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.

Last lesson of film making

In this final lesson we had managed to finish off our thriller completely. We had made a few more adjustments to our thriller to make sure that it had looked as though it was real. The sounds were set on different levels so that it had faded with our thriller.

After this we made sure that our thriller was checked by my teacher and also one of the technicians in order for us to upload the thriller onto our blog.

To upload the thriller we saved it onto a new programme which is called quicktime. From there we had moved it onto the desktop where it would be easier to find when uploading onto the blog.

Then Amina had signed onto the blogger which then was put under compose on the video icon.

We browsed it from our desktop and named our thriller 'vanished' which was uploaded on the video button.

Editing lesson - credits

In today's lesson our aim was to make sure that we put the credits we had done from the previous time lesson, onto our thriller sequence. This took time to get it all done as we also had a few problems that occured along the way. I imported the credits from the live type programme onto Final Cut Pro. Then we looked at each of the credits and planned out where we would place them on to the thriller sequence. This was done by selecting the footage that we already have done and moved it across the timeline so that it enabled us to put the credits in between the places where we thought would fit best, and then closing the gaps again, after we had put all the credits into place.

As we looked at our credits we had a problem which was as we played all the credits, it seemed to play the credits fast and so you was not able to tell properly who had made the thriller. But this was over come, as we modified with the speed which was reduced from 100 to 70. This then slowed the credits down so you were able to see it properly. But yet again there was another problem as the credits did not play as it was unrendered.

I figured out that we had forgotten to press command r after we had fixed the credits so it applied onto it.

There was also another problem, which was as we modified the speed of the credits to make it slower, it also made the credits longer at the end. Nevertheless, i had come up with an idea that there was a way out of this, and this was by putting the in and out points of the credits so it cut down the extras that we didn't need and then dragged it onto the timeline removing the other credits we had.

We were able to finish adding the credits onto our timeline and had thought to get onto doing the soundtrack for our thriller. Yet again another problem had occured as we were getting onto doing the soundtrack for our thriller, we had a difficulty in opening our thriller onto the soundtraack; so that as we played the sound, we were able to also view our thriller to match which sounds fix best for the footage.

Finally, this had been fixed together as we had to also keep Final Cut Pro open and export the thriller footage onto the soundtrack. And on the soundtrack programme we opened up the video drive and dragged the thriller onto the box where we were able to view it.

24th Tuesday

Today me, Shahida and Amina had decided to do the credits for our thriller. We also decided to come up with a name of our thriller and i had come up with "Vanished" whereas Shahida and Amina also thought of other titles such as 'fear' or ' predetor', but in the end we all decided to stick with the word "vanished" becuase it was related to our thriller so we all decide to go by it.

The credits were done by using a programme called 'Live type' on the computer. We decided to make the text font which is called ' cracked'. We also had added two effects for when the texts appear onto the screen. The first effect was called impression and the second one was called cat eyes. We combined both together for our title.

16th february

In the half term holiday, there was a work shop that took place on Monday for media students. I decided to take this into hand with Shahida who also helped by coming in and making sure that we were able to get our thriller film finished.

Today our task was to make sure we done all our editing and also have done a few parts of the sound which will go with our thriller film.

At some point we had few problems with our editing as we did not have a lot of footage on the dark figure therefore we had over comes this problem as i was the dark figure and as Shahida had filmed me playing my part. I used a knife as a weapon to show that our thriller looked scary. This had to be added as looking from our thriller there was more shots of Nazmin running therefore we had to make sure that the figure also got prepared to go after her.

We captured a few shots and had then gone back to our eiditing and had made a few changes which had a great impact on our thriller as it looked much better.

The shots of Nazmin running was done in slow motion to create the sense that she was scared to create the dramatic atmosphere. We also had put in flashes of other different shots like the statues and also the dark figure to show that there is a sense of danger which was coming towards her.

After editing our film we had moved on to looking at the different sound effects which we will add to go with our thriller we experimented with different types of sound and had finally come to a conclusion as to which sounds will fit in best with each shot. After today we managed to get our editing done also the first part of sound for the opening of our thriller.

Wednesday 11th Feb- end of filming

On Wednesday 11th of Febraury, this was our last hope to get our filming together and get all the shots finished. We all decided to get it finished that day so we would be able to edit in time before our final deadline.

