Before and Final Product

This was the first attempt we had at editing.






This is our final sequence.Since the first draft we have changed multiple things and added multiple things.These changes include sound, lighting, shots and angles as well as adding in more effects to create a more thriller like opening sequence.

Changes to My Thriller

Leading up to filming. Talia, Charlie and myself arranged to meet together and discuss the final ideas for our thriller so that on the shoot day it ran more smoothly.

We changed multiple ideas and concepts before and during filming.

Before filming we had to change the actress in our thriller three times. The reason we had to do this was because either they were too young and therefore would not fit our ideal target audience of 17-24 or did not have blonde hair and portray a stereotypical 'dumb blonde ideology.
We as a group were keen watches of Breaking Bad, and this is where we adapted ideas about poison into our thriller. We decided before filming that we would change the plot so that our character was killed by an external source, poison as oppose to being murdered in cold blood.In making this decision we had to altar particular parts of our plot in order for the thriller to flow without being repetitive.These particular changes included changing three phone calls in the study and then the death of the girl in the kitchen, to two phone calls in the study to one phone call in the kitchen followed by her death. This made the film more stimulating and increased suspense.

During filming we decided as a group to change certain parts to make the film match thriller characteristics. Characteristics including suspense,fear,violence and because out sub genre is crime we had elements of crime such as murder. Whilst we were filming we decided to have a shot of the killer stalking the house. Originally we filmed from a wide shot but then we changed to a medium shot so that the killer was more noticeable in the shot because the killers outfit camouflaged into the environment which was night time. One of the other reasons for filming the killer stalking the house was to show perspective and created a sense of dramatic irony, as the audience would be expecting something to happen to this vulnerable girl, however she was unaware that her fate was about to be met. This created sympathy and an eerie vibe.
We also included a shot of the killer unlocking the door, which was also decided on the day of shooting. The aim of this was to show a transition of the killer stalking the house to unlocking the door. A possible interpretation that the audience would make was this killer was someone that this girl knew as they were able to unlock the door to her home, possibly a close friend or neighbour. However if someone did not read so much into this would just assume that the killer was skilled at breaking and entering.

Our decision to choose poison was also changed during filming. Poison is stereotypically used as a method of death because it is slow, painful and easy. In our thriller this is shown by our character clutching onto her neck to show that her airways are blocked and can no longer breathe, followed by her falling to the floor in pain foaming at the mouth to lying on the floor eyes rolled back unresponsive. The foaming at the mouth was an addition to the scene. In the beginning she used her own saliva however this was changed to swallowing toothpaste as it was more hygienic.

We had to stack boxes and
books together to create
a tripod.

During filming we came across many issues with the camera that we were given. The lighting was too bright for the lens making her face unnoticeable in the shots, We also did not have a tripod so had to improvise and use the chair in my bedroom and stack it with books and boxes, removing certain equipemt for different shots and angles. We also changed camera to one that I owned that allowed us to change the brightness on the camera so that when we did wide shots or close ups her face would be seen.

As a group we believed that these changes made our thriller opening sequence more 'thriller like'. We created suspense and included crime in order to represent the sub genre.

Account of Editing

We began editing by putting shots on a timeline and trying to make sense of the footage we had filmed in order to create a narrative. This meant looking through our shots and deciding what we wanted to keep and what we wanted to discard. In the beginning we had an estimated 50 clips which were all multiple shots including wide, medium, close ups, high angle, low angle, over the shoulder and panning shots. All these different shots in someway helped us to create tension and suspense. As a group we watched all the clips more than once and removed irrelevant footage or footage that we knew would not make our thriller effective once we had done this we dragged the remaining clips that we were officially going to use into the iMovie software timeline to start creating the film. Charlie was the main editor, as he had most knowledge and understanding of how to use the software, however Talia and I provided information and suggestions in order to help him make our thriller what we wanted.

