Character planning- Miss Miller

Character planning was vital as our characters where the primary source of the tension within our thriller opening and so we looked to focus on the characters as much as possible, looking at the conventions we where adhering to with each character and the effects they created. These effects intern helped increase the relationship a viewer would have with the characters, keeping them interested. Throughout this blog i will be addressing each character within our thriller opening and their purpose within it.

The victim (Late teens and blonde)- This characters role within the opening is to be stalked by our antagonist. Much focus went int the planning of this character. The Blonde hair was a necessity within our victim as it is a symbol of venerability within the thriller genre and so we hoped to utilise this  generic thriller convention to enhance the effect of suspense that the venerability created.In doing so our group spent allot of time trying to find a actress to play the part and as a result we consequently lost allot of filming time leading to parts of our film being rushed. The relatable age of the victim (late teens) to our target audience of teenagers helps the viewers engage with the narrative more as they feel as though this is or could happen to them or a friend.

Antagonist- Our antagonist (as planned in the picture to the left)
was detrimental in the tension within the film as he was the source of all of it. Knowing this our group looked to enhance certain characteristics to increase the fear factor of our stalker and therefore increase the tension the audience felt when watching him stalk our victim as a result. Inspiration from Stephan Kings 'it' was taken to create our despaired clown mask.

We identified a clown to be a relatable fear umonghst teens and so we looked to transfer this fear into a film using inspiration from Stephan Kings 'it' to create our despaired clown mask. This created suspense in that some teens are already scared of clowns. The antagonists identity being concealed by the clown mask also  enhanced suspense and tension as it creates an enigma. Viewers are unaware of who the killer is and so they continue to guess who it is throughout the film keeping them enthralled in the narrative. We where always looking to make our themes relatable to thriller conventions such as hidden identity as the thriller conventions create the effects that all successful thriller have, tension, suspense and fear.

I would argue that our group tried and succeeded in creating characters that where effective in enhancing the tension and suspense within our thriller opening by using the thriller conventions they display such as hidden identity (Clown mask), and blonde hair on our victem. Creating a blog on character planning has been enlightening as i am now more focused on the roles of my characters within my thriller film and it also gave me a opportunity to look at my characters in more detail allowing me to change certain aspects such as the clowns black tracksuit to make it more relatable to our audience of teens to enhance suspense within the film.

Planning sound- Miss Miller

I used a variety of different sound techniques throughout my thriller opening, including my independently created soundtrack that i was able to compose on garage band.The use of sound within a thriller helps impact and enhance the effects that the audience are seeing on screen, particularly tension as it is essential in creating a conventional and good thriller film.

One sound technique used is the music created on garage band that i mentioned earlier. This will be payed throughout and will serve to increase the tention as our victem walks through the set with the stalker antognoist watching her every move. I belive some non diegetic music in the background is a formality within any film let alone a thriller film. It makes the film much more dynamic and helps to highten the effects the director is hoping to achive within a shot, making it a convention to all films as well as the thriller genre. I am hoping that my soundtracks eerie feel invokes fear and tension within the thriller opening.It is conventional to that of a generic thriller soundtrack. Its dark, tense atmoshpear it promotes helps set the scence and as the music progresses as does the suspence with the use of the suspence accsent loops on Garage band.

  

Another technique we are looking to achive in our thriller opening is contapuntal sound. As our female victem is left alone by her boyfriend she puts her earphones in where a happy care free song is being played faintly in the filming. This creates the effect that she can not hear any other external sound crating more tension as she can not heart her stalker following her. The contrupuntal sound creates a eerie atmosphere as the audience feel uneasy. We hope to convay the contrasting music as a metaphor for the antagonists twisted persona, where he is out of touch from the world (as too is the music) to build suspense as the audience feel as though our antagonist is unpredictable and capable of anything, keeping them at the dye of their seats throughout our opening. Contrapuntal music is a common thriller convention used in popular thriller franchises such as scream as they help build tension (the primary effect looks to be explored in the thriller genre) which intern inceases the veiwer/character relationship as the audience feel sympathy for the victim.

