Locations

These rooms are going to be the places where we film the killer seducing and killing her victim. we chose these rooms so that it would create a dark and sinister atmosphere which will complement our genre 'Horror Thriller'.

This first room is going to be the room where our man character will be sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. The lighting will be quite dark and we will be able to play around with lighting so that we can get a good effect in making it look like a Horror Thriller. The stairs also look quite sinister and will help us in getting a range of different shots.

                                             

This room is going to be the room covered in pictures to show the killers victims. This will also be quite dark but we may also have some red ligthing which will give the effect of her printing her pictures. 

I think these rooms will be quite good to use as they are quite empty therefore we could do whatever we wanted with them.

Our Characters

Male Character


For our male character we wanted it to look like he had just come back form a night out. Therefore in a suit but very scruffy. I think the way in which we want our man to look is very stereotypical of a strong working class man. However even though he is dressed this way, he is still going to look weak in the situation that he is in, which could suggest that we are trying to be different and show that woman are equal to men and don't always have to be the victims in Horror Thrillers.
This is what we want our male character to wear:

• Suit jacket, Shirt, tie, trousers, belt
• Handkerchief
• Wallet-ID-picture 

Female Character

With our female character being the villain we felt that she had to look like a very strong woman. However we have chosen someone who is blonde and skinny which would stereotypically usually be how the girl victims would look in a Horror film. However as we have swapped it round we thought it would be a good idea to keep that stereotype but make them look seductive so that she would be able to lure her victims home. We chose the colour red for the female as it is a very strong but dangerous colour. We felt we wanted her to look beautiful and pristine because of her having to seduce these men but also so that no one would expect her to murder anyone, which would add to the horror type feelings.

This is what we wanted our female character to wear: 

• Red dress
• Red nail varnish
• Red lipstick
• Black heels
• Pearls/Choker necklace/Dangly earrings

Prop List

For our film, we have thought of things in which we hope will make our film look like a Horror Thriller. We have thought of props which will help us in getting our idea and story across to the audience and making them feel a certain way. The props we came up with were:

• Lights/Lamps
• Shiny red transparent paper, to stick over the lamps to create a red light, which will create an ambiance of our photo-developing room.
• Polaroid Camera
• Weapon device - Knife / Knives.
• Bag/Towel for knife
• Chair
• Gaffa Tape
• String for the line of pictures
• Rope - to tie the man/ male character which is the victim.
• lipstick
• jewellery

We are hoping that having these props will set the scene for a Horror Thriller and create the right ambience and mood for our audience. 

Our Idea

Our idea for our thriller film is to do the sub genre of a 'Horror Thriller'. While talking through our plot we realised that it may be very hard to make sure the audience sees that it is a horror thriller in the first few minutes, as it may just look like a thriller film. Therefore we are going to have to have a think about how to get that horror across into our story line. We may be able to do this by getting a great piece of music which will help show the horror side to it. Other than this we made need to show the woman actually killing the man, however we were not going to do this in the first place because it is going to be a 15 rated film so we are not supposed to dwell on inflicting pain.We are going to have to think about how we can show that its a horror without going across the BBFC guidelines.

Our storyline is to have a woman being all seductive and killing men, she keeps pictures of all the men she has killed in a dark room. We wanted to be able to get across the idea of her printing her pictures, and then have the camera go through the picture of this man to change location to the man sitting in an empty white room where we see the woman killing this man after seducing him. To get all of this storyline into the first few minutes it may make it look too rushed therefore the idea of a dual intercutting was presented to us, where the woman can seduce the man and then intercut to her killing him and go back and forth between these two different times. This could help us get the Horror element across and would also help us in not trying to get too much into these first few minutes, as i feel the slower the scene is the more creepier it could look. 

Horror

As we decided on doing a horror thriller, i decided to look up the codes and conventions of a horror so that we can see what we need to include in ours and think of things that could make our horror thriller different to the usual horror films.

