Final Copy of Guess Who?

Here is the final copy of our thriller film. Guess Who?

Closing Post

During the process of creating this thriller opening I have had a lot of fun filming and editing it. It has allowed me to pick up a number of new skills, including filming techniques and camerawork as well as new editing techniques and video filters. I have also found that making a video is a lot harder then what you see on television and now have an idea of how hard producers, directors and other film makers have to work in order to create a good film.

Evaluation Task 7

Looking back at the preliminary task that we have completed, I believe that I have learnt a large amount in the areas of camerawork and editting. Although knowing a lot in editing already, due to the fact that I make videos and upload them onto youtube, I have found out a lot more editing techniques. For example I can make much better cuts then what I was able to do, and I can add effects to good effect. I have also been using a lot of new special effects that I have never used before. For example at the start of the thriller opning I made a CCTV effect by using viewfinder, and the use of text.

I have also found out much better ways of recording with a camera, for example doing slow and fast panning shots, I can use effective close ups, so that it they are used to a highly effective degree. I have also been able to use a large variety of shooting techniques, such as long shots, mid shots, pan shots. Throughout the number of shots we used there is a variation of techniques that we used and the have all been used effectively in their own way.

Evaluation Task 6

1. Canon fs200 - We used this camera for some of our filming because we found that it was easier to use then the Sony HD A1, and that it was easier for us to carry around as the tripod that it uses is a lot smaller then the tripod for the Sony HD A1.

Pros - Lightweight, Easy to carry around, easy to use.

Cons - Cannot record in HD, cannot get high angle views due to small tripod, quality is not great, would rather use Sony HD A1.

2. Adobe After Effects - Our group used After effects to create our thriller titles. At first we found this program quite hard to use at first, but after a 60 minute lesson it became a lot easier to use, and it has a wide variety of items to make numerous titles.

Pros - Can create very good titles, Large variety of effects and fonts.

Cons - Very hard to get used to without a training session.

3. Final Cut Express - We used this to create our thriller opening. This program is highly effective at creating films, because it can cut down to every frame, and allows for very accurate cuts into the video. It also has many useful effects that we used in our thriller opening, such as viewfinder and text, which we used to help create our CCTV camera effect.

Pros - Cut to frames, many effects, easy to get used to.

Cons - Hard to use at first, may get confused with the number of effects.

4. Sony HD A1 - We used this camera for the majority of our filming as it allowed us to film in very high quality, it recorded the film in HD, and the tripod that comes with it allowed use to record some high angle views.

Pros - Tall tripod, Records high quality, Records in HD

Cons - Has many settings, hard to get used to.

5. Adobe Media Encoder - We used the media encoder so that we could transfer our video into a smaller mp4. file size so that it became a lot easier to upload onto youtube, in which people could watch it and give us feedback.

Pros - Can greatly decrease file size

Cons - Video quality decreased, need to know what you are going to transfer video to.

6. Adobe Photoshop - We used photoshop so that we could edit newspaper titles and add pictures to newspapers and make them our own piece of work. We then used this to transfer the psd files into jpegs which we then added to our thriller opening.

Pros - Useful for editing, large number of options to edit, professional quality products

Cons - Very hard to use if you are not used to photoshop.

Evaluation Task 5

This is the annotated video, for my thriller opening.

Evaluation Task 4

To find out a resonable target audience I went to Croydon and handed out 10 questionnaires to move goers. These questionnaires would ask the person how they obtained films when they were released, or if they downloaded films at home. It also asked the person what kind of films they prefer, and also what kind of thriller they like. Below is what we believe our target audience may be like.

Audience Profile
Name: John Howard
Age: 23
Job: Store Clerk
Relationship Status: Single
Preffered Film Genre: Horror, Thriller, Action
Hobbies: Going out with friends, watching films.
Types of Media Used: Music, Internet, Television

Audience Profile 2
Name: Joanne Newton
Age: 27
Job: Hairdresser
Relationship Status: Dating
Preferred Film Genre: Comedy, Thriller
Hobbies: Going out with boyfriend, going out with freinds, going to the cinema with friends
Types of Media Used: Internet, Music, Cinema, Television

So from these two audience profiles you get the idea that the common thing with our movie goers, is that they like to go out with friends, and their common use of media is through TV, or internet. They also seem to be between the ages of 18-29, so the thriller we have may be suitable for someone is the mid twenties.

