Research - Opening credits - Ms Gibbings

Opening credits:

Opening credits are written information in a film that occur at the opening of a film. However, the opening credits are excluded from the actual film as only the audience are exposed to seeing them. The opening credits consist of who stars in the film, as well as the production roles. The opening credits are important because it enables the audience to be aware of the important people who are in the film, and who took part in the production of the film.

The opening credits of a thriller has a significant impact in the opening of the film. This is due to the fact that the credits can cause confusion and it also makes the audience think about what is going on in the scene while the opening credits are been shown. The use of sounds while the credits are been shown also enhances the impact that the credits have on the audience. Its essential to draw the audience into the action from the start.

'Se7en' Opening credits:

From the notable thriller 'Se7en' we can see the opening credits being portrayed through to the audience while the there is some action from the start of the film being taken place. We can see the names of famous actors that are in the film such as Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. The names of the characters shown in the opening credits also flash continuously to draw the audience in, and is a thriller specific technique.

There are useful cinematography techniques that were also used during the opening credits. We could see close ups of the action that was taking place as the credits were occurring. Furthermore there is a male character using the needle and large scissors, which would create a negative impression towards him from the audience.

The low-key lighting is consistent throughout the opening credits. This conveys the opening as being mysterious and creepy as the audience is exposed to low-key lighting from the start of the film. 

The soundtrack used while the opening credits are going adds to the suspense that is created. It also makes the audience feel uneasy with the disturbing sounds such as scratches and a broken radio. Moreover, this is conventional because it relates well with the images that we can see as well as the credits.

To conclude, the opening credits of 'Se7en' is the type of opening credits that I should consider using in my own thriller. This is because in the credits they have managed to draw in the audience with the techniques used. The use of imagery has contributed in catching the audiences attention and I think that this is essential to do at the start of a film, especially doing so in the opening credits.

Research: Narrative theory: Ms Hawkins

What is 'narrative theory?

in media terms a narrative is a account of connected events. the audience needs a narrative in order to be familiar with what they are watching and to have an understanding of what is going on. in films there is always a beginning  a middle and an end. due to the narrative we can construct and understand the meaning that is portrayed through what we are watching. we looked at the main theorists' that had different theories of the narrative structure which was from Vladimir Propp and Tzvetan Todorov.

Todorov's theory:

Todorov simplified the idea of the narrative theory whilst also allowing a more complex interpretation of film with this theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium. At the beginning there is a state of equilibrium where everything is normal and going fluently as it should do. At the middle there is a form of disruption which is known as the disequilibrium. Finally there is a new equilibrium produced at the end of the narrative. Todorov's theory causes excitement and intensity within the audience as they experience both the equilibrium point and disequilibrium within the narrative.

Propp's theory:
Propp had the idea of the narrative being dependant on the characters which have purposes such as an antagonist and an protagonist in which there is a battle between the two sets of characters to determine who is the superior character. This usually happens in Disney films with a 'Hero' and a 'Villain' a notable example being 'Sleeping Beauty'

My Narrative:
For my narrative, I believe that Todorov's theory would be most relevant to my thriller opening. This is because the idea of a equilibrium and disequilibrium throughout the opening would have a positive impact on the audience and attract them in watching my thriller. Moreover, the reason as to why i do not consider to use Propp's theory is that it is not relevant as it does not relate to the thriller genre.

Planning - Character Representation - Ms Heath

Character representation is important because the audience needs to be aware of who each character is, and what type of character that each of them are. Character representaion would also result in the audience reacting to each character in a specific and different way. For example a stereotypical character would be the blonde victim from the thriller 'Scream' as she is represented as being weak in comparision to the antagonise so therefore the audience would feel sympathetic towards her.

Hygerta: (Victim)
Hygerta is a 16 year old female character in which she is portrayed as a attractive teenage girl that is confident and gets attension from a lot of teenage boys. Her being blonde categorises her as being vulnerable and not being smart. Her being attractive is the main reason as to why she gets targeted by the antagonist. She is represented as being innocent and and weak as the audience would be able to tell by her form of body language and facial expression. This character is significant in my thriller because she is represented as being the innocent victim and this gives the audience to take her side in the same way as the audience feel sympathetic towards the blonde character from 'Scream'













Kay: (Antagonist)
Kay plays the antagonist role as he wold be represented as being intimidating throught the whole opening. He also would be represented in a way so that the audience is aware that his main aim is to harm the victim. The equipment and iconography that belong to himwould portray his dark and evil side. After he targets the victim and doing research on her i.e her pictures he makes up his idea to capture her. Him being in the low-key ligthing setting also contributes to him being a dark and mysterious character.

