Rough Cut - Miss Miller

Why it was important to make a rough cut?

It was very important to make a rough cut rather that just create our final opening scene as it will allow the group to be able to receive feedback from an audience, which will be our peers. Our rough cut is base on how far we was into the editing process, we was quite far so only a few changes in our mind were needed.  Our rough cut includes the sequence, sounds, and changes in editing like filters, credits. From this now we can see if they audience likes, understands and important feels that the product is finished.

Once our rough cut was finished we exporting and uploaded it to YouTube, the rough cut is below, this was purely for the audiences viewing and for them to be able to give us feedback on how we could improve our opening scene.

   

Why audiences feedback is important ?
The audience is a major factor to consider as they are the people that will be watching our final opening scene. So it will be vital for us to be able to obtain feedback from them. The audiences feedback will not be based on there true thoughts about the scene and will not be subject to bias as it will not be criticized openly by members of our own group. This means that all things that need to be improved will be taken into account as it is the audiences true opinion.  

How we got our feedback?

We were given our feedback in two different ways......

Powerpoints and Questions - As a group we made a presentation to show to all the fellow groups of the media course in our class. Within this PowerPoint we included how we got our main ideas for our narrative from each person, the location of our setting and our characters and the main ideas behind them. From this our peers will be able to understand our main inspirations, and ideas behind our opening scene. After we had presented we received questions on the PowerPoint from our class, from which we answered them. 

Peer Group Reviewing - After our powerpoints had been presented and while the class had been watching the rough cut, they were given forms to fill out. This forms contained the mark they would be giving us that they had obtained from the mark scheme. Also they contained what went well and what could be improved in our rough cut. These were given to the all the groups in our class and they were collected and given to us to read over and take into account how we could improve our final piece. 

Feedback
We received back all of the forms from our peer groups that reviewed our work. From analyzing these results, it is clear that we have a mixture of results.

Mark out of 60 - We obtained a mark of 37-54 from our peers with an average of, 44. This means that we are obtaining a Level 3 Band Rough Cut for our opening scene.  By improving our scene and obtaining 4 or more marks we will be able to hit the top band Level 4 for our rough cut.

What Went Well - Our peers thought we did the following well. Good use of camera angles, editing techniques, low key lighting, sounds and effects, characters chosen, conventions,narrative. In addition some groups liked the twist at the end of our scene.

Even Better If - Clearer narrative, some shots made lighter, credits too small, louder soundtrack, antagonists face was lighter at the end.

From looking at these results it is clear that we need to improve some sections of the film, particularly the lighting of some shots as it is clear that the audience cannot see or understand what is happening. From this the audience will be able to understand the narrative. But we cannot make our soundtrack any louder as there is no technique to improve the loudness of the audio. In addition the sound was loud on the Mac that we were using we just think it was a technical issue with the speakers as they were very quiet. Now we understand the issues that need to be fixed and will resolve them to make our final opening scene better for the viewing of our target audience. 

Opening Scenaration - Miss Miller

Opening Scene Narrative

Our opening scene follows the plot of......

A young girl has been abandoned and is walking along an industrial estate at night. The girl is wearing a nighty, with her treasured teddy bear. She is seen as a victim of some kind as she is a little girl in a dangerous setting on her own and is therefore completely vulnerable. She walks along the estate lonely and fragile in the freezing cold, showing barely any emotions through her face or body language as if she is being secretive concealing something unknown to the viewer. She walks under very dim light, through deep, dark shadows cast by the lampposts, with the natural elements passing by her, like the wind and rain again showing no emotion. She is really pale from the cold and has really black eyes to make the assumption that she has been beaten. She decides to walk down and alley way on a diversion from her course that she has been walking on. She walks for a small amount of time down the alley way and then is encountered by a tall, dark figure that walks up to her. He looks and stars at her drawing to his attention that she is injured and obviously fragile. As he becomes more draw to her, a large and deathly scream is heard in the background. The man turns around to try and locate the source of the sound. He turns back to find the little girl has disappeared. In shock he stands and tries to justify what has just happened. He goes deeper into the alleyway retracing his steps and going further into the dark in search of the little girl. As he is walking down the alleyway one of the lights turns off leaving him blind as he cannot see a large part of the sections he was search. Nonetheless he decide to continue his search into the dark and find the girl. He turns his light on his phone on which gives him a very dim light so he can see where he is walking barely. Little does he know the little girl appears behind him in the distance out of hiding with her teddy bear which is concealing a knife. As he has reached the end of the alley he turns around to see the girl running towards him with her knife up in the air. She receptively stabs the man until he is dead. She stands there over the body reflecting on what she has done. She suddenly turns around and walks off into the distance to never be seen again.

Each Frame of the Narrative

The narrative starts of as a panning shot of the scene so the setting is established to the audience and then they are familiar with the setting then they are introduced to the small girl walking on her own down the street into the alley way. They will see the girl walking down the setting as a surprise as they will only see her for a couple of seconds and as she is in the corner of the shot. This will be accompanied by the use of the soundtrack to build up tension for the audience.

Then the audience will then be suddenly moved into various such as the mid-shot and long shot,  surrounding the girl concentrating on her as the main focus so they become more engaged and bonded with the character. The camera angles are Long Shots from the front and back. Again the use of the soundtrack.

Then the audience see the setting through the eyes of the character in a point of view shot that they have been introduced to this will make the audience feel as if they are in the characters shoes (empathy)  and will begin to sympathize with the character. At this point the soundtrack will peak an have a mystery feeling as the audience has now been tricked into thinking that the girl is the victim. Again the use of the soundtrack.

The girl then turns off course and begins to walk down a path into the alley way on the side of the street this is seen through the use of the high angle this intends to show the audience the vulnerability of the character. This camera angle is filtered to look like a security camera, this is in attempt to make the audience engage more as cctv is a normally of everyday life. The soundtrack will peak at this point as it is now the audience have an understanding that this character is a victim.

Then the audience is introduced to the second character in the scene walking out of a boxing club this is just a Mid - Shot simply showing to the audience that this is another character that is within the scene.

The next series of shots are Reaction Shots, they are not used to show a conversation but, a encounter between the two characters showing there emotions this is quite a long part of the scene relating to the content, but is used to engage the audience and make them feel uneasy as they would be if they were to encounter a small girl and not have any conversation with them and just complete silence.

After this a scream is herd in the background and the teenage male turns around and back in a Point of View Shot of the character reacting to the scream. He turns around to face the general direction of it and then reverses back to see the character gone. At this point there is a high pitched sound as it is used to create an sense of uneasiness in the audience.

