Opening Scenaration - Miss Miller

In our opening sequence our narrative changed many times whilst filming throughout the entire opening. We all had many different ideas and we finally decided on our narrative that we came up with as a group. We had taken inspiration from film such as Paranormal Activity and Insidious as we believed they were the most realistic thrillers we had analysed, and thought they would be good to replicate and change to make our own thriller.

Our group narrative includes a young female conventional to a thriller cooking whilst the killer is outside waiting for his moment to kill her. It includes the stereo-typical boyfriend and the masked villain. We have made it conventional to a thriller so that the audience will expect certain things but will take dramatic twists.

Production Roles - Miss Miller

There are many different important roles in the making of a film, and their are a few main people that we need to explain what they do and how important they are to a film. Within my group opening sequence we have allocated specific people specific roles so that everything is made quicker so it is less time consuming, and that everything effectively will become a better film in the future. By having specific roles allocated to different people it reduces the stress amongst the film crew and can reduce the time period in which it takes to make and everything is therefore more organised.

The main roles that are used within films are:

• Producer -  A is a person responsible for the financial and managerial aspects of the making of a film.  

• Director - A person who is in charge of an activity, department, or organisation.

• Actor - A person whose profession is acting on the stage, in films, or on television

• Director of Photography - A cinematographer is the chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, and responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image

• Sound Technician - They prepare, operate and maintain technical equipment to amplify, enhance, mix or reproduce sound.

• Screenplay Writer - A screenwriter or scriptwriter or scenarist is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media such as film

• MES Co-ordinators -  This is someone who controls costumes, make-up, iconography etc

• Editors - Somebody who makes the film flow by editing the scenes and cutting things out

For our opening sequence we have allocated specific roles for our group, this will make sure we all have an individual task and will help us to film it and organise it a lot faster than if we allocated all the duties to one particular person. We have also done this as we believe it wouldn't be fair to allocate one person to do all of the work. Therefore it will be a fair project with different roles.

I am the director of our opening scene and I was alocated this by my group as they believe I am the most experienced in managing a team and a group of people. I give good instructions and people listen to me and take my advice well. This is why I have been allocated this role.

Charlotte Monksfield is the producer as she is a very good mathsmatician so she can budget our film and keep us in order financially. Also we some managerial experiences in her job outside of school she will also be able to help and advise myself with different aspects of our film. We have chosen her for this particular role as she is very well organised and keeps on track with everything he does. She is also very helpful and takes instructions efficiently.

Freddie Wilson is one of our main actors. We have chosen him for this role as he is very dramatic and very realistic when it comes to acting. He takes drama Alevel and gets very good grades in the subject. He is also very enthusiastic when acting and listens to instructions from myself and Charlotte.

Olivia Rugely is another one of our actors. She also takes drama A-level and takes her acting very seriously. She is very hard working and whenever acting she is realistic and can make people relate to her when doing a specfic role. She is very enthusiastic and looks lik your typical blonde victim as she is very pretty with long hair, so therefore this is why we chose her.


After filming make sure you include a paragraph on how each person did in their allocated role and could anything be done differently.

Narrative Theory - Miss Georgiou

A narrative is the way in which a story is told in both fictional and non-fictional films.

Vladimir Propp is a Russian critic and a literary theorist that has analysed over one hundered fairy tale films in the 1920's in order to critic the characters defined roles and functions. He itdentified a theory about the charcters actions as a narrative function. The narrative provides a structure to the text in which he would analyse. As he believed in characters that perform a function seen in the fairytales) her came up with this:

• Hero - a charcter that seeks something
• Villian - who opposes/blocks the hero's quest
• Donor - produces magical powers
• Dispatcher - sent the hero their quest
• False Hero - disrupts hero's quest - flase claims
• Helper - who aids the hero - like a sidekick
• Princess - acts as a reward for the hero - (acts as an object, and usually in villians plot)
• Father - acts to reward the hero for their effort

As Vladimir came up with this scenario we see this used in most fairytale films or books. This has had an effect on the filming in many different ways as he has basically outlined what is needed in most fairytale films. This is why we can see simlarities in most of they films based around his theory.

Tzvetan Todorov is the next theorist. He arrives from the former soviet republic of Bulgaria. He was a literary theorist, who believed in a more simplified narrative theory, more complex interpretations and they theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium.

• Equilibrium means that everything is as it should be and everybody is happy
• Disequilibrium means suffers from some disruption and people are disturbed

This model can easily be applied to a wide range of films from horror to fairytales.

Finally the last theorist is Aristotle. His theory was that he believed that there were many different ideas about films. Headings that are used by some producers and screenwriters include:

• Inciting incident
• Dramatic question
• Character goals
• Antagonist/Protagonist
• Stakes

Filming Scheduale- Miss Georgiou

A filming scheduale is very useful to us when plnning an opening scene with your group as it puts everything into one focus so that we know what we are going to do and when we are going to get it done by. This makes things alot easier for the group when filimg as this will make sure everything runs smoothly, and avoid any arguments or disruptions. By doing a filming scheduale we are able to recognise the significance of the deadlines of filming and how much we need to complete in such a short amount of time. It makes the group feel less stressed and this makes sure that they are able to co-operate better with eachother in order to make their film more productive and effecient.

Our filming scheduale we are going to try and stick to so that it will enable us time to edit the scenes and make the opening scene more engaging for the audience when they watch it.

This schedule has helped us to plan our filming sessions with each other at times and dates that are acceptable and reasonable for us all. This has made our group much more co-operative with each other as we are demonstrating good teamwork skills which will help us when filming our opening sequence.

We made a few changes to our planning and didn't stick to the timing of the scheduale to much due to us trying to be more precise with the films. We made sure we had quite a few clips of each moment we had to make sure the film would be more relatable. Another thing we had to change was our actor. Unfortunatly, the days we could all film together our actress Olivia Rugely wasn't able to make therefore we had to cut her out from the opening sequence and use Charlotte Monskfield instead. This still worked well, even though she doesnt have any acting experience, she took the role very seriously and co-operated with myself and Freddie Conway to make the scene happen.

Editing - Miss Georgiou

Editing  miss Georgiou

Editing is used to make the film and opening sequence more engaging and effective for the audience and the dirsctors. Without editing in a thriller film we wouldn't have the three S's , shock, suspense and silence. Editing styles include, straight cuts, jump cuts, montage, linking shots, fading, kuleshov effect and many more.
In my group thriller we have decided to use the editing styles of:
- jump cuts
- fading
- blurring out the background
- montage
Including a few others.

Jump cuts are used when the film suddenly focuses on something. We have used this in several scenes of our thriller as we believe it adds excitement to the thriller whilst also  focusing on one specific part of the film. We have used this in a particular scene where the hob on the fire turns on. This is to show the audience that something bad is going to happen with the fire, but yet get them thinking that everything is realistic and everything Is fine, just like in a normal home. This will make the scene more engaging as the audience start to focus on the fire and start to find out more and why it is linked to the victims, and the murders. This creates a relationship with the audience as they start to feel sympathy and suspense towards the victim and they now are focusing and figuring out the plot of the film. This would be conventional to a thriller film as the jump cut is also making the audience more engaged and scared about the next scene and the camera angle is conventional as it the thriller it is making the audience focus on the dangers of what is going to happen next.

