Daylight Macabre - Evaluation

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

Overall, the techniques used to successfully hold an audience and to entertain viewers are collectively and selectively used at opportune periods for maximum effectivity, by utilising the techniques of experienced directors by studying multiple cinematic works, we began to create an overview of exactly what we wanted our thriller to be.

            Throughout the planning process, me and my group deliberated throughly on the many aspects that we wished to incorporate within the film, there are many different forms and conventions of a modern thriller primarily, being the heavy build up of tension and suspense, this factor, we decided was detrimental to the overall audience perception of our thriller opening. An example of how we created tension and suspense, is by fast, inter cutting between both the antagonist and protagonist, the eerie nature of the killers image is enough to manipulate the audience’s mood and emotions, making viewers uneasy and relatively ‘on edge’, as they realise the antagonists intentions. However all climactic filming must eventually have a point, where the audience can relax somewhat, to release the built up tension and suspense, this point comes when the extras discover the body of ‘lonely boy’.

           Connecting with the build up of tension, intelligent editing also becomes an important convention, seeing as the whole films appeal could be won or in fact lost in some cases, due to successful, or even dire editing. By placing the editing in to the hands of our most experienced editor, Jake, I had no worries that our film would not be up to scratch. By manipulating fast cuts, and speeding up the footage, our opening began to form itself in to a more macabre and maybe even supernatural film. Interesting the audience, and holding their attentions as the piece continues. 

           The thriller genre is seen to be a more mature adaptation of cinematic production, so is hereby, aimed at an older audience. We took this in to account and adapted our plans to coincide with features associated with that of the certificate 15. Meaning that individuals younger than this age might find themselves becoming disturbed or discomforted as they view the thriller. We devised different scenarios that would attribute to increasing the age limit of our opening. one of which being, when we instructed our extras to shout and literally abuse Jake (the protagonist) this immediately increased the threat level of the film, bestowing implications of murder and violence, I believe, this and a couple of other scenes during the film, increase the certificate that is more suited to the thriller genre. 

          Sounds, were another huge part of planning. We realised that sounds that are not within the diagesis, are perhaps more important, than those that can be heard by actors, my reasoning for this, is that non-diagetic sounds can be added to a fast cut, shocking an audience, even in some cases scaring an audience. Being scared whilst watching a thriller is crucially the objective of the director, because when you are most scared, you are also incredibly prone to feelings of helplessness which in hindsight, makes the audience love the film, because the feeling of excited restlessness is incredibly similar to the feeling of terror.  By selectively employing sounds at opportune moments in the editing process, proves for maximum effectivity and rememberability. We wanted to take advantage of the effect of sounds and I believe we produced well edited and thought out sounds. 

           Mise en scene within our piece was not taken lightly, although, I wasn’t entirely happy, I believed it was almost the best we could do with little to no budget. The fact that the murder occurs at a halloween party, where many involved cover their face, this can create a feeling of anxiousness by unnerving the audience, with a feeling that anything could happen. I believe we created and replicated a party well, what with many beer cans and general litter placed around the set. This is a scene that almost everyone is able to relate to, and are shocked when this supposedly happy scene ends with a ruthless murder. 

          Finally, an intellectual plot line is most associated with the thriller genre, it is indeed a convention that we all wanted to root deeply in to our performance. By having a killer, with immediately obvious mental deficiencies, suggests an interesting back story, that no doubt could have been developed, should the cameras of continued to roll. Coinciding with the idea of a back story, it is not made obvious the trials and tribulations of ‘lonely boy’, as we are unsure of why he is so reclusive, suggesting that further development could continue later in the film, perhaps by someone trying to piece together his merciless murder.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Our thriller, interestingly portrays the ‘teenage boy’ social group, and deals with issues such as drinking and smoking. But also the capabilities  of the inner mind, furthermore, social segregation, by ‘lonely boy’ detaching himself from his surroundings we see that he is in fact not interested about anyone else, depicted well when he takes one of the actors drinks with little remorse. 

          Additionally, we again explore the idea of prejudice and separation even between boys of a similar class and age, as ‘the killer’ is forced to take the life of one of his piers. Interestingly, we also consider mental health issues, and raise awareness, due to our antagonist suffering through what is presented to be a serious mental deficiency.

           The clothes worn are typical of working/middle class, which, unsurprisingly is the majority of the actors backgrounds. 

