Evaluation

Overall, I feel that our thriller went very well and fits the conventions of the thriller films we researched. In many of the thrillers we watched, we noticed that the opening credits can last between 2 and 10 minutes long. As we only had a time limit of 2 minutes 30, we had to condense all of the opening credits in that time. The opening credits fits the conventions of other thrillers such as the Sixth Sense and Memento because nothing is explained fully in the first 2 minutes of the films. This means that the audience are left questioning what has happened in the first 2 minutes and makes them want to carry on watching. As Poppy and I found out from our audience survey, a lot of the people we questioned said that they found our opening sequence quite confusing. This was what we aimed to achieve because The Sixth Sense did exactly this. (the audience see the main charcter get shot and then he is up and walking again in the next scene). Our opening sequence also fits the conventions of psychological thrillers because there is not much talking in the opening sequence of The Secret Window. We decided not to use too much talking because if the audience have to concentrate on what the characters are saying straight away, the audience may feel that they have been left in the deep end. So just some music and change of tempo and pitch helps introduce the characters to the audience gradually. This is so that the audience can have a general idea about what the charcter is like and their main role in the film. Our opening sequence also fits the conventions of a thriller because the name of the film does not come up at the start of the film, it comes after the opening credits. This happens in a lot of films, not just thrillers. An example of this is The Secret Window because the first thing the audience see is the main character sitting in a car in the rain. Our opening sequence challenges the conventions of thrillers because quite a lot happens in a short space of time in our thriller, where as in other thrillers such as What Lies Beneath and Seven, not much happens in the first 2 minutes. I think this is because the directors do not want to confused the audience too early on in the film. We, however needed to have a lot happen in our film because we needed it to all flow on from each shot to try and bring forward what our film is actually going to be about.

Our media product represents particular social groups by having young actors/acrtesses in our opening sequence. By doing this, it should interest a younger target audience which we were aiming to do in the first place. We used a young girl as the main character because young children are generally seen as innocent characters, however this is not the case in our thriller. This is a reverse stereotype. To try and make the innocent stereotype stronger, we made sure the girl was wearing natural make-up and a dress. We also made sure she had her hair in bunches and that her iconic item which would represent her throughout the film would be a balloon. The other character represents the stereotypical teenager who bullies their younger siblings. This character was wearing all black and a leather jacket. Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. We shose this colour because the audience will assume that this character is the villian, however this is not the case.

The media institution which might distribute our media product would be Universal Studios. This is because they are very successful and also seem to do a lot of thrillers which are similar to ours. Some well known thrillers which Universal Studios have produced include The Birds, The Bone Collector, The Thing, Dead Silence, Psycho, The Skeleton Key and The Strangers.

Looking back at our final product, I think that the target audience should be for people aged over 18 years old. This is because it is quite a confusing opening sequence and all the people who did not understand it were aged under 18 years old. I still think that the target audience should be for a younger audience because there is younger characters in the film. This means that the audience will be able to relate to the characters easier.

To attract/address our audience, the first shot was of a man writing some instructions. This made the audience immediatly concentrate because they need to understand what is being written. We also used low key lighting and did not show the face of the man who was writing the instructions. This attracted our audience because they will want to find out who it is and why he is writing it. There was also red lighing using in that shot to signify blood, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Slow, low-pitched music was used as well as a voice-over of what is being said. This is to build up the tension and make the audience want to find out what will happen next.

To keep our audience interested throughout the opening sequence, we changed the voume, pitch and tempo of the music through to make it more exciting for them to watch. We also used a variety of camera shots and angles to make it more appealing on screen.

Overall, I have learnt how to film with the shot being smooth. This is especially important for the tracking shots we have used. There are a few ways to over come this. We attemped to place the camera on a office chair with wheels and using some string to pull it along, however this technique did not work for us. Therefore, we had to make sure we used a steady hand. If a shot was jumpy and not very smooth, I learnt how to edit the shot so that it would flow smoothy onto the next shot.

I was very surprised about the length of time it took us to edit every shot because we filmed each shot about 3-4 times each and at different angles to see which one would look the best. This meant that it took us a very long time to edit our film. We came across a very implications on the way. One problem which occured was that the character who was running seemed to be running in different directions each time she was on screen. This meant that the shots did not flow smoothly into eachother. Therefore we had to rearrange the shots to make sure the character was running in the same direction throughout the film. Another issue was that the character who was running was sat down half way through the film. This meant that we had to try and move that shot into another part of the film. This meant that the soundtrack was not in the right place and we had to place the soundtrack correctly.

Looking back at out priliminary task, I can see a huge improvement. The preliminary task prepared us for our main task and the problems we might encounter. We used the same type of effect with the flashback and the use of the eye because we found out that it worked very well in our preliminary task. We also learn, during our prelimary task, that voices could not be heard if it was filmed outside due to background noise such as the wind and cars. To overcome this, we learnt how to use voiceovers.

To improve our final product, I would slow down the pace a little bit so that it gives the audience time to adjust and think about what is going on. I would also try and make the plot a little clearer by possibly having a scene which shows the connection between the two characters a bit clearer rather than going straight to a flashback. Finally, I would also try and make the voice-overs not as long and more clearer so that the audience have a better understanding of what is going on.

