Question 7

Since I have done my preliminary task, I believe that I as a media student have developed my skills and techniques. I now find it easier to be more professional with how I setup shots:

Here we see a shot from my prelim, on the left and a shot from my thriller production, on the right. Here is a clear example of being able to set up effective shots. When we filmed our prelim we quickly set up this shot and we didn’t leave anything out, so we hand no sense of mystery, we said that it was long shot and that is all we thought about. Whereas in your thriller production, in the shot on the right, when we set up this shot we thought about all of the elements for example the prop placements, the lighting, the angle of the shot, the camera rules like the rule of thirds we tried use these, how steady it was and making sure nothing in the shot would damage the theme of our film. As you can see on our prelim doesn’t look very thrilling, if I did it again I may have taken the bin out or maybe even crop out the building on the left, because it doesn’t really fit the thriller genera.

And how I edit:

When I began editing I really thought about how professional the shot looks. On the left you can see a shot from my thriller opening, it has only got one effect, which darkens the edges of the screen/shot so that it looks gloomy and follows typical thriller films. Whereas the shot on the right is from my preliminary, we wanted to make it look like CCTV but because we used so many effects of it, it doesn’t look professional. Also in the editing of the thriller opening I took into account of the timing, so that it matches the music. In the prelim I didn’t do this. I believe I can now effectively edit clips.

We also improved on our typography skills. The shot on the left shows the opening sequence example; we created our own typography in Photoshop and imported it into iMovie. This looked a lot more professional than the standard typography that comes with iMovie as you can see on the right.

My preliminary was ok, its story was good, but could be changed to be a better production and the editing was good as well, but some of the shots went on too long. Our lighting was actually typical of a sci-fi thriller, but some of the audience found the effects confusing and over used. This was a different case for our thriller opening sequence we used a good amount of lighting effects. Also our use of mise-en-scene has improved massively, in our prelim we just filmed, where as in the open sequences we thought about how each shot was going to be setup, for example where were the props going to go? What costumes are the characters wearing? And the positioning of the shot?

We have improved a lot of skills and techniques. In our prelim we had feedback of the camera not being steady, this is something we corrected straight away when filming our thriller opening, to maintain a professional look. Our editing skills are much better; we can now easily edit clips to be able to create a professional looking product. Continuity was a big problem in our prelim; we fixed this for our thriller opening. We have improved our use of the 180 degree rule, we only used it in one shot in our opening, it was the shot when the protagonist walks along the dirt covered ledge, but we have also practised it. Now we  can use it effectively.

When we first started planning out opening made a list of ideas individually and then we can together as a group to discuss the best ideas and the ideas we liked. We decide on a thriller about a person on the run from the police for being wrongly accused and he has to find out the truth. From there on we went and made a story board and annotated it. Once we sorted the storyboard out we then decided create a detailed shot list, to help us when filming. Once we had filmed we began to edit the footage, we all had in put in the editing process. Because we all had an input we were all happy with our final product.

The location we choose was very typical of thriller/horror films, we filmed in and around a wood. And the shots that could be seen as dangerous where filmed at home as the risk assessment says.

At first when it was raw footage I believe it was bad. But once we finished editing I was very happy with the end result, I think that our thriller opening sequence is very successful. We did have a good amount of shots but I still think we could have added more. I liked the quality of the camera we used but when we exported and upload the video it got compressed making it looked ever so slightly pixelated, which I was slightly disappointed by. Another problem was that it was quite difficult to get the text we had created on Photoshop on to the video and when we put it on the video would crash, this was hard to work with but once we exported it was fine. But I believe that out thriller opening followed many typical thrillers and it looked quite professional in my opinion.  

Here you can see our continuity editing has improved from theses shots. The thriller opening shots show the continuity as correct with the same shoes walking over the newspaper. But whereas in the prelim Zak and Conor are running and then in a different shot they have swapped sides. Overall we have improved massively  since our preliminary.

