Changes and developments to my thriller

Changes and developments to my thriller

We wanted to make sure our thriller would be effective and our audience would understand the plot. This is when we began to question how we would approach our thriller. We thought of a second idea which would include a similar idea of a high school massacre but we thought of other ways to film the opening sequence and how to end the sequence.

For our initial idea, we were going to film a variety of shots which would follow the killer around the school filming from different angles. This would be effective because it shows a wide use of shots and a clear understanding of our target audience and what they want to see in a thriller. We came up with a different idea in which we would use the school cafe. We would have children sitting around tables having fun with their friends filming each other on phones and then the killer walks in and kills them. We would therefore use point of view shots from the victims which would give a realistic emphasis to the sequence. However, we thought that this  would limit us to the locations we could kill people in. Therefore, we decided to stick with the original idea and push it really hard by using a number of locations around the school and paying close attention to the angles we were using and the shot type.

Another vital part to our opening sequence that was disputed was how we were going to end the sequence. We wanted to use the effect of leaving it on a cliff hanger as this keeps the audience guessing and makes them want to see what happens next, or in our storyline who? and why? Our initial idea was to have a guy playing basketball and the killer walks into the sports hall where the guy is playing and the guy says something similar to "is it done?". As this shocks the audience because they are likely to think the killer is about to kill him but then it turns out they're working together. One of my group members is a basketball fanatic and is quite forceful and not the easiest to get along with. He was adamant that basketball had to be included. Personally, I thought the second idea we came up with was better. I had the idea of instead of the killer walking into the sports hall, in fact he walks into a classroom and a teacher asks "is it done?". The only problem with this is that it puts the teenager in more control that the teacher, which is not believable.

Storyboard of my thriler and what I learnt from it

Storyboard of my Thriller and what we learnt from it

Creating a story board for our thriller opening sequence has helped give us a clear idea of how it was going to pan out. It also gave us an idea of what shots we were going to use and the duration of it. It is similar to a script in the idea that if we forget about shots we can look back at the storyboard which will show us how we set it out.

We tried to draw each shot as similar as possible to what we want it to look like in the thriller and the scenery behind the character. The good thing about doing a school massacre means it is hard to make the scene look fake when you are filming in a zoo whereas if you were filming it on an island, a lot of the scenery would be fake. 

The storyboard also made our story easier to understand as it helps when it is broken down. When doing the story board we weren't 100% sure how the character would be standing so we gave a rough idea of how we wanted it too look.

Real life incidents similar to my thriller

Real life incidents similar to my thriller
1. Virginia Tech Shooting (32 killed, many more injured) - The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting comprising two separate attacks about two hours apart on April 16, 2007, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. The perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and wounded many more, before committing suicide, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

2. Columbine High School Massacre (15 died, 24 injured) - On April 20th 1999, two students stormed Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado and murdered 12 other students aged 14 to 18 as well as a teacher. A further 24 people were injured before the attackers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed themselves.

3. Dunblane massacre (18 killed) - Unemployed former shopkeeper and Scout leader Thomas Hamilton walked into Dunblane Primary School armed with two 9 mm pistols and two .357 Magnum revolvers. He killed sixteen small children and a teacher. The subsequent police investigation revealed that Hamilton had loaded the magazines for his Browning with an alternating combination of fully metal jacketed and hollow point ammunition. This event led to the banning of handguns in the UK.

Possible names for our thriller

Possible names for our thriller

"Blacksburg 32" - Our thriller is made on Virgina Tech's high school massacre. It took place in a town called Blacksburg which is something not many know and the 32 comes from the amount of people killed.

"Virginia 32" - We could use Virgina instead of Blacksburg as it is more mainstream as it is a much more well known city and less mysterious and more to the point.

"Is it done" - We are keeping speech to a bare minimum in our thriller and the only speech we may have is the boy playing basketball saying "Is it done?".

"The Baller" - In our thriller there is a mysterious boy playing basketball and we only learn why he is in the opening sequence until the end.

Evaluation of run through

Evaluation of run through

There were many good and bad points to our run through but there were mostly bad which means we can now film our opening sequence adding in all the parts we missed out or did wrong. 