Another editing style used was fading. We have used this as the screen fades to black and it will often signify danger or that something is going to suddenly take a dramatic change for the worse. This has helped us with our editing as we want the audience to feel suspense and tension when at the end of the scene. It makes them feel on edge and gets them ready for something to take a dramatic twist from reality and normality to disruption and death. Apart from tension and suspense, fading creates your conventions to a thriller as the colour black is associated with death so the fading could connote death is on the horizon. This would be conventional to a thriller as the colours are black and red, which will make the connotations more obvious in this scene.

We have also used montage. This is when the speed of editing, where shots are quickly juxtaposed together to create excitement. We have used this specific editing style as it makes loads of different shots join together at a fast pace. We are using this editing sake to create a heartbreat sort of pace, to make it look asif something is slowly getting fasting p, just like a heart beat, to make sure the audience are more  engaged and have to pay more attention to the film due to the fast editing pace. This will create a relationship with the audience as they start to feel more engaged with the film as they have to pay more attention to the short clips of the plot takeoff a dramatic turn for the worst. This is covnentional to a thriller film as the camera angle replicates a heartbeat. This could connote that the the tension is bulding therefore the heartbeat gets faster in the audience. Another idea could be that the montage could replicate the thoughts going through the victims head ad that paricular point, like life is flashing before their eyes.

Risk Assesments - Miss Georgiou

Risk assessments are important in the film industry as the cast and film crew should feel safe while the film is being produced, by having risk assessments it lets people know what to keep an eye out for and how to prevent these risks from happening.  A Risk Assessment is a process of evaluating the potential risk that may involve in a project you are working on and highlighting the dangers.
The reason why risk assessments are done is in order to identify, analyze and evaluate the risks associated with the production of the opening scene. We have made a risk assessment to enable us to stay safe when we are filming and take reasonable and responsible precautions. Thanks to risk assessments, we can determine the appropriate ways to eliminate or improve the hazard that maybe caused in the area of filming. A risk assessment is an evaluation of future and current filming scenes in order to identify different situations or processes that can cause harm to the actors or filming crew. Providing that any potential risk of a hazard is made, we can evaluate the risk beforehand and then decide what measures should be taken in order to prevent or control the risk that could occur.

Risk assessments are  also important as they provide a plan for a safe filming facility. Safety rules are created for awareness of the hazard and risks in the working place. They can identify who may be at risk and where, and show the measures that the person/actor, needs to take in order to prevent himself/herself from becoming involved in a drama themselves.

As you can see, I have made a chart with all of the risks I have found and what precautions are needed in order to prevent it from happening.

Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

To help us consider the best ways to make our opening credits, we have been looking and analysing different opening sequences to thrillers, which will give us some sort of inspiration for our idea of the opening sequence. By analysing different sequences we have been able to look at four main points which include:

•

The colours used in an opening sequence

•

The Style of Credits used

•

Thriller Conventions

•

Order of Appearance

I have considered these four points as they appear in every opening sequence that is used and it shows the conventions of a thriller which will help me to plan and research more into my thriller. Opening sequences are used to give the audience information, which will enable them to see how the film was created and by who. It makes the audience feel more engaged with the scenes about to happen and lets the audience know what actors are involved which can make the audience more interested about the thriller film itself.

The first film I analysed was called - Se7en. This opening scene was very dramatic and used many conventions of thrillers. The colours used were very conventional as they represented death, innocence and evil. For example the colours used were grey and white which connote the innocence and purity, the grey could suggest that life maybe coming to an end as when things aren't right you refer to everything being grey and dull. It also could show that everything is lifeless and that they have no life within them. More colours used are black which is mostly referred to as an evil dark colour. It shows that in the film there will be death and darkness and sins withheld. The colours contrast with each other as it shows the significance of good and evil, which is what most thrillers are about, when the victim (good) who is suspiciously murdered by somebody (evil).

Lastly, the colour which is only shown once is red. Red can be seen as the colour of blood, which shows us as the audience that is will be a bloody thriller which will involve murders in a gruesome way. The colour red could also suggest love, romance or lust. In a thriller films case, this would mainly be lust, involving small relationships involving small sexual scenes, which could make the murders based around jealousy. 

The style of Se7en involves a very jerky editing style. This adds effect to the thriller as the jerky movement of the writing makes us as the audience feel on edge and feel uneven about the film. We believe that something bad is going to happen as the jerky movements makes us feel like we only have a few seconds until something is going to make us scared. It creates suspense and tension as we are intrigued to see what is going to happen therefore giving us more conventions to a thriller just in the opening scene.

The conventions of this thriller film involve many different elements. One element being low key lighting. This is used constantly throughout the whole of the opening sequence. This is conventional to a thriller as it makes people believe that something is going to happen, it also is conventional as it creates suspense as the audience cannot see much happening apart from the main prospects. This creates the suspense and tension for the audience which will engage them into the opening sequence more and intrigue them to continue watching it. Another convention to the thriller is the colours used. The colours contrast with each other such as red, black, white and grey. The red and black signify the darkness and the murders happening in the film whilst also portraying the villain, as black is usually referred to as a dark and evil colour. This then contrasts with the colours grey and white. They grey is an element of time running out, like life isn't within you. Whilst the colour white signifies innocence and purity which could connote the typical victim, which is why the colours are conventional to a thriller genre. Another convention to a thriller is the sound. With it being diegetic sound it creates a more fictional yet realistic approach to the film. The sound makes everything more intensifying and makes the audience feel like they are in the thriller. This is conventional to a thriller as it makes everything more engaging for the audience whilst increasing their tension levels making them more scared and panicky. All these conventions are conventional to a thriller as they all give the element of the three S's - Suspense, Shock and Surprise.

The order of Se7en is very simple. It introduces the opening sequence to the film whilst introducing the characters and directors to producers and camera men.
The order of there opening credits goes a bit like this:

• Title and Production
• Characters - Brad Pitt & Morgan Freeman
• Title of film - Se7en
• More actors involved
• The Director
• Producers
• Company Name
• Actors (2)
• Title
• Director (Twice)
• Music Producers
• Costume Designers
• Editors
• Production Team
• Camera Operators
• Co-Producers
• Producer
• Written By
• Director

The directors name is mentioned many times in this opening sequence as they want to inflate the importance of who has made this film happen. The main actors are mentioned first to show the audience who the main characters are and inflate their importance as well as the directors. 

The film I analysed was Insidious which was made in 2010. This films opening sequence involved many different conventions to a thriller. The colours used were all very dark, such as red, black, dark blue, white and grey. All of these colours contrast with each other as they make everything more bold and it makes it stand out more so that the audience take more notice of the people in the film and the people who produced it. The colours red and back connote darkness and blood, which makes us as the audience think there is going to be a lot of spooky scenes and murders going to occur within the film. The red on the writing makes us believe that it is written in blood therefore is a connotation of a thriller as blood is always used especially when somebody has been killed. The colour white suggests the innocence of the victim, that is brutally taken away when they are murdered. The red, black and white contrast with each other as they all represent a character and the plot of the film, which is why they are a connotation of a thriller.
They have also used low key lighting. This is conventional because they always mke sure that the audience are unable to see the whole of the background, so that if something is to happen they are left with suspense and left thinking what happend.

