Thriller Task- Evaluation

Strengths
- I feel that our thriller was a huge improvement on our preliminary piece in all aspects. The planning was much more in depth, and the effort we put in to the piece was a substantial amount more. As a group we went out of our way to make the torture scenes more effective by getting in help to do the cuts and wounds. Also the location scouting though it took time for the torture scenes we ended up finding a place that was close and fit all aspects of the criteria. The editing is much more high tech and took weeks rather than days to try and create a thriller with suspense and tension.
-The refilming of the premoniton scene took time and looking back i'm glad we took the time to re shoot and get a more relaxed and realistic set of shots.


Limiations
- Some of the editing the group didn't agree on and at times it was hard to find middle ground.
- The main thing if i could go back and change would be the music, although we worked hard in finding and editing the music on there now, i felt with more time we could have found something more fitting.

Target Audience for our thriller is young males and female between 15-23, this is my opinion from what i found from the research i did.

The BBFC rating for the opening i would say would be a 15. But if the film was continued and the torture scenes were shown graphically, as in the openning scene we see the aftermath, it may become an 18.

1) In what ways does you media product, use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions?

As an opening to our thriller we kept to the task by having credits scrolling through, and we research the forms and conventions of a thriller so i feel in turn that kept us in the forms and conventions of a media product. The editing we used what i felt was high skill for our expierence with the technology, but wouldn't compete with films that have large edting studios and expierence.

2) How does your media piece represent particular social groups?

The only group of people shown are teenagers and i dont think we portrayed any of the themes associated with teenagers at the momoent in the media. They're seen as victims and seen talking about school work in the premoniton scene. They're attending a party, but no knife or drug crime is shown.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media and why?

I see art houses producing out film if we were to make it full length or we would be part of the film four programme in which they discover new and upcoming directors and producers.

4) Who would be the audience for you media and why?

When making our thriller we didn't have atagter audience in mind but from research i conducted i see it attracting both genders between 15-23.

5) What have your learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product?

The production kit (camera, tripod e.t.c) i already knew how to use. It was the apple mac's editing suite where it took time to learn the skills. A lot of it was trail and error and you can improve just by playing around on the prgramme for an hour. Now i am confident with editing media products which shows how much i've learnt in 9 months.

Thriller Task- Final Feedback

Charlotte and I asked 4 people for feedback after showing them our thriller. We asked them two questions.
1) What do you think were the highpoints in our thriller?
2) What do you think were the low points?

Viewer 1:
1) The cuts and wounds looked realistic and believable.
The music fits in well and adds tension to your film.
2) In the beginning scene you can’t here the speech clearly so you could have spoken louder.

Viewer 2:
1) The plot was interesting and not cliché or boring to watch.
2) If you didn’t have the voice over, I would have been confused to what was happening.

Viewer 3:
1) The music gave the film an eerie feel.
The torture scenes were well put together, the fast cutting was really effective.
2) You didn’t show that the characters were at the party; none of their faces were clearly shown.

Viewer 4:
1) The party scene was realistic. The ending was dramatic and made me want to watch on.
2) You should have put the whole of the girls premonition in black and white to make it obvious to us she was looking into the future.

Thriller Task- Video

If you look back at my research i brainstormed the basic forms and conventions of a thriller in the context of the two essays i did on Taking Lives and Psycho.

Here is the brainstorm i did in context of our thriller (above).

This brainstorm clearly shows how we conformed to the conventions of a thriller.

How researched impacted out thriller.

The Hitchcock essay helped our group as we used his effective technique of up close shot and quick editing to create panic and distress and make the viewer feel uncomfortable.

We sped up the torture scenes, this is used in the phone booth trailer to show the fast moving city, but we just thought it looked more effective and continued our quick cut and pace pattern.

The voice over wasn't found an idea we came up within our research but it was an idea that came to us after the first bit of music made the thriller look like a music video. We wanted the distress to still be there, but the plot explained a bit or the vewer may have been confused.

