Evaluation 11

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The editing for our opening to a thriller

As our editing was starting to cause problems we decided that we should have a group meeting to resolve them. The editing was starting to annoy everyone, as the more we edited the more we weren’t getting the effect that we had initially been aiming to achieve. In our group discussion we decided that we should all meet up at Usman’s house and spend a whole day on editing to ensure that the final effect that we wanted to have on our audience was achieved. First we had to find all of the clips and import shots from other group members USB’s to the computer so that we have everything ready to start editing. We then put all of the shots onto a timeline. I found some continuity problems in the video that we had edited but the other group members said that they didn’t see the point in changing it as I was the only one that noticed. I disagreed with them as continuity is a major part of this coursework, as it won’t make sense to the audience otherwise.
Then we decided to compromise and put the shots of me in a dress, so that the scene makes sense to the audience. We then carried on with the rest of the editing and the soundtrack research, and finding the right soundtrack to make sense and create a buildup of tension for the audience.
Finally we had to create the title sequences, and also come up with a name that would relate to our opening. We eventually came up with the name “9seconds”.
We originally wanted to use subtitles where the female character is speaking in a foreign language, but when we were editing we found that it worked well without the subtitles. We decided as a group that it would be best not to use the subtitles as it creates a more effective vision of her vulnerability.

Shootind Diary- day (3)

Today was possibly the scariest filming experience I had ever been through. It was worse than a scary ride at a theme park! We had to record the scene with the van going over the camera. I was sat in the van at this point of time, while the driver next to me drove over the camera. It was the most terrifying experience of my life, although I knew we weren’t going over the camera itself, it certainly felt like we were. We had to go over the camera more than twice as the effect we were hoping for wasn’t being achieved and therefore had to keep doing it till we achieved what we wanted to achieve.
We also wanted to shoot a new scene for our opening as we wanted to include a shot of a suitcase with lots of knives inside it. We placed the camera inside of the suitcase and tried many different camera angles so that we could get this right but we were unsuccessful as it didn’t work due to the lack of lighting. Theses shots did not create the mood that we were trying to create and did not help our group in producing the effect that we were hoping for. We will not be using these shots in our final edited version of our opening as it will not be enhancing on the effect that we are trying to produce.

Shooting diary- day (2)

Today it was raining quite heavily and the weather was very gloomy and dismal. However, we had planned to film that day and so we met up and filmed the torture scenes which took place inside the van. In fact, to our surprise the dismal weather outside helped to build up the sense of eerie atmosphere that we were hoping would be built up mainly through the acting and the performance. We tried to improvise and add shots of one of the mental men licking my face and trying to calm me down. I think that this shot worked but didn’t quite get the sense of “mental patient scaring the audience”, it was more comical than anything else. This shot didn’t work that well, and although it took up about 40minutes of battery life to shoot it, we decided not to use it in the end. When we watched this shot to edit it on the computer, we saw that it looked pornographic and didn’t really fit in with the story that we were trying to convey to the audience. Finally we ended this day of filming with pan shots of the van speeding past the camera. These shots will be useful for the van arriving to grab the girl and can also be used for the van departing from the girl.

Halloween opening

The opening to Halloween opens with a point of view shot. This shot type is used throughout the opening of Halloween to allow the audience into the mind of the character. When I first watched the opening to Halloween I had a feeling that the audience and the characters are connected in some way as it makes the audience feel involved with the action. The unexpected enigma’s make the audience feels uncomfortable, and feel like you are a character in the film. This is a technique that we want to use in our opening as we want to make the audience feel involved with the action, we want them to feel sorry for the protagonist, and we will try to capture this effect through the use of camera angles and editing.

Point of view shots help to create an eerie atmosphere and help to build up tension for the audience. We may also use point of view shots in our opening as this will be effective and will enable us to communicate our story to the audience.They also used hand held cameras in the opening of Halloween, to create a sense of stressful anxiety and tension for the audience. This is effective as it adds realism to the story and leaves viewers wanting more. We will also be using a hand held camera shot in our opening as we want to empathize on the realism of the story. I feel that through viewing the opening of Halloween that there are new techniques that I can suggest to my group the next time we go filming to improve our opening.