The style of the credits in Insidious are relitavly similar to the film Se7en. It introduces the opening sequence to the film whilst introducing the characters and directors to producers and camera men.
The order of there opening credits goes a bit like this:

• Association with - Stage 6 films
• Alliance Film
• Global Presentation 
• Haunted Mones Production
• James Wan Film (Director)
• Goes on the opening scene
• Film Title
• Actors
• Casting By
• Costume Design
• Music By
• Edited By
• Production Design
• Director of Photography
• Co-producer
• Executive Producer
• Produced By
• Written By
• Directed By

As you can see the order of Insidious is different to Se7en. They have made sure that the company that they are partnered with have come up before anything is. It shows their importance in the film as they could have been sponsors towards the making of the film, and it shows who the film was created by. It then goes onto the next importance which is the directors and then the actors. Unlike Se7en, Insidious includes all the people that had input into the film, including the costume designers and directors of photography. 

In our group thriller opening sequence we are going to look at our research and use the connotations which will include the red, black and white. This is because we want to make the audience experience the danger that is about to happen and let them experience the three S's, Suspense, Shock and Surprise. We are also going to include the order in our opening sequence. This is because we want to make sure the most important people who were involved are mentioned so that the audience are able to see who made the film and who we partnered with for 'sponsers'. We will also include the low key lighting to emphasise on the darkness of the thriller which will make the audience more enagaged into the film.

Our style will go like this:

• Association with
• HCF Film
• Director
• Go onto the film
• Film Title
• Actors
• Costume Designer
• Music by
• Edited By
• Production Design
• Co-Producer
• Executive Producer
• Written By
• Directed By

By doing this, the research has helped us to come up with our own opening sequence order which is completed to a different standard compared to the others. We have made sure we have included the main elements for the opening and that way we are able to ensure everybody included gets a mention in the opening sequence of our thriller.

Inspirations - Miss Miller

We need inspirations for many different things. An inspiration helps us to create different ideas and take different ideas from other films and make them into our own. We can take inspiration from anything that will help us to create different ideas. We can take it from similar films, other people and individual experiences, anything that will inspire you to make your film more engaging for the audience. In my group thriller, we have taken inspiration from different thriller films from over the years. We have taken inspiration from films like Paranormal Activity and Scream, to try and ensure that our thriller comes across as realistic as possible in order to make the audience relate to the characters and the plot of the film. We took inspirations from these films as we feel that the plot is relatable and the audience can relate to it the most with the characters and the setting being in a normal neighbourhood and house.

We have looked at sequences such as Insidious, Scream, Saw V (survival of the fittest), Open Water, Halloween and paranormal activity. These were excellent films to anaylyse as they had most of the conventions of a thriller which made it easier for us to take inspiratios from those particular films to help with the research and ideas of our group narrative. When looking at Paranormal Activity we had taken the ideas of recordings to make our victim seem more vulnerable and innocent. The 'filming' makes it seem as if the victim is being watch which then can relate to the audience as they start to empathise and sympathise with the characters as they know their is a bad outcome. This was inspiring as it made us look deeper into the vulnerablity of a victim and made us conclude that we need the audience to sympathise for the victim in order to get them more engaged and scared when they are watching our opening sequence. When incorperating this into our opening scequence, we will make this idea our own as we will use high angle shots to make everything more effective, and use different elements from other films to make it our own.

Another film we got inspiration from was Scream. The idea of using a masked villian and innocent blonde victim captured us as we thought of the hidden identity and the conventions of a thriller when watching this. We have included the masked villian in our thriller opening sequence as it the identity of the killer is always hidden until they are revealed or killed in the end. We took this inspiration from Scream as it will create suspense tension and shock in the opening sequence which is what we want the audience to feel when watching it. We have incorperated this into our thriller, as the ex boyfriend of our victim (Olivia) is going to be the masked villin, this is becuse he wants revenge and wants her to suffer for breaking up with him. This was make the audience more engaged to find out who the murderer is as all they will find out is the fact that somebody doesn't like the fact they are in a relationship together. We will make this our own as the costume of the killer and the mask will not be what you will be expecting. They both have a twist and will shock the audience therefore giving them a hatred relationship towards the villian.

Another inspiration we took was from Halloween. This was youur typical spooky halloween film, and we took inspirtion of their camera angles. For example the handheld camera angle when walking towards the house was inspirational because as the audience you felt like you were in that characters shoes, like you were the character yourself. It made a jerked movement to suggest an unstable accountance about to happen and this made us as the adueince feel on edge and scared to continue watching the film. We have decided to include this in our thriller as we believe it makes the audience feel suspense and tension rising. Also panning camera angles were used in this film which made the jerky movement when walking towards the house. Again, this made us feel uneasy which is what we have taken inspiration from and would like to use in our own opening sequence. To make this our own we have included different camera angles suh as close up to emphasise the charcters emotions which will create relationships with the audience to sympathise and emphasise.

Finally, we have taken inspiration from Saw films, as the low-key lighting and the murders created suspense tension and gore. We have included the low-key lighting when in the garden to emphasise on the darkness and death that is going to happen. This makes the audience in suspense as wthey cannot see much going on around them apart from the murder that will take place. The low-key lighting is conventional to a thriller as it makes everything more suspcious and people start to think that something bad is going to happen which is waht is needed in a thriller film. We have also taken ispiration from the games they have to go through in saw. When they are chanied to the chairs and cannot do much to escape. We have taken this inspiration to use in our own thriller as we have tied the boyfriend up with rope and sitting on just a normalm garden chair. This obviously makes everything alot more relatistic in order to make the audience relate to the sequence more and engage the into watching it into further detail. B it being more real, they will be able to create a better realtionship with the characters and they will begin to empahasise with what is going on.


The research was very useful as we gathered many ideas and inspirations for our opening scene and this enabled us to make our thriller more effective and enaging for the audience. By researching other thrillers, we were able to gather ideas on what makes the audience more scared and which specifc things made them relate to the characters more. This helped us make our group narrative more realistic therefore making the audience more sympathetic for the victims and more hatred towards the villian. We are going to takes these ideas and develop opur narrative in more detail to enbale us to make our thriller more engaging, shocking and scary for the audience.

Target Audience Questionaire Results - Miss Miller

In my group we have created a questionnaire to help us with out with the age certificate with our thriller film. It gathered ideas from different people from the public about your typical thriller films, and what they enjoy, hate and relate to in them. This is obviously going to help us with the ideas of our film and which conventions to include from our results. They varied from open and closed questions giving the audience set answers or letting them freely speak.
Results included:

This question enables us to see what groups of gender we asked the most to answer our questionnaire. The majority was male, this was too see if their reactions to thrillers were different compared to those of females. This would have helped us with our thriller as it can help us prioritise for males and this will engaged them with the film more.

We have used this in our results as this will give us an idea on how to make our thriller more exciting and engaging for the audience to relate to. Our most watched films from the questionnaire was age category of 15. This makes us realise that we can add certain things to our opening scene that we may not of been able to if it was any lower age category. This has enabled us to give a wider range of ideas in our thriller and not have to hold back in any gruesome scenes.

We have used this in our results as this has given us ideas on what to include in our thriller. This has then made our thriller opening sequence more interesting as we have been able to gather ideas from the public and that way we can cater for the publics wants and needs. Whether it be suspense, tension, the plot or the villain we have specifically taken on their advice and put it in our opening scene.

This research was conducted as we wanted to ask the public what they expect to see in a thriller. This relates back to the conventions and we have noticed that they expected death to be a key element in thrillers. This has helped us to plan our own thriller as we have included a death scene, even in the first part of the opening, to entice the audience and make them believe that there is a reason behind this death, and that more murders are going to happen in future scenes to come.

