Production Day 1

As shown in the video, this was day one of shooting our thriller and it began with the bedroom scene establishing Sean Williams as our protagonist/recluse who storms out of his room following abuse from his antagonist, Ollie. We arrived at our location, which was Zack's house at 2pm and we began to set up the scene. In the video you will see us putting up posters and placing action figures and other such items around the room and everything is deliberately placed to establish Sean as your typical teenager/nerd without becoming too stereotypical and this is why we made sure not to cover the wall in posters because we felt it would ruin the message we were trying to give off. Sean clearly enjoys his video games as indicated by the desk and this suggests his lack of social skills.

In terms of the filming, this went relatively smoothly. Essentially we kept to our storyboard in terms of what we wanted each shot to show but on the day we filmed several different shots with each of us coming up with different, creative ways of filming the same shot and this is good because it gives us options in post-production. More specifically, I filmed the opening sequence of the establisment of the bedroom and Sean storming out of his room. For another one of the shots, I needed Zack to help me rack focus because with the camera, it is extremely hard to film and pull focus at the same time which is why had a focus puller. Unfortunately, we only had 2 hours to film with Elliot so we didn't get as much done as we wanted, but in the time we had, we did a good job.

Actors

When choosing an actor, we made sure that the person had had prior experience acting in front of a camera and fortunately my group member Zack knew someone who he had worked with on previous occasions as well as being a good friend of the group and this made our job much easier, because I find it is much more comfortable directing someone who can be patient.


Protagonist: Sean Williams (Elliot Conway)

We felt Elliot would be the perfect actor to play our protagonist, Sean Williams, because we felt he could adapt well to his lonesome and reclusive character and this is helped by his appearance, in particular his height because it suggests a sense of vulnerability and weakness. We told him to dress in some red clothing because it connotes anger which is the message we are trying to give off throughout the opening because it leads into our climactic ending. Working with him is also very easy because he understands exactly what you what from him as a director and he has the ability to portray emotions very well. 

Antagonist: Ollie Harris (Sam Simmons)

We decided to use our group member Sam because mainly because of convenience. We recognised that he would not be the main character and so having a lack of acting skills was not paramount for the part that he would be required to portray. It is also appropriate to use Sam because he is distinctively taller than Sean and this puts him in a initial position of strength and also demonstrates how in reality, physical presence doesn't affect the mindset of someone who wants to inflict pain against their enemies. It was also very easy to work with sam because he was also on board with the filming so this meant that he understood exactly what kind of shots we wanted to achieve with him. 

Location research

location scouting - free slideshow maker with music

With the storyboard in place, we now needed to find an appropriate location to shoot in and I decided to compile our research into this kizoa presentation. It shows our initial scouting of a location owned by a company called SHOOTFACTORY which is a professional location hirer. They had the perfect location we were looking for in an eerie, authentic looking warehouse which would have been great for our last scene. We did e-mail them and they got back to us almost immediately but unfortunately the costs for rental were far too expensive and more suitable for people on a low budget, not a 'no budget' production like ours.

After this we decided to look for a more practical location and instead looked at real self-storage companies in the hope they would be willing to lend us one of their storage garages for our production. We have emailed Shurguard storage facilities and failing this we will look at Safestore or Big yellow self storage.

In terms of the scene in the house, this will likely be filmed in the house of my group member and we don't feel we are looking for anything specific with the house because we want it to look like an ordinary teenagers room. Also our main focus is on the storage facility because that is our unique location and our shot in the house will not last very long because we know that house scenes are very generic. 

Equipment

The Canon X1H1a is the camera we will be using to shoot our thriller, and this is certainly a new experience for me because I am used to using my DSLR, the Canon 550D which is a much newer camera. Despite its age, this camcorder can still record in a native 1080i, which is high quality. The reason this camera works well for our film is that it creates a nice film grain which will give our thriller a more authentic feel as opposed to a digital camera which produces a clearer image. In order to achieve this look I have been testing out the settings of the camera, but unfortunately can not upload the footage until the final film because I can not capture the recordings. 

The Sachter dolly is another new piece of equipment to me and one that I will certainly hope to utilise in our thriller. A dolly shot is an effective type of shot because it gives movement to the on the screen action and can be used to create a certain type of emotion depending on how it is used. For our film, I think it would be appropriate to use it at the end because it can create dramatic effect as it slowly moves from the scene of action. 

In the video you also see the Ianiro redhead light which I was testing out. It's extremely powerful so it would be very useful as a key light or even a fill if it is aimed upwards at a ceiling. For our thriller this light will probably be used in the final scene in the storage facility to create some harsh lights on our characters for dramatic effect.  

