Thriller Evaluation

What ways does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our thriller incorporates generic conventions by the use of Music, Lighting, darkness, the antagonist, the forest and the use of victims.

Darkness is used throughout the opening sequence to build up an atmosphere; we made everything dark by putting sheets on windows, closing curtains and by using the features on Final Cut express which allows you to change how bright or dark you want the thriller to be

Lighting was used so you could clearly see what was happening; this was difficult because we didn’t want to make it too light as this would not make it atmospheric and creepy. We made the lighting how we wanted it to be by using and adjusting different factors. The first was by using a lamp which is in the scene where the antagonist is sat on the table, we used the light on the camera where we could not use natural light, an example of this is when she was walking into and out of the kitchen. And the final factor was by using natural light, an example of this was in the forest where we used the natural light and then adjusted how dark we wanted it to be on Final Cut express. For the establishing shot on the house, we start off with it daytime and then we make it darker, this is to show that it is night time.

Music was used according to what was happening, when she was running through the forest there was a fast beat based sound track and we put a base sound on when he was writing on the table because this builds up the suspense and we felt this means that this corresponds with the antagonist.

This is the Music we used





The antagonist was seen a few times throughout the opening sequence, it went from us seeing his hand and then his whole body. We only showed his hand at the beginning because we felt this would keep peoples attention and interested as they would want to see him, it would also keep the suspense growing. We put a gun on the table because we felt this will make the audience think what the antagonist is capable of. At the end we see his body but not his face; this keeps it a mystery of who the antagonist is.

I think the use of these conventions makes it an Action/Mystery Thriller. This is because it is a mystery of who the antagonist is and whereabouts Elliot is but there is also action, an example of this is when she is running through the forest.

The use of these conventions are similar to films like Silence of the lambs, this had an influence on our thriller because we took the idea of a girl running through a forest.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group of which Kate comes from is a white English 19 year old middle class girl. We don’t see the antagonist in the opening sequence but from what we see they have a dark personality. Gender is not represented in a stereotypical way; this is because we see an everyday girl, who comes across unfortunate events.

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

Our thriller would be able to be produced in a major Hollywood studio because when planning we watched films which were made in Hollywood studios and got idea from these films. (I.e. silence of the lambs). We used techniques from these films and one of these is the use of different camera shots to make the thriller tenser. Also we used the idea of someone running through a forest like we see in silence of the lambs.

Our thriller would be a TV movie release which would be shown late at night, it is a 15 certificate. This is because some of the scenes in the thriller would not be suitable for under 15 year olds.

It would be released to entertain the audience and to make money. It offers merchandising because t-shirts and posters could be made representing the thriller. There are opportunities for franchises like game companies to buy the rights to make games of the thriller.

Overall this thriller could be made in a Hollywood studio because the ‘mise en scene’ involves a dark, gloomy atmosphere, which is similar to other Hollywood studio thrillers.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience is males and females aged 15-35; this is because it is not targeted at a particular gender. It would be for people to watch with their friends and for people who like a tense atmosphere with some scary aspects along the way. There is a tense atmosphere in our thriller with some scary moments like when Kate gets captured at the end of the opening sequence.

A film which is similar to ours is silence of the lambs, as it has the familiar scene when she is running through a forest .




How did you attract/address your audience?

Our thriller attracts both males and females 15+. The part whereby Kate is captured and then screams could scare some people; it would mostly scare or make girls jump because as Kate is a girl this could appeal to them more than it would to boys. In the scene in the forest we used close-up so you could see the expressions on Kate’s face when she was captured, which were terrified. We did close-ups on Kate’s feet to show her running through the forest, we did this to build up suspense because the audience were unable to see where she was running to. When she was shouting Eliot in the forest we did a mid shot, this was so the audience can see the stalker in the background.

The audience has to put them in the position of Kate; they will see Kate looking for Eliot and then finally being captured. If the Audience puts themselves in her position, this will keep the audience attracted as they will want to no what happens to her, this also builds up suspense.

