Timeline of Production Process

If the above timeline doesn't work for you, you can also view it here.

Target Audience Research

As part of our audience research, we interviewed various people in our school to see what they liked in our Thriller film. As opposed to targeting a certain age group, we simply asked the question 'do you enjoy Thriller films' - this meant that we were able to get a further insight also into which age group Thriller films are particularly popular with. Take a look at the video below. 

The concept which stood out for me in this video is the idea of not knowing who the 'good guy' and 'bad guy' is until the end of the film. This is a typical thriller convention, and something which I think we would be able to implement particularly well into our film. Because our final idea is based around somebody coming into someone else's house who appears to be good, I think it would work really well.
Something else which is particularly evident from this research is the fact that people seem to find elderly people the scariest villain. Therefore, as opposed to using myself as the villain, I am really keen to use someone a lot older than me in order to appeal to our target audience.

Additionally, I have also analysed the feedback we received from our Thriller survey which we posted online a few weeks ago. We had an array of answers, but the most popular answer for "what makes a Thriller film scary?" was the idea of something happening to someone that could happen to anyone: something which is realistic and therefore will scare the audience for longer. People also liked the idea of cliffhangers and never finding out what happens, as well as the element of mystery.
Similarly to the Thriller interview video, 42% of survey respondents said seeing an elderly person (particularly a man) as being the scariest thriller villain. This has been such a popular response throughout our audience research and we would be mad to not listen to them!
70% of respondents also explained that they would prefer for the victim to be alone when they are killed, and so we have adapted our narrative to make this the case. They will now be isolated in a  house at the time of their murder.

We have received a lot of really useful feedback from our research and now we have made changes because of the responses we have received, I am beginning to get really excited for the initial filming in a week or so!

Our Target Audience

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Saw (Analysis)

Film: Saw

Directed by: James Wan

Starring: Tobin Bell, Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Michael Emerson

Released: 2004

Elements of Mise en Scene, Editing, Camerawork/Cinematography and Sound

The majority of the camerawork in Saw is steadicam. This is significantly used in the bathroom scenes with Adam and Doctor Gordon. This is so we get a hands-on gritty experience with them in bathroom and gives the film a sense of realism and it makes the audience feel like they’re up close and personal with Adam and Doctor Gordon in the bathroom because we can then see their every move and their emotions. This also presents the film in an eerie, uncertain sense because the camerawork is very loose, unguided and un-artificial. This specific technique is the most effective for building tension.

There is also some uses of close-up shots on the characters, again, specifically on Adam and Doctor Gordon in the bathroom. One example of this is when Doctor Gordon is on the phone to his wife who is being held captive and as she is tormented, Doctor Gordon becomes very upset and starts to breakdown. The close up shot on Doctor Gordon’s face helps capture his emotions up-front and personal so the audience can really get an idea of the situation and how badly Doctor Gordon is feeling. This allows the audience to feel sympathetic for him.

Another use of steadicam in Saw is when Alison Gordon (Doctor Gordon’s wife) breaks free from captivity, and tries to overpower ‘Zip’. As she does this, there is a lot of confrontation between the two characters. Steadicam is used in this scene to accomplish the fast-paced action of the scene and follows Alision as she tries to escape. This particular use of steadicam keeps up with the pace of the action and emphasises the pace and speed, also making the audience uncertain but intrigued because the camerawork is very impulsive and uncontrolled and the audience then have to focus more on what is going on.

The mise en scene in Saw is very important and plays a vital role. Right at the beginning of the film, their is very dark lighting being used as Adam awakes in the bathtub and and starts to stumble around and find out where he is. He is very confused at this point and because of the dark, low-key lighting, the audience are also very confused as well because they are in the same position as Adam. Adam has woken up in the darkness and the audience have started watching the film with the film beginning with darkness. It also emphasises the sense of mystery and intrigues the audience to the film because they want to discover where Adam has woken up.

When the lights turn on, we are immediately exposed to the filth, dirty set of the bathroom. The bathroom is absolutely filthy with broken mirrors, broken tiles, dirty and mould riddling up the walls, rusty toilet and bathtub and disgusting pipework around the bathroom. This helps show the bathroom’s age and misusage and gives background and mystery to the setting - has the bathroom been used for torture and captivity before? It also makes the film more gritty and makes it more realistic.

Throughout the course of the film, there is an obvious transformation being done to Doctor Gordon. Every time we see him in the bathroom, his face gets more pale and starts turning white, ultimately making him look ghost-like. This is showing Doctor Gordon’s deterioration and possibly saying that the bathroom which he is trapped in is slowly killing him and draining him, causing him to break-down, resulting in him going crazy and cutting his foot off to escape. The white make-up on Doctor Gordon (getting more pale throughout the film) gives the character realism and a sense of believability for the audience as they watch him slowly become stricken.

