Our brief was to create a two minute opening of a thriller film. Before starting our thriller opening we looked at many existing thriller films such as ‘What Lies Beneath’, ‘Flight Plan’, ‘Arlington Road’, and many others, which made us aware of the conventions of a thriller opening and also gave us ideas on what we could base our thriller opening on. It also allowed us to recognise the key codes and conventions that are associated with thriller films. The thriller film that influenced us in terms of things that can make the opening look more like a thriller film was ‘Psycho’ as it used weapons such as a knife. This gave us an idea of using a knife as a weapon in our thriller opening to make it seem more real and more like a thriller opening. The weapon would also make the audience sense danger and already start to get them tensed. Also the idea of using a scream to finish our thriller opening was based on an idea from the film ‘Psycho’. I think the use of the scream at the end was very effective as it would have shocked the audience and also make them ask questions to themselves.

Thomas Sutcliffe said ‘films need to reduce their audience into long-term commitment. While there are many types of seduction the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible.’ This statement suggests that if a film does not grab the audience’s attention from the very beginning of the film then there is no point in continuing to watch the film. We decided to call our thriller film ‘Vanished’ because throughout the opening sequence we don’t see what the dark figure does to the victim or who the dark figure is. This builds the tension more for the audience as they would be eager to find out what happens next and who the dark figure is.
Also Stanley Kauffman described a classical opening with an establishing shot. Our thriller opening follows many conventions of a thriller film such as starting with an establishing shot. We also used credits in our opening which is also a convention of a thriller opening and made our thriller opening look more real. The credit that we designed reflected a thriller kind of look as the ‘cats eyes’ empathises the idea of thriller along with the ‘cracked’ font that we used gives us a sense of danger and a scary look to the credits.

However, our thriller opening does go against a few conventions of real thriller films. For example we used a lot of slow motion in our thriller opening as we thought it worked really well with the chase. This is something that goes against thriller films as they usually start with a fast pace opening to alert the audience that it is a thriller. I thought our choice of mise en scene was really good as it was in a graveyard and the atmosphere already in itself was quite scary. Also because of the rain the graveyard was damp and gave it more of a terrifying look which helped to make it seem more like a thriller film. The choice of our mise en scene is quite typical of a thriller film in terms of using the graveyard as it symbolises creepiness and a terrifying atmosphere.

The target audience of our thriller opening is aged 15 and above. We decided this would be the most suitable age range because the main character (the victim) in our thriller opening is a teenager aged 17. This would allow the audience to make links and empathise with the main character. The use of a young, female teenager also makes the character itself look more vulnerable and therefore the audience already sense danger for the character and tension starts building slowly. Our thriller film is not aimed directly at a certain class because we wanted it to be open to a wide range of audiences and to anyone who enjoys the pleasure of watching thriller films.

The institution that our thriller opening should be distributed to is an international company such as Paramount or Working Title which will allow our thriller to have a global audience. I think our thriller film would be a Hollywood blockbuster because the genre is thriller which is a very popular genre. Also our thriller film is unique in terms of not using the very obvious symbols and conventions of a thriller such as a stalker or kidnapping. This will make the audience want to watch it because they would feel they are watching a unique and different thriller.

We would also release clips of our thriller film onto ‘Youtube’ which would make the audience go out and want to watch the full film. The clips that we would release would be when the main character is running with the camera following up from behind her and another clip of the setting which could be a shot of the graveyard to create a sense of danger and bring atmosphere before the audience watch the actual thriller film. This would also help maximise our sales and alert our audiences that our film is newly released.

Our thriller is designed to be a mainstream as it will have a global audience and it would also maximise our sales as we have a global audience. It is not directly aimed at any particular type of audience as a wide range of people can watch it and empathise with the character. It is suitable for any kind of audience’s aged 15 or above who enjoy thriller films.

To attract our audience we would advertise trailers of our thriller opening and also do a lot of billboards on busses and local places where a wide range of people would be able to see it. We would also put reports of our thriller film on magazines along with images from our thriller film. This would allow audiences to be aware that our thriller film is out in the market.