The use of dark eerie locations in Silence of the Lambs encouraged us to have low key lighting in our torture scenes and to contrast that with the high key lighting in the sixth form centre scene and the artificial flashing lights in the party scene.

The research into the best directors of all time made me see a link between good/ memorable films and scene and music. The "Psycho" shower scene's music named "the murder" was created for that scene making it fit perfectly and intensifing Hitchcock brillant directing. The same with Steven Spielberg in "Jaws" the two notes created for the approaching of the shark were so effective and now notorious as villian music.

Thriller Task- Initial Feedback

Our initial feedback was off classmates and our teacher.

The general comment was that the filming and editing of clips was really good but that the music didn't create enough tension and suspense.

I felt this was a fair comment and we did change our music because as a group we felt the same.

Some people criticised the beginning scenes because the speech wasn't loud enough and we had noticed that and tried to edited it but the programme wouldn't allow us to after a certain point.

The initial feedback was taken into account and im glad we had it because it allowed us to improve our piece before the final feedback was given.

Thriller Task- Music

To begin with we had decided to have Calvin Harris Flashback as the music to go with our thriller.



We edited all of the music, but when we all watched it we decided it looked like a music video not a thriller, we needed music that intensified the suspense and tension of the images on the screen.

We showed it to our teacher Mr Silverwood and he agreed (SEE INITIAL FEEDBACK)

So we brainstormed other ideas, we decided to have a voice over explaining what the girl who has premonitons sufferers from and what it is like from her point of view.

I went on YouTube and tried to look for some tension building music.



I thought parts of this track could be used to create for tension, but when we looked through CD's at school we found two tracks which we edited and used in our thriller.

A slower track to build tension and put the voice over, over the top.

A faster track to put in over the party scenes and some of the torture scenes.

This made the clip look more like a thriller, and i feel is effective at building tension. If we had more time prehaps we could have found a track tht went better with our filming but i am satisfied with the outcome.

Thriller Task- Advertisement

As i was conducting my research on thrillers i noticed that when i typed in a certain film to a search engine a poster would come up. Me and my team mate Charlotte decided to make a poster as our advertisemtn for our thriller piece. The back ground four pictures are our still photo's from the torture scenes and the foreground photo's which are in colour we collected from the social networking site facebook.

When we'd finished i looked at the film posters in more detail, as well as sometimes including good reviews and A list stars there is usually a "punch" line.

I began to think a about what our "punch" line would be for advertisement purposes, also to entice people into watching the film after seeing the poster.

I wanted a line that would increase interest to see the film and tell them a "snippet" about the plot. I looked at Final Destination's "punch" line.

Final Destination- You can't cheat death- this is an effective way in giving people a snippet of information, this is the kind of punch line i would like to create for ours.

I brainstormed ideas to try and collate my thoughts about the plot and the message i want people to get from the poster.


After trying to brainstorm for a while i couldn't think of it by myself so i asked team mates to help me brainstorm for a sufficent "punch" line.

Thriller Task- Wardrobe & Make up

Party Scene
As the party scene was dark with flashing lights and crowds of people dancing it is hard for the audience to pick out certain people so for the costume it wasn’t for us to wear the same outfit to the party and to be tortured in.



Premonition Scene
For the premonition/sixth form centre scene, everyone in the frame were wearing there own clothes as our sixth form allows us to wear our own clothing so we didn’t see the need to change the clothes we were wearing.



Torture Scene
The torture scenes were when make-up became a big factor as we need to look like we had been beaten up, tortured or dead. A friend of ours older sister is really good at costume make-up so we asked her if it would be possible to come in on the day and do our make-up for us. We asked her to show us pictures she's done before, so she practiced the make-up on two girls and posted the pictures on a social networking site where we could view them.



Here are some of the practice pictures;















The entire group was really impressed by these photo's so on the day of the torture scenes being filmed she came in early and did all of the make-up.

These are the photo's of our make-up being done and of the filming of the torture scene.


