Filming schedule and risk assessment - Miss Georgiou

It is important to have filming schedules with in thrillers because they help organise and structure the co-ordination of the film. As a group we thought that it was important to have a structured plan of what we were going to do.

For example our filming schedule consisted out of different times in which we would shoot each angle. For example at 4pm we were to begin filming the sequence of the girl getting ready and also an establishing shot of the street so that the audience can gather and interpretation of the urban build of the area. Secondly we would record the scene when the audience see her interacting with water, we would all have a understanding of how each sequence would be filmed and also at what times each should be shot. We believed that if a strict filming schedule was implemented in our clip then it would eliminate any possibility for mistakes. Then we would film the short scene when the girl is walking down the street, we planned as a group to stick to our schedule to make sure that we were spending a sufficient amount of time on each scene. After we would film the sequence of the girl walking into the forest towards the lake. Next we would film the remaining scenes left in our clip. After we thought we had completed everything we would go through our recordings to see where we feel needs improving, this would help our thriller clip as there will be less mistakes and will flow more easily.

As a whole I feel as though the filming schedule provided our group with a sense of clarity amongst all of the people involved in the film. Filming schedules make films efficient as they're able to glance at the schedule and see when they need to film each scene of the play. It is also less time consuming as the people involved are working quickly to ensure that the film is completed on time.

Opening Scenaration - Miss Miller

1) Write up a DETAILED recount of your narrative/group storyboard
2) Include a summary explaining how and why certain elements (look at a few) will help make your sequence better/more conventional

In this post I will mainly be writing up a detailed recount of my storyline/narrative and write how I believe it will be conventional to the thriller genre. I will also be including a summary explaining how our thriller is conventional to the thriller genre and elements that could make our sequence more conventional.

Our narrative is based around the idea of a girl being possessed, it starts off by the girl putting make up on, we thought of starting with this innocent iconic opening mainly because we thought it would be conventional to the thriller genre as it would be an example of iconography and also the girl would be young and blonde which are also conventional to the thriller genre. The fact that it would start with such an innocent, lonely girl doing an average act (applying make up) would build to the relationship between both the audience and the characters as they would sympathise with the situation. It would also add to the shock when eventually she shows evidence of her possession.

As the scene continues we see glimpses of evidence which would all suggest her overarching possession of water, the fact that the audience see small evidence of water it would remind the audience that the girl is far from normal. It would be conventional to the thriller genre as it creates suspense amongst the audience as they know that it is building up to a climax. The water will be poured out of the glass onto the floor, it would be poured onto the floor to emphasise the idea of water being destructive and harmful. So the realism of the situation grows with significance because the audience find the idea of a young girl being possessed makes her seem abnormal and creates empathy. When the climax eventually arrives the girl has travelled to the lake through her overpowering water possession.

As the scene progresses we tried to incorporate the idea of typical thriller conventions such as low key lighting we thought to include this idea as it emphasises the iconography of the young girl because the dark lighting, will make the girl seem brighter because what she is wearing. This will make her seem more powerful and therefore will add to the already established relationship between both the audience and the characters because it will make her possession seem more individual and will add to the sympathy.


As we started editing our thriller clip we decided that we would need to re-arrange/alter we decided that there was a few things that we needed to add in order to make it more conventional -

Removal of watch - Initially Robyn came up with the idea of dropping a watch into the lake to lake to resemble the strength of the possession and the fact that its inevitable and time will not cure it.

Planning opening credits - Miss Georgiou

Our thriller film:
Actors- Robyn Tansley
Director- Domenico Martini
Title- The Water Bells
Music- Harry Fagan
Costumes- Robyn Tansley
Editing- Domenico Martini, Harry Fagan, Robyn Tansley
Production- MartiniProductions
Producer- Domenico Martini
Writing- Harry Fagan
Co producer- Robyn Tansley

In films the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They're usually proposed onto a black screen to emphasise the importance of them, often along side music or theme music to give an idea of the plot. The main reason credits are incorporated into films are to include and award credit to the director, production company and the actors. Opening credits are also useful when establishing the genre of the film because they're able to perceive the general ideas of a thriller film.