This question was aimed for us to see how we could end the thriller. This has helped us to not leave our thriller on a cliff hanger due to people believeing that sequals are not as good as the first film. This ensured us that we had to make sure the audience will be more engaged when watching the film as we wouldn't of been able to make it into another film (sequal).

Sound Discussion- Miss Miller

The effects of sound are often largely subtle and often are noted by only our subconscious minds. Yet, it makes us want to wonder why sound is being used. In my group narrative we have decided to include many different sound elements. This ranges from:

• diegetic sound
• non-diegetic sound
• off screen sound
• on screen sound
• parallell sound
• contraversal sound

All of these we have included into our group narrative. We have mainly focused on using off screen sound by editing soundtracks and voice techniques after filming, as we believe our thriller will be more effective if the sound will be more noticeable. We are also including alot of on screen sound aswell as we believe it will make everything alot more realistic. For example we are using diegetic sound when the young girl is listening to music in the kitchen, this will show the audience where the sound is coming from making it seem more realtistic giving them something to relate too. Non-digetic sound will be used when you can hear deep breathing from the killer at this point a camera agnle called point of view will be used to you can only see the feet of the killer. This makes the non-diegetic sound alot more tension building as you cant see where the sound is coming from, making the suspense rise and the hidden identity of the killer remain a secret.

We will be using sound techniques such as parallel when the girl is in the kitchen listening to music, as we want to make her be portrayed as vulnerable and innocent, that she is is actually oblivious to the consquences and the situations that are about to happen. All of our sound techniques make the audience feel inferiror as they wont know exactly whats going on and will get mixed signals about what is actually going to happen. They will be able to build a relationship with the characters as they will feel many emotions towards them, such as sympathy and empathy towards the girlfriend and her boyfriend as they are about to die. They will end up being scared and very tense as the killer becomes more noticeable in the scenes as the sound being used will make them more engaged and be able to intensify the scene in alot more depth.

They are conventional to thriller film as they will create suspense tension and shock for the audience and make them feel that they are in the movie themselves.



To improve your post you need to:
1) Include in depth paragraphs for each sound technique/sound used, explaining why they are used at certain times, what you hope they will portray etc., how they are conventional to the thriller genre and how it helps the auidnence build a relationship with characters better
2) You need to make sure that you explain all your reasons for chosing certain sounds at certain times, backing them up with what you hope will be achieved
3) Expand upon your summary explaining how and why you think the use of these particular sound techniques will help your sequence become better/more engaging

Group Storyboard - Miss Miller

As a group we had a meeting regarding our whole storyboard. We looked and discussed eachothers personal story boards and took the best parts to include in our own group one. For example:Freddie's opening scene appeared as the most powerful and relalistic, so as a group we concluded that this is the one that should be used and encorporated. There were many points where, we have encoperated all our ideas for one scene and placed it into one; for example; when Olivia's boyfriend (victim) is in the garden tied up on deaths doors, we decided that as a group we would all add a different element which would make it more realistic and tension rising.

Insert pictures of group storyboard:


These are all the things that are needed within a thriller. The layout allows us to see both the visualisation of what we are saying and the technical. This shows as a group that we can have an idea and encorporate it fully. It also allows us to show and see how it will look on the screen, so we can see if it fits the conventions, looks effective, fits our target audience and that we are displaying what we want to in the best way possible for our thriller.

As we can see from an example from our storyboards the use of it enabled us to put our ideas down on paper and see if they would work where as the group storyboard allowed us to finalise these ideas as a group and use for our planning. As a group this storyboard will be able to be used as a visual aid to base and follow our whole thriller filming on. Overall the usage of the group storyboard in comparison to our own personal ones will allow us to know what direction our thriller is going in and overall will benefit and impact us well as we now have something to follow and something to direct us when we go through our filming process.

Planning Cinematography - Miss Miller

The importance of cinematography in films is that it creates different emotions for the audience and the characters through camera angles. The different camera angles can suggest different scenarios within the film which helps create a relationship with the audience and build tension within the film. The cinematography is used to show different angles within a scene and can play an important part in the plot, giving the audience tension and suspense which is needed within a thriller.
Planning is required to produce excellent sequences because without planning it is easy for us to go off track and lose sense of what our plan actually is within out thriller. The plan for our cinematography is critical so that it makes our scenes more interesting and effective making and inspiration a reality.

There are various camera angles that Charlotte and I have conjured together to make it more effective in our thriller. The main camera angles we will be using involves:
- Close Up
- Long Shot
- High Angle
- Point Of View
- Mid Shot
All of these camera angles have been use to add different effects to different scenes. We have included point of view camera angle as this shot makes the audience feel like they are the character themselves and see what they can see. We have used this in particular when the killer ex boyfriend has captured Olivia's boyfriend and has tied him up. The shot makes the audience feel as if they are the killer as they can se what he sees which creates a relationship with the audience as they believe they are in the killers shoes adding suspense as they wonder what they are going to do next in the sequence. We hope this camera angle makes the victim seem inferior to everything that's happening and hope that it makes the audience connect with the victims emotions, and make them feel sympathy towards them. This would be conventional to a thriller as it would created suspense and tension for the audience which is always needed in a thriller. This also hides the identity of the killer which is conventional to a thriller as we never find out the identity of the murderer until the end.

Another camera angle we have included is close ups. We have included this as it will focus on the emotions of the characters when we are closed in on their face and not the background. We are using this in several scenes as we need to show the pain of the characters when they are in a lot of trundle with the killer,  and see the unawareness of what is going to happen. This angle is effective as you can really make the emotions from the characters create a relationship with the audience, from changing to sympathy and remorse, to suspense and fear of what is going to happen next, as the close up blocks out the background the audience can't see what else is around the character and only their faces. This cinematography element is conventional to a thriller as it makes us believe that the characters are real which gives it that sense of reality but then the suspense that they need in a thriller.

We have also used High angle shots when the young girl is in the kitchen dancing to music. We have specifically used this here so that it looks like she is being recorded by the killer which she obviously is oblivious too. We got this inspiration from Paranormal activity where everything is recorded, we thought this would be a good element to add as it's like somebody is watching the young girl. This camera angle will create a relationship with the audience as they will feel helpless and the suspense and tension will be create in a lot more depth. We want this angle to make sure the characters are portrayed as vulnerable so that the audience feel sympathy for them making them create a relationship with the characters themselves. This is conventional to a thriller as the angle makes the victims look vulnerable which in every thriller they are portrayed as.

I think that the sequence will be more effective in terms of creating an emotional reaction through cinematography as the different angles and shots makes and conveys different emotions which will help make our thriller more exciting whilst it intensifies. It is conventional to the thriller genre as they make the audience more engaged within the film whilst creating different emotions such as shock suspense and tension. The planning has helped us with the preparation for the filming as it has broken down all of the elements we need to make out thriller more intensifying and scary, and has made sure we know what we are doing before we decide to go ahead with the filming.

