Evaluation Activity 7

Evaluation Activity 6

Evaluation Activity 5

Evaluation Activity 4

Name: Elle Baker
Age : 17
From: Sheffield

Likes:
Music - Feeder, Chase and Status, Professor Green, Example.
Films - Twilight, Jennifers body, Saw franchise, Inception,
Tv Programmes - Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Walking Dead, Gossip Girl
Social Networks - Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr
Celebrities - Kat Von D, Paul Walker, Johnny Depp

Dislikes:
Music- NDubs, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, JLS
Films- Hannah Montana Movie, Bee Movie, Love Happens
Tv Programmes - Hollyoaks, Only Way is Essex
Social Networks - Myspace, Bebo
Celebrities - Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Kerry Katona

Bio: Currently in her second year of her local sixth form studying media studies, film studies, and fine art. Her hobbies include creating her own clothes and drawing. She mostly spends her weekends out with friends but also enjoys a quiet night in with her boyfriend eating junk food and watching films. Elle also enjoys making regular trips to the cinema to see the latest films out. She says she enjoys all genre of films but Thriller and Comedy are her favourite. Her least favourite genre is romantic comedy. Between her school studies, she manages to fit in a part time job in her local Topshop, which she enjoys as she is keen on fashion. She could be described as your stereotypical teenage girl who would enjoy our thriller.

Name: Ryan Carver

Age: 18
From: London

Likes:

Music - Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Feeder, Foo Fighters, The XX, Arcade Fire

Films - Fast and Furious, Wanted, Underworld , Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Godfather, Scarface, Shrek

Tv Programmes - Skins, 24, CSI New York, Boardwalk Empire, Burn Notice, Top Gear, Mock the Week

Social Networks - Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook

Celebrities -Keira Knightly, Alex Turner, Ami James

Dislikes:

Music- Snoop Dogg, Jessie J, JLS, The Wanted, The Saturdays

Films - Gremlins, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans, Alien vs Predator

TV Programmes - Loose Women, 60 Minute Makeover, Coronation Street, Antiques Roadshow

Social Networks - Bebo, Myspace

Celebrities - Cheryl Cole, Nicole Scherzinger, Justin Bieber

Bio: Ryan is currently studying film, media and law at Eton College. His hobbies include rugby, basketball and creating his own short films. When he is not boarding at Eton College, he spends his days working in Abercrombie & Fitch as a shop assistant. Between his hectic school schedule and work he still finds the time to volunteer at a local youth group where he works with the children teaching them how to use camera equipment. He tells us his favourite way to spend an evening, is at the Imax with friends seeing the local blockbusters. He mainly opts for a genre such as thriller as he thinks it is more gripping than a comedy and you can become more involved in the film.

Evaluation Activity 3

Evaluation Activity 2

The main influence for the look of our antagonist was Kayako from the Grudge. We incorporated the dark eye make up to hint to the audience that our character is possessed, reflecting the character of Kayako. Our antagonist and Kayako are also similar in the roles they play in both films. They are both the danger to all other characters, they are both violent and known to kill. The use of the prop of blood on both these characters shows this. Dissimilarly, Kayako is viewed as an antagonistic throughout the film whereas our character is seen to have a split personality. Both characters are seen in white costumes, a colour which hints innocence, contrasting with their dark characteristics.

Another film which inspired our choice of antagonistic character was Primal Fear. We wanted to portray our antagonist as suffering from multiple personality disorder like Aron Stampler does in Primal Fear. Similarly, the cause of the disorder in both characters has come from horrific incidents in their childhood inflicted by their parents. Another aspect that makes these two characters similar is that both of them have a innocent personality and stereotype connected to them, In Primal Fear, Aron Stampler is an Altar boy, a character which would stereotype innocence. We used this in our own thriller but instead making our character a waitress. A mediocre job which people can relate to and do not see as threatening. The difference between these two characters would be that it is discovered in Primal Fear Aron Stampler is pretending to be insane whereas our antagonist is not pretending. It is interesting to see similar characters portrayed by both a male and female. The fact the male antagonist turns out to be truly evil and the female antagonist turns out to be insane, yet innocent in her normal state is stereotypical. Due to the fact males are seen as more violent and deceiving than women.

Evaluation Activity 1

The Title of the Film

Like most films, we went straight into the action of the opening and left the title until towards the end. This was to create tension and suspense for the audience which generates interest, so they have something to watch as soon as they get into the cinema screen.

Setting/Location

When we thought about location we didn't want to use a forest setting which is typical of student thriller films. There aren't many thrillers set on the beach so we have challenged the setting conventions of the genre in that sense. We thought a bit of variation on setting would be a refreshing twist in the story and enabled us to capture some really effective shots like in the above `screen capture.

Costumes and Props

Our main character's costume was just an ordinary white blouse and black skirt with black tights, regulation uniform for many waitresses in various restaurants. This used the conventions of the thriller genre as the antagonist in many thriller films appears to be just an ordinary person at first.

We didn't use any props at all in our opening, as we were trying to develop the conventions of the genre to a certain extent. 99% of thriller films will contain guns and weapons but we wanted to create a mystery about how Jenny's character inflicted the horrible wound on her victim,  making it more frightening in a way as people are generally scared of the unknown.

Camerawork and Editing 

When we were editing the thriller we wanted to allow the audience to differentiate between timing of the main character in the bath and the flashbacks she is having. We did this by subtly editing the effect on the shots in post-production. We used a posterised effect for the bath shots and then played around with the lighting and colour correction tools on Pinnacle for the flashbacks. This creates a sense of timing without being too harsh (e.g. shooting flashbacks in black and white - we wanted to show the red blood and eyes etc).

