Friday 3 April 2009
Thursday 2 April 2009
thriller evaluation
AS THRILLER EVALUATION
When we created are AS thriller we had looked at a particular film to try and generate ideas on what are thriller should be based on, we looked at the film ‘saw’ and we studied the opening of the film and tried to Incorporate it into our thriller.
We used establishing shots of the area to try and give the audience a sense of where the thriller was set, by doing so we give the audience a somewhat basic idea of when our thriller was set and where. we had done a pan out of the area and a close up of the Liverpool street underground sign and also did another pan shot of outside the station that led to the entrance in our thriller are establishing shots were in Liverpool street, we thought by having an establishing shot of this as it would convey to the audience that this is a modern setting in a known place. I believe that by having establishing shots in Liverpool Street it raised the question of ‘what could happen in such a public place?’.
how I think this raised the question is that if u look at the film ‘saw’ in the beginning they show a pan out of where the characters are in the film and of what their situation might be. How this relates too many thrillers is that in every thriller has to have a basic shot of where it is set in so that the audience can think of questions for the film. So I believe that are establishing shots are like every other thriller that has been made. also in are thriller are credits gave of an Erie mood because of the text we had used which was bold letters that flashed in and out jus to give off a scarier mood. Our thriller music played a part as well in the opening because again it gives the audience a scary mood. Because the music has a slow temp to it with a low pitch so it gives the thriller more tension and a build up of the scene, I had changed it by adding in an extra beat so that it doesn’t ruin the suspense that the song offers.
Since our thriller is a horror I believe that it appeals to a lot of people in the country but we had a main focus in making our thriller. We wanted to appeal more to teenagers 15+ because we felt that they were a larger audience. But it would only appeal to teenagers that prefer and enjoy watching horror films. We also thought that about little details in are film that could also attract that younger audience that we were looking for, we had used young people to give are audience a more relatable cast. We had used a female as one of the victims even though this is typical in most thrillers we felt that by doing so we could we attract the audience because we could raise questions for our young audience.
So by trying to have teenagers as our main audience we had to think of how we could advertise and distribute our thriller. We wanted our thriller to be a big Hollywood blockbuster because we knew that are film could relate to teenagers around the world and that it could sell more. But before we would distribute it to the world we would do so by realising a short clip out on the internet to give an audience a teaser before the actual film came out because by using the audience we can branch out all over the world by using the internet as an advertisement. By putting the adverts on MySpace, face book and YouTube.
but even though we had already thought pretty clear on what our target audience would be we had to think of what the main audience would be, we knew that we was looking at a mainstream audience and that are film could attract a lot of teenagers so we felt that by having this young audience we could have a lot more success in the thriller. but in are audience we knew that we had teenagers that would like to become actors themselves, so by having a young cast in our thriller we knew that we could give are audience a sense of hope that maybe one day they could be in a Hollywood blockbuster and also teenagers that happened to be associated in film for example ‘Alex who is 17, he enjoys watching a variety of films, he is a aspiring actor who has appeared in a short films as a extra ‘ even though he is already somewhat in a film industry I believe that by watching are thriller could give him a sense of relief knowing that one day he could be in a big budget film.
Since our film was going to be a big Hollywood blockbuster we had to think of how we would try to market it to world. we thought about advertising it by highlighting one of the members of the cast as a ‘upcoming star’ we figured because teenagers prefer films with a known star but tried to make it seem like this person is the new generation of Hollywood actors, so we would advertise it places we teenagers are usually found like by having posters of the film near clubs, youth centres etc... We would mostly the internet to try and get the word out about the film because the internet is a very helpful and useful way to advertise because it is so popular with teens. so we would leak out clips of the film on MySpace or face book since it’s so popular, we would also have billboards on busses and we would have trailers on TV because by using TV we can really market are film to are target audience but we knew that we could get a lot more publicity by using things like the internet and TV because of how popular it is with teenagers at this time.
so in making this thriller I believe that I have learnt a lot in using media software to try and complete this thriller, I’ve learnt how to use final cut pro to its fullest extent I did find it quite difficult at first trying to edit my thriller just because it was the first time I have ever used it but after a while I found it quite basic to use, I also enjoyed using camera equipment I had never used stuff like that before so I found it quite enjoyable to learn about. I found camera work to be a bit confusing but got the hang of it after awhile and found it quite simple, what I also learnt how to use was soundtrack pro I’ve had already a somewhat knowledge of how to use soundtrack pro but we I learnt it more in depth I found it easy to use and very useful when making are thriller. what I did was learn how to release my thriller out on the internet I used more my blogs to try an release it because it’s the easiest way for people to actually see are thriller because then it can widen are audience and reach out to a lot more people about this new thriller that is being released .
when I look at the actual ‘match cut ‘ exercise that we had to do I found out that using camera equipment is quite easy, so what really worked well for me personally is that I felt a lot more confident using the camera stuff so doing more practical stuff instead of using final cut pro, I didn’t really enjoy editing because I found it quite dull because I found it quite hard to try and pick up at first, even though I learned how it works in the end I still feel that I enjoyed a lot more using the camera because I have never used it before. what I also learnt is how important planning can be in making the thriller because if we didn’t really have a basic idea of what we wanted to do we wouldn’t of got any were so now I know that by planning we could of made are thriller so much quicker and smoother .so what I have learnt was to use basic media skills in making a production of a film such as final cut pro, soundtrack pro, and hands on practical work like suing camera equipment.
