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.