Joanne Tulip evaluation

Lauren Gibbens Evaluation

The opening to our thriller was based around several thriller films, which previously, we’d watched and analysed. We linked in several key themes and ideas from a variety of genres, such as supernatural, psychological, comedy etc.

Some ideas were very stereotypical to thriller films, such as ‘the venetian blind effect’, which is featured heavily in film noir.

Monotone colours were used throughout and music which was “against the grain”, known as ‘parallel sound’. We used all of these effects in our thriller and some of our ideas were taken from the original ‘Psycho’ which is shot in black and white throughout. We considered that this brought an element of mystery to our opening sequence, by there being a slight unfamiliarity with black and white films, which are stereotyped as ‘old fashioned’ , for our target audience. We chose to target teenagers of our own age (15-19), who would be more familiar with watching a full colour HD modern film. By introducing something unexpected which entices instantly, we challenged “the norm” to try and portray the element of ‘thrill’, even after it’s been successfully watched to its conclusion. The monotone colours are also featured in our text for the opening credits, as well as dominating the majority of the films editing.

We went about selecting our target audience by producing a questionnaire and asking a series of questions. These included ‘What is your favourite thriller? Why?’ This also helped us to take ideas from existing successful thriller movies such as, ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘The Grudge’, as well as ‘Psycho’ and ‘Woman In Black’, which we’d previously watched and analysed. We then decided as a group that we’d relate best to people of a similar age, as we’d know what was ‘scary’, or not (!) as the case may be, so we could adjust our thriller opening accordingly. People of our age like to say ‘I’ve watched that’ as we found out in our questionnaire, even if they didn’t enjoy it. Having selected our supernatural genre we decided that by making it seem unreal and dreamlike, more people may choose to watch it, as it’s not too scary. Feedback indicated that half the people may not enjoy being terrifed! In researching for our thriller we had asked if ‘thrillers’ were a popular type of film, and obviously the people who answered no, were less inclined to fit our target audience. These were younger members of the society in majority.

During the task, we improved our skills in using ‘final cut express’. In our preliminary task we weren’t very successful in using it, where the links appeared jumpy. We learnt how to add in transitions to ensure the clips run more smoothly. We have also learnt how to successfully make and produce our own music on ‘Garage Band’, and have recorded live vocals using this software. We used it alongside our images for our thriller opening. In comparison to our preliminary task, our thriller has been extremely successful as we have learnt many new skills with the software, such as adding text over a clip and cropping sections of a sub clip out, although this was not necessary on this occasion.

If our media production represents a particular social group, you could say that it represents teenagers, in the sense that it’s based around them. The main protagonist is played by Lauren Baxter, who represents a girl of a similar age to herself, i.e. late teenage. It represents a group in society that is perhaps classed as ‘weird’ or ‘abnormal’ so we considered that using the supernatural genre would be interesting. This representation of teenagers challenges the one commonly represented by the media, where teenagers can be stereotyped as being, lazy, yobs and aggressive, when as a matter of a fact, there are lots of subcultures in mainstream society which our character Lauren, happily falls into, including being delusional.

We looked at the Coen Brothers and their work with motifs and we decided that ours would be based around birthdays. We selected the very cynical sensation that a birthday would be spent alone, plotting the seventh murder of a family member. We informed our audience of this theme simply, but in more than a singular way, using a birthday card (handwritten), singing by Lauren herself, and music which we recorded live sung by myself, edited with an echo suggesting a very sinister mood and dark emotion.

Following group interest and research, our plot was based loosely around the seven deadly sins, which we decided that we could involve as a theme within our plot. Wrath, Pride, Lust, Envy, Greed, Sloth and Gluttony are the names in which these emotions are displayed and we decided to incorporate some of the more evil ones into our main character’s behaviour and mind-set. Additionally, we agreed to reverse the film, and put the ending at the beginning rather than ‘this is what happens and why’. We preferred to put the idea across of ‘this is the result of what’s happened, watch on to find out why…’. Alfred Hitchcock said that that the best type of thriller involves placing a normal person in an extraordinary situation. By using ‘normal’ costumes like pyjamas, at face view our character Lauren, was very normal, until placed in a mental home, an ‘extraordinary’ institution.

