Photos from Filming

Photos Taken During Filming

 

 

Having make-up done - we had to be careful to keep topping this up for continuity through the day.

 

The police station scene - we tried to create shadows using the lamp but the office we used as an interrogation room was small and we were limited in the camera  angles we could use. We cleared out all the office equipment and left it bare to create the right feel, and the small space felt quite claustrophobic which is the right atmosphere.

 



Filming the running scenes from different angles.

My thoughts before filming

My thoughts before our group films our movie:

There are quite a few things I am particularly worried about before we film. One is that I am very worried about the weather. As we are filming a lot of are sequences outside mainly in a forest if it were to rain for a few weeks as forecast, this would make it extremely difficult for our group to film.
 

Also I am quite worried about the location of the forest we are going to be filming in as I myself have not been there so I’m not sure if it will be a great location to film but also because it is very close to a main road. This means that when we are filming we will pick up unwanted sounds/wild sounds of traffic and cars. We are intending to use a soundscape instead of ambient sound anyway, but it would be nice to have the option of ambient sound as well in case we change our minds.
 

We cannot control any of these factors so therefore we just have to hope that on the day it will be somewhat quiet. I am also worried about one of the shots we have to film which is a high angle shot which will rely on one of our group being able to climb a tree, which might be more difficult in wet weather. We do not have any back up options if the weather remains bad for a long period of time so I suppose we will just have to wait for appropriate weather.
 

 

Research Into Target Audience

Thrillers

 

Thriller  is a genre that revolves around anticipation and suspense. The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats at all time. The protagonist in these films mainly played by a woman is set a problem - an escape, a mission, or a mystery. No matter what sub-genre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. The tension with the main problem is built on throughout the film and leads to a highly stressful climax.

-          thrillers also have element of action and horror, which possibly widen the target audience to people who enjoy action and suspense.

-          The target audience for many psychological and crime thrillers are 18+. To be more accurate 18 to 34 years old.

-          The main reason for this is because they nearly always contain a lot of violence and show issues that can be considered very disturbing for many younger viewers.

-          Many thrillers have a certification of 18+ this is because typically the scenes that would be included in a thriller movie would be quite upsetting and disturbing. This lowers the target, as the movie is therefore not suitable for younger viewing and not family friendly and non-violent. However, there is a tendency now for lower age ratings and a lot of films in our genre are given a 15 or even 12 if there is no explixit violence.

-          However we think 15+ would be the most appropriate age group as every film contains aspects of violence, death and other issues. Also because the content that we will show will not be over explicit. Making our target audience 15 to 34.

While researching what age group tends to watch thrillers. I found this survey that was conducted to see what age group was more likely to watch a thriller. As you can see from the chart the outcome shows that it was people between 15 and 25.

I completely agree with this graph. As from personal experience I know that I am more likely to enjoy watching a horror or crime thriller then my parents are. As I like watching films that cause suspense and as I am 17 I know that I will fall into the bracket of the age group of 15 to 25.

Looking at the research the not many people over the age of 35 are interested in thrillers therefore we would no class them as being are target audience.

Types of thrillers and target audiences:

Mystery Thrillers: Mystery thrillers create a target audience, which would probably be more sophisticated and mature. As the theme of a thriller is mainly to challenge a person mind. As throughout a typical thriller film the audience is made to try and work out the mystery or the problem before the character. Therefore the genre of a mystery thriller particularly aims at an audience who want to be psychologically and mentally challenged while at the same time being entertained. Example of a mystery thriller: ‘Phone Booth’.

-          Psychological and mystery thrillers require a person to concentrate so that they can understand but also so they can enjoy the film to a much better standard, as they have to concentrate to be able to follow the story line as most thriller movie consist of making the audience confused. Therefore the target audience would aim to be people who were very intellectual. Example of a psychological thriller: “The Butterfly Effect’.

-          Crime thrillers: Crime thrillers mainly consist of a combination of both crime films and thrillers, which explore successful or failed crimes. They usually focus more on action over psychological aspects. Themes are mainly robberies, heists, and murders. Because crime thrillers tend to be similar to action thrillers they attract a similar audience - more of a younger male audience. Examples of crime thrillers include Se7en. Police drama about two cops, one new and one about to retire, after a serial killer using the seven deadly sins.

