What Ive Learnt Throughout This Project

Doing this opening to a thriller project , has helped me be able to expand my media knowledge in many ways. firstly i now know alot of the terminology involved with this aspect of media. for instance different camera's or equiptment and other terminology such as, mis en scene and editing especially as before editing was something that i really struggled with and did not know alot about.

secondly i have been able experience the art of filming and framing as well as sequencing shots to be able to make a film opening that was appealing and engaging to the audience.i now feel i have the skills to structure a film and do deatailed planning towards the production and prepareation of storyboards and framing.

I think that personally from the prelimanary task to our final piece we have come a long way which is shown by our final product. there is a clear sense of experimentaion with out shots and angles and also our original sound was very effective to add to the conventions of a thriller.We were able to in the prlim and final task use the

• 180 degree rule
• shot reverse shot
• match on action

Technology involved in our production process

For the process of our production and for the actual filming process our group used alot of equiptment to be able to capture our opening. This equiptment included a HD Flip camera, a tripod, a microphone and an Imac computer.

This is an Imac computer which was used in our procces of editing mainly for our preliminary tasks.it allowed us to view our shots and images and order them and add effects as well as music.

This is the HD flip camera that we used to do all of our filming right from the focus group interviews to the final product as well as preliminary tasks.

This is the microphone that we attatched to our flip camera to enhance the sound and dialogue that our characters had. as we founf one prblem during the editing of our focus group videos and preliminary tasks was that the sound was not as clear as we would have liked it to be.

This is the software/programme that our group used to do our editing , meaning we were able to alter out shots adding music/sound and other effects as well as order the shots to make them run in sequence.

This is the tripod that we used to help us do out filming. this was most helpful in the scenes of which there was alot of movement because we were able to keeep the camera steady.

Another software that we have been using is youtube so that we can upload our prelim taks and variuos credits that we have made originally, as well as the final opening sequence.This is a good way for us to recieve feedback apart from our focus group interviews.

For the main part of our editing we used Adobe premier pro.using this particular software allowed ud to produce a higher profeesional standard and quality of work rather than using the imacs or imovie. we were able to produce things like this:

These images are our company logo and film title of which both appeared in our opening sequence.

Our target audience

TAMARA SMITH

Our final product it will be rated at 15 meaning we are targeting, men and women age 15 and above. The picture above is of Tamara smith. She is 17 year old girl living in the Palmers green which surrounds her with many other youths just like her. She enjoys watching movies, going to gymnastics and going to theatre school in her spare time. She often buys clothes from various stores and tries not to fall into the latest fashion trends.

Teenagers at the age of fifteen have their own thoughts and feelings that they most of the time have no problems with sharing and trying to convince others that there way is the right way. They are also searching for those moments in life of which they can escape from their daily school routines and just be somewhere else. For us this is good as they would love the excitement in the film and the complex character (stalker) would give them someone else to focus on and try to figure out making it all the more interesting.

The television that teenagers watch these days focuses on many social divisions like the popular kids and the nerds and other issues that are highly spoken of in the media like teenage pregnancy, murders, teachers falling for students, going against celibacy or the use of drugs and alcohol. These programmes are mainly aired on either channel 4, E4, or MTV. The programmes that seem to be most popular are things like Glee, 90210, Small Ville or waterloo road

As for music this particular person enjoys a whole variety of music as most teens nowadays. It could range from indie music to R&B or pop. This is highly influenced in the media as most channels provide this music; especially pop which is also apparent on choice fm radio station and kiss fm.

Our film will contain gore, emotional scenes and take the audience on a journey through a complex and confusing mind of a stalker. This will appeal to my target audience because its not just a typical stalker movie; instead it is using a basic idea and turning it into something original and unique.

The only obstacle is that from the ages of 15 to 25 the film would be very entertaining and unique and appealing but reaching into the older audience would not be as successful as they probably would have seen many films that have similar aspects. So it is a bit of a risk denying people under fifteen the chance to see it as we are cutting down our chances of a very large audience.

Who would distribute our film

Film production companies would support the developing and stages of production for my film.They would be the main people associated with provididng the money for the production process and the distributing of the film.Within the industry there are iether independent film compainies like Warp film, caravan films ect or the companies are mainstream like warner bros or twisted pictures. With these distinc  companies comes a distinc style of film which maily occurs within the independent film companies. For instance all of warm films distributions seem to be set in unknown locations or lanmarks, showing their audience what life is like for people living outside of the city. Also warp films seem to produce films that are to do with social realism or real life situations, like “This is England”. Unlike for instance twisted pictures. You can clearly tell from the name that they would distribute dark thilleresque or horror films such as “Saw”

Our film “I See You” would be produced by warp films based on their thier success with films such as “This is England” taking two bafta awardsand their what creativity and uniquenessfor producing films like “trash humpers” and other products like “rubber johnny”, with financial support from national lottery funding and the UK film council.

