This is the opening shot of our thriller films. We faded this shot in from a black screen to make it almost seem as if the character has just opened her eyes and somehow found herself in the position she’s in, in the middle of a strange and unfamiliar field. Her hair is wet and her face is red and dirty, suggesting that she has been running for a long time and that it was raining. We decided to shoot this scene when it was raining, as heavy rain is a classic thriller signifier and it added to the desperation of the character’s escape. We were pleased with this shot as it turned out exactly how we had first pictured it, it creates mystery and intrigue. The Mise en scene turned out just right; the shot always included the leafless trees with tangled branches behind the character which connotes that a lot of confusion is going on within the character’s mind. The sky was white/blue which worked in the same way as the character’s outfit does and also shows the coldness of her journey.
This shot showed the character running away into a vanishing point to show that she does not know where she’s going, or where she’ll end up. We decided to make the font of the credits In ‘Courier New’ as it created a clinical look, as if it was the font they use to print onto the sheets which display patient’s illnesses. We chose for the titles to be white so they stood out from the surrounding and fitted in with what the character is wearing to show that she belongs where the writing belongs; in the mental hospital.
We decided to film our continuity task in the girl's toilets at school. We thought of a simple storyline in order to make the clip more interesting to watch. For the first shot, we used a close up of high heeled shoes, using a tri-pod to keep the shot steady and tilting the camera down so we could get the shoes in the shot whilst the character was walking down the hallway. We then filmed a shot of the long corridor, which ends in a vanishing point, with the actor right at the end. She begins to walk towards the camera, we then cut to the same girl but she is now halfway down the corridor. She walks for a couple of seconds then we cut again to the girl even closer to the camera. We do this to show that time has passed and we do not show the actor walking all the way down the corridor in real time, because it would get boring to watch. The camera follows the girl as she turns the corner; we then filmed a shot to show her pushing open the door. This worked well because we managed to get a fluent, realistic shot change. The next shot was filmed into the mirror. We did this because we could see the girl coming in through the door, which was actually hidden around a corner. We could also see the second girl in what was almost an over the shoulder shot. We then show a shot as if the camera is the mirror. We propped the camera up in the sink. This gave a really interesting shot, especially as the colour of the overall shot seemed blue, and this added to the idea of the camera being a glassy mirror. When the two girls leave the girl’s toilets, the screen is left with a shot of three cubicles. I think this shot is very effective. It is split into the three sections of the separate cubicles and seems oddly empty without the dialogue or action.
The age group for the target audience for my thriller film will range from 15 to 30 years olds. People from an older age group may want to view the film but the reason for this age demographic is that the actress in our film is 17 years old and therefore the younger audience will be able to relate to her character more than the older audience. The film would be rated as a 15 and would therefore be played after the 9 o’clock watershed to prevent viewers of a younger age watching the film.
GENDER
Unusually, our thriller will appeal more to a female audience than a male audience. The only character to appear in the opening sequence of our thriller is female. The 2 minute opening scene features only her and this firmly establishes her as the main role. This would possibly put off some male members of the audience as thrillers are often (but not always) dominated by male roles. Another reason for the majority of the audience to be women is that the thriller we have constructed is a psychological thriller and does not/would not contain the same sort of scenes as, for example, a thriller about gangsters would and would therefore not attract as many male audience members.
OCCUPATION
The majority of audience members will be students at sixth forms, colleges and universities. Again, this is due to the age of the girl playing the lead role. The thriller is aimed to be more of an art house thriller film than main stream and this should therefore appeal to an audience which will appreciate the composition of the mise on scene and the overall effect of the film such as photographers and artists.
ETHNICITY
The ethnicity of the audience for our thriller films will hopefully be completely mixed. The main character is white, Caucasian but hopefully the race of the main actor would not determine the audience’s decisions on whether or not to view the film. Later on in the film, in scenes with many people, actors who are different races would feature to give a realistic interpretation of contemporary Britain.
ASPIRATIONS
A high percentage of the audience members which attend sixth form will be aspiring to go to university as it showed from the questionnaire that was taken. The film is non fiction but the themes are based around people with mental disabilities and therefore, audience members who aspire to be doctors or helpers for mental patients may find the film interesting to watch as it relates to their abilities.
INTERESTS
A song which is performed on acoustic guitar is played all throughout our thriller opening and therefore, audience members with an interest in music would be intrigued by this aspect of the film, especially as the calm music contrasts with the panicked motions of the main character. The thriller includes some interesting shots, for example, a worm’s eye view of the sky through a lot of tangles tree branches. This creates the feeling of confusion and frustration as it as the intertwining branches resemble a vast spider’s web. This type of shot could attract audience members who are interested in photography.
SIMILAR FILMS
In preparation for the making of the thriller films, one of the thrillers we watched was ‘The Butterfly Effect’ because it had a psychological theme running through it. ‘Identity’ was another which had the same theme but seemed to involve a lot more violence than we wanted to incorporate into ours. Audience members who enjoy the psychological thrillers more than the conventional thrillers would want to view our particular thriller film.
As part of our thriller research, my group watched 'The Butterfly Effect' because it is a psychological thriller and we wanted to see how these types of thriller openings differed from those of classic thrillers. The first shot shows the figure of a man walking behind open blinds. He walks slowly and carefully and it seems obvious that he is attempting to move quietly without being noticed. Once he gets to the door of the office, he kicks it open and hurriedly pushes a small, leather sofa in front of the door to prevent anyone from getting in. He then grabs a box, paper and pen and hides under the office desk. He writes a note, speaking the words out loud as he writes; ‘If anyone finds this, it means my plan didn't work and I'm already dead. But if I can somehow go back to the beginning of all of this, I might be able to save her.’ This immediately creates mystery for the audience as the note contains a lot of interesting things. First of all, it includes the idea that the main character, Ashton Kutcher, may die.
Our Thriller film was shown to the media class. 14 people watched the films and filled out evaluation forms so my group were able to see what we could improve on. I added all of the scores for each question together, and divided them by the number of answered evaluation sheets to find the average. These were the results:
1. Holding a shot steady: 8.6
2. Framing shot and choosing what to include in the shot and choosing what to leave out: 8.75
3. Using a variety of shot distances: 9
4. Shooting material that is appropriate to the opening of a thriller film (was there evidence of thriller signifiers): 7.6
5. Selecting Mise en scene to create particular effects: 8.5
6. Editing so that meaning is clear to the viewer (was there a readable narrative: 7.5
7. Using varied shot transitions and other effects appropriately: 8
8. Using sound with images and editing sound effectively: 8.4
This is the opening shot of our thriller films. We faded this shot in from a black screen to make it almost seem as if the character has just opened her eyes and somehow found herself in the position she’s in, in the middle of a strange and unfamiliar field. Her hair is wet and her face is red and dirty, suggesting that she has been running for a long time and that it was raining. We decided to shoot this scene when it was raining, as heavy rain is a classic thriller signifier and it added to the desperation of the character’s escape. We were pleased with this shot as it turned out exactly how we had first pictured it, it creates mystery and intrigue. The Mise en scene turned out just right; the shot always included the leafless trees with tangled branches behind the character which connotes that a lot of confusion is going on within the character’s mind. The sky was white/blue which worked in the same way as the character’s outfit does and also shows the coldness of her journey. 
