What I Have Learned

Parity shoot.
From this shoot, I have learned that it is important that all the members of your group feel as if they are involved.
I have learned that it is very hard to try and recreate a piece of media from an earlier piece, this is probably why most film remakes aren't as true to the original.
I have learned that effects and background colouring play big parts in setting the mood & atmosphere of the piece.
I have learned that foley is very hard to try and create but it is more effective than ripping an audio file and using that.
I have also learned that very little dialogue is more effective to setting the scene than lots of dialogue explaining what is going on.

What I Have Learned

Dexter shoot.
I have learned that I need to have all of my groups numbers in case of emergency (or my phone gets stolen.)
I have also learned that it is near enough impossible to shoot something over one day so continuity is very important and very hard to make true.
I have learned that you definitely need to film 5 seconds before and after you shoot the scene, it makes batch capturing so much easier, something we learned the hard way.
I learned that it's quite hard to get actors at last minute and you need to confirm people at least a week before hand.

Hide & Seek Review

Yesterday, I watched a film called Hide & Seek. It is a mixture of horror & thriller. Its horror elements are easily spotted, such as the fact that one of the final scenes is set in a wooded area/cave with a blood thirsty murderer. The thriller aspects are that the main character is a psychologist and the film revolved around a split personality mental disorder. You have to watch the film and think about what's happening instead of just watching it.

9 frame analysis - se7en

The opening scene of Se7en opens with a detective getting ready, going through his morning routine. As he leaves, he is at a crime scene of someone's murder. Going outside, followed by the body, he meets up with a new detective. Soon they investigate more murders, each relating to the seven deadly sins, this is how it ties in with the title. Whilst the detectives work together, it is clear they aren't the best of friends.  Towards the end, the murderer is then in turn killed by one of the detectives, after killing his wife and giving him a box with her head in, he taunts the detective by claiming she was pregnant and so wrath over takes the detective and therefore there has been a murder relating to each deadly sin. Envy was the sin used to kill the wife as the murderer was jealous of his life. It's very complicated and confusing. However, the film ends with the quote: The world is a fine place and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part. The significance of this is that the world is not a fine place as people enjoy the seven deadly sins, and aren't punished for them, despite 7 people being punished with the ultimate price - death or murder of a loved one.

Word Treatment (My Own Film)

Losing Streak is a psychological/crime thriller based upon the life of one Thomas Daniels, one of the unluckiest men alive. To pay off debts, he learns to cheat at poker, which ends in disaster as he successfully cheats the Mafia boss out of $250,0000. A thriller like no other, as this film pays homage to maybe the best thriller director, Alfred Hitchcock.

Filming the opening

Due to circumstances, I was unable to attend the filming on Saturday but I attended on Sunday and acted and shot some footage. We will now edit it. In my group are Maisy & Abbie.

Title Map

Thriller openings

This could be set up for a flash back through out the film, a non linear thriller. The locations for shooting would have to change - maybe a picture of Dartford town centre on the green screen and edit in the rubble? Or use fake rubble? I used Dartford town centre as it is relatively close and busy, the perfect location for the scene I had in mind. The character I imagined would be in his mid thirties, in a suit, getting up from the rubble. There would be slow music with possible screams or cries in the background, throughout, there would be flashbacks to earlier as the man tries to piece together events from the past which led to this moment. It is not a horror as it does not have an evil mad guy going round killing people, it will be a terrorist attack, as things like this happen in real life. It will have elements of both a psychological and an action thriller. I was inspired by Snakes on a Plane (an unconvential thriller) because I liked the idea of people worrying for their lives yet having viewers have to scratch their heads to try and figure out what will happen next. The Dark Knight inspired me because I wanted to have a hero that not everybody appericated or liked. He could be the hero that people love to hate. Finally Inception inspired me because I wanted to have the feeling of confusing the audience and have them constantly on their toes.

Analysing Ratings

Rear Window is a timeless classic thriller. Most popular with males under 18, this could be down to the fact that older family members are teaching them what a real thriller looks like. 31.4% rated it 10/10. Unsurprising. It just proves that to have an amazing thriller, you don't need the latest technology or the best actors/actresses. If you have a good director and plot line, the film can easily become a classic. Just like the timeless Rear Window.

