Analysis of Preliminary Task

Once we had storyboarded our preliminary task, we decided that we would find our actors/actresses and start filming. We filmed and edited our film in one day, this was because our film was only about a minute long.

During the preliminary task we tried out the camera equipment and the Macs. This was handy because we got to understand abit better how the editing software, iMovie, worked.

These are what I used in my preliminary task, to make it look better:

• We used the 180 degree rule well, we stayed on the right-handed side of the actresses. If we changed sides, this would have made the film slightly confusing for the audience to watch. We used this in our thriller task but we did swap sides a couple of times to disorientate the audience.
• We added some non digetic sound effects to our thriller to make it sound a bit scarier. We used looming sounds, this made the film slightly more professional. Once we heard what it sounded like, we decided we would use sound effects in our main thriller film.
• We used transitions and fades to make the film run more smoothly.
• When we were using the camera's I found that the filming was slightly shakey, this could be changed and made steady if I was to have used a tri-pod. We used this idea in our main thriller film, although some of the scenes we used handheld shots to show the characters emotions. It was much easier to pan with a tri-pod and we always got the same height and angle if we had to retake a shot.
• We didn't really think about the mise-en-scene for our preliminary. We just picked any available room, as we had to film it in a school. We didn't think about the lighting for the situation we used. When we filmed our thriller film, we did take all of these issues into consideration, to make it the best it could possibly be.

'Black' Storyboard

We drew a storyboard for our thriller film, 'Black'. We included details on the shot type, timing, what goes on in the frame and transition. Here it is:

Click to enlarge!

Research on Font Styles

We have research fonts on the internet, and decided that we wanted a font which is simple, but effective. Some fonts that we have found are too over the top and do not look right for a thriller film.

We found a font which looks really good and goes with the background colour of black. The colour of the font is white which contrasts the name of the film, which is 'Black'. We found a font that we really like, it was called 'Archive Blackcap'.

It looked like this:

Preliminary Task - Planning and Storyboard

We planned our preliminary task using a storyboard.
We were told that we had to adapt the idea of a character going through a door and walking across a room and then sitting down, before exchanging lines of speech with the second character.

We decided to set our preliminary task in a school, a science classroom. This made it easier to film, because it was easily accessable. We wanted to make it more interesting that a normal conversation so decided to have a victim and a bully. This makes the plot more dramatic.

Our idea was:

1. Fades in from black.
2. A bully enters the room and crosses the room.
3. She pulls down a chair from the desk and sits on it next to the second character (the victim)
4. The bully says "Do you have it?"
5. The victim responds by getting some money out of her bag and then exchanging it with the bully.
6. She takes it, stands up and walks towards the door.
7. Before she leaves, she turnes round and says "I want the rest tomorrow."
8. The film then fades out.

Computer Generated Images (CGI)

I have decided to research the technology which is currently used in the film industry today:

• CGI has come much cheaper, realistic and easier to use. This makes it easier for more special effects to be included in films. The budget for our film is considerably lower than major films so the amount of special effects we can use is quite limited.
• Films that contain large fires or explosions have now got more advanced pyrotechnics, these are a lot safer now. This is far too advanced for our thriller film, and it would not be possible to do anyway.
• The quality of the sound and the cameras have become much higher standards now. We only have access to small handheld cameras with built in sound recorders.
• We are using Apple Mac Movie editting software which is semi-professional software. It is good enough for what we want to achieve in our film. We can now include special effects and music in our film.

Film Institutions That Produce Thrillers

Warner Bros:

• Also known as Warner Bros Pictures.
• American producer of film and television entertainment.
• Warner Bros was founded in 1918 by Jewish immigrants from Poland, which makes it the third oldest American movie studio in continuous operation.
• Warner Bros produce television programmes such as; Friends, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and One Tree Hill.
• Warner Bros produces such major films such as; Harry Potter, Oceans 11, 12 and 13 and Batman films.
• Around 1930, Warner Bros introduced their audience a range of Warner Cartoons, for example, Looney Tunes.
• Warner Bros' revenue is $11.7 billion.
• The operating income is $845 billion.

Lions Gate Entertainment:

• Also known as Lionsgate.
• It is a Canadian entertainment company, which is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, USA.
• It was the most successful film and television distribution company in North America.
• Lions Gate Films were initiated in 1995 by Frank Giustra who was an investment banker.
• In 2005 Lions Gate Entertainment said that they had sold their Canadian distribution rights to Maple Pictures who was founded and co-owned by two former Lions Gate executives. They were Brad Pelman and Laurie May.
• Lions Gate Entertainment have produced many films, here are some of them; American Psycho, Open Water, Godsend, Saw, Hostel and Daybreakers.
• Lions Gate Televisions have also produce TV series', here are some of them; The Dead Zone, Five Days To Midnight, Weeds and Nurse Jackie.
• Lions Gate Entertainment's revenue is $1.466 billion.
  
• The operating income is $141.219 million.

Brainstorm of Thriller Names

These are the names that we came up with for our Thriller film. We sorted them into four categories, which were; Mysterious names, short names, ordinary sounding names and Sci-Fi names.

Click to enlarge!

Once we had finished the brainstorm, we chose the name for our thriller.

The sci-fi names are too futuristic for our film, when ours is only a bit science fiction.

We asked potential viewers of our film, and they said that the mysterious names for our film were too stereotypical, and are usual titles of thrillers. We agreed with them because we want our film to be different to others.
Also when we asked the potential viewers, they said that the ordinary names weren't right for the film, because the names were almost "random" and they weren't following along with the story.Most of the viewers liked the idea of a short names for films because they are memorable and catchy, so we decided to go with one of those.

But we decided that 'Frostbite' didn't seem to have anything to do with film and could mistake the film with something else. 'The End' was a not a favourite with the potential viewers so we decide now to use it. It was out of 'Black' and 'Blood', we decided that 'Black' was a much better film title because it is kind of in context with the film we were going to film.

We narrowed the names down to our favourites from each of the catergories and put them on a tally chart. We asked 18 people to tell us which ones they preferred and here is the tally chart which showed our results:Black was the favourite name from the 18 people that we asked. So we will use that for the name of our thriller film.

Target Audience for 'Black'

'Black' is a mixture of science fiction, psychological, horror in one thriller.
We are targeting an audience of a mature age, teenages upwards. It is ideal for both genders, but it may influence more female viewers because the main character is female.

Our thriller is going to be a certificate of 15 because it could be a bit too complicated story line for an audience of a younger age. It isn't violent and doesn't contain strong language which could have pushed it up to being an 18, but this film is more about the psychological aspect.

We considered our audience for our thriller because we asked them what name they would prefer for the title of the thriller.

Our audience would watch this thriller because it is a slow pace, but builds up and gets quite tense.