Camera Angles:
Extreme Close ups (emphasize the subject)
Tilt (to create disorientation)
Establishing shots (showing location, stereotypically isolated buildings e.g. mansions or forests)
Handheld (looks realistic, making it feel more believable)
Long Shots (help show the danger or what the lead character is surrounded by, usually isolated)
Tracking (where the camera moves at the side, following a character)
Dollying (where the camera follows the character from in front or behind, to make it feel as if the character is being followed/stalked)
Point of view shot (so the audience can see what the character sees, to feel as if they are looking through their eyes)

Codes and Conventions:
Atmosphere is usually sinister and location often appears dar and isolated.
Montage editing and quick shots in the trailer to increase tension and suspense. Often previews best bits to engage the audience and encourage them to see the film.
Dark music to help increase a frightening atmosphere.
Lead character often ends up surviving and slaying the antagonist character.
The antagonist usually has a pattern in the way they work or kill.
Usually good against evil.
Plot frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental issues.

Our Planning

Once our resesearch was finished we then had to try and decide what kind of thriller we were going to make. From the research, we found out that the most common thriller movies were psychological ones, therefore we decided we did not want to do one of these as we wanted to do something different to what thriller films are out already. By bringing in all of our research and ideas we had, after a long discussion we finally decided on making a Horror Thriller. We thought this was a good idea as the codes and conventions of a horror thriller are quite clear so we thought we would be able to make it familiar but also something new at the same time which is what our audience will want.

we started out by making a brainstorm of  the plot ideas, the setting and the characters that we could use in our Horror Thrillers. Bringing in ideas using the usual conventions of a horror but also ones that would be quite different to what audiences have seen already. Here is our brainstorm:





Once we brainstormed all of our different ideas, we decided to choose one plot idea that we all very much liked. With this in our head we thought of the characters we would use in it, the clothing, the props and the different settings that we could use for this idea. This is what we came up with:





We came up with the idea to break the convention of a horror film where the woman is always the victim trying to get away and the man is the villain, we were thinking that we would change it so that in ours we would have the woman as the strong villain and the male as the weak victim. I feel that we all came up with some very good ideas on what we want to see in the opening of our horror thriller, however i feel that we need to try and stick to some of the conventions of a horror so that the audience will be able to have an idea of what type of genre it is. To help me out i am going to go and watch some openings to horrors and to see how they have made the audience feel alot of tension and suspense while watching.

Continuity Task Evaluation

I feel that me and my groups continuity task went quite well. When filming we had decided to take a couple of shots for each bit so that when we came to editing there were a few we could choose from. This worked very well as it helped us to quicken up the process a bit as we had everything we needed there already. However once we finished shooting and came back to edit, we realised that we had broken the 180 degree rule when Avey had opened the door. This meant we had to go out and film that part again which took up time, however it has helped me to realise that when we come to do our actual project then we should film more than enough so that we wouldn't waste time on having to re-film. Also once watching the task back after it had been edited we realised something was missing. This was that we did not have a shot of the face when Avey sees the note on the locker which would mean the audience would not see her reaction to it which is very important, therefore we had to go out and shoot that again. From doing this the background noise was different in this part than it was in the rest of the film which didn't look quite right. Therefore i have learnt that when making our coursework film we may have to put in the sound after we have filmed it. We also may have to do this with the dialogue because in our continuity task some of the dialogue is quite quiet and difficult to hear, so if we do the sound and dialogue separately it could sound better.

The storyboard was very effective when it came to filming as we then all had an idea of what we wanted it too look like. However, there were some changes made, as when we were filming we discussed some other ideas that hadn't occurred to us before and tried it to see if it looked good. Overall the storyboard helped alot and we did follow it quite closely although there were some changes that were made.

This continuity Task will help me in my actual coursework project, as now that i have had the chance to try and make a short film i have realised how much work and time is needed to put into it. I have learnt that it is always better to film alot so that there are choices when editing and also would be better as you wouldn't have to re film which would take up alot of the time, which would set us back. Story boarding is also very important as it would then save time when filming because you know exactly what you are wanting to shot.

Continuity Task

For our Continuity Task we had to create part of a film which was around 90 seconds. This film could be on anything but had to include a few things, these were:

·                     You must not break the 180 degrees rule

·                     You must include a shot-reverse-shot

·                     You must include a variety of appropriate camera angles

·                     You must edit so that continuity is apparent and meaning is clear

·                     You must include more than one location

·                     You must include some interaction between characters

·                     You must include some non-diogetic sound

Before we could start filming we had to decide on what we were actually going to film. To do this we had to create a storyboard, a script and a shotlist so that we knew what we were doing once we started filming. 