Question 6

When I produced this production, I learnt new and different techniques that will be useful in future productions. I can now frame shots effectively to create the atmosphere I want. I have learnt to use continuity editing properly and I also know how to get the audience to fell how I want them to feel, for example I composed a shot which makes the audience uneasy.

When filming we had made a massive improvement on our prelim. We used the tripod effectively to keep the shots steady; we made sure that the neck of the tripod was loose so that we could easily pan across when filming. We encountered a problem when trying to keep the tripod steady, the ground was very uneven but lucky the tripod we use made it easy to set the legs at different heights to keep the shot level. We also tried to stay away from hand held shots because it can most of the time be a little shake and unproffesional. They lighting was perfect on the day of filming, but if It wasn’t we could of used equipment to help us with the lighting. We learnt that if the lighting is too dark then a torch is very helpful because it doesn’t make the shot too bright to affect the thriller conventions but it gives enough like to get a clear shot. We wanted to follow the thriller convention of dull lighting to create a tensional and suspenseful effect. This gave the feeling that evil was lurking about.

I believe that I and my partners have improved our knowledge greatly. I know realise that close ups are very useful for filming objects and facial expressions, I makes the plot and what is happening much Clear to the audience. Extreme long/long shots are typically used to show the audience the location of the film.  I also have tried to use the rule of thirds in many shots this is because we used many close ups and wanted the audience to focus on the objects, like weaponry and the wanted poster so that the audience would recognise them later on in the film.

We had access to iMovie when we were creating our thriller. It comes with most Macs. It is very effective and surprisingly easy to use. I learnt a lot of things. One of the simple things I learnt was how to import footage from a SD card to the mac. I had to make a new event, an event is where footage is stored and up drag and drop the film files into the project from the event. I also learnt how to effectively edit the footage together. I also learnt how to add effects and transitions. The change the effect on the clip by going to clip options and going to the change effects/filter button. We chose to use the effect Vignette, because it fitted the thriller genre very well my darkening the outside of the clip making it feel grungy and dark.

I also used the software Photoshop. I used this to produce our company’s ident and the titles. I didn’t want to use the titles available in iMovie because they looked too stock in my opinion. Once we had finished on Photoshop we had to import them and overlay them on the footage. I learnt how to do this. But not all the iMovie’s we have access to have this feature. To do this you have to right click on the clip and click on picture on picture button.

 I also learnt how to import music and edit out the pieces of the soundtrack I didn’t want, this was done in garage band and then exported to iTunes.

We finally finished producing so we decided to export it using QuickTime and we made sure that the export quality was set to the highest. But when it finally went onto YouTube the quality decrease for some reason, which was a bit disappointing.

Technology had a big impact on our work, it enabled us to gather feedback and get our production out. We used YouTube to put your production on our blogs; this also was good because it has a comment section, so people could give their opinion. I should of used Facebook to get even more feedback from friends and family. So that we can improve for future productions.

If I was to do the production again I would of like to use a lot more shots, we could have had more shots of actual people and not only parts of their body. Also I wish I had made the production lead up to a key event in the opening. I wish we filmed more of the bridge that we filmed at and I would have used the location a lot better, to an advantage.

Question 5

We used our research, to find out what grabbed our target audiences attention. We did this by looking at thrillers that were similar to our own ideas and our Vox Pops also helped us find out what the audience wanted.

Typical of the thriller genre, they use straight cuts with a one second of black screen to grab the audiences attention, this was in time with the music to create tension. It was also a good way to introduce new clips because they wont get bored of the length clips and normal straight cuts. it made the audience wonder what was going on because it was going so quick, this created the sense of mystery and confusion, this is what we aimed for.

This shot makes the audience uneasy; this is because there is a mysterious human silhouette on the hill, this makes the audience want to find out who it is. It also shows he is higher than the camera shot, this suggests that he has power and that the protagonist or the audience is vulnerable or less powerful.

Our audience wanted a likeable character and someone they could relate to. We decide that the first and only face you see detailed is the protagonist’s. This is because we didn’t want give much away. When the audience first see this picture they begin to think who this is and draws them in to find what he has done and how he will progress throughout the story. 