When we created are AS thriller we had looked at a particular film to try and generate ideas on what are thriller should be based on, we looked at the film ‘saw’ and we studied the opening of the film and tried to Incorporate it into our thriller.
We used establishing shots of the area to try and give the audience a sense of where the thriller was set, by doing so we give the audience a somewhat basic idea of when our thriller was set and where. we had done a pan out of the area and a close up of the Liverpool street underground sign and also did another pan shot of outside the station that led to the entrance in our thriller are establishing shots were in Liverpool street, we thought by having an establishing shot of this as it would convey to the audience that this is a modern setting in a known place. I believe that by having establishing shots in Liverpool Street it raised the question of ‘what could happen in such a public place?’.
how I think this raised the question is that if u look at the film ‘saw’ in the beginning they show a pan out of where the characters are in the film and of what their situation might be. How this relates too many thrillers is that in every thriller has to have a basic shot of where it is set in so that the audience can think of questions for the film. So I believe that are establishing shots are like every other thriller that has been made. also in are thriller are credits gave of an Erie mood because of the text we had used which was bold letters that flashed in and out jus to give off a scarier mood. Our thriller music played a part as well in the opening because again it gives the audience a scary mood. Because the music has a slow temp to it with a low pitch so it gives the thriller more tension and a build up of the scene, I had changed it by adding in an extra beat so that it doesn’t ruin the suspense that the song offers.
Since our thriller is a horror I believe that it appeals to a lot of people in the country but we had a main focus in making our thriller. We wanted to appeal more to teenagers 15+ because we felt that they were a larger audience. But it would only appeal to teenagers that prefer and enjoy watching horror films. We also thought that about little details in are film that could also attract that younger audience that we were looking for, we had used young people to give are audience a more relatable cast. We had used a female as one of the victims even though this is typical in most thrillers we felt that by doing so we could we attract the audience because we could raise questions for our young audience.
So by trying to have teenagers as our main audience we had to think of how we could advertise and distribute our thriller. We wanted our thriller to be a big Hollywood blockbuster because we knew that are film could relate to teenagers around the world and that it could sell more. But before we would distribute it to the world we would do so by realising a short clip out on the internet to give an audience a teaser before the actual film came out because by using the audience we can branch out all over the world by using the internet as an advertisement. By putting the adverts on MySpace, face book and YouTube.
but even though we had already thought pretty clear on what our target audience would be we had to think of what the main audience would be, we knew that we was looking at a mainstream audience and that are film could attract a lot of teenagers so we felt that by having this young audience we could have a lot more success in the thriller. but in are audience we knew that we had teenagers that would like to become actors themselves, so by having a young cast in our thriller we knew that we could give are audience a sense of hope that maybe one day they could be in a Hollywood blockbuster and also teenagers that happened to be associated in film for example ‘Alex who is 17, he enjoys watching a variety of films, he is a aspiring actor who has appeared in a short films as a extra ‘ even though he is already somewhat in a film industry I believe that by watching are thriller could give him a sense of relief knowing that one day he could be in a big budget film.
Since our film was going to be a big Hollywood blockbuster we had to think of how we would try to market it to world. we thought about advertising it by highlighting one of the members of the cast as a ‘upcoming star’ we figured because teenagers prefer films with a known star but tried to make it seem like this person is the new generation of Hollywood actors, so we would advertise it places we teenagers are usually found like by having posters of the film near clubs, youth centres etc... We would mostly the internet to try and get the word out about the film because the internet is a very helpful and useful way to advertise because it is so popular with teens. so we would leak out clips of the film on MySpace or face book since it’s so popular, we would also have billboards on busses and we would have trailers on TV because by using TV we can really market are film to are target audience but we knew that we could get a lot more publicity by using things like the internet and TV because of how popular it is with teenagers at this time.
so in making this thriller I believe that I have learnt a lot in using media software to try and complete this thriller, I’ve learnt how to use final cut pro to its fullest extent I did find it quite difficult at first trying to edit my thriller just because it was the first time I have ever used it but after a while I found it quite basic to use, I also enjoyed using camera equipment I had never used stuff like that before so I found it quite enjoyable to learn about. I found camera work to be a bit confusing but got the hang of it after awhile and found it quite simple, what I also learnt how to use was soundtrack pro I’ve had already a somewhat knowledge of how to use soundtrack pro but we I learnt it more in depth I found it easy to use and very useful when making are thriller. what I did was learn how to release my thriller out on the internet I used more my blogs to try an release it because it’s the easiest way for people to actually see are thriller because then it can widen are audience and reach out to a lot more people about this new thriller that is being released .
when I look at the actual ‘match cut ‘ exercise that we had to do I found out that using camera equipment is quite easy, so what really worked well for me personally is that I felt a lot more confident using the camera stuff so doing more practical stuff instead of using final cut pro, I didn’t really enjoy editing because I found it quite dull because I found it quite hard to try and pick up at first, even though I learned how it works in the end I still feel that I enjoyed a lot more using the camera because I have never used it before. what I also learnt is how important planning can be in making the thriller because if we didn’t really have a basic idea of what we wanted to do we wouldn’t of got any were so now I know that by planning we could of made are thriller so much quicker and smoother .so what I have learnt was to use basic media skills in making a production of a film such as final cut pro, soundtrack pro, and hands on practical work like suing camera equipment.
thriller evaluation
AS THRILLER EVALUATION
When we created are AS thriller we had looked at a particular film to try and generate ideas on what are thriller should be based on, we looked at the film ‘saw’ and we studied the opening of the film and tried to Incorporate it into our thriller.
