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.