Evaluation Question 7 and Final Product - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

I wanted to attract my target audience by casting young actors for my piece, using more blood and gore, and display an adult serious nature to the film which might attract my target audience. By using the sound piece for the opening it may attract the younger audience as it contains a ‘wah’ effect which is used in R&B during the past few years and the audience for R&B and Dubstep seem to be a young 16+ audience. For the older audience I used the costume of the protagonist and use his role as a businessman to represent the adult life.

I also tried attracting the target audience by putting a lot of excitement and tension within the opening. By doing so this will make sure that the audience will not wander off and lose interest with the rest of the film. I did this by leaving a lot of questions unanswered such as Why is there blood all over the floor? Why is there a dead body in the wardrobe? and why does the protagonist have red eyes? This grabs the views attention straight away and will want to continue watching the film. I did all this by aiming it at the main target audience of my thriller, teenagers and young adults (18+).

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my thriller piece were both female and males of the age 18+ since a younger audience might not be able to understand the complication of the role of the protagonist and any age under 12 would be illegal as the film contain high level of blood and gore. I did research in the film American Psycho into great detail and finding that it was a very popular film during it’s time which I believe that my thriller would appeal to that particular audience which are into the American Psycho as my thriller resembles a lot of key features of it.

The film will also appeal to an audience with an obscure film taste as the protagonist is possessed which will put views off as its more realistic but will appeal to those who like possession films and murder films. The cannibalism in my thriller may appeal to an audience who like disturbing films much like The Wrong Turn as that is highly focused on cannibalism.

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that Lions gate entertainment would be the media institution that might distribute my thriller piece as they were the institution that distributed American Psycho plus other great movies such as Reservoir Dogs. They have a good history with thrillers and crime related films which I personally think would distribute my film since it contains murder and crimes etc.

Since my film is heavily influenced by American Psycho they will be able to see the resemblance between them both and might bring back the psychotic nature back into films which recently declined over the past few years.

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film focuses on the older teen/ middle age generation as the main protagonist is only aged around early twenties. I feel that my film highly focuses on upper/middle class as the protagonist is dressed well and smart, implying that he has a very well paid job. For this role I cast myself to play it as I needed to male role to look in his early twenties but have an illusion that he looks tired around the eyes which are heavily drained from all the hard work he does at his job. I did originally plan to have a female dead body on the bed but had to recast for the final product. I had to think fast to which I used the camera man, Philip Creasey, to stick his hand out of the wardrobe to create the effect that the protagonist had shoved the dead body (which had been dragged through the house) into the wardrobe. The original cast for this was to have Jessica Gaunt play the female roles has her figure seems to attract boys attention which would be well suited as the protagonist would have seen her and immediately have her in his grasps. Her appearance is a modern teenager and the slutty type as her appearance would make out that she had been with hundreds of males with the main protagonist just a simple sex buddy.

I then cast Bobby Gosling as the protagonists friend and business partner as I needed him to look smart and a little younger as I planned out he was a trainee to the protagonist and was going round in the morning to go back to work. Bobby also looks smart naturally which just by that positive made me go for him over anyone else. With Bobby being smart, he also has a spindly look about him making him look fragile which was the perfect opportunity for the protagonist when possessed to strike. The social group Bobby's character represent is upper clase being the 'nerd' stereotype. 

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Final Draft

After putting together the final draft and uploading the clip onto YouTube I noticed that sound problems occurred during the opening credits. The non-diegetic background soundtrack seems to start later on in the opening scene than it should. I wasn't able to fix this problem in time for the video to be submitted which will lead to a bad grade/mark,

Feedback

After receiving feedback from several people and having looked at previous thriller pieces I've decided to make several improvements. These include the following:

1. Create title using after effects - The title I have used for my first draft of the thriller piece didn't seem to stand out enough and didn't really give much meaning about the thriller  I've decided to re do the titles using after effects and a new font.
2. Adding sound effects - I noticed that I didn't have enough sound effect to the piece such as the Doorbell, opening of the door etc. This would greatly improve my piece and create a lot of atmosphere and tension within the piece leading to the ending of the scene.
3. Minor edits to the sequence - A few edits to the sequence of the scene such as shortening the black screens between certain shots. This also includes editing around with the sounds making sure to use Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sounds. 

