Preliminary Task

Thriller Film

Evaluation; 2.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film represents a young generation because the victim of my film is in a park on a day out when he is attacked, it shows the dangers that are around for the younger generation of today, however it shows an older 'twisted' man when we see the tools that are in the house, from this we see that the man has seriously thought through how he is going to attack his victim and that he may have a twisted mind.

What Went Well - Even Better If

I feel that the best part of our film was the way our group got along and listened to each others ideas and how we wanted the shot to look, every one in the group had a decision in the movie that made it look better than what it could have been. Another good thing was that taking 3 shots of each shot gave us an almost perfect shot because if there was any mistakes in one of the shots then we could correct them in the other two which made our film look very proffesional. Finally a good thing about our film and our group was the different ideas and techniques that we came up with and used, for instance the shot where i hand held the camera was a different approach to filming that we feel worked in our favour. I feel that our movie could have been even better if we got to stay in the first room we began filming in because what we had was very good footage and we had lots more room in that room, other than this i feel there were not major rooms for inprovements, obviously there was basic things we could have worked on like positioning of characters but that is the acting side rather than filming and editing

Reflections on editing

I feel that editing was one of the hardest parts of filming. We had problems importing our film because when we did we only got half of every shot, eventually when we did import the film it took a long time to get the shot we wanted because we shot 3 shots or every shot so we had to watch each one and see which one worked best, this took a long time but in the end it worked to our effect because now every thing that we filmed fits together very well. So allthough it was hard work i feel the editing worked well for us. The equipment that we used was iMovie on the mac. It isnt the most complicated of programmes so once we got used to it it became easier to edit. We used it by cutting out different shots that we wanted to use and got rid of the ones we didnt use, this was very basic editting so wasnt as hard as we first thought. In the end we didn't add any extra special effects to our film. Once we had cut every shot we had to every thing that we needed we felt that the film was fine how it was and that no other effects were required because we feel the room was dark enough so therefore didn't need to make it any darker than it was and we felt that because we used night mood everything looked pretty good on film so in the end editing wasn't as bad as we first thought and it worked rather well.

Reflections on filming

I think that filming went well, in my first group it didnt go so well for several reasons, i feel that there wasnt enough communication between the group so alot of misunderstandings happened so we didnt film what we needed to film in the time i was in the group. Also a problem was in the common room there was a lot of noise so was hard to concentrate and hear what we were saying. When i moved to Paul & Elise, filming went very well, we knew exactly what we wanted to do so it was made easier by that and we done lots of filming in the first lesson. But then in the second lesson we couldnt use the same room as the first lesson, this made things hard because we had to start a fresh and try to finish the whole of the filming in one lesson in case this trouble we had again, eventually we got to use the new classroom twice and filming went very well, we used lots of different techniques, including panning and one good thing we done was whilst i was looking for my attacker i hand held the camera so we could see the film from my sight, we feel this worked very well. We also feel that we followed the rules pretty well, a way me made sure of this is before we began filming the next shot we checked if we were on the right side for the 180 degree rule, this kept us within the rules. Another thing we done which was following the rules was waiting 5 seconds before we say "action" & "cut" so overall we done well with the filming task.

Reflection On Planning The Sequence

I was in 2 different groups so planning for me was different, at first i was put into a group with; Emma, Dannielle & Todd. It was pretty hard to plan in this group because we all had a different idea that we wanted to use and all of the ideas we used didnt fit in so we never had a set story board. For instance me and Emma wanted to have action in our film to make it more exciting and keep the audience gripped whereas Todd wanted to keep the film simple and short which we saw as boring. So in this group we saw planning as the hardest and because we took so long we never got to draw out the story board that we needed to do. However before we got put into the groups i did my own individual story board which i felt was a good idea because i had the idea of a man on the run from his killer, but during his flee to get away he had a flashback in which he see's his attacker so although he is scared and wants to get away from the killer he knows exactly who it is. In the end in the group with Emma, Dannielle and Todd we planned to video in the common room and use the kitchen area as a cafe. On the way to the cafe we could use the idea of getting through and door and the conversation was going to be between the waitress in the cafe and the customer. But at the end of that lesson i got moved into a group with Elise & Paul, they had allready planned their film so i had to just go into the group and begin filming. Their plan was to use the drama room and record the villain running into a room, hiding turning all the lights off and waiting on the victim to come find him. Then they were to have their conversation. So i never got to plan anything in my new group.

