Thriller Evaluation

Before we started our thriller opening, we watched some conventional thriller movie openings, such as the shining. At first sight of the shining’s opening sequence makes the film look innocent but as we watched it over again I realised that the high angle shot makes the car look like it is being stalked like prey. This is quite a deceiving opening which gave us an Idea of making the viewers assume that the girl is being stalked which soon gets flipped around to show that she is not the vulnerable character but the person who’s severed hand is in the toilet. We also watched thriller openings that were produced by people from the previous year. These also put some ideas into our heads. From these openings, we realised that our clips were not to be too long, as people would get bored quickly. We also realised that that we needed a good soundtrack to match our thriller. We also noticed that some of the previous work had the same sort of storyline as each other so we wanted to create the most original storyline that we could possibly think of. This was because we did not want everyone getting bored thinking they have seen it all before.
When I first started my work, it looked funnier than it did thrilling so I had to learn to create the scene to fit the genre. In the match cut lesson all my work seemed to look like we had produced a comedy, even though we had tried to make it serious. We realised that the way in which we had cut each clip together was not properly matched which made it look funny. In addition, the soundtrack we chose did not properly show the true genre of our short film. Because we had done quite poorly, it worked in our favour as we learned from our mistakes. When it came round to editing the final piece we made sure that everything was matched up properly and that the soundtrack matched the film.
Thinking about our thriller opening, we did go for a stereotypical woman victim. Because of this, our film would appeal more to a male audience rather than a female audience. I think this will attract men, as they will feel like they could be the hero of the film and relate to the male character. We also tried to aim for an age range of 15-30 year as they are the main ages that thrillers aim for. Because of the age range, we are aiming for students and working class, as they are more likely to want to see a thriller.
I would like to think that our thriller could be a Hollywood blockbuster but in reality, I think it would be more suited to the small arthouse cinemas. I think this because I believe it would be only targeting a small audience. I also think that it would be good to release it onto the internet, as it could become a big hit on websites such as YouTube, which in turn could give us a big break to produce more films.
Because we are targeting a younger audience we would advertise our film on websites such as facebook, bebo and myspace so are target audience are more likely to notice the film. I would also advertise in places like KFC, burger king and McDonalds’ where younger people go so they can begin to recognise the film and maybe start wanting to watch the film. On the adverts we would advertise the main star so that if people are fans they are more likely to want to see the film because of the star. We would put the stars name directly below the title in a large font but slightly smaller than the title.
While filming our thriller I have learnt to use so many different technologies, which will not only help me for media but for personal uses as well. When we first started filming, I was useless with the camera but over time, I learned to use it properly. I was taught how to fix the camera to the tripod properly and how to watch over the clips we had filmed on the camera. This would also help at home for video cameras that I could use to film personal occasions e.g. framing the scene right and getting good angles. I also learned how to use different software on the computer. I was shown how to use Photoshop properly, how to create title sequences that looked professional, how to use soundtrack pro and one of the most important ones, how to use final cut pro. I found this was the one piece of software that I picked up easily. Although it was frustrating sometimes, I got past that and managed to put some of the work together.
I was really pleased with our final result. I felt that we had all produced a brilliant piece of work that we had all put our best efforts into creating. Although at time it was tough and we had our disagreements we all pulled together and had a lot of fun making our thriller. I am also pleased that we had got a lot of positive reviews for our classmates and form others who had seen it at the cinema and overall I am ecstatic with me and my groups work.

thursday 12th march

Today we had a day off collage so we could all watch everyones thriller openings on the big screen. It was exciting to see all the different openings. One of my favourite opening was about a game that people would have to play. It was so good that if I was to see a trailer of that film I would pay to watch it. It was also nice to see how people reacted to our groups thriller opening. I was very nervous at first but people seemed to have liked it which gave me a confidence boost.

monday 9th march

For todays lesson we were shown how to get onto a website called vimeo where we could watch all the different thriller openings. We were also told that we could view everyones thriller opening at the vue cinema at the n1 center on thursday morning. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone elses thriller openings but I am also looking forward to seeing everyones reactions to my groups thriller.
After we were informed about all of that we were told to upload our thriller openings onto our bloggs.

