Rough cut - Miss Miller

A rough cut is important as it is when the film first starts to look like the final product so that any changes and improvements can be made and the cast and crew can change certain aspects of the film if they think it doesn't look as good. In our rough cut we realised that the sounds and effects could have been improved to make the thriller aspects be evoked further towards the audience, also, more transactions needed to be edited in to make the film flow better. This is why a rough cut is important as it shows a clear indication of where improvements can be made to make our thriller opening better and appeal more towards our audience.

Audience feedback is very important because they are the people that the film is aimed to, so our thriller genre must appeal to them in order to receive positive comments on our opening. Also the target audience can comer up with better ideas that we can use in our thriller opening to make it more satisfactory to watch. Audience feedback can also boost confidence in our group if we receive positive comments which can allow us to try more effects and sounds without worrying if the audience will like it or not.

We received our feedback from questionnaires given to the whole class which included questions such as; what went well?, what could be improved? and an overall mark out of 60. This allowed us to see what our target audience (teenagers) wanted to see in our thriller opening that we may not have included, it also shows us what we done well so we know what aspects to keep in our opening when we alter it.

Our feedback had good marks out of 60 from everyone who done the questionnaire which was helpful as it indicated to us that we were on the right tracks with our editing and shots etc. Also, in the 'what could be improved?' section the answers were small things such as: 'don't repeat shots too much' and 'sound was too loud' which is easy to alter and doesn't need any re-filming. Also the comments in the 'what went well?' section were very positive and morale boosting for our group with comments such as 'editing was good' and 'iconography was scary' which was our aim in our opening thriller scene.

This feedback from our peers will help us improve our thriller because multiple peers have written specific comments which shows that it is a fault in our opening which can be easily fixed by our editor Joe. When finalising our thriller opening we will not be changing our positive comments as we know those aspects appeal to our target audience making our opening a success.

Planning group storyboard - Miss Miller

A group storyboard is important as it allows everybody in our group, (Me, Joe and Cara) to understand exactly what is going on and not to get confused as it is one storyboard for all of us which also reduces the chances of us making any mistakes or doing something in an incorrect order. It also creates a guideline for the group to follow and make filming and editing less complicated and make sure everyone of us is on the same wave length.

Before our group storyboard each of us in our group made an individual storyboard of our own ideas and shots. When told to make a group storyboard we had to put all of our ideas together taking different aspects

Opening scenaration - Miss Miller

The opening scene of our thriller film begins with a little girl in Victorian clothing sitting in a garden playing with a doll whilst singing, we see many different angles of the girl then she suddenly drops the doll and runs away. The camera zooms into the doll which has a large leaf on its head to create foreboding. The scene cuts to inside the house when the little girl is running up the stairs but her face isn't shown, the babysitter then walks through the door saying 'bye' to Alice's parents, the puts her blanket on the side and hears some banging upstairs. She calls out 'Alice?' and without an answer walks up the stairs and turns on the lights. The camera then follows over her shoulder when she walks into a room and finds a gas mask on the bed, when she picks it up a slam of a door sounds and alarms the babysitter causing her to drop the mask and run down to where the sound came from. She puts her ear to the door and a music box sound is playing, she opens the door and calls out 'Alice?' again, the window is open and as she goes to shut it Alice is outside under a lamp post with a gas mask on facing away from the babysitter. Alice then turns round and the camera jumps to her face the cuts back to the babysitter running down the stairs to the front door, the camera goes into a handheld shot and jumps with flashes towards Alice with mysterious singing echoing in the background. The babysitter puts her hand on Alice's shoulder and Alice looks round quickly with the mask on her face and the scene ends.

We could improve our opening scene by cutting down on the amount of repeated shots of Alice in the garden, it took up quite a lot of our 2 minute limit, it also may bore the audience as it takes some time for the opening to become scary and mysterious. Also we could have less shots following the babysitter, although it puts the audience in her point of view and create an emotional link, it can come across quite boring at times especially if the opening is only 2 minutes long.

