Thriller First Draft

Editing

Music Bibliogrophy

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Horror

http://soundbible.com/1548-Scary-Scream.html

Filming

The filming for our first draft of the thriller was due to begin on Friday the 11th in Alex's cellar however the location was unavailable, so it was decided my garage would be a more practical location; easy to access and convenient for any-time use. Getting the lighting for shots was quite difficult due to starting filming in the day time. Using bin bags on the windows created a good lighting to set the creepy mood we were trying to create as well as a small lamp angled to give shots an intense shadow also to create the scary look. All the shots needed in the garage were done in less than 3 shots.

The second location we used was the outside shot from the rear of my house. It was used for an establishing shot for the sequence and so needed to be one of the more effective shots to draw in the audience straight away. I held the camera for the shot and Jake turned off the light for the link to the next shot with a 15 second delay from the time the camera started rolling until the light turned off to make sure we had enough footage for the shot to be cut down to get a smooth transition when editing into the next shot.


Props:


Teddy Bear


The bear was used to represent the innocent of youth and to imply to the audience that the crimes our antagonist was committing were towards children. Audiences tend to feel more sympathetic towards children because they are seen to be defenceless and innocent.


Tools:



The tools were used to imply sadism and give an implicitly sinister feel to our production as there were several different shots in which different tools were used.


Leather Gloves:



Leather gloves have connotations of crime because they're often used in crimes to help people keep their identitiy hidden.

Risk Assessment

Risk	To Who/What	Prevention of Risk
Loosing equipment	Camera , tripod, film	Make sure all equipment is accounted for before and after every filming session and locked away in media storage cupboard as soon as possible after filming is completed.
Impaling/ being sliced by tools	All members of crew	Careful handling of props to make sure no injuries occur.
Falling into train lines	All members of crew/equipment	Make sure no filming happens over the yellow lines on the train platforms.
Weather damage of equipment	Camera, tripod, film	Don’t film in the rain or make sure the camera is covered well.

Locations

Location 1: Alex's cellar, to be used because it already has an eerie look about it which we were trying to create.

Location 2: Outside of my house, Large house surrounded by lots of foliage which can give the impression that someone could be watching from the bushes with the right positioning of the camera.

Location 3: Attenborough train station, necessary for a shot in which a train drives by and a figure disappears from the other side of the tracks.



Location 1 updated: My Garage, similar reasons for the original location it was just more convenient to film there.

Actors

Callum Wood as the murderer, used because he gave advice on lighting and camera angles which he had prior knowledge from his experienced photography.

Internet Audience Research

The thriller genre spans into many other genres so it is difficult to pin point an exact target audience. Some thrillers concentrate just on the psychological, suspense aspect of thriller most notably Alfred Hitchcock who was labeled 'the master of suspense' however in more recent times audiences have changed and are more blood-thirsty obliging creators of thrillers to go a more sadistic, gruesome route with the films they make. These films are more likely to be aimed at younger teenage audiences as they concentrate less on storyline and more on visual effects to build suspense and surprise the audience. However crime and psychological thrillers are aimed at, but not limited to, older audiences because of the in-depth story and a higher attention span being required.

Filming Schedule

Date	Location	People Attending
Friday 11th March	Alex's Cellar	Ben Clarke Jake Frost Alex Brown
Monday 14th March	Attenborough Lane	Ben Clarke Jake Frost
Monday 14th March	Attenborough Train Station	Ben Clarke Jake Frost

Seven (David Fincher, 1995)

The first thriller I chose to research was 'Seven' (David Fincher, 1995) this is because it is a personal favourite film of mine and the opening gave me lots of inspiration and ideas for my own sequence.

The sequence opens with a shot of a book opening in the foreground, in the background there is an out of focus hand turning the pages. The hand is out of focus so that the character remains a mystery and so that the audience are unable to create a connection with the character. The credits also appear throughout the sequence with a blurry crooked font, in this shot “new line credits presents”.

In between shots it cuts to a shot of a black background with credits in flickering to give a creepy effect. Fading to a shot of a picture of a pair of mangled hands, the picture looks like a photocopy, this again leaves the audience in confused as to what the image is actually of, as they don’t know who the hands belong to but it can be presumed that something unfortunate has happened to the owner of the hands.

After this shot there are a series of shots of the murderer preparing for something as he is checking tools and peeling his fingertips off with a razor blade which in itself is quite shocking and graphic for the audience to watch. But also shows that a sinister event is about to happen or will happen in the duration of the film.

This opening to this film is inspiring to my thriller because it doesn’t give too much of the story away which is what my aim is in this project because I know in past years when people have attempted this project they try to tell a whole story and give away too much in the first 2 minutes which tends to look rushed and not well thought out. I would like to set the scene and give the audience implications to what the film will be about which will keep the audience guessing which from my audience research I have found to be an aspect of the thriller genre people enjoy.

Results

Age:
Our sample was mainly in the ’15-21’ age category. This was mainly for convenience as it was easier to ask our peers to partake in the questionnaire.





How often do you watch films? :
This shows that the people we asked watched a film at least once a week if not every day. Also showing that they have some knowledge about film and are likely to watch many different genres.

What is your preferred genre? :

When we asked people this question they said that they had more than one preferred genre and that it depended on the mood they were in. But from the results given most people had preference to comedy. Perhaps because comedies are easy-watching and keep people entertained without having to put too much thought into it.

When watching a thriller what do you expect? :

The majority of people replied that they expected there to be many twists to keep them guessing, so it is useful to take that into account and live up to the expectations of the audience. However, only filming the first 2 minutes means that we can’t give away too much of the story.

How do thrillers make you feel? :



After you have seen a thriller does it make you think deeper into it?

This shows that people expect a huge twist at the end of the films with people making reference to ‘The Sixth Sense’ and ‘Shutter Island’.

Do explicit images make more of an impact than subtle implicit shots?

The majority of people said that the diegetic sounds make more of an impact on them than actually being able to see a graphic shot.