Evaluation

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

Our media product uses most of our thriller conventions but we also added another level to it to portray our subgenre; psychological. Our product consist of a protagonist and an antagonist however we developed this idea of have just one character who represented both of these; it gave our product that nightmarish quality. There is a sense of voyerism throughout our thriller which may confuse our audience into beliving there is somebody watching over our sleeping character but it is revealed at the end when the antagonist is observing the protagonist in her mirror. IS this her reflection? or is this an actual different character? Is this her dreams? or her reality. This is left untold. We tried to challenge the conventions into our product to represent the confusion of our protagonist and her psycological state. We left out and typicality which may be seen in other psychological thriller; this included changing the gender of the main character (which is usually a male) and leaving out any thing to do with death.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our product does not focus on any group; just on one dominant view of a little girl. We used such a girl because she demonstrates children of a small age whom have a wide range of creativity and imagine things that arent really happening in the dark and which can make anything seem alive but at the same time disturbing. The little girls psychological state could also show how the people around her influence her to such vivid images and corrupting something usually seen as so innocent and playful (dolls).

3) What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Film4 seems a most likely candidate to distribute our media product as they've had experience in showing a wide range of successful films of any genre and filmed in any period from films such as "Slumdog Millionaire" to "Kitchen sink" realistic films which seem to have came across as just as successful of other films that have been done on an unlimited budget.This is just our kind of product where we show a sort of realism (psychological problems) and give it an Americanised twist to it with the girl in the mirror. Although Film4 is a British film institute; they do screen some films with american aspects in them like ours.

4) Who would be the audience for your media project?

From our questionnaire and general research;our target audience would be between the ages of 15-25 of both genders. This is due to the fact that at this age, our audience still have that creativity on them and could still vividly remember what it was like for them at a younger age to sleep alone in the dark with their imagination running wild. We didn't think anyone younger than 15 would be suitable in watching our product as it's content is quite disturbing and might encourage them to be as scared as our protagonist at night. Older poeple however may not be able to relate to our product as well as our targeted audience.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

We started researching thrillers (such as its conventions and sub-genres) and saw which ones were the most common or successful. We created a questionnaire to ask our potential audience questions we were not sure of or could not find answers to from other general research. The most common answers we recieved are the ones we used in our piece to satisfy our audience and to attact them more to it. We used visual effects in our piece to set the style and scene but also to seperate the past and the present.

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

From our preliminary exercise, I learnt how to arrange good shots and get them to be very effective. This became a big part in our final piece as we needed the best angles we could and make them mean something everytime. Using the tri-pod sometimes became difficults as it would only go so high and only go so low, and became a problem but we worked around it. The iMac computers was something i never used before and found it difficult using the new softwares. After a few lessons of just experimenting I became very adapted to it and could do things alot more easier, even if we did encounter a few more problems; there was always a way of solving it if that included importing some more footage or changing some scenes around. The iMovie programme did let us down quite regularly. Our preliminary exercise didn't work as i would have liked as it kept jumping and speeding up. We still do not know why that happened but we used what we could. Our final piece also took a while to edit as the programme often didn't let us crop our piece properly or add effects. However, we did overcome these problems and produce a good piece.

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

I have learnt to keep enough time of planning, filming (especially when we are deciding the date to do it) and editing. I have also learnt that it is best to have more than one idea in case one idea does not work out properly and to overlook our footage during filming incase it doesn't look as good as we want it to be or we've missed something out. Also, when editing, make sure that we have a long enough time to edit, in case the programme and technical equipment does not work properly. Furthermore, always keep up to date with what is going on with your group and always ask when you are not sure if you feel uncertain about something.

Alice- Final Piece- re-edited

Neelam was not in media today. However Samantha and myself viewed our piece again and decided to change the voice over. We made a new one and edited the pitch of it to make it more higher to sound like a young girl.

Animatic - Alice [Pictures and Writing]

This is our completed storyboard (notes with illustrations) in an animatic style:

Animatic - Alice [Just Pictures]

As my group kept changing our Thriller idea we didnt have time to produce a storyboard to follow when we began filming. However myself and Samantha drew up one afterwards to show how we saw our thriller when it was constructed.

Questionnaire - Results

We gave our questionnaire to 20 people. The results are shown in the brackets below next to the choices.


1) Gender?

Male (10) Female (10)

2) How old are you?

11-14 15-18 (18) 19-23 24-27 28+ (2)

3) What appeals to you the most in a Thriller

The soundtrack (6) The cast (11) Director Plot (3) Others

Please state..................

4) What is your favourite sub-genre in a Thriller

Horror (12) Psychological (6) Action (2) Crime Sci-fi Others

Please state.......................

5) What was the last Thriller you watched?
The most common result was "Final Destination" with 4 results.

6) What mark would you give it (out of 10)? if the number is high, what exactly appealed to you
if the number is low, would could have been better?
On average, the viewers gave "Final Destination" 8/10. They enjoyed the action and the plot.

