Evaluation: Question One

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Our media product is an opening of a thriller film that uses and challenges conventions of real media products. By developing conventions of the thriller genre into our own thriller it created a dark and suspenseful nature of our plot. This helped create uncertainty, mystery and worry throughout our opening sequence. We used the title arrangement, mise-en-scene, sound track, editing and camera angles/shots to develop our thriller sequence and make it appear more eerie and disturbing throughout. 

Using Conventions of Real Media Products:

We took a lot of inspiration from the conventions used in the titles and background sound of many thriller openings that I researched. For example ,we took a lot of inspiration from "The Butterfly Effect" title as we liked the way that the darkened non diegetic sound of the butterflies fluttering linked to the title to give clues to the audience as to what the butterfly effect may be that they will find out later on in the film. Our title "24 Hours Left" also has this effect as it makes the audience think about what the 24 hours has to do with the children going missing. Our opening title conforms to the conventions of a real media product as it is stereotypically a mystery and makes the audience question what is going to happen jus from the title.

We thought hard about this title as we wanted it to create the same mystery and questions as "The Butterfly Effect" title does and we decided to research time that it takes for children to be found after being taken. We found that if a child hasn't been found within 24 hours they're more likely to be dead than not. We took a lot of inspiration from how the background sound was used while the title was being shown and decided to use a heart beat sound effect while the quote was being shown to again make the audience think that it is the children who are in danger and makes the audience want to watch on to find out hat has happened to them. I feel that this worked very well as we decided to use the quotes at the beginning of the sequence to create suspense and a tense, eerie atmosphere before it has even started. Also, this helped us to use conventions of real media products to encourage the audience to watch the thriller. 

Furthermore, with the title of the thriller film that we chose we realised that it is conventional of a thriller genre to be very ambiguous so by finding a title that was proven to be correct through scientific evidence it helped us to create a mystery around the title to add the tension and make the audience want to watch on. Finally, the title of a thriller film in real media products is always clear to see as it is a very big selling point for the film so we made sure to make ours very visible and easy to read. We decided also to add an effect to the title to make it stand out more and create an uneasiness for the audience. Also, with the titles of the actors and actresses names they fit the convention of a real thriller film as there is male characters and females.

Quote used in The Butterfly Effect

Quote we used

The Butterfly Effect title

Our thriller title

We conformed to the conventions of a thriller in the aspect that we had long periods at the beginning of the thriller where we didn't have any dialogue which we felt that we didn't need to have speech just the music and the  acting to create a suspenseful acting.  This is used in many different thriller films as it makes the audience loo for clues as to what is wrong and what is going to happen. For example, when the mum walks into the house we didn't need any dialogue as we wanted to make the audience think that nothing was wrong and that it was a normal day for her with the audience and her unaware of anything that has happened. I feel that this overall was very successful and created the right amount of suspense with the background music.

Another way that we followed the conventions of a thriller is having the music throughout to create the suspenseful, eerie, mystery for the audience. Our thriller opening at the beginning was very normal and nothing suspenseful was happening so we decided to go against the thriller convention by having a soundtrack that wasn't very jumpy or fast which was very difficult for us. But we eventually found that the mafia opening sounded very good as it was very subtle and not very loud. The second soundtrack that we used in the background followed the conventions of a thriller more as it was a lot more suspenseful than the first as the second half of the opening as the second half is where there is when the action starts to take place. Also, some of the questions are starting to be answered for the audience as to what has happened to the children. I feel that the soundtracks that we used both apposed and went with the conventions of a real media product.

One of the most suspenseful scenes and very convention of a real media product for me is the scene where the parents are talking about the children unaware of what has happened to them. We decided to use shot reverse shots between the mum and dad to make it clear to the audience who they were and also to show them that they have no idea what had happened. The shot reverse shot that we edited together turned out very successful as I feel it is a very intense scene as the non diegetic sound starts to increase in the background and the audience start t become aware that something isn't right about what has happened. The mum is very doubtful that anything bad has happened to the children however, the dad is a bit more concerned shown though him raising his voice at some points to get this view across that the mum is displacing.  The shot reverse shots then follow onto a behind the shoulder shot of the mum walking into the kitchen to show the dad the note. This shot is also a point of view shot of the dad which we thought looked very good as the audience feel like they are there watching and figuring out for themselves what has happened to them. I like the way that the shots follow on from each other and I am very happy that they get a across that the tension and suspense is starting to rise that we wanted. If we filmed this again however, we would make sure that the behind the shoulder shot is a bit further up so part of head isn't cut out. But other than that I'm very happy with the way these shots turned out..