Inspirations Individual storyboard- Miss Miller

Storyboards are used to help gather all the ideas a director may have into a chronological ordered structure. They are a way of seeing how you would expect your narrative to look like, but on paper giving it a more real feel and giving small sketches. When planning my group narrative, we each created our own storyboard to show how we each interpreted our idea. My storyboard is shown below,and shows how I expect each frame to look;

Inset pics of my storyboard

I have included my individual story board and have created many ideas from the camera angles and narratives of other thrillers I have been analysing in the different thrillers in previous posts. I have included high angle shots in my individual storyboard so that the audience believe that there is somebody watching the young girl. This will immediately create the suspense I need in order to make the audience more engaged with my thriller. I have also included jump cuts so that the emphasis on the time running out for the young girl, and to make sure I do not give much away in the thriller trailer. This will create a relationship with the audience as it will make them feel on the edge of their seats as the jump cuts makes them feel like they are in the movie, and yet they will be oblivious on the consequences about to come due to the sudden change in camera shot.  I have used many different conventions of a thriller including eerie music when the suspense and tension is being created, iconography such as the knife for the killing weapon which is typically used in thrillers, and the costume, hair and makeup is conventional in my idea as the killers identity is always hidden and they victims are in normal clothing which makes the audience feel like it is a real scenario. I have also included low key lighting to add to the emphasis of the darkness happening in the thriller, it will make the audience suspicious about what will happen Next as it intensifies everything, as they won't be able to see all around them, only what's in front of them.

I have created an individual storyboard before I make a group narrative, because it will help us to generate more ideas as a group and enable us to help one another with the ideas we have cooperated in our individual ones. To help make our group narrative more interesting our group will need to take ideas from each and every one of our narrative in order to develop a better idea for our thriller. I hope we incorporate ideas from my narrative like the low key lighting and the jump cuts as I believe it will show that we have used conventions of a thriller but yet changed them so that everything becomes more intense as I believe if we use those two elements the audience will be on Horne edge of their seat and entangled within the film.

I have taken inspiration from films I have analysed in previous posts, including paranormal activity and scream. The idea of the high angle shot has come from paranormal activity, in which it shows that there is a recording of the situation happening. I have putt his in my individual narrative as when watch get he clip from the film it made me feel on edge, as it made my heart beat a lot faster due to the amount of tension being created. It made me feel like they are being watched, and I thought this would be excellent for the suspense builder in my thriller. Another research method that helped me was from the film scream. The hidden identity of the villain is always key in thrillers and the idea of the villain being masked showed me how much it intensifies a murder as you have no idea who the killer is.

The summary of my thriller is that I have made sure that nothing is given away, it leaves the audience is suspense and engaged in the story making them want to watchtower he full effect of the film. I have given it reality in which the audience can relate to the characters, their feelings and the narrative itself. This has helped us when planning our group narrative as we have been able to take different ideas from each others storyboard and work well as a team to discuss the positives and negatives of each sequence, which has enabled us to put together a storyboard that we all thing will be helpful to our thriller.

Planning character s - Miss Georgiou

In my group we have come up with three main characters that are going to be in our thriller trailer. We have the victim, the killer and the victims boyfriend. As the characters have to be conventional to a thriller, we have based our narrative around the characters different backgrounds, and come together to make an idea which has helped up with creating our narrative.

Victim

Name: Olivia Harris

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Race: White 

Background: The victim is originally from Dorset in England. Her father works abroad in finance, whilst her mother is at work all the time. Olivia has had an abusive relationship in the past with an ex-boyfriend only a few years older than her.  She is an only child so she is always alone in the house by herself. She has a boyfriend called Jack Edwards who she has been with for five months. This all makes the thriller seem more realistic as she just seems like a normal girl in a normal family. It makes it look like an everyday scenario with a dramatic twist. 

The purpose to the narrative is that is makes the thriller have a more realistic approached towards it whilst still using the conventions of a thriller as the young in count girl is the victim. This may appeal to the audience as the rating of our film is a 15 certificate, so the girl is a teenager like most people watching the film and a female giving it that realistic feel towards it whilst creating a relationship with the audience as they start to feel empathy towards the young girl as they know terrible things are going to happen.

Victim Number Two

Name: Jack Edwards 

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Race: White

Background: Jack Is very different to his girlfriend Olivia Harris. He was bullied in school, so he is very innocent and timid. His mother is dying of cancer and his dad is an abusive alcoholic, whom doesn't like Olivia. He is also from Dorset in England and has a younger brother who is four years old. He is a loving, caring boy who would never harm anybody. He makes the audience question who the killer is, as his dad is abusive and a  alcoholic which makes you think he could be the killer.

This character creates a relationship with audience as they sympathise the boy as he has had a very troubled life and we know that something bad is going to happen to him. He will appeal to the audience as they will see him as a young teenaged boy who isn't like his father, and who is generally a nice boy, just with a troubled background, he us relatable and people will sympathise towards him.

Killer

Name: Luke Moore

Age: 21

Gender: Male

Race: Romanian

Background: He is the ex-boyfriend of Olivia Harris. He is a very mentally ill and abused boy due to his troubled childhood. He used to hit and hurt Olivia as he became very possessive and obsessive ever her so she ended it with him and he didn't take it too well. He is very paranoid due to the amount of drugs he takes as he has a heroine addiction. He is important to the narrative as he is one of the main character, the main character that in which he kills the victims and he is the reason everybody is being murdered due to his possessive personality. His hidden identity (due to the mask) creates the suspense for the audience, giving them that scared feeling. He wouldn't have any appeal to the audience as he is a horrible man and the only thing people would feel towards him is wanting him dead.

Planning mise-en-scene- Miss Georgiou

 Mis en scene makes a a thriller film more enticing to watch and builds the tension and suspense to create a relationship with the audience. It takes all different elements of mis-en-scene to make a thriller they include ;
-Setting and Iconography
-Costume, Hair and Make up
-Facial Expressions & Body Language
-Lighting and Colour
-Positioning of characters/objects within the frame
By using all of these different elements they will help with the making of our thriller to make it create a relationship with the audience by making them feel the tension and suspense rising upon them.

The mis -en -scene of our thriller includes iconography setting costume hair and makeup, lighting and the positioning of the characters. We have specifically chosen these mis en scene elements as we believe that this will help is to make our thriller more exciting and intensifying.

The iconography includes your typical things you'd see in a thriller like the knife which will be our murder weapon, the blood in which will be used to show the deaths and murders, a saucepans and a kitchen to make the scene more realistic so that the audience can feel like they are in the scene, and possibly cigarettes which could make everything seem normal as you wouldn't be smoking in a bad situation. This is all conventional to a thriller as we see these in most thrillers as they are used to create suspense tension and horror.
The setting is in a house in the kitchen. This involves both the garden and the kitchen giving our thriller the sense of reality that is needed to engage the audience more and making them believe this is actually a true story. We have used the conventions of a thriller so that our thriller will be more engaging for the audience and with it being in a family giving them that personal feel towards the film.

The costume hair and makeup involves a girl in pyjamas with fake blood in her mouth as she is killed with her hair up. The costumes are giving the reality towards the film, making the audience feel like they can relate towards it and making them suspect that so etching terrible is about to happen as the girl in the film will be acting normal due to the realistic features. The killer will be wearing a mask which makes it conventional to a thriller as the identity of the villain is always hidden until revealed later on in the film. It gives it that sense of suspense and tension which is needed to create a relationship with the audience.

Lighting will be low key to make everything seem more dark and mysterious, making sure that everything becomes scary giving the audience and eerie feel towards the film. The Lowe key lighting immoderately makes the audience tense as they cannot see much or everything going on around them or in the film making them more scared for the next scenes.

Finally, the positioning of the characters is key In our thriller as we can't give to much away about the killer. The typical thriller you never see the identity of the killer revealed until the end and we've decided to keep to the conventions and keep the identity hidden. This makes the tension and suspense build so that the audience are pining for the identity to be revealed, keeping them engaged.

