Our Finished opening.

Evaluation activity 7

Evaluation activity 6

Evaluation Activity 5

Evaluation Activity 4

Evaluation activity 3

Our production company name is 'RLI Media' which is comprised of the three media students that are a part of it ( Robbie, Lewis, and Isobel ). We chose a simple, basic name that would easily identify us as a group. 'RLI Media' is also our Facebook, Twitter and Youtube logins, as it relates to our blogger. Our role as a company is to produce a film that can be distributed by a media institution.

A distribution company can buy the rights to a film from a production company, and then show it in cinemas and DVD etc. A production company ( RLI Media ) creates the film. 

We looked at a large variety of production companies that we could use, if we were to distribute our thriller. Many of them, such as Warner Brothers would be very difficult to distribute as they usually only distribute high budget films such as 'The Dark Knight'. Universal was a good choice, as they distribute the highest concentration of thrillers, however we found that Hammer films best suited our theme of thriller. Also we felt that we could relate more to them as a distribution company as they can understand our vision when creating our own thriller.

Our thriller was funded entirely by our group. This influenced our location as we had to pay for petrol in order to get there, which is why the house we chose was excellent as it was close. All the props we used, were already in our possession which meant that we did not have to pay for them. We went for a B - Movie style, as we felt that there was no way we compete with a high budget film.

We decided to add only the production team name RLI Media, in the opening as we felt a list of names would draw from the tension we were attempting to build. RLI Media can easily be related to the individuals in our group, therefore we felt names were not necessary.

Our film is similar to Saw in the way that we would market it. For example, our poster highlights the violence that will feature in our film as seen by the blood on the door and the helpless girl in the background.

Evaluation activity 2

Both of these characters are protagonists in their films. As well as being female, they both share a similar situation when they find themselves in an unfamiliar environment after being kidnapped by an evil man. They appear innocent at first, but develop to the circumstances and are more willing to run or fight for their lives as the film continues.

In 'The Human Centipede' Jenny is more willing to help others around her, and is seen going back to the house after escaping, in order to rescue her friend. This contrasts to the way Isobel reacts when she see's and unfamiliar boy on the floor of a room but decides to leave him regardless.

Both are able to, at one point, out-smart the antagonist and find a way to escape their shackles. However, they are over powered by the antagonist who has instrumental power over them, as they are both weak characters in terms of strengths.

Isobel and Jenny are both extremely feminine, which is seen by appearance. Isobel has long blonde hair, and make up, and Jenny has long black hair. It is clear by their appearance that they care how they look.

Evaluation Activity 1

A mood board  showing the various aspects of our film and how they avert and subvert the codes and conventions of a thriller.

Audience feedback

Getting feedback from various different people about our thriller.

Same questions were asked:

- What did you think of the thriller overall?
- Do you think your personal codes and conventions of a thriller were met?
- Did you have a favourite part in particular?
- What could be improved?

Deciding on the best suitable font

When deciding on a font for the opening of our thriller, we decided that a medieval style font would fit the old, abandoned house well, whilst also giving a creepy feel to it.

The first font we decided on was Celtic Garamond the 2^nd

After a discussion with our peers, we all felt that the text had too much of a religious look to it, and therefore decided to watch the opening to some other thrillers, and take inspiration from them.

Using films such as ‘Cape Fear’ to get ideas from, we came across a spooky, horror themed font named Face your fears.

We all thought this font looked fantastic. However, when put into our thriller, it didn’t seem right and looked as if it was from a child’s halloween party.

Again, we went searching for a medieval styled font that we could all agree and and finally found Infiltrace. It fit our thriller brilliantly and had all the conventions that we felt a thriller title sequence font should have.

