Evalution:

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

I believe that I have developed as a film maker very well due to the team I’ve been filming with. I know I’ve grown as a film maker in the editing side because on day one I didn’t have a clue how to use IMovie but now I know how to work it and use effects effectively this is due to the team I’ve been working with because watching them enabled me to get a good understand of how it worked and then developing my skills on my own by trying out new skills and investigating how it works and now helping my mates on IMovie just shows me how much I’ve progressed from the preliminary and how much I’ve developed as a film maker.

My strengthens in film making would be the editing part. I believe I have picked up this strength via my work partners who are very good at the technology side of film making. Although this is my strength there is still a lot of room for improvement but before the prelim I didn’t know a single thing about editing therefore I believe I’ve improved massively. Also I believe my main strength which I brought to this team was the planning and organisation when organising what everyone’s role was I stepped forward and navigated that and also it was important I kept my blog nice and organized which I think I did at a good standard.

 

 

Some of the specific skills I have developed were skills such continuity which is a style of editing that requires the director to try to make the film reality as much like the audience's reality as possible. This means the film is trying to recreate what the world around us is and trying to make it easier on the audience to comprehend and understand the action happening on screen. Within this style of editing there are many terms or ways of implementing the style. These affects can be used independently of each other to create desired affects. Also 180 degree rule was key when filming for us because if we didn’t get this right it would just confuse the audience.

 

 

The 180 degree rule is basically The 180-degree rule of shooting and editing keeps the camera on one side of the action. As a matter of convention, the camera stays on one side of the axis of action throughout a scene; this keeps characters grounded compositionally on a particular side of the screen or frame, and keeps them looking at one another when only one character is seen onscreen at a time. The technique allows for an expansion of the frame into the unseen space off-screen. It is referred to as a rule because the camera, when shooting two actors, must not cross over the axis of action; if it does, it risks giving the impression that the actors' positions in the scene have been reversed. Also shot reverse-shot is continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects. A shot showing what the character is supposedly looking at (either a point of view or over the shoulder shot) is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or of the other character looking back at them, for example. Shot reverse shot often ties in with the 180° rule to retain continuity by not distorting the audience’s sense of location of the characters in the shots. The last editing technique is match on action this was also key. Match on action is basically is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This creates the impression of a sense of continuity the action carrying through creates a “visual bridge” which draws the viewer’s attention away from slight cutting or continuity issues. This is not a graphic match or match cut; it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two separate things.

The way we approached filming our opening titles was we had a planning page on our blogger. This is where we put all our work up and it meant that when it came to filming we had a clear idea on what we needed to do.  The main bit of planning that we needed to carry out that would help our production was the shot list. This was important because it meant we was prepared for what we needed to shot when we was out filming.

I beileve now looking back at our thriller we can improve on such things as finding a better location which fitted our genre so that we didn’t have to relie on the edititng so much. Because all we had to work with was a not in use bridge and some woods I beileve that this opening title was a success. Another area of improvement was the timing I beileve we could of improved how quickly we did the editing. The strength of our opening title I beileve was the sound and the editing it really created the effect we was looking for and applied to a mass audience.

The way in which we created and developed our skills from the prelim to the actaul thriller is massive you can tell we have come a long way from the screenshots below and how we have developed our skills as time has gone by.

 

Prelim                                                               Actual

 
 

The first screenshot is of the titles. We believed that the titles would look a lot more effective at the end of the opening titles so we put them at the end. The reasoning behind this is because in our prelim we didn’t think that the titles stood out at the start of the opening scene and when researching other film openings they had their titles at the end of the opening.

 
 

These screenshots show you the types of shots we used. In the prelim we decided to act like someone was watching them from CCTV because at the time we thought it was an effect way to keep the audience on the edge of their seats but then we decided that if we could see it from their eyes then it’ll look more effect so we decided to use point of view shots. The difference in these shots also is the quality. When filming our prelim on one of the schools camera we decided it was great quality and to make our filming a lot of eye catching we opted for using one of our own cameras.

