Questionnaire Results & Feedback

We put this question on to see what type of audience we would attract. Half of the people who did the questionnaire where 10-19 so we will make our audience our age group (16-18 yrs old).

Most of the people who did the questionnaire were students so we will aim to make the film attract a younger audience.

We asked this question to find out if our audience like books and what kind. In our results we found that 6/10 people read books regularly and that they like all sorts of books. One person wrote that they like James Patterson books as they have action/suspense in so we will try and include that.

We asked this question as we wanted to know if they were watching films regularly and keeping up to date with whats new. Most of the people did watch a lot of films so they knew about any new thriller films that were coming out.

This question made it clear on what genre people watch. Although not a lot said thriller, they did put other genres that fit down e.g. action films.

Only 1 person said they didn't like thrillers. Most people said they enjoy thriller films which is good as it means they will enjoy ours. 

This was a very good question to ask as this determined what out thriller would be. As most people said that psychological thriller was their favourite we decided to make ours a psychological/conspiracy thriller. 

This was the most vital question as we wanted to know what people enjoy in thrillers. Most people said a good plot and one that is tension building so we will focus on that when planning our thriller.

By asking what they expect we can use this to make ours more appealing to an audience. The majority said they wanted to have tension/suspense while others said that they wanted to ask a lot of questions.

We asked this question to see whether different styles of music effect people. Most people said that dramatic and tense music was best. Some people who put other though said that classical music would also work well. We will try and include both.





We are going to use the results for our thriller by researching what the audience want. We will also base out thriller sub-genre around what people want.

Titles

Editing

We have edited most of the footage and have just got to put in our titles. We still need to found some music and we were maybe thinking of doing a monologue over the top to show what's happening so it doesn't confuse our audience too much. We have all had a look at some music and will hopefully find some that will fit.

Re-filming

We re-filmed on Sunday (8th of December) and it went much better than last time. We ended up getting more footage and more variation of shots. We also did a lot of landscape shots which we felt set the scene a bit more. We did use some of the old footage for some of it and we couldn't replicate the creepy board. We did unfortunately have a little set back but as we had the whole day to film we went back and corrected it. I like how the footage we have used has had a pretty good outcome and how the whole opening is coming together.

Shot List (re-done)

This is our new shot list. We have made it more detailed and added in more varied shots.We didnt use them all when it came to filming but we used most.

1. Long shot/ Establishing shots of landscapes
2. Long shot of girl walking
3. Over the shoulder shot of the phone
4. Close up of the letters on the phone and her typing
5. Long shot of girl walking (continuous)
6. Girl stops (long shot)
7. Long shot of boy running away
8. Shot of girl (from the front)
9. Close up of her face
10. Long shot of her walking around the shack
11. Close up of the clothes
12. Long shot of her walking around the shack
13. Close up of her face
14. Shot reverse shot of her walking
15. Shots of the shack
16. Girl walking around and entering the shack
17. Girl looking in the shack (long shot)
18. Close up of rubbel in the shack
19. Girl walking upto the board (mid shot)
20. Close up of the board (moving shot)
21. Close up of her face (reaction shot)
22. Girl looking over at the dead body (long shot)
23. Close up of the hand
24. Mid shot of her face
25. Long shot of her moving around the body
26. Close up of her face
27. Mid shot with eyes
28. Long shot of her reaction
29. Long shot of her running away
30. Long shot of lonely landscape

Re-filming on Sunday

We filmed our thriller opening on the 28^th of November. On the Friday when we uploaded our footage on the mac we realised that we had missed a lot out and that we didn’t have enough footage to make up 2 mins for our opening. We are now going to re-film on Sunday (8^th of December) and do it all again plus get the shots that we were missing and try and get more footage. We are going to use a different person to play in it (Aimee)  so that Libby can do some filming as well. We are also going to improve:

• Establishing shots of the scenery and place we are filming
• Set the scene a bit more
• Get more variation of shots
• More reaction shots of Aimee

• Get the creepy display board and improve it
• Use make-up to make the hand look more lifeless
• Get more effective close-ups
• Shot reverse shot
• Do titles at the beginning
• Spend longer looking at the clothes

 

 

Storyboard

We have tested out the storyboard on our audience and they think its very good. They think that we could maybe exclude the phone but as it could be too complicated and might not work, so what we'll do is we will take a few shots and decide whether or not to include it. We won't change the storyboard as we feel that its detailed enough and when it comes to editing if we get enough footage we can easily change it.

Opening Titles

Detectives

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/detectives/

Detectives is a television show that aired on the channel France 2 in spring 2013. You follow a small investigation through Paris using Google Street-view. At first you don't get it as it goes so quickly but in the end you work out the clues almost as though you are the detective. I like these opening titles as they make you look around and are interactive. 

They use a 360 view camera so make it like you're walking there. The red arrows stand out from the dull background colours and you also get to see a lot of Paris. The music is effective as well as its in time with how we (the audience move through the city).

Da Vinci's Demons

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/da-vincis-demons/

The opening of Da Vinci's Demons is very effective. The subtle colour palette and use of geometry makes it like a puzzle that you're trying to figure out. Like the 'Detective' one, Da Vinci's Demons opening sequence is like a puzzle itself. The music contrasts the whole feeling of the film as its very up-beat and dissimilar to Da Vinci and his drawings.

Films similiar to Our Idea

'The Lovely Bones'

'The Lovely Bones' is a thriller about a girl that gets raped and murdered after taking a short cut home and meeting her creepy neighbour. We see her story unravel as she watches on as a ghost. This film is very effective at giving suspense and is a mixture of thriller genres. Our thriller is similar to 'The Lovely Bones' as we have a murder in it and it involves a young girl. Ours is more of an action thriller though as our is about a girl looking on at the murder alive rather than dead and is also being targeted.

