Picking the location

the location I chose was oakwood park in Eastwood, the main reason for this was that it was fairly close to my house, so it was easy to come back the next day for half an hour, refilming some parts and adding other parts in. This was good because it was constantly cold during the period i was filming.

For my location i knew that I wanted it to be in the woods, trees everywhere makes it so that whatever is trying to chase me has a place to hide, which builds up the suspense as the audience watches me unaware that I am being watched from somewhere. Trees also make excellent lighting, with the suns rays shying through the leaves, this also made it seem slightly dreamy. Forests are also usually in the middle of nowhere, making the protagonist seem even more vulnerable, because of this they are often used in horror films, like Cabin in the Woods, the forest and just before dawn.
The fact that forests are darker aswell, really builds that sense of mystery. even certain sounds of forests make the audience feel suspense, the wind blowing through the trees, the sound of stick breaking and leaves rustling, the crowing of birds, all makes the viewer feel uneasy.

the woods I chose to film in were actually fairly small, as shown my the ariel shot. the A127 also runs along the edge of it, which would have lost the eery factor if Tesco lorries were in the background. Because of this, I shot in the same sections of the forest, due to a lack of space. Normally this would have looked like a continuity error, being in the sam place more than, but the landscape looking identical makes it seem believable, plus I was shot shot from multiple angles

for me ,the long shot of me walking through this part of the woods appeared kind of like I was walking through a tunnel, with the trees arching over to the right hand side, and once i got to the end, there was no going back. This is similar to i Donnie Darko, when he gt to a certain point at the start and entered a parallel universe. The shot also looks quite aesthetically pleasing, with the sun shining through the trees, however it is made to appear eery through the music playing in the background. The hard ground makes it so that the audience could hear the rhythmic sound of my footsteps, similar to the music which genrally kept the same pace.










                                                                                              shot of the woods from further away.

for my costume it was just casual clothes, so a grey hoodie and jeans, this is to show that i am just an ordinary person, not some sort of hero. The colours of these are also fairly bleak, which goes with the dull feel of the forest. I am wearing a pyjama top when I wake up to show that I have just woken up from a bad dream. Because of this I didn’t have to put too much effort into making a specific costume to use for the scene. 

My audience of my media product would be people an abc1 audience, this is because generally some c2de audiences may find some aspects of psychological thrillers hard to understand.

My opening sequence doesn’t really represent social groups in any particular way, mainly because the 2 minutes was only long enough to have one character in it. 

Distribution in media refers to how the product is transported from the producer to the consumers. My media product will be distributed to my audience in many different ways, because audiences are very fragmented today due to many people using different hardware services to watch films, streaming services like Sky and netflix, older methods like DVDs, some people also only watch films at the cinema. 

One of the problems with filming in the local woods was that they are very popular with dog walkers, which significantly delayed the filming, as this would clearly ruin the verisimilitude of the film with random people in the background. Another issue I had was that I would have rather the woods were darker, as this would have added to the atmosphere of the shots (darkness is generally associated with danger) however it doesn't begin to get dark until about 7pm and I didn't really want to be wondering around dark woods which are a fair journey from my house. I could have used a filter on imovie to make the scenes in the woods darken, however this wouldn't have looked right with rays of light shining on me.

health and safety/risk assessment

pitch/brief

My film opening starts with a sequence of me walking around a fairly dark forest, peaceful music will play throughout I hear noises in the forest (footsteps and twigs snapping)and start to look around at what is making that noise, but there is nothing there, causing me to become scared. At this point the music changes to a fast and suspense tone, and I begin to start running, however a hand grabs me from behind a tree, and when it appears that no-one is there it changes the atmosphere to something fairly scary and almost supernatural. At this point there is a dolly shot moving towards me quickly to show whatever is out there is running towards me. It knock me onto the floor and a knife is seen falling onto the ground. I then wake up to silence, realising it is just a dream. It is 1am, as being late at night is associated with danger , as darkness is marked, but there is a shadow of a knife on the wall and as it moves my opening sequence ends.