We had a few problems during this last moment as to who would be in the film. But then it had got sorted as this was our only last chance to get it finished. Aminah and Shahida had taken shots of Nazmin and I, as Nazmin was running mostly in nearly all of the shots. I therefore, had to be the dark figure as shots of different angles of me was taken not showing who i was.

It had been a very successful day as the weather had also been positive and we were able to film the last parts of our whole thriller film. I was very pleased with all the effort everyone had put in that day as we were finished and only had to carry on eiditing from the previous lesson.

Filming lesson - friday

On friday 6th of Febraury, this lesson was planned to carry on with the filming for our thriller. But unfortunately due to the poor weather condition, we were again were not able to film. But even though the weather was very poor we still managed to take the camera and tripod out to film at Stoke Newington graveyard. As we got there we thought if it was very bad as there were a lot of risky places in order for us to film. So we got back to the college and thought we should continue with the editing even though the shots we didn't have, which we could leave a space for them so that after we film the last parts next lesson, we would be able to fill it in.

I started to log and capture all the footage we have gathered, with each shot i carefully looked at the shot and captured it just before i heard the word 'action' and pressd escape after i heard the word 'cut'. I also managed to rename the footage so that when we start to edit, i would be able to tell which footage comes first.

When it came to edit the shots to put onto the timeline, I had to make sure that i put a input and output so that when we start to see the film we wouldnt have somone say action or cut so that it looks like a film. I pressed 'i' for the input and 'o' for the output, I then dragged the shot down to the timeline and replayed it to make sure that each shot was done properly.

As i replayed back the shots i figured out that there were a few problems with some of the shots. I realised that some shots were too fast than others which made it difficult for us to see everything as some shots went too quik than others. But then i knew that as we still got to film next lesson we would be able to do more extra shots just to make sure that every shot had been done properly therefore makes out a good thriller film.

filimin lesson-editing

In today's lesson due to the whether our plans had to be changed, as we thought that it would be very risky and hard to film because there were a lot of ice pavements and roads.

Instead we decided to log and capture the shots we have taken continuing from last lesson which we saw that we had taken quite a lot of shots which we were happy about. We also managed to put the input and output on a few of the shots and putting it onto the timeline which we had saved it after.

We thought it would be best to film next lesson if the weather conditions start to change so that we would be able to film the last shots of the character.

30/1 - second filming

From the previous filming session as we took another trip down to stoke Newington, today's weather was much better as there were no rain although it was very muddy on the paths. But this was not much of a problem as we were able to film even more than last time.

We done more establishing shots, panning shots, shots of angels, graveyards which came out very much as we expected. Futhermore, there weren't as much people last time therefore we were still able to film in different places that we thought would be best for our film.

But we stil knew that we had to take more shots of the girl which would be on our next filming lesson and also needed to make sure that we get to finish our filming by next lesson. We managed to take good shots and finished more early than we thought so as we headed back to college we thought it would be better to at least upload some of the shots that we took onto our hard drive therefore it would save us time when it comes to our editing.

28/1 - Started filming

On the 28th of January, my group and i started to film for our thriller. We took out the camera and the tripod down to Stoke Newington graveyard where we started to shoot in daylight. There were slight problems which took place. The weather was very terrible therefore we wernt able to film as much as we expected. Although, it never bothered us that much until it started to get really cold and rainy.

Also we had other problems concerning where we would be filming in the graveyard as the places we wanted to shoot were taken by other people who just came in wondered about with their dogs. This caused more bigger concerns of when we would be able to finish our filming and start our editing.

But in the end we managed to take a couple of shots of the same angle which we were happy about although the weather was not as we expected.

Pitch lesson

On friday's lesson we had another planning session in which we had to present our thriller idea to the class. From the previous lesson we had planned out; to carry on with that idea. But there were a few problems as the plan had told a story in which we didnt really want, therefore we had changed our planning of the thriller opening.

Our second idea of a girl getting chase by another dark figure in which we would not see. As we have seen many thrillers which start with this chase we thought that our thriller opening will be different we would have to make it very rich and fancy. This means that we would have to make sure that there are more shots of the setting rather than the girl getting chased. Like for example, have birds flying up to the sky this will create a sense of fear.

We planned our thriller setting to take place in a graveyard where there are a lot of trees and also to make it at day and night lighting. We also chose to add on many close ups, extreme close up, an estbalishing shots to make it look very real.

