Thursday 1 April 2010

Thriller Final

Friday 12 March 2010

Feedback From Rough Cut

We got feedback from other class members for our rough cut film. one of the feedback we got was to darken down the forest scene as it was too bright and didn't look mysterious and fit in with the rest of the footage. Also we need to put in the credits at the start as it is unaware of who the characters are and who edited it etc. We also have to include the sound in our film, we will have a mixture of diegetic,and non diegetic sound. This should give our film a dark atmosphere,which is an element that is lacking from our film.without the music included. Blue filters are yet to be added to the flashbacks which will add to the look of the film and make it overall look better the blue filters will also make it look more mysterious and give it the edge of a thriller. We haven't finished all of the flashbacks yet as there is a lot to do and we want to make them flow and that takes time. The better the flashbacks are the more effective are film will become. We will splice together footage of Tim's eyes during the sink scenes. This will hopefully make the film more sinister and give our killer a face.

Thursday 11 March 2010

Friday 5 March 2010

Today is our last day of filming so we need to finish our shots outside in the woods. We have done lots of test footage therefore know exactly what we are going to film so we are confident we will get it done. We need to get shots of the killer stalking the victim, and we found this worked best from the killers POV, however we want to have a variety of shots so will use other camera angles too. We have brought clothes and fake blood to use as props, and we will have to edit the frames to make them darker on Final Cut.

Tuesday 2 March 2010

test footage

Today we did the test footage of our stalking scenes, and the fight scenes. First we had to find somewhere to film, we had originally planned to film in an alleyway but then found that some woods worked better. We wanted to have different varieties of shots so we did POV shots, reaction shots, panning shots and some others.

Friday 26 February 2010

Filming

Today we tried to film, our final version, we have overcome lighting issues, and have settled with minimal lighting to give, it an ominous feel. We also experimented with various blood splatters and how much blood we used. Overall the filming went wll and we have some potential final footage, that we can use.

Thursday 25 February 2010

pandorum



Pandorum, has atmospheric music that starts of slow, and increases in tempo as the action progresses.The film cleverly utilities the absence of light to increase the intensity of the film, and make the film have a tense atmosphere. There are often low bass drones in the back round to give the whole film a darker edge. The whole film is one massive creciendo building up to the end.The whole clip has an eiry feel to it due to the culmination of all these elements.

trailer analysis



This trailer for the movie 'Taken' shows its thriller genre by having a fast pace - this represents a chase or the thrill in the film. The music is just in the background, and is an eerie and mysterious sound that builds up until the victim in the film screams. The clip is dark and this makes the viewer feel it is scary and horrible to view for the people watching.

Analysis of Thriller Poster

This poster is typical of a thriller genre poster, the reasons for this is that the title 'Rise: Blood Hunter' creates tension already but this is mirrored by the blood 'dripping' down the poster from the actors mouth. This excites the audience and makes them want to watch the film. The actor also follows the title by 'rising' and being at the top of the poster showing power. The colour of the poster is mainly red which creates atmosphere because it represents danger and blood. This is typical of a thriller genre.


This thriller poster shows the genre by being dark and mysterious. Mystery is created by the main character shown in the dark street whilst he is running. The title stands out by being on the left hand side and taking up half the poster. It is in red, bold writing which makes the audience read and notice it straight away. The actual title 'Taken' represents the genre because it suggests a chase or struggle, and this is mirrored by the actor running with a determined expression.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Call Sheet

We are going to film our sink film on Friday morning, we already have quite a lot of footage for this so we don't think we will need any more time, as we will spend longer editing these scenes to make them darker etc. However if we need more time we will spend 3 hours on the following Thursday morning to get these scenes completed. We need to use a camera in the evening to make sure it is dark for the rest of the scenes so once the first scenes are complete we will use a couple of evenings a week to get this done.

Tom will be picking up and bringing back the camera.

The actors are Tim and Hannah, and they don't have to speak so they don't need to learn lines, however they need to get the appropriate clothing - dark and basic.

Potential filming locations,include secluded locations such as parks, and alleyways. We are contemplating using cherry hinton park, because of the quietness of the location. Another possibility is bar hill,because of the many alleyways that surround the area.

Film Crew: Dan and Tom will film the sequences with a hand held digi cam. Hannah and Tim will act out the scenes in this film.