Diegetic sound in the form of heavy breathing from our victem and deranged laughter from our antagonist is another key sound technique we will attempt to use to help build suspense. Our group chose to use this particular technique as apposed from dialogue from a phone call as too much dialogue can take the tension and focus away from the narrative which most of our tension and fear originates from. The use of these sounds help to increase suspense as the audience feel sympathy for the victim or in tern fear for the antagonist which helps to create a character/audience relationship which intern increases tension as the audience feel more involved with our characters as they have emotions towards them and so they care about what happens to the characters. These particular diegetic sounds (heavy breathing, and contrapuntal sounds from the films antagonist) are a thriller convention as it furthers the fear factor and tension of the scene, for example if you use contrapuntal diegetic sound in the form of laughter to present your antagonist to be more unpredictable you will then make him appear more fearful as a result which will mean the film will be more tense.

The final sound technique i will explore within this blogg is the non diegetic 'bang' as the antagonist appears. I will hope to replicate the effect created in the scream clip (left) at point 1:03 where the sudden 'bang' shocks the audience, creating a eerie atmosphere, leaving the viewers feeling uneasy. However as apposed to the clip where the killer jumps out of the truck then straight back in, i will leave our antagonist in full view using a mid shot. I'm hoping that this will leave the antagonist in a state of superiority following the bang increasing the tension as the killer now has the upper hand. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it invokes the fear in the audience as apposed to the normal effect just of fear in the character.As a result of  the viewers being scared the tension is increased as they are more on edge and susceptible to any other sound techniques used such as the music, which i mentioned earlier in the blogg.

I feel as though sound is a vital factor in my thriller film if i am to have any chance of having the tension i am hoping for. It allows the characters to interact with one another in a variety of different ways which would be unachievable through the use of cinematography, to enhance the tension for the viewers. The primary theme i am hoping to achieve through the use of my selected sound techniques is mystery to create enigma which then in tern creates tension as the audience are scared of the unknown and am confident that the sound techniques i am using will create this desired effect. By creating this blogg i am now more educated on my potential sound techniques effects and so i can use them where i feel they are required within my thriller opening.

Planning cinematography-Miss Miller

Post on cinematography you are planning on using
1) Analyse 5/6 DIFFERENT camera elements used
2) Explain why you will use sepcific elements and how are conventional
3) Evaluate how effective you think it will be in terms of creating suspense etc.

The use of cimematography is appearent in all filming and reffers to all shots and angles used to create a scene. Throughout the course of this blogg i will analysing the different cimematography used and managing how i will use it within my thriller.Cimematography helps build a relationship between character and audience as the audience are able to see what is happenign from a variety of different angles, giving the audience a much more dynamic perseption on what is happening helping elevate certain elements, particuarly the element of vunerability which is a thriller convention that he thought a nessecary theame to apply into our thriller opening.

The first shot used within my filming (Frame1) is the pann. The camara panns from the veiw of the large structure, reffered to as the 'bell tower' during planning and filming, to the street where the girl is walking down. I have chosen to use this shot as apposed to an establishing shot to create a sincire atmosphere as the camara slowly panns down. Increasing the tension as the audience are unaware and eeger to see what the camara is panning to, aswell as introduce the audience to the loacation, giving them a idea of the scale of her isolation. Isolation is again a thriller convention that our group thought neccesary to use as it incraeses the thriller films tension as the audience know that there is no one there to protect them from the appending danger making the audince sympathise with the victem as she is portrayed to appear more vunerable through the use of appropriate cinematography (panning), this furthers the audience/character realationship.