Planning - Scene Narration - Ms Hawkins

In the first scene of my thriller there would be shots of thriller scpecific icongorahpy such as the knives, and large scissors etc. the audeince would be ware of all the equipment that the antagonist would have. There would be close ups of the thriller specific iconography such as the blood on the gloves to create a chilling response within the audience.

Then, there would be images of the victim that would be layed out on a table with candles around the pictures as the antagonist would be staring at the pictures. Moreover, the antagonist would cross out her face with a red pen implying that she is the next victim. There would also be a shot of the antagonist burning the picture of the victim in order to imply that she is in trouble.

Then, the victim would be introduced as we see her sitting in the park which would be the first setting that we would be using. She would be sitting at the bench as she would be starting to get dizzy as then the antagonist would make his move in capturing her.

We would then see her being tied up on a table with a extreme close up shot of her face displaying her as frightened and worried about what would happen to her. Ther would also be a POV shot of the victim looking up at the antagonist wearing a mask. This scene would consist of low-key lighting to portay the victim as being in trouble.

The final scene would consist of the antagonist on his with a close up and the camera only concentrating on him as he blows out the candle leaving the audience with a cliffhanger and wondering what would happen to the victim.

Planning - Mise En Scene - Ms Heath

Setting:
My thriller opening would consist of two locations. The first setting would be outside in a park with everything occuring in a natural way as there would be pedestrants walking. The other location would be a dark room with little visiblity to create a feeling of suspense within the audience. The dark room would be the location in which most of the action would take place because the dark room is more of a conventional thriller location.

The response I hope to create from my use of settings are that the audience could estanblish that its a setting the would be conventional to a thriller, and they would react to in the the relevant way depending on the setting for example they would feel the sense of being worried when the scene was in the dark room

Iconography:
In our thriller we are planning to use significant amount of effort into the iconography. We would use a various range of iconograhpy that would be relevent and conventional to a thriller. We would set up equipment such as knives, saws, large scissors to create a chilling experience from the audience. We would have reference to blood throughout the scenes for example there was blood on the antagonists' gloves. Moreoever, we are thinking to have red pens that would be used by the antagonist to target the victim on her picture. Candles would also be used to display the antagonist as having a myserious character.

The response I hope to create from the use of iconography would be that the audience would be aware of the strength of the antagonist and what he is capable of doing to the victim in order for the audience to feel sad for the victim.

Costume:
The antaonist would be wearing dark clothes to represent himself as being evil and having a dark personality. The dark costume would result in the audience going against the antagonist. The victim on the other hand would be waring light clothes to portray her as being pure and innocent. The antagonists' would be wearing masks to cover their identity as they would not want to be identified.

The response I hope to create from the use of costume would be that the audience would be able to acknowledge the victim and the antagonist by the use of costume as the antagonist would be wearing darker clothes in relation to the victim.

Facial expression/body language:
When the victim would be captured she would have a worried and anxious facial experssion as there was close up shots on the victim to portray the facial expression. Body language of antagonist would be calm and give the sense that he would be in control over the victim. On the other hand, the body language of the victim would be shown as weak and defencess against the antagonist.

The response I hope to create from the facial expression and body language would be that through the use of facial expression and body language the audience should be able to tell that the victim is in trouble and that the antagonist is in control

Lighting:
Low-key lighting would be used  when the victim would be captured to illustrate that she is in trouble and she could experience bad. In contrast, natural lighting would be used when the victim would be on her own before she gets captured to give the sense of her being free for the time being and living her normal life not being aware of the fact that she is going to get captured soon.

The response I hope to create from ligthing would be that the audience should be able to understand that when the lighting changed from natural to low-key the audience would be aware that the victim is in trouble.

Post Production - Audience feedback - Ms Begum

Audience feedback



Audience feedback is the reaction from the audience after watching the thriller opening. The feedback could be either negative or positive. Audience feedback is important because it gives an clear idea to us about what was good about your product and what we should of done better at. Therefore we can determine if our thriller was successful or not.

Before the production of our thriller product we carried out questionnaires to gain some feedback. I carried this out because I wanted to be aware of what were the demands of the audience so i could fulfil that. This was beneficial because it gave us an idea of what our thriller product should consist of in order to keep the audience satisfied. Furthermore, we were also aware of what narrative was most appealing to the audience.

We then screened our thriller product. We chose to screen our thriller product in relation to the target audience of my thriller product. This was an audience that was the age of 15 or over. I chose to screen it to this specific audience because from my research of questionnaire results i knew that my product was suitable and most appealing to an audience of 15 and over. This was beneficial to my thriller conventions and production film making because I was aware that the micro-elements I used was appealing and would draw my target audience into the product. 

