Task 4 - Location Shots - Main Task

This is a shot of the driveway in which the victim will exit his car and walk up to the house. I am using this shot to establish a setting and environment for the opening to the thriller.

This is a shot of the main hallway where the victim will enter his house and seem as though everything is normal. This environment is used to establish a relationship between the victim and the audience so they gain an understanding as to the victim's lifestyle.









This is the door through which the victim enters the house to give the audience a sense of reality about the environment.












This is the staircase that the victim anxiously creeps up when he hears an unexpected noise coming from upstairs. This environment is used to build tension as the victim edges closer to his awful fate.











This is the kitchen the setting for the opening sequence. In this location the victim enters and notices that there is something very strange about the house.

This is the landing that we see the victim walk across when he is following the noise he heard from upstairs. This was used due to its size so that I could elongate the shot in order to build tension with the viewer.











This is the master bedroom where we see the murder take place and is a very scary scene in the opening to the thriller. This location was used to create a fear factor as I wanted to create the murder in a place which generally people find the safest in their house (the bedroom).

This is the bathroom where the victim hears the noise coming from. It was used as a distraction to reveal the murderer to the viewer in order to create a fear factor and create suspense and tension with the audience.

Task 3 - Props - Main Task

Props include:

• Car - This is used to create a greater sense of naturalism and also give the audience information about the character. The fact he can drive shows that he is over 17 years old.
• Phone - This is another naturalistic detail as well as allowing the character to have a conversation with a character who is not seen on screen.
• Kitchen utensils, home ornaments and food cans - These were very important props as they were used to show the audience the strangeness/OCD of the killer and therefore to put the audience into a state of uncertainty and suspense as to what will happen next.
• Wooden chair - During the research phase I noticed that there were multiple examples of thrillers including this type of prop. Its main use was to let the audience use their imagination as to what they believed happened in this scene. The fact we see tape wrapped around the legs of the chair indicates maybe some form of torture.
• Knife - The knife was used to implement fear into the audience as a knife is seen as a dangerous weapon. Therefore when the audience see it they know something catastrophic could happen in the near future.

Task 2 - The narrative

The idea for my thriller's narrative is that the opening sequence will introduce the audience to the killer, who would be one of the main protagonists in the film. We witness his first murder scene in the opening few minutes as we follow his journey as the antagonist. We watch on as we see his reasoning, decisions and how his OCD problem allows him to execute the trade mark murders he commits throughout the film. We slowly understand as the film unfolds why he commits the crimes he does. The narrative will also follow the role of the detectives who are hunting the killer and how they track his movements, gather evidence and profile his behaviour in order to bring him to justice. As a viewer, you witness both sides of the battle, feeling the tension of the detectives and the fear factor of the killer as he tries to come to grips with himself, as he acts as a vicious psychopath with his main aim being to commit the perfect murder. This can be seen through his OCD nature and how in the end it comes to be his biggest downfall. We also learn about the personal relationships of one of the detectives and how he is caught between his family and his job. This allows the audience to empathise with the character in a more 'human' way. We also look at the past experiences the killer went through as a child and the suffering he went through, growing up as part of a broken family. This part explains but does not excuse his behaviour. Overall the narrative aims to engage and grip the audience with extremely tense scenes as well as very emotional scenes. Overall, however, the key objective is to scare the audience.

Task 1 - Main Task - Ideas Into Plot

Today we started planning ideas for our main task. We came up with ideas about a storyline/narrative and what kind of dialogue will be developed in the scene. We then went into further detail as to how credits could be added to the scene, how different types of editing effects could be applied to improve the quality of the clip and what different camera angles could be used for the purpose of effect. Finally we discussed the roles of different people within my group and the production and whether we needed to get additional students from outside the Media Studies group to help fill the roles of actors.

Task E - Questionaire - Main Task

I completed this survey on a variety of differently aged people from around my local area. These people ranged from under 16 to 55 years of age. The age range allowed me to understand the general views towards different kinds of Thriller from a wide range of different people. I used this questionnaire to develop my own ideas about what people enjoy and want to watch. I also used this questionnaire to help make decisions on the aspect and ingredients my opening sequence should include. Additionally, I gained ideas of the kind of thriller title which grabs the attention of potential viewers. From the questionnaire I found out what type of thriller each particular age group is interested in. Also, which aspect of a thriller each viewer is interested in. This helped me decide which type of thriller I should show in the opening sequence. I have come to the conclusion that the key is to create suspense and develop a terrifying opening in my opening scene.

Task E - Audience Research - Main Task

The genre I have chosen for my film is a crime thriller. This genre of film often contains frequent action and mild, scary, action scenes, as well as violence. As a result and from carrying out research, I believe the main target audience for crime thriller films is fifteen, including  the horror genre. A large majority of horror films include a group of teenagers who have got themselves into trouble, hence the target audience being teenagers’ e.g. ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ ‘Jeepers Creepers’ and ‘Halloween’. Due to the central topics of a crime thriller, such as murders and robberies, I think the target audience is more an adults audience as the scenes featured in most crime thrillers are unsuitable for any person below the age of 18. Across time, the most commonly known crime thrillers include: The Departed, L.A Confidential, Seven, Reservoir Dogs and The Silence of the Lambs, all of which are classified as 18s. I do not think that crime thrillers are necessarily aimed at a particular gender, although I think males enjoy the more 'gory' parts of a film along with the violent action scenes more so than females.

Sources:

http://www.slideshare.net/CharlotteEmmaVicki/target-audience-of-thrillers

http://www.slideshare.net/DanaSummerfield/target-audience-for-a-crime-thriller?next_slideshow=1

http://www.killadj.com/blog/2013/06/26/genre-thriller/

Preliminary Task - Editing

This week we began editing our scene and it was great to see how the whole film came together in the way we had intended. Through the use of editing software we added lots of effects, including templates on top of the image and altering one of the images to black and white to give it as a professional look. We also used different editing techniques to represent different characters within my production. For example, the wide variety of camera shots gives the viewer an indication of the home of the character and the area in which they live. In my production, these camera shots give the character the representation of an average person going among their 'normal' daily life, which is what I (as a producer) want the viewer feel. Overall I feel that the editing went very well and we will see the effects when viewing the final result.