Our thriller will create a relationship with the audience as it will. Ale them feel the tension and suspense they need to make them jump and scared when watching our thriller. Try will be fully engaged with the characters as they are conventional to a thriller genre and they will feel like they are in the film due to the realistic approaches we have taken as a group when making our thriller.

Preliminary task - Miss Georgiou

In my group I have two group members. They include Charlotte Monksfield and Fredrick Conway. As a group we work well together as we are working as a theme and co-operating well with each other in all our scenarios and tasks. The purpose of the preliminary task was to test our editing skills and co-operation as a team. The task involved creating a small clip whilst trying to use different camera angles to show the effect of the convosation. We the had to shoot different angles and edit them in a sequence to make the clip flow whilst changing from one angle to another. As a group we learnt how to set up the camera and how to edit the clip to make it a lot more free flowing. We also learnt how to cut out background sounds and delete certain things that were not needed within our clip. As a group we also learnt that we agreed and co-operated well with each other, and that if one of us didn't agree with something, we would come to some sort of agreement to make everything have somebody's ideas linked in with the clip. We struggled to edit our clip as a group, as we found the time limit to do this wasn't enough time for us to complete it to the full effect that could of made the clip a lot more effective. We overcame this problem by using our teamwork and letting myself edit the clip as the other two were not sure on the technical side to the editing. We made the decision as a group to set  certain roles in order to complete the preliminary task and avoid any cause for arguments and disagreements. The task will help with the planning and creating of my thriller film as it has taught me how to edit my scenes to make the film more effective and how to use the camera angles to show the different types of emotions it can cause for example suspicion and tension. 

Group Narrative - Miss Georgiou

Group Narrative Media

The purpose of a narrative is to discover ideas about the plot within the film and to be able to engage the audience for the up and coming scenes. In my group we discussed the disadvantages and advantages of each others narratives and sat around a table working respectively and constructively with each other.

One of the narratives discussed within the group was about a masked killer who ends up killing a young woman who is in the kitchen listening to music with her earphones in. The camera would be constantly handheld giving us an idea what it's like to be in the killers shoes. The advantages to this was that it is very conventional to a thriller genre. The masked villains show the hidden identity of the villain which creates the purpose of the handheld camera as you cannot see who it is which would create more tension and suspense in the clip. Another advantage was that there the convention of the young girl getting killed would make the thriller more realistic as in many thrillers the female victim is usually killed or murdered. 

The disadvantages of one of the members narratives is that there is only two characters in the plot. This could make the scene less scary due to the first character actually being killed in the first few scenes. This means that the thriller won't be as interesting with only the killer left in the plot. Another disadvantage is that it is cleshay to a thriller. It shows all the conventions of a thriller but is too simple. This could make problems for the thriller as the audience will be expecting what is going to happen therefore not creating tension or suspense which is needed in a thriller film to make the audience more engaged with the film.

The second narrative discussed was about a young girl walking her dog in a forest. There is an old radio playing in the background which doesn't match the events about to happen. The killer is in the background stalking the young girl ready to murder her. This thriller would take place at nighttime which she said would give it an eerie feel to it. The advantages to this thriller is that it is suspense building so it would create a relationship with the audience as it makes them feel more on edge and gets them thinking about what is going to happen next and when. The scenery is conventional to a thriller as it is in a forest which makes the eerie scary feeling within the audience. The good use of camera angles she described such as high-angle and handheld make the thriller for engaging for the audience as we get to see the whole scene and the point of view of the killer. This emphasises everything making it more dramatic giving it that tension and suspense we need to see everything at different points of views. 

The disadvantages of her narrative is that it could be too conventional and cleshay to a thriller, therefore making the audience less interested as they may feel as if they have seen it before in another thriller. Another disadvantage could be finding a forest at night could give an element of danger towards the making of the film, which could put the makers of the thriller in a bad situation, causing harm to them, because of it being at night-time. 

When discussing my narrative it was about a young girl discovering her schitofrenia is apart of a game where a masked villain makes her, her sister and mother go through a series of gruesome tasks for their freedom. It also includes paranormal activity making them a whole lot harder. The advantages discussed by my group were that there were many characters giving the plot a lot of different scenarios giving more tension and suspense as their are lots of different plots within in. Another advantage is that it will create the suspense and gore I need in order to make he audience feel scared and worried about the gruesome plots to come. My story line is very conventional to a thriller and is also unique therefore giving it that edge to all the other thriller films out there at the moment.

The disadvantages in my thriller was that it could possibly be hard to put together due to the difficulty of the plot and the iconography and editing being used. Another disadvantage is that due to it being a complicated plot the audience may not understand what is going on a times making it very confusing for them. Finally the budget could be a negative as due to the iconography some things may have to be cut due to the budget.

In our group we have decided to go with Freddie's narrative as we believe it will be the most realistic and simple one to film. It has a good plot and when discussinjg his narrative as a group in further and more detail we have come to a conclusion that his narrative with a few ideas from myself and charlotte will be our idea for the thriller trailer.
Our group narrative includes a young female conventional to a thriller cooking whilst the killer is ouside waiting for his moment to kill her. It includes the stereo-typical boyfriend and the masked villian. We have made it conventional to a thriller so that the audience will expect certain things but will take dramatic twists. This makes the thriller trailer more interesting and suspense building making them want to watch the thriller itself.

Opening Scene Analysis - Miss Georgiou

A purpose of an opening scene lets the audience engage more with with the main characters. It introduces us viewers to many different elements including; the genre, loaction, time-frame and different sounds. The opening scenequence tries to make the audience ask themselves questions about the plot and what's going to happen next

In Halloween (1973) film, many different ways for the film to be analysed. In cinematography there were many camera angles used to make the audienence more engaged with the opening scene. A camera angle used in the film is 'zooming in'. This is first used in the opening credits when showing the pumpkin. The camer aangle makes the pumpkin bigger and more effectie as the larger it becomes the more anxious the audience is towards the first scene of the film, making them suspect lots of different things.
Opening sequence

Pic of house

Another cinematography technique used is handheld. This camera angle shows jerky movements creating a sense of the unknown, urgency and uncertainty. This is used when we are seen to be moving towards the house, like somebody is holding the camera on purpose to create an uneven amount of tension and suspension. The camera angle is used to make the audience feel like they are the person moving towards the house. Here we cannot see who the person is, but this connotes that it could be he killer which is conventional to a thriller film as their identity is always hidden to make the audience suspect different things.

Pic of  knife and mask

Point of View is another cinematography technique used in the scene and is evident when the killer is picking up the knife. We see the character use this weapon to kill the young girl, but the audience here feel as if they are the murderer due to the camera angle. This rates a relationship with the audience as they believe that they are unstoppable been though they are not actually in the film. They get too see the killing through the eyes of the killer. It is also used when the killer puts the mask on and then murders the young girl. Again this makes he audience feel responsible for the killing of this girl as they feel like they are in the position of the killer at this point in time,this is conventional to a thriller as a commonly used weapon is a knife and also the identity is hidden by the mask, which create the suspense on to shortie murderer is.

 Zoomed out of house pic

Finally, the last cinematography element used is the camera angle of Zooming Out. This creates an emotional distance once the boy in Halloween has been seen with blood and a knife in his hands. The emotional distance is created as he realises he has killed his sister and the zooming out makes the house now look vulnerable making everything more dramatic, giving the audience the tension and suspense needed to make them panic and question whether of bit the boy is really the killer.