How we edited & what went well/wrong

Behind the scenes of editing

Behind the scenes of filming Netherton

Filming Diary

Day 1
We arrive on set, an abandoned house, early and start filming straight away. We have already planned what rooms we are going to use so get straight to it. The first scene at the house is when Lewis pulls up in his car. We film him doing this using a pan but unfortunately the first time a van drives past and gets in the way of our shot. We have to do another take but we get it perfect this time. The next shot, as we are having to use the same natural lighting, is filmed straight away and this is of Lewis stepping out his car. We play around with the camera angle, seeing what it would look like from various parts of the car. We decide behind the door is best and film. Next, the scene is completely black and for this, Isobel had to get in the boot while Lewis drove and Isobel breathed heavy, as if she was kidnapped. We did this to create the correct noise effects. The next scenes are in the house. By chance Robbie discovered a really good angle of Lewis treading on broken glass, which looks really effective. We film the next few scenes in the upstairs rooms. For the CCTV effect, Isobel had to sit in the corner of the room for 5 minutes while the camera filmed. Once we have all our inside shots done we head home.

Day 2
Today we are filming the beginning part of the opening. This is of Lewis driving. We had to get many camera angles to make this look effective. One angle Robbie and Matt stood in the middle of a field while Lewis drove past. Another is Robbie leaning out on the roof while Lewis drives. We thought this would create another interesting angle. After filming each angle a few times we call it a day.

Day 3
We had to re shoot some scenes today as when we came to edit our thriller we found they just didn't work properly. None of them were too hard to re film and in the end it was worth going back to do them properly!

Making any props or costumes.

Our original idea for our thriller included a crazed ex doctor/nurse psychopath who kidnapped an innocent girl to take out his anger. We went to Ebay.com and ordered a dress up doctors costume (shown below), and a small bottle of fake blood, these together would create the character that we were originally planning to create.

After some discussion about how the costume didn't look as professional as we had expected, we decided that we would change our original idea to a psycho who is always dressed smartly, but with a hooded sweatshirt to attempt to cover his identity. This idea worked well as the two victims in our film were also dressed smartly, as that were kidnapped from their sixth form. By dressing the victims and the psycho in basically the same clothes, we achieved a character that is reminiscing his student years and is trying to take out his anger on current students.

Idea For A Promotional photograph

This is an idea for a promotional photograph, created by Robbie. The darkness and mist were added after as a way of making the house seem frightening and eary. The ghostly figure in the top window adds to the atmosphere, as it leaves a sense of the unknown, and leaves each individual to imagine who, or even what, the figure is.

Tour Of Our Set

This is a quick tour, showing you around our filming destination. We believe it fits perfectly with the codes and conventions of a thriller setting. 

We visited our filming destination today, we took photos of the rooms we may use in our thriller.

We visited a possible filming destination today, a derelict house located in Hutton Mount. Upon arrival of the house, we found that it fit the codes and conventions of a horror themed thriller perfectly. The tight corridors, and small dark rooms gave it the creepy, deserted atmosphere we were looking for, which therefore, made it an ideal location to film at. It's close to the school which means that we can get there with ease.

Music

As a group, we decided that we would have music running throughout the whole opening of our thriller.  We referred to Youtube when looking for music that we could use, however it needed to be copyright free, therefore we payed close attention to this when searching. Deciding on the right piece was difficult, so ideas were contributed to get an idea of what we felt would best suit our thriller. We also looked at other thrillers that shared a similar atmosphere to the one we were attempting to portray, such as '28 Days Later'.

We all decided that it should create a sense of isolation, as well as a chilling atmosphere. It needed to be simple, yet effective at having an impact on the audience which was hard to come by, in terms of copyright free music.

In the end, we found a piece of music composed by 'DylansMusic' on youtube. Pleased, we looked to see how our recorded clips looked when the music was played with them, and it fitted perfectly. The slow build up of the song, matched the car driving slowly at the beginning.

Changes Made - #1 Location

Initially, we decided that we wanted to film in an abandoned hospital, or mental asylum. We searched google for a few days in our free periods, and finally Robbie found an old derelict mental asylum, in Harlow, Essex.

After a group discussion, we established that the location was perfect for the thriller, we aspired to create. The three of us selected a day that we were all free to visit, also bringing along some friends to get an outside opinion on Runwell. We set off for the asylum on a sunny afternoon with high hopes, and eager to get started. When we got there, a security guard denied us entry and we soon found out that an asbestos problem made the building inaccessible. We enquired the guard in order to get the phone number for the local council, and gave them a call in the car, but were informed that there was no chance in filming on site. 