‘Levi Straus’, much like our own thriller, was based around one character. This idea, however, came with some disadvantages. Incorporating all the theories we preferred and wanted to include proved challenging when only using one person. However, by choosing to use the seven deadly sins idea, we were able to communicate with our audience by making our main character have seven split personalities. We used many different shots to represent a different side to ‘Lauren’, including a close up of her eyes and ear to suggest the relevance to ‘hear no evil speak no evil’ a famous quote credited to the three wise monkeys. We also used an out of focus shot when our character Lauren is standing by a door, almost ‘losing her mind’. This effect signified her body flipping out and not being in control of her actions or thought processes.

We challenged forms and conventions in our production of our thriller by selecting our main actor through a willingness to volunteer, rather than by audition. This was necessary due to budget restrictions. However, we identified ourselves positively with the makers of ‘Paranormal Activity’ also a low budget movie, not quite to our costs but which made a lot more money than its total finance spent. This gave us hope that ours may also be successful, should we choose to peruse our idea and launch it.

On reflection, we have identified certain improvements that could be made if we ever were to repeat our project, e.g. by daily updating the blog rather than weekly or monthly would help us to be consistent and achieve a more better final product in terms of detail. Additionally, making our film the traditional way around, from start to end would have enabled us to stick to Propps’ theory of stages of narrative and to relate his theory to our own work. Perhaps lowering the age range for our film would broaden our target audience, but due to the content and the potential content for a completed idea we decided to rate this film a 15 by the British Board of Film Classification. Propps also argued that there was a set of stock characters needed for a thriller which included a Villain, a Hero, a Dispatcher, a Princess and her father. Our thriller went against this idea as we only had the two characters and our protagonist; Lauren was the main focus of all the action. Criticisms of Propps’ theory was that it was very male dominated and living in a society which is now much more gender equal, we decided to fight that stereotype and base our own plot around a young, vulnerable female.

From this project we have learnt how to overcome technical problems and teach ourselves to use the editing programmes successfully. We learnt how to use transitions which made our clips run a lot smoother and gave the successful ‘dream- like’ daze required for our plot. We also learnt how to plan an idea, to stick to it, but also to make improvements along the way. The constant recording of our progress and updating of the blog was an excellent method of keeping on track with our filming and editing process. We learnt how to utilise perceived technical errors, such as not using a tripod when recording, to achieve special effects inspired by ‘The Blair Witch Project’. ’Paranormal Activity’ gave us the idea of filming our thriller by hand to maximise tension.  In conclusion, I have enjoyed the film making process very much and we, as a group, are very satisfied with our final product.

 

Lauren Baxter-Evaluation

Jae Bennett Evaluation (written)

Our production is now finished and we have successfully made our thriller opening which is called The Journey to Possession. We came up with the name the Journey to Possession as our film shows how and why our main character was possessed. The conventions of thriller movies are the creation of suspense and the tension to create anxiety for the audience.

When a thriller movie is created it is there to create anticipation and to put audience in a state of unease. The brief that we received was to make an opening for a thriller movie that was two to three minutes long. The main focus of our thriller is on a teenage girl whose mental health is continually questioned throughout the film without people knowing her back story.

Alfred Hitchcock famously said a thriller involves placing an ordinary character into and extraordinary situation. The concept of our film would follow this if we continued to film, but when mapping out our ideas, we decided that completely turning something on its head created a somewhat overall different theme, therefore our film is back to front, the ending is at the beginning and vice versa. By following the quote of Hitchcock we intended to place the ordinary person in an extraordinary place at the end of our film, therefore creating a suspense that the audience can perceive as they will.

Our main plot line is based on the facts of the seven deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. When contemplating ideas for our thriller we came across the seven deadly sins, this sparked an idea within our group. Our film would be split into seven subsections, and each section would represent a different sin. It becomes apparent during the course of the thriller that the main character (Lauren) is possessed, nobody knows by what, how or why, but she kills seven people that are close to her, either friends or family, on her birthday but has no recollection of doing so.

She is a danger to society and to herself therefore is confined to a mental institution which is where the opening of our thriller is set. We looked at the theory of Roland Barthes, he believed that in order to create a compelling suspense within a storyline the questions asked must remain unanswered, gripping the audience, who then foresee the action with a resolution.

For our thriller we wanted to create a narrative that would encourage our audience to continue watching the film in its entirety and also leave places in which the story could develop. Before we started making ideas and plans for our thriller we considered our target audience, we decided that it would be teens aged 15-19.This is because all of the members in our group are within the age range therefore we would have many ideas as the what people in this band would want, we also thought that it would be easier for us to find a lot of information out from people within the school. We surveyed this age band in order to find out what they look for within a thriller film, some of their answers included things such as: Scary music that creates tension - We included this by recording Lauren singing happy birthday, into garage band and putting an effect on it that made it echo. We slowed it down in order for it to have the eerie feel that we were trying to create.

