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

Below, you can see that I have 3 videos. One show the prelim video and the thriller with a short evaluation of what I have learnt voiced over, the other shows the prelim video, and the last one is the thriller video. 

Audio Script:

Looking back at the preliminary task, I feel I have learnt and improved a lot compared to my thriller opening. In particular, I learnt a lot about the range of camera shots available, and a lot about the camera itself. During the shooting of the preliminary, I felt like I didn’t have a clue what I was doing in terms of camera work, which I didn’t. Although, when it came to filming the thriller, I definitely felt more comfortable, more involved, and more controlled. I have definitely made a lot of progress within my given group role, which was to make the soundtracks. Going from just using default clips from garage band to actually recording my own soundtrack was a huge step to take! I feel like I achieved it and I made it work well within our piece. Using different programs other than garage band was a little but uncomfortable at first, but I slowly managed to get used to the change. I used the programs logic pro and audacity which were both new to me, meaning I was very shaky about using them at first. I also learnt a lot about the editing process, in the way that our thriller needed a lot more general editing and transition work in order for it to reach its full potential. Whereas, in the preliminary, most of the footage pretty much spoke for itself. As far as planning goes, the Thriller needed a lot more; however this is where our preliminary helped us. We created storyboards, shot lists, mood boards and factual research to help us, whereas we only did what, less that half of this for our prelim. It helped us because we knew we needed to do more planning for it to be as good as it can. We also faced a lot more problems when it came to filing the thriller. This included aspects such as the weather, the batter life of the camera, organisation issues and so on. The weather wasn’t a factor with the prelim task as we shot it all inside. The battery life was a problem with the thriller as we were out for longer and again, we shot the prelim inside so we could charge the battery easier. Organisation was a problem because we had outside actors, incidentally meaning getting them in at the right times was an issue. All in all though, I feel I have learnt a great deal within the adaptation from prelim, to the final thing, and that it takes a lot more hard work, planning and effort In order for it to be what we want it to be. 

Changes made during Planning of the thriller and prelim

Some of the changes we made during planning the prelim task are changing

many of the different camera positions so we didn’t break the 180 degree rule.

We quickly learnt about this rule and adjusted our shots to suit it. Also, we

added in more of a variety of shots in order to achieve maximum marks for it.

This means we included more of a range of shots such as close-ups,

establishing shots, and extreme close-ups for the major details. We made a

few changes to our storyboard also, mainly because we needed it to replicate

our final piece, changing the diagrams and text within it. Another key change

we made was deciding which music to have. We needed it to juxtapose with

the footage that we shot, regarding the pace of it.

Some of the changes we made during planning the thriller include changing

our plot altogether so that it wasn’t too cliché. What we did was we changed it

from a chase scene, to a gender reversed kidnapping/killing. We also, changed

our storyboards a fair bit, as making a storyboard is probably the most time

consuming part of planning. I personally also made a lot of changes to the

soundtracks, whether I was changing the key, the speed, looping etc. I also

changed my ideas a lot when I was writing the soundtrack for the credits, as I

wanted to get it perfect regarding fitting with the scene.

These two shots both show the title of the clip. As you can see, we used integrated titles for the preliminary task, and we filmed the titles more professionally in our thriller. Filming titles instead of using integrated ones shows more skill and shows a sense of professionalism. It also has a better effect on the audience as they would feel more into the film, and because it is a thriller, they would feel more tense and in suspense seeing it like this. However, the prelim tasks titles aren’t bad, mainly because it stands out with the white writing on the black background. Also, you can’t see it here because it is a still image, but the titles have animation on them. ‘The deal’ writing moves in opposite direction to the sub-titles giving it a swift, edgy effect.

These two shots are somewhat similar in thee fact that they are both close ups of the hands showing what they are doing in detail. The top one from the prelim video shows a hand on the door with no special effects added, however the bottom one from the thriller shows an adaptation from the prelim as we added a grainer effect in order to make it look more thriller-like. We gained inspiration to do this shot from filming our prelim, as we thought it worked very well due to adding specific detail that the audience picks out. 

Overall, here is what I learnt in the progression from the prelim task to the final product:

Still Image of Thriller

This here above is a clip from the film 'The bourne supremacy'. It shows a mid-shot of Jason Bourne with a pistol in his hand. I have split the image using the rule of thirds and clearly annotated it.

