We were asked to do a specific task as an extra on the DVD of the thriller. Our group chose to do an interview with the editors.
It took us only one day to prepare and one day to film. During filming, it took us 15 takes to achieve a laughing/mistake free shot! We had difficulty answering one question which took up most of our time- as we weren't sure on what to say.
We included titles and made the interview run smoothly with the editing. We tried to cover our faces as much as possible to ensure that we wouldn't look unprofessional as we are amateurs.
Overall, we have created a successful interview and would be useful to use this as a DVD extra as part of our thriller film.
Friday 26 June 2009
Friday 8 May 2009
Practice Thriller
When we were given task for our practice filming session we had to create a thriller using certain props. the props used in our thriller were game cards and two fake pistol gun.I was fairly happy with the camera works and i feel that the shots that were the most successful was when we took a 10 second big close up of Elif with the pistol gun behind her.
When we were given task for our practice filming session we had to create a thriller using certain props. the props used in our thriller were game cards and two fake pistol gun.I was fairly happy with the camera works and i feel that the shots that were the most successful was when we took a 10 second big close up of Elif with the pistol gun behind her.
This i felt worked well with the thriller genre because it had create a lot of tension and suspense. we try to create a long shot scene but it did not work well with the setting because it did not give a sense of thrill. the was mainly because the setting used was inside the college building and the atmosphere was not exactly working well.
Thriller Plans
Me and Eman have come up with some ideas for the actual thriller. We were thinking more of a spy thriller rather than a scary one. We haven't finalized our plot yet- but we a have anidea of what type of characters we would like to include in the thriller. We had discussed there being two spy's and one villan.
The villan will be doing something and spy's will follow the villan. Thriller plans (spy thriller plans) (elif eman discuss plan with the rest of the group and take on their views and etc.
Setting for the thriller
For the hostage and villan scene, we were thinking an low roof basment- totally empty and character is left hostage there. Outside at night-spy's being followed by an unidentified character [this creates mystery and raises questions]. Shots from inside a building. Governments office- dark computer room.
Extra planning for the thriller
In today's lesson, my group and I discussed further plans for our media thriller. Firstly we have decided that there will be that we cannot make te story line too complicated because its unessary hassle.We though are plan were good But our teacher advised us to come up with another plot .Because the current plot was too complicated for a thriller opening.
we presented our ideas to the class and our teacher Annabell. However our teacher Anabell believed that our idea wouldn't work so well. After trying to discuss what we could improve, we didn't come up with a solid plan. We thought that our plot should involve:2 Spy's and one hostage who had links with the 'government'The villan was meant to keep this person hostage until they had got what they wanted from the government.We noticed that our idea was too complicated therefore did not go ahead with what we had planned.For advice Mickey then came along. He suggested that we should have a less complicated idea and that we can do something that could stick with our hostage idea.
Finalised plans
the actually thriller is going to be about a girl is being held hostage and the villain is filming his hostage. She is frightened and does not know what will happen to her. The villain then goes on to a computer and uploads his video of the hostage onto a website
Which means their is going to be two character : villan and hostage. And the thriller is going to be set in the college basement to give the thriller its dark edge.
Which means their is going to be two character : villan and hostage. And the thriller is going to be set in the college basement to give the thriller its dark edge.
These are the notes taken in class with my group on how and what types of shots that we might what in the thriller.
Location of the hostage being kept there tied to a chair or sitting on the ground.
2. FAST OCCURING SHOTS of hostage looking around, hostage feeling isolated, hostage struggling- trying to escape.
3. Hostage then stops looks frightened.
4. Shot of villains back walking towards the hostage. (Match cut) of villain walking.
5. Picks up a video camera.
6. Hostage looks confused/unaware of situation.
7. Presses the record button.
8. Hostage is being filmed by the villain- hostage becomes even more scared.
9. Goes into flashback of: the villain tying her up, kicking her, shouting at her, hostage crying and also screaming. (sepia or black and white)
10. Villain walks to a computer
11. Goes onto a website
12. Uploads video.
13. Shows upload complete sign (final shot)The group will start filming as soon as a ideal location is found.
First Day of filming
We had started filming for our thriller today with the whole group. We had used the college basment as the location of our thriller as with the setting being so dark were were able tp stacked away and rerange the room which made the mise en scene look like an isolated place.
It could have been more effective if things weren't in the basement but it is impossible to be able to remove them just to film.
Today we did interesting panning shots of the villain and close up and lots of shots of the hostage. Elif and myself hadtaken the camerawork role as, Jen and Michael are acting.The most interesting type of shot which was suggested by Jen was to have her in the frame but make it in and out of focus. By doing this, I can already see its creativity and will look really good once editted. We had made a ECU' shot of Jen's feet hands that went right upto her face close up of her face.
We now need to get many more shots in and we need to include a 'flashback' of when the villan actually kidnapps the hostage.We have used the props of a gun, a chair and a chain of loose metal to put around the hostage's feet.I am quite pleased with what we filmed today and I'm sure things will progress by Friday.
Second Session of filming the Thriller
We filmed the final part to the thriller. It was successful as we did many shots including close ups, over shoulder shots, extra close ups and other various shots. This process took very long and the basement was very cold which meant the group had to co operate with the situation. Even it had literallly drained me and my group out i feel happy that we had acomplished our tasks for the day.
The short part we filmed on Wednesday was not as successful as today. This is because, we didn't have enough time and the lighting wasn't very good. However on camera, the lighting seemed fine but when uploaded onto the computer- it was too dark to see. We then had to repeat the shot ata different angle so we could retrieve a lighter shot so which could actually see what was going on.
We filmed the final part to the thriller. It was successful as we did many shots including close ups, over shoulder shots, extra close ups and other various shots. This process took very long and the basement was very cold which meant the group had to co operate with the situation. Even it had literallly drained me and my group out i feel happy that we had acomplished our tasks for the day.
The short part we filmed on Wednesday was not as successful as today. This is because, we didn't have enough time and the lighting wasn't very good. However on camera, the lighting seemed fine but when uploaded onto the computer- it was too dark to see. We then had to repeat the shot ata different angle so we could retrieve a lighter shot so which could actually see what was going on.
The shot that had taken great effort type of shot to put together is the 'match cut' shot. The match-cut shots took up great aamounts of time and we kept having to shoot effortless amounts of time which i felt got kinda of boring. But i knew that it was worth it at the end as match cut shot tend to look great once finsh. This was shown in a previous lesson we had with mike.
This is because you have to get the actors repeat the same thing many times (depending on the match cut you want) and it may make the actor feel bored or less enthusiastic. I can now understand that in real life it is very difficult and time consuming to put together such things and that I now appreciate the amount of effort and time that goes into filming and producing.
Today has been successful as elif had managed to put our current shots on the hard drive and save it for now and this is where I saw other shots which weren't so successful. i feel the need to credit Elif for her hard work as her magament skills were great and she helped push the group to work hard today.
Today has been successful as elif had managed to put our current shots on the hard drive and save it for now and this is where I saw other shots which weren't so successful. i feel the need to credit Elif for her hard work as her magament skills were great and she helped push the group to work hard today.
But even thought we've finshed filming for the second day we had so much more to do. Now our group's aim is to now re-shoot the shots to actually complete the filming process of the thriller. Next lesson we will carry on filming the last of the thriller.
More filming
We used a website called www.vimeo.com and this is for the villain uploading the video onto the computer scene. which is a real blogging website. This will make it seem more thrilling and raise more questions without making it very obvious. We are further planning to edit the shot by putting it in black and white- with a record sign to make it look from the hostages point of view. Also, this will seem very effective and raise even more questions- which is one of the main conventions of a thriller.
Re-filming of shots
Today we were filming in the basement of the College City and Islington College. We made sure that Jen was wearing the same clothing, as she was the last filming date. this help show continuity. We also made sure that we had brought in lighting for the shoots because in a previous shoot the lighting was very dim. We made sure that we brought an extra camcorder for prop.
For the props, we brought in a gun, camcorder and lights. We feel that we have finished filming but will start editing to check if there was any shot that we could include to make our work to its perfection.
Today we were filming in the basement of the College City and Islington College. We made sure that Jen was wearing the same clothing, as she was the last filming date. this help show continuity. We also made sure that we had brought in lighting for the shoots because in a previous shoot the lighting was very dim. We made sure that we brought an extra camcorder for prop.
For the props, we brought in a gun, camcorder and lights. We feel that we have finished filming but will start editing to check if there was any shot that we could include to make our work to its perfection.
First Day Of Editing our thriller film
Our group had started editing our thriller.This was a very interesting to see the shots together even at this starting point. We noticed that when editing, we could do with some more shots. This is to make the sequence make some sense. We included match cuts in our sequence which made it look very effectiveand we have about 2 main match cuts. One of our next aim for next week is to completely finish filming for the thriller to mainly focus on the editing so that we can make our thriller to the best of our ablities.
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Thriller Evaluation
Media Evaluation:
My final media product challenges some forms and conventions of a real thriller product as well as develop them. The thriller does not open with a typical establishing shot, instead it goes straight into the drama with the victim being tied up and also reflects the storyline as being recognisable which can let the audience be immediately taken in by the opening. The camera angles do however develop the forms and conventions with the variety of camera angles and lighting, during filming the lighting did become an issue as it seemed to be too dark, but it became useful as it added to the effect we were going for. Also the use of violence portrayed in the beginning towards the victim has an effect of a dramatic/psycho thriller. That is the reason why our product can be seen as a thriller and a horror movie at the same time, as it shows typical thriller and horror conventions which makes our product somewhat unique.