Laura Knapp

Evaluation

We have now completed our Thriller opening, and I am very pleased in how it has turned out, not only the practical production, but also the written evaluations. I feel that Laura and I have put in a lot of effort over the past few months, despite the problems that we encountered throughout the duration of the task.
Our first main problem that we had was when we lost a group member due to her having an illness, and we were a bit dubious about whether we would be able to keep up with the workload, but with a lot of hard work and effort, we managed to accomplish this. I think that this made us even more determined to produce the best we could manage, as if trying to prove to ourselves and our teachers that we could do this on our own.
The next problem that we encountered was when we were location scouting, and the place where we wanted to film had issues with it and we would've had to go through a major process of getting a trip organized, if we were to film during school hours. However we got around this by filming outside of school hours, and all went swiftly, and we got the footage that we wanted.
These two, were the only major problems that we had, and I feel that if we had come across any others that it would have set back our completion of the film.
We did however have a few minor difficulties, with the soundtrack being too loud, and the voice overs not being clear enough. We wanted the voice overs to sound a bit like they were being spoken from a distance, so we used an echoing effect on them. However we did not realise that it would make them quieter, and so more difficult to understand. This is nothing major, however there is a significant difference between the two types of sound, with the soundtrack being ever so slightly louder than the voice overs. It should not make a difference to how the film is viewed, although it could be irritating to some people, and could distract their attention from the main focus of the production.

Poppy Smyth

Evaluation of feedback

Good eyeline match - this shows that the shots were framed perfectly, and that the camera was placed at the right level so that the audience feel connected to the characters.
Louder voiceovers needed - this shows that the music was too loud and that we might have to lower it a bit more, when the voiceovers were being played. We know this, but it was really difficult to record voiceovers as we had to, literally, try over and over agian, because they kept going wrong.
Make storyline understandable - we believe that the storyline was understandable, but then this is rather biased as we think our production is rather good, and so cannot give an unbiased opinion.
Make soundtrack louder when there is no speech - making the soundtrack louder would enable the audience feel more involved in the film, rather than them straining to hear it, the sound would engulf and draw them into it.
Be more articulate during speech - we disagree with this point. We feel that the words that were spoken suited the thriller opening, and that any other sort of speech could ruin it.
Soundtrack slightly disjointed - this is a valid point, the soundtrack did not completely go together, some parts of it were a bit disjointed in that the mood within the music, changed very quickly. And sounds that were mellow and quiet, suddenly went to being quite loud and angry.
More variety in visual effects to create interest - this is a fair point, however, we feel that if we were to put any more visual effects in, it would somewhat ruin the production. Visuals are used in it to make it interesting, but if we used any more then it would just be over the top.

Feedback and improvements from questionnaire

• Good eyeline match
• Louder voiceovers needed
• Make storyline understandable
• Make soundtrack louder when there is no speech
• Be more articulate during speech
• Soundtrack slightly disjointed
• More variety in visual effects to create interest

Questionnaire results

As you can see from the graph, the majority of people we asked were between the ages of 15 and 19. We asked ten people altogether, and although this is not a large sample size, it will give us feedback on what we could have done to improve our production. To improve this further, I would have asked more people, with a sample size of around 100, yet we do not have the time to process the results and viewings of the production would be difficult.
In the time that we had between making the questionnaire and finding people to do fill it in, it was hard to find people that weren't in the 15 to 19 category. This could sway our results slightly, and will have to be taken into account when analyzing whether we have chosen the correct target audience.
























The people we chose for the questionnaire were predominantly females as they were more willing to do it, whereas males couldn't be bothered. If we were going to do this fairly then we would generate a random sample of people, giving a number to each individual and then randomly drawing out 100 numbers. By doing it this way we may have an uneven number of males and females, but everyone has a fair chance of getting picked.




















The results show that the 8 out of the 10 people who viewed the production, thought that the actresses we chose to play the characters in the thriller opening, were suitably selected. This could be because we were rather limited with the people willing to perform. The people who said no, were aged between 15 to 19, and they were both female. An interpretation of this result could be that they found it hard to relate the female actresses to themselves.



















There was only one female, aged 15 to 19 who said that they thought the film was not suitable for the target audience. Additional comments were that it was hard to understand. However we believe that the audience would rather be confused than bored.
















Almost half of the people we asked, thought that the it was a psychological thriller, this is enlightens us, because our thriller was aimed to be of this choice. The people who put crime, disaster and sci-fi, may not totally understand what defines the different sub genres. This could be due to us not explaining the genres, and if we had done, our results would be much clearer.



















Only one person said they would not want to watch the rest of the film, they were female, aged 15 to 19. She said, "It pulls me in, but not really enough to want to watch it". This shows that we made it interesting enough to make the majority of the people want to see the rest.



















The majority of people were very satisfied. There being 7 very satisfied, 1 satisfied, and 2 unsure. From this we can see that overall, people have not said that they weren't satisfied with it, which shows us that our target audience enjoyed our film.




















This graph shows that the soundtrack was a success, we are very pleased with it, especially the ending, because the editing goes in time with the soundtrack. This makes the film easier to follow.
























This shows that our target audience were either very satisfied or satisfied with the image on the screen, this gives us confidence that we used n appropriate range of shots.





















Being that we didnt use that many visual effects, the audience were satisfied with the ones that we did use. The main reason for not using a vast amount is that sometimes 'a little goes a long way'.






















One female aged 15 to 19 said that it was inappropriate to have this storyline, this is the same person who said it was hard to understand, in previous answers. Therefore she may not like the style of our production.





















The self same person who said that the storyline was inappropriate to use the storyline that we used, and who said that the production was hard to understand, said that the target audience is inappropriate. We disagree with this, as do 8 other people who said that it was appropriate. And ne person who said that it was very appropriate.




















All of the people that completed the questionnaire, agreed that the soundtrack suited the moving image. This makes us confident about the whole production as we were worried that it would not quite fit with the film. The sound is really important as it creates the mood and helps differentiate between the shots.

Questionnaire

These are the questions that we have put in our questionnaire.

1. What age category do you fit into?
2. What is your sex?
3. Did the selected actors/actresses suit the roles of the characters played?
4. Do you, the audience believe that the production is suitably aimed at 15 to 30 year olds?
5. Into which sub-genre would you class this film?
6. Would you be interested in viewing the rest of this film?
7. How satisfied were you with the: film, sound, image, visual effects?
8. How realistic was the: storyline, acting?
9. Did the soundtrack suit the moving image?