Warp film is a British film company that first started out as a record shop, and producer of music videos, however through sheer success have expanded their tools and now become very diverse in their innovative films. They launched in 2001 and ever since have worked with iconic name such as director Shane Meadows and director and actor Chris Morris.

This is England is one of the most successful films that warp film have produced and worked with Shane meadows on. It worked with a budget of 1.5 million pounds that was contributed by Film 4 and the UK film council. They used actors that they took from workshops apart from a few known names such as Stephen Graham. It made £207,676 in the UK on its opening weekend, and a gross of $327,919 in the USA. Overall it made a total gross of £5,154,493 in the UK and $8,176,544 in the States.

Other successful/ recognisable projects that warp film have been a part of are:

·        Dead man’s shoes

·        Submarine

·        Four lions

·        Donkey punch

Even though however these British films are very successful it is still apparent that Hollywood stills makes the most profit which arguably is based on the amount of money they have to spend. And us as a UK audience are a huge part of that. I think it’s because of the type of films that they seem to display. Most of the films that make the most money are feel good family features , or they contain some new high technology or special effects that catch an audience eye. Just the effects and a complex storyline alone can make a movie millions in a short time before even thinking about use purchasing of DVD’s. For example:

This is England	Inception
Budget- 1.5 million	Budget -160 million
Opening weekend - £207,676	Opening weekend - $62,785,337
Gross - $327,919 (USA)	Gross - $820,186,685
Awards - 4 wins & 13 nominations	Awards - Won 4 Oscars. Another 45 wins & 81 nominations

what other charcters represent particular social groups

As we have tried to make our story and the story of the stalker very original and unique it is hard to find charcters that fully match the profile we have given our character however there are some film charcters that have similar qualities or aspects to them.

Edward scissor hands is similar to our character in two ways. Firstly he was neglected and a big outcast from the rest of society for the most part of his life.this caused him to have a hostile personality and be a strange human being to understand at most times.secondly all he is inneed of is a bit of love and family to surround him but he cannot help but hurt others. Although in our case its purposely to get what he wnats you can still see the connection that edward would have with our character.

Evaluation Task 1

This was the establishing shot in our opening sequence. we decided to make this the first thing that people see because it sets not only a dark mysterious tone to the film but has the audience engadged as they will want to know whos hand is on the mask, why would they need the mask and who are the pictures of and why are there knifes stuck in them? all these possible questions that the audience will be asking are very good as it means that they will be on edge and enticed formthe very beggining.

This shot is very intense and is of a knife covering the stalker's victim's photo.There is a zoom in so that you can get a closer visual of the victim. again lots of unawnsered questions will be going through audiences minds at this point.This could forshadow the potential gore that the film has to offer.

Here we have a shot of the isolated, desrted car park that our next abduction scene takes place in.this was a reallyeffective shot beacuse first of all it let the audience know where they were and secondly its isolation gives off a very eerie feeling again putting the audience on edge

This shot is at a very low tilted angle that looks very uncomfortable; hopefully this same effect will come across to the audience. we chose to do this because you dont really see many shots like this in many movies and doing this gave it a bit of originality and showed that we experimented alot with our shot types and there effects.

This particular shot is blurred. the reason for this was to create a very misty effect that let the audience know that things have suddenly change and are no longer as they seem.also its an over the shoulder shot so the audience feel like they are with the character watching their every move.

Here is a shot of the first time our victim lays eyes on her predator. this shot is very effective because its also the first time that the audience see the stalker meaning they just like the cvictim are shocked, therefore creating a relationship with the victim as they can relate to certain feelings.

This over the shoulder shot makes th audience feel as if they are inside the movie watching this scene before their own eyes. this shot almost seems clostrophobic and lets the audience know that there is no escaping for the victim.

This mid shot shows the victim tied up in an unknown location.This particular frame is effective because it is very compact as you can see the excess props in the background.the audience at this point will be confused as to where they are and they will sense this from the victims facial expressions as well.

This personally was one of the most effective shots because it for me just captures that thrilleresque essence.He character almost looks like a ghost. The branches outside the right of the window also give the overall frame that eerie feeling making the audience feel very cold towards the stalker.

Location Recces

  When it came to finding a location to film our piece we contemplated allot of things.
* The area
* did it capture a thrilling essence
* would it look right within the piece.

So we went about to different locations and discussed the pros and cons of each area.
Edmonton green:

When we looked at Edmonton green we found that the location was good. However the only problem was that it was very busy and there are always a lot of members of the public about.
so we carried on looking.

Enfield Town

Although Enfield is a great area it was too commercial to many lights and shops that took away aspects that were thrilling.

Wood green:

Wood green was perfect for us as it fitting with our script and also it was quite and almost abandoned. Filming was not going to become a problem .

