Name for our thriller

As a group, we have decided on the name; 'LOST SIGNAL' for our thriller opening. The name fits well with the opening as it contains a scene when the protangonist loses signal on her phone and has to leave her friends. When she returns, her friends are no longer there so she decides to look for them - This is what leads her into the path desired by her stalker, the antagonist!

Our thriller; rough plot

As a group, Me, Sarah, Connor and Hollie came up with the rough plot for our thriller.
We decided together that we would like to have a stalker in our thriller and one main character as the person being stalked. There will also be two friends of the character being stalked in the thriller.
 Characters;
Stalker; The stalker will be a very scary looking character, menacing as such. He will be extremely obsessed with the central character, this character will have many images of the central character on their wall and will follow them using social networking such as facebook. 
Central character; the central character will just be an ordinary girl with an ordinary life. They will be more vulnerable however, as they are a female and slightly smaller than the average height for their age. They will know the identity of the character but not as a friend, more of just a peer. Although, they will not know the stalker is in fact stalking them.
Friend 1 and 2; These two characters will be in the background for most of the shots. These characters are not vital to the thriller, they are just merely background characters.


The plot;
The plot will include the central character and her friends going into the woods for a camping trip. After updating her status, the stalker then knows where the central character and her friends will be and sets out to follow them. 
The central character will then take a phone call and moves away from the campsite. When she returns, she finds her friends to be gone and she has been left alone. Following this, she try's to find them and heads back the way in which they had firstly came. The stalker begins to follow her and she is almost caught be him. This is when our filming will finish, hopefully leaving the viewers on the edge of their seats.
If we were to finish the film, the rest would more than likely consist of the central character trying to find her friends and discover what exactly happened that night.

Our final company ident - Panoptic productions

As a group we picked which two idents we believed to be the best and edited them both on livetype in order to make them more effective and more like famous production companys idents. Below are the two idents we edited, Design 3 and Design 4;

Design 3

Design 4

As a group we decided that Design 4 of the original ideas was the best so the ident featured above as design 4 is our final production company idea and will be used for our 2 minute thriller opening.

Ident and logo ideas

Today in class our group discussed different names and designs for our thriller ident. As a group we agreed on the name Panoptic Productions and came up with four different overall designs for our ident/logo designs. Each one differs from the others as then the decision process would be easier. Whereas if we had made the idents/logos similar, it would be difficult to choose which is our favourite. All the files were saved into two seperate files, .psd, the photoshop file in order for them to be edited later and the .png, file so that the empty areas reamin transparent.

We chose our production company name to be 'Panoptic productions'. This is because the word 'Panoptic' means to veiw things from many directions linking to the idea of our coursework as each shot from our thriller will have to be veiwed from different directions in order to make the opening of a high quality.

Design 1

This design was inspred by a drawing which Connor had drawn some time ago. Cartoon clouds are often used by artists who wish to specialise in forms which are less realistic than others. The font within the cloud is elegant and the colour of the font, blue, corroborates with cloud. This is because rain is blue, and rain of course comes from clouds. A glow was added to both the cloud and the text in order to make them seem more dainty and angelic. The grey background shown, would actually be transparent. the grey background in this is shown in order for the shape of the cloud to be shown.

Design 2

This is the second design we came up with. The white area shown would actually be transparent in the actually thriller. We decided to use faces angled in different directions as it realte sto our company name. The text, aswell the faces are very cartoon like to create the effect of a fun and young design. We feel as though this design is lacking in something, and therefore probably will be less likely to use it for our final production company ident.

Desing 3



This design is inspired by paint splats. Bold colours, pink and purple, were chosen as they stood out from the page and are more eye catching. Also the font is bold and eye catching. The desing is simple, but also effective and we think it would go down well pnce placed onto livetype.

Design 4

This design is the groups favourite from the four. This is an ironic take on Columbia pictures ident. Columbia pictures use a women featured as standing on a podium holding a torch. We created the character withing the ident and placed him on a podium just as Columbia pictured has done. We come from an industrialised area and therefore chose to add a skyline to the design. The white area shown will in fact be transparent. Once placed into Livetype, We could edit it and would use a background of moving clouds, another reference to Columbia Pictures. The text is separate from the picture it can then be moved freely on the page once we edit it on livetype. It can be placed exactly where we would like it on the screen, without shifting the design of the ident.

Thriller ident and logo

We discovered major film production companies usually use a still image, with a moving background. For example; Warner bros use their logo which flies into shot. After this, the logo remains still whilst the background continues moving. We could do this with the ident for our thriller by using applications such as photoshop and livetype. Firstly we would draw the design on photoshop and save the image as .png files in order for it to be able to upload into the software to enable editing and various effects to be added. We would then apply a moving background to the still/stationary logo.

We dicided as a group that it is best to mimic the original, major production companies as they set very high standards for everyone else to match. We would however, put our own stamp on it and make it more relevant to our age as we are still only young and do not wish for the ident and logo to be completely serious

In the cut, Film opening credits.

The second film opening we watched was 'In the Cut'.

