In today's double lesson, me, Beth Harris and Alex Noble paired up and started planning for our thriller video.
Me, Beth and Alex have decided to work together as we are friends and we know we can produce things to a good standard together.
We sat down and discussed numerous ideas with things flying around. We did this for around 30 minutes.
We all had different ideas of how we wanted out thriller to be; Beth wanted it to be creepy and old and me and Alex wanted to be creepy but mysterious with a small girl in it. We couldn't agree on one specific thing so in the end we ended up putting our ideas together where we came up with something.
We then wrote our idea down and wrote out exactly how we wanted it to be from who is going to be involved, to the setting, costumes, props etc.
We wrote out a full plan of how we are going to do the thriller from how we are going to start it and how we are going to end it. By the end of the double lesson, me, Beth and Alex had our full plan in front of us ready for when we start our filming, however we weren't sure if this idea would go ahead due to the location we wanted to use. We decided to keep this plan then next lesson go and check the place we wanted to use.
This is our storyboard that we all created. It has each scene planned out. We decided to do a storyboard as we know it is a simple and clear way to display our thought-out thriller idea.
The costumes consist of normal day to day clothing as the second half of the thriller takes place as if it is today. The small girl is going to be dressed like a little girl, either a dress or a skirt.
The props include dolls that will look old.
The thriller will be set in an old burnt out building or in an open field with a large, dark looking tree. These settings will give off creepiness and mysterious. We chose these areas as they are both local to us and we can do the filming during school hours.
Lighting will be natural as we won't have access to lighting due to us filming outside.
Before we start to film our thriller, me, Alex and Beth will have to do risk assessments for those who are in our thriller as the burn out building can have safety issues. We hope to complete filming within a day and then spend time editing our thriller to the best we can. Our credits will be added in on the screen as the thriller is playing. We have decided to do this as we think it is the best way. We want to be able to have our credits appear on screen as the characters are on screen.
Thriller uses suspense, tension, and excitement to catch the audience (1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_%28genre%29) and to get the audience drawn in. Thriller is very similar to horror but in our task, we have to make sure our thriller video doesn't link or portray horror as that is not the task we have been given.
Common sub-genres that appear in thriller films are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers and mystery thrillers (2 - http://kathrineroid.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/list-of-thriller-subgenres/). The characteristic that is usually in a thriller is suspense. Suspense is an important thing when it comes to a thriller as it makes the viewers feels like they are waiting on something and it gives them excitement as they are waiting on something big to happen and take place (3 - http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-characteristics-of-the-thriller-genre.htm). The themes of thrillers usually consist off kidnappings, revenge, captivities and ransoms, however, they can change depending on the sub-genres. For example, a mysterious thriller usually has some sort of psychological brain work in it to get the viewers thinking (4 - http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/thriller)
This clip shows us the trailer for the film Identity. I have watched a trailer as for the task we have been given, we want to avoid creating a trailer. Our task is to create a thriller only and we needed to do some research into trailers to find out the difference between them and opening sequences.
To avoid making a trailer we have to make a smooth film with no big jumps to scenes. Trailers have various clips in the trailer that jump from scene to scene where as an opening sequence should just be the start to a film and smoothly cuts when the next scene comes in.
Trailers give advanced publicity to films and this is what we need to avoid. We are not promoting a film, we are creating our own opening sequence to a film that stops after around 3-4 minutes. We don't want to advertise anything or leave people on cliffhangers as that is not what an opening sequence should do.
Trailers release small extracts with selected details that they want to show in order to get people to go and watch the film.
Trailers also have text written across the screen; sometimes it says what the narrator is saying. We want our opening sequence to have credits only; no text to match narration.
A trailer is usually a commercial and we don't want to create a commercial. We want to show an opening sequence which then cuts but people know that the film could carry on.
When we come to creating our own thriller, we need to make sure we avoid everything that connects with a trailer as if anything goes into our thriller that attaches to a thriller, eventually, the opening sequence wont be an opening sequence but another connection to a trailer.
For my thriller research tasks I looked at thriller films and made notes on each of them so I could write about them. I included camera work, editing, mise-en-scene and sound in each of my posts and i had a general writing area which explained things from the opening sequences I watched.