 

These two shots have the same description it is them both running away the only difference is that the editing is a lot better and the positioning of the shots. In the prelim shot the only thing going on in that shot is the person running away but on the other hand in the actual thriller opening we have 3 things going on in a 4 second shot this is important because it tells the viewer that the movie is going to be action packed and thrilling. 

To conclude these opening titles I believe it went better than I thought it would because once we finished the filming I thought the shots that we got weren’t great and I didn’t think we fitted the genre well enough. Also I didn’t think we had enough shots because we planned on doing quick editing so we would need a lot of shots. But the editing was done exceptionally well to bring back what I thought would be a D/C grade to potential A/B. so overall I believe our opening thriller was a success.

 

Evalution: Question 6

Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When constructing our product digital video cameras were key because if we didn’t have a camera we couldn’t film. From our prelim when we analysed it we decided to improve for our actual thriller we should use one of our own camera because the schools cameras aren’t very good quality and to take our thriller better we needed everything to be clear and easy to understand so we decided on using our own. We decided the shot types we were going to use were extreme close ups most the way through because when analysing other thriller opening titles this is what they used and it was very effective because it didn’t give the audience a clear understanding which left them on edge. 

When researching we found that lighting was important in thrillers and that low key lighting was used quite often. We could use the use of natural light to get the low key lighting but we found when editing we could use tools to lower the brightness to obtain the low key lighting. As for the weather we was quite lucky and the location too. On the day of filming we got a low key lighting from a gloomy looking day and also surrounded by woods darkened the setting giving us less natural sunlight meaning we could use the low key lighting to our advantage. When editing we used Final Cut as we felt this was a more advanced software which help us incorporate the jump cuts and use the blade cut tool to cut up some of our scenes to add in the flashbacks and we felt this was a successful software in ensuring our thriller looked professional.

 

The shot on the left is a normal shot of the location that we filmed at. We looked at this shot and thought it was affective because of the camerawork and positioning. We knew we wouldn’t be able to replicate this but we tried our best. Also we added in a gloomy affect because this fitted in with the genre and the affect we was trying to create

Evaultion Question 5

Question 5: How did you attract/ address your audience

When creating our opening sequence we took into consideration what our audience said and wanted to apply what they expect to see in our production from the research we obtained. From the research we obtained we gathered a range of expectations but also similar expectations. We obtained our research from asking our target audience via a Vox Pop. We found that our audience expects to see violence and some sort of excitement which is thrilling. We took this into consideration and ensured we included some violence and some excitement which would attract our audience as we wanted to make our film pleasing for our audience. It is important to please our target audience to improve the sales and reputation of the film.

This next shot shows the antagonist putting leather gloves on, this suggests to the audience that this is the killer because he doesn’t want his finger prints at the crime scene. But this shot also leaves the audience in the unknown and they want to find out who it is. Also the black of the gloves and the coat connote death. This is key to use colour in opening so that the conventions of the thriller genre are followed. The shot type is a close up this is because it doesn’t give the audience a full picture and leaves them not knowing what’s going on also it creates enigma.

 

This shot is typical of the crime subgenre, it shows you how is wanted. Typically in a crime thriller the antagonist is “wanted” but in this film it challenges convention and shows the protagonist as wanted instead. This is our first glimpse of a character and the audience begin to wonder who he is, but they will find out later in the film. The positioning of this piece of paper may imply that someone may have dropped it, like the protagonist saw it and ran. This also ties in well with the music because it creates tension and suspense.

Nearly each shot has a name of an actor in the film; they are made up of course, except the executive producer names. The names appear in one of the four corners of the screen and the typography is very typical of the crime subgenre. We decided to follow this convention because if we tried something like, printing out the titles and filming them, we weren’t sure how good that would look. But we did create our own typography on Photoshop were as some thrillers these days used standard fonts to make the text more visible. Our typography worked very well with our production because it looked army type with half of it fades out and looks rough and because the opening titles is very tough and suspended that’s why it works.

