Audience Feedback

Overall our audience rated our production as excellent demonstrating high imagination and creative flair. We also recieved excellent feedback with regards to mise en scene and shots and editing in out production.Our audience feedback highlighted how our audience felt that there was extensive lanning to our production and this showed through our final product. Our target audience followed the plot of the production clearly however some critisims were that our lighting could have been better and our title sequence could have been more imaginative and increased the duration of time that they were on screen. as our audience flet they went to fast. I am pleased with the feedback we recieved and am glad that our target audience rated our production highly. I would take the constructive critism into account if i was to make another thriller.

Evaluation Pod

In doing the evaluation verbally infront of a camera i felt less comfortable than if we had to write it on our blog. Althogh we were given the quetions first i think it was hard to adress elements of your production you wanted to comment on. However i fink doing a pod evaluation makes it more interesting and it looks proffesional.

Editing

During our filming, we have numerous takes on any one shot, to ensure that when we come to editing we would have at least one shot that we wanted to use.

Whilst making our recodring and editing log we found that the the more times we shot a sequence the better the quality became. Most of the shots picked from our recording log are 2nd or 3rd takes.

Our editing decision list was depicted from shots off our recording log we labelled 'good' or 'ok' according to the camera movement, position and lighting in the shot.

From making my editing decision list i learned the importance of choosing and ordering shots prior to editing. I also learned that it is quite a time comsuming process making the edit decision list and i would have granted myself more time if i was to make my production again.

Filming

Our first sequence of the shots of the book will be filmed at my house because it is appropriate to the story as the killer is subliminally a teenage girls so the setting of my bedroom was will be appropriate. Also the lighting can be altered easily indoors giving us the dark and eerie effect we want to be in the shot.

The equiptment we will need will be a camera, mini dv tape, tripod, and battery. Microphones and headphones will not be necessary as there is no dialogue in our production.

The secound sequence will be shot outside on the street at night. We chose the location to film based on the surroundings which were trees and an ambient red lighting given off by streetlights. We chose this location because it was quiet and looked desolate which fitted in with our desired effect.

The equiptment needed to film the secound sequence is the same as that needed in the first, however the tripod will only be used in the establishing shots as the following will ba shot hand held.

We plan to get all the filming done in one week from the 15th jan - 22nd jan.

Casting and Props

The character in our production will be a white teenage middle class girl Eve Monaghan.John Carpenter's Halloween is often credited with creating an early basis for the slasher genre. The way in which a mentally disturbed killer, disguised as they stalk their prey, sneaks up on female victim in a vulnerable moment. This is the same convention used in our production so we decided to use the conventional character of a young naiive teenage girl.

The props we used in our production were;

The Srapbook - the book contained a collage of maccarbe images and disturbing content. It mirrors the symbolisation that the book in red dragon has, bieng that our scrapbook sets up the plot for the audience and gives them an insight into the storyline.

The knife - A knife is a typical prop that would be in a horror/thriller films such as Halloween and Pyscho. We chose to use the knife as a prop becauase it was accesible and realisitic and was relevant to the story.

Role Allocation

Grace Carter and Bonny Wilson.

First sequence - filmed by Bonny Wilson directed by Grace Carter

Secound sequence - filmed by Grace Carter directed by Grace Carter

Editing - Both

Music by - Bonny Wilson

Props/Scrapbook- Grace Carter

Written by both

This is the outline for our sequence. We constructed a storyboard to help us determine the sequence of shots and we are going to frame and shoot them using a variety of different shots. Each shot will vary in length depending on the shot and subject in the scene.

During the process of filming we found that the ending to our production was over complicated and was extremely difficult to shoot without breaking the 180 degree rule so we altered the end of our production however kept to the original storyline. Instead of the house scene we changed the sequence to that of the killer following its victim and finding the diary. We also made these alterations because after filming the original ending to out production we concluded that it didn't look like that of the horror/thriller genre.

Draft Ideas

I have decided to make a thriller film. we had initially 3 draft ideas.

Idea 1
Action/thriller - which entailed a young male engaging in a drug deal, when it all goes wrong and his brother is kidnapped by the drug dealer. We thought that this idea was good because the narrative was suitable for the thriller/action genre and it is a subject out target audience would be interested in. We decided not to do go through with this idea however because it is not practical in terms of the type of charcters we would need and the number of people required to do the film. We also decided not to because Action as sub-genre of thriller was not the most popular according to my survey findings.

