Thriller Evaluation - Izzy Souter

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

What is a thriller?

‘Thriller (also Suspense) is a broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists and cliff hangers are used extensively. A thriller is villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the hero must overcome.’ (Wikipedia)

As you can see from this thriller definition, the main element of this genre of films is to create ‘suspense, tension and excitement’ which is created through ‘high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror’. This is created through many different aspects such as ‘enigma, restricted and unrestricted narration, iconography, protagonist and antagonist, binary appositions, use of camera, sound and editing, typical elements of mise en scene, use of typical themes and issues’.

Imitating other films

In our final thriller opening ‘Missing’ we made sure to involve many different elements of real media productions. We studied different aspects of films that we had watched and tried to develop on ideas that we had seen to try and recreate our own unique style. A clear example of this is our opening, as we tried to imitate the beginning of the film ‘Se7en’ as we felt that the overall feeling and effect that it has upon the audience is something that we really wanted to recreate.

As you can see in the video's above, through the use of close ups, high and low angles and also the main element of secrecy, as you cannot see the character’s face in any of the shots leads to curiosity and the fear of the unknown. We put a twist of the colour however, because in ‘Se7en’ the lighting is very bright and striking however in our film we chose to use dull and limited lighting as we felt that it made a stronger impact and increased the fear factor.

Se7en scissor shot with heavy lighting

Missing scissor shot with low lighting

Using thriller techniques in our film

The first two shots show the start of our thriller opening. The low key, silhouette and side angle lighting techniques creates shadows and mystery. We did this so that the character’s face wouldn’t be revealed which creates vagueness and also to make the audience feel uneasy as it highlights the fact that something sinister is happening. Again in the third picture, the camera is far away so that you cannot see his face. His stance is also powerful and threatening and due to the fact that he is in the middle of the shot shows that he is in control.

In shots four and five they are taken from angles which make it seem as if the runner is being watched. From behind the tree and also from above are both threatening angles which highlight the fact that she is in danger and that she is all alone and vulnerable. This is also showcasing unrestricted narration as the audience know that there is a killer burying a bag; this therefore builds tension as the audience is waiting for something to happen.

In shot six, you can see the runner in the background and the killer in the foreground. This creates anticipation and concern as it makes the audience not want the runner to be discovered. The fact that the killer is positioned at the front fills more on the screen which makes him appear a lot more dominant and threatening. The runner in the background is a lot smaller and a lot less threatening. The facial expressions of the runner highlight the fact she in curiously and worried about what is happen which emphasises to the audience that there is something to worry about.

Shot seven is over the shoulder high angle, which shows that she isn’t in control. Also the close up on the phone clearly shows to the audience that it’s ringing and therefore leads to the runner to be discovered. Carrying on from this onto shot eight up to shot nine, we used short, quick changing, and parallel shots in the chase to build tension and make the audience feel nervous and worried what is going to be the outcome. Shot eight is a two shot to clearly show to the audience the proximity between the two characters which makes the audience feel on edge due to the fact that the chaser is very close to her which is threatening. In shot  nine it is a point of view shot which really makes the audience feel involved and engaged. The tension is really strong here as the audience feel as if they are in danger themselves.


In our chase scene we used a lot of match on action to create a very swift and smooth transition between shots so that it doesn't detract from the high tension that is building. We made sure to take longer length shots, which repeat the same actions so that the match on action looked at natural as possible which I strongly believe is portrayed in our film.

Close up of foot hitting the tree root

The trip near to the end of our film was constructed by a close up of the foot hitting the tree root to emphasise to the audience what she tripped on and then we used a tripod which was swung to the ground to make it appear that the runner fell over. I feel that this was a realistic imitation of someone falling over and the Foley sound effects add the the overall effect. 

Main title of our film

We chose to use simplistic titles that were bold and professional. The main title allowed us to have a transition between the shed and the woods, with a sound bridge from the opening scene to the title. The heavy beat on the music makes the title more dramatic as it suddenly disappears on a strong beat which makes it effective a powerful and draws attention to the title which highlights to the audience what the film is about.

Setting

Shed where we filmed our opening scene

Using the shed in the opening of our film allowed us to make the shot very dark and eerry as it was a very small area. This scene provides the audience with some background knowledge so that they know that the man is a killer. 