The way we used genre conventions was simple because we knew that our genre was a very dark and creepy thriller and we always wanted the audience not to really understand what was going on so it was very interactive and played with the audiences mind. So the type of music we used was key. We decided to confuse the audience by in our opening titles we wanted a really dark feeling to it but to confuse the audience we put inputted some very mellow music this confused the audience because the titles were very suspense and creepy whilst the music was very calm and at ease. Also we used asynchronous sound because the music in the background was very calm and it didn’t fit with the titles this is the effect we was looking for because it creates tension and un ease.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evalution Question 4

Q4) who would be the audience for your media product?

 

 

When researching our audience we decided our audience was between the ages of 15-30 year olds. We felt this age was appropriate because of the type of narrative we have produced. We identified that our audience would be predominantly males due to the level of violence on show and thriller films are stereotypically more male’s type films as they are films that males can relate to in some way or another. When researching into thriller we took quite a big inspiration from the film ‘Walking dead’. We found the narrative of the opening sequence very exciting and it kept us guessing what was going on and the use of graphic matches help portray a psychological feel to it. We took inspiration from this and incorporated the graphic matches to make a normal daily routine look/feel sinister. This helps us with attracting our audience because the daily routine can gives them something to relate to. An example of this person would be someone that is very active in their day job such as a plumber because it is a very hands on job and our video is very interactive.

 

The psychographics of our film I would say should be ‘the explores’ this is because of the location that has been brought into our thriller and it is also not an everyday life its different. This is why our typical audience member would be up to date with fashion and technology and be of a reasonable intelligence. All typical of a mainstreamer, they follow what everyone does and they choose the in date things. We have chosen these type of people as our audience because we want to aim it at intelligent people and mainstream people, not just so they can understand our thriller opening but also so it can help promote our film to other mainstream people. If our audience is to be interested in our thriller they should be interested in TV programs such as ‘walking dead’ or ‘DEXTER’ due to the psychological narratives in the series and if they enjoyed these then they would understand and appreciate our thriller. I feel the use of mainstreamers for our audience is they will have that sophistication linked to our killer. The mainstreamers will fit into our age category of 15-30 as this is the age where fashion and technology is a big part of this particular age categories life. The ages are also the ages where adulthood is present and our film is to be taken seriously and the killer is portrayed as an adult and this helps as our audience can link to the killer in his normal and everyday actions.

 

We did a lot of research into our audience for our thriller and one way we researched them was by using Vox Pops and finding out what people around our age liked in their thriller films and we found a lot of conventions that are associated with thriller. These consist of things such as action, violence, weapons, blood and a lot of them said something that was going to thrill them and keep them on the edge of their seats. We planned our narrative around this as well of keeping the narrative of ‘walking dead’ in our minds to aid our narrative further and we found that the use of ‘walking dead’ and incorporating what our audience expects to see into one made an exciting idea ad thriller. We also found that our demographics were chosen carefully and accurately as the age group of 15-30 we found easier to work with and gather information from as they will be more interested in violence and action thriller films at this particular age. Although if we were to do the research again I feel we should use more analysed and detailed questions as I felt the questions we used were a bit vague and we could of asked more questions to seek more information to help aid our thriller further.

Our Vox Pops told us that our audience is mainly male. We found out that the interviewee’s loved the most popular thrillers like, Physco, Training day, James bond: Skyfall, Jurassic park and Snatch. Training day and snatch are more male oriented films. We inter viewed harry and he said that “physco really sets the benchmark for thriller films” we took these five films into account when we were in the planning stages. Also we found out that our audience likes to have a character, who they can really relate to and like. Also somebody well known in the film industry. The also said that the film has to be suspenseful, the audience like to be kept on the edge of their seat. Someone said they like a hint of the sub-genre sci-fi in the films, but we didn’t include any, so if I did it again I might have added some science fiction. We also have to look at the inherited audience this is when other means of media or production have already created an audience through a different method.  Harry Potter is an example of a film that has an inherited audience.  This is due to the primary source of the narrative which was from a book.  This was then turned into a film.  Therefore the audience that was gathered from the book was then automatically inherited onto the film. This isn’t the case for our thriller because our story hasn’t been anywhere else therefore it’ll be the best time people would of seen it

