25. Planning: Costumes and Props (Group Work)

Props 

Costume 

Example - 'The Sixth Sense' (Shyamalan, 1999)

As you can see here they use a high angle shot to make child look more vulnerable at this point in the film and the red colour of the child's jumper indicates danger.

24. Planning - Script

Due to the fact that we have decided not to have any dialogue within our thriller opening, we did not need to write a script. An Example of a script we could have written if we had decided on incorporating dialogue would be like this:

Introduction to Foley (James O'Rourke 6124)

Foley 

Foleying is a sound effect technique for synchronous effects or live effects. It is a technique that is named after a famous sound editor, Jack Foley, who worked at Universal Studios. Foley Artists match live sound effects with the action of the picture. The sound effects are laid "manually" and not cut in with film. The rustling of clothing and a squeak of a saddle when a rider mounts his horse give a scene a touch of realism that is difficult to provide using other effects methods. Below is a video of behind the scenes of a foleying studio, where they use various objects to create sound for a few different pieces of footage. 

21. Story Board Still Frames

This is our story board the sound track will be produced separately.... 

19. Sound track: 3 Ideas compare to real thriller openings, Audience Feedback

18. Tilte and Credits: Audience feedback

Initial feedback for our first attempt of a story board, trying to illustrate the different aspects which would be covered in the period of 2 minuets. As we can see in the video above our teacher is able to clearly decipher our initial plans for the opening 2 minuets and clearly analyse the purpose of carrying out different aspects of the film. This means that we were then confidents to proceed and drew out our story board with a higher level of quality including shot, Angle, movement, composition and Audio sound track and effects.

Planning: Music (Group Work)

crackling bonfire
Burning Fireplace
Howling Wind
Striking Match
Blown out Candle

The importance of music when defying the genre of a film in the first to minutes are crucial this is due to the fact that most of the music is non digetic and incidental audio tracks which add horror and tention through the shop noises screens of others and high paste soundtracks this therefore outfit the view our because it is sound associated with death pain and they've rarely come across in everyday life.

However in our thriller films with you not use the exact same technique and we do not use significantly scary non digested order sounds but uh proclaimed fear in the viewer this is due today fact that it is a thriller films so we used subtle sounds that you may come across in everyday life in order to build tension roses say for example we would used to sound of a candle lighting and the fire crackling. This might bells to spencer therefore cause the audience to be intrigue straight away. By using a combination of this and bold images when creating the credits on a black screen the audience for automatically be able to assume that says genre of the film will be a trailer as the music place will build and the credits becomes faster


https://soundcloud.com/devonaitor/fire-crackling

flame
https://soundcloud.com/janewebers3477908/striking-match-to-light-candle

Planning: Location (Group Work)

Location One: 

The main location of our thriller will be a house, belonging to one of the members of our group. This is where the majority of our 2 minute opening will be filmed.

Location Two:

The kitchen will be a prominent location within our opening as it is where the main action occurs in our thriller and has a significant part to play.

Location Three: 

The street which the house is on will also appear in our opening as we aim to feature an establishing shot, and a pan shot down the street until finally focusing in on the house, will work perfectly. 

POTENTIAL Location Four:                  

A child's room/playroom is a potential location for our opening as it is the perfect environment to reveal to the audience the child's destructive nature and interests. 

  

17. Technical: Sound Use of Mics (Anna McConnell 7104)

INSIDE HPF ON

This is the microphone setting we are most likely to use as it allows for a clear sound quality for all of the scenes we filmed indoors however our initial ideas suggest that we have little to no dialogue; allowing the majority of our scenes to use silence or the sound effects of flames or a struck match.

INSIDE MIC OFF

INSIDE MIC ON

OUTSIDE DEAD-CAT HPF ON

OUTSIDE DEAD-CAT MIC ON

HPF ON

OUTSIDE MIC ON

OUTSIDE MIC OFF

16: Production Logos (Group Work)

Here are a few Production Logo ideas:

16. Research: Logos of Production Companies (Harsh Makwana)

16. Research: Logos of Production Companies (James O'Rourke)

Research: Logos of Production Companies

Production Logos are a key feature in the opening of a movie and are placed before the movie starts to credit the companies involved in the film. This usually takes about 30-60 seconds in a movies opening and used so these companies can then gain a reputation (good or bad) from the films success.

16. Research: Logos of Production Companies (Megan Marsh)

Title screens are the initial titles, usually projected at the beginning of a film, and following the logos of the film studio. They are often an ignored aspect of films, although they reflect the time period or era of the film, the mood or design of the film, and much more.

16. Research: Logos of Production Companies (Anna McConnell)

Research: Logos of Production Companies

Here are some existing logos for globally successful production companies 

15. Technical - 3 Point Lighting (Anna McConnell)

Technical - 3 Point Lighting

Here is our compilation of the three different types of lighting used as well as coloured filters in order to create various atmospheres when placed in front of the lighting source.

We will most likely use solely backlighting for the scene of Jessica lighting the match as we discussed how it would illuminate only the lower half of her face to create an atmosphere of mystery.

