Production - Miss Miller

Intro:

The purpose of allocating people to specific roles when filming is so that there will be a lot less work to do and is more chance of the production to run smoothly as someone isn't running round trying to get everything done themselves, a whole crew of people doing the job that they have been told to do and are good at is key for the production to being successful and quick. Me and my group have assigned each other roles that we think each of us will do well at;

We gave each person in the group different roles whist on set, we chose this by how well we thought we would fit into each role and our personalities. This makes filming and editing a whole lot easier as filming will run alot more smoothly then if each person was doing a bit of everything. We have chosen to have 2 people in our group to work on the editing. I wanted to be involved in this as i wanted to try and make the editing as conventional to a thriller as possible. Me and Liz are doing the editing as we our IT skills are good which is important as the editing wont take as long as someone with little skills.

Director- Miranda Simpson

I was chosen by my group to be the director of this sequence, I was happy with this decision because i like to take charge and get things done in my way. It also made sense as Liz and Chloe fitted into the other 2 roles really well due to past experiece. During my role as a director I came up with the script of the sequence and as we filmed i would change some lines for if any reason it didn't sound right or if any of the scenes needed to change position.


Producer- Elizabeth Lawrie

We decided to make Liz the producer as we felt she is a good decision maker, it was also due to the fact she came up with most of the narration of the sequence and so has made a big impact on to our group work. During the filming stage, Liz took control making sure that all of us were playing our roles correctly, saying what she felt needed to change to make the filming better.

Director of photography- Chloe Eustace

Chloe was made director of photography as we felt she is very good at using the camera and equipment, she also managed all of the technical equipment such as the tri pod and the memory card. We felt that me or Liz would not suit this role as we haven't had as much experience at using the camera then she has, it would be a bad idea for one of us to take charge as it would slow the production down. During filming she handled the camera throughout, changing the camera shots and positioning of the tri pod when it needed, i felt she was very successful in her role and would of struggled with out her.


Actors- Molly Johnson, Ronni Norman, James Myers.
Screenplay writer- Miranda Simpson
MES co-ordinator- Lizzie Lawrie
Editor- Lizzie Lawrie.

Conclusion:

I felt that overall we were all successful with our roles. However the production of the filming didn't start on a good note as by the time we got to the setting, it was too dark to film as we needed day-light at the begginning, also a couple of the actors couldn't make it so we had to do the best we can and film what we could. The next time we filmed i felt it went a lot better than before, we got a lot more work done and everyone was working well in their roles such as Chloe with the camera and me tweeking the script, making some small changes as we went along. If anything could have been done differently is if we had more time filming, if we did a couple more run thoughs i feel the finishing result would of been better but i am pleased with what we have created.

Opening Scene Narration - Miss Miller

Our sequence starts with two young girls, Holly and Gemma are on their way to a party. Holly is driving down a dark deserted road when her car breaks down, the two girls pull over and end up swerving into the forest. Gemma and Holly start to panic when they relise their phones have no signal, Gemma then gets out the car to try and find reception on her phone, from where the antagonist comes up from behind her with a hidden identity, stabbing her to death. Holly sees the happen and doesn't know what to do as the car door won't open, she then starts to panic. As Holly looks up she relises that the antagonist has gone. This is when the sequence ends, this way we end it on a cliff hanger as we wonder if Holly makes it out alive or not.

The opening sequence will contain all four micro elements which are cinematography, sound, editing and miss-en-scene. One of the cinematography camera shots used is the POV shot. This is used as the antagonist is walking towards the vicim in the forest, this is to build tension as we try to put the audience in the antagonist shoes. This helps to build a relationship with the victims as we sympathise for them. Another one we used is a reaction shot, this is as Gemma is being stabbed and Holly is watching in shock, this is to make the audience sympathise for the victim as she's a vulnerable young female. The sound we decided to use was upbeat music at the beginning, when the victims are listening to the radio in the car, as the break down the music starts to turn eerie giving the audience a sense that something bad is about to happen. As Gemma gets out of the car to retrieve phone signal, she starts to here noises such as dogs barking and owls howling as its dark she can hardly see anything, making her vulnerable and scared. You also here diegetic sound of the victim screaming for help as her friend is being stabbed to death. The setting for the miss-en-scene is in the forest, with low key lighting as it becomes dark very quickly. The two victims are dressed in party clothes with over the top makeup as they were on there way to party as it happened. All that is seen from the antagonist is the back off him as he walks away from the murder scene, his identity is hidden throughout to create suspense and make the audience wonder who and what the antagonist looks like. The facial expressions used come from the victim's friends as she starts to panic as Gemma is nowhere to be scene. We have also included editing shots such as a Jump cut, this is at the beginning of the sequence from where it jumps from subtitles to the antagonist standing still watching Gemma. By the end of the sequence, the camera shot then fades out telling the audience that it has finished, ending on a cliffhanger.

Risk Assessment - Miss Georgiou

It is important to consider risks before filming as it will allow my group and I to take the correct precautions to avoid the following hazards listed below;

Why is risk assessment important?

Risk assessment is important to prevent hazards and dangerous things from happening. Our group decided to film at night when its dark so it is important to use risk assessment to make our group aware and organised, such as bringing out flash lights and torches so we can see where we are going. This is essential as otherwise something bad could happen.

How has it assisted you with filming?

