Angel Cafe Final Cut

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Question 1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

The media product produced reinforces many conventions involved in the thriller genre. Some of these generic conventions involve; criminals, a menacing female, cops, femme fatale, drug addicts (find out in the rest of the plot, not in the opening) and aspects of greed, for example, the girl taking the money out of the till for her own personal use. By creating a mysterious character with
an enigma, it presents a twist on the average story line. In a
genre such as the Thriller genre, this is a very important part. For example, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we find out at the very end of the film, that a case Blomkvist has been looking into for months, he finds out she is alive and living in another county. However by making the female character have a devious, dishonest side, by stealing money from the till, she doesn't seem so blameless and angelic. The idea of her being a little twisted and distorted came from the influence of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander is a powerful character with her own intentions. She is very independent woman who has had to fend for herself a lot of the time.

The character in ‘Angel Café’ has to be independent and fend for herself as well, Lisbeth was a big influence on our character in this respect. She is an up-to-date valid representative image and definition of a femme fatal, she is alluring, mysterious and rebellious, she can stand on her own two feet and defend herself. Femme fatale’s are very common in the

thriller genre. For example, Janet in Psycho, is in some respect a femme fatale. The image of Janet in the shower just before she is murdered, shows her in-ability to move or go anywhere. She is trapped in the corner of the shower.

We linked the idea of claustrophobia into our thriller, seeing as that is a general fear among our target audience. In the ‘Angel Café’ we have put the female role in some of

for the female role in our thriller, the fridge in which she is locked in.

Yet another influence for the small confined spaces was the Toilet murder scene in Witness. The little boy has only the toilet cubicles to protect him from a killer that he has just watched murder someone.

In the 'Angel Cafe' this could be the case with Agnes and Adrian, he OR she could be the murder, trying to protect one's self from the harm the other could do to them.

Another influence came from Essex Boys scene where they kidnap a man from the fish market and contain him in the

back of a white van. The colour white represents surrender and to

the same situations as Janet was. For example, confined spaces, in Janet’s case, the shower and bathroom where she is murdered, and some extent, surrender and weakness.

I think the use of confined spaces, it is not only a generic convention of the thriller, but it works very well with the plot of our

opening. The influence we have taken on board was a great help when it came to choosing a small space.We felt that a fridge fitted in well with the rest of the location. The

girl took the money from the till, which makes it possible for her to be a killer, however her age may restrict this thought. Most of our target audience would probably see the man as the killer. The fridge that is used in ‘Angel Café’ is white, signifying that she

would rather admit to what she has done rather than in Janet’s case, be killed.

The lighting we use and the final effect of the frames in Black & White, it portrays the noir film image to the audience. It also makes the opening into a more adult and independent style film, due to the wash out of colour. With the colour it would make it look more like an unprofessional production. It also means that inter-textual references were easier to find and achieve. When editing it was easier to edit the brightness settings when the film was in black and white as the brightness transitions were a lot simpler and more subtle. Generally 'Angel Cafe' looks better in black and white.

The costumes fit well within the Thriller genre, especially the Noir sub-genre of Thriller. The final choice of costumes was decided on a traditional look for the man, a long dark coat and hat for the male role. The main influence on the costumes was probably from The Third Man. The characters Harry Lime and Holly Martins were the ideal image for our male role of Adrian Doyle, a middle aged man, with a wide rimmed hat and a long dark coat. For the female, we picked a traditional waitress's costume, however a leopard print fur coat. We thought this would be

recognisable for the rest of the film. It also gives her a different side. When she has the coat on, she is being deviant and not the blameless youth she was. Whilst wearing the coat, she steals the money and gets locked in the fridge. It almost foreshadows that something unfortunate for that character in particular will happen when she puts it on. The leopard print shows she has a ‘wild’ side, contradicting her stereotypical image of a young girl being, care-free. The inspiration for this character’s costume was Eve from Once Up-

on a Time In America. Despite Eve being glamorous and laden with pearls and the girl in ‘Angel Café’ not being so rich, we can still make the link via costumes. Eve wears a silk blouse and a long expensive coat, which she takes off before she is shot. In our thriller it is the other way round.

When planning, the final decision was to film in a cafe, with an inter-textual reference to The Third Man, when Holly Martins is in the cafe waiting for Harry Lime. Half way through The Third Man, The main character Harry Lime is introduced whom everyone believed to be dead. On the decision of using this idea of the café being our location for our Thriller, knowing that is it not a stereotypical location for this particular genre but generic due to the enclosed spaces and could be potentially threatening. Despite this film, filming in a cafe isn't that aspect challenges yet fits ironically well with the general genre.

Question 7

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

The learning curve I have experienced in media has been huge. All of the aspects have been large factors to apply or treat as a rule to the edit, the shoot, and the planning.

To start, maybe one of the most important rules is the 180 degree rule. This was enforced during the filming of the preliminary task and all three shoots of the thriller opening. When finished filming the preliminary task and got onto editing, we had realised that we needed to shoot some more footage because we had broken the 180 degree rule. Continuity was then therefore an issue. We had to wear exactly the same clothes, and have everything exactly how it was the day before.

Leading on from this, shot reverse shot and camera angles were of utmost importance in media. If you don't plan the shots by either creating a shot list or a story board then you are gambling your shoot and the time you have used may have been. wasted completely. The importance of a range of camera shots, is to show your ability and skill when using the camera. It also improves the look of your film because it highlights different aspects of your film, whether it be the dominance of a character through a low angle shot or a facial feature via an extreme close up.

The importance of a cliffhanger was noted when we were editing the preliminary task. We had a clear cliffhanger, and it was memorable. However in the thriller opening, we had a choice as to what our cliffhanger was. It could have been the girl taking the money out of the till, or the man locking her in the fridge. I think it was good to have been able to have that choice of cliffhangers, rather than having one and not be happy with it. I am happy with our final cliffhanger, we have involved 3 major moments in the film; Adrian entering the cafe, Agnes stealing the money from the till, Agnes getting locked in the freezer by Adrian.

Appropriate titles are also important. To have silly titles would have made our efforts look poor and make them look amateur, however by having professional consistent titles, this sharpens the film and gives it an edge. Involving titles like 'Produced by...' 'a film by...' 'sounds by...' and the actors name, makes it professional. The titles are a feature that complete the final cut. Without them, it would look a little empty and unprofessional.

One thing I did find challenging was shooting the footage with three people (including myself) and editing with it being just Alex and I. I found helping each other out frustrating because our edits were very similar and therefore needed to avoid repeating what I had already done to my footage to Lauren's. Our thrillers are independent and quite different but it was still a personal challenge.

This is the footage we didn't use. FOOTAGE

We didn't use this, because of several reasons; The male actor, the location, the lighting, the camera angles/shots.

The male actor was to young for the kind of character we were going for. He was also to slim. We realised this when we tried to edit our material, instead of using shots of both the male actors, we only used one, we completely disregarded this material.

The location was too small. Despite generic thriller having enclosed small spaces involved in them, this space was not at all big enough. We struggled to fit the tripod into the room. This affected the quality of our camera shots and limited us to very few spaces to place the tripod.

As mentioned before in previous questions, lighting was a huge issue in the first thriller shoot. It was winter, so it got dark early, we were not in a well lit area, which meant we had to somehow create non-ambient lighting which was impossible. So filming inside was our only option. When we filmed our other shots for the second and third times, it was January/early February and therefore it was lighter in the evenings, we also were at a different location, the area was well lit as we were in the middle of a town and we had access to reflectors and a powerful torch.

The strengths of my production are specifically the camera shots chosen in the final edit. We chose a great range of filmed shots, ranging from low angle, close up, tracking, etc. I think the choice to put the film in Black & White and make it a noir thriller was one of the best ideas. It washes out the unwanted colour of the mise-en-scene. After asking a few people their opinion on Noir or colour, a majority of the vote was noir, so we went with our target audience's opinion.

The weaknesses of my production are the focus of the camera in some of the shots. In some shots we zoomed in, instead of moving the camera closer which means that the shots are a little blurry.

The most important factor I have learnt about film making is the importance of planning. If I'd have planned the shoot properly the first time around, we wouldn't have had to have filmed 3 times, maybe only 2. It came down to not posting about the cast and changing the location on the second shoot. Also we had to travel quite a long way to reach our locations which meant they were harder to get to. A thorough plan means that your shoot will run smoothly and to plan. If i was to repeat this then I would set the location first and the actors and build my project around those factors. Changing the location and the actors half way through the filming was hard to adapt to.

I have learnt so much from this project and hope to continue to learn more and more for the rest of the course.

