Thriller opening

Evaluation of our thriller

In what way does your media product use / develop / challenge forms & conventions of real media products?

Before beginning our thriller production we decided to have a movie night. This enabled us to all bring along a variety of thrillers, which we could then take inspiration from. We watched films such as Vanilla sky (Featuring Tom Cruise), Knowing (Featuring Nicolas Cage) and Rabio (Rage): 1977, a hybrid of thriller and horror.
We found that generally women were the victims, or the characters that ended up dead, while the men would survive the ordeal. Even though stereotypical we thought that using this method would allow us to base many more ideas, as while discussing the other way around we noticed that it seemed more unrealistic. Throughout our media production we wanted a sense of realism, something that the audience could believe to actually occur, allowing it to be empathized with.
While filming, our production also has a sense of horror, we used this to create a more eerie atmosphere, but with the intelligence and psychological factors of a thriller. An example of this is our storyline. Two young females disappear after a chain of killings; the killer photographs all his victims once he has killed them. He seems to have no motives towards the victims he chooses, apart from the fact that they are all female, his trend is then corrupted by the obsession he has with one of his latest victims. This allows a more in depth story line with reasoning towards his actions, which also investigates his mental issues.
Thrillers such as Vanilla Sky have a very distorted story line, we used this as an inspiration for our opening sequence. We have used cuts to cross cut from one scene to another, In one scene while the two girls are walking together down a path, we flash an image of one of the girls dead three times. This allows a clue of what happens without revealing how it happened, allowing the audience’s imagination to “Run wild”. It also carries the theme of photography.
We used panning shots through the trees, to give a sense of the surroundings, we also used a hand held camera and point of view shot. We used a hand held camera as we wanted the audience to see things from the killer’s eyes, the shaky scenes portray how we view things in real life, it also allows a sense of disorientation of his mind. In one scene Ellie and Kerri are walking down a steep hill, Imran filmed this scene hand held while walking slowly down the hill as he was tracking their movements, the scene is very shaky due to the steps. We re-thought this scene many times, as it could be seen as bad camera work, but we then decided to keep it how we had planned it, looking as if it’s through real eyes.
We also used fades to signify the separate scenes, making it a lot easier for the audience to understand but still making it confusing enough for them have to work it out. Which is a factor of many successful thrillers, the storyline shouldn’t be given away easy.
Our title ‘The Final cut’, gives a sense of a movie being made, this fits in with our theme of photography, and also suggests that the latest victim may be his last.



How does it represent particular social groups?

Our production focuses one main social group. This being students. We mainly use adolescents as they are not children but still have a sense of vulnerability. With more independence, this allows them to access the ways of life, such as education, socialization and love. We used two female students as our main victims, and an older male as the villain. He seems to want revenge and is getting this by killing an array of female students.

We used females as the victims, as in real life it is generalized that females are the weaker more vulnerable gender of society. It is also likely for males to have an attraction towards a female, which could then lead to infatuation and obsession. Girls are seen as “Expressive”, much more caring and trustworthy, which allowed us to use them as both the victim but also the corruption which may initially stop the killer.
Ellie and Kerri are two friends who both are fashion students. Even though the type of student they are is irrelevant for our actual storyline it signifies their sense of style and how they are represented in their pictures. Ellie has straight dark hair and is viewed wearing a long black coat with black tights and shoes. Even though dark colours are used she isn’t a ‘Goth’, but is just symbolizing the weather, which is grey and depressive. The fact she is wearing tights shows that she is either wearing a skirt or a dress which both signify quite a feminine character. Secondly Kerri is wearing jeans, a leather coat and leather boots. Her hair is curly and has a big black and white flower placed in it. She comes across as the more tomboy-ish character but still showing femininity with the flower.

Through the walking scenes it shows Both Ellie and Kerri interacting with one another, they are both viewed laughing showing a carefree attitude, also showing that they are not aware that they are being watched.

Imran (The villain) is portrayed as a slightly older male. Being male initially adds a more intimidating view to the audience. He is a tall male, showing the power he has over the two girls in both height and strength. He is wearing an American style top which foreshadows he might have moved over to England recently. In one scene he is on the a computer showing that he has a knowledge of technology, it also shows his on a social network looking at the two girls, signifying that he may have met them over the internet, or that he is using this as a way to stalk them. Highlighting the dangers of publicizing yourself over the internet.


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


There are many famous and successful media institutions that exist today. They are all individual with different strengths and weaknesses in the movie business. To have our thriller distributed by a well known institution would be ideal, as they would have the funding, equipment and status needed to get our film to the success it could be. Fairly recently Film has become a very big part of our lives in society. Films are used as entertainment, projects, education and a way of socializing. You can create home videos on YouTube; you can make films on all types of cameras from portable ones, to computer cameras. There are many programs such as Windows movie maker which allow younger generations to become directors in their own right. Film allows imagination to be free, and to captivate people’s dreams and nightmares.