Although, I would say that our storyline all together doesn't' fit in the convention of a real media product as instead of it having high intensity throughout with lots happening we decided to make it less tense. For example, at most points we didn't have anything dramatic happening while the mum to enforce the fact that at this point she has no idea that anything has happened. However, aspects of our thriller do go with the conventions of a real media product as we have left lots of small clues, including the note and pieces f dialogue to suggest that something ha happened to them. Therefore, we wanted to make the audience question what has happened to the children and want to find out as the parents do. We added a few scenes at the end of the opening that definitely fit the stereotypical convention of a thriller as we used a flashback shot showing the children running away from who had taken them and then the final scene where the children are shown being tied up and had been taken somewhere by somebody. The audience then known what has happened to the children but want to watch on to find out who it is and if the parents manage to save them. The lighting is very dark to suggest that it is very dangerous and that something bad has happened. We also emphasised this with sound effects of the rain as thunderstorms also connote danger and makes the audience feel more worried. The props and makeup that we used in this scene also emphasise the fact that they have been hurt by someone and the audience instantly engage with it and want to find out why they have been hurt. The two girls also fit the stereotypical gender to be taken as they're seen to be weaker and the person people will assume as being a male as this is what stereotypically happens. I feel that by using the conventions of a thriller at the end made it more successful as the audience recognise that it is a thriller and that stereotypically things in a thriller always go wrong. The last shot that we had of the two girls screaming and trying to get away from the person, I feel that this is a good way to end it as it is a cliff hanger and makes the audience want to watch on. I feel that this turned out very well as it reinforces not only stereotypical thriller aspects but also the conventions of real media products.

Challenging conventions of Real Media Products:

I feel that our thriller opening challenged the conventions of a thriller film overall as our plot is very different to a real media product. For example, the plot that we have isn't very suspenseful and nothing is really happening to the characters, this is reinforced by the non diegetic music being very soft and not very loud and also there is no speech at the beginning. We felt that by doing this it was creating suspense in itself as the audience know that a stereotypical thriller has something bad happen in it and they're waiting for the same to happen in this one. We created suspense through clues throughout that the audience can pick out and try and sole it before the parents find out what has happened to them. Clues are very convention to a real media product as many thrillers use clues almost like a mystery to find out themselves. However, nearer the end of the opening we include many conventional aspects of a stereotypical thriller, as I've previously stated.

We also challenged the conventions of real media products through the choice of lighting that we had throughout except the last couple of scenes as in thriller film the lighting is stereotypically very dark. However, in the opening of our thriller film our lighting is very light and is natural lighting as we wanted to make it look as normal as possible so the audience think that nothing is wrong as everything is very normal. I feel that this choice of lighting is very successful as it shows the difference between the thriller aspects of the media (the barn) and the non suspenseful parts which is mainly the beginning of the opening. I feel that we made a good decision with the lighting as it shows the difference between the thriller parts and the other less suspenseful parts.

Our final Thriller Opening

Our final Thriller Opening Edit:

Today, we uploaded our final thriller opening to YouTube in class and shared it on our social media to get some feedback for when I come to do the evaluation.

Filming and Editing experience

Filming:

Filming took a lot longer than we originally planned as when we were filming we thought that it all looked very good. However, when we returned to school and started to edit the clips together we realised that many of the shots didn't flow very well and the lighting on several occasions wasn't as continuous as we wanted. This resulted in us having to film more times than expected to make sure that small parts were improved from the last filming instead of filming new footage each time. This made filming difficult for us as we had figure out extra time after school that we could all attend.