Shooting Diary-Day (1)

We decided that we would start filimg early so that we can finish our editing and filming by Easter holidays so that we can spend more time on our blogs. We decided to meet up at the chosen location, outside Ali's dads house in Ponder's end. The date was the 13th of March and we all got to the location around 6. We were all so excited as the planning we had done had built up alot of adrenaline for us and we wanted to know what all the scenes that we had pictured in our heads would look like on camera. We had all decided that we would read through the planning and script beforehand, so that when we each arrived there we knew what we were doing. We were able to get a range of different shots, and also to understand the camera better and why some shots worked and why some didnt. As we didnt have a tripod, we had to improvise and we used a technique that Mr.Sim (one of my As media teachers) had shown us the day before which was to support the camera by making a weird "L" shape with our arms. However uncomfortable it was being a human tripod, it did work and we were able to capture some good shots.

A problem that we faced that day was lighting, it got dark quite quickly, faster than we had expected and we had to use alternative lighting were possible, such as camera flashes and street lights and van headlights.

The first shot that we filmed was the shot of the two mental men checking inside a black bag to make sure that all the tools they need are all there. The first three shots were repeated several times, at several different angles so that we could communicate to the audience the shot that we had planned, and to make them feel the way they were intended to feel after watchng these shots. Ali and Usman filmed these shots, and I think that they were done well and did portray the effect we wanted. Later we started filming the shots of me walking out of the apartments talking in a foreign language. We tried a variety of shots such as a tracking shot following her feet, and a pan shot of her walking and looking scared.We are thinking about putting subtitles on this part of the scene, but we will have to wait till we edit to see whether subtitles will be neccessary.

Daniel also filmed ali putting on a balaclava which I think was really good as it was setting the scene for the audience and also making them aware of what is about to happen. I took a picture of Ali putting on the balaclava to indicate the effecte that the shot had on the audience.

The scene of the men grabbing me and throwing me in the van was quite interesting as I had underestimated how hard it was not to laugh when trying to act out a very serious role. In some of the shots of the men grabbing me, I tried to scream but gradually it faded into laughter. This wasn't all that significant as we were going to edit these parts out anyway. This scene was done using a hand held camera to add to the realism of the shot and make the audience more involved by feeling terrified for the character.

Unfortunately though, straight after the filming of this shot the camera died and so we had a group discussion as to when we should next film and what we should film.

Group meeting- 10th March

We had our first group meeting on the 10th March were we assigned different roles to different people. We decided that Ali will do the production schedule, Daniel will do the treatment, Usman will do the storyboard and I will do the script. This group meeting went well, however we later came to discover that we left Ali with too much work to do, and as he had a English mock exam that week aswell, we as a group done the production schedule together, with Ali doing most of the work.

The storyboards:

Above are the storyboards that Usman has scanned in.

Treatment

Pitch-Vulnerable foreign girl gets abducted by males at night whilst walking home.



Themes:



Sexual fantasies

Psychological thriller

Perception of reality



Audience:18-35- We decided that this film needs an older audience as there scenes that would not be appropiate for a younger age. Another reason that we chose this age group is that, this age group can relate to the character that gets taken. She is young and vulnerable and most teenagers have been at a stage were they feel vulnerable to something that is approaching them. The location will be an urban area, as we as a group decided that it will be more convienient and that it will be more realsitic. The fact that it happens in an area with flats and people within a 100metre radius, shows the gritty realism that we are trying to convey and that it is linked with reality as things like this happen to young and vulnerable teenagers more and more each day.I think that the target audience will realise that this is a thriller because it is realistic and unexpected. This is what adds to the thrills that people get while watching a thriller movie.
I also carried out a questionnaire in our sixth form common room, were by I showed 46 students our treatment, script and our story and then explained to them that I am doing this for my Media Studies coursework and that I would like to ask them a few question to see what they think, as they are around the same age as my target audience. This is the conclusion of the results that I received from them:

Some said that they think that the target audience should be between 16 and 30 as there isnt enough elements of horror to keep it from a 16 audience. I decided to discuss this with my group and we decided to keep the target audience to 18-30 years as it was a psychological thriller and people any younger than this, may not find this suitable for there age group.
Others said that they like the story and that it does meet the the elements of a pychological thriller. I believe that we will make it a success as long as we get the camerawork and performance of chracters right.