From our Vox Pops we found that most of the thrillers that people enjoyed where quite action based. Typical of action-thrillers, there are many weapons. So to get the audience’s attention we added many weaponry references like the gun magazines you see here, the knife and the close up of the gun.

This shot of the newspaper clippings gets the audience’s attention very well. It sets their minds in motion, wondering what has happened and why. It creates mystery and suspension, for what might happen in the rest of the film. They also wonder why some walks over it? Could it be a crime scene? This makes the audience anxious to find out more.

Many of the shot were focused on different things and not the main elements so that it creates tension, suspense and suspicion. They way this shot is show is very eerie because you can’t tell the character facial expression, so it is hard to think what the character is like.

The non-diegetic soundtrack we used in our production worked very well. This is because it was quite slow and mellow, but also not very suspenseful. We choose to do this because it added to the effect, it became more surreal. It also had lyrics that connote to our thriller sub-genres, crime and mystery, for example “bury me” this suggest that some will die in the story. Our thrillers soundtrack is very similar because they both use string and acoustic instruments to create a dramatic track, keeping the audience from getting bored.

The costuming in our production is very typical of the thriller genre and people will immediately connote the antagonists clothing with death because he is all in black. Also the suit and tie show that the antagonist is of a higher status and has authority, his red tie connotes danger and blood. This relates to our story, because the antagonist has authority, this means that he will be able to frame people for murders.

The lighting in the opening sequence was natural and a darker filter was added around the edges to give the film more of a grittiness, also this follows the typical conventions of a thriller film because they are normally very dark.

When we were editing, we tried making the camera shots and the cuts be in time with the non-diegetic soundtrack. Also when filming the camera shots we wanted them to look very eerie, like a fight, assassination or murder had gone on. we used the rule of thirds a lot, we tried to keep most of the objects and props situated in only a third of the screen.

After we had shown our thriller opening to some of our typical age group we got feedback on it. People thought that it was very good and that they like the black flashes to cut up the shots. They then said that the music was good best it was different and it still worked.  They also said that they enjoyed the tension created from the different shots, for example they said they like the shots of the, gun magazines, newspaper clippings, silhouette on the hill and the burred shot of the protagonists face. Another person said that they liked the mystery behind the story and they would like to find out what is going on. 

When we showed this film to a few people, they responded very positively. They liked the cut away shots of the trains, as this kept their attention, and hinted at how the storyline would end, without giving too much information away. They also liked the location of our film, and also felt that the narration worked well, as it hinted at how the plot might develop, but still left some areas down to the viewer’s imagination. Our audience also liked our choice of non-diegetic music.

Our thriller is very similar to the thriller film, Seven. They both use similar camera shots, just like our production they used close ups to get the audience to see key and significant props to the plot, without the audience really understanding it. Also the editing was very similar we used some slow shots and then when the music changed tempo the speed of the shot changes would change. Also the cuts were all straight cuts just like the Seven opening.

It was also similar to the walking dead opening, with the shot types being similar, close ups of objects. The editing was similar, all straight cuts like our production and the sound was also similar because there is not diegetic sound it is all non-diegetic, our music was similar because they both use string instruments, to create tension. All in all I believe that the audience got what they wanted, mystery, crime and the references to weaponry suggest later on in the film they will be used. 

Question 4

Our target audience will be in the physiographic groups of explorers and strugglers, because explorers want to find out who’s behind the murders and strugglers will like this film because it is very different from their reality and would like to escape their lives. Our audiences age between 15 and 40; this is so we can have a larger audience. We think that more males would watch this film because the protagonist is a male and the antagonist is a male. ­­

We researched the physiographic groups to find the correct audience for our film.

Struggler

Alienated, disorganised - with few resources apart from physical. Consumers of alcohol, junk food and lotteries, also trainers. Brand choice involves impact and sensation. Escape reality

Mainstreamer Domestic

Conformist, conventional, sentimental. Part of the mass, favouring big and well-known value for money 'family' brands.

