Jonathan Russell's films

Was written and directed by Tony Petrossian.

The video shows a stereotypical Hollywood party. Throughout the video the celebrities in the party are shown to be made out of card or plastic.

Meaning through the glass of the camera, Through telivision.

A music video with a message.

Expressing the exploitation of the media.

Target Audience: Teenagers, Adults.

Genre, Rock/ Metal

The thriller we have created uses forms and conventions of typical thrillers. Our film is a hybrid of the horror and drama genre, as the full version would contain some meaningful messages about crime in society today. It is a simple story of someone investigating a girls disappearance, however the fact that the world we have created was for the youth of today. The house scene conforms almost exactly to scenes from 'Seven' or 'Gone Baby Gone' which is where we took our inspiration from. The fact that the story builds up from the party, to the attack scene, then to a murder shows how much it acts as a successful thriller.
Our piece is mainly focused on the youth of modern day society. Our representation of this particular group changes as the story progresses. The first images we see of the hooded character walking, acts as the stereotype that the majority of youth in the United Kingdom wear hoodies and are involved with a large percentage of crime. This automatically gives the audience the notion that this character is likely to be the enemy in the piece. We then cut to the series of shots showing three hooded individuals breaking in to a house (keeping the stereotype) and then the party scene. The party scene was intended to show the recklessness of youth and their connection to crime and use of drugs and alcohol. The attack scene also introduces the representation of gender, showing weakness in the female character and strength in the male. After the attack we return to our hooded character from the beginning. Through the voiceover we can understand that he is the heroic character of the story challenging what we thought previously in the piece.
As the thriller genre is one of the overruling ones in popularity, we would aim for distribution from large film companies, who have the ability to show it in cinemas and then sell DVD of it. I would also consider independent companies such as Film 4 who guarantee to show there releases on a free well known television channel to attract more figures.
Following rules and guidelines from the British Board of Film Classification, our film would probably be rated a 15. This is because it includes violence, drug use and gory images. This would also be more effective as we intended for the film to be aimed at teenagers over fifteen.
We attracted our audience through tension and suspense. Our piece continues to build up suspense until the very last minute when the audience is left hanging as the bloody sheet is thrown over the screen creating the questions and leaving people wanting more. Because of the relationship that is created with the character the audience feel drawn to him. Once this relationship is constructed it creates interest and entices the audience to keep watching.
During the construction of this product I have seen how composition, lighting and camera angles make a film, not the quality of the camera. The camera we used was my own personal one as it still had better quality than the schools, however we managed to create some beautifully lit shots through use of stage lighting which gave the film the ambiance of a thriller. As I was mostly in charge of the editing I worked for hours with macs and my knowledge and understanding of Imovie progressed and advanced to a semi-professional level.
Viewing our final piece I can appreciate how effective some of the shots are and how the story is especially well written. I have learnt how much consideration and planning there has to be for the shoot. We needed prop lists, the final storyboard, actors and lighting. I understand now from experience that things never go to plan. Many problems did occur while filming, not including outtakes. We had originally planned in the storyboard for the hooded character to have a gun, however we filmed past the point he reveals the weapon without realising. In the end we continued to film without the gun and adapted the story slightly. Locations needed to be considered as well, for weeks we thought of appropriate places to film until Adam showed us his house which had been damaged by a burst water pipe and we decided that would be an appropriate setting for or thriller. Actors needed to be contacted to come in for shoots and we also had to visualise the piece as we were filming, as in many cases we filmed at different times meaning we had to be aware of continuity within the scene. The party scene for example was shot on two separate days, one with the couple and one with the others. The most important aspect was creating the storyboard and deciding on framing. We had to think about how to make the shots effective, however when we came to shoot it, it did not always go to plan. We realised that not all shots would be possible with the space we had to work with. We all enjoyed the production of this film and are all very proud of the final outcome.

After our first video edit, we showed it to our class and also to some of our individual friends and families. Everyone agreed that it had a lot of potential and really captured the audiences interest. Some of my friends especially liked the suspense and tension created by the music during the search scene. However our teacher Mr Silverwood, did have some concerns about its length. We took into consideration what he had suggested and managed to cut a whole minute off the final piece. We focused on cutting down the party scene and the beginning, as we agreed the house scene could not be cut down as it was vital to the story and to creating tension and suspense.
Once the final version was edited and finalised we put it on youtube and received comments on it:


Lucysilverwood1 Block Use Amazing, great shots and love the music choice.

flyingfluffaflang Block User really like this well done, its epic :)

addyb1991 Block User really love this, dead well put together (y)

This was our final storyboard which we kept on set to see the shots and angles we had decided on. The end of the storyboard shows the hooded character walking into the room originally with the gun, however we scrapped that idea after we forgot to add it in and it we deemed it unnecessary.

I edited together this 'making of' to discuss some of the issues we came across during filming and to also show some of the behind the scenes footage and photographs we took on set.

This visual storyboard was created with original dialogue to help us visualise how some of the ideas would look and to see it flowing as one movie. I worked by creating different short storyboard for my section and character originally and then viewing them as one to see whether they offered any potential which could be continued. This storyboard was one of the first ideas, you can see how we took ideas and certain aspects from this and incorporated it into the final piece for instance the walking of the character and the interrogation scene which we included in the story with some minor changes.

Action thriller: Often these types of thrillers involve features such as a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. They usually contain, guns, explosions and action packed fight scenes. They often have background elements of mystery films and crime films. Notable examples are the James Bond films, XXX, and the Jason Bourne novels and films.

Conspiracy thriller: In which the hero/heroine confronts a powerful group of enemies whose true extent only he/she knows Films such as Enemy of The State, Sum of All Fears and The Ghost.

Crime thriller: This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients. Some examples include Seven, Reservoir Dogs and Inside Man.

Disaster thriller: In which the main conflict is due to a natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., or nuclear disasters as an artificial disaster. the Day After Tomorrow, 2012, and the 1974 film Earthquake.

Drama thriller: In which the story consists of the elements of a thriller and drama film. These films are usually slower paced and involves a great deal of character development along with plot twists. Examples include The Illusionist, The Interpreter and The Prestige.

Science-fiction thriller: Alien and Sunshine are examples of science-fiction thrilers.

Horror thriller: In which the main character is put in danger and their main enemies are unrealistic creatures in which they must destroy to achieve their goal. Films such as Sam Rami's, Evil Dead 2 and Drag Me To Hell fit into this genre of thriller.



Erotic thriller: In which it consists of erotica and thriller. It has become popular since the 1980s and the rise of VCR market penetration. The genre includes such films as Basic Instinct, The Second Skin and Fatal Attraction.

Legal thriller: In which the lawyer-heroes/heroines confront enemies outside, as well as inside, the courtroom and are in danger of losing not only their cases but their lives. The Innocent Man by John Grisham is a well known example of the type.

Medical thriller: In which the hero/heroine are medical doctors/personnel working to solve an expanding medical problem. Robin Cook, Tess Gerritsen, Michael Crichton, and Gary Braver are well-known authors of this subgenre. Nonfiction medical thrillers are also a subcategory, comprising works like The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Films such as Awake and The Flatliners are other examples of medical thrillers.

Political thriller: In which the hero/heroine must ensure the stability of the government that employs him such as The Manchurian Candidate.