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.