We used establishing shots of the area to try and give the audience a sense of where the thriller was set, by doing so we give the audience a somewhat basic idea of when our thriller was set and where. we had done a pan out of the area and a close up of the Liverpool street underground sign and also did another pan shot of outside the station that led to the entrance in our thriller are establishing shots were in Liverpool street, we thought by having an establishing shot of this as it would convey to the audience that this is a modern setting in a known place. I believe that by having establishing shots in Liverpool Street it raised the question of ‘what could happen in such a public place?’.
how I think this raised the question is that if u look at the film ‘saw’ in the beginning they show a pan out of where the characters are in the film and of what their situation might be. How this relates too many thrillers is that in every thriller has to have a basic shot of where it is set in so that the audience can think of questions for the film. So I believe that are establishing shots are like every other thriller that has been made. also in are thriller are credits gave of an Erie mood because of the text we had used which was bold letters that flashed in and out jus to give off a scarier mood. Our thriller music played a part as well in the opening because again it gives the audience a scary mood. Because the music has a slow temp to it with a low pitch so it gives the thriller more tension and a build up of the scene, I had changed it by adding in an extra beat so that it doesn’t ruin the suspense that the song offers.
Since our thriller is a horror I believe that it appeals to a lot of people in the country but we had a main focus in making our thriller. We wanted to appeal more to teenagers 15+ because we felt that they were a larger audience. But it would only appeal to teenagers that prefer and enjoy watching horror films. We also thought that about little details in are film that could also attract that younger audience that we were looking for, we had used young people to give are audience a more relatable cast. We had used a female as one of the victims even though this is typical in most thrillers we felt that by doing so we could we attract the audience because we could raise questions for our young audience.
So by trying to have teenagers as our main audience we had to think of how we could advertise and distribute our thriller. We wanted our thriller to be a big Hollywood blockbuster because we knew that are film could relate to teenagers around the world and that it could sell more. But before we would distribute it to the world we would do so by realising a short clip out on the internet to give an audience a teaser before the actual film came out because by using the audience we can branch out all over the world by using the internet as an advertisement. By putting the adverts on MySpace, face book and YouTube.
but even though we had already thought pretty clear on what our target audience would be we had to think of what the main audience would be, we knew that we was looking at a mainstream audience and that are film could attract a lot of teenagers so we felt that by having this young audience we could have a lot more success in the thriller. but in are audience we knew that we had teenagers that would like to become actors themselves, so by having a young cast in our thriller we knew that we could give are audience a sense of hope that maybe one day they could be in a Hollywood blockbuster and also teenagers that happened to be associated in film for example ‘Alex who is 17, he enjoys watching a variety of films, he is a aspiring actor who has appeared in a short films as a extra ‘ even though he is already somewhat in a film industry I believe that by watching are thriller could give him a sense of relief knowing that one day he could be in a big budget film.
Since our film was going to be a big Hollywood blockbuster we had to think of how we would try to market it to world. we thought about advertising it by highlighting one of the members of the cast as a ‘upcoming star’ we figured because teenagers prefer films with a known star but tried to make it seem like this person is the new generation of Hollywood actors, so we would advertise it places we teenagers are usually found like by having posters of the film near clubs, youth centres etc... We would mostly the internet to try and get the word out about the film because the internet is a very helpful and useful way to advertise because it is so popular with teens. so we would leak out clips of the film on MySpace or face book since it’s so popular, we would also have billboards on busses and we would have trailers on TV because by using TV we can really market are film to are target audience but we knew that we could get a lot more publicity by using things like the internet and TV because of how popular it is with teenagers at this time.
so in making this thriller I believe that I have learnt a lot in using media software to try and complete this thriller, I’ve learnt how to use final cut pro to its fullest extent I did find it quite difficult at first trying to edit my thriller just because it was the first time I have ever used it but after a while I found it quite basic to use, I also enjoyed using camera equipment I had never used stuff like that before so I found it quite enjoyable to learn about. I found camera work to be a bit confusing but got the hang of it after awhile and found it quite simple, what I also learnt how to use was soundtrack pro I’ve had already a somewhat knowledge of how to use soundtrack pro but we I learnt it more in depth I found it easy to use and very useful when making are thriller. what I did was learn how to release my thriller out on the internet I used more my blogs to try an release it because it’s the easiest way for people to actually see are thriller because then it can widen are audience and reach out to a lot more people about this new thriller that is being released .
when I look at the actual ‘match cut ‘ exercise that we had to do I found out that using camera equipment is quite easy, so what really worked well for me personally is that I felt a lot more confident using the camera stuff so doing more practical stuff instead of using final cut pro, I didn’t really enjoy editing because I found it quite dull because I found it quite hard to try and pick up at first, even though I learned how it works in the end I still feel that I enjoyed a lot more using the camera because I have never used it before. what I also learnt is how important planning can be in making the thriller because if we didn’t really have a basic idea of what we wanted to do we wouldn’t of got any were so now I know that by planning we could of made are thriller so much quicker and smoother .so what I have learnt was to use basic media skills in making a production of a film such as final cut pro, soundtrack pro, and hands on practical work like suing camera equipment.
