Thriller Evaluation

As we were instructed to create an opening to a thriller movie using specific devices and techniques from conventional thriller films, our group took influence from a few well known thriller films. We first created a digital story board and a ‘dry run’ of our initial ideas for our thriller ‘DeathWalk’ and views on how we want the finished product to look.
The final look of the main character looked similar to The Ring (2002):Thriller films usually contain certain factors that increase tension and suspense, some of these factors include; isolation, a hostile atmosphere and unpredictable events to ‘shake’ the audience and keep them interested. Some examples of thriller openings that contributed to our film idea include; 28 days later and Arlington road. In the opening to 28 days later the feeling of isolation and seclusion from reality is highlighted, for example when the main character finds that there is no one in the hospital, he then leaves and walks around London to find nobody. I wanted to produce the strong sense of isolation as our piece is a suicidal dream sequence.

However re-creating this environment was difficult when there is no sufficient financing. We decided that a big park would be the best location to try and re-create the impact of seclusion. Some devices used in the opening sequence to Arlington Road were useful techniques and ideas that we included in our work. This included a low ankle shot of abrupt walking and foot movements.
We found this technique abstract and unique and as we were portraying a dream sequence, it was vital that we took and abstract and ‘strange’ approach toward this project to fulfil this effect.We chose to use conventional ‘thriller’ film techniques so that we could merge and develop elements from successful thriller films to create a memorable and hostile atmosphere.
The sound in our final piece was also similar to many conventional thriller films, it consisted of a simple piano melody but was high pitched and minimalistic. The unpredictable events and tension was heightened by the music and added extra hostility and anxiety to the overall sequence. An example of a similar style but with string instruments is the opening sound track to the shining.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDR4OJUPG6A
The product shows the protagonist to be a young female and the piece represents typical subconscious teenage issues of trying to find identity, feelings of isolation and misunderstanding. We decided to use a female as the protagonist because many thriller films use females so that the audience can empathise with their fears and worries. Stereotypical characteristics of a female protagonist in a thriller films are - vulnerability, emotional instability, restlessness and anxiety. These characteristics are mainly used in thriller films, as they are stereotypical connotations of females thus making females be seen to deliver more sentiment to the audience and highlight the tense atmosphere that is being created.Some examples of female protagonists that influenced our work into proving that a female could perfectly portray the role created for our thriller opening are; What Lies Beneath (2000, Michelle Pfeiffer), The Others (2001, Nicole Kidman) and The ring (2002, Daveigh Chase).

We didn’t want our main female to represent a particular race or for the audience to be able to pinpoint a specific social class. When deciding how to represent our views on the protagonist not belonging to a specific social classification we conferred ideas on costume and make-up. Our final idea was a girl to be dressed in a dressing gown and have her face covered up by hair we took a few test shots to see if it would work and we all felt that it looked appropriate for the narrative.

The overall social group I feel that our work represents is teenagers focussing mainly on females and aiming to toward the target audience of working class to middle-class teenage girls.
Our media product is more likely to be a mid-budget Hollywood blockbuster as it follows the conventions of typical thriller movies and uses many elements of previous successful thriller movies. As our thriller includes many intertextual references to other films mentioned previously (28 days later, Arlington Road and The ring), these films were mainly mid-budget blockbusters resulting in our piece being of a similar financial criteria. However 28 days later and The Ring’s production costs would be higher than what the budget we would aim to have due to these film using busy and well known locations to film. By using these locations it creates more financial dilemma as roads may have to be blocked off and police officers to guard the area causing traffic. Possible distributors of the film may be Warner Brothers with the specification being Domestic Theatrical Distributor. Warner Brothers is a successfully established distributor and contributed with Domestic Theatrical distributor to distribute The Shining (1980).

The release of the film would either come out around a specific occasion (e.g. Halloween or Friday 13th) or a school holiday period where teenagers over the age of fifteen will be able to go and see it. The film will also only be showing after 21:00 in the cinema and special late night showings would also be available to increase the ‘thrill’ of going to view it at the cinema.
The main target audience for our media product would be teenage girls as the film idea as a whole covers many teenage issues of depression and isolation. We chose this as a target audience as it is our age group and therefore we decided to create something that would appeal to us. Raising teen suicide rates a turning to be an increasingly big issue amongst society so tackling such a sensitive subject for people around our age group was hard but yet in some senses mentally and emotionally fulfilling.