To create our thriller opening we used many different technical equipment such as for the filming we had to use a handheld camcorder, tripod, and cassette and for the editing we had to use apple Macs, where we used programs such as ‘final cut pro’, ‘live type’ and ‘soundtrack pro’. I enjoyed working with the technical equipment and I also gained a lot of experience from using them. At first I found it quite difficult to use the camcorder, although many shots, I thought came out really good.For example the shaky running effect, which I thought came out really good considering it was my first time doing something like that using a camcorder and the opening establishing shot came out really good because it allows the audience to see the setting and familiarise themselves with it. Also at first we found it quite difficult to understand how to do certain things with the camcorder such as how to play what we recorded back; although gradually we learnt how to do all the important things and found it easy to do by the end of our filming. We also came across many difficulties with using the camcorder under bad weather conditions, where someone in the group would have to hold an umbrella on top of the camcorder in order for us not to damage it. As we were working in a group, at times when one member did not understand or know how to do a certain thing another member who did know would show them how to do it or use it. This way we all contributed to our thriller work and learnt how to use all the technical equipment from each other.

Furthermore, when we started the match cuts, at first we all found it very difficult to place the footage in the right place at the right timing. Although after practicing a few times we all got the hang of it and developed our skills with the Apple Macs further. When I first started using ‘final cut pro’ I found it quite difficult to use but as we went along the process of making our thriller film and had to use it more often, I became more use it and familiar with the program. I also learnt a lot of different things and new things about ‘final cut pro’, such as the input (i) for starting to take the part we wanted and the output (o) for the part to stop where we wanted the recording to end. I found the part where we had to add our footage onto the time line quite difficult, as it was quite hard to put it in the exact place where we wanted it. I thought the logging and capturing was the most time consuming in terms of editing, as it took a lot of thought and decision making of where to put the footages in. By the end of our thriller task I developed many skills especially using the Apple Macs and using professional programmes such as ‘Final Cut Pro’, and ‘Sound Track’. I also developed my skills with using the camcorder itself as I got use to using it by the time we finished our filming. Also I felt more comfortable in using the technical equipment by the end of the task as I was use to it and developed my skills and therefore I had no problems with using the equipment. I also enjoyed using the technical equipment as I learnt new things and developed my skills further.

I also used the internet to record the film process on my blog, where I noted everything that I done during that session of filming and editing and also the things I learnt and the good and bad things about that session that took place. I was also able to upload my finished thriller film onto my blog and I could also even upload it onto youtube. The use of uploading it onto the internet has widened my potential audience for our thriller as now more people would be aware of it.

Before we started our real thriller film we done a preliminary task where we had done a match cut exercise using the different shots that we had taken, which allowed us to have some practice beforehand. From the preliminary task as a group we learnt that we must always try our very best to always use the tripod as it does not look very good if you don’t use it. Also it helped us understand the 180 degrees rule when filming. We also created a storyboard showing the things that were going to happen at each stage. When we planned our preliminary task, I realised our plan slightly changed. This reflected exactly what happened when we done our real thriller as we had an initial idea of something else. Also in the preliminary task we did not have enough time to add sound and credits. This made us plan in advance that we had to leave enough time in order for us to add sound and complete editing for our real thriller.

Thriller Evaluation

The brief for our coursework was to create a two-minute entry for a thriller film. In order to do this, it required lots of planning, practice and organising. One part of our planning was to watch a documentary as a class about openings of a film. This included dramatic techniques, which build up through sounds, establishing shots, tones and atmosphere. Thomas Sutcliffe said “Films need to reduce their audience into long term commitment while there are many types of seduction”. This suggests that if a film doesn’t catch the eye from the start, there would be no point in watching the film. Following this Stanley Kauffmann described a classical opening with an establishing shot. A specific film that used an establishing shot for the opening was in Psycho 2. This is what my group and I did in order to relate to real conventions of thriller films.

Our opening is basically about a young girl running in the graveyard including shots of a dark figure with a weapon to create suspense. We decided to call our film “Vanished” as the audience doesn’t know what happened to the girl at the end of the two minute clip, therefore this allows the audience to want to watch on which is a convention of a thriller film.

