Thriller Opening | Final Product

This is the final piece, of our project that we have been working towards since before Christmas, it was a challenging piece and in my opinion, we were inhibited in fully showing off our ability, as we weren't able to post a draft edit due to corruption of the SD card we were using. Never the less here is the final edit of our thriller.

1 .In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our Thriller’s opening sequence we stick to the conventions of a Horror Thriller by including high ambient sound, a ripping suspenseful score and a wide range of camera angles to display the emotion of fear and the pure isolation we were trying to create. Our plot was very typical of thriller horror movies: a person is being stalked by a dangerous set of characters. We did however use more handheld/steady cam shots than are usually seen in the genre. We did to give certain shots an edgy and out of control feel, an example being our POV shot to put the audience in the main protagonist’s shoes. We knew the audio side to our film – one of the most important aspects to films in our genre – was very crucial to the establishment of the films genre. We Made sure that it produced and edited to perfection by not only creating a gripping score but ensuring the time signature of the track fitted the flow of shots perfectly; making the two blend together smoothly.
Due to this only being an opening title sequence we wanted to split the project into the parts: the opening establishing shots to the fictional film and the opening credits. We achieved this by having several shooting dates for the raw footage. We shot the establishing side to our project in one day to ensure that the shots produced looked to take place immediately after each other. The credits were then shot in the space of three days to make the different locations we filmed look as if they were going to be included in the feature. Like most opening sequences nowadays, we incorporated a unique font into the credits and gave the scenes straight cut transition to follow other horror thriller openings such as Se7en.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our product represent the youth of society as vulnerable without the help of others. We achieve this by using high angle shots to make our protagonist appear small compared to the vast environment that surrounds him. The loud panting sound that this character produces also shows us his lack of experience of being in a similar situation as we get the effect that he is panicking or he is not in a mental/ physical state to survive. The character’s costume also shows us that he is clearly a secondary school student (shirt and tie) and may be part of a popular clique due to his expensive choice in clothing (parka coat and Dr. Marten boots) – it is stereotypical in movie that the popular characters wear expensive clothes. The character’s extremely pale skin makes him look even more vulnerable or even ill. We could assume that this is maybe subject to a hangover which may explain how he woke up in unfamiliar surrounds. The message we were hoping to send to the audience was not to take things for advantage (surrounding, family, friends etc.) because you may get into situation where they are no longer present.

QUESTIONS 3 AND 4: 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? and 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my target audience I generated a protagonist that fits in the same age gap as to make the character more relatable to the audience. I chose to show my film to people in my chosen target audience and then proceeded to interview them:



So as you can hear I have successfully engaged my chosen target audience and attracted them through the appearance and situation of my character.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The jump of quality between my preliminary task and my final edit is substantially large. Through guidance lessons with my teachers I have learned how to use the programs that we are supplied with as effectively as possible. The transitions in our prelim task were much less smooth as in my final edit. I also use the camera much more effectively by editing the colour balance correctly. It is clear that my cropping of shots is much more advanced than it was during the prelim task as the shots display just the right amount of information. The audio quality is much clearer in my final edit due the usage of different hardware and mp3 sources. The text choice is  much more effective establishing the genre to my final edit compared to the plain standard text used in my prelim task. 

Thriller Analysis:Snatch

Snatch (2000)

Director: Guy Ritchie

Writers: Guy Ritchie

Stars: Brad Pitt, Jason Statham,Vinnie Jones

Plotline

Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

Storyline

Turkish and his close friend/accomplice Tommy get pulled into the world of match fixing by the notorious Brick Top. Things get complicated when the boxer they had lined up gets badly beaten by Pitt, a 'pikey' (slang for an Irish Gypsy) - who comes into the equation after Turkish, an unlicensed boxing promoter wants to buy a caravan off the Irish Gypsies. They then try to convince Pitt not only to fight for them, but to lose for them too. Whilst all this is going on, a huge diamond heist takes place, and a fistful of motley characters enter the story, including 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Franky Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony'. Things go from bad to worse as it all becomes about the money, the guns and the damned dog!

Opening Title Sequence

Firstly it has the graphic match used in the diamond which I like as it allows not only the ellipsis of time but it also allows for another introduction to another main character. This is a nice camera angle/effect/piece of editing that I feel if I were to use it would work quite nicely. Another feature that I like is the introduction to each character, I don't feel it would b appropriate for my piece but it does build a story and an atmosphere for the rest of the film, giving you feel for what it might entail, a feature that I am keen to try and include in my thriller piece.

Thriller Opening - Planning: IT Usage

Camera: Nikon D3100 DSLR

Lighting: Natural Lighting

Extra Equipment: Tripod

Encoder: Adobe Encoder

Editor: Adobe Premier Pro CS4

Thriller Opening - Planning: Risk Assesment

Risk	Severity (-/10)	Likelihood (-/10)	Prevention
1.       A cast member tripping up on set	5-7 – This can vary on what has caused the trip and if any injuries occur in the process	8	When set up the set a clear walking path will be cleared and marked out
2.       Tripod falling Over	8 – This may result in broken equipment or injuries	6	The tripod will either be taped to the ground (if we are doing a lengthy shot) or held securely by the current filmer.
3.       Dropping a camera	8 – This will most likely result in broken equipment which will prevent us from filming further	6	The safety harness will be either held or placed around a person’s neck at all times
4.       Loosing Equipment	7 – If the equipment  is not found the rest of the shooting section of the sequence will be undoable	5	Regular equipment checks will be made on an hourly basis
5.       Electrocution	10 – This would result in a fatal injury	2	All electric cables will be marked out and pat tested
6.       Rain	6 – This would make our chosen location very slippy and would ruin the setting we are aiming for. If the equipment is not pat tested this could also result in electrocution	7	Regular weather checks will be made and all equipment will be immediate covered up
7.       People walking on set	2 – This would not affect filming unless they did not leave or came in groups	7	Signs will be placed around set to ensure that no interruptions are made
8.       Unwanted ambient sound	6 – This will make editing a lot harder and drown out a lot of dialogue/diegetic sound	9	The location will be specifically selected to ensure not too much of this is included in our clips
9.       Tripod malfunctioning	4 – This will prevent the shots being still and probably result in broken equipment	4	All bolts will be fastened tightly and joints will be adjusted accordingly
10.   Falling objects (e.g. branches)	6 – Head injuries may occur and equipment may be broken	3	Check all surrounding hanging objects for security and edit location away from said objects

Thriller Opening - Planning: Titles

To make the end of the sequence really stand out I looked online for fonts to fit the context of the film on www.dafont.com. Here are a few we found interest in.

 Eventually me and Louis decided upon using the "Face Your Fears" font due to it being the most mysterious of the four.

Thriller Opening - Planning: Storyboards

The story board to the basic plotline of our Thriller opening sequence:

Thriller Opening - Planning: Time Management

Whilst planning to shoot our shorrt film we developed ourselves a time table:

Day	Objective
Wednesday	Brainstorm and develop Plots
Thursday	Plan costume and props
Friday	Plan Location and Cast
Saturday	Collect questionnaire results and plan titles
Sunday	-
Monday	Begin shooting before college
Tuesday Wednesday	Begin Editing after college Finishing Editing during Lesson Time