Evaluation

Evaluation link (on prezi):
http://prezi.com/0m3j_c0vrpke/as-media-evaluation/

Movie Stills (Proof of our filming)

 Kyle approaches Campbell

 Kyle wakes up a bit too early

 Orson informs Kyle that it really is her!

The CSI stare...

Film Classification

The certificate for our film is most likely to be rated a '15'. Our film is to include not much/very little violence. But is to include alot of strong language, to further support the certificate rating we're aiming for. The story of the thriller is not too intense and gory to be an age rating of 18. Our film 'Continuity' will be a detective based thriller film, therefore will cause a lot of tension and suspense with the added bonus of the film being rated '15', meaning we can have more fear factor added.

Preliminary Task

The preliminary task went well, as we succeeded in completing the requirements. Which was to film a scene where a character enters a room, have a conversation with another character, then the character leaves the room. Whilst using a range of different camera shots and techniques. I was also able to demonstrate simple editing skills by compiling this video together, using editing techniques such as 'Cut' in 'Final Cut Express'

Location Report

'Locations/Areas:
Alex's House
Bedroom
Garden  - permission guaranteed for all areas


Bedroom scene to be filmed at the start - Part 1 of the script (Kyle wakes up and is rang by Campbell)
Cuts to the Garden scene and ends in Garden - Part 2 of the script (Kyle arrives at the crime scene, whilst Campbell and Orson are waiting for him)
Scenes are all filmed within the vicinity of Alex's house'


All the scenes were filmed successfully and in the right locations. The locations were also ideal enough and appealed to the way our movie was to be filmed.

Synopsis

Thriller Film - Continuity

To come up with our thriller story, we started with a very basic idea and began to build upon it with a more in-depth story. This gradually turned in to enough ideas to make a full movie, but for obvious reasons, we can not do such a thing.

Our story follows NYPD Detective Kyle Henly Jr. Two years ago, his family was brutally murdered in their own home, leaving Henly to discover their bloodied bodies in the bedroom when he returned from work.  Haunted by the events, Henly takes a break from the force as he attempts to move on from the events. He begins having a reoccuring nightmare of him discovering the corpses, only the dream is much more gruesome and haunting than the actual experience. In this dream, next to his wifes body, engraved in a wall, says the words, "You know me".

Now, he is returning to the police force. His first case back is a murder, and Henly cannot help but notice similarities in the way the victim was killed to his own families death. The murders turn into the hunt for a dangerous serial killer, as Henly becomes more and more sure that it is the same man that killed his family. As Henly investigates, he begins having visions of how the victims were killed; as though he can see them actually dying. The visions get stronger and stronger, and eventually mean he can see victims being murdered whose bodies haven't been found yet. As this occurs, the more victims that are found, the nightmare begins to start further and further back. Henly becomes obsessed with finding the killer and finding the victims so he can see, in his dream, the killer actually performing the killings and as such can be identified. Despite this obsession, he becomes curious as to his premonitions and visits a psychologist, who gives him a brain scan and tells him to await the results.

Henly continues on with the case, dealing with his obsession and trying to track the killer down. Finally, he has a dream, and sees the killer.

A psychologist visits the police station he works at, with the results of the brain scan, demanding the police look at it. The brain scan reveals that Henly is a schizophrenic, who for some reason has only selective attacks of his split-personality. This split-personality has become fully-functional since he rejoined the police.

The police track Henly down as he is about to kill himself, as it was revealed to him in his dream that he is the killer. The "visions" he was having was simply his memory being jogged.

Henly is arrested just in time, and an interview takes place, both with Henly, and his alter-ego, who calls himself, "Drew Haddey". The police are disturbed to discover, that when looking into Henly's past records, he has nothing. Everything about him has been wiped from history. No mothers name, ancestors or any other kind of family can be found. A psychologist then makes a horrifying discovery. Kyle Henly Jr.'s name, is an anagram of, "Henry Jekyll", and his alter-ego's name is an anagram of, "Edward Hyde". Now that Henly realises who, and what, he is; his brain forms a connection between the two characters and he begins gaining all of Haddey's memories. He see's Haddey killing the victims, participating in underground cage fights among other various activities. Lastly, he has a flash-back of how he killed his family. His wife greets him home, asking why he is home early and explaining she was just about to go out with their kids. She proceeds into the bedroom where the kids are waiting. Henly see's Haddey follow them in with a kitchen knife. He watches the struggle, and witnesses Haddey brutally kill all three of them once again. Haddey removes his clothes, throwing them into a bin bag weighted with bricks. It then cuts to Haddey in the same outfit, with the binbag, throwing it into a river.

