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What Light

This short begins with slow editing between cuts, as the light from the sun moves along a bare bedroom wall and out over into a garden and a house. This movement continues until the light on the wall, taking the shape of a window, falls and 'breaks'. This is when the editing picks up pace. Cuts happen every 1 or 2 seconds, as the light comes 'alive' and bounces around the room, wreaking havoc. As the light becomes almost sinister, a diagetic throb noise accompanies the light, like the type associated with the paranormal. Eventually, the light retreats out of the bedroom window and back to the source, cueing the end credits.
In total, this short cuts about 45 times (excluding end credits). The video is embedded below.

Final Cut - 'SINS OF THE FATHER'

Here we are, our final cut of the film is complete. I have embedded the video below. Please enjoy.

Construction 6: Re-shoots and Re-edits

After receiving feedback from our target audience, we made a few changes to our film. The main thing we did was to add a new shot into the film that we had previously forgotten to do. This was the shot of the dad looking at a photo of a little girl and then that photo triggering a flashback. We went out and shot this efficiently.
Another major change, was that we changed the name of our film to 'Sins of the Father' - a much more intriguing/sinister title than our previous; 'Dad'.


Unfortunately, we were unable to overdub the sound of the dialogue due to not being able to get the same actors, however, we feel that this minor problem does not effect our film that much and we are now happy with the finished product.

Construction 4: Rough Cut

We have now completed the rough cut for our film. I have embedded it below for your viewing. Thank you.

Construction 3: Editing the Footage

We edited our film in Final Cut Express. We did this by capturing the footage and then cutting and editing together the shots onto a timeline. Once we decided that all the shots had been put together correctly, we started to add effects. 

We used was sepia constantly, adding it to every clip to make the film look a little bit more sinister, we changed the saturation of the sepia so that it was not too drastic an effect.

We used sepia again in the flashback scene, though this time we used a high saturation, to give the effect that the scene was set a long time ago. We also used a transition to make the scene fade back into real time. 

For the indent and opening film titles we used a black background with white typewriter effect. The reason for such simplicity was so that viewers weren't distracted by elaborate titles, and instead studied the main content of our film.

Construction 2: Shooting on Location

We have now conducted the shooting for our film. We as a group had a few disputes when it came to agreeing on what shots we needed and which ones we didnt. This has however been resolved and our shooting has now been completed.

Our first shots were of Bloxwich Police station and establishing shots of GWPAHS. This went well, and was managed in quite a short amount of time. Our next shots were of the flashback scene we have in our film. This was at first problematic, mainly because the little girl we had cast in the film was uncomfortable acting in front of strangers like myself. We therefore cast a different girl, who acted out our scenes very well and the scene was a great success. The last bit of filming was done outside GWPAHS, this made up the main bulk of our film. This was also a successful shoot.


Lessons we have learned from this shoot most definitely would have to be that we need to be FULLY organised before a shoot, so we avoid inner team disputes which is not healthy for a media group that needs to rely on each of the members.

Construction 1: Preparing for the Shoot

Now that all our research and planning for the film is complete, it is time we began preparations for actually shooting the film. Listed below is a list of equipment we will need to secure in order to conduct our shoot:-

• Video Camera (with DV tape for recording footage)
• Tripod
• Clapperboard
• Our Props (car, photo, school report, childish drawing, suitcase, schoolbag)
• Costumes

We have each been assigned a role for shooting, these are:-

Director - Jess

Camera - Rebecca

Sound Recording - Rebecca and Jess

Managing Actors and Scripts - Dean (myself)

Spotting Continuity - Dean (myself)

Costumes - Laura

Now that that is all organised and sorted, we are able to begin shooting.

DOMINO Productions: LOGO.

I have created a logo for our production team, as it has became apparent to me that all media institutions have one. I have designed the logo so that it is relative to our teams name. Hence the logo being a set of Dominoes spelling out DOMINO; the name of our team.

