Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

By doing a preliminary task I was able to broaden my knowledge on camera shots and editing on imovie. Therefore I have improved since then and fed my new knowledge into my final product. For both my preliminary and my final thriller opening i made storyboards and shooting scripts to make the whole process more organised and made it a lot easier to get things started. I created a slide show that had our three main ideas on it, however we didnt use any of the ideas we first came up because when we presented our slide show the feedback we got from the class was varied and there wasn’t a favourite idea, so we moulded two ideas together and started planning from there. I then went on to create a spider diagram of location, plot, characters, shot types, props and costume. We thought that these 6 things were the most important things to consider when planning our opening as they would have a big part of creating a thriller and dramatic atmosphere. We didnt do this much planning for our preliminary and i think the planning we have carried our has had a big effect on the opeing and is a good standard. 

We had many strengths and weaknesses with our preliminary and looking back on it now they are quite obvious. Our strengths were we made good use of camera angles and shot types, our editing was good and we tried to make full use of the editing tools we were given, I also think the music fitted in really well with each clip. Our weakness’ however was probably the location as there was a PE lesson taking place in the background of one of our shots and the bright colours of the uniform made it stand out, although we worked around this and made it black and white and increased the contrast and put it in slow motion so they would move as fast and would blend in with the trees in the background. There was also an apple on the floor and when shotting we didnt notice it, it was only when editing it came to our attention however we were lucky that it was in all of the shots. i think the continuity of our preliminary was good as it flowed really nicely and was in time with the music. We tried to use the editing devices to our full advantage so this meant in all areas possible we edited. We made the whole preliminary black and white and made the contrast darker to make it look better and more professional, we also converted most of the clips to enable us to speed up or slow down the clips, as we didn't want anything to be sped up we mainly just used the slow motion tool. I think our match on action shot of Emily opening the door and walking through the door worked well and was very effective as it flowed really well without any sudden changes in camera work.


Throughout our preliminary we stuck to the 180 degree rule, this is when you keep the camera always at the same side so the audience isn't confused at any time of the movie. It was definitely a good thing that we were able to stick to the 180 degree rule, as it meant that when it came to filming our thriller we would of already had practise when using and sticking to it. However in our thriller the 180 degree rule wasn't much of a problem as most of our clips were stills, but the point in which the victim is being captured by the attacker i think we have kept well within the 180 degree rule. 

All in all i think our opening was quite successful. The feedback we gathered suggest this however there are a few flaws in it for example i think we could of used better music that wasn’t so repetative. I also think we could of done more with the titles because they wern’t very creative and a bit vague, however they still fitted in well with the thriller. Our strengths of our thriller is likewise with the preliminary the camera angles as we used alot of close-ups which are common in thriller films, we also used match on action and kept well with the 180 degree rule. We also used imovie to our full advantage and used all the editing quiptment provided. 

When shooting our thriller opening we were lucky with the weather because it was a dry day however it was a bit windy so it worked to our advantage and the wind fitted in well with the opening because it makes it more dramatic when in slow motion.

I feel that looking back on when we did our preliminary task in October we have improved our skills and increased our knowledge in shot types. The biggest difference bertween the preliminary and my final product is the amount of planning and thought that has been put into it and has definitely paid of. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

We distributed a few questionnaires around, with 9 questions on them. we asked the questions that we thought were most important to ask as it was the main information we were wanting to get where we needed to be next which was deciding who our target audience was going to be. Once we gathered all the questionnaires we were able to see what people preferred to see in a thriller and what they didnt like so much this gave us a good insight into what our thriller could be about and therefore we could go fourth and start planning our thriller. Our research revealed that the majority of people were that took the questionnaire were our own age "15-17 year olds", they preferred psychological thrillers, they liked cliffhangers included in thrillers and preferred the movie to be in colour, most of the applicants told us that they mostly watched thriller films that had a certificate of 15 and they liked it to start with a flashback or a murder. 


