Evaluation Of Thriller

A thriller is a suspenseful adventure story or play or movie.Thrillers have also been produce in the radio, theatre and television media. This genre is incredibly large and thrillers typically involve sudden plot twists and lots of red herrings. For example, keeping people unsure about what is going to happen. Some well known thrillers are 'The shining',Pyscho,Dejavu,The Hills Have Eye.

As part of my media coursework we had to create the opening of a thriller which lasted two minutes, including titles. This included decided what our thriller was going to be about, planning how we were going to film it and were , making a production timeline so we all knew when we had to film. 

The name of my Thriller is called ‘The Observer’ We chose this name as we think it connotes the theme of our thriller and was the best way of describing the thriller with out giving that much away. Our Thriller is about a girl that is being watched by someone given the hint of the title ‘Observer’. She has done something but thinks she has got away with it until she gets an anonymous email and someone has found out. She still thinks she has got away with it and runs out of the building until the person sees her and catches up with her.

Our thriller was set in the College, the reason for this was because it was easy for our group to meet there and if we needed to re-film anything we would have to travel. As it was set in a college the outfit that the actress wore was her everyday clothes. The actresses casual, up-to-date, trendy approach to fashion show that’s she is off a young/teenage age that’s has an eye for fashion. This shows that she could be of an age of a teenager and represent her as a college student.

 

Our group used a range of shot types from long shots, close ups, medium shots, point of view shot, high angle shot, low angle shot and some others . We also tracked the actress as she walks and runs down the corridor this is so the audience can follow the actress at her every move. In our film we used the effect of slowing down the walking as this would create an sense of slowness as she walked. As when we next see her in the corridor she is running this creates a contrast with the two shot as we see slow and fast action. To create the perfect sound track we had to use Soundtrack Pro where there Is a variety of sounds to choose from, our group chose sound from the orchestra section, were we used a string instrument to create tension with the music. There is also an organ playing in the background this contrasts with the violin with the deep organ and the high pitch of the violin creates a strange tensioning music. We also used a heart beat for when the actress had finish running and was heavy breathing therefore her heart would be pumping loudly. We used this non-diegetic sound because we wanted to audience to hear her heart.

I think a smaller studio would want to distribute our film as it is just set in a normal college using video cameras and is edited on an apple Mac. The reason for this is our film is very low budget and would attract a small range of people. The benefit with working with a smaller studio is that it would be cheaper for them to distribute and save a lot of money. Also as it is only going to be shown in the UK, we wouldn’t need such a big company to distribute it as it is going to be shown only in the country it was made in. I also think that it can be released over the internet on popular websites like YouTube or MySpace. This is because a lot of people use the internet everyday and would find it easier to access the newest and latest film genres

The audience for my thriller would be teenagers or young adults ages between 16 - 19 as the actress her self is in this age range. The sex of the audience doesn’t really matter as a thriller can be watched by any sex as long as it gets the audience attention as it is aimed to. It could also been aimed at working class people because the characters we chose our working class themselves and I think it they can relate to it better than any other class. It was generally made for people who found thrillers enjoyable and appreciate the fast pacing and complex plots associated with this genre.

We will attract the audience by the tension of our film and by the storyline. The soundtrack is very thrilling as it has a range of violins and organs mixed together to create tension. This will get the audience wanting to watch it as it gets there heart pumping. There is no dialogue in our film as we thought that we wouldn’t need it. As it might distract the viewers from the actually point of the storyline. The title of the thriller also gets the audience to think what the film is about as it is just called ‘The observer’ and its not letting nothing else out about it.

When using the Apple Macs at first I found them a bit tricky, but after using them a couple of times it became easier and after that I got the use of them. I have learnt about all the inputs you have to deal to create a successful film. From the planning, to the filming, to the editing and then to viewing the final piece. I have learnt a lot of things such as how to log and capture a film, put in the inputs and outputs, edit a film together and create a film. I have also seen that if a scene is not filmed right or the way you wanted you might have to go back and re-film it again, which might become a pain for the group. But its something you got to get over to make the film be exactly what you wanted.

The cameras were easy to use as I have work with them before so this I did not have no trouble with. The final cut pro program was difficult to use at first but with a lot of practising and playing with, you start to find out were things or and it becomes simpler. The soundtrack was the most fun part to work with as we could listen to a range of sounds and play around with it. I learnt how to make a soundtrack and mix all the sounds together to make a good soundtrack. This was very enjoyable.

When I first started the preliminary I was confident in what I was doing but not as confident as I am now. I have learnt how the plan and organise my work into a production line so the thing goes exactly to plan and to deal with anything that doesn’t go to plan, which may happen while filming. I have also learnt how to work effectively in a group with everyone putting there views in and creating a successful film. I also learnt to understand the genre of thriller a bit more and that it didn’t have to be scary but leave the audience wanting to no what happened next. I have gotten better at editing and filming and think that I have improved a lot with all the work we have done.

The Observer from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Editing Day 2

Today was the finally deadline for our films. We were ment to meet at lunch time to finish the soundtrack but speaking to efosa the day before, i had realised he had come in his spare time to start the soundtrack, however he didnt finish it all and needed the groups advice also.

The media suite were hetic everyone was trying to complete there work but our group was relax as we knew we had done the best that we could.

We listen to Efosa soundtrack and it was really good it fitted the clip perfectly but there was a few extra bits that could have been added so as a group we helped pick out some other sounds so that it could be a perfect as possible.

Now all we had to do after that was add the soundtrack to the film and then add the credits. Me and Ava done the credits the lesson before but were told that they looked a bit girly so as a group on our final editing day we create the credits as a group and put it in.