At the start of the task we produced a preliminary thriller; this helped introduce to use the different types of shots to use and introduced us to the editing side of things. This helped us get up and running and we developed these skills into making our thriller as good as possible. Although we used this preliminary task to receive feedback, we showed our preliminary task to a variety of people to find out what they thought. Although this was a very basic type of thriller and didn't aim to excite or thrill our audience straight away it still followed a lot of the conventions which we asked people if they enjoyed. We found people said the camera shots and angles helped develop the narrative which helped us in our final production as we knew to use a range of shots. I believe the preliminary task was a great way of helping us as a group identify our strengths and weaknesses and also our audience identifying them for us helped drive us on in making sure we corrected our weaknesses and kept to our strengths. As one big thing in our production that our audience was critical of in our preliminary task was our use of titles.  They were at a poor standard and let our preliminary down as a result of this, we took this into consideration and did research into thriller titles and we really worked hard to ensure our titles in the final production were as good as possible as we wanted to show progress and improvement to keep our audience happy.  One of the questions that we asked was what was your fault movie this gave us a understanding of peoples favourite genre and then we asked what they liked about the film this gave us an understanding of what we needed to include in our film. The most popular answer was that people liked the action and thrill and also people found it good if we got the audience involved.

For our thriller movie we have decided we would have a BBFC Classification of 15. We have decided upon this because of the narrative of the story and its psychological sub-genre. We chose this age rating due to its psychological and violent nature. We feel the content of the opening may be too frightening for a younger age group and the content suitable above the age of 15 only. We felt this was a suitable age and also good for our sales and also good for our feedback. The use of age 12 may cause too much trauma for someone of the age of 12 to watch and this could cause a negative theme being portrayed about our film and be seen to have inappropriate content. The classification of 15 also lets us have fewer restraints and gives us the chance to allow more scenes of strong violence. We took into consideration the 18 classification although we felt the 15 could cope with the amount of violence and action portrayed in the thriller and due to the fact prolonged violence is not shown throughout the film only in short sections. Also the rating of 15 also allows us to keep our researched target audience of 15-30 which helps as it means we can have a large amount of sales where as we have a large audience and we wouldn’t have had to restrict our audience had it been an 18. 

Evalution Question 3

Question 3: What media intuition might distribute your media product and why?

The group decided of the name of our production should be Boundless Productions. We called it this because believe that we can do anything and we aren’t limited to anything, this means if we were a really company we would get people’s attention. Also the angled shape behind the text is similar to the infinity symbol this is because we believe our ideas are out of this world. We have our company logo or indent is at the start of the opening sequence and it slowly zooms into grab the audience’s attention.

 

Production companies are key in the film industry. Their job is to obviously produce a film and sell the film that we produce. Nearly all production companies these days help the film makers and the creation of their film; they do this by making schedules, budgeting and sometimes even help make decisions on actors and key members of staff/crew and they are also in control of the distribution and exhibition.

The production basically gets control over the entire film. The production company other the years generates money from past products and is able to fund this film to generate even more money. They have to advertise the new film and they own all the rights to the film and the production company gets paid every time a DVD is sold and every time it is shown in a cinema.

I would like Lionsgate to produce our thriller because they are renowned for doing many thriller films.  Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution and international distribution and sales. These means we can get our production out to a much wider range of people. Also they have shown on 20 different TV networks, making it so much easier to advertise our film.

Lionsgate have produced massively iconic films, for example The Hunger Games and Twilight and emerging young adult brands like Divergent and Ender’s Game.  These are large names for the filming industry, this tells us that they have a large about of experience. But they don’t only do thriller films they do many other genres as well. For example Kevin Hart’s let me explain. I believe they would be very helpful in giving us pointers when we create our production.

Our titles are similar to the walking dead, showing the actors first and the executive producers last followed by the title. The table below compares the order of credits with the order the credits were presented in our production:

Walking dead	Our Film
AMC presents Actors Executive producers Developed by Music by Title	Boundless productions Actors Executive producers Title

 

We missed a couple of things out, but the waking dead opening titles sequence is very different from most thriller films, only a the most important names are mentioned at the start where as other films list. The special effects, directors, costume design, writers, makeup artists. We decided to keep it plain and simple.