The representation of particular social groups in the media product has a typical set up where the woman is a ‘victim’ and the male is the ‘killer,’ with the male being perverted towards the helpless woman. This is useful as it can play on the fears of the audience to get them into the story and has the dramatic effect of what they want to see. This is what particular thrillers or horrors do to draw in their target audience.
To get the best results for my film I would want it to go straight to the cinema, this can let more people have the opportunity to see the film and also has a bigger chance to create more of a profit if the distribution is done correctly. That is why I would want well known companies to distribute trailers and posters to draw in my target audience. The companies I have in mine include Lionsgate, Working Title, Universal and MGM as they have distributed many films including, the James Bond series, The Spirit, Crank, The Haunting and 8 Mile. These films have produced many stars that have gone on to become more famous and make other films, these starts include Jason Statham, Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan.
The target audience would mostly be teenagers and young adults. The cross genre style of thriller and horror would also be useful to attract the target audience who are looking for an interesting film. The reason for the target audience being teenagers is because the protagonist is in the same age group which helps the film to appeal to a niche audience. Also it may appeal to the people who enjoy a film which shows the sadistic side of life seeing the victim being imprisoned and then filmed. The rating would probably be a 15 which backs up the target audience being teenagers and young adults, although I don’t have a specific class range for my film because I think it can also appeal to anyone who would be interested in the film with the thriller and horror aspect. The gender balance of the film is mixed because is starts both a male and female in the movie, so it will show how both of them are going through this experience and hopefully the audience will go through the same experience if they are into the story. The market I have aimed my film at is mainstream, because it would have been more difficult to just make it for a niche market and therefore may have made less money on release so it would have been better to show it to a wider audience to attract more.
To attract and address my audience, I will use advertising techniques that would apply to me when looking at a film, these include trailers which would be put on TV so that everyone would be likely to see it. I would also use the gaming industry such as the Sony Play station 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, by posting trailers on their home system and dashboard, this will be very useful as the gaming industry includes a lot of young adults and teenagers so would be good to attract them. Also I will use public transport to advertise my production by using posters on buses and transport so they would be seen all of the time. Also I would create a dedicated website specifically for my film showing trailers and release dates, to advertise the website I will use the trailers, posters and billboards to show the site.
The experience of filming has enabled me to learn a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing the product such as using the Final Cut Pro program that is used to modify the film itself. Final Cut Pro made it possible to add match cuts and special effects to the product which can keep the audience engaged in the film. Although at first it was difficult to get the hang of using the program and I also kept forgetting how to do some actions at times, but after a while I was able to use it and do what I needed. The same goes for Soundtrack Pro which is used to add sound effects and music to the product, although it had an easier learning curve the Final Cut and once I got past it, it was a fun process to experiment with all of the different sounds and tones. Also the experience of staring as the main character was fun and I also thought it was a big role and was important. This is because I had to portray the story through the actions I made while I was playing the kidnapper. The internet was used to plan and post the process and the progression of the film and also post the opening itself on the website, through blogging which shows the evidence of the work I did in my group and so that other people would be able to watch the work that we had done.
Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt many things in the progression to the full product. Before we started the work on our thriller we made a practise film where we had time to practise with various camera angles and match cuts to help improve our skills with acting and filming. Although we did not use any sound effects in our practise film we did integrate a match cut, which was the main task. The practice film also let us try planning and storyboarding in an efficient way and keep to what we had planned and go through with it. We also brainstormed some ideas such as camera angles and locations for the film, this was a good way to prepare us for what we had to do for the real thriller opening.
My final media product challenges some forms and conventions of a real thriller product as well as develop them. The thriller does not open with a typical establishing shot, instead it goes straight into the drama with the victim being tied up and also reflects the storyline as being recognisable which can let the audience be immediately taken in by the opening. The camera angles do however develop the forms and conventions with the variety of camera angles and lighting, during filming the lighting did become an issue as it seemed to be too dark, but it became useful as it added to the effect we were going for. Also the use of violence portrayed in the beginning towards the victim has an effect of a dramatic/psycho thriller. That is the reason why our product can be seen as a thriller and a horror movie at the same time, as it shows typical thriller and horror conventions which makes our product somewhat unique.
The representation of particular social groups in the media product has a typical set up where the woman is a ‘victim’ and the male is the ‘killer,’ with the male being perverted towards the helpless woman. This is useful as it can play on the fears of the audience to get them into the story and has the dramatic effect of what they want to see. This is what particular thrillers or horrors do to draw in their target audience.
To get the best results for my film I would want it to go straight to the cinema, this can let more people have the opportunity to see the film and also has a bigger chance to create more of a profit if the distribution is done correctly. That is why I would want well known companies to distribute trailers and posters to draw in my target audience. The companies I have in mine include Lionsgate, Working Title, Universal and MGM as they have distributed many films including, the James Bond series, The Spirit, Crank, The Haunting and 8 Mile. These films have produced many stars that have gone on to become more famous and make other films, these starts include Jason Statham, Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan.
The target audience would mostly be teenagers and young adults. The cross genre style of thriller and horror would also be useful to attract the target audience who are looking for an interesting film. The reason for the target audience being teenagers is because the protagonist is in the same age group which helps the film to appeal to a niche audience. Also it may appeal to the people who enjoy a film which shows the sadistic side of life seeing the victim being imprisoned and then filmed. The rating would probably be a 15 which backs up the target audience being teenagers and young adults, although I don’t have a specific class range for my film because I think it can also appeal to anyone who would be interested in the film with the thriller and horror aspect. The gender balance of the film is mixed because is starts both a male and female in the movie, so it will show how both of them are going through this experience and hopefully the audience will go through the same experience if they are into the story. The market I have aimed my film at is mainstream, because it would have been more difficult to just make it for a niche market and therefore may have made less money on release so it would have been better to show it to a wider audience to attract more.
To attract and address my audience, I will use advertising techniques that would apply to me when looking at a film, these include trailers which would be put on TV so that everyone would be likely to see it. I would also use the gaming industry such as the Sony Play station 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, by posting trailers on their home system and dashboard, this will be very useful as the gaming industry includes a lot of young adults and teenagers so would be good to attract them. Also I will use public transport to advertise my production by using posters on buses and transport so they would be seen all of the time. Also I would create a dedicated website specifically for my film showing trailers and release dates, to advertise the website I will use the trailers, posters and billboards to show the site.
The experience of filming has enabled me to learn a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing the product such as using the Final Cut Pro program that is used to modify the film itself. Final Cut Pro made it possible to add match cuts and special effects to the product which can keep the audience engaged in the film. Although at first it was difficult to get the hang of using the program and I also kept forgetting how to do some actions at times, but after a while I was able to use it and do what I needed. The same goes for Soundtrack Pro which is used to add sound effects and music to the product, although it had an easier learning curve the Final Cut and once I got past it, it was a fun process to experiment with all of the different sounds and tones. Also the experience of staring as the main character was fun and I also thought it was a big role and was important. This is because I had to portray the story through the actions I made while I was playing the kidnapper. The internet was used to plan and post the process and the progression of the film and also post the opening itself on the website, through blogging which shows the evidence of the work I did in my group and so that other people would be able to watch the work that we had done.
Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt many things in the progression to the full product. Before we started the work on our thriller we made a practise film where we had time to practise with various camera angles and match cuts to help improve our skills with acting and filming. Although we did not use any sound effects in our practise film we did integrate a match cut, which was the main task. The practice film also let us try planning and storyboarding in an efficient way and keep to what we had planned and go through with it. We also brainstormed some ideas such as camera angles and locations for the film, this was a good way to prepare us for what we had to do for the real thriller opening.
Tuesday 28 April 2009
Thriller Evaluation
THRILLER EVALUATION.
Before we started to produce our media product (trailer for thriller) we had a couple of lessons showing and demonstrating the typical conventions of thriller openings; this was so we could use, develop and challenge the ideologies of ordinary trailers, so we can learn and expand further our ideas for our trailer. So when we began to produce our media product, we took into account of the possible typical thriller conventions of various thrillers that we had watched. Both professional trailers and trailers made by other students. It helped us as a group to form and structure what our potential thriller would pan out to be. We used typical “thrilling” music; slow and suspenseful to create an eerie and tense atmosphere for the audience to identify the trailer as a thriller. It would be an obvious difference if we decided to use happy music as it would differentiate our supposed “thriller” into another genre; so music for our trailer played a vital role in distinguishing our genre so we complied with the typical media norms. Furthermore our overall plot used some forms of real media products; it was in a stray, dark room, there was an obvious victim and a psychopath and also a twisted storyline within it. The victim is seen in an isolated room, tied up against her will; there are then flashbacks of how the victim got there; images of her being dragged, tied up and then filmed are shown. Eventually to tie the trailer up, the psychopath is then seen in the present time, uploading the video onto the internet. It challenges typical media products as, the storyline isn’t so usual, well not that we saw but at the same time it does follow some conventions as it does include some sort of twisted, psychological storyline. Other things we learnt from other trailers that we applied to our media product was the use of non-diegetic music rather than diegetic sound as we saw it gave our trailer a more thrilling atmosphere and diegetic sound made It sound less realistic as a thriller trailer. Moreover, the use of characters was a vital role to make our trailer more effective. We didn’t want to use a surplus of characters as it would confuse the audience; therefore we limited ourselves to only two characters so our potential audiences could identify them more clearly.
