Harry Finlay AS Media: 2015

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Thriller Opening Sequence Final Edit

Thursday, 10 December 2015

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Thursday, 3 December 2015

Vox Pop Thriller Ideas Improvements

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Monday, 30 November 2015

Thriller Video Rough Edit "Witness"

Friday, 27 November 2015

All the sound we are using in our thriller opening sequence is non-diegetic as I think it will sound a lot better if we were to add it in during editing so that there isn't any wind or unwanted sound in the sound that we want, we are also adding the sound in after to make it seem more like a dream because we thought that it wouldn't build as much tension if there was dialogue in the dream, additionally the sound is synchronous sound as it fits into the genre of a thriller as it dramatic, mysterious and helps to build tension.

After the feedback from our vox pop we have decided to use a sound track as well as effects because most of the people in the vox pop said that they prefer soundtracks because they help build tension if they go with what is happening in the scene. There will be sound effects of heavy breathing which will increase the pace near the end of the sound track as the murder flashbacks come to an end and we reach the climax. Furthermore it will show how the character is scared and panicking in their sleep which will create a tense atmosphere for the audience because they may start to breath just like the character. This will counter act with the increasing heart rate to show the pace and fear from the character. Therefore both the effects will build up to a peek which is the end of the murder and the character waking up in a panic, while it then cuts to a title to signal the audience that the movie is going to begin and that it is the end of the opening sequence.

The sound track will start of slow to show the mystery and the curiosity from the victim and build as the drama and action adds in and to create a calm atmosphere for the audience as they are introduced to the setting and characters. The track will contently build as the flash backs in the dream occur to reflect the chaos and confusion in the opening. Near the end where the sound track starts to end we will mix the sound of the track and the heavy breaking and then the heavy breathing and the increasing heart rate.

Wednesday, 25 November 2015

Actor Requirements and Auditions

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Contract for Actors and Locations

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Thriller Pitch Video

This is our thriller pitch video, as a production company for paradise picture we where explaining our ideas for the opening of a thriller; 'Witness'. In this pitch we explained our target audience, the narrative, USP, shot list, storyboard, Mise-en-scene, typography, timeline, sound and risk assessment.

For our typography we selected 4 ideas for the thriller opening and took a vote from the audience to get a perspective of what people though t would look the best, as a result the last text was the most popular and the first was the second most popular so we are intending to incorporate both for either the title of the film and the other for the titles in the opening sequence.

This is the voting results from the pitch for the typography:

Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Props Planning

Thriller Target Audience

Thriller Script

Thriller Script

The start of the thriller will set the scene by displaying the protagonist’s room, but will then pan around the room giving the viewer a sense of who it is to create enigmas; it will then lead to the protagonist’s face that is having a nightmare or recent events. It will then cut to the scene that the protagonist witnessed. The scene will be dull lighting in a woodland area. The shots will cut between murmuring from the protagonist and screams and struggling from the victim in his flashback.

Thriller Locations

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Costume Ideas

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Shot List

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Production Schedule

The day of production started at 9:00 AM. At nine everyone met up at the location decided by the group, everyone brought the props that they needed to bring and they came in costume. After everyone had arrived we placed the props in the right position ready for later filming there that day.

At 9:30 AM we moved to the woods to look for the right location that we wanted for filming, this took us around another 30mins, at 10:00 AM we started blocking through the scene for the opening sequence, after blocking through the scene, we then started filming, this took around 6 takes to get the scene right, after finishing the filming in the woods we went to the second filming location to film the other two locations.

We arrived at the second location at 10:40, the second scene only took around 10 minutes to get blocked and filmed. The second and third location for filming were in the same area so it only took a couple of minutes to get set up for the filming.

For the last lot of filming we set up the setting for the scene which took five minutes, once the setting was set up we blocked through the scene so that everyone knew what they were doing. After blocking we started filming, this took around 5 takes to get the shots that we wanted.

After finishing the final lot of filming for the last scene we had a lunch break for 10 minutes, then we looked back at some of the footage to make sure we were happy with it. We did this after each of the filming sessions of course but this time we looked through all of it so that our editor had an idea of what he was going to do with the footage.

We finished the filming of the day around 12:50, after we had finished we moved onto editing the footage for the rest of the day. The day finished at 4:30 after going through the footage.

