Comparing to other Thrillers:

I feel our Thriller Opening can compare to Sin City Directed by Frank Miller, as this opening has a narrative and there is dialogue which runs through the whole  opening. Our opening has a strong narrative; this therefore compares to Sin City as both intrigue and catch the awareness of the audience, making the audience want to watch more.  I did research several thriller openings before planning and making our own thriller opening, Sin City was one which caught my eye. In our opening we have a narrative however it does become ambiguous and misleading as to who’s Toby Hackett, intriguing the audience further.

Genre is being challenged and subverted using varaition, repitition and familiarity for the audeinces viewing, when veiwing other thrillers of example Cape Fear, Hitchcock’s Psycho and Seven. I noted that all these films use the generic musical conventions of a Thriller-Horror; the music is tense and suspenseful. We have the same music in our opening as we felt this built up the atmospheric environment, therefore are thriller opening is using genric conventions and varying them slightly to make are film different.  While there are comparisons to be made, we also challenged the typical thriller conventions and used a variety of quick paced shots to set the mood of the piece. Many opening of Thrillers have slow paced editing and shots, however with are narrative and when thinking of the audience we felt this would be more appealing to our target audience.   We are subverting the conventions distinguishing are thriller into the industry but varying the generic conventions and therefore creating something different for the audiences.  

Group Progession:

Since the beginning of the project when we first gathered ideas for our opening, many changes and adaptations have been made which has improved the outcome of our results. One change we have made is to change our initial storyboard and narrative. At the beginning, the opening was going to be a thriller horror sub genre; the plot summary was a baby who was going to commit numerous murders. As a group we decided against this due to the fact of how hard it would be to work with a baby doll as it wasn’t a live person, we felt we wouldn’t be able to shot effective shots with the baby. We therefore agreed we used another member in our group, Callum, to act as the antagonist who murders two people. This made it easier for us because it meant we could have Callum act specifically to how we wanted the main character to appear in the opening.

Also, we had initially decided to film much of our opening in a corridor and stairs. It was hard to get shots looking effective because as the lighting was much to dark meaning the shot weren’t coming out to high enough quality. We felt as a group, we would only use this location to place the dead bodies at the end of our opening. However, after taking into consideration feedback from our teacher and our target audience, also looking at how this would appear on screen, we decided to go against using the corridor/stairs altogether. This is because, the change in location was un-necessary and seemed to confusing for the audience to understand what the narrative was begin this.

Target Audience Feedback for Rough Cut:

Having posted our Rough cut of the Final Thriller Opening, we received this feedback, also theses responses where from our target audience:  

‘Really good nice work for your first proper film.’

‘That’s well good it actually scared me a bit with the music and the black and white display.’

‘Also the last shot is the best, good quality camera work throughout.’

‘That’s actually pretty good.’

‘Good use of different camera angles and shots, nice delivery throughout.’

‘I like the tension and suspense which is built up by the music and the variety of different shots however it could be seen more as a short film than a thriller opening.’

‘I think the shot of the male character running up the stairs could be shorter, as it is too long, however the use of the low angles are really well thought out.’

‘The ending could be seen as a bit too concussive, apart from this the rest of the film is technically very good, the music fits the pace of the piece and the acting isn’t too bad.’

‘I like the pan of the dead body, it works really well on the circular seat, I also really like the shot of the male character in the distance, the variety of shots are all really well thought out and technically displayed.’

Rough Cut:

This is a rough cut of our final thriller opening, we need to add another shot of a death list, which will develop the narrative further and intrigue the audience. This will mean we will get a higher grade as we are thinking of our target audience and the overall pace of our opening. We have also developed the opening, so that it leads into a narrative, we feel this shot will interest the audience and lead into the following scene well. We are going to make our titles appear in a far more attractive manner, which will add to the delivery of our opening. We have worked on the teachers and target audince feedback to make sure we are developing our opening to maxium level.

This is our rough cut some specific changes will be made to add to the delivery of our opening.

Individual Evaluation:

My individual progress has improved greatly. At the beginning of our media coursework I began little understanding and experience about making films, however I am now able to differentiate genres and hybrids really easily this allows me to apply this knowledge to my coursework. Also, when we first began filming I found at difficult setting up the camera and the equipment that was needed to film our scenes, since this I now feel a lot mo0re confident when filming and am able to use the equipment efficiently. This has really benefited the group and myself as an individual as I am now able to stop relying on other for help. I also feel comfortable using the Macs to do editing to our piece, this means that I can have an input when editing scenes in and how the piece flows together, which is very significant when working in a group. When working in a group a key factor to success is communication and contact with one another, I feel now we are able communicate our ideas and thoughts easily, which overall benefits the finished thriller opening.

Filming Session: 08/3

This filming session we worked on the teacher’s feedback, which was to add two POV to add variety and let the audience see the actors. I feel it went well as we used a LA POV to add variety within our shots and build the pace and tension. We also filmed another shot however this time we did not do a POV as we were unable to get the height in our shot, as the tripod did not extend high enough. Therefore we filmed the shot from a different angle, to show another angle of the death which adds diversity.  We also added a pan of the dead body in the specific death location, the pan was smooth and steady, as the bench was circular, and the pan looked effective as they were both spherical.  We also added a ending shot which was of the antagonist walking away, this was shot from a LA and the camera gradually tracked upwards so the antagonist became in full view. The title will appear over this shot, to finish the opening effectively.  I feel this is an effective ending shot as it would lead into the narrative well.

Filming session: 01/03

During this filming session we were able to re-shoot some significant shots, the shots were noticed when editing the footage, they weren’t smooth and therefore inadequate for the film.  The shot we filmed first was from the prospective of the antagonist (a POV shot) in the film, it was shot as if the audience is placed in the view point of the antagonist to connect the audience to the tension and suspense that is being withdrawn in the film. We repeated the shot over and over again to make sure it was the best possible quality, keeping the camera level took a certain amount of difficulty as we wanted this clip to be fast paced to again adding  to the anticipation.  When editing we will have to make sure the transition from the fast paced POV shot into the next shot is smooth and of good quality.

The next shots we were able to complete was a Low angle MS of the characters, the problem we had was keeping the camera straight and the actor was wearing different clothes from the last time we filmed, however we were able to conceal this by making sure a jacket was placed over his body, making the continuity is flawless. As this was one of our targets in the previous filming session. To add variety to the shots we placed the camera on the floor and shot from ground  level  to place

Teacher Feedback:

Feedback on Opening so far:

The teacher feedback we received was that our editing needed to be smoother and we needed to slow down the pace of the opening, by adding a POV of Luke to add to the tension and suspense and slow down the death. Also we need to add a shot of Callum, POV, to slow down the pace. The cut of Callum holding Sam needs to be quicker and briefer so the audience understand the narrative. 

Another piece of feedback we received was not to have the cuts of the dead bodies in the basement instead to have the camera panning over the bodies in the specific area of death at the end of the opening with the titles fading into the black screen.

We also need to add some dramatic music to add to the tension and suspense and build up the atmosphere, which we need to research to find a particular piece that works well with our opening.