For the sound we thought to have a non digetic and digetic. this is because it would make our thriller more live and scary in which will keep the audience entertained and also question about why this is happening to her what the reason is behind it all.

Planning Our Thriller

Last lesson our task was to plan our thrillers. We gave a variety of ideas in which we could join the ideas to come up with one thriller.

We plan our ideas into a brainstorm and finally had come up with one thriller in which we would think that we will be able to accomplish. The setting of our thriller will be in a park where there will be only one or maybe two characters. We also thought to add in special effects as one of our characters would appear as a ghost.

In order to get this effect, we would have to film the shots where the ghost effects will contain twice once with the character in the scene and then again without the character. And this will be then edited together when it comes to editing our thrillers.

Our thriller would be very different as we thought through the whole planning. The thriller will definately include a reflect back from the past as we will have jump cuts with the newspaper cuts at the beginning.
We all thought this will be a very simple idea as it will leave the audience to think why the character had come back in the form of a ghost to that specific place and what for.
The credits will also be added to the thriller in the parts where the ghost effects come up and this will slowly dissolve to a black background with the writing on (credits) and will be repeated again with another shot.

Practise filming match cut lesson

In today's lesson the tasks that my group was given is to do the practise filiming and also finish the editing. From the previous lesson we had planned out how we would practise filming by making sure the types of shots we would include and also gettin enough shots even if they did not come out as we expected it to. Today we had establish our practical filming by sticking to the plan and also had time to edit it.

I was pleased with the camera work in a lot of the shots as they had come out as i expected. There were couple of shots in which were very sucessful as i like the way in which the type of shots worked well with the different shots we had taken. These shots; in particular, with long shots, close ups, mid shots and over the shoulder shots. Although some of the shots did not work as we thought, and had to change some parts to the plan.

This occured when the girl was walking down the corridor and we were tracking with the camera doing it with a over the shoulder shot. This maybe due to the fact that the camera was hand held instead of putting it onto the tripod. So we had many difficulties and therefore made many mistakes of the same shot which we had to do it over and over again. This also happened when filiming in the lift and had spent more time in making sure that we were happy with the outcome.

I have learnt a lot about mise en scene like making sure that everything in the frame goes according to plan, as it is very hard when it comes to the setting, it is very hard to accomplish especially as we had set our film in the college.

As this is our practise film before doing our thrillers i have realised that you have to put in a lot of effort to make a good film and from today's session i can understand the many stages you have to go through to make sure the film had come out right. I also need to make sure that when it comes to the thriller making that every shot types and the frame of shots are done properly and use the amount of time we have to make the thriller wisely, so that we will be able to edit the film on time. As a result from this lesson we were not able to complete the whole of the editing.

match cut exercise lesson

In todays lesson, i learnt about what a match cut is. For the first part of the lesson i was given a sheet with a synopsis. Using the synposis i had to create a short sequence using 20 shots. I was then shown the video of the synopsis and compared it to the way in which i thought the synopsis sequence will go.
I was then shown the video again and this time i had to see where the match cuts were. A match cut is where a shot is shown from one angle and the same shot shown from a different angle.
Before starting my thriller i was told to do a practise one first, so that when it comes to the thriller i would be able to film more confidently and make sure problems don't occur. Therefore we all were given a same brief in which we all had to follow. A match cut had to be in the sequence. the brief was:

"A character opens a door, walks into the room, sits down opposite another character and they share a few lines of dialogue."

I started to plan the sequence of this brief, with a match cut in which i will actually include two. The first match cut would be of the person in the lift where the person waits for the door to open and take the first part of the lift door openin from the person's point of view (over the shoulder shot in the inside). I would then take a shot from the outside as the lift door opens properly and also the person stepping out of the lift. And this would be at a mid shot level.

The next match cut that lies my sequence will be as when the person opens the door handle this shot will be a close up of their hand holding the handle and opening it slightly. The shot will then be done again on the otherside of the door as we only see the door handle moving and the door opening.

openings of a film

In todays lesson, i looked over the openings of films. I started looking over at what method types are used to draw an audience onto a film. There are many methods that i have looked at like the types of shots including the establishing shot wich shoots at the whole scenery to give the audience an idea of where the film is set. The tones are also used at the beginning of a film which gradually starts to build up to get the audiences attention. Introducing characters helps draw audience's focus on the film, as they start wanting to know what the film will be about.