I realise it is only basic, but it still looks sufficient enough to represent our team (at least in our opinion). Despite this, we are looking into designing an 'ident' (an animation that IDENTifies a media institution/product) for our film company, which we would use at the start of all films produced by us. Below are some examples of other film company logos.

Shooting Schedule

We have created a shooting schedule for our film (embedded below)  so that when it comes to our filming process of our project, we (myself, Becky, Laura, and Jess) know what shot we need, where we need it, and who is needed in that shot.

A shooting schedule should show the type of shot, which shot it is, and describe briefly what happens in the shot. It should also state the scene in which the shot takes place in so that the production team know where the shot fits into the film. It doesn't matter what order you take the shots in, as long as when you edit the film you then put the shots in their correct chronological order.
Shooting Schedule

Animatic

Above is our Animatic for our film. It should give you an idea of what our final film will look like.

As part of the planning process for our film, we have created an animatic. If you are wondering just what an 'animatic' is, I have found the following description from Wikipedia:

'The storyboarding stage of a film may be followed by simplified mock-ups called "animatics" to give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing. At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence. More commonly, a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track is added to the sequence of still images (usually taken from a storyboard) to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together.'

Our animatic has now been completed, we have changed a view things from the storyboard, as you will no doubt realise. The animatic is displayed below.

Storyboard

Below is our storyboard:

This is our storyboard, a storyboard is used to show the camera operators and directors what generally happens in each shot and what type of shot it is. In our film we are using quite a lot of point of view shots, from the fathers point of view. Also, we are using a few shot reverse shots to show the argument between the stepdad and the girl.

Storyboards are very effective as they can give you an idea of what your film will flow like.

Costume/Character Research (Specifics)

REAL DAD

This is a picture of Mike Delfino out of Desperate Housewives, he is an ex-convict and he has stubble and a mysterious look about him, this is the type of person we want to play the real father. However, we want him to wear all black as black represents bad people.

STEPDAD

We have decided that we want the stepfather to be wearing a suit like the man in this picture, this is so that he looks like he is higher up on the social hierarchy than the real dad implying he is a better person.

TEENAGE GIRL AND FRIENDS

I have chosen this image from the Inbetweeners because it shows the teenagers all in the same school uniform but worn differently, the main teenage girl would be the girl on the right with her tie undone as this would show she is quite a naughty character.

LITTLE GIRL

I have chosen this image of a young girl because she is looking cute as she is looking up, this is the type of shot that we want in the flashback as she looks very innocent.

MOTHER

This image of quite a young mother is the type of person we want to play our young mom as she is very fresh faced and looks asif she could do no harm and is motherly.

Location Research (Specifics)

Below I have uploaded several pictures of schools, house living rooms, abandoned houses (exterior), and police stations/prisons. I have done this as we will feature settings similiar to these in our film.

There is also a PREZI embedded below for your viewing:

Location Reasearch on Prezi

Location and Props Research

Because we will be required to shoot our film on location, I felt it necessary to delve into the conventions of thriller settings. I have posted some of my findings below, as well as research into conventional costumes used in thrillers also.

Location:-

• Dark, grotty underground areas.
• Derelict stations/woodland.
• Night time
• Dense areas of forestry
• Abandoned warehouses
• Cages (fight arenas)
• Mental hospitals
• Prison

(NOTE: 'Tormented' challenges the convention of thrillers... it is set mostly in the day light, and adds an element of comedy. Still midnight scenes though, so not completely unconventional.)

Costume:-

• Young women tend to wear very little... i.e. "enough to cover the important bits, but as little as possible to keep you interested."
• Young men tend to wear adequate clothing for most of the film... although the occasional action sequence may find the male heroes topless.
• Older men (and older women) tend to be fully clothed at ALL times during the film (we're talking jackets, heavy trousers, dress shoes, hats...)
• Clothes are often dull, or just gradient, i.e. black, white, etc.
• Bad guy characters often have concealed faces (they don hoodies, bandanas, robes, masks, etc...)

