PRODUCTION REFLECTION GRID
Pre-Production Production Post-Production
My research into thriller codes and In research, I located a wide variety of In a survey completed, (
Research conventions (
http://jbchandler1.blogspot.com/2010/01/thr
iller-codes-conventions.html
thrillers; include both conventional and
unconventional thrillers. A key example of
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QXKZ9P5
) , 40% of our audience preferred action
an unconventional thriller being ‘One-Hour
and Planning
thrillers. Therefore, in post production we
) increased my knowledge of the genre and Photo’; which uses full-key lighting for the decided to include quick cuts i.e when D.I
what effect they have on the audience. majority. I initially believed that full-key Sharma reaches into his pocket, in order to
From this knowledge, I understood how lighting would decrease the thriller’s impact add an ‘action’ element to our thriller. This
and why to use them in my opening and to as it was unconventional. However, it allowed our thriller to appeal to the audience
what effect. seemed to catch me unaware as I was not more as we introduced elements they clearly
expect curtain jumpy moments to happen enjoy.
during full-key lighting, such as this scene
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=EHUTjlhF6QQ&feature=player_embedd
ed ) Therefore, through researching a wide
variety of thrillers it allowed me understand
the boundaries of the genre, and clearly
effected my production as I too used full-
key lighting.
My creativity effected my pre-production When beginning production I used our shot The music in my opening was entirely self
Creativity mainly in the treatment. From early
research, I decided to embrace my
list (
http://jbchandler1.blogspot.com/2010/02/sh
ot-list.html
created and was created after much
experimenting, With no previous experience
creativity ( creating music, I used my creativity to
http://jbchandler1.blogspot.com/2010/01/ga ) as an outline. However, rather than created distorted, jarring sounds. This sounds
rdener.html sticking strictly to the shot list, I added hugely to the thriller, sticking to
) This is clear from the complex narrative experimented with other shots and found convention by scaring the audience, for
created in my thriller. The constant twist that they worked better than my previously example the rapid, harsh sounds as the end
and red herrings in the thriller stick to chosen shots. I think without this title appears. Therefore without the initial
conventions of a thriller and appeal to the experimentation that opening would not experimentation, the music may not have
audience as they add excitement to the have been as successful. Therefore, I have been so successful; decreasing the overall
opening. discovered that although the planning is ‘thrill’ of the piece.
extremely important, practical
experimentations can be just as important.
My easy access to the databases that In terms of production; the efficiency of the YouTube allowed our audience to watch a
Digital allowed me to view other thrillers e.g imdb
helped me hugely. Being able to locate a
graphics was mainly due to our ability to
use Macromedia's Flash and Fireworks.
rough copy of the opening, and give feedback
direct to us so that we could improve the
certain thrillers distribution company and The specific and complex detail on the production before the final deadline. After the
Technology locations gave me a greater understanding
of the market and allowed me to create an
programs enabled me to create graphics
that extended the narrative and were
editing deadline as placed the thriller on
YouTube. We initially thought that the piece
accurate target audience for my thriller. As relevant to the thriller genre. For example, did not need music to it; however, following
specific example was the British thriller the end title of ‘Evidence’ was the title feedback on YouTube we added the leit-motif
‘Shaun Of The Dead’. Although contrasting fading onto paper that contained the same and other distorted sounds with, in the end,
in style, the profile of the film allowed me to sentence repeated continuously. This added hugely to the thriller; creating an extra
understand what would be needed in my offered a lot of clues i.e the obsessive ‘thrill’ effect and still to convention.
thriller to attract a large audience, this was nature of the killer to the audience.
the key reason for the complex narrative
(full of twists, clues and red herring) that
would allow the film to be distributed
internationally.
PRODUCTION REFLECTION GRID ONE PARAGRAPH PER BOX, WITH DETAILED
EXAMPLES
Pre-Production Production Post-Production
When building the profile of my killer I In our thriller, most shots are close The flashbacks that were added during
Similar Texts faced the problem of concealing the
murder. Although having considered
ups/mid-shots i.e the first mid shot
is 30 seconds into the opening.
post production were mainly due to
influence from ‘Se7en’
using multiple motivated cuts, the (http://www.youtube.com/watch?
This provided the audience with a
came across the film Zodiac ( v=0xG5hSOMGn0&feature=player_emb
restricted view of the danger/action
http://jbchandler1.blogspot.com/2010/ edded). The thrillers similar
02/concealing-killer.html – supporting a convention of psychological sub-genre meant that this
) which gave me the idea for my killers thrillers as we discovered from technique would also work in my thriller.
attire. This concealing of the killer in watching numerous thrillers. A The flashback is a more conventional
such a way added mystery to his specific example being ‘What Lies way of recalling the past. Rather than a
identity as it gives the audience no Beneath’; and this key scene – character merely dictating a past event,
clues as to his identity, conventional the visual representation of the event
for the thriller genre. Also, the mask http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
makes the scene visually entertaining as
and overall look is a very spooky =94lCDk2uOHU well as setting up the importance of the
image which would strike fear into the character as the audience can see their
audience. Without the influence of thoughts.
Zodiac, the killer’s attire may not have
been so successful.
In pre-production we planned to use a During production we filmed many stops on There was many of decisions made in
Post variety of long takes, some lasting over 10
seconds
the washroom of the killer from a low
angle. Although these shots did connote
post production, the first of these being
with music. The use of the sound to
(http://jbchandler1.blogspot.com/2010/02/s the power of the killer, when in post
Production hot-list.html) However, in post-production
we realised that such takes were too
production we decided that it would be
better if there were multiple motivated
signify the killer was initially thought to
be too repetitive. It was firstly placed
were the killer could be seen and
unconventional for the thriller genre and cuts, adding pace and not showing that the
became quite boring, resulting in the killer is the same to the killer shown in the when/where the killer was going to
audience losing interest which is a big error flashbacks. This added mystery stuck appear. However, we then removed it
for the opening. more to convention as a distance is from some parts of the thriller i.e the
created between the audience and the door shutting, and found that it was less
killer; clearly presenting him as our repetitive and worked very nicely.
antagonist.
What’s more, we initially planned to dim
the lighting slightly in the scenes,
however in post production we
discovered that the mise-en-scene from
the shots taken was unconventional but
still worked nicely as it is not the typical
thriller scene.