I posted my finish product on  networking sites for people to see and to leave comments i.e. Facebook and Youtube. I found that this was a good way at receiving good feedback from a wide audience as Facebook and Youtube are both national and work on a world wide basis. The majority of the feedback was good and people said it flowed nicely together, however some said that the music was maybe a bit too repetitive but fitted well with each clip of the opening. The audience also agreed and thought that the heartbeat and heavy breathing contrasted well together and added tension and made the final product more dramatic. By finding out audience feedback we can see that our final thriller opening meets the needs and expectations of our audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I used various different programmes when making and planning my media product for blogger to post the research on the thriller genre and the different stages of planning I have done before my final thriller product was finished. This helped in the organisation of our thriller as we could put it all together. We could also look back on the different stages we example:

• Blogger: I used undertook to get to the final product.
• Search Engines: Such as Google, Yahoo and Bing helped us research the thriller genre, we could look at other thriller openings and take ideas and develop them to help us crate a high quality product.
• Youtube: helped us because we were able to search different thriller openings such as Se7en, No country for old men, and the shower scene from psycho. It also allowed me to search for videos of analysis’ that gave me ideas to put on my blogger. Youtube also helped me 
• imovie: We used imovie to create the final thriller product, I learnt various amounts of techniques such as adding transitions, slow motion and how to make clips go faster, I also learnt how to overlap and add music so it fits in time with each clip, They were all used very effectively. 
• Digital Camera: The digital camera was used to shoot the movie, and to take photos of stills. By using this we were able to get a lot of shoots and we were able to carry out camera angles such as close-ups long shots and medium shots etc. 
• IDVD: We used idvd to add an effective title screen to make it look more professional
• Photoshop: we used Photoshop to create a photo for our identity, (Luem)however once we made the picture we didn’t think it looked as good as we first thought so instead we came up with the idea of having an egg timer. 

Through the process of creating my final media product I have learnt many editing techniques to help me create a high quality opening thriller. I have improved from doing my preliminary. By experimenting with different transitions and cutting clips I have managed to improve the continuity of my final product and make it flow more smoothly. I have learnt how to add, change and overlap music to make the clip look and sound more tense and create suspension.. The part wear the killer captures the venerable victim we wanted a sudden change in music to make it more dramatic, so we made it so when the music goes quiet it would then and we would overlap a sound effect of a beating heart with another sound effect of someone heavy breathing.

By having my own macbook at home it gave me a head start at learning how to use one, I had already used Imovie in the past so I knew the basis of it however by using it again I was able to gain more experience about how to use one. I also already knew how to use iphoto and how to import and export the movie onto and off the Mac so it would work on other computers. 

Who would be your audience for your media product?

A form of research I did was look at the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) from doing this research I was able to educate myself in how to classify a film and what classification my media product should be stamped with. It also determined what was allowed to be included in our thriller and therefore lead on to deciding what age group it would be most suitable for. I also took a look at other thrillers to gather an idea of what target audience they had. All of the thriller openings i had looked at were rated 15 and therefore we found out that none of them and drug use or were violent openings however each of them used conventions very differently to portray the thriller genre. For example in no country for old men the silence of each of the stills added suspense and tension and keeps the audience gripped on whats to come next. I think it was very effective that there was no music used in old country for old men because it would take away the tranquility and frightening silence there is at the beginning. Differently in Seven the quickness of each clip and the dark surroundings also add tension and suspense but in a very different way because it keeps the audience of edge with the jumpiness of the flicking between each clip.

I also sent out questionnaires with questions relating to different features of a thriller, it was significant that we enquire the age of the person so it would help us decide our target audience. I also asked what type of thrillers people most prefer to watch as it would expand our ideas into deciding what kind of thriller our opening would be i.e mystery, religious, psychological etc.

After doing our research we managed to get a good amount of information to start planning our thriller opening. We found out what is classified as a 15 rated film, and 18 rated film and a 12 rated film. We realised we didn't want a thriller that was too over the top however we still wanted to add as much as possible to make it have enough tension and dramatic suspense with in it so it good be classed as a good thriller opening that would be a popular choice from the audience.

Taking everything into consideration we decided to classify our opening as 15 years or over, because it seemed most popular and most suitable for the opening, by it being this particular classification it means that no one younger than 15 may see the film opening, it also mustn’t contain a few things for example:

Discrimination-The whole piece may not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs-Drug taking may be shown as long as it does not promote or encourage drug misuse.