We then had to pick a name for our thriller there was the name we wanted from the beginning the 'The Unknown' or 'Anoymous' but in the end as a group we thought the best name was 'The observer'

Our film was finish everything was done to perfection. We even stuck to the deadline of 3pm for all the media thriller. Even though in our class the deadline was 4.30pm as it was our 3hour media lesson.

This was a great relief for our group we had completed it in the deadline, when we watched over what we had done and it all put together i was very pleased with the work which we all put in. As a group we worked well together there was minor issues that we got over and all in all it was a great success. I am also happy that i got to work with this group as they were a great team =] =] Hopefully we get good marks and the audience like it when we watch it at the cinema. =]

Editing Day 1

Today was our first editing day, all the group was in and that was a good thing. As everything was all loged and captured from previous lesson all we really had to do was find the best clips and point them together.

We had to make sure with the clips that they fitted correctly to the story that we was trying to tell. This took a lot of time as sometimes i would go out of focus during filming or laugh and we filmed it several times so we had to find the best frame and put it all together

In this lesson we had finished the editing and when we looked back at it, i was very proud of the work that we had all inputed to make this thriller.

As a group we had started to look at soundtracks that fit with the thriller, Me and Ava then decieded that we would go an create the credits for the movie while Efosa and Rebecca continue to look for the sound tracks and add the little extra effects that were needed to the footage e.g slowing down some bits.

So everything was on track and the group was doing there best that we could do. Hopefully we will finish by the deadline on friday. We was ment to be meeting at lunch to finish the soundtrack !!

Filming Day 5

Today was a great success, but unfortently our group member Ava couldnt make it because of a funeral. This was going to be our last filming day and for me the last day of wearing the same outfit i had been wearing for weeks on end.

We all met at around 10 but Efosa was there from 9.20 so that he could get the camera and finish logging and capturing what we previously done in the lesson the week before.

Me, Rebecca and Efosa had to think of how we was going to end the thriller to make it as most thrilling as possible so we done a series of different types of ending. One, was me falling and running, which didnt work because the drop looked to fake. I had to do a running scene which took forever as i had to do everything over and over again and this was beginning to annoy me as we wanted it to be perfect.

In the end we finally got what we wanted to do and fixed up all of the other stuff that we needed to. This was our final filming day we had completed it. It was the most exciting thing i had heard. I no longer had to wear the same outfit over and over again. It was our week hoilday so we had to wait to we came back to complete it. That would be our first editing day =]

Filming Day 4

Today was our fourth filming day, our deadline was getting closer and closer and we still had a little bit to do with the filming.

Efosa our directed had seen that there was some continuous errors, which we had made while filming. When he was re looking over what we had log and capture, and thought that it would be a good idea to polish up the little mistakes that we had made so that we could make the film to the best of out ability.

We also today had to think of how we was going to end our thriller, we had alot of thoughts in mind but just had to choose the perfect one.

Today was one of our short lesson and we couldnt fit everything we wanted in. We also didnt have a lesson on friday which was meant to be our other day. There was a media workshop on the monday in the half term that me and my group had all agree to come to hoping to finish our thriller and start with a bit of the editing.

Thriller Editing Day 2

Well for me this was actually a two day editing, because the day before the deadline I spent my free time to come in and do some editing, we needed to create the sound. I came in at lunch and the Mac’s were all used up so I had to wait a while, but it wasn’t long before I got a Mac to use. It took me a while to actually figure out what it is that I would use to create the sound, as you see we had a vast majority of tools and instruments which we could have chosen from, so that even made the task harder.

Finding the right type of mood for the sound was the trickiest part, I had to decide how it would run throughout the whole clip. At first I wanted it to be calm at the start and the gradually speed up the tempo to increase the tension, but that got scrapped as I had realised that creating a soundtrack that was mysterious at start and then slowly increasing the tempo would be much more effective. So I spent time fiddling with the tools and instruments, and I had finally created a soundtrack which I was pleased with, it still needed some tweaking to It but I had decided to leave that for the tomorrow, because everyone in the group would be in and then we can decide on whether the soundtrack is good or not, or whether there’s anything else that needs to be added on.

So tomorrow came and everyone was in as expected, we divided the groups into two, me and Rebecca done the sound and some finishing touches to the clip, Ava & Annie went off to finish the credits. The editing wasn’t really tricky at all, we just had to distort some images and slow down a couple of scenes wasn’t no big. The soundtrack also got tweaked a bit just to improve the tension. Ava & Annie came back but had a problem with the credits, so we had to re-create the credits again which didn’t take very long. We got that done quickly and compiled the whole clip and we were done, the end product was made. All the hard work paid off.

Thriller Editing Day 1

Today the whole group was in as expected, we straight away got started with our editing, and all we had to do is compile the whole thriller together. We had to go through all the clips we had filmed and pic the ones we thought was best, after doing all of that we had to construct the story line. We decided which clip we wanted to go where and depending on where the clip was based a different story would be, told but all leading to the same ending. So it took a while for us to decide which order the clips would go in for the best possible storyline we could present. One major problem we had while trying to compile the clips, was setting the in-points and outpoints because you see as we were filming, the actor would sometimes laugh or go out of role and all of that was caught on tape and even messed up some of the clips. However we were somehow able to set the in-points and outpoints correctly so that it didn’t really affect the whole thriller.

Since not everyone was engaged in the work we were doing, we decided to split the group into two so that everyone has work to do. Me and Rebecca stayed editing while Annie and Ava went off to start the credits, shortly after that we had finally constructed a clip which me and Rebecca was pleased with, we would show the others later because lesson had now finished. All that was left to do now was the sound and some tweaks to the clip, so stay tuned for Thriller Editing Day 2 the final stand point. See Ya