Me and my group took all of the safety pro cautions listed above which made our filming successful as there was nothing getting in the way of it. For example if we didn't have torches, over half of our sequence would be filmed in the pitch black and so would not be able to see anything. Wherever the camera went, the torch went swell which was a big help as it didn't seem too dark on camera. One of the days that my group filmed it rained, but luckily due to the risk assessment we remembered to bring an umbrella, which we held over the camera to protect it from damaging, if we hadn't brought one we would of had to stop filming which would of been another delay that isn't needed.

Filming Schedule - Miss Georgiou

Intro:

A filming schedule is a project plan of each day's shooting of a film production. The purpose of this is to make sure our group is organised, it informs the crew and actors where they are needed and at what time. It is also important as it is essential that we do not forget any equipment, if this happened it's likely we wouldn't be able to film which would be a disaster as we don't have a lot of time to complete the filming of our sequence.


Filming schedule:

Did you follow the filming schedule, make any changes?

Group storyboard - Miss Miller

Intro:

The purpose of a group storyboard is so all of our groups individual ideas can be put together into 1 really good storyboard, making sure that everybody is on the same page.

Main:

What me and my group decided to do was run through each of our storyboards and decided to put ideas from my individual storyboard at the begginning, with Elizabeths in the middle and Chloes at the end. This is so we make sure that our storyboard makes sense instead of putting our ideas anywhere, we have structured it so it is well ordered. Group storyboards are essential at this point as it is important that everything is completed suchas what camera angles/shots we are using and when, this is so when we go to film our thriller sequence next week there is nothing holding us back to produce our sequence to a very good standard. It is important that each one of our group members are on the same page as eachother otherwise when it comes to the filming it will become a disaster, this is why a group storyboard is very important, we don't want or need any set backs.

Individual story boards - Miss Miller

Intro:

The purpose of a story board is to represent the shots which are used throughout the film. This includes having drawings containing a narrative to each part to explain what is happening within each shot.

Main:

In our groups, we have individually created our individual story boards to how the opening of our thriller sequence will be presented. We have done this by coming up with our own 20 sections of different camera angles and shots used in our story board of what is going to happen from the start of the sequence to the very end. This is so i have contributed my ideas to the group. This is important that we do do this with our own individual ideas as then we can only improve it as a group, if we only did a group storyboard and not an individual one, we would have to come with a plan on the spot and would not be to our best ability. This is a good idea as however has created the best storyboard within the group, we would base our sequence around that, adding parts in from the other group members. We would not be able to do this if we didn't do it individually.

My story board:

I have included certain elements in my storyboard, in order to make each shot conventional to the thriller genre. for example towards the end when the antagonist appears, the shot changes into P.O.V. this is conventional as it shows you what is happening throughout the sequence, in the antagonists view. This is to get the audience to build a relationship with the victims, and to sympathise for Gemma as she is stabbed to death. Also i included a knife as part of the iconography included, this is a key weapon used throughout thriller films as a knife leads to blood, blood is also an essential convention to include in our thinner sequence.

Conclusion:

I think my storyboard is successful as i have tried to include all the shots that are nessasary in order to making our sequence work and become successful, i also included all of the iconography which will be seen and used such as the victims phone and car. Later on me and my group will be creating a group storyboard, this is were we will put all 3 of our story boards together and interpret parts of all 3 members of my group, for example some of my ideas may get out at the start, with Chloe's in the middle and Elizabeth's at the end, this way we as a group will end up creating something that we all have put our 100% contribution into, and not just using the best storyboard to put forward and use in the sequence.

Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Intro:

The purpose of opening credits is to let the audience know of the different roles. Allowing you to see the director, editors and casting to give you a sense of what the film is like. The font and colours of the credits are essential as it produces the mood of which the film is set in, for example if the colours used are quite dark and dull, it could mean that the film is quite sad and depressing where as if you use more upbeat, bold colours and a well stated font, its highly likely that you are about to watch a happy film.

Se7en:

The colours used in the opening sequence to this film are quite dull colours, mostly in black and white. As the eerie music starts to get louder, the light flashes onto the images to make them stand out, this shows how disturbing the pictures are and that due to it being in black and white, the images needed to stand out to get the audiences attention, this is important as it gives us a taste of what the film is like. The style of the credits was used with an italic font in white placed over a black background, this was to make the credits eye catching and bold to show the audience that this is quite an intense film, for that reason this is how i'd like my credits to be layer out in my sequence. The main picture that the sequence kept referring back to was a persons hands holding a needle, this is a convention of a thriller as a sharp weapon is used as part of the iconography.


My Credit Design:

This is my idea of how the credits would be layer out in my groups opening thriller sequence. I took my inspiration from the film Se7en in order to create this. I like this design as its big, bold and eye catching.  I like the way that the font shadows itself under as if it was symmetrical, starting to die out and dissolve into the background. I thought it was a good idea to use this as it fits in well with the plot of our story, how the two victims start of laughing and having fun to one of them being killed, this i feel reflects will on to this style of credits.

Summary:

Our credits will start of by saying 'a film by..' with each members of my groups names being included, then adding the production and company which we will decide on, with the victims names Holly and Gemma, and the antagonist who is still at this point unknown.