Props:-

• Weaponry tends to range from melee (axes, swords, machetes, clubs, etc) to any kind of firearm or explosive (pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles, bombs, grenades). None of these are unheard of within the genre.

Film Script (with research)

Seen as we at 'DOMINO M.G.' will have to write a script for our film, I have felt it necessary to here post some information about scripts.

A script is a document that is written for a film. It contains the lines/dialogue that will be spoken by characters within the film, and hence it is given to actors and actresses that have been cast for the film. They are then expected to learn the script so they know exactly what to say for their lines when it comes to shooting the film.


A definition of Script Writing would be:
"Script writing is the activity of creating a script for any person or people to perform. Though it is most often associated with the movie and television industries, script writing is also an important part of live theatre, news casting, advertising, sales and education."

Dean Becky Laura Jess

Our Film Treatment: Final Draft

After reviewing the feedback from our last treatment, we have put together this refined edition. Embedded below:

Treatment Final Draft

Treatment Feedback

We presented our treatment to Mr Hood and had a very lengthy discussion about it. It was said that there were no actual issues with our treatment, however, after discussion we have decided to add a back story to the father. We want to imply to the audience that he is a dangerous man without using dialogue, therefore we are going to add a scene at the start with him walking out of a prison, however, we will have to pick costumes carefully to show that he is in fact an ex-prisoner rather than a prison officer.
We realised early on that showing the dad actually being arrested would be quite difficult, and the police may refuse to do such a scene for us. Instead, to show that the dad is about to be arrested, we have decided that far off police sirens will be added into our flashback scene to indicate that the police are on their way to the family residence.

Our Film Treatment: First Draft

Treatment

This was our first attempt at writing a film treatment for our film, after delving into the necessary research I mentioned earlier.

Film Treatment Research

Now having decided on the plot for our film, we have been asked to write a 'film treatment' for it. In order to do this successfully, it would seem adequate research into the subject wouldn't do us any harm. By typing 'Film Treatments' into a search engine (in our case Google) we were given the following description:

'A film treatment is a detailed description of the events that will take place in your film. It reads like a novel set in the present tense,  though it pays intense precision to detail so that what you read is exactly what it will look like on screen.
There are usually two treatments written for the film; an original draft idea, and then a final treatment. The latter is produced after first presenting the original treatment for evaluation from investors, etc. Then taking what criticisms are put forth, the final treatment corrects what was wrong with the original.'

Also, it would seem there are several conventions of treatment writing, they are:-

• Font- Courier. If any other font is used the treatment will not be read.
• Font Size- 12.
• Average about 40 pages long for a full film.
• Present tense.

So now that we understand what a film treatment is, we felt it necessary to take a look at some actual treatments from famous movies. We specifically looked at James Cameron and two of his most successful films; 'The Terminator' and 'AVATAR'. Unfortunately, I was unable to embed the treatment of 'The Terminator' into my blog, so I have instead posted a link, which will take you directly to the web page displaying the film treatment.

http://acreativemoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/terminator.pdf

New Film Idea and Plot

We have come up with a new idea which will be a lot easier to film for an AS Media project. We have solved the problems of location and characters as the new idea will be set just outside our own school gates and will involve several teenagers, and only a couple of adults, which shouldn't be too hard to find.

The plot of our new film is as follows:

A girl being watched by a man whilst walking out of an after school detention with her friends, she leaves her friends to approach her stepdad waiting for her. The man watching her is in fact her real dad who keeps having flashbacks of his time with the daughter before her mother left him. The teenage girl has an argument with her stepdad, the whole time her real dad is watching, causing him to become enraged.

We believe that this new idea will be easier to film and that the audience will understand the situation the characters are in. We also believe that by choosing this idea over our old one we will end up with a better quality film. We have discussed our new idea with Mr Hood and he agrees that it will be easier and we will have a better outcome.

Pitch for Our Film Idea

Embedded below is the pitch for our film idea. We spent many weeks coming up with our idea and writing the pitch to make sure we executed it well.