Thursday, 12 November 2015

Thriller Actor Auditions

Thriller Timeline

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Job Roles

Friday, 30 October 2015

Thriller Opening Sequence Ideas

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Friday, 23 October 2015

Vox Pops

What where the questions and how will it influence the opening to our thriller?

Within the thriller what makes you want to continue watching?

·         To be able to question the story line
·            To have a cliff hanger into what is happening next
·         To see action
·            Good level of suspense

Most of these answers are showing typical conventions in a thriller, this suggests that people know and enjoy the typical conventions of thrillers; from looking at the results from all of the questions suggests that people most like a criminal or psychological thriller with lots of enigmas and action.

What grips you in a thriller opening sequence?

·         Something that is dramatic and can leave a question in the audiences mind
·         Dark lighting and mysterious characters that also create enigma
·         An existing story line
·         To see action like a great car chase or something to keep you attention

Even though thriller openings are not very long there is a lot to be expected from an opening not only should there be; production companies, titles of the film, actors and editors. But to any viewer it is important that the thriller opening is gripping for the viewer to make them want to continue watching the rest of the movie. From the results of the vox pops we have gathered that thriller audiences like the opening to a thriller to give them the ground plan of the storyline for the movie and for it to grip them and for them to have a taste of the action in store.

What do you think the key conventions in a thriller?

·         Little lighting as well as one key character looking for something
·         Not to understand what is happening next
·         Mystery and finding out with special effects and stunts
·         Chase action

Again from the answers of the questions that we asked, people want certain conventions of other thrillers like well-used lighting to build tension, and plenty of action to keep the audience interested in the thriller. They also like to be in the dark of a story so not knowing what if going to happen in the story or why.

What is your most memorable thriller opening?

·         Casino Royal
·           Fast and Furious
·         Psycho
·         House at the end of the street

The most memorable thriller opening reflects on what sub-genre of thrillers the people enjoy. As Mr Wayde remembers Casino Royal which is a James Bond film it means that he enjoys the spy sub-genre films, Mrs Parker as her memorable thriller opening is the Fast and Furious series of movies which means she remembers action and the car chase genre which grips her attention. Whereas the two students remember thriller openings like physiological thrillers, horror thrillers and romantic thrillers. This shows that thriller audience interests have changed over the years, how the older audience enjoys old fashioned thrillers with chase scenes and action, whereas the younger audience prefer scary thrillers that mess with their minds and create lots of tension.

What have I learnt?

From the answers that we got from doing our vox pop we have learnt that when filming a Vox pop we have to be careful with where we film, some problems that occurred was our reflection could be seen in the window, as well as this the direction of the wind effected the sound when filming. Therefore who we interview should be facing the wind while we have our backs to it. Furthermore from analysing the answers to the questions we have found out that it is important to include, mystery, low key lighting, enigmas and some form of action.

Thursday, 22 October 2015

Thriller Genre/Sub Genre Conventions

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Monday, 19 October 2015

Thriller Audience Profile

This is a brief explanation of what I think my target audience will be and why I think they will be like this.

My audience for my thriller are young adults; aged 16-21, my thriller is going to be targeted towards both male and female but it will be more targeted at male audience because men are more likely to watch a new thriller than females are. The background of my audience is that they are still in education, so school, training or apprentice, they aren’t going to have their own family because they are still in education. The demographic of my audience is E because they are students and don’t have full time jobs yet, this is because younger audiences watch thrillers more than older people do. The interests of my audience are thriller movies and they will probably like to be on edge when watching a movie and will like scary movies, they will also like to read horror books, they will also be adrenaline junkies because they are most likely going to watch a thriller because they like the tension. Other media that my audience will like would be horror movies, gory video games, first person shooters, horror games, and they would enjoy horror TV shows like American horror story, Ghost Adventures, and other horror shows. This is because people who like thrillers will also like other types of thriller media.

The psychographic of my audience would be explorers because explorers are more likely to watch new movies, they would also enjoy thriller movies because explorers like to watch movies that create tension because they value adventure so they like films which build tension and come to a conclusion. They are also the first to try new brands so they are more likely to watch a new movie than resigned psychographic people are. Another psychographic that my audience might be is mainstreamers because they are a larger audience so if I aim my thriller at them then more people are likely to watch it. I could aim them at both so explorers would be the first to watch it and if enough of them watch it then it will start to appeal to mainstreamers.

