Thriller evaluation By Oneme

My thriller is called Vengeful Vixen. It is about a woman who gets revenge on men who have cheated on her in the past and she wants to get revenge on them in the most horrific way. The thriller does not show the conventional stereotype of a man kidnapping a woman and holding her hostage, on the other hand, it goes away from that conventional stereotype, it is a woman abducting a man, and this adds a great effect to my film, which makes it enjoyable to watch. Furthermore, I use digetic and non-digetic sounds together that creates a sense of tension throughout the opening. For example when the perpetrator Lora is walking down the steps we use a non digetic sound because we use her real footsteps and intertwine it with our soundtrack which is the digetic sound. This allows the audience to be on the edge of their seats because they want to see what happens next.
I think a small independent UK release or even my media product being distributed across the internet would suit my film. I came to this conclusion because the film we have done is different from what Hollywood does. Hollywood show films like James Bond and the Dark Knight where the heroes, do incredible stunts. In addition, they have films that have sensational special affects, which draws the audience’s attention like transformers. On the other hand my film even though it is a thriller it is different because are one does not have those Hollywood special effects instead we use things such as the shadow of the characters which is used to great effect also we make the shot of the vixen washing up the knife, to add tension to the film. My style of film is not really for the big cinemas it is better to be shown on internet on sites like YouTube and in independent cinemas, like the Dalston Rio because it will attract a niche audience because of its diversity. Furthermore, it allows people who enjoy watching films at home to watch a low budget film that is free to their liking.
My film represents the younger generation more than the older generation. In this modern era, there is a lot of conflict between young people, which leads to people unfortunately loosing their lives. In my film, we tried to convey this by showing one way, in which someone takes revenge out on someone and uses a knife to kill him or her as we see on the streets today. Moreover, we wanted to show why young people might carry knives and their feelings towards the person they might want to hurt. Our film also represents the young generation because the people who star in this media product are two young people who are in their teenage years and this is an insight into the real world of youth violence. Our film also throws out the stereotype of male dominance and it shows the female who now is dominant, this leads to a wider range of female viewers because women will watch it because they might want that sense of control.
In my point of view, I believe the audience for our film would be 16-25 because those ages are towards late teens and early adult years. Furthermore, when you are at these ages you are always likely to have the internet and that is the kind of institution we wanted to distribute it on. Moreover, this audience is more likely to have a relationship breakdown and wanting revenge on their partner because they have done something bad to them. We use this but emphasise it a bit more in our thriller by showing the women killing the man that abused her trust. Sandra is 21; she is at university and studies media, she likes to spend time with her close friends watching movies on the internet. There is also no cinema where her university is based so she really only has her computer.
The audience for my film would likely to be teenage girls and women because the film is transmitted to attract them because my media product is about a woman who is in control and I think women would like to watch that. I would market our media product by putting trailers on internet sites such as YouTube that would get a lot of coverage because many people go on that site. Furthermore, I might use the method of advertising it on more niche TV channels such as E4 a channel, which attracts many teenage viewers, and my film might interest them. Moreover, as the main character Elliot, a teenager, people can relate with him because he is in their age group and this allows us to get more viewers. Advertising could also be done on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace that many teenagers have nowadays, this precisely, allows us to target our audience. We could also go through the process of advertising it on major food hotspots such as KFC or McDonalds where people can enjoy their food and also see our film and go hmmmm! This might be a great film to watch while I am on my computer at home.
My product is similar with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining because in the opening you see the same car going up to the house and in that car, are all the main characters. In comparison, my thrillers opining you see the kidnapper and the hostage who are the main characters and we follow them the whole way through. To add effect we used various shots to show Elliot’s (the hostage) state of mind. We used a medium close up to show his face and we managed to add sweat to add tension this was a good affect to use because you saw he was really frightened and petrified because he didn’t no why he was their in the first place. Moreover, we used a point of view shot, which showed Elliot looking dis-orientated and this allowed the audience to feel his anguish because they where looking at it from his point of view.
When we went to watch it in the cinema I was worried about what people’s view would be of our work and so where the others that where in my group. At the start everybody was still talking about the one they had watched before but went the high- angle shot of Elliot came along where he was tied up the volume toned down so they must have been intrigued by what they where viewing. After our thriller was shown, we got great reviews from the people that where sitting around us. For example a girl that sitting next to me said ‘I liked that point of view shot it made me think what if that was me’ those comments people made, made me feel very humble because we knew all the work we put in came to something excellent in the end.
While we where making our film we stumbled across technology I would not always use, such as the Mac computer and the logging and capture programme. All the software looked vey complex to me and I thought I would be needing help all the time with it. When the teacher then showed us how to use these things, I was very happy because now I knew how to use these complex instruments. Using final cut pro and soundtrack pro was great experience and learning curve because I had never used something like this before and I was surprised at the different things it could do. For example, when my group and me where on soundtrack pro we learnt how to use the different beats and sounds which we then put together in a sequence to create our soundtrack. This enabled us to be creative with our editing and sound and it allowed us to create a great piece of work.
Looking back on the preliminary exercises we had done, that helped us to produce our media product because we took the mistakes from those and bettered them. Such as we were able to make our match cuts sharper so it intertwines with the next shot smoothly. I also got my head around the film making process which I thought at the start was going to be easy but it was not. It took a long time to get the right shots we needed and when we even looked back, we where still missing some shots but we got their in the end. It was also meticulously long, for example, all the storyboarding and making everything organised but to me it was all a learning curve and I enjoyed it immensely.
To conclude, my experience of making this media product was exciting and stressful at the same time but overall I enjoyed it. It allowed me to use things I do not use on an everyday basis. Furthermore, it came out excellent in the cinema, it got rave reviews from the people sitting around us, this made me quite proud of me, and my group because it meant all our hard work paid off.