The opening credits to this film are also good. It also goes from the general to the particular, staring off with New york City. The first thing shown on this film is also the ident, Pathe productions, and then followed by the name of the producers again. The main credits to this film start of with the central character, Meg Ryan, and carry on to the least important names. 
The credits to this film is effective as the title is shown last. This is effective not only because it is shown last but because the font is slightly different to the rest of the credits and also as the title is at the end of it's showing o the screen it begins to look as though it is bleeding.

Film titles.

Today in class, we watched more fillm openings to discover the way in which they had shown there opening title, ident, main characters and other main components of the film. (E.g. music, editor, production company etc.) This is in order to give us ideas of how to convey the opening credits to our two minute thriller.


The first film opening we watched was: 'The Brave One'


The film 'The Brave one', starring Jodie Foster as the main character shows the opening credits of the film in a very good way. The picture goes from the general to the particular, a blurred image of New York city to Jodie Foster. The ident to the film is the first thing shown, there are three ident's in this film; Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow pictures and Silver pictures. The first credits are then repeats of these names. The rest of the credit's go from the main character of the film, Jodie Foster, to the least important names. Such as music and editors. These credits are effective as they fade in and out of the moving picture behind them.

Mobygratis

I just signed up to www.mobygratis.com for myself and my group. This is in order to be able to find unsigned music to use inour thriller. Mobygratis will allow us to find unsigned music with ease, after asking for permission. We have not looked for our music yet, but we will do soon in order to get permission and a reply within plenty of time to use it from whoever wrote it.



Survey update

I checked my survey today and as shown below, i have now had 20 responses. This is good, however i will be posting it more and checking in order to get more overall responses.

In order to gain more responses for my survey, i'm going to repost it onto my facebook in order to get more people to complete it. This is shown below;

Our interviews; further target audience research

Today me, Connor, Sarah and Hollie carried out an interview involving a number of questions based around the analysis of thrillers and what different genders and age groups like about thrillers and certain thrillers in particular. This was in an attempt to further identify the target audience for our thriller. We asked three questions in order to do this, these included:

1. What is your favourite thriller?
2. Why is this your favourite thriller?
3. What do you think makes a thriller, what main component?

Below is our final outcome, it answers all the questions asked and includes some bloopers too. Enjoy :)

Panic Room, 2002

This is the opening scene to 'Panic room', written in 2002. The first credits are the production company; Columbia. The next are the main characters, Jodie Foster. The font of these credits are large and bold, emphasisng the size of the buildings. The music is tense and changes to cause more suspense whilst the other charcters, directors and producer etc. are shown. the scene changes from the general to the particular, changing from the tall buildings of New York City to a mid-shot of Jodie Foster.

Se7en, 1995

Below is the opening credits to the film Se7en written in 1995. The music within the opening can be described as disturbing and unsettling. The font of the credits flicker on the screen and the text is also very irregular, different shapes and sizes and can be described as sharp/spikey. The two main characters are one of the first credits and then the title follows, others, not as important, follow after. These credits are very powerful as they are both unsettling and disturbing.

Film openings

Today in class, we watched the opening of films in order to analise the opening credits to come up with ideas for what we want to use in our own opening credits for our two minute thrillers. Opening credits are usually shown as superimposed on a blank screen, static picture or even over the action or picture in the background. Opening credits usually consist of the production company, the main characters, other actors, producers and directors etc.

We watched two film openings; 'Se7en' and 'Panic room'. we watched the opening credits and dicussed the order in which the cast and production team are displayed. We dicovered that in both film openings it was as follows;

• The production company
• The production company logo
• the main character, general to the particular
• The co-stars
• Members of the crew such as editor, director, camera man, music, costume etc. 

creating my survey

Today i created my survey using http://www.surveymonkey.com/
In order to gain a variety of answers from a range of different people i posted my survey onto my facebook for people to complete. I asked 8 questions which will hopefully effectively answer my question of who the target audiece will be for our 2 minute thriller. I asked questions such as the persons age, sex, favourite thriller, how much they like thrillers etc. Below is my survey posted onto my facebook wall;

Sabotage, 1935

Sabotage was another of Alfred Hitchcocks brillian creations, made in 1935. This film shows dramatic irony throughout, characters within the film knows something but we as the audience do. In this case, the husband of Stevies sister, Verlock gives Stevie a package to deliver to Picadilly circus by exactly 1:30. The boy does as he is told, not knowing that the package he has been told to deliver is in fact a bomb, set to explode at 1:45. Verlock tells the boy to go straight to Picadilly circus and be sure that it arrives at exactly 1:30, however Stevie is prevented from doing so by many different obstacles such as the Lord Mayors Show. This has deadly consequences!

How Hitchcock creates suspense and tesion throughout;

Hitchcock creates supense in a number of ways, one in which is through a number of close ups and extreme close ups of the bomb and the boys, Stevies, face. They occur more and more frequently as the boys time starts to run out.

There are also many close ups of the image shown above, what time the bomb will blow, and close ups of the time on various clocks to emphasise the change in the time. These also increase as the time decreases for the boy to deliver the package, bomb, on time.