The overall feedback we recieved was that the film is too confusing. We decided that it would be difficult to find all the characters we needed and it was suggested that we could possibly use costume to disguise ages of actors etc. Another issue that arose was that in a 2 minute film it would be very difficult to distinguish the connection between the murderer and the victim.

After listening to all the feedback we recieved and realising it would prove more difficult than we had first imagined, we as a group (despite much debate) have decided to begin work on a new idea. This new idea is still in the works however.

Group Brainstorming Session

Below is a Prezi, which is an animated presentation of information. We have used this Prezi to show the results of our brainstorming session.

Group Ideas on Prezi

Target Audience Research

I have researched how films are rated on the British Board of Film Classification website. The knowledge I have acquired from this website I now have to decide on the age rating we should give our film. We have all came to the conclusion that our film will be classified as either a 12 or a 15. I have given you a brief overview below of all the age ratings:

Parental Guidance Universal -Suitable for All

'U' rated films are suitable for audiences aged four years and over.

Parental Guidance

'PG' films should not disturb any child around the age of 8 or older, children of any age may watch it if accompanied by an adult.

 

 

Suitable for 12 Years or Older

The category of 12A exists for films in cinemas and it means that noone younger than 12 can see the film unless accompanied by an adult.

Films with this rating may include violence, imitable behaviour, language, sex and drugs, but they must not be shown in detail and will be brief.

Suitable for 15 Years or Older

Only people ages 15 and older may watch a '15' rated film, it is virtually the same as a 12/12A rating however all the above things can be shown but will be in more detail.

Suitable for Adults Only

Noone younger than 18 years of age will be allowed to view this film in a cinema. This is because the due to The Human Rights Act 1998, at 18 you should have the freedom to choose your own entertainment.

Not only do we have to consider the age rating that we would give our film but also the type of person that would go and watch it. For example a 15 year old girl may be old enough to watch an action film but they may not want to. We have decided that our film would be aimed at older teenagers and middle aged people who like to watch  mysterious films. I also believe that males would prefer to watch it over women.

Comparison - Opening Scene from a Comedy

So now you have seen my analysis of 3 thriller opening scenes and their conventions. Now I will briefly analyse the opening scene from a different genre, a comedy genre. I will note the differences between the comedy film and the 3 thriller films, i.e. different music, brightness and vibrance of on screen action, camerawork, etc...
The film I have chosen to analyse for comedy is:

• 'The Longest Yard' (2005) - Sports comedy starring Adam Sandler. When ex-Pro NFL Football player, Paul Crewe, is sent to prison for drunk driving, he is forced to assemble a team of fellow prisoners to play against the Prison guards. Nobody expects the prisoners to pull off a win against the highly skilled Allenwell Guards team. But the guards cruel behaviour towards the prisoners over the years leaves the hardest, meanest convicts up for revenge... and now they're being given the opportunity - LEGALLY!

Analysis:
The opening scene of 'The Longest Yard' is the complete opposite of anything thriller conventional, not surprising, seen as The Longest Yard is a comedy - NOT a thriller. The non-diagetic music is very party like, and jovial, as oppose to tension building or suspenseful. The dialogue is very comic/friendly, and there is nothing unsettling for audience members. Shot editing is casual and relaxed, conventional to the laid-back, feel-good comedy film genre. The main character in the film (played by Adam Sandler), is first seen drunk and eating junk food whilst watching T.V. This is typical of comedies, as the film needs to immediately make the audience smile/laugh, and The Longest Yard does this successfully.