Question 6

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Working with technologies such as digital cameras (etc) has taught me that if you plan a film well enough, it will run smoothly. However after filming our opening 3 times, we learnt as we went on, experience is a big part of learning about filming which is where the preliminary task worked well to introduce us to using cameras and editing the material.

When editing the preliminary task, it was relatively simple. However we did not have to include transitions such as cross-fade. Also we did not have to use a soundtrack running underneath the footage.

During the construction of this product, I understand the importance of practicing stills and camera angles, also knowing how your camera works. I completed the main camera angle stills early on in the course and therefore was pretty confident on how those shots were supposed to look, this was not the case with the video camera shots though. If we had practiced before, not including the preliminary task, we may have only had to have done 2 shoots, instead, we did 3 and ended up getting very frustrated with the duff shots.

The sequence of shots is very important, especially when editing into such an adult genre such as a Noir Thriller film. I learnt that the pace of the opening has to be consistent to encapsulate the audience and encourage them to watch the rest of the film. In the final edit of the 'Angel Cafe' we used mostly the 'cross-fade' and 'cross-dissolve' effects, also 'fade to black' to transition the clips. 'Fade to black' gives the illusion of passing time. In the 'Angel Cafe' before the final edit there were quite a lot of long walking shots. We solved this by fading the clip to back, it makes it appear like time has passed since the last clip was shown, and allows you to crop the clip to a further extent.

I learnt that camera angles are one of the best things in your arsenal when filming. The shot alone can imply something that you don't have to spell out. For example, in 'Angel Cafe' we see the male role of Adrian Doyle walk past the window, however the camera is on the outside and he is inside the cafe. This suggests that they are alone together, and isolated from the rest of the world. They are trapped in. This is much like the shot of Holly Martins in The Third Man when he is sat in the window and the camera is on the outside filming him from the other side of the glass.

In the amount of time our thriller has to fit in (2 minutes) and due to the sub-genre of our thriller opening (Noir) we decided not to incorporate flash backs or flash forwards because of the plot. It would over-complicate the existing story line.

In the final edit, we laid the black and white filter over the top of the original colour. It sophisticates our opening sequence.

When we initially set out to shoot 'Angel Cafe' we were filming strictly by what we had planned on the shot list. This was not the best thing to have done, after filming another two times, we realised a lot of compulsive ideas come when you're on the set filming. Our FIRST SHOOT was unsuccessful for the reasons that there was not enough light when we filmed the darker parts of the thriller, for example, when she is looking for the keys at the end and he grabs her shoulder. It was too dark to edit the brightness of the frames and change the look of the shot. This was one of the main reasons why we had to abandon the whole shoot. We had also filmed all of the wrong shots. We were adamant that mid-shots were the way forward when we should have referred to our research, then would have realised that close ups, high and low angles were the right choice. This we carried forward to our second and third shoot.

I have had quite a lot of editing experience, and find that essentially most editing programmes are very similar. After already having experience with Adobe Elements via the Preliminary Task, i found editing this quite simple. However we had to involve more transitions and cuts, titles and sound edits. Placing the titles was the one of the hardest parts of the edit. We had the sound title at the beginning and it simply did not look right. We tried shuffling the words about to see if that would change our opinion on it, it did not. I suggested moving it further down the timeline of our edit, and it turned out to look better because of the composure of the shot.

The titles process was one of the quickest processes in the whole ensemble of them. After coming up with production company names etc, we got onto Adobe Elements and designed some. We tried 3/4 different looks for each title but decided on a consistent font for all of them. The titles are all white, contrasting the dark image of the opening. They suggest the surrender and objection from the victim Agnes in 'Angel Cafe'.

The sound was easy enough to find, we were initially going to do a blurred sound of the radio in the cafe on in the background as non-diegetic sound, but during the filming sessions forgot to involve a clip of a radio and therefore the audience may not understand that was the intention. However, knowing that we wanted a slow creepy soundtrack for the first sound when the characters and their situations are being introduced. But then we decided on a more intense sound for the cliffhanger. We found these sounds by typing into sound cloud, 'Creepy Piano' for the first one and 'Tension' for the second. We have snippets of diegetic sound during the clip however wanted something to go on top to increase the tension in the audience and throughout the opening.

Question 4

WHO WOULD THE AUDIENCE BE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

The primary target audience for our thriller 'Angel Cafe', was aimed at young women between the ages of 16-25. Young people feel the effect of fear and what triggers their fears when watching films like 'Angel Cafe'.