An example of digitally enhanced sound is when we hear a striking electric and buzzing sound when Adam gets electrocuted. The sound is ‘digitally enhanced’ and extremely emphasised to make the audience hear how painful it is for Adam as he screams in agony, as his body shakes to the reaction of the electricity and to also make the sound and action more forceful and striking.

Diegetic sound plays a big role in Saw, especially in the bathroom scenes. In these particular scenes, there is good use of diegetic sound to make the room more realistic and tense. Realistic, because all the sound that are heard are natural and belong to that bathroom and tense, because there isn’t any additional music/narration on top of the scenes, making them more quiet and eerie. Non-diegetic sound is not needed for these scenes because the quiet, natural sounds of the empty, misuses bathroom are enough to grip the audience and make them intrigued to the natural dialogue of Adam and Doctor Gordon.

Non-diegetic sound is used at some occasions in Saw. One example is at the end of the film, when Adam discovers the audio tape on Zip, and plays it, there is the Saw ‘theme tune’ (soundtrack) being played over the scene as he listens to the audio tape. This has been added to make the ending of the film more shocking and tense as we slowly reach the conclusion. The music is also a crescendo and gradually becomes louder. This makes the ending of the film more tense and gripping for the audience as they become glued to the screen. Right before the end credits appear, the music reaches it’s ultimatum and suddenly stops as Jigsaw closes the door on Adam, leaving him trapped in the bathroom to rot and die. When the music does suddenly stop, the only sound we hear is Adam’s screams (diegetic sound) as the credits appear. This has been done to show that even though the film is over and the credits are rolling, Adam is still left trapped in the bathroom and the audience shouldn’t just forget about him, which is why his merciful screams play over the ending credits, leaving the audience in a total shock.

How does Saw fit the Thriller genre?

I would say that Saw is more of a psychological thriller. This is because the danger of the protagonists (hard to pinpoint, but Adam and Doctor gordon are the main ones...) is heavily emphasised. This is clearly obvious that their danger is a strong element of the film because they have woken up in this misused bathroom without any indication of where they are specifically and how they got there (although we do find out later on in the film). This is also why it is more psychological because the two protagonists are uncertain of what is actually going on so their emotions take over them and conflict starts to erupt between them and ultimately drive them both crazy(leading Doctor Gordon to cut off his own foot to escape). In addition, psychological thrillers make the characters solve a mystery and Saw is one big mystery. Why are they in there? Who put them in there? - and throughout the curse of the film, they discover more clues and facts that make them realise why they are actually there...

Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-Scene is used throughout thriller films, it includes: costume, lighting, hair and makeup, props and setting. Here are the common ones used for thriller films.

Costume: 
Many of the protagonists in thriller films are seen to be dressed in black, this shows that they are dark and dangerous characters and that they're no necessarily all good even though they are seen to be the 'good guy'.
The male protagonists are usually seen wearing suits, this goes back to when thriller films were first made and mainly based on police detectives solving murder mysteries, here they were always dressed smart as part of their job. This has become a convention because it makes the protagonist look like and important person, many of the other characters are also dressed in suits as well (usually the antagonist) to show how they are also important. 

For eg. in Shutter Island Teddy and his assistant are police detectives and the main protagonists and are both seen dressed smart in suits.

Stereotypically women in thrillers are dress in elegant dresses which depict them as sexy and an objects of lust.This helps show the danger of the femme fatale character as they are seen to be just innocent and not a danger whereas they're always the major downfall of the male protagonist. 

For eg. The character Vesper in Casino Royale is the femme fatale and here is seen in an elegant and sexy dress, showing her to be lustrous and an object of desire not danger.

Hair and makeup:
This is usually done to fit in with the costume the character is wearing, like for example women will have their makeup done to match whatever colour their dress is. 
However in some cases makeup is used to make a character look scary and menacing. They use this in The Dark Knight by giving the Joker clown makeup, this scares the audience because many people are afraid of clowns so this draws on the phobia. The makeup also partly hides the Jokers identity and his scars which create a mystery about him and make him a more ominous character.


Lighting:
Dark and ominous lighting is used often throughout thrillers as it creates a mysterious and dangerous vibe to the setting as the audience can't clearly see what is going on and it also cast the characters in dark lights making them too look mysterious and dangerous.

For eg. In the opening scene of Casino Royale part of it is set in an office, this place is shown in dark lighting to help show the mystery about the setting and the characters.

Props:
Weapons:
Common weapons used are guns, knives, explosives, etc. These all help create tension and danger throughout, and therefore keep the audience on the edge.

Other:
Props like briefcases are also used, these create a mystery as the audience want to know what's in them and why they are being kept so secretive. These can also be used as a good red-herring to confuse and mislead the audience.
briefcases: mysterious 


Setting:
Many Thriller films are set in ominous and conspicuous places, although some are set in more common places that the audience would know. 

