Survey Monkey (Facebook)

To get as many responses I possible, I posted my survey onto my social networking Facebook page. With 910 friends, I hoped this would help me get a good range of answers in order to give me a good assumption of what people wanted to see in a thriller. Below is a link to this;

http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.surveymonkey.com%2Fs%2FLF83JCM&t=Banter+Survey%21

Survey Monkey

In order to further our research and planning on what we could include, we made a survey which we would ask people of our generation of teenagers to complete and return in order to give us a better idea of the aspects we would need to include in our thriller. Below is a link of my survey and some of the questions I chose to include in order to get a better idea of what our target audience wanted to see.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?PREVIEW_MODE=DO_NOT_USE_THIS_LINK_FOR_COLLECTION&sm=rqMtJqqW4W5pTnUXdQcKL5gygKPZ%2b1MnnOAf5KeeGaE%3d

I then plan to collect the results and learn more about aspects of what I want to put into my own thriller. I will post my results in the next post....

Planning & Research - Sabotage

To give us more insight on what our thriller should include to build up suspense, we decided to watch even more of the master of suspense in Alfred Hitchcock. In the opening extract of this thriller, Hitchcock has a boy who is carrying a bomb but he is not aware of this as his brother in law has given him a package which the boy believes to be harmless. Us as the audience know the bomb is there but he doesn't, Hitchcock builds suspense as he boy gets distracted on his adventure to get the package to it's designated place.

Hitchcock shows dramatic irony in his methods of suspense as on the package, it has the words 'Birds Will Sing at 1:45' which means that the bomb is due to go off at 1:45 which makes us keep looking at the clocks which Hitchock emphasises on to build up the tension. Will the bomb go off before the boy makes it to his destination, you'll have to watch on to find out.

Planning & Research - Seven (Film Titles)

Another element of our thriller that we will have to consider is the film titles and how we can use modern technology to introduce the characters involved in our thriller to make a better look to the whole thriller and set up for a few tense minutes of action.

As part of our planning and research we have watched many film titles at the start to see how modern technology has advanced to make our film look as professional as possible. A great example of how the film Seven used modern technology to make their film titles is shown below;

As you can see above, this is a fine example of how special effects can be used to show the enhancement on technology to make your film look stylish and professional in order to set up for an intense thriller. What we also noticed in this film was how they included a film company to show who made the film, this is another key aspect we may look to add by making our own film company in order to add another sense of professionalism to the film.

Planning & Research - Shadow of a Doubt

In order to research and suspense, we watched the opening extract of Shadow of a Doubt by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock. Below, I shall write what we learnt from this and what techniques we learnt in order to include in our own thriller.

In the opening extract to the film, we are introduced to a character called Uncle Charlie who is a very suspicious man. The opening extract also introduces us to a distinct setting and shows an excellent use of Mis en Scene to create a great atmosphere of suspense. Hitchcock shows Uncle Charlie in a hotel room laying on the bed in a suit which immediately shows suspicious behaviour as it is not common to lay on a bed to relax in a suit which represents uptight. The opening extract also shows us a casual approach from Uncle Charlie who has a large sum of money laying around showing how he is laid back with his money. Hitchcock also uses lighting to show different signs to Uncle Charlie as it shows a dark and a light side which shows a hidden meaning later to be revealed in the film. Another sign that Hitchcock shows to hint something bad is going to happen is the n.o 13 door that Uncle Charlie comes out of with 13 represented as an unlucky number.

Hitchcock also uses sound to show suspense as he plays the music of The Merry Widow by Franz Lehr to show a happy enviroment at the start as it is representing the nice area that Hitchcock is showing. he also shows this by showing kids playing outside with flowers and brighter weather to represent a friendly area with a very positive enviroment to live in. Hitchcock then contrasts this enviroment by showing Uncle Charlie walking to a rural area which we know is a far more run down area due to the props such as abandoned cars, docks and shows poor and homeless people. This is great sense of mis en scene as it we managed to make our own assumptions of two areas from no dialogue but just mis en scene of props.

