The whole concept of a Thriller is to keep the audience guessing and wanting to know what happens next, they're unpredictable, made to create an enigma that keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. Ellipsis plays a key part in a Thriller, eliminating all unimportant parts in the movie and holding back information from either the character or the audience. This makes the audience pay extra attention making them interact more with what they're watching. A Thriller should explore 'dark' themes that are not science fiction, otherwise it becomes a Horror, and Horror is difficult to pull off nowhere days.
In my opinion, Thrillers are the smartest, most brilliant of all film genres. I think this because every detail is important, miss one detail and you might lose a whole chunk of the plot. It's all down to the camera, sound and editing.
A certain camera's angle or movement can change the perspective of the film, moving the camera can tell the audience many things: If a character's in danger, the pace of the scene and many more techniques. The angle can determine a character's status (a low angle for example is used at times to make a character a higher status than the other), a pan can be used to track a character whilst staying in one position and revealing more of the landscape in the shot. An example of when we used this technique was when the car drove towards the roundabout, we revealed where the car was coming from, where it was going past and where its destination is in a shot that lasted five seconds. Match on action is a key technique that gets the audience anticipating what going to happen next.
The editing conventions of a successful thriller include Cross Cutting, Parallel Editing and Continuity Editing:
- Continuity editing is used to keep the story rolling with a sense of flow coherence and realism. I believe we've done this. I think the piece flows in a way that leaves the audience guessing, there's no problem with the props we used, an example is the clock in which we changed to school time and indicated she's late (although I wish now we'd have shot some footage of the clock close up) but I believe everything we've done flows.
- Parallel Editing is the technique of alternating two or more scenes that most of the time happen simultaneously in different locations, in this case they occasionally overlap (and both sets of characters confront each other via a phone call etc).
- Cross Cutting is used most often used in Film Thriller to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations, a good example is from the clip from Luther.
Sound:
- Diegetic Sound - The Car, footsteps - These were needed to create realism and tension, plus, the audience would immediately think 'why can't we hear the car engine revving and the sound of the characters feet colliding with the floor
- Non Diegetic / Foley - Add sound fx i.e. The screaming during the establishing shot of the school, I believe it would have been more successful without them because during the draft of the clip, it felt like it had to be in, but in the final clip it sounded corny, unnecessary and fake (Which spoilt the piece a bit) but I am still happy with what we've done
- Added Sounds for suspense i.e. Background ticking noise (I used this because I heard it and it sounded like a countdown to the incident and also gave an obvious but effective pace to the piece)
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product turns the stereotype of privileged upper class children on its head, I mean to say as they live in their own privilege, upper class life where nothing bad ever happens to them and they get what they want all the time (as you can tell I don't have these views at all...). The car is a new upper class Mitsubishi that is a typical posh car, this was great to use because of it's image (it was either the Mitsubishi or a Jeep looking thing and the Jeep is too...military and lower class). 'The costume fitted well with the school setting, however the Converse of the shooters seemed a bit out of place.' Scott- TeamGimli
I might slightly agree with them...the converses were the only slightly appropriate shoes available to us, but all things considered we should have been more prepared in the costume department.We used a female main character because they are stereo-typically more innocent that men, they're natural go to gender for a damsel in distress. Our character is however more independent and challenges that stereotype
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Film distribution is the process of how films are created and connect with the audience. A film distributor is either a person or an organization who present your film at festivals and possibly to the television or even cinemas around the world.
Possibly the BBC because it can be finished on a relatively low budget, yet it's interesting and engaging. A good example of a low budget interesting film is The Awakening, a ghost story thriller in which Rebecca Hall plays a Psychic who is paid to investigate a haunted school during half term, and the twist is very interesting and game changing. I enjoyed it very much, because it was the small things like a bell ringing that made you really scared and tense. I think our Thriller has the potential of doing something similar, except the ghosts are gunmen instead and the things that'll get the audiences blood pumping is the 'he's getting closer' factor. Using echoes and footsteps that hint to where the bad guy is. Our film so far doesn't have any dialogue at all and I think as a whole film it would be a lot better if we continued with minimal dialogue, like what they did in 'Woman in Black'.
In this film it created an atmosphere so eerie and effective without music and dialogue. In the scene during Arthur's first visit to the house he explores the house and the things that make you jump the most are the sudden moments that don't involve the actual ghost. Such as: The blocked drain that when he tries to get water out suddenly releases a lump of disgusting muddy water that makes you jump completely because of the overly edited loud Diegetic sound of it coming out of the tap. Also what makes you jump is a similar situation when he finds a nest that has been made in the fireplace, a chick has fallen out of it and so he puts it back in its nest when suddenly a crow flies out of the chimney and onto the window sill.
I think our film would have a lot of moments such as this because a lot can be said without saying anything. This is why I think the BBC would be interested in this, because they don't necessarily want a Hollywood blockbuster, but an intelligent piece of work that grabs the audiences attention.4. Who would be the audience for your media production?