Make up being applied;





















On set still pictures of filming;

Thriller Task- Location Scouting

This was our preliminary brainstorming stage for locations. We called around local village halls, we realised that we couldn't afford a village hall. Also we realised it would be hard to fill a village hall with a sufficient amount of people without it getting out of control. Luckily the sixth form we attend was having a sixth form party so we asked for permission to film at it, they said that would be fine.




After sorting out our party scene we had another group meeting trying to find places to hold our premonition scene and torture scenes.




Originally we filmed our premonition scene as though the girls were getting ready for the party and the premonition happens then. When we uploaded the filming on to the apple mac ready to edit, the entire group was in agreement that it didn't look realistic enough.

We re-filmed the premonition scene taking place in our sixth form centre at school, we asked a group of boys is our media to star in it as people coming to the party and they were sitting around talking about it. We felt this would give the scene a more realistic film unlike the filming you did previously.




















When we went looking for possible locations for our torture scenes we were looking for interior and exterior shots. To the left is our first plan of the torture scene. After searching for a location for some time, we couldn't find anywhere where we'd be able to alter the surrounding to make it look like an eerie torture scene.

But then a friend of ours suggested underneath the swimming pool at our school.

We went down there to look and took pictures to decide what we could do with the area and where and how the girls could be tortured.



We made brainstorms with photo's to help us organise our planning;

This brainstorm worked as essential planning, we took this with us on the day and we were able to refer back to it, this probably halved the amount of time we had to spend on this scene. In black pen is where the camera will be placed and a brief summary of what will be happening. In the coloured pen is camera angles we are going to use.





This brainstorm was created on the day of the premonition scene being re-filmed; we used it as a plan as well as above but put the pro's and con's of using these locations. The filming for the party scene had to just be long/medium shots, through editing we are going to create the atmosphere we want. For the sixth form centre it was convenient and we wanted to be able to move the surroundings around, the other pro was the natural lighting is good in the sixth form centre due to the big windows so now artificial lighting was needed.

Thriller Task- Textual Analysis

Representation

In the other part of the media course we do an extract of representation in our exam in practices we have looked at dramas. The waking of the dead essay I did was very dark and sinister and showed some aspects of a thriller.

The opening scene of waking the dead begins with a tight close up shot of a chain swinging, the background is out of focus as the camera shot had a shallow field of focus. This creates a scary, dark atmosphere, you get a sense of torture. The only sound you can hear is the sound of a moving chain which has been heavily enhanced in the editing process.

The next shot is a crane shot down the chain, the chin is swinging with a man a man swinging. The chain then turns out to be a swing with a middle age man on it, the dark ominous tone is still apparent.

A woman in a blurred shot which cross faded from the park with the man on the swing, unfocused high key lighting are visible in both shots but the high key lighting is set in the park scene.

Next there is a very slow pan from the park to a forensic scientist in the background behind a transparent evidence board which is swinging like the chains. All there time there is a sense that something is about to happen and that’s what we are waiting for.

Next is a pan to the hotel room you only see the feet of a man with him undressing himself by taking off his trousers. We (the viewer) are placed under the bed, next the camera cranes up as if into the bed which leaves us with a black screen. All the viewer can hear now is the rocking of the bed and panting.

By the where and the way the camera is placed the viewer is aware of what is happening and that there is a young man tied down and gagged against his will and is being anally raped. The camera does a tight shot of the ropes holding down his hands, then camera pans to the wall where you see the silhouette and the man being raped and strangled.

Next there is a tracking shot of a cleaner going down a corridor to a room, a reverse angle and fish eye lens makes it looks as if someone is watching her from the other side of the door. The tension hasn’t subsided despite what has happened in the last frame.

There is a cut and the viewer is in the room with two detectives at the crime scene and the murder the viewers witnessed. The man who has been strangled had “sorry” engraved in his back. The detectives are working class and the way in which they talk sucks all of the tension built out of the frame.

