Whilst filming the test shoot my group and i had a lot of things to think about such as angles, levels and positioning. When it comes to actually doing the shoot there are many things that you bypass in the preparation process that you are then not prepared at all for such as height of The two actors, surroundings of the place we are shooting with regards to noise level and lighting. The actual test shoot went well and we took many re-shoots of the same parts just to be sure we have all the footage we could need to give an indication as to if this idea will work for us or not when we get to the editing process. Although the test itself went well we found it particularly challenging to make it look as we envisioned it to be, meaning we struggled with the best angles and ways to fit in all the
important details into one shot. Once we were pleased with both the amount of footage we got and the footage itself we went back to the media room and began to edit.
Upon editing we found various complications such as the way things in the room would move between takes and the way the actors may be in a slightly different position than they were previously, although not a big issue it made it harder for us to have a clear image of the thriller running smoothly.
During editing we found it hard to make certain bits of footage fit together meaning there were very untidy jumps between scenes with no fluidity. In the end we eventually found although the footage was not smooth and the acting was not perfect we still felt this was our ideal thriller and we as a group could see where we wanted to go from there and it was all down to pitching to Matt to find out if the idea is approved. The link to our final test shoot
After my group came to the final decision of what we wanted as our thriller idea we planned out all of the details we wanted to use such as costume, props and casting. Following this we needed to answer the important question of will this be a goof thriller? and how will it look on camera? For this reason it is extremely important to do a test shoot to make any decisions on what does and does not work and the best angles to use at each moment of action during the thriller. Being able to have a visual representation of a non final production of your thriller idea gives you things that will need to be re-thought and which parts need to be developed to make the best possible thriller.
In order to prepare for this test shoot we had to think about what is going to happen at each shot of the thriller and different angles we can shoot at to make it the best it can be. We began by establishing all the key moments and positions the characters will be in for example the male sequence follows: Sat on the sofa, answering a mobile phone, standing up, holding the females hand, kissing the girl, pulling out teeth, cutting hair and finally a final infliction of pain with a blow to the head. Once we had written out onto a piece of paper each of the things that are performed we agreed on a variety of angles to use and chose to shoot in a room that has a basic concept of the room we would ideally like to use for the real thing.
To prepare for this we had to establish a variety of shots that can be used at different point and it which sections we would like to use them. We also had to make a plan of the dialogue we hoped to use to give an indication of what words will be used during certain action and to create queues to make the test shoot run smoothly. All in all the preparation was a success and we are ready to film the test shoot and put it all together to give an indication of what we are working with and to get targets to improve on.
The plotline follows that a well-groomed man is getting
himself prepared as if going to work or a night out with gestures such as
straightening his tie and buttoning his shirt. Starting this with a close-up
and slowly zooming out to reveal a woman’s legs sprawled across him in fishnet
tights and high heels, his phone begins to ring and it is his wife that is
calling him, when this happens it is suggested to the audience that he is an
unfaithful man to his wife, he excuses himself by saying “sorry I didn’t come
home last night babe I was caught up with work”. He then proceeds to stand up
and kneel on the floor next to her grasping her hand and performing very
unusual actions such as smelling her wrist and feeling her hand against his
face. As this takes place he begins to speak to his young son over the phone
making the audience increasingly angry against this man, he begins to stroke
the woman’s hair and her head tilts towards the camera and it is revealed she
has in fact had her throat slit by this man and she is dead, revealing a plot
twist to keep the audience on their toes and keeping both tension and surprise
alive. Towards the end he erases any traces of her identity by removing teeth
and fingernails before disposing of her completely to end the thriller. We felt
this was an effective idea because there is sustained tension throughout with
many plot twists and reveals to keep the audience completely engaged with what
is going on.
The Thriller will then go on to follow this story:
The film continues to follow the life of
the man, that we later discover to be a psychotic serial killer, that goes
about killing his sexual affairs from the night before, which are mostly blonde
women that we later on discover is due to his obsession with their hair colour
that reminds him of the first girl he has ever fallen in love with, when he was
a child, but whom eventually humiliated him by rejecting his love. His whole obsession is driven by revenge
and self satisfaction that he achieves by killing women that resemble her. We also find out that the original girl
he first fell in love with, turned out to be his wife. Which is what strikes
the audience at the end of the movie, because we are left unsure of what will
happen to her.The whole question is why does he kill
women that look like his wife, but not the wife herself? The film ends with the
question unanswered. This shows his
insanity.