-          One film that fits particularly well with our groups is ‘The Last

House on the Left’. This is a film about two teenage girls who are abducted raped and abused but also killed. This is aimed at audiences who want to feel scared and shocked.

Researching target audience

 

 

Here is the mindmap I produced analysing the target audience for my genre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

I have also found an article on Wikipedia about the thriller genre , which I agree with. This is because all the elements of thriller that the writer has discussed my group and I have already accounted for. It talks about that fact that thrillers should give the impression of excitement and suspense which I agree is a key part of a successful thriller and which I think we will achieve in our trailer through the tense opening and the mystery of what has happened to the girl. It also talks about examples of different thriiler types set in different times and places for example westerns. This article shows that thrillers are being created in different ways and situations and can still be successful. ‘Plot twists and cliff-hangers are used extensively’, I really agree with this as I think that thrillers are all about the mystery and not knowing what is going to happen next. You want to leave the audience shocked at the end due to them not expecting that ending event to happen. You want it to build up to that point and for them to stunned about it. 

I have found a slideshow which have given us more detail and information for what our target wants to get out of watching this genre. This has taught us that we need to address our audience more with abnormal events that do happen every day. The common elements our audience would expect to see in our film are a sense of alarm which leaves them on the edge of their seat. They are also looking for excitement, they want confusion and to be shocked about what is going on. They want dark, terrifying music so that it leaves them with a sense of terror. This is because these elements are common in the thriller genre. 

Researching target audience

Researching the target audience

Psychological thrillers are a sub-genre of thrillers and normally involve story lines based on unstable emotional states of characters. They normally contain traits of mystery drama and sometimes horror, they normally contain mature themes and the target audience for these types of films is generally 18-34. Psychological thrillers are targeted at both sexes however is generally watched more by women because of films where women are the protagonist and the villain is a man would would usually abuse the women this scares the viewers but compels them to watch more because there is an element of proejction and identification.


http://www.slideshare.net/guest9e0839/who-would-be-the-target-audience-for-youre-media-product#btnNext



Target Audience of Psychological Thrillers
"Usually the target audience of most psychological thrillers is 18+, this is because they contain many disturbing characters with psychological illnesses. However a majority of psychological thrillers attract primarily females, aged 18-35. Research shows that women are more attracted to psychological thrillers,  because they enjoy the mystery and story behind events that take place in thriller films. It has been shown that females prefer the intellectual side of the mental illnesses and strange psychologically challenging behaviour that features in psychological thrillers." (http://nfgssupernova.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/target-audience-of-psychological.html)
I would agree and disagree with this because as my research has shown women clearly do watch more of this genre but by a very small margin, the difference between male and female viewers is very slim compared to romantic comedies or action films, I myself am very fond of psychological thrillers and wouldn’t say the films are obviously to see geared towards women.


 Because of themes based on the emotional state of the characters' minds it may be quite complicated and also may contain mature themes meaning that it would be watched by older viewers. Rarely would a psychological thriller have a rating of 12 or lower because of the themes involved. Because of the psychological themes the films are more often watched by18-24 age group and more likely to be intelligent people who like to watch complex films with complex films and psychological thrillers try and give the audience what they want by creating complicated films. For example:



"Black Swan" is a psychological thriller that can be interpreted many ways because of its complex story arc and requires the viewer to concentrate to get the full experience out of the film. This is why they are aimed at more intelligent people to get the best out of the film.


When making the story line for our film we decided to use a main girl character and explore her mental stability after being abused and raped for several years by her captor. We thought this would fit in the genre quite well because psychological thrillers quite often begin with a tragedy to show how the character became how they are. This is similar to memento: his wife gets brutally murdered and he goes insane trying to find the murdered. We figured this would make a hardcore psychological thriller enthusiast happy because we have incorporated mature themes and spend the rest of the film delving into her mind to see if she is insane or sane.

