Construction - First Draft

Construction - First Draft

The video below is my group's first edited draft for our thriller opening for our final piece, called Mark My Words. Izzy and I have finished the basic editing that needed to be done, and we will continue to add in the extra  effects such as the whispering voices and the extra title credits over the Decmeber/January period.

Construction - Filming

Construction - Filming

My group decided to film on Wednesday 9th December, as we were unable to film on our original day as the location we needed was unavailable. We chose to film after college in the evening, as then we could avoid the natural light changing throughout the morning and afternoon, plus this time frame worked most appropriately for Izzy and I, and our two friends that featured in the clip.
Our thriller opening was filmed in our friend Charlotte's bedroom, mainly focusing aorund her dressing table and the stairs that lead up to her bedroom door as this is where we planned the majority of the narrative to occur. 

We decided to slightly adapt the female character's costume as it was a very cold on the night we chose to film, so instead of using the summery crop top we had originally chosen, we picked a light grey jumper which still portrayed the feminine and girly representation we were going for, and also kept me warm.

The beginning of the filming process was slightly difficult as we couldn't get the camera to function properly as the memory SD card was locked, so I had to look up on the Internet how to unlock it and then make sure we could film all our footage without running out of memory or erasing previous students' work.We also had a slight problem with focusing the camera at the beginning of the filming process as we couldn't figure out how to change the focusing options from manual focus to auto focus, however we shortly figured this out and from then on the filming process worked smoothly and we encountered no other issues. We worked successfully and effectively as a team and finished our filming within our tight 3 hour schedule, and even managed to add in some extra effects which Izzy and I will incorporate in our editing process.

Planning - Filming Schedule

Planning - Film Schedule

Izzy and I have decided that we are going to film our thriller opening on Wednesday 9th December after college, as this is the only available day that works for our whole group easily. We had originally planned to also film on Sunday 6th December, but due to complications with the location's availability we had to rearrange around our mock examinations that are taking place from the 7th December to the 9th December, and Matt's part-time job that restricts his availability at weekends. If we do not manage to complete all the filming on Wednesday, we will edit and upload what we have so far on the 10th and 11th December, and then continue to film the rest of the sequence the following weekend and upload the completed clip the week after.

Planning - Risk Assessment

Planning - Risk Assessment

In order to make sure everything is performed safely during our final piece, Izzy and I have decided some rules between us and with Guy and Charlotte (our male actress and female helper) to ensure everything is carried out properly to avoid any accidents or damage.

We are using camera equipment from the media department at college which is highly expensive, so to ensure nothing is broken we are going to use the equipment with great care and make sure the camera is firmly attached to the tripod before filming to make sure it doesn't fall of and smash, or injure anyone in our group.

The tripod legs are long and take up quite a bit of space when in use, so to ensure nobody trips over them and hurts themselves or damages the equipment we will section off the tripod away from the area where the actor will walk in the scene to create a clear walkway for him.

We will also make sure there are no trip hazards on the bedroom floor before we start filming, to ensure that there is nothing the characters could catch themselves on or hurt themselves on.

Planning - Shot Plans

Planning - Shot Plans

For our thriller opening, Izzy and I have decided that we're going to try and use as many different camera shots and angles as possible to create a professional aesthetic to our clip that flows well and creates tension. We have decided to use a variety of close ups, extreme close ups, mid shots, long shots and over-the-shoulder shots, and have also planned to include some eye-line matches and match-on-action shots throughout the filming to create tension and test our camera skills.