7) Who do you focus more on when watching a Thriller

The Protagonist (6) The Antagonist (14)


8) What do you find predictable/irritating when you watch any thriller?
Deaths (17) How the Antagonist is presented (3)

Final Piece- ALICE!

My group has finally, successfully,finished our Thriller. All we needed to do was to add more effects, credits and music (which was made by our friend, Ernest, who fully agreed into helping us with it). There didn't seem to any technical problems and the finished results seem satisfactory.

We came up with calling our Thriller "Alice", from "Alice in Wonderland" because of it's weird and wonderful contruction and it being a little girl's name which represents Samantha.
We also came up with other names before all mutually agreeing on this one. The lists of names were:
:- Emily
:- Candy
:- Carrie
:- Daisy
:- Sally
:- Alice
:- Sarah
:- Zahara
:- Lacy
:- Polly

When we chose the name for our piece, Samantha came up with the idea that she should say the name as a voice over when it appears on screen in a child like manner to create it a creepy atmosphere to the audience.

Here it is: Alice!!!!

Editing sessions

22nd April-

Myself and Samantha went after school to start editing our Thriller. We began to crop it but it wasnt going very well.; everytime we would cut a certain clip; the section we intended to keep was something totally different from what we had expected. It then started making copies of this unwanted footage. We asked our teacher for his advice and he thought it may be because we imported large amounts of the footage which was confusing the system and therefore muddling up our clips. He then suggested we start again but this time spliting a whole clip at playhead and cutting the parts we didnt need. However it began to do the same thing with making unwanted clips and therefore we decided to give up for that day and re-start it in our media lesson.

23rd April-

Myself, Samantha and Neelam continued editing and at first it was working fine and manage to edit some footage however after a while we encountered the same problems. We spent most of the double period lesson attempting to solve the problems and cropping as much as we could. We didnt manage to crop them all nor put them in order yet.

25th April-

Neelam didn't attend our media lesson today so myself and Samantha continued to edit ourselves. We cropped the rest of our clips by splitting them at playhead and it finally worked and we wasn't delayed by any problems. Once we completed the cutting what we didnt want, we began arranging the clips in order of what the audience will see but we didt manage to finish this.

Weekend-

Over the weekend myself and Samantha decided to talk about what genre of music we should use for our thriller but due to our busy schedules only had time to discuss this over the phone. Samantha did the research whilst i listened and we gave our verdict on the music she found. We found 3 non-copyright sounds that we may use which we agreed would suit our piece very well. When we have finished the editing which should hopefully be finished by Wednesday at the most we will then fit each of our tested music to our finished thriller and see which one suits the best. Hopefully we shouldnt encounter any more technical problems!!!

16th- 19th April

16th April-

Myself, Neelam and Samantha met up to discuss what idea would be possible to do after finding difficulties with settings and our main character. We knew we had to begin filming soon before we return to school but due to our busy schedules we havent found any space to film where we were all avaliable.

In the mean time however we discussed a new idea which included keeping a male main character with a psychological disorder however we changed the settings from indoors to outdoors this time. We came up with a variety of easily accessible settings and finally agreed on Hainault Forest.

Storyline: Basically our main character will be attacking a woman. It will begin with him digging a hole and then several flash backs to show the process of this victims attack. The process should go this:
-Pulling womans hair and her turning around lookng shocked (long shot and close up)
-Back to present where man is digging hole
-slaps mans face, he lets her go and she tries to run but falls to the ground (midshots and close ups)
-Present: man laughing whilst digging hole(low angled)
(Graphic match-man laughing in present and flash back)
-Back to flashback of woman crawling around looking for something to throw( long shot). maybe an alcohol bottle??)
-Throws object at man which fades back to him digging hole; his face in angry this time and the blood on his face is more visible this time. (extreme close up)
-Last flashback- man hitting up object woman threw and hitting her with it. (long shot)
-Present- a hand is coming out of the mud and twitching slightly.
A photo of the woman is thrown on to of this "grave".

We have not decided exactly on the camera shots nor the music just yet.

19th April-

As this day was the last day of the Easter Holidays myself and Samantha really wanted to start filming our thriller. However neelam was busy so we just decided to record something anyway for the mean time then get Neelams advice on it afterwards.

We chose another idea from the top of our heads but it was a mixture from our previous old ones as we couldnt go along with the 16th April idea as no male main character were avaliable. Therefore we decided to do it in my house with Samantha as the main character. We used a variety of different shots and used a long mirror which should come up as a really good effect. We used high shots, low shots, close ups, mid shots, extreme close ups..etc. Near the end we attempted to do a sillouette shot however it was getting very dark and as we wanted to look like it was at night we couldnt add any light anywhere. Hopefully it will come up as visible when we edit it.

Our idea was basically a variety of shots (like se7en) of a girl sleeping in her bedroom at night and cuddling her china doll. She seems distressed at something she is dreaming of and suddenly sits up with the lights flickering like a thunder is outside. The next shot is of her in front of her mirror and in her reflection is of herself but with smeared make up on like her china doll.

