Which Institutions Would Make our Film?

If we were to ever actually release our Thriller, we would have to consider what company we would ask to distribute it. For this we looked at English distribution companies, as we felt our thriller would mainly appeal to a British audience, as well as possibly be distributed in other European countries. Therefore we came to the conclusion that we would ask Warp films to make it.

They would choose to make our film because they have made lots of other First time, short films on low budgets and short time frames- exactly what our thriller would be. They often make a lot of films for older audiences especially males, therefore a lot of thrillers too, with plenty of action and gadgets (both of which would feature strongly in our film). They seem to specialize in realism, unlike some American companies such as Warner Bros, who tend to lean towards idealism to please audiences. However our film would be fairly realistic to if the situation was real.

They would hopefully like the latvian theme as they have made other experimental films such as Rubber Johnny, which was a gruesome and disturbing film that not all audiences would enjoy. Doing a film such as this gives hope to accepting other controversies, such as ours. Warp Films has also shot many films in cross-media convergence, which would provide additional funding for production and distribution for our thriller, while demanding a bit less from each company.

Our film is a thriller/mystery and does not require a large budget or special effects, therefore meaning that filming and editing time would be quick. Warp films once shot a film in 22 days, something to aspire to with ours. Our thriller would be a 'British Film' except for international personnel, which fits perfectly to the ethos of WF.

We also feel that our film could be very cheaply done, but still effective. This is due to fact that the main characters are fairly poor therefore their clothes, office general equipment etc. Will not have to look particularly fancy. The actors will also be unknown and therefore will not have to be paid very much. Therefore there would be an overall low budget.

We would keep distribution costs low, being that our thriller is a first-time ow budget production. therefore we would put it straight onto DVD and possibly TV, assuring that people will watch it. we would not put it in cinemas as we only have a specific audience and distribution costs for licensing in the cinema would be too high. Therefore we would  keep marketing costs low too, but still effective, placing adverts in tactical places such 
as magazines libraries newspapers etc. Sticking to our target audience.

Due to the experimental nature of many films distributed and funded by WF, such as Rubber Johnny, we can see that they are very open to films that are not made for mainstream viewing. They allow the idea of 'niche' audiences ( a minority group of people) mainly due to the low budget, however still making a high profit in comparison to money spent on the procedure.

They also do not have any other thrillers similar to ours. Especially the aspect of having the majority of conversations spoken in Latvian, will give it an interesting edge, and is something that they haven’t done before, allowing it to quite cultured. 

We had to consider what kind of media institution would distribute our Thriller in America. To get an idea we researched other low budget films to see who had distributed them in the US. One that we found that was to a similar degree and was distributed very well was monsters.

Monsters was made on an incredibly low budget similar to how the rest of our film would be made. It was premiered at the SXSW film festival and was picked up by Magnet for distribution. It was then given a platform release over a three week 'pre-christmas' period. Spending a brief time in the cinema and going quickly to DVD. As there target audience are more likely to watch it at home on New Media Technologies such as YouTube, Netflix, Xbox Live and Play Station.

This sort of distribution would be advantageous for or film as there audience is very similar, and would also have more viewers watching it on New Media Technologies. Therefore based on this information iI would choose Magnet to be our distributer as hopefully using the same methods it would also be successful for our low budget film. especially since the distribution was also low budget as we wouldn't be able to afford expensive viewings. This is why New Media Technologies are so advantageous to institutions and audiences.

Evaluation- social groups

There are two main features that represent particular social groups:

The detective-

Another film character alike our detective would be, Agent K from Men in Black. He has similar qualities and fits the stereotypical aspects of the same social group.

We have manages to represent this stereotypical man, by the use of-

• A smart outfit
• Serious facial expressions
• Very little said
• Clever remarks
• Dismissive of his assistant 

The Killer-

The murderer

This murderer is much like Red John from the TV series The mentalist. We have shown this typical killer social group by-

• Leaving the hand print
• Sticking the knife through the head
• Making the victim a young teenager
• Leaving a riddle

Two other opposing social groups that we focused on while deciding suitable character profiles, was the age. We decided to make our character relevant to the average older and younger male picking out stereotypical aspects:

This sort of use to collect a wider audience variety is also used in other films such as



Something that seemed obvious to us when choosing cast was to keep it to a male cast as around 85% of all thrillers viewings are male. As it allows them someone to associate themselves and relate to. We researched and found other evidence of this in thriller for example-

All of these feature male leads, and
are a small example of many owning
the same aspect. 








