Feedback of Final Sequence

After finishing our improvements from Amar we got another group to view our production and give positive and negative feedback about it.

- They felt that the music was very effective, working with the sub - genre. They felt it helped gain suspense and showed that the film was a dark, psychological thriller.

- They liked the range of camera shots we used which included point of view shots, establishing shots and close ups. They felt that it helped show what was clearly going on, understanding the narrative clearly.

- They commented that the transitions between shots we good with the cut's working well with the thriller genre.

- They liked the extreme close ups of the knife and photos. They felt the emphasis put on it helped them understand the narrative and possibly hinted at what will happen during the rest of the film.

- They enjoyed the opening sequence and believed it used the right conventions of a Thriller opening sequence. The fact clues were shown made it a very effective start of a psychological thriller.

- They liked the ending as it left them on edge and in suspense, wondering what was going to happen after this sequence. 

Feedback from Amar

Since our rough cut we have been editing in every lesson. With our sequence nearly ready we decided to get feedback from Amar as he is experienced and knows what works well and what doesn't in opening sequences.
At first he believed that the narrative was about a murder investigator rather than a murderer. This is because of the use of pictures and newspaper articles with the time and dates on the wall. It seemed as if they were investigating suspects rather than following potential victims. The spying part of the sequence created a suspicion that the man was not "normal" and possibly not a investigator. As soon as the knife was seen he instantly understood that the character was a murderer choosing his victims.
After trying to explain the narrative he thought was being portrayed in the sequence we told him the actual narrative. He felt that it was hard to grasp the deep narrative we had produced and we could have tried to show the boys relationship with his dad in some shots. He suggested having a close up picture of his dad as well as having a close up with his face so the audience could relate with the character more. He thought that the newspaper article on the wall could have been shown more close up to make sure the audience can understand the narrative we were trying to portray.
For the spy sequence he felt that black and white was not enough to convince him that it was a flashback and suggested that it would be a good idea to add another effect such as vignette. This blurs out the edges of the clip making it more realistic as a flashback.
He felt the music went well with the pictures on screen and related to the sub genre well. He also felt that the editing was very strong however he thought one weakness in our sequence was the way we showed the titles. He felt that they could have been a different colour, possibly a lighter/brighter colour as it would relate to the production logo we made. He also felt that the production title should be moved away from the middle of the screen as it meant that there was less emphasis on the character in shot which is not what we want to show.
Lastly he thought that the music at the start should fade in rather than suddenly start. This is because the production logo suddenly jumped to the opening sequence which looked a bit unproffesional.

Target Audience

Our film we are producing will be rated a 15 so obviously the target audience will be people over the aged of 15 years. We feel that the Thriller we are producing will appeal to most of people from teenagers to older people. This is because people enjoy an exciting, gripping film to watch which takes them to another place where they have to work out clues and solve the mystery of the narrative. It then reaches a tense climax where the audience don't know what is going to happen which creates the "thrill' in the movie.

Our film would contain violent scenes and images of the victims as our thriller is about a murderer seeking revenge. This therefore means that our film is not suitable for children as it could influence them to play with knifes and become a danger to themselves. It is likely to contain some bad language to make it seem more realistic, which means that our target audience must be over the age of 15. We believe that our film is suitable for ages over 15 as many ages enjoy a good thriller, although students would be the main target. This is because our victims our from a family of which are young adults. As well as the main character being an adult in their 40's.   

An example of the teenager target audience is Emily, who spends 5 days a week at college, completing coursework and homework throughout the week nights. This becomes stressful and the only free time is has is on weekends. To relieve the stress of the school work she will go to the cinema with her friends and watch our Thriller movie. This will take her to another life for the two hours of the film where she will be in an unusual situation where she becomes the characters and wants to help them. This helps to detach her from her normal life and experience emotions that she wouldn't normally experience.

