A thriller is a film that creates a thrill, and makes you feel a certain way. There are many types of sub-genres in thrillers e.g. espionage, psychological, supernatural and crime. The conventions are about using mise-en-scene, setting, location , sound, and editing to create tension at all the right moments. Before working on our thrillers, we watched “Watching” a documentary on film openings, it spoke about the typical openings to films being where the camera, pans, tilts and moves across buildings, until it gets to a window. Immediately the audience then identify this is the window, which will present them with their main or an important character. Arlington road is a crime thriller that uses the conventions of thrillers well. It created many moments of suspense through sound, and it was more realistic. The realism was one of the important parts of the thriller, as we wanted it to feel real, and scare the audience in thinking ‘maybe this could happen’. In our thriller sound played a big part, as it helped keep the audience guessing. The sound was realistic, and did not give away too much. We challenged the ‘classic’ opening to a film by not starting the opening outside of a building. At the beginning of our thriller, there is first a shot of feet, then head and eventually you see the body hanging from a tree. This immediately creates instant arousal with the audience, without revealing too much. This is a great way to get the audience asking questions. We took into consideration ‘a favourite trick of film noir’ by starting the thriller, not in the usual way of most (beginning, middle and end). This was great, as at the end of the opening the audience connects all together, to find it is a flashback.
The name of my group’s thriller is ‘Psycle’. The name is a play on words with ‘psycho’ and ‘cycle’, as the thriller features the idea of victims murders recurring in a pattern, like a cycle, and the antagonist in the thriller is labelled ‘psycho’. “Psycle” is a deceitful game, organised by the “psycho” to control the victim, their ability to think and mind. It starts with a woman who finds a body, and a tape. On the tape recording is the victims last message, warning of what is next to happened as she has played the tape she is now involved in the antagonists game. The antagonist is always looking for a new victim, and the person that finds the body is the person chosen. The antagonist uses the tape, as an excuse. For claiming his property, he has a right to retrieve it. Although this is the case, later the audience find out he has psychological problems. The problems’ he has affect his judgement, and is the reason for his behaviour.
The strengths of our product were a number of things including, sound, editing, the plot, everyone’s team effort and the storyboard. The sound and the editing, was the most successful part of our thriller, as it brought everything together. The sound was important, as without it the storyline would not be clear. The voice over explained what was happening, and why without revealing everything. The non- diagetic sounds helped convey, the eeriness and created suspense. The editing took the most time. It was important we picked the right shots, and angles to try and fulfil the brief, and recreate a successful thriller. The plot was the most successful part I believe as we thought about it, cut down some ideas, and created new ideas too. The plot seemed like something you would actually see in a thriller itself. Our plot was completely different to the other groups, which reinforces how much effort we put in together as a team. Our storyboard was done well, as everyone in the group contributed. The storyboard included, camera movement, shot durations, shot types, angles and clear illustrations.
The strengths of our product were a number of things including, sound, editing, the plot, everyone’s team effort and the storyboard. The sound and the editing, was the most successful part of our thriller, as it brought everything together. The sound was important, as without it the storyline would not be clear. The voice over explained what was happening, and why without revealing everything. The non- diagetic sounds helped convey, the eeriness and created suspense. The editing took the most time. It was important we picked the right shots, and angles to try and fulfil the brief, and recreate a successful thriller. The plot was the most successful part I believe as we thought about it, cut down some ideas, and created new ideas too. The plot seemed like something you would actually see in a thriller itself. Our plot was completely different to the other groups, which reinforces how much effort we put in together as a team. Our storyboard was done well, as everyone in the group contributed. The storyboard included, camera movement, shot durations, shot types, angles and clear illustrations.
We also had weaknesses, especially with continuity. In certain parts of the opening to the thriller, a character is bare foot, and then is later seen with shoes on. She also was wearing completely different trousers in two shots, which was intended to be at the same point in time. Also, the same problem occurred for the main character, her footwear changes in the opening. In addition, there is a part in the opening where the character is running, and the camera switches to another shot from a different angle. The cut reduces the distance she was running from, making it look like she had ran a greater distance, than she possibly could in that space of time. Another problem was our storyboard was too good, displaying shot types, angles and proposed actions that were not realistic, mainly due to our filming location. This restricted filming, our opening did not contain any tilts, worms eye view shots, or birds eye view shots. A majority of these problems were caused, because our filming location was undecided before we started storyboarding, we should have taken this into consideration. The voiceover narration was successful, but the level of my voice was unsuccessful. I should have spoken much louder into the microphone when recording.
