Our group improved significantly in planning, filming, and producing our thriller from our preliminary task to the final product. For the final product, we created detailed storyboards, used various camera shots and lighting techniques, and spent more time planning all aspects of pre-production. This resulted in higher quality filming and editing compared to our preliminary task, where we had limited planning and knowledge of using the equipment.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION

2.  Our group carried out various research tasks in an attempt to help us produce our
thriller. The use of questionnaires helped us to find out the type of people who watched
thrillers, whether young or older. Through these, we were able to find a suitable age
rating for out thriller, as previously, we were unsure as to the youngest people watch
thrillers were, in general. Other research included a focus group, which involved
younger students, the ages we used according to the questionnaire research we had
done previously. This involved using these students to explore the types of thrillers
younger people enjoyed, whether they are full of action, or suspense filled but slow.
 The prelim task helped us with the planning for actual thriller, as when we did the
prelim task we had minimal planning, a mind map and a brief idea of what we had to do,
but for our final product we planned in much more detail.
 We had 4 story ideas which we discussed with the group and decided/voted on which
one suited our genre best. We then went on to do more planning for the finer details
such as location, which was later chosen to be a friends house, an outfit, which we
decided to fit our persona as a smart young man, therefore we chose a suit to wear, and
other details which we included in smaller posts which is something we didn’t do for the
prelim task.

3.  We then created storyboards and animatic to ensure that the story we had chosen
would work and that we had a good idea about what we were doing. The storyboard
required visual instructions, timings, and a description of what we would hear and
see, on each storyboard. This not only helped us when referring to the storyboard
when I came to filming, but the person reading it, to give them an idea of the story,
which just seeing the pictures wouldn’t have done otherwise.
 In comparison to our prelim, a lot more time went into the planning of our final
product. Having more time during pre, pro and post production allowed us to go into
more depth, which can be seen through various posts. For example, the quality of
the picture was hugely improved, as in our prelim, we had only just been introduced
to the cameras and had little knowledge at how to work them properly. Changing
white balance to indoors/ custom, helped the camera know it’s whites from its other
colours and it’s warm colours from it’s cold.
 We remembered from our prelim that the camera’s settings had to be adapted for
the bathroom scene. We needed to change the white balance because the indoor
lighting settings were different to the outdoors.

4. The camera is not focused on the character, but with
a lack of time, this could not be resolved and it was
used how it is.
The mirrored windows left the
camera reflection in shot, and our
lack of awareness during filming
meant we didn’t realise this.
Our lack of planning of the location we were going to
film in, and the time we had, left us with a high
traffic location meaning people passed as we filmed,
and were in most of our shots.
A positive of our prelim was conforming to the 180 degree
rule. By not following the 180 degree rule, you may put the
viewer off as it could confuse them.

5.  When using a Canon and tripod in our preliminary, we found it difficult to
get a smooth 180 degree angle turn. It was difficult to swerve the
camera, when the character walked swiftly towards his business partner,
which can be seen when the camera slightly jolts when trying to
incorporate the whole setting of the seating area. We were unsure as to
which settings we needed for the Canon because it was one of our
 These mistakes show examples of our lack of knowledge at that stage
when filming our preliminaries, which is why it was far from successful.
For our first time using the equipment and discovering what we could do,
we gave it a good effort and the conventional idea worked in our favour
as it was easy to try and film. For the small amount of time we were
given, an hour and forty minutes, for pre production to plan our prelim,
we successfully got on with an idea. We then had around double this time
to then carry out the production stage and pro production, to edit and
adjust our raw footage that we had just recorded.

6. In our preliminary task we were unaware of the contrast in
lighting on either side of the door but due to having a
limited amount of time to film we were unable to go back
and fix this
In Addition, despite having a camera capable of filming
1080p the footage appeared grainy the reason for this
was because our camera was zoomed in and our aperture
was too low which meant that we had to compensate for
this by using ISO which is artificial increases the
brightness making the image grainy.

7. As you can see in top two images the 180 degree rule is being followed. It is
important that the conversation is filmed over the right shoulder of one person
and the left shoulder of the other person as otherwise it will appear as though
both characters are on the same side which throws off the viewer as seen with
the bottom two images.
180 degree rule
followed
180 degree rule not
followed
In addition our over
the shoulder shots
were not in fact
filmed over the
shoulder but to the
side of each
character. If we were
to go back and re-film
this scene we would
film directly over the
should but still
include the side of
the head and top of
shoulder

8. The filming of our opening needed a lot of concentration, because
the main bulk of the thriller intro was primarily the persona shaving
straight on, we needed to correct all details and make sure things
were not out of place. The close us on the shaving of the moustache
was captured well, as it is well focused and looks professional.
We became aware of what was in our shot,
removing anything which may have looked
out of place or unprofessional.
When shooting different shots, we used our experience and ideas as a group to
decide what equipment to use, where to shoot and how. This panning shot was
created through the group deciding the tripod’s height, the brightness of the room
and the smoothness of the take was done through taking our time and a steady
hand.
We followed our storyboard
and planning, and the
outcome was successful.

9.  Our use of specific shots have improved we have used a range of these including medium close up,
extreme close up, mid shot, POV shot, depth of field and panning shots that are typical to the
thriller genre to create an air of suspense and mystery.
 Another improvement we found was the use of lighting, because we were able to use LED lights
with filters to create atmosphere in our setting and to highlight certain features and objects. In
addition to learning how to control natural lighting, with no glare, we were taught about three
point lighting and how to create a professional lighting sense.
 We kept to our plan and were successful in re creating our storyboard/ animatic.

10. For our preliminary task we used a clipboard to
resemble important information which was being
passed over
ACTUAL FILMPRELIM
For our film opening we used a razor as our main protagonist had to shave
in the opening scene

11. For our film opening we used non-copyright music
which is available for free download from the
official YouTube site
For our preliminary task we used the audio
line from the canon DSLRs which were
attached to the original footage, because of
this the sound was muffled by the wind which
made the film sound less professional

12.  We used the LED lights and 3 point lighting technique which we didn’t use before in the prelim
task. And finally we used various different software's in post production to create our final product
for example we used Photoshop for our production logo, final cut pro for our actual footage, and
the inbuilt photo booth in order to film our podcasts and the reactions of others to our thriller
opening. These were used successfully in both video and audio editing.
EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE FOR
ACTUAL FILMING
USED FOR BOTH
PRELIMINARY AND
ACTUAL FILMING
Used for
backlight
Used for key
light/fill light