Despite the thriller being an old style, Noir thriller, which is an adult sub-genre, it would appeal to young people, women in particular, because one of the main roles in our thriller is female. She is deviant and dishonest, yet appears helpless and dependent on other people.

The phobias and fears that appear in our thriller that may effect the target audience are, claustrophobia, stalking and helplessness. Also the fear of being found out or found guilty. This especially applies to young people in their teenage years as the go through the rebellion stages.

The fear of being followed and watched is one that effects everyone. The idea of an extra presence and being alone is one that haunts people. This can also confuse the audience, but purposely. For example in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, this film has a slightly deceptive plot, it tricks the audience into thinking someone has been dead for 40 years, yet they are alive.

Our target audience would be quite intelligent, either still be in school, further education or job training. The rest of our plot for the thriller is a little complex and would need concentration and focus to wholly understand what is going on. It all starts where the girl takes the money out of the till.

I don't think the target group would like films where there is no outcome or no systematic story line, for example, a chick flick film like Bridget Jones. Our thriller is similar to The Third Man, and maybe Thelma and Louise, because of the link to women trying to fend for themselves and have the Femme Fatale image. Other films that are similar to 'Angel Cafe' are; Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Thelma & Louise, and Sunset Boulevard.

Question 2

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

In the 'Angel Cafe' opening, there are two characters, of different genders. They represent two very different social groups within society. They are both representative in the way that the stereotypes still exist today and are still present in a lot of people. However, they put an individual twist on stereotypes, especially the character Agnes as she challenges the conventions of a young teenage girl, deceptive, and dishonest.

The male role in 'Angel Cafe' is stereotypically an older middle aged man involved in dodgy

that come with it, for example, bad mouthing in the street, abusive to women, often drunk and uncivil. The representation in 'Angel cafe' is a very traditional image of how a middle aged manbusiness, and often associated with the drugs trade. He has been in and out of prison all of his life and cannot leave the trade. He is an older thug like person and the fact that he is a male reinforces the dominance of the male gender and the associations

may have been in the late 40's, the long dark coat and wide rimmed hat place him straight into the

shoes of Harry Lime in the Third Man, this was an intentional inter-textual reference within the opening of the thriller.

Some of his character traits are also similar to Harry Lime's. For example, the shifty behavior and always lurking in the shadows. The costume is a tribute to The Third Man and Noir Thriller traditions. This aside, his costume connotes wealth, vanity and social status. The rich coat is long and hiding the expensive watch, golden chains and bracelets exploiting his wealth and reflecting his vanity. His social status symbol is his hat, showing that he wears it inside even though it is a warm environment. It is polite that people take their hats off when they enter a building, however assuming he is above everyone else in the room stereotypically is associated with the upper class.

The female character in the thriller opening isn't the traditional image of a femme fatale. The character is deviant in that she takes the money from the till, but still appears blameless, hardworking and angelic. Another trait of a femme fatale is portrayed when she gets locked in the fridge by the man. This was influenced by when The Bride in Kill Bill is buried alive in the coffin. The actress that played the

female role had coloured skin, this also puts a twist on the traditional femme fatale image and makes it more edgy by challenging the image as well as the actions and expectations. Another lead female role in a thriller is Jackie Brown. Jackie is deviant in her actions, this has had influence on the character of Agnes, on breaking the mold of femme fatale's by twisting their image a little. It is edgy and challenges the representation of women in the thriller genre.

The characters in 'Angel Cafe' twist the social stereotypes, however keeping in form of the character's personality. Also when creating the characters, the target audience had to be considered and to understand what they would like to see from the characters they are watching and following through the rest of the film.

Target Audience

The primary target audience for our thriller, 'Angel Cafe', was aimed at young women between the ages of 16-25. Young people feel the effect of fear and what triggers their fears when watching films like 'Angel Cafe'.

Despite the thriller being an old style, Noir thriller, which is quite an adult sub-genre, it would appeal to young people, women in particular, because one of the main roles in our thriller is female. She is deviant and dishonest, yet appears helpless and dependent on other people.

The phobias and fears that appear in our thriller that may effect the target audience are, claustrophobia, stalking. Helplessness is another fear in our thriller film and also the fear of being found out or guilty. This could especially apply to young people, particularly in teenage years as the go through rebellion stages.

The fear of being followed and watched is one that effects everyone. The idea of an extra prescience and being alone is one that haunts people. This can also confuse the audience, but purposely, for example, in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo this film has a slightly deceptive plot, it tricks the audience into thinking someone is dead, when really they are alive.