       I believe that our film presents teenagers as cold and corrupted characters, all with malicious intent. However, there is definately the representation of thoughtful deliberation with in both main characters, shedding a relatively positive light. 

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

With our thriller lying in the typically british, independant category, media institutions would be cautious of producing and distributing our film. Seeing as the independant film industry is relatively un-predictable and some titles may flourish, whereas others may simply evaporate, being stricken from all memory. However when independant films are done well and advertising campaigns are successfully endorsed, films can reach global acclaim, take for example Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ winner of the academy award for best picture in 2008. 

             Ideally, the film companies that I would want to distribute our films, would be Film Four, or perhaps even Fox Searchlight. Both of  these companies have seen global success with independant films and have vast experience of distributing on a world wide scale. Fox Searchlight thriller titles include, ‘Black Swan’ which is possibly my favourite film of 2011 so far, and ‘127 hours’ which is also critically acclaimed. Film Four, has produced ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which remains to be one of the highest grossing cinematic works of all time. 

             However, with the film being of an incredibly low budget, with no successful actors involved in the project, gaining the support of a world renown company would prove an incredibly arduous and difficult task.

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

Crucially, the audience would need to be at the ages of 15 and above, this is to coincide with most other thrillers, to enable us to compete for  the young-adult/adult market. By referencing the official BBFC website, we are able to deduce that our thriller corresponds with that of certificate 15 regulations and guidelines, which we are more than happy about. 

Realistically, the themes and conventions portreyed in our thriller are mostly aimed at the 15-25 age bracket due to the party atmosphere which most people of that age are familiar with. However, including themes of mental disability and macabre visuals attribute to expanding the age bracket to older more experienced cinema goers. 

          People who enjoy an intelligent, well thought out plot, i believe would enjoy our film. My initial thought was that the viewer might have to go for further viewings, to perhaps discover something new each time they watch, which for me is a wonderful experience. 

         Although there is no physical violence within the film, there is a definate presence of threat within the piece, meaning that it would not be prudent to show the film to anyone under the age of 15, for safety precautions, as to not disturb or upset any younger viewers. 

         As the film were to progress, I would have some violence but contrastingly, I would allow the audience to deliberate on some scenes and create their own view of the film, by disguising or obscuring the violence. 

How did you attract/address your audience? 

One crucial difference between our film and our piers is that ours is presented in high definition, this directly appeals to the overall attraction of an audience, because often a viewer will tire of poor visuals and it can distract the audience from what is happening on screen, ruining the authenticity of a piece, seeing as the focus is being drawn to a video quality that is some what lacking. Accordingly, when a HD film is recorded, the audience becomes less aware of a camera being there, and can begin to attach and relate to the plot, increasing excitement and interest hugely. 

        Another way in which we attracted audience, was by offering an intriguing, well thought out and exciting story line. By tackling some of life’s key issues such as; Mental health, teen violence and so on (that has been described above) which acts as an insight in to these problems and a way of portraying characters suffering with these burdens. 

        Addressing the audience is crucial. Inviting the viewer to become a part of the film is a wonderful technique to ensure the interest of an individual that is watching. By planting questions in to the viewers head, that they can ask themselves and make estimates as to ‘what is going on where’, and ‘what is wrong with who’. This method of rhetorical questioning is a key convention of a thriller, as having little knowledge of what is occurring can make a person un-easy and determined to search for the answers. We believe we do this multiple times with in the film. I have been asked questions from others who have viewed it, as they are unsure of the subtle messages we have created, and I go on to inform them that they must decide for themselves what they believe the answer is. Furthermore, the fact I have been asked such questions, is an encouraging sign, that we have created an interesting piece.

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

Perseverance is a pivotal technique to acquire whilst working with technology, as it can often seem temperamental and decidedly aggravating for the user. 

        Frankly, we as a group thought that our idea was to important, to be filmed with a sub-standard quality camera and end up regretful when the final edit was not going to adhere to our high expectations and standards. So we began searching for an alternative, and were eventually given the option of filming with a HD quality small hand held camera, which vastly improves the picture, satisfying the groups need for a better definition. I am ecstatic that we discovered this, and believe this small camera was the key to our successful piece. 

         Our editing software is ‘Adobe Premiere’ this is professional software that Jake owns. It is however very complex and we were all taken back by its quality and detailed attributes. The editing process took a reasonable amount of time to begin, however, once Jake had come to terms with the software the process quickened and we were soon able to declare the project finished and upload it to ‘YouTube’.

