Evaluation..

Evaluation

We have been working on a project that involved us creating a thriller film opening with the duration of two minutes. We started by settling on an idea of a thrill being the emotional build up of tension, mystery, anxiety and suspense which is the expectation of something going to happen without knowing what or when. Next, we learnt about the sub-genres of thriller films for example psychological thrillers and espionage thrillers. We also looked at conventions of thriller films such as low key lighting and different types of film openings such as flash backs, instant arousal, classic slow approach and title sequence approach. We analysed the lighting, the use of camera (movement, angle and distance), music, editing, setting and characters, from films such as collateral, 28 days later and Arlington Road. Further into our projects we were pitching, filming and editing our work which seemed to fly by rapidly. The deadline came which meant it was time to review our work on the big screen at the Vue cinema in angel, on our AS cinema visit which would allow us to have an audiences point of view when evaluating our final outcomes. In this evaluation I am going to analyse the way in which our thriller opening challenged conventions of real media products, the representation of social groups, possible distribution and much more.

My thriller opening an instant arousal and it was very successful in the way it uses thriller film conventions. Some obvious conventions of thriller films are the vulnerable child, demonstrated in the Shining, the low key rooms demonstrated in Arlington Road and out of focus shots demonstrated in 28 days later, which my thriller film uses to strengthen the audiences knowledge of the intensions of the character. A classic film opening that my film was originally going to have was a flash back which is the film starting with the ending. It would have worked really well with our idea of two teenagers within the flashback which we would have shown with the characters in school uniform, revealing vital information for the storyline which results in the climatic death of one character. During this time we experienced horrific weather conditions of heavy snow which interrupted our filming this meant we could no longer waste our crucial time and decided to change our idea. Since the second pitch of our idea our opening consisted of the introduction of an arsonist which was an instant arousal approach, this is a way in which our film used conventions of real films that are either worldwide or UK releases. I believe that the real film conventions used within my thriller made it realistic. One aspect of conventions that my film did challenge was gender by having a female main character. I think this because psychological thrillers usually have male characters as the lead role demonstrated in Arlington Road whereas in our thriller we had a female character acting highly suspicious which we thought worked well when trying to create fresh suspense and the feeling of uncertainty.


I think our film represents the social group of working class woman as pressured, stressed people. I think this because her presence revealed her attitude and showed her frustrations that many middle and upper class people wouldn’t feel because of their stereotypical happy lives. The character within our film opening was a rebellious woman driven towards fire and committing arson attacks, much like other villains she has a secretive dark basement in which she can retreat to and scheme on her planned attacks. What didn’t get revealed is if the woman had a accomplice or if she was working for someone else which I think left the audience asking questions and in suspense whilst waiting for the answers to be revealed, this is what we intended with the type of opening we had chosen. The woman was roughly 24 years of age which is what we thought would be appropriate for her to be unsuspicious to the public but highly suspicious to the audience since she is expected to be in higher education at her age.


There are many distribution companies such as Buena Vista and Disney but I would like my film to be produced by one of the well known, big six conglomerates, these are MGM and United artists, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. They are responsible for 90% of box office takings in the US, Canada and UK. Differences between small UK released films and worldwide released films, are UK releases having smaller budgets, local locations and more than one film Company’s financial support. I would also release my film on DVD some time after the cinema release, I would put it in time with a holiday or gift giving period such as Christmas, and this is yet another factor that would increase overall revenue made from film.

Our chosen audience was 15+ for cinemas instead of 18+ to maximise the amount of views received at the cinema which I think is a smart move because it would result in more revenue for the production companies and actors. The main target audience is 18+ because they can understand the concept of fires started deliberately and maliciously being a serious crime and wouldn’t need an instant arousal opening to catch their attention instantly to keep them interested in the remainder of the film. A typical person from this audience would be someone in higher education, aged 23, likes to drink alcohol when having a laugh, and goes to the cinema as a cheap alternative for a date. I think this type of person definitely fits into the mainstream which is good for the number of views and total revenue.

