Finished thriller

This is my finished thriller, I hope you enjoy it.

Audience Feedback

The audience of my screening gave their feedback as to what they thought of my film. I showed two people it my thriller. They were enthusiastic to watch my thriller and seemed excited to watch my thriller.

Person 1: Positives - the acting was very good, it all seemed realistic and related back to a mysterious and suspensive feel
Negative - more things should have gone out of place to build up more suspense

Person 2: Positives - good storyline, seemed very realistic it was created a good mysterious feel, she was questioning as to how things were going out of place and couldn't wait till the end to find out what would happen
Negative - mysterious sound effects need to be added

Question 7

Created with Padlet


http://padlet.com/manjit_ram/c9vse7lqexmv

Question 6

Question 5

How did you attract your audience?
I mainly attracted audience by posting it on social media, many people use social media on a daily basis so I believe this was the best way to gain public attention. I posted it on sites such as facebook, you tube and twitter.

As I posted it on a variety of different popular social networking sites, people had easier access and anyone could have access to the film. It is more likely to catch young people's attention as the main character is a young female, they may also be able to relate to the character.


Character relatability - The opening of the thriller contains enignma as we do not know what is going to happen with the character, audience are also not aware of who is the dominant character as there are two young women walking at the beginning. However both of them look like young working class females, my thriller is likely to attract similar young females and even males because they can relate to the character and setting.

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product? from ManjitRam

Question 3

Shooting schedule

Day           Scene                   Location                  Costumes                                 Cast
1              Walking home      Chadwell heath       Black/white blazer                 Farwa Ahmed
                                                                             black trousers/heel Props-
keys          Manjit Ram


2          Washing dishes/           Home                   Grey tracksuit
            living room scene                                    plain black top

Question 2

https://app.emaze.com/editor/@ALRRLWOL

Question 1

https://prezi.com/jdotg325pqsa/copy-of-mind-mapping-template/

Designing/making ident And designing title sequence

When designing my ident, I thought of a variety of ideas however in the end I came up to a decision that I was going to have a very dull theme to reinforce that it is a thriller, I had white and black writing. I done this on the mac computer, they had a variety of different fonts and colours to choose from. If I was filming a comedy I would have bright colours to reinforce a happy mood however the use of black and white in a bold fonts is appropriate for a thriller.

At first I was struggling to think of an appropriate name for my thriller, I wanted something that sounded mysterious to the audience. In my title sequence there is black and white writing which reinforces that it is a thriller, the hooded picture on the right hand corner represents the man who was in my thriller. This along with the title may give the audience a slight clue as to what my thriller could be about. 

Sound (film and evaluation)

There are many different sounds which can be used in media for  a variety of reasons. In one of my media lessons me and my media peers were set a task to create a short film to show different types of sound I was taught.

Non-diagetic/off screen - voice over/sound we can not physically see where it is coming from.

Diagetic - (Dialogue) audience can see and hear where sound is coming from

Parallel sound - Sound matching action

Contrupuntal - Sound contrasting action


Planning - with my group we all contributed to different ideas to make our short film, we then came up with a film based on two friends who had a problem with eachother, one was gossiping about the other and they fell out. Our location was in a school, mainly in the playground. The film starts of with the fuming character who has found out that her 'friend' has been gossiping about her and she goes to confront her.

Film









(enter film)








Evaluation - I will be evaluating different camera, shots, editing and mis en scene.


Camera shots - at the beginning of the short film we see a girl sitting on a bench, this is not the main character. This could display that something is about to happen.


In this scene we see the main character (who is going to confront her former friend) we have a long shot view of her walking, we can instantly see she is angry and walking towards her 'friend' on the bench.


Close up shot - here we can clearly see the dominant characters emotions. This is beneficial as it gives an insight to the audience as to how the dominant character is feeling.






Editing
Editing was quite basic as it was only a short film the lack of editing made the film seem quite boring and basic. There was also a scene where the main character was coming down stairs and walking out of a door, in this scene we could see a bystander this made the film seem unrealistic as the bystander should not have been there. Shots should have also been cut shorter to make the film more interesting. Sound should have also been created to make it more dramatic.


Mis en scene -  The mis en scene in the film was good and realistic. We filmed in our sixthform which was relevant to the storyline. The main character was wearing a sixthform lanyard which clearly represented her being in a sixthform. The main character is wearing dark eye make up and a black jacket, the second character is wearing black. This suggests that something bad is going to happen as both, whereas if they were both in bright colours with happy facial expressions, this would suggest that they are happy and something good is going to happen. The facial expressions are pretty clear in this short film, the main character is very annoyed and angry whereas the second character seems to be looking careless.

Studio idents

20th century fox 

Universal

Paramount


These are some examples of popular studio idents. 

A studio ident is a logo for a particular company. Studio idents are shown at the beginning of a film, studio idents usually come with a tune when they are showed on the screen. Examples of different idents are paramount, universal and 20th century fox. Movie studio idents offer fascinating insights into the studio themselves.




Paramount - this is a very poplar studio ident, this studio ident uses a big mountain with a circle of stars at the top of the mountain. There is no evidence that the mountain is based on a real mountain, however some say it is Ben Lomond in Utah, some say it is Mount Artenson Raju in Peru. The eyecatching logo is used to display their dominance in the film industry.



Universal - This is a very eye catching studio ident as it is big and bold. The universal sign portrays to the audience that this is a international film company.



20th Century Fox - This is a very memorable studio ident well known for its tune. This is a very popualar studio ident and captures audiences attention straight away with the bold gold 20 sign and flashing lights around it.

Preliminary Task

Costumes and props sheet

Costumes and Props Sheet

                           Costumes and Props Sheet 

Character Name: Manjit Ram
Costume: Black trousers, black and white blazer, beige heels and white plain shirt, bright dark pink lipstick	Props: Keys, phone
Character Name: Farwa Ahmed
Costume: Black blazer, black shoes, blue and white handbag and black top	Props: None

Screening

I showed my film to a few of my classmates to receive feedback as to what they thought about my film, I received some good feedback they enjoyed watching my mysterious thriller. Some of my classmates felt as if there should have been action in the thriller and there should of been more things that went out of place in the house to build up more suspension for the audience.

First and second day of editing

First day of editing 
When I first began to edit, I found it quite difficult on how to input sounds and different effects. However once I got the hang of it gradually I added some effects to scenes I thought were too sharp and didn’t flow well. I also trimmed a lot of scenes which I thought went on for too long. For an example certain facial expressions were dragged on too much. I put majority of the scenes I had done together in one and kept replaying the thriller to see how it looked. As I had shot the same scene more than twice I had a variety to pick from on which was shot best and which would flow better with the thriller. 

Second day of editing 
I watched my film over again and realised there were still some shots that seemed to go on for too long, I trimmed more scenes to build up quick suspense for the audience. There were a few scenes that I shot however when I watched my film I felt as If the extra scenes I had shot were not needed for the thriller. I also looked at different sound effects I could use to build up suspense for the audience, I chose a different sound effect for every time the main character spotted something out of place in her house.

Designing/Making: Title Sequence

As I was working by myself, I had to create a title sequence. During this process I learnt where to get the screen for the names and how to use them. The title sequence had to follow the general order of names.

After the IDENT use a FADE IN. The titles should then be in the following order:
(1) 'Your Production Company' Presents - (Sim productions) 
(2) A Film by 'One name - usually the director' - Manjit Ram
(3) Starring or With - Farwa Ahmed 
(4) Male star - None 
(5) Female star or other way round - Female (Manjit Ram)
(6) Title of film - What lies beneath the home
(7) Also starring - Farwa Ahmed
(8) Then 3/4/5 of the following - you choose - each on seperate title
Editing
Music
Cinematography or Director of Photography - Hamida Begum
Casting - Manjit Ram And Farwa Ahmed
Set Designer - Manjit Ram
Costume Designer - Manjit Ram 
Script - Manjit Ram 
(9) Then Producer(s) - Manjit Ram
(10) Always finish with Director - Manjit Ram.
(11) What lies beneath the home
Remember to use LiveType and try to make titles interesting. They can be either over black or superimposed over your film. Space them out over the two minutes of the film.Give the audience plenty of time to read the titles. 
(12) Finish with a fade out & fade music out

Storyboard

This is my storyboard, I will follow these procedures when filming my thriller.

birds

Garden birds taking over a whole area - sounds abit bizarre doesn't it? However this is one of many talented films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. this film was produced in 1963, this was written by Evan Honter. This was Hitchcock's first film with Universal studios.  Hitchcock picked quite a unique storyline, it is the story of a northern california coastal town having attacks of birds. The inspiration of this film came from the unexplained deaths which were occuring in the summer of 1961. The film Birds involved actors such as Rod Taylor who plays Mitch Brenner , Jessica Tandy, Tippi Hedren who plays Melanie Daniels. The main plot of the story is when Mitch Brenner wants to buy a pair of lovebirds for his younger sister's birthday, he rememebers her from a previous encounter however she does not remember him, he ends up trying to play a joke on her and she retaliates. Soon after she purchases a pair of lovebirds and finds his address and goes to deliver them to his address, he sees her and invites her to dinner, she eventually agrees to have dinner with him and his family. After the build up of birds incident. Melanie Daniels Rod Taylor's widowed mother began to feel as if the Birds incident was due to the girl who was currently staying with them.

At the end of the film, there is no actual explanation as to why the birds behaved in such a bizzare way, in most films the audience are left with an explanation about the cause of a problem, in addition a new equilibrium is not established this means that the film challenges Todorov's narrative theory.

Todorov's theory - states that all films follow a generic order. 

                   

Second day of filming

The second day of filming went really well, me and my friends made some good progress, we didn't make many mistakes and we followed our plan so we had more of an insight on what to do step by step. It took us an hour to do the remaining scenes and set everything up. Some of the scenes had to be re-done where I thought that the shots could of been filmed better, near the end of the film I wanted to do a long shot scene however we was unable to as you could not hear the scenes clearly on the camera. The camera's battery died more than once, I was getting very unpatient in waiting for it to charge. 

First day of filming

The first day of filming went quite well, however it took longer than me and my friends thought. We were well organised with each shot that we needed to do that but we had to re-do some shoots due to certain problems. For an example when we were doing a long-shot scene the sound was not clear enough as me and my friend were speaking and shooting that one scene had to be done three times because the camera was not steady enough and it was not recording aswell as problems with the sound. As my story was about a woman who liked everything up to perfection and well organised, organising my house in certain way was very time consuming and wasted film time. The things that went well in filming were that the lines that needed to be said were well scripted and me and my friend knew what we needed to say. The way we were presented fit in well with our characters.

Psycho

Psycho

Psycho is a psychological- thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960, starring Vera Miles, Janet Leigh and Antony Perkins. The storyline is based on a secretary who begins her journey after she steals a large amount of money from her employer, throughout her long journey she stops at a secluded motel which is owned by a very disordered man who accomponies her at dinner and get's talking to her. While she is at the hotel, she becomes a murder victim to the own Norman Bates, after she is brutally murdered Norman Bates does everything to clear the evidence. After not hearing from her sister and finding out that she has gone mising, Marion Crane attempts to look for her sister at the motel with her sister's former lover.



Alfred Hitchcock Psycho was pronounced as one of Hitchcock's best peice. This is because he was the first to present such a gruesome murder, in the 1960's films were very peaceful in the way they presented murder, psycho was known best for the murder scene. There were a variety of different angles used to make the murder look more realistic for the audience. CharactersIn most films, the audience usually get a feel as to who is the 'bad guy' and 'good guy'
however in this film, characters are are presented in a mysterious way. Alfred Hitchcock presented his characters in a very confusing way. In the beginning we gather that Norman Bates has a mysterious side to him, later on we learn that he has a personality disorder which makes him switch personalities between his mother and himself.

Shower Scene 

This was one of the most memorable scenes for it's gruesome, realistic detail on murder. At first it became an issue for the production company as they were not used to seeing such detailed murder scenes, in the shower scene the sound effects actually sound like someone is being stabbed and the screams are very realistic.

Second production meeting

Members: 
Manjit Ram

Casting:
Farwa Ahmed And Hamida Begum

I have thought about a wide range of choices for the plot of my thriller, I have now thought about my storyline.

Plot - A woman likes everything up to perfection and then she realises everything around her starts to go out of place, she feels confused as to whether she is seeing things or not however she is convinced that something mysterious is going on. Her best friend thinks she is going mad and seeing things.

Rope

Rope -  Rope is a thriller based film made in 1948 by Alfred Hitchcock. The main characters in this thriller are James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger. It is a very mysterious thriller movie.

Two friends strangle their classmate who they perceive as being 'inferior' to them and hide his body in their apartment and then invite his family and friends over for a gathering which is held for him. They are percieved in the movie as twisted superior men who are making a mockery of his death and celebrating the fact that they think they will get away with their classmates murder. Killing a man and getting away with it to feeds to one's own intelectual vanity is the kind of trick Hitchcock excels at. Throughout the film from the moment the young men kill the young man, they hide his body in a box in a room where the party is being held, this leads the audience left in anticipation on whether or not someone will open or notice the box.

The main story plot builds towards a climax.

Rope is a film which was made in 1948 about two men who strangle an old 'classmate' they perceive as being inferior to them. They choose to hide the body in a chest draw and host a party with the draw chest draw in the room where the party is being held, this adds a thrill and suspensive feel to the movie. During the film after they strangle their old classmate they attempt to hide their crime from the other guests, however one of the males who participated in the crime begins to get paranoid and worried that someone will find out.

Suspense At the beginning of Rope, the audience become aware of who the antagonists are, as the first scene consists of the two men killing their old class mate and hiding the body in a chest draw. This adds a suspensive feel to the audience from the beginning, it leaves them thinking throughout the whole film if someone will suspect anything and look inside the chest draw. In films such as Rope building tension in a key element as it keeps the audience interested and makes them want to watch further. The fact that the chest draw is in the room the party is being held adds to the suspense as it makes the audience feel that anyone in the room could discover the body at any time.

Mis-en-scene 
The main setting of this film was in an apartment, majority of the scenes throughout the film were shot in the front room where the party was being held. Mis-en scene plays a big role in how the scene was displayed. In the shot below, the audience see the woman in grey looking up at the male, this shows that the man has more authority and is more dominant than her. It was very typical back in the 1940's to portray the male as a more powerful figure, most films still do this.                                                                                




Narrative theories 
This film follows Todorov's narrative theory as it starts off on an equilibrium, the equilibrium is disrupted when the murder takes place. The next stage is the recognition of the disruption, this is when the guests at the party begin to suspect something is wrong and the two men are are up to something. In the end the new equilibrium is not established however the audience discover the two men were already wanted by police.

Location visit sheet

Location Visit Sheet

Location Visit Sheet Writer: Manjit Ram  Producer: Manjit Ram Director: Hamida Begum Date: 16/03/15

Rough Sketch/Explanation of location and key points to note Location 1: Outside manjit's house, farwa and manjit are walking to manjit's house  Location 2: Manjit's passage way - Manjit get's angry with farwa when farwa questions why she is getting angry over the shoes that were out of place Location 3: Kitchen and living room - Manjit is washing uo and someone walks past kitchen window - in the living room she notices a photo has gone out of place

Health and Safety Issues to note: Trip hazards over - could fall over  Rough floor over park Scene where manjit is looking for farwa's lipstick things on mantlepeice could drop

Potential Filming Problems : Camera could drop on a high angle scene  Camera could stop working in between a scene

Shot list

Treatment

Treatment

Group Roles
Cinematography - Longshot, low angle, high angle, over the shoulder shot
Mis- en scene:
Costumes - black and white blazer, black trousers, beige heels
Props - Mobile phone
Make-up: By Manjit Ram
Sound - Background music in the house, creepy slow music
Editing: Jump cuts, low angle

Title - What lies beneath the home
Tag Line - what would you do?