 

Question 2 Evalution

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Because in our opening titles we don’t really have any main characters we just have a man getting chased but you don’t see much of him it’ll be hard to pin point one social group but it our opening title does have social groups which we’ve targeted mainly. But the social groups such as C2 such as plumbers and manual workers. I believe this category will be the most interesting. This would appeal to the psychographic groups of explorers, because they want to find out things and the truth behind the mystery and because of the setting is in a mysterious setting it’ll really dig deep into their imagination this is why I believe they would watch this. Strugglers will watch this to escape reality and they normally can relate to main character because he’s convicted of many crimes and strugglers will know how it feels and can relate to the characters this is why I believe they would watch it. 

I believe that our actor Conor Durrant and the old time actor John Dillinger have similarities such as the way the both dress which is a very formal dress sense. Also John Dillinger has always been famous for being an American bank robber and gangsters so he was always on the run it was his role in films that’s why we based our actor Conor Durrant on him because the characteristics John had matched our genre and our storyline. Also John Dillinger was always a villain in films and our main character although he hasn’t done anything wrong he is being represented by the public as a villain this is why these two match. We decided to use the formal costume because it gave the viewer mixed feelings about this character because although he was homeless because he’s on the run it tells the viewers that the man was once a normal but still has characteristics of a normal person. After we analysed John’s acting we looked at the shot types that would be used with him and they are shots such as extreme close up and half face shots this is why we decided to use these because we hoped it created the same atmosphere as what it did with John. Also a massive stereotype is that the leading escapee is a male and he stereo types for male are very dominant this is why we used a male to be our main character.

 

Harry’s character

 

Smart- we needed Harry’s character to be smart, well dressed and clever. Harry was perfect for this role because he is a very well dress and smart man. We were good as playing the villain because he could really get into the role. Movements- Harry’s movements needed to be sinister when filming the on top of the hill shot, the black silhouette. He did this very well. Harry’s movements were very typical of the thriller genre, at times they were sinister and other times very suave. Hitman- we wanted Harry’s character to give of the Hitman vibe. We did this by wearing black clothes, which in many thrillers are very typical for the antagonist to wear, because it conceals their identity and it also connotes death. Harry is our second character and he is the antagonist or villain. We wanted someone who could place this role well, in a suave and sinister way. Harry’s ticked both of these boxes because he is a good actor and can play many roles. His character is very similar to that of   Hans Gruber from Die Hard. Harry’s character is seen as very powerful. At the start of most thrillers the antagonists are very well off and powerful. Also him being a male stereotypically males him appear strong to the audience. In one of the shots in the opening sequence you can see harry stood on top of a hill but with his identity concealed, making the audience feel less powerful than him. This is done by using a low angle shot. Harry’s character in this opening sequence is dressed similarly to a stereotypical Hitman. He has dark/black clothing on, of which connotes death. He is wearing also a red tie, so that the audience can identify him with authority and it is red with connotes blood or danger. From what we have researched, in many thrillers the antagonists wear black, this is done to create a sense of mystery or to conceal their identity. I think that our audience could relate with Conor’s character because he looks and seems like the typical every day person. Our opening sequence doesn’t represent females at all because we don’t have any in the opening, this may or may not be offensive to females. Our actors are younger than most actors today, but I don’t think this would affect how the film is being present. But then again maybe the older generation would like to see an actor they know, who is key to the thriller genre. But all in all I believe that it well appeal to a wide ranged audience. Also these characteristics Harry had fitted a stereotypical villain because of the way he looked and his movements.