The music creates tension, it sounds as if it is counting down making a 'tik tok' noice, similar to a bomb or clock counting down. The 'tik tok' noice speeds up as the time runs low creating the tension to build. The sound whilst the boy is walking through the market also creates tension and is contrapuntal sound as it doesn't fit in with the surrounding happy atmosphere.

Identifying Our Target Audience

The target audience depends on the sub-genre of the thriller and also the topics in which it contains.
For example a thriller such as 'No Country for Old Men', which contain more action and violence, seem to have a more popular audience of young males. This is becuase the fast paced nature of these films appeals more to male viewers. 
Another example is thrillers that can also be categorized with horror such as 'One Missed Call', these seem to appeal to young females rather than males. This could be because horror films normally target young women, therefore women would be able to grab their attention.

There are many ways in which we can identfy our target audience. Such as carrying out an interview with a range of people, and finding out what their favourite thriller and what, in their opinion, makes a thriller good.
Furthermore, another method could be carrying out an online survey also asking various questions to establish what different people think about different thrillers. This could be posted onto facebook, which would offer a variety of answers from our family and friends.

graphic matches

Graphic matches are two similar images placed together to create an overall smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next. however, the image doesn't have to look the same, it can just have the same patterns of light and dark, or the same positioning of the figures within the shot. The director, could also choose to present a contrasting shot to achieve a different effect.


an example of a graphic match is used in 2001: A Space Odyssey as shown below in this clip i retrieved from youube;

The graphic match within this scene is between the bone flying in the air, thrown up by the apes and the satelite in space.

'Shadow of a Doubt'

'Shadow Of A Doubt', another one of Alfred Hitchcock's brilliant films, was created in 1943. It was one of Hitchcock's favourite out of his own collection of films. We watched this film together in class and analyzed the mise-en-scene as follows;

Settings and props

One of the main props is the Cigar, this suggests that 'uncle Charlie' has a high taste and a lot of money to spend. The large sum of money scattered over the bedside table and floor reinforces the first prop and also suggests that Charlie has more than enough money as he is careless of it, its of little importance to him. The place uncle Charlie comes from seems rundown, poor and almost eerie, with it's broken and burnt cars and bad atmosphere. This contrasts with Santa Rosa where his neice lives which looks a much nicer place; almost perfect with its white picket fences, flowers and smiling faces.

Positioning of characters and objects withing the frame
When uncle Charlie seems to be escaping the two men, he seems very csual and resourceful when avoiding them. Also Uncle Charlie is positioned in the centre of the screen, with the two men who are after him in the foreground, whilst Charlie is in the background. Also the fact they are either side of him, suggests a sense of entrapment on Charlie's behalf. Also uncle Charlie seems to come to life in the dark, this could be suggesting that there is a sinister, dark side to him. It also suggests that uncle Charlie is the antagonist. Uncle charlie and his neice, Charlie seem to both be positioned in the same way on both of their seperate beds, showing the contrast between the two.

Below is a montage of uncle Charlie and charlie which i created using http://www.onetruemedia.com/ 

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Costume, hair and make up

The costumes in which everyone is wearing seem very smart, casual and old fashioned. Uncle Charlie's suit in particular looks as though it is emaculate, he is very particulate about looking smart. Also his hair seems to be slicked back, these both reinforce the fact that Charlie is in someway wealthy and looks as though he takes pride in what he looks like.

Facial expressions and body language

Both Charlie and uncle Charlie are both seen to be lying on the bed in the same relaxed and uninterested matter. Both of the characters display an emotion of boredum and tiredness and seem as though they are lifeless.

Lighting and Colour

At the begging there is light entering the room from the window in which, untill what suggested as his landlord comes into his room and pulls the blind down. Charlie now enters darkness, at which point he moves from his relaxed, lazy position on the bed to a more tense, on edge position and moves around. This reinforces that he tends to 'come alive' in the darkness, further suggesting that he is the antagonist of this film. The opening seems to have a lot of shadows, and uses low key lighting, givimg the film a more eerie feel to it. Uncle Charlie has an ominous look when he is on the phone shortly after, due to the shadow that is created over his eyes, by the hat he is wearing, perhaps suggesting he is sinister.

Preliminary exercise; storyboard

This is the story board we created for our preliminary exercise before we began to film it.

Preliminary exercise

Above is mine, sarah's, Hollies and connors preliminary exercise. To start with we had to create a storyboard then we had roughly a whole lesson to complete the filming of our preliminary exercise.
We decided on using many shots including;

• long shot
• Pan shot
• extreme close up

In order to produce our outcome, we filmed each part several times, making sure we could peice them together. I feel as though our preliminary exercise went well as it seems to all flow nicely.
However, we did encounter some errors. One of which was due to the fact that we could not hear the audio whilst editing so just focused on the visual side of things, we did not realise that the camera man can be heard saying 'Go'. Also at one point one of the characters look at the camera, showing that they know it is there. Also due to the distance of the camera, some of the dialogue is rather quite, too quite to really be heard and other parts can be heard clearly. 
Although, I feel as though we have been able to notice our mistakes, and therefore will take these in to consideration whilst filming in the future.