Thriller - Shot List

When working on our original thriller we came up with this for a shot list:

1. Establishing shot of Hurtwood House (time shot)
2. Zoom in to shot of door,
3. Panning shot of a Hurtwood bedroom - objects in the way, destructtion, bed tipped over, clothes scattered, etc. Shot reaches Emma huddled in a ball in the corner.
4. Sounds of laughter are heard (inside her head - distance, remevering what it was once like)
5. Suddenly back to the bedroom, Emma's head shoots up and she opens her eyes, clear signs of a disease which has afftected her, (different coloured eyes?)
6. Possibility of having the lostr shot we see of Emma she is being wacked around the head. Creates the thrilling, suspense amongst the audience, but could also implied that she has been kidnapped.

CLose ups of:
posters, showing tips for survival,
anti-bacterial bottles,
cleaning products,
masks

Thriller - Script

When we were working on our original idea of having a radio voice over the top as our soundbridging;



(Dying, struggling voice, sickly coughs, monotone news reporter's voice)


"I am sure those of you left are aware of the recent events taken place. I regretfully inform you that this is our final broadcast to date. Fortunately today's list is shorter than usual. These are the names confirmed: Amelia Duncan...Darran James...Georgina Woolcombe...Anna and James Smith...Emma Hodgeson...Alison Winter...Eve Cowley...Erica Wilson...Amanda, Terry and Josephine Fellows reported missing in the early hours of this morning. Henry Cable, Lindsay Taylor, Matthew Pull, Jack and Lisa Simon, Albert Ross and Maria Lorenzo reported dead!


Those of you still out there. Good luck." (*white noise* ... Titles)

Thriller - Prop List

We had to take into account which props we would need to use and also how we would present and place them on the day.

Lavinia made this sheet to show how we have laid out how we are going to get our props from either suppliers or ourselves.

I'm fairly worried about how we are going to get tarpaulin and boarding/ply wood and how we are going to get it onto the buildings. Hopefully it will pan out okay and that it will be less stressful at the time as I have measured the width and length of the media windows and doors. 

Thriller - Casting

For our thriller we have decided that we are definitely going to use Emma Hodgson for our epidemic idea.

The reasons I decided to pick her was due to the fact that she is an able actor as she is in my theatre class and I have had the chance to see her act, and that she has also been picked to participate in Acting Company.

Thriller - Costume Ideas

When we went up to speak to Matt, he gave us the idea of 'The Road' which is film based on the same events (an epidemic) as ours, and involves a hero who is basically geared up to survive, he has somehow ended up alone with his son walking around derelict America searching for sanctuary and survival.

We wanted to base our character like this as well, the thought of her being immune to whatever it is that wiped out the majority of the population, and her on her own making her way. We want the audience to see that she has been like this for a very long time, and for the audience to sympathise with her. In this image we see that he is wearing extremely old and worn out clothes, and the fact that he has a full grown beard suggests the lack of resources to stay clean and the fact that its so big and mangy suggests to the audience he's been like this for a very long time. This is exactly the kind of image we want represented through Emma (our girl we're using) obviously apart from the beard, but we want to gain the same sympathy and empathy from the audience that this man gained here.

Thriller - Locations

Last Friday, Tilly and I took photos of our location spots around the school and took a look into what we thought we could make scary and how we could adjust it to our scenario of an epidemic.

We also took photo shots of different angles of the spots to give us an idea of how we might like to shoot in on the day.

We went to the main school and tried to think about how we could drape tarpaulin over the windows and outer walls and how we would manage to get it up there. We thought about how it would better to only capture some aspects of the outside such as, the walls and windows which are barricaded with ivy to give off the effect of it looking as though it had been left for a long period of time to self destruct and go to waste.

Also we found a small and secretive bike shed which is hidden in ivy and draping leaves which we found very interesting as we could use it as a quarantine shelter because of its size and privacy.

Thriller - New Ideas

Now originally we weren't going to include people in our thriller (the beginning anyway) in order to set the scene and create a quiet eerie atmosphere. However Phil (our teacher) suggested that without a hero, villain, damsel in distress etc, how do we expect the audience to relate to it.

I find that it could work both ways, with or without a character. If we weren't to use a character I would limit the music as I find that silence is extremely suspenseful and allows you to soak up your surroundings and happenings.

