Evaluation: Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the product?

Evaluation: Question 6

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

Evaluation: Question 5

How did you attract and address the audience?

Evaluation: Question 4

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

Evaluation: Question 3

What kind of media institution might have distributed your media product and why?

Evaluation: Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation: Question 1

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

Final cut

Rough cut

Our rough cut was primarily for us to gage an idea of what we wanted our final cut to look like. We added the clips which we had decided we wanted to be involved in our final cut, so that we were able to see what they would look like when moving into each different section.When doing this, we came across different problems and realised there was a lot that needed to be changed. For example, We had originally started our piece by showing the antagonist playing with underwear. However we realised that by starting with the antagonist it ruins the aspect of suspense. we then changed the starting shot to photo board of the victim, this was establishing who the antagonist was targeting.

Originally each credit was placed one after the other with no cuts or other clips in-between, however in our feedback we were told that it seemed long winded and dragged. so we decided to change this feature to having each separate credit spaced within the opening, with short shots of action.

In our rough cut, we had originally planned to not put any effects onto our clips. We thought the natural lighting from the street lamp worked well with the piece, however after audience feedback and watching certain thrillers, such as 'Memento', we thought that by having the black and white effect on every clip, created an eerie atmosphere. We also did it to give the sense of a flashback, which is a popular convention of a thriller, causing the audience confusing and un-certainty to begin with.




Originally, we had featured a flashback from sixth months earlier, with 3 friends meeting up.






However, our audience feedback mentioned that our opening was effective enough, without having to go into more detail with the friends.








Because of this we decided to take out the section of them all meeting, and instead changed it to just a message coming through on a phone, whilst "6 months earlier" flew across the bottom of the screen, fading into black.

Popular thrillers and how they've changed over the years

Over the past 60 years the thriller genre has changed and adapted to new generations.

In the past thriller genres were more about the psychological effect they would leave on the audience. Gore and violence wasnt as popular back then as it has become in recent years. Looking back at old thrillers, for example Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho', the violence and gore is of poor quality and there is little of it.

However, compare that to a more recent thriller, for example 'Taken', and you see how much gore and violence has become relied on to make an effective thriller. Nowadays, thrillers rely on a mixture of violence and psychological suspense to create a thriller which will entice the audience and keep them on the edge of their seats.

The most popular thrillers in the past were those of Alfred Hitchcock's creation. The most popular and historic thriller is his work on 'Psycho'. In its time it was one of the scariest thrillers out, creating a whole new opening to a genre of thriller. 'Psycho' features one of the most well known scenes in all cinematic history, 'The Shower Scene'. In this single scene there were 77 different camera angles used and 50 cuts, this was due to the lack of  editing technology at the time. It required all of this to allow it to seem more realistic and threatening.









However, as years went on, thriller films developed along with the technology to allow them to progress. Better technology allowed films to involve more realistic gory and violent scenes. Wes Craven's popular 1990's film series 'Scream' is the perfect example. It became a big hit all over the US and UK, mainly due to the fact that the graphics and horror suspense of the thriller film was increased than any seen before.

What is included in titles

We presented our titles by having our actor, playing the stalker, write them onto pieces of paper, and then tear them off and place them onto the pinboard around the photos of the girl. We felt this was more effective than editing them in, as it became part of the action. We showed the actor doing this throughout the film, cutting them into short bits and having them fade in during different parts of action e.g. once the camera had shown the pinboard of the girl at the beginning, we showed the rapist writing the titles, we did this to show that he was behind the making of the pinboard.

