Evaluation

This evaluation is missing the images of scene from our actual film but the rest is here..

Evaluation

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Production Schedule

This is what I used to plan everything out, in order to stay organised and on top of my work. Also, as we were working as a group it was easy to arrange meeting up times etc, when we had this sort of time table.

Questionnaire Findings

1) What gender are you?

Female [ ] Male [ ]

2) How old are you?

15 – 20 [ ] 21 – 35 [ ] 35 – 50 [ ] Other [ ]

3) What is your favourite sub-genre of thriller?

Action Thriller [ ] Conspiracy Thriller [ ] Horror Thriller [ ]

Psychological Thriller [ ] Spy Thriller [ ] Political Thriller [ ]

* 2/10 participants chose only action thrillers.

2/10 chose only horror thrillers.

4/10 chose only psychological thrillers.

2/10 picked various genres, 1 participant of those 2 selected every type of thriller genre.

This shows psychological thrillers as being the most popular.

4) Do you prefer to see a male or female lead role in a thriller?

Male [ ] Female [ ] Don’t mind [ ]

* 2/10 participants chose female lead role.

8/10 said they didn’t mind.

Though no one chose male lead role.

This shows that generally the sexes of the main character isn’t a key point in a thriller for the audience.

5) Do you think explosions, guns and violence is essential in a thriller?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

* 6/10 participants chose No.

4/10 chose Yes.

This shows that audiences can have varied opinions on the essential presence of explosions, guns and violence in a thriller. Even though 6/10 chose no to the importance of violence in thrillers, the question asked ‘do you think it is essential’ which could mean those 6 participants wouldn’t mind seeing it anyway.

6) Would you prefer to see a thriller that has a complex and mind boggling plot?

Yes [ ] No [ ] Don’t mind [ ]

* 3/10 participants said they didn’t mind.

7/10 said Yes to a complex and mind boggling plot.

Though none said No.

This shows that audiences generally prefer when a thriller gives you an intricate plot, so we should try to do the same with our film.

7) Do you have a favourite thriller film?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

8) If so, please name it below;

* 4/10 participants named their favourite thrillers, they named,

Hide and Seek

Halloween

Funny Games

The Butterfly Effect

These are all films with intricate plots and some kind of twist at the end. These results support the findings from question 6.

9) Would you like to see a strong, independent female protagonist as the main character in a thriller?

Yes [ ] No [ ] Don’t Mind [ ]

* 2/10 participants said they didn’t mind.

3/10 said Yes to a strong female lead role.

5/10 said No.

This was a shocking result as I thought most females would chose Yes. Though in actual fact, every one who chose No, was a female and 1 of the participants who chose Yes was a male.

10) Do you think it is important to have special effects and lots of soundtrack, such as ominous sounds, in a thriller to make it good?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

* 10/10 participants chose Yes for the effectiveness of the soundtrack.

This clearly shows how important the sounds and music in a thriller are to an audience. I will definitely keep these results in mind when e and my group are editing sounds for our own film.

Call Sheets for Locations

This was a sheet given to us by Harrow College whice was signed by our teacher to show to Grims Dyke. It told them that we were legitimately filimg something for our media coursework and asking for their permission to let us use thier site.

This is a call sheet for our second location in the woods opposite Harrow Weald college.

This is a call sheet for our first location at Grims Dyke Hotel.


Though both the call sheets say that our production title is 'Obsession', after filming when we were editing we decided that the title 'The Dark Side' would better fit the theme of our synopsis.

Storyboard

This is a more detailed storyboard for the forest scene of our film. As we had many close up shots and quick running shots, we found it hard to properly map out all of our shots. Though during editing the story board helped us to recognise the kind of close up shots we needed and appropriately cut the shots.

Rough Storyboard

This is a rough storyboard for our film. It was done when we first had our idea and the ideas in it have since changed.
It doesnt have any written descriptions on it, it was just to help us get all the ideas for scenes we had down on paper.

Preliminary Storyboard

This is a rough storyboard made for the preliminary work.
It follows the basic outline of the exercise, someone walking down a corridor, walking into a room, sitting down and conversing with someone else.

