Feedback

Feedback was really important and good to get a range of people's opinions our thriller opening to see what our audience though of it whether it needed to be improved and how we would go about it. To do this we took our thriller into class to get some constuctive criticism.

The positive feedback we got consister of:

• Good matching of the action to soundtrack.
• Great locations that fitted with our opening.
• Smooth transitions.
• Effective use of flash from camera at the start of the production
• Variety of shots.
• Soundtrack was a great choice.
• Good choice of chacter costume.
• Good use of editing
• Use of voiceover helped us to grasp and understand the plot a bit more

Criticism: 

• The colours used at the start of the production made it unclear to see properly
• The titles at the start could have been slightly more professional

This feedback proved extremely useful, as we knew exactly what we had done right and also what needed to be improved on. We managed to change our titles so that they flashed on during the production instead of having a reeling credits scene at the start, and we darkened the video colours as originally we had planned on having a sort of misty effect over the top of the production, but although this may have influenced that fact that the protagonist was dreaming, it didn't look very professional and it made it unclear to see, so we darkened the colours slightly. 

Mise-en-scene

Costumes

This above was the actor at the opening thriller. His costume was aimed to look like a member of crime scene investigation crew. I think that this was achieved by the costume making the starting scene dramatic and encouraging the audience to wonder what's happening. However, I think that the effect might not have come through as clearly aimed as we wanted because of the minimal lighting we had in that scene. We may have improved this costume by adding an emblem of 'C.S.I' or something similar.





This costume was aimed to indicate an ominous air around the character, which was influenced by the dark colours. The use of the black hoody made it feel more sinister and mysterious.





This costume was aimed to again look mysterious, but slightly more neutral so that the audience can grasp some sort of a relationship with the character. If the audience can relate to the actress, then the killing scene would be made far more effective as the audience would be shocked.


Props

• Picture Frame
• Picture of female character
• Knife
• Fake Blood
• Houses
• Bed

As the locations were quite basic to start with, we agreed to keep them basic so that the audience could focus in on what was happening, instead of letting their eyes wander elsewhere. We reinforced this by removing everything we could out of the garage as we wanted it too look dark and dingy, but in the room we kept various objects out to make it look like it was just an innocent room which indicates nothing sinister, so that the final outcome came as a shock to the audience. 


Diegetic Sound


We muted out most of the sound during the production, however we did leave the footsteps going up the steps to the house as there was a pause in the music, so with these footsteps it filled the gap and also added to the tension as the sound of running footsteps can automatically trigger an sense of alertness within the audience. Also, during the killing scene, we kept the sound of the female character shuffling away, and the sound of the impact of the knife blow as this additionally added to the suspense and shock of what just happened. 

Final Thriller Opening

Inspiriation

Inception- where the inspiration came from
This is the film that inspired us the most, bringing the bases to our thriller together.
Written by Christopher Nolan a very famous writer, producer and film director,
Christopher spent over 9 years in the creation of this product witch shows what a
perfectionist he is.
Due to being so inspired by this peace of media we felt the need to try and develop
on his product, bringing us many challenges that im sure Christopher had accomplished
himself. We wanted to use the conventions that Christopher had used in Inception, as we believed that these matched our thriller perfectly and would help us excel in the creation of our thriller. 

(My Essay Question) - With reference to Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ (1960) and at least two other thrillers you have studied, as well as your wider research, discuss the thriller genre and it’s forms and conventions. ( Graded A)

With reference to Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ (1960) and at least two other thrillers you have studied, as well as your wider research, discuss the thriller genre and it’s forms and conventions.

Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ is one of the most celebrated films ever made.  It’s forms and conventions used throughout the film present an insight into a masterfully crafted thriller, using an extraordinary chain of events to depict the protagonist’s change of lifestyle due to course of actions from secondary characters. This is portrayed through the use of suspense, tension, strong narrative and a representation of the central character of whom the audience may empathise.