Attracting an audience strongly involves advertising which can be costly depending on how well you want to reach your target audience. Generally, advertising for films is done through media such as TV advertisements, billboards, and posters at bus stops, phone boxes and on the side of buses. Therefore, I would advertise my film in the same way and also on websites and before other thriller films at the cinema. I would do this because it would ensure that the correct audience is being targeted, we know this would be successful these are the type of films that they are interested in. My target audience was the age group of people aged 18+ therefore sponsoring an alcoholic beverage would be specific to that target audience. It would be a good way to market the film and also make the alcohol more popular.

Some technology that we used for our film process was the video camera when filming and logging and capturing the footage, Apple Mac computers with different software such as final cut pro and sound track and a specific website on the internet called ‘Blogger’. Without final cut pro our work would have been almost impossible to transform into a thrilling, suspenseful film opening, with fades and dissolves that we used to show the passing of time and to allow the titles to fade in and out especially since we were making a thriller in the style of psychological which I think is more based on reality whereas in a horror thriller most people don’t experience abandonment like in 28 days later. The beginning of our sequence consisted of a definition which gives you a taste of the plot whilst the non diagetic sound of a type writer occurs, it then fades into an establishing shot and pan of a house filled with diagetic sounds of footsteps, birds and cars, it then cuts to the shadow on the wall of the main character we did this to add suspense which we hoped would make people want to know who the person is, where they are going and why they are going there this is instant arousal because it makes the audience want to know more, at the same time our non diagetic sound track begins and enhances the feeling of uncertainty. The sequence changes to a low angle of the characters feet, there is now a clear indication that character is female because she is wearing high heels this where we start to give away some of the answers that keep the audience interested. Using technology is an advantage to the process of constructing a film because it is time and money efficient; it also allows you to work with great accuracy with fewer mistakes from human error. I found the software really easy to use once we had gone through the tutorials but when using the internet I have had experienced problems with trying to upload clips onto my blog but I did still manage to upload pictures. I would document what I accomplished and learnt such as how to build up sounds in sound track when creating a sound track. At first I didn’t enjoy blogging because it was something extra that I had to do after each lesson but it is a process that I have grown used to. When using the internet to post our film opening it was quite exciting because it automatically gives us a broader audience and could allows us to have many views worldwide. This means that the target audience can also be the type of people that maintain a blog.

I think the preliminary task was highly important to our projects because it allowed us to practice and gain experience with the equipment, also when storyboarding it gave us a chance to see exactly how different shots can make different impressions to the audience. We thought carefully about how to portray the characters, especially when allowing the audience to have an inside view that other characters wouldn’t have, this is used in TV drama soaps such as Eastenders, we used it to show the male characters feelings for the female character by using shot reverse shot, I think it worked well and was very effective. One thing that I learnt from the preliminary task that we used in our final film opening is that when filming footage from different angles you should always repeat the whole sequence again to have a better chance at gaining quality footage for match cutting. Through the process of making a film opening, I have learnt that it takes a lot of time to perfect each shot and edit it according to the impressions of characters that you are trying to portray, I think this is why real films take so long to complete.

Overall, I have really enjoyed working on this project whilst learning about the film making process. My favourite part of the process is filming and editing because you have the freedom to be creative with shot types, angles and you are able to manipulate the footage to create different meanings. My most memorable moment of the project would be the cinema visit because I got to see my friends and my accomplishments on a cinema screen. An improvement that I would make if I had the chance to do this project again is planning in much more detail to reduce the amount of mistakes and problems that we came across as a group. One thing I would keep the same is the amount of effort and determination that my group put into getting our work finish on time at what we thought was a good standard.

Cinema Visit..

We went cinema and watched the whole AS Units thriller film openings. So many were really good and really made me feel tense, uneasy and suspenseful. The audience’s reaction after my groups opening was really good because they gave us a round of applause at the end. Also during the film the room was really quiet meaning that people were watching in suspence which is a main convention of a thriller. This is a photo of the vue cinema that we attended at the angel. It is at a very high standard compared to other vue cinemas such as the one in woodgreen, which makes me all the more greatful that we got to attend the cinema to watch out film openings. The cinema is an example of exhibition which is apart of what production companies job roles include.