We are also using a Manfrotto Fig-Rig and this will be an integral piece of equipment used in many of our shots for our film because as a group we feel that particularly for the thriller genre, camera movement is essential because it helps immerse the audience in the action by getting up close with the characters. Using this fig-rig helps to absorb a lot of the camera shake, particularly with the Canon because it is quite heavy and gives us a professional, steadicam look which I really wanted to achieve. 

Storyboard/and initial synopsis

To summarise the initial idea for our narrative, the protagonist is a 16-17 year old boy who we will depict as a kind of recluse/socially inept character. His only real form of social interaction is through the use of social networking, which as mentioned in previous posts, plays a vital role in the story because he experiences a form of cyber-bullying which puts the boy into a state of manic depression/anger. In terms of what is drawn on the storyboard, we have the boy stealing a bike from his antagonist as a way of getting revenge. He messages the other boy telling him to meet at a storage facility where his bike will be found. When the antagonist arrives, he sees his bike and enters the storage unit. In terms of the ending, we currently have the idea of the storage shutters closing slowly and moments later blood will begin to seep out of the gaps in the bottom. This part however is very much subject to change because we have thought of several different possible endings; one thing we do want is the antagonist to be killed but our plan is to record several different endings and decide on which one we like the most. 

In terms of the storyboard itself, we designated one person to draw in our group which wasn't myself because unfortunately, I can't. Instead, my job was to describe to my group what I wanted from each shot in terms of camera angle and shot type. Unfortunately, this storyboard perhaps lacks in a certain amount of depth but this is mainly because our original storyboard and narrative was not approved by our teacher, so we had to redo it in a short space of time. This storyboard was approved by our teacher but of course it is subject to change. 

Specific Film/technique research

For this section of pre-production, I continued with my research of thriller, this time looking at some titles we studies within our media classes, as well as finding some other clips that may be useful resources to use when making our own thriller.


In this opening title of 'Dawn of the Dead' (2004), I am looking closely at the animation of the titles, rather than the footage itself because I feel a montage would be an innapropriate way of introducing the plot to our thriller. In terms of the text, I really like the way the colour and animation fits the on screen footage; red connoting the colour of blood and it animates of the screen much like blood dripping down a wall. For our thriller, I would like to base the text of the titles around our theme of social networking and digital technology. For this I will animate the text the in After Effects so I can create the look I'm going for.







In this clip, 'Se7en' (1995) I really like the way in which the footage, coupled with the text creates a schizophrenic, unnerving feeling. The use of quick cuts and Extreme close-ups definitely helps enhance the feeling of mystery and suspense, and perhaps something I would look to include in our thriller film. Like with 'Dawn of the Dead', the text matches the on-screen action as it jitters around the screen, which is also something I can implement when animating the text titles. Finally I really like the sound used in this clip, the persistent screeching adds an additional layer of suspense to the opening.





In this short film, 'TELL' (2012), I am focusing mainly on the opening but also the film as whole. The elements of this film that I am looking at in particular are the use of cinematograhphy and sound, two features which are absolutely essential for a thriller. The excepetional use of both these techniques used in this film create an enhanced sense of realism, thus heightening the feeling of suspense. I like the way the film begins in Media Res, immediately capturing our attention, and this is something to consider for our film. Following the two character's argument, we follow the protagonist back into the house where he kills his girlfriend and This is my favourite part of the cinematography. I think the way the camera slowly follows the protagonist into the house whilst we hear the faint screams of the girl is particularly scary and shows that in order to create suspense, you do not need to show the violence, but instead let the audience use their imagination. This particular 'on the shoulder' shot is something that I will almost definitely be implemening somewhere in our film because I think it is extremely effective.
        I also think the musical score in this film is incredible, especially considering the film was produced on a low-budget; it sounds extremely professional and on top of this, the composer has given permission for people to use the music in this film, provided it has been payed for and credited appropriately; it is likely we will be using some of the music featured in this film.






In analysing this short film, I am focusing particularly on the excellent use of the mise-en-scene. The location used in this clip, is something that as a group we are looking at a similar one to use for our film.   An abandoned warehouse does a great job in adding suspense as it makes the character seem small and insignificant. Also we are trying to be original with our location and I think a warehouse is as such. The use of props such as blood and the knife are also used to good effect, creating added realism. Another aspect of this film that I like is the narrative. Although there is no dialogue, you can see the director is clearly trying to evoke a true sense of dark humour, particularly with the fact that the janitor ends up being the vicious murderer, who ends up having to 'clean' up his mess. This sense of dark humour is further emphasized through the use of contrapuntal music at the end of the clip, which creates an eerie and psychotic ending.