Black and White - many people said that they found black and white thrillers felt as though they had more suspense. At first we did not intend to make our thriller in black and white, but after recording and starting to edit we made a few clips into black and white which gave a really good effect that we hadn't thought of.

Our thriller doesn't necessarily represent a certain group of society; it doesn't represent any socio economic groups such as teens or bands. I think at our thriller represents a deeper group of society, possibly even the people that are forgotten about on a daily basis or not usual members of society. I think that we broke certain boundaries when making our thriller, the story and plot line that we followed was vastly different to our piers. We break stereotypes as most teenage girls aged 17-19 are with their friends whereas our main character has an entirely different life.

For our research we looked at several different thrillers by different directors. We watched the opening sequence of the film Seven. The opening sequence was composed of only credits being displayed, the actors names in unusual lettering. Opening sequences like the one on Seven shows how simple attributes like music, colour and writing can establish a mood and set a scene for a film. The thriller Usual Suspects (Bryan Singers) is where we got our idea for putting the film in a different layout. Usual Suspects, unlike most thrillers that we watched showed the resolution at the beginning of the film enabling the audience to ask the question 'How did it happen?' Rather than 'What is going to happen?' We see Usual Suspects as not fitting the conventions that are usually associated with a classic thriller, which is a concept that our group were interested in recreating. We chose to use the resolution at the start as it immediately identifies and establishes the protagonist (Lauren).

Many thrillers by the Coen Brothers use semiotics and motifs; this is the case of using symbols or a recurring theme throughout the film. We used short shots to create a fast paced thriller at some stages. One shot that we tried to recreate was the shot in Barton Fink of the guestbook; we did this when making the shot of the Happy Birthday written on paper. Throughout the thriller we tried to incorporate the different ways of using happy birthday in order to keep it as a motif. The connotations of happy birthday and singing happy birthday are that it is childish, representing innocence and venerability. Another signifying idea that we used was to use quick shots at the start of the sequence of his eye, ear and mouth. This could be seen as a visual representation of the proverb of "see no evil hear no evil speak no evil" bringing a sinister and unsettling feel for the audience.

We looked into the theory of Levi Straus and the good and the evil. By only having one main character it was obviously hard for us to conquer some of the theories but by using the good and the evil we could represent it though different personalities of one person, this could also be looked at in the film Barton Fink which represents the schizophrenia of the main character.

Venerability was a key concept within our thriller. Our main character seemed to have no guidance or belief. We used different lighting and effects to help us create this feeling: Lauren was in pyjamas for the entirety of our thriller, we thought that this would give a sense of childishness and how she has no idea as to what is going on within her mind or body. We also tried to use different lighting to represent this: she sat with one spot light on her, this created focus for the audience but also acted within our theme of childishness, it could be perceived as a nightlight.

In real media products, the members of the cast such as actors and actresses are auditioned and studies in order to produce the type of character that is exactly what is wanted by the director. Obviously as a smaller institution we had a very limited choice of actors, and the make-up and clothing had to be done by ourselves, it was based on what we think would look the best when filming. The lighting that we had was created by a lamp, of which we took the lamp shade off of in order to give a plain and deprived feel. The outside lighting that we used was really good for our thriller as the clouds were thick and grey which was the exact effect that we were trying to create.

Following the BBFC (British board of film classification) we thought that our thriller would be rated at a 15. If we were to lower the age it would possibly bring in a wider audience range as it would be classed suitable for more, but we thought that if it were to be a 15 it would entice the 15+ audience as they would think it was more thrilling and have a stronger story line. In order for a thriller to be rated at a 15 the film has frequent use of strong language, or sexual activities have very little details, violence is apparent but is discrete and brief. Drugs may be used but not promoted and horror is allowed but not a detailed infliction of pain. Out thriller deals with abstract details such as possession, anger and pain being inflicted throughout.

The film Paranormal Activity was a bigger success than I think its creators could have asked for. If our film 'The Journey to Possession' was made into a main stream film I think that it would be made maybe by a lottery funding, if we were to aim bigger then Hollywood. Lottery funding has helped many small time film producers and directors such as Noel Clarke who wrote, directed and starred in the Adulthood and Kidulthood films. I feel that The Journey to Possession would benefit from a funding such as this in order to reach main stream cinemas. If we were to keep it as a small institutional film then it would be produced for sites such as YouTube, facebook or tumblr.