I decided to write all my notes on a mind map because it meant I could look back at them when I wrote my posts and it was an easy and clear way to keep notes. I like how my mind-map shows colour because I can focus on it better as it is not boring.
I think that a mind map is a good way to keep notes because you can always look back on them for revision and to help you along the way.
On my mind-map I have 4 sections for each of the four thriller opening sequences I watched. I made sure to write things in small sentences to it didn't make it hard to read but I also made sure my notes were full and gave me what I wanted.
127 Hours is an adventure drama thriller starring James Franco, Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara.
In the opening scene, it starts of with having one picture in the left hand side of the screen, a title credit then appears telling the audience the production company etc. After the credits disappears of screen another 2 pictures appear and it turn out to be a 3 way split screen.
The 3 ways split screen then changes into a normal slit screen with two pictures. On the left and one on the right. In the gap between the pictures. more credits appear for the audience.
In the opening sequence of this film, it consists of lots of split screens, and 3 way split screens which all appear with different clips from the film.
Once we have had a few split screens, it goes to a normal image scene where they show a character in a car. This gives the audience a slight clue as to how the film is going to play out.
The scene takes place in a house or flat which is in darkness, except from one room where the character is. This was taken with a long shot as it was done from a distance and we can't really see the character that well. The dialogue then starts in this scene, which is the male character talking on the phone to someone. We don't really hear the conversation as it is from a distance and we are not focusing on the dialogue.
This scene that changes to another scene that doesn't have any resemblance to each other. The scene becomes bright and it is done from the back of a fridge. The next few scenes don't have any link or connection to each other whatsoever, they are just short clips that are in the film.
The split screens then appear again and vary from normal two way split screens to a three way split screen. They do this for around 50-60 seconds before they move on again.
One of the three way split scenes has a character in the middle with a credit to the left side, this is showing the audience who it is and what they look like. It also suggests to the audience that the man is the main character as the rest of the credit names shown didn't have a picture of the character.
We then move on to a normal image scene of a character in a car, where the camera does a close up of the man's face so the audience can see his emotions and facial expressions. We can clearly see that the character is confused as to what is happening outside on the road by his car or whatever else is happening.
The credits all seem to appear with the scenes; so when it is a relevant scene, the credits of certain people pop up.
Dialogue starts up again and consists of the character in the car talking into a hand geld camera. It appears to the audience that he is recording what he is doing.
The sound is very upbeat. To me, the sound doesn't resemble anything as it is not a dramatic tension grabbing sound, it is simply an upbeat track that seems to match the characters actions and personality.
The editing in this opening sequence takes place between every split screen and three way split screen. The editing makes the split screens move smoothly and change often. Without the editing, the split screens couldn't happen as they wouldn't work.
The camera work in this opening sequence is very minimal as there is so much more editing. The only camera work that takes place is when the normal image scenes take place but they are all steady shots with no movement. In this film, that is good as there is no need for movement otherwise it would become confusing.
The mise-en-scene consists of lighting, setting and props. The lighting starts of quite dark and dull and then the lighting gradually changes depending on what it is showing. The opening sequence mainly consists of dark and dull lighting as it matched the setting. The setting, again, changes. It starts of in a house or flat, then moves to a fridge. I then changes to a car and at outside setting. It is not all set in one place. This is good as it gives the film variety, it is not boring. The only prop we have in this opening sequence is the hand help camera that we can see one of the characters using to film himself.
Overall, this opening sequence is good as it isn't like other films, It gives that variety of how credits and pictures are shown and I like that. I can look into the way this film shows its credits so I can have an idea for when I do my own opening sequence and credits. This opening sequence has given me an idea as to how I can display my credits and what makes the film look good.
Panic Room is a thriller starring Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart and Forest Whitaker. The Panic Room is a crime drama thriller with lots of mysterious things taking place throughout the film.
In the opening sequence of this film we see the title credits start to appear. The opening sequence starts off with a full wide shot of New York City which is where the titles then start to appear. The first title appears to be sitting on top of the buildings. The whole title credits are suppose to look 3D and each of them are placed in specific places like on the side of buildings or on top of buildings. The first title to appear is the 'Columbia Pictures'.