Disappointed, we searched for other locations in and around the current area. It was at this point that a non media student joining us on the journey, informed us of an unused house in Hutton Mount, Shenfield, Essex. We visited on the way back to school, and were pleasantly surprised with the location. However, because of the change of set, we also had to change Lewis' character from a surgeon, to an illusive, smartly dressed man. The house was only a 3 minute drive from school, as apposed to the 29 minutes of the other set. This not only made it practical for everybody in the group, but also meant that we could walk from school if need be.

Final Poster

Analysis of a Film Poster

Above is an analysis of the promotional poster for the film 'Insidious'. The film poster and some of the elements used are the inspiration for our promotional poster when we come to later design it. We like the use of the picture within the background of the window and may use this element when later designing our poster.

Analysis of the Inception poster

Social Networking Advertisement For Our Film

This is a rough banner for our thriller, we decided to incorporate the main room of our set in this to make a distinction between our thriller film in particular, as aposed to the various other films out there. We have included various social networking sites, so that people can keep up to date with the production team, and follow the progress of the film. We chose the three favourited social networking sites. This allows individuals to follow us on their preffered site of choice.

Influences

Health And Safety Risk Assessment

When we entered our filming location, nearly every room in the house was covered in glass and lots of other broken objects like kitchen sinks etc. Also upstairs on the landing the floor boards were all missing and broken, we managed to move away enough so that it was safe but still keeping enough so that the antagonist can walk across in the film opening. The two main rooms in the house that we used, where the antagonist kept his victims, we had to completely clear the floor of broken glass and china as the two characters needed to be sitting on the floor, although we still had to keep some objects in place to keep the atmosphere of the location and to try to stick to the codes and conventions of a thriller as best as we could.

This photo was taken before we cleaned out the room, we had to remove the broken sink, but we managed to find a small piece that would fill in the hole seen on the floor in the corner when the protagonist would be kept hostage, also it helped add to the atmosphere, by allowing the room to still seem run down and dirty. In the videos below you can see the finished room as we wanted it to be seen in our thriller opening.

This is Robbie, sweeping out the main room of our set, making sure that it is completely safe for all of our group.

This is Robbie clearing the landing space to ensure that it is safe for all members of the group to walk across.

Brief/Pitch Of Initial Ideas

This is a brief insight into our initial ideas for our film.

Mise en Scene

The term Mise En Scene, or ‘Place in the scene’, is used within theatre and film to describe the visual aspects. This includes props, costume, setting, make-up, non-verbal communication (NVC), performance, lighting and set design. The director uses these to develop the film thus making it seem more believable and to evoke the audience emotion. For example, a director may use ‘horror’ make-up (cuts, bruising) in a horror film, such as The Exorcist, to convey the full horror of the exorcism, than to what would’ve been without make-up.

Within our thriller 'Netherton' we have decided that the location alone is enough to set a grim atmosphere. At first we though upon using a costume on Lewis's character to make the film more realistic but on further thought we would do flash backs of his before life and therefore the doctors costume would be needed for that. We have chosen a more professional attire of a suit trousers and tie combination.

Isobel's character is the 'innocent young girl' and therefore for her costume we have chosen a simple dress and shoes, portraying her innocence and femininity.

Props we are going to use within the film are a crow bar and a rusty saw, which we found on location. These props symbolise violence and brutality.

These visual aspects of the film will help to make our film more realistic and hopefully, more professional.

Storyboard

This our final idea on a storyboard for our thriller, it includes camera and editing techniques that will be used.

British Board of Film Classification

The British Board of Classification (BBFC) is an independent body, set up in 1912, to classify films so audiences know what is appropriate for which age and preference. Every film that is released has to be classified by the BBFC in accordance to its guidelines. These guidelines set the barrier as to who may go and see the film and buy the film when it is later released.

We have decided to rate our thriller film as a 15. This is because some scenes contain horror and violence and could disturb a younger audience.