Our thriller doesn’t necessarily pinpoint into one particular social group as it doesn’t specifically discriminate on any race, gender, class or age, though the two actors are young; both who are 16 years old, so, perhaps, the trailer is portrayed for the younger orientated audiences instead of an older one. It also distinguishes both genders, although in stereotypical roles. The female in the trailer is the victim and the male is the killer/ psychopath; roles which are generally adjacent to their gender as the female is seen as the weaker/ fragile character whereas the male is portrayed in a domineering and omnipresent manner. When planning the thriller however, the idea of representing both class and race in a particular way didn’t come to mind as it wasn’t compulsory for our trailer. Sexuality however, is depicted in an ambiguous way; the audience are unsure whether the psychopath has or is going to sexually harass the victim, furthermore creating a tense environment for the audience.
I think, personally, our movie would be distributed by a small independent UK media institute. This Is because it would allow us as the producers to push the boundaries of the film some more, it would allow us more freedom without the required censorship big Hollywood Blockbusters expect from films. It would also allow us to break the idealisms that big films portray to audiences, we wouldn’t glamorize the film, we would get down to the reality and insights of a psychopath and what lies beneath. Furthermore, it being distributed to a small, UK media institute would not give us restrictions, it wouldn’t have to appeal to a set number or type of audience because we wouldn’t have expectations or rules to what our film should look or appeal to. This way it would mean anyone who wanted to watch a “out of the box” film would be welcomed to, without the hyperbolic situations that Hollywood films provide.
Ideally, the kind of audience who would watch our media product, would be of the independent kind; one who enjoys cinema, to the extent where it is not generic, polished by Hollywood directors and typical storylines which appeal to the masses. They would be of the younger generation, late teens to early 20’s with a sense of culture and an open mind to different genre’s and tastes to their cinematic experience. Obviously, it would appeal to both gender’s as it doesn’t exemplify any sexual discrimination nor would we want It to. I’d like it to appeal to a wide range of classes; but more specifically the educated kind, one who would appreciate independent films such as this one; one who would achieve something from the film, whether it be a new found insight or otherwise. Moreover, the idealistic audience would also appreciate modern culture and art, enjoys going to museums, galleries etc. they wouldn’t have any ideal jobs, just interests outside their work. They would have a certain sense of je ne sais quoi to differentiate themselves from the “mainstream”. A trendsetter rather than a follower.
To market our film, our approach would be substantially different to how normal films would be advertised. Instead of traditionally advertising them on TV and big billboards, we’ve opted to have posters and stickers with a link to a site showcasing our trailer, much like the film itself. Although, it wouldn’t be plastered in popular places, it’d be on quiet streets, alleyways random, deserted places to not popularise it so much, to juxtapose from other budding film norms. It’d also be advertised on postcards, displayed free in art galleries and museums, to take away with them. If possible, it’d be graphitised across walls in London; giving it a bit of an avant-garde feel.
The whole film-making process, has taught me and my fellow group much more about technologies from the process of constructing our thriller. Normally, we wouldn’t have the chance to use programmes such as Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro, so producing our thriller gave us a chance to learn and experiment with them both. The filming itself was also, something new that we hadn’t tried full on. We had the opportunity to film off campus, we weren’t guided by our teachers and it gave us a sense of control and also we got to learn more about the camera angles, shooting, positions etc; Now all or most of us now how to operate the filming equipment. The use of the internet was also effective; we had the chance to blog about what we had done in our lessons, we could also note down our filming process, what had gone well, what didn’t go so well. So not only could we track how well we were doing but our teachers and fellow peers could aswell. Furthermore, we were able to release our trailer to the vimeo site, widening our audience range to just about anyone who uses the internet, feeling like we achieved something, a film.
Personally, I think the jump from the match-cut exercises to the real thing was a considerable amount; it was no longer something we could experiment and play with, it was the real thing. It was either, you had to learn how to use it or you would struggle with editing your film especially when you’re under a deadline. I think from this trailer, I’ve learnt a lot about the film making process; that when you’re in a group, it’s a team effort, everyone has to pull their weight and everyone’s opinion most definitely counts. Moreover, the planning of it is also crucial; otherwise your film won’t go to the desired effect you want it to. Thing’s like storyboarding gives you an outline of what your shots should look like, a rough imagery of your overall film. Planning your location, times when your’e going to film, renting out a camera etc is also important as it gives you structure and a rough idea as to how much time you need/have to film. Editing and post-production were, personally, the most prominent because it could either make or break your film. Good editing can make your film look professional (match cut, soundtrack) and poor editing could make your film not look realistic at all; your group’s opinion and contribution towards the editing are crucial as it helps shape your film, with everyone’s personal touch.
Before we started to produce our media product (trailer for thriller) we had a couple of lessons showing and demonstrating the typical conventions of thriller openings; this was so we could use, develop and challenge the ideologies of ordinary trailers, so we can learn and expand further our ideas for our trailer. So when we began to produce our media product, we took into account of the possible typical thriller conventions of various thrillers that we had watched. Both professional trailers and trailers made by other students. It helped us as a group to form and structure what our potential thriller would pan out to be. We used typical “thrilling” music; slow and suspenseful to create an eerie and tense atmosphere for the audience to identify the trailer as a thriller. It would be an obvious difference if we decided to use happy music as it would differentiate our supposed “thriller” into another genre; so music for our trailer played a vital role in distinguishing our genre so we complied with the typical media norms. Furthermore our overall plot used some forms of real media products; it was in a stray, dark room, there was an obvious victim and a psychopath and also a twisted storyline within it. The victim is seen in an isolated room, tied up against her will; there are then flashbacks of how the victim got there; images of her being dragged, tied up and then filmed are shown. Eventually to tie the trailer up, the psychopath is then seen in the present time, uploading the video onto the internet. It challenges typical media products as, the storyline isn’t so usual, well not that we saw but at the same time it does follow some conventions as it does include some sort of twisted, psychological storyline. Other things we learnt from other trailers that we applied to our media product was the use of non-diegetic music rather than diegetic sound as we saw it gave our trailer a more thrilling atmosphere and diegetic sound made It sound less realistic as a thriller trailer. Moreover, the use of characters was a vital role to make our trailer more effective. We didn’t want to use a surplus of characters as it would confuse the audience; therefore we limited ourselves to only two characters so our potential audiences could identify them more clearly.
Our thriller doesn’t necessarily pinpoint into one particular social group as it doesn’t specifically discriminate on any race, gender, class or age, though the two actors are young; both who are 16 years old, so, perhaps, the trailer is portrayed for the younger orientated audiences instead of an older one. It also distinguishes both genders, although in stereotypical roles. The female in the trailer is the victim and the male is the killer/ psychopath; roles which are generally adjacent to their gender as the female is seen as the weaker/ fragile character whereas the male is portrayed in a domineering and omnipresent manner. When planning the thriller however, the idea of representing both class and race in a particular way didn’t come to mind as it wasn’t compulsory for our trailer. Sexuality however, is depicted in an ambiguous way; the audience are unsure whether the psychopath has or is going to sexually harass the victim, furthermore creating a tense environment for the audience.
I think, personally, our movie would be distributed by a small independent UK media institute. This Is because it would allow us as the producers to push the boundaries of the film some more, it would allow us more freedom without the required censorship big Hollywood Blockbusters expect from films. It would also allow us to break the idealisms that big films portray to audiences, we wouldn’t glamorize the film, we would get down to the reality and insights of a psychopath and what lies beneath. Furthermore, it being distributed to a small, UK media institute would not give us restrictions, it wouldn’t have to appeal to a set number or type of audience because we wouldn’t have expectations or rules to what our film should look or appeal to. This way it would mean anyone who wanted to watch a “out of the box” film would be welcomed to, without the hyperbolic situations that Hollywood films provide.
Ideally, the kind of audience who would watch our media product, would be of the independent kind; one who enjoys cinema, to the extent where it is not generic, polished by Hollywood directors and typical storylines which appeal to the masses. They would be of the younger generation, late teens to early 20’s with a sense of culture and an open mind to different genre’s and tastes to their cinematic experience. Obviously, it would appeal to both gender’s as it doesn’t exemplify any sexual discrimination nor would we want It to. I’d like it to appeal to a wide range of classes; but more specifically the educated kind, one who would appreciate independent films such as this one; one who would achieve something from the film, whether it be a new found insight or otherwise. Moreover, the idealistic audience would also appreciate modern culture and art, enjoys going to museums, galleries etc. they wouldn’t have any ideal jobs, just interests outside their work. They would have a certain sense of je ne sais quoi to differentiate themselves from the “mainstream”. A trendsetter rather than a follower.
To market our film, our approach would be substantially different to how normal films would be advertised. Instead of traditionally advertising them on TV and big billboards, we’ve opted to have posters and stickers with a link to a site showcasing our trailer, much like the film itself. Although, it wouldn’t be plastered in popular places, it’d be on quiet streets, alleyways random, deserted places to not popularise it so much, to juxtapose from other budding film norms. It’d also be advertised on postcards, displayed free in art galleries and museums, to take away with them. If possible, it’d be graphitised across walls in London; giving it a bit of an avant-garde feel.