                                                                

Preliminary Exercise

To prepare ourselves for the filming of of our actual thriller, we were required to film a short extract as our preliminary exercise in order to practice with using the film camera. We shot a short extract including some sub-standard acting and dialogue from myself and Myles Wilson. Below is our work;

Evaluation
To evaluate our video, I watched it over a few times and decided my own opinions on it. I believe that the editing is at a satisfactory standard for the first attempt at editing and we have managed to link together shots at a reasonable standard without any glaring mistakes or errors which is good signs for the filming. Although having an amazing voice, I believe a suggestion would be to complete as much of our filming for our actual thriller with limited dialogue as the acting through dialogue is not to a satisfactory standard to build up tension.

Also, a glaring error I have noticed for the film is the reflection of the camera woman Jess in the reflection, this obviously will make the scene lose all confusion and we will need to look at improving the camera angle when we film our actual film so we don't lose all suspense and confusing atmosphere that we are aiming to create.

A final tip for suggestion, I have for this extract of footage is the zoom in close up we tried to counter is rather blurry and we will have to find a way of making close ups to create a more scary illusion in the film whether this means bringing the camera closer or another suggestion which will improve the film and give the atmosphere of a real thriller. Although, my heavy criticism on this extract of footage, I am satisfied at this for the first attempt and feel the highlight is the editing, we will use this extract to learn from our mistakes as we start to start filming during the next few weeks and will keep you posted with ideas and research we do for this.

Ideas

For our thriller we considered many ideas and in this post, I'm going to discuss many different ideas that we had in order to show our research;

Idea 1

For our first idea, we had the idea of there being a suspicious man who randomly comes into an empty house and takes a prized object. We then show the man misplacing the object being found by someone else. This leaves the suspense and confusion into what the object was and who's found the misplaced object. We think this would be a good idea and would leave the film on a cliffhanger and make the audience want to watch more of the film.

Idea 2

For our second idea we had the idea of a young attractive girl walking home from school and she is being followed by a suspicious man, we will show her going into her house and leave it on a cliffhanger and when he enters her bedroom, he is standing there which leaves it on the confusion of how he got there and whether he kills again which again creates the illusion of suspense which is what we found out that the audience enjoy about six form.

Idea 3

Our third idea was where we filmed a loving couple who spend all their time together. We then want to film a scene where they are instant messaging and the boyfriend sees the girl on webcam with a killer with a knife behind her and he jumps up to save her and the same killer is behind him confusing much confusion and will encourage the audience to watch on to find out why the killer has done this and whether this is actually the same killer. 

Storyboard

This week we planned to do our storyboard and came out with a first rough idea of what we wanted to do for an extract in our thriller. Below is our work and then I shall explain the shots we attempted to show in some amateur artistic drawings;

Below is shots of close ups on the man in question as it may not be clear by the storyboard but we are showing a robbery of an object and we're showing a range of shots. Our first shot shows a long shot of the whole building where the robbery is taking place. Then we slowly zoom in on the man who is taking the object. This was our original idea but on my next post I will discuss many different ideas that we have considered.

Research

In the past few weeks, I have been doing market research to identify what elements people would want to see in a thriller. In this market research we have been interviewing a variety of generations and watching previous works from students before. We also learnt how to use a digital video camera in order to prepare to video our thrillers. We then put this video onto youtube so other people could see what we have found. Below is a link to our video so you can make your own assumptions;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrfnzPS4_mw

After analysing and evaluating this video, I have made my own self judgements on the video. Although, admittely quite amateur, the camera is steady and the questions are clearly delivered and well answered which makes the content in the video quite good. On the other hand we have made a few errors in making the video, firstly we forgot to put microphones on two of our interviewers meaning they were not always clearly heard and secondly the camera shots were not always correct as we seemed to stick with a distant long shot all the time which is something we will have to alter for the film.

