Looking back on our Preliminary task, in terms of preparation, there was very little, if any, planning that was done for it. However, for our thriller we did a lot more in depth planning and had to consider many more factors as it was a lot more complex. The ways in which is was more complex was that it we had a lot more time to prepare for our Thriller, where as in our preliminary task we were not even given a week. Another aspect that made our thriller more complex was the Idea for it, our preliminary task was handed to us in already printed story board formation. However for our thriller, we had to come up with the plot and draw our story boards. Furthermore, the final production of our preliminary task was about 30 seconds long where as this we had to come up with a narrative that was 2 minutes long. In preparation for our thriller shoot we went into the studio to make sure the set was exactly as we wanted it, this was a shoddy little apartment shack. To create the right atmosphere and mise-en-scene that we wanted we decided to stick posters up on the wall of prime locations and important information that he would need to bomb. Not only was it making sure the set was design correctly but also before that we had to plan many things such as; cast list, props list, floor plan ect. One thing that I think could have been done better was that we were more prepared as a group. In my opinion, I found that we were prepared individually and all had our own ideas of what was going to happen. In order to overcome this problem, we all sat down and discussed any problems that we had, this included making sure we had an actor and all props that were needed. The actor played a key role in our thriller as we did not want a stereotypical middle eastern person as this just followed the ideal description of a terrorist that has been placed into our heads through the many types of media. Another problem that we discussed together was the materials that would be needed to make the bomb, especially as we wanted it to look as real as possible. After much discussion, we found that taking the covers off a mobile phone made a realistic bomb device and that marzipan sourced as a good replica for explosive. As planned we needed lots of extreme close up shots, this meant using a camera with a macro lens allowing us to get extremely close to things and still be in focus. The reason for needing a lot of close-up shots was to make the viewer feel almost claustrophobic, as though they cant escape. In addition, having close-ups keeps the viewer interested and makes them wonder what is being constructed within the film aw well as creating a mood and heightening the tension. Mostly our shot types were still close ups with the exception of the genie shot (Birdseye view from above) and some shots where the focus was altered in order to give the impression of vibrations and show how nervous the bomb maker was. One shot we had to capture was the bomber walking through a busy crowded area. We managed to capture a good shot but however found this slightly more challenging than normal because it was raining. We had the camera tilted slightly upright meaning that it was in direct view of the rain and regularly splattered the lens with water.
For our studio shot, we needed to build a set which was very well done. As for the on location shot, when we first came up with this idea we decided that we wanted a really busy high street. In comparison to our preliminary task, we had to plan our on location shot perfectly a none of us had done any on location filming in the past and in our preliminary task had only been given to a classroom to work with. However, because of the rain the high street was not a busy as wanted but nether the less I am still happy with the end shoot that we captured. If the street had been busier it would have had a bigger impact on the thriller as it would imply more people were going to die. Moreover, having more people in the street would have helped create more suspense. Suspense is a key aspect within the thriller genre and would have made the viewer engaged more in the footage.
In studio, we built a very realistic set. We made sure that the mise-en-scene appeared very dirty, not only did this represent the mind of the bomber being a mess and stressful. We could have chosen to make the bomber extremely clean and show signs of OCD but making it appear dirty and untidy helped target the target audience as most teenagers are untidy and they can relate to the set. Many of the props we had accounted for and we were organised as to what was needed, although we found at last minute that we could add some possible extras, posters, again to help build the mise-en-scene we wanted. In order to make the bomb look as realistic as possible we decided to use marzipan as a explosive. The reason for this was because it is the only thing that looks most like explosive putty. We found that it looked very realistic and was easy to mould. However, as the day went, we found it started to lose shape under the heat of the studio lights. As for the wires, we borrowed them from the science department as they helped as realism to the appearance of the bomb. In aid of helping the bomb appear real we also used a cover-less phone and a USB with no casing, which looked like a computer chip. One change that did happen that we changed the fact that the bomb was going to be strapped to the main protagonist and on the day we decided to use a teddy bear. The reason for this was because it was slightly scarier and it was easier the show on location as we were in public we were not able to show a bomb. We were influenced to do this by The Dark Knight. During the opening scene of the Dark knight, the joker is introduced by carrying a briefcase and the camera slowly pans upwards to his face. Similarly, this is what we attempted to capture replacing the briefcase with a teddy bear which supposedly had the bomb in. Again, this was to help build up the suspense as it was extremly successful in the dark knight.
We were organised with our actor and from day one, knew exactly what sort of person we were looking for. We needed a obvious adult, slightly dodgy looking, someone who had the appearance of a stereotypical bomber. This was to make sure that it was as clear as possible to the audience as to what was about to happen in the clip. However, if I were to film it again I would want an actor to look slightly more deranged and to look scarier.
The lighting in the planning was not really thought of. So on the day we experimented with the lighting. At first we shot lots of close up shots with normal studio lighting, but throughout the day we decided that it looked better is the lights were constantly flickering and swinging. This re-enforced that the flat was a cheap squalors flat and that it was only needed as a base to the bomber. It also helped a lot with the atmosphere of the footage we filmed; it made it scarier and helped build the tension.
In terms of editing, we first had a lot of problems finding out the style we were going to use to edit our thriller. We had to consider the pace that we wanted, in terms of research we looked at other opening scene and found that it was typical for thrillers to be fast in pace. One method in which we managed to create a face past was to open our thriller by showing a ticking clock, this reinforces athat it is a race against time. We also had think about the shots that we were going to use, this included shifting through the multiply shots that we captured on our shooting day. After much brainstorming we decided that we would edit our thriller to be short, fast clips which are split up by title credits. By having shorter clips, the tension would gradually increase and then be broken in the title clips only again to be built up. As all our shots are close up, it is difficult to depict what exactly is going, but our sequence shows the bomb is gradually being built. We were aiming to achieve a very restricted narrative that reveals very little to the audience until the last scene and due to editing we managed this.
We did not record any sound on the day, as we plan to have a soundtrack and also if any sounds are needed, it is an easy process to add them in post production.. We felt that the music was what would help the thriller become more of a thriller .After researching it and watching many thrillers, it is often a key concept within the thriller genre that before or when something bad is about to happen, music is introduced to help heighten the tension and create the desired atmosphere.
Originally we planed to have a soundtrack with the occasional ambient sound playing along with the soundtrack. However, after playing around with this concept in post production we decided that we were only going to use a soundtrack, non diegetic sound. The soundtrack that we used was made by Ben. He tried to create a soundtrack that was inspired from the music form the dark knight, this being with it varying from high to low pitches. He managed to do this and at the same time increase the tension and add an element of fear with in our thriller. We found Chellos and electric guitars sounded scary as well as creating the right mood. By creating that sound scape we were trying to give the audience a sence of what was going on in the terrorist mind, as Hans Zimmer did with the Dark Knight. Another element that we had to consider when editing the sound into our thriller was the title credits. We decided to use different pitched sounds during our title credits to break up our thriller and build up the suspense of what is going to happen next.
When choosing our title credits, we decided started off by planning to have our credits in a very unorganised layout but soon found this had the tendency to look messy, amateur and was sometimes hard to read. This led us to come up with a new idea for our title credits, which is having our titles small and compact and constantly in the same place. Having our title credits laid out in this manor reflected our thriller shots, which, like the titles were also up close and constricted.
To conclude, I found it was often the case that drifting away from the original plan to make small changes tended to improve our thriller more. All the choices that we made were ones that in my opinion made our thriller more appealing to our target audience and also helped make it more of a thriller in the sense that it helped build tension and fear.