The whole film-making process, has taught me and my fellow group much more about technologies from the process of constructing our thriller. Normally, we wouldn’t have the chance to use programmes such as Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro, so producing our thriller gave us a chance to learn and experiment with them both. The filming itself was also, something new that we hadn’t tried full on. We had the opportunity to film off campus, we weren’t guided by our teachers and it gave us a sense of control and also we got to learn more about the camera angles, shooting, positions etc; Now all or most of us now how to operate the filming equipment. The use of the internet was also effective; we had the chance to blog about what we had done in our lessons, we could also note down our filming process, what had gone well, what didn’t go so well. So not only could we track how well we were doing but our teachers and fellow peers could aswell. Furthermore, we were able to release our trailer to the vimeo site, widening our audience range to just about anyone who uses the internet, feeling like we achieved something, a film.
Personally, I think the jump from the match-cut exercises to the real thing was a considerable amount; it was no longer something we could experiment and play with, it was the real thing. It was either, you had to learn how to use it or you would struggle with editing your film especially when you’re under a deadline. I think from this trailer, I’ve learnt a lot about the film making process; that when you’re in a group, it’s a team effort, everyone has to pull their weight and everyone’s opinion most definitely counts. Moreover, the planning of it is also crucial; otherwise your film won’t go to the desired effect you want it to. Thing’s like storyboarding gives you an outline of what your shots should look like, a rough imagery of your overall film. Planning your location, times when your’e going to film, renting out a camera etc is also important as it gives you structure and a rough idea as to how much time you need/have to film. Editing and post-production were, personally, the most prominent because it could either make or break your film. Good editing can make your film look professional (match cut, soundtrack) and poor editing could make your film not look realistic at all; your group’s opinion and contribution towards the editing are crucial as it helps shape your film, with everyone’s personal touch.
Friday 27 March 2009
Thriller Evaluation
Thriller Evaluation AS- Elif Huseyin
For my coursework, we had to work in groups to successfully create a thriller. Firstly we were given a tutorial of how to use the equipment and the Mac’s. Then we got onto the actual filming by doing a practice thriller of a ‘Thrilling Card Game’. After, we did a match cut exercise to help us to understand what a match cut is and this of which I have posted onto my blog. Looking back at the match cut exercise, I have seen major improvements in my filming skills which I will mention further in this evaluation.
The typical convention of a thriller is included in my work as it successfully raised questions such as: what is going on? and why is it happening? The whole concept of our thriller was influenced by current happenings shown by the mass media today. Our thriller included a perverted character that held a girl hostage, in a cold isolated basement. Thrillers usually use the base colours of grey and black, and the natural setting had those colours which made it look realistic and creepy. An example of this is ‘The Terminator’ this helps emphasise the mood of the situation. We also included a flashback and put a filter colour of blue on it.
Shots from 'The Terminator'
For my coursework, we had to work in groups to successfully create a thriller. Firstly we were given a tutorial of how to use the equipment and the Mac’s. Then we got onto the actual filming by doing a practice thriller of a ‘Thrilling Card Game’. After, we did a match cut exercise to help us to understand what a match cut is and this of which I have posted onto my blog. Looking back at the match cut exercise, I have seen major improvements in my filming skills which I will mention further in this evaluation.
The typical convention of a thriller is included in my work as it successfully raised questions such as: what is going on? and why is it happening? The whole concept of our thriller was influenced by current happenings shown by the mass media today. Our thriller included a perverted character that held a girl hostage, in a cold isolated basement. Thrillers usually use the base colours of grey and black, and the natural setting had those colours which made it look realistic and creepy. An example of this is ‘The Terminator’ this helps emphasise the mood of the situation. We also included a flashback and put a filter colour of blue on it.
Shots from 'The Terminator'
This helps show the coldness of that time and also makes it look as something that happened previously. Our thriller has challenged usual creepy thrillers, as a blue colour filter is often found in action thrillers such as ‘The Terminator’. Including this makes our thriller unique and challenges other thrillers of the same genre. Our opening includes clear establishing shots, which are all evenly sized and makes sense.
The people featured in my thriller are young characters. This kind of film is mainly aimed at 16+ teenagers as they can understand the situation of a girl being held ransom/hostage and will understand the creepiness of it. On our feedback, it was mentioned that the actual lighting made it look creepy as well as the thriller itself.
In further feedback, our group was told that we had made good music to go according with our thriller. The group worked together in making the music. Jennifer gave the idea of adding classical music into the opening to make it ironic. I added a baseline throughout the thriller, but it went on for too long, which would make an audience lose interest. The in and out of focus shots worked well as it made it look very effective and professional. The fact that we filmed from a cameras point of view and a characters point of view helps the audience see the story from two different points. For the characters point of view, I handheld the camera in order to give it a shaky effect and to show the perverted fashion of the situation which the previous image with the ‘REC’ sign shows this.
Focus Shots:
The people featured in my thriller are young characters. This kind of film is mainly aimed at 16+ teenagers as they can understand the situation of a girl being held ransom/hostage and will understand the creepiness of it. On our feedback, it was mentioned that the actual lighting made it look creepy as well as the thriller itself.
In further feedback, our group was told that we had made good music to go according with our thriller. The group worked together in making the music. Jennifer gave the idea of adding classical music into the opening to make it ironic. I added a baseline throughout the thriller, but it went on for too long, which would make an audience lose interest. The in and out of focus shots worked well as it made it look very effective and professional. The fact that we filmed from a cameras point of view and a characters point of view helps the audience see the story from two different points. For the characters point of view, I handheld the camera in order to give it a shaky effect and to show the perverted fashion of the situation which the previous image with the ‘REC’ sign shows this.
Focus Shots:
My film will be distributed by the British Film company: Working Title 2. It will be a low budget film because new actors/actresses will be featured in them. I will do this as a way to work up in the film industry. It would be more beneficial to use unknown talents rather than spend a lot of the budget on an actor because, if the film failed- there wouldn’t be so much of a financial problem.
I will attract my audience by advertising my film on British television first. The main channels I will focus on will be Film 4, ITV, Five and the BBC. This website http://www.channel4.com/film/cinemadvd/cinema_newreleases.html shows cinema releases and lists the ‘Top 10 Must See Movies’. The new talents will also encourage the audience to be more enthusiastic about watching it, especially if it is a niche audience.
The technology that I have used in the making of my film has been very useful and quick and easy to learn. It is not so complicated after getting used to editing. Throughout the making of the thriller, as the director of the film, I was the decisive person of the group and made sure everything was appropriate and went according to actual thriller conventions. These are things like, raising questions being unclear and not telling too much of the story in an instant. By using flashbacks, we have enabled the viewers to really think about what is going on.
Using Final Cut pro was very interesting and effective to see how the sequence of our thriller would look when it has been put together. We also used Soundtrack Pro which was much easier to get used to than Final Cut pro. On Soundtrack pro, I learnt how to adjust music (by making the pitch higher and lower at specific points of the soundtrack) and learnt what type of music goes with what. Understanding and being able to perfect a soundtrack and editing that goes according to the typical conventions of a thriller, shows just how much work and effort needs to be put in. Furthermore, I have learnt how to use www.vimeo.com in the making of the thriller as in the actual footage, the villain uploads the video of his hostage onto this website.
Looking back, I have learnt a lot of things that I never understood about the film making industry. I have learnt how to: film appropriately, log and capture footage, put effects on footage, do match cuts (which before this course I never even noticed), make a whole soundtrack of our own and be able to use the Mac’s comfortably. I have also improved my blogging skills and can comfortably write in simple everyday language of what I had done and my progression during the making of the thriller.
The very first idea of our thriller, was not appropriate as it was too complicated to be an opening of a thriller. It was like we were putting a whole storyline into an opening of a thriller- which wouldn’t match with the usual conventions of a thriller because it would have raised question but, it would have also answered them. This of course is not what we would have liked to aim for. We asked our teachers for advice and they told us to not make our opening complicated. Therefore as a group, we worked together to achieve a much simpler but exciting opening instead. We have called our thriller Victim No.6 and the title itself gives connotations of danger and shows a continuity of how the character (villain) is. After finalising the ideas, making a plan of what to film was useful because not using a plan can make things very stressful and confusing.
Overall, me and my group are very pleased of our thriller outcome. We believe that we have matched true conventions of a thriller well enough in our own film and that all this effort has had a positive outcome.
I will attract my audience by advertising my film on British television first. The main channels I will focus on will be Film 4, ITV, Five and the BBC. This website http://www.channel4.com/film/cinemadvd/cinema_newreleases.html shows cinema releases and lists the ‘Top 10 Must See Movies’. The new talents will also encourage the audience to be more enthusiastic about watching it, especially if it is a niche audience.
The technology that I have used in the making of my film has been very useful and quick and easy to learn. It is not so complicated after getting used to editing. Throughout the making of the thriller, as the director of the film, I was the decisive person of the group and made sure everything was appropriate and went according to actual thriller conventions. These are things like, raising questions being unclear and not telling too much of the story in an instant. By using flashbacks, we have enabled the viewers to really think about what is going on.
