In our production groups, we created a production meeting agenda which was an outline of everything from location to props that we would need to know to complete our filming day successfully. It is a detailed list of everything we need to know as a production group but also is useful for our supervisor on the day and also our actors who need to know things such as date, times and in particular props and costume, some of which they will need to source themselves.
From this document, we were able to see who needed to get all of the elements of mise en scene, such as costume and props but also what camera we would require. Overall, this agenda made the planning of our filming far easier as we were able to note down everything we needed in one clear plan and then sort out how we would get these things.
Once we had completed our storyboard, for further planning we created a shot list, which is simply a written plan of every shot we are going to film, the action that takes place in each shot, and then any additional notes that we may need. This, paired with the storyboard will make a successful filming day as the storyboard gives us a visual plan and this shot list enables us to have an idea of exactly what we need to film for each shot and any other little reminders that may help us with filming.
Linked to the image below is a copy of my shot list:
This was a task in which, similar to previous projects, we created a storyboard of all of our shots. This enables us to clearly see all of our shots laid out and the chronological order that they’re in. By displaying our shots in this way, we get a clear visual of what each one is going to look like.
This, on the filming day will enable us to get through all our necessary shots as efficiently as possible as we have a clear visual plan but we have also included notes on each shot, for example the framing of each one and the type of shot, helping us to achieve the correct shots that we need.
The storyboard is also useful as we used post it notes, meaning if we decide to add any extra shots or change the order, then we can easily do this without ruining our plan.
After we’d completed our audience research and compared our mood boards, we had to make an extended step outline which included the exact details of our film for example the location and the basic story line. We were able to create this narrative outline by basing the details on the results we gathered from our audience research. For example, the Facebook page and the audience research survey.
From putting forward the idea for our thriller in the survey and gaining a mostly positive response from our target audience, (females aged 16-25), we decided to use our original idea. The basis of our story is that a girl is walking alone from a party and is looking at her phone, not paying attention, then ends up in forest. She then begins to feel as though she is being watched by a presence and tries to get away however, this unidentified figure begins chasing after her and the mystery or enigma at the end is whether she escapes, or is confronted by her mysterious follower.
We altered bits of our narrative outline based explicitly on the audience responses in the survey. For example, a high percentage of people said they’d enjoy an action thriller, however, around 80% of the participants said they’d enjoy a thriller with a supernatural element therefore we may decided that our unidentified figure could bear resemblance to either a werewolf or a vampire. They all also expected to feel tense and intrigued during a thriller so we also had to take this into account when detailing our narrative outline.
As part of our planning for our thriller film, we each, in our production groups, created a mood board, in order to gather visual ideas of our film. Within it, we included images linking to our setting, characters, costumes, props, in order to gather a visual representation of what some things in our thriller will look like and also, the theme of our thriller.
For mine, it was relatively simple. Our basic story line is about a girl walking through a dark forest at night and then becomes paranoid as she s being watched and chased by a mysterious dark figure. In my mood board, I then included images of dark, misty forests which is what we have selected as our location and other creepy locations, in order to get inspiration, a girl walking alone in a bright red coat, this coat becoming one of our main props as the brightness of the coat standing out amongst the darkness of the forest is very visually effective.
My mood board is linked to this image below:
Ellie then shared her mood board with me so we could combine and collaborate ideas, and we came to find that the images and visual style we had both chosen were very similar. We’d both previously discussed adding the hint of colour with the coat which upon seeing it visually, we’ve decided is something that we will definitely use. We both also included images of dark, mysterious locations and an unidentified hooded figure. This mood board planning has enabled both of us to have a better understanding of how our thriller is going to be styled and how it will be effective visually.
Ronald Barthes had a theory when it came to audiences and understanding the narrative codes that they will pick up and decipher when watching a film. His theory was that all narratives would include codes (signs and symbols) that an audience would be able to decode, understand and interpret, therefore calling them narrative codes.
He outlined that there are three narrative codes:
The enigma code – What is mystery/enigma element in the film?
The action code – What is the one event or action that drives the narrative forward?
The Semic code – What connotations do you imply about the place and characters and how will you encode the meaning of these?
For this task, we had to look at a few examples of student thrillers and try, as an audience, to see if we could gather the narrative codes from them. The three films that Ellie and I chose to look at were REC, Baited and Megan. We selected these three for variety in narrative style, which upon analyzing them would hopefully help us get the most out of this task as it means that we can easily spot and understand narrative codes in different styles of thriller, benefiting our own thriller.
Linked below is our copy of the analysis of the narrative codes:
In our pairs, we were tasked with finding out what the target audience for our thriller film is going to be. This is essential to know before you begin making the film as this way you know exactly the kind of person to aim and tailor your film towards. One way in which we went about determining this was by creating a survey to send out to several different people about films, in particular, thriller films. Through the survey, we were trying to gather a general idea about people’s enjoyment of thriller films by gathering information from specific groups of people. By asking their age, gender and profession, but also then asking them about the types of thriller films they enjoy and what they would like to see in our thriller, helped us to determine who specifically our target audience are.