When we were filming we took a fair amount of time filming each day to make sure that we all had an equal amount to say that we filmed. Alicia, filmed mostly the first day, filming shots outside of the mum walking into the house and kitchen parts. I filmed mostly the second day filming when the mum is in the kitchen and her walking into the kitchen with input from Demi on a few shots in the living room that I found difficult to hold in one position for a long time. The third day was filmed again by me with Demi filming the mum and dad in the living room talking. The fourth day was filmed by Amy in the scene where the children were taken into a run down barn which is our most suspenseful scene in the opening meaning we had to make sure that the shots and angles were jus right. I feel that while we were each filming we had different ideas at the time of the different angles that would look better than planned. This made our filming more successful as we were continuously improving it each time that we shot something. For example, we decided to change the field scene as we thought that a run down barn would look a lot more effective and would enable us to use the shots that we wanted to use to make it look more suspenseful. The only part about filming that wasn't very good for us as a group was that we had to re film several times which made the filming process even longer than we had originally planned. However, we did make sure that we were editing as we went along so we weren't too far behind. Overall, filming went well and the shots that we did get I feel worked and looked very effective in the end.

Editing:

We each took our turns editing different parts of the opening, Demi was the main editor and I helped make improvements to what he had done and what could make it better and did so. Nobody, except Alicia had used the editing software meaning that it took us each quite a while to get used to where everything was and how to use it. When we did grasp how to use the editing software it was a lot easier for us to know what we want and then immediately after do what we thought would improve it. For example, a transition between the shots in the children running to show the increase in suspense. I was in charge of the music and I needed to look for a piece that wasn't too climatic and calm as our opening is very normal and at the start nothing much happens. One part of the editing that at the end was hard for us as a group was that we had used many transitions and sound effects meaning the time of our thriller was over 2 minutes so by the end we had to be very brutal about parts that we cut out and kept which some of us where indecisive about. This I because some of the scenes that we took out people in the group had taken a long time editing but we had to make sure that it was shortened but still flowed well. Overall, I'm very happy with the sound that I have found and how it flows with the dialogue and shots. We all edited the scenes together constantly giving suggestions that could improve it but we each had to pick out three scenes that we needed to analyse. Here are the three examples of some of the scenes that I edited.

1. I edited the shot where the mum walks into the kitchen which is a behind the shoulder shot to the high angle shot from the top of the stairs when she shouts for the children. I decided to make the behind the shoulder shot continual from her walking to her looking up the stairs by using a quick shot change of her looking up the stairs. I needed to add a sound effect of her heels which I found on iMovie as in the previous scene you could hear her heels and I wanted to make sure that it is continual. I inserted it and made the sound effect in slow motion to make sure it was in sink of when she walked. I am happy with the way this turned out as it sounds like it did before and it isn't an obvious sound effect. I had a problem when editing the stairs change of her walking to the low angle of her looking up the stairs as I wanted to make the shot last as long as I could of her looking up the stairs to make sure the audience could see that she didn't get an answer. The low angle shot that we filmed wasn't held for as long as we wanted so I decided to split the clip of when she was looking up the stairs and used a slow motion effect to make her move slower into the next shot of her walking to the fridge. I feel that this made the connection between the audience and what was happening better as they could clearly see that something wasn't right. When she walks into the house you can hear her footsteps very clearly but when she walks into the kitchen the footsteps can't be heard as well so I decided to look for sound effect of high heels to make the sound continual from shot to shot. I had to make sure that the sound of the heels were in sink with her moving so I decided to cut the clip down to make sure that the footsteps were more spread out and fit with her movement. I then added the background music that we had chosen previously and saw how it fit. I was overall happy with the way that the background sound fitted but the sound of the heels was very loud so I decided to decrease the volume of the heels so that the music could be heard and the heel sound was more subtle. I then added the name of the next actor that we were using "Idris Elba" in the bottom right hand side making sure that it was the same size and font as the ones I had previously made. Overall, I am very happy with the way these shots continued together and the sound that I edited with it.

