TASK 7 - Progression from preliminary task to thriller

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you've learnt in the progression from it to the thriller?

Looking back at our prelim task, after having worked on our thriller for the past few months, enables us to see how much we have changed since the filming of our prelim. Firstly, he camerawork in our group improved greatly from our prelim to our thriller. In our thriller, we were able to focus the camera more precisely, making the shots appear clearer when we put it onto the computer to edit. For example, in this shot at the beginning of our prelim, it was quite out of focus, showing that we were less capable in our skills at the time of filming our prelim.

We also had a greater capability of different shots to do in our thriller, as we had learnt more since the filming of our thriller, therefore making it easier to edit due to a wide variety of shots having been filmed. For example, at the beginning of our thriller, we filmed a tracking shot.

 We were not able to do a shot like this in our perlim, however we did film some obsquere shots, which did not work out as well as we had hoped. For example, the shot below from our prelim is an exmple of a shot which we did not think properlly about, as you can see the top of the set and it is therefore obvious that it is not a real house.

We generally have learnt a great deal more since the filming of our prelim, which enabled us to engage in greater amounts of the filming, directing, editing etc of our thriller as we had a greater idea of what we were doing.
The mise en scene in our thriller was used to create a chilling and deserted type of atmosphere, in order to convery the idea that the man and the woman were running away or in a difficult and dangerous situation. This mise en scene was more realistic than the set which we used for our thriller, which was the set of a room with very pieces of furniure in it. The picture below is the set of our prelim.

 The set which we used for our thriller was therefore more realistic and believable.

The editing in our thriller was a lot more effective than the editing in our prelim. For example, in our prelim, we used a very minimal amount of shots, reusing the same camera angles and therefore creating the whole prelim task out of only about 4 different shots. However, in our thriller, we used a large variety of shots. We were also able to add a lot of after effects, such as blood and gun flashes into our thriller in editing.

We were not able to do this in our prelim task, as we have since learnt how to do it.
In our thriller, we used added in sound effects, suck as the background music and gunshots. These were very effective into making the thriller seem more realistic. However, in our prelim we werent able to add in sound effects like this, as we did not have this skill yet.

TASK 6 - Technologies used

We added annotations onto our film on youtube, describing the technologies which we used.

TASK 5 - How did we attract our target audience?

TASK 4 - Audience for thriller

 For our thriller, I thought that the appropriate audience age that would like to watch it would be aged 15-25. The 'tribe' that we wanted our audience to be in would be young adults. 

 

My perfect audience member would be a 18 year old young adult from a middle class family who is mature and educated enough to understand the storyline and keep up with it as it would be quite complex, and be mature enough to deal with some of the themes which feature in our thriller. They would enjoy the idea of having to keep up with the plot and having to work out some of it for themselves. The kind of TV which they would watch would be Revenge, True Blood and other similar shows. The kind of films which they would be interested in would be the Borne series, Salt, Hanna and other similar thrillers which are complex and have similar twists to those which would be included in our thriller. The kind of music which they would listen to would be alternative and chart music, such a Beyonce, Frank Ocean and Noah and the Whale. The age range that we are going for means that they would mostly be at university or just finishing their A levels. They would be studying subjects  such a psychology and sociology, and therefore would be interested people and how they deal/react to different situations. They would be likely to see the film in the cinema with a group of friends or if they were a university student and had less money then they would download it off the internet and watch it on their laptop.

For our secondary audience, which would be over 28’s, who are intelligent and switched on and want to solve problems. They would be have a job as a banker, or a teacher, and would be interested in a lot of things. They would have studied subjects such as history or psychology at university. They may have just finished university and starting a job or already have a job. They would be interested in mystery TV shows such as Broadchurch or Revenge. They would listen to chart music such as Ed Sheeran or Maroon 5.They would be most likely to see the film in the cinema, in the evening after work or on a date. They may be attracted to the romance between the woman and her victims in the film, or the males may be attracted to the violence and blood which features in the film.

TASK 3 - The institution that would make my film

The institution which we chose to make our thriller was Vertigo. Vertigo is an English production  and distribution company which specializes in producing lower budget films with actors that are lesser known than those in holywood films. The budget for films produced by British production companies such as vertigo are much lower than the average budgets of films produced by big, well know production companies. Vertigo produces films that are low budget, with TV stars and lesser known/unknown actors. The films made by Vertigo are mainly made to attract to a niche British audience, however, they hae produced films such as 'Street Dance 2' which was produced in order to 'crack' the American market. Although this film was not very sucesful, I feel that although our film is a first time film, it is the type of film that could be used by Vertigo to crack the American market. I think Vertigo productions would produce our film, as it has unknown actors, and we are first time film makers. Hollywood wouldn't produce my film because it would not make a profit and there would be no attraction towards it.