Action based thrillers are usually set in big cities as narrative events like heists and hostage situations can take place. They're done here as it makes the scene more tense and dangerous as more peoples lives can be at risk. People can also relate to this therefore making them feel a sense of danger as it could happen to them.

For eg. Gotham Ciy - Batman Begin, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises

In psychological based thrillers more remote and eerie locations are used. This is to create a tense atmosphere making the audience feel perhaps apprehensive and see there's danger in the location. Scary atmospheres also help thrill people, fitting in with the main aim of the genre.

For eg. Shutter Island, set on a remote and desolate island away from everything

Our Final Idea

Final Idea -

After talking about our three different ideas for our thriller film; we finally decided that Option 3; with the two hitmen was the best, and we could incorporate a lot of key thriller conventions in this film. For example, we can easily use red herrings, in the sense that the audience doesn't know that the man who calls at the woman's door is a hitman and shocks and confuses the audience when they see him kill her. It keeps the idea of normality and realism up until the point he does kill her.

Also, we can use camera shots such as point of view, tracking shots and over the shoulder shots which will add to the effect of a thriller film. We will use quite a lot of dialogue as the audience will need to see the man and woman having a conversation, but the conversation will seem very normal and realistic which will lead the auidence to believe that the man means no harm.

The use of the first woman in the forest blindfolded will add suspense and tension but will not play a major part of the opening, it will last a very short amount of time which will give the audience only a glimpse of what could happen. The idea of only showing a short clip of this is so that the film can return quickly to 'normality' and the audience will be left wondering what the significance of the blindfolded woman is.

A common theme we are trying to achieve in this film is realism and how normal the plot will seem. For example, the idea of someone coming to your house to talk to you about a matter they feel strongly about or to tell you that you have won something; could happen in real life. This will hopefully make the audience feel vulnerable and make them think how easily it could happen to them. Also the setting of the film; a house, is very normal too and normally people will feel very safe in their own home, but this plot completely goes against that idea and is different to other thrillers as most people will be killed during a fight, robbery, public place etc.

The prop used (knife or gun) which will suddenly appear will shock the audience and will automatically make them think something bad is about to happen. This can represent binary opposites as the plot starts off very real and normal, an everyday situation. But very quickly changes to a completely different situation, which is the complete opposite to the previous setting.

Possible Shot Types

I decided to look at the types of shots we may want to use in our Thriller film and the impact that they would have upon our opening. Unfortunately my darling James wasn't available to model for me, so I decided to use my beloved Ganondorf figurine in order to show what the shot would look like.

Shot 1: Long Shot
This shot consists of showing the entire character's body. This is good for establishing a character and also showing the audience their costume or posture. For example, a long shot of the evil Ganondorf (as seen below) shows that he is wearing a lot of orange and red colours, suggesting to the audience that he is a dangerous and evil character.
In our film, we could use a long shot in order to show the hit man's costume. As he will be in a full suit, it is a good opportunity to show the audience what he is wearing and this would also allow the audience to infer that he is a professional.

Shot 2: Mid Shot

This shot shows the upper half of the body. It is good for showing costume and also for showing a character's reaction to something. We could use this in our film, for example, when the hit man pulls the gun out of his pocket and the victim realises what is about to happen. 

Shot 3: Close Up (CU)

CUs may also be used in order to show a character's reaction to something, but they may also be used in order to make sure the audience sees something significant in the film. For example, we may use a CU in our film in order to show the hit man taking the gun out of his pocket.

Here is an example CU of Ganondorf's face.

Shot 4: High Angle Shot

A high angle shot is used to show vulnerability in a character. In our film, I think it would be a good idea to use a high-angle shot when the victim is pushed onto the sofa by the hit man. 

Shot 5: Low Angle Shot

This type of shot has the opposite impact of a high-angle shot, and instead of making the character look more vulnerable, it makes them look more scary and powerful. We would use these shots on the hit man in our opening. As you can see in the picture below, Ganondorf looks twice as terrifying when a low angle shot is used.

Shot 6: Point of View (POV)

A POV shot is used in order to allow the audience to empathise with a character and understand how they are feeling. This may be used during a chase scene or may be used in order to show that a character is looking for something. We may use this kind of shot in our film when the gun is pointed to the victim's face. As you can see in the shot below, Ganondorf was looking at a lamp in his POV. How exciting. 

Shot 7: Establishing Shot

These are very common in film openings because it establishes to the audience where the scene is set. In our film, we may use an establishing shot in order to show the audience the victim's house before the hit man enters it. In the example below, I used Tortimer's house (from Animal Crossing, by the way) to give an example of how an establishing shot may look. As you can see, the house is in the distance because it makes it look a lot more vulnerable.