Friday, 16 October 2015

The Cabin in The Woods Timeline

Analysis of The Cabin in The Woods

From looking at the timeline we can see that the first things to be introduced are the production companies that helped make the film. The next thing we can see is the films title, then all of the cast of the film. after the cast they show the crew behind making the film like the director, costume designer, music supervisor, visual effects supervisor etc. when we look at the music for the title sequence, we can see that the music changes, at the beginning it is an eerie music to suggest to the audience the genre of the film. However then the music changes to a rock/pop kind of music which is played over the introduction of the main characters. It also helps to show the change in scene and setting.

At the beginning, before the titles start to show, we are shown the production companies' ident. We can see that the production company for The Cabin in The Woods was Lionsgate, Lionsgate is a well-known production company that has helped in the production of thriller movies before and are well-known for them.

After we are shown the company ident for Lionsgate, we are shown images of different ancient ways of sacrifice that people used to do to please the gods. These images are shown by blood spreading across the screen. For the people in the audience who can see that these images are of sacrifices can guess that this film is going to be about people offering sacrifices to the gods.

Once we are shown the different pictures of sacrifices being shown by blood, the scene changes to an office and the eerie music stops and there is no sound but the two characters talking and a coffee machine making coffee. This scene introduces us to the two antagonists of the film who are trying to offer sacrifices to the gods.

After we have listened to some dialogue, the two characters ride on a cart and without notice the title of the movie is shown, on top of this, a loud sound is played to try and scare the audience and to build tension. The title of the movie is shown in block capitals and are entirely red, this suggests that the genre of the film is horror because of how the red of the title denotes blood.

Then, after the title of the film is shown, the scene changes again, this time to a neighbourhood, we can also hear the pop/rock music playing from one of the houses. The change in scene suggests that we are going to be introduced to the protagonist(s) of the film. The fact that the setting of the scene is a neighbourhood on a sunny day goes against the conventions of a usual thriller, this is because the usual thriller will try and build tension at the beginning of the film in order to get the audience excited for the rest of the film.

After we are introduced to the new setting, we are introduced to the first main character of the film, this suggests that this character is going to be the main focus of the film and that she will be the one to survive whatever challenge is presented to the protagonist(s). the fact that she is looking at a drawing that she could of done at the beginning of the scene suggests that she is a very artistic character, as well as this she is holding books, this denotes that she is the smart character of the film and that she likes to read.

Once we are introduced to the main character of the film, we are then shown the other principal characters of the film, this scene also shows the characters relationships with each other and the characteristics of each character.

In this shot the audience is introduced to a key event in the story of the film, it also represents the end of the title sequence and the start of the film. This specific shot suggests to the audience that the main event of the film is that the characters that we have been introduced to are going on a camping trip, putting this with the title of the film further describes that the characters are going on a trip to spend a couple of nights in a cabin in the woods.

Wednesday, 14 October 2015

The BBFC and The Thriller Genre

The BBFC is the British Board of Film Classification, what the BBFC does is they look at films that to be released into the UK and they look into the context, themes, impact of the film and they give it an age rating for what people should be in order to watch this film. They also rate a film when it is going to be sold in a store. The BBFC was set up in 1912 and they are a not for profit business that isn't run by the government. They hire employees to watch new films and look at their content and they give the film an age rating. As well as rating a film, the BBFC can also ban a film from being sold or shown in the UK, they also have the power to cut certain scenes out of a film if they do not think that the scene should be show. Once the BBFC have seen a film they can rate it into different categories:Uc, U, PG,12A, 12,15, 18, and R18.

Uc was taken out of the recent ratings for the BBFC. The BBFC also runs Pegi ratings which is like the BBFC but instead of rating films, they give ratings for games instead. The BBFC has to provide a reason for why they have given the film the rating they did. Every media in the UK is rated by a regulations company apart from the internet. If a film isn't given an age rating, the film cannot be shown in the UK, if they do it is illegal. People will often cut things out of their film in order to get a specific age rating by the BBFC.

Leon

Leon has been given a 15 by the BBFC, the BBFC said that the reason that they gave the film this rating was because it contains strong and bloody violence and that it also contains strong language. The fact that it has been given a 15 means that the film is suitable only for 15 years and older. The audience of this film fit into the C2 demographic because it is very violent, however younger audiences can relate to the character Mathilda in how they would feel if they were in her position. the character Leon is what makes it a C2 demographic because the skilled manual workers might be able to cheer for him in what he does. The psychographic of the audience of the film Leon are probably explorers because it isn't a well known film by everyone so explorers are probably the most likely people to see it and like it.