Idea 2
horror/thriller- Our second idea was a young girl walking home from a house party she been to, on her way back she is attacked and wakes up tied to a chair in a basement. We thought this idea was good because it empathises with our target audience and is relevant to their age group. We chose not to pursue this idea however because issues such as lighting would have been difficult, to get appropriate filming light at night time . We also decided not to do this idea because the appropriate location of a basement was inaccessible.

Idea 3
Our third idea is A young girl who suffers a disfiguration as a child, as a result of an attack by school bullies. The film is documenting a diary she has made and gives an insight into the plot of revenge by the young girl. We thought this idea was appropriate because it falls under the popular sub-genre of physcological thriller and it would give us scope to use a wide variety of shots unlike the other ideas.

Idea 4

Idea 4 is the plot we are going to pursue for our production. It will contain a scrapbook much like the one in seven and will portray a story much like the one in idea 3 with the intent for revenge after a viscious attack. In our production it will show the killer following its school bully and will document her finding the diary. We chose this idea becuase it allowed us to use a variety of shots and sequences we thought would keep our audience interested.

Preliminary Task

In our preliminary task we filmed a shot sequence using a range of shots varying from pans to exrtreme close-ups and tracking. The preliminary task enabled us to familiarise ourselves with the camera and its settings.

Thriller Questionaire

What elements do you expect to find in a typical thriller?

Blood [5] death [11] investigation [6] victim/killer [4]

What certificate would you expect a good thriller to be?

U[0] PG[0] 12[0] 15[17] 18[8]

What music worksbest in a thriller?

Diagetic [11] Non Diagetic[8] Ambient [6]

What elements make up a good thriller?

Suspense [15] Comedy [0] death [8] action [2] physcological drama [0]
In a thriller film, do you consider Action or Dialogue more important?

Dialogue [5] Action [15] both [5]

What genre of thriller do you prefer?

Action thriller [4] physcological thriller [16] Crime thriller [3] horror thriller [2]

From my questionaire i have concluded that the plot and substance to the film seems tobe the most imoprtant factor and that the higher rated the film is, the more credible it is seen.

Other elements that are typical of the thriller genre are,Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories, but are distinguished by the structure of their plots.Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements. While a mystery climaxes when the mystery is solved, a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving his own life and often the lives of others. In thrillers influenced by tragedy, the compromised hero is often killed in the process.In recent years, when thrillers have been increasingly influenced by horror or psychological-horror exposure in pop culture, an ominous or monstrous element has become common to heighten tension.The pace must be quick, there has to be a lot of action, and there should be suspense and plot twists.The main characters are also traditionally men.

Top Ten Rated Thriller Film

1.The Godfather (1972)
2.The Godfather: Part II (1974)
3.The Dark Knight (2008)
4.Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980
5.Rear Window (1954)
6.Cidade de Deus (2002)
7.The Usual Suspect (1994)
8.Psycho (1960)
9.Fight Club (1999)
10.The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

My Target Audience

What is your preferred genre of film?

horror [4] thriller [7] rom-com [2] Action [3]

What elements do you think are most important in a good film?

plot [9] characters [4] sound [0] effects [2]

what would like to see in the opening of a film?

title sequence [5] insight into plot [6] introduction to characters [3] settings [1]

would you prefer a title sequence to the opening of a film or straight into the film?

title sequence [11] straight into film [4]

what attracts you to a certain film?

Actors/Actresses [4] reviews [4] name of the film [5] none [1]

I conducted this questionaire to find out what genre of film people would be most interested in and my findings show that the thriller genre is most popular. I have decided to do a thriller film based on my findings.

UK Film Data

Genre Number of releases Gross box office % gross box office

(£ million)

fantasy 5 90.6 34.1

comedy 23 77.6 29.2

thriller 5 32.4 12.2

horror 6 9.8 3.7

romance 4 0.9 0.3

Uk film council data shows that in 2007 fanatsy was the genre that had the largest box office success followed by the domedy genre. Romantic films and films of the war genre proves to be least sucessful in the box office only accumulating 0.3% gross box office. The Uk film council data for 2007 rank fantasy as the most sucessful genre in film, however in 2008 the two top grossing films adopt the thriller genre ' The Dark Knight' and the 'X-files the movie'. The performance of the fantasy genre in the box office in 2007 is said to be largely due to the return of thelatest outing of the Uk inward investment. Harry potter and the order of the phoenix' which made upto 55% of the box office for the fantasy genre, as was it in 2005 when the previous sequel was released harry potter and the goblet of fire.