Dark Knight is the newest Batman film (as of yet.) Once again, we see that the males under 18 are the ones that have watched this most. Already we see a pattern of males under 18 seeing thrillers more often then any other age/gender category. 49.7% have rated it 10/10 which isn't all too surprising. The Dark Knight is truly a bold, yet successful step for the Batman series, but a step in the right direction.

Inception is the most confusing thriller that people have ever watched. The dream within a dream plotline hooks the viewer as they attempt to figure out what is going on. Again, males under 18 watched this most, as with the previous two thrillers. 49.5% recommend it and give it 10/10. Inception is the first of a new line of thrillers maybe? Either way, Inception is a must see thriller.

Mise-en-scene of a tv drama

The key points:

1. Costume - what it tells us of their personalities
2. Body Language - how they react
3. Props - are they holding something?
4. Location - how does this connect to the people and how they act
5. Set Design - like location but attention to detail for example - whats in their room?
6. Lighting - why the mood is like that and it reflects on the scene & the characters.
7. Gender - how the male/female stereotypes are addressed, etc.

For this I will use Waterloo Road as an example, Waterloo Road is TV drama based on a fictional school set in Greater Manchester. The show typically deals with teachers and students dealing with every day issues, also issues not usually addressed on TV shows such as suicide, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, abortion, cancer, illnesses, affairs & murders. 

 1. The costumes. 
It is set in a school. Therefore most of the cast will be in school uniforms. (The typical white shirt, tie, trousers, black shoes with a jumper and or blazer.) As in the images, you can see it is all very formal clothing. (Except for one, where the teacher is running, this was to set the tone of the episode, it gives the viewer, a chance to see the characters before the school environment. Adding in a song is also a hint as to how the episode was going to run and what the main feeling of the episode is.)


2. Body Language.
The body language seems natural here. It doesn't seem over acted. Everything seems natural - as if it were to happen in a real school. 


3. Props
Once again, as it is in a school, most of the props seem to be the obvious - school bags, folders, newspapers, instruments. The props aren't the focus of the scene, they're more background to give the scene a more realistic feeling. They aren't displaying the props as the only thing in the shot - unless necessary - like a newspaper or a phone. This is so the viewers can see what the character is seeing, we are put in the position of the character.


4. Location.
It is meant to be set in Greater Manchester, however we can only see the school and surrounding areas (car parks, playgrounds.) This is so the focus is purely on the school. The location & set design are made up fully so it is more realistic. It looks like an actual school. If you were to walk around a comprehensive secondary school, you are more than likely to see things like this.


5. Set Design
You can't tell that it is in fact shot in a studio, you genuinely get the feeling you are among corridors and class rooms. Some parts may, in fact, be shot in a school, but you are unable to tell the difference between where the studio scenes are and where the school scenes are. It has a lot of continuntity - you see the corridors and class rooms again the way they were left before - the sets don't change in between where the scene left off, and where the scene continues again. 


6. Lighting
Most of it is natural lighting through the windows and such. However in lots of scenes the class room lights are turned on as well. This is most probably down to the fact that artificial stage lighting would be too obvious in scenes. From the corridor to the class room, the lighting shouldn't change that drastically and this is another reason as to why shooting is always during the day - where they get the most natural lighting.


7. Gender

The roles of genders in Waterloo Road is something that has come up quite recently in a storyline - domestic abuse. Only it was the girl who was abusive towards her boyfriend. This is different from how it is usually done. Usually the boy is abusive towards the girl and everyone is angry at the boy and it shows the different points of view, here, we see how girls can be abusive as well. Sexism is a large role in this storyline - if the boy had hit the girl, would they still be together? They're only still together because she's a girl and she didn't mean to hit him.