2. The second shot that I edited was the establishing shot of the mum walking into the living room and sitting down on the sofa. When I first looked at the shot I realised that the shot lasted a very long time (30 seconds) so I decided that it would be best if we decided to split the clip to add a shot in between it to break it up. I decided that we could add a shot of her looking at the TV from a point of view shot to make the shot not as long. I feel that this was a very good idea as it made the audience know exactly what she was doing and what she was looking at that time. I decided to make the diegetic sound of the TV quite loud to make it look normal and what she would normally do. I feel that this made the scene look very natural. I then looked at the background music and decided that this would be a good place to change the music as when the dad walks in it starts to grow in suspense as they start to make the audience realise that the kids are gone. I cut the music and inserted the new music but I saw that the music stopped very abruptly which didn't sound very good so I decided to fade the music out and fade the music in when the dad walks in to make the audience see that this was a suspenseful moment. Overall, I was in charge of most of the music throughout and this was a key moment as the music was needing to be changed to something a bit more upbeat and suspenseful which is why I decided to edit this scene mainly. I am very happy with the change in music even though it look a long time to make the fades happen at the right time but I am happy with the way it sounds and the shot changes that I have made.

3. The third part of the thriller opening that I edited was the production names at the bottom of the screen throughout the opening, I imported all of the footage from the camera onto the computer and then edited all of the soundtrack throughout. When we were thinking of the names of the people who were going to star in our opening it wasn't too difficult as we had already researched different actors and actresses that we were going to put into it. However, the tough part for me was making sure that the size and font was right and I did this by looking at previous thriller openings and looking at the positioning that they had the names in. I soon realised that they were all placed at the bottom of the screen and were shown for no more than 4 to 5 seconds at a time. I choose a font that I liked from the iMovie titles then inserted it into the clips making sure they were all on for the same amount of time and the same distance apart. This took a long time to do but when it was eventually done I showed the rest of the group and they were happy with how it turned out. I made sure to add the actors and actresses names at the beginning and the producers at the end as this is what I saw most openings do in ones that I had previously researched. When I saw the titles all together I decided to show our teacher to see what she thought as I wanted to get some feedback on how I could improve it. Our teacher said that she liked it but I should look into making the titles smaller in size as they were filling the whole of the bottom screen and they stood out too much against the things that were happening that we wanted the audience to see. So we decided to make the titles smaller in size, so I made the fonts all smaller from 120 to 74 on all of them which looked overall a lot better and made them not stand out as much which is what we wanted.

The next part of the opening that I was in charge of was getting the sd card from the camera and importing all of the footage that we had filmed onto iMovie where I then put all of the clips in rough order of where they go so we could then all edit all of the footage to make the clips shorter and so on to fit. I feel that this was a very important part of the editing process as I needed to make sure that all the footage was in order so we could then go into editing the shots further.

The last part of the opening that I was in charge of was editing the soundtrack throughout the opening. (I have previously discussed in an earlier blog the different choices that we like and which ones we decided to use in the end). I found editing the soundtrack very difficult as when researching I realised that the non diegetic sound in thriller openings is very important in ensuring you create a suspenseful atmosphere for the audience. We decided to use the mafia theme song at the beginning of the opening as it didn't sound very jumpy and is what we wanted to get across to the audience as there wasn't anything happening at the beginning. I added the mafia theme song to the clips after the part where the mum walks into the house as I liked the diegetic background sound of the birds and the cars going past to set the scene. I felt that the soundtrack sounded very good however, it was very loud and didn't sound very effective with the scene as nothing was really happening. I decided that I needed to lower the volume of the soundtrack to make it so the audience don't concentrate on the music but do on what is actually happening. I did this with help from Demi as he knew how to lower the volume as he had been able to do this from the part where he added sound effects of rain in a later scene. The volume was then well done and looked effective but I know had to find a place in the opening where things started to get a bit more suspenseful where I could add the other soundtrack. I decided the part where the dad walks in to the living room is when it starts to get suspenseful so this would be a good place to cut the music and insert the other music.