Evaluation Task 3

The aim of a production company is to create and sell a film to their target audience who ever they may be. They do this through a number of ways such as advertising, this could be in the form of posters, TV advertisements and signs on billboards. Also seeing as we have made a British film we may be able to get some funds from the film company Working Title Films, because they focus on the selling and the production of British Films, such as Bridget Jones' Diary and Dead Mans Shoes (which may not be  incorporated with Working Title Films).

When I also began to think about a distributor for the film and where it may be shown, I did not think about it being shown in a big cinema such as the Vue cinema, I actually thought more about it being shown in smaller film clubs, where it can be shown specifically to your target audience instead of people who have no interest in thriller films.

In my opinion the film would be similar to the film S3ven (Seven). I say this because of the type of things we include into the film. For example our main idea for the film would be a detective looking for a murderer, the murderer being seen in the opening above. This idea is similar to the film Seven in which the detective is looking for someone who has murdered people based on the seven deadly sins, but our film uses the basic idea of murder, in which there may not be a reason, (this reason being religious in Seven).

When adding the titles to the thriller opening I did not think much about where any of the titles would go. The only ones that I really thought about was the starring title, and the directed by title, because they are usually the most important in films. The others I believed would fit in well anywhere so I decided to put them in any order.

Looking at the video there are some aspects to it that are very common to other films of the thriller genre. For example some of the locations, where the lighting is very low key and some of the clips are slightly high key, which gives it that thriller feel. Another key feature in our opening is the title for the name of the film. This one thing makes our film unique to other thriller openings because the use of rain effects is not very common in thriller films.

Another key feature is our thriller opening is the use of newspapers. We thought about using this because we believed that it would give the opening a very local feel, and make the audience feel as if the killer is well known and not just a random killer going around. The way that the words are also blacked out gives it a mysterious feel, and makes the audience want to know what is being covered up.

For the final part of our opening, in which the door begins to open and the screen fades out just before the door is fully open gives it that mysterious aspect because you do not know if the person being killed is a child, man or woman. From films I've seen, this is only slightly used during the film and sometimes during the opening of the film.

Evaluation Task 2

Although I was unable to find a figure from a thriller film that represented the character in our thriller opening you can gain the same idea from these images. For example you cannot see the persons face, similar to the picture on the right. A difference though is that instead of just seeing a silhoutte of the person, or a shadow of the murderer in our video you are able to get a good idea of how the person looks, and his physical build, which gives you that feeling of who it may be as you cannot see the person from the front.

Also both of the images give a hint to what the character may be. In this case it seems that the role of the character is the mysterious, unknown murderer, which is never really seen from the front, or in full view. There is also a major difference in appearence for our thriller. In this case our character is not very strongly built and is quite small, compared to horror thrillers in which the character is usually heavily built.

Evaluation Task 1

Frame 1:  This frame shows the title to our thriller film. This is not like many other film openings that I have seen because not many titles use a rain effect. You also get the feeling that the film will be a thriller because of the colour used. The colour red is usually associated with horror films, thrillers or hybrids of both thriller and horror. I cannot find any titles from thriller films that look identical to the one we created. The colour red is used effectively in frame 1 on the right of the screen.

Frame 2: This frame comes from a scene in which the use of a police radio is used giving it that thriller aspect because the way in which the person is walking down the stairs while the radio is on, gives the idea that a murder may have been committed. From the thrillers that I have seen I have never seen this kind of thing happen. Thrillers usually cut from the dead body to the police talking, so the way we have done this is unique. The way that the scene also fades in and out gives the idea that time has passed.

For example in some Nightmare on Elm Street film it cuts from the body of a dead teen to the police controlling the scene.

Frame 3: This frame shows a scene in which many thriller use this idea. For example in many thrillers the murderer is either marking off victims on a list, crossing out the faces on photos or marking where the person has been killed. I remember seeing this in the opening of the film Seven. As shown in frame 3 on the right of the screen.