 

 

Question 1 Evalution

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

Thriller Film is a genre that revolves around anticipation and suspense. The aim for Thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats. The protagonist in these films is set against a problem – an escape, a mission, or a mystery. No matter what sub-genre a Thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. The tension with the main problem is built on throughout the film and leads to a highly stressful climax. Some examples of a thriller genre are The Great Escape - A large group of POW’s (prisoners of war) plan an escape from a German camp in World War II. The Silence of the Lambs - An FBI agent develops a relationship with the notorious serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lector, in order to gain Lector’s assistance in the hunt for another serial killer. North By Northwest - Mistaken for a government agent by foreign spies, an advertising agent travels cross-country trying to survive. There are 16 main sub genres coming of the thriller genre such as:

Action Thriller- Take any other thriller subgenre, give its defining elements a back seat, and focus on the action, and you have an action-thriller. This is more common in movies than novels because of the visual appeal of explosions and violence. This sub-genre would be connected with ours because of our setting and Mise-en scene used.

Conspiracy Thriller- In this subgenre the protagonist must confront a large, powerful organization whose threat only he sees. Usually he must do so alone. This sub-genre is not connected with out thriller therefore we won’t use this.

Crime Thriller- This subgenre focuses on crime, and is usually from the criminal’s point of view. Physical action and eluding the police take the place of gathering evidence and trying to. Crime thriller does connect with our thriller because it is all about someone committing a crime but there isn’t a strong connection.

Disaster Thriller- In this subgenre a (usually) natural disaster is taking place, and the antagonist is either trying to stop the disaster, the extent of the disaster, or just save

themselves before time runs out and the disaster has run its course discover the criminal.

Eco-Thriller- In this subgenre the protagonist must stop a threat to the environment (man-made or natural) that will have consequences for society if left unchecked. The damage could be local, but nation or even world-wide stakes are more dramatic.

Forensic Thriller- In this subgenre the protagonist(s) is forensic scientists whose involvement in an unsolved crime threatens their lives.

Legal Thriller- This subgenre takes place in and around the courtroom. Usually the protagonist is a lawyer who has found their case threatening death for either them or their client.

Medical Thriller- This subgenre involves something usually used for medical purposes becoming a deadly weapon. Often it is a virus that is leaking out to the public. The protagonist or antagonist or both are doctors.

Mystery Thriller- This is a subgenre of both mysteries and thrillers. It differs from a regular mystery by being much more fast-paced, with the protagonist on the run and the threat of another crime serving as the “ticking clock.” This thriller fits our genre the best because our thriller is based round people finding this guy that’s committed an awful crime and they are mysterious to where he is and want to find him.

Political Thriller- In this subgenre political relations or the whole government is at stake, and the protagonist is employed by the government to stop the decline. The protagonist may have been low-level before having attracted attention.

Psychological Thriller- A personal favourite. In this subgenre a lot of the conflict is mental, rather than physical. The protagonist has become involved in a dangerous situation which literally threatens their sanity. They must use mental prowess to overcome their opponent, whether the battle is inside their own head or it a battle of wits.

Religious Thriller- This subgenre uses the history and myths of religion. Usually a religious artefact or historical secret is discovered, and different people and groups vie for control.

Romantic Thriller- This is a subgenre of both thrillers and romantic novels. The plot line follows a typical thriller’s tension, suspense, and excitement, but a main element is the growing relationship between two characters.

Spy Thriller- It’s hard to call this a genre mash-up when spy novels almost have to be thrillers. At any rate, this subgenre focuses on the high adventures of field agents. It is usually set against the backdrop of some war.

Supernatural Thriller- In this subgenre otherworld elements are introduced, usually as an antagonistic force, but just as in the romantic thriller, the plot line and feel or distinctly that of thrillers. Some characters may have psychic abilities and other supernatural novel elements may be present.

Techno-Thriller- these genres are a cross between near-future science fiction and thrillers. Cutting-edge technology plays an important role, either as something to obtain, or working for or against the protagonist.

For our thriller opening we decided to use sub-genre Mystery Thriller we choose this because we think it is the most effect thriller genre and it differs from a regular mystery by being much more fast-paced, with the protagonist on the run and the threat of another crime serving as the “ticking clock.” Also thinks sub-genre fitted our location in where we had an idea of setting it because it was in the middle of nowhere and was very mysterious because it was an abandoned bridge. These are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and mystery thrillers are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations, with similar characteristics and features. An example of a thriller that is similar to ours would be

se7en and waking dead this is because of the conventions we used such as the camera shots and Mise-en scene such as the props.  