Props that we will use include.. fake blood (red food dye), big black baggy hoody for Tim to wear, black baggy trackies with dark shoes. The victim will need basic clothes, that are able to get dirty.

Thursday 11 February 2010

Test Footage 2

This is when we experimented with the killer washing his hands in the sink with the blood. We're going to use some of this footage, along with the footage of just the blood as we think both ideas worked well. The food dye which was out on the antagonists hands we have decided to use in our actual film, however we will make the dye thicker to make th blood more realistic and fade the colour in final cut, to make the blood realisitc. The setting we used in our test footage will not be exactly the same cause the effect we are looking for is much darker, so we will find a darker room. Then darken the footage in final cut, to give the audience a sense of the setting and feel of the film.

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Test footage

We learned many things experimenting,with different camera angles and lighting. In particular our opening sequence, we used a toilet sink, and some food dye to give the effect of our killer washing his bloody hands. We are fairly happy with this footage however we need to figure out how to make the blood look darker. We think we can achieve this when editing in final cut. We did several different things with the dye, we tried rinsing it with water and blocking the sink etc. We now know how to make our blood look best.

We then tried to make it look as if our killer was following the victim, and we think this work best when we held the camera on a tripod, rather than hand held, because it still gave the illusion that the killer was walking but it was clearer to see. We also concluded that two different shots will need to be taken of the reaction shot, one from the point of view from the antagonist and one from the point of view from the victim.


Tips for filming.

Tips for filming:
- Use a tripod so that shots don't look messy.
- Get back-up footage (retakes etc.).
- Make sure you have a shot list (so we know what to film/ don't miss bits).
- Use a variety of shots.
- Continuity.
- Have a plan b/ back up plan for shots.
- Make sure the tape is in the correct place.
- Don't do anything that a passer by might be offended by (weapons etc.).
- Be respectful to the public.

Health & Safety:
- Be aware of your surroundings.
- Get consent to film where you want to film.
- Don't film in dangerous places.
- Don't go on the roof.
- Don't use children in the film.

Friday 5 February 2010

Finalised Ideas

This is our finalised plans showing what is going to happen in our sequence every ten seconds.

10 seconds:
These first ten seconds will show our ident to give a more professional feel to the film, then the title of our film will come up, but our credits will be shown over the images in the next ten seconds. We want five seconds for our title so that the audience spend time to take it in.

20 seconds:
The first shot shows an extreme close up of the sink and the blood rinsing down it, the camera then slowly zooms out to show more of the sink. Gradually you see the hands and the blood being rinsed off them, but the zoom never goes further than the outside of the sink so no more than the hands are seen to make the murderer a mystery. The shot then changes to a close up of the plug hole, and the blood swirling down it to highlight the blood and add the to tense atmosphere to show that a murder has taken place.

30 seconds:
The next shot is a close up of part of the antagonists face, while the other half of it is in shadow., the props needed for this is a black hoody. The second shot of this sequence is an pov shot from the antagonists perspective when he notices his victim down a dark alleyway, so we will shot this in the evening. The victim will stand out because they are the only person there, although they will have bland, plain clothing. This shot is a flashback in the film, and the audience recognizes this because of the blue tint on the shot.

40 seconds:
From the flashback there wil be an long pan shot which will zoom towards the back of the antagonists head to show that the killer is after the victim. The 9th shot is an extreme close up of the antagonists eyes, showing, blood shot and watery eyes to show the killers guilt. This shot will be edited so that the eyes fade away into the next flashback.

50 seconds:
The next flashback goes back to the POV shot, but this time the killer is walking towards his victim with a quick pace for a tense atmosphere so the audience will know what is about to happen. The idea is that shots switch between the flashbacks and the reality of the killers eyes.

60 seconds:
The next shot shows the killers eyes again, but this time newspaper clippings are over it, but almost transparent to show the eyes behind. The newspaper will read words such as 'murder' and 'killer'. The next flashback shows the victim turning around to face the antagonist. The shot then changes to show from the victims POV that no one is actually there adding the paranoia of the film.

70 + 80 seconds:
The next shot is reality again, this time a medium shot of the killer but with his face in the shadows so not too much is given away, and the mystery is kept. This shot zooms on the killers eyes to show the emotion and panic, then the room begins to spin to show the confusion and killer of the antagonists mind. We will film this by using the hand held camera and spinning it towards to ceiling.

