PRACTICE THRILLER

For my practice thriller, my group and I were given a prop which had to be included in our film. Our prop was a newspaper; we had to use this prop so that it plays a pivotal role in the thriller. Our thriller was about an ordinary young teenage girl (played by Samah) who comes into college reading the newspaper. She then turns to the page and sees an article about a missing girl, suddenly her attention is diverted outside and she sees the missing girl (played by Mylinh) from the newspaper. The girl then disappears, this leaves the audience to think if it was her imagination or not.

We used many different camera shots to create an ominous mood and add to the atmosphere that a real thriller will have. We used a various range of shots to add to this effect. I think that the close up shots and the over the shoulder shots worked the best to create this atmosphere. My favourite shot is the one of Samah (who is reading the paper) is filmed from over the shoulder to show Mylinh (the missing girl) who then suddenly vanishes from the bus stop. This creates a surreal feeling and provides an impression that something is not right. I think that most of our shots managed to work successfully, however I do think the extreme close up shots could have been filmed better.

We haven’t completed the editing but so far it is going well and we seem to be able to put the shots together successfully. I have learnt a lot about mise en scene from this camera work. I have learnt that costumes and props play a pivotal role when making a film; this is one of the mistakes that we made. We hadn’t completed filming and the next day of the filming Samah had a change in costume. However because the costume was still of dark colours the change didn’t look that drastic, however this is one point we will keep in mind for our actual thriller. I also learnt that different camera shots have a different effect on the audience and also the way in which the narrative is built.

I think that we have managed to create an element of suspense; we have managed to do this by having a thrilling plot and also the camera work that was included. Samah was also very good at acting, her facial expression added to the element of suspense. We managed to remember the rule of filming 5 seconds before and we managed to do this successfully, however I do believe that we didn’t do the 5 seconds after rule properly; this is one thing that we will keep in mind for our actual thriller. We haven’t received any feedback from our teacher as we haven’t finished editing.

Overall I am very pleased with my team and think that this practice was very successful and I am looking forward to making the real thriller.