Myself and Samantha took it in turns to use the camera and worked together to decide where it should be positioned and how to set the scene. I think if we edit it really well it can be an exellent piece. However, we need to show Neelam and see what she thinks of it too.We want to go back to the idea havin a series of shots like Se7en. Our piece makes sense but doesn't. It has that effect of confusin so the audience wants to carry on watching it to see what the dolls have to do with the little girl and why her reflection is different to her normal self. Hopefully we should not experiance problems with the continuity and it will link and look very psycological.We have not discussed the music yet as we will need to edit it to see what kind of piece will suit it.

Update on filming ideas

This afternoon our group has arranged to begin filming however due to not being able to find a suitable indoors setting; we are counting on doing it in an secluded area outside. There are two major problems that we discovered:

1) what if it rains?
2)would the setting upset our previous idea

Therefore last night myself and Samantha spoke of a new idea which has sorted the problem with our setting and the issue of props. It should hopefully make sense to our audience as well. We need to speak this over with Neelam before we can make it official.

I will update our idea and say what exactly it is when we are all completely satisfied with it!!!

update on filming/ Draft of Questionnaire

Our plans for filming our Thriller has been pushed back until next week due to finding some difficulties concerning our main character and the setting. Our intended character decided not to take part so we it's taking some time in replacing him. For now, we've scheduled the filming day for Thursday which we are all hopefully free for unless something comes up for one of us to be busy.
In the mean time we are getting our props ready, finalising our storyboard which should be uploaded too by next week and finding an appropiate place to film.

This is a draf on a Questionnaire I did; Samantha overlooked it and was satisfied with the questions. We may add or change some questions but for now here it is:

1) Gender?

Male Female

2) How old are you?

11-14 15-18 19-23 24-27 28+

3) What appeals to you the most in a Thriller

The soundtrack The cast Director Plot Others

Please state..................

4) What is your favourite sub-genre in a Thriller

Horror Psychological Action Crime Sci-fi Others

Please state.......................

5) What was the last Thriller you watched?


6) What mark would you give it (out of 10)? if the number is high, what exactly appealed to you
if the number is low, would could have been better?


7) Who do you focus more on when watching a Thriller

The Protagonist The Antagonist


8) What do you find predictable/irritating when you watch any thriller?

1st meeting for our new Thriller Idea

On Wednesday , Neelam wasn't in however myself and Samantha still went forward with beginning our storyboard to create a new Thriller. We kept ideas that came from our original one such as using a variety of different shots like the opening of "Se7en" and someone having a psychological disorder but changed the fact that they're on drugs when they are on their "killing spree's".
Instead we drew up a very simple story line which hopefully will make sense to our audience depending on how we re-arrange our shots.

Storyline:

Our idea was inspired by the film "Trainspotting"; although this isn't a thriller, we wanted to use some elements of the Mise en scene used in this. We liked the idea of the main character giving a list he needs to get off heroin. We began to thing of ideas related to this but decided not to use drugs. Our main character, will use item to represent his low status, class and intelligence such as eating cold beans clumsily. His surroundings will look run down,worn out and unhygeneic.

Our main character will live alone in the dark and will have psycological problems. The main prop we'll use is a yearbook which shows pictures of girls he fancied in his school days. Some pictures will have hearts around them whereas others will be scribbled out. There will also be flashes on light which shows pictures of girls, unbeknown to them, on his walls. This shows his obsession with these soon to be victims. As the camera concentrates of a certain picture of a girl, there will be a flashback of that girl in his place where she has just been killed by him. There will be several more flashbacks from different school pictures to them dead in different areas of his apartment. The flashbacks will represent the past which will go back to the present where the man is looking at the book.

We thought of many settings to film our thriller and came up with the idea of a shed. A shed is a very secretive place and is from the public's eye for them to witness women going in there or even suspect any murders happening. We also do not want to show all of the man's face to create alot of suspense.

There will be hardly any lighting except from the windows so when the man stands in front of them it will create a silouette effect. Our shots will vary but there will be alot of close ups. Also low angles can be used to make the man look powerful.

We have no decided on the type of background music to use yet. We need a good pace to match the speed of our opening so we need to choose the genre of music after we have edited our thriller.

Change of plans

Yesterday in Media, my group wasn't in due to a trip, but I still looked at our thriller to begin the editing however after observing our footage i realised there were many mistakes being made which would make it very difficult to remove and the continuity wasn't working out. Therefore after careful consideration and approval from Samantha, we decided it would be best to re-do our thriller.

We also decided to go back to our original idea where we would have lots of different shots like se7en instead of having a whole routine of a scene. We also wouldn't have to worry about the continuity of things either.

We will do another storyboard once we all decide what will be in our shots and in what order and then we'll be able to begin filming!!!

Filming our thriller

On saturday, my group finally got round with starting to film our thriller.

Mise en scene

Location: We chose to do it at our local park in an enclosed area in order to have as much space as possible and not get any interruptions from anyone passing by.