In our research into planning opening credits we looked at the film 'Se7en'. We wanted to know the order in which the credits appeared so that we could make our sequence realistic and professional. The order was: Production company, director, actor, title of film, actors continued, casting, music, costumes, editing, production, camera operator, co-producer, producer, writing and the director again.
When watching the opening credits we realised that a lot of low key lighting was used and also basic and easily accociated colours. Such as red for blood and black for mystery and danger. These techniques are conventional to a thriller because they create suspense and tension amongst the audience. The credits are portrayed onto a white background because they can show a clear differentiation between good and evil. There was also hidden identity used within the sequence because it emphasises the mysterious of the film, it also builds a relationship with the audience they're intrigued to who the killer is. The hidden identity also adds to the establishment of the genre, also the jerkiness of the credits adds enigma to the clip as well helps establish the genre to the audience.  These conventions would make our opening sequence more conventional to the thriller genre as it would make the audience immediately associate our thriller with a typical thriller. The fact that dismal colours were used would create both tension and suspense amongst the audience as they can clearly see that there will be a scary storyline. The colours would also make our main character seem more innocent and vulnerable as she is being portrayed as evil but yet looks like a child which are often harmless. The audience feels a stronger bond because they feel empathy for the character meaning that they don't want anything bad to happen to her.


Another film that we analysed the opening credits for was 'The Black Swan', we seemed to notice that music used is particularly relevant and appropriate to the genre of the film. The opening credits are written with charcoal this connects with the music being played as when the tempo increases the speed of the writing the credits. When the writing slows it creates suspense and tension as the audience are anticipating something to happen. We also noticed that the title appeared last this may suggest that its the most important aspect of the credits. Dark colours make up the majority of the clip so when the title is revealed in white, it shows that there is a underlining clarity between good and evil. This is also evident when the credits slowly fade out letter by letter, this would make the audience think that a theme of mystery is portrayed in the film and keep the audience engaged. 

Production Roles - Miss Miller

Production is not a specific department, but a group of people in a series of functional groups that separately work on different aspects of the film. These roles are incorporated into films as they make it easier to organise and make a successful film. The roles include;

• producers - A Film Producer creates the conditions for filming. The Producer initiates, coordinates, supervises, and controls matters such as the money raising, hiring items, and arranging for distributors. The producer is evident throughout the film and holds a key role in the development and completion of the project.
• directors - The director manages the creative aspects of the film, including directing the content and the fluidity of the films plot, directing actors, organising the location of the scenes, and managing technical details such as cameras, lighting etc.
• actors -  These are the people who play specified roles within the play in order to make the whole film make sense. They contribute to the completion of the play because they're making the storyline possible.
• director of photography - The DoP is the leader of the camera and lighting crew of the film. They make decisions on lighting and framing of shots in conjunction with the film's director. The director tells the DoP how he/she desires the shots to look and then the DoP creates the intended effects.
• music producer - The music producer is the head of the sound department, and is responsible for recording all sound in the film. Involves the choice of equipment used such as microphones/speakers etc.
• screenplay writer - Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, developing the narrative, writing the screenplay, and delivering it, in the required format, to Development Executives. Screenwriters therefore have great influence over the creative direction and emotional impact of the screenplay and, arguably, of the finished film.
• mes co-coordinator -  Are responsible for the arrangement of everything that appears in the framing – actors, lighting, décor, props, costume.
• editor - The Film Editor is the person who assembles the various shots into a coherent film, with the help of the Director. There are usually several Assistant Editors.

Production roles are a pivotal part of any film as they enable the co-ordination of roles within films. Our production roles were as follows:

producers - MartiniProductions

directors - Domenico Martini, Robyn Tansley

actors -  James Simth, Daisy Ridley, Harris Wane

director of photography - Harry Fagan

music producer - Alfred Hernandez

screenplay writer - Domenico Martini, Robyn Tansley

mes co-cordinator -  Harry Fagan

editor - Domenico Martini, Robyn Tansley, Harry Fagan

The main reason for Harry being the director of photography was that he had, had previous experience of filming before so therefore our group believed that he would be best suited for the role as he could convey our group narrative clearly to the audience. Harry was also the mese-en scene coordinator as he could easily link micro elements within our thriller with relevant aspects of mise-en scene.