Firstly, we filmed the whole run through incorrectly. We used an iPhone where we should've used a professional camera, with a dolly and tripod. Also we didn't do enough cut scenes or walking scenes to the next killing. As a result of this, our run through didn't flow very well as we see Itamar in a different part of the school just after killing someone. By adding in scenes of him walking to the location of the next killing it adds more suspense and makes the scenes flow better. By using a phone we sometimes recorded in portrait which meant that it looked distorted. As well as this we didn't include any classical music as it would've created a more comical effect as it acts as a juxtaposition to the murders. By not using a camera with a tripod it means that when you are tracking the walking of Itamar, the camera shakes a little as the phone is a lot more sensitive as you can't balance it as well. Also when we film the real opening sequence we will use an actual gun and special effects to make it more realistic so the audience believe the people are really dying rather than Itamar's hand. We can also add more editing techniques like blood and we will be more careful that when people fall and die they will make it more realistic. On the topic of actors, we will recruit a better main antagonist rather than a 17 year old boy which again makes it look like a real high school massacre. However, when we chose the people to die in the run through we chose some good actors. For Example, Mrs O'Connor was a very good actor and made her death more realistic. We also left out a scene where after the massacre, the main antagonist walks into a classroom where it looks like he is about to kill the teacher (who is on their own). When we film the opening scene we will make sure the main killer is fully dressed up in his suit and gloves again to make it more real. We are also gonna include a wider variety of camera shots such as over the shoulder. close ups and wide shots. Lastly, regarding editing we are going to enhance the gun shot sounds to add more tensions and make each killing more dramatic. 

Target Audiences

Target Audiences

In order to get a rough idea as to who our target audiences are going to be, it's worth looking at similar film ideas from ours, and look to see what types of audiences are attracted to them.
There are a few films similar to our idea, and those are: 'We need to talk about Kevin', 'The United States of Leland' and 'Elephant'.

'Elephant' is a crime and dramatic thriller about 2 boys who commit violent acts in their school. The film is rated a 15, therefore it is similar to ours as the concept is very similar about school massacres. Also, our film will appeal to teenagers until people at around the ages of 35.













'We need to talk about Kevin' is also a 15 rated film of the dramatic thriller genre. It features a boy who has been acting strangely and ends up committing crimes at his school. This film is similar to ours as stated before, it features a crime in school.

'The United States of Leland' is another 15 rated crime and drama film. It is about a boy who acts very violently and has been in juvenile detention. Along with the reasons stated above, it relates to our film as we have a protagonist who commits dangerous acts.













The target audience for our film will be teenagers throughout to people in their mid 30s. This is because we believe that this age range will enjoy more watching our film, than people who are over 40 or under 12. From this we have learnt a number of things about our film. Firstly, the casting is vitally important, if we cannot get someone that suitable for the role then we will have to cast someone with a balaclava over their face. The second point that we learnt is that we have to get the right location. E.g we need to film in our school. Without this our film will not be effective. Thirdly, we need to have a reason for his actions, therefore we have decided to include the scene of the characters perspective of the killer, although we don't want the audience to sympathise with him we want to see his motivations.                                                    

How we used Non-Copyrighted Music

How we used Non-Copyrighted Music
Most audio of people speaking, such as videos on YouTube of blogs or commentaries are non-copyrighted. In order for a YouTube video to be copyrighted, YouTube scans the video once it is uploaded for specific waves of sounds that match certain music videos. If the video scans a match of a copyrighted audio or song, then it will be stated underneath the video description, as shown below, for the original song with the lyrics that we chose:

We decided to look for the instrumental version of this song, which luckily, was not copyrighted, as it did not have the music tag underneath the description. This is not the case for all instrumental videos of songs, as some of them do contain copyrighted material. Here is the video of the audio we chose to use for our thriller, which is the instrumental version of the song above. As you can see the picture below isn't copyrighted:

Initial idea of my thriller and feedback

Feedback for our Thriller 

• The feedback we got from our idea was very positive as our idea of a high school massacre will create the suspense and tension that a thriller should have. As well as this it will make it appeal to a wide audience as children from around the age of 15 and up can watch it. The main point of constructive criticism we got was that the person playing basketball in the gym is just unnecessary and pointless. 

Research into Props

Research Into Props for our Thriller - My group and I put a lot of thought into what props we should use to give the best effect in our thriller:

Scary Mask - Either Clown or Duck
Based on the idea of our thriller being a school massacre, we wanted the antagonist to help give the thriller a subtle horror idea to it. By using a scary mask this does that as it makes the main antagonist look more scary and frightening. As well as this, it helps to create a more of a cliff hanger as you want to find out who is under the mask which helps to create thrilling moments which is what we are aiming for as a whole.