Character Planning - Miss Miller

Intro:

Carryout a group discussion regarding the planning of the characters is essential to our thriller sequence. During our group discussion, we described what their age, gender, appearance and background would be. Each character is stereotypical to the thriller genre. The first victim (Gemma) is a blonde, innocent girl, and the antagonists identity is hidden until the very end. Both of these characters is what you would expect to see in an stereo typical thriller.

Victim one- (Gemma)

Gemma is the victim that is killed in our sequence, she is a young girl in her teens, roughly around 18. She is stereotypical to the thriller genre as she is a young female victim, this is one of the main conventions that a thriller would normally include. This is in order for the audience to create a relationship with the victim as we went them to sympathise for her, building tension as we worry for her life. We are then hoping that this leads to the audience really engaging within the film as using a young female victim makes the audience see her as weak and vulnerable whereas if we used a male victim, we wouldn't get the same outcome as it is not conventional.

Victim two- (Holly)

Holly is Gemma's friend, she is the second victim in the sequence but is not killed within the scene. She is also a teen that comes across as quite shy. She is stereotypical to the thriller genre for the same reasons as Gemma, being a young female victim, this creates suspense and it makes the audience question what is going to happen knowing that it is certainly not going to end well.

Antagonist-

Our antagonist is going to be a male in his 30's. His identity is not shown throughout the scene so all the audience will be able to see is his build and the clothes he's wearing. To give the audience an insight as to who the antagonist could be and what he looks like, we will dress him in certain clothes that will make him seem quite powerful such as chunky army boats and a long thick coat. The reason for this is we want to get the audience thinking about what is about to happen, knowing that the victims wouldn't have a chance in surviving if he was to approach them. This is stereotypical to a thriller as the antagonist is male and not female, it shows the power that the male has over the female, and as his identity is hidden it creates enigma, helping the audience to engage within the film as they want to find out who the antagonist is, this builds tension as when the antagonist is finally revealed within the film, it leaves the audience shocked.

Conclusion:

We as a group sat down and considered what our 3 characters were going to be like. It took a lot of thought as we tried to make the characters be as conventional to the thriller genre as possible in order to making it successful. We think that using 2 young female victims is a good choice as it represents them as being vulnerable and scared and we want the audience to be able to see this for this to feel sympathy.  It was also the right idea to use a male antagonist rather than a female as it gives an insight on the audience about what is likely to happen, if the antagonist was in fact female it would make the audience wonder what will happen as it could go either way.

Planning Sound

Intro:

Sound is essential within films as it creates effects, with out it the film would be ineffective and the audience would find it difficult to follow and understand.  Sound effects, music and human voice is essential to include within films, without these 3 elements, images within the film that are put together wouldn't work and would struggle for the film to make sense. This is why sound is so important within thriller films, in order to create suspense, you need elements such as music and sound effects to build tension. Therefore in order for my group and I to produce an excellent sequence, sound is essential.

Sound Techniques:

Non-diegetic sound - We as a group decided to include fast paced eerie music, this will be included after the murder has happened as the antagonist walks away from the murder scene. The effect created by the fast pace of the music will cause the audience to feel tense and in a heightened state of shock. It will also make the audience feel as if they have to keep up with the quickly developing storyline. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the eerie music can make the scene seem scarier than it actually is due to the build up of tension it has on the audience.

Diegetic sound-  We decided to use diegetic music in our thriller sequence as this is essential in order to create for a sequence to being successful. The scene starts off with upbeat music playing on the car radio, with the two girls singing along to it prior to the car breaking down. The effect that this will create is that it tricks the audience into thinking everything is okay so when the car does break down the audience are surprised. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it gives the audience an understanding of what the girls are thinking, you can tell that they are in a panicked state by their shaky voices, this gives the audience an insight to both of the girls nights going terribly wrong.

On screen sound of car engine- Engine noises are heard as the audience see the car come to a holt. The effect of this makes the audience nervous for the two victims and will question what is going to happen next as they are portrayed as vulnerable at this point. The audience suspect that things are starting to take a turn for the worst. This is conventional as it leads from one bad to thing to the next, nothing good can come from what is unfolding within the sequence so it prepares the audience for the worst to occur.

Diegetic & Parallel sound- This is on screen sound of the antagonist walking through the leaves on the forest floor prior to the murder. We are using this type of sound as the camera is switched into P.O.V. showing the antagonists feet crunching through the forest just before he murders the victim, Gemma. The effect that this will generate is tension for the audience as they question his purpose for being in the forest and whether Gemma and the antagonist will encounter each other.

Conclusion:

Overall, we found that planning the sound that we are going to use was helpful as it gave us a chance as a group to decide what kind of sound to use in each parts to the sequence. The has to be planned ahead in order for our sequence tone successful as when it comes to filming it on the day, if any thing didn't fall into place we can make a few tweaks and changes to what we have discussed. If we went in to filming with no plan what so ever our sequence would end up falling part as everything would be rushed and out of sync. I feel that using these 4 types of sound will help us to create more of an effective sequence as they are all conventions of what a thriller should contain.

Planning Editing Styles - Miss Georgiou

Intro:

Editing styles are important because in order to create a successful thriller sequence, you will need to create shock, surprise, tension and suspense, this is done using various different editing effects such as slow editing, which is where the pace of the film slows down in order to create suspense and shot reverse shot is where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. This is used in order to build a relationship with the audience and to engage them within the film.