After this there is a High Angle through the use of another cctv camera to show to the audience that the balance of power and vulnerability has shifted to the teenage male as he is been place in venerable position. This is where the soundtrack will continue throughout the scene.

 The character continues to walk down the route into the dead end of the alley way in search of the girl. This become more tense for the audience as they know it is likely at any moment that something is going to happen to this character given the current events. This is displayed by various camera angles such as panning shot and Mid-Shots and Panning as he is walking further into the darkness of the setting. This again where the soundtrack peaks to give the audience an indicator that something is going to happen to the character in the scene.

He then comes to the end of the alley way to find he cannot go any further shown by a Mid- Shot. This is only after a mid shot and a zooming in shot are used to display to the audience the reappearance of  the small girl that he is in search for. Again another eerie sound will be used to further the shock that the audience will feel.

Once he comes to a standstill another Point of View shot is used to show to the audience him turning around to face the girl with a knife in her hand rapidly running towards him.

One of the final shots used again is a zooming in shot of her face to show her facial expressions of the events that she has just committed. This shot is used to again make the audience feel uneasy as they are starring into her dark face striped of her emotions. There will be no sound used in this particular shot as the silence will be used to create further tension for the audience as they will begin to doubt whether this is the end of the killing of the little girl.

Finally she is seen walking off into the distance in a long shot, I feel this is a good ending to the opening scene as it leave the audience pondering what the event of the future of the film will be.         

Summary

There are a few elements which will make our sequence better/conventional such as...........

Scream - at first we was going to include a brief conversation between the two characters in the scene. It would be a conversation about the injures to the girl and how he was going to help her. This is slightly unconventional to a thriller opening scene as opening scenes to not generally contain dialogue. To overcome this we decided to use a Scream instead of a conversation. As it would take less time in the film length and also would also be conventional to the thriller genre.

Removal of the phone - In my original idea I had included a phone at which a sub-narrative between the girl and someone was taking place. Although this would make the opening scene more relateable to the target audience, it would also draw there attention away from the scene and what is taking place. So we decided to take this element out as it would take to much time up in the opening scene and would distracting for the audience.

Teddy Bear - With the removal of the phone we decided to add an the teddy bear into the scene because it would make it easier for the audience to be able to relate to the events of the scene. As everybody has a childhood experience of having a teddy bear and can relate to it.

Group Storyboard - Miss Miller

The purpose of creating a group storyboard is we can collaborate all the ideas of ourselves and combine certain elements of them together to create a better collaborated narrative together. We will combine different elements from our individual storyboards that stand out to create the one that we all agree on so there will be an equal balanced contribution by all of us. 

We created our group storyboard by looking at each others storyboards and deciding which elements were better or stood out from the others to put in to the final ones. So we swapped all of our storyboards look at them and wrote down what we wanted to include. So I looked at Hannah's and Luke's Storyboards and visa versa for them. 

Elements

Harry Hyett 

Panning Shot, At the start of my storyboard I included a panning shot of the setting which included the character as a start to get the audience engaged with the plot and the setting.

Handheld Camera Angle - I had an idea of a point of view, handheld combination to show what the character was seeing, this was to create a connection with the audience as they were looking through the eyes of the character. I took this inspiration from The Uninvited in the scene when the character walks into the room at the start of the scene in this particular camera angle.

High Angle - This was another camera angle that was taken from my individual storyboard, this camera angle was to be used on both of the characters to show vulnerability of the character via the shift of power as well. I again took this camera angle from The Uninvited where the character is running through the corridor and this camera angle is used to show her vulnerability.    

Luke Durrance

Hidden Identity- We felt that the idea of hidden identity should be used so we took this from Luke's. This is because it is conventional to the thriller genre and will add to the element of mystery. The hidden identity can be acheived by both characters. If the girl is wearing dark make up over her face it will not be clear and the audience will not be able to see completelty what the character looks like. And again the same for the male character if he is wearing some form of clothing that covers a section of his face it will make the audience feel as if the character is the killer although he is not. Although they are not fully hidden they will not be clear to the audience making them feel nervous about the situation for the oppsing character.
 

Weapon - This was taken from Luke's as we didn't know what weapon we should include in our opening scene. And Luke's idea of how the knife would be used in the scene was a good and effective idea.

Reaction Shot- This element was taken from Luke's as we though it was a good idea that we should include this to show the audience the reaction of the character. This will make it easy for the audience to engage in the scene and become more relate able with the characters via the conversation between the two.

Hannah Mahoney
Long Shot- We decided to take the element of the long shot from Hannah's Individual Narrative as we all felt that the section of the scene that she used these camera angles on was effective in creating an emotional responses with the audience for both the protagonist and the antagonist.

Tracking- Hannah had the idea of using the camera angle of tracking in the scene we all felt that this angle was conventional to the thriller genre as, it makes the audience feel as if the character is being watched.

Extreme Close Up- Another Camera Angle we decided from Hannah's storyboard was the extreme close up at the ending of the scene this was as we felt it was a engaging ending for the scene to end on as it would show the audience how powerful the character has become over the course of the scene. Also it is a creepy ending to end on as only the eye will be focused on not show the true emotions of the character to the audience.

Evaluation

I think that our group storyboard is a massive success as we have a clear understanding of our narrative that we will be filming in the near future. We have done this by incorporating different elements that stood out from each persons individual storyboard and collected them together and combined them into one for a storyboard that we all like and agree on. Now when we go to film we will all have a clear idea what it is we need to achieve when we film and have a understanding of how the final opening scene will be. If there was anything that I would change to the storyboard it would probably be the conversation the man has on the phone with the emergency services as it unconventional for an opening scene and draws the audience away from the plot of the scene. During the film of the scene I think it should be changed to a distraction of some kind that draws the character away from the other so then they disappear rather. This will keep the audience interested and engaged within the scene.

                 

Risk Assessment - Miss Georgiou

Risk Assessment

Why is it important to consider risks before filming?
It is very important to consider all the risks that we may encounter during the filming period, this was to ensure that the health and safety of my group was taken in account.By creating a risk assessment I can identify all of the risks we will need to look out for before and during the filming process, by identifying this hazards we can prevent from any form of injury occurring to the group. Any faults we found with the setting could therefore be resolved by following the risk assessment and identifying the problems, and making changes to the setting to ensure it was safe while we were there.

 How will the Risk Assessment assist me with filming?
The Risk Assessment will help me with the preparation of filming as now I know what needs to be identified first so we can have a smooth filming problem that will not encounter and problems during the process.