When we created are AS thriller we had looked at a particular film to try and generate ideas on what are thriller should be based on, we looked at the film ‘saw’ and we studied the opening of the film and tried to Incorporate it into our thriller.
We used establishing shots of the area to try and give the audience a sense of where the thriller was set, by doing so we give the audience a somewhat basic idea of when our thriller was set and where. we had done a pan out of the area and a close up of the Liverpool street underground sign and also did another pan shot of outside the station that led to the entrance in our thriller are establishing shots were in Liverpool street, we thought by having an establishing shot of this as it would convey to the audience that this is a modern setting in a known place. I believe that by having establishing shots in Liverpool Street it raised the question of ‘what could happen in such a public place?’.
how I think this raised the question is that if u look at the film ‘saw’ in the beginning they show a pan out of where the characters are in the film and of what their situation might be. How this relates too many thrillers is that in every thriller has to have a basic shot of where it is set in so that the audience can think of questions for the film. So I believe that are establishing shots are like every other thriller that has been made. also in are thriller are credits gave of an Erie mood because of the text we had used which was bold letters that flashed in and out jus to give off a scarier mood. Our thriller music played a part as well in the opening because again it gives the audience a scary mood. Because the music has a slow temp to it with a low pitch so it gives the thriller more tension and a build up of the scene, I had changed it by adding in an extra beat so that it doesn’t ruin the suspense that the song offers.
Since our thriller is a horror I believe that it appeals to a lot of people in the country but we had a main focus in making our thriller. We wanted to appeal more to teenagers 15+ because we felt that they were a larger audience. But it would only appeal to teenagers that prefer and enjoy watching horror films. We also thought that about little details in are film that could also attract that younger audience that we were looking for, we had used young people to give are audience a more relatable cast. We had used a female as one of the victims even though this is typical in most thrillers we felt that by doing so we could we attract the audience because we could raise questions for our young audience.
So by trying to have teenagers as our main audience we had to think of how we could advertise and distribute our thriller. We wanted our thriller to be a big Hollywood blockbuster because we knew that are film could relate to teenagers around the world and that it could sell more. But before we would distribute it to the world we would do so by realising a short clip out on the internet to give an audience a teaser before the actual film came out because by using the audience we can branch out all over the world by using the internet as an advertisement. By putting the adverts on MySpace, face book and YouTube.
but even though we had already thought pretty clear on what our target audience would be we had to think of what the main audience would be, we knew that we was looking at a mainstream audience and that are film could attract a lot of teenagers so we felt that by having this young audience we could have a lot more success in the thriller. but in are audience we knew that we had teenagers that would like to become actors themselves, so by having a young cast in our thriller we knew that we could give are audience a sense of hope that maybe one day they could be in a Hollywood blockbuster and also teenagers that happened to be associated in film for example ‘Alex who is 17, he enjoys watching a variety of films, he is a aspiring actor who has appeared in a short films as a extra ‘ even though he is already somewhat in a film industry I believe that by watching are thriller could give him a sense of relief knowing that one day he could be in a big budget film.
Since our film was going to be a big Hollywood blockbuster we had to think of how we would try to market it to world. we thought about advertising it by highlighting one of the members of the cast as a ‘upcoming star’ we figured because teenagers prefer films with a known star but tried to make it seem like this person is the new generation of Hollywood actors, so we would advertise it places we teenagers are usually found like by having posters of the film near clubs, youth centres etc... We would mostly the internet to try and get the word out about the film because the internet is a very helpful and useful way to advertise because it is so popular with teens. so we would leak out clips of the film on MySpace or face book since it’s so popular, we would also have billboards on busses and we would have trailers on TV because by using TV we can really market are film to are target audience but we knew that we could get a lot more publicity by using things like the internet and TV because of how popular it is with teenagers at this time.
so in making this thriller I believe that I have learnt a lot in using media software to try and complete this thriller, I’ve learnt how to use final cut pro to its fullest extent I did find it quite difficult at first trying to edit my thriller just because it was the first time I have ever used it but after a while I found it quite basic to use, I also enjoyed using camera equipment I had never used stuff like that before so I found it quite enjoyable to learn about. I found camera work to be a bit confusing but got the hang of it after awhile and found it quite simple, what I also learnt how to use was soundtrack pro I’ve had already a somewhat knowledge of how to use soundtrack pro but we I learnt it more in depth I found it easy to use and very useful when making are thriller. what I did was learn how to release my thriller out on the internet I used more my blogs to try an release it because it’s the easiest way for people to actually see are thriller because then it can widen are audience and reach out to a lot more people about this new thriller that is being released .
when I look at the actual ‘match cut ‘ exercise that we had to do I found out that using camera equipment is quite easy, so what really worked well for me personally is that I felt a lot more confident using the camera stuff so doing more practical stuff instead of using final cut pro, I didn’t really enjoy editing because I found it quite dull because I found it quite hard to try and pick up at first, even though I learned how it works in the end I still feel that I enjoyed a lot more using the camera because I have never used it before. what I also learnt is how important planning can be in making the thriller because if we didn’t really have a basic idea of what we wanted to do we wouldn’t of got any were so now I know that by planning we could of made are thriller so much quicker and smoother .so what I have learnt was to use basic media skills in making a production of a film such as final cut pro, soundtrack pro, and hands on practical work like suing camera equipment.
