In my film 'The Phone Call Project' we where asked to make a short thriller film, with the duration of no longer than 2 minutes. I began filming with my partner Jordan Hewitt within school grounds.

To start us off we began drawing story boards, planning our locations which we didn't have much trouble with at first, we had a few difficulties with students cutting between our shots and also background noises such as wind when we where filming outside. We then had to start using techniqual equpitment such as a camera, editing the shots etc, which we all found difficult at first as niether myself or Jordan has had experience using the program on the computers or the camera. However as a group I believe we worked well and shared responsibilities equally. In the very beginning of the project our group was extended by 2 more people who both dropped out at last minute, whilst filming, we had also lost the tape that we had recorded on further more someone had recorded over our work, causing us to panic as the deadlines where the next day. We managed to over come this as we decided to work as a pair and ask two of our friends to act in the project which they agreed to.

Additionally in this project we used a few shots which I personally think made the short film alot more effective, these shots included: match on action fgor example when the male character exited the scene when he was outside, then came inside a building and walked up stairs; this was effective as it showed movement throught the film, if we didn't have any match on action the film wouldn't make any sense as the characters would be moving from one setting to another. We also used a reverse shot whilst characters where conversating amongst eachother this was effective because it puts the audience in the eyes of a character, we also used an 180 degree editing rule, this was so that when the characters where convresating it didn't look like they where talking to them selves.

Overall I very much enjoyed making the short film as I found it very interesting and quite exciting, I would definitely do it again although i would change a few things.I think that I Could have improved my camera shots by placing the tripod on a more leveled surface to prevent the the camera shots from shaking, I would have also used a higher quality camera (mega pixel). I would also leave the current effects as I believe they work very well with the shots but I would place some dramatic background music in the film, as this would be affective to the audience. they would automatically be able to assume that the genre of the film is a thriller.

However I also believe that the instructions in the instructions given to us could have been improved if they where more realistic, for example in a shot, two characters shake hands, we as teenagers don't shake hands, I think this would make a big difference in the project.

The Mirrors Into

From my analysis of the introduction scene of ‘The Mirrors’ we are able to see that the clip has a wide variety of techniques used to make the clip effective as a thriller.

One of which was a mid-shot at the very beginning showing the emotions of the character, in this particular shot we are able to see loneliness and emptiness in the characters face. Then gradually moving to an establishing shot showing the setting the time and place of the character.

Another is lighting and colours, also very effective in a movie. In the beginning of the movie, the room is dim n quite dull, also showing emptiness within the character, the lighting also indicates to an audience when something is about to happen in the movie, e.g. the seem suddenly becomes dark and dramatic music begins indicates that something theatrical is about to happen. I also believe that lighting and colours are also very affective to the audience mainly because the graphics etc able the character to identify how old the film is for example if the film were in black and white we would assume it was produced in the late 50’s and maybe even a classic.
Also the music in the background is essential, this is one of the key things needed in a movie, in this particular movie, the music starts of slowly, then as the scene becomes more dramatic the tempo and beat of music gets faster, it works almost like a cliff hanger. A dramatic scene is about to occur then suddenly the music becomes louder holding tension leaving the audience to wonder what’s about to happen next.

Lastly the miss-en-scene, this was effective, showing the audience it was a thriller movie was the; the dark bathroom, with a large mirror on the opposite side of it, with a naked female who then enters a steamy bath and also plant pots along the windowsill. This leaves the audience to assume that someone is either going to come into the steamy bathroom and murder her or break through the window and murder her, none of which happen, but she gets murdered by her own reflection in the mirror. Also High-stakes,a ticking clock,violence on the page,the audience’s being aware of the villain’s plotting—odds these are all also elements which are found in a thriller.