Thriller Evaluation

Thriller Evaluation AS- Elif Huseyin

For my coursework, we had to work in groups to successfully create a thriller. Firstly we were given a tutorial of how to use the equipment and the Mac’s. Then we got onto the actual filming by doing a practice thriller of a ‘Thrilling Card Game’. After, we did a match cut exercise to help us to understand what a match cut is and this of which I have posted onto my blog. Looking back at the match cut exercise, I have seen major improvements in my filming skills which I will mention further in this evaluation.

The typical convention of a thriller is included in my work as it successfully raised questions such as: what is going on? and why is it happening? The whole concept of our thriller was influenced by current happenings shown by the mass media today. Our thriller included a perverted character that held a girl hostage, in a cold isolated basement. Thrillers usually use the base colours of grey and black, and the natural setting had those colours which made it look realistic and creepy. An example of this is ‘The Terminator’ this helps emphasise the mood of the situation. We also included a flashback and put a filter colour of blue on it.






Shots from 'The Terminator'

This helps show the coldness of that time and also makes it look as something that happened previously. Our thriller has challenged usual creepy thrillers, as a blue colour filter is often found in action thrillers such as ‘The Terminator’. Including this makes our thriller unique and challenges other thrillers of the same genre. Our opening includes clear establishing shots, which are all evenly sized and makes sense.

The people featured in my thriller are young characters. This kind of film is mainly aimed at 16+ teenagers as they can understand the situation of a girl being held ransom/hostage and will understand the creepiness of it. On our feedback, it was mentioned that the actual lighting made it look creepy as well as the thriller itself.





In further feedback, our group was told that we had made good music to go according with our thriller. The group worked together in making the music. Jennifer gave the idea of adding classical music into the opening to make it ironic. I added a baseline throughout the thriller, but it went on for too long, which would make an audience lose interest. The in and out of focus shots worked well as it made it look very effective and professional. The fact that we filmed from a cameras point of view and a characters point of view helps the audience see the story from two different points. For the characters point of view, I handheld the camera in order to give it a shaky effect and to show the perverted fashion of the situation which the previous image with the ‘REC’ sign shows this.

Focus Shots:

My film will be distributed by the British Film company: Working Title 2. It will be a low budget film because new actors/actresses will be featured in them. I will do this as a way to work up in the film industry. It would be more beneficial to use unknown talents rather than spend a lot of the budget on an actor because, if the film failed- there wouldn’t be so much of a financial problem.

I will attract my audience by advertising my film on British television first. The main channels I will focus on will be Film 4, ITV, Five and the BBC. This website http://www.channel4.com/film/cinemadvd/cinema_newreleases.html shows cinema releases and lists the ‘Top 10 Must See Movies’. The new talents will also encourage the audience to be more enthusiastic about watching it, especially if it is a niche audience.

The technology that I have used in the making of my film has been very useful and quick and easy to learn. It is not so complicated after getting used to editing. Throughout the making of the thriller, as the director of the film, I was the decisive person of the group and made sure everything was appropriate and went according to actual thriller conventions. These are things like, raising questions being unclear and not telling too much of the story in an instant. By using flashbacks, we have enabled the viewers to really think about what is going on.
Using Final Cut pro was very interesting and effective to see how the sequence of our thriller would look when it has been put together. We also used Soundtrack Pro which was much easier to get used to than Final Cut pro. On Soundtrack pro, I learnt how to adjust music (by making the pitch higher and lower at specific points of the soundtrack) and learnt what type of music goes with what. Understanding and being able to perfect a soundtrack and editing that goes according to the typical conventions of a thriller, shows just how much work and effort needs to be put in. Furthermore, I have learnt how to use www.vimeo.com in the making of the thriller as in the actual footage, the villain uploads the video of his hostage onto this website.






Looking back, I have learnt a lot of things that I never understood about the film making industry. I have learnt how to: film appropriately, log and capture footage, put effects on footage, do match cuts (which before this course I never even noticed), make a whole soundtrack of our own and be able to use the Mac’s comfortably. I have also improved my blogging skills and can comfortably write in simple everyday language of what I had done and my progression during the making of the thriller.
The very first idea of our thriller, was not appropriate as it was too complicated to be an opening of a thriller. It was like we were putting a whole storyline into an opening of a thriller- which wouldn’t match with the usual conventions of a thriller because it would have raised question but, it would have also answered them. This of course is not what we would have liked to aim for. We asked our teachers for advice and they told us to not make our opening complicated. Therefore as a group, we worked together to achieve a much simpler but exciting opening instead. We have called our thriller Victim No.6 and the title itself gives connotations of danger and shows a continuity of how the character (villain) is. After finalising the ideas, making a plan of what to film was useful because not using a plan can make things very stressful and confusing.

Overall, me and my group are very pleased of our thriller outcome. We believe that we have matched true conventions of a thriller well enough in our own film and that all this effort has had a positive outcome.

