Thriller Opening Ideas

In our group we discussed a variety of ideas for the thriller opening, here are some strong ideas we noted down. We also particularly liked these ideas

Continuity Task

As the first project for our coursework, we were tasked with the project of filming a sequence that was roughly a one minute conversion between two people. This list below is the shots we were required to follow.
Person A walks up to a door

Handle is opened / pulled
Shot of person A walking through the door
Shot of person B sat down
Shot of person A sitting down next to them.
Shot of person A asking person B if they are ok?
Reverse shot (CU) of person B replying?
Two shot of person A and B – person B asks person A a question
Shot of person A’s reaction and answer
Shot of person B’s response.
This may be reapeated and varied as conversation develops – think
carefully about this part. The scripting is important here!
Shot of person A getting up.
Shot of person A walking away.
Shot of Person B. Person A exits through same door as entrance.

Through script editing, we made the conversation between the two people have a element of comedy, and I acted in it with a friend from another group, while Shawnee Rogers filmed the extract. The piece was filmed in the library (LRC) in our school.

Below is the copy of the Storyboard.




Addition to Continuity task.

We went out to film our continuity task, Me and my partner Shawnee were missing our third partner Lewis, so we were forced to rescript and improvise, using our brainstorm, we mocked up our location what ended up being the LRC (library) this location worked great with our filming, due to a art being shown at the time, borders blocked of certain parts, and the place was near desolate helping us dramatically with blocking exhibition g out external public sound. The place also had a great set of props, to use. With a missing member, we needed an additional actor, so we used a friend. Trying to use a extensive use of panning, and effective shots such as looking down, we filmed our piece with great ease. Shawnee on the camera, and me coordinating shots and acting, and our friend acting as well. Through this, i really understood the roles and positions within filming, and really gave me alot of experience to all together help with our final piece.

Addition to Continuity task.

After the filming process, we proceeded with editing our piece, with all our raw footage, we put into the Adobe Premiere program and dragged them into the right positions and cut clips down to size, and edited them in right positions to give a good continuity within our extract, the editing process did not take as long as i expected, and really taught me further into our the program works, allowing me to considerably help with the editing process with our final piece.

Addition to Continuity task.

The whole classes work was submitted, and we watched through each one twice, with this we were asked to examine their work, and present down points and up points about each person task, to really give each group the understanding of peer scrutiny, and with a little bit of competitively within our class, people were alot more tough on your work. Our teacher, took our comments into order, and placed a few of his own, and graded each persons work.

Our work is as follows.

Positives
We included a variety of different shots, camera angles and movements in our continuity film which were each very effective.
Long shots
Close ups
Mid shots
low angle
Tracking
Tilting
An over the shoulder view

Our teacher claimed that the sound was good, apart from times when the background noise of people got a little too much, and that framing was good, except a shot when a person walked into the room.

Negatives

Broke 180 ° rule
Different errors that need to be looked out for, the ending when you hear a loud voice in the background that should of been edited out.
Editing choice/ position of shots - needed to be more carefully thought- (TI)

Our marks ended up being a level 2, and we were graded 24 out of ** This ended up being the highest graded piece of work in the class.

I was very pleased with our piece, and learnt a significant amount from the criticism and the experience, Although we broke the 180* rule, i believe this mishap will spur us on to not to break it next time. With sound being a issue, I believe i will not only see when filming but also hear, what seemed to be a issue during the continuity task when we were filming. Mise-en-Scene will be a large factor wen filming, understanding that props are important and really create a film now, especially with things such as color, the very things that we examine when watching other films. And finally i will take into mind light and how it affects a piece of cinematography, when filming next. I am also very pleased with being the highest graded group, and this only spurs me onwards to create a great piece of work, rather than making me complacent.

Mise-en-scene: The audience is presented with a black cat, sauntering through what looks like construction yard, the black cat represents mystery, and its confident strut keeps the audience guessing its motive and use. The cat wanders through a concrete tube, where it is partially hidden, making the cat seem more important that needing to be constantly on the camera, it then continues to weave through fences showing the audience that it can pass through any barrier, and is not bound by them what-so-ever giving it a rebellious streak, and creating more mystery. Thus in turn creating a element of suspense. Then cat is eventually met by a white cat, and this ends up in a clash, the opposing colors create a sense of binary opposition, and a basic struggle against good and evil iconic in the thriller genre.

Titles: The titles appear in standard serif font, and also capitalized. The black titles clashing against the white background, shows binary opposition.

Editing: The camera tracks the cat majority of the scene, and the pace of the sequence is slow paced. But this pace eventually speeds up when the fight sequence starts. And the panning stops, and transforms into close up shots of the cat's in fight.

Sound: A smooth non diegetic soundtrack is heard throughout the whole of the extract, the interchanging types of music interact with the scene as a whole, but gives it a light but slick theme. The music does intensify into fast passed tension building styles, when the fight scene commences.