Filming schedule - Miss Miller

Shot	Date & time	Location	Content /Action	Shot type & Duration	Costume/ hair/ make up	Iconography	Personnel	Equipment
1	25.11.13 3:10	Cara's garden	Little girl playing in the garden with dolls and tea cups looking innocent.	Close up 5 seconds, high angle 4 seconds, tracking shot 6 seconds, zoom in shot 3 seconds.	Little girl in old fashioned dress to show when it is set, not showing her face hiding identity.	Blanket, teddy bears, doll, tea cups and plates.	Hannah acting, Joe camera man, me (Shaun) director and Cara also directing.	Digital camera, batteries, tripod, Tape / memory card.
2	25.11.13 3:30	Cara's house	Little girl running up the stairs still not showing her face creating mystery	Tracking pan shot 5 seconds	Again, old fashioned dress to show the era.	None	Hannah acting, me (Shaun) camera man, Joe director and Cara also directing.	Digital camera, batteries, tripod, Tape / memory card.
3	25.11.13 3:40	Cara's house
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Planning sound - Miss Miller

Sound is important within in a thriller film as different soundtracks can evoke different feelings and emotions to the audience. Also sound effects and techniques at certain parts in the film can create a better understanding and create tension, enigma and create an element of surprise.

We will be using a child's singing as a diagetic and contrapuntal sound as we can see it on the screen, the point of this is to give the audience a better understanding of the opening as they can hear the child as well as see her playing. Also the laughing will mislead the audience as it is a thriller film which is contrasts the happy laughing when the little girl is playing. This will shock and surprise the audience when something horrific happens as they don't associate nice singing with thriller films.

Another contrapuntal sound that will be used in our thriller opening is a music box, when the babysitter is scouring the house for Alice she hears a music box playing a nice calm song which confuses, and scares the audience as nice music isn't associated with killings. This is conventional to many thriller films such as Insidious when a happy song is playing whilst a demon is sharpening his blades, we want to create a similar effect to this win our opening scene.

Another sound we will be using in our opening scene will be a non-diagetic bird to make the film seem realistic and not in an artificial garden, this will make our opening scene more professional. Also the bird's tweet can convey happiness which will then be contrasted by the horror occurring in the house during our opening scene. This is conventional to a thriller film as the contrasting effect of good and bad is represented simply by a non-diagetic sound.

These sounds are very important to films specifically thriller films as they can have a great effect on the audience as it makes the film enjoyable are professional looking, also the use of contrapuntal, diagetic and non-diagetic sounds evoke different emotions such as mystery, enigma and tension.

Planning characters - Miss Miller

Characters are important to any film, without any characters its nearly impossible to have a narrative, characters are people in films that the audience to relate to and create emotional links with to make the film more understanding and to create empathy. Especially in thriller films, the characters in the film are similar to the target audience so that they can relate to them and feel their emotions during the film, when the characters are in danger or a fight scene for example this creates excitement within the audience fear for the protagonist which ensures that the audience don't get bored.

In our thriller opening our first, and most important character is the protagonist, acted by Cleo, she is a blonde babysitter who is vulnerable and the same age as our target audience so that they can create an emotional connection. She is home alone which is also conventional to a thriller film and in our opening scene you can see how nervous she is when she says "Alice?". She is wearing normal, modern day clothes to show that the film is set in the modern day which makes her character more relatable to the target audience as they can see it as being themselves home alone. She is very innocent

Our other main character is the antagonist Alice, she is a little girl who is possessed, this is mysterious as the audience wont suspect a little girl to be a killer. This tension and mystery is conventional to a thriller and keeps the audience enticed and also makes them question why a little girl would be a killer. When Alice is under the lamp post it creates a very eerie atmosphere for the audience and makes them fear what will happen to the babysitter when she goes outside.

Our main characters have a huge effect on our opening film as they relate to the audience to evoke more emotions such as fear and enigma to make the film more enjoyable. Also the narrative of the film wouldn't go very well if the characters weren't chosen and make correctly to fit the genre of the film and create an emotional link between the characters and the audience.