Another reason for using a male cast was when we researched gangs and drug mules, reading various articles it seemed that women were never mentioned or included. Here is one of the atricles that we found:

 

This article talks about drug crime. If we analyse it, from the fact that no females are included in, we could then concur that men are more commonly associated with crime and this is one of the reasons that they are used in thrillers. to stick to social conventions and attract audiences.

Conventions of a thriller

Looking at typical thriller conventions-

How did we:

Use them-


A signature mark being left. This is
a classic thing used in many TV series
and movies with twisted thrillers
so we know each time that the killer will
strike again, otherwise the mark would
be useless. It implies that the film will
be something to do with this particular
killer, also suggesting that there
will be more grusome murders
and crimes, which is exactly what
the target audience want.

Killer leaving a riddle. This shows the
cleverness of the killer, and how eventually this riddle will be unravelled, already giving a slight suggestion of the story line.
The fact that our detective can already guess about
what the riddle will be about, implies that
he knows the signs of this serial killer but has
yet to unravel. giving suspense as to whether he
will actually unravel it at all, or end up dead.

A sick murder. This shows the crazy antics of a killer
and how they can only get worse, as our target audience
are the sort of people who will enjoy,
squirming over the gory and revoluting scenes.
The same sort of feeling of horror films
( you dont want to watch it but you
cant take your eyes off it).

An admirable car. Alike the James Bond cross media convergence

of marketing, also makes the film slightly more memorable.

It is something that will be appealing to our

male audience. It uses typical thriller conventions

as it suggests that there could be a possible car chase

or some sort of adrenaline fueled peice of action.

Using a container suggests the idea of drugs and shipping, using a young drug mule
who gets murdered. This is a stereotypical thriller convention 
 of a conspiracy thriller.

An air of mystery. The flash backs gives hints of what has happened. 

It shocks the viewers and scares them giving it the shock factor 

making them jump something they will expect when watching a thriller.



Develop them-

• Detectives and gore combined- this is developing both conspiracy thrillers and horror. Therefore widening the niche audience and gaining more box office returns.

• Not typical cops or police men. This slightly strays away from the typical cool detectives who we immediatly warm to. But in this case our liking for the main characters will slowly develop throughout ther plot as their past is unravelled.

Challenge them-

• We didn't really challenge them as we felt we didn't have any sort of previous experience to start doing so.

Editing Evaluation

Now we have finished our editing we can look over the process of how we got to our finished product.

When we first began our editing, we made three bins in which we stored certain shots.
1. the ones we definitley wanted to use
2. the shots that were irrelevant and hade to be discarded
3. the shots we weren't sure about but could possibly be helpful for further use

We ended up discarding a lot of shots as in many of them the cast had begun laughing or there was someone walking in the background. This was up to about 20 or 30 shots in total, however we did not discard any of them, we kept then in the bin just in case we needed them for sound use etc. We kept shots that had a clean run through and had good lighting. We also knew the order of scenes from the car to the outside of the container to inside, which meant that some shots were definitly not going to be in use as they were not part of any of those scenes (as we had filmed some extra shots just incase it wasnt long enough to last for two mins).

We then put all of our shots into a logical order before cutting them down to fit each other. Starting with the opening of the conatiner, inspecting the body the note then the car. We then cut them at each side of a shot so they ran smoothy, we also decided to put the car at the beginning which meant we had to reverse some shots and rearrange the sound, so it looked like they were getting out of the care not in, this was comlplicated but it worked in the end and I learnt a lot about how to use final cut pro.

EXAMPLE OF PUTTING SHOTS IN ORDER-

inside the car


outside the conatiner

flash backThe shots included some moments towards the end that revealed more about who the people were and that they were detectives, with lines such as "look at the hands print" and " does it mention dancing horses?". These lines show how the detective has already figured out everything to know about the crime scene as he says it before we even see the note ourselves, in which "dancing horses" is mentioned. 

 

We then felt that it was lacking a shock factor so therefore put in flash backs to moments of the killing, shots which had origionally been placed in the discarded bin for purposes such as this. For this we had to speed up the shot, make it black and white and blur it a bit, so it was clearer that it is a flash back.

 
After cutting the clips and then adding in the flash backs, we had to look at the sound carefully. This was what caused the most problem, as when we listening to it intently we realised that there were a lot of random sounds, such as birds tweeting or people talking in the background, however we still needed the speech to fit the actors mouth. To overcome this we had to cut out the moments where the extra sounds were made and then copy and paste a moment where similar appropriate, ambient sounds would be made and use them to replace the extra sounds. We also copy and pasted the sound of a car door being slammed from another shot. The first slam it slightly quieter and we see it closing before the second it cuts to a black out, the moment that we hear the bang the title "zirgi" comes up. This is dramatic and effective.
 