Sevda, Pebbles, Topaz and Miles - Under Construction FINAL THRILLER VIDEO

Deadline Day..

Last lesson, my group and I analysed exactly what we had left to finish therefore today we used our time efficiently and got straight to work. Two of our group members worked on the sound track and did a wonderful job whilst Sevda and I worked on the introductory titles. Once we had both finished Miles and I, meshed it all together and found that it worked really well as a psychological thriller which is what we intended. We had finished in time for the deadline and I am proud of myself and my group for what we have achieved.

Editing..

Today, during our lesson we completed the sequence for our thriller, after showing the other group members what we managed to do during last monday's workshop. They were happy with what we had accomplished and gave us comstructive input in deciding what the ending should be like. Currently, i am really looking forward to putting sound into our sequence with a range of different tempo's and volumes to help thrill the audience. We didn't have any problems or disagreements today which i think is a good indication that we are working as group to get our project finished at the best of our ability and on time.

Hereos Similarities..

I watched a thrilling and very popular series with 14.3 million viewers in the United States alone. It is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring named 'Heroes', I realised that the mise en scene was very low key which allows the veiwer to assume that something bad is going to happen. This creates suspence and the feeling of the unknown. It helped to make me stay interested and keep watching which is what i think occurs in our 2 minute opening sequence which also has the use of low key. Also as a similarity in hereos the characters are never usually introduced straight away which is what we tried to do with the shadow in the beginning of our sequence. The audience knows someone is there but they do not know who or why which sevda and i thought was highly suspencful and thrilling.

Media Workshop..

Today, i attended workshop with one of my group members, the others had previous arrangements and sadly couldn't make it. I arrived first, collected the equiptment from the office and began to panic because i realised how far behind all the other groups we were. I Started to log and capture our footage until Sevda arrived which meant we would both have to work really hard to utilise our time effectivly to get as much work as possible done in time for the deadline. We began to put our sequence together, so we agreed on each shot to use to make the sequence as interesting , effective and thrilling a possible. We did many shots of each action from different angles when filming, which came in handy when deciding which would looks most effective when matched together. This is something i would definatly do again if i had the chance to redo the project because it turnt out to be extremly helpful. A problem that occured was that some of the clips didn't log and capture properly and went offline, which meant that we couldnt use them in our sequence. We overcame that problem by logging and capturing the ones that were crutial again, it did take up valuable time but it was worth it. We still have quite a substantial amount of work to catch up on but i believe we can do it using all the time possible for example our remaining lessons and workshops.

Filming of New idea..

Today was the big day which would decide our fate of either being back on track and heading for the deadline or crashing and burning with no useful footage. luckily, with our combined confidence and determination we are back on track. We achieved this by finishing all the outdoor and indoor filming that we needed to do. We got a variety of really good shots for example establishing shots, over the shoulder shots, low angle shots and extreme close ups.

We began outside in which we introduced the scene and the mysterious main character.
We then follow the character inside and thats where the bulk of thrilling content comes into play, questions arise which keeps the audience in suspence. I think that the editing of our filming will be so crutial to our final outcome because it will be the way it is edited that makes the audience want to find out the answers to the questions. Next lesson we will be logging and capturing the footage once again i am relly looing forward to it because i an anxious to see what each shot looks lik eon the screen.

Our new pitch..

Due to more unpredicted bad weather, despite the previous descision to film last lesson, we didn't film yet again and descided to scrap our idea completly. It took alot of consideration but we had no choice because of the deadline that was steadily growing near and the increasinlg bad weather that we unfortunatly depended on. This meant that we would be behind on our schedule however, we are all determind and are willing to work extra hard to get to cacth back up and finish the project on time.

Our new idea was one that i thought of earlier on in the project but wasn't used because of the belief that the other idea would be more effective as a thriller. We started with the initial descisions such as the location which is a member of my groups basement and around it which is good because it isn't dependant on the weather like our old idea. We also decided who would pick up the equiptment and what time to meet at his house which was really early to maximise our time. We began on the storyboards and everthing seemed to fit into place. We are all mutually happy with the decision made and i am looking forward to filming this idea.