Example of Shot List

Organising shots by location, actors, props, availability of equipment etc rather than narrative order:

The Film Industry

Film industry- Production

 

Production companies are in charge of a lot of tasks. These include:

 

-creating the plot of the film

-hiring the casting of the crew

-making the film

-finding sponsors

 

To do these things they require, large amounts of money. This money will come from sponsors, production partners and private companies who will invest in the film.

There are many production companies universes, however the majority are American. Examples of these are Summit Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Fox Search Light and Paramount Pictures.
 

Production companies are usually in a contract with a corporate entity. This provides a production company with a director, assistant director, location manager, production manager, casting director, director of photography, costume designer, make-up and hair designer, story board artist, choreographer, director of autography. All these are vitally important for the making for a film.

 

5 main stages of production

 

     Development – the writing of the script. This is done with the director; this is to make sure this is commercially viable.

      Pre-production- the production company hire the casting crew. The crew is hired first; this is to make sure they have everything needed. This is so they are able to negotiate prices of actors.

      Production- The film is made.

      Post-Production- after the film has been made editing is done to add sound and visual effects. This is tracks and dialogue.

      Sales and distribution – the film is shown to potential buyers. It then gets shown in cinemas and released on DVD. However not all production companies do the sales and distributions and this is done by another private company hired specifically for this.  

 

Distribution

There are many film distribution companies including:

-Touchstone Pictures

-Warner Bros

-20^th Century Fox

The jobs of these companies are to release the film to the public and to bring an audience for the film. There are many different ways in which the distribution company can distribute the film. These include:

DVD (Box sets)

Cinema

Internet (YouTube)

Film Sites (Netflix, Love film)

 Distribution companies are closely linked to production companies. This is vitally important as the production companies need to keep on their good side. This is done because the distribution companies decide how the film is shown to the public so by keeping on their good side, they can make your film look a lot more attractive and draw in a bigger audience.

Example of films and their distribution company

Paranormal ActivityProduced by: Oren Peli
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Box Office: $194 Million (Worldwide)

Marketing
 

Trailers Trailers are the main type of marketing for an up and coming film. Trailers are made to draw in an audience by revealing a little amount of information about the plot. Trailers are a prime key to making a film well known and to be noticed by the public. This will make the public want to go see it.

Official Paranormal Activity Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074

Magazine Cover

Magazine covers are used heavily in film production. This is because they are wide spread and seen by a large percentage of the public. They use magazine covers as they can have a wide variety of images and text all in one place. This means they can advertise the actors as well as scenes at the same time. This draws masses of attention towards the film creating a bigger fan base and getting more people to go watch the film.

 

ExampleMagazine: Entertainment Weekly
Cover:

The Film Industry

I have created a research presentation which I have uploaded to slideshare:

<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15454153" width="476" height="400" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Animatic

My initial story board ideas

Researching the Film Industry

Researching the film industry

Production

The production companies have the major tasks when it comes to the film industry. These include; writing up the script, directing the film, casting the actors, filming, props and costume, equipment and finally raising the finance to fund the whole process. Companies raise the money through sponsors such as omega watches for James Bond or though investors normally large companies that will take a slice of the profit.
Examples of production companies are:                                                        
• New line cinema
• Colombia pictures
• Warner bros picture
• Film 4

There are 3 stages in the production process:
Pre-production- This is the preparations done before filming has started such as the location cast and crew, also includes the development stage. The creation of the film and the script.
Production- The actual filming
Post-production- This happens after the film is finished and is when all the editing is done music sound effects, visual effects are all added.
Warner Bros pictures is an example of a large production company they would have enough money to fund their projects themselves and distribute and market the films as well. This can be compared to a smaller British company such as Film 4 who raise money though sponsors and the British lottery.


Distribution
 Distribution companies such as Miramax and Lionsgate have the job of releasing the film to the public. The way they do it is to maximise profit. They will start with releasing the film in the cinema to get money from box office (it is also the distribution companies job to decide with the cinema how long and when and what screens there film is shown in). After that they will release the film as a DVD then box set and finally film sites. Smaller films won’t be able to hire the more established distribution companies and won’t be able to get there film on cinema and so may have to put their films up on the internet straight away.
Because distribution companies and production companies work so close together a healthy relationship is needed to make the film as great as it can be, because the distribution company make the trailer and want to get people excited about the film however production companies won’t want a lot of their film shown in the trailer so good relationship would be helpful for both companies in this situation.

