Preliminary Task - pre-production planning

Our prelim task was our first practical assignment, so it was fun to finally get out of the classroom and get behind the camrea (or in my case in front of it). Before we were allowed to run off with the equipment and begin shooting, we were given printed storyboards, which we had to follow.

This was to allow us to practice the techniques required in filming. When we were doing the practice shoot it took us over an hour to get a mere 30 second clip. Cast wise, we decided it would be easier to use ourselves as the actors, as this meant that we wouldn't have to chase around finding people with nothing to do in their frees.

Horror vs.Thriller

The differences between a horror and a thriller nowadays are subtle, films over time have got more and more violent in general, and now it is difficult to tell which is which. Previously a horror was a film that would scare the audience out of their skins and a thriller was more about suspense, wheras now the horror genre has evolved into movies that contain excessive violence and gore with no real plot. Take the Saw series for example, the first one you could argue crosses the line between horror and thriller, because although it is quite violent, it it the thought of what is going on that scares you. The following movies however just get gradually more violent and the plot sort of repeats itself, so by the time you get to number 3 you've had enough.
Thrillers however have got better recently, and now are very realistic and believable psychological movies that totally mess with your head. A good example of a modern thriller would be The Blair Witch Project, which was filmed on movie cameras, and has a little piece of text at the beginning saying that it was based on a true story. These small things, combined with the 'amateur' approach to camerawork, make for a very believable movie. Now there are always exceptions to these catagories, and you get things such as black comedy which mixes the whole horror genre with humour and so on.