First of all we made a brainstorm of our ideas of what we wanted to do for this short film, these were things such as, what is going to happen, the people that are going to be in it, and part of a conversation.

After this we made a shotlist. On this we needed to write a list of all the shots we were going to use in our film to make sure there was a variety and to make it quicker for when we were filming, we then knew exactly what we were doing with the camera.

Next, we made a storyboard of exactly what was going to be happening in our film, which would again make it quicker for when we were filming as we now exactly what we want to get out of it. This was it:

After we had done the storyboard and knew where the characters would be going and what they would be doing, we decide to make a script so we knew what they would be talking about. 

Once finishing our plan on paper we then started shooting. As we had our storyboard we knew exactly what we needed to shoot. We decided to have Avey as our main character and then Rhiannon as our other character. We all took turns shooting so that we all got use to handling the camera properly, such as, filming so that it is not shaky, being able to zoom in and out softly so that it isn't jolty to the audience therefore keeping the effect of the continuity throughout the film and also being able to know how to create the different angles. When shooting we decided to take shots of the same thing a couple of times with different angles so that when it came to editing we knew we would have a choice over which shot we wanted to use, which would fit in with the rest of the film and to then not have to shoot again. It also meant that from doing it a couple of times from different angles it meant we could have different camera angles in our film. I believe that we managed to keep the 180 degree rule and did not break it. From doing this task i think it will help us when it comes to doing our proper filming as we would have already experienced how to use different camera angles and the 180 degree rule. Also i have learnt that it is helpful to film a couple of times, especially when doing the shot reverse shot as we can cut it to make it look really good. 

2nd audience survey

We decided to create a 2nd survey because with our first survey we were not able to find much information from our audience about what they wanted to see with the questions we were askng them. Therefore we thought harder about what questions we were going to ask our audience and decided to make them more open so that we would be able to get some good feedback to help us decide on what type of thriller we would want to make. the questions we asked were:

1. What are your top 5 favourite films?
2. Pick one of these films and explain what you enjoyed about it?
3. What are your faveourite types of films? select 3:
     Comedy
     Musical
     Horror
     Fantasy
     Animated
     Sci-fi
     Mystery/Suspense
     Action
     Romance
4. Do you prefer a title seuence or the titles to be superimposed over the poening of the scene?
5. Do you prefer the movie to go straight into the action or do you like there to be a slow build up?
















From these surveys we have found out some films that our audience like and gave them a chance to explain why they liked them. This is helpful for our research as it will help us find out what type of genres our audience like and what it is they enjoy about the films that they watch and then maybe create a hybrid or sub genre of these and try to include these in the opening of our thriller that we are going to make.

Thriller research: Audience Survey

We decided that we should ask the audience some questions that could help us and give us an insight of what type of thriller the audience would like, Whether it is a sub genre or hybrid.We aimed these questions to people who would only be able to watch a 15 rated film. The questions we asked were:

1. Would you watch a thriller?
2. What would you expect to see in a thriller?
3. If you could combine another genre with a thriller, what would it be?
4. In a thriller there tends to be a heroine or a hero, what one would you prefer to watch in a thriller and why?
5. What would be your favourite location for a thriller film?
6. Do you think music in a thriller film creates ambience?

We took videos of the audience answering these questions (they will be uploaded soon)

When we asked the audience these questions we realised that maybe these questions were too straight forward therefore giving a one word answer instead of saying what they really want to see. This is because we found that the answers we got have not really helped us in knowing what the audience want. From looking back we also thought it would be a good idea to ask what films they like as often people think they do not like thrillers, however they may not know that some films are thrillers. Therefore we hope to make some new questions which we hope will help us find out what the audience really like and also try different age ranges and see what they think.

Analysis of Donnie Darco

Camera and Editing
In the film Donnie Darco it begins a fade in from a dark background to a light shot of the daytime. It starts with a tracking shot and then goes into an extreme long shot to show the location of where the film is set. The camera then starts to move towards the character when we see him lying in the middle of the road, it gets close to him and as the character is waking up the camera starts to track around the character in a medium shot so we can see the expression on his face. From the way the camera went from a  long shot to a close up without any cutting shows that it is quite a slow pace. However once the character is on his bike there is a lot of panning done and there are much more camera shots which picks up the pace of the film. It then jumps from one location to another, which shows that him on his way home has nothing to do with the story and keeps the fast pace of the film going.

