Our Finished opening.

Evaluation activity 7

Evaluation activity 6

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

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

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.