      Close ups:

• The introductory shot of the female character's face (my face)
• During the makeup routine when I blow on my nails to dry the nail varnish
• The Barbie Doll's face which will be superimposed over the top of mine
• My shocked facial expressions to the phone ringing

      Extreme close ups:

• When I apply mascara to my eyelashes
• When I apply lipstick
• The phone screen as it begins to ring

      Long shots:

• When both characters are visible in the mirror
• When the male character finishes climbing the stairs

      Mid shots:

•  At the beginning of the scene when I'm featured brushing my hair
• A side view of myself and the makeup table
• When I place the mascara back on the table and pick up the lipstick

      Over-the-shoulder shots:

•  When I answer the phone-call the second time it rings

      Eye-line match:

•  The first time the phone rings the camera will show my eyes look towards the desk and then cut to the phone ringing

      Match-on-action:

•  When I drop the phone at the end of the scene, and then the camera cuts to it smashed on the desk.

Planning - Location Recce Shots

Planning - Location Recce Shots

Izzy and I have decided to film our thriller opening in a our friend Charlotte's bedroom as it's a perfect match to what we were picturing for our set. She has a dressing table in her room with a mirror stand, which is exactly what we needed for our props, and the room is girly and feminine which will suit the female character well as this is the perception we are trying to portray through her costume, so the location will reinforce this. Charlotte's room is also a good size so we will be able to set up all the necessary camera equipment with ease.

Research - Questionnaire Analysis

Research - Questionnaire Analysis

To further my research I carried out a questionnaire on 10 students at my college to discover how my target audience perceives films in the thriller genre, and to find out which options for my final piece would appeal to them the most.

For my first question I asked the students at college how old they were, and the majority were 16 years old and a few were 17. This identifies this age group and people around this age as my target audience, which is the age group I suspected as the target audience anyway.





My next question asked the students if they enjoyed watching films in the thriller genre. The majority said they did enjoy thrillers, which put me at an advantage for my later questions as they could answer my questions on what they personally enjoy from their experiences with thrillers, whereas those that do not enjoy this genre of film could give me constructive criticism. This also gave me an insight into my target audience, as the majority of 16-17 year olds enjoy thriller films, whereas a different age group may be more varied.

My third question surveyed how often my target audience watch films from the thriller genre, and my results highlighted that even though the majority enjoy these films they rarely spend time watching them. The majority of the students answered that they watch thrillers monthly or rarely, with only one student saying that they watched one every week. This may be because this particular age group doesn't have a particularly steady income, so they cannot afford to go on multiple cinema trips or buy lots of DVDs. However, these answers have confirmed that they all spend some of their free time watching this genre of movie, so this reinforces the fact that the thriller genre is popular with this age group.

The next question asked my target audience what their favourite thriller film was. Surprisingly they all had similar answers even though it was an open-ended question, which suggests that the narratives they enjoy are all similar in structure and perhaps revolve around similar themes. The Hunger Games was the most popular answer, which revolves around multiple characters from different areas of the globe battling to the death in an arena and a love triangle between three of the characters. This can help to influence some of my ideas as The Hunger Games is also based on lots of suspense, tension and mystery, so I will try and incorporate these themes into my own narrative.

For this question I asked the 10 students what they would associate with the thriller genre, so I could receive more ideas on what conventions I should incorporate into my thriller opening. The majority of the students answered that they associated thrillers with tense music and suspense, which I will try and feature in my opening as much as possible in order to create a sense of mystery and anxiety for the audience. I will also incorporate some non-diegetic music throughout my opening to reinforce the suspense and tension that I will create through strategic camera angles and narrative enigmas.

My second last question was used to highlight which colours my target audience would like to see featured in my title credits throughout my thriller opening. The majority of my audience agreed that the colours red, grey and black would suit my title credits best, as these colours are often seen in thrillers and the colours red and black connote danger and anonymity, whereas grey/silver is often associated with negativity which would suit my narrative well.

Izzy and I had multiple ideas for what we should name our thriller, and narrowed it down to 4 options that we think would go well with the narrative. We then offered these options in the survey to see which title our target audience likes the best and is most intrigued by. Mark My Words received the most votes which Izzy and I also liked the best out of our options as it suggests that some form of revenge has taken place or will take place in the rest of the film, and creates a sense of intrigue and mystery.

Research - Audience Reactions/Opinions

Research - Audience Reactions/Opinions

As part of my research I decided to film the reactions of some of the students at my college when I told them my narrative idea, to collect a face-to-face understanding of what my target audience think of my group's idea for our final piece. In the video below I told Jess and Charlotte a brief version of my narrative for my final piece, and recorded their reactions below on my phone (hence the slightly poor quality and shakiness). Their reactions reinforced my confidence with our narrative as they both agreed at the end of the video that my narrative would be successful for a thriller opening, and confirmed that they liked the idea Izzy and I have created.

 

Planning - Costumes

Planning - Costumes

For our thriller opening, Izzy and I decided that the costumes we are going to use are going to be quite minimal and simple so that they don't distract the audience from the narrative, however they will represent the character's personalities to add extra information to the narrative that the audience will pick up on.
The female character (myself) will be dressed in a typically girly outfit which consists of a black, button up mini skirt, thick black tights and a white, sleeveless top with a cardigan over the top. The female character will also be wearing a full-face of makeup (foundation, eye makeup, eyebrow pencil, lipstick, highlighter and contour) plus some false eyelashes to enhance the girly appearance we're hoping to create.
The male character will be wearing skinny jeans (preferably black), black shoes and a black hoodie over the top of a white t-shirt to create a mysterious and anonymous effect for the audience, as the colour black often has connotations of danger and villainous behaviour, so hopefully this effect will be reflected onto the audience's perception of his character.

Outfit 1 (female character)

Planning - Actors

Planning - Actors

For our thriller opening Izzy and I have decided that for our final piece I will play the female lead role character that is featured throughout the clip, and our friend Matt Fisher who has featured in our media projects last year will play the male character who is featured at the end of the scene in the background.
We decided that I would be best suited to play the female character as I'm familiar with the narrative and how the set needs to look, plus it would save time asking around for someone who would be available to play the character on the days we're planning to film on. We then decided that Matt would be a good choice to play the male character as he matched the character description we were going for, and he was available on both the filming days we needed. As he has also previously worked with us in media projects before  this means that he'll be easy to work with and will cooperate with our tight schedule as he understands the importance of finishing the coursework for the close deadlines.

        Male Actor - Matt                Female Actress- Chloe (myself)

Planning - Props

Planning - Props

For our thriller opening, Izzy and I have decided that we're going to use a variety of small, different props to create a normal-looking set location to contrast with the twist in the narrative. As the main character will be doing her hair and makeup in the clip, we will need to use a dressing table and a variety of products and brushes to use and have featured on the table. We have decided that we will use a hairbrush, a red lipstick, mascara and highlighter in the clip, and have a large variety of other makeup products on the dressing table such as foundation, make up brushes, eyeshadow palettes and nail varnish to create the appearance of an every day makeup collection that would be present on a girl's makeup table.
We will also need a small stool or chair to accompany the dressing table which the female character will sit on, and a mirror which the character will use to apply her makeup. We will also be using an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 6S to create the phone calls between the character and the unknown number.
To create a professional look throughout the filming we will also be using the professional lighting systems and either the Canon or Nikon cameras provided by the media department at college, to create a high quality standard.

Planning - Narrative

Planning - Narrative

For our narrative, Izzy and I have decided to base our thriller opening around a girl's morning hair and makeup routine, which appears to be completely normal until she receives an anonymous phone call from a blocked number.
The scene will begin with a fade in close-up shot of the back of the girl's head as she brushes her hair, and then cut to various different shots around her face, and back and forth between her face and the dressing table she's sat at. Throughout the scene, a doll's face will occasionally flash up, superimposed over the character's face to create a creepy and mysterious effect and to suggest that she's hiding something behind her innocent expression.
The first time the phone rings, she immediately panics and declines the call, and then continues with her makeup. As she applies lipstick, text messages from previous conversations with the unknown number will fade in, superimposed over her face to reinforce the feeling to the audience that she's hiding something. The phone then rings again, and she answers it after a few moments of consideration. As she listens to the anonymous character on the other end of the phone, the audience can see in the mirror another character enter the room, which creates high levels of suspense. The female character notices him after a few moments, and drops the phone in shock which smashes on the desk. The scene will then cut to the title credits, where the title "Mark My Words" will appear over a black screen in large, bold font.

Planning - Mind Map

Planning - Mind Map


For the beginning stages of our planning of the narrative, Izzy and I decided to brainstorm our ideas by drawing out a mind map to plan out what we could do for our final piece. We had three main narrative ideas, however we decided against one of them completely as we discovered that another group in our class was planning on doing a very similar idea, so we chose to stick with our first idea which revolved around a girl doing her makeup routine in the morning, which seems normal until she receives a mysterious phonecall from an unknown number. We have decided that either one of our friends or I will play the female character in the narrative, and we are planning on asking one of our classmates to play the male character who abruptly enters the room at the end of the scene. We haven't yet decided on any particular costumes, however we have a clear idea of how we would like the hair and makeup to look.

We have also decided that we're going to edit the footage so that it's in black and white instead of colour as this will create a more mysterious and tense effect. To reinforce this we're planning on incorporating some non-diegetic music into the background of the clip, which will be present throughout the narrative to increase the feeling of suspense and tension.

Planning out our ideas like this has been helpful as it allowed us to write down all our ideas and sort through them before making an executive decision which be both agreed on.

Planning - Storyboard

Planning - Storyboard

In order to plan our thriller opening, we decided to draw out our idea for all the different camera shots, dialogue and narrative on a storyboard so we could visualise how our final piece will look when it's completed.

Our first page of the storyboard shows how we want our thriller to start and which camera angles we are going to use, plus the special effects we are planning on editing in after we have finished filming. Our thriller is going to open with a fade in close-up shot on the back of the female character's head.

The narrative continues onto the second page, where the female character continues to apply her makeup and brush her hair whilst the special effects continue.

The third page of our storyboard continues the variety of camera angles we want to incorporate into our thriller, and shows where the main focus of the narrative begins.

The next page of the storyboard features multiple close-up shots of the mobile phone and the character's mouth as she applies her lipstick. We are planning to incorporate a fade in of multiple text messages the character has received superimposed over the top of the shot of her mouth, which will create suspense and a tense effect.

The last page of our storyboard shows the climax of the opening, where the character finally answers the anonymous phone call. This shot will create lots of suspense as it will not be revealed who is calling her or what they have to say, which will therefore create a narrative enigma for the audience which is a common convention used in films in the thriller genre. Another character will also be introduced right at the end of the scene before the scene cuts away to the title credits, which will reinforce the mystery and intrigue.

Secondary Research - Internet Based

Internet Research

I have also decided to carry out some secondary, internet based research into the thriller genre to receive a greater understanding of the genre and to fully comprehend what makes a successful thriller movie. 
On IMDb Jurassic World (2015) is listed as the top US grossing thriller film, which made $204,600,000 in the opening weekend of its release, and a total gross of $652,177,271. It could be argued that this film isn't a conventional thriller movie, as the narrative is based around dinosaurs which ventures into the sci-fi genre,  and lots of typical action adventure conventions such as a stereotypical male hero, and multiple chase scenes that often feature ticking-clock scenarios.
The most popular thriller film of this year is the new James Bond film, Spectre directed by Sam Mendes. Released on the 26th October 2015 (in the UK), on the opening weekend the film made  $70,403,148, with a total gross of  $176,125,179 (as of the 27th November).

Primary Research - Questionnaire

Final Piece Questionnaire

For my primary research I have decided to carry out a questionnaire to collect a wide range of opinions from various students at college, so I can analyse how thriller genres are perceived by my target audience and if my thriller narrative would be successful with them.
These are the questions I have created:

1)      How old are you?

2)      Female / Male

3)      Do you enjoy the thriller genre?

4)      How often do you watch thriller movies?