Planning editing styles - Miss Georgiou

Editing is important as it provides coherence and continuity to a film, in editing shots are combined with the script to produce the finished film. Editing makes the film look professional and evoke specific emotions to the audience through the different editing styles used. In an opening scene, it is conventional of a thriller to create enigma through the editing.

In our opening scene will use slow editing quite alot, this makes the scene flow more as it looks as if it is happening in real time, thus creating more enigma and suspense towards the audience. It also creates an emotional link between the audience and the characters as the film will be more understandable. When the babysitter is scurrying around the house looking for Alice, the use of slow editing when the camera follows her around the house puts the audience in her point of view as it doesn't switch scenes to keep the enigma.

Also, in our opening scene we used fast editing when Alice is spotted with a gas mask, the scenes change very quickly in order to set a high tempo make the audience feel excited and fearful. The second Alice is spotted the editing speeds up keeping the audience on edge which is typical of a thriller film, we hope that the fast editing in our opening scene creates the same effect as the chase scene 'Scream' showing various angles of the protagonist and antagonist to build tension and create mystery.

A Kuleshov effect is used in our film at the end, this is where two clips are put together to create a third meaning. In our opening scene the two clips of; Cleo walking to Alice, and Alice turning round frightfully with a gas mask on gives the third meaning that she has been possessed as she is acting strange and scary. This creates mystery as the audience don't physically see what is happening, but know that it has happened in their minds, making Alice seem even creepier as they don't know where she is or what she will do next.

These editing styles that we have chosen to use in our film are conventional to films in the thriller genre and create typical thriller elements such as; surprise, shock, mystery, suspicion and tension. This will help our opening to appeal to our target audience and entice the audience within the opening two minutes that we have.

Inspirations for opening scene - Miss Miller

We need inspiration when making our opening thriller clip because seeing something that scares us from another film, can be used in our opening to present the same feelings towards our target audience. This is my inspirations for mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography.


Mise-en-scene is everything you see in a camera shot in a film, it is made up of five different elements: Setting and iconography, costume,hair and make up, facial expressions and body language, lighting and colour and positioning of characters or objects. I took my inspiration from The woman in black because the little girls tea cups are mysterious and create tension, the little girls dresses and old fashioned hair shows us the era that the film is set to give the audience a better understanding of things that may go on and why, the scary stillness of the woman in black creates tension as we don't know if she is going to jump out and scare us, the dark lighting when she is around shows us that she is the antagonist, the positioning of the killer behind the camera scares the audience because it is as if she is behind us when watching the film which creates fear and enigma.

Cinematogophy is The art of movie photography and camera angles including both the shooting and development of the film. I took my cinematoraphy insiration from 'The devil inside', A high angle shot is used to show the audience the room Maria is in and whats in it. The working man's uniform shows us that Maria is in a mental institution which is mysterious and makes the audience curious of why she is there. Also the high angle shot could represent a security camera watching Maria in case she does anything bad, this makes the audience see her as very sinister which is conventional to a thriller movie. Also an extreme close-up is used is ued to show Maria's arm which has cuts on it. This creates a sense of mystery again, as of why she has cut herself. The extreme close up makes her arm cover the whole shot which looks very gory and strange which are conventional themes to a thriller movie.

Editing is used after a movie has been filmed, it helps the film run smoothly. A reaction shot is used to show that the mother is in pain, we can see this when she gets stabbed and the camera instantly jumps to her screaming face. This shows us the horrific pain she's in after being stabbed and also makes the audience feel sorry for her as the shot of her face indicates how much she is hurt, this reaction shot also makes the audience curious of what she can do to fight off Esther after being stabbed which creates tension. Pain and curiosity are themes linked to thriller films such as 'Orphan'.

Production roles - Miss Miller

When creating a film, different people are allocated different roles, these are: producers ,directors, actors, director of photography, music producers, screenplay writer, MES coordinator and editors. These different roles are used so different parts of the film production can work smoothly and efficiently without any confusion, also because different people in the production team are specialised in different areas, they are allocated to a specific role.

