26/02/09 Final Lesson Before Deadline For Thriller

In today's lesson we completely finished our thriller. Our filming, editing and credits were all finished before today's lesson so all we did today was finishing off the music and creating the title to add the end of our thriller. Since there was only me and Ayse in today we decided to assign the music and title to one another, so we decided that I will finish off the music while Ayse does the title, we already discussed on what the title should look like and decided that it should be flashing on a black background. Before we started our individual jobs we decided on what to call the thriller and eventually decided on 'Retribution', which means punishment. I managed to finish the music and helped Ayse with the title, we added the music and title to our thriller and I was so relieved to have finished.

23/02/09 Second Lesson Creating The Music For The Thriller

In today's lesson we continued creating the music for the thriller we decided to add a base line at the start because it sounded plain. We decided to add a different track over the base line when the car starts moving to show to the audience that there is something not right with the car. When it gets to the shot of inside the car from the stalkers point of view we had the tempo increase, as the clip went on , and as Elaine gets faster the tension increases. We managed to get most of the music finished today all we need to do now is the end part of the music and the title next lesson.

12/02/09 Creating The Music For The Thriller

In today's lesson we started to create the music for our thriller in Soundtrack Pro. Since the credits were finished and so was the filming all we had to do was the music and title and we were done. The music we created today created tension, it starts of very quiet and as the scene goes on the music gets louder and the tempo gets faster. We showed what we have so far to our teacher and she gave us some feedback which was mostly good. She pointed out that our music does create the tension and that the film came together, good. There was one shot she said that needed to be cut down and that was the pan of the reflection of Elaine because it goes on for a bit to long and she gets too small at the end which is unnecessary.

05/02/09 Last Thriller Filming Session

Today was our last filming session as Elaine, the main character in the thriller, was going to be at drama all next week. We didnt have to film much just a couple of shots including a pan in which Elaine is reflected in a window. After we had filmed the few shots we needed we match cut it with the footage we already had and realised we had finished the filming part of the thriller and all we had to do now was the music in Soundtrack Pro and the title in LiveType. Since we had finished our task for today I decided to catch up on blogging.

29/01/09 Second Thriller Filming Session

In today's lesson we still had not heard anything from the people at Liverpool Street Station so we unanimously decided to film the car shots we needed. We had Mickey, the technician, driving the car in the shots. I filmed Elaine walking and eventually breaking into a run when she realises she is being followed by the car. For our long shot of inside the car we had Elaine walking down many different streets while I was in the car filming all the time without stopping I decided this would be best and we could cut which part we wanted when we came to editing. The hardest shot to film today was the shot of the rear view mirror because of a mixture of:

• Elaine being so far away from the car at the start of the shot
• the mirror having to be adjusted to the perfect angle to see Elaine
• the camera having to be held perfectly still and in the same position, otherwise the angle would be off and would not be able to see Elaine

When we had finished filming Mickey drove us back to college and as we had some time left we decided to edit the footage we had filmed now. I decided to stay at lunch to get it finished and as Elaine and Aziza never had lesson's after lunch they stayed on a bit longer as I had to go to lesson. We managed to match cut the footage and played it with the footage we filmed two lessons ago, and saw it coming together nicely with just a few shots and final touches needed. Through lunchtime we managed to create half of the credits and eventually I had to go to my next lesson but I later caught up with them and they told me they managed to finish the credits and added them to the film.

26/01/09 Editing Footage From First Thriller Filming Session

In today's lesson we edited the footage we filmed last lesson. We carefully cut and pasted each shot and match cut it. We fiddled about with the footage and basically to get the footage to flow we used trial and error until we were happy with the results. In the lesson everyone took turns editing at some point and we also set a task to anyone if they found themselves not doin anything and that was to think about potential titles for the film some that we came up with were:

• Dead End
• Tenacious
• End of the Line
• The Stranger
  

22/01/09 First Thriller Filming Session

In today's lesson it was our first filming session of our thriller and we already had a problem. On monday my group decided we were going to film at Liverpool Street Station, but today we found out from the our technician, Mickey, that to film there we must first get permission from them. We then agreed that it would be best not to go down there today in case we were not allowed to film there and it would be a day's filming wasted. We asked Mickey if he cold e-mail them for permission and if it was granted we would film the shots we needed from there next lesson. We decided to film in a quite back street not to far from the college today and given it was our first filming session it went well. Since I was the camara man it was up to me to get the shots we needed and set an example. I filmed elaine walking through an enclosed area of tall buildings with a series of shots. We got more than enough footage today and are ahead of shedule.

