Evaluation Task 1

Evaluation 1
(Long shot)

This the opening shot and it is a long shot of a young school or college boy about to go into a forest.  I think a long shot was the appropriate shot for the opeing as it establishes the setting and the surrouding and it also allows the audience to see where the character is and that this is an isolated location which portrays that the character is vulnerable.  Also in this shot is a mysterious figure in the distance watching the young boy as is about to turn into the forest.  I think this shot is quite good as the framing is good, but it could be slightly improved if the mysterious figure in the distance could move a bit further back as he is quite visible which was not the aim.

(POV long shot)

This is a POV long shot of a young school/college boy walking through a forest casually being watched by someone.  This shot is effective as the hand-held POV shot creates mystery and it makes the audience start thinking about who is whatching this young boy and what their plans are, it also shows thing from the stalkers perspective.  We can tell by the way this person is hinding behind the trees and buches that his intentions are likely to be unpleasent.  The long shot is also effective as it allows the audience to see how vulnerable the young boy is.  We used a mysty effect for this shot and all of the POV shots so that the viewer will be able to tell when the young boy is being watched.  The mysty effect unsettles the audience and adds to making the audience think that this person has bad intentions.  I do not think this shot could be improved as the framing is perfect, the type of shot used is perfect and we used the perfect effect for this shot.

(POV tilted long shot)

This is another POV long shot of the young school/college boy walking through the firest as he is being watched by someone.  This shot is effective in mostly the same ways as the last shot.  It is still hand-held which adds to the realism, it is still a POV which adds to the realism and allows the audience to see things from the stalkers perspective.  It is still a long shot which allows the audience to see the whole of the character and his surroundings, which portrays this characters vulnerability.  The mysty effect conveys that this is a POV from the stalker which unsettles the viewer, also in this shot we decided to show the stalkers hand leaning on the tree as he tilts his head to watch the young boy, this unveils part of this myterious character, but still makes this character mysterious.  The hand covered in a glove again conveys that the intentions of this character are not good.  I think this shot is quite good and does not really need improvement as the framing is good and the shot choice is good.

(POV pan shot)

This is a POV pan shot of the young boy walking deeper into the forest with the stalker still watching him.  These shots are effective as the POV conveys to the audience that the young boy is being watched and is possibly in danger.  The pan shot follows the character and mimics the movement of the stalker which makes it more realistic.  The mysty effect again adds to making the film more mysterious and it also gives the audience a sense of vulnerability.  This shot is quite good as we held the shot for the appropriate time and the framing was good.

 (POV extreme long shot)

This is a POV extreme long shot of the young boy relieving himself, whilst the stalker is watching him.  The POV again adds to the realism and shows the audience a view from the stalkers perspective.  The extreme long shot is good as the open space around the young boy makes him seem more vulnerable, but the distance between the two characters gives a false sense of safety for the young boy.  This shot could be improved if the young boy was not covered by the branches on the tree behind him.  The use of the hand on the tree was a motif and is a shot the audience will recognise and be familiar with.

(POV close up)

This is another POV shot of the young boy relieving himself when the stalker comes up vehind him and is just about to grab him.  The use of the POV is also a motif which the audience will be familiar with.  This shot conveys to the audience how the killer sees things and we feel worried and scared for the audience as the young boy is still unaware of the situation.  This shot is well framed and the close up is appropriate as we feel like we are right near the action.  Therefore I do not think that this shot needs to be improved.

(long shot)

This is a medium long shot of the young boy spotting something in the bushses as he bends down to pick his bag up.  I think the use of the medium shot is appropraite as it allows the viewer to see the young boy’s body language as he spots the object.  This shot could be improved if we went a bit closer towards the young boy so that as well as seeing his body language we could also see his facial expressions.

(POV)

This is a POV from the young boy looking at the dead body.  The use of the POV  is a good idea as the viewer will also feel like they are in the shot and are seeing the body for themselves.  This shot could be improved If instead of using a POV we used a close up of the young boy as this way we would be able to see the reaction of the young boy.  It could also be improved if we could see the whole of dead body.