The story

This is the story that we are going to be filimg the opening for.We had all thought of it as a group, however Daniel then took it home and finished the ending of the story.

3 men are getting prepared for something, with balaclavas and scary looking masks. A woman is an alternative location and is talking on the phone in another language; she finishes her conversation and begins to walk down the street. A black van is lurking around and starts to move behind the girl, looking decidedly sinister. The van with it's tinited windows, the girl looks behind her and feeling uneasy begins to walk faster when suddenly 3 men burst out with masks on their faces and all black clothing. They roughly manhandle her into the van and the doors slam shut with a BANG...If we leave this scene we shall take a look at these three men and their past. All three men resided in the Northwick Park mental hospital for sociopaths, only people who were extremely dangerous and incredibly unstable were left here. Due to the nature of the residents Northwick Park mental hospital had high security levels with all sorts of ways to stop them getting out such as rabid dogs, lasers in restricted areas and even extra fortified foundations so the residents couldn't dig their way out. The 3 men were particularly dangerous even in an environment with so many deranged people, so they were in isolation from the rest. This isolation gave them the time to muse and when sociopaths who are mentally unstable are given time to think, the result is never good. All 3 of them retreated into their minds where they heard voices and lived in a world called Desolation. Desolation had its own money, language and laws (there are no laws); it was here that these 3 men hatched a plot to escape....Back in the present, the men had stopped whatever they were doing to the woman as the van had ceased shaking but that didn't mean they were done with her, as they had tied her arms and legs to each corner of the van and left her there naked as daylight broke....

New and Updated Script

We have decided to change the script as the previous script seemed to make the story a little longer than expected. I will show the group the new version of the script to see if they like it, also as in the previous script I have also added the narrative to help us understand where the characters have to speak, as there is little speech involved.

SCRIPT:

1 man is getting prepared for something, looking dodgy, scuffling through a black bag. The area he is in is dark and eerie looking.Audience is left in uncertainty as to what he is preparing for.He walks of and another person walks of with him.As he is closing the zip of the black bag he says “yea, its all in there!”
The next shot is of the same guys going into a van and slamming the door shut.
There is then a shot of the driver of the van pulling his balaclava onto his head and shutting the door. Then there is a shot following the knife and the bloody apron. The next shot is a close up of the driver starting up the van.Then there is a long shot of the girl walking out of a building which looks like her house, she answers her phone and starts talking in a foreign language, as the camera follows her from behind the bushes.The next shot again is of the van.Then it cuts to a extreme claustrophobic shot of the girl still talking.Then we cut back to the van.The girl hears a noise in the bushes and starts looking paniced.
Next shot is from inside the van, of the men jumping out to grab her. The speech used in this shot is “quick quick quick go go go!” They violently grab the girl and push her into the van as she screams. One of the men says to the other one to “close the door, close the door.Come on!” The van is seen driving of.
The next shot is a close up of the girls phone on the phone, and on the screen it says call ended.
Then the girl is seen inside the van, with the men which seem to be quite insane as she is screaming for help in her language and he is saying “you’ll be ok,you’ll be alright!” repeatedly.Then it fades out to a black screen which is meant to symbolise a passing of time. The next shot is of the girl in a park, probably around 4 in the morning looking like shes ran away from them and is hiding. Then we see the shot of the van going to look for her.

Memento



Mr Ellerington showed us the opening to the psychological thriller Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed the worldwide smash hit The Dark Knight. A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife. He then asked us to answer these questions regarding the film to help us with our coursework:


1) What ideas does the "memento" make you think of?


Memento makes me think of specific moments that will always be remembered. As it is used as a title of a film, before viewing it I would just presume that in the context of a film, that there could be key moments in the film that will always be remembered in the audiences mind. When I found out what the film was about I associated the word memonto with his lack of short term memory.

2) What sort of a character is Leonard?