audiences reaction to our media product

Our media product was shown in vue cinema like the rest of the AS media groups. Our film got great reviews and great reactions because of its diversity to other films that where shown that day. When are one was finished their was a great cheer and people that where sitting around me said that my one was the best one I had seen so far, that made me feel good inside. Many people said they liked the different shots we used to show elliot (the hostage) and his state of mind so it makes the audience sympathise with him and what he was going through. They liked the shot where the camera was behind him and it tracked from his hands to his head and it showed him sweating prefucely. Overall I think the audience liked it because its different and it was not like other peoples product that was shown in the cinema that day.

We finally finished our thriller!!

Last friday me and my group finally finished our long awaited media thriller which took alot of time and stress to complete and we did and finished it to the best of our ability. This was a huge step for us because when we where making the practice ones hey where much below average and it is as if we did not put any effort in at all even though we did. Now, with our main thriller the editing is much better, the soundtrack is way more skilled and choreographed and the lighting is supreme. The main thing I personally like about my thriller is the lighting we had used to portray the movement and events which where going on throughout the short film. The main character who was elliot, his facial expressions where shown wonderfully and the sweat which was on his arms where clear because of the lighting and that made it better. Furthermore when we see his shadow at the start it entices the audience to see what is happening and persuade them to watch on. Overall i think our thriller fim is great viewing and the most important thing is that we got it finished to our liking.

Filming on the 4th of februaury

On the 4th of february we continued filming for an opening of a thriller movie which lasts 2 minutes. This was a very productive filming session where we filmed the second character in our story line and what their role is in the story. We used many props such as fake blood and a light brown cloth which shows reprsentation to an enourmous affect. We once again also used a spotlight to set he scene instead of a normal light which would not be as effective. We used various shot types to show what was going on.for example we used point of view shot for the character. A close up of the brown cloth and the object that was inside it. Furthermore we used medium shot of the villian cleaning the evidence away. For me and my group this was a productive lesson because we mangaed to get most of what we needed and with a bit more filming time we will be able to start editing and making our opening of a thriller into a spectacle.

Wednesday the 28th of january

On wednesday the 28th me and my group started filimng our opening to a thriller movie. we used alot of equpment including the tables to get the shots we needed. We used the spotight to emphasise our character and set the scene. This was important because he is the vocal point of the story we are trying to display. Furthermore the group combinded well and we used each otthers ideas and we put them into practice and i personallly think that went well. Th e filming was also excellent because everybody in my group used the camera and we worked well as a team and a unit and i am very pleased with that.

in todays lesson

In todays lesson we learnt how to use the soundtrack programme to add a new dimension to our short movie. I was really impressed by how much beats and percussions there was to choose from and this lead our group to make a good soundtrack for our short piece. We only used two soundtracks,we kept the sound short and sweet and not too complex just like our short clip this was good because it sounded good in the end. This session was a big step for me because i had never used the soundtrack programme before and when i learnt how to use it it was very satisfying knowing now that whwn it comes to the main movie I know how to develop it and make it the best it cn be.

