We made a list of the shots we are going to do when filming our thriller. The shot list is a brilliant way of putting down our ideas and breaking them down into each individual shot to make it easy and clear for us when we start to edit our thriller for example including close ups on the doctors face to show his expression when he sees the person in the body bag.
The document below is our final shot list.
This is the story board we have drawn up of each shots that are in our narrative. The storyboard will be used to help make sense of our ideas and improve our shots on shooting day.
Please click on each image to view the story board
Me and Olivia created this document to help us plan our thrillers narrative. We did this by bringing our ideas together and creating a story with what we will fill within the narrative. This will help us have the best outcome for our thriller.
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We have now been given partners to create our thriller opening. Me and Olivia have to build a collage of photos to develop our ideas for what we think we should bring to each other to make the best opening possible.
My collage ideas
I’m thinking that there should be a psycho like patient who dresses up like a doctor. I’m then thinking that this doctor should knock out and kidnap a victim. The victim would wake up tied to chair and then doctor strange would brutally murder him while recording it on a camera and then he would watch it back and reveal his sinister smile.
Olivia’s collage ideas
Olivia’s idea for the thriller film is based upon a psychotic doctor that enjoys torturing his ‘patients’. In an underground car park, the doctor chosen his victim and brutally beats him, resulting in his death. The doctor feels accomplished with his work and ends the scene, pulling down his mask and smiling into the camera.
I learnt about what narrative codes are and why they are so important to make a good thriller film. I looked at 3 previous students thriller openings and analysed what narrative codes they used to make it work and create tension.
Below are the full videos
We set up a survey and sent it out to find out what kind of audience our thriller would bring in and the psycho graphics and demographics we expect to see in our target audience.
Below is our survey results to find out our target audience.
The results prove to show that we meet our target audience of 16-24 year olds. This is helpful because our target audience was originally 16-24 year olds.
About 70% of people expected a typical villain to be a psychotic serial killer, this is a good piece of information because our villain is going to seem like a psychotic serial killer.
The survey shows that over 65% of people expect to see elements of mystery and murder. This is a great bit of information because our thriller is going to follow the baseline of mystery and have elements murder.
We are planning to have our thriller set in an abandoned building, this links perfectly to the survey because the most expect it to be placed in an abandoned place.
We made a Facebook profile representing a single person who would fit into our target audience of 16-24.
The page includes that he enjoys watching thrillers, he also says that his favourite films are thrillers such as Gone Girl and the Purge. He also likes Conjuring which is a horror. Our thriller is going to be a thriller which includes areas of horror, this shows us that our Facebook profile person would enjoy our thriller.
For this objective we learnt about what goes into a sequence to make it a montage and what techniques you would use to make a montage. We were aligated groups in which we had to make our own montage, we decided to base our montage on ‘buying something from a vending machine’ we accomplished this by using one camera and following a story board we designed before hand. We had to include these to complete our assessment criteria;
Below is the story board we used to help create our montage:
Please click on each image to enlarge them.
This is our final montage piece.
Strengths of our montage:
Weaknesses of our montage:
I have now learnt the importance of a good story board and also the right editing techniques to use when creating and planning my Thriller.
In this task we had to research a Hollywood and Indie film and what went into it to produce it.
I did my research on Blair Witch and Level Up which both got released in 2016.
Please click to enlarge the documents
I did some research to find out who the director, screenwriter and producer was in each film, I also researched how large of a budget they had to create their film and what they spent their budget on. For example who was casted in the film and the locations and settings of scenes. Afterwards I found out what the original property or franchise it fitted into and if it did. Lastly I found out what the production features were.
In conclusion I learnt that the smaller the budget for a independent film producer the harder it is for the production of their independent film. Which in turn means that they have many more budget restrictions then the Big 6 conglomerates.
In groups we were asked to research conception to reception in films. We made a timeline in which we used different titles such as:
We used the titles to write key words which would help explain what jobs and roles go into each sector of making and distributing a film.
This task is useful because it will help with the answering Evaluation question 3 easier as I have a greater understanding for what kind of media institution might distribute a media product and why they would do it.
Please click on the image to enlarge it
I had to review a previous students opening to a thriller film and depict certain elements of it, the opening sequence I reviewed was called ‘REC’.
The narrative shows a group of teenagers that go into a deserted building to investigate and try uncover a ghost that had been rumoured to have been living there and haunting the surrounding area, how ever that all back fires horribly as they uncover the truth….
I used the level ladder below to help me review the groups thriller film.
HOLDING A SHOT STEADY
I would give this a Lower level 4 as the shots are clear even in the moving shots. To say the majority of the film was in point of view trying to show a hand held camera, I personally think they showed each clip clearly and obtain a clear meaning through out the shots.
FRAMING A SHOT
One of the shots which showed brilliant framing when was when the group was walking up the stairs and a camera was positioned behind a door just showing a crack as the group walked past, I would give this a upper level 4 because the shot made the group seem vulnerable and made it feel like they were being watched.
VARIETY OF SHOT DISTANCES
There was a good variety of shots as the group used a long shot to show the group walking into the building then they used close ups when they were recording each other in the sequence which helped to show emotion. I think the group would get a upper level 4 because they showed that they can create different shot differences well.
APPOPRIATE TO TASK
If i was marking this groups work I would give it a lower 4, because the sequence clearly showed a film from a thriller genre, however the actors were good but there was times that they didn’t seem as scared as you would be in that position which stopped me from giving it a upper level 4 because the acting didn’t feel perfect.
MISE-EN-SCENE SELECTION
I would give this section a upper level 4 because all the Mise-en-Scene fitted the genre of thriller perfectly. The old books indicating that something spooky is going on and it gives the sequence an eerie feel. The characters in REC were illustrated as ordinary people with typical teenager clothing but what was happening was extraordinary which is typical in a thriller which furthermore means that it fits nicely into the genre giving them a higher level in this area.
EDITING FOR MEANING
I would think that REC would get a upper level 4 for this element of their work because all the edits fitted nicely with the conventional features of the genre. The edit was in chronological order and made sense. As the scene progresses the tension builds up and the shots become quicker adding more and more tension onto the scene.
SHOT TRANSITIONS
The shot transitions are well executed therefore making me give it a lower level 4. They use a interference in some shot transitions making it look like the camera has some sort of problem or is put together with taken footage. The shots run smoothly as it goes from point of view to third person view.
SOUND WITH IMAGES
I would give the sound a upper level 4 because they clearly chose sounds to fit the genre which i think fit pleasingly into their piece of work, the unpleasant sound playing in the background definitely created tension and also connoted the danger the group were in.
USING TITLES
I would give the title use a upper level 4, I would give it the upper level 4 because the title was kept smart and fitted well with the content and also the theme of the film which is thriller. The title looked like the record image a camera would use in the corner while recording which is classically shortened to ‘REC’.