Certificate

I would say this film comes under  the PG certificate. There is no violence and no swearing, no inapproprite scenes but some of the subjects are not suitable for young children.

Schedule

We plan to do areas we can in college time, such as in the public place etc. But there are scenes we need to do after college such as at a house, we need to organise this with all members to make sure they can attend. We have arranged a schedule:

7/3/11: Filming at town centre ( scences 1 - 4)
8/3/11: Filming at wellington
10/3/11: Starting the music on Garage Band
14/3/11: Filming at wellington ( scenes 13 - 16)
15/3/11: Filming ( scenes 18 - 19)
17/3/11: Filming if needed.

21/3/11: Upload to Mac,Editing and Garage Band alternative ( half do Garage Band half editing)
22/3/11: Editing and Garage Band alternative
24/3/11:Editing and Garage Band alternative
28/3/11:Editing and Garage Band alternative
29/3/11:Editing and Garage Band alternative

31/3/11:Evaluation work
4/4/11:Evaluation work
5/4/11:Evaluation work
7/4/11:Evaluation work  if needed

Story Board

Who is our film aimed at?

Our film appeals to females, young teenagers. The reason this is because our whole cast members are female, and our story is all related to females. It includes subjects that young teenagers may go through and can relate to, for example being in a gang and so on. Maybe 13 years old is what age the film will apeal to the most because it covers subject that they may be able to relate to and have been in that situation before.

Costume and prop list

We need:

• Regular clothes
• Access to a bus because we may be using it as part of our film
• Areas to houses and certain location
• laptop / computer
• Camera
• Photo's

Most of this list someone in our production owns it, we were careful about props and things we needed to include for the film to make sure we would have it and for it to be easy to get if not. We are going to print photos off at boots or somewhere like that, we will split the cost within our group to pay for these things.

Issues during the thriller film such as location

We are not 100% sure on where the location for the film is going to be, maybe somewhere near college. We have scenes of just casual - everyday situations, so this allows us to have the freedom of where we film, for example there is going to be pictures and recording of us walking down the street, laughing and joking so we can do that anywhere. We want to film areas of the production at a house, such as scrolling on facebook, doing the mirror shot of the stalker, wearing the clothes, looking at the picture etc.

We have to consider permission and availibility of cast members as some of our group live very far away and have to catch a certain bus home so we need to schedule our time carefully. We also need to think of permission, like permission to film at someones house, or permission to film at a private area.

Cast list.

Our characters names are going to be the same as the people who play them. Because of facebook profiles we have to keep the names the same so they can view our profile, see our pictures etc.

Amie: Amie is going to be the stalker, the girl who is jealous of the group of friends and films and takes pictures of us.

Tara: I'm going to be the girl that gets stalked in the film

Steph: Steph is going to be apart of the group of friends

Jess: Jess is also going to be apart of the group of friends.

We are all going to take turns in filming the process, because we can either film the stalker or the girl or someone, none of us is going to be in the same frame at one time.

We are all going to be apart of editing and creating the music for the  thriller film

Summary of mine and my groups ideas.

In our thriller film we want it to be about stalker behaviour, we have an idea of a character running through the woods with lots of different shots such as panning shots and over the shoulder with dramatic music, then the person stops because someone has grabbed them on the shoulder and the character that was running then turns around, you can see their face and their frightful emotion.  Then we want it to cut to a black screen, and then go onto the stalker scrolling on our Facebook profiles looking through photos, looking through her own photos that she has taken, taking pictures of us etc. We want to keep a sense of mystery and not show the stalkers face. We plan that she is jealous of the group of friends, she wants to be like one of us and try’s to wear things they have on and do their hair like her etc. The idea is that she was once a part of this group and now we have fallen out with her a long time ago and she’s still very resentful towards it. She thinks the girls have a perfect life and in her subconscious wants to be a part of it, although she thinks she hates the group.

We then want footage of us walking and talking, make it look like she is filming it and maybe a shot showing her filming through the bushes and hidden, with dramatic music. We really want there to be as less dialogue as possible, because films we have watched of other students what I think most of all makes it look unprofessional, the sound of the voice and with noises in the background and the wind etc. make it seem unprofessional. To keep the mysterious and intense atmosphere I think it will be best with very little, if not no dialogue.