Horror-Strong threat and menace are allowed however it must not be sadistic or sexualised

Imitable Behaviour- Dangerous behaviour for example suicide, hanging, or self harming is not permitted

Language- There may be strong language used, however aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unacceptable.

Our opening will not involve the majority of this, by using this film classification it lets us be very flexible with shooting and creating the video.

We also asked a rnage of people to complete a questionnaire so we had a good idea of what age range we aiming for and what people liked and disliked in a thriller.

Questionaire

1.  Are you male or female?

• Male
• Female

2. What age range are you?

• 12-14
• 15-17
• 18+

3. Do you enjoy watching thriller films?

• yes
• no

4. What type of thriller do you prefer?

• Crime Thriller
• Action Thriller
• Psychological thriller
• religious thriller
• mystery thriller
• other

5. Who do you like watching films with?

• Friends
• Family
• Other

6. Do you like Cliffhangers?

• Yes
• No

7. Do you prefer colour or black and white for a thriller?

• Colour
• Black and white

8. What certificate films do you tend to watch the most?

• 12
• 15
• 18

1. how do you expect a thriller film to start?
•  Flashback
• Chase
• Murder

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that New Line Cinema media institution would be most suitable for my thriller opening because it has been involved with a lot of top thriller films such as Blade 2, Final destination, and Snakes on a plane. They also have been involved with numerous amounts of successful films that aren’t thrillers. Therefore New Line cinemas have a good reputation for being a part of popular successful films, they also have good knowledge and will know what the audience wants. 

at the age of 27 Robert Shaye founded the popular American film studios. It was based in America and therefore had a much bigger market as the majority of films were made in America and became great success.

New Line Cinemas is became owned by Time Warner’s in 1996 and then was later merged with a larger studio "Warner Brothers" in 2008.

New Line cinemas have also got a very large income so they will have enough money to fund up and coming films and make them top quality and successful. New Line Cinemas is also national so the film would be world wide and have a large target audience. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my opening I represented two groups, a victim who represents a young venerable girl and a criminal who represents a kidnapper/killer/rapist. 

We represented the venerable female victim by dressing her in a school uniform to suggest she was only young. We also wanted convey the idea that it was a normal day. We dressed the killer in dark clothing which consisted of heavy boots, and a big coat with a hood to cover the face to enhance the idea of mystery, the killer also held some rope which was used as the killer’s weapon. The lighting also helps represent each character for example the lightning on the killers face is always dark to hide it and to add mystery into the thriller opening. However the lighting on the victim is very natural to show her vulnerability and her innocence to make it more intense. The location also has a big impact on representing each social group. The small empty alleyway and the clothes the killer wears both work together to suggest something bad is about to happen. Also At the start of the opening, the close-ups of the victim are situated in a isolated field surrounded with trees, which also adds to the vulnerability the girl is radiating. 

We aimed to represent people of a similar age to ourselves, and as the target audience was 15+ we thought the audience could relate a lot more to the thriller opening. 

We tried to represent the girl as a young, innocent, helpless girl not knowing what is going on around her at the time of the kidnapping and is unknown to the dangers around her. 

At the end of the opening it shows the victim after the attacker has committed the crime, she is left feeling small and she is forgotten about.

The person we chose to act this girl was Rachel Bland, we chose rachel because she had a drama background and she lived close to where we were filming so she would be able to get to the location easy. We chose stuart Randell to act as the attacker because again like Rachel he had a background of performing arts and therefore would be able to act as the attacker very affectively. 

The shots we did also contributed the the representation of each character for example by using high angled and low angled shots it could highlight power, importance or hopelessness . We used a high angled shot when filming the victim because it gives a sense of looking down on the victim and her hopelessness of what is about to happen to her. Whereas we contrasted with a low angled shot for the attacker to highlight his dominance of the role and aggression he is bringing to the opening. 

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The main conventions of our thriller opening are:-

As part of my research i looked at some thriller openings to see what conventions they had used, to get some inspiration when starting to plan my own. i thought it would be very useful as i take ideas from them and develop them. 