Production schedule

NAME	FILMING/EDITING	LOCATION	PEOPLE/ROLES	EQUIP
MATT	FILMING- the opening scene at the room. With the guy getting ready. The last scene with the girl tied up	A room a different room?	Matt-director. Mike–camera man Robyn- assistant director Layla- set costume design	Camera tripod
ROBYN	Filming- the victim is being watched. The stalker who is following her	Car park	Robyn-director. Mike–camera man Matt- assistant director Layla- set costume design	Camera tripod baseball bat
MIKE	Filming- filming the filler shots, any loose shots redoing the shots that need to be done	Pending	Matt-Director. Mike–camera man Robyn- assistant director Layla- set costume design	Camera tripod
MATT/ MIKE	Editing- the opening shots and adding it on to the opening sequence	Classroom / home	Matt director and Michael cameraman.	Computer and the film we created
ROBYN	Editing – finishing the ending of the film making sure the editing is done	Classroom/ home	Robyn- director Michael cameraman	Computer and the film we created
MIKE	Completion- adding the pictures we took of the girl. So the stalker picks are also added into the opening sequence. Film looking fresh	Classroom	Matt-Director. Mike–camera man Robyn- assistant director Layla- set costume design	Computer and the film we created

This is our groups production schedule that we used to help us with all of the deatails we needed, in order to film.

Final preliminary task

This is an another story board that i created for a prelimanary task. this one was to help us experiment with the camera and the use of it.

it is incomplete as it is just a drft of the final task.

Here is a storyboard that i created for a preliminary task just for us to get used to using the cameras and creating our frames, for shooting purposes.

Here are some questions that we drafted to ask our focus group:

1. what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word thriller?
2. what films do you first think of when you hear the word thriller?
3. what do you think are the key conventions of a thriller that are effective to you?
4. (after reading our treatment) do you think that we have a good idea for a thriller
5. why do you thinks its good/bad and what could we improve?
6. if we were to realese our film in the cinema would you go and see it and do you think it would be succesful?

MINUTES FROM MEETNG : THURSDAY 3rd FEB

Here are the minutes from one of the meetings that i managed;

• finish group production schedules
• someone needs to create a strory board for our film
• i need to get everybody copies of the treatment
• we are still in need of a location to shoot and need to finf that as soon as possible
• we need to work out when we can film our project
• start thinking about who we want to play our charcters and get that and the costume out of the way.

First Script

For our film we had to start off by making a script. i made the first draft of our script which was basically just so that we as a group could see where our film was in progress and get a grasp of what our film would containand feel like.

Scene 1: 

INT: bedroom-night time      Fade in:

a small room. Walls full of pictures of a girl. The camera pans across the room and stops at a mirror. Through the mirror we see a figure getting ready; we do not know who it is and they are wearing a a mask. The credits are fading in and out.

EXT: car park                    Jump cut:

girl is walking through a car park.(casually) something drops on the floor and she turns to see what it was and then carries on walking. She enters the lift doors and then waits for the doors to shut.

INT: elevator         jump cut:

Close up of the girl in the elevator looking forward. She hears her phone ring and looks to check her texts. There is a text from an unknown number saying ‘ i see you’. She panics and there is a close up of her worried face. The lift door opens and there is the man in the mask waiting for her.

Cut:

A long shot of the man in the mask. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a weapon and jumps towards the girl to attack her and the screen cuts to black and the credits roll.

Final Treatmeant : I See You

Here is out final idea for our thriller. we think that this idea would enable us to create an opening of which we can effectively convey the conventions of a thriller.

My media group made a decision of what our final project/film would be called and what it would include. I then taking in mind their comments wrote a treatment for the entire film which is supposed to give the audience an insight of the whole atmosphere of the film.

Main Characters

Stalker: He is a man in his early thirty's and he, from a past childhood trauma is now phycologically damaged.


Claire: she is a sixteen year old girl who is the first victim of the stalker.

Becks: she is another victim; she is thirteen years old and ends up dying at the end.

Anthony: he is sixteen and also gets captured by the stalker.