90 seconds:
Next is another flashback where the antagonist is right behind his victim again and just about to attack. Then a close up shows the victims reaction, and a height in the music will make the atmosphere really intense again.

100 seconds:
The next flashback is the actual attack, but we didn't want to show this too much so this is displayed more through sound, where you hear the punches. The attack is shown using a handheld camera so that the shot is shaky and unclear, hard to see what is going on.

110 seconds:
shot 21 is the chalk outline of the victims body showing what happened in the struggle through out the flashback. Shot 22 is a close up of the victims face showing bruising and blood and the outcome of the struggle the night before. The music becomes calm again here.

120 seconds:
The final shot shows the antagonists face, he is serious at first but then looks directly into the camera, and grins.

Credits Analysis



The opening credits for 'Panic Room' are unusual and effective, yet the writing itself is simple. The writing is plain but has a 3D effect that works well with the New York background behind them, which is exciting reflecting the thriller genre. Although these credits work well for this film, we don't think it will be useful for us as they are too bright whereas we want a tense atmosphere and dark credits to help us with this.



The credits for the TV series 'Six Feet Under' are more mysterious, especially with the eery music. The words break apart after they are shown. The images shown with the text are basic and show the TV series genre but showing the countryside and family. These credits are not suitable for us, although we liked how they break apart because it mirrors the fight that is in our opening sequence.

Shot list

This is our shot list to go with our storyboard.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Storyboard







Victim Comparison

Our victim is like the girl in Halloween 2. She is helpless and the way that she gets attacked is similar to in our film, because the antagonist beats them up but the way that it is shown it isn't too gory and the sound shows the attack more.

Click Here For The Video of Halloween 2 Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHslouUNi00

Mise-en-scene

Setting:
Our film will be in two locations, the first of which will be the bathroom where the murderer will be washing the blood off his hands.
The second will be shot outside, down an alleyway surrounded by trees and bushes where the murder takes place.

Lighting:
To create a thriller atmosphere the lighting will be dark and eery, with lighter shots to make certain parts stand out. When we show the flashbacks in our film, they will have a blue tint to make it clear they are flashbacks and to add to the confusion of the story.

Costume:
The antagonist will be wearing dark clothing to show he is a shady character and the one to watch out for.
The victim will wear simple clothes because the killer is superior to them.

Make-up:
Fake blood will be used to make a thriller type feeling and to create the look of real blood.

Colour:
The whole film will look dark, but the flashbacks slightly brighter to make them stand out. These will be in a blue tint so that it shows it is not present time and not real.

Props:
The props will be mainly for the scene were the police are investigating the murder, therefore something to section off the area will be used (tape or cones).

Ident Image

This is our ident of our company.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

why do thrillers, thrive

  • consists of emotional disturbances called 'thrills'.
  • in order to appreciate what the characters on the stage are going through, we have to project ourselves into there consciousness.
  • in this there is no harm, because in our subconscious we are aware that we are safe, sitting in a armchair, watching a screen.
  • the cinema can leave the spectator with a subconscious assurance of absolute safety, and yet surprise his imagination into playing tricks on him.
  • the type of in which the audience seems to participate is the type in which some character has won the audience sympathy is involved in danger.

Friday 29 January 2010

Antagonist Comparison

The antagonist in our thriller could be compared to the killer in American Psycho, because at the beginning they both regret the killings and are unsure of why they do it, but continue to do so anyway. This results in a number of murders, that the antagonist in our film will eventually do, and both killers eventually enjoy this.
However, the killer in American Psycho is a powerful businessman, and therefore has more power to get to his victims, whereas our antagonist is just an average guy therefore performs his murders down an alleyway so it is more of a risk where he is more likely to get caught which adds to the thrill of the film.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Plot Outline Part 2

The first scene will show a sink in which the murderer will be washing his hands, having the blood washing away down the sink. We will then keep coming back to this scene but in between there are flashbacks of the lead up to the murder and then the murder itself which happens with a fight so the violence is more for a thriller not a horror. There will then be some flashback shots of after the murder to ensure that the sequence is long enough. This murder takes place down a alleyway during evening time so that the dark creates mystery. The flashbacks will be in a blue tint to distinguish that they are actually flashbacks and aren't present time.

feedback on our presentation

Questions which were asked for analysis of our presentation:

Which film are similar to our idea? Our idea is based on American Psycho, in which an average guy ends up killing people for no reason, and the victims are helpless and don't attempt to fight back.