Our media product does relate to real to real media products as establishing shots were used, as mentioned before is a typical opening to a thriller film. The opening is dark and creepy as it is set at Stoke Newington graveyard and this raises questions for the audience. Our credits and sound also sets a tone and gives an eerie feeling, which is what real conventions of thrillers do. Our media product is in slow motion throughout the two minutes and also the music starts when the figure comes in. this draws the audience into what is going on. We used close ups of Nazmin’s face to get the audience to get an emotive response, as close ups links into fears. We used the camera in an awkward angle; we filmed this part handheld to give a shaky effect so that the audience knows that the victim is being chased.
We used flashes of white light for a split second when showing gravestones and statues of angels so that the audience gets a sense of the atmosphere.

We also used a dark figure with a knife (weapon) and our opening ends with the girl screaming. We were inspired of this idea of the knife and screaming from the film “Psycho” as it was such a success in the 1960s even though the budget was under $1000000 and we thought it would work well in today’s modern age, as it still gives the audience a feeling of jumping from their seats which is a norm of a thriller.

In terms of social groups, our media product symbolises a young teenage girl around 15+(as in the film). We wanted to make the girl look like an average working-class girl, which is why we made her wear casual clothes so that other teenagers could relate to her. We also used a young girl because we thought this would portray vulnerability, which adds to the suspense and makes it even more thrilling.

Our media product would be distributed around the world because it represents particular social groups that exist everywhere. During our planning when we had to make a pitch to our class, everyone seemed to like the idea. When I done some research on www.canadianfilmakers.com, I found that the films that do best in the Hollywood Blockbuster are the films that contain characters where the audience can relate to them. We also want our product to be part of and supported by Paramount Pictures, as most of their films always do well and make a lot of profit.


This is why I think our media product could be a success in America as it is such a broad market. Then depending on how well it did in the cinemas, we will then release it on DVD, as now lots of people tend to watch films at the comfort of their own home.

For our audience our media product would be targeted for young teenagers to adults (15+) as mentioned before. In terms of the demographic, our product fits into a mainstream, as there isn’t a specific type of audience and its suitable for anyone who enjoys watching films. I think our product is more suitable for ‘achievers’ as it’s mainly for teenagers and for them to realise that they can achieve anything in life. An example of a typical person who fits into our target audience is a young girl named Katie who is 18 years old who loves listening to her ipod and going to the cinemas (like any other ordinary teenager) and currently going college and wants to go into higher education knowing that she can achieve anything if she wants to pursue it.

We will attract and address our audience through many types of advertising so that our product would get a lot of publicity, therefore persuading more people to go and watch it. This could be done through trailers that can be available on You Tube or Vimeo. Also through billboards and TV adverts, as lots of people watch television and then our audience would widen as people would know and have heard a lot about it and may then be keen to go and watch it.

I have learnt a lot from the process of constructing our media product. Firstly on the practical hands on level, throughout my experience of filming I have learnt to use a variety of camera angles, using the five-second rule before saying ‘Action’ and after saying ‘Cut’. I have learnt to use the Apple Macs well when using Final Cut Pro, when logging and capturing our footage and hen putting inputs and outputs and placing it on the timeline and adding special effects, such as flashing to give it a thriller effect. Also when using Live Type for our credits and choosing from a variety of fonts and styles. Using the Sound Track to choose an appropriate sound for our product (this included diegetic and non-diegetic sounds). I have also learnt a lot when having to use the Internet when having to blog about what we did in each lesson. I also learnt to use Quick Time when having to upload our media product onto blogger. By uploading it onto blogger, this may widen the audience for our product.


Looking back at the preliminary task the match cut exercise helped us understand the 180-degree rule and the shot/reverse shot. This exercise really helped us when we started filming our actual thriller in terms of camera angles and using Final Cut Pro on the Apple Macs. For the actual film we made, we used many techniques and effects on Final Cut Pro to make our opening better, such as slow motion, fading and flashes of light. In terms of the sound, for the first establishing shot, we kept the natural sound of the rain so the audience would get a feeling of environment. We then used the sounds tracks called, Processed Experiment Rhodes 05, Designer Synth 05, and Designer Synth 07. We used the sound effect of a heartbeat as this influences the audience to get scared and for the final scream we used Emmahelm scream, as it sounds realistic and frightening.

