Harry Waters's media blog

We decided for out thriller that our targeted audience would be mostly men in the 21-25 year old range with a mostly male audience.

After having been allocated our groups we decided to create two group chats on both whatsapp so that we could keep in contact and so we can also share our ideas with the rest of the group and also use it for helping each other and giving photos for the blogs.

After having completed our test shoot our group came together to see what we could change in the scene to make it better and also what we thought went well before we pitched the idea of our piece so that when we did we would be able to clearly say what we needed to about the piece.

We found that there were a few bits about our piece that we would be able to change to help make the piece better and more exciting to watch in many different ways. One way in which i think we could make the scene more exciting is by spending a little less time on the people that the person that she is shooting. I think that this could be more effective as it would connote to the audience that although in the scene she is a normal person she is also a cold blooded person who doesn't care about the people that she is killing. I also think that this is made even more effective in the contrast that we see in her characters.

I feel we can make this even more troubling and disturbing. I think that we could do this by thinking about the person that she was talking to on the phone to. I thought that and my group also agreed that it could be even more effective if we did it so that the woman was on the phone to a child instead of her husband or boyfriend. This would make it even more disturbing for the audience as they then realise after she has shot them that an assassin is a mother.

However I also feel that other parts of the opening sequence went well. One area that I feel that the group did well on was how we successfully showed to the audience of what the original idea for the opening sequence was. We stuck closely to what the idea was originally with only a few changes. One of which was that the assassin in the scene was a woman rather than a man. I feel that this went very well with the piece as it subverts to the stereotype of what people think of women. I feel that this would be even more effective as it shows her both as a motherly character but also a killer.

I feel that my group was successfully able to create tension and also suspension in the scene. however I also think we could make it even more so by maybe spending more time with her assembling the gun so that there is more suspense as the audience would have to wait longer to see her take the shot. I also think that to create more tension in the scene we could have used sound more effectively as we used a very little in the opening sequence.

I don't feel that the opening sequence lasted long enough in my opinion. To make the scene the right length I think that we could have spend a little longer on the woman walking through the woods and also her setting up the gun to firstly make the opening sequence long enough as it was only one and a half minutes long. also the extended time of her setting up the gun will also create tension. If the scene was still not long enough we could make it so that the scene followed the people that she was going to shoot more. We could do it so that we see the men enter and see who they are and also perhaps give a few hints as to what the film could be about.


I think that we could have perhaps done more with the camera angles and used it to more effect. One idea that I have had is that we could try and shoot the most of the scene in one shot. This could be done with an extreme long shot of the woman walking towards the camera through the woods. Though we wouldn't actually see the woman until she has almost reached the point that she will stop. as she gets closer to the camera and she is almost at the camera she could then turn slightly and the camera could follow her with a tracking pan shot of her and moving with her. Once she sets down the gun and set it up we would then see the people that she was about to shoot through an extreme long shot. it would then go back to the woman who would take the shot. We would then see a different camera angle as we then see her leave.

I think that the idea of the opening sequence at the start of the sequence is not clear but I think this is what I wanted for the audience as at the start. I think that it will successfully keep the audience guessing from the very start as they. We could do this successfully through the fact that she is in the woods and if you are in the woods it is usually for a particular purpose. Another way in which we could keep the audience guessing would be by having the main actor as a woman. As the audience would instantly think from the start that she would be the victim as that would adhere with the stereotype and would be what people expect. However I think that the opening sequence would then be obvious as they see her pull out a sniper rifle and then also see the men in the room.

overall i think that the test shoot went well as we were able to see what parts of the shoot went well but we could also see what other areas of the opening sequence we needed to work on.

After having received my feedback from the rest of the class on my thriller pitch towards them I have noticed a few problems with the scene that could be improved on. these ranged in big and also smaller aspects which people thought could have helped the scene.

