The effect of this survey was to figure out what our target audience likes in a thriller film and incorporate it into our thriller opening. The age question was to see whether their answers were relevant to our research as our target audience is 15-25 year olds and if their opinions effect how we want to make our film. Their favourite thriller film can help us to establish which thriller film we would like to watch and then create similarly. The yes or no questions were to see get quick answers to what they liked in a thriller film and the most popular answer we would use as that must be what our target audience most likely wants to see. The location and time of day are important for the target audience because if they don't like when and where it's set they will not like the film.
The survey helped us decide things for our thriller film because we now know what to include, not to include and how if we want our thriller film to attract the target audience we set, we must go with what they like to see in thriller films. 

update 12

Today we looked at our survey that we designed to educate us on what ages of audience prefer in thriller films. this is so we can justify who our target audience are and why we put in things that they like through clarification in the survey.

I also posted the presentation on the dark knight that we did in class in a different group to our filming groups. :)

Research and Planning: The Dark Knight Presentation

These are Screen shots of a group powerpoint that we did on The Dark Knight, earlier in the course.
we looked at camera shots, editing, mise en scene and soundtrack.

Research and Planning: Audience survey outcome

Below is the outcome of our audience survey conducted on Facebook through surveymonkey.com

Q1. The age of most of the people that took our survey was between 15 and 17.
This is brilliant as we wanted this outcome as we have already decided that the target audience for     our thriller is going to be between these ages. As the actors we are using are these ages so the audience will relate to and feel more attached to the actors of this age.

Q2. The "What is your favourite thriller film?" question was interesting as many of the same answers came up. Many of the people surveyed said that their favourite thriller was one of The Dark Knight trilogy mostly the Dark Knight. Another popular choice was Taken, Pulp Fiction, Saw and Se7en.

Q3.

Q
4.

Q5.

Q6.

Q7.  Where is the best location for shooting a Thriller? there were many ideas that could be used in our thriller. these included scrapyards, forests and docks. There were some exotic locations where if it was possible we would love to film and have a few days filming and then have a few more days out there. These places were Dubai, Las Vegas and Monte Carlo.

Q8.

Research and Planning: Audience research. Survey

Here are two Screen shots of our audience research survey that I produced on Surveymonkey.com

update 11

Saturday was great as i got so much done. I completed a piece on thriller film directors, i also found the original storyboard for the preliminary task that i drew out before the girls changed the idea. I did a piece on thriller film openings and also looked at quick cuts in Shaun of the dead as we are thinking of using these in our final idea. :)

Research and Planning: Preliminary task first idea

Above is a storyboard that I designed for the preliminary task. This is not the final storyboard for Voodoo but it is for a first idea that I had when we struggled to think of ideas. The ideas storyline was that a student was going to walk down the corridor and then a room would catch his eye. As he looked in the room he would see a girl looking like a spirit talking to a doll like it was her child. He would then sit down and talk to the girl to make sure everything was alright and more to the point what she was doing there. As they finished their conversation the girl was going to vanish into thin air showing that she was in fact a spirit and not a student at the school. Apologies the pictures haven't rotated.

Research and planning: past students Thriller openings

I chose to look at The Witness by Lewis Parker and Mistaken Identity by Daisy Beaven.
I seem to remember watching both of these as nominations in the Thursties and thinking I hope my thriller comes out as well as theirs have.

The Witness:
The soundtrack created tension throughout and gave depth to what was happening.
Using chiaroscuro lighting during the flashback helped to clearly depict what was present day and what was flashback. Another way he built tension was enhancing the sound of the footsteps in the flashback and the chink of the mugs in the café. This highlighted the sound to the audience and made an ordinary sound more distinct therefore building tension.
The narration over the top of the scene was very clear and was a key convention of many thriller films.
The only weakness I could find with The Witness is a pretty rubbish one and that is that it was clear the masked villains were not kicking the victim that was pulled out of his car. This of course is excusable as you don't really want to properly beat up an actor- who is most likely one of your mates- on camera.