15/01/09 Selling Our Pitch

In today's lesson we had to give our pitch to our class and teacher. The first half of the lesson we were given a chance to practice and combine ideas, since we did most of the work individually for homework. Our pitch had to contain 8 main themes and they were:

• Main theme
• Setting/location
• Lighting
• Camara work
• Storyboard
• Key images
• Music
  
• Production Plan

The pitch itself had to last at least 10 minutes.
Since there was only me and Elaine giving the pitch we had a harder job than the other groups because there was just the two of us. I feel the pitch could have gone better but went ok considering we had two people missing, and we had to fill in the blanks that they left. Speaking was shared out between me and Elaine, I would say 1 paragraph and she would say the next etc. I think we had some good ideas and that we knew exactly what we were shooting and when, and that was 'a young woman coming home from work realises she is being followed by a stranger in a car. The tempo gets faster as the scene goes on and is left unresolved leaving the audience on a cliffhanger.

Thriller Evaluation

Our task was to create an opening sequence to a thriller, which was a minimum of two minutes. We had to think about different aspects to the film, which included sound, editing, camera angles and overall outline. In lessons leading up to filming we were shown a mixture of famous and AS college thriller scenes, some of which included The Shining, Arlington Road and 28 Days Later. We were shown these to try to influence and help with our own ideas, we also had to think about our target audience and implement these ideas into our thriller. We also learnt a brief of what constituted a thriller and we made a brainstorm of a mixture of different thrillers, a few of them were psychological, action and sci-fi thrillers.

The music for our thriller was influenced by many of the old suspenseful thriller films including Duel and Jaws, as they both use the music in a way to create the unknown scary even though you rarely get to see the villain. In Jaws, the music is what made the film so famous, the music that plays when you, as the audience, are in the viewpoint of the shark is what influenced the music from our shot from inside the car and viewpoint of the villain. It builds the suspense up and makes the audience wanting to see what will happen. As the shot from our thriller goes on it gets louder and faster, and just like the jaws music, we implemented our music adding suspense into our shot. Going back to the shot of our scene from the driver’s point of view it was influenced by the shot from The Shining, when the little boy is riding his tricycle. Both scenes are shot from behind the person in view which gives the audience a blank spot, which means the character in view knows more about what's in front of them than we do leaving the viewer in an uneasy position. Also we used a technique which was famously used in the film Duel, which is we never show the villain and creates the element of the unknown and suspense that builds up until the end of the opening sequence.

There are three characters in our opening sequence, one of which makes only a brief appearance and is classed as an extra and another you never get to see but you know is there (the stalker in the car). The main character, is a young woman in her mid twenty's, she work's in an office and lives in a nice neighbourhood. The idea of this young innocent woman being followed in a nice neighbourhood shows the contrast this thriller is supposed to show and that is crime can happen anywhere and to anyone. The character in the car even though you never see him, you know he is the villain and makes you feel uneasy just by the fact that you never know how he is, which means you can relate to the woman. The stalker is a middle aged male whose wife was killed when she was involved in a car accident 10 years ago, which he has never got over and has driven him over the edge. He now looks at other women and all he sees is his wife, and he sees women as objects and not human beings. Our thriller has the common representation as the man being the dominating role in films, as in most thrillers the man will be the one who is the villain and if there is a woman as a main character she tends to usually be the one who is being chased. This sexist view is used because in films males are usually thought of as being a dominating figure, whereas women are tend to be thought of as sidekick's or used to bring in more men to watch the film. This is a sexist view, but in our case, it would look weird if it were a female chasing a male so we had to fall back on this Hollywood stereotype.

The kind of media institution that would release our film would be a similar kind to those that distributed films similar to ours, one of those is Duel directed by Steven Spielberg. Duel is a 1971 movie about a man driving along a remote and lonely road being stalked by a large tanker truck and its unseen driver. I did some research on how Duel was released and it was originally a TV movie of the week on the American channel ABC, but the ratings and reviews from the media and viewers were so good Steven Spielberg decided to film more scenes and release the extended version in cinema's across America and Europe. Our film would be a similar release to this but instead of showing the film first on TV it would be released in the cinema. If then the reviews we would look at a possible TV company to promote and show our film across the UK, maybe on film4, as they show good British movies. Going back to the film being shown on Film4 if that were the case the film production company that would produce our film would be Film4, it would be an obvious choice as both the film and Film4 Company are both set and based in the UK. Another film company that could produce our film if Film4 doesn't would be Twisted Pictures as they are famous for producing only horrors and thrillers which would fit in with our film. Twisted Pictures is an American based film company and are well known for releasing thrillers.