Aspirer

Materialistic, acquisitive, image, appearance, charisma, fashion. Attractive packaging more important than quality of contents. (Younger, clerical/sales type occupation)

Succeeders

Strong goals, confidence, work ethic, organisation. Brand choice based on reward, the very best. Also attracted to 'caring' and protective brands. Watch films to get rid of stress (Top management)

Explorer

Energy - autonomy, experience, challenge, new frontiers. Brand choice highlights difference, sensation, adventure, indulgence and instant effect - the first to try new brands. (Younger - student) want to discover the truth

Reformer

 Free from restrictions, personal growth, social awareness, value for time, independent judgement, tolerance of complexity, anti-materialistic but intolerant of bad taste. Curious and enquiring, support growth of new product categories. Select brands for intrinsic quality, favouring natural simplicity. (Higher Education)

Resigned

Seeks survival, typically older people with an interest in the past and tradition. Rigid and authoritarian values.

Once we finished this piece of research, we chose to make our production appeal to Explorers because they seek adventure and want to find out the truth. Also Strugglers because the want to escape reality and want to find something new.

We did Vox Pops to find out what the public wanted from a thriller. We asked two questions what is your favourite thriller? and why?, the Vox Pop also showed each interviewee’s age and occupation. This was very helpful, but it didn’t go into much detail, I wish our group had done questionnaires to get better results. Also from these results we couldn’t clearly see our target audience, because everybody we interviewed had very different jobs to one another and where of many different ages. If we did this again, I would like to still do the Vox Pops with much more questions and even do questionnaires as an additional source of information.

Our Vox Pops told us that our audience is mainly male. We found out that the interviewee’s loved the most popular thrillers like, Physco, Training day, James bond: Skyfall, Jurassic park and Snatch. Training day and snatch are more male oriented films. We inter viewed harry and he said that “physco really sets the benchmark for thriller films” we took these five films into account when we were in the planning stages. Also we found out that our audience likes to have a character, who they can really relate to and like. Also somebody well known in the film industry. The also said that the film has to be suspenseful, the audience like to be kept on the edge of their seat. Someone said they like a hint of the sub-genre sci-fi in the films, but we didn’t include any, so if I did it again I might have added some science fiction.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent, non-governmental, notfor-profit, co-regulatory body. We are funded through fees charged to those who submit films and video works for classification.

Usually a team will agree on the age rating because we base all our age rating decisions on the BBFC’s Guidelines, but if we do not, the work is sent to another examining team. If they still disagree, works are brought to the weekly examining meeting for further discussion or sent to the BBFC’s Director or Presidential team. Really contentious works, like former 'Video Nasties', like the good the bad the ugly or cinema releases right on the border between two age ratings and likely to provoke comment, will often be seen again even if the first team agrees a decision.

Here is a list of the classifications from BBFC:

U Universal – Suitable for all.

A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over, although it is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child. U films should be set within a positive framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.

PG- Parental guidance.

 A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older. Unaccompanied children of any age may watch, but parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger, or more sensitive, children.

12/12A- suitable for 12+ or under 12 with an adult.

Suitable for 12+ or under 12 with an adult. Discrimination must not be endorsed by films message. Drug use should be infrequent, and instructional details should not be given. Sexual references can be briefly portrayed, although the activity should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Moderate violence is allowed, although it should not dwell on gory details.

15- 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. The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language. Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

18- 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. Adults should be free to choose their own entertainment. Exceptions are most likely in the following areas: where the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence. Where material or treatment appears to us to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society. For example, the detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use.  Contains detailed explicit images.

R18- Restricted 18

They can only be shown on licenced premises or licenced shops. Usually contains material that breaches criminal law. Material that encourages sexual abuse, the infliction of pain, or any sexual threats or humiliation which isn’t clearly defined in the plot.

From what I found out in my research, thrillers usually have a high age rating from the BBFC, because of the material that is in the film. For example violence or nudity is very common in thrillers. This tells me that a wide range audience will enjoy these films more because the film is quite mature.