The Silence Of The Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 horror thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald and Ted Levine.

Mise en scene in the opening scene creates the atmosphere through the use of dim natural lighting, isolates settings, fog and its connotations (pathetic fallacy). The use of costumes as part of mise en scene is that the main charcter wears the same uniform as everyone else in the opening scnes, demonstrating her unimportance and lack of authority. Newspaper cuttings are used as prompts to the storyline as it is in Red Dragon.

Camera Angles in The Silence Of The Lambs vary from downward panning to forward tracking to backward tracking in the opening scene, giving the audience a range of shots documenting the situation. It also gives the illusion that the main character is bieng watched as the camera is positioned behind the trees. Extreme close ups are used to document expressions in correspondance to the paper cuttings on the wall. Medium long shots are also used to show the character in a particular setting that may be new to the scene. Blurred focus shots are used to show Clarese's consumption into the paper cuttings similar to that used in The Omen.

Editing is seamless in the opening however cuts do become more frequent as the main character makes her way through FBI offices, they also quicken to document her response to the articles on the wall, this builds up suspense and tension.

The Silence of the Lambs placed 7th on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. The American Film Institute named Hannibal Lecter as portrayed by Hopkins the number one film villain of all time and Clarice Starling as portrayed by Foster the sixth greatest film hero of all time.
In 1991, Silence of the Lambs was awarded Best Horror Film of the Year during the 2nd Horror Hall of Fame telecast.The film was a boxoffice sucess accumulating a sucess of $272,742,922 woeldwide

Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman is a 1990 romantic comedy film. The film centers on the titular character, down-on-her-luck prostitute Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) who is hired by a wealthy businessman and corporate raider, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) to be his escort for several business functions, and their developing relationship.

Mise en scene in pretty woman shows in the opening scene a wealth exsclusive penthouse party, costumes display taste and money and the setting portrays an upper-class start to the film. As the opening progresses the mise en scene through the use of costumes, dialogua and surrounding contrast the opening scene to that of the red light district in beverly hill. Mise en scene uses lighting to portray the mood of the shot, the lightin dims as the opening progresses showin a change of mood and situation.

Camera Angles in Pretty Woman uses pans to illustrate the influencial and dominant characters. Ariel shots are used to show the city and give the audience a sense of location. The close up of womens body parts such as lips, legs and breasts, show women as objects in the film and give us an insight into the plot and how women will be viewed in it. Close ups are also used to show significant landmarks such as the 'Hollywood' sign, reinforcing the theme of luxury.

Sound as in most romantic comedies sports a soundtrack that documants the thoughts and emotions of its characters. In the establiching scene there is the diagetic sound of piano a sound instrument is used, as opposed to those used in horror films such as violins that have a harsher sound and connoatations. The music increases in volume and tempo the further away from the upper class party Richard Gere gets, showing the transition into another enviroment and making the character seem even further removed from their usual enviroment.

Editing in Pretty Woman is seamless however cuts quicken with the movement of the car in the opening scene, thsi illustrates speed and the movement of time. Cuts are also made between the 2 main characters Julia Roberts and Richard Gere to highlight their differences in lifestyle.

Pretty Woman was initially intended to be a dark drama about prostitution in Los Angeles but was reconceptualized into a romantic comedy. The film was a critical success and became one of 1990's highest grossing films, and today is one of the most financially successful entries in the romantic comedy genre, with an estimated gross of $464 million USD.

The Omen

The Omen (also known as The Omen: 666) is a 2006 American remake of the 1976 horror film of the same name. The film is directed by John Moore and is written by David Seltzer.

Mise en scene in the film uses dark lighting and shadowed scenes from the very start, typical of a horror film. Religious connotations are used through props such as nuns, rosary beads, crucifixes, giving us an insight into the plot. The lighting varys in the shots to portray charcters in a good or bad way. Warmer lighting is used in scenes such as the hospital, an the the lighting in darkened in the infirmary and natural lighting is used. Objects of a red color are designed for this film to signify danger.