Knife - In our narrative we have included a knife as the main killing weapon, at first we were going to use a real knife. By preparing this risk assessment we can clearly see that this needs to change as it is a sharp weapon that can easyly be harmful if not used with proper precautions. To prevent this hazard we made the decision to purchase a fake plastic knife, as it looks real and will not cause any harm on ourselves. In addition we will also not be running the risk of being arrested as we will be carrying a weapon. If we were to be arrested we would face a minimum of 4 years in prison and a fine of £5000.

Filming Down Roads - This is also another hazard that we need to prevent, as this could inflicted serious injury to members of the group if we are struck by a car. injury's such as broken bone, internal bleed and even death. There are many things that we can do to prevent one of us being seriously injured such as be careful when filming near the roads and be on consistent lookout for traffic when filming. But I think the most effective way of solving the problem is for people that part of the filming process and not actors to be wearing high visibility jackets so it is easier for passing cars to be able to see us and slow down.

Broken Glass - Another hazard that we will have to look out for will be broken glass or anything else that will be sharp on the floor of our setting. This is as it can hurt, or cause bleeding if stood on which can result in serious injury. This is why it is extremely important to make sure the area that is being used for filming is clear of any sharp objects.

Filming Schedule - Miss Georgiou

Why is a Filming Schedule so important?
The Filming Schedule was created during the planning stage of our thriller opening scene, this was for the reason that we had a plan that we could use when filming that we could stick to so we were more organized and productive when we went to film. By making this schedule we defined what we needed to complete on certain days at particular times so we completed the task in time interval we were given to film. This meant that we would not missing anything out and would not have to re-film later on, taking up time from editing therefore making our final scene lack what we would have completed if done in the time interval. Our filming schedule consist of a breaking down of what we needed to include in our film which was the Date and Time we were filming specific parts, location, content and action of each of the shots, there type and duration and then what was included in the shot in the form of Iconography, Personnel and Equipment. From this we have a structured Filming Schedule that we can follow, this will benefit us because we will have something to follow when filming and we can tick off sections when they are complete.

Was the Schedule followed or were any changes made?
We followed the schedule best as possible. We filmed on the proposed data as we were all available on the 13/11/13 and we meet around 4:30 to inspect the setting for any health and safety risk (further explained in risk assessment post). We filmed all of our shots in chronological order that we placed them so that we didn't miss out any of the shots that we needed. We followed it like this as some of us live quite far from the setting so we wanted to complete the filming in one day to increase time being able to edit the footage. However we did decide that some shots weren't need so we removed them from our film one example would be the Point of View shot of the man in search of the girl. This was as we had to many shots of the man walking down the alley way and it would take up more time of the 2:00 minutes if we had to many. In addition we filmed an extra long shot at the end of the girl walking off into the distance, as we felt this was a better cliff hanger. This was because it gives the audience the impression that the girl is walking off to commit a murder again and we saw this ending to be more creepy than a  zooming in close of for the child's face.

Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Credits are very important to film under the thriller genre this is for a mixture of various reasons. Credits introduce the audience to the film that they will be watching by engaging and drawing there attention to the centre of the screen. Credits also clarify to the audience the genre of the film they will be watching. They then go onto to show the audience the actors/actresses , production company and the director.

Se7en Opening Credits

We as a class have analysed the opening credits from Se7en. The credits from the film Se7en appear to be jerky, in a hand written style font, this is for effect as the credits make the audience feel  as they are suddenly place apon them. By making the credits stand out it makes the audience feel as if they are more involved in the scene. The colour of the text is white which contrasts and stands out to the audience as it falls apon a dark brown/black background this shows the contrast between the good and the bad or in the case of the thriller genre the antagonist and the protagonist.This puts the audience on the edge of as they can clearly have the understanding of the narrative which makes them feel more engaged in the scene.

The credits are showed to the audience at equal time intervals which sets out the pace of the film to the audience. To add to the credits they are used during low key lighting which is conventional to the thriller genre which helps for the audience to establish what the genre of the film is straight away. 

In addition during the opening scene the audience sees various Iconography that is conventional that the audience would expect to see throughout the whole of the thriller genre this are things like the small blade, scrapbooks containing photographs, but additional other elements such as, blood (also the colour red, hidden identity, soundtrack are all present within the opening credits as well to implement the understanding of the narrative and genre to the audience. 

Order of Credits of Se7en - Production company, director, actor, title of film, actors continued, casting, music costumes, editors, production, camera operator, co-producer, producer, writing, director

Hannibal Opening Credits Analysis

I individual have analysed the credits of Hannibal.

There are only two main colours used in the opening credits of Hannibal. At the very start the word "Hannibal" is the colour red or the colour of blood straight away after the audience see this they can confirm the genre of the film as the colour is the symbol of blood and blood is used widely across the thriller genre. 

Again the other colours used like Se7en are the colours black and white which again contrasts between the good and the bad. There are two different styles of credits at first the writing of Hannibal is a conventional style which is a lot like handwritten text. Meanwhile the style of the rest of the text is big and bold so it stands out to the audience but is slightly unconventional to the thriller genre. I like the way that the credits unlike Se7en appear to be still and more calming for the audience, this means that audience are given a false representation of the events of the film, and are not completely set up for the events of the film. By using credits like these it doesn't elaborate on the genre of the film and may make the future events of the film seem more alarming to the audience as they have not been set up correctly.

The credits also alike Se7en are shown at equal time intervals throughout the opening scene which again sets out the pace of the film to the audience, they are not displayed in LKL as they are white on a black and white background. But this does distort the audiences view of the credits as they have to engage more in the scene to be able to read them.

Thriller conventions used are the colour red for blood, jump cuts between the random CCTV footage of bird and various buildings, sinister sounds through the changes on screen to make the audience feel vulnerable and close up although this may not be apparent at first the formation of the birds on the floor create the face of the main character, Dr. Lecter played by Anthony Hopkins.  

Order of Credits of Hannibal - Title of film, Main Actor, Other Actors, Casting, Costume Designer, Music, Editing, Production Designer, Director of Photography, Executive Producer, Producers, Screenplay, Director. 

Our Opening Scene Credits

We have decided that our credits will be at the start of the scene and continue throughout the scene until a certain point which will be the scream. They will stop for a period of time and continue to the end of the scene up until the reappearance of the girl in the scene as this is an important part of the scene that needs to be focused on by the audience. The credits will be white so they stand out on the darkness of our footage.

Font One

 This is an unconventional font as it is quite friendly and attractive to the audience view. It engages the audience and is not the style that the audience would expect to see if they were viewing a thriller film.  

Font Two

This is why we are using Font Two as it is quite a conventional font that it similar to ones that have already appeared in thriller films. It stands out to an extent and at the same time is appealing to the audience and quite sinister looking as well. 

Order of Appearance of Relinquish

Production Company - Tiger Blood Productions

Actors Names - Hannah Mahoney, Luke Durrance

Music - Luke Durrance

Costume - Hannah Mahoney

Casting - Hannah Mahoney

Editors - Joshua Lester

Camera Operation - Joshua Lester

Co - Producer - Luke Durrance

Producer - Harry Hyett

Screenplay - Harry Hyett

Director - Harry Hyett

Production Roles - Miss Miller

People need to be given specific roles in order to know there jobs in the opening scenes production. By doing this the process of making the scene will be done effectively in a short space of time as specfic roles have been allocated to individual(s). There are many roles that are of importance but without a certain few there would be no film such as the director, camera operator, actors and the producer, without these roles there would be no film. The director couldn't tell the actors and camera operators what to do . Without the camera operators different camera angles and footage will not be filmed and most importantly without actors there would be not film to watch.

Roles of Our Group
We decided our roles by conferring with what roles we were confident with, so our film would be quicker and more effective. We each had to do a certain amount of tasks between the four of us so we decided to do at least two each and then more if we felt we would be able to do/complete the task that the role would allocate.

Producers - Harry Hyett, Luke Durrance. A person responsible for the financial and managerial aspects of the making of the film, Together we will decided what we will need for our film and purchase the items we need and pay for it ourselves.  

 Director - Harry Hyett. A film director is the person who directs the making of the film, I felt confident in taking this particular role as I constructed the screenplay of our narrative and I know it better than anyone else in the group. This is because I decided on the final camera angles we would be filming and also fully under the role of the audience and how they would respond, It would be easier to complete the opening scene directing.

Actors - Hannah Mahoney, Luke Durrance. A persons whose profession is acting in films, as they are both willing to act in the scene and feel confident in that role, also they are both stereotypical like characters of the thriller genre. Also we had to find people who understood the narrative of the plot, which would be easily maintain by just sticking to the people in our group, me and Joshua already had roles which took up sectiosn from filming so by defeault it had to be Luke and Hannah to perform in this role.
  

Director of Photography (Cameraman) - Joshua Lester. A person whose profession is operating a film camera., Joshua took this role as he clearly knows the location of the setting very well and from this it would be best for him to take the role of cameraman and he already has an idea of what angles can be achieved at the setting. He has worked with the camera before so also knows how to effectively achieve the angles that we need for our opening scene.

Music Producers - Luke Durrance. A record producer is an individual working within the music industry producing music for a film., Luke took this role as he has a knowledge of how garage band works, and also knows various websites that can be used to find copyright free tracks to use in our thriller so therefore he felt confident with this role.
  

Screenplay Writer - Harry Hyett. Is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting of films etc., I took this responsibility as I had a clear understanding of the story line at which we would be including in our opening thriller scene. So I took it apon myself to construct the individual narratives together and combine to make our real narrative/screenplay. This is as I felt I knew the plot better than anyone in my group and knew what elements from each we should combine to make our thriller more effective.

MES Coordinators - Hannah Mahoney, Joshua Lester, Harry Hyett,
The five elements of MES are...

Settings and Iconography, Lighting and colour. - Joshua took this aspect as he had a clear understanding of the setting.

Costume, Hair and Make Up , Body Language and Facial Expressions- Hannah Character was put together by herself and she decide to have a specific costume, and with this used her hair and make-up to make an orphan like character. She also helped with the design of the other character.

Positioning of Characters within the frame - Joshua as the camera with the help of myself will position the characters where he wants them to be on screen this is as he took the role of being the Director of Photography so therefore it is his and my job to decide where we want actors in relation to there position on screen as it is effected by every camera angle that we use it will be an import role made easy by the help of two people.

   Editors - Harry Hyett, Luke Durrance, Joshua Lester. A person who is in charge and determines the final content of the film. We all have a basic understanding of the editing software that we will be using so together we would work together to put our film together. We gained this experience from the preliminary task that we were set before we started filming our opening scene. 

Evaluation of Roles of the Group

By assigning everyone important, different roles, it will make for a smoother running of the creation of our film, this is because everyone will be contributing to the make and completion of the opening scene of the film. It will make the filming take a lot less longer to complete and editing will be quicker as we have a team of three working together to get the job done. If we were to not spread the roles out evenly as a team this will mean that some people will be doing more work than others with will make for a slow process of completing the task set.

Harry Hyett - Director, Editor, Screenplay Writer, Producer. I think I completed all my tasks well. I constructed a organised and combined narrative for our opening scene and then went on the direct for our film as I knew the events of the scene well. In addition I also spent time with Luke arranging a purchase of a knife for our film.

Luke Durrance -Actor, Editor, Music Producer, Producer - I think Luke completed all of his tasks very well, Luke was a good actor and took directions from me and Joshua when we were filming, Luke was a help when we were editing contributing ideas of how the final product should look and again he made the purchase of the knife we need for our scene as well.

Hannah Mahoney - Actor, MES Coordinator - Hannah was a very good actor she was confident in her role of acting as the main character, She also made her character believable and it was very conventional to the thriller genre. She done her own Hair, and Make Up which was really good which therefore made her character even better.

Joshua Lester - Director Of Photography, Editor, MES Coordinator,Co- Producer. - Joshua was a very good cameraman, he took all of my instructions that I gave to him and even talked back suggesting how we should come over problems etc. He found a good location for the setting which had good lighting so was conventional to the thriller genre. Again alike Luke he was very helpful when we were editing and help along the process of putting the film together.

I think if anything could have been done differently I think we should have allocated roles such as Director/Cameraman to more than one person, this  is as these roles are play a massive role in the outcome of the result of our final opening scene. If we were to do it again I think me and Joshua should combine together as joint Directors and Directors of Photography as then we will both have a clearer understand of what we both want to achieve by the end of filming our opening scene. In addition we can also confer ideas to make the opening scene more effective. This can be seen by our collaboration in the positioning of characters on screen where we worked together.
  



Planning Sound - Miss Miller

Sound is also one of the most important elements of the thriller genre as well. It is widely used across the genre to create tension and surprise the audience through a range of different techniques and sound types. It gives the audience a sense of the future events that are going to take place in the scene. Planning is required because we need to have a clear idea of how and when the sounds are going to take place in our sequence. Each sound that we will be using will relate to the images/footage that is in the opening sequence.

Soundtrack, Off Screen, Non-Diagetic - This sound will be used at the start of the sequence and will be low pitched, it will be used to build up tension until the first character will be seen in the film. It will be used at different noise level and will be apparent at the start but will then fade in and out during the course of the film. This is conventional to a film under the thriller genre as it builds up tension for the audience, also it set the pace of the film at a particular moment in time, it is particularly used to give the audience hints to what is going to happen in the future of the scene, so they will be able to relate to the characters further as they will begin to sympathize as they start to wonder what they would do if they were placed in the same situation as the character themselves. It will do this by engaging them more in the scene This sound will bring to the audience a sense of mystery as already they can determine the genre of the film. The soundtrack will create certain emotions/reactions within the audience as they will be constantly changing there bonds with the characters due to the fact of the pace of the soundtrack which will reflect the scene in the film, the audience will be in a constant though change as they will start to question whether or not something is going to happen to that character.

Wind/Rain, Off Screen, Dietetic - This sound will be used throughout most of the scene as it is background noise it will purely be for effect on the viewer. It will act as making the scene feel more realistic for the audience so it makes it easy to relate to the scene. It will similarly to the soundtrack fade in and out depending on different noises in the scene. These sounds are conventional to the thriller genre as most thrillers tend to take place at night time in these particularly harsh conditions, these sounds act as background noise that the audience would expect to hear in this setting which would make the audience easily able to relate to the scene even further. There is no real emotional impact from this sound as it is simply there for the audience to be able to associate themselves with the setting. They however may be able to sympathize with the characters as they are most likely familiar with being extremely cold in wind and rain, they will probably start to sympathize particularly with the small child as she is only wear a thin piece of clothing, so it would seem to them that she would be very cold.  

High Pitched, Off Screen, Non-Dietetic - This sound will be used when the teenagers turn around for the audience to find out that the antagonist has disappeared and has become the killer in the audiences view. It will have a sudden impact on the audience in the way that the sound will not be expected and will make the audience jump and be on the edge of their seats. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it makes the audience emotionally fragile as the events of the film have dramatically been placed apon them, it is used to create a sense of uneasiness in the audience making them feel a sudden state of shock, which increases there bond with the characters as they know what the likely future of that character now is likely to be. From this sound there will be great emotional impact as the audience will experience empathy for the character the sound relates to. There connection will be made stronger because the audience will see clearly that the character in unknowing of the position he will be in at this given time.

Scream in the distance, Off Screen, Diagetic - This will be used when the teenagers hears a scream in the background and gets distracted from the killer. It will be a direct scream that the character and the audience will both hear without a warning making the audience able to further bond with the characters as they are experiencing the same situation. This sound is conventional to the thriller genre as is symbolizes that a character etc, has been placed in trouble. This will only have the effect of shock on the audience as the sound is only there to get the audience to make sense of the narrative. There will some emotional impact from this sound as it source is not known so the sound will not be expected by the audience to happen, making them feel a chilling feel for the characters as they are as aware as the characters themselves to the that they have so suddenly been placed within, this element will place a massive role when it is apparent that the child has disappeared from the now seen victims sight.  

I think that my sequence with the added element of sound and the various different ones will be more effective in creating the main elements of the thriller genre, surprise, suspense. They are conventional sounds that the audience will recognize throughout the genre. These sounds will allow the audience to be manipulated to feel different emotions/feelings depending on each sound.

By planning my sounds it is easy to see how sound plays a massive role in creating a successful thriller opening scene it allows the audience to become more engaged and bond with the characters. And now it is easy to see how without the element of sound it would be easy for the audience to loose interest in the scene. In addition it will be easier now to implement by sounds onto my opening scene as now I know what the purpose each of my sounds that I am using is designed to do, so therefore I know what the effect of that is going to be on the audience at a given times during my opening scene. Without this planning I would just be adding by sounds to my scene with only a basic understand of what each of sounds effects would be on the audience as a whole.  



Planning Cinematography - Miss Miller

Cinematography is one of the key elements in the thriller genre it plays a massive importance in relating information back to the audience through various camera angles that are used in films. It gives the audience a sense of what the film is about but also information about the characters that the audience can relate through there different feelings and emotions different camera angles can display different camera angles emotions and feelings to the audience. This make as the audience feel they are part of the scene because they are feeling the same emotions as the characters in the scene.

It is incredibly important to plan the cinematography that we will be using in our opening scene for a variety of reasons, if we plan the angle/shot we want to use at particular points in our scene it will be a lot easier for us to understand why we are using these certain techniques, and the emotional impact we want our audience to have at this given time. In addition we will have a better understanding of our opening scene as we know what scene will be used where throughout the scene and also the changing moods of the audience in particular camera angles.       

Panning Shot- The first camera angle that we will be using in our opening sequence will be the panning shot to establish the setting that our scene is set in. It will introduce one of the main characters which will be the blonde child walking along in the distance. The camera angle will mainly focus the setting and only briefly on the character.  This camera angle is conventional to the thriller genre as it is used to establish the setting of the scene and also give the audience details about the story line. This camera angle will create the audiences first relationship with the character in the scene. This will be done will the character being shown in the distance which the audience will have there first response to. In addition it is also used to establish within the audience the setting of which events are going to take place. This camera angle is used because without this the audience will not have a clear understanding of the layout of the setting at the beginning of the scene. This shot will be used to make the audience feel as if they are familiar with the setting even before the start of the plot is even reveled to them.    

Long Shot- This is also one the camera angles that I will also be using. Will will use this multiple times throughout the scene because we want the audience to feel distant from the character too make the link between audience and character stronger. This will used on both of the characters. This shot will show the audience the body language and in more detail the setting of the scene. This will be the second camera angle used after the panning shot. This camera angle is conventional to the thriller genre because it is used in thrillers to show the audience the situation the character has been placed in, in more detail which they can relate to further because of the setting. This shot will create a certain reaction within the audience, the shot will make the audience feel as if they are distant from the character, the way in which the character will look smaller will suggest to the audience that she will be a potential victim in this scene.

Close Up- This camera angle will be used to show in detail the facial expressions of the characters throughout the scene. The close up will show the audience various emotions and feelings of the characters. This will help the audience relate to the character because they have been placed in the same position of the characters but they can see their emotions clearly. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it gives the audience an idea of the characters emotions in which they can relate to because the emotions should match the ones of themselves, also this type of shot is used to engage the audience by the use of reflecting all of the characters emotions onto them. This shot will be used to create a certain reaction within the audience as it will be used to try and get the audience to understand the emotions of the characters so then they will be able to empathize with the character therefore creating a stronger bond.

