Account of the preliminary task

 We arrived in the studio on Monday morning to find the set built and the band waiting to begin the shoot. Each group was given 25 minutes in which to shoot a minimum of 4 shots. Our group was up filming first and we took it in turns to play the part of the director, assistant, playback and cameraman.
To cover our bases we shot wide, mid, close up and instrument shots, which didn't leave us much time to get our specific ideas. I think in the real project we will have to be more realistic with timings. However we managed a good few to work with and after our 25 minutes were up we headed up to the editing suite to compile them all together.

Directing the lead singer 

We found that when editing music videos there are certain things you need to consider which aren’t so important with the thrillers. For example editing on the beat creates a much more flowing video and makes the cuts much less obvious.

During this process, we have to go through the video over and over again to ensure that there is fluidity and we realise that we have to edit the video according to the beat so we have to re edit some parts of the videos by chopping some parts and making them into quick cuts in order to give a connection with the beat of the music.

OVerall, I was pleased with the process escpecially the shooting process where we each tried different  roles and it helped understand how each works. One thing I would be very careful about shooting process is the timing because we did not have enough time to shoot close up shots of all the group members therefore giving us some difficulty in editing where we could use quick cuts of their eack individual shots of their close up. So in future, we will have to manage time wisely.
this is the set which has an element of grungy rock design.   I used the screen connected to the video camera to help me see if the shots are good.

End product :)

Preparation for preliminary task

In preparation, we were told to shoot and edit the first 30sesconds of  an unsigned boy band found from Myspace and they are called Acres of :Life.





Since this was our first time shooting for a music video, we as group did some research through Youtube searching for music videos about bands that would help give us some ideas about what kind of shots would be suitable for the bands. Then we have to plan about what kind of shots do we want and how fast or slow do we want the cuts to be during the editing process.

We realise that rock bands tend to have quick cuts in editing and they often have more close up shots of the lead singer.By looking at the music videos like How You Love Me Now by Hey Monday inspired us to have pull focus in our shooting. We drew up the timeline, a rough sketch of different shots which we would like to have in our first but of the video.

Research into star image

I looked at the music video of 'Where is the love?' by Black Eyed Peas for my textual analysis.

http://youtu.be/WpYeekQkAdc

Media Prep: Music video – Textual Analysis

Through textual analysis of the music video, how the star is sold to the target audience?

Name of artists : Black Eyed Peas

Name of  tracks: Where is the love?

Throughout the whole sequence of the music video, there was a black paper with a red question mark on it to signified that the nation asking question their government about peace as this video revolved around the issues concerning the injustice treated to the minority, violence of war/terrorist and hope and unity.  There were two similar props: steering wheel andd the cassette turning which they  used to reinforce the idea of the world cycling as they are repeating its history. The singers were all in black costume putting up the posters in the video and they represented themselves to the media as heroes/part of the nation who is brave enough to stand up for the nation against the government. SO the star is sold to the target audience as them being courageous and they are the peacemakers for the country, America.

They use camera shots such as the wide shot of the two singers who were in van like they were the radio djs who were broadcasting the news. They used a low angle shot of  America buildings with American flags on top and then having high angle shots people of people in the shop, the crop land and the people in the scene symbolising that the government and the higher authorities are surely aware of what is happening to the nation through news, TV, radio, etc but why are they not taking any action to it. The singers are questioning the government about their usage of the power for the right reason. We also have many close up shots of young kids from different minority races and lip singing the chorus part of “Where is the Love” to show their expressions and emotions to the situation. Through this, the singers are asking not only the target audience to sympathise with the poor children who are innocent but have to suffer  and be supportive of the campaign they are proposing, but also making an awareness to other older audience about this song and them. This would bring them a good image about  again. The beginning of this sequence is shot in a handheld camera to show how terrified or chaotic to be living in this country as a minority. So they are shooting some part from the children’s point of view and also the reporters’ point of view.