They leave the room and there is a tracking shot of the man on the swing, who is also a detective. The tracking shot is now following him down to meet the two working class detective. Their conversation contains over the shoulder shots and reverse over the shoulder shots.


For my Textual Analysis's i looked at two trailers in two different types of thrillers, i thought along with all of my other research this might further my knowledge and initiate more ideas for our thriller piece.





The trailer itself is gripping and to me the representation on culture in the city establishes that it is New York even without the voice over informing the viewer of that. I think this trailer is so effective because of the mix of diagetic and non-diagetic music, and also the way in which in the editing process the fist few shots are sped up to show the fast moving city.

The establishment of the phones and the city has been established in the first 22 seconds of the trailer, it then turns to the main plot and the main character Stu. They show him as having a big profile; he seems very in control compared to who we assume to be his assistant who’s with him who seems nervous and slightly uncomfortable, perhaps because he is in the presence of his boss Stu.

Cuts to the phone ringing in a phone booth, from the name of the film and the emphasis on phones in the first 22 seconds we know this will be where the film begins to intensify. When Stu shuts the phone booth door behind him this is him isolating himself from the fast moving city and being closed in to the situation.

Stu even when getting threatened tries to stay calm and call his the gunman’s bluff, but Stu quickly fins out he is not in control when he shoots a pedestrian walking past. The viewer quickly sees the breakdown of the character Stu.

The police arrive and assume Stu is the person with the gun, and they don’t understand the position he is in. It is quickly revealed that he is having an affair with a young girl. The gunman seems to want him to understand the error of his arrogant ways. The gunman tries to get Stu to decide between his wife or his mistress, this isn’t seen in the trailer who he chooses.

The use of close up’s of Stu’s face while the intensity and plot thickens makes the viewer feel uncomfortable. The gunman’s voice is a very calm older man, this makes the viewer speculate who it is.

I see this trailer as such a success as it tells the viewer enough about the plot to be intrigued but not to much because the viewer still has questions. Phone Booth is a thriller but doesn’t conform to the normal conventions of a thriller as it is set outside in high key lighting. There is little violence throughout the film only the shooting from the rifle from a unknown location. The gunman not being caught at the end subverts the usual forms of a thriller and there is no “hero” in this film.




Personally the best psychological thrillers are when the antagonist has no emotions and is unfazed by the thought of murdering someone. Taking Lives, Psycho, No country for old men and Silence of the Lambs have taken this idea and made it into a theme for psychological-thrillers.

This trailer begins with flashes of Hannibal Lecter’s face, this is a chilling site as the low key lighting creates shadows and his facial expression adds to the anxiety that the viewer feels. Clarice Starling a woman who turns into the protagonist of the film going to interview the renowned Dr. Lecter. The location conforms to the usual thriller setting with its low key lighting; this creates a dark atmosphere with her first meeting of Hannibal.

The reason why she is interviewing Lecter is next revealed as Buffalo Bill with a new commentary in the background with flashes of newspaper clippings a necklace and a tattoo, the establishment of the plot is complete. Starling is described as a “rookie” FBI agent, which makes her seem more vulnerable when approaching Lecter’s confinement.

The quick cuts of Hannibal Lecturer and him always being in the shadows emphasizes the mystery and suspense around him. The music makes the viewer feel uneasy as it builds tension. Hannibal Lecter is the antagonist of this film and fits the stereotype perfectly as he is scheming and intelligent.

Thriller Task- Research

I felt this Thriller piece unlike the preliminary task required alot of research to get the right techniques for filming our piece. Aswell as a more unique understanding of what makes an outstanding thriller and why certain thriller's had such success.



As a class we were shown Hitchcock’s film Psycho and the 2004 film Taking Lives to give us ideas. I found these films interesting particularly Psycho I wrote an essay on both films to look at the forms and conventions they use to build suspense and tension.


Describe and discuss some of the ways Hitchcock creates tension and suspense in Psycho.

