We decided that, as we were filming parts of our opening sequence in the dark, we needed to take certain safety precautions whilst filming and that we needed to wear high-visability jackets and carry torches to ensure that we were safe whilst filming.
Having put this on our Risk Assessment we then needed to carry these ideas out- here is a photo of Brogan, Tiffany and myself wearing our reflective jackets during a session of filming in the dark.
We also used the car lights to inform any oncoming cars that we were there and we had one person standing at each end of the area in which we were filming and because there was only three of us, we were accompanied by our parents to help supervise and carry out our risk assessment.
Unfortunately, due to various reasons, some of our roles, responsibilities, locations and filming schedules were required to change.
Alterations have been made and all current arrangements are as follows:
Actors: Brogan Adams (16 year old female)
Jeff Leyland (17 year old male)
Locations:
Street Scene:
Birmingham Bull Ring
Carousel Scene:
Birmingham New Street (Christmas Market)
Car Crash Scene:
Deep Hayes Country Park/Park Lane, Denford
Return to car Scene:
Derby Street/ Broad Street leading to Aldi Car Park, Leek
Isolation Scene:
Birmingam Bull Ring/ Birmingham New Street
Hospital Scene:
Westwood College
Dates and Times:
Birmingham Bull Ring: (Street and Isolation Scenes)
Wednesday 21st December 2011 (most of the day)
Birmingham New Street: (Carousel Scene)
Wednesday 21st December 2011
Deep Hayes Country Park, Denford: (Car Crash Scene)
Sunday 8th January 2012
Car Park: (Return to car Scene)
Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Bed: (Hospital Scene)
Tuesday 10th January 2012
Why the changes?
A few of the roles, responsibilities and actors were changed due to prior responsibilities and unavailability.
We were required to change the date for our 'Hospital Scene' as we changed the location to school and therefore had to wait until we had an appropriate lesson to get the equipment and be able to film it.
We were required to change the date for the 'Car Crash' scene due to weather conditions; it was icy and therefore would have been unsafe to film the false crash due to creating risks of a real one.
We were therefore required to change the location for the 'Car Crash' scene due to timing as the road would be too busy for when we re-scheduled our filming.
In order to be as time-efficiant as possible, whilst getting the most from our individual strengths, we decided to split up all of the roles and responsibilities involved whilst creating our opening sequence.
Camera Work: All three of us. This is for a number of reasons; firstly due to availability as it is highly unlikely that any one of us will be 100% available for all filming sessions and therefore this allows us to always have someone on hand to film. Also, it enables us to share the workload fairly as filming is the main task in creating our product. And finally, due to our own strengths and weaknesses with cinematography, sharing the shot-types between us will allow the best possible filming to be achieved
Director: All three of us. Again, this is mainly due to our personal strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, if one/more of us are unavailable for filming, this allows plans to go ahead regardless. Also, being a group production we are all as knowledgeable on our plans as one another- having all come up with some of the ideas- therefore not one of us was more suited for this role than the others, but if we were to split up the directing responsibilities, we would be able to direct the sections of the film that we came up with to enable maximum effectiveness.
Props: Tiffany Pickford/ Maisie Hesketh Tiffany was put in charge of props because of accessibility and availabilities she had. Also, because the sections of the opening sequence she had come up with the ideas for, were those containing props and therefore we felt that she was most appropriate for this role. I, Maisie, had also come up with ideas containing props and therefore would be suitable for organising and coordinating these. Additionally, I have contacts at the wardrobe/props department in a local theatre and therefore would be able to borrow them if anything abstract was required. Costumes: Maisie Hesketh. As with my 'props' responsibilities, we felt that it was appropriate for me to have charge of the costumes due to my contacts at the wardrobe/props department in a local theatre (hence able to borrow them if anything abstract was required). Additionally, I am able to accurately match the costumes with the mise-en-scene of the scene, and the conventions of the characters within the genre. However, with the isolation scene, I simply asked Brogan (as she played our female protagonist) to wear casual clothing, and, henceforth, she was responsible for costumes in this scene.
Location: Brogan Adams Brogan was best suited to being responsible for locations largely due to accessibility; she lives near to the location for the car-crash scene, and the hospital scene was to be filmed at her house. Additionally, playing the role of our female protagonist, she needed to feel comfortable acting in our chosen locations, therefore, her being responsible for locations was how we felt that this would work most efficiently.
Equipment: Tiffany Pickford Tiffany was allocated the responsibility of the equipment mainly because of the 'swiping-out' system at college, we have to present the technician with our media card before any equipment can be checked out, and Tiffany was the one in our group who did this. In doing this, Tiffany was confirming that should any of the equipment be lost or damaged, she could be held responsible. In addition to this, she was the best suited to controlling the more advanced equipment, such as the steady-cam. Organisation/Time Management: All three of us. All three of us needed to be responsible for organisation and time management; due to it being a group production, if one of us failed to be organised or on time, the whole group would be let down. Therefore, each of us having these responsibilities would encourage us to remain committed and work best as part of the team.
Co-ordination: All three of us Like with organisation and time management responsibilities, we decided mainly for all three of us to be responsible for coordination due to it being a group piece of work. Moreover, in order for it all to be coordinated, we will be needing to work as a team anyway, so it simply made most sense for us all to be responsible for coordination.
Actors: Brogan Adams (16 year old female) and Ryan Murrell (18 year old male) We chose to have Brogan and Ryan playing our two protagonists as they best fitted the stereotypes of the characters we were aiming to create.
Together, as a group we have created a storyboard of the final ideas for the opening sequence of our thriller film. We planned our storyboards together but decided to split up the final creation of them in order to save time.
Here are some images which we have found in order to help explain our ideas in terms of mise-en-scene for our opening sequence.
We are going to travel to the BullRing shopping centre in Birmingham. We wanted to use a busy place so that it isolates the young girl; we will use the moving crowd and the girl standing still to create a time lapse.
We are going to go to Birmingham around Christmastime for a number of reasons. Firstly, simply due to the business of this area at this time of year, it will make our time lapse even more effective. Secondly, because we know that there is a carousel there at this time of year, this links with the theme of circles but is also associated with childhoo and happiness- relating to the feelings of the characters and the flashbacks of the girl in her younger days.
In the car crash scene we will use a red car; the colour red is associated with danger, hence why the red car is going to be the car hitting the protagonist's car.
The protagonist's car will be white; the colour white is associated with innocence. Therefore, to show that the protagonist is innocent in the crash.
In our opening sequence, the protagonist is going to wake up in a hospital bed, open her eyes and see bright lights. We decided to use a hospital scene so it would fit to the conventions of thriller, and show that something bad happened in the car crash.
We are going to use one street in Birmingham (a big, busy city) and another in Leek (a quiet, small town) to show the girl and boy walking down the road, happy and singing to each other. Birmingham is going to be very busy, whereas Leek isn’t to suggest they have been walking for quite a long time to get back to the car.
We are going to use a car park to, again, contrast against the busy town, also you will see the black figure here. Which links to conventions of the genre and will create mystery and tension.
Our audience feedback was generally positive, with the majority of the group supporting our ideas. The most favourable ideas seemed to be the car crash -for various reasons including ‘dramatic’, ‘realistic’ and ‘dynamic’-, the singling out of one person in a crowd – our audience said that this would be dramatic and effective if it was pulled off well. Camera shots including focus pull were also mentioned positively as this was said to effectively show emotion and isolation. Therefore, we will be keeping these ideas in our opening sequence.
Nonetheless, our feedback seemed to suggest that the idea of graphic match through circles was our least effective idea as it was perhaps too complicated or irrelevant, therefore we decided to remove this from our sequence. Other people said that the drugs made the events of the sequence too obvious and took the enigma –which is a key convention within the genre- away from it so we also decided to remove the idea of involving drug use. Also mentioned as a weakness was the fact that our pitch didn’t mention a specific plot, so we are going to focus on creating more of a storyline.
The majority of our audience feedback suggested that our ideas did fit the genre because it conformed to many conventions through different forms including psychological, flashbacks, memories, car crashes and audience relation through drugs. Therefore we will work on making these ideas even more relevant but will keep most of these as themes within our sequence. Those who opposed it's relevance said that they could not see the connection with the ideas of childhood and they did not feel that the idea of circles had been given enough explanation for them to make a decision upon. Henceforth, we will not be using neither the idea of childhood, nor the theme of circles.
Our questionnaire simply confirmed the fact that our target audience should be from the age of fifteen to the age of thirty.