Thriller titles

During the opening scenes, I've seen a number of thrillers that have an introductory scene, then begin the title credits. I think this is quite an interesting idea, as it sets the atmosphere before we know the feeling of the film (the font of the opening titles plays a huge impact on what sort of film this will be, for example most Disney films are usually very bright, bold & colourful, so the viewers know this will be a film with a happy ending.) In thrillers, there doesn't have to be a happy ending, the film can just end. Usually there is a significant point at which the film ends, usually when someone saves the day or someone has been put to justice. Early ideas for our thriller was a terrorist attack, but starting at the end. So the first thing people will see is destroyed buildings, people's dead bodies, fire, destruction, etc. Then throughout the opening scenes, we'll have flashbacks to earlier events to the build up. This might be tricky as the thriller opening is only meant to be a few minutes long, and with the titles, it might be hard to convey everything we want and still have the viewers understand what is going on. An idea that was built on the terrorist idea was that until the first flashback, it was complete silence except for maybe a sad, slow song - as the actor/actress looks around at the chaos. This is not for certain yet though.

Archetypes & Stereotypes

An archetype is a typically widely known behaviour pattern or significant symbol or phrase. For example, smiling is an archetype of someone being happy or in a good mood.
A stereotype is an often offensive, popular belief regarding a certain social group. For example, stereotyping that people wearing tracksuits must be chavs is a popular stereotype.

Independant Evaluation

1. Complete - who did what? Level 2- 11 marks
Abbie - camera operator
Danica & Joe - actors
Abbie, Joe & Sophie - editors, however due to technical problems, and I had to leave for another lesson, Abbie & Sophie edited the final copy (there were two, the one I edited didn't have audio working)

2. Useful research & demonstrate learning? Level 2/3 - 11/12 marks
I researched final cut pro but i didn't understand it properly until I actually used it. Sir helped me learn how to export it as AVI finals after school one day and other people had to show me how to batch capture, as Danica had already learned how to use it beforehand.

3. Care/creativity in the presentation? Level 2 - 10 mark
I think i took care in the presentation, but it wasn't that creative. I prefer typing with images over recording audio, especially when having to listen/read it back. Some times, we did actually record ourselves, or video ourselves (the rating video with Maisy & Chris)

4. Time Management? (4 hours per week) Level 2 - 9 marks
I don't believe it looks like 4 hours per week because I haven't posted everytime I've reviewed a thriller film, or evaluated a class.

Evaluation

(The video can be found on abbie's blog)


The planning process -
What planning did you do and why?
we planned our script and camera angles so we knew exactly how what shots needed to be filmed.
How well organised were you?
we weren't 100% organised, we weren't entirely sure on how to film it.
What would you change next time?
we would plan our shoot more in depth, make sure the camera's worked perfectly.

The video production -
What did you do, does it work, do the edits (match on action) work well?
we used a variety of shots, a list of which can be found on this blog, we feel the match on action worked well but at one scene one of the actors heads got a bit cut off.
Have you stuck to the 180 deg rule?
we tried to.
Are the shots & angles well framed (rule of 3rds)?
i wasn't sure whilst filming but in the final product, i think it looks well framed.
Does it look convincing as a conversation?
we tried to make it as convincing as possible. there are pauses which were in the script and used in the film but it might seem as if they are there from bad editing,
What would you change to improve it?
add more dialogue and shoot every scene at a low, medium and then high angle.

Overall -  how well have you completed the preliminary task?
i think we completed the preliminary task to the best of our ability using the knowledge we knew so far about editing.

Storyboard

How To Kill Your Husband (Or Wife) Script!

(A man walks into a dim lit room. A woman is sitting at the table)

DANICA

 Where have you been ?

Pause 

JOE

Out

DANICA

 Out where?

JOE

 Out with friends

DANICA

 What friends 

JOE

 Work Friends?!

Pause

DANICA

 (sighs)

 Were you with her?

JOE

 Who!!

DANICA 

 You know who?

Pause 

JOE

 No i wasn’t 

DANICA

 LIAR!!!!!

JOE

 I’m not 

DANICA

(Shouting)

 Why are you lying?! 

JOE

(Calm)

I’m not 

Danica 

(slaps) 

JOE

(pulls out weapon and kills end scene with smile) 

shot types

Shot Types (Order of Shots)

1. Match on Action - Pulling the door handle/
2. match on Action -Entering the room.
3. Close Up - Danica drumming fingers.
4. Long Shot - Joe reaching the table.
5. Two Shot - Joe sitting down, Danica on other end of table.
6. Close Up - Danica’s face.
7. Close Up - Joe’s face.
8. Shot / Reverse Shot - Conversation.
9. Shot / Reverse Shot - Conversation.
10. Over the Shoulder - Conversation.
11. Close Up - “Liar.”
12. Mid Shot - Gunshot (or other weapon if gun cannot be used.)
13. Close Up - Joe’s face / End. 

Thriller Ratings (With Maisy & Chris)

Final Cut Pro

Since I learnt how to change the movie file into an AVI, and basic editing, all I really needed to do was learn how to batch capture. I used websites I found google to use as tutorials.

Other work can be found

on Abbie's & Danica's blogs.
http://abbie-hales.blogspot.com/
http://danica-danicaebers.blogspot.com/

Abbie, Danica & My Se7en Commentary

Mine, Abbie & Danica's Match Cut example

Mine & Dann's Thriller Opening Sequence

Catch Me If You Can

From these 9 frames, we can already tell what a basis of this film will be about. An airport. The opening credits are animated, which is strange for a film that is shot in live action. Each frame seems to seep into the next one, using the 'people' or the actors names. The atmosphere expressed throughout these 9 frames are of a type of chase. We can already assume that the main characters will have to chase or find another character using a series of transport. It uses quite bright and bold colours, such as blue and yellow. This could give the audience a feeling of a comedy or a happy film, it doesn't use angry or depressing colours, commonly found in thrillers and horror films, such as red and black.

Se7en Opening Credits Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY
The opening credits of Se7en, an iconic thriller film, begins with a series of clips. We begin to piece together the fact that this is a detective, working. It also uses an eerie background music, fast paced and dramatic. This sets the tense and suspenseful atmosphere as the audience has no clue as to what is going on, or what is going to happen. The font seems to be as chalk on a blackboard, which seem to jitter about, this reinforces the atmosphere as suspenseful. As the opening credits draw to a close, we see a dollar bill, and the word God is cut out. This could mean religious themes are included in the film. The music becomes faster and seemingly louder as the credits finish.

Match On Action

A match on action edit, is the same thing, place, event filmed from different angles. This could be achieved by using different cameras filming it at the same time, or the way we will use it in our film - recreating the scene various times altering the angle and position of the camera. As it is extremely difficult to get the exact same thing twice, we will have to be careful, especially in editing. Examples of match on actions are: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHh12_JHjTg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laUPi7MPOSQ . We will edit it using Final Cut Pro, something we learned to use today in Media.

Examples of thriller posters.

History Of Thrillers

The earliest thriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is thought to be The Lodger (1926), a silent black and white film based upon a Jack the Ripper type character.

However it is also based upon a book written by Marie Belloc Lowndes, the plot line is basically of how a serial killer goes round London killing young, blonde women.

This was followed by Hitchcock’s next thriller, Blackmail (1929), another black and white film. Two versions of this film were released, a silent one, and a non silent one, a “talkie.” It follows the story of Alice, a young woman who kills an artist after he attempts to flirt with her, she has to cover up her murder.

The next notable thriller film M (1931) directed by Fritz Lang, starred Peter Lorre as a child killer. The film's story was based on the life of serial killer Peter Kurten. Already we can see a pattern of most notable thrillers being based or loosely based upon true stories.

Another notable director, George Cukor's psychological thriller Gaslight (1944) featured a scheming husband plotting to make his innocent young wife go insane, in order to acquire her inheritance.

A common theme surrounding Hitchcock’s thrillers, typically involved an innocent victim, thrown into a usually life threatening situation or a wrongful accusation.  Innocent, average people can be seen today in today’s typical thrillers. Such as The Spiral Staircase (1946) directed by Robert Siodmak. A serial murderer terrorizes innocent, disabled women.

Strangers on a Train (1951) marked Hitchcock’s move into Technicolor. Bigger Hollywood stars were cast as well. Two men on a train meet and stage a battle of wits and murders. Other Hitchcock films of the 50’s include: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief and Vertigo. 1960 saw Alfred Hitchcock’s perhaps most notable thriller film, Psycho. Based on a lone mother, and motel owner who goes insane.

