Our final thriller film - SCRAP

Changes to our Thriller

Looking at the feedback and comments form others, we decided to change the first part of the film. The main reasons for this are that we thought it was plain, boring and long-winded until the twist happened. We have decided to make Jake (the driver) more of an extreme teenager by having him smoking a 'joint' in the car then having him shouting out the window at a girl which shows he is inconsiderate and does not care. After this we see him on the phone which shows he does not care about the law or the safety of himself and others. After this we see him fiddling round in the glove box whilst driving which is also a safety issue.
We also decided to delete the music we had originally which was Owl City-Fireflies and recorded in the car, songs which were on the car CD which meant they were listened to by teenagers because Jake is a teenager himself. The music we had was Young Money - Bedrock and Lil. Wayne - Mrs. Officer which are mainstream but teenagers will recognize these songs and relate to them.
We also deleted all of the McDonald's scenes because we believe this did not add anything to our film and was too tedious and plain. We decided to make it more interesting and less boring by having all of the features mentioned above.

We are extremely pleased with our final product and are much happier with this shooting than our last shooting we performed.

Re-filming our thriller - Day 1

We had one day to make some slight changes to our film and make Jake the driver more of a 'teenager' and a slight 'rebel'. We began by shooting more shots inside of the car by having Jake smoking a spliff right at the beginning of the film. After this, we filmed him shouting at the window which seemed like he was shouting at a girl (however, we did not actually shout at ANYONE!). We then filmed him shouting at a car in front yelling at him to 'MOVE!'. Lastly we had the shot of a phone call from his mate where Jake replies 'Yeah! I'm f***ing gonna do it now mate'. We were very pleased with all the shots when we put them on final cut and began to edit the whole combined filming with credits and different effects.

Storyboard of Re-filming

Storyboard of our new film.

Feedback and Evaluation

Good Points:

-Great sound in the car
-Good angles
-Good point of view shot
-Boot opening Shot
-Ending shot of shovel coming down is very effective
-Good use of props eg car, spade
-Good Shots of driving
-Nice use of probs
-ironic music for a killer

Points to improve:

-More sound
-too much driving
-music didn't fit
-music is odd
-a lot of driving around
-relay short clip of random music
-music doesn't fit dietetics
-some clips a bit too long
-sound need to be a lot smoother


Looking at the other groups and our evaluation sheet we had decided to change the beginning of our film, by having Jake (the driver) by being more of a rebel by having upbeat and rap music in the car instead of a mainstream chart song. Also, we are going to have him smoking in the car and being a more recognisable teenager.

Rough Cut

Deadlines for Filming, Editing etc.

11th Jan to 15th Jan: Thriller introduction.

18th Jan to 22nd Jan: Analysis of real and student examples/ Production logos.

25th Jan to 29th Jan: Planning and delivery of pitches.

1st Feb to 5th Feb: Storyboarding, shot lists and other planning.

Cameras are available from Friday 5th Feb at 4.10pm until shooting deadline of 9am Monday 8th March. Students can have 2 overnights or one weekend to film. There are three weekend slots available ( 6th & 7th Feb, 27th & 28th Feb and 6th & 7th March).

8th Feb to 12th Feb: Filming.

15th Feb to 19th Feb: HALF TERM. NO CAMERAS OUT.

22nd Feb to 26th Feb: Filming and editing.

1st March to 5th March: Filming and editing.

8th March to 12th March: 8th March Shooting deadline. 2nd lesson of this week is Rough Cut Deadline. Third lesson of week, rough cut feedback.

15th March to 19th March: End of second lesson of the week is Final Cut Deadline. Last lesson of the week, feedback on final cuts and re-introduction to Evaluation questions.

22nd March to 26th March: 9am 22nd March is Interim writing deadline. Lessons this week are for feedback on interim drafts and revisions/writing.

9am 29th March: Final writing deadline.