Preliminary Script

This is the script for my previous groups preliminary excercise.
All the rules os scirpts in the professional film making buisness were followed.

Ideas for Sound

For the forest scene sound we decided to have dark and ominous tones, to create a gloomy atmosphere.
We found a very effective soundtrack for the forest scene that was called 'Running Up That Hill' by Placebo.



This would have been a perfect song as it has a heartbeat sound and a deep bassline that would create a good atmosphere for a woman running the in the forest in distress.
Though we soon realised that we couldn't use it due to copy right issues. So we have decided to make our own soundtrack to add our own unique and original talents to the scene.
We will use the program 'garage band' on the mac to create the tones.

Costume Choices

For the first bit of the opening of our thriller a woman is running through the forest wearing a nice, smart dress which is supposed to contrast with her surroundings. As the dress is a vital tool in the scene to create enigma and an effect, we needed the right dress.
These are our choices for the characters costume. There was a choice out of 3 possible dresses,








The grey dress was finally decided on, partly because of practical issues but also because it looks like the right kind of dress that the character we have created would wear. It's also smart enough to contrast with the forest to create enigma within the scene.

Filming

These are a mixture of location shots and images from our first day of filming.
We only got done the second half of the scene as we didn't anticipate the weather and how cold it would be so we finished before we planned. Though we plan to go back and hopefully get more done when we are more prepared for the weather conditions.
The filming was done in the GrimsDyke Hotel grounds.

Idea for Opening Scene and Synopsis

This is my own synopsis for my idea for a thriller film and a walkthrough of the opening scene. I did this as part of my research and development of idea for the real thing.


Synopsis
It’s 1976 and a 24 year old black working class woman, Sarah Meredith, is working two jobs to keep herself fed and housed. She works as a cleaner for a white business-buff high up in the social rank of London. After stumbling upon a classified document in his house about one of the most famous unsolved murder cases of the 50’s she ends up being sucked in to a world of violence, hatred, corruption and greed. Though as the story begins to unfold, she finds herself being erased from society, the government begin to do all they can to make sure no one knows who she is or cares what happens to her.
By a chance encounter she begins to rendezvous with her boss’s 28 year old son, James Cabot, who has been aware of something suspicious and threatening going on with his father for a couple of years, decides to help Sarah uncover the truth. She realises as her life begins to crash down around her that there’s no point running, so her and James set out to uncover the truth about the murder. As the pair become more and more involved in the story, they begin to fall for each other. The story ends with a solved mystery and a dead lover…


Opening Scene
The opening scene to this that I thought would be effective is starting it with a scene from the end. The first few seconds is a black screen and there is off-screen diegetic sound of a woman lightly sobbing. Then we see the two characters, (Sarah and James) standing holding each other. Sarah is crying and James is staring at someone holding a gun. The shot cuts to this person, he’s slightly hidden in shadow. There’s a deathly silence until the man holding the gun says ‘you should never have gotten involved. It’s… It’s for the best.’ As he begins to step forward the shot cuts to the couple, James kisses Sarah’s head and whispers, ‘till the end’. There’s a gunshot, and the screen goes black. This scene lasts for about a minute, the black screen turns into the woman from before opening curtains to a bleak morning. The rest of the minute of the opening consists of her bustling around her flat getting ready for work like any other day. There are credits as she does this on the screen in a bold Verdana font and the music playing in the background is either the first minute of ‘No Love Lost’ by Joy Division, or ‘Gimme Shelter’ by the Rolling Stones.

Character Plan

Name: Lara Boon

• Woman in her 20’s

• White, British

• She is a middle class business woman, working for a high status corporation

• Lives alone, can’t hold together a relationship

• She is attractive, though not too barbie doll, doesn’t look like a bimbo but smart, independent looking.

• In forest scene, character is wearing ripped tights, a grey dress, her hair is out and messy, her skin is dirty and her makeup is smudged. In the second scene outside the hotel, she is wearing a business pencil skirt, sophisticated heels, her makeup is subtle, and her hair is straight and tidy.

