We initially had the idea of dressing the victim in a school uniform, because this shows her vunerability and young age. Generally in thriller films the victim is a young girl who gets captured, so we decided to follow this convention. we then thought when the sequence progresses to the woods scene, we change the costume to a plain white dress, because this follows the codes and conventions and emphasises her innocence, and fits the Helmet Nickels "white hats, black hats" theory. When we dressed the girl, we smeared red paint on her to represent blood, and we also put a hand print on her to represent that she is being controlled mentallly and physically. also we put writing on her arms, if we relate to the deeper story line this relates to the scarring that she suffered from her parents death.
When looking at the antagonist he is wearing dark colours which relates to "white hats, black hats" and he is wearing gloves, which represents he is hiding his identity. His backround story is that he is a social recluse who only goes out to buy food or the bare neccesities of life, so there is an area of mystery around him and the whole aspect of not knowing who he is is maintained throughout the thriller because you only see him in one sequence and this maintains his unknown identity.
We then looked at the location. There is only three locations; the girls bedroom, which is seen when she returns home from school and this builds the suspense because nothing seems out of place. We decorated the room with childs toys to make it look more like a playroom. We used the same room for the villain, but for this we changed the lighting and the surroundiong so it fitted intoi the thriller convention of being entrapped so the room is quite small and dark. Also in this scene the blinds are closed and the only light source is a small lamp so he is closed off and has no contact with the outside world that you see and is a typical villain in a thriller. Later on we moved into the woods because it is a typical location for a thriller such as Cabin In The Woods, because the trees represent the entrapment and that there is no way out. We have places her in the woods as if she is stepping out of reality, it is also very dark so you think something bad is going to happen. When she is in her home it is light and the floor is a lighter colour, but the minute we step into the woods there is very low light and there is a small flickering in the corner which was our only light source. We filmed at about 5pm and the sun was setting and it was shadowy and very effective.
When we looked at lighting the woods were dark which means that menace could take place without people noticing, and in her house it is light which represents a safe environment where she cannot be hurt. When the villain is in his room he controls the shadows, by turning off the light or making the location lighter. So when we look at the woods scene this links to the the controling aspect of him. She is in the shodows which means her body and mind is under his control because she is in the shadows. The dark room can be linked to 'Se7en' where inside he has all of his planning and the darkness represents his life, because it is dark, and he cannot see the world. In 'Se7en' you can see the villains hands moving objects and in our thriller you can get a point of view of the villain's hands reading a book and this links very well with other media.
When we looked at camera angles we used an extreme close up of the girls eyes to emhpasise the possession the villain has over her, we also used this shot to show the lack of emotion as she is being possessed and controlled. We also used over the shoulder shot to represent the antagonist following her and that she is in danger. With the mid-shot it works as quite a good transition shot, as Nicole walked by, we changed the shot from mid to long shot, this shows the costume and the emotion from her face, but also makes it smoother to flow to a long shot. The long shot emmphasises the distance between the girls rational and irrational mind and the further away she gets the harder it will be for her to return to a normal state.When we see her close up we see the full change and the full possession take place. Back to the long shot, this allows the full body to be captured, unlike a mid shot where it is head to hip or close up which is just the face.
The narrative structure is linear and in chronological order so the audience will understand the whole opening sequence before the film starts.
The whole plot of the thriller film is about a young girl with a troubled past, her parents were killed in a car crash and she has always been quite distant from her secondary carers (her aunt and uncle), she has never really felt as close to them, as you would if you suffered the same loss. The distance and separation element has been there from the start so we dont have to introduce it which helps maintain the force she has over the possession and mental distance. The idea behind it is that when we look at her change, in the sequence we see it as a quick process, if we look at the change deeper it represents the change from child to teenager and also how society looks upon teenagers. You can also relate the girl and the villain because the villian is hidden away and the girls never socializes with her family and they are both recluses to society in there own right. Both soundtracks show the change in the girl well, the first one is serious and builds suspense but is lighter hearted, and when we see the transition to the villain the music fades out to a deep rumble as the villain comes into shot, which shows the audience that the villain is dangerous and represents the personality of the man. It also emphasises the points made about him such as the controlling nature of him.
When looking at social groups, the villain is male because historically men are dominant and this represents that he has control over the girl, but it also connotes that he is trying to dominate society. With the victim it is an innocent school girl who is vulnerable to the world, and this makes the villain being able to trap her alot easier. With the representation of women in thriller films they are always the weaker gender, and we used the general theory of having a male antagonist and female protagonist such as the film Psycho.
When looking at a suitable audience, this film opens up a wide variety of possible audiences. When we did our audience research we found that most people watched films online, so when we release our film on a website such as YouTube, we should attract quite a young audience because it is easier to access the internet nowadays. When advertising we could post advertisments on social networking sites. Our film is suitable for males and females, because it has both male and female charachters which makes the film more appealing because it has gender equality.
When looking at attracting our audience we used an everyday setting as a location because people can relate to it, and if you look at the character of the young girl from the parents perspective, they can relate to what the girl is going through.
When looking at what institutions may distribute our product, we have to look at both new and old methods, such as mailing a copy to a film company or posting it online.
When we look back at our preliminary task we can clearly see that we have learnt alot in editing and camera angles. For example we have a more advanced skill with transitions which allow it to flow better and our camera skills have improved because of better equipment and steadier shots. Aslo our choice of a soundtrack a has improved such as being less cheesy and cliche, this improved our opening sequence. We have also used a wider range of camera angles such as establishing shots which sets the scene whereas in our preliminary task did not which left the audience wondering where the film is set, but in our final production the zoom out from the woods shows where the story is taking place.
Our storyline producing has also improved because in our preliminary task we used 'The Thing' as inspiration, but put a comedy spin on it. Although it is tacky and cheesy there are still good camera movements and editing invloved whereas with our final production our storyline is more appropriate for the thriller genre and is more serious. In our preliminary task we had a script which was two characters interacting whereas in our final piece there is no dialogue which increases the suspense and mystery.
Finally looking at the technology of which we have prgresse in our construction, we have learnt how to make our own effects. We used iMovie before which was basic whereas Final Cut Pro is more advanced and allows for better transitions and editing quality. In the scene of the villain in his room, the layering of the two clips shows multiple hands which represents how he plans things and does things quickly. We used blogger to document all of our research and allows us to archive all of our work and to visualise what we need to improve or remove. We also used SurveyMonkey, to make questionaires to give to an audience to get feedback on what to improve on our thriller.
The title name 'The Absence' was decided on because it represents the absence of the girls mind when she is possessed and being absent from society, as well as the villain being absent from the rest of the world. We placed the title at the end of the opening sequence because this is typical in other films.
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