The idea is of a fiesty woman, played by myself, that has an obsession with fire and arson attacks. She has a secluded place in which she takes important packages, tries to clear her head and plans her next moves. To make this possible we allocated duties to each member so that we have no reasons why filming will not be successful. Iam responsible for the costumes and lighting (candles and lamps), Miles is reponsible for preparing his basement and making it suitable to film in. Pebbles had the most important job of bringing the equiptment that we needed and sevda had the job of bringing newspapers and images that would imply that the main character was an arsonist or at least had an obsession with arsonist attacks.

Editing original footage..

Today, because of bad weather, we decided it would be more productive to log and capture the footage that we had so far. We decided this because the bad weather was attually a thick layer of snow which would have caused major dis-continuation in our sequence so rather than risk loosing marks we came to that descision as a team. Although, we didnt finish filming the whole of our storyboard we had some very impressive shots such as establishing shots, long shots,even slow zooms, and paning but, whilst watching what we had filmed we realised some were unusable because of the lense being dirty, a bird flying across the sky at a fast pace, shadows of the camera and tripod and in the shots and some of the shots being shakey despite the use of the tripod. I felt as if our work was going down hill even after all the planning that we did so i spoke to my group about the matter and it turns out that our feelings were mutual. This was a problem that we fixed by making a list of what needed re-shooting and what still needed to be done. We decided that we would be filming next lesson.

First day of Filming overall task

We had previously arranged for two of our group members to collect the equipment that we needed as they lived closer to college. My other group member and I met them at the park in with the clothing that we needed for the scenes. We began by referring to the storyboards from our previous lesson and setting up the equipment. Miles and I both changed clothes and we began shooting. Many people were unexpectedly in the park but we were very patient and worked with it because we thought it would be more realistic. As I played the role of tiffany I’m not too sure about many of the difficulties that may of occurred when filming however, once I spoke to my group members they said that they couldn’t keep the camera in the same position, which is what we planned to do, because of zooming in and out. Two problems that I experienced was the weather, because it was so cold and the batteries running out. We didn’t finish filming but we made a joint decision to continue filming next week Thursday after watching our current footage on Monday.

Storyboards

We completed some boards by taking pictures of the park and planning which shots would be taken at which parts of the park. We also planned the angles. By this time our ideas were beginning to flourish.

Plan of pitch and pitch

Today was crunch time for us all to reveal our ideas, put them together and then come to an equal agreement of what our overall task of a two minute opening for a thriller film would be. It took a while for us to think of the most suitable idea but once we found it, we pitched it to the rest of the class and our teachers. We received some positive feedback which boosted my confidence. Our final idea:
Location: Downs Park
Characters: Female- Tiffany
Male- Nathan
Props: The swings and other playground facilities.
Sound: Non-diagetic – Childrens laughter, footsteps, creeking from swing ect.
Diagetic- Our own soundtrack

Filming preliminary task

Today, we filmed and edited our preliminary tasks.
We started our task by collecting the necessary tools such as the camera and tripod. Soon after we went and set up the equipment at our chosen location, which we decided on from our previous lesson. The storage cupboard was slightly messy so we quickly moved a few boxes so that we could have the required amount of space to film. Our filming was successful because everyone was focused and much more confident with how to use the equipment. We knew the shot types and angles that we had to do because of our very detailed planning from our previous lesson. I’ve learnt that planning is highly important to the extent of how well the task turns out, for example we planned to make our preliminary romantic through the body language and conversation between the characters and it went successful because our group was the only one to think outside of the box which is different compared to other groups. In editing we didn’t have any problems because we all helped when choosing the perfect clips to put together and make the match cuts and shot reverse shots.

This film was very fun for the whole group and has made us much more anxious and excited to start planning and filming our overall task of two minutes to the opening of a thriller film.

Storyboard tutorial and planning..