I then, was shown a documentary 'Watching' which is about film openings. Thomas Sutcliffe says that if the film don't catch attention at first, there is no point of watching the film. The beginning of films don't make the audience know enough or too little it insteads, leaves the audience to think what will happen next by knocking them off the seats or even grinds you into it, as you tend to remember it fondly. It starts of with a loud sound which awakes the audiences and want to start watching the film. Stanley Kauffmann described the classic opening as with the establishing shot as evrything comes into place.

Using this, Kyle Cooper brings a stark, ugly reality to the proceedings. The film Seven, illustrated the seven deadly sins to overwhelmingly graphic effect. On the other hand, Orson Welles wanted to achieve his opening of the film 'A touch of evil' with no credits and in black and white because that's where the colors of the characters, the location and ultimately the meaning of the movie are possible. Welles tended to use wide shots for all of his films, especially with the opening shot. He used cinematography and lighting in the film noir genre.

Film noir is the opening where it shows the ending of the film at the beginning this makes the audience wonder more about the film and ask questions to themselves of how it happened.

The film shinning was shown on the documentary which creates suspense as the use of child was manipulated, which makes it more effective as it was done really well.

In the second part of the lesson, i looked at other thriller opennings which gave me an idea for my own thriller of how to make it look real and also catch the audience's attention. With the examples of thrillers made by preivous students, i looked at the way the setting and location was used. I also looked at the camerawork, editing, lighting and the diegetic & non-diegetic sound. This showed that i had to make sure when i start to make my own thriller i take all these into action.

Thrilling with cards

Our task was to establish thrilling with cards. we were given a set of cards as our prop and a video camera and a tripod to start our film.
In a group of four we split ourselves into two, so that we have two of us being in the scene and the other two filming. I was one of the two who were filming. I was happy because i thought that by using the camera, i will be able to know how to use when it comes to producing our real thrillers. I thought that the camera work came out good and i was happy with it as it was our first time doing a practical filming session. there were many shots that we included in our film. I was pleased with the long shot of when the dark figure came onto the scene because this made it look very creepy and it also make our film look like it was something to do with thrilling. the other shots that we included were medium close up, close up and panning. These shots came out good and i was happy with it.
I thought that the editing was alright although we had a few problems in getting the video from the camera onto the computer. We didn't get to finish our editing because we took longer to film our practice thriller.
I've learnt that mise en scene includes a range of areas like the setting the props we used in our film.
We didn't get to create an element of suspense although we did have a dark figure come in to the scene when the girls were playing the cards and they didn't know that the dark figure was there.
In some parts of the film we forgot to end it by recording another 5 seconds longer which made it difficult for us to edit.
From the feedback we got from our teacher, i think that as this was our first practice using the camera it was a bit difficult for some of us. I thought that we cold have done a lot better than i expected although we did not get enough time to finish everything. But overall, i feel that we have made a good use of getting to know how to use a camera and also taking everything into account.

thriller practise

In this part of coursework, it is based on thrillers. In a group our aim is to create a thriller using the editing camera work and sound. In today's first half of the lesson we had a go at editing different shots of a clip and then putting them together like a short scene. At first i had a few difficulties in making sure that the clips i edited did not take up the whole space as when i dragged them. But then i manage to fix it by clicking onto the short clips and making it smaller by dragging it backwards. I also learnt how to put in short clips in da between other clips and how we can put the i for input in the part of the short clip i wanted, and the o for the output where i wanted to end the clip. This is all part of the editing so after i had done that i was able to drag the clip down and see how the other clips also fit together to make a scene. We were taught how to use a drive and how to install it. we had to make sure that we disconnect the drive from the computer first before pulling out any wires. This then would prevent from loosing any work that we save onto the drive.
For the second half of the lesson we started to do a practise thrilling a game of cards. Our brief is to film either part of a game of cards using the props provided. the game itself isn't particularly thrilling. therefore we had to create an atmosphere of suspense and mystery through the choice of shot distance, choice of camera angle and movement of camera. We started off creating a story board which had to include a minimum of 12 shots in which to create the sense of mystery and suspense. we discussed in a group of four how we were going to use the camera and where it will be set. Our props in which we had to include were two game players, two chairs and a table also a deck of cards. we also needed to include a extreme close up a tracking shot and a over the shoulder shot.