However, if we should have to use a character, I would only use one if it actually had an impact on the audience. Because we are trying to create something suspenseful and disturbing, it would ruin it if we had somebody casually walking around like they did in '28 Days Later'. I believe that this character has to have an impact on the audience, by making them jump, making them scared, or allowing the audience to empathise with the character.

I watched 'Inglourious Basterds' and one of my favourite scenes is the very beginning, because there is so much tension its unbelievable. When the girl runs away I think this is really really well filmed, extremely cinematic and allows the audience to sympathise with her and almost be placed in her shoes. If we were to put a character in this I would like to do it like that, shooting somebody running away frantically. If we film it well I believe it could look really good.

Thriller - What We Have An Idea Of

As we are going to be shooting different shots of the school as I spoke of before, I like the idea of the main house (Hurtwood) being boarded up and derelict where foxes have scratched at the wood to get through to dead bodies etc. We want to give off the impression that this hasn't just happened over night.

This is a similar idea of how I picture our setting to be, very isolated and chilling.

I want to create a feel which is mainly based around, 'I Am Legend' with the grass spurting up through the concrete and there being a sense of neglect. 'I Am Legend' has really inspired me to take on board the project of getting fake grass and pushing it around the edges of the tennis courts.

I find this image chilling and I find that it is extremely effective to an audience and has an impact, making them question the amount of time this has been going on for and allows them to relate to it as it is in a suburban location, making it all the more thrilling.

Thriller - Protect & Survive

Matt recommended us to look at a site called, 'Protect and Survive' to help us think about the basis of our parademic thriller.

The site tells you about how you would be able to remain as safe as possible due to any kind of attack, for example; a nuclear bomb.

It tells you about how to build an 'inner refuge' in preparation of a 'fall-out'. I found this very interesting as it gave me an insight as to how people would react in a situation which would prove life threatening. I like the idea of there being some case of survival in our thriller, a way out. I have an image of it reflecting 'I Am Legend' and instead of being a horror thriller something which although scares you and keeps you on your toes, has some hope for survival and is not all about the sufferers.

It also advises the readers about the different areas of food health relations and sanitation. Explaining that you should drink lots of water, pack lots of tinned food. For sanitation, bring necessities like Strong disinfectant. This could give us clues about props that we would like to use and I think it's good research in order to make our thriller believable to the audience and if we dot this kind of props around our setting then it could show the audience that the population tried their best to maintain the human race and survive.

 

Thriller - Changes/New Ideas

We have realised that it is unfeasible for us to locate our setting in Central London as there is no possible way we could make it look like it had been abandoned for a period of time. If we had a substantial amount of money it would be amazing if we could create something like 'I Am Legend' with grass growing through the concrete etc but that's clearly unrealistic.

Matt and Luke reccommended we use something tighter and smaller, in order to make it clean. If we used something like Hurtwood House it would actually be very clever seeing as not all of it looks like a school.

We could shoot the main house being taped off and boardered up, suggesting to the audience that not even the rich can escape from it (as it looks like a grand country manor).

We coud have a shot in the theatre with all the seats thrown about and blood stains with piles of bodies with sheets over them, suggesting the media and entertainment aren't safe implying there's no motivation for the lack of survivors.

I like the idea of shooting the tennis courts taped off and getting the art department to create some grass which we could put round the edges of the court, which suggests a sense of time and how long this has been going on for. We could also have piles of bodies on the courts with sheets over them to demonstrate to the audience the severity of the parademic.

Matt gave us the idea of doing a tracking shot of the classrooms to give more of a school environment showing that the disease and illness has targeted the youth as well. Implying nobody can escape from it. We could board off the class rooms and create holes in taped off doors where foxes have been rummaging about for food from the carcasses.

We also spoke about using the canteen to create the imagery of food mixing with death and how if the food is contaminated nobody can survive due to lack of resources. I like the idea of putting Christmas decorations around the canteen which have deteriorated over time showing the audience that it is some time past Christmas and that this disease has spread since then. We could also put blood stains and bodies around over white sheets, the idea of turning it into a hospital and failing.

Thriller - Location

I was putting into consideration what I would like the basis of our shots to look like. This is to get a rough idea of how we want the shots to pan out and so that we won't be rushing on the day with no rough plan. This also ties in with the storyboard and how I thought this could potentially work.

