Getting extra footage.

After realising we didn't have enough footage Sophie and I decided to visit the house again to get more footage. On the way to the house we decided what we were going to film and how it fit into the storyline. We decided we'd start with Sophie exiting the room, then her making her way down the stairs, and some footage in the garden.
Once doing many takes on the same shot we felt we had enough footage but decided to possibly come back another day to do some more if needed.

By Natalie Grant

Filming The Party

The party scene first attempt went badly, but we learnt from our mistakes. This time we decided to ring people to make sure they knew to come to our location at 12:20. During this we decided to use a handheld camera for most of it to give the buzz of the party and also during the scene where Natalie is searching for Sophie. We chose to use a handheld camera for the searching scene because it would make it feel more like Natalie is panicking. Then, the take where Sophie was taken down the stairs took many takes because of people laughing and other unplanned incidents.

This scene is the one that looked best because our kidnapped girl is chucked against a wall as Alec dragged her round the corridor. We also hear Sophie screaming and then an added sound effect of Sophie being slapped.

Overall, the party scene went well and with some improvised fighting from Josh and Scott it looked pretty good.

By Ben Marshall

First Day of Filming - House Scene

We all met up in school and made our way to the house in Hutton Mount that we had chosen prior to the filming to shoot as much of the scene as possible. Once we arrived at the house, the girls gave us a quick tour of the house and checked we agreed with the room they thought was most suitable and so we decided to go for the biggest upstairs room.

The first scene we decided to shoot 'clean' Sophie tied to a chair with Alex standing next to her, holding a knife and the book. The first take was good, but we decided to get another one just incase. This take was fairly short, only around 5 seconds long.  This is the scene before she gets killed. We had to be careful when we tied Sophie to the chair to avoid doing it too tight. This was hard as when it was loose it didn't look realistic.

After this, we chose to do the scene after Sophie being killed and this required lots and lots of fake blood. We ran into a problem with one tube of our fake blood very quickly as when we smothered Sophie's hands in it to make the handprints on the wall, we discovered that it wouldn't wash off. We then tried putting fake blood on the dress and saw that it went straight through luckily this was the second bottle of fake blood which didn't stain Sophie at all. A big risk in this part of the film was creating the cut across the neck. We put fake blood across a blunt piece of metal and lightly ran it across her neck to make it look more thin and realistic.

While shooting this scene we had to decide what things to incorporate and what things to leave out and we decided to write 'Succubus' on the wall in blood so that it was visible when Sophie picked up the knife.

After this we decided to film the screams and we did this by putting my hand across the camera so that it was dark and having Natalie and Sophie screaming at different times so that it was indicated that 2 different people had been killed.

Overall, the first day filming went really well and without any major hiccups.

By Ben Marshall

The Abandoned House - Location





This is the setting of the house scene in our thriller. The house is abandoned and most of the windows are kicked in. We thought that this house would be a good setting for a thriller because from the inside the walls look very ‘old’ and ‘burnt’, this is a typical look for a remote desolate house. This relates to mise-en-scene as it doesn’t look like the house has been adjusted for filming purposes. The look that the house hasn’t been tampered with for the filming is helpful as some settings look like people have deliberately changed things around for it. The fact that this house has been un-inhabited for many years helps because the whole house is dusty, dirty and covered in graffiti. When we got inside the house we encountered a few problems, mainly holes in the floor and smashed windows everywhere meaning that glass was a severe hazard. This was made apparent when Alex nearly cut his hand on broken glass after waving out the window at passers-by. Also, the knife was a danger as Ben nearly cut himself on it reaching into the bag for the camera.

By Alex Parker and Ben Marshall



Casting extras.

By Sophie Tinkler and Natalie Grant

Evaluation of a Thiller Opening.

This thriller opening is too random and jumps around too much, there is too many cuts causing the potential audience to get confused. The font used is perfect and so is the music, it suits the thriller genre and so it compliments it quite well. The effects used don't work in the thrillers favour, it got to the point where they actually ruined the emotions being enforced on the audience. The location worked well with what was going on, I didn't feel the costume worked though, he appeared to be running away from something but was dressed like a 'gangster'.
By Natalie Grant.

Party Scene.

Our first try at filming the party scene didn't go well. We knew people would be unreliable but we didn't realise how many people wouldn't turn up. This has made us realise we need a contingency plan. We will be trying the party scene again in a weeks time. Our plan B is simple but not as effective. -  Instead of a party the scene will be the two girls setting up for the party.

By Natalie Grant.

Updated Storyboard

By Sophie Tinkler and Natalie Grant.

Prop hunting.

Sophie and I went to Brentwood High Street to buy and find props for the thriller. First we went into a fancy dress shop on the way up to the Baytree Centre in Brentwood. We found some fake blood in there and we got 10% off because it is for Media Studies. Then when we got into the High Street we went into peacocks.

The first dress is for Sophie, playing the main girl. The dress had to be a plain light colour as we are going to have to cover it in fake blood at some point so we went with white. We also wanted it to be cheap as we didn't want to spend a lot of money of something that was going to get ruined.

The best friends dress just had to be something suitable for a party, we went with this dress as it was cheap and suitable.

 Finding a suitable book was hard as nothing was suitable because it either had an image or writing on the front but in the end we found one in Cancer Research UK.

We went to the Hermit and the Brentwood Theatre, unfortunatly the Hermit wasn't able to let us use the upstairs area for filming and no one at the Brentwood Theatre were able to talk to us at the time so we decided to have a change of plan and spoke to Ms Clark about using the school hall instead and she has allowed us.