1. My first thriller idea I entitled "Elevator" this idea is about a game that takes place in a hotel. The way it works is that the building must be completely empty and you must enter the elevator on the bottom floor, from there a series of floor numbers must be pushed in a specific order and you must travel from each floor to begin the game. The door will open at each floor you press, upon reaching the final floor in the sequence the doors are supposed to open and a mysterious woman dressed entirely in black is supposed to enter the elevator, you must not acknowledge that she is there meaning you cannot speak or look at her. You must then press another series of floors however the door will then only open occasionally and when it does you have the option to get out or to keep playing and risk it to win. If you do get out the lady will grab you and ask "where you are going", you must once again not acknowledge her, if you are successful you are a safe soul if not she will take you and you will be gone without a trace.
INSPIRATION: My inspiration for this idea follows a widely known unsolved murder that took place at the Cecil hotel in America. A student named Elisa Lam was seen getting in an elevator acting very bizarre she almost looked like she was hiding from an unseen force or in other conspiracy's she is thought to even be completely possessed. There was no explanation for her behaviour as the autopsy confirmed that there were no traces of drugs in her system, not even her prescribed medication. In the CCTV footage of the last time she was seen alive aside from her odd behaviour she is seen pressing buttons in the elevator in a very specific order and it is thought she was playing an old Japanese game that is meant to transport you to a parallel universe, however, the doors would not close and she eventually walked out of the elevator and then was never to be seen alive again. As soon as she exited the elevator the doors despite never shutting for her shut slowly ending the eerie video.
2. My second idea I named "Russian Roulette" the idea of this plot of course involves the dated game of Russian roulette but in a modern twist. The story goes that a group of friends are at a party but they do not realise that the host has set them up for a most awful fate, a gun shot goes off and everybody in panic is forced to sit around a long table in a dark room with only a single light that dangles above them. The host forces them into a game of roulette which creates suspense and tension as the audience wonders who is next to die on the table. I also initially wanted to ass in some extra bits such as a refusal meaning somebody is then held under water or someone is stabbed in the leg just to keep the element of surprise alive.
INSPIRATION: My inspiration actually came from two very different movies. The first was V For Vendetta, not so much for the plot line but more for the concept of somebody thinking that tourturing people actually sets them free, this gave me the idea of a potentially psychopathic man wanting to help his friends but because he is insane not understanding the concept that is wrong with this idea. The other movie is called would you rather, this gave me inspiration behind the idea of a dangerous death game around the table with the most brutal concequences of refusal to co-operate. Both of these combined lead me to create the Russian roulette thriller i have in my head.
3. My final thriller I called "Hangman" the concept behind this plotline is that there is a group of friends in the woods exploring when they come across a hanging rope suspended from one of the branches, the boys begin to tease the girls by saying 'are you scared', one of the boys places the rope around his neck and jokes pretending he has been hung. One of the girls becomes paranoid imagining that she can hear footsteps and breaking sticks and the rustling of leaves that is distant but slowly approaching. The group dismisses what she is saying but they then however notice a dark shadow like figure in the near distance, panicked they all begin to run at a very fast pace. Upon reaching safety they stop deeply out of breath and notice one of the boys is missing, they begin to call his name but there is no response at which point it is revealed that he has in fact been hung by this terrifying figure leaving the audience in question as to what happened and who was he.
INSPIRATION: The inspiration for this thriller idea once again came from a film that is called the gallows, of course the title gives it away there is hanging involved but the main inspiration came from the sense of being followed by a figure that you can never figure out but always gets you when you are not ready I find the idea of being hung particularly intriguing as its a form of punishment and torture since way back in time and for that concept to be brought to the present day is thrilling. Personally out of my 3 ideas this is my favourite and the one i would most love to use as my groups thriller idea because i think there is a lot of potential here.
Media products can be classified into categories or genre. The word 'genre' comes from the French word meaning 'type' or 'class'. Media genres appear within a medium (film, television) such as the "horror" film or the television "situation comedy". A genre can be recognised by its common set of distinguishing features (see discussion on codes and conventions). These features associated with a genre's style and content may be, for example, a particular setting, character types. Audiences recognise these features and therefore expect certain things. For example, at the end of a romantic comedy film the two lead characters will realise they are in love. Audiences may even select a text on the basis of its genre. However, a genre is not static – it changes all the time – resulting in hybrid (or sub-) genres and changing codes and conventions. There is also a relationship between genres and the societies in which they are created.