My first picture of the London eye is a shot from Waterloo Bridge, looking out onto the thames and the view. I think this will work really well, it gives the audience an idea as to where our film is set, the iconic image of London suggests it's a big deal and that people will be intrigued as its something that the population can relate to with our thriller. However this photo is in the evening whereas we are planning to get our shot at dawn. I would also like the angle to be moved over to the right so that we could get more of a clear angle of the river.

This next image is one that I found on google images of the pub that we are using (The Devereux) which is on Fleet Street, adjacent to the Strand. I like the shot its arty and eerie however we will not be shooting in black and white but I find it's a good low angle example of the outside.

Another one of our locations is using a park, something which is usually associated with being crowded, a place for families and socializing. However we're using this to create contrast in our thriller, something which is usually happy to and flip it on its side to make it eerie, spooky and unlikely. We have decided to use St James Park as its near, big, and there are bound to be some places which are empty in order for us to do some filming. The picture that I've chosen well represents a thriller. Its a mystical and eerie shot which I found very interesting and would quite like to include it given the chance.

As I am in the middle of doing a rekkie for the location, I liked the idea of using Southbank skate park. Its quite a derelect area with grafiti suggesting it is mainly used by young people which also suggests that the disease has been spread to all ages and is affecting all members of the public. I also think it would visually be very interesting as its quite dark, quite hidden away and compliments the idea of the thriller through being damaged.

Thriller - Target Audiences

For research and planning we looked into which range of audiences we should be aiming to watch our film. I went onto Youtube and looked at the statistics of 28 Days Later which is a similarly based film to our own. The statistics proved that the majority of people who were interested in watching it were males aged 18-34. It also said that the female ratio looking to watch it were only 13-17 year olds. Culturally it suggested that that genre was widely favoured in Canada, America, parts of Europe (mainly in UK)and Australia.

Thriller Wordle - Messing With Fonts

I was working on fonts for fun just to mess about and came up with this on Wordle.

Working with different fonts is extremelty important when it comes to creating your design element for your thriller. You need to select a font which would be suitable. Picking a font which was elegantly written and stylised or to pretty would obviously not work well, and something which would have been written for 'Alien' is also not appropriate as it would be too sci-fi based.

We are still debating on what layout for text and which font to use as the title is still a working progress.

Thriller Soundbridging and Filming

Going back to my idea of soundbridging, I got my inspiration from the classic films 'Harry Potter' and in the seventh film part 1, Ron is listening to the radio of people who have died, with a long list of names, and the radio soundbridges and carries on the different shots of scenery that their passing through, emphasising their isolation and impact of death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYo9BXGQyDM

Thriller Location

We've settled on using my uncle's pub which is located in Fleet Street.

It closes on a Saturday and Sunday and we find that this would be nice to shoot on a Sunday as it would be a lot quieter, more tranquil and we can give off the effect of it looking deserted as well as the streets.

I found an image on Google images of the interior and bar taps which gives us a good idea about what the pub would be like to shoot and gives us some clue on how it looks and could adapt to our filming it.

I like the cheery and welcoming atmosphere to the pub so it will be interesting to have to maintain part of this ambience but also having to turn it on its side and create a contrasting and eerie edge. I'm looking forward to our shooting here I think it will be really interesting.

Thriller Updates and Progress

We have decided to move from using a supermarket, to a pub, due to the fact that my uncle owns a pub which closes on Saturday and Sunday and is a sweet old pub located in Fleet St.

As it's fairly central we were thinking of going there early in the morning, getting shots of quiet streets and I also really like the idea of going onto Waterloo Bridge (which is around the corner - literally) and getting a shot off it, to all the other bridges. This creates an element of open space, points out to the audience that this disease is central and is also quite an interesting visual.

I really really like the idea of filming lots of open shots of places, like the shot off the bridges, empty streets etc and it starting off looking at a petrol station with deserted cars queued up. One of the cars has it's door open with the radio on talking about whats happened, then after we've acknowledged the radio in the car with perhaps a close up, we then soundbridge this onto the other shots. Much like they do in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.

Thriller - Storyboards

These were the various mapped out ideas which we had thought of and translated them onto paper to give us a rough idea of what we wanted it to look like on camera. This helps us to think ahead of what it could/would look like.

This is was our original prop list to help us think of amounts and how much we would need.

