Planning - Target Audience

Many psychological thrillers are aimed at older viewers with many of them having an age rating of either 15, or 18. This is due to the violence included. There are also psychological issues which are included that can be disturbing for many younger viewers and is not deemed appropriate. Viewers of psychological thrillers need to have a strong focus and mind on the plot as they play a detective role within the film in trying to figure it out generally along side of the main character. As the conflicts are mental instead of physical, the genre tends to attract more females than males, this is due to the struggle of the main character being more emotional.  

Our opening will be aimed towards either males or females who are 15 years to 25 year olds. The age rating of our opening will be 15+ as it doesn't include very graphic elements, for example violence will only be hinted at or implied it won't be directly shown. On screen violence would look unprofessional in our opening as with a low budget its hard to make it look realistic. With our lack of experience it would be difficult to create a sequence that looks real without harming any actors. Our opening won't be an 18+ as the content won't be overly explicit. There is no locational target audience for my opening as the conflict is of the mind, there isn't a geographical location necessary for the audience to understand the plot. Our secondary target audience will be females above 15 years old to 25 year olds, this is due to the age of our protagonists. Our two main characters in the opening are two females, this reflects many other successful psychological thrillers with female leads such as Black Swan (2010) and Psycho (1960) and also reflects our target audience.

For our opening to successfully appeal to our target audience it has to build tension and suspense successfully. The plot will have to generate questions within the audiences' minds and make them question what is real and what isn't.

Planning - Sub Genre (Psychological Thriller)

Psychological Thriller

The sub-genre within thriller we have decided to choose for our film opening is a Psychological thriller. Popular themes within the sub-genre include: 

Realism: Characters often struggle to figure out whats real or not. 

Perception: Often perception of the world is misperceived due to outside factors within the narrative. 

The world is perceived through the main characters senses which are often distorted.

Mind: The narrative is often explained through the characters mind. They often face psychological battles e.g. they can't figure out what is real or what is imagined. The characters battle their own minds and reach a new level of understanding.

Existence: This could be represented by a characters need to find their purpose or reason for existence. Conflicts that test mental strength often tend to lead to discovering their purpose. 

Identity: Characters doubt who they are and try and discover their true identity. 

Death: Characters either strongly fear death or are tempted by death with a strong fascination with what happens at the end of their lives.

Mis En Scene:

• Shadows and low key lighting - These are used to build suspense and in cases represent the inner darkness of a character.
• Props (Mirrors) -  Mirrors are popular as they are used to reflect a characters inner self or their dark side. Its a doorway into the real depth of a character. 
• Costumes - Most people were casual clothing, or in the scene suggests, smart clothing. Clothing generally represents urban and modern settings.
• Location - Popularly set in modern, urban settings. Generally not in countryside as it could be confused with horror. 

Sound:

• Very eery and tense music - used to build tension and create shock within the audience. 

Camera:

• Quick camera movements - used to build suspense and panic. Makes the audience sympathise with the characters. 

Editing:

• Obtrusive and Montage - Highlights feelings and emotions to build tension and suspense, used mostly in important scenes.
• Flashbacks - Gives insight to the audience to show them what has previously happened. Highlights the past and important events that have happened. Commonly highlights an important message that is relevant within the scene, shows the audience why the character is the way they are.
• Black and White Colouring - enhances the effectiveness of shadows. 
• Slow Motion - Builds suspense 
• Past Pace -  Generally used to conclude a story, displaying all the events which led to the penultimate moment or used to display a character piecing together information to figure out a mystery. 

Thriller Survey

Link for a online survey I made and the results:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-PGK9C7BQ/

From this survey I learned:

• Females are a larger target audience than males for thriller
• The best target audience is 16-25
• People like having a plot the audience has to figure out as it gets them involved as well.
• Psychological is the most popular sub-genre.
• Sound is very important for creating an atmosphere 
• Thrillers are more interesting in the daytime.

Consolidation of Preliminary Research:

After filming my preliminary task, due to my experiences, I learned some adjustments I could make to the process of filming when it comes to creating my film opening.

One thing I have learnt that could help the filming process is to plan which shots I wanted to use for the opening beforehand through either lists of possible shots or storyboarding. This would save crucial time during filming, meaning we can shoot more on the day and use all the time available as efficiently as possible. Therefore we won't be wasting our time on the day as well as our actor's time trying to figure out what to do on the day.

I have also learned that editing plays a very large part in the final cut of the film. By using tools such as the filter option as well as adjusting the colours of the clips can change the mood of the scene completely. I will be sure to use this knowledge of editing when coming up with the concept behind my opening. 

Second Preliminary Task

For this preliminary we wanted to practice creating something within the genre of thriller as this was the genre our film opening would be. We wanted to stay with a simple plot. It follows two young girls running away from an ominous figure, at the end they meet up and believe they are safe before they look up and see the figure looming over them.

The members in my group were the same people I worked with on the first preliminary, these were Molly Braggins, Jessica Underwood and Georgie Whitehouse). Similar to the last product, Georgie, Jess and Molly volunteered to act in the production as it worked well last time. We all contributed ideas and camera shots and angles that we could use. Discussion was an important element of our task as it was a more complex idea than our original preliminary as we wanted to present conventions of the thriller genre. One feature of this is representing a protagonist and antagonist. We represented this through following the two girls through shots such as POV shots, this builds a sense of empathy  from the audience for the character due to the situation they are in. Jess (the antagonist) was represented through dark gloomy lighting as we aimed to present her as an evil or dangerous character. We also added the prop of a hooded coat/jacket to introduce an element of enigma to the character as her face is never truly revealed. In the post-production stage we also added features such as filters to create a more dim, gloomy atmosphere. We also used fast paced editing and jump cuts to build up suspense and maintain the anticipation of the film.