By making these three improvements it will greatly increase my grade as well as the actual thriller piece making it more atmospheric and build massive tension within the scene. 

Sounds (Ideas)

The ideas I have for sounds in my thriller piece will include a backing track song and various sound effects with will need to be placed in the thriller after recording the scenes.

For the backing track song, I need something that's atmospheric which will create tension within a short period of time. Raindrop Prelude by Frederic Chopin is one idea which i might go forth a use in my opening scene and it starts off with a calm sounding piano which then drops to a very dramatic lower playing style which then raises and builds tension.

For sound effects to be used in the clips, I was planning on using somewhat of a demon laughing, roaring etc. to go with the possessed male characters. I was also planning on using an eating sound of the teeth biting through tough meat and a swallowing effect. This is because I won't be able to catch that sound during filming. Various other sounds such as girl screaming, slashing of bodies and blood splattering on the walls.

First Draft (Things not going to plan)

This is my first rough edit of my Thriller piece. The main shots, characters and props didn't go to plan as problems arise from every angle on the day of recording.

The first problem came from the casting as both the original female and the back role couldn't make it on the day. This presented a huge problem for me as the female was one of the main roles during this opening scene. How I overcame this was by having Philip Creasey play the females roles arm. The female was originally intended to lay dead on the mattress with blood and wounded all over her, instead I placed Phil in a wardrobe with blood on his hand acting as though he has been murdered and the murderer was hiding the body.

Problem number two came from the make-up designer Catherine Entwisle as she didn't bring the fake blood which was needed to be spread across the walls and on clothes and body parts. Since she didn't bring the fake blood I had to improvise by using tomato sauce and spreading it across the floor instead of the walls. Not only did she forget the fake blood, she also had to leave rather early leaving some make-up undone which then had to be corrected by both Bobby Gosling and Phil.

Since these problems came one after another I had to change a few shots in the scene completely having to completely re-do my story board.

In the end I wished it could have gone better but I am rather pleased with the results.

Casting

I have asked around college and people I know outside of college to play the roles in my thriller. I also have backups if people can't make it on the day or feeling unwell.

Male: Daniel Thorpe (Me)
Backup: Phil Creasey

Female: Jessica Gaunt
Backup: Addie Hart

Male's Work Friend: Bobby Gosling
Backup: Daniel Lettington 

The reasons I have picked each one of these actors to play the part of the roles as they fit the roles perfectly with looks and personality.  

Planning the thriller - Costume

I started to begin planning my thriller task by first starting to think about the characters that will be involved including the name, characteristics/personality. As I said in the research task, the main character is heavily influenced by Patrick Bateman and Hannibal Lecter. These two are extremely interesting character in their films which they can easily be combined together to form the male character in my thriller.

The background story behind the main character isn't final yet. The main character role will be between either a businessmen for a company who is possessed by an entity that only appears when the entity is hungry and will only feast on females to while the story will go on about his day to day life dealing with this possession. The other role is of a college student taking full advantage of the entity and using this as a gift taking lives of females  but will tell the audience the story on how he came across the entity with a narrative over the story in particular parts. The final decision will be made on the Feb 15th.

For costume design for the male role, it would be more appropriate for the male to be dressed smart as this presents a twist to the thriller as he may seem innocent but is actually a psycho. American psycho also pulls this off with Patrick Bateman. This costume will be for the first idea I had for my thriller with the male character being a businessman.

The image to the left could possible suit the male role in my thriller with the sleeves rolled up and blood splattered all over.



For the other possible role for the male character, after watching The Amazing Spiderman and many other high school American films, Peter Parkers costumes design seems to pop up now and again with a basic tee, hoodie and a dull green jacket on top. This would suit the male role well as it makes him look like he's disguising something such as in Spiderman, he's hiding his superhero counterpart. It also gives the character the "unexpected" look as the audience would have never guessed the male role to be the killer by the clothes he wears.