Editing Styles:

Reaction shot- A reaction shot is any shot in which a subject reacts to a previous shot. Our group decided to use this in our opening sequence when the victim (Gemma) is murdered, it will show her reaction  as she is being attacked by the antagonist. This will create shock as the audience witness her being killed. The effect of this will generate the audience to having sympathy for the character as it made explicit that she has been attacked. We as a group wanted to include this as it is conventional to a thriller as it shows the victims facial expressions and body language whilst being killed.

Jump Cut- Jump cut is when the film suddenly focuses on something. We decided to ass this editing style into our sequence when Gemma walks off on her own into the forest while her friend is alone in the car, this will create suspense as the audience want to see what will happen and why. The effect that this will create is it will highlight to the audience that they are now separated and vulnerable so they know something will happen, it makes the audience tense for the outcome. This is therefore conventional to a thriller as it creates suspense whilst the camera is focusing on to the victim, as we as an audience know something bad is about to happen. 

Slow Editing- Slow Editing is when clips are placed close together at a slower pace, this is done to create suspense. We use this editing style when the antagonist is walking away from the murder in the forest, this creates shock at the fact that he van just walk away so calmly from such a horrific act. The effect that this creates shows that he is strange and possibly mentally unstable, this helps the audience to wonder what his motives are. It also creates tension and shock as the audience get to see the antagonist for the first time the while sequence, this is the reason slow editing is conventional to the thriller genre.

Inspirations - Miss Georgiou

Intro:


We need inspiration before we can create something because it makes you passionate about the things that your planning, helping you to create something detailed and well structured. We can take inspiration from films that you enjoy as it gives you more to think and write about. I've taken my inspiration by a clip from Strangers, a clip that we viewed as a class which is about a female victim in her house, with intruders trying to enter, carrying weapons banging on the doors of the house.

I chose this film as an inspiration for the opening sequence of my thriller film. The reason for this is because of how conventional this clip is to the thriller genre. I want to try to include each one of these conventions in order for mine to be successful. 

This sequence contains a weapon (knife), which is conventional to a thriller as it represents murder and blood. I think that it creates suspense a lot more than a gun would as a weapon as the victims don't suffer through the pain that they would get from being stabbed than shot. It create effects as it builds tension upon the audience as it makes us build sympathy for the victim. This is the reason why we want to use a knife as a weapon in our thriller sequence. 

An antagonist is key to include in a thriller, if the antagonist is not seen throughout the sequence, the audience find it difficult to build a relationship with the victims as we don't know who or what the antagonist looks like. In this sequence of the strangers, the antagonist is seen for a split second as he is banging on the victims door, this is conventional as it builds tension for the audience as we wonder when the antagonist is going to re-appear. We have taken this as inspiration for our sequence as we have decided that the antagonist will only be seen for a short amount of time, and thats when he is killing the victim. 

This sequence contains a female victim. I think the reason for this is that she is vulnerable and scared, this as an audience makes us worry or her as were scared for her life. As you start to see the victim panic, you can tell that she has no hope if the antagonist was to approach her. I have taken this as inspiration and will include 2 young, female victims in my thriller sequence, this is because i feel in these situations, women come across as more scared and vulnerable then a male would. A female victim is conventional to the thriller genre so I felt that its important in oder for my sequence to be successful to make sure it's as conventional as possible.

It also contains non diegetic music such as the noise of her screaming in panic as the antagonist is banging on the door. This is conventional as it tells the audience how scared and vulnerable the victim is, it makes the sequence seem more realistic as if the victim was scared for her life. I have taken this as inspiration and will convert it into my sequence as il include non diegetic sound of the victim screaming as she is watching her best friend getting stabbed to death. 

Diegetic sound is also used as the radio starts playing and repeating itself, this is conventional to the thriller genre as it creates suspense as the music sounds quite eerie and not upbeat at all. I will take this as inspiration and use it in my thriller sequence, the music coming from the radio will be heard as the two victims are driving in the car and break down, this gives the audience a sense that something bad is likely to happen.

The setting which is in the house is quite dark and looks as if it is in a quiet, remote place. I know that my sequence will be filmed in the forest which is a similar setting to this one as it is dark, quiet and an unlikely place to find anyone or anything at night. This is also conventional to the thriller genre because of it being dark, it makes you unsure of when and where the antagonist is going to appear and the waiting builds tension. It is also unlikely for someone to be murdered in a light, busy place so this is the reason using a remote setting is very important 

Group Planning - Miss Georgiou

Intro:

The member of my group to create our opening sequence are Chloe Eustace and Elizabeth Lawrie. Group meetings are essential to have for our planning as each and every person in the group can put their ideas forward to create something really good. If we didn't have group meetings, we would find it really difficult to produce our sequences as we have to discuss what will appear in the sequence such as the key elements.

First meeting discussion-

My narrative idea was about a house in the middle of the Countryside. There will be 3 female victims who wake up locked in  different rooms scattered around the basement of the house, banging on the doors screaming trying to find a way to escape thinking that it is abandoned. However, with out them knowing the antagonists family are living in the house, not aware of the victims being there as all the walls are sound proof. Will the victims escape before it is too late or will one of the family members become suspicious as the antagonist keeps heading down to the basement?
Advantages-  3 female victims- a conventional thriller as it creates tension and suspense for the audience as we fear for the female victims, they are scared and vulnerable which makes us worry. Abandoned area- isolated being only in the presence of themselves, the antagonist and his family. This creates enigma as we as an audience wonder weather the antagonists family will ever find out.