How will we create the blood effect? We will use fake blood, or food dye rather than ketchup as that wouldn't run well down the sink for our opening scene.

Who will be acting in the film? Hannah is the victim who is murdered, as a girl seems more helpless, and Tom will be the murderer as he is the biggest and most threatening however the true identity of the murderer wont be revealed in the opening sequence.

How will we prevent our film from being a horror? The film will focus more on the reason for the murders and the antagonist, rather than the gory and actual murders.

Will there be dialogue? We don't want to use much dialogue as we think this will make the film more mysterious and keep the audience hooked as they are not sure what is going on.

How long will it take to film? We will need to film scenes outside of college so in our own time, however we don't need lots of props so hopefully we could be done with filming within the week.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Pitch For Our Film



This clip is a prime example of the sporadic and disjointed cuts we intend to you BAM in our crime,thriller opening sequence.

Narrative Ideas: starts of with a close up of sink with blood running down the plug hole,zooms out to man covered in shadow and washing the blood of his hands. Flash back to the previous incident. Flashbacks of incidents throughout the film. credits come up over the top of the film. lots of sporadic and disjointed cuts to keep the action and intensity up. the camera then turns on the face of the killer and he has his hood up with 3/4 of the face in shadow. the film keeps flashing back to the dead person on the floor and a the killer injecting himself with a unknown substance (heroine). whilst the camera is on his face he is heavy breathing and he is sweating.

Character/Actor Ideas: The killer is a shifty character that looks edgy. he has short stubble and is skinny. plain clothed and pretty simple. The person that gets murdered is a young blond/ginger girl. she is a normal girl that is horrifically murdered.

Location: first part in some sort of bathroom/kitchen.rest in some sort of house with normal rooms. maybe murder in a ally or walk way in town.

Certificate: the certificate will be as 15, the reason for this will be because of some scenes that contain mild violence and blood and may be slightly scary.

Sub Genre: the sub genre is crime thriller. look on other posts.

Style of the titles will be flashing and fading in and out, like flashing words.

sound: eerie,dark and slow paced

Friday 22 January 2010

Ident

The 20th century fox, intro is an iconic symbol that evokes a sense of familiarity, making the audience comfortable watching the film knowing that it is an established production company and the film will be good.




Thursday 21 January 2010

garangeband


Today we explored different variations of sound, and how to input them into a film. We watched a clip from identity and attempted to create a soundtrack for the film. We used stereotypical elements of a thriller to define how we perceive the film.

Sound Terms

Sound Terminology:
- Diegetic - we see the source of the sound.
- Ambient Sound - natural sound.
- Non-Diegetic - sound that is added in special effects.
- Asychorus Sound - sound that contradicts the image.
- Sound Bridge - fills the gap between scenes

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Analysis of Thriller Squence 09

This film was mediocre, we thought it got better towards the end but started bad as it was slow. The whole film was composed of typical cliches that made the whole film predictable. The film lacked any form of originality, which made it almost boring as the audience would feel as though they have watched it before. Although collectively as a group we thought the film was bad, it did meet most of the criteria to make the grade. They held a shots steady throughout the film, and there was a variety of shot distances, although these became hard to see with the dark lighting. The shooting material was appropriate for the genre of the film. However, the mise-en-scene of the film didn't seem as appropriate, as it was set in a house rather than somewhere unexpected or unusual.


chvzzhc

Marking Criteria for Video

Level 4 - 48/60

Demonstrate excellence in the following:

- Holding a shot steady.
- Framing a shot - excluding/including elements as appropriate.
- Using a variety of shot distances.
- Shooting material appropriate to the task set.
- Selecting mise-en-scene.
- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.
- Using varied shot transitions/effects.
- Using sound with images.
- Using titles appropriately.

Friday 15 January 2010

Analysis of taken - action film

The conventions of an action film are:
- An obvious antagonist/protagonist.
- Race against the clock scenario.
- More violence than other sub genres.
- Disruption to the equilibrium requires the protagonist to use action to solve it - must be skilled in some form of combat.
- usually involves a character of the opposite sex to drive the narrative - however their loyalty may be doubted (double cross scenario).
- Often involves high profile actors.

