VUE on Thursday the 12th.

Filming the Thriller part 6(Tuesday 24th February)

In today's lesson we had to carry on with the editing. We had done a lot of editing in the workshop which was held on the first day of the half-term. We used loads of techniques such as fade in/out, slow motion and flashbacks in order to make the thriller more interesting. I, personally think that our editing is finished but still need to find a suitable music to go with the thriller. We had improved on the tittle sequence in todays lesson and finded some interesting fonts and shapes. The deadline is getting more closer and I is getting more anxious as the deadline is just in 3 days time. I need to go to workshop tomorrow in order to save more time for Fridays lesson. We as a group are planning to do the music in Friday's lesson and need to take one more shoot for to improve one of the scene.

Filming the Thriller part 5(Tuesday 10th February)

As we were planning, we had started a bit of editing in todays lesson after finishing the log and capture in the previous lesson. I am satisfied that we have finished doing the filming early because due to the weather reasons some of the groups are having difficulties to do the filming.
We had a lot of shots, and we had to do what we were planning to do and it looked like it is going to take our time and it did because we are still not finished.
Firstly we had started to put the shots which has happened in the daylights, where all the story is happened, but then we've decided that we should put what happens at the end at the beginning. The reason we've decided this is because to get audiences attention and then show what has happened before and why is she 'tied' like that. Basically we will be using the technique from 'Slumdog Millionare' movie which has being released lately.
We went to the workshop on Wednesday in order to save a bit of time for our project because deadline is due on the week we are back from half-term. In the workshop I have learnt how to use some of the effects which we will be planning to use in our thriller i.e. the slow motion, the mountain fading etc. We have used the slow motion effect on the opening shots.
I will be planning to come to the workshop in the half-term in order to don't fell behind in my work.

Filming the thriller part 4(Friday 7th February)

Due to the snow, we have missed our lesson on Tuesday, so we did not started the editing yet. In today's lesson somehow we had to start doing the editing because less amount of time has being left for the deadline.

We were planning to start our editing today but our driver wasn't working properly so we had to keep changing computers. After about a hour later it had started to work so we had to get going on now. We have watched all the shots and I can say there were a lot of shots which were unusual, I think personally. It took us a lot of time to log and capture the shots which we were planning to use for the thriller. We only had time to log and capture the shots so we are planning to sacrifice our time in the lunchtimes and do editing then. We got Tuesdays lesson to do the editing, so it looks like we do not have much time for the deadline which is due in 27th February. I personally thinkg the deadline should extent to 6th March which is one week later because we had missed our lesson on Tuesday and it looks like we are going to miss our lesson on Friday lesson next week so this equals to a lack of media lesson for a week.

Filming the Thriller part 3(Tuesday 3 February)

In todays lesson we were planning to start the editing for the shots we have took from last week but due to the lack of transport link and weatheral reasons college was cancelled today. I am looking forward to Friday for me and the group to do the editing because deadline is coming soon.

Filming the Thriller part 2(Friday 30th January)

We have carried on doing the shooting for the thriller in todays lesson. Previously on Tuesday we have filmed the part which we were planning to be on daylight. In todays lesson we filmed inside the classroom and add affects from the dark curtains in order to make it more darker and gloomy. Firstly it wasn't working well because we were getting distracted by the lamp at the ceiling and that was adding a light into the scence. For to resolve this problem we called the technician guy and it was sorted. We've used props such as candles in order to have an effect of light in the dark lighting and mask for the hid the face of the murderer. Basically we have filmed Lauren getting tied with her hands and repetitively having flashbacks. As she wakes up she sees then course she gets scared and I start killing her through using the shadow skill in order to make it better for the audience. We have used match-cut and the 180 technique in this shooting. I think we are all over and only got editing to do for Tuesday, then to add a thriller music.

Filming the thriller part 1(Tuesday 27th January)

In today’s lesson we were told to film our thriller as we have planned on Friday. Firstly we had to do our storyboard so after finishing the storyboard we went to the location where we were planning to do the shooting. We went to the local park which had a canal and couple of trees. We have done a small piece in the filming because we’ve finished our storyboarding about 20 minutes till the lesson finish, so we sacrificed our time in order to try to get as many shots we can in that day so it won’t be a waste. We have only took the shots which we were planning to do in the morning. There were shots like Lauren and Karess saying bye to each other and going in different directions, which shows establishing shot of the location. Later on we take shots of Lauren walking in the park then myself following her. Finally we done the shot when I was grabbing her and make her faint and used the match-cut technique. I think we have to improve in some of the shots but overall I am satisfied with the effort that has being done today.

The Pitch(23rd January 2009)

In todays lesson our task was to pitch our ideas to Micky, Dan and Marissa. We were told in the previous to pitch our ideas to the class. As a group each of us had different roles to organise till the presentation. We had concentrated on topics such as :
-The synopsis
-The camerawork
-The lighting
-The music
-The audience
We have all gathered our ideas in the sugar paper then wrote the things we are going to say in a different paper. My role was to concentrate more in the music and the lighting. We were brave enough to be the first group to the presentation and I think the judges were quite pleased with us. The only thing that Dan has pointed at is the lighting because we were thinking about the majorly shooting will be in a dark lighting.
Our thriller is named 'TIED'. The character who will be taking role is myself and Lauren. I will be the killer and Lauren will be the victim. Lauren will be tied in a tree and they will be flashbacks going forward and backward. They will be props such as candles, mask and rope to be used in the scene in order to add more effectiveness and make it more dramatic.