As a group it would be extremely exciting to have a successful and wealthy institution to take our film in consideration, but the media industry is very tough and in comparison we are only amateurs. Film 4, even though hugely successful with films such as ‘Slum dog millionaire”, open opportunities for young amateurs such as ourselves, channel 4 have many television programs which they could distribute our films onto, such as channel 4 , channel 4 music channel, and E4. As a group we have all watched films on these channels which aren’t necessarily huge hits which have been cinema released but which are equally great. Another Media institution that might distribute our product could be MTV, a very famous program in both America and the UK. They offer many competitions for home made videos, which they publish on their program. MTV are dedicated to teens and young adults, as well as music lovers and aspiring musicians and movie stars. MTV are influenced greatly by the changing world, and offer many opportunities for budding stars, they would also have the needed funding, and audience to benefit our product.

Paradoxically, it would be equally benefiting to see our film a success on an internet program such as YouTube. As a group we want our film to entertain, be enjoyed by the audience but to also inspire others. YouTube allows you to easily upload a video, which then can be watched, rated and commented on by millions of people all over the world. Just to have some positive feedback and views, would in its self make us proud of our accomplishments. YouTube is also known to be a place of recognition. Many young singers have been brought to fame after publishing themselves over YouTube, there is also a program dedicated to the most viewed YouTube videos, it is called ‘Rude tube’.


Who would be the audience for your media product? 

The target audience we have aimed our thriller at is 16-25 year olds. We felt that this age group was perfect for our thriller as our story is based around the killing of students; which the majority of this age group are, whether they are school, college or university students. At this age the audiences still have a broad imagination, and have a more open mind to ‘difference’. Our story line would be hard hitting to this age group as it is showing the dangers around their age in society today, which could make them feel a sense of vulnerability. Our film also portrays the dangers of social networking sites, which allow you to be viewed, stalked and talked to by people that you do not know, which could be initially be dangerous. Many young teens are influenced by the internet and what can be viewed on there. As we have used the internet it allows the audience to relate to what is happening, as they could have experienced or even worried about the dangers that could occur by them exposing parts of their lives. The age we feel this is most suitable for are 15 and above, as it shows some violence and mental issues which could be disturbing to anyone younger. On the other hand we feel that our thriller would be enjoyed by a wide variety of ages, depending on the personality of individuals. The gender most likely to be attracted by our film would be males, as males generally prefer thrillers and horror’s, whereas females typically like romcom’s and chick flicks. Also that the victims of our film are female, might make it appeal less to girls as they are more likely to be effected emotionally as they can relate to the victims.

How did you attract / address your audience?



Our main characters consist of both male and female, allowing both genders to relate to the characters and to not stereotype the film into a category. E.g “This is a girls film”. The main characters also signify the target audience being around the same age. Even though our male character is in late teens we have portrayed him in his young twenties allowing there to be a higher level of maturity.

Our film was inspired by an array of films which were not all thrillers. We wanted to depict small ideas from them all to create our masterpiece. It will appeal to all types of people, by having aspects of both intelligence and commonsense. Our thriller portrays some of the devastations of society such as kidnap and murder; it makes the audience face a realistic picture that the world isn’t always as nice place.
We created a story line full of twists, realism and exaggeration. It challenges you mentally and emotionally as you watch the agony of the girls, and the mental issues which the villain is affected by.
One scene is very immense as you watch the brutality of his crimes, a scene in which you are likely to cover your eyes, grab your partner or release an “OMG”. It challenges your imagination to put all the clues together, and then for your whole idea to be sabotaged by another twist. By opening the vulnerability of the audience it allows us to almost hypnotize them, any moment missed could result in a clue not being seen.

By using the words “Three Days earlier” it leaves you almost on a cliffhanger, leaving your imagination in limbo. Once you have been captivated by the first bit, it is instinct for you to have to know the rest. Therefore influencing the audience to watch the rest of the movie.




What Have you learnt about technology through producing your media product?

As a group we have learnt a lot about the technology used and needed. As individuals we have also passed our expectations on our own capabilities. As a group only one of us (Imran) had done media before. Therefore it was relatively a new experience for us all. As a group we began being very unorganized, lacking in knowledge and quite nervous about how we were going to manage, but have all now developed into a confident team, developing gradually in our abilities , and also extremely proud of our accomplishments.

Using a camera sounds easy, but as we realized throughout filming our product, nothing is a simple as it seems. Small factors such as lighting and quality can have a huge effect on the overall result. Using zoom efficiently allows you to create dynamic images to captivate the attention of your audience.
You learn a wide variety of It skills, and become advanced in programs you may have never used before, such as Final Cut Pro. We learnt how to edit, cut, transfer, and upload our media, enabling us to be successful in our tasks. This didn’t necessarily come easy, and it took a while to know what we were doing, but that was a part of our learning experience. We can now develop these skills for future tasks.

