Sorry, the song clip and video clips did not work on the powerpoint, I have uploaded them below to be watched and listened too.




Ghostpocalypse - The Call Song

I presented my film to a large group of 16-17 year olds and asked them to fill out a feedback form.
These were the questions on my sheet:

1. Do you feel the clip was an effective opening to a Thriller film?
If yes, what aspects made it effective?
If no, what made it ineffective

2. Was the soundtrack successful in creating an eerie atmosphere?
Yes
No
Partially

3. Did the soundtrack suit the film?
Yes
No
Partially

Can you say why?

4. Did you understand what was happening within the films at all times, or was it sometimes confusing?

5. Do you think the flashing images at the end were a good addition to the film?
If yes, why?
If no, why?

6. Can you state 2 aspects/additions I could change/make to improve the film as a whole?

I recieved many responses and nearly all of them were very positive.

Some of the most common aspects people enjoyed were:
- The flickering images (they created suspense and an eerie atmosphere)
- The music was very good at building tension
- The soundtrack was subtle and not overused
- The camera angles were very good at creating suspense
- The opening was confusing, but in a way that added to the overall atmosphere, and it leaves you on a cliffhanger.

Overall I think people enjoyed my film as mostly all of the feedback was positive, and I only recieved one or two comments about how I could improve it, so therefore they must have thought that it was successful in being the opening to a thriller film.

When planning my film, I had a brief idea of what style of music I wanted to use within the dream sequence. I wanted to find a piece of royalty free music that was eerie, rhythmic and suspense filled to automatically gain the audiences attention from the start.
After much searching on many royalty free music websites, I came across a series of songs called "Ghostpocalypse". Every single song had its strong points, but the one that suited my original plan and the dream scene was called "The Call". I tested it with my film, and it suited it perfectly.

Next, I found that the sound I recorded from the camera had a constant fuzz noise that I wanted to remove. I achieved this with "Audacity" (Read the "Editing" section for how I did this).

I also wanted a drone for later in the film when the boy originally witnesses the back door opening, and then hearing the knock at the front door. I found some drones on www.sounddogs.com and used these within my scene. I also found a noise that raised up to build tension. I used this noise at the end of the dream scene and at the very end when the pictures are flashing.

I decided to film in the areas I chose before I made the storyboard of my film. I visited the field/road I would use for the "Dream" scene at the beginning and planned the shots there. I decided to use this area because it is usually very quiet, the trees/bushes had lost most of their leaves, and you could see far into the distance. All these aspects added to the eerieness and mysteriousness of the opening scene.

I decided my house was a suitable setting for what I had planned for the next part of the opening. I also used it for ease of access and that I could film when I was ready. I practised some of the shots before I filmed them so that when it came to film, I was able to get straight on to filming. I also planned to film at night.

This is where my next problem arised. I was originally going to use my friend in my film, however, when it came to the day of filming, he was unable to help me. So instead, I used myself in my film and asked my sister to assist me with the filming. I chose to do this because I wanted to keep to my schedule, and I was unaware of any other days I was free to film.
I decided to use a boy in the opening sequence because I wanted to gain more of an audience reaction by going against the traditional use of females as victims.

Most production companies produce a wide range of genres.

Universal Studios -

Universal are one of the largest media corporations in the world. There main film area is called Universal Pictures.

It was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle

It is the second oldest Hollywood production company (The oldest is Paramount Pictures by a month)

Universal's main studios are based in California

Examples of thrillers produced by Universal:

• The Strangers
• Psycho (although originally distributed by Paramount)
• Jaws
• Jurassic Park
• Twister
• Inglourious Basterds

20th Century Fox -

The company was founded in 1935

It is now one of the six largest production companies in the world

It is located in Los Angeles in California

It has created some of the Largest franchises in film such as:

• Star Wars
• Alien
• Predator
• Ice age

Some of their most thrillers include:

• The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Aliens
• Predator
• Independence Day
• Fight Club
• Hide and Seek
• Taken

Miramax Films -

An art-house/independant film company

Founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 1979

In 1993, Miramax was acquired by the Walt Disney Company

Some of Miramax's most famous thriller films include:

• Reservoir Dogs
• Pulp Fiction
• Kill Bill
• Hostage
• No Country for Old Men
• There will be Blood

For my title, I used quite a simple font. I decided to use a simple font such as this because a big complicated font would ruin the atmosphere, or detract from the message of the film. It also seems more sinister and menacing.
I also used the same effects that I used for the credits before it to keep the flow and style of the film.

• The first decision I made when editing was to use Adobe Premiere CS3 instead of iMovie. This was because I was a lot more familiar with Premiere as i have used it several times before when working on other films in my own time.
  
• I decided to make the dream scene at the beginning of the film black and white because it is then easy to determine that what is happening isn't normal. It then makes it clear when the boy wakes up in bed that the man in the car was in his dream.
  
• I raised the contrast on the dream scene to make the image darker. This makes it seem more mysterious and sinister. Here is an example of this.

Original -

After Raising Contrast -

• I found a piece of royalty free music called "Ghostpocalypse - The Call" in the dream scene of my film. This is because it is very suspenseful and dramatic. It has a solo piano part that sadly drifts over the lone drone of the bass underneath that creates a very eerie feel. It also features a drum part that keeps coming in after certain periods of time. I thought this was effective as it will make the audience feel uneasy as they will be listening and waiting for the next drum to come in.
  
• I decided to have the camera shot and images change in time with the hitting of the drums. This is effective as it gives the feel of a more professional scene as i have carefully chosen the music, and used it to craft the imagery.
  
• I decided to have a bright light reduce into each one of my titles to give the film a professional feel once again. It looks a lot more interesting so therefore keeps the audiences attention on the film.
  
• For the end of the dream scene, I decided that I wanted the tension to rise so that the audience expects something to happen. I achieved this by getting a rising sound off of a royalty free website called "Sound Dogs". I had the rising sound get louder, and the screen get brighter and brighter until suddenly the screen turns to black. This was effective because the sudden change from and almost completely white screen to a completely black screen is very startling and enagages the viewer instantly. This automatically allows the audience to acknowledge that this will be a suspenseful film, and it also prepares them for the next scene.
  
• For the next scene, I needed to use sounds I had recorded with the camera when filming. However, the sound from the camera had a constant white noise throughout. So I attempted to get rid of this. I used "Audacity" and used the "Noise removal" tool to remove the noise as best as I could. The white noise had been removed, but instead was replaced by a very low "digital" sounding noise. However, it is almost too quiet to be noticed unless listened to very closely.
  
• When the back door opens in the next scene, I added a drone that was quite high pitched to show that this isn't normal, and to start building suspense. However I did not make it a loud, low drone to show that this is not the final tension building section. When he hears the knock at the front door I added a low drone to the high one to create the full suspense and build up to the climax. I used the same rise that I used near the beginning of the film at the end of the scene to raise the tension at the end to build up the climax.
  
• The main thing people will notice about the build up to the end is the use of quick flashing images. I used stock images (royalty free), and I found disturbing pictures to use that would unsettle the viewer make them feel uneasy. The audience would almost take the images in subliminaly because they are quiet quick. I also made the images pop up faster and faster until it was just a stream of pictures, one after the other. These are some of the pictures I used:
  

As you can see, I chose pictures that would pray on the fears of a lot of people (especially within the age group of my target audience). I also changed the pictures and added contrast to them to give them more of a eerie feel. Here is the spider picture with more contrast: