Auidence Research Questionniare

1) What is your favorite sub-genre?
a)Gangster
b)Crime/spy
c)psychological - 3
d)Action - 2
e)Other - 2

2) What do you think makes a good thriller character?
a) Costume
b) Dialogue
c) Motive
d) All of the above - 7

3) What kind of location would you prefer a thriller to be set in?
a) Somewhere exotic
b) Unrecognisable - 2
c) Recognisable - 5
d) Other

4) What music do you think works best?
a) Instrumental only - 6
b) Instrumental and vocal - 1
c) vocal only
d) Silence

5) What director of thriller films do you like best?
a) Tarintino
b) Hitchcock - 6
c)Martin Scorsese
d) other - 1

6) What aspects of thrillers do you think works best?
a) Sound - 2
b) Costume
c) character - 3
d) Location - 1
e) Lighting - 1


I was asked to design a questionnaire and hand it out to 10 - 15 people. I handed my questionnaire's out to teenagers; ages 16/17.

For my first question I asked; 'What is your favorite sub-genre? ' I found out that 3people liked psycholigical films, 2 people liked action and 2 people liked other sub-genre thriller films.
The second question I asked was; ' What do you think makes a good thriller character? ' For this question I provided different answers; Costume, Motive, Dialogue or All of the above. From the feed back I discovered that everyone who filled in my questionnaire said they think 'all of the above' makes a good thriller character.
The third question I asked was; ' What kind of location do you prefer a thriller film to be set in? ' 2 people said they would prefer the location to be unrecognisable and 5 people said they would prefer the location to be recognisable.
The fourth question I asked was; ' what music do you think works best ? ' Six people decided that instrumental would work best whilst only one person thought instrumental and vocals would work the best.
For the fifth question I asked; ' What director of thriller films do you like the best? 6 people liked Hitchcock the best and one person said other, the director varies.
For the sixth and final question I asked; ' What aspects of thriller films do you think works best? ' 2 people replied sound, 2 people replied characters, 1 person replied location and 1 person replied lighting. This question had the biggest variety of answers in terms of feedback of what people thought works best in thriller films.
The information found out from this questionnaire will help me out whilst filming and planning our thriller. e and my production group have decided that we will be filming in a recognisable location. The information from this will help us decide what aspects of thrillers to include as well.

Shot List For Our Thriller

1. Vanishing point of girl walking down the raod
2. Panning / tracking shot up body
3. Long shot of girl
4. Close up of man's feet
5. Over the shoulder shot of gilr entering the park
6. Mid shot of girl walking and looking over her shoulder and on edge
7. Mid shot of the man on the side in a hoodie uinder a steet lamp
8. Long shot of girl walking around a building and over the band stand
9. Side mid shot as she walks past the pond
10. Close up of the man's feet, reverse shot gouing from close up of his feet to hers get to the end of the reverse shot and the girl begins to speed up
11. Close up of the girls face as she looks over her shoulder, the mam has dissapered.
12. Close up of the girl taking her heels off and starting to run ascross the feild
13. Shots of her running and looking over her shoulder
14. Mid shot of the girls chest and her running into the man.
15. Close up of the girl's face looking up at the man, panicked. " What do you want? "
16. Mid shot, going into long shot of the girl walking backwards
17. Long shot of the gril running away, running back the way she came
18. over the shoulder shot of the man watching the girl run away
19. Over the shoulder shot -> mid shot -> long shot of the man slowly walking towards the girl.
FADES TO BLACK

Preliminary Task and Questions

What planning did you do for your filming task, and how did this planning aid in the filming?

Before we started to film our preliminary task we had to make a storyboard, a shooting map and a shot list. We made these because it would help us through the process of making our short film. We made the story board because it would help us to see what shots would have to be used and what angles we would film from. The shooting map helped us plan out where we would want our character to enter and where to leave, also where abouts they would have to walk to meet the other character. The shot list helped us to try and use as many as different shots as possible in our film. We used a variety of different shots, including long shots, extreme close ups and shot/reverse shots.

What camera and editing techniques and codes did you use in your film and how do they influence the audience’s understanding of the film?

At the start of our film, we decided to have the camera following the feet of our character, Ellie, as she walked down a hall way. As she turned a corner we used a over the shoulder shot, which then became a long shot of her walking down the hall way and turning a corner. We also used a close up of her get again as she was walking down some stairs, which became a mid shot at the bottom of the stairs. We used a long shot when she was walking down the second set of stairs. Whilst our characters were having a conversation, we decided to use a shot/reverse shot of the two characters talking. When Elie was speaking we filmed it from over Liam's shoulder ( the other character in our film) and the same for when Liam was talking, it was filmed over Ellie's shoulder. We tried to use a wide range of shots in our preliminary task so that we could practise them for when we come to film our thriller.

How did you use new technologies in your construction, planning and evaluation (eg. digital camera; non-linear editing software; youtube, blogger) and what skills do you have at using this technology? (strengths and weaknesses eg. steady/shaky camera; variety of shot types; smooth/clumsy; independence when using technologies...)
When we filmed our prelimary task we used a digital camera and a tripod. Whilst filming me and my partner decided to take the camera off the tripod so that we could try and get the best result from our shots taht were being used, with us doing this it resulted in a few shaky scenes, so now when we come to film our thirller we know not to take the camera off of the tripod as we want to get the best result possible. Whilst filming ou can hear people talking in the background, off camera. When we edited the preliminary task, we used adobe elements, which is video editing programme. At first we found it hard to use as we had never used it before, but as we used it more and more to edit our video, it became a lot easier to use. Whilst filming our preliminary tasks i noticed things that didn't look so good as other parts in our video. After editing and finishing off our film we then uploaded it onto yourtube, and then embeded it on our blogs. I think doing this preliminary task will help us a lot when it comes to filming our thrillers because we can look back at our preliminary task and see what shots we didn't do well, and then try to improve them and make them of a better quality in our thriller. Also whilst filming our preliminary task we have realised that recording a video whilst holding the camera results in shaky scenes and having shaky scenes doesn't make the video look good, so in our thriller it would be best to keep the camera on the tripod as we would want the best quality that we can get.

Story board and shot list of preliminary task

This is the story board that we had to creat for our preliminary task that was set. The shot opens up with an extreme close up of a girl's feet then it slowy moves to a long shot of her. Then an over the shoulder shot is used as she goes round a corner, then a long shot, which then turns into an extreme long shot of her as she walks across the balcony then she vanishes and walks around a corner. There is then a close up of her feet as she comes down the stairs, which then turns into a mid shot of the character. A close up of the character's hand as she opens the door, then a long shot of the charcter walking to a table where the second character is sitting. Then a shot reverse shot of the two characters having a conversation, about a missing phone. Then a long shot is used as the character leaves the room.

Opening narrative shots and title lenghts of thrillers

Taxi Driver Marting Scorsese; 1976

Camera, frame, movement and angles; There is an extreme close up of the characters eyes and then there are a lot of shots of the city and of smoke when the camera shows us shots of the city.

Sound; At the opening credits romantic and soft musics is being played when the camera is on the mans eyes but when the shot is of the city, the soundtrack then changes to a tense and deep, loud music. You can hear the diagetic sound of the phone ringing when the man enters the office.
Mise-en-scene; During the opening credits you see an extreme close up of the man's eyes in the rear view mirror and shot's of the city, it then cuts into a shot of a man walking into the office with a phone ringing.

Heat Michael Mann; 1995

Camera frame, movement and angle; There is a long shot a train coming into the station. Then a close up of a man walking into the station. There are also extreme close ups of the mans face to show his expressions, his expression is quite stern. Then there is use of an over the shoulder shot of him going to the escalator, then a tracking shot when the man walks into a hospital and a long jumpshot of all the patients that are being treated and a lot of doctors bustling about.

Sound; As the scene opes there is quite soft music but then the train breaks through it so you hear the diegetic sound of the train coming into the station. When the character goes into the hospital there is siegtic sound of heart monitors, patient's voices and the doctors shuffling about.

Mise-en-scene; A train coming into the station and crowds of people who are 'business like.' Then a shot of the man in the hospital, heart monitors, patients and doctors.

Identity James Mangold; 2003

Camera frame, movement, angle; There are a lot of jumpcuts in the beginning of old files, and pictures.

Sound; Sound of thunder and lightning outside of the window. Two men talking, asking questions, almost like an interview, and you can see a tape recorder.

Mise-en-scene; The jumpsuts shows a lot of files and drawings which look like children's drawings. Then from innocent drawings the camer jumpscuts to violent images of murdered people. The mise-en-scene also shows the man working, and the lightning is also shown outside the window.

Opening credits; The opening credits is like 'typed font', font ou would find on important documents, and its quite small, capital, simple and formal. The font is in the corners of the screen as the jumpcuts are happening.

Red Road Andrea Arnold; 2006

Camera frame, movement and angle: Quite a lot of close up's of the female character's face which gives us a clearer image of her expression. Mid shots of her head, and shoulders. Camera shots of security cameras' and the quality of these shots are blurred and are bad quality.

Sound: Diegetic sound of her pushing buttons and the sound of her breathing and laughing softly.

Mise-en-scene: The mise-en-scene is of the woman working and the images on the screen that she is watching. The woman is sitting in darkness, and the glow from the screens lights up her face and there is also a non-ambient lighting on her face.

Opening credits: Blurred camera moving around with small informal font.

Life On Mars

We watched the opening to Life On Mars and commented on the difference between society in 1973 compared to our society today. Our main focus was mainly on the difference's in the police head quarters.

Ethical / Politically incorrect;

• People smoking in the office.
• Drinking alcohol in work time.
• Reading porn.
• Meeting the press in the pub.
• They mock the murder victim.
• Sexist jokes. " You're as white as a ginger birds arse"

Technological differences;

• Piles of files and paper work.
• Type writers.
• Old phones.
• Izal toilet paper.
• Black and white TV ( Channels 1, 2 and 3 only )
• Switch board operator.
• They didn't know how to do finger prints.

Actions that were acceptable in 1973 / Cultural context;

• Beating workers up.
• Evidence from crimes are brought in by hand.

London to Brighton analysis

The opening scene we see a middle aged woman and a young girl bursting into a public toilet, in London. The lighting that is being used is very dim. The young girl is crying her eyes out, her clothes are ripped and her make-up is smeared over her face. The older woman has a black-eye which is swollen. She is wearing a mini skirt and a very revealing top. At this point in the film we don't know what has happened to both of the females, but we can see that they are scared. We hear the younger gril crying, and from her emotions we can tell that she is scared and worried. As soon as they get into the toilets, the older woman shuts the door and quickly locks it. The older woman turns to the mirror infront of her, and only just realises how much danmage has been made to her face.

"Gotta get if off ya" These are the first words that we hear in the film. The older woman starts to was the make-up off the younger girls face. Sumding the lip-stick and eye make-up off. The woman then moves the firl into a toilet cubical and tells her to lock the door. When this happened we could tell taht something has happened or something bad is about to happen. The older woman locking the young girl in the toilet shows us that she is hiding from someone.

"Go in and don't let anyone in 'til I get back" This is a simple command that the older woman tells the young girl to do. " Where are you going" replies the young girl, who sounds scared, as she doesn't want to be left there by herself. The older woman replies; "To get some money so we can get a train outta 'ere"

The auidence at this point is left wondering where they will be going.

Before we can see the next shot, we hear the sound of cars driving past. As it cuts to the scene, we can guess it will have something to do with cars. The shot as the next scene comes in, is of a very gloomy looking road, with lampposts shinning bright down a road, where we see young girls in mini skirts. We can hear the older womans heels as she is walking up the strret, towars a parked car. We then learn how she will get the money for the train. She will get her money by sleeping with the man in the parked up car.