in yesterdays lesson

In yesterdays lesson we got a chance to edit the small film we had filmed and make it into a short clip. when we got into the editing room we had a bit of trouble starting up but we eventually got there in the end. Firstly we had to go through our film on the camera and see what bits we wanted and how much we wanted of it. This lead us to the clips that we had done on the right hand side, so we could in and out those clips at appropriate intervals. Eventually we managed to do that and we used matchcuts to make our clip more effective and make it look like a proper film. We used a short sound effect towards the end of the clip so that it sounds and looks much better. Then we watched the clip through so we could see the wonderful short film we had created and we enjoyed it. This session was a real help because it allowed me to use final cut pro in a more challenging way and this helps me in the future when me and my group do our thriller.

wednesday 7th of January

On wednesday the 7th me and my group made a short film which we had to include matchcuts when we edit and we had to use different points of view. I found this excersise very satisfying because i used the camera to film other people in the rest of my group and found this very helpful because now we could all use the camera effectively and learnt the technicality of the camera and I managed to master it in the end. Moreover we used various camera angles so we could show different points of views and make it easier to matchcut when it comes to it. We also got a a4 size sheet of paper where we wrote down the things that we where going to do in the short film. I and the rest of my group found that helpful because then we could refer back to the sheet for guidance instead of improvising and doing it on the spot and making mistakes. For me this lesson was a real help in the progress of our thriller film that we are going to do.

Monday the 15th

In mondays lesson we went into the computer suite to upload our short clips unto our blog. that took like 20 minutes and in the meen time we were answering questions about our clips and how we developed them. Afterwards we looked at our clips on our blog and we saw what we did and now we know what we can do better in the future. Then we went back into the classroom to watch some short clips from thrillers such as collateral were we saw how they used editing and lighting to portray that certain clip, overall that was helpful to us.

Wednesday the 10th

On wednesday we saw our mini videos that we created and the class was buzzing with anticipation of waht we were about to see. we went back into the editing room to watch them. We had to see other groups before ours and that was interesting looking at the different editing techniques that were being used and see if i could use in the future to improve my work. It then got to ours and some of the shots were good but could have been improved, so in the future I now would know what to do. Besides that the story went fluently and we used a dissolve to show that time passed and that worked well, so all in all it was a good task to get involved in. After that we watched a thriller that starred jack nicholson. my class was screaming at one shocking scene where jack nicholsons character was kissin a women who was getting hideous by the second that was uncomfortable to watch but beside that i enjoyed the film and it gave us ideas to use in our thriller stories.

Monday the 8th

On monday the 8th we went into the editing room to see how our filming came out by connecting the camera to the hardrive, mickey helped us with this. then we had to work as a group to see wether we could find the shots we needed to start editing. We fouind the shots and we saw some funny ones that really made all of us laugh like when elliot was running. Then we transfered those shots to the bit were you edit and carried on from there. At the start I found it a bit tricky but i soon got the hang of it and mastered it. The shots were good but all we had to do was puit it together to make an intresting piece. I think our group worked very cohesively to get the job done and we even went workshopto get it finished so i was very satisfied with what we achieved in that lesson.

Finally,On Wednesday we started filming

On wednesday we finally started our filming and our scenario was that we had to create a short piece about a game of cards. Before all that we had to have a tutorial form mickie about how to use the filming kit and how to put it on the satnd and so on. We then sat in our group and figured out how we are going to portray this game of cards. We then started filming near the common room were we found it hard becaus ethere were plenty of distractions but we still got our 12 shots in the end. Moreover the scene we did that i found the funniest was the scene with me and elliot, when i win the card game he comes and attacks me and we start struggling and the suitcase drops to the floor and he picks it up and runs away thgat was funny.

last mondays lesson

In last mondays lesson we went to the computer room to see how we edit our scenes and make are thrillers and stories better. We used scenes about a little boy who is in a cafe and he is placed in this situation with other characters such as the waitress and the man that steals his lunchbox. I found this exercise useful because it allowed me to learn how to use the editing programme and when it is time to edit my own thriller i will be able to use editin styles such as matchcuts in my movie