Our Draft Storyboard.

Shot Sizes

There are 8 main shot sizes you can use when filming. These are explained a bit more below.

Problems and Solutions: During our Planning Process.

During our preparation and research for our thriller opening we have came up with multiple ideas which we have had to develop or completely change due to problems that have occurred; 

Problem One: 

 Our original idea was based upon a mental patient with OCD, when planning our opening scene we came up with the idea of filming in a hotel room and have multiple props which signify mental illness and OCD; bottles of pills and ordered books. Although we realised this wasn't practical as hotel rooms are too clean and making it dirty ourselves would be risky. 

 Solution: 

 In order to over come this we decided to scrap the hotel theme and try to come up with another suitable set for our filming. In the end we agreed on changing our idea completely and focussing on a Schizophrenia patient. 

 Problem Two; 

In addition we planned to include fireworks in our production and due to firework night being scheduled in half term, our group arranged a meeting in order to get footage for our opening. Although we did not know that Cameras could not be taking out during half term due to upcoming exams. 

 Solution; 

As we could not include fireworks in our opening as we originally planned, we carried out more research and analysed more Thriller openings till we came up with our current idea.

Problem Three:

In our original idea we wanted to include a smashed window to symbolise someone had escaped, when planning where to record we realised it was a practical idea as none of us would be able to break our windows or knew of any building which would match the other footage.

Solution:

To eliminate the problem we decided not to use a broken window.

Cutting Edge Documentary

We watched a documenarty and I made a few notes of what I found within the vdeo.

It discussed slow pace build up and slow motion. It goes on to mention that in a chase scene there is almost always peaks and valleys which are moments of intensity. Peaks stimulate excitement and Valleys are at normal intensity. 

There is a lot of juxtaposition within chase scene. Juxtaposition is the act of placing two different ideas, images, objects or characters side by side or in similar positions for effect. By placing the two opposing things together, their differences are even more prominent.

Cutting Suspense

Between characters- parallel action
music
never any long shots always close ups(to see emotion)/medium close ups(see emotion aswell as body language) in thrillers
Lighting shown- key light, back light and there tends to be no more than 2 lights in scene in thrillers.

Scream

The scream in one of the thrillers in is a medium close up
they cut from her to the scream mask then cut back to her again
music creates hype and tension
When she saw the car it was a valley(because you think she is going to get away) and then the Peak is where she gets stabbed(stimulate excitement)

Silence of the lambs 1991

Breathing- non-diegetic
point of view show- you are the camera(we will try to include this in our opening sequence as it's a good way to involve the viewers thinking that they are there)
following her movements
The valley in these thriller is the build up
The peak is when we see the gun- close up shot
Night vision- binoculars- green, your point of view again. He could see her but she couldn't see him which is sensory deprivation.

Our questionnaire feedback

We asked 10 females and 10 males to answer our questionnarie and here are the results.


Question 1. Are you male or female?

10 people were female

10 people were male


Question 2. What do you come under in these age spans?

3 people were between 10-15

10 people were between 16-20

1 person was between 21-25

6 people were between 26+



Question 3. Do you enjoy thriller films?

13 people said yes

7 people said no


Question 4. How often do you go to the cinema?

1 person goes once a week

10 people go once a month

9 people said between 5-10 times a year


Question 5. What attracts you to thrillers?

2 people said music

11 people said tension

5 people said actors/actresses

1 person said the plot


Question 6. How often do you watch thriller films?

10 people said rarely

0 people said I don't watch them

5 people said often

5 people said frequently


Question 7. How do you feel after you've watched a thriller?

8 people feel fine

6 people feel scared

6 people said excited



Question 8. Do you buy thriller dvds?
11 people said rarely

5 people said often

2  people said frequently

2 people  said never


Question 9. Do you prefer thrillers in 3D?

5 people said yes

15 people said no

I0 people said they don't watch thrillers


Question 10. What is your favourite thriller?

10 people mentioned a film of some kind from Paranormal activity

5 people mentioned a film of some kind from Saw

Other answers included, Seven, House at the end of the street and final destination

Target Audience Questionnaires

Here are a list of 10 questions that as a group we came up with that we could ask a varity of people to gain some knowledge of what people think about thriller movies.


1.Are you male or female?



2. Where do you come under these age spans?

10-15

16-20

21-25

26+

3. Do you enjoy thriller films?

yes

no


4. What attracts you to thrillers?

music

tension

actors/actresses

other.. please specify


5. How often do you go to the cinema?

once a week

once a month

other..(please specify)



6. How often do you watch thriller films?

rarely

I don't watch them

often

frequently


7. How do you feel after you've watched a thriller?

fine

scared

excited

other.. please specify.......


8. Do you buy thrillers on DVD?

rarely

often

frequently

never



9. Do you prefer thrillers in 3D?

yes

no

I don't watch thrillers


10. What is your favourite thriller film?

Our Target Audience

The target audience for our film primarily would be C2, D, and E of the socio-economic group: skilled working class, working class and those at the lowest level of substance. Although it may be consumed by C1, lower middle class as although it isn't hugely horrifying and gory, it is quite hard to follow and to get your head round, you really have to watch the film to be able to make sense of it, it does take some clever analysing and can be interpreted in many different ways.

Our secondary would be 27-40 year olds, this wouldn't be primary as I feel it has quite a modern feel and it isn't really something that an older generation would be familiar with, for example the technology in it, yet it does makes use of some older things too, when the flashbacks are used. creating some sort of nostalgia.

Lastly, our tertiary audience would be 16+ it would be no lower than 16 due to its content but some mature sixteen year olds may understand the film and will relate with it very well.

Our target audience for this opening sequence would primarily be individuals with disposable income, we chose this as these individual generally spend more money as it is not their own and therefore we have more chance of making a profit.

Age wise we decied to choose from 15 to 18 as some of the contents may not make sense and also as some of it is at a fast pace it may confuse the younger generations. Our sequence could also be viewed by adults to encourage all ages to watch our opening sequence.

Role of the team

We all decided on what each of us were going to do to make our opening sequence successful.

Liam will mainly be doing the editing, and creating a story board in order for the other members of the group to post on their blogs. Sam will be doing the filming and Chenell. I will be doing the researching and planning. Although we have these specific roles we decided that we would try doing a bit of each in order to give everyone more experience.