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


The strengths of the camera equipment are that there was a light on the camera which we could use to balance out the light; an example is for when Kate walks into the kitchen. Another strength is that we got a tri-pod with the camera this was useful because it meant that we could pan easily like you see in the forest and it means that the camera will not be shaky. A weakness is that the camera was not the greatest of quality, this could have affected how the final product looked but because of this we had to make sure that the lighting was good so the camera would be able to pick up the movements.

We did not face any problems with the equipment but we had to use the camera plugged into the mains while we were recording in the house because we were charging the battery for when we moved to the forest to film.

While editing on Final Cut express we found allot of useful features which enhanced our thriller. One of these was adjusting the opacity on the clips; we thought it would be better to film in the day time in the forest so the camera would not lose the quality like it would have if we filmed when it was dark. But once we were editing we felt it was not dark enough to build up suspense how we wanted it to. By changing the opacity we could make the clips darker while keeping the quality, as we’ve done this we feel it is creepier and it builds up suspense how we wanted it to. Another effect we used on final cut was Slow motion; this enhances our thriller because it makes it looks like she is running for longer, this builds up suspense because the audience wants to no what happens next.

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

Researching the genre was useful in the planning stage because we found out what our thriller will have to include and it helped us to keep it a thriller and not a Horror. The main feature we found in thriller is building suspense we incorporated this into our opening sequence. Detailed planning and story boarding helped the filming process to be efficient and smooth because we knew what shots we had to do and approximately how long each scene had to be. It was useful when it came to editing because we already knew what transitions we needed to use and what order the video clips go in.

I feel more confident in using the equipment now than I first did while doing the preliminary task. I no how to set up the tri-pod quickly and I am now confident at using it for panning as we did when Kate was running through the forest without the camera wobbling. I am now also confident at using the camera and all of the features on it; I learnt how to use the zoom feature and when to use it. It is effective in our thriller when we zoomed in on Kate’s feet when she was running through the forest.

My use of specific shots has improved because I am more aware of when different shots should be used. An example is the over the shoulder shot which is used when the antagonist is sat at the table. This is used here because we can see everything on the table but you cannot see the antagonist apart from his hand which is writing on the piece of paper, this keeps it a mystery of who he is.

I feel our end product is very successful at fulfilling the task because we have kept it a thriller and not a horror, we have built up suspense which we found a lot of thrillers have and because we have used our conventions precisely to how a thriller is in our research.

We faded the light here to show that it is night time and so you can se where the next shot is going to be.

This is the Scene in Silence of the Lambs where we go the idea of a girl running through a forest.

Evaluation - Will

I

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When we were planning our film, we decided that by using different ideas in our thriller would incorporate generic conventions. We did this by using tense music and a dark setting in the forest. We also thought we would have a ‘stalker’ as an antagonist in our thriller and a girl as the victim. We felt this would work because we have seen it when watching other thrillers. To be able to achieve these conventions we had to edit many parts of the film on final cut express. For example in the forest scene, we felt it was not dark enough outside, so we had to edit the opacity to 26% in order to get the finish we wanted in the background. Another way we achieved darkness in our film was by covering the windows in the house with sheets, because it was still light outside at the time we filmed.

This is one of the windows that we had to cover with a sheet to darken the room.

                                                 

To keep a tense atmosphere running throughout the opening of our film, we put a base beat with our filming. The way we developed the antagonist in our film was by firstly showing his hand writing, to finally showing his whole body wearing dark clothes. 

  


















This is where the just the hand of the antagonist was shown, to eventually the whole body.


  






The sub-genre of our thriller is action, because there is a lot happening during the thriller where the atmosphere builds and keeps the viewers interested. The main convention that we liked and used was in the film ‘Silence of the Lambs’, where a woman was running through a forest.