Sound
First of all there is a thunder sound which is non diogetic which is where we hear the sound but it is not shown where it is coming from. The thunder continues as the shot goes into the first scene of the trees, when this happens the sound of birds enter which is also non diogetic. the introduction of music replaces the thunder when we see the boy lying on the floor from a distance, the music is quite deep and sounds quite ominous, which makes the audience wonder why the boy is lying in the road on the floor. When the camera gets closer to the boy the music is a piano and sounds much more calm, it is quite a dwelling sound, this could be because he is thinking back on what happened even though the audience dont know what this is yet. The same time the boy stands up there is very angelic music, which sounds much more happier than before. When the boy gets back on his bike the music is much more up beat with the tempo increased, with this music joining with the more camera shots it makes the film a much faster pace. The song that is used is called 'Killing time' which could of been used to connote that the film is a thriller.

Mis-en-scene
The title sequences of the film is with white text on a black background, the text looks quite old and gives the sense that the film is a thriller because the letters are not formed properly. Our first impression of the shot with the man laying on the floor is that he has fallen off his bike. However then the man wakes up in his pyjamas and his facial expression is quite confused. After this the boy then laughs to himself, which then raises alot more questions for the audience as we dont understand why the boy finds it amusing. When the boy then rides back into a neighbourhood, straight away we think that it is set in the American suburbs because it has wide streets and big houses. We then see a halloween sign which then shows the audience the time, place and events of when this film is set. The sign could also suggest that the genre could be a thriller as we know it is set around halloween which connotes scary things such as witches, demons etc. Another thing we see is a person reading a Stephen King novel which is famous for being horror stories which then backs up the idea that it could be a thriller film. When the boy goes into his house he opens the fridge and on it, it reads 'where is Donnie' which implies that he is always gone for some reason.


I have learnt from watching the first few minutes of Donnie Darco that thrillers do not always have to start off fast pace, they can start off slow paced with still the same effect. I have realised that there are many little things used in films that connotes different ideas to the audience making them think and feel the way the director wanted them too. This will help me in the actual making of my film.  

Thriller sub-genres

For my research i decided to look at all the different sub genres that we could make for our thriller as i found out that i didnt know all of these sub genres so i thought i would find out a bit about tthem to give us a wide range of options on deciding what type of thriller we were going to do. To find this information i did some secondary research by looking at the internet, i found a good website which helped me to find these out, this was, www.hackmanadams.com/articles/subgenres.htm

Action Adventure thriller - this is usually quite an uncommon thriller. However it brings back childhood fantasies                        of being the adventurer.

Disaster Thriller - This is where there is some sort of disaster such as a dam bursting, tornado, ship sinking where the protagonists are having to try and survive.

Historical Thriller - These are thrillers that are set in the past, these thrillers are usually quite uncommon

Medical Thriller - where modern medical technology that is supposed to help people is morphed into something deadly.

Religious Thriller - These uses the rich and long history of religion to build stories of high stakes and deadly politics.

Serial Killer Thriller - usually a serial killer terrorizing a group of people with horrific violence. The detectives goal is to stop the killer before he takes the next victim.

Techno Thriller - here technology drives the plot, whether its new military technology for a submarine or forensics.

Conspiracy Thriller - This is where the hero or heroine is usually trapped in a powerful organisation, these often play with the secrecy of governments and major organisations in history.

Crime Thriller - They mainly focus on the criminals and their activities in leading up to the crime or the end of the film leading back to how it all started. Usually include serial killers and murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists and double crosses.

Mystery Thriller - Focuses mostly on the efforts of the detective in order to solve the mystery. It looks at the circumstances of the mystery or crime itself to try and figure out what the clues are, audiences usually take part in trying to uncover the crime.

Psychological Thrillers - These play with the audiences minds and produces suspense in film because it reflects the main characters conflict being mental and emotionally hindered.

Supernatural Thriller - brings an otherworldly element that shows something out of the ordinary happening to a protagonist that has to overcome this powerful factor. Protagonist or villains usually have a supernatural gift that helps them get to the source of the problem.

15 rated

If a film is rated a 15 then no one under that age can see it. For a film to be rated a 15 then it must abide by some rules.

 First of all it must not include discriminating language or behavior.