Alfred Hitchcock’s complex psychological thriller “Psycho” is described as the mother of all modern horror suspense films. It addressed serious social issues at the time of its release such as adultery and embezzling, which made the film stand out leading to its popularity. The sex and violence in Psycho was a new experience for audiences of main stream films.

The title of the film itself creates tension and suspense as the audience would be unsure of what to expect as it was seen by most critics as the first psychoanalytic thriller. The audience would define a “Psycho” as someone who is mad, deranged and dangerous. This strong title would create opinions and assumptions of what the film would contain, and the audience may interpret the “Psycho” as a basic murderer when really it was a mentally ill man with his dead mother living in his psyche as an alternative personality. This adds a twist to regular murder thrillers making Hitchcock’s “Psycho” a memorable film.

The shower scene which I personally see as the films pivotal scene was so affective because of the tension and suspense built. Hitchcock’s first effective technique was the use of close up and extreme close up shots in this scene. Only two medium shots are used and this is before and after the murder. The combination of close up shot and short cuts disorientates the viewers by making them uncomfortable as the scene feels uncontrollable.

The music vastly intensifies the scene, the screeching violins and other string instruments. The diagetic soundtrack is use later on in the film as well, this lets the audience know that something bad is about to happen.

Hitchcock throughout the film uses blurred imagery as a tension and suspense technique. This obscures the killer’s figure in the shower scene allowing him to keep the audience unaware of the murderer for a longer time. The killer can only be seen behind a shower curtain when first attacking, and with the wig Norman was wearing the audience speculates it is his mother.

The audience as given two options to speculate, either the killer is the son or the mother. But Hitchcock’s use of continuously misleading the audiences with ideas and snippets of information the audience are left in suspense unaware of who to perceive as the killer. This is a continuous and effective theme throughout the film.

I see the film being produced in black and white as another technique of suspense and tension. Although it is cost effective and may have been one of the primary reasons, the way in which black and white films are able to create an eerier atmosphere is an easy way to make a dimly lighted room have a sinister atmosphere. The use of shadows and camera positioning allows Hitchcock to take advantage of the black and white as darkness is more defined.

I see the techniques used here as depriving the audience of a clear image or with a clear knowledge of what is happening and this leads to tension and suspense due to the discomfort they feel. I saw Hitchcock’s quick cuts and use of extreme close up’s in the shower scene as particularly effective at discomforting viewers and catching the emotion of the actors. The film being in black and white added to the sinister atmosphere as it created shadows especially in the scene in which Norman and Marion share sandwich’s when she first arrives at the hotel. Hitchcock in this scene puts the camera low and points it up to Norman and the shadows make him almost unrecognisable and with the stuffed animals in the background he becomes a threatening character.



In what ways does "Taking Lives" conform to or subvert what you consider to be the forms and conventions of the thriller genre.

“Taking Lives” was released in 2004 and is based on the book with the same title name by Micheal Pye. The film is directed by D.J Caruso who has directed many thrillers that have conformed to the typical conventions of a thriller. “Taking Lives” is a good example of a psychological thriller that has a degree of conformity to the conventions of a thriller, which are highly effective. But also the way in which it subverts with twists and elements is what makes it a memorable thriller.

“Taking Lives” conforms in a variety of ways beginning with the setting of the film. Ii is set in Canada and this conforms as thrillers are usually set in a different and unknown environment to the viewer so not America and England, but most thrillers do seem to have British or American actors which “Taking Lives” does too.

The constant suspense and tension throughout the film is a good example of what most thrillers try and achieve. The film makes the audience try and anticipate what is about to happen but with the tension and suspense they get a mixed array of emotions. Most directors try and make the audience feel like they’re on a rollercoaster in terms of their emotions throughout the film. With the effective thriller techniques with the good quality acting the audience become involved with the characters and the situation creating more intense reactions and emotions.