Once a week        Once a month        Every few months        Rarely       Never

5)      What was the last thriller movie you watched?

6)      What’s your favourite thriller movie?

7)     What would you associate with the thriller genre?

8)     What colours would you like to see for titles and credits in the opening to a thriller?

Red        Blue        Green         White        Yellow        Grey/Silver        Other.....................    

9)     Which title do you prefer?

Hidden        Masked        You Can’t Hide        Mark My Words        No Escape

Evaluation Of Our Preliminary Task

Evaluation

My group has now completed the planning, filming and editing of our preliminary task, and I am very happy with the finished project. Overall I think that the project went really well, and that the group worked well together and that the work load was shared equally. The planning stages were carried out quickly and efficiently, and this ensured that the rest of the project flowed with the same efficiency, despite the fact that we had to re-film our project due to the camera cutting out. This however will be a good lesson to learn from, and will teach us to always make sure that the camera is fully charged before we begin filming. This project has also taught me how to use all the professional equipment properly, so when creating my final project I will be able to use the camera, lighting and editing software confidently and to a high standard. 

When editing (I had never edited properly before) there were a few issues to overcome such as figuring out how to use the Adobe Pro editing software, as it was quite complicated and difficult to comprehend. However, by doing this preliminary task, I am now able to edit quite confidently, and know how to use the large variety of transitions and special effects available on the programme. Another issue that we dealt with was that some of the footage we filmed didn't fit together as smoothly as we would've liked, which made certain aspects of the editing slightly more complex, however this will be another good lesson to learn from when filming our final pieces and ensure we complete our thriller genre clips to the highest standard. 

Preliminary Task - Final Edit

Prelim Task - Final Edit

Preliminary Task - Editing

Prelim Task - Editing

After we had finished filming our footage for the preliminary task on the 12th November 2015, we began to edit our footage together to create a sleek, professional-looking clip that featured a variety of transitions and special effects to enhance the footage.

Emma did the majority of the final editing, with help from myself, Amy and Harriet in the beginning stages so that the whole group had the opportunity to learn the editing skills. It was our first attempt at using the professional editing software so it was difficult at first to join the correct clips together and trim down certain clips that included extra footage we didn't need, however after working at it for a while and seeking advice from our teacher it became easier and we managed to add in extra features such as non-diegetic music, slow motion footage and sound effects to create a tense and thriller-esque effect throughout our clip.

This experience has been hugely helpful as it has taught us the basic skills on how to edit our film footage, which we will continue to use when editing our final piece.

Preliminary Task - Filming

Prelim Task - Filming

My group first began filming on the 10th November 2015, and chose to film our preliminary project in the school library and a small office room with all the necessary filming equipment. However, halfway through the filming process our camera ran out of battery so we were unable to film the rest of our project until the following Thursday. As we had to continue our filming on a different day, we decided as a group that it would be easier to re-film the whole project in a new location to prevent drastic changes in lighting and costume changes over the different dates. We chose to film in the media studio rather than the library as this allowed us to use the professional lighting and backdrops which created a higher quality piece.

As we had to re-film our whole project, we had to be extremely efficient with our time schedule as we had very little time to film and edit our project within the allocated time. To combat this, we assigned each member of the group to a different task in order to save time. Myself and Harriet did all the filming for the project and set up the lights and backdrop to suit the footage, and Amy and Emma played the two characters in the task. We made a group decision on how to set up the 'interview' furniture in the scene, as well as which camera shots and angles looked best for the footage. We also slightly adapted some of the original dialogue that we had written on our storyboard, as parts of the original speech between the characters didn't flow throughout the footage as smoothly as we would've liked.

We worked well as a team so finished the filming on time with plenty of time to edit in our next media session, and the only aspect of filming that tended to slow us down was the focusing of the camera in some of the scenes as it was difficult to control at the beginning of the process. However, this was soon resolved as we got to grips with the equipment, so all the footage was executed to a high quality which made the editing process much easier.