There is also space for additional comments.
From this questionnaire, we hope to be able to understand how the audience see's the film, and what is hard to understand, because the way in which Laura and I see the film, will be different to how it is viewed by others.

20/4/09

Today, Poppy and I finally completed our film. We adjusted the voiceovers slightly to make the voices more clear. We also had to use a still image rather than a clip of the writing on the balloon because we found that the clip was very quick and the writing on the balloon was difficult to read. Therefore, we froze the clip and made it into a still image to make it easier to read.

We also made a questionnaire for our target audience when we show our production to about 10 people and get feedback. By doing this questionnaire we hope to find out where we went wrong and how we could have improved. We are hoping to show our production to 10 people tomorrow and analyse the feedback. We will then be able to do an overall evaluation of our production.

Laura Knapp

As Laura has said, we have now completed our film. The deadline for the whole production is the 24th, which is this Friday. We will hand out our questionnaires once the selected people have viewed the film. We will try choose people within our selected target audience, and try to make the selection as unbiased as possible to ensure that we get a good range of views of the film. We will take the comments that are made into account and evaluate them to see how we could make our Thriller opening better.

Poppy Smyth

30/3/09

I am very happy that we have got the main bulk of the work out of the way now. There a few finishing touches that need to be done such as the credits. I also think we need to adjust the voiceover slighly because I don't think it sounds natural and it needs to sound like the character is thinking it. However, overall I think it is a job well done!

Laura Knapp

30/03/09

We are now in the final stages of production.
Today we completed our soundtrack and have put it together with our film. It looks really good! There are a few parts that need to fixed, in some places the soundtrack overrides the voiceover and it is difficult to hear, but overall I am very happy with our production.

By Poppy Smyth

28/03/09

Poppy and I are still on schedule. We just need to finish off the last of our soundtrack and also add the opening credits. As we are on an Easter break during the period of 3rd April-20th April, we will not be able to do any editing, so we plan to carry on writing to our blog and thinking of any other perfections we could add to our final piece. We plan to watch thrillers such as the Shawshank Redemption, Sixth Sense and Don't Look Now. This is so that we can compare our thriller to the thrillers that inspired us. We will need to closely watch the Shawshank Redmption because it contains a lot of flashbacks, as does our thriller. By watching The Shawshank Redmption, we will find ways to perfect our flashbacks and learn how to make them even more realistic. By watching the Sixth Sense, we will check that the acting and the costumes of the actors and similar because our thriller has a similar plot to the Sixth Sense. We would also check how the Sixth Sense expresses the colour red as it is also shown a lot in our thriller. Finally, by watching Don't Look Now as it is about the death of a child who comes back to haunt people.

Laura Knapp

The first shot will be 5-7 seconds long. It will a extreame close up of a man writing the instructions 'Go the the cupboard, open the door, don't let anyone hear you, remember what I said.' It will also be a high angled shot, looking over his shoulder, slowly zooming into the writing. There will also be a voiceover of the man saying what is being written. There will also be some non-diagetic music in the background to add mystery. This shot will then fade into the next shot which is of a girl doing the man's instructions (this girl will be wearing a little dress to show innocence). This shot will last about 7 seconds. This will be a close up shot of the girl opening the cupboard. It will be a mid angle and there will be no camera movement. The camera will be filming from inside the cupboard. The cupboard door will then open and the is a balloon in front of the camera. The character takes the balloon out and closes the door. The voiceover of the man saying his instructions continues as the character is doing the instructions. There will still be non-diagectic music in the background. This shot will cut to the next shot of an extreme close up of the girl's face and will slowly zoom into her eye at a mid angle. There will be twinkling music as the camera zooms into her eye (non diagetic whoosh). This is a flashback the girl is about to experience. This shot will last for about 5 seconds. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a flash. The next shot is of the older sister's eye at an extreame close up shot and a mid angle. The camera will zoom out to reveal the older sister talking to the younger sister. This shot will be in black and white to signify that it was in the past (flashback).

The next shot will be an over the should shot, which is still in black and white ( over the shoulder of the younger sister and looking at the older sister). The older sister will be wearing a leather jacket to show power. The younger sister will be wearing the same clothes throughout the film. It will be at a slightly low angle, to show the power of the older sister. There will be non canera movement during this how. The older sister will then pop the balloon in front of the younger sister's face and reveals the younger sister's shock and sadness. As this is happening, the older sister will then say 'you stupid girl'. There will be very low volume non-diagetci music playing the the background to create suspense. This shot will be about 7 seconds long. This shot then cuts to the next shot. The next shot will be back in colour ( end of flaskback) with the younger sister holding a red balloon next to her looking sad. This shot will be a mid shot at a lod angle. There will be no camera movement and there will be low volume non-diagetic background music. This shot will then cut to the nest shot.

The next shot will be of the younger sister walking out of her house, carrying her balloon behind her. As soon as the door opens, the music will change and will have a higher pitch and have a more 'happy' feel to it. This shot will be a mid shot and have a slight low angle to show that the younger sister is becoming more dominant and more powerful as she walks out of the house. As she walks up the path, the camera will pan from left to right, following her. This shot will last about 5 seconds. The next shot will be of the younger sister standing still and holding the balloon next to her. This shot will be an over the shoulder shot at a high angle . There will be no camera movement and the high-pitched music will continue. The girl will be looking out to a beautiful landscape and then let go of the balloon. This shot ill last about 3 seconds. This shot will cut onto the next shot which will be of the balloon in the sky at a low angle, looking up at the balloon floating away. The camera will follow the balloon for about 5 seconds and then fade into the next shot. The next shot will be a high andle shot, looking through the trees of the of the older sister walking through the woods. This will be a long show and there will be no camera movement. The high-pitched music will fade out and a musterious sound will be played. The balloon will then land next to the character. This shot will last about 6 seconds. This shot will cut to the next one.