High Angle- This camera angle will be used correctly and to manipulate the audience into thinking that the blonde female is the victim (Although she is not). It will show towards the end that in fact the teenager is in fact the victim. This will be used multiple times to make the audience feel that the characters are vulnerable to then create a strong bond between the two. This camera angle is conventional to the thriller genre because it shows the characters vulnerability and gives the audience the feeling that something in the near future is going to happen to the character. This is in order to create a very strong relationship between audience and characters. This shot will be used to get the audience feeling towards a character become stronger. We will use this camera angle twice as we feel that it is highly effective in making the characters look vulnerable to the audience making them feel more sympathy for the characters.    

Low Angle- This camera angle will be used to manipulate the audience into thinking that the teenager is the killer and not the victim. It will be used to show the character power/dominants over the blonde female. This camera angle will only be used once to directly get the audiences bond with the character to be very weak so then later on into the film the audience will be shocked when they see the shift of power from him to the blonde female so an even stronger relationship is created. This camera angle is conventional to the thriller genre as show a characters dominants over another particular item in order to create that very weak relationship. This camera angle will be used to get a particular reaction from the audience as we want the male character in our scene to be portrayed as the stronger character, so the reaction we want is for the audience to recognize this from this particular camera angle which will show the male character dominating in height over the female. By this they will be able to sympathize further with the character as they will recognize what this angle has set out to achieve as one character is seen as being more powerful/dominating than the other.  

In summary I think my sequence will be more effective in creating emotions/feeling in my target audience. The different camera angles that we are using, are being used to create the illusion of power, weakness, vulnerability etc. By doing this we are making it easy for the audience to obtain a strong or weak relationship with the characters corresponding to their roles in the narrative at given times. By using camera angles like the close up we will make the audience feel as if they are more involved in the scene. These angles are conventional to the thriller genre because they are designed to get the audience to respond to them via the different emotions that are channeled to them. By doing this cinematography planning I clearly know what I have to achieve and obtain during the course of filming my opening scene. I now know how the audience is going to respond to each camera angle so I can go away now and film knowing what to do. 

Planning Characters - Miss Miller

Planning Characters

Purpose of Characters

Characters are need in the film in order for the audience to build relationship with the characters this is in order to be interest in narrative of the film that they are watching.  The audience creates a connection with the characters my the means of different camera angles and also the appearance of themselves as well. If the characters are alike the target audience it makes it easier for them to relate and therefore create a connection. If the characters are interesting and easy to be able to relate to then the audience will be interested in what happens to the characters throughout the narrative.

Characters - Blonde Female Victim Killer
This character will be played by Hannah this character is a young child that is a stereotypical character from the thriller genre portrayed mostly as a victim. She will be wearing female bed clothes of a child that will be stained with some form of blood or dirt. She will be very pale because she is cold from the whether with heavy black eyes. This character is very stereotypical but in our narrative the character starts of as conventional but then turns to unconventional because this character is the killer in our narrative we have taken this route because we wanted our scene to seem conventional but with a twist that the audience wouldn't expect. We thought this was the also the most relateable character for the audience because she is a child and would feel the duty of care for that person through young person(s) in the family. This is why we first portray this character as the victim. The audience are able to build a relationship with the character due to the fact that she is  vulnerable, she looks beat and also quite upset. Because the this the audience feel that they want to help this character because she is isolated from any other forms of help during the start of the scene. 

Characters - Teenage Male Thug Victim
This character will be played by Luke this character is a teenager who would be a stereotypical character from the thriller genre because he is wearing a hoody that will provide hidden identity for the character. The characters clothing will be ordinary clothes of a teenager/thug which will be the hoody, tracksuit bottom or jeans with trainers. Alike the other character and is stereotypical but at first is conventional because the audience sees this character as the killer at first through the use of different camera angles etc. But then turns unconventional because he is the victim of the opening scene. The reason for this is the audience will see him as the killer not the victim but also because they are not particularly seen as the weak character through the whole of the thriller genre. We though this was also quite a relateable character as the target audience of teenagers will be able to relate to this because they may have experienced gangs or people in hoody or because they are portrayed as dangerous through the media for example the London riots. 

Evaluation
 I do think our characters are conventional to the thriller genre because they are stereotypical of the thrillers as they are widely seen across the genre. But because they are not in convectional roles they are quite unconventional. This in my opinion will add a element of twist to the narrative that the audience will not expect will have a massive effect on the switch of the audiences relationship with the characters from strong to weak for the blonde female killer and weak to strong for the teenager. These characters would help put emphasis on genre of my opening sequence because they are very recognizable characters that are always normally seen throughout the genre.

I think by making the audience build a relationship with the little girl  before revealing that she it the killer, is so that the audience create for themselves a greater emotional impact when the girl reappears, this is as they had previous created quite a sympathetic bond with the character they feel deceived when it becomes apparent that see is the killer as they did not expect for this character to take on this role as they expected the man will be manipulated by various camera angles to be more dominant and controlling over the small
defenseless appearing girl.

I think that the use of our very specific characters it will make our sequence more interesting due to the fact that these characters are not that widely used across the thriller genre. There are some thriller films that use the killer as a child such as orphan. By doing this I think the audience will be engaged further as it is still a conventional narrative but will the use of the child becomes more interesting due to the fact that a child is more individualistic than a common adult serial killer.

In addition teenagers/young adults are widely used across the genre as victims this can be seen from such thriller films such as scream. I think by using this particular age group we are able for our target audience to relate even further as they probably have younger brothers or sisters that they have the duty of care for. If they do they can directly relate back to this scene as they can see the connection between thriller film and real life,as the teenager goes in search of the girl once she has gone missing, which will make the experience for interesting for the audience as they can imagine what they would do if they were placed in that situation for themselves.

I found this planning very helpful with my characters because I did have a clear understanding of my characters but now I know how my characters are going to look because of there costumes. Also I now know how I want my characters to be represented throughout my scene and how they should be shown to the audience and how the audience should relate to them. Now I can go into filming knowing confidently about my characters. Without this planning I would not exactly know how my characters should be this is why it was very helpful.   

Planning Editing Styles - Miss Georgiou

Planning Editing Styles

Why is editing important within a thriller film?
Editing is very important within a thriller film as various techniques make an effective thriller film/opening. Various techniques create the element of suspense, tension and shock/surprise which are the main elements of the thriller genre.   

What editing styles will you include within your sequence & why? What effect will this create?