Secondly we chose Robyn as one of the directors as she has good coordination skills which would enable her to position the actors in relevant positions which would make the thriller more effective and conventional. She also was involved in writing the screenplay for the actors as she had a clear idea of where the narrative should go and what should be done in order to make the thriller film more effective.

Finally I was amongst the directing panel as I was good at ensuring that everything was filmed in according to plan, and also I had a structure of where everything should be filmed. We all also were involved in editing the thriller as we believed that it was important to gather and incorporate everyone's ideas into the editing so that the sequence would be more conventional.

Allocating production roles amongst our group definitely made the production stage much easier as everybody knew what they were in charge of and the responsibilities in which they were assigned. The production roles would have made our thriller more effective as it would enable everybody to have a clear scene of mind towards our thriller, meaning that it was more structured and conventional as the ideas were thoroughly thought through.

Inspirations - Miss Miller

1) Why do we need inspiration before we can create something?
2) What clips have you looked at for what micro-elements and how have you taken inspiration from them?
3) How has looking at various clips helped you create a better sequence?

We need inspirations within films to ensure that certain elements in different films can be incorporated into one. Throughout our planning into our opening clip we viewed various films where certain elements were conveyed. We gathered some of our inspirations from films such as; Halloween, SAW, Se7en, Reservoir dogs as we thought they conveyed elements which were conventional to the thriller genre. We intended for our sequence to perceive themes of suspense and tension as their two typical conventions of thrillers.

When we looked at clips from the film Halloween we were particularly looking at the narrative idea and sound techniques used. As we watched the clip we came across a camera technique that we thought was particularly good, as it gave you the perspective of the killer. A point of view shot was used when we saw the villain approaching the two innocent characters and when he is walking up the stairs. The use of a point of view shot would have been to give the audience the experience of the villain, and feel more sympathy for the victim. This is conventional to a thriller as it creates suspense and shock amongst the audience. We also like this shot as it helps build a relationship between the audience and the characters which would keep them engaged throughout the clip. Another feature of Halloween that we liked was the use of contrapuntal sound when the killer is approaching the victim we hear the gentle sound of her innocent humming, similarly in the clip we watched from Reservoir dogs contrapuntal sound is used; when he is torturing the victim. The use of contrapuntal sound would help create a contradicting atmosphere amongst the audience making the relationship between characters and audience more evident, as the audience feels a sense of sympathy amongst all of the happy music. This feature is conventional to a thriller as it creates suspense, sympathy ans tension within the audience. We choose to try and incorporate these features into our own thriller clip because we believe that they would make it more conventional to the thriller genre and also engage the audience and keep them interested. A final element that we incorporated into our film was the idea of using children as he victims, as in the film Halloween we see the identity of the killer at the end being a child but this juxtaposes the idea that he is also the victim as his body could be demented or haunted. We particularly liked this idea as the our main character (the young girl) would be demented and possessed by water meaning that she is driven by her needs.

Our third clip that we chose to use micro-elements from was the clip from SAW. We saw several variations of lighting throughout the clip, and we analysed ever one to see what specific lighting would match our narrative and make it more conventional to the thriller genre. Low key lighting was used in the clip to create tension, suspense and also to add to the whole narratives idea. We would try to use low key lighting as much as possible as it would help establish the genre of our thriller film, and also build a relationship between characters and the audience. A second micro element that we liked from SAW was the narrative idea, that you had to fight for survival and that not everyone will succeed. Finally I picked up on the establishing shot used of the whole room and the keys. I wanted to involve this shot in our clip at the start to give the audience an idea of the location of the film and help establish the urban area and how significant that idea was. This would be conventional to a thriller as it would add suspense and tension to the narrative as it is dark and not busy which would make the audience sympathise with the situation. Furthermore would add to the relationship between both characters and audience as it would make the audience feel more sympathetic. We would like to use the inspirations to make the possessed girl seem more innocent and the low key lighting will add to the vulnerability of the girl making the audience feel empathy towards her, ultimately this will make our thriller more conventional as it makes the audience more engaged throughout meaning they will follow the narrative.