 It is crucial that in the first few minutes of a thriller you are able to hook the audience in a way that will make them want to carry on watching the rest of the thriller opening, it needs to have an air of mystery to it so the audience feel like they need to keep watching to find out what happens next. The opening should also include titles, introducing the characters and the people behind the making of the thriller, such as the editor and director. Most importantly it should also include the main title of the actual film itself.



the conventions that are included in our thriller opening are very typical of what you would normally find in a thriller. For instance we used a series of close-ups because after doing my research i learnt that close-ups add suspense and tension. You can also get a good feeling of a persons emotions and thoughts by doing a close up of someones faces this can also add to the tension running through a thriller film.

A thriller that has influenced my thriller opening is "No country for old men" which is a typical western film opening that consists of 11 western landscapes each lasting about 6 seconds each. We took this idea and developed it into our own thriller. I also like the minority of pans that no country for old men has and again I took this idea and used it in my own thriller opening. I also liked the idea of having an eerie opening to represent the point of isolation and I think the few stills at the start we incorporated highlight this. We were going to have voice over, over the top of stills, telling a brief outline of what has happened to set the viewer up for what is about to come. However we thought it would make the opening too complex and as we wanted to create confusion putting some narrative in would prevent this. The sound at the start of No country for old men is vert tranquil and we want to take this idea and use it for our own because it adds tension of wanting to know why its so quiet and whats happened or whats about to happen.

Another film that inspired my thriller opening is Seven, the circling of photos and the close ups of writing particularly inspired me when creating our thriller opening. I thought it was a good way of creating confusion for the audience and made it more edgy.
When we were choosing the music there were a lot of things we needed to take into consideration as choosing the right music was key. The main thing was that it fitted well with the shots we had already got; we also wanted it to have a slow tempo but didn't want it to be too dramatic.

the shot where the victim is being caught we wanted there to be no music to change into a different sound clip to highlight the fact it was a key shot with our opening. We managed to get a sound effect of a heart beat and someone breathing and blended them together to create a different sound. We managed to put the original music back into the opening and it flowed really nicely.

 

Identity

We wanted to create an identity that had a meaning behind it. We brainstormed a few ideas and firstly we wanted to have something that symbolised growing as we wanted it to symbolise a growing company. We thought about having a sunflower and over the top have the name of our ident.
We wanted to have both our names as a part of the ident so we played around with putting our names together and finally we came to a decision of having "Luem" as our identity name, i think it flows really nicely and sounds professional.

After collecting images of flowers and using photoshop to edit it together, when we put it at the start of the opening we didn't think it looked quite right and out of place, so instead we took a clip that we were going to include in our opening of a egg timer speeded up and use it as our identity with the title "Luem" over the top of it. I think it works well and is quite plan which makes it affective.

Title Ideas

We wanted our title to be short and snappy and would flow and go nicely with the opening, so we did a brainstorm of all the possible ideas for our thriller opening. We wanted it to be a play on words like the thriller "deadly calm". As a group we came up with the title "Familiar Stranger" I think it goes well with our thriller.

Day 2 Of Filming

On the second day of filming, the location was Stamford. We used a member of the groups house to film the shots of the attacker with the notice board full with pictures. We managed to get lots of various shots, we got shots of his hands, shots of him lighting a match and close ups of him circling the photographs. We did lots of shots so we wouldn't be short of shots and would have more than one choice when it came to editing and putting together the opening.
We did lots of close-ups because after doing my research close-ups were very common in thrillers. and close-ups showed raw emotion from each of the characters. For example the attacker grabs the girl you can see the fear in her eyes.
we were really lucky with the weather on both filming days, as there was a good amount of light but it wasn't sunny so it fitted well with the thriller genre.

Day 1 Of Filming

On the first day of filming, we got up at 8am to film the sunrise and we wanted to get a few shots in early morning light. It was a clear day which worked to our advantage as it meant we were able to get some really clear good shots.
The shots we filmed here were the shots of the victim tied up after the crime had been commit by the attacker and the landscapes at the start of the opening. Some of my favourite shots were the moving landscapes at the start of the opening, When we sped up one of the clips it looked like the clouds are moving really fast which i think is really effective.
We also shot the 360 degree pan at this location and i think the 360 degree pan worked really well as it gave the audience a sense of the victim point of view, being surrounded and not being able to escape from it. It was very challenging to get this shot as it had be be filmed by hand and therefore made the camera a bit wobbly however once split up and sped up it doesn't seem noticeable.

