Video Shot List

Risk Assesment

Story Board - Opening Sequence

Target audience

Our target audience is commonly associated with the pictures that we have carefully chosen to put in our collage. This collage was constructed after a variety of primary and secondary researches were carried out by our group. Methods that helped contribute to are choice of thriller sub-genre were results from a questionnaire, findings of the internet, creation of a pie chart and lastly a simple drawing done in accordance to the idea of how the audience would like the appearance of the main character. The findings were then inhabited and extracted in the form of our audiences liking. Falling in the category age of 16+, the target audience are also specified as imaginative, creative and desire an experience of thrill. They demanded that the sub-genre psychological thriller would be best suited to their taste and would allow a different experience in contrast to action or crime thrillers. These findings will now allow us to successfully choose a sub-genre, construct a narrative our target audience will like and create a similar character to what they desire.

For our primary research, we created our own questionnaire to gather information about our target audience within our chosen sub-genre. We asked questions such as their age, occupation, where they live, if they watch thriller movies, what thriller sub-genres they like etc. We felt these questions would help us get a general indication of who would be interested in our film and what age range we could aim our film at. After comparing the questionnaires, we found out that the thriller genre was very popular among youths and adults between the ages of 15-45. We intend to use the information gathered to produce our opening sequence to the expectation of our potential audience.

                 This is a picture of the questionnaire's we gave random individuals to complete.

As a group, we also carried out secondary research to get a general overview of our potential target audience. We used a website called Pearl and Dean audience profile to get information about the films that inspired us which are Shutter Island and Memento. From the images below, we were able to see the percentage of men to women who watched the movies and this showed us that both genders are interested in thriller films. It also gave us an idea of the age ranges that would be interested in thriller films and from the information below, we could see that people aged between 15-45 watched thriller films.

From the primary and secondary research we carried out, we were able to make a decision on what age group to base our film on and what gender to target. We were able to find out the most popular age ranges for psychological thrillers and what type of traits they look for when watching psychological thriller films. The information we gathers would help us with the production of our opening thriller sequence.

This graph shows the percentage of people who like thriller films and it shows us the most popular sub-genres they enjoy watching. We gathered this information from our primary research (questionnaire) and came to a conclusion that psychological thrillers were the most liked sub-genre. Since psychological productions were the most watched thriller sub-genre, as a group we decided to base our narrative upon this specific theme.

Furthermore, Ideas taken from interviewees were concluded together in order for a picture of the character to come in construction. The jotting of our target audiences expectations allowed us to concentrate on Specific details such as little revelation of the face, long hair, odd posture adding animalism quality- which was then taken into consideration and adapted to the character in our initial production. 



Extension Sample Soundtrack

We were given an extension task which required us to create a soundtrack that would preferably be suitable and parallel to our opening sequence. As our opening sequence is a psychological thriller the soundtrack had to have an airy effect we also decided to include a sound that would complement when the credits and the title came in. We used an application called garageband on the apple mac to create the sound we came up with. Our teacher showed us how to use garageband and we played around with different sound effects until we got what we were looking for. It was a bit challenging at the beginning but eventually, we got used to it and made the soundtrack. We intend to use most of what we created in our final opening sequence.

Sound and Music in thriller films - Black swan/Kill Bill Volume 1

 As a group we have analysed the Sound in the opening sequence of Kill Bill Volume 1, which is classified as an American action thriller film. Within the opening 2 Minutes there is a variety of sounds and sound techniques used in order to convey the theme of the film.