The next shot will be a mid, low angle shot of the older sister looking down at the balloon. This shot will be 2 seconds long. There will be no camera movement and the mysterious sound will fade out. This shot will cut to the next shot which will be a close up of the balloon from the older sister's point of view. This will be a high angle shot because she is looking down at the balloon. There will be no camera movement because the audience will need to read what it says on the balloon. The balloon will have 'it is here' written in blood. This shot will last 3-4 seconds and will cut to the next shot of the older sister's facial expression. This shot will be a close up and a mid angle. There will be no camera movement and mysterious music will play (getting ready for a flashback). A voice over will start...'i remeber as if it were yesturday....' and the camera will slowly zoom into her eye. This shot will last about 4 seconds. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a flash. The next shot will be an extreme close up of the older sisters eye at a mid angle. The voice over will continue and the transition from this shot to the next shot will be a flash.

The next shot will be in black and white to show that it happened in the past. This shot will be of the two sisters playing on the swings and it will be a long, two-shot at a low angle. The older sister is wearing something slightly different to show that this was a different time. There will be no camera movement and the voiceover will still be playing. This shot will last about 3 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot of the younger sister laying on the floor with the swing swinging behind her. The audience will see the older sister's legs running away behind the swing. This shot will be a long shot at a low angle. The camera will be at the same level/angle as the girl laying on the floor. The pace of the music speeds up and the voiceover ends. The volume of the music then increases. This shot will last about 5 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot which will be in colour to show that the flashback is over. This shot will be a reaction shot of the older sister olding the balloon. It will be a low angle show and there will be no camera movement. The older sister drops the balloon and runs away from the camera. (she has just realised that her sister is back to haunt her). This shot will last about 4 seconds and will cut to the next shot. The nest shot will be of a gravestone to show that the younger sisster did die. This shot will be a mid shot at a low angle. There will be no camera movement and the fast-paced music will continue. This shot will only last about a second because it just needs to be a quick flash as the pace is building up. This shot will cut to the next shot.

The next shot will be of the older sister running. It will be a long shot at a mid angle. The camera will hide behind the tree as if spying on the character and when she looks at the camera, the camera will hide totally behind the tree and then pan around the other side of the tree to watch the character run away. There will be camera movement in this shot because the camera will be hand-held to make it seem that the audience are the people stalking the character. The fast-paced music will continue. This shot will last about 4 seconds and will cut to the next shot. The next shot will be a high angle shot in the trees above the older sister who is running. This again, will be a hand-held movement to make it seem that audience are stalking the character. It also shows that there is something obsure and unsure happening. This shot will last about 2 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot which is of the character running over a beautiful landscape. This shot will be an extreme long shot at a mid angle. This will be a tracking shot of the character running. The camera will be on the other side of some bushes which will act as a barrier between the character and the camera. The voiceover of the younger sister speaking will begin, 'she ran, ran away' and the music volume will decrease. This shot will be about 3 seconds long and will cut to the next shot which will be a shot of a tunnel of trees and the older sister will run from behind the camera and away from the camera. This will be a high angled shot and there will be no camera movement. The character will seem big to start off because she will be close to the camera, however the further she runs away, the smaller she will get. This shows that she is losing her power and becoming more scared. This shot will last about 4 seconds and will cut to the next shot.

The next shot will be a long shot at a low angle of the older sister running. There will be no camera movement and the voiceover will still be playing. The character will run over a bridge in a frantic rush to get away. This shot will last about 2 seconds and will cut to the next shot which will be another shot of the charcter running and will then cut to a close up shot of the older sister's feet at a high angle. Her feet will be running frantically (she will be wearing old trainers). This shot will last about 2 seconds and then cut to the next shot of the younger sister's feet at a high angle. The younger sister's feet will skipping calmly and then the feet will stop (she will be wearing little girls sandles). The voiceover will stop and a heartbeat sound will begin. This shot will last about 3 seconds and will cut to the next shot.

The next shot will be a point of view, long shot. It will be in the point of view of the younger sister, looking at the older sister. It will be at a low camera angle and the sound of the heartbeat will continue. The camera will pan upwads to reveal the Lacock Cloisters. This shot will last about 5 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot of the older sister running on the other side of the cloisters which acts as a barrier between the camera and the character. This shot will be a long shot and a mid angle. The camera will pan along with the older sister running. The heartbeat sound will continue and should be in time with the editing. This shot should last between 2-3 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot which will be a shot with both the characters in at the same time. This shot will be a long shot with a slight high angle. The heartbeat sound will still continue to play. This shot will be in the Lacock Cloisters and it will be on a corner so that the audience can see both characters, but the characters cannot see eachother. The light through the cloisters will luminate the balloon and give a red glow to the shot. This shot will last about 3-4 seconds and will cut to the next shot of the older sister screaming. This will be an extreme close up and then the shot will fade to black.

The penultimate shot is a close up of the older sisters face. The camera will be at the same level (eye level) as the older sister laying on the floor with the younger sister's legs standing behind her. The heart beat sound will start to fade away. This shot will last 2 seconds and will cut to the final shot will is a mid shot of the younger sister looking down at the camera (as if the camera is the older sister) and the shot will fade to black. This shot will last about 3-4 seconds.

23/03/2009

We used stop motion to make the credits for the ending of our thriller. I have sped this one up a bit more because the other version was a bit long. The timing for this is now 5 seconds.

Final Pitch for Thriller

This is the final pitch for our thriller. We presented this pitch to our class and teacher. This is so that everyone has a clear understanding of our idea and also shows that we have planned successfully.

We have decided to call our thriller Mutiny. Mutiny means to have a 'conspiracy amoung members of a group resulting in a conflict or rebellion'. We decided on this name because in our thriller, there is going to be conflict bewteen two sisters. Mutiny also sounds like 'mutants'. Even though this is not what it means, it still gives out ideas that there is sometime obscure meaning to it. One of the characters acts like a mutant because she is dead and has come back from the dead and has changed the way she is.