Digital Mood Board

 
 Our thriller project was based on the film Seven, this uses a lot of actions of a man getter prepared to kill his victims. As a consequence we based our film on actions as it seemed like a very cleaver way to indulge the viewer as well as confuse them. By using images of our victims by placing pictures on the wall as well as showing articles from news papers to show the audience who the murderer is really after. It allows them to see throughout the film that the clues where right at the beginning allowing them to piece it all together and understand why he is targeting that particular family. The image of Jack the Ripper represents our character as he is dressed in black clothing with leather gloves and a long black coat. This makes the murderer look mysterious and like Jack the Ripper know one knows who he really is. We didn't show the face of the murderer making the audience feel tense and on edge wondering who he might be. This makes them want to watch more to find out what he truly looks like. Jack the Ripper also killed his victims with knives, which is the same as our killer. Knives are easier to come by and harder to find out who the knife belongs to as everyone has knives within the kitchens. 

Mise-en-scene (Props and Lighting)

Mise-en-scene consists of costume, props, lighting and location. These four things make the sequence look realistic and believable for the audience and without them the film would look unprofessional.

Props

Example of Kitchen Knife we will use

Example of Fridge

Props are essential for our film as the opening sequence relies on them because we are not having much, if any, dialogue in the scene. We begin our scene with a shot of the fridge, this is a major prop in the scene so it will be needed. This shows the man in his everyday life and makes it seem that everything is normal with him as he is just taking something from the fridge. The next prop is a drink, possibly a beer and this will show that he is possibly lower class drinking by himself. The most essential props for the sequence is the pictures and articles which are of his victims. These will be placed on the wall and should be realistic and continuity should be kept from picture to picture. These props will create the narrative and the audience will begin to understand who the man is because of these props. A marker pen will be used when he is circling the daughters picture. The marker pen will represent him targeting and "marking" his victim. As the script tells us, a knife will be used for the murder so a realistic knife will need to be used. We will use a kitchen knife like we have pictured which will show he is not well off and will have to make do with a normal knife. A map will be needed as a prop to show the location of the murder he is about to commit. Lastly the black leather gloves will be an essential prop as it relates to sinister and mysterious people and will show he is trying to make sure no finger prints are left on the knife/victim.

Lighting

Example of Desk Lamp

We want to create a dark, damp, mysterious atmosphere within the location (garage) so we will use little light in the scene. The desk lamp, which is a very important prop in the scene, will be the main source of our light. The darkness will help the audience understand that the person is the antagonist of the film and this will complement the props and narrative. For the flashback we will use natural light to make it a realistic point of view from the murder. We will need natural light for this part as it will create a great contrast between the two scenes and because we are going to make this part in black and white, it will need to be light for the audience to see what is happening on screen.

Analysis of Past Years Work (RI-16)

We analysed and marked a blog and final Thriller opening sequence from last years Long Road Media students.
We chose group R1-16 at random and this group had decided to create a psychological thriller opening sequence. The group blogged 55 posts throughout the duration of the task which was an excellent amount of posts.
The feedback we concluded for the planning and research of the group was that they did have a lot of good examples with a variety of thriller sub-genres looked into. However the analysis of the sequences and films were very limited with only bullet point answers and sometimes no analysis at all. There was never a comparison between two thriller sub-genres which showed that their research was not as in depth as it could have been. The group did plan well with thorough planning of the location of the sequence, props and costume. They blogged the exact timing of the filming and editing which showed good organisation and time management.
The film was based on a young girl who was having some sort of nightmare in the opening sequence. There was good editing for the film as they managed to create distorted images, which helped show the drama of the sequence. The editing also helped show what was a dream and what was real life with the dream being in black and white. There was a variety of shots in the sequence including establishing shot of the location, point of view shots and mid shots. This created good continuity in the scene and match on action was present throughout. The credits in the sequence didn't seem to stand out or create any sort of impact and when the title at the end was shown it was not as dramatic as it could or should have been. The mise-en-scene was good as the props, location and costume related well to the narrative and nothing seemed out of place or unrealistic.
There was some criticism with the film. Firstly the film didn't seem to make much sense to the audience. The group tried to make the dream more complicated and mysterious than it really needed to be. They attempted to exaggerate the conventions of psychological thrillers for example when the characters just disappeared with no reason or explanation. Also the use of sound was limited, with only quiet sound used in part of the sequence. Again this would have confused the audience and didn't seem to engage or keep the audience on edge.
Overall we feel that the planning, research and final sequence would be given a Level 3 if marked by an examiner.