Thriller Evaluation

My Thriller develops and challenges conventions of real media products because it is thrilling. Generally, Thrillers focus on the plot rather than the character and emphasize intensity, but as my sub-genre was a Psychological Thriller, it focused on the characters state of mind just as much as the plot. The suspense was created through a “psycho” playing a deceptive game intending to demolish the victim's mental state of mind. From the start to end of my opening sequence, the viewers remain curious with the help of the attention grabbing opening which maintains the audiences appeal. The idea for the title “Psycle” was a play on the words ‘Psycho’ and ‘Cycle’ which both have major influences on my film. I didn’t give away too much information or I would have been at risk of having a predictable storyline. My sequence raises many questions wanting the audience to find out more, a typical Thriller convention. An example of this technique is used in “Arlington Rd,” the opening scene reveals a frightened 9 year old boy running awkwardly across a suburban road with blood dripping slowly onto his trainers soon revealing, his arm/hand bleeding rather than what was portrayed through the camerawork. Both “Psycle” (my thriller) and “Arglington Rd” raised questions because of the use of opening “close ups”. The camerawork helps the audience understand the situations better. In “The Shining”, the use of close ups demonstrated the characters emotions and iconography, which also took part in my Thriller. We used various shots to represent various things such as POV (to show their point of view), shot reverse shot (to show a connection between cuts), and high angles to show a vulnerable character, plus many more.

The close up of the recorder displaying “Psycle” showed significance (iconography), then we cut to Nicole’s reaction and then back to the recorder which now displays “Play.” The use of closes up and shot reverse shot showed us the object, reaction and then object once again portraying it to be all in her head.
Another very important convention I had to consider was the sound. Thrillers have to use specific sounds to give the audience the mysterious feel, or even making use of silence to build tension. The two kinds of sounds to consider are diegetic (on screen noises e.g dialogue and sounds of objects) and non-diegetic (off screen sounds narrator's commentary and sound effects). A play with these sounds can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy). Although this is the case, my thriller only makes use of one diegetic sound (screaming) and the rest non-diegetic to set the mood. For example, when showing disturbing imagery, we added eerie music inspiring a feeling of fear and, a warping sound when entering and leaving the black and white flashback as if the audience really entered into a premonition. We also used a voice over to explain what was happening in the flashback as it was happening, again not giving away to much detail. To add the voiceover into the sequence we recorded it on the voice recorder and imported it into Soundtrack Pro also adjusting the volume to its maximum as it was very low. The voice over finished as a cliff-hanger leaving the audience curious about “What happens next? What is this game? Will she beat it?” etc..

We had to go through a film making process which included planning, pitching, storyboarding, filming and editing post production. The idea for the thriller kept changing as we spoke about it but once we pitched it and drew the storyboard the plot remained solid. The main problem that occurred was actually sticking to the storyboard. I drew it and calculated the duration of each clip but the final didn’t quite go to plan; it was much shorter than expected. I and my group weren’t to clear on the exact location for filming and once we were, it was difficult to establish the planned shots as we were limited to using either the left or right side of the located pathway. We thought that it could benefit us when trying to stick to the 180 degree rule which we did follow. For example, there were various shots of Nicole walking up the pathway (and running back) all shown from one side of the canal. There is never a point at which we see what’s happening, on other side of the canal therefore remaining within 180 degrees. This was important so that it didn’t look as though she was running in the opposite direction when cutting to another angle/shot. I even panned the majority of the 180 degree at which me and my group remained.


Also it was best to film everything according to location so we left certain shots out because we never made it to the location of filming. I did learn that it was very easy to edit match cuts together once the sequence was re-acted over and over again from different angles. All we had to do was cut on point and add another one at the exact same point. Another thing I learnt was how to crop/zoom clips to avoid an unplanned occurrence. For this we had to go to the Motions Tab > Scale, enlarge the image and drag into frame, this isolated the portion as it filled the whole frame and not just create a black area as the Crop tool did also keeping the aspect ratio. I also learnt how to adjust the saturation. I and my group summed up the amount of clips we had to de-saturate then divided it by the amount of clips. This was so we knew how much each clip should be de-saturated by before going into full saturation. So we adjusted each clip using Filters > Saturation and typing in the percentage of saturation.

The most recent thing I experienced was creating text on “Live Type” and the whole process of rendering and importing it to “Final Cut Pro.” After many practices from before, there weren’t many errors this time around and me and my group knew exactly what to do and how. First we typed the text into an empty canvas and repositioned where we would like it to appear on the screen. Then, in the Timing tab we adjusted the duration of the clip on screen. We browsed through every font and finally picked the one we wanted by double-clicking it, the text in the canvas immediately changed to our required font. Then we picked an animation and also adjusted the duration of it. In most cases we left the background blank so it appearred over our film, but for the last one we added a background. For this we simply picked one and double-clicked to apply. To finish off we went to File > Render Movie, making sure both background and the text were both selected for render. Live Type then export the file to our hard drive as a QuickTime file. Finally we imported it into Final Cut Pro by going to File > Import, locating it, importing it and dragging it to the timeline.

“Psycle” was targeted mainly for thriller fans aged 18 and above because of the complicated storyline but a 15 certificate is appropriate. This allows my movie opening to attract a wider ranged audience, varying from 15 to mid 20’s. The characters can relate to the audience, if not sympathize with them. It is targeted at both a male and female audience, victimized girls especially because the main character is female, whereas the psychopath remains anonymous for the time being. We went along with the stereotype of a venerable 20 year woman in a lower middle class, the average female with the interests of work, studying, hanging out with friends etc... The audience would therefore be Mainstream rather than Niche, as it would be able to attract the interest of people with different ethnic groups as well as age and gender.