Evaluation

Eman Seid
Thriller AS: Evaluation

For the practical coursework, we had to work in groups to create a thriller. I was in a group of four included Elif, Jen, Michael and myself. We were given a quick tutorial on how to uses the cameras and computers safety. Then started practicing how to film a practice thriller. When we were given task for our practice filming session we had to create a thriller using certain props. The props used in our thriller were game cards and two fake pistol guns.

I was happy with the camera works and I feel that the shots that were the most successful was when we took a 10 second big close up of Elif with the pistol gun behind her. This I felt worked well with the thriller genre because it had create a lot of tension and suspense. We try to create a long shot scene but it did not work well with the setting because it did not give a sense of thrill. The was mainly because the setting used was inside the college building and the atmosphere was not exactly working well.
In the thriller we made sure that we used typical convention of a thriller film such as raising question about the situation. Our thriller included a hostage and a villain. The villain held hostage a young girl and the setting was a big but isolated basement. the basement itself has a cold feeling to it which help set the mood of the thriller. The natural lighting was of benefit to us as one of the other convention of a thriller is that colours featured in them are dark and gloomy.

The convention of the thriller genre is to do with sound and editing e.g. quick cuts and camera angle changes, music that gives tension and is quick cuts when appropriate. It can be to do with lighting, especially the use of shadow. Mirrors and stairs are also conventions of a thriller movie. However, we did not use them as we were not as organised and did not plan enough to include this typical conventions in our sequences.

‘Phone booth’ in particular is a thriller film I was inspired by, as it did not play to the conventions. It avoids darkness, shadows and dim lighting. The one way to link it to standard conventions is to say that u hear and see the story from the killers point of view, u r made to feel sorry for the male protagonist and that u r told a story with the use of flashback and quick passed editing. otherwise the this film is unlike most thriller movies and avoids the main conventions and may even not b classed as thriller but psychological thriller as it plays with your mind rather than shows u like a conventional thriller.













Our thriller was about a girl is being held hostage and the villain is filming his hostage. She is quiet frightened and is not sure about what is happening to her. The villain then goes on to a computer and uploads his video of the hostage onto a website for everyone to see. Our use of conventions was very different to ‘Phone Booth’ as we felt that create the affect with the lighting, i.e. diming the lights helped create this atmosphere.

Our main aim is to actually film the villain uploading a video of the hostage onto a site called: ‘www. vimeo.com’ that is a real blogging website. This will make it seem more thrilling and raise more questions without making it too obvious. To do this we have shot a video that would be something that the hostage has supposedly shot of the hostage.
We are further planning to edit the shot by putting it in black and white- with a record sign to make it look from the hostages’ point of view. In addition, this will seem very effective and raise even more questions, which is one of the main conventions of a thriller.














We made our own soundtrack and edited it to fit into out thriller. We had then made the sounds go according to the scenario and added effects that help emphasise the idea of it being a thriller. It took a long time to complete the task but we had enjoyed putting in the effort that I personally felt made our thriller successful.
The sort of effects that we needed and used was blurring the image. This was done when focusing in and out of Jen’s face. This helped create tension and made the shot look sharp and professional. The thriller was edited into black and white this was done to set the tone of the film as done in typical convention. The blue colour filter was used to show how Jen’s at the previous time was in a vulnerable state. This had also assured us that the audience could see how the villain is made to look like a cruel and cold person.










The reviews that we had received from other media AS student were very enlightening. Some feel that the music really helped pull it off and enjoyed watching the thriller. Many students felt that the piece was ‘very disturbing’ and ‘creepy’ to watch. The group were very happy to hear these comments, as the we wanted to hear this replies and comment. When we watch it again with a bigger crown (the whole AS media) we discovered that this opinion was from a larger number of viewers. When reflect on the feedback we had receive we were overall happy that we meet our target and achieve a successful response from the viewers.

When using editing using the final cut Pro, we had edited a scene to make it look like a camcorder was actually the villain recording the victim. This was needed for the villain filming the hostage. It also increases the realism in it, as it shows us a scene from the villain's point of view. In addition, after watching the thriller with other as media student in the cinema it seems to have some conventions of a real thriller. Most importantly, it raises questions about the situation, which is just what we wanted to achieve.

I feel that my film will be a low budget film due to the new talents featured in them and the fact that a known actor/actress has not been used, the budget will remain low safely. I will get my film produced by Working Title 2, which focuses on these low budget films. Working Title is a successful British film company that can encourage and boost the ratings of my film- so that it gains attention from the target audience. If worse comes to worse, and my film is unsuccessful, the low budget will be beneficial because there will not be so much of a loss.


To get my film notice I will try to get my film publish using the internet, TV adverts. I would try to get my film noticed on the new release on an internet page. A website could help promote my film would be a film guides. film4 is a company that helps promote new release: ‘http://www.channel4.com/film/cinemadvd/cinema_newreleases.html’.
This would help promotes my film and make viewers aware of the release of the film.

Overall, I feel that my thriller was successful and my group was helpful. I was pleased with the way the group worked and organised ourselves in the making of the thriller. I personally feel that the thriller success was due to hard work and commitment from each member of the group I worked with.