Props List

Below, is a list of props which we are using/ are used throughout our thriller opening:

• Picture frame
• Ring and Ring box
• Photos for montage
• Phone
• glasses
• Pills/tablets

Shot List

Once we had created our final story board, we thought we would make a shot list to ensure we had included what we wanted to and had a variety of shots. This made it easier to follow what shots we would actually be filming during the course of filming the our thriller opening. This is the final shot list which we used whilst producing the final edit to our thriller opening, 'Jealousy'. 

1st draft of shot list...

Shown here is the first draft of the shot list which we all created throughout brainstorming our ideas and discussing the narrative.

It can be seen here, this shot list does not include the photo montage, this was because we had come up with this idea after producing this initial shot list. The shots that opened our film here were different in the order they appeared and began with the pan of Jazz's body on the floor. 

Once we had devised the idea of having a photo montage, we immediately decided that these shots needed to be at the start of the film, in order to represent the relationships between the characters. This shot list also shows that our title was displayed after the zoom in on the ring, initially, the reasoning behind this was to emphasise the fact of 'Jealousy' that is being highlighted within the ring being on Jazz. However, after much thought and deliberation we felt that the title was much better situated after the photo montage which we decided to use. We also decided to not include the long shot of Hannah and myself arguing in the garden as we felt that this was not really relevant and did not add anything to the narrative of our film.

Scripting...

This is the script for our Thriller film.

As seen, there is not much dialogue, therefore, we have included locations, camera angles/shots and sound track information on the script.

Did we use a draft script to begin with?

Initally, during the planning stages of our film we decided that we were not going to use a script due to the little amount of dialogue we intnded to include in our film. With no script we thought we would easily be able to improvise the lines that were being said. Myself & Hannah discussed what we would be saying before we filmed the shots to enusre we were aware with what we are saying.

However, we dicovered a problem with our idea when we started filming, we quikly realised that saying the line slightly different each time threw the piece a little bit and casued an inssue in terms of continuity. This was proved to be most challenging in the scene where there was a sound bridge of dialogue over two shots. Without having a definite script to follow was rather difficult for myself & Hannah to get the lines right and the same each time.

This was the reason why we then decided to create a script which we would use and follow colosley to film our thriller opening. Due to a limited amount of dialogue we decided to include information about editing, location and SFX to provide us with an exact, clear idea of what happens in each shot/scene. This also made it easier to organise ourselves before we commenced filming.

Having initially deciding to not use a script at the beggining was a disadvantage to use and it meant that we had to spend a bit more time re-filming shots to acheive the right dialogue. From this, I have learnt that I will always use a script in the future as it will reduce the time it takes to film shots, make sure all the actors know what they are going to be saying and it will ensure everyone and everything is in place for the shots that were going to be filmed; reducing and eliminating continuity errors that may be found in speech and dialogue.

Title of our film...

We found it quite challenging to come up with a name four our film as we had many ideas that changed as the process of our film went on.

Originally, we were going with the idea of a more medical like thriller with an opening and titles very similar to the current TV programmes of Holby City and Casualty. Therefore, we had title ideas such as 'Pulse' to represent a heart beat, 'Beat' & 'Beaten' to also representing the beating heart and also what has happened to Jazz. These ideas can be seen below.

However, as our ideas progressed our film started to take the route of a crime drama/thriller which I mentioned when looking at inspirations I and we as a group, had from crime drama/thrillers which already existed. (Broadchurch, Paranoid,etc.) Therefore, the previous titles were not very relevant.

It was when we found the music we wanted that the title came to us. We knew the narrative was going to be based around an envy between Hannah and Jazz when we chose the song, "Jealousy" by Frankie Miller, so from that, we thought we should actually call our film 'Jealousy' to tie in all aspects of the narrative and make it clear to the audience.

This is a screenshot from our film showing the main Title, 'JEALOUSY'

opening of the film...

For the opening of the film we decided to create a photo montage taken from inspiration from other dramas/thrillers we have watched ('The Missing' featured in the previous post). This photo montage is going to reflect myself, Hannah's and Jazz's friendship. The 'Jealousy' song will be played over the top of this to really tie in the relationships and narrative.

The camera will pan over these photos whilst zooming in and out of a few. The titles will also be displayed throughout this photo montage opening.

When creating this photo montage, we looked through photos that highlighted our very close friendship and chose a selection of the best ones out of what we found. We experimented with how we were going to film the photo montage, which took some time, but we discovered that a slow pan,
zooming into a select few photos worked best for us.

Hannah & Myself testing ways to film the photo montage.

Inspiration for photo title sequence...

After completing the first draft of our film we thought about adding titles and how they could be added. We liked the idea of having a montage of photos that would create our title sequence as we had previously watched other thrillers and dramas on TV that followed that style.

I thought that the opening to the BBC drama/Thriller 'The Missing' was really interesting as the images in the title sequence gave the audience an insight to the programme.

  

I thought that it would be really good for us to be able to achieve this type of idea in the opening to our thriller film as it makes the audience consider what the film could be about.

I also like how the titles appear in the foreground of the image but still make the images clearly visible.

This is the full title sequence to the series below.