Our target audience would probably be quite intelligent, either still in school or at university or training for a job. The rest of our plot for the thriller is a little complex and would need concentration and focus to w holey understand what is going on. It all starts from when the female character takes the money out of the till.

I don't think the target group would like films where there is no outcome or no systematic story line, for example, a chick flick film e.g. Bridget Jones. I think our thriller would have the same kind of audience as The Third Man, maybe Thelma and Louise because of the link to women trying to fend for themselves and the Femme Fatal image, and finally Kill Bill.

Casting *UNFINISHED*

In the style of the thriller genre, we thought that the criminally influenced man should be an older unshaven thug-type. Lauren kindly volunteered her dad, Alan Burton. Alan fits the role of Adrian Doyle very acutely. He fits the 'Harry Lime' look, the older criminally influenced man.


The female in our thriller has the 'butter-wouldn't-melt' look, she appears blameless and lawful. However when she takes the money from the till, it should put a different spin and perspective on her character. I hope she would appear dishonest, insidious and somewhat corrupt. We cast Kaya Maplestone. By casting Kaya it may also suggest some racial hatred. For example in Jackie Brown, she fends for herself, is the friend of some and the enemy of others.

This Is England '86 2/3

The film This Is England uses the same cast as this later TV series. The beginning of this clip in my opinion is beautiful and one of my favourite openings, it is gentle and shows tragic beauty.

• The first few shots have only diegetic sound, the tides and the seagulls. They show derelict buildings and warehouses, from neglect. It cuts to a well composed shot of the sunset over the water.
• To contrast this beauty, it then cuts to a disturbing shot of a blood stained leather seat, followed by a hand, and then Shaun’s face gazing at the driver. Following these shots, they suggest that the driver has killed someone in his own car with his bare hands, and Shaun admires him and idolises him for this heroic act. Shaun has been manipulated by this grown man to do what is wrong and criminal.
• It cuts to a shot of the driver, character called Combo, with blood on his shirt. However he hangs his head, which suggests he is not proud of what has happened. This could change the audience’s perception of Shaun. He is still a little boy and doesn’t understand what has happened, scared.
• As soon as they talk it is a cultural signifier accustomed to their accent, stereotypically in TV drama’s much like This Is England ’86, this implies that they are the working-class/under-class suffering from poverty and deprivation. Shameless is similar in that the people living on the estate have accents and those who came to evict them, spoke well with good grace.
• The clips suggest that Shaun and Combo are similar and not much differs bar their age, however the shot of the front of the car showing them sat in it, suggests that however similar they may appear, they are two different people.
• Shaun gets out of the car and says “Bye Combo”. This suggests that Shaun has left him, now he has no one to help him with his troubles. Why is a grown man needing help from a young boy anyway?
• The shot of Shaun standing in the rain suggests that maybe he has no where to go and no one to talk to much like the character Combo. Or it could suggest that he has washed Combo and his issues away and is starting fresh like a new drop of water. 

Skins opening clip 1/3

SKINS (4.19-5.34)

Each of the characters that are shown highlight something that represents them, by doing this is gives a clear understanding and to some extent and expectation of what we have to expect from them as individuals.

• The scene starts with the character Tony walking to college. His surroundings are middle-class terrace houses which suggests that he and his family hold middle class norms and values.
• Tony makes a call and the camera cuts to a phone vibrating on a dirty plate with the butt of a used cigarette. Immediately this shows a different lifestyle to Tony’s and suggests that this character, Sid, has the norms and values from the working-class. Sid then uses language carelessly that would stereotypically be used less in the middle-class, for example, Tony and his family.
• He makes another call immediately, this suggests that he is organised and trying to get other people to help him and maybe manipulate them to some extent. The next call he makes is to Chris, from his answer phone message he seems quite immature so this suggests he has working-class values much like Sid.
• The third call he makes is to Jal, she is practising her clarinet when he calls and answers annoyed that he interrupted her. From purely the fact that she plays the clarinet suggests that she has middle/upper-class values, she is up early to practise her instrument and when he calls, it is still her main priority.
• The next call is from Michelle, who is in her towel applying moisturiser to her legs. Beauty and care are the things that represent Michelle. From the phone call it also establishes that she is willing to help out other people, this could be a middle-class value. From the look of her surroundings, they suggest her family is fairly well off and ultimately a middle-class family. 