I inserted the next piece of music that we had chosen " Suspenseful cinematic background music" and added this just before the dad walks in. I looked back at where the music changed over to see how it fitted and realised that the music stopped very suddenly so I decided that I need to fade the previous piece of music out to make the transition more continuous. As I previously said I have never used iMovie before so Demi again helped me to be able to do the fade and once he showed me how to I took over and found a place that the fade would look good from. I was overall very happy with the way that the fade sounded.  I then realised that the sound of the next piece of music was very high in volume so I decided to lower the volume again. However, I decided to have the volume slightly higher than the previous piece of music as I wanted to make sure that this piece of music emphasised the suspense that was starting to arise. The soundtrack sounded good but I realised that the you couldn't hear the mum and dad speaking very well so I decided to increase the volume of them speaking which sounded a lot better and made sure you heard them better. I had the soundtrack playing through out the whole of the rest of the opening but once Demi and Amy had edited the sound effects of a heart beat into the barn scene I decided to cut the music at the beginning of the scene where you see the children running. I feel that this looked very effective as the audience would be fully concentrating on what has happened to the children and start looking for clues as to who the person is that has taken them. I decided to again fade the music out to make sure that the ending wasn't to abrupt. Overall, I am very happy with the way the sound ended up and I'm happy with the volumes and the change in music that I had edited.

Overall, I am very happy with the things that I contributed to most when editing and I believe that the choices that I made, make it look more effective and add to the suspense that we wanted to create. I also helped the others  by pointing out things that they could do to certain shots and transitions to make it look more effective and continual.

Filming Day Five

Filming Day 5: Amendments:

On the 27th March Demi and Amy after school re filmed the parts of the conversation that needed to be improved. The parts that needed to be improved were the angles that the shots were taken and to make sure that the shots and dialogue flowed the best that it could. Demi came up with the idea that instead of him coming into the living room and sitting on the sofa opposite, coming and sitting next to Amy to make the shot reverse shots easier to see and make the lighting similar in both shots. They made the lighting the same by closing the blind and turning the light on as we have done before to make sure that the lighting is continuous throughout what we have filmed. With Amy's idea of Demi sitting next to her it made the shots look a lot better and made them flow. They filmed the conversation differently to how we had done it before and it seemed to work a lot better. Instead of changing the shots each time when a new person speaks they filmed each other continuous and said what they would say so when it came to editing we just needed to split the clip and insert what the other person said to make it flow better. Also, another idea that they had that made the conversation more successful was the idea that the shots of Demi walking in and sitting down were shot as point of view shots. This looks very effective as it shows to the audience that it is normal for them and they don't suspect that anything is wrong. I added the music change at the point of view shot where Demi sits down as it shows the start of when they realise something is wrong with the children. I feel that this conversation is a lot more effective and the shots flow a lot better as the lighting, dialogue and shots work a lot better together. The dialogue in this scene has improved greatly and I feel that it is a lot more suspenseful and works a lot better overall.

They also re filmed the scene where the mum shows the step dad the note as the facial expressions that we had before weren't as good as we wanted. We wanted to make sure that the  close up of the facial expressions were very suspenseful and looked very real. I believe that the new close ups are a lot better and are a good starting point to when the location changes to show what has happened to the children.  They also improved the dialogue making it more dramatic and showing the worry in there faces. I feel that overall, the new conversations and facial expressions that they have filmed are a lot better and with the music they work Delete repeated word

Unfortunately, when we got to class to look at the shots that Demi and Amy had filmed we realised that one of the shots that we needed in the conversation was missing so Amy and I had to quickly film this shot during lunch. The shot and dialogue that we had to re film was the one where she says "they left a note, I'll show you". This is a very important shot that we had so we had to make sure that we added it in for the rest of the dialogue to make sense. I made sure when I filmed that the lighting in the room was like it was before and also the angle that the shot was recorded was in the same frame as all the other previous shots. I have now added this shot and it makes the conversation flow a lot better into the next location's dialogue.

Fonts for the titles

Examples of font Titles:

The font for the thriller opening is very important as it is the part of the thriller that people remember and will see and will recognise it by this. This means that the font, size and colour has a huge impact on what the font looks like and how appealing it is. Also, it makes it eye catching for the audience and will eventually make them want to watch it. The font has a huge impact on suggesting what the movie is going to be about and what it is going to be like.