In our group, to decide who should be allocated to which role, we discussed who was the best at certain roles in out of me, Joe and Cara.

 I was allocated as the director, I supervised the filming commenting on shots and angles that could improve the opening. I also had to read over the storyboard and improvise with situations such as not finding a suitable costume for the actors.

Joe was the director of photography because he was most experienced with the camera so he knew the best shots to use and to pan smoothly and many other professional shots to help our opening look the best it can be such as: tracking, zoom in and hand held camera shots. These skills that Joe has helped our opening to run smoothly with no rough, jerky shots or any bad angles. Joe was also our editor as he was most familiar with a mac and was very confident with what he was doing, although me and Cara contributed to some of the editing ideas, Joe made it happen on the mac, the video effects used by Joe were very professional and made the film look alot better. Also the transitions and soundtracks he used improved the film too.

.I was also the producer, I found the location to film, prepared the film and supervised it as we went along to change things that needed improving, I sat with Joe whilst he was editing and gave him some ideas that he could work with to improve the film in many ways.

Screen play writer was Cara, this is because her narrative runs mostly throughout our opening with bits and pieces from mine and Joe's. She done the storyboards and drew the pictures to go along with it. I, director and producer altered some of the narrative during our filming as we found some things to fit together and we carried on from there and continued from the rest of the storyboard.

The actors played a massive part in our film, they were Hannah and Cleo, Hannah's size allowed us to use her as a little girl to create enigma, Cleo looked like a typical teenage babysitter which allows the audience to relate and feel her fear and discomfort.

Music producer was Cara, she knew which scary music to play at which time to evoke scary emotions to the audience such as horror and mystery. Also the sudden jumpy noises she chose shocked and surprised the audience.

These allocated roles helped the filming, editing and production of our film run smoothly and efficiently as possible. This allowed us to film and edit really quickly yet at a good quality to create suspense, mystery and enigma towards our target audience.

Risk assessment - Miss Georgiou

Risk assessment

Risk                                                                                             Prevention of hazard

Dropping the camera during a handheld camera shot                  Use strap around your hand

Trailing leads when filming                                                         Use gaffer tape to secure

Tripping over the tri-pod                                                           Place it sensibly when not using it

Getting too cold when filming outside                                        Wear warm clothes and have breaks inside

Falling over when running                                                         Make sure the area is clear before running

Shot	Date & time	Location	Content /Action	Shot type & Duration	Costume/ hair/ make up	Iconography	Personnel	Equipment
1	25.11.13 3:10	Cara's garden	Little girl playing in the garden with dolls and tea cups looking innocent.	Close up 5 seconds, high angle 4 seconds, tracking shot 6 seconds, zoom in shot 3 seconds.	Little girl in old fashioned dress to show when it is set, not showing her face hiding identity.	Blanket, teddy bears, doll, tea cups and plates.	Hannah acting, Joe camera man, me (Shaun) director and Cara also directing.	Digital camera, batteries, tripod, Tape / memory card.
2	25.11.13 3:30	Cara's house	Little girl running up the stairs still not showing her face creating mystery	Tracking pan shot 5 seconds	Again, old fashioned dress to show the era.	None	Hannah acting, me (Shaun) camera man, Joe director and Cara also directing.	Digital camera, batteries, tripod, Tape / memory card.
3	25.11.13 3:40	Cara's house
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Planning opening credits - Miss Georgiou

Credits are important because it lets the audience know who the actors, director, camera men, editors, music editors, costume designers and producers are. Also the style of the credits and how they are presented gives the audience an insight of what the film will be like.

The se7en credits are very effective as they use very jerky text to create a disturbed reflection of the film to the audience, also the weird font creates tension to connote the strange happenings that will occur in the film. The colour of the credits are white, contrasted by a dark background, this can connote the good and evil, this is used in many thriller films to give an insight of the good and bad characters that will be seen in the film (protagonist and antagonist). The images shown in the background of the credits include a mysterious man who's face we do not see, this creates enigma before the film starts as the audience are unsure of who the man could be and who he could be in the film and if he is good or bad. The soundtrack played over the credits in Se7en is eerie and strange, this creates tension as it again gives another insight of the narrative of the film. The book seen in the images during the opening credits creates a mysteruious feel towards the audience as they dont know if it is a bible which relates the film with religion, on the other hand the book could be an imoprtant object in the film and be a significant part of it.