         Communication is of the upmost importance when working with a relatively large group trying to produce a film. To keep in contact with each other, the group commonly utilised the social networking site ‘Facebook’ and also using mobile phones.

         Finally, we uploaded our final piece to ‘YouTube’ and since then we have monitored all of the responses and views of our video and so far all is relatively positive. 

         

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

Our continuity piece was, in my opinion, a very experimental project. We wanted to utilise all of our knowledge in the field and produce a piece that incorporated many different factors of cinematography. However, we did not plan our continuity piece as detailed as what we probably should have, meaning that when it came to filming, we were still re-writing the script and indeed changing the role of each character. 

          Whilst filming it, we learnt the importance of scrutinising each shot, and searching for possible errors, we noted a few within our continuity piece, such as characters position changing, however, it is not  immediately obvious upon viewing. Learnedly, we revised these aspects  and made sure not to make similar mistakes whilst filming our final thriller opening. 

          By producing a preliminary piece we were able to explore new and different camera techniques, which eventually we were able to enforce within our thriller. This concept of learning from mistakes also became apparent in the editing process. Seeing as the continuity piece was a first for all of the group, i believe we each learned valuable techniques and were all able to example our ingenuity. 

         With the continuity piece being of sub-standard quality, we made it our goal to plan the thriller in greater detail, from everything from camera shots, to the non-diagetic sounds. To further our planning I created a short storyboard, which would be the basis of the idea, ensuring that we did not stray from the pre-determined plan. 

         In conclusion, without the preliminary exercise and gaining the crucial experience to piece together a film, our final piece would not have turned out as well as we all would have hoped.

Final Piece - Feedback

We had a mostly positive response from everyone that we showed our film too, exclaiming that what we have produced is of a high quality and believable performance. Our thriller has been posted on multiple social networking sites such as 'Facebook' and 'Youtube' and has gained a reputable following, for example, 'Facebook' has a unique thumbs up system in which users have the ability to 'like' a post, and since Ben put the film up on Saturday the 9th, the video has gained 24 'likes' which is an incredible response. Additionally, individuals have commented;
   "This is soooo good!"
   "Impressed ben mate. Very impressed"
   "Wow ben im impressed thats dead good!"   *
* The comments are addressed to Ben, because he is the one who posted the video. 

This is incredible feedback and very encouraging, however lacked constructive criticism. Neither did they note where exactly we excelled. 

The comments we received from 'Youtube' videos were more constructive and specific. Highlighting the parts in which they particularly enjoyed. 

    Great use of sound, the cinematography works really well. Good job on the editing! :D

    -TimanaSauce

    great job, does a good job of building suspense

    -kasrkin45

Furthermore, our thriller has reached a landmark 100 views within just 2 days of being uploaded to the site.  Detailing its wonderfully quick success. I am very proud of what we have achieved. 

Daylight Macabre - Final Piece

Presenting, our finished thriller opening, 'Daylight Macabre' ready for submission. I believe we were all incredibly pleased with how our efforts turned out after the editing process. I believe our editor, Jake did a wonderful job at capturing the forms and conventions of a thriller, and put it together with clarity, as well as also producing tension and suspense.

Naming Our Film
The process of naming our piece took much deliberation over many days, any ideas that were put forward, at least one person would have a problem with it. However, the whole group did agree on one crucial criteria that each name must abide by, which was, avoiding cliche one word titles such as; 'Scream', 'Terror', 'Solitude' for fear of our film becoming just like all other submissions. For example, I wanted to name the piece something obscure, that may have had no direct link to the piece, but could have implications later on, if for example, the film were to progress. Some ideas that i personally put forward were examples such as;

•  Feather Moon - This reminds me of the title 'Mystic River'. It gives mysterious connotations and is a relatively nice title, in my own opinion (apparently not shared by my group)
• The Beautiful Slaughter - This has extreme juxtaposition, we have the adjective 'Beautiful' heavily contrasting with the word 'Slaughter' this title would no doubt shock anyone that sees it, and would indeed add to the twisted nature of the killer. 

In the end, it was agreed up on the title; Daylight Macabre, which admittedly was not my favourite choice, but compromises had to be made and I reluctantly acquiesced and we had all settled on this. To some extent, I believe the title is appropriate, due to the fact that our film broke convention and had the murder occur in broad daylight, voiding the connection that daylight is associated with safety. Contemplating on the title now, I am still not entirely happy however i have grown to like it seeing as 'Macabre' is an unusual but effective word to use, especially as it is not heard often. 