The Butterfly Effect:

The title of "The Butterfly Effect" is very effective as it is in front of a skull showing that it has something to do with someone's mental health and psychological issues . The background is dark to suggest that someone dark is happening that will be answered further on in the opening. The name of the film is in a lighter colour of blue which stands out against the blue skull and the black background. The title is also in bold letters which is very eye catching to make the audience want to watch on. This font is very successful as it suggests the uncertainty that someone is having some psychological problems.

Gone Girl:

In the thriller movie "Gone Girl" the font is very successful as it is very bold to stand out to the audience to be the drawing point of which people see and want to watch. The part of the title "GONE" is in bold writing to suggest the emphasis that someone has gone missing which is going to be a major part of the film. This also creates an alarming feel for the audience as they start to worry about who has gone missing.

The Women In Black:

In the thriller film "The Women in Black" the title is in bold writing to suggest a stand out as a clue of something that the audience need to look out for. The font is white which is opposite to the black that stands out against the dark, black background. The writing looks smeared which suggests to the audience the ghostly presence that someone is always there in the background.

Overall, the fonts that I have looked at have all been in bold and had white writing to stand out against the dark background as a stereotypical thriller film is dark to suggest something is about to happen. I will now talk to my group about the different suggestions that they have researched and what fonts they like the most.

The name of our thriller opening:

We originally decided that we would call our thriller opening "24 hours" which we felt was a short and catchy title  that enabled the audience to have an interpretation of what is going to happen in the film without telling them exactly what is going to happen. However, when we researched this name on the internet we found there was already a well known film named this and we wanted to make sure that it was original and not copyright.

Another idea that we had to call it was "diminishing hope" which was suggested by somebody who was looking at our thriller opening. We originally all really liked this name as we felt like it was very original and suggested the fact that the children were missing and their parents had no idea they were gone to suggest the hope of finding them was getting narrower by the second. After much thought about the name we decided that the name was just too long and didn't flow very well when we put it at the end of our opening. Overall, I decided that when I was researching the different titles of thriller films I realised that they were all very short and simple to be catchy for the audience which is why we decided against this idea.

We then decided on a shorter more catchier title of "Hours" as we felt that this was short but also was able to represent the fact that the children had been taken. After much thought we decided not to go with this title as we felt that it was to simple and didn't stand out to people what in fact the movie was going to be about. We then thought about the statistics that we had added at the beginning of thriller opening. We then realised that it would be important to add the "24" to the hours to represent to the audience that the statistics show that if a child is still missing after 24 hours they're more likely to be dead. We then eventually decided that it would be a good idea to go with "24 hours left" which is still short and catchy but also not to long.

The finalised idea that we decided to go with is "24 Hours Left" as the idea of our thriller is of missing children and statistic say that after 24 hours, "the chances of a stolen kid being returned are forever diminishing". We felt that this was a good link to make the audience see the suggestion of the time and the children missing. Overall, I feel that this title is a very good title as it is short and catchy but also gives a clue to the audience about what may happen to them.

Main font (24 Hours Left):

We are using iMovie to edit our thriller opening so we decided that we would look at the titles that are used as a template for the titles. We first of all looked at the different titles that we could use for the name of the thriller. We looked at several ideas but decided that we liked "Expand" the best as I looked quite simple but the font looked very good with the name that we wanted to call it. When I did some research on the titles of films I realised that many of them had a black background to set the scene of what the film was going to be about and to link to the thriller aspect of the opening. We liked our name in the title, however we wanted to add a transition to make the font appear better than just have it come onto the screen. We found a transition that looked like it wobbled around on the screen to suggest the uneasiness that the mum and dad are feeling as they don't know where the children have gone. I think that the title looks very effective and the transition adds to the effect that the title has. When I looked into the music of the opening I looked into different sound effects that I could add to the title to make when the title come on be the climax of the opening after seeing the children being taken. I got this idea from openings that I have researched as they have mostly got a sound added to the title to make it be used as more of a climax to the opening.  The size of the font is 112 as it is a big size to make it cover the whole of the page and stand out to people wanting to watch the movie.