We wanted to film in two different sceneries to allow us to show that he has killed other girls and that he spends a lot of time planning and is meticulous with the way that the pictures are hung up so neatly, which all adds to the overall picture of the character. 

Wood location - Chase scene

We chose to film in the woods as we feel that it highlights the fact that no one else is around and there are also lots of places to hide and bury bodies! The trees also create shadows which generates eeriness. The set also provides lots of space for the chase scene and also allowed also to film in different areas without the audience knowing that it was in different parts on the woods. Because there was no one else around we didn't have an issue of other people being in the film that weren't meant to be there which could have spoiled the overall effect.

Wood location - high angle

Costume

Killer's jacket

Killer's trousers

Runner's outfit

We decided to use classic costumes, which clearly show to the audience from the offset who is the bad and good character. Therefore, this is done by the protagonist wearing bright, colourful clothing to highlight innocence and that they are unsuspecting. Whilst the antagonist wears black and unrevealing clothing to highlight that they are up to no good and trying to cover themselves up. Black instantly highlights to the audience the element of death, fear and terror.

Lighting

As I have already mentioned we used very low key lighting in the starting shots to add a chilling and creepy factor. However, in the other scenes which were filmed in the woods we didn’t have to use lighting as we were lucky enough to have filmed on brightly lit days. Due to the fact that we mostly filmed in clearings, if we did use lighting it would have had little effect.

Sound

Foley sound of mobile ringing

Also the non-diegetic music used in our opening also adds to the suspense as it makes the audience feel more involved in the film and it emphasises the tension and helps to set the scene. We used slow music with a heavy drum in the starting scene to create a dramatic, threatening and deathly atmosphere.


We also used Foley sound effects of the mobile ringing as it had to be loud and striking to the audience to make it clear that the running was about to be discovered, on the runner falling to make it seem more realistic and also on the shovel hitting her, the loud noise creates a shocking factor. The diegetic sound effect of the mobile ringing in the scene shown above strongly highlights the cause of the chase scene.

Challenging forms and conventions

Even though our production is different to many other films, I feel that we haven’t challenged forms and conventions of a real media production. I believe that this is down to the fact that we wanted to stick to a fairly basic story line so that we could focus and show our creativity in the actual filming of ‘Missing’. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media project is about a man who is a serial killer who mainly targets young girls. He buries his latest kill in the woods when an innocent runner spots him. He chases her until she falls, resulting in the man killing her so that she wouldn’t tell others what she saw. 


There are two characters in our film, one of them being a man who is the murder and a girl who is an innocent runner. Therefore, this does follow a standard, stereotypical format of the females being the weaker characters.

Costume choice makes the killer seem most more powerful

Our costume choice represents a strong male and female stereotype, with the runner wearing pink and the killer wearing black. We did this due to the fact that the pink makes the runner seem more innocent and vulnerable because of the fact that pink is usually associated with young girls. Also because wearing black creates a strong silhouette against the wooded background and makes the character stand out and make him appear strong and powerful. This yet again makes the female appear to be the weaker of the two.

Killer - Low angle

Many of our camera angles that we have used have been from a low angle on the killer. This has been done to make him seem powerful and the dominant figure. From the camera being down low it also gives the impression that he is a threatening character.

Runner - From behind, tracking shot

Runner - High angle

Whilst several of the angles on the runner are from above or behind, which makes her seem as if she is being watched and not in complete control of the character. This therefore is more in line with a traditional representation of males and females. This being that males are the more dominant character and that they have more power. Although I feel that this is a negative representation as it is demeaning to women, we chose to use this stereotype in our film as we wanted to keep it simple and not be confusing to the audience due to the fact that if we did it the other way around it may not have been clear as they wouldn't have expected it. 


However, our runner isn't a complete damsel in distress due to several reasons. The first being that she stopped to look what the man was doing which shows that she has courage and that she isn't afraid to get involved and discover what the man is up to. Another fact is that she is running on her own which shows that she is old enough to look after herself and is able to run through the woods on her own. The fact that she says 'shit' in the chase scene makes her appear to be less of a weak and delicate character as a classic, stereotypical female role wouldn't have said this. Finally in the chase scene she isn't running with a pathetic and vulnerable demeanour and can run just as fast as the male character which makes her appear as a strong character and it gives the impression that she is going to escape and therefore not a damsel in distress at all. 

