My Thiller Evaluation

Thriller Evaluation

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

An opening sequence is the most important part of a thriller as this is the first thing that the audience will see of the film. Therefore, it needs to give a good impression of the film so then the audience will want to carry on and watch the rest, it needs to grab their attention and make them feel excited about what is going to happen next after the opening sequence, so then the audience will want to watch the rest of the film. If the opening sequence does not make the audience feel like this then in most cases they will not be bothered to carry on and watch the rest of the film as they will think it looks boring. That is why the opening sequence is so important. However, although the opening sequence needs to be exciting and give the audience little clues of what is going to happen throughout the film, it cannot give too much away to the audience because then they will already know what is going to happen so why would they bother to watch the rest. So as you can see it’s extremely important that you get the opening sequence just right. To help achieve this perfect opening sequence I looked at some of the codes and conventions of some other opening sequences. I found that in most of them the music created a tense atmosphere, the title of the film is always shown, non-digetic sound is used to create suspense, you get introduced to the main character, main location gets introduced, credits are shown, dialogue is often used, hints of what is going to happen in the story are put in, low key lighting is used and tension building and low base music is normally used. My opening sequence has got most of these conventions in it as the two main characters are introduced (the little girl and the unknown man), main location is introduced as we see the unknown man in the garage where he will later take the little girl, I created tension building and low base music that makes the audience feel tense and excited, the credits are shown, hints are put in of what is going to happen in the film and I feel that my opening sequence has really drawn the audience in and created that exciting and tense atmosphere to make them want to carry on and watch the rest of the film. However, in some ways my opening sequence has challenged the codes and conventions of opening sequences as although we get an idea of who the main character is going to be he hasn’t really been introduced to the audience as we do not see his face and he isn’t shown much. The reason I did this though was because I thought that it created a bit of mystery for the audience as this man could be anyone. Also the other main character is the little girl again she does not really get introduced either, we see her sitting on the swing and running down the street and that is it but again I thought that this would create mystery for the audience as they will be unsure of what is happening. My opening sequence then challenges the codes and conventions again as the lighting used is very high key in some place but then in others it’s very low key. The reason that I added in the high key lighting was because I wanted to show a contrast of the good and bad as the low key lighting is used when the villain is shown and then the high key lighting is used when the victim is shown. This gives the audience and idea of what the characters are like and what their roles are going to be in the film. Finally, no dialogue is used in my opening sequence and non-digetic sound is not used either. I felt that this was not needed in an opening sequence because again it creates mystery and tension because the characters are not talking and all you can hear is tension building music. I just wanted the audience to focus on this music which is why I did not put in any non-digetic sounds either, the music really gives that exciting and tense feeling so I thought by just making the audience hear this it would make them feel that way too and make them want to carry on and watch the rest to then hear the character’s speaking as they will want to find out why they weren’t and who they are. Although my thriller does stick to most of the codes and conventions from other opening sequences I believe that is does have its own style too. As my thriller is about a stalker I have tried to add a bit of mystery into the opening sequence so then the audience do not know who the stalker is, I think that this aspect of the opening sequence really makes my thriller stand out as in most films the main character in my case the villain would normally be introduced. This really creates suspense and tension to the audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My thriller has quite an open and wide range audience as it does not attract one particular type of social group. It could be aimed at middle aged adults with children as it shows them the dangers in society for their children. It also shows that although you may think your child would be safe just travelling to school and back on their own or just going to the park on their own they might not always be safe as there are many people out there who want to harm children for no reason. This opening sequence really does show the dangers of just everyday life and implies that just because you let your child do this every day it’s still not safe as just one person could make a difference in that child’s everyday life. I believe it really does send out the message that most parents say to their children “don’t talk to strangers” and persuades parents that this message is very important to keep telling their children. My thriller could also be aimed at young naive children that go to school as it shows them of what could happen if you do not listen to your parents or if you do talk to strangers. As the thriller is very realistic it shows the children that it’s very true to real life and persuades them more to be aware of other people they do not know and as the child in the thriller is their age this also makes it feel more realistic for them. If I had to put it down to just one social group I would have to say working class people because it is them who seem to have the problem of taking their children to and from school as they might not be able to as they need to get to work themselves. Therefore, this thriller really relates to them as it shows them the dangers their children might face when walking to school or going anywhere on their own really. The message of this film really is to just make sure your children are aware of other people as not everyone is as they seem. As you can see this film really does relate to everyone as everyone in life has once been told by their parents “not to talk to strangers”. However, I think that children under the age of 12 would not be suitable to watch this film as it might be too violent and scary for them as they are not at an old enough age to understand these kinds of dangers yet. So I believe the main audience for my thriller would be middle aged adults and above (25 and above) who have little children or once did have little children as they could really relate to this film as they have experienced how hard and fretful it is being a parent and letting your child go out on their own. The main social group for my thriller would be working class people.

How did you attract/address your audience?

