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.