Synopis - A woman who lives alone who likes everything well organised around her home notices things have started to go out place without any logical explanation. We see someone outside in her garden without her noticing.

Key genre conventions - Slow mysterious music

Modern thriller openings

Modern thriller openings are presented in different ways however they use similar techniques. We have analysed a few modern thrillers openings and how they were effective.

A history of violence - This film starts off on a hot summers day, this setting makes it seem as if everything is still calm this gives an effect that everything is calm and it nothing is yet to come. However they still do not know what is unexpected that is yet to come. This is soon to be presented when two men walk into a room where there is blood on the floor and there are dead bodies laying in their own blood. This adds alot of suspense as audience are left to think why and how the bodies got there and who killed them. The slow movement in the character in the film builds up tension and curiousity as the audience try to gather where the mysterious dead bodies came from. Afterwards we see a small child who is looking frightened get murdered, the audience feel sympathetic and confused as to why the little girl was murdered.



No Country for old men - this thriller has an unexplained of the murder which raises questions to the audience as to why the murders are taking place. The weapon in the opening is a canister this suggests that the weapon respresents the killing of the people. The opening of this film sets a good suspense which is very key in gaining the audience's attention for them to watch on.  





Zodiac - this film starts off with a conversation between two characters, one of the men suggests to go to a more quiet spot, this may raise questions in the audience's minds as to why one of the characters has suggested to go to a more quiet location. As they are walking they are shouted at by a car saying 'fuck off and die' this is very random to the men and the audience however this could portray that danger is yet to come. 




Brick - The opening of this film is a boy who is next to a dead body, the use of non-diegetic music in the opening creates a very thriller like suspensive feel. The audience also feel truamatised as it is a young boy who is next to a dead body, the audience are likely to feel sympathy for this boy. The opening of the film is very disturbing and automatically creates a dark them affect for the audience. 

Risk assessment

Past student thrillers

Hunter 

I rated this peice a 4, which was very good. I feel that it worked out well in being a good mis en scene, the settings were layed out realistic to the story. The acting in this peice was very good and everything was planned out well. The lighting and different shots were very good the audience can clearly see what is going on. I also felt as if the sound effects in the background fitted in well with the storyline, it created more of a mysterious suspensive feel to the audience. The characters acting in this thriller was very good and realistic, they made no errors in acting. 















I rated this piece a 2, which was quite poor. I didn't feel like these students met up to the standards of making a good mis en scence, the storyline was very basic and short, these students could of improved on the story line by adding in more scences and suspensions to make it more dramatic and enjoyable for viewers. I felt as if this needed to be planned more thoroughly and more time should have gone into this. This piece should not have been done in such dark. In my opinion this piece was not planned well enough and the storyline was very basic and typical, they should of added a twist in the film. 

Cinematography excercise

This is our cinematography film


In media there are a variety of shots which can be used, in the film that we were asked to shoot we were told to film basic shots such as longshots, short shots, low angle and high angle.

Planning - in this exercise we decided to have a main plot as a woman being followed. Our group did not have to plan out our shots therefore we chose which shots we were going to add as we went along.

Evaluation - Due to the use of basic shots the film seemed pretty dull and slow, however as our plot was that the young woman was being followed a slow effect worked well in this cinematography.

The editing - The film editing was quite poor, every scene was slow and basic there should have been atleast one fast scene to excite the audience, as it is slow throughout the audience may get bored of the slow scenes. 