Using Final Cut pro was very interesting and effective to see how the sequence of our thriller would look when it has been put together. We also used Soundtrack Pro which was much easier to get used to than Final Cut pro. On Soundtrack pro, I learnt how to adjust music (by making the pitch higher and lower at specific points of the soundtrack) and learnt what type of music goes with what. Understanding and being able to perfect a soundtrack and editing that goes according to the typical conventions of a thriller, shows just how much work and effort needs to be put in. Furthermore, I have learnt how to use www.vimeo.com in the making of the thriller as in the actual footage, the villain uploads the video of his hostage onto this website.
Looking back, I have learnt a lot of things that I never understood about the film making industry. I have learnt how to: film appropriately, log and capture footage, put effects on footage, do match cuts (which before this course I never even noticed), make a whole soundtrack of our own and be able to use the Mac’s comfortably. I have also improved my blogging skills and can comfortably write in simple everyday language of what I had done and my progression during the making of the thriller.
The very first idea of our thriller, was not appropriate as it was too complicated to be an opening of a thriller. It was like we were putting a whole storyline into an opening of a thriller- which wouldn’t match with the usual conventions of a thriller because it would have raised question but, it would have also answered them. This of course is not what we would have liked to aim for. We asked our teachers for advice and they told us to not make our opening complicated. Therefore as a group, we worked together to achieve a much simpler but exciting opening instead. We have called our thriller Victim No.6 and the title itself gives connotations of danger and shows a continuity of how the character (villain) is. After finalising the ideas, making a plan of what to film was useful because not using a plan can make things very stressful and confusing.
Overall, me and my group are very pleased of our thriller outcome. We believe that we have matched true conventions of a thriller well enough in our own film and that all this effort has had a positive outcome.
Evaluation
Eman Seid
Thriller AS: Evaluation
For the practical coursework, we had to work in groups to create a thriller. I was in a group of four included Elif, Jen, Michael and myself. We were given a quick tutorial on how to uses the cameras and computers safety. Then started practicing how to film a practice thriller. When we were given task for our practice filming session we had to create a thriller using certain props. The props used in our thriller were game cards and two fake pistol guns.
I was happy with the camera works and I feel that the shots that were the most successful was when we took a 10 second big close up of Elif with the pistol gun behind her. This I felt worked well with the thriller genre because it had create a lot of tension and suspense. We try to create a long shot scene but it did not work well with the setting because it did not give a sense of thrill. The was mainly because the setting used was inside the college building and the atmosphere was not exactly working well.
In the thriller we made sure that we used typical convention of a thriller film such as raising question about the situation. Our thriller included a hostage and a villain. The villain held hostage a young girl and the setting was a big but isolated basement. the basement itself has a cold feeling to it which help set the mood of the thriller. The natural lighting was of benefit to us as one of the other convention of a thriller is that colours featured in them are dark and gloomy.
The convention of the thriller genre is to do with sound and editing e.g. quick cuts and camera angle changes, music that gives tension and is quick cuts when appropriate. It can be to do with lighting, especially the use of shadow. Mirrors and stairs are also conventions of a thriller movie. However, we did not use them as we were not as organised and did not plan enough to include this typical conventions in our sequences.
‘Phone booth’ in particular is a thriller film I was inspired by, as it did not play to the conventions. It avoids darkness, shadows and dim lighting. The one way to link it to standard conventions is to say that u hear and see the story from the killers point of view, u r made to feel sorry for the male protagonist and that u r told a story with the use of flashback and quick passed editing. otherwise the this film is unlike most thriller movies and avoids the main conventions and may even not b classed as thriller but psychological thriller as it plays with your mind rather than shows u like a conventional thriller.
Our thriller was about a girl is being held hostage and the villain is filming his hostage. She is quiet frightened and is not sure about what is happening to her. The villain then goes on to a computer and uploads his video of the hostage onto a website for everyone to see. Our use of conventions was very different to ‘Phone Booth’ as we felt that create the affect with the lighting, i.e. diming the lights helped create this atmosphere.
Our main aim is to actually film the villain uploading a video of the hostage onto a site called: ‘www. vimeo.com’ that is a real blogging website. This will make it seem more thrilling and raise more questions without making it too obvious. To do this we have shot a video that would be something that the hostage has supposedly shot of the hostage.
We are further planning to edit the shot by putting it in black and white- with a record sign to make it look from the hostages’ point of view. In addition, this will seem very effective and raise even more questions, which is one of the main conventions of a thriller.
We made our own soundtrack and edited it to fit into out thriller. We had then made the sounds go according to the scenario and added effects that help emphasise the idea of it being a thriller. It took a long time to complete the task but we had enjoyed putting in the effort that I personally felt made our thriller successful.
The sort of effects that we needed and used was blurring the image. This was done when focusing in and out of Jen’s face. This helped create tension and made the shot look sharp and professional. The thriller was edited into black and white this was done to set the tone of the film as done in typical convention. The blue colour filter was used to show how Jen’s at the previous time was in a vulnerable state. This had also assured us that the audience could see how the villain is made to look like a cruel and cold person.
The reviews that we had received from other media AS student were very enlightening. Some feel that the music really helped pull it off and enjoyed watching the thriller. Many students felt that the piece was ‘very disturbing’ and ‘creepy’ to watch. The group were very happy to hear these comments, as the we wanted to hear this replies and comment. When we watch it again with a bigger crown (the whole AS media) we discovered that this opinion was from a larger number of viewers. When reflect on the feedback we had receive we were overall happy that we meet our target and achieve a successful response from the viewers.
When using editing using the final cut Pro, we had edited a scene to make it look like a camcorder was actually the villain recording the victim. This was needed for the villain filming the hostage. It also increases the realism in it, as it shows us a scene from the villain's point of view. In addition, after watching the thriller with other as media student in the cinema it seems to have some conventions of a real thriller. Most importantly, it raises questions about the situation, which is just what we wanted to achieve.
I feel that my film will be a low budget film due to the new talents featured in them and the fact that a known actor/actress has not been used, the budget will remain low safely. I will get my film produced by Working Title 2, which focuses on these low budget films. Working Title is a successful British film company that can encourage and boost the ratings of my film- so that it gains attention from the target audience. If worse comes to worse, and my film is unsuccessful, the low budget will be beneficial because there will not be so much of a loss.
To get my film notice I will try to get my film publish using the internet, TV adverts. I would try to get my film noticed on the new release on an internet page. A website could help promote my film would be a film guides. film4 is a company that helps promote new release: ‘http://www.channel4.com/film/cinemadvd/cinema_newreleases.html’.
This would help promotes my film and make viewers aware of the release of the film.
Overall, I feel that my thriller was successful and my group was helpful. I was pleased with the way the group worked and organised ourselves in the making of the thriller. I personally feel that the thriller success was due to hard work and commitment from each member of the group I worked with.
Thriller AS: Evaluation
For the practical coursework, we had to work in groups to create a thriller. I was in a group of four included Elif, Jen, Michael and myself. We were given a quick tutorial on how to uses the cameras and computers safety. Then started practicing how to film a practice thriller. When we were given task for our practice filming session we had to create a thriller using certain props. The props used in our thriller were game cards and two fake pistol guns.
I was happy with the camera works and I feel that the shots that were the most successful was when we took a 10 second big close up of Elif with the pistol gun behind her. This I felt worked well with the thriller genre because it had create a lot of tension and suspense. We try to create a long shot scene but it did not work well with the setting because it did not give a sense of thrill. The was mainly because the setting used was inside the college building and the atmosphere was not exactly working well.
In the thriller we made sure that we used typical convention of a thriller film such as raising question about the situation. Our thriller included a hostage and a villain. The villain held hostage a young girl and the setting was a big but isolated basement. the basement itself has a cold feeling to it which help set the mood of the thriller. The natural lighting was of benefit to us as one of the other convention of a thriller is that colours featured in them are dark and gloomy.
The convention of the thriller genre is to do with sound and editing e.g. quick cuts and camera angle changes, music that gives tension and is quick cuts when appropriate. It can be to do with lighting, especially the use of shadow. Mirrors and stairs are also conventions of a thriller movie. However, we did not use them as we were not as organised and did not plan enough to include this typical conventions in our sequences.
‘Phone booth’ in particular is a thriller film I was inspired by, as it did not play to the conventions. It avoids darkness, shadows and dim lighting. The one way to link it to standard conventions is to say that u hear and see the story from the killers point of view, u r made to feel sorry for the male protagonist and that u r told a story with the use of flashback and quick passed editing. otherwise the this film is unlike most thriller movies and avoids the main conventions and may even not b classed as thriller but psychological thriller as it plays with your mind rather than shows u like a conventional thriller.
Our thriller was about a girl is being held hostage and the villain is filming his hostage. She is quiet frightened and is not sure about what is happening to her. The villain then goes on to a computer and uploads his video of the hostage onto a website for everyone to see. Our use of conventions was very different to ‘Phone Booth’ as we felt that create the affect with the lighting, i.e. diming the lights helped create this atmosphere.
Our main aim is to actually film the villain uploading a video of the hostage onto a site called: ‘www. vimeo.com’ that is a real blogging website. This will make it seem more thrilling and raise more questions without making it too obvious. To do this we have shot a video that would be something that the hostage has supposedly shot of the hostage.
We are further planning to edit the shot by putting it in black and white- with a record sign to make it look from the hostages’ point of view. In addition, this will seem very effective and raise even more questions, which is one of the main conventions of a thriller.