Sound Techniques

The sound in a opening scenes crucial into making the scene a lot more dramatic and intensifying. A sound technique used is Non-Diegetic. This is used in the soundtrack in the opening credits and it is also at the beginning of the scene as it blends in with chanting which is off-screen. This adds to the drama of the suspense thats building in the opening scene as we do not know who is walking towards the house. The music adds that extra tension to make us as the audience more uptight and scared about what is going to happen next. This is conventional as it creates the suspense of the scene and makes the audience more frightened.

Secondly, another sound technique used is high pitch. This sound is used when the hidden killer is walking up the stairs. This creates a lot of tension as the audience now start to focus onto the murderer which makes the audience feel more on edge and nervous about what is to happen next. This is conventional to a thriller as it makes the killer look a lot more terrifying and makes the identity of the killer more scary as the scarier the music the more scary the killer. It emphasises the killers actions.

Diegetic sound is also used in the opening scene when the clock is ticking. This is crucial into understand the scene as the clock ticking emphasises her life slowly coming to an end like her life is only a matter of seconds away to being ended and it is showing the sound emphasising it. This creates a relationship with the audience as we sympathise for the girl as her life is coming to an end and we feel helpless towards her. This is conventional to a thriller as the female victim usually always gets murdered in a thriller film so it is cleshae to a thriller.

The final sound technique used is parallel sound. This is used when the piano is playing and it matches the killers footsteps. This creates suspense and tension as we as the audience start to feel scared about the incident about to happen. This is conventional to a thriller as the sound creates the mood of the scene emphasising the panic and suspense in the scene.

Pic of boy in clown outfit

The couple were oblivious to the murder being in the house and the parents looked very confused when the little boy was dressed as a clown covered in blood. The boy dressed in the clown outfit is a stereotypical outfit for a not his age at Halloween.

Narrative.

The narrative of Halloween consists of the stereotypical Halloween thriller genre. The detached house  shows the reality of the film as it's an everyday scenario. The girl and boy kissing on the couch makes us assume that they are unaware of the events to come and make the assume nothing is going to happen. This adds to the suspense to whether the boyfriend is the killer or whether he is in it with somebody else. This is all conventional to a thriller as all seems well at first until the murder happens which makes the thriller a lot more entertaining and dramatic.

The conventions of a thriller include the hidden identity of the the killer. The intentions of the killer shows obsession and how the hidden identity hides who the killer really is leaving the audience in suspense. The iconography used in Halloween is a knife, this is conventional to a thriller as all murderers usually have a weapon which makes the opening scene more realistic. The low key lighting creates the suspense due to the dark shadows which gives the scene a more eerie feel to it. This makes the audience have a great deal of tension in front of them. Another convention is that the female victim dies, this makes the thriller more obvious as when you associate a filler victim you initially think of a young girl, and she in Halloween gets killed first. The enigma in the thriller makes us think who really is the killer? is the killer really the boy? and why does he want to kill his sister? This creates the three S's, shock suspense and suprise.

This research opening scene of the film will help me with my own thriller as it has given me the insights of the conventions and codes of a thriller, which people expect to see in a thriller. It has made me get many ideas in order to create thrilling ideas which will create a relationship with the audience, making my thriller trailer more suspense and tension building, therefore making it more effective. I know the positives and negatives and what to do and what not to do to make my thriller more adventuraous.

Research Into Sound - Miss Miller

Open Water 2003

In any type of film, sound is key to understanding the pictures on the screen. The sound in films helps to add to the feeling and emotions behind the scenes and the characters themselves. Sound is so important in films as it creates a relationship with the audience and can create many emotions with them making the scene more dramatic and effective. The sound is used to create a relationship with the audience, making them feel more on edge whilst he tension and suspense builds within the film.

Sound media

A film that has many different sounds effects in the film is called Open Water created in 2003. The film is based on the true story of two scuba divers accidentally stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat has left. Many different sounds techniques are used in the film including Parallel sound, On-Screen sound, a Off-Screen sound, Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound and finally Silence.

Insert pic 0.17

At the beginning of the scene the sound technique used is Parallel sound. The technique is used here to create a feeling of happiness for the characters as they have been experiencing a traumatic time. The first sight of safety is shown and the sound matches their relief of the sighting. Although the sound matches what is happening on screen, we couldn't see it; this therefore creates the Non-Diegetic sound as well as the Parallel sound. However, although the sound makes the audience create a relationship with the characters, in a sense we are happy for them that they have seen safety in the horizon, we are yet to be convinced that all tragedy  is over. Due to the Non-Diegetic sound, we are expecting things to take a drastic turn for the worse, and this sound technique makes the audience more tense and suspicious about what could possibly happen next. These techniques are conventional to a thriller as it puts the audience in suspense, and even though we cannot see the sound happening in the scene, it matches the feelings and emotions of the characters giving us a good sense of what is going on.

Insert pic 1.24 or 1.32

On-Screen sound is used all through this particular scene of Open Water. It is used through the constant movement of water, and also through the swimming of the couple. This particular technique emphasises on the reality of their situation as it makes the scene more believable for the audience. The technique shows what is actually going on through the characters actions whilst conversing their emotions through the use of sound. This therefore creates a sense of empathy between the audience and the characters as the sound we hear is the water, showing that they are alone and have to fight through together all the way until the end. This technique is conventional to a thriller film, as it makes the audience feel on edge, due to suspense and tension being created, and it making us as the audience feel there is a realistic approach to the film through the music which makes everything that little bit more thrilling.

Insert image of the woman under water.

Silence is another sound technique used in the thriller clip. Immediately there is constant silence through the film, but in this particular clip the silence creates a tension like no other as it makes the audiences mind think lots of different things about the plot, whilst still creating e tension needed. In Open Water, silence is used throughout, but in this scene it is used when the wife has to go under the shark infested waters to help stop the bleeding of her husbands shark bitten leg. This technique is used to emphasise the reality of their situation and show how emotional and desperate the wife is to help save her husbands life. The sound technique helps us as the audience create a relationship with the audience, as it makes the scene more dramatic and crucial to the story line as at this point you see the true dedication of loves vowels and you can see the true love behind the couple.  The characters at this point we empathise with, as the silence helps us focus on her desperation to help her husband and the things people do for their loved ones, as she endangers her on life for him. As it becomes more dramatised the silence is prolonged so we feel helpless and worried for the characters and scared about what's going to happen next.
The sound technique is conventional to a thriller film, as it makes the audience focus on the characters and the images on the screen which makes them more tense and creating the suspense which continuously grows throughout .

Research into the history of a Thriller Miss Georgiou

Research into a thriller

A thriller is a genre that is able to create tension, shock, suspense and surprise. It most commonly involves a victim and a villain which then drags into death and most likely murders. All of the emotions behind a thriller and the characters create a opportunity to the audience to get attached to the characters, in order for the film to be more exciting and emotional. Over the years films have changed dramatically from simple acting to dramatic scenes used with technology and special effects.

Insert picture of jack the ripped 1959

 The black and white film included actors such as Lee Patterson and Betty McDowell. Both these actors have starred in many other films after Jack the Ripper, and based their accomplishments of their roles on this film. 

Jack the Ripper is a film based on a mad avenging doctor. The plot of this film is that the serial killer goes around murdering the innocent or the troubled with his initial slitting of the throat. His identity is hidden and we do not see his identity revealed until the end. As he used knifes to slit people's throat and murder them he was slowly creeped upon by the police. 

