MISSING

Evaluation of Thriller opening - Missing

Audience Feedback

Extra scene

After feedback of our opening, we thought that adding a final scene after the title would be good to help continue the opening and build back up the tension after the victim has been kidnapped. We have decided the scene is going to be the victims friend becoming aware that her best friend is missing and rushes out of her house to find her, making the audience wanting to keep on watching and see what happens to the victim and her friend. This has also changed our story board, as before it ended at the title "MISSING."

Filming Day 3 & 4

 

During our final days of filming we focused on the wood scenes towards the end, and re-filmed any other footage that we didn't think was good enough. We mainly used the shoulder mount for the DSLR camera as many shots we did was POV shots, for example we had a scene of the antagonist chasing the protagonist and to make it more dramatic we used a POV shot. Also, we had another POV shot on the final clip of the protagonist when the antagonist is behind her and puts a bag over her head to create a black screen where we planned to place the title.

Filming Day 2

The second day filming we re-filmed the footage that wasn't in focus from the first day because we didn't put the DSLR camera in "auto" so that it focuses automatically to avoid bad blurry shots. After re-filming we started filming in the woods, we used new equipment such as the shoulder mount to create shots that weren't as steady as using a tripod for point of view shots from the antagonist and protagonist. This helped create more realistic POV shots. We attempted to use the Go-Pro to film more shots from the point of view as the Go-Pro was directly on her head of the characters, but we were conscious about whether it may be hard to control how the shots look as you can't see a screen. Overall, the day was successful and at the end we planned for our next filming.

Shooting schedule 2

Filming Day 1

Our first day filming in our new location was partially successful. We filmed the most part of the road scene and planned ahead for our next filming in the woods. We got some good footage, and we used the DSLR camera and tripod to film steady and professional shots. However, something's we didn't think about which made our next filming days easier as we learnt from our experience, for example, we didn't put the camera in the mode "auto" therefore when we came to edit our footage together later that day, some weren't in focus, making it look unprofessional. During the first days filming we attempted a range of shots to try and vary the footage without making it confusing and too much for the audience by trying to keep to the 180 degree rule. We also tried panning, however the footage didn't come out as smooth and seamless as we'd liked.

Shooting schedule 1

Binary Opposites and Narrative Codes

Binary opposites

Binary opposite is a 'theory of meaning' which can be applied to texts and all kinds of media. Levi Strauss created this theory as he believed words were understood by the difference between its opposite word, this is what we call binary opposite. For example, our understanding of "villain" is dependant on the opposite, "hero". This is a typical use of binary opposite within films, between good and evil and the antagonist and the protagonist.


This is how we will incorporate binary opposites into our thriller film opening, by having a villain and a hero. Binary opposites allow the audience to clearly see the difference between two opposite characters and is easily recognisable.

Narrative Codes

Barthes believed that there are 5 codes that describe the meaning of a text and one or more of these codes will describe the text. He believed that texts can be 'open' (different ways) and 'closed' (only one option). The five codes:

• Hermeneutic/enigma code - refers to mystery within a text, no clear answers are given this makes the audience want to carry on watching and find out what happens.
• Proairetic/action code - contains elements of action adding suspension
• Semantic code - suggests or refers to additional meanings to the literal meaning
• Symbolic code - symbolism within the text this shows opposites to show contrast and create more tension meaning and character development.
• Referential code - refers to an external body of knowledge such as scientific, historical and cultural knowledge.

In our thriller opening we will incorporate some of these narrative codes, for example, the hermeneutic/enigma code. In our thriller opening the protagonist is kept a mystery, creating tension and not giving the audience any clear answers. This will give the audience a reason to carry on watching.

Location Change

We have changed location from where we originally planned and started to film (2nd location on my previous blog post "Possible Locations"). This is due to problems we encountered when we tried to film there, such as, the road beside where we was attempting to film was too busy and ruined the atmosphere and sound of the footage. Also, the day we chose to film the weather was extremely windy, again ruining the audio. From this point on we checked the weather prior to filming to ensure the conditions were suitable to film in.

Thriller Directors

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and producer who is most famous for his thriller films. Hitchcock used a range of unique techniques to create suspense providing the audience with a very distinct viewing experience. He was talented for creating themes of false accusations, conflicted emotions and plot twist endings very skilfully. In 1939, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood to continue his career in film.

Most famous thrillers:

• The 39 Steps
• Vertigo
• Psycho
• Shadow of a doubt

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is an American film director, screen writer and producer. The first big break through for Spielberg was, "Jaws" a thriller grossed more than $470 million worldwide at the box office. In Jaws Spielberg used a range of techniques to build tension such as dramatic music and specially selected camera shots.