Friday 27 March 2009
Final Evaluation
During this media course, our main aim by the end of it was to have produced a short opening clip to a thriller film. We watched some thriller movies so that we could have a grasp on what type of conventions made the film a thriller. Films such as ‘What Lies Beneath’ and ‘Saw’ were thrillers that had inspired some of the things we had included in our own work. The aim of these films is having a story line that build up tension by using different conventions and to have the audience on edge and jump at certain clips of the film. Thrillers have many conventions that make the genre different when compared to films such as Comedy or Romance. We studied the different conventions that made a thriller a ‘thriller’ film and tried to reflect them in our own thriller. A lot of the camera work done contributes to making these type of films build tension and tries to make the audience feel a certain way. 
The camera techniques that we picked up on were the establishing shots that nearly all films use at the beginning of a film just to make sure the audience know were the plot is set. This also includes long shots that pan a view of an area maybe from a high angle. Another technique that is used a lot in thrillers is the close ups and extreme close ups on characters facial expressions or close up of important props used during the film.
We made a simple story line and told it through the camera shots. Our short film had many different clips jumping from back to front, by doing this we thought it would help build up the tension that every thriller has. The main story is that a girl had been kidnapped while she was walking home down an alley way near Liverpool Street station at night. We made sure our storyline was short and simple and because we didn’t have a lot of time to tell the whole story we thought that we adding a little twist to the story through flash backs that jump from different scenes helped us with the aim of our thriller. When doing our thriller we made sure we focused on the camera shots and getting them just right. We used an establishing shot of Liverpool street train station to show the audience were our film was set in. The shot pans over the underground station looking from a high angle then it jumps to a shot of the name of the station but zooming outwards which we thought was a good effect. Other shots that we used included the tracking shot which was a close up on the actor/actresses legs walking along the alley way. This was another good shot as we thought it built a bit tension and made people wonder were they were going and who it could have been.
After doing all the filming we used Final cut Pro to edit our footage. First we had to long and capture everything and the had to cut it all up and put it back together in the sequence we wanted it to be. We added blank screens so we could put in the title screens that credited our group and the things we did during the filming process. Editing the film was probably the most fun as it was nearing the end of all the work we had done. We still had to work hard and together to make it as perfect as possible. We split the group up and focused on different parts e.g. the editing of title screens and the music.
Our thriller film would be distributed through advertising in many different ways. So that we could get a large audience we decided to advertise our thriller on the radio, billboards and television all over the UK and maybe abroad if it gained good reviews. We would eventually launch it on DVD so that people who missed it at the cinema, they would have the chance to have their own copy to watch whenever they wanted.
Our target group is aimed at teenagers from the age of 15 upwards, female and male. In general people who are fans of the thriller genre as we thought it would be the most appealing to. We aim to attract our target group by using young aspiring actors and actresses to show off their great talent. We thought about how other film makers attracted their audiences and followed the steps, for example, having young/teenage children on the posters attracted that type of audience.
Since doing this thriller I have learnt a lot. Being new to everything I managed to pick things up easily. Things like getting familiar with using the camera equipment, using the editing programme and trying to produce the music was fun and worth while. Making a film takes a lot of patience as it takes a lot to make everything just perfect. Just by editing short clips over and over I managed to pick up new tips along the way which will helped in the process of making the short film.
If I was to do this again, I would do a lot of things differently. Firstly to start with a step by step plan with an amount of time to do things in and to actually stick to it strictly. Making sure things are done on time is important because if you need to change things you will get time in the end to fix things up, it is crucial that time is used wisely. Another thing I learnt along the way is to keep in mind what you are trying to put across to your audience and how you want to make them feel.
I think that we could improve our thriller by putting in more focus on how we want the audience to feel while watching the thriller. Personally we could have tried to put in more camera techniques to make the opening just that bit more scary.
The music also was something we could work on more. Instead of having the on going background music, I think we could have added in more shorter sound effects. By doing this it could put more feeling into the thriller and might make the audience more jumpy and build up the tension which is something that a thriller is really aimed to do.
Thursday 26 March 2009
AS Thriller Evaluation
When we started planning our thriller opening we based our idea on the movie ‘Saw’. Even though our final edit of our thriller is nothing like ‘Saw’, we based our ideas on it because they are scary films that most teenagers and adults have seen. We wanted our thriller to give the audience an eerie and creepy feel, so that is why compared our ideas to ‘Saw’ because we had all seen the films, and there’s a lot of torturing in them and even though we don’t show torture in our thriller opening, we gave viewers the idea that it was going to happen if they watched the film.
We used many different camera shots in our thriller to create suspense. We used close-ups of the girls face to show fear through her facial expressions and close-ups of the boys hands when he was putting on the surgical gloves to give a creepy feel and to raise questions to the audience, for example; what does he need gloves for? Or what is her going to do to her?
During the alley way scene filmed in Liverpool Street we did tracking shots on the actors feet to show viewers that there was someone definitely following her. So we filmed both the actors’ feet as they walked, to create suspense and to show viewers he was getting closer to her.