As a group; me Cara and Joe decided that we were going to do similar credits to the film 'Insidious' because of the strange clips going on in the background panning through a scary house at night time to give the audience an insight of what could happen in our film opening. We are going to use a similar font from the credits of 'Se7en' it is strange which will create mystery to the audience as the font can reflect the film narrative. The soundtrack Joe made on garage band was inspired by 'American horror story' as the eerie piano sounds create enigma and tension because it sounds like it is building up to a climax ofr horror. Like 'Se7en' our credits will have contrasting colours within the font and background to represent the good and evil throughout thwe film and characters.

Planning cinematography - Miss miller

Cinematography is the art of motion photography, it is important in a film because it portrays clearly what is happening on screen. Also the use of different camera angles can connote different feelings and emotions to the audience, I will be analyzing the cinematography that my group will be using for our thriller opening in this blog.

First of all we are using a zoom-in shot at the beginning of our opening, the camera will slowly zoom in to highlight the significance of the boy playing in the garden, this is because the zoom brings the camera view very close to the boy so the audience can clearly see what he is doing and not confuse them as it might do from a distance. This use of cinematography at the beginning of my opening scene is conventional because the audience need to have a good understanding of the storyline so they are intrigued and not confused.

We also used a panning shot to show where clip is set, we are using a pan shot to show the audience the garden in which the majority of the opening scene is filmed, the way the pan sets the scene allows the audience to again, have a better understanding of the scene. The pan of the garden makes the audience suspicious of what killer or mysterious character could be hiding behind the trees, this creates enigma which is conventional to the thriller genre.

A hand-held camera shot is used to create an emotional link between the audience and the characters, when the babysitter runs through the house the hand-held camera shot is used, the audience will feel her emotions and fear as the shot makes them feel as if it is them running. The emotional link created makes the audience feel the fear of the characters which is very intriguing when watching a thriller film, the fast pace of the camera movement creates the element of excitement to the audience which is typical of a thriller film.

A POV shot is used in the garden when the little boy looks up to his window, this creates alot of tension as the audience do not know what could be in the window when he looks up. The face that they see this from a little boys point of view creates empathy as the boy is helpless which refers back to Aristotle's theory which our opening is based on. These feelings and emotions are conventional to thriller films.

A reaction shot is used when the door knocks and the babysitter looks over, the use of a fast transition to the door creates a surprise to the audience, and also put the audience in the babysitters point of view as they will wonder who it could be and why. This creates enigma and makes an emotional link between the audience and the characters as they have similar thoughts and feelings which is typical of films in the thriller genre. 

I think that the camera shots and angles used in our thriller opening clip will create fear, horror, suspense, enigma, tension and many other conventional thriller aspects which will entice and engage the audience. Sticking to Aristotle's theory we will try to evoke empathy as much as we can which these shots will do.

Planning mise-en-scene - Miss Georgiou

Mise-en-scene is everything you see in a camera shot in a film, it is made up of five different elements: Setting and iconography, costume,hair and make up, facial expressions and body language, lighting and colour and positioning of characters or objects. Mise-en-scene helps the audience into understanding the conventions of a thriller in more detail. 

Why is mise-en scene important within a thriller film?

The elements of miss-en-scene are important within a thriller film because they make the clips more understanding.
The lighting can show if it's day time or light time, it can also give the audience a sense of foreboding if it is dark as the characters can't see what is in the darkness which creates tension.
The setting shows the audience where the scene is set so they understand the film better.
The positioning of characters enforces the 180 degree rule and gives the audience a better understanding of what is going on in the clip.
The costume, hair and make up shows the audience what type of person the character is and also make up and costumes can be used to hide a killers identity to create suspense.
Facial expressions and body language helps the audience to see how the character is feeling and relate to their emotions.