Our questionnaire also confirmed that our opening sequence will come in at the second stage of Todorov’s theory; the disruption of equilibrium.
We created a pitch for our thriller opening sequence idea, and presented it to the rest of our class on Wednesday 23rd November. We created a questionnaire and handed out copies to each person for them to fill in whilst we were presenting our pitch. We brought all of the completed questionnaires together and have made a summary of everybody’s opinions.
What did you think of our overall pitch?
People said that our pitch was good, clear and well detailed. Also mentioned was the strength of our pitch. They also thought that it was a good idea to use pictures on the presentation and to explain them verbally instead of reading from the text on the board as it allowed the audience to connect and feel more involved. However, they said that some points could have been clearer and some points and ideas better explained as sections were slightly confusing. Nonetheless, overall, our feedback for this question was positive.
What did you think was our best idea? Why?
The main answer to this question seemed to be the car crash for various reasons including ‘dramatic’, ‘realistic’ and ‘dynamic’. Next was the singling out of one person in a crowd – our audience said that this would be dramatic and effective if it was pulled off well. Camera shots including focus pull were also mentioned positively as this was said to effectively show emotion and isolation. They also seemed to like the idea of the sparkler burning down throughout the film. Some people liked the drug use as it allowed the audience to relate to the characters effectively and others mentioned the originality of the ideas themselves.
What did you think was our worst idea? How could we improve this idea?
The feedback seemed to suggest that the idea of graphic match through circles was our least effective idea as it was perhaps too complicated or irrelevant. However, on further explanation our audience seemed to like the idea and to understand the relevancy more. Other people said that the drugs made the events of the sequence too obvious and took the enigma –which is a key convention within the genre- away from it. Also mentioned as a weakness was the fact that our pitch didn’t mention a specific plot.
Did you think our ideas matched the genre? If yes, how? If no, why?
There was an obvious split in the answers to this question; however, the majority said yes. The reasoning for answering ‘yes’ was because it conformed to many conventions through different forms including psychological, flashbacks, memories, car crashes and audience relation through drugs. Those who answered no said that they could not see the connection with the ideas of childhood. Also stated was that they could not answer as they did not feel that the idea of circles had been given enough explanation for them to make a decision upon.
Was the sub-genre/hybrid clear?
Again, the answers were split; those who said yes mentioned conventions, psychology, and flashbacks. There were again also those who were unsure, and those who found that it wasn’t mentioned or was unclear.
TargetAudience
Our questionnaire simply confirmed the fact that our target audience should be from the age of fifteen to the age of thirty.
At which stage of Todorov’s theory does our sequence come in?
Our questionnaire also confirmed that our opening sequence will come in at the second stage of Todorov’s theory; the disruption of equilibrium.
We created a pitch for our thriller opening sequence idea, and presented it to the rest of our class. We created a questionnaire and handed out copies to each person for them to fill in whilst we were presenting our pitch.
Here, we have brought together all of the different audience responses from the questionnaires:
Whilst our pitch was taking place, we thought that it would be appropriate and useful to collect some audience feedback. To begin with we planned to simply ask our audience to make notes as we presented our ideas, however we decided that in order to receive the most relevant and specific feedback to what we required, we would create a short questionnaire. We included some general questions in order for the audience to give their opinions and some more specific ones in order to see if the more technical and specific ideas used were being shown successfully.
Over the past few sessions we have been creating a presentation in order to help us pitch the initial ideas for our opening sequence to our class. We showed a basic, image-based presentation on the screen and wrote notes to help us expand when talking the class through the ideas shown by the images. The following presentation, therefore, is not the actual presentation that we used to pitch our ideas to our class, but is an amended version using the original presentation and our notes combined:
This lesson we discussed and researched the importance of audience feedback. We found that by doing audience feedback, we would receive alternative opinions on our ideas, hence helping us to assess, and change our ideas prior to creating our product. This not only will help us not to waste time making changes later on in the process, but will also help us to make our opening sequence as appropriate and successful as possible in terms of our target audience's requirements.
Audience feedback is key in the media, as the audience bring in the revenue and make a persons work credible, it is also what makes a film popular or not, the more people that enjoy a film the more the messege of it gets spread. The aim of an editor/director/producer is to please their audience. The audience is the reason for making a film, in some cases, however in short films it sometimes is not about the money and number of people that would go and watch it but it is about expressing themselves or may be just asa hobby rather than a buisness.