To attract our audience we used everything that we could that was included in the survey answers from our target audience. Our thriller is about a girl being possessed, at the moment there are several films about possession and how/why people are possessed, therefore I think that our film would attract a large audience/fan base. The shots that we used varied: we used short, quick shots in order to allow the audience into the personal space of our main character. One shot that we used was an extreme close up of Lauren's eyes; I think that this allows the audience to look straight at her rather than the surroundings that she is in.

The initial filming of our thriller was a success. We managed to film everything that we wanted in one day, which allowed us to get straight into filming when we returned back to school. We improvised many of the shots, rather than planning them all, although we did plan some, for example: the close up of the paper, and the long shot of Lauren running to the door. The camera that we used was Nikon LSR camera that belonged to me. It was a fairly easy camera to use therefore making our filming a lot easier for us. We decided to use this camera because during our preliminary task we firstly used an iPhone 4 to record our clips which worked well until we started to edit, and the clips were not in the correct format to use. During our main thriller filming we did not use a tripod which worked well for some scenes and not so well for others. When filming a fast shot some of the clips went slightly blurry, on one shot in particular this made a good effect: when we filmed from the wall to Lauren biting her nails and then to the lamp, the lamp blurred but this did give an effect that worked really well. The software that we used to edit our clips was Final Cut Express on the Macs. It was useful to use to have our preliminary to play around with on the software as it gave us a chance for find out how to use all of the different tools that it is equip with.

In comparison to our preliminary task, we as a group have found out what our strengths and weakness are. We have learnt to use different technologies and ways of making our thriller look far better than the preliminary. During the prelim task we used mainly the same shots: face or whole body shots. This did not create the best effects or portray what we were trying to achieve in the light that we had hoped. When it came to making our thriller, I think that planning was a key aspect. We made story boards and mind maps for any ideas that we had including: plot lines, camera shots, editing and sound. For our main task we researched in detail about the seven deadly sins and mental illness. We looked at how things were dealt with a few years ago and based what we did around that. It was important to us to find out what it was that we were trying to portray and that we did it in a way that was correct. When we made our preliminary we left a day to edit it which was clearly not enough time therefore our prelim did not end how we intended it to. For our main task we used three weeks of editing time in order to get our thriller completed.

The preliminary task continuity was poor and the transitions between the clips were jumpy and not well edited. It was important to us that our main task was far steadier and well put together with the correct transitions covering the clips. We used different transitions including dissolve and dip colour in order to create the change over from clip to clip smooth and in time. We used music in our thriller where as we did not in the preliminary take, I think that this was another obstacle that we overcame to make our main task far better than our preliminary.

I think if we were to do some things differently we would make better use of characters, although having one main character is increasingly effective, using more than one character would help us stick to more of the theories that we looked in depth to. I also think that by making the film the right way around would help us stick to the Propps theory etc. I also think that we could have made more use of flash backs in the film, as this may help to interpret earlier what we were trying to achieve.

The outcome of our final piece of work was remarkably close to the ideas that we had. We made some alterations along the way but we managed to create the suspension that was need for a thriller and not only meeting the criteria but exceeding it. I think that some of our shot were extremely effective, shots such as Lauren coming up the stairs or filming into her eyes. Also the shot of film from Laurens lap to the top of her head was a brilliant shot. I think that our thriller opening provided a brilliant foundation for a thriller film.

 

Jae Bennett

 

Location of the plot

This is our location we used for our film, a shot of this is captured when the main character walks in from the garden right at the beginning. When editing this shot, we slowed the speed down to add effect. The title of the film 'the journey to possession' follows once we're inside, this credit comes up when the character is just about to walk up the stairs, the stairs can be used to reflect and symbolise the 'journey' as to which the character has taken to becoming possessed.

Lauren Baxter

Last Day of editing

Today is our last day of editing, we will be finishing the opening and making sure that everything is how we want it to look. We have all been busy writing our evaluations and recording them to be uploaded for tomorrows deadline. I think that working as a strong group has allowed us to put ideas in that we all wanted. We need to ensure that all clips are together in a way that we are happy with and that run smoothly.

Jae

Day Six of editing

Today we spent 2 hours editing the opening of our film. We started today by adding the credits to the clips, this consisted of J L J L productions; starring; director and and sound. While watching the clips it came to our attention that the clips that we had added to our time line were in the wrong tracks, therefore we had to move them all into track one.
We are currently in the process of putting the final pieces into the thriller opening.