We also used a low angle shot in the alley scene, where you see the back of the girls’ feet as she walked as the camera was slowly tracking up her body. This was to show that she was by herself and there was no one else around her and also to make the alley way look almost as if it was endless.
During a lesson before we started filming our thriller openings we watched a documentary on thrillers and film making. At some point it talked about music to a thriller opening, and showed us a clip of the opening to ‘The Shining’. Although it was of a car driving up into the mountains, as an audience we could sense that something bad was going to happen later on due to the music, the music was eerie and made the opening to the film very effective.
I think our thriller appeals to people who enjoy thrillers or horror films, everyone could watch this film but they have to be over 15 years old due to the content. It isn’t really a family film – so it wouldn’t be advised to bring your take your children to watch it as a family outing because it’s more of a film that you would go and see with friends, rather than your parents because it is going to be quite gory and scary but also there are young actors in the film so it appeals to younger people.
I think our thriller at first would only be shown in the UK because it is a British film and all the actors are British. But if the film gets good reviews and lots of people go to watch it then hopefully we could show it in other countries as well such as, the USA and see if it does as well there as it did in the UK. Since our film would be British, we would think about working with distributors like Working Title Films that distribute and produce British films, as well as Universal.
Our target audience is 15 years old and over and they would be mainstream viewers because our film will be well publicised in the UK and on the internet, so we want to encourage a lot of people to go to the cinema and watch our film.
I think our target audience would be ‘aspirers’ because they’re young and they could look up to the actors in the film and inspire them to take on a drama course or maybe even pick media studies as a subject at college, or university. Or even look up to a character in the film, for example; in a film where someone gets kidnapped or is getting tortured and the victim is the main character and they manage to get away with their quick thinking and good plan – most people who watch this film will want to be like them if they ever get in that unlikely situation.
An example of someone that would fit in to our target audience would be David. He’s 17 years old and he is almost finished doing his A Levels at college. In his spare time he enjoys going to the cinema with friends, and especially like thrillers and horrors. He would be a perfect example because he is over the age of 15, he likes going to the cinema in his spare time and his favourite genre is thriller and horror – seeing as our film is 15+ and the genre is a thriller he would definitely enjoy it, and it would be the type of film he would pay to watch.
To make sure our film was well publicised as the lead role we would definitely have a young actor, who is a role model for a lot of young people, someone who is recognised with previous experience in previous popular films, for example, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter).
We would also advertise our film on the television, on satellite channels (Sky TV), on digital TV (Freeview) and on channel 4 so people only have channels 1 to 5 can still see the advert for the movie.
Also we would advertise our film by doing a competition, we could ask a question about the lead role and give 3 possible answers and the winner that gets the right answer would win a shopping trip with 2 other friends and a spooky trip to the London Dungeons all expenses paid. I believe this would interest a lot of young adults and definitely encourage people to go and see the film.
We would also show the trailer on television, and viewers will feel suspense, and have questions just by watching the trailer which will also make them want to watch the film because they will want their questions to be answered.
From the process of producing the thriller opening I experienced using a Mac computer for the first time properly. I am now able to use Final Cut Pro and know how to edit footage on it, I’m glad I learnt how to do that because I’ll need to know how to use this programme next year for media studies, and in the future if I decide to further my studies with media I’ll probably need to know how to use it.
I also learnt how to use the website ‘Blogger.com’ where we posted our thoughts each time we worked on our thriller opening. I think this is a good and easy way to keep track of your progress and so other people and read it and see what you are up to, it is also a good way of teachers seeing our progress as well. ‘Blogger.com’ also made me realise that the internet is used by millions of people all round the world and would be an excellent way of getting our thriller noticed by a lot of people. For example we could upload the trailer to websites like ‘Youtube.com’ so people can easily search for it on the internet.
The most valuable lesson I think was learning how to do match cuts on Final Cut Pro because we have quite a lot of match cuts in our film, and it really improved our footage and made it more exciting in the final edit. Another lesson that really helped us during filming was the ‘Card Game’ exercise, where we got a chance to practice filming using all the equipment, I think this was a good experience where we got a chance to try different camera shots and angles, and it got us thinking about what shots we should use in our film. It also gave us practice using Final Cut Pro because we had to edit our footage from the lesson.
One of the reasons while our thriller opening was successful and we finished it on time was the plans we wrote out. We wrote out two detailed plans of the two scenes we were going to film. We wrote a plan for the filming session in Liverpool Street and when we were going to film in the college basement. We wrote exactly what the actors were going to do and what camera angles and shots we planned to use. We made sure we stuck to both our plans and it made it a lot easier when it came to filming because all we had to was look back at the plan and we knew exactly what shot to use for each part. If we didn’t write out plans, it would be no doubt that filming would have been a lot for time consuming and we didn’t really have that much time either.
Something I could criticise about our filming was that the girl was wearing two different outfits for each scene when she was suppose to be wearing the same clothes, however when the rest of the class saw our thriller they thought it worked and thought it was two different people (even though it was suppose to be the same girl!), so may be it could be used as a good mistake.
Another thing that we could have changed with more time is when we were adding the music to the final edit in the editing session; we weren’t able to fade out the main music before the scream at the end of the opening. We wanted to fade out the music so we could create suspense and shock viewers when they heard the loud scream on the title screen.
