Group Planning

Group Planning

Firstly, my group is made up of three members; myself, Jemimah and Rishika. Within our lesson time we have partaken in many discussions and meetings, based around the planning and production of our thriller film. These meetings are crucial in terms of exploring each members ideas and discussing the strengths and weaknesses, until we come to a unanimous decision. The process of analytically reviewing each element of the film with my group members allowed me to explore many thoughts and ideas I had not considered initially. 

The first of our group meetings took place on the 17th October and the main topic of discussion was, creating a narrative for our future thriller film. Within the group we presented individually, our narrative and looked at each one, picking out the positive and more negative responses the narrative provides. Although we could have used our first meeting to create a narrative as a group, not focusing on our individual ideas, this would not be as effective as our approach. By coming to our meeting, with an idea of our own, this meant that each group member displayed an even amount of participation, towards the initial stages of creating our thriller sequence, not simply rewording an idea someone in the group has thought long and hard about. Once we had out weighed each pro and con of each idea we concluded that we would follow Jemimah's narrative. Our reason behind this decision was that it followed a variety of highly conventionally features of a thriller film and therefore made it very easy to work with, as we could easily apply the different elements, such as cinematography, lighting, sound etc, to other famous thriller films. In turn, this would provide us with a vast quantity of inspiration, we could then later apply to our film. 

mise-en-scene planning 

The next topic of discussion was, mise-en-scene. As displayed in the image on the left, on the 4th November, we created a visual resource, an elaboration of each element within mise-en-scene, in regards to our narrative specifically. I found it extremely helpful to present our ideas in a clear and divided manner such as this. It allowed me to not become over whelmed by the vast quality of sections associated with mise-en-scene, as I could clearly view them and easily remember them. Whilst discussing each element of mise-en-scene we discovered that in our first meeting we had spent our time focusing on the basic narrative and not considered the smaller details, that the narrative encapsulates. In particular, we had found that we had not considered costumes as of yet; we used this meeting to discuss all of our characters and what they would be featured wearing, in regards to their situation in the scene. 

Cinematography Planning

Friday 7th November was our third group meeting, and the subject matter of choice was cinematography . Within this meeting we discussed a vast amount of camera angles, distinguishing their individual effects on an audience, and then applying the most appropriate camera shots to our narrative. We decided upon six definite camera angle ans shots, displayed to in the images to the right. The reason we chose these six in particular was because they would not only provided a basic view of the setting and characters during the scenes, but also build tension within our target audience. The camera shot we unanimously agreed to be featured in our thriller was both, a point of view shot and a close up. These camera shots both share the ability to place the audience directly in the action and provide a somewhat uncomfortable amount of detail. As well as this, both shots can be applied to a variety of famous thriller films, because they are highly conventional of the genre. This in turn means we extend our knowledge and create a thriller film we can be proud of through the use of inspiration from other successful films.

Sound Planning

The subject of sound was introduced into our group meeting. Firstly, we outlined all the sound techniques we could think of and then narrowed it down to a total of four different types of sound to include, within our thriller. The image on the left presents the detailed insight into each type of sound and specifically what frame it is featured in. We made sure as group we were as detailed as possible because this meant that we would already have a basic plan when it came to filming. Thus meaning that the filming process would run, without many difficulties, as we were all clear on what we are including. For example, before we began discussing sound I was sure how an off screen sound could be included successfully. Through talking with my group members we agreed that it would be effective if the off screen sound would be, the scream of the first female victim. By adding the scream off screen it makes it easier for us when filming our thriller, as we will not have to include how the victim is killed. This allows the audience to create their own assumptions about the characters death, allowing them to participate in the scene, as they decide the story behind her death. As well as this, the use of an off screen sound helps to emphasize the prevalent theme of hidden identity and ambiguity. 

Editing Planning

Our next group meeting, 10th November was directly focused upon the editing process of our thriller film. In order to present a simplistic A4 representation of the editing styles, we were going to feature in our film, we decided to narrow it down to four editing styles, as seen in the image to the right. I feel the main objective we held onto, whilst exploring editing, was the slow pace of most scenes. This reduced tempo aids the tension created and makes a break in the tempo, extremely sudden and shocking. I personally find that editing is there area in which I am the least experienced or knowledgeable in. Talking within my group has helped bring lots of new ideas I had not originally though about and made me feel more confident about editing. The planning sheet displayed above can be used as a basic plan, when editing. In addition, we referred back to our individual editing posts/ research and used our examples of inspiration to help us figure out what editing styles would be the most convention and effective. We came to an immediate decision that a reaction shot is one of the most important angles in a thriller film. This lets the audience immerse themselves in the usually severely horrified state the characters are frozen in. 

Character Planning

The 12th November was a meeting based upon the characterisation of each of the characters featured in our thriller film. Previously, I had over looked the importance of analysing the characters in detail. Once discussing it within my group I realised there was many elements of their backstories I had not yet considered. For example, the age of the female characters, although it seemed obvious I had not given it a though until this meeting. Within our discussion we used our knowledge of the mise-en-scene presented in our thriller film, to apply this to the characters costume, i.e the low key lighting makes the image on screen not a clear, id the female characters are presented in clear bright colours, this would create a good contrast and allow the audience to easily depict them, in our night time setting. We then moved on from the female characters and onto our antagonist. Though extensive research into thriller films we had noticed one prevalent feature of most of these thriller films, the antagonist often is featured with their face hidden. With this in mind we used this typical convention and applied it to our antagonist. We agreed that this sustained theme of hidden identity would be highly effective, in order to create suspense and tension, as they desperately urge the antagonist to reveal their identity.

Once we had finalised our characterisation of all of the people featured in our thriller film, we went off and individually created our own storyboard, making sure to include all that we had planned to include so far. I feel it was crucial we branch off from the security of our group members and elaborate on our own ideas, helping us to see visually the different individual perceptions of our thriller film. When we had finished our individual responses to a story board we re-joined as a group and discussed each one in detail , picking out the most successful elements, that we would later include in our final group storyboard. Through this discussion we discovered that we had all different approaches to the first frames of our thriller film. Eventually we agreed that my opening few frames we the most effective. My opening frames presented an empty swing set becoming suddenly filled, with the young image of the antagonist we had agreed upon, sadly swinging to and fro.
Editing was our next topic of discussion, in particular our opening credits. Individually we went off and created our own opening credits. Once we had completed them we came back together as a group and, much like the individual storyboards, we chose the best one of our groups ideas. Personally I felt this was very important, as I am very inexperienced in editing, especially final pro x. I soon found that my group members had used a variety of techniques I was not aware of. Eventually we agreed that we would use Rishika's opening credits, as they were highly conventional and followed the low key theme (black and white). Our research and exploration of the opening credits of se7en aided the production of our opening credits. Predominantly we used the prevalent jagged angles and flickering displayed in the famous opening credits.


In conclusion, I believe the entire process of group planning helped me explore my knowledge of a variety of element evolved around the production of our thriller film. In particular I found it helpful to individually explore final cut pro x, whilst creating our opening thriller sequence, and then discuss all of my concerns and questions with the program with my group members. In addition the planning process helped us to make sure we had not missed any minor elements and make our thriller film as conventional and age appropriate as possible.