To attract my target audience I would use a range of promotional campaigns starting with traditional techniques and leading to modern ways of advertising and promoting the film ;(e.g. the internet). Starting with the traditional ways of marketing our film I would promote through:
• Paid trailers on television- Trailers showing on mainly terrestrial channels between popular programmes within an adolescent audience such as; Desperate Housewives (Channel 4), Skins (E4), Shameless (E4),Gossip Girl (ITV2). These programmes are aired after 21:00 in the evening and by using the advertisement breaks between parts of the programme it will capture the attention of the audience. A full trailer may also be debuted after midnight on a terrestrial channel (preferably Channel 4).
• Paid trailers on radio - Radio trailers will air after 20:00 so the audience will be aware of the genre. The voice over will be of a deep male voice making the trailer sound gritty and thrilling. A few sound effects could be used to represent the unpredictable events that occur in the film.
A recent television trailer; http://www.theunbornmovie.net/
Some modern ways to promote the film towards my selected audience:
• Viral Marketing – As young adults have evolved with technology and become accustom to using the internet as a source for entertainment the trailer will be available on film specialist websites and cinema websites. A few cinema websites that the plot and full trailer could be viewed at are; http://www.odeon.co.uk/ , http://www.showcasecinemas.co.uk/ and http://www.empirecinemas.co.uk/. Leaks from film websites may be put onto such sites as www.youtube.com are still a means of free advertising and can only have a positive outcome in the lead up to the release date.
Other ways in which the film could be promoted in the run up to the release date:
• Billboards – This would include advertisements on buses, in the tunnel of trains/subways and on the side of roads and motorways.
• Short flashes of a certain memorable detail from the full trailor in-between programmes on television.


Although we had been briefly introduced to the software used to construct our final piece, I felt that when using the software and trying to perfect a specific detail I had trouble witch tackling the intricacies. However after taking another hour to familiarise myself with the uses and features of the software (Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro) I felt much more confident within the group and was able to help in trying to portray our work and deliver the intentional effect and devices.
I found that once I had created a basic structure or a ‘rough cut’ of our two minute opening sequence it made it a lot easier to change, perfect and make use of the roll range of shots and clips that we had.

In hindsight I feel that as a group and personally, the finished product has exceeded my expectations and yearns to create a successful final piece. Sometimes when you are trying to think of creative ways in which you manipulate your shots when editing, you feel as though you have a ‘mental block’ which can be frustrating.
Although I feel that the end product was successful if I was to re-do or for future reference toward this type of work, I would definitely stick to a more vigorously planned and precise schedule prior to filming dates and start editing before we have got all the shots as it would have been easier to add and perfect once all the shots were done instead of starting once all the filming had been done.

Half Term Filming and Editing

13/02/09
Filming in Finsbury park
It was vital that even though we did not have a college on the Friday before half term, we would of have a 3hr lesson in which we could finish our filming. As we didn’t have that our group made a decision to film on that day anyway as we were already behind because most groups had finished filming. We filmed solidly for about three hours and got alot of footage, probably more than we needed but it means that we have a wider choice when coming to edit next week. I think the hanging scene will we quite effective, when watching it back I felt quite relieved that we’ve now nearly finished.
Myself and Yvonne (another group member) plan to do a the girl tossing in bed scene at her house on Sunday (15/02/09), all in all a productive day filming and a relief into knowing that we will finish on time.
15/02/09
Filming bed shots, Myself and another group member filmed the tossing and turning bed shots in her house we experimented with lots of different angles and shots and used things like boxes and pillows to make the perfect level and get a ‘head-on’ shot of the girl.
16/02/09
Some of our group members came into college on the first day of our holiday to log and capture our footage and make a start on editing. We have around 25minutes of footage which should be more than enough to work with. Myself and Yvonne devised a rough cut of the sequence around 5minutes long so that we will have a basic outline to work with when we return from half term.

First day of Filming

31/01/09
After going to a nearby park in lesson hours, our group was prepared to start filming. Just as we were starting off the parks warden told us that we would need special permission to film in the section of the park and we had to leave. We headed back to college and decided on asking our teacher what our next move was. Would we have to change our whole film idea?
Our group and teacher tried to think of other locations what were not too far away as we had to shoot in the lesson time if we didn’t want to be behind. We find a nearby church yard that had a wide road with a squeaky gate (conventional mise-en-scene for thriller. Once we got there we got a lot of footage that we may or may not use for our final piece but starting somewhere rather than waiting for another week to film was a good idea and the shots we got may come of use at a later date. Although the location wasn’t perfect we now have a stronger idea of what we definitely want and now we have a found a location to continue filming next week. I will go to Finsbury Park and find a tree that suitable for our narrative and filming next week should hopefully be a success.

Thriller evaluation

After watching a couple of example thriller films from the year before we decided that we would be different and challenge the normal thriller conventions. Rather then having a ‘bog standard’ thriller with normal conventions, like an action thriller or a political thriller we thought to create a supernatural thriller. Our way of being creative we used conventions borrowed from the horror genre. We used ideas from other thrillers but then modified them to make them more original.

The conventions of a normal thriller are:
· A race against time
· Contains a lot of violence
· An obvious antagonist
· Lots of guns explosions
· Large elaborate mise-en-scene for the action to take place





The conventions of a supernatural thriller are:
· A conflict between the main character and a super natural force
· Combines the tension of a action thriller with basic instruments of horror like ghost



So for our opening we decided to have a supernatural force battling with our main protagonist, our protagonist being a teenaged female. Rather then a male one, which we usually see. In our opening instead of having the female portrayed as a damsel in distress as they usually are, we have made ours the lead, and given her all the power. But she is heavily isolated so it takes this feel away from the opening, and she seems weak once again.

Another film with a female protagonist

The target audience for my Thriller will be teenagers to young adults, from the age of 16 to about 25. It will appeal highly to them because our film is very similar to a horror/ sci-fi. A typical person who would see our thriller is 18-year-old male Luke, who spends all week working part time and at UNI, on the weekends likes to relax by going out with friends and frequently visits the cinema.



Promotion of films can be the biggest downfall to most films so here are the best ways for our film to get the best advertisement:
· On TV, the Internet via pop-ups & online trailers, the films official website
· In cinemas before bigger name films start showing a trailer
· The radio also could be used
· Posters could be placed around advertising the film, at bus shelters, on busses, billboards etc.

Our video has already been placed on the Internet at http://www.vineo.com/
Because the Internet is available to everyone this means we increase our target audience as people will see our film and then inform friends about it.
We could use social networking sites along with video sites to promote our video. A successful film which was 1st advertised on a social networking site was Adulthood, everyone knew about the film 3 months before it was due to be released in the cinemas thanks to their site on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/adulthoodthemovie
Teenagers and young adults use social networking sites a lot to communicate with and make new friends. Our target audience, sometimes on a daily basis, uses them frequently. So this is the perfect way for us to reach them, it is also free for all to use, so anyone on these sites could find out about our film. The main sites we will use will be Facebook, Myspace & Youtube.



In order for our film to be the best it could we had to make use of all the equipment available to us, from digital cameras to the colleges Apple Mac PCs. We had to get used to them all very quickly, and all the media terminology, so we could name all the shots we used and all the effects so we could describe them. We focused on using pans to elaborate on the protagonist isolation as she’s walking though the park.


This shot is like the opening of 28 Days later when their main protagonist is walking through the empty streets of London.




We start to use more low angle shots as the opening draws to an ending.

This shot is like the one at the start of Arlington road, were the boy is walking but his vision is blurred and it focuses on his feet, we decided to use a zoom blur here.


We had already planned most of the shots already and some were changed when we actually started filming as you can see.



The Apple Macs we used to put our films together already had the programs we needed to do it built in. they were all relatively easy to use, they were Soundtrack Pro & Final cut Pro.


We used Final Cut Pro to get our different shots from the camera to the computer, called logging and capturing, this is the easiest part of this process. We then had to put all the shots together with good continuity; we also had to use different effects to make the film look professional and everything to work together.
This is our final film in Final Cut Pro, after we have added the soundtrack; this is before we have added the end shots of the main protagonist hanging, we also got the idea of the collection of fast shots with the white effect from Arlington Road.
















My Group also made use of soundtrack pro to create our own soundtrack. I wasn’t really good at this so the other group members took over. There was a wide range of sounds to choose from and in the end they settled for a slightly minimalist drone going throughout the duration of the film.



We had planned fully for the final film as are 1st two preliminary films suffered because of a lack of organisation. When you plan you know in advance what your doing, the type of shots your using so you can get straight down to it, when you plan ahead you can also improvise a lot and it will not affect your work because you already know what you want to achieve. We also had learnt to put our all in to the editing of the film because obviously this is the make or break point, you could have the best shots but the below par editing and your thriller wouldn’t look good and vice versa. We were told continuously by teachers and classmates we should of ended with a shot of the protagonist waking up at the end, but on the day we missed the chance to do it. That was the one major criticism we received. Our class and teachers alike complimented us on our P.O.V shot of the protagonist tying the noose on the tree. The fact that we never went over the top with our effects, they particularly liked the slow motion shot of the protagonist tossing and turning in the bed, and the speeded up section of her going through all the different stages. The narrative of her in the bed, and our‘dazzling’ end scene.

The Pitch

23/01/09

Today’s lesson consisted of pitching our final film idea to a panel (three teachers) . We would either receive the ‘green light’ or some constructive criticism toward our idea. Our very first initial idea was to do a chase between two characters similarly to a clip viewed in a previously lesson from the television drama series Torchwood. When discussing further into what we want to achieve in this task we decided to continue sharing ideas on what our final thriller narrative should be.

We then produced two ideas:
The first one is called ‘Downloaded’ and the idea is similar to an exemplar thriller created by one of the media technicians. With this I idea our group would be able to use a range of thriller techniques such as; computer ‘downloading percentage’ shots, the use of match-cutting to heighten tension and create a steady pace of the narrative and a smooth exchange of briefcases similar to a scene in the film Collateral.
The other new idea that our group created was ‘Walk to Death’ which was a dream sequence, based around the process of a girl committing suicide with a rope and a tree. Our ideas were to film the girl from behind without showing her face or any identifiable features using only point of view shots for the audience to empathise with her. We then wanted to end the sequence by having another character walk into the shot just as the girl is about to hang herself, making the final long shot into an over the shoulder shot.

We were in between the two ideas of ‘The Chase’ and ‘Walk to Death’, we asked our teachers for advice and the majority vote was toward the Walk to Death idea. Although we were told that it sounds too much like horror, we were given some guidance on how to make it less gory and more thrilling.

Once pitching both ideas ‘Walk to Death’ go the green light and we received support from our class peers on the idea as well. It reliving to know that we now have a final idea for out thriller film and we plan to do a digital story board with a camera next lesson so filming is not rushed and the speicifc shots we need are noted down.

Final Preliminary Film Pt 2

Final prelim Pt 2

20/01/09

In today’s lesson we finished editing our final preliminary exercise. The finished product in comparison to our previous prelim exercise clearly shows our expanding expertise within camera work and continuity.

After finishing these two tasks it is apparent that we have taken on board the advice and techniques out teachers have told us. I have learnt how the explore the 180 ̊ rule and use it to an advantage, by using this techniques it keeps consistency and gives the finished product a ‘neater’ overall without having to use effects and ‘mirror’ scenes to make them all in one direction. Another useful technique that takes a lot of time and effort to perfectly complete is match-cutting. However this technique is especially useful when in the editing process as it gives you a range of structure and frame sizes to work with and can also help with continuity and focus on a specific object, action or person.

This task showed typical elements of a thriller film e.g. smug characters, use of props such as; a brief case and remote, pulsating music and an unpredictable event. The sequence ended with the ‘less-confident’ character pressing a button on the remote and laughing. As the other character had just left the room with the briefcase the link between the two props was made clear through editing.

Every member of our group showed true skill in certain technical aspects when creating this product, we each have valuable qualities and contribution and the final thriller should hopefully be a successful task.

Final Preliminary Film

16/01/09
Final Preliminary Film

Using the techniques and learning from the errors made in the last Preliminary task our group were asked to devise another thriller scene. We were aware of the errors we had made last time (e.g. tripod leg exposed in final cut of piece, no sound due to deadline) and were determined to finish and create a piece of substantial quality.

Our first few shots were similar to our previous prelim task so we had an idea of the structure and framing that the shot should be. The continuity of the beginning shots I feel were effective and the progression we had made from the previous task to this one was significant.

It was clear that our group as a whole had exceeded our creativity and thought processes as we all had unique and quirky ideas to contribute when filming. We used new techniques such as turning the lights off on one side of the room when the character was walking into the room to use the shadow as a means of continuity.

We also explored different angles and shot sizes to build up tension and prolong the thrilling event, some of the angles we used were; high angle, eye-level angle, extreme close ups, over the shoulder shots and two shots.

By the end of this lesson we had around 25 shots to be cut down into sequence duration of a minute so editing this will be difficult but as we have all learnt from the last prelim it shouldn’t be too bad as we have a stronger idea of what we want our work to depict.

Editing Practise Pt.2 - Card Game

13/01/09

Following last lessons filming, we uploaded our shots onto final cut pro and logged and captured suitable shots for making our short piece. Within our group there was difficulty in deciding how the scene should be set, the opening shots and how it will smoothly progress and climax into a tense atmosphere.

We decided to set the scene by using the shuffling cards clip so the audience are well aware from the beginning that the sequence is based around a gruelling card game. We then did a split scene of a male walking down a corridor confidently, pausing, adjusting his gun and then waking into the room. This was edited in a deliberate way to that the narrative was easy to interpret.

To highlight the wariness that each character shared for each other we included a lot of close-ups and built the tension by referring back to the shot of the cards being dealt.

The sequence then ends with one of the characters showing his gun in a subtle but yet threatening way under the table and the other characters facial expression is highlighted with an extreme close-up of his face.

I felt editing this task to be difficult and planning would have definitely helped during the first stages of this task. I also felt that I need to find some creativity from within so that I will be able to contribute and quickly think of good ideas when our group confer in the future about our final thriller ideas.

Editing Practise Pt.1 - Card Game

09/01/09

To get some first handed experience with filming our own shots we were asked to create a ‘thrilling’ card game using the techniques that we have learnt when working with the camera. Once we had been introduced to the ins and outs of the camera and tripod facilities we then began to plan our storyboard needing a minimum of twelve shots.

After 30 minutes most of the other groups had begun filming and we had only drawn and described about four shots we collaboratively decided that to get the work done we would improvise. We tried to focus mainly on Mid-Shots or Mid-Pans and also Close-ups of the characters face so that expressions and possible thoughts were clearly visible.

We also paid conscious detail so small actions that would be over looked in ‘everyday’ life to heighten tension and create an anxious atmosphere. Some of these small details/action include; opening a door – specific detail on the walk towards it and pausing before the character walks in, looking at cards in hand – sly movement represent the competition between characters.

I found this task beneficial but also hard as you begin to appreciate the hard work, timing and meticulousness that goes into filming and film preparation.

Introduction to Sound Software

06/01/09

In today’s lesson we were given a tutorial on sound using software from the James Bond movie Casino Royale. Using different backdrops and sequences from the film we were able to experiment with layering sound effects and levels of volume. For example, in one tutorial of layering sound, the backdrop was of the casino, some of the sound options were; the ambience of a bar (e.g. distant chatter, glasses clinking), the sound of poker chips being counted and tense music. With all of these effects I was able to try and re-construct the sound from the actual sequence. I found this difficult because the volume levels of sound were hard to get to a precise level so that it would sound realistic.
The next task was to place the different layers of sound to one minute sequence from the film. This was an action sequence so it had to include racing music, vocal effects and micro-effects such as running, footsteps, engine sounds etc. With this I was introduced to audio editing and the layout of the software is similar to Sound Pro which is the software that our class is to use when editing our thriller films.
Overall I found this task quite fun but also quite frustrating as it can take quite a long time to get all the effects and volumes of the sound perfect. This practise lesson on the software was very helpful as I have learnt a lot about how important sound is and that every minute sound is just as important as an instrumental over the sequence.

Lesson 5/12 - The Shining

05/12/08

The Shining

As an introductory lesson into the elements of thriller films we were shown the film adaptation of the Stanley Kubrick novel The Shining. There was a variety of elements that created suspense and tension throughout the film. Many scenes in the film felt like your mind was tricking you and making you feel confused when in fact it was the skilled techniques in which the creators had portrayed these scenes. For example there is a scene where Jack has gone into ‘Room 237’ he finds a young beautiful slender woman bathing nakedly, she then gets out and walks towards Jack. Jack then begins to kiss her passionately but is suddenly sickened is she starts to deteriorate into and old woman, he hair and skin start to fall off and is both scary for the audience and the character of Jack in the film. This is a prime example of the skilled techniques used to illustrate Jack’s insanity but is very much thrilling and scary for the audience to watch.

Thriller Evaluation

Thriller Evaluation

After some advice from our media teachers, we decided we wanted to be creative with our thriller opening, as they weren’t really looking for your ‘bog standard ’ thriller or cliché. We were told that normally students would do openings about stalkers in hoodies, kidnapping or serial killers. So we crossed all ideas regarding those types of stories off our list. After an hour of brainstorming a couple of ideas, we pitched three main ones of three different sub genres (you can find our initial ideas in an earlier blog) and later came to a final decision of which to film.


Our final idea, ‘DeathWalk’ isn’t a typical crime thriller or action. When choosing our thriller we tried to relate more to horror therefore chose the sub genre; Super Natural, this allowed us to be more creative. We were inspired many clips from thrillers. We used these clips ideas and later developed them to give them our own twist e.g./




This clip from arlington road inspired us for our final shots, with the use of quick cuts and bright lights.




This clip from 28 days later gave us he idea of isolation hence all of our shots showed someone walking through the forest alone.


Our main protagonist had her hair over her face to add tho the thrill, we were inspired to do this from the horror film the ring.




This clip from arlington road gave us the inspiration to put our title over clips instead of at the end on their own blank screen.

We stuck to the conventions in terms of the narrative; supernatural which is menacing our protagonist. Protagonist we have a main character however some could argue that we went against the norms by having a female protagonist. Films with female protagonists include :

In our opening of a thriller, the normal representation of females in thrillers is they are vulnerable and tend to be victims of the supernatural force; this was achieved by making the protagonist a female. Also, it isn’t very clear but the female is a teenager and we used this to represent the fact that statistics show suicide numbers among teenagers have risen.

The audience for my media product would mainly be teenagers who, although our opening is a thriller, are horror fans as our thriller deals with the supernatural. A typical person who fits our target audience is a 16 year old teenage female called Karen, who spends Friday nights at home with friends watching horror movies, she also loves going to the cinema with friends and boyfriend.

Marketing and promotion of films can be very expensive so i have chosen a couple cost effective ways to advertise:

• Television and radio Trailers
• Advance trailers, longer previews, or behind-the-scenes footage on rental videos and DVDs
• Product placement: paid active or passive insertion of film brand in drama or sitcom shows, or as passing mentions in dialogue
• Viral marketing: free distribution of trailers on movie-oriented websites and video user-generated-content websites, and rapid dissemination of links to this content by email and blogs.
• In the movie theater
• Trailers and behind-the-scenes shorts, shown prior to the main attraction

Our videos have already take one major step to promotion and this was via internet. Our opening thriller is available on , and even this already gives us a wide audience as the intenet is available to everyone and is relatively cheap so access to it is at a high level. The fact we are targetting teenagers allows facebook and youtube to be very useful as these are sites that are frequently visited by our target audience.

I learnt how to use new technology such as camera, internet fro blogging, soundtrack pro and Film Cut pro. with the camera, i learnt the use of different angles to help cause a thrilling effect eg. Low angle, Pan, Tilt. the main angles we used were a pan as she was walking and the effect of this was to establish she was alone in a deserted place. Also we used many low angle as she got close to hanging herself, the effect of this was the lower the angle the shorter her life was becoming, this shows her life coming to an end. We made sure we had all our shots well planned at the start with the use of a well made story board.

I learnt ahow to use final cut pro mainly about logging and capturing, sequencing and addin certain effects in relevant places. When editting i needed to make sure my cuts were perfect in order for my sequence to flow perfectly.

Below you see our sequence, its not clear but thats a low angle shot, with the use of a blurr and dark mast effect.

I also used soundtrack pro which happened to be very effective in our media thriller, we experimented with a range of sounds, including different genres and instruments. In most thriller films we noticed the use of high pitched and string instruments therefore we stuck to the convention.


From my prelim, I have learnt organisation and structure is key to success, making sure you plan before u start is vital otherwise you are clueless as to what type of shots to do. Also editing, getting the types of cuts are perfect as one mistake eg. The cuts too fast or cut don’t match could mess up the whole thing. However although we planned we didn’t plan thoroughly, could’ve ended with the girl waking up but we missed out that shot, also a shot of the girls’ feet while she was hanging. However, our final thriller was a big improvement from the prelim as when doing the prelim we didn't have as much experience in using the softwares and we were still in the training mode. In comparisson to the prelim we had better camera angles in the final. Also we mastered the sound in our thriller opening and the effect were used creatively given a eerie feeling to the thriller.