As I have said above the audience for my thriller is middle aged adults and above (25and above) who have children or once did have little children. I have attracted my audience to the film by putting in some events of what they might have to face in their everyday life with their own children. For example most parents always say to their children “do not talk to strangers” and this film really sends that message across as it is about a young girl being stalked by an older man. I have also attracted them by making it very realistic. For example the locations in my thriller are a street, park and garage. The park and the street are what most children would go to on an everyday bases, when they are walking to school, going to meet their mates or just going to have a play at the park. These locations are all very familiar to my audience as they would have had to take their children to these places or let their children go to the park, this is why it would be very realistic for them. The garage is just a typical place in a lot of stalker films where they tend to keep their victims as its dark, cold and looks creepy to the audience. Also as the child in the film is the same age as most of my audience’s children this will attract them to the film and make it a lot more realistic to them. The person who stalks the little girl in the thriller is a man and the victim is a girl, this is very typical as parents would normally tend to tell their children to be more wary of men as they are the stronger and more powerful gender and they are normally the typical character that would be the stalker in a film. This again makes it more realistic to the audience. I have also made sure that what the little girl looks like is very typical of what every little girl would look like so I made sure she was the right age and choose her to wear a school uniform as this is very typical of what any girl of that age would wear with their hair tied back into a pony tail and no makeup on their face, they just look very natural as most parents would say “your too young to wear makeup”. Finally, I made sure that the lighting was realistic by making it very natural when the girl was walking along the street and on the park as this is what anyone would expect it to look like in everyday life.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The institution that I think might distribute my media project is Paramount pictures. As they have made films such as Along Came a Spider and this film is about a stalker who kidnaps a child just like what my film is about. They have also made a film called Vertigo which is a bit scary and creates tension to the audience when you watch it. Although these two films are both quite different they both have elements in them which I have in my film such as tension building, mystery and a stalker. All the films that Paramount has made are all very different in some ways but I think that they all are the same thriller genre and some include mystery just like my film. So I think that this is the perfect company that would distribute my film as it makes films that are quite similar to mine in some ways.

The other institution company which i think would distribute my company is New line Cinema as one of the films which this company made was Se7en. This film was the inspiration for my opening sequence as i really liked the way that it gave the audience little hints of what was going to happen throughout the film and i added this is my opening sequence. It also gave the tension and edgy feeling which i wanted my thriller to be like. Therefore i think that this instition would be a great choice for my film as it has been a great inspiration for me making my opening sequence and a lot of other films that New Line Cinema have produced are the same genre (thriller) as mine too so i think that this would be a great company to choose as they have created same style films as mine.

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

I have learnt a lot about technologies while making my film as there are many things which I used that I didn’t know were used when making films. For example I used a HD camera when I was filming my opening sequence. I found it very tricky to keep the camera still when I was holding it so sometimes the shots were a bit shaky, but eventually I overcame the problem and was able to hold the camera and get the shot looking still. That is really all the technology that we used while making the film because most of the film was shot outside in the daytime we didn’t really need a light as we wanted the lighting to look very natural. However, when I did the preliminary task I used a light that made the shot a lot more clear when we filmed it, the room was very dark and you could not see the characters faces and you really needed to see their expressions to understand the shot, so a bit of high key lighting showed their facial expressions very clearly. When the editing stage came in the film making process I got the chance to use an editing program called Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. I found it very tricky to work out at the beginning because there was so many options I wasn’t too sure what they were all for but finally I got the hang of it and was able to create lots of effects on my opening sequence. For example I added in credits with bold fonts, added a black fade out and a white fade in (dissolve effect) and I also added in some overlapping of text on the images. Finally, when I was creating the music I got the chance to use some recording equipment and we was able to add some effects to our music which made it some very low base and tension building.

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

Looking back at the preliminary task I think that I have learnt a variety of skills that have made my final piece excellent. When I was doing the preliminary task I was finding the editing and filming very tricky to get right. The shots always seemed to look shaky and I didn’t really understand how to use the editing program very well. I was struggling with a lot of things which is why I believe it helped me a lot to work with one other person as there was so much to do and I thought that the other person I worked with would be able to help me with the bits which I didn’t understand and then I could help them with the bits they didn’t understand, and it really did work. I have now learnt how to use the camera and editing program properly. I have also learnt that if I worked with more than just one other person I think it would have been extremely hard to spilt the work equally between us and being able to get together and film the thriller would have been very hard too, because there is a lot of you it’s hard to find a time when everyone is free and that is when you start getting behind with the filming. I have also found that research is very important because in the preliminary task we didn’t really research the kind of film we were going to do, we just did a story board and then got on with it. However, when I did my thriller project I really did my research well and looked at all the different films with the same genre and looked at all the codes and conventions they used and I felt that all that research really helped me when it came to filming the thriller because I really understood what kind of characters I needed, how my characters needed to act, what costumes they needed to wear, the location and the lighting. It also really helped when we were creating the music because after research we realized it really needed to be low base and tension building. Overall, I think that this project has shown me just how much work really goes in to making a film and how much time you need to make it. I have learnt that you can’t just go on and make a film the planning needs to take just as long as what the filming and editing takes because every single part of making a film is extremely important.

Final Edit of the Thriller

This is the final edit for the thriller opening sequence.