The audience's expectations of a thriller is for it to revolve around anticipation and suspense, rather than over the top action scenes, this is the case in the woods scene when the camera is positioned at a long shot to make it look like I am being watched, creating a sense of vulnerability for me. This is emphasised by the music sting which is used to emphasise that a dramatic climax is imminent. the camera panning left from behind a tree trunk and then panning right again gives the impression to the audience that something is watching me, and the next shot also

Questionnaire

Questionnaire
I created a questionnaire for my project to get a better idea of what my target audience expects from a thriller film. For this I used the website survey monkey, as it allowed me to get responses quickly, and from a large amount of people. In this case a survey is better than using existing data already on the internet, because the film industry is rapidly changing  my main source of data was from media students in my class, these being experts on film, and aged 16-17, mean they wouldn't have accurately represented the average film viewer, because of this I also asked family members to fill out my survey, including a large amount of adults.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NVN8RP8

My first question was, have you seen many horror thrillers? with options, yes. no and a few. out of this 38.46% said yes, 7.69% said no and 53.85% said a few. I asked this question to see how popular this genre is, as my opening is the start of a psychological thriller with horror elements. This is thought of as a niche genre as some people find it hard to understand the plot lines that psychological themed films have, and so tend to be more unpopular. The fact that the majority of people that I surveyed had only seen a few psychological thriller horror films showed me that it isn't as popular as your typical horror and action films, .

My second question was what is your favourite of thrillers in general? 61.54% said surprising plot twists, which isn't surprising as the general meaning of thrillers is that they involve around anticipation and suspense, and a plot twist builds anticipation as no one ever expects it, they are also often the main things that people remember after watching the film, such as the main protagonist's wive's head being delivered by John Die in Se7en, the second most popular answer was enigmas, this is used often in psychological thrillers, often times, these are left unanswered, leaving audiences to theorise what it all means, for example, in the shining the meaning of Jack Torrance's insanity doesn't seem to make sense leaving viewers confused, This can be off putting as many people watch films to relax and don't want to be picking up on every small detail, trying to work out the overall meaning.

My third question was asking if lots of jump scares can ruin films, and i found that 46.15% of people said yes compared to 53.85% of people saying no. Th reason that more people said that jump scares don't ruin horror films may be because the majority of horror films rely on them, thus when a horror film came out like the babadook, which didn't have to rely on constantly to get cheap sares, it came under criticism by many viewers that it didn't live up to their standards as a horror film, some going as far as to call it boring. Because of my results I have tried to include a few parts in the opening to make people jump, like the hand that comes from nowhere to grab me.
my fourth question was simply asking what the gender of the person was, i asked this to make sure the people surveyed were male and female, meaning more reliable results, and 30.77% were male compared to 69.23%.

my fifth question was do you enjoy a mysterious villain who stays hidden for the entire film, which surprisingly got 70% yes and 30% no answers. This is a huge enigma, as audiences want to know who is behind harming the main characters in the film, and it is rare that films never show the villain at all. However, this fits in with the theme of a psychological thriller, as they often involve mind games and deception, and a villain staying hidden is just that. Because of this, i have decided to not show the actual villain in my opening, and am instead showing a sot from the point of view of him. It's also important to remember that often psychological thrillers dont have a set group of antagonists or protagonists, for example the psychological thriller Ex-Machina has a subjective view on who is really in the wrong.

my sixth question was what do you think is the most important in the first 2 minutes of a film, which is important for me as the task is to create a 2 minute film opening. Setting the scene for the film and signifying the genre both got around 40% , and because of this I have decided to show the setting of the antagonist's house, and aspects of horror and psychology.
with my final question, Do you believe music is the most effective way to build tension, 100% of the surveys said yes, because of this, I have included music at the points of the film when the main character is in danger, and when when he finds out it is all a dream. Examples of effective music in psychological horror films is in the iconic shower scene in psycho, when the lady is stabbed in the shower.

moodboard

the Babadook camera shot 

the lighting in the shot creates shadows in the corners of the room and under the table, this creates a sense of mystery as the monster in the film is associated with the darkness



the camera is slightly high angle, this may be to show the props on the table, but it also presents the mother and child as being vulnerable in the house, slightly looked down at. the 2 empty chairs in the middle of the table also show there is no one to help them


it is a 2 shot, showing the 2 characters interacting with each other, but they are far apart on different sides of the table, because the monster has separated the mother and son, and she is possessed at some points to turn against the child.


the floor looks like a chessboard, which shows the babadook is playing with their mind, like they are just pawns on a chessboard and the babadook is controlling their every move. this colour scheme also continues throughout the kitchen,with no bright colours, suggesting the scene is bleak.





                                                                                      This close up of David in the ending sequence, shows how he is angry at John Doe for sending him him wives head, finishing off the 7 deadly sins in a clever spin which we all knew was coming, but didnt know how it would happen. In this shot he is about to take the shot and kill John, showing his injuries that he had been through.


A theme in thriller/horrars is that when characters dreams have meaning, or point to a bigger picture later on in the film. On nightmare on elm street, charcters who fall asleep dream of being killed by the villian, but they actually die in real life. I will borrow this idea in my film opening as when something chases me in the woods, it will leave a mark in the real world. The fact that you are powerless when when you are asleep also means you are vulnerable, which will create a sense of weakness in my film.