Henly returns to reality with this connection between his two minds. Unbeknown to the police, he gains Haddey's strength, aggressiveness and anger. However, he keeps his usual code of self-moral, and is driven insane as he realises what he has done. He is allowed to read the case file, making the police believe he is just Henly rather than his psychopathic counterpart, who is now the same person. The FBI arrives at the interview and quickly takes Henly to be transferred, and is handcuffed. Henly smuggles the paperclip used to hold the file together into his pocket.

He is shown in the back of an FBI truck, which is a landrover type vehicle. Henly uses the paper clip to undo his handcuffs. He then jams the loose hancdcuff into the throat of the agent next to him. The agent infront, in the passenger seat, turns around just in time to see a gun shoved in his face. Bang. The driver is then shot immediately afterwards.

Henly goes missing.

Eventually, he is found in the house where he had lived. Crouched over where his families bodies once lay. The house is surrounded by armed police; who storm the building. Henly locks himself in the bedroom. The door is eventually broken down. Henly takes shots at the storming officers, hitting and even killing a few of them. As he runs out of ammunition, he is gunned down by the police. He falls to the floor, on his back, staring at the ceiling. Glancing to his side, he sees a hallucination of his family, lay next to him. Staring into his wifes eyes, they slowly glaze over. As he stares into his wifes eyes, he hears the screams of all the people he has killed. Finally, they stop. He smiles at his wife, and she smiles back. She then says, "You know me.", as it scrawls onto the wall next to her. Henly then takes his last breath, and dies.

Summary of Ideas

Our film is about, as the summary says, Detective Kyle Henly Jr. who returns to the NYPD after a break from the force upon his families murders. Henly returning case see's him chasing a serial killer - who follows the same M.O as the culprit that killed his own family. Henly has some sort of reaction to the trauma and begins to see the victims die in an almost psychic episodes, leading him to finding the bodies of more victims and closing down on the killer.

The opening of our film will show, either according to the script, or the beginning of the film (which ends just before the script written below this post). The beginning will be a dream like scene, with Henly dreaming of his families deaths. The scene ends with Henly awakening in a cold sweat

Our thriller fits into the conventions of the thriller genre by using an extremely in-depth plot, filled with twists and turns, aswell as psychological aspects that make it more than just your average detective-esque thriller movie. This psychological aspect will give the audience more depth to the character, a large part of the storyline focuses on the audience trying to work out what is happening with the character.  The film will use a restricted narrative which will create an engima for the audience as they will be trying to solve the problems along side the detective himself.
Editing will reflect the storyline and emotions going on in the film - for example - at the start of our film, we will use continuity editing which will be quite simplistic, however, as the character descends into a less capable psychological state, the editing also becomes more disjointed.

The movie will be very bleak and dark; fitting in with the typical low-light setting that is so typical of the thriller genre. We will also make use of a dark soundtrack, consisting of strings and possibly a piano; aswell as various other instruments which have yet to be utilized and will not be known until actual composition begins. As the music will be an original composition it means it will be user created and as such will not inflict any copyright issues.

In order for us to get an appropriate idea of what we want to achieve during filming, and because all of our actual filming takes place outside of the college area; we are going to use college time to practice and rehearse our scenes so to make the actual filming much more organised.

Cast Profile Pictures

Kyle Henly Jr - Ryan Watkins

Detective Campbell - Josh Warrilow

Sergeant Orson - Alex Ashton

Storyboard for Thriller

Credits: In Production

These screenshots show some of the development stages into making the credits sequence in our Thriller film project. The first screenshot is a test of effect to have on the text, the other three screenshots are the cast list with the already made preset from the first screenshot.

Production Schedule

Production Schedule:
We have planned to start filming on Thursday 17th of March, this can be used to practise for our scenes to make sure we are confident enough and happy that the shots, music, etc work. Yet we will need to check with Celena if the cameras are available on that date, and any further dates in which we wish to film. These dates are still to be confirmed as we are unsure if the majority or all recording will be achieved in one session. We will also need to make sure that each member of our group is present on the day of filming. It'd also be neccessary to list what parts we've filmed on that date, so we can keep track via blogger and so our teachers can monitor our progress easier.