The Editing of the First Draft

Firstly, we got all the shots that we had taken up on the computer screen and then put them in order that we wanted them to be seen on Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, where we then edited the shots. The first thing that we did on editing was pick a logo for the production company (keychain productions), we found an image on google that we liked and then put it on fireworks to edit the image the way we wanted it to look. Next we added the image to the running order of our shots on Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and placed it at the beginning as normally in every film the first thing that you would see is the production logo before the film begins. After we got the image in the correct place which we wanted it on the screen we added in the text (Keychain productions) under the logo. We decided to make the text bold and white so then it would stand out in the black background. We also added an orange glow into the text as this matched the colour of the key and we thought this made the text look more colourful and effective. Next we needed to make the text for the titles that would go in the middle of each shot. We decided to choose a bold and black font with a white shadow so then we would be able to see the text against the black background. The white shadow also gave the creepy thriller effect. Then we added a white dissolve effect when the shot was going from dark to light this made the shots flow a lot more nicely together and showed the contrast from the darkness(villain) to the light(Little girl). We also added a black dissolve when the shots were going from white to black this again made the shots flow more and showed a contrast again. Finally, we added in the text for the title of our film (The Unfortunate Souls)and it overlapped the image of our last shot, then it went to a black screen with just the title on and then it finally dissolved to just a black screen. We thought that this was a good way to end the opening sequence as the black screen leaves the audience wondering what is going to happen next and anything could happen, it's unpredictable which makes the audience feel tense and on edge. Also we thought that ending the opening sequence with the title of the film adds all the little shots that they had seen before together and they will finally get an idea of what the film is going to be about before it begins as the title makes them understand what all the little shots before are about, this will make them want to carry on and watch the rest of the film. Music was the last thing that we added, we made the music ourselves and it's really low base and then builds up as the opening sequence goes on. Then at the end you hear a "boom" when we see the title on the film and this ends the music. We thought that making the music like this would add tension to the audience as the music is building up it makes the audience go on the edge of their seats as they will be wondering what the music is building up to. The "boom" is the end of the climax and we thought that a big sound at the end would be a good way to end the sequence as it's a very certain ending.

The First Draft for the Thriller

This is the first draft for my thriller.

The Filming of the Thriller

Firstly, we went to the location where we were shooting the thriller. We went to the park first and did some shots with the young girl on the swing. We decided to do a point of view shot from behind a bush as with thought this would give the effect that someone was watching the little girl while she was at the park. We then did some shots of the little girls feet while she was running, we thought that this would be a good effect as the audience would not know if the girl was running away from someone or she could just still be getting watched whilst she's playing at the park. We thought that this would add tension to the audience watching. After the park we did some close up shots of the little girls feet again running along a street, we again thought this would look as though she was running away from a stalker. We was going to have the little girl walking with her mum but with thought it would be more effective if the little girl was alone. The problems we had whilst shooting these parts were that we found it very difficult to follow the girl while she was swinging on the swing so it looked abit blury afterwards but we thought that this was a good effect. Next we went to the garage, we did an over the shoulder shot of the man looking at the pictures of all the children and then the last shot that we got to was of the girl on the swing at the park, we then zoomed the camera in on this picture so then the audience would get the impression that this whole film was going to be focused on this one little girl. We thought that it was really good that we had a picture of the girl at the park and then a shot of the girl at the park because it really shows that this man has been following her. The last shot we did was another over the shoulder shot of the man looking again in the book of the picture of the little girl and then he closes the book. We thought that this shot would be good as we thought this would be a good end to the opening sequence, with the man just closing the book. The problems that we had in the garage were that there was not much lighting as there were no windows so when we flimed the man it came out really dark. So we had to get a light and flash it over the man while he was looking at the book so then you could also see the pictures a lot more clearly. This was very difficlut as we didn't want to much light as we were trying to make this part of the opening sequence look a bit darker to show that he was the villian. We eventurly overcame the problem by putting a sheet in front of the light so not as much light came through and the lighting was just right.

The Story Board for my Thriller

In the first story board frame there is a title of the production company 'key chain productions'. I wanted to put in a company logo to my thriller as all films include this so i think that it would make my thriller look a lot more professional and realistic. In the second story board frame there is a high angle, over the shoulder shot of a man reading a book. This shot will be a black and white to show the contrast between the scary place with the horrible man and the happy place where the little girl is good and Innocent. In this shot you will see him opening a book with pictures of all the other victims he has murdered, this will automatically show the audience what the film is going to be about, kidnapping, murdering and stalking children. The next shot is the titles all of these will have a black background and the font will be white. It will also be flashing, this gives the audience the impression that it's like a flash of a camera as he has been taking pictures of the little girl, the black background creates mystery. In the second frame when the man is looking through the book the last picture in the book that we will see is a picture of the girl and then in frame 3 the screen after the title quickly changes to the girl playing on the swing, this again creates contrast between the good and the bad places as whenever the girl is seen it will be in colour. Frame 5 is again more titles and all these will be the same. Frame 6 is a long, side shot of the man in his place where he murders all the children, this sets the scene and gives the audience the impression that the man is very evil as we can see all the knifes and things he uses to kill all his victims. This again will be in black and white, whenever the man is seen that shot will always be black and white to show contrast between the good little girl and the evil man. Frame 8 is the shot of the little girl walking down her street in her school clothes this shot is used to make the thriller seem realistic because this is what any girl of her age would be doing, walking to school. Frame 10 is a close up shot of the man wearing a mask, this creates tension to the audience and mystery as they do not know who this man is. It also makes the audience feel scared as the shot is very creepy and gives you an idea of what the man is like, scary. Frame 12 is again another establishing shot of the girl playing on the park, this shot is taken behind a bush to give the impression that the man is watching the little girl. This adds tension and makes the audience feel anxious. Frame 11 is again a behind the shoulder shot of the man looking at the picture of the little girl and stroking it then closing the book. This shows the audience that this is the main two characters of the thriller and makes the man seem like he is almost obsessed with her, which makes him seem creepy and strange. I thought that all these shots gave the audience little hints of what to expect in the film which would make them want to carry on watching the film to find out what happens. After we see the man closing the book the screen will quickly turn to black and then the title of the film will appear in big, white font. Throughout these shots will will be hearing giggling from the little girl and the music will be very low bass and constantly building up and then at the end the music will become slow again. This adds tension to the audience with the music building up and the giggling shows that the theme of the film is children and the giggling makes it more creepy. The last thing the audience will hear is the giggling of the girl this again makes the thriller seem creepy and weird. No dialogue is used throughout as i feel silence adds tension.