“Taking Lives” is full of misleading puzzles and red herrings. The audience believe that the puzzle is solved and another one occurs. The detective Illena see’s a pattern in the murderer’s victims, so it is a race against time to catch the murderer before he gets to his next victim.

The use of the main characters as a way to get more emotions out the audience than suspense and anticipation is an effective technique which in “Taking Lives” worked well due to the acting of Angelina Jolie who plays Illena. She is shown as a strong independent woman and in this day and age that is an inspirable trait, so girls and women watching the film will relate to her immediately. But just like in other thrillers, Illena has flaws and this makes her human to the audience not just a “hero”. For any film to work the characters within the film need to be believable and by giving them flaws the film achieves this. Illena’s flaw is that she gets romantically involved with a witness, which clouds her judgement and she tries to get off the case.

The use of a female lead in “Taking Lives” is on of the ways the films subverts the normal conventions of a thriller. Illena is independent and eccentric and doesn’t seem to have any flaws until she becomes involved with the witness who turns out to be the killer. She becomes the “hero” of the film, she shows her softer more feminine side by being hurt by the revelation of the man she was involved in being the murderer, but she over comes this and finds enough courage to kill this man at the end of the film. All good thrillers have strong but relatable lead roles, by it being an attractive female lead, male viewers are attracted to her and females viewers idolise her.

“Taking Lives” is based on the psychology and the emotions of events. The audience experience the confusion felt by Jolie’s character with her as she tries to uncover the murderer. The confusion of the situation is intensified with Martin the psychopath and sociopaths thought process. He is able to murder people with no sense of remorse or regret and the viewers feel that emotion on a daily basis so this is “alien” territory to them. The contrast of Illena and Martin as characters is a technique used and this shows the vulnerability of Illena and the immorality of Martin.

The climax to a thriller in most cases is the way in which the mystery is solved or the villain over come. In “Taking Lives” not only is the villain over come but he is killed, and the reasons behind why he did what he did are revealed that leaves the film with a tied off end leaving the audience calm and satisfied after there rollercoaster of emotions throughout the film.

Caruso’s use of conforming to the ideas of a thriller and use of subtle subverts like the use of a female lead role, pulled “Taking Lives” out of the classic thriller category and into a category of its own.



After writing the two essays above I became more interested in the way in which thrillers are put together, i decided to research further about the basic forms and conventions used to make a successful thriller. I brainstormed the ideas on the a seperate sheet of paper to take into school to show the rest of the group to help us plan our own thriller.

My basic forms and conventions brainstorm highlighted some of the techniques used in Psycho and Taking Lives that i didn't write about. As you can see even big budget thrillers stick to the basic forms and conventions of a thriller. This encouraged me to take into account the brainstorms when planning our opening to a thriller.

Thriller Directors
So far throughout my research i've only looked at Alfred Hitchcock and D.J Caruson as directors. In order to widen my knowledge i felt it necessary to look at a variety a successful thriller directors.

I researched on a search engine and found the top 10 thriller directors according to movie critics.I looked at them all but decided to research further into the top 3.

1) Alfred Hitchcock, who was born on the 18 August 1899 and directed over 50 films in his career.Hitchcock is considered the Best Film Director. Sixteen films directed by Hitchcock earned Oscar nominations, though only six of those films earned Hitchcock himself a nomination. The total number of Oscar nominations (including winners) earned by films he directed is fifty. the daily telegraph said in 2007 that Hitchcock is "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." I've already looked into the ways he can be classed as the best director in the research above.

2)Steven Spielberg, who is not only an amazing thriller director with films such a Jaws and action-thriller Jurrasic park which both achieved box office records, each becoming the highest grossing film made at the time. He is also a highly achieved director in other genre's. In Schindlers List he won the academy award for best director. I personally see him a such a achieved thiller director from my personal expierence of watching Jaws and the suspense and anticipation i felt throughout. I saw this as down to the music when the killer shark was attacking. This simple change from E to F has become a classic piece of suspense music and the composer John Williams said he music had an "effect of grinding away at you, just as a shark would do, instinctual, relentless, unstoppable."

