Our New Idea's Feedback

Feedback from the media staff:

-There is nothing wrong with the feminism vibe or the revenge theme in our opening sequence. That's a plus.

-However there is a problem is the sexuality and kissing.  Not only will this create conflict with the two actors, but also with the fact that it will not look very realistic.

-Make it a little bit more exciting. Make it more of a thriller!

-Last but not least, do not make the girls want to "out-boy" boys. Make up a new way to kill him. In other words, stabbing someone with a knife is a very manly thing to do. Spice it up a little bit by using a new, more girly way to kill the man.

Props for our Thriller Opening Sequence

As far as we know props will not be a concern. There are few props we need. We intend to have two knifes, because the third girl will be seducing the man while the other two sisters are slowly walking towards the room. And that is all we need for props, the other items we will need in our scene all fall towards set design. We intend to use face knifes for this, just for safety measures.  We can get the knifes with the theater department in the school because they have plenty of props used in the past for their performances. If, surprisingly the theater department won't lend us their fake knifes, then our back up plan would be to just buy them off a store or online store, they can't be too expensive I presume.

Location for our thriller opening sequence

In terms of location there are many possibilities. However we've established one that we want to use. We need a hallway and a room with a bathroom. Since our sequence is filmed in a hotel it is perfect to use Hurtwood House's boarding house Cornhill Mannor. This is because most of the rooms, if not all of them, have bathrooms in them. And also because the hallway really looks like a hotel hallway due to the fact that all doors are numbered. If we cannot get permission with Ted (the house master) we havea backup plan to film in Adam's house (one of the media studies teacher).

Issues: There are a few issues when it comes to filming in Cornhill Mannor, however the main issue will be the lighting. Some of the rooms lack on lighting. So that's our main concern.



We intend to spend at most one day in Cornhill to shoot our opening sequence, due to the fact that we don't want to disturb any of the people who live their by invading their property to shoot an opening sequence. We are getting there by the school's bus that drives to cornhill after school and after lunches and dinners. We still don't have permission but we will ask Ted as soon as possible if we may use Cornhill. 

Costumes for our thriller opening sequence

The three girls will be wearing black, we are still debating whether they will be wearing a black dress
or a black top along with black trousers. However one thing is established, the color black. We are sort of falling more towards the black dress side though.

Why Black?

Well because of the color's connotations. Black symbolizes  darkness, evil, mysterious, as well as sexiness.

We were also thinking of buying off Amazon a maid costume. Simply because of our location which will be in a Hotel, and in order to show the audience where the sequence is set it would be a good idea to have a maid in the background getting ready to clean a room. We are thinking of getting that traditional black and white french maid's uniform, just because it adheres the stereotype of the maid.

Last but not least, the victim who is the only man in the sequence would be wearing a suit. This is because of the way that people stereotypically view people wearing suits as being charismatic, wealthy, it shows his age and that he's a mature man who has a stable life and job. I'm the only boy in the group and unfortunately I don't have a suit, however I can ask some friends of mine to borrow it for the shoot.

Why Would "Metrodome" Produce Our Film

The company/institution that would produce our film would have to be Metrodome. Not only would they help produce it but they would also help distribute it. Metrodome is a company originated and located in London and they help manage and distribute films. They have a  scheme called "The Microwave Scheme" in which helps films made in the UK to get big by giving them a small boost on the budget of £100,000 as well as 18 days to make the film.

Metrodome has released quite a few thrillers overall. Thriller is a very big category full of subgenres within it. It is possible to relate some films by this company to ours' such as "The Riddle" a film that follows the concept of murder just like "Sisters" (our thriller idea). Difference is that ours' follows the concept of murder in the aim to get revenge meanwhile "The Riddle" follows the same concept but aiming towards mystery solving.

"Metrodome" goes about making low-budget films, mainly for the fact that it is a company that it gives a little bit of a boost to some unpopular films to be recognized. With not very popular actors. It is a company that gives a window of opportunity to becoming famous.

"Metrodome" films are generally always shown in art-house cinema, since the company itself is an art-house institution. Therefore my group's thriller would be shown in an art-house cinema. The independent distributor company not only releases movies in DVDs, but also in Blu-rays. This would already be one of the ways in which the film would profit. Metrodome has recently made electronic commerce services. They aimed to develop new sites every quarter for their e-commerce which turned out to be quite successful. During a period of six months after the company started with the electronic commercialization of their films they profited 1£ million only on their e-commerce arm. It seems to have been quite successful and it is a good reason to say that I would place my film in their E-commerce system.

The institution doesn't focus on a particular film genre, it has various different categories of film within them, varying from comedies to thrillers. However, the institution does overall make low-budget films due to the fact that the company's aim is to distribute and contribute in the development of a film via the microwave scheme. So it is aimed for unpopular films, actors and directors as a window of opportunity to becoming bigger in the industry.

As I said before, "Metrodome" films do tend to vary a lot in terms of genre. Creating a vast number of categories in which the audience may pick from. Therefore it is fair to say that the company does not have a specific target audience, thus their films are generally made for any type of audience. (girls, boys, adults, men, women,...)

Similar Media Texts

• In terms of the feminist power theme, I believe my film could be similar to Colombiana, since we also have a powerful woman who is able to kill.
• In American Psycho 2 , the knife wielding female killer who's played by Mila Kunis is also similar to our knife wielding killer. Directed by Morgan J. Freeman.

Intended Target Audience

• AGE=  The age group that my thriller would be intended to is between 18 and 21. The reason why the film wouldn't be intended for underage teenagers is because there is sexual scenes and a lot of violence.
• GENDER= Our thriller would be intended for mostly women, because we are thinking of using an attractive man, and also because a female kills him, portraying feminist power as a theme. However, the females would also be attractive therefore also attracting men to the film. However, our intended target audience would be women. 
• WHAT WOULD THEY BE INTO= My intended target audience would be into thrillers since that is my film's genre, but more specifically crime thrillers because crime is our idea's subgenre. 
• WHY WOULD THEY LIKE MY FILM= They would like my film because the feminist power theme would be encouraging to them. Also the male character will be attractive, so automatically capturing the attention of women. 
• HOW WOULD I ATTRACT THEM WITHIN THE FIRST 2 MINS= I would be able to attract them right off the start because it begins with a romantic theme of the lady and the man heading to the hotel room, the romance would already attract the intended target audience. Then tension starts rising as the audience would see the first shot of the killer heading towards the room, making them think: Who is she? What is she going to do? From there the tension keeps building constantly keeping the audience focused and intrigued.

Our New Idea's Storyboard

Basically what is happening in these four pages of our opening sequence's story board is that one of the sisters is taking a man into a room. We then see them flirting and kissing (depending on actors' willingness). Next we get a shot of one of the sisters walking towards the room and the other sister hidden in the bathroom, ready to ambush the man. Eventually the one in the hallway walks in the room subtly and the sister in the bathroom comes out. As this happens the sister that was with the man holds him down and he gets ambushed and killed. Tension is built in this from the shots of the two girls slowly walking towards the room and into it. 

Reviewing Test Footage (initial idea)

We were filming our initial thriller opening sequence idea which follows the same concept of our current thriller idea but has a completely different opening sequence. This one we filmed is about three sisters who show up in a dark tunnel and walk towards this injured man on the ground and eventually kill him. It is not that important to use the best props or use the correct actors in our test footage since it is just a simple clip to enable us to visualize what the scene opening sequence will kind of look like. For example, instead of actual knifes we used pens.


Also, the actors in the original will need to be relatively the same height, whereas in our test footage we just used the three girls in our room. We also used myself as the injured man as opposed to an actor who is skilled in what he is doing (acting as if he were in pain). We started with an establishing shot of the tunnel, followed by an extreme long shot of the three girls showing up. Then a close-up of their feet followed by a close up of their pens (used as knifes). Followed by a tracking shot from their backs followed by a low angle extreme long shot of them walking towards the camera. Then the camera moves from the central girl's lower back to over her shoulder, revealing the injured man. Then it's a long shot of them man in pain and last but not least a close up of the knife stabbing the
                                                                                    man in his heart.

As a conclusion this process of filming a test footage was not beneficial to our group. However, it was extremely useful for one thing. To establish a new idea because people in the group didn't think we as a group did a good job. If we had stuck to this idea, then yes camera work has worked well, as well as the location. But the idea on its own was not that great.

 The low angle extreme long shot when they were walking towards the camera made it look as if they were many times more intimidating as they walked closer and closer.

I feel like we had some problems when it came to creating tension because we got a really long time of just looking at the girls walking and walking and I believe that it was good for the first maybe twenty seconds. Then it gets a bit boring and repetitive. This was one of the reasons why we decided to change our opening sequence. Basically no tension was built in our opening sequence it was only maintained for a certain duration of time.

Genre, Audiences and Institutions

Genre is a relevant concept for audiences because it is a way of categorizing films in different styles. It makes the audience know what kind of film he or she is about to watch. It is relevant to the audience because it makes it easier for them to pick a film they'd like to watch depending on what they feel like watching at a certain moment.