Silence of the lambs opening scene

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film, we only have a small number of characters. Our main character is a middle class, white English girl, who is aged 19. She represents a normal everyday girl. Another character in our film was a mysterious character, with a dark personality. During the film, you do not see his face, but you do get to see the dark outline of his body. Our film is not really represented in a stereotypical way, because the main character is an everyday girl.

From Setting

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

I think our film could be produced by a major Hollywood studio, because it is very similar to thriller films that I have watched in the past that have been produced by a Hollywood studio. We used similar techniques to a Hollywood film, for example the using of the different types of camera shots. We also used the idea of having a boyfriend and girlfriend, which we agreed was very common in thriller films produced by Hollywood studios. I think the film we made would be a TV movie, because it is quite a creepy film. This would mean it would probably be on a bit later in the evening after the watershed, another reason for this is that the age certificate for the film is a 15, so would not be suitable for people under this age. The film we produced is similar to those made recently, because we used ideas from a variety of films when making ours. In the future, if a large company wanted to use our film, we could make a lot of money by selling merchandise such as posters, t-shirts, figures of the characters and games linked to the film. The ‘mise en scene’ of our thriller involves a dark and gloomy atmosphere, which we made when editing the background and darkening the rooms by placing sheets over the windows.

This is the establishing shot of our thriller. 

This shows how we put the sheets over the windows to darken the room.


Who would be the target audience for you media product?

When thinking about the target audience of our thriller, we felt that by making the film suitable for both genders would increase the popularity of the film. It would also be most suitable for teenagers or young adults, who enjoy a tense atmosphere and a thriller. A film that is suitable to ours is ‘Silence of the Lambs’, as the opening scene also takes place in a forest. The film also appeals to a similar audience as ours.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We addressed our thriller to both genders, who are aged 15 and over, we decided to do this as the people who viewed our thriller were of both genders and all aged 15 or over and agreed with the target audience. At the point where ‘Kate’ is captured and screams, both genders may find it scary because there is a tense atmosphere, which could lead to making people jump. 





















In the scene that takes place in the forest, we used close-ups to show the expressions on the face of ‘Kate’. We also used them on her feet to show her running through the forest. Also we used a mid-shot to be able to show the ‘stalker’ behind ‘Kate’. The audience has to put themselves in the position of ‘Kate’. They will witness ‘Kate’ looking for her boyfriend and eventually being captured. This gives the audience a role to play in the film, as they need to imagine themselves in ‘Kate’s’ position. This also builds up suspense, as the audience starts to imagine what will happen as the film progresses.

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

During the process of constructing the product, we discovered that when we were filming, it was too light. This meant that we had to adjust the opacity when editing, because the camera would not be able to get a clear enough picture if it was too dark outside. 



Originally the opacity was 100%.

We then changed it to 26%..




Another problem that we encountered when filming was that the tripod that we were using had broken, meaning that we could not secure the camera on to it properly. This meant we had to secure it with sellotape. When in the forest, it took us quite a long time to find the perfect position for the camera to be. This was because when ‘Kate’ was running in the forest, we needed to pan the camera and when we did the practice run of it; we seemed to have a tree trunk come into view of the camera rather than ‘Kate’. We got used to the camera very quickly and found it relatively easy to use. We found Final Cut Express extremely useful when editing. This was mainly due to the fact that we need a darker background in the forest scene. We learnt on Final Cut Express, that the Opacity of the background can be decreased as well as increased. We also found the transitions available very useful and used the ‘fade’ transition a few times as we felt it linked well into the switching of scenes. We also used the slow motion effect when ‘Kate’ was running through the forest, as we found this very effective. We got used to the camera very quickly and found it relatively easy to use. We also learnt how to fade out the end of the song that we had in the background effectively, so the new one could start without being noticed. We also found Garageband useful, because we were able to change the tempo at which the song was played, so that it was in time with the film.