Opening Scenes of Thrillers

Analysis (First 2.20 minutes):

The first opening of 'The Butterfly Effect' is very conventional to thriller movies. Once the 'NewLine Cinema' title has been displayed, along with it's patented music snippet, the next title is revealed; 'Film Engine', but accompanying it, we have a much darker, tense music piece, playing. It sounds as though you can feel pressure building in your ears, before a louder noise kicks in as 'Film Engine' slides onto screen. The non-diagetic tense music can then be heard again, as we see a quotation of the famous Chaos Theory on screen, and then we hear very eerie, suspenseful music play. The next shot is the start of the actual film, the picture on screen is deliberately dark, typical of thriller movies as it makes viewers feel uneasy if they can see less clearly. Whilst this is happening, a slow musical piece is building, just a straight forward noise, like a long breath; it gets louder and louder and then we see a man in the corridor outside of the room (the camera is inside of the room remember), he is only partially in view, as the shutters in the room are drawn, so we can only see parts of his face at any given time, this is typical of thrillers again, as viewers cannot see clearly who he is or what he is doing... this is very suspenseful therefore. The camera follows the man as he moves round to the door, and then the camera fixates on the door. By this point, the tense musical pulse has reached a climax, again building immense tension in the viewers, very conventional to thrillers. Then suddenly the musical pulse is broken by the diagetic sound of the door being kicked open and the man from outside the room running into the room. This is again conventional to thrillers as the audience may jump or at least snap out of their suspense in very sudden instance. Instantaneous to the door noise being heard, very fast paced, non-diagetic music kicks in. The man then barricades the doors, indicating he is being pursued by someone/something. The audience are again gripped in suspense, as the man then proceeds to hide under a table in the room. He begins to scribble something into a notebook, before the camera shot changes to show men (in uniform similar to that of a security guard) shining torches into the room from the outside, clearly looking for the man hiding under the table in the room. Accompanying that, loud shouting dialogue is heard from outside the room "Evan, Evan!" (Evan is the man under the table). The guards then begin to force their way into the room. The camera then switches back to a close up shot of Evan under the table, he sees the door being forced open and speeds up his writing rapidly. We hear him speak what he is writing, and then the camera switches to a point of view shot of the notebook from Evan. He finishes what he's writing, and then the page fades away into a graphic match of several butterflies made from the paper Evan was writing on. The picture around the butterflies has faded to black by now, and the film title 'The Butterfly Effect' is shown under the butterflies. Two of the butterflies fade off screen, though one stops central screen and transitions into a graphic match of an X-Ray image of the human brain, with the film title displayed on top. Graphic matches are conventional to thrillers as they present a way of changing what is shown on screen without losing any built up tension in the viewers. The titles then fade away to show a serene suburban road within an equally suburban neighbourhood, and children are riding bikes along the  road, we then see in the next shot, a young boy playing with a dog, and at the bottom of the screen we are shown "thirteen years earlier". This is conventional to some thrillers, as the start of the film, is the end of the story, which means the viewers are now going to see what has built up to Evan being pursued by guards at the start of the film.




Analysis (First 5.26 minutes):