Our titles included:
Film company- Paramount pictures
Directors- Megan Leask-Walters and Martha Hardy
Actors- Martha Hardy, Joe Lever, Roisin Pelosi
Film title- The unknown

Discussion of names for our film

We decided to name our film 'The unknown', however it wasnt an easy decision. Whilst we watched our film back, we decided to write down words that came to mind whilst watching it, some of those being; dark, hidden, untold, concealed, secret and unrevealed. However we still werent quite satisfied with any of these ideas, so finally settled with 'The unknown'.
There is a famous film called Unknown staring Liam Neeson. The storyline is completely different to our thriller. It uses the word 'Unknown' in a different term. This film uses it more in the sense of confusion for a character were as we used the word 'Unknown' as the sense of the audience not knowing.

We thought this was a suitable name for our thriller film as one of the main themes throughout was the hidden identity of the antagonist.

Before deciding what we was going to call our film we thought of the name

Target audience

Our target audience was aimed at around 15 year old and upwards.

 Our decision on this was based on our personal opinions of the storyline and to which age bracket it would be most appropriate and would be recognised as being a serious subject, which would be likely to go unnoticed by younger children.
Another reason for not having a lower age rating is due to the fact that the storyline of a stalker could potentially make younger children paranoid about such things, so we decided it would be best for us not to lower the target audience.

Age rating

Whilst deciding what age rating our film was, we looked into the BBFC age limits, and what each age bracket consisted of. Before we looked into the BBFC age ratings, we had discussed making it an 18 rating, however we soon changed it to a 15 after realising our content matched the age 15 restrictions, and was more appropriate than being in the 18 bracket. This is because in our film, there is no actual shots of sexual activity or nudity, however it was implied through sounds and the dominating acting shown by a male figure. Whereas an 18 rating would include many more graphic shots.


Most thriller films are aged between 15 to 18. They aren't always suitable for people under this age range. Deciding whether its a 15 or a 18 normally depends on the amount of violence that is shown in the film and the graphicness of the violence. For example The Departed isn't suitable for children however it doesn't have too much graphical violence in whereas another thriller film for example Se7en is a 18. This is because of the amount of gore and violence shown.

Shot list

Shot list:

Shot 1: Close-up shot- Pin board- Photos of girl, pans across different photos.
Shot 2: Cut-in shot- Rapists hands- Fondling with girls knickers.
Shot 3: Mid-shot- Rapist writing on paper- Camera looking over the shoulder.
Shot 4: Close up- Rapist hand- Placing paper with titles onto the pinboard
Shot 5: Close-up shot- Rapists hand running over pictures- slowly zooms in to one picture.
Shot 6: Extreme long shot- Girl walking down lamp lit street- rapist lurking near a wall.
Shot 7: Long shot- Girl walking down another street- Rapist crosses road and follows.
Shot 8: Long shot- Girl walking on street towards and past camera- Rapist follows.
Shot 9: Long shot- Girl walking up driveway- Camera behind the girl.
Shot 10: Long shot- Girl walking up driveway- Camera in front of the girl.
Shot 11: Medium close-up- Girl unlocking the door and walking through.
Shot 12: Long shot- Girl entering through the door- Knock at the door- Turns and opens door.
Shot 13: Low angle shot- Girl looking through the door into the darkness.
Shot 14: Medium close-up- Girl shutting door, rapist pushes door open.
Shot 15: Medium close-up- Rapist writing on paper- Camera looking over the shoulder.
Shot 16: Close-up- Rapist hand placing paper with titles onto the pinboard.
Shot 17: Medium close-up/Over the shoulder- Girl slamming door on rapist, rapist stops it.
Shot 18: High angle shot- Girl running upstairs, rapist slowly follows.
Shot 19: Mid-tracking shot- Girl running into room.
Shot 20: Mid-tracking shot- Rapist storms into room.
Shot 21: Long shot/Tracking shot- Girl tries to get past rapist, pushes her onto the bed.
Shot 22: Medium close-up- Girl struggling with rapist.
Shot 23: Close-up- Girl struggling with rapist.
Shot 24: Long shot- Outside the bedroom, shadows seen of girl and rapist.
Shot 25: Medium close-up- Rapist writing on paper- Camera looking over the shoulder.
Shot 26: Close-up- Rapist hand placing paper with film name onto the pinboard
Shot 27: Close-up- Phone receiving message.
Shot 28: Close-up- Phone receiving message.

