Final Version -- Playground!

Our film idea

Overall Plot
We decided to make our film project into a crime thriller sub genre. Our idea took a while to decide on and much discussion took place over what to make it about.
Our idea for our film was that our main protagonist has a dream about a young girl who he has never met before who gets stolen by a mysterious man who he has also never seen before. He follows them throughout the dream able to see everything but not able to help. He sees them holding hands and turning a corner where they go out of view. He follows behind them only to hear a scream and when he sees the young girl she has been killed. At this point the guy wakes up panting in bed and the film fades out.

Characters
Our main protagonist in the film is called Steve.
The mysterious man and young girls names and identity are not revealed at all in the entire film.

Title
We decided to name our film 'Playground' as it goes against the view that most thriller films are named after a disorder that the protagonist has such as Insomnia etc. The name 'Playground' also went along and linked in with the young girls innocence and the setting we used.

Location
We will film all our footage in and around a park area in a quiet area of cambridge. There is also one shot which will be filmed in Mitchell's bedroom.

Light/Colour/mood
Filming will take place in a open area in the daytime as this will mean we have the use of natural lighting. we also need it to be slightly dark and raining when we are filming to help create a certain eerie mood for our project. Our actual project will be completely in Black and White apart from the scenes in Mitchell's bedroom. We decided this created the look of a dream rather than having it all in colour. It also helps distinguish between real life and the dream.

Costumes
protagonist - will be wearing normal casual clothing.
antagonist - will be wearing dark clothing and we won't see his face.
Girl - young children's clothes to create a sense of youth and innocence also never see her face.

Music/Sound
We will use an original piece of music that will run through the whole of our project sequence.

Editing within 'Playground'

The editing of 'Playground' has been carried out to comply to the conforms of the genre, and covey an eerie atmosphere during the sequence. We did this through a number of aspects:

1. Firstly, we set the pace of the shots to reflect the on-screen footage, for example, during the playground scene, we had slow transition shots. However, when the young girl was abducted, we began to reduce the shot duration, to increase the pace of the scene, and build tension.
2. Next, we added black and white with dark edges to the shots to give a distorted dream compared to the normal everyday life of what would normally be going on this is confusing and different.
3. Finally, we corrected the shots and sections, putting them in order, so that it made continual sense and didn't confuse the viewer.

The difference between horror and thriller conventions

Horror: 

• A horror movie is often predictable and you can usually tell who is going to die next. 
• The death happens almost immediately. 
• The women are normally the main victims, but are also usually the only survivors .
• If the main characters are groups they are, more often than not, killed off one by one. 
• Horror is usually in a suburban setting.
• The cast normally consists of younger groups.
• Adults and authorities are often absent or unhelpful but not always.
• Horror often contains more gore.

Thriller:

• A thriller tries to get into your head.
• They are often more psychological and cause you to think. 
• A thriller often leaves the audience with unanswered questions.
• There is almost always a Protagonist and an antagonist.
• Often more mature
• More likely to star well-known and expensive actors.
• The answers are normally explained at the end but not always.

Marking Criteria

Video - 60 marks. 

Level one - up to 23 marks.

Level two - 24 - 35 marks. Basic ability.

Level three - 36 - 47 marks. Proficient ability.

Level four - 48 - 60 marks. Excellence ability.

• 1. Where appropriate use a steady shot to avoid confusion for the audience.
• 1. Framing a shot including and excluding elements.
• 1. Using a variety of shot distances, angles and types.
• 1. Shooting material appropriate to the task.
• 1. No swearing.
• 1. No young children.
• 1. Selecting the mise-en-scene.
• 1. Editing so that the meaning of the piece is apparent and clear to the audience.
• 1. Using various shot transitions and effects to add to add emphasis where needed.
• 1. Clear dialogue.
• 1. Using titles appropriately - film credits, title - make it interesting and to the point. 

Problems with the Shooting schedule

      Due to the problems we had with finding a location we had to change our shooting schedule as it was arranged for filming in Sawston. We were originally going to film at the weekend giving us the entire day to film, unfortunately a member of our group was unable to attend at this weekend so we couldn't film when intended. However, this problem was easily overcome as we simply decided to film during lessons as the location we had chosen was close enough to walk to and from with plenty of time to spare.

Feedback on Final Thriller Project

Thriller Feedback

Sound

• Eerie music
• Breathing/panting made the dream realistic 
• Possible change of sound throughout dream
• Becomes monotonous after a while
• Scream was done well - loud

Mise - en - Scene

• Props - teddy-bear showed she was young
• Location - playground related to film 
• Next to motor-way made it less dramatic
• Costume - little girl costume looked too old 
• Costume in bed made it realistic

Editing 

• Good use of fading in and out
• Vignette effect created good sense of a dream
• When swing shook created a sense of drama
• Credits went well with sequence and genre 

Camerawork

• Good choice of shots 
• Seeing objects understand the location
• Close-ups used well
• POV created a sense that he was in a dream
• You don't see her face - creates questions

Best point

• Good editing created a real sense of a dream
• Ending of sequence created questions

Improvements 

• He is asleep in daylight
• Traffic - took away 'spookiness'
• Sounds become a bit boring as the tune goes on through whole film.