The opening credentials of 'Air Force One' are actually NOT very conventional to thrillers. Mainly because there is nothing tension building about them. They fade onto screen very ununiquely, and fade of much the same. The non-diagetic music also does not build tension, it seems very patriotic and meaningful, but does nothing in the way of creation tension or suspense. However, once the credentials pass, then the tension building blooms like a flower in Spring. Immediately, to mark the end of the credits, the music drops from the loud orchestry, to a quiet drone, interrupted only by the occasional two beat of a drum. This starts to build tension as the change in music indicates a change of atmosphere; that something is about to kickstart. This is very thriller conventional. We can now see mist against a night sky, misty being thriller conventional as it clouds the vision, building suspense, as viewers want to be able to see clearly what is approaching. We then see little shapes in the sky (the camera is looking up at them) which are gradually coming closer. We can then make out that they are parachutes. Next we are shown a close up shot of one parachuters. He is dressed all in black and has a oxygen mask covering his features. This is thriller conventional as viewers do not know who the man nor his comrades are, and this comes across as very indimidating. The next shot we see the mans entourage. Now viewers are assured that they are all working on some sort of break in as they are are all dressed stealthily, and parachuting in the dead of night, and in when the camera shows an establishing shot of the presidential palace of Kazakhstan; viewers are assured that the four parachuters are aiming to make some sort of attack on it. This is thriller conventional as thrillers are often associated with violence/crimes. The next shot reveals that there are soldiers patrolling the buildings roof, meaning that there will most likely be violence very shortly. Again conventional to a thriller film. Then when we see one of the parachuters pull down a pair of goggles, accompanied by the diagetic sound of electronics, we are then given a point of view shot through the mans goggles. The view is in green, revealing the goggles to be night vision, indicating that the parachuters are well versed in stealth operations, and are likely well funded (presumably government of some sort). To confirm the violence, we next see one of the soldiers from the palace roof again, but this time he has a red dot on the back of his head (the targetting laser from a gun), this build suspense immediately as viewers anticipate the mans death for a few seconds before we hear the sudden diagetic noise of a silenced gun, followed by the man collapsing dead. The camera then shows one of the parachuters wielding a gun, identifying them as the killers. When the parachuters land, they start speaking instructions amongst themselves, in cryptic yet professional speech, confirming that they are indeed highly organised soldiers, clearly on a mission not a random skirmish. This again is thriller conventional as it verges on the side of politics, meaning that we have already witnessed two thriller sub-genres (action and political). What follows this is a series of killings by the intruders, as they break into the building, and storm the interior. We see a mixture of extreme-close ups and point of view shots from the intruders, all the while they kill soldiers from the palace with accompanied gun shot sounds. High octance, fast editing of course present, meaning yet more conventional thriller ideas. They then take a prisoner (clearly their target for the mission, some kind of leader as he sleeps in a huge majestic bed and is shown to be the palace owner, therefore the president of Kazakhstan). The proceed to escape the building, boarding a helicopter on the roof. More gunshots are heard, palace soldiers attempt to stop the fleeing assailants, before a quick switch to an extreme close up of an explosive device shows it flash (about to detonate), then we are shown a long shot of the palace roof, as a diagetic blast is heard with the sight of flames engulfing the roof, sending all remaining palace soldiers flying. The helicopter with the parachuters aboard, then flies from the area safely, with the city outline shown in the same shot as the chopper. A graphic match then occurs, as the city outline, switches to the outline of a different city within the same shot. The helicopter has faded from screen however. Then we see on screen, text saying 'Moscow, three weeks later.' This is thriller conventional as we know time has passed since the palace raid, and the audience is in suspense as to what has come of the attack.




Analysis:

Everything in the opening scene of 'My Bloody Valentine' is thriller coventional. The opening titles come up with suspenseful, daemonic non-diagetic music, which carries on into the opening of the film. We are shown a variety of newspaper clippings, accompanied by dialogue from television news reports, from which we can gather that there was a mining disaster, in which many miners died. Through the headlines, we garner enough info to know that it was at first suspected the deaths were caused by an official forgetting to cut 'the blood lines' which caused the miners to run out of oxygen and die, but we are then shown that one miner escaped alive by some miracle. We then see that this miracle was actually the fact that the miner killed his comrades with a pickaxe to save oxygen within the mine, and that he is now in a comer and has been for one year. This is all very thriller conventional, as it sets the scene quickly and effectively. It also indicates that this film will be some sort of crime/horror thriller, as murders have taken place, in a very dark and secluded place; a deep underground mine. The music throughout this still the same daemonic type that is present in the opening titles, and this is very thriller conventional due to its suspense filling qualities. Finally, the headlines fade away, the music dies down to a quiet background drone, and we see an establishing shot of a hospital. Inside the hospital, we see a man (revealed to be the murdering miner) lying in a hospital bed. We are shown his memories through a series of fast edited scene switches on screen (we are meant to be looking into the mans mind and so we see his memories physically). The last memory we see is an explosion within the mine, before we are taken out of the memory and suddenly see the man in his bed, open his eyes very suddenly, in an extreme close up of his face. This is thrilling as all of a sudden, a murderer has awoke from a year long coma, and we want to know what he is about to do next. The next shot, we see a nurse go over to the bed, pull back the curtain, only to find an empty bed... as she backs away, we see the man sat in the dark corner of the room, unknown to the nurse. The man then stands up and turns to face the nurse, is she about to die? Well as the thrilling music heats back up to a climax, as the film title explodes onto the screen 'My Bloody Valentine'. This is very thriller conventional, as you are not there shown if the nurse has been killed. Yet you know for a fact that she has. The title works to signify the end of the opening scene, and the start of the main body for the film. Successfully achieving the goal of leaving a suspenseful audience, awaiting their thrill.