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino is an independent American film director and often chooses to star act in his own films such as Pulp Fiction. He's popular for displaying non-linear exciting films often involving violence. His arguably most famous independent film and thought of one of the best independent films of all time was "Reservoir Dogs." Closely follows by "Pulp Fiction" nominated for 7 Academy Awards.

Most famous thrillers:

• Pulp Fiction
• Django Unchained
• Reservoir Dogs
• Kill Bill 1 & 2

The Conjuring - Textual Analysis

The Conjuring Textual Analysis from amyheald

THE CONJURING - Title Sequence from Nathaniel Costa on Vimeo.

Target Audience

Our target audience is male/females aged 15-34 years old, and anyone who is particularly interested in thriller/mystery-thrillers and enjoy feeling on edge during films. Our audience will most likely pull towards the younger audience because our cast is going to be mainly teenagers for example the victim and hero are both teenagers so it's easier to relate to their own age range. Also, younger audiences tend to appreciate and enjoy these genres and plots of films.

Audience Research

Possible locations

We went to possible locations where we could film our horror opening and took photos. We took these photos at a similar time as to when we would film the clips (4/5pm) to get a good idea as to how it'll look. Here's some photos:


North Wingfield 5 pits:

 

 

Another location:

Risk Assesment

Here's our risk assessment for our thriller opening.

Reviewing Horror Opening Scenes

Reviewing Horror Opening Scenes from amyheald

Age Certificates

BBFC (The British Board of Film Classification) provides age classifications for film and TV. Their main aims are to protect children and other vulnerable people from sensitive or unsuitable material and also to help consumers (particularly those responsible for children) make suitable decisions for the material they view.

U - (universal)

This certificate indicates that it should be suitable for audiences ages 4 years and over, although it's impossible to predict what may upset a particular child.
It shouldn't include: any significant issues in terms of discrimination, drugs, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, threat or violence. Any potential dangerous or anti-social behaviour which young children may copy must be removed.

PG - Parental Guidance

This certificate indicates that it's suitable for general viewing however some scenes may be unsuitable for some young children. A PG film shouldn't unsettle a child ages 8+. Also, it is up to parents to decide whether the film may upset their children and whether to provide the child with the content or not. PG mustn't contain any theme which is inappropriate, but can address challenging issues such as bullying, bereavement or racism. There could be mild or undetailed references of sex and bad language at PG.

12A/12

This certificate suggests that it contains material that is not generally suitable for children ages 12 or under. If the child is under 12, they must be accompanied by an adult at the cinema (12A), and they must consider whether the content is suitable for their child. Strong language (e.g. 'f***') may be used depending on it's context and frequency however any discriminatory language or behaviour isn't allowed. Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed in a 12/12A, and should be kept to what is suitable for young teenagers. Moderate violence is allowed and weapons, however weapons such as kitchen knives that are easily assessable to young teenagers shouldn't be glamorised. Anti-social behaviour should not be endorsed.

15

This certificate states that no one under 15 should be allowed to see a 15 rated film at the cinema or buy/rent a R15 because it's unsuitable for children under 15.
In R15 content there may be:

• strong language
• strong violence
• frequent strong language
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence and verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drugs

This age certificate will be used for our thriller as later on during the film there will be scenes of strong violence and strong language, as the victim tries to escape from the protagonist. This gives us more opportunities to create a more realistic and violent kidnapping. However, it does give us some restrictions at the distribution stage and lowers the number of consumers available as there's a large audience of people who are younger than 15, although some scenes in the film may be inappropriate.

18

This certificate states that no one under 18 should be allowed to buy/rent or watch the content at the cinemas as it's unsuitable. No theme is prohibited at 18 and adults are free to choose their own entertainment.
In R18 content there may be:

• very strong violence
• frequent strong language and/or very strong language
• strong portrays of sexual activity
• scenes of sexual violence
• strong horror
• strong blood and gore
• real sex
• discriminatory language and behaviour.

Pitch Video

One Page Pitch

We've done a one page pitch to our teachers to sell our film idea and the reasons why we're doing what we're doing.

