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.

Evaluation

It was highly important to me that the Thirller that we created had a realistic story line in order to scare the viewerintensely and i was aware from previous reasearch that this was a major aspect of thrillers that keep the audience on their toes. I was sure that in order for our opening to be successful it had to be unique and different from the usual narrative but as thoughts and ideas started to be explored there was a narrative that came to catch my attention even though it was similar to previous students work.

During the stages of planning our ideas on the films that the thriller could be based on there was a specific topic surrounding news which was the abduction of Shannon Matthews and Maddie Mccann. I found these two cases very inspirational when considering the narrative of the Thriller as this was a topic that is increasing all around the world, the group and i thought that this would be a great stimulus for our thriller and we would base our Thriller on this as many people are aware and very concerned with the subject matter and although similar narratives surrounding this subject have been use previously we thought that we could perfect it and make it an extremely good viewing.

Having this as our stimulas made us have a clear idea of the Genre conventions that we would be included as there were two obvious characters and storyline that form from this narrative which are a villian (kidnapper), bueatiful victim, and a hero. In the case of our thriller opening we thought that we would include the two main characters which are the villian and the victim. These characters reacure in the majority of films of this Genre and this will help the audience sense the idea of what is going on and assist them with the understanding of what the narrative is

This meant that these to characters needed to be clearly identifiable and we did this by placing a scary mask on the hooded villians face which is a clear visual representation of someone that is a trouble maker allowing the audience to interpretate the opening in the correct way. It was highly important that the thriller created suspence and tension. This can be created through many different media techiniques, such as close ups, for example, somebodys face or hands. The music creates most suspence by using eerie or tension creating music, it reflects the mind of character, this is to make the spectator uncomfortable. Lighting to reflect mood and create the mise-en-scene, usually dim lighting etc. We feel that in our sequence suspence and tension is created. As a group we also decided that Flashbacks could be used to create suspense and create the effect of confusion to keep the spectator interested and wanting more.

These are all key ideas of thriller conventions and the group and i wished to carry each of them into our opening and use it to help us create a successful thriller opening.

When deciding which members of the group would star in the thriller it came apparent that we all instently agreed to a male being the villian within the thriller opening, this really interested me as it showed the fact that most of people see the evil person as a male image .

And it showed within other movies as the majority of the villians within films are men and it seems that the victim surrounding them is a female character.
We used this to our advantage and placed the only male in our group as the kidnapper thankfully he was happy to play the role.


I feel the audience of our thrller would be some what of a variety aged and gender although the spect of the capturing is not as bloody as some males may enjoy therefore i feel the target audience of out thriller would be female of a very wide age span as i feel that a variety of people will be able to watch the scenes as unlike other thrillers it is not very gruesome and repulsive to watch.

The name Tied was really inspired by the title Saw as we found this extremely catchy and shows a lot about the type of film that it is and both of the titles are homophones wich we mimicked and made it into our own

I feel the opening is very successful and i can see this being a world wide movie as i can allready visualise the rest of the film. I feel that the opening that we do have sets a clear narrative of what is going on and a sense of continuousness is felt when watching thew scenes. There is a built suspense created in the opening and i feel that the music is a key element to this and this was done by the group and i using a software on the imac computers that allowed us to create the sound at various stages and change it up in different ways at different areas.

I was also very inspired by the sound of one instrumental that i found whilst doing research for the thriller opening on youtube which was titled Enya Instrumental- Tempus Veruum

I found this Music very effective and found it full of suspense and this is what i aimed to mimk whe

n preparing our own music for our opening thriller. youtube came to be a big help when looking for research on our thriller opening as there were numerous videos of thrillers that were very interesting and inspiring.

Along with the soundtrack pro on the Imacs i feel that i have also learnt about nerw technologies and how to do certain things for example i have learnt more about logging and capturing; and being an amatuer in the media department i think that i have done extremely well, i have also learnt more about placing together shots and learning how to make them work together. using equpiment such as the camera and triopod are the most beneficial aspects of filming that as i found them useful in things outside of college classes.