Reaction Shot - We will include this editing technique in our sequence because in out opening sequence we have a part of the scene where the girl vanishes out of sight of the Teenage Male and he is shocked as a little girl who has suddenly disappears out of sight. We can use this editing technique to show the sudden reaction of the man. This will create a shocked effect on the audience as they suddenly experience the emotions and feeling of the man that is in the scene.   

Straight Cut -  We will include this editing style in our sequence because at the start of our scene we have a panning shot of the setting to clarify to the audience the location of the setting that we are using. In this panning shot we will see the girl very briefly so the audience has an idea of the character in the scene. By seeing the character at a distance the audience wants to know more about the character. We can give the audience this by using the straight cut to a Mid-Shot of the character that is seen in the previous shot. 

Jump Cut - We will include this editing style when the scene focuses on the blonde female when she disappears and when she reappears this is because we want the scene to suddenly focus on the girl because it gives the audience a sense of shock that it is important we create because it is one of the key elements to a film in the thriller genre. In addition we can also use this editing technique to sudden focus on one element of the setting such as a light to give an emotion distant between the audience and the characters.

Timing of Shots - We will include this editing technique because we want to create the element of suspense and also surprise when we are creating our scene. We will use this technique through the whole of the scene as we want to create a atmosphere the audience will recognize from other thriller films. We will use this to show the vulnerability of the man and the girl and to show the change of the roles that the audience will see through this editing style and also the camera angles. As the scene draws to the end we can make the timing of shots longer to create the element of suspense for the audience to give them time to thing what is coming up in the next section of the sequence.

How are your editing styles conventional to a thriller film?
 All of my editing styles are conventional to the thriller genre as they are widely used across it. All of these editing styles can be seen in my research for editing styles on the thriller film The Uninvited.

Reaction Shot- This is conventional to the thriller genre because it is used to show the audience the characters reaction due to there facial expressions after something that has taken place during

the film. It is used multiple times across each film as the character is put into a death like situation and it is key for the emotions of the characters to get related back to the audience. This creates an quick emotional burst on the audience as they quick see the characters reactions, as if it was a long time period they would be able to make sense of the situation and feel less disturbed. 

Jump Cut- This is conventional to the thriller genre because it is used to suddenly focus on something. This editing styles show the audience what the character may/may not see and shows in detail something that it important to the scene that the audience needs to focus on. This editing style is used widely across the thriller genre as it is used to create the element of suspense, or shock which are two of the main elements of the thriller genre. This editing style can create suspense by suddenly focusing on a section of  the setting after an event has occurred or it can be used to send the audience into a sudden state of shot so that feel a sense of uneasiness this can be by suddenly focusing on something such as a the killer after a calm part of the scene has just occurred etc. This editing style can be more effective with the use of sound at the transition between camera angles.

Timing of shots- This is conventional to the thriller genre because the timing of shots shows the audience the pace of which the film has been set. It is widely used to create tension or shock throughout the whole of the film. A slow use of timing of shots gives a slow pace to the film which then the audience begin to take in more information from the shots so they are on edge because they do not know what is going to happen next. Whereas fast pace creates a sense of shock/surprise for the audience as they are suddenly seeing quick images that they can not get a great deal of information from that is fast paced.

How will you editing appeal to your audience?

Reaction Shot- This editing style will appeal to the audience because the audience want to be able to see the characters feelings so they can relate because they can see if the reaction that they have to the situation matches the one of the characters.

Jump Cut- This editing style will appeal to the audience as they will suddenly see a change of setting or character. It will suddenly focus on a particular item sending the audience into a sudden state of shock. This will appeal to the audience because shock is one of the main elements of a thriller film and is one they expect to feel.

Timing of Shots- This editing style will to audience because slow timing of shots will engage the audience and build up tension getting the audience prepared for a moment of shock. Whereas if there is fast timing of shots the audience will be engage but will they will feel the element of surprise rather than shock this is why this editing style will appeal to the audience.

Planning Mise-en-Scene - Miss Georgiou

Why is Mise-en-Scene important in a thriller film?

Mise-en-scene is very important in a thriller film as all of the aspects of mise-en-scene together make a sucessful thriller film. All of the elements play a role in creating a conventional thriller by bringing all of the esstienal structure/conventions of the thriller genre together. Some elements tend to create a connection between the audience and the character in the film. While other tend to make the thriller feeling and conventions the viewer expects to see when watching a thriller film.

 What is the Mise-en-Scene of your thriller film? and Why?

Setting and Iconography - The setting of our thriller opening scene is an industrial estate at night time. The setting is covered with lampposts at different intervals beaming dim light illuminating the path and some of the road. It is mostly dark so lots of shadows are created creating the eerie setting that we want as the distance it barely visible with no help around as not many people go to this place at night. Creating a secluded setting that the audience expects to see in a thriller film.The audience properly have visited this setting before and can relate to it making it an ideal setting. Props that we will be using are a knife as it is a conventional killing weapon that is used widely across the thriller genre the knife will be stained in blood because blood is also a massive symbol in the thriller genre.  

Costume, Hair and Make Up - 
Blonde Female Victim - This character will be played by Hannah. We as a group want to give the audience the interpretation that this character is in some way or another a victim of some sort we can show this through the use of the characters costume and hair and make up. We want the costume to be that typical of a young girl as night time. We though the best way to capture this would be by making the character wear some form of bed ware. This would make the audience feel more relatebale to the character as they would feel comfort in the attartie worn by the girl. In relation to the hair and make of the character we want the character to look very pale with heavy black eyes. This is as we want her to stand out on the camera for the main reason that she looks very cold by the pale face and heavily bruised so it looks like she has been hurt by the heavy black eyes. Her hair will also be as if she beaten it will be scruffy and not straight so it looks like she hasn't spend time preparing for something.

Teenage Male- This character will be played by Luke. We want the audience to be able to relate to this character the most as they will experience empathy for this character when the switch of power takes place in the scene. We want this character to look as stereotypical as possible so the audience will be able to relate the most to this character. The characters costumes will mostly consist of wearing typical clothes of a teenager for outdoor wear such as jeans, coat and trainers. This will be so the audience can relate further to this character as our target audience will dress very similar to this particular character as he will be in there same age groups. In terms of make up and hair the of the character it will be completely unchanged so it looks normal so the audience can relate even further.

Facial Expressions and Body Language - The facial expressions and body language of each of the characters will vary as we want the audience to gain different responses from each of these character.