While we were editing, we focused primarily on how we would create a narrative. A narrative is the story behind something. We constructed the narrative by including only clips that guaranteed suspense. These clips included high angle shots as this shows power and domination over someone combined with low angle shots of our character to show weakness and vulnerability. We also incorporated close up and medium shots to highlight her change in emotion beginning mellow and calm to frightened and rigid. Charlie dragged these clips into the timeline and began editing them together into a continuous flow and then added effects.

The effects we used were the ones provided on iMovie. Some of these clips included transitions between scenes to make it progress better and create suspense. We used effects such as color fade which indicated to the audience that the character was dead, possibly hinting that the color fade of the clip was justified by the loss of color to her face once she had been poisoned. This was to create sympathy for the character. We also used the normal fade effect where our idea behind this was to signal that there was a move in the scene and that tension was going to increase more and more every time there was a fade. The fade effect also helped design a sense of empathy for the character. The dissolve effect was used to signify that she was dissolving as a character as the opening sequence progressed, with her becoming more frightened and fearful of her surroundings as the scene went on. The dissolve effect was also useful in moving the scene along quickly so that the audience did not get bored, or feel as if it was too repetitive. Slow motion was the last effect that we used, and we used this as our character is clutching onto her throat when she stops breathing and slowly begins to fall to the floor as this creates suspension and excitement, as well as highlighting what is most important in the scene, focusing our attention on the young vulnerable girl who is dead. The audience is roughly the same age, as the character so here we hoped the slow emotion would create an empathic mode to finish off the sequence.

In the opening of the thriller, we have stereotypical ‘thriller music’. This is dark, slow and eerie music to set the scene and indicate to the reader that something bad is going to happen. This sound effect was continued from the wide shot of the house to the close up of the letter saying Malice. We included this so that our audience could predict the fate of the girl. When our character moves from the study to the kitchen the music is more mellow and creepy, as the audience do not know what is going to happen to her. This is followed by the mode of the music dropping immediately after the girl has drunk the poison, which signifies to the audience that the girl is going to die. This was used to create suspense and tension and a gripping feeling. In the credits the music is carried on by the sound of young children laughing in the park, possibly signaling t the audience what is left to come in the next scene, which creates a cliffhanger effect and leaves the audience wanting to know what happens. This giggling is interrupted by the sound effect of a thunderstorm which ends or thriller with the sense of a big bang, possibly making people jump out of their seats as it is unpredicted as well as possibly implying there is more exciting things to come in the film making more people want to watch it.

Charlie attached the credits and titles by dragging text onto the timeline and from here editing the text to say what we wanted. The reason we placed the credits at the end was because it made more sense as we were following the movie Scream who have a straight into the film opening sequence and as we are inspired by this thriller, decided to do the same. We also believed that it was more effective and that credits at the beginning dispose of suspension and tension then starting straight into the action when the audience is ready.

Account of The Shoot Day

Our shoot day started at about 11am. Our group had the script although it was only a small dialogue between the character and the caller and we opened the shot timeline on Talia’s phone. Our story board did not exactly match the original but we managed to adapt such as we cancelled the third call from the study and decided to make it in the kitchen before she was killed. Other than this nothing else was changed.

To begin, we started filming in the study. In this scene we have the young girl sitting on the computer browsing through Facebook when a pop up appears. We filmed from all different angles, wide medium and close in order to capture intricate detail and emotion. We had to do this quite a few times because sometimes the lens was blurry or there was bad lighting that ruined the clip. Once we were sure that the clips we got were good we moved on to the phone call. We did a close up shot of the phone ringing to show that this was the most important part of the scene. This was followed by a pre –recorded clip of my teacher doing a deep voice saying the famous line from our movie like in Scream “You shouldn't have done that”.

Once this first scene was over we moved on to the second scene. In this scene we filmed her moving from the study into the kitchen where she meets her death. We filmed from behind her walking into the kitchen and then we filmed from the kitchen her walking in so we could see her emotion. We attempted to get our character, Rachel to hold the camera herself and film from her point of view however this did not work as the camera was unsteady.

