Final group thriller

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

West hatch high school - 16807

My candidate number : 9380

Alfie Harris : 9336

Amy Sowerby : 9367

Question five

My primary research was essential to my thriller film, the questionnaire allowed me to find out what the audience wanted in the thriller film and what they didn't want, the vox plots allowed the interviewees to explain their answers, helping us understand the audiences decisions and why they did or didn't want, for example, when questioned on what sort of iconography they wanted, the majority claimed they wanted knifes as it showed the antagonists dominance. We researched into conventions, age certificates, mise en scene, editing styles, cinematography and sound, I took inspiration from each, from research into conventions we took the idea of low key lighting from Halloween resurrection we took the idea of low key lighting, this was used in the scenes with the antagonist in, for our thriller we used it when the victim entered the forest, showing the danger she was in, similar to Halloween, in which the effect was successful, from research into editing styles we took ideas such as shot reverse shot, we took the idea of the reaction shot from the strangers, this successfully created shock when she sees the antagonist outside, helping create a relationship with the audience in which they feel sympathy toward her as they can she how she is feeling without saying a word, making them feel closer to the character, this is stereotypical in thrillers as they are commonly made to create relationships with the characters, we used this shot when the victim sees the antagonist and you can see the intense fear in her facial expression, from research into cinematography we took the idea of the panoramic shot to the antagonist, this was used in 'silence of the lambs' it created suspense and shock effectively, therefore we used it ourselves, we used this whilst she is walking through the forest to show her movement, this would create suspense, the audience wonder whether the antagonist may appear in a spot not on the screen, building suspense, lastly we took inspiration from research into sound, we took the idea of the high screech sound, used in 'silence of the lambs' in the presence of the antagonist, the use of this caused the audience to build a relationship with the audience, they fear him when he is on screen as the audience are shown that he is dangerous and is made to be feared. The primary and secondary research were key in the planning of our film, the primary research, questionnaires and vox plots, helped us understand what we should base our opening sequence on from target audience recommendations, the secondary research, screening, helped us understand what we should add, remove and re shoot in our sequence and therefore improve the opening sequence

Question four

The target audience is extremely important, knowing your target audience allows you to set the film to their preference and keep the film within their age limit, if the target audience is focused on then the film will be much more successful as you know what they want and therefore they are more likely to enjoy it, my target audience is the age group 19-25 years old, this allows for freedom within our film as we are not held back by restrictions of the age certificate and therefore more chance of creating a successful thriller for our target audience, our film used many micro elements to engage the target audience, we used different camera shots such as the point of view shot, used when the antagonist is chasing the female antagonist with a knife, the high angle, used when the female victim realises what is happening and runs away from the antagonist, we constantly changed the camera shot throughout scenes to make sure the audience didn't settle and relax and kept them on their toes, ready for a shock, mise en scene is used through the clothing of the characters, Chloe is dressed as a school girl, showing her innocence and creating sympathy, sound is used to create shock, whenever the antagonist is in shot the eerie soundtrack creates a shock and a fear toward the antagonist, making the audience link danger with this character. I used characters the audience can relate to so that they stay engaged in the film and take serious interest in what will happen to the character and really feel sympathy toward them, finally the eerie soundtrack will be used to create surprise, suspense and shock within the audience, the eerie soundtrack will keep the audience engaged as they wonder what is going to happen, keeping them engaged, my thriller appeals to the target audience as it is extremely conventional to the thriller genre, for example, conventional films such as Halloween use many similar conventions to our film such as a knife for a weapon and the male antagonist chasing the female victim

Question 6

Question three

Question 7

The preliminary task was to record a conversation between two people, from this I learnt how to edit videos and put shots together to create complete scenes/films and how to use the camera and tripod, also I learnt how to upload our video from final cut pro X to youtube, the skills I have learnt are how to use shots effectively and what shots should be used at what time, this was extremely helpful for our thriller film as it allowed me to be confident with the camera and I learnt how to edit using final cut pro X

