Our thiller opening was inspired by the work of hitchcock so there are a lot of elements that are similar to his work. For example the point of view shots as the protagonist and antagonist, the narrative being based around feelings of being trapped and of course the fact that the whole group show up in the thriller (photos in the frame).With our costumes, makeup, lighting and props we followed common codes and conventions of thrillers. For example, with the costumes, our protagonist was placed in a pale pink dress showing her as feminine, sweet and innocent where as our antagonist was put into dark shirts and dark coats highlighting him as the evil. I think what differed between our thriller and other thrillers was the setting. At first the group and i had discussed setting the narrative in an abandoned building, to give our thriller a darker and more sinister appearance. However we decided a house would be better because in houses we are meant to feel safe and by making a house seem like a prison, we have played with the audiences mind, just like hitchcock. Also we did something unexpected with our protagonist, like what Hitchcock did in his film 'Psycho'. His protagonist was killed off half way through the film and although our main character doesnt die, she ends up going mad which will shock our audience.
Our protagonist is played by Becky and we made sure her character was as normal as possible. We wanted her to represent all teenage girls so we put her in a light, floaty dress and did her makeup so it was dark but not overdone. By doing this we made sure all girls would be able to relate to her and find it easier to be scared for her as she runs from the antagonist. Also we made her seem very plain and very normal, adding to her innocents. Also through our camera angles we put our antagonist in a position of power through low angle shots. This followed certain stereotypes like men are above women and there are men who would relate to that, represtenting men in the film.
After a little research we decided that the film production company Lionsgate would be the institute we choose to produce our thriller because it is famous for a lot of thriller and horror movies, some of them very twisted for example 'Saw'. Since our Thriller is quite psychological and eerie i think it will fit into the Lionsgate films very easily. Also like any other film that is produced we would have movie posters and a website which would allow us to promote our thriller and encourage people to see it. Advertisment is important in the film industry and so i think a website for our thriller is very important since it can be accessed world wide that way. Also have pages on socail networking sites like facebook, twitter, tumbler etc so that we can build up an audience through people telling their friends about it. Also web based advertisment is easy to access and accessable anywhere so by making a website we have the most chance of people seeing our thriller.
Teenagers and young adults, aged 15 to 25, were are target audience for our thriller. Also I think its targeted a lot more at girls than boys because the main character is female and she's not a sexy femme fatale but more of a damsel in distress which wont appeal as much to boys. However the fact that it is a thriller and the narrative is very dark and plays with your mind, i think young men would appriecate it. Also the girl is wearing pretty revealing clothes and shes attractive so they might be enticed by that.
Our thriller meets the audiences want and needs through the point of view shots in some of the scenes. This puts the audience in the characters position and allows them to feel part of the story. Since our narrative is very thrilling and dark it will make the audience feel nervous and a little scared which is what thrillers are known for. Also we build up a lot of tension through our cuts. For example when our protagonist is running and hiding from our antagonist the cuts are very quick and flicker from point of view shots, close ups and angled shots, building up the tension. This would put the audience on the endge of their seat and be more exciting for them. Since we made a thriller one of our improvments we did was with the sound. We added a more faster, sinister soundtrack along with our oranges and lemons song that we made and we alternated between the two for appropraite scenes. Also in the scene where our protagonist is under the bed we turn off the music completely, and only hear her breathing. Suddenly a door slams, making the audience jump. This will attract our audience since the jumps are thrilling and they will make your heart race.
Whilst making the thriller i learnt a lot about camera's through filming and a lot about editing softwares. We used a HD and SD cameras to make sure we got the best shots so i leanrt about both types of cameras and what camera shots work well and which ones dont. Then there was the editing which we did on pinnical studios for our final product. We had aslo used final cut which was very similair to Pinnacle but in the end we found the end result better when using pinnacle. Also we had to make our own soundtrack. So the group and i sang to the tune of oranges and lemons which then had to be recorded using audacity. So not only did i learn about the editing process, i also learnt about recording sounds and music. Also we looked at garage band and used some of the existing music in our thriller called 'dogma'. This music suited our thriller well and it built tension better than the oranges and lemons soundtrack because it was fast paced.
Since doing the preliminary task, we have incorperated a lot of the improvments that i mentioned in my evaluation of our preliminary task. We definitly made a conscious effort not to break the 180 degree rule and in our thriller we havent broken it. Also in our preliminary task the lighting wasnt very good as it didnt create enough shadows. In our thriller we put a lot more focus onto the lighting. We made the spotlight brighter and the setting darker so that the only light would be ours, this way we could position it in any way we wanted to get the desired shadows and to give our film a more overall sinister feel. Also because the lighting was more low key, especially in the bedroom scene and the under the bed scene. This is following common conventions of thrillers and making our film fit more into the thriller genre. We also did more improvments from the first 'draft' of the thriller opening we created. At first the music and sounds didnt fit well enough with the narrative so in order to build more tension we added more fast paced music and sudden cuts and fade outs to make our thriller more jumpy and to add more tension and suspense. Also we added a few ambient sounds like birds singing in the outside scenes to make it seem more realistic.
Feedback
These are a few comments from people who watched out opening...
'I liked the oranges and lemons music in the beggining and end because i thought it fit the story well and the lyrics match up to the scenes. The other music was good too for the running scenes.'
'Loved the cuts at the beggining, they looked really realistic and gruesome and its quite shocking when you first see it. I liked the bit where the girl drags the shovel too as the sound it makes is really loud and scary.'
'I wasnt expecting it to be so jumpy but when the door slammed when the girls under the bed, my heart skipped a beat. It worked well with the creepy music and all the running and hiding from the bad guy makes you very nervous. I love it'
'The camera angles are good but the camera is pretty shaky. Next time you should use a tripod.'
by Bethany Smith
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