Evaluation; 1.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My film uses lots of tension by playing music throughout the whole of the opening sequence, this is similar to all thriller films because music is usually played throughout the title sequence, this is where my film is different however because my film doesn't have a title sequence the titles come over the shots that I have in the film. However something similar I do have to normal thrillers is a shot I have which is the beginning of the action in my film of a body laying in the snow, with blood around him showing he has been murdered, this is similar to the thriller Brick, the opening shot in this thriller is of a women laying down in a local river showing that she has been killed.

opening sequence

In our opening sequence we will need six characters. We need a victim that you see walking through a field ready to be attacked by the murderer, the murderer, a few faces of people who have been killed by the murderer before. Me and Nathan are the two people being filmed and having the main part of this film whilst Danielle is filming. We both have important roles as we have to act as people we are not used to. The other people who we are taking pictures of for the board in the police station are Danielle and 3 other people from our media class. These pictures will appear on the screen at the beginning of our thriller film.

My opening credits are inspired by the film Se7en, the opening credits in this film are world renowned for one of the best thriller opening sequences ever. I like the idea of the text not being on a blank screen and being on top of the film as it plays on because it is different and almost breaking conventions of thriller movies. My opening credits are very similar because i have still shots with text on top of them.

Here are some images of the Se7en opening sequence and of my opening sequence.

(Image 1,2,3 - My opening sequence.)

(Image 4-5-6 - Se7en opening sequence)

There is also a video of the Se7en opening sequence

Script

At the beginning of our thriller film we are in a police station. In the background we hear police talking about the murders that have occured whilst giving clues to the audience as to why these have happened and there background information. Also phones are ringing in the background to give the effect of a everyday office. We can hear two policeman talking.
Police1: I don’t understand it…
Police 2: We need to find this man…
Also, there will be a news report on the murderers T.V as he is watching it, talking about the crimes that he has commited, which gets the murderer scared as he knows the police are after him. Today yet another victim has been found dead, stabbed a number of times. The killer has left behind a ring near the body and detectives are going to run a number of tests in order to find this killer; this is the fifth victim in the past week and police think it is the same person committing this crime.

Editing

Yesterday i had a free period and went to BB13 to continue editing my film. I added in titles and transitions that made my film look much more realistic than before. I cut out parts of shots that were not needed, i got samples of songs that i plan to add to my movie next time i am on the mac.

Planning

When we was planning our thriller film we made storyboards. These storyboards show us what we our aiming to do in our film in order and shows each shot. These our our storyboards we used when filming out short thriller film.

Plans & Costume

Plans:
In somewhere which looks like a police station
For example an office or classroom.Costumes:
Murderer: Dark jeans, long dark coat, hood up
Victim: Normal everyday sixth form clothes such as black trousers and shoes and a jacket

Places we are filming:
In school classroomSchool Daisy
Forests
Fields
Someones House

Shooting Schedule

A shooting schedule is needed when we start to film the opening sequence of our film. It helps our group to be there and keep in order to film and it keeps shooting the film organised and so everyone knows what they are doing and when. It also helps the making of the film run smoother as then you know if all of the shots are in it or not. It helps to know what props, costumes, locations and cast are needed at what time so everything can be there and with the correct things in order for it all to appear in the film.

Thriller Movie Planning

My group for the opening sequence of a thriller film is me Nathan and Danielle. In the first lesson Danielle was not in school, so me and Nathan discussed a few ideas that we might use. For instance:

• Revenge
• Murder
• Flashbacks
• Relationships

The idea of a flashback came because watching several thrillers we see that the majority of films that we have seen use the idea of a flashback. Another idea that we had for our first shot was going to be of a man laying on the floor blooded because this is also frequent in thriller films. We also considered a rough plan of the shot list.

• Credits
• Man blooded in floor
• Close up of mans face
• Blooded weapon on floor
• Close up of part of attackers face
• Establishing shot of area

This is as far as we got with this idea because we didn't plan for very long due to thinking of other ideas in the process. Another idea that Nathan came up with is an idea of several photos of characters being shown and the final picture would be of one of the characters dead. An idea to add in that i came up with is a time line type of picture sequence. Showing the characters life up until their death. These ideas are things we are just thinking about and are not guaranteed to use however we are more than likely to use them. The rest of our film will result in the characters death being solved and the story line being explained.

Brick

It is obvious from the opening scene of Brick that it is a thriller film. We know this because there are loads of close up shots and tension building music. It also makes the viewer want to ask questions. The majority of the shots we see leave the us the viewer confused and asking questions already. For instance

- What is the relationship between the boy and girl
- What happened to the girl
- Who done this to the girl
- Why isn't the boy trying to help

We see that brick is a thriller because of the amount of conventions it uses.

Double Idemnity & Kiss Me Deadly

Double Indemnity:

Double Indemnity is similar to Kiss Me Deadly and is an old style Thriller movie. Unlike Memento and Wallander it is black and white rather than colour and uses basic music that creates tension. Throughout the whole opening sequence it's credits, which is unusual because it doesn't give any clues to the story-line and/or the characters involved. Although like a normal Thriller opening sequence it does use close-up camera shot when the shadow of someone is walking towards the camera filming; turning into an extreme close-up. The only clip we get of the movie is an establishing shot of a street and a rail-way station. The only other Thriller opening sequence movie convention this fits is that it's filmed during the night time.
Posted by 12dms at

Kiss Me Deadly:

Kiss Me Deadly is more of a old fashioned Thriller film unlike Memento. It's filmed in all black and white, with more basic camera shot's such as tracking and close up (girls feet running) which is usual for a Thriller opening sequence. Other conventions that fit the opening sequence for a Thriller that appear in Kiss Me Deadly is hyperbolic sound (increased sound on foot-prints), the sequence is filmed at night & tension building music in the first 30 seconds. Which is also conventional of a thriller film.

favourite thriller pie chart

Wallander (Firewall, BBC)

Conventions Of Thriller & Opening Sequence:

• Earie Music
• Music Begins Movie
• Close up of two girls introduces them.

Character Feelings:

• Nervous
• Uncomfortable
• Vulnerable
• Rebelious
• Determined

Audience Questions:

• Who are the girls?
• Where is this place?
• Why are they here?
• Whats going to happen?

Girls costume and hair shows she is rebelious - this is obvious from the red streak we see through her hair. Big earings also show this because she looks like a student. Also see this from her facial expressions, she is determined and looks angry shows she could be part of the violence which is also rebelious.

Questtionaire & answers

1. What is your favourite thriller film?
2. When was the last time you watched a thriller film?
3. What do you think is the main convention of a thriller film?
4. Are thriller films your favourite genre of film?
5. What do you like to see in thriller films?

1.

• Sixth sense
• The godfather
• Memento
• The dark knight
• Sixth sense
• Sixth Sense
• The dark Knight
• District 9
• Hotel Rwanda
• Jaws

2.

• Last Month
• Last Month
• Last Week
• Last Month
• Last 2 Months
• Last Few Days
• Last Month
• Last 24 Hours
• Last Few Days
• Last Month

3.

• Confusing storyline
• Gangstar Character
• Confusing Stroyline
• Confusing Storyline
• Confusing storyline
• gangstar character
• jumpy
• scary
• detectives
• police

4.

• No
• No
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• Yes
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• No

5.