Question 2

The main characters used in the thriller sequence were Chloe, played by Amy and Marius played by Alfie, these were used as we knew these characters would be great for creating a relationship with the audience. Chloe is around the same age as our target audience (15-25), so they can emphasise toward her and her situation whilst she is getting chased down by the antagonist and as he attacks her, also the fact that she is portrayed so innocently makes the audience sympathise toward her, mise en scene is also used to represent her as innocent as she is wearing school uniform which shows her as innocent, shocked that such a harmless person can be put in such a situation, Marius on the other hand will be feared by the audience, his sheer power and superiority will make the audience wary of him and cautious whenever he is on screen, he will be disliked by the audience due to him attacking the innocent character throughout the sequence, the characters are stereotypical to their genders, the female is innocent, weak and helpless against the antagonist, this is a convention of the thriller genre and has been proved to work in numerous other thriller films, this was also the reason the male character was powerful and superior over the victim, an example of when these have been used in a thriller is 'the shining', the male antagonist is dominant throughout the film, constantly chasing her, making her fearful whereas the female victim is always scared, trying to escape from the male

Intro + Question 1

The brief I was given was to create a two minute opening sequence that was conventional to the thriller genre, my group members were Me, Amy Sowerby and Alfie Harris. The production roles in film are the producer, who prepares and supervises filming throughout and decides what should be added, removed or re-shot, the role of the director is to focus on the dramatic aspect of filming, create a filming schedule and make sure everyone sticks to it and finally to make sure the film stays within the limits of the pre-planned age rating. The actors role is to play out the script/narrative and essentially create the directors vision of the film, the role of the director of photography is to be the 'chief' over the camera and lighting crew and make sure the filming is of a high standard, also the director of photography must decide on the filter and lens that should be used, this is an important factor when trying to create shock, surprise and suspense. The role of the music producer is to prepare and select appropriate sounds/soundtrack used to create a desired effect on the audience within a scene,. the role of the script writer is to basically create the narrative in the vision of the director, the role of the mise en scene co-ordinator is to decide on the intensity of lighting, costumes for each character, make up and hairstyles and the setting used, all key when trying to create shock, surprise or suspense, the final role is the editor, this role requires the editor to prepare and select visual and audible clips and piece them together to create scenes a the final product as a film.

My role was, as director, to create a filming schedule and make sure everyone stuck to it, also I had to position the actors during filming. During this role I learnt how to make a film schedule and about age ratings and what makes certain films certain age certificates, in my role as an actor I just played out my part in the narrative, I learnt how to use facial or body expressions to create shock, su
rprise or suspense, in my role as director of photography I had to make sure I filmed the scenes using the correct shots and timings, I learnt how to use different shots, angles and movements to create shock, suspense and surprise, in my role as editor I had to piece together scenes to create the film, during this I learnt how to attach and detach sounds from clips.
I feel we worked well as a group as we created a whole opening sequence by the deadline given to us and the opening sequence we made was successful as it recieved positive feedback during the screening, it also used conventions of the thriller genre effectively to create suspense, shock and surprise within the audience, engaging them into watching the film.

Example of male antagonist

Example of low key lighting and female victim

Example of knife

Example of isolated area

The conventions of the thriller genre are the low key lighting which is used throughout the sequence when she has entered the forest (like in se7en during the final scene), eerie soundtrack is used whenever the antagonist is in shot, signifying his danger and that the audience should be weary (like in the shining as he is walking up to the bathroom with the victim in), shock when the antagonist appears from behind the female victim, suspense is created when she looks at the picture of her pinned onto the tree and the music builds up tension, surprise is created when the picture of her is found pinned on the tree (these three conventions are a key aspect in every thriller), the knife is used to attack the victim toward the end where the screen blacks out (like in Halloween it is the antagonists key weapon throughout whilst attacking his victims), male antagonist is Marius (big convention, used in the majority of thrillers, one film it is used in is the shining, the male antagonist is the major character in the film and the narrative is based around him), female victim is Chloe (big convention, used in the majority of thrillers, one film it is used in is the shining, wife of male antagonist in shining, constantly running from the antagonist and is helpless throughout, similar to our protagonist) and an isolated area which is the forest (se7en use this in the final scene). I used many of the conventions of the thriller genre to engage the audience, low key lighting was used throughout once the victim has entered the forest to create an enigma as the audiences view is slightly restricted, the knife was used to portray the dominance of the antagonist. The fact he was male also portrayed his power over the innocent, helpless, female victim, finally the isolated forest created suspense as the audience wonder what is going to happen to the victim as they know it is unlikely that someone will be able to save the victim or that the victim will escape as she is in the middle of nowhere. I would compare my film to Halloween : resurrection, this film had a male antagonist who was attacking a female character, portraying who has the dominance, also a knife is used to show dominance as well, these are both used in the thriller sequence my group has created, also the use of low key lighting helped create enigma and suspense extremely well, this inspired us to use it as we wanted to create these effects and this film proved that it worked. Overall, my groups thriller was extremely conventional due to having a lot of characteristics of a thriller film, the title we used, Injurious, was conventional as it is an interesting name which draws the audiences attention and has an enigma around it as the audience wonder what it means, the meaning is to cause harm, this makes it, again, conventional to the thriller genre as you'd expect violence