I believe that the audience sympathises with Leonard. He suffers from anterograde amnesia which means he has problems with keeping anything in his short term memory although he is able to remember things from his long term memory. To cope with this condition he is forced to write notes and tattoo these on himself in a bid to remember the important facts. Leonards main purpose in the film is to find the person that murdered his wife and kill them.
It seems that the whole purpose of his existence is to find his wifes killer.

3) What flaws are there in Leonard's character?

He can't put new memories into his mind and therefore he trusts no one. Although this may cause him troubles,he uses clever techniques such as tattoos and notes to help him and suprisingly enough they work!

4) How does the audience feel about Teddy?

Personally, right from the beginning I liked Teddy and I thought he was Leonards friend, however later on we found out that Leonard doesnt trust him and eventually he kills Teddy. The audience feels that Teddycould be a threat to Leonard as we find out he is a possible suspect for the murder of his wife.

5) What narrative enigmas are created in the opening few minutes of the film?What happened to Leonard? Who is Teddy? Why did Leonard kill Teddy? Who is Natalie? Who put the tattoes all over his body? Is Leonard justified in killing Teddy?

6) How is non-digetic music? What sort of mood does it help to create?

The music is eerie, and mysterious. Sets a mood of possible danger to come ahead.

7) How would you describe the opening overall? Does it set up any sense of equilibrium or begin with disruption?

It begins with instantaneous disruption as we see Teddy being shot, and this is quite a sudden piece of action but not unexpected as it is a thriller.

8) Think about the following aspects of mise-en-scene. How does one help us with ideas about either narrative or character?

Our first impressions of Leonard were a bit weird. Everything around him seems unnormal, the "no questions asked" motel, the European car, the tattoos, the notes on the wall.
This all creates a sense of mystery around Leonard for the audience.


I think that the opening of Momento helped our group and made us think of different camera angles and story enigmas that we could add to our filming. I feel that we could try to aim for a similar effect on our audience, to the effect that this film had on me. I will suggest this to my group and hopefully we will try to use the techniques used in this film to create a more interesting opening.

Soundtrack Research- Silence Of The Lambs

The Silence Of The Lambs

When Thomas Harris's novel, The Silence of the Lambs, first came out director Jonathan Demme wasn't interested. "Young female FBI agent hunts down serial killer with help of demented psychiatrist...it wasn't the kind of thing that I find interesting.", he said. But after Demme read the book and met and spoke with screenwriter Ted Tally about the story, he immediately signed on.

Silence of the lambs(1990) is regarded as one of the best psychological thrillers ever made. It won Oscars for best actor, actress and film.

The Opening- We see a character running through a wood on an assault course. The music from the start is an eerie piece of classical music which is immediately unsettling. In fact we are waiting for something to happen. This music makes us predict something in the visuals.

The Interview- Soundtrack plays as she walks towards Hannibal Lecter.It is used to unsettle the audience without going to its full tempo.

The Escape Scene- The scene opened with diagetic classical music playing. This suggests a peaceful scene. Cut joins two different sounds together, classical moves into soundtrack. High tempo soundtrack creates immediate anxiety/tension. Then the soundtrack stops and the classical music comes back.

Bufallo Bill is killed- As Clarice staggers around in the darkness the soundtrack builds again to a Crescendo until she shoots him and then dies down. The audience is familiar with the soundtrack from its use at key moments in the film. Its very loud which can be draining.

My group will be following very similar techniques used in this very effective opening. For example the landscape shots are very effective and personally beautiful to watch. Although I dont think we will be able to create such shots as the neccessary equipment would be required.The character is in an isolated location and appears vulnerable. The music is very distinctive and sombre. we will try to replicate the overall atmosphere given through these shots. From this opening I have learnt that the use of soundtrack can build up tension and create a sense of mystery for the audience. When we want to choose a soundtrack, we can take many pointers from this opening as the soundtrack and good use of camera shots made it very effective and enhanced the sense of tension for the audience. The silence of the lambs is a good example of how effective music is used to heighten tension in Thriller films. I will do more research into soundtrack research and see what type of soundtrack I will consider using on our film. The character of Clarice (the woman running through the forest in the opening) is female, and so is the woman that gets kidnapped in our opening. I think using a female character immediately shouts to the audience, VULNERABILITY!