Disadvantages- more conventions, what kind of editing would be used, mise-en-scene. Would be difficult to find a setting with an isolated area with a segregated basement.

Chloe's narrative idea was about a main character which is a girl (One of the Victims), her parents are away for the weekend and decides that she could have a party with friends. She lives in a pretty abandoned place in the town where there is only the neighbours. The party gets out of hand when everyone starts bringing there own friends and there is actually a murderer been brought to the party.  They try to work out who is the killer (antagonist) but people keep dying one by one leaving only the females alive, the males at the party are being killed first. 
Advantages-  Contain enigma, abandoned area - makes the victims more vulnerable, we s an audience sympathise more. Only female victims survive, shows audience their strong but we also fear for them.
Disadvantages- male victims being murdered, not female. Not conventional to a thriller. Needs more conventions added to make it a thriller (weapons, lighting, blood etc.)

Elizabeth's narrative idea was about a group of friends are going on a camping trip for Alice Morgan's 18th birthday, little does she know the females in her family have been plagued by a curse since the 1800s. Every once in a while, a female in the Morgan family on their 18th birthday, usually of good nature and innocence, are said to have been taunted by a young ghostly figure before mysteriously vanishing and said to be claimed by an demoniacal being. During the 1800s, William Morgan, a relative of Alice, broke the heart of a beautiful young woman named Elise Elliot, she was a young maid working for William and his wife Anna. Elise and William had a whirlwind affair, and eventually called their relationship off, explaining to Elise he never loved her, only his wife. Unknown to William, Elise was of Romany decent, she was in fact a gypsy. Elise was riddled with  unbearable heartache, excruciating grief and anger, so much so she cursed William before taking her own life. She cursed the whole Morgan family because she wanted William to pay for the pain he had caused her and wanted her suffering to be remembered for all eternity. Alice, leading up to her 18th had been having what she considered of odd dreams, she had been vividly dreaming of a young woman weeping over a man she had loved and lost, a woman eventually revealed to be Elise Elliot. Alice reveals to her friends the strange dreams she has been having while camping in the woods by her house, shortly before the ghostly taunting's commence.
Advantages- Contains enigma- not sure where the curse is coming from. Innocent female victims- conventional to a thriller. Victims being taunted by a ghostly figure- contains suspense, shock & mystery

Disadvantages- More conventions are needed such as Iconography & setting. Quite a complicated narrative, will be hard to use for our own thriller sequence.

Following our group discussion, we came up with advantages and disadvantages to each on of our narratives. We then relised that the disadvantages over ruled the advantages so new we had to make something different. We put all our ideas forward and decided to do something a bit different as we would find it impossible to film any of our narratives. However we took some ideas from each of our narrative's and put it into our new one.

Our final group narrative was about two young girls, Holly and Gemma are on their way to a party. Holly is driving down a dark deserted road when her car breaks down. Gemma and Holly start to panic when they relise their phones have no signal, Gemma then gets out the car to try and find reception on her phone, from where the antagonist comes up from behind her with a hidden identity, stabbing her to death. Holly doesn't know what to do as the car door won't open. As Holly looks up she relises that the antagonist has gone. This is when the sequence ends, this way we end it on a bit of a cliff hanger as we wonder if Holly makes it out alive or not.



discussion of a3 paper-

next meeting-

keep a log of group meetings to post at end

Planning Cinematography - Miss Miller

Intro:

Cinematogaphy is important within films because it tells the story of whats happening through using different camera shots/angles. Alot of planning is required in producing an excellent sequence as it will help to make your sequence well structured and to its best ability, if we didnt plan before filming our opening sequence, it would be a complete mess, would not be structured well and would likely to be quite a poor storyline. With planning I can feel confident that I have put in my full amount of effort in producing a successful thriller sequence.


Mid Shot-

The first camera shot that we decided to use in our opening sequence is a mid shot. This will be of the two girls when they are in the car. This gives the audience a feel for who the two characters are and their situation, making the audience question and wonder what might happen to these two characters, weather something bad was about to happen or not. The audience will be able to build a relationship with the two characters through mid shot because it makes us worry for them as we are able to see there facial expressions & body language through this shot. This is conventional to a thriller because this makes us sympathise for the victims, seeing how scared they are. This will hopefully get the audience to want to watch more.

P.O.V-

We decided that we were going to use the Point Of View shot, this is used to show the audience the same image of the two characters. We are going to use this shot as the antagonist is watching the girls and as he follows them and kills Gemma. This is used to see what is happening through the antagonists perspective. The antagonist is never revealed in the opening sequence and keeps his identity hidden, this generates enigma and will make the audience question why the antagonist has done this. This will make the audience build a relationship with the victim as we are able to see her reaction whilst getting stabbed. Using this shot gives the audience the sense of worry as we have no clue who is holding the camera, all we can see is the victims panic in the shot. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it builds tension and creates suspense for the audience as they desperately want to see and know who the antagonist is.

Panning-

We decided that panning would be one of the camera angles that we would use as it indicates that things are beginning to go wrong. It also builds tension as it makes the audience assume the worst. We are going to film with panning when and as the car breaks down, this builds tension as the audience assume the worst. You can tell panning is being used as the camera starts tilting from side to side, using this will make the audience feel as if they were their with the victim, it helps to build sympathy for the victim. This is conventional to a thriller because if the tension that it builds, emphasising the face that we know the car has broken down, and something worse is about to happen.