    

Shotgun - The main antagonists weapon 

We chose a shotgun as the main antagonists weapon of choice for a number of reasons. Firstly, by using a gun it creates a more tense affect and creates a more massacre feel as the ant(antagonist) is going in without a silencer or pistol and shooting anyone who steps in his path. The explosive sound of a shotgun helps to portray this. The recklessness of the sound of a firing shotgun helps to emphasise the violence of the character rather than a little pistol.

 Gloves - The main antagonist wears leather gloves

The main antagonist wears leather gloves for two reasons. Firstly, he wears them to cover his identity, so you cannot see what colour skin he is or any other hand feature. Secondly, so that he doesn't get any DNA on anything he touches which makes a more exciting film as the police will find it harder to catch him as he leaves no evidence. This helps to create a more exciting thriller as you cannot see who the person is as they are wearing clothing on any part of their body to stay covered.

Headphones 

Whilst on his massacre, the ant will be wearing old walkman headphones. This will create a small comical effect and is very contrasting. This will be comical as the ant will be listening to classical music as this helps to keep him concentrated as if he doesn't to the music, he goes out of control rather than staying relaxed walking round a school shooting people. This is very contrasting as the calm peaceful classical music is nothing like the loud gunshots and cries of people dying beyond the sound of the headphones.

Research into costumes

Research into costumes
In our thriller we will have a few costumes. This will include, a black suit, a duck mask, a basketball kit and a school uniform.

This is similar to the duck mask we will use in the thriller. We are making the killer wear a duck mask to hide his identity and to hide any emotion he may show when killing people without the mask. My wearing a duck mask he is made to look more 'freaky' and 'mysterious'. A duck mask has a similar reaction as a clown mask does in that many people get scared.

This is a similar suit to the one the killer will use in the thriller. We want the killer to wear something smart which will contrast with the harsh reality of him killing the students. The killer won't be rushing around the school on the massacre, he will be walking which shows him trying to remain smart.

The basketball player will wear a kit similar to this to add to the reality of the storyline. Also it makes him look more professional, rather than just being in normal clothes.

Research into location

Research into location

Since my group and I already go to one of the largest high school's in Europe, our filming location was very easily decided. As our school is so big, we were able to make full use of the spacious corridors and rooms to create all the effects we wanted to. 

This is an image similar to the sports hall we used to film in. As you can see there is very good lighting which allowed the shots to be filmed clearly and for us to white balance easily. You can also see its very spacious so we were able to film experiment with some more difficult, action shots.

News articles for Thriller ideas.

Poppy seller burned in aerosol attack in Manchester

A 15-year-old Army cadet who was selling poppies for Remembrance Day suffered burns to his face in an attack with a lit aerosol can.

The boy, who was wearing his uniform, was at a bus stop near Manchester Art Gallery at 18:00 GMT on Saturday when he was attacked.

Police said a man lifted an aerosol can and a lighter and sprayed him with lit fumes.

The cadet suffered burns to his face and singed hairs, officers confirmed.

Greater Manchester Police said the offender, described as black or Asian, 5ft 8in tall and wearing a dark hooded top, then walked off without saying a word.

• Taking inspiration from this news article I have an idea to create a thriller in which a religious extremist believes the people who do a lot for those who aren't as fortunate deserve to go to heaven earlier as heaven is meant to be paradise. He goes round stalking them and murders them at the best given opportunity. The rest of the public see this differently.
• The antagonist will believe he is doing the people a favour by killing them and sending them to heaven.
• This could create an interesting opening sequence as it could introduce the man and show like a news programme saying ' Another charity worker killed' . Cuts to man and goes to dungeon to kill next victim.

Former Severn Vale teacher John Fleck jailed for obsession with disciplinarian and sadistic child pornography

A 53-year-old secondary school teacher and scout master obsessed with sadistic child pornography featuring boys being spanked and caned was jailed for 10 months today.

Many of the thousands of illegal images and videos in bachelor John Fleck's possession were of children receiving corporal punishment, Gloucester crown court was told.

The material, collected over a 16 year period, was not only on Fleck's two computers but also on a collection of so-called 'naturist' DVDs - one of which, called 'A Century of Discipline', was a compilation of eight hours of child punishment scenes, the prosecution said.

The court heard Fleck had worked as a teacher and served as a scoutmaster for the last 28 years but there was no suggestion he had ever abused any of the children in his care in any way.