Positive comments:

A positive comment that I had received was from Mehmet. The props (iconography) used was eye-catching and related to the narrative.

I think this comment was a good point to pick up on because we had put significant effort on the iconography to relate with the mysterious protagonist.

Hasret had said that ‘the soundtrack created tension and related to the thriller genre’

I was glad to hear this feedback because we had spent a lot of time on the soundtrack to make it a conventional thriller soundtrack and from the comment above we can conclude that it was successful.

Ryan had said that ‘the camera shots such as a close up camera shot of the victim were clear and purposeful.’

This comment was beneficial because we had emphasised on portraying the victim in a way to show her emotion and feelings at the time.

Constructive comments:



A constructive comment that I received by Selma was that ‘different and more camera angles could have been used.’

I agree with this comment as we could of used different camera angles, as different camera angles would give more meaning to our thriller product and display the characters in a useful way.

Another constructive comment was made by Cagdas was that the storyline could have been more creative.

I think that if we put more effort in the storyline the outcome would have been more positive. A more creative storyline could be a significant contributing factor in the success rate of our thriller product.

Sam had commented that ‘the scene when the victim was walking in and out of the shop seemed to drag’

This constructive comment was accurate because I could have made the shop scene more sharp and short. If this could be improved, the scene could have been more fluent and would have had a greater impact on the audience.

Now that I have receive the feedback on my thriller product, I think that I followed my brief and created a successful thriller because my thriller had consisted of the micro-elements which were conventional in thrillers. In which this had reflected on the feedback as the feedback which was mainly positive.

The audience feedback was beneficial to me even though I had created my thriller product because it allowed me to see if the target audience was satisfied about what they saw and what aspects I could have done better in. from the audience feedback, I think that my intended target audience had considered my thriller product as a success. Moreover, my product would enhance the status of ‘New Line Cinema’ as I believe the outcome of the product was a success. My film company would consider working in the future with me as the thriller product successful as conveyed through the audience feedback.



Planning - Final Idea - Ms Begum

Final idea

As a group we had three ideas to base our thriller opening on. the first two ideas were based around the theme of a stalker harassing a teenager, and the other idea being based around the theme of bullying and how a teenage girl was constantly getting bullied at her college. finally, we had the idea based on a religious ritual lead by a masked figure which targets a teenager.

The tittle of our thriller opening would be 'The Ritual'

The narrative of our thriller is as follows, the antagonist would target a young blonde victim. The antagonist would be familiar with her beforehand but the victim would not be aware of this. This would be presented by the antagonist having pictures of the victim. This would also convey that the antagonist knows what his victim would look like. The antagonist would then capture the victim by dropping a pill in her drink as she sits at a park bench. She would then later wake up to the shock of being captured and tied up in a dark room.

My thriller follows the idea of Aristotle which is the idea of themes making the narrative, in which the film is based around the themes that are presented. The theme of the narrative would be a religious ritual. Throughout the film there would be references to a religious ritual with the images that would be used, so therefore our thriller relates to Aristotle's narrative structure.

The characters in the thriller would be played by Myself, Kay and Hygerta. Me and Kay would be the antagonist character, whereas Hygerta would play the victim. The antagonist role would be represented as masked figures and would hide our identity throughout the majority of the opening. The victim would be represented as a blonde, teenage innocent looking female which the audience would feel sympathy for.

We took on board the 5 elements of Mise en scene while we came up with our final idea. We started of with looking at iconography and setting. we agreed that we would use conventional iconography such as blood on gloves, large scissors and items that would attract the audience. the setting would be in a dark room when the victim would be captured, but before being captured it would be outside. The lighting we wanted to use was low-key lighting when she was captured in the dark room with the antagonist. However natural lighting would be used when she would be walking in and out of the shop as she would be outside. The costume we decided that our characters would wear was that the victim would wear light clothing such as white to represent purity, on the other hand the antagonist characters would be wearing darker colours. The body language of the antagonist would be firm and upright to represent strength and confidence. whereas the victim would be timid.

The film influences were mainly from the film 'Stigmata.' This was because 'Stigmata' also follows the same theme as the one we decided which was the theme of a religious ritual. The idea of 'Stigmata' having the use of candles was also an idea that we came up to use on our own thriller. Moreover, another film that influenced us was 'Se7en' this was because of the iconography with the needles and large scissors at the beginning of the film which also caused confusion and gave a mysterious impression. Therefore, these two films were the most influential when deciding on our final idea.