Long shot- A long shot shows all of a larger object and a large amount of background. We are using this camera shot of the antagonist from behind as he has dropped the camera and walks away from the victim. This re-enforces the hidden identity of the antagonist. We thought that this is conventional because the audience get to see what the antagonist looks like and who he is, it builds tension as we are waiting for the identity of the antagonist to be revealed, this will help the audience to build a relationship with the victims as we now know who the murderer is.

Reaction shot- This is any shot from where a person reacts to the previous shot. We decided to use this shot of the victims friend, as she hears Gemma screaming whilst being attacked. This generates sympathy for the victims as she is portrayed as vulnerable. Having the victims being vulnerable is conventional to the thriller genre as it shows their fear, it draws the audience in as we worry for their lives. This helps the audience to build a relationship with Gemma and Holly as we want them to escape from the antagonist, it is also important that we include this camera shot to show Holly's facial expressions as she is watching her friend being murdered, this is to make the sequence seem more realistic and to create shock. 

Close up- Close ups are essential in thriller films, it shows a smaller part of the scene to emphasise on something. We are going to use a close up at the point when Gemma is being stabbed, this makes the audience feel sympathy for the victim in question. Using a close up on the murder scene will also make the knife stand out, this is conventional to thriller films as a knife as the weapon is the most popular way victims are killed. It builds tension as it is a lot more brutal then being murdered by a gun shot. It shows you the pain that the victim is suffering in that very moment, with the only thing your able to see is her face and nothing else. 

Conclusion:

I think using these 6 different camera angles will help to make our thriller sequence a lot more effective then it would be without, each one of these shots are conventional to the thriller genre so if we work hard at using these angles at the right time, our sequence will be successful in terms of creating a good thriller. I have found the planning of our filming very helpful, this is because we got to film a short sequence in class using different types of cinematography shots, after doing this it gave me a better understanding of what each shot was and how to film it with the camera and tripod. We then watched over it and decided that we had done quite a good job considering it was our first try, if we hadn't of done this, i feel our group would of struggle when filming the real thing. After this was done the next step in planning was picking 6 different cinematography styles to include in our thriller sequence that we thought would be conventional, we then decided when and where to use each one. This has given my group and I a much better understanding of what we need to include when filming our sequence.

                                                                                                    

Planning mise-en-scene - Miss Georgiou

1) Setting & Iconography-

Our group have decided that our thriller sequence will be filmed in a forest. We chose this setting because we feel it will create fear and suspense for the audience as the victim is in a very quiet and isolated place. This will be scene throughout the sequence from where the victim's car breaks down at the beginning, we will be filming this in the evening so its quite dark, this is so we can make sure that the setting is thrilling. This is conventional to the thriller genre as its an isolated area where you wouldn't expect any person to be, especially at night.
We then decided that the iconography that will be included is a knife when the murder scene occurs, this is a typical convention used in a thriller film. We have chosen this as we feel it will create shock & fear for the audience as we want them to sympathise for the victim.
Other Iconography we have decided to use is a mobile phone, this comes in when the car breaks down and the victim relieses that her phone has no signal on it. We then have decided for the radio in the car to start making static noises, we felt that doing this will give the impression to the audience that something bad was about to happen to the two characters Gemma and Holly. These are all examples of an conventional thriller, leading to the death of Gemma.

2) Costume, hair & makeup-

My group and I have decided that the two victims Gemma and Holly will be quite dressed up as the reason that they're in the car is because they are on there way to a party so it only makes sense to dress them quite dolled up. We agreed that they will be dressed quite similar we them both wearing party makeup such as lipstick and false eyelashes. Holly, which is the driver, will have her hair dow and curled, wearing a sparkly top with jeans and a smart pair of boots. Gemma, which is the main victim, will have her hair down and straight, wearing a dress with pumps. This is essential to make sure that the plot of the story makes sense for example if they were dressed in tracksuits it would make the audience wonder what they are doing, to create suspense this has to make sense for the audience.
The Antagonist in our thriller sequence will remain with a hidden identity throughout for the simple reason of wanting to keep it a mystery, this is conventional as it creates enigma for the audience. You will only see the antagonist from behind and not the front, this is until after he has stabbed the victim to death, we then see a front image of him quickly before he starts walking away slowly. He will be wearing quite camouflaged clothes such as blacks and dark colours to blend in such as a long black coat with quite clumpy boats, making the victims stand out.

3) Positioning-

The positioning of the antagonist won't be seen on camera as he is positioned behind the victims. The two girl characters will be positioned in front of the camera in the middle throughout. This is done so it is conventional to a thriller. It is conventional because the antagonist is hidden until he preys on the victim. It builds tension as the audience are waiting for the antagonist to appear, so when he finally does, it shocks the audience.

 

4) Lighting & Colour-

Throughout the opening sequence, natural lighting and colour will be scene as throughout this will be filmed outside, however the colour will be quite dull as we will be filming this in the evening, so not much light will be seen. This is conventional to a thriller as its very typical to use a dark setting and lighting in a thriller film. This makes us wonder if the antagonist is watching the victims and where he is going to appear from, it also creates suspense as we know something bad is about to happen to the victims it is just a matter of time before it happens, this makes the audience engage with the chatracters.