The secound cinematography choice i have chosen to comment on in this blogg is the shot used in frame number 4. The P.O.V of the girl reading a text on her phone from her mum. I have chosen to use this specific element as it is relatable to the audience making them feel like the film is more real therefore increasing the tention throughout the film as they are more subseptable to the idea that this could happen to them. This is a convention as it shows how things are happening from a characters point of veiw. Increaseing the character/audience relationship as we as a audience are more aware of the traumatic, suspensful experience the characters are going through.

We also looked to conceal the antagonists identity as much as possiable through the careful use of cinematography such as long shot and shallow focus in order to increase suspense within our thriller opening as although the victim is unaware of our antagonists the viewers are given subtle hints of a potentially threatening presence. For example in frame 5 we use a rather complex cinematography method where there is a long shot/shallow focus of our female victim walking through a car park but when she walks out of frame a blurred figure in the background moves back into cover which draws our attention to the movement without getting a good look at what was there. increasing tension as the audience are scared and weary of the unknown, they know something was there watching her but rant sure what. In adopting this particular type of cinematography we are elaborating on the thriller convention of hidden identity, prominent in many popular thriller franchises such as 'Friday the 13th'. The element of hidden identity crates an enigma for the audience as they guess who the antagonists true identity is or in the case of 'Friday the 13th' to create mystery as to how and why the antagonists feels the need to conceal his identity.

A less controversial however necessary part of our cinematography for our opening sequence is a close up of our victems face (Frame 9). With the shot being on screen for 3 secounds it gives the audience a chance to clearly examine the clear emotions of fear and horror on her face as she comes face to face with our antagonist, allowing the viewers to reflect on the seriousness of the scenario she now finds herself in as tension builds as she slowly steps back with the shot remaining on screen. This technique is again a thriller convention as it is used in this context to make the victim appear more vulnerable. And our blonde actress only furthers the convention of vulnerability as blonde hair is considered a symbol of vulnerability in the film world, for example Alfred Hitchcock's 'psycho'.


The last piece of cinematography i will be analysing is in frame 2 where a low angle shot is used.
 The shot is used to convey the victims isolation and vulnerability which then increases tension as the viewers and being led to believe that something could potentially happen to this girl. The relationship we get in turn for this cinematography makes the viewers grow accustom to the characters and this relationship makes the film better as these emotions influence our opinions on the characters. These key factors of relationship between viewer and character are generally seen to be primarily focussed on by the thriller and the drama genre as they focus more on character emotion to exploit the more focussed plot and in turn make the film better.

The correct use of cinematography throughout my opening scene is crucial as to make my thriller film good i will need to use the thriller cinematography conventions in the hope that i will achieve the effects  of tension, mystery and fear. Creating this blogg has provided much help as i am now more clear as to what effects each of my planned shots will create allowing me to see what areas of cinematography i need to improve within my thriller opening.

Group storybord- Miss Miller

Through out my blogg i will be evaluating our combined group storyboard where we pulled together our groups best ideas in editing, camera angles, and sound etc. to create a storyboard that works best to achieve the desired effects of tension, fear and mystery, all common conventions of thriller films.

Daniels idea, the use of a long shot to introduce the victim as well as the antagonist (Frame 2), was chosen as it creates a sense of isolation, with the background being empty and nobody around, the victiem feels as though she is alone and vulnerable. The theme of isolation was a popular one throughout our questioner so we though it be essential to incorporate into our thriller film to attract the target audience.The essence of sympathy that the audience in tern feel for the victim's vulnerability helps to create and build a relationship with the character involved, increasing the tension as the viewers view the film as more reality and they don't want the victim to die. Vulnerability is important if not essential to convey in our thriller opening as it is a common thriller conventional that we thought again is necessary to incorporate somewhere in our thriller opening.

A variety of my individual thriller storyboard ideas where used in the group storyboard. One more circumstantially being the P.O.V from the stalker (frame 8), inspired from the original 'Halloween' film. As it creates a sense of realism and tension as the stalker is watching our victims every move. Again this shot makes our victim appear more vunerable but also conforms to the generic thriller convention of hidden identity which we want to maintain throughout our thriller opening, this is used effectively in many thriller films including 'Friday the 13th', 'Halloween' and 'Scream' as it creates a enigma as the audience keep guessing who they believe to be the thriller throughout the film.