For instance, the character of Norman Bates is set up initially as a figure in which the audience may have initial suspicions of him as the reprobate of the plot, as he is a queer individual when first encountered, stimulated through the uses of minor details incorporated into his speech and the certain camera angles he is pictured in. An example of this being his unorthodox hobby of taxidermy, depicted in his office when he dines with Marion. The POV camera angle captures his stuffed birds looming above his head, which could symobolise death, whilst at the same time reiterating the fact of his idiosyncratic hobby. This use of camera angle to induce suspicion, or an air of uncertainty is reflected in ‘Taking Lives’. During an intimate scene between the 2 protagonists, a POV shot is shown from the male character, picturing Angelina Jolie in the mid/bottom half of the shot, with pictures of dead victims, brutally murdered, scattered across the ceiling above her bed, looming above her, initiating the thought of an eldritch nature of character. As an intimate scene occurs right underneath these horrifying pictures, it could be deduced that the female character maybe has an eccentric fetish in which she doesn’t know herself, but her study of morbid crimes could suggest this in her temperament.

However, the audience’s suspicions of Norman probably dissipate during the course of Marion’s death.  In spite of that, Norman is probably still seen as a sort of enigma character in the plot, especially when the characters of Sam and Marion’s sister are introduced, which lead to the discovery of Norman’s mother (who, in the audience’s mind’ has undoubtedly committed the murder) having been dead for quite a while. This provides the plot with an air of mystery, relating back to Norman, but then again getting discarded due to the deceptive evidence that his mother committed the murder, resulting in a circle of doubt.

Another convention used by Hitchcock is the use of real time within the film. This is when the length of time taken by events on screen corresponds almost exactly to the length of time they would take in real life. For example, the shower scene in which the actual murder occurs goes on for a long period of time in comparison to most other scenes. Here, sound is used to portray suspense and tension, and a shroud of mystery still hangs over what has just happened. This real-life time scaling may be constructed to allow audiences to recover from the shock of killing, as the main star of the film in which most people probably expected her to be the heroine of the film. This undermines the very first twist of the plot when Marion steals the $40,000 dollars. However, this long period of filming is not boring. Hitchcock uses various camera effects to occupy the viewer’s minds whilst the short anticlimax of Norman cleaning up his mother’s mess is occurring.

A notable effect used during this time length is a Graphic match. This is the use of two successive shots joined together so as to create a strong similarity of compositional elements. This is used when the water is swirling down the plughole, which superimposes into Marion’s eye. This swirling motion could represent an air of mystery and the unexpected, as the one person who saw the killer, (the use of the eye coming in to play) was now lying dead in the bathtub.

Again, this scene swings suspicion away from Norman. If the audience suspected too early on that he was the killer, it would spoil some of the ‘finding out’ pleasures of this thriller movie. Todorov mentions this ‘finding out’ pleasure in his generalisation of most films. He suggests the pleasure of solution with the final equilibrium or closure. If the audience knew this early on that Norman was in fact the killer, then Todorov’s equilibrium of state of affairs would not have come into play.  This style of forced misconception is partially mirrored in the movie ‘Saw’. The two men who are chained and captured in a bathroom, and after the realisation that they are in a room which is simply screaming death, they both notice a man, (face-down) who is most clearly dead, with a pool of blood next to a horrific wound to the back of his head, which no normal human would have been able to live from. This seemingly harmless character is in fact the protagonist of the film, and actually the man who had put the two prisoners into the bathroom. This uses conventions of a thriller, which plays with the audience’s minds, giving them a glazed approach on ‘what could be’. This innocent aspect to viewing a thriller utilizes the director with a way of surprising the audience and enabling him to throw a twist into the plot, deviating from the status quo mystery/thriller film.