The general aspect of the scene would be the same such as the start how he is walking through the woods talking on the phone. The scene would start with extreme long shots and establishing shots of the woods that the opening scene will take place in. The person in the scene is still carrying the big duffle bag that he has on his back that is clearly heavy. At the start it would seem quite serious until there is a sudden phone call which is a usual phone call where he talks casually to the person that he was on the phone to.

 he would carry on walking for around 15 - 20 seconds until he would finally reach the point when he then sets down his bag and carries on talking to the person on the phone as he then sets down the bag on the floor and unzips it and puts together the gun.

He would then continue to talk to the person that he is on the phone to when we then see the expression on his or her face changes as she sees the person that he or she will shoot. He or she then says to the person that she is on the phone that they are getting another call and that he or she will have to put them on hold.

He or she would then look down the gun quickly and follow the person who is walking through the woods and take the shot. There would then be a small pause when he or she would then pick up the phone again and talk to the person who they were on the phone to before. and walk away.

They would then be left with the person that had been shot so that the audience is then clear about what he or she had shot.

before we started our test shoot we had to plan many aspects so that we knew how we should film the small extract, where we should film it and finally to also know what we would need to use as temporary props.

First of all we selected our idea. It didn't take long for the group to decide that we should use the idea of the man walking through the woods who would then shoot someone casually in the scene.

though we had chosen this idea there were also many aspects of the scene that we had changed however after having joined the group. Firstly we changed the start of the opening sequence so that we see the person who is going to be shot rather than starting with the assassin.

We decided on two locations to film the scene. Firstly we decided that the opening sequence should be started in the pavilion to make it look like either a man walking out of his house for a phone call or to be in the office. The second part of the opening sequence was based in the woods opposite the pavilion where there i a woman who is setting up to shoot the person outside the pavilion.


We decided that instead of using more actors in this scene we should do the original assassination of one person so we need only two characters to play the parts.  We did this ourselves with Ellie and Xavier playing the parts in the scene.

for the test shoot we only needed very few props. Firstly we needed something to act as a sniper rifle and is clearly being assembled. We found a broken speaker holder that was no longer being used and we found that we could take it apart and put it back together again so it looked like the assembling of the gun. this was great for us as it portrayed clearly what we wanted. We also needed a few other props. One of which was the duffle bag which we were able to bring in ourselves.

After having pitched my thriller idea I received mainly feedback on my first idea. This was about the man who is in the woods who then goes on to shoot someone very casually. There were many aspects of the thriller idea that they feel needed to be changed slightly.

One of the biggest differences that people felt needed help with in the scene was how the audience may be unclear on what the person was shooting in the opening scene. I thought that it would be good to leave this up to the audience during the scene and maybe hint that it wasn't a person at the start by showing a shot of a deer in the woods but then at the end there would be a shot of the person that he had shot.

Another way in which the class thought that it could be a good idea was that instead of there being the shooting of one person there could be a shooting of more people and to also make the scene seem more horrible and harrowing they could also have the finishing shot of the person shot and then also have a  shot that would then go down the arm of the person shot and finally there would also be the small hand at the end of it to show that there had also been a child been killed.

There were many other ideas and suggestions for this thriller and one of these was that people at the start may find that this is quite a boring if there was just someone walking at the start. I thought that instead of having a long period at the start of him on the phone we could do it so he was almost at the point at which he has arrived at where he is going to shoot the person or people and then spend longer here and of him assembling the gun which would make it more interesting for the audience.

Another way in which my opening sequence could be changed is by perhaps adding in another character into the scene. This i feel could be done in two ways. One of the characters that could be added could be the person that he is on the phone to and this could work quite well as it would help to show his normallity in contrast to the actions that he is doing. The other person that could be added to the scene could be the man that he is about to shoot but i think this could either help the suspense of the scene but also ruin it and get rid of the suspicion as the audience would know what was coming.

finally one last part of advice that I was given was that it is often not as likely for someone who people want to be assassinated to live in the country and instead that they would more likely be in the city so instead of the person being based in the woods we could then instead do it based in a city. Though doing it in an actual town or city would be difficult so we would have to try and successfully find a way in which we could show it to be in a city or town.