Jae, Lauren, Lauren and Joanne

Media

The video clip of JLJL being written is shown at the beginning of our thriller before the credits. We chose it because it’s a simple, yet effective way to create a sinister start to our thriller. We edited the clip with a black and white effect to tie in with our film and the reverse and speed up effect to make it seem disorientated and supernatural.
The paper is then ripped up to symbolise the journey to possession ending before it’s begun in a way that could symbolise destruction too very early on. However, we then reversed the effect so the paper comes back together to signify the mental state of the woman being covered up, until the photographs are released later in the sequence and her plan is uncovered.

Lauren Gibbens.

Jae Bennett

Day 5 of editing

Today was the first time during the editing process that all four of us from our group have been in the lesson, we had a double media studies lesson today, and all of us had two free study periods, we all spent one free period editing plus the double media lesson and Joanne and I stayed for the second free period.

We have almost completed the editing process of our thriller opening. Today we recorded the 'company name' for the beginning titles.

This video shows the opening of the clip, it shows Lauren Gibbens writing the name of our film company JLJL productions. We had filmed her writing it, I filmed her ripping up the paper, we then played this, made a sub clip using final cut express and rewound it in order for it to look as though the paper was being pieced back together. As well as rewinding the clip we sped it up by double the speed. 

When we used our camera and watched the videos back, there is a buzzing noise over the clip from the camera recording. To eliminate this, I took each clip separately and changed the audio and pan level in order to cancel out the noise, I changed the pan to 1 and the level to -20. By doing this it has reduced the buzzing sound but still kept any intended sound. 

During today's session we recorded Lauren Gibbens singing happy birthday for the opening 20 seconds of our thriller. We used a microphone and the software Garage Band on the Mac computers to record Lauren and put an effect on her voice called Diva. By doing this it has echoed her voice. 

Joanne also used garage band to help make a sound track for our film, she used already installed clips of different piano pieces to create a minutes worth of music. 

Media opening

Jae Bennett

Brain storm for opening

Lauren Baxter, Lauren gibbens, Joanne, Jae 

Sound

The choice of music we used over our opening credits and thriller opening sequence was classical due to the unfamiliar effect it has on teenagers, which was our target audience. It becomes slightly scary and spooky as the music is unfamiliar to individuals and the element of unknown and suspicion links to the supernatural theme of our thriller. We chose to slow the music down which we produced using garage band as then it gives an even more mysterious sound effect when voicing the images of our thriller.

Lauren Gibbens 

Storyboard for our first plot idea

Here is our storyboard we had created for our first plot idea, it helps to be able to capture each shot and the different camera angles, shot types, sounds and also camera movements.

Lauren Baxter

Editing on Friday 20th

Today I spent an hour editing the final 30-40 seconds of our opening sequence. I decided that the ending of our film could have an extra section, leaving the opening with more of a cliff hanger. I made a sub clip of the last clip in our sequence, slowing it down and and reversing it. By doing this it ends the sequence on a shot of Lauren, staring at the camera. We will be adding text to the end of the sequence in order to explain what the opening is about.

Jae

Semiotics

Semiotics is the use of symbols to represent something. The scientist Saussure recognised that there was not link to the symbol of something and a word, as a word is just letters carried together, but it just so happens that in certain languages some letters joined together make certain words. Also known as the signifier (the word) and the object (the symbol).

Jae

Thrid day of editing

Today Lauren Gibbens and I continued to edit our film. We decided on the choice of music we were going to have throughout the opening credits of the film, a slow opera song, giving an eerie feel. We thought that this coinciding with the dark trees at the beginning would look and sound good together. We thought about adding a slowed down ‘happy birthday’ to one of our scenes as it is a motif in our film, to do this Lauren started to use garage band in order to make the music that we needed. We spent 1 hour editing today, we only came across one main issue in today's session which was creating a flash back. Usually a flash back would be in black and white in order to show the contrast but as our main film is in black and white we decided to make our flash back in colour. Our current difficulty is how to show clearly that the section is a flash back, we took a 'trial and error' approach to this section, trying out different filters on final cut express (FCE) but at the moment we haven't found the right one, therefore will continue to try tomorrow. I think that we will have to use another video from YouTube to help us find which one would look best for the flash back clip. Today we realised that we had a few long clips in our film so used a few of the tools on FCE to chop them down into small clips, using different transitions to combine them.