Today, our lesson was based on preparing for filming and editing our preliminary film, by learning about match cutting which is the term used when the same action is filmed from more than one angle. An example of a match cut would be a man, at a high angle mid-shot with a cigarette in his mouth and flicking a lighter in his hand. You then see the continuation of that action, which is a close up of the man lighting the cigarette which is still situated in his mouth. Also in the lesson we were given a shot list exercise in which we had to incorporate a match cut. The synopsis of this exercise was, East London. 3pm. A man chain smokes as he sits in his home on his PC. He copies confidential computer files and plans to a CD. He packages them and is seen posting them.
When first reading this and being told that we would have to make this into twenty shots, I thought that it would be impossible however, after completing the task I found that it was the complete opposite. We then had the opportunity to see what it looks like as Mickey’s version. I could see that some of the shots that we would have used were also incorporated into it which made me feel good because I know that when we are making our storyboard for our thriller opening we wouldn’t lack professional looking ideas. One idea that I noticed and really liked from Mickey’s version of the synopsis is that he used text to state the time and location which automatically sets the scene and eliminates the need for an establishing shot to set the scene which is what my group would have done.
Finally, we were given our preliminary filming task. The brief, film the sequence of a character opening a door, walking into a room, sitting opposite another character and sharing a few lines of dialogue. We had to include at least one match cut and one shot /reverse shot and showing our understanding of the 180 degree rule which is only filming on one side of the characters so that when transferred onto a screen the characters will constantly appear on the same sides. This time around we did the maximum amount of planning to maximise our films potential because we didn’t want a repeat of our first task in which we had poor time efficiency. One idea that we came up with through planning that I’m really proud of is filming in the secluded storage cupboard, in which we could use the settings to make it much more interesting to watch.

Film Openings..

In today’s lesson we watched a documentary about film openings we were given the task of answering eight questions based on what was being said for the duration of the documentary. It consisted of different men such as Thomas Sutcliffe, the critic Stanley Kauffmann, Orson Welles and many more talking about their views and visions about how successful films should truly be. One thing that I specifically remember is the mentioning of all films needing to be entertaining from the first point in which it and the audience meet, which is in fact the trailers. I found it useful because it became tips to remember when creating our task of a two minute opening sequence. Soon after the highly educational documentary was finished we learnt about the four classic film openings, firstly the classic instant arousal which is an obvious impact that will ensure the audience watches the remainder of the film by satisfying them straight away. Secondly, the classic slow approach which is a small taster of what the film will have in store which lures the audience into watching the length of the film. It gradually builds up to a peek. Third, a title sequence which sets the tone through the credits, sometimes without having to introduce the main characters and last, the flash back approach, in which the opening of the film is also the way the film ends, this also has to have a large impact to make the audience want to find out how the character got into that predicament in the first place. Overall, all the styles of openings have the purpose of setting up questions that the audience expects to get answered later in the film and that is what makes it successful. My most favourable style of openings would be the title sequence approach because it allows a lot more space for creativity. My least preferable would be the instant arousal approach because I learnt that the risk of it is not being able to fulfil the audiences desire for more impact later on in the film and I would personally like to challenge myself into being able to sustain the audience up until the end of the film and not disappoint them.

Editing tutorial and Editing of newspaper task..

The lesson after our successful filming we began editing what we had filmed by transferring our recordings into special software called final cut pro; we learnt to do this in our editing tutorial which took place before filming. During the tutorial we used pre-recorded clips from a film and stuck the clips together in different ways to the original however, it had to make visual sense even if we were using the jump shot technique. By the end of the tutorial I felt as if I had enough practice from cutting clips down or making them slightly longer to be able to work with my group on our newspaper task. In my opinion, the most difficult part of editing is making the clips run smoothly although when you have more people to reassure that it looks satisfactory it becomes much easier. When editing we found small additions to make our newspaper task look better for example, we crossed two clips into one another instead of a jump cut to add more of an mysterious, tension building atmosphere. We also added a recording sign on the screen to make it appear as if, during apart of the film, one of the characters was being watched. I think that if the clip had non-diagetic and diagetic sounds it would be much more realistic. Overall, I think that it was a really good first attempt and I am looking forward to starting the real thriller film.