Our outdoor establishing shots will be filmed during the day and mid afternoon where we will use natural lighting, avoiding the difficulties of having to use fill lighting and ensuring the scene is fully lit.

14. Planning: Health and Safety

Importance of Health and Safety 

Within the context of media production, not only are the health and safety aspects essential, but there are additional codes of practice which should be acknowledged. Permissions need to be gained from relevant parties such as the Police or local authorities if you are shooting in public places, and equipment must be used correctly in accordance with guidelines and maintained properly.

Fire

You must ensure that there is satisfactory fire fighting equipment in offices and on shoot sites and that cast and crew are briefed on emergency procedures. A safe area should be nominated as a meeting point in the case of fire. 

Night Shoots

If you need to shoot at night, make sure that additional time is scheduled for people to rest and supply food. If people are tired then they are more likely to make mistakes or lose concentration so ensure there is sufficient light in which to work and that if you are working near water, roads or railway tracks that additional safety precautions are taken.

Children

Working with children is an especially difficult area. Special consideration must be taken into account when working with children and there are strict guidelines which must be adhered to.

Heights

It may be necessary in the workplace or on a shoot for someone to climb or be lifted to a certain height. This can be very hazardous and requires the implementation of strict health and safety precautions.

13. Planning: Timeline (Group Work)

Here is our timeline for what our group is going to accomplish in the next couple of weeks

12. Audience feedback on Concept- How Feedback Shapes Concept

Audience feedback

The audience asked what sort of age range would our actors be within our concept - we suggested that the actor for the character of the child would be roughly between the ages of 10-13 years old and within the home video section they would be much younger. We were also asked about different locations or a specific location which we had in mind - for the child scenes we suggested that we would shoot this in a house, preferably one of our own, but for the fire scenes, somewhere that is quite open and accessible in which we would have permission to use. We were also asked about what different types of lighting we would use for our concept  - we suggested we would use ambient lighting for most of this concept and that after this pitch we considered using mostly back lighting to create more shadows which helps to create the atmosphere that would be ideal for our narrative. 

11. Planning: Initial Decision - Group Pitch of Chosen Concept (Group)

Here is our group pitch about our initial concept for our thriller opening

10. Planning: Mini Pitch (Anna McConnell)

10. Planning; Mini Pitch (Megan Marsh)

Idear 1

Title- Homicidal Triad 

• Homicidal Traid made up of 3 aspects; animal tortue, Arsonist and bed wetting


• childhood animal cruelty was a common behaviour among serial murderers and rapists


• Another ‘triad’ of psychological factors that have been associated with IATC are three specific characteristics of personality – Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy 


• A number of criminological studies have shown that around a third to a half of all sexual murderers have abused animals during childhood and/or adolescence 


• Most research has reported that one of the most important ‘warning signs’ and risk factors (specifically relating to the propensity for sex offending), is animal cruelty 

Idear 2 

• Title; gynophagia


• A 57-year old nurse with a sexual fetish for cannibalism will groom a 14-year-old girl with a view to meeting her, murdering her and eating her.


• Another sexually cannibalistic behaviour is 'gynophagia', a sexual fetish that involves fantasies of cooking and consumption of human females

10. Planning: Mini Pitch (James O'Rourke)

Planning: Mini Pitch - James O'Rourke 6124

My mini pitch for a thriller opening idea, this mini pitch was uploaded to my previous SoundCloud account, for my other SoundCloud Posts I have used my new account (for the evaluation posts) 

10. Planning: Mini Pitch (Harsh Makwana)

Mini Pitch

9. Survey Monkey- Thrillers (Group Work)

General Survey
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5QL68VD

 Results
https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/_2BmepfSQycZuvwv3_2BsfcvbXyVV20_2F3KmLmKu6paPJlQU_3D

More Specific Survey
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/83RR7YK

Results Analysis

1. What is your favorite type of thriller? 

Overall, we found that psychological thrillers were considerably more popular than any of the other thriller sub-genres suggesting to us that perhaps people are more willing to pay money to go the cinema to watch a film that will play tricks with their mind instead of perhaps the conventional action or crime thriller which may to some seem predictable and repetitive. Therefore we can this information forward and perhaps veer towards the thriller sub-genre in our own thriller opening.

2. What is your age range?

 As to be expected, sharing our survey through social media such as Facebook and Snapchat attracted a large majority of 15-18 year olds whose media presence is much more than that of a 25+. If we were to redo this survey, we would have possibly have asked more people face-to-face to ensure we have complete control over the age range who are completing the survey.

3. What do you find the most important elements within a thriller?

From our results we can infer that people felt the plot was the most important element thriller due to the fact that it is the skeletal element of a thriller and without a good plot, particularly shown within the first two minutes of a thriller people will most likely become disinterested.

4. What do you find the most appealing factor within a thriller?

From our results we can infer that people felt the suspense and plot were the most appealing factors emphasizing to our group how we must pay close attention to how we will build suspense, through use of lighting, sound and style.