Shot List

 

 

 

Planning

Actors:
For our Thriller opening we are going to use Hope as a hidden identity. Her role is to show that someone has done this to the dead body. Libby will play the girl that's going into the shack and that gets locked in. We will either get me or Becky to play the dead body in the shack to show that someones been here and a girl has been murdered.

Lighting:
We will just use natural day-light for the whole opening as we are filming during the day. In the shack we might use torches or a lamp to add a bit of lighting to show the display and to make it eery. This fits to the thriller theme as its dark and will build tension.

Music and Dialogue:
There will be no dialogue throughout the opening and we will use tense-slow music to build suspense and tension in the opening. This fits thriller conventions as it makes the audience tense and is good for building suspense which is what you want in an opening.

 

Props:

We are using discarded clothes on the floor of the woods because that is how the girl finds the shack as she follows them. These will covered in mud and blood so that its more enticing for the girl to see.

 
 

We are using a hand for the shack because part of our idea is for the girl to find a shack and see a hand on the floor. This hand may be severed or it may be attached to a dead body. This will depend on what looks better on the camera. We will use make-up to make it look more dead looking. We will probably take inspiration from Se7en.

 

 

We are using a shack-like building as that is where the story starts. We might change the shack into an abandoned building like a barn because of the convenience of the location but it will still be the main building in the opening. As it will be isolated this will make the girl lonely which fits thriller conventions.

 

We are using a footprint in the mud because that is another element that makes the girl go to the shack as well as the clothes. She does this as she is confused and wonders what it leads to.

We are using a mobile phone because after the girl gets locked in the shack she pulls out her phone to see if she has a signal. The phone will help create suspense as the signal bar will go down.

 



Location:

We have had many ideas for our film such as, Internet dating gone wrong, mental asylum/museum and then the idea that we decided to go with ‘the abandoned shed with a hand,the reason why we decided to go with this idea was it is a very unique idea that we can adapt with ease if needed, this was not the idea we originally wanted to go with, our first idea was the Internet dating gone wrong, the reason why we decided not to go with that idea was because the Internet stalker idea sounded a bit cliché and we wanted to try something different e.g. the shed in the woods idea.

 

• Some of the negative sounds of that would be the lighting may not be on our side as it could be too dark and we would not see anything that we had filmed.

•       There could be some very bright patches of sunlight that come through the trees that may make some of our shots barely visible.

•       We had a look at different wooded areas around Bourne and Thurlby and we couldn’t find any old sheds that we could use but we couldn’t find anything that we could uses that fits the thriller genre.

•       We then had a look on Google maps to see if we could find any old farms with sheds and or barns in abandoned areas.

•       We found one on south fen road which if located just off the back of cherry holt road (behind the big Tesco’s).

•       We still need to ask about using the barn but it may cause some difficulties as there is no one around the area and also no houses so we wouldn’t know who to ask about the use of this location.

Costumes:

In our group we have discussed what costumes would work accordingly to our thriller opening. We decided to go with casual wear- perhaps a black hoody and jeans for our mysterious hooded figure, and an innocent white dress for our victim. By choosing these outfits we are setting the scene for the unknowing audience. This makes the girl look very pure and innocent and the 'killer' more sinister. This fits thriller themes as it is a contrast so you can see the difference.

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Our Idea

Our idea is for a girl to be walking through the woods and then see footprints and items of clothing which lead her to a shack. Once she is in the shack she sees a hand fall and loads of pictures of her and her friends with like maps and pieces of string joining things together she then tries to leave but its locked. She then gets her phone out and sees there is no signal so she locked in and no-one knows.

This will be effective because it will make the audience question whats going on and how its happened. It will keep to the thriller genre because its got suspense and will keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Its also quite realistic so the audience will think this could happen to them.
 

Our Pitch

Questionnaire

Audience

Audience

‘How do people make sense of and give meaning to cultural products?’

Targeting an audience

Movie companies aim different films and artists at different target audiences. They do research to help them find out what people want to see and how to market their films and other promotional material.

How?

·         Surveys

·         Polls

·         Focus groups

·         Questionnaires

·         Blogs

·         Social networking tools

They also just talk to people. Researchers may set up test screenings to gauge audience reaction to a film - you can’t exactly do this nut you can gauge ideas, get initial reactions and show your plans to people and see what they think.

The audience bring many things with them rather than just age:

·         Upbringing

·         Lifestyle

·         Culture

·         Attitudes

·         Education

·         Emotions

·         Knowledge

·         Expectations

Use of mise-en-scene in Thriller movies

Lighting and Titles



The lighting in a thriller tends to be low key lighting to create suspense and atmosphere. It alos creates fear and tension. In some cases though it tends to be bright (e.g. the Psycho shower scene). Black and white lighting is used as well to make shadows and makes them more intense.

The titles can be used in effective ways as well by using colours to match the film/emotions. For example dark colours and grey could show confusion or uncertainty. While black and white titles could portray that this film is something to do with police or a Noir Thriller.

 

 

Costume and Make-Up

The costume and make-up tend to be very realistic and natural as how we present the characters is how the audience will perceive them. Also natural make-up etc will make the audience think that this is more believable unlike Horror films. Make-up can be used to display emotions e.g. smudged eye make up to show a woman has been crying. Costume can be used to show a profession of someone. For example long coats and hats may make the audience think they are an investigator or something to do with the police.