Link to Evaluation

http://prezi.com/l7jxwhy8cqpz/obsessed-evaluation-recent/

Final Cut

I have used Finalcut before whilst doing other tasks including preliminary task, but not very much so this made me a lot more confident using it.

My Final Film- Obsessed

Live Type

We used Live Type to create the text which says '9 months later', 'Obsessed' and the credits. We put them all in red because the colour automatically creates suspense and tension which we need to show for the thriller genre. The font we used was 'cracked' and put effects over the top to add to the tension and make it more interesting for the audience to watch.

Garage Band

I hadn’t used Garageband before, and we didn’t add any non diagetic sound into our preliminary task, but it was very straight forward to get used to, and gradually we learned which sounds worked together and which sound effects would be suitable. Also from watching existing thriller films I got an idea of what type of music is used to build suspension and tension for the audience. When we first started using garage band we put together a repetitive sequence of sounds, but this got boring so we adapted it to add in more sounds and varied the order. We decided we wanted to include violins so found a base sound and a tune sound which we put together and repeated throughout the time of the filming sequence. We added the over the top sound effects we wanted as we deleted all of the recorded sound from filming.  Putting the file into Finalcut was trickier because I had to make sure the track synced with the footage, and the only way we could do this was to play both programs at the same time to make sure the timings from cutting from scene to scene worked, cutting sections once it was imported into Finalcut. Here we learned how to do a Sound Bridge as drawing the text which said ‘9 months later’ a sound effect of a phone ringing went off which lead into the zoom in on the phone ringing.

Script

- Tara runs throught the woods- (In slow motion)- Tracking shot.

- Camera on the floor in a slanted position, following Taras feet (slow motion)

-Tara runs to a dead end- Long shot.

- Close up of Amies hand on Tara's shoulder, with Tara turning to look right into the camera.

-'9 Months Earlier' text appears on screen- text in Red and black background.

-Zoom in/Out shot of 'unknown' caller on the phone.

-Over the shoulder shot of Amie hiding behind a piller whilst taking photos of Tara,Steph and Jess walking.

-Close up of Amie holding the camera to her face, She takes a photo. - Extreme close up of the Flash, the flash goes off and the screen turns white.

-Amie in her room looking through old photos of when they all used to be friends. Lay them out on the floor

- pick one up, zoom into her holding a photo of her and Tara, picks up another of Tara, Steph and jess, and scribbles Tara’s head out and rips it up.

- Writes a sign saying ‘what goes around comes around’

- sitting on facebook; sends a text to Tara saying ‘do you want to come around mine tonight?’ Then a close up of Amie scrolling down Tara’s facebook page – photos she’s just been looking at.

- looks at ‘past friendship’

- Gets a reply from Tara saying ‘Just leave me alone, I want nothing more to do with you

- Throws phone down

- Zoom into phone

- Extreme close up of Amie’s eyes closed; then open.

Certificate for our Film

The certificate which I would give our film would be a fifteen. I think this because as it is a psychological thriller, there is no actual violence within the film. However there is use of threatening behaviour which is also portrayed in a menacing fashion. Although this type of behaviour suggests violence and injury, there is no actual violence displayed within the film. Overall, I think that our film would fall under the classification certificate of a fifteen.

History of the Thriller Genre

Thriller is a genre which is used in literature, film and television to create suspense, excitement and tension. The most common use of this subgenre to thriller are mystery, crime and psychological thrillers, however there are also many other subgenres. Thriller is also very closely coincided with the horror genre, To which both use suspense and atmosphere to cause feelings of dread in their audiences. The genre of thriller film developed from well known novels. Then later these novels were studied and adapted and later reproduced into a thriller film.

A film is portrayed as a thriller when the storyline gives the audience thrills, and keeps them on the ’edge of their seats’ as the plot builds up towards the climax. The tension is usually built up by a character being placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap which seems impossible to escape. There is also use of life threatened during a thriller film, as the main character is usually unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in an extremely dangerous situation.