Towards the end of the song, they used several individual close up shots of the children, a black older woman and an old man who was holding the bible looking up representing the image of longing for hope.

There were a quick montage sequence of the same  question mark posters at different places to make the audience to think about issues being raised in the country such as justice, war and poverty and if there is hope. There were continuity editing of the group dressed up as a secret agent holding the question mark business suitcase as they were crossing the road to signify that they would not stop and they will keep on trying until there is an action taken. Then there was a freeze frame of them crossing the road with the suitcase and this makes the audience to keep our focus on the question mark sign again.  Although there were many quick cuts during the sequence to reinforce the idea of chaos, there were some long shot as well. One of them was the road sign not being covered by the question mark to show that the country is lost without a guide and that they need the government to help the nation and mean what they say about making improvements.

In this video, The Black Eyed Peas used paradoxes adapted from Richard Dyer: ordinary and extraordinary, present and absent. This group were ordinary in a sense that they were just like the nation living in fear being chased by the police, being watched, therefore they are emotionally connected with the target audience however they extraordinary and absent at the same time because this is not their world as they are singers and they are more fortunate. This is positive as the target audience are now looking up to the group. And this is the method they used to sell the target audience.

Advanced Portfolio Brief

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

a website homepage for the band;  

a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

We will be producing digipak cover and a magazine as a task.

Audience Feedback

Very good, use of suspence and tension caught my attention, very enjoyable as a thriller, well done :)

joeeyb123 14 minutes ago

The editing is really good, the shots at the start also create suspense. The fast paced effects and the sound effects go well together

Saz123456789 22 minutes ago

good editing.
some shots get too much screentime... that dont need to be shown for so long.
I like the title coming up in the end!

pliciousXS 27 minutes ago

Nice build up, great choice of shots. Fanatstic choice of music, really helps to wake the audience up and create lots of tension. Speed effects look great and the titles make it seem really professional. Amazing idea loved it!

hollfinlay 27 minutes ago

This storyline is really interesting and original, I was gripped the whole way through. The music creates a very creepy and bizarre mood, which is great, and the editing really gives the whole piece a professional finish. I really enjoyed this one, well done

Based on the audience feedback from Youtube, I agreed to the comment  'some shots get too much screentime' as the pace is slowing down and it has the danger of having the audience to switch off. However, we managed to speed it up through quick cuts and faster music to show his eagerness and nervousness which I think it is effective.

Task 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back, I feel more confident now with the editing tools such as cutting, credit text, and the stretching the film to short or long.

Looking back, I feel more confident now with the editing tools such as cutting, credit text, and the stretching the film to short and long.

First of all, I learned about how important it its to be specific with choices of props to put in the background because it helps to signify the  the setting of the film. What we were lacking in the preliminary task was that we did not have set the the background of the scene very well. There were not enough props and it looked empty. Moreover, there were unwanted objects in the background such as files and TV.

Through this experience, we ensured to bring the necessary props and set up the scene with purpose of what we are aiming to achieve and what indication we are hoping to send across to the audience. For example, our location of the shot was to be set in a homely atmosphere so we make sure that we set up the scene with table lamps setting by the side of the bed, two beds being put together to give an impression of  a queen size bed, and we also clear the table by removing the make up and leaving the laptop and some books on the table to make it less girly. We also put the props that crucial to us which were gun and passport. 

Secondly, the importance of control in lighting during the shooting process. During the preliminary task, we were inexperienced with the lighting which made the different shots of the film to be inconsistent. It  also looses the mood of terror. Through this practice, we learnt to be more careful with the lighting by checking onto the camera first to see how does it appear in the screen. We then decide to put the lighting closer if we want brighter effect or to put further to reduce the lighting.