Evaluation task 2

Here are two images of.  The image on the left hand side is an image of the killer from the thriller we made called ‘Copycat’.  When we thought about our killer we tried to make him have some of the same properties of another famous killer and we tried to relate the two killers.  As you can see the shot we used to establish the killer is a similar shot used to establish Mike Myers from the Halloween movies.  We also covered the killers face in our thriller by making him wear a mask, just as Mike Myers wears a mask.  We thought that by imatating some of the same things from a famous killer like Mike Myers, the killer from our thriller would be more scary and intimidating.  Although we wanted some similaraties between our killer and Mike Myers, we also wanted the two killers to be different so that it was not just the same.  Unlike Mike Myers who has his face covered, but still viewable we wanted our killer to be completely covered to add to the mystery which is why we completely covered him with a hood and a mask.  These are the similarities between our killer and Mike Myers.

Alfred Hitchcock thrillers

Alfred Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim into a strange, life-threatening situation, in a case of mistaken identity, or wrongful accusation. He would use a range of cinematic techniques:-

'North by Northwest 'the crop duster scene'.

North by Northwest – crop duster scene

This scene has a lot of thrilling elements which keep the audience on the edge of their seats, enticed and anxious, also the quick pace of this scene keeps the audience nervy, excited and at the same time worried for the protagonist. These thrilling elements and the emotions created in the audience come from camera work such as shots of characters running towards the camera, this creates anxiety and excitement at the same time. There are also close-ups which again ties in with creating emotions of excitement in the audience and this is done by the audience being able to see the facial expressions of the character which puts them in the characters shoes, also the use of close-ups gives the audience a sense of claustrophobia, since they can't see what else is in the scene. There are also motivated cuts and the way the danger comes suddenly and from nowhere again assists in creating all these different emotions in the audience. This fast paced scene keeps the audience enticed and on the edge of their seat, which I think is an important emotion to create in the audience for any film and any genre and especially thrillers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5D1aeNB2Bc

Psycho – Shower scene

In this famous scene in 'Psycho' Alfred Hitchcock has again used the same cinematic techniques to create emotions that he wants in the audience. A lot of this is contributed to by the camera work. Alfred Hitchcock again uses the element of surprise which is perfect for creating emotions anf feelings in the audience of anxiety or fear. Also this scene is deliberately shot in black and white as it has a relation to violence. The use of quick cuts for the stabbing in this scene adds to the anxiety, fear and it keeps the audience enticed which is what Alfred Hitchcock and probably all directors want to aim to do, and again the audience have to try and keep up with the fast pace of the scene. There is a slow zoom shot which builds up tension, but slowly which is really effective as it keeps the audience zoned in and anxious as to what this is leading to and what will happen, it also creates fear in the audience.

Another thrilling element Alfred Hitchcock uses to keep the audience confused and constantly questioning themselves is a 'red herring', this leads the audience to thinking one thing, but actually something much more sinister and evil is at hand. An example of this is in the psycho shower scene, the 'red herring' in this scene is the money and the audience think that the money is of some significance, but ion actual fact it ends up being a diversion and trivial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4

'Tell no one'

In 'tell no one' Alfred Hitchcock brings all these cinematic techniques together again. There are:

• Wrongful accusations – proof of innocence
• Hand-held documentary realism (camera work)
• Strapped cameras to characters chest (camera work)
• Audience is favouring the characters (emotions created)
• Close-ups/over the shoulder shots (camera work)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryMVzQsTmZY

Credit sequence

Traditional Credit Sequence Order

• LOGO- Production Company
• Actors and Actresses names
• Title
• Music, Composed by
• Production Designer - Set/Locations
• Director of Photography - Lighting, framing of shots
• Written by
• Produced by
• Directed by
• Editor

This is the order that the credits usually come in thriller movies

Here are some examples from thriller movies

Silence of the lamb

• Actors and Actresses
• Title of the film
• Actors and Actresses names
• Casting
• Music
• Costume and Designer
• Production Designer
• Director of Photography
• Directed by
• Writing Credit
• Executive Producer
• Screenplay
• Produced by
• Directed by

Point Break

• Production Company
• Actors and Actresses names
• Title
• Actors and Actresses names
• Casting
• Co-Producer
• Music supervised by
• Edited by
• Production designer
• Directed photography
• Executive producer
• Screenplay
• Story by
• Produced by
• Directed by