friday 27th February workshop

Today was the last time that everyone had to finish the thrillers before the deadline which was today. The computer rooms were so packed me and Grace were almost unable to grab a computer. Because Bien and Vikki had already finished the soundtrack in yesterdays workshop all we had to do was put the soundtrack and film together.
After we put them together we checked with Andrew and Mickey to see if it was all up to scratch then all we had to do was sign the bored to say we had finished.

wednesday 25th February

from what we had edited the day before in workshop we decided to shorten some clips so some clips weren't so long and boring. Because one of the shots , the camera was to shaky we shortened it down so it didn't seem to shaky. after shortening them down we went on to sound track pro to start fixing the sound track for our thriller. at the end of the lesson we decided that bien and vikki would go to workshop to finish the sound track.

Workshop tuesday 24th february

today me grace vikki bien all come to the workshop so we could finish editing our thriller together. when we finished we put in some transitions and slugs so the film would flow better.

Monday 23rd February

Today we found out the deadline for the Thriller opening so because of this we all had to put our best efforts into getting it finished so we decided that we would come to workshops on certain days.

Although we had all the trouble with filming the last shots we didn't end up putting them into the film. As we didn't put them in we focused more on the shots we had got and decided on slowing down one of the shots of the Red Flush.

Wednesday 11th February

Today we were finally able to go out and film the missing pieces for the begging. We went to the N1 center and filmed me and Bien 'falling' out a club and walking away giggling. 

After we had got some essential shots of me and Bien we went to another location to film clips of me walking on my own and stumbling on a newspaper heading. Although i take no notice of it, its very important for the viewers to see as it has key information about the rest of the film on it.

Monday 9th february

In todays lesson we were not able to film outside as i had forgotten my costume but we were able to film inside collage to do some shots from under the system. Because this shot was very hard to film because of the lighting, angle... we had to get Mickey to help us film the shots.

We tried laying on the floor and doing the shot from that angle but unfortunately the light was in the wrong place and it wasn't possible to see my face and the severed hand at the same time.

Fortunately Mickey helped us and he was able to get the right angle and we got the shot we needed.

Wednesday 5th February

Today we were unable to do more filming as the weather wasn't right again. Because of this we had to carry on editing from the lesson on monday but because we had already log and captured the previous lesson we only had to edit the clips together.

After playing around with the clips for a little while we started to insert some transitions so our thriller would flow better. When that was all sorted we started inserting 'slugs' which were clips empty black screen were we could place text on top of. The slugs would also help to make the clips flow better so if a piece of clip was missing we could place a slug in its place to make the film look better and without it looking weird or like something is out of place. 

After we had entered some transitions and slugs we went on to another program which helped us create proper titles for our thriller opening.

So far we are a lot further ahead compared to the other groups so that gives me a big confidence boost as we would have a lot better chance of finishing our thriller properly without any problems.  

Monday 2nd February

Finally i was able to come back to collage after i was diagnosed with shingles. However due to the weather we were unable to film anything so we went into the editing suit and carried on log and capturing and looking through all the work that Grace, Vikki and i had produced last thursday.

Thursday 29th January

Because of problems that we faced the previous day we had come back today to catch up on the filming that we had missed out on. When i met up with Vikki and Grace We went to the cafe and began filming different angles of me walking up the stairs and into the toilet. 

After that it was filming in the toilet which was very difficult because the toilet was only small and it had mirrors on two walls opposite each other. We managed to film some of the clips with no difficulties but unfortunately it was quite hard getting the right angle for the shot of me looking into the mirror but still able to see the toilet in the mirror. Although it took quite long to position it properly we managed to do it in the end and came out with a good shot for our thriller opening. 

Wednesday 28th January

Today after I went and met up with the group we went to film at our destination but unfortunately the cafe where we were filming was closed and opened at 12 which was when our lesson finished. We also were unable to film other clips for our thriller as when we had first film the lighting was a lot darker. Because of this we decided to film after collage tomorow and for the rest of the group to go back to collage and start uploading some of the film from yesterday and look through what we had film to see if we needed any more clips.