My group had discussed doing a panning shot up a mirror and show the stalker wearing the same clothes as the main character but stopping at her face so the face is still left unrevealed. Then doing shots from behind to see the similar hair, hair colour, and other accessories.

We want the lighting to be dark if possible, at times ( for example when running through the woods) although our schedules maybe the reason why we can’t guarantee  this because not all of us have certain afternoons off and have to go home at different times, although we will try as hard as possible. We also want to show the colour green, as green represents jealousy.

Things I will need for thriller film

Identify the equipment you will need to produce your film. You should make a list of the equipment you will need.  I will need:

·  A camera to film the production on

·  A tripod to be able to get different camera angles and make it a still and balanced frame

·  A Mac to get to all the programs for edditing and uploading the video on when completed

·  Final Cut Express to be able to edit it and put the effects on appropriatly.

·  My group members to act and film the thriller film.

Questions on thriller films

1) What is the purpose of the opening to a film? To attract the audience and give an insight of the film. To give clues as to what will be happening in the film and what the film is about, also include some of the actors and introduce the characters in it.

2) What techniques can a director use to create suspense in a film? The director can create a sense of mystery and keep the audience guessing what’s about to happen. They can provide a lot of different camera angles to keep mystery and how they portray the characters can create a sense of mystery.

3) How do you think a thriller film is defined? A thriller film is closely related to horror, thriller films provide suspense and thrills with a sense of mystery to the audience.

4) What films can you think of that would fit into the thriller genre? Inception, One hour photo, Se7en, Black swan, Psycho, Salt.

5) The thriller film can be divided into sub – genres – what different types of thriller films do you think exist? Psycho thriller, action thriller, conspiracy thriller, crime thriller, disaster thriller, mystery thriller and supernatural thriller

6) What are the characteristic or conventions of a thriller film? Darkness, mysterious characters, evil characters, characters that are victims, characters that are either married or going out with someone, usually some sort of narrator, or the character explain the storyline within their acting.

7) What do you think is the audience pleasure to a thriller film? Audience pleasure could be the storyline, because storylines in thriller films tend to be very intense and interesting, unlike thrillers it doesn’t scare you so you can continue to watch. The pleasure to a thriller film could be the sense of mystery it gives off, and having to work out and unravel a complicated plot.

8) What do you think are the difference between a horror and thriller film? Horror is scarier, whereas thriller films are more interesting and show mystery and thrills you, with excitement rather than actually scare and shock you.

9) Using the internet research the top 50 thriller films. Look at the top twenty – if it’s not many why do you think this is the case? From the top 20 I haven’t watched many at all. Only about 1 or 2. I think this is because I don’t watch that many films in general. I like thriller films but I tend not to watch them that much because my family don’t really watch them and prefer other genres.

Target audience of thriller films

A lot of thriller films involve action, and a lot of thriller films have 15 age restrictions, and age restrictions similar. So, generally, the target audience of thriller films are young adults/ adults.

There are many different types of thriller films, for example action, psychological, crime, comedy and many more. Many thriller films have a complicated plot, especially psychological. So I think that is another reason why there is such an age restriction, because younger people may not understand the complications of the film. For example Shutter Island is quite complicated. Lots of times it helps understand films if audiences have additional information about life. Many younger people will not know what certain things are or what they mean, so it would not be appropriate for their age.

In my opinion most thriller films are aimed at men, for example in a lot of thriller films there are male characters, as well as male main characters. So male audiences can relate to what’s going on and relate to things that happen to them. Whereas some women may not understand their point of view.

Analysis of posters in thriller films

this poster of Shutter Island shows that it scary by dark, gloomy colours. There is a sharp contrast between dark and light, the light that is being given off by a match is fire, it is red and strong and that emplys danger. Even the words shutter island is in red, this is again showing danger as that's what the colour represents. The island is isolated, which makes it seem lonely and abandond which makes it seem all the more scarier. Lighting and rain brightens up the isolated island, and lightening makes a scary atmosphere. The message this poster shows is danger. It was released in 2010 and is a 15. There is a male figure, this shows masculinity. It seems as thought the target audience for shutter island is for adults/ young adults, and is mostly targetted at males. There are a lot of male actors in the film.