Initially, the film begins with the sound of a female who is breathing heavily, this is a form of diagetic sound- her breathing initiates that she is in some kind of trouble, injured and in need of help. As the film progresses the females breathing increases in pace as she fears the footsteps that are gradually approaching her sight. The sound of footsteps is parallel in accordance to the atmosphere and mood at this specific moment within the film. It is the the sound of a wooden thick heel banging against the floor which lurs the audience in to create tension as to what is going to take place next and who the man is. The sound of breathing and footsteps is effective in creating tension which is a norm practised in thriller films. Furthermore, the audience are introduced to dialogue which is spoken in are mother tongue but also in a foreign language- Japanese. The use of foreign language is successful in decreasing the understanding of the violent act that is going to take place, the director has deliberately placed this technique within the opening sequence in order to confuse and raise enigma. Dialogue is spoken by two characters, mainly a male character, possibly the antagonist and the female character who in the beginning was breathing heavily. The female characters dialogue is a little difficult to understand as she is struggling to communicate due to her wounds caused by the antagonist, her dialogue also releases a sense of fear and her frightened nature. The Male character ironically speaks of not being sadistic and then suddenly shoots the female. The sound of a gunshot is rather terrifying and creates a thrill for the audience.  More so over, we are introduced to contrapuntal music, a sound track produced by Nancy Sinatra in 1966 (Bang Bang my baby shot me down). The usage of this soundtrack creates a sense of ambiguity as it is ironic for music such as this to be played after someone has been murdered. This song represents a murder taking place however the murder taken place in the movie differentiates as it is caused physically and the murder within the song is caused mentally. This form of non-diagetic sound is a technique used by the director to convey the mixed emotions felt by the prey(victim) and hunter(murderer) himself.

                                                

Black Swan is a Psychological thriller, unlike the first film we are comparing it to Kill Bill Vol1 which is an action thriller. Throughout Black Swan a variety of sounds and techniques are used in order to have a certain effect upon the audience which would enable them to settle into a mood that suits the genre of the thriller. In the opening sequence of the black swan the first sound that you hear is sound of a train on the train tracks because it starts off by showing the producer of the film. Once the actual film has started you hear very classical ballet music. The music makes the audience straight away settle into the atmosphere that the director of the film is trying to give. 
The music that has been chosen to be played at the beginning of this film is to reflect on the character to tell the audience that during the beginning of the film the main character is shown to be an innocent and sweet character which soon turns into a dark and evil woman. By using the 'Swan Lake' song as the opening song for the woman to dance to reflects her character completely and secretly lets the audience try and work out for themselves what the character is going to be like throughout the film.

Sound and Music In Thriller Films- Panic Room/Hanna

 

The Panic Room opening sequence starts with a puzzling sinister non-dieagetic soundtrack. The fast paced violin playing in the background is parralel to the ticking sound which is a typical trait of a psychological thriller, the soundtrack also builds up and boosts the audience's suspense. There are also elements of dieagetic sounds like the police siren at the beginning of the sequence and the dialougue between the two female characters at the end. The sound effects used at the beginning are parralel to the images the audience can see (the car driving in the city). There's also the use of incidental sounds such as the telephone ringing while the soundtrack was still playing.

The opening sequence of Hanna, begins with silence, then we hear the river flowing. There are lots of ambient sounds used, for example, we could hear footsteps when the deer sensed danger coming its way. We then hear the movement of the hunter followed by the shot of her arrow. We can also hear her panting (breathing heavily) while she runs towards the animal. The use of dialogue at the ends creates a sinister atmosphere when she said ‘I just missed your heart’, followed by the gun shot and the sudden appearance of the title. The fact that majority of the opening sequence is made up of ambient sounds, it creates a sinister atmosphere. The sounds we hear are parallel to the images we see. Overall, the sound creates suspense and tension which keeps the audience on the edge and wanting to know more.

There are common similarities between Panic Room and Hanna, for example, the sounds used are either parallel to the visuals or to the titles which builds suspense. They also introduce dialogue towards the end of the opening scene, for example in Panic Room we see two female characters discussing while in Hanna, we hear the hunter say 'I just missed your heart'. On the other hand, there're differences between Panic Room and Hanna. In Panic Room, there is a mix of non-dieagetic sounds and dieagetic sounds while in Hanna, we only have dieagetic sounds and mainly ambient sounds.

