My Thriller Evaluation

From watching the ‘Watching’ Documentary, I’ve learnt what ‘A favourite trick of Film Noir’ is, which is a process where it reveals the opening credits starting from the end of the story therefore becoming more understandable to the audience once the same clip is shown again but near the end of the film this time. Also that a good beginning makes the audience feel that they don’t know enough yet, at the same time as making sure that they don’t know too little so that it creates a suspense towards the audience and keeping them engaged so that they have enough information to help them know what is going on in the film. This influenced our thriller seeing that we created quick flashbacks near the beginning and ending of the film.

The features of both an opening and a thriller that we’ve put into our film were the effective titles sequences to help create a chilling effect towards the thriller, the characters (the victim and the killer), setting and location (in college and in quiet chilling area near a park), the use of camera and editing (matching points, panning, tracking etc) and the ideas of lighting and music. The dim lighting is revealed in the scene where the killer is researching information on the victim near the beginning. The darkness in the room is not only to cover the identity of the killer, but to express the anger that she is feeling through this revenge, contemplating the reason why she is doing this.

The props used were the chair, computer, umbrella (because it was raining during the filming) and the ipod. The non-diagetic sound is used when the victim is listening to music on the ipod. This was used in order to distract not only the character itself but the audience too. We made this shot last long to build tension so that the audience don’t know when the killer scene is about to happen. The diagetic sound takes place when it is raining and when the victim screams.

For the shot types of our thriller we used medium shots to concentrate on the character and their reactions, a close up shot implies after the victim walks past. This shot here focuses on her facial expression at this moment which is anxious as she starts walking slowly. An extreme close up is shown when the killer looks at the audience in the dark, here focusing on one detail. As an audience, this would give me the impression that the killer is looking at me as if I’m her next target. We also have a point of view shot when the victim looks into the camera to experience how the killer views this victim to show that she has got something to do with the main character. Other then that we used long shots to focus on the victims surroundings in this scene where the killer is about to attack. Here the audience know that the killer is following her however the character does not. This is where dramatic irony takes place.

Based on the film making, I’ve learnt how to do a panning shot on the tripod when following the characters movements rotating the camera while its still to reveal what is happening from the characters point of view, I’ve also learnt how to do match-cuts which is when you are shooting or recording the same shot but at different camera angles, plus I’ve learnt how to edit the clips when connecting it to the computer such as trimming excessive clips, deciding on whether the shots are at good quality or not, selecting which clips were effective and suitable for the genre along with the arranging the footage smoothly in with the rest of the shots.

In my film, there are two characters, one is a strong female killer who is 21 years old whilst the other character is a weak woman as a victim who is 30 years old. We thought to make the killer a woman because in normal thriller movies, men are often the killers and so we as a group decided to make it different.

As a group we feel that our thriller movie would be a small independent UK release because the film is good based on the work we have done however not as good if it was going to be big as its not as professional looking as we wanted it to look plus we have a typical storyline as we watch the opening however not so typical as the storyline behind this is about a girl (the killer) who is searching for the person who was responsible for her mother’s death to get revenge. However what this person does not know is that the blameworthy man is in prison, so whilst she’s looking for the killer, she is killing the ones closest to him which starts off with his wife (the victim).

The audience for our thriller would have to be from 15 years and over.

We would market our film by advertising posters outside shopping areas on the walls, phone booths and perhaps on the buses, on the internet and through trailers. The typical shots we might add for our genre is a piece where it mentions whose starring in the film, three seconds of a clip where the victim is crossing the road and looks at the killer before she makes the move, the typing on the computer, zooming in the victims face and showing the killer following the victim through the bushes before the murder.

Based on the process of constructing this product, when it came to editing our thriller, we had to use a program called ‘Final Cut Pro’ I had a good experience in using this program when cutting out unwanted bits from the shots using input and output and fitting it in to another shot to make it flow nicely alongside with including effects using the ‘Soundtrack Pro’ and ‘Live Type Pro’ for the titles. Before, during and after making the film, we had to write everything we did on a blog, to keep track on what we’ve done or are doing so far with our thriller. After we finished, we had release our movie on not only our blogs, but on a website called ‘vimeo’ too. This will most likely widen the amount of audience who would watch the thriller.

Our thriller was very successful because of the positive feedback we had from the class. Most of them liked the variety of shots along with the effects, camera work and editing. They also mentioned that the sound track went exactly with what was happening in the thriller.

In my opinion I liked our thriller and most of the shots were good quality. On the other hand the only problem was that it did not reveal much of the background of the storyline because the narrative of the thriller is about a woman who is getting revenge but set to kill the closest person to her original victim, however watching it from an audiences point of view, looks like a murderer searching to kill for no reason. I think to improve it we should revealed a flashback on what the actual murderer did to her mother near the beginning then show the thriller the way it is now so that the audience would have a better understanding on what is happening in the film. Other then that I am happy with the results.