Macabre – adjective

1.

gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible.

2.

of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death,especially its grimmer or uglier aspect.

3.

of or suggestive of the allegorical dance of death.

Each one of these definitions has connotations of death and mystery, making it perfect for the thriller genre.

Costume Decisions

The Killer
Our opening was somewhat focused on the portrayal of characters and representation of their mental states to the audience. We did thorough  research and planning. Originally we were going to replicate 'Norman Bates'' character from Hitchcocks 'Psycho' (for our killer) in which he is presented as a schizophrenic/dissociative identity disorder victim, The film goes on to describe how Norman dresses and acts as his own deceased mother. In a sense, we wanted to incorporate similar aspects in to our thriller by dressing the killer in typical women's clothing, with jerky awkward movements to symbolise the extent of the mental derangement of the antagonist. Also, by being in a dress, the audience may also 
 be misled, if in fact the killers face was not revealed, viewers may begin to believe that

the killer is a female assailant,
interestingly contrasting to
the usual male antagonist 
and the helpless (female) 
victim, with this clever use 
of reversing stereotypes, could 
make an interesting and entertaining
film. Having a male character acting so strangely, it will be evident of a psychological disturbance, and I believe the audience will soon realise something is not right. Another interpretation could be that this character has no knowledge of social etiquette and somehow believes he is exempt from a democratic humanity. We would also commission the killer to wear a wig, to perpetuate female connotations so that it will be an even bigger shock to the audience when all is revealed, incredibly similar to the plot line in 'Psycho'.


Alternatively, another idea was put forward that we base the character loosely on Heath Ledgers portrayal of 'The Joker' in Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' widely recognised as one of the most awe inspiring movies of all time, which accordingly won the late heath ledger an academy award for his performance. This is the character I most wanted to replicate, due to the fact I have always admired the performance, to be able to depict a crazed persona would improve the believability of our piece tenfold, and the ruthless killings would become some what justifiable. We planned to scrape the killers hair, into a smarter style, giving the impression that the killer has some sense of self worth and pride, and perhaps even wants to impress the victim before their untimely death. Another example of how this is evident, is that the killer wears relatively smart shoes, which is peculiar but a nice technique, the shoes are similar to that of Javier Bardem's character in the Coen brothers  'No Country For Old Men' in which he plays the killer, who is also depicted as mentally 'un-hinged' as it were, what with the cold blooded nature of his murders, and the little remorse and mercy he shows. 

















Eventually we put our killers costume together, it consisted of brown skinny jeans, brown shoes (western style), a grey and black checked shirt and a black waist coat. This mix of different colours and materials showed a blatant lack of any sense whilst choosing an outfit. A final neck tie was added as we all believed it to be an unusual and unorthodox piece of attire.
          To create the killers persona, a lot of thought was put in from every member of the group, and I believe that we eventually put together a wonderful persona that will no doubt prove effective on screen.

The Lonely Boy (Protagonist)
Jakes character, (dubbed 'the lonely boy') was relatively easy to discover the desired persona we wanted him to emulate. We all seemed to agree that Jake should take on certain aspects of the character 'Donnie Darko' from Richard Kelly's ingeniously written 'Donnie Darko' (2001). The character seemed to have the perfect personality, that we all associated with the developing 'lonely boy' character. Mise en scene, associated with main characters is crucial to get right, for overall power of your film. Donnie's iconic hoodie and skeleton costume seemed like the perfect answer to the costume we were searching for. It is unbelievably simple and equally as effective, as it speaks volumes about the wearer. The elementary skeleton t-shirt, depicts a simple but contemplative nature, Whereas the hoodie seems to isolate him from the other characters, showing an invisible segregation as he wants no part of what may be happening around him.

        

Behind the Scenes of Our Thriller (Killer Preparation)

The killer in our thriller is portrayed with an incredibly twisted mental stability, establishing the complex character took work and commitment, seeing as I wore applied make-up upon my face and filmed briefly on location off site. I practiced acting in such a way, and walking the way the character would, I tried to change my state of mind for the performance.


Making of AS Media Thriller - 5 from Alex Hyden on Vimeo.

Here we see the some of the opening being filmed, and it is evident that the person in the frame is not normal from the curious way that he is acting. We also see me preparing my hair, in different experimental styles, each time asking my group for recommendations, as to whether they thought the style was appropriate enough for a psychotic killer. We also see some mise en scene, the pictures that have been scrawled on only strengthen the idea that the killer is psychotic and perhaps even obsessed with 'lonely boy'.