Overall we did work very hard on filming and editing, and it was a relief when we were able to hand it in on time. Even though there is room for improvement we were very pleased with the outcome of the final edit.
When we started planning our thriller opening we based our idea on the movie ‘Saw’. Even though our final edit of our thriller is nothing like ‘Saw’, we based our ideas on it because they are scary films that most teenagers and adults have seen. We wanted our thriller to give the audience an eerie and creepy feel, so that is why compared our ideas to ‘Saw’ because we had all seen the films, and there’s a lot of torturing in them and even though we don’t show torture in our thriller opening, we gave viewers the idea that it was going to happen if they watched the film.
We used many different camera shots in our thriller to create suspense. We used close-ups of the girls face to show fear through her facial expressions and close-ups of the boys hands when he was putting on the surgical gloves to give a creepy feel and to raise questions to the audience, for example; what does he need gloves for? Or what is her going to do to her?
During the alley way scene filmed in Liverpool Street we did tracking shots on the actors feet to show viewers that there was someone definitely following her. So we filmed both the actors’ feet as they walked, to create suspense and to show viewers he was getting closer to her.
We also used a low angle shot in the alley scene, where you see the back of the girls’ feet as she walked as the camera was slowly tracking up her body. This was to show that she was by herself and there was no one else around her and also to make the alley way look almost as if it was endless.
During a lesson before we started filming our thriller openings we watched a documentary on thrillers and film making. At some point it talked about music to a thriller opening, and showed us a clip of the opening to ‘The Shining’. Although it was of a car driving up into the mountains, as an audience we could sense that something bad was going to happen later on due to the music, the music was eerie and made the opening to the film very effective.
I think our thriller appeals to people who enjoy thrillers or horror films, everyone could watch this film but they have to be over 15 years old due to the content. It isn’t really a family film – so it wouldn’t be advised to bring your take your children to watch it as a family outing because it’s more of a film that you would go and see with friends, rather than your parents because it is going to be quite gory and scary but also there are young actors in the film so it appeals to younger people.
I think our thriller at first would only be shown in the UK because it is a British film and all the actors are British. But if the film gets good reviews and lots of people go to watch it then hopefully we could show it in other countries as well such as, the USA and see if it does as well there as it did in the UK. Since our film would be British, we would think about working with distributors like Working Title Films that distribute and produce British films, as well as Universal.
Our target audience is 15 years old and over and they would be mainstream viewers because our film will be well publicised in the UK and on the internet, so we want to encourage a lot of people to go to the cinema and watch our film.
I think our target audience would be ‘aspirers’ because they’re young and they could look up to the actors in the film and inspire them to take on a drama course or maybe even pick media studies as a subject at college, or university. Or even look up to a character in the film, for example; in a film where someone gets kidnapped or is getting tortured and the victim is the main character and they manage to get away with their quick thinking and good plan – most people who watch this film will want to be like them if they ever get in that unlikely situation.
An example of someone that would fit in to our target audience would be David. He’s 17 years old and he is almost finished doing his A Levels at college. In his spare time he enjoys going to the cinema with friends, and especially like thrillers and horrors. He would be a perfect example because he is over the age of 15, he likes going to the cinema in his spare time and his favourite genre is thriller and horror – seeing as our film is 15+ and the genre is a thriller he would definitely enjoy it, and it would be the type of film he would pay to watch.
To make sure our film was well publicised as the lead role we would definitely have a young actor, who is a role model for a lot of young people, someone who is recognised with previous experience in previous popular films, for example, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter).
We would also advertise our film on the television, on satellite channels (Sky TV), on digital TV (Freeview) and on channel 4 so people only have channels 1 to 5 can still see the advert for the movie.
Also we would advertise our film by doing a competition, we could ask a question about the lead role and give 3 possible answers and the winner that gets the right answer would win a shopping trip with 2 other friends and a spooky trip to the London Dungeons all expenses paid. I believe this would interest a lot of young adults and definitely encourage people to go and see the film.
We would also show the trailer on television, and viewers will feel suspense, and have questions just by watching the trailer which will also make them want to watch the film because they will want their questions to be answered.
From the process of producing the thriller opening I experienced using a Mac computer for the first time properly. I am now able to use Final Cut Pro and know how to edit footage on it, I’m glad I learnt how to do that because I’ll need to know how to use this programme next year for media studies, and in the future if I decide to further my studies with media I’ll probably need to know how to use it.
I also learnt how to use the website ‘Blogger.com’ where we posted our thoughts each time we worked on our thriller opening. I think this is a good and easy way to keep track of your progress and so other people and read it and see what you are up to, it is also a good way of teachers seeing our progress as well. ‘Blogger.com’ also made me realise that the internet is used by millions of people all round the world and would be an excellent way of getting our thriller noticed by a lot of people. For example we could upload the trailer to websites like ‘Youtube.com’ so people can easily search for it on the internet.
The most valuable lesson I think was learning how to do match cuts on Final Cut Pro because we have quite a lot of match cuts in our film, and it really improved our footage and made it more exciting in the final edit. Another lesson that really helped us during filming was the ‘Card Game’ exercise, where we got a chance to practice filming using all the equipment, I think this was a good experience where we got a chance to try different camera shots and angles, and it got us thinking about what shots we should use in our film. It also gave us practice using Final Cut Pro because we had to edit our footage from the lesson.