Questionaire Results

I went around school and gave 20 students a questionnaire to fill out and return to me. The following pie charts below are the results from it. I randomly asked any age group and gender to fill it out so it is completely legit.

Are you male or female?

 

In this question, I asked the people if they are male of female. The results I got back were 11 male, and 9 female

  

 How old are you?

These are the results I got back from asking the students the question 'how old are you'. I got 5 people aged 11-13, 13 people aged 14-17, and 2 people aged 18+. 

What genre of film do you prefer? 

I asked the question 'What genre of film do you prefer'. The results I got back were 5 for thriller, 7 for comedy, 2 for romance, 4 for action, 1 for sci-fi and other, and none at all for detective.



 Do you like the thriller genre?

 I simply asked people the question 'do you like thrillers'. Surprisingly, 17 people said yes, and 3 said no.

Where abouts do you watch Thrillers?

For this one , I asked 'Where Abouts do you watch?' 11 people said cinema, home and computer got 4, and 1 person said other.

 What type of music do you typically prefer within a thriller?

 for the question 'What type of music do you typically prefer within a thriller' 7 people like it slow and eerie, and 13 said dramatic and tense.

Questionaire for Thriller Opening

Questionnaire for Thriller Opening

Please tick one

Are you male or female?

-         Male П

-         Female П

How old are you?

-         11-13 П

-         14-17 П

-         18 or over П

What genre of film do you prefer?

-         Thriller П

-         Comedy П

-         Romance П

-         Action П

-         Sci-fi П

-         Detective П

-         Other П

Do you like the thriller genre?

-         Yes П

-         No П

Where about do you watch thrillers?

-         Cinema П

-         Home П

-         Computer П

-         Other П

What type of music do you typically prefer within a thriller?

-         Slow and eerie П

-         Dramatic and tense П

Age Ratings

The following information has been taken from the official BBFC website 

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

If a work is particularly suitable for a pre-school child to view alone, this will be indicated in the Consumer Advice. It is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child. But a ‘U’ film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. ‘U’ films should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.

Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children. General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children.The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12. An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. In such circumstances, responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to view lies with the accompanying adult. Exactly the same criteria are used to classify works at ‘12A’ and ‘12’. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. Works classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them. The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work.

No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video work.

.

The ‘R18’ category is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. Films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas, and video works may be supplied to adults only in licensed sex shops. ‘R18’ videos may not be supplied by mail order.

What the Audience Would Expect From A Thriller

Planning for the Shoot Day

With our location being outdoors it could deem a problem regarding the weather. The image above shows what the weather will be like for the day of our shoot on Monday 26th November. This shows us that we should be aware of the chill and the wind. However, it shows us clear weather in the morning with a bit of fog later. This will mean we will have no problems regarding percipitation. 

26^th November 2011

Time.                    Agenda.

9.00am                 Meet at the Horseshoe pub in Thurlby.

9.05am                 Walk to the shoot location.

9.20am                 Arrive at the set shooting location and set up equipment.

9.30am                 Start shooting footage (making sure we have at least 3 takes of each shot).

11.00am               Have a break to get some lunch look through footage at this point to see if we need to re-  shoot any shots

11.30am               Complete the second half of our shooting, re-shooting if necessary.

12.15pm               Pack all equipment away, check we have filmed all the shots we needed and check against     the mark scheme.

27^th November 2011

Upload footage onto the macs and begging putting it all in place in imovie.

Production Logo

1

2

3

4

These logo's represent our final production name 'Inner City Studios'. We went for this one because we thought it was the most effective and catchy. We, as a group, thought of these desings for a logo for our production name and we were going to include this into our final thriller peice. In the end we formally decided to go for logo number 1

This is a still image that would possibly be faded in at the start of our thriller peice with some fitting music

Vox Pops

This is a vox pop we created in order to get peoples feedback on what they though about the thriller genre. We had a mixed array of responses and questions asked. Here is a list of the  questions we asked some year 10 students at our school:

1. What do you expect from a thriller?

2. What defines a thriller?

3. What are the characters like?

4. What sort of sound do you expect from a thriller

5. Can you name any good examples of thrillers?

6. What are the main conventions of a thriller?

7. what sort of scenes would you expect? Light ect..

