Production roles- Miss Miller

Production roles are used to provide organisation and consistency, everyone knows what role they have and can focus on that specific job. If a certain production member needs to change something or discuss a certain aspect of the film they know exactly who and where to go to do this. This results in the filming and editing becoming less tom consisting, as the film can produced as efficiently as possible. Production roles also allow the film to be consistent as each person knows how to do their job and keep at the same quality throughout, whereas if roles were not allocated then the quality of each job would be non consistent and the film would not be to a acceptable quality. The roles include:

Camera Operator - The camera operator is also known as the cinematographer who professionally operates the the film or the video camera. They are usually responsible for operating the camera and maintaining composition and camera angles throughout a scene or shot. Camera operators collaborate with directors, actors and crew members to make creative decisions.

Actors - For the audience, actors are the most visible and tangible part of the production. An actors role consists of rehearsing and reciting there line and performing them on camera. They act in a dramatic and comical way to entertain the audience and create and effect.

Editor - The editors job is to organise the footage and arranges individual shots into one continuous sequence. Every scene has dozens of different shots that have to be chosen and assembles from all the film. The editor's choices about which shots to use and the order in which to place them have a profound effect on the appearance of the overall film.

Location Manager - The location managers role is to identify and find the ideal locations for a film shoot, the arranging to film on the property. The role involves negotiating with each locations owners and once the filming has begun they are in charge of managing all aspect of shooting in each location.

Sound Technician - When sound was integrated into the film-making process, music, sound effects and dialogue became essential tools for enhancing a film's visual qualities. The sound is going to be created on garage band and plays over certain screen shots to create effect.

Storyboard Manager - A storyboard manager organizes and manages timelines to ensure work is completed on time. They plan the shots and camera angles that are going to be filmed and provides an overview plot of the story-line.
.

Film Director - The job of the film director is to interpret the script and make it into a film. This can involve planning locations, shots, pacing, acting styles and anything else which affects the feel of the movie. It also involves them overseeing the cinematography and technical aspects film directs coach and direct the actors toward the required performance whilst coordinating staff on set. They are for directing the shooting timetable and ensuring the deadlines are met.

Production roles are a pivotal part of any film as they enable the co-ordination of roles within films. Our production roles were as follows:

producers - Domenico Martini; Domenico put himself forward to be producer as he was confident in doing this he done a good job in producing our opening clip.

directors - Domenico Martini, Robyn Tansley; both these were directors as they came mainly up with the narrative so I let them take control of this area as I knew I would be more confident in other areas. They both directed well and they managed to come out with a good final thriller clip

actors -  Robyn Tansley; Robyn was the actor as she is blonde and we wanted to follow the conventions of a thriller by using a blonde female victim. Robyn done well in this role as she managed to come across as an innocent female victim.

director of photography - Harry Fagan; I put myself forward to be the director of photography as I took media last year and was confident in using the tripod and camera, I also used the camera in the preliminary task so I got a feel of how to use them and felt I done a good job in filming our thriller clip by using all different camera shots.

music producer - Harry Fagan; I wanted to be the music producer as I was the editor of our thriller clip and felt I would know which music would go best with my editing, I felt I done a good job as I used music which related to my editing which was fast paced.

screenplay writer - Domenico Martini, Robyn Tansley

mes co-cordinator -  Robyn Tansley; Robyn was the M.E.S co-ordinator as she was the actor so decided what she wanted to wear and what location she wanted to film out. She done a good job as she wore clothes to come across as an innocent female victim and the setting was conventional of a thriller by being set in a forest.

editor -  Harry Fagan; I put myself forward to be editor of our thriller clip as I done media for GCSE's and was familiar to editing a thriller clip, not being biased but I changed the thriller clip a lot as the editing made the clip change from just a narrative to a jerky fast paced, gloomy opening clip. 

Planning sound- Miss Miller

Through my research I found sounds are extremely important as they add emotion and can create rhythm. It causes emotion as it can help the audience understand what is going on and it can cause suspense within a thriller film. It causes rhythm as it makes the film flow and gives the film a meaning through the music. Sound is even more important in the thriller genre as sound can create tension to make the audience scared, in my thriller clip I wanted to have sounds which would unnerve the audience and create a lot of tension for the audience, as our narrative was a girl being possessed after drinking the water I wanted the sounds to be eerie and have a whispering effect.










                                                                                                                                                At the beginning of the opening sequence the credits go over a fuzzy tv the sound which will be used is a loud crackling sound played above the eerie music which starts which you can faintly start to hear in the background. This loud crackling noise is used to straight away unnerve the audience and create the tension our group wanted our narrative to create. The sound which will be added behind this is a song which is played through out the whole opening sequence the sound is a mysterious piano played with spooky eerie whispers played over it, this sound will be good within my thriller film as it builds suspense, it has a deep and strong sound that will fit into my thriller film. This sound is conventional to a thriller film as it has a good solid bass that can go well with the rhythm of the scenes, it also creates suspense as the whispers grow louder the closer the victim gets to her death. We are also using parallel sound for the television, the glass smashing on the floor and the girls footsteps when she is walking through the forest. We are using this just to make the audience jump and to create a tense atmosphere. By using parallel sound here can help the audience build a relationship with the victim as they will feel sorry for them.  

Where are narrative is interrupted by flashing images of a flickering light or a radio the sound we will use over this is a distorted radio and mechanical distorted sounds, these sounds will be very high pitched and eerie sound, it would make the audience feel uncomfortable when watching the thriller film and it would also make the audience want to watch the film as they know something bad will happen. I would use this sound in my thriller film when the flashing images come up which interrupts the audience to unnerve them, as this is a uncomfortable feeling for the victim and i want this to show for the audience. This sound is conventional as it will make the audience feel uncomfortable when watching the film and it will fit it really well with the scene that i have chosen this sound to go with.

The sounds used in my thriller will hopefully be hugely effective as it will be a main factor for creating tension towards the audience, the sounds are all conventional of thrillers and the sounds make the audience feel for the victim as they know she is possessed by the whispers playing over the music and as the music and whispers grow louder the audience feels sympathy towards the victim as they know something bad is going to happen to her.

Planning characters- Miss Miller

The purpose of characters within films is to give the audience something to connect with and focus on, they also project the narrative to make it entertaining and give it purpose. Without characters there wouldn't be much point within films because there would be no narrative to help entertain the audience.

In a thrill it is important to make the representation clear to the audience, by doing this they will sympathises more making the effect on the audience stronger. It is conventional to show the personality of the characters in the opening of a thriller. Making a character relatable to the audience is a key in making a good thriller, this gives the audience the chance to sympathise or empathise with the character this makes the audience feel apart of the film. By creating this relationship is also makes it more tense and make the audience mirror the same feelings as the main characters. They can related from clothing, music or personality, by making the audience more emotionally attached to the character they will be much more scared in further events We want to make our character as relatable to the audience as possible to engage the audience.

Our victim will be a  blonde female,this is a very stereotypical element used within thriller films. Females are often associated with being vulnerable and innocent which is a strong representation of our victim as she will be naive and weak but also will be portrayed as an average person waking up doing her make up to build a relationship with the audience. The audience will be able to connect with this character because our target audience is of a similar age to the victim, therefore they can relate to how the victim is responding to her situation. Representing our victim as innocent also helps create emotions for our audience as they will empathise for her this means the audience will be much more engaged within the narrative.

This character planning post has been useful within our planning for our opening sequence of a thriller film because we know how to portray our characters in terms of connecting with the audience and applying to thriller conventions. This will help make our opening sequence more entertaining and technically good.

Opening Scene narration- Miss Miller

Our thriller clip starts with a shot of a fuzzing TV, this would hopefully create an enigma as it would unnerve the audience, The narrative begins with Robyn a blonde female character, we chose a blonde female because we thought it would be conventional to a thriller genre. The girl wakes up like a normal day, we see her getting ready putting her make up on this is to make her seem innocent and build a relationship with the audience as they would sympathise with her, this is suddenly interrupted by fast editing where we included jerky images of a lamp we got this inspiration from Se7en where the clip is very jerky and distorting we hoped this would get the audience on the edge. As the opening scene continues we see the girl walk into the bathroom pour water on her face then walk downstairs to get some water whilst this is happening we have included editing of jerky images to unease the audience. The scene continues with the girl starting to act weird sitting down and pouring the glass of water on the floor this makes the audience think something is up and the audience will be able to unravel that the once innocent  is far from normal, this will create suspense as the audience will know its building up to a climax. The water is being poured out of the glass we have used editing to make this slow to emphasise the water is deadly as the girl got possessed by the water. By being possessed by the water the girl is seen walking through the forest during these scenes we included jerky images as well to keep the audience still on edge and keep them engaged, we dragged out the walk through the forest to leave the audience in suspense to see how the climax ends. The girl has finally arrived at the lake after being possessed the final shot is then zoomed in on the water to show the girl has killed her self by jumping in the water.

I believe our opening scene has the conventions and elements of a good thriller clip. We tried to incorporate the idea of typical thriller conventions such as low key lighting we thought to include this idea as it emphasises the iconography of the young girl because the dark lighting, will make the girl seem brighter because what she is wearing. This will make her seem more powerful and therefore will add to the already established relationship between both the audience and the characters because it will make her possesion seem more individual and will add to the sympathy.

Filming schedule- Miss Georgiou

Film schedule is important as our whole team know what were doing, when were filming and for how long, without our filming schedule we would not have been organised and things could have gone wrong planning a filming schedule meant our group could get on with our filming to plan so we could focus on the important things such as filming the different shots for our narrative. The filming schedule is an easy guide for each member and so the whole team know what we are doing. We kept to the film schedule however we had to film more as on the day we was meant to film it rained so we had to film the forest bit again on a different day. Below is our filming schedule:

Research into Cinematography- Miss Miller

Cinematography is used in thriller films to show all the different expressions that the characters have. It is also used to show the variety of backgrounds that are used in the thriller films, which also allows the audience to understand the emotions of the characters too. The film I researched cinematography for was Taken 2.

One of the shots used in the trailer was a close up; the evidence for this is when the leaders face is zoomed into. This was shown to show the emotion of the leaders face because after the first film when the main character killed all of his sons and his close friends that were in the gang. This relates to the film because it shows what the leader of the gang is feeling and he wants revenge on the main character again. This would be expected to be found in a thriller, as there is revenge and violence and this is convectional that the audience would look for in a thriller film. This scene would be typically expected in a thriller film because it starts the story off and tells the audience what is to be expected through the film, it also gives the audience a sneak peak of what is going to happen.

Another camera shot that was used was the mid shot; this was when the main character was having a stand off with another person from the gang. 

This mid-shot was shown to show the body expressions of both people. They were both very nervous because they both didn’t want to be the one that was the first to shot.  It relates to the movie because it shows what he had to do (kill the man) to help save his family because they have been ‘taken’ by the gang. This shot would be used in a thriller a lot because you get to see what is happening with their body expressions. This shot is conventional to a thriller film because it allows you to understand the feelings of the characters that are having the gun stand-off, the mid shot allows the audience to get involved with the film and the audience would expect to see this in a thriller as it shows the body language of the characters and the back ground that is important in this scene.

The third camera shot that was used was a long shot, this was shown when the girl is on the ledge trying to hide from the gang, they use this shot to show how high up she was and the danger she was at by going up on the ledge of the hotel they are staying in. the long shot shows how scared is and what she is going through to hide from the gang, the shot also shows her body expressions. The long shot is used to show what she must be going through to hiding from the gang and trying to protect her self from getting take for a second time. This shot would be used in a thriller film to show the background and the body expressions of the person, it allows the audience to get engaged and to feel the expression that the girl is going through trying to protect herself from the gang. The audience would expect to see the background and the girl in this scene because it gets the audience on edge of their seats as well, and shows how high up the girl is and how scared she must be.

This analysis has taught me what camera shots can be used in the thriller film and it has allowed me to understand where the camera shots can be used in different ways. For example I would use a close up shot to  show the expressions of the characters face and I would used a long shot to show the body expressions of the character and the background that wants to be seen.

Risk assessment- Miss Georgiou

 During filming considering risks are important as my group and I want to be able to know what to do if we are put into one of the situations that we have wrote down. It also helps to make sure that the crew and the actors health is safe and is not going to be at risk at any point of filming.As a group we discussed different hazards that could take place and as a group we considered how we could prevent these hazards. This risk assessment will assist while filming as we have gone over all the possible outcomes of the risks and how we would deal with them.The risk assessments we wrote down makes sure that the team and actors well being is not going to be put at risk at any point of filming. The risk assessment will help us when filming as we know how to prevent dangerous things from occurring meaning that the team will be safe at all times. Below is our risk assessment table.

Planning opening credits- Miss Georgiou

For the planning of our opening credits we analysed other thriller films opening credits the film our class analysed was Se7en, this film has a good opening credit sequence as it builds suspense and gives you and idea what is going to be within the thriller film. Also it sets the scene about how the character acts and what type of person he is. The colours that are used in the opening credits of the film Se7en are black and white, this builds suspense and it makes the character be mysterious that wants to hurt or attack someone and the contrast of white and black represents the darkness and evil of a character against the innocence of another character. Other colours that are used is the colour red which symbolises blood and danger and it could symbolise that he is angry and wants to hurt someone. The style of the credits that are used is crooked writing, this shows that there may be an evil or stalking character that is in the opening sequence and also suggest that he is not a normal person, maybe mentally ill or has a crooked sense of morality. Also the writing was jumpy which shows that the film is going to put full of suspense and the film is going to make the audience be put on the edge of their seats. The fonts that they were using were also different fonts as they were having bigger fonts for the more important roles within the film like the director, which makes the names of the important people within the production stand out to the audience.

The generic conventions that are used within the thriller film credits is that it builds suspense, as there is a stalker that is cutting up pictures and colouring/writing, which also creates a mystery. The character is also mysterious as there you only see their hands and not their face or body expressions, so the film don't want to give anything away during the opening sequence, which draws the audience in and gets there attention, making them interested in the film right away. The character is sharping weapons which shows he is getting ready to attack someone or getting prepared for an attack to happen and these actions build tension, fear and suspense which makes the audience even more interested in the film. The music that is used is eerie, but there is natural but exaggerated and emphasised as it build suspense, the tempo of the is picked up when the character does things like sharping a blade which gets the audiences attention and lets them know that the action of sharpening blades is very important to the story. The emotions that this has on the audience is that they will be anxious to see what happens next. The order of appearance in the opening credits were the production company, the director, the actor, then the title of the film, I feel that if the title would have been at the end of the credits it would have been more conventional to a thriller film. Then the actors continued, casting, music and costumes. Then the editors, producers , camera operator. co-producers, producer, writer and then the director.

The film I picked to individually analyse the opening credits for was Final Destination there is a good use of colour music and lighting. The colour that is used in this open sequence is dark black and white colours as it makes the audience understand what is happening and it also makes the audience want to watch on. The black and white colours connote evil and darkness (black) and goodness and innocence (white). Also another colour that is used is the colour red at the end of the sequence as it says "this is the end" this shows that they want the audience want to see like something bad is going to happen during the thriller film.  The colour red connotes danger, evil, blood and pain, things that are all conventional to thriller films. The style of credits that have been used during this credit scene is that the writing flickers and when the credits first comes onto the screen it it has a flash of bright light going through the words/credits. Also the writing fades into the background which creates suspense and an enigma about what is going to happen for the rest of the film. When the writing comes onto the screen the background is always dark, so this shows that the film has a dark story line, which shows that it's a thriller.

For the opening credits of our group thriller film, we collectively discussed our ideas for the text size, colour and the font style. Using different films as our inspiration, we decided that we would want the font to appear fragmented (as it does in Psycho) or to flicker, (as in Se7en) as though the mind of the attacker is mentally unstable.  We also decided that the size of the font for our title should be the biggest, as this is one of the most important elements within this opening credits sequence. The size of the font will gradually decrease as the different names appear on the screen, to connote both the importance of the members of the production team, and also hold connotations about the fading sanity of the attacker, as the unstable and twisted part of his mind consumes him, just like the size of the font decreases.

The font that I will be putting forward to my group as an idea is a font that looks like dripping blood with a deep red colour to connote danger the font is distorted as well with a background shadow, I feel that this would be good to use in our opening credits as it is distorted writing and would have the effect that something bad is going to happen through the writing. This type of font gives the audience the impression that the girl is unstable and twisted, characteristics that are conventional to thriller films because characters like this create enigma's, fear and suspense, elements which are all conventional to thrillers as they draw the audience in and help the audience to feel more involved in the film. Compared to the normal font on the right (above), it stands out and has a better effect than the normal font, I would want to use this font as it will help the audience understand that the film is going to be eventful and full of suspense.

The order of appearance that we will use is:

• Production company
• Editors
• Music
• Actors
• Casting
• Storyboards / screenplay
• Costume / make up
• Location manager
• Safety manager

We will also use a mixture of natural sounds and dramatic music as the soundtrack for our opening credits. As in Se7en, the natural sounds will be enhanced, and play over the top of the dramatic music. This will enable us to make the film appear as realistic, and therefore as threatening as possible. The scary, dramatic music will give the audience an idea of how scary and dramatic the thriller will be and it will also get the audiences attention and make them interested in the thriller straight away.