This Dark Knight poster gives indication about the film and what kind of film it will be just from the poster, it is very dark and gloomy, this illistrates the darkness and the horror of the film itself, and indicates it's going to be a scaryier type of film, or something that involves a bit of horror. The man in the picture looks very powerful, and a villian. This shows the audience that he could be a very important, main character within the film. He is not portrayed in a possitive light because he looks quite scary and not like an average person, this indicates to the audience that he may be  the  villian within the film. He is spelling the words " why so serious" in what looks like blood, this really gives the point that he is not one of the good characters and that he may be responsible for death, the red blood symbolises pain, fear and evil. The character has drawn out a smile, which makes it seem very unsettling and creepy because it seems asthough there's nothing to smile about, that he has done a bad thing and people have suffered because of it, this again portrays the character as though he has no guilt and that he is an important, evil character.

This poster is very different to the others that I analysed because it shows a completly different scenario than the others. This poster shows that the movie is quite light - hearted and more of a comedy. It shows that the two teenagers shown in the poster look irrisponsible and very young, you can see that the teenage girl is pregnant, this justifies the irrisponse that the poster is trying to show. You can tell it is going to follow the story of these two characters. The colours orange and white is shown, this is opposite to the other posters because its not shown in scary, dim lighting, instead its embrasing the light - heartedness of the film and the comedy and not being taken too seriously.

Codes of thriller

Conventions of Thriller

Film Classification

Some films have age classifications to state what age the audience should be to view the film. There is U ( suitable for all) PG( Parent guidelines) 12A and 12 ( Suitable for 12 years or older) 15 ( suitable for 15 years or older) and 18 ( suitable for 18 years or older)

PG

General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children.
Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children

12A&12

Exactly the same criteria are used to classify works at ‘12A’ and ‘12’. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. Works classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them.

The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12. An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. In such circumstances, responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to view lies with the accompanying adult.

The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work.

15
No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

18
No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video work.

Allowance in a fifteen film

The guidelines are split into boundries and sub catergories. These are: Discrimination, Drugs, Horror, Imitable Behaviour, Language, Nudity, Sex, Theme And Finally Violence. For all of these a 15 film has to have the guidelined ammount. For example for drugs, "Drug taking may be shown, however should not promote missuse". This means that 15 films are allowed to use drugs, however they must not show the full use of them or promote them to the audience. Another example is Horror,"Strong threat and meanass are permitted, unless sardistic or sexualised". This means that you are allowed to show most gruesome or gory scenes unless they are extremely over the top

Eighteen classification guidlines
Suitable only for adults
no one under the age of 18 can watch an 18 classified film in the cinema or rent or buy one.

Sex education at ‘18’
Where sex material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality, safer sex and health, explicit images of sexual activity may be permitted.

Sex works at ‘18’
Sex works are works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation. Sex works containing only material which may be simulated are generally passed ‘18’. Sex works containing clear images of real sex, strong fetish material, sexually explicit animated images, or other very strong sexual images will be confined to the ‘R18’ category. Material which is unacceptable in a sex work at ‘R18’ is also unacceptable in a sex work at ‘18’.

Typical reasons for restricting films to the 18 certificate category have included scenes of hard drug use, supernatural horror, explicit sex, sadistic violence and sexual violence — the last two of which have in the past led to a certificate not being issued at all, effectively banning the film in the UK.

References or scenes of suicide, which can be easily imitated by youth, can lead to a DVD being given an 18 certificate due to that potential. For example: Volume 3 of the anime Paranoia Agent is rated 18 because of suicide references and violence

Textual analyses + History and research of Thriller films

Thriller is a genre that is closely linked to horror. Thriller films create suspense and mystery to surprise and thrill the audience. There are many sub genres to thriller such as: conspiracy thriller, crime thriller, disaster thriller, mystery thriller and supernatural thriller and so much. One of the earliest types of thriller is psycho thriller that was popular in the 60’s.

A lot of the thriller films in 2010 are action thrillers, such as the A team, unstoppable and the losers. Whereas a lot of the thriller films in the 20’s were psychological thrillers such as blackmail, the lodger, and the bells. So it shows that the genre thriller has become very diverse over the years, in the past it was more psychological and now it is more about action and entertainment.

Thriller films target audience can be very vast. Because there are so many sub cultures to thriller films it leaves the possible target audiences endless.‘The Losers’ is PG 13 and ‘The Crazies’ is rated R.