These were the first original shots we came up when we pictured using Emma and which angles we thought would be best to use, for example we wanted to use a wide angle shot with her in the middle huddled on the ground, showing how she is isolated, alone and vulnerable.

These are more close up shots/big close ups to convey to the audience her emotions; we wanted a big close up on her scabby, bleeding and dirty feet to show that she had been neglected which would reflect the idea of the film and show that she had been defenceless.

These other example shots are again showing how we wanted to keep our filming very minimalistic and equally effective, we wanted to begin with darkness mixed with white noise or bad tv to first initiate to the audience to ambience of the film; bleak and eerie.

As demonstrated on our storyboards the setting is very simplistic and the shots are all very naturalistic. However this may have proven to not be so useful as it could have been boring for the audience.

Thriller Adaptations - 28 Days Later ideas

We were shown the opening footage from 28 Days Later for inspirational ideas on how we wanted to base our opening idea being critically formed through rioting and suffering due to illness's.

We really liked the idea of portraying rioting through our circumstances in our thriller and wanted to use footage like this to create more tension and to establish how we got there.

I also found this idea of rioting very crucial to the point where, the audience to our thriller need to know how we got to the derelect destination. Also because we're basing it around pandemics we thought that a result of rioting footage would help create tension and suspense. It also shows an establishing shot to the audience as they would have been intrigued to know how they got in that situation. In order to do this we needed to feed the audience the crisis which was based around our thriller.

'Watching' Documentary on Film Openings

      We watched a documentary in class demonstrating the different types of film openings for thrillers, presented by Thomas Sutcliffe.

  Firstly Sutcliffe says, "Films need to seduce their audience into a long erm commitment. While there are many types of sudction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistable" basically implying that you have to be able to set the scene and grip the audience and make them want to watch your film. This helped us to think through how we need to entice our audience with our first 3 minutes. However they're are some risks in having an 'instant arousal' as sometimes the film does not live up to the expectations then set to the audience, or follow through with what the beginnings set.

  We also learned that a good beginning needs to allow the audience to have some knowledge of what is going on, but enough which keeps them in the dark. This then will then help the audience to establish what is going on but also leaves enough unknown to keep them gripped for the rest of the film.

  Stanley Kauffman describes the classic opening from North by Northwest, where we see an establishing shot of New York, then an office building, then his office, then Carey Grant, all in an elongated tracking shot. Enabling the audience to know what it is there getting in to.

  Sutcliffe also described in the video why the opening to Seven is so effective. At the title sequence of the film we see that it sets the tone of it being a gaury thriller, with some psychopathic tones. It hits the audience on the head and prepares us for the following events in the film.

  The video also taught us about, "a favourite trick of Film Noir" which is a technique involving putting the end of the film at the beginning, like 'Casino' which sets the tone of the film, enticing the audience and wanting to know how the characters got there.

  Sutcliffe looked at 'The Shining' and how at the beginning of the film we see in the music that its bleak and tense, but also how the camera persues the car like a predator, stalking it. Showing the audience that the car is heading in the wrong direction and that something bad is going to happen.

Thriller Preperation

      We have been working on some more thriller ideas and have come up with multiple concepts which we have interpreted from news stories and blended them with already thought of films and books.

     For our first idea we came up with the idea of Cannablism based on sci-fi and supernatural sub-genre and how it could have evolved in futuristic events up to 20 years time. We discussed how it could be due to lack of resources such as food and water but also things such as bird flu and pandemics which would allow the population to decrease in deaths and survivors would have to resort to eating humans. We decided that this would be a good idea.
        We wanted to set it up in a derelict supermarket which had been trashed and out of use due to looting. There would be a tracking shot of all the isles, filled with empty shelves, rubbish and blood stained floors to give the audience the idea of isolation and abandonment. For sound we wanted a rolling can and a close up to give the effect of alienation.
  This idea was well recieved in the class and our teacher saw that this would be easy to create tension and suspense.

   For our second idea we based it on Halloween and how in America they set up haunted houses in a Suburban village/town as an amusement. They use actors to play the part of ghosts and an unwanted presence in order to thrill and scare the viewers. We liked the idea of creating a haunted house which people went to but to change it a bit and for the surroundings in the house to go out of control and for the actors to either be, not actors by psychopaths/or actually are ghosts. Also the people inside the house would be screaming with no escape but could get no help from anybody as passers by would accept that as part of the amusement, not incidents of danger. Therefore the people who visited could not seek help.
        We wanted to shoot the house with a board next to it strongly initiating to the audience that it is actually an amusement. For sound we chose children trick or treating and laughing and playing, and mums chatting so that everything seems normal but the audience know that it isn't normal.

   Our third idea was based around a news story set in Roccarrso in Italy where they had discovered a whole in the ground in the snowy mountains. We chose for our Sub-genre to make it a conspiracy and sci-fi thriller in the sense that this hole could lead to a parrallel or another world.
         We liked the idea for the beginning of shooting the snowy hills with a bird out of place (say something tropical like a parrot) flying over it and dying. This gives the audience the idea that something isn't quite right as the bird is clearly in the wrong climate but we question why it's there in the first place.

   For our final idea we saw a story in the news about how a boat had set fire on the red sea, with only one survivor. We interpreted this in the aspect that for our thriller, the survivor could have been the one to set the boat alight and escapes.

        In order to create this tension we had an image of a man walking around the boat with an oil can in isolated waters, the audience doesn't know why he's doing it or where he's come from, and at the end he lights the match and jumps off the boat. But the audience don't know what happens to him after. I also liked the image of him lighting the match, flicking it and the screen going black. So nobody knows what will occur. This would be a conspiracy and sci-fi thriller as it is a government opperation. All of which the audience know nothing about within the first few minutes.



Thriller Prep

 For homework we had to prepare 3 ideas to present to Matt and all in all Matt decided that the idea about a psycho was probably the best one to work with, because it was a more simple yet could easily be made more terrifying and tense, idea.

We had to work on what we thought we could use to improve this idea, Matt gave us some examples on how we could adjust it to make it better and more tense for the audience. He wanted us to start with the woman (psycho) putting on her make up everythings really casj, and then the camera closes up onto a picture frame with a head shot of a woman. The camera then makes a continuous tracking shot following her route around the house, revealing dodgy signs to the audience such as a bit of blood on the wall, etc. She then picks up a gas can and begins to empty it along the floor very casually and after passing the girl in the door, the psycho woman lights a match and flicks it but we don't know what happens. Just an idea.
I had the idea of making the woman look the same (be the same).

Salt

I found this film really effective for its audience because the beginning of the film starts with her already in danger, she's already in the midst of something of which the audience knows nothing about.

We see that although this is a thriller based on politics and conspiracies there is also action included, such as a clip from my favourite scene when she has been falsely accused. For example this big close up shot makes her look vulnerable and afraid, allowing the audience to see that she is frightened and trying to escape as she is hiding behind a car.


In this next photo there is a close up of a gun, showing that it's tense and the audience are filled with anxiety. It also shows it is a thriller because of the close up of the gun stressing the urgency of the gun in current use and what it could do.

This bird's eye view shot shows her falling onto the truck. The lack of stability in the camera and the almost shutter effect allows it to look more dangerous and exaggerates the fall allowing the audience to feel anxious and hang onto 'the edge of their seat'.

My Own Idea For a Thriller

     We were adivsed immediately to go against the idea of choosing an idea based around damsels in distress running through a forest, because it's too cliche.

     But my idea for a thriller was based around the idea of 'Misery', 'Single White Female', 'Fatal Attraction' and 'The Stepfather'. What I find most scares me is the idea of a psycho, somebody who makes a character feel safe at first but the audience gather an idea that that character is not safe.

     My idea taken from 'Misery' was the idae of keeping somebody hostage, and not letting them go. I love this idea, that the audience know there is going to be a climax of how the character gets away and what they'll do.

     My idea from 'The Stepfather' was the opening, excluding the idea of him creating a new identity, I really liked the idea of him going around the house as though everything is normal but the audience pick up on key bits such as, whilst he's making toast, a dead boy is on the table. I liked this a lot because I saw it as, observing a psycho.

     My idea from 'Single White Female' as well as 'Misery' and 'Fatal Attraction' was the thought of obsession, and how obsession, I find creates such intensity and suspense for an audience because they never know what the psychopath will do next.