Other films that Vertigo films have made which are also thrillers are; The children, Monsters and Out Law.  They are also similar to my film in the way which they are jumpy and have a complicated plot. They would appeal to our target audience for the same reasons our thriller would.

I think that my film could be should in independant cinemas where small budget films are played as it would not attract a great enough audience in big multiplex cinemas. I also think that DVD sales of our film would create a profit for Vertigo films. The reason I think our film would only show in small Independant cinemas not the big multiplex ones in cities is because 9/10 of the films shown in multiplex cinemas are Usa productions.  Therefore the main profit would have to be made out of dvd sales. They would promote the film to dvd by selling it cheaply in supermarkets, or on websites such as amazon.
However, we could distribute this film with the help of independent or European distributors,  who would buy it off the british companies and distribute it in europe, this often recoups the costs. We could promote it on film 4 which would encourage people to buy the DVD or watch it when it is premiered on the television. The film could also be shown on British television networks such as Film 4 as premiers which would also make a profit by charging for adverts.

TASK 2 - Representation of different social groups in our thriller

Ethnicity
In our thriller, the main female character, Anna, is Russian. Russians are stereotypically shown as being 'in control' of many situation, and being invloved with crime. In this sense, our representation of Anna therefore agrees with the stereotypical way in which russians are throught of to be. They are normally shown as being a powerful group of people, and having control over other people. They are therefore represented as a threat to other groups. They are normally representated negativley in thrillers, however, in our thriller, Anna is shown as being a powerful and independant, but also we show a loving and affectionate side to her, disagreeing with the stereotypical negative image. For example, this is similar to the way in which the Russian woman is represented in Salt. She is represented as a independant and powerful woman, similar to the woman in our thriller. Similarly, as in our thriller Anna is supposed to be a Russian spy, this is similar to many how russians are portrayed in the news. For example, this is simialr to many storys that we hear about in the news (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10564236) for example, there was recently an article in the news about 'Anna Chapman' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2124371/Russian-agent-Anna-Chapman-came-close-catching-Obama-official-honey-trap-U-S-spy-catcher-claims.html) who is a Russian spy. She is portrayed as being attractive and as 'seducing' her victims, just as we wanted the woman in our thriller to be seen as doing.

Gender
We aimed to find two characters who would both be found attractive by the target audience.
For the male character, we chose Paul. Paul would be found attractive by a female audience of around 18-30, and represents the typical 'attractive male' that is often shown in films. These male characters are often shown as being the in a position of authority, however, in our thriller this is not the case. As you find out by the end of our film, Paul has been set up by the female lead, and therefore this stereotypical important male character role is subverted. He is not portrayed as being powerfull, however he is seen as 'manly' in the way that he gets all the bags into the car and closes the container. This would also attract the female audience. He is also shown as being affectionate, which will futher attract the female audience. Another film which has a an attractive male character is Oceans Eleven, where Brad Pitt is seen as being the attractive male role. However, he differes slightly from the male in our thriller as he is a dangerous, unlike the male in our thriller, who we see a softer side too.
The female character in our thriller, Anna, has also been created in order to attract a male audience aged 18-30. Anna is represented as a powerfull, threatening woman, and therefore will attract to this audience. They will also want to watch the film due to the fact that Anna is using guns in the thriller, representing a woman being in control, rather than the man. She subverts the sterotypical ideology that men are normally the ones in charge, as she kills a man in the opening sequence. This may also attract to women, as they like the idea that the woman is in change instead of the man. Another thriller where we see an attractive woman being in charge is in Salt, where Angalina Jolie is the attractive female lead who in powerful and is a threat to others.

TASK 1 - How our product uses, develops or challenges conventions of real media productions.