In the 1950's Jack the Ripper, we do not see the cutting of the throats, we only see the shadows as blood and gruesome detail to murder was prohibited as it could cause upset and disturbance to the audience watching. Special effects were not around in the decade so all murders had to be seen with imagination as you could never fully see anything happen. This would add to the suspense of the film as you would want to see the brutality of the murder, and who did it. A convention of a thriller is used in this film as the identity of the murderer is hidden until the end of the film. This is so we can start to think about the consequences and the suspects, which makes the film much more intensifying and suspense building. Even in the 50's the identity of the killer is hidden. The iconography is conventional to a thriller as we usually expect to see the typical use of knifes, guns, blood, ropes etc. this is used in this film to make the murders more relatable and that makes the audience worried for the murders to come. 

Although this film uses the typical conventions of a thriller, the murders are very simple, in which you cannot see very much happening due to the era it was made and the audience being more sensitive towards the subject of the film. The special effects were not used as they were not invented, so the film had to be more simple and obvious which wouldn't of made the film as frightening as the films could be now.

1960 Physco picture

Psycho is a 1960 American thriller film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Janet Leigh. The film centers on the encounter between a secretary, who ends up at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner-manager,and its aftermath. 

The most famous scene of the film is the 'Shower Scene' where she is stabbed several times and falls into the bath tub with blood draining into the plug hole. Here we do not see the identity of the killer as they are hidden by the shower cover and then the camera angle focuses on her being stabbed. In the 60's you were not allowed to show nudity on screen and harsh intimidating violence which is why you can only she shoulders and above or knees and below. By showing nudity it was astonishing and was not accepted in the 1960's. This breaks the 180 rule as The shower scene was the only scene that showed violence and a little bit of nudity, this caused the audience to jump and scream as they saw this figure creeping up behind her in the shower and the way she was killed as you see the blood flowing down the drain. This breaks the 180 rule as you see behind the victim and in front of  her, so you see the whole area she is in.This creates imagination of what is happening to the victim so even though you don't see the knife going through her flesh and how the blood drips from her body creating a ghastly scene. 

This is conventional to a thriller as again the identity of the murderer is hidden and you do not find out until the very end. The strictness of nudity and violence is still there as you can't see any part of the woman's body apart from the head, shoulders, feet and legs, as it was considered rude and shameful for any part of the private body to be shown on screen. The iconography again is knifes which is what you'd expect to be the murder weapon of a killer in a thriller film. The audience here would be shocked at the terror of the murder. Furthermore, the girl is defiantly conventional to a thriller film as it it's you typical young female waiting to be murdered. In a thriller you associate young blondes to be you typical victim as they are portrayed as quite dumb and mislead easily, so an easy target for a murderer. Due to the target audience being offended by nudity and scared by the thriller, only small bits were added and since 1959, only small nudity was added as this film was the first film to feature small parts of nudity so the thrillers had already developed over a small period of time.

Insert picture of the wicker man 1970

In the 70s another thriller film was 'The Wicker man' directed by Robin Hardy which is about a police sergeant is sent to a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl whom the townsfolk claim never existed. The sergeant finds a village where they find a cult whom of which are sacrificing people and torturing them either to be eaten alive or to be burnt alive in a large wicker man. 

In this film we do not see much violence your imagination is key at this point as we see them go into the wicker man and then see it go into flames. The audience would have been scared at this point and this would have been a great scene which would of created suspense tension and a frightening atmosphere which is conventional to a thriller film as you'd expect there to be high amounts of suspense and tension.  The characters are in masks which is hiding their identity so the thrillers genre hasn't changed much over the years but the simplistic murders still happen due to the technology not being created yet. There's a lean way for the thrilling moments as now they are introducing torture and burning into the equation. This makes everything twice as more terrifying for the audience as they see pain and upset and tragedy all in one scene.

Insert picture of Dead Calm

An 80s thriller film is called 'Dead Calm' by Phillip Noyce, where a mass-murderer kidnaps and seduces a young woman after leaving her husband to die on the vessel, whose crew he's just slaughtered. This happens in the middle of an ocean where no one is around besides the three people. 

In this film they show scenes of lots of blood, dead people showing the gashes on their faces and the fatal attack on their body, also scenes of nudity is shown when Nicole Kidman is raped by this murderer Billy Zane. In this decade it shows a huge change in the thriller films, as now you are more open to frequent nudity and mild violence and blood on screen. The audience do not feel as offended and intimidated to see the upfront nudity and violence as the tolerance of scary things has increased therefore people do not get scared so quickly and easily, as the would of done two decades ago. In the film, the blood and fatal attacks are shown in full and they want the stronger audiences to feel as vulnerable as the victims. As the years increase the more tolerant people are with nudity and thrillers, here is one of the first films where iconography such as blood is used to make the scene more realistic, a few decades ago this wouldn't of been allowed and the audience would have been too frightened of the reality, than in the 70's blood and gore was more frequent so people tended to only be scared and not let it effect them too much. Blood and villains are conventional to thrillers as you expect gore and horror as it used to make the scene more dramatic and realistic, and a villain as this is what makes the film a thriller, without the villain there's no thriller. The villain is what makes the film more intense, as you want to find out who the villain is and whether or not they get their comeuppance. 

Picture 1998 Physco

This thriller is a remake of the original film of 'Physco' in 1960. You can tell the differences of the original to the remake drastically even at the beginning of the film. In the 1960's version, blood, nudity some of the typical things you'd believe to be in a thriller, were limited due to the sensitive audiences and the fact that people were offended by the onscreen nudity. Now, in the 1990's, special effects were created (1996) and everything scary was taken to a drastic new level. 

Blood, gore, murders, nudity and many other things were allowed to be shown on screen and you were able to see much more than you would unlike in the 60's. The plot of this film is still the same, the film was produced and directed by Gus Van Sant for Universal Pictures. Actors include Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche. The film was very successful and special effects were included which made the scene more dramatic and gruesome than before. The conventions of this film was the villain was masked and the identity was hidden and the typical young girl was brutally murdered by the villain. This all makes the audience feel the tension happening in the scene where the girl is murdered in the shower.

Insert picture of Saw 

A recent film is 'Saw' directed by James Wan. A great scene starts with a dead body lying between the two men, as they wake up in they find themselves in a bolted lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw". The men must follow various rules and objectives if they wish to survive and win the deadly game set for them. 

A lot of violence and blood is shown in this film to create shock and surprise in the audience. This film is different to the four films previously because they show less blood and gore, this film shows all the details of how they died and them getting tortured. This actually shows the weapon going through the victim which Is used through special effects which just shows how the thrillers have changed over the years. They have become more brutal and shockingly horrible as they really make the audience fear for their own lives. This is disturbing because it can make the audience jump and feel as though they are a part of the scene and that they are getting tortured as well. In the 20th century, they do not leave all the gory scenes to imagination, they actually show what happens scaring the audience and letting them dwell on the events afterwards letting the audience fearful of all the detail about the film.  As special effects is used in the film, it creates a large amount of dear within the film as they can see what is happening and they can see what could happen next what with the reality of the iconography and the scene itself. They make everything more dramatised and it's very much more complicated whilst in the other films everything is simplified due to the low budgets, the audience and the different technology. 

My research will help me with my planning as I can see the conventions to a thriller more clearly and what I must include to make my thriller more spine tingling and tense for the audience. It has shown me what  it to put in my thrillers from the earlier decades of film, and this will help me with my planning as I can try and relate back to the more frequent films to make my thriller for terrifying and conventional to a typical thriller film.