Audience Research and evaluation

The next part of my pre-production process was to carry out audience research, in which I used two methods; a one-to-one interview and an online survey. I chose to use both methods because they have their own individual benefits in terms of feedback. With the interview, I get a far more comprehensive and personal opinion from the questions I ask, which subsquetly allows me to ask more probing questions, e.g. asking the interviewee what they thought about our group's initial storyline. The setback of an interview is that the answers given are from only one person's perspective and opinions are very much subjective and varied when asking questions like I did in the interview.

The audience research on the other hand has given me a much broader range of answers in which I can draw more conclusive results. The site I used, surveymonkey.com also created an accurate set of results based on the answers I received from each indivisual survey, collating them into a simple graph that I can evaluate more easily. The weakness of this method is that I can only ask a certain set of questions which limits the variety of answers I will receive. Also most questions I asked only required a tick in a box or a one-worded answer, unlike the interview where I received a more detailed answer.

The interview



This interview was useful because it told me that this person (Matt) found sound and editing particularly important in order to create suspense and action, elements which he drew upon from his favourite thriller movie 'Taken', an action-thriller film. It is clear from not only the interview but also the survey that many people enjoy a combination of action and psychological tension in a thriller film. This will be important when formulating the narrative for my film, as I hope to incorporate the feedback I receive. After telling the interviewee about our initial storyline, it was a positive start to receive good feedback. In particular, Matt liked the idea of including a relevant theme to the narrative being a social network because it is something that millions of people interact with on a constant basis. By exposing the darker side of social networking i.e. cyber-bullying, we have created a foundation for the narrative because it is this act of bullying which causes the protagonist to react in a psychopathic way towards his antagonist. What makes this more shocking is that although the film may be dramatised for cinematic effect, ultimately the storyline does raise real-life issues and concerns about the way we use social networking. It is no secret that cyber bullying is an ongoing issue and there have been many stories of the recipients of online abuse reacting in terrifying ways e.g suicide, violent behaviour etc. By using cyber-bullying as a central theme of the narrative, we are making it more relevant to the audience, and therefore we hope that this realism will help create a more tense and exciting atmosphere.


Online survey




































We decided as a group that we wanted 50 results as it is an even number and so easier to analyse as results. The first question we asked was whether or not the participant was male or female and this is a typical question asked in a survey in order to identify who your audience actually are. In our case, the vast majority of the audience were male and this was to be expected from a survey on thrillers; it seems males tend to enjoy this genre more than females and this may be because males tend to find action and suspense more exciting than females who generally prefer more lighted-hearted genres such as comedy or romance films. Because of these results, We acknowledge that our thriller will likely be reaching out to a more male audience, however our decision to base our film around a universal theme such as cyber-bullying and social networking means that a female audience may enjoy this film in the same way a male would.
          The second question asked was the age of participants and unfortunately I made this question open which meant a graph could not be generated from the results, so I had to manually work it out and the average age was around 16-17 years old. This was most probably because I shared the survey on Facebook so naturally most people who completed it would be a similar age to me. This was also the reason why as a group we decided to centre our initial storyline around the age of 16-17 because it is more relevant to our audience and also more realistic because most cyber-bullying affects people around this age group.

I felt that this question was important because I wanted to get a better idea of what my target audience wanted from a thriller and it was clear from these results that psychological and action thrillers are the most popular. With this in mind, when creating our storyboard will we try to incorporate a combination of both these genres using techniques used in the two types of thriller.

This was probably the most important question asked in the survey because It was an unpredictable one and prior to receiving the results I had no idea how they would turn out, whereas with the majority of the other questions I could generally predict what kind of results I would get back e.g. male and female and age. Although as a media student, I understand that all the different elements that make up a thriller are just as important as each other, I needed to gage the understanding of my audience. It is clear from these results that when watching a thriller, the elements which stand out most for them is the storyline and the feeling of suspense. The fact that camerawork only received 2 votes was the most surprising result for me because as you learn about the conventions of a thriller, you realise that camerawork is arguably the most important element when creating a film, but clearly as an average viewer it is not something that people generally pick up on because it is not something that an audience will consciously be aware of.

The final question was one that was catered towards our idea for our film specifically. We wanted to see how important it was to our audience that the theme of the film was something that they could relate to. One of the conventions of a thriller is that any object or character is represented realistically to some extent, because it is this realism that causes the audience to feel empathy and emotion towards the character. From the results, we can't really come to a definitive conclusion but we can say that it obviously plays some importance for the audience and this is helpful when creating our characters for the film because our idea is to make them relevant to the audience which will subsequently help enhance the narrative and allow us to make a more suspenseful opening.