We included a variety of different shots and angles as we felt that due to the fast pace of the film, it would be more interesting for the audience. This included over the shoulder shots, tracking shots, close ups, POV shots, long pans, low angles and high angles. This made it more interesting as the audience got to see the narrative from different perspectives. We use a high angle shot when the mysterious figure is looking down on the girls to represent her dominance, bringing danger to the scene.

Although some aspects of this film turned out well, some other parts didn't turn out as we wanted them to. Due to our limited time, we weren't able to shoot the scenes from different angles which was very negative towards the continuity. We also broke the 180 degree rule which could disrupt the  continuity of the piece and confuse our audience. For our final piece we will make sure we plan it out in detail so that we don't break the rule. We also had issues about making the shots as smooth as possible, during some scenes such as the opening scene, the shot is very shaky and jumpy. This was due to the tripod we used. for our main piece we will make sure we use a different tripod or a different method of getting the shot.

Preliminary Task

For our Preliminary task we were asked to create a short film clip containing different key elements:

• A conversation between two characters
• A character entering a room
• An example of shot reverse shot
• Show understanding of the 180 degree rule

For our Preliminary task we followed the simple plot of friends meeting in detention after school. The dialogue we included was short and simple. We included elements such as the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. When editing the shots we made sure they fit well together to add to the continuity of the plot. We filmed it in a school to add to the realism as any other setting wouldn't have made sense to the storyline. We used a range of different shots and editing cuts.

I worked with Molly Braggins, Jessica Underwood and Georgie Whitehouse in this task. We didn't create a storyboard as we had limited time to create this Preliminary. We thought it would waste time and we thought we would learn more from the experience of filming rather than planning. We also had minimal experience in filming and we weren't sure which shots looked good or not therefore we thought it would be better to shoot multiple shots and decide which were better during editing. Compared to planning each shot and not liking them later in the process and not having an alternative. As it was filmed with short notice, members of our group acted as we couldn't get hold of any actors. This turned out to be a good decision as we all had a similar vision of the Preliminary task we didn't have to explain this thoroughly as we had thought of it together and all had a clear idea of what we were doing. Molly, Jess and Georgie were the volunteers to act in the Preliminary and I controlled the camera. We all played a part in the directing of the preliminary and we each offered different shots we could use.

What Went Well? What Would I Do Differently?

We used different shots such as an over-the-shoulder shot when the characters are speaking, an establishing shot of a school corridor to show the location to the audience as well as an extreme close up of Molly opening the door. We made sure to use a variety of shots as we filmed it. We also used a point of view shot from the point of view of the teacher telling the students to 'be quiet'. Although you don't see the the teachers face throughout the clip, this keeps the focus on the pupils. However if I were to film this again, I would include more angled clips, for example in the clip where the teacher speaks we could have done a high angle shot to show dominance over the students. This is backed up by them doing what she says and continuing their work.

We used some editing techniques to portray the mood and tone of the clip. For example we put a blue/ cold tone over the clips to show the bored mood the characters are meant to feel as they are in detention and don't want to be there. However as we watched this through we decided the blue tone makes the clip look unrealistic and cheap, therefore we re-edited it and altered the blue tone making it less intense but still noticeable. The second version of our Preliminary is linked below.

As this was one of the first times we filmed and edited, it was hard to understand the equipment and editing software. Therefore some of our cuts don't flow as well as we would have liked. We all played a part in editing as we all worked on it together. For example while the two characters speak the editing cuts aren't very smooth. We later went back and edited the cuts and switched some of the shots around which made it a lot smoother. One large issue we had with the editing was the audio. When recording the camera didn't pick up the sound loud enough to hear it. Even after we turned down the background music and put the 'voice enhancer' mode on with full volume, it was still very difficult to hear. We tried adding a voice recording over the top however it was difficult to get the voice to match the clip. If I were to do this again I would make sure the actors spoke up and I would make sure nothing was covering the microphone when filming. We could have used a boom but we thought this wasn't necessary for the Preliminary task. We didn't add any titles to the preliminary task as we didn't think it would be worth it and we thought it would crowd the clip.

Working in a group enabled us to share ideas as we had little experience, it allowed to come up with more varied ideas. I was able to work the camera while the others act. It also allowed us to add our ideas together and contribute equally the the directing. This was also a similar outcome in the editing process as we all contributed.


This is the improved Preliminary. We took the blue tone down fractionally but we still kept a hint of it there as before as it made the clip unrealistic. We also switched up some of the shots to make it flow better. We use a long shot starting at 0:06 which lasts until 0:13 seconds. We used this shot for an extended period of time, as it showed the location well and gave a sense of dread and uncomfortableness which we wanted to portray as thats what our character feels when walking into the quiet room where the detention takes place. During the editing process, we didn't pick up that in the over-the-shoulder shot, starting at 0:13, you can hear my voice calling 'action'. If we were to edit this again we would remove this.