After looking at the results from our survey, we were able to gather that the majority were of aged 16-25 and also, when looking at the responses to the question in our survey that briefly detailed what the story line of our thriller was, far more females than males were interested in watching our thriller. Therefore, from these results, we decided that our target audience would be women aged 16-25, or young women.
From this, we then created a model Facebook profile for our perfect target audience member including all of their details and interests that would correlate with them being interested in our film. Both of these task were very useful as we got a very specific idea of what our target audience is and this will then, hopefully make our thriller more of a success as it will be very focused and we’ll know who to target it towards.
The survey results are linked to the bar chart and the Facebook profile is linked to the Facebook logo below:
In class, in small groups of pairs, we had to film and then edit, using Premiere Pro, a montage sequence of someone getting dressed and ready to go outside. This task enabled us to again, broaden our understanding and help us practice the handling the camera and shooting from different angles but also to give us practice at editing together several different clips into a montage sequence. This knowledge and understanding can then later be used when we’re working on our thriller film projects.
In order to make this task a lot more efficient, we drew out a story board of sequence of shots. This meant that once we came to filming, we knew exactly which shots we had to film and when, improving the accuracy and speed of the process as we avoided confusion but also, gave ourselves more time to work on the editing side of things.
In the film production industry, storyboards are often used in the planning stages of shooting the film as they make it clear to visually see the shots you want to film. We will also be using the storyboard technique for when we come to make our own thriller.
Our storyboard is linked to the image below:
Our assessment criteria for this task included three things:
Holding a shot steady
Framing a shot
(Shooting a) variety of shot distances
However, in order to create a successful montage, we had to include several other elements:
To shoot for continuity using montage to condense time and space,
To use speed to infer tension,
use close ups to show reactions / expression of the person completing the task,
to shoot and then edit at least one eye line match – significant object/person
To later on edit in at least one match on action,
To use one interesting transition – wipe, dissolve etc.
Here is the final product for our montage edit:
Overall, I believe that this task was rather successful, it helped us understand several things about filming the right amount of shots for the right amount of time and getting the editing job perfected. The storyboard was also useful in terms of organizing planning and I feel as though i’m more confident in order to film and edit my own thriller.
Some strengths I felt we had:
We used several different shots to create variety and make the sequence more interesting
We edited several match on action shots and a jump cut, displaying our understanding of editing techniques
We successfully used a tripod meaning our shots were steady, giving the piece a professional look.
However, some weaknesses:
We detailed several shots in our storyboard that we then didn’t have time to film, creating some confusion
The clarity of some shots could be improved however we were rather rushed for time
In some places, the editing isn’t spot on and there’s gaps where the actor is doing nothing which we could have edited out
However, I will take into consideration these weaknesses and try to avoid them when filming my own thriller. This task was good practice.
In order to complete this research task, we had to research the production of two very differently produced films. One high profile, expensively produced Hollywood film and the other, a low budget British Indie film, in order to see a comparison between the amount of money spent on a film and the quality of the end product.
There were 10 different productions features that we had to research into for each movie and they were:
Producer
Director and Screenwriter
Production company
Original property
Cast
Budget
The trailer (then embed it)
Genre
Key Crew
Production features
For my analysis of a Hollywood film, I chose ‘The Girl on the Train’, a newly released Hollywood thriller as I was very interested to see the budget of this new blockbuster and who was involved in the making of it. Then for the Indie film, I researched the independent film ‘Denial‘, interested in the Key production features that they managed to include and how much could go into this film on a lower budget.
My research of the production features of the two films are linked to their corresponding movie posters above.
For this task, we got into small groups in order to research the different jobs available in the different areas of creating a film and through this, we discovered how many different specific jobs there are within this industry and the overall effort that goes into making a film.
We broke the industry down into the 6 different stages of development that a film goes through, from conception to reception.
The broken down stages are:
Development – devising ideas for the film, what’s the storyline going to be and deciding other details such as who’s going to be starring in it.
Production – the actual, physical creating of the film, for example the filming, creating the raw product that can then be edited and distributed.
Post- production – the editing part of the process, cutting and refining the film in order for it to be attractive to the audiences and for it to be a success.
Distribution – Delivering the film to an audience in some way, and delivering the audience to a film.
Marketing – Raising an awareness for the film, getting the audiences approval and excitement, getting the film out there in other mediums than just film for example, products.
Exhibition and exchange – the finances of the movie, an exchange of time or money in order to own the movie.
After we’d fundimentalised that, we were given a list of jobs, all within the film industry and we had to work out where they would be placed, within which sector of production and make a poster containing this information. I feel that this task helped give us a better understanding of what actually goes into making a film and all the hard work and effort it takes in order for it to be seen by people and to become a success.
