Questionnaire

In order to get feedback from my target audience about what they expected to be seen in a thriller movie, I decided to conduct a questionnaire (as seen below).

 1) What is your gender?

     Male        Female

 2) How old are you?

     11-16        17-22       23-28       29-34       35+

 3) Do you enjoy movies of the thriller genre?

     Yes       No

 4) If Yes, what is your favourite thriller movie?

    ____________________________________

 5) What do you feel is the most important aspect of a thriller?  (Circle one)

     Setting      Acting Skills      Plot      Props/Costume      Suspense

 6) For you, what builds up suspense the most? (Circle one)

     Music       Camera Angles      Pace      Sound

 7) How much of the plot should be revealed in the opening to a thriller?

     As much as possible        As little as possible        None at all

 8) What do you think should happen during the opening to a  thriller? (Circle one)

     Everyday life      Chase scene      Flashback

I also asked people that were outside the age range of my target audience in order to gain wider knowledge of what people wanted to see in a thriller.

Prelim Filming

During today's lesson we filmed the prelim task. I did the majority of filming, since I wasn't in the actual video. We did, however, make sure that we all had at least one go at filming to ensure that we all had a chance to get used to the cameras that we will have to use when we make the opening to a thriller later in the course.

Prelim Editing

My group and I edited our prelim task today, which we had filmed the previous Friday. Just like the filming, we took it in turns to edit the task so that we could get used to the software we have to use. I edited all of the sound in the clip, while the other two edited the footage and titles.

 

Prelim Planning

Today I was put into a group with two others in order to make the prelim task. First of all, we had to decide on a storyline, characters and dialogue. For the story line, we thought up a scenario that included a confrontation due to someone's murder, which then results in another murder. We kept the character's nameless, as we did not think it was vital for them to be named.
We then storyboarded our prelim task, as seen below:

What Makes a Thriller

What makes a good thriller?

Thrillers are designed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. This is done by including lots of action filled scenes and suspenseful moments. They tend to include life or death situations, which allows the plot to sometimes become a murder mystery. They almost always contain a very malicious protagonist, whom's identity is kept a secret for a long remainder of the movie. [source]

Thriller Openings Research Task

Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011)

Throughout the whole clip, there is little sound used, apart from the ambient sound of running water from the lake. The lack of sound creates tension for the audience as it makes them feel as though something is going to jump out and startle them, or that something bad is about to happen. There is also only one line of dialogue – “I just missed your heart”. This could be seen that Hanna (the female shown during the clip) was taking pity on the reindeer that she shot, as hitting it in the heart would be a much quicker death. Or, it could also been viewed that she just wanted the reindeer to decease quicker so that she could obtain food (and possibly fur) faster.
At the start of the clip there is a slow pan across the landscape, which shows us that there is nothing but snow for miles around. Once again, this creates suspense for the audience, as, not only does it make them wonder where everyone is, but the emptiness of the picture also goes along with what you feel due to the lack of non-diegetic sound
Hanna’s costume is brown, warm and comfortable. The colour of her costume may help her to blend in to the surrounding trees when hunting for animals, as they won’t be able to pick her out as well if she was wearing a bright pink top (etc.). It is important that her costume is comfortable as she needs to be able to move freely in order to gain the stealth that is needed to hunt. It is also warm, which ensures that she keeps out the cold in the winter landscape. All of these things indicate to us that she is used to this environment, as not only is she wearing the correct clothing, but her body language also points this out. She stands up right and keeps herself hidden away from the animals, which makes it much easier for her to hunt because she has the element of surprise.
There are only two titles in this sequence: "Focus Features Presents" and "A Joe Wright Film". This is unsual because normally the titles in the opening sequence almost always contain the actor(s)/actress(es) that play the main chracter(s). 

Final Prelim

This is our final prelim task, which we decided to name 'Tik Tok'.

There are more bad points to this video then they are good. The first negative point is that there is not a variety of camera shots; practically all of the clip is filmed using mid shots. This makes it quite boring to watch because it seems like we didn't put in any effort before hand when planning the prelim. In my final piece, I will ensure that I use a variety of camera shots and angles. These will all help to create tension - which is a major part of the thriller genre.

Another negative point is that part of the picture is blurry and out of focus. This is an issue as it makes the film look unprofesional. I want to avoid using any blurry/out of focus shots in my final piece, as, I want it to look as profesional as possible and movies of the thriller genre (or movies in general) don't contain out of focus footage unless it is used to effect or they want you to focus on a paticular object/person.
On the other hand, a positive thing about the prelim is that we added sound effects when the gun is being shot, which makes it sound more realistic than the original footage. I will make sure that in my final piece I add sound effects, and other sounds (e.g. ambient), when appropriate. The sounds will help to create suspense and tension, which is something that thriller openings always contain.