 We used this at the end of the opening scene just before the title "The Follower" came up.

This shows how we started to put our thriller together.


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

I think the planning stage was very useful, because it gave us an insight into some of the aspects we needed to include in the planning and making of our film. I also found that after our preliminary task, we were able to find the appropriate camera shot quickly. We found that our planning was very useful, because it meant we could film exactly what we needed at the correct time. We also found it helped our time management, because we pre-determined how long we would film each part for. We had to edit our storyboards during the filming process, because we found that it could be improved by adding to it. An example of something we had to edit in the storyboard would have been when we were supposed to have the camera spinning around ‘Kate’ in the forest, but realised that the camera would have been extremely difficult to keep steady. Instead, ‘Kate’ had to spin round in circles. This worked well in the end, because the camera was kept steady and the same effect that we intended was shown. As the filming progressed, we found that the specific shot types that we used was improved. This was because we began to feel confident whilst using the camera. I think we worked very well as a group, because we all listened to each others ideas and took them into consideration. We also took turns to film different scenes, so everyone had a part in which they filmed. I am very happy with our end product and feel we put in a lot of effort to make the film a success.

Evaluation- Max

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When planning our film we wanted to incorporate some generic conventions of a normal thriller, such as a main antagonist e.g our stalker, its set in a forest towards the end of the scene. And also our victim is a Girl, which in most thrillers, seems to be the case. Our music is tense and keeps the audience on edge this is a lot like most thrillers, we also needed quite dim lighting to make it more edgy.

                                                  


This is the shot of our antogonist writing notes on kate. This scene helps make our thriller seem more mysterious, as all you can see is an arm and that he writing. We also put a gun in the scene to show the threat that our antogonist presents. The lighting is also good in this scene as its all dark and grim.









 As our thriller developed we came across a number of challenges. We wanted to set our film at night, but as that would be hard for us to do, so we filmed in the afternoon. So we had a problem, we didn't want the light to clash with our original setting to be at night. When filming in my house, we had to use sheets and towells to cover up the windows to make it darker, this worked very well i think. We also had a problem with the lighting in the forest, but we filmed anyway. However it paid off because when editing it we changed the opacity to make it look darker.

The windows we covered with sheets to make the atmosphere we wanted. This helped make it look as though it was early in the morning, but as you can see it was as bright as it gets outside.

 
The conventions to our thriller also suggest a sub-genre of action, we can see this through the change in tempo to the music, and when "kate" is running from the antagonist. Our use of conventions indicate that other thrillers have inspired us, for example the film Silence of the lambs was a big influence to us, as at the start of that film you see you girl running through a forest, with tense music and titles. We aimed to make ours in that sort of way. For example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X4owjfOrCo

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our Project we only have a small number of characters, so its hard to show any particular social group. We have a English middle class 19 year old girl, who represents an everyday English girl. Not only are social groups not a big part in our film, gender does not play a big part either. Gender is not represented in terms of social class, as our production was based on one character and she in the production did not show any stereotypes.
                                                                       Vicky as Kate
 
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think our media product could be produced by a big Hollywood studio as i think the basis of the film is well done, I also think that our film is quite similar to existing products so therefore would sell well. As when in the research process we looked at a lot of thrillers and many based them in forests and had a girl as the main character. So we thought we should make a generic thriller.

If we were to release this film it would be a TV movie, in a prime time slot after the watershed, as it would be to explicit for a younger audience. Our film would be produced to make a lot of money, and through this we could earn more money by selling merchandise like, special T-shirts and action figurines of the antagonist.  

                                          




This is what the mechandise we could sell would look like. Special named T-shirts that could be sold shops or even in the cinema if the film was to get produced. This could earn more money from the film.
 



From these conclusions we can gather that our film has a dark and gloomy mise en scene, with all the features including a sinister feel, we can see this from what the antogonist is wearing and our use of camera work with dark lighting.

Who would be the target audience for you media product?