We made our own soundtrack and edited it to fit into out thriller. We had then made the sounds go according to the scenario and added effects that help emphasise the idea of it being a thriller. It took a long time to complete the task but we had enjoyed putting in the effort that I personally felt made our thriller successful.
The sort of effects that we needed and used was blurring the image. This was done when focusing in and out of Jen’s face. This helped create tension and made the shot look sharp and professional. The thriller was edited into black and white this was done to set the tone of the film as done in typical convention. The blue colour filter was used to show how Jen’s at the previous time was in a vulnerable state. This had also assured us that the audience could see how the villain is made to look like a cruel and cold person.
The reviews that we had received from other media AS student were very enlightening. Some feel that the music really helped pull it off and enjoyed watching the thriller. Many students felt that the piece was ‘very disturbing’ and ‘creepy’ to watch. The group were very happy to hear these comments, as the we wanted to hear this replies and comment. When we watch it again with a bigger crown (the whole AS media) we discovered that this opinion was from a larger number of viewers. When reflect on the feedback we had receive we were overall happy that we meet our target and achieve a successful response from the viewers.
When using editing using the final cut Pro, we had edited a scene to make it look like a camcorder was actually the villain recording the victim. This was needed for the villain filming the hostage. It also increases the realism in it, as it shows us a scene from the villain's point of view. In addition, after watching the thriller with other as media student in the cinema it seems to have some conventions of a real thriller. Most importantly, it raises questions about the situation, which is just what we wanted to achieve.
I feel that my film will be a low budget film due to the new talents featured in them and the fact that a known actor/actress has not been used, the budget will remain low safely. I will get my film produced by Working Title 2, which focuses on these low budget films. Working Title is a successful British film company that can encourage and boost the ratings of my film- so that it gains attention from the target audience. If worse comes to worse, and my film is unsuccessful, the low budget will be beneficial because there will not be so much of a loss.
To get my film notice I will try to get my film publish using the internet, TV adverts. I would try to get my film noticed on the new release on an internet page. A website could help promote my film would be a film guides. film4 is a company that helps promote new release: ‘http://www.channel4.com/film/cinemadvd/cinema_newreleases.html’.
This would help promotes my film and make viewers aware of the release of the film.
Overall, I feel that my thriller was successful and my group was helpful. I was pleased with the way the group worked and organised ourselves in the making of the thriller. I personally feel that the thriller success was due to hard work and commitment from each member of the group I worked with.
Friday 27 February 2009
Thriller Complete!!
After a long and hard 2 months, making an opening of a thriller has come to an end!!
Today, the group gathered round perfected every shot, and added our own sountrack to it. The soundtrack itself is great. We made the sounds go according to the scenario and added effects which helps emphasise the idea of it being a thriller. It was a very time consuming task but we managed to pull it off. We had fun using and experimenting with the different sounds. As a group, we made a decision of the sounds and today's effort and groupwork really paid off and made our thrillers look professional.
We decided to use a very dramatic soft sound at the beginning and dominated the film's soundtrack with the bassline. At the end of the sequence (which was a present tense scene) we used classical music. It may seem ironic that we have included classical and dramatic music together, but this helps bring out the irony and show the characters perverted characteristic.
We were able to adjust the music by making it fade in and out and get louder and softer at points. This is much better rather than just including a new sound into the soundtrack. It would have sounded too chunky and organised whereas, we blended in the music which makes not only the storyline flow, but the actual film itself.
It was interesting to see different work of others because, it's good to see what others perceive a thriller as. All the other thrillers I have seen by other people, were very interesting and there was a lot of thriller conventions in them.
Overall, making a thriller is quite stressful (even though it was only for 2 minutes!!) but also fun experimenting and being able to create footage and sounds of your own.
Today, the group gathered round perfected every shot, and added our own sountrack to it. The soundtrack itself is great. We made the sounds go according to the scenario and added effects which helps emphasise the idea of it being a thriller. It was a very time consuming task but we managed to pull it off. We had fun using and experimenting with the different sounds. As a group, we made a decision of the sounds and today's effort and groupwork really paid off and made our thrillers look professional.
We decided to use a very dramatic soft sound at the beginning and dominated the film's soundtrack with the bassline. At the end of the sequence (which was a present tense scene) we used classical music. It may seem ironic that we have included classical and dramatic music together, but this helps bring out the irony and show the characters perverted characteristic.
We were able to adjust the music by making it fade in and out and get louder and softer at points. This is much better rather than just including a new sound into the soundtrack. It would have sounded too chunky and organised whereas, we blended in the music which makes not only the storyline flow, but the actual film itself.
It was interesting to see different work of others because, it's good to see what others perceive a thriller as. All the other thrillers I have seen by other people, were very interesting and there was a lot of thriller conventions in them.
Overall, making a thriller is quite stressful (even though it was only for 2 minutes!!) but also fun experimenting and being able to create footage and sounds of your own.
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Thriller Nearly Complete 2
Today's progress was great. The group noticed that we needed a match cut to put into a shot as it was too long and would bore the audience- therefore today we filmed the necessary shot and included it in our sequence. We filmed the same shot but from a different point of view. This way, it would make the shots looks shorter and more interesting.
Afterwards, we logged and captured the needed footage and included it into our sequence. We also made sure that we added colour to it (as this was part of the flashback) and it looked like tighter shots.
We also fixed up the titles and decided to put the TITLE of the thriller which is 'Victim No.6' at the end of the whole sequence. We made the 6 bigger and put the words 'Victim No.' on top of the 6 and faded in a big 6. It looks very effective with its red shadow.
The main colours of which the thriller consisted of is very dark, grey cold colours. By putting the flashback as a blue colour it makes it more effective than black and white. It also emphasises the cold/dangerous/mysterious situation of the thriller.
As previously mentioned, our final aim is the music. The soundtrack needs to be fast and possibly help build up tension. Most importantly we don't want to scare the audience but we want to use a soundtrack that will alert them, that something is wrong is happening.
Afterwards, we logged and captured the needed footage and included it into our sequence. We also made sure that we added colour to it (as this was part of the flashback) and it looked like tighter shots.
We also fixed up the titles and decided to put the TITLE of the thriller which is 'Victim No.6' at the end of the whole sequence. We made the 6 bigger and put the words 'Victim No.' on top of the 6 and faded in a big 6. It looks very effective with its red shadow.
The main colours of which the thriller consisted of is very dark, grey cold colours. By putting the flashback as a blue colour it makes it more effective than black and white. It also emphasises the cold/dangerous/mysterious situation of the thriller.
As previously mentioned, our final aim is the music. The soundtrack needs to be fast and possibly help build up tension. Most importantly we don't want to scare the audience but we want to use a soundtrack that will alert them, that something is wrong is happening.
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Thriller Nearly Complete
Today, myself and Eman both edited our current sequence. We were shown how to put on effects and things that a conventional thriller would have. I have noticed that by editing, a sequence can make so much more sense-and look very effective.
Today, we asked Mickey to show us how to put on the effects of the previously mentioned:
-Flashbacks
-Record sign (flashing in the actual sequence)
and finally,
-Title sequences
-A soft dissolve into another shot.
So far in our thriller titles, we have included a director, co-director, editor, co- editor and co-assistant.
Today was a success as we have completed all the necessary editing. Further editing (if any needed) will be taken into consideration this whole week.
Our final aim is to include the music of our thriller. The type of music needed has not yet been discussed with the group but tomorrow, we will be thinking of ideas and hopefully get on with starting to compose the music.
Today, we asked Mickey to show us how to put on the effects of the previously mentioned:
-Flashbacks
-Record sign (flashing in the actual sequence)
and finally,
-Title sequences
-A soft dissolve into another shot.
So far in our thriller titles, we have included a director, co-director, editor, co- editor and co-assistant.
Today was a success as we have completed all the necessary editing. Further editing (if any needed) will be taken into consideration this whole week.
Our final aim is to include the music of our thriller. The type of music needed has not yet been discussed with the group but tomorrow, we will be thinking of ideas and hopefully get on with starting to compose the music.
Thursday 12 February 2009
Thriller Sequence Complete
Today I completed the logging and capturing, and putting the sequence in order.
The group will now work hard after next week to try and edit everything to perfection and make the thriller amazing! The thriller itself so far is about 1minute 48 seconds. Respectably, not forgetting the title sequence and once it has been edited, it will be a good 2 minute sequence.
The sort of effects that we need is:
-black and white
- slow motion
-edit an occuring scene to make it look like a camcorder recoriding something. (This will be needed for the villian filming the hostage. It also increases the realism in it, as it show us a scene from the villain's point of view. Also, after watching the current sequence- the thriller seems to have some conventions of a real thriller. Most importantly, it raises questions about the situation which is just what we wanted to achieve.
Personally I felt that constructing this thriller was quite difficult- but I think that editing it will be even harder as that (the editing), is what perfects it to be a thriller.
The process of filming has been very long, and I feel we should have spent less time filming so that we have more valuable time in editing. After the half term, each of the group members will be editing on Wednesday and Friday- and we will try to organise our selves to edit throughout the week everyday.
The group will now work hard after next week to try and edit everything to perfection and make the thriller amazing! The thriller itself so far is about 1minute 48 seconds. Respectably, not forgetting the title sequence and once it has been edited, it will be a good 2 minute sequence.