 By Natalie Grant.



Required Props for a Thriller

 As a prop for the party scene in the thriller we will get the extras to be 'drinking' but obviously as a safety measure the bottles will be empty or filled with something else. The bottles will be used to make the party more modern and realistic.

 The chair will be used to tie the dead girl to. the chair must be plain and old as it adds to the effect and realism of the scene.

 Blood capsules can be used to show violence in a more realistic way and makes it more believable that the character is hurt. These may be used in a scene in which the killer hits the (not at the time) dead girl.

 This will be used to show the stab wounds and will also be put on the knife used to give it a more realistic feel , and it makes it more intense for the audience to witness.

 This will possibly be used during the 'party' scene. Strobe lights give the affect of things moving quickly in jumps and it could add a panicked feel to the scene as the killer takes his victim.

 The knife will be used as the murder weapon that the killer uses on the dead girl. The knife must be authentic otherwise it could make the soon lose its effect on the audience and makes it non-believable.

 We will hopefully use red contact lenses for when the dead girl becomes possessed with the succubus demon because this will help us show the audience that the character is possessed.

The rope will be used to tie the dead girl to the chair making the scene more believable for the audience.

This will be used to help the audience decide whats happened to the young girl. Although nothing will be actually revealed it will make the audience think further into the events.

By Sophie Tinkler

Location - Haunted house.

We used part of a lesson to go and visit our desired location. The location we want to use for one of the scenes is an abandoned house in Hutton Mount. The house is large and has a variety of rooms to choose from. In the picture above one of the risks is made clear, all the windows have been smashed in, this leaves shattered glass all over the floor inside. Although this is good for a thriller it is also a danger towards us.

This is the only entrance into the building, its around the back of the house. A lot of the other doors leading into the house are boarded up due to the fact that the house is abandoned and nobody has lived there for years.

This was the initial room we wanted to film our thriller in because its the most spacious room in the house. Since visiting the house we have decided differently as the walls are covered in inappropriate graffiti. Along with the graffiti there is also a radiator, the window is boarded up and there is a lot of glass covering the floor. These are all things we wouldn't want in our shots.

This room isn't appropriate as it small and dark. The window is boarded up stopping any fresh air in. The room is too cramped for filming as it would restrict our camera angles and shots available. 

This is the kitchen, which immediately seems unsuitable as we need a spacious room without a cupboard/sink area in it. The room has white walls with fake blood running down them as previous media students have used this house. The room is a mess as many people have been in over the years.

This room is good because it is spacious. A problem would be that there is a house in the background which can be seen through the window. This would defeat the idea of being isolated and in danger.

The burnt and off-coloured walls gives a sense of decay and danger.

This room is a possibility as it is spacious and is not covered in as much graffiti. The off-coloured walls make it more effective as it gives the sense of a decaying, dangerous and isolated feeling which portrays how the girl in the room will be feeling if we choose this room. The only thing distracting the shot would be the chimney in the background of the shot, as this defeats the idea of being isolated.

These two shots are of the same room at two different angles. The graffiti in this room is more appropriate for a thriller. The corner of the room would be perfect to put the chair as it creates an isolated and intimidating feeling. The room is spacious although from these pictures it looks enclosed and isolated.

By Natalie Grant

Initial Storyboard.

This is our initial rough outline of our thriller. We made this storyboard before visiting the location and so now we have visited the location we can make a more detailed storyboard.

By Natalie Grant.

Plot and Overview of Thriller

We got our inspiration for the storyline from the film 'Jennifer’s body'. As research I looked into information on the Succubus demon as that is what ‘the girl’ will become processed by. The succubus is a female demon who feeds on men in their dreams. The succubus draws energy from men to sustain its self and is similar to a vampire.

The first scene in our Thriller is an establishing shot, we decided to use this because this shot instantly creates enigma for the audience and sets the scene for the rest of the Thriller. It is also an action before narrative as it shows the ending shot at the beginning. 

The second scene jump cuts to a party scene the jump cut mixed with the shock of the loud music should hopefully make the audience jump and become edgy.  We will also use dark lighting because it gives it a more thriller effect as people relate the dark to thrillers and something bad happening.

The third scene is a shot of the empty chair in the same room as the beginning with rope and a knife. This shows how it was planned and starts the narrative from the beginning.

The fourth shot is of the girl and her best friend at the party scene - there had to be a shot of them together to show the character relationship. Therefore, the storyline would make more sense and the audience would relate the girl and the best friend to each other - otherwise it would’ve been too random.

The next shot is then a close up (CU) of a phone showing a text message from a mystery person telling the girl to meet them outside; we’ve decided to do this to add tension as the audience doesn’t know who the person sending the text is. It then fades back to the party to show the girl walking outside.

The next shot is of the girl’s best friend trying to push through the crowd to look for the girl this causes tension for the audience, and makes them realise something bad is going to happen. It then fades to black and there will be a scream played over the top.

The next scene then goes back to the room shown at the start and we are going to use a point of view shot (POV) to give the scene more of an intense feel. The man at the beginning then leaves the room and leaves the ‘dead’ girl on the chair; there will be a silent pause so that tension grows for the audience.

The final shot will be of a CU of the girl’s face screaming we have decided to use red contacts to show she is possessed. The cut will also be a jump cut - this will hopefully make the audience jump as it is unexpected.

by Sophie Tinkler