Thegz Presentation

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We as a group made a questionnaire for our research into what our audience would expect and want from a thriller. We gave out 19 questionnaires, 8 of which were given out to males and 11 to females. The ages we branched towards was 16-19, which is near our own ages and are the peak age for most thriller fanatics. They were asked what they expected from a thriller and the most common answers were:

• Scary Moments
• Elements of the Unknown
• Unexpected Twists
• Blood & Gore

We also asked what appeals most when they watch a thriller. The most common responses ranged between:

• Storyline/Narrative
• Suspence
• Element of Suprise
• Realistic Locations
• Tense/Eerie Music

The favourite type of thriller chosen was the Psychological Thriller. This proved our choice of thriller succesful and gave us more confidence in the outcome of our film.

On the 7th April we re-filmed the last few shots of our Thriller. As previously we were unsure of the outcome of our current shots we decided to re-shot. As soon as we got to the location we had a small discussion of the plans and what we aimed to achieve, after this we went straight into filming ensuring no time was wasted.
Again the role of director and camera-man was shared between us. We successfully worked together helping each other to accomplish the best result. After an hour of shooting we were satisfied with our outcome. The day was an overall success and we have now completed the filming process. Next week we will be reviewing the shots and continue editing the final product. We will plan to edit and add music/credits in one day, in order for us to have enough time to concentrate on other aspects of this course.

[Soundtrack.]

With the editing, we also started to think about soundtracks we could use for our Thiller.
As a group we wanted to put a soundtrack with our Thriller which we hoped would help create the mood and atmosphere we were hoping for. The main problem with choosing a soundtrack is the issue of copyright. In order to prevent this we used the website www.audio.lgfl.org.uk. We found out about this site whilst at the CLC editing our preliminary task. We found a few soundtracks we liked which we believed would work well with our Thriller. These were called:
-Heart of Hell
-Heart of Hell 2
-Mystery Killer
-Crime against the person
-Enemy Within
-Arachnophobia

However, when we tried to download these soundtracks we encountered a problem whereby the ICT technician had to download them himself. Once he had done this, we listened to our chosen soundtracks and selected various points in the track we believed would work best in our Thriller and deciding to mix and match a few too.

[Editing The Group Work.]

Today we began the editing process. As a group we all sat down and looked at all the current footage we have filmed. This took a little longer than expected due to technical errors, and after thoroughly looking at all our shots we chose the specific ones that we wanted to use for our final opening clip. Although our ideal goal was to have nearly all the scenes edited by the end of the day, this was not accomplished. Once we began to look over the clips we immediately noticed some continuity errors were present. This had en effect on the way our work was being perceived. After trying to correct these errors with fades and cuts we have decided that the wise choice will be to re-film these shots in order to achieve the high quality of work we are aiming for. Even though we encountered problems today, it hasn't all gone to waste. The good news is that the scene that we will be re-filming is the less time consuming and most of our footage is successful, most importantly it is usable! We aim to re-shot the scene in the Easter break where we will have enough time to mend these mistakes.

Research of Thrillers.

[Saw. 2004]

Directed & Produced by James Wan and Gregg Hoffman

Saw is an American horror franchise that currently consists of five films, the first distributed in 2004 is the first installment of the Saw film series. The film's story revolves around two men who are kidnapped, trapped and locked in an industrial bathroom with a dead body between them and given instructions related to escaping. Police detectives investigate and attempt to apprehend the criminal responsible, the "Jigsaw Killer".

Saw begins with two male characters trapped and chained in a unknown room, or to what looks like a bathroom. An establishing shot is used to give an insight in to what the room is like while at the same time familarising the audience with the current location. The films often uses flashbacks to tell the story during the duration in which the characters are trapped. This helps to introduce other characters as they have a significance for the main part of the film later on.

URL for the Saw trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oNhcNxnhJ0

[SOUNDTRACK.]

The film’s soundtracks have worked to build on the films’ already grim but entertaining stylizations. This album opens quickly with some hard-hitting electronic score that laws some impressive groundwork for an album that turns out to be much more listenable than non-metal fans might think at first glance. This isn’t the type of hard rock that strives for screaming vocals and overly heavy guitar. Instead, there’s a general sense of anger and struggle running through these tracks that plays nicely under the surface of the music rather than straight up front. The music in the more electronic tracks even come across as borderline video game style, though the haunting vocals on both change that perception. The last track is a lot quieter and contemplative at first, though, before building into a pounding crescendo that ends the album. Saw's album is a solid mix of score and soundtrack.