In most thrillers, there's usually the character of a psycopath man who attacks a vulnerable female. Although we used a stereotypical plot of "group of psycopaths attack young girl"we feel this is very effective in this type of thriller, as the audience are expecting this sort of plot. However, to make it interesting and thrilling for them we have to add unexpected shots to suprise them.

Script part 2

(2sec shot)- Guys in the van, a short shot of there hands about to open the door,audience is given idea that something bad's going to happen.

(1sec shot)- A close up of Shadei's face for just less than a second,more of a flicker of her face rather than an actual 1 second shot. This will help to create a sense of fright as it is going to be such a quick shot.

(1sec shot)- Guys jump out of van, (maybe this could be a tracking shot) grab Shadei and struggle to keep her quite while getting her back into the van as she is fighting them of.

Shadei: "Velaaaam Kon!Naaaa!Velam Konid!Komak!HELP HELP!" (speaks inforeign language, when she shouts "help"- she says it with an iranian accent.)

(while Shadei is shouting, the camera could slowly drift of towards the van driver, and then slowly drift back, but we still hear her voice in the background.)

Van driver: "Shut the fuck up!Shut her up Ted!" (Ted is a temporary name for one of the guys.)

Ted- 'Ted slaps Shadei'

Ted: "Shut the fuck up!"

Shadei is crying as she tries to hit back but Ted grabs her arm and forcefully gets her in the van.


NEXT SCENE-LOCATION:(van)-

Ted's hand is covering shadei's mouth, but we still see her attempting to scream. Guy (2) passes rope to ted. Guy (3) holds Shadei as guy (2) and Ted try to wrap the rope around Shadei's mouth to stop her from screaming.

Ted: "Get me something to cover her fucking face! Now!"

A conversation between van driver and guy (3), saying to move location.I havent decided the exact conversation.Car screeches to new location. Short shots of girl/van driver etc.

(2secs)-A short shot of Ted getting tools ready.

Shadei hits Ted and hurts him. Ted grabs Shadei's face,forcefully squeezing both her cheeks with one hand, really hard and then tries to lick her cheek.
They come to a sudden stop,get out the car.

Pre-Lim Task

For our pre-liminary task, we (Ali, Usman, Shadei and Daniel) made a storyboard about two friends who decide to meet up and play a football game on Daniels playstation. The task was meant to be set in his bedroom,however because we couldnt use his bedroom we located it in a classroom and made it as realistic as possible. Daniel, Usman and Shadei were acting for this pre-liminary task and Ali as directing it. For editing , we went to Enfield CLC to edit our pre-lim task. We had some difficulty as the film didnt seperate into small chunks so we had to do this ourselves, however we overcame this and edited it.

We then decided to work on the opening of our story, and try to write it in further detail, this was initially started of by Daniel, and I finished it but the whole group sat down and changed a few parts of it and we made it a group effort:

PITCH: Vulnerable foreign girl walking home gets abducted by males at night with a van.

TREATMENT: 3 men getting prepared, with balaclavas and masks. A women who is talking on the phone in another language finishes her conversation and begins to walk down the street. A van is lurking around and startsto move sneakily behind the girl and is decidedly sinister. The eerie looking van has darkened windows and as the girl looks behind her, she feels insecure and quickens her pace when suddenly 3 men burst out with masks and all black clothing, grabs her and pushes her into the van. The van begins to shake as the men do something to the women and eventually take her to a park and attack her further. They hurt her really badly and rip her clothes of, they rape her and leave her to die.

THEMES:

• Sexual assualt driven by sexual fantasies,
• Psychological thriller
• and a sad perception of reality.

AUDIENCE: It will be an adult audience starting from 18 years to 35 years.

Script part 1

I have decided to make a basic script but also include the narrative in the script, as there will not be much speech included in our opening, this way the rest of the group will understand what I mean in the script. I will also state how long some of the shots may be, as this is vital to the effect because it will give a clue to the audience as to what is about to happen. I will now write out my script and afterwards will show it to the rest of the group and see if they want to make any changes:

SCRIPT:

(2sec shot)- 3 men getting prepared for something, looking dodgy.Audience is left in uncertainty as to what.