The clever use of a group story board allowed us to visualise our ideas more easily and spilt up our narrative ideas. Making the distribution of different miss-en-scene elements in our thriller opening allot more easier. Allow us to imagine where elements such as lighting, particularly in the form of low key lighting, to be used to create our groups desired effects of tension.

The construction of our group story board has no doubt made our filming much more easer as we as a group are all on the same mind frame of what sort of shots we are looking to achieve and the effects that these shots will create. Making filming our opening go hopefully much more smoothly and quickly leaving more time for editing and possibly going back and re doing or filming different shots to make our opening of a better quality. However with there being so many ideas available to choose from amongst all group members we where unable to include them all into our group storyboard meaning we  missed out on some potentially effective ideas. Although taking everything into account i would argue that our group storyboard was a huge sucsess and we will be able to do the best with the ideas we have chosen.

Planning editing styles- Miss Georgiou

Editing is an important if not necessary stage in my thriller film as through the use of editing me and my group will be able to achieve certain effects that a generic thriller film would hope to achieve. The effects created, for example, fear and tension will be achieved through the use of editing styles such as the Kuleshov effect (where a two shots are put together to imply a third meaning.) and reaction shots where the audience is able to see the characters emotions to increase the tension and build a character/audience relationship.

The editing styles that i hope to achieve are explained in each farm on the above screenshot however i will elaborate further on these points here.

Frame number 1- Slow editing is used when bringing in the next frame. The slow pace that this then gives our thriller opening creates a more suspenseful atmosphere, a frequent thriller convention that we hope to maintain throughout our filming.

Frame number 2- This editing i am sure will prove to be vary difficult. I hope to create a POV (point of view) effect by blacking out the whole shot apart from two 'eye holes' to create a shot that appears to be through the stalker antagonist's sight. This will also increase the films tension as it will create a sense of realism making the audience feel as though this is something that could easily happen to them.

Frame number 3- Editing is simple in my third frame. i will use a reaction shot of our character being made aware that she is being stalked. This will make the audience feel sympathy for our female victim and help them build a relationship with them, making it all the more difficult for the viewers when she is eventually killed off, theses emotions of sadness and remorse upon the characters death will makes the opening all the more better as the emotions the viewers feel towards the characters help to further the tension during the film as you.

Frame number4-  I then use a very fast paced pan to create a blurred image as the camera turns to view the clown in the bush. The blurred effect it will create when it quickly spins round to view the bush will create a sense of confusion within the filming, this will complent what is happening on screen well as our female victim is confused and scared as to what is in the bush stalking her.                                                                

Planning mise-en-scene- Miss Georgiou

Mise-en-scene is a French term that refers to everything that you can see on camera, its purpose is to communicate essential information to the audience. The aspects of media that make up mise-en scene are the following:

• Setting
• costume
• body language
• lighting/colour
• positioning of all objects and characters on camera 

Mise-en-scene is important within a thriller film as it helps to elevate the scence of tension that a scene is trying to create. For example the bellow clip of the film 'IT' uses many of the miss-en-scene elements in the way to increase tension and fear, this provided as inspiration to my thriller opening as i hope to use them in a simular way and achive the same effect. At point 0.23 onwards tension building music is used this music is typical to the thriller genre as it creates a demeaning atmosphere and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as they dont know what the child's fate is. I have already created background non-diegetic music on garage band for our thriller opening creating the same effect. So 'IT' was inspiration for much of my thriller opening's Mise-en-scene. 