The image to the right is from The Amazing Spiderman, the character being Peter Parkers. This is a perfect image for what my male role could wear for my thriller.

Thriller Storyboard

For the storyboard I had planned and drew a previous draft version to get a basic idea on what camera angles I would be using in my thriller piece. After drawing up the draft version I then started to draw the final version of my Thriller storyboard. I did not stick to the storyboard when I was filming my piece as a key character wasn't present to be filmed so I had to change the whole idea during that day but I did still manage to keep a few shots which are shown in the final piece.

1. This shot is a black screen which will then fade into the white wallpaper showing the contrast within the colors I have chosen. During the first few opening credits will appear before fading in to the white wallpaper.

 2. This shot will be more of the opening credit while the camera then strafes across the wallpaper. This then shows the coming storm which will then appear within the next shot. The reason which inspired me to use this shot is the music I had originally chosen for the opening scene. 'Prelude' by Chopin is a piece the was written that was meant to represent the storm which was to originally start calm as every storm does, then started getting deeper and lower in tone as it represents the storm building up.

 3. Relating back to the previous shot, the soundtrack starts to build up as plus is reveled in this shot. Using the soundtrack I utilised that darkness of the storm creating serious tension within the audience.

 3. The shot then cuts to a pan of the floor which would be smothered in blood with blooded hand prints.

 4. The shot then flashes to a black and white pan of the floor but with no blood to be seen. This leads the audience to believe that this is a flash back of the floor before the blood was spilled.

 5. The shot then cuts back into color and will then zoom out of a medium shot of the door, revealing more and more of the chaos that had taken place in the house. During this the music has risen and is at its peak of the storm.

 6. Like before, this shot is of a flash back of the shot that had just taken place but will now zoom back in at the door instead of it zooming out.

 7. This shot is of the stair's handle frame. This shot shows the blood on the banister in the shape of a hand print which builds more and more tension in the piece.

 8. A shadowy figure then walks past with extreme speed. At this point the camera then cuts to the next shot.

9. After the shadowy figure has gone by the last shot. This shot is an extreme close up of the gaps in the banister with blood droplet falling down the shot. 

10. The next shot then cuts into a strafe of the bedroom floor revealing clothes scattered around the bedroom floor. This could suggest struggle between two characters and leaves the audience questioning the shot as to why are clothes around the floor.

11. The shot then cuts to a black and white shot with a faded face to the right of the shot with their eyes closed. A female the appears in the shot in the open door way with nothing but a shirt on. The camera then focuses on the faded face in the foreground to reveal that it's a male which then opens his eyes to reveal the red possession in the male.

12. The shot then cuts straight to a black screen with the music rising so loud then cuts off as the black screen appears.

13. The shot then fade back into a quick shot of what appears to be the bedroom door, then quickly fades back into black. During this point no music is playing.

14. Like the last shot, it quickly shows the bedroom door but this time the door then opens a little as though it welcomes the audience inside the room.

 15. This shot is of the camera moving into the room as though it will be from the eyes of the audience. The shot then reveals a body on the bed with blood everywhere showing that the body on the bed has been murdered by someone or something.

 16. This is a medium shot of the dead body lying on the bed with her eyes still and not breathing. The female is covered in blood implying that she had been murdered.

 17. This shot is of an extreme close up of a wound on the female's body showing the position of the wound on the lower half of the rib cage. The camera then focuses on what appears to be the male role that was showed a few shots ago with his back to the camera.

 18. The camera then cuts to a black screen creating more and more tension in the scene.

 19. We then have a pan of the male roles body moving the body revealing more and more of his costume showing blood everywhere. In the next few scene the audience will be able to hear somewhat if a crunching sound of meat being chewed upon.

 20. The camera then fades into a black screen for 1 second and then fades back into the next shot.

 21. The camera then reveals the males face. The audience is shown that the male is eating what appears to be flesh from the female. We then see that the male has deep dark red eyes implying that he is not human but a daemon of sort. The male then looks into the camera then smiles. The shot is then cut straight into a black screen.