Mistaken Identity:
The idea of a voiceover narration by the onscreen character was a great convention to use as it has a great effect as the narrator is usually the character and stays with the audience the whole way through the film.
The 50s soundtrack was great as it suited the detective character as a detective is associated with old thriller films. Using a 50s detective soundtrack was highly effective as it juxtaposed the fact that the detective was in present day driving a modern car. This allowed the audience  to see that the detective might fancy himself a bit as an old 50s detective.
The use of the red herring was amazing as the detective says he wouldn't be the sort to go killing himself and then we see the bottom of a body hanging from a tree in roughly the same as what the detective was wearing leaving the question. Has the detective killed himself or is the victim the detective is investigating just a lot like the detective?

As I said at the start, both these films were amazing and if mine is too come out as good as these I would be very happy due to the high standard that The Witness and Mistaken Identity have got in them.

Research and Planning: Quick Cuts

Above are two examples of quick cuts in Shaun of the dead and Snatch.
we want to use a quick cut in our thriller when the case is rewound before at the end of our film opening. The quick cuts above are use to speed up when Shaun is getting ready for work and in Snatch when Avi has had enough of what is going on and comes to London to sort out the business himself.
In our film we are going to use the quick cut but in reverse showing key scenes of the abusive case, like when rewinding a video tape back to the start of the case. When the case restarts our opening will end as if we were to do the rest of the film then it would consist of the whole case being played in real time.

Research: Analysis of openings and Key Scenes in Thriller Films

The below Films were all on the Top 100 Thriller Film list published by IMDB.

Snatch (2000)
Directed by Guy Ritchie

Opening Scene:

    Camera:
Two Shot of Turkish and Tommy
Close up of Turkish and Tommy's Faces
High angle showing view from cctv camera
Pan showing each cctv screen
Crash Zoom on the Diamond

    Sound:
Non-Diegetic narration by Turkish over the top of the scene
Digitally Enhanced buzzing of a fly
Crescendo when the case locks securing the diamond in place

   Edit:
Fade to black after Turkish has finished narration
Under-cranking when the raid on the jewish diamond dealer happens
Action match following the diamonds movement between locations

   Mise en scene:
costume of Turkish and Tommy is a sharp suit with a Tweed style suit jacket
costume of the robbers is Jewish Rabi as they can get away with not being searched due to religious purposes
props include Guns, the Diamond and the Brief case where the diamond is placed

I believe that Snatch fits the thriller genre as it starts at the end of the film as many thriller films do and the whole film relieves the last week and the events that have taken place in that week. It then ends in the present day at the same scene as the opening was. within the film there is a great example of a quick cut of which I am hoping to use in my groups thriller film.


Jaws (1975)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Scene where Hooper dives to check out Sailor Gardners shipwreck

Camera:
Tracking shot follows the boat through the water
High angle Pov looks down on Chief Brodie from Hoopers perspective on the top deck
Low angle Pov looks up at Hooper from Chief Brodies perspective on bottom deck

Sound:
Soundtrack of the iconic Jaws theme which builds tension
Digitally enhanced waves and the boat
Diegetic sound of the dialogue between Hooper and Chief Brodie

Mise en scene:
Chiaroscuro lighting on the ship wrecked boat to add mystery and builds tension
the Boats are Props in the scene but smaller props include a search light and diving gear
Prosthetics are used to show the lifeless head of Sailor Gardner as it floats passed the shipwreck showing it has clearly been attacked by a shark

I believe that Jaws fits the Thriller genre as there is always tension. There is clearly a task of killing the shark and a deadline as the Amity island Regatta's 50th anniversary looms.

Research: Thriller Directors

Above is my Research on Thriller directors:
On the left hand side is research on modern directors in the green bubbles.
On the right hand side is research on older directors.
Many of the films these directors are famous for, are world widely known and many of these films did not win Oscars which is very hard to believe as they are films that will be remembered everywhere and are some of the greatest films ever made.
I could not believe that Hitchcock never won an Oscar though he was nominated for 5.
It is also hard to believe that Steven Spielberg has only won 3 Oscars, when you think of the films he has directed that did not win ( E.T, Back To The Future) etc.
This Mind map was created using Bubbl.us

Alfred Hitchcock: Director Research

Wikipedia:

'Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 - 29 April 1980) was an English film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, renowned as England's best director, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a US citizen in 1955.' 