Sound Tutorial..

We had our sound tutorial today, in which we watched the trailer for casino Royale. The clip was filled with many diagetic sounds such as foot steps and non-diagetic sounds such as explosions. I thought it was a very complex opening because of the use of a flash back, although there wasn’t any build up of tension it was very gripping because of feeling of the unknown. If my group and I decided to use a flash back as an opening we would be sure to use sounds to create tension to make it as effective as possible because we would only have two minutes to make a connection with the audience and draw them in. We used software on the computers and practiced putting non-diagetic and diagetic sounds to different scenes of Casino Royale. Incorporated into the programme listened to a talk from two men that work with sounds and film regularly. One interesting thing I learnt from them is that when creating a film, 400 different sounds are optional at any given moment to maximise the effect of the shot. I highly enjoyed the sound tutorial today because I found it challenging to find and place the correct sounds to each action within the clip, however I managed to do my best with layering the sounds properly and I think with more practice I could become really good at composing sounds for different scenes.

Clip Analysis..

During one of our lessons we were given the task of analysing thriller clips from films and discovering what it is that makes them give the audience a thrilling sensation. I believe that it is the emotional build up of tension, mystery, anxiety and suspense which is the expectation of something going to happen without knowing what or when. This occurs in all sub-genres of thrillers, which are crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, horror thrillers, supernatural thrillers, espionage and sci-fi. The clips that we analysed were from the films 28 Days Later, The Shining, Arlington Road, Collateral and What Lies Beneath. We analysed the lighting, the use of camera (movement, angle and distance), music, editing, setting and characters. My favourite out of the films was a psychological thriller, The Shining because unlike most pupils in my class it was my first time watching it so I truly felt the suspenseful moments and could write down an accurate assumption of what the suspenseful moments were, this will help me when planning with my group and deciding which suspenseful moments we could slightly change and use when making our thriller. Within the clip from The Shining the camera tracks a small adventurous boy on a bike at worms eye view, already this is tension building because he has dominance and the audience has no idea where the boy is going, all you are told is that the boy is in a hallway of a hotel we can tell this from the repetitive bright coloured carpet and the swift passing of many doors. Also, to add tension the sounds during the clip range from diagetic sounds of the boys bike wheels screeching which adds reality to the situation and then non-diagetic sounds of high speed to low speed and low pitch to high pitch specifically when the camera makes a jump cut to the two pale female characters behind a door, The tension and anxiety builds up from the over the shoulder shot of the boy slowly approaching the door and shocks the audience at an unexpected moment whereas if the boy physically opened the door the audience would be more prepared to find someone behind the door. I also think that because the boy is so young it makes you feel protective over him because you assume he won’t be able to get himself out of the trouble that he may get himself into. As an extra we noted down which specific parts of each clip made it suspenseful, I think for The Shining It was the violins used, the emphasis of the room number and the use of a jump shot.

Practice Filming.. (Newspaper Task)

In our groups we practiced simple manoeuvres with the cameras such as removing the tape from the camera and replacing it. After practicing we went with our pre-planned story boards of the task we were given and set up our stand to begin filming our first frame. The task was to film someone reading a newspaper in a thrilling way. Although reading a newspaper isn’t a thrilling activity we used camera angles and movement to try and achieve this. We knew that our settings would be outside in the street and inside the college on the staircase. We began by filming a member of our group at a high angle from inside the college, this created the feeling of him being watched which made him vulnerable. We thought that it created the feeling of the unknowing in a highly realistic way. We filmed the same thing again at a different position; I think it makes the clip more interesting. One problem I think we came across was not scheduling our time effectively because we began to run out of time and couldn’t re-shoot a frame we thought it could be done better. One Successful moment that I liked was when a member of my group had to run down the street at full speed and almost fell over because it made it realistic. When doing our next task as a group, i think as an improovment, we should work on using our time more effectivly and sharing the duties of filming, directing and starring more so that we can all gain experience in all areas.