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.

Vanished Thriller Evaluation

The brief in which we were given was to create an opening of a thriller which lasted for two minutes. We had to build suspense for the audience to ask questions into what the opening is trying to indicate. Our aim was to clarify on how an opening can lead to questions and keep the audience in suspense to what happens next. Before we started to create our thriller, we looked at sequences of openings from last year’s media students to see what techniques they used to produce and how effectively they used it. We spent one of our lessons looking at a documentary on film openings. The different methods which we looked at were dramatic techniques, how sound build up tension and establishing shots. Also, before we made our actual thriller, we were given a practise session based on a game of cards. In order to develop our match-cutting skills, we had to film using the 180 degree rule, shooting from only one side. This helped us understand what we had to do in our real thriller. The thriller we watched ‘Flight Plan’ was very good as it kept us in suspense to which the person was that kidnapped the little girl. It made us confused at the same time because we wasn’t sure if the lady was actually mental or if someone was playing mind tricks deliberately. Another film we watched was ‘Arlington Road’, this movie used isolation to make it very confusing. Openings are essential in a film because it helps build up questions throughout the film giving the audience the chance to find the answers. The main openings that have influenced me were the ones I have named previously and ‘What Lies Beneath’. This helped us a lot when making out thrillers because we saw what props they used, what type of soundtrack was used to build up the tension and what symbolises horror. Here is the video for one of the trailers that influenced us, Arlington Road.



Our trailer represents young boys and girls who are in most danger from stalkers and serial killers. A lot of teens, nowadays, use the internet and social networking sites to interact with friends and family. However, they don’t realise how dangerous it is when they give little details about themselves when they go on sites such as: facebook, hi-5, msn, bebo etc. Stalkers can use the littlest information about someone to get close to them and vulnerable teens may fall for the act and decide to go meet them. Sometimes, the outcome of this may not be as dangerous but sometimes the worst can happen and the victim ends up running for their life. In our trailer, we show a teenage girl running for her life but as it is only the opening, the story remains unknown. As no-one can see the stalker in our film, most people would assume that the stalker is a male because in real life, we mainly hear of male stalkers and killers.
I think our trailer would be suitable for “DVD release” or a “made for TV” film. The reason why i think its suitable for DVD release is because the opening raises a lot of questions and people like the sort of films that have a twist in it and keeps them entertained throughout the whole film. I think its suitable for TV aswell because it is a typical thriller opening as we have used a weapon in it and most thrillers have weapons. We used symbols such as angel of death, woman in black, knuckles crackling and these are the features of a thriller, therefore, people are going to want to watch it. I don’t think that our trailer would be distributed around the world or even be distributed around cinemas because we didn’t use a lot of our footage and for a trailer to be in the cinemas or around the world, it has to be set in different locations with a different storyline; the storyline we used was good but it was very common and people tend to get bored of watching similar movies.
My target audience was 15+, teenagers and adults of both genders who enjoy watching thrillers because of the build up of suspense and psychology playing with their mind making them wonder who the suspect is. Their lifestyles would consist of watching films, playing computer games, crime documentaries. Our aim was to make our audience anxious because at the beginning of our trailer it seems completely normal, as it is just the scenery of a graveyard but the soundtrack gave a clue to what was expected to come.
I would attract our target audience by advertising on billboards, magazines, newspapers and on the internet. I would use the internet the most to advertise because it is accessible all around the world and everyone who has access can view it. Magazines and newspapers are also very good to advertise as people read these things on a daily basis, however, this may not always be the best option because nowadays, people tend to discard newspapers and magazines as internet is taking over; they can view information online. I would use billboards because, personally, when I see billboards on the streets I get more tempted to watch it if the image looks good and interesting.
Our first initial idea was to create a similar scene from the film “What Lies Beneath”, however, we could not do this as the production was impossible as the college toilets were too small for us to move around in. We decided to go for a more “easy, do-able” scene by the use of scary music and different camera angle shots and the location making it a typical thriller opening. The synopsis of the film is based on a teenage girl (me) in the graveyard running away from a stalker (Fahmida). We do not see the stalkers face but we see angles of her leather gloves, feet and the kitchen knife in her hand. The whole group participated and gave their own ideas which made it easier to conclude our trailer. We filmed in only one location, however, even this was not easy as the weather was against us and the graveyard was either muddy or slippery as we had to film during the time it was snowing. We wanted the weather to be a nice, clear day so it would be easier for us to film but, unfortunately, it wasn’t. However, the rain did make our trailer look good as it made the graveyard seem cloudy and scary. The weather made us lose a lot of precious time, hence, the reason why we fell behind some other groups in our class. We didn’t have a script because we chose to not use any dialogue as this would keep the audience more tense. The whole group put effort into making the storyboard and creating a shooting schedule. This helped us a lot because it made us feel organised and prepared to go out filming. Everyone in the group was given a task when we were filming and no-one felt left out. We always asked each other for opinions about the angle or shot, this kept the whole group focused and everyone had a chance to tell each other if the angle would look right or not. The group decided to film in Stoke Newington graveyard as it was quite close to the college and would not take long to get there and back. This graveyard was quite isolated, therefore, creating tension and suspense, which was our main aim. I had to play a role as a lost and frightened girl running away from a serial killer until I fall over and the stalker is behind me. This made the outcome effective. Producing this thriller made me learn how the group need to have more than one idea in case one idea backfires and need to work as a team to produce a good piece of work. Personally, I found it quite hard to act and keep my face serious and the other group members found it hard to film as the shots needed to be perfect.



Here is a close up of my face as it makes the audience feel scared for the victim.

I have showed an image of me running from a distance as it allows the audience to see how fast I was running to get away.

This is the establishing shot of my movie. I have used this because it shows the setting and makes the audience feel even more interested to watch it as graveyards make people feel scared.



I have learnt a lot about filming from producing this product and from producing the match cutting exercise. Film-making is very hard as you need to have a lot of time on your hands in case mistakes occur and you need to be focused to prevent mistakes from happening. Planning a film is the easiest part if you have a variety of ideas to choose from. This is easy because all you’re doing is brainstorming ideas and it is “easier said than done”. The actual filming is the hardest because you have to take as many shots as possible of a particular shot just in case a shot has not been done perfect. Also, because you may need to use a shot more than once in your film. Filming is also hard if you’re planning to film outdoors because if it is raining or snowing, you have to be prepared to carry on filming in whatever the weather. Every group member needs to be present all the time as everyone has a task to do and needs to participate in creating the perfect product. For us, the editing was a bit of a problem as we didn’t cut out the word “action” and everyone could hear it. The soundtrack we used was very good as it created suspense like we wanted and made people who watched it ask questions.

Vanished from 283goswell on Vimeo.