8. What makes you like the thriller genre?

9. What sort of props, weapons ect would you expects

Thriller Storyboard

This is a group storyboard that we produced. It where actions/camera shots are going be situated and what is going to be done within the sequence. As you can see, it shows the camera shot used in red pen and in black what we are doing in it and why we used a certain shot type. On the day of the shoot, we are going to base our whole peice solely around this storyboard, however make certain changes if necessary or is something on ith doesn't quite work.

The Location

These images above are all screenshots of our location, which will be along the Thurlby fen. These barns are abondoned and have been broken up a bit which is why we I thought this would be a perfert location for a thriller opening. We will also be using the farm next to it (providing it is alright with the owners) to shoot as it would add an extra sense of urbanism and eeriness. The trees next to the barn have no leaves on which is perfect for adding scariness and tension to the thriller. A health and safety issue with setting it in a abandoned barn is that we don't want it collapsing in us and causing injury, but apart from that it is completly legibly.

This also would make for a perfect scenery if we were able to move the harvesting device from it. This is another shot taken from a barn about a mile away from the previous one, so this would not be a problem switching from the two. In this barn, we would film most of the actual acting including brief dialogue and flashbacks. In order to make this look more thriller like we would, as I said earlier, remove the harvesting device and add a grainy, maybe black and white camera effect.

Thriller Proposals

What we propose to do for our thriller is highly influenced by pitch idea number 3. This would be set in a barn along the Thurlby fen that has been abandoned, so this would instantly give it a creepy, eerie effect. The plot of it is an unfamiliar female killer who kills her male victims for whatever reason. She takes them to this barn and eventually kills them. This is effective and would surprise the audience as it is a take on the cliché' that killers are male and the victims are female. We changed it round to make it more original and unique to our piece. Obviously, we propose to use a variety of shot types in order to enhance the scene and mise-en-scene etc.

The typical mise-en-scene for this idea would include props such as shovels, rope, rags for gagging and so on. Very similarly, the clothing we plan on using would include standard ripped and bloody shirts, hat to hide the killers face. Being as it will be set in a barn, you should expect to see a lot of bricks, grass and general woodland.
For the sound, typical eerie, minor sounds should be expected. String instruments deem to be highly popular within the thriller genre so we would want to interpret this into our piece also. However, we need to be careful with copyright issues and not steal anyone else’s soundtrack. We will want to include fast paced transitions in order to juxtapose with the pace of the scene, and inserting it where appropriate. Grainy, black and white effects would be expected within the thriller as well as it gives it an additional bland effect, also in relation o the scene.

Pitch Ideas

Pitch Idea 1

An idea we had for our thriller movie opening was to head to a busy shopping centre and film people going about their daily routuine for roughly 10 minutes or so. We thought this might work until we realised that it might not be allowed by the shopping centre. We were going to interpret this into our thriller by using this to show a sense of non linear and time travel (not like back to the future). The music would need to be fitting to the pace and serenity of the scene, so we want it slow paced and very minor sounding. As I said, the problem with doing this pitch idea is it might get really busy around our location and also security reasons. 

Pitch Idea 2
Our second pitch idea was probably our strongest and most convincing one, and the one we are most likely going to use. For this idea, we thought we'd take the cliche' of having a man as the killer and woman as the victim, and reverse it so we have a woman killer and a male victim. This would work very effectivly in the way that it would fool the audience and make our thriller unique. The music that we could use could also be non-digeting wind and just creepy/eerie music in general. The location we decided for this would be like an old abandoned barn or warehouse. This would add a key thriller aspect into it and make it even creepier. The mise-en-scene, again, would include bloody/ripped shirts, knifes, rope for hanging, broken glass etc.

Pitch Idea 3
Our final pitch idea was a rather cliche' one at that. It was to be filmed in a woody area like in a wood and we were going to do a chase scene. We had a lot of shot ideas for this which was very good, although as stated earlier it is quite a cliche' plot so wouldn't be as effective. The music would want to be fast paced during the chase, maybe with heavy drums, and non digetic sounds of maybe wolve howls and wind. We were also thinking about filming most of it from the killers perspective to make the audience feel more involved, although this could lessen the quality and standard of it. The mise-en-scene would typically include props such as knifes, torn shirts, fake blood etc.

This is a presentation we showed the rest of our media class. We recieved an amount of constructive critism about our ideas and how we can improve them. We certainly took these into acount. Also, we did this presentation after an advancment in planning with pitch idea number 2, which is the one we are definitly going to persue.