Now that we fully understand the importance of audience feedback, we have decided to create a presentation containing the initial ideas for our opening sequence. We will also create a questionnaire for our peers to fill out during our pitch presentation.
It is important to understand the genre thoroughly so that our opening sequence contains all the appropriate stereotypes, and that we do not include unnecessary conventions- or if we do choose to, that we are able to understand and explain why we have done what we have done. Thriller 'A story that starts with a serious problem, a protagonist (our hero/heroine) who tries to solve the problem only to find that it gets worse and worse and worse. The plot rises to a dramatic confrontation with the antagonist (bad guy), usually on the bad guy’s territory, and ends with a short denouement.'
•Thriller is a genre of literature, film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres of thrillers are: mystery, crime and psychological thrillers. ...
Thriller films, are types of films known to have given or promote a gravitated build up of tension,
it involves high level of suspense, a higher level of anticipation, uncertainty, reaction from the audience
in which encourages an audience in wanting to know what happens further.
If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character is placed in a scary situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involvecharacters, which come into conflict with each other, or with outside forces the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.
Within the genre of ‘Thriller’, there are many conventions, which of course have to be used as much as possible to make the Thriller effect work properly.
A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not necessarily)
There is usually a crime in the narrative or storyline of a thriller. It keeps the viewer hooked.
A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions
Thrillers are usually made up of these. Mainly to keep the audience questioning, and to make them work out what’s going on, leaving strong enigma’s
A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved
This will keep the viewer hooked and he/she will always want to see the resolutions.
A protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist
All thrillers have a protagonists against an antagonist and at some point in the thriller there will be a situation which will include both characters come together, usually in a fight or action scene. The antagonist will usually always have the dis-advantage, but will come out the victor.
Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations
This will enable the audience to relate to the situation, and therefore the effect will be stronger.
Themes of identity
This is used so the audience can keep tabs on each character, who they are, and why they’re there. It also helps us identify the protagonist and antagonist.
Themes of mirroring
Shows that there may be one or two people in the same position.
Themes of voyeurism
When someone is being e.g. spied upon and doesn’t know. Usually shown through point of view shot of the person doing the spying.
Protagonist with ‘flaw’ which is exploited by the antagonistThe antagonist takes advantage of the protagonists flaws. The flaws are usually obvious to the audience but not to the antagonist untill they are revealed to him. When the flaws are visible to the antagonist, it put him/her in the dominant position.
Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist’s psychological state
The titles usually mirror the type of film, and give the audience a chance to see what might be coming up in the film.
There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril
This is used so that there is action building up to a certain point to keep the audience hooked, and the peril is usually solved by the end of the film which leaves the audience in good spirit.
Mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist’s plight The mise-en-scene is very important, and needs to be relevent e.g. if the character is happy, put them in a happy place, with bright lights, or if the character is sad, put them in a sad place with dark lighting.
Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre. In addition to drama and mystery, many psychological thrillers contain elements of, and often overlap with, the horror genre, particularly psychological horror.
·Psychological – Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.
·Thriller – Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.
·Psychological thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state
Devices and Techniques
·Stream of consciousness – a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. In psychological thrillers, the narrative tries to manifest the character's psyche through word usage, descriptions, or visuals.
First-person narrative – a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one or more of the characters, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, "I". This direct involvement that the characters have with the story in turn makes the reader more involved with the characters themselves, and thus able to understand the mechanics of the characters' minds. This technique is often paired with the concept of the unreliable narrator.
Back-story – the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This deepens the psychological aspect of the story since the reader is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the character's motivations are and how his past has shaped his current cognitive perceptions.
Themes
Many psychological thrillers have emerged over the past years, all in various media (film, literature, radio, etc.). Despite these very different forms of representation, general trends have appeared throughout the narratives. Some of these consistent themes include:
·Reality
·Perception
·Mind
·Existence/Purpose
·Identity
·Death
These major subgenres help develop the plot of a psychological thriller film, shaping the characters'personalities. eg. usually character will find the true identidy/ the devil side of himself/herself in psychological thriller, in which it is one of the architypes - the loss of innocence.