[Internet Research.]
Site Description: With a dead body laying between them, two men (Whannell and Elwes) wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw" by the police because of his unusual calling card.

[Synopsis of Film.]

Two men wake up at opposite sides of a dirty, disused bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes. Between them lies a dead man loosely clutching a hand-held tape player and a handgun. Each finds a tape the perfect fit for the player in their back pocket. They play the tapes. One is threatened, the other isn't. But they have a task: One must kill the other by 6:00, or his wife and daughter will die. They find hacksaws in a toilet, and try to cut the chains, but it doesn't work. They are the two newest victims of the Jigsaw Killer. In a flashback, we learn of Amanda, a girl who falls victim to the Jigsaw Killer. On her head is a mask, which is hooked into her lower jaw. There is a timer on it. Only one key will unlock it, and that key is in the digestive tract of her cell mate who lies paralyzed on the opposite side of the room. If she doesn't unlock the mask in time, her lower jaw will be ripped wide open. She survives, but her cell mate doesn't. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn of more victims, and of the nearly-successful capture of the Jigsaw Killer, who doesn't actually kill his victims. Instead, he finds ways to make them kill either themselves, or each other, and he thinks the entire 'game' out perfectly, with no other ways out. Or so it would seem.

[Evaluation.]
"Saw", like our film, is a psychological thriller. We used and developed the ideas from saw and implanted them into our own media production. From the first "Saw" movie we used the short, mysterious name for our title. Likewise the title is a mystery until its true meaning is revealed near the end of the film. From the second "Saw" movie (Saw2, however, we used the 'numbers on body parts' idea. In the movie they all have numbers on the back of their necks which form a code to unlock the door to their survival. We used this idea but we changed the relevance of the numbers. The dead body has number 23 written on the forearm and the character who is captured has number 24 written on her thigh. These numbers are significant as in to show the order of which the bodies are captured and killed.
The music and atmosphere for this film has inpired the editing of our clip. The eerie, trademark "Saw" music keeps an audience locked on to their screens in anticipation of something happening. We tried to use and challenge this by using music in build up to action, keeping people on the edge of their seats, but we also challenged this by only using ONE sountrack throughout the scenes.
So we have used the film "Saw" (and Saw2) to our advantage in means of storylines and editing.

Soundtrack Research.

[Silence of the Lambs.]

Silence of the Lambs (1990) is regarded as one of the best psychological Thrillers ever made. it won Oscars for Actor, Actress and Best Film.

[The Opening.]
At the begining there is an establishing shot of a forest-like scenery. A woman is running through and is introduced as the first character which would assume she is the main character. Seeing a woman running would make us assume she is running away from someone or something, making her look vunerable. She starts to climb an assault-course by which we register she is not in danger and later realise she is part of the FBI.
The music from the begining is an eerie peice of classical music which is immediatly unsettling. In fact we are waiting for something to happen to the woman. The music makes us predict something in the visuals.

[The Interveiw.]
The soundtrack is playing through the course of her walking up to Hannibal Lecter in his cell. It is used to unsettle the auidence without going to its full tempo.

[The Escape Scene.]
The scene opened with diegetic classical music playing which later turns into part of the soundtrack. This suggests a peaceful scene. It joins two different sounds together to become a faster peice of music. A high tempo soundtrack creates immideat anxiety/tension. Then the soundtrack stops and the classical diegetic music returns to the scene.

[Buffallo Bill is Killed.]
As Clarice staggers around the darkness the soundtrack builds again to a crescento until she shoots him and then the music dies down along with the character or Buffallo Bill.
The audience is familiar with the soundtrack from its use of key moments in the film. It is very loud which can be draining.

[Internet Research on the Film.]

Tagline:

Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Brilliant. Cunning. Psychotic. In his mind lies the clue to a ruthless killer. - Clarice Starling, FBI. Brilliant. Vulnerable. Alone. She must trust him to stop the killer.


[Evaluation.]
We liked the way this film had only used one soundtrack through the key moments so we decided to do the same, we researched music and found one that fitted in with our scenes and the genre of psychological thrillers. we felt this was powerful in getting the audience familiar with the significance of the music to the scene.

Begining The Filming.

We chose our locations,actors & props, & then went out to start filming. When we familiarised ourselves with the camera and surroundings we started to get to work.
We went over the storyboard and decided what things we should change/tweak then started with the visuals. We started applying make-up & fake blood for the authentic Thriller element.

Group Blog:
http://number24-coursework.blogspot.com/