• Her personality is mean, independent, strong minded, and assertive. She rarely gets pushed around and never sees her friends or family as she is a work-a-holic.

• She is not religious, and believes strongly in the importance of liberal democrats.

• She doesn’t have any phobias apart from being locked in a cage, she cant stand confinement and being trapped. She can’t stand to feel helpless.

• She exceeds stereotypes as she is blonde but not stupid, she is attractive but not obsessed with her looks, and she is a woman but not dependant on men or helpless around men.

Questionnaire into audience expectations of thrillers

This is the questionnaire I made to give to various people to find out audience expectations of thrillers.

Questionnaire on Conventions of Thrillers

1) What gender are you?

Female [ ] Male [ ]

2) How old are you?

15 – 20 [ ] 21 – 35 [ ] 35 – 50 [ ] Other [ ]

3) What is your favourite sub-genre of thriller?

Action Thriller [ ] Conspiracy Thriller [ ] Horror Thriller [ ]

Psychological Thriller [ ] Spy Thriller [ ] Political Thriller [ ]

4) Do you prefer to see a male or female lead role in a thriller?

Male [ ] Female [ ] Don’t mind [ ]

5) Do you think explosions, guns and violence is essential in a thriller?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

6) Would you prefer to see a thriller that has a complex and mind boggling plot?

Yes [ ] No [ ] Don’t mind [ ]

7) Do you have a favourite thriller film?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

8) If so, please name it below;

_________________________________________________

9) Would you like to see a strong, independent female protagonist as the main character in a thriller?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

10) Do you think it is important to have special effects and lots of soundtrack and ominous sounds, in a thriller to make it good?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

Evaluation of "Se7en"

(This evaluation is only of the first 3 minutes of this extract from the opening scene of "Se7en")

In this essay I will be evaluating the opening scene of ‘Se7en’ Directed by David Fincher in 1995. In the very first shot we are shown a medium shot of a character (played by Morgan Freeman) from behind washing a cup up. We get a sense that we are simply observers in this particular scene because of the way the camera is positioned behind objects like door frames etc, so it helps us focus on the bigger picture and makes the shot feel even more isolated. Perhaps reflecting the characters life. All through the beginning minute of the scene when the character is in his room, there is diegetic off-screen sound of people talking and TV’s blasting out. This suggests that his apartment has thin walls which could be implying he is of the working class, living in a shabby flat. In addition, there are occasional faint sound of cars and sirens which indicates straight away that he lives in the city. We then cut to a shot of the character putting on his tie, solemnly as if he’s dressing for a funeral, though it’s just a usual day. Then we get an eye line match as the character looks down and the camera cuts to a close up shot of objects lined up perfectly in a row. This is very important in portraying the character because they’ve shown us that he is extremely organised, that he clearly lives on a everyday routine, it also implies that he could be a loner if he has the time to be so precise. We also know straight away that he is a policeman because one of the objects he picks up is a police badge. The next shot again, implies all of these things as he picks a spec of dust of his cleanly ironed blazer, clearly he has the time to make everything perfect.

We then cut to a different scene of a body lying on the floor in a pool of blood. This is elliptical editing as we have essentially gone from the characters home to work, just missed out the journey in between. As the diegetic off-screen sound of a man talking about the crime scene, we cut to a medium long shot of Morgan Freemans character walking down the hall. As the other policeman says “yeah well this is a done deal, I’ll do the paperwork”, Freemans character seems to be still looking closely at things for clues, which implies he is a heavy thinker and perhaps gets himself involved in the cases more than his co-workers. In addition we discover that he isn’t liked very much amongst his colleagues, as the other policeman says “you know we’re all gonna be real glad when we get rid of you somerset.” Though he doesn’t seem phased which could mean he’s above all the mindless insults.

