Task Allocation Week 6

Production Log Week 5

Animatic

                 https://youtu.be/J8Ejjme1oBY               

Storyboard

Location recce

Full Script - Draft

First page of Script

 

Sound effects board

Sound effects board

1. One sound effect we will be using is a heart beating fast. One possible source we can use is from a free sound effect website: https://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/heartbeat. This sound effect is steady paced and can help to build a suspenseful atmosphere. Another source we can use is from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFxLW2wLN0A&t=810s. This sound effect gradually increases the speed of the heartbeat, which will help to increase the tense atmosphere and show how the characters fear increases. Therefore, this sound effect will be used to help show how the characters feeling and increase the tension in the film.

2. Another sound effect we will be using is the sound of footsteps. One possible source we can use is from a free sound effect website: https://freesound.org/people/florianreichelt/sounds/459964/. This sound effect is the sound of someone walking on concrete floor. Another source we can use is from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klY_rWHy_Bs. This sound effect is used to show the audience when a character is walking.  

3. We will also be using a cinematic boom sound effect. One possible source we can use is from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuVUdD3SXOs. This is vine boom sound effect which will shock the audience. Another source we can use is from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bajrV5DQqgY&t=33s. This YouTube video shows several boom sound effects but we will only use the second one. This sound effect will be used to create a tense atmosphere when the screen goes pitch black in between scenes.

4. Another sound effect we will use is the sound of a door creaking. One possible source we can use is from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvVSCwxCVDE. In this video, you can hear the sound of the door opening whilst making a creaking sound. Another source we can use is from https://www.freesoundeffects.com/free-sounds/doors-10030/. This website has several door creaking sound effects which we can choose from. This sound effect will be used to scare the audience and enhance the visuals of the cellar door opening.

5. We will also use the sound of birds chirping in the background. One possible source we can use is from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm846KdZN_c&t=18s. This is the sound of birds chirping in the forest. Another source we can use is from http://soundbible.com/tags-bird.html. This website has a variety of different birds sounds we can use. This sound effect is used to show that the protagonist has escaped from her kidnapper and is free.

Location release form

Task Allocation List Week 5

Production Log Week 4

Call sheet

Production schedule

Potential Client Questions

Actor Release Form

Proposal

Shooting Script

Risk Assesment

Task Allocation List Week 4

Production Log Week 3

Focus group - Audience research

https://youtu.be/UDcQpk6Aeyg

In our focus group we had four girls and two boys aged between 16 and 17 years old (age range is within our target audience). We explained our idea for the opening of a suspenseful thriller film and asked them questions which we could use to improve our idea. The topics discussed includes; sound effects/music, settings, characters, storyline, films that we can take inspiration from, how we can make it appeal to our target audience and the camera/editing techniques for our thriller film.

This has informed us on our audiences opinions and thoughts on thriller films . In the focus group the participants have spoken about what they would like to be included in the thriller opening. Therefore, we have been able to take this feedback on board and adjust our idea.

Questions

1. What do you think about our idea and how can we improve it?

The focus group said they liked our idea for our thriller opening. They asked questions about the narrative and characters. Mya believed that it appealed to people of our age as we are interested in thrillers and horrors more than other genres such as Fantasy and science-fiction. This then led them to ask the age of the main character. When we stated that the protagonist would be 16 years old they agreed that it would appeal to them.


2. What do like about in thriller films in general?

Zaina and Roshni said that they enjoyed thriller films as they include thriller conventions such as suspense and mystery which makes them more engaged because of the unknown. Mya added that she enjoyed the jump scares and fast paced movements in a thriller as it makes it more thrilling and tense. Therefore we will include the elements of fast paced actions when the protagonist is escaping and create suspense of who the antagonist may be as they remain unidentified.



3. What type of music would you prefer in our thriller opening sequence?

Some of them said that they would like tense music whilst others said they prefer silence. The group also said that they would like more sound effects such as heavy breathing and crunching leaves. Mya suggested that the protagonist could be saying her thoughts as she is running through the forest. From this feedback, we will include sound effects, a voiceover and some tense music.


4. What do you think the protagonist should look like?

They responded saying that the protagonist should have long hair as it makes the main character seem like they’ve been captured for a long period of time and Saif added that the protagonist should have bruises and cuts to show that they have been abused. The group said if we wanted to make our character non stereotypical then the protagonist should be asian as it makes it more realistic because there are numerous real life cases about young white girls being kidnapped however it will be different if the protagonist was Asian.

For the gender of the protagonist, we got mixed opinions, as Roshni said “to prevent it from being less generic, the protagonist should be a boy” as most cases are of girls being kidnapped.  Whereas Mya thinks that the protagonist should be a young girl as it will make it more realistic. They also agreed that the protagonist should be young as the audience will feel more sympathy for young children. This will help us when creating an image of the protagonist in our opening sequence.


5. How can we make our thriller opening sequence appeal to a young audience?

The group said that we could include social media as people in our target audience would relate to it more due to majority of teenagers being on social media. Roshni also added that the protagonist should be in torn up school uniform or wear clothes from a certain period of time as it shows the audience that they’ve been kept in the cellar for a long time. This led to the group having an idea - the protagonist could make a tally on the wall to show how long she's been kept in the cellar for. This will help us make our thriller opening relatable to our target audience.