3) James Cameron, recently released Avatar a sci-fi-thriller this is his first feature length film since his success with Titanic in 1997. Avatar is shot in 3D and is almost entirely computer generated animation. Cameron's initial idea that is now Avatar was announced in 1995, but he wanted to finish Titanic first then start a new project. He held back on making the film in till more advanced technology was made. Cameron himself co-developed the digital 3-D fusion camera system, a biographer described Cameron as half-scientist, half-artist. Cameron is one of the highest grossing directors of all time.

Target Audiences for Thrillers

When i researched this i found that there wasn't necessarily one certain group of people who enjoy thrillers but all the different genre's with hin thriller (e.g.horror-thriller) are appreciated by different people.

Horror Thrillers- as horror films target audience tends to be teenage girls, this genre's target audience is younger (17-25) and femal based.

Crime Thrillers- these are for a mature viewer.

Thrillers with BBFC rating 18- target audience is young males.

In terms of a generic target audience for a Thriller it would be for both genders but a younger demographic. (16-25)

Thriller Task- Initial Ideas

For initial planning we brainstormed ideas in a group we came up with a plot for the thriller piece. It is about a girl who had premonitions that predicted what would happen in the future.

Final destination is based on the same principle as our thriller. But is categorized as a supernatural-thriller-horror. The basic principle is a group of people cheat death in some way, and then one of the people has a premonition of each person’s death. Soon after, they all start dying in freak accidents. After the great success with the first Final Destination 3 sequels have been made, one recently released in 2009.

“Premonition” is based around a middle class couple Linda and Jim Hanson who have two daughters in their home in the suburbs. On a Thursday morning Linda is informed about the death of her husband. The next morning she wakes to find Jim is safe and sound at home. When she wakes the next morning he is dead again, she realizes her days are out of order, but her friends and family believe she is insane.

Although both of these films have different aspects that our thriller will not have, such as the way in which death is out to get the group of people in "Final Destination". Also in "Premontion" the days are out of order as she is fighting her husband and against her friends and families believe she has gone insane. These factors are what make them films unique, but the primary idea is the same. A person can see the future through a premontion and doesn't understand how, and has to fight to stop the premontion from becoming reality.

Preliminary Task- Video & Evaluation

As this was the first time filming and editing i see this as success. We reached our goal which was to get a range of camera shots. If we were able to go back and redo the task, i personally see two main faults in editing where the camera jumps, this is at 10 secs & 54 secs, the clips don't flow together as effectively as the others. Also i feel looking back, a piece of music in the background throughout the piece would have created a better atmosphere.

Preliminary Task- Planning

The key fundamental of the preliminary task for me was to have two people some how meet and converse with a range of camera shots. We brainstormed idea within the group and decided we wanted a simple idea that could be interpreted in different ways.

We decided on a girl in our group running around the school without the audience knowing the intenetion so they'd be captivated. The reason we chose the school was because there is a range of places she could run around and we'd be able to set up the camera to get interesting camera shots.

Rather than sitting down and trying to plan the piece we got a still camera and went around the school and figured out the shots, this left us with well planned and thought out story boards which are below.

This story board shows the beginning of the piece in which you can see Sarah running through the door and making her way down the stairs and running in to the school toilets.

The second story board shows what shots we used in the toilets, but it doesn't show the person coming into the toilet to share the short piece of dialogue because we ran out of time when we were taking these pictures.

Still Camera Work

At the start of the year in a group we were given a still camera to go and practice different camera shots with, to test our knowledge and get us comfortable behind the camera.

This is a extreme close up camera shot.

These are both examples of a close up camera shot.

This picture is a good example of a medium over the shoulder shot.

This picture is a long over the shoulder shot, the difference is being able to see nearly all of her legs. Wheras a medium shot is usually just the top half of the body.

When we took this picture it was meant to be a group long shot but looking at it now i think it is an extreme long shot.