I think the appropriate audience would be rated 15, because we intend that the rest of the film to be shocking, crude and a bit bloody at times. I personally would like it to be a thriller that can be scary and edgy, it's only when the teachers start shooting people that it should be really shocking and a proper contrast to a superstitious and broad beginning. I think given this age rating the possibilities could be endless to what we could do to make the audience sit on the edge of their seats, whereas if given a lower age rating we would be very limited to what we could do if a family went to go see it thinking there's a happy ending. I think it's a fair rating to give it and I'd feel comfortable trying to creep an audience of an aged 15+ audience with the different Thriller techniques we can do. Our Thriller piece also doesn't use foul language and so it could potentially be a film for all the family and they might excuse some of the other things in our film like potential violence and blood.
Also the characters are in a similar age group to the people we are targeting and so they're more relatable and if anyone older than the target watch they can remember what it was like to be a teenager. I think we are attracting both a male and female audience because the main character is a girl (which will attract boys) and the girl is relatable (which will attract girls). This theory has been proven because I showed it to many people of different genders and asked if they would watch the rest of the movie given a choice, which they all said they would.
5.How do you attract / address your audience?
We started with a familiar scene, Olivia was late for school which was relateable for everyone because nobody has always been on time and so it made the audience think 'where are they going with this?'.
Then we mixed it up a bit with the school shootings (which when we finished are film became a very touchy subject and no offence was meant in the making of this film).
We've made the whole scene very eerie from the beginning because of the 'ticking' that goes on during the beginning, this (which has been proven due to an interview with a few students) works because they wanted to know what the ticking was.
Finally Olivia receives a text with shocking news and leaves the plot wide open with a lot to think about. Because it's a Thriller opening, we shouldn't explain anything what the audience wants to know because that's what grabbed their attention in the first place and they'll want to watch the rest to find out the answers to their questions.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I've learnt how to use more camera techniques than I knew how to use before, using the equipment available to me (thanks to our preliminary which was very useful to do first). I've also learnt how effective it is to take shots from several different angles and also to keep the camera rolling no matter what happens because it can still be used.
During our editing it would have been nice to have had more footage to play around with and so I'm going to take this into consideration for next year.
I've learnt a few more techniques for Final Cut Pro, Garageband and the Macs in general (as I was at college last year doing video production I had a bit of a head start). But our media technicians Ollie and Sophie were always there to help us when we needed them. With Final Cut Pro I found out how to slow down/speed up a clip which came in very handy when we were pacing the clip. The Sounds we used from Garageband would have been made by us creating Foleys, but in the time we had left it would have been harder to come up with a school bell for instance, or gun shots and a crowd screaming.
For our lighting the actual light that was shone didn't really mix well with interior of our set and so we found it was better to do I without the actual lamps.
Blogger was great because whenever we needed feedback our teachers would always give us tips and help. We used multimedia techniques to make it interesting and I'd definitely recommend it for other subjects to use.
7. Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
Our first video was called 'The Only Way is Sussex' based on the reality TV shows 'The Only Way is Essex' and 'Made in Chelsea'. We started brainstorming in the lesson, from a classic stalker clip to a natural meeting with friends. In the end we thought of a quick, easy scene to do that involved just a couple of lines and a few camera shots. In the end it took an hour and a half to film, it would have been quicker to film but we had a member of our team down for personal reasons, Kate, however she wrote the dialogue with Helena and did some paper work so it added up. Meanwhile I was drawing the storyboard and examples of shots we were going to use.
But all in all I think we did a successful piece, we did a full run-through of the lines every time we turned on the camera so that we'd have a variety of different shots to use, which we should have done in our Thriller opening which would have made it a lot more interesting to use all of those different camera angles. However there were a couple of continuity problems we kept running in to like the clock that's time was not of school time and would change every so often, but after we thought of that we changed the time. So I've learnt from this, our editing has improved a lot since the beginning, it has gotten smoother and the flow has improved along with the continuity. Our titling was simple which made it clever and also made it more possible for time to go quicker between each title. There was one day that I couldn't attend filming as I was at an Art trip, however to make up for this I wrote an over 1000 word synopsis we could use for the rest of the film.
Synopsis:
Commemorate
A young Olive Collins is late for school one morning; she
gets a lift in and walks into school.
When walking in she’s stopped by his friend, Liam (whose father is the
history teacher), and they hide in a corner, a gunman walks past them and walk
into the assembly hall. The sound of
gunshots and panic emerges from the hall.
A few years later, the school finally reopens and Olive
struggles when she goes back to school after her father has had her home
schooled since the incident and sent her to a Psychiatrist, whom she tells
everything to. She’s still friends with
Liam, but they keep their distance because they remind each other too much of
what happened. She’s still tormented by
flashbacks of what happened, one flashback is of her and Oliver walking into
the assembly hall, which is filled with bodies of their friends, but no
teachers. She follows the path of a
Photographer and takes pictures wherever she goes. She takes photos of a school production
called “And so it ends”, it uses strobe lights in the main hall, she helps the
actors put the props in the school cellar, including a pair of crutches, which
happens to be the props room as well. Then
she stumbles into the security room and takes photos of the controls for her
project, but the Gatekeeper finds her and shouts for her to leave. Olive remembers him being there at the
incident, she then becomes obsessed with the idea that the Gatekeeper was the
key antagonist. She starts following the gatekeeper and takes
pictures of everything he does.