Jae bennett

Second day of editing

Today, we had one media studies lesson in which, Lauren Baxter, Lauren Gibbens and I, carried on our editing. When editing we decided that we were now going to make our film in black and white as it gives the shots that we have a better effect, making it feel more like a thriller.
We had a one hour lesson in which we got the first 30 seconds edited. After the one hour lesson, Lauren Baxter and I spent a further 2 hours editing the film, by the time that we had finished we had approximately 2.10 minutes of our film clip. The clips that we had look better in black and white, as it is easier for us to match the clips, rather than the different colours and lighting of clips.
We still have approximately another minute to add to our film in which we have to also add a sounds track and opening credits to.

Jae Bennett

Time Line

29^th Jan – first blog post
31^st Jan –watched psycho
Tuesday 21^st Feb – get brief for prelim and film get a cassette for camera
Weds 22^nd – getting used to school camera
Monday 27^th (double lesson) recording prelim
Tuesday 28^th – (double lesson) recording prelim
Thursday 1st^th – edit prelim (problems occurred)
Friday 2^nd – edit prelim again
Tuesday 6^th (double)- set up blog and post initial ideas
Weds 7^{th -} begin to plan plot
Tuesday 13^{th -} begin to plan plot
Thursday 15^{th -} create story board and take some practise shots of potential settings or action
Friday 16^{th – Take pictures of cast and setting and analyse them, post to blog}
Tuesday 20^th - changed initial idea, mind map ideas
Weds 21^{st -}redo the storyboard according to our new plot
Monday 26^{th -} redo the storyboard according to our new plot
Tuesday 28^{th –} practise shots
Thursday 29^th - practise shots
2^nd – 14^th April half term – recording
Tuesday 17^th – start editing
Weds 18^th – Thursday 26^th April – finish editing and evaluation
Friday 27^th DEADLINE

 
Jae and Lauren Gibbens

 

 

 

Beginning the editing process

Today we began to edit our final work using final cut express. Firstly we uploaded all of our clips to the software using a memory stick where all of our clips are stored, this took approximately 20 minutes due to us having over 120 clips. After uploading all of the clips we organised them into chronological order to help us when we started editing and putting the clips into our timeline. The first process of editing the clips was to filter out all of the clips that we wouldn't be using, this left us with approximately 100 clips to use for our overall 5 minute thriller opening.

After working out which clips we needed, Lauren Gibbens and I started to edit the first clips. The opening credits of our film is a shot of the sky. The sky was extremely cloudy when we shot it, the clouds were dark which gave a striking deep purple effects across the clouds. This fitted really well with the effect that we intended to create by editing, so getting the perfect first time around was a fantastic start.

 here is a print screens from a clip of our film.

Final cut express is a brilliant program to use when trying to achieve professional results. We initially tried to make one long clip from two separate clips, this proved difficult as the camera had slightly moved when filming making the clip look jumpy when we attempted to render the clips. Using the 'razor' tool on final cut express we cut one of our clips into two, making a final of three clips that was to be made into one. We used different layers to make the clips blur down, this made the clip look less jumpy.



We will be continuing the editing process tomorrow

Jae

Setting Analysis

Our setting consisted of an empty room in a house which we shot both in and outside. The house we filmed in is shown previously on our blog and the room in which our action took place. We have also posted a shot of this with the table and lamp combination which completed our set. White walls and door helped to create a supernatural look using pure colours. This contrasts nicely to the red crayon which gets thrown at the door during the sequence, symbolising blood which instantly makes you feel fear.
There is also a shot of the stairs we used to show our characters entering the room. She goes in the front door of the house which we filmed and follows through the house and up the stairs. The clock time remains at 26 minutes past 2 which signifies time being incorrect and stopping in the characters mind.
Crayon- We decided to use this item of stationary to create the birthday message as it symbolises childlike characteristics or toys. Children love colouring and we wanted to portray our character as mentally underdeveloped and unstable similarly to a child as they are still learning. We directed her to hold the crayon incorrectly to suggest she hadn't learnt properly how to hold it… just like a child.
Pyjamas- We chose the costume as pyjamas as it suggests a lack of urgency and no enthusiasm for life. Living each day as it comes, not being prepared or ready suggests she's always house bound and never needs to go anywhere or complete a 'normal' day.
Lauren Gibbens and Jae

Props

        
These are the pictures we used to symbolise our main characters madness, they were memories and signified all of her previous murders as she was the only person left not scratched out of the pictures. This was important to our plot because this was the moment when our councillor character realised what she had done.                             