Monday 26th January

Earlier This week I was diagnosed with Shingles and was unable to come into collage because it was very contaigous. Even though i was very ill i had planned to meet the others from my group off collage grounds to film our thriller. Once i had met up with my group we went out and searched for toilets that had a vissible system to film our sequence in. When we had finally found a toilet we could use we set up the camera to start filming our starting sequence for our thriller opening. Because we had used a lot of our time lookin for an apropriate toilet to film in we didn't have enough time to start filming inside the toilet so we packed up and went home.

Wednesday 21st January

In todays lesson we had to make the final decisions for our thriller because at the end of the lesson we had to pitch our ideas to Tony, Andrew, Marisa and Mickey.
When we started talking over what we had already thought of the previous lesson we picked one of the best ones but changed it slightly. We Decided on the scenario where the tap dripped blood but instead we had a toilet that when it was flushed blood came out from the system. Now that we had chosen that storyline we built on it so we could produce a storyboard, this was to help us with the pitch. After we had done the storyboarding we created a shot list which included shot types and angles for each of the shots. We then started deciding on the props we would need for our thirller e.g. food dye.
For the second half of the lesson we stated prepping ourselves for the pitch to the class and the 'judges'. After we had pitch our idea the judges gave us feedback on what they fort were good ideas and what we should change. This was helpful for our group because knowing what a unbias view was on our plans helped us improve our work.

Monday 19th January

In todays lesson my group continued with planning our thriller openings.At the moment we have only come up with a couple of different stories that we could use.
One of our favourite ideas was about a toilet tap that was dripping blood or that someone would splash water on their face look in the mirror and the water on their face turned into blood. unfortunatly we realised after talkin it over that their would be some problems with gettin the right look without it looking too fake.
Anouther good scenario was about a mother and her little boy playing in a park. When the little boy is on the swing the mums phone rings so she turns around to answere the call. When she turns back around the boy isn't on the swing but standing by the swing all dazed. We all really liked this scene but again we had trouble with finding a yound actor who could be in our thriller.
The third idea involved a load of short clips of newspaper clipings about missing girls. it then cuts to a close up of eyes opening you can hear the person panting and strugling and in her eyes you can see she is scared and crying. I personally liked this the most but it would have been very hard to film and also it was a very similar to many other groups.
Although we had come up with some good ideas i dont think any of them are good enough for our group to produce.

Wednesday 14th January

In today's lesson we had the chance to polish of our film clip we were editing in the previous lesson. When we watched it back we realised that we had made some mistakes in the middle part so we decided to change a part of the soundtrack to fit the film.

When we had finished that task we were told what our final project was, to film an opening of a thriller film that lasts around 2 minuets. In preparation for this project our group started to brainstorm on some ideas for it. 

Monday 12th January

In Todays lesson we started editing the clips that we had filmed the other day together. We started by logging and capturing all the clips we had filmed so we could start editing all the clips down to the pieces we wanted. When we started to edit the clips together we had to take some bits out that we had planned to be in it because they didn't work with  the rest of the film. 

When we finished placing all the clips together we put on some cross transitions in some places so the clips would flow better together.

After all the editing was done we started creating a soundtrack for our shot film. We played about with different sounds until we found the right sound for our film clip.

Wednesday 7th January

In Today's lesson we started off by doing a quick starter where we had a description of a man and what he was doing. Our task was to show we could film match cut properly. After we had written down our idea of how we thought it should look we watched the real version of what was filmed so we could compare our work to professional work. 

After the Starter we went on to our main task, which was to film a piece of work of someone walking into a room, sit down opposite another character and share a few lines of dialogue. In our film clip we had to include match cuts shot and a reverse shot, to show we could understand the 180 degree rule.

Monday 5th January

In today's lesson we watched a documentary called 'watching'. it showed us different openings to some classic thrillers including The Shining, Seven, Casino and A touch of Evil. This was to help us create ideas on what we could later produce. 

There were many different ways in which we could open our thriller. We could do it like seven with short clips not showing allot of information about the film but just enough to stay interested. We could also start at the end and work the way back to the start finding out why it ends in that way like Casino. 

After we watched the documentary we watched a couple of thrillers that were produced a couple of years back. We were able to see the ones that were given A so we knew what we had to aim towards. This gave me some confidence that our group could produce some good work.