The common plots in crime thrillers are ransoms, revenge and kidnappings, which are elaborated on for the effect on the audience. In mystery thrillers, the common methods are investigations and the ‘whodunit’ technique. This is technique when there is a complex plot of a detective story where the audience is provided with clues of the identity of the criminal. The elements which are usually shown in a psychological thriller are mind games, stalking, death traps, obsession. These elements are generally combined to a certain extent, where it creates a complex plot which creates thrills the audience.

The atmosphere in a thriller film is also enhanced through the lighting and use of music. An example of this is from the opening of the film ‘Alien’ by Ridley Scott in 1979. In the opening of this film, the lighting is minimal and dull, this creates the atmosphere of suspense and mystery which links into the thriller genre.

One of the most well known and popular thriller films is ‘Psycho’ which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was produced during 1960. This film is a psychological thriller based on the American 1960‘s time period. The film was adapted from the1959 novel which was written by Robert Bloch also called ‘psycho‘. Both the film and novel are based on the cases on convicted serial killer Ed Gein, this therefore allowed the directors of the film to associate the film with other genres such as horror, drama and mystery, as well as the thriller.

Overall, the genre of thriller is used in various ways to create an atmosphere which excites, thrills and entices the audience to carry on watching a film. This is done in several ways, such as through the use of lighting, mise-en-scene and also with the added use of non digetic and digetic music. The thriller genre was a popular genre during the past fifty years and is still increasingly popular within the industry today.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

We filmed 3 of us walking up to and opening a door, and one of us filmed, where we used panning, and zooming into the door handle. Then crossing a room and sitting down around a table. We had a short conversation where we used shot/reverse shot, two shot and over the shoulder shot, always keeping to the 180 degree rule. Afterwards we filmed one of us walking out of the room where we used zoom in/zoom out. We captured the footage using the macs, the uploaded it to final cut where we cut and edited the sequence so that it fit together, making sure the dialogue fit the actions and therefore good match on match action. Then added text which scrolled upwards.

Preliminary Task

Storyboard

Lighting

• Low Key lighting usually gives a very dark and dingy effect whivh exagerates the textures and shadows and gives a sense of mood to the shot. It can be used to create tension because it implies to the audience that the character is hiding something from them that they dont want them to know. Also implies that anything could happen, and creates tension because of the fear of the unknown of whats in the darkness. The shadows also can imply someone following the character, or you could only film the shadows so the audience can see the shadows movements, but not theyre faces, so keeps their identity a secret.
• High Key Lighting is usually very light and free from shadows, which allows the audience to see everything in the shot, but is a bit too unatural which can put the audience on edge because usually implies the area is very clean and unpersonalised which can also be used to hid evidence or a character's identity.
• We thought of using green lighting or put a green filter through a shot in editing because green is the colour of jealousy which is a key aspect of our film, and we want to get across the jealousy of Amie towards Tara.

Location Report

We decided to film in a wood near to where we live because a wood is often used in thrillers because it appears very mysterious due to the trees which block out light making the lighting appear dingy, and the tranquil atmosphere builds suspense for the viewer as no one seems to be around so anything could happen without anyone finding out about it. The hill which Tara runs into shows she has reached a dead end, and so the audience will wonder what will happen to her once Amie has caught up with her.

The next location is at the front of college, which is a very ordinary scene of 3 girls walking out of college, but Tara is standing at the entrance behind a pillar taking photos which suddenly turns an ordinary scene into being quite creepy and unnerving, as you wonder why she wants the photos.

The scene in Amie’s room is very dark which also makes the audience what she is hiding and what they will find. The small space also gives a trapped feeling, as though they have got themselves into something which they can’t get themselves out of.

We won't need any permission to access these locations because they are either public or our own or college's property. We also wont need to include any extra actors as we only need the people who are in our group.

Answers to Audience Research

What types of thriller films interest you the most?

·        Murderous passions x1

·        Change of identity thriller x1

·        Psycho-traumatic thriller x3

·        Innocent on the run x1

What things do you not like to see when watching a thriller? Things which would make you dislike the film.