Rough cut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxGxKTMcP30

Audience feedback is extremely important to a production, it allows you to see what you have done well and what needs improving within the film, with this you can make changes to the film and help improve the narrative, the feedback from the audience is extremely important as they are the people that will be watching the film, if they do not enjoy certain parts then it should be taken out as it is made for the target audience, also if there are certain parts the audience enjoy then this should specifically be kept in, if this is done the film will be much more successful.

We received feedback from the audience by screening the film in class, the class then told us what they thought went well and what needed to be improved, this was perfect as it fits the age range we had as the target audience so could see what our audience wanted in the film and what they enjoyed, we can now change our film to suit the target audience as they have told us what is needed, as this is face to face so the audience can explain their reasoning for their disliking or liking of certain aspects (we could not use youtube as our video did not upload).

This benefited us as we could change our film to suit the preferences of our target audience, making it much more successful and enjoyable for the audience due to us being able to change parts the audience say they dislike or keep parts they particularly enjoy, this improves the production and makes this could also be helpful for it much more engaging for the audience. The film industry are benefited as they can get a much wider opinion from their target audience as they have much more resources, they can get the same benefits as us, but from a much wider range of the target audience and get more improvements and more detailed feedback, overall this is useful for both, us and the film industry as it helps us realise what we need to create conventions of the thriller genre as well as making it enjoyable and engaging on the audience.

We received numerous positive comments from the audience after the screening of our film, the first was a comment on our use of dim filter and that it creates suspense and tension extremely well, also saying it is conventional to the thriller genre, this was a great comment as it showed we produced what we attempted to, we wanted to create suspense with this filter and it clearly worked. The next comment was that the constant changing of shots keeps the film interesting, again this was what we wanted, we wanted the audience to be engaged within the films and the changing of shots clearly does this, we changed the shots throughout and tried not to stay on one shot for too long to keep the audience on their toes and not let them get comfortable with one shot, this is great for creating shock and surprise. The final comment was about how the credits appear over the first few shots yet do not restrict the view for the audience, this is good feedback as I was unsure whether the credits were correct and whether they took the focus off of the narrative, but the audience clearly thought it was a good balance, we planned before hand the beginning shots so that there would be space for the credits to fit in, this clearly worked well and will be used in the final product.

Along with the positive comments there was criticisms as well, which is needed if we want to improve our product, the first was about the absence of a soundtrack throughout, we did have soundtrack and sounds but they were not constantly present within the film, this was a problem that we noticed before we screened the rough cut, this was a problem as it was meant to be there to create suspense but we will add it to the final product, the constant soundtrack is a well known key convention and will be a main addition to our final product. Another criticism was that two antagonists were confusing to the narrative, we agreed with this and can see the problem, we want the narrative to be as simple, yet effective as possible on the audience, engaging them into watching and enjoying the film, being able to create suspense, surprise and shock. The final comment was about the part where the victim blacks out, the member of the audience explained that the black out was too long and the audience may think this is the ending, and that it loses the attention of the audience, when this was pointed out our group could see where this was coming from and agreed, we do not want the audience to lose attention and not be engaged but we do want to create the effect of a black out, this creates shock and suspense but when used too long becomes boring and the audience will become disinterested in the narrative.

Based on the comments we received we know what to change, we agree with all the points given so completely understand what to change and why we are changing it, firstly we will add a soundtrack that will linger throughout the sequence, this will help create suspense, shock, surprise throughout and will keep the audience engaged, this soundtrack will accompany the other sounds in the sequence like the heart beats, etc. The next improvement will be the removing of my character as an antagonist, this became confusing to the audience and did not make sense with the narrative, my character was unneeded and will not be used in the final product making it easier for the audience to follow keeping them engaged, therefore more appealing to the target audience, we will also make the black out effect a lot shorter so that it keeps the audience engaged as well as creating the effect we want from it, shock and suspense. One final thing that I would like to add which was not mentioned in the criticisms is that the antagonist should be wearing a mask, this creates a sense of enigma as to who the killer is, therefore creating suspense within the audience and surprise when this is revealed.