Alfred Hitchcock is most famous for his direction of thriller films - typically psychological thriller films.    He began as an actor and then moved into directing. 

Wikipedia:

'Hitchcock once commented, "The writer and I plan out the entire script down to the smallest detail, and once we're finished all that's left to do is shoot the film. Actually, it's only when one enters the studio that one enters the area of compromise. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with all the actors and all the rest." In an interview with Robert Ebert in 1969, Hitchcock elaborated further:

"Once the screenplay is finished, I'd just as soon not make the film at all... I have a strongly visual mind. I visualise a picture right down to the final cuts. I write all this out in the greatest detail in the script, and then I don't look at the script while I'm shooting. I know it off by heart, just as an orchestra conductor needs not look at the score... When you finish the script, the film is perfect. But in shooting it you lose perhaps 40 percent of your original conception."

In writing with Hitchcock, a book length study of Hitchcock's working method with his writers, author Stephen DeRosa noted that "Although he rarely did any actual 'writing', especially on his Hollywood productions, Hitchcock supervised and guided his writers through every draft, insisting on a script attention to detail and a preference for telling the story through visual rather than verbal means. While this exasperated some writers, others admitted the director inspired them to do their very best work. Hitchcock often emphasised that he took no screen credit for writing his films. However, over time the work of many of his writers had been attributed solely to Hitchcock's creative genius, a misconception he rarely went out of his way to correct. Notwithstanding his technical brilliance as a director, Hitchcock relied on his writers a great deal." 

Some of his directed films include: Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Rope, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Secret Agent, To catch a Thief and Spellbound. (These were top 10 rated by IMDb).

Alfred Hitchcock used humour, underlying messages and good film techniques to create some of the best made films of his time.   

These clips give you a little background to what Hitchcock's conventions are, the introduction part sums up and I've only seen clips of the other youtube videos but they all talk about his conventions and what he used and why it was effective. They helped me to develop ideas in my head about what conventions we could use in our thriller film to create a similar effect.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/list/jdhpaIzd8HY/
Youtube: http:www.youtube.com/user/borgusfilm?feature=watch

update 10

Today was a good progress day as we agreed on our final film idea. It will most likely be tweaked in future but for now it sounds really good and we are very pleased with the idea and now cant wait to get filming! :)

Class Presentation: Final Idea

Sarah:
This is our final idea for our thriller film opening. We decided to do a very mysterious thriller film which contains a lot of concealment which is a typical thriller convention. The basic plot is that a girl is "abused" by someone and she goes to see a therapist about it and then has flashbacks of the attack. The therapist is a red-herring as we think he could be attacker, but actually he is just her therapist but we will leave it for the audience to figure out on their own which is why it will be a red-herring. Concealment will take place as you won't see the victims face throughout the opening until the very end and the audience also won't ever see the attacker's face. This is because the film would continue on to figure out who the attacker is but we are only doing the opening and so want to keep the atmosphere very mysterious. Also, one of our main things will be props. The attacker is going to have a weapon of some description, the therapist will have something to take notes on and the victim will be fiddling with something in her hand. This will give us different camera angles as we can use close ups and extreme close ups. Overall, we are going to try and use as many thriller conventions within the 2 minutes as we can.

Jack:
The Final Idea Presentation!
Our idea is explained in the presentation but here is a brief explanation:
Innocent girl is abused in a criminal case (unsure of the abuse at the moment), due to her trauma after the attack she goes to a therapist- the therapist is a red herring, is he the abuser as well as the therapist- where the therapist dissects the case by getting into the mind of the victim. the case is then shown in the rest of the film (if we were making the whole film). at the end of the opening there will be a reverse quick cut of key points of the case like a tape rewinding.
The case is therefore incorporating key conventions of Flashback, Red herring, chiaroscuro lighting and quick cut. the inspiration for the flashback case came from inception and the quick cut from Snatch and Shaun of the dead. There will be a blog post soon about the quick cut research including if possible the clips from snatch and Shaun of the dead. As Sarah has mentioned above we are going to use concealment as a key feature of our thriller as the audience will not be able to see the abusers face and also the therapists face. therefore creating even more suspicion on whether the abuser and therapist have something in common or are they the same person. There will be key props to help highlight camera angles including a mask and weapon for the abuser and a clipboard or notepad for the therapist to write the notes down. The main idea of our film opening is to use as many conventions as possible but only if they work with the scene or shot type.