Locations being used in my thriller

The locations that i have decided to choose for my opening sequence of my thriller are:

• A park- The reason i choose this park for one of my locations in the thriller opening sequence is because it seemed like a perfect and realistic place that children would go and play. The park would show the audience this is the childs happy and safe place. This implies that later on in the film the girl will be in a scary and unsafe place (the garage) so this shows the audience a contrast of the two places. It was also a good place where the man could look as though he was stalking the girl as there are many bushes around the park that we could shoot the man hiding behind looking at the girl. Also the fact that the girl was playing and having fun on a park makes her seem a lot more inocent and vunerable on a park playing on her own. Finally, this location shows the audience what the little girls personality is like as it's bright, pretty and natural. This again shows the little girls innocence.

• A garage- I picked this location for the villian as it was very dark and mysterious. This would create tension to the audience whenever they saw this location as it would seem scary to them and make them very anxious. It also seemed like the perfect place that a kidnapper would put his victum, in a cold, scruffy room. It also showed the audience the contrast between the horrid, unsafe place for the child and the happy place for the child (the park). Seeing this location in the opening sequence also would show the audience a little glimps of what the child would be put through and make them want to carry on and watch the film. Also the dark, weird place would give the audience the impression of what this character is like very evil and mysterious.


All these things in the garage will be taken out to give it the location the dull and scary effect that i want as i have explained above.

• A Street- We don't see this location often but when this location is shown all we see is the little girl walking down the street with her mum wearing her school uniform. This shows that the girl is very young, innocent and vunerable as she is just a little girl that still needs to be walked to school by her mum. This also makes the film seem a lot more realistic as this is what any girl of that age would be doing. This location is very bright and colourful and shows that the girl is very happy just going carrying on with her everyday normal happy life not knowning that anything else is happening. This again shows her vunerability.

The Title of the film

Firstly i came up with the name MINE for the film. I thought that this would be a good name for it as the plot of the film is about a man being obsessed with one child and the word "mine" really refelcts on something that you really think should be yours and the man really wants that one girl to be his. However, i changed the title of my film to THE UNFORTUNATE SOULS. I felt that this went better with the theme of the film as i decided to change the plot to be about a man that enjoyed murdering young children. Although the film was showing you how he kidnapped one perticular child (Ellie) in the opening sequence you get to see pictures of his other victums, so i felt that the title showed that the man has done this crime before. I got the idea of the title because whenever adults are talking to young, inocent children they tend to say "bless her little soul" so putting the word unfortunate with souls reflects on the idea that the man is kidnapping these young souls and shows that the children are inocent and do not deserve to be murdered.

Filming Schedule

Risk Assesment

Props being used in the Thriller

I am not using that many props in the thriller as the location has pretty much everything that i need to show off the stalking idea, for example bushes to hide behind. However, the props that i am using are a school bag, a mask and a book full of pictures of all the young victims.

• The mask- This is for the villian to wear in one of the shots when he is in the garage. This shows the character to be very mysterious and scary as we can not see his face.

• The school bag- I am using this prop to make it seem realistic that the girl has just been to school as this is what a normal school girl would take with her to school. It also shows the childs vunerability.

• The book- I have decided to get a book full of pictures of the mans victums as this shows the audience that the man has already kidnapped many children before. I am going to draw a red x on each of the picures of the girls as this will give the audience the impression that the girls with the x's on he has already kidnapped and murdered. This book will show the audience how evil and distured the man is as he has been able to do this to so many young innocent children.

Ideas for the thriller

This is a mindmap of some of the ideas that i came up with for my thriller. I started off thinking about the plot of my film, i decided on the idea of a man being obsessed about kidnapping and murdering young, inocent children. For my film i will be focusing on one perticular child (Ellie, the young actress). The film will be showing how he kidnapped her and how he was so obsessed with her. After deciding on the plot line of the film i could then start putting in the ideas for the opening sequence. I decided that for the soundtrack i would use a nursery ryme and make it sound very creepy and slow. I thought that this would be a good idea because it will go with the theme of the film as it's about children. However, i found that the nursery ryme was not giving the right effect on the opening sequence that i wanted, it did not create tension and excitment which i wanted the audience to feel. Instead i decided to just go with a heavy based instrument playing low that creates tension to the opening sequence, as the sequence gets furthur towards the end the music will build up to create excitment and to make the audience feel anxious. Some of the other sounds you will hear in the opening sequence will be giggling of the children, this will be non-digetic sound, i felt that this would make the opening seem a lot more creepy and it would go with the theme of the children. I got my idea for this opening sequence after i watched the opening sequence of se7en. I really liked how it was giving you quick flashes of what you were going to expect to see in the film, this is how i wanted my opening sequence to look like because it created tension and made you want to carry on and watch the rest of the film. Se7en also gave me the idea for the plot of my film as it was about a murderer, so i decided to take some of my ideas from this film which is how i came up with the child murderer. I thought that one of the props the man could be holding in the sequence was a book full of pictures of all his victums. I was firstly just going to have a book full of pictures of the one child (Ellie) but it would have been hard to find loads of pictures of one girl so instead i decided to have pictures of all his victums to show that he has done this horrible crime before. The will also anger the audience as they would not like the fact that he has been getting away with doing the crime, so it will add tension and make the audience on edge and it will make them want to carry on and watch the film as they want to see if he will get caught or not. When we see a picture of the character Ellie in the book (black and white) the screen will then quickly edit to a flash back of her playing at the park (colour). I decided that when we see Ellie happy and safe this part will be in colour but whenever we see the man in his house it will turn black and white. This will show the audience the difference between the places that are good, safe and happy for Ellie and the places where Ellie will be very unhappy and unsafe. It will also show that the man is very dangerous as he is always shown in black and white. For the credits i decided that they would be flicking between the shots randomly every now and then on a black screen. I again got this idea from the film se7en, i thought the flickering of the credits made them look scary and they stood out. I was going to have the girl laying on a matress looking scared in one of the shots to show the audience that this is what the girl will look like when she gets kidnapped by the man. However, it would have been hard to find a matress to put in a dirty garage so we decided to cut this shot out of the opening sequence. Also we didn't want the audience to know that the girl did get kidnapped, we wanted them to want to watch the film and find out for themseleves. The whole of this opening sequence will have a black screen behind whatever is going on, this makes it creepy, dark and mysterious.

