Audience feedback

Feedback is essential as it allows me and my group to reflect on what things we would need to improve and change if we want to do our thriller film again. It also us to understand how and why we would change our thriller film and make it better suited for our target audience. It would also allow my group and i to understand whether we put everything into the thriller film that our target audience wanted to see.

We got the age range for our target audience (we got 40 people to watch the thriller) and showed them the thriller film in a class room, at the end of them watching the thriller film, we let them right down two criticisms and two positive comments for the thriller film. Once the target audience made there comments we took the most common and used them for our criticisms.

We chose to also upload our thriller film on youtube as this allowed us to get instant feedback from the people that weren't at the screening. It also allowed us to get a wider variety of audience feed back and the comments people left wouldn't be biased as they don't know my group and i as individuals.

These are the comments we received:
positive comments:

  - The thriller has a good narrative. It is easy to follow and captures the attention of the audience quickly, ensuring that they are fully enticed into finding out what will happen to the main character as she is pursued by her stalker.
- The over the shoulder shots are effective in showing the scene from the point of view of the attacker, and highlight to the audience how much danger the victim is in. In turn, this is effective in building suspense within the scene.

negative comments:
- The lack of violence took suspense away from the narrative and caused an anti climax.
- The film should have included more close up shots in order to fully highlight and express the feelings of the main character, to enable the audience to empathise with her.

As the target audience pointed out there was a lack of violence which meant that the suspense was taken away from the narrative. If we were to do the thriller film again we would want to try and create more violence but not enough to make it a 18 rated film as this is not the age certificate we wanted for our thriller film, but by putting more violence into he thriller film it will create suspense and it will make the audience be put on the edge of there seats again. Also next time i would want to get a better actress as they may be able to do better close up shots than the current actress, this would allow the audience to get into the thriller more and also it will allow the audience to understand what the victim is going through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz0ba4q-ZCg

Group meetings.

The purpose of carrying out meetings is to make sure everyone is on task and they are all doing their individual roles within the group. Also it is to make sure that everyone would be happy with the work that we have done, and it was to make sure that everyone had their ideas within our thriller films. By recording our meetings, we were also able to organise the decisions we were making, which made creating the final thriller easier.

In my opinion our group worked well together as we all competed the roles that we needed to and met the deadlines. Everyone in my group did their individual roles to the best of their ability including planning to editing the final thriller film.

Date	Action	To be done by	By whom	Discussions
5th November	Target audience and age certificates	7th November	Group members	We decided on the age of our target audience, which would be 16 to 20, and the age certificate would match this, by aiming for a certification of 15.
8th November	Conventions	9th November	Group members	We decided on the conventions that we would aim to include in our thriller, such as the hidden identity of the attacker and a vulnerable female victim.
9th November	Cinematography and storyboards	12th November	Group members	We decided on the camera shots that we would like to include in the thriller, and the way in which we would organise these, planning them out on our storyboards.
12th November	Mise en scene	15th November	Group members	We decided on the way in which we would create the scene, final locations, costumes, hair and make up, lighting and colour.
15th November	Editing	16th November	Group members	We discussed the way in which we would like to edit the scenes together, and how we would like the final film to appear.
22nd November	Sound	23rd November	Group members	We discussed the sound that we would use in our thriller, and listened to different examples.
29th November	Filming	7th December	Group members	We filmed the scenes for our thriller, making sure that we had filmed every scene.
10th December	Editing	21st December	Group members	As a group we edited all of the scenes that we had filmed, putting them together in the correct order and adding effects to the imagery.
17th December	Editing – sound	21st December	Group members	We imported the sound clips into the software and gave our thriller a soundtrack.
20th December	Editing – credits	21st December	Group members	We discussed the credits, how we wanted them to appear and where we should have them. We then created them and put them in place within our film.

planning sound track

In films, sounds are important as they add emotion and can create rhythm. It causes emotion as it can help the audience understand what is going on and it can cause suspense within a thriller film. It causes rhythm as it makes the film flow and gives the film a meaning through the music.

http://ccmixter.org/files/nickleus/28581
This sound is will be good within my thriller film as it builds suspense, it has a deep and strong sound that I can use for my thriller film. This sound will fit in to my thriller film as it will make the thriller more suspenseful then it already is through the sounds that can be used for this sound. This sound is conventional to a thriller film as it has a good solid bass that can go well with the rhythm of the scenes within my thriller film, also it is good as it can create suspense within the thriller film, this relates to my thriller film as we can use this sound when the victim is walking through the forest and the attacker is behind him, this sound would be good for this scene.