This is the opening sequence of the film Taken.
This film contains the traditional conventions of an action thriller such as, there is an obvious protagonist. This is shown through the fact that the opening focuses on the same guy, and makes the audience feel sorry for him straight away by showing him as a loving father. Additionally, Taken involves a character of the opposite sex to drive the narrative, for example the mum and the daughter in the film play on the protagonists emotions. Furthermore, there are many high profile actors in Taken such as Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Holly Valance.



Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir dogs epitomizes the sub genre of crime thriller, it follows all the conventions. It is set in a city, and gives a glimpses of a dark and unforgiving sub culture. It involves many devious activities, such as murders,robberies,shoot outs and double crosses. Characters have an ambitious desire to be well known within the crime syndicate.These conventions embody the sub genre of crime.

The film is also comedy which goes against the general conventions most crime films. The clip below shows this because of the music is happy and also the way they act is not really to the conventions of crime films. The boss is the man who gives out all the orders and this is typical in this sort of film.


Thursday 14 January 2010

anyalisis of munich political thriller

Munich contains the political conventions such as: The film has many different locations and the four men which are protagonists are trying to over through the power which the antagonists have over the civilians, from capturing 8 athletes and holding them to ransom. The protagonists are trying to over through and punish the antagonists for the crime they have just permitted. In Munich there are two sets of characters ranked by authority. The lower ranked protagonist has the orders to murder the 11 men who commited the munich Olympics, and the protagonist with the higher authority gives orders to the men to murder the antagonists and gives ideas on how to do it.

Psychological thriller

Fight club follows all the regular conventions of a psychological thriller. It typifies the genre, The main character Edward Norton has a split personality and believes he is two separate people. As the audience you have no idea until the very end. The whole film is a mind trip which adheres to the general rules of this sub genre. The narrative is often sporadic and non linear which is a common rule of psychological thrillers.At the very end of the film you see the plot twist and its shown in a series of flashbacks and montage footage. Edward Norton is constantly questioning his existence and leads him to set up Fight club. Fight club is a prime example of a psychological thriller as it follows all the rules of the genre.


Tuesday 12 January 2010

Analysis seven opening sequence

The opening sequence of seven contains traditional components of a thriller film. For example up beat music and fast flowing action sequences. The traditional style of thrillers is crime films and this is shown in seven. Seven contains alot of special effects, such as
fake blood, prosthetic s. The narrative is often disjointed and jumps around different times within the story.




classic thriller analysis

Vertigo Rooftop Chase Scene
Conventions.
The music is intense with a fast pace to create tension and suspense. The protagonist ends up in danger in the middle of the film, and the situation has become more complicated. There is a chase/ action scene. the scene is at night to give it more atmosphere and make it look bad. There is a victim, the guy that falls is the victim in this scene as he has done nothing wrong but falls to his death. The chase scene is typical of a thriller film as it appears in many other thrillers. Vertigo the film name is ironic to the sequence that we analyzed because vertigo id=s the fear of heights and falling.

Friday 8 January 2010

Prelim



This is our prelimary task. Dan filmed while Tim and Hannah acted in it, but we all planned together. We learnt from the mistakes we made in the first prelimary task, where we had objects moving in the background, so that we improved this time. We knew the shots better so were able to execute them better so that the overall film looked better.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

This is the storyboard for our prelimary task. we are doing it to practice continuity and making sure nothing changes within a scene that would confuse the audience.

Match on Action Shot




Match on Action Shot: This is when you cut during an action to another camera angle but showing the action from the same point in time that you left it from the previous shot. This is used to show two different points of view so that the audience gets an understanding of both but so that they dont get confused with the narrative.

Over-the-shoulder Shot



An over-the-shoulder is used during a conversation between two characters. It is effective because it can make the audience focus on just one of the characters reactions.

Long Shot



Long Shot: This is used so that the audience can see more of what is happening and therefore understand it more.

Reaction Shot



Reaction Shot: This shows her reaction to a proposal and she is clearly disgusted. The reaction shot is used to show the audience what the character is feeling or thinking without them having to say it.

Close Up Shot



Close Up Shot: This is used to frighten the audience, and make sure all their attention is on the shark, nothing else and show how large and scary the shark really is.

Establishing Shot



Establishing Shot: This has been used too show the audience where the film is being set so that they have a better understanding off what is happening and can help them see what the characters may be like from where they are living.

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Welcome