Account of editing

Shorty after our filming day for our thriller, we started the editing process. We loaded up the footage from the camera onto the computer, and loaded the clips up onto Final Cut Pro, where we planned to edit our thriller. We then divided up our shots into two folders, logs and rushes. In our log folder we put the shots which we liked and we felt we were almost definatley going to use. We then put the shots which we weren't so great into the rushes album. In this folder we also put the worse shots of shots which we had more than one of. We did not want to delete these shots which weren't the best ones, as we thought we may want to bits of them in the later editing process.
We started the editing off by placing our tracking shot at the beginning of our thriller, as we had filmed a number of these shots, we used the one out of our log folder. This shot helped establish the fact that it was an eerie and desterted loaction. After this, we used some of the closer up and more detailed shots of Anna and Paul putting things into the car. This editing was intentionally done quite slow paced in order to create a contrast with what was going to happen later in the film. We then used a shot from Anna's perspective of Paul in the container, to show how they are running away and hiding their things in big containers. In this shot, Paul says to Anna 'can I have help with this one?', however, in the shot which we decided to use because it had the best camerawork, you could not really hear him say this. We therefore looked in the rushes folder to find the other second take which we had done of this shot. We took the sound from this shot, and after eliminating the sound from the shot which we already had inserted into the sequence, we put in the sound of the other shot from the rushes folder. The sound on this take was a lot better than from the one in the log bin, and therefore made it sound a lot better. After this we decided that rather then just using the shot of Anna and Paul putting the silver box into the car, we would use another shot which we filmed and had put in the log folder, which was from inside the car. As we switched the editing from a shot outside the car to inside the car and back to outside the film it looked a lot better then it would have if we had edited it to have one long shot from the outside of the car, which we had filmed. After this, we decided we wanted the tempo to start slowly increasing. We therefore edited some shots together of Paul picking up another bag from the container. The edited these together so they moved at a slightly faster rate to the shots which we had already edited at the beginning. After this, we used some extreme close up shots of Paul closing the container, keeping the pace of the editing up, to make it seem that his actions were becoming more urgent. We then took two shots from our log bin, one of Paul entering the car shot from the outside, and another of him entering the car but shot from the inside. We edited these 2 shots together in order to create a match on action shot, where we see Paul opening the door from the outside and then getting into the car from the inside. The next scene to happen was the scene with the majority of the action. The first time we edited this scene, we put together shots of Anna and the assasin in order to create the sense that they were both after each other. However, after rewatching this scene we decided that we had not created the nessecary pace which we needed in the edting. We therefore deleted the edting of this sequence which we had done, and recreated the scene. We used cross cutting between the assasin and Anna, using shots of no longer than one second of each of them, so that it cut quickly between the both of them. Altough this sequence caused great trouble for us while editing, as it was hard to get the right pace, we were pleassed with it once we finally achived the correct pace, in turn creating tension and an interesting action scene. For the final shot in our thriller, we decided to use a shot from our log folder of Paul on the floor while the car drives off in the background. We decided to use this shot as it gave the sense that Paul was a weak and innocent victim, highlighting Anna as a femme fatal and a character in control.
After we had finished editing the camera shots and were happy with them, we needed to edit the sound on each shot.We started with sound, we had to go through every single shot and chose between which sound clip was better for that shot and then double it up and level it out between left and right. I found this a very long a tiering process, which I did not really enjoy. After doing this, we moved onto the non-digetic background music. I found this more interesting than editing the digetic sounds, as we got the chance to create our own music for it. We created a soundtrack in which the sound and pace of the music increases in time with the increased pace of the action. We didn't go for downbeat music, we however gave the sound more of a 'rock' theme, in order to make Anna appear as a more attractive and dangerous figure. We also used special effect sounds such as gun shots and the sound for the reloading the gun. This empasised the theme of violence in our thiller. I found adding in these sounds a lot more interesting than leveling out the digetic sound, as it gave us the chance to be quite expressive.
After this, we used after effects software to add in visual special effects. We used effects such as fake blood, muzzle flashes and smashing glass. We had to use belnding modes to alter the density and colour of these effects, and for the blood we had to mask around the outside of the mans body. We also had to mask around the window for the muzzle flashes so it didn't look like this was coming from inside the car. We also added in the title at the end of the sequence at the end of this, using after effects software. We decided againt using credits as we wanted people to focous the action rather than the credits. Although this was extremely time consuming, I found it quite fun as it produce some very interesting and good effects which looked believale when we rewatched it.
I thought that the editing process was overall quite difficult and challenging, altough I found this quite interesting as we got to see our origional plain shots progress into a sequence which looked smooth and believable. I feel very happy with the end result, and feel happy and glad that all the time which we put into editing paid off. I thought overall we all worked very well as a group as altough at points we had different viewpoints, we were often able to put these together and come up with an idea which we were all very happy with.