Other controversial elements of mise-en-scene within my thriller is costume. My compleated costume design (that i created on Adobe fireworks) for our thrillers clown can be seen to the right.While we use a clown mask to create a mysterious hidden identity, to increase fear of the unknown within the audience we however do not adopt a full clown costume. Instead the clown wears all black as it connotes mystery and death and is a common thriller convention for an antagonist to wear. The fact that it is a tracksuit aswell is relatable for our thrillers target audience of teenagers. They will identify the black tracksuit as something them or a friend would possiably wear and so would make them question if their friend is capable of being a murderer, increasing the fear factor of the film.

My mise-en-scene will appeal to the audience as it includes many of the common thriller mise-en-scene conventions we come to expect when watching a thriller film. One of which is the costume, which i referred to previously in my blogg.
My costume design which can be seen to the right will also appeal to my target audience as as well as it being relatable (black tracksuit), it also conforms to the modern thriller costume. with the black being the general choice in most modern and historic thriller films.

Setting was also an essential part of planning the mise-en-scene within our thriller film. We needed a generic thriller setting. One of which that included all thriller elements including low key lighting and an isolated environment to conform to the thriller genre conventions and therefore make our thriller effective in portraying elements of fear, suspense and tension. We therefore concluded that a secluded housing estate would be relevant as as well as it being isolated (to exaggerate the effect of vulnerability that our female victim presents) it is also relatable setting for the audience. They are able to identify the setting in which our thriller takes place and relate it to where they might live or perhaps and place they know. This relatablility of setting within our mise-en-scene helps to further the audience/character relationship and therefore increase the effectiveness of the conventions seen in the film such as tension and suspense as they can see them selves in that situation.

When planning lighting within our thriller opening we looked to create a thriller opening which follows the generic lighting conventions of a thriller which would be low key lighting however use high key lighting as well in places as to achieve the effects that both types of lighting would create. Therefore we looked to use low-key lighting throughout however contrast it in ways as to not infringe the contrasts to much. An example of which would be when we plan to use the chiaroscuro effect (with high key lighting contrasting low key lighting) during our shed scene with lights illuminating the antagonist. We will use this type of lighting to present our antagonist in a position of power over our helpless victim and juxtaposes the general conventions of shadowing our antagonist in low key lighting to convey mystery and further the connotations of conclealed identity.

To summerise i would arrgue that the correct and conventional mise-en-scene is essential within the planning of my thriller as in order for my film to be

Individual Storyboard - Miss Miller

The purpose of me creating a story board is to begin to plan my thriller opening, getting a understanding of the potential shots i will hope create in my thriller opening. However when my whole group has completed their individual storyboards we will combine our ideas and create a group storyboard which will be our basis for our thriller opening.

My individual storyboard focuses on the popular conventions from my questionnaire as i focus on a themes of horror as well as the more modern convention of action. The introduction of a masked character appeals to the audience as 75% of the people questioned agreed that a masked character appealed to them. So i chose a couple of conventions referenced from my questionnaire to be a necessity in my story board. The inspiration from the clown mask featured in my story board on frame four came from Stephen King's thriller, 'IT' where a killer clown goes around killing children.

Target Audience Results - Miss Miller

The larger number of males in our target audience results at 55% compared to females at 45% suggests that our thriller film should contain most of the common thriller conventions such as a female interest and chase scenes as males find these enjoyable in a thriller film and we need to interest the majority of the target audience which are males. 

  

With the vast majority of people who answered our questionnaire being teenagers we now know that our thriller film will need to feature the more modern thriller conventions of violence and gore like that in 'Last house on the left' to attract them. As this is what the majority of our target audience like in a thriller film.

With the two most popular films shutter island and inception being psychological thrillers it is clear that we will need to incorporate an aspect of mystery in our thriller opening to show what the majority clearly want. An enigma for the audience to solve as our thriller opening is concluded will be appropriate if we hope to attract audiences that like psychological thrillers. Mysterious/hidden identity would therefore be an appropriate concept to use within our thriller opening, as it is creates an enigma, which is relative to that of a psychological thriller. The antagonists concealed identity creates suspense and tension, which is relatable to the thriller genre as the audience are unaware of who he is and where he might come from, keeping them at the edge of their seats, guessing what will happen next. These effects of tension and suspense are exactly what we are looking to evoke within our thriller genre and we will do this through the use of making our thriller opening more psychological as it is what our research shows our audience wants. 

