Convention Of A Thriller Film Genre.

According to Writersdigest.com (http://www.writersdigest.com/qp7-migration-conferencesevents/qp7-migration-maui/10-basic-ingredients-of-a-successful-thriller)  the essential ingredients to a thriller are:

•you need a good story. 

•have the story told from the point of view of the person with the most to lose. 

•try and have multiple points of view, as this allows the audience inside multiple characters heads. 

•immediately open your thriller with an action theme, then include the character information later. 

• make it clear early on what the protagonist wants, and what he fears. 

•the main characters have to change emotionally thoughout the film. 

According to justicemitchell.com (http://justicemitchell.com/justice-mitchell/2010/8/23/horrorthriller-movies-the-key-ingredients-to-fear.html) they believe the essential ingredients of a thriller are: 

• make an everyday task frightening.

•try and make a scene scary in the day.

•try and make a scene thrilling without a musical build up. 

Beginning of Research And Planning.

Recently, we began the 'research and planning' stage of filming our final piece.

Me, Lois, Carmel and D'arby have decided to work as a group to produce the opening to a thriller, as we worked so well together on our preliminary task. 

In our past few lessons, we began our research. We looked at openings to thrillers, to see if we could get any inspiration from them. We looked at films such as 'the purge' and 'Anna'. We thought about several different camera shots we are potentially going to use, and different possible location ideas. 

We brainstormed our ideas, for future references and ideas.

Titling Practice.

After we finished our preliminary task, we were asked to complete a titling task, which just involved adding a title sequence to a clip of film, either our own preliminary task, or just a random clip. We could work on our own or in pairs. 

Lois and I worked together, and with neither of us having ever done titling before, it was quite difficult. It took many attempts, however we eventually managed to add an opening title to our piece. 

Barthes' Narrative Codes.

Barthes' narrative codes help describe the meaning of the narrative. There's 5 different codes, which are:

• Action Code: The audience will recognise an action code in a media text as it is used to indicate what is the next logical step in the narrative.

• Mystery Code or Enigma Code: This code is used to control what and how much information is given to the audience to explain the narrative. It helps grab the audience's attention, by setting up a problem which is resolved during the course of the narrative.

• Semic Code: This code is about signs and meanings to help tell us about its narrative and characters. For example,there may be garlic to symbolise the supernatural.

• Cultural Code: This code is used to help the narrative make sense to a culturally and socially aware audience. It makes reference to elements form the real world, such as the language something is spoken in or written in on the screen.

• Code of Oppositions: This code refers to a narrative that relies on binary opposites.

Whilst we didn't understand or know what Barthes' codes were whilst we were filming our preliminary task, we did subconsciously use some of the codes

We used the action code, when the protagonist was walking through the door, as you could see her put her hand on the handle, suggesting she was about to walk through the door.
We used the mystery code, when antagonist kidnaps the victim and ties her up in the cupboard, as the audience don't know why she has been kidnapped, and therefore this grabs the audience's attention, and this will be resolved later in the narrative.
We used the cultural code, as the film was shot in school, therefore suggesting that the girl who got kidnapped was educated, showing the audience that they're from at least a working class background. This gives the audience indication as to what society the characters are from.
We used the code of oppositions as we used a protagonist and antagonist, therefore our piece relies on binary opposites, as the two characters are contrasted. We could have developed this further by deciding specifically that the antagonist would wear dark clothes, and the protagonist wearing much more brighter coloured clothes.

However, when filming our piece, we didn't include the semic code. We could have included a symbol to suggest why the victim got kidnapped, or to emphasise the fact it was a thriller. This is something we will have to include specifically when filming our final task.

Finished Preliminary Piece.

Preliminary Task Evaluation.

This is a link to my evaluation of my preliminary task. 

http://www.slideshare.net/tasminejade/preliminary-task-evaluation-41024246