5. Have you seen any of the following thrillers?

From our results we were very interested to discover that although many people picked psychological thrillers as their favorite, they had all scene Taken which, as a hugely funded global franchise, it is not surprising that most people had come across it.

6. What do you find most builds up suspense within a thriller?

Using these results we must ensure that, even when we do not have moving images on screen, the music is successful in building a thrilling and tense atmosphere as it is how people first identify a film of this genre.

 

9. Research: Audience Profile - FDA launchingfilms.com (Anna McConnell)

AUDIENCE RESEARCH - FDA launchingfilms.com

SPLIT (Night Shyamalan, 2017) - 20th January 2017

Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all of the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey, Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him -- as well as everyone around him -- as the walls between his compartments shatter

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Rating Certificate: 15 for disturbing thematic content and behavior, violence and some language

What does this tell us about our target audience?

If we decide to go down the route of a psychological thriller for our opening, we need to be considerate of the fact that the disturbing content may not be entirely suitable for anyone under the age of 15, particularly if we show scenes of erratic behavior, much like that of the protagonist in SPLIT (Night Shyamalan, 2017). Although our thriller will most likely not include profanities in the dialogue, we may choose to include themes of violence which may cause distress for a younger audience. This particular film references mental health issues; the protagonist is suffering with Multiple Personality Disorder thus we must be careful to target our film to a mature audience if we choose to make references to mental instability. 

Budget:

 $10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $40,010,975 (USA) (20 January 2017)

Marauders (Miller, 2016) - 26th December 2016

When a bank is hit by a brutal heist, all evidence points to the owner and his high-powered clients. But as a group of FBI agents dig deeper into the case - and the deadly heists continue - it becomes clear that a larger conspiracy is at play.

Genre: Crime Thriller

Rating Certificate: 15 / Rated R for strong violence, language, brief drug use and nudity

What does this tell us about our target audience?

If we decide to go down the route of a crime thriller for our opening, high action violence is to be expected therefore it would be unsuitable for a younger audience. Both of these films we have analysed have age ratings of 15, indicating heavily that for a thriller to be successful, it must include controversial or dark themes which requires us to put the age restriction at 15.

9. Research: Audience Profile - Group and Individual Interview (Group Work)

As a group we conducted two interviews with peers from school. We watched the opening scene Se7en (1995) and Bourne Supremacy (2004). We then discussed in depth the opening and conventions of a thriller, and how we would need to incorporate these aspects. Another important aspect that we considered was what the audience found effective and trying to get a better understanding of there interpretations, we did this though pausing the videos in different places and asking for there opinions. 

9. Research- IMDb (Megan Marsh)

This chart ranks movies by the amount they earned during 2016. It includes movies released in previous years that earned money during 2016.

1. Total Gross of All Movies					$658,272,103
   Total Tickets Sold						78,086,8102016- 2016- overall statistics for thrillers films

2. Total Gross of All Movies					$1,088,423,406
   Total Tickets Sold						129,113,061 2015- overall statistics for thrillers films

   
   

Conclusion
The statistics of 2016 and 2015 indicate that the popularity of thrillers film decreased in the last year as we can see that less tickets were sold and the total gross was significantly less in year 2016. This information will be relevant for our production as it will be significantly harder, to capture an audience due to the fact that thriller films are decreasing.

Explanation
Table below show cases the popularity of thriller films through out the different age groups between males and females. BFI’s results output presents counts of genre preferences sorted by gender and age. As we can see from the statistics above the most popular age range for thrillers is males age 55 or over; these results will affect the target audience we choose for our film opening.

These are the most popular thrillers produced in the last 2 years;

9. Audience Research: Film Listings (Harsh Makwana)

WHAT'S ON?

The Bye Bye Man

Odeon- 12:30, 14:50

Split

Odeon- 18:40, 21:20
Cineworld- 12:40, 15:40, 18:20, 21:00

xXx: Return Of Xander Cage

Odeon- 11:40, 15:00, 17:00, 20:50

Cineworld- 12:50, 15:30, 18:10, 21:20

The times that the film is being shown at reflects the target audience; thrillers tend to appeal to all viewers aged 13 and up. Cineworld Feltham has a larger number of showings to Odean Richmond due to the fact that is it part of a multiplex, therefore there are usually more paying customers all any time of the day. 

9. Research - BBFC- 2014 Guidelines - (Group Work)

Audience Research - BBFC- 2014 Guidelines - (Group)


Film Certificates 

Information on the different film certificates as shown above!

Our Thriller opening will most likely be a certificate of a 15, as we will be able to use different aspects within our opening that we wouldn't be able to use if the age certificate was either a 12 or PG, such as we would be able to add in swearing, a certain level of violence and allow the audience to feel a threat or a sense of horror.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using a 15 age rating!

Advantages 

- We can have a more older and mature audience to watch this opening.
- This allows us to branch into a much older market for audience viewers.
- That most of the people who watch thrillers are over the age of 12.

Disadvantages 

- Having a higher age rating limits our audience to only older viewers and we cannot branch out to family audiences.
- This certificate restricts how much violence we can have within the opening and if we wanted a lot of violence then we would have to increase the age certificate to an 18.