Evaluation

Evaluation

The brief of the thriller production that we had to meet was to create a two minutes opening to a thriller and include titles.

As we previously studies thriller openings we were all aware of the different ways that we could choose to make our thriller opening. Films that we studied before starting with our final project were, The Shining by Stanley Kubrick and What Lies Beneath by Robert Zemeckis. What Lies Beneath was an example of a simple but very effective way to wow the audience and bring them on the edge of their seats. We also looked at a very useful documentary called ’Watching’ which looked into depth at the different thriller openings as well as what worked and what might have turned out as a disappointment. For our narrative structure, we wanted to leave the audience with unanswered questions and make them want to see the rest of the film. Director Jean Jacques Beineix believes that it is better to have a film that builds up suspense until the end rather that wow the audience at the beginning which would leave them wanting more to find our that there will be no big ending which will lead to them being dissatisfied.
Our thriller opening is consistent with the thriller horror sub-genre as we followed a traditional path of storylines where a vulnerable girl plays the main character and something bad happens to her. Whether it is at the begging middle or end of the film the whole story will be about what happens to her.
We chose to start our thriller in the style of Stanley Kubrick and not have much going on in the begging except our character walking to the toilet. Just like in The Shining, where the camera followed the car to build up tension. It was a good establishing shot of Lauren (our main character) walking through the arch and looking sort of drunk and tired. The mise-en-scene that we were trying to create was dusk as Lauren was just coming out of a club and was on her way home. We added on a soundtrack that began to build up as she walked into the café and into the toilet. Our thriller has suspenseful music, because of this suspense the audience would want to watch more of the film to overcome this emotion. We chose to keep the original sound in the background to keep it realistic but added the extra sounds on top.
A convention that we have used which is similar to one that a real thriller has applied is when the camera is behind Lauren as if someone is following her or watching her and she is not aware of it, this creates suspense. A good example for this would be in The Shining when the camera follows the boy on his bike down the corridor, it makes the audience feel uneasy, as we know that something is following him but he is completely unaware of it.

Looking back at our preliminary task I feel I learned a lot about the process of filming and how to make a sequence and put it together to make a story and most importantly how to create a certain mood. This helped us later on with the editing as we had now had experience with cutting up sections and putting them together to create a meaning. As we knew the different meaning to different camera angles, we tried to use it to help us create the tension. We added on slow music that builds up to the end when our character stormed out of the room. We would also take a close up of a character to show their facial expression and to give the audience a clear view of their feelings as the face usually gives away how they feel.
Storyboarding helped us create a clearer vision of what we were trying to create as everyone saw the story differently in their head by drawing it we all made comments on what could work best. Although we stick closely to our storyboard we also did some experimental shots just to see what would work best, it was always good to have extra shots as we had a lot of film to work with as we began to edit.

We chose a wide target audience of both females and males age 15-35 as we feel that this age range is most likely to attend the cinema to see a thriller film. Our main character is a white middle classed 17-18 year old girl who lives in an urban area and enjoys partying. Therefore, our thriller would appeal even more to people matching her criteria. All races and nationalities and they would have to have a big interest in thrillers.

A typical person that would fit our target audience would be:
White
17 years old
Student
Enjoys partying
Loves art cinemas
Single
Find interest in fashion and maybe even filming.
I think our thriller leaves a question on whether it is a stereotype of a weak woman as a victim as we never see anything bad happening to the girl. She could later on get killed or be the hero who saves everyone from whatever bad is happening.

Due to the small funding and cast that we had whilst making our film it is most likely to be exhibited in a number of small UK art house cinemas. If our film were to be made fully it would most probably be distributed by Multi-plex. In addition to that I think that it should be released on DVD as it would maximise profits and build a larger audience.
Our audience is most likely to be niche than mainstream but I believe that both genders would find this film enjoyable. The audience that we are trying to appeal to would be thriller fans who enjoy the mystery and looking beyond what is being shown.
Young teenage girls would also be interested in seeing our thriller for the fact that they can relate to Lauren who is our main character. Also people who live in the area of which our thriller has been set would find it interesting as it is realistic in the sense that it is a place that is not made up.

The way that our film would be marketed is through the genre, people who enjoy thrillers would hopefully want to go and see it in cinemas for it uniqueness. We would advertise it thought the internet, online adverts on social network sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Bebo etc. and posters, which would be stuck outside clubs and cafes, which our target audience is most likely to be visiting. This way our target audience would notice our thriller.
I also think that the release day is also very important as it could attract more audience and people who would have never actually gone and seen that film if it was not for an occasion such as valentines day. Boy takes girl to the cinema so they could cuddle up or even your mum or dad to have some bonding time and watch a urban thriller which most people would probably find interesting mainly because of the genre.

There are a few main shots which the audience would recognize our film being a thriller and they are the panning shot of Lauren crossing the road and entering the café as this is an establishing shot and the character is followed the audience would now know that she is the main character and that something is going to happen. Another shot would be the over the shoulder shot of Lauren doing her make up in the mirror and spotting something in the toilet. Even thought the audience now knows what is in the toilet they want to see her reaction and what will happen to her when she becomes aware that something is wrong.

From the process of constructing this product, I have learned a lot about filming and using the equipment and editing programs. By the time we started making out final product we have all worked with cameras and have experimented with ways that we can film our characters from different angels, learning what works best for the mood we are trying to create.
The program that we were using for editing was final-cut-pro, for which we had a tutorial to learn the basics of how to log and capture, add effects such as transitions and slugs, text and sound. As we began editing together our final clips we began exploring the program much more with the slowing down and speeding up sections of our footage. A good example of where we used this effect is when our main character Lauren flushed the toilet and had red blood coming our of the system.
The internet was extremely useful to all of us for blogging and posting our work on vimeo and maybe even You Tube later on which would increase potential audience.
As we previously have blogger for our magazine cover coursework I have had experience on that and knew what I was supposed to do. I would sometimes read my blog to give myself a clear view of where we stand and what we still have left to do. The internet is a good way of recording your work as not only can it be accessible to others but also increase the chance of your video being seen by a lot of people and gaining popularity through word-of-mouth.

Class Feedback:
-interesting camera angles giving a strange effect
-effective non-digetic sound creating suspense
-good storyline
-enjoyed the toilet shot
From the feedback that we received I can conclude that we have achieved a reasonably good thriller opening which satisfied our viewers. Overall I am very pleased with the work that we have done. Thought there are a few factors which I am not so pleased with such as the text which runs through the whole opening if I was to do it again I would have chosen a more simple and plain text to not distract the viewer. I would have also taken a few extreme close up shots of the main characters face to show her feelings. On the whole I am extremely please with our outcome as we managed to create suspense and thrill which was our main aim.