Marketing
The main objective for the marketing companies is too make the most money as they can. The ways they do this is by making trailers of the film. Also making posters to try and entice people to watch their film. Avatar is an example of a heavily publicised film posters where put up everywhere on buses and on billboards. Other marketing techniques are interviews with actors in magazines or on television. Marketing ploys like this will raise awareness for the not only the film but also the actor which in turn again raise intrest in the film because a well known actor is starring.

Silence of the Lambs is a very accreditied film and is in the same genre as our film pschological thriller;                                                          
Produced by: Strong heart/Demme Productions                             Distributed by: Orion Pictures Corporation.

More Targeted Research into Genre

Psychological Thriller

The genre choice for our film is broadly thriller, but its sub-genre could be seen as psychological thriller as it's more focused on the unstable state of our victim (main character). Psychological thrillers usually consist of a major plot to which something dramatic or horrifying happens at the beginning and the story is told through that event unfolding.

Archeypal characters

These stereotypical characters are usually seen throughout most thrillers:

- Victim: who is usually the protagonist/the main character. They are made to seem somewhat vulnerable hence why they have been attacked. Whatever has happened to them/their personality They are also made to seem vengeful and want to punish the person who hurt them. Turns into a strong character through whatever has happened to them.

- Threatener: who is most definitely the antagonist of the film. Anonymous at the beginning in order to maintain the mystery of the film and of it to be scarier when the revenge begins to take place.

- 'Red herring' type character: the person who the audience may suspect and is an all round suspicious character in the film. They are usually mysterious and in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Narrative Themes

The classical narrative that we usually see throughout the thriller genre is from the victim's point of view as the audience is more connected to the protagonist and they then feel sorry for them.

- Fear is presented easier if it's from the victims view point as the audience can empathise with them and see what they're seeing. It is therefore scarier.

- It also creates mystery/tension as the audience doesn't know what the antagonist is doing therefore we don't know the next step they're going to make or where they're going to go.

Costume

The costume that is worn within thrillers is very stereotypical and normal usually.

- Victim is usually in plain/simple clothes. Sometimes young girls are in promiscuous clothing to show their vulnerablity. If afer the awful event their clothing is usually tatty/dirty/ripped.

- The evil person is sterotypically in black as it shows that they're trying to remain annoymous/mysterious. It also creates tension as it usually hide their idenity therefore making it more scary for the viewer.

Lighting

- The lighting within thrillers is usually dim and low-key.

- The lighting usually focuses on the victim rather than the suspect as it then the audience are more attached to them. It also then focuses the mystery and evil of the suspect by having a black light mainly on them.

- Usually the setting is lit up through a low key light in order for it to have a more spooky atmosphere.

Location

- Thrillers are usually set in an isolated location/a place where such an incident can happen. Stereotypical places are a woods, an isolated cabin/house, shabby estate.

- This is because it is spookier for the audience and more mysterious due to the isolation.

Common editing decisions within thrillers:

- In between scenes there is never usually a smooth transitions but jumpy moves between them. This then has an of course jumpy impact on the audience.

- Constant black outs are edited in to create tension as the audience then must wait to see what happens next even if it's for a few seconds.

Use of sound

- Non-diegetic, high pitched/fast paced music is frequently used throughout thrillers in order to create tension for the viewers as they know something is going to occur from the music whereas the characters cannot.

- Sound perspective is often used from the victims perspective as it places the audience in their postion therefore they feel as tense and somewhat scared as the victim does.

- Ambient sound is used in thriller's in order to create a realistic feel for the viewer as backgound noise is heard. It also makes it spookier for example, rain, thunder and lightening, wind blowing, floor boards/doors creaking.

I think we will be able to use most of these key features in our piece as they are already part of our planning.

