Once we had completed our rough draft, we got some feedback so we knew what we really needed to change within our thriller. Below you can listen to the feedback:

From this we saw there was a number of things we could do to really improve it, these targets where:

• To fix this break in continuity when our protagonist is first leaving the room.
• Include more shots with the syringe, this will help in building the tension and ultimately mean it will make more sense.
• Change the length of some of our shots, they seem too long which makes our sequence a little boring, perhaps shortening them will cause a much greater sense of apprehension.
• The final scene in our thriller also seemed especially long, as this moment is the most important of the film, the confrontation the audience has been expecting the whole way through, we need to make it a much more dramatic and shocking point, perhaps by cutting the scene down.

We gathered together the footage from our first shoot in order to figure out if any clips were missing, or needed to be refilmed. We very roughly edited it together, which you can view below.

From this it’s very evident that we are missing quite a few of the shots we aimed to film. Some of these we did plan to take in a different location, which we plan to complete in our second shoot. Additionally, we found that many of our CCTV shots were very shaky, as this high angle was difficult to keep steady, so these will have to be refilmed.

We filmed our thriller at the Priaulx library, mainly focusing on the attic rooms and hallways.

The Process:

• Our planning documents, such as the storyboard and shot list made it much easier! We were able to immediately film the all the different shots, without too much hesitation about the position of the camera. Having the shot list really helped too, it was clear and concise and we could easily see if we had included a range of different shots.

• The mise-en-scene within our film included props such as the syringe and rope, which really added this element of escape. You can see these props below:

The antagonists weapon!

Rope the protagonist will escape from!

• We dressed on of our characters in a white t-shirt and jeans, which we made a little dirty to show he’s been through something. We also gave him a bruise on his stomach with make-up, and darkened the areas around his eyes.

• The other character, we dressed in a black suit, white shirt and black tie, to give this real contrast between the characters. It makes him seem so much more sinister. Additionally, we gave him leather gloves, which is very typical for the antagonist, it conceals his identity further, making him much more threatening!

Georgia is applying the makeup onto James’ stomach, this was to give the effect of a bruise, which we see him look at, with pain, during the film.

Here you can see our antagonist, black suit and tie, gelled back hair, and he also wears leather gloves.

You can see around James’ eyes, we’ve applied makeup to appear as bruising and dirt, implying he’s in a bad situation.

• We used our own camera, tripod and also used the steadicam. This was particularly helpful when getting the CCTV style shots.

• The first part of our film, included many close ups, built tension and expressed the narrative effectively, however, the later shots we slightly more rushed, as we spent too long on the first half. This caused the quality of the shots to be less appealing and a lot less similar to our storyboard.

The Outcome:

• We were really pleased with some of the shots we took, they were very similar to the shots we put on our storyboard! You can view some of these shots below:

Here the antagonist is seen as only a silhouette against the window, the darkness within this shot contrasts the lightness in the similar shot with the protagonist.

The protagonist can be seen quite clearly looking out the window here, and we tried to create a graphic match cut with the following shot with the antagonist.

The shot with the protagonist opening his eyes in shock is from a high angle straight above him which is quite disorientating and therefore effective.

This was a focus pull with the needle being squirted a little, this was our finishing shot, however, it was slightly out of focus at the start, so this may have to be refilmed.

I really like this shot, the framing of the keyhole starts and then we pull the focus to the eye behind his, to see our character looking through.

This over the shoulder point of view shot allows us to become at one with the character, and its really different to our other shots, so it creates a much more interesting sequence.

• However, some of our footage did not come out so well, either is was very shaky or didn’t make much sense. Below you can see these shots:

This was one of our CCTV shots, although we are not altogether happy with the framing of this shot, so it will have to be refilmed.

When viewing these CCTV shots, we found they were very shaky, as this position was difficult to hold with the camera, so will have to refilm.

This shot will likely need to be refilmed, as he stops moving halfway, which does not work without tracking eye line match.

This shot worked really well, although the tracking was slightly shaky, but it was the previous shot that needs to be adapted in order to incorporate this.

We filled out a risk assessment form for our shooting day so we would be aware of the possible hazards when filming. Below you can see the hazards we have recognised and how we plan to avoid them.

To make sure that we know exactly who is bringing things in for shoot day, we created a meeting agenda. We needed to be sure there would be no problems when it came to shoot day, that would compromise the quality of our film, or even just the content.

To be sure that our thriller will make sense and become a film, we have planned the sequence through this storyboard. This really helped to think about the types of shots we wanted to include, and comprehend them in a more artistic sense. Additionally, it allowed us to think about the sound and editing. Click the image below to see our storyboard:

To be sure we include a variety of shots we created a shot list. This will help during our shoot, as we can just easily follow it and know what we’re looking for. Click the image below to see our shot list: