Our prelim task was very basic, and our crew had little input into what we were going to do. We were given a story board, with dialogue, which we had to follow. Our set was the school studio; it was very simple, merely a back wall with the room light on. We had the camera on a tripod, which we filmed the shots that the story board directed us to do. However, our thriller we had to do much more planning and preparation for it, because it was almost entirely up to us. Therefore we had pre production planning, like finding a location to film our opening shots when the character walks into the butcher. This took a lot of careful planning, and asking and organising the owners if we could film there. When we were back at the studio, we decided exactly what to do with it. Because the character was walking into the ‘fridge,’ we put a set up of a four wall space, with a table in the centre. The lighting was very specific to our idea, we wanted to portray the man doing it all in secret, therefore we made it very dark, by just having a hanging light above the table, therefore making the rest of the room look very dark and mysterious, giving an scary affect to the film. The choice of shots was entirely up to us, therefore we had to do our own story boards and dialogue. We followed the story boards, therefore doing many more shots than we did in our prelim tasks. The shots was also harder to achieve, doing different ones, like close ups, panning, establishing shots, therefore it took longer to set up the camera and get it in focus; this was much harder than our prelim task. The main skill we applied to our thriller and what we learnt from our prelim was the ability to work on our own, and it is our responsibility for everything.
Our editing skills vastly improved from our prelim task, because we only did a small amount of editing, therefore we didn’t learn how to do it in much depth, we also didn’t learn how to add sound or special effects. When editing our thriller, we had to make it relevant to the mood of the rest of the film. Therefore, we made the thriller relatively fast cut, to create a quick pace, scary mood for the audience. And a slight disorientation because it happens quickly, so the audience knows that what the man is doing is extremely wrong. We didn’t want to have the shots going on for too long, therefore we watched over each shot over and over again, finding the minimal amount needed, therefore we could quickly move onto the next shot. We tried to use a lot of close ups of the meat, because our main aim was to disgust the audience, with lots of blood and guts. The order of the shots to relative to the story, of the man cutting up the meat and putting it into the box. We had to be careful which shots we used, depending on when the character wiped his blood covered hands onto his apron, so obviously after that was done we could only use those shots when he had blood on the apron.
We did not have any dialogue in our thriller, therefore we muted what we had on the camera, and just added sounds when editing. Our diegetic sound was mainly the sound of the meat being cut, or oozing blood. This created the style of the piece, rather than it being a horror and meant to scare people, we have gone another direction and decided to disgust the audience with the shots of meat, enhanced by the sound of meat being cut. In times when the he was cutting the meat, we found sound effects that sounded like it and added it to the shots, so therefore it sounded more full and enhanced realism. As it would be much louder than what it would be on camera, it would shock the audience, this is what we were aiming for. We added a general soundtrack to the entire film, of the sound of air conditioning, this is diegetic because he would have the air conditioning in the room, therefore making it more realistic, and giving the effect that the man was inside the big fridge in the butcher, which he walked into, even though actually he is in our studio. Also when he is walking into the butchers the sound of birds and street traffic is played very quietly, almost quieter than the creepy music played over the top, this is to show that although we are in a normal place, the situation is very different.
However, our non diegetic sound was a sound we found on pro track. When the character is walking into the butcher we used dark, mysterious sounds to create the initial mood of the film. It makes the day time walking into the butcher, suddenly frightening because it makes the audience realise that what he is about to do is evil. At the times when the character cut the meat, the diegetic sound of the enhanced meat was done, but also a boom dramatic sound was used to make it scarier, the aim of this was to make the cut much more dramatic, to shock the audience. A general soundtrack was added to the film, in places where he was not cutting the meat, instead dark, mysterious music was played. We got this music off Sound Track Pro. It sounded very distorted and scary, very low notes were played. We took time looking through Sound Track Pro to make the sound that would best match what was going on in the film.
The titles and graphics of the film were specifically chosen to suit the genre of the film. The film is quite fast cut, however we fade in each title which we played at the bottom left or right hand side of the screen. We made the title of work a bigger font than the name to show the important of what they did, for example “a lionsgate film.” We chose to do a small amount of credits, because we did not think that it needed much, therefore more focus would be on what was actually happening on screen rather than the titles. However, at the end of the opening sequence, when the character walks out of the room, there is a black out. After this blackout, “RANCID” pops up in huge letters centre screen. This gives a good ending to the opening sequence, and a powerful beginning to the rest of the film.
I feel that what I have explained above, and that choices that I and the other members of the crew have decided about the thriller, was all done to appeal to our audience. The genre of the film was thriller/horror; this immediately appeals to a mass teenage audience. However, what we have done with the film has made the audience much more specific but also widened the range hugely. The use of violence, blood and gore, attracts teenagers, however what makes them come to the cinema to watch it, is different to why they would enjoy it. The film is tastefully done to make the audience disgusted at what they are watching. The use of music either enhances what they are doing, for example the squelching when the meat was being cut. Also the use of ‘boom’ when the knife slams down on the table shocks the audience. Teenagers enjoy being shocked, disgusted and memorised. And I feel that our thriller has achieved this because people will remember it because it was so different yet still what they love to see.
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