Minute Meetings

MINUTE MEETINGS

#1

What we did?

We started sketching the film’s camera angles, lighting, mise en scene and sound in the movie planning sheets given to us. We also established the locations.

Targets.

Finish the movie plan. Start making better decisions as a group that would be agreeable by everyone.

Worries.

Worried that the whole group may not be happy with some of the decisions made.

Went well.

We were able to finish a good part of our storyboard which took some of the pressure out of the way.

Also decided that we would use this idea for our thriller and not the backup plan.

MINUTE MEETING

#2

What we did?

Finished sketching the movie plan including the four areas of representation.

Targets

Test film our opening sequence to see if it actually works.

Worries

It may not work as we expect it to since the setting we planned is usually crowded. (subway tunnels)

Went well

Decided on some new shots for the opening sequence. For example, we decided on an establishing shot that would set the place in the opening sequence. 

 November 20th

What we did

-Filmed test shoot

-Filmed according to the storyboard

Targets

Submit first 2 minute minutes

Worries

-Location for filming not found yet

-Continuity in filming

-Giving in minute meetings

-Is our opening title sequence good enough?

What went well

-Good timing during test shoot

-Generally successful test shoot

 November 21

What we did 

- Looked back at the test shot 

- Discussed ways we could improve it.

Targets

- Make it more interesting at the end ( create more tension )

Worries 

- It may not be long enough 

What went well 

- We discussed ideas to make it longer and add more tension which we all agreed on.

- We liked the idea and it was good to look at what worked and what didnt. 

 November 24

WHAT WE DID

- Worked on presenting the pitch to Matt

- worked on making it short and straight to the point

-Worked on the synopsis for the plot and title sequence

-Added more to the title sequence to make it longer

TARGETS

-Pitch the idea to Matt

-Create more tension for the title sequence 

WHAT WENT WELL

-Came up with a synopsis quite easily

-Made the pitch quite simple

WORRIES

-Would Matt like our idea?

November 25

 What we did
- presented our opening sequence to Matt

Targets
- Change the idea around
- Make it more unique
- Make it stand out

Worries
-Location for filming not found yet
-Coming up with new ideas to improve the sequence
-Giving in minute meetings
-Is our opening title sequence good enough?

What went well?
- Matt liked the idea and said it was very visual

November 28

 WHAT WE DID

-Worked on new idea for opening title sequence

-Discussed new idea

TARGETS

-Test shoot the new idea

-Talk to Matt about new idea

WORRIES

-Developing new idea

-Team work; The group itself

WHAT WENT WELL

-The new idea really works

-Able to create tension with the new idea without making it generic

-Able to give characters a unique selling point

 December 2

WHAT WE DID:

-Worked on our new story board

Targets

-Test Shoot the new idea

- Talk to Matt about new idea

WORRIES

- Team work

- If the new idea will work

WHAT WENT WELL

- Creating the story board

- Coming up with new ideas to improve it even more

December 10

WHAT WE DID:
-We worked on four aspects on our thrillers. Costume, Set Design, Props and Location
-We finished our Storyboard (we were missing the some information in it appart from the drawings (i.e. Timing) )

Targets:
-still need to test shoot our new idea
-still need to talk to Matt about our new idea

Worries:
-Our storyboard might be too short so we might have to think about some new shots

Went Well:
-Discussion about Props, Costumes, Set design and location (We established we are going to use one of the Houses in Hurtwood to film our opening sequence since it's similar to a hotel)

January 12^th, 2015    

            What we did

-We discussed and decided who are the people we are going to use as the actors.

-We discussed exactly all props we will need

-Basically finalized our idea thinking about every different aspect and everything we will need for the shoot.

Targets

-Have everything ready to shoot by Friday.

-Figure out where we are going to get all our props. (We might need to buy some off ebay)

What went well

-We all came to decisions we are all happy about

Worries

-Worried that since our new idea was established recently we are afraid that it might be hard to be completely ready by Friday.

Moodboard

Stephanie, Hannah, Poppy and I all decided to make our own moodboards in order to teak the storyline of "Sisters" our thriller coursework. So we decided that each one of us should do our own moodboard and re unite as a group to put all our ideas together and make one final moodboard that will be used to tweak our film idea.

We didn't like our last idea that much, so the group decided to change most of the ideas but keep the overall idea of the film which is three beautiful sisters who go on a journey to seek revenge against their father. They go around killing men who are not honorable to women, and they basically do this because of the harsh childhood they had.