First Meeting production

Meeting production

Members:
Manjit Ram

Casting:Farwa Ahmed

I aim to keep fast pacing editing alongside with some slow close up scenes.

Plot - I have considered a range of story plots for my thriller

Woman likes to have everything up to perfection, Realises things go missing/out of place

A day in a husband and wife's life of canabilism

A husband and wife adopt a little girl who ends up being evil with wicked plans to destroy the family

Miss en scene

Mis En Scene 

Mis En Scene is everything that involves before the camera and it's setting/arrangements. Mis en scene has 5 elements which are the following:

Lighting/colour
Costume, hair and make- up
Settings and props
Positioning of characters
facial expressions and body shots

Colour is also important when it comes to mis-en-scene, as colour can have ambiguous meanings. For an example the colour red can have connotations of danger and love.

An example of colour representation used in mis en scene was in mice of men, where Curley's wife was seen as promiscuous as she wanted to stand out and done this by wearing red in a seductive way alongside with bright red lipstick, she done this to attract attention to herself as she was the only women ranch.

How to film a thriller

Different thriller conventions

Slow pacing - At the beginning slow pacing is used effectively for the audience to get a clear picture of the surrounding.

Sinister sounding - this is used to emphasise something scary is going to happen and it is used to build suspense, it creates a dangerous atmosphere.

Fast pacing - fast pacing makes the audience also engage in the characters fast event. Fast pacing makes the audience confused as to what is going to happen next.





Longshot - sets the scene and introduces us to the surroundings the film is being shot and establishes the location

shooting through scene suggests that he is being watched by a hidden watcher, this creates suspensive and makes the audience think if someone is watching him.

Close up reaction  - a close up reaction reveals the characters facial expression, we get an insight on how he is feeling. Adds a dramatic effect to the scene.

Diegetic sound effect (heavy breathing) - this instantly tells the audience he is panicing and wants to get out of his surroundings, this also indicates he is in scared about something. The characters sounds also make us feel as if we are with the character.

Close up detail - makes us engage in his journey as we get to see every aspect of what he is doing and what is in his surroundings.

Unknown

Unknown - Unknown is a mind twisting conspiracy thriller that is directed by Jaume-cerra collen. The main stars in the film are Liam Neeson and January Jones. Thrillers always have villian driven plots, unknown comes under conventions as a thriller as it builds an atmosphere of suspense throughout the film. Liam Neeson and January Jones are a married couple who go to berlin for a scientific confrence, one day in berlin Liam Neeson gets involved in a car accident which leads him to being in a coma. The doctors in berlin came he has amnesia however he is certain someone else has taken over his identity and taken his wife and job. Throughout the film he faces many mind-blowing challenges, the film has alot of fast action in it which makes the film even more exciting for the audience.
The main storyline of confusion is constructed well as it leaves the audience constantly thinking what it is going to happen next and it leaves them in anticipation if he will be able to actually prove his true identity or not in the end. Throughout the film Jaume-cerra collen uses many techniques such as close ups and fast pacing to build tension.

The Chase - In this scene the director uses a variety of shots to add to the tension, in this scene we see Liam Neeson's close up, through this we can see his facial expressions of fear. The scene is shot very fast, this makes the audience feel as if they are also going through the fast event, this makes the audience excited and makes them want to carry on watching to see what happens next.

Sound- The combined sound in the 'chase' scene of the cars and the suspensive music ultimately adds tension and makes the situation feel real. Sounds serve an important function in telling you a story and underlining the drama in a given scene. In moments where suspense goes up, certain sounds can heighten those moments to add dramatic effect. The dramatic sound also adds to the action making it more exciting.

This film can be added to Todorov's narrative theory
There is a state of equilibrium.  
































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Unknown

Unknown is a mind twisting conspiracy thriller directed by Jaume collet-serra. The main stars in the film are Liam Neeson and January Jones.