(5sec shot)- Girl walks along a road at night, talking with her mum in a foreign language (subtitles are included in shot). The girls name is Shadei.

shadei: "Salam maman, "(mum speaks)" are residam ghorbunet, nigaran nabash enghadr. Dirooz saate 11 sobh residam Landan, mehdi omad dumbalam foroodgah.

(2sec shot)-men putting on gloves/shirts.

shadei: Na maman nigaran nabash pool daram. Alan dooste Mehdi mano davat karde restaraunt, daram miram sare kare mehdi ke ba ham berim restaraunt.

(2sec shot)- Men putting on balaclavas/masks/aprons.

shadei: man bayad beram maman, mobilam battery nadare, az restaraunt residam khone ba telephone khone behet zang mizanam".

(2sec shot)- one of the men is shown holding a tool (maybe he could tap the tool on his hand or stroke it, creating tension and a sense of fright).

(3sec shot)- Girl still walking down the road, girl looking slightly frightened, and looks behind her to see if anyone is following her.

Our group has decided on a basic idea of what our film opening will be about:

1. Girl walking along a street at night, speaking a foreign language.
2. Men putting on gloves, shot doesnt include there faces, creating uncertainty for the audience.
3. Men take the girl.
4. Girl struggles.
5. We see another shot of men putting a balaclava/mask/something to cover there face.
6. Van screeches of.
7. Mens identity still not identified.
8. Van parks near a park.
9. They drag the girl into the middle of a forest like park.
10. They really hurt her, rip her clothes, rape her...and leave her to die.

Developing knowledge of the Thriller:

• The Thriller works by creating an air of suspense and mystery.
• Music is used to reflect mystery- (non-diegetic music is important e.g, sound effects or soundtracks)
• Narrative Enigmas- Questions in the audiences mind that need to be answered.
• Charcter function- Do we have a clearly identfied hero?, ambigous character- are they good or not?, Is the character flawed?

Narrative structure:

Equilibrium-There is often immediate disruption in Thrillers.

Disruption

Development

Resolution

In order to make an effective thriller opening our group should:

• Build up enigma, making the audience wonder what will happen next and make them uncomfortable because of the uncertainty they are made to feel. Therefore when they find out and get scared/shocked, it causes them to have a thrill.
• Use effective shots to scare the audience. A director could have the perfect story in front of him, but without the correct use of camera shots it could be worthless as the story wouldn’t be portrayed correctly. Examples of shots that I think would work well in our thriller opening would be extreme close ups, helping to build up tension and Claustrophobic close ups creating tension and unease within the audience and helps the build up of something unexpected.
• We can also create tension through the use of diegetic and non-diegetic music. Diegetic sounds are used to emphasize on realism. Diegetic sounds that could be included in our opening could be the sound of the van starting up, sound of the characters communicating, sound of tools etc. Non-diegitic soundtracks can help to build up tension and also create a shield between the audience and the action on screen. A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can also be used to create ambiguity.

What makes an effective 'Thriller'?

• Martin Rubin suggests that there is no such thing as a 'Thriller'. The 'Thriller' is in fact a Meta genre that gathers several other genres under its umbrella.


• Thriller components work better with some genres than others. It works well with spy; crime; horror but not well with musicals or war films.

In my opinion an effective thriller film should:

• Only tell the audience as much as the characters know.


• Have music building tension/mystery.


• Should keep the audience in a state of suspense and uncertainty.


• There's always unanswered questions(narrative enigmas).


• Thrillers play with the mind of the audience.
  