What is the mis-en-scene of your thriller and why?

In my thriller film we are using mise-en-scene elements inspired from other films which create enigma and mystery throughout the film opening.

We will use a lot of low key lighting to create suspense as the audience will not know what could be hiding in the darkness, we are using small lights in the corners of a room to make the room seem mysterious and eerie. The scene will be set in a house so the audience can relate to the characters and also so the film seems more realistic which adds more fear to the film and audience. The positioning of the characters in my opening will be behind the main character and only the audience will see the mysterious killer, this will make the audience frightened for the characters. the costume, hair and make up we are using is old Victorian costumes to show what era the film is set, also the hair will be messy make the girl seem scary and create horror to the audience. Also the facial expressions and body language used involves the killer standing mysteriously behind the babysitter which creates enigma.

Our thriller film can build a relationship with the target audience because we are using characters the similar age to our target audience which allows them to create an emotional relationship and share their feelings of fear and horror. Also the use of a normal house setting with nobody home allows the target audience to relate as they are at the age where they are left home alone and can imagine these things happening to them.

Individual storyboard - Miss Miller

The purpose of a storyboard is to help manage the timing of production, gives a better understanding of each shot and storyline and also give a description of the scene during a shot.

In my storyboard I have done 12 different frames, they each portray different camera angles, iconography, sounds and lighting. The storyboard has helped me have a better understanding of what will happen during each shot, how long each frame will last and the different aspects of mise-en-scene which will be included in the shots. The storyboard also breaks down the scenes into smaller parts which is easier to film and see what aspects need working on and how this could be done such as: adding different sounds or lighting. I got inspirations for my storyboard from a film called 'The strangers' the use of masks enticed me and thats why I wanted to use a masked killer, and also my target audience in my questionnaire were intrigued by the idea of a masked killer. Also from 'The strangers' the use of shallow focus shots, zoom in shots and panning a lot which I have used my storyboard.

In these storyboards one of my frames include a zoom in shot, also it includes young child toys which misleads the audience as you wouldn't expect a child to be a killer. Furthermore this includes slow editing to make the audience feel in the characters point of view as the clip runs smoothly as if it were happening in real time.

Preliminary Task - Miss Georgiou

For our preliminary task we was asked to shoot a short clip within our groups and upload it to youtube to demonstrate that we knew how to use specific shots for our thriller film opening. We also had to edit the clip to make it look smooth with the changing of shots and dialogue.

In our preliminary task, me and Daniel were the actors and Cara filmed the clip. Our group worked well because we were all comfortable with our roles and all knew what we were doing and enjoyed it. This task has helped me to understand when to use certain shots within a clip, such as a shot reverse shot which is used to show the audience the different characters who are speaking. Also the tri-pod which the camera was on helped to do panning shots which will be good to use in my thriller opening. When editing the clips, I found that it was quite simple if you stop filming after every different shot, this is something I can use to help put together our thriller opening.

This task helped me and my group to practise filming different shots and learning how to edit the clips together so they look smooth and professional. Also, it allowed us to see what difficulties we may find when filming, and give us time to see how we can resolve these issues, the preliminary task also allowed our group to discuss different opinions when filming which we will also need to do when filming our thriller opening.

Target audience results - Miss Miller

Me, Cara and Joe wrote our questions in our questionnaire to help us find out what people would like to see in thriller films so that we could use the most popular conventions in our opening, and who our target audience should be.

My questionnaire results:

The most people we asked our questions to were aged 16-18 which will be our target audience. The least amount of people we asked was aged 10-12 this is because they might not be the appropriate age to see some of the violence or language that will be in thriller films.

This shows that the majority of the people we asked were male which may make the answers to the other questions slightly bias, or show that the answers are mostly what males want to see when watching thrillers as opposed to females.

This shows that people would rather watch 15 rated films as they contain more psychological thriller conventions and paranormal happenings instead of gore and sexual scenes often seen in 18 rated thrillers. The chart also shows that the people we questioned would rather watch thrillers that scare them opposed to more action typed thrillers normally seen in 12 rated films.