How is Class Represented in the Shameless Clip

Shameless, is directed by Peter Lydon, written by Paul Abbott & Daniel Brockhurst. Its first broadcast was in January 2005.  It follows the lives of the residents of Chatsworth Estate in Manchester. The show is still airing on live TV 7 years later & are on the 9^th series.

The initial thought of shameless is highlighting that all working-class citizens are the same as the characters. However despite this first image, many of the characters show upper class values despite their life being working/under-class. The character Frank Gallagher portrays an image of self-destruction via alcohol and drugs, despite him nodding towards ‘political correctness’.  In contrast, they show the upper-class to be aspirational, privileged and legitimate.

Without looking too deeply into the characters of shameless, it portrays the characters as working/under-class people. For example the first impression of Frank would be that he is an alcoholic, who smokes and doesn’t care much for his own children. However when Frank is in the pub with his two children, he stubs out his cigarette when he says “Put your stamp on them” suggesting he is not that bothered about his children or maybe Frank resents them.

The conditions they live in are a classic case of anomie and polarisation. The programme is almost anarchic, in the best sense. It is out of the ordinary and highlights a contrast between different programmes and the diversity in target audiences. However, one aspect that goes un-noticed is that despite the poverty and material deprivation, they all seem to stick together and act as community and fight for what they believe in.

In the first shot we see a two shot of a couple discussing their fostered child. The camera at the end of the discussion zooms in on the woman to suggest that she feels emotionally closer and attached to the child.

In the last shot we see of the couple in a warehouse, is at first a medium close up of their faces and their reaction to the situation that the audience have not yet seen. The camera then cuts to a very long shot, establishing that the stolen car has gone. The depth and vastness of the shot could represent how much trouble the man is in, how he has fallen into such a huge hole that he will never get out of.

Another representational shot is when two women are having a chat about their children, when one of them gets out a bottle of Vodka and starts drinking. However it seems like the middle of the afternoon. The fact that they are drinking Vodka which is cheap and very strong, stereotypically, reckless things happen when people drink vodka and it is deemed as a dangerous drink. The difference between these two women in the working-class possibly the under-class is that middle/upper-class would stereotypically drink wine, or something along those lines.

However the fact that they are drinking in the afternoon suggests that they don’t have jobs and are fulfilling the stereotype of ‘the unemployed working-class, scrounging off the welfare state etc.’ Drinking in the afternoon (from a different perspective) also suggests that they like to have a bit of fun and they are not wound up tightly about their issues. 

Re-Filmed Footage

After the struggle we had filming our last shots, we changed the location and the cast, and re-filmed all of the footage. I think the shots turned out better than they did previously and we had more of an idea about what was expected of us from these filming sessions. We still need to complete/re-film about 3 shots, but this is most of our footage.

I think the range of shots that we used has improved and our skills with the camera have definitely improved. I am a lot happoer with this shoot, and prefer the use of shots in comparison to the other one.

Possible Tracks for our Thriller

Possible background music

http://www.freesound.org/people/ERH/sounds/30306/

http://www.freesound.org/people/imaginaryband/sounds/79418/

Radio Sounds
http://www.freesound.org/people/cognito%20perceptu/sounds/38693/

http://www.freesound.org/people/Percy%20Duke/sounds/23503/

Reviewing Our Footage

This is our footage, after filming on our scheduled Wednesday at our initial Cafe, we went over our footage and decided it was unusable. The exterior footage we were happy with but reviewing the footage from inside didn't look how we planned it to. This meant we had to go and find a different cafe to utilise. Luckily Lauren works in a cafe in Bungay, so we plan to drive out there on Feb 1st, and make up for the filming we had lost out on.

What Went Wrong & Improvements

Lighting - When we attempted to film a section in the dark, we didn't have enough lighting to cover and reflect onto the scene which we were filming. This made it very difficult to film, and when looking over the scene's, could not see much at all. Despite not being able to see anything, some of our inter- references were linked to scenes in the dark, if we did ours really badly, I felt it wouldn't qualify for that. To combat this, the cafe that we have chosen, has low lighting which in effect, if we try and get the right angles, we can use to look like the lights have been turned off. Also we have a light reflector which hopefully will be useful when filming this scene.

Characters - I think our female character was suitable, she was young, and naive looking. However our problem came from our male lead. He was tall dark and dark haired but I think too young. We needed an older man, unshaven and thug like. To overcome this, we will be using Laurens Dad, he has agreed not to shave for a few days, this will create the reugged look. He is also older than our initial actor, so it will overcome that problem.