Opening Scenes Analysis

I will now find 3 thriller films, and analyse their opening scenes; commenting on the titles and their on-screen appearance/presentation, sound/music, camera work, and editing - and why this makes them thriller conventional.
The three films I will be analysing are:-

• 'The Butterfly Effect' (2004) - Psychological thriller starring Ashton Kutcher. Evan (Kutcher) can travel back in time through remembering scenes from his childhood that he once recorded in a diary. He keeps jumping back in time in order to save the woman he loves, but each time he goes back, he further damages his brain and by changing even the smallest things in the past, he finds terrible repurcussions when he goes back to the present.
• 'Air Force One' (1997) - Crime Thriller starring Harrison Ford. When terrorists hijack the US President's private jet, Air Force One; the protagonists must stop the terrorists from assassinating the President and gaining access to the nuclear missile launch button also on board the plane.
• 'My Bloody Valentine' (2009) - Horror thriller starring Jensen Ackles. When a series of brutal murders occur on the 10th anniversary of another huge massacre within a small mining town, locals and police alike believe the murderer to be Harry Warden - the same insane miner who commited the original massacre of 22 people in the village all those years ago. But there is just one problem... Harry has been dead for a decade.

Film Titles Research

Below I have listed some very successful and popular thrillers, we (my group) have studied some of these films in order to give us a better idea of what content our film will need to have if it is to be thrilling and hence, successful.

• The Butterfly Effect
• Road House
• Taken
• Air Force One
• 12 Rounds
• My Bloody Valentine
• Vantage Point
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Unbreakable
• Peeping Tom
• Mulholland Drive
• Alien Vs Predator
• Torment
• Joshua
• Mission Impossible 3
• Funny Games
• Fight Club
• Panic Room
• The Bourne Identity
• Centurion
• Hostage
• Vertigo

Conventions of the 'Thriller' genre in films

As I discussed earlier, a thriller aims to thrill the audience. This is done by employing a well known set of conventions, mainly these are:-

• Male protagonist - usually very macho or highly intelligent, or sometimes both.
• Female or Child is the vulnerable victim who needs to be saved by the hero.
• Antagonist usually on a par with the protagonist (can match their strength, can play mental mind games, etc). Also, unlike other action based film genres (i.e. Horrors), the antagonist in a thriller is often known to the audience and/or protagonist straight from the outset. And the antagonist often will engage in some sort of communication with the protagonist as well, e.g. telling them riddles through a phone call, etc.
• Fast editing and camerawork
• Plot revolves around a crime, mystery, etc.
• Protagonist does NOT always defeat the antagonist, or at least not without some sort of sacrifice.
• Fast tempo non-diegetic music.
• Emphasis on some diegetic sounds, e.g. the ticking of a clock which is counting down the time for a bomb to explode.

Definition of a 'Thriller' and the Sub-Genres associated with thrillers

The 'Thriller' genre in films is one which uses elements to create suspense or tension, in order to excite the viewers or to carry on the plot of the film.

The genre of thriller is the same in literature, the definition of thriller in books etc is "One that thrills, especially a sensational or suspenseful book, story or play"

A SUB-GENRE is a genre that can be successfully merged with another to make a different type of film entirely.