Camera: The cat is majority of the time, in constant close up shots throughout the tracking, the camera is slightly tilted in some shots, giving the cat a stronger presence, and authority. And empowerment. The cat is shown in a birds eye view, and extreme close ups are evident when the fight scene is in progress, to give it more messiness and confusion.

Initial ideas

This is our brainstorm that we did for the initial ideas on the thriller genre in our group, all these ideas convey what the opening to a thriller opening could include, and what themes may appear in the storyline.

Questionnaire


http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=N5bLon_2fMZqB0uAy_2feQV51w_3d_3d

Camera Practise
We were given a tri-pod and video camera, and tasked to complete a variety of different shots to give us a greater understanding of how the video camera works and how to set ourselves up for our continuity task, and eventually our final task. The shots we were asked to complete were..

Camera Angles: High Angle, low angle
Movements: Panning, Tilting, Zoom in, Zoom out
Shots: long shot, mid shot, close up, extreme close up, worms eye view, birds eye view.

This activity greatly improved my understanding of the camera's capability and uses and has greatly increased my confidence with using it, especially as my continuity task is not long away from filming.

The BBFC

The British Board Of Film Classification

The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912, and videos since the passing of the Video Recordings Act in 1984. (www.bbfc.co.uk)

The BBFC sets the age limit of diffrent films such as 18 (Seen on Hostel) 15 (Seen on I am Legend) 12 (Seen on Bourne Identity) PG (Seen Monsters inc) U (Seen on Cinderella)

15:

15 rated certificate tend to allow moderate violence, gore and sexual activity. However not in explicit circumstances and it must be of relevance. Drug taking is not banned however it cannot be promoted to be seen in a positive way.

18:

18 rated certificates permit a wide range of gore, violence, sexual activity and drug taking (not to be promoted.) The difference between the two certificates lies not in context of themes; mainly in explicity.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/downloads/pub/Guidelines/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202009.pdf

(The BBFC guideline PDF document)

Premier Pro.

We were given the task of editing a piece of film, from a previous years work. From their raw video we were tasked to use the program to replicate or improve their finished work. From owning a macbook, and heavy use of it in my digital art course the last two years, I was quite literate with the computer. When i initially used the program it was closely similar to the mac's Imovie, but further use showed me that although basic functions it may be closely related. But Premier has a wide more variety of functions and capabilities.

We begun by importing the raw clips from the A-level file we were given, once we had all our pieces of film, we watched the finished version of their film and moved the different clips into their variable order. During this we edited each clip of film, cutting it down to a smaller and neater piece. Once we had done that we placed all the clips in the order. After we had our movie in correct order and edited right, we begun to place sound into the extract, the background music, and the mobile phone bleep.

The program can also be used to create transitions between different clips, such as wipes, dissolves and many others to give it more atmosphere and mood to what you are trying to imply, the program also allows you to place titles into the extract, for such things as credits.

Thriller Overview

From analysis of different films, and careful watching i have deducted that the thriller genre follows a variety of different factors, one of the main factors is to create tension and suspense, to thrill the audience you need them on the edge of their seat, this is the main priority a thriller strives to create.

Another factor the thriller genre links with is the mystery sense, although it is not as strong as murdered mysteries, the mystery portrait in a character to give them the unknown or the view of they are hiding something is prominently evident throughout films.

Another key concept through Thrillers is low key violence, whether it be a organized hit or a accidental murder, the violence theme in thrillers is less than heavy such as you would get in a action film. The thriller genre tries to portrait violence not as a key and over all concept, but as a basic root for the story line.

But the basic Thriller genre it seems has died down significantly, due to the audiences thirst for more violence, and suspense and thrills, unlike what a original thriller and churn out, causing this genre to be mixed with different genres such as action and horror. Although this may sound like a fallacy to the original genre and what it stands for. I believe it heightens the viewing experience and sets this great genre for more than just what the guidelines set, making amazingly enjoyable movies such as I am legend.

The Village Directed by M. Night Shymalan.

The opening of the extract instantly shows us close up of a tree, as the camera randomly wanders through the branches, giving the sense of lost, and bewilderedness, also positions the audience in a state of walking through the forest, the unclean and messy movement through these trees could suggest being lost, adding to a mystery sense enforcing the thriller genre, the disoriented camera confuses the audience and puts them out of place, creating a uncomfortable feeling. Added with the dark atmosphere and the white dead branches, creates a very cold and uncomfortable theme, the deadness of the tree is also iconic of witches and cultism, adding to a theme of horror, with a close relation to other films such as the Blair Witch Project. The Juxtaposition of the black and white of the trees is iconic in thriller films, between struggles between good and evil, but the unclear sides creates the mystery, what appears alot in thrillers.

The music is high pitched and very creepy, giving a aerie feeling, and defiantly reinforces the horror film, from what we have already seen the genre is perhaps a horror thriller hybrid genre. During the music, although the string noises remain constant creating a creepy theme to what were seeing on screen, there is also a steady drum beat, that increases. As the drum beat increases so does the speed of the tracking, and with this the tension defiantly increases, reinforcing the horror and also the thriller genre, iconic to both those genres.