Target Audience Research

Below is the questions that i asked people and what my outcome of the questionnaire was.

Target Audience Questionnaire

1/ What is your favourite kind of thriller?

• horror
• crime
• action
• supernatural
• religious
• political
• mystery

2/ What age do you think thrillers are mainly aimed at?

• 5 or below
• 6-10
• 11-14
• 15-18
• 20- 30
• 50 or above

3/ Where do you think the best place is for a thriller to be located?

• Woods
• cities
• house

What i found out after asking my questionnaire to people-

Question 1- The main 2 favourite kinds of thrillers that people choose were horror and mystery. This implies that audiences like feeling on edge and tension in a thriller as both of these kinds of thrillers create that feeling to an audience. Also it shows that the audience like something to solve whilst watching a thriller as this is what a mystery thriller normally contains for the audience. It shows that they like the feeling of not knowning is going to happen next as both of these kinds of thrillers give this feeling.

Question 2- Most people i asked thought that thrillers are normally aimed at 15- 18 year olds and above. This shows that audience think that thrillers are to completed or scary for younger people to watch. It also shows that audiences expect that thrillers should relate to older people.

Question 3- The most popular answer for this was cities. This shows that audiences like to see places that they are familar with and that they can relate to in a thriller as most people tend to walk through a city in their everyday lives.

Character Profiles/ Actors

Elena Bowley

Character name- Ellie

Costume- The costume that i decided to get this character to wear is her school uniform. It is a light blue shirt, navy blue shirt, tights and black flat shoes. It shows the young girl to be a lot more inocent and vunerable. It also makes it look a lot more realistic to the audience as this is what a girl of that age would be doing (going to school) and that is the outfit that she would wear.

Age- 10, i wanted someone who was quite young to play the part as it would show they were vunerable. However, i didn't want anyone very young (6 or under) as i felt someone of this age would never really be on their own, they would be with there mum or dad most of the time so it would be hard later on in the film for someone to kidnap them. A 10 year old goes out with friends and things so this would be easier to make it look realistic of how the man kidnaps the girl.

Gender- female, i decided to use a female character as we thought that it would make the character seem a lot more inocent and weak as the murderer is a man.

Makeup- The makeup will be natural as i want it to look realistic of what a girl of that age would look like, normally at 10 you are just starting to experiment with makeup but your mum wouldn't let you wear it for school, only special occasions so i just wanted her to look natural as this is what any girl of her age would look like.

Why is she right for the part? Although this girl does not have any acting experience i felt that she was right for the part. There is no diolouge used throughout the opening sequence, only maybe a little at the end is needed but this will be very easy to do as we could easily just record it as the diologue is going to be non-digetic, as you will not see the girl as she is saying it. There is very little acting involved all we will need her to do is walk down a street or play on a park and these are things that she will do in her everyday life so im sure she will be able to do this part very easily. She is also right age and gender for the part as we need a young, female as this will make them seem a lot more vunerable to a big, tough man.

Nick Chawner

Character name- Unknown, the reason i have decided not to give this character a name is because it then makes it a lot more mysterious to the audience. It also adds a lot more tension as this man could be anyone.

Costume

Shot 1- He will be wearing a white mask, this is so you can not see his face as this shot is a close up, it will make it a lot more mysterious to the audience if they do not know who he is and it will make them want to carry on and watch the rest of the film. It also makes him look quite scary. He will also be wearing a black t-shirt, black trousers and black shoes. The reason i have decided to put him in all black is because if he is going to kidnap a child then he needs to be hiden so then the audience or the other characrers in the film will not know who he is. It also makes him seem mysterious to the audience and makes it a lot more realistic as this is what people tend to wear if they are going to do a crime.

Shot 2- He will not be wearing his mask in this shot as his face will not be shown. This will make the audience very anxious as his face could easily be seen but the camera never shows you his face. Everything else will be the same.

Age- 49/50, I wanted to use a man who was a lot older than the little girl because this way it makes the girl seem a lot more vunerable and inocent.

Gender- Male, I wanted to use a male for the part as the victum was a little girl so using a man makes the girl seem a lot more vunerable and weak.

Makeup- N/A, no makeup will be used for the man as we want to make it very realistic of what a villian would look like and if he was planning on kidnapping a girl he would not have time to apply makeup. So we just want him to look normal as this also makes him seem a lot more manly.