Costume - The continuity of our costume was not consistant, there is a scene where he was wearing the hat and then not wearing the hat. This will affect our grade as continuity plays a part in that. I think that was the only problem with our costume. So on Feb 1st, we will be using simular costumes but making sure the continuity of the hat is kept consistant.

Shots - Despite using a range of different shots, we managed to achieve only mid-shots. To enable us to achieve higher marks on our practical aspect, we needed to shoot more close-ups, also this keeps the male character more annonymous which keeps the tension up throughout the opening.

Hopefully when we film for a second time we can take into account what we did wrong the first time and really tryto combat these problems and not make the same mistake again. As long as we are prepared and know exactly what we have set out to achieve, then we should have stable footage.

Characters Names & Meanings

The male characters in our thriller opening is named Adrian Doyle. After researching the meanings of names on the internet, 'Adrian' means 'The Dark One'. This fits well with the character, he is anonymous at the beginning as you only see the back of his head. The name 'Doyle' means 'Stranger'. This implies that the main female character does not know Adrian or that she has never met him before and he is a stranger to her. 


The female role in our thriller is named Agnes Maplestone. 'Agnes' means 'purity' and 'innocence', this reflects her character hugely and she is very gentle. After deciding not to chose a fancy name or a name that would be unbelievable via the characters habits and traits. 

Intertextuality and Screen Shots in our Thriller

The introduction of Harry Lime in The Third Man

Here are some screen shots of the footage we recorded for the opening to a thriller film.We tried to make a few inter-textual references within our opening to other thrillers such as The Third Man. By taking influence from classic thrillers like The Third Man, it helped structure our shot list. We took influence from other thrillers as well, for example The scene in The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo where Blomkvist is pinning up photos to a big wall full of photos. From this we have decided to incorporate a wall of photos into our thriller at the end, ultimately ending in a double cliffhanger.
The name of our Cafe is quite ironic and fits well with the story line of the opening. 'Angel Cafe' contradicts Adrien, the main male lead in our Thrilller opening.

Bill's feet in Kill Bill vol.1

The shot either side of this text was influenced by watching the opening scene of Kill Bill 1, when the camera tracks Bill's feet walking toward the Bride. However, in contrast to this, we have filmed a shot of the character Agnes' feet, and intend to put it in the edit before the tracking shot of Adrien's feet, which hopefully should provoke thought and debate about who the victim really is. Despite this, at the end of the opening 2 minutes, it should give a clear idea of who it is.

The next shot, we tried to achieve this shot but with Agnes in the foreground, oblivious to Adrien's presence there. We tried this effect in two shots that we filmed. It is effective in our thriller because it sits on the idea of deception. Adrien is hiding from Agnes after locking them into the cafe together. She does not know he is still in there. Harry Lime in The Third Man is trying to deceive his best friend, Holly, he succeeds in faking his own death, also by being anonymously chased around the sewers of Venice.

Location Shots

These are some pictures of our location where we will be shooting our thriller film. I think it is a great location and it is small unique and original which hopefully should show in our thriller.

The Third Man Analysis

The Third Man is a Noir, Mystery Thriller directed by Carol Reed was released in 1949, it is an original British film. 
Immediately the title sequence suggests cultural signifyers, it establishes location and character traits. The music is called 'the Harry Lime' which is the main character of the film although he is not introduced until at least an hour into the film. The chiemious and the Zither suggest that he pulls strings to get people to do what he wants them to do and won't stop until he does. 


At first, the beautiful statues located in Vienna suggest that the film will have a beautiful outcome, however the film instantaneously                not all of clip shown
introduces the theme of the black market, the
 fractured ice implies that society or Vienna is broken, the corpse floating in the water represents all those who were killed or died. The footage shown is real footage, highlighting that Vienna really is corrupt. 
The boat has been bombed, embedding that Vienna is a dangerous place. The low angle of the train shot implies that something will come back to bite him, or surprise him. This could be to do with the main character Harry Limes. The character then walks underneath a ladder, typically associated with bad luck, foreshadowing that he will have bad luck throughout the film. However in contrast to this, it could be the opposite and that the character has really good luck even though he  walks underneath the ladder. 
The high angle shot of Holly portrays his venerability to others in the film. It could also signify that as Holly is on a lower platform that he is in hell, and the other character