Actors chosen

We picked these actors because we wanted to appeal to a teenage audience. We picked a teacher as the ex-politition because he has a more dignified look. All the actors in this do theatre studies to add to realism of the thriller.

Storyboard of Friendly Fire

Props

Prop List1

Shot Type in "Friendly Fire"

First five shot will be a montage of all the contestants. These will all be medium/medium close ups. The next shot will be a long shot of the presenter on stage. After this there will be medium shots and wide shots of the presenter interviewing the contestants in various locations, including a police station and on the street. Then there will be a montage of the winner from last series coming back as a special guest. The montage will include medium shots, wide shot and panning shots of her running around and killing people. This will be followed by the Friendly fire logo.

First productive group meeting

In our first productive group meeting we decided on the dialogue, the shot types, the location and the props we are going to need. We made some small changes to the initial idea, changing the title to from "last man standing" to "friendly fire" and some alterations to the synopsis. We then decided to do some research on thrillers. We made a questionnaire and got random people from around the school to answer them.

What people look for in a thriller

Analysis of a foreign language thriller

The trailer starts by introducing the characters, we see the man early on and it is evident that he has fallen in love with this girl. The non-diegetic sound is also quite romantic and draws the audience into the story. As she undresses the non-diegetic sound seems to to be going nowhere until we see a scar on her upper thingh and suddenly the mood of the music changes into an eerie, sinister tone. The next shot reveals an isolated chair in the middle of the room, possibly used to tie somebody down. The electric blinds closing may signify no hope for her victim. We then see another man who looks at her and is most likely her next victim. The non-diegetic sound is now really tense bacause we know somethings going to happen. A strangley shaped object wrapped in bandages moving and then the man looking at it adding to the suspense. The music builds up to her sitting on the with the phone ringing. She is sat in a very unnatural position. After we see a close up of her smiling, suddenly the sack in the background moves. This is followed by screams and cross cutting between the men trying to escape. The non-diegetic sound is now oriental making the film feel different to a hollywood horror.

The Matrix target audience

On the IMDB it shows there is a demographic breakdown of the film viewers of the Matrix Reloaded. This film targets a young, male audience as the user ratings showed. According to the user ratings, 153,000 male users rated it, in comparison to only 17,000 female voters. The female voters also generally rated the film a lot lower than the male voters, particularly in the 18-29 age bracket where the males rated it 7.3 and the female audience rated 6.9. The film is most popular with people under the age of 18 and least popular with males who are 45 and over. I think that this films primary audience is below 18 because teenagers generally prefer films with lots of violence and special effects like the matrix whereas men over the age of 45 dont have much interest in action/ thriller films.

Comparing target audiences

Saw targets a target audience between 18 and 30.  This audience is primarily male because it is a horror and stereotypically girls don't like horror because of the gore and violence. The secondary audience will be women who go to see the film with their boyfriends. Horror is generally considered to be a young genre and horror fans are usually under 25. This is for the same reason theme parks have a young target audience, becuase young males enjoy a thrill.

In contrast this film will appeal more to girls because of the cast. Brad pitt, Matt Damon, George Clooney and Andy Garcia will attract girls because girls find them good looking. Therefore young females is the secondary audience. The films primary audience is young males because it is a gangster film and young males sterotypically enjoy violence. There will also be an audience of an older generation that remember the first Oceans 11 that was made in the 1960's

Camera Shots

Here are some of the shots we have been learning about in class. I have been experimenting with the different types of shots in my prelim task.

Title sequence of seven analysis

The non-diegetic music at the start creates an eery beginning to the film and the open book giving it a sense of mystery. The first credits are white on a black background and look badly handwritten. They are also scribbly and flash similar to lightening signifying that this film is going to be dark and scary. Then there is a shar screeching sound as we see someone cutting dead skin off of his fingers with a razor. The hand looks dirty and blistered from working. We then see a montage of this person wrting, cutting, reading, sewing, going through pictures etc. From the gruesome picture of dead prople we can gather that thi person is investigating. There are also lots of little signs that signify a murder, like when he celatapes a picture, running his finger across the neck of a woman creating the image of her had being chopped off. The blood smear on the page after this also signifies a perhaps unhumane death. The pictures become even more gory and gruesome and we see a man with a giant needle through his head. Shortly after this we see the man use a needles signifying that he could be a killer. We dont ever see the mans face in this opening sequence, giving him a sense of mystery. The opening sequence ends with the man taking a newspaper cutting with the word god, suggesting there is spirituality in this film.

Influences on our thriller idea

Our thriller idea was based on reality TV type films like big brother, x factor and I'm a celebrity get me out of here. We did this because reality TV programmes are relevant to now and over the past decade has been the most popular kind of TV. In this thriller we want to show an idea of what future reality TV could be like. Our thriller is going to show reality TV going to far and instead of jungle survival, we are putting our contestants head to head with guns, knifes and baseball bats.



Here is an example of reality TV porgramme "I'm a celebrity get me out of here".

My Thriller Idea

The Power Point Pitch

Scream Presentation

Scream

First group meeting

In our first group meeting we discussed the ideas we had and presented them to each other. We analysed each thriller idea and considered how they were going to work. This meant estimating how long they would be, if we can suppy the neccessary props and whether the idea conformed to thriller genre or not. In the end we chose my idea about the reality TV program called last man standing. We decided on this because it is an original idea, not done before and is topical o now because there are so many reality TV programs goin on at the moment.

Generic Conventions of a Thriller

In the shutter island poster you see a desolate island which is engulfed by heavy sea's and stormy weather. Also the fact that the picture is at night signifies that most of the film will be set in the dark, making the island seem spooky. We also see barbwire and steep cliffs surrounding the island, making it look impossible to leave. The title is red signifying that there is danger and the smears next to the title means there will be blood and probably some gruesome scenes.