This is when Detective Mills enters the story. He walks up the stairs with a wrinkly un-ironed shirt on and a leather jacket, insinuating his rebelliousness and care free, young persona. Then we cut to a low angle shot of him and Detective Somerset coming out a building. Det. Mills instantly does something to show his character, he checks out a woman walking past while talking to Detective Somerset. This represents him being not completely focused on what he’s doing. He’s distracted by anything and everything and by checking out a woman shows his immaturity to constantly be thinking about women. The as they start walking and the camera tracks them to the left, a man walks in between the two characters and lightly nudges Det. Mills. He instinctively turns around to look at the man and has an annoyed facial expression for a couple of seconds. This shows his short temper, his inability to stay controlled and perhaps not think reasonably. He also seems fidgety and very confident. He seems to be exactly the opposite of Det. Somersets character.

The whole tone of the film is set by the dim colours, and dreary feeling of the atmosphere. You instantly know it’s not going to be a happy funny film because there’s nothing vibrant about any of it, or distinctively fantasy about it. You know it’s going to be a down to earth thriller. In addition, There is no non diegetic sound in any of the beginning 4 minutes which is unusual for the opening of a film. Though this might be because the director is making it seem as real as possible by only including real sounds. He wants you to feel like it’s real life, and we don’t have soundtracks in real life.

Evaluation of "Vertigo" opening

This is the opening rooftop chase scene of "Vertigo" directed by Alfred Hitchcock.



This is my evalutaion..
Straight away Hitchcock manages to grasp our attention by the menacing non-diegetic soundtrack music that evokes fast paced movement. Then the first shot of a close up of just the ladder, when two hands appear grabbing it from below.

Already enigma is established and we are asking ourselves questions even in the first 10 seconds of the film. As the camera then zooms out of this shot, we see that in the background there is a city, immediately establishing the character must be on some kind of roof. This person is immediately followed by a man in a policeman uniform; this then answers some of our questions but not all of them and so keeps us interested. Another man appears after the officer wearing a suit, looking well kept and a little awkward as he jumps over the step making us think he’s perhaps not that comfortable to be where he is which could give us a clue as to what will happen.


The next shot is a great tracking establishing shot of the three characters running across the roof tops. Now we can clearly see that it’s dark which sets a moody and quite ominous tone to the scene. There is no diegetic sound apart from when the police man fires the gun at the man he is chasing which begs the question what could this man have done that so bad that he deserves to be shot at instead of just chased down and put in jail? It also leads you to believe something bad will happen and builds up the tension to the inevitable breaking point where something unwanted happens. Tension is also built up in the next shot when it cuts to a very long shot of each man individually trying to jump a gap in the roof onto an unsteady, slanted rooftop. The first man makes it alright, then the officer just about makes it, each time the music growing more dramatic to increase tension and giving you another clue that something is about to happen.



Suddenly, the last man jumps and fails to make it. He slips, falls and there is a four shot sequence of him falling to we completely focus on it, each time gets closer and more involved in what’s going on. The first is the same very long shot of him the jumping the other two characters had except we see him start to slip, the second is a long shot of him struggling for his life trying to get back to grips with the roof, the third is a medium shot of him clinging on to a drainpipe on the edge of the building, and the fourth is a medium close up of his face while holding on for his life. We see the sweat dripping off his face, accentuating his fear and making it all the more real for us. The music also becomes more threatening and dramatic as this happens. This cuts to a medium shot of the police officer running after the first character, he abandons the pursuit and goes back to help his colleague. In doing so he creates an image for himself of being a nice man, and this makes the end part all the more terrible. Suddenly the subject of the chase has changed and now it’s a rescue mission. Having more than one thing happen in the beginning scene is ingenious of Hitchcock to rope the audience in and get them hooked as things are always changing.

We then cut to a close up shot of the third characters face and the look of sheer terror on it. An eyeline match allows us to see what he’s seeing and an establishing shot of the ground below clearly shows this. As the officer tries to help the man, he falls to his death with a shrill, haunting scream. Again we are surprised as initial thoughts could have been the third character was going to fall.

Hitchcock was named the ‘master if suspense’ in his day for his elusive techniques and long effective shots. He will definitely be influencing me in my own work.