           Now for my idea; the beginning of the film is the end of the film, starting off with what looks like an ordinary lady walking round her house going about her business. The camera following her at all times, watching her shower, watching her make breakfast, watching her watch tv. When suddenly she walks past one room and there is a wipe in which we see the room she has just walked past, there is a woman cellotaped to a chair. We then cut back to the beginning of the film where we see the woman on a chair going about her daily life, successful business woman, very beautiful, and then she meets Anna. Anna is the actual psychopath who then falls in love with the beautiful and succesful business woman (who does not have a name). The love is not returned and she soon turns into a crazy psycho but subtly. We then find out what happens at the end and see whether or not there is a twist and how she escapes at the climax.

What is a Genre/Subgenre? Why is it important for institutions and audiences?

     Genre’s and subgenres are important for audiences so that they are aware of the film they are seeing/about to see, it targets a certain audience. If you go to see saw a poster which was plain white with black font saying, ‘paranormal activity’ nobody would want to see it because nobody wants to see a film which they know nothing about because nobody likes to be surprised to a certain extent.

    Subgenres are important for people who enjoy watching thrillers, some people would like the pure idea of suspense and excitement only involved with politics or crime like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. However other groups of people may like thrillers but they like ghost stories and therefore are more attracted to thrillers involving the supernatural like, The Shining.

          These are equally as imprtant for an audience because they are targetting the correct audience.

What is a Thriller?

   A thriller is something which creates suspense and mystery for its audience. Hitchcock said that the key factors of making a thriller is be able to have a psychological hold over its audience and allowing them to think and question the goings on throughout the film.

          
    Hitchcock also said that in order for the audience to be able to gain full attention and thrill from the thriller the film/TV drama has to be able to give them information. A classic case of one of Hitchcock's marvels 'Psycho' the audience are aware that somebody is entering the room but the person in the shower are unaware of his presence. This makes the audience anxious and tense; this is a classic case of dramatic irony.


   You can also have supernatural thrillers, involving ghosts, vampires etc. A good thriller involving ghosts is The Sixth Sense. It’s style is very psychological which I find very intense and I know that it left me on the edge of my seat, unable to sleep.

The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects is a brilliant thriller consisting of the regular stereotypes a thriller should have, deception, intensity and an aspect of fear, horror and of course to be thrilled.

The poster initiates it's based on crime due to it's heavy, bold and red writing. The red text suggests blood and red is often associated with danger. The Actor's are all lined up against what we see as a mug shot backdrop which suggests they're prisoners and up to no good. The actor's costumes are all different which suggest the characters are all different. Which automatically indicates that they have joined together as criminals do to form an organisation or to complete a task set by a fellow gang leader. We see the man in red on the far left appears to be dangerous and a threat, also the man in the black with the red shirt hidden in the corner.



American Beauty

As I am incredibly bored I decided to write a small post on a film I saw yesterday, American Beauty.

I really enjoyed this film and felt that it possessed a lot of anaylitical qualities. It is about a stereotypical family living in America with what appears to be no real problems or desires. However what we see underneath the surface is an unhappy marriage, a disobedient, stereotypically moody and upset daughter and desire to mend the prospect of an unhappy family. Although when Lester Barnham (the unhappy father and husband) is introduced to the beautiful Angela Hayes he suddenly finds the passion and zeal in his life he has lost.

When the opening line to the film is about how Lester Barnham is going to die we automatically see that we are not about to see an ordinary happy go lucky film about American life. The cooky and closely observant neighbour brings harmony to the daughter Jane and also the father, but the audience also see that his package includes a neglectful father and a dark underlying secret about his past.

The slogan to the film is, 'look closer' which suggests that there is more than meets the eye and as the film goes on we see more and more about the families disfunctions and abstract normality as the audience become enticed further into the strangeness of the family. In the end of it although we are still dying to know who murders Lester we are more intrigued by the hidden truths and the satisfaction of change and loss throughout the film.

The common theme of beauty and the colour red is seen as desire and a stereotypical beauty which we see soon juxtaposes itself because as the film goes on we see that the beauty from the roses matches Angela Hayes who is seen as desireable and beautiful, although it is soon contradicted through her innocence which then matches the roses purity and stereotypes.

Learning To Use Final Cut Pro

As I was unable to attend the original editing session I caught up on the Friday 7th October and my group helped me to understand what it was I had to do and how I went about it using the Final Cut Pro.

It was just my luck that the previous editing session they had done on the footage had been deleted so we more or less had to start from scratch. I learnt to drag pieces of footage I wanted to use onto the final cut and learnt how to edit the sound and cut and move it onto clips it merged best with, in order to have a smooth running final clip.