The target audience for our thriller would be aged between 18-29 for males and females. The film would be aimed at people who are afraid of the unknown, the driver being the unknown in the film. Also they would be someone who likes to try and work things out for themselves but sometimes never gets there. A person, who never gives up trying and will always give it a shot on what is happening, yet likes the element of surprise. As the woman in the thriller looks like a city office worker, it will attract more people who like a good thrill and live in the city to watch it just because they can relate to her especially since its set in London. I have thought about a director who plays on this sort of target audience and he is Alfred Hitchcock, this film will appeal to anyone who has seen his films as the suspense is always going throughout and the music is similar to some of his films.

We were aiming to attract 18-29 year old people who live in the city.

They would be attracted to the film as they could relate to this woman in the film, as it shows one aspect of crime in the city and that is kidnap. Many women now worry about the dangers of being in a unlicensed mini cab, even though there is no mini cab in our film it is still displaying a portrayal of kidnap and being stalked. Women who watch our film will be scared of the shock factor because its not this scene couldn't happen in real life, its a perfectly believable scene which will leave the audience more frightened of the unknown. It will also make them more aware and cautious of the dangers out there and our film could also be a lesson learner for them if they take it serious enough. We would market our film through television and newspapers or billboards, as this is where our target audience would most likely see our advertisement of the film. The poster in the newspaper or billboards would be something along the lines of a shocking picture and a catchy line that would leave the reader guessing on the plot, something like 'Fear is the Unknown...' That’s just a draft but it leaves the audience wanting more and will attract them to see the film, also it’s a short, catchy line that will stick in the audience's mind. The picture in the advertisement might be along the lines of the rear-view mirror shot we had in our thriller but mixed together of an over-the shoulder shot of a dark figure from inside the car like this image from the similar film Duel (see below).

The poster for our ad would be that shot in the Duel poster but in the mirror we would have the main character just like the shot from our thriller but this time you can see the drivers silhouette, which still leaves us in the dark about him and he would still be an unknown and mysterious character. Instead of having a truck in the windscreen we would have a darkened street with just a few flickering street lamps to give it a suspenseful and chilling feel. The line 'Fear is the Unknown...' would be on his shoulder in white like the Duel poster, and the title of the film 'Retribution' would be at the top in bold writing to stand out. I like this poster idea as everything in the poster would be quite dark to emphasis that somethings not right whereas in the mirror the main character would be in a brightly lit part of the street, from the street lamp to show her innocence and to identify her as the victim.

I have learnt a lot from this project from filming to blogging. I have developed my understanding of filming and different aspects of camera angles and learned that some camera shots were harder to do than others were. For example the shot were we had to set up the main character in the rear-view mirror (image see above), was a lot harder to set up than most of the other shots. This is because the character was so far away from the car the mirror had to be at the perfect angle for me to see her through the mirror from the back seat where I was filming. I also learnt how to use different aspects of final cut pro and the different tools involved with editing the film. We had to cut down our shots, and the shot from inside the car was drastically cut down as it was originally two minutes on its own. With that shot, we had to improvise and instead of cutting it with credits, we had the credits blend with the shot. To cut it down we simply faded two parts of the shot together and cut everything in between, the fade worked well as it ended up looking like a timeline and was influenced by this shot in Duel where it fades to show a skip in time. I have also learnt to blog

which is a vital part of our grade in media, I have learnt to upload my video of the practise filming to blogger where I can refer back to it and so the reader can now see what I’m talking about in my blog.

From our preliminary task I have learned a lot, from the lesson when we had to plan our pitch I already had a few ideas about what this thriller could be about one of which was a pretty similar mould to the final outcome. The initial idea was a girl coming home from work then starts to be followed by an unseen driver in a car, she then runs around a corner and thinks she has lost him. A dark silhouette appears behind her and drags her in the car, the ending was going to be a black and white segment of the girl waking up and frantically trying to escape the car that had been stopped in the middle of nowhere and the door opens and the same silhouette appears and climbs in. We decided to scrap the ending as we thought the unknown would be much scarier. The 'match cut' exercise was a revelation for me, to learn different camera shots and how to set them up. The editing was hard at first but a quick brief on the different tools and it began to become more and simpler the more I used it throughout the 'match cut' and the thriller. In the thriller, we had to learn to implement the credits and title in to the film, as we hadn't done that during the 'match cut' exercise. We also had to create the music for our thriller and think about the subtle changes in the music when something happens in the thriller and the change in mood, example from calm to cautious.