22. The final shot is a black screen with the title fading into the shot. The title of the movie is then revealed as "The Devil's Night". This then reveals to the audience that the male role is somewhat of a daemon for sure.

Hannibal Rising

Within the opening scene there is only one title sequence that appears in the scene is the title of the film. This is rather unique as most films even if they're not thrillers they will usually have an opening credit but Hannibal Rising doesn't. Although this is very unique and different I won't use that technique as I will need the opening credits in my scene.

The opening scene starts with a black screen and a soft female singing held notes which could represent peace and harmony, then fade into a shot of a mid-shot of a spider web. This could contrast with the soft harmony voice as spiders are seen as scary and horrible. The shot then fades straight into the next shot which is of trees in a forest area. Already the audience is getting to know the location and area of where the scene is being shot which is of a forest. The shot also shows the sun rays coming from the sky and shining through the gaps within the tree which is a very generic shot to open with in films. We then get the same type of shot where the sun's rays are shining through the gaps within the trees but this time it will be a close up of a tree which starts outside the shot, then the camera pans to the right bringing the sun's rays and tree into the shot. We also get another generic shot of petals flowing through a stream with the camera only focusing on the petals and leaving objects out of focus in the foreground. Again the camera fades into the next shot, this time the shot is a long shot of a possible wild pig ruffling around which then again fade in the next shot. The next shot seems to be a repeat of the same type of the sun's rays shining through the trees but this time in a different location except this time however, the title appears fading in. The text style seems to be thick, bold lettering, all in capitals colored gold. The title also appears to be moving closer to the camera while the background shot changed back to a close up of the lake.

Now the opening scene starts with an extreme long shot of a castle in the background with the lake and forest in front. The camera then pans to the left focusing on two children. From this shot we get to see what clothes the children are wearing and guess what time period the film is taken place. The camera takes various shots of the two children to what appears to be them drawing in the dirt.

From analysing 1:30 in the movie, I can already tell that the film is set during the Victorian times by the dress wear and that the film will mainly focus around these two characters. 

American Psycho Research

American Psycho Title Sequence/ Opening Credits

1. Lions gate Films presents

2. An Edwards R. pressman Production

3. In association with Muse Productions and Christian Halsey Solomon

4. A Mary Harron Film

5. American Psycho 

6. Christian Bale

7. Willem Dafoe

8. Jared Leto

9/ Josh Lucas

10. Samantha Mathis 

11/ Matt Ross

12. Bill Sage  

13. Chloe Sevigny

14. Cara Seymour 

15. Justin Theroux

16. Guinevere Turner

17. Reese Witherspoon

18. Casting by Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith and Keerry Barden

19.Costume Designer Isis Mussenden

20. Production designer Gideon Ponte
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21. Music Supervisor Barry Cole and Christopher Covert

22.Music by John Cale

23.Editor Andrew Marcus

24.Director of photography Andrzej Sekula

25.Co – Producers Ernie Barbarash, Clifford Streit, Rob Weiss

26.Executive Producers Michael Paseornek, Jeff Sackman,  Joseph drake 

27.Produced by Edward R. Pressman, Chris Hanley, Christian Halsey Solomon

28.Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis

29.Screenplay by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner

30.Directed by Mary Harron

In the opening sequence we have a variety of close up shots of what appears to be blood right from the start, but as the opening scene progresses we see that it is only red sauce for food which automatically makes the audience presume the setting for the opening scene is in a restaurant. When we see the red sauce it makes the audience think that it is blood by the thickness and the tone of the red. Also, with the camera being on an extreme close up, we see the sauce is being pours as droplets, which we usually relate to a wound dripping with blood, which each of the droplets are falling in slow motion but only by an estimate 25%. By doing so, we get to see a closer detail and be able to make out what is falling which fools the audience to thinking it’s blood.  Along with the droplets of blood, we hear a stringed instrument playing one sharp, short note each time a droplet falls. While the blood falls, we get the selection of the opening credits, also after the 4^th opening credits, the title of the movie appears (American Psycho).