The target audience for our media product is for all ages above 15 who enjoy a thrill, its set for both sexes too. i think that the style of our film suits most audiences however, people who don't like to be scared and don't like dark and sinister films wouldn't like it. Many films are similar to ours but the one we got most of our ideas from is silence of the lambs and its audience should be the same as ours.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Well our target audience have an age of 15 and over and lots of teens will want to watch this film, as it is mainly aimed at them. Our film should hopefully appeal to both male and female audiences. Their are points in our film that could scare people as they could make them jump, for example the scene in the forest, where she screams.

To attract our audience we needed to get some good camera shots which help the audience feel as though they are in "kates" shoes. And to do this we used a variety of different camera shots. For example we used shots which pan across the rooms and establishing shots which set the scene she is in. we used long shots and mid shots these show what situation she is in, therefore helping the audience relate. Sound was a really important part of our thriller, and we needed to get the right music to suit the scene. We found the perfect music on youtube, and it suited well. And also we didn't want cause any copyright infringements so we sent a message to the producer of the music on youtube and he said it was okay to use it. This link shows our music.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcqPq5189VQ

But not only do the camera shots make a big impact on the audience, the way it leads up to a big situation makes the audience nervous for kate, with the tense music. We can convince the audience to put themselves in "kates" position through the way in which Vicky (kate) acts, with the screaming for elliot and the parts leading up to the finale, where the antogonist grabs her and makes her scream. This creates impact as we do not know who the mysterious man is thus making it seem as though kate and the audience are in the same position as they both dont know who this man is.

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

Our camera equipment had its strengths and weaknesses, its main strength was how easy the camera was to use, however we had trouble with the quality of the camera picture. When filming our peice we came across a few problems like when we started to film, we picked up a broken stand and the camera could not latch on, so we used our iniative and celotaped it to the stand, it worked out okay. We also had a small problem with the battery life when out in the forest, so we had to do as little shots as possible, but it turned out well.

                                               This is a picture of the stand in use, in the hall way.

 When editing we used a software on the mac called Final Cut Express. This software enabled us to do a variety of things to our peice, like slow it down, zoom it in, add effects and add music. It really helped make our final peice look good however it was a tricky process linking the music to the video well. It took us a little while to get familiar to the software, but after that Final Cut Express worked well for us.  

This is a screenshot from final cut express showing the effect we put in, and this shows the opacity and how dark we made it. This is also the scene where we made it slow motion.

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

When planning out thriller, we needed to make a storyboard to list the scenes and events and to see how much each shot/scene would go on for. By doing this it really helped us film smoothly as we wern't making shots up as we went along, and we knew what we wanted to do. Through all the detailed planning we were able to make sure that our peice was to a high enough standard so that it could be watched, I think that if we hadn't have planned the filming would have been a messy task.

From the preliminary task we had improved durastically for our actual peice as we got familiar with the camera's and the editing software. Our specific choice of shots improved too as we knew what looked good and what looked bad.

After the whole project i feel really confident with the equipment and that if we were to the assignment again, i would find it a lot easier.

Finally i think over this whole filming period as individuals and as a group we improved, and im sure as a group we feel as though our thriller was a success. We were all happy in how it looked once it had been edited and was finished. I also think that our thriller meets all the criteria's of a thriller and the task set.

Finished Editing

We have now finished editing and our thriller has been exported, we are now starting to write our evaluations.

Evaluation - Vicky

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We were set a task to produce the opening to a thriller film that lasted about two minutes. Our thriller incorporates generic conventions by not giving away the main story line at the beginning of the thriller, but dropping hints throughout so the audience has to try and guess. At the beginning of our thriller, its shows a man writing on a piece of paper, but you never see his face, only his hand writing which creates more suspense and makes it mysterious to the audience so it keeps going in their mind who it is. Also, the mise en scene helped to create more of a thrilling atmosphere. We used a gun in the first scene to show that this mysterious character was planning something and that something bad was going to happen, but the audience wouldn't know what. Also, to make the scene more dark, we put dark sheets over the windows and doors and used only the light from a small lamp. We were influenced by the film 'Silence of the Lambs' for our thriller. This is because at the beginning of the film, there was a woman running in a forest, and we thought it looked effective. As the main genre is thriller for our movie, we decided that the sub-genre could be action, as there is a lot of running around and movement.