We used paper and crayons to symbolise childlike characteristics. We wanted ‘Lauren’ to use crayons as opposed to a pen because it made her seem more like a child rather than an adult and her personality had to reflect someone insane and underdeveloped mentally so crayons fitted in well as children are not fully developed either.

This table had a wonky 4^th leg. This symbolised damage through aggression and lack of care because ‘Lauren’ isn’t in a healthy state of mind. It was a brown table with a dirty top  which also suggests a careless attitude.

Lauren Gibbens

CLAMPS of our thriller

Costume - Lauren was our main character. Her character represented a possessed girl who had nothing to live for any more. The costume that we decided upon was a pyjama set: black and white trousers and a grey baggy t-shirt. We thought that this would represent a world where there was no willingness to even get dressed.

Lighting - The lighting that we used was minimal. We used the natural light of the room at the beginning of our sequence which was quite dull as we had thin curtain closed to give the dark feeling, reflecting the characters personality. During the sequence we used a lamp to light Lauren's face, it was bright around her face, but the rest of the room was dark.

Actors/Action - The main actor within the thriller is Lauren, she is the only person that we see through the entirety of the sequence, until the very end where her councillor is introduced which is Jae. The action that Lauren makes is subtle through most of it.

Make-up - The make up that we used was minimal to give a look of vulnerability. Lauren's face is naturally pale  therefore we added 'talc' to make it more pale, then we put white eye-shadow on her eye lids.

Props - The props that we used were: a table, paper, crayons, a lamp, photos and scissors. (Lauren will be going into more detail in another post)

Setting - Our setting is mainly set within one bedroom. It is mainly white, giving the feeling of a hospital room, it is neutral and plain.

Jae

Plot for our thriller

The storyline for our thriller is a supernatural/psychological film that involves a girl aged approximately 25 and is possessed. We had the idea that our thriller would be back to front, so the end of the film would be at the beginning and it would take the rest of the film to find out why the ending/beginning is what it is. The motif within our film is the birthday sequences, the girl is a mental patient who has scratched out photos of her families faces.  The thriller see's the girl's mental health deteriorating and it is obvious that she is disturbed. The girl has been possessed by something and no longer has a life and has no mind of her own. Writing her own birthday cards each year the girl reaches seven years after she is possessed and there is no telling what she is going to do. The seven years that have gone by are representing the seven deadly sins which are wroth; greed; sloth; pride; lust; gluteny and envy. Each of the sins the girl has experienced result in her killing a member of her family.

Jae

Questionnaire

We decided as a group it would be beneficial for us to make a questionnaire to find out what our target audience (young people aged 16-20) look for when watching a thriller movie. We got the idea of making a survey from Survey Monkey.
Questionnaire

1. What genre of thriller movie do you prefer?

Psychological
Super Natural
Sci – Fi
Comedy
Other

 

1. What thriller have you most recently watched?
    
2. Which thriller that you have seen has scared you the most? 
3. What is a key feature in a thriller that you would state
4. What is favourite thriller of all time and why?

Our conclusion is that many people preferred to watch psychological or super natural therefore it would be a good idea for us to have this as a storyline for our thriller. The psychological side of our thriller is based on a girl who is possessed resulting in her killing her family.


Jae, Lauren Baxter, Lauren Gibbens

Woman In Black review

The opening sequence of the women in black was presentedwith monotone colours. Greys, whites and blacks were used to creature a mysteriousand dream like atmosphere so you question the realism of the story/plot. Thedarker colours also represent gloom, which could link to mystery and somethinghidden, in the case, very early on symbolising the woman in black.

Compared to a romantic comedy film which would often openwith red’s and pink, stereotypical ‘love’ colours highlighting passion or evenjust bright colours like yellows and greens, suggesting natural emotions. The china dolls are a motif which symbolise the supernatural genre of film which continues. The dolls are significant as the film is based around children and the supernatural element makes the dolls seem scary and therefor influence the fear. Straight away at the opening of the film tension is built as we watch 3 ghost like girls jump out of their bedroom window together. As an audience this makes us want to find out what has happened for them to do this as they seemed very fictional. The effects used of the fading tradition make the opening seem very dream like which again signifies perhaps a dream and an element of mystery.

Lauren Baxter and Lauren Gibbens  

Our new ideas

For the beginning of our thriller we are going to create our production company credits, we have decided to create this by writing the production company title 'JLJL productions' on a piece of paper. We are then going to rip the paper up.
When we go onto editing this we will speed it up and then reverse it at the end of the ripping to create added effect.
As a group we have come up with a few alternative ideas which we had brainstormed down onto paper however we all decided this idea would be the most suitable and effective. We are hoping that the timing for this will take no longer than 25-30 seconds.