 If drug taking is being shown then it must not encourage drug misuse, if there are elements of dangerous substances being misused then it is unlikely to be acceptable.

15 rated films can be horror however only light horror such as a strong threat or menace, if anything sadistic or sexualised is shown it can not be a 15. Also things such as hanging, suicide and self harming can be shown but should not be shown in detail so that it could be copied by the audience.

There is allowed to be frequent use of strong language but the strongest words can only be used if it is justified by the context, and repeated use of the strongest language is not acceptable.

Nudity is allowed but without strong detail. There are no constraints of nudity in a non sexual or educational context.

Also sexual activity can be shown but again not in strong detail. Strong verbal references to sexual behavior can be used but the strongest references would not be allowed. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Violence in 15 rated films can be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images, and strong sadistic or sexualised violence are probably unlikely to be accepted. Detailed verbal references to sexual violence can be used but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Thrillers

A genuine thriller is usually a film that provides thrills and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats throughout the whole of the film. There is usually tension when the protagonist is caught in a scary situation or mystery where the escape seems impossible.

The most famous film maker or director is Alfred Hitch cock. Who has made many thriller movies which include films such as '39 steps'(1935), 'The lady vanishes'(1938) and 'Notorious'(1946) His films often placed an innocent victim into a strange or life threatening situation caused because of mistaken identity, misidentification or wrongful accusation.

From the 1990's to the present day the thrillers are usually psychological ones which often have domestic violence, obsession, revenge and mentally ill characters in them where the main character have to try and escape, this decade of films were influenced mainly by the psychological thriller film 'Dead calm' in 1989 which had elements of obsession with a trapped protagonist on a yacht trying to escape from the villainous castaway.

Thriller films still often use elements which have been used in the past. However, they have changed slightly so that the audiences get to see something new. Now there are many recent thrillers that have more horror elements in them with much more gore and violence and terror involved.

evaluating genre

Genre is used by many film producers to tell their audience what kind of film they are going to watch. I have learnt that if a film producer made a film ans they call it one genre, if it is then discovered that anything that genre would not get sold because the audience wont like it, all they do is kepp the film the same but just6 remarket it as a different genre, this is called regenrification. This can be done because many films can go into many different types of genres.

The process of film making is to first research and discover whta people are wanting to see at that time. Next is to decide on the genre and what film you are going to make. You have to decide on characters, setting, plot, etc. Also we have tyo keep in mind that to keep audience interested we have to keep the film familiar but have original elements aswell. Therefore when making the film, research will have to be done on the different genres that you are going to do so that there will be the conventions of that genre in it.

I am going to take what i have learnt into my teamwork next week. This will be to make sure to research alot more, this means research the genres we are actually going to be doing, but also before that, research the genres that i dont already know so that we can have a bigger choice into what kind of sub genres or hybrids we are going to do. I have also learnt that when doing an audience survey we should not just ask them what genre they like but also more general questions such as what storylines and characters they like. This will all help me with the coursework that we are going to start next week.

The concept of Genre

 Genre is a form of classification. Audiences are idenified by the diffrences between them as it descibed what kind of film it is. There are different types of genres and they have to keep changing so that it brings in an audience. However films cannot be just one they are usually always more than one as their labelling systems are often too large.

 In genres there is a need for repition so that it can be categorised into a certain group and recognised through the conventions such as iconography, the plot, actors etc. Familiarity is also needed so that the audience feels safe in the knowledge of what they are going to see and reinforce their expectations. However variation is important otherwise the audience would get bored of seeing the same thing over and over again.

 The most limited way of understanding genre is hybrids and hybridisation because the film could then only fit into two categories e.g. romantic comedy. Whereas a sub-genre is a way of being able to categorise it but much more efficiently such as it being a science fiction but then being even further categorised by being put into something such as a group called space exploration. The way in which hybrids develop from a 'classic' from of genre is by getting ideas from previous films in that genre but also from the surrounding of life such as social, cultural, economic and political changes. However sub genres build up from different films through time.

 When starting the film making process and my research into thrillers, i will have to consider what has been done already and how i can keep some familiarity of previous thrillers but also change it enough so that it is something new and different. The process of having to do a thriller limiting because it has to be a certain type of movie with familiar conventions of a thriller. However apart from that there is still various options that we can choose from because there are many different types of thrillers such as psychological thrillers, crime thrillers etc.