As the course of events continue, the thriller genre is manifested heavily when Marion’s sister is attempting to contact Normans mother in search of her sister. Norman is seen to run into the house, looking for Marion’s sister, seeming understandably angry. Again, the use of sound is present to initiate suspense and tension into the scene. A basement door is seen from the corner of the characters eye, and from a viewer’s perspective, their natural instincts are screaming to not go through the door. But, to add to the suspense and the unknown, the story moves with the character inside the basement. This is a use of non-comedic irony, because we as an audience know from earlier on in the film that Norman moved his Mother into the basement for ‘safe-keeping’.

This scene climaxes until Marion’s sister finds Normans mother, but in the form of a corpse which had obviously been dead a long time. However, the figure of the mother is again seen straight afterwards in an attempt to kill Marion’s sister, throwing a new doubt into the viewers minds as to who exactly is this killer. It seems like she is going to suffer the same fate as her sister, thus wiping all knowledge of the killer from existence. However, the killer is stopped, and is revealed to be Norman, in a severe state of schizophrenia.

This revelation follows Todorov’s idea of the final equilibrium of Norman being incarcerated, bringing into play the massively unexpected, showing a fantastic use of thriller conventions to suspend the audience in a state of un-knowing and disbelief.

Planning

These are just a few of our planning sheets in which enabled us to produce an effective thriller opening. With these plans, plus many others which unfortunately cannot be scanned, we managed to use our time to maximum efficiency. With this planning, we knew exactly what was needed to be done, so during the filming there were no halts or stoppages of any sort as none of us were unsure as of what to do. This allowed us to finish the filming quickly, and allow us to focus on the editing aspect, and it also allowed us to have more time spare if we had done anything wrong to re-do anything to enable us to perfect our thriller opening. 

Film Classifications

Most thrillers are usually rated at a 15 or 18 so we researched what the difference was between these and what each classification consists of to help us with our thriller opening. And making it suitable for our audience.

'15' – Suitable only for 15 years and over

No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video or DVD.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (eg 'fuck'). But the strongest terms (eg 'cunt') will be acceptable only where justified by the context. Continued aggressive use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

Violence

Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.

Imitable techniques

Dangerous techniques (eg combat, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on imitable detail. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.

'18' – Suitable only for adults

No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video.

In line with the consistent findings of the BBFC's public consultations, at '18' the BBFC's guideline concerns will not normally override the wish that adults should be free to chose their own entertainment, within the law. Exceptions are most likely in the following areas:

• where material or treatment appears to the Board to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – e.g. any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which is likely to promote the activity. The Board may also intervene with portrayals of sexual violence which might, e.g. eroticise or endorse sexual assault.
• the more explicit images of sexual activity – unless they can be exceptionally justified by context and the work is not a 'sex work' as defined below.

In the case of videos and DVDs, which may be more accessible to younger viewers, intervention may be more frequent. For the same reason, and because of the different way in which they are experienced, the Board may take a more precautionary approach in the case of those digital games which are covered by the Video Recordings Act.

Behind the scenes

As shown in these images, it was difficult to fit the whole team into locations if they were very small. We had to work with what we had, however. Also, these photos show a few of the props we had at our disposal, including a mass of fake blood, which took a while to clean up! That aspect of the film proved difficult, as if we did not do the killing scene correctly, then we had to clean up the mess made from the previous attempts.

Basic Plot

Our basic plot was originally slightly confusing, but we narrowed it down to keep it interesting, but also to induce simplicity.


The main outline was to straight away get the audience to recognize that there had been a murder. This was to create questions in the viewers mind. We then introduced the protagonist, who was apparent to be going to sleep. We then wanted to show that the protagonist was reliving the murder in his mind. We had to keep flicking back to shots of the protagonist sleeping, to show the differences from real time to dreaming. This was effective as we made it clear that the protagonist was clearly distressed. As the film progresses, we show that the protagonist was in clear disarray, walking through the 'dreamworld', not knowing where to go, however the murdered character kept appearing, as if haunting him, tempting him to follow her. This progressed into the murder of the female, which created the question of 'why?' in the audience's mind. We believed that this helped us to keep the audience interested and on the edges of their seats as they would be in suspense. We wanted to end it to show some sort of relation between the murderer and the victim, so we showed a picture of the victim in the murderers room where he was sleeping, which induced even more questions, and allowed us to end on a cliff hanger whilst the viewers were still tense. As this is clearly quite psychological, we used the film Inception to influence us on various aspects of our film. 