However, we still acquired some valuable tips while interviewing our audiences as we learnt some techniques that we may want to use in our own thriller. We learnt that audiences enjoy suspense in thrillers and shocks which made us think that we need to include a intelligent thriller with a lot of suspense before a big shock to make the viewer want to read on. We have a few early thoughts for our storyboard but we must consider a range of techniques and appropiateness before finalising any ideas for our thriller.

Research

This week, we split into groups and went to participate into some market research on Thrillers. We learnt how to use a video camera and interviewed people to ask them out about their favourite thrillers. We interviewed a variety of generations including the older generation in Mr Carder, the ever so slighlty younger generation in Miss Thompson and the teenage audience in Myles Wilson. This gave us an insight into how to use a video camera and attach microphones to conduct interviews.

In our interviews we learnt what people's favourite thrillers were, what they thought made a thriller and what they liked about a thriller. We were given a variety of answers into what people's favourite thrillers were including North to West, Jaws and Panic Room. We also learnt that people thought suspense, shock and cliffhangers were 3 main factors in what made a good thriller which gave us some idea in what our thriller could include. We also learnt that people thought building up suspense was one of their favourite qualities in what made a good thriller as it made them want to watch on more.

Analysis of Film Openings

Today, I watched 3 film openings to analyse what all film openings had in common and how they built suspense. The three films I watched the openings of were Children of Men, Memento and A History of Violence. In this post, I shall put them in order in which film built up the most suspense and I would want to watch the most.

Children of Men

1. Children of Men - Children of Men started in a gloomy atmosphere in the year of 2027 in the future. It first showed a packed cafe that were all mourning the death of the 'youngest person in the world' suggesting that people had stopped having children as the boy was 18. This builds up a suspense in the atmosphere and has you asking questions about the film. The director uses a technique that is used by Hitchcock called the 'Red Herring' where you are drawn to the ordinary man before the bomb goes off which acts as a shock to the film.

2. Momento - I found Momento a good start to a film as it starts with a flashback of someone getting shot which immediately makes you think and ask questions to as why he shot Teddy. You eventually learn that he believes Teddy killed his wife but within the opening few minutes you learn he has short term memory loss which makes you think maybe Teddy didn't shoot his wife. The director of this film also uses and enigma where Lennie the guy with the short term memory loss is searching for his wifes killer. This makes you want to watch the rest of the film to see what happens next and to whether Teddy did actually kill his wife or not.



Memento



3. A History of Violence - A history violence is very different to the other two in the way it starts a film as where its starts with a very calm atmosphere and then eventually builds up the tension before the shock at the end. It starts with the man coming out of the house and ends with the shock when he shoots the little girl. The film starts with when he returns where there is a dead woman, he then tries to calm the girl down and when she fails to calm down, he shoots her. This makes you want to watch the rest of the film as you want to know who the dead woman was and what possessed him to shoot the little girl.

A History of Violence

Aspects of Alfred Hitchcock

In order to have ideas for my thriller, I had to do some research into great directors who have made thrillers. I found a master of suspense and a man who set the benchmark for physchological films Aldred Hitchcock. I then analysed some of this techniques. One of his techniques was a MacGuffin which is a plot device that motivates characters and advances the story but has little relevance to the story. Another technique Hitchcock used was enigmas. This is a technique that refers to puzzles or something mysterious or perhaps a riddle to cause a different problem. This is commonly something which the protagonist has tried to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes. Another technique I managed to reasearch that Hitchcock used was a 'Red Herring'. This is something that diverts the audience that makes them believe something important is happening but its is actually pointless.

Welcome

Welcome to Billy's Media Blog. I'm Billy Cove and this is my media blog. I will post weekly about how I'm going to film and edit the opening 5 minutes of my thriller. Hope you enjoy.