The final clip that we analysed was from the film 'Se7en', here we saw several examples of different conventions used within thrillers. We specifically looked at the opening credits so that we could gauge elements that we wanted to use in out sequence, for example we liked the way in which the names of directors,actors etc were presented. The almost flicked through the appearance, I liked this as it would immediately convey an idea that the film is not steady and simple, but a film which is full of thrills. Also as the opening scene begins we see un human like hands turning over the page and revealing disturbing pictures. Yet it was never actually revealed who the person was, I liked this aspect of hidden identity used as it created a sense of mystery and would add suspense which is typical to the thriller genre. It would also add to the relationship between the characters and the audience feels suspense and of the edge of their seats (tense). Also within the clip basic primary colours were used such as black,red,brown. The fact that only dark colours were used would suggest danger/blood and things associated with death traditionally. It would also give the audience an idea of the type of genre the film would follow. I like this aspect of the opening scene as from the start of the clip the genre of the film was established, meaning that if our group was to use some of the similar micro elements involved it would make our thriller conventional and the audience would feel a stronger relationship between themselves and the film; as they emphasising with the audience.

From researching a variation of clips, we were able to pick up micro-elements and techniques which are conventional to thrillers used. We thought that these were particularly good as they created suspense and tension within the audience and ultimately an connection between both audience and characters. Inspirations are good to use in our clip as they can help give our clip more than one intended meaning and also make the clip more personal to the audience.

Planning sound - Ms Miller

In thriller films, the music is used to create both tension and suspense amongst the audience, it also makes them feel a sense of fright and makes them scared. The music also contributes towards the build up to the climax because the music will build a relationship with the audience. We plan to make our opening scene contain typical conventions of a thriller such as; eerie music to emphasise the atmosphere. At the start of thrillers the music usually starts at a slow pace whilst through the progression of the play it gradually increases helping build tension and a climax.

We plan to use contrapuntal sound at the beginning when the girl is getting ready mainly because it will create a contradictory mood amongst the audience and help create a diverse atmosphere. The fact that the music will be happy and cheerful when getting ready will help the audience build a relationship with both the audience and the characters because the audience will be feeling sympathetic towards the girl as they can see that she is young. It would also help build a climax towards the end of the play as the audience anticipate what is going to happen next, the music would contradict the whole plot adding an extra sense of mystery to the entire narrative.This is conventional to a thriller because it builds both suspense and tension amongst the audience as they're less expecting bad things to happen, but when they do the audience are more shocked.

At the beginning of the clip where we used a mid shot to represent the TV and a variety of camera shot to get the girl ready. The crackling of the sound over the TV adds to the eerie soundtrack in the background. The crackling affect was used to connect between the image on screen, it would also make the audience jump on occasion which would be a conventional feature of a thriller film. The main reason for using an eerie soundtrack would be to hopefully portray the film as leading to a climax and create suspense as they feel as though it is leading up to something bad.  Furthermore it would make the thriller seem more mystic which would be a motif amongst the thriller genre as its a key element used to create suspense amongst audience. The eerie soundtrack in our thriller will build tension in our thriller clip as the music slowly becomes quiet to louder which would make the overall scene seem more scary and tense. 

Finally we used parallel sound of the television alongside the glass smashing and the girls footsteps. The main reason why we used this specific sound technique was to try and make the audience jump and create a tense atmosphere within the audience. The parallel sound will also help create a relationship between both the audience and characters as the audience start to feel sorry for the girl in the clip as they realise that the girl is vulnerable and alone.

The use of sound made our thriller more successful as it helps build tension, create suspense and add to the narrative. Ultimately would add clarity to the storyline as the audience understand the thriller better due to the effects of sound. So sound is conventional to the thriller because it creates suspense and surprise amongst the audience because it is conventional to the thriller genre.

