Thriller Opening: Filming Day 3

The aim of today's shooting schedule was to film all the indoor shots needed for our piece. We filmed our shots in the interior of my house, and used my sisters room to film in, due to it being more appropriate for the story line. We also used the satanic symbols, drawn by a friend, in the room to hint at the idea of the ''thing'' under the bed being more than just a coincidence. 

We managed to film all the shots we intended to and stuck to the shots on the shooting schedule. We were also able to experiment with the mirror and how we could create different meanings with use of the mirror from different angles. We were also able to experiment with shots from within the wardrobe and the room altogether before the character had even entered, which gave our thriller opening more depth due to the fact that we had tried this alternative shots, rather than the average midshot.

We didn't problems with filming, apart from the fact that Jake couldn't make it, as we had planned carefully how we would work around things. The only challenging aspect was trying to ensure the cat did not ruin shots by making noises whilst we were filming, which occasionally proved difficult due to the fact that Oliver was new to him and he was intrigued. Overall, filming went very smoothly and we filmed the correct amount of shots to finish our film as well as some surplus shots to experiment with.

Thriller Opening: Filming Day 2

The location of filming today was the street that I live on as we needed to continue to film the journey home of the female character, and it made more sense to do this in this location (as we will be filming inside my house) than use a different location and try to fit the exterior of my house into the context of that location.

We decided to keep this part of filming short and snappy, but with a lot of extra shots as both Jake and Oliver lived in different areas and would need to find alternative ways of getting home. 

We started off by filming our female character walking up the street, filming at roughly the same time for continuity in the darkness if the scene, and walking to the house. We shot many different angles and ways of creating this journey so we would have many different options when it came to sequencing our film and putting together our final piece. 

We also got shots of the character opening the door and going inside as we thought this would complete the journey, rather than filming it when we filmed the inside shots, as it would be better for continuity and made more sense with the flow of what we had filmed already. 

Much of the filming done today was central to getting the last part of the journey done before continuing to film the indoor shots.

Thriller Opening: Filming Day 1

We planned to film our thriller at roughly 5.30pm and film until we felt the lighting was not longer appropriate for the scene or until it was too dark to create any affect.

Unfortunately, Jake could not make this day of filming due to other commitments, so Oliver and I headed into the town centre to film part one of our outdoor shots. We took the basic equipment we needed (DSLR Nikon Camea, LED Light attachment for DSLR, standard tripod) to the location we had decided best to create the best feel and tension for the storyline.

We decided to film down by our local theatre as it had quite a sinister feel, and led to a bridge which we felt we could get some good shots on to coincide with our idea of harnessing peoples fears. These shots would be used for the first 45seconds (approx.) of our film and will follow the journey home of our character (a 17 year old girl).

We managed to film all our outdoor shots for this part of the journey without any problems, despite having to work around the public and them commuting home. We filmed a lot more shots than we needed for our thriller and shot many of the same shots a few times so that we could choose the best looking one for the final sequence of our thriller. However, our footage looks rather yellow due to the street lights in the area so we will need to alter the colour and saturation of the clips before rendering and exporting the final piece.

Overall, filming went as planned and did not cause any problems for us or the storyline of our film.

Regional Identity

For our thriller opening, we need to consider the way that our regional identity will affect the way the thriller is interpreted by others. Although the regional identity of our piece cannot be changed, we need to make sure it makes sense to the story line and fits in with the mise-en-scene.

Below I studied a few regional identities and how they are represented now, compared with the past.

Thriller Opening: Defining And Reaching Our Audience

For our thriller opening we need to have a specific audience that we want to target and reach out to. As a group we sat down to think about the different groups of people that we felt most suited to the plan of our thriller.

We concluded that we should aim for an audience roughly our age. As a certificate, we believe we would give our thriller an age rating of 15, therefore we can explore mature ideas and thriller conventions without being too explicit or inappropriate. Our thriller target audience is also aimed at the niche audience of late teens, the thriller targets those who take for granted the comfort of their own home, the safety of familiarity by turning everyday fears into a reality. Using the film Mirrors as an initial model to play on the audiences fears we can create a sense of realistic horror, this would be scarier than making a monster-thriller and we can experiment greatly with readily available items such as mirrors, beds and wardrobes.

We decided we would reach our audience by advertising primarily on Netflix and after shows such as ''The Fall'' and ''Sherlock'' by creating a sequence of clips that are aimed to access deep-rooted phobias and horrors of the past. By getting a contract with Google and websites we could use cookies and key words so whenever somebody types in “phobias” or “clowns” somebody expressing their fears, they see an advertisement for Under The Bed, this will fear and interest them. Using demographics we can reach young adults 15 to 20 year olds by advertising based on our common audiences interest. For example 8pm until 11pm on BBC3 and Channel 5 frequently to extensively hit our target audience.

  To advertise we could use a guerrilla marketing scheme where we place people’s obvious fears in public places in an attempt to scare them and advertise our film more. Using word of mouth and viral marketing with video clips and this unique idea buzz would get generated easier.

Technically we could begin with a montage of people’s phobias; spiders and clowns, heights and being buried alive, this will immediately set the tone and register of the film, it’s psychologically teasing and will intrigue a lot of the audience initially. Followed by the quote “an eye for an eye makes the entire world blind” by Gandhi which is the metaphor and theme, notion and morals behind the creation of Under The Bed.