Gore; things that make me jump; blood x2; the powerpuff girls; far fetched things

What things do you like to see when watching a thriller? Things which would make you like the film.

Exciting scenes which interreges me x2; jumpy scenes

Do you prefer to be able to see the monster, or for its appearance to remain a mystery?

Mystery x3; see the monster; see the monster at the end x2; see parts of it

Do you prefer thrillers which are based on real events?

Yes x6

How often do you watch thriller films?

• 1-3 times a month x5
• 4-6 times a month x1

Costumes and props

• Casual clothes
• DSLR camera for flash and photos
• Photographs

Production Plan

Monday 7^th – Filming at Town Centre (scenes 1-4)

Tuesday 8^th – Filming at Town Centre (scenes 1-4)

                    Evening - Amie and Jess Filming at Amie’s house (scenes 7-12)

Thursday 10^th – Garage Band

Monday 14^th – Filming in Wellington (scenes 13-16)

Tuesday 15^th – Filming (scenes 17-19)

Thursday 17^th – Filming / Editing & Garage band

Monday 21^st – Editing & Garage band

Tuesday 22^nd – Editing & Garage band

Thursday 24^th – Editing & Garage band

Monday 28^th – Editing & Garage band

Tuesday 29^th – Editing & Garage band

Thursday 31^st – Editing & Garage band / Evaluation

Monday 4^th - Evaluation

Tuesday 5^th - Evaluation

Thursday 7^th - Evaluation

Audience research

What types of thriller films interest you the most?

·        Murderous passions

·        Political thriller

·        Change of identity thriller

·        Psycho-traumatic thriller

·        Moral confrontation

·        Innocent on the run

What things do you not like to see when watching a thriller? Things which would make you dislike the film.

 

What things do you like to see when watching a thriller? Things which would make you like the film.

Do you prefer to be able to see the monster, or for it's appearance to remain a mystery?

Do you prefer thrillers which are based on real events?

How often do you watch thriller films?

• 1-3 times a month
• 4-6 times a month
• 7+ times a month
• never

Synopsis and summary of ideas

Our film is going to be about a girl who stalks a group of 3 girls (but one in particular) using mainly the internet. In the opening we will show shots of someone flicking through Facebook and typing their name into Google, then her starting to follow them on days out. The theme is of teenage jealousy, and the stalker who is a girl in the same year at college and becomes obsessed in becoming her victim. Green is the colour of jealousy, so might put in some flashes of green light, or a green wash on a scene. Blackouts to a flash up of photos and rapid cuts for editing; and use a camera to take the photos and emphasising the sound of the shutter release, and shooting the flash into the camera making the screen go white. Starts with an aerial shot of someone’s feet, and camera slowly rises to show she’s chasing someone, so you just see the back of the victim until she starts to turn around but only until the audience can see the side of her face. Then flashback to how the stalking began on Facebook. We might use a prologue. We’ll use a cut from a picture or a video of one of the girls to the stalker wearing the same outfit. Also one of the girls loses her bracelet, the cut to the stalker wearing it. An outside park scene will be used at sunset in the town park possibly at the bandstand because most thrillers are mainly filmed at night, but well still need some daylight to be able to film without lighting and need it to look like a casual scene but have a suspenseful element to it; all filmed from the stalker’s point of view. Slow quiet music so it blends into the background and isn’t too obvious, but also builds tension. It should also come across quite innocent and dainty, as the stalking started off harmless until she started to follow the girls on days out and then follows the main girl. Slight sound of footsteps in the background could be faded in and out throughout, to show that it is still in a flashback. The last scene is a rapid cut of the stalker quickly opening her eyes as the stalker catches up with her victim, leaves it on a cliffhanger to make the audience wonder what she is opening her eyes to.

Answering questions on handout

1) What is the purpose of the opening to a film?

Draws the attention of the audience and introducing the plot to make interested in finding out how it is resolved. It sets the scene and often includes the opening credits, theme music, and introduction to the main characters.

2) What techniques can a director use to create suspense in a film?