Props: Samantha and Neelam brought along some cuddly toys to rest against the tree, Samantha bought a doll as that it is one of the most essential props to have considering it is the main focus for the opening. She also bought paper plates to go with the idea of her character having a picnic. Neelam also brought along a blanket for samantha to sit on. However halfway through filming, we realised we forgot the vital prop; a knife. This would be the weapon which Samantha's character had used to kill her victim with.

Make up, costume, hair: I begun with Samantha's make up where i did half her face painted doll like (rosy cheek, light eyeshadow and fake eye lashes) and the other side in a more darker way (painted scars, dark eye shadow). Samantha was in charge of what she wore which was a dress to symbolise her inner child self. We didn't have time to do her hair as planned however samantha brought along a pink hair band which matched her shoes and bow around her waist. She created the completed look really well.

Lighting and Colour: We did it on a sunny day to represent Samantha's character innocent side however with the dead body underneath the tree in the shade it will show a more darker and corrupted side to her character. The colours of the surroundings are all very natural with the main colours of green and brown. We then blended the colours with manufactured objects such as a barbie doll and paper plates; all with a pink theme.

Positioning of objects and characters: The dead character was positioned next to the tree and was planned to be hidden from the audience view in the shade until right at the end where it would be revealed she was apart of Samantha's toy collection, however after filming, we realised we didn't hide it that well from view and that the continuity of things wouldn't work out as one mintue the body wont be there in the beginning then the next it will be visible near the end. Samantha will always be in the middle of the framing; when shes playing with the doll, with the person passing by to the dead body.

Body language; Samantha sat in the same position for the whole time and always seemed happy and calm whilst playing but did sudden movements that wouldnt of been expected such as grabbing for the knife.

Roles:

Neelam: On the camera, dead person, .
Samantha: Main character: the girl, on the camera.
Shelley: passer by, on the camera, make up artist.

Problems encountered:
-Neelam began filming however midway through i realised there was no weapon which was a vital element to show how the person died. Neelam quickly went back home to find a knife whilst i filmed a small part of the middle sequence. When Neelam returned, myself and Samantha were not aware of how she positioned herself and where she looked in my footage therefore as Neelam continued to film the next shot, Samantha may be looking in another direction, in another position which would spoil the continuity of things and be difficult to edit.
-Also the knife was placed next to Samantha mid way; therefore it would be confusing for the audience who did not see the knife at the beginning.
-The props kept being moved.

After some deliberation, my group has agreed that we may have to re-do our thriller again. We will only definately do so when we have looked over our footage and it has not reached out expectations.

If we were to re-shoot, we would;
-Bring a sharper knife
-Make Samantha's make up more clumsily and spending more time on her hair.
-Place Neelam's body behind the tree and from the audience view in order to shock them near the end.
-Make Neelam more bloody.
-Keep Samantha in the same position at all times and remember what way she looked and sat before we do the next shot.
-Shoot Samantha dropping the doll; so we can add the flashback
-Find more toys to go with the collection next to the tree.
-Do shots of my point of view when i look at Samantha to establish that she is not really holding a doll.
-BRING OUR STORY BOARD!!!

Animatic- draft of thriller

These pictures our from a storyboard my group drew up last week. It illustrates the outline of what our thriller is about and what types of shots we will use in order to convey it's genre. Notes were also included to write down anything else that will be significant. This storyboard is the rough draft which we will follow during filming; it ensures that the filming progress can run smoothly when we know what exactly to shoot and how.

Analysis

Image 1: camera work/framing: Close up of half of girl's face.
sound and notes: Happy tune (Merry go round)

Image 2: camera work/framing: Point of view shot of dolly
sound and notes: same music; the girl's perspective.

Image 3: camera work/framing: Long shot
sound and notes: a man walks past and see girls hands in the air- FLASHBACK- drops doll- High note

Image 4: camera work/framing: Close up of full face- smiling
sound and notes: turns round to look at man

Image 5: camera work/framing: point of view shot of her picnic
sound and notes: music turns fuzzy, picks up knife instead of lipstick

Image 6: camera work/framing: Extreme close up
sound and notes: music is now fuzzy, wipes blood across lips

Image 7: camera work/framing: Point of view shot and long shot
sound and notes: music remains fuzzy

Image 8: camera work/framing: Mid shot or low shot
sound and notes: music turns into a long ring

Thriller Idea

On Wednesday we started on our story board. We kept to the idea of someone with a psychological disorder however we decided to change the whole storyline.

Storyline: A teenage girl (played by Samantha) has a mental age of her inner child and occupies herself by playing with her toys in an isolated part of the park which is extended from her childhood home. She’s fasinated, in particular, with a doll in which there is a flash back of a male harshly snatching the doll away from her and destroying it. A passer by witnesses the girl playing but the doll in which is visible to the girl, is not with him/her. It should be then acknowledged that this doll does not really exist.