Behind the Scenes of Our Thriller (Interior Shots)

Mise en scene within the film was not taken lightly, we thought about almost every aspect of the surrounding environment of the party and organised the sets accordingly.


Making of AS Media Thriller - 3 from Alex Hyden on Vimeo.

In this video, we view the organisational standard that we went through, although the video is only brief we see a small part of the meticulous process and fine tuning of the sets, from placement of the playing cards and bottles to the general party atmosphere. Once again, Ben as the director is the main mise en scene adjudicator. However, i did take it upon my self to monitor continuity issues and ended up pointing out a few flaws in the filming that we eventually rectified.

The complexities of directing are specified during this next video.


Making of AS Media Thriller - 4 from Alex Hyden on Vimeo.

This is genuinely one of my favourite scenes, in which 'lonely boy' is sat in a chair, solitary, and then the film is then edited to be in faster motion, as people walk by his loneliness is emphasised by him not communicating, looking or even reacting to anything that is going on around him. This shot took about 3 takes, and took the entire group and the extras' efforts. I am filming Ben, who is proceeding to direct the shot. We see his contemplation at the beginning, order of the shots and eventually finishing the shot which seemed at the time to be a wonderful achievement. We are really able to see Ben's confidence as a director, as he projects his voice, commanding the set and extras who again were incredibly enthusiastic and helpful.
           This is one of my favourite shots, simply because of the sheer effort everybody put in to it. Admirations must be extended to Jake for being able to stay still for the whole duration.

Behind the Scenes of Our Thriller (Outdoor Shots)

As we filmed our thriller, we also had a secondary camera to film what exactly went in to making our film. It really is interesting to review the footage and remember how we shot things and also how Ben (the director) organised different shots.



Making of AS Media Thriller - 1 from Alex Hyden on Vimeo.

With in this section, we see Ben organising different fast shots of our extras, this technique proves wonderfully effective when edited in to the piece, by speeding them up and showing them together it acts as a partly shocking effect and also an ingenious technique to make longer shots less laborious.
        We see 2 different people taking part in the shots, and Ben explaining exactly what we wanted them to do.



Making of AS Media Thriller - 2 from Alex Hyden on Vimeo.

This was an interesting shot, because i was not so sure of it. However, it ended up working relatively well. We see Ben directing almost all of our extras, clearly stating what he wanted from them, and kudos to our extras as they were incredibly cooperative and seemed to be completely committed to producing a good film, we could not have done it without them.
         It also seemed prudent to gather some feedback from our extras, seeing as they were all apart of it too, we supported them and took any recommendations they might have had in to account.

Thriller - Story Board

Storyboards
 We made a basic plan for our thriller, and decided that we would not diverge to far away from this plan, the basics of our final film are evident in these story boards, however, some aspects have been changed in order to improve the piece.




















(left) Details the protagonist throwing up in to a toilet, relative close ups,
(right) Leaves bathroom, picks up a bottle and walks away (possible POV shot)


















(left) Details that this is a party scene. Panning shots to party guests.
(right) Extended party shots, emphasis of the protagonists loneliness will be denoted as he does not communicate with others.


















(left) Protagonist is seated, solitary and still. fast forward footage, as people walk passed. emphasising the feeling of loneliness.
(right) Flash cut of a knife.




















(left) Extreme close up of antagonist, here we see that he is genuinely scary.
(right) Killers dwelling, dark and gloomy. We see he has pictures of the lonely boy. Audience attention levels increase, as viewers begin to suspect.


















(left) Killer walks towards the victim, low angle, gives him a power position.
(right) Lonely boy has been murdered, high angle gives feeling of helplessness, conjures sympathy.



















(left) Extras standing over body, silent. (effective)
(right) Close up of killers make up ridden eye tells the audience that the killer is still at large, danger is imminent.

Filming Our Thriller Opening - Day 04 (Final Shots)

Finally, we finished filming on our fourth day. It was a successful few hours, in which we shot the entirety of the killer's contribution, and also a couple extra shots of Jake we could add in, to add a further sense of peculiarity to the piece. We no longer had access to our extras, and also had to wear the same clothes, simply for continuity purposes. By the end of our shoot, we had achieved all that we wanted therefore we were incredibly thrilled with the end product.
           Originally the plan was to have me (the killer) dress in female clothes as a somewhat of a homage  for Hitchcock's 'Psycho' however, upon detailed group discussion, we bagan to feel that this would change the killers image to a more comical and ludicrous portrayal. Bearing this in mind, we began to emplore the different routes to take and eventually decided to take inspiration from Heath Ledger's presentation of 'The Joker', and put together a costume on the day, which accordingly will be explained within my costume blog post.
  