Script for Thriller Opening

Target Audience for Thrillers

Target Audience:

The audience of a thriller film can entirely depend on the certificate of the film and the story of the film. Some thriller films maybe entirely dedicated to targeting young adult males, these films most likely being strong in language and violence. Yet most thriller films do not achieve such a high age rating and the majority of viewers watching these thriller films are under 25. If this was the intention of filmmakers in the thriller genre, then they have hooked a great age group, since most young adults have more leisure than other age groups, which means more money for the filmmakers. According to surveys, more of the target audience are actually female and seem to prefer watching thriller films more than males do. Set aside the different genders, fans of the director are also another target audience. If the director already has a small fan base, they can build on that fanbase and continue to improve on their current work. It would also work to the director's advantage if he used popular actors/actresses, as their fans would come to see the film they star in. Making the target audience a wide range of gender, age and fanbase.   

Mind Map of Thriller

History of Thriller

History of Thriller:

The thriller genre didn’t start off as it was; the origins of this genre came from ancient epic poems, such as Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey and Mahābhārata. These poems utilized similar narrative techniques, which are used in thriller films nowadays. As the thriller genre slowly started to develop, it became clear that there were key essentials to making a successful thriller. These factors are intrigue, suspense/tension and the derring-do (what action will take place, will he or won’t he etc.) Many filmmakers quickly combined these elements, to promote their chances of making a good thriller film. The audiences at the time were bored of what they were seeing as it was following the same trend again and again. The thriller genre gave directors the chance to engage with audiences and give them a ‘thrilling’ sensation in which could get their films into the group of being one of the best films. The classic scenario for a thriller was to have a cliffhanger in which the main character was in mortal danger.  The thriller genre pretty much gave birth to a popular character trend to follow, a detective. The amount of tension and suspense, which could be created from being a detective looking into a crime, was immense. This is why the detective trend in the thriller genre has been so successful and so effective.

Opening of three films: 3rd Film - The Prestige

The Prestige – Opening:

The opening of this film is different to the others, as it actually declares the title of the film in the opening and then cuts to an actual scene. The first scene pans across the undergrowth of a forest floor, where there seems to be a hundred black hats which are exactly identical. This already sets the mood for the film, giving a mysterious and eerie feel to it. It then cuts to another scene where the camera pans across birds in their bird cages, in which a character grasps one out of its cage and shows it to a little girl. The narrative in the background also gives us the clue that this film is based on magicians and the secret to magic tricks. This foreshadows that our character will make the bird disappear and then reappear to please his audience, in this case the little girl. Yet dialogue has a very unnerving feel to it and that the speech has relevance to the entire film, that this ‘ultimate trick’ is the objective for our characters. The presence of an audience as characters in the film, also gives off that realistic feel to it and that the action and suspense is all too real and true.

Opening of three films: 2nd Film - Inception

Inception – Opening:

The opening scene of Inception showcases an establishing shot of waves crashing into rocks and or a possible Cliffside. This shows that the first scene will include a sign of loneliness, being deserted, this instantly creates tension as to where and what is happening. Our first encounter with a character is seeing them half-drowned and washed-up on the nearby shore, until the camera cuts to children playing on the beach, maybe he isn’t deserted at all. He then passes out again, only to have another character poke at him with a weapon, this implies the area is not safe or for the public, giving our audience a bit more to guess at. Yet at the same time, building even more tension and suspense as to what will happen next. The colour follows a simple scheme of warm colours to appeal to the scenery of the beach. The camera still follows our main character, as he is dragged into some sort of mansion, with his items poached by the other character. The camera focuses on our main characters equipment as it is placed on the table, this could possibly foreshadow that they have great relevance to the story, but also cause questions to be asked by the audience, as to why is it so important?

Opening of three films: 1st Film - Dark Knight

Dark Knight – Opening:

The movie starts off with all the typical intros (Warner Bros., DC, etc). They all share the same colour scheme though, as they’ve all been tinted with a dark blue effect. This gives off the feel of the genre, that it is dark and untamed. After the intros have cycled through, it cuts to a scene of what looks like an explosion which has also been tinted with a dark blue effect. But to give it a more dramatic effect, the explosion spreads in slow motion, as if it is slowly clawing its way towards you, then fades to dark. When you can barely see what’s left of the explosion, it instantly cuts to an establishing shot of a city (Gotham City) from the rooftops and gradually pans across to a glass building. The camera tries to focus on a central part of the building, in which one of the central windows is shot. The camera then pans on the criminals, who seem to fire a bolt with rope attached to it, to possibly use as a zip line. Our camera then focuses on a character which seems to be holding a clown mask; this pan on the character suggests that he is in the same operation as the other criminals from the previous shot. Looking back on the previous characters, they use the zip line with haste, to insist they are going to be committing a crime. These three shots edited together, flow fluently to give that tension to the audience. It foreshadows that they will be involved in a crime scene in the first few minutes of the film. The soundtrack also builds tension and suspense, it also works well with other ambient sounds heard in the background.       