Problems we faced

Initially, we had planned to do it in a previously decided location. However, due to many changes to the plot during the planning process, we did not feel that our location we had chosen was suitable for our thriller, as it did not fit in with any of the story line. We then had to think of where was available that could play host to our filming. This was seen as a minor hitch which we overcame quickly.


A similar problem we faced was the actors. As we were a full-boy group, this reduced the character variety in which we could perform. Unfortunately, our plot involved a female character. This meant that we had to find an external actor to play the female part, as all the other female members of our class were busy in creating their own thriller opening. We had difficulties with the female actor in finding time to come and film, and also there was the issue of transport as our chosen location was in a village a bit out in the countryside, which meant it was slightly difficult to get to. This was one of our major problems, as without the female character, the amount that we could film was extremely limited.


Thirdly, the props involved posed a problem. As we had violent scenes in our thriller opening, health and safety became an issue. We had to show a knife in one of the scenes, and it was difficult to create a killing scene in which we could hide the knife but make it still seem effective. To overcome this problem, we filmed from behind the attacker and we broke the handle off the same knife, so the viewers saw the attacker plunge the knife handle into the female character, with presumably the knife still attached. 


Another problem we faced with props was the blood capsules that were used to show the victim dying. They posed a problem with the female actor, as she found it difficult to spit them out correctly to create and effective killing scene. We did not know how to overcome this, and we hoped that through trial and error, we would be able to produce some footage that was efficient. 


Also, editing became a problem that we faced. We originally wanted to use effects that were available on iMovie HD, but the Mac laptop that we were using to edit our final thriller did not have this software, neither could it be downloaded. This posed a problem as we had to use basic editing software to edit music and video aspects of the film. We overcame this by importing various effects that were a necessity in our production, but otherwise we would just manage with what we had at hand, which turned out to be quite effective. 


By working in a group without having any qualms or annoyances with one another, we managed the produce our final thriller without any human problems, and any problems that we faced were mainly technical, which were generally quite easy to solve. On top of this, the fact that we thoroughly enjoyed filming meant that we did not create any problems out of exasperation. 

Preliminary Task

Before filming our thriller opening, we filmed a action thriller to help hone our skills and use them to a greater effect, which included:

• The use of advanced editing tools
• The use of well known music to add dramatic effect
• The use of a plot to help our video have some sort of purpose
• The use of various camera angles to help influence the characters position in the film

These thriller conventions helped us to understand what it is like to film a thriller, and we felt prepared after various constructive criticism and praise had been taken into account.

Evaluation Of Final Thriller

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progressions from it to the full product?

For our preliminary task, we always had a vague idea on what we wanted it to look like. We attempted a Guy Ritchie-Esque type thriller, so to progress on this, we planned on a storyboard to see what sort of camera angles we would want, what props and what type of music we wanted. These main points were the building blocks for creating our task around. From the progression to the full product, we have followed this same procedure, as we found it was very effective in finding out what we wanted to do, however what we did find out whilst doing the preliminary task is that extra planning was needed to get every aspect of the thriller perfect. So, for our final task we used many spider diagrams, A4 sheets of planning and storyboards to create every possible aspect of planning we could muster. This initial planning was extremely important in creating our thriller, as it helped us have a direct procedure to follow, and as we knew exactly what we needed to do, it helped us create it effectively and on time.
Focusing on the idea of time, we found that with our preliminary exercise, it took much longer to film than we had originally expected, and this posed problems with the natural lighting and the diagetic sounds that progressed as the day went on. We learnt from this mistake, and we set specific deadlines to be met when filming. This helped us film effectively without the annoyance of minimal natural lighting, as a lot of our film was filmed outside.