If I were to send off your thriller to the BBFC, I would hope we got the age rating of 15, because it won’t be really detailed gore, but to still show some characters deaths. There will be no sexual content, but suggested drug taking. This is beneficial because this age rating will suit our target audience. But we also would hope for the 15 rating because there are still adult/mature content and which we thing is inappropriate for persons under the age of 15 we don’t want they to see the film. Also if we make the film an 18 then it will make our audience small.

Audience Profile-

Aged 15to 40

Mainly male

Wealth- Explorers earns a good amount of money, can afford nice clothes. Is very smart. Wear many different clothes. Strugglers earns an “ok” amount of money, spends money of things they enjoy.

Music- Listens to modern music, for example house and pop. On the radio or on an mp3 player.

Job- Typically a student or someone who has adventurous job, like the navy. Could also be a normal factory worker or unemployed.

Interests- Reading, the paper or late teen/young adult magazines. Watching films, thrillers, action and adventure. Uses social media like Facebook 

Question 3

The group decided of the name of our production should be Boundless Productions. We called it this because believe that we can do anything and we aren’t limited to anything, this means if we were a really company we would get people’s attention. Also the angled shape behind the text is similar to the infinity symbol. We have our company logo or ident is at the start of the opening sequence and it slowly zooms into grab the audience’s attention.

Production companies are key in the film industry. Their job is to obviously produce a film and sell the film that we produce. Nearly all production companies these days help the film makers and the creation of their film; they do this by making schedules, budgeting and sometimes even help make decisions on actors and key members of staff/crew.

The production basically gets control over the entire film. The production company other the years generates money from past products and is able to fund this film to generate even more money. They have to advertise the new film and they own all the rights to the film and the production company gets paid every time a DVD is sold and every time it is shown in a cinema.

I would like Lionsgate to produce our thriller because they are renowned for doing many thriller films.  Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution and international distribution and sales. These means we can get our production out to a much wider range of people. Also they have shows on 20 different TV networks, making it so much easier to advertise our film.

Lionsgate have produced massively iconic films, for example The Hunger Games and Twilight and emerging young adult brands like Divergent and Ender’s Game.  These are large names for the filming industry, this tells us that they have a large about of experience. But they don’t only do thriller films they do many other genres as well. For example Kevin Hart’s Let me explain. I believe they would be very helpful in giving us pointers when we create our production.

When you decide to work with a large production company like Lionsgate, you get a bigger audience, this is because the production company its self already has a large fan base. This means you also inherit the company’s audience, attracting more people globally as well as locally.

 Our titles are similar to the walking dead, showing the actors first and the executive producers last followed by the title. The table below compares the order of credits with the order the credits were presented in our production:

Walking dead	Our Film
AMC presents Actors Executive producers Developed by Music by Title	Boundless productions Actors Executive producers Title

We missed a couple of things out, but the waking dead opening titles sequence is very different from most thriller films, only a the most important names are mentioned at the start where as other films list. The special effects, directors, costume design, writers, makeup artists. We decided to keep it plain and simple.

Question 2

Conors Character:

Good actor /easy to work with- We needed someone who was very good at acting and following instructions. When we needed him to pose for the “mugshots” on the wanted poster, he did it perfectly first time. Conor fitted right into this role as the protagonist.

Sporty- we needed the protagonist to be fit and healthy for his character to be right and so that we could run long distances in the actual film. But you don’t see much running in the opening sequence.

Curious- the actor needed to be curious, so that he would have a better understanding of how to act like a detective.

Connor’s character is similar to that of Mark Wahlberg’s character in the film shooter; they are both wrongly accused of committing a crime they didn’t commit. Conor’s character just like Mark Wahlberg’s, they both want to clear their names and are curious to find out the truth in their films stories. This would appeal to the psychographic groups of explorers, because they want to find out things and the truth behind the mystery. Strugglers will watch this to escape reality. Conor is very casual and when it came to discovering the truth at the end of the film he would walk out, in the end as a free man and be a little smug. 

In a lot of thrillers normally they have a villain, a hero and a damsel. Typically in a thriller a hero I will save the damsel and would defeat the villain. The villain and hero are mainly male and a female is normally the damsel. Very stereotypically men are seen as more powerful.