Frame 4: This frame gives the idea that the film may be a thriller becuase it has been editted to look like CCTV footage, which may or may not be a highly common technique in many thriller films, or openings. This shot uses a very slow pan, which is a common element of many thrillers. I believe this because it keeps the viewer wondering, and gives a mysterious feel to it. I believe that this effect was used in the horror film Halloween

Frame 5:  This is very similar to the effect used for the name of the film, except that there is no use of the rain effect. Again this is common to the thriller genre, because of the colour red. The colour itself denotes the colour red, but the connotations could be the blood of someone that has died, or danger. This kind of text is common in films such as Freddy vs Jason, and some other thriller films.

Frame 6: For this frame we have taken the idea of what some thrillers use, but added our own twist to it. For example, the murderer checks his victims on a board ( we used a guess who board for this as it seemed the most suitable, and is commonly known) whereas many other thrillers use photos/lists. We also put a twist on  the lighting. many thrillers that I have seen use very low key lighting, for a mysterious and scary feel, whereas for our one we used high key lighting, to break that usual stereotype that thrillers have. I believe that this kind of effect is similar to Seven in which the person is blanking out pictures of people, and we do not know if he is the murderer.

Frame 7: This frame includes a crossed out newspaper with the image of a murder victim. This part of our thriller opening was used in the thriller film Seven. In Seven's opening we see a person crossing out words in a book. So we decided to use this technique in our own thriller opening, by using a newspaper, where the words have already been crossed out. The font that is used for the photoshopped image, is very common to newspapers, so it has a natural feeling to it. Similar to frame 4 on the right of the screen.

Frame 8: This frame introduces the murderer into the opening as the scene is giving a full body view of the character, and it very clear. The costume that we decided to use for this character, is usually used in many horrors where the person is dressed in black and his face is usually not seen. This type of scene can be seen in many horrors or thriller-horrors. This is never really used in the openings of films, but a good scene where this happens is in the film Psycho, in which you cannot see the person behind the shower curtains, and all you gain is a silhouette of the murderer, as shown is frame 2 on the right screen.

Frame 9: This frame focuses on the main use of special effects in our thriller opening. The effect that we used to make the screen darker and more "dusty" is not very common in the openings of thrillers that I have seen, as they usually use low key lighting for these scenes. The mise-en-scene of this particular frame is also common, e.g. a broken down factory or house.

Production Logo

This is the Production Logo for the company that we created in the process of this Thriller opening task. We came up with the name Phantom Productions because it had a spooky or frightening essence to it. This is good for our group because the Thriller opening which we created can be seen as a hybrid of both horror and thriller. There are a majority of things that we could have done to change the logo and make it better, but we believed that sometimes the most simple of things can be effective in any case, for example our production logo is simple but effective for the thriller opening that we created.

Examples of what we want from our Thriller Opening

For our Thriller opening we are looking at making something in a similar way to the film Seven in which images flash up on the screen that may or may not be related in anyway to the actual film. We also changed the idea of it being in a closed room, to a murderer going around, while newspaper headings appear on the screen.

We also wanted it to be similar to the film mimic, where newspapers and pictures of dead butterflys etc pop up on screen, but I was unable to find a video which could be embeded onto this post.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we had to do a total re record, because our first attempt was incorrect, and we had to make sure that we followed 3 basic rules. When looking at our video we seem to have gained a good idea of how the 180 degree rule works, for example when I was recording I never passed the 180 degree angle which we told to use.

We were also told to use the match on action skill which we used effectively, in the case of the door opening and Jordan walking through the door. This is the only time we were able to use this match on action shot.

The final rule that we were told to use was the shot/reverse shot. This shot is, for example, when the cameraman records one person asking a question, then recording the reaction of the other person being asked the question. We were able to do a number of these during our preliminary task. For example every time that Zubair asked Jordan a question it would cut from one person to the other every time they spoke.

Music Ideas

For our music we were looking for something tense, and mysterious. We got some of our first ideas from the soundtrack above that someone added onto youtube. Jordan was then able to take small ideas from the soundtrack and implement them into his own soundtrack. We believe that with this soundtrack we will be able to give our opening that thriller aspect.

In the final steps of our Thriller Opening

Our group is coming towards the final steps of finishing our thriller opening, all that needs to be done is the addition of the soundtrack, which has been created by another student working in our group. We also need to render the titles and add them into the film and makes some small edits and then the film will be completed and ready to upload onto youtube, to get feedback, and we will also be able to upload onto the blog ready for the final deadline.