I have also learnt that planning such as storyboarding is important as this helps you to get a picture of the media product in your head before you actually start filming. This is why planning such as a shot list really helped me when I was filming. I also learnt that its important to organise your time and plan what days you want to film or edit, so that we would finish a few days before the deadline and if any improvements were needed, there would still be time to fix it. This is the mistake we made as in our media product you can hear someone say ‘Action’, but we could not remove it as there wasn’t enough time left to fix it.

In conclusion, if I could do this again I would definitely not rely on other members of the group to do the work and maybe not be in the same group as your friends so that you would get more work done. I would also have taken more of a variety of camera angles and make good use of the mise en scene of the graveyard by getting more shots of it.

Written By Shahida Choudhury

Evaluation

At the beginning of this unit, we started to look at different thrillers including ‘Flight plan’, ‘Arlington road’ and ‘what lies beneath’.

I began by studying different conventions in thrillers such as a weapon used, also a character running. My product includes these conventions as we see particularly where the knife is held this is normally shown in many other thrillers like ‘Psycho’. Another convention is where the girl screams at the end of my thriller as she looks back.. This also creates a dramatic atmosphere with the audience brought into tension, the fact that the girl is alone shows that she threatened and scared.

Girls usually tend to be ‘weak’ as media portrays, therefore in this case it’s shown through my thriller, as there is nothing else the girl could do but run, but eventually can no longer run as she trips over and falls onto the ground.
We looked at different methods which are used to draw an audience into the opening of the film. Those included dramatic techniques, build ups like thrilling with the sound, establishing shots, tones and atmospheres.
Thomas Sutcliffe says ‘films need to reduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible.’ This suggests that if a film doesn’t catch attention from the start there is no point in watching the film. Following this Stanley Kauffmann described a classical opening with an establishing shot.
But not always do we need to have a start to a beginning of a film. A favourite film trick of ‘Film Nior’ meaning the ending of a film started at the beginning can also work in many cases. However, looking at my thriller opening, it has a different approach as we use an establishing shot of the graveyard in a normal tone. Within the next shot, the girl is running in the graveyard but the audience do not realise who she is running from which leads them to question.

The product in which we had produced represented a particular social group as the characters that took part in the film gave an idea to who would watch the thriller. A teenaged girl, 16; played in most part of the thriller, which showed that young girls are mainly tend to be the victim. Also because of the setting had taken place in a graveyard, which emphasises the fact that graveyards are in some ways dangerous and scary especially for a girl to be there alone, which makes our thriller seem real. My product is directed to all races and class, there is no difference in which particular group it is aimed at. Even though the setting of our thriller had taken place in a graveyard it is just to emphasise the horror, the loneliness of the teenaged girl running away from which we as audience feel is someone that’s going to get her. Our thriller does not reflect on religion even though we set to do it in a graveyard. We had this idea because graveyard represent the disturbing atmosphere where dead bodies lie. This will question the audience even more about why she is in the graveyard? Who is she running from? What had happened to her or what will happen to her?

I would want to attract the distributor who would do best possible marketing for my film. In order to do this I have to make sure that the distributor understands each and every step I took along the way of making my product. I need to make sure that my marketing research statement is developed to meet my target market. By choosing a distributor, I have to research in their marketing campaigns and their films they have performed. Depending on the type of films they have, my product could be what they want to look for. Some may want to distribute my product all around the world, whereas others may want small distribute to a UK release or just a few ‘arthouse’ cinemas. I have to make sure that my budget and financial plan had been researched. If one is low the distributor may wonder about the likelihood of attracting cast and the quality of finished film. If one is high then may think financing will be difficult to obtain. I’d think that my product would be distributed to a small independent UK release, the reason considering that it has been filmed in the UK, it would attract my audience more, whereas if my product was to be sold internationally the audience will find it difficult to understand what is happening in my film and also the purpose of it. Some of the media companies I have looked at are:

New line cinema
Over the past 40 years, New Line has expanded to become a multi-media company with various profitable divisions, having created some of the most successful film franchises in history. This will be a very good distributor for my thriller as it has represented innovation and creativity, and continues to do so in today's digital marketplace. It also continues to be the leader in creating and developing entertainment that resonates around the world.
Impress Creative and Editorial
Impress are dedicated to supporting and promoting the best of local world cinema.
This is another distributor who I feel will be able to distribute my product as they specialise in programming film screenings and hosting insightful panel discussions on production, distribution and exhibition.