Storyboard Second Draft

Our chosen genre (Thriller)

http://www.slideshare.net/MeganObrienn/mediathriller-genre-15303995

Practice Filming - Running Scene

We think that the running shots in our peie will be the hardest technically. In a real situation, we would be able to use a dolly or even a steadicam, but we have limited equipment. We could film using the tripod and doing basic panning shots, but we are not sure this will have the right energy for our piece - so we have practised different ways of handling the camera to capture the running scenes.

Researching Chosen Genre

Researching your chosen genre

Action Thriller

In stereotypical action thriller movies, the stock characters are: hero, villain, victim and lover. There are normally two teams against each other, competing with one another over something or someone. There is normally a build up of events which leads up to a scene of the two groups or two individuals meeting and there is often a huge fight involving guns, fire, physical fighting and someone close to one of the teams being held hostage. The characters also normally become more scruffy  in appearance as the film goes on as it shows they are focused on what they have to do to get what they want rather than anything else.

There are normally a lot of events involving crimes or murders occurring at the beginning or even before the film starts which the villains normally seem to have got away with as the police are not a big part of this genre of film. If the villain is punished, it is usually at the hands of the hero, often through a revenge scenario. There is normally one hero or group, fighting for a good reason while the other group or individual has bad intentions.

The hero is normally the one who has to stop the plans of the villains to save his life or the life of others. There is also normally a love scene where you see one of the individual’s emotions and the viewer becomes more attached to them as they feel closer to them and also because having a love interest gives them more to lose. Normally there is only one group who wins and typically it is the group that the audiences feel closer to (the good guys) and they become the heroes. The good guy is never completely innocent but as the audience likes him or her and feels closer to them that never normally matters.

I looked at 'Taken' when researching action thriller, this I think was a great film to refer to as it is a very dramatic and exciting film. It is edited very well and uses a lot of different camera angles and movements.

Mise-en-scene

Lighting- normally  in action thrillers in the build up to the events lighting is high key so that the audience can take in all the detail to establish what it going on. Normally in the day light, they use natural lighting for example the sun light of being outside. When action events happen there is normally low key lighting to make the event seen more dark and gloomy. Also they use back lighting which can give off a strong contrast between the character and the object for example the bad guy and a gun, the lighting can bring out the fact he has a gun in his hand and is going to do something bad with it by use of silhouette. Another lighting state they may use is hard lighting make scenes looks more brutal with the harsh textures and crisp edges. As we are filming in December, we are hoping that we get a bright, crisp day as the lighitng will work well for us.

Costume -normally men wear suits to look smart and important but then throughout the film it changes to plainer, ordinary clothes (jeans, dirty tops).  Normally of the actors will normally also wear sun glasses to look important and cool. The clothing is normally dark to show it is not a happy film. The woman in the film (lover) normally wears tight or figure hugging outfits to bring out the fact that she is very pretty. Her outfits are normally more colourful to show she is a happier part of the film.

Setting-normally starts off in a city and then when the fight actually happens it is in more of a remote area. This shows the audience that because what they are doing is bad that they cannot be in an area with a lot of people. When in the city, the characters are normally in rich and glamorous places. It is set in an exterior location.

Actors -The men in the film are normally very muscular and rough looking, the men all look quite similar. The women in the film are normally beautiful and look very glamorous. even when they are in dangerous situations.  

Props -normally a gun and high tech electrical gadgets. Phones are normally also a main prop as it is used to connect with the other character to see if they are okay. There are normally fast cars that are used to be smashed up in the fights and also used to get away from the enemy quickly. For example in Taken there are a lot of fast car chases while shows action and excitement.

Camera angles and movements

-close up is used to show the importance of a character and to establish the emotion and to feel closer to the character

-long shot is used to show both the groups fighting

-canted angle is used to show confusion that something is wrong

-pov shot is used with the main character so that the

-Establishing shot is used as the location is important key element as it can used to pick up places they have already been

-Short take used to create pace and a feeling of immediacy- used in the fighting scenes

Editing decisions

-making the shots look more blurred and dark so that it is more easily shown that the scene is looking back in the past

-extreme close up to show emotion and importance of a character

-cross cutting used for conversation between two people

-cut to quickly move to one shot to another so that it can show madness / disturbed psychological states that so many things are happening at the same time

Conventional ways of using sound

-dark, gloomy music builds up to a scene, this builds up suspense

-quick low music in fighting scene to make the fight seem more dramatic

-in the love scene there is slow happy music to show this is a happier part
- use of soundscapes to establish a dangerous past / memory - this is something we might well use.