Harmony:
From looking at our presentation you can get a brief understanding of what our thriller film is about. However, I shall explain further in detail about our story line so you, the audience can really get a detailed idea and understanding of what it's all about. 
Firstly, we had to think about who our target audience were going to be so we can get a real idea about what sort of story line would most interest our desired target audience. We, as a group came to the conclusion that an audience of teenagers to young adults would be our best bet. We decided on this particular age group as we ourselves are teenagers so we understand what we would want to see from a thriller film, we felt that if we had picked a different target audience (say ages 25-30) it would be much harder to have came up with a maturer story line based for an older audience as we ourselves are not from that specific target audience so we would not completely know what they would want to see from a thriller film. Of course we want our film to appeal to both genders so we will keep that in mind. 
We came up with many characters bases on the common thriller conventions however, we have slightly challenged the rules. Instead of the typical male hard-man figure as the main character we've gone for a sweet innocent young girl. We decided to choose this character as not having a male as the main character is unexpected in the thriller film genre. Secondly, we decided to have a therapist as another main character. We decided to do this because this sort of character is seen a lot in the thriller genre, therapists are extremely typical in the thriller genre along with character such as cops, vandals, and investigators. We decided to use this typical character to portray the thriller genre as much as possible. In any thriller film you need an attacker, so an attacker is what we have. As to now we are unsure about what they are going to do to this sweet innocent girl but all we know is that they have mentally and physically abused her. All the way through the film we will never see the attacker, they will be wearing a mask to hide their identity. We have decided to do this as is portrays the idea of concealment to the audience which is a very common theme in the thriller genre. As well as the attacker being masked and hidden we plan for the girl's face to not be shown while the therapist is talking to her and asking questions about what has happened to her. We have decided not to show her face until the very end of the film as it again, displays the theme of concealment and creates suspense for the audience as they are on the edges of their seats wondering who this girl is. Along with all these characters we aim to add a possible red herring into the mix of our film. We have decided to do this as it completely swings the audience off track making them follow a false story line creating confusion.
As the story line unfolds we begin to enter the girls mind and see the brutal attack in her eyes. We are planning to use the quick cut editing technique to present this attack to the audience, we have decided to do this as the fast pace will create a sense of adrenaline for the audience. As well as this we are thinking about using high contrast in lighting to show how it was in the past, almost a flashback of the attack. Flashbacks are very common in thriller films so we really wanted to take  this idea and put it into our own thriller film to present the genre to the audience as much as possible. 
Our location is going to be fairly basic, a therapists room where the girl and therapist will be discussing the attack and how she feels about it and then a location for the attack. We are still unsure on the final location for the attack but we want somewhere isolated and abandoned to really create suspense and reflect the thriller genre as typically, locations in thriller films are dark mysterious and most importantly isolated. 
Obviously there are many practical elements that we need to consider while out filming. We need to keep the filming continuos so this means even if we film on different days we need to remember the same costume etc.. so we get a sense of continuity. As well as this we wanted to have a range of dark and light lightening, we could possibly film at night so we need to keep that in mind as we will need to act quickly before it's too dark to get decent enough shots.
All in all I think our presentation went well even though it was slightly brief, however we are still processing our final ideas exactly so, we are not completely certain on every aspect of our thriller film yet but we have the basics which I personally believe are still very good strong ideas.


The class' opinions:

• Props may be hard to get hold of, make sure you can find them before you finalise the idea. Good idea but didn't really understand the flashback. 
• Good plot with some interesting ideas.Sounds like an entire film not just an opening. How are you going to find somewhere that looks like a therapists room? How old is the girl? What is the attack?
• A little bit more description on the opening narrative and the conventions that will be used. Day time/night time? In-coperating flashbacks is a really good idea.
• Good plot idea with intriguing ideas. Could have gone into more detail with the plot. How old is the girl? Need a name for the film. 
• Interesting original idea. Remember to make the therapist look professional. It might be difficult to do all this in 2 minutes. Good sue of quick cuts (no-one else in the class did this).