The sound was the most important convention. Our thriller uses the diagetic sound of screams, and the rest non- diagetic to create an atmosphere. We used eerie sounds in the beginning go with the setting of the opening. The apple piano is played throughout mainly, as a non-diagetic sound to make you sympathise with the body. When entering and leaving the flashback, there were flashes of white and warping sounds to convey the entering and exit. The non-diagetic sound of the bone crushing after, she hangs herself created that realism need. This helped the audience easily identify the flashback. The voice over used throughout the opening, helped create curiosity and tension. As there was no dialogue this helped reveal what was going on. The voice over finishes the opening with the audience interested, and wanting to know “what’s next?”.
Looking back I have learnt that in order to create a successful piece of media you need to plan work thoroughly, and consider all aspects before you film. Our group had too many ideas, but overcomplicated them. From the match cut exercise, I learnt to think about shots types first. I’ve also learnt not only does filming take place, but also editing, sound and scripting. The most difficult thing was time management in the first couple of lessons, due to over thinking too much.
The thriller will be a certificate 15 when shown in viewing houses, yet the target audience is those aged 16-25. The thriller is targeted at this niche audience, as it allows us to identify the needs of the thriller. An example of a potential viewer of our thriller is as follows: Sienna, 20 is a university student studying film studies and law. She enjoys making films, for her website and blog. She is a regularly user of social networking sites. She reads Look magazine, her background is of working class. She shops in Topshop and Asos mainly. She is a member of the green party, although agrees with labour laws. Her favourite sit-com is “Friends”, and she often recycles regularly.
Our media product represents (16-25 year olds) social groups, as it contains young characters representing the youth and difference of this thriller. The cast will be well known actors/actresses aged 20 to 25, as the audience will want to engage in a thriller that has high profile known cast. The cast will also help reiterate that the film, is going to be something to watch.. The oldest member of the cast will be the antagonist at 25. This will again help the audience identify the difference between the cast, and antagonist. The characters will be of working to middle class.
The main character will be played by a star from the US, and the rest of the cast will be from the UK. This will allow representations of certain characters. The differences in cultures of the US and UK, is also the reason why the character responds in ways different, to the rest of the cast. The main character will be a 23 year old American YUPPIE (young urban professional), that will be portrayed with stereotypical views, held by the English. For example rather than being a “dumb blonde” she will be a “naive” brunette, who for the first time has to do things for herself. She is of middle class, and moves to England thinking it is just like in the films.
The thriller will be advertised through adverts in newspapers’, radio and television. E.g. outdoor advertising: on buses, bus shelters, posters at train stations, and billboards. Through the press, features can be used in magazines or television, with interviews with the director/ cast. Yet the main way of advertising will be from trailers (shown via the internet and TV), internet campaigns. Viral campaigning will be conducted through social- networking sites like Facebook and MySpace; they will feature on the page when the user logs in. The thriller will also have its own page on MySpace, where potential viewers can watch the trailer. I have chosen DNA films is the production company, as it is a UK distributer and has helped many successful British thrillers. The film will be released in cinemas only.
Filming our thriller gave us a practical-hands on approach, which we enjoyed. Filming even a short 2 minute opening involved a lot of filming, it was an experience. The blogs were conducted easily, yet it was hard to put everything down. You sometimes forget to include something. Sometimes without noticing you explain the events briefly, and accidently leave out the required terminology. Viewing everyone’s produced work is on Vimeo makes it feel more complete.
Our group was successful in creating a thriller as we tried to use all the conventions of a thriller. The feedback received from are viewing audience varied from, the continuity being bad, shots of legs and head not appearing real-clearly pointing out it was a dummy, to the credits working well, the sound creating tension and suspense, and the voice over being very effective. When our opening came on, everyone was quiet. The audience watched the opening, and then we receive the loudest cheers. After, everyone came up to me and was applauding the opening. People were generally scared, and wanted to know what happened next.
The finished product was much better, than the two conducted match cut exercises. The plot around the filming made more sense as there seemed to be a point to the filming. The filming was also of better quality, as we had more experience. The final changes made in the finished products, were due to the storyboard being complicated.
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