Emailing for enquire about a police cap

Above is where I emailed Deenside Limited to enquire about purchasing a police marks man cap. They came back and said 'Unfortunately we would be unable to sell you this product as it has a police logo on it'. It is a great shame, but we will keep looking for the most realstic.

Casting List

Casting List.

Armed Robbers: 

Jason 

 

Remy Martin

 

Dave Fonska

 

Policeman:

 Phil Ward

 

 Adam Grant

 

Ian Barter

 

 

Above is our casting list for our thriller. I found this very diffcult to find the perfect cast, as it is has to be right and the most realetic experiance characters. For the armed robbers, we have chosen characters which look the part for acting as a armed robbers, and who look like they are rough and ready. For the policeman, they also look like they are rough and ready, and ready to tackle anything. We have chosen all teachers, as they all look older and more realatic, that this would happened day to day. If we have chosen teenagers, they dont look the part for playing either armed robber or policeman. I think we have chosen the right cast for our thriller, to make it as realatic as much as possible. 





Thriller pilot

Focus group - Questions to answer

Focus group - questions to answer: 

What were the key points that the focus group have told you about your pilot?

The key points we have learnt as a group from the focus group was the positive feedback of our pilot. I think most of the focus group would agree that they found the CCTV footage, a strong part of the pilot and how it helped them understand of what the thriller was about. It was very difficult to make the audience establish what the thriller was about, because of the locations we had to use at school, it didn't really make it clear that we were trying to establish it was a bank robbery. 

Did they understand what the film was about?

Overall we got a lot of positive feed back in the terms that they established that it was about a robbery. It was unclear to them however, who the different characters were such as: the policemen outside they thought were robbers looking out to check it was clear to proceed with the robbery.  However, we will be able to make the different characters clear to them when we use costume and props as we will have the correct police uniforms for the different types of policemen and black hoodies and balaclavas for the robbers, to clearly distinguish between them.

Were they thrilled, if so what by, if not, why not?

We had a lot of positive feedback on the CCTV shots as they said that this made the situation clear and created suspense. They also liked the close-up on the policeman’s eyes as this also created anticipation. They did say however, that some shots were too long and resulted in the tension, suspense and sense of isolation being lost. Also they thought that the cast was too young and immature as one of the actors was laughing and this took away from the verisimilitude of the piece.

Were there any aspects of the film that they criticised if so what?

They did not understand Fady (the policeman down the alley way) his body language was awkward and fidgety and his facial expression was also nervous and suspicious as his eyes were looking around resulted in them thinking that he was a robber. This highlighted to us that we will have to rehearse with the cast to make sure that we do not give off the wrong impression. Also they didn’t have a positive feed back on some of our shot lengths. For example they said that some of our shots were too long and resulted in them loosing interest and not being thrilled by the piece.

How are you going to improve the shooting, mise en scene and editing of your thriller to make it more effective?

For the policeman outside the bank we need to determine what shots we can use to establish that they are in similar locations outside the bank to create a realistic and believable atmosphere. We also realised how important our costumes are to help distinguish between characters and create verisimilitude. It was also brought to my attention that the cast is hugely important as if they do not look like their particular character or old enough it is not believable and results in the audience being unable to fall into the world of the thriller. We will also reconsider the shot lengths so that the audience will not lose interest and use them to our advantage to help create the theme of isolation and claustrophobia to create an authentic and accurate atmosphere. We are also going to include another prop: Walky-talkies in the scene of the robbers inside the van. Not only will this create a more realistic atmosphere but it will also give the robbers something to do inside the van and result in this scene not being as awkward and having some meaning to it. 

Audience research interviews

What key points have you learned from the interviews?

I think the major point that I have learnt from interviewing everyone, no matter their age they all commented on the impact of the sound and how that important when they watch a film, not just in the cinema but also at home. Another important point which was spotted was a good plot. I think most people said there has to be a twisted to the story line, as that what makes it exciting to watch. I also learnt that a lot of people do really enjoy thrillers and do look for this genre when choosing a film, most commonly for teenagers, they what these when they are with a group of friends. 

Do different aged audience members go for different films or do they enjoy different aspects of watching films?

I was able to determine that all aged groups agree that sound is an extremely important aspect. However, middle-aged women are more interested in having a good plot with interesting and surprising twists, suspense and an over all really good story. In contrast, for teenage girls it is more about having well known actors and a film that is new and not dated. It was also highlighted from these interviews that teenagers do not decide on a film based on the awards that it has won, they do however, care about the films reviews and will decide on films based on whether or not it had a good review. 

Who do you think the target audience for your thriller sequence will be?

I think the target audience for our thriller would be more for teenagers as from the research, it has been made aware to me that teenagers seem to enjoy thrillers and watch them a lot especially with groups of friends. I think our thriller, as it will have an intense atmosphere and an exciting plot may catch the attention of a 
middle-aged audience, however our main audience will be teenagers as this genre is more appealing to them. I feel that because of the atmosphere within the cinema and the suspense and atmosphere that it provides we will get a range of audiences as from the interviews I was able to conclude that the thriller genre, as well as the action genre, is the genre that people enjoy most to go to the cinema for.

What do you think are the key things you have included in your thriller that will appeal to your target audience?