The girl picks up a knife from the cutlery set surrrounding her tea party, instead of a lipstick (which was was applying to herself earlier), and runs it across her lips clumsily. Blood is smeared across her face but the girl doesn’t seem to feel any pain. She then wavers the knife at something across from her. The camera gets a shot of a dead person sat up agaisnt a tree amongst other stuffed toys and is hunched over them like a doll. It should be establised that the girl is trying to get a real life version of her doll that was taken away from her but doesn’t understand that the person is dead.

The girls make-up on one side of her face will be doll like (with rosey cheeks and long eye lashes) and the other will be like a broken doll (with stitches). This represents her doll before and after it was taken from her. We will show one side of the face at a time, starting with the happy side. The dead person will also be given doll like features but clumsily.

We will use long shots when showing the isolation of the girl playing on her own and talking to her hand. Some P.O.V shots when the girl is looking at her doll. Close ups will be really good when we show her face because of the make-up! When showing the dead person I think a low angle would work well because the person is hunched over it will get a good shot of the face.

We will use music like bells and lullabye sounds to create a childish feel. It also can be very creepy. It will be good if we can make it go really weird leading up to the face of the dead person and it shows what sounds are going on in her head

we're still in the process of thinking of a title for the thriller.

Preliminary Exercise - Harrassment

Editing of Preliminary Exercise- Complete

My group finally completed editing our footage, which didn't take much longer. We removed some transactions and added new effects. We also cut some seconds of a scene to make it shorter and join smoothly with the previous shot. We added a title and credits which labelled our roles.

When i have time I'll post the video on Youtube and on here.

Editing- Preliminary Exercise

On Friday, We finally had the chance to begin editing our footage however it wasn't very successful as planned. For some unidentified reason the sound kept blocking out and our shot continued to jump throughout. Despite this, we decided to continue editing because by the time we encountered these problems we did not have enough time to re-record our scene. We have not yet finished editing however but have made some progress with cropping and adding effects.
Theres a possibility, if we have time, to begin recording once again. If not, we will just continue to edit but its enabled us for future reference how to prevent any problems; e.g. leaving enough time to edit our final piece in case we come across a similiar scenerio.

Preliminary Exercise

Before half term, sir gave us an exercise which involved filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.
A group can change this way of filming as long as they demonstrate that they can do:
- Continuity; where a character always looks the same to show smooth and realistic transitions between various shots.
- Shot/Reverse shot; where the camera capture two character exchanging dialogue to produce a conversation
- The 180-degree rule; When shooting a scene, the camera must always be in the same position so when editing everything from the characters to the background surrounding will be moving in the same direction in different shots.

Preliminary exercise (1)- By the time we began the exercise, my group wasn't in for us to practise. However Carla and Hannah allowed me to help them with their video. My role was to work on the camera in order to learn how it works and what i could do with it to establish different but useful effects. For example what distance i could stand at or what various positions i could change the camera into. We used many shots including; wide shots, over the shoulder shots (both in shot), close ups, mid shots, long shots etc. This allowed me to concentrate on the shot/ reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Whilst Carla and Hannah both dealt with the acting role; where they concentrated on the continuity of things. E.g staying in the same position, looking in the same direction, not adding any props that weren't in previous shots.

Preliminary exercise(2)- The week after my group was present and we were ready to shoot our video. Everything was going well with Neelam practising how to use to camera and myself and Samantha doing the acting roles until half way through we realised we didn't put the right tape in and therefore had to restart it all. However due to many interruptions and it being after school hours, sir told us to leave it for now and start again after half term.

Preliminary exercise(3)- Yesterday our group finally completed our footage. We decided to change the story line but keep our roles, Neelam on camera, myself and Samantha acting. For safety, Neelam shot us repeating our acting so when it comes to editing we can choose the best shot which will look realistic enough when it comes to joining it up with the next shot. It took us roughly an hour to do but in the time we achieved many shots including; wide shot, close up, high shot, mid shots,long shots etc.

We are now waiting to begin the editing.

Enduring Love

Currently in English we are looking at novel and film called "Enduring Love" which show aspects of a Thriller.

The plot: The Protagonist led an ordinary life but after a balloon incident was thrown into extraordinary situations when the antagonist begins to stalk the protagonist after he believes he is sent on a mission from God to share his love.

As the novel progresses, the antagonist shows signs of being in a mental state by following the protagonist and suspecting every action the protagonist pursues is done for the antagonist benefit.

The antagonist is finally diagnosed with de Clerambault's syndrome,a disorder that causes the sufferer to believe that someone else is in love with him.


The antagonist can become very violent by either hiring a hit man to kill the protagonist when the protagonist doesn't give the antagonist the time of day or when the antagonist holds the protagonist wife hostage.

Hitchcock

Our class of Friday did another analysis on one of Alfred Hitchcock's Thrillers called
Rear Window.(1854)

We looked at this particular one as it concentrated on themes of Voyeurism; which allows us to see how it is used and what kind of effects it gives.