If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that relentless pursues a single-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character’s is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy. The elements of this genre that we used are elements such as mystery element we did this by understand the word mystery and really analysing how to create the perfect mystery. After doing research such as questionnaires we decided to create the perfect mystery opening titles by quick landscape shots mixed with extreme close ups. We decided this would work because the viewer wouldn’t know what’s going on. We also kept the thrill by keeping that cliff hanger so we left the viewer at the end of the titles not knowing if the killer found the runaway convict. We were inspired by films such as se7en and walking dead so we followed their genre and conventions.

The soundtrack used in our thriller product is called Candles by Natalie Lungley, it is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFrljyqU6i0&index=10&list=FLblZDoCSBGmemF1AG5EudcA

This track is mainly acoustic guitar with singing, which had a slow tempo, this added to the suspension. Its lyrics also worked well with the subgenre we had chosen. We had watched many thrillers during our research and action/ horror thrillers hand more of an upbeat soundtrack for example walking dead and training day. Whereas we challenged the conventions because we wanted something slower to create more suspense, but we did like the strings used in the walking dead opening, so we wanted to find something which combined the two. In the end the soundtrack we used was prefect for our opening. Sound and a soundtrack are very key to the thriller genre. We removed all of the diegetic sound from our production and just added a non-diegetic sound song. We did this because we liked the walking dead opening and its opening only has music and no sound effects. We think it worked very well. Because the string instruments are very good at creating drama and making the audience felt on edge.

 The typical shot types that we used were close ups and extreme close ups we decided on this because it is the most effective thrilling shot because it gets the viewer involved and out of their comfort zone because it is to close and will lead the viewer into confusion because they don’t get the full picture. When researching other successful shot types we decided also that the long shot will create a good thriller opening because it does set the scene as well and gives the viewer an idea of the location of the movie through the opening titles. We decided people needed to understand the movie throughout the opening titles and give the audience a sense of feeling for the movie and we believed that these shot type did exactly that.

 

The editing used was very quick editing this was to create tension for the viewer because if it is quick editing it shows that there is a lot going on and the viewer will get the idea that the movie is action packed and thrilling. The Mise-en-scene was clinical in our thriller opening because we had to find somewhere where it was creepy and didn’t send of a good vibe this is to set the scene and also gives the viewer a good understand of the genre if they didn’t already know. We didn’t use much  props but the props we did use such as knifes, guns and bullets give the viewer a clear understand on what was going on and these props also add excitement to the opening title because they are thing you wouldn’t normally see on a normal day. The narrative in which we used was a man that had been convicted of multiply murders in his home town and many people are after him and he has to run away but whilst on the run he realises that they’re getting very close to killing him and knows where he is. This is an interesting story line because it fits the thriller genre very well and connotes action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are three main codes and conventions which are shown in the opening of thrillers, to make the audience ask questions and give a mysterious feeling to the audience. These are editing, sound, camera movements/shots and Mise en scene.

Editing, The use of quick cuts. Thrillers often use quick cuts to create tension and quicken the pace. A good example of this is seen in the thriller Psycho, when the woman is stabbed in the shower. Fade to black. This is used in thriller films usually when someone is unconscious or dying. This is effective in psychological thrillers as it allows the audience to be in the characters position. Fade also adds suspense to a thriller as the audience are unaware of what is about to happen next. Flashbacks are used for the characters to see characters past. An example from ours which compares to the psycho fade to black is when we showed the gun we kept on fading it to black so it looked like a blink.

We decided to use such as the telegraph pole purely because of the effect it gave the audience it gave the audience a creepy feeling which suited the thriller genre.

The way in which we used the conventions in our work used was because we used the walking dead as a good template with some of the props that we used some examples are below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These screenshots are examples from the walking dead season 5 opening titles and ours. These screen shots represents how we used the conventions from the walking dead and expanded on them by adding different effects. We believe that these particular shots really did create a good atmosphere that is why incorporated they into our opening titles.