Another example of where we used the fonts on iMovie were the titles that we used for the production, editor etc in the right hand side of the screen. We wanted to make the font clear to read and also in a white font as many of our shots are of the darker colour. Furthermore, when I researched openings of thriller films many of them used a white font for the names as they stand out to the audience looking but not to much to distract them from watching what is going on.  We have decided to follow the theme of the first word of the name to be in a smaller font than the surname as this makes it easier for the audience to tell people apart from one another. The first name is in size 94 and the second name is in size 112.The font that we chose to use I believe looks very effective and really shows clear the roles but not to obvious to make the audience only look at them a that's not what we wanted. I added all of the titles at the bottom of the screen and made sure that they all were the same size and font each time for the production names and the actors.

Soundtrack

Soundtracks:

Sound has been one of the most difficult parts for us as a group to get right about our thriller opening. This is because our thriller opening isn't very intense as it is a very normal situation until the end where the suspense starts to build like your stereotypical thriller. We wanted originally to look for a piece of music that wasn't very suspenseful but was quite plain to show the audience that it was a normal day for the parents before something happened. However, at some points in the scenes we have suspenseful moments that are clues and hints for the audience, for example when the mum sees the note we wanted to make the music slightly louder and tense to show the audience that something wasn't right. This was difficult for us as when we researched different thriller music background tracks they were either very jumpy or not at all.  At the end of our opening it is very suspenseful so we wanted to make sure that we added a very tense piece of music to go with the thriller stereotype.

We have each taken a lot of time researching different music on YouTube that would be fit to go in the background. I was in charge of the music so I experimented with each piece of music and put several of them in the opening to see what it sounded like but none of them seemed to sound like what we had in mind.  I decided that instrumental pieces of music would be best as we would be able to increase and decrease the volume as we wish so the audience don't concentrate fully on what the music is doing but what is actually happening. I believe that an instrumental would fit best also because when we researched other thriller films they each had this and it worked very successfully to create suspense at certain points in the opening.

 A few examples of the music tracks that we looked at are:

1. We didn't know where to find a piece of music that would fit our thriller opening as it is not like your stereotypical opening as it is very slow and nothing climatic happens till right at the end. I typed into YouTube "Suspenseful thriller background music" and this piece of music came up as the first option. I listened to the piece of music over and over again and decided that we were going to put it onto the opening. When I added the piece of music we realised that it sounded very adventurous and optimistic when our thriller opening is not very adventurous nothing is happening at the beginning. I liked a part of the music as it was very climactic which we thought would look good at the note scene. However, when I added this piece of music we decided that it didn't sound like we wanted it to so we decided to keep looking for another piece that was instrumental but not too adventurous and climatic throughout.

2. The second piece of music that I looked at is the Mafia theme song which was suggested us by Demi. We listened to it and at first really didn't like it, but when we continued to listen to it we started to like it so we decided to give it a try and put it in the beginning of the opening. I think that Alicia, Amy and I were worried about it being dramatic and climatic again which is not what we wanted.  When I inserted the music into the beginning of the thriller when the mum walks into the house and into the kitchen we were surprised with how it fitted with the opening as it didn't sound too in your face but was in fact very calm. I tried this piece of music in the sequence where the mum walks into the house and goes into the kitchen as it was emphasising that nothing was wrong from what the mum could see. I had a slight issue with the music in the kitchen as we wanted to make sure that at certain points the music increased to emphasise that something was happening. We took a long time listening to the music trying to look for parts that were climatic and others that were calm to fit the normal environment that the mum was in. We eventually found a climatic part in the theme song and inserted it into the part where she looks at the note. I feel that this looks very effective as it shows a clear distinction between the different volumes that allows the audience to see that something isn't quite right about the note. We decided in the end to decrease the volume of the background music in the other parts of the scene to make the audience concentrate on what is happening and also show them the distinct reference to when something isn't right. Overall, I am very happy with this piece of music as it suits the feel that we wanted to get across to the audience and fits our opening very well.