We have decided that our film will have a BBFC rating of 15. This is because it will include fantacy horror and also invlove a lot of violence and strong language. We decided that our target audience will be aged bewteen 15 and 30 years old. We chose this age group because if they were aged under 15 years old, they may not understand the plot because it will be a psychological thriller. We decided to make our target audience quite a young audience because the characters will be young. We decided to make our target audience in the classes of C to A because it will have a challenging plot to understand and the audience will need to be reasonably clever to work it out.

This is a mood board to show our ideas for our thriller. We put a lot of pictures of dark, woodland areas. This is because this is the type of scenary we want in our thriller. This is because woods and trees could signify aloneness and could also act as a barrier between characters. Films which have been set in woodland areas include the Blair Witch Project and The Village. We also included a picture of a child on a swing. This is because our plot includes a child getting killed on a swing. We chose a swing because it is seen as innocent and represents the child's age. We also have a picture of a teddy. This is also to represent the child's innocence. We would also like a certain object that signifys the young child, like a balloon. This will let the audience know when the child is in the presence of another character. This is subverting the stereotype because a balloon is seen as an innocent object but it will actually be used to give a character a warning. There is a picture of a gravestone which represents death. We chose this picture because there are going to be deaths in our thriller. We also have a picture of our location where we want to film, Lacock Abbey. We chose Lacock Abbey because the cloisters will act as a barrier between the two charcters and it also looks like a deserted place. There are also pictures of young children because we want a young child to play the main part in our thriller. Finally, there is a picture of a bloody knife which shows how the charcters are going to die.

This slide shows what films inspired us with our idea. The Sixth Sense inspired us because it has young children in it. It is also a pyschological thriller which is what we aim for ours to be. The Omen also inspired us because because it has a child with psychological problems. The secret Window inspired us because it was set in the woods and that is where we plan to have our film set. This is also the case for The Blair Witch Project because that is also set in the woods. The Blair Witch Project also uses hand-held camera work and we plan to use that effect in some areas of our film. . Ashes to Ashes inspired us because it used a little girl carrying a red balloon which signified her innocence. The Brothers Grim and The Village also inspired us because it is set in woodland areas where suspicious events occur.

We have decided to use Dakoka Fanning as the the younger sister who died on the swing and is back to haunt the older sister. We chose her because she looks very sweet and innocent and she is at the right age we want the younger sister to be. Dakota Fanning has starred in a lot of films. She starred in The War Of The Worlds which is a science fiction thriller. This shows that she would have a lot of experience acting in thrillers. We chose Kristen Stewart to play the older sister because she recently starred in Twilight and she can play a dominant character. We chose Johnny Depp to play the man who is writing instructions down for the little girl. He will not be seen properly in the film, it will only be the back of his head and his hand writing which will be shown. We chose Johnny Depp because he has a very low voice and he can change his accent very easily. His voice is very deep and will be suitable for a mysterious man. We decided to use Bruce Willis as the father of the two sisters. We chose him because he is a very dominant actor and will be very suitable for a protective father. Finally, we chose Meryl Streep as the caring mother. Our main reason we chose her is because she looks a lot like Dakota Fanning which shows that they are mother and daughter. We also chose her because she looks caring.

We chose Buena Vista because films such as The Sixth Sence. Brother's Grim, No Counrty for Old Men and The Others. Buena Vista is also Universal Studios. We will probaly use Universal Studios as they are more well known and Buena Vista is commonly known for doing children's films.

The entire narrative is that two girls are playing on the two swings and having a good time. This is where everything is normal. This is called the equilibruim. The disequalibrium is when something goes wrong. This is when the little girl falls off the swing and the older sister runs off (the little girl thinks she has been left to die, but the older sister has actually run for help), but unfortunatly the little girl is already dead. The disruption is when the older sister is being chased (disruption) by her younger sister (who is dead). The younger sister then draws a knife out to kill her sister (this is where our piece of film will stop). The camera will then fade to black and then the older sister is back to normal in her bedroom ( as if it were a dream), however she soon realises that no one can see her (she is dead - the younger sister did in fact kill her). This is called the recognition. The restoration of the equilibrium is that the two sisters start to talk again because they are both dead. The equilibrium at the end is that the two sisters are both together again. At the end of the film, everything will be concluded and explained that the older sister was in fact running to get help for her little sister (this piece of film will be shown at he end).

This is a concept board of what our opening sequence will look like. The first shot shows the younger sister looking out onto a beauliful landscape. This is when she is looking for her older sister. As we did not have a balloon when we were taking these photos we could not show it. This shot is an over the shoulder shot with the girl standing to the left of the screen to show the audience the landscape she is looking at. This is where the younger sister would let go of the balloon. The next shot is a high angled shot of the older sister walking through the woods. This is to show that she is not dominant or powerful because high-angled shots make the character look small. In this shot, it is where the older sister will pick up the balloon and read a warning message. In the next shot, the camera will be looking at the older sister from behind a tree. This will make it seem that the older sister is being stalked. This shot will be handheld and as soon as the older sister looks at the camera, the camera will hide behind the tree and pan around the tree and watch the older sister walk away. The next shot is a shot of the older sister running through the woods. This will be a long shot and the closer she runs to the camera, the closer the shot will be. This is to signify that the closer she runs to the camera, the more she is understanding why she is being chased. Also, the closer she is to the camera, the more closely related the audience feel towards her and the audience start to feel the character's fear because they can see her facial expressions easier. The next shots show what the older sister had a flashback of. It is of her and her little sister at the park, playing on the swings and then the little. This will be a two-shot with the older sister pushing the younger sister on the swings. The younger sister will then fall off the swings and the older sister will run away. The next shot is of the swing swinging to show that the younger sister is alone.