Shutter Island:

Shutter Island is an American, 2010,Psychological thriller film. Directed by Martin Scorsese. There are many psychological thriller films today, although action thriller films are more common. It's a lot to do with the subconscious of a man and not realising his split identity/personality. When I watched shutter island I found that it was very interesting and a good thriller film because I liked that the audience didn't know the whole story until right at the end. It was a good way of keeping suspense and getting the audience personally involved with their opinions. You didn't know what was going to happen next, which made the audience wanting to keep watching.


Flashbacks of different events that was occurring in the main characters life got audiences to know a bit more about him and his life. This made the audience understand his point of view and was done very well. It shows why he is how he is, the life events that has made him the person he is in the film.


Camera angles and movements are quite sharp, there are a vast amounts of different camera angles used in this film. Such as long shots, meduim shots, close ups, shot reverse shot and much more. The camera angles show what is happening in the film, there are panning shots, like when the camera pans across the people stood outside of the house. This lets the audience know what kind of place it is and show what the characters are like.


There are diegitic sounds to add to the atmosphere, such as lightening. This adds effect as it seems scary, gloomy and miserable. There is a lot of dark lighting to set the scene.


One hour photo:

One hour photo in my opinion was very good. It created a lot of suspense as you knew/ felt like something was going to happen although you didn't know what. After a while in the film you could tell that the main character was up to no good and it got the audience to continue watching to find out what he would do next. The lighting in this film was very bright and clean. This creates it to look strange and scary because it is very clean and bright, it makes it look as if something unusual is going to happen. It is a different way to create suspense through lighting as many films use dark lighting and not being able to see properly and so on to make it seem scary. There's something about very clean, white, bright places that makes it seem unusual and suspicious, which means the producer is creating an image just with the lighting, which I thought was a very good skill.

One our photo is a 2002 film, which is rated 15.An employee of a one-hour photo lab becomes obsessed with a young suburban family. Directed and written by Mark Romanek. Robbin Williams stars. It's an American psychological thriller.


There is also voice overs which makes you know what is going on, the innocence of the main character at the start makes you think that something is going to go wrong. Innocent, every day. normal props make something not seem right, like the camera. He cherishes his job and describes in detail about it and what the camera is like and the machine, which makes him seem suspecious and not normal. They use a lot of white, blues, and they use red when printing photos, red represents danger so it indicates something is going to happen.

Salt
Release: July 23, 2010
Director: Phillip Noyce
Salt is an action thriller. Because it is an action thriller there is a lot of interesting camera angles thats used.  At one point in the movie the camera focusses on the main character, and behind is unfocused and quite blury. This shows the importance in the main character and that they are a strong figure in the film.  There is a low angle shot, again makes us look up at the main character to show her importance. An establishing shot is used to show the location.


There is a lot of different lighting, there is bright lighting to show properly what is going on e.g. like in the establishing shot it is very clear and a lot of different colours are in it.There is a lot of flashing imagery which makes things look suspicious and very interesting. Flashing imagery makes it seem like people are up to no good as you can't properly see it.


The main character in the beggining had blonde hair, which is more of an innocent colour, there are lots of stereotypes of blonde hair that they are dumb etc. But when the main character dyes her hair black in the film it represents danger and that she is dangerous and not as innocent as we thought.


There are props such as guns which is dangerous. It shows that the people who use it are in control and have a lot of importance. The main character uses a gun which shows the characters strong position.

The Mothman Prophecies (Mark Pellington, 2002)  directed by Mark Pellington in 2002 is based on true events which automatically installs tension into the audience as they think it could possibly happen to them, although usually only small details of reality are taken, and then exaggerated and a story is made from it. The music was very echoic but interrupted by sharp sounds to imply to the audience that they should expect the unexpected. Exaggerating a characters breath is used in this clip which implies the character is panicking as you often breathe louder when you panic, even though breathing is very rhythmic and should sound calming, it tends to put you on edge. Cuts from blurry to in focus shots imply a confusing storyline, and draws our attention to specific details to help the audience follow what’s going on. The close up on the moth is quite unnerving for the audience because it is something which we would often see on a day to day basis, but still something which as humans we like. But it reflects that in the title, ‘mothman’ is used which we imagine in our heads to be a cross between a man and a moth, and the fact that the whole creature is never fully seen throughout the film installs tension as an image which can be seen on a screen is never as details or frightening to the audience as the image which they build in their head, and therefore builds tension. The fast cuts when the car crashes adds variety to the pace of the film, and gives the audience the feeling that they are actually there watching the car spinning. The establishing/aerial shot is also a Point of View shot of the Mothman which allows the audience to see the situation from the Mothman’s prospective, and is a way of showing his presence even though we never see him fully. The lighting is very dark throughout as the opening is set at night, and darkness instantly installs suspense as it’s harder to see what’s about to happen.



Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)  which was directed by Ridley Scott in 1979 used very eerie sounds combined with squeaky noises which sound quite a strange mix which implies it would be a very fictional film. There is no sign of life until the end of the opening sequence, and even then we don’t know who these people are and don’t hear them speak, so it’s completely non-diagetic sounds. There was no establishing shot at the beginning and goes straight into a close-up of the spaceship travelling through space (which could be anywhere in the universe and full ship is never shown); and then a close up of all the equipment, and everything is very plain and metal with nothing personalised which creates an unease for the audience as everything seems very secretive, and as though whoever or whatever is on the spaceship doesn’t want anyone to know anything about them.




In 2007, Francis Laurence directed I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007) which starts with a news read. This is of a woman who claims to have found the cure for cancer, then cuts to a heading saying ‘3 years later’; and an establishing shot of an empty New York. This shocks the audience as if someone in real life did find the cure to cancer then it would be seen as a miracle, but this obviously has actually had an extremely negative impact and has resulting in New York being completely abandoned which has been done by closing down sections of road whilst filming, and image editing. This makes the audience think about a lot of things about today’s society and the impact in which science has. The familiar setting of New York which we see so much of in films as being ‘the city which never sleeps’ is suddenly contradicted as it appears to be dead. The very famous aerial shot in this film is to show only one car travelling through the streets. An over the shoulder shot is also a Point of View shot of the driver who we see as the only person left in New York. This tells the audience that the story will be told by this character.

1920's Thriller films:

The Bells was a psychological thriller film as well as The Lodger and Blackmail.

Spies was a spy thriller. As you can see in the 1920's psychological thriller films were very popular and common.

1930's thriller films:

Psychological thriller films were still popular drawing the 30's, there will films such as M, Freaks, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Mad Love and Night Must Fall.

Although there were a few more sub genres to thrillers in the 1930's such as Crime thriller ( Charlie Chan Carries On, Tangled Destinies and Black Gold) There was also spy and comedy sub genres.

1940's thriller films:
Psychological thriller films were still very popular in the 40's. But there was a lot more genres to thriller as well.
Political thriller. Films such as Foreign Correspondent, Man Hunt and Notorious were all in the political genre of thriller.
Comedy thriller such as Shadow Of a Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and Song Of The Thin Man.

Crime thrillers such as Among The Living, Nightmare, Double Indemnity, Key Largo and White heat.

More thriller genres were being created as well as these.This shows how many different genres of thriller has been explored over the years. Popularity of different genres of thriller has changed over time.

Media premilinary task

This is our premilinary task. Our task had four people in it, Me, Jess and Steph were acting in the film and amie was recording it.

When we first had our lesson on the premilinary task we planned what we were going to include in it. We decided that amie would be the director. I wrote out a basic script for us to work off, but this was only basic as we wanted to add to it and compramise ourselves. We filmed a lot of different versions of camera shots to chose the best ones and to make our own versions of the video personalised and different to the rest of the group. When I watched other peoples videos in class and when I watched other films in class I noticed all the different camera angles they use and how it makes it look very good. So I made sure we included lots of different camera angles which I think makes it look good.

We filmed the characters from behind and had meduim and long shots. Aswell as close ups, 180% rule, shot reverse shot, two shot etc. The way we created many different shots was filming at different points, for example we filmed walking towards the door, opening the door and then filmed from inside walking into the room. This ensured not only did we include many shots but that the audience was clear on what was happening and you could tell what was going on. It didn't take us very long at all to film our video because we were prepared and knew what we were going to do. However we had to redo a part of the video as it wasn't clear on what I said.

Later on we uploaded it to the mac's and individually edited our video. We had lots of shots to chose from although they were simular. I chose the shots that I thought worked best and make it clear what they are showing and what's going on. I cut a lot of fotage out and used applications on Final Cut, the marking in and out tool let me delete the footage I didn't want very precisely,so, I could cut footage down right to the second. I added in effects e.g. fading at the end and i put in text at the start.

Media Coursework