5) Facial expressions & Body language-

The facial expressions of the two victims will start off quite happy, singing along to the radio as they are heading to the party in Holly's car. It then begins to change, looking quite frustrated, this is when the car breaks down, as they have a conversation about what to do they start shouting at each other and become very angry when they reliese they have no phone signal. The only thing that Gemma feels she can do is to get out of the car and walk around, trying to find phone reception, you can tell by Holly's face that she is scared and nervous when she can no longer see Gemma and is by herself, starting to call out for her but is no answer. When Gemma returns to tell Holly that there is no luck, Holly sees the antagonist walking towards Gemma, her face starts to drop fearing for her life. When Gemma finally is attacked, Holly's facial expressions turn to shock and fear, by her body language you could tell she was starting to panic trying to open the door to her car.
Due to the reason that the antagonist is in POV thoughout, we cannot see his facial expressions or body language, we decided that this will be best because we want to create as much mystery for the audience as possible so that it keeps them wondering whats happened after the opening sequence has happened.

Preliminary Task - Miss Miller

Intro:

The members of my group include Chloe Eustace and Elizabeth Lawrie. The purpose of this task was to have an idea of how we will film our opening sequence working with different shots and angles, as well as getting used to the equipment and how it works. I had to film the other 2 members of our group having a conversation but using the different shooting and angle techniques to give an example of what needs to be included in our opening sequence. The sequence was roughly 1-2 minutes long after we had cut the parts which weren't necessary, after this was done we watched back the clip and we reliesed that our filming was successful.

Main:


We used quite a few different camera techniques whilst filming, such as; close up, over the shoulder, reverse shot and zoom in/out. I also had to change the length of the tripod a couple of times for the different shots to work and change the angle of the camera by tilting it up and down. What i felt me and my group did well whilst filming was that we tried to make the conversation flow as much as possible by adding humour to it, we did not want the scene to look scripted which i think we pulled off. The one thing we struggled with the most was working out how to use the tripod as i kept on having to change the length of it, this took a bit of time but we managed to use it well and correctly. I know that if we had more space to film the sequence, we wouldn't of struggled as much as i had to keep changing the position of the camera for the 2 actors to be filmed correctly in each different camera technique. I know our group will not have this problem when we film our thriller sequence as we will be in a forest and will have all the space that we need and now we know how to use the camera and tripod it should make it a lot easier for us. I feel that having a good thriller setting I feel will definitely help me to produce my opening sequence as that alone helps to create a good thriller scene, it is essential to create thrill for the audience and that can not be done if it isn't in an conventional setting. When i watched the footage back that we filmed i reliesed that some of the camera angles and shots used could of been better but i did struggle bait with the space so i had to keep moving the camera around the room to use the camera techniques correctly but overall i was pleased as it was our first practise filming and using the camera.

Conclusion:

This task has created a massive impact on our opening sequence as I now have a clear understanding of how and when to use different shots/angles, if we didn't have this task, i feel me and my group would struggle knowing how to use them in our opening sequence, this will help to create an impact on the audience. What i mostly learnt from this task was how to set up the tripod, which i have never done before and to use the camera, knowing which parts i had to stop to for example change the angle that the camera is facing or changing the length of the tripod. It also helped to show me how my group can act behind the camera, this is essential as we wouldn't want our thriller sequence to seem fake and unrealistic. In this task, we all out our own ideas forward to how we should of filmed that sequence, so thats one thing that we are hoping to keep the same when filming the thriller sequence. This time, what me and my group will do differently is trying to make each part that we are filming as accurate as possible, so we will keep watching the clip back to see any bits that need to be changed or improved.

Research into target audience - Miss miller

Research into Target Audience

Research into Target Audience

My group and I have carried out research in aim to discover people's personal preferences in regards to an ideal thriller in hope to aid us to produce a good opening sequence and enable us to get a good idea in regards to an appropriate target audience. We decided to create a questionnaire for 40 participants as we felt this would make our results more reliable and inform us on our audience's ages and preferences.

Intro:

Research was carried out by using a questionnaire to find out 40 different views from random people. We came up with 10 questions that are linked to thriller films which we then used to ask the audience, whilst this was done we videoed the interview which was called Vox Pops. I have 3 examples below of the Vox Pops that I put together and filmed. 

Vox pops:

Questionnaire

Below is the questionnaire that my group and I created. We chose these ten questions as we felt they related to thriller films and would produce answers that would enable us a group to use the information we gather to create an effective likeable opening thriller scene while remaining in regulations of our chosen target audience. We asked questions in regards to age and gender to determine who likes what and to produce a good idea of an audience who would enjoy our thriller opening sequence.

This is one of the questions that I asked within my questionnaire, the reason for this is because I wanted to know the number of females and males that took place within my questionnaire. I wanted to see if the results that I get would have been accurate in terms of the two different genders. I have taken on board that most of the people i questioned were female rather then male, so they may have similar interests in thrillers then what males would have.

I also asked people the age group they were.The age had an impact on the questionnaire because of the different certificates that there were for different types of thriller films. The questionnaire shows that the majority of people that filled in the questionnaire were of age 16-18, this shows that most of the results will be based around people of that age group. The second most common age to fill out this questionnaire was people of age 13-15.This has helped me as i have taken these results on board, i will definitely try to target the 16-18 age groups in my thriller sequence as that is the most common age that watch thriller films.