For around a minute and 20 seconds the titles keep appearing, some are just places on the screen where as others are placed in a way to look good. The way that all the titles are placed, it looks like they are placed very claustrophobic which could be linked to the title of the film as it is about a panic room which also suggest claustrophobia. Once the title credits have ended, the dialogue then starts. When the dialogue starts we can hear voices but we can't see anyone because the camera is focused above and slowly makes its way down to the characters.
The scene then appears as a crowded street with lots of people. Once the camera moves down, the two characters that spoke begin to appear. The camera stops once we have a full mid shot camera view of the characters.
The camera work that takes place in this opening sequence varies. The main camera angle was the pan down which was when the camera made its way down from the above view to the two characters in the crowded street. There were also plenty on mid and wide shots during the opening sequence from the mid shot of the two characters to the wide shot of the opening credits. Altogether, throughout the opening sequence, there isn't much camera movement, it is all pretty steady.
The sound in this opening sequence stays the same with no changes throughout. The sound starts off from the very first title credit with a dramatic deep sound. The sound carries on throughout the opening sequence and starts to fade out as the dialogue starts so the audience can hear what the dialogue is.
The editing that takes in this opening sequence is when the credits appear. There is edits for how the credits appear and how they move on to the next title. There isn't much editing in this opening sequence as we don't really get to see much.
The mise-en-scene for this opening sequence consists of the setting, lighting and clothing. The setting is clear that it is in a city, specifically New York City and Los Angeles. The lighting is dark and gloomy to match the film title as it is a dark and gloomy film. We don't see much clothing in this opening sequence but of the bits we do see, we can see that they look like business people and match their surroundings of where they are.
This opening sequence is quite a boring and dull opening, however, I like the way the title credits appear as they look 3D and they look good where they are each placed. This is something I could look at in more detail to see how it works so I have an idea of how my credits should appear when I do my thriller.
Skyfall is an action adventure thriller starring Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem and Naomie Harris. In the opening sequence of this film it starts off with all the credits which do go on for quite a long time. The very first thing that happens is the camera focusing on the water. The camera starts of underwater so it is looking up like it is expecting something to happen. This is where we see that Daniel Craig falls into the water and begins to fall deeper and deeper. The title credits then appear with them being in white and appear in the centre of the screen on top of the water scene.
During the credits, Daniel Craig is one that appear on the screen. The Daniel Craig title appears on the right hand side of the screen and it appears just as Daniel Craig appear on screen falling deep into the water. The title appears at the side of his body.
The next credit title is the film title 'Skyfall'. The Skyfall title appears on the centre of the screen, again it appears on screen just as Daniel Craig falls deeper into the water. The title then starts to dissolve and completely dissolves of the screen.
The opening sequence has around 3 minutes worth of credit titles, each of which appear in different ways with different backgrounds.
Once all the credits are done, the opening scenes start to appear. The first opening scene is taken place in an old looking building or house. Firstly, we see Daniel Craig appear a the end of a corridor with no light on him whatsoever. This scene is very dark. The camera focuses on Daniel the whole time. Daniel Craig then begins to walk towards the camera while it is steady and only comes into focus when Daniel reaches the end. Again, this is a dark scene but a little spotlight appears on Daniels face as he reaches the camera. This shot is a close up.
As Daniel is standing in front of the camera, he lifts his left arm up which has a gun in it, so we now have a close up shot of his face, arm and a pointed gun. The camera then begins to move with Daniel as the scene changes to something else.
The next scene is where Daniel is in a room pointing a gun around, which the audience presume is for his safety. While this scene happens, the camera is behind him the whole time until the scene changes again. The camera follows Daniel throughout the rooms and focuses on each body they come across on the floor, again this is still a behind shot.
The dialogue starts once Daniel finds a man on a chair who is still alive but injured, we can see them talking to each other and what looks like, one of them is explaining something. This scene is again a dark lit scene with only a little bit of light coming from a small spot light lamp. This is suppose to give the dark and gloomy affect to fit in with what has just happened.
The next thing to happen is Daniel stands in a door frame with some kind of light coming from behind him in the distance; which he appears as a silhouette because he is in darkness and we can only see his body outline.
The camera work varies a lot in this opening sequence from small movements to actual camera angles. There are mid shots, close up shots and blurred shots all within the first 2 minutes of the film. There are behind shots when they are following Daniel through the house, there are close up shots when Daniel appears in front of the camera and the camera movements happen throughout when they are following through the building and focusing on different things.