Different types of 'Thriller' movies are:-

• Crime Thriller - These type of films are a mix between crime films and thrillers which are about successful or unsuccessful crimes and show suspenceful accounts of the people involved. These films often focus on the criminals rather than the police. Crime thrillers usually focus on the element of action scenes. These films are usually about any crime such as murders, heists, etc. An example of this Thriller would be 'Reservoir Dogs'.
• Disaster Thriller - This type of film involves either a natural disaster such as a tsunami or earthquake, etc... Or an artifical (man-made) disaster such as a nuclear explosion. An example of this type of film would be 'The Day After Tomorrow' where the disaster they face is global warming throughout the film, therefore making it a natural disaster.
• Psychological Thriller - In this sub-genre the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, untill the end which is usually violent. Alfred Hitchcock is very good at this type of film. Some examples of this sub-genre are 'Panic Room' and 'The Butterfly Effect'.
• Mystery Thriller - These films are suspenseful and include the Main character(s) trying to solve a mystery. An example of this would be 'Shutter Island', or 'The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations'.
• Political Thriller - This sub-genre usually involves the protagonist either trying to expose a government's corruption, or being a member of the government and tryin to uphold it against false claims/media attacks. An example of this would be 'Frost/Nixon'.

• Horror Thriller - This type of Thriller is one that not only thrills viewers... it scares the mind into submission. Basically, just a very fast paced, "jumpy" horror. An example of this would be 'My Bloody Valentine'.

Main Task Commission

Our main task for this course is to create, plan, design, and film the first two minutes of a full length feature film. We must make use of all skills and techniques obtained throughout the course, and then present our finished piece available for examination.

Our Chosen Film Genre:

We have decided on the 'THRILLER' genre for our film.

We have chosen this genre because it usually attracts the largest audience variety. This is mainly because no matter what age viewers are, people of all ages can be 'thrilled'. Whereas if we had chosen a Romantic Comedy, we would have a very specific target audience - mainly young to middle aged women, most likely on a "girls night out", who might enjoy romantic mishaps, optimistic characters, and the traditional "happy ending" of Rom-Coms, but a 50 year old tradeworker may not enjoy those elements and would hence not go to watch the film.

Technique Tests

The task we were set here, was to experiment with 'Three Point Lighting' and to use a "dolly" (basically a trolley for our camera that rolls along two parallel tubes) and to experiment with 'Tracking and Panning' shots.

Below is a diagram demonstrating how to execute 3 point lighting:

See below for example of how to operate a 'dolly' to film a tracking shot:

These types of shot may be useful to us in the future as we may wish to include them in our final film for the AS course. The results of the task are displayed in the video below. Thanks.

AS Preliminary Task: 'The Caretaker'

This was our first ever time filming in our new production teams, and so gave us a chance to get used to working with each other closely.

In the Preliminary task that was set, we were given the following requirements of the film that we should adhere to:-

• Film someone walking through a door in two shots (i.e. one shot was done from behind the person as they open the door, then in the second shot; we film that same person coming through the door from the other side), taking care to avoid continuity errors and hence create succesful 'match-on-action'.
• Include a few lines of dialogue between one character and another.
• Clear use of shot/reverse shot, and adhering to the 180 degree rule of shooting.

The finished piece is displayed below for your viewing pleasure. Thank you.

We felt that our film was quite good for our first try and the audience feedback provided us with some positives and negatives points. Our audience said that our framing was good yet our sound could have been improved by integrating it with the initial soundtrack that we produced.  The amount of dialogue we used was also a strong point that our audience picked up on; yet our match on action could have been improved when Lewis and Dean run through the door, this error could have been fixed in editing and we shall take this into consideration for future tasks. I feel that producing this has gave us some of the basic skills we need to make our films in the future better.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

Hello, and welcome to my blog.
My name is Dean, and I am studying AS Media Studies at Great Wyrley PAHS. Through this blog, I will present all my work from the course for your viewing and assessment. Thank you for your time.
The members of my group are:-

• Myself
• Rebecca Wheeler
• Jessica Jones
• Laura Gardiner

Our film company is called 'DOMINO Productions'