Research our chosen genre

Researching our chosen genre (thriller/mystery/drama)

 

It was hard putting our movie into a genre because there are now so many similar film genres which ahve a lot of overlapping characteristics, and there is a trend to merging genres (hybrids), so that’s why in the end I have characterised our film as a mixture of three.

 

Common themes for these genres
 

Our film is clearly related to the thriller genre and typical thrillers tend to be fast-paced and normally on a large scale such as a terrorist plot. It can be on a small scale but normally will involve a very big and serious situation for an individual.

Thrillers also have features in common with mysteries as there tends to be something to figure out e.g. where will a bomb detonate or in our case who was the abductor and how will they react. Normally something bad will happen to the main character near the beginning of the film. This is done so we feel sorry for them and develop a relationship with them. Along with the villain there’s normally a love interest or another similar character, maybe a daughter who will play an important role in the film and have some kind of close relationship with the main character. Normally they will get killed off. This is done to further the connection between the audience and the character and to see their emotions and give the audience the feeling that after all this character has been though they want them to have a happy ending. There is almost always a villain and lots of fighting scenes, and commonly a final fight scene between the protagonist and the villain where the villain is killed by the main character. This is generally the climax of thriller film. There is normally only one protagonist in thriller films who in the end saves the day, for example "Taken" features Liam Neeson as the film's main character who finds his daughter from mainly his own efforts and as I said before manages to kill the villains that took her. 

Thrillers also have always had a very tense plot where anything could happen at any time and the audience will always be filled with suspense. The story lines for thrillers are normally far-fetched, however because we are so used to them, with the hero foiling the bad guy and saving the day, they carry a high media verisimilitude. People see this narrative in films all the time and even though the plots are in real life ridiculous people watching still see it as believable and ‘real’ because it is a media trope that is very familar.
 

Locations for thriller types vary between films but common settings would be large cities or urban areas. Often there is use of well known cities such as London or New York to create a sense of verisimilitude because people will recognise these places and relate to them. Thrillers are typically filmed in high key lighting so bright and harsh lights because of the seriousness of the genre, depending on the film the main character is generally a tough man who knows how to fight and so the actor is picked accordingly so he looks the part and is normally associated with that genre e.g. Tom Cruise. However in our case we’ve gone the opposite way and chosen to have a weak and vulnerable girl as our main character who is being abused by a strong male character and so when we cast who the actors will be we will have to get people who fit the part and look like the character they are portraying so the audience can create a connection and find it more believable.
 

Editing in thriller films is often fast paced and quick going from scene to scene also there tends to be a chase scene and cross cutting will normally be used to create a fast paced action there is also a lot of filming on handhelds so the camera wobbles making it seem that the viewer is there with the character. An example of these techniques is this scene from the Bourne Ultimatum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VznKqWl5VE

It is filmed using quick cuts and transition very fast paced creating tension which is very common in fight scenes in thriller movies.
 

Sound is very important in films and thrillers and  normally the themes are very serious so the underscore will generally be orchestral and have very dark tones, almost brooding, to help create tension and suspense in the needed moments coming up to the climatic scenes the music will increase in volume and pace to coincide with what’s happening on film.
 

Thrillers will normally have a happy ending with the protagonist solving the mystery or foiling the bad guy and solving the problem of the film. 

Camera Movement Task

TASK

Film a conversation using:

Establishing shot that zooms in

Panning shot to show character 2’s arrival

Shot / reverse shot not equal distance representing one character as less prominent / lower status

Arc shot / 360 shot – character 2’s reactions to dramatic news

Tracking shot as character 2 runs off.

Objective: to practise camera movements and evaluate technical issues around them / pros and cons for their use.