Lauren Baxter

Script

Script
Jae – (knocking on the door) It's Ann again Lauren, is it okay for me to come in now? (Walk into the room)
Lauren - (sitting on the floor, not wanting to talk)
Jae – Lauren what is this? (Picking up the photo's in shock)
Lauren – (not looking at Jae/opposite direction)
Jae – Lauren what have you done?


Our thriller consisted of minimal speaking, we thought this would give a greater effect to the thriller.
 
Jae, Lauren Baxter, Lauren Gibbens

Change of Plot

On the 20/03/12 we decided to change our plot as we realised that our last idea wasn't achievable because of the casting we needed. It was a lot easier to base our plot around an older main character, a female around 17 years old, than rely on a young girl who may not be 100% reliable when it came to filming. We have changed the genre of our film from psychological to supernatural which is easier to do as 'the thing' doesn't have to be seen and there's an element of unreal or the audience is able to decide what they believe 'the thing' is rather than create a specific thriller image. Our new idea is coming together nicely, and hopefully we will be able to start filming sooner now because of our character change and progress with our project.

Lauren Gibbens

Final Cut Express

To edit our work video clips we have been using software on the Mac computers called Final Cut Express. It is the consumer version of Final Cut Pro and is designed for advanced editing of digital video as well as high-definition video, which is used by many amateur and professional videographers. Obviously being amateur videographers we have being using online help to enable us to get full use of the software. The Apple website is the main source of the information that we need, but there are many YouTube and miscellaneous webpage’s that we have been using. Final Cut Express has many different key tools that we need to edit our thriller to the best of our ability, these include:

§  Dynamic RT, which changes real-time settings on-the-fly

§  Motion path keyframing

§  Opacity keyframing

§  Ripple, roll, slip, slide and blade edits

§  Picture-in-picture and split-screen effects

§  Up to 99 video tracks and 12 compositing modes

§  Up to 99 audio tracks

§  Motion project import

§  Two-way colour correction.

§  Chroma key

This particular video has been extremely helpful to us during the making of our preliminary task and editing our overall piece of work:

No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is a thriller by the Coen Brothers starring Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Kelly Macdonald to name but a few and is a story of an ordinary man to who

chance delivers a fortune that is not for him. In the opening ten minutes of the film many people die which makes the audience want to continuing to watch the film in anticipation of who is murdering the people. The film is set in an isolated place, almost a desert scenery which is common in thriller films, giving an ‘out of the ordinary’ and scary feel to the setting.  The murder is a sinister and ominous man; he gives nothing away as to what he is thinking or reasons why he killing the people he does. The sounds at the beginning of the film are non-diegetic giving the sense that the sheriff is speaking directly to us, the audience.  

CLAMPS (costumer, lighting, action/actors, make-up, propps, setting) of Anton Chigurh the villain No Country for Old Men:

Costume – dark black clothes, this gives nothing away about his character. Shows no emotion through his clothes, the colour may reflect his mood and mind, maybe evil. Black often represents the villain, dark and portentous.

Lighting – nothing is given away about him, he is a neutral character that has no emotion. He has no extra light to the natural light; he has a large shadow a lot of the time due the high sun. This may represent his dark nature.

Action/Actor - Only the villain is shown in the first sequences to the thriller. He creates the action by killing people, but the action isn’t of a high impact, it seems mellow.

Make- Up – His face is extremely pale and his eyes are dark, this is a common characteristic of the villain.

Propps – the villain uses that looks like an oxygen tank to kill his victims. It seems to be an innocent object but when we see what it is used for it is obvious that its used for a lot more.

Setting – An isolated desert area, it is obvious to the audience that if something bad happens it is going to take a long time for anyone to realise anything dreadful has happened. 

Jae Bennett

North by Northwest

North by Northwest is an Alfred Hitchcock thriller starring Carrie Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The film is a tale of mistaken identity of an innocent man, (Carrie Grant), is chased across the United States by agents of an organisation who want to stop him interfering with their plans . North by Northwest is an action thriller that is face paced and exciting, with an array of cliff hangers and not just metaphorical ones! 


This scene is well known for its brilliant use of tension and suspense. It is viewed as the best sequence in the film.The scene begins with a high angled, extreme wide shot, setting the scene. This tells the viewer where the action is taking place.

Jae