We then added in some sounds effects that carry on the whole way through. These were sounds of wind to give a cold feeling, and we edited it so that when they stepped inside the container we took away the high pitched frequences giving it more base sounds, to make it sound realistic. We then felt that the flashbacks didnt have enough shock factor so we added in some dramatic sounds getting louder and more piercing each time. This sounds process was the most difficult and took up the most time.
 
During this whole process, it seems that editing was a single man job. Therefore I took charge and occasionaly worked together to see if there was anything else that needed tweaking. We often got outsiders to watch it so far to see if they understood what was going on. This was very helpful as it often made us notice things that we hadnt before as we obviously we watched it more scrutinisingly when others were over our shoulder. Although we occasionally worked together, it seemed that most of the editing was done by myself, as i spent more time i learnt mroe abotu how to use it quickly and how to put in sounds and effects therefore was more efficient and quicker if I worked on it by myself, working on the feedback from outsiders.
 
This editing was a dramatic change from our prelim, we were more adventurous with our shots and the special effects made it mroe creative and interesting for us to learn about.
 
Through this experiance I have learnt that I should always make lots of shots of one thing even if we think it is perfect as when we listen or watch it in editing time we may see something that is not correct and would liket o have more options to make itless complicated to take out the imperfections.

Shooting Day- Evaluation

The day of our shoot was an interesting one, it was stressful, but of course ended up being a lot of fun. We planned to set up the day before, however snowy weather conditions made this very difficult! Meaning that we had to get to the location very early to clear a pathway for the camera, so we wouldn't see footprints where the detectives walk. We then cleared out the container making it look more 'abandoned' covering up some of the clutter with a dusty cloth, giving a sense that it had been there a long time.

We also had to prepare the dead body, which included making it look like he had a knife through the back of his head. However this proved difficult as the equipment to stick it in the to him did not match the skin tone of our actor very well and did not look realistic at all, therefore we decided to use a joke knife that sat on top of his head and looked like it came through the other side, therefore we had to be very careful of our shot angle to make sure that this was not extremely obvious! We then had a makeup artist to put on scrapes and bruises and make him look ‘deader’.

One of the best things about shooting was the creation of many shots and ideas, as we realized we might not have enough shots to last for a whole two minutes.

·       We took the idea of flash backs from our original idea. This included a hand held tracking shot, showing the view of the killer as he walks up to the victim, all we see is the knife and hand in focus. The shot cuts out just before it goes into his head, as obviously we couldn’t actually put knife through someone’s head! However we did consider having a sound effect of this in a black out whilst we see a credit. We all took turns of using a hand held camera to give lots of options of which one to use when editing and for personal experience. This was one of the more difficult parts of the day and it took a long time. However once edited into black and white, sped up and possibly slightly blurry it will shock the audience, a key expectation of a Thriller.

·       Another creation was the mark that the killer leaves which is the handprint in blood on the wall. Originally we were going to have a smiley face, but we thought this would be an obviously thing to do. This lead to other shots such as a close up of the killer swiping some blood up with his hand then rubbing it into his fingers.

·       We also didn’t think our ending was dramatic enough. So somehow, inspired by the idea of leaving a mark, we came up with the idea of leaving a note in the victim’s mouth sealed in by the gaffer tape. The note was very random and was taken from the title of an old song- Bring on the dancing horses. As peculiar as it seems we recognized that it would leave questions and suspense, which is what we aim for in opening sequences. This idea also left room for more shots, such as a tracking shot of it being pulled out of his mouth and being opened. Another suspense idea was that the chief detective already knew what the note said, suggesting that he had some sort of history with this killer, giving an idea of what the rest of the film would be about.

From the beginning of the shoot we decided that we would alternate the roles of director, camera and sound, and we would all watch for continuity, leaving less room for errors. However towards the end it seemed due to the distraction of the snowy conditions and the friendly cast, I felt I took on all of those roles at one point. But after understanding that time was passing quickly, they regained focus, and we managed to get some great shots in the car.

On the topic of the car, we originally had planned to film the car coming up the hill as our start to the sequence. However as we were using an older rusty looking car, the hill was too steep to get up in the snow and it kept getting stuck and sliding down. So we ended up getting in the back seat of the car and filming then arriving and getting out.

Over all I felt that we did work well as a team as we did manage to get all the shots we needed, and i look forward to editing the car scene and the flash backs. and also choosing some music to add even more suspense.