FINAL PRODUCT

this is our final thriller

Evaluation: Question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
( picture off dead body on floor) 


Narrative 
In our thriller opening we used many conventions. This image shows Death which is common in most thrillers we showed this image to then create questions about what was happening? who was this person? why is she dead? We also created a problem for the audience to identify. These are all conventions off a thriller to entice and interest our audience. 


(picture off Emily writing letter)


Character 
The opening to our thriller shows an insight into the thoughts and feelings of Emily as we have included an emotional voice over and images off her looking vulnerable. We portray Emily as a flawed hero as we show that she is suicidal. We chose to use this convention in our opening to show that there is a problem and she feels she has no other way out and she is using an extreme way off dealing with a situation, this then portrays the situation be very serious.


(image off the fonts and titles)


Fonts and Titles.  
We used unconventional fonts and titles in our thriller opening but the reason we used this was linked to the handwriting off our letter. Normally thrillers use dark, sharp and ridged fonts which we didn't think would link in to our opening. 


(picture off the forest)


Location
Our opening develops the conventions off a thriller in the following ways, we chose to not go down the route off a traditional off a showing a murdered in a dark house for example. Our location is still conventional in the way off it being scary and in desolated forest. The unconventional parts off our opening are the bathroom scenes off showing domestic and a clean tidy bathroom. 


Techniques used
In our opening we developed our piece by using different techniques to emphasize and make the opening more effective. Effects we used were black and white and a very high contrast to make the flashback scenes stand out in our piece and we found it looked spookier.  

Thriller Opening Rough Cut

Even though we are still in the process of editing we converted and submitted our 'rough cut' through youtube to be watched in a feedback session with the whole of the class.

Editing ideas

Questionaire (Eloise)

What would you expect to see in a Psychological thriller film?
Jake male 16 - suspense, withheld information and a villain. 
Kimberley female 18 - Death and tension. 
Connor male 16 - Scary scenes and a villain.
Nick male 16 - A dark tense creepy eerie atmosphere. 
Max male 16 - Murder and something that keeps you on the edge off your seat.

What other films, TV shows would you associate with this genre?
Jake male 16 - Sherlock Holmes because it intrigues the audience and has alot of suspense.
Kimberley female 18- limitless because it has lots of twists.
Connor male 16 - Seven because its scary and keeps you on the edge off your seat, also there is murder.
Nick male 16 - Psycho, because there is a big twist and not alot is revealed until the end and the music has alot of suspense.
Max male 16 - Panic Room, Because there alot off suspense and events that you are on the edge off your seat.


Are you fan of Psychological films and explain your reasons?
Jake male 16 - Yes I am because, they fascinate and intrigue as you have to try and work things out and it plays with your mind and imagination.
KImberly female 18 - Yeah because they are intriguing and you have to try and work out the plot.
Connor male 16 - Yes I am because i find them interesting and clever.
Nick male 16 - Not really, because they really scare me.
Max male 16 - Yeah i love them because i find them really entertaining and they always have me on the edge off my seat as they are normally full of suspense. 

What do you think films need at the beginning to keep you watching?
Jake male 16 - They need character set up and  a brief outline of the story maybe a question to keep you watching wanting to know the answer.
Kimberley female 18 - A cliffhanger or a question to make you want to carry on watching.
Connor male 16 - Alot off action something happening to start film spinning.
Nick male 16 - Something basic that reveals hardly anything apart from the main characters.
Max male 16 - A murder or a big event to intrigue you on when why and how something has happened.

What is your favourite movie opening and why?
Jake male 16 - The Dark Knight, it holds a lot off mystery and you don't know what is going on alot of suspense it just hooks you straight away.
Kimberley female 18 - The safe house, because it is obviously not safe and puts you on the edge of your seat. 
Connor male 16 - I am legend because its showing a disaster and you want to see what has happened. 


What have I gathered from this research?
I have found that most people expect something that keeps you on the edge of your seat and that has alot of twists where you have to use your imagination, I have also find that people prefer different openings some prefer basic revealing nothing but others prefer for the film to get started straight away. 
Our target audience are older teens 16 plus as these seem the most interested in our genre.

Thriller Opening Analysis

The opening scene has some really effective micro element of sound with a high pitch orchestra the sound of calm water is played in the background also showing the involvement of water in a build up off suspense. The narrative centers around a dark lake this gives the impression that maybe a corpse has been dumped here. A vulture flies in from a dark sky, with the bird being a vulture it is signifying murder as these are big birds that prey on others. The credits in this opening are a small white font keeping the opening very simple. When the movie title is shown the sounds volume increases dramatically and the pitch does also. At 2 minutes 13 seconds a figure appears, themes off identity are commonly mistaken but I perceived the figure to be a man in dark clothing looking over the water. At 2 minutes 32 seconds the water turns red this then looks like a lake off blood giving the impression to the audience off murder. The figure that appears in this opening clip gives the impression of the villain as he is tall and dark, it also betrays that he may off placed a body in the water as why would he be stood by a lake on his own in darkness.

Music Influences

The videos below are all representing the genre of music we are hoping to use for our Thriller opening. These are all modern and have a storyline to them.

Thriller Influence and Ideas

For our thriller opening we have many different influences. We decided to mainly focus on modern, english made films when looking for influences. A specific director we are looking at it Noel Clarke. Noel Clarke is an actor, director and writer from England who has made films such as: Kidulthood and 4321. The reason we have had such an interest in his work is because he focuses on specific the gang culture in England which is what we would like to focus our thriller opening scene around. The video below is showing the opening scene from a film by Noel Clarke called Adulthood. We chose this opening scene as an example because we think that it represents the sort of scene that we want to be showing in our opening scene of a thriller.
The main part of this video that we are focusing on is from 1 minute 20 secs to 1 minute 45 secs. Even though this is only a small section, the party scene is quite busy, flashy, loud and seems to be a good atmosphere.This is what one half of our opening scene is going to consist of in contrast to the murder aspect which we are also including in it.