Killer Preparation
Once my costume was chosen and everyone was happy with the look, we began to manipulate make-up to change my features to complement the killers psychotic mind frame. We began by using bright red lipstick, smearing it all over my lips and surrounding facial area, and shaped it in to a vulgar frown, subverting, Heath Ledgers portrayal, who instead employed a smile shape. This frown emulates the killers character, embodying him as a lonely and frustrated individual. This is my favourite feature of the killer, as it is the most stand out and haunting factor. The other aspect we altered about my face was the eyes. By adding a brown coloured eyeliner, it seemed to present my character as a deprived, perhaps even abused individual, whom is unable to get away. Everything that we added to this character, can connote any number of things, that could be used to decrypt this mans back ground and history, that if we were creating an entire film, we could easily develop him in to a more 3 dimensional character, that could even be empathised with by the audience! However, due to the overall creepy look of the killer, empathy or sympathy is made impossible, simply because of his threatening demeanor and appearance.   


                

The Killers Dwelling
We wanted the killers home to have a completely eerie, and psychotic atmosphere, for example, ''Buffalo Bills' basement in 'Silence of The Lambs' (1991). We strived to make the set reflect the killers mental state. We did this by fashioning a strange shrine in Jakes bathroom we did this by placing a black bin bag over the mirror, on which we placed pictures of 'lonely boy', on which the killer had marked with the same red that smothers his face. This connotes that the killer has some kind of attachment to 'lonely boy' and has perhaps even been watching and observing him for a while, silently planning. Furthermore, to increase the audiences perception that the killer is abnormally bizarre, we filmed a shot of me gazing in to the covered mirror, applying my make up, despite no reflection being visible. Additionally, flickering candles were added to further the atmospheric mystery and even hint at some forms of the occult or satan worship.

              

In Conclusion
This shoot was not unnecessarily lengthy, as we didn't need to many takes, i suspect this is because most of the time, only one person was involved in shots and did not need as much cooperation and work from everybody else. We had not filmed anything of the killer yet, so, being the shoots main on screen performer, I felt pressured to do things correctly and did not want to make to many errors, for the benefit of everybody. We did a brief stint on location, away from the set, in which we discovered a secluded alley we felt to be perfect for one particular shot. Overall, i am happy with my performance, but find it difficult to watch myself on screen. I tried to adapt my personality to coordinate with the planned persona  of the killer, and was told i performed relatively well. I am proud of the characters we have created over our 4 days of filming.

Now that we have finished the filming process, I am very much looking forward to contributing towards the editing and indeed seeing peoples responses to our creation.

Filming Our Thriller Opening - Day 03

Recruiting Extras, Working with Extras and Filming the Majority of the Piece
This day was our most successful day of filming as we gathered the majority of footage, which is just as well because we only had commitment from extras for just 3 hours, I enjoyed the atmosphere of everyone working together, because not only was it a professional environment but i believe each one of us enjoyed ourselves while producing the film, which is admittedly an important aspect of filming, because, by keeping everyone happy, I think we found a higher quality performance because our extras actually desired to be in it. 
   We came to gather many extras  by simply advertising a need for some on the social networking site 'Facebook'. Ben (our director) simply sent out a private message to people we believed to be the most trustworthy and professional individuals, that would listen to what we said instead of taking the situation for granted. This is the message that was dispatched; 

''Hello people, Me, Jake Hipwell, Sam Askey and Alex Hyden need some people to be in a thriller opening we have to make for media, just to be extras at a halloween party doing party stuff, you wont need to say any lines but might need to act a tiny bit, we really need some people though so it would be great if you could help :)'

If everything works out right we should be filming this saturday afternoon, at Jakes house, should take 2 or 3 hours at the most. let me know if you can or not or have any questions, thankyou!''

However, we did not receive many replies to this message, so ended up asking people personally whether they would be able to help out. We ended up gathering a group of about 10 people, which seemed enough. Furthermore we requested they bring halloween masks, and/or costumes to authenticate the party somewhat and add to the mise en scene, this request did not go ignored but the turn out seemed slightly half hearted from some extras.

       As the shoot got underway we discovered that a lot of it ended up being spontaneous ideas that improved the outcome of the film, I personally believe we did not plan the film enough, so we were searching for extra features to insert in to the final edit. I found producing the film relatively easier than expected but i believe this to be down to everyones cooperation and enthusiasm.
      However, a lot of the shots we did plan, we did use. For example the occasional low angle and the random party shots ended up being quite effective, just as planned.
     Overall, the entire filming process took about 2 hours 30 minutes, with occasional breaks for the extras, to ensure there attention and cooperation whilst we actually did film. All extras have been thanked many times and know that they were a credit to themselves, I believe everyone involved was proud of the final article.

Filming Our Thriller Opening - Day 02 (initial shots)

We began filming with just my group; Me, Sam, Jake and Ben. We didn't have any extras at this point, however we knew what needed to be done, and we had the capability, so we began the long and arduous process of filming our thriller.

Primarily, our plan was to begin with Jake, (the protagonist) vomiting in to a toilet. We were faced by multiple problems, first and foremost, creating a believable vomit for jake to throw up that would not go on to poison/injure him. We ended up utilising a cup-a-soup mixture, which interestingly had an incredible likeness to vomit. Despite being advised by many website to use a mixture of cornflower and other substances.

   

We took many takes of Jake 'being sick' so that we could have as many shots to choose from as possible, Jake was a good sport during all this and was incredibly committed to the cause. We utilised spotlights for this shot, to create as much light as possible. We also had to make sure that Ben, whom was operating the camera, could not be seen as a reflection in the tiled surface opposite.

              

Following this Ben (pictured below) began filming a long tracking shot, facing a door, drawing closer to it. We wanted the transition of the camera to be as smooth and as professional as possible. We intended this to be used before Jake is sick, allowing the audience to guess what may be behind the mysterious door. Again, we filmed this many times to ensure maximum quality, as occasionally the camera would shudder, and we wanted the shot to be perfect, therefore, we shot it again.

                                

To concatenate my thoughts on our second day of film making, I believe we progressed excellently as with the relatively short time period we had available, we created the first 30 seconds of our opening, which i believe we are all genuinely proud of. At that moment in time, I believe we were all very excited to carry on with filming and progress even further. On our following days of filming we hoped to gather some extras for our piece, all appropriately dressed for the part. I also wanted to develop the mise en scene, appropriately for a teenage party.

Filming Our Thriller Opening - Day 01 (choosing different shots)

On our first day of filming we as a group had high hopes and were nothing but enthusiastic to make a promising start, and get the initial ideas and shot variations planned, also scout out positions where, and deliberate on how we would create our film in the chosen sets. After all, we failed to make a start, as we were enthused on finding and creating the perfect environments in which we would film.
        
Our first shot involved Jake (the protagonist) being sick in to the toilet at a house party. Obviously the bathroom was chosen for this shot and the perfect positioning for the camera involved Ben (the director) positioning himself in the bath. Here is the subsequent angle we used.

                     

Another interesting position we discovered was an alleyway around the side of Jake's house, which is the chosen house for our thriller.

        

                  

The alley in this shot on the left, is lengthy, and narrows towards the end, distorting the view somewhat and i imagined the killer walking through the gate, with a loud piercing creaking sound, that would be horror-esque. The shot on the right is the same alley from the other side and gives a different perspective. If we were to utilise the alley effectively the killer could travel clearly down this pathway, on his way to murder the unsuspecting protagonist

The above shot (lower of the two) will prove quite interesting to work with, the multi-layered landscape can be developed and experimented with. It allows us to lower a character, or heighten them creating different power possession, and the jagged rocks can symbolise danger. This terrain enabled us to experiment with many different shots which we would go on to deliberate further within the extended planning process. The shot (highest of the two) illustrates the low angle effect of bestowing power to the person in the frame. I hoped to including a couple instances of this in our thriller


                                

Establishing the setting of the thriller is important, we chose Jakes house as we believed it to have the most un-tapped potential, and gratefully, it was the most convenient for all involved to get to it, with it being less than 2 minutes away from school. With many interesting settings for a party, we looked forward to experimenting with different shots and techniques to employ.

Overall, I believe our first day on the project was fruitful, even though we did not film anything, planning is detrimental to the outcome of your thriller. Without it, your vision may not be realised.