We decided that conor’s character should be wearing clothing that would be very easy for the audience to identify him and they could relate to him. We had him wear a red hoodie, very visible in the dark grey back drops. The colour of his hoodie connotes danger and blood. Even though he is the protagonist we wanted him to seem mysterious, so we blurred out his face any we didn’t have any shots that showed off his entire body, to keep that sense of mystery. But you finally see his face on the wanted poster making the audience wonder if he is the murder.

During the opening sequence you don’t see conor’s character use any props, because the film opening is very prop base. In one of the shots we see a knife in a tree and conor’s red hoodie in the background this makes the audience feel nervous, because they are unsure if he is the killer. This shot, the knife, will show the audience a piece of evidence key to the film, and it connotes the words and ideas of death, murder and weapon. Also we didn’t have any make up for conors character because it wasn’t needed. And the lighting for the character is same for the rest of the film; there is no change in the lighting.

Harry’s character

Smart- we needed Harry’s character to be smart, well dressed and clever. Harry was perfect for this role because he is a very well dress and smart man. We was good as playing the villain because he could really get into the role.

Movements- Harry’s movements needed to be sinister when filming the on top of the hill shot, the black silhouette. He did this very well. Harry’s movements were very typical of the thriller genre, at times they were sinister and other times very suave.

Hitman- we wanted Harry’s character to give of the hitman vibe. We did this by wearing black clothes, which in many thrillers are very typical for the antagonist to wear, because it conceals their identity and it also connotes death.

Harry is our second character and he is the antagonist or villain. We wanted someone who could place this role well, in a suave and sinister way. Harry’s ticked both of these boxes because he is a good actor and can play many roles. His character is very similar to that of   Hans Gruber from Die Hard.

Harry’s character is seen as very powerful. At the start of most thrillers the antagonists are very well off and powerful. Also him being a male stereotypically males him appear strong to the audience. In one of the shots in the opening sequence you can see harry stood on top of a hill but with his identity concealed, making the audience feel less powerful than him. This is done by using a low angle shot.

Harry’s character in this opening sequence is dressed similarly to a stereotypical hitman. He has dark/black clothing on, of which connotes death. He is wearing also a red tie, so that the audience can identify him with authority and it is red with connotes blood or danger. From what we have researched, in many thrillers the antagonists wear black, this is done to create a sense of mystery or to conceal their identity.

I think that our audience could relate with conor’s character because he looks and seems like the typical every day person. Our opening sequence doesn’t represent females at all because we don’t have any in the opening, this may or may not be offensive to females. Our actors are younger than most actors today, but I don’t think this would affect how the film is being present. But then again maybe the older generation would like to see an actor they know, who is key to the thriller genre. But all in all I believe that it well appeal to a wide ranged audience.

Question 1

The thriller genre is a genre in which is in books and films, they normally revolve and around crime or espionage. There are many sub genres for thrillers such as:

 

 The subgenre that my group and I chose was mystery and crime; we found out that mystery thrillers create a lot of questions and suspense. We did a lot of research before we decide what subgenre we were going to do. We did this by mainly by looking on the internet to see which thriller and their subgenre got the best reviews and them we watch a few to gain the knowledge of what we wanted to do and in the end we decided on mystery. We also did some Vox Pops to find out what people aged between 15 and 40 liked. We asked them the question “what is your favourite thriller and why?” from this piece of research we found out that the target audience enjoy the film Pyscho because “it really sets the benchmark for the thriller genre”, we took this into account before we started filming. We also found out that people like to have a likeable character in the film some on they can relate too. This genre we chose gave us many options and it would be easy to follow the general thriller conventions.

