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.

Post production - soundtrack of the thriller production - Ms Begum

soundtrack of the thriller production

 

Soundtracks are important to thrillers because soundtracks follow the atmosphere of the film and is used in a way as assisting the narrative, and making it more appealing.The impact that a effective soundtrack has on the audeince is that it causes tension and results in the audience reacting to specific scenes in different ways. it can also enhance the success of the thriller as it results in the audience engaging further into the thriller.

 

A conventional soundtrack of a thriller would be a soundtrack that builds up as the intensity of the scene builds up. When there was action that was taking place in the scene, the soundtrack was getting louder which had an impact on the audience in being knowledgable that there should be more concentration taken into the scene as the main action is taking place.

 

The programme that we used was for our soundtrack was logic pro.The example portrays how logic pro was used to create our soundtrack.

 

 

This example shows how the soundtrack was used to effect:

 

 

The type of soundtrack that we used was a soundtrack that sounded eerie and also it started of slow, and as the scenes went on the pace started building up. The sound had a sharp tone to it, especially when the antagonists came together as the audience would see both antagonists together it gave a shapr and unique sound. The inspiration of our soundtrack came from Excorsist. this was because the tempo created in Excorsist and the sense of eerie sounds was effective so we thought our soundtrack should be done in a similair way.

 

What was effective in our thriller soundtrack was that it related to the conventional thriller soundtracks as the soundtrack was building up when it was neccessary, such as when there was action that needed emphasis on. Moreover, another factor that was effectice was that there were distorting sounds used when there was flashing images that popped up in the thriller.

 

To conclude, the soundtrack helped our overall prodution by complimenting our actual thriller product. The sounds that were used related to our actual footage and added to the quality of our end product. I believe that after the soundtrack our thriller is more conventional because the soundtrack consisted of sounds that built tension and related to the thriller genre,

 

 

Planning - Creating own storyboard - Ms Begum

Creating own storyboard

Before the production of our actual thriller product, we had to create our own storyboard. We had previous experience about storyboards as we found out what a storyboard was and looked at different types of storyboards  and now we had to put what we learnt into practice. The storyboard had helped me and my group because it made our production process have a structure and it was more organised as the back-bone of what the filming was going to be about was set by using the storyboard.

The order our storyboard was completed in:

Conclusion:

Significant amount of time was spent on creating our storyboard and deciding on the micro-elements, shot duration and other factors. However, the time spent on our storyboard had paid off because the storyboard had saved us time in our production process. Furthermore, the shot duration was essential because it made us aware of the total time that should be spent on the shots in order to get it the final product around two minutes.

Research -Mise en scene/Costume - Ms Heath

Costume

costume is the type of clothing a character wears. it is also one of the main elements in which a character is represented in a film. The typical antagonist is represented as wearing the colour black or dark colours. However, the typical protagonist is portrayed as wearing the colour white or relatively light colours compared to the antagonist.

From this image from ‘Halloween’ we can clearly address that this character is the antagonist by the costume he is wearing. The jumper and jacket is shown as being dirty, ripped and worn out which clarifies the character as being ruthless and rough. it also causes other characters to feel frightened towards him and shows the evil nature of the character. The dark gloves also is used to represent that the antagonist is trying to hide his identity along with the mask.  

On the other hand, we see that a potential victim which is a young body lady wearing a white plain jumper. The white jumper represents her as being pure and innocent. The white jumper is plain and does not consist of any form of defence for the victim, which outlines that she is defenceless against a attack from the protagonist and significantly weaker which would result in her being in trouble.

To conclude, looking into costumes has helped me gather significant amount of ideas for my own thriller. I'am now also aware of the conventional costumes different characters in thrillers wear. more importantly I now know the type of costume that an antagonist tends to wear and the type of costumes a victim wears. The colour also plays a key role in representing costumes as I'am now aware of the light clothing associated by a victim and a protagonist and dark colours being associated for an antagonist.

Research - Mise en scene/Iconography- Ms Heath

Iconography

What is iconography?

Iconography is an element of Mise en scene. It refers to the objects that you can see in a specific scene and the meaning that these objects have on the scene. For example the iconography that is conventional to thriller tend to be knives, large scissors hammers and other various objects that can cause harm and build tension within the audience.

Conventional iconography from thrillers:

Our research included looking into various amount of thrillers that convey the use of iconography in an effective way. Moreover we were also knowledgeable of the specific meaning that they had. In this specific scene from the 'Scream' franchise, there is iconography used as we can see the antagonist ‘ghost face’ holding a knife which is covered in blood. This gives the image that the antagonist is ready to use this weapon again as its been used before by the blood on the knife. His approach with his hand held high with the weapon on his hand implies that his ready to cause harm at any moment. Likewise, the other image from the thriller ‘unknown’ there is also a knife that’s been used as a form of iconography to imply to the audience that the blonde lady is in trouble.

During the opening credits of ‘se7en’ we can see scissors, needles and books that have been shown as forms of iconography. This has been used to create the sense that the film is based on mystery and to cause confusion and interest within the audience at the start of the film.