I think the theme of isolation and suspense is a key element as to why this will appeal to our target audience: teenagers because this will create a tense atmosphere which is what appeals to this age group. I also think that our use of sound will appeal to our target them because when we did our pilots and we didn't use sound - or sound wasn't one of our key elements that we focused on- we found the opening sequence was awkward and didn't create the tension or suspense that we had wished. We now understand how important sound is to establish our theme and how valued it is by audiences in every age group. 

Editing our thriller prelim

On friday's lesson, we download all of our footage from our iphone's on to the mac, on to a programme called iMovie, then we started to edit them to create our first rough version of our thriller. We did this through using our storyboard and then cutting the clips to match what we originally had. There were a few shots which we weren't able to shot and one of those was the CCTV footage in the bank, so we got footage from the bank to fill the gap on the storyboard. 

Through editing our thriller prelim, it showed the strengths and weakness of us filming and were we need to possible change our storyboard. I think the most important point which was spotted was the sound, I think this has to play a massive part in our thriller, as I think that is what will make the thriller. We want some sounds which gives the atmosphere of anticipation of waiting which is of course realistic. 

Rough shooting our prelim thriller.

Today we went and shot a rough version of our thriller opening sequence. We got some actors who had a free period that were able to help us. These will not be the actors in our real sequence as we want to  make our thriller realistic and so are going to use teachers as they are older. Today helped us to think about shot sizes and angles that we want to include within our real opening sequence. From today we established that the van scene is too quiet and awkward and we therefore came to the conclusion that we need to have the robbers doing something such as loading guns or putting on balaclavas.

We also found different locations to shoot the roof shots as we felt the original location on top of the theatre was too unsafe as Tilda (the actress) felt as if she was going to fall off. We therefore looked at a different roof where we could film but you could see mountains in the background and took away the verisimilitude of the piece. Therefore, today we came to the conclusion that we also need to find a location to film the policeman on top of the roof that is safe and realistic.

Above is us a group filming our prelim of our thriller.

Location

When sorting our props, we were also thinking about the locations. It brought to our attention that we had to decide where we are going to shoot our thriller. This was because we were originally thinking as a group that we wanted to shoot our thriller in Cranleigh (a local village.) However to do this we would need to contact the police as we would be using toy guns and because, we want to spray them black to make them more realise, and the police maybe informed by the public. 

The next stage to do this is to contact the police to inform them that we are filming for our media A- level. But we need a written confirmation from the police and have that on set, so if the police did get in contact with us when filming, we could show that we have confirmation from them. 

Above is an image of a bank in Cranleigh, which we could use for filming our thriller. 

Now it has been made aware that we don't actually need to film our whole sequence outside the bank. This is because we only need to film robbers inside a van, police down alley ways and on a roof, all of which we are able to do at school. However, we will need to shoot a wide shot of the bank to insert so that the audience are able to know where the action is taking place and therefore establish the setting for the rest of the film. We are also going to try and get some already existing CCTV footage to include within our thriller.

Props

In today lesson we were sorting out our props list and what we need to buy and what the departments in school may have. We went to our theatre department and asked if they have any of the props that we need and could we use them instead of buying them. This was great as we could identify were we need to get props. 

We would use the bottom, orange one as this is more realistic. However, we would spray paint it black.

      

Above is a rifle, this can be used by the mark men. 

Then here is a pistol, and this can be used by the robbers. 

Getting ready to film a rough version of our opening of our thriller.

In today lesson, Our teacher left us some work for us to do in order to prepare to shoot a descent title sequence for our thriller. The questions that helped us plan for tomorrow were:

1: Where will you be able to film inside the van (to make it feel the same, any small dark enclosed space will work)
Back of the studio as this will create verisimilitude.

2: Where will you shoot the police staking out the bank/waiting around the corner (alley?) to respond?
On the roof of the theatre- policeman with sniper as the top of the bank
Alley way behind the media studio/rooms- police with guns
The van with the robbers would be filmed behind the studio.

3: Have you got anything you could use as a disguise rather than balaclava's? Bear in mind would they really have these on whilst they are driving to the bank anyway?
As a group we have decided to not wear balaclava's at the beginning of our thriller because they would not wear these in real life at this point in the robbery and we are trying to create verisimilitude within our thriller. However for the ending of our thriller opening sequence, in the real thing, we shall wear balaclava's. Tomorrow we are going to go and ask the theatre department if they have any balaclava's that we could borrow for our rough version of our thriller.

4: Can you borrow Al's gun?
We were unable to contact Al, before the lesson. So we are going to try and catch up with him tomorrow in a free period. 

5: One of you pop into PS to politely see if there is any extra's you can enlist to help you tomorrow during that period. Ask permission from the person running PS before you start approaching people. 
There were very limited people in PS today so tomorrow at the beginning of our lesson we will go and quickly choose six people to play 4 robbers and 3 policeman. 

Locations: 

During today's lesson we went and looked for locations for the policeman to be filmed when on the top of the bank. We will film this on the roof of the theatre. For the policeman down the alley way we will film this down the back of the media rooms to create a realistic atmosphere. Also the robbers will be filmed behind the studio as this has the best settiung however, we shall not film much/or anything outside as we want  to create the theme of issolation and claustraphobia so most of this scene will be shot inside the van.

 This is where we will film the robbers on top of the bank as if we used a low-angle shot we would only get the walls and no trees or surroundings so would be a realistic shot.

We were thinking that we could film the policeman with the snipers on top of this wall but we decided against it as we want them to essentially be on the roof of the bank.