In conclusion, I have learnt to plan ahead and have a clear image of each shot in my head so when we get there to shoot I will know what needs to be changed and where the people need to be in order to shoot.

Evaluation

As a group, we have been working for a while on our thriller opening. As we wanted it to look like a professional one, we used some of the conventions that a real one would supply. This essay will look at the conventions that real thriller openings have used, and how I have applied these to my thriller opening. An example that I will be using to look at the conventions that the real media has used, is 'The Shining'. As in 'The Shining', my thriller has suspenseful music, because of this suspense the audience would want to watch more of the film to overcome this emotion. In addition, I think that the music makes the audience feel sympathy for the characters involved.

Another convention I have used is the lack of identification of the perpetrator. The person who is following Elaine is not shown. This creates suspense, as the audience cannot identify the villain, by not showing this persons face it adds to the suspense. We see an excellent example of this in 'The Shining' when the camera is following the little boy, riding on his bike, along the corridor.

I have also used the convention of using the camera shots as if it is in the point of view of somebody watching the character, which there is nobody actually watching at all, for the audience it feels like they are following this vulnerable person. When Elaine is walking out to the road, she is not aware of anything and she does not know that somebody is following her until the camera is in the point of view of the real villain, which is in the car. Also in 'The Shining', there is nobody following the little boy but because we are behind him it feels like there is somebody there.

In my media product, the character that we have used represents itself in a vulnerable way. The character that we have used is a female and straightaway the audience may suggest that a male is inside of the car that is following her. My media product represents the females as vulnerable and very scared of the opposite sex. Usually we see examples of this in real thrillers.

Because my media product is not professional and the top directors and software did not make it, I think that if we did spend so much money and distributed it internationally then I do not think that we would make much money. Therefore, I think that if we first released it over the internet via YouTube then we could get a rough overview of how many people will view it at the cinemas before we make any expenditure. However, if it was professional I think that the distribution company that would most suit the media product will have to be The Working Title.

The demographic descriptions that my target audience fit are the achievers. My character, Elaine looks like a businessperson, and they would consider her as themselves. I would think that they would also be of middle class females who are aged 25-49. As an example I have here, Elena, who is 28 years old and works in a tourism agency, she loves to socialise with friends and often goes to the cinema with them. I think that she will be a perfect candidate for an audience for my thriller.

The best way to advertise my media product will be to use the face of my main character, which is Elaine. Because the target audience for my thriller will be middle class business women, when they see the face of my character they might want to consider seeing my film. I would want to advertise my film on the internet for a start because many business women use the internet nowadays for lots of different reasons. If they watch the trailer on YouTube then they can decide to watch the whole film.

In the process of constructing my media product, I had many opportunities to widen my knowledge about using technology. I have firstly learnt how to use the camera. I now know how to record, change a tape and how to change a battery of a camera. I have also learnt how to use a few software’s; Final Cut Pro was the one I used to do the editing of my thriller. Another software I now have knowledge on is Sound Track Pro, I have used this software to construct a very suspenseful piece of music.

Another level of technology I have learnt to use, in the process of making the media product, is the internet. Obviously, I knew how to use the internet previously but I did not know how to blog and did not know what blog actually meant. This has opened a completely new step for me about the usage of the internet, and I am now very familiar of the website blogger.com.

From now when I look back at the preliminary task that we were assigned to complete, I feel that I have learnt a lot more. I also think that I did not know much about the 'match cut' exercise when we were told to do it in class, before the media product was briefed to us. After having this experience to do a thriller, I now feel that I know a lot better in doing 'match cuts', storyboarding, planning, filming, editing and post production, (which is my evaluation that you are now reading), If I were to do this kind of task again then I would try to plan better and try to stick to it. Some of the feedback I got from other classmates who watched my film at the cinema said that it was very suspenseful and they wanted to watch it more at the start because they wanted to know where Elaine was going to go. I now also think that practising is the key to success.