3. We found looking for a piece of music to fit the parts where the mum and step dad talk very difficult as we wanted the music to be soft and not very climatic to make the audience concentrate on the dialogue rather than feeling tense to give the audience clues as to what has happened. We looked for a piece of music very difficult to find again but I eventually came across this piece of music that is very slow but at the same time creates a massive amount of suspense to make the audience realise what is going to happen. I inserted this piece of music into the conversation part and really liked the way it sounded against the dialogue. However, I did have to decrease the volume of the music and increase the dialogue to make sure that the audience could hear the dialogue clearly. When I made the adjustments to the volume of the music I really liked the way that it went with the dialogue. I then listened to the first piece of music with the second piece of music and realised that their was a very sudden stop to the music so I decided to fade out the first music to allow the transition from song to song to flow better. After doing this I was very happy with way the music flowed and how it went with what we have filmed.

We looked at putting music into the scene where the children are running and are in the barn but when we continued the music we realised that the use of sound effects on iMovie would be perfect to making it have the right amount of suspense. In the scene where the children are running through the trees, Demi added the sound effect of heavy rain to empathise the dark atmosphere and a dog barking that could suggest that the children are in danger being left by themselves while being taken. I really like this as it shows that the children are in danger and I feel that music doesn't need to be added as it looks effective without music. We added the sound effect of a heart beat to show the audience that it is the children who have been taken and makes the audience almost feel as scared as the children. The heart beat really adds to the suspense and I feel tops of this scene to make it very effective.

When looking at the sound in the barn scene we realised that to keep the continuous flow of the shots and sound we decided to carry on the sound of the heavy rain and heart beats which we felt sounded very effective with the other scene. The sound of the rain creates a very tense atmosphere and adds to the tension of the children being tied up and someone watching them. I decided to stop the sound of the rain just as the person comes close to the children and just add in the simple sound of a heart beat to show how the children were scared in that particular moment and makes the audience want to know what happened to them. I feel that the sound effects make this scene very suspenseful and overall creates the feeling that we wanted to get across. We did try the piece of music that we had before but the sound didn't fit with the climax that we wanted to get across so we decided to stay with the sound effects that we originally had.

Famous actors and actresses

Research into the actors and actresses that we have chosen to put in our thriller opening:

Emma Stone:



Emily Jean "Emma" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress. One of the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015, Stone has received such accolades as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. We have chosen Emma Stone to be one of our leading stars in our opening as she is a very well known actress all around the world and has also starred in many thriller films such as "The circle" which had global success. I feel that she will play the role very well in our thriller.                                     

                                 Lily Collins:

                                                       

Lily Jane Collins (born 18 March 1989) is a British-American actress and model.The daughter of English musician Phil Collins and an American mother, Jill Tavel man, she was born in Surrey and moved to Los Angeles as a child. Her first screen role was at the age of two in the BBC series Growing Pains. She had the leading roles in the sci-fi action-horror film Priest (2011) and the psychological action-thriller film Abduction. She has been nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress and Sci-Fi/Fantasy for her role as Snow White in the fantasy film Mirror Mirror. She is most well known for her role in The Mortal Instruments City of Bones which is a very well known film all around the world. We chose to have Lily Collins in our opening thriller as she is very well known and has appeared in various different thriller movies.

Idris Elba:

Idrissa Akuna "Idris" Elba, born 6 September 1972) is an English actor, musician, and DJ. He is known for playing drug lord in The Wire, Detective John Luther on the BBC One series Luther, and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013). He has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, winning one. Additionally, he has been nominated times for a Primetime Emmy Award. Demi decided that he wanted Idris to be in the opening as he felt he was very well known and he thought he could play his character well.

Jamie Campbell Bower:

James Metcalfe "Jamie" Campbell Bower was born on the 22nd of November 1988 and is an English actor, singer, and model. He is best known for his roles as Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Caius in The Twilight Saga, King Arthur in the Starz series, Camelot, the young Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and Jace Wayland in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. We all agreed that he would be a very good person to put in our thriller opening as he has been in very successful action, thriller movies and we feel he will play the role very well.