Here's the ideas for the pitch:

• Working Title: Missing
• Film genre: Mystery thriller
• Length: 90 mins
• Target audience: 15-34 both genders
• Tagline: Can you escape the darkness?
• What if you were left alone in the woods with your worst nightmare?
• The story synopsis: The story begins with a girl coming home from a friend’s house, she decides to take the short cut home through the woods due to being late for dinner. She gets kidnapped by an unknown character, where he keeps her hostage and taunts her until he receives money from her family through a series of clues. In the end she frees herself by murdering the man.
• Statement of intent: Theme is based around a missing person and the strong determination between the family to get her home. We’re telling this story because we want it to have a good mystery storyline to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. It’s a film rather than a TV drama series because we didn’t feel that a long-winded series would work for this idea as this way it’s faster pace rather than having intervals until the next episode. Our film differs from other thriller films because rather than just intentions to scare the audience it has a gripping storyline. This is a film that we would enjoy watching as it has a lot of background story.
• Visual realisation: A mixture between long lasting shots to build up tension for the climax and fast cuts to show the fast pace struggle between the antagonist and protagonist.  We don’t know of any films similar to this type of film/
• Audience appeal: This film will appeal to our target audience (15-34) because adults and teenagers both generally enjoy mysteries, also the protagonist will be a teenager so everyone can relate to being this age.  

 

 

Audience Theories

       Cultivation/Culmination theory

According to this theory, years of watching more violence will make you less sensitive to violence like years of watching women being mistreated in soaps will make the individual less affected by it in real life. This is called desensitisation. There's no proof that media can change behaviour and certain ways of perceiving certain things such as violence. Games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty which both include armed weaponry and violence. GTA also involves criminal offenses.

Many people believe that children are especially sensitive to this kind of content as they're still learning and developing they may be influenced by these games and films and believe that it's acceptable. However, games such as these and films are rated (CoD and GTA are both 18) meaning that it's for adults and showing that it involves: very strong violence, frequent strong language, strong portrayals of sexual activity, strong blood and gore, etc. So although these games and films are often easily assessable it is argued that they're protected from these things. Though psychology studies such as one done by Albert Bandura in 1977 support the cultivation theory. He studied the imitation of aggressive behaviour through young children watching models (aggressive or non-aggressive), the results concluded that children in the aggressive models condition showed significantly more aggression in phase 3 (observation of children) than children who were in the non-aggressive models condition.

     Hypodermic needle model

The hypodermic needle theory suggests that the mass media has a direct and powerful influence on

it's audiences. This model suggests that the audience passively accepts the message of the content, often described as the content being "injected" into the audience by the mass media. This model also suggests that there's no individual differences between the audience since each person is affected by this, because of this it expresses views that the media is dangerous because the audience is deemed powerless to resist the impact of the message. This theory was dominant in the 1940's and 1950's, because of events on October 30th 1938 when the radio version of H.G. Wells' 'War of the worlds' was broadcasted, later that evening the radio programming was interrupted with news that there was an alien invasion, 1/12 million people believed this broadcast and people even fled their city. This was the first example of the hypodermic needle model, showing how the media could manipulate a passive and gullible public.

    The Two-Step flow

The theory was first introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld. The two-step flow includes two stages. The first stage being lead by an opinion leader (e.g. celebrity, politician) who get information from a media source such as a newly released film. The second staged includes the opinion leader passing the information on along with their opinion and interpretation of the topic/subject to others. For example, an opinion leader with a mass number of followers on social media may share their opinion on a new film influencing the readers to go and watch the new film.

Screenplay

Missing

Friends, Lucy and Charlotte are walking down a street lit road, casually talking.

Charlotte

Where’s that concert you’re going to?

 

Lucy

O2 Academy

    

Charlotte

I was thinking about coming, what date is it?

 

Lucy

6^th February, on Saturday. You coming?

 

Charlotte

Ohh no, is that this Saturday?

 

Lucy

Yeah, why?

 

Charlotte

I’ve got work.

 

Lucy

Ohh for god’s sake. Anyway, see you later! Facetime me when you’re home.

 

Charlotte

See you.

 

Charlotte walks towards the entrance of the woods. She opens the gate, and heads through the dark woods alone. She gets out her phone from her pocket, scrolling social media.

 

As she walks along the path she hears a crunch of leaves being stood on behind her. She suddenly turns around to see who’s there. No one is to be seen. She begins to pick up the pace, and keeps looking behind her to check if anyone’s there.

 

Antagonist POV:

He spies on the girl through the bushes, following her tracks. He is quiet and calm, as represented in his slow breathing/heart rate in contrast to Charlotte’s.

She sees a black silhouette in the distance, stumbling on her feet she runs faster only to turn back around and the figure has disappeared. Her breathing rate picks up and she panics. She runs to the gate, her shaking hands struggle to grasp the latch in time. She hears the breathing behind her, it’s too late. A hand grabs her mouth.

*Muffled scream from Charlotte* and she is suddenly plunged into darkness and a black bag is carelessly shoved over her head.