Synopsis of Entire Film

Stalker (unknown) has had a long dreary life full of rejection, neglection and deciet.when he reaches the age of 30 he suddenly feels that he wants to start a family but realises that there is no one to do that with. So he begins to observe people. People that fit his idea of a perfect family. He comes across three hopefulls.he starts to follow them and get into their daily routine until he is ready for his first capture. Claire. He, after making her unconscious with a chemical substance, takes her back to a house he has renovated for his convenience; He believes that she could be his perfect match and thinks that she could be his mate. There is a table set for dinner of which he straps Claire down to so that she is unable to escape. While she is unconscious he goes to collect his next two victims of which he wants to be his children. Every day he makes them dinner and they go through tedious sinister discussion and are only allocated one point during the day to have a toilet break. One afternoon the stalker urgently leaves the house to sort out some outside business as he feels like people are watching him and are on the verge of finding his captives. Whilst gone Claire manages to plan an escape route with the others and uses the kitchen knives to cut through some of the ropes and wires loosening the grip enough to release herself. She waits for him to return and then makes out that everything is fine on his arrival whilst he is eat she reveals the knife from underneath her lap and launches across the table stabbing him in the shoulder. While he is down on the floor in agonising pain she frees herself and frees the other victims. They roam the house and find a room upstairs with a hammer in the room. Rapidly they try to break the planks barricading the windows. The stalker is now on his way he finds them in the room and grabs a hold of Anthony strangling him. Claire tries to help Backs escape first and then comes back to help Anthony. She tries to fight the stalker but is too weak. She fights until she cannot fight no more and by this time realises that Anthony is probably dead. After he initial shock she picks up the knife and attacks the stalker making sure he is dead before she takes herself and Anthony's dead body outside the window and gets help.

Why this would appeal to our target audience;

For our film we decided that our target audience would be rated at 15 because it has a very complex mature theme and would have a gritty atmosphere. It would interest them because we have put a distinct twist on it and made it original trying to make sure that it didn’t fall into that typical stalker movie stereotype.

MY IDEA FOR A THRILLER MOVIE

 

Name Of Film: Asylum High

Main Characters:

Danny -he is a sixteen year old boy who attends secondary school. he is not very popular and has trouble making freinds as he only has one. he is pretending to be sick to avoid bullies at school which is the rreason for him bieng one of the uneffected pupils.he goes into achool and then realises that something is not right. after a shocking turn of events he spends his day trying to fight his way out of the school biulding as well as saving the unaffected students that he comes across.at the final obstacle he has to make a descion to kill his best freind or live, so he ends up killing her.

Kaylee: she is sixteen years old and is Danny's only freind and they have a very close relationship. she unfortunatley eats the posiness, contaminated meat and starts to go through some very strange side effects. when Danny arrives in school her only goal is to seek him out and attack him.However towards the end she spirals out of control and ends up harming Danny and mudering a girl called sarah. she the dies as a result of Danny's rage.

Sarah:  sarah is a thirteen year old student. she avoided the meat as she brought in her own lunch. she hides her self away and watches the madness until she realises that she is not alone. she joins forces with Danny and tries to escaoe alongside him but gets caught up in the violence and is brutaly injured by Kaylee.
The storyline for entire film.:

all the students at high school have been poisoned by the school food, that was a new product from a dodgy under priced meat company. the school agreed to use their meat as a trial seen as the meat was cheap.The meat seemed to give the students as well as staff certain side effects such as ; hallucinations, short tempers and mild bi polar disorder. everyone is effected apart from Danny (school boy aged 16-victim) who was absent the day before.he realises that everyone is not right when he encounters weird experiences with his best Friend Kaylee (school girl aged 16-predator).he then becomes very afraid of what the day has in store for him. as things get worse and he gets harmed he tries to escape. but people are lurking around every corner. all is doomed until he meets accomplice Sarah( aged 13 school girl-victim) who is also uninfected. they devise a plan to escape and then try that plan out. however on the way to freedom Sarah gets attacked and becomes unconscious.Danny is left to protect her while protecting himself. but even though there are many obstacles to conquer he somehow does it and manages to save Sarah as well as reporting the incident and save the school.

Idea for the opening:

 i think that the credits would be done on a black background with red writing which foreshadows blood and violence. here is just an exmaple of what it would look like--->  The establishing shot would be a long shot which of the meat factory and then would jump to inside the biulding and the disgusting state the factory is in. Then we cut to a short scene of a dinner lady swapping money for a bag of meat where we then see a car boot full of the bags.(This shot would only focus on the handling of the meat as it is the focus so we will only see the women from the shoulder to the waist.)Then again we cut to a house .we slowly zoom to the top window of the house and go through the room to the bed where we see Danny laying down in bed, pretending to be sick.There will then be a close up of his mobile phone and he will get a call from his best Friend (Kaylee) where they talk.Then as the phone call finishes we see a close up of Kaylee in school about to place the meat in her mouth.

The target audience:

 would be about the age of 12A.This is because this film would more appeal to teenagers as that is who the charcters are played by so there would be some sort of immediate connection between the audience and the characters. also although the content is quite viloent and gorry at times there is not much use of explicit language or anything of that sort so i think that it is a siutable age to view this film.also i think that this film would appeal to my audeince because it wouold shock them and make them start to thinnk that the fiom is not to far off of reality.(for example the reason that most horrors are scary is because they are set in suburben areas which are then brutally disturbed.which then makes the audience feel unsafe beacuse they no longer feel like their home or safew place is reliable on safety anymore.)