Eerie music or sharp sound effects which make the audience expect the unexpected and extreme close up shots which only give a small insight to what the characters are doing implies secrecy and makes the audience intrigued to know what’s going to happen. Cliff-hangers and complex plots

3) How do you think a thriller film is defined?

Main elements are tension, suspense and excitement; and events in the film build up to a climax where the plot which has been building up throughout is revealed.

4) What films can you think of that would fit into the thriller genre?

Seven (David Fincher, 1995); Salt (Phillip Noyce, 2010); The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002); The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980); Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991); The Hills has Eyes (Alexandre Aja, 2006); Saw (James Wan, 2004); Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010); Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010); One hour Photo (Mark Romanek, 2002); The Mothman Prophecies (Mark Pellington, 2002); Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979); I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007)

5) The thriller film can be divided into sub-genres – what different types of thriller films do you think exist?

Murderous passions, political thrillers, change of identity thriller, psycho-traumatic thriller, moral confrontation, and innocent on the run.

6) What are the characteristics or conventions of a thriller film? (Consider narrative, characters, mise-en-scene, and stars)

Impacts the audience to feel suspense, tension and excitement; and intrigue the audience to wonder what will happen next and draw them into the action. The audience usually feel sympathy for the victims, and include famous and familiar landmarks or use every day objects or activities to make the audience relate to the story. Also often include law enforcement officers, spies, superheroes/supervillians or pilots; and then generally ordinary citizens drawn into the situation by accident.

7) What do you think is the audience pleasure of a thriller film?

to be entertained and to spend the film trying to figure out the plot, usually who commited the crime if its a detective thriller. To be able to relate to the characters personalities, but be intrigued by the fantasy world.

8) What do you think are the differences between a horror and a thriller film?

A horror film is created to unsettle viewers to install disgust, horror and fear; whereas a thriller installs suspense, tension and excitement. These genres can overlap and based on good vs. evil, but thrillers often have a plot which is resolved in the end whereas a horror usually ends with the characters dying.

9) Using the internet research the ‘top 50 thriller films’. Look at the top 20 – which ones have you watched? If it’s not that many, why do you think this is the case?

I have only seen one film out of the top 20 which is Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) , and this is probably because I don’t go to the cinema or watch films very often, but I have heard of most of them and even already know the plot of some.

Conventions of the thriller genre

Age and gender which the films aimed at

Our film will be aimed at girls between the ages of 15-25 because it is to do with jealousy which appeals more to females than males. Also the link to Facebook will attract this age group because the majority of this age group use Facebook or other social networking sites, so is likely to give the audience something to relate to. This film is likely to appeal to the same audience as that of Catfish (Henry Joost, 2010) because they are both about Facebook stalking, and also that of Meangirls (Mark Waters, 2004) because of the link to jealousy of teenage girls.

Cast

Amie = Stalker
Tara = Main girl to be stalked
Steph & Jess = Tara's friends
Steph = voiceover
All = music & camerawork

Equipment

The equipment i will need to produce my film:

• camcorder
• tripod
• Mac
• finalcut

Textual Analysis

The Mothman Prophecies (Mark Pellington, 2002) directed by Mark Pellington in 2002 is based on true events which automatically installs tension into the audience as they think it could possibly happen to them, although usually only small details of reality are taken, and then exaggerated and a story is made from it. The music was very echoic but interrupted by sharp sounds to imply to the audience that they should expect the unexpected. Exaggerating a characters breath is used in this clip which implies the character is panicking as you often breathe louder when you panic, even though breathing is very rhythmic and should sound calming, it tends to put you on edge. Cuts from blurry to in focus shots imply a confusing storyline, and draws our attention to specific details to help the audience follow what’s going on. The close up on the moth is quite unnerving for the audience because it is something which we would often see on a day to day basis, but still something which as humans we like. But it reflects that in the title, ‘mothman’ is used which we imagine in our heads to be a cross between a man and a moth, and the fact that the whole creature is never fully seen throughout the film installs tension as an image which can be seen on a screen is never as details or frightening to the audience as the image which they build in their head, and therefore builds tension. The fast cuts when the car crashes adds variety to the pace of the film, and gives the audience the feeling that they are actually there watching the car spinning. The establishing/aerial shot is also a Point of View shot of the Mothman which allows the audience to see the situation from the Mothman’s prospective, and is a way of showing his presence even though we never see him fully. The lighting is very dark throughout as the opening is set at night, and darkness instantly installs suspense as it’s harder to see what’s about to happen.

Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)  which was directed by Ridley Scott in 1979 used very eerie sounds combined with squeaky noises which sound quite a strange mix which implies it would be a very fictional film. There is no sign of life until the end of the opening sequence, and even then we don’t know who these people are and don’t hear them speak, so it’s completely non-diagetic sounds. There was no establishing shot at the beginning and goes straight into a close-up of the spaceship travelling through space (which could be anywhere in the universe and full ship is never shown); and then a close up of all the equipment, and everything is very plain and metal with nothing personalised which creates an unease for the audience as everything seems very secretive, and as though whoever or whatever is on the spaceship doesn’t want anyone to know anything about them.

In 2007, Francis Laurence directed I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007) which starts with a news read. This is of a woman who claims to have found the cure for cancer, then cuts to a heading saying ‘3 years later’; and an establishing shot of an empty New York. This shocks the audience as if someone in real life did find the cure to cancer then it would be seen as a miracle, but this obviously has actually had an extremely negative impact and has resulting in New York being completely abandoned which has been done by closing down sections of road whilst filming, and image editing. This makes the audience think about a lot of things about today’s society and the impact in which science has. The familiar setting of New York which we see so much of in films as being ‘the city which never sleeps’ is suddenly contradicted as it appears to be dead. The very famous aerial shot in this film is to show only one car travelling through the streets. An over the shoulder shot is also a Point of View shot of the driver who we see as the only person left in New York. This tells the audience that the story will be told by this character.

Poster Analysis

 Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010)

Seven (David Fincher, 1995)

The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002)

Target Audience

Thriller films are generally watched by students between the age of 16 and 25 as they tend to be classified as a ‘15’ or ‘18’ as they generally include violence so people under the age of 15 are not recommended to watch them anyway. The subgenre would have an effect, and it also depends on the individuals taste, but the twisty plots and suspense would probably appeal to a younger audience instead of a more laid back film.

Males generally tend to be more interested in thriller films than women, although a lot of the time there is no difference. This could be due to the characters in thrillers where the main characters tend to be males such as in Shutter Island where the only women in it were some of the patients, his wife and some nurses. All of the main characters and people in charge of the institution were male which could influence the men to want to have power and attract them towards watching the film. One exception is Salt which has the main character as a woman, although this role was originally written to be played by a man, it was swapped to a woman’s role when Angelina Jolie decided she wanted to play the role.

Film Classification

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) was established in 1912, and is a non-government organisation funded by the film industry which is responsible for the classification of films in the UK. They put age restrictions on films, DVD and video games so that children are not exposed to anything which could upset, disturb or have any negative impact on them.

A film which is classified a ‘15’ is not seen to be suitable for people under the age of 15 and therefore cannot buy or rent it. I can include drugs, but not to promote or encourage disuse. Life threatening behaviour such as suicide or self harm can be included but not in detail. Frequent strong language can be included, but stronger terms should relate to the context. Strong threat is acceptable in horrors as long as it isn’t sadistic or sexual. Nudity and sexual scenes are acceptable as long as they’re not shown in too much detail. They should not encourage discriminatory behaviour; and gore, strong violence and verbal abuse can be included as long as long as they are contextual.

An ‘18’ film cannot be brought or rented by anyone under the age of 18. The Human Rights Act 1998 means that as an adult you have the right to choose what you watch, although there are a few restrictions including the production of the film cannot have included any criminal acts or gone against any laws, or caused unnecessary harm to anyone. It cannot encourage audience to take part in criminal or immoral acts which would negatively impact or harm individuals or the society. Explicit sexual activity should relate to the context of the film.