-Music is digetic
-The opening titles gives a shot of the rear window to show other apartments (shows significance of name)
-Extreme long shot to mid shot (general to particular) of the court yard outside the protagonists apartment
-Pan shots and tilt shots are used to show each apartment from the rear window perspective
-Point of views shots of camera to the other apartment windows to show the audience what the protagonist may be seeing in his vision
-Close up of protagonist; sweating to show the temperature of the weather
-Pan shots of various objects to visually tell what kind of character the protagonist is:
-He is a photographer; pictures of car crashes- may hint he was in a car crash
-This highlights he has a thirst for danger
-Pictures of women; shows his interest in the opposite sex

Our first initial idea: Salad Fingers/ Se7en

Planning for our Thriller:

Sub genre's we may use: Horror/ Psychological Thriller

Idea: Creating an antagonist with ideas from films such as Salad Fingers and Se7en

Also instead of an obvious story line with dialogue, we are going to combine a variety of different shots to tell the story visually. This use of montage will shoot many props in relation to the antagonist character such as drugs. The antagonist may commit a murder under the influence of drugs without meaning to. We do not want to show the murder but the selection of clips would allow the audience to use their imagination.

Research

About Salad Fingers:


In the surreal cartoons, the eponymous Salad Fingers inhabits a desolate, sparsely populated post-apocalyptic world in which he revels in the delightful feeling of the textures of various objects on his "salad fingers". He enjoys rusty articles (especially spoons) and derives similar pleasure from experiencing pain
The characteristic foreboding in Salad Fingers' journeys portends to the main character's irrational, perhaps subconscious preoccupation with morbidity, death and fetishistic ritual. Much to the horror or perverse delight of the characters he meets, his mused and whimsical perambulations lead him toward a hopeless self-discovery in his own inert matter and helplessness, usually through his or the other characters' exploitation.

Salad Fingers appears to suffer from psychosis, and is unable or unwilling to distinguish between living beings and inanimate objects, and is frequently found talking to various inert articles

Analysis of video:





-Music: The eerie music featured in the background is the tune "Beware the Friendly Stranger" by Boards of Canada. The dark music in the soundtrack that appears when Salad Fingers is scared is actually Firth playing the guitar, slowed down and reversed
(other description)
-Dialogue is very subtle/delicate and so quite difficult to capture so subtitles in a flicker movement are used. The dialogue instructs his weird movements such as stroking spoons, pushing/stroking a red button, "caressing" kettles. (establish his fetish for stroking different textures)
-Close ups of his face captures his insanity- wide eyes, red iris, shaking.
-Hypnotising backgrounds/swirling effects, blotches, stratches,spider webs highlights his madness
-Length of shots are very long
the framing captures his fingers to show the significance of the title
-Long shots when he walks to show where he is going and to establish where he lives
-Walks very slowly but unsteady
-Other characters are in very bright primary colours so they are easily recognisable against the dreary, dull background colours.
-Fade out to show time and going into a different setting

About Se7en:


David Fincher makes dark movies, and Se7en is no exception. Se7en follows tow homicide detectives in the Los Angeles Police department. William Somerset is a veteran whose experiences with every form of death have left him tired, jaded, and ready to retire. David Mills is a brash, young detective who has wanted to work in L.A. homicide above all else.

The two unlikely companions are brought together under grisly pretenses. A killer has begun a rampage and leaves a disturbing calling-card. He kills his victims in a way that reflects the Christian seven deadly sins. Mills and Somerset must try and sort through the killer’s clues and cryptic methods in order to catch him before murder number seven takes place.

Se7en shows very grue some and violet scenes including a man who is forced to eat himself to death and another must slice a pound of flesh away from his own body. However, Se7en is not Saw, the killings do not play out actively, but through crime scenes and photographs.

Analysis of Video




The opening sequence demonstrates the antagonist state of mind. It includes many techniques to show this, such as

-Dissolves (represents time)
-Jump cuts
-Close ups of handwriting and hand
-The flicker of the titles
-Flashes of different shots
-Parallel sound
-Distortion of music

Both of these sequences are useful and very effective examples to help our group consider what types of elements and techniques we could use in our Thriller to portray a character with a psychological disorder

Derailed

I analysed the opening from the film "Derailed" and in particular it's film language in order to show how it has a thriller/drama genre.



Editing:
Speed is long and slow
Style has many straight cuts to show the harsh lifestyle of prison life. Theres only one dissolve as it goes into the beginning of the story in a suburban setting.

Lighting and Colour:
High key lighting- Shows day time and the ordinary lifestyle
Low key lighting- In cell, highlights and distorts the shadows of the bars.

Sound:
Digetic- inmates playing outside, the cell doors opening, men shouting
Non digetic- Music begins when the inmates are released
When the Protagonist is talking when writing (voice over)
Parrallel- Begins energetic when inmates are released but gets more distorted and eerie when showing the protagonist's cell; establishes his mood.