As our group have chosen to make an opening for a Psychological thriller, I will do some research to see what things I can learn about psychological thrillers. One film I would like to look at is Psycho (1960) which is a masterwork of suspense and horror. The acting, cinematography, editing and music in this low-budget film helps create the huge effect it makes on the audience.It shows two murders and paints a paints a disturbing portrait of a psychopathic killer.
Anthony Perkins gives a brilliant performance as Psycho's main character, Norman Bates. At first Norman seems to be an attractive, vulnerable and likable man living with his mother. But as Norman says, "We all go a little mad sometimes."
I am not sure wether Alfred Hitchcock's powerful, complex psychological thriller, Psycho is in fact a thriller or whether it is a horror. Although in essence it is still a psychological thriller, when I saw the "shower scene" I think I could seriously argue whether I would still classify it as a thriller. I think that Mrs. Bates is the antagonist of the film, given the films twisted ending, and Norman is the protagonist, but that Mrs. Bates is a true horror symbol as a knife-wielding killer.
I dont understand how they cannot classify Psycho under the Horror genre with scenes like the part when Mrs. Bates kills the investigator at the top of the stairs. I think this film definitely makes an effective thriller.

Shane Meadows- British Social Reality Dramas

Shane Meadows grew up in Uttoxeter but moved to Nottingham when he was in his 20's. Nearly all of his films are set in Nottingham. His films recall the kitchen sink realism of filmmakers such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, with a post-modern twist. Shane Meadow's films have won a few awards such as the Douglas Hichkox award at the British Independent film Awards. A room for Romeo Brass and Twenty Four Seven were inspired by Shane Meadows youth. Shane Meadows has a relaxed directing style, encouraging the actors to ad lib in order to create a better sense of reality. He is known as one of the rising stars of British Cinema. Shane Meadows constantly delves into his background to make boisterous, jovial, sometimes poignant films that only tenuously resemble anything else in the cinema of British working-class realism.

Shane Meadows uses different techniques to depict a sense of realism to communicate to his audience. The idea of local settings and use of unknown actors obliges the audience to pay attention to the storyline whereas in modern films, were big stars are used, the majority of the audience watching it are there to watch the star on screen rather than pay attention to the movie itself. This is also a technique that our group is focusing on, as we want the audience to pay attention to our story. However, our category of audience may be different to that of Shane Meadows as our story is concerning a young woman that gets taken by a group of men and is abused. The focal point of our story (like many of Shane Meadows plots) was to show a social reality, a build up to scenes of obscene abuse. This depiction of reality is used to mount up the Thrill. With a combination of narrative and camerawork, our group can create a similar realism to Shane Meadows films. Shane Meadows illustrates that major effects and huge budgets are not needed to have a huge effect on your audience.

The bourne identity was directed by Dough Liman, and was released on 6 September 2002. This movie is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum in the early 1980's at the height of the Cold War. The book has also spawned a television series and several more books. The opening of the film contains fast-paced and exciting action sequences.

Genres that are at work in this thriller are:

1) Action- Adventure:

• Stunts
• Car chase
• Violence

2) Romance:

• Love story
• Increasing danger

3) Crime:

• Identity crime
• CIA- Central Intelligence agency
• Global Crime

The opening that my group are producing uses genres that are at work in this movie. Through watching the opening of the Bourne Identity I think that it is very successful in creating tension and leaving the audience in suspense as to what is about to happen. Its use of unexpected storyline adds to the sense of tension and leaves the audience wanting more. This portrays the success of the film as it has entwined special effects with great camerawork to ensure a sense of realism and belief for the audience. Our group is aiming for our opening to have this effect on our audience, as this portrays that it would have been successful.
I noticed that the opening of the film had a constant use of darkness. I witnessed as a viewer how effective this was to watch and the group agreed about using this in our opening as it would work well with our story. Also the use of music was amazing, it fit so well with what was going on in the background and accumulated the thrill for the audience. For the audience the non-diegetic music acts as a way of distancing themselves from the events that are happening on screen. Another factor that we will consider using (that is also used in The Bourne Identity) in our opening will be the use of foreign language. We as a group believe that it makes the audience wonder in suspense. In our opening, the character of the girl that gets taken is from Iran and has come to visit someone in England, so therefore is not fluent in English. She makes a phone call to her mum back in Iran, which we were going to use subtitles for to let the audience understand what she is saying. However, we have decided to do a version with subtitles and see how well it works. If it doesn’t work we will not be using the subtitles.
It was interesting to observe how they used the car scenes and which camera shots were used. This gave our group ideas on camera angles that we could possibly use for the car scenes to create the effect that we wanted.