Credit Ideas

Credit Ideas

When planning our credits, we wanted to keep it very simple and subtle because we wanted it to run smoothly with our production, however we also wanted it to be quite creative and exciting. We brainstormed a few ideas, and developed the ideas we felt were the strongest.

Idea 1

Our first idea was to have the killer/kidnapper write the credits on photographs i a red marker pen to make it stand out and red symbolises blood so would make it more creepy. 

Idea 2

The second idea was a lot more simpler than idea 1, we thought about editing in the credits right at the last minute, so they would appear on the screen during the opening part of the opening, where the first few moving landscapes are. The only problem with doing this would be that it isn't as creative as we would like our credits to be, although it will still look good and will fit in more with the tone of our thriller, very affective but keeping it simple. 

We also looked at a few font ideas:

Font 1

Font 2  

Font 3

Font 4

Font 5

Feedback

Once we had finished our opening, we asked a few people from our media class to give us feed back on where the good and bad areas were in our thriller opening, we asked them a few questions,these were:

• What did you like about our opening?
• Do you think we used typical thriller conventions?
• How effective was our mise en scene?
• Do you think the storyline was effective?
• What do you think could of been made better?                     

Familiar Stranger

Sound Effects

A few of the sopund effexcts we will be using for our final thriller opeing piece will be:

• A Heartbeat- This will be inserted when the kidnapping takes place to add tension and suspense because the music will contrast against the music running through the whole piece.
• Heavy Breathing- We will also insert this when the kidnapping takes place because when it is put over the top of the heartbeat they will both contrast well together.
• Music- We want our piece of music be be stringed instrumehnts, after doing some research i found out that most music used in thriller films are stringed instruments because the high pitched noises add tension and give suspense to the film to keep the audience on edge.

Health and Safety

It is crucial that when filming everyone is safe and so when filming we will make sure:

• Everyone has each others mobile phone numbers, sop if anyone got lost we would easily be able to get in touch with each.
• Everyone acts sensibily and responsibily to ensure no one gets hurt and filming can run smoothly as possible.
• Everyone is dress appropriately in relation to the wether and sensible footwear is worn so no one slips over and no body becomes ill.
• Everybody acts responsilbily in public areas for example when crossing the road make sure no cars are coming etc.

• Make sure everybody knows how the quiptment is used so nothing gets broken or lost.

We will also make sure that because we are in a public area that the location is respected menaing no loud noises and if litter is dropped to pick it up.

Storyboard

Our storyboard dictated the plan of filming our final production, we drew out what each scene should look like, so when it came to filming day it would make things so much more easier and more organised for us. However there were a few changes made to the storyboard of the actual filming day.

• The first shot is of a slow moving landscape that also works as an establishing shot
• the second shot is the first sector of the 360 degree pan of the girl folowed by a close up of the girls face.
• The next shot is of the killer/kinapper sat at a table with a board infront of him covered in photographs of his victim this will be an over the shoulder shot.
• the next shot is the killer/kinapper circling the face of his victim using a red marker pen, these shots come in the form of close ups and medium shots so when they are put together it will look effective.
• Inbetween each shot it will flashforward to how the girl looks after she has been kidnapped
• the next shot is of the victim and the killer/kidnapper walking down a narrow alleyway, we will carry out lots of various types of shots for example a long shot, a medium shot, close ups of feet walking past the camera, close-ups of faces and a high and low angled shot will be undertook so we have lots of shots to choose from when it comes to editing.
• the next shot is when the killer/kidnapper captures the girl, we are thinkingh of making this shot a match on action shot.
• After this shot it will then finish with how it start with slow moving landscapes, these may be long shots or medium shots.