 

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

In our opening, the gender is mainly female. This is because in quite a lot of thriller movies, it is usually the female sex that has bad things happen to them, and usually the male sex that is involved and inflicts the bad things. Also, this is because males usually represent power and control over women. In our opening, there is a mysterious man who is obsessed with Kate, the girl in the opening, and will do anything to get closer to her, even if it mean hurting her or the people around her. This is kind of stereotypical, as if a woman liked a man that much, she would not be so dominant and controlling, she may just confess to him. To emphasize the mysterious man's obsessiveness, we use close up shots of him writing Kate's name all over paper, planning how he can get her, and putting pictures of her around it, one of which includes her boyfriend who he has cut out and wrote kill in the gap.

What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

I think that the media institution that might distribute our opening to a thriller could be a Hollywood studio, as it is quite similar to existing products. It is quite original having a woman running through a forest, but i think that a Hollywood studio could take ours and add to it. I think that it would be a cinema movie, as it is would only be the one film, with no sequel to it or book or television series. However, i think that it could follow on to having a dvd, which would include deleted scenes and unseen footage.

Who Would be the Audience for Your Media Product?

Our opening to a thriller would appeal to both male and female audiences, but of a certain age of 15 or above. This is because it can be quite disturbing to people under the required age as a lethal weapon is displayed at the beginning, and on the sheet of paper, there are plans to kill the young woman's boyfriend and to 'get' the woman. This could influence young people things they should not be seeing at that age, so we think the audience we agreed on is a good choice as they are old enough to understand the thriller and to try and guess what us going on and what is going to happen because it is quite mysterious and someone of a younger age may not understand as easily.


Another film that is similar ours is Silence of the Lambs because the opening is very similar to ours. Another film that is similar to ours is Orphan. This thriller film also has a 15 certificate and towards the end of the film, it has a forest scene similar to ours. These films appeal to the same sort of audience as our thriller opening.

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

We attracted our audience by targeting it at the right audience (male and female over the age of 15). I think that the first scene, where the man is writing Kate's name all over a piece of paper and planning to kill her boyfriend to get to her would be very confusing and disturbing to the audience and would want to make them watch more to see who it is and what is going to happen. We used a lot of close up shots, particularly on this scene, to show the audience what the mysterious man is planning and close up on his gun and burning cigarette. In our thriller, we convince the audience to put themselves in Kate's position so they can witness what she is going through and how scared she is, alone in a forest looking for her lost boyfriend, and suddenly gets grabbed. The impact of this, is that both the audience and Kate do not know who this mysterious man is, putting them both in the same position, making the audience feel sorry for Kate. 

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From the Process of Constructing This Product? 

During the filming process, we had some problems with the lighting and we had to find ways of getting it to the exact light that we needed. We overcome this by putting dark sheets over the windows and closing the curtains so it seemed a lot darker than it was.


Also, another problem we faced whilst filming was that the tri-pod we were using was broken, so we had to try and secure the camera onto it without it being loose and falling off. We did this by putting the camera on the tri-pod and securing it with selotape. Also, when we were filming in the forest, the floor was very uneven so we had to try and find a spot that was flat and move all the sticks and twigs out of the way, and then we had to make sure that in the place the camera was, there was a large tree quite far away on the left hand side of the camera for the mysterious man to hide behind. We got used to the camera equipment quite quickly, but had to make sure we had enough battery for the forest scene, as when we got there we noticed that there was only half percent battery left so we had to try and do it in as less shots as possible. When we were editing on Final Cut Express, one of the effects we found was slow motion. We used this when Kate was running through the forest and cut out her legs running and used them for slow motion which I think looked very effective. Also, we got used to the editing software quite quickly considering that we had never used it before and it was fun looking through all the effects we could have.