To conclude, the iconography element of Mise en scene is essential in thriller films because the objects themselves can cause tension within the audience such as a knife that has been shown. The audience is left having thoughts about what would happen with the knife or the other objects. Moreover, this research into iconography has gave me a broad idea on the iconography I could use in my thriller, and the specific iconography which are relevant to use in specific scenes. 

Planning - Preliminary Task - Ms Begum

Preliminary Task

Intro:

The Preliminary task is learning how to operate and use a camera. I gained experience and had a first feel on how to operate a camera. I captured different cinematography, Including angles, sizes and movements. This had helped me gain significant experience before shooting my actual film. the preliminary task was significant to do because it gave us an idea about who in our group was and wasn't comfortable behind the camera. Another factor which makes the preliminary task important is that it make us familiar with the editing stage in which we edited our footage.



What took place in our footage:

 We chose to base the preliminary task on a student in school who was trying to get away and hide from a bully.  In a group we discussed how the actor should feel and how he should act throughout the preliminary and we agreed on the actor which was being Kay feeling frightened and wanted to get away as far as possible. In which it also included dialogue in which he was talking to himself and questioning what he should do. We also acknowledged that there would be a variety of editing techniques in which we could add to the footage.

What we learned:

The preliminary task had taught us a number of essentials that we had to consider for our own footage. The first thing was that we were familiar with after the preliminary task was the different shots and effects that they had. As shown in the example, we had used a high angle shot to portray the actor as being defenceless and weak. In which we understood that this would imply that character as being the victim in the scene. Another shot we put into practise was the Poing Of View shot. This was where the victim character was walking in the corridor with steady steps anxious about being spotted. Therefore we learnt that the Point Of View shot could be conventional to use in our thriller specific opening. 

Another factor that we had learned from the preliminary task was that we should always film extra footage. This was because that the more footage we had increases the chances of having a better end product. Moreover in the editing stage some irrelevant parts in scenes get edited and deleted so we should be completely sure that the amount of footage is enough to use.

Difficulties:

There were some aspects of the preliminary task that we found challenging. A factor that we found difficult was the relationship between the character that’s acting and camera operator. At times the camera operator would start the scene too late or early, or the character would respond too late or too early which resulted in taking the scene again. However, after couple of times this did not occur as the relationship between the operator and the actor improved.

Next factor that we found challenging was the external factors such as people that were not part of the footage crossing the scene. We had to be patient and had to concentrate on timing while taking the shots, this was because we done the preliminary task in school. This problem would not have much relevance to our actual footage because when we take our actual footage it would be planned and we would make sure that these external factors would not have an impact on it.

After we took the footage:

After filming we had to edit our shots. We had used the ‘Final cut pro’ programme to do so. As this was our first feel on editing, as a group we had face some problems such as getting used to using the programme as well as the mac. However, out of our group the role of the editor was shared between me and Kay because were able to use the programme. Moreover, we also determined the camera operator as being Jessica because she was the best skilled member of the group during filming the footage.

Conclusion:

This task has been essential in creating my actual thriller because of a number of reasons. Most importantly it made me aware of what we had to do and the steps we had to go through to make our footage successful. Furthermore it made me aware of the cinematography techniques that we could use to make a conventional thriller such as the high angle shots and the Point Of View shots. We were also able to determined the role of who the editor and the camera operator would be within our group. The task also enhanced our group work and the relationship between all the members in our group because it made us aware of our strengths and weaknesses within the group

Research - Questionnaire - Ms Gibbings

Questionnaires

Intro:
In the Questionnaire task i had to create a set of questions in which i had to give out to people in which they would answer using their own preference and then this would give me an idea about what i should include in my thriller, also I would be aware of the target audience of the thriller genre and what the target audience would require to see in the film. The questions consisted of open or closed answers.

Questions:

What is your gender? Male/Female


What is your age group? 11-14    15-17   18-25   25+











Do you enjoy watching thrillers? please state below.











Roughly, how many thriller films have you watched? 0-3    4-8    9-12   13+


What sub-genre do you enjoy most? 

• Crime thriller
• Action thriller
• Psychological thriller
• Science fiction thriller
• Religious thriller

What is your favourite thriller film? please state below.


would the trailer of a thriller make you decide if you should watch the film or not? Yes/No


What is the most appealing factor of a thriller film?

• storyline
• director
• actors/actresses
• tittle

What do you think is the most significant factor that makes a successful thriller?


How significant would the opening of a thriller be in reference to the whole thriller? Please chose one.

• Very significant
• Significant
• Not so significant
• Not significant at all

Conclusion:
After conducting my questionnaire I had drawn out some significant factors about how different people feel about the thriller genre. The first point that I was able to see was that the higher the age of the person was  the larger amount of thriller films they had watched. Therefore, the thriller genre is not popular amongst under the age of 15. Therfore, i knew that I should aim my thriller product to audience who is 15 or over. In the favourite thriller film question the films ' se7en ' and ' Taken ' were the most popular thriller films that were watched. I should consider following the conventions of the two films in constructing my thriller opening. This task helped me with my thriller opening research because it made me familiar with the demands of the audience and i was knowledgeable about what the audience would expect from a thriller. Also factors such as what appeals to the audience and the sub genres were points that i needed to take into consideration because if I follow the guidelines of what the audience expect and prefer this would enhance the popularity and success of my thriller opening.