After all thrillers were complete, we went to the vue cinema to watch them. This was good in a way that we could see other peoples, they were all of a high standard but it was an effective way of judging and comparing other people work. Many people used similar storyt lines. Our Thriller was only repeated by 1 other groups which made it slightly unique. We got a very good response from our peers and they enjoyed it. Teachers said that we were very professional in how we conducted ourselves and the thriller.

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Thriller Evaluation

When our group were still coming up with initial ideas, we watched a few thriller films so that we could familiarise ourselves with the conventions of thriller movie openings. Two films that stood out most to us were “28 Days Later” and “Arlington Road” and elements from both films inspired us with our final idea for our thriller.
In “28 Days Later” the character is isolated in a hospital and is trying to work out where everyone has gone and why is he the only one left.

- Shot showing desolation from “28 days Later”

This element is similar to our thriller, as the character is in an isolated forest and the audience are unaware of why and how she ended up there.

In “Arlington Road”, the character is walking down an empty street, and effects are used to make the screen hazy to represent that the character feels like passing out and we, the audience, can clearly see this. The film also had a lot of great medium and extreme close up shots of the character. We used these in the bedroom scene when the character was tossing and turning and we think that the close ups of the character’s face looking distressed and confused are effective.


- Shots from that inspired us from “Arlington Road”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03668oTEoIQ

Here are a few intresting shots from the film that stood out; you'll notice the long hair in front of the woman's face is identical to the character in our film. This worked well to represent her deathly demeanour.

Because of this factor, our film was not a conventional thriller but more so a supernatural thriller as it is more horror than thriller. We wanted to break from clichés that we had assumed other groups would do, for example a boy in a hoodie following a girl down the road and ending it with him finally catching up with her. We tried to do something somewhat more abstract to make the audience wonder why she was dreaming of her own death, what did this mean, did it already happen because she didn’t wake up at the end etc.
The fact that there was only one character adds to the ambiguity of the history of the character and the reasons behind the dream which is a great factor as it allows the audience to creatively conjure their own reasons as to why she is dreaming her own death.

We then had to create a storyboard of how we wanted each shot to look like so that when it came to filming we didn't waste any time trying to figure what to film and what shots to use. We were supposed to create quick sketches of each shot but as nobody wanted to draw them, we decided that taking digital pictures of each shot would be beneficial for everyone and also clearer and precise to understand at a later date.

We then had to find a location that wasn't too far a distance but was still suitable for our product and decided that we needed to find a large park surrounded in trees low enough to tie the rope around. We ended up choosing Finsbury Park as our location and decided to film there on the 13th Feb and one of the group members went there to first of all find a suitable tree so that we didn't spend hours looking for one.

Here are some of the pictures:

Despite this tree being isolate from the other trees it doesn't have any other useful factor. It doesn't look menacing it needs to have more branches and be thicker.

This tree looked really good, however it was too close to a path and if people were walking by, they could interruot filming as well.

The branches on this tree are really good but as you can clearly see, a river is in the shot. However we could have shot it with the river in the scene but this may have moved focus if say for example a duck or boat went by

This tree was ideal as because it had thick branches, when you stood underneath it, it seemed very dark and gloomy was a great factor. It also wasn't near a path or any other distractions and the branch was strong enough for the character to hang herself from which was also useful. So below is the actual tree that we used.

Below is a close up of where the character is going to hang herself from

The filming process was quite difficult at times due to members of the group being ill and the unexpected weather that we experienced during the week commencing the 3/02/09 we were a week behind filming. However, we all decided to get together and film on a day that we didn't have college so that we would still be on task and avoid handing in our film late; also because we hadn't used Soundtrack Pro, we wanted to leave as much time as possible.

Here are a few shots of us during the actual filming process that we had taken

The character in the film is a clearly a teenage girl who, for some reason unknown, is disturbingly dreaming of her own death which anyone of any age, class or gender can watch, and even though they wouldn’t fully understand why it is happening, they can easily follow the story. The fact that she is a teenage girl, of an ethnic minority, this further breaks from the clichés of having a lead white male/female starring and her age creates sympathy because she must be from a disturbed childhood, youth or family background to graphically dream of killing herself.