• Man teaches at a secondary school. His daughter died at 16 years old.
• First day of the year, girl in his new class looks very similar to her.
• He starts to develop feelings for this girl.
• He stalks her and follows
• She doesn't know who the person is and gets very scared and becomes timid and anxious.

New Mobile Phone software

• New mobile phone from company no one has ever heard of.
• It is very well marketed and has all these new features that teenagers ream of having on a phone.
• The phone during the first phone call each make releases a gel into the persons ear and turns them into zombie like students and totally chnages them into the opposite of their usual personality.

Introduction to a Thriller

Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced.

Conventions and ideas normally associated with the Thriller genre

• Low key lighting
• Quick cuts
• Shadows
• Tension related music
• Angle changes of shots
• Diegetic sound of breathing
• Non-diegetic sound of dimming to represent heartbeat
• Greyscale shots
• Protaganist at the mercy of the Antagonist

Subgenres of the Thriller genre

• Action Thriller
• Comedy Thriller
• Crime Thriller
• Medical Thriller
• Mystery Thriller
• Romantic Thriller
• Spy Thriller

Examples of Thrillers

Action Thriller - Taken 

Comedy Thriller - Silver Streak

Crime Thriller - The Usual Suspects

Medical Thriller  - Side Effects

Mystery Thriller - Sherlock Thrillers

Romantic Thriller - The Phantom of the Opera

Spy Thriller - The Bourne Identity

Art of Title Sequence

Art of Title Sequence

Children of Men opening sequence analysis

Children of Men opening sequence analysis
The film is a dystopian film where it is set in the future where everything is as bad as possible. We know it is in the future as it is dark and dull.The camera is crucial to introduce the main character and we follow him through the use of a tracking shot out of the cafe.
The noise of the explosion in the cafe creates white noise which is used as a sound bridge linking one scene to the next. We know that the film is going to be in the mans perspective.We can tell that the man is one of the main characters as he comes in front and centre, then the camera follows him. The man seems cold, emotionless and not bothered about his surroundings. The man also speaks over the newscaster while everyone else is in awe, which shows he is not interested. From the mans clothing, the audience can tell the man is a mess, he looks like a tramp and clearly has some problems in his life. When he pours the alcohol into the coffee, it confirms the audiences view on his behaviour of him having problems. Classical music acts as a trigger to our emotions, it is meant to make us sad about the tragedy of the worlds youngest person dying.

SpiderMan: Camera and Editing

Editing my preliminary task

Editing the prelim

We used the software ‘Adobe Premier’ to capture the footage onto the computer. This software allows us to edit the footage together. We first watched the whole scene through looking at all the various shots we did from different angles. We strategically chose the ones that worked best and gave us the best effects. As well as this we wanted to conform to the storyboard as well. We made sure we had a variety of shots such as high and low angle, close ups and editing shots such as shot reverse shot. To cut between shots we add dissolve transitions gave us a smooth film. I found it pretty easy to edit once I got the hang of it, and cutting it into sub clips really helped as all I had to do is drag it onto the timeline.

Next time I would definitely try and use more editing techniques. With so many available to use it was a shame that our video is so basic. I would also try work harder on ensuring the clip flows. The places where we cut the shots are fairly obvious which it shouldn’t be.

My personal contribution was playing the different shots, to see which was appropriate for the type of angle we wanted to be displayed. I would then cut the shot and put it in the right position next to the other frames.

Filming my Preliminary Task

Filming and Editing my Preliminary Task

Filming the prelim

For our preliminary task we filmed in the school corridor as we wanted to make it look more rushed and too add to the effects. I think the filming went well, bearing in mind there was minimal scenery, just a laptop, a chair and a usb stick. The role I played  was filming the high and low angle shots of the scene as well as being director which meant I had to call action as it made the process quicker and flow better. I had a major role in the filming because I believe I am good at handing cameras and I understood what was wanted of the task.

The lighting in the corridor, was too blue in the lens. This must have been because we had to use natural light, so however, the light shone off the walls, we had to use. However there were elements where the lighting worked perfectly in setting the scene and creating tension. Particularly, the close up of the man's face looks good as it really emphasises the stress on his face. The setting up of the camera was relatively easy. We took a good variety of shots from all different angles so there was a lot to work with when it came to editing plus from a directors point of view, it would mean that if anything deleted there is a backup. We used high/low angle shots to show authority and who had the most power. From this it was able to identify who the bad/good character was which. We were given a storyboard which we filmed using a range of different shot such as wide shot, over the shoulder shot, close up shots of actors, and a close shot of the door opening. This was good as once it was time to edit, it meant we had a variety of shots to choose from.