Along with the music that i had found i also found the film opening of Arlington road very helpful as identified various techniques that the group and i actually used in our thriller opening, the techniques that we used included the fades between the shots and the layering of shots. as you can see below the opening is very effective in creating a confusing atmosphere of what is actually happening keeping the viewer content and making them want to know more.

Looking back at the task that i was given i do think that i have achievedcreating a successful thriller opening and although there were numerous things that i feel that could have been done better i feel over

all i have a chieved the best possible standared opening and gained a lot of skills and knowledge that i am very thankful for. and having the ability to look back on previous blogs that i have done really allows me to see just how much i have grown and the amount that i have learnt from this process

Tied from 283goswell on Vimeo.

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Evaluation

My thriller is called 'Tied' and the main storyline shows a girl leaving her friend to walk down the canal on her way home. Little does she know that she is not alone on this pathway. She is followed by an masked man and later grabbed and drugged. We see this as a flashback in our movie. This will seem as if these parts of the film are the victims memories and we see it from her perspective, hopefully making the audience sympathise with her more. What is happening in the present is shown in normal colour and the flashbacks are in black and white to show the time difference. This was possible by editing the colour of the clips that we wanted to be viewed as in the past. What is happening “now” is the victim is alone, in a dark room tied up to the ceiling by her hands, being held hostage for still an unknown reason. This gives reason for the name of our thriller “tied”. This has the connotations that she is not only tied up literally in this room, yet she is tied in the form of entrapment. She is in a situation that seems hard to escape from. After the victim’s flashbacks, we see her gaining consciousness and this is when the end of the thriller comes in. We used the lighting in the studio room to make it obvious to the audience what is happening as we can see the shadow of her being brutally murdered. By doing this, it allowed us to show the actions of the killer, without it looking unprofessional or unrealistic. This part of the thriller causes the mood to change and make it much more dramatic at this point. It is the climax and everything else that we have seen before leads up to this specific point. I think that the structure of our thriller made it look believable and cleverly done. Also, the reoccurance of the mask that the killer wears is a continuous theme throughout the whole thriller. This is an image that we wanted the audience to remember along with the rope which ties the hands.

I did alot of research before starting our project because thriller films are not my personal favourite genre of film. I wanted to get the main idea of what makes a certain film a thriller. The definition of a thriller is: Noun. a book, film, or play depicting crime, mystery, or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement and suspense. This helped me get the idea that we should convey some mystery and suspence, in a form of entertainment for the audiencce.

The conventions of thriller films that we tried to use in our media product are a storyline that is scary and the scenario that one of the characters is in a bad situation, or at risk because of someone. We did not want to move too far away from this convention because looking at other thrillers; I found that this idea never failed to get the audience engaged. My thriller film is set in two locations, a canal side, surrounded by daunting trees in a quiet, possibly deserted area. The second is a dark room, which leaves the audience guessing about its specific location. I hoped that it would look dangerous enough to make the audience think that the character would be unsafe there. Thrillers are often more in depth than what our plot gives off, so this may seem like it is challenging the typical thriller idea. As it is only a short film, I did not think that the storyline should have been too overpowering so hopefully this idea paid off.

My media product is focusing on the younger generation, teenagers at around 16-18 years old, so I think that a 15 certificate would fit it perfectly. This is because the character that is at risk is a young girl and I think that possibly anyone under this age would find thriller films abit too disturbing. This is suggesting that this particular age group of people need to be more careful in dangerous areas, and that as the “killer” is a boy, there is also a -divide between males and females too. This is suggesting young girls are more likely to be in danger. Although these connotations may not necessarily be the opinions of everyone, it is just one representation of a social group, sending the audience unpleasant ideas, allowing them to find the film thrilling.