Shot List

• The first shot will be an establishing shot of a landscape where the last scene shot will be set. This will give the audience a sense of isolation and therefore create suspense and tension.
• The next shot will be a close up of the victims face to highlight her emotions.
• After this the shot will change to a quick sector of the 360 degree pan, by making it quick it will create a faster pace throughout the whole opening.
• The shot will then change to the first view of the killer/kidnapper which will come in the form of an over the shoulder shot. We will also film close-ups of the killer/kidnappers hands holding photographs and circling the victims face on the photographs.
• we will keep adding small snippets of close-ups of the girl between shots of the killer/kidnapper to create a flashback. This will create confusion for the audience and keep it gripping.
• The next scene is where the crime takes place, this will be shot in a narrow alleyway
• the first shot here is a long shot of the girl walking towards us with her stalker behind her. 
• then it moves to a long shot of the victims and the criminals back walking away from the camera, we want the previous shot and this shot to flow well together so editing it well will be crucial.
• the next shot will be a close up of the killer/kidnappers and victims feet walking past the camera. The camera will need to be steady otherwise the pan won't work effectively.
• in between shots it will change to a quick sector of the 360 degree pan of the victim sitting down and will change to close ups of the killer/kidnappers hands holding the photographs, by making it quick it will create a faster pace throughout the whole opening.
• The opening will finish how it starts with establishing shots of the landscape where the girl has been left after the crime has been commit. 

Our Thriller Opening Idea

After collecting various bits of research, looking at different ideas and gathering feedback from people, we have decided to merge together idea 1 and idea 2 and add in a few other ideas.

 Everybody seemed to like the idea of it being set in a very isolated place and the idea of having flashbacks, so we thought it was important to include these. We want to use a lot of close ups as these give the effect of a thriller.

We are going to begin with having close-ups of photographs of the victim (vunerable girl) and close ups of the hands.

The next scene will be set in an alleyway because it airs a dark mysterious atmosphere and is a place that you can't very easily escape from. Down the alleyway the school girl will be walking along and the kidnapper/killer will be following her. We will get close-ups of the faces, of the feet, torso and we will get a few long shots from behind and in front so we have enough shots to play around with when it comes to editing.

The next scene will be set in an isolated field, it will be clear to the audience that this scene is after the the girl has been captured and the crime has been commit, likewise scene 2 we will use alot of camera angles inparticular close ups but a few long shots and medium shots aswell, we also want to capture a few pans to get across where the scene is set and the sheer islolation of it.
To split the short opening up we will use flashbacks and a 360 degree pan of the girl on the floor will be split up at put between scenes to add confusion.

Starting to plan our opening

Location
After throwing a few ideas around we knew we wanted to have 3 filming locations in total, we wanted one of them to be in a house, another to be in an alleyway and the final location to be in an isolated field or wood. We want to get across the idea of a kidnapp so it is nescessary to have more than one location.
The first location would be in the house, we are thinking of having the criminal sat at a table with pictures infront of him of his victim, we thought by being at a house it would make it more personal. The second location would be down a narrow alleyway, where the kidnapp would take place, by it being down a alleyway it adds an air of mystery to the opening and makes it more tense. The third location would be in a random field or wood to give the sense of isolation and adds suspense.

Our first idea was to film the location in Bourne woods, as it was close to wear we live and easy to get to, however after a lot of thought we thought it was too much of a typical thriller location. Although we did want it to be thriller like, we wanted our opening to be different from most and make it unique to us. I think it was crucial we got the right location for our opening, and Bourne woods different fit our specification.

Costume/ Props


                                                  Attacker:
He will be in very dark clothing from head to toe, a hoodie or maybe a large dark coat would be best to achieve this look. The type of clothing is important as it can add tension to the whole opening. A hoodie will be able to cover the attackers face and will grip the audience more as they will be trying to figure out who the attacker is.
The attacker should also be wearing big black boots to show power and aggression towards the audience. I think the attacker should have a loop of rope with him as this will act as his weapon.
                                                  




 Victim:
The vulnerable girl will be dressed in a school uniform, this will consist of a white blouse, black school trousers, a blazer and a tie. She will also be carrying a school bag and will be listening to music as she walks down the alleyway. By being in a school uniform, it highlights the fact she is young, vunerable and innocent. it also shows helplessness and has no power at all compared to the attacker.
Her tie will be used by the attacker to tie her hands together and the rope will be used to tie her feet up.

Answers to questionaire