Scrpit for thriller

We decided that we would need a minimal amount of script for our new idea for our thriller. The script which we did include was nessecary so the audience could work out what was going on.

Account of our shoot day

When it came to our shoot day, we were faced with one major problem; the snow. This resulted in us not being able to stick fully with our original idea, as there was no way which we would have been able to have 2 cars in the car park with one driving very quickly, it was too slippy. We therefore decided to change the location of our thriller, and decided to film it outside our media studios, there  was a round space with a driveway and big green mental containers. We decided that we were only going to use one car, and that this was going to be parked next to the open metal container. We also decided that the man (who is going to get killed) would now know that the woman was a secret agent, and that they would be loading the boot of the car up with a duffel bag, a silver container and another 'weekend' type bag. The rest of the plot was very similar to as we originally planned, as when the couple were in the car, the man in the driver’s seat gets shot. The secret agent woman then rolls out of the car, crawling round the car and shooting the man who just killed the other man in the passenger seat. She then drives off with the car, making the rest of the film about her being on the run and being looked for by the boss of the company who want her dead. Even though this idea was slightly dissimilar to our original idea, we still liked this idea a lot and thought it would work well, especially with the snow as it gave the effect of them being in a different country, such as Scandinavia. We were going for the effect of a thriller, as we were before, and still aiming it to the same target audience which we had already planned.

We set up with the car at the top of a hill, with the boot open, right next to the open metal container. This made it look clearly like they were trying to get away from somewhere, and also that they were taking secret things out of the container such as the silver briefcase/box. It also made it look like they were on the run because you think that they must have been hiding out in the container. The mise-en-scene was quite desolate, and therefore showing that they were in the middle of nowhere. The car which we used was quite dirty and old, therefore giving the impression that it was a stolen car, and also showed that she was trying to keep quiet, by not using a flashy new car.

The first shot we did was a long tracking shot. We did this in order to order for the audience to establish the surroundings, and as it got closer in they got a closer picture of what was going on. As we were now using the container, which was not in our original plan, we decided that we could film some good shots inside the container, of them coming in to pick up the bags. We also filmed some extra shots such as extreme close ups of their hands picking up the bags, and of the male actor locking up the container. These shots looked very good when filming and will be very useful when editing as they emphasise how they are running away and have important things in the container. We also filmed a shot at the end with the camera on the floor as the car was driving away, so only the wheels and the man’s dead body on the floor were in the shot. This looked very good when filming and I think will be a very good end to the thriller when it comes to editing. The only thing which I would have done differently would have been to think of a backup location before the shoot day, as we spent around an hour and a half in the morning finding a car park around our school area which we could have used, but we were taken by surprise by the weather conditions, the car park which we had originally planned to use would have worked if it were not for the snow and ice! However, we still managed to film all the shots and extra shots we wanted in the time which we had.

The props which we used for our thriller were; 2 'weekend' bags, a big silver case, a car and two guns. The costume which we used for the woman was a big black fur coat with a white blouse underneath and black wedges. The man who is shot in the car was wearing a leather jacket, a blue shirt and jeans. The killer man was wearing black trousers with a black jumper and a green beanie. We used these consumes because they were everyday looking outfits and therefore it made it look more realistic. The white of the girls shirt was used in order to make people realise that she is actually quite innocent as she did not want to kill the man, however we put red lipstick on her to highlight the fact that she is an assassin and at the end of the day her job comes first, and that she is cope able of being evil.

We chose our actress because she looked old, even though only being 18, therefore she would look old enough to be with the 26 year old man who she is supposed to be dating. They would appeal to the target audience as they appear to be similar ages to the age of the audience we are targeting. She is also very pretty therefore would appeal to the male audience.

The lighting which we used for the thriller was the natural lighting which was outside when we were filming. This was good because at some points during our shooting day it started snowing and this showed up clearly against the snow which was already on the ground. The brightness of the snow made it look quite spooky and therefore was good for our thriller. In editing we may possibly make the sky look slightly darker to make it look like it was dusk or dawn.

We picked up with the microphone the sounds of them talking, and also the sound sounds of their feet crunching on the snow and the ground. We also picked up the loud sounds of the car door and the container doors closing which created nice loud sounds.