This shows us that the people we questioned prefer mystery compared to gore in thriller films, this helps us as we know to use more mysterious conventions in our thriller opening and not a lot of gore as it will appeal more to our target audience. The use of mysterious conventions will create suspense and enigma towards the characters and our audience.

This shows us that enigma and mystery is preferred in thrillers more than victims escaping, shock and killings. Which again helps us present our opening more towards our target audience by using mysterious conventions to create enigma.

This shows us that our target audience don't always want to see a sequel, this helps us as we know to pack in as many different conventions and characters within the opening so the audience won't have to see a sequel.

This shows that our audience prefer hearing unknown paranormal sounds in thrillers instead of screams or fight sounds, which again allows us to present our thriller more to our target audience by using unknown paranormal sounds to create enigma and tension as the audience don't know what could be making such a strange sound.

This shows us that our audience prefer to see teenagers in thriller films because they can relate to them as they are the same age and can see themselves in the same situations the characters face. This again helps us as we can use teenagers in our opening to appeal to our target audience.

Our audience said they would prefer to see possessed children most because of the suspense and mystery. Also the answers to this questions were very close which means we can use different villains such as stalkers which is more realistic than possessed children as it could happen in real life.















This shows us that an outdoor forest is preferred from our audience as it is dark and will create enigma and tension as of what could be lurking around in the forest. The second most amount of people preferred a normal house because they can relate to the characters and the storyline which will make it more scary and fearful.


[VOX POPS]


After looking through all of the results from our questionnaire, me Joe and Cara can focus more specifically on the conventions and mise-en-scene elements to put into our thriller opening so that it will appeal more to our target audience. We have found that our target audience prefer to see teenage characters so that they can relate to them, paranormal sounds to create suspense and mystery, a possessed child villain as it creates enigma, an outdoor forest setting as it will be dark and build tension and mysterious conventions opposed to gore as it will create more excitement.

Group narratives - Miss Georgiou

The purpose of a narrative is to tell the audience the story of the film. Me, Joe Waugh and Cara Gaffney discussed our ideas by sitting round a table and sharing each others narratives and merging them into one idea with aspects from each of our individual ideas.

Joe's narrative idea was:  "set in a rundown or deserted area, such as an abandoned  warehouse or a decayed urban area, similar to some of the settings from the films "Se7en" or "I Am Legend".  There would be a protagonist investigating the area, whilst exploring the protagonist would be unwittingly stalked by a masked killer, similar to the "ghost face" characters from the "Scream" films in that they are masked and play with their victim, making them feel vulnerable and at the mercy of the killer. This idea of the killer being a kind of criminal mastermind is inspired by films such as "Saw", where the victims are toyed with by a clever and sinister antagonist. The only two characters would be the protagonist explorer and the antagonist masked killer, this would help to keep the scene simple and not confuse the audience while also making the protagonist appear isolated and alone." 

Joe's idea is good because the masked killer will create mystery and make the audience scared as they wont know who the killer is which is typical of a thriller. Also the setting of an abandoned warehouse will entice the audience as to why the antagonist is there, and what will happen when there's nobody to protect him/her which will create enigma. On the other hand Joe's idea is bait unrealistic at an abandoned warehouse and there will be nobody to protect the antagonist.


Cara's narrative idea was: "It begins with a young girl aged about 5 or 6 playing in her bedroom with her toys. It's during the night time so there will be low key lighting, with only one bright lamp over the girl and her toys, this will be deliberately positioned over her, to convey to the audience that she is clearly the victim in the scene. The shots keep flashing to a fuzzy image which is taken on a hand held camera. The image is of another girl aged around 7 wearing old fashioned clothes, a long shot of the old fashioned girl on a swing from a tree, will quickly fuzz over and come back into focus with the girl gradually becoming closer towards the screen. A various amount of shots are going to be used to frighten the audience, however, there will also be non diegetic sound of the camera fuzzing over during this vision, which is conventional of a thriller film. All different shots of the old fashioned little girl will keep appearing, they're will also be a flash to the shot of a music box playing children's music, this will create tension among the audience. After all these different shots the music will come to a sharp stop, and the camera will be a close up of the normal little girls face as she appears to have just woken from a bad dream. However, suddenly the music box starts again, but this time the girl is awake and not in a nightmare, this will immediately create suspense for the audience. In the corner.of the little girls room with be sitting the other girl in the old fashioned clothes. As an opening scene it has to be scary but cannot give away too much of the story, although it will include loud of conventions of a thriller scene."