Shooting A Sequence Obeying the 180 Degree Rule

We had to shoot a short sequence practicing how to use a camera and getting used to the feel of filming and knowing what we are doing.

The Script was something simple involving a crisis where somebody had to go into a room explaining that the other actor had to do something with them, the other didn't want to do it. Something so simple as this offered variety in the route we could play and enabled us to think outside the box.

We shot it 5 times, all in a different angle, firstly in a long shot angle to get the full figures in which is often the basis of filming something as a basis, that or a medium shot angle. Then we did it in the medium shot, then in a low angle shot, an over the shoulder shot and a point of view shot. After we had done the basic shots which we could then work with to edit and create a final image, we did a few shots which we thought might come in handy, such as a close up on the door handle which she would use at the beginning to open, and an image of her leaving the room.

I really enjoyed this task because it was some form of experience in filming and gave us a chance to get behind the camera and see what it's like to be in film and media and whether or not we enjoyed working like that.

Prelims

In order to get used to the camera's we were given a storyboard involving two people walking into a room, talking to each other and leaving. It was quite fun to play the director and cameraman and get a feel for the process of shooting.

We had to do different shots for each scene to ensure we had a selection of different ones we wanted to use, such as a medium close up, low angle shot, high angle shot, big close up, wide shot, over the shoulder shot etc.

The Stepfather (2009) Part 1/7 - Analysation

In Media we analysed a clip from The Stepfather and selected sections from it which we found made the film most successful.

This shot effectively compliments the Stepfathers personality, we see the range of tools is a resemblance of a laboratory and that it is also a sign of OCD which encourages us to be afraid as the slow shot moving across the line of tools is frightening. It also links with the non-diegetic sounds which compare to something you would hear in Hannibal Lector, quite mysterious and surreal. Also mirroring the psychotic Doctor which we see is being portrayed within this shot.

This big close up demonstrates his intimidating features such as his harsh eyes and snarling mouth. We also see that this is his transformation and him changing identity. The trickling blood could be perceived as a foreshadowing of events and what happens when he is given tools. The blackening look in his eye gives him a more violent look which reflects the arched pause in his mouth.

Again with the close up displaying that the plaster is a metaphor for his hidden identity and how he escapes the truth by transforming and hiding. The black eyes again, show coldness and it is also a sign of no love or remoarse. The use of his escape of reality is also portrayed within the photo beneath as we see his mid change in eye colour.

In this shot we see that he puts on Silent Night before reaching for the phone. The use of Silent Night playing is very ironic as we learn that even though it's Christmas there is soon a shot of a dead boy on a table. That in fact, there is a Silent Night because he has murdered the family. In this present shot you will see that there is a phone, I found this effective because the siren of the phone sounded like an alarm of police siren. And him dismissing it by putting it down, is a demonstration of how he escapes reality and avoids confrontation. 

Different Camera Techniques

Cross Cutting

Cross Cutting is a series of two scenes together, continuously alternating. This can create suspense and is often used in thrillers or horrors; something with a climax.

Jump Cutting

Jump cutting is when a scene continues rolling as a normal scene would, but something jumps, be it the character of the setting. It's used to confuse it's audience and conveys something about the film such as confusion between characters or their emotions.

Montage

A montage is a series of lips cut togetherto create a sequence but not a continous image. It can be used to convey something for the audience. It basically condenses a lot of emotion and clips to create feeling within the clip. A perfect example of this is the scene in Rocky IV, when Rocky and Drago are training for their fight and it shows their progress and endurance over a period of time.

First Blog

Doing my first ever blog today for Media AS at Hurtwood House. I don't have the faintest idea of what I am doing but hopefully with my small brain I will be able to work it out.This blog is all part of preparation going towards my Thriller clip which I will be making at the end of the year for my exam.

Our First practical lesson went towards us being able to work a camera and we've been learning a lot of editing techniques on how to make a film good, such as different camera shots and mise en scene. We filmed each other doing a simple action such as, hugging somebody and tried to do close ups, medium close ups, long shots wide shots to then edit all into one clip. It went quite well and I really enjoyed working behind the camera and hope that I will soon be able to be really good at it because I have a passion for films and would like to work in some aspect of the industry of film making.