This document summarizes what the author learned from creating a preliminary film task to producing a full thriller film product. Initially, the author knew basic editing skills, some shot types, film industry stereotypes and how films were created. Through the process, the author learned fundamentals of thriller openings, more thriller subgenres, better organization skills, additional camera shot types, and advanced editing techniques. Key areas that improved included understanding conventions for suspenseful thriller openings, learning various thriller subgenres beyond just horror, implementing a production schedule for organization, analyzing different camera shots, and using effects, transitions and advanced editing in iMovie.

1. Looking back at my preliminary task,
what do I feel I have learned in the
progression from it to the full product?
By Jacob Fairfax

2. At the start I knew…
 Basic editing skills
 Some shot types, for example: Long shot, close up and medium shot.
 Some stereotypes in the film industry.
 How films were created
 Major film institutions

3. From this process I leant…
 Fundamentals of a thriller opening.
 More types of thriller subgenres.
 Organisation.
 Most shot types.
 More advanced editing skills.

4. Fundamentals of Thriller Openings
At the start of the thriller making process I researched the conventions of a thriller opening which we tried to
use in our thriller to keep our film as suspenseful as possible. Some of the student’s thriller openings did not
have all of these fundamentals and made their films not as suspenseful. A blog post shows what the
fundamentals of the thrillers are. Some include:
 Dark Lighting to show fear
 Scenes that do not make sense
 A range of props
 Non-diegetic sound to show emotion
 A narrative.
 A small amount of characters
 Gloomy or run-down location
 A range of camera shots.
These conventions were used in a variety of ways, with the run down location and the narrative of our radio
presenter to show what is happening, a range of props like a stool, a chair and much more. The instrumental
music for suspense, only 3 characters, with only two shown and low and high angle shots to show power. The
reasons why to use these shots are shown on one of my first blogs.

5. Types of Thriller genres
At the beginning of the thriller opening making process The thriller subgenres I knew were only horror
and just normal thrillers. However, from this thriller opening process I have learned there are many
different subgenres, these include:
 Psychological Thriller
 Action Thriller
 Horror Thriller
 Crime Thriller
 Science-fiction Thriller
 Film-Noir
 Religious Thriller
 Political Thriller
 Supernatural Thriller
These are a lot of different type of thriller subgenres and they all have there own little technique which
makes them unique, although they do all have some fundamentals, As stated on the previous slide.

6. Organisation
At the beginning of the year, I was very unorganised and did not think that many
things were needed to be completed before even starting to record the thriller,
one of these things include a production schedule to keep organisation in the
whole cast as sometimes people are not as reliable as first anticipated, so we
needed to have back-up filming days just in case some of the cast could not
make to the location at the time required.

7. Camera Shots
This process began with me knowing basic shots like; close-up shot, long shot,
and Point-of-View shot (POV) and that was really the extent of my knowledge.
However, now after the whole process I now know a lot more camera shots and
the reasons behind using those shots. With this knowledge, I believe that it has
helped my analysing skills substantially as I can state why they used those angles
and what it could portray and foreshadow in the future of the whole thriller
opening.

8. Advanced editing skills
The beginning of the process I only knew basic editing skills such as; cutting clip
and combining them to create a film, aligning the sound and clips. However,
after this process I leant how to use iMovie to a relatively high standard, whereas
at the start of the process I only knew how to use Camtasia and a little bit of
Sony Vegas. Now I know how to fade in music and how to use transactions and
titles effectively, with effecting the brightness and hue and saturation which can
help with effecting of lighting and help with the suspense of the thriller opening,
and finally why match on action and 180 degree rule to create sense in the
thriller opening.