Camera Angles focus in the opening scenes on the baby illustrating its importance to the plot. Downward panning and close up of the babys face are used to demonstrate the Damien's vulnerability and innocence. However upward panning is used to capture the priest and demonstrate his importance and influence which corresponds with the heavy religious influence mise en scene focuses on. Reflection shots are used to show distance and seperation.

The Omen's opening, had haunting non diagetic sounds which increases in tempo and volume increasing tension as the credits progress. Sound is also used through vocals and accents in the film, Roberts broad American accent accentuates his misplacement and unfamiliarity in correspondence to other characters in the film which speak italian. Diagetic background sounds horns,cars, traffic are also used to show the movement of life around te story's plot.

Editing in The Omen is seamless. Cuts are made from Roberts expression to the movement of the car which highlightsthe sense of emergency and importance. Editing jumps forward to when damien has grown up showing a passage of time, same convention that is showin in horror classis 'Halloween'.

the box office, the film has a worldwide gross of $119,498,909 making it a modest success on a budget of $25 million. It finished as the 59th highest-grossing film of 2006, the 12th highest-grossing R-rated movie of 2006 and the 2nd highest domestic gross of The Omen series when adjusted for inflation. The 1976 original remains the top earner in the series

Red Dragon

Red Dragon is a 2002 thriller film, based on the novel of the same name written by Thomas Harris featuring the brilliant psychiatrist and menacing serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Tally (who also wrote the screenplay for The Silence of the Lambs), it starred Edward Nortonn as Graham and Anthony Hopkins as Lecter — a role he had, by then, played twice before in The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.

Mise En Scene is used to set the tone for the rest of the film, in the opening sequence we are presented with large terraced housing, expensive cars, decadent settings. The lighting is articficail and warm which portrays a sense of richness and the use of mise en scene in the dinner party scene through costumes, vocals and settings portray exsclusiveness.

Camera angles in the thriller use pans to show dominance and vulnerablility.Close-up of significant objects relevant to the plot such as paper cuttings, articles etc. are used. Crane shots are also used to give an overview of the situation and the settings. Close-ups and extreme clos-ups are used to show hannibals expressions. Standard camera angles are also used, shot-reverse-shot between 2 characters in conversation.

Sound in the film's establiching shot is non- ambient and the use of the orcheastra also reinforces the theme on wealth. Ambient sounds are used to set the mood in scenes such as teh dinner party and the tempo and tone changes with the build up of tension.

Editing in Red Dragon quickens as the opening progresses, flashbacks become more frequent as we become more aware of Hannibal's characters and situation. Cuts are made quicker to increase tension and build suspense.

Red Dragon was a box office success, earning $92,930,005 in the US

Bridget Jones's Diary.

Bridget Jones' Diary Bridget Jones's Diary is a British 2001 romantic comedy film, based on the novel of the same name written by Helen Fielding. The adaptation starred Renee Zellwegeer as Bridget, Hugh Grant as the caddish Daniel Cleaver and Colin Firth as Bridget's 'true love' Mark Darcy.Mise En Scene in the opening to Bridget Jones's diary is used to reflect the tone in the establishing scenes, the use of pathetic fallacy, christmas time and festive connatations are used to highlight Bridget's lonliness and sets up a theme for the rest of the film.

Mise En Scene is also used to portray a particular time and period in Bridget's life. Mise En Scene illustrates Bridget's family as bieng very traditional and twee through the use of costumes, props and settings, this gives us an insight into the characters background. Mise En Scene also uses ' the diary' as a symbolisation of change, and allows the audience to see what the character is feeling.Camera Angles in the romantic comedy's opening frequently used pans, to demonstrate the dominance or vulnerability of Bridget. Point of View shots are also used in the opening, this has the effect of the audience feelinga s though they are looking through Bridgets eyes and the trail of the camera mirrors her thoughts.

Editing in the film is used to portray the passage of time through conventions such as fade outs. Freeze frames focusing on the main character are also used to centre our attention on Bridget before the credits roll.

Sound in Bridget Jones's Diary is predominantly daiagetic music. The music in the film corresponds with the mood bieng portrayed and the lyrics of the song often portay the characters feelings and emotions. A voice over is also used throught-out parts of the film, which correlates with the 'diray' aspect of the film, and has the effect that the film is bieng documented.