There isn't much editing in this opening sequence as it is literally following through a building, however, there are edits when the credit titles happen as they are edited onto the screens and edited to blend in and blend out, for example, one of the titles disappears like running water of the screen. This is all edited to give the effect.
The sound is a very dramatic sound that can make the audience scared. The sound that is used builds up the tension for what is going to happen next. It wants the audience to think that something bad and big is going to happen.
Mise-en-scene consists of Lighting, costumes and props. The lighting is very dark in the opening scene as it suppose to make the audience tense and think that something bad and creepy is going to happen. There isn't much light at all in the opening, apart from when Daniel Craig exits the building and goes outside where the lighting becomes somewhat natural and much brighter. The costumes that we see are all business like outfits, like Daniel Craig always wears a suit. Having a suit on is the 'James Bond' trademark as by the end of it, there isn't a mark on him. It is to make the audience aware that he knows what he is doing. The props in this opening scene consist of a gun. This is about the only prop we see. The gun is to make the audience feel on the edge of their seats all the time as if he is going to use the gun to do something. It is making the scene believable and scary.
This opening sequence is the best one I have watched so far as there is more to it. It gives us more detail as to what is happening then any of the others I have researched. I can look more into detail at this clip and see what I can take from it to include in my own thriller opening sequence. I could also look at the editing, mise-en-scene, sound and camerawork to see how they are used and see if I could use any of the techniques.
Red Eye is a thriller starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy and Brian Cox. In the opening sequence of the film we see the credit titles come onto screen. The titles are telling us the production company, the director of the film and the main stars of the film, like Rachel McAdams etc.
The credits appear with write text on a black background giving us a black and white affect. The titles appear on the screen and then fade out with the illusion of the credits becoming smaller. Once the titles stop, the actual title of the film appears in red. This starts of big on the screen and then fades out, the same as the credit titles.
Next we start to see the scenes. It starts of with the camera focusing on pictures that are on a side table which we see for around a minute before a hand appears in the camera. As the hand appears we see that it places some items onto the table in front of all pictures.
This is where the camera starts to come in as we see the camera zoom in and focus on one specific item which is the wallet. By the camera focusing on the wallet, it gives the audience a clue that the wallet means something in the film. In this opening sequence, we see that the camera doesn't have much movement. There is no camera movement affects as such, just the odd zoom in and out with a normal medium shot.
The sound in this opening sequence changes due to the scene that appears. To start of with, the sound is a dramatic sound but it is not loud. The sound starts of quite low then as the camera zooms on the wallet, it becomes louder and tense. We them move onto another scene where more sound appears; it doesn't have a dramatic sound but it doesn't have a soft sound. It is a sound that matches the scene so it is on the verge of being dramatic but not quite as dramatic as the first sound.
There is also another sound that appears which is a sound to match the action, so in this sequence, the sound appears when a man has a tool and is opening a wooded box.
In this opening sequence, there is no editing what so ever. There are no edited effects. the only edit that happens is the editing between scenes when it switches to different areas or different objects.
There are things in this opening sequence that I could try and use when I come to make my thriller opening sequence. I could use the idea of how this film's title credits appear on the screen and develop them to match my opening sequence.
In today's lesson we did thriller research with a little bit of trailer research. We looked at 3 different film opening sequences which were The Usual Suspect, Momento, Don't Look Now and a little bit of Fargo. We watched these opening sequences in order to pick-out things about the camera work, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. We looked at how the opening sequence to each film was portrayed and shown to an audience and to see what was included so we could get ideas for our thriller task.
I made notes on each of the films so I can look back at them when I come to planning my task.
I created a mind map because I can make it bright which I like best as I can focus on it more.
These are all the notes for my thriller task. We looked at one trailer so we could see and understand the difference between an opening sequence and a trailer as we want to avoid creating a trailer.
In last week's lesson we watched the film 'Now You See Me. We watched this film so we could see how the thriller works and how it was edited etc. By watching the film, we could get ideas for when we make our own thriller.
I watched this film during the lesson then i went home and watched it again so I could make my own notes on it. The notes will allow me to look back at them when I come to do a full idea of what my thriller will be.