On top of this, learning how to use the equipment effectively and efficiently was key in the creating of our thriller. In our preliminary exercise, we found difficulties with the cameras and the tripods, and we could not get it as steady as we wanted as the camera followed the action. We sought advice, and although we did not get chance to alter our filming in the preliminary exercise, we used our new found knowledge on the camera composition, movement and angles to use in our final thriller. This proved extremely helpful, as it makes the film look a lot more professional. Furthermore, we kept the same cameramen and used the same members of our group in our final who had a specific role in our preliminary. This helped us create a more professional atmosphere as each member of the group new exactly what they were doing, and if anything went wrong then we didn't have to waste any time as we had experience in the matter.
Also, we learnt that filming more than necessary was a good technique to do, as software errors and originally unseen or missed mishaps in the footage was a common occurrence in our preliminary, so we filmed more than we needed in our final piece, just incase we had to delete some footage or some footage was misplaced.
In doing this, we got used to the software to edit our movie, so we were able to use advanced tools to further our skills to enable us to edit our final thriller more effectively and professionally. Even little things such as uploading the video onto youtube became easy as we had the skills to do so from doing our preliminary exercise.


In conclusion, i believe that the creation of the preliminary helped us to hone our skills and to increase our knowledge to produce a more professional and effective final thriller, and it was key to helping us excel in every aspect of our final thriller opening.




In what ways does your media product use, develop or 
challenge forms and conventions of real media
 products?

The development of our Thriller used many key films, we had to research many types of 

different thrillers, but the main one that we took to was Inception written by Christopher Nolan, and taking into account how outstanding this film was and how unusual it is we decided to 

develop our thriller based on this.

The first thoughts for our thriller now took place around inception. We chose the dream 

world, like inception we made the film revolve around the dream, bringing into play the psychological aspects this would have, using this convention to induce suspense and tension . But unlike inception where the outcome is often good from the dream, the dreams in

our thriller are unstoppable and sinister in the opening, making the thriller differ from inception as if we were to develop are thriller further we could head off in many different directions

such as more murders taking place in the dreams. This convention relates to inception as although they differ plot wise, a sinister psychological underlying mysteriousness about both films creates tension within the audience.

Lighting in the development of our thriller was vital as it really brought the haunting of the

murder alive, by having only the camera flash from the FBI on the dead body it gave us

the opportunity to visualise on individual parts such as the dead body and blood giving

the audience a shocking and inspiring opening.

Editing was very important in our thriller, enabling us to introduce quick snap shots 

of important things using flashbacks on things such as the knife, a clock and the killer, 

which kept the audience suspended in thought over each picture and thinking about the representation of the pictures. This is important to are thriller as it keeps the audience understanding what's going on and by using a picture of a clock and a flashback of the murderer sleeping the audience understand that its a dream, this is used in many famous films, one of the biggest selling films "Harry Potter" uses this whilst he has dreams about his enemy. 

We also edited the killing scene to bring the thriller a more gruesome slow motion picture 
so the audience could really connect to the gore of it. This is used particularly effectively in Inception before the van hit the water, time slows right down to not only hold the scene in time, but to hold the viewers minds at the same time, keeping them in suspense. In our killing scene, we used this as the scene from Inception inspired us as we wanted to created a climax of suspense during one of the most important scenes.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From day one technology use in our project has been a major learning curb. Most of us 

had not used and programmes such as sony vegas or iMovie before. So, as soon 

as we got started we researched these programmes, because of such great technology 

production these editing systems were very clear and easy to use. It came to an 

amazement on our behalf how easy it was to cut scenes out that were not needed etc. This made our job much easier knowing that we could just video for extra amounts of time, then go