I could try many different strategies to attract a mainstream audience using different marketing types. I would start with something basic like placing life size cardboard cut-outs and posters, inside and outside cinemas and movie rental stores (blockbuster) as these are the places our audience are likely to appreciate it. Also other places to attract the mainstream audience such as billboards and buses, the most common place people can observe them. In connection it is ideal to advertise in the magazines and newspapers that my audience is likely to read. For example TV guides, The Sun, Celebrity and Gaming magazines attracting people of all genders and ethnic groups. As my genre is thriller, I don’t think merchandising in fast food restaurants is appropriate, with the exception of a poster on the tray customers put their food on helping to promote my film movie. In addition a very popular method used to attract an audience which is very effective is through trailers shown in cinemas before the start of a similar movie (genre). Another way is advertising through commercials on TV on channels such as Film4, Sky Box Office and for those with no sky or cable, Channel 4 and 5. Viral marketing such as emailing to subscribers of websites like “Youtube” and sponsor advertisements like “MSN Messenger” help “the word of mouth” spread easily, especially with a free premiere preview and film festivals which increases audience interest rates. Featuring famous people such as “Halle Berry” and “Bruce Willis” promotes the film more familiarizing the audience with my movie and genre.

Actress Nicole acts a 20 year old Black British female whereas actress Carel acts as 19 year old White Female. The dominant gender is female relating to the female viewers and attracting male ones. Carels character wears a thick coat clothes to not reveal her character too much and give her a mysterious appearance. Her bare feet, tells us she “walked the wrong path.” It symbolizes divine qualities and Indians consider it the holiest part of the body therefore representing a teen to adult mixed cultured social group. However, my thriller shows the consequences of making a wrong decision and although they are both females of a lower middle working they are more easily targeted then males. Yet very unlikely with upper class females as they are not likely to been since in mysterious isolated locations but instead attend more prestigious places.

My movie has the potential to be distributed as big Hollywood Blockbuster worldwide because it fulfills the conventions of a Thriller genre such as thrilling music, tense moments, an isolated setting and most importantly a thrilling plot which categories under the sub-genre of a psychological thriller. It would release in the cinemas abroad such as America as a British film and shortly after release on DVD in stores such HMV and even online www.play.com. Maybe even if a second part releases it would show on TV to encourage people to see the second one in the cinemas. A movie such as this benefits a higher income if successful, and also qualifies for National movie awards. People can familiarize themselves with my producers for more upcoming movies; this puts me a step ahead of other institutions if mine is desired especially if my stars are nominated for awards such as Best Female Performance, which means they are favoured by the viewers.

I learnt that technology’s capability varies. I learned how to use Final cut Pro, Live Type and Soundtrack Pro all on a Mac. Final Cut Pro was able to allow a good variation of things unlike something basic like Windows Movie Maker. When using Final Cut Pro I learnt how to trim a clip on the basis of judging from two viewing windows. When I had previously edited, I captured the clips onto the iMovie and split it rather than using the “in” and “out” tool. The effects were also way more advanced on Final Cut Pro then the basic iMovie. It allowed me to adjust things more accurately like positioning of texts and make use of the many more effects it featured. When I tried creating text on Live Type I was impressed with all the variations of fonts, style, effects and background. It was like making an animation rather than just dumping text on the caption. I was able to position and play with the text and finally uploaded onto Final Cut Pro. We used Soundtrack Pro to create sound effects and mood music. An example of this is the “heartbeat” sound effect and a piano playing softly to set a concerned sympathetic mood. The huge variety of sounds helped me create a thrilling soundtrack. It allowed me to adjust volumes, merge sounds, cut audios and so on, something basic software’s are not capable of doing. Merging sounds together made my thriller more exciting as it meant there were no awkward silences, something a poorly constructed film has. We were able to view our movie in a side window so we knew exactly where on the timeline to place each sound. The meaning of the final sequence was created through shots, edits and sound e.g bone breaking for tension and feel of the scared character. We edited saturation to show the past (a flashback) and added in transitions for this so we knew when we entered and exited the flashback. Shots such our long shot/establishing shot showed the audience where, what had happened. A suicide pressured by a psychopath. The voiceover explains it all.

Another thing a professional movie editor does is constantly blog. Blogging online is essential for everyone to keep track of the filming events whether positive or not. For example what went well and the problems that occurred. I uploaded mine onto http://www.blogger.com/ which everyone has access to. Once I and my group completed our thriller we then uploaded it to http://www.vimeo.com/ and then our blog. I also had the privilege of uploading it onto Facebook a social networking website where I received nothing but positive feedback. I would have uploaded it onto Youtube but I do not agree with the terms and conditions of it. An internet audience helps widen my potential audience as anyone who has access to the internet can view it and response if desired.

I feel my movie was very successful in creating a genre thriller and targeting a various specific audience (18+). It used characters the audience can relate to, a scheming plot, a familiar location (London) and final product creating suspense through sound and effects. I felt the voice over was very effective because it was spoken in a clam tone yet it was a very intense moment. I’ve had many people ask me what happens after, and what happened before. People also asked how I and my group managed to “hang” the character from a tree without causing any harm. Most people were actually gullible enough to believe that Carel actually hung from her neck. (Which we obvisously couldn’t do without actually harming her.) Many people said that they would pay to actually watch the full film in the cinema. I’ve also had comments saying that mine was the best in comparison to others. A teacher even said that for a student post production it was excellent and very creative. My class never gave any negative feedback either, my theory is that the storyline was so good they didn’t actually pay attention to the errors we made, as me and my group had found e.g bad continuity.

When our opening sequence was viewed in the cinema we got excellent feedback. At the end of it we got loud cheers and claps which only meant that it was successful. I have been though all the stages of creating a movie and am happy with the outcome.