Why is he right for the part? Again this man does not have any acting experience. However, i think he is right for the part because no diolouge or acting is required. He is hardly seen in the opening sequence, only parts of his body are shown and his face is never seen. Also he is the right age and gender as a older man makes the little girl seem a lot more weak and vunerable. He is a very well built man that can give that 'tough' image to the audience. This again shows the girls vunerability.

Analysis of Opening Sequences

se7en

Mise-en-Sene
The mise-en-scene in the thriller opening of Se7en are the lighting is very low key, this adds tension to the opening and makes the audience feel on the edge on their seats before the scene has even started. There are many gory images of hands and the person is peeling skin off of his hands. This gives the impression to the audience that then main character in this thriller is going to be rather unusual and maybe even insane, as he is able to peel skin off his fingers and these are things that people would find rather disturbing and horrid. This will make the audience want to carry on and watch the thriller as this gives them a little glimps of what the character is going to be like and they will want to find out more about this character by watching the rest of the film. There are also many pictures of peoples faces in black and white being crossed out in black pen. This implies that the character may be a murderer and he is crossing out the victums which he has murdered, this is giving the audience a little glimps of what the film is going to be about. We also see many sharp objects such as needles and knifes, the man is putting these through his fingers. This again shows the audience what to expect in the film, for exampl there may be a lot of violence involved as knifes are maybe trying to represent danger in the film. Also it is very typical of a murderer to carry a sharp weapon to kill his victums so this creates tension with the audience as they will be wondering what he is going to be using them knifes for.
Camera Work
Most of the shots is the whole of the opening sequence are close up shots. We first see a pair of horrible looking hands in a book. This will seem very unusual to the audience which will make them want to carry on watching the film to find out what these strange items are all about. Then we see a close up shot of a pair of hands peeling skin of their fingers. Again this seems very strange and the audience will tink that the person doing this to themseleves must be very insane, but the fact that we can't see the person will create mystery and make the audience feel anxious to find out more about this person. The camera sometimes zooms in on an objects, this could maybe be trying to show the importance of that object in the film.
Sound
At the beginning of the opening sequence the music starts very slow but as it gets towards the end of the opening sequence the music gradually gets faster. This builds up tension in the opening sequence and makes the audience feel on edge, it makes it seem to the audience that the music is building up to something big which makes the audience feel very anxious. We also hear non-digetic sounds of screeching and screaming nosies. These kinds of nosies are used to send shivers up the audience's spines which will create a weird feeling and atmosphere for the audience whilst watching the film. The screaming nosies could be there to reflect the screams of his innocent victums which he has murdered. These screams show the audience what to expect in this thriller, shows there might be violence and danger involved.
Editing
Editing is used in the opening sequence when the credits keep flickering on the screen. The flickering makes the credits stand out when they are being shown over an image in the opening sequence. The flickering of the credits has also been added as this creates another unusual thing in the opening sequence and this again implies that the film is going to be full of strange things and reflects on the main characters personality. When we see a close up shot of a pair of hands writing in a book a shadow is created right next to his hand. This is used to make the shot seem creepy to the audience. There are a lot of quick edits and cuts from scene to scene to scene and the these become a lot more frequent towards the end of the opening sequence, when the music is buliding up as well. This will create tension and make the scene feel very hectic, this reflects on the main characters personality and shows the person to be rather insane. This again shows the audience whats to come in the thriller which is craziness and unusual things. Finally, the screen every now and again changes colour to red. This demonstrates that there is going to be danger and violence in the film. Also as the colour red is accosiated with blood this could be showing the audience that the film is about murder, so the screen changes to red to imply that it's the blood of the persons victims he/she has murdered.





The Panic Room

Mise-en-Scene
In the opening sequence all that we really see is buildings and cars. The reason for this is that these things are very familar with the audience and they will see them in their everyday life's. This will make the film seem a lot more realistic to the audience if it is shot in a place which they are familar with, in this case a city. Another reason the city has been shown is because it is showing the audience the place that the whole film is going to be set, so establishing the location of the film. The cars are there as this is what you would typically see in a city and this will make the scene seem a lot more realistic to the audience again. Finally, the lighting is natural and again this is to make it seem realistic of what a typical city would look like.
Camera Work
As soon as the scene begins there is an establishing shot of a city and then the camera slowly zooms in. This is to show the audience that the main setting for the film is going to be in a city. There is close up shots of buildings and establishing shots of cars going past. These are used to show the typical things that you would see in a city, this makes the scene seem a lot more realistic to the audience.
Sound
We can hear digectic sounds of cars going past and car horns beeping. This is to show the audience the typical nosies which you would hear in a city, again making it seem realistic. The music is played very low and as the scene goes on the music is gradually getting faster. This is to build up tension as it makes the audience feel as though something is buliding up to happen. This will also make the audience feel anxious as they are wondering why the music is building up so much, what is going to happen. As the music is getting faster a non-digetic sound of a clock ticking can be heard and as the music is getting faster so is the ticking noise. This is used to demonstate that maybe in the film time is against them and it also creates more tension to the audience as they will be wondering why time is against them. This will make them want to carry on watching the film and find out more.
Editing
The credits used are plain but bold and placed over images of buildings. The credits are bold so they can be seen easily over another image but the reason for them being shown over images of buildings is again to show the audience the main location of the film. There are many quick edits from scenes of buildings to another scene of buildings. This is again to establish the main location of the film.