The film gave me an idea of how mystery works within a film and how I could add that into my own thriller.
Once we finished with the editing, effects and credits on the video we exported it and saved ot to a file ready for upload to YouTube.
The export worked well and it did it extremely quick due to it's small file size. Once the video had been exported and saved, we went to the George Spencer YouTube page and uploaded it as our AS Prelim Task.
Here is the final edit on the prelim video:
The preliminary task I have done has been an insight as to what the thriller task is going to be like.
I have had the chance to film, draw, edit and create for this task which is all going to help.
When I started this task, there were things I hadn't done before or items I haven't used before, like a tripod, artificial light and the editing software.
Some of the items my group used for our preliminary task weren't needed, like the artificial light. This means that when I come to do my thriller task, I can assess what I need and what I don't need as I will have an idea of to how things work.
I will also now no how to use the editing software as I have had the chance to use it.
I also know what camera shots work and how they should be done to get the best footage.
This preliminary task has allowed me to see what the filming and editing is like when you want to put a video together and has allowed me to see if I enjoy doing it. I have discovered that I enjoy filming and editing as I love to create things.
Overall, I think me and my groups preliminary task has worked out quite well considering we all had a basic knowledge of how to edit and film something with a good quality.
In today's lesson, me and my group uploaded the footage we had from the camera to the computer. We added everything into a file so we, as a group could access it all.
We then played around with the editing programme, Adobe Premiere Pro to get used to everything and see how things worked, like the effects, sound and text. Once we had learnt about the programme we started the editing with our footage.
As a group. We took turns to use the editing software and create different things within the video. We shared the cutting, effects, texts and putting the actual video together between the 4 of us so we all had a go and learn for our real thriller task as no one in the group had a good knowledge on how the Adobe editing software worked.
By doing the editing, we learn about the programme and what we have to do for our real task.
I had never used an editing programme before, so for me, this task meant I got the chance to learn as well as create something that I enjoyed doing. Everything I have done is going to help me when I create my thriller.
In today's lesson, my group made another A3 sheet with Preliminary task ideas on.
We wrote down our full idea of what we were going to do; so we had location, clothing, props, the type of scene we were going to do and the dialogue.
This sheet allowed us, as a group, to do a full preliminary video and know what we were going to do.
We used this sheet to help us set up or scene and create our scene.
After we did the second half of the planning, we started our story board with our full idea on of what we were going to film.
We then started the filming. We used the Nikon D3100 camera to film our scene which gave us a good quality image.
We set up our scene in a science lab with equipment that fitted the scene and used artificial lighting to make it brighter, however, as we have come to look at the footage, we realised we didn't need to light as the location was already bright and we noticed we had a light reflection on o white board which we couldn't do anything about. We now know that when we come to film the real thing, lighting may not be needed and if it is, then to place it somewhere that it can't be seen.
In this task, we did a number of camera shots including an over the shoulder shot, medium shot and long shot, however we didn't use a shot reverse shot, which we could have used. We didn't use the shot reverse shot because we felt that we couldn't do the shot with what we were filming and how we wanted it to turn out.
When we come to do the real thriller, we now have an idea of how the
filming works. We also know what can be done and what we should think
about doing, like using an artificial light or the camera shots we use.
To start off with, we were introduced to the coursework task. We got information on what the assignment consisted of, what we will have to do, deadlines and what percentage the assignment is worth. We then got told about the preliminary task, what we would have to do, and what that consisted off. After the explanation of the assignment had finished, we moved on to start the research and development for the preliminary task which was an inside taster as to what we would be doing when we start the 'Thriller' task.
To start off the preliminary task, my group had to create a mind map of ideas that consisted of Costume, Location, Scenario, Script and Actors. We had to do this so, we, as a group could come together and decide on something that was worth while doing for the task.
Me (Heather Pullen), Aaron Hilton, Jacob Richardson and Bethany Harris came up with a few ideas that were all different that we could use in our preliminary task.
The mind map had some ideas that we didn't use as things would get too complicated or we just weren't able to do them, however, we took the best ideas and started to develop them into a video.
Once we had ideas on our mind map, we had to decide on what to do and how we could develop the small ideas into big ideas for the task.
This is our mind map showing the different ideas we had.