These are some of the conventions of a thriller genre. The highest percentage was Pychological. This shows over 70% of the people i asked chose the psychological genre to being their favourite, this is where the characters in the films are in some way mentally unstable and emotionally drained. This is very popular in most thrillers, with not very many preferring crime ad sci-fi, the statistics showed that around 30% of people enjoy crime and sci-fi thrillers. For example, they were expecting an antagonist and a protagonist, but this is more popular in a horror film rather than a thriller. This has helped me to determine the type of thriller to use in y own sequence. I will try to use some scary and crime scenes, using a psychological plot would be a lot more complicated and advanced for me to try to use. 

In this question, i asked each person if they enjoy the identity of the antagonist to be hidden, over 80% agreed that they do like hidden identities and only 20% that did not like hidden identities, generally the people that don't like hidden identities are the ones that don't enjoy thriller films as much as the ones who do like hidden identities as it creates more fear, not knowing what to expect. With these results it has made me and my group decide for the antagonist in our opening scene to have a hidden identity. This should create quite a few conventions for my sequence such as suspense, tension and surprise. These are key elements that you need to try to create in order for the scene to be a successful thriller film.

We used this question as we wanted to know what ways the general public prefer the victim of a
thriller to be killed. We wanted to know these results so see what way the female victim in our sequence to be murdered, and over 60% agreed that they prefer weapons such as a knife or a chain saw as it creates more fear then say a victim killed by a rope or being strangled. Weapon are probably the most popular ways a victim is killed as it os conventional created shock and suprise, this makes us feel sympathy towards the victims as they are being murdered. We have taken this on board and decided that the antagonist in our sequence will have some type of weapon but we haven't decided what kind of weapon yet but it will be some type of blade weather it is a knife or axe etc.

I asked the general puplic what their preference is to where the thriller is filmed, these results came back as 55% saying an abandoned setting, with the 2nd most popular being at 30% perfering alleys or roads. We wanted this question answered as the setting to a thriller is vital as for example an abanadoned setting is conventional where as a light setting full of people is not conventional. This gives us an idea of what the audience prefers, the setting to our sequence will be filmed in an abandoned, hidden place such as a forest. This will help us to create suspense and fear for the audience as we wonder what will happen to the victim.

 This is one of the key elements to creating a thriller sequence. We asked the public what their preference is to the setting of a thriller film and 55% agreed that an abandoned place is the best setting, with alleys being at 25% and hidden places at 15%. This has helped us to decide that our narrative will contain an hidden, abandoned place rather than somewhere remote and popular. These are conventions of a thriller as it creates fear and suspense as we as an audience worry for the victim knowing that anything could happen.

We asked the question what gender do we prefer the victims to be, we thought that more people would say female and we were correct with over 85% agreeing that they prefer a female victim. This is conventional to a thriller as females are seen to being sweet and innocent and have no chance being able to defend themselves from a male antagonist. This as an audience makes us sympathize more with a female than with a male, so we have decided in our opening sequence the victim will in fact be female.

In this question, 85% of the public said that they like jumpy scenes in thriller films, with only 15% saying they don't. Therefore it makes sense that we do include some jumpy scenes in our sequence to keep the audience interested and to create shock and suspense. I feel without them the scene can become less scary, making the audience disinterested which makes us feel less sympathy for the victim. Our main objective is wanting the audience to fear for the victims life and to agree that our sequence has been successful, this is one of the reasons why we don't want to use a male victim.

The last question we asked was if the public enjoyed plot twists, 65% said they do with 35% saying that they don't. Even though we wanted to know the aswer to this question, our group are still unsure weather or not we will include a plot twist, either way i don't think it will create a big impact on the sequence as having a plot twist dosen't nessasarily make the scene scarier. This is somethig that we as a group will need to discuss but it is likely that we won't use a plot twist as the percentage difference is massive.

Individual narrative ideas - Miss Georgiou

Introduction:

A narrative is important because it tells us the story line, with out it could confuse the audience as there is no real plot to the film and with lots of things happening and no story to it, the film would not make sense it would be very random and for a thriller unrealistic as the events happening would not connect together.  For the film to be successful, there has to be a narrative.

Main:

Considering a narrative for my thriller

A house in the middle of the Countryside. There will be 3 female victims who wake up locked in  different rooms scattered around the basement of the house, banging on the doors screaming trying to find a way to escape thinking that it is abandoned. However, with out them knowing the antagonists family are living in the house, not aware of the victims being there as all the walls are sound proof. Will the victims escape before it is too late or will one of the family members become suspicious as the antagonist keeps heading down to the basement?
I will include the 5 main elements;
Setting & Iconography- the house is the setting, i will use ropes and knives as the Iconography.
Costume, hair & makeup- no makeup and hair will be plain and natural to show the victims innocence, wearing old baggy jumpers.
Facial expressions& body language- will represent fear and suspense
Lighting & colour- low-key lighting, dark and dull colours.
Positioning of characters- scattered in different rooms, thinking they are the only victim.


The conventions my thriller would contain-

• House in the countryside 
• an antagonist
• 3 female victims
• low-key lighting
• close ups
• diegetic music
• suspense 
• slow editing 
• target audience: 15+