Hybrid
Some media texts are hybrid genres, which means they share the conventions of more than one genre. For example Dr. Who is a sci-fi action-adventure drama and Strictly Come Dancing is a talent, reality and entertainment show. The Twilight films are a hybrid genre, combining horror, fantasy, teen and romance.
Sub-Genre
A sub-genre, is essentially the crossing over of more than one genre into one. Not much detail is needed to explain this however there are some clear examples:
Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and
television, having numerous subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined
by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense,
excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. A successful example of a thriller is the film
of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Suspense is a crucial characteristic of the
thriller genre. It gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and
excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation and tension. These develop
from unpredictable, mysterious and rousing events during the narrative, which
make the viewer or reader think about the outcome of certain actions. Suspense
builds to make those final moments, no matter how short, the most memorable.
The suspense in a story keeps the person hooked to reading or watching more
until the climax is reached. In terms of narrative expectations, it may be
contrasted with curiosity and surprise. The objective is to deliver a story
with sustained tension, surprise, and a constant sense of impending doom. Common
methods and themes in crime and action thrillers are mainly ransoms,
captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. Common in mystery thrillers are
investigations and the whodunit technique.
Common elements in dramatic and
psychological thrillers include plot twists, psychology, obsession and mind
games. Common in horror thrillers are serial killers, stalking, death-traps and
horror-of-personality. Elements such as fringe theories, false accusations and
paranoia are common in paranoid thrillers. Threats to entire countries, spies,
espionage, conspiracies, assassins and electronic surveillance are common in
spy thrillers. Characters may include criminals, stalkers, assassins, innocent
victims (often on the run), menaced women, psychotic individuals, spree
killers, sociopaths, agents, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, private eyes,
people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women,
psycho-fiends, and more. The themes frequently include terrorism, political
conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder. Plots of
thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with
outside forces Thrillers take place mostly in ordinary suburbs and cities,
although sometimes they may take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such
as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or the high seas. These usually
tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains
determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world.
Often in a thriller movie, the protagonist is faced with what seem to be
insurmountable problems in his mission, carried out against a ticking clock,
the stakes are high and although resourceful, they face personal dilemmas along
the way forcing them to make sacrifices for others.
Following on from the shooting of the preliminary task it was time for our footage to be edited. Our group of 4 split off into pairs and I worked with Eduarda to edit what we has shot.
Upon viewing the footage we had shot we were displeased to find that not all the shots aligned with one another. In one shot Eduarda would be holding the script up and in another the script would be held by her waist or another example would be one of the actresses would be standing in a different place to where she was stood in the shot before making the editing process of making each of the shots flow from one to the other seamlessly a challenge and much more difficult.
In an effort to resolve this and to make everything look better despite the flaws in our filming we used a technique Matt taught us called unlinking. Essentially the clip and the audio are as one and are shown as a pair on screen, however, we unlinked audio specifically from the close ups and cut out the audio we didn't want and replaced it with what we wanted to be there instead. I feel we did this very well as you could not tell that we has used this editing to our advantage. This technique saved our skin on this preliminary task and practically gave us the clips we wished we had filmed or done much better.
Reflecting back on our work I wish we had filmed more shots of each position and angle of the camera even if that had meant more time being spent. I feel this would have helped us so that our final clip was not as rushed and we had more options if some of the clips did not fit together properly. Our final product was particularly short because of this lack of footage. In my opinion my favourite shot and also the hardest shot that looked the best once edited into a sequence was the focus pull of the handle which initially instigated the start of the final piece.
Whilst filming the test shoot my group and i had a lot of things to think about such as angles, levels and positioning. When it comes to actually doing the shoot there are many things that you bypass in the preparation process that you are then not prepared at all for such as height of The two actors, surroundings of the place we are shooting with regards to noise level and lighting. The actual test shoot went well and we took many re-shoots of the same parts just to be sure we have all the footage we could need to give an indication as to if this idea will work for us or not when we get to the editing process. Although the test itself went well we found it particularly challenging to make it look as we envisioned it to be, meaning we struggled with the best angles and ways to fit in all the 
important details into one shot. Once we were pleased with both the amount of footage we got and the footage itself we went back to the media room and began to edit.
Upon editing we found various complications such as the way things in the room would move between takes and the way the actors may be in a slightly different position than they were previously, although not a big issue it made it harder for us to have a clear image of the thriller running smoothly.