Cara's idea is very good because the use of shots described will create alot of enigma and tension within the audience. Also the use of a little girl will confuse the audience as they wouldn't expect a little girl to be so sinister, this is conventional to the thriller genre.

My idea was: "There is a little boy playing in the garden and looks up and sees someone in his bedroom window which is allow angle shot, also aloud piano sound is played. He runs (handheld camera shot) to tell his mum and she doesn't believe him fades out to night time and kids asleep upstairs and mum is watching TV alone when the door knocks. she answers but nobody is there then the camera films her face and somebody in the backdoor window is standing with a gas mask on and creepy music is played and he walked out of sight. Next morning the mum is tidying her sons room and finds the gas mask under his bed and same piano noise is played..."


In the end we all agreed on having a boy playing in the garden and seeing a little girl in a gas mask, then the scene skipping to  a baby sitter who is home alone watching TV. She then hears a knock and opens the door and the camera shows a little girl in a gas mask behind her. This is how we merged all of our ideas together to create enigma and tension.

We are using the Aristotle theory because we want to make the audience feel sympathy and empathy, also we want to use an antagonist and protagonist to allow the audience to relate to the characters as we aim our films at teenagers aged 13-15. Also the Aristotle theory will create an emotional relationship with the audience because they are aware of the situations going on in the film where as the characters do not.

How does the opening sequence of 'Halloween' inform the audience of the conventions of a thriller film? - Miss Georgiou

The purpose of an opening is to set the scene of the film, introduce the main characters and engage the audience. These features are used to entice the audience and create enigma making them want to watch the rest of the film. In the opening scene to 'Halloween' many of these conventions are used.

A female victim is used in the opening to Halloween which is typical of the thriller genre, the use of a female makes the audience see her as more vulnerable and less able to defend herself, leaving the killer an easy target. Also, the fact that the girls boyfriend leaves her alone late at night, gives the audience a sense of foreboding as we feel something bad is going to happen as she is along and defenceless late at night. This is conventional to a thriller film as the audience can relate to the character as people may feel scared when they're home alone.

Another convention used in this clip is the hidden identity of the killer, not just to the victim but to us. When the girl is about to get stabbed she shouts 'Michael' like she knows who it is, but seconds before we see the killer put of a clown mask to hide his identity, this scares us as the audience as we don't know who it could be which also makes us curious of who it is, and if it is her brother Michael, why? Also, a point of view shot is used which allows the audience to see the scene from the killers point of view, this restricts us from seeing the killer which hides their identity leaving the audience again, curious of who the killer could be.

Iconography is used in this clip with the knife, when the killer opens the draw and pulls out the knife it gives the audience an insight of what is going to happen, he is going to kill somebody. The camera purposely shows us the knife to scare the audience as it is a deadly weapon that is used to kill, just like in this clip. The use of a knife also allows the audience to relate to the film as a knife is an everyday item not meant for violence, but after seeing the death of Michael's sister the audience may feel that the same could happen to them at any time.

Low key lighting is used in this clip as it is night time, this use of low key lighting stops the audience seeing what could be in the darkness such as a killer, this creates fear and tension with in the audience linking them to the characters as they share the same feelings. Also, being the night of Halloween adds fear to the characters and audience as people will be lurking the streets in costumes which creates suspense of who the killer really is. This is typical of a thriller as it creates a mysterious atmosphere.

My research into the opening of Halloween has given me some ideas of conventions to use in my thriller opening and has also allowed me to see how different conventions convey different meanings and feelings towards the audience.