We made sure we stuck to the 180-degree rule, although we did break it once and had to redo the scene in order to keep the continuity and made sure we used technical terminology such as ‘action’ and ‘rolling’ to make sure everyone was ready before we filmed. From filming this I have learnt a wide range of shots and what they symbolise to the audience. I have also learnt how to direct a film and others around me as well as setting up a camera and adjusting certain parts to the camera.

Below is the storyboard we had to follow:

How is horror and suspense created in the opening sequence of scream?

How is horror and suspense created in the opening sequence of scream?

The use of mise-en-scene is very effective in the opening sequence of scream. You can see the scene is set in a very isolated area, shown by a crane shot. This crane shot shows the set at night connoting it should be quiet out, making the cricket noises and loud dog barking seem very suspicious. Lighting also plays a big part inside the house; The lighting gets darker as the situation intensifies as she is turning lights off presuming to try and stop the man from watching her. The movement of the blonde girl is a good indication to how scared she is because when the phone guy says he is watching her, she begins to rush around the house in terror as well as slowly backing away from the door when told not to open it. Before the man starts to act in a threatening manor you see her pull out a knife and push it back into the holder. This is hinting at what is going to happen to her.

In the opening scene, there is also a wide use of camera shots. As well as the crane shot that was previously mentioned; a tracking shot is also used. This is when the camera follows someone to show his or her movements and surroundings. The tracking shot is used to follow the blonde girl round her house and shows that she is on her own and for a horror film, being on your own rarely ends well. Furthermore, there is also a close up on the blonde girl, which expresses her emotions clearer to the viewer. This close up is done via a fast zoom, which also shows that her emotions change very suddenly.

Music and sounds are also used very well. As the blonde girl gets increasingly frightened the tempo of the music picks up. As well as this, there is intense drumming in the scene and similarly seems to represent her heartbeat as the drumming escalates as the blonde girl gets more scared. Before the blonde girl starts to really panic, the camera switch to the crane shot of outside. During this crane shot, you hear crickets and loud dog barking. Generally, dog’s bark a lot when they know someone is outside their house so that indicates to the viewer that something or someone is outside which is gives the viewer suspicion. With regards to the intense drumming and music earlier as the blonde girl gets more scared, there is also a point where all sounds stop. This shows the blonde girls state of shock as if her heart skipped a beat when the man down the phone tells her what her boyfriends name is. This creates a big dramatic effect.

Editing Techniques

Editing Techniques

Editing in film is a process of cutting and assembling film footage to produce a finished product. The role of the film editor includes organising transitions between shots making decisions about shot duration and maintaining continuity. 

Shot Duration - The length of each shot. The length of the shots displaying actors can show if they are main characters or not.

Transitions - When effects are used to cut between shots. E.g Cross Dissolve

Camera Shots

Camera Shots

There are 5 main features we will apply when using the cameras on shoot day:
1. Angle
2. Movement
3. Position
4. Depth of Field
5. Composition

Close Up Shot - Tightly frames a person or object to show detail or emotion.

Medium Shot - Shot which shows small part of characters body. Shows more body language.

High Angle Shot - The camera is located above the actor and films facing downwards. This gives the actor less power/authority.

Low Angle Shot - The camera is located low down and films facing upwards. This gives the actor more authority and power.

Zoom Shot - Either zooms in to the actor or zooms out. Zooming in shows isolation whereas zooming out shows the scenery and context. 

Tracking Shot - Follows the actions of the actor, keeping them on screen the entire time.

Establishing Shot - Sets up or establishes the setting of a scene. It is typically at the beginning of a scene.

Handheld Shot - Filmed from the camera mans pov. It is a little shaky in order to show it is from the actors perspective.

Swish Pan - Moves Swiftly from one actor to another.