• Action from the start
• Storyline that i can predict but not with ease
• lots of action throughout
• police cases
• F/B/I
• flashbacks
• tension
• clues
• action throughout
• flashbacks

Title Sequences

I think that in our title sequences we will need to use credits that would include character names, film title, and maybe some key words that could help the audience understand our film a bit more but not giveaway the storyline. A logo would be very important because with a key part of our film being an image of a tattoo it would only be wise to have an image of a tatoo in the opening sequence.

For instance:

A warner bros film...
Directed By...
Casey McCabe
Nathan Powell
Danielle Richards

Set Task

We were set a task in which we had to put together a sequence of shots, these shots would need to include

• Match On Action
• 180 Degree Rule
• Master Shot
• Eyeline Match
• Shot Reverse Shot

We also had to follow a story board that we put together before we begun filming, which involved walking through a door and having a conversation with someone. The reason why these shots were chose was because these shots can show the use of the 180 degree rule, for instance staying the right side of characters once the characters go through the door and staying the whilst side whilst the conversation changes shots between one character and the other. Eyeline match is also used in the conversation so these shots were also a set task. The main task we had set however was to get a sequence that used continuity editing to good effect.

Continuity Editing

Continuity Editing is to make the work of the editor as invisible as possible. The viewer should not notice the cuts, and shots should flow together naturally. So from this the sequence of shots will appear to be continuous.

Continuity involves 4 main features :

- Match On Action
- 180 Degree Rule
- Eyeline Match
- Shot Reverse Shot

The Match on action technique provides temporal continuity where there is a formula, physical motion or change within a passage without being repeated. A match on action is when some action occurs before the cut is picked up where the cut left it by the shot following. For example, a shot of someone throwing a ball can be edited to show two different views, while maintaining temporal continuity by being sure that the second shot shows the arm of the subject in the same stage of its motion as it was left when cutting from the first shot.

The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters or objects in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

An eyeline match is a popular editing technique associated with the continuity editing system. It is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eyeline match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, there will then be a cut to the object or person at which he is looking. For example, a man is looking off-screen to his left, and then the film cuts to a television that he is watching.

Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique in which one character is shown looking at another character usually off-screen, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

Shot List

1. Shot of police images on bulletin board
2. Individual shots of every image
3. Shot of newspaper report
4. Close up of newspaper report
5. Shot of murderer on sofa
6. Shot of murderer's arm and tattoo
7. Flashback to murderer running away from the police
8. Shot of murderer running away
9. Shot of murderer on sofa

favourite thriller pie chart

There is an image I have in my Thriller that I shot after being inspired by a shot from The Sixth Sense; the shot in The Sixth Sense that I like is a shot of a lightbulb flicking on. The shot that I have is of a ring. The ring is shining in similar fashion to the lightbulb in the sixth sense, this is one of my favourite shots of my film and I feel it really works because it is an odd shot that will make the audience ask questions which is a convention of Thriller films.

Brief

Today in lesson we began to study the Thriller genre for our latest piece of coursework. We need to study this so that we know the conventions of the Thriller genre in order to help us make our opening of a Thriller film for our coursework. In lesson we found out the differences between a horror and a thriller due to alot of the class listing off horror films that they believed to be a thriller, me amongst them. We learnt that the main difference between a horror and a thriller is that you rarely see violence in thrillers, and if you do it would be toned down compare to a horror where you would see blood and murder. Then we began to watch Memento. A thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan. It is a mystery thriller. We only watched the first 10 minutes or so and we can see that it is a very confusing storyline that requires alot of concentration. We learnt that to be succesful in our coursework that we will need to use all of the conventions of a thriller so watching thriller films will be very helpful.

We also discussed some of the conventions of the thriller genre:

- Fast Tempo Music
- Jumpy Scenes
- One Victimised Character
- Fighting Scenes
- Dark
- Nightime
- Violence
- Tension
- Ask's Questions
- Suspicion
- Eary Music
- Confusion
- Shock
- Screams
- Misty Scenes
- Trivial Scenes

These are the main conventions that you would expect to see in a thriller film. We will need to include these conventions if we are to be succesful in our coursework.