I watched the opening credits of a couple of thrillers so that i would know in what order to do the credits in my own thriller, and both the films opening credits that i watched came up with the same order so then i knew exactly what order to out my own opening credits in and that is what i plan to do

Location recce

We have consider a number of location to film our opening thriller and have spend a considerable amount of time making sure which is the best one for us. We have now made three options in which we should film our opening thriller. Here are the ones we have considered:

Great Cambridge roundabout underpass: we have considered this to be our location because it has many angles from which can film and it has a sinister atmosphere and if it is link with the music, it would create disturbing scene to film in.

Woodland next to firs lane: we have considered this to be our location because has many trees and bushes in which the killer can stalk his victim without being detected.

The footpath next to Highfield road: this is a location we have considered for our opening thriller because it has narrow footpaths and blind spots in which the killer can peep around corners without being spotted.

A car park is another location we considered to film the opening to our thriller.  We considered this location because it is perfect for a thriller as it is a dark place only lit by a few flickering lights and because it is an isolated location.

To conclude we considered a number of locations to film the opening of our thriller.  When thinking of possible locations for our thriller we had to think about how well lit the location is and whether it is busy or isolated and at what times it is busy or isolated.  We also thought about how easily accessible the locations were and which was the least time consuming, and that is how we came to the conclusion for our final location.

Minutes of meeting

Present:               Harkishan, Ashley, Phil, Abdourahman

Absent:                                N/A

In this minute meeting my group and I discussed where we were at with all of the work, such as, the blog, and the production work.  And how much more we needed to do and who was going to do what. 

What we have done:

As we discussed our progress so far we realise realised what had been done and what had not been done.  The work we had done was; the group production schedule, shooting schedule, shooting script, script, storyboard, treatments, focus group, questionnaires and the filming.

What we need to do:

During the discussion we also came up with a list of work that still needed to be done which was; to fix up the script, to fix up the storyboard, type up the minute meetings, edit the film and make some little changes to other pieces of work, like the shooting schedule, the production schedule and the shooting script.

Once we had noted down all the work that had be completed and all the work that needed to be completed we split the work between the group members to complete.

Treatment for Ripper

Ripper is a horror – thriller aimed at 18+ target audience.  Ripper is about a Jack the Ripper type serial killer who uniquely kills his victims early morning and leaves his trademark which is a red rose on his victim’s dead bodies.  The mysterious killer kills several people without leaving no evidence and no clues, but just one time he makes a fatal mistake which could possibly lead to his capture.

In the opening of this thriller the ripper has just killed someone and he is walking out of the mist cleaning his bloody knife, but as he is doing this he is witnessed.  The killer notices that someone has seen him, but he plays it cool and carries on, but as the young boy takes his eyes of the killer for a second to record him on his phone he looses track of the killer.  The young boy turns around and the killer is behind him and he kills the witness and this is when the film will start.

The killer will be aged around early 40’s and although he imitates a jack the ripper style killing he does not have a specific group of victims, instead he kills anyone who is in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Also all the killer’s victims are in and around the same are just like Jack the ripper.  The killers clothing will be dark and he obviously has a low status in the public’s eye.  The name given to the killer by the police is the ‘daylight ripper’.

This thriller is aimed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats and enticed.  It is also aimed to thrill the audience by using thriller elements and aspects which make good thrillers, such as; a red herring, mystery, darkness, knives, isolated locations and eerie music, these are just a few elements that are essential to include when thinking about making a good thriller that the target audience will get a good thrill from.

Pitch table

Possible title	Content	Style	Target Audience (age, gender, etc)	BBFC classification category e.g. 12A, 15 etc
Corruption	Corrupt cop who helps criminals get away with crime if they pay him, but one cop suspects him and investigates	Mystery-thriller	18+	15
Beast	People keep going missing in a certain part of a huge jungle by a mysterious figure	Mystery-thriller	15	15
Ripper	Serial killer, kills a lot of people in a certain are, like a jack the ripper style killing	Horror-thriller	18+	18+
Invasion	Aliens invade earth and humans fight back	Sci-Fi thriller	15	15