The Final Cut

After researching the thriller film genre we decided to name our film 'The Final Cut', this seemed an appropriate name because one of the main characters in our media extract is a serial killer who uses blades to kill his victims. After we decided the basic idea for the film last week, we assigned each other jobs to do to assure the success of our media extract these are:

Editing: All

Camera Work: Joe

Director: Katie

Storyboard: Ellen

Costume/Props: Ellen

Location: Joe

Audience: Katie

After the jobs were assigned we started working on a basic layout/script. At first we only focused on what the audience would see on screen, for example "Alarm goes off detective slams hand down on it and wakes up". We then used this as a template and added other layers of sounds, titles and the key shots used within that section of the media extract. Our final layout/script looks like this:

Picture

Sound

Titles

Key Shot

‘Eradication Films’ titles . None.

‘The Final Cut’ titles. Rain fades in – thunder storm starts.

Serial killer cleaning/sharpening knifes. High tension music, Cleaning/Sharpening, Thunder storm. Over the shoulder shot.

Picks up Polaroid’s of victims, starts to look through them. Thunder storm, Diegetic, High tension music. Over the shoulder shot, tracking down to the Polaroid’s.

Flash back to one of the victims being killed. Victim screaming, Knife, Thunder storm, High tension music. Murder starts happening in the Polaroid, zoom into Polaroid – flashback happens.

Victim just about to be killed. Victim screaming, Knife swinging, Thunder storm, High tension music.

Tracking two shot of the murder.

ECU of detective waking up. Diegetic. ECU

Alarm goes off detective slams hand down on it and wakes up. Alarm, Hand slamming, Diegetic. CU

Detective gets ready for work. Diegetic. Titles start. Tracking shot of detective, medium shot.

Detective comes out of house, get into car and drives to work. Diegetic. Titles. Tracking/Pan shot of car pulling out.

Case file on desk of victim in flashback, picture of dead victim at crime scene. Diegetic, Speech. Tracking shot round the back of the detective.

Detective starts to notice a pattern between several murders – Signature left by the serial killer. Diegetic, Speech. Close up of the detectives face.

As well as our layout script we managed to complete our costume/props and location lists:

Location

Serial Killers lair: A garage

Murder: The forest near the old swimming pool

Detectives House: Katie’s mums house

Detectives Work: Room with a desk

Costume/Props

Serial Killer:

Dark clothing

Dark Hoody

Two knifes

Dark gloves

Fake blood – Corn Syrup, red food dye.

Detective:

Suit

Briefcase

Car

Murder Victim:

Fake blood – Corn Syrup, red food dye.

Clothes

Misc:

Alarm clock

Case file

Coffee mug

Picture frame with detective’s family

Bloody cloth

Breakfast items; toast, toaster etc...

Polaroids

We also looked at what our target audience would be if the film was released. like most other Thriller films ours would appeal to the ages 15-24 as this is the main cinema going age. As our film would classify as a 15 in the UK this would be the minimum age ours could appeal to. The detective element to our film would hopefully interest an older generation of viewers who are not just interested in a high action film but also one that makes the viewer think, which is what hopefully our film would achieve. Both genders would be drawn to the film, although men more so than women as this film will contain some scenes of violence. We would aim this film towards those interested in crime dramas like 'Law and order' but also those interested in high action films like 'Crank'. Detective films such as 'The Maltese Falcon' we thought were to far away from our story line although ours is about the relationship between a serial killer and a detective, therefore we chose not to draw inspiration or consider its target audience as a substantial one. We also looked at the target audience for 'Se7en' as this is probably the closest filmd to ours in terms of genre and style. In this film the realtionship between the serial killer and the detective is explored and developed which is similar to our. Our taget audiences would therefore be similar. Our primary audience would therefore be males between the ages of 15-24 that are interested in detective/action thrillers. Our secondary audience would be the over 25's and females.

Research of the Thriller genre

For our media project we chose the Thriller genre. Our idea is focused around a detective and a serial killer he is chasing. The film will focus on the battle him and the serial killer have, ruining his marriage and his social life in the process. The victims also feature in our media text with a series of flash backs from the serial killer before and during the murders, and the detective afterwards at the crime scene.

We first looked at films like 'Se7en' and 'The Dark Knight' as they are very popular Thriller films.

We soon released however that the Thriller genre encompasses a massive spectrum of films such as, suspense thrillers, action or adventure thrillers or sci-fi thrillers such as alien. these are just a few of the genres that Thrillers can become, so choosing the right film to take notes a draw inspiration from was difficult. Films like 'Vertigo'and 'Friday the 13th' were others we originally looked at but didn’t meet our sub genre. We did however learn a lot about how to build suspense up successfully with the use of dramatic music and a varying length of edit.

As our Thriller was a Horror/Detective Thriller we had some trouble locating similar films we did however find to on you tube, these were 'Transfixed Theatrical' and 'Inspector X'.

We finally settled on a few ideas for the general feel of our film. We decided that our opening sequence should feature low key lighting creating a very dark and eerie effect. Hiding the serial killers face is also a priority as this builds up tension in the audience as he remains anonymous. High tension music will also feature this is the one thing all thriller films have in common, this builds up the suspense and tension in a scene. Like most other thrillers there is high emphasis on the silent parts of the films, as this also creates a sinister effect.