Sarah - How we will overcome the negatives of the class' opinions:

• We have got the props that we need, except the therapist chair which we have decided not to use but will use normal chairs. The flashback is of the attack of the girl.
• The description was of more of the entire film but we have decided to have the girl in the therapist room, have a flashback of the attack and then go back to the therapists room. The therapists room will be the student support room in Thurston Community College school as it looks like a therapist room. The girl is about 16 years old to relate to the target audience. The attack is more of an 'attempted' rape as we don't want to film anything inappropriate but the attacker will also have some sort of weapon (probably a crowbar - easy to get hold of) to show his aggressive side. 
• We will film the attack in the day time which high contrast so the audience understand it is a flashback/dream scene and also it will be more relatable to the audience as it is too obvious to happen but does and this is aimed to confuse and scare them.
• We haven't decided a name for the film because we want something interesting but can't think of something relevant but clever yet. 
• We will make the therapist look professional with his costume, props and the setting. We will use quick cuts to make sure all the relevant clips get into the 2 minutes. 

update 9

This week we have been hard at work filming our preliminary task. This is the first film that we have created as a group. Ours is called Voodoo (see separate post). In our film i play a student who stumbles across a girl who knows Voodoo and is using it to get back at other students. :)

Preliminary Task: Our First Group Film (Voodoo)

Sarah:

This is our first group filming along with Jessika Bloomfield (http://typhoonproduction.blogspot.co.uk/) who joined us for this task. We worked well as we were all included in the acting. filming and editing. The short thriller film included a variety of thriller conventions along with a wide range of camera angles and effects. Some of the thriller conventions include the concealment of when the girl has her hood on and you don't see her to start with, there is suspense before the girl with the voodoo doll starts to talk, also there is an enigma code for the voodoo doll because you can tell that something bad will happen. Also we used wide angles, close ups, point of view shots, and the 180 degree rule to put together the film.
Characters- Jack Taylor-Balls - Guy that found the girl doing the voodoo, Sarah Drury - The girl doing voodoo, Harmony Shaw - The girl that had voodoo done to her and Jessika Bloomfield - The girls friend in class.

Jack:
Preliminary task set by exam board.
Voodoo gave us, as a group a chance to experiment with the shots and features of the HD camera.
Jessika helped out with the short film which was great as we could therefore all learn from the different techniques we already knew and could work as a group to discover new ideas and techniques. There were certain rules and regulations that we had to include such as a 180 degree shot, a door opening and someone walking through it in two different angles, a person walking across a room and then taking a seat and engaging conversation with another character. In some groups the character who did all these actions was the same person or two people. However we decided that the person opening the door and walking through and across the room (me) would then have a conversation with the evil voodoo girl(Sarah). We then thought Jess and Harmony should have a conversation between each other and the camera should cut between the two on going conversations. This adding tension and incorporating all actors in the film. When it came to Filming and Editing we all did some shooting and got a feel for the camera. In editing the film we all took part and shared the editing and ideas for effects and soundtrack.
All together I think it is a very good film for a first AS level task and I think as a group we can learn from certain areas of the film and make an even better final thriller.

Harmony
This is our preliminary task which we filmed together as a good. We equally took part in filming, editing and even acting in the film. The preliminary task gave us the opportunity to play around with the HD camera, and editing software (in this case imovie). I think our preliminary task went well, we included everything that was asked from us this included;180 degree shot, a door opening and someone walking through it in two different angles, a person walking across a room and then taking a seat and having an conversation with another character. I think we did quite a good job of these tasks as we made the opening of the door look continuos which was what was asked of us. We also tried to include many common conventions of thriller films, examples of these conventions in our preliminary task are the dark lighting in the locker room to present the idea of mystery. All in all I think our preliminary task went well however, from doing this task I have learnt that imovie is very limiting on the editing side therefore for our actual thriller film we will use a more advancedediting software so we can use more advanced editing techniques. From doing this task we, as a group have learnt what sort of things we need to improve on and what sort of things we need to avoid doing in our actual thriller film.