A the end of our presentation we asked the audience if they had any questions to ask. There were a few questions about how are we going to make it clear what the flashbacks are so that the audience will not be confused. We said that we will be putting the flashbacks into black and white to show that it was in the past. There were also a few other questions about the target audience our film is for. We said that it is aimed at a wide target audience because younger people will enjoy the violent aspect of it and the older audience will enjoy the mystery aspect of it.

20/03/09

We have experienced a few problems over the past few days. However we have sorted out most of them. Yesterday we asked our teacher to overlook our thriller, and we can now see that there are a few more places that need to be edited, to make it more smooth running.
I am going to upload the story boards later, so that they are safe on the computer. I will then go back and look through the blog and make sure that the posts are all up to date.
Next week we plan to get the voice over completed and look towards finishing our soundtrack, from there if it all goes well, we shall be well on schedule, and will definitley be completed by our deadline date.

By Poppy Smyth

20/3/2009

Yesturday, we recorded the voiceover of the man giving the little girl instructions. We also recorded the voiceover of the older sister when she was experiencing a flashback. We have put the film and the voiceover together and also added some sound effects. I am very pleased with the progress Poppy and I are making. We have done the main bulk of the editing so that means we have over a month to add the credits, effects and soundtrack.

The difficulties Poppy and I are finding include; trying to get the shots flow smoothly into eachother, getting the shots into a good order which the audience will understand and also making sure shots with the main character running has the character runnning in the same direction throughout the film.

We are currently trying to sort out a shot where it breaks the 30 degree rule. To overcome this we are planning to use a transition between the shots to make it less obvious. We also found when we first put our film together, there were shots with the main charcter running and then sitting down and then she was running again, so we put the clips in a different order.

Laura Knapp

19/03/2009

Today we are going to continue with our editing and try and get the voiceover sorted. If not, we will continue with the planning of the soundtrack.

By Poppy Smyth

16/03/2009

Today, Poppy and I uploaded our footage that we filmed over the weekend and started to put all the clips in order and deleted the unwanted clips. We then started to edit our film and add transitions between some of the shots. At this moment in time our thriller opening sequence is just over 2 minutes long. However, we plan to add a few more clips in the near future to make it 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Poppy and I have been working together while doing the editing. This so to make sure that we are both happy with the final result and that we are both putting in equal amount of contribution towards the coursework.

Laura Knapp

15/3/09

All this weekend, Poppy and I have been filming the footage for our final production. Yesturday, we went around some woods in the local area and filmed the scenes with the characters running. We also purchased some red balloons and filled them up with helium so that the balloon would fly away easier when the little girl lets go of it.

Today we went to Lacock Abbey to finish the rest of the filimg. Some problems were encountered while filming. The first problem was making sure our outfits, hair and make-up were the same during the two days. This was a problem because the outfit I was wearing was very dirty and I couldn't wash them because it would look different on the film. The next problem was while we were filming in the cloisters. It was a bright, sunny day and there were a lot of people at Lacock. This meant that we were restricted to what we could film because of the amount of people there. Another problem was not being able to use the tripod in certain areas because there was not enough space due to the amount of people at Lacock. However we did over come this issue by resting the camera on a stone ledge instead of using the tripod. The final problem we encountered was when we were doing the flashbacks, we had to make sure the characters did not move or else the clips would not merge smoothly into eachother when editing it.

Despite the problems we encounted, I think we have made extreamly good progress and I am very happy with the footage we have. Tomorrow, Poppy and I plan to upload the footage onto the computer and save the footage onto memory sticks for back up in the case of technology problems.

Our schedule stands as:
16th March - 20th March = editing and voice over
23rd March - 27th March = soundtrack, any extra editing and adding the credits, adding the voiceover and any special effects
30th Marck - 3rd April = Post production (including screening and audience interviews)
Between 3rd April - 24th April = finishing touches
24th April = Final date for submission

Laura Knapp

Sknapp Productions Presents...

This is what we have decided to use as our opening credits. After we have put our film together, we will then decide whether to use this piece of film.

Laura Knapp

Stop motion practice

[URL="http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=142x3k9&s=5"]View My Video[/URL]
For our opening credits, we plan to use stop motion. We decided to have a practice first to learn how it works and how far you can move the obejct and how many pictures we will have to use. After a couple of tries we came up with this short film.

Laura Knapp

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

10/03/2009

We are to film on the 15th and 16th which is this weekend. We are still unsure whether we are going to use Lacock to film at, we may have to use a different location for the shots that we have.

However, everything else seems to be in hand. We have started to think about our soundtrack, though we cannot fully start it now as we need to put it together with the film, after the editing, and it will be then, when we will see whether the soundtrack goes with the pace of the film.

Last Friday, we completed the opening credits of our piece, using stop motion. We had a practice first of all, with about 7 seconds of footage. Then we moved on to the real opening credits. I am pleased with the results.

By Poppy Smyth

3/3/2009

I think I have finalised our storyboard which means we are ready to start filming. Poppy and I have been in contact with Lacock Abbey to ask permission to be able to film in the cloisters. We are having a little difficultly about cheking if we have the correct insurance, however we are currently working it out. We are hoping to be filming on the weekend of the 14-15th of March. We plan to get all of the filming out of the way by the 16th of March. This will give us plenty of time to edit and produce a suitable soundtrack for our piece of film.

Laura Knapp

27/02/2009

Yesterday we presented our pitch to the rest of our media group. It went well, and I am pleased with the feedback that we had off of our teacher. This means that we can now carry on with our storyboarding, we have a few more shots to do and then we will be able to start filming.
I have had a reply from lacock, about whether we can use the cloisters to film. However they wanted more information about who we were and when we would want to film, so we are waiting on that to which weekend we will choose to do the majority of our filming on.
We have also started to think about soundtracks, and have been using Garageband to come up with ideas on how to make this. However we cannot fully start this until we have our filming done. We will start to develop our ideas more during the week when we are editing.