Final Presentation

            


Feedback:
We presented this presentation to our class peers and teacher as our final ideas for our opening sequence. We recieved a fair amount of feedback on the number of things that can be imrpoved and changed or added  and that are good within our sequence here is some of the construstive critisisms we got:
- One question was asked towards the availability of our location, school is one of the places we will be filming some of the scenes, the availbilty of class rooms may be a problem along with the time of day we film, the lighting will be different at the time of 11 oclock compared to after school. But to overcome this we have decided to stick to filming after school in order to maintain consistency. This is the same with the location of the hospital we have to ensure that the timings are not affecting the mis-en-scene of the sequence.
- Another problem was maintaining continuity, between the scenes of school, hospital and any other locations, failure of this may lead to the audience getting confused and the sequence failing to flow smoothly. In order to avoid this we will have to perform test shots to see how well the transitions will work, if they dont then we will have to stick to one location and plan around that.
- As our narrative was so detailed that we were unable to explain what parts we wanted to include into our opening sequence, therefore we will have to sit together and plan through what scenes we have to include and the scenes we will have to leave out.
- One of the things that worked well was our title. ' the unseen case' there was a good response to the title of the film and was favoured by our peers as a good name to support the film.
- Our teacher also commented on how she liked the fact we had included the films that had inspired us to come up with our narrative.
- Another positive was our character role. Our characters were well planed out and clear as to whp is doing what role.

In conlcusion the response to our presentation was positive and we have had a lot of constructive feed back that we will keep in mind in order to produce a successful opening sequence.

Initial Ideas

Past student work analysis- Group 4

NO WAY OUT

Micro areas in relations to the genre:

Camerawork
The opening sequence has several close ups, especially on the main character. For example, the camera focuses on her face, then her hands and back to her face. This makes the audience ask questions like "what's going on?" "why is she starring at her hands". This also adds to the suspense of the thriller and builds up anxiety. A panning shot is used at the beginning of then sequence to inform the audience that it's a thriller because it's a lonely place with trees which is commonly found in thrillers. 

Editing
The editing technique used in the opening sequence tells the audience it's a thriller when the main character was walking to the top of the street. She was walking quite slow which added to the tension and uncertainty of the thriller. The length of the opening sequence is in black and white which contributes to the depressing state of the characters.

Sound
The sound in the opening sequence is non-dieagetic which informs the audience it's a thriller. The people's voices and the police siren suggests something has happened (perhaps a crime). The sound of the bells gives the atmosphere a graveyard feeling and this keeps the audience on the edge. The distorted creepy sound effect used when the girl was walking towards the gate indicates some form of danger is about to happen. At the end of the sequence the ambient sound of the gate closing itself suggests the main character is trapped.

Mise-en-scene

The main noticeable prop used in this opening sequence are phones. For example, in the middle of the extract we see the second character sitting down using her phone, then she suddenly looks at the main character and looks down. The use of low key lighting contributes to the dull depressing atmosphere which is an element usually used in thriller films. The location used at the end of the sequence was abandoned which suggests the main character has most likely committed a crime (probably killed someone).

What was good about this opening sequence- An element admired whilst watching this opening sequence is the intense level of mysteriousness. The level of suspense keeps the audience interested and wanting more whilst the characters are successful in revealing little about the narrative. The level awarded by our group for this sequence is a level 3.
What needs improving- the opening sequences flows smoothly, but is very slow, the main character drags on the first few minutes giving it a slower pace than necessary, another event could have been put in to make it more intriguing and for more questions to aris. 

There could have been more dialogue within the opening sequence explaining more of the current sitution, allowing the audience to ask more questions rather than just just a few: who is she? where is she going ? why is she looking at her phone? there could have been a little more interaction with the audience giving them an insight on what is going on.

Past Student Work Analysis - Group 3

Windsor Girls - Group 3

Micro areas:

Camerawork:
The opening sequence begins with an establishing shot, which portrays a clear analysis of the setting and atmosphere. From this shot the audience can see it is set in a public playground for children and is going to be related to an incident occuring with a child. Furthermore, the sevral close up's of the kidnappers face allows us to establish his emotions and his appearance. Also from this shot the audience can conquer the males intentions as he in his early 30's seems rather peodophilic.

Editing: The editting technique featured within this opening sequence provides some elements of continuity as it attempts to lead one action to another. It also gradually helps to build the suspense, based on the psychological thriller conventions. The most effective editting technique used in this sequence would be jump cut from the playground scene to the guardian of the child attempting to to find the first aid kit. This creates irony as she attempts to rescue the child by healing her cuts, however her attempt in unsuccessful as the antagonist takes the girl away.