Filming our Thriller - Day 2

For our second day of filming we began to shoot more of the car driving around and also began to shoot the graveyard scene with the person in boot (me!) with the boot opening shot, spade crashing down on face on shot and other shots to make the film more realistic and professional for the viewer.

Filming our Thriller - Day 1

We were all anxious about filming and had prepared well for our filming expedition. We had all our props ready and shot list. We went into Jake's car and began shooting our required shots to make our thriller opening. We managed to shoot the McDonald's scene as well as other shots at the graveyard such as him entering the graveyard.

The Sound

For our soundtrack we will be using diegetic sound. This soundtrack will represent the radio, we have chosen the song by Owl City, Fireflies. We will be mixing this with a sound effect at the beginning with a tuning radio noise. This will be played until the car stops in the graveyard, then there will be no more diegetic sound throughout the rest of the opening.

Here is the soundtrack we will be using.:




Here is a similar car radio that will be used in the scene.

Times and Dates

We will be using the cameras in class time, we will start filming on Monday 1st March. We will hopefully finish filming by the end of the week beginning 1st of March. After this, we will start editing as soon as possible to make our film more professional and realistic.

Target Audience

Our thriller opening, due to some explicit scenes and mild violence involving a spade aimed at the victim will have a certificate rating of 15. We have chosen to rate the film 15 due to the film not being excessively gory and there is no extensive swearing and strong language.

Our main target audience would be teenagers and young adults who have inquisitive minds and will try to guess the story. Also, this would not be a family film due to the explicit nature of the overall film.

The audience would be people in their college years with ages 16,17 an 18. This means they would watch films such as Kidulthood, Adulthood, Shank, Hush because some of these films are classic British thrillers and in some places similar to our film by the language, camera shots and locations. Here are some trailers of the films mentioned above.

Kidulthood Trailer



Shank Trailer

Istop Motion walkthrough of our thriller film

Filming Tips

Before we started filming we had a class brainstorm of ideas, here is the final tips we came up with:

1) Think About different Shot types

2)Organization - time - decent shot list

tick off as you go

3)Think Ahead eg credits-Where will they go?

4)Stick to your storyboard as much as possible

5)Shout out each shot number before each shot/take

6) "lights, Camera, ACTION"

7)Sort out roles Swap if necessary

8)Think distance ie. camera distance/angle

9)Lighting test

10)Perform

Health and Safety when Filming

- Be aware or our surroundings
- Get consent if going off-site
- Do not do anything that a member of public may be offended by
- Be respectful to all public
- Do not film in a dangerous place
- No children in the film
- Do not go on the roof of the college

Car

This is the car we will be using for our thriller opening.

Storyboard

Sound

We will be using diegetic music for our piece with the radio on, this is to help create a more normal atmosphere, the radio-station will be recorded separately and put on-top of the clip to help create a consistency. This is a good idea because part of the mystery with our clip is to keep the surroundings and atmosphere as normal and natural as possible. We will also be using sound effects to signify things such as the boot opening and the spade coming down. There will also be a bit of dialogue during the clip.

Shot List

We will have an array of shot types in our opening thriller scene. Because we will be using a car, we will have to use close ups of the person driving the car (Jake), this will show his emotions and the main character in the scene. There will also be panning shots of the car on different roads this will show he is going somewhere and will be driving at a normal speed showing he is not anxious and running away from anything. He will also go to a McDonald's drive through where there will be a 180 degree conversation with the driver and McDonald's employee. After this he will drive to the graveyard this is where there will be long and mid shots of the graveyard. There will also be a 360 degree shot of the graveyard showing the size of the location. Other shots will include close ups of the person in the boot, close up of murder weapon and more.

Production Roles/Location/List of Equipment

Production roles

Michal Kolesnik will be operating the camera and directing it. Michal will be good at this because he enjoys working with the camera and finds it easy to use.