In this poster we see a man levitating from his bed. He looks like he is under somebody elses control, maybe a paranormal force. The light look artificial and could be the light from a UFO that is abducting this man. The text confirms that it is about alien activity and the fourth kind is abduction. The poster also says that it is based on a true story which is a trick to make more people watch it and also to giving people an even bigger thriller.

Thriller expectations

In a thriller I would expect certain features that separates it from an action/adventure film and a horror film. The reason it's called a thriller is because it's meant to thrill you. This means there will be lots of tension and moment that make you jump. To do this films use spooky non-diegetic music, dim lighting and a good story. I expect the music to build up to something or to be really sharp and short, like the music from psycho or the shining. Thrillers are often quite predictable, making it scarier (e.g. paranormal activity). The method used in some thrillers like clover field and the Blair witch project, is to make the audience feel like they are in the same position as the main character because they have a camcorder so we follow them everywhere. We feel much closer to the main characters because they get so much camera time.

This trailer has all the things you would expect to see in a thriller. It's about insanity and someone who is being controlled by an evil force. This is a typical thriller storyline and the sound, editing, lighting and mise-en-scene in the trailer are what you would expect to see in a thriller film. I picked this example because has all the components of a thriller film. The trailer creates a lot of tension towards the end with the music that becomes quicker and louder with a screeching in the background. The quick editing goes with the non-diegetic sound and each shot is of something dark or someone screaming.

Prelim post production

After my prelim task I had to log the shots that I got onto the computer. First I took the appropriate shots from each angle. This made it easier when selecting which angle I want to for each shot. I then had to make the choice which angles I should use. I used different angles for most shots to show it from different perspectives, show more detail when the characters say something important and show the body language of the character. After each shot I had to find the best fit, cutting the previous shot at exactly the right moment to make the scene flow. Once I had finished putting the different shots in, I had to tweak some of the sound because on one of the shots you hear the door slam and then it cuts to another shot and you hear it slam again. All I had to do was cut some of the sound so that you don’t hear it shut twice. Overall I am very happy with the final product and I enjoyed using the new technology.

Lesson on "What is a thriller"

The thriller genre uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. It keeps the audience on the edge of their seat with eerie non-diegetic sound and often dark and isolated surroundings. Thrillers tend to have protagonists who are unaware of the antagonists' true colours. This means someone hiding their true identity, perhaps pretending to be good to get closer to the main character without him suspecting anything. The thriller can be restricted or unrestricted. Restricted narratives are when the audience knows only as much as the main character does and unrestricted narratives are when the audience knows things that the main character doesnt know. Thrillers can include many sub-genres, pshychological being one of the most popular. Other sub-genres include Supernatural, political, crime, conspiracy and legal thrillers.

Preliminary task evaluation

I filmed in the studio. I filmed there because it had all the right props, including the doors that is opened and then slammed close. The studio was suitable for our video, as it was a normal room where you would expect this scene to happen. The studio is where the camera’s are kept so that also made it convenient to film their instead of travelling with a heavy, expensive camera. I took a big role in directing and filming. I filmed all the shots and worked with the actors to try and make it look as good as possible.

The lighting in this scene is artificial because the scene is filmed inside in a dark environment. The lights enable you to see the character and signifies that it could be filmed at night. This makes the scene effective because if its at night, it makes it more mysterious, like the context of what the two characters are talking about.

I set up the camera correctly, I remembered how to put the tripod up, I clipped the camera into place and levelled it by moving the camera around till the bubble on the stand is level and then twisting the screw up, this is so that the camera shots aren’t tilted. I then filmed many different shot angles from each point I filmed at.

I did wide shots, over the shoulder shots, medium shots, close ups. I stood at 4 different places with the tripod and camera and filmed lots of different shot of the characters at each place. I also had to communicate with the actors a lot so they knew what was going on and I also had to shout “Action” and “Cut”. I used the 180 degree so that the audience doesn’t get confused because if I hadn’t used the 180 degree rule it will look like the two characters keep swapping positions. This makes the scene look more professional.

I learnt a lot from this filming experience. I learnt that communication is key to being a good director and that everywhere you film, you should try and film all the shot you can film. Filming too much is worse than filming too little.

About myself

This is Ivan and I'm 16. I've been playing piano for about 9 years and i passed my grade 8 a few months ago, i used to do classical but now i have moved on to jazz and joined the swing band at my last school. I also like to play tennis and used to play for a club in Bromley for a few years. I love films and music and therefore decided to do media as one of my GCSE's and now as an A-level. I like all types of music but my favourite artist that is in the charts right now is Ed Sheeran. I also like most film genres when they're done well but i enjoy watching thrillers more than anything. My favourite film is donnie darko, it is a classic thriller which i can watch over and over. I am now studying at hurtwood house and doing five A-S levels (Russian, media, economics, maths and french). My mum is russian and taught me how to speak the language and my dad is english (From Hull in Yorkshire). I was born in London and i have stayed here for all my life, going to a school called "Colfe's" for 11 years which i left for this school.

Intro to video camera

I had a lesson on camera work before my prelim task. In this lesson I learnt numerous rules, including the 180 degree rule, and how to set up the video camera, First we had to set up the tripod by opening it up and extending the legs. The next thing we did was attatch the camera to the tripod by clipping it in and then making sure that the camera was level by fixing it at the point where the bubble on the tripod is in the area indicated. I was then showed how to do the technical bits of camera work, how to start recording, how to focus and zoom and finally how to change the white balance.