One of the reasons while our thriller opening was successful and we finished it on time was the plans we wrote out. We wrote out two detailed plans of the two scenes we were going to film. We wrote a plan for the filming session in Liverpool Street and when we were going to film in the college basement. We wrote exactly what the actors were going to do and what camera angles and shots we planned to use. We made sure we stuck to both our plans and it made it a lot easier when it came to filming because all we had to was look back at the plan and we knew exactly what shot to use for each part. If we didn’t write out plans, it would be no doubt that filming would have been a lot for time consuming and we didn’t really have that much time either.
Something I could criticise about our filming was that the girl was wearing two different outfits for each scene when she was suppose to be wearing the same clothes, however when the rest of the class saw our thriller they thought it worked and thought it was two different people (even though it was suppose to be the same girl!), so may be it could be used as a good mistake.
Another thing that we could have changed with more time is when we were adding the music to the final edit in the editing session; we weren’t able to fade out the main music before the scream at the end of the opening. We wanted to fade out the music so we could create suspense and shock viewers when they heard the loud scream on the title screen.
Overall we did work very hard on filming and editing, and it was a relief when we were able to hand it in on time. Even though there is room for improvement we were very pleased with the outcome of the final edit.
Friday 27 February 2009
Final Editting Session For Thriller Opening (Finally Finished!!)
Today (27/02/09) was the deadline for the final edit of our thriller opening, we had until 3 pm to hand it in. Since we already put the footage into a sequence, we just needed to add title screens and add in the music and the sound effects.
To save time, we split up; Bianca and Billy added the music to the opening, while me and Kimone did the title screens. At first I was clueless about making the title screens because I didn't know how to use the programme but with help from the teacher and a fellow classmate it became easier. Since we broke up opening we left gaps in the sequence where the title screens should go, and there were 11 gaps - so at first we needed 11 title screens. But we realised that was too much so we had to change the thriller slightly so there were only 6 title screens used during editing and finishing our final edit of our opening.
Once we finished the title screens we had to put them onto the hard drive and then take the hard drive back to the editing room, where Billy and Bianca were so we could add them to the thriller. When we put all the title screens in, we helped finish putting the music together and making final touches to the editting so it looked good and ran smoothly and in time with the music.
When we finished editting the whole opening we were relieved that we had finished in time and were able to hand it in at lunch time and not stay behind until 3 pm. The last thing we had to do before we could go home, was just post it onto our blogging group.
When watching the final edit of the thriller opening, I realised we could of improved a few things. The first thing would have been that the girl (Olivia) who starred in the opening should have worn the same clothes on both filming days, so it looked more realistic because shes wearing different shoes and jacket - but I don't think its that noticeable anyway!
Another thing we could've changed was made the music for the opening fade out before the scream to have more of an impact on the scream, because it sounds a bit jumpy and I think that if it faded out it would of sounded smoother.
One more thing that maybe we could've done was use lighting down the alley way in Liverpool Street but I think the darkness adds an eerie feeling to our opening - so maybe it was a good thing we didn't use lighting on that day.
Overall this project has been difficult at times, but also easy. Parts of it were enjoyable and others were a bit boring. But I think as a group we worked well together and made good plans of camera shots, locations and filming that we stuck to and made it a lot easier for us to film and put everything together while editting. I think that this has been a very interesting and valuable experience, and atleast now I know how to use a camera, a mac computer, and the editing suite!!
To save time, we split up; Bianca and Billy added the music to the opening, while me and Kimone did the title screens. At first I was clueless about making the title screens because I didn't know how to use the programme but with help from the teacher and a fellow classmate it became easier. Since we broke up opening we left gaps in the sequence where the title screens should go, and there were 11 gaps - so at first we needed 11 title screens. But we realised that was too much so we had to change the thriller slightly so there were only 6 title screens used during editing and finishing our final edit of our opening.
Once we finished the title screens we had to put them onto the hard drive and then take the hard drive back to the editing room, where Billy and Bianca were so we could add them to the thriller. When we put all the title screens in, we helped finish putting the music together and making final touches to the editting so it looked good and ran smoothly and in time with the music.
When we finished editting the whole opening we were relieved that we had finished in time and were able to hand it in at lunch time and not stay behind until 3 pm. The last thing we had to do before we could go home, was just post it onto our blogging group.
When watching the final edit of the thriller opening, I realised we could of improved a few things. The first thing would have been that the girl (Olivia) who starred in the opening should have worn the same clothes on both filming days, so it looked more realistic because shes wearing different shoes and jacket - but I don't think its that noticeable anyway!
Another thing we could've changed was made the music for the opening fade out before the scream to have more of an impact on the scream, because it sounds a bit jumpy and I think that if it faded out it would of sounded smoother.
One more thing that maybe we could've done was use lighting down the alley way in Liverpool Street but I think the darkness adds an eerie feeling to our opening - so maybe it was a good thing we didn't use lighting on that day.
Overall this project has been difficult at times, but also easy. Parts of it were enjoyable and others were a bit boring. But I think as a group we worked well together and made good plans of camera shots, locations and filming that we stuck to and made it a lot easier for us to film and put everything together while editting. I think that this has been a very interesting and valuable experience, and atleast now I know how to use a camera, a mac computer, and the editing suite!!
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