 The title fades into the shot after the second droplet falls and hits the white background, which is also slowed to see the effects of the blood splatter across the background.  The title is aimed exactly in the middle of the shot, leaving two white boarders to the right and left of the shot. At this point the music is playing normally without it being in sync with the droplets. The next shot we the “blood” like substance being poured straight down with opening credits which then jumps to the next shot which now the audience knows the substance isn't blood but a red sauce. They know this by how the blood is being squirted in a “squiggly” line, implying that it is being squirted on a plate for food. This also creates a foreshadow as later in the film, the main character (Patrick Bateman) bites the victim which implies that he is a cannibal. This is done by making the audience see the sauce as blood which to Patrick is food.

 The next shot is of a knife coming in from out the shot at the bottom, and moving in and out the shot and it moves up. This could imply the knife being the main murder weapon, also during this shot we see the actor name “Christian Bale” which is the main character and murder in the movie. This implies the character that is played by Christian Bale is the murder as the knife is shown in this shot while could foreshadow him using the knife to kill someone. The shot then fades out and into a meal of meat which is then cut with one slice of the knife and then fades out into the next shot, then quickly fades out and into the next shot which then the opening credit “Willem Dafoe” is the faded in while strawberries fall onto the plate which is then shown in the next shot. We now see that the opening credit scene for the movie is places in a restaurant and someone preparing the meal for a customer. We then see the plate ready to be served and is taken away to which “Jared Leto” is open for the opening credits. The music then changes from the mysterious sounding string instruments to a restaurant sounding song which is more suitable for the scene as the next show is of the food being placed onto a table to which then the camera then pans around the table and jumps to different tables. We now get a shot of the menu for the restaurant to which pans up to a couple having lunch. As we see, the couple are dressed reasonable smart and “well-dressed” for a meal meaning that the restaurant seems to be highly rated. The camera then pans around tables again looking at the different food and meals which are being served. As we can see, the meals seem to be small but well-presented which also indicates that the restaurant is high end range. We then start to hear a waiter speaking to the customers in a well-spoken accent, and with the names being read out, we hear that the food in the restaurant seems to be top class food. We then get another pan but of the whole room and restaurant which we can see the types of people who come to the restaurant. By doing so we see that the majority of the people who go there seems to be upper class by the way they are dresses. Males dressed in suits while females dress in “fancy” dresses.
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We then cut to a shot of a group of males sat round a table, which appear to be moaning about how much they hate this restaurant. This gives the audience the impression that these males seem to be “stuck up” that they seem they can do better. As the conversation progresses we see one male coming back from the scene which he then says “they don’t have a good bathroom to do coke in” implying that these seem to be drug dealer but by the way they are dressed we know that they’re not. At this point we see the males to be stuck up business partners as they seem to be talking and “bitching” about other employees. Continuing on from the cocaine part, we get the impression that these males are well paid enough to actually buy and take cocaine as they don’t need to take place in a criminal act to get the drugs from what we see in the opening scene. We then got more back to back shots of dialogue then cuts to the next scene.  

There are not many scene and shots that create tension in this opening clip, although through-out the first minute, the opening scene tricks the audience to thinking that the red sauce is blood which makes the audience believe that someone has murdered someone. Also with the knife coming into the scene, this builds tension as we presume the knife has been used to murder someone.

Throughout the scene, they keep the same font and font colouring. The font which they have used all seems to be in capitals and blunt, making the opening credits stand out more.  All the lettering appears to be in a capitals apart from “by” which seems to be a different font. The font used seems to be “fancy” looking which stand out if it was the same size as the other font but it appears to be smaller to blend in with the rest of the fonts around it. The sizes of the fonts are the same throughout the whole scene and don’t change unless something needs to be shown in the film. The colour does change to a white if it seems to collide with the background. The title seems to be using the same font as the rest of the opening credits but much larger and “Psycho” appears bold. 

The video above is the opening scene to American Psycho. By analysing this opening clip i will have a general idea on how to open a psycho thriller as this is one of the best psycho thrillers ever created which has a massive influence on thriller task.