Poppy Smyth

22/02/2009

I am very pleased with the progress that Laura and I are making.It will be very much more difficult due to the fact that there are now only two of us in the group. Yet we know exactly what we want to do, and are making sure that we get there.
As you can see from her previous post, we spent a lot of time last Wednesday on the planning of our main task, and how we are to pitch the idea. It took us all day, this included all the planning, the presentation, going out on location to find whereabouts we are to film.

Poppy Smyth

19/2/2009

We are making very good progress as Poppy and I spent a lot of yesterday planning our main task. As you can see in the previous post Poppy and I put our thriller idea into a lot of detail. We are currently working on our presentation to be given to the rest of the class on monday morning. This presentation will include all of the ideas we came up with yesterday. We are trying to find a way to make the presentation interesting and enthusiastic to convince the audience that our idea is a good idea.

Yesterday noted down some of the locations we will be using for our thriller and also any of the props and costumes we will be needing. We are getting this ready now, so that we can film as soon as possible so that all of our ideas will be fresh in our minds.

Laura Knapp

18/02/2009

Title- Mutiny – Mutiny means a conspiracy among member of a group resulting in a conflict or a rebellion. We chose this name for our thriller because there will be a lot of conflict between the main two characters. A connotation of ‘mutiny’ could be fighting for power or the idea of mutants (non human forms). Thrillers which includes conflict between two characters include Sleeping With The Enemy.
Audience- aged 15 to 40. We chose this target audience because a lot of students will enjoy this because young people like to get scared. It is a very wide target audience because there will be some time shifts in the film and the older audiences can work out the plot as it may be quite confusing for younger audiences. This will be a lot like the Shawshank Redemption as there are a lot of flashbacks in this film.
BBFC- 15, due to mild fantasy horror. There may also be some violence and suspense. Films such as Don't Look Now, The Others and The Sixth Sense all influenced our idea for the BBFC rating. This is because they are all rated above 12 and our thriller will have some violence.
Studio - Bueno Vista Pictures. We chose this because some of the films which inspired us were made by Bueno Vista Pictures. Bueno Vista is also Universal Studios which is a very large company. So therefore, we will use Universal Studios because Bueno Vista is well known for children's films. One film in particular which influenced us is The Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense use a lot of red which signifies blood, anger, power, strength, energy, leadership, danger and aggression.
Mood board
Trees and woods, camera looking out from behind trees. High angle shot (camera up in tree) looking down on character. This will signify that the character being looked down on is weak and helpless and shows that they are being watched unknowingly. Films which are set in the woods includes the Blair Witch Project and The Secret Window. We wanted to set it in the woods because it is a very quiet area where there will be no one else. There are also a lot of different shots that can be used such as high angle shots up in the trees and low angle shots, looking up at the trees. We will also be able to make shadows using the trees and trees are a good place for the characters to hide behind.

Establishing shot which will be a pretty landscape. This could be of come hills or fields. This gives a sense of being alone where no one else has been and there is nowhere to go. An example of a thriller which does this includes The Secret Window.

Old building. This could be used to emphasise how lonely it is where the characters are. The Others has an establishing show of an old building. This shot sets the scene for the rest of the film.

Red objects such as a red balloon or a teddy. The red symbolises blood, anger, power, strength, energy, leadership, danger and aggression. This colour will come up a lot in each shot which shows there is some significance. The colour red is used a lot in The Sixth Sence and Don't Look Now. These films inspired us to use the colour red.

A child with psychological issues. The character in our thriller will have short term memory loss and has to write everything down so that she remembers what she has to do each day. Psychlogical thrillers such as The Sixth Sence inspired us to use a child. The Omen also helped us come up with the idea of the psychological issues. Also children in thrillers seems very sinister because children are seen to be innocent.

A Ghost. The child who has psychological issues is a ghost because she fell off a swing and banged her head when her older sister was pushing her. This is why she has short term memory loss. Don't Look Now is a perfect example of a ghost of a child. This is where we got our inspiration from . This is because in Don't Look Now, a child falls in some water and drowns and her ghost comes back.

Lacock, showing the cloisters. This has a lot of history to it. Also the cloisters could symbolise a barrier between the two conflicting characters. Thrillers which have used old buildings include The Others.

Films that influence the thriller. On our mood board, we will put some film posters of some films that have influenced our ideas for out thriller. Some of these films will include The Village because it is set in a forest and The Sixth Sense because the colour red is used frequently.

Treetops looking up into the sky. This will be from the character’s point of view. This will symbolise how trapped they are because it will look like the trees are closing in on them. This is used a lot in the Blair Witch Project. In the Blair Which Project, nearly all of the filming is hand-held. We will not do this in our thriller, however, we may use it as an element in our film.

Tunnel of trees. This will also symbolise how trapped the characters are because they are such a confined space. This is also used in The Blair Witch Project.

Water such as a lake or a stream. This could be used to show purity of the character who is getting chased. This is used in What Lies Beneath. This is what inspired us to use water in our thriller.

Black and white pictures. We are going to use a black and white effect when there are flashbacks in our thriller. This shows a time lapse. Thrillers which use this effect include The Others when they are looking at the old photos which are in black and white. This shows that the pictures were taken a long time ago.

A swing. This will show the innocence of the child when she falls off. This will make the audience feel sympathy when the little girl falls off the swing. This effect is used in The Omen, The Sixth Sense and Don't Look Now. These do not all include swings, however they all make the children seem innocent by getting the child to carry a teddy or a balloon.

Ideas
Zooming into picture taken on same day as filming. Zooming out onto actual shot. This could be used for a flashback. This is used in Momento.

Bridge, filming from other side of the tunnel. This could symbolise a barrier between two characters. This is used in Sleeping With The Ememy when the man is stalking the women and there are a lot of barriers between them.

Looking round tree as if being watched. The camera will be filming the character walking past the tree as if the audience are being stalked. This is used in The Village.