Mis-en-scene: Casual/formal clothing and  a public location aids versimilitude and formalism to the opening sequence. The uneasy body language of all characters portrays their different emotions. Props such as the first aid kid, the car and the newspaper are apart of everyday life therefore, are successful in this circumstance as they create mysteriousness and contradiction between the two actions taking place.  

Sound: Non diagetic sound has been used throughout this opening sequence. The Non diagetic music helps to reinforce the narrative as it creates a dangerous mood in a safe enviroment. In addition, it fits in with the phycological genre. Shot gun sounds illustrate exageration upon the antogonists silent behaviour, and his actions.The use of Non diagetic music excludes versimilitude as an unrealistic atmosphere is created.

What do you think was good? Camera technique and editorial techniques were rather effective as they helped the opening sequence flow smoothly. More so over, makeup and constume of the male character was rather impressive as it contradicted his real intentions. Sound also complimented the narrative in many ways as it created an contradiction between the setting and atmosphere.
I would award this opening sequence a level 3.
What needs improving? A lacking element within the opening sequence is the level of continuity. Continuity is not portrayed effectively due to the editting skills used. so this would be a factor or concentration in improvement. Furthermore, the male characters body language did not successfully illustrate the emotions and characteristics of a peadophile, therefore this would be another area of concentration for improvement.

British Board Of Film Classification

The British board of film classification (BBFC) is a non- governmental organisation set up in 1912, that is funded by the film industry. The BBFC are responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the UK. Being approved from the BBFC is a statutory requirement in order to classify videos, DVDs and some video games ever since the video recording act in 1984.

The people that decide the guidelines on the rating of the films are made up by the public, hey decide whether a particular film is either a:

    * U

    * PG

    * 12A

    * 12

    * 15

    * 18

    * 18R

 

There are alterations to the guidelines every four years and repeat the same process by asking the public. Along with the age rating these factors must also be taken into consideration:

    * Discrimination 

    * Drugs 

    * Horror 

    * Imitable behaviour     

    * Language

    * Nudity 

    * Sex

    * Theme 

    * Violence

All these key factors are taken into consideration when deciding if a film is:

U- (universal) All ages admitted, there is
nothing unsuitable for children.
No sex, drugs, nudity, no violent language etc

PG- All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be

unsuitable for young children. May contain mild

language and sex/drugs references. May contain

moderate violence if justified by

context (e.g. fantasy). A PG film should not disturb

a child around the age of 8.

12- The 12 category exists only for video works. No 

one younger than 12 may rent or buy rated video work. 

12 and over works are classified as children aged 12 

and older as categories may upset children under 12 or

 contain material which many parents will find unsuitable.

12A- categories exist only for videos. No one younger than

12 may see a '12A' film in a cinema unless

accompanied by an adult, and films classified

 '12A' are not recommedned for a child below 12.

Films under this category can contain mature themes,
discrimination, soft drugs, moderate swear words,
infrequent strong language and moderate violence,
sex references and nudity. Sexual activity may be
briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sexual violence
may be implied or briefly indicated.

15- Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating.
Films under this category can contain adult themes,
hard drugs, frequent strong language and limited
use of very strong language, strong violence and
strong sex references, and nudity
without graphic detail. Sexual activity may
be portrayed but without any strong detail. Sexual
violence may be shown if discreet and justified by context.



18-Only adults are admitted.
Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated
VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc or game,
or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under
this category do not have limitation on the bad language
 that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and explicit
sex references along with detailed sexual activity are
also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex context is also common.
Very strong, gory, and/or sadistic violence is usually permitted.
Strong sexual violence is permitted unless it is excessively graphic.





18R- Can only be shown at licensed adult cinemas or sold at licensed sex shops, and only to adults, those aged 18 or over. Films under this category are always hard-core pornography, clear images of sexual activity, explicit images, more cuts are demanded in this category than any other category.

With our sequence we think that our production would be rated a 15 as there will be scenes of violence unsuitable for children under 12, moderately violent language and psychologically disturbing scenes that will upset children under the age of 12.