Our thriller would be a small independent UK release as it isn’t a glossy, clichéd Hollywood blockbuster; it’s more of a gritty, dark film. Because the idea of dreaming of your own death is quite sinister could be critically acclaimed by critics as it’s unusual for the lead character not to live a “happy ever after” as it is favoured in Hollywood movies. Being an independent UK film, gives more power and freedom to the director, editor, screenplay writers and actors to create a film exactly how they pictured it without fear or conforming to conventional Hollywood endings. The motive of the film is not to solely entertain, but to give the audience a rare insight into the dream of a stranger which couldn’t be possible in reality; this escape is significant to all audiences as this is the reason why people watch films, or read books because at that moment they are in the world that somebody else has created for them.

A typical person to fit the target audience for the thriller is Lily who is 20 years old and is studying Contextual Studies at University and one of her favourite past times is watching independent art films with up not necessarily mainstream actors or directors but with an interesting and sometimes controversial plot. Couple of common independent films that may be intereseted in showing "Death Walk" would be The Rich Mix in Bethnal Green or The Curzon in Soho.

The marketing process of the film I think would be done best by TV adverts, Internet pop ups and advertisements in newspapers. Internet pop ups will be effective as they are a quick and easy way to drill the name and release date of the film into people’s heads and most people are now used to the Internet and use it frequently; a small clip could also be shown on the pop-up as a taster of the real thing.

The company best suited to distribute the film would be as they are well-known to release British films and could promote it on and as well. The best times to advertise it would be during one of their highest rated programs, for example, during to appeal to young people or during a documentary to appeal to an older audience.

A familiar British actress should play the lead role, for example Larissa Wilson (who played Jal Fazer in Skins series 1-2), would be ideal as she is familiar in the public eye and most people are wondering what happened to the original cast members from the first and second series.

We are familiar to the success of Dev Patel (who played Anwar Kharral in Skins series 1-2) in Slumdog Millionaire and fans of Skins are waiting to see where the rest are as well.

Also, because Skins was shown on and , advertising “Death Walk” with Larissa Wilson on the same channels would instantly capture a loyal audience.

During this process of constructing this product I recorded our lessons in an online weekly blog and included what worked and what didn't and what I had learnt and the goal for the next lesson. I had to learn how to use Soundtrack Pro and Film Cut Pro which I had previously used. The first time that I had to use Film Cut Pro was when we had to make our preliminary task and it took a while to familiarise ourselves with the new program and like I stated in my blog (Lesson 21/01/09) because we spent so much time trying to perfect our preliminary task, we didn't have enough time to use Soundtrack Pro. Because of this, when it came to doing the real Thriller project, I wasn't confident in using Soundtrack Pro; this meant that I had to spend a bit of my spare time getting to grips with how the program worked.

Obviously, as our product is a thriller, we wanted to create eerie, suspenseful soundtrack which would cause tension. I initially used a soft piano combined with two different types of violins to create a high pitched sound and then added a synthesizer and a drone.

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt several useful skills which I believe that I effectively applied to my full final product. Firstly, the key factor in making the full product work was planning, if we didn't make our storyboard and choose our location beforehand then after the unexpected weather and illness of group members, the task would have been more stressful than it needed to be.

Also, because we had planned what we had planned what we were doing, we didn't waste time improvising with shots and angles and the filming process didn't take long at all. I've also learnt that if you want to make things look continous by drawing the audience's attention to something you need to film shots at different angles to do this successfully. I learnt a lot when it came to making the soundtrack, as I mentioned before I wasn't familiar with using Soundtrack Pro so I needed to experiment with the different sounds that the program had to offer and have learnt that different film genres require different genres of music to successfuly create their desired effect.

For example an action film may have sirens, and fast-paced upbeat percussions and electric guitairs whereas a romantic drama may have slow, acoustic piano playing of somesort.

Overall I believe that the dynamic of the group, the planning, commitment and skills that we had learnt combined together made the product as succesful as it was. Watching all the thrillers of the other groups at the Vue Cinema in Angel was also a great experience as I believe that we all learnt new ideas from watching everyones and if we had the opportunity to do the task again, I'd be excited to try out new ideas that inspired me from groups.