Filming - Thriller!

It may seem early, but my group and I began filming last Monday! We filmed 95% of our wanted footage we need, plus more! We filmed the same scene multiple times in order to choose which one looks best. We still have some scenes left to film, as when we looked back over our footage, we hadn't achieved the right shot or the effect we wanted wasn't clear. However, since we began filming quite a while before our deadline, it gives us the opportunity to re-film some scenes and have a play around with the editing, enabling us to get the exact shot and effect we want for our target audience.

Target Audience.

After thoroughly researching why films are given age ratings, what the age ratings mean and what can be shown in a film with a certain age rating, my group and I decided to give our film the age rating of 15. We decided this was most appropriate, as within a film given the certificate age of 15, there can be large amounts of strong language. Violence may be strong, however it must not dwell on infliction of pain or injury. Strong gory images are not likely to be acceptable. However, strong threat and horror is allowed, as long as there's no sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat. 

Things which could be included in a 15 film are: 

• strong violence.
• drug taking.
• frequent strong language.
• portrayals of sexual activity.
• strong verbal references to sex.
• sexual nudity.
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence.
• discriminatory language or behaviour. 

We feel that a 15 will be appropriate for our film, as the theme of out thriller is stalker, and is therefore a psychological thriller. We feel that there wont be any strong language or sexual violence within the film, however while the psychological side effects wont be massive, we feel that any age rating under 15 would be inappropriate, as the theme of the film may be unsuitable for a young audience. We also feel that if the age rating was any lower than 12, we would be restricted with the contents we could include, and therefore the film would lose the theme of a thriller, and therefore wouldn't create the effect we intend to create. 

In some way or another, we would need to market our film, and therefore we have several ideas how we could do that. As our thriller is a 15, we feel that marketing our film through the internet and social media would be acceptable. We would initially try and attract our audience by advertising it on posters, or a trailer on youtube or TV. Also, by creating some sort of social media account to advertise our film would also be useful, as it's free and social media is a quick and easy way to get something known worldwide within minutes. 

Age Rating's.

Pitch.

As part of our research and planning, we had to make a one page pitch, and present it to our teachers. We set up two cameras, and filmed both our answers, and their questions. We then edited this in Premiere Pro, in order to help develop our editing skills ready for our final piece.

Storyboard.

We have came up with a (pretty much) solid idea as to what we are going to have as our opening to our thriller. We intend to follow our storyboard as much as we can, however we are also allowing for any thing which may change if it doesn't look right or work when filming. We made a storyboard to make our ideas more final, and to make our lives much easier when it comes to filming, so we know what to do when. Even though our drawing may not be outstanding, we tried to add as much written detail as we could. 

Pitch.

As part of our research and planning, we had to make a pitch to 'Welch and Spalding Films' in order to 'sell' our film. We made a plan of what we were going to include in our pitch, with things such as; the title of our film, and how we are going to make it different to everyone else's film. 

Textual Analysis: Buried

Buried is a 2010 film directed by Rodrigo Cortés. 

The beginning of the titling sequence begins as a black screen, with letters in small, bold white and auburn font fading in. This then continues into spelling the name of the production company. This stays in the beginning of the screen for a couple of seconds, showing the importance of the production company. The letters then begin floating up towards the top of the screen before disappearing, creating the feeling for the audience that they are moving down through the ground, progressively getting deeper and deeper. As this is happening, the next title comes up from the bottom of the screen in the same dirty-auburn colour. 

This continues like this for the next couple of titles, until 5 chunky strips come up from the bottom of the screen, pushing the last title out of the way. Four of these lines are in a camel/auburn colour, whilst the other one looks as if it is inside a cave underground. This continues whilst the names of the main cast are shown, with the strips being different widths and frequency. However, the same colour theme stays throughout, with the recurring strips of a photograph of underground. This suggests that the film is going to involve a cave underground, perhaps someone being trapped. 

These strips of colour continue to movie up the screen, whilst the background changes from black to what looks as if an image of dried mud. The overall background theme stays really dark, however the strips of colour fade into the title 'buried', which appears in bold capital letters, made from the images from inside the cave. 

The music which accompanies the titling sequence, is a discordant sound, and the pace quickens the further into the titling sequence, therefore suggesting that the further into the film, the more tense the film gets and the more suspense is created. The music creates suspense for the audience, as it get gets more high pitched instruments the closer to the title you get. When the word 'buried' appears on screen, the music suddenly slows down, with the music becoming much deeper and quieter.