Costume

We wanted to make them seem as normal and casual as possible. Our rapist however was donned in all black clothes, with as little skin showing as possible, just showing his eyes. We wanted to keep his identity completely under raps as that contributes to what the rest of the film would be about; trying to discover who did it.

The main girls costume consisted of just casual clothes e.g. jeans and a jumper. We wanted to portray her as being a normal teenage girl.

Props

Our prop list was rather small, consisting of a mobile phone to receive a text and a coat for the girl to take off when entering the house.

For our filming we didn't need much in terms of props. One of our main props was a pinboard which had various photos of the girl pinned to it.

 We came to the decision that the way in which we used our shots and the performance of the actors would be more effective than having tonnes of props to mess around with.

Location

The location of our filming was changed many times due to many different reasons, accessibility, convenience, space and surroundings. In our animatics it initially started off being filmed at megan's parents house, as it had the perfect scenery and plenty of space to allow for different camera shots, however we soon changed it as it was hard to get to the house without relying on someone to take us there, so we decided it'd be for the best to have a location more local.

 We then decided to film at a friends house which was local to us, however we found it difficult to schedule times where we were able to use the house, and once again decided to change it as it was inconvenient. In the end we settled on filming at Marthas house as it was easy to access, there was plenty of space and had the right layout to fit with our thriller genre .

Filming schedule

Filming schedule:

Whilst shooting our opening, our filming schedule was rather hard to keep on top of. For a lot of our shots it was essential that we filmed them at night, however due to nights getting lighter we found that we only had a couple of hours of darkness before we had to stop filming for the night. Because of this, we decided to have three nights in a row where we would try to complete our night-time filming, allowing us plenty of dark hours. We were worried about weather forecasts and how it would effect our filming if it were to rain, so we kept an eye on the weather forecasts, swapping one of our days due to the chance of heavy rain.

Monday: 5pm- Photoboard scenes, underwear scene

Wednesday: 8pm- Street scenes

Thursday: 8pm- All inside scenes involving rapist and girl

Saturday: 10am- Mobile scene

Opening of other thrillers: Gothika

The opening to the thriller film Gothika starts with a shot that is completely dark, With the diegetic sound of a women talking, we know nothing about the women and have no visual image of her at this point. As it gets lighter you gradually start to make out a image of the women's face, it is a close up shot. This could of been used to make the audience feel like they have a instant connection with her and that she is talking directly to them.

.Lots of the shots are shot from the other side of a cage, this could have several affects on the audience.

One being that they are worried for the women that she is in danger and has been captured. However it may also make them think the women is dangerous and the cage affect makes them feel safer.

The woman who is interviewing the clearly insane women, looks beautiful with make-up used to enhance her beauty and features. 

Where as the mental women looks tired, run down and dirty. This is to show the contrast between her mental and physical state, as oppose to the woman who is interviewing her.

This relates to Halo Effect where you perceive good looking people as having good personalities.

Mise en scene

Lighting and colours:

Different levels of low key lighting creates an eerie and mysterious atmosphere. By using low level lighting, it creates shadows, allowing the shot to create fear and tension for the audience. By using a black and white effect it intensifies the effectiveness of shadows within a shot. The colouring of titles is important when creating a film. Colour is a direct link to emotions and thought, for example, blacks and greys would portray confusion and uncertainty.







Sound:
Thrillers often start with a slow tempo and relatively quiet pitch. The music is often eerie to create suspense, keeping the audience guessing to what could potentially happen later on. During the film there are often long pauses of dramatic silence, this creates tension and panic.

Costume and make-up:
Thriller films often use naturalistic costumes and make-up, making the characters more believable to the audience. By having little or no make-up at all allows the characters to seem more natural and similar to an everyday person. However make-up can be used to show fear for example, smudged eye make-up on a woman gives the audience the sense that she's been crying. Make-up is also used to create special effects for example, if there is a fight scene, fake blood can be applied to give the effect of an open wound.

Setting and props:
Typical thriller conventions would be a dark eerie house or an alleyway. Objects can help determine the  narrative and identity of characters and genre. Guns are often a key object used in thrillers, often used when there is a showdown between the hero and the villain. Use of space is important in creating an effective thriller. By using claustrophobic spaces it can portray the 'entrapment' in the characters mind.

Animatics

Animatics:

A main part of the media coursework is to create the animatics of your thriller plan. When we first started working on our animatics we had misunderstood that we were meant to involve every camera angle and change in each section, we had previously thought it was just showing the different scenes.

After learning of our mistake we started our animatics again, being sure to involve each different camera shot. We found that by doing this it really helped us to evaluate our plans of where our camera would be positioned to allow us to have a clear and professional looking shot.

When adding colour to our animatics we decided that our first section would be done in black and white to create an eerie and tense atmosphere, it also compliments the action going on, we'd decided that having bright bold colours would look out of place in a scene where someones getting chased. We instead added colour in when it flashes back to 6 months earlier, showing the contrast of the times and how different they were.

Creating animatics for our opening really helped as we were able to get a small glimpse of what our opening would look like. It allowed us to pick certain things out that we may not have thought looked so good as we had imagined and change them. For example we struggled with how we were going to get the rapist into the house effectively, we tried many different things but there was always something that would prevent us from being able to use the footage e.g reflections in the windows when trying to get a point of view shot through the window. Because of this we decided to change the scene slightly allowing us to have usable footage.

Thriller moodboard

Discussion of other film openings

Before creating our film opening we watched a number of different films and television series to get inspiration for our opening.

We had previously watched "Memento" when studying different thriller openings. Although the film was confusing and hard to understand, we were able to understand the different time periods.





When the film was in black and white it represented a flashback of the protagonist's life. Where as when it flashed back to picture in colour, it represented his life in the present time.

We took inspiration from this, and so involved the technique in our opening. However, we differed ours in the sense that our black and white represented current time, where as when the motion becomes colourful it represents 6 months earlier.


We had also watched the opening title sequence of "Dexter". We really enjoyed the fact that the credits were involved in the action.

outline to our film.

Outline to our film.

Our first ideas to our media thriller opening was going to be the story line of a young girl aged around 5/6 ‘befriending’ a older man and how although he didn’t do anything physically wrong he progresses a relationship with the younger girl as looking after her, but with inappropriate thoughts and feelings. We had ideas for scenes like filming at a park and leaving the swing swinging on its own with just the music playing. However it was hard to find a younger girl that we would be able to film with and be free and certain times that we needed her.

Once we decided that wasn’t the best idea we could have thought of we decided to use the storyline of a stalker and all of the other scenes we could use, trying them out and fitting them to the story. So once we had the fixed storyline we sorted out the order of the clips we was going to use as because it’s a thriller we didn’t want it to all be to obvious and wanted to keep the audience wondering and curious.

Our first clip to our opening is a photo board with several photos of the victim, which includes the credits on. The photos are used as to emphasise that the rapist has stalked the girl and collected photos of her to show the obsession.

The story to our film is that there is a male who stalks and becomes obsessed with the victim. At the start of the film you see what actually happens at the end. You see the victim getting raped and attacked which the film then would go on to show the build up of. As the end of our opening is the victim actually meeting the rapist, which she just doesn’t yet know that, his strange behavior makes the victim a bit suspicious but she just brushes it off, and doesn’t actually think anything of it. We ended it like this as then the rest of the film you as an audience can find out how everything progresses.