Shot showing young girl's pictures

It also represents age within our film, due to the fact that all of the girls that were murdered were all teenagers. This gives an impression that teenagers cannot defend for themselves and that they are at a vulnerable age. We chose this age so that they would be in the same age that we are now and therefore the same age as the runner as our actor was from our group. Our target is also older teenagers and adults; therefore they would be able to relate to the age of the victims.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Due to the fact that we had no budget, therefore all of our props, costume, hair and make-up are all provided by ourselves, the overall effect of our thriller opening isn’t as strong as it would be if we did have money to spend. Therefore, as a result of this only a small distribution company could potentially distribute our product.


As a result of this I feel that our film wouldn't make enough money if it was put into the cinema due to the fact that we wouldn't be able to afford to advertise and promote our films on TV/radio adverts, premiers, games and merchandise. However, we would be able to produce posters at a low production cost and put them around the college and around our local area. We would also be able to generate publicity of our film by creating a short trailer and posting it on facebook, youtube and twitter which would be able to hopefully generate a small fan base and as a consequence generate enough interest for our film to be published onto a DVD. Because our film is targeted at the same audience age as our group it would be easier for us to generate interest amongst friends and on-line. Therefore our film would be for home entertainment purposes only. We would have to get a 'local' distribution licence which would enable us to release and exploit our film within the UK.

Entertainment is the UK's leading independent distributor which was founded in 1978 and has continue to grow ever since. Highlights have been the release of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. They have a very diverse range of films with many of them receiving lots of awards. Entertainment Film Distributors operates in the UK and also in the Republic of Ireland and distributes in theatrical, DVD rental and retail fields as well as both Pay-TV and Free-TV sectors. Should they take on our film then it would be distributed on DVD and would make our film a great success as they are a huge company. However, realistically this is highly unlikely.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I feel that our target audience would be older teenagers and adults (18-30), due to it having a strong and potentially upsetting story line. The fact that the main character is a serial killer and at the end kills the runner herself I feel that this would have an 18 certificate.


I don't feel that an older target audience than 30 would enjoy the fast pace and flashing  cuts as much as a younger target audience. From doing on-line research it's made clear that the target audience that I have chosen for our film is the general target audience for thrillers as a whole.

Also due to the fact that the main killer is male and kills females it may appeal to men rather than woman. However, this is vastly down to personal preference and other films that our target audience would enjoy would be fast pace films such as ‘Taken’, ‘Se7en’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs’.

How did you attract your target audience?

Within the film we used a number of techniques to engage and keep the audience entertained. Due to our target audience, our film therefore consists of danger, suspense and violence which are all key aspects of a thriller movie. I feel that our starting scene and the chase scene work particularly well and showcase key factors that we aimed to achieve.

The start provides the audience with curiosity and is very chilling through the use of the pictures, newspapers, lighting, costume and also the setting. From the offset this engages the audience and they want to find out more about the character and keeps them on the edge of their seats waiting to see what is going to happen.

The chase scene is very fast past and thrilling which truly keeps the audience engaged. We took many different shots so that we could use a wide variety to make the chase scene as exciting as possible, for example using over the shoulder, tracking shots, high/low angles, point of view, two shot, close up and medium shot.


From the begging to the end of the chase scene (20 seconds) there are 13 different cuts, rather than in the opening scene were it is a lot slower there are just 5 cuts in the same amount of time. This is similar to the Harry Potter chase scene shown on the right. The opening 20 seconds of the chase scene has 18 cuts which are fast pace and of a mixed variety which is similar to our film. I feel that we have replicated this effect well in our chase scene.


Our quick changes of shots really appeals to a younger audience as older audiences tend not to appreciate and enjoy fast pace flashes quite so much. We also used several point of view shots to make the audience feel as if they are one of the characters to make them feel truly involved in the chase themselves.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

We found that using the HD cameras for our final product really helped us to achieve a high quality finish that we were after. We were able to use a lot of focus pulls which enabled us to experiment with lots of different shots. Compared to our preliminary task where we used standard quality camera there is no comparison between the quality of the two films. We also found the HD camera a lot easier to use as we could easily and quickly watch back on the shots that we took so we could see if we needed to re-shoot. There was also no trouble about filming over shots that we had already taken which is a potential problem on the standard cameras.