Use of Camera:- Framing;
Long shot and mid shot- Of cells to establish setting
High shot- When outside prison to show the surroundings
Close ups- On the Protagonist to show his significance; of lighting his ciggerate, writing in his book (establishing this is the introduction of the story)
Low angle- Only shows lower body to hide Protagonist identity to leave the audience hanging on
Movement;
There is no movement at first when filming the release of inmate to show no action.
Pan shots- when men are outside playing and exercising. Also when shooting across each empty cell until it gets to the Protagonist writing in his cell.

Mise en Scéne:
Setting- Prison, cells, outside the Prison
Props- exercise equipment, ciggerate, basketballs, book and pencil, mirror
Costume- prisoners uniforms, basic and dull
Hair and Make up- ordinary, day to day
Lighting and colour- Lighting in cell is dark and mysterious to hide the protagonist identity.
The colour is a mild blue t show it's a calm but cold atmosphere.
Positioning of Characters within the frame-The protagonist is in the middle of the frame to show he is an influential and a main character but he is also on his own and isolated.

Sub Genres/ Alfred Hitchcock

I started to look at the potential sub-genre/s i could combine with my thriller. Research from Wikipedia.org has shown me many; including;

Action thriller - In which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. These films usually contain large amounts of guns, explosions, and large elaborate set pieces for the action to take place.
Films that include action thriller are;
-James Bond films
-The Transporter

Crime thriller- Offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasize action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients.
Films that include Crime thriller are;
-The Killing
-Seven
-The Godfather
-Inside man

Disaster thriller- In which the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., or nuclear disasters as an artificial disaster.
Films that include Disaster thriller;
-Stormy Weather
-Earthquake

Horror Thriller- In which conflict between the main characters are mental, emotional, and physical. The main character(s) is not only up against a superior force, but they are or will soon become the victims themselves and directly feel the fear that comes by attracting the monster's attention.
Films that include Horror Thriller;
-Saw
-28 Days later
-Psycho
-The Silence of the Lambs

Psychological Thriller- In which the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical.
Films that include psychological Thiller:
-The Alfred Hitchcock films such as Suspicion, Shadow of a Doubt and Strangers of a Train
-Blue Velvet
-The Sixth Sense
-The Talented Mr.Ripley

Supernatural thriller - In which the conflict is between main characters, usually one of which has supernatural powers.
Films that include Supernatural Thriller:
-Carrie
-Unbreakable
-Torchwood

In yesterday's Media lesson, the class and i analysed selective opening sequences from Alfred Hitchcock's films.

Background info: Was a british film maker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genre's. Hitchcock had a successful career in the United Kingdom with his silent films. He directed more than fifty feature films and remains one of the best-known and most popular film-makers of all times.

Films (highlights):
Hitchcock rebounded in 1926 and made his debut in the thriller genre with the film, The Lodger: A Story of the london Fog. The film was a major commercial and critical success when it was released in January 1927 throughout the United Kingdom.(this film was influenced by Expressionist techniques that Hitchcock had witnessed first-hand in Germany)
Blackmail(1929) began the Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense sequences.
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), was a success and his second, The 39 Steps (1935), is often considered one of the best films from his early period. This film was also one of the first to introduce the concept of the "Macguffin", a plot device around which a whole story seems to revolve, but ultimately has nothing to do with the true meaning or ending of the story.
Hitchcock's next major success was in 1938 with his film The Lady Vanishes.

Hollywood(1939)
Hitchcock made his first American movie, Rebecca (1940), won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Hitchcock's second American film, the European-set thriller Foreign Correspondent,was also nominated for Best Picture during that year The movie was filmed in the first year of World War II and was inspired by the rapidly-changing events in Europe.

Other films from 1940's,50's,60's;
-Shadow of a Doubt (1943)...(Hitchcock's personal favourite)
-Suspicion (1941)...(marked first film with Hitchcock as a producer and director)
-Lifeboat (1944)...(Hitchcock adapted John Steinbeck's script)
-Notorious (1946)
-Rope (1948)...(first coloured film)
-Stage Fright (1950)
-Strangers on a Train (1951)
-The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
-The Wrong Man (1957)..(final film for Warner Brothers)
-Vertigo (1958)
-North by North West (1959)
-Psycho (1960)
-The Birds(1963)


The 3 opening sequences of Hitchcock's films

Shadow of a Doubt: Antagonist "Uncle Charlie"

The opening titles music is called "Merry Widows" where there is a sound bridge that goes into an industrial scene (long shot/dissolves)
This highlights the urban poverty where the camera shoots homeless men and burnt out scraps from cars near a polluted river.
The music changes into a more dramatic tone which goes into a long shot of a rundown street. There are dissolves from the street,to house, to window as music rapidly changes. Audience are told the story visually without any dialogue.

The character is weathly by the suit he wears to his immaculate hair and the cigar he smokes. The room is in a low key lighting to show the contrast from the darkness where he lays to the lightness from the blinds. The camera shoots a variety a shots around the room to focus on the props around the character. In particular the camera focuses on money which represents his wealth. However it also shoots some money lying on the floor indicating his carelessness about his wealth.
The misé en scene shows his body language which is calm and seemingly unconsicous. It shows a comparison of life and death. The colour is black and white; in connotation terms the character is wearing a black suit which hints that he has a dark side.