We chose to use certain clips because we thought they had a vibe which made people feel uneasy and where creepy. For example when the rapist strokes the photos of the victim and when he is playing with what looks to be a pair of underwear. It instantly shows that something is wrong. The fact that the rapist is wearing a mask is very important in several ways. One of these being the fact that the identity is completely covered and they are unknown, and for the fact we then go to see the rapist after but we aren’t actually sure if it is him and there may be several twists and turns as the genre being a thriller things aren’t always what they seem.

We set the scenes of the film at the victim’s house as it has a big affect of that it’s so close to home, and even though she was at home she still wasn’t safe from the rapist. It shows she wouldn’t have been expecting any of it and felt comfortable with her surroundings until something so horrible could occur.

Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock started his illustrious career Britain. In 1939, Hitchcock left England for Hollywood. The first film he made there, Rebecca (1940), won an Academy Award for best picture. Some of his most famous films include Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). His works became renowned for their depictions of violence, although many of his plots merely function as decoys meant to serve as a tool for understanding complex psychological characters. His cameo appearances in his own films, as well as his interviews, film trailers and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962-65), made him a cultural icon.Some of his work has been compiled into collections.

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was nicknamed the "Master of Suspense" for employing a kind of psychological suspense in his films, producing a distinct viewer experience.

Here is a list of Film titles, the production company and a few notes.

Psycho opening analysis

Analysis of ‘Psycho’

Alfred Hitchcock’s powerful psychological thriller, Psycho (1960) is known as being the “mother” of all modern horror suspense films. This was Hitchcock’s first real horror film, however since this film he has been labeled as horror film maker.

Psycho broke all film conventions by showing the lead female having an affair, showing scenes in her under garments and killing off its ‘major’ star a third of the way into the film. Psycho is a very layered and complex film, so multiple viewings were needed to understand some of the films subtlety. There was symbolic imagery involving stuffed birds which foreshadowed the mans fascination with death.

The film begins by showing the film companies logo “A Paramount Release”. Instantly we can hear fast dissident music playing which creates the tension. Alfred Hitchcock, the famous film director, is then presented on the screen, making the audience more excited to watch the film. Next, the name of the film ‘PSYCHO’ is presented in bold, white capital letters, which then proceeds to move and split, this is done to create tension again and create an eerie atmosphere for the rest of the titles. This links with the conventions of a thriller as it is creating tension for the audience and making them feel on edge before the film has even started, this increases their interest of continuing to watch the film as they want to see what is to come later in the film. The bold white titles stand out against the black background, this is done to catch the audiences eye and get them to focus on the credits. 

Famous actors and important members of the film are shown next on the titles. The titles constantly show grey bars shooting across the screen, which creates the feeling of being locked away foreshadowing what violence may be expected in the rest of the film.

After the credits there is a high-angled establishing shot, setting the scene, allowing the audience to have a better understanding of where the film is set. The name of the place “Phoenix” and is then displayed on the screen. This is symbolic as it is the first reference to birds “Phoenix”, which shows a subtle hint of what is to come later on in the play. 

They use cross-fading to zoom in the focus and change the distance of the shots. By having the camera enter the action through the window, makes the audience feel like the voyer, giving the audience the feeling of spying on the characters, which fits in with the sense that the lead female protagonist is having a secret affair. The next shot is focused on the woman lying down, whilst the man is stood above her, showing he has more power than her and importance. This is done to keep the audience curious as to what his identity may be. The idea of secrecy links in with the thriller conventions as their is always secrecy as to what is going on in a thriller film, whether it be who the villain is or what events are to occur later. Using a medium shot, they show the characters making love, portraying a bad and awkward situation to the audience. In 1960’s America, if you weren’t married it was thought to be wrong to interact in such ways. The camera then proceeds to pan around the characters, showing that the woman isn’t innocent. A medium high shot is then used to show the woman getting dressed. Harsh music comes back in and makes us feel like something is wrong and not quite right. The man then begins to raise his voice and shows the audience his anger.