Lastly, choices in actors. It is important to choose suitable actors to be cast in the scene because they represent a stereotypical ideology for the media. Plus, it makes the audience to understand better therefore making the film more interesting to watch. In our preliminary task, we chose two people to be in our shoot without thinking carefully about why do we want this actor and what effect would they give us. We did not see it from the spectator's point of view. From this, we chose one actor ,Jake Cecil in our second shooting, who could represent the idea of young good looking man with full of action and mystery (like James Bond) because our thriller is about changing identities, action packed film. So we thought that it will be appropriate to Jake as our actor.

 

Task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Our completed trailer :D

WIth annotations

Task 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

Media Task 5- how did you attract/adress your audience?

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Task 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

                                                  The age of my target audience are between 15-24 and my film is going to be about sci-fi action thriller with some romance. The casts has to be very good looking ( good looking actors are able to attract more   audience to watch) and there will be actions and quick cuts/editing in order to make the film interesting quick and less boring. The reason why I chose sci-fi action film as my genre is because it will allows meto produce video games to play, being able to market through merchandising like what they have twilight(toys, stickers, bags, pencilcases, cups, T-shirt, etc.) 

will definitely attract the targeted age group of both sex and male because they often go to cinema with their peers. For majority of the boys, they play video games and by having video games featuredfrom this film could help to gain profit in the industry. As for the girls, they are more likely to watch it when there are beautiful good looking actors acting in it as they will be interested in their style clothing. 

Even though this film is targeted mainly for this particular age group, it doesn’t mean that other audience will not be suitable to watch it. The film could be available for young couple to watch film which has romance with extraordinary fiction thriller and that could be their token for date.  Even parents could watch them with/without children, as it would help to inspire them when it comes to bedtime story telling. This film will of course contain a moral value in the plot, as this will have most youngsters to relate to the story.

Task 3-What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Lionsgate would be the right institution to produce our film because Lionsgate is a nearly $2 billion diversified global entertainment corporation with a leading presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution and new channel platforms. Lionsgate's blueprint for growth combines the flexibility and entrepreneurial culture of an independent, with the financial and strategic relationship of a major studio and the structure and consumer focus of a top digital age company. Therefore they would be the experts in producing low budget films like ours yet capable of producing a good quality under the genre of action/thriller.

Lionsgate produced films such as 'The Expendables', which proved to be a box office hit and therefore further established the insitution. 'The Expendables', is an action/adventure/thriller which follows a team of mercenaries who head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator. This is an example of the types of films Lionsgate produces, and this action/thriller/adventure genre is very similar to the genre of our thriller film.

So I believed that if they make our film, they would actually market the film by advertising through radio, television, Youtube, Facebook, and posters on buses and shopping mall.  In this way, my film would gain popularity through these form of advertising and the word of mouth. After screening, they could have make DVDs, Blue Ray and 3D version to help promote sales and also to keep the continuity in value chain.

They could also helped to produce video games through our film. Through the composers/ singers for our film’s soundtrack, our film could gain recognition as the audience are interested in the songs and therefore will feel curious about the film.




Lionsgate has also made investments in Break.com, the leading online site for young men ages 18-34 with more than 80 million monthly unique users worldwide. This is perfect because our main target audience young men and this will be a great opportuinty to promote our film. We will also distributing to the film festivals because I think it will help raise awareness of the film and hopefully through positive word of mouth, it will gain more popularity, more audience and more profit as an outcome.

Task 2-How does your product represent particular social groups?

We have the most screen time for one character, therefore he is the main character and I will be analysing on. In the beginning we see that he washes blood off his hand and looked at his face for a while before getting to change. This shows that he cares about his looks or conscious about his image. This is shown again later when he was fixing his tie and it reinforces the the main idea of our action/thriller which is different identities changes.


  

There are mystery to it as it makes the audience to feel curious about him being under the secret mission or undercover of some government conspiracy act.

So this helps to build his image as a cool handsome guy with a good body and that all the girls who drool over for. I see his character like Brad Pitt or Danial Craig who have a big franchise in his action films.

Our particular social groups are younger men age group  from 15-34 who are preppy, jocks, cool and smart who enjoy adventure with solving mystery. It will also be guys who are conscious about their looks and their bodies so they would have the main character as their idol or role model to look at to feel good about their appearances.

Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products?

First of all, we used the darker coloured scheme throughout the opening sequence to denote that this film is a thriller genre.  The picture of a gun in the left hand corner represents danger and it helps to convey the idea of the film being an action thriller. Immediately, targeted male audience would be fascinated by it and would want to see it.

Second picture is a door handle, which signifies the idea of being trapped and that there is a mystery about it. This helps to conform our opening title sequence because there is unsolved situation leading into a mystery and this mystery is an element of a film thriller.

Third picture clockwise shows that convention of a thriller. The picture of the tap is important because it conveys the personality of the protagonist who is cleaning his hand. It tells the audience that he felt sorry, he is also cleaning his soul or guilt in a metaphorical way. This leads to the picture below it, which is a picture of blood being drained, which is informing that someone is dead. Blood represents danger and once again we highlighting the genre of the film by conforming the convention of a thriller.

In the centre is a picture of a protagonist in a close up shot to convey his expression of fear(convention of a thriller) which juxtaposes to his character and his outward appearance. He is a stereotypical of a hero figure who is good looking and smartly dressed like James Bond; however his inner emotion is also discovered and left open for the audience to see it. This is a juxtaposition of his real image and his outward presented image. This is linked to the first picture on the left in the third row where he saw his own reflection from the mirror represents that his outside and inner self.

Lastly,  the picture of a safe and a photograph portrays that he in a house (someone else’s) and once again conforming the mystery element t

Account of the shoot day

My group and I went to Cornhill (boarding house) to shoot as planned. We chose this particularly boarding house because it is one of the nicest boarding house and the rooms are much bigger compared to other houses like Hurtwood House. It is appealing for our shoot because it is perfect for our set as we wanted to have a feel of home-like, private house setting as the main character is at someone’s house. During the journey to he house, we explained the idea and how we want to shoot to the actor first. So that he understood what he needed to do and how we wanted him to be.

As soon as we have arrived, we set up the tripod, camera and lighting set. We also ensure that we brought our props; black suit, black trouser, black tie, pale yellow colour shirt and a bottle of fake blood to the set. We were using at my team mates’ room, so they actually took down their posters of Megan Fox and others in order to make the room more realistic and fit into the plot of the story because the room is meant to look like a middle-aged married couple’s room. There weren’t any Queen sized room so we had to combine two small beds into one and then covered it with a big duvet to make it appear as a big double queen sized bed.

We did not shoot according to the storyboarding in a chronological order because we prioritise on the most crucial shots which was in the bedroom. Besides, most of the shots were mostly set at the bed room. Before we start shooting anything, we have the camera bubbled (have the bubble in the middle) and white balance. To ensure on what we are filming was a good quality shots, we zoomed an object to the max and then slowly turned to have it focus, then zoomed out. Finally, we started to shoot. We have this routine every time we shoot for anything.

We began to film over the shoulder shot of him opening the cupboard and taking nice suit out. While we did that, we have to say ‘cut’, ‘action’, ‘standby’, ‘rolling’ and this was usually done by the person who is taking in charge of the camera. As we took turn to shoot, we had to say them and it was actually fun as it placed you into role of a director’s position.  Once we finished it, we tried something different which was not listed on the storyboarding. We decided to shoot him doing the same thing from the closet ‘point of view’. So the lighting was slightly darker which helps to highlight the mystery thriller moment for the audience.

Straight after the first shoot, we have a shot of him putting the suit on the bed and started to wear them. This was the part we spent most time on as we had different angle shots of him doing the same time. So we had a shot of him from the side, from the front  and from a high angle and low angle point. When we shooting from the side, we had to be extra careful about what was on the background. For example, we weren’t aware of a dustbin at the background until we saw it on the screen. So we had to quickly remove that away and re-shoot that scene. It was lucky for us that we managed to recognise our mistake immediately. So it brought us into an awareness of how important it is to be concise what was in the background because little mistakes could cause the whole filming into ruin.

When it comes to filming the actor quickly putting his trouser to get dressed, we speed up the shutter speed to make the audience feel his urgency and his nervousness to escape before he gets caught. This is what we want the audience to feel as we want the audience to see this opening sequence from his point of view. When we have shutter speed to increase higher, we could see the effect of the moving image being quickened which we were very pleased about.

Another interesting filming technique which we learnt during our filming process was ‘zoom and focus’ trick. We have our actor kneel on a chair (he was too tall) to align with the gun on the table, this is to show what he was thinking. To show that, we just filmed the length between

his shoulder to his head, and the gun was not focused. As he turned towards the gun, we have the gun being focused. This was brilliant as it would create suspense for the audience.

To create further tension, we jerked the camera a little bit while we were shooting.

After shooting the bedroom scene, we went to the next location to shoot for the different scene. We had to use to a different bathroom because it was slightly bigger. We have the fake blood ready for the shoot. Before we start to shoot this scene, we tested the fake blood to see if it stained. We did this because we did not want to have the actor’s hand yellow after he washed his hand. We wanted his hand to be completely clean. This helped to show the contrast between his hands covered in blood and after her washed it.  To help save time, we did several tasks at the same time. While I was testing the fake blood, my teammates were setting up the camera and white balancing. The actor had to take his top off to make it more real and logistic. This scene was meant to be an earlier scene.

So we poured the blood on his hands and then started filming him opening the tap water to wash his hands and then his face. For this shot we did not use extra lighting as the toilet’s lighting was just perfect for the shoot. We had to film on the right side, we did this specifically because we did not want to have the toilet in the shot. After shooting it, we had a shot of just blood running in the sink. We had this shot zooming in because we want to specify the genre of our opening sequence ‘horror, thriller’. Also, red blood does help to accentuate the mood of shocking, terror in the audience.  So we were very pleased about those shots. After shooting it, our final shoot was to shoot a shot of a door handle turning slowly.

One final task we did before we finish packing was to record the sound of walking up and down the stairs. We might use the non-diegetic sound for the shot where we see him dressing up in a hurry.

Overall, we were very pleased with the shooting. It took us about 3 hours to complete the shooting. We were very efficient and worked together as a group as we aimed to produce a good quality in the thriller. The actor too was good at acting and very easy to work with. We had no problem at all with him as he did exactly what we told him to do and he perceived our idea, there present brilliantly in front of the camera. I am pretty sure he enjoyed filming with us especially when he had to take gun and put it at the back in his trouser. He looked cool and he felt cool too. It was great day.

Main Task shooting schedule       Locations                              Cast               Props and Costumes
21st Jan 2011
Friday - 9am - 1pm                      Cornhill boarding house       Jake Cecil      Gun,British Passport, smart                    
                                                                                                                        suit, black tie, bottle of fake                                                     
                                                                                                                        blood.

Final Idea

After going through so many ideas, we have decided to go with the idea of action-thriller opening sequence   . Soon our idea began to develop into different shots which reveals about the man who steals the identity. Although our idea is a very simple as we are shooting a man changing into a new set of clothes but our idea creates many different ways of interpreting it. There are many possibilities of him could be the killer, the son, the ex-convict who tries to justify himself or stealing identities to cover his crime.

Storyboard for the final idea

New idea!!

While we were looking for props, and locations to finalised our idea and be prepared with storyboard, we found two new ideas because we were not very keen on the previous idea which we settled with. During the hols, we had communicated with one another via email and Facebook to discuss and finalise our idea. My teammate dilligently put up two Powerpoints to discuss about the mood for thriller and how we should put this basic idea into the filming process.

Here are two powerpoints :

Thriller identity powerpoint[1]

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Thriller idea powerpoint 2

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At the end, we as a group came into an agreement that the second PowerPoint would be a better idea as it is more original whereas the first one is a little like Se7en.





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My Second Horror Thriller Idea in Power Point

We were very impressed by the ideas used for the opening sequence of Se7en and Momento. So we wanted to create similar version of it.  Nevertheless, our ideas became unoriginal and there was not a proper storyline to it.


Due to musical rehearsals and falling ill, I was absent for several media classes. Therefore, I missed out the discussions with my teammates. However, I managed to receive a brief information on what has been happening in the class.  Despite all that, I came with an idea where we could use a similar style of Momento.

This is my powerpoint presentation:

Group media thriller__pp

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Unfortunately, it was turned down. So it was not very original. In addition, they wanted action and fighting. So we had to come with another idea.

 At last, we are finalised with our idea. 

Group Horror/Thriller Ideas

During our first meeting, we each shared our ideas to each other and finally decided to use Imogen's idea.
We were aiming to create mystery, fear, and spooky atmosphere to the audience by using a doll, a young girl, an old shady house, a playground and the swing. We chose these because this amplify the theme of the opening sequence: horror/thriller.

• a small girl in a park on a swing
• a woman watching her
• flashback of woman pushing her daughter on the swing
• woman looking at the photo of her daughter to indicate that her daughter has died)
• woman putting 'wanted poster' through the little girl's letter box
• little girl turns up at woman's house and we see that woman is going to kidnapp her.

After a while, we realised that it is not a good idea to develop further because it is too long to fit into the 2min opening sequence and it would be difficult to find a little girl (6-8 year old) for the part. It will be unrealistic to use 16 year old teenager to play for it. 

We then brainstormed some ideas and Isabel came up with a total different idea and we got the inspiration from  

Organ Theft.

"Dammit, that's the second time this—wait a minute..."

"Aww, they took my freakin' kidney!"

Charlie The Unicorn

Organ Theft, as the name would imply, is the practice of stealing people's organs via surgery, which can then be used for further purposes such as transplants or sold on the black market  ^* One particularly common variant of this is trope is the "kidney theft" Urban Legend, in which the victim is conned somehow and drugged into unconsciousness, and then wakes up kidney-less in a bathtub full of ice, often with a message attached telling them to go to a hospital.
This trope was popularized by, and originated with, Larry Niven's Known Space stories, in which Organ Theft is called "organlegging", a portmanteau of "organ" and "bootlegging." 

So this is the idea which we came up with:

• There is an extreme close-up of a girl's eyes. We see them open as she gasps.
• There is then a reverse zoom so we can see that she is in her underwear in a bath full of ice; she has a shocked/confused expression.
• There is then an eyeline match of her looking in the mirror. We see that there is something written on the mirror. The rest of the mirror goes out of focus and allows us to read what is written in red lipstick: 'call 0800......( a phone number)'
• The girl looks around and sees a phone lying next to her. She slowly types in the number and we see a close-up of the phone with the diegetic noises of her typing in the numbers.
• she puts the phone to her ear, but we don't hear what the person is saying on the other line. She has an extremely shocked expression and slowly lets go of the phone in fear.
• There is then a flashback. We see her dancing in the club holding a drink, she moves over to dance with a guy and when she's not looking there is a close up of him spiking her drink. We then see him dragging her into his car or something similar to this to show that she is the victim and he is the bad guy.
• It then cuts back to reality and she is in the bath. We are looking at her through the mirror. She looks down looks back up at herself in the mirror and screams.
• The screen goes black and the title comes up whilst she is still screaming.

We wanted to create something that is quite real as it has happen in the rural places before and kidneys are sold at hight cost. Through this idea, we are also conforming to the genre : thriller. 

It was a brilliant idea and no one has ever done it before ; It is new and fresh. However, we faced some issues regarding the girl being shot with bra but resolved that we use a guy shirtless instead and he being conned by a sexy girl from a club. We might also need to hire a make-up artist to make the the stitches believable. In order to film in a club, it requires for our group to write a permission letter for approval both from the Principal and the owner of the club. After several discussions with our teacher and staffs from the media department, our idea was rejected.

Analysis of the opening sequence of a thriller ( Scream, The Shutter Island,

Scream

In the opening sequence, we see a lady alone in the house and this we expect to see her as a victim and she could be in danger.  In this opening sequence, the lighting is yellow orange colour which represents that she is danger. We have a wide a shot of her talking on a phone and quick cuts between her and the popcorn heating up  to reinforce that she is danger.  We also have see a mid close up shot of her to show her facial expression  which juxtaposes later with her feeling really scared about this stranger who turns out to be a killer.We hear their conversation of them talking about horror movies which suggest that this film's genre is under thriller/horror film. The tension is gradually developing for the audience as we begin to see an establishing shot of her boyfriend being killed outside of her house . Her being in the house and watcing her boyfriend died  signify that she is on a weaker side where she does not have the availabilty to help him. This also suggests that she herself is trap inside her own house. The mystery killer is in control and that she is the victim.




The Shutter Island

 In this opening sequence,  We see two people dressed up in a big trench coat which were brings out the stereotypical image of detective which immediately tells us that there might be a murder or something have happened and that they need to solve it.  We then see a point of view shot of them looking over at the people the other side who are waiting for them. They are dressed in police uniforms with guns which suggests that the place is a dangerous place.  This is highlighted again when we see a close up shot of patiens in chains to show that that particular place is dangerous. From this we know that this film involves horror.

My initial thriller ideas

First, we have a close up of a round clock hanging on the wall showing its twelve o’clock and then dissolve to a close up view of the red rounded house telephone to signify danger. During these shots, we have synchronous sound of a clock ticking and the telephone being press slowly producing ‘err..rre.er…’ sound.

Suddenly we hear someone banging the door. From then, we have clock ticking really fast and we see a close up of the red phone winding really quickly. As it is winding quickly, we have a very quick montage of a tray of surgery tools (knife, scissors, and tweezers), a hand with a white glove holding a knife which is covered in blood, we see a victim’s hand and legs and lastly we have a finger with long black nails stopping the winding of the telephone.

During this sequence of the montage, we have the non-diegetic sound of whispers and talking and it all stopped when the telephone stops. It ends with in black and the title shows in white- grayish ink ‘The Cycle’. For lighting, we have a very dim light for the clock and a very dark lighting for the red telephone. For the montage, we have yellow lightings.

Narrative theories in thrillers

Most of the thriller films often follw the 5 forms of narrative structure and they are assembled in this order:

EQUILIBRIUM =>DISRUPTION=>COMPLICATION=>RESOLUTION=>NEW EQUILIBRIUM

A good example would be Jaws:

• Equilibrium- Normal sunny day at the beach playing and relaxing, everyone is preparing for the 4th of July celebration

• Desruptive- Find pieces of the dead body ehich had been eaten by shark.

• Complications- Does the beach close or remains open? Is there really a shark? Another person dies. Are there more deaths?

• Resolution- The beach is open and they decide to look for sharks.

• New Equilibrium- Shark and shark hunter are killed. Everything returns to normal but there are slight changes because people in the area are affected by the cause.

Characters

There are particular set of five characters in the film according to Vladimir Propps Theory:

1. The Hero                   -  the one who saves the day
2. The Villain                 -  the evil one who causes disequilibrium
3. Side Kick /the Helper-  a person who helps the hero.
4. The Victim                 -  at the mercy of the villain
5. The Donor                 -  someone who has something special which will help the hero.

We can see it in film like Harry Porter:

1. Hero       - Harry Potter
2. Villlain    - Voldermort
3. Helper    - Ron and Hermione
4. Victim    - Serius Black
5. Donor     - Dumbeldore