1. Question 7
Looking back to your preliminary task,
what do you feel that you have learnt in
the progression from it to the full
product?

2. Preliminary task
For our new unit in media we was studying thriller films. To start us of and get using
the cameras we were asked to do a preliminary tasks. A preliminary task is where
you go a shot a short film using lots of different camera shots and angels such as,
close ups, over the shoulder ECT.

3. Before going out and filming our preliminary task, we created a short story board.
This was good as it gave us a plan to what shots we was going to use during this
clip and where they was going to come. It always good to plan ahead like this as it
wouldn’t put as on the spot while filming.

4. As the was only a short clip, we did not really have to put any amazing acting or fall blown
conversations. We decided as a group that we was going to stick to an everyday
conversation such as “hi, how are you”, “ What have you been doing” e.c.t

5. We decided to film our short clip in the colleges lunch hall as this is a place people would
have this sort of conversations everyday and gave us a wide range on same to play around
with the camera and get the correct camera shots.

6. While editing our short clip, we added a few editing skills into it such as basic cuts and
transitions that leaded into the next clip.

7. upload video

8. From doing the preliminary task as a group we could see that our shot range was not
brilliant. Looking back at the clip we always used over the shoulder shots, this is not good as
we planned out all the different shots we knew and could have used in this. This gave us the
encouragement to make sure that in our shot film we was going to include as many shot
types as we could.

9. To get a basic idea for our thriller film we researched recent thriller movies. We looked deeply
into there opening sequences and noted down what we thought was strong about them and
what the audience looks for in thrillers. We done this so we got a better picture of what we
was going crate as a group.

10. We looked at many different films but two films we looked very closely at were “Vertigo”
and “Memento”, this was because as a group we felt they had very strong openings and
related to what we wanted to put across in our film.

11. We done a lot of research about thriller films and found there was 4 main sub genres that
come up quite a bit, these were
• Crime Thriller
• Psychological Thriller
•Political thriller
•Action Thriller
•We decided as a group it would be good to focus on one of these for our thriller.

12. Crime thriller conventions
Mystery that the protagonist has to solve atmosphere
that is created through natural elements for example the
weather protagonist is in danger most of the time
Matching editing pace to sound pace to make more
tension
Characters keep secrets from protagonist so that the
story is not given away
Chase scenes Praying on the protagonists weaknesses a
lot
A lot of repetition
Always someone searching for an answer
Supporting characters that support the main detective
Money

13. Conventions of a Psychological Thriller:
Character has a fear or fascination with death
One or more character characters preying on each others mind
Character in conflict with their own mind
Characters are trying to discover their own purpose
Danger on a mental level rather than a physical level Drama and mystery included
Character is lonely/isolated

14. Political conventions
Conventions of a Political Thriller:
Threat is set against a backdrop of a power struggle
Threat sometimes expresses current news or social fears
Strong male and female leads
More locations/countries
Opponents try to prevent the protagonists success
Innocent people drawn into the threat
Themes of proving innocence and deceit

15. For our film as a group we decided to use Crime Thriller. This was because the ideas we
already came up with would fit around this nicely.

16. We thought of our main plan very quickly, we used everyone's ideas and worked them
together to make our short clip. We didn’t know any of the conversations at this point but
our make priority was to get the basic plan for the clip.

17. When we knew what we wanted to do we planned it out on a story board, the idea
consisted of a detective sitting at his work desk with lots of papers thinking about what has
been going on, on the scene he is investigating. He then looks into a picture in more detail
and this starts to give him lots of flashbacks of the location that in happen in. Then later on
in the clip going to this location.

18. As a group we decided we was going to base our film around our day, so the audience could
relate to it more. This made our props and customs easy to think of and get hold of.

19. We didn’t need to play around with lighting to much, it was just going to be the natural
lighting from inside and around and if need we can edited it later on.

20. We didn’t have to buy any props for our film as everybody already had them, things that we
needed were:
• a mobile phone
•Photos of the crime scene
• a board of evidence

21. We decided to film our in in one of the boys house and garden that was in our group. The
scenes with him in the office was in the office in his house this was good because it was the
right lay-out already for what we needed. Also he had a abandon cow shed right at the end
off his garden this was a good place to use for the crime scene.

22. Picture of location

23. Picture of story board

24. Shot list
• Shot 1 - Desk with notes about crime, linking to the murder (Close Up)
Shot 2 - Detective looking down at his notes (Close Up)
Shot 3 - Detective sitting at desk and his phone rings (Long Shot) (Close Up)
Shot 4 - Phone Ringing (Close Up
Shot 5 - Walking to get the phone from the desk (Panning Shot)
Shot 6 - Detective picking up the phone (Close Up)
Shot 7 - Person saying hello (Medium Shot)
Shot 8 - Other detective 'Its Me' (Close up)
Shot 9 - Detective number 1 standing and talking on the phone (Medium Shot)
Shot 10 - Detective number 2, standing, talking to detective number 1 (Close Up)
Shot 11 - Detective walking to the window looking over at the cowsheds (Panning
Shot)
Shot 12 - More conversation (Close Up)
Shot 13 - Detective waling towards his desk (Panning Shot)
Shot 14 - Person getting picture of the murder victim (Close Up)
Shot 15 - Person examining photo (Medium Shot)
Shot 16 - Looking at picture talking to detective 2 (Close Up)
Shot 17 - Flash back of what happened or what 'could have' happened (POV
Shot)Shot 18 - 24 - six repeats of flashback and detective (Close Up) (POV Shot)
Shot 25 - Shadow, and you can see the body behind a wall (POV Shot)
Shot 26 - Phone Call (Close Up)
Shot 27 - Body gradually gets further away, whilst fading slowly, when we see the
whole body the screen cuts to black. Title appears then credits follow (Zoom
Out Shot)

25. Our script
Detective1: Ohhhhh -head in his hands-(phone rings)
*bring bring*
Detective1: Hmm, i wonder who this could be.. *Clears
Throat*" Good afternoon, Michael Mooseyhere”
Detective 2:"Hello its me, Dan, I am down at the Cow
Shed now Detective 1: "What you doing over there?”
Detective 2: "I've found something”
Detective 1: " But what, what could it be? nothing was
found when we were down there earlier.." (looking
out of the window, and promptly returning to his notes on
his desk) (picks up a photograph taken at the scene of the
crime of the dead body)*Silence*
Detective 2: " Michael are you there?"(Detective 1 goes
into a flashback of what could have happened, loads of
snip-it pictures and flash backs this leads into flashing
images of dead body behind wall and the detectives in the
two locations staring and looking puzzled at the
notes) *Music getting louder, building up lots of tension
as it gets faster*(The final image of the dead body in
black and white, zooming out into a fading effect, cuts to
black very sharply with the title appearing in a bright bold
colour. Credits will the follow)

26. From our preliminary task I didn’t feel that confident with our camera shots and final
cut due to the fact that the cinematography was poor, plus we only used basic editing
techniques such as basic cuts to shots in our task. Looking back at it was a good way
for us as a group to make sure that in our clip we used a lot more shots and editing
skills. For example, we included more shots, such as panning and POV shots, also we
used advanced uses of editing by using motion keys for our opening credits. I feel that
from doing this thriller opening sequence, I have got a lot more confident with editing
in final cut as I have learned to used advanced editing skills and making sure we are
using different camera shots.
When I do something like this again I will make sure that I use all of the editing
techniques I learnt from doing this opening sequence and include all camera shots I
know to make it more advanced. Also I will hopefully learn a lot more skills.