Another sound that we are going to consider while is natural diegetic sounds, we want to use this as it will make the film seem more realist, it will help my group make the film seem like it is real life which will make the audience more scared in my opinion. We would use natural sound in our thriller film when the attacker is going to hit the victim, as we want the sound of the bat to be included within our thriller so the audience understand the pain that the victim is going through. Natural sounds are conventional to thriller films as they can make the film seem like it is real life so it will make the audience feel like they can relate to the thriller film more, with what the victim is going through.

http://ccmixter.org/files/Nurykabe/40073
This sound is a very high pitched and eerie sound, it would make the audience feel uncomfortable when watching the filler film and it would also make the audience want to not watch the film as they know something bad will happen. I would use this sound in my thriller film when the victim first comes face to face with the attacker, as this is a uncomfortable feeling for the victim and i want this to show for the audience. This sound is conventional as it will make the audience feel uncomfortable when watching the film and it will fit it really well with the scene that i have chosen this sound to go with.

Group story boards

Storyboards are important because they tell me roughly what should be happening during my thriller, its puts a picture in my head at how we are going to do it and what we are going to do during the thriller film. This will help our group because it sets the scene for how we all want our thriller film to be we have put all of our idea together to help make these story boards. We used everyones ideas as we don't want just one persons ideas we want to all to contribute the thriller film.

In conclusion these story boards have used all of our groups idea as my idea was the baseball bat as the weapon. I think that the story boards will be at great use for my thriller film as it will help us see what we have to do.

Group opening credits.

For the opening credits of our group thriller film, we collectively discussed our ideas for the text size, colour and the font style.

Using different films as our inspiration, we decided that we would want the font to appear fragmented (as it does in Psycho) or to flicker, (as in Se7en) as though the mind of the attacker is mentally unstable. 

We also decided that the size of the font for our title should be the biggest, as this is one of the most important elements within this opening credits sequence. The size of the font will gradually decrease as the different names appear on the screen, to connote both the importance of the members of the production team, and also hold connotations about the fading sanity of the attacker, as the unstable and twisted part of his mind consumes him, just like the size of the font decreases.

The font that I will putting forward to my group as an idea is the font on the left ( above), I feel that this would be good to use in our opening credits as it is distorted writing and would have the effect that something bad is going to happen through the writing. This type of font gives the audience the impression that the attacker is unstable and twisted, characteristics that are conventional to thriller films because characters like this create enigma's, fear and suspense, elements which are all conventional to thrillers as they draw the audience in and help the audience to feel more involved in the film. Compared to the normal font on the right (above), it stands out and has a better effect than the normal font, I would want to use this font as it will help the audience understand that the film is going to be eventful and full of suspense.  

The order of appearance that we will use is:

• Production company
• Editors
• Music
• Actors
• Casting
• Storyboards / screenplay
• Costume / make up
• Location manager
• Safety manager

We will also use a mixture of natural sounds and dramatic music as the soundtrack for our opening credits. As in Se7en, the natural sounds will be enhanced, and play over the top of the dramatic music. This will enable us to make the film appear as realistic, and therefore as threatening as possible. The scary, dramatic music will give the audience an idea of how scary and dramatic the thriller will be and it will also get the audiences attention and make them interested in the thriller straight away.

Planning editing styles.

                            Planning editing styles.

Editing is important when making a thriller film as you will have different scenes and different parts of the film in different places for example the film is not going to be done in one cut. It will take many cuts to make the film how you want it, editing helps you put all the cuts together, it creates and finishes the film. Also it allows you to use editing techniques that can bind the cuts together for example a straight cut is used to cut the scenes straight together, it is the most simple and easy way to edit two scenes together.

The first editing technique that my group are going to use is the jump cut which is when the film suddenly focuses on something. we are going to use fast timing for this as it will keep the pace and the suspense of the thriller film. An example of this editing is when the attacker is in a different place to the victim but he is still stalking and looking after her. This is conventional as it shows that something bad is going to happen to the vulnerable victim and it also shocks the audience because it suddenly focuses on something, so the audience does not expect this to happen, and so feels more involved in the film.

The next shot we  have used is the kuleslov effect this is when two shots are put together to create a third meaning. This helps make the audience be on the edge of their seats because they want to know why the attacker is trying to hurt the girl in the first place. This feeling of suspense is what the audience would expect to feel when they watch a thriller film, which makes this effect conventional and helps the audience to be more involved in the thriller. An example of this is the effect is another flash back to show that the attacker is preparing to attack by getting and choosing his weapons, this is conventional to a thriller film as it shows the audience that there is going to be an attack within the thriller film, which creates mystery and suspense, things that are both very conventional to thriller films and things that make the audience feel more engaged in the film.

The third editing effect that we are using for our thriller film is the dissolve effect, as it will blend one image into another image or scene. This helps to make the thriller film flow through and make it seem realistic as it will blend into the next scene. An example of this jump cut is a flash back as it tells you a bit more background about the attacker and it also shows that the attacker and victim have a background together. Having this in a thriller film it relates the audience to how the attacker is acting and what type of person he is. Because the audience now know a bit more about the attacker, they will start to build a relationship with him, which will lead them to becoming more involved in the film, which is something they expect to feel when they watch a thriller film.