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel That You Have Learnt in The Progression From it To the Full Product?

I think that our planning stage was quite useful, but we altered quite a few things when we were filming. We also cut out some of the storyboarding too, as it would have been too long. One of the other things we edited was the end scene, where Kate was in the forest. On our storyboard, the camera was supposed to circle Kate round quickly while she stood still, but we couldn't do this as the camera would not stay steady. Instead, we had Kate spin round in circles. I think the plan would have been more effective, but this worked well as the camera stayed still and still gave the effect that something big is happening.

Otherwise, the plan worked well as we knew what shots we needed and what order they all went in. I think that the use of specific shots we did improved as we were filming because we got used to the camera more and thought of more ways to make one shot look more effective, such as the close up shots and zooming. I feel a lot more confident with the equipment now as we have had a lot of practice with it, and we worked well as a group, taking it in turns to do different parts of the process of filming. I feel that our end product is quite successful, and we all put in the effort that we needed to to make it better.

Keeping it near to 2 minutes

As we had to keep it close to 2 minutes, we had to delete the certificate at the beginning to cut down time and we had to go through it to see where we could save more time. On certain clips we realized that there was a lot of footage which we didn't nead as it would make the audience bored as nothing was happening. To fix this we trimmed down the clips so everything happened alot quicker and smoother, by doing this it should keep the audiences attention alot better.

The total time now is 2 minutes and 6 seconds

5th March, 11:40pm

Today when we were editing, we showed our thriller to an audience to see what was good and what we could improve. The comments we got, was to shorten the certificate sign and the neptune logo as they went on for too long. Also, when Kate was in the woods, and it changed from her spinning around calling Elliot's name, to her standing still and screaming, there was a transition that was just a black screen that was said to look like time had passed, even thought she was in the same place in the same clothes, and time did not pass, so we changed it so there was no transition. 

Lessons 1st March

In the lessons today, we carried on editing our opening scene. We also started to put the music with the footage we have. 

Lesson - 26th February

In todays lesson, we started to put transitions into our editing. Using final cut express, we also started to darken some of the scene backgrounds.

Photos

Today I uploaded the photos of the setting to Picasa. (More will be uploaded soon)

Click Here for the Photos

Update -11/2/10

On Monday 8th February we used the last two lessons to do our filming. As our media lessons were cancelled we got permission to film in last two lessons. We started filming at about 12.00 and finshed at about 4.00. We filmed in Clavering at Max's house until 2.15 and then we moved onto film in Clavering Forest.

Our filming went mostly to plan but we did alter the story boards a bit, so we will be updating these accordingly to the changes made. We have now uploaded the film onto the mac's and now we have started to edit using Final Cut Express.

In the two lessons on 12th February, we edited the storyboards and started to edit the film and put everything in the correct order and made sure that all the music fitted the action in the film.

15 certificate

We decided we wanted an age certificate in our production, but realized if we just copied one from the internet it may clash with copyright infringements. So therefore i edited it and made it our own.

Thriller Name

The name of our thriller will be 'The Follower'.

This is a name of a film but it is not very popular and it is not a well known film, so we will be able to use it.

opening Sequence (Update 2)

Camera Use In Valkyrie

In the film Valkyrie, there were many different camera angles used. for example it has many long, medium and close ups. In thus clip, it shows some of the techniques and ways that they filmed Valkyrie. There were many birds eye views when looking down from the planes, as well as worms eye views when looking at the planes in the sky. There were also high and low angle shots throughout the film, when showing 'Hitler', they tended to use low angle shots to show the power he had. On the other hand, when it showed a soldier, some of the time there were high angle shots used to show that they are not as important.