Final Story Board

After much discussion and experiment we have completed our final story board for our film. We realised what aspects we wanted to keep and what we thought we should changed when we were going through the process of fine editing with our 1st draft/edit of our film.

Selecting Shots...

Over the course of filming shots that would be used for our draft and also our final film, we accumulated a variety of shots which all differed in terms of dialogue, lighting, speed and length. This meant we had a wide range of footage to choose from when selecting what we wanted to use.

It was during the editing process of our film when we looked through all our footage and decided what we wanted to use and what was not really relevant. 

We were able to rule out some shots immediately due to the quality of them not being very good, however, there were some shots which took a lot more decision to whether include them or not. We did find it quite challenging to find a range of shots which clearly reflected our narrative in under the two minute time limit. 

We experimented with all our shots during the editing process and overall, I feel like we chose the right range of shots which reflected our narrative well. 

Below are some photos of the shots we did not include in our final edit:

Changes & Improvements to 1st Draft/Edit

We were working alongside our initial story board to make our first draft, however, as we were fine editing and coming to stronger terms with the narrative we noticed that there were aspects we liked and also felt like that a few aspects needed to be changed. 

Strengths about 1st draft

• A range of shots used including: close ups, pans and low angles.
• Runs smoothly from start to finish.
• Clean dialogue, which provides an insight to the films narrative.
• There is an evident range in Mise-En-Scene used throughout. 

What needs to be improved

• In our draft, 'Title Here' is displayed rather than an actual title to our film, therefore, we need to come up with a title for our thriller film.
• The beginning shots (close ups/pans) are held for slightly too long. I think that the shots should only last for around 3 seconds each to conform to the conventions of the fast paced nature of a thriller film. 
• I feel like we should continue our sound track to underscore the dialogue, as there are some slightly awkward pauses between speech which is silent. Having the sound track underscore the dialogue would also add tension to the conversation and provide a sense of anxiousness. 
• There is a continuity error in the last shot our our draft; the door is shown being closed in the close up shot, however, in the long shot of myself & Hannah outside, the garage door is shown to be open. 

These improvements can be made when we visit the college again, on our several planned visits to edit and produce a final version of our film. Overall, we were happy with what we produced a a draft but looking at what needs to be improved, we feel like our final edit will be much better. 

Before we visit the college again, we also need to discuss and research ideas for the title of our film in order to be able to add all our titles such as, edited by and directed by in the opening of our film.

1st Draft of Film

Below is the first draft/first attempt at editing and putting together our thriller film. 

Group Roles...

To ensure we are successful in making our film we decided we needed to allocate definite roles for each person in our group.

Director: Caitlin Elward                     

Editor: Josh East

Producers: Hannah Martin & Jasmine Greene

Even though these are our individual roles, we will all be working to produce the story board and script together.

We decided that Caitlin would be the perfect person for the role of the director as she had a very clear idea of where she wanted the film to go and was also very assertive; therefore meaning, that she would be able to successfully tell the actors what she wanted them to do.

I was the editor for our thriller opening, this was mainly due to because I had some experience in using editing software in the past but I was keen to let my experience grow and learn more about the editing process as a whole.

Hannah & Jasmine both took on the role of producers for our film, we all thought this was the best idea as they are both very organised people who could easily co-ordinate everyone and make sure we all knew what we were filming on what date. Jasmine & Hannah were responsible for creating the filming schedules which we used to see what we were filming , on what date and what time.

Getting permission to use music...

SONG: FRANKIE MILLER - JEALOUSY

Getting permission to use our 2nd track proved to be much more challenging than getting permission for the first. We tried numerous points of contact but failed to get a reply, this was unfortunate however, we do hope for a reply soon. If any issues arise when we upload of film onto YouTube with the music content we have proof that we have tried to gain permission throughout ways on contact.

Jazz tried to email and use Facebook as a point of contact but we have yet to receive a reply on either.

Getting Permission to use music...

MUSIC: THRILLER OPENING -G321

As one of the sound tracks we are using in our film is on YouTube, I decided to contact the uploader to ask if it would be okay for us to use the track in our film due to copyright issues.I had a quick response and we are very happy with the answer!

Music...

From research into thriller openings we decided as a class that the music used can really make a difference to the feeling of the film. I also thought that the correct music can help the narrative become clearer and tie in all the elements that are conventional of a film within the genre of thriller.

For the very opening of the film we decided to use the song 'Jealousy' by 'Frankie Miller'.

The main reason for choosing this song was because of the lyrics. When we listened to them we immediately thought about how it links to our narrative. The lyrics reflect how there is a sense of 'jealousy' between two people and how one person feels guilty, "I blame you but it's really me". We wanted to choose a song which wasn't very stereotypical of a thriller as we wanted it to contrast with what was going to follow, therefore, this song was perfect as the lyrics matched the narrative making this song feel more eerie and sinister.

In our film Hannah was jealous of Josh (me) & Jazz's relationship leading to a terrible ending for Jazz after Hannah and Josh's plan works to get rid of her. Therefore, the 'Jealousy' song is played just before the audience would start to notice this so they would be able to infer that the plot is based around 'Jealousy'.

When the audience starts seeing what's happened to Jazz we thought we needed different music as the mood would've changed since the start. Therefore, the second track we decided to use was rather typical and conventional of a thriller film.