The final editing technique that my group is going to use during our thriller film is the fade editing technique. This is when the screen fades to black and means that the scene has finished in the case of our thriller film. An example when we use the fade editing technique is when the attack grabs the victim and it fades out but you can only hear natural sounds of the victim panicking and screaming. This is conventional as the audience do not know what has happened to the victim and they don't know what the attacker has done to her, which creates an enigma, causing the audience to feel suspense and tension, helping them to feel more involved in the film.

These editing techniques will help me to make my thriller film conventional as they have made the audience feel suspense, which is something the audience expects to feel. An example of this is when we use the jump cut and we use fast timing, as the thriller speeds up its makes the audience build suspense. We have also created enigmas, which have made the audience have questions in they're heads after the scene fades out as it makes them think what has happened.

Opening credits.

               Opening credits.

Opening credits are important to films as they tell you who has done what job during the making of the film and it will also set the scene for the film the way the credits have been written, for example if the credits were bloody and gory you would know that the film would contain violence or horror. If the opening credits are also done with horror music and the lighting is dark then you will understand that there is going to be suspense and action which in the film. There could be a different use to colouring and background to set the scene for the rest of the film.

An example of a thriller film that has a good opening credit sequence is from the film Se7en as it builds suspense and gives you and idea what is going to be within the thriller film. Also it sets the scene about how the character acts and what type of person he is. The colours that are used in the opening credits of the film Se7en are black and white, this builds suspense and it makes the character be mysterious that wants to hurt or attack someone and the contrast of white and black represents the darkness and evil of a character against the innocence of another character. Other colours that are used is the colour red which symbolizes blood and danger and it could symbolize that he is angry and wants to hurt someone. The style of the credits that are used  crooked writing, this shows that there may be an evil or stalking character that is in the opening sequence and also suggest that he is not a normal person, maybe mentally ill or has a crooked sense of morality. Also the writing was jumpy which shows that the film is going to put full of suspense and the film is going to make the audience be put on the edge of their seats. The fonts that they were using were also different fonts as they were having bigger fonts for the more important roles within the film like the director, which makes the names of the important people within the production stand out to the aduience.

The generic conventions that are used within the thriller film credits is that it builds suspense, as there is a stalker that is cutting up pictures and colouring/writing, which also creates a mystery. The character is also mysterious as there you only see their hands and not their face or body expressions, so the film don't want to give anything away during the opening sequence, which draws the audience in and gets there attention, making them interested in the film right away. The character is sharping weapons which shows he is getting ready to attack someone or getting prepared for an attack to happen and these actions build tension, fear and suspense which makes the audience even more interested in the film. The music that is used is eerie, but there is natural but exaggerated and emphasized as it build suspense, the tempo of the is picked up when the character does things like sharping a blade which gets the audiences attention and lets them know that the action of sharpening blades is very important to the story. The emotions that this has on the audience is that they will be anxious to see what happens next. The order of appearance in the opening credits were the production company, the director, the actor, then the title of the film, I feel that if the title would have been at the end of the credits it would have been more conventional to a thriller film. Then the actors continued, casting, music and costumes. Then the editors, producers , camera operator. co-producers, producer, writer and then the director. I feel as if it went from the least important member of the production team to the most important.

Another example of a thriller film that has opening scene credits is final destination, they have a good use colour music and lighting. The colour that is used in this open sequence is dark black and white colours as it makes the audience understand what is happening and it also makes the audience want to watch on. The black and white colours connote evil and darkness (black) and goodness and innocence (white). Also another colour that is used is the colour red at the end of the sequence as it says "this is the end" this shows that they want the audience want to see like something bad is going to happen during the thriller film.  The colour red connotes danger, evil, blood and pain, things that are all conventional to thriller films. The style of credits that have been used during this credit scene is that the writing flickers and when the credits first comes onto the screen it it has a flash of bright light going through the words/credits. Also the writing fades into the background which creates suspense and an enigma about what is going to happen for the rest of the film. When the writing comes onto the screen the background is always dark, so this shows that the film has a dark story line, which shows that it's a thriller.

The generic conventions that are used in this opening credit sequence are the dark colours that are used, this is conventional to a thriller film as it sets mystery, it doesn't want to give anything away. There is also masked creepy figurines which puts the questions in the audiences head such as  they don't know why they are there or what they they are doing/creating and this creates an enigma which is conventional to thrillers because it gets the audiences attention and makes them feel involved in the film. The sound that is used is natural but the music is creepy and eerie this buts the audience on edge as they don't know what is going on. The lightening that is used is low key lighting as there is dark shadows in the opening sequences which is conventional to a thriller films because it creates a sense of darkness and mystery. The order of appearance is as follows first is the production company, then the title, I think that is the title was at the end of the credits it would be more conventional. Then the actors came next, casting, costume designer, music, editors, production designer, director of photography, executive producer, co-producers , producer, screen play and the the director. This is in the order of who is the least important to the most important.