Planning cinematography - Miss Miller

Cinematography is important because the film wouldn't make sense without the use of different camera angles and the film wouldn't be exciting as camera angles create excitement for the audience.  without cinematography, the film would be very boring for the audience and wouldn't interest them which is important as your film needs to interest the audience to be success.Cinematography is pivotal in all film genres specially in thrillers as,camera angles are important because they create tension for the audience. Without a variety of camera angles within thriller films, the film wouldn't be jumpy or create a tense atmosphere therefore it wouldn't be a successful film. Its important to use different angles in films to keep the audience engaged and to create different emotions amongst audience. Our group needed to plan ahead because we were able to revise different camera angles and incorporate them into our main narrative.  Also it would increase the different emotions and feelings created that are conventional to thrillers.

In our opening scene we are planning to use different camera angles to create different effects on the audience. We planned our angles thoroughly to ensure that they would create feelings conventional to thrillers. We went through each individual scene to see what camera angles were needed. The first shot we used was a close up of the girls face. We used this specicifc shot as we believed that it would set the atmoshpere for the rest of the play and help establish the mood of our thriller, we mainly thought to use a close up at the begining of the sequence to help the girl be percieved to have more power than innitially. A close up is also conventional to the thriller genre as it creates tension and suspense amongst the audience as they can see what she is going through from close up and gain her perspective on things. Furthemore it would provoke the audeince to react in a way which the feel sympathy for the vicitim. This would ultimatley add to the relationship between both the audience and the characters as the feel empathy for the victim meaning that they're more likely to keep engaged with the storyline, as they feel connected with the characters. We will use it repeatedly in the opening scene is a, close up shot mainly to build suspense and tension within the audience. We will use close ups on the girl to emphasise the fact that she is young, this would make the audience feel on the edge of their seats as their anticipating the girls next move. Close ups of the girls face would add tension to the scene as the tranquility and individuality of the girl.Furthermore this would be conventional to the thriller genre as it keeps the audience engaged and interested. Close ups are very important within thrillers as it shows characters facial expressions with clarity, they also show pain in which characters may be experiencing, this would help build a relationship with the audience as the feel sympathetic.


Another used that we used was an establishing shot of the road of where the opening scene is set. We used an establishing shot to show the audience a open view of where the scene is set so they understand the location. We will hope the shot look quite a dark and preserve the road as creepy so the audience are on suspense for the rest of the clip. The shot is conventional to the thriller genre as the establishing shot presents to the audience its set in a mysterious place which is stereotypical place for thrillers to be set in. Its also conventional to thrillers because it makes the audience feel tense because they're seeing the normality of the situation but the imortality of the girl.The establishing shot will also build a relationship between the victims and the audience as its set in a dark place and the victims are children, the audience will sympathise for them as they will put themselves in the given circumstance, and therefore building a relationship between them. This specific camera angle will make our thriller more effective as it will have a direct corollation with typical thrillers.



Another shot that we will use is the high angle shot, we will use high angle shots frequently of the girl so that the audience are aware of who the victim is. We will use a high angle shot when the girl walks through the forest as it would create an image of the girl as powerless and the location of the forest being more significant, and furthermore emphasises the vulnerablilty of the girl. It would make the girl seem younger than she actually is because the highness of the shot makes her seem smaller. It also makes the relationship between the audience and character more evident as the audience feel more compassionate with the victim, resulting in them engaging more with the whole storyline. Another example of where we will use high angle shot would be when the girl is getting ready at the beginning, we mainly decided to use this particular shot because it would make the scene more dramatic as the audience sees the girl from another perspective. By using high angle shots it will make the girl look powerless when in comparison to her surroundings so the audience will become aware that the girl is the main focal point of the scene. Also by using high angles the audience will build a relationship with the killer as they will feel envious towards her.

Our opening sequence will involve a large variation of cinematography, to create  suspense and build tension with the audience which are convectional to thrillers. Our different camera angles will keep the audience engaged and prevent them from losing interest.Cinematography is conventional to thrillers as its the main element which builds tension and suspense in thriller films which has to be a
success otherwise the audience will lose interest.