Filming Plan

Monday 8th February - We are going to Clavering at four o' clock. we are planning to start filming immediately, because of the weather and the light. We are going to go straight to the forest in order to be able to film in some darkness. We thought this ould be effective as in a forest it will be dark and we are filming as if it were midnight.

Thursday 11th February - We will again go to Clavering at four o' clock in order to start filming immediately. We will do the filming in the house. We will be able to do this regardless of the weather because we are indoors. We also need to re-film anything that we may have missed out on Monday.

Opening Sequence (Update)

Possible logo

We have now decided that the video below (Intense Dark Beat) will be used at the beginning of the thriller and at the end of our opening. We are doing this for the beginning because this is when the credits come up, and we think it will a good build up to the thriller. We are also using at the end scene. The music will start exactly when Kate's face close up appears in the camera, and will carry on throughout the rest of the credits at the end. We would like the beat of the music to match the credits, so when the music beats, the credits will change to something else. This music will also be the theme tune to our film, which is why it is played quite a lot throughout, and we would like this because the music is very intense and builds up well to a good thrill.

Opening Credits

We were looking at some more thriller music, and we found this, which we really liked. We were thinking that for the end of the film we would use something a lot like this for the credits at the end on a black screen. This will not be shown in our opening to our thriller though as it would be for the very end when the film finishes. We like this because the music is thrilling and it seems as though something would be happening which would make the audience still thrilled at the end of the film.

Sound Plan

When the Thriller starts there is going to be a base sound, which will play on and off up to the forest. When it gets to Kate running through the forest we will play Hard scary hip-hop beat. Once the camera has appeared on her face when the antagonist captures her we are going to her Kate screaming up to the end titles.

We have got permission to use the music we are using, I (Jamie) contacted the members on youtube and they were happy to let us use this music.

I watched the film the Unborn and i thought it had really good story line to it. A girl has strange things happen to her and soon finds out that she was supposed to be a twin, but when they were still in the womb, her umbilical chord got wrapped around his neck and strangled him. The story line is that he now wants to be born, and something is haunting her, killing everyone that tries to help her in its path. She has to find a way to get rid of this demon, so she tries exorcism, which only makes it more angry and starts to take over other people's body to kill her. This film is very thrilling and jumpy and i did not it was too predictive as i did not know what was going to happen next which makes it more thrilling as it makes the audience anxious to watch more.

Group Meetings

- 10/12/09

In this meeting, we decided we would watch and analyse clips of some thriller films. We thought that by doing this it would give us some ideas about what to use in our film.

- 16/12/09

In this meeting, we decided that we had to make sure everyone was going to complete the practical coursework elements. We also exchanged contact details.

- 07/01/10

In this meeting, we looked at each persons plot summaries and decided on the one we would use. We took all summaries into consideration and used bits from each persons to put it together. 

- 14/01/10

In this meeting we made sure that all of the storyboarding was completed and we also edited some music that we are going to use in our film.

- 21/01/10

We decided on a date to film our thriller and made sure the props we needed were available for our use.

Wednesday 27th January 2010 lesson

Today we edited some of the music ideas and started to put our music together so it links well in the film.
We also started to put the beginning of the film together on final cut express and we also put our group meetings on the blog.

Music we can use for beginning of the Thriller

Risk Assessment

-Bumpy ground- possible sprain of the ankle- be careful when walking
-Dark outside- torch needed to be able to see
-Cables- be careful not to trip over them- look where you are going
-Torch running out of battery- make sure someone has charged the torch
-Transport- to make sure we get home safely
-Phone- in the case of any danger and support
-Make sure the camera does not get wet- place a coat over the camera when filming and make sure it is covered when it is required
-Make sure the camera is charged- make sure someone has charged the battery before we film.
-Make sure that everyone sticks together so that no-one gets lost, as it will be dark in the forest.