The music changes when the blind goes down and the character rises from the bed (this shows an aspect of a vampire). The music becomes sinister which highlights that he is the antagonist. The prop he uses is a glass which he smashes into pieces which shows he is very violent and bad tempered. The music builds up and becomes dramatic.
There is a close up of his face when he walks outside so the audience can examine his expressions. The piano music builds tension and high shots are used to establish the run down destinations and make other character seem small and powerless compared the the antagonist.
This is all been done visually and transmitted to the audience.

Introduction of the niece: "Charlie", mirroring her Uncle "Charlie"

The setting, Santa Roso, is more modern with nicely built buildings with wealthly and happier characters. This highlights the perfect suburban lifestyle.
The music is lighter and cheerful.
There are,again, another set of shots from house, to window to Charlie on her bed in the same position as her Uncle. These are mirro images from the lightness of the niece in comparison to the darker side of the uncle.

Vertigo-1956; "Fear of heights"




This film depends upon the central charcter fear of heights. This is all done visually apart from the non-diagetic background music.
Significance of the opening titles:
-extreme close up of a woman in which the colour changes to red. The connotation shows danger and passion.
-Swirling effects to represent dizziness the protagonist suffers from his fear. They go from long shots to close ups.
The close up of the woman's eye to the circular effects are a graphic match.

The music becomes faster and more dramatic as the character are running/ the protagonist realises he has Vertigo (still no dialogue) which is shown visually by a reverse zoom shot.The music switches from harps as the protagonist looks down in point of view shots and close ups of his expressions.

North by North West- 1959




This thriller is an example of ordinary characters thrown into extraordinary situations. The protagonist career is working in advertising.
There is a graphic match from the green background and blue horizontal and vertical lines where the titles come up into the same shape of a building. The building reflects the objects of cars highlighting the ordinary lives.

The Crowds of people walkin in different area's suchas as up and down stairs , buses and on pavements indicates the hectic lifestyles. The protagonist is always in the centre of the frame amongst the crowd. There is alot of dialogue and the protagonist talks very fast showing his is a very busy man.
His character is confident, cocky and shows he enjoys seducing women with his charm and money. He is shown as wealthy by he closes and business like by his body language and seems to have a very stong relationship with his mother.

Thriller Conventions

On Friday, fifth and sixth period, my media class went through specific conventions that a Thriller would use in order for an audience to establish the theme. Our main focus,amongst other elements, evolved around the Protagonist (main character, not always the hero) and the Antagonist (person who opposes to the Protagonist) and what their roles would usually be within a Thriller.
There are many conventions, including:
-A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not necessarily)
-A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions.
-A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved.
-A Protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist.
-Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations.
-Themes of identity
-Themes of mirroring
-Themes of voyeurism
-Protagonist with a "flaw" which is exploited by the Antagonist
-Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist's psychological state.
-There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the Protagonist is in peril.
-Mise én scene which echos/mirrors the protagonist's plight.

These conventions will help my group in choosing what we need in order for ours to look and feel like a Thriller.

Research: Analysis of Student Thrillers

On Wednesday, for preparation , Sir showed us a selection of past two minutes opening Thriller films from previous Robert Clack/All Saints students to analyse and make notes on. Two particular films that stood out were "8-ball" and "Puppet Note".

The element i was looking at whilst analysing was "How effective are these thrillers?"

"8-ball"- This was very cleverly framed. The camera mostly shot the lower body so the characters identity were hidden and their movements were emphasized. Other techniques that made this effective was:
-No dialogue, montage was used in order to inform the audience of the story line
-There wasn't any need to acting which could ruin the theme
-The editing is apparent to the viewer (style of editing made a smooth transition)
-There were a range of camera shots
-Many transition to give a fast and rapid pace
-The background (non-dialogue) music fitted the images of screen (parallel sound)
-The group used a tripod to maintain a steady effect.
-Mise én Scene; Black and white suits gave it a classy appeal
The snooker balls were always in the middle of the frame and relevant to the
film's title.

The only criticism i would comment on is the lighting was that the lighting was very poor in some area's so not everything was clearly noticeable.

"Puppet Note"- Techniques that made this effective was:
-The colour of the film was black and white which made it unique from the rest I've seen
-Well edited, "Match on action"
-Natural sound "car outside the setting"
-Background music comes in when the action starts to create tension
-A range of shots; close up on the killer, long shot to establish the setting, mid shots so the audience can focus on a character and the background at the same time.
-Used tripod to make shots steady
-Well framed

The only criticism i would comment on is that the acting was not believable. This ruined the tense atmosphere and the whole theme of the film.

The reason why i think we studied these Thrillers was for our group to gain idea's and see what certain elements made previous films successful in order to make ours just as effective. It also allowed us to understand what we shouldn't attempt to do.

The thriller begins!!!!