1970’s – 1980’s saw Hitchcock’s first British thriller film Frenzy (1972) given an R rating (18) for it’s vicious and bloody scenes. Like other Hitchcock thrillers, it’s based on a serial killer in London who rapes and kills women. Brian De Palma directed several films, all with common themes of paranoia and guilt. His work includes the 1973 thriller, Sisters which focuses on a pair of murderous Siamese twins, the music for this film was by Hitchcock’s favourite composer and most of Brian’s work is inspired and pays homage to Hitchcock’s work. Another example is Obsession (1976) which was inspired by Vertigo. A man loses his wife and daughter to kidnappers and must save them. The last film from this era of thrillers, stars Nicole Kidman in the 1989 Dead Calm. This thriller introduced the theme of being trapped and must escape from the villain. In this case, Nicole’s character Rae, must escape the villain whilst trapped on a yacht in the ocean. Phillip Noyce’s work would inspire modern day thrillers which introduced this new technique of characters being trapped.

Modern day thrillers seem to have introduced another new common theme, people with mental disorders. A prime example of this is Misery (1990), directed by Rob Reiner, and based on the Stephen King novel, a crazed fan traps an author, not allowing him to leave her house. Preharps the most well known thriller of the 90’s, Silence of the Lambs, directed by Johnathon Demme (1991) it focuses on FBI type detectives hunting down a cannibal killer. Se7en focuses on the hunt for a serial killer who renacts the seven deadly sins. These films have introduced the sub genre Crime Thriller. Directed by David Fincher, it was released in 1995.

Part of my history of thrillers work. This is a timeline taken from http://timerime.com and shows the different thrillers over the past few decades.

Mind Map: Conventions of Thriller

Mood board. A collection of images associated or representing thriller. I used two film posters which are naturally quite dark and mysterious. I also used a knife, which could be considered an icon of the thriller genre. The last image I used, was a yellow eye watching, it could be seen in two ways, in one it could be the victim, scared and in danger, or it could be the threat, waiting to attack.

Monday 19th September

Today we looked more at thriller openings. Danica, Abbie & I looked at "Enemy of the State." It had a pre-credit opening which included ominous music, a tense mood and use of two shot. It created mystery & suspense as nobody was expecting them to kill the man and then drown him. This introduces the film before any establishing shot is made and is to tease the audience as to what the plot line will include and how the characters behave. When it gets to the opening credits, the music becomes dramatic and fast paced. The director used this approach so he could create a lot of suspense and build up. The viewing experience is very tense, nobody really expects a character to be killed off in the first 5 minutes. The plot, like most thrillers, is very dark, with a lot of twists.

Thriller Opening

To get a feel for what makes an opening to a thriller, I watched "Snakes On A Plane." Not the typical thriller. Thrillers usually have classical music and very dark openings, this film was quite the opposite. Set in Hawaii, the titles appear on a clear blue ocean. Island music is playing in the background while holiday goers enjoy the beach. We aren't actually introduced to any of the characters until the first proper scene. The establishing scenes last for a few minutes, exploring the sea and island. The island music is still playing. At the end of the opening, the mood changes as a man rides a motor bike down a long road. At the end of this, the music has stopped and a man is beaten to death. Not the usual thriller opening. I might use this idea for my thriller film.

Evaluation. 15/9/2011

For period 1, we had Mr Barton and we focused solely on the different camera angles and different shots we can get. We learned about Extreme Close Up, Close Up, Mid Shot, Over The Shoulder, Establishing Shot, Two Shot, Full Body Shot. Tracking Shot. We also learned about White Balance, and how to set the focus on cameras. We then split off into groups, in my group was Abbie, Chris & Danica. We had a small scene to shoot, in which Danica & Chris acted, whilst me & Abbie directed/shot. We changed the angles and shots for each little bit. It involved a lot of stopping and starting, which we will edit out next week. For period 2, Mrs Bryant had us create a blog. After a few initial problems involving Google Accounts, we finally made them. For the second part of the lesson, we focused on the opening of thrillers. Our thriller movie, Se7en, had an interesting opening. No dialogue, just with a series of seemingly unconnected scenes. We had to answer questions on voice recordings, something I hate doing, which will be uploaded to this blog later. In my group for this, I was once again with Abbie & Danica but without Chris.