back and take the valuable parts out. This was especially useful for the killing scene

as it took a number of times to get it correct, making it as close to reality as possible. We used iMovie 09 for our editing software for this product and noticed considerable differences from its predecessor iMovie 7 that we used four our first film. At the beginning of the course editing seemed quite a daunting process however over each product we grew more confident in using the different features available to us in the software. We learned how to alter colour used in the film and also how to cut the film to match certain areas in the soundtrack, in order for the film to reach its full potential. Following that we learned how to alter diegetic sound picked up when filming our product and how to balance that with non-diegetic sound such as voice overs and soundtrack.

Technologies are great as they come in all shapes and sizes, we used a digital camera

to take many of the quick snap shots that would be flicked through during the thriller

being able to use such a durable item made it very easy to take it around and get shots

without effort. 

This is now our 3^rd attempt at filming and producing a film this year. At the beginning of the course, none of us had ever used a digital camcorder with the idea of editing a film together as a product of the film taken. However, when the time came to film this product, we certainly had a more advanced knowledge of how to use the camera. We soon realised there are right and wrong ways to use the zoom in a camera and became aware of when it was necessary and unnecessary to use in the in-zoom camera feature for our film. When used effectively it can be a key feature in our film making, but when used ineffectively, it can make the final product look really quite amateur.

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Because most thrillers are aimed at the ages of 12A, 15 or 18, we have chosen the age classification of 15.  We have made this decision because we would be looking to attract the same audience of the thriller ‘Inception’.  The thriller ‘Inception’ had frequent action sequences, including weapons, violence, and killings, located in unrealistic settings, this thriller was at the high end of 12A classification. The difference from ‘Inception’ and our thriller ‘Lucidity’ was that we filmed our thriller opening in usual known places, a street. We were not purposely aiming for a specific gender; it would be watched by both. It is also expected that not all people enjoy thrillers, but it is also needed for the watcher to grasp an understanding what is happening in the scenes and the reasons the actor did the specific actions they intended. Our product holds a lot of conventions of a stereotypical Thriller as there are jumpy and climatic moments using powerful orchestral music. Therefore we feel it has a cinematic vibe and scenes that can reach their full potential in a cinema. This leads us towards targeting an audience of 15-40 year olds who are likely to go to the cinema for a thrilling adventure with their friends, family or partners. It falls into the psych/thriller genre alongside films such as Inception or Shutter Island so our audience would be people who are up for a psychological and complex trip of the mind putting the pieces of the film together, again this leads us towards the decision that our audience would be for people in the ages of 15-40 who take an interest in films that make them think and take them on an psychological adventure.

How did you attract your audience?

Firstly, to make the audience aware of our new thriller we would be showing numerous advertisements of channels: BBC1, BBC2, BBC3 and BBC4, these would be shown after 9pm as the thriller has a 15 age certificate and also to make sure the correct age group is watching them.  To address our audience we located our thriller in a normal street that everyone would be familiar with. We also aimed for people to think; ‘Why is he doing that?’ ‘What is wrong with the woman actor?” This hopefully got the audience intrigued and wanted to watch the rest of the thriller ‘Lucidity’. By using the scene at the start with an actor photographing the dead body on the floor it gave a sense of mystery and what can also commonly occur in some thrillers.

What kind of media institution would produce and distribute your product?

As our film requires a complex filming technique in order for the story to reach its full potential, we feel that an institution such as warner bro’s would be a more than suitable brand to distribute our product as it is part of ‘the big four’ in film producing and distributing. It is the institution behind action packed thrilling titles such as ‘Inception’ and the ‘Harry Potter’ sequels and as they have a large budget available they are able to create high-spec action sequences into the film to maximize the story and films potential. As it is a multi-national company it would also be able to distribute the film to all major countries around the world and as our film incorporates an action packed thriller story line, it would be a very sought after film all around the world as those types of film have a universal appeal.