The sort of effects that we need is:
-black and white
- slow motion
-edit an occuring scene to make it look like a camcorder recoriding something. (This will be needed for the villian filming the hostage. It also increases the realism in it, as it show us a scene from the villain's point of view. Also, after watching the current sequence- the thriller seems to have some conventions of a real thriller. Most importantly, it raises questions about the situation which is just what we wanted to achieve.
Personally I felt that constructing this thriller was quite difficult- but I think that editing it will be even harder as that (the editing), is what perfects it to be a thriller.
The process of filming has been very long, and I feel we should have spent less time filming so that we have more valuable time in editing. After the half term, each of the group members will be editing on Wednesday and Friday- and we will try to organise our selves to edit throughout the week everyday.
Wednesday 11 February 2009
Final Day of Filming
Today, myself and the group have now completed the filming part of the project! Hopefully - we will not be in need of any more shots.
Our shots ranged from CU's to ECU's and medium shots. We did another match cut today- although this wasn't planned however worked well with the moment. We filmed the missing shots, and the computer shots (of which the villain was uploading a video of the hostage).
I have logged and captured some of the footage today- and will complete that by tomorrow.
Our shots ranged from CU's to ECU's and medium shots. We did another match cut today- although this wasn't planned however worked well with the moment. We filmed the missing shots, and the computer shots (of which the villain was uploading a video of the hostage).
I have logged and captured some of the footage today- and will complete that by tomorrow.
Monday 9 February 2009
Further Editing
Today I fixed up some shots in the sequence. I have arranged it so it becomes a flashback event, which when it has been edited, it will be black and white or a sepia colour to indicate its moment in time.
The group have already about 1 minute+ of footage and when the final shots of uploading the 'hostage' onto the computer, which will hopefully be about 40+ seconds more of footage. Taking into consideration the titles- this will all successfully become 2 minutes of footage.
Saturday 7 February 2009
First Day Of Editing
Today, our group started the most important part of the project, editing. It was very interesting to see the shots together even at this starting point. It shows you just how much editing can manipulate and make something seem very interesting.
We noticed that when editing, we could do with some more shots. This is to make the sequence make some sense.
We included match cuts in our sequence which made it look very effective - and we have about 2 main match cuts.
Our aim for next week is to completely finish filming for the thriller and to mainly focus on the editing so that it can be perfect.
We noticed that when editing, we could do with some more shots. This is to make the sequence make some sense.
We included match cuts in our sequence which made it look very effective - and we have about 2 main match cuts.
Our aim for next week is to completely finish filming for the thriller and to mainly focus on the editing so that it can be perfect.
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Re-filming of Shots
Today, we re-filmed the shots that had come out too dark. We made sure we used the lighting accordingly to match the mood and to emphasise the scary/isolated situation.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to re shoot Michael (our villain) because of the different outfit he had on today. To represent continuity, we will refilm him on Friday to make it look more realistic with more suitable lighting.
In the editing suite we noticed that we have to now start thinking about ordering the shots in a effective way.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to re shoot Michael (our villain) because of the different outfit he had on today. To represent continuity, we will refilm him on Friday to make it look more realistic with more suitable lighting.
In the editing suite we noticed that we have to now start thinking about ordering the shots in a effective way.
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Final Touches
It is essential that our group stops filming by this week Friday. (06/02/09) This is because I want to make sure that our group has enough time for editing and can be able to perfect the whole sequence, so that it can look realistic and effective.
Furthermore, I have been encouraging my group to blog because - they have good ideas but it must be evident on the blogs.
Furthermore, I have been encouraging my group to blog because - they have good ideas but it must be evident on the blogs.
Friday 30 January 2009
Final Requirements for the Thriller
Our main aim is to actually film the villain uploading a video of the hostage onto a site called:
www. vimeo.com
which is a real blogging website. This will make it seem more thrilling and raise more questions without making it very obvious.
To do this we have shot a video that would be something that the hostage has supposedly shot of the hostage.
We are further planning to edit the shot by putting it in black and white- with a record sign to make it look from the hostages point of view. Also, this will seem very effective and raise even more questions- which is one of the main conventions of a thriller.
today we were filming in the basement of the college candi. we made sure that Jen was wearing the same clothing as she was the last filming date. this help show continuity. we also made sure that we had brought in lighting for the shoots because in a previous shoot the lighting was very dim. we made sure that we brought an extra cam-corder for prop.
for the props we brought in a gun, camcorder and lights.
we feel that we have finshed filming but will start editing to check if there was any shot that we could include to make our work to its perfection.
Second Day of Filming
Today, we filmed the final part to the thriller. It was successful as we did many shots including close ups, over shoulder shots, extra close ups and other various shots. It was tiring but fun.
The short part we filmed on Wednesday was not as successful as today. This is because, we didn't have enough time and the lighting wasn't very good. However on camera, the lighting seemed fine but when uploaded onto the computer- it was too dark to see. At another time, we will be filming the same shots again but with better lighting.
Personally, the hardest type of shot to put together is the 'match cut' shot. This is because you have to get the actors repeat the same thing many times (depending on the match cut you want) and it may make the actor feel bored or less enthusiastic. I can now understand that in real life it is very difficult and time consuming to put together such things and that I now appreciate the amount of effort and time that goes into filming and producing.
Also, we reminded Jen to wear the same clothes she had on before - this is to represent continuity.
Overall today has been successful. I managed to put our current shots on the hard drive and save it for now and this is where I saw other shots which weren't so successful.
Our group's aim is to now re-shoot the shots to actually complete the filming process of the thriller. Next lesson we will carry on filming the last of the thriller.
Wednesday 28 January 2009
First Day Of Filming
Today we started filming for our thriller. We used the college basment with was quite dark and things were stacked away which made the mise en scene look like an isolated place. It could have been more effective if things weren't in the basement but it is impossible to be able to remove them just to film.
Today we did interesting panning shots of the villain and close up and lots of shots of the hostage. Myself and Eman have taken the camerawork role as, Jen and Michael are acting.
The most interesting type of shot which was suggested by Jen was to have her in the frame but make it in and out of focus. By doing this, I can already see its creativity and will look really good once editted.
We did ECU's of Jen's feet hands and a close up of her face. We now need to get many more shots in and we need to include a 'flashback' of when the villan actually kidnapps the hostage.
We have used the props of a gun, a chair and a chain of loose metal to put around the hostage's feet.
I am quite pleased with what we filmed today and I'm sure things will progress by Friday.
Today we did interesting panning shots of the villain and close up and lots of shots of the hostage. Myself and Eman have taken the camerawork role as, Jen and Michael are acting.
The most interesting type of shot which was suggested by Jen was to have her in the frame but make it in and out of focus. By doing this, I can already see its creativity and will look really good once editted.
We did ECU's of Jen's feet hands and a close up of her face. We now need to get many more shots in and we need to include a 'flashback' of when the villan actually kidnapps the hostage.
We have used the props of a gun, a chair and a chain of loose metal to put around the hostage's feet.
I am quite pleased with what we filmed today and I'm sure things will progress by Friday.
just after finalising the idea for the thriller we started filming for the the thriller. the plot is basically a young girl is being held hostage and the villan is filming his hoastage. eventaully the the villan decides to upload his video of the hostage and expose her.
so far we have started shooting footages of jenny being held hostage with various types of shot angles.and plan to continue filming footage in our own tine
Tuesday 27 January 2009
FINAL PLANS FOR THRILLER
Myself, Jen and Eman discussed final plans for our thriller. As Jen wrote down shots that can be used, today, I finalised these ideas.
Finalised Idea For Thriller
Plot: A girl is being held hostage and the villain is filming his hostage. She is frightened and does not know what will happen to her. The villain then goes on to a computer and uploads his video of the hostage onto a website…
(locations/props/characters needed: basement, computer (room) hostage and villan, video camera for the villan and a CD, and a fake website)
Types of shots needed:
1. Location of the hostage being kept there tied to a chair or sitting on the ground.
2. FAST OCCURING SHOTS of hostage looking around, hostage feeling isolated, hostage struggling- trying to escape.
3. Hostage then stops looks frightened.
4. Shot of villains back walking towards the hostage. (Match cut) of villain walking.
5. Picks up a video camera.
6. Hostage looks confused/unaware of situation.
7. Presses the record button.
8. Hostage is being filmed by the villain- hostage becomes even more scared.
9. Goes into flashback of: the villain tying her up, kicking her, shouting at her, hostage crying and also screaming. (sepia or black and white)
10. Villain walks to a computer
11. Goes onto a website
12. Uploads video.
13. Shows upload complete sign (final shot)
The group will start filming as soon as a ideal location is found.
Finalised Idea For Thriller
Plot: A girl is being held hostage and the villain is filming his hostage. She is frightened and does not know what will happen to her. The villain then goes on to a computer and uploads his video of the hostage onto a website…
(locations/props/characters needed: basement, computer (room) hostage and villan, video camera for the villan and a CD, and a fake website)
Types of shots needed:
1. Location of the hostage being kept there tied to a chair or sitting on the ground.
2. FAST OCCURING SHOTS of hostage looking around, hostage feeling isolated, hostage struggling- trying to escape.
3. Hostage then stops looks frightened.
4. Shot of villains back walking towards the hostage. (Match cut) of villain walking.
5. Picks up a video camera.
6. Hostage looks confused/unaware of situation.
7. Presses the record button.
8. Hostage is being filmed by the villain- hostage becomes even more scared.
9. Goes into flashback of: the villain tying her up, kicking her, shouting at her, hostage crying and also screaming. (sepia or black and white)
10. Villain walks to a computer
11. Goes onto a website
12. Uploads video.
13. Shows upload complete sign (final shot)
The group will start filming as soon as a ideal location is found.