She collects what she thinks is a substantial amount of
evidence in a large folder, such as old newspaper reports about the school
dating all the way back to the First World War. One article about a teacher
whom had committed suicide and a teacher driven mad and killed his students. She
eventually tells her Psychiatrist everything and he does his best at telling
her that it’s just not true and it’s all in her head. But Olive is still convinced and goes to the
Gatekeepers house to find evidence; she gets caught by the Gatekeeper, who
calls the police on her. Olive escapes
but gets chased by the police, when she gets caught by a police officer (the
officer who actually was at the incident after it happened and looked after
Olive and Liam) they remember each other and the Police Officer lets her off
with a warning.
She goes to school as normal the next day, when she’s in
History she starts thinking more in depth about the incident and realises
something. The History teacher is Liam’s father. Where was he when the incident occurred? After the lesson she confronts the History
teacher at his office, the history teacher tells him that he was on holiday
with the family. BUT WHY WASN’T LIAM
WITH HIM ON HOLIDAY?! She asks herself.
She confronts Liam, asking where his father was when the
incident occurred. Liam says he can’t
tell her. They are interrupted by the Gatekeeper
who shouts at them to get to class, when they get to class, Olive gives a note
to Liam saying to meet her at the School Cellar’s after school, there Oliver
plans to interrogate him.
The Police Officer is having a meeting with Olive’s
Psychiatrist, who shows the folder Olive gave to the Psychiatrist. Whilst looking through the folder starts
remembering stuff that actually happened at the incident. He starts connecting dots, starts remembering
seeing the teachers all alive and well after the incident, he starts to get
convinced that Olive is on to something.
At the School Cellars, Olive tries to forcefully get
information from Liam, the stress has got to her and she has a tantrum. The History teacher walks into the cellar, he
has a gun. He shoots Olive in the leg
and leaves her to bleed out, the headmaster calls him on the radio and asks if
he’s ready for stage one; the history teacher then takes Liam and locks the
doors.
The Police Officer starts driving to the school to pick up
Olive, to see what else he thinks she knows.
The Headmaster calls for a school assembly and the teachers
start loading their guns in the changing rooms.
The halls are flooded with schoolchildren who are dreading another
boring assembly, the teachers then lock all entrances to the school.
Olive lies down in a pool of blood, she slowly reaches in
her pocket and starts playing music on her phone hoping someone will hear it
and also as comfort as she lies in pain in pitch black.
The Police Officer gets to the school and walks to the Main
entrance, it’s locked and the French teacher guarding the hall sees him through
the windows. The Police Officer starts
running towards the Police car to call for back up. But two teachers are standing by the car with
guns. He hides behind the corner and
thinks of running through the field to escape and call for help. But he hears music coming from the Cellar and
opens it to see Olive lying down in a pool of blood. She’s lost a lot of blood.
The whole school is listening to the headmaster; he’s giving
a long boring, ceremonial type speech people.
The police officer covers Olive’s wounds and tells her to
stay there whilst he goes to try and escape to call for back up. Olive remembers the first time she went into
the control room; she crawls over towards her bag and gets her camera out, the
picture of the controls in the control room.
A switch that automatically opens up the electronic doors, sees the
theatre strobe light switch and gets an idea.
She looks next to her, the crutches she put in there.
The Police Officer runs across the field and escapes.
The headmaster is still continuing with the long speech,
Olive just about makes it to the control room and looks out towards the
hall. She’s shocked when she sees that
the teachers pull out the Gatekeeper for their first sacrifice. She’s frozen in fear and the teachers kill
the Gatekeeper. There are screams from
all the students. Olive opens all the
doors with the flick of a switch, turns the lights off and turns on the strobe
lights to confuse the teachers. She
shouts in the microphone “Run”.
(Long Montage, the teachers kill as many students as they
can but most get away. Police cars drive
to the school with guns, a few teachers run to the control room to kill Olive,
Officers with guns storm the school, a teacher sees Olive, an officer fires a
gun. A poster of the play fades in and
IT ALL ENDS.
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Entertainment is the UK’s leading independent distributor. The company was founded in 1978 and has showed continuing growth and success since that time distributing a wide range of product and building a significant film library. Highlights for the company have been the release of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, one of the most thrilling epic adventures in motion picture history, which at its culmination garnered a fantastic seventeen Academy Awards®. In fact, since the millennium the company’s releases have totaled a remarkable thirty-eight Oscar wins and twenty-two BAFTAs ,encompassing a diverse range of genres ,including Traffic, Gosford Park, Million Dollar Baby, Brokeback Mountain, and The Departed, which earned Martin Scorsese his first Oscar for Achievement in Direction, and The Reader, which won Kate Winslet an Academy Award® and a BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. 