We used a head shot for the bath shots because the effect of Jenny's hair in the water was very effective and it showed her surroundings and where she was. Our original idea was to have Jenny put her head under the water and then open her eyes but this proved difficult so we abandoned that idea. In hindsight it would have worked really well if we had used an extreme close up of Jenny's eyes opening and would be something we'll think about when filming for future projects.

Title Font and Style

We used different fonts for the opening credits and the title of the film. This is because when we watched films when doing research for this project we noticed that they are always different. This is to add to the impact and drama of seeing the title for the first time. Instead of keeping the font the same we added a few similarities to tie the two together so they didn't look mismatched. We kept the colours the same (simple black) and faded the edges around the lettering (this looked more professional than blunt edges).

We also continued to use the same font for the film title as when we created the teaser poster which is a stencil type font. Stencilled lettering has connotations with prison and crime which suits the genre of the film.

Story and How The Opening Sets It Up

The main aim of our opening was to introduce the main character - played by Jenny.

Rachel Hunter is a seemingly ordinary girl working as a waitress who was left by her mother at a young age. Through time the stress and heartbreak of the rejection wore her down and caused her to invent a new personality - a serial killer.
Our opening successfully introduces Rachel to the audience whilst still retaining an air of mystery and not giving much away - a common trait in thrillers. Nothing is explained, not even her clothes (although people may guess her occupation from her costume), creating an enigma which would hopefully have the audience glued to their seats and wanting to watch on.

Genre and How The Opening Suggests It

We used fake blood all the way through our opening scene and edited the colours in post-production to make it look more realistic. The screen shot above is of Emily's 'severed arm' and bloody hand. Blood and gore is a common theme in thriller/horrors and we used the conventions of thrillers in this aspect of genre. Although we wanted to be different we had to conform to some of the conventions so the audience knows what it is they are watching.

How Characters Are Introduced

In a way Jenny's character is introduced twice, once as the sane Rachel Hunter in the bath and once as her psycho personality (pictured). This order follows the conventions of most thrillers, as you will almost always be introduced to the victim first, then the villain (e.g. Scream). Rachel is in a way her own victim, as she doesn't realise she's doing these things, she just sees them as elaborate nightmares. When the audience is introduced to the antagonistic personality, they don't see her whole body at first, only her legs. This is also a typical trait of a thriller: to keep the people guessing for a few seconds longer. Another film which follows the same patterns as ours is Scream. The audience is introduced to Drew Barrymore's victim character at first and then to the villain, but you don't see who it is as he is speaking to her on the phone.

We are introduced to Emily's unknown character with this shot. The makeup is effective, and the fact that the shot is a close up of just her arm will create an enigma in the minds of the audience members. "Who is this person? Why did they die? How?"

This way of introducing a character goes against thriller conventions as mostly you are introduced to the victim when they are alive and then you witness their death.

The Final BBFC Rating.

Due to the contents of our film, we have decided on a british broadcasting film certificate rating of 15. We have opted for this rating as there are hints at violence within our opening and if we were to continue creating the film it would include footage of a violent nature. We also decided on this rating as the plot can be seen at pychologically thrilling which could be viewed at inappropriate to anyone under the age of 15. We did not want to go above this rating as it would limit our target audience as our main audience are those between the ages of 15 and 18. 

Choice of Music

To get the right effect and atmosphere for our thriller, it was important to select the correct music. We wanted to create a tense, yet eery feeling. When looking for music to use, we had to ensure it was copyright free, in order to do this, we used freeplaymusic.com.
As our thriller focuses around water, we wanted to carry this theme over into the music. We found a couple of tracks that gave the effect of water dropping but this did not fit in with the waves on the beach. In the end we opted for a distorted, "tinkling" type effect sound to play in the slower parts of the opening.
When the images start to rewind, the music was too slow to fit with the images so we decided we would need to find another track to play here. This time we opted for a more fast paced track but kept to the distorted effect so that the sound would flow correctly. To add emphasis to certain parts within the thriller, we added sound stings. Once example of this is the loud sting at the end of our opening where our antagonist opens her eyes in the water, adding to the atmosphere and possible startling the audience.

Diary of a day shooting

For our thriller we wanted to film at a beach in a secluded area so when we decided on Suffolk we had to pick a day we were all free so that Emily's mum could take us. As our location was quite far away it meant we had to get a lot of filming done so that we didn't have to re shoot.
Day one
Our first day of shooting took place on the beach in Aldeburgh, Suffolk on Tuesday morning, we decided to wake up early so that the lighting outside wouldn't be too bright. We woke up at 5:30 and prepared to film, this included doing the make-up on Jenny's face and Emily's arm.
When this was finished we walked down to the beach with Jenny in her costume and some warm cover ups for Jenny for after she went in the sea.
When we got to the beach it was 6:00 so the lighting was quite dusky like we wanted, but we needed to be quick as the sun was coming up very quickly. Our first shots were of Jenny's character walking down the beach and then of her in the water, then of her walking back up the beach.One problem that we had when filming was that we didnt have a tripod so we had to keep our hand very steady when filming. We carried on filming anyway as we knew we had to get it done on that day. We did the shots of the arm and then finished filming by 7:00. We ended up with about 20 minutes of footage which we are pleased with as we have a lot of shots to choose from when editing.
Day two
Our second day of shooting took place at Emily's house, for this we needed to put the contacts on Jennys eyes but we decided that we werent going to have the same make-up as before as she is in the bath. When we were filming we took it in turns too stand over Jenny to film. This went quite well however Jenny had trouble opening her eyes underwater like we planned so instead we decided we would just have her hair underwater so that the shot would look effective.