Focus is on the tree instead of the runner

Focus is on the killer not on the spade

Focus switches to the spade

To begin with we thought that we would uses a variety of lights, however in the end we only used one LED light as we found it easier to cope with and to create the effect that we were after in the shed. I feel that this did not jeopardise that overall quality of the shots. At one point we used a lightning effect in the opening scene with the use of the LED light by causing it to go brighter and darker by adjusting the brightness, however we felt that this was difficult to maintain to a high standard due to the fact that we had to do it manually. Therefore, we decided not to use this in our final film.

We used the internet a lot to help us generate our initial ideas for our film by watching other thrillers. Youtube helped us to search for music ideas, filming techniques and other ideas from other films such as 'Se7en' (the opening scene) and also 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' (the chase scene). Also we got our music for our film from sites such as http://www.jamendo.com/en/ which provide royalty free music. We also used garage band to find sound effects which helped to add to the overall effect of the film and make it more realistic.

I learnt a lot about editing through creating our film and discovered that every fine detail has a strong impact in the overall quality of the film. I learnt that filming to perfection with lots of takes really helps to make editing a lot easier and enable much smoother transitions in match of actions and shot reverse shots. Due to the quality of our camera we didn't feel the need to colour correct any of our shots apart from a couple of shots taken in the shed were we had to increase the brightness at they were a little too dim.

We also made sure to check our equipment every time before we went to film to make sure that we had spare batteries and that the lights worked. We also had to make sure to save all of our files on the camera every time we handed it back in due to the fact that the disk it wiped. We made a mistake of failing to upload all of the files off of the camera on one of the days, resulting in our group loosing a small amount of footage. However, we were able to learn from our mistake and didn't do it again!

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full production?

Through mistakes in our preliminary task such as breaking the 180 degree rule, costume changes and also forgetting to check white balance, we were able to learn and not make the same mistakes in our thriller.

In our film we ensured that we stuck to the 180 degree so that it was clear to the audience and no confusion was generated with characters appearing in different places. As you can see below in our preliminary task we broke the 180 degree rule which made it confusing as the characters appeared in different places. However, in our film we didn't have any conversations and not as clear shot reverse shot as our preliminary task, therefore it was easier for us not to brake the rule again.

We also made sure that our costume is the same in every shot. Even though we filmed on different days we managed to maintain the same costume in every shot. We managed to keep the same hair and makeup on the runner as we used simplistic hair and make which was easy to recreate. 

Day 1

Day 2

Shown in the pictures above, we maintained the same costume even though we filmed these two shots on two different days.


Due to the fact that we were lucky enough to use a HD camera in our thriller, we didn’t need to check the white balance as it corrected automatically for us. This is different to our preliminary task as we had to correct the white balance manually. 


In our preliminary task we didn't use any titles, therefore we didn't have any past experience to go by for our final film. However I feel that our titles are simple, yet look of a high quality. 


Also in our preliminary task we didn't use any additional lighting, therefore it didn't have a high quality finish and have extra effects such as the low key lighting which we used in our final film.

Lighting in our preliminary task

Lighting in our final film

It is clear, that these two similar shots from our final film and our preliminary task both have very different effects due to the different use of lighting. Frontal key lighting is used in the preliminary alongside lots of natural lighting, making the shot very bright and not very threatening. However, in our thriller we used very low key lighting and had a silhouette effect to make it very creepy and sinister. We learnt from our preliminary that lighting plays a key role in the overall effect of a film. 

Costume has little meaning and effect

Costume clearly portrays characters and has a strong effect

We also found that costume was also vital in portraying characters. In our preliminary task we didn't pay attention to costume, therefore the overall effect of the film was a lot weaker than it could have been. Consequently, in our thriller our costume choice was vital to clearly show to the audience the difference between the two characters and also to clearly highlight who was the protagonist and the antagonist. 

To create tension in our chase scene we increased the speed of the shots, which I have previously mentioned (13 different shots in 20 seconds). We improved from our preliminary task as in our tension scene we only used two different shots in 34 seconds of our tension scene. It is clear from this that we have made a dramatic improvement which is strongly shown in our film as it has a much stronger impact.

Mise en scene was a lot more important in our final task as we chose to film in a woods and in a shed instead of it being in a classroom as it was in the preliminary task. This has a much more thrilling impact and makes the film much more realistic. The colours in our thriller are a lot more dull and chilling which adds to the overall effect. Body language was a lot more clearer in the thriller film through the use of close ups.

In our preliminary we didn't use any Foley non-diegetic sound effects, however in our thriller we did, which I feel makes it more effective and also more convincing.