Friday 23 January 2009
Thriller plans (nearly finalised)
In today's lesson, we discussed further plans for our actual thriller. Howvere we had many difficulties as the plans we had come up with, was too complicated to film for a two minute opening scene. One member of our group was missing (Micheal) so me, Jen and Eman were left to make final decisions about what should be taken out improved and put in.
After break, we presented our ideas- gave a 'pitch' to the class. However our teacher Anabell believed that our idea wouldn't work so well. After trying to discuss what we could improve, we didn't come up with a solid plan. We thought that our plot should involve:
2 Spy's and one hostage who had links with the 'government'
The villan was meant to keep this person hostage until they had got what they wanted from the government.
We noticed that our idea was too complicated therefore did not go ahead with what we had planned.
For advice Mickey then came along. He suggested that we should have a less complicated idea and that we can do something that could stick with our hostage idea.
So our final decision for today was:
The villan will hold somebody hostage and he will film his hostage. He will film it in such a way that the hostage becomes frightened because she does not know the consequences. However we will have an interesting shot of the villan using a camera and we will in our own sequence have a part of the 'villans' filming.
During the sequence there will be black and white constant flashbacks:
- Tying her up
- Attacking her
- Shouting at her.
- Hostage screaming
But then after you will see the villan go to his computer and go on a website. He will then post a video of the hostage online.
The very final shot will include the hostage and a phone dangling down. This will be shown from a very low angle, possibly from knees down...
After break, we presented our ideas- gave a 'pitch' to the class. However our teacher Anabell believed that our idea wouldn't work so well. After trying to discuss what we could improve, we didn't come up with a solid plan. We thought that our plot should involve:
2 Spy's and one hostage who had links with the 'government'
The villan was meant to keep this person hostage until they had got what they wanted from the government.
We noticed that our idea was too complicated therefore did not go ahead with what we had planned.
For advice Mickey then came along. He suggested that we should have a less complicated idea and that we can do something that could stick with our hostage idea.
So our final decision for today was:
The villan will hold somebody hostage and he will film his hostage. He will film it in such a way that the hostage becomes frightened because she does not know the consequences. However we will have an interesting shot of the villan using a camera and we will in our own sequence have a part of the 'villans' filming.
During the sequence there will be black and white constant flashbacks:
- Tying her up
- Attacking her
- Shouting at her.
- Hostage screaming
But then after you will see the villan go to his computer and go on a website. He will then post a video of the hostage online.
The very final shot will include the hostage and a phone dangling down. This will be shown from a very low angle, possibly from knees down...
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Thriller Plans 2
In today's lesson, my group and I discussed further plans for our media thriller. Firstly we have decided that there will be:
CHARACTERS:
2 Spy's (links with government)
1 hostage (links with government)
1 villan (steals confidential information from government)
POSSIBLE LOCATIONS:
For the hostage and villan scene, we were thinking an low roof basment- totally empty and character is left hostage there.
Outside at night-spy's being followed by an unidentified character [this creates mystery and raises questions].
Shots from inside a building.
Governments office- dark computer room.
Finalised ideas will be blogged by Friday.
CHARACTERS:
2 Spy's (links with government)
1 hostage (links with government)
1 villan (steals confidential information from government)
POSSIBLE LOCATIONS:
For the hostage and villan scene, we were thinking an low roof basment- totally empty and character is left hostage there.
Outside at night-spy's being followed by an unidentified character [this creates mystery and raises questions].
Shots from inside a building.
Governments office- dark computer room.
Finalised ideas will be blogged by Friday.
Practice Thriller
Here is our finished practice thriller-
Starring Jennifer and Eman
Camera work by: Elif & Micheal
Tuesday 20 January 2009
Further Ideas For Thriller
I have thought about further ideas for the thriller.
There will be 2 government spy's trying to take violent action against a terrorist- and there could be another character possibly held hostage.
Yet again, these are not finalised decisions, I have just made an idea and will share with my group accordingly.
There will be 2 government spy's trying to take violent action against a terrorist- and there could be another character possibly held hostage.
Yet again, these are not finalised decisions, I have just made an idea and will share with my group accordingly.
Thriller Plans
Me and Eman have come up with some ideas for the actual thriller. We were thinking more of a spy thriller rather than a scary one.
We haven't finalized our plot yet- but we a have a general idea of what type of characters we would like to include in the thriller. We had discussed there being two spy's and one villan. The villan will be doing something and spy's will follow the villan.
We will need to discuss with the other two members of our group about further plans and whether they agree about the current ideas.
We haven't finalized our plot yet- but we a have a general idea of what type of characters we would like to include in the thriller. We had discussed there being two spy's and one villan. The villan will be doing something and spy's will follow the villan.
We will need to discuss with the other two members of our group about further plans and whether they agree about the current ideas.
Friday 16 January 2009
Practice Thriller
Today we filmed out practice thriller. Our group managed to use a spare room to film the sequence.
We experimented with many different shots including the match cut. We did a match cut of Jen walking and then another match cut of her closing the door- from in and outside the room. I noticed that this 'match cut' makes the sequence interesting.
We did not manage to finish editing today- however the group have decided to spend workshop time in the editing suite. During this time- we can improve and finish off our sequence. Our group will be starting to discuss ideas for the actual thriller that's coming.
We experimented with many different shots including the match cut. We did a match cut of Jen walking and then another match cut of her closing the door- from in and outside the room. I noticed that this 'match cut' makes the sequence interesting.
We did not manage to finish editing today- however the group have decided to spend workshop time in the editing suite. During this time- we can improve and finish off our sequence. Our group will be starting to discuss ideas for the actual thriller that's coming.
Thursday 15 January 2009
Match Cuts
Thursday 15 January 2009
In Wednesday's lesson- we looked at how match cuts can be used. It was very interesting to see that match cuts are used so smoothly in a film that it is hardly noticed. However, it is very effective of showing how one thing can be expressed from two different camera angles/ point of view.
In our groups, in order to practice for the actual thriller, we planned our short trial of a thriller. We were given a plot already and as a group decided how the camera angles and most importantly, how a match cut will be used in our trial thriller.
I think this will be very useful for our coming thriller as it will help it make it look more interesting.
In Wednesday's lesson- we looked at how match cuts can be used. It was very interesting to see that match cuts are used so smoothly in a film that it is hardly noticed. However, it is very effective of showing how one thing can be expressed from two different camera angles/ point of view.
In our groups, in order to practice for the actual thriller, we planned our short trial of a thriller. We were given a plot already and as a group decided how the camera angles and most importantly, how a match cut will be used in our trial thriller.
I think this will be very useful for our coming thriller as it will help it make it look more interesting.
Friday 9 January 2009
Film Openings
9th January 2009
In today's lesson, we looked at a documentary explaining film openings. We also watched examples of some students work in the college.
By watching this documentary and according to Jean Jacques Beineix he stated that starting an opening of a film as too major or strongly- may destroy the rest of the film. This is called instant arousal.
A good beginning cannot reveal too much and in a thriller case should possibly confuse the viewer or make them mentally raise questions.
One example of a good film opening is 'Seven' by Kyle Cooper. It find this good because there is no dialouge included, just a small pan and then quick close ups. This sudden close up from the slow pan can possibly represent the pace of the situation and can suggest that so many things are to happen that the viewer is unaware of. So the opening almost hints that there will be surprises soon after.
Some openings want to give the idea away- an example of who tried this was 'A Touch of Evil' BY Orson Welles.
Openings can also create suspense. An example of this is from 'The Shining'. In this film, there is a camera which is moving along as it drives up empty hills/mountains. The music helps create suspense but also the fact that the camera is fixed on such small car and uses extreme long shots there is an indication of danger or some sort of problem.
The main features which will make a good film opening is:
- Surprise the audience
- Give quite little information/hints as to what is going to happen
-Use music instead of dialouge
In today's lesson, we looked at a documentary explaining film openings. We also watched examples of some students work in the college.
By watching this documentary and according to Jean Jacques Beineix he stated that starting an opening of a film as too major or strongly- may destroy the rest of the film. This is called instant arousal.
A good beginning cannot reveal too much and in a thriller case should possibly confuse the viewer or make them mentally raise questions.
One example of a good film opening is 'Seven' by Kyle Cooper. It find this good because there is no dialouge included, just a small pan and then quick close ups. This sudden close up from the slow pan can possibly represent the pace of the situation and can suggest that so many things are to happen that the viewer is unaware of. So the opening almost hints that there will be surprises soon after.
Some openings want to give the idea away- an example of who tried this was 'A Touch of Evil' BY Orson Welles.
Openings can also create suspense. An example of this is from 'The Shining'. In this film, there is a camera which is moving along as it drives up empty hills/mountains. The music helps create suspense but also the fact that the camera is fixed on such small car and uses extreme long shots there is an indication of danger or some sort of problem.
The main features which will make a good film opening is:
- Surprise the audience
- Give quite little information/hints as to what is going to happen
-Use music instead of dialouge
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