The results on this question are a reflection of our results on question two. In order for our film to feature the more modern thriller conventions of gore, violence and sexual scenes. it will need to have a higher age rating as these kind of scenes are distressing for younger viewers and many of the modern thriller conventions would not be applicable for certificate 12 films. As you can see from the above graph 45% of the people we asked wanted the film to be rated 15 and 43% wanted it to be rated at 18. This tells us that our audience wants more mature material in our thriller opening such as strong language and violence within our thriller film as an age’s certificate of 18 and 15 would both allow this. This would also be relatable to our previously asked question "how old are you?" as teenagers favor more modern thriller conventions such as gore and violence that would be allowed in these age certificates. 

It is clear that from this question result people are still interested in the older thriller conventions (horror) as well as the more modern conventions that are aligned with action. Our results show 43% of the people asked favored a horror thriller and 37% of people liking the action thriller. This tells us that we will need to get a healthy medium between the two modern and classic thriller types. Using low-key lighting and a masked antagonist to appeal to the horror convention aspect of our thriller opening sequence and using more action conventions such as a fast paced soundtrack and iconography such as guns to appeal to fans of action thrillers. 

We will need to feature a female victim within our thriller opening as 67% of people we asked agreeing that a female victim would interest them it is clear that some of the past thriller conventions have been carried over to the modern thriller films. With female victims still being prominent in many modern thriller films despite the sub genre. This means that we should defiantly include a female victim as it is a popular thriller convention and grabs the audience’s interest. Ideally we should look to include a blonde female victim, as it is more relatable to the thriller genre and its classic thriller convention of a blonde female victim as they are seen to be more vulnerable and as a result further the tension and suspense on screen. Alfred Hitchcock 'The lodger' is one of the most memorable thriller films that use this convention. We will take inspiration from this film when using the blonde female victim convention as it uses it so well to increase the tension and suspense within the narrative. 

The results above clearly illustrate that we will need an antagonist with a hidden identity within our thriller opening. With hidden identity again being a undying convention of the thriller genre it is no surprise that it is popular within our questionnaire results. Hidden identity will need to be a must in our thriller opening as 75% voted for it meaning that we will need to adopt our initial idea of a clown mask in our thriller opening as it will also appeal to the audience in that it will reach the horror sub genre that 43% of the people we asked preferred it. The hidden identify convention is also relatable to the thriller genre as when used effectively it increase the tension and suspense as the enigma created surrounding who the killer is keeps the audience focused and engrossed in the narrative. 

With the majority of the people we questioned being male teenagers it is no surprise that a young actor would be preferred. I would suggest that from this we could concur that we will need to have one. Using an actor that is at the same age as our target audience would be effective in increasing effects such as tension and suspense as the audience will be able to relate to the actor, building the relationship between audience and character. Or alternatively we could feature a young female actor (preferably blonde, as a blonde female victim is a convention of the thriller genre that is popular within films such as 'Basic instinct) in our thriller opening to stick to popular thriller conventions.  

Our only open question in our questioner; what settings do you like in thrillers? Produced some unexpected results. I would have expected the majority to choose a normal house as it is relatable to their life and so it would be scarier. However only 13% chose this option, the majority opted for a deserted setting. Which is not as conventional as a normal, relatable, environment. So I may have to take part of my thriller opening to a more secluded setting.    

The research that I have carried out will help in the creation of my thriller opening, as I now know what thriller conventions are more popular and are necessary to be included in my thriller opening. One of which is the aspect of horror that i will need to somehow implement into it as well as the isolated location.

Vox pops