6. Should we get any inspiration from any other Thriller movies or shows?

 The focus group said that we can get inspiration from the Netflix show, 'Pretty little liars' as it involves kidnapping and has mystery characters which will be useful in our thriller opening sequence as the antagonist will remain a mystery and the protagonist will be kidnapped. Sarib said that we could also get inspiration from the film Taken as it consists of generic conventions of a crime thriller such as kidnapping and fast pace actions which we can use in our thriller opening sequence when the protagonist is escaping.



7. What should the antagonist look like?

Mya said the antagonist should remain a mystery because then it will be more interesting and suspenseful, as the audience will want to see the antagonist after the opening sequence.


8. What do you think about the settings we have chosen?

They suggested that we should begin the opening sequence in the cellar to show where they’ve been kept and for how long. They then said after the cellar has been show, there could be shots of the protagonist running in the forest. Mya responded by asking “how the protagonist is going to escape” and Simran and I said that they will escape through a secret door that they’ve just found however Roshni disagrees with our idea as it can make it seem unrealistic as they cannot just find a random door after a long time. Therefore we need to make the amount of time they’ve been kidnapped shorter. They also said that they liked the fact it is set in the forest and suggested the sequence of events for the thriller opening.

Thriller Questionnaire Analysis - Audience research

Thriller Questionnaire Analysis

We asked people aged 16 - 24 to fill out our thriller questionnaire to gain audience research on what our target audience likes/dislikes about thriller films and what we should include in our opening sequence for a thriller film. We gained 21 responses from our target audience.

Question 1: What type of thriller do you enjoy the most?

The first question we asked is about the audiences favourite sub genre of thriller so we could target our audience more. The options included; Action, Crime, Psychological, Suspenseful and Horror thriller. There was also an option where the respondent could write their own choice of sub genre. The top answers were suspenseful thriller and action thriller. Therefore, we will make our thriller film have a subgenre of suspense and action.

Question 2: Where would you like a thriller film to be set?

We asked our target audience, what setting they would like the most when watching a thriller film. The choices were; City, Urban area, Forest, Town, Room/Building and other. Majority of the respondents, said they would like the film to be set in a forest. Therefore, we have decided to set our opening sequence in a forest which will create a mysterious and creepy atmosphere to convey the genre of thriller.

Question 3: Which is your favourite thriller film?

The third question we asked was about the audiences favourite thriller film. We asked this so that we could take inspiration from our target audiences favourite thriller to make it appeal to them more. The choices included; Taken, Get out, Seven, Halloween and other. The top answers included Taken, Get out and Halloween. Two other people said their favourite thriller film is Happy Death Day and The Conjuring. From these results, we will include some of the aspects used in these films. For example, we will make the storyline similar to Taken and include scenes of death, which will be inspired from majority of the films listed such as Happy Death Day.

Question 4: Would you like there to be a lot of action at the beginning of the thriller or would you prefer it to be calm?

The response we got was 50/50. Half of our respondents said they would like there to be a lot of action in the opening sequence whilst the other half said they would like it to be calm and normal. From these results, we will include a mixture of calm and action in the opening sequence. 

Question 5: What gender would you want the protagonist to be?

We asked our target audience what protagonist's gender should be in the thriller film. 14/21 of our respondents said female whilst the rest said male. Therefore, we will make our main protagonist be of a female gender as it will please majority of our audience. However, we will also have a male protagonist who will be the father of the female protagonist (but he will not be in the opening sequence). This allows our thriller film to relate to both a female and male audience.                                                 

Question 6: What theme would you like to be included in the thriller film?

The themes that the respondents could pick from were; Romance, Death, Mystery, Kidnapping, Revenge and Other. The top answers were kidnapping, mystery and death. From these results, we will make the opening sequence include the theme of kidnapping, mystery and death. This benefits us as our idea already includes these themes. Therefore, by gathering these responses we are more confident that our idea will satisfy our target audience.

Question 7: What type of music would you like there to be in the opening of the film?

The options for the type of music to be included in our opening sequence from which the respondents could pick from included; Upbeat, Scary, Calm and Suspenseful. The top answers were scary and suspenseful. So we will include scary/suspenseful music in our opening sequence of our thriller film as the audience will feel on edge and perhaps more engaged.

Question 8: What type of lighting do you prefer in a thriller film?

We asked our audience what type of lighting they like in thriller films. Based on this we will use the type of lighting that our target audience likes the most. The options included; High key lighting, Low key lighting, Natural lighting and lighting that uses colours such as red and blue. Most of our respondents said they like low key lighting (54%) and natural lighting (31%). From these results, our opening sequence for our thriller film will include low key lighting as well as natural lighting.

Question 9: What type of camera shots do you like to see in a thriller film?

Asking our audience about camera shots they like the most will help us when creating our opening sequence as we will use camera shots that the audience likes the most. The options were; Close ups, Establishing shots, Mid shots, Over the shoulder shots and other. The top answers were mid shots and over the shoulder shots. Therefore we will try to use these shots more than the others when creating our opening sequence for the thriller film.

Q10: What elements could be included in a thriller film that relates to a young audience?

We asked our target audience of 16-24 year olds about how we could make the film relate more to them. The options included; Social media, School/University, Hobbies and Other (where the respondent could suggest another option). We got around the same number on each option. From this, we will try to include some of these elements in our film.