The media institution that might distribute my media product would probably be a small independent UK release, because I think this is the audience that it would appeal to, British people of all ages. This is because thrillers are more attractive when you are watching them in the cinema because the darkness and silence dramatises what you are going to see on the screen. We got the chance to watch the film in the cinema, and the audience that were watching were the sort of audience that my film is targeted at.
This was very helpful in making the decisions about media institutions because we got first hand feedback on the film. It was perceived in a good way and the audience seemed to react to it well so I was pleased with this. I also learnt that my film definitely works best in the cinema environment and this is the decision I would make for it. I do not think that it would work well going straight to DVD or even on the internet, the cinema surroundings would definitely show off our film as we hope for it to look. I think that it would be successful as an independent UK release, because thriller films are not shown too often, so there would not be competition that is hard to handle. In addition, I think that there may be a niche in the market for this kind of film, because there are not many thrillers that are featuring younger people. So I definitely think that it would attract the right audience and be successful in the cinema.

Concerning the marketing side of it, I think that using the genre would definitely attract people to it because the target audience would already have made their minds up about what sort of films they would be interested in seeing, so thriller fans would be drawn to ours if the specific genre was made clear. I think that it would be most successful if we were to advertise in cinemas with a trailer of the film, highlighting the main points to convince the public to come see it. This would be important because I think it is necessary to advertise somewhere that you want your media product to be viewed. I would preferably want the film to be advertised on TV too and billboards too, because this ensures a wide range of people hearing about the film and remembering it if they are seeing it in different places, at home, in the cinema, on the side of buses, etc. These types of advertising have been proven successful and I know from experience that these specific marketing techniques make the film easy to remember, as I find these the most informing yet also the most inviting.

I have learnt a massive amount about technologies from the process of constructing our thriller, because I have experienced all the different sides of making a media product. My knowledge on how to do filming effectively has been widened and it has helped me to realise how to film things cleverly, so that this transfers onto the screen. By this I mean the different shots, from establishing to close ups, I have realised that the filming process, if completed properly, allows everything else to run smoothly. Moreover, using Final Cut pro has become much easier now and working out all of the things that are difficult in this editing process builds your confidence to edit effectively.Adding the soundtrack using Soundtrack Pro was harder than I expected it to be, yet all of the time and effort that we put into making the soundtrack definitely added a lot to our film, dramatising specific parts and creating suspense at others. It has definitely been a huge learning experience for me. All of the production that we did on the internet was really rewarding. Also, the blogging process noted our progress and kept everything in order, so we knew where we was up to and what we had left to complete. This proved to me, organisation is key. Being able to release the film on Vimeo means that the audience for our product has been widened and it felt good to have the final product somewhere that can be accessed easily. I also found it helpful that we could get feedback from the people that have watched our film on Vimeo, so this allowed me to learn even more once everything had been completed, so it became apparent that improvements could always be made.

Looking back at the preliminary task, I feel that I have progressed a lot since then and the final product shows this. The ‘match cut’ exercise did help us to widen our ideas but showed us what not to do as well.

We knew that the quality of shots that we filmed was very important, and after the preliminary task, I watched it and noted what was good about it and bad about it, in order to improve our next media product. When storyboarding our thriller film, we knew that it had to be very clear and detailed to make the filming process run a lot smoother. Before we went out to film, we made sure that this was completed in as much detail as possible because I do not think that it would have worked as well if we were just making it up as we went along.

Finally, each step in the production process of the film has been rewarding yet very hard work. I think that all of the planning made the production a lot easier to handle. I definitely think that our group did our film to the best of our ability and put a lot into it. I am happy with the final product and think that it has enough conventions in it to be a good thriller film.

Curtain call

Everybodya had finished there Films and it was now time to go to the cimema and watch everyones i felt that this was a great wasy to see the crowdes reaction and to see how well or bad some groups have done. Everybodys was fantastic some where really clever and was done perfectly. when our names came on the screen it was quite nerver reacking as i wanted everyone to enjoy it and did not want and bad comments said about it. thankfully teverybody was hgappy with how ours looked and the group and i were very thankfull that the work that we had done had paid off. hopefully this will be shown in the grade that we recieve.

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