Jake Burroughs-Catton will be producer/editor and also acting in the thriller as the driver. Jake is good for this role because he firstly can drive, also he has good skills at editing on final cut and photo shop meaning he can make the film look professional.
Alex Johnston will be sound producer and acting in the thriller as the victim. Alex will be good at this role because

Location
We will be filming in 3 different locations, MC Donald's drive through, a graveyard and on roads.
Safety will be important in our filming due to most of it being on the road and in a car.

We have permission from McDonald's to film on their drive through as long as we do not film inside. We are in the process of asking to film on the graveyard which should be O.K. to do. Lastly, due to the roads being a public place we are allowed to film on these premises.

List of Equipment
Video Camera
Normal Camera
Tripod
Dolly

We will also be using our own equipment such as a car and an axe/spade to use as the murder weapon.

Our Ident

This our Ident which we made for our thriller opening:




We made our ident on photo shop by creating six different layers of images and text and merged them together. To make them move around we used final cut express and added the bass lines by making them on garage band.

Garage band:

We used garage band and made our bass lines using the bass tools on the program by clicking on the piano and making our required bass notes.

Here is a screen shot of our garage band program:

Props and Costumes

Props and costumes being used in our thriller opening scene are as follows:

The man driving the car:
He will be wearing teengers clothes such as jeans, hoody and a t-shirt throughout the scene, he will also have a prop which will be some Ray Ban glasses and an axe/spade. He will be driving in his car very normally like nothing has happened.

The person in the boot of the car:
He will be wearing normal clothes such as jeans and a t-shirt with perhaps a hat. He will be tied up round the legs and wrists with tape over his mouth. He will seem scared, confused and look very afraid of what is going to happen.

The setting will be around Cambridge with shots of the car going down roads and corners. He will also stop off at McDonald's drive-through making him look normal and he will not harm anyone. Some of the film will also be shot in the car to give close ups of the driver and the car he is driving.

Here is the costume Jake will be wearing:

Our Ideas

Our thriller

The main story line is that there will be a car driving normally on the road and the radio will be playing, he will be going about his business in a normal way, stopping at McDonalds etc. After a while the driver pulls over and stops in a secluded area such as a graveyard or a forest and opens the boot of the car. Inside there will be a man tied up, the driver will pull the man out and torture him. Then the driver will take an envelope from the man and drive off. It will be shot during the day to create a more normal atmosphere.

Analysis of Thriller Opening

I have decided to analyse the thriller opening of the film Catch me If You Can. Although it is not a conventional thriller, it shows someone running away (Leonardo Dicaprio, as Frank Abagnale) from danger ( The FBI and Police). The beginning of the film is animated throughout and shows Frank Abagnale going through different stages of running and different types of transport he uses. It also shows the types of lifestyle he lived and how he was living the high life until it all went wrong. The music in the opening scene could be classed as a type of jazz, however during the opening it changes to a different type of music which could interpret a change in the story and leaves questions even right at the beginning of the film. I have seen the film and the beginning is a very accurate short opening which tells the story in a faint but accurate way to leave lots of questions and make the viewer kep watching.

Thriller Contents

Thriller Contents

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains.

Thrillers often take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen or aviators. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident.





The example Se7en is an external mind game from the person who is performing the seven deadly sins which are Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Greed, Wrath and Sloth. The reason it is an external mind game is because the person performing these deadly sins is playing mind games with the detectives and the investigators into the murders. He also leaves clues at the beginning of the film to show that he will try to do these seven deadly sins. Our group enjoyed the opening of Seven because it leaves a lot of clues and questions to make the viewer think into the story and try to work out what is going on.



Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre. Also, occasionally this genre will border into the also wide-ranging Horror genre.

An example of a psychological thriller is Memento because he has an internal mind game and he cannot remember what he has done and what he has not done. He also does not understand if what he is seeing/thinking is reality or not.



Personally, I think this film is a good representative of a psychological thriller because it shows an internal mind game in the film which is a key aspect of a psychological thriller. Also it does creep into the horror genre because his behavior leads to murder and he does not even know he has killed someone, which shows he is confused and in a very disruptive state of mind.









By Alex Johnston