There are so many different shots and positioning of shots used in thriller films. Most of the time thrillers use close ups to grab the audience’s attention, show significant props and to show a person’s facial expression, this type of shot was used a lot in our production. We followed the conventions, one of them was the speed of the shots, in the thriller genre uses this to keep the audience’s attention. Settings of thrillers vary, but for the subgenre of mystery or crime the locations are genuinely “out of the way” or even some times unknown, for example the opening sequence of Seven is all close ups and is in the dark, another film is Reservoir dogs, its set in a ware house where people wouldn’t look. We wanted to follow this convention so that it would make our work look more professional. We filmed near an old bridge and woods to give a sense of mystery and suspense. When it comes to the actors we challenged the conventions. We didn’t have to worry too much about the conventions of the protagonist and antagonist because you don’t get to see them fully, only the body very fair away of just their feet up close.

Our production was heavily prop based, and the realism of the props were key to making the production look professional. We had a shot of the antagonist loading the gun magazine with bullets; this suggested to the audience that he was getting ready to kill someone. Another prop we used was the newspaper clippings with the words “I have nightmares all the time”, this implies that something traumatic has happened prior to the film or it is foreshadowing. Another prop we used was hanging rope from a tree; it gave a very eerie effect to the production, creating suspense. We made the titles on Photoshop and imported them on to our editing software, we made the typography look scratched and ruffed up around the edges, so it linked to the mystery and crime subgenres.

The soundtrack used in our thriller product is called Candles by Natalie Lungley, it is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFrljyqU6i0&index=10&list=FLblZDoCSBGmemF1AG5EudcA

This track is mainly acoustic guitar with singing, which had a slow tempo, this added to the suspension. Its lyrics also worked well with the subgenre we had chosen. We had watched many thrillers during our research and action/ horror thrillers hand more of an upbeat soundtrack for example walking dead and training day. Whereas we challenged the conventions because we wanted something slower to create more suspense, but we did like the strings used in the walking dead opening, so we wanted to find something which combined the two. In the end the soundtrack we used was prefect for our opening.

When discussing the ideas for the narrative for my groups production there were many good and not so good ideas. We wanted the film to draw people in and get hooked by the film. Finally we went for the narrative of two people on the run for being framed for multiple murders and they are trying to solve the mystery of the murders and who farmed them. We filmed significant props so the opening wouldn’t make sense until you finished the film, like the film Seven, this created mystery and makes you want to finish the film. Our clip is only about 1 minute 20 seconds and we obviously didn’t want to give away the film at all, we did this very well by only showing key props and not actual key events from the film.

When we carried out our research we found out the thriller had a lot of conventions and we need to use quite a few to create a professional and effective opening title sequence. Like I said before it was key that we didn’t give much away so early on. Just like seven my production keeps the audience in the unknown, keeping the audience keen on watching the film.

In many thriller openings, straight cuts are used. This is common because it keeps the pace of the clips at a steady or it can be used to make the clip fast paced to create a dramatic effect. We also used flashes of black to spilt up the shots and create a bit of speed at times, just so that the audience doesn’t get bored. We originally tried to edit the whole production so that it was fast paced but it just didn’t work, so we challenged conventions and made some of it fast and some of it slow. This works very well when creating suspension and drama.

Sound and a soundtrack is very key to the thriller genre. We removed all of the diegetic sound from our production and just added a non-diegetic sound song. We did this because we liked the walking dead opening and its opening only has music and no sound effects. We think it worked very well. Because the string instruments are very good at creating drama and making the audience felt on edge.

The two key thriller films that inspired and helped me and my group were:

The walking dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUJbtk0uS4

Seven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k2gsEI34CE

We followed many conventions used in these two thrillers. Just like Seven our thriller uses mainly close ups to show significant props but still make sure that the audience doesn’t know too much. The also like the editing used in the two thrillers, how they are mainly straight cuts but are cut at a faster pace. This creates tension because the audience feels like they are a part of the film and aren’t always sure what is going on. The thriller genre likes to use confusion.

We have quite a few different shot types in our production, but mainly it is close ups and extreme close ups. The shot list I created show what shot type is and what is happening in each shot, they range from one extreme long shot to extreme close ups. We followed the typical thriller convention of not having many extreme long shots, but we did have 95% of the production was close up. Normally thriller films may have a male voice over, but we decided we didn’t want one because it wouldn’t fit with the subgenre of mystery because the voice over would explain things. The sound we used was mainly acoustic guitar typical of crime thrillers.