Conventions of thriller opening sequences

• Music creates a tense atmosphere
• Title of the film is most of the time shown
• Non-digetic sound music is used to create suspence
• You get introduced to the main character
• Main location is introduced this is normally somewhere familar to the audience
• Enigmas are usually created
• Credits are shown
• Hints of the story line are shown to make the audience want to watch the rest of the film as they want to know what happens
• Low key lighting used creates a scary and dull mood to the audience
• Deep base instruments are used to create tension
• Tension building music used

Thriller Research- Conventions of Thriller sound

• Tense music is used
• When the main character is in a life threatening situation the music starts slow and then gradually builds up to make the audience on the edge on their seats and it shows the danger getting greater
• Low base instruments are normally used to create tension
• Music is normally in a minor scale
• It's nervracking and makes the audience feel anxious
• Non-digetic music is used this creates suspence
• Digetic sound is used to make the film look more realistic
• The music creates the mood in the thriller
• The music can show the audience the difference between the victums and the villians
• It shows characters personalities, for example if it was about a mental person, when we see him on screen the music will go all unusual to show his insane personality

More Thriller Conventions

Narrative

The narrative of a thriller is normally shown from two characters point of view. The first being the protagonist, which involves the audience more in events and creates empasthy for the character. Sometimes the story is told from the view of the villian, which can lead to empathy for the villian also at their twisted understanding or disturbing past that has led to the present. Although it can also create a sense of guilt. Also the story can be told from the point of view of an onlooker, detatching the audience from events so they are more observent.
The storyline in thrillers enable the audience to guess what is going to happen next, this causes tension throughout the film as what they guess is normally wrong so they are constantly waiting to find out what is going to happen. This creates suspence for the audience and makes them sit at the edge of their seats as they are waiting for the big climax at the end of the film to finally reveal the main plot or twist.

Characters and costumes

The dress code for characters in thrillers are very different depending on what kind of thriller it is. For example crime thrillers, characters tend to dress very smartly in suits or in police outfits depending on what the crime thriller is about. A good example of this is James Bond. The dress code in other thrillers are very casual as this makes it very realistic to the audience and the audience can also relate to the characters. In supernatural thrillers characters tend to wear white costumes reflecting on the ghost theme. The costumes really depend on what the plot is in the thriller for example if the victum is running away from someone then they will be wearing ripped, mucky clothing. If the man is trying to look tough then he will tend to wear very masculine clothing and if the women is trying to look weak then she will wear very feminine clothing. Women also tend to wear very revealing and sexy costumes. Sometimes the clothing can be very unusual if the character is trying to show that he is mental.

The types of characters in thrillers:

• Hero and Villian
• Victum
• a mental person
• a murderer
• a detective
• police
• erotic women
• ghosts

Setting

The setting tends to be somewhere that the audience are familiar with so then they can relate to the film themselves. It also makes the film seem a lot more realistic. Also it will make the audience seem a lot more on edge as these are situations they are familiar with it shows the audience that these kinds of events can happen in their everyday normal lives and makes the situation seem a lot more scary for them. Again though the setting really depends on the plot of the film.

Mise-en-Scene

• weapons
• dark lighting (low key)
• knives
• blood

All these things are to help create tension within a film and the audience will feel threatened and scared by these things as we do not see them in everyday life. The dark lighting helps creates a mood for the film and shows the audience that it is not going to be very happy but scary and dull. The blood can represent danger.

Different Types of Thrillers and their conventions

• Crime Thrillers- Policemen, guns, criminals, action, murder, serial killer, failed crimes
• Conspiracy thriller-hero confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only he/she recognizes
• Disaster Thrillers- natural or artifical disaster, floods, volcanoes, nuclear disasters
• Erotic Thrillers- sex, revenge
• Legal Thrillers- hero confronts enemies outside, as well as inside, danger of losing their cases and their lives
• Medical Thrillers- doctors/nurses, medical problem needs to be solved
• Mystery Thrillers- suspence, solving, mystery, detectives
• Political Thiller-hero must ensure the stability of the goverment that employs him
• Psychological Thriller- main character is mental, emotional, obsessed
• Supernatural Thiller- ghosts, aliens, otherworldly element mixed with tension, plot twists, hero has some psychic ability
• Religious Thriller- plot closely connected to religion objects, religion issues, institutions and questions
• Techno Thriller- a suspense film in which the manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part

Characteristics of Thrillers

• Thriller provides thrills and keeps the audience cliff- hanging at the "edge of their seats"
• Plot builds towards a climax
• Tension rises when main character is placed in a menacing situation
• Life is threatened
• Thrillers take place in ordinary suburbs/cities
• somestimes thrillers take place in foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas but this is unusual
• The heroes are normally ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger
• In crime thrillers "hard men" are accustomed to danger, like police officers and detectives
• Heroes traditionally tend to be men as they are seen as the stronger character
• Women tend to be the victims as they are seen as the more weak character
• Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of their plots
• Hero must thwart the plans of an enemy rather than uncover a crime that has already happened
• Murder mystery would be spolied by a premature disclosure of the murderer's identity
• The identity of a murderer or other villian is typically known all along
• The crimes that must be prevented are serial mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of goverments
• Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements
• Thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villian, saving his life and others
• Thillers are influenced by film noir and tragedy, the compromised hero is often killed in process
• Recent years, thillers have been influenced by horror genre: dark, violent, terror, body counts, gore and brutality e.g the film Eden lake, The Last House on the Left
• Thillers are defined by not their subjected matter but their approach to it
• Some thrillers involve spies and espionage

Thriller Genre Research

Thiller (genre)

Thriller is a genre of literature, film and television that uses suspence, tension and excitment as the main elements. The primary subgenre is psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock's movies. The cover-up of imprtant information from the viewer and the fight/chase scences are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has it's own characteristics and methods. Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransomes, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. More common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality, and the obsession. Elements such as conspiry theories, false accusations, paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers. Some argue, though, that thriller genre is simply a pseudonym for the horror genre, both using suspense and atmosphere to cause feelings of dread in their audiences. A thriller is a villain-driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles that the hero must over come.