The audience for my product is targeted at both genders at age 15+. They are mainstream audience because they fit into demographic descriptions such as ‘aspire’. A typical person that fits into my target audience category is a boy name Sam, a girl name Emily, both 16 years old studying in college, who loves to go out especially to the cinemas. The use of the teenaged girl as the main character and the way in which my film reflects on girls, as they tend to be ‘weak’ shown by the media. The fact that my product is different from the rest and this is what we see in modern society which will appeal to my target audience significantly.

Attraction is what gets the audiences attention. I would have to research on the market of how I’ll attract audience to watch my film. This could be done in many ways. I have included some characters in which my audience are familiar with; as a result, they might like watching particular films that include their characters that the audience like to see maybe as their role models. I would advertise my film in many different media based places including TV, showing the trailer of the best shots taken from my film which would encourage and interest my audience to watch it at the cinemas. It also will be advertised on teenaged magazines, newspapers this will improve the quantity of my audience estimated.

Before we got onto producing our actual thrillers, we were given a practise one which had to include a match cut exercise which we spent time looking at showing a shot or reversing the shot and understanding the 180 degree rule. With this it helped us prepare when it came to making our real thriller, as we understood what roles we had to take into producing a short clip. From constructing my thriller, I have learnt more about technologies including the practical filming on hand-on level. I have experienced the way of filming and how to put a film together using a programme called ‘Final Cut Pro’.
I first started to film all the shots with the video camera by pressing the record button and made sure we had counted extra 5 seconds before and after we had recorded the shot we needed. After all the shots that we took for our thriller, we then uploaded it onto the computer which was put on our video drive. We opened up the Final Cut Pro programme, where we dragged our shots onto the screen so we can review it to put our in and out puts and was placed onto the timeline to create the whole footage. I used the ‘Livetype’ programme where I composed the credits for my thriller. This was then saved and opened up on Final Cut Pro, which we added in the credits in between some shots that were put together. This was saved onto the video drive and opened up onto the Soundtrack programme, where I had to decide which sound will fit for my thriller. It was also saved on ‘QuickTime’, so that it enabled us to upload it onto our blogger.

The ‘Match-Cut’ exercise done as a practise helped me improve my knowledge on filming. I learnt how to zoom in and out of a shot, how to film a person within the frame. I have also learnt how to put the battery and the tape in the video camera. Furthermore, I learnt how to attach the camera onto the tripod and make sure that it was safely put on preventing any obstruction.
Before we started to film, we managed to plan a storyboard of what will happen, so when it came to filming we knew what shots we were after, therefore it saved us more time. We made sure that we filmed each shot more than once, so that it can be used as a back up for any of the shots that we will not be in use. The shots were renamed so when it came to putting it on the timeline, in Final Cut Pro, I was able to identify which shot had come after the shot that has been put before it. I used special effects like the slow motion, to make it look realistic so that the audience felt they were included, showing the atmosphere very tensed. Eventually, as the film was produced, it was uploaded onto the blogger under the video icon.

The feedback that we got from my final product, made me realise the mistakes in which I could overcome if I were to do it again. Many had thought overall, it was a good thriller as it raises a lot of questions and includes a variety of shots which sets up the tone. Although at some point we heard the word ‘action’ which had made me to make sure that I check everything properly before again and again. On the other hand, our location was great, yet we still could’ve made the most of the space like taking more footage of the setting to create the fear and build up the tension. Nevertheless, if I were to do this again I would use more different angled shots to make it look real as we focused more on our planning rather than getting the filming done.

Handheld filming/Evaluation

Here is a image to show that i filmed it handheld

Establishing Shot/Evaluation

Here is an establishing shot I used to relat to real conventins of thriller films.

Statues/Evaluation

We used flashes of gravestones and angels to give the audience a sense of atmosphere.

Close ups/Evaluation

I used close ups of Nazmins face to get the audience to get and emotive response, as close ups links to fears.