Setting up of camera

Introduction and setting up of camera

 We were first shown the 3 main components that are used to set up the camera and how to assemble them. These were the dolly, tripod and camera itself. When setting up the camera you must ensure to set up the tripod and the spider track dolly before even getting to the camera, you take the the folded track dolly and open it up until it clicks, you do this by pressing down the metal buttons on the tracks and pulling them out. This creates an even platform for the tripod and camera to rest on so you cam move the camera around quickly. After this you put the brakes on and the tripod is ready to go, finally you attach the camera and make sure it is working properly by testing the White balance. You do this by putting a white piece of paper in front of the lens to check the focus and contrast is of the right colour. On the camera there are lots of different features for you to film, in the best way possible. On the camera there is a spirit level so you can see if the camera is balanced while filming. On the lens there are three wheels.  the one nearest the end of the camera is the stabilizer, the middle one is zoom and the one nearest you is lighting. On top of the camera is a good size microphone which is good for picking up all sound. When filming, one of the most common camera techniques is the 180 degrees rule. This is when you film from a specific angle for the whole scene. Afterwards you do the scene again but from a different view. Also it allows the viewer to see the different expressions of the different characters. While setting up the camera for we had  to get a white balance. This is when we placed a piece of white paper in-front of the camera so it could make sure all the colours were not distorted. When filming there are lots of different shots. These include big close ups, close ups. These two shots show detailed facial expressions and often in horror movies show fear. Medium shot, medium long shot and long to wide shot often show more body language. Establishing shots are normally at the beginning of a film to tell us the basic information of what we need to know about the movie. A tracking shot follows a specific main character of a scene. The other shots are more straight forward; two shot, three shot, over the shoulder shot and high angle shot which shows that someone is weak with less authority, and low angle shots show the a certain character has more authority and it highlights that they are stronger and have a bigger status.
               
180 DEGREE RULE                                                      This is the tripod which keeps camera steady
                                                       

Children of Men Opening Scene analysis

Children of Men Opening Scene Analysis

The opening of 'Children of Men' begins in a futuristic London during the year 2027, as seen by the high tech adverts used on the buses and the large television screens on the office buildings. From the beginning, the audience is immediately introduced to the collapse of the world through the news report aired in a coffee shop in central London. The audience is introduced to the issue of worldwide infertility with the youngest person on earth murdered at the age of 18. The world is represented as having a collapsed state and government and undergoing a turmoil of destruction; portrayed through the bombing of the coffee shop. This representation of the future world is wholly negative; with no hope of curing the infertility of the current generation there is no hope of future generations to continue human life - a dystopia world. As well as this, the future of London is represented in a bad light by showing rickshaws drive past conveying the idea that London will be over populated (shown by the overcrowded cafe) and highly polluted (rickshaws).

We are introduced to the main character, male, we know he is the main character by the tracking camera shots of him and the various close-ups of his actions and facial expressions. Also because he gets the most camera time. He is also shown to have little interest in the death, unlike the rest of the people at the coffee house whom all seem startled and saddened upon the death of Baby Diego. This could represent this character as being different to the rest of the people. He also escapes from the explosion of the coffee house, of which we see a disfigured women after, showing the audience the character's difference to the rest. We see the main character pour what looks like whisky into his coffee. This helps the audience to further understand his frame of mind. How he stays disconnected from the goings on and/or is just an alcoholic.

Mise en scene in Children of Men

How does mise en scene help understand the character and genre in Children Of Men

Mise en scene is defined as everything the audience sees in a film. In Mise en scene there are different elements that are used in order for the audience to understand the characters and the genre of the film more clearly. In Children of Men, the costume is a key aspect of the film that helps the audience distinguish a character and the role that they play in the film. The main character is a man dressed from head to toe in black, which might suggest depression or possibly be a reflection of their mood, which ultimately allows the audience to know how to feel at this point of the film. Not only this but he is dirty and ungroomed which might suggest a sense of giving up which again allows the audience to make judgments on what they think of a character and how they should be feeling. Lighting plays an important facet. The lighting is imbecilic and dark which might represent failure and misery with a hint of blue, which is stereotypically used to enable the audience to know that the genre is sci- fi or dystopian future. The actor uses facial expressions which confesses to the audience how the actor wants you to perceive him, in this case the actor is emotionless which is a contrast to the rest of the cast who are seen to be uncontrolable with their emotions which might indicate to the audience that this character is possibly confident or possibly that this is the norm for where he lives and is therefore used to lack of positive news. In this film, the only piece of makeup that the audience has come across is the prosthetic arm, which is seen during the explosion, which generates an uncertain atmosphere. The props include a coffee with whiskey which could indicate dispiritedness and dejection, due to the circumstances of living and the setting of the film also emphasizes the genre of the film to be the future by the way some of the things had change such as becoming motorbikes and adverts on buildings as oppose to on billboards which creates a contrast from now and then.