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Question 7.: Looking Back at Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt in The Progression From It To The Full Product?

The document discusses the improvements in camera skills, editing, and overall filmmaking techniques from the author's preliminary film project to their full thriller film. Some key points: 1) The author learned to better apply techniques like shot style and editing to create suspense and engage the audience. They varied shots more and experimented with angles to disorient viewers. 2) Researching the thriller genre and conducting audience surveys helped them develop conventions and appeal to their target demographic. Intertextual references to other films also engaged audiences. 3) Adding a soundtrack was a significant change that helped conform to the genre and develop characters and tension. 4) For the cliffhanger, they directly referenced the extreme close

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31 views

Question 7.: Looking Back at Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt in The Progression From It To The Full Product?

The document discusses the improvements in camera skills, editing, and overall filmmaking techniques from the author's preliminary film project to their full thriller film. Some key points: 1) The author learned to better apply techniques like shot style and editing to create suspense and engage the audience. They varied shots more and experimented with angles to disorient viewers. 2) Researching the thriller genre and conducting audience surveys helped them develop conventions and appeal to their target demographic. Intertextual references to other films also engaged audiences. 3) Adding a soundtrack was a significant change that helped conform to the genre and develop characters and tension. 4) For the cliffhanger, they directly referenced the extreme close

Uploaded by

JessicaDoran
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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QUESTION 7.

: LOOKING BACK AT YOUR


PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU
HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT
TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

By Jessica Doran

CAMERA SKILLS

In terms of how I have developed my camera skills from my preliminary task to my thriller,
there has been an immense improvement. I have developed my understanding of how to
apply camera techniques such as shots style and editing techniques in order to both appeal
to the style of genre, and appear aesthetically pleasing. For instance, within our thriller
'Death at No. 52', it became imperative to discover different ways of creating suspense, as
opposed to using perhaps just one style of shot; we had to vary the ways in which we could
develop the conventions of the genre. Whereas previously during the preliminary task where
my aim was to use multiple shots to suggest sophistication to the film, filming our thriller
became much more of a challenge as to how I could develop both this and enigma. For
example; I now understand that by contrasting the shots from high angle to low angle or
extreme shot to long shot, I can disorientate my audience more than I can with a mid-shot.
In the opening of the thriller, where Maria walks into the room, I specifically used a low angle
shot of the two characters feet instead of choosing to use a high angle shot which viewed
the whole room. This was for the reason that by simply seeing their feet, you couldn't yet
see their faces and in specific, the audience had no idea who The Man in the chair was. This
was a prime way of holding suspense and conforming to the unknown aspects of the genre
which I hadn't before considered when filming the preliminary task.

CAMERA SKILLS

Additionally, since my preliminary task I have found new ways of


using camera within the mise en scene and to use inter-textual
references in order to appeal to my target audience. These all added
to refining the film, making the concept realistic and the style
aesthetically pleasing. For example; we used an artificial single key
light throughout the film in order to add to the idea that the setting
is somewhere unknown; hence using an artificial single key light to
suggest that there is no natural light to be seen. When planning our
thriller, the use of inter- textual references in order to create specific
conventions of the thriller genre, became imperative when
considering camera. Where previously I hadn't considered making
references to other films in my preliminary task, making shot
references in my thriller film was essential. This was because it
referenced successful films or films with a similar plot or concept
that our audience would find appealing and be able to identify.
Consequently, these shot references also suggested a similar
sophistication that of previous thriller films, ensuring that in our
case, Psycho, One upon a time in America and Kill Bill (to name
a few) fans would perhaps enjoy our own thriller.

RESEARCH AND AUDIENCE


FEEDBACK
In comparison to my preliminary task, research for my
thriller was particularly essential to then deliver a
sophisticated and appealing thriller film to my target
audience. To explore what appealed to my target, I used a
set of questionnaires. I gave half to my target audience of
adults/teenagers 16 25 people who go to the multiplex,
and the other half to the exact opposite (people above
this age who prefer art-house cinemas such as Cinema
City). By doing so, I managed to successfully find out
what type of thriller appealed to whom and whether I had
hit the right target audience and if not why. In addition
to this, as previously said, inter- textual references were a
significant factor in engaging the right target audience.
Therefore, audience research and thriller research helped
to actually personalise and develop the product into
something they represented the same style of a thriller.
Research into media texts, the background of thrillers
and how mise en scene adds to identifying the genre all
improved the overall product where with my preliminary
task I hadn't included it. Specifically, research on how
Hitchcock presents women in his films was a useful way
of how we developed our concept, how to challenge it yet
still maintain his thriller conventions. I mention the article
in my case study of how Marion Crane is represented in
comparison to Lisbeth Salander.

Article:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/alfredhitchcock-women-psycho-the-birds-bidisha

SOUNDTRACK
The choice to add a soundtrack to my thriller film was the most significant and
beneficial difference between the way I edited my preliminary task to how I have edited
my thriller. With soundtrack being an integral way of conforming to not only the genre,
but asserting your own concept of the thriller and the intentions of the character, it was
essential. As previously said, the soundtrack Ava Maria was able to coincide with our
anti-hero Maria to successfully develop conventions of the thriller genre, the soundtrack
contrasting purity from corruption. The way in which the operatic sound developed a
calm atmosphere over a tense situation conformed to the genre as a means of insanity.
Similar to the soundtrack in Heavenly Creatures, the Intermezzo from Puccini's opera
"Madam Butterfly". Peter Jackson also uses the operatic, purity of the song to contrast
against the deranged girls beating their mother to death. Using the soundtrack as a
means of complimenting the concept hadn't stood out to me previously as a way of
asserting the genre in the preliminary task. Here, with the additional use of an heavy
rock soundtrack at the end, it maintained the idea of Maria not caring, and her anti-hero
persona being bloodthirsty and revenge filled.

Heavenly Creatures
link death scene:
https://www.youtube.
com/watch?
v=R1_dBCjnVfQ

CLIFFHANGER

With the task only to create an opening to a thriller, it


was evident from the start that the cliff-hanger would be
the most poignant moment in the film. For the purpose
that it is what will make your audience want to know
more, we felt we needed a shot that was recognisable.
This was completely different to the way we did this for
our preliminary task which was focussed on how the
narrative would create the cliff-hanger. The effect of
using a shot as opposed to relying on the narrative, gave
our thriller more sophistication to the intended thriller
genre with the aspect of the unknown. We used the intertextual reference of using the extreme close-up shot in
Psycho to suggest that The Man is in fact not dead. Then
cutting to a shot of Maria leaving the house in order to
reveal how she is unaware, and that The Man could
escape. I found this a much better technique of not using
a script to suggest enigma as opposed to relying on the
narrative to inform the audience that you intend to create
a cliff-hanger.

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