In scene three we filmed the actual death of our character. We filmed the phone call using a wide shot followed by a close up to show her emotion which fear and vulnerability, which is how women are stereotypically represented in thrillers. We filmed outside however it was raining so the picture wasn't as clear however we used this to our advantage and gave the scene an eerie feeling with the sound of the rain dropping on the window. The scene inside where she dies due to poison we chose to do a close up to show her last moments and emotion.

My role in the group was mostly directing although we all equally had our share of filming. As the main director I was in charge of making sure that our character was always in the correct position at the right time and the shot matched the one on our timeline so that the day ran more smoothly. Talia and I worked on the make up, Charlie was unable to help in this area as he was unsure what to do so instead browsed through the clips and tried to distinguish any scenes that need redoing. This helped save time at the end. With Rachel’s make up we tried to make her seem tired and fearful by applying black eye shadow under her eyes to create ‘bags’. We also applied blue lipstick to show low body temperature, circulatory disorder and inadequate oxygen circulation. She is seen holding her neck as she is choking to death although the use of dramatic irony is used here, as the audience knows she was poisoned but she is unaware. Her body slowly falls to the floor when she is seen dead with her foaming from the mouth, to create a tense atmosphere.

Talia’s role in this group was mainly the filming and Charlie the main editor although we all contributed to all areas. We nominated ourselves for the area we were best at and the end result shows this. As a group from the beginning we have worked extremely well as a team, helping each other and discussing ideas. We met up on a few occasions to discuss what we were hoping the end result would look like and we were nearly perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Talia and Charlie as well as filming the thriller.

My favourite part to film would be the death of our character where she falls and is seen foaming at the mouth. We used toothpaste here and had to film about 6 times before it was perfect, however it was enjoyable and exciting.

Shooting Schedule

We filmed our production in one day and then realised that we wanted to change the ending of the sequence to a shot of a park in order to reveal the transition into the next scene of the film.


Saturday 
Day
11.00 - Started setting up the camera and made sure we had all the appropriate props and costumes.

11.45 - Filmed the study scene (girl sitting at the desk)

13.00 - Filmed the study to the kitchen scene (girl walks from room to room)

13.30 - Filmed character making her coffee (showing poison and method of death)

14.15 - Filmed the point of view from the killer (this was done outside in the rain)

14.35 - Filmed inside death scene (choked and died due to low body temperature and lack of circulation contributed with poison)

13.30 - Filmed girl frothing at the mouth (dead body shown)

Evening 

17.30 - Filmed the outside of the house to reveal killer stalking the home and set the scene
18.00 - Filmed the door handle scene where the killer is seen unlocking the door and entering
18.45 - Filmed the postbox scene where the killer posts a letter though the box to show death threats and reveal the title of the film.

Shot Breakdown (Time) - Opening Sequence

0-3 seconds	Establishing/close up shot
5-7 seconds	Pan shot
7-9 seconds	Pan shot
9-12	Over the shoulder shot
12-16 seconds	Wide shot/go pro
16-20 seconds	Close up shot
20-22 seconds	Go pro/over the shoulder shot
22-23 seconds	Medium shot
23-26 seconds	Close up/zoom shot
26-28 seconds	Over the shoulder shot
28-33 seconds	Low angle shot
33-35 seconds	Close up shot
35-37 seconds	Over the shoulder shot
37-40 seconds	Close up shot
40-44 seconds	High angle shot
44-48 seconds	Close up shot
48-50 seconds	Wide shot
50-56 seconds	Go pro
56-58 seconds	Eye line match
58-1.2 minutes	Swish pan
1.2-1.4 minutes	Medium shot
1.4-1.7 minutes	Close up shot
1.7-1.9 minutes	Zoom in/close up
1.9-1.13 minutes	Close up shot
1.13-1.16 minutes	Medium shot
1.16-1.19 minutes	Medium shot
1.19-1.21 minutes	Long shot
1.21-1.26 minutes	Wide shot
1.26-1.30 minutes	Close up shot
1.30-1.34 minutes	Zoom out shot