Evaluation

Evaluation

My thriller opening explores the thrilling aspect of a man being followed by a mysterious boy. This idea was given to me and my group after we looked at the film, 'The Omen'. I liked the way the child played such a key role in the thrilling side of the film, so I wanted our child actor to be the main focal point of our opening. The opening shows a man being watched from behind a tree as he puts down a teddy onto a gravestone. The camera follows this unknown figure throughout the opening, the audience are suddenly introduced to a boy. This boy shows clearly he is unusual because of the facial expressions; he is holding the same teddy which was put onto the gravestone. From watching 'The Omen' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv2CQ4ljvDM my group and I noticed that the camera used close-ups when a scene reached its climax. The editing I did shows a change in pace from slow to fast, this adds anticipation which makes the audience want to watch more.

I have two main characters both boys but from different age groups. The man who is being followed is in his early twenty's, the connotations tied to him from his clothes; which are a black trench coat and trousers, is that he is someone who has responsibilities. There is a contrast from him and the younger boy who is dressed completely different from him. The boy has a hoody on which straight away gives the audience a feeling that he will be trouble. This is due to the representation of younger children in society today who dress in hoody's. My group and I wanted the audience to see the difference between both; I made sure of this through the props which were used.

My thriller would be distributed in small number of UK 'arthouse' cinemas. This is because my thriller would not have the features that a Hollywood blockbuster has. These are extravagant props and the setting would be more professional. Hollywood Blockbusters would have access to better facilities. The audience for my thriller would be from a range of age groups. My opening shows some thrilling clips this would mean the film cannot be watched by youngsters; making my thriller an eighteen plus would ensure this. A typical person who would fit into my audience would be a girl/boy preferably a student who likes to go cinemas in the weekends. They study media studies or have an interest in the media world.

I would have trailers to advertise my thriller; I would like the thriller to be shown on channels such as the BBC, ITV and Film Four. These would get my low budget film noticed more; it would appeal to the ages I want it to appeal to. Another idea would be for the title of my thriller to be mentioned in a soap or a programme like 'Ant and Dec', this would show the high interest in the thriller. Internet sites like Myspace can help me promote the film, interviews with cast members and behind the scenes footage on the site will give people more information about the film. Sites like http://www.channel4.com/film/cinemadvd/cinema_newreleases.html would have my thriller on it. The genre being thrilling would mean my thriller would not be shown on channels such as 'Disney Channel'.

Filming was very difficult to what I had in mind. The weather made filming very difficult at times like when it was raining; I needed to make sure the camera didn't get wet this meant half the group holding umbrellas over the camera. Using final cut pro was a very long process; as me and my group members had to cut the footage and then had to decide how long we wanted the clips. The soundtrack I found very hard as some of the sounds just didn't go with our thriller, the beginning of the opening just consisted of the man looking at the grave and then walking into the park. I needed something slow and thrilling which me and my group eventually found. We worked with the pitch which made the music high and low at certain points in the thriller opening. This helped my group and I finally find the right music. The internet helped me look at 'the omen' which is what inspired my opening to be made. The internet was a very good source for research and helped a lot. http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/omen/ sites such as this had reviews on ‘The Omen’, I looked at these and gathered information. I have learnt a lot of things that I never understood about the film- making industry. I've learnt how to: film appropriately, log and capture footage, put effects on footage, do match cuts which I did not know existed. I now know how to make a whole soundtrack of my own and be able to use the iMac’s efficiently. Editing was hard as my group and I had done a lot of filming, so we had a lot of footage to go through. My group and I took it in turns to log and capture and it was much faster this way. The editing involved putting credits on which I did after I had our final opening sequence, this was an easy process which didn’t take long but I had to think about the font as it couldn’t be to bright or too dull.

I have learnt that it is always best to plan before filming, my group and I had many ideas but realised that many were impossible to film. When planning and making the storyboard you have to think about what would work and what would not work. My group at the beginning did not have a clear plan this caused problems, we had little time and took a very long time finding a suitable location. Working as a team is very important because if a group does not work well together it will show clearly on their thriller. My group and I worked together and made sure everyone knew what they were doing; we wanted to produce the best and knew only this could be done if we put all our ideas together. Overall, I think that my thriller does what me and my group wanted it to do. My audience would be attracted to the opening; my ideas on how to address them would also work. There are many connotations tied to certain aspects in our opening which will be understood by the viewers. The mise-en-scence of our thriller opening works well, the location, actors, props and lighting all played a key role in making our thriller reach its best.


TASNIMA CHOUDHURY Y60946