When we were filming I enjoyed filming different shots which we experimented. I also enjoyed being the producer and calling standby, turnover action and cut. The bit which I also enjoyed which I had not done before was when we used track and pushed the camera across the tracks, one other girl from my group was sitting on the seat on the tracking panels and I pushed her along the tracks while she was filming. I found this quite interesting as we had to get it consistent so that it looked flowing. I think we succeeded in doing this well and the shot looked good as it focused in on the car and the container.

I think that we all worked very well together as a team, splitting up the jobs so that we all got a go at each of them.

Overall I was very happy with the end result, and I think that it actually went better as I thought it would be as I was originally worried about what obstacles the weather would cause, however I think that the weather actually made our thriller better. I think that the mise-en-scene successfully capsulated the right effect because of the snow making it look like it was in a foreign country.

Final Cast List

For our final cast list we have decided on four characters.

The female role will be played by a Russian girl Anna, she has pale skin and dark hair which will contrast with the red lipstick she will wear. She is 18, but looks older, so will suit the early 20's year old woman role. She will also conform the stereotype of a Russian, as she is a spy and assassin and will appear sneaky and in control. 

The guy who is shot will be played by Paul, a media technician. He is 26, but looks younger, so will look a good match next to Anna. He looks innocent and will suit the role of being killed and lured by Anna.




The killer will be played by Tom who will use the AK47 to shoot at Paul and Anna as Simon drives past. He will be wearing dark clothes and gloves to show he is a  criminals who want to conceal their identity.

Research on the types of car for our thriller

I thought that the Killer and the Shooter should have quite a big car, so that the man who is going to shoot them car shoot out of the back door or window while the driver still drives the car. I therefore though they should have a car similar to this lexus as it is not an extremely flashy sports car yet it shtill shows that they come from a job or company where there are some figures of authority.

I thought the man who is going to get shot and the assain woman should be sitting in a car similar to this Vauxhaul Corsa, as it is an everyday type of car and isnt too flashy, therefore they would not be standing out as the woman needs to be quite discrete in what she is doing. I therefore think that they owuld be in a car similar to this or another type of car which is nothing special, the kind of car you see everyday so it will not stand out.

Target audience

The target audience of our thriller would be aimed at male and females aged around 15-25. This is similar age to the actors in our thriller that's why I feel the thriller would appeal to them. I think that the film would be attractive to females because they would like the idea of the powerful and independent woman. They would also like the untypical role reversal which shows women as being more powerful then men. I think that it would also appeal to men because they would like the idea of a powerful and beautiful lead woman, therefore they would watch it due to this. They would also like the violence and action in it therefore would watch it. When looking at the age certificate of other similar films such as Kill Bill and Salt, we found that the age certificate of Kill Bill was an 18, and we were tempted to make this the age certificate for our film however when researching into Salt we found it was only a 12a and we therefore decided to make our age certificate a 15 as not to limit our audience.

Influences for our thriller

I looked at other films which had a similar storyline to the idea we came up with for our thriller. The ones I thought were similar were Kill Bill, Salt and Hanna. These films were similar to the ideas we came up with for our thriller because they show a female character which the film is centered around. They show the woman being on the run and being chased which is the idea we had for our thriller. These films also portray the woman as being independant and smart, which is how we want the woman to be portrayed in our thriller. These films also subvert the stereotypical idea that the man is the more powerful one, however in these films and in my thriller this ideology is not present, as its shows a strong and well trained woman, a 'femme fatal'.

Further development to our thriller.

After having multiple discussions with Matt and Luke we have decided to change and develop our thriller idea.
We have kept the same theme of our thriller but have changed certain details. We have decided that the woman has fallen in love with the 'target' and her boss decides to go forward with mission as he knows she is 'in too deep' and he aims to kill both of them as a consequence of her betrayal.
Our idea starts with the couple in the car 'loved up' with series of shots that show her looking at her phone reading a text saying 'are you ready?'. We see her ignore the text but looks at it multitude of times and then tells the target that they have to leave . The boss decides to go in for the kill anyways and kill her with the target. The woman sees the boss' car and she knows that they are going to shoot. She ducks and rolls out the car without being shot. The 'target' gets shot and dies. The boss leaves without realising she is still alive.
The rest of the film therefore would become about the boss looking for the woman once he later realises she is still alive.

Cargo containers in thrillers

In our film we wanted to use cargo containers because we canted tpo make it look like a sterotypical thriller. Other films which used containers which we got insparation from is Hanna, Casino Royale and Taken. Industrial sites are often used as a setting for thrillers, because it adds a secluded element to the thriller which subsequently adds to the fear.