Opens cupboard door and picks up something red. The camera will be inside the cupboard and there will be a shot of a character opening the cupboard door. This type of effect is used in the Davinci Code. It is to show that character is dominant.

One character will let go of a balloon and it will fall back down to another character. This will show some link between the two characters. The balloon could have a warning note written onto the side of it. The type of effect is used in What Lies Beneath where there is writing on the mirror. This is one character giving a warning to another character through writing. This inspired us to have a warning written on the balloon.

Close ups of a knife being drawn. The camera will not show the character who is drawing the knife which makes it more mysterious. This effect is used in Psycho. This lets the audience know what is about to happen, but they do not know who is drawing the knife.

Camera placed on the ground and there will be a shot of a character’s feet running. This makes it unclear who the characters are. This is a little bit like the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield because sometimes the audience can see the charcter's feet and that is it. The audience can still hear what is going on, but cannot see the full picture. This may make the film more frightening because the audience will be using thier imagination.

Over view of opening sequence-
John writing note, dissolved into next shot. This will be an over the shoulder shot because it makes this character mysterious. As John is writing the note, there will be a voice over of what he is actually writing. This effect is used in Momento. This is what inspired us to do it.

The first shot will be of Maisy getting a red balloon out of a cupboard and walks out of house. There will then be an establishing shot of some fields as she walks in front of the camera so that we see the back of her head, pulling the balloon behind her.

The camera will then zoom into Maisy’s eye and there will be a flashback of Laura taking the balloon off of Maisy. Laura will then pop the balloon in front of Maisy which will be in slow motion to reveal Maisy’s sad face. The camera will then cut (flashes) back to Maisy standing in field with balloon again.

Masiy will let go of balloon and the balloon will fly off and the camera follows the balloon. Camera looks up into bright sky, and then back down to Laura (main character) in a different place and balloon will fall down at her feet.

Laura will pick up the balloon and there will be writing on the side of it saying, ‘it is here’ The camera will then zoom into Laura’s eye as if it is another flashback, but in Laura’s point of view, The flashback will be a scene of Laura pushing Maisy on a swing in children’s playground. Maisy falls off and the swing is left swinging gently. There will then be a quick shot of a gravestone, letting the audience know that Maisy has died. There will then be a shot of Maisy laying on the floor with the swing swinging behind her and Laura running away.

The next shot will be back to Laura’s eye which will zoom in and then back out to her looking at the balloon.

Laura will drop the balloon and run and whenever Laura looks round, she will look at the camera, as if the camera is a stalker chasing her. There will then be a shot of Laura running underneath trees to show weakness, which will be a high angle shot.

There will be different shots of Laura running in different places. She will run over paths, fields, up hills, down hills, country lanes, past lakes, each end of the cloisters, on different sides of the cloisters and jumping over streams. Laura is in a panic, so she is running fast and breathing quite heavily however Maisy will be walking calmly humming to herself.

At the end of our clip there will be a conversation between Laura and Maisy. Laura will run down the alley of cloisters with the camera on the other side of them. The will be an extreme long shot of Laura and then a quick cut to Maisy’s face at the other end of the cloisters. There will then be a non-diegetic ‘whoosh’.

The camera will then cut to Laura’s facial expression and fade to black as she screams. The camera will then cut to Laura on the floor, looking up at Maisy, This shot will be blurry and all the audience can see is Maisy’s silhouette, with her holding a balloon. Maisy will be looking down on Laura which shows weakness.

Script-
John: (voiceover) Get the balloon out of the cupboard, walk out of the house, and don’t look back.

Laura: You stupid girl (pushes Maisy away and pops balloon in front of her)

Maisy: I remember it as if it were yesterday, it all happened so quickly but I remember it in slow motion. It was March, St David’s Day, I had been out with my sister to the playground as we always did, every Saturday afternoon. There was nothing different about that day. We left the swings til last, because they used to be my favourite. (sound of the sisters laughing on swings, then sinister eerie sound as Laura pushes Maisy and then she falls off) That was the last time I ever played in that playground, all because of my sister.

(Eerie, child’s music-nursery rhyme, just the tune. And some sort of backing music like the sound of a xylophone)

Maisy: (voiceover) She ran, ran away. I couldn’t keep up to start with, but she started to tire. I was determined to get her, after all that she had done to me, I couldn’t let her get away this time. For years she had bullied me, she told me that it was all just a game. That day. That silence, was the first time I realised it wasn’t. Her screaming rang in my ears. I could see it now, picturing her helpless, on the floor face down, her head turning to look into my eyes. The pain, me laughing as she grasps the last strands of life. (On the floor in the cloisters).

Maisy: This is my revenge (looking down at Laura)

End of scene
Propp’s theory
There are two sisters; the younger one is killed by her older sister when being pushed on a swing in the playground. The older sister runs away and leaves her sister to die. The younger sister comes back from the dead, to haunt her sibling. She wants revenge.

The villain/dispatcher – Youngest sister

The victim/hero/princess – Older sister

False Hero – Parents, against the older sister because of what she has done

Donor/helper – providing the villain (young sister) with instructions of how to get revenge, by writing notes to her.

Todorov’s theory

Equilibrium – The two sisters are pushing each other on a swing. This will be a peaceful, calm satisfactory, relatively normal scene.

Disequilibrium – The younger sister is pushed off of the swing and is killed.

Disruption – The younger sister starts to haunt the older sister. This is when Maisy pulls a knife to her sister at the cloisters in Lacock. The audience hear screams but does not know if Laura dies or not.

Restoration of the equilibrium – Older sister goes home and there is no sign of the younger sister. But Laura still hears her and sees flashbacks of her younger sister.

Recognition – Older sister carries on thinking she is alive, but is actually dead. The audience doesn’t think she is dead. She then soon realises she is dead as no one else can hear her other than Maisy.

Equilibrium – Both dead, return to where Maisy died. At the end of the film they are both seen swinging on the swings.