Preliminary Film(Tuesday 20th January)

In todays task we were told to carry on editing our work from last lesson. In our second filming we had a different task to do and I think it went well. The second practise film, I personally think was much better than the first practise because the lighting wise first practise film was a bit dark and didn't let us see the scene properly whereas in the second practice it went well. I think the location for the second practise was better than the first one because we had a great variety of space and more quite. I think Camera-shots has being done good and gave us the right understanding of what is going on by using the techniques such as 180 reverse shot, match cut and the close-ups has being done in order to show the characters feelings.

preliminary Match Cut Task

Making a short film(Friday 16th December)

In today’s lesson, our task was film a short scene where a person walks into a room and shares conversation with another person. We had to include elements like Match Cuts, Shot/Reverse Shot and keeping the 180 degree rule. Lauren was the one who walked inside the room and start talking to me whereas Karess was the one using the camera.

We have had planned our work last week so we had plenty of time to the shooting and then editing. It took us about 20 minutes to finish the shooting because we were well organised. After shooting a small scene, we had to edit what we have done in order to make the scene make sense. The shooting went well because we were filming in the storeroom, which was a quite place to film. After the filming, it was time to the editing. Editing at the beginning took a bit time because of the lack of organisation. We have started the editing but we could not finish because we had less time and editing took more time then I was expecting.

I have learnt a lot filming with a group because we all got different ideas and we bring all into one then it creates a good idea. I am pleased with my group except the absence that occurs a lot for the members in my group. I’m a bit nervous about the thriller though.

Storyboard Tutorial(Tuesday 12th January)

In today's lesson our task was to create a shot list for the storyboard which we had and the Match Cut Exercise.

We had a story of a guy who chain smokes while copying the confidential files to the computer and plans to a CD. He packages them and is seen posting them. To show this story board we have listed the shot types, angles etc to show it in the storyboard. After doing the task we get to watch the short film they done and we saw our mistakes which we wouldn't of done. After watching the short film we've learnt about a shot called match cut. As we were showned in the short film we had to produce a match cut with story we had being given.

To conclude this, we've done a shot list exercise then learnt the match cut shot. After doing the task we had being given an another task to show if we really can use match cut with the story that was given.

Watching Thrillers(Friday 9th January)

In today's lesson our task was to gain ideas from the previous A level students who made thrillers last year. We have watched about 6 of their videos and analysed on the mise-en-scene.

The elements that will make a good thriller is to seduce the audience into long term commitment. The reason for this is because if we knew much information about the film, we wouldn't bother to watch. The other element which will make a good thriller is the camera shots being used correctly, i.e. can be an establishing shot at the beginning to inform the location.

The videos I have watched from the previous A level students has being done well, especially the soundtracks which has being used good in the scenes. In one of the videos I've watched the flashback which they showed was well done because the camera shots has helped a lot.

Sound Editing(Tuesday 6th January)

Our task in today's lesson was to watch a scene from 'The Casino Royale 007' and to analyse the soundtracks. We have watched the scene then later on enter the section 'Sound Landscape' which gave us more information about how their manage the soundtracks in the film.
After learning about how to manage the soundtracks in the movie, everyone had an opportunity choose one scene out of the four. I have chosed the casino scene and I didn't have any diffuculties about managing the soundtrack.
After doing the editing on the sound for a film after we get to edit on our short scene with the limited soundtracks.

Explaining the clip(Tuesday 16 December)

We were given the task to watch the clips and analyse them. We have watched the opening clips from the different type of thrillers.

As my view the most successful clip was the thriller named 'Collateral'. The most successful editing was when the briefcases got changed. The exchange of briefcases was when the suspense was created because it gave us an question about what is inside the briefcase? Why did they exhange it?.

To conclude this clip, it was fabulous and it gave me an excellent idea on how to do create suspense towards the audience. I will take this account and may use it in my thriller shooting.

Ufuk Dag/colletral

Carrying on the Editing(Friday 12th December)

In todays task we were told to carry on the editing which was incomplete from the previous lesson. Dan wasn't in today so Tony took over instead of him. After the advices from Tony about the course we started carrying on the editing.

We putted all our shots in order then checked it if it was okay. We had couple of mistake like when we put the shots together it seems like its just fading to an another shot. So we cutted the little piece of it then we tried to put in the correct order in order to make a successful short film.

After doing all the editing, when we thought it was finished then we founded error on one of the shots. The shot was very long and seem to be boring so we shortened the shot and made it more interesting. After doing all the editing and we thought it was all done, there was one last thing left and that was to find the correct music for this short film. After looking for the right music then we founded a music which really suited to scene and we replaced the music in the scene.

Overall today was really challenging because it was really hard to find a suitable music for the scene but at the end I handled it. The new thing I learnt today was how to put music inside the scene. After watching the scene again with the music on this time, we have uploaded it to the blog.

The Editing(Tuesday 8th December)

After making a thriller with the poker cards in Dan's lesson, our task was to edit on the shots we took in the previous lesson. Before doing editing for our shots, we firstly learned how to do editing with Mickey then done a little task to see if we were doing okay. The task we dones was a short film and all the shots were mixed up so we neede to put them in the right place and put the right music.

We started doing editing on our shots, we had couple of diffuculties at the beginning on how to do the editing. All the shots were mixed up and we needed to put them together so the short film will make sense. When we started doing the editing we couldn't do it probably, then we got a hand from Micky.

Shaneen and Lauren was in for this lesson, so we started working together with them because them two were the ones in our group.

In this lesson I have learnt about the editing. The group and I couldn't complete the task for today because we still had time and we are going to carry on the Dan's lesson.