The setting we used to film followed thriller conventions, as it was at secluded location and out of the way. Compared to the two thrillers we looked at, it was similar to the walking dead, for example set in the country side or woods, but then again the walking dead is sometimes set in a city. But compare it to the film Seven it is very different, it is set in doors in an unknown location. The location we used added to the suspense of the film.

The costumes and props we used are very typical of the thriller genre. In one of the shots an actor is wearing a red hoodie in the shot of the knife, which symbolises danger or blood. The costumes aren’t seen fully, you one catch glimpse like one of the actors feet and the close up of another actors tie. The tie is also red which connotes danger and the shoes are black, which suggest death. But the costumes themselves are very typical of everyday life, so that the audience can relate to them.

The shot that is show on the right has a good usage of props, even though our production is just mainly props. It shows two gun magazines and a bullet casing, this implies that a murder has been committed and someone has been killed. The ground also is good for this shot because it looks like it is at a secluded location, so that the really murderer doesn’t drew attention to him or herself.

 

This next shot shows the antagonist putting leather gloves on, this suggests to the audience that this is the killer because he doesn’t want his finger prints at the crime scene. But this shot also leaves the audience in the unknown and they want to find out who it is. Alos the black of the gloves and the coat connote death. This is key to use colour in opening so that the conventions of the thriller genre are followed.

This shot is typical of the crime subgenre, it shows you how is wanted. Typically in a crime thriller the antagonist is “wanted” but in this film it challenges convention and shows the protagonist as wanted instead. This is our first glimpse of a character and the audience begin to wonder who he is, but they will find out later in the film. The positioning of this piece of paper may imply that someone may have dropped it, like the protagonist saw it and ran.

Nearly each shot has a name of an actor in the film; they are made up of course, except the executive producer names. The names appear in one of the four corners of the screen and the typography is very typical of the crime subgenre. We decided to follow this convention because if we tried something like, printing out the titles and filming them, we weren’t sure how good that would look. But we did create our own typography on Photoshop were as some thrillers these days used standard fonts to make the text more visible. Our typography worked very well with our production.

This shot is very good in my opinion. We set it up so the audience feels like they are in the shot. We had the camera focused on a twig on a branch, at the bottom of a hill in the woods. And at the top we had the antagonist dressed in full black to look eerie and had him stand at the top of the hill. The angle of the shot and the height of the antagonist suggest that he has more power than the protagonist and the audience. The shot also presents the location as very isolated from the rest of the world, this suggest that there isn’t anything to save the protagonist.   

The three shots shown here used continuity very well. The first two shots are of the protagonist’s feet, same shoes and trousers, no errors there, also the second shot is straight after the first shot, so that no confusion is create here. But when the production was presented the audience believed that the third shot shown here was a continuity error because it was another pair of feet or different clothing, but in actual fact this wasn’t the protagonist, this time it was the antagonist who was walking. So if I film it again I would maybe make it clearer that it was the antagonist by adding a weapon or something significant. But all in all the continuity is 100% correct.

  

The title of our thriller film is a word that comes up in many thriller films and it conventional of a crime or action thriller. The name is giving the audience a clear idea what the film is going to be about. This is similar to The walking dead, because it sums up what is going to happen during the film, whereas Seven doesn’t give any indication what the film is about, before you watch the film. When the audience what the opening sequence they will be left in the dark with a lot of question, just like the Seven opening. The sequence we have produced clear shows the crime subgenre and that they are being “Hunted” for the crimes they didn’t commit as the title suggests. The titles typography shows that the film is about desperate times, because it’s all ruffed up like the characters on the will be in the film.

Finally, the title has been presented near the centre of the screen, but a bit offset, so the fire is visible, this connotes the final part of the film, “it all goes up in flames”. I wish I had put it more in the middle to follow the typical thriller convention, like the walking dead to grab the audience’s attention more. But Seven had its title at the top of the screen, which is usually of thriller films. It also adds its own uniqueness to the film.

 

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