We used many types of software, including Microsoft, Garage Band, Inspirations and Final Cut Pro. This enabled us to create our film and develop it. We made soundtracks which we would then use to create an eerie affect; it also allowed us to change the pace of our scenes and the order in which they are watched. We learnt how to transfer both music and texts to our thriller and how to do simple things like rendering. These programs allowed us to explore all types of effects which are used in films all over the world. It also allowed us to bring all of our ideas to “Life”, and help us to accomplish our goals, which we are now extremely proud of.

There were times where we doubted our ideas, and there were times when some of the technologies we were using were not working properly. Computers crashed, the internet kept stalling and sometimes the programs didn’t want to load but we realized that it’s just a part of life. Hard effort and extra hours all helped our project to succeed.




Looking back at your prelim, what do you feel that you have learnt?

Since the beginning we have progressed largely. We have not only learnt how to use an array of technologies but we have also learnt how to interact as a group. Group participation can be difficult at times, everyone has separate ideas and ways in which they want things to be dealt with but you soon realize that you are not only doing this for yourself but for your team. If you do not take time to do individual tasks, or do not turn up to a lesson you are letting others down. Therefore it is important that you are reliable, or come to a reasonable agreement. Communication is key to team work, without socialization, decisions may be made that are not best for the whole team, causing unnecessary problems.

We have learnt how to cherish the time you have to complete a task. Every minute literally counts. You take time for granted when you should really use all the time you have so you can improve your work to its highest level. Hard work defiantly pays off; if you try you will succeed.

We developed our It skills hugely from the beginning to the end, from struggling to even cut a scene to now being able to edit the colour, speed and sound. We realized that sometime your ideas can be too much. Trying to impress by putting in all these effects in can be your downfall, or not be as successful as you first thought. Simplicity has been found to be a better route, as just because your thriller isn’t the most edited doesn’t mean it isn’t high quality. It’s about ‘Quality not Quantity’.



Thriller Questionaire

1. Name your top 5 movies?

2. Name your bottom 5 movies of all time

3. What type of Thrillers are you interested in:

Psychological thriller

Horror Thriller

Fantasy Thriller

Action Thriller

Gangsta Thriller

Suspense Thriller

4. Have A favourite Director?

5. Ever watched a movie and psychologically analyzed the whole movie? how often?

6. Favourite actors

7. Favourite Actresses

8. Do you enjoy ambiguity or a Given away plot line?

9. What type of films do u watch:

Classic

Modern

Black And White

With colour

10. In What Senario do you enjoy watching Thrillers:

Home

With Friends

Cinema

Workplace

Plane

11. Do you like long thrillers or short ones

………………………………………………………..

* Music!! *

Due to Copy Right laws we could not use music already made and owned unless they were from a copy right free source. As a group we then decided we would you Garage Band instead.

This allowed us to use a variety of computerized instruments such as, piano, violin and guitar.

We used al the instruments to create a fitting soundtrack for our thriller. We edited the length and also the speed levels, which we decided to slow down to create a more eerie atmosphere. We created a slow sharp track, with a variety of sounds put together to create more suspence in the scenes we had created. Even though we used mostly Non-diegetic we did mix parts of diegetic sounds from our scene's in parts, this allowed minimal sounds to be heard from the characters but creating more suspence when you hear the creepy music and a quiet whispher of "Death".

Shots, the process of our media!

We have named ourselves : COLLEGE LIFE PRODUCTIONS

The Thriller is named:

THE FINAL CUT

This consists of Ellie, Kerri and Imran
>> This photo was taken after makeup and just before filming our finishing shots

Brief Description of our Thriller:
Numerous young girls have been found dead all across the country. The killer has still not been caught by the police, or even known to have a motive for his actions. The only thing known is the killers trademark, he takes pictures just after killing his victims and that he appears to have mental issues. Two close bestfriends are the latest to catch his eye but only one of the girls he has a particular interest in. This then forms to be an obsession. But what girl isit? and what does he do with them?

The Photo above to the Left: A poster consisting of the thoughts and feelings of the killer. The photo above to the Right, A picture taken blood stained hands and sink basin, BUT are these the killers hands??...

The newspaper article distributed across the country, to thousands of homes. The shock of two young friends, both intelligent english fashion students have been mysteriously abducted around the area of kent. This follows the array of abductions in and around this area in the last few months.

The story board to our Thriller

Angles we were interested in, Some we used.

Point of veiw shot

This really grabbed our attention as it keeps the identity of the person whose point of veiw it is, minimal allowing us to keep the 'Villain' a mystery untill the very end! It also allowed us to create the Effect of someone being watched. To add to this shot we used a Hand held camera, Even tho this makes the shot quite shaky it also adds realism from the persons eyes.