Conventions of Thriller

Planning for Thriller Film

List of Equipment:
Camera
Tripod
Torch/Lighting (lighten up viewpoint from camera)

Cast List:
Ryan Watkins - Kyle Henly Jr., Protagonist/Antagonist
Joshua Warrilow - Detective Campbell, Protagonist(Secondary Character)
Alex Ashton - Sergeant Orson, Protagonist(Secondary Character)
All characters will be taking place in the opening and all will have the oppurtunity to have a speaking part. We will not know much about the characters, the audience will only be able to judge them from their appearances and their actions in the opening.

Locations/Areas:
Alex's House
Bedroom
Garden  - permission guaranteed for all areas


Bedroom scene to be filmed at the start
Cuts to the Garden scene and ends in Garden
Scenes are all filmed within the vicinity of Alex's house

Costumes and Props list:
Casual clothing, smart - trousers and shirt preferable (the costumes represent the characters to be smart, well organized and professionals at the jobs they're doing)

Photograph in photo frame
Gun
Fake blood
Ragged clothing (create dead body effect)
All of our cast is already in posession of neccessary clothing, we will need to take a specific photograph to fit into our photo frame, so it fits into our story. A 'fake' gun will need to be borrowed from someone or we could attempt to purchase a bb gun and paint it black for added realism. The fake blood effect can be achieved in many ways, so there is no need to worry about that. And finally, the ragged clothing effect can be achieved with pillows or socks stuffed in some clothes, cover them in dirt and we achieve a dead body effect (as long as it blends into the environment to look like an actual dead body).

Certificate:
The certificate for our film is most likely to be rated a '15'. Our film is to include not much/very little violence. But is to include alot of strong language, to further support the certificate rating we're aiming for. The story of the thriller is not too intense and gory to be an age rating of 18.

Thriller: Poster Analysis 3

Inception:

A lot of characters are seen on this poster; all of them seem to have an important part to play. Yet they’re positions on the poster don’t seem to give a huge significance to the movie, but what they’re carrying and what they’re wearing seems to give a much better description of their role.  The colors seem strong and vibrant, the yellow faded in the background is like a sun setting. Which could symbolize 'running out of time', that the plot of this movie is an adrenaline rush and brings out the tension and suspense.

Thriller: Poster Analysis 2

The Sum of all Fears:
Our two protagonists are positioned looking out the image, as if they’re trying to make eye contact with the viewer, giving off the seriousness of they’re situation. Their images also seem to fade into the background and behind what seems to be another main feature of the story, nuclear weapons. The colour graduates to make the weapons stand out more in the poster, symbolizing the weapons to be feared or scared of. The majority of colours aren’t as dark and gloomy as other posters, but more or less try to shed some light onto what’s happening, giving the viewer the back story and a little bit to understand on what’s going on.

Thriller: Poster Analysis 1

The Dark Knight:

The poster focuses on our protagonist, who seems to be the main centre of attention. As well as the bat symbol scorched into the building behind him. This symbolizes the characters power and role in the film and that he plays a huge part in the film and is most likely seen in every scene of the film. The colours are very dark and low-key, which add to the feeling of the genre. There is a dark side to the main character and the plot that unfolds. Not being able to see the eyes of the character also gives off that dark effect, which makes you feel tense and fearful of this characters presence. The text is of an ordinary font, but sticks out from the dark colours.

 

Thriller Genre Poster Analysis

I have taken a look at four posters of films, which come under the thriller genre and analysed them. One key factor that can be seen on all the posters is that it focuses on the main characters/protagonists. This maybe a way of informing the viewer on which character the story will be focussed upon and that following their views in the film will be key into understanding the story.  The big/main stars are positioned at the front of the poster, mainly because they’re more famous or their role in the film is of high importance that wants the viewers attention. The colours on the posters have a more contrasted look to it. The bright skin colours stick out whilst the shadows atone to the black and sharpen up the image. This makes the more vibrant colours more visible and eye catching to appeal to the audience. The posters all seem to have a hidden reference to the film, such as nuclear weapons in the background.