The final piece after editing

This is the finished video for our preliminary task. In this video you will see all the editing that we put in and how it creates tension between the two characters. The music put in also adds tension and some of the shots add mystery for example the close up shot of when she is opening the door the audience are waiting to see what is behind it. This also makes the audience be on the edge on their seat, making the clip exciting and enjoyable for the audience to watch. Also at the end there is a cliff hanger and it makes the audience feel like they want to watch more as they want to know what happenes between the two characters and how the girl got the pictures.

The Editing of the task

All the members in our group went home and did a bit of editing on the film so then we all had some experience with the editing. Today we looked at one of the edits which one of the members in my team did and we decided to use his to submit as we felt it looked the best. He added sound that created tension in the scene and made the two characters seem a lot more realisticly angry at each other. He had cut out all the bad shots which we had taken and made the whole scene flow a lot nicer. At the end of the clip he added in two black bars that got narrowor towards the end of the clip and this again added a lot of tension and showed that the tension grew as the clip went on. The music that we added into the clip was called The Song by Two Face 66. We choose this song as we felt it created tension in the clip and showed the anger between the two characters. It also created the mood for the scene as soon as the clip started. Overall, i do not think there were any problems in the making of this clip and the editing was easily done. Below is a link to the song we choose for the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/user/freesoundtrack#p/u/141/xsq7NosRhiY

The pictures that we used for filming

These are the pictures that we took for the girl to throw them on the table to show the other girl that she had proof that she saw the other girl with her boyfriend. As i said before these made the clip seem alot more realistic. However, the problems we had with these pictures were that we couldnt get them in colour when we printed them out, so we had to use black and white pictures for our filming which made the pictures quite hard to see on the camera.

The Story Board and Filming

This shot at the end shows how the characters are feeling towards eachother and implies they are both still angry. The reason we have ended it this way is because it creates suspence to the audience as they want to know what is going to happen next and shows the tension and anger between the two characters.

The close up shot of the girl shows the audience how she is feeling and creates suspence for the audience through diologue as we want to know where she got the pictures from. The close up shot also shows the audience facial expression and implies she is feeling very happy as she wants revenge. This creates tension in the scene.

This again gives the audience the chance to see it from the other characters point of view. We can again see the other characters reaction in her face.

This over the shoulder shot helps us see the other characters expression when the other girl shows the other girl the pictures. This gives the audience the chance to see the situation from another characters point of view and we can see in the other characters facial expressions when she looks at the pictures if she knows what she is talking about or not. So from this scene we can see wether she is innocent or not. This also gives the audience a chance to realise what the other character has done as we can see the pictures and we can tell by the girls diologue what is going on.

This shows the other characters reaction to what the other character just did and said to her. The fact that she stood up shows that the character is very defensive towards the other character. The diologue used implies the girl is confused.

This is so the audience can see the characters face as she is shouting at the other character and shows the audience how the character is feeling towards the other character. In this case very angry. The diolouge used again shows anger towards the other character and sets the mood in the scene. The banging of the table creates shock to the audience and shows that the character is extremly angry.

This introduces us to the other character and shows the audience how she is feeling in her facial expressions when the pictures get thrown at her. In this case she is shocked and confused. It also gives the audience a chance to start to understand the situation.

This is to show the audience the characters expressions as she is entering the room so they know how the character is feeling as they will be able to see this in her facial expressions. In this case the character is very angry.

This is to show that the character is entering the room.

The close up shot of the handle again creates tension to the audience because they are going to be wondering what happens next when the girl opens the door.

We decided to have this shot to set the scene and also it creates tension because the audience are waiting to see what is going to happen next.







Last Thursday we decided to change our story board idea for the preliminary task as we the problems that we had on tuesday could not be solved. So instead we decided on the idea of two girls fighting because one of them found pictures of the other girl with her boyfriend. This was much easier to do than the other idea because we could easily find two girl characters to be the actors. We then drew the story board out on a sheet of paper and wrote next to each one the camera angle and sound that was going to be used in that shot. Then one of the boys in my group scanned all the pictures onto the computor so we could put them on here. We then needed to take some pictures of a girl and boy kissing because the girl in our clip was going to throw them on the table to show the other girl so we needed them to look real. We then put the pictures on the computor from the camera so again we could use them to put on here. Finally in the last hour of that lesson we filmed everything that needed to be filmed. The problems we faced were that we found it hard to get the lighting correct and realistic as the room was quite dark. Also when the girl needed to throw the pictures on the table they werent going in the correct place so it took us a while to film that bit. But we overcame the problems and finished all the filming for the preliminary task. At the top of this page is the story board that we put together for this task and next to each one is explaining why we decided to use that shot or sound.

The Story Board and Planning

Last tuesday we started to make the story board. We came up with an idea of what we were going to do and then started to draw out the ideas on paper. We decided that we were going to have a child and teacher and the child would be in trouble for something. The problems we found were that it was going to be hard to find someone to come out of lessons in their uniform to be the child and we couldn't find anyone that looked old enough to be the teacher and all the teachers would be teaching when we wanted to film.