Preliminary Task

This is the preliminary task that i had to film and then edit my part of having a conversation. This showed my skills and enabled me to gain basic knowledge of filming and editing.

Why Media?

I took media because I watch a lot of films and I read magazines sometimes. I knew media would be interesting and it would be fun to make a short film also. It would be something new for me as I had never studied media and my brother told me it was good. So far I am enjoying it and I enjoy analysing films and scenes and learning about different types of media and the history behind it.

The genres of film that I prefer are comedies and action films. I watch most genres but those are what I watch more of. I love comedy movies because I love to laugh and have jokes. I enjoy these films because there always something silly but funny going on and this keeps me involved in the film. A few of my favourite comedies would be East is East, Superbad, Wedding Crashers, Knocked up and Blades of Glory. There are many more.

Action films are also great because they are just so packed with events. I love a fast moving film that i can stay involved in and enjoy. My favourite film is Minority Report. I have watched it a countless amount of times to the extent that i know most lines in the film. =D. I enjoy it because the story line is good and the futuristic aspects of it are good also. The twist at the end is also good and it is one of those films where previous events that creep up in the film become main events at the end that conclude the film.

The brief and Our Conventions of thriller

This is us discussing the brief and talking about the research we carried out and the conventions of the thriller genre.

Thriller Coursework

For my AS Level coursework I have been asked to make the opening scene of a thriller movie. I didn’t really know much about thriller movies before I started media but I have now gained some knowledge about them.

Thriller movies began in 1914 with ‘The Perils of Pauline”. In the late 1930s thrillers became more popular with Alfred Hitchcock making the Point of View Shot. The 1970s then bought a new kind of thriller such as The Godfather. The Thriller of today has added more suspense, chase scenes, special effects and is more high tech making them more interesting and exciting for the audience.

There are 6 main types of thriller movie which are:

Action Thrillers, these often contain a race against the clock where there is an obvious antagonist. There are a lot of guns, explosions and violence. These films often contain elements of crime and mystery films but these take a backseat to the action.

Crime Thrillers, this type of thriller offers a suspenseful account of successful or failed crime. These films focus more on criminals than crime fighters.

Erotic Thriller this type of thriller consists of erotica and thriller where the woman is the antagonist and kills the man. These became popular in the 1980s and the rise of VCR dispersion.

Horror Thriller, The conflict between the characters is mental; and emotional and the main characters will become the victim or victimise everyone else. Often in horror thrillers the woman is objectified. As the final girl remains she is powerless and cannot escape but she soon finds strength and gets out.

Techno Thriller, this type of thriller focuses on technology, which is usually military, and the technology is described in a lot of detail which makes it essential for the viewer to understand the plot.

Psychological Thriller, in this type of thriller the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. This is until the violent resolution at the end of the film. The film Hannibal can be classed as a psychological thriller but it also has aspects of other types of thriller also.

Conventions Of Thriller.

The camera work of a thriller helps to enable the audience feel suspense and know that they are watching a thriller through the use of POV shots and Close ups and also Extreme close-ups. the audience perhaps do not know what is going to happen and a close up can show something important in the shot. The editing of a thriller is also very important. Using cut aways can mean that the audience do not see the main events that are happening and this creates suspense.

Lighting in a thriller is often dark and when there is light it is used to highlight an aspect of the camera shot. this makes thrillers dark films and they can be very disturbing. The sound/music used also has an effect on the way a thriller is perceived. often sound is used and not much dialogue is in the film and this lets the audience figure out how the character is feeling for themselves. the music used is often sudden in places to emphasise an event but it can also be slow moving which helps create suspense for the audience.

I think it will be exciting to make a thriller for my coursework and it will also be a challenge. It is essential that all the right elements are considered depending on which type of thriller movie I decide to make. I may possibly decide to make a crime thriller or perhaps an action thriller as there are a wide variety of possible story-lines and the opening scene can be exciting and engaging for the audience.

The programmes that i will be using to create the opening scene are: Celtx and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. I used Celtx to create the script and the storyboard for the opening scene. I had to make a master catalogue to make sure the characters and actors were organised. I then made the storyboard which contained images of each part of a scene and a small description of what is going on in each image.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 to edit the production. After all of our filming had been completed we could edit it. In adobe we used the appropriate parts of what we filmed and put these together to create our final product. We added music and titles in the parts of the scenes that we felt was necessary.

Disturbia - Similarities

This is the film that was most similar to the movie that we are making. It is called Disturbia and it is about a boy that gets a tag and is confined to his bedroom. Out of boredom he spys on his neighbours out of his window and he sees a man kill a woman. Nobody believes him but he knows that it is real. This is similar to our film because the girl in our film spys at her neighbour and she also witnesses a murder.

Target audience

The target audience that our production will be aimed at will be 15 and over. We have decided this because it is a thriller and there will be violence and maybe some explicit language in our film. If the certificate was a 15 then there would be no problem with the content as the audience are mature enough to understand it and not be disturbed by it.

However, we had to make sure that the content was not too mature and we had to stick by our decision of the target audience.

The questionnaire template that we came up with for the audience of our thriller is below.

Making this questionnaire enabled us to know what the viewers thought of our thriller movie and the feedback we got would be analysed.

Concept Art

The title of my idea for my thriller coursework would be 'Run'. I had the idea that a bunch of teens would be on a camping trip perhaps and then they would begin to be hunted by a hooded man. They have to be running for the duration of the film. In the opening scene there would be a clip of someone being chased through the forest and eventually will get caught and then when the film mainly begins a camping group will go out unaware of the hunter.

This will be quite a challenge to make but I have ideas of the location already. It will be difficult to make the setting of the film have the right feeling for the audience. I look forward to seeing what other ideas my group come up with and also creating my final opening scene.