Blonde Female - The blonde female will be completely emotionally disturbed at the start of the scene showing neutral facial expressions with a slow and upset body language. This will be until she meets the teenager down the alley way. Her facial expressions will rapidly change as she become more confident and stands up straight, she will break out with a smile looking at the teenager before she disappears.
When she later returns towards the end of the scene she will move slowly with a confident body language and once again a smile on her face as she know the task she set out to do has been complete. After she has killed the teenager she will become complete emotion neutral as she is starring at the corpse of the life she has just claimed.

Teenager - We want the teenager to show confidence on the way up the alley way before we meets the girl. We want this to be maintained until the shift of power has taken place between the two characters. This is when the characters confidence will be dropped as he will become more panicked and confused as he does not understand the situation that has just occurred.
                         
Lighting and Colour - Our filming will be taking place at night so the light we can use to our advantage will be the light produced by the lampposts. It will be Low Key Lighting as only the lampposts will be used There will be many shadows that will be cast my the dim light so it will create an eerie setting. The colours that we will mainly use will be dark like the fake blood that will be on the blonde females costume and the blood on the knife as well. We will relie on the lampost as our main light source as it is the only conventional light used in the thriller genre and any other lights used would defeat the purpose of have a shadows redian setting.                      
Positing of Characters/Objects within the frame - At the start of the scene the blonde female victim will be central to all of the shots in the scene she will be represent by camera angles such as the high angle to show her vulnerability in the setting. In addition she will also be insignificant in some of the shots to show at first how little power she has. When the characters meet they will both be central to the scene if we film some of the shots from a low angle we can show how dominant the male character is over the blonde female victim at first. When the power shift has occurred will be reverse these techniques to also show the audience the dominants/vulnerability of the characters. 

How is the Mise-en-Scene conventional to a thriller film

 Set Iconography - A thriller film makes go use of this element as thriller film take place in a secluded location usually for example a house. The setting is usually linked with the audience so they can relate to the film and the character. This stands as well for the Iconography of the film. The typical props that the audience sees for example a knife can be seen across the whole of the genre. So it is important that the film contains a set of props which are conventional to the thriller genre.

Costume, Hair and Make up - Some thriller films contain very iconic figures which have very complex costumes and others contain more eerie character with costumes. This is also another important element as the costumes and features of the character need to be widely considered as they need to be relateable to the auidence so they can create a bond with the audience.

Facial Expressions and Body Language- Thriller films contain lots of the characters emotions throughout the film and they are expressed through many camera angles such as close ups. This element needs to be considered as the audience will not feel the emotions of the character and will not be able to create a bond with them during the film.

Lighting and Colour - Needs to be considered as Lighting is key to creating a suspencful thriller film. If the lighting is not considered the film will not have the same effect on the audience of suprise, tension and shock created by various lighting techniques such as Low Key Lighting. As the colour as well it can comminicate esitenial information to the audience such as blood can mean death.

Positioning of Character and Objects within the frame - This element draws attention to a character at a certain time. This is important in thriller because they tend to focus highly on a character before they are killed. It gives time for the audience to bond with the characters that they have been draw to because of this element.

How can you thriller build a relationship with your target audience?

During my thriller opening scene there are many ways I cna build a relationship with my target audience. I can do this my the facial expression and body language of the charaters. I will do this by making the actor who plays the blonde female express her emotion that she feels the characte would feel like if she was in the situation of the character and show these to the audience in Close Ups and Mid-shots of the actor. I can also show this my having the blonde female in the centre of most of the shots in the opening of the scene to make it apprent to the audience that the girl is in trouble therefore creating a connection with her as they will feel they want to help her.

Preliminary Task - Miss Georgiou

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task that the group had to complete of a character walking in a room and having a brief conversation with another character using various camera angles and editing techniques. Group Members: Harry Hyett, Luke Durrance, Hannah Mahoney and Joshua Lester. 

Purpose?

The purpose of the preliminary task was to get to know the cameras that we will be using in our thriller opening but also using various camera angles and editing techniques and basics of the editing software will be also be using as well. This will play a massive role in the future when we come to actually create our own thriller opening sequence, this is as we will then have some training in the use of the cameras and how to achieve certain camera angles, with the use of a steady shot which can be achieved with the use of the tripod. After this we will then be able to get the understanding of how we can transport all of the footage that we have taken on the camera and transfer it onto the Mac for editing and finalization of the footage for exporting onto YouTube. By learning this process I will be able to achieve the whole of the process in the future,  in a quick and clear way which I will then be able to easily complete late on when we come to make our own thriller opening scenes.

Objective?

Our task was to film and edit a scene where a character opens a door, crossing the room and sitting down opposite another character and then they exchange a few lines of dialogue. The task should have demonstrated match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180-degree rule and had to me a maximum of one minute in length.

When filming we managed to complete the shot reverse shot which can be seen in the video as we shot from various angles when we was filing the conversation between both of the characters.

We also completed the task of not breaking the line of the 180-degree rule as can be seen when I am walking in through the corridor into the classroom as we do not film in the opposite direction therefore breaking the 180-degree rule. However we had to break the rule when filming the shot reverse shot as it meant filing in both directions of the setting when filming.

In addition we also did not get near maximum the length of the scene, so when we go to film our opening scene from this I can take from this task I need to film more footage than I need to get near to the length of 2:00 minutes when I create my opening scene.   

What did I learn?

During this task I learnt how to work the camera that we will be using and also how to set-up the tripod and use it to do various shots such as panning etc. I also learn that we need to consider the types of camera angles we are going to use before we start to film and also what position the camera should be in when taking shots of film. And finally I learnt the basics of the editing software that we will be using to create our film on by combining all of the sequences of film we took and combining and cropping certain sections of the film to create the final product. 

What did I struggle with?

We struggled to fulfill the objective of the 180 degree rule as we had a very small space to work in. So we broke the rule when doing the shot reverse shot technique as it went from behind one character and then behind another. Also our camera angle on the shot reverse shot was not close enough to the characters face so we saw as the audience a large amount of the background that was not needed during the scene as we had already established that the setting was in a school classroom. Finally most of our shots were at a high angle for no apparent reason we should have considered using the tripod at different levels of height instead of mostly one to give the audience a wide range of angles in the scene.   

How will the preliminary task assist me with the planning and creating of my own thriller film?

The task that we completed will help me in the way that now